During the evening, the newest member of the adventuring band was keeping watch over his newly found friends. Unused to the town and all the noise, she was unable to sleep at all, and when it came time for her turn to stay awake, exhaustion took over. As she was drooping her head in that half sleep that comes from extreme exhaustion, a portly fellow entered the room swaying from side to side. The sound of the hat and jacket being dropped by the inebriated man woke the ranger with a start. As she looked on, not knowing what to do, the man came into the room and ungracefully fell into bed with Tai. Poor unsuspecting Tai shot bolt-upright in bed and stared at the large, now drooling, figure laid down next to her. Looking around the room, Tai saw the ranger walking towards her with whispered apologies. The ruckus caused by the man woke the rest of the party who then turned the man over. Deftly avoiding the projectile vomit from the drunken man, Rykasha picked him up and deposited him in the hallway. The ranger went downstairs and received a mop and bucket from the still woken bartender, and went to work cleaning up the mess that she felt responsible for. Nearly nodding off in the mess, Rykasha ordered the ranger to bed while reassuring her that “it happens to the best of us.” Luckily the rest of the evening was uneventful.
As they awoke the next morning, our heroes donned their clothing, and left the majority of the large weapons behind in the lock box. Alton grabbed his backpack with the concealed mace hidden within. They traveled down the stairs and were surprised to see the dark-rim eyed barstaff quickly cleaning tables that were empty, and moving the patrons out of the way to clean the occupied ones. Many patrons were asleep on the table from the day previous, but the staff continued as if this was a daily routine. Among the sleeping men and women were bright eyed patrons eating a breakfast made of large chunks of meat in a thick sauce spiced with something that was unfamiliar.
Realizing that they hadn’t eaten with any regularity, and wanting to start the day off right, our heroes sat down and ordered some breakfast and were presented with some really watered-down ale to drink, but the food was good. While they were seated, Alton and Elwyn were propositioned by an Asian female who offered them a “good time”. Both turned her down. Tai was propositioned upon by a few men who asked how much she cost. Rykasha responded by letting each one know that she wasn’t for sale, and by claiming ownership of Tai.
After about a quarter hour had passed, Tai began to giggle at the smoke rings that Alton was blowing. At first, the giggling was quiet, but shortly grew to the point that Rykasha slapped her hand down on the table very loudly and screamed for everyone to “SHUT UP!” Killian decided to seize the opportunity of a gathered crowd and began to recite his ironic poetry ending with a tag-line of, “What’s up with that?” The gathered crowd thought it to be amusing, but nothing special, but that didn’t stop Killian for continuing his recital. Elwyn sat very quietly looking around at his fellow party members and the people gathering all around him. His rapid glances at the other patrons only caused Rykasha to become more belligerent and yelled at him to stop doing that. Tai burst out in laughter as the words were spoken, and Rykasha left the room yelling at people to get out of her way; Tai followed quickly after her, chuckling all the way.
While all this action and noise was happening all around him, Alton was quietly sitting amongst the chaos simply blowing smoke rings from his ornate pipe.
Elwyn got fed up with his fellow partners looking away each time he tried to make eye contact with them, and began to grow nervous when the patrons around him did the same thing. He went to a barmaid, the barkeeps daughter, and asked her about the alcohol they had consumed. She responded by patting him on the head and said “Sure cutie, you know that you shouldn’t be drinking though. It’s not good for your growth.” She took him back to the stilling chamber of the bar, and showed him how the still functioned making sure to keep her sentences brief and “dumbed down a notch” for the little guy. Elwyn began to grow very irritated at the behavior of the woman, but didn’t let it show. She gave him some samples of the still, and when asked, provided a mixture of hot peppers, spices and some things that Elwyn wasn’t able to identify. The mixture was supposed to “clear up your head a bit”, and so Elwyn drank the disgusting concoction in one gulp. The girl giggled at her newly found little man, and took the glass away so that he wouldn’t hurt himself with it. (sharp edges and so). She then answered his questions in an unconsciously demeaning manner to Elwyn and then he left to find out what was going on.
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