"Okay, Gabrielle, we'll split up. Is that all right with you, Deandra?"

"That's fine. I'm pretty sure no one would recognize me here."

The three of you enter the common room separately. You go in first and head straight for the bar. Deandra enters several minutes later and finds a spot at a table near the back of the room, several feet from the back windows. Gabrielle waits until you're almost done with your first drink before she comes into the room, and she takes a spot next to the fireplace.

Once you know where everyone is in the room, you scan the patrons at the bar for a likely target. You spot a somewhat heavy-set, slightly older, well-dressed man. Mentally labeling him a trader, you take a few minutes to work your way over to him. Once you get there, you nod a friendly greeting to him but otherwise keep to yourself. You decide not to get too friendly until he's had a little more to drink.

It takes about fifteen minutes for your opening to present itself. In the meantime, you keep an eye on the room to see what's happening. Gabrielle, unsurprisingly, sits in the middle of a group of about six men, recounting news of some of the towns you've passed through the last few months. Deandra is speaking with an older barmaid.

The man next to you has struck up something of a conversation with the barkeep. "It's good to find a friendly place like this," you hear him say. "I'm never home enough these days. Places like this are as close as I get."

You decide to break into the conversation. "I know what you mean. I haven't been home in so long my family's complaining that they're starting to forget what I look like."

The bartender moves off in response to another barfly's order. The man shifts his attention to you. "Where have you been that's kept you away from home?"

"Well, I just left Corinth and now I'm heading to Theris. I help in the family business, so I do a lot of negotiating far from home."

"I'd be careful if I was you. There's talk of a war coming up between Theris and Calith. I'd put off your business if I could."

You shake your head. "It can't be put off. This is the first I've heard of any war brewing."

The merchant smiles. "Oh, you'll hear plenty the closer you get to Theris. The whole countryside buzzing about it. I'm not too sure of the details, mind, but I hear tell that somebody in the House of Theris insulted King Shirra. But I haven't heard anything specific."

A man who came up to the bar for a drink overhears your conversation and breaks in. "Oh, I have. King Shirra claims his family's magical tapestry's been stolen, and somebody from Theris' royal house did it."

"Did he see the thief?" the trader asks.

"Not from what I hear tell. Not sure how the king knows who stole the tapestry."

"Well, it sound to me like he's acting paranoid," you say.

"The King's gotten that way, but I wouldn't say so in Calith," your informant replies. "Anyways, I hear tell that one of the royal family saw the thief escaping. I guess whoever saw the thief said it was somebody from the House of Theris. Only thing that's kept the King from attacking, from what I hear, is his daughter. She's somehow convinced her old man to wait before going off to war."

You're getting ready to reply when you hear a commotion from behind you. In the time it takes you to turn around and look around the room, a full-scale bar fight begins. You see Deandra flattened against the back wall, getting ready to hit an attacker with her chair. Four of the people around Gabrielle have started fighting, and she's moved into a defensive posture with her staff. Then a body comes flying into your field of vision.

You raise your left arm to deflect the body behind the bar. Now two men are coming at you, one from the right and one from the left. The two fellows you had been talking with have scrambled for cover. The man on your right reaches you first, his arm extended to ram into your stomach. You grab his arm and pivot, using his momentum to throw him into the man on your left and carry them both into the bar.

Immediately, more men come charging at you, all in a convenient line. You do a jump flip up onto the bar, give your battle cry, and proceed to take out the trio with a roundhouse kick to their heads. From your new altitude, you can see four men taking Deandra through a broken window. You automatically check on Gabrielle as you get ready to go after Deandra, and you see that several men have boxed Gabrielle into a corner. She doesn't have enough room to us her staff effectively, and she's starting to look a little desperate. She taken out a couple of men but four more are coming her way.

Go after Deandra
Help Gabrielle