(Tavern) City of Orussus, The Red Dragon Inn II

[Jack Haggerty]

Janos smiles at the halfling, amused. He pours himself a glass of whiskey, raises it and takes a sip. "You have a good taste." he compliments the halfling. "If you don't mind, I'll tell you the whole story when there are four of you. Though I wouldn't mind if you introduced yourself."

Jack tugs a forelock, "Jack 'Blackjack' Haggerty, salvageer extraordinaire, at your service, Mr. Audron, if you please, and, begging your pardon, I'll be pleased to meet you."

"Follower of Grendath, please join us." Janos speaks in a calm voice. "We have some whiskey here and I think it's a little too much for the two of us." and he nods to the halfling.

"Now, just how do you figure that?" Jack wonders aloud, sucking down a third glass of spirits as if it were fruit punch. "Best to order another bottle, I say."

 

[Janos Audron]

"Well, Jack, nice to meet you." As Jack empties his thrid glass, Janos raises an eyebrow because of the alarming speed at which the Halfling is drinking. "Obviously I can't say how much you are able to tolerate, but I've noticed that my resistance is even below that of an Elf. But that doesn't stop me from enjoying it a little every now and then."And with that Janos takes another sip.

 

[jasamcarl]

Draven swaggers towards the two, "My given name is Draven, but most of my friends refer to me as 'Caller'," he holds up a hand, "No wine for me, a hearty ale is more my speed." Draven looks down at Jack, "A halfing, aye? Grendath has provided me with the luck, but you with the trickery..."

Draven has brown hair and hazel eyes. He is short and stout, yet oddly attractive, even in his green and brown traveler's outfit. What appears to be a heavy backpack is hitched to his shoulders.

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

A woman enters the tavern, pushing back the hood of her dark green cloak, which had been raised against the rain. The eyes of anyone glancing her way- and most do, since this is the Red Dragon and they’ll have to say hello to her anyway in a handful of seconds- will be drawn to the sword at her side. Although it is sheathed, even it’s handle is spectacular. Silver embossing on the hilt and a green gemstone at the pommel indicate that, if nothing else, a lot of money was spent decorating the sword. As the woman turns to shut the door against the wind, a flash of silver is seen on the cap of the sheath, and then she turns again and her cloak obscures it.

Anyone who bothers to continue looking will note the rest of her attire is not nearly as spectacular, if well tailored- all a dark grey, but for the dark green cloak and a belt buckle and ring of silver. The woman herself is not pretty but statuesque, looking more like a marble monument than anything else, with pale skin, a highly symmetrical face, and dark brown hair pulled behind her head without a strand out of place.

She enters just as Janos finishes his speech- “-dies and gentlemen, thank you for your time!" – and she sees at least one of the assembled taverngoers head in his direction as she heads to introduce herself to the barkeep. She exchanges words of greeting with the laconic owner of the establishment, and even draws a smile from him when she mentions her uncle. With that, she turns and announces, as is her duty, her identification to the drinking population at large. “I am Fant of Lionel,” she says simply. Name and profession? “And I am experienced as a leader of armed men,” she concludes, and strides brusquely towards the table where now two men sat with the one who had made the announcement. Her initial plan had been to attempt to form a group to go on the next available job- perhaps even offer them a handful of crowns to agree to join her- but perhaps she could take advantage of this fortuitous coincidence.

She walks over to the three men and settles on nodding politely at all of them as the most acceptable address. “I assume you are hiring?” she asks, and if given the affirmative, pulls off her cloak, hangs it over the back of the chair, and sits down with her hands resting on her lap. “I believe I have just introduced myself; if I may ask, who are you?"

 

[Jack Haggerty]

“I believe I have just introduced myself; if I may ask, who are you?"

Jack, concentrating on the next move in his game of solitaire, flips over the Aces of Coins from the draw stack. "That would be our revered employer, Mr. Audros, here," he says off-handedly, setting the card to the side of the game, next to the other three aces. Another card from the draw stack reveals the King of Staves, which gets placed neatly into an empty column of the solitaire array. "Here's our dear lucky priest, Mr. Draven." The next card drawn is the Queen of Crowns, which gets laid atop the King of Staves, "There's yourself, I'd suspect." Another card from the draw stack revealed the Jack of Swords, which he drops over the Queen of Crowns. "And that's myself, Blackjack Haggerty, pleased to meet you, Ma'am."

Jack draws one more card, but tosses it into the discard pile without turning it over. "Bugger it all, if know who else'll sit down, though." He sweeps the cards altogether into a pile, and begins to reshuffle the deck. "Silly game, solitaire... No skill and no money to it."

 

[Janos Audron]

She walks over to the three men and settles on nodding politely at all of them as the most acceptable address. “I assume you are hiring?” she asks, and if given the affirmative, pulls off her cloak, hangs it over the back of the chair, and sits down with her hands resting on her lap. “I believe I have just introduced myself; if I may ask, who are you?"

"Jack has quite accurately described us, and you are correct: I am hiring. 500 gold pieces for a wizard basically...though I warn you, fair maiden, tis not without danger." He says a bit mockingly. "You care for a glass of whiskey?"

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

Fant glares at the man, but does not allow herself to be further provoked. Wordlessly, she pours herself a shot of whiskey and downs it in one gulp. The message, in reponse to her description as a "fair maiden," is obvious. That statement made, she pours herself some more, and this she consumes at a more sedate pace. She didn't care much for whiskey anyway.

"Danger is expected," she says. Her hopes had been raised by the Halfling being so courteous as to address her as "ma'am," but she supposed she couldn't expect politeness from everyone she encountered. "Now, 500 gold pieces for a wizard what? Found, captured, courted?" she says, with her lip curling imperceptibly at her would-be employer.

 

[Janos Audron]

"Dead."

Janos refills his almost empty glass and smiles "I see you and Jack are in the same league when it comes to drinking whiskey. Though I must say this is the first time I see a, erm, 'fair maiden' do that... "

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

Fant puts her glass down with a thunk and leaves it there. Looking Janos in the eye, she says in a quiet voice that betrays anger kept under tight control "Since you seem incapable of picking up subtle social cues, I will spell it out for you: I do not wish to be described as a 'fair maiden'. I would go so far as to say I take offense at being called so. And if you insult me again by those terms I will challenge you, following whatever customs are standard in this land, to a duel." Her voice returns to normal, although she does not break eye contact with Janos. "Now, unless I am mistaken, murdering people is considered illegal. So, under what office are you proposing to hire me to dispatch this person?"

 

[Janos Audron]

Janos' eyes narrow, but then a smile forms around his mouth, not a nice smile, as though he is up to something...he takes another sip of his whiskey and, still smiling, he says:

"Well, then, fair maiden" he stressing the fair maiden part, "if you really feel that way, then from now on I shall call you Lady Fant. Is that acceptable?"

"Second, if you find sarcasm not an appropriate form of humor, then I apologize, I should have been more thoughtful."

"And as for murder being illegal, do you stop and think about justifications when you are face to face with an Orc? Do you think that thieves and murderers have the same rights as others? Now, this man, has 'inherited' a house. After he helped his brother a bit with dying that is. He then proceeded to steal a spell of my design which I had just finished, but not yet incorporated yet, and then, how ironic, he used it against me!"

"I realize that I am not an mayor, not a captain of the guard, though I am a respected citizen in my country, 'the law' is too busy with other things. Yes, this is a mission of vengance, I would like to see the dead of my friend avenged, I would like to have my spell back, but if you, Lady Fant, want to see some token from an office, I have to disappoint you."