Standing on the stoop of the tavern, Tindertwig (and Dirtbag) frown. Both look up at the sign and sigh. Tindertwig fake kicks something. Dirtbag does the same from a top the little green goblin's head.
Ouch!
Rippit!, comes an apologetic croak from the toad.
Entering the tavern, the little green goblin hands over his weapons. His grin reaching his big ears.
Hellos! Wees newest travlings from fars away. Yous gits foods?
All weapons needed to be handed in, very well. If that is what they wished
"We thank you for our hospitality, and I do like the sound of honey. I will hae what is offered" he said in a friendly tone, well as friendly as a kobold could make it sound
Grimlak reluctantly handed his weapons over and muttered, "Hope I don't be regreting this."
Having navigated the door man Reynalt makes sure his limp is more exaggerated then it had been.
"Ahh stew, that sounds quite lovely now dosn't it."
HE scans the room for anyone sounding like who they are looking for
but realizes his eyes are not what they once were.
Liam was mesmerized by all the sights, but at the same time He tries to look confident and not out of place.
arriving at the tavern, Liam seems reluctant to hand over his sword, but eventually does so. what about Duke? he asks patting him on the head.
The young man sighed about the question about Duke, but he made a motion with his hand for you to go ahead and enter ...with the dog.
"Blasted adventurer's I swear, Da attracts more and more of them each passing week it seems."
He muttered as you all entered and ordered. The food was very good, certainly not the best feast you have ever had but good, you could see why the word about this place was so high. The stew was hot and thick, and the round cakes pratically steamed as they were brought to the table just the right amount of sweetness inside from clearly being made with honey. The fish was flakey ....but just the right amount.
It was midway through the meal when shouting was heard from the back of the little tavern/inn.
Zardu instinctively turns his head in the direction of the noise straining to hear it more clearly.
"Yes, yes. Quite the place even the food is passable."
The sloppy sounds of smacking and spitting (accompanied by the occassional belch) wafe up from beneath the company's table.
Tiny piles (growing bigger by the minute) of fish bones causally litter the floor.
Dis bees da bestest jobs!
Rippit!, comes a slightly muffled croak from Dirtbag.
Grimlak greedily devoured the fine meal when his attention is interrupted by shouting in the back of the tavern. with a dirty glare towards the commotion he snarls, "I be tryin to eat here."
Liam was enjoying the meal, he has not eaten like this on a steady bases for quite a while. every so often tossing some scraps to Duke.
Duke on the other-hand, was enjoying a free feast, wandering among the nearby tables sniffing about for treats left on the floor.
The noise of what sounds to be an arguement is clearly coming from behind the business, and one of the sets of voices is realtively high pitched and has a strange accent to it, almost like its not their first or primary language.
You all catch something from a dangerous sounding voice calling out about "heathens" and "creatures of chaos" Where the higher pitched voices are trying to sound placating and referring to their permit's to be here and something about no harm.
The happy little goblin continues to gorge!
Fed up the interruption of his meal the dwarf storms out the back door ready to confront those responsible, First goo meal I've had in weeks and some fools interrupt my digestion with this racket.
Zardu heads off with Grimlak abandoning his meal for now.
As the others head off Ryenalt glances up and shrugs, mumbling to himself.
"Ahh.. nature calls it would seem" he glances at the goblin and nods. At least some of us know how to enjoy a meal.
A strange sight awaited those whom chose to investigate. Three men in robes, symbols dangling from their chests were shaking their fists at and getting clearly riled up over goblin height ugly little blue skinned screatures The five much smaller creatures were mostly cringing and you could see a portly fellow with a wooden leg, a mangled hand and an eyepatch trying to stay between the two groups trying to calm things down... and clearly failing.
Grimlak eyed the three men's holy symbols and believes he recognizes them.
Zardu looks at the men and little blue people before turning to the men "So what's going on here? There's a lot of noise being made." Zardu tries to sound pleasant and clearly doesn't understand the finer points of what is going on here but it looks like they've spotted the little blue friends.
Climbing up from floor to table, the little goblin (toad firmly on head and mouth stuffed with fish) looks confused.
Where bees company?
"No need for this disturbance my good fellows, they clearly do not intend to do you harm, let us settle this peacefully, shall we?" Nizvit joins the man with the eye patch to try and help the situation
With a stuffed mouth, the curious goblin heads outside.
Tindertwig tosses a bone at Ryenalt to get his attention.
Spluttering a bit.
"Well I.. where are you going? I was just enjoying myself."
Stuffing one more bit into his mouth he follows the goblin muttering with his mouth full.
"Throw a bone at an old man..
When he gets a view he will pause. "Well now what is all this about people?"
"Now just hang on.. everyone calm down what is the problem."
Grimlak angrily cries, "Vicar's your excessive ramblings has interrupted me meal and interfered with me digestion. Leave those creatures alone and be on your way so I can go back to enjoying me meal."
"Nobody likes pushy missionaries and ye are making an awful lot of racket."
"Ahh. Dispiles of Iomedae. What *chough* what is the problem tonight? Some blue fellows?"
The little goblin yawns. Looking at the bunch of longshanks disturbing such a fine feast was criminal.
Tindertwig (and Dirtbag) jump off the porch. The curious goblin begins looking for their horses...
Clearing his throat and blusting a little before speaking.
"Now lets all calm down shall we. I am old enough to know that escalating a situation is not going to end well. You, blue fellows, come over here so I can see you better and you folks calm down, clearly I know what I am doing."
Zardu points at Ryenalt, the old man was being unusually convincing.
The stable was well built and smelt mostly of hay with only a minor hint of horse manure. Most of the horses within lazily munched on whatever lay in their troughs though instanly Tindertwig you became aware of the largest scariest looking dark horse you have ever seen in your life. Its large brown eye noticed you instantly creeping in and it stamped its hoofs, heavily snorting at you as if it was giving you a warning to watch your step little goblin.
Nothing within the stables gave you any clue which horses belonged to the clerical looking fellows if any.
After a long moment of glaring at iomedaen zealots the little blue men hurry over to your group clearly willing to hide behind you if need be. The lead zealot glared at you all before sniffing and motioning to his fellows.
"Mark my words we will be back and if the guard has any sense they will be with us to arrest you little blue pests! We are not fooled!"
They turned and stalked off, away from the stables heading torwards the main road heading further into the town.
With the threat of the zealots gone, the biggest of the small blue men straightened himself up and cleared his throat.
"You have our thanks Longshanks. Not many of your kind would have stood up for us."
He began his voice high pitched and very scratchy but his common was clear enough.
"Well I saw no need for them to be so aggressive. You clearly were not causing them harm it is a shame that they did not stay to talk things though a bit but such is the folly of youth, all bluster and no thought."
The little goblin steps softly around the stables, keeping one eye on the mean, scary dark horse-demon, and the other looking for anything interesting.
Grimlak grimly eyed the iomedaens as they left and warns the little blue men, "I be thinkin' that they be more then empty threats. I'd be watchin' ye backs if be ye."
Zardu considered Grimlak's statement for a moment before clearing his throat. "They weren't exactly very welcoming were they but Grimlak may be right they seem pretty riled up. Would ye be willing to let us know your side of the story?"
The taller of the trio cleared his throat and squared his shoulders for a moment half leaning to watch the zealots leave. Once it was clear they were beyond earshot he began to speak.
"My name is Hursk. The hills we come from is now ruled by a half orc warleader Turrosh Mak. He is very powerful, and is respected and feared by many of the different tribes in the region. Most of the outside world doesnt know of him yet. Orcs are the dominant tribes now, a lot of the smaller tribes, be they goblin, kobold, hobgoblin or well xvarts like us are being used as disposible labor or little more than slaves... My tribe managed to sneak us out, and we have come to this city to encourage the people to arms against the warlord,to once again make our lands free for any tribe, and to perhaps bolster the faithful of our god Raxivort.
We understand that if your people attacked the warlords forces, you probably wouldnt be doing it to help us, but surely your folk would prefer it the old ways, with little tribes scattered in small places, instead of armies everywhere. We plan to accomplish these tasks by using our affinity with rats to clean out some of the infested buildings in the city, making your sewers cleaner and using that fame and goodwill from such acts to increase awareness of our cause and maybe push the leaders of this city into some sort of action.
We don't wish you any harm, and couldnt harm you really if we tried--my tribe is nearly a month away by foot and have no interest in coming here to the city."
Inside the barn Tindertwig you spot lots of rope, all sorts of straps and buckles, hay... hay everywhere. There are several goblin sized blankets hanging along the walls, large pokey implements probably too large for you to use properly. There is also a chest laying against the wall but it seems to be locked.
"Why did those men start getting upset with you? What did you say to them or did they just see you and get upset. I think what you are doing is very sensible and would like to hear more about Raxivort and this half orc warlord. I am a priest of Saranrae, finding out about other religions is very interested to me. This Turrosh Mak does sound like someone to be concerned about. My own religion is not too prominent in this area so I have little influence with people here."
Tindertwig smiles. The little green goblin reaching for his tools, as he examines the chest for traps.
Stupud longshanks!
Rippit!
"Well now, that is a good plan. Making yourself useful and therefor liked is never a bad plan. Why it is kind of how I have lived mylife."
He chuckles.
"Still, as you say, armies on the boarder or bad and should be held in check. Armies bring war which only later are interesting. During them, not so interesting. I don't think any of use have much influence though I would be happy to help."
"We be just common mercenaries nothing we can be doin' about ye orc problem," Grimlak shrugged and turned to go back into the tavern.
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"Why did those men start getting upset with you? What did you say to them or did they just see you and get upset. I think what you are doing is very sensible and would like to hear more about Raxivort and this half orc warlord. I am a priest of Saranrae, finding out about other religions is very interested to me. This Turrosh Mak does sound like someone to be concerned about. My own religion is not too prominent in this area so I have little influence with people here."
The little blue skinned creature spoke with you all for several minutes about His patron god, Raxivort and it was clear that well the dogma of the religion wasnt exactly Admirable. Raxivort teaches that might makes right. If xvarts are not strong enough to prevail, the proper course of action is to retreat, and return with reinforcements. He advises patience, and advocates any means—lying, cheating, theft, enslavement—to survive. With patience, one can still triumph in the end. The little blue creature shrugged at the end.
"I must go, before those mean ones return to the area and try and follow me to our hidey hole. Thank you again for your aid."
He offered heading with the others torwards the east.
Inside the chest was a veritable treasure of shiny metal.... if one considered nails and horseshoes treasure. There was also a heavy hammer... not the kind used for war but one used for shoeing horses within.
Keeping his voice low "That took a dark turn, maybe they can still contribute here. While that warlord has them worried it seems like they wont be bothering the people here too much but it might be a good idea for one of us to follow them back to their hidey hole."