Easthaven

"No, I believe that is all." Zenithral bows slightly. "Thank you." He turns to leave, wondering who else in Easthaven might be able to join the cause.

Walking through the streets, he sees the temple.
Everard? No; bad leg. Accalia? Maybe. She looks like she could put up a fight. He sees Apsel's scrimshandering shop. Apsel? He doesn't strike me as a fighter, but who knows? He sees Pomab's shop. The merchant Pomab? I've never meet the man, so perhaps, though it seems like the town needs him to manage supplies through the winter. I'll give him a visit anyway. With any luck, he'll be able to supply me with a new set of armor at the very least.

"Good morning, Maverick," Zenithral says as he passes by into Pomab's shop.

"Excuse me, my good man? You must be Pomab, owner of this fine establishment, yes? Do you happen to have a set of scale mail for purchase? If not, a chain shirt will do just fine." As he says this, he takes out and holds up the pearl the elf of the lake, Elisia, gave to him.

Pomab is currently rearranging items on a shelf, muttering to himself as Zenithral enters. "...that lump of yeti droppings for brains goliath... showed him... sent him running..."

He is quite distracted with his monologue as Zenithral approaches. When Zenithral speaks, Pomab leaps around and yells something that sounds like "Moop!!" Seeing the half-elf, Pomab readjusts his fine clothes and puts on his best Calishite merchant smile.

"A customer who finally wishes to buy something - what a novelty! Yes, I have got some armor that should 'suit' your purposes." He chuckles at his own pun. "Scale, chain, I have both. Would you like to try one on?"

"Ah Hothgar my good man i have two things to discuss with you." Maverick says smiling up at Hothgar "first is clearing Ug of the theft and arson of last nights fiasco. If you check Pomab you will find a number of wands, one of which contains fire magic, and im sure you saw Ug dragging a bottle covered Jed which explains the missing wine. the sirfvneblin says gesturing to the shop then to the direction that an awful scraping sound is being made. Second i need to go to the ruins called the vale of shadows to retrieve and item and help quell the dead within for my god. Are there any men you can spare to help in this endeavour?

Zenithral chuckles at the pun. "Excellent! I think we'll try the scale mail first. Not as quiet as a chain shirt, of course, but feel I need more protection than stealth with what we'll be facing soon," he says, rubbing his shoulder.

Hrothgar pulls his attention from the 'sled' and regards Maverick curiously. "I didn't know you were a priest, gnome. But if you want to quell the undead, we could likely use your help with some business of our own around Kuldahar." He gets more excited as he continues. "We're getting an expedition ready to travel there and help with their troubles, and I believe undead might be part of that.""As for Ug," Hrothgar says, again watching the disruptive display, "I am tired of this charade. I'll take any proof you've got. Why don't we settle this right now? Come with me to Pomab's." He gestures towards the Emporium, and then approaches the door.

"Third cousin!" Zenithral remarks. "You don't say! Well, you seem just like the man for the job. Do you---"

At this point, Hrothgar walks in and Pomab makes his remarks about Ug.

"Now Pomab, my good man," Zenithral says, as he finishes strapping on the scale coat. "I hear that goliath helped fight off the orcs that raided that last supply caravan and carried half of the goods back on his shoulders, not to mention that he took down the crazed frost giant that wandered into town!" Zenithral steps near the door and raises an eyebrow at the sight of Ug dragging the boat. "Though I admit, he looks like he can be a bit odd at times." He scratches his head. "That can't be good for the hull."

Maverick leads Hothgar to pomabs emporium and starts his exsplination of events wile pomab is busy with zenithral "To start, the theft, Old Jed is the culprit of that crime as evidenced by his state this morning and the fact he has no other way to feed his addiction then to lie and steal fermented beverages." the svirfneblin then turns to the scorched book shelves "detect magic has weilded two insights; the first being that the fire started in the shop last night. Ug could not be the culprit as a snow bank has more magic in it then poor Ug; and second, Pomab not only started the fire in his own shop but that he is armed at all times with several magical wands and items giving him these powers." Pointing to the floor he continues "Ug did however micturate on the floor but the majority of that has been delt with by some of my magic, but it fid save the shop and the surrounding houses from a quick speading fire that would have most definitely destroyed much of this town." exiting the shop and beckoning Hothgar to follow Maverick finishes saying "from the sounds of it Pomab is seeing things going on about a dangerous god named moop which doest seem to exsist; to top all of this off he tried to demand the punishment of old jed to be beaten without jed even being awake or aware. pomab is a cold blooded maniac on the verge of a psychological breakdown"

Hrothgar only understands about half of the words, but he gets the gist. Each point Maverick makes is a nail in the coffin of Pomab's defense.

"That's enough, Maverick," Hrothgar says. "I see fault on both sides of this argument. Ug will pay a fine of 200 gold to Pomab, as way of recompense. And Pomab must admit his own wrongdoings in front of all of Easthaven - it's either that or leave, Pomab, and I doubt you'll want to do that. The Pasha can't have that many more third cousins he despises enough to send here to replace you."

Hrothgar exhales sharply. "Now if everyone is done wasting my time, I have things to attend to. Preparations need to made if the expedition is to depart for the Kuldahar Pass while the weather is still favorable." He leaves.

Pomab fumes. "Get out of here, gnome. I will remember this slight."

All pretense at civility gone, he turns to Zenithral and says, "Are you going to buy something or not?"

"Ug did what!" Zenithral exclaims, very confused at what's going on. He's tempted to argue in Pomab's defense, believing there's a rational explanation in there somewhere, but at Pomab's reaction, decides he doesn't know enough about the situation and says nothing else about it.

"Of course, my dear man." he replies. "I do believe this scale mail is exactly what I need. Will this pearl be enough?" He hands it to Pomab and picks up the leggings.

Pomab inspects the pearl under his desk lamp, then grumbles and pockets it. He pulls a coin purse out of one of the drawers and tosses it to Zenithral, then withdraws into a back room - a clear dismissal that he is done doing business.

Maverick chuckles at pomabs displeasure and makes quite a rude gesture to the slimy merchant as he turns his back to the gnome and half-elf. once pomab is out of sight Maverick turns to Zenithral "So Zen I see you picked up some new bling, wanna test it out" he svirfneblin says as his eyes beginning to light with mischief

"No, that's quite alright," Zenithral tells Maverick, knocking a fist on the metal scales of the suit. "I can tell for myself that this is quality material enough." He begins donning the leggings. "Say, has Hrothgar or Alalla asked you about joining our little expedition?" he asks casually. "We're going to Kuldahar to find out why the circle of warmth there is fading; you know, help save Icewind Dale and the like. I couldn't help but notice that you seem to have solved some bit of crime pitted against Ug. We could use a sharp mind like yours, not to mention the spells you have up your sleeves."

"The idea was thrown around but I never recived a formal invasion." He says looking up "I also have some business to attend to in the area for my patron which might help to solve some of the undead problems that seem to be occurring. So I suppose i accept"

"Abominations!", Tulfgyr gasps upon hearing of the walking dead ,"It seems that I am most needed with you child! " Father Tulfgyr is appalled at the thought of the desecration of the dead and seems most eager, and determined, to bring them rest. Father Tulfgyr makes his way to Ug to find the truth of the theiving matter.

With a final creak the hull of the boat gives way and the children leap out giggling. Poor Jed and his bottles are left in the middle of town square in a pile of wooden debris with Jed still sleeping like an gnome baby. Ug waves to the children happily, and then turns to Heothgar and confront his sentencing. Turns out, thanks to an extremely good amount of investigation from a brother gnome (Ug would be in mavericks debt for that one), Ug was found innocent, partly.

"But Ug no have 200 gold?" Ug whispers to hrothgar, "how Ug pay back lying filthy merchant with no gold?"

Hrothgar looks at Ug thoughtfully for a moment. "If you have no gold, I will pay the fine for you. You can work it off by helping me out with an expedition I have planned. It will likely involve lots of monster slaying. What say you?"

Relieved to have swayed someone to the cause, Alalla smiles widely. She thanks him, and follows him, hoping to recruit the goliath if he hadn't been already, or to check in with Hrothgar.