Every fairy tale had a bloody lining. Every one had teeth and claws. [Private]

[wild shape]

Fenn had been out, down the alley at the greenhouse that she liked to spend some of her downtime at. The elven woman that ran it had become a friend, and she was always content to let Fenn come in and tend to the plants sometimes when she just needed to clear her head.

Today she’d walked back to troll skull with several pots tucked in both of her arms to add to her collection. Honeysuckle, she was going to put it around her windows so that it could enjoy the light, and it would smell wonderful as well.

The other one was similar to the moon flowers that she’d been growing only in a different color. Fenn liked the flowers that only bloomed at night. She often got to enjoy them on the nights she chose meditation over sleep. She filled the rest of her evening working on her potions and writing to Nathier.

She pushed her way through the doors of Trollskull Tavern to find three of her four friends there.

“Issa, you’re back.” She greeted the woman with a slight smile on her face, and noticed Bree and Orryn there too.

“Hey.” Fenn set her plants down on a nearby table and looked around to the others in the room.

“So…what’s going on?” Something, generally something was going on. Free time was hard to get these days. Fenn wasn’t actually sure how the hell they got up to some of the things they did aside from being exceedingly nosey. But…it usually worked out, they’d saved the city from chaos more than once, and they’d made a bit of a name for themselves.

She knew she’d have to go home at some point, but for now she was here, and it looked like these three were talking about something when she walked in, or perhaps were about to.

[macabre]

It didn’t take long for the group to congregate in the taproom. Issa liked the Trollskull group and had found it easy to fall into step with them. For the tiefling, it was hard to find a place to call “home” but this particular bar was probably as close to something like it. Waterdeep was relatively safe, safer than Oxenfree for certain, and this particular bar certainly held the closest thing she had to friends. Outside of Mirt. But his own lifestyle and the company he kept was not really fond of Issa. This group was much more her speed.

She poked at Copper, who was feasting on the offering Bree had given him. The pseudodragon kicked a small back leg at her before continuing to gulp down the jerky in two bites. He was going to definitely need a diet at some point if he kept eating that much food in this form.

The tiefling settled down on the stool she had been teetering on as Orryn, Fenn, and Bree all emerged from their respective places. She hooked the heels of her boots around the bottom rung of the stool, getting comfortable.

“I need a bit of help, actually.”

It wasn’t often that Issa worked bounties with a partner. Most bounty hunters preferred to work alone as it was. She had garnered enough of a good reputation to at least not scare away any potential partners just by being who she was, but it was rare to work alongside someone. This job though… this group would be better than another bounty hunter who wasn’t familiar with her or her client.

“I’ve got a new job, a new bounty… It's for Mirt. Well, his neighbor, actually. I thought you all could help me.”

Issa looked at each of them, although without pupils it was hard to tell who she was looking at, really.

“There was a break in at his neighbor’s house yesterday, and a magical instrument was stolen. A lute. The Waterdeep guard checked it out but brushed it off as a random theft. But Mirt and I think we know who did it. The guard says there’s no proof and they can’t just harass the guy without any evidence. So that’s where I come in. And I was hoping you could help me…”

[riffraff]

Bree scrambled up onto a bar stool herself. It was easier than craning her neck to see everyone properly. Well, Orynn, she didn’t need to crane her neck up at everyone else. She watched Copper as he ate. Copper seemed to like nearly everything she made, but Bree was still worried that he would end up hating something she cooked. She was sure that if Copper hated something, it would probably hurt her feelings a bit more than if others did... but he seemed to be enjoying it, so her shoulders relaxed.

Thankfully everyone had arrived quickly, and Bree didn’t need to wallow too much in her worrying thoughts before Issa began to talk about what it was she wanted. A job for Mirt. Bree spun on the stool top until she was properly facing Issa. It was usually easier for her to focus on what someone was saying if she looked at them. Someone had broken into Mirt’s neighbor’s house and stolen a magical instrument. At the mention of a magical instrument, Bree couldn’t help but look towards Orynn. That sounded up his alley, and then her eyes cut back to Issa.

She and Mirt thought they knew who did it, but the Waterdeep guard had checked it out and brushed it off. Supposedly they didn’t want to harass some guy without evidence. Bree’s eyes narrowed.

Bree didn’t like most guards. They made her anxious, given what had happened at Oxenfree. She wasn’t sure how to reconcile guards not wanting to harass someone based on the lack of evidence. In her heart, she knew that not every guard was a bad person; some probably got into it because they genuinely wanted to help whatever city or village they worked in. Maybe Bree just hadn’t been able to fully shake Oxenfree out of her system. From her experiences... most guards didn’t care who did the crime so long as they could bring someone in and close the case.
But... Bree supposed none of that mattered in this instance.

“I’m in,” she said because, quite honestly, she was a little annoyed with the guards for not bothering to listen to Mirt and Issa. At least check the guy out, Bree thought bitterly in her head. Even if she did think guards were awful and no one should be locked up unless they really deserved it (Bree’s definition of deserved it was constantly changing). But, still. It’d make Bree feel better about herself if she helped Issa catch the guy who had stolen the instrument. It’d make her feel like she was better than the city guards.

Perhaps it was a petty reason to want to agree to the job. But she wanted to help Issa too. So it wasn’t all petty.

[avant-barde]

It wasn't long after Orryn settled into his seat that he heard the door to the tavern open. He glanced over his shoulder and spied Fenn, her arms full of new plants. He snickered. Of course she had been at the greenhouse this morning. It seemed to be her happy place lately. "Need help?" he asked his friend lightly, and with a whistle and a wave of his fingers, a spectral hand appeared. It floated in front of Fenn, but she set her plants down on the table instead. With another whistle, the hand vanished, and the elf joined the conversation. "Issa was just about to tell us, I think," Orryn caught her up on the little he knew.

The tiefling took over the conversation from there, informing the three Trollskull proprietors that she needed a bit of help. "Don't you always," the gnome teased her jovially. He didn't mind; he thoroughly enjoyed helping Issa. She had been the one to connect him to Mirt after all, and she had been handy as hell to have around, especially when he needed to knock back a few drinks to get out of his head.

Apparently she needed their help on a bounty job. That was a bit of an unusual request, considering she had never invited them to join before, but she wouldn't have come if she didn't think they could assist her in some way. Apparently she was on a job for Mirt, which made Orryn's ears perk up. Was this something for the Harpers? ...no, something for Mirt's neighbor.

Someone had broken in and stolen a magical lute.

Orryn spied Bree eyeing him at the mention of the instrument, and the corners of his lips turned upward slightly as they exchanged a silent look. But Issa wasn't done. She told them how the city guards didn't bother to investigate the theft without proof, which she and Mirt didn't have. They had an idea of who took the lute, but since they couldn't prove anything, the city guards weren't going to do anything. Of course not. The gnome hadn't been burned by guards like Bree, but they had been less than helpful in their adventure that led them to the dragon's hoard below Waterdeep. Maybe they were helpful in other ways, but Orryn hadn't quite had that experience yet. If Issa was asking for their help, then he had no doubt their little group could come in handy.

"Well, a missing lute just won't do," he said simply. Bree chimed in, stating her intent to help, and Orryn nodded in agreement. "Oh yes, I'm in as well." He would be furious if his accordion was stolen and the guards didn't help, so he had no qualms about helping a fellow musician retrieve their prized possession.

He hopped off his bar stool and circled around behind the bar. He climbed onto the platform they'd had installed so he and Bree could actually see over the counter, and he reached for a glass and started filling it with breakfast ale. "Anyone want one?" he asked his friends with a quick glance up at each of them. "So Issa, what is it about this lute that makes it magical? Why would someone covet it so much that they break into someone's house?" he asked her curiously. Orryn knew well what it was like to envy another musician's instrument, but he would never outright steal it. He wasn't that kind of gnome. But clearly someone's moral compass had been skewed enough that they thought stealing the lute was okay, and he was ready to track down the thief and return the lute to its rightful owner. He hoped someone would do the same for him if he found himself in this position, after all, so it seemed like the right thing to do.