Time to prepare

[Breila]

At the constabulary

Geraldine suppresses a sigh when the inebriated Searos enters her office. Nevertheless, she asks him to sit down. "Master Searos, what can you tell me about the caravan you came into Saltmarsh with?"


At the inn

A young man, dressed in dark clothes, comes into the inn and talks with Tel for a moment, giving him a purse. Then he walks over to the table with the group.
"It has come to the council's ears that you all seem to be willing to help us deal with the problem of the smugglers, which you have helped uncover. Therefore, your meals here at the inn will be covered by the town treasury - within reasonable limits, of course. We have also found a house where you can stay. Its owner, a merchant widow, died a few weeks ago and her heirs all have their own homes, so it is free.

I have the keys here, who would like to follow me to look at it?"

[The_Muffin_Man]

Searos flops into a chair. "The what now?"

[Robbo]

Gunter, trying his best to keep his cool, replies to Brax, "N-not a problem Brax...it wouldn't do to have you sitting in armor for no reason all night, right? It will be nice to actually get to let our guard down for a night or two, you know?"

[Jenara]

Smiling, and not caring if he is looking away, Brax turns her back to him, pulling off the cloth under shirt, and allowing the silk hose to slide down her legs.

"Could you pass me the green dress from my pack?" She asks, turning towards him, her hand on her chest for modesty.

[Kafen]

Reller nods his head in greeting to the new man. Turning to Martin, he says. "I have a place to stay, but I can meet you folks at the house to talk about things."

[Breila]

At the constabulary

Geraldine frowns slightly, then her face becomes impassive again and she clarifies: "You came into Saltmarsh, some time ago, with a caravan led by a man called Eret. Please tell me about it."

[LittleLuna]

"Er..." Vee looks at Drake confused, trying to understand the meanig of his words... The deeper sense of mungos, hat boxes and iron... iron what?
The Young men interruptes her decryption and after he has gone she decides to ignore all the things she don't understand and just answer to the last bit...
"I can sing you some of my lullabys and tell you the storys of the warriors my master told me- but I don't kow anything about thumb-wrestle"
"Do we want to continue the discussion on the way to the house?" Vee suggests

[Stik]

"By all means, let us continue this conversation at the house. And I would certainly be willing to explain thumb-wrestling to you on the walk there."

"A generous offer, my excellent good friend. I would be appreciative were you to convey my gratitude back to the Council." Martin rises to his feet and companionably pulls a chair out at their table and gestures for the man to have a seat. "Please, join us for a beverage. I recommend the ale, but if you feel your duties preclude you imbibing alcohol, at least have a glass of cider."

Martin has no intention of allowing the man to sit. If the man takes the offered seat, Martin will move the chair out of place as he sits down, hopefully causing the man to fall.

If all goes to plan, it will look a bit like this (from 0:28 - 0:40) but with a plush duck in hand rather than a knife, at which point Martin will say: "Pretty slick. You find the group separated, and you take a few us away to this empty house, where you have men lying in wait to kill us, just like they did to Signore Tomaso deSimone in Bravi Ragazzi
"So, tell me: who really sent you?"

[LittleLuna]

"Oops" Vee Is surprised seeing the joung men on the floor, she looks at him, and at Martin, and back, muttering to herself "Lesson 4: never trust anyone- did you forget all little miss Veeleyana?"
With interest she whatches the 'conversation' going on, her right hand is just by chance near her daggers.

(ooc: neither me nor Breila can whatch the video (the flash player needs an Update which I'm not allowed to do))

[Stik]

[OOC] The video was the scene from The Bodyguard, where Kevin Costner, Whitney Houston's new professional bodyguard, is attacked by her prior bodyguard, played by Mike Starr.
Costner is more intent on showing Starr that he is the better fighter than on hurting him, so he trips Starr onto his back and stands a chair over him, then sits in the chair cowboy style, basically pinning Starr to the ground, looking down over the chairback at the Starr's face, with a knife in his hand.
Martin, being Martin, would rather threaten the man with the plush duck than with a knife.[/OOC]

[Breila]

Tel and Nezza come running, and the three old men leave their corner table to get a better look.

Nezza looks at Martin. "You may think this is funny, Drake, but we don't" she reprimands him. "Let him get up!" Indeed, everyone looks quite angry, and the goodwill Martin has achieved with his networking seems compromised. Only one of the old men sounds a little amused when he asks "What's our Master Council Clerk done to you?"


(OOC @Stik: You've concentrated on meeting the "commom folk" and the "honourables", this quiet young man in his back office will probably have escaped your attention. Since you didn't ask if you had seen him somewhere before acting, I thought you had not, for a bit of GM fun.)

[Stik]

[OOC] Now I'm really glad Martin pulled out a plush duck instead of a dagger.[/OOC]

"Oh, this is not fun and games. This is...wait. You, uh, you all know this man. Master Clerk to the Town Council? Well, that changes things."

Martin quickly springs to his feet and takes the chair away, then proceeds to help the man up and dust him off. "Hmmmm. Hey. Welllll. Wha'd'ya know? What you must think of me, eh? Listen, I am terribly sorry about all of this, and I do hope you won't hold it against me. Master Clerk to the Town Council, eh? Sounds like a very very responsible position, one they would only assign to a man of considerable patience and maturity. How about you let me make it up to you? Let me buy you a drink. And perhaps a meal? And maybe get your jacket laundered for you. What do you say? Hey, folks, he's all right. No harm done. Just a bit of a misunderstanding. Thought he was an assassin. But he's fine now."

It's all damage control at this point, and Martin is putting every ounce of charm and personality he can muster into it, even cracking a joke or two if it will help.

[The_Muffin_Man]

Searos makes a face at the name Eret. "Now, that guy was a right proper ass. Seriously, you'd ask him for a drink and what he gave you may as well have been water. Water! Man cannot live on water. Its impossible. I watched Muscles try and be helpful a few times but they didn't seem too keen on accepting his help. We weren't paid for that sort of thing so I wasn't about to bother. Maybe its where they kept the booze. Tell ya what else, I tried to get some dice going a few times. Even tried with my regular dice, not my lucky dice. Guess what? No dice. Everyone was so tight-fisted with their coin and their booze that it made the trip way longer than I would have liked. Miserable experience really. Hey, I don't suppose you're up for a game and a pint, ya feel me?"

[Breila]

At the constabulary

"Thank you for the information, it was most useful" Geraldine tells Searos with a smile. "And no, I don't gamble, so keep your dice in your pocket. But I might join you for a pint or two when I'm done here, after lunch." She gets up and opens the door for Searos. "When you go back, will you please tell the others who came with you, I think they call themselves Kim and Brax, that I expect them here?" She follows the man out of the door, closes it and goes over to the militiamen on duty.


At the inn

Martin's show of excuses calms the atmosphere a lot, and even the clerk concedes "Well, we have lived very peaceful times here, perhaps it is good that someone from outside tells us to be a little more suspicious. Really, the house is offered for your use by the council, and the most dangerous beings you may find inside are perhaps some rats who found it comfortable because it has been uninhabited for a few months now."

[Stik]

"So, no hard feelings, then. Excellent. Excellent. Then let us gather our companions and go look at this house, then, shall we? The Big Guy and Her Radiance should be down shortly, I expect. It's been, what, ten, twelve minutes since they went up there?

"Tell me your name, master clerk, and tell me what it takes to become a Master Clerk. Nessa, darling, bring this man a drink, please. Something top shelf."