Butterfly, Thunder, and a Bar Fight

A Dragonmarked House Can Get Away with Murder

The half-orcs from House Tharashk didn’t seem like they needed bodyguards but that’s when I learned it’s always good to have locals with you in a fight. See, the half-orcs, Ront, Shrump, and Myev, were from Khorvaire and weren’t always the friendliest crew. One night we escorted them to the Wavecrest Tavern since they’d heard about the weekly arm-wrestling tournament there. Thunder and Butterfly take up positions on either side of the room where they can keep their eyes on things. I’m told to rove around the room, also keeping an eye out for anything fishy going on around our clients. I grab a drink so I can walk around not looking too out of place but keep myself out of the way and in the shadows when possible. The Wavecrest is a pretty good size place, and extra crowded on arm-wrestling night, so it’s not too tough melding into the background (plus I’m pretty good at being sneaky – all those years of hide-and-seek with Brook and our friends finally paid off). The tournament is started and Myev is in the first match. She’s up against a squat little sailor who doesn’t look like he’s got a chance. She wins it but that sailor lasted longer than expected. Ront and Shrump win in their first rounds too. There’s a fair amount of drinking done and then things move on. Myev goes out on round two and is none-too-happy about it. She curses up a storm but Ront buys her a drink and she settles down some. That’s when I notice a sneaky little human making eyes toward the Half-Orc group. See, they paid for their round of drinks with a platinum. That’s pretty rich in these parts and their pouches didn’t look like they were close to being empty anytime soon. I move over to Butterfly to make her aware (she already was but thanked me anyway) and then I move back into the crowd. Another round of the tourney, another round of drinks, and the human makes his move. Well, a couple of them did. One (a larger one I hadn’t noticed before) “accidentally” stumbled into the clients’ table. As they reacted to that guy, the little one moved up and cut Ront’s purse strings. It was all pretty smooth but then the little guy just fumbled the purse. It hit the ground and was apparently not closed because a bunch of coins came clattering out onto the stone floor. It was loud enough for everyone around to hear it and Ront, Shrump, and Myev caught on real fast. Butterfly and Thunder had closed in to a point where they were going to grab the humans as they stepped away from the table, but they never got the chance due to the little one’s flub. The half-orcs grabbed both of the humans and Shrump let loose on the little guy with a massive hook right into his greasy little face. Ront picked up the big guy and shoved him against the nearby wall. Somewhat standard for a reaction I suppose, but apparently, Shrump’s hit did way more damage than just a bloody nose. The little guy wasn’t just out cold, his brain got so addled that he’d stopped breathing. This didn’t go over well with pretty much anyone in the bar. Thunder and Butterfly flew into action and got between the crowd and our clients. As much as the crowd wanted a bar fight, my aunts were known factors, and apparently, nobody wanted to start a barfight when they might have to fight those two (can’t blame ‘em). The rest of it gets pretty mundane. Coppers were called, a very brief investigation was done and we, the half-orcs, the human distractor, and the corpse were brought over to the nearest guard station. As it turns out, being members of House Tharashk (as the half-orcs were) can get you out of a lot of things. Especially when one of you is a dragonmarked member. That was Ront. Even though the humans were at fault for stealing, the overreaction/murder of one of them would usually involve some time served but not in this case. Thunder and Butterfly confirmed the story, the half-orcs confirmed who they were and handed over a fair amount of coin, and we were all free to go. That included the human. His problem was that he was sent off in the custody of the half-orcs. Not sure what eventually happened to him, but we did escort the group back to the Tharashk Refinery and all four of them went inside after giving us some nice tips.