Right across the street from the Yawning Portal Tavern is the Green Dragon Inn. A place where you can actually get some sleep compared to the Tavern, which is 24 hours full tilt rowdy. Not the Green Dragon, it's for sophisticated folk. And that's where you've been invited to meet a wizardly old man calling himself Hal.

Roxanne notices 5 adventurers entering the Yawning Portal as she arrives at the Green Dragon Inn, she steps inside and almost bumps into the old grandpa.

"Oh excuse me, ma'am." He nods down at you, then continues toward the door. Then stops. "Oh, you're quite late aren't you?"

Roxanne was breathing heavily, hands on her knees with her invitation grasped tightly between her thumb and forefinger. The invitation was smudged with dirt and crumpled in places, but she handed it to the old man before her. "Hopefully not too late," she managed to huff between breaths. "It was... NOT easy to get here." The dwarven woman brushed road dust off of her shins, stretched her back, then stood straight. Her apparent exhaustion seemed to be visibly evaporating at an incredible rate.

"The wagon I hired to bring me here broke a wheel. We tried to repair it, but didn't have the parts. So then I continued the trek on foot, but then it began to rain. Hard. Some of the road washed out so I had to find a way around that. And to top it all off, a grifter tried to mug me ony way through town. He won't be making that mistake again." Roxanne grinned, revealing a cracked lip from the scuffle.

"But I'm here now. Please tell me the trip was not in vain." She couldn't bear the thought of turning around and heading home. Not after what she had been through. No. Even if this lead didn't pan out, Roxanne resolved to stay in town for a while. But no sense in ruling out this lead just yet. After all, proper introductions hadn't even been made yet. "I am Roxanne Drubble." She offered her calloused hand for a firm shake.

Still standing near the entrance to the Inn, the front door slowly closes. The old man smiles and shakes your hand with a firm grip, "My friends call me Hal, you may as well. Let's get you caught up shall we?" He offers you a potion, "This will enhance all of your abilities when you enter Undermountain, its power is tied to the magic of the many mysterious and magical mazes below our very feet.

My one and only request is this, Ms. Drubble: whatever fame and fortune you discover, you owe me 10%. If we are in agreement I have the ability to catch you up to the group that just left, pronto!"

Roxanne's head tilted to the side and her lips became a thin line as she considered Hal's offer. "Ten percent?" She wasn't sure if that was a lot or a little in this context. Was Hal being greedy, or generous?

In the end Roxanne decided it didn't matter much either way. She didn't come here to scrape up every last coin she could. She came here to prove herself. To discover ancient relics. And to one-up her know-it-all brother. If that cost her one out of every ten gold she made, then so be it.

With a wide grin spreading across her face, Roxanne spit on her palm and held it out for a second handshake. This time to seal their deal. "Hal, sir? It sounds like we have ourselves an agreement. Who is the crew I will be working with? Capable individuals, I hope?"

Hal spit into his hand, not pausing for one moment. He shook that hand, then, still holding onto it, opened the front door with the other hand and pulled Roxanne through it with strength that seemed incapable of such an old man.

PFFFFFTZ.

Continued in Chapter 6.