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Message: <blockquote data-quote="random user" data-source="post: 1663439" data-attributes="member: 16581">Entering the north quarter, the party noticed that most of the people were taciturn and kept to themselves. Still, that didn't stop them from staring at the party when they thought they were unnoticed.The buildings and streets were maintained poorly compared to other parts of the outer city, and an eerie quiet contrasted the hustle and bustle of other the other quarters. Errol started to gather information but most people were reluctant to talk to him and gave him vague answers. Eventually Errol found and cornered a street urchin. "Hey," Errol said, "We're looking for some information. If you help us out it will go well for you. If not it won't."Only hearing the threat, the waif took off running, but Kestrel easily caught him and lifted him up. "Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" the kid wailed. The lad was causing quite a scene, but no one moved to help him. Suddenly from down the street a voice called out, "Hey what's going on here?"The party looked towards the origin of the voice and saw five men in a group. The one in front was clearly a leader, and his four followers flanked him with weapons ready to be drawn. Immediately the street cleared, and the kid stopped struggling. Vaugner, feeling a bit paranoid, looked around checking for snipers in any of the surrounding buildings. He was rewarded by spotting a person on a rooftop, though he could not see if the watcher was armed.Kestrel looked up and calmly explained that the kid had information but was unwilling to share it."Exuse me, sir, but the kid's not your personal property. Let him go!" the man growled sarcastically. A short conversation that went nowhere ensued between the man and Kestrel, and it looked like it was about to come to blows. Before that could happen, three men on horseback ride up. They had the markings of the local militia."Sullivan, what's going on here?" one of the men said.Sullivan replied, "These brats came down and decided to pick on Sainy here. We took offense to that, and asked them to let the kid go. They refused. We were just about to settle our dispute."The militiaman turned to the party. "And what do you have to say for yourselves?" he asked. Kestrel replied with the essentially the same story, that the kid had information and the party was attempting to get it."Sainy, what these guys want to know, do you know it?" he queiered. Sainy shook his head vigorously while whining, "No I know nothing, sir.""See, the kid knows nothing, you should let him go," the militiaman intoned calmly. At that Kestrel shrugged and dropped Sainy, who quickly scampered off. He continued, "There still a problem here?" as he looked at the party and Sullivan's men. "No Sir!" Sullivan replied respectfully. With that his group turned around walked down the street."We're not going to have any more problems here are we? This isn't the inner city you know. People aren't just going to answer to your beck and call here," the man warned.If Kestrel felt rebuked, he didn't show it. "What is your name?" he asked."My name is Myan and I'm one of the seagents," Myan replied. He rode alongside the party for a bit. They found out that Myan was also tasked with finding Pippy, as was the whole city, but that he thought chances were slim that he would be found anytime soon. "The belar misunderstand the situation here. Pippy isn't a hardened and cruel criminal. He's well liked in the community and a good judge of character, and while a lot of people will be tempted by the reward, the friends who know where he might be hiding aren't going to tattle on him."Discouraged, the party left the north quarter and stopped by to see how Malif was doing. "Look guys, you don't need to find Pippy, you just need to find someone who knows what Pippy knows!" he exclaimed.With that revelation, the party left Malif to continue his tinkering. Vaugner checked in with his rogue contacts and verified that Pippy was not in the thieves guild. Asking around discreetly and obliquely, he did find out that Pippy often hung out with Ash and Tip.The party set out in search around town again, and late in the afternoon Kestrel spied Ash sitting in an alleyway eating an apple. Vaugner crept into the shadows and used his hat of disguise to make himself look like a random walker. At the sight of the party Ash started to bolt, but Kestrel called out, "Hey Ash, remember me, it's Kestrel... I have some more silver if you can help out with some information!"Ash turned around and recognized Kestrel. He stopped and asked what they wanted. From Ash, they learned that since the heat was so high on Pippy that he would have bolted from town, and Ash didn't recall any more details about the wizard. Kestrel kept handing him more silver, though, and Ash dug deep into his memories to come up with more information. Suddenly, he had a revelation. "Give me an hour and I'll have more information for you. Meet me outside Rina's shop."The party agreed and with that Ash scampered off. Vaugner discreetly tried to follow him, but Ash was running at full tilt and Vaugner lost him as he ran through a tavern."Don't worry Vaugner, we still think you're a good rogue," Errol said dryly.About an hour later, Ash showed up in front of Rina's store with another young boy about the same age. After greeting Rina, Ash presented his friend Tip."I didn't get a chance to talk to the wizard, but I remember him pretty well. Pippy was chatting him up. He was from outside Gront he said, and was on the way to one of the libraries in the inner city to do some research on ami.. um.. ani... animations, I think it was. He was about six feet tall and had a brown robe. He was definately a wizard. He wanted to stop by to say hi to someone he knew that had just moved here, but I don't remember where it was."Through a flash of insight, Kestrel asked, "It wasn't by any chance The Traveling Minstrel was it?""Yeah that might have been it," Tip said. For their information Kestrel gave them each a gold and dismissed them. Ash punched Tip hard on the shoulder and said, "See I told you it would be worth it!" as they ran off.The party then headed to The Traveling Minstrel. Errol chuckled as he saw the insignia of the tavern -- a mug of ale with a set of drums engaved on the mug. It was Friday night and packed with wall to wall people. Above the din of noise, a band could be heard playing.Janson happened to notice the party come in and shouted to them, "Come in! Come in! You guys need a table? First group to give up their table gets their tab on the house tonight!" A table quickly vacated and Janson ushered the party to the table."Welcome!", he said. "I owe all this business to you guys. If you hadn't asked for a special drink, I'd still be in Mero. You guys have my word as long as you are in any tavern I run, drinks are on the house." Errol spotted the band and excused himself to go jam with the band. Following Errol's gaze, Janson shook his head in disbelief. "It's the craziest thing. Lydia thought of it really. People were loving the TMD's (we weren't sure what to call them, someone suggested called them 'The Minstrel's Delight, and the nickname stuck). It seems to make people more jovial and want to sing."Well, Lydia came up with the idea that we should hire a band, and the band plays whatever song or ditty the person wants to sing to. They go on stage and take a turn with a song. Everyone loves it, even though most of the singers are quite bad! Along with the TMD's that's what is making this place so popular."The party described the wizard they knew and asked if Janson knew him. "Oh sure, Rillan I bet it is from the description. I've ran the Mero Inn for the last 35 years, and it's the only inn, and in a good location. I've met just about everyone who has regularly traveled between Gront and Pavalar. Rillan was here last week. He has a keep somewhere pretty close to Gront. Say I gotta get back to work, but if you guys need anything just let me know!" And with that Janson disappeared back into the crowd.With that confirmation, the party resolved to set out to Gront the next day.</blockquote>

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