A Lover Not A Viter

Earlier in the Day,
John had encountered a girl having trouble with her horse, claiming a fox ran
directly at it and startled it. John helped her calm it down and they talked
about how they like horses briefly, before she invited him to the birthing of some
of her new calves that evening. He agreed and they set off. John wandered
around the city shops for a bit, upgrading his weapon and buying armour from a
sleazy blacksmith lady.

That evening, he
went to the stable that Caly had mentioned, and found it lit with candles and
ambience filled with the screeching whinnies of a horse in labour pain. They
together helped this horse give birth, in a romantic way, and John helped put
out the fire that the candles started. Caly made an advance that John was
oblivious to and he headed back to the city walls.

He encountered an
old man who tried to guilt him into helping him find his family artifacts, but
John managed to ditch him and find the girls at a seedy tavern near Estbridge,
where a little boy with a large empty tankard of alcohol passed him on the way
in. John tried to give this little lad a life lesson and almost succeeded in
antagonizing the entire tavern. Poison told him they were going on a little
trip and he followed along.

They returned to the
cart first and poison tried to convince Brob to help, taking the angle that it
would be fun. This convinced Brob who trotted along with them.

The group of them
went to Estbridge where they found freshly cleaned vomit on a doorstep, where
there was a hasty attempt to clean it up. Brob climbed around to the back and
up the house, where a while later he popped out the front door, stating that
everyone in the house was asleep anyways and he was not needed.

John and Pois
entered to find a slew of orcs asleep in the midst of eating, playing cards,
and  doing other things. They went to the
top floor to find a room where Leedy was asleep with the body of the cold
kingdom agent nearby. Poison stabbed Leedy deeply and he wasn't able to get up
in time to stop from being assassinated. The two of them exited the sleeping
house without further incident.

As they went off to
return to their cart, the group of them witnessed a tall robed figure passing
through a plaza. There was a whistling of arrows and the figure doubled over,
its assailants disappearing over the rooftops. The Poison and John ran up to him
and met another onlooker, a human magician named Darko. Darko helped them carry
the bleeding form towards help, and they managed to find a healer.

The reptillian
creature introduced itself as Viter and thanked the group profusely for helping
him. He paid the healers handsomly and invited the group to his villa to
arrange a proper feast.

The group found a
walled compound in the city with a carefully controlled climate, hot and humid
with a lot of plants. They were taken to a lavish building and given rich
accomodations, with a variety of spiced meats and entertainment (We have
procured a pig and put grease on it, you may chase it!) they were taken in for
an extravagant feast of delicious meats and horribly cooked vegetables. Viter
stood up and announced to the assembly that these are the heroes who saved him,
and awarded them a princely sum of gold. He announced that they would be
working together in the future, and the assembly applauded.

In private near
their quarters, Viter offered them a contract of a significant sum of money to
bully a local merchant into trading through their organization. A little
sketched out, the group left and ran off into the comparative cold of the city.
They found their edgemobile back in the merchant square, with Soft Eddie
apologetically explaining that the old man John had run into had guilted him
into offering help.