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"Ha-ha! Right in time to see a scrap break out, right, boy?" Bronnis exclaims enthusiastically as Seff's ears perk up. "I'll stay out here for a few, you guys go on inside. Wanna congratulate the winner, heh." He hops up to sit on the wooden boardwalk, cheering on the fight.

Elmar looks over at the brawl as he walks past, not really wanting to get involved in any fighting that would draw attention to himself like they would.
Already I am regretting deciding to stay here... But at least it will be better than the mud. I can dry off my boots inside if they have a fire, and they may have a warm bed to sleep in for the night. It is shelter, so I cannot be picky given my surroundings.

The listless, lifeless husk once known as Tristan Ansel had trudged through mile after mile of the disgusting mire, his fine clothes now soaked through with sweat and mud and his hair drooping in a quite bedraggled manner about his face. Surprisingly enough, he had actually managed not to whine the rest of the party to death. At first, worries about his father's situation had weighed on his mind enough to keep his lips shut. By the time he actually realized just how much he hated the swamp, and walking, and walking in the swamp, he had already spent so much energy wading through the filthy forest that all he could do was pray that the sweet release of death would claim him soon, and continue to trudge.

Their arrival at whatever pigsty passed for civilization in these parts brought little reaction from the tortured noble. Even as a brawl burst forth from the doorway and rolled past him, fists and curses flying in equal measure, the zombified young man could only shuffle forward towards what his fleeting senses identified as the sensation of dry land, long thought lost, and the smell of food and drink.

"Hurrrgh." he managed, his boots leaving a trail of mud and slime as he shambled on inside.

Tired and irritated from the long walk, Matthias is quite glad as they approached the tavern. About damn time. he thinks, focused on getting inside and cleaning his armor off before it rusts.

As the two brawlers make themselves known, he sighs in disgust and moves past them, shaking his head at Bronnis' encouragement. Too tired to feel like doing anything about the fight, he follows Tristan into the building.

The interior of the inn is loud and crowded. A large bar, with several bartenders serving patrons,stretches across the room opposite the door. A few tables and benches are dotted around the room, however most of the cheers and noise appears to be coming from benches and chairs which form a circle around a large fenced off hole in the floor.

Karvik walks over to a table and appears to quickly convince it's occupants to move before waving over the rest of the group. "So then, who's getting the first round in?" He asks the members of the party who join him.

Meanwhile, outside the brawl is quickly won by the bigger of the two men after a quick series of blows drops the smaller. The victor wipes a bloody nose on his sleeve and nods to Bronnis before striding back into the inn.

"I thought you were," Tess says with a wink as she steps up to the table. She takes a seat across from him, before eyeing the room in search of any particularly attractive specimens she could convince to share their bed with her. Why pay for a room when I can have a bit of fun and free lodging all in one?

Mechanics

[SHOW]

Any attractive people? Could be any race or gender, Tess doesn't care.

"I think you just volunteered yourself," Katarina says to Karvik as she sits down. I'm definitely not about to let him drink away my savings. Waving over a waitress, Kat says, "Excuse me, we'd like drinks all around. Our friend Karvik here is paying, so don't give us the cheap stuff!" Kat smiles devilishly at Karvik as the waitress departs.

"Haha! Brilliant! Good fighting, boys," Bronnis calls out to them as the fight breaks up with a clear victor. He nods to the larger man, before hopping off the wooden foundation to the ground, patting his hands together to shake off the dust. Seff stays seated on the deck, no intention in getting back onto the soggy ground underfoot. Bronnis steps over to the smaller man, giving him a hand to help him up. "You lose a bet and have no coin to pay it, or what?" he asks with a smile.

Elmar sits at the table with the rest of the group, looking down at his boots with a soft sigh.
"Just an ale, thank you..."

So much mud... By the time we reach the mound, my boots will be their own weapons with how much they will weigh... Not a bad idea actually. Two birds with one stone given enough force. If I strike hard enough, I can both knock something out and knock the mud off my shoes. Might even impress Teharissa.

Upon reaching the table Tristan promptly sat and rested his head in his hands for a few moments, sitting in the quiet, brooding manner of a man whose hopes and dreams have crumbled to dust as his soul slowly withers away.

After a few minutes of being off his feet and out of the marsh, however, he began to show signs of life again, and slowly started to look around the tavern as if realizing for the first time where he was and what was happening around him.

"Quite a crowd for such a miserable locale." he began, before leaning in his seat and craning his neck to try and see the fuss near the center of the tavern. "Can anyone see what all the cheering is about?"

"Fight pit." Matthias says simply, seating himself next to Tristan. "Most likely of the illegal sort." He begins scraping the layers of mud off of his feet in a vain attempt to make himself cleaner. "Ale for me as well." he calls to the bar wench. Much as I try to avoid alchohol, tonight I think I'll need it.

"One of you big, strong men should toss your hat in," Tess says, when Matthias mentions the fighting pit. "Could earn money for more rounds of drinks. If you win, and you share, I could patch you up after," she adds with a wink.

Turning to the tavern wench, she says, "I will have whatever your best wine is, no ale for me, thanks. If I am drinking on someone else's coin I plan to drink well." I hope someone a bit more attractive shows their face soon, sleeping alone in this shit hole doesn't sound that fun.

Katarina laughs at Matthias' comment. "In this part of the world, nothing is illegal. Who's going to enforce it? The marsh grass?" Turning her attention back to the wench, Kat says, "Ah, yes, I'll have the same wine." Why have something as unrefined as ale when it's not on my coin?

"Something like that... That bloody pit has to be a fix," the man says, taking Bronnis' hand and standing up.

"I'll take join Elmar on the ale," Locke says adding his order as well. "Well I guess I have to be a typical woman and go for the wine," Alessa adds. The wench soon returns with the drinks and Karvik reluctantly pulls out his coin purse. "Kat's got the right of it," Karvik says taking a sip of his ale. "Kat's got the right of it. I suppose this place is technically part of Sorrow's Grasp, but I doubt the nobility in Eranor even know this place exists. That being said, there's probably a village or town nearby, off the main road. These people can't all be travellers. Anyway I'm going to go see what "illegal fighting" is going on," the man says, adding air quotes near the end, before he grabs his tankard and walks off towards the crowd.

Tess

[SHOW]

Scanning the room, a few people take your fancy. A well dressed man sat at the bar, a another rugged man over by the presumed fighting pit and a woman, quite obviously a prostitute given the location, sat talking with a man in the corner of the room.

"You do that," Tess says with indifference, her attention turned elsewhere - specifically at a finely dressed man near the bar. Let's hope he has the coin to back up his choice of wardrobe. When the tavern wench brings her drink, she takes a quick sip before getting up, bringing her drink with her.

Making her way across the room, Tess uses her free hand to adjust her corset before putting on a nice, big smile. She walks up to the man, setting her drink down next to where he sits, then turns to face him. "You seem to be out of place," she says, looking him up and down, making it clear that she recognizes his clothing as being expensive. "What would bring a man of such fine taste to a shack like this?" she asks with a wink, before taking another sip of her drink.

Bronnis chuckles at the man's misfortune and whistles for Seff to follow him. "C'mon boy, let's find ourselves a meal and a place by the hearth," he says quietly to his companion as they step into the tavern to see what is going on inside.

"Isn't fighting in bars something of a tradition?" Tristan half-joked, raising an eyebrow. He took a draught from his own mug before following after Karvik. "What exactly makes this so 'illegal,' pray tell?"

Though the noble scion had seen his fair share of tavern brawls, he had to admit he'd never been to such a run-down place in the middle of nowhere. Were things out here really so much worse than in the cities? It seemed to Tristan that the commoners had enough problems--like having to walk for a week to get any-bloody-where--without throwing themselves into some pit.

"Ugh..." Matthias groans in response to the others comments on the apparent legitimacy of the brawls, rolling his eyes as he takes his ale from the wench. I was just stating what is most likely fact. You people need not make fun of me for it. he thinks, moodily nursing the tankard in his hands. He sweeps his eyes around the room, curiosity making them linger on the activity around the pit.

"I'm a writer actually," the well dressed man says to Tess, clearly taking an interest in her. "I travel from town to town chronicling family histories for the local nobility. Life on the road does occasionally lead to places like this. How about you? What's a beauty like you doing here?" He asks turning on his bar stool to face the elven woman.

Meanwhile Bronnis and Seff enter the lively tavern. He easily spots the rest of the party, sans Tess, Tristan, and Karvick, sat at a table, drinks in hand. The large cheering crowd in a circle is also quickly apparent.

Bronnis struts up to the table, Seff padding along behind him. He orders an ale from a passing barkeep. "Good fight outside you missed," he says with a laugh, as he peers at the crowed around the pit. "Ah, a brawling pit! Now that's even better!" the vagrant shouts, ecstatic.

Without another word, he steps over alongside Karvik to try and get a good view of the action. "What's a good tavern brawl after a long day of walkin', yeah?"

"I'm just passing through on the way to the Spear," she says, running a finger around the rim of her glass as she speaks to the man. "I was hoping to find some company for the evening, it's a little... scary to spend the night alone in a foreign place, especially with so many rowdy men around," she says, shooting the man a vulnerable look.

"Not exactly a brawl," Karvik says as Tristan and Bronnis join him. Looking over the wooden fence, the hole in the floor leads down into a basement where more men cheer on a fight between two strange scaled and spiny creatures, no bigger than rabbits, in a shallow pit, one with red colourings on some of its scales and the other with blue colourings. "They must catch them in the swamp," Karvik says continuing to drink. "They just put these two in. 5 gold on the blue one, either of you?" Karvik asks as the two creatures circle each other hissing.

"I've got the biggest room in the inn for tonight. You're more than welcome to share it with me," the writer says to Tess with a smile creeping across his face. "I'm Dorian," he adds offering her a hand.

"I would, if I had 5 gold to spare," Bronnis says unashamedly. "Joined up cos' I'm broke, remember? Ain't got two coppers to rub together. But for braggin' rights alone, my call is on the red 'un. I bet he's gonna kick yer's ass."

"Tess," the elf responds with a wink, taking the man's hand. Well that was easy. So nice to find a well-dressed man in this slum. I figured I'd be laying with that man with the dog, or the whiny new guy. Or Karvik, again. She takes a large swig of her drink.

Katarina looks over at her Elven friend and chuckles a bit. Turning back to Locke and Alissa, she says, "Looks like Tess found herself a man for the evening. Let's hope he doesn't fall for her too much."

"Hmph. No thank you." Tristan said, quickly turning away from the pit. "Those beasts already have to live in such a miserable place, why make their lives worse?" He had been trying not to show his distaste for the commoners' society so far--failing frequently, but trying--yet this barbaric practice was too far beneath him, even as poor and desolate as he was. He didn't like animals much, especially not ugly and smelly ones like that hound, but he didn't understand how forcing any kind of creature to desperately fight for its own life could be entertaining.

With a long stride, he made his way back to the table and began drinking again, just in time to hear Katarina's comment. He glanced over, thinking that the finely dressed gentleman much resembled himself before he'd fallen into disgrace.

"Wonder if his father threw him out too." he mumbled to himself as he tossed back the rest of his ale.

"No sense of humor, that one," Bronnis says to Karvik as the young man saunters back to the table. "Seff'd wanna get in there and tear those things to pieces. Right, boy?" The husky looks up at him with dark eyes before snorting abruptly at his master and returning to sniffing at the strange men around him.

"Suit yourself." Karvik chuckles at Bronnis and Seff before turning his attention back to the fighting pit. The creatures continue to hiss and circle each other. Eventually, after a few prods with sticks, the two begin to fight. They tear into each other, biting off legs and slashing bodies. After a minute or two the red coloured of the pair prevails, tossing the limp body of its opponent around the pit. "Well the bragging rights are yours. Shame you didn't have the coin."

"So Tess what takes you to The Spear? A pretty little thing like you shouldn't be down here in these swamps," Dorian says to Tess, taking a swig of his own drink and finishing it. "Actually why don't we finish our conversation in my room? I think I've had enough of this crowd," he says, a glint in his eye.

"Well I'm sure in the morning any of that will be undone when he finds his possessions somewhat lacking," Alessa replies to Kat. "I imagine Tess will be hoping to leave rather early tomorrow."

"Ha-ha! Good man to recognize his defeat. Let's go see what the pacifists are up to, then," Bronnis says, slapping Karvik on the shoulder. He steps over, grabbing his ale from the barkeep who had brought it over. Pulling his chair out and collapsing in it, he sighs happily and takes a long pull from the flagon. Seff pads under the table, searching for food scraps.

"So what's the word?" the vagrant asks, not noticing Tess' earlier departure.

"Just visiting some friends," Tess says, taking another sip of her wine as well. "I sure hope their home is more pleasant than the muck surrounding this place, though."

At the mention of returning to the room, Tess smiles, forcing herself to blush a bit. "Well, I think that sounds like a fine idea," she responds, a similar glint in her own eye, allowing the man to lead her by the hand up to his chambers for the night. Now let's see what kind of goodies you keep with you, pretty man.

Elmar watches her go, shaking his head at the sight.
"Perhaps... If I might suggest it... We should pretend not to know her? Then, perhaps... She can worry herself of her own actions tomorrow? It might... Persuade her to be less... Possessive of other people's things?"

That girl will get us into trouble with this one day, mark me. Her penchant for thievery is bordering on kleptomania. Perhaps she actually has that, now that the thought has crossed my mind. That would explain a large number of things...

"Good luck with that plan," Katarina says, watching her friend depart into the room. "Pretending to not know someone isn't nearly as easy as pretending that you do know someone. You can't pretend that the stuff she knows about you doesn't exist."

Turning to Bronnis, she says, "Well, Tess has found her room for the night, so I suppose we could do the same. It has been a long day of walking, after all, and we've got another ahead of us, so it may be nice to get settled in."

"Hopefully there's enough rooms available for us all, Locke says taking a sip of his drink. "If not I suppose we could share so we don't have to camp outside," he adds, shooting a quick glance at Alessa from behind his tankard.

"I don't mind roughin' it, as long as me n' the hound can find a patch of dry ground. Maybe the wood deck out there would work, too," Bronnis says. "Say, I can't pay for this ale, come to think about it. Used to be that I could just high-tail it out before the barkeep gave me a poundin', but I don't that that would work here. Somebody spot me, yeh?"

"Oh, right, you were outside still when we arrived," Katarina begins, turning to Bronnis. "Karvik has the first round of drinks covered, so you don't have to worry."

"Ha-HA! Good man!" Bronnis shouts, overjoyed. "Course it'd be funny for you lot to see me try and pay for me drink by washin' flagons n' dishes. Wouldn't be the first or the last time that happened."

The group stays in the inn for a few more drinks, laughing and talking amongst themselves, while Tess disappears with Dorian. Eventually a large number of the inns patrons leave, heading home rather than lodging at the inn. With the inn less crowded the company is able to rent their own rooms and breakfast, for two gold a piece, to be paid in the morning. Everyone finally retires for the night, albeit to cheap rooms, however most are just glad not to spend another day sleeping outside.

OOC

[SHOW]

Now we're moving to waking up in the morning, but if you want to RP anything in the evening or night feel free.

Tess wakes bright and early, and immediately looks around for anything small but seemingly valuable, or otherwise interesting, to pocket before stepping out.

OOC

[SHOW]

What is the room like and what is in it?

Tess bends down, still bare after a night of fun, and reaches for Dorian's trousers. She checks the pockets for any small objects, like rings or amulets and other jewelry. Any she finds she places in one of the pockets of her own trousers, before bending down to check the chest at the foot of the bed. She quietly attempts to lift the lid, checking to see if it is locked.

OOC

[SHOW]

I find anything? And is the chest locked?

Ignoring the paper and parchment, Tess goes straight for the box, again opening it quietly to avoid waking the man.

Tess frowns at the sight of the box's contents, and close both its lid and the lid of the chest just as quietly as she had opened them. Satisfied with her new possessions, she grabs her clothes and slips out of the room. Clutching her garments in her arms, she makes her way up the hall, peeking into the rooms until she finds Katarina's. Once safely at her friend's door, she sneaks inside and begins to dress herself.

After her fill of wine, Katarina retires to her room, glad that she doesn't have to share. Locke is probably upset though. He doesn't get to snuggle with Alessa. She quickly prepares for bed and falls asleep, worn out after the long day.

* * *

With the sun shining in her face, Kat awakens, a scowl on her face. Does it really have to be morning already? I'd much rather stay in bed for a while longer, but I doubt I'll be able to. Forcing her eyes open, she notices Tess' presence in the room. With a partial look of astonishment, she says, "What in the world are you doing? Didn't want to get dressed in your victim's room?"

"Well I didn't want to be there when he woke up," she says, as she finishes tying her corset. "And I can't just leave without the rest of you. You think you could bring some food up here when you head down?" she asks, taking a seat in a chair in the corner. Hopefully that guy leaves quickly.

Elmar slowly sits up in his bed, rubbing at his eyes. He blinks once or twice, looking about.
Morning. Time to get moving again. I doubt we will get another opportunity to rest in a bed once we are on the road. Though that depends on whether or not the location in question is that far of a walk... Best get dressed.

He gets out of bed and gets dressed, gathering up his gear and exiting his room, looking about at the empty hall with a sigh.
Am I the first one up and ready?... I thought the others would be ready by now.

"Alright, fine," Katarina says as she begins to doll herself up for the day. This thievery better not get too out of hand. Once clothed, she brushes her golden hair, saying, "Why don't I eat up here with you too? Eating alone can be pretty boring." As she begins to exit the room, she adds, with a smirk, "And it seems that I can't leave you alone with valuables either." Exiting the room, she heads down to the main hall. She spots, though ignores, Elmar and instead seeks out a waitress. He's not much for conversation anyways.

"That sounds nice," Tess responds with a smile, sticking her tongue out at Kat behind her back after her followup remark. With her friend gone and not much to do until she returns, Tess walks to the window and peers out, observing the scenery in the daytime. I am not sure if it is better in the light or in the dark.

OOC

[SHOW]

Anything interesting to see out the window?