Doorin has a seat and takes his drink and sips it slowly.  His eyes occasionally take in the whole of the room, as if he's looking for something or someone.   Or just nervous.

Tanyl, with his usual directness, asks: "Is everything alright?  You look anxious."

Bringing out her pet, though keeping the rat close, Delta feeds him bits of cheese and cracker, and even an olive.
Of course she was nibbling on her own snacks as well.
She half listens to the conversation, while humming at the odd foreign music she had just 'discovered'.
She wanted to write it all down, but her notebooks were back in her room.

Doorin shrugs, "Tis' hard to know who to trust in a city this large.  Damn guards are everywhere".

Tanyl shrugs as he lifts his glass.

"Seems like the guard was a good thing for you a bit ago, chasing out that guy who was interrupting your performance.  What was that all about?"

Doorin glances around again, "Ah, he was like as not harmless.  A member of wanderers of the fog, or sea gypsies as they are known also.  He was demanding I play a song.  His people are banned from setting foot anywhere in the Hinterlands.  Damned by two continents to sail the Trackless Seas until they restore their lost honor."

"I'll bet there are a lot of good songs about that, why are they cursed, do you know?" Curious as always, Delta leaned in, and took another sip of her cider.

Doorin finishes his drink, "Most have forgotten about it, and them to be honest. Long ago, war broke out between the Hinterland and Empire of Shifting Sands.  There was a race that lived along the coast of the Hinterlands that had long before been driven from the Empire, the Arayans, they were accepted but not trusted entirely.  When war broke out, many believed their loyalty might fall back with the Empire, but they were the greatest seamen on the coast, so valuable.  The tales vary, but all agree that a great symbol of the power of the Hinterlands was stolen, a diamond scepter, and ferreted away.  It is claimed the Arayans stole it sailed across the channel hoping to win acceptance back into the Empire, but a great storm sunk the ship that carried the scepter.  Untrusted by both kingdoms, the Arayans fled on ships into the Trackless Sea, and have existed there ever since.  The King of the Hinterlands made it illegal for any Arayan to set foot in the Hinterlands until such time as they returned the scepter".

The Gnome's eyes widen as the telling of the tale, and the sound of scepter made of diamonds, or even simply covered with them did nothing to reduce her interest.

"I imagine there would be quite a reward for anyone who could find that scepter. From several interested parties."

OOC: Is Minnow still at the table, or is this another time. I don't remember if that conversation ever got resolved.

Doorin orders a second drink and after a sip nods, "Rewards, to be sure, but they'd be heroes to a whole race of people, who are master seamen, I imagine a bright person could bend that into a fortune.  Not to mention the fame it would bring within the Hinterlands."  He takes another drink, "Fun tales, but impossible, finding something lost in the bottom of the sea..".

"Well if we couldn't find the treasure, there might be coin to be made is selling 'maps' to where it is, eh?"

With a chuckle, Delta pondered what a con that would be.

"You'd have to be a person on the move though, that isn't me."

OOC: Is Minnow still at the table, or is this another time. I don't remember if that conversation ever got resolved.

ooc: sorry, meant to answer, Minnow left earlier.

Delta offers to buy Doorin another drink, if he'll explain his odd and foreign looking instruments to her.

OOC: Did we get the info from Minnow re: the lost manhole cover, or are we expected to go find her?

"And where do you hail from, Doorin?"

Vala had been listening to all this eyes agog. Now for the first time the barbarian interupts, an idea entering her normally empty mind.

"We may know someone who could help us in an adventure beneath the waves," she says, turning to Tanyl and Delta. "Remember the 'goddess' of the Temple of Beltza Atarabi?"

At Vala's suggestion, Delta's nods in agreement.

"Certainly she could help us, good thinking, Vala!"

Dooring begins tucking away his instruments, luckily they are all smallish and fit together well in a single pack.

"I come from where the music begins, and go where it leads." He says this so flat it almost sounds like he's said it a million times.

"Thanks for playing with me Delta, few are brave or generous enough, and if you really know a sea goddess, finding the sceptre might have dangers beyond finding it.  Talk to Lady Ehridol, she has a soft spot for the Arayans..."

Confused at his sudden exit, and concerned that they had somehow insulted him, Delta struggled to find a nice way to end their encounter.

"Perhaps we could play again some time, do you intend to stay in the city awhile longer? I would enjoy the opportunity to learn from one of your talent, experience and clearly superior gifts."

"You are overly kind, my skills are no better than your own, only strange to thy ears.  My ship leaves in the morning, but I'll seek you out if I come back.".

The Gnome's eyes followed after him as he left, but she could think of nothing to say that might bring him back. All that knowledge, all that music... gone.

She sighed, and took another drink.

Turning to Vala and Tanyl, she sighs again. "So, any interest  in the lost sewer? Or the pursuit of lost sea treasure? Or should we just wait for more work to come up the usual way. Me, I'm interested in the lost sewer, but I'm an underground kinda of gal I guess. I'm open to anything though really."

OOC Did we get the info needed to pursue the mystery of the sewer from Minnow, or do we have to track her down if we decide to go that way?
This message was lightly edited by the player at 01:17, Fri 01 Oct 2021.

"Smells bad underground.  But,"

Tanyl sighs.

"I guess we should finish what we started."

ooc: Minnow gave you the number and general location of the missing sewer grate.  You'd still have to search for it but you have general idea.  It's also apparently been almost impossible to find, so there might be something more to it than just not knowing its number.

"Let's go look for it then, sound good Vala? Tanyl?" Delta wants something to get her mind off of finding and then losing Dooring, or more accurately, his music.

"D'ya think it's obscured with magical means?  And if so -- because it seems probable -- what do we do about that?"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:24, Mon 04 Oct 2021.

"If I know the right place to look, I might be able to see thru such a subterfuge, with any luck."