Sapphire:Sessions:20150411
It's dusk at the Boar's Head. Ahn-Lee warns Chalker, "Don't get in my way" in regards to Jimmy. He plans to set up in the same place he did last night; he's anxious to get out and do what's familiar to him instead of getting tangled up in situations of which he knows little.
Chalker: "You don't think the job has been double-booked?"
Ahn-Lee: "You know Jax better than I do."
Chalker: "Don't run, we'll just chase you."
After Ahn-Lee departs, Chalker gives Rory instructions for dealing with the Dolyenan Embassy and the Old Town buildings. Then Shawna and Chalker talk of dark elves, Jimmy, and Ahn-Lee.
As he struts along the city streets, the muscular dwarf hears sounds of a fistfight. He looks through the open door of a small tavern and sees men of several races -- elves, goblins, humans -- throwing punches and (occasionally) beer mugs. The tavern's bouncers seem content to look on (and place side bets). To one of the bouncers, whose name happens to be Bruce, the dwarf remarks, "How about these amateurs?" Bruce eyes the dwarf and offers "Two silvers if you help out." "Only two?" sneers the dwarf. "How about six?"
Just then a young human breaks the leg off of a table and menaces a goblin with it. The dwarf strides up to the human and suggests, "Why don't we put that table leg down?" Imprudently, the human swings the makeshift club and strikes the dwarf, but the only effect is to make the latter angry. The dwarf's beefy right fist strikes the human in the shoulder, his left slams into his jaw, and the human drops to the floor like the proverbial sack of potatoes.
Seeing this, the barkeep beckons the dwarf over. "How about you stick around for awhile and help keep things under control? I'll give you seven silvers and all you can drink for the next hour." "Done," says the dwarf.
As the dwarf downs his fourth or fifth mug of ale, an elf approaches his table. The dwarf states, "I'm not a bouncer, I'm a professional. I've won more bouts than you can count!" "You look ready for another fight." "Any time, any place." "Are you looking for another job?" "What's the pay?" The elf narrows his eyes thoughtfully. "I'll have to talk to my backer... but I'll offer you a gold piece to stick around." "Two gold and you've got a deal!"
The elf leaves a gold piece on the table and walks off. The dwarf thinks to himself, "You sure don't talk or move like an elf. More like a human, maybe." With a chuckle he pockets the gold piece, guzzles down another mug, and goes off looking for fun elsewhere.
He hears music and singing coming from a large, well-lit bar. The sign proclaims this to be the Green Lantern Tavern. The dwarf maneuvers up to the bar and orders "the best drink in the house." "Then you want the Bajeeter Special," says the big bartender, pouring something into a large tumbler. The dwarf's calloused hand closes around the tumbler; he throws back its contents in one large gulp. Whew, it burns going down... but it sure is good! Big Solly, the bartender, is impressed.
Looking the dwarf over, Chalker too is impressed. He tells the waitress, Tammy, to let Jimmy know that Ambassador Chalker wants to speak to him, and gives her a silver piece to buy another Special for the dwarf.
The dwarf comes over to meet the human who bought him a drink, and offers to buy him a Special in return. The dwarf's name is Yasser, and he comes from Bastell, some 800 miles away. Shawna offers Yasser 3g for guard duty, paying 1g in advance.
Ahn-Lee, from his observation post, realizes that Jimmy is an information broker and reports to someone inside the Green Lantern.
By 9:50pm, Jimmy is alone in the alley. A tall, cloaked man moves toward the alley. Shawna catches two other men, puts them to sleep, then binds and gags them. The cloaked man turns and faces the wall; Jimmy is hiding among some debris. Ahn-Lee positions himself between the man and Jimmy. Chalker sees a young beggar move into the alley and turn with his back to Chalker. Chalker puts a silver knife to his throat.
The cloaked man turns, draws a shortsword, and runs toward Jimmy. Ahn-Lee jumps down, knocking him to the ground and snapping a bone in his left arm. The man utters a cry of pain and swings at Ahn-Lee who dodges away and draws two knives.
Chalker picks up the beggar (hand over mouth, knife at back) and walks down the alley. Jimmy runs toward Chalker. Yasser, who Chalker had posted at the end of the alley, heads into the alley.
The man's sword wounds Ahn-Lee. Chalker moves to intercept Jimmy, who intends to run on past him. Ahn-Lee lunges and stabs the man in the vitals; the latter goes limp.
Yasser yells, "Stop, murderer!" Chalker yells, "Don't kill the murderer!" Yasser: "Why not?"
Jimmy keeps trying to get around Chalker until Chalker throws the beggar at him and they go down in a heap.
Yasser recognizes the dead man as a bouncer at a bar called the Bloody Hammer. Ahn-Lee: "Looks like his shift is over."
Jimmy identifies the beggar as One-Hand Alarel.
The dead man had been 'enhanced' by a powerful mage or perhaps a Second (or Third) Chosen, with Adrenaline Boost and a slight Sanctity. Ahn-Lee searches him and comes up with a pouch containing a few coins, an eating knife, a sword and scabbard, some iron rings bearing carvings.
Chalker slaps One-Hand awake. "Tell me the truth -- who sent you?" "That man paid me to stand in the alley and look." He shows Chalker a pouch filled with coins. "Go stand at that end of the alley, then."
Shawna has dragged the sleepers into the alley. Jimmy: "Tory said that someone would kill one of the Green Lantern bards." He identifies one of the sleepers as a con artist named Rick who usually works the docks. Chalker awakens Rick and sets a knife hovering between his eyes. "I was supposed to trip the kid if he ran." The other sleeper is Sid Taylor, another bouncer from the Bloody Hammer.
Jimmy explains, "I feed info to Little Sal," one of the bartenders at the Green Lantern. He also thinks one of the kids, an eight-year-old named Mark, is an avatar of one of the First Chosen. Shawna takes Jimmy to the Green Lantern and tells the old woman that Jimmy must stay there tonight.
Chalker has Yasser punch the tied-up guy. "You're going to tell me the truth, or I'll have him punch you again." "I'm Dean Baker... I'm here to meet Ellen... her husband's out of town." He has no weapons, only a small knife used as an eating utensil. He doesn't know Rick, but Rick says Dean runs a shop near the Bloody Hammer. Dean recognizes Sid, adding "I sometimes buy from him... he's not a nice man." Chalker fakes a stab with his knife and Dean faints dead away.
Rick describes Sid's associates at the Bloody Hammer, including another bouncer named Vic. "He's either an ex-mercenary or ex-army."
Chalker says to Yasser and Ahn-Lee, "We should go to the Bloody Hammer and have fun! Celebrate!" First, however, Chalker talks to Little Sal at the Green Lantern. Sid was a second-rater who'd been kicked out of the Mercenary Guild. Chalker: "His skills were better than second-rate. He might have killed someone if he'd been a little lucky." For 1sp, Little Sal can make sure he was telling the truth; "Sometimes weird things happen around the Lantern."
. . .
Ahn-Lee picks up the crossbow; its bolt is poisoned.
Chalker tends to Vic, slapping a bar rag on his bleeding butt. Yasser: "Vic, ol' boy, who're you working for?" Vic gestures that he can't hear for the noise, so he and the woman are carried outside to a dark alley. Chalker tries to order Shawna to heal the woman, wiggling his fingers and gesticulating; Shawna gives him a Look and exclaims, "What am I, a servant girl?"
Vic's story is that somebody calling himself Hunter has been hiring people like Vic and his friends to run a distraction for something he has to do in a public place on the 2nd day of next month. "He has some kind of mojo to make us better at what we do. Kid overheard us, we chased him, found out he's part of a gang around the Green Lantern; Sid said he'd handle it. ... Hunter found us here at the Bloody Hammer... has a weird accent, like nobody I ever heard.... He moves smooth, I'd say he was an assassin." (Ahn-Lee knows he's describing a master assassin who's not in his guild; he doesn't know anyone code-named 'Hunter.'") "He gave Sid something about the size of a coin, said it was an emergency contact.... Hunter's over six feet tall (though perhaps his boots made him seem taller than he is), pitch-black hair, chubby face, muscular, wore merc guild leathers, had something in a long sheath in the small of his back, as well as a shortsword... He moved like a trained fighter. Creepy. He paid each of us a gold piece stamped on the front with a picture of a person I didn't recognize, and a fighting eagle on the back. The contact coin was like a miniature box with holes in it. You have to push needles into the holes in a certain order."
Chalker: "If only you'd been this forthcoming ten minutes ago." Vic: "With Wade goading the goblins, we thought we could take you."
Vic asks several times if he can take Bea (the injured woman) away. "She'd tell you the same things I have." Shawna agrees that there's no reason to interrogate the woman. Vic picks up Bea in a fireman's carry and walks away. It is midnight.
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