TIMEOTHY'S DND CAMPAIGN IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Huggles looks over from where he's tearing into a hank of leg. He swallows the bite he's on, then looks at Skybot and says, "Looks like you just done damaged somethin' 'spensive."

Scuttles McPhee, tired of standing moodily in a corner, rights the nearest chair and stares intently at a newly acquired fortune cookie, pilfered from a table of otherwise elegant delicacies.

Electing to not bother tempting fate, he puts it back on the platter and goes to find something else to eat. Preferably something nice and fancy with an 'é' in it.

Between the dwarf occasionally glaring at him, hand rather meaningfully on his axe, and the furniture being flung around and put back in place, William rapidly becomes uncomfortable. He coughs, places his drink on the table, halfheartedly smiles and nods at Vylanis, and ends up leaning in the corner that Scuttles just evacuated.

Vylanis smiled and nodded back at the uncomfortable looking . . . was it human or elf? Maybe a half elf? She didn't get a good enough look at his ears to check. However, she had a feeling that his reaction of moving away from the chaos was a pretty good idea. The bard moved to a spot where she hopefully wouldn't be buffeted by Skybot!'s admittedly pretty cool wings and took a seat, sipping her wine one more time. A bit bored now that she had her fill of food and drink, she produced her violin and started to quietly practice.

(Hey it's time for TimeothyHour to pretend everything was in past tense in the first place.)

Awkward silence settled over the group, save for the quiet whine of the violin, the high, empty roof of the building reflecting and amplifying the music.

Did minutes pass? Hours? Seconds? Either way, the violin continued to play, on and on, seeming to play an eternity.

Until it, too, fell silent.

And just as the silence settled in, the wait beginning to try on the adventurer's nerves, he arrived.

He wasn't young, like the words "A very rich and influential man," would suggest. He looked to be about eighty, and if the way he was lead forward by a much younger (and also absolutely gorgeous) woman indicated anything, it was that he was blind. In his other hand, he held a cane, that hit the tile floor with a heavy THUMP as they continued forward.

Slowly, the couple walked, the slow rhythm of one-two-three-four THUMP one-two-three-four THUMP now echoing off of the high ceiling of the hall.

And, once they had finally reached the center of the room, they stopped.

Silence. Then, the rotted smile of the old man.

And finally, he spoke.

"That was some very nice violin, my dear. Please keep playing."

GUINEFORT THINKS THIS OLD MAN IS CREEPY

CREEPY LIKE A ZOMBIE

DOES EVERYONE ELSE AGREE WITH GUINEFORT THAT THE OLD MAN IS CREEPY LIKE A ZOMBIE

WELL?

William starts FRANTICALLY ATTEMPTING TO DETECT MOTIVE. Detect the SHIT out of this man's motive.

In an attempt to detect the motive of this man, William rolled a three, totaling to six, and failed spectacularly. He has absolutely NO IDEA what this man wants.

Guinefort thew up a finger, poiting at the old man, with a few unintelligible phrases spurting from his mouth.

The old man nods, chuckled to himself, and with his voice, he spoke to the adventurer.

"Sit, my friend. No need to be angry."

And with that, despite thoughts otherwise, he sat down.

"You may be wondering why I've brought you all here," he said, the smile still on his face. "The reason is simple enough."

"I can see the future, and it has told me to hire you. All of you."

Huggles just kind of stands there and keeps eating for a minute ponderously before speaking. "I don't put much store in future tellin', but I'm not about ta turn down a job out a' hand a' 'cause a' it." He takes another bite, chewing slowly again. "What's tha job?"

William raises an eyebrow, but otherwise keeps stoic and silent, waiting for the man to continue. Whether delusion or truth-- they are often so hard to separate when it comes to "oracles"-- the man is offering a job and pay, and probably has at least some idea what he's on about.

GUINEFORT THINKS OLD MAN IS DISTRUSTFUL

ON THE OTHER HAND, GUINEFORT LIKES MONEY

BUT GUINEFORT THINKS THAT OLD MAN IS STILL DISTRUSTFUL

LIKE A ZOMBIE

GUINEFORT IS WONDERING WHAT THE PARTY SHOULD DO

Vylanis continued playing as requested, but quieted the sound of her violin once the old man had mentioned the whole seeing-the-future thing. Being a bard and hearing many tales from her travels on the road, the spellscale was quite superstitious. Besides, why doubt someone's abilities when she herself was capable of simple spellcasting? Obviously someone older would have much greater power, right?

"Hire us, eh?" she asked, curious. "What for?"