Joey’s Musings

Gwen was sitting on a table as she was convincing all the Gnomes and Halflings to keep buying drinks for her. In one corner of the room was the smelliest thing in the world, Stenchfeng who as usual was drinking, eating and making a mess as loudly as possible all by lonesome. Sitting at a shady table along the wall by himself was Razeal; who like the other few tainted she had met was trying to be inconspicuous as possible. At another nearby table was Darren Leclare sitting in clothing which made it very clear which god he venerated above all others. He had pinned down an older of her kind and was questioning him trying to find out all he could in his quest for knowledge.

Suddenly her attention was grabbed by two figures walking into the tavern. Not too many of the bigger races live in the Gnomish city of Grubbelthorpe. Admittedly the few who did came to this tavern since it was the only one tall enough for the bigger races. One was a little taller than the other with blond hair and a longsword hanging off his hip. Not bad looking for a human. The other was a bit more mysterious she thought to herself. He was wearing a black cloak with its hood up and kept tight around his head that she couldn’t see his face and his hands were covered by black gloves. Very unusual clothes for the summer, but mysterious cloaked figures in this tavern were not unusual.

They walked right up to Old Jack, the human owner and barkeep of the tavern. They asked him something and he pointed out Gwen and each of her companions. They followed Jack finger towards each of them, then asked him who the leader was. Gwen spoke up quite loudly to ensure her companions would take notice. “I’m the one you talk to.” Gwen had spent years training her ears to hear that which doesn’t want to be heard. Apparently they didn’t know this, or at least the blond one didn’t. They walked over and Gwen was able to get a closer look at the one with the hood. But she couldn’t see much since he was wearing a veiled mask which effectively kept his face hidden. “We have a job which requires the talents of you and…your party.” Said the blond one.

“Well first I need a drink. Jack, get me a drink…” Stecnhfeng spoke up, “ME TOO!” “And put it on their tab, well his tab.” Said Gwen pointing at the masked figure. “I don’t like people who wear masks and keep their face hidden.” The hooded figure grunted and nodded at Jack. The serving wench brought over a drink and handed it over to Gwen and then brought one over to Stenchfeng as quickly as she could as not to be close to the 7’ tall Half-Orc for more than a few seconds. During this time Razeal was slowly walking around to get a better view of the coming conversation. No one seemed to notice.

“So what is your name?” The blond one spoke up “My name is Thomas.” “And your friend’s name?” “His name is Stephan” Gwen then asked if his friend can speak.

The masked guy finally spoke up in a very deep voice said “yes I can and if this useless banter is done I have a job for you.” Gwen shifted and made a slightly more serious face. “I would like you to retrieve an item for me. “Does it involve stealing …or killing?” Thomas pulled out a small purse and emptied a lot of gems onto the table and Stephan responded “Will that be a problem?” “No, it won…..”And Stenchfeng screamed out “Killing good!”

Darren stood up with his eyes glowing and moved behind Stephan and Thomas and looked them both up and down. Gwen hated when he did that. It didn’t matter which divine power he was tapping into, it was never good for her when he did that. It always meant more work for her and potentially less money in her purse. Stephan pulled out a scroll from his sleeve and unrolled it on the table. It had a color picture of a scepter. It was made of gold with 3 gems on one end and a red gem on the other. The handle had a ring of gems going around it. “So who has this item and where do we find it?” It is currently in the possession of Kerrasslor…” Thomas pulls out a scroll and unrolls it. “he is located in a mountain West of Mount Yetternach.”

“So do we have a deal?” asked Stephan. Darren walked between Stephan and Gwen and tapped the golden end of his quarterstaff up and taps it against Stephan just under the neck. It made a small clank. “What is this?” Darren asked. “It is a family heirloom and is of no importance to you.” He replied. “Does it have anything to do this scepter you want us to look for?”
“It is not a scepter. It is a key and belongs to my family! Now do we have a deal or not?”
“How much does this job pay?” piped up Gwen.

Stephan looked over and nodded towards Thomas and Thomas pulled out a decent sized purse. He opened it up spilled its contents on the table. As its contents fell onto the table Gwen’s eyes opened in amazement which was quickly replaced by her normal greedy eyes when ever so much money was laid out before her. “It pays twenty thousand in gems, ahead of time plus you can keep whatever you find amongst Kerrasslor’s possessions, minus the key.” Said Thomas.

“Yes, we….” Gwen was cut off by Darren. “Before we can agree we would like to see the amulet you are wearing around your neck. You don’t need to even take it off” Stephan and Darren stared each other down, or at least Gwen thought they were. It was hard to tell since Stephan was wearing a mask. Thomas went to shove the gems back into the purse. Gwen quickly rushed out one hand and grabbed his hand while her other hand grabbed the hilt of GWEE. “I wouldn’t. We didn’t say we didn’t have a deal.”

Stephan then said “It’s ok Thomas, I will show them. I will be right back.”Gwen and Thomas both relaxed their arms, Gwen palming one of the gems as she did, and Stephan walked out of the bar. Darren pulled out his journal and began making some sort of notes.

“So where are you and he from?” Gwen asked Thomas.
“We’re from Corinath”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been there. It’s in the north right?”
“That is north of Mount Yetternach isn’t it?”
“Yes it is.”
“Does Stephan ever take that mask off?”
“I’m sure he does, but I have never seen him without it on.”
“Do you know why he wears it?”
“Some sort of deformity that supposedly runs in his family.”

After a minute or two Stephan came back in but now the amulet was hanging outside of shirt and mask. Darren began examining the amulet and Gwen jumped off of the table and onto Darren’s shoulder. She too was staring at the amulet. Darren reached out his hand towards the amulet just a little and looked up at Stephan. “May I?” Stephan grunted and nodded. Slowly Darren reached around the amulet, felt around all the edges and bumps in it. He looked as closely as he could without actually ripping the thing off of the big man’s neck.

Darren and Gwen both slyly glanced over to the shady spot on the far wall where Raziel was sitting and he nodded towards Darren and Gwen. “We have deal” Said Darren as he let go of the amulet and sat down. “May we keep this scroll?” “No, I need it back.” Darren started copying the picture of this scepter like key into his notes. Gwen hopped off of Darren’s shoulder onto the floor. “So how do we get this key to you once we have it?” Gwen asked. “Thomas here will be staying in town. Just bring it to him once you have it.”

Darren finished copying the drawing into his notebook and handed it back to Stephan. Stephan began rolling it up and Darren noticed that there was writing on the back. “Wait a second.” Darren jumped out of his chair and as he did Gwen jumped up onto his shoulders and Stephan stopped rolling up the parchment. “Let me see that parchment again?” Stephan handed it to Darren. He turned it around and started to copy the text. He just two characters down when Stephen took back the parchment and rolled it up and put it up his sleeve. “That has no bearing on your job.”

Stephan took a deep breath and sounding much calmer then he did a second ago. “Thomas our business here is done. Leave them their pay and let us go.”