Post by Celina Zabinski on Aug 8, 2021 0:30:27 GMT
The First Rule About Fight Club...
is you don't talk about fight club
Written by Celina Zabinski
So I am back in Daring Heights. The day is super-hot. Everyone is melting however I feel perfectly fine. I mean I am a tiefling, it’s in my blood to be fine with this type of heat. I spot Varga and Kelne and they look sweaty. I also realise I haven’t talked to them since… I was… well… a statue. I guess I needed to repay them… or whatever… so I offered to bring them out drinking and mention that I would pay. I can see Varga has her creature with her on her shoulder, the dust bunny. They both agree, so we end up doing like a pub crawl. However, because I’m paying I ask the bartenders in each place to give their cheapest alcohol. I mean I’m paying but like I am not going too crazy or anything. As I’m drinking the alcohol I can tell it’s super watered down, but I say nothing. Cheap is cheap. We get to about three different places. Then as we’re walking down Swamp Road in Portal Plaza heading to our next location, someone calls out to Varga across the street. They look like a rogue… I try to play cool but I am intrigued. I find out this person's name is Sorrel. Sorrel tells us that she knows of an abandoned warehouse where there’s fighting and drinking. I mean that sounds fun to me. I look to Varga knowing this is her type of thing as well. Varga is sold. Then Sorrel turns to us, I introduce myself as Celina the shop keeper and that I sell apples. I go on to ramble saying I can now kill people with apples and I immediately regret saying that information out loud. I mean is my humble shop appearance destroyed? Varga just nods and says that’s good advertisement for my shop. Sorrel eyes me suspiciously and Kelne says nothing at all and introduces themselves to Sorrel. After everyone is done, Sorrel asks if we’re all ready to go. She then changes her cloak dramatically, looking fabulous and then leads us on the way to McAddams warehouse.
As we arrive, I notice the people here are look like the usual sort of people I use to hang with, especially the ones I knew back at home. The shady kind of people. The feelings remind me of being with Ludwig in the good times and I immediately feel happy and comforted. I smile and head in to the place. We go in, take a seat and we’re immediately greeted by a small goblin named Bucket, who happened to have a very squeaky wheelbarrow. He tells us he sells ale and it tastes good. I am about to haggle with him on the price and before I can say anything he mentions that the ale is only 3 coppers. I am baffled by how cheap the price is. Sorrel hands Bucket one gold and says keep the ale coming. Bucket bites hard down on the gold piece and then smiles once he's realises it's real gold and he walks off to get more ale for the group. I love Bucket's attitude, he’s clearly in charge of the place and keeps everyone on their toes. Likes to throw banter at everyone, we can see it as he's walking away. My kind of person! I smile. “Yes I am very happy to be here”, I think to myself.
Bucket comes back over and then tells us the low down, that if we want to fight and or gamble we sign up over there. He points towards an area with a queue forming, with a dragonborn person in charge. He then mentions they have their main fighters here as well today, Carlin and Baine. We ask who would be a good bet between those fighters. Bucket thinks for a moment and then agrees it would be Baine, the man who wears the flower crown. Bucket mentioned if anyone asks we didn’t hear this information from him. He taps his nose, smiles, then takes his wheelbarrow and walks away. We turn to Varga and see if she’s ready to fight. I am getting pretty drunk at this point and I announce to everyone in the room that Varga is going to crush them all. Which ends up getting a round of cheers from the people around us. I laugh happily with myself.
We then all decide to head over to the dragonborn to place our bets and so Varga can sign up. When we get there, Varga walks straight up to the dragonborn and demands to be signed up. The dragonborn announces that he would do that, however she just needs to join the queue and wait her turn. Varga then picks up a kobold who was next in line, she looks like she’s about to throw this person across the room. Sorrel immediately jumps in and says that she’s her manager and you know she’s only just out of jail. Then she turns to Varga and says "Remember it’s like being on death row. You have to queue up and wait your turn". I am cackling to myself. This stuff is gold. Varga seems to listen to Sorrel and tries to play the part. She then puts down the Kobold in a huff but she joins the queue. The Kobold who was next in line makes a scared look towards Varga but quickly does their business and leaves. We wait patiently in line and I'm just laughing to myself. And before we know it it's our turn. Varga signs up to fight and the rest of us place our bets on her, of course. The odds aren't in her favour, so if she does win it means a lot of money for us. We ask who her opponent is and learn it’s someone called Tricky Otto. We also place a bet on the Carlin and Baine fight, in favour of Baine to win. We head back to the table and Bucket comes back over to fill us up with more ale. I ask him what he can tell us about this Tricky Otto person. He then tells us that Tricky Otto is in fact a female Halfling. She dresses like a sailor and looks like a pirate with bright orange hair. I think all of us are shocked to learn Varga’s opponent is a Halfling. I immediately want to know more about this person and I decide to keep my eyes out in the room for a bright orange haired Halfling. Sure enough I spot her within a few moment and so does Kelne. We look at each other and I believe we mutually agree we should pay our new friend a visit before the fight. Part of me wants to get the intel on her weaknesses and I have a plan so this might work. I turn to the rest of the group and say let’s split up and that we’ll be back in a bit. And before Varga or Sorrel can answer, Kelne and I are gone. We beeline straight for Tricky Otto.
When we approach I can see she’s wearing a leather duster and her hair is in a ponytail. I pretend to be a fan of hers, but for some reason she keeps up a hostile attitude. We offer to buy her a drink before the fight and she says that she doesn’t drink before she fights. I try and keep it friendly but this girl is just not receptive to me. I decided to try and trick her and I ask her a question about what her biggest concern was right now using ‘Detect Thoughts’. I was really hoping I would get Intel on her weakness for the fight. However all I learn is that right now she is getting sweaty and that she’s being bothering by a tiefling. That in fact the tiefling is blocking her from the Halfling she actually wants to get to know more. I immediately turn and realise Kelne is the only Halfling around it has to be her. I say to Kelne that I don’t think she’s going to answer anything for me but you know… maybe you could do better at being persuasive to her. Then I panic and start to realise I don’t know how old Kelne is. Is she a child? Halflings are definitely hard to read ages. I find out she's not a child but while we're in the middle of discussing this Tricky Otto disappears before we can say anything else to her.
Kelne and I head back over to Varga & Sorrel. Within moments of getting back, we hear an announcement and learn that it’s now Varga’s turn to fight. We all head over to the ring and watch Varga as she gets into the ring. We give her words of encouragement. Then in comes Tricky Otto, she vaults over the ropes and lands fabulously. It’s impressive. And then before we know it, the fight begins. Varga immediately starts of strong with her attacks. She gets some good hits in but somehow Tricky Otto is still standing. Next Tricky Otto retaliates back at Varga and it begins to not look good for Varga. All of us start questioning if Varga will actually win this thing. Then Kelne turns to me and asks my opinion on how to romance someone. I tell her sometimes its fun to wink at people and Kelne does her attempt at a wink. It’s the funniest wink I’ve ever seen. I think this must be a Halfling thing and I say you got it. Kelne immediately turns towards the ring and starts trying to do her wink towards Tricky Otto. I work it out, they like each other. I smile and then I decide to help wing woman style by using my Thaumaturgy to get Tricky Otto’s attention to look over towards us. Sure enough it works, Tricky Otto looks up and sees Kelne doing her wink. She is immediately flustered and it’s enough for Varga to make her final blows. With that Tricky Otto is down and Varga wins! It’s gets called officially and the crowds start shouting happily for Varga. Some boos also ring through the crowd. Kelne immediately jumps into the ring and goes to help Tricky Otto. I feel like I need to leave those love birds alone, so I leave them be. I immediately start thinking of all gold I am going to get and stop paying attention to much. I feel far too drunk to function, so I start walking around aimlessly. I spot Varga and she’s talking to that Baine fellow. I can also see Sorrel there. I immediately walk over trying to get in on the conversation but I can’t keep up. It all sounds mumbled and I just laugh. Baine puts his hand on my shoulder, says some words and I am immediately awake and alert. I don’t feel drunk. He then asks me if I’ve been to a place called Harnish? A fighting place for Orcs and stuff. I look towards him confused and say no. I am still stunned at the fact that I’m no longer feeling drunk. I don’t like this feeling its weird. I take a few steps away from the group and I am just about to head to the bar to get more drink when I put my hands into my pockets and notice a pouch is there.
I think this is odd, I can't recall having any random pouches in my pocket before. I am curious, so I take it out and open it. I notice there's 6 silver coins and a note written in thieves cant symbols. It appears to be a job opportunity, something to do with proving loyalty to something and it is signed by someone called 'The Patriot'. This is all quite fascinating. I took up and try to notice who my mysterious note giver is and I quickly spot a hooded person going towards the back of the warehouse. I immediately go and follow then and forget about the others. I stealth over and see they’ve taken a seat in a quieter part of the building. I go up beside them and try and introduce myself. This person lifts their hood down and I spot it’s the kobold from earlier that Varga had handled. The person then begins talking and says they have been watching me and are interested in giving me an opportunity to come to the Red House. They then tease me by saying sure enough you can find out more about this place. Then before I can say anything else they mention "Will this interfere with your former employers?"
I immediately panic. “The Silver Vipers… I haven’t thought about that group since I fled. I owe them lots of money… they think I killed Ludwig… I didn't do it but to them it must have looked bad. I have no clue anymore what they must think. Do they even know where I am…?”. I tell this person "I am not sure who you're talking about" and they give me a look and say “We both know who I’m referring too”. Again more panic, I haven't heard anything about my past in so long. I thought I did a great job of hiding it. But I realise there’s clearly no hiding from this person. They see straight through me and the lies. I look to them and say nervously "Well surely it’s not going to be a problem because they have no clue where I am... right?". They then reply and say “Who are you trying to convince? Me or You?”. They’re right! I am so shaken I have no clue what’s real anymore. They then say to come by the Red House in Daring Height sometime. I try to get this person’s name and they say I already know it. I tell them they should come by my shop sometime and I try to explain about my apples. But they think it’s something entirely different that I am implying. I'm embarrassed but then they quickly disappear and I am left alone and shaken. I sit there thinking to myself “Ok on one hand, this is exciting. On the other, if that person can find me so easily can the Silver Vipers find me like that as well? I am going to need some protection from my old gang, so I am curious to see where this will go. I haven’t had a big job opportunity like this in… well a while… Ludwig always got us into these things… However I probably should start doing things without him. But do I want to?”. I get up and start making my way back over to the rest of the group. I am in such a weird mood, I am just picking up random pints of ale along the way and knocking them back. I want to somewhat forget parts of that last interaction.
It's getting late and we are sitting around the table, when there’s a drinking contest mentioned between the four of us. I am so exciting for this. Bucket hears this and comes over. He gets us all ale and counts us down. On three, we all start drinking. I look around and I can see Sorrel is miles behind and so was Kelne. However it is clear it's neck and neck between me and Varga. I am determined to beat her. But all of a sudden Varga slams down her pint and it's clear she's the winner. I am upset but I feel with everything going on it makes sense. I don't want to tell anyone at the table about what I learnt though. Bucket then comes over and congratulates all of us. It's obvious now, we’re one of the last few people around. We get up to leave, as we do Bucket shouts over “Come again. Bring your gold”. As I am leaving the warehouse I think to myself “What a weird and delightful day. Now... what can I find out about this Red House”.
is you don't talk about fight club
Written by Celina Zabinski
So I am back in Daring Heights. The day is super-hot. Everyone is melting however I feel perfectly fine. I mean I am a tiefling, it’s in my blood to be fine with this type of heat. I spot Varga and Kelne and they look sweaty. I also realise I haven’t talked to them since… I was… well… a statue. I guess I needed to repay them… or whatever… so I offered to bring them out drinking and mention that I would pay. I can see Varga has her creature with her on her shoulder, the dust bunny. They both agree, so we end up doing like a pub crawl. However, because I’m paying I ask the bartenders in each place to give their cheapest alcohol. I mean I’m paying but like I am not going too crazy or anything. As I’m drinking the alcohol I can tell it’s super watered down, but I say nothing. Cheap is cheap. We get to about three different places. Then as we’re walking down Swamp Road in Portal Plaza heading to our next location, someone calls out to Varga across the street. They look like a rogue… I try to play cool but I am intrigued. I find out this person's name is Sorrel. Sorrel tells us that she knows of an abandoned warehouse where there’s fighting and drinking. I mean that sounds fun to me. I look to Varga knowing this is her type of thing as well. Varga is sold. Then Sorrel turns to us, I introduce myself as Celina the shop keeper and that I sell apples. I go on to ramble saying I can now kill people with apples and I immediately regret saying that information out loud. I mean is my humble shop appearance destroyed? Varga just nods and says that’s good advertisement for my shop. Sorrel eyes me suspiciously and Kelne says nothing at all and introduces themselves to Sorrel. After everyone is done, Sorrel asks if we’re all ready to go. She then changes her cloak dramatically, looking fabulous and then leads us on the way to McAddams warehouse.
As we arrive, I notice the people here are look like the usual sort of people I use to hang with, especially the ones I knew back at home. The shady kind of people. The feelings remind me of being with Ludwig in the good times and I immediately feel happy and comforted. I smile and head in to the place. We go in, take a seat and we’re immediately greeted by a small goblin named Bucket, who happened to have a very squeaky wheelbarrow. He tells us he sells ale and it tastes good. I am about to haggle with him on the price and before I can say anything he mentions that the ale is only 3 coppers. I am baffled by how cheap the price is. Sorrel hands Bucket one gold and says keep the ale coming. Bucket bites hard down on the gold piece and then smiles once he's realises it's real gold and he walks off to get more ale for the group. I love Bucket's attitude, he’s clearly in charge of the place and keeps everyone on their toes. Likes to throw banter at everyone, we can see it as he's walking away. My kind of person! I smile. “Yes I am very happy to be here”, I think to myself.
Bucket comes back over and then tells us the low down, that if we want to fight and or gamble we sign up over there. He points towards an area with a queue forming, with a dragonborn person in charge. He then mentions they have their main fighters here as well today, Carlin and Baine. We ask who would be a good bet between those fighters. Bucket thinks for a moment and then agrees it would be Baine, the man who wears the flower crown. Bucket mentioned if anyone asks we didn’t hear this information from him. He taps his nose, smiles, then takes his wheelbarrow and walks away. We turn to Varga and see if she’s ready to fight. I am getting pretty drunk at this point and I announce to everyone in the room that Varga is going to crush them all. Which ends up getting a round of cheers from the people around us. I laugh happily with myself.
We then all decide to head over to the dragonborn to place our bets and so Varga can sign up. When we get there, Varga walks straight up to the dragonborn and demands to be signed up. The dragonborn announces that he would do that, however she just needs to join the queue and wait her turn. Varga then picks up a kobold who was next in line, she looks like she’s about to throw this person across the room. Sorrel immediately jumps in and says that she’s her manager and you know she’s only just out of jail. Then she turns to Varga and says "Remember it’s like being on death row. You have to queue up and wait your turn". I am cackling to myself. This stuff is gold. Varga seems to listen to Sorrel and tries to play the part. She then puts down the Kobold in a huff but she joins the queue. The Kobold who was next in line makes a scared look towards Varga but quickly does their business and leaves. We wait patiently in line and I'm just laughing to myself. And before we know it it's our turn. Varga signs up to fight and the rest of us place our bets on her, of course. The odds aren't in her favour, so if she does win it means a lot of money for us. We ask who her opponent is and learn it’s someone called Tricky Otto. We also place a bet on the Carlin and Baine fight, in favour of Baine to win. We head back to the table and Bucket comes back over to fill us up with more ale. I ask him what he can tell us about this Tricky Otto person. He then tells us that Tricky Otto is in fact a female Halfling. She dresses like a sailor and looks like a pirate with bright orange hair. I think all of us are shocked to learn Varga’s opponent is a Halfling. I immediately want to know more about this person and I decide to keep my eyes out in the room for a bright orange haired Halfling. Sure enough I spot her within a few moment and so does Kelne. We look at each other and I believe we mutually agree we should pay our new friend a visit before the fight. Part of me wants to get the intel on her weaknesses and I have a plan so this might work. I turn to the rest of the group and say let’s split up and that we’ll be back in a bit. And before Varga or Sorrel can answer, Kelne and I are gone. We beeline straight for Tricky Otto.
When we approach I can see she’s wearing a leather duster and her hair is in a ponytail. I pretend to be a fan of hers, but for some reason she keeps up a hostile attitude. We offer to buy her a drink before the fight and she says that she doesn’t drink before she fights. I try and keep it friendly but this girl is just not receptive to me. I decided to try and trick her and I ask her a question about what her biggest concern was right now using ‘Detect Thoughts’. I was really hoping I would get Intel on her weakness for the fight. However all I learn is that right now she is getting sweaty and that she’s being bothering by a tiefling. That in fact the tiefling is blocking her from the Halfling she actually wants to get to know more. I immediately turn and realise Kelne is the only Halfling around it has to be her. I say to Kelne that I don’t think she’s going to answer anything for me but you know… maybe you could do better at being persuasive to her. Then I panic and start to realise I don’t know how old Kelne is. Is she a child? Halflings are definitely hard to read ages. I find out she's not a child but while we're in the middle of discussing this Tricky Otto disappears before we can say anything else to her.
Kelne and I head back over to Varga & Sorrel. Within moments of getting back, we hear an announcement and learn that it’s now Varga’s turn to fight. We all head over to the ring and watch Varga as she gets into the ring. We give her words of encouragement. Then in comes Tricky Otto, she vaults over the ropes and lands fabulously. It’s impressive. And then before we know it, the fight begins. Varga immediately starts of strong with her attacks. She gets some good hits in but somehow Tricky Otto is still standing. Next Tricky Otto retaliates back at Varga and it begins to not look good for Varga. All of us start questioning if Varga will actually win this thing. Then Kelne turns to me and asks my opinion on how to romance someone. I tell her sometimes its fun to wink at people and Kelne does her attempt at a wink. It’s the funniest wink I’ve ever seen. I think this must be a Halfling thing and I say you got it. Kelne immediately turns towards the ring and starts trying to do her wink towards Tricky Otto. I work it out, they like each other. I smile and then I decide to help wing woman style by using my Thaumaturgy to get Tricky Otto’s attention to look over towards us. Sure enough it works, Tricky Otto looks up and sees Kelne doing her wink. She is immediately flustered and it’s enough for Varga to make her final blows. With that Tricky Otto is down and Varga wins! It’s gets called officially and the crowds start shouting happily for Varga. Some boos also ring through the crowd. Kelne immediately jumps into the ring and goes to help Tricky Otto. I feel like I need to leave those love birds alone, so I leave them be. I immediately start thinking of all gold I am going to get and stop paying attention to much. I feel far too drunk to function, so I start walking around aimlessly. I spot Varga and she’s talking to that Baine fellow. I can also see Sorrel there. I immediately walk over trying to get in on the conversation but I can’t keep up. It all sounds mumbled and I just laugh. Baine puts his hand on my shoulder, says some words and I am immediately awake and alert. I don’t feel drunk. He then asks me if I’ve been to a place called Harnish? A fighting place for Orcs and stuff. I look towards him confused and say no. I am still stunned at the fact that I’m no longer feeling drunk. I don’t like this feeling its weird. I take a few steps away from the group and I am just about to head to the bar to get more drink when I put my hands into my pockets and notice a pouch is there.
I think this is odd, I can't recall having any random pouches in my pocket before. I am curious, so I take it out and open it. I notice there's 6 silver coins and a note written in thieves cant symbols. It appears to be a job opportunity, something to do with proving loyalty to something and it is signed by someone called 'The Patriot'. This is all quite fascinating. I took up and try to notice who my mysterious note giver is and I quickly spot a hooded person going towards the back of the warehouse. I immediately go and follow then and forget about the others. I stealth over and see they’ve taken a seat in a quieter part of the building. I go up beside them and try and introduce myself. This person lifts their hood down and I spot it’s the kobold from earlier that Varga had handled. The person then begins talking and says they have been watching me and are interested in giving me an opportunity to come to the Red House. They then tease me by saying sure enough you can find out more about this place. Then before I can say anything else they mention "Will this interfere with your former employers?"
I immediately panic. “The Silver Vipers… I haven’t thought about that group since I fled. I owe them lots of money… they think I killed Ludwig… I didn't do it but to them it must have looked bad. I have no clue anymore what they must think. Do they even know where I am…?”. I tell this person "I am not sure who you're talking about" and they give me a look and say “We both know who I’m referring too”. Again more panic, I haven't heard anything about my past in so long. I thought I did a great job of hiding it. But I realise there’s clearly no hiding from this person. They see straight through me and the lies. I look to them and say nervously "Well surely it’s not going to be a problem because they have no clue where I am... right?". They then reply and say “Who are you trying to convince? Me or You?”. They’re right! I am so shaken I have no clue what’s real anymore. They then say to come by the Red House in Daring Height sometime. I try to get this person’s name and they say I already know it. I tell them they should come by my shop sometime and I try to explain about my apples. But they think it’s something entirely different that I am implying. I'm embarrassed but then they quickly disappear and I am left alone and shaken. I sit there thinking to myself “Ok on one hand, this is exciting. On the other, if that person can find me so easily can the Silver Vipers find me like that as well? I am going to need some protection from my old gang, so I am curious to see where this will go. I haven’t had a big job opportunity like this in… well a while… Ludwig always got us into these things… However I probably should start doing things without him. But do I want to?”. I get up and start making my way back over to the rest of the group. I am in such a weird mood, I am just picking up random pints of ale along the way and knocking them back. I want to somewhat forget parts of that last interaction.
It's getting late and we are sitting around the table, when there’s a drinking contest mentioned between the four of us. I am so exciting for this. Bucket hears this and comes over. He gets us all ale and counts us down. On three, we all start drinking. I look around and I can see Sorrel is miles behind and so was Kelne. However it is clear it's neck and neck between me and Varga. I am determined to beat her. But all of a sudden Varga slams down her pint and it's clear she's the winner. I am upset but I feel with everything going on it makes sense. I don't want to tell anyone at the table about what I learnt though. Bucket then comes over and congratulates all of us. It's obvious now, we’re one of the last few people around. We get up to leave, as we do Bucket shouts over “Come again. Bring your gold”. As I am leaving the warehouse I think to myself “What a weird and delightful day. Now... what can I find out about this Red House”.
