Personae dramatis
Grignok, handsome orc druid
Augustus, human cleric
Quid occurrit
Once back in town, Tonfa Guy trains for five days. He takes a moment to just hang out in the Scarlet Harlot. After signaling for an ale he finds a seat and listens for jobs.
Augustus starts looking for a town elder, listening around to hear if anyone important needs Cure Disease. He mostly hears about commoners with either influenza of the clap. Yengrátōr, the barkeep at the Scarlet Harlot, says that Rêkoros, the leader of the Reapers mercenary company, is usually around in the evening. Augustus asks Yengrátōr to point out Rêkoros, and Yengrátōr agrees.
Then, Augustus asks around the Scarlet Harlot to see if any of the working girls need, uh, help. Somehow, he doesn't piss them off. A young woman with bulging eyes sidles up to Augustus. "Hey, hun, I've had a run o' pain down there, and not just my Aunt Flo, either." He checks her out, and her ailments puzzle him. "It hurts when I whiz, Pastor."
Augustus casts Cure Disease on the hooker. She is cured! She even runs outside and whizzes on the side of the tavern to test it, and she's good! She gives him a smooch on the cheek. "Name is Atilíā, Pastor. I'll have to do you a favor some time." She winks at Augustus. "Hey, everyone! Reverend Moonbeam is the best!" Atilíā runs off, saying, "'Scuze me, but I gotta make my room for tonight."
Traffic is normal around town. That evening, the crowd thins out. The Scarlet Harlot has a light crowd, mostly drinkers. A woman wayfarer is babbles loudly about some flaming sword of legend. Augustus asks her about it. "Aw, you don't know the tale of Ženêtiš? He cut off a necromancer's finger and took his ring!" Augustus says he has no idea who Ženêtiš was. "He was amazing! He paid for the burial of some old woman he didn't know by selling off a gold necklace that he also took from the necromancer! I wonder what happened to his sword. That must have been a great sword. My husband could swing it, I bet." Augustus asks when this happened. "I don't know when it happened, Reverend. Not like I saw it. But I heard it from my dad when I was a little girl."
The barkeep Yengrátor tugs on Augustus's sleeve. "Hey, He-Who-Cures-the-Whores, you see the guy with the big tattoos on his forearms? Well, you were asking about him earlier."
A big man in his thirties with lots of tattoos on his forearms and a bushy black beard waves to Augustus, then clasps Augustus's hand. "How good it is to see you! I'm Rêkoros, leader of the Reapers. I hear you have been asking about me, friend?" Augustus says he is looking to cure the sick. Rêkoros pokes Augustus's belly and laughs. "So you're sucking up, Reverend? Well, don't worry, as it happens, I got a lieutenant with the illness. No, not from your girlfriend. The one that's been going around. We got him quarantined since we can't have him spreadin' it to everyone."
He leads Augustus outside of town, and outside the north gate. "Reverend, we normally don't see your goddess with us. Maybe we could use you to keep watch over camps." He shrugs. He leads Augustus to a tent, in which is a dwarf with a lot of snot on his beard, and Augustus thinks that it's the flu. He casts Cure Disease on the dwarf. He lifts his head, and smiles, then takes in a deep breath. "Now I can breathe easy, son."
Rêkoros nods and puts his hand on Augustus's shoulder. "What do you drink, Padre?" Augustus says he drinks dark ale. "A dark ale, eh? I'll take you back to the Scarlet Harlot before the gates shut and give you a big ol' mug. It'll put hair on your chest!" And with that he takes Augustus back to the Scarlet Harlot and buys him some of the actual good ale. It does not taste like cat piss, unlike most of the ale folks drink around here.
Rêkoros and Augustus chat about business. "Ah, you gotta pray to the dark lady for guidance, eh? Watching the stars? Well, we ain't got no wars a-brewin' with all the snifflin' and pukin'."
Augustus asks, "What better time to attack an opponent or sow discord than this time?"
Rêkoros shrugs. "Well, then we'll be at war for thirty years, and ravage the whole kingdom!"
Tonfa Guy hears from a patron about Batrežíā, a noblewoman of Mīštássun, who went north to Rēláištiš for a trip. She never came back. She left wearing three platinum buttons on her collar. Tonfa Guy tries to get when this happened from the drunken patron. "Couple o' years ago. Dems buttons, though, worth a lot."
Tonfa Guy goes looking for scum. Skeevy folks chuckle as Tonfa Guy tugs on their clothes, then point him to a bar on the other side of town from the Scarlet Harlot. It's a two-story wattle-and-daub building that looks pretty run down. This is the Vulgar Lizard.
The activity is moderate, with plenty of drinking and chatter in darkened alcoves. Tonfa Guy looks skeevy enough for this crowd to feel at-ease with. In one corner there's some gambling, with a really tall gnome woman winning. The gnome woman's voice cracks a lot and she has long, curly dark hair, going to her waist. A lot of folks shrug and ignore the game. She may or not be winning, but she's the key player.
The folks ignoring her know her. An elf woman looks at Tonfa Guy. "B-B-Bustoríā is winning again." She snorts and takes a sip. "Butchu aren't playing. Good move."
The Tonfa Guy gives a sign of acknowledgement. The short elf woman smiles and nods, and twiddles with her earrings. "Looking for a score?" Tonfa Guy signals that he is.
The elf woman laughs. "Not a, ah, um, a, you know, a talker." She smiles. "Not my strong suit either."
She leans down and looks from side to side. "Listen, hun, you sure aren't going to find a big score around here. Maybe in the spots where the Town Watch truly goes. They just come here when one of those homes gets robbed."
The Tonfa Guy smiles and gives a sign for acknowledgement. The signals for an ale for the lady before getting up to leave. The woman pulls out a scroll from under her cloak. The Tonfa Guy sits back down, suddenly interested.
Short elf woman goes on, "This map leads to a mine. It's my map and I'm not sharing this, but I need help if I'm gonna loot this mine. It's to the east of Rēláištiš a bit. You don't go into those kinds of places alone."
Tonfa Guy signals he has someone he'd like to bring along. The elf woman nods. "Oh, you wanna bring your buddy? Sure, the more the merrier. Equal shares, of course." The Tonfa Guy gives a sign for acknowledgement. "But none of this gets out, got it?" The Tonfa Guy acknowledges.
The big gnome woman and some guy are arguing about whether or not she cheated. He scowls and spits and throws down his coins and walks off. Game over.
"We can ah, um—aw, you know, take off tomorrow. I'm Nílde. But you don't know me." The Tonfa Guy acknowledges, then promptly and discreetly leaves.
The next morning, Tonfa Guy pushes Augustus awake. Once the two are awake, they get Felcanis to let them use bill, then head for the North Gate of town. There they make a fuss so Grignok will see and stop picking herbs. The three of them meet Nílde there. After getting her to agree to go north with Grignok, they set forth, storm clouds looming ahead.
