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"Well, since we will be traveling together, let me give you a little something to use in case your feeling a bit... off."
He hands each of you an appropriately sized hip flask.
"Just a little sip of wine. I made it myself. But if you aren't feeling quite up to snuff, just listen to my song and have yourself a sip."
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"So the guy went into a marriage that probably didn't thrill him." If he's up to something, that could be the motive. Laiashi bids a kiss to the man who had been willing to share his information. "Thanks, love. This helps." She skips out of the bar and rejoins her allies.
* * * * *
The ifrit takes S's flask and sniffs its contents. Smells... fruity. She takes a cautious sip and finds it has a pleasant, but otherwise ordinary, taste. Maybe his "song," like, activates it or something. Who knows with these magic-types, really.
Steinfaust
You find yourself wishing to have arrived earlier then you eventually did. After checking around the local area you had this gut feeling to head to the carriage house where your party would be leaving the next day. On your way there, a young man in his 20's walks past you in traveling clothes (those of a worker and not a noble or adventurer) covering his face and wiping away blood. The young man steps into a bar before you get a chance to talk to him, but something clearly feels off from where he was walking from.
The young man had left a small business and to your shock and surprise, it is the carriage house that you were to meet at noon tomorrow. The place is in a shambles and looks like it had recently been tossed. A young boy about the age of 12 is clearing up some of the hay and the horses still look nervous. Two carriages sit in the stalls to the left hand side of the building and someone had clearly taken a moment or two to disable them given one has a broken axle. The other has several breaks across the side wall and possibly the floor boards. If you did not know better, given your experience... This could have easily been a war hammer that had been used.
You hear a low moaning in the back of the building as someone is clearly moving or working back there. While the place has been recently attacked, nothing seems to have been stolen or even truly damaged except for your possible transportation tomorrow afternoon. All that is truly left is cleanup duty and it looks like those who are present are actively doing just that.
You are torn, given the state of the building, those that could have done this could not be too far away. At the same time you could go into the building and help the business clean up, or wait till morning to see what the damage truly is...
What would you like to do?
Steinfaust and Nino
While moving past the horses and the young boy still cleaning up, his eyes are glued to you two as you move past into the back section of the building. It is very dark back there with only a small candle flicking and a man in his early 40's working with his back to you. You can hear him moaning and he is moving as if injured but working past the pain.
He is moving a few of the boxes stored back there, uncovering something the size of a carriage. With the object being hidden in the shadows, it is hard to tell what it is to be exact.
Before you two have a chance to introduce yourself, the man whips around brandishing a knife. His face has been bruised some, but the real damage looks to be old scars from years past. His thick, brown hair and beard have wisps of gray it in. His steely blue eyes are targeted on you two and he holds himself like a soldier.
The man says to you two with a bruised rasp to his throat.
"If your here with the other group, then I have something to show you now that I am ready for you people. If your not, then glad to make your acquaintance, as you can see, my carriages are out of service right now. My next charges arrive tomorrow, if you need something sooner then I can direct you to another company I trust to get you where you need. Now if you will excuse me?"
You get the impression that the man was clearly military with how he can deliver something like that without making it a sentence till the end. Instead of waiting for an answer, he puts the dagger within hands reach of him in the shadows and goes back to moving boxes out of the way.
The whole event of the situation leave you both stunned for a moment before you gain your wits. Clearly this man has everything in control, even though there was an obvious attack that had happened to his business. When he mentioned charges, you wonder if he was talking of your group or possibly the silent group on the far side of the bar earlier that night.
Steinfaust and Nino
The man finishes moving a box before dusting off his hands and eyes you two. Then he sighs before saying.
"Please forgive me you two, this old warhorse has his blood up due to my other 'charges' that left not only with their money but an example of their 'professional ability'. If you will forgive my temper, I would gladly take a hand in moving these boxes. I need to pull this carriage out of storage behind these boxes for my charges tomorrow. I am to leave by noon and depending on the damage of neglect, I could be pushing things. It is not beyond this old man to be able and gladly willing to pay you two for the help. I am very sorry you see my place of business like this, it has never been like this before..."
The man turns to pick up a box, and then turns back and continues as he stretches out his hand.
"Forgive my manners, I am Urk. The name my mother gave me, and yes, before you ask I am a bastard. Never stopped me from a hard days work, I always figured a name was just a name but if it bothers you two I felt you should know the truth up front. Gentlemen of your sort are sometimes bothered by that.
Just tell me that you two are not with that last group? Those silent folks are nothing but bad news for any mercenary company out there."
The man smiles a sad smile at you two, maybe realizing that he had said too much if you were actually lying about being a part of the previous group.
Steinfaust and Nino
With a set pace you three end up clearly the boxes away from a fine, if not dilapidated carriage within an hour as Urk provides the info he knows in between grunting and carrying boxes.
(To save time and not take away from the rest of the group. I am gonna move this along and just give you an overall... Please feel free to ask questions that we will take as you guys asking during the conversation.)
The other, silent group that signed the contract along with your party came here from what it sounds, minutes after leaving the bar. They started breaking things when one of Urk's helpers tried to get in the way and got beaten to a pulp by the female elf who sounds like the one who had signed the contract along side your group.
After handling the helper, Urk got him out of there before more damage could happen to his young charge. Pulling the young man away, giving him some money and then he sent him to the bar to soothe his pains. (sounding like the guy who walked into the bar and one seen later by others, the young man who was drunk...)
After disabling the carriages, the elf pulled out her contract and openly was asking (in her silent and threatening way) for her half of the money. Being an old sell sword, Urk knew when he should fight and when he should not. So he handed over the money. They as a party left shortly before you two arrived to see the damage. He felt that was best because the 12 year old helping hand was still in the building and while he did not care about some bruises, one of his charges being attacked was enough for one night.
After they left, and his best guess is they went to the docks to ferry a boat to their destination. He quickly adds that no sane individual would take the ferry since you can only go half way, where he has horses set up at set points along the road and a carriage is more then likely faster in the long run...
After the attack he came back here to free this hidden carriage he has not used for several years for reasons... (He will not go into it more) but it is the fastest carriage he knows on the road. He needs to call on an old military friend of his to get it road worthy but he wishes to thank you both for the help in the end and tries to offer 10 gold each. You have saved his honor and the money is a small amount compared to the legacy he can hand down to his helpers when it is there time to inherit the business...
After all this, do you two wish to share that your part of the new group and possibly make him feel worse on such a night? He is clearly the person taking your entire party to your next destination tomorrow afternoon.