"OOPS!"
Reta looks about for a live pathfinder.
"WAIT! YOU KNOW PATHFINDER?!" Reta shrieks in her indoor yell.
A tall and lean elf enters the room, he does not carry the white hair of the rest of his clan, but the resemblance to his father is unmistakable. He keeps his short bow wrapped around his back and his family sword hangs down to by his side.
"Am I late or early, I can never tell in these situations."
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"Grrr. Is where burn Pathfinders?"
"No, no burning of Pathfinders... well, unless they like being burned. Shelyn insists it's not helpful for us because then folks get the wrong impression and think we're just fire and fight when we are actually capable of GREAT things!"
"Rrrr? Like burning bigger stuff?"
"Yes! But with prettier colors and for a longer time so it's better!"
"Go burn lodge-place. Lot's of 'splodey magic in bubbly glass-things and in book-things. Very 'pretty'. Make lots 'ooos' and 'aahs'. Can has game?"
"Nononono. People might get hurt that don't need to get hurt. But if you want to help me find a place where it is okay if people get hurt, I can help!"
In steps a dwarf wearing an old naval uniform, complete with a fabulous white beard and a scowl. "All these goblins," he mutters to no one in particular, voice devoid of his kind's usual accent. "A little less reviled and suddenly they're swarming every previously civilized spot. Well, time to get used to it, these ones don't look so bad."
"Not sure. Had nightmare I was a golem being worked on by a giant rat-person."
The elf jolts awake with a start.
Experimental journal: I dropped portable hole into a handy haversack. I then dropped into the Plane of Shadow and determined that the contraption coincided with the site of a web. No sign of damage done, but it seems a planar implosion there knocked me out for four days...
"Well, friends, no need to fret! All's well and hearty now. Here, why don't you take a dram of this wine I've got? Made it m'self, by Cayden's grace!" A smiling goblin in a bad wig holds out a bottle of wine on which he's scrawled the unlikely label Seedy's Cru.
A man enters, quickly closing the door against the wind and rain. He removes his ragged cloak in a futile effort to shake off some of the water, revealing pointed ears and high cheekbones that suggest a recent elven ancestor. He has the scruffy beginnings of a reddish beard, however, and is too short to be a full elf. His clothes are worn but well-made, although on close inspection they appear to have been made for someone taller and bulkier, then taken in to fit their current owner.
He glances around the room, taking in the animals, outsiders, and others. He nods a greeting to the hostess and the lady in red, and meanders up to the bar. Before ordering, he pulls a handful of coins from his pouch to confirm he has enough to pay for his drink.
Nothing but silver and copper. More than enough to slake my thirst, but somehow still unsatisfying.
When the goblin bartender approaches, he accepts the proffered bottle gratefully, then sticks out a hand to introduce himself.
"Balistar Vinn, gov, an' it's a right pleasure ta be 'ere! A student o' the occult, I am, a collector of tales of strange an' unusual 'appenings. 'Ave ya noticed anyfing strange or unusual 'appening 'round 'ere lately?"
As he rattles off his introduction, Balistar glances down at the handwritten label on the bottle, then back to the bartender.
"Made it y'self, did ya?"
"Sure did!" the goblin says, with a toothy grin. "I been blessed by the Lucky Drunk!"
Balistar waits for Seedy to pour out a glass, then raises it in a toast. "Much obliged, gov, much obliged."
Despite his misgivings, the bard takes a healthy swig of the bartender's homebrew and swallows, then raises his eyebrows in surprised. "Blessed by the Lucky Drunk indeed, Seedy me lad! You've got talent, you 'ave."
"Sorry, sir. But you know goblins and signage. That there was an uncommon, 4th level, beer. Perhaps I could interest you in a lower-level Generican beer like Buddy Light™ for your next drink? I realize it looks like used beer but, guidelines is guidelines, sir. Oh, and if you think you're gonna belch try to turn away from anyone, or anything flammable. You know how goblins are sir."
Annilda sits down and takes a look around. "I'll just take some water for now. I need to take a break from fortune telling..."
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A small halfling wiith perfectly coiffed hair strides in to the room. She looks around the room and then steps over to the taller woman in the fortune-tellers garb. "You! You seem free and like you could handle yourself in combat. We've had a request for more people in Quantium. Sebnet thinks that the number of people she's got for this assignment is just not enough. She's got a portal set up if you're interested."
"Ah, my work is never done..." Annilda stretches. "I'll see where this leads."
Dot.
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Warm sunlight streams through the open doorway of the Cottonseed Lodge as a young halfling woman wearing the simple attire of a farm girl walks in. Her swift gait has a lilt to it, and she has a sincere smile on her dirt-smudged face.
As the halfling finds a stool at the bar she can safely get up into, she asks the barkeep for a shandy. "I love the springtime, don't you," she asks. "There's always so many exciting things to look forward to! Like summers working the fields, and afternoons down by the river! Oh! And I hear there's a new group in the Society called the Verdant Wheel that sound like great people! Of course, not everybody is interested in traveling with the Society just to see what the natural world is like in other parts of the world, but that won't make me and Maizy enjoy it any less. Will it, Maizy?"
A sentient ear of corn--apparently some variety of leshy--pops up from over Olise's shoulder and lets out a high-pitched peep of agreement.
Olise giggles and turns back to the barkeep, "Let's just hope when the Verdant Wheel really gets rolling, they haven't gotten rid of leshy familiars, huh?"
Olise blinks her eyes rapidly. "My goodness, barkeep! What is in this shandy? I'm seeing spots all of a sudden!"
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Just like that, the door slams open and a halfling dressed in bits of at least five distinct, colorful jackets trots in, grabbing the pen off the table and putting a big, black splotch next to her name on the list of Pathfinder agents.
"Can't believe I've got to run allll the way to Cottonseed just to tell people I'm available for a mission! Pity, ever since ol' Flaxseed burned down with so many PC's still in it some time within the past ten years. May Luurg rest in peace, unless he survived, in which case may he rest for eight hours a night and serve me a fruity drink!"
As she rambles, she struts over to a table, hops up into a seat, and starts setting up cards.
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A goblin pops up from behind the bar with a big grin on his face. "A drink you say? Well, sure!" The sleeves of his shirt are rolled to the elbow, and a mountain of black toupee sits precariously above a fake mustache. "Blessings of the Lucky Drunk be upon you!" he proclaims, as he pours a glass of wine from a bottle bearing a hand-scrawled label proclaiming it to be Seedy's Cru.
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A woman dressed in a dark cloak walks in, sits at a table, lowers the hood to reveal a colorful headscarf, and orders a drink.
"Let's see, let's see. Should I get just a serving of ale, no, maybe a good chardonnay? Ehh. Probably not. Umm...." She then stands up and loudly proclaims "I'll have what the halfling is having. No, wait....nevermind. Umm...hmm..."
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A tall, wiry woman dressed for a trip through a jungle or forest path complete with a full satchel and bow slung across her back slips into the front door of the Cottonseed to start wending her way further into the tavern. She pauses a moment to stare at Ludove, then approaches without trying to draw too much of a critical eye from the general crowd.
When she reaches the woman's table she stops and tilts her head, considering the woman. "You seem... slightly familiar. Maybe we've been to the same family reunion." Seedy's presence is really more confusing thanks to his get-up, but she waves a hand his way to get his attention. "Are you serving? Add one more glass if you would."