Karon looks at the ditsy elf when she seems to be seriously considering using him as bait with a look of disappointment on his face. "I was trying to make a joke. I'm not really interested in playing bait. Not unless we know a little more about what might show up to take that bait," he says, sounding like he's actually thinking about it as he finishes his thought.

"Livestock of some sort would probably be the best bait," Lathan suggests. "But now that I think about it, how exactly do you trap a giant? And I don't think we're capable of taking on a family of giants by ourselves."

He scratches his chin and muses, "Don't dragons tend to be pretty territorial? Perhaps we could find a way to convince this dragon that the giants are intruding on its territory... Of course, then we still have the dragon to worry about..." He frowns. "Anyone else have any ideas?"

Lucien shakes his head at Karon when he mentions the bait idea, but considers Lathan's suggestion a little more. "It also means that we have to find the dragon. We have even less of an idea about it's location than the giants. Still, it might be easier to lure out the dragon with some livestock and then follow it back to it's lair. Though to be honest, don't relish the idea of trying to convince a dragon much more than I do fighting one." He shrugs as though that is his best suggestion.

Seirye shook her head sadly. Once the idea of using Karon as bait was dismissed she came to the conclusion that she just didn't have enough information on which to base any kind of hypothesis. She didn't want to say anything because this felt like an affront to her. Surely she should have seen something, remembered some obscure piece of information, been able to tie two things together but she realised that she just didn't know enough... a startling revelation that confirmed for her that this was the right thing to be doing at this point in her life because she was going to learn so much.

"I didn't necessarily mean we should parlay with the dragon," Lathan clarifies. "I have a feeling that would end badly for us. I meant we could find a way to make it think that the giants are a threat to its territory. I don't know...

"What about the lizardmen? How do you think they fit into the whole equation?"

Arixos walked down the stairs of the inn, talking idly to Viola as he did. "I hope it's lamb for dinner tonight." He commented as he found a table in the middle of the inn. "It was good last time we had it here. Especially with some good ale to wash it down." He sat down, looking around the room at the patrons, nodding to a few he recognised from nights before. He looked with interest at the new arrivals, nodding at them to Viola to make sure she had seen them. "What do you think they are here for?"

"Yes indeed! The lamb was positively delightful!"

Viola skips down the steps, two at a time, following behind the great dragonborn. The bracelet on her arm makes a tinkling sound with every step she takes.

As Arixos turns to Viola, he finds that she was already walking towards the new visitors, arms outstretched in greetings. She smiles, revealing a set of pearly white teeth.

"Good evening friends! My name is Viola Knight, but you can call me Viola, or Vi! What brings you to Thurmasters today?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:05, Wed 06 Dec 2017.

Seirye didn't really turn around towards Viola. She'd been about to reply to Lathan when the young woman and her companion made their entrance. She momentarily turned her head towards Viola but without really catching her eye. None of the locals ever appeared this cheerful. New staff at the inn maybe?

"We're back from taking a look at your local marshes," she stated politely, "now, if it's no too much bother could we have a round of drinks please, white wine if you have it and..." She glanced around the table at her weary companions. Investigating the marshes had not gone as expected and she assumed that, like her, they would be dirty, tired and a little hungry. "A couple of loaves, butter, cheese, a pie if you have any, and enough meat off whatever you've got turning on your spit please? Did your fellow say there was lamb? That would do nicely thank you."

She turned back to Lathan.

"It's their lands and they appeared nervous. Maybe they didn't think they could win if an open conflict in arms had started but... Another thought has crossed my mind though Lathan. It wouldn't be beyond them to orchestrate these rumours. Now, although I am no expert in that aspect of the arcane I had a teacher who was always trying to drill into me that seeing, hearing, and indeed every other sense, is not believing. Glamors of the mind can deceive the weak-minded with images or sounds that have no basis in reality. The giants and the dragon may not even be real. Do we think they might simply be conjurations by the Lizard-folk to keep others away?"

The large half-orc softly shakes his head as Seirye tries to place an order for food and drink with the travelers. He winks at them, and once the ditsy elf has resumed her conversation with the other elves he pulls the new elf (no, half-elf, it seems) and the strange dragon-person to the side. "Sorry about that. She isn't from around here. Seems to think you are staff. I take it you aren't? I'm Karon, by the way. My friends and I stop by here regularly."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:15, Wed 06 Dec 2017.

Lucien, like Karon, intuits that the dragonborn and red haired half-elf probably don't actually work at the inn. "They're entirely too colorful to be residents of Thurmaster, I agree." The elf is back to wearing his winning smile and speaking in the light trill of his alter ego. The serious and contemplative expression that he has worn since the party turned back is gone without a trace.

Inclining his head to Viola, Lucien answers her question. "We have just returned from a little jaunt out to the swamp actually." He continues to smile, but offers no further details about the group's doings. Instead, he extends a hand. "I'm Seliar Silversong. How do you do?"

"That's an interesting theory, Seirye," Lathan replies, casting a side glance at the newcomers but largely ignoring them. "I don't know enough about lizardmen to know if they are capable of that kind of deception, though. Nor do I see why they would need to resort to such tactics. From what we've gathered, it seems no one wants to go into the Shrieken Mire if they don't have to, so the lizardmen shouldn't have much to worry about.

"Still, it's worth keeping it in mind. There are a lot of forces at play in Haranshire, it seems, and things are rarely as simple as they first appear."

Viola looks a little crestfallen at getting mistaken for the service staff, but the expression on her face is replaced by another wide grin as Karon and Seliar respond to her. Grasping Seliar's hand with both of her hands, she shakes it vigorously.

"Adventurers? That sounds exciting! What did you see or do in the swamp?"

When Lucien replied to the woman and used a name that Seirye wasn't familiar with she was rapidly drawn back into the present context. Seliar? Didn't he use that name that when we met the Orc. Having apparently blundered already, and not wanting to exacerbate the situation by saying something untoward, Seirye bit her tongue at Viola's question and said nothing. Her cheeks puffed a little and her lips appeared glued together.

She managed to distract herself for a moment after Lathan spoke and nodded in acknowledgement, her lips still closed. He makes a good point ... but what are those distinctly non-simple things? She sighed a little as lips mouth opened a touch and her mind drifted off for a moment as she continued to think about the nature of the problem of the mire.

With a wry smile, Lucien gives a bit of a shrug. "Not much I'm afraid. Just some lizardfolk and neither hide nor hair of any giants. I don't suppose you have happened to run into any recently?" Rather than stand in the middle of the common room, the elf leads the way to the group's customary table and takes his own usual seat against the wall. He gestures for the newcomers to have a seat.

Lathan takes a seat at the table near Lucien. He says nothing to Arixos or Viola but watches them with suspicion as he waits for their food to arrive.

Arixos pulls up a chair at the table, introducing himself as everyone went around introducing themselves. "Not that I am aware of. I suppose I would be quite aware of it if it happened though." He said with a grin. "Any particular reason you are looking for them?" He asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Lucien makes a show of sizing up the newcomers from his seat across the table. He reclines lazily against the wall. "Well there's money in it if they can be found. That's the main reason. Rumor has it that they've been causing trouble and the local lord would like it dealt with." He studies the dragonborn and half-elf to see how they react to this news.

"What kind of trouble?"

Viola pulled up a chair and sat next to Arixios, staring intently at Lucien. She was a good listener when she needed to be, especially when there was a tale or story to be told.

"They killed a couple local fishermen near the Shrieken Mire," Lathan replies, leaning forward suddenly.

Somewhere in the corner of the tavern, a large man is sitting hunched over the table, absent-mindedly poking with a fork at a half-empty plate of sausages and cheese; a few more plates lay neatly in a pile at the edge of the bench. The coif of his chainmail is pulled down like an uncomfortably tight hood, revealing his ashen brown short curls and his chubby face, which is painted with a morose expression even as he impales and brings a morsel to his lips, chewing it very thoroughly.

His ears, finely tuned to detecting signs of trouble, pick up some of the words spoken within the group taking up the seats a couple tables away. 'Trouble'. 'Killed'. For just a few seconds, his thick fingers tighten around the cutlery so much his hands tremble. He then sets down the knife and the fork, pushes his chair away a few inches... then grabs his fork again and shovels the leftover food into his mouth, dabbing at his lips daintily with a dark blue handkerchief he'd pulled out of a pouch at his belt; a pouch sitting right next to a mace with perfectly clean and sharp-looking flanges. To his other hip is strapped a dangerous-looking morningstar, its head dark and studded with mean spikes.

"Excuse me," he says, his voice only holding the slightest hint of strain, after he makes his way over to the group, his eyes shifting focus from Lathan - the last one to speak - to each of the group members in turn. "Am I mistaken in assuming that you may be... Adventuring, with a potential to get into... Battle." His words are slow and seem to be weighed and carefully chosen. "If by any chance you needed the services of a... Cleric. I would be... Delighted... To accompany you." Sweat has started to bead on his forehead, but he manages a well-practiced polite smile.

Lucien eyes the newest of the newcomers with a critical eye. His expression betrays only a hint of doubt, or perhaps incredulity for this cleric. "Forgive my ignorance, but which god is it that you serve? I've grown accustomed to the company of a cleric, but I want to know more about a potential companion." His bright, cheerful tone and manner seem somewhat at odds with the calculating nature of his stare. His smile doesn't quite reach his eyes.

To Lathan, Seirye, and Karon he addresses a new question. "Given recent attrition in the face of our difficulties, we might do well to take on some new blood for this job. There's always a chance that one of these three will offer a fresh perspective on our difficulties." If he has any appreciation for out strange that sentiment is for him to say, the elf doesn't show it.

Seirye shrugged her shoulders at Lucien's question, the motion obvious in such a lithe frame. The presence of so many strangers combined with this apparently perplexing mystery has unsettled her more than a little. Her eyes glance around the remainder of the tavern's occupants.

"I am not an overly religious person Lucien but if you believe that this man of god and these other strangers will be of some benefit to us in our endeavour then you have my support, but we might as well take on all three as take on one." she replied to him, although her tone is a little hushed.

"Torm", taken slightly aback by the question, the man responds almost immediately by lifting his gauntlet-clad right hand up, creating an impression of the god's symbol. Giving any more explanation than that is not forthcoming, perhaps because he assumes that everyone knows of the god of duty and loyalty. "But of course, I understand your caution. I was sent on a mission to seek out... Trouble. And any smart man- or woman-" he makes a courteous nod towards Viola and Seirye, "-knows that trouble is best sought out in company.

"My name is Theron Ashmore, of the Ashmore estate." He scans the group for signs of recognition of his noble pedigree, just a mention of which seems to give him a small boost in confidence; letting the pause only last so long, and not really bothered if no one seems impressed, he readily continues. "A proud servant of the Loyal Fury for the last twelve years. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"I've never had much use for religion, but you seem like you can handle yourself in a fight, so I don't see why not. If we are going up against giants or dragons, or just more bandits, extra swords never hurt," he says. "Or maces, for that matter," he quickly adds. "I'm Karon, by the way," he says, extending his hand to the newcomers, noting how each of them react to the heavily armed and armored half-orc.

Barely two inches shorter than the half-orc warrior, Theron doesn't seem to mind looking up into the taller man's tusked visage and his expression is free of contempt that could have been expected from someone of a 'holier-than-thou' noble lineage. However, his plump face pales ever so slightly hearing the warrior's assessment of him, and even more at the mention of dragons and giants.

Still, never shedding his revered iron gauntlet, he extends his right hand back to Karon, grasping at the half-orc's wrist firmly, though perhaps a bit rigidly. "Let us... Stick to the bandits for now, perhaps."