Being absolutely bored out of his mind with the dull surroundings of Fort Andros and all of the talk about upgrading this or fortifying that, Lorsan Brightwood left the thinking and planning to the thinking and planning types and headed into Visceras.
Before long he found a place that felt right, a gambling den masquerading as a bar named The Gutted Eel. Dice, cards, and other games of chance were abundant and the mood certainly cheerful. Lorsan sat down with a sack of gold and quickly made some new friends.
He knew the dice were loaded. He could feel it in his hand, but he just couldn’t get them to go like they should. Something else was at play. Half his gambling stash gone, his companions bid him farewell and moved on to another table. As they slid off their bench, he noticed one pocket something from under the table.
A magnet! He thought. Of course. That explained the odd tumbling. (Or at least that’s what Lorsan told himself to ease the pain of gold long gone.)
Over the course of losing his money, he’d become fairly friendly with Zandra, one of the Gutted Eel’s bartenders. The Half-Orc rolled her eyes at Lorsan’s terrible jokes, but seemed to enjoy the company. He relocated to the bar, chatting with Zandra and other patrons.
Eventually he got that feeling. The feeling you’re being watched, Glancing around, he spotted a surprisingly short and rotund dragonborn who occasionally gave Lorsan the side-eye from a table in the corner of the room. Lorsan had a vague recollection of this person from Port Bova. He never got his name, but remembered that someone matching his description was a fence that serviced some of the small-time smugglers that came in and out of the port.
Lorsan caught Zandra’s eye and discretely motioned toward the dragonborn. "Hey Z, you know anything Short Round over there who keeps eye-fucking me?"
She seemed unphased by Lorsan’s subtleties and looked directly at the stranger while pondering. "Hmmmm? Oh, the dragonborn? Yeah, that's Unknown. He works over at the uh, general store, Crasher's Wake. He's probably playin' hooky right now, but that's none of my business."
Lorsan laughed loudly at the mention of "General Store". "The stores must be pretty... general around here if they employ him. Last time I saw that scaly face, he was more in the... purchasing department."
Zandra snorted and turned to fill a tankard before passing it to a member of the staff. "Heh, yeah, "work" was probably too strong of a word. That checks out though, I've heard he's definitely got stickier hands than otherwise, but he's good with numbers. Old man Crash'll take about any help he can get, though. All of the worthwhile buccaneers are out doing the Queen's dirty work these days."
Showing the first sign of knowing how to be subtle, she lowered her voice a little as she said "Queen".
Lorsan grinned. "From my experience, he certainly wasn’t worthwhile."
"Well, if he's eyein' ya down so bad, why not go say hi?” Zandra responded, topping off Lorsan’s mug. “He's pretty much harmless from what I've seen of him, most dangerous thing he's ever had is bad ideas".
Zandra left Lorsan to his thoughts and she stepped away to talk with another patron at the bar. Lorsan downed his beer and mumbled something like "Time to go see a dragon about a lady."
As Lorsan approached Shelth, he can see Shelth’s eyes darting around, an look of being caught and searching for the exits. Lorsan gave him a very toothy grin and sat down, one hand on the table and one hand clearly not in line of sight. "Figured I'd give you a closer look, as you seemed interested..."
Shelth attempted to reciprocate Lorsan’s grin. "Oh ho! Lorsan! Fancy seein’ uh, you here...and all. Come here often?", he responded, clearly playing a being slightly aloof and disinterested.
Lorsan clucked with his tongue and shook his head in disappointment. "Shelth, we've got to work on your pick up lines. You're not going to land many fish with that."
Slightly offended, Shelth blurted "Well I mean it got you to come over didn't it! But now that you're here, why don't I uh, buy you a drink, yeah!"
Lorsan sighed. "Actually, it was more of the leering. And sure, if you're buying."
Shelth motioned to Zandra to bring another round to the table. Lorsan continued. "But more to the point, why are you staring at me like you can't decide if you want to fuck me or stab me?"
"Well shit, you cut to the chase faster than I thought. I'll be honest, it's just really good to see someone from home, and y'know, us Port Bovaners gotta stick together, yeah?"
Lorsan rolled his eyes at the awful attempt to call up some misbegotten kinship. "Listen, you're going to owe me more than a drink if you keep up with this pitiful verbal hand job. What do you want?"
"Aw come on now, least I'm givin ya the courtesy of buyin ya a drink first", Shelth said with a pretty smarmy laugh. "But to get to the point, I'm uh, formin' a kind of team. One meant to "liberate" some commodities for the local community, as it were. Sound interestin'?"
Lorsan summoned Mercy to the hidden hand and ran the coiled whip up Shelth's leg. "You've got my attention..."
Shelth jumped slightly before steadying himself. "Is that a uh, invitation or a threat?", letting out another laugh, more nervous this time, before he continued. "Anyway uh, with the new management about, the law has gotten, well, more flexible these days. I've had my eye on some goodies one of the retired captains's been holding onto for a while now. Sure to be p-lenty of interestin' stuff in there, just need the right...talent."
Lorsan edged the whip further up Shelth’s leg. "Oh, I think I've got all the talent you can handle. Which captain are we planning to entertain?"
Shelth face betrayed his attempt to ignore the very odd mix of threat and possible flirting coming from Lorsan. "His name's Yado Lazlek. He used to captain the Snapping Dragon once upon a time. These days though he's just livin' it up in a villa on the eastern side of Mara's Fang."
Lorsan tapped his chin in mock-thought, keeping time with tapping Shelth’s thigh as well. "That's a new name for me. What's sort of party favors is he holding out from the rest of us?"
Jumping a little with each tap, Shelth’s eyes darted down towards the table on occasion. "I don't have the uh, specifics at the moment, but if word on the street is right, then he's packin' things even the Queen'd envy, hehe. So are you in, or what?"
"Oh, I am very much in..." Lorsan smirked. "So what now?"
Lorsan saw a bit of a greedy gleam in Shelth’s eye as he replied, "I'll need time to acquire some additional talent and whatnot, but once I do, the plan is to case the joint and get an idea of what we're workin' with. I'll be in contact sooner rather than later though."
Laughing slightly and wanting away from the quickly spiraled out of control situation, Shelth slides out of his seat and leaves the Gutted Eel. Lorsan sat for a long while, deep in thought on exactly what he’d gotten himself into.