Flare moved to the table, but didn't sit, instead leaning against the wall, and hanging off of her Fauchard like an old wizard on a quarterstaff.
"You didn't miss much... but did miss a lot. After we left Hermia, we came here, and when you decided to stay with Adrianna, we headed out to the castle to look for Malcolm. We got there and discovered that it was infested with undead. So we came back to arm ourselves... And ran into the worst hitmen in history. If anyone asks, we killed them all. But the important bit is that someone with money wants to see us. And he isn't smart about asking nicely. Any who, we returned, and dug through the castle fairly slowly. We fought some suits of armor. Got exploded with blood. Fought a Wight, fought a creepy doll thing, avoided an assassin vine, helped a harpy, ran from a spectre, and followed a ghost to a chapel. Malcolm is dead, and his urchin is responsible. Though I don't think we have the whole story." Her grip tightened on the polearm. "Just like everything else, we're never getting the whole story." She inhaled, and exhaled, relaxing her grip on the shaft. "Either way... you're looking a lot better than when we left." she said, as she looked at his new goodies, a hint of envy not even slightly covered.
Aye, I needed something to do while I was waiting.
"Maybe We'll stay next time and you can fight a castle of undead, I need to rest and try to recover from them at least for a while."
"Sounds good to me, I need to let off some steam!"
"We should head off to Riddleport, which seems to be the logical place to start. Not only can we track down Malcolm, but we can also investigate the same person that sent a terrible assortment of hitmen after us. If experience has taught me anything, is that knowledge is power, and its entirely possible that this man can fill in some blanks for us - willingly or otherwise."
As the others talked, Cynthia moved around the bar, looking to get a bit more information about their next destination. It never hurt to multitask and get as many things done as possible while you had the time, and she actually rather disliked being lazy.
The tavern were Malcolm often visits is a favorite hangout for sailors located in Lubbertown. A lawless district were the overlord's gendarmes (closest thing this town has to police) do not venture.
"We should investigate this 'Tibbec's Hole'", Victor remarks quietly, deciding to take over the creation of planes for the group. "In addition, it would be very wise to talk with a particular pirate of some sort, to investigate the bloodhands, the same group that frustrated us. The bloodhands made trouble for the Pirates, so we could gain valuable information or aid from them, while tracking down and eliminating the bloodhand threat allows us to figure out how the gang knows so much about us, and why they so are hostile"
Most people see Riddleport as an anarchic abode of pirates and brigands, but the city has actually become quite a bit more stable in recent years. This is in large part due to the work and leadership of the titular head of Riddleport, the Overlord Gaston Cromarcky. Cromarcky has held the title of Overlord for over three decades, having inherited it in the usual way: by murdering the pirate captain who held it before him. At the beginning of his reign, he used what funds were left over from the previous Overlord to hire land-based mercenaries to maintain law within the city. These men were beholden only to him, and allowed Cromarcky to consolidate quite a bit of power in his office. In the past, Overlords had drawn their muscle from various pirate crews who owed numerous allegiances to their captains and rival criminal gangs.
Cromarcky rules over the city with a light touch and with the consent and help of several powerful figures. When the time comes to choose a new Overlord, he will be drawn from this group. They include Avery Slyeg, who directs most of the major smuggling operations within the city, Varnal "Split Face" Knocmar, a master beggar and pickpocket, Boss Croat, an obese half-orc who controls the trade in illicit substances, Clegg Zincher who runs Zincher's Arena, Elias Tammerhawk, Speaker of the Order of Cyphers, Shorafa Pamodae, the high priestess of the temple of Calistria, and Ziphras, a wererat and gang leader. Elias Tammerhawk is the most likely candidate currently.
The bloodhands are a pirate group hailing from the Shackles a stretch of land and a number of nearby islands in western Garund, directly to the south of the never-ending hurricane known as the Eye of Abendego. Their flagship the hellblood is famous for having taken on 3 Chelaxian navy vessels at once and emerging victorious. While they are certainly strong enough to give trouble to the local pirates they do not have the strength to beat them if they decided to unite and take them seriously. While conflicts between the shackles pirates and pirates from Riddleport have happened in the past they have always been single ships meeting out in the sea.
"It seems that investigating Tibbec's Hole seems a worthy lead, and we should be safe due to the strong dislike of violence at the location. I do think however, that it is worth talking to one of either Avery, Varnal, Boss, Clegg, Elias, Shorafa, or Ziphras to see if any of them have information about the bloodhands. Any or all of them could hold valuable information on this topic, but I suspect Varnal, Shorafa and Ziphras are the best bests, since these three individuals are more likely to have the connections involved within their area of expertise to give us the information we are looking for."
"You seem to know an awful lot about this place and who's in charge." Cynthia mused as Victor talked. How very interesting - though she wasn't going into detail on whatever else she thought about this.
"Well what are we waiting for then, lets get to the Hole!"
Tormod is clearly sick of sitting around and eager to get started.
"I'd suggest Elias, since we worked with him before... but I've got a feeling that he's the only person who knows who we really are, aside from Andrianna... and I doubt she'd go off bragging, when she knows her life, or ours, might be on the line if she did... so there's a good chance he sold the information, i think. Otherwise, how would anyone know who or what we are..?"
"I... some of us need rest. Pretty badly. You can go ahead if anyone else wants to, but I was busy doing the dying thing, for a bit." Flare said. "I can only use my magic so many times per day, in whichever way I opt to use it... and I basically have none left."
"My bad Flare, take all the time you need."
"No problem. I understand that you've been relegated to guard duty while we were away, and that was probably boring. I'm... also probably a bit more frustrated than I would like to be. We should probably liquedate whatever supplies we found in the place, and parcel out however much money is reasonable." she suggested after a moment. "That way we can get some real gear made."
"With Elias as the most likely successor, I'd prefer going to his competition first, since if nothing else they would greatly appreciate the opportunity to boost their standing, and/or weaken the position of Elias. Still, we can always check out the Hole first, and then choose who to ask at a later date."
"I at least need time to regain my spells if we don't have time to heal fully."
The following day, after a bit of stretching, and practicing her craft... Flare was ready to go. She left a delicate-looking dragonfly (made of stone) with the first barmaid to catch her eye as she descended into the tavern below, remarking on how her hair and eyes seemed perfect accents for one another, before slipping away to rejoin whoever had gathered of the group.
"There, much better. Thanks to Thalion, I feel one-hundred-and-ten percent. Wish we had a chance to buy and sell... but I guess we need to get going." she suggested as she headed for the door, with a sort of self-assurance they hadn't seen on her in a while.
Flare would work to find someone to buy the spiritual weapon wand, and once finished would buy a Heavy, Masterwork Steel Shield. Once that's done, she'd entrust the rest of the gold to the party, leaving 1450 gold, for whoever wants to carry it.
That done, since Riven is skipping out on getting her restoration, they head to Hibbec's Hole.
Cynthia followed along with Flare, musing over her options. Maybe she should try her hand at... ah, but that was for the future. For now, they had a job to do, and she was eager to get to it.
You make your way to the bar in question. Some in the crowd give you a stare that makes you a tad uneasy but everyone keeps their distance.
You make to the bar in question without too much trouble.
Two large sailors stand guard at the entrance.
Assuming that the sailors weren't explicitly in the way, she'd head inside (working off of the idea that the bouncers would step in the way if they were going to bounce). There wasn't any sense in making themselves look like they didn't belong there by stopping to chat. If they were in the way, or if they stepped in the way, then they'd get attention.
Tormod Follows behind Flare quietly, he flashes one of the bouncers a wide friendly smile as they pass, assuming they do.
The bouncers let you pass just muttering
Don't cause trouble
No drawing those weapons if you wanna keep all your teeth
When you enter you see about a dozen customers sitting here and there. The room is circular with a series of booth all around with the circular bar placed in the middle. The booths even have curtains which can be closed for privacy. Two of them are currently closed but the rest are open.
There is a small stage on one side and another area on the area side were a few games of dice are being played.
A waitress comes to greet you. She is young and pretty and introduces herself as Sona and asks if you would like a booth and if she can bring you anything.
"We'd definitely like a place to sit if it wouldn't be too much trouble." Flare said, figuring that once they had a table, it'd be harder to get them out efficiently.
"Sona's an interesting name. Pretty. How long have you been waiting tables, Sona?" Flare said, as she waited for the woman to guide them to a table.
"Why thank you, it's been around two years now. You can sit in whatever booth you like so long as it's empty. Should I bring you anything?"
"If you have any cider, that would be lovely. We have a few questions though, if you have some time. We won't mind talking to whoever's available if you don't, I don't think." she gave her a smile.
Victor raises an eyebrow as he brushes past the bouncers on his way past, idling wondering if either of them would know one of his bombs if they saw it, before following Flare into the bar. Quietly deferring to the bard (social graces had never been his strong suit), he casually sweeps his eyes across the people present, relying on his outstanding memory and knowledge to notice any significant individuals if they were there.
"Ooh, cider sounds good." Cynthia mused as she followed Flare inside. She also kept her crossbow folded tightly against her leg - it probably wasn't going to be necessary here, and even if it had been, she honestly wouldn't be shooting people before trying to put them to sleep or something.
"I'll take a cider, I guess." Tormod looks around with delight, pleased with the change of scenery. Anyone who looks closely can see that his muscles are taught like a crouching feline, he is ready ago pounce at a moments notice.
Riven shook her head at the offer of a drink knowing she needed to save her money, while the others talked to the bartender Riven would see what else she could find out.
Sona Lets you get seated and comes back with your drinks.
"Well sorry for saying so but you don't seem like our usual customers. You said you wanted to ask questions? I'll answer that I can but I have to warn you that privacy is very important here and I can't talk about any of our customers."
"Well... that's unfortunate. That's really who we needed to find out about. Like you said, we're not from around here. Our teachers were friends with a guy named Sloane, they used to adventure together. We were told to come here to meet him, and followed his trail to a castle outside of town. He had a boy named Malcolm with him." Flare explained. "We were told they frequented here, when we asked around. So we were kind of hoping to find out what we could, so we could keep tracking him."
Sona seems a bit nervous and she looks towards the dice tables. She shakes her head a bit in a not too subtle matter of telling you over there. She walks away without saying anything else...Still you see the bartender giving her a nasty look.
Flare pretended not to understand, instead giving her a small smile. "So... what do, guys?" she asked, looking to the others. "Sona's not able to tell us anything, obviously."
Privacy, huh? Iiiiiiinteresting. Cynthia idly gazed around the area, then tapped a finger and began speaking quietly. "Would you like me to distract the bartender while the rest of you investigate?" she inquired.