#may be misreading it but. the way tangent says *our* makes me think shes talking about shared experience

[anemones-loyalty]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN UTOPIA IS TRANS I DIDN'T KNOW

[rairii]

Daelos Campaign: Alternate Employment

After a few hours of resting, Tom and the interviewer harelequin came to the full recovery room.

As soon as he spotted the interviewer, Damerion edged in his seat towards his father, keeping his eyes on her instead of on Tom, who cleared his throat.

"Greetings everyone. We’re going to take a three day break after the festivities in this location! Do not worry - we are staying mobile, but so long as you are within a 15 minute run from our supplies we won’t be leaving you behind! We’ll be performing in the next area, thought not the next scheduled event.”

He turned, peering through the crowd of people, until he found what he was looking for. “There you are!” and he waved a hand, gesturing the party over as he sat at a table. “Please gather around, please please.” Lily barely waited until she had reached him before asking, “Do we get paid?”

“Don’t worry, as long as you are doing things you of course still get paid. Now, this is more concerning your unique situation, as it is.”

“Unique situation?” Clara sat down carefully, settling her bulk between two chairs that creaked ominously. The others began to take their places around them as the crowd behind murmured and a few began leaving to tell others the news.

“Yes, see I wasn’t expecting more than a few months of casual help, so and so, but there have been a few interesting developments.”

“Yes we’ve noticed. Do you need our help with something?” Clara looked at him with an earnest expression of helpfulness.

“Well, well,” began Tom, “It has come to my attention, with a few of my old friends - they’re really old, its nice to be the young one for once amongst them, even if only for a few weeks.”

Tarron dealt a hand of cards to Damerion, settling in for a long tangent. “Although once you reach 80 you don’t think of yourself as young-” a card was flipped, “but considering some of these friends, it makes sense that-” flip, “they’d consider me a young one”, Damerion put a card on the table, “but really, some of them are calling me a young shrimp-” flip, “Oh, I’m sorry I’m getting off topic aren’t I?”

“You do whatever you do, anyway“ interjected Saika, who had pulled out another cigarette and was in the process of lighting it.

“I know that is possible that not all of you would want to continue in this venture, as we strive to perform where we can, and with the increased threat of war coming on, there is an increase in danger...”

“Are we getting a raise then” interjected Damerion, who looked up from his cards with mild interest.

“That is a great question we can decide on once we’ve gone through all the options! For instance, you might not want to continue with this line of work with the increased threat. There is is also the prospect that war entices you, in which case I have some friends who would be most interested in hearing from you.” Damerion’s eyes were slowly glazing over. One look to the side showed that Tarron’s had already glazed over as he looked at his cards. “Or I might be misreading you and you are simple adventurers, in which case there are some other matters that are bothering us in the more classic adventuring type”

“Technically I hunt adventurers, and am not on one” commented Saika from his corner of the table.

“Well, there is always something for new experiences! Good on you for keeping an open mind and open heart!” Tom beamed at Saika, as if he was a teacher puffing out in pride at a student who had just volunteered for a task.

Tarron looked up from his cards. “Are you going to get to the point anytime soon or will I have to deal a second hand?”

“Alright, let’s uh“ and Tom looked at a piece of paper “Skim notes. Do you want to continue working with us? Do you want to continue your separate ways and explore the world? Or do you want to take one of the opportunities we have that involves war and adventuring, or do you want something I have no idea bout and involves this person!” and he dramatically waved towards the interviewer.

Damerion winced.

“So if we take option C, I assume our paygrade goes up as well as the risks” Saika was looking at intently.

“Possibly. It’s open for negotiation”

“Right so you don’t want to pay us more. Got it” and Saika looked back around the party, before leaning forwards. “I’m not the only one in this, but I’m ok with a little more risk.”

“I would like to know what it entails before signing up for more risk.” drawled Tarron, eyes still fixated on his cards. That was when the interviewer stepped forward.

"With recent events coming to rise, others are using it as a distraction to achieve their goals. There is someone that my group wishes to have killed, that we cannot interfere with personally.”

“Why do they have to be killed?” asked Clara, but Tarron interrupted before the harelequin could respond.

"You realize that sort of request requires a lot more information, even if we were interested, which for the record, I’m not.” Damerion nodded absent-mindedly as he took a card from the pile.

The interviewer looked at Tarron, considering,  “This assignment has some information that would be useful for you concerning your wife.”

Damerion dropped his hand of cards.

Tarron: “Are you - is this information you have, or information they have?” “They need to be -” and Tarron cut through, speaking more harshly. “Is this information you have, or information they have.”

“We know that she was working with them concerning runes.”

“So technically its what they have”, Saika commented, keeping his eyes trained on the interviewer.

“Why does this person have to be killed" repeated Clara patiently.

“We believe they are  trying to work on reviving some of the runes from the rune wars, and that cannot be allowed.”

Silence enveloped the party as they considered it. The rune wars had decimated nations, had shaped the land. There was a reason there were rune knights hunting down those who would bring the runes back.

"I’m happy to help” began Clara, looking around the group. "I don’t need a raise, if there are people who would bring hurt back I will stop them.”

Saika huffed at her. “I’m all for bleeding hearts and everything, but at the end of the day, I gotta earn money, so uh, what’s your price.”

“You can take my part!

"I’m not going to take your share, that’s your share!”

Clara smiled at Saika. “I don’t need it.”

"You need it for - oh never mind.” and he subsided in time for the interviewer to speak again.

“1000 gold each, a 250 gold each bonus if you can obtain all their research.“

While the two had been discussing, Tarron had slipped a piece of paper to Damerion, written in cypher.

"Thoughts?" said the paper.

"I am curious... We haven't had a lead in a while"

"True. But we can get the information without necessarily signing on."

"Not if they take the research and refuse to deal with us"

"I meant more with these people" and Tarron jerked his head.

"If we tell Saika what to look for he might be a good source"

"Maybe. I don't like signing on to something with the explicit purpose of killing someone."

"Me neither. We should get more information"

Saika was speaking. “I’m down but I know I can’t do it on my own. I’ll take it if you guys do too”

Clara jumped in with a “I’m in too”.

Tarron looked up from the notes he’d been exchanging with his son. “Still considering”.

Tom gestured at them expansively. “Well part of the reason I wanted you to rest before this information is so that you may think on it clearly and then can sleep on it and decide! Like I said, things are really, what’s the word for it, things have really gone to shit, and now a lot of people are willing to pay to have people to sort it out!”

Saika just looked over to Tarron and Damerion. “You know I am a detective. If you need some help in looking into something - you said your wife? - I can help out. I’m already getting paid, so I won’t ask for more money from you. It’s a practical solution.”

"Let us ... we’ll get back to you.” said Tarron.

The Interviewer just nodded and reached into a bag, and tossed over a trinket at the table. Both Saika and Tarron reached out for it, but Saika caught it, and turning to look at it, found a rabbit’s foot that looked like it had been ripped off its leg, still bleeding and splotching the ruffled fur.

“Oh god... Clara you want this thing?”

Clara took it as the interviewer spoke again. “If you wish to contact us, use that.”

“Do we squeeze it, do we shake it, do we suck it like a dick what do we do” Saika asked roughly as she put it away. The interviewer merely stared at them, told them “you use it”, and then left.

Tom sighed in relief a bit. “Um, she actually intimidates me. Either way, I’m going to leave a wide variety of options at your table and you can consider this a favour repaid and I’m going to take care of some important paperwork. You feel free to get some nice well deserved rest.”

Before Tom had finished talking, Tarron had already gotten up, Damerion after him, following the harelequin, who once outside, paused and turned around, silent and expectant, almost as if she had said “yes?”.

“You are asking us to ask for something for the explicit goal of murdering someone. I’d like to have more information. You should know from my interview that this is not something I’m ok with, and I don’t appreciate information being held hostage over it“

They seem a bit confused. “It’s simple. They’re trying to recover runes from the rune wars.”

“I would like to know how you know this“

She stared at him, almost as if unbelieving his questioning. “We’re the harelequins. if something needs to be killed we know about it“

“Vague and unhelpful. I’m looking for real answers here” challenged Tarron.

“It is all slightly private, unless you want to share all the cyphers to your maps” There was silence, before Damerion piped up “Excuse me, um, first off, are you sure it isn’t innocent investigation for knowledge’s sake.”

She shook her head. “No. We know from receipts that most likely your mother was helping translate, but didn’t know what they were translating. It is believed they are most definitely trying to revive some ancient rune practices“

Tarron challenged her again: “Who, who is?”

“We do not have the exact details. We are hoping that you will help us find some.”

Damerion considered this carefully. “Would you accept a modified deal, where we get more information for you, instead of possibly killing someone.”

They shrugged. “If they end up dead within your contracts parameters, it doesn’t matter how it happens, you’ll get paid.”

“Who are you to decide that” asked Tarron.

She stared at Tarron again, as he remembered the rumours surrounding harelequins.  Despite the official force charged with matters pertaining to the rune wards, the harelequins were rumoured to be routinely hired due to their information network, to find a person, and kill them. 

“So why can’t you deal with it yourself. You go through all the show and bluster...”

"We tried. We’re trying a new approach. Besides, personal investment tends to get better results as well.”

She looked between Tarron and Damerion, before asking “Anything else or may I move on”

Tarron stepped forwards, grim. “What guarantees do we have... you have your suspicions about my wife. But what if she is curious. What if you decide that she doesn’t deserve to live. What assurance do I have that she is not a another name to be struck off on your list.”

She stared at Tarron, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “Because if people revive the runes from the rune wars, we’ll have a much bigger issue to deal with than the war between orcs and gnomes.”

“That’s not the assurance I’m looking for”

She waved him away. “That’s all I’m allowed to give”

“If you have additional information and want us to deal with this, why don’t you give it to us, give us the full story of what you fully know so we can make a more informed decision. You’re holding shit back on us, and that is not a good way to entice someone into a deal. By your own admission you are holding things back.”

She sighed, and rubbed her temples.

“We’re offering because you are unrelated to other things, you’ll have a personal interest, and because the situation was supposed to be deal with at an earlier time, but when we did, your wife was one of the many that was hired, and when we sent an operative to deal with this, someone else intervened and almost everyone ended up dead. We are sending you over too, because you want answers, and we want answers, and you can find the answers for us while we try to deal with the new situations that have arisen, and if you aren’t interested in that, than you can let one of your best leads that you know of to find your wife drive by. You aren’t needed, you are an extra expense. Is that all?“

“Yes. Thank you for perhaps the first honest statement you’ve made”

They turned, mutter to themselves, and left.

Damerion twisted his hands, and turned to his father. “I think we should be involved, at the least.”

“I don’t like it”

“We don’t have to fulfill the contract. It will mean, not getting the money, but it means, possibly getting the information”

“You’re probably right”