Location: An Inn in Kingston
The ruffian didn't really seem to know much.Formendacil wrote:"Tell me," he said to the ruffian calmly and coldly. "Who hired you? And what, precisely, were you told to do with me?"
The ruffian looked up in terror, but didn't dare disobey.
"We was hired several weeks back, through underworld connections. H'everyone in the underworld knows that there's an 'uge bounty on yer 'eads."
"Bounty?" asked the Old Man.
"Yeah," replied the ruffian, frightened. "Three 'undred grand each. On you, on 'er, and on that knight-fellow. If your bodies are brought in ter the h'underground in Porta Lobo, it will be paid by a h'agent of the one 'oo wants yer dead."
"And who might that be?"
"I dunno, sir, h'onest! I was jist trying to make a little cash fer meself, don't ye see?"
"I see," said the Old Man. "And I'll let you go. But if you ever set on me again, I shall leave you in cinders." The ruffian nodded in terror, and started crawling away.
"Elwen," said the Old Man when the ruffian had left. "This could prove troublesome, but hardly more than that. I believe that we are well equiped to handle ruffians such as these. Still, it is a nuisance."
"Who do you think hired them?" she asked.
"The Sorceror-king, no doubt," said the Old Man. Elwen raised an eyebrow. "Oh yes, he's here too, after the same thing we are. The question is how far along.... Still, we cannot worry about him for now. We should be moving along."
"What about Sir Dractor?"
"I'll tell you about him once we're on our way," replied the Old Man. They stepped out the door.
"Oh," said the wizard to Elwen as they walked down the street. "I want to stop by the garrison. The Royal Knights will undoubtedly want to know that there a couple dozen crooks and brigands trussed up at the Lion Inn. I may have left them their lives, but I have no intention of aiding them over the law."
Grimacing at the fate in store for the ruffians at the Royal Knights' hands, Elwen followed along.