One of the waitstaff, technically they were still just a trainee at the Drunken Horns, when the adventurers returned a few nights later to, once again, enjoy a party, yes they DID make reservations first, asked softly. "So.. what happened to the watchmen bullies?"
@internutter/challenge-04627-l243-money-with-menaces -- Anon Guest
Mudita, as a young adoptee of the Drunken Horn, had been on cart service when the corrupt Watch squad came in. Watching a bunch of evil-minded goons get comeuppance was a rare treat for any Hellkin. They were all still talking about it weeks later, when the Viceroy - formerly known as Adventurer Tony - returned to spend more gold on a celebratory feast.
Mudita's job was still to roam the tables with the cart, offering to take dirty plates, replace or supply cutlery, or offer fresh rolls. She should not have been over at Adventurer Tony's favourite table before they were all seated or had made their order, but she couldn't help but make an excuse to wend her way over there anyway.
She didn't even bother with her usual script for verisimilitude. Just launched straight into, "What happened to the bully squad, sir?"
The rest of the crew chuckled at that. Around the Drunken Horn, various Hellkin paused or slowed their duties. Listening in as hard as they could whilst pretending not to, with varying degrees of skill in the latter. Even Dzak found a way to hover near the service window, straining his pointed ears so hard they creaked.
Adventurer Tony took one of the rolls, breaking it in half and picking morsels from the middle as he and his fellows spoke.
"Well, of course they begged me not to take them to my father. All the way to the castle. They offered me gold, rare items, the bodies of their daughters, the bodies of their wives. They offered me everything they could in trade, thinking I was as corrupt as they were. Hells, one offered me some interesting drugs."
"That's an investigation underway," said the bard, taking a roll as well and following Tony's lead. "Everything they offered has to reflect everything they thought they were entitled to. Our lord the Duke is officially pissed and bringing in Lutemen to find and root out all the corruption."
The soft-spoken Cleric of the team took a roll. "My temple and I have been wearing out our Honest Speech prayers as it is." Unlike the other two, ze used a bread knife to cut it open and then spread some butter into the middle. Thereafter, ze nibbled on the bread. "The honest members of the Watch have been kept on terrible duties or sent to dangerous areas. Any attempt on their part to alert anyone in power have been tamped down or actively discouraged."
"Brutally discouraged," said Tony. "The injury reports are now part of the ongoing inquest. And from what I've seen... hanging's too good for them."
"What is going to happen to them?" asked Mudita.
This was where the Wizard took a roll. "There exists on the outskirts of the Duchal territories, a tiny island that is strategically important for the realm's defences. In all other ways, it is a barren, lifeless, half-frozen and miserable collection of gravel and stone that all sensible life tends to avoid. Citizens of the nearby fishing village call it Frostbite Island. People who are sent there either die miserably or go insane and then die miserably. The only thing that actually grows there is a moss with no nutritional, commercial, or medicinal value. According to all current feeling in m'lord's castle, it seems like the barracks there are going to become vastly overcrowded."
"Good riddance to bad rubbish," said Serenity.
"Hear, hear," chorused the rest of the restaurant. Customers and staff alike.
Dzak cooked the Adventurers an indulgent and expensive dessert for free. Calling it a reward for services rendered. It would turn up in the books as, Debris removal.
[Photo by amirali mirhashemian on Unsplash]
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