The blighter ignored me when I questioned him, showing a surprising amount of nerve, but was coaxed into talking with us when someone addressed him in goblin. Our contact here was someone by the name of Faelian, supposedly located in the Bloody Market, and we eventually got our less than helpful goblin to give us directions to it. Merging in with the city's foot bound traffic we were surrounded by goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, our group clearly standing out out being comprised as it was with humans and elves, though Arad quickly turned himself into a hobgoblin so that he could fit in.
The Bloody Market's section of the town was filled with muddy canvas tents where every ware imagined was sold. We walked by tents full of weapons, some selling what looked like trash, and some whose tent walls were clearly stained with blood. The incessant babble of the goblin tongue as traders competed with one another, crying out their prices started to grate as our search for Faelian turned up nothing. Turning our attentions to a random goblin merchant, those fluent in goblin managed to find out that our contact was probably located in the Muddy Dagger Tavern, an establishment that catered to those of the non-goblinoid race.
Of course, as we headed back towards the dock front it became clear that the goblin had given us less than useful directions as the tavern was impossible to find. Frustration building, we continued to scour the blocks around the city near where the tavern was supposed to be as the hours trickled by. The only thing of note to mention was that we made the acquaintance of one of those Talenta halfings, the dinosaur riding kind, who introduced himself as Yeroff. Aramel, seeking to add to his number of companions, hired the halfling on but had to pay for the fellow's stable fee. Incredibly enough, Yeroff knew where the Muddy Dagger was and led us to it in short order. Of course, it turned out that we hadn't been able to find the tavern because it didn't have its name on the sign hanging over its door and the image of the "muddy dagger" was anything but, just a splotchy blur on rotting wood.
Heading inside, Yeroff opted to wait outside with his raptor, we saw that the tavern had few customers. A group of elves sat at a table in a corner and a few other patrons we scattered amongst the tables and the bar, apparently non goblins weren't all that common in the city. Heading over to the barkeep, we learned that Faelian was one of the ones sitting alone at a table. Not wanting to startle him, Arad and I went over to him with a mug of ale to give us an excuse to talk to him. After introducing ourselves we could tell that he was nervous about something but he readily agreed to provide us with transport to Rosequarry, an old Cannith mining town where they used to mine rose quarts before the Great War. It was located fifteen miles from the borders to the Mournland and the entire area was enough to bring up some unpleasant memories, but I managed to ignore them for now.
Telling us that he'd have everything ready tomorrow, we got some rooms in the Muddy Dagger and finished buying supplies for our journey. We were awoken early the next morning when Faelian came to our rooms and I was so excited that I decided to tumble up onto his shoulders in the hallway as he led us outside. Taken by surprise, he collapsed to the floor under my weight, apparently halflings aren't used to carrying a human's weight on their shoulders for some reason. Kaellana was one of the only ones who also appeared to be amused by my antics, smothing I'll definitely have to keep in mind for the future. Apologizing slightly, I was still quite entertained, Faelian led us out of the tavern and down some back alleys. While the little fellow didn't seem like the type to double cross us, we soon found the source of his nervousness the day before. Several Bugbears with wings and fire breathing dogs promptly swarmed us from the adjoining side alleys, muttering about how Faelian had double crossed them. We didn't care what he had done since we could cross that bridge after we dealt with the attackers. We needed Faelian alive so these guys had to die, no skin off my nose and I'd never gotten to kill a winged bug bear so I relished the opportunity to charge into battle.
I charged into the fray and found myself contending with the enemy creatures who were also wielding pole arms, a situation I have rarely encountered. Baring my teeth in an anticipatory smile I headed to the front of the alley where they seemed to be coming from in an effort to slow them down so that my party mates could bring their magics to bear. What ensued was a frustrating trial of my body's ability to endure damage as a only managed to hit the enemies a handful of times. The lack of skill I displayed in the battle was shameful, but my training allowed me to survive it while Kaellana called lightning from the sky, Aramel used his magic to hinder the enemy with web spells, and Arad charged into the fray with his skeletal minions. In short order the bugbears were dispatched and we confronted Faelian about the... inconvenience. Using the fact that we had saved his life, we managed to haggle down the transportation fee he was charging us, and not wanting to meet any other disgruntled customers, had him take us to his wagon.
-A.N.-
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