Mail from Colm

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

While I'm retconning: mail from Colm catches up to you in Oakhame:

Hey kids:
Thought I'd drop you a note and tell you how things have been here in Covanion.

Nithelen seems to have settled in happily, as long as I humor him a lot. I don't know why he wants such a large sign, since he hardly ever leaves his rooms or receives visitors, but it's easy enough to indulge him. He seems to remember you--at least at times--but seems to believe that he gave the chalice to Larissa instead of Liandra. And I don't see it making me or Nithelen happier to try to disabuse him. So enjoy the chalice, Larissa... Heh.

Nithelen is still producing the zwieback of zymurgy. Sporadically. When it suits him. But ol' Colm has some tricks for carefully not asking him to produce more zwieback, so that when he storms off in a huff to do the opposite of what I've asked, we get more zwieback. (Plus, he claims that he can do zwieback better and more easily than ever before, and he's fascinated by the new possibilities. Whatever keeps him happy...)

It turns out, by the way, that according to Nithelen, 'zwieback of zymurgy' is the perfect name, and it must not be sold under any other name. Man, what a cantankerous old coot--almost as crotchety as yours truly. So, anyway, I've used some of the family money to start a bar. We charge a truly outrageous price for "Nithelen's Special"--whatever it may be at the time--and it's well worth it and people pay well for it. It's turning a tidy profit, even after indulging all (well, most) of Nithelen's whims about research equipment he simply must have.

But the tavern is just a stalking horse for a more serious project of mine. It's not only you kids that have such consarned exciting times--the whole world seems to be falling apart and getting ravaged by nasty things. I don't think standard military is going to be able to cope with the variety of problems; it's going to take versatile, flexible people--people like you. I can't fight myself, but I can organize... So anyway, the point is I'm trying to make this tavern a place where folks like you can gather, share tips and information, organize teams to respond to problems, and such.

So I've been getting bards in with heroic songs (there are some nice ones of you floating about, by the way--I've been paying the bards extra to point out that I was associated with you guys). And I've been giving free drinks when one patron trains another or passes on some big information. Hopefully, I'll be able to get every schlomo who wants to save the world from nastiness, and arrange them the training and forethought to actually do it in a competent way. And I'll sell drinks to everyone who just wants to hear the songs about the heroes.

It's just getting started, but it seems to be working pretty well so far. Everybody's spooked about all this bad stuff going down, and that means there are more people who want to do something about it. And we've been getting some patronage--we even got Lord Marius himself in the tavern one night early. I think he knows what I have in mind, but I think he approves--he did mention some places where some creative help might be needed, and hinted at rewards to be had for solving those problems. He even talked with me a bit... he suggested naming it "The Rearing Dragon". Of course, with Lord Marius, you always have to wonder whether he's merely playing a double game or doing something much deeper, but still, "The Rearing Dragon" does have a certain ring.

So, whenever you're in the area, come by the Rearing Dragon and we'll give you a pint of Nithelen's Special. Of course, with your luck with taverns, maybe you'd best have it outside...

Here's hoping you don't get into too many tavern emergencies, and that you're all still doing well. Give Larissa and Liandra a leer from me, for old time's sake.

Yours,
Colm

Comments

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

After planning this out, I realized that Colm is trying to establish the sort of tavern where four people might meet and decide to adventure together. :-) If I were to run another campaign in this world, I would consider starting it in Colm's tavern.

[cellio]

This is cool! We've neglected poor ol' Colm in our information network; glad to hear he's ok. Larissa will send a reply (to be written later) back from Kozel'sk.

(She will also wonder whether Oakhame was a lucky guess, or if Colm had info from Marius... :-) )

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

Liandra will probably write a reply too, but I'm unlikely to get time to actually write one.

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

Good question. Colm probably knew that Liandra was from Oakhame, so it could have been a lucky guess.