Journey to Acquire the: Bard

After some careful consideration, Keldan decided to head out to meet the dragonkin bard. Sorting through what he managed to gather on her, the Bard was last sighted at one of the closest locations to where he and his two companions were now. But that information was almost a month old by now, she probably moved on to somewhere new, but he could at least find out where she headed a bit more accurately if he did head to her last known location. Checking their location on what he learned of the area back in the room before setting the course to head out, Keldan figured it would probably take two or three days to walk to the newest location. He really needed a map, and someone who knew how to read them. Ironically, the figure he had his sights currently set on was probably one of the two individuals his rumors spoke of that could do just that.

Keldan was rubbish at reading maps; for the most part, he could read maps that were highly localized decently enough, but only if he had a basic idea of where he was and maybe one or more of the locations or landmarks indicated on the map, it was why he never seemed to have a map with him for more than a day or two. This Bard, whom he really didn’t know the name of, he heard 6 or 7 names it could be, but he at least managed to gather her name definitely started with an R, or was it a Z? The way some of the names were structured made it difficult to tell a few Rs and Zs apart, mostly because of how dragonkin names seemed to be structured from time to time. Maybe one of his future companions could teach him how to better read a map.

After a very enjoyable night, he slept between both women and thus had both of their bosoms as supporting pillows on his sides that were far more comfortable than the pillow provided on the bed for his head. After getting out of bed, and dressed, Keldan started thinking about where he would head next with a bit more care. And the Bard was probably one of his best options, especially since what he managed to gather about her said she was reasonably close. The real problem would be getting to where she actually was, getting to where she had been fairly recently usually didn’t cut it. Dragonkin with scales like the bard had were pretty uncommon in most civilized places with the rest of the more common races, and factoring in her notable considerable bosom made her quite the oddity, which some of the rumors about her indicated she sometimes took advantage of.

“So,” inquired Devallia as the three of them enjoyed a simple breakfast of eggs and sausage with toast, “who are we going to try and recruit now?”

“The bard,” said Delvin, “the most recent info I found on what I’ve managed to gather about her said she’s in a town bit more to the northeast.”

“How far,” inquired Helen, ignoring the stares of the few patrons in the commons with them for the morning.

“Three days by foot,” said Delvin, “maybe half that if we could get a decent cart.”

“Too bad we can’t just fly,” groaned Devallia, “it would probably take us no more than a small handful of hours, at most.”

“Yes,” said Delvin, “but we really don’t have those kinds of resources. Maybe one of the potential recruits does, but do not at present.”

Keldan kept his ears out for any rumors of interest before heading out. He didn’t hear anything of note regarding any of the kinds of women he was on the hunt for, all of the ones he heard were ones he had heard in the past few months; the only new rumor he heard was about a reclusive, yet talented, alchemist in a hamlet just outside of a major city, he wasn’t able to catch the name of the city since he missed the part about that before he started hearing the rumor, it was just referred to as ‘the hamlet’ or ‘the town’ or ‘the village’ when he started hearing the rumor. All he got out of the rumor was the alchemist being supposedly female and notably reclusive but seems to have a variety of gofers shopping for products in the neighboring market, and setting up requests at the various guilds in the area from time to time, the ones she sends out all seemed to have a scent of a fresh confection of some kind; from sounds of things, she might be affiliated with a merchant’s guild. “Hear anything good,” inquired Helen.

“Only something about a talented alchemist, nothing about her appearance but enough about her general social demeanor and some implications she might have some sort of association with a merchant guild.”

“Well,” said Devallia, “at least we know where we can find someone that can make us quality potions, at the very least. So, what can you tell us about the next town?” She seductively sucked on her sausage for a moment before biting into it properly and tearing it a bit before chewing carefully, “I hope your ‘sausage’ isn’t as pitiful as the ones we have to eat here,” she gestured to the 2 to 5-inch wide sausages that were arranged for their breakfast that remained on all the plates.

“No worries there,” said Keldan with confident pride, “I just want to make sure we have somewhere more private for everything so we don’t inconvenience anyone, knocking boots in an inn that hasn’t been specifically designed with that in mind is usually seen as poor form, tacky, and an act of sexual desperation,” he leaned into the center of the table and gestured for the girls to do the same, and once they did, in a more careful voice, he said, “I want to make my acts of dominance over you to be something everyone within earshot is on board with. I may have taken an oath to conquer a certain type of woman, but I want to make sure it’s a consensual conquest. If it’s not, then the fun is usually ruined, unless she wants to have things go the hard way, I’m not above that, I just think a conqueror should at least be as respectful as possible in their conquests.”

“Well,” said Devallia, then drew back, the pair giving him a better view of their bosoms for a moment, “at least you want to work within the trappings of a gentleman outside the fields of combat, in and out of the bedroom. That’s more than many so-called nobles could say. The main reason I’m interested is because my kind often tends to get a little horny once we reach a certain age, and I’m a little repressed from years of not being able to properly release, so expect a wild time when we finally do get around to it.”

“Minotaurs like it rough,” said Helen, “nothing wrong with getting a little rowdy in that sort of situation.”

“We should really get a move on,” said Keldan diplomatically as he rose from his seat, his plate mostly finished, and dropped the silver coins that had been charged for breakfast on the counter, in front of the clerk, on the way out.

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Three hours, and 1 short rest stop, later Keldan and the girls were stopping on the side of the road for the first night, The makeshift shelters were just barely usable, but at least they could be disposed of quickly. Devallia wasn’t happy, there was no way she was getting down on Keldan in such an embarrassment that barely met the loosest definition of shelter. Keldan offered to take up the first watch, then in about two hours, he would wake the next person on rotation. It was decided Helen would be next on rotation, then the rotation would be rounded out with Devallia. The day was just getting dark, it was in the latter half of the twilight hours.

The team decided to sit down near the fire and downed some basic rations before getting to their nightly duties. After eating, and going over the plans for the night, they all took up their positions for the evening. As he sat with his back facing the fire and face towards the road, Keldan recalled a rumor about some sort of waystation on this road going up fairly recently, he had not managed to find out the details beyond that. So, if it was an inn or not wasn’t confirmed, but at the very least, it should be a place to rest for a bit. Chances were the group would have been there already if they had a cart, but they hadn’t managed to luck out on that front just yet.

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The night passed without incident; aside from the wild boar that Devallia took care of before it had a chance to get close to camp, Helen took care of skinning and dismantling the boar and did so beautifully that it was pretty impressive. They couldn’t really cook any of it, though; none of them had any cooking utensils with them, and would probably fumble in the cooking if they did since they didn’t really know how to cook. After downing some more trail rations and dismantling the camp, the three were back on the road.

After another six hours, and a short rest or two, on the road, the three came across a new-looking inn. The name of the establishment was labeled Dragon’s Brew, complete with the image of a dragon drinking from a barrel that frothed around the edges. The three entered the structure, happy they wouldn’t be out camping again. What they saw inside was quite the sight, half a dozen drake-kin were milling about, plus a charming copper drake-kin woman with what looked like a slightly above-average manning front desk gave them a cheery greeting, there were also maybe eight or nine individuals from various other races milling about and a gaggle of maybe six kids going for whatever caught their attention. “Welcome to the Dragon’s Brew,” said the brass drake-kin woman, “how can I help ya?”

“One room for the three of us,” said Keldan as he indicated that Helen and Devallia were his traveling companions.”

“That will be five silver coins for the night,” said the copper drake-kin woman, “I’m Telkinza, and I’m one of the proprietors of this establishment.”

“How many drake-kin actually work here,” inquired Devallia, “I mean no disrespect, but I just wanted to make sure I don’t confuse a patron for staff; I’ve heard horror stories about what happens when that mistake is made.”

“Your candid honesty is refreshing,” said Telkinza, “There are four of us actually working here, and we have three drake-kin guests.”

“I only see six drake-kin in the commons area, so I’m guessing we’ll be playing a little game of surprise then.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” said Telkinza, “it’s easy to spot; each of us who works here is metallic scaled; the rest are guests.”

A quick scan of the commons had Keldan doing a doubletake; the person he was hoping to get some extra info on was literally here in the commons; she was sitting by the fire pit telling some sort of story to the children, all of whom looked to be entranced by whatever tale she was telling, a combination of the ambient noise and the distance didn’t allow Keldan to pick up just what she was saying though. But to think, a drake-kin with amethyst scales and what appeared to be an L-Cup, possibly LL-Cup, bosom was right there.

“I heard a few rumors an inn was going up in the area,” said Keldan as he slid five silver pieces over to the drake-kin woman at the desk, “just never got enough on how far along the work was or anything regarding the construction crew or possible staff for the place upon completion.”

The copper drake-kin took the coins and said, “Thank you kindly; we went out of our way to make sure that sort of info was kept to a minimum. It’s not often you see an inn operated by less-common peoples, like ourselves. What brought you our way?”

“The Bard with amethyst scales in the commons I just spied,” said Keldan, “she’s the sort that meets my interests.”

“You debt collector or some perv seeking to turn her into your property,” Telkinza inquired darkly.

“Nothing like that,” said Keldan, “I just want to surround myself with ladies that have GENEROUS bosoms on my adventures, then join me in retirement as well.”

“He helped Helen and myself out with some assholes a few days ago,” said Devallia, “he’s not in it for the coin, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“The assholes we had to deal with were a tight pursed noble and his son taking advantage of their position and not really living up to their obligations. We’ll likely be reporting on them properly to the appropriate authorities before too long.”

“Well, as long as you aren’t aiming to cause trouble,” said Telkinza, “I suppose it’s okay. But the moment I hear about any of you harassin’ my patrons, you’ll be lucky to come out of it in proper condition.” She then handed Keldan his key, "Room 15."