"Sir. Sir," the librarian says.
"Listen," the centaur replies, "I'm only half horse, lady. I'm not going to shit all over your floor. You're not even the librarian!"
So, scratch that.
"You're too big for the aisles! If you would just wait here I will get whatever you need. We also have a correspondence program you can sign up for," not-the-librarian says.
Dorge grips the hilt of his dagger and holds his breath, an old habit he relies on when he passes by anyone too closely, and prepares to slide past whatever is going on here.
Irritably he thinks centaurs are dumb, but immediately feels bad about it and and amends his thought to this centaur is dumb. Which leads him to think, as soon as he's successfully made it past the two verbal combatants why is that centaur in the library? But he shrugs and shakes the question off, taking in a deep breath, free of whatever musk the heated debate between those two was generating.
He was here to see a Gainslee about the undead job. Please, please, don't let not-the-librarian be Gainslee. If that were the case Dorge would just do the Charm the Wailing Spirit post he had tucked into his belt.
Dorge didn't exactly know where to go but feels strange just meandering about, so he heads into a random aisle and starts running his finger down the spines of books like he's looking for something. Maybe he can check his wisdom stat after this and see if it went up a notch, maybe there's more to this warrior after all...mayb-wait, is that hot elf girl checking him out? Don't look, don't look. He reaches up to adjust his glasses in an effort to look more studious, then remembers he doesn't wear glasses here. So he smooths the move over by reaching for a book and pulling it down from the shelf instead. Flipping through it back and forth until he "finds" what he's looking for, but he's concentrating more on making the proper Ah! Of Course! face than actually reading.
That's when the hot elf girl falls right into his trap.
"Excuse me?" she says, approaching him tentatively.
Ignore, ignore, ignore, "Hm? Oh, yes?"Dorge says.
"You can read Abyssal?"
Fuck. Motherfuck.
Dorge sighs and snaps the book shut, "Well, that makes a little more sense," he chuckles and slides the book back into place. Why the hell would the Abyssal section be on the first floor. He probably would have gone mad if he'd actually tried to read it.
"I'm sorry to bother you, please don't be embarrassed. I was only hoping, er...wondering if you could because of the job I'm on. Understanding that writing would have been helpful," she says.
"Well, I'm just a little turned around in here, sorry," Dorge says.
"Oh, maybe I can help. I come here all the time! My name's Pynah. What are you looking for? Are you on a quest?"
Dorge takes a step back, "Uh, no, not yet, anyways. I think I'm ok, thanks, I'll find him."
Deflated, Pynah says, "I see, well it was nice to meet you?"
"Dorge," Dorge says, "with a 'D'."
"'Dorge Wethahdee', is that southern?"
"What? No, no-"
Pynah snickers, "I'm just fucking with you, Dorge, see ya around."
What the hell.
"Hey, Pynah...do you know Gainslee?" Dorge asks, his palms up.
"Thought you'd never ask, Dorge Wethahdee," she says and gestures for him to follow.
***
Pynah skirts through the library, deftly maneuvering through the stacks and the creatures, nearly losing Dorge twice, but smiling when she has to turn and look for him. He took her for a cleric but he was just being racist. Clerics don't move like that. Or was he now just being class-ist? In any case he figures she knew damn good and well he was lost in this place, and clocked him for a warrior straight away. She could be leading him to a trap, in fact the whole thing could be a setup starting with the job posting. Goddamnit, Dorge, you're going to have to put a few more points in the Intelligence column.
Eventually Dorge catches up enough to walk more or less beside her as she leads him into a huge, sunlit chamber. Sunlit on a sunny day, that is. Today was mostly gray and the shadows in the room smoothed into each other and cast doubt. In the center of the room were several tables all parallel to one another with a surprising cast of races and classes assorted at each. Was the Gap shooting a commercial here? Then Dorge caught on: these were all different adventuring parties. Of course there would be a bunch of groups here, the taverns in a town like this would be too dangerous for a bunch of noobs to start out in.
Pynah leads Dorge to a table stacked with tomes and littered with maps, an older human man hunched over scribbling notes onto some yellowed parchment, muttering to himself.
"Ah," Dorge beings, "you must be-"
"Vess, have you seen Gainslee?" Pynah interjects.
Vess grumbles and straightens, his back audibly popping, and scatters some sand over the notes he'd just taken, licking the ink off the end of his quill, "Not today, Py."
"This is Dorge," Pynah gestures.
"Warrior, after the undead quest, got it," Vess flicks his hand, dismissively.
Dorge squints, "Anything else, pops?"
The man leans back over his notes, dipping the quill into the ink pot, "Level thirty-four or so, by the look of you. Oh, and completely broke." Vess's eyes flick to Pynah, "Or will be."
Standing outside the library in the misty rain, Dorge turns back to Pynah, "So that's it? What was that about?"
Pynah shrugs and pushes an errant strand of hair behind her ear, "Gainslee's not always in there, just usually is. I wouldn't worry. You'll probably have better luck tomorrow. Well, depending on how many points you've stacked into your Luck attribute," she snickers. "For all I know you'll slip on some stairs tonight and break your neck. Seen it happen before."
Dorge sighs and pinches the rain from the corner of his eyes. This wasn't a story quest anyways, just a job to get some gold and experience. But he still felt like he was missing something. There'd be no real point on doing a Sense Motive on Pynah, she'd be able to see what he was doing and shift. This is what it's like to travel without a party. Fighting Paladins alone and being duped by elves.
Pynah smiles like she had just read the above as plainly as it was written and softens up a notch, "Hey, listen. How about if I hear anything sooner than tomorrow about Gainslee, I look you up? Where are you staying tonight?"
Dorge shrugs and points, "Probably that stable," he says and flicks water from his hair.
This was not going to be Dorge's day.
"Oh, don't look glum. You've had worse days than this," Pynah winks and turns back into the library.
Eventually Dorge catches up enough to walk more or less beside her as she leads him into a huge, sunlit chamber. Sunlit on a sunny day, that is. Today was mostly gray and the shadows in the room smoothed into each other and cast doubt. In the center of the room were several tables all parallel to one another with a surprising cast of races and classes assorted at each. Was the Gap shooting a commercial here? Then Dorge caught on: these were all different adventuring parties. Of course there would be a bunch of groups here, the taverns in a town like this would be too dangerous for a bunch of noobs to start out in.
Pynah leads Dorge to a table stacked with tomes and littered with maps, an older human man hunched over scribbling notes onto some yellowed parchment, muttering to himself.
"Ah," Dorge beings, "you must be-"
"Vess, have you seen Gainslee?" Pynah interjects.
Vess grumbles and straightens, his back audibly popping, and scatters some sand over the notes he'd just taken, licking the ink off the end of his quill, "Not today, Py."
"This is Dorge," Pynah gestures.
"Warrior, after the undead quest, got it," Vess flicks his hand, dismissively.
Dorge squints, "Anything else, pops?"
The man leans back over his notes, dipping the quill into the ink pot, "Level thirty-four or so, by the look of you. Oh, and completely broke." Vess's eyes flick to Pynah, "Or will be."
Standing outside the library in the misty rain, Dorge turns back to Pynah, "So that's it? What was that about?"
Pynah shrugs and pushes an errant strand of hair behind her ear, "Gainslee's not always in there, just usually is. I wouldn't worry. You'll probably have better luck tomorrow. Well, depending on how many points you've stacked into your Luck attribute," she snickers. "For all I know you'll slip on some stairs tonight and break your neck. Seen it happen before."
Dorge sighs and pinches the rain from the corner of his eyes. This wasn't a story quest anyways, just a job to get some gold and experience. But he still felt like he was missing something. There'd be no real point on doing a Sense Motive on Pynah, she'd be able to see what he was doing and shift. This is what it's like to travel without a party. Fighting Paladins alone and being duped by elves.
Pynah smiles like she had just read the above as plainly as it was written and softens up a notch, "Hey, listen. How about if I hear anything sooner than tomorrow about Gainslee, I look you up? Where are you staying tonight?"
Dorge shrugs and points, "Probably that stable," he says and flicks water from his hair.
This was not going to be Dorge's day.
"Oh, don't look glum. You've had worse days than this," Pynah winks and turns back into the library.
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