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[LordBucket]

retcon it.

Thank you. Eagerly awaiting next update.

[zomara0292]

Welp. He is dead. And now that know who sent him, it will be difficult not to meta. lets just get to the place already. See if we can find any information on our targets. Have Fjord go to the local merc. . . . . place (bar) and see if he can find out anything about them there. We, on the other hand, might want to go to the market places and listen in there. Also see if we can find out how many people are actually on this quest. nothing accurate is needed, just a rough estimate.

[NRDL]

Ah, due to the retcon, the pompous hopeful is no longer the one who hired him.

WHO CAN IT BE?

And by "on this quest", you mean how any other people were sent on this by Lady Emerfarth? 

[zomara0292]

By all and any of the nobles. Manly her, though, yes. I have a meta feeling that this is deeper then what has been explained to us.

[NRDL]

You and your meta...

[zomara0292]

Just call me Metaman.

[Maldevious]

Also look for anything cheapish in the markets that we could sell back in our original city for profit... we need more than a few coins.

[zomara0292]

Also look for anything cheapish in the markets that we could sell back in our original city for profit... we need more than a few coins.

+1 and it makes a good cover for asking questions.

[NRDL]

                                                                                                     

Lian City.  At first glance, it looks like Tur, somewhat smaller.  But even a stranger to this place can sense what makes it feel different.  The tension in the air, the smell of fear.  From a first glance, and from the looks that you can see in the faces of the peasants and artisans, this place reeks of fear. 

Your merry little band arrived just a short few hours later, both tired and excited to see this city.  Tomas is a tad less excited than the rest of you, he was here already, but still, nothing like the feel of finally reaching your destination.

Unpacking your supplies off the cart, you gesture to Fjord to come over.

"Fjord, I need you to do something."

He waits, eager at the thought of spilling some blood.

"You must find the largest bar in the city, stay there, and try to gather some information.  I need to know everything that goes on this city, at least what the people talk about."

A flash of disappointment and disdain shows on his face, but he hides it in a second.

"Fine.  Anything I should look out for?"

"Information about mercenaries, any at all, will be useful."

He nods, calls his men, and they all trudge into the city.

"Tomas?"

"Yes?"

"Please, direct me to the center of commerce.  There is knowledge to be gained there, and maybe a bit of silver."

He nods, eager to be of some use.  After 20 minutes of walking through the rather drab, dusty streets, you reach a neat looking series of shops, not exactly the bustling district of Tur, but definitely more lively than the rest of the city.

Taking a step back to see the bigger picture, you try to see patterns among the shops.  There are the Farmers and food tradesmen, the Artisans, selling various crafts and wares, the Blacksmiths, selling weapons and armor under subtle but careful watch by the city guard, and finally, the Rich landowners selling luxury items for the nobility.

How will you go about gathering information?

                                                                                                 

Hope this update wasn't too disappointing. 

[zomara0292]

Here is what I think we will find where and what kind of information to expect there:

1. Farmers and food tradesmen-
Everyone has to come here sometime because of the need to eat. We will find a lot of information here, but I doubt most of it will be relevant to what we need, by nature. Also, by what I think I know of a medieval civilization, we will get secondhand information. Nobles will likely send servants here to gather food stuffs for the days meals, while they themselves go out to buy items of beauty.

2. Artisans-
You will more likely find traders and foreigners here. This is where we probably should go if we need information on things happening outside of our home kingdom. What else we will find here is a mystery to me.

3.Blacksmiths-
This is where Mercs will probably go when they aren't training or at the bar. We will most likely find information on our targets here. First hand and detailed information. But guards at watch make tongues tight.

4. Rich landowners-
This is were we will find information on the other participants, if they aren't wise enough to hide the fact that they are nobles. We will either hear about them from other nobles, or we will see them ourselves, lording their nobility around like most people would, when they think they are superior.

[Maldevious]

I think we should look for items to purchase from the rich landowners, mingle with the artisans for rumors from abroad, and see if any major weapons or armor orders have been placed at the blacksmiths.

[LordBucket]

Just to recap our original reason for being here:

"Hmm.  Well, there is a slight problem with my husband's people.  He is planning an expedition to the east, and for that, he has hired a band of...well, let's call them mercenaries.  More like wildmen...", she mutters with disgust.   

"These "mercenaries" have been quite uncooperative, uncooperative to the highest degree.  Normally, my husband would handle it, but he's quite busy preparing other things, and so I promised to resolve it.  Can, and will, you negotiate with these mercenaries?"

...

"This is the location."

Lian City, the keep in the center of the city.

The way I read it, the "mercenaries" Count Dorn hired are the official military of Lian City. That's why they're in the keep. They accepted payment, but never left to go do whatever the Count wanted them to do. Presumably go attack some other city. And presumably we're here to get them to actually go as agreed.

Of course, it's entirely possible that Lady Emerfarth lied to us, or maybe isn't telling us the whole story. Given her disdain for them, it might be that her real goal is not to help out the Count, but rather to simply get the local defense militia to leave Lian to make it easier to invade. Though given her comments that we should be better guarded about our facial expressions, it would be reasonable to guess that her apparent contempt for these people might have been a deliberate ruse to mislead us.

In any case, we've been told that the mercenaries we're looking for are in the central keep of the city. That means that while they might be "mercenaries" to Count Dorn, they're the official local military here. Finding them should be easy.

[NRDL]

Lordbucket:

If they're called mercenaries, they are really mercenaries.  Unless you find information to the contrary, but I don't think I'll add stuff like that.  This is still the first mission.

That is an astute observation about Lady Emerfarth, but the thing is, she doesn't really NEED to lie to you to achieve any agenda she may or may not have. 

Forgive me if the fact that I'm playing on stereotypes here by making the mercenaries actual gruff, savage mercenaries is boring.  It's just what I had planned from the start. 

Update in a few hours. 

[LordBucket]

Forgive me if the fact that I'm playing on stereotypes here by making the mercenaries
actual gruff, savage mercenaries is boring.  It's just what I had planned from the start. 

Not a matter of being boring...but we were specifically directed to the city's central keep:

"This is the location." he says brusquely, before walking away.

You look at the scrap of paper he handed you, neat, but plain.  It says:

Lian City, the keep in the center of the city.

If we want to find these people, then going where we were told to go to find them seems like a reasonable thing to do. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me that "actual gruff, savage mercenaries" as you called them would be permitted to hang out in the central defensive keep of a city for days or weeks at a time unless they were affiliated with that city in some official capacity...but I suppose it also doesn't make much sense to me that people in the business of doing rough jobs for money would hang out inside a defended fortress rather than going out and doing the jobs they're being paid to do.

I assumed the whole thing was a setup of some kind.

Guess I'll wait for the update and see what information we find.

[zomara0292]

I assumed the whole thing was a setup of some kind.

Guess I'll wait for the update and see what information we find.

I can easily say that we both felt the same here, which is why I wanted the information on the mercs anyway. Plus, If there is anything that I have learned in mafia, its this: "Information is what can change who the winning team is." If we have the information on them, we can find a way to beat/persuade them.