The Patryn just smiles.
"Eh?" Vaascht grunts at pair. Cocking a hairless eyebrow at the pair even as his off hand loosens his blade in its scabbard with a thumb.
"Guess that's up to the rat. She's the boss."
Evie sighs, then speaks under her breath to the big folk surrounding her. "I'm no basher, but it seems to me if we nick everyone in the Hive who tries to scam us, we'll be at war with half the ward while the other half sleeps."
The pair of thieves take this opportunity to flee down the street disappearing into an old warehouse.
"Well, that was a buzzkill" Vaascht remarks as the thrives depart post haste.
Thinking on it, he ventures,
"The Bleak Cabal might keep some records of barmies, or we could try the Chaosmen. Or, and this is my suggestion, we could just hit every tavern in the Hive, you're buying, right boss?" he finishes with a small smile.
A rare joke.
I must like this little ratfolk
Rinika spins her umbrella around with a loud harrumph.
"I doubt my bleaker mate is in, he never spends much time in one spot and usually he finds me. Count me in for taverns though, I can work with 'em."
Taverns first, then?
Evie nods. "Since you're familiar with the Smoldering Corpse, Akrynn, let's start there. Please lead the way." Still clutching her cloak tight, the small ratwoman makes sure to keep herself in the center of their little crowd as she follows the enigmatic human.
Perfect; I do have supplies to drop of at Fells too.
When you enter the Smoldering Corpse Bar the first thing you notice is a crackling billowing humanoid slowly twisting above an iron grill upon the floor of the bar. It may have once been human but now its skin is charred beyond recognition. Streams of fire form a wreath around the creature's body, and the flames lick at the few remaining pockets of flesh causing them to bubble and run like was down the creature's skeletal frame.
Slowly the creature writhes within the flames, it lives, but does not seem to be aware of anything. If you approach the heat surrounding the creature is incredible. To your surprise the iron grill the creature floats above has sagged and bent from the heat, at first you thought the heat game from the grill but now you realize it emanates from the creature. As you watch flecks of ash drift from the writhing corpse and float slowly to the ceiling.
At the bar a rotund balding man tends bar, Arkynn knows him as Barkis. A pair of what appear to be black scaled gargoyle-like creatures sit sharing a drink at one of the tables. A very old githzerai sits at another table alone, Arkynn knows him as Dak'kon.
Approaching Barkis, Akrynn lays a silver down on the bar.
Afternoon, Barkis. We were wondering if we could pick your brain a bit?
The Patryn whispers, Eliath?
Vaascht raises a lip in a sneer at the sight of the other Githzerai, hand instinctively seeking the hilt of his blade.
"Dak'kon." he spits, but masters his emotions and studiously ignores the old Gith.
I'm on the clock and the new boss doesn't seem too interested in murders to settle old scores. Another time perhaps
Barkis cleans out a dented mug with a stained rag and places it in front of Akrynn he looks pointedly at a list of drinks available, "I have paying customers you know."
List of Drinks
Beer 3 copper
Bitters 4 copper
Mead 4 copper
Water 2 gold
Heartwine 20 gold
Baatorian whiskey 5 silver
Rinika slinks up to the gargoyley creatures and does her level best to get info from them in the best way she knows how. "Hi! I'm new to here, trying to figure things out. Who are you? Where are ya from? You spend a lot of time in the Hive? What do scales feel like? What are you drinking? Do you know a lot of people around here? You look like you probably know people."
Eventually, if they're receptive to the conversation, she'll get around to asking about Eliath.
The black gargoyle-like creatures regard Rinika with a hiss, ”Hello mortal. My name is Tra’klss and my associate here is Ilksss’ra, at least that is what you may call us. You’ll forgive us for not giving you our True Names. We are on leave from the War.” Illksss’ra interrupts with grin, ”It’s more of a skirmish really.” Tra’klss continues, ”Quite. If you’re talking to us you wouldn’t know where we’re from and it’s not terribly important in any case.” Illksss’ra adds, ”We’re drinking the whiskey, it's quite potent. The taste and the heat here makes it almost feel like home.” Tra’klss continues, ”We’re not terribly familiar with the locals I’m afraid. Was there something we can help you with?”
"Oh, well if you're new too, I can help you out finding a tour if you need one. What brings you to Sigil, and how's this war going? Good I hope."
Illksss’ra responds, ”Just taking in the sights. Neither of us have had the opportunity to visit,” it turns to Tra’klss, ”153 years?” Tra’klss nod an affirmative. Illksss’ra continues, ”In any case we don’t need a tout little mortal.”
Illksss’ra answers about the War, ”I imagine we’ll have the whole thing sorted out in a thousand hundred years or so maybe two. I won’t bore you with the details but I expect a promotion or two by that time. Say maybe you could help with that? Not too long ago the Blood War spilled onto Sigil’s streets, completely unavoidable I assure you. The other side left some black cubes behind, perhaps, if you’re interested I mean, you could retrieve one of those cubes and return it to us?” It waves it’s hands dismissively, ”We’d need to establish work contract with some contingencies, all a formality I assure you.”
Akrynn looks down at the silver he just placed on the bar, then back to Barkis.
Beer, please.
He then turns his back to the bar, looking around for anyone that may fit this Eliath's description.
"Black....boxes?" She says with a look of concern. "I dont know about all that Mr. Ilk sir, Mr. Treacle, boxes can be dangerous. What are they? Where can I find them? Do you know what an Eliath is? Is there anything in these boxes? How big are they?" she motions dimensions of a cube approximately 3 ft to a side with another obvious look of mistrust.
"Whiskey." Vaascht grumbles as he sidles up to the bar next to Akrynn and looks to the bartender. "We are looking for a man named Eliath." he goes on to describe the man, "Seen someone like him around? he queries.
Then turning to the rest of the group, get growls and nods towards the other Githzerai at the bar. "That there is Dak'kon. A rather infamous member of my race who managed to cause the loss of an entire city. I'd rather gut him than look at him." he sighs and visibly controls himself, "but he's been around. Might be worth talking to. Just don't ask me to do it."
Even as he finishes he wonders if his more standard interpretation of the language known as common was even understandable to these Sigil inhabitants and the horrible mess of a dialect they commonly use here.
seems like it so far anyway
Barkis pours a beer into Arkynn’s mug and hands him back 7 copper. He then turns to Vaascht while handing him his whiskey and taking his money, "Kindly take any disagreements outside." He then says to both "You should really try the heartwine, imported directly from Curst. I can wrap up a bottle for you for say 100 gold. You could come back in a day or two and give me the chant on its quality.” Dak'kon makes no move to speak or even acknowledge the party.
If it bothered them that Rinika didn’t pronounce their names exactly right, she couldn’t tell. They also don’t seem to notice Rinika’s discomfort at the mention of black boxes. Tra’klss muses, ”Pertinent details would have to be worked out as a part of the contract. Even giving you what information we do have could be considered a Baatezu secret, a non-disclosure agreement is standard practice.” Illksss’ra contributes, ”Ah but we can speculate on what we don’t know, that is the contents. I’m of the opinion that they merely contain war supplies. Why they wouldn’t drop those before the fight I couldn’t say, the Tanar’ri are quite insane you see. Tra’klss thinks they contain souls they’ve captured for who knows what purpose.”
Barkis whispers, "You want to lann your leatherhead friend with the scarves to stop talking to fiends? Before she gets put in the dead-book or worse."
Jek removes the stool next to Vaascht and settles in. ”Are brooding githzerai in every bar?”
Turning to Barkis ”Hopefully you're not sick of this question, but what’s with the burning guy?”
Barkis looks Jek over, "Every piking day cutter. That's Ignus. He used to be a flame-wizard, burned down pieces of the Hive, and got himself scragged by a bunch of other mages." Barkis waits for Jek's order.
Upon entering Evie gives apprehensive glances at the establishment's dubious patrons and decides to stick close to Vaascht and Jek.
"That's Ignus... got himself scragged by a bunch of other mages.
"Yes, Ignus has a portal to the plane of fire in his heart. I wonder, though - did the other mages create it, or simply open a door that was already there?" She looks in wonder at the strange combusting figure for a long moment, then turns her attention to the barkeep. "Of course, that doesn't explain how he ended up in your common room, sir. Did he truly meet his fate here?"
Jek sets two silver on the counter.
"Mead. I assume you have some larger mugs somewhere."
"I'd imagine the bar came later. Free fire fuel. Makes people feel like their problems could be worse. Keeps people from bringing their kids. Barkis, do you even have a kid's menu?"
"Well if it's a contract we're discussing, I'll need to have Findlebrist look over it of course...he's got a much better head for this than me. So what's in it for me if I get you one of these..boxes." She's clearly not completely comfortable with the idea but she's too tempted at the prospect of a good deal to walk away just yet.
Barkis raises an eyebrow while giving Jek two mugs of mead, "Why would I have a kids menu? They can order just the same as anyone else."
The Baatezu say, ”Oh the price is negotiable, money of course is standard, if rather boring, 50 gold. We could owe you a favor of a set value, with some conditions of course. You did say you were looking for someone, we might possibly be able to find this person. Should you return with your council here 3 hours after peak tomorrow we can work out the details.”
Smiling to himself, Akrynn places 2 gold coins in the mug that Barkis is cleaning.
Water, please.
Barkis moves to a keg on the wall and turns a spigot. The clearest water you have ever seen pours from the nozzle into a glass he pulls from a nearby cabinet. It is the purest thing you have ever tasted, a coldness inherent to the water itself, a feeling of air that passes over your tongue and into your stomach, where its coolness calms even Arkynn's raging passion. Barkis comments, "From the heart of the Elemental Plane of Water. Any other water is gonna taste dirty now."
I guessed incorrectly; it seems. Better earn nicely for this job!
Vaascht slams down the rest of his whiskey and looks around.
"Looks like a dry hole, should we move on."
Looking over at the cat girl, "Unless you want to finish the unbelievably bad idea of literally making a deal with a pair of devil's..."
Akrynn savors the water.
This may allow for this Eliath to hear that we are looking for him. Could be he finds us; or digs deeper into his hole.
Upon seeing her companions getting ready to leave and hearing Vaascht's comment, Rinika addresses the devils again. "Sorry but I must be off for now, it was lovely talking to you. I'll certainly be in contact if I do end up finding any of these boxes. Good luck on the whole war thing."
Once she joins back up with the group, she whispers, "Wait, those were devils?! They seemed so polite. And they might be able to find Eliath for us!"
Vaascht grunts, "The bartender said as much, anyway."
"Well thanks for letting me know. So they asked me to find some boxes that their enemies had dropped around here. Does that mean they might be angel-boxes?"
The pair screw up their faces at Vaascht's comment and one says, "I would expect such a racial slur from some prime mortal but here?! Why I'm just aghast." They leave in a huff.
Vaascht simply watches the two devils huff off with his cold eyed state, completely unruffled by their discomfort.
Soon after the party leaves the Smoldering Corpse Bar. It's still cold, and the rain is now coming down in gray sheets. Ahead of you a tall, red-haired man in a battered, brown waistcoat appears, reeling and bounding. His long limbs jig up and down like drunken spiders. As he approaches, you hear him muttering under his breath, "Baphomet, Pazrael, Fraz Urblu... Juiblex... Laogzed, of course, Laogzed... Zuggtmoy!" The Dancing Man suddenly stops and begins screaming, "I tell you. I've seen, I've seen! The flies take your mind!" After that outburst the man starts chanting names again and lurches away.
Evie feels much more comfortable out of the presence of the fearsome devil-soldiers, at least until the arrival of the Dancing Man. She flinches as he begins screaming and wraps her arms around herself, not relaxing again until he stumbles off.
"I assume that man was mad." Looking up into the rain, she steps nearer to Rinika to gain the benefit of her umbrella. "Of course, one would have to be mad to willingly walk around in this weather. How far to the next tavern?"
The barmy ducks out of sight down a distant alley, you hear him scream, "No, get away from me! The flies — urkh!"
If you investigate you find the man dead without a mark on him.
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Rinika regards the madman with mild disinterest. At Evie's mention of the weather, Rinika sticks a paw out into the rain and contemplates the wet paw for a few moments before shrugging. "It's better than no weather." Umbrella in hand, she twirls off down the alleyway in pursuit of a well-used brown waistcoat.
A bemused expression forms on the Patryn's face.
He looks on as the Dancing Man stumbles away.
This realm is so different than where I am from! Although, some have gone mad traversing the Labyrinth.
He turns to Evie.
Do you know why we are looking for the Eliath? It's like looking for a crazy needle in a stack of crazy needles!
"Of course, one would have to be mad to willingly walk around in this weather.
Jek walks to Evie's right side and holds an immense thirty pound shield out over her like a roof.
"It’s not fun, but it's also not unusual when living outdoors. I take it you haven’t?"