"You gotta turn me back."
"Uhh.." Lucille is still processing that 'her' bird turns people into other birds, like some kinda feathery variant on a zombie.
"Look, you want a drink? I can do drinks."
"Uhh.." Nope, not finished processing yet.
"Maybe you should find your white mage first?"
That Lucille can do. She turns to her side, and only sees her two normal companions. Jordan is also missing.
"You'd better find him before he turns into a bird too!"
Aaaag! That would be the world's stupidest mission failure. Thankfully, Jordan is just in the next room, trying hard to suppress laughter.
..Wait, this isn't a laughing matter. Confusion is replaced by anger.
"You know what's going on, don't you?"
Jordan doesn't bother to deny. He can't speak without laughing, so he just nods.
"Bastard. Out with it."
Jordan then describes how that is the bird, and his role in all this, how he talked with Raucous and told them their itinerary for the day, so this marvelous prank could happen. But he had no idea as to what the details would be, other than promises that nobody would be hurt and their reputation in town would be fine.
"So where's the innkeeper?"
At that, they return to the front room, going to get some answers out of that bird. But in addition to Zidan and Lawrence, there's the innkeeper once more. So the bird was Raucous, as should have been obvious all along. And the innkeeper seems okay with this! He didn't want to prank his guests, and didn't know about that, but he is holding a bag full of meaty smells. Big cuts of Hedge Bear to be served later, fresh, cheap, and tasty smelling.
"Thanks for letting me know about the meat, Raucous. Got a great deal. I can make you folk a nice meal for tonight, I know just what to do with this."
At this point the other two start chuckling. Zidan, at least. Lawrence is a bit more of the silent type, but you can see the smile here. He then speaks up:
"Well, you did tell the bird to do his worst. Now we have to suffer through a.. really good meal?"
Indeed, they do suffer through a good meal that night. It's a fairly simple meal, but fresh steak and a tasty vegetable and bread mixed with lung and liver dish is really quite good, too. Particularly for Raucous, who eats himself stuffed.
Lucille then speaks up. "Alright. I see how you're a mercenary now, if you're good at this kind of thing. I'm sure that, however much I said 'do your worst', that that wasn't the worst you could do. Nobody was actually hurt and nothing was destroyed, except my pride. How can I get in touch with you if I want to hire you?"
There's no obvious answer to that. Raucous has one ongoing relationship with a perhaps somewhat questionable Sala. But there's no way for people interested in his brand of chaos to get in touch.
"Well, I do have a few things I'd recommend. If you're going to do bigger jobs, you need some colleagues. Train up a few people to do what you do, and get an agent or two to drum up jobs or for people to talk to when they want to hire you.
If you want to keep working on your own, I'd recommend setting up a dead drop system, where you can visit it occasionally and sort through the messages."
Hmm. This is more complicated than Raucous expected. There's going to have to be some solutions. But it's important to keep the fun part of it. If it isn't fun, what's the point of doing it at all?
Raucous will have to sleep on it tonight.
"You gotta turn me back."
"Uhh.." Lucille is still processing that 'her' bird turns people into other birds, like some kinda feathery variant on a zombie.
"Look, you want a drink? I can do drinks."
"Uhh.." Nope, not finished processing yet.
"Maybe you should find your white mage first?"
That Lucille can do. She turns to her side, and only sees her two normal companions. Jordan is also missing.
"You'd better find him before he turns into a bird too!"
Aaaag! That would be the world's stupidest mission failure. Thankfully, Jordan is just in the next room, trying hard to suppress laughter.
..Wait, this isn't a laughing matter. Confusion is replaced by anger.
"You know what's going on, don't you?"
Jordan doesn't bother to deny. He can't speak without laughing, so he just nods.
"Bastard. Out with it."
Jordan then describes how that is the bird, and his role in all this, how he talked with Raucous and told them their itinerary for the day, so this marvelous prank could happen. But he had no idea as to what the details would be, other than promises that nobody would be hurt and their reputation in town would be fine.
"So where's the innkeeper?"
At that, they return to the front room, going to get some answers out of that bird. But in addition to Zidan and Lawrence, there's the innkeeper once more. So the bird was Raucous, as should have been obvious all along. And the innkeeper seems okay with this! He didn't want to prank his guests, and didn't know about that, but he is holding a bag full of meaty smells. Big cuts of Hedge Bear to be served later, fresh, cheap, and tasty smelling.
"Thanks for letting me know about the meat, Raucous. Got a great deal. I can make you folk a nice meal for tonight, I know just what to do with this."
At this point the other two start chuckling. Zidan, at least. Lawrence is a bit more of the silent type, but you can see the smile here. He then speaks up:
"Well, you did tell the bird to do his worst. Now we have to suffer through a.. really good meal?"
Indeed, they do suffer through a good meal that night. It's a fairly simple meal, but fresh steak and a tasty vegetable and bread mixed with lung and liver dish is really quite good, too. Particularly for Raucous, who eats himself stuffed.
Lucille then speaks up. "Alright. I see how you're a mercenary now, if you're good at this kind of thing. I'm sure that, however much I said 'do your worst', that that wasn't the worst you could do. Nobody was actually hurt and nothing was destroyed, except my pride. How can I get in touch with you if I want to hire you?"
There's no obvious answer to that. Raucous has one ongoing relationship with a perhaps somewhat questionable Sala. But there's no way for people interested in his brand of chaos to get in touch.
"Well, I do have a few things I'd recommend. If you're going to do bigger jobs, you need some colleagues. Train up a few people to do what you do, and get an agent or two to drum up jobs or for people to talk to when they want to hire you.
If you want to keep working on your own, I'd recommend setting up a dead drop system, where you can visit it occasionally and sort through the messages."
Hmm. This is more complicated than Raucous expected. There's going to have to be some solutions. But it's important to keep the fun part of it. If it isn't fun, what's the point of doing it at all?
Raucous will have to sleep on it tonight.
