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-----Kazel finishes her brief talk with the woman, then gives a nod at Brad and goes into the back room.
-----Seth waits until the others are settled down. He hands Gimplefwick some copper coins, "For your singing." He looks at Kazel, "Well what’s the plan now? Shall we get into disguise? Hide or brazen this out?" Seth runs back to Gimplefwick. "I hope that merc girl did not plant some "bad" coins on you, anyways if there are no plans I will continue playing the Harp."
-----Seth waits and listens to what every one has to say. However he is obviously not paying attention as the others can notice his fingers moving as if strumming a harp.
-----Gimplefwick looks at the other two thieves and states, "On further thought, I think we should try to get out of here and back to the Guild. Those scurvy assassins seem to have more numbers than I had anticipated. Sadly, they are also better armed than we are. At least I think we should tell good old Wain that we might have embroiled him in a guild war. So, any ideas on how we get outta here?"
-----Kazel tells Gimplefwick and Seth what the old woman said. She tells them one of the beggars in town has information. He’s too scared to come around here and he knows around the ‘bad coins.’ The old woman also said he knows where to find the ones making them. If the thieves wish to talk with him, they are to meet him at midnight at the town well.
-----Seth smiles, " Well, what time is it? Do I have time for one more set of songs? I’m all primed and ready to go. I've got pig fat and my running shoes on!!!"
-----"Well, whatever cover we had is now all blown away, anyhow. But perhaps they already knew where to look," Kazel says as she holds up a small black stone between her fingers. "Someone put this at my place when I returned earlier today. Any idea on what this is? And how was your visit to the guild?"
-----Gimplefwick rubs his eyes and squints at the black stone Kazel is holding forth, "Why, I believe that closely resembles the Death Mark of the Eastern Sawoojian Bugtussle tribe. Their religion mandated that a subject be given one of their sacred black stones as a sign of their impropriety. Of course the only punishment they ever levied was death. Usually, the poor victim had twenty-four hours to set their affairs in order, then the marked criminal was hunted down and skinned alive by specially trained carnivorous apes. Huh! I never expected to see one of those in person. It’s very rare. Of course it could just be a chunk of black rock." Gimplefwick shrugs his shoulders, "I wouldn't worry about it. I'm fairly certain that I would have heard if there were any big man eating monkeys in town." Gimplefwick eyes the stone uneasily and edges slightly away from Kazel, eyes darting nervously about the room as though he expected a horde of hungry apes with skinning utensils to burst into the room at any moment.
-----"Anyway, I think we should definitely get back to the Guild as soon as possible. That meeting at the well might be a trap. It'd be nice if we had a little back up lurking about to save our bacon, just in case it is an ambush and we get attacked by those assassins. Or some flesh eating giant apes." Gimplefwick looks pityingly at Kazel and pats her on the shoulder in sympathy.
-----Seth grimaces at the mention of bug eating apes, "Well I don't have a place, so they can't slip a rock to me. And neither do you, Dread Pirate, so maybe that rock is for both of us as well. What do you suggest as a backup plan, Dread Pirate?"
-----"I was going to see my jeweler friend and ask him about this." Kazel twirls the stone on her hand. "Anyway, let's not stay around here and wait for those assassins. Are you saying we go to the guild then back here to meet the beggar before midnight? Maybe we can find some of the guild members here in the city first."
-----Gimplefwick peers out into the common room and says, "I think maybe we can hire a few of those mercenaries for a couple hours until we reach a point where we ditch them and make for the guild. Actually, we can all go out together with a few of the mercenaries, then we split up into three groups and each take a different entrance to the guild. Of course we'll have to ditch the mercs before we get to the entrance, but our splitting up will make it very difficult for those assassins to follow us, especially if we are sneaky when we ditch the mercs. I suggest that when you’re ready to lose your merc, you enter a tavern and then rush out the back and head for the nearest guild entrance. So, I am out of legitimate funds, who can spring for those mercs for a couple hours?"
-----Kazel puts up her hand. "Wait, what happened to your gold? Did you find anything when you were at the guild earlier? If we don't even know if anyone will be there, then maybe we should see if Picks or Dora May are still in town first."
-----Gimplefwick grumbles under his breath and finally states, "Those miserable assassins stole my real pouch of gold and replaced it with a pouch of counterfeit gold. That's why they pretended to be merchants and tried to get me lynched by the people in the bar. Fortunately, they proved to be poor liars and I was far too quick witted for them." Gimplefwick preens for a few moments.
-----He then remembers that they did manage to steal all his money and scowls darkly again. "Anyway, not much happened at the Guild. Seth has your share of the loot. I think we should get moving before the streets get too uninhabited. Oh yes, I did get shot at a couple times outside this place, so it's not all that safe out there."
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