Never mess with a man in a pointed hat!

Dereth
He stands proudly with a stern, gruff aspect to his face, yet his features are soft. He has a thin black beard, to match his wavy hair. His eyes are of a piercing blue. He has a firm physique with well-toned muscles. The clothes he wears begin with soft boots. Falling on those are his black briches lastly, a well cut white Tunic. It is obvious that he takes good pride in his appearence.

Derdrik
A shifty little bugger, hardly four feet in hight, with tough yellow-brown skin, scraggly brown hair, squinty black eyes, and sharp, angular facial features. The fellow's nose is reminiscient of a needle, his ears large and turned in, his mouth wide and filled with grimy little teeth. He has a short, messy beard and moustache.

The fellow's body is long an thin, his arms reaching down to around his knees, his legs comprising about a third of his overall height. Hands are big with long fingers, feet are large with stubby toes. The clothes are best described as rags, covering his torso and thighs, tied at the waist with a bit of rope.

Myles
A large inn keeper with black hair draping about his shoulders and large liquidy brown eyes. A black vest, hugging comfortably about his midsection, is scratched up from drunken customers. His tunic is a dark, almost black, brown which blends with his black pants and vest, giving him a warm and friendly, but serious look. Upon his feet are charcoal grey boots that move heavily across the floor with loud 'thumps.'

~~~

It's a cold, dark day in the Skull Kingdom. The Broken Sword Inn is full, though, with men, trolls, and an occasional gnome sitting around and eating or drinking. The door opens, and a small, shambling figure hobbles in, bent and crooked, with a short beard and yellowish skin. A gnome, it would seem.

The little man sneaks up to the innkeeper. "Gimme an ale, human," he mutters to Myles, who grumbles and walks off to the kitchen.

Dereth, who hasn't had the best of days glances over to the gnome and eyes him up and down. He gazes, possibly with a hatred, grimices, and mumbles something under his breath.

Myles arrives with the ale in one hand and drops the drink onto the bar. "Here ya go," he says, "Now enjoy it, and pay."

Derdrik grabs a small, grubby pouch from a pouch in his clothes. He unties it, hands it to Myles and grabs the ale glass. Then he takes note of the other man looking at him. "What d'you want, human? Got a problem with gnomes?" He grimaces and takes a gulp of ale.

As Derdrik raises his ale to his lips, Dereth grabs his arm and pins it to the bar. "How dare you disrespect me, you FIEND!"

A comotion begins to stir among the other people in the bar and everyone looks over to the burly Dereth, who maintains a fixed gaze at the gnome.

"Get off me, you big oaf!" The gnome deftly slips his arm out of Dereth's grip. "Humans, all a bunch of slobbering idiots!" Derdrik sneers, his wizened face wrinkling and yellowed teeth gleaming. "It takes more than that to pin down a gnome! Go fight a troll, you'll have better luck there." He creature backs off a few paces, leaving the drink on the bar, keeping both eyes on Dereth.

Unbeknownst to Derdrik, Dereth quietly removes a knife from his attire, and conceals it behind his back. He speaks in a heavily intoxicated tone, "Was it not enough to be a gnome? Must you be a fool as well?" He stands up and sways, wiping stale brew from his mouth.

"Me? A fool?" Derdrik scoffs. "I don't know what kind of weakling gnomes you have in the Northland, but I do know that NO ONE calls an Eastlander a fool. And that must make you... no one." The little man laughs in a low, cold voice and turns about. "Any inn that would have you isn't worth visiting." He starts to walk toward the door.

Dereth's face grows red with anger. He runs up to the gnome and collapses on top of him, half out of drunkenness, half out of an attempt to tackle him. The two of them grapple around on the floor for a bit and Dereth manages to pin him with a knee on his stomach and one hand on his neck; the other with the knife poised in a deadly position. "Don't you turn your back on me, you insignificant swine!"

Sweat beads on Dereth's face and his eyes become bloodshot.

Derdrik's face turns red. Well, with the yellow pigment of his skin, it's more of an orange. He attempts to push the man off of him, but Dereth proves too heavy for him. "You drunken idiot, get off of me! Innkeeper, do something about this madman!" Myles simply laughs. Derdrik, in a last-ditch effort, manages to bring up one arm and claws Dereth's face, hoping that it will distract him long enough.

Dereth screams and thrusts himself up and screams in pain; his head knocks against a woman's wine, which falls all over the fresh cuts, leaving Dereth in a state of misery.

Dereth rolls into a ball, helplessly clutching his face with the first tears in eons rolling down his torn complexion.

Seeing that his effort have worked, Derdrik laughs coldly, pushing himself up to his feet in a smooth, quick movement. He sneers, and moves a few steps forward. "That should teach you to mess with gnomes!" And then, as to add insult to injury, he kicks the human in the side and scoffs, "Next time, you won't be so lucky." With these words he drops to all fours and, like a wild beast scampers across the inn's floor toward the door.

1 Month Later

Dereth
You see before you a dark man with a gruff aspect to his face, yet his features are soft. He has a beard, that appears to have been well taken care of in days past, but now it is overgrown and scraggly. His eyes look are scared over and are bloodshot. His physique is still strong, but hasn't been maintained for a supposedly long time. His clothes are wrinkled, his tunic torn. His hair is greasy and you might be able to smell it from across the room. He takes no pride in his appearance.

~~~

The weathered door of the inn creaks open and creaks closed, but no sound comes after aside from the noise of others sitting about and talking. A patter of stealthy feet sounds as a chair moves out from the bar and Derdrik, the gnome, crawls into it and crouches, much as a frog, on the seat. He brings a gnarled hand up and throws a gold coin at the barkeep. "Gimme an ale, human."

Dereth straightens up upon hearing a voice tattooed into his brain. He stands up and steadies himself on the bar. He feels his way over to where the voice came from, and kneels down to one knee. He speaks almost incoherently through the mask of the ale and says, "Excshuse me...I knfoifw you from shhomwhere...do you knofw meee?"

Derdrik grabs a mug of ale from Myles. Then he hears that voice... "What is it, hum..." He turns to see the scarred face beside him and flinches a few inches back and begins to growl. "You. Didn't learn your lesson, did you? Never mess with a gnome, boy." He continues to growl.