Kagerou's Journal 9

Read part 8 here.

Day 2

The noise from downstairs woke me, the sunlight having failed to do so. Even though my body protested, I sat up and stretched. My roommate, Breuvial, still lay sleeping. Quietly, I reached into my pack for pen, ink and paper. I set it all down on the flattest surface, the floor, and began writing. I recounted the previous day’s events up until this point.

The dancer is still sound asleep as I write. It is best if she remains ignorant of my identity for a while longer. Something strange is going on in this town and I feel I ought to investigate further before sending back this report.

My roommate stirred as I packed away my writing implements.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.” Carefully I closed the flap of my pack with a special lock. With a pickpocket in the room it wouldn’t be wise to take chances.

She grunted in response and rolled upright, blinking her eyes..

“Hungry? Lunch appears to be in full swing downstairs, or so my nose tells me.” I shoved my pack underneath the bed and waited for her to get up.

“Definitely hungry,” she mumbled, standing up. Though most certainly not awake, she did amble out the door once I opened it. The door had no lock which irritated me, so I jammed it shut, hoping that would be enough to discourage light fingers.

On the landing we encountered the other two from the previous day. The Shoanti nodded in welcome. The halfling didn’t look too well though with deep, dark bags under her eyes.

“You didn’t sleep well?” I asked, falling into step with her.

“No. A nightmare kept waking me.”

“Bad luck.” I tried to stay quiet but my curiosity prevailed. “What kind of nightmare?”

“None of your business.” She grimaced, then muttered, “Drowning.”

“Drowning? I can see why that would keep you up.” She ignored me and increased her pace.

The dining room was the opposite of the previous night. Guests of the tavern and townsfolk crowded around the tables in the sunken dining area, eating and talking and occasionally throwing trash into the roaring fires.

I spotted the young man from the night before and pointed him out to the others. Once we came in full sight of the diners, they broke into a storm of cheering. The noise attracted the young man’s attention. He rushed over to address us.

“Good afternoon! I must thank you again for saving me yesterday. Please, join me for supper. I’ve rented the whole tavern for a celebration feast. I’ll provide for everything including a main dish of roast boar!”

Before we could do more than nod, he rushed off, leaving us to wade through a sea of well-wishers to the bar for food. The noise hurt my ears, so I grabbed something to eat and wandered over to the board I’d seen the night before. There weren’t as many people over there.

There were only three listings on the board. The first read:

Brodert Quink requires the services of a hardy party of adventures to explore and catalog a local ruin. Service will be well compensated as well as a rewarding sense of accomplishment in aiding the cause of science and silencing the voices of idiot men who have gone to their dotage.

Reward 200GP - 500 GP
Interested parties please inquire at number 8, Tower Street

It sounded the most promising but I read on.

A local merchant requires a descreet investigation team for some top secret information gathering and branging a brigand ta sweet justice! Call at the Hagfish, ask for Blanche. Reward Nahgoshable.

I didn’t care for the misspellings in the second one but I still noted it. No reward listed though. The third read:

Gorvi need strong brain to find what happened to stuff. Govi pay good yellow gold to know what happen to stuff so Gorvi can break theefs face! Find me at Hagfish.

I could barely read it the drunken scrawl and only noted it as it had the same location of inquiry as the previous one.

My stroll over to the board hadn’t gone unnoticed though and people kept coming up to talk to me. I smiled politely and nodded my way out of the crowd and out the door. I was not looking forward to the amount of people at the feast that evening.