#0 At Ol’ Stinky’s

Lissal sett Kelsar ain’t the kinda guy who appreciates being disrespected. However, with all due respect, it ain’t all that hard to do something that the dragonborn might find disrespectful. A towering goldenscaled speciment, Lissal grabs the drunk man by the collar and smacks him right in his face. At this point, I don’t even remember what caused all the commotion.

That being said, Ol’ Stinky’s is the kinda place where commotion is commonplace. Behind him at the bar, Ol’ Stinky has put up a sign that says “No fire-breathin’, no fightin’, no fartin’,” but most folks only follow the rules on account of being mighty drunk.

Still, this is a consecrated establishment so some patrons care more about following the rules than others. So, it ain’t much surprise when Jakobi (one of them bugbears) and his three outrider buddies stand up to challenge Lissal. Jakobi’s outriders are some of The Judge’s old acquaintances. That goliath has been around the wilds for… well as long as I know and as long as anyone can remember. The Judge’s a foreboding presence whereever he goes, but he generally prefers to witness rather than take action.

Just then, Gri’miss’ithk — aw heck, Grimiss, decides to defuse the situation. And he might sure believe that he did succeed. Yet everyone can see it was Lissal adopting a more… well, appropriate stance that gets the four outriders to kindly make themselves get lost.

That precious Samuel Shepard does his best to calm down the nerves of the drunk man, but his attention is soon diverted by William Wordsworth IV, known as Bill to some. You see, Bill here is addicted (although he himself would never admit as such) to nicotine cigarettes. And he sees that one of Jakobi’s outriders has a pack of cigs hanging from his pocket. I don’t know what his plan was and how he meant to acquire those cigs, but it is Sam who reminds Bill that smoking kills.

Smoking does kill, but Lissal must not be familiar with this… all-too-human custom, telling the gang how weird he finds the whole ordeal — inhaling fire instead of exhaling — rather bizarre. Showing off immediately afterwards, by breathing some fire. At which point Ol’ Stinky has to warn him all the way from the bar.

On my part, I’m pretty glad that no hostilities took place that night, for I’m sure I’d have had to do some violence myself and I ain’t a big fan of all that. On my part, I was more curious about why Zee was planning to meet these five.

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Of Sinner Kings