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#1
03-30-2010, 12:51 PM
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A job with a journey
A druid oversees the place from an old great oak hollowed out and converted into a rather impressive manor house that doubles as a shrine to Tunare. Sparrow Tenstone is a human female in her late thirties and has been in Seven Farthings for the past six years. The outpost used to be under the control of a rather unscrupulous group of poachers until she came along and "cleansed" their destructive habits. As of now, it is the middle of the afternoon on a rather splendid day. A small crowd has gathered in Drogan's Alehouse, most notably a band of merchants who travel with the master caravaneer Xaokun Gual. She sits at a table with a pair of those merchants now, each sipping generously from a tankard of mead. The sign posted outside the front door of the tavern gave a clear message: As each of you have happened into Seven Farthings with the intent to pass through anyway, the offer seems to be laden with just the right sort of opportunity to make some coin alongside. Xaokun is a half elven female dressed plainly in traveling leathers layered in dust. Her brown hair is knotted into a ponytail with a few stray bangs falling into a weather worn face. She keeps a close eye on the door for prospective hires and as soon as you enter, she catches your eye and waves you over. "I'm Xaokun... if it's work you're lookin' for, come take a seat." 
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#2
03-30-2010, 08:39 PM
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Loric breezes into the tavern without paying heed to the signage on the door, more interested in calming his rumbling belly and quenching his thirst. With the attention he gets upon entering, however, he seems caught a little off-guard. He figured he was a bit of a handsome fellow, but he hasn't even sat down to drink yet. It seems a little quick for him to be drawing the ladies to him already. After a moment's consideration, he shrugs slightly to himself.
__________________Loric makes his way through the tavern to greet Xaokun and introduce himself. "Work, you say?" he replies initially. While he wasn't a big fan of the word, he understood that the concept of the starving artist was commonplace for a reason. Rumble. Loric decides to check his coin purse, but doesn't need to count it's contents. A barely-audible clink comes from lifting the very light pouch, and he smiles brightly at Xaokun. "Ah, my Lady Xaokun. My name is Loric. I would be much obliged to hear your proposal." Last edited by X-Codes; 03-30-2010 at 08:39 PM.
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#3
03-30-2010, 09:09 PM
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Sigurd slightly elbows his way up through the crowd to sit down beside Xaokun and her merchants, having seen the sign out front with some slight difficultly since it was a bit too high for him to read properly. As he moves forward, he waits for a young man to sit down before addressing the woman himself. " 'Allo there misses! I am Sigurd Stouthammer, and I have come to see you about that job posting. I would gladly serve your needs for a protector. You have my hammer."
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#4
03-30-2010, 11:24 PM
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Paelias sighed as he looked around him. This was Seven Farthings? A couple of muddy fields and an inn? Not at all what the place was made out to be by that half witted Barbarian he'd talked to outside of Freeport. Shrugging his pack onto his shoulder and wearily looking around Paelias mutters to himself, "You've come so far since Feywithe." With a wry smile he heads towards the inn.
On the sign outside the inn a small piece of parchment waves in the breeze. Curious Paelias stops to read it. "Things appear to be looking up, this is just what I'm looking for." Paelias thinks to himself as he moves to the door of the inn and enters. Looking around he quickly notices the half-elven woman catching his eye. Moving gracefully towards her table he notes that others are already gathered around, a dwarf, obviously a warrior, and a male half elf, maybe a consort of the woman. Paelias nods graciously to both as he addresses the lady, "Lady Xaokun, may I introduce myself. I am Paelias N'dayereth, a traveller and stranger to these parts. I offer my services to you in your task."
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#5
03-30-2010, 11:39 PM
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Sariel walks into the bar and slowly makes her way over to the table moving around people or politely waiting for a gap to appear. When she arrives at the table she catches the last bit of a graceful Eladrin introducing himself and winces to herself knowing that the bar has been raised for social interaction. This was nothing like in the books. She sighed quitely to herself and after giving a small wave said "I'm Sariel, I too am interested." Then slightly flushing she moves quickly to take a seat before more is asked of her.
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#6
03-31-2010, 01:13 PM
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A cloaked figure stood outside the tavern, looking at the poster that had been hung on the sign in front of him. A black hand momentarily appeared as Healklyr rubbed his chin. Accompanying a caravan through the Golden Pass was an interesting offer. It was safer than trying to make the trip on his own and even if turned out to be disappointingly uneventful, it would at least thicken his pouch.
Having made a decision he walked into the tavern to look go find Xaokun, something that turned out to be very easy as she called him the moment he walked in. Without missing a step he moved towards her table as if it had been his intention all along. While walking he let his hood slide to his shoulders, revealing the black skin and white hair that had been hidden beneath it. As far as he could recall, this must have been the first time that he had not been the one to take the initiative for selling his services. He just assumed Xaokun had noticed he was a Drow when he entered and that she was as suspicious as the rest of the civilized word. He ignored the rest of the folk gathered around the table and just looked at the caravaneer. “I might be tempted to join as escort. How will I be rewarded for my protection?” The trip itself was an interesting one, so he already knew that – barring a scandalously low offer – he would be accepting, but he saw no reason to let the Half-Elf know that. Right now he was just another mercenary.
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#7
03-31-2010, 02:36 PM
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As the Drow reveals his features Paelias' features harden. Trying hard to retain his composure he leans forward, "Lady Xaokun, I'm sure you are as aware as I am that the spawn of Innoruuk are generally not to be trusted. However I would assure you that I am happy to protect you from all threats. " With this Paelias glances at the drow.
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#8
03-31-2010, 02:58 PM
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Healklyr turned his head just a little bit so that he could look at Paelias and lifted a single brow in disdain. “No more than the average mercenary.” He left the conversation at that and looked back at the caravaneer, waiting for a reply to his question. From his short experience amongst these other races, he would even dare say that Drow were more likely to hold their promises. There was far less scheming and power games going on above ground, meaning there was never anything rewarding enough to even consider breaking a contract, let alone an oath. He had met several mercenaries that would swing to whatever side promised the most gold however, something that he considered far too mundane for a real Drow to even feel temptation.
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#9
03-31-2010, 03:39 PM
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Paelias sits back in his chair, slightly surprised at the drow's insightful comment. It was true though, looking around the group he surmised that each were here following their own agenda. Some seemed obvious, such as the pretty boy consort, eye-candy filling his purse and his belly off the endeavors of the merchant, others such as the dwarf and the human a little less so.
Paelias' eyes wandered back to the drow. "What about you?" he wondered to himself, "How does this job fit into your agenda? And how does that affect mine?" Bringing himself out of his thoughts Paelias turns to the half elven merchant. "Can you tell us more regarding the caravan? When does it leave? How many do you look to employ? Who shall lead?"
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#10
03-31-2010, 06:07 PM
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Sigurd looked at disdain upon the Drow that approached, but then closed his eyes and let out a slight sigh. One must not judge the outer cover of an object, for we would never find the beautiful pearl inside the clam or the sweet juice inside a coconut. As Paelias spoke with obivous venom in his voice, Sigurd tapped the stone floor with the head of his craghammer, loud enough for those close to hear but not too loud to alert the entire throng of people in the building. "This is a civil place. Law abides here, and it does not matter the race of the subject, for as long as they respect the law, they in turn should be respected as an equal." Thinking nothing more of the matter, Sigurd then leaned back in his chair, content to listen to the conversations of the others.
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#11
03-31-2010, 06:57 PM
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As the table starts to fill, Xaokun slaps the shoulder of one of the merchants seated next to her, "See there, told you it wouldn't take a minute".
__________________With a quick nod and welcoming smile to each of you that approach, the half elf waves over a serving wench and orders a plate of hot rolls and a round of drinks. "Well met to each of yas, I'll make this plain and simple. I don't care where you come from and I don't care where you're going... so long as you can get my fare through the Golden Pass, we'll be good friends." She swings a sidelong glance between both Paelias and Healklyr as if to make sure their brief exchange is noted in that last statement as well. "So let's cut to the chase... it's a 3 day ride between here and Brighthaven on the other side of the mountains, then another 2 to cross the Commons and hit Freeport. There's 5 wagon teams, the proposal is 10 gold a piece per wagon that makes it to Brighthaven and then another 10 apiece per wagon to hit Freeport. Chances are we pick up a few more along the way so the payout looks to be plenty good at the end of the week if you ask me." The ordered bowl of hot rolls and your drinks all arrive at the end of her words and she reaches forward to grab one of the rolls before you can even think to. Snatching a quick bite off the still steaming treat, she continues... "Now, I've been running caravans through the Golden Pass for a good bit of my life and I ain't seen one make it through without losing a few along the way. The last one I ran, we had a few people get dragged off by mountain lions in the middle of the night," and as she says that, both merchants next to her start to look real uneasy - squirming in their seats. "But, if your wits are quick and you're worth your salt, the run shouldn't be near as bad as any of that. As to when we leave and how many we take, I'll give it to the end of tonight before I take the sign down and we'll head out at first light tomorrow. Let me hear it," she finishes up and leans back in her seat taking a long pull off her mead as she waits for your responses.
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#12
03-31-2010, 08:35 PM
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"If my addtion and math is right there lass, that would mean roughly 100 gold pieces, give or take ten or so. Now that is a pretty penny to say so, but for an entire week that would seem a slight bit too low. Travel expenses, rations, and no disrespect to the brewer here, but a good stout of fine dwarven mead, would take roughly 150 gold pieces. So to make this deal in the orignal terms you suggested, how about 15 gold per wagon that survives the trip?" Sigurd's common is slightly accented with a heavy dwarven drawl that gives his words a more pleasent and understandable tone and clarity.
__________________Last edited by Anea; 03-31-2010 at 09:57 PM.
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#13
03-31-2010, 09:15 PM
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Loric nods as Sigurd talks. "You strike me as a very shrewd person, Lady Xaokun. Your offer would be fair if we were talking about some hired muscle for a journey of this length, but I think you can tell that the lot of us are a cut above such men," Loric states plainly and confidently. "Surely, for example, that shadowy one over there must have overcome quite a bit in order to walk as unmolested as he does in these lands," Loric says as be points out Healklyr.
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#14
03-31-2010, 11:04 PM
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Sariel was watching their hosts marking every tick, twitch, and general signs of nervousness, while at the same time trying to get inside their heads and see what they are thinking.
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#15
04-01-2010, 03:16 AM
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Paelias notes to himself to stop making assumptions when the half elf he assumed to be the merchant's consort starts haggling most convincingly with her to increase the amount of remuneration.
As the dwarf and the half elf make their pleas Paelias adds with extra emphasis towards the squirming merchants. "I think you got off lightly with mountain lions last time. I traveled through the Pass from Freeport recently and there was a lot more activity to be concerned about than mountain lions." Last edited by realbrit70; 04-01-2010 at 03:16 AM.
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