Warlock! Something is Rotten in Grim Biskerstaf...

Trusova doesn't take Banio's hand, but she does move swiftly, knowing that there is an opening. She charges forward with Banio and anyone else who would join them.

Outside the Manky Mermaid
Three robed men approach the tavern after Lambert Wolke has set himself up just so for his grift. But so concerned is the man with getting his approach and challenge right, he fails to notice the color of their garb. It is crimson -- these are Priests of the Red King, thrown out of the capital in Fesselburg, upriver, and now recently established in Biskerstaf. The Red King is a troubling deity, responsible now just for new beginnings, but hard ends as well.

The trio continues forward when Lambert says his piece, then they spread out so it is clear they outnumber and can outmaneuver the man. The closest priest, in the middle, has a long and pointed beard, waxy skin, and wide eyes that convey either continual surprise or a hint of madness. "We are permitted to carry..." the man begins as all three of them flick wicked-looking curved daggers into their hands, "the ceremonial objects of our faith."

"Do you doubt this permission?" the man on the right says.

"Do you doubt the Red King?" the man on the left chimes in, asking perhaps a more dangerous question.

Foghorn chuckles when the fire brew draws winces from his companions. He's about to ask each one what made them join the Amity crew—none of them strike him as particularly water-wise—when Banio and Trusova leave to ingratiate themselves with the foreigner, leaving Foggie by himself alone with Rausimod. He considers joining the two, but first instead, a quick scan of the room to gauge the temperature of the Dockers-Fish Wardens tensions before turning to Rausimod.

"What, I say, what treasure? Our pay from the Confessor???"

Lambert takes a step back, hands raised, as the trio come on.

"Never seen one o’them up close before!" he says, nodding his head to the daggers. "Nice bit of kit, that!"

Then he whips out his own ‘long, wicked knife’ and brandishes it. He takes another step back.

"I’ve only got this old thing. More practical than ceremonial, you understand."

The man chances a peak behind himself, to see how his escape route might look.

Knives disappear back beneath robes, almost in unison.

"We wish you no ill, citizen. But we do seek someone. Pagric is his name. He would have been dressed as we are, as he too follows the Red King. Have you seen or heard tell of this man? He is lost, and needs finding."

Lambert feels emboldened, having seemingly cowed three of the red ones with his own knife.

Proper order, that…

Smug and satisfied, he sees an opportunity present itself!

"Friends of Pagric, you lot? Why didn’t you say so before?" he says, making a show of putting away his knife.

"Might be that I know a thing or two."

"Aye, part of it at least. Those damned children took half, and left me wandering unawares like a fool! But don't you worry, I will be retrieving it from them on the morrow. However I can." The dark glower in the dwarf's face tells a story of embarrassment as well as rage. A similar face to the one worn by a hoodwinked nobleman taken in by a yellow-tented street magician, but also suggesting the capacity for retribution.

Banio approaches the presumed nobleman's table. He stands beside the foreigner's chair, close enough that were the other man to get up, even a midget like Banio could slip a knife between his ribs. So positioned, he shares the nobleman's view of his would-be business partners-- or, perhaps, customers-- weaving their way out of The Manky Mermaid.

Banio heaves a sympathetic sigh.

"Hard luck, that," he comments, as if he and the well-dressed stranger were longtime friends. "But it's true what they say. Whenever a door closes, somewhere a window opens."

Outside the Manky Mermaid
The lead priest's eyes narrow dangerously. "Friends?! No. No! He has strayed, Pagric has. The Red King knows! Where have you seen him, man?"

On their way over to the nobleman's table, Trusova lowers her hood and let's her hair down. It wouldn't do to look like a thief. When they arrive at the table, Trusova stands behind Banio, arms crossed. She stands far enough away to give him room to operate, but close enough to imply they are associates.

Inside the Manky Mermaid
"Hmp!" the well-dressed westerner manages as Banio and Trusova arrive at his table... one of them a little too close for comfort, practically brushing against him.

"What's that, now?" the man says in very proper Fesselmarkian, his expression revealing that he can smell the day's work on the portly Phelbt. His blue eyes brighten, though, when he realizes what the man has said.

"What's that again? A door closes you say? Sit! Sit, both of you." His voice lowers as he leans forward, looking this way and that to make sure there are no eavsdroppers. "What can you tell me of the College of Doors?"

Inside the Manky Mermaid
When Trusova lowers her hood, revealing her hair and her gender, it comes as a surprise to some. Glances are exchanged, eyebrows are raises... mutterings are muttered.

Lambert was very aware that the man was just on the other side of the door the three men were about to walk through anyway. Still, he wanted to try turn this to his advantage:

"Ah, yes… right, well… I’d heard about that. Foolish, I thought! The Red King knows, as they say."

He puts his hand to his chin:

"Where’v I seen him. Where’v I seen him." the man doesn’t make any attempt to act honest.

"Tell you what, you show me one of them daggers, and I might remember where I last saw one!"

As the patrons of the Manky Mermaid react to her being a her, she refuses to give any fucks about their muttering.

Outside the Manky Mermaid
"Oh aye," says one priest, right before another finishes: "He knows!"

"The Lord of beginnings, and of ends, and the mystery that forges the two into one," the man in the middle says, taking up the conversation. He listens as Wolke makes his not-so-subtle play, then scowls. "A bribe?" the priest says lowly. "And not just any bribe, but you seek a sacred object? One blessed by the High Priest himself!"

Inside the Manky Mermaid
"That's right," the nobleman says even more quietly and insistently, one of his hands finding the velvety bag on the table, "The College of Doors! There is magic I seek!"

"Well, I figured old Pagric wouldn’t be needin’ his any more." the man says with a shrug; trying to play it cool but knowing he’d probably come out of this with nothing. And he’d be lucky at that!