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[GiglameshDespair]

Behind Nabih, Ghamina raised her eyebrows slightly at the fee.

[Rolepgeek]

Expand Network: [Contacts=4] > (4)
Success with consequence.

It's always difficult to recruit lawmen into the family, but Riskiss may have found a weak link amongst them, one with palms a little too light and loyalties a little too burdensome.
Unfortunately despite him giving off all of the right signals (literally drawn on the table via the medium of spilled ale), he seems to want something a little more physical in exchange for his service.

Meanwhile, the rest of the soldiers are eager to share their opinions.
"He's just another sellsword. Hopefully he'll be gone by sundown tomorrow. They never stay long. It's the bridges."
"'Sides, if he does, that's a concern for the day watch. I'm off at dawn, an it's no longer in my lil' chest o' worries."

Riskiss hadn't necessarily wanted to spend the night with him; plenty of others around to choose from and she could be picky when she chose to be, but she was not averse to it. That was where power lay, after all. She was more than decent at pillow-talk, too. Plenty of ways to get him hooked. Some were more pleasant than others...she smiled at him, and winked covertly, before returning to the conversation at hand.

"Well at least I needn't worry about that, if you aren't going to. You're all night-watch, then? I hope I'm not distracting you from your duties..."
After the nigh-inevitable round of protests, she would continue. "Well...I know guard duty can be boring, but if you're handling the city at night, you must have some other stories about what sorts of trouble you've found. Oh! I nearly forgot. Call me Aleia, won't you? There's no need for us to be strangers, after all!"

After listening to their stories as they drank and she drank, enjoying herself and filing away information with the sober part of her mind for later use, she would eventually excuse herself, noting the time and how she really had to get back lest she be missed. The recruit would meet up with her, and she could have a good night's sleep, in all senses of the word.

[Tack]

Riskiss: [Rapport=6]

The soldiers are eager to tell all, and relate the tales of daring chases along the bridges and platforms of the city. Most of them exaggerated, but you pick up a few interesting tidbits, such as the mention of an interesting individual who has been infuriating the guard with multiple unsolved granary robbings. They also are upset about having to spend a month in Reridge, where they'll be heading in a tenday when their contracts stipulate.
Plus they have a story of someone with outstanding athleticism being able to use the city's ever-shifting bridge network to easily make their escape in a chase.

[Caellath]

"One hundred coins is a bit too high. I am sure you are a skilled individual and want to be paid accordingly, but I can also tell you have shot the remuneration of your services a speck too high. While you have provided me with invaluable assistance, how about we talk about a lower starting figure? You do know I can also put a good word about you with my clan's business partners and with them as well. Being vouched for would be a boon for all and any transactions involving my people..." Nabih began, calmly shooting down the goblin's first price but not putting too much effort into squeezing silver coins out of the deal. While he'd probably appear a miser to others, it was just part of his nature.

Spoiler: Action (click to show/hide)

Invoking True Traders Haggle for that +1 if possible. If not, then keep things as they are.

[Tack]

Nahib: [Rapport=5] > [Rapport=3
Success- 2 shifts.

Haggling begins at 40 silver, but Harbul is firm on his new pricing, and it only drops to 36 by the end.
After exchanging notes and coin, he gives a cheerful "Until next time", and leaves the table, walking over to give Riskiss a kiss on the cheek before heading out into the night. 45

[Caellath]

"Until then." Nabih replied before turning to Ghamina. "Time to say our prayers and rest. Let us move, we will have a busy day tomorrow."

[GiglameshDespair]

"Yes, young master."

She nodded, and checking to make sure none were watching too closely, left with her employer.

---

Once they were at the accommodation, she quietly asked "Did you get a satisfactory list of names, young master?"

[Caellath]

"It could have honestly gone better, but it could also have gone worse. Tomorrow this shall be fixed, at least in part." Nabih replied honestly as he went to bed on his pajamas.

[Tack]

The night passes uneventfully, the waterfall providing a staccato of white noise whilst the creak and groan of rising and falling bridges serves to keep the lighter sleepers blearily awake.
Dawn arrives at last, however, bringing with it the rising bustle of a sunbound city.

Larok awakens to the gently slumbering form of the captain, however before long a half-score of guardsmen troop in, some dishevelled and bleak, others fresh-faced and well-presented.
The dawn guard all give various exclamations upon seeing the cell door rent open and the large ogre blinking blearily within- exclamations which inadvertently serve to wake him fully.
All of the stress of the previous day is gone, along with the touched nerve.
Riskiss watches the sky lighten over the river as the sun rises beyond the canyon wall as she returns to her abode, not feeling quite as refreshed nor presentable as she would like to be. She slips inside before the first traffic begins to pick up.
Nabih awakens to see Ghamina at the windowsill of the inn, idly grinding coffee beans with a mortar and pestle. Out the window can be seen the beginning day in Dashness, something they hadn't witnessed with the dusk of their arrival. Humans and goblins swarm across multiple terraced levels of the cliff face, sturdy rock and wooden scaffolding creating alternate walkways all the way up the other side of the canyon. The flurry of people are punctuated by stilled groups of commuters chatting idly as they wait for their respective bridges to rise and fall, whereupon doing so they begin to swarm across in almost-hazardous numbers to join the groups on the other side.
There should yet be an hour before the great doors of the house of commerce open to admit adventurers, clerical workers and soldiers alike.

[Tack]

Page push (too sleepy for tricky timing)

[Tack]

OOC Thread

Spoiler: Name: Larok Ar'grush (click to show/hide)

Race: Ogre
Gender: Male
Bio: An excellent specimen of the fine Ogre species, Larok grew up in a relatively small stronghold along a lake. He learned fishing as a hobby, but never took to it, since it was time-consuming and didn't accomplish anything except making lots of neat little toothpicks.
Larok is also completely bullheaded and doesn't stop working on a task until the job is done. ...Ever. Or he dies. So far that hasn't happened.
Deciding once he was of age that he should put his talent for swordsmanship to use, as the stronghold's militia was full enough anyway, he worked for months without stopping to save up enough gold and start a company.

Fighter from the Hills
Unnecessarily Obstinate
- Real Ogres Use Swords!
- Unshakeable Will
- I Pity The Weak

Equipment Aspects:
Weapons:
Armor:

Skills:
Great (4+)
- Physique (+5)
Good (+3)
- Fight
- Provoke
Fair (2+)
- Investigate
- Will
- Deceive
Average (1+)
- Rapport
- Empathy
- Notice
- Athletics (+0)

Stunts
- Shrug it off - You can use Physique to defend against Fight attacks made with fists or blunt instruments, though you always take 1 shift of stress on a tie.
-
-
Stress:
Physical: [1][2][3][4]
Mental:   [1][2][3]

Consequences: [2][4][6] - {2}

Fate: 4
Silver: 117
Copper: 0

Spoiler: Name: Nabih Shahin Al-Safi (click to show/hide)

Race: Human
Gender: Male
Bio: Born in a trading clan, Nabih was one of Sahid Al-Safi's and Naleiya Al-Safi's few children. Given a good education thanks to his parents' stable financial conditions and the advantages of their profession, Nabih turned out to be a bright kid with a good measure of curiosity and creativity. Saleiya was responsible for most of the couple's accounting and also a rather spiritual woman moderately versed in the arts of magic, which she taught Nabih and a few of his siblings. Meanwhile, Sahid was the face of the operation and a man with a dream; while mankind was more numerous than most races and a formidable force due to it, the man was an admirer of dwarven engineering and was consequently sore about human inability to craft so much of what the xenophobic, stout race was able to create. He wanted human technology to stop complacently feeding off trading and antiquated notions and move forward, without any assistance if necessary.

His parents' teachings and interests rubbed off on Nabih as he grew into a capable, intelligent man with a dream. Too many dreams, actually; whether it was due to his passion for crafting, knowledge or magic, he began to piece together mechanisms even during his sleeping hours, turning him into a lucid dreamer with an objective. Learned and feeling comfortable about his own intellectual baggage, he managed to loan the necessary sum of money to start a mercenary organization, benefiting from the clan's nature to not be drowned in interest and/or threats. Why a mercenary organization? To be safe you need how to wage war and he's realized technology like firearms are a game-changer in the field of battle. In Nabih's opinion, having a body of warriors to field-test any improvements on military tech is less risky than giving them out to strangers.

Nabih is a young-faced inventor and magic practitioner as well as an accomplished trader, partially due to the right connections in his clan and out of it. He's bronze-skinned and has a slightly wide, straight-cut nose between emerald eyes. He prefers to wear the traveling clothes of his people, pants and shirts complimented by robes and headscarves to protect against the sun and elements. The trading clan he's part of is one of the few that established themselves in a section of the Surrounds generations ago to create an outpost for the wandering caravans of his people.

High Concept: Steel Wizard of the Forge
Trouble: No Lore By Man Untouched
-True Traders Haggle
-Formal Bearing and Education
-Clan and Connections: Assets & Debts

Equipment Aspects:
Weapons: Worn Scimitar and crossbow
Armor: Sturdy Cloth

Skills:
Great (4+)
-Crafts
Good (3+)
-Contacts
-Lore
Fair (2+)
-Athletics
-Rapport
-Will
Average (1+)
-Empathy
-Investigate
-Notice
-Physique

Stunts
-Bloodline of Bargain: +2 bonus to Rapport when used to haggle.
-Extensive Network: Gain a +2 bonus to Contacts when using it to Create an Advantage to know the perfect purveyor of specific goods or services.
-Inventor's Insight: Inventions created by succeeding with style gain an (extra) useful Aspect or Stunt.

Stress:
Physical: [1][2][3]
Mental:   [1][2][3]

Consequences: [2][4][6]

Fate: 3
Silver: 8344
Copper: 0

Spoiler: Name: Ghaminia Al-Haral (click to show/hide)

Race: Human
Gender: F
Bio: When Nabih turned fourteen, his parents got him a bodyguard and servant - one to be dedicated to him rather than a general house servant. It was fashion at that time for them to be female - less obtrusive, more likely to be underestimated... and often nicer on the eyes, too.

So it was that Ghaminia entered Nabih's life - she was a few years older, and while it was never explained where she had come from, she was a quiet and omnipresent figure in his background. She tended to his hurts when his experiments went amok, and assisted when needed - mainly with her prodigious physical strength.

A quiet, tall woman, she has a tendency to blend in to surroundings. Her skin is dusky, her features plain - aside from the claw-marks that trace down the right side of her face. She's trained in grapples, and a brutal, close range fighting style with a pair of karembit knives. A tiger skin is draped over her shoulders, with the head forming a hood she can pull up over her own. Besides the knives at her waist, she has another woven into her hair, and two small straight blades concealed at her calves. Her flowing silks do a good job of hiding the thin-yet-sturdy armour beneath.

She also knows how to move silently and pick locks... her past was not a gentle one, nor on the right side of the law. By becoming a servant, her old life was abandoned. Her old name was abandoned when she went into servanthood, but in some drinking dens the name "The Silent Tiger" is still whispered...

High Concept: loyal strongwoman bodyguard with a bloody past.
Trouble: Ghosts of the past
-
-
-

Skills:
Great (4+)
- Physique
Good (3+)
- Stealth
- Fight
Fair (2+)
- Notice
- Provoke
- Burgalry
Average (1+)
- Ride
- Will
- Craft
- Decieve

Stunts
-
-
-

Equipment
Weapons: Knives for every occasion.
Armour: Concealed Lammelar.

Stress:
Physical: [1][2][3][4]
Mental:   [1][2][3]

Consequences: [2][4][6]

Fate: 3
Silver: 280
Copper: 0

Spoiler: Name: Riskiss Malodie (click to show/hide)

Race: Goblin
Gender: Female
Bio: Riskiss was born, like all goblins, to a large family. In her case, the family was wealthy and established, in Dashess, the heads of the household being Krafit Malodie and his mistress, Retuin Sihil. She never much enjoyed pushing and shoving her way to the top of the pack, nor indeed did she very much like being there. Too stressful, with her siblings and cousins always trying to find ways to pull her back down or put her in her place. Besides, she didn't have the brawn for physical confrontation, and it was so much easier to just get other people to do it for her. Especially her brother, Kars. Kars had always been nice to her. He was generally quiet and kind, for a goblin. He was very easy to manipulate. But as she kept him in place at the top of the pack, never seeming to step out of line, as she found her niche in the struggle, she felt worse and worse about doing so. She began working on other people, so he could be himself more. It was nice, to see someone who wasn't utterly ruthless in the lead, for once. Relaxing, almost. Eventually she tried to ease herself back; attachments were dangerous, if you thought about it. And it was alright, for a while; she dealt with threats that might get him cast out, and enjoyed life in the Malodie manor.

But inevitably the good ends. Kars was not ruthless enough to stay strong on his own. His elders knew that. When Riskiss was away to conduct one of the first business deals she was meant to for the house, he made a mistake. The price he paid, was, of course, his position as a member of the house. A few weeks later when Riskiss returned, her good mood was broken by learning of her brother's exile. She cared for the rest of her family, of course, had close friends...but they were not her responsibility. Kars was. And now he was gone. Soon she was gone too. Riskiss knew how to play people. (Unfinished)

High Concept: Upper-Crust Puppet-Master
Trouble: Power Brings Only Grief
- There Is Such A Thing As Being Too Clever...
- Power Lies in Lying and Laying
- Killing Is For Ruffians And Imbeciles

Weapons: Nicked Dagger
Armor: Old Reinforced Silks

Skills
Great (4+)
- Rapport
Good (3+)
- Contacts
- Deceive
Fair (2+)
- Stealth
- Empathy
- Lore
Average (1+)
- Will
- Notice
- Investigate
- Provoke

Stunts
- Dulcet Tones: +2 to first impression Rapport roll.
- White Lies: Can use Deceive to boost a Rapport (?)
- 'Spy Networks' Sounds So Unrefined, Darling: Can use Contacts in place of Investigate in areas with networks built up.

Stress:
Physical: [1][2]
Mental:   [1][2][3]

Consequences: [2][4][6]

Fate: 3
Silver: 350
Copper: 0

[SOLDIER First]

Larok rubs his eyes of sleep several times over and stands to his full height, a tall figure... who isn't wearing any outer clothes.

"I hope you are the new guard, and not friends of Lars come to take revenge.
.....Are you to watch me dress? Turn around."

[Tack]

The desk captain cocks an eye Larok's way and grumbles "You've really gotta start recognising uniforms when you see 'em."
He waves the new guardsmen in and they begin busying themselves with clearing desks and lockers. None are making eye contact with Larok, but they're making a good show of not being intimidated.
"If yer gonna be bashful why'd you strip to yer loincloth t' begin with?"

[SOLDIER First]

Larok grunts and begins dressing anyway.
"I didn't expect visitors."
Apparently this is a joke, as he chuckles to himself afterward.

[Caellath]

"We still have some time before the house of commerce is open, but I believe we should head there right after enjoying an unhurried breakfast. I would rather not trust the constantly shifting bridges' benevolence towards outsiders and their time-sensitive schedules." Nabih said as he stretched before checking his belongings and coin reserves as if to reassure himself. Though the last day had been much more hurried, he allowed himself a moment of pleasant contemplation as he watched the inhabitants go about their business in a place that was so different from the ones he was used to.

Nabih then went off to prepare for the day and to leave the inn towards the house of commerce. "With some luck we might yet find people of promise already there." he commented.