The Hog's Head - 10 'o clock in the morning on Moonday, the 15th of Summersdawn, 642 5E
Gasha Ugdug served another portion of bacon and eggs to a hungry patron and returned to her usual place behind the bar. She looked around the tavern and smiled. The morning shift had been busy, but not unreasonably so. While The Raven Shield had slept in, she had been busy serving coffee, tea, and breakfast to a large variety of patrons, helped as always by Nix. Now, the room was mostly filled by the Raven Shield members. They were a weird bunch, she thought, but then again, so was she; so were Yanzu Jormop, Mara, Anamuus and Ellalwel, once upon a time. Ah, Ellalwel... her thoughts drifted further, and she found herself subconsciously playing with her eyebrow piercing, the one Ellalwel had given her a long, long time ago.
The sound of Rex barking loudly at Nix disturbed her train of thought. The massive dog was playfully leaping around Nix, who was swinging around her wooden play sword, giggling at the beast. A few steps away from her, Nova Amaril looked on with a smile of approval, giving Nix advice on her foot- and blade work. Behind them sat Maloc, playing his lute, loudly trying to find words that rhymed with 'heat' and 'fire', in an attempt to capture his experiences on the Elemental Plane of Fire in song. Tucked away in the corner, partially hidden behind a sizeable tome, sat Silaqui, undoubtedly annoyed at all the ruckus all aforementioned were producing. Lorenzo had been present for breakfast, but had spent the rest of the morning in the basement, organizing his new quarters.
The door swung open and all eyes in the room jumped instantly to the figure in the doorframe. Gasha recognized the figure instantly, though not in name or person, but in function; this was a royal messenger.
With an air as if he owned the room, the man strode forward, placing a wrapped scroll on the bar with a gracious twirl. He nodded at Gasha, and turned around, and left as quickly as he had appeared.
Gasha stared at the scroll. It had been neatly sealed with a blot of thick red wax, the face imprinted on it the same as found on any Ereni gold piece - the face of Alfredus Sinask.
"Uh oh," she growled. "We've got work to do".
"What's that?" Nix, quick as always, was already at the bar, sizing up the scroll with her curious brown eyes.
"That," said Gasha, pointing at the scroll as if it was a speck of bird poop on her well-oiled oaken counter, "is a royal bounty".
Hearing those words, Nix's excitement only grew bigger.
"A letter from... the king?!"
"Yup. It means that there's some big stink that the Crown needs solving - a big bad monster, or a big buncha bad guys - and that they are calling on all adventurer's guilds operating in the country to assist."
"So it's like, an order?"
"Well... we can refuse, but there'd be consequences. It's a regular bounty, in the sense that we would get paid, usually a hefty sum. If we refuse, that can lead to other problems down the line. Adventurer's guilds such as ours are, eh, basically exempt from taxes, as long as we heed the occasional royal bounty". Gasha looked at Nix. The nuances of Erenen's tax system did not seem to concern her.
"Oooh, so there's a big monster and the king calls for help! Did you hear that, guys?"