The four begin to walk through the crowd, this time more in a pack than a line. They begin to formulate a plan.
“Wonderful!” Mayvn pipes up. “I may be able to sing and gain us a room or two for the night.”
“Excellent idea, my gaunt fellow.” Solcloud gives him a stout slap on the back. Mayvn’s hat flops down in front of his eyes. “Make it worthy of two men of the cloth and a man of your… abilities.”
“Hey!” Beasley shrieks as he tries not to get stepped on. “What am I, a puppy meant to sleep outdoors?”
They reach the inn doors and as they step inside Beasley continues his rant. “Don’t you dare forget me! I may be small, but I am useful!”
Zander chuckles in a deep voice as he sweeps the little halfling onto his shoulder.
“I would never forget about you, my little friend. You are going to be very useful. Philomar told me so.” He gave him a wink as they stepped onto the wood floor at the inn.
With Beasley’s new viewpoint on Zander’s shoulders, the adventurers locate an empty table fitting their atypical sized group. They pull up a seat and begin to talk over their plans. Solcloud takes the lead in the discussion. “There is a definite feel of evil in this town. It saturates everything, there are some dark forces working here. I suggest we search the auction and marketplace for clues as to the source of the slaves.”
“Icky!” Mayvn curls his nose. “That is dirty work!”
“There will be people of high standing at the auction.” Solcloud goads Mayvn. “You will be in your element. Besides, if it is like any other lave auction, the clean people stay away from the slaves and the slaves are clean. Makes them ‘worth’ more and more attractive.”
Mayvn clears his throat. “Well then I suppose I am the only one for the job.”
“I will go along to see that things go smoothly.” Zander grumbles. “Try not to cause a scene. Let’s do this without being kicked out of town.”
The paladin lets out a sigh of frustration. He does not like explaining himself. “I am a paladin of St. Cuthbert; justice will be served in due process. I intend to get to the bottom of this and root out the cause of all evil, not just it’s agents.”
“Then it is agreed.” Zander pats the halfling on the back and continues. “I feel we need some money to fund our quest. How about we take these items you stole off the dead guards from earlier and we sell them?”
“Magnificent notion, my hulking friend!” Beasley perks up and with a hearty, but small, laugh he continued. “But, let me do the talking. You just stand behind me and look…well… look big.”
Zander just smiled and winked as he stood up, strapped his large chest to his back and the two unlikely pair were off to the market to sell their ‘loot.’ As they walked off the paladin spoke to his companion. “Well, my thin peacock, we aught to start looking for information ourselves.”
Mayvn looked to Solcloud with a huff. “Well, you’re no spring chicken!” He stuck out his tongue as the paladin stood up with his back turned. Mayvn followed behind the armored man, trying to not pay attention to the racket Solcloud was causing as he lumbered in his shiny armor. The two made their way towards the auction block where people were gathering to look at the new crop of slaves, just brought in. “So am I to woo the ladies with my charm?”
Solcloud shook his head in irritation. “Do what you must, peacock. Just find out where those slaves came from and who runs this town.”
As the two entered the town square, Mayvn’s eyes lit up as he saw all the well-dressed people walking around. He spots a group of young women and put on his most suave face.
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