Dorummn responds with his own very wide smile and a shallow bob of the head and continues to chat with Zelena. As he does so he snaps his fingers and his three 'tadpoles' come tumbling into the room.
"Miss Zelena and her friends need a guide through the city; you'll show her where she needs to go. Don't cause them any trouble and take them where they want to go and bring them back when they are ready and I'll see you get something special to eat tonight. Spicy fried grubs, perhaps?"
The three Grippli young bound all about in their excitement and the group begin to realize that they've just acquired three highly energetic, highly excited and exciteable guides. Dorummn smiles at their antics and looks sheepishly at the group.
"They won't cause you any trouble."
Dorummn calls back to the kitchen with Borric's order and it isn't long before another frog man, this one towering over Dorummn at nearly three times the Grippli's height, shambles into the common room bearing a tray with Borric's food. Despite the creature obviously being a Boggard and no relation to Dorummn Dorummn pats him familiarly on the leg.
"Cousin Brog, give the man his food." With a conspiratorial whisper Dorummn confides,
"My cousin does the heavy lifting us littler ones can't manage. Couldn't run the place without Brog."
The simple-minded Boggard shambles over with Borric's food and holds out the tray in offering. The food sizzles and steam rises from it in a tempting, mouth-watering aroma. Surprisingly it is wrapped in a flatbread to keep the slices of steak and vegetables contained and easy to carry.
Finally, Borric, Zelena, Nathan, Sylvain, and Aldino are off into the city led by the three Grippli children. They dash ahead and quickly return but one is always with the group at all times. Their high energy antics get Celebfedhiin excited who adds her barking to the ruckus.
The Grippli children bring out the good nature of Hruthrip's inhabitants who open up more readily to the group. Zelena is quick to take advantage of the openness brought on by the sight of their Grippli guides and she chats up several of the locals and merchants.
A gap-toothed roustabout with arms thicker than Zelena's waist chats about conditions on the river:
"One boat in five has a run-in with da pirates these days; curse those river-lovin' half-lees. An' the ol' 'Loper does'n do nothing!"
Zelena gets a dwarven knife-sharpener to expand on the subject a bit later:
"City ain't been the same since our River Lord lost his mate to the Black Beast decades ago. And these young ones don't know the difference. By steel, their parents don't remember the way it was before. Right shame, it is. It was such a battle, fighting down that Black!" He sighs and returns to the present.
"Vassril and his Bronzers keep the peace best they can but the swamp pushes up 'gainst the walls harder every day. Seems that damned Black might've won after all. It's a shame; Hruthrip was something once..."
A plump, red-cheeked woman giggles as she watches the Grippli then confides in Zelena:
"Cute little things, aren't they? Too bad about their older brother. One got into a spot of trouble with that grayscale clan and ended up losing an eye. Three times the lad's height and they hurt him bad but the little froggies wouldn't do a thing. Don't blame them, though; everyone's afraid of the grayscales."
A sunning lizardfolk the deep green of lizardfolk more commonly found in the Delta opens his eyes long enough to speak briefly:
"Hear tell you all were on the boat that returned Sekmun to the city. Strange one, that Sekmun. Bit too ambitious, if you ask me. We were made for the water. Lizardfolk have our place, you have yours. Sekmun never was happy with just the sun and water but he's back to the swamp where he belongs, may he rot there forever."
Most of the morning is gone by the time they arrive at the shop that Dorummn recommended. The shopkeeper gives a good price for the items that are being sold, just as Dorummn promised. And just about everything that the group is looking for can be found here as well. But there is one small problem: when Borric goes to pay for his items he discovers that the two gems he borrowed from Zelena are missing from his pouch.
[sblock=OOC]Songdragon, I agree that Grippli are awesome; I've liked them from way back when they first appeared in D&D. I imagine Grippli with large families and Dorummn could easily have numerous siblings. We'd just need to get 'em approved as a character race for LPF.
Also, gathering information takes 1d4 hours so I'll spread the info that Zelena gets out over the course of their shopping trip. If anything catches your attention and any of you'd like to expand on the rp feel free. If not, we'll just keep moving along.
Perrin, don't sweat the delay; it's no big deal. I've caused plenty of delay of my own during this game.[/sblock]
