The tavern settles into a low murmur. The blue light from BonerFart's bow flickers across the table, thin as winter moonlight, then steadies again.
Steven
You have the lead now. Tell us where you want the hunt to begin.
Jeff
At last, a road with direction. Better than drinking anger into the dark.
The Stranger pours the last of the ale with careful hands and sets the cup before BonerFart first, then the others. Their guarded look softens into patience.
BonerFart
The cup is still warm. They are waiting on him, not the other way around.
Jeff
If Barack is clever, he will have ears in town. If he is proud, he will want to be seen. Either way, he leaves tracks.
Steven
We can start with the old ledger houses at dawn, or the road north, where traders gossip without knowing they do it.
No one reaches for a blade. The three of them sit in a brief island of quiet, the kind that lets a plan form without breaking.
✓ Quest Accepted
Find Barack’s trail
✓ Quest Accepted
Unite the strangers against Barack
“We continue strengthening the bond under my lead and try to recruit others, like a mage, a healer, an alchemist, a warrior, into the party. There has to be others like us with vengeance in whats left of their hearts.”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Persuasion, rolled +3)
BonerFart lets the quiet sit a moment, then turns it toward a purpose. He speaks of more than two blades against one enemy, of a band that can carry vengeance together, mage, healer, alchemist, warrior, anyone with a debt that still burns.
Steven
Then we stop hunting as two wounded folk and start gathering the rest. If Barack made enemies, we can use his own cruelty to find them.
Jeff
A healer first, if fortune is kind. Then someone who knows herbs or venoms, and a blade that does not shake when the blood runs hot.
The Stranger gives a short, dry laugh and reaches for the cup again, not to drink yet, only to warm their hands around it.
Steven
There is a hedge-magus at the south gate who hates the clan road patrols, and a blade-for-hire by the tannery with a brother in a shallow grave. Either could listen.
Jeff
Then we are not three. We are a beginning.
Across the table, both of them lean in now, not as duelists but as would-be companions, waiting for BonerFart to choose which name, which face, which debt to pursue first.
Quest Complete
Unite the strangers against Barack
Skill Upgrade: Persuasion Mediocre→Fair