only a whisper can be heard here.
:An attractive, red-haired half-elven woman swaggers into the room. She's dressed as a stereotypical pirate, down to the thigh-high boots and the tricorn hat. She tosses her hat onto a hatrack, and pulls up a chair. She glances around, before quietly introducing herself.:
"Xan Stormblade, captain of the Stingray. Did anyone bring rum?"
A young Varisian man speaks up.
"Yea, I swiped it from that tool Ambrus' cabinet. Its alright, but I've liberated better from my old man."
He is sitting with his feet up on the table. He pours a glass for the pirate woman and anyone else before he takes a swig from the bottle itself. You're not quite sure if he's just at thug or something more. His clothes accentuates his muscles as he drinks.
"I'll take some mister."
(Reith appears to be a human child of about 8 but is actually a halfling. It's currently a DC 32 perception check to realize he's not actually a human child)
"Ain't you a little young.. Eh, guess I wasn't that much older when my pop gave me some. Enjoy kid."
"Thanks Mister" *drinks it down* "Good stuff."
"You drink like a champ, kid. Not even a cough. Impressive."
*Reith laughs an surprisingly adult laugh*
"Thanks"
:Xan accepts the glass from the Varisian man.:
"Thanks, pal."
:She takes a drink, and nods.:
"Not bad. Better than the bilge water the Shackles folks call 'rum'."
:As the wee lad slams his rum, she grins.:
"I'm impressed. Ever consider going to sea, kid?"
"No Ma'am. I prefer cities. There's more folk to milk out of their coin."
:Xan laughs throatily.:
"That's a good point, kid...but you gotta pick an awful lot of pockets to match the haul from a single wallowing merchant ship. That, and, for me, anyway, cities make me a little uncomfortable. I'd much rather be on the open sea."
"I hear that. I hate nature. Everything just tries to kill you. Worst you gotta deal with in a city job is an old man with a torch. In the wild, it's all alligators and krenshar. On the sea, its sharks and giant squids. "
:Stepping out of the shadows, a tall wiry man, bald with hazel eyes, his garments mark him as a Varisian of some scholarly trade. His elven heritage shows a little as it is mixed with human blood, which can be overlooked by the unobservant.:
"Yes, nature and the sea both have dangers of their own, but so too does the streets of the cites, hiding many a dangerous foe. And they will do more than just pick your coin purse."
"I'll have a glass of that rum if your still pouring."
"Alright, but you're the last. Any more and I won't have any for myself."
"I'll fix the drink shortage. Back in a minute."
:Xan stands, and departs the Sczarni safehouse. She returns, perhaps a quarter-hour later, with a bottle in each hand, and a self-satisfied smile on her face.:
"Rum, and Taldan whiskey. I'll never cease to be amazed at how well a wink and a smile works on most men."
"Nice. Haven't had any Taldan booze in a long while. They keep it locked up better than their gaudy jewelry I swear."
:Xan pours a round for her gathered "brothers".:
"Yes, well, I don't think the tavern owner would have given it up so easily, unless..."
:Her accent smoothly slips into that of a Taldan:
"...it was for a fellow countrywoman."
:She grins.:
"Good trick." Andrazi smiles as he drinks his share.
"Why, thank you, kind sir."
:Xan giggles, then raises her glass:
"To our brothers and sisters, may their enterprises never falter."
:She raises her glass to her lips, then stops.:
"And, even more importantly, to ourselves, and to profit!"
"I hear that." Andrazi raises his glass and drink it down.
A finely dressed man sauntered in with an amused smirk, looking around at the others gathered before speaking with a distinctly Varisian accent, "So. Who decided to start the party without me, hmm?"
From head to toe, the man was dressed in a rich shade of crimson, his clothing at least as flashy and fancy as his wide-brimmed hat, which sported a large, white, feather plume. At his side, an extremely ornate rapier was sheathed, the guard fashioned to look like Devil's wings, a dark aura about the weapon seeming to shift and flicker when not being directly observed.
All in all, he looked every bit the part of some fancy Varisian duelist, save for the dark reddish tone to his skin, his shock-white hair, the Devil-like horns protruding from his brow and up through a pair of holes in the brim of his hat, and his long, languidly swaying tail.
Shady halfling with oversized sombrero appears at the bar, wearing poncho of two camos, urban grey and yeti snow white (which is made of yeti fur).
He seems to have some small guns, chakrams and a scimitar.
/With distinctive Katapeshian accent/
"Some flayleaf, good people?"
(at Zelthier)
"How comes you got a tail Mister?"
:Xan nods in greeting to the tiefling.:
"Welcome, brother. You're quite...impressive."
:Then, to the newly-arrived halfling:
"You offering it, or looking for it?"
The keen-eyed duelist smirked at Reith knowingly, though he wasn't about to foil the man's cover. "For the same reason you are so short, little brother," he sauntered past, ruffling the halfling's hair as he passed on his way to drop rather gracefully into an unoccupied chair, "It is simply how I am."
Chuckling at Xan's comment, he tipped his hat to the woman with a sly, fanged, grin, "Of course I am. If people are paying attention to me, they are not paying attention to you."
(Unless you can regularly make DC 30+ Perception checks for all purposes Reith appears to be a human child. you wouldn't know he's a halfling)
"Well one day I'll be big, will you lose your tail?"
"Well said, brother. While I usually enjoy attention, there are moments when a bit of a distraction is appreciated. I rather like your approach."
(He's got a +20, I figured that was a pretty decent shot at it.)
Laughing at Reith's question, he gestured idly with one hand while pulling a deck of cards out of his pocket. "I should certainly hope not! I am, after all, rather attached to it."
"Well," he nodded to Xan whilst shuffling his deck of cards, "It is our success that is important, no? So long as our brothers and sisters can do the job, I am more than happy to help by drawing the attention of others."
"Always good to have a face-man. You gonna deal?"
"Are you going to play?" he smirked, doing a combination of some card flourishes, fancy false cuts, and actual shuffling before setting the deck on the table.
"Pick a game."
Glancing around at the others, he raised an inquisitive eyebrow, "Anyone else want in?"
"Why else would I ask?" Andrazi seems unimpressed by the card handling skills. "You're the dealer. You pick."
"Deal me in, too."
:Xan refills her rum, then slides the bottles towards the newcomers.:
An immaculately dressed Gnome enters the bar. Slips off his gloves and dusts down the chair before sitting on it.
As he takes off his hat, placing it nearby, a symbol of one of the local 'Families' can be seen faintly glowing on his forehead.
The gnome slips a small card to the waiter who takes his order for a fine red wine. A few minutes later the waiter approaches the others with a bottle of the finest wine in a silvered ice bucket, and hands them a business card "Romano Vedecci".
Romano looks across, raises his glass and nods...
"Very well." Cutting the deck another couple times, the tiefling dealt out the cards to his companions, each player receiving a hand of seven cards before placing the next card from the deck face-up next to the face-down deck.
"I am sure you are all familiar with the rules for Towers, no? Well, this game is nothing like it," he chuckled, explaining the rules for the game before gesturing for the person to his left to go.
(It's basically Rummy, but with whatever name would be used on Golarion, using the suits of swords, cups, coins, and wands rather than an actual Harrow deck. If someone can point me at a different card game in Pathfinder, we could use those rules.)
:Xan notes the chilled wine, and the card, then nods in reply to Romano with a flirtatious smile. She then turns to her cards.:
"This should prove to be an amusing game, when you can pretty much count on everyone to cheat, or at least bluff outrageously."
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'd never cheat." Andrazi says sarcastically.
I actually don't know rummy so this will be interesting.
:winks at Andrazi:
"Well, except for you, darling...I trust you implicitly."
:She chuckles, as she examines her cards:
((OOC: Don't know rummy, either, so I'm just winging it. :-D ))
:just walks by...'cause I only know how to play go fish...
"Right. Just like I trust you." He winks back and looks at his cards while attempting keep his game face on.
"Don't worry," Zelthier grinned, "Unless you have my cards up your sleeves, the only one who can easily cheat here is me," he looked his own cards over briefly before smiling back at the others, "And I do not cheat my friends."
(Rummy is super easy. I was figuring we could just gloss over the actual play, but if you want to actually play it out the rules are here.)
That seems complicated.
"Who said we were friends?" Andrazi raises an eyebrow and smiles as he takes another drink.
An attractive human woman enters the establishment. She has pale white skin and long black hair, and wears a finely made dress that would seem more appropriate on a noblewoman than an adventurer, especially an agent of the Sczarni. She stands by the entrance long enough to examine the room and its inhabitants, before choosing a seat near the edge of the room, with her back against a wall.
"We're not friends...we're family. Which, of course, is a completely different sort of relationship. Trust me on this."
:Xan notes the pale-skinned woman who enters.:
"Finally, another female in the place. I was starting to wonder..."
Nodding in greeting to the new woman, the tiefling snickered, thoroughly amused by the antics of his 'family' as they played a few rounds. Considering they weren't playing for anything of value beyond amusement, Zelthier had made a bit of a personal game of seeing whether or not he could cheat without getting caught. More often than not he was successful, but he still managed to get called out on it several times and each time he conceded defeat to whomever had caught him, all the while with a broad smile and a laugh.
Even without counting the times he'd cheated, he'd proved himself to be a veritable card shark, though it seemed the lot of them were all rather proficient in the fine art of the cards.
Sitting back with a chuckle, the devilish Varisian congratulated Xan on a game well played, having been thoroughly and soundly beaten by the woman even with a couple of successful cheats. "Remind me not to bet anything of value against you," he grinned, lazily draping an arm over the back of his chair.
"So, this is what the Sczarni 'family' looks like here in Absalom. An obvious group of pirates and thugs, sitting around cheating at cards, and corrupting a young child, no less."
Despite her harsh words, the woman suddenly smiles warmly. "Reminds me of home, actually. I wasn't much older than you", she looks directly at at the child-like Reith, "...when I joined the organization in my native Riddleport."
"I suppose I should introduce myself. I'm the sorceress Azkadellia."
:Xan laughs softly to Zelthier.: "Oh, I promise I'd take very good care of anything of value. Well played, all of you."
:After Azkadellia introduces herself, Xan nods in her direction:
"Captain Xan Stormblade. Welcome. I know Riddleport well -- I sailed out of there for several years."
In the corner you all notice a tall muscular man who seems to almost appear. You realize most of you only saw him because he allowed you too. He notices the gathering...of sorts, stands and with uncommon litheness walks to the table. He is not nearly as impressive in dress as he is stature, standing nearly six and a half feet tall, he speaks in broken common with a heavy skaldish accent. "Friends" he utters,"Karl Yergos, liquidation bureau", you get the feeling the words Liquidation Bureau were almost read from a cue card and were not naturall for him.
"I'll have you know," the tiefling stated with mock indignation at the sorceress' accusation, "That I am no pirate, nor petty thug. I am a man of honor, and I always fight fair!" Of course, the wicked, fanged, grin said otherwise, but it was pretty well to be expected from the scoundrel more commonly known as The Dandy Devil.
When Karl approached, he flashed the larger man a devious smile, tipping his oh-so-fancy hat to him, "Well met, brother. I am Zelthier, jack of all trades, master of blades, and charmer of men and women alike across lands far and wide," the tiefling's tail coiled languidly behind him as he spoke, gesturing to an empty chair at the table.
"Fight fair? I've never heard of such a thing! After all, if you're in a fight, you need to win... by any means necessary."
"I guess this is why Absalom is considered a more civilized city than Riddleport. As a new Pathfinder, I've only recently left Riddleport for the first time in my life, so it's interesting to see the different world views of others. And just as interesting to keep hearing what a terrible city I grew up in, as if they feel sorry for me when they hear where I'm from."
"Welcome, Brother Karl. You *are* a big one." :She grins:
"Karl, Azkadellia, have a seat. Still quite a bit of rum, and Taldan whiskey, left, if either interest you."
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