Eberron One

"What do they say?"

The boy Karl gets a look of surprised delight on his dirt-streaked face, as though you just handed him a sack of sweetmeats. "Oh! - my fotter is a farmer, not a preacher. I can show you how to get dere. But I have to wait til in morning, 'cause fotter made me promise only to travel in de daytime."

Grinning and putting out a hand, he says "My right name's Jacob d'Deneith, but everybody calls me Ducats, 'cause I know how to get 'em. And this is my man Cash Money. I mean, my dog. Is my man."

Karl: "Hi Cash Money. He looks hungry."

ehiker133 wrote:

"Then... man is truly man's best friend, I suppose?"

To Caby :"I thought Dog was man's best friend."

To Karl "I bet he is, because I could eat a horse and wonder when the steak was comin'."

(I imagine Ducats sounding more or less like one of the morons in a Guy Ritchie movie)

(or maybe RIngo on speed)

(and Cash Money resembles the dog in this strip http://achewood.com/index.php?date=06192006)

Cole wrote:

(I imagine Ducats sounding more or less like one of the morons in a Guy Ritchie movie)

[hahaha, that's exactly what I was hearing in my head. Out of curiosity, when he says Deneith, does it rhyme with Kenneth, beneath, or Daffy Duck saying 'nice' ? (you've probably heard people in Khorvaire say it all 3 ways, by the way)]

DM wrote:

Cole wrote:

(I imagine Ducats sounding more or less like one of the morons in a Guy Ritchie movie)

[hahaha, that's exactly what I was hearing in my head. Out of curiosity, when he says Deneith, does it rhyme with Kenneth, beneath, or Daffy Duck saying 'nice' ? (you've probably heard people in Khorvaire say it all 3 ways, by the way)]

I always figured it rhymed with "Beneath."

Cole wrote:

I always figured it rhymed with "Beneath."

[Excellent I tend to use different possible pronunciations to illustrate regional dialects. Another btw: I actually thoroughly enjoyed Ritchie's Holmes. Having read all of ACD, I find Downey and Jeremy Brett to be my favorite screen incarnations.]

At the mention of food, all three of you are alerted to the smell of cooking, apparently coming from the Iron Horse. It is especially enticing on a chilly autumn evening, with a cool breeze stirring the leaves around the station and in the street.

You're not sure whose, but someone's stomach growls.

DM wrote:

[Excellent I tend to use different possible pronunciations to illustrate regional dialects. Another btw: I actually thoroughly enjoyed Ritchie's Holmes. Having read all of ACD, I find Downey and Jeremy Brett to be my favorite screen incarnations.]

I always liked Jeremy Brett myself. I have not seen the Ritchie movie but at least from the trailers Downey looked like a good Holmes to me.

ehiker133 wrote:

Caby starts walking to the entrance of the inn...

Ducats follows.

Tagor follows along with the group. "And I'm Tagor, formerly of Thrane, now of wherever the Host deigns it appropriate for me to be. It's certainly a pleasure to make all of your acquaintances.

"My, whatever they're cooking in there is starting to smell good. I'm sure I can probably spare some coin for a good meal and a bed. The food on the caravan was a bit...well, lacking. Not that I'd ever complain - the cook was a nice enough old lady, but there's just not much you can do with salted, er, whatever sort of meat it was.

"Shame to hear that this place has had so much trouble, though. Monsters, and bandits, and border disputes - times're tough all over, I suppose."

((And yes, I am using 'chatty' to attempt to compensate for my not-too-frequent posting!))

Here is a basic bill of fare for all around Khorvaire.

The three of you, and young Karl, enter the Iron Horse and are immediately rewarded with warmth, music, the smell of baking bread and meat and onions, and the heady smell of Karrnathi beer.

An older woman immediately comes your way "Welcome! I am the innkeeper. My name is Frau Blucher. Welcome to Vulyar! Are you here for zee beer festival?"

Without really waiting for an answer, she enthusiastically takes you over to a table. She begins talking about some of the many fine beers they have here, but soon seems to catch on that you're all quite hungry. She apologizes that they have stopped cooking supper the night, but then lists off many things they are cooking to go with the beer. The upshot of this is that you can get either the poor or common meal, but not the 'good' from the list I linked above. The common option consists of 'beeroks,' which she will explain are meat, cabbage, onions and her own grandmother's secret spices, all baked into a pastry. They make many kinds with different sorts of cheese, meat, etc. The poor option is a cold plate of cheese, hard sausage and bread. If you are interested, the beer, which she's careful to point out is certainly not ale, goes up as far as 5 silvers a pint for what is apparently the pride of the area.You can go ahead and spend what you wish on food. I'll give you a chance to talk a bit more, as generally happens when strangers first meet over food.

ehiker133 wrote:

Caby turns to Karl and asks, "Where are you staying this evening, Karl?"

"Uhhh.. I don't know Madam Hafflink. I slept here last night, in the big room upstairs, but that was all my silver."

There are several kinds of cheese, and the bread is quite good, probably from this afternoon. Karl eats enthusiastically and thanks you profusely.

"Oh, he wants people to stay away, he always has. He says after they ran off the claw from out dere, someting was still dere, someting dat didn't leave." He leans in close to all three of you, looks around, then whispers "You know about de Emerald Claw, don't you? Fotter says de soldiers ran dem all off back during de war. But someting stayed, out dere in de pit, out in de hills, north of all de farms."

Listening to him for a bit, you can tell Karl doesn't know a great deal of detail about The Emerald Claw. He does offer the following, mostly taken from what he's heard his family and a few others say:

- in the first part of the war, they were the greatest order of knights in Karrnath, and great heroes
- more than just knights, their order sounds like it was something of a secret society, with unknown 'dark rites'
- they had something to do with the introduction of the undead toops, which are seen as a frightening, creepy necessity
- it turned out they were actually traitors to king and country, and were disbanded and outlawed by the crown
- they are now widely known throughout Khorvaire as small groups of violent and dangerous people opposed to the Treaty of Thronehold
- they used to have some sort of small base north of Vom during the war, known locally as the 'claw pit' since part of it is apparently down in a ravine in the hills.

As you talk, you see revelers in groups coming and going. They sing, drink, eat, get more drunk, then leave to apparently head for one of the other taverns in town. You also see several dwarves who eat by themselves, stay fairly quiet, and then go upstairs. Many of the people eye them suspiciously, and the more drunk of the revelers give them outright dirty looks.

Also, one of the two wenches who you've seen serving beer to the groups of revelers brings meat scraps and a large bone to Cash Money, who then busies himself gnawing away under the table.

DM wrote:

As you talk, you see revelers in groups coming and going. They sing, drink, eat, get more drunk, then leave to apparently head for one of the other taverns in town. You also see several dwarves who eat by themselves, stay fairly quiet, and then go upstairs. Many of the people eye them suspiciously, and the more drunk of the revelers give them outright dirty looks.

Ducats will ask one of the serving girls what they groups of people are celebrating.