Tom dipped his chin against his chest, puffing out his cheeks a little. A couple of the regulars recognised this as a sign of impending vomit and began to raise a cheer, until Tom raised his head again and let out a mighty belch. The onlookers booed.

He shook his head.

"Illiamia...mm...nah, haven't you heard? Her ale tastes...funny...these days. They're saying it's an experiment! I bet she just bought it cheap somewhere though eh? Knocking it off on the punters, hah!"

Tom elbowed the nearest of the group, Jos, vigorously.

"Cheap? Well it wasn't here then, by the sound of things."

Harry was feeling funny.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:23, Sat 06 June 2009.

Jos had halfway expected the prod from Tom.  He'd found that the deeper into his cups that Tom went, the rougher he got.  Which was no real surprise.  And this wasn't the first time that Tom had 'nudged' him either.  Somehow, even when he was that far gone, Tom managed to manuever himself next to Jos whenever he did it.

Probably because Tom had two inches and thirty pounds on Jos.  Where Tom lost at least that much to Harry, Diarmuid was just as likely to skin Tom as the apple he held, and Sikhandyn had convinced the man long ago that he could shrivel Tom's manhood down to the size of a thimble.  The man's sense of self-preservation was uncanny.

Diarmuid finished his apple, put the core in a pouch and cleaned his knife on a rag.

"Well gentlemen, there's work to be done and best we were about it."

Diarmuid was often like this, sounding like some poncy actor on the stage. He rose from his chair, which having seen better days, creaked alarmingly.

"Come on Joss stop rough-housing it with Tom." he added, sword in his hand, though apparently he meant to sheathe it shortly.

"Tom, you know, maybe you want to find yourself a girl?"

Diarmuid grinned boyishly but, as ever, the smile didn't quite reach his eyes.

Harry got up as well, once he had downed his beer. "Well, lads, I think we will have to retire to Sikhandyn's after all, for a spot of planning." He walked past Tom, giving the fellow a gentle pat on his cheek. "Enjoy yourself Tom, there's a good lad."

Sikhandyn bids Tom goodbye, and prepares to lead the group to his home.

Jos, all too happy to escape Tom before he attempted his dreaded headlock, drained the last of his beer, then gathered up his belongings and followed suit with his three companions.  Sikhandyn's place would work just fine for a planning session, then it would be time to start in on the legwork for the job.

Diarmuid sheathed his sword, it sitthed quietly into the scabbard and clicked home, and with his shield on his back, he took a last look around the room. Pulling up his hood against the cold he followed the others out into the misty darkness of Guril-Forsihe.

Blustering a little bit, Tom made half-hearted protests at the implication that his place wasn't good enough. However, he seemed to recognise that the four had business to attend to and let them leave without too much hassle.

Sikhandyn led the way through the quiet, foggy streets of lower Guril-Forsihe. His sense of direction through the shrouded city was almost uncanny; he took turnings that were impossible to distinguish from any other. The fog leant a strange air to the night. It was hard to tell from how far away sounds came. At one moment a group of drunken youths seemed to be some way away, only to emerge seconds later before them. At another, the tapping cane of an old man sounded right in the ears of the group, but it's user was never seen.

One sailor, drunk, leered and cursed briefly at the four friends, before seeing their weapons and the way they walked - he gave them a wide berth after that.

Sikhandyn's house was typical for the area - two storeys, the upper jutting out a few feet. The wooden construction was bowed with age but sturdy, the facade decorated with shingles and shells as was traditional. There were two rooms downstairs, and two up - a standard layout.

The inside was dark and cold, for Sikhandyn could not leave a fire burning in an unattended house.

"Now where did I put it... Oh yes." Sikhandyn said, as he picked up an old oil lamp that had been left inside, in the shadows by the door. The wizard then produced a flint and a piece of steel; a few seconds later, the lamp was lit.

"Follow me, gentlemen. Let us go upstairs, one of the rooms there has a table and some chairs."

Sikhandyn suddenly realized the need to heat the house.

"Before we do, however - help me restart the fire in the chimney."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:44, Sun 07 June 2009.

Diarmuid's eyebrows rose in apparent amusement. "Can't you, I dunno, throw fire at it or something? Flick your fingers for an invisible servitor?" he remarked cooly, something which was characteristically Diarmuid.

Diarmuid could talk about the best way to gut a man in the same cool neutral tone that he would use to talk about peeling an apple. Self contained to the point of making people feel nervous, he regarded the world with an almost anaemic gaze.

"Ahhh... but you see, magic should never be used for petty amusement, my friend." Sikhandyn answered coldly.

He tried to keep his inquisitive eyes riveted on Diarmuid, but the angry look on the wizard's face quickly softened and he suddenly burst into laughter.

"Nay, whom am I kidding; I just do not know the proper spells, Darmuid... And until I do, I have to do things manually - hopefully with some help from my friends." Sikhandyn added with a wink.

Jos took the hint and moved over to the fireplace to help get it started.  He made a pile of small pieces, then whittled a pile of shavings for tinder, placing them in the heart of his fire-to-be.  He borrowed Sikhandyn's flint rather than get his own out, and then knocked the sparks onto the finest tinder he could find.  He blew on them to get the airflow going, and then stood up, returned the flint, and looked to the stairs, saying "That-a-way?"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:37, Mon 08 June 2009.

Sikhandyn nodded.
"Yes. If I remember correctly, there should be a bottle of wine and a few cups upstairs." he answered.

Most people would have flinched at the harsh tone Sinkhandyn used. Diarmuid wasn't one of them. His eyebrows rose in mild amusement, then as Sinkhandyn turned it into a joke Diarmuid half smiled, which in his case was merely a nuance on his usual expression.

Harry had been throughtful all this while. When they were all finally comfortable and ready to discuss plans, he spoke, in a more serious tone than before. "Well, lads. Our theorizing about it being a quick job may have been a bit premature. The silver is Erina and it's her father, old Heiroth, who's gone missing. You know she never married because she's got her wild eye and no man'd take her. And he's as mad as anything. But...he never misses the fair despite all that, and this time he did. He's got his house a couple of days away so we might end up going there to investigate. That'd mean crying off the other jobs."

Jos listened to Harry as replied back: "Well, I think we should stick to it and get to it then.  Finding an ol' crazy bugger should be less dangerous than the other two, and it shouldn't earn us any ire from anyone either.  More 'n likely, the fool just wandered off into the forest and can't find his way home.  And if we can't double up, we can't.  It was just wishful thinking on my part."

Diarmuid is his usual phlegmatic self. He doesn't show much, but somehow manages to give the impressions that lots of sharp little wheels are whirring away inside his head..

"Could be any number of things. Could be Erina is getting tired of being asked to marry and did her old man in. Of course she'd have to go through the motions of having someone look for him."

"Could be someone got tired of waiting for Erina to make up her mind and is holding her old man hostage till a marriage is consumated and the family jewels come down to him."

"Could be any number of things, wrong place wrong time, nobles playing chess again."

"I'd suggest trusting no-one on a job like this. Or on any job for that matter. On something like this we need to do our homework, but not be seen to be doing our homework for that matter".

"I suggest asking around and see who bites. I'm certainly up for planning an ambush."

Sikhandyn nods as Jos mentions his preference for that job. He then listens carefully to Diarmuid's suggestions. The wizard agrees with all his points, but feels the need to express some reservations regarding his last idea.

"I concur, and find your suggestions brilliant... However, if we are planning an ambush, let it not take place here."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:38, Thu 11 June 2009.

"Mebbe we should find out if there will actually be any fighting before we plan an ambush.  Unless you want to ambush me some more ale Diarmuid, I'm all for that.

I reckon we should have someone go and talk to Erina, real quick-like, just to see what she knows.  Maybe the last time she saw him, all that rubbish.  I think that Harry and Diarmuid should go do that.  Sikh and I could go have a drink in a few of the nicer taverns while you two are at that, just to see if there's any news making its way about that we haven't heard yet, eh?"

Jos thought that his first steps were quite acceptable, because the direct line, Erina, and the indirect line, the taverns, were really the only two sources of information that he knew about.

Diarmuid shrugged, apparently not in the least discomfited by, the rejection of his ambush idea.

"It was a suggestion designed for your protection. If it's a noble chess game then there could be black pawns in the inns and other places, but if you feel you can handle any circumstances by yourselves, well that's your call, of course."

Harry grinned at Jos. "Nice plan; you hit the taverns. Well, I'm up for it. Diarmuid, who exactly were you planning on ambushing?"

Diarmuid shook his head..

It's purely a precaution. Dangle an enquiry in noble infested waters and see if anyone bites. Jos and Sikandyn should be aware that asking questions about noble affairs might stir up a world of trouble. All I'm talking about is back up if their names change to bait.

Harry seemed the most familiar with this kind of missions. Sikhandyn therefore decided to keep quiet and see what sensible solution would emerge from the discussion.

With a smile on his face, he offered some more wine to Jos.

"I like the way you think, Diarmuid." This wasn't news to Diarmuid, but he knew, as did the others, that Harry liked to think he had to keep things sweet among the four of them. "I'll go see the lady and see how much she's ctually offering us, then I'll meet you at the usual haunts. I might stop off on the way and make some enquiries of my own at the market and one or two other places."

He grinned, "Then we can go back to Tom's and work on tomorrow's hangover."