Disclaimer: The Forgotten Realms are not mine but everything else is! All mine! Go find your own!
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The next day started out similarly to the first. A different class group of children came in but this time Teilla headed off trouble by singing a funny ballad about a dragon wandering the countryside in disguise. The children particularly liked the part where the dragon ran into some bandits.
As before, things started to get very busy in the afternoon after Lannlia started helping with the tables. Ricardt noticed more groups of beings coming in than before as he acted as tavern peacekeeper. As he looked over at Teilla, he saw she managed the bar like she had done it for years instead of hours, trading good natured insults and stories like the bard she was. Ricardt caught her attention for a moment and gave her a small salute of respect. She smiled in return and turned back to the dwarf who continued to pour his life story out to her. He would never be as good as she was with nearly anyone they came across. He could insure that no one would get out of hand in the tavern and so continued to turn his attention towards preventing brawls.
As it was, the first major conflagration of the day would have been funny had both parties not been starting to sling spells instead of words at each other. The two junior clerics, one of Tymora and the other serving Torm, had commenced a friendly theological debate over the nature of chance and order in the multiverse an hour before. After a mug or eight of the house ale their conversation could be heard clearly by everyone in the tavern. Ricardt started to worry about how he would have to explain to his fellow paladins that he had to knock out a priest of Torm to prevent a common tavern brawl. Fortunately for all involved, it never got to that point.
Teilla, who had been serving drinks to the debating pair at the bar, simply served them one more round of ale. Both clerics passed out and she waved her dark haired friend over to haul them outside. As he came close she whispered to him, "A bit of sleeping potion in their drinks and they'll have a massive hangover for their troubles. Just and fair rewards, wouldn't you say?" Teilla grinned as Ricardt shook his head and muttered something about corruption and honor.
As he hauled the clerics out one at a time, he noted that the latest group of people to come in had not removed their hoods or cloaks despite the cozily warm interior of the tavern. More than that, he could feel that one of them was very definitely evil. Ricardt thought about the town's attitude towards those who disturb the peace and Teilla's comments about sensing evil in a busy marketplace sometimes. He came to the conclusion that if that group caused no trouble that the constable could hold them for within the laws of the town Ricardt would not bother them. As he came to this conclusion, Lannlia chatted with one of the cloaked figures as she took drink orders for them and Ricardt turned his attention back toward the other knots of tavern patrons, looking for potential trouble.
Trouble came soon after but not from the dwarves and orcs eyeing each other at the bar or the cloaked group that had caught Ricardt's attention earlier. A group of adventurers who had been steadily running up quite a tab all night was starting to gain volume as two of the remaining three conscious members of the party raised their voices in debate. A ranger and a paladin of Tyr were loudly discussing the morality of ambushes while their remaining conscious companion, a gnome priest of Garl Glittergold gave a broad, vague at nothing and noticeably swayed in his seat.
Teilla started liberally watering their ale. Ricardt introduced himself to the other paladin as a fellow brother in faith and led him towards the door with the quiet suggestion that he please retrieve some ice from the local storehouse for the lady barkeep. The drunk warrior for goodness and righteousness asked in a slurred tenor, "Why don' you do it youssef?"
"Because I swore to Lady Teilla that I would watch for trouble here," Ricardt explained patiently, "I cannot keep my word to her while fetching ice from across town. Will you do me this small favor, brother knight?" The stranger paladin gave a broad smile and nodded as Ricardt got him through the door. Ricardt walked over to the red headed half elf and murmured to her, "I hope I never get quiet that set in my ways as that one."
"I don't think you will," the bard smiled as she whispered back, "You have this terrible habit of thinking before acting and questioning anything that seems not quite right to you."
Ricardt gave a small smile in return, "Including my fellow paladins. As you probably recall very well." Teilla chuckled as they turned back to their tasks. Ricardt had successfully negotiated passage for his small patrol of knights through a section of forest held by a community of wood elves. His group had initially met with resistance until Ricardt had explained that they were after a tribe of ogres that had wrecked two villages on the other side of the forest and his group wanted to get at the ogres from a position of surprise. The elves had responded by explaining that they wanted the knights to avoid the sections of forest nearest their homes and to revise the way the knights made and broke camp. Ricardt had asked for and received a map for the best route through the forest to both avoid the elven settlement and take the ogres by surprise. He had also taken care to heed the elves' advice on camping the entire time his group was in the forest. The ogres were killed, but Ricardt had been criticized by his superiors for not "teaching the elves a lesson" when they initially resisted the knights. Ricardt had studiously ignored the criticism regarding his diplomacy and became a knight errant shortly thereafter. Teilla knew he still felt put out by the incident, but they both knew without doubt that he had done the right thing by working the problem out with words rather than blades.
Suddenly, a loud battle cry from outside shook Teilla out of her reminiscing. Most of the tavern, Teilla and Ricardt included, jogged over to the front windows and door to see what the ruckus was about. Lannlia, noting the pair's distraction took over management of the bar in Teilla's absence. The bard and the paladin found themselves bracketed by the dwarves who had started drinking very early in the day and the hooded group that had been under Ricardt's scrutiny earlier. Outside, the paladin that Ricardt had escorted out moments earlier was swinging his longsword at a blackguard of Bane, who had a heavy flail out and was swinging it with the same drunken enthusiasm the paladin was and with the same lack of accuracy.
Packed to the windows as they were, Ricardt fumed at his inability to get to the door while everyone else around him started making bets on the fight outside. One of the cloaked figures asked in accented Common, "Taking bets, commander?" The voice was a light tenor and musically jovial.
The cloaked figure next to Teilla, turned to him and answered, "Of course. What's your wager?" This one was clearly female from the shape under the cloak and the soft soprano coming out from under the hood.
"The paladin gets the upper hand but the blackguard will have fewer marks on him," came the response.
"So noted." "Commander" turned to the rest of her group and asked "Anyone else?" The troupe started placing their wagers with her. Teilla put a calming hand on Ricardt's shoulder and tapped the smaller hooded figure beside her on the shoulder and said, "Five gold says that the constable gets to them before they land anything on each other." The "commander" nodded in response and continued to take bets from her people. Teilla got the distinct impression that she was grinning underneath that hood.
A few more bets were taken before the stranger declared the bookie closed and all attention turned to the drunken duel of good versus evil. After a few more attempts to slay each other, all of which ended with over balancing and falling in the road, the watch got to the paladin and the blackguard.
The paladin went down first. A spotted cat slammed into his side, latched on with all four paws, pinned the struggling human to the ground and hissed in the startled man's face, baring canine teeth that seemed large for a feline that was as long from whiskers to tail as the paladin was tall. The blackguard was knocked out cold by a spinning kick administered by Constable Zorac. The sloshed paladin found himself ushered to Whizban's small guard tower by the burly constable while the cat kept an eye on the unconscious blackguard. A boy young enough to be still in school ran up to the cat and handed a long coat to the tall, lean woman who stood where the cat had been. She donned the coat, sent the kid running back to the watch tower and helped Zorac haul the still unconscious blackguard to the tower as well, presumably to sleep off his drinks and his headache.
"Commander" started collecting bets from the people around her before turning to Teilla and depositing a handful of coins in the surprised half-elf's hand. "Commander's" hand was a silky coal black. Teilla nodded dazedly and pocketed her winnings while steering Ricardt back towards the bar. The rest of the spectating tavern patrons soon returned to their drinks as soon as it became apparent that there was nothing left to see outside.
A few hours later, with nothing more eventful than a few pickpockets that Ricardt caught, a few drunken marriage proposals for Teilla (all turned down) and some rampant drinking songs, the pair finally managed to dump the last customer unceremoniously out the front door. As Ricardt, Teilla, Skapti and Lannlia started to put furniture in their proper places and mop up spilled ale and stew, Gorbsen walked through the door of his tavern and surveyed their activity. "So nice to know I was missed!" he said in a mock hurt voice.
Teilla smiled and waved the rag she had been using to scrub the bar with. Ricardt gave an audible sigh of relief, to the vast amusement of Skapti and Lannlia. Gorbsen smiled, "Well, the brandy's in my portable hole and my thanks for making sure the rampaging hordes didn't burn down my tavern. Any trouble?"
"None that the watch couldn't deal with," Ricardt said with a thoughtful smile.
"So, any chance on you two sticking around for the rest of the festival?" Skapti asked.
Teilla grinned, "I'd love to, if my partner doesn't have any objections." The bard looked over at the paladin, who was busily righting a table.
Ricardt chuckled, "Long experience tells me never to argue with a redhead. I'd be fine with staying for a little bit longer. To be honest, I've been expecting a message from my superiors any day now concerning what they'd like me to do next."
Curious, Lannlia asked, "What were you doing last?"
"Helping Lastrest find that stolen heirloom blade of theirs," Teilla said, naming a town on the east side of the mountains surrounding Whizban. "Some thieves had made off with it."
"Odd that you're fine with sticking around here for a little while," Skapti commented as she walked by carrying a stack of bowls. "Most paladins can't wait to get away from here. But you are certainly welcome to stay for however long you want."
Ricardt murmured something about paladins needing to travel a lot, while Teilla grumbled, "Most paladins don't trust their eyes as well as their codes of conduct."
"Well, if you end up staying past the first snows, I'm sure that Josie or Mirandaline can guide you through the passes, snow or no snow," Lannlia assured Teilla and Ricardt.
"Speaking of Mir," Gorbsen put in, "Has she put in an appearance yet?"
"No, but Chindrina D'Agenos was asking after her again," Lannlia sighed. "She still wants our little forester to join up with her band of mercs." The blonde half-elf turned to Ricardt and Teilla, "I'm sorry, this is all local gossip and you two look about dead on your feet. If you want I can explain the whole story to you in the morning if you wish."
"Or in full gory detail if you stay over winter," Grobsen put in. "Anyway, sleep sounds like an awfully good idea right about now, so I'll let you all finish cleaning up while I go to bed." He went upstairs to his room above the tavern.
Lannlia and Skapti finished cleaning the tables and scouring the dishes while Teilla and Ricardt scrubbed and swept everything else. They said their goodnights and went to their respective beds. Ricardt saw Skapti and Lannlia to their doors and then returned to his bard companion in the tavern. "So," he said as he came through the door, "What would we do if we did end up staying through the winter here?"
Teilla cocked her head to one side and said thoughtfully, "I think I would want to check out the local legends and stories hereabouts. Might be the makings of a good song in one or more of them. You?"
"Constable Zorac might appreciate another set of hands on the town watch," Ricardt gave a small smile. "I am sworn to uphold law and justice after all."
Teilla gave a tired chuckle before they both retired to slumber.
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