The tavern in question, Pipe's Famous Alehouse, was normally quiet in the morning. In the afternoon, however, the fishermen docked their boats and the shipbuilders closed their shops for the day, and began pouring into the taverns of the Fish Market District looking for entertainment.
Pipe's Famous Alehouse was just the place to find it. Frequented by the wealthiest fishermen and master shipwrights, Pipe's Famous Alehouse served only the finest grogs and wines. Its prominent place in the Fish Market District was aided by the fact that it had the most beautiful of dancing girls in all of Port Blacksand, something of Durndle Pipe was very proud.
It was hard to tell just how old Mr. Pipe was. Most of his regulars estimated him to be between seventy-five and eighty years old, although they all agreed he was the dirtiest old man they had ever seen. His shock of bushy white hair, his waxed moustache, wide belly and rheumy blue eyes did little to attract most women to him, however. His perpetual reek of wine and spirits did little to help his case, either.
Mr. Pipe himself was tending the bar tonight, smiling widely at the dancing girls on the stage across the way, and the tavern wenches delivering drinks to customers who were getting more and more drunk-and less and less careful with their money. He fingered the latest cut on his face gingerly and sighed, regretting the day he had offered a "job" to that woman from Rimon. How was he to know that she was an expert knife-thrower?
One of Mr. Pipe's regulars came to sit down at the bar. Eurytion the dice master ordered some of Mr. Pipe's rarest elven wines-no doubt he had fleeced some more poor souls at his booth on Nowhere Street, the most famous gambling pit in the city.
"Another busy day, I take it?" Mr. Pipe asked.
"Nearly a hundred dragons, Durndle," Eurytion answered proudly. "I love working on Nowhere Street."
"Anyone interesting tonight?" Mr. Pipe queried him, taking a drink of wine from his own stock.
"Not so much. It's kind of sad, really, when you consider how long and hard so many of those people work for their money...until they come to me," Eurytion said with a grin.
"Aye, it's a pity," Mr. Pipe replied, not really listening. He briefly remembered how his own gambling problems had been one of the things that cost him his own marriage.
"You're an expert on women, though," Eurytion claimed. "Mind giving me some advice?"
Mr. Pipe suddenly snapped to attention.
"What do you want to know?" he asked eagerly.
"There's this one particular lady, Sinas Stickle's new scribe. I want to get her attention, and I thought I should get her some flowers. What kind would you recommend?"
"A dozen long-stemmed roses," Mr. Pipe replied without hesitation. "Women love such romantic gestures. Believe me, I know."
"Indeed. I suppose that's why Effie left you?" Eurytion snickered, referring to Mr. Pipe's former wife.
Mr. Pipe's face darkened.
"In fact, I was thinking of going to Effie's flower shop to buy the roses," Eurytion teased. "I so thank you for your advice, Durndle!"
Mr. Pipe spat angrily.
"I haven't spoken to that old hag in forty-six years, and I'm damn satisfied with that," Mr. Pipe growled. "I suppose you swindled me just like you do all the poor fools who visit you on Nowhere Street, don't you? Pretend to be their friends, steal their riches, their knowledge, whatever it takes?"
"Whatever it takes, Durndle," Eurytion smiled, not apologizing in the least. "This is the City of Thieves, after all, and you have to be the best thief possible to survive."
"As you like, Eurytion. Just pay your damn bill. Three dragons."
Eurytion reached for his bulging money-pouch, only to find to his horror that it was nowhere to be found. Patting his pockets frantically, he saw that the cords tying his purse to his belt had been cut. He had been robbed!
Durndle Pipe only grinned.
"You're the best thief possible, I take it?" he asked sarcastically. "I would suggest you find another way of paying for your drinks, lest I have my bouncer extract payment for me," he said, waving to a large ogre at the far end of the bar. The ogre waved back at its employer, and smiled a gap-toothed grin at Eurytion.
The dice master only whimpered, before pulling an expensive gold ring off his finger and tossing it to Durndle Pipe. It was easily worth at least five times the cost of the drink.
"Give me some credit, then," Eurytion pleaded.
"I don't think so, Eurytion," Durndle Pipe answered with a smile. "You said yourself that one has to be the best thief possible to survive in this city. I think you've just been outdone."
"By you, or whoever cut my purse?" Eurytion demanded in humiliation.
"Both," Durndle Pipe answered with a smile.
Another man, a tall and tanned gentleman with swarthy skin and a thick black moustache, smiled at Eurytion as well, as he exited the premises.
