Birthright: The Worm's Supper, Chapter Three

[ewancummins]

Dark Road, continued


The party throws weapons and shoots arrows...but only drops one of the two elves. The survivor turns and sprints down the dark side tunnel, not even pausing to pick up a shuttered lantern from the floor.
The Mine Devils chase him, barking and leaping about like a pack of hounds after a fox. But the elf shakes them off and vanishes into the gloom. The scaly dog men hasten to return, strutting and grinning. Some of them make obscene gestures in the direction of the fleeing elf. The others eagerly join Reese cutting throats and looting bodies.

[Varrus the Ethical]

Searchers, the Dark Road.

"Dammit." Roald throws his last dagger at the fleeing elf... and strikes one of the mine-devils square in the belly instead.

The tiny creature looks down at the foot of Tuornen steel stuck in its gut, then lets out a pitiful little squeal and falls to the floor of the cavern.

[steveflam]

Crowley at the Gorgon''s Crown

The door to the Gorgon's Crown opens, admitting an average height man. Though early in the morning, the place is lively with many patrons. The most of them
drunk from the night before. Before Crowley the scene unfolds. The crowd is boisterous, some patrons pushing and shoving each other. Some even fight amongst themselves.
The crowd turns towards the newest patron. Three men, inebriated, rise from their seats and walk towards Crowley, hoping to intimidate him. Mungus grins to himself
as they approach. It is obvious there will be no conversation here. A hush comes over the room as the other patrons watch the scene unfold.

The closest thug takes a drunken swing at Crowley and is met by a counterswing with his belaying pin. The weapon blocks the man and Mungus' fist flies true, breaking the man's nose.
He collapses on the floor, clutching his bloody nose. Mungus wastes no time. Even as the other two move to attack, he attacks first, not to kill. The opponent on his right eats a well
placed pin to the stomach. He doubles over and tumbles to the floor in a heap. The last thug is not so easy and even as Crowley downs the second thug, connects with a solid right
Domenica's bodyguard. Crowley stumbles back, eyeing his opponent. Beckoning with a hand he moves quickly to the attack. Faking a swipe with his right pin, his foe semi blocks his swipe.
Unfortunately for him, the left hand pin comes crashing into his jaw, knocking the man back and sprawling him out on the floor.

Looking around at the rest of the patrons, he is dead serious. "Anyone else think I am an easy mark?" The rest of the patrons return to their drinks and conversation.

"Good."

He walks over to the bar. Addressing the barkeep there. "I'd like a pie for Clyde as well as some ale for Torthur and Clyde. Please advise Torthur that I am here to see both of them.
Tell him I am an associate of Delsenora's."

[ewancummins]

The Gorgon's Crown



The barkeep stares at Crowley for a moment, nods, and says,
"They are in the cellar. You can take the pie down yourself." The barkeep passes Crowley's order to the kitchen.
He pours himself a beer.
" Be careful. Clyde's been grouchy."

[VAN]

Filbert and Dominica

Filbert wakes up early but stays for some time in his room thinking the last night's events. He needs to be more careful, he doesn't trust Milo, he might not be like Terem but for sure he will not be pleased if he finds out his identity. At the same time Filbert wants to find a way to inform Sergeant Gilly about what is happening he is the only that he can trust. Maybe he can pass from the Watch later after his meeting with Dominica.

After taking a good breakfast Filbert heads towars Dominica's residence. He knocks at the door and asks to see her.

[ewancummins]

Filbert and Dominica

Filbert wakes up early but stays for some time in his room thinking the last night's events. He needs to be more careful, he doesn't trust Milo, he might not be like Terem but for sure he will not be pleased if he finds out his identity. At the same time Filbert wants to find a way to inform Sergeant Gilly about what is happening he is the only that he can trust. Maybe he can pass from the Watch later after his meeting with Dominica.

After taking a good breakfast Filbert heads towars Dominica's residence. He knocks at the door and asks to see her.

Gimp, the pale and timid mute who attends Dominica, admits Filbert to the house. He takes the HalfMan's coat, shakes the sleet from its hem, and hangs it on a wall hook.

The mute escorts Filbert down a wood- paneled hallway to a parlor where Domenica sits going over some papers at a side table.
Sunbeams fall through a yellow glass window set in the east wall near the table, combining with the glow from the room's small fireplace to fill the entire space with soft, warm radiance.
The slim, dark haired lady looks up as Filbert crosses the threshold. The scar on her cheek appears pink in this illumination.

[steveflam]

Filbert and Dominica

"Ah, Filbert, good morning to you, sir. I hope this morrow finds you well. I am presuming you are aware of the rioting yestereve? Our warehouse was broken into by some
thugs, but Vollmar took care of them by himself. I spent the evening with Lord Bramm but I do not think he is the one who is responsible for those riots or our
business."

Looking at Gimp "Bring us some refreshments,, tea and biscuits."

[ewancummins]

Filbert and Dominica

"Ah, Filbert, good morning to you, sir. I hope this morrow finds you well. I am presuming you are aware of the rioting yestereve? Our warehouse was broken into by some
thugs, but Vollmar took care of them by himself. I spent the evening with Lord Bramm but I do not think he is the one who is responsible for those riots or our
business."

Looking at Gimp "Bring us some refreshments,, tea and biscuits."

Gimp bows, and then leaves the room.

[alhoon]

Termelan

Termelan frowned. It was too early in the noon and yet the place was packing with refugees. Finishing his warm milk in one short break, Termelan went to order more. He approached the owner and passed him one gold coin.
"That should cover about 100 cups of soup. Start offering soup to the refugees, paid from that coin. Tell them that someone offers them free soup since he thought it would help them cope with the cold and last night's unpleasantness in the eve of the Duke's wedding. Don't tell them the soup is from me.
Make the announcement along with lots of free soup so that they will be in good mood for my Duke's wedding songs. Can't test their effect on people with an empty stomach!" He said with a pleasant smile.

Then Termelan returned to his seat and back to singing.

[ewancummins]

Termelan

Termelan frowned. It was too early in the noon and yet the place was packing with refugees. Finishing his warm milk in one short break, Termelan went to order more. He approached the owner and passed him one gold coin.
"That should cover about 100 cups of soup. Start offering soup to the refugees, paid from that coin. Tell them that someone offers them free soup since he thought it would help them cope with the cold and last night's unpleasantness in the eve of the Duke's wedding. Don't tell them the soup is from me.
Make the announcement along with lots of free soup so that they will be in good mood for my Duke's wedding songs. Can't test their effect on people with an empty stomach!" He said with a pleasant smile.

Then Termelan returned to his seat and back to singing.

The publican, a paunchy man with a fat nose, pockets the gold coin with a smile.
" We will have to refill cups for such a big order, but it's no problem."

People listen in silence as Termelan sings...

[ewancummins]

TERMELAN, continued


The bard's performance draws polite applause and friendly smiles from the people.

The soup, thin and gray as it may be, proves a bigger hit with the crowd than the bard's singing. Hungry guests gulp it down.
In between slurps, many talk about recent events.

[steveflam]

Gorgon's Crown - Crowley, Torthur and Clyde


He nods in thanks for the information on Clyde, and accepts a hot tea while he waits for the Pie and Ale for the two he came to see.

It doesn't take long for the pie and ale to arrive. He pays for them and carries them to the cellar door. A serving wench opens it for him. As he passes through, she pinches his
behind playfully. "Me name's Wendy and you can come see me anytime, good looking." He looks back, and offers a "Thanks" before heading down the stairs.

The smell of Clyde is quite obvious as he descends the stairs to the cellar. He hears a rustling farther in. Click clack of what sounds like nails tapping on the floor.

"Who's it there?," asks a gruff voice from the darkness.

"Torthur? I am Mungus Crowley, an associate of Delsenora's. I brought Pie for Clyde and Ale for the both of you."

He lets the dwarf think about it as he stops at the bottom of the stairs.

"Yer not seeein nuthin, is ya," states Torthur with the observation. He isn't sarcastic by any means."I gots a lantern 'ere. Got some flint?."

"I do. Listen, I am not trying to be rude in any way, but my hands are full. My back pack has some flint. My boss Delsenora trusts you thus so do I. Come take my pack and get the flint
and steel."

Even as he says it, he turns around so Torthur can get into the pack and find the flint and steel. "Lower pocket, right hand side."

He feels the pack moving and a few seconds later, the room brightens from the darkness.

Turning around, he blinks once or twice and finally sees Torthur and Clyde. He takes in both but is not impolite to the dwarf. The wooden leg registers but he does not linger on it one bit.

Clyde eyes him and sniffs the air. His ursine eyes fall to the plate of pie and the bear waddles/walks to Crowley sniffing the whole time. Grunting and growling, he licks his lips.

Crowley is quite nervous but figuring if he puts the plate of pie down, the bear will eat it. He does slowly and stands back. The pie is gone in less than thirty seconds.

The bear sniffs Crowley now, close up. Apparently happy now, he licks Crowley on the face a few times before turning around and waddling/walking to his straw bed and lays down, falling asleep.

"I guess he likes me only cause I gave him pie. Ha ha! Torthur. You can have these two ale tankards."

Handing them over one at a time, he looks around at the dingy cellar the dwarf and bear live in.

Torthur accepts both tankards, but places one near Clyde just the same. He scratches his friend behind the ears and rubs his head before turning around and taking a seat on a stool.

Crowley leans against the wall. "Ok. I am here to ask you everything you can remember about Lofton and the slavers and your time there. Miss Delsenora had a bad time there too and now wishes
to address this child slavery situation head on. Oh, this is for you."

Crowley hands over the rest of the coins.

The dwarf accepts and sighs, getting a forlorn look. He looks down at his leg , good leg, and curses.

Taking a swig from the tankard, he belches and looks at Crowley.

"Awright. Well 'iss like diss, ye see. I rescued a gurl from a barrel. She telled me of dis Reegawn. He some Orog scum bag child lovin Noble who paided ter git little girls or wimmin.
Yer boss meeted that Pirates who done part of the jobs gittin them gurls. Them pirates is dead cept fer that half a man GUMP... er GiMP? Wait, yeah, me tale."

He belches and downs his tankard, tossing it to the back of the room.

"So I finded out about this from this gurl who gone escaped. Me n someone else I trusted but turns out 'e jest liked bein a no backbone an no compunction about backstabbin wit no honor servant ter that cowardly Duke Devlin."

At Devlins name he spits on the ground and slaps his wooden leg, clearly furious at the Duke. He looks at Crowley

"Cuz a tha Duke I aint got no leg, ye see. I ain' pretendin ter unnersand human noblesity but clearly he an his court kin all kiss my stinkin arse after I've gone to shit. An if I ever meet the Duke
in person, he ain' gonner be alive after. I hate cowards, who hide behind their fake titles." He punches the wall, and though it hurts, the wall looks to be dented.

"So I finded out and decide to go save them girls. With help from anudder o me kin, Atli, he gets me n Clyde inside Lofton as fightin bears in some arena. So, we git in da arena where tha bears are. A lot o shit appens after."

He appears to cheer up considerably now. He recounts the escape from the arena, the sneaking to the brothel and going in through the storm cellar. Now he looks to Crowley, smiling.

"I thinks tis awright ter talk about it now. Bin more 'n' a few months since it 'appened. I'm still really ragin after tha Duke an his whatsahoosit title , er Roald. 'E were me friend till I apparently" he accentuates this with his fingers "insulted his orog scum shit ship. Den he was all willin ter kill in defense of some idjit silver spoonfed pup who ain' never worked a day in is life an has had everythin handed ter him. I challenged him ter a duel and Roald came ter is dickships defense. I 'ad no fight wit im so I left that coward an is lackey. Bin ere ever since. So I suppose yer wants me ter continue, huh? "

Crowley smiles. "Sure. I am here to learn what I can. I know of my bosses tale and am now learning yours. Looks like you know quite the bit about this trade. Go on."

[alhoon]

TERMELAN, continued
The soup, thin and gray as it may be, proves a bigger hit with the crowd than the bard's singing.

Termelan isn't particularly pleased or displeased by the lack of enthusiasm. It seems prudent to work on the songs more but that is not uncustomary for a new song.
"Keep sending soup out as new arrivals come until the quota has been spent" he instructs the staff.
He spents a few minutes chatting with refugees here and there, until he returns to his performance.

[steveflam]

Gorgon's Crown - Crowley, Torthur and Clyde

"Awright. Thank yer. So where was I? Yeah, .... Da Bears.... I escaped wit Clyde ana few udder wilder bears into Lofton. Dis started tha Watches run after me. In the end of it all, me visit ter Lofton, More 'n' 50 Watchmen tried ter git me n failed. 50! Reegawn will ne'er live that down. I dunno whutever 'appened ter him, an if 'es still alive. But I kin bet yer one ting, 'E remembers me an tha trouble I caused 'im. ' E knows who Torthur is. Which is more 'n' I kin say fer our asshat Duke."

He pauses, scratching absently at the top of his missing leg.

"So tha bears went on into Lofton an me n CLyde made it ter tha cellar doors of tha brothel like I telled yer. I busted it open and we went in, me n Clyde. Clyde stayed in dat room while I went further inter tha basement. I finded wimmin who was pregnant an one had a baby! Anyways, I tried ter save tha baby an Clyde n I fled tha brothel with the Watch hot on our heels. We killed or knocked out many an we did git caught. Clyde n me getted seprated but I finded im later. The best part o dis wuz I gitted put in jail n tortured by a Toad,,,, HAW!HAW!HAW!... Is face still makes me laff. I e'en telled im but e hadded no funny bone n tortured me. I did escape that jail, an tha bestest part is dat I freed every prisoner an caused a riot in da streets o Lofton. Alla da time I hadded a baby an a dead watchman on me. In da end, the watchman got left in an alley I think an tha baby, Reegawn getted. Not afore I gitted me revenge on 'im. I blew up some black powdered stuff which made a big mess. Dat letted me gert free yet agin an find Clyde. I did an we escaped to tha river an luck be wit us, I finded a boat to row. We eventually made it back to home."


He grins. "Well, dat is when I telled off da Duke whem I gitted back safe." He goes into detail the whole encounter of he, the Duke at the Inn and the afterwards.

When done, he spits on the ground.

"So dats it. I hopes I done help yer n that lady Dels'nora. Thank her fer payin me n Clyde's way fer a bit. I wish I could help yer out there, but wit me peg leg I ain' no good fer travelin."

Crowley listens intently to Torthur's tale. If it werent for the fact that Torthur had one leg and couldn't really do much, Crowley could almost believe that Torthur could be behind a plot to kill
Devlin or ruin his wedding. Given what he has seen of the dwarf and heard him tell, he has serious doubts to this effect.

"Torthur. Thank you for your information. I will relay this information to my boss the lady Delsenora. I am really sorry about your leg and all you have endured since almost a year now.
Remember that the past is the past and the future is the future. I would try to move on as you have done.

Listen. I am going to go now. Stay well, friend dwarf and take care of Clyde and yourself. I will return to see you to report what is going on in this matter. As a sidenote, the patrons upstairs aren't quite adept at fighting. I kicked three of their asses without breaking a sweat. The rest chose to leave me alone."

He chuckles, grinning at the dwarf.

"Ye've got spirit I sees. Ye knows how ter use them weapons at yer hip? Whut is they? Sticks?"

Crowley shakes his head. "No. They are belaying pins. I use them to hurt, not kill. They are made of metal and hurt like fuck when one hits you. Just ask the three men upstairs."

He unsheathes one and hands it to Torthur.

The dwarf holds it in his hand, testing its balance and running a hand over the pin, feeling the weapon.

"It be a nice weapon, laddie. Ye've got two? Ah, ye fight two handed. Jest like I used ter, wit me axes. Mine axes are beaten up, yet Dwarven made. Yer pins are in nice human quality."

He tests the balance and weight of the pin again. This time he inspects the pin closely, eyeing it with a practiced eye.

"The workmanship is awright, but it aint no dwarf who maked this. In me earlier days, I worked a forge an made weapons fer me family back home. This pin is passable but
a dwarf could make ye a better one. Two, if yer be countin tha other one ye got sheathed. If ye like, I kin git yer two nicer made ones. Atli kin git ye them. I bin itchin ter do somethin asides
sit 'ere an tell stories an feel sorry fer meself. Tell 'im I will make em fer ya meself. Ok?"

Crowley nods. "Sure. Okay I am going to take off. I will let my boss know about the weapons. I really appreciate this, Torthur. Take it easy, man."

The man moves away from the wall, looks at Torthur even as the dwarf blows out the light source. Mungus climbs the stairs, satisfied with his morning. It was near lunch and he still had to go to the Three Penny Inn where this Crone was supposed to hang out or had people there working or he or her.

The Inn was still quite boisterous, but as he exited the cellar, noone bothered him. Nodding to the barkeep and waving to Wendy, he left Gorgon's Crown. Three Penny wasn't far, but first he had to see Atli for Torthur. Or did he? He would mention this to the boss and let her speak with this Atli that Torthur spoke of.


Making a steady pace, he heads for the Three Penny boss told him of.

[ewancummins]

TERMELAN, continued
The soup, thin and gray as it may be, proves a bigger hit with the crowd than the bard's singing.

Termelan isn't particularly pleased or displeased by the lack of enthusiasm. It seems prudent to work on the songs more but that is not uncustomary for a new song.
"Keep sending soup out as new arrivals come until the quota has been spent" he instructs the staff.
He spents a few minutes chatting with refugees here and there, until he returns to his performance.

Cycling through singing and conversation, with his ears tuned for interesting stuff,
Termelan picks up some rumors or news items:

The hooded men kidnapped a Riverside beggar boy on the night of the riot. No ones knows why, but there's plenty of speculation. Some people say the boy was taken to be sold to goblins. Others say he wasn't really kidnapped, just taken under escort, because he was actually a spy for the hooded thugs! The boy goes by the name " Cray."

The hooded men tried to rob the counting house of Atli the Dwarf. Six hoods hang on poles outside the place now. No word on what exactly happened to the burglars.

The Duke (Devlin) ordered his personal guards to dress as women. Some sort of court thing...

Heroes saved many people from the hooded men. A knight, a sorceress, and a minstrel.

A local farmer has a standing offer to hire able bodied men to cut timber on his woodlot. Seems the Haesrien (this province) folk think the place is haunted and refuse to work there. Some people from Riverside took the job, but were chased away by specters.

A cobbler's stall, his tools, and his stock were smashed in the riot. Someone, somehow, repaired it all by morning. Magic shoes! Fairies must have done this.

Beer prices have gone up. The sellers claim that much of the brew in the city has spoiled, and that they had to dump it. Some people say this is an excuse to overcharge the public, but others say that they have seen people get sick ( of have become ill themselves) from bad brew.

It's going to be below freezing most of the day! Brrrrrr!

A dead (sleeping? ) lady with a blazing crown of jewels was seen floating down the river the night before the riot, laid out on a boat of ice. Or in a coffin of ice, some say.

Did you know that sourpuss Doerdon ran off with the puppeteer's pretty daughter? Who'd have ever predicted that? I heard they took a keelboat to Endier, just last week.