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((Great fight! Also I hate to be pedantic but I'd just like to point it's not a 'clumsy move' that hip throw is a Judo O Goshi technique and it's saved my bacon quite a number of times in a lot of fights. So if I failed to convey the proper maneuver with a staff my bad, but yeah, I'd just like to properly represent the fighting style even if it's in writing form 8D. Again, great fights!))

"And that, is how ye put a bloke on his back." Pint wheezed and offered his hand down to Mokk to help him get back up. "Ye alright there laddie??"

So this was the Royal Mile; not much different from the Bee and Barb in Riften, except for the crowd. By the looks of it, he’d just missed a fight or something, what with the furniture strewn about or broken and the bruised or bleeding patrons.

Avoiding the mess, he went to the back table, or as far back as he could have gone, ordering a cooked fish and some red wine when one of the servers asked him his order. As soon as she was gone, he took out his ebony dagger and a whetstone, sharpening his blade.

Brenna cheered with the rest that had sided with Pint as Mokk hit the floor, but her eyes drifted to the door as yet another customer opened the tavern door and entered. Her gaze flicked toward him a few times as he strode toward the back of the inn.

If nothing else, The Royal Mile Inn was certainly giving her a broader education in the various races of the world. The pale lizardy-looking creature was nearly as strange to her as the rhinoman. And the fact that he immediately took to sharpening an ebony dagger didn't help put her mind at ease.

"He looks friendly, huh?" she said to Lady Helena and Caitlin, suddenly dying to get the opinionated woman's take on this one.

Mokk was sure his attempt to toss the dwarf would be surprising enough. It took longer to secure a hold on such a slippery opponent. Expert use of the staff also kept the Rhinoman from maneuvering properly. Instead of getting a firm grasp, his four fingered hands slipped.

It didn’t help that the dwarf pulled the same move Mokk tried. Pint had better center of gravity at his height, with plenty of strength. Mokk landed with a heavy thud. The fight was declared for Pint right afterwards. Without missing a beat, Mokk’s huge belly rose and fell with repeated laughter.

“Get off me er at least by me a drink first”, joked the jovial beast. After Pint helped him up, he ripped the bandage off his horn. As the chattering picked up, Mokk shrugged it off. Humans and their bias.” He dusted himself off with a wide grin. “That was good stuff. Pleasure to train wiv ya mate.”

“Where’s that ale?” The idea of a grain based beverage sounded so good to the man who could eat pounds of barley as a snack. “ Mokk nodded to Pint as he spoke.

(As a WoW dwarf RPer, I don’t mind that outcome at all. I was also going for a judo style, though based more on generic concepts. That worked out well!)

((Sorry for the delay))

The two latest arrivals are Mistress Weather and Dalin, her dwarf companion. Neemus arrives, and Bald Mick announces that it is pitch black outside and closes the door. Neemus is given a choice of menu items, chicken stew or fish pie, and chooses the fish pie.

"That was a good fight" says Peter, Captain Baring's second in command, "we'd sign you up, but you don't want to be a soldier. Low pay and we don't have proper horses. Despite the taxes being so high".

The Petulan ambassador hands over a large sum of money to Macey.
"Of course I'll treat you all" says Macey, "at His Excellency's expense. Drinks all round."
He takes requests for drinks. Lady Helena and the Petulan ambassador opt for wine, which they share.
"And a beer for the fighters?" Macey asks.

"We've got some real riff raff in now" says Lady Helena, to Brenna, "look at that wretched witch woman. As for the dragonborn, you want to keep away from them. Not nice people, generally. That's the problem with travelling, the Inn has got to let just anybody in. It can't keep people out."
"Brenna, do you want some of our wine?" Caitlin asks.

"What will we do next for entertainment?" says Macey, "Another fight would be boring. And I think we're all tired of backgammon."

Pint cackled a bit, "I'd buy ye one, mate, but it looks like someone's got that covered already." Too bad that all the beer here tasted like piss, Pint thought, though he wasn't about to say that out loud and in front Mokk too. He'll just have to get disappointed once he tried it. "Ye got some moves there, lad." He added. "I'd like to see ye set loose on them orcs prowling 'round. Bet ye could really crack some skulls."

"Ye got that right." Muttered Pint as he turned to the second in command who jokingly said something about conscripting them. Really, more than the lack of good pay and mounts, Pint hated the idea of being in the army because of all the strict rules. If he wanted to be a soldier he had ample opportunities to do that at clan Bloodhorns, and there the pay was much better. Nah, he much rather be his own boss.

Pint tossed the quarterstaff to one of the soldier's to catch and went to join Brenna. "Not bad, eh?" He dusted his hands and gave the rogue a look, it wasn't so much a glare but more a 'Don't doubt me again' kind of look for when she had stared at him earlier when a fight was suggested. "Feeling safe traveling with me yet?"

The dwarf had to roll his eyes when Macey wondered out loud what could they next do for entertainment. "Donna look at me. Wot do I look like? A bard or something?" He certainly wasn't paid to entertain people, and that brawl was more for his own amusement than anything.

((Sorry for the delay. Digging my way out of a backlog after traveling last week...))

"I would try a little," Brenna replied to Caitlin's offer of the wine. And as Macey asked about entertainment she shrugged, "There was dominos as well. But it seems like dinner shouldn't be too much longer now..." At least she hoped.

"Hey... I said you'd win," she said as Pint strolled over to her. "But that was still pretty impressive, throwing him to the floor like that."

"Dominos is boring" says Lady Helena, "It's a game peasants play with each other in the local tavern."

"What I recommend is domino tapping" says Macey, "absolutely capital fun. But you need a lot of boxes of dominos."

"We've only got two boxes" says Martha, the embittered barmaid.

"We could play a drinking game" says the Petulan ambassador.

"Mistress Weather tells fortunes" says Dalin, her dwarf companion, "only two silvers a time. But she only ever predicts bad things."
"Do we dare?" asks Captain Baring.
"Oh please Papa" says Caitlin, "Can we have fortunes told? I'll go first, as long as everybody else promises to have theirs."
"We'll have to see what the others say" says Macey.

"Really?" Brenna asks Lady Helena, feigning a wide-eyed stare, as if the woman was truly educating her in the ways of the peasantry. Despite her noble father, Brenna had still been raised mostly by her mother and was well acquainted with the popular tavern game. The woman was aggravating her more every time she opened her mouth. "Here I thought they played nothing but checkers."

Luckily, Dalin suggested a fun alternative. Plus it was cheap enough that she could actually afford it. "Why not," she agreed to Macey and Mistress Weather and pulled out her two silver coins. She didn't put too much stock in fortune tellers, even if she did believe there was probably some truth in their predictions. Nothing of the future was set in stone and a prediction of something bad only gave one a chance to right it before it ever happened. Assuming the woman wasn't simply a charlatan.

Mokk laughed as he listened to Pint and the Captain talk. He wouldn't likely mind the taste of the beer. His palate was one that favored grains. This meant hops tasted entirely differently to the Rhinoman. It was much more agreeable, not quite sweet, but fulfilling nonetheless.

A barkeep brought a cold pint to Mokk as Pint mentioned his drink being covered. "Great fightin' to ye too, lad." He took a loud sip of beer. "Never underestimate a dwarf, me always say." His wide face flashed a quick grin.

Turning to the Captain, he said. "Ah, the soldier life ain't nothin' to me, good lad. I'm here on behalf of me people... Scouting. I'm to prepare a report on the conflict and send it back to me superiors." With a smirk he added. "Best way to do that is ta get involved, eh?"

The large map took another long drag on the cold mug. He took it away to look closer at it. These hops weren't as fragrant as he expected them to be. EH.... He took another sip. Twisting his shoulder, he stretched his sore back.

Fortune telling? This ought to be interesting. Pint sat nearby and leaned in close to see what the cards had to say about Brenna's future-- assuming she'd let him though, he wasn't entirely sure this was a private reading or not.

"Oh, I'm first now, huh?" she said with a shrug, looking to Caitlin in case the girl really still wanted to go first. If so, she'd let her.

Growing up, one of her friends, a girl named Rosy, had told her fortune once with a deck of tarot cards. It was naught but a silly game and they'd spent the following days trying to connect every little thing that happened back to the reading. She smiled slightly at the memory.

"Okay, let's find out what bad luck shall befall me..."


(Can't do custom die roll number, so hopefully this works out okay...)

Mistress Weather asks Brenna to turn over the first two cards. The first is 71 - 56 = 15, the devil. The second is the second card of the second suit, so the two of cups.

"Cups are also hearts" cackles Mistress Weather, "so I see two hearts together, or a love affair. With a demon lover, a man who has devilish lust in his heart."

She pauses, to see how Brenna will react.

But it is Caitlin who interrupts. "You cheated Brenna" she exclaims, "I was to go first. That is my reading!"

"Well, why didn't you jump in here, then?" she asks with a laugh to Caitlin. "Too slow," she teased, her tone jovial to show she meant nothing serious by it. "Now the tall, dark, and handsome lover is mine!"

Looking back to Mistress Weather, she asks, "Will I meet him soon?"

Or had she already? Her thoughts drifted for a moment to the man she'd encountered just last week named Nikoli, who was tall and handsome, but definitely not dark. He'd brought a locked box to Seth's shop to be opened and rekeyed and they'd spent several hours lost in conversation.

Even if she did not put much stock in fortune tellers, it was still fun to play along...

Since you ask, says Mistress Weather, we will go directly to the future, and pass over the other cards. She indicates a card to Brenna to turn over.
((Roll as before, re-rolling if you get a card already drawn))

Here was bound to be the forewarned bad prediction, she thought, flipping over the future card.

Brenna turns over the three of swords.

"First the second card of the second suit, now the third card of the third suit" says Mistress Weather, "Very unusual and powerful. The cards are telling us that the numbers are important, and you will meet this wicked man in three days. But also that a third person will be involved, and there will be conflict."

"Mistress Weather's prediction has come true already", says Caitlin, "Brenna, the man is Henry Fitzroy. It can't be anyone else. And both you and I shall love him. But he won't be yours, because you have the bad luck. I know that he loves me."

"All stuff and nonsense" says the Petulan ambassador, "Caitlin, you must not have been told yet. But the Lady Helena and I are traveling to Great Whiteminster because a marriage has been arranged between Lady Helena and Henry Fitzroy. All the court is buzzing with the news."

Lady Helena scowls.

"You thought you could evade the bad luck by having the reading taken by Brenna" says Dalin the dwarf, to Caitlin, "but it doesn't work like that. Mistress Weather reveals bad things, adn bad news has been revealed to you." He turns to the others.
"Does anyone else dare have a fortune read for them?"

"You two can fight over him," Brenna says to Caitlin and Lady Helena.

Her own chances of even meeting Henry Fitzroy seemed exceedingly slim. She had no intention of going to court in Great Whiteminster.

"What of the rest of the cards, Mistress Weather?" she asks the fortune teller, gesturing to the cards that remained hidden.

"You haven't met Henry Fitzroy" says Caitlin to Brenna, "When you will do, you will understand. The cards say you will fall in love with him. Don't say you will ignore him, because you won't. Every woman in Great Whiteminster wants him. He's the son of the King, and so handsome."

"Well I'm to marry him, the King of Petula and King Duncan have agreed", says Lady Helena, "and I can't get out of it. I should be marrying a Prince or an Earl at least, but apparently a bastard is good enough for Lady Helena." Her face twists into a bitter scowl. "Of course he should be marrying a merchant's daughter. That's right and appropriate and doubtless he'll make her happy. But the King doesn't have a son, so he's treating him as his real son, which he's not, and showering honours and wealth upon him. It's not right."

"Let's see what will happen when Brenna meets Henry Fitzroy" says Caitlin, "Go on, Mistress Weather, turn over the final cards".

Mistress Weather points to four cards arranged in a staff. "This is herself" she says, "This is others", "These are her hopes and fears". She gets Brenna to turn over the cards, "And this will be the final outcome."

((Four cards as before ))

"Yourself" intones Mistress Weather, and Brenna turns over card 19, or the Sun. "Others", and she turns over card 20, Judgement. "These are your hopes and fears" says Mistress Weather, and Brenna turns over card 1, The Magician. "All three trumps", says Mistress Weather, "this indicates that something important is going to happen. The Sun is yourself, you are currently happy and innocent, radiating joyfulness. But when you meet this man, others will judge you very harshly. I see you are unsure whether this reading has any meaning or not, that's why your hopes and fears are the Magician. Now lets see what the final outcome will be".

Brenna turns over the final card. It is the fifth card of the first suit, the five of wands.

"Very weak", says Mistress Weather, "the five of wands represents nothing but conflict. This man will be bad for you, you won't get any money or any love, or anything important out of him. And there are no court cards at all in the whole of the reading, which is unusual. That means that, wherever you meet this man, it will not be at court."

"Never mind, Brenna" says Caitlin, "the others will have equally bad luck. Who is to go next?"