The barony of Norrock is not far from Eswynd Rock, in nautical terms, but far enough away to make the small island holding seem desolate. Having only bent knee about four years back, they have had little chance to see the benefit of Compact trade connections due to the Civil War. Now that open hostilities have come to something of a close and allowed people in the Mourning Isles a moment to breathe, some of the extended Norrock family members have been sent out to build necessary relationships.

One such family member, young Lord Nils Norrock, had been sent to Tyde Hall. The problem is, he's gone missing. The baron dispatched messengers to every house of the Isles he might be able to trust, bearing a description of Nils: He is just 20 years old, not quite six feet tall, built with the kind of lean muscles that come from being youthful and having learned to sail at an even younger age, shoulder-length hair the color of sun-bleached wood, eyes a similarly pale blue.

Reports suggest he made it to Tyde Hall. One person claims to have seen him in a tavern. Another notes a sighting of someone fitting his description in a fishing village along the coast. For now, anyone who has agreed to assist in trying to find Lord Nils has been given support at Tyde Hall proper. The most likely place to start asking questions is probably that tavern: The Whale's Watch.

Somehow, a pit stop at Tyde Hall on the way from Escuma to Arx has turned into a missing person search for Team Kennex (and Tesha and maybe also Denica). Whose fault it is probably doesn't matter. There's a non-zero chance that the fact that the search is to begin at a tavern has something to do with it. Either way, Ian holds the door open for the giant troop of nobles to come stink up the place.

Once they're at the tavern, Neilda waltzes into the door held by Ian, and she decides to belly up to the bar and start a natural sort of patter with another patron sitting, offering a cheery introduction that carefully avoids rank, "Neilda, nice to meetcha -- what's your favorite drink here?"

There's adventure in the Mourning Isles, so of course princess Denica is here. Denica wouldn't know anything about going missing at random and not informing ones family. Never. Dressed in rather overtly feminine battle gear, she is ready for anything, because who knows these days. And let's be honest, the chance for a fight, always has a special lure. The location provides relief from the scorching heat they left back in Arx. The cool breeze, the refreshing environment that the north offers. Surely not cold, but better than Arx or the southern trip she took not long ago. Remnants of this still show on her skin, the subtle rosy hue that makes her nose and cheeks brighter than the rest of her. The princess is chattering with Ian as they head to the tavern. "Maybe he doesn't want to be found?," she says helpfully with a small shrug of her shoulders. Letting her gaze sweep across the tavern, "I'm going to go mingle..." Denica is a little hesitant, she's probably not going to introduce herself too broadly, but she can chit-chat with the best of them. All smiles, she's going to try to make friends.

Jan brings in the rear standing by Ian while others file through "Anyone looking at the boarding houses? I mean, how long has the kid been missing are we sure he's not just playing hide the salami with some precious young thing? When I was that age a lover and I might be holed up for days." wandering this towards Ian specifically but also aiming it at those who file past into the Whale's watch.

Titania moves through the door, her blue eyes looking around the place. Her eyes look over each person there, she moves off deeper into the bar to speak with some there. She emjpys talking to people, specially new people. Approaching a table she smiles to them greeting them.


Tesha had been tagging along with Aethan, Ian and the rest of the Kennex retinue. Going on adventures was good for her and she'd been on more than a few with the Kennex family. The older woman is one of the more somber and quiet ones and is hanging back towards where Aethan has found himself. Her stormy eye looks around at the faces in the tavern to see if any of them match the missing Lordling. "Are we sure this isn't some wild goose chase and he didn't pay people to throw off the trail." she murmurs to herself. Though Jan's words make her chuckle, "That might be the next stop, Lady Jan." she tells her gently.


Denica checks charm and seduction at normal. Denica is successful.

"Every time you put out one of these descriptions, people start seeing the person everywhere," Ian comments. "Only a matter of time before someone sees him selling fish two islands over or something." He hangs back as everyone goes in and takes a moment to scan the room. It's his usual hypervigilance, taking note of exits, furniture, who's here and who's armed, but maybe put to good use given the situation.

Ian checks perception and streetwise at normal. Botch! Ian fails completely.

Tesha checks perception and streetwise at normal. Tesha is successful.

Neilda checks charm and empathy at normal. Neilda is successful.

Jan checks perception and streetwise at normal. Jan fails.

Titania checks charm and investigation at normal. Titania is successful.

Inspections were always dicey - they were fantastic when they turned out well, supremely frustrating when they did not. That seemed to apply on both sides of the equation, too - inspector and inspectee. Add to it all the travel time, and it generally was a weary situation until it was all through. Thankfully, it was all through. Aethan stepped in through the door, a wan smile on his face. He's supposed to be happy, that everything went well - but, well... it's Aethan.

The smile is likely to be polite.

His eyes dart to Jan at the comment about salamis, and the hiding of such. He doesn't sigh. He doesn't grump, just... a look. Looking then to Ian, he nods. "People will chase shadows to find who they are missing. It's a matter of dreading the worst, and acting upon it."

"Or just wanting to be the person who saw the guy," Ian suggests. His intense gaze as it plays over the room is almost certainly not doing the group any favors. There's alert, and then there's... whatever he's doing. Point being, it's slid from attentive to borderline creepy.

The patrons of the bar mostly don't notice the incoming nobles until they're more directly approached. Like the man at the bar to Neilda's side. He cocks a brow at her when her Lycene accent hits his ear. "Whiskey," He responds in the way one would expect any gruff Islander man to respond. Still, he's not a blind man, and so his eyes travel down and then back up, giving the Saik lady a lopsided smile. "Mind if I get it for ya?" He lifts a hand to signal for the bartender.

Denica draws a touch of extra attention, and a few murmurs, as she moves further within the tavern. There might be a nearly inaudible "...Dagon...?" that is caught, but it is quiclky drowned by a small chorus of hissing. "Shhh!" A woman at the table the sound came from swats at the arm of another woman. The third woman at that table is darting her eyes from Denica to the shushed speaker and back, hoping they weren't noticed.

As Titania chooses a table to greet, she happens to choose a table that's been there /a while/. It appears to be two young couples, chattering openly and none too quietly about the fact that summer brings the best visitors to the northern isle.

FOr the rest? One or two patrons glance with some confusion - and a few more with some annoyance - at Jan and Ian. Aethan and Tesha are largely unnoticed except for their proximity.

Denica checks composure at hard. Critical Success! Denica is spectacularly successful.

Jan looks at Aethan and lifts a hand, palm out "What?! Aw, c'mon! Like I'm the only one who's thinking..." she glances around and shrugs "Eeesh, beg pardon for not just assuming the worse." She falls silent giving Aethan a sheepish shrug.

"Absolutely, you may -- and if I might bend your ear toward mine, I have a question or two -- only, if, you know - you don't mind entertaining me with a couple of answers while we drink together, yeah?" Neilda beams a smile, dimples - er, well -- dimpling at the Gruff Islander. "Just tending to some trade, passing through, you know how it is with us _Lycene_ types."

"Hello!," the princess is doing her best to mingle with the people in the tavern. The chatter about her and more specifically who her brother is, doesn't phase her at all. Denica is a daughter of Maelstrom and despite her emotional nature, she can hide it with the best of them. Bright eyes and warm smiles. Nope, she's not going to let that get to her. She knows what people are saying, but the one thing that the princess learnt through the course of this war is that she's her own person. She's not Dagon's sister, she's Denica and that's enough. There's a group of people near the bar and so she injects herself there, after finding a drink. This is clearly a cover, because it's very suspicious to be in a tavern without a drink, obviously. Downing some local fare, she is glancing around and then back to them, "man this weather is great. Finally, I can enjoy the outside and not get a sunburn." Then a sigh, "too bad because I came to see a friend of mine, name's Nils. He's," she goes into a description. "Anyone seen him about?," she asks.

Titania smiles at the couples, "Hello." she greets them, she has a very soft sing song voice one that is enjoyable to listen too. She smiles, "May I join you?" her hand is on the back of a seat, "I am hoping you can help me, I am looking for someone." she moves to sit down. "Perhaps you may have seem him."


Tesha gives a look around to the others and there seems to be no threats of anyone getting up to shush the others of the group, so she stays calm and composed...and lets the younger ones do their talking. Most don't want to deal with an eyepatch wearing Oathlander. Which is fine. There's a bit of a grin to Jan when she gives the sheepish look to Aethan, but otherwise she is staying close to the others.


There's probably a lot that's going over Ian's head here. Not the look Ian shoots towards Jan -- he's VERY familiar with that look. But Denica's composure, Tesha's grin for Jan, and pretty much everything about the way that people are reacting to the arrival of the nobles. He threads his way to a table, occasionally steadying his balance with a casual brush of one hand against empty tables that he passes, content to order a drink and let the social people work their magic. From his perspective, it really is magic.

"Shall we find a place to sit then? Enjoy the brief rest?" Aethan suggests, to those who traveled along with him. A nod to Jan. "I understand, you were hoping for a more amiable reason as to why they'd be missing - I just am..." There's a bit of a pause as he seeks the right phrase, or turn of words, "wondering if there might have been a more delicate way of suggesting such?" Ian is followed - the man having found a table.

The bartender supplies Neilda's whiskey and the man plunks a coin on the bar for it. He gives the Lycene lady a nod. "Doubt I'd have much luck keepin' my secrets for a pretty thing like you."

The trio of women all flush pink when Denica acknowledges them. None say anything about the comment about her brother, however, easily (and happily) changing the subject to the weather and the description of Nils. "That sounds like the fella who was here two, maybe three weeks ago. He said he had business with Duke Tyde." One of the gals rolls her eyes to signal she didn't believe someone like /him/ would have business with the duke.

"Oh, please, hi, your eyes are so pretty!" One of the two women at Titania's table gushes over her and gestures welcomingly to the open seat. The men give Titania a seated bow of their head and shoulders. "Who are you looking for? We know /every/ one. Simply everyone."

The others find that a server has come to their table, looking bored. It's busy, but the tavern is well staffed, leaving the servers some downtime.

Jan eyes Aethan "We're in the isles. Don't tell me we're becoming oathlanders where the mere suggestion someone's human sparks offense. I wasn't trying to make light of it just making sure we're looking in the right places."

Neilda blinks - once -- twice -- and her smile tenses, "Pretty little me, indeed." Thick as honey, murmured over a glass of whiskey before she drinks it down, sailor-style. "Any stories of missing vessels 'round here? Small ones, mind - enough for ah, one, or --" a glance over, grinning broadly at something she's overheard from Jan and Aethan "-- or two people so scoot off on?"

Ian orders a glass of whiskey, and then says to Aethan with the barest amusement shading his level voice: "Delicate is probably a lot to ask from Jan." The flash of sharp mischief in his eyes suggests he's finding this funnier than his flat expression would indicate.

Aethan takes a seat, ordering a simple glass of water for himself for now. "Always asks more than you will get, in the hopes that somewhere in the middle you'll meet." A nod to Ian, before looking to Jan. "Not at all. Your question was valid, Jan."


Tesha gives a bit of a look at the comment on Oathlanders, but she doesn't say anything. If Oathlanders took offense at everything said then the rumors would be true! She trails after the others and finds a seat at the table. She sits quietly, watching the other tables and the windows occasionally.


Canting her head to the side as she listens to the three woman talk about Nils visiting the Duke, she doesn't buy this, but she doesn't challenge them. "Interesting, thank you. This was a couple days ago...was he alone or with someone else?," she asks with an easy smile. The looking towards her collected group, she relays the information she's gotten so far. "People are saying Nils was here saying he had business with Duke Archeron. I've never seen the man let alone met him to start sending him questions to confirm, but I'm guessing we'd have heard if this was actually the case," she says with a small shrug.

Neilda checks charm and empathy at normal. Neilda fails.

Ian quirks an eyebrow at Aethan, and then says to Jan: "Porter used to turn that to his advantage. He'd claim everything was going to be at least twice as hard as it was actually going to be."

Denica checks charm and seduction at normal. Denica is successful.

Ian checks perception and streetwise at normal. Ian is successful.

Ian is also still keeping an eye on the place, apparently.

Tesha checks perception and streetwise at normal. Tesha is successful.

Titania checks charm and investigation at normal. Botch! Titania fails completely.

Jan siiiighs and eyes Ian, then Tesha, then Aethan. She looks to Ian "Eeeesh. No wonder he went into the faith." she tuts gently and then adds "I will try to put things a bit more appropriate for the setting." She eyes the establishment, "..which presently is a tavern.." a pause "What was the kid's name again?"

Aethan checks perception and etiquette at normal. Aethan marginally fails.

Jan checks perception and streetwise at normal. Jan is successful.

Another look to Jan, though there is some mirth in his eyes. "Yes, a tavern." Aethan agrees. "Perhaps I had missed the theater in which your comment was made - my mistake." A shake of his head and a sip of water. "It made for good work, if not aggravating. Over preparing is not the worst sin in the world, but it certainly is frustrating to put in so much effort, to only be fending off half the forces you were expecting."

Titania smiles as she joins them, there is a blush that comes to her cheeks when the woman's complements her on her blue eyes. "Thank you." she seems taken a little off guard as she looks to the men, "I am looking for a friend." she starts to describe the missing Nils

Jan says, "As a general-There is no such thing as over prepared."

"He went into the Faith because he was chasing a girl," Ian snorts, no doubt criminally oversimplifying whatever actually happened with Porter.

The man beside Neilda misses whatever point the Saik lady is trying to make entirely. It goes right over his head. Like a seagull. "If you're wantin' to get out of here, Pretty, we don't need a boat."

To Denica, the women give a little shrug each. "I didn't see anyone else," Says the eye-rolling one.

At Titania's table, the couples are chattering about a whole bunch of people they've seen recently. None of them sound like Nils.

Meanwhile, as the rest of the group sits and drinks, Jan has managed to select the exact right seat to notice a back door that isn't covered by the bar. It looks unused, certainly not as popular as the main entrance. Ian begins to sense that the clientele here are younger and less working class than one might expect from an Isles tavern called Whale's Watch. And Tesha is all too aware of just how /clean/ this place is kept. There might be a couple of more gruff sailor types around who work on ships all day, but these people seem to be putting on a game of being where the working class should be.

The brief lapse in Neilda's cheerfulness makes her smile twitch, flicker, and briefly fade -- emotions on her sleeve (pretty) and she tries to continue the patter (pretty thing) and she ducks her head, allowing her freckled cheeks to flush, her expression wry. "Sorry. I shouldn't be asking you," addressing the Gruff Islander, "-- about this kind of business. Some Baron's kin got himself into a spot of trouble, you know?" She shrugs it off,

"... Maybe there's a re-ward for finding information on him. But, you didn't hear me say a thing."

His mug is raised to Jan, nodding. "This is true. But preparing to face a force of two hundred men, and only fifty show up..." There's a chuckle. "It can be a waste of manpower." A slight shrug to that. "A delicate line - no such thing as overkill. Over comitting can be terrible." A look then to Ian with a smirk. "The boat man of the Knights of Solace, I recall."

Jan tilts her head and hrrms, meandering towards the back door, "Fair point. Speaking of manpower, you and me should chat sometime..." She closes in on the door and looks around "Storeroom?" she guesses, jerking a thumb to the door behind her. "This is the cleanest Tavern I've ever been to, I swear. Is it new?"

Ian coughs out a brief laugh, and nods to Aethan. "He's never living that down," he agrees. He takes a sip of his drink, then looks down at it with a note of surprise. A slow scan of the room, and he cants his head slightly. "... You starting to get the feeling like we're fake-slumming, too? This whiskey's too good for the places we usually wash up on." It's not clear who 'we' is, in this context, but the question was probably directed at Jan, even if he wasn't actually looking at her.


Tesha gives a look down to the table and then other places, "It is rather clean." she does agree with Jan as she taps her fingers on the top of table gently. Then she looks to the others, "I think it is fake slumming." she states quietly and nods to Ian. She then gives a look back to the rest of the room.


Aethan's eyebrow raises, clearly not having been focused on the atmosphere. There's a glance around. Leaning in to the table he's with, his normal, ever-present frown reappears on his face. "It can't ever just be a simple drink at a tavern, can it?"

Titania hmms nodding her head to those at the table, "Alright, thank you." she smiles and gets up to move to another table. She continues to move around the room sitting at a table when she is welcomed to do so.

Thick islander brows lift at what Tesha says and then she rolls her shoulders, "sometimes it's nice to...just not be who you are," she says unsure how to best put it. There's a curious look in her eyes now, wondering what exactly is going on here. Lips press together and then she lets her gaze sweep to the collection of Kennexes, curious to see what others make of this. "Maybe...this place is a front for...," she presses her lips together and then shrugs her shoulders. "I mean...I am not one to judge," the artist says with a little shrug of her shoulders.

Jan says, "Yeeeaaah, something's not right. It's like this place has self respect which is not normally the sort of thing that makes a tavern inviting."

"Huh?" The man talking to Neilda doesn't understand the shift, nor does he seem to know anything about the missing Lord. Until a reward is mentioned. "Oh, that Prodigal kid?"

One of the servers notices Jan and moves toward her. "Miss? Excuse me?"

All the other tables seem to be full, or unwilling to accept a stranger, forcing Titania back toward the core of the group.

"We're looking for a missing guy," Ian reminds Aethan in the tone of someone who feels that he is saying a reasonable thing, despite the fact that he himself has done exactly zero looking for anyone. Now that Jan has pointed out the door, it's absorbing the bulk of his interest, at least until the server comes over and becomes the unfortunate victim of all of that focus.

Jan turns and smiles, "Hrrrm? Oh, sorry. Where's this door go?" she plasters on a smile turning it up to full vapid. Nevermind the broad shoulders or tall build, just a ditsy bar fly here!


Tesha gives a gentle nod to those words, "When I was young I sometimes thought on that." she admits in a soft tone. Then she gives a look down as someone addresses Jan and there is a curiousness in her one eye. Hopefully it wasn't trouble!


Aethan gives Ian that 'Yes, I know' look, before sipping his water. Eyes then go to Jan, tracking the potential trouble that might be turning up.

"Yeah, that Prodigal kid," Neilda murmurs with a click of her tongue against the roof of her mouth, absent-mindedly allowing a hand to touch a pouch on her baldric -- sand? Coin purse? Empty pouch? Who knows, but she does, and she arches an eyebrow at Gruff Islander. "-- I got the silver if you've got something interesting."

Titania moves back around to where Jan, Ian and Aethan are, she is quiet as she moves in their direction. "No luck, I thought I may have had something but no luck." she says in a soft voice to her cousins.

When Jan asks about the door, this perks Denica interest and she casts her lips into an easy smile. "Oh, I do love opening random doors, to see what is behind them!," she says excitedly.

The server gives Jan a confused look. "If you need a washroom, it's that way." They point toward a different, more obvious door. "That one just leads to the owner's house." Feeling their job is done, the server moves away to tend to a boisterous table.

The man at the bar gives a nod. "Kid didn't fit in here. Too many vultures looking for fresh kill, ya know? I told him he'd be better off drinkin' at the Starboard Alehouse."

Jan turns and looks to Denica "I won't stop you, highness. The Waitress said it was the owner's home. Are we to turning over stones already or are we going to come back and then turn over stones?"

Ian can't stop himself from cracking a brief grin when Aethan looks at him. For him, the context of that smile is a younger brother's perverse delight at exasperating his older brother, but anyone looking at him from the outside, those hard features, the intensity of his eyes... It'd be easy for that smile to be perceived as something a lot more dangerous and threatening than it actually is, at least by someone who didn't know him well. "This place is higher class than it makes itself out to be," he says to Titania as she sits down and apologizes, in the manner of someone explaining why she might have had no luck in her efforts.

Starboard Alehouse --" Neilda murmurs, "Not so sure what you mean by vultures," she confides with the Gruff Islander, removing a coming from her purse to purchase the next round. "As this place is just filled with peacocks," she teases. "I'll go looking there, I think." Her right hand, at her side, tenses into a loose fist. Still smiling a little -- but her eyes aren

More water for Aethan. "Why then, the dressing down?" He wonders, glancing around the tavern - trying to suss out what may be being hidden. What benefit would they get for looking more humble than they are?

"Well. I have like, zero authority here to kick down a door. Not saying I wouldn't, but we need to be prepared to fight half the bar. Which I doubt would be hard, since it seems to be a bunch of nobles pretending to be gruff," she shrugs her shoulders. "Maybe that should be plan B, perhaps we check the other tavern first?," she looks around at the others, seeing what they think of the situation. Denica is ready to run straight into trouble, but she'll hold off for a couple minutes.

"Starboard Alehouse --" Neilda murmurs, "Not so sure what you mean by vultures," she confides with the Gruff Islander, removing enough coin from her purse to purchase the next round and some. "As this place is just filled with peacocks," she teases. "I'll go looking there, I think." Her right hand, at her side, tenses into a loose fist. Still smiling a little -- but her eyes aren't as merry. "But first, another round."

Making passing eye contact with one of the Kennex party. "Though, if you need some kind of distraction," she trails off, as though speaking still to Gruff -- prepared to throw a punch at the Gruff Islander in order to start up a distraction for REASONS.

Jan sucks on her teeth and scans the bar "Yeeaaaah, if Aethan was pouty about course language he's not gonna be thrilled if I go kicking down doors...well. Unless there's a really good reason." She eyes the door but then turns and meanders back towards the bar.

Titania nods her head sitting down, "Yeah, I seem to get that feeling." she looks to see what everyone is drinking, she looks to Jan and smiles and leans back in her seat a bit.

Ian shrugs to Aethan. He's JUST about to take a drink when Jan describes Aethan as 'pouty', and very narrowly avoids snorting his drink. This leaves him dissolving into coughing and in no position to make a try for the door.


"Excuse me a moment." Tesha states as she rises from the table of Kennex family. There is a look to Neilda and then towards the doors she goes. Remembering the direction that was given to Jan to go to the wash room...but she's got one eye, she can probably blame the mistakes on that. Maybe.


Neilda checks perception at normal. Neilda marginally fails.

Ian checks perception at normal. Ian marginally fails.

Tesha checks wits at normal. Tesha is successful.

Jan checks perception at normal. Jan is successful.

There's a look to Jan, a brow raised. "What do you suspect is behind there?" It's a genuine question, not one meant to earn her ire. A look to the choking and sputtering Ian, shaking his his head. "You could do better at not displaying your pleasure at that comment, Ian." Aethan comments. Then Tesha is moving towards the door, with a purpose. This should be good. His hand tightens around his glass.

"You know I'm a shitty liar," Ian chokes out to Aethan, totally missing that Tesha is not, in fact, going in search of the washroom. Whiskey's way less fun when it threatens to go down the wrong way.

The gruff man shakes his head, explaining, "Nah, vultures. A few of us old holdouts still come here, cuz the ships coming in used to know they could come here to get their trade handled." He shrugs and lifts a hand to signal the bartender. "Trade got real weird here after all that... Happened at Astarrea."

Tesha finds the door unlocked. Luckily, she also finds it unlocked at the precise moment that not a single patron or staff is looking in her direction. She manages to get a good look before closing the door to look inconspicuous.

Jan shrugs "No idea, probably the owner's house? There's no guard and it doesn't seem bolted from the outside so I don't know that it's anything particularly juicy. Nothing in this place feels right though. Too clean. Too...egh." She turns and looks towards the gruff man "Any of the old holdouts got names? Or serve on ships that got names?"

"Explains the lack of salt on the skin of most of these patrons," Neilda mutters, offering with a sly smile, and she leans an elbow on the bar -- understanding, "Storms, earthquakes - all sorts of natural disasters," she carries out - as though idle-minded, waiting on a refill of whiskey that she drinks down, letting Jan take the lead on the questions with a quirk of an appreciative smile.

Titania looks around nodding, "I agree, now that you pointed it out. It is very clean in here." she says to Jan then looks Aethan and Ian, she hmms her ocean blue eyes look back around studying the place a bit more as she falls silent now.


Tesha turns from the doors after her little investigation has been done. She readjusts her eye patch as she heads smoothly back to the table. "Nothing untoward happening behind the other door." she states to the others quietly. "Just looks like a convenient way for the owner to get home." she adds as she picks up her whiskey and takes a drink of it. Then she gives a look to Aethan before leaning over to whisper something to him.


Noticing that Tesha is going for the door, princess Denica keeps a close watch on the woman, but more so on the people around her. If it any point it looks like someone is going to give her a hard time, the short princess looks ready to intervene, but until then, she is just quiet and drinks. It's a tavern after all.

"Try." Aethan grins to Ian, in earnest. "Save me my feelings, please." Tesha made it in, so now Aethan is listening intently for any ruckus and then she's back and whispering to him. A nod of agreement to the woman. "I don't disagree." Looking to Titania and nodding. "Too clean, but that is no crime it would seem." The man leans back, regarding the people sharing the table with him. "I agree, there seems to be something unusual here - but does it have to do with the missing man?"

Gruff man shrugs at Jan. "I seem to be the only one here tonight. I'm Gordon. Usually can find Joseph and Levitt in here. They must have had business to tend to." Back to Neilda, he huffs as the new drinks are poured. "Suddenly had a whole lot of people having to come here. Made some merchants a lot richer, made some tradesfolk a little less scrupulous. Suddenly, all the fancy common folk wanted to be here to catch their chance at the new trade."

'Save me my feelings' gets a look of frank, amused incredulity from Ian, but his answer to his brother's question is perfectly serious: "There's a lot of hate for prodigals in this part of the Isles. If our guy made the same mistake we did about what kind of place this is, he could have gotten in trouble people who weren't thrilled to see a shav in their midst. That'd be one explanation. Or he just got told to leave, I guess."

"Everyone wants their moment to seek their fortune, it's in fashion --" Neilda muses, listening to Gruff Gordon as though he is the Most Interesting Islander ever.

Considers Ian's comments with a small nod, "doesn't seem like the kind of place he'd be welcome at for sure. If I were him, I'd be going somewhere a bit less...full of nobles," she glances around suspiciously at -everyone-. "So, do we try the other place, or do we start shaking people down until they talk more?," she wiggles her eyebrows.

Jan nods slowly "Alright, So what was it about this youngster that got shoo'd away didn't fit in? He's a young man of means. Was there someone specific that he was meant to be meeting at the alehouse?" she oooooohs and makes a face "Oh for fuck's sake. Is THAT what happened?!"


"Do we need to move the search out and maybe bookmark this as a place of interest for another trip?" Tesha offers in a quiet tone to those at the Kennex table. She was going to follow their lead on this.


All things considered, it looks as if Aethan is at a standstill. Something is odd here, but he can't be sure it's got to do with the missing lad. "It could be just that." He offers to Jan and Ian. "I think that might be prudent, Tesha." The man states, finishing the last of his water.

Ian downs the rest of his drink. His shift from inert to preparing to rise makes clear that he's deferring to his older brother's judgement, as usual.

As the group pays more attention to the crowd in the tavern, it becomes apparent that it is full of the wealthy. Not nobles, necessarily, though some might be distant cousins from lesser houses here on business. No, most of these people appear to either be the newly rich tradespeople, or the adult children of well-established trade families. Gordon says a few more things, which makes it clear that, at some point after Astarrea fell into the Mourning Sea, a great influx of opportunity came to Tyde Hall and this tavern cleaned itself up so the 'vultures' could play at being working class and make the connections they so sought. The Civil War reduced those opportunities, and it became more of a performance than an actual place to accomplish anything.

Titania nods her head looking to Tesha, "I think that would be good." she nods as Aethan agree's when Ian looks to be getting ready to move so is she, the Kennex co is about to be on the move!

Neilda listens, laughs, and she comments into her empty glass. "-- Good for some, bad for most. Thank you for the drink and the conversation, Gordon. Fair winds and following seas," she salutes. "Until the next time."

Jan checks perception at normal. Jan is successful.

Ian checks perception at normal. Ian is successful.

Neilda checks perception at normal. Neilda is successful.

Aethan checks perception at normal. Aethan marginally fails.

There doesn't seem to be all that much interesting at this point for Denica, the tavern seems to be just that, and while the people don't quite fit what she expected, she didn't really have expectations. To each their own, rather she downs her drink and starts to head. If the others gather, great. If they don't, she will just go solo, the joys of having little responsibility in life. There's a moment where she checks for Neilda though, she doesn't quite know the other woman, but she knows of her, and does the nice princess thing and offers her an escort if she'd like to exit with her.

Tesha checks perception at normal. Tesha is successful.

Denica checks perception at normal. Denica marginally fails.

Neilda accepts Denica's offer of escort, sashaying on toward the exit.

Titania checks perception at normal. Titania is successful.

Jan mutters, "Sure ... don't ... ... to ... some fingers to ... if anyone 'remembers' anything?"

As the group is leaving, with Aethan and Denica already out the door, most are able t overhear some chatter at a table about a woman called Junia. She's either a wealthy merchant or a evil witch. It's not entirely clear. Either way, they're speaking of her with a mix of disbelief, fear, and reverence.

As Ian gives the clientele a final scan, he's aware that the makeup of the place is certainly traditional. With a few exceptions in the form of hairpins, most of the women are unarmed and appear to be perfectly content to never enter any dangerous situations. The men? Mixed bag. Gordon could probably kill a man before he blinks. The rest, on average, would make a fight at least interesting - to someone less competent than Ian.

Jan follows the others towards the exit and scans the establishment and those in it, making note of the faces before turning her attention back to Aethan "Foooiiine."

"Definitely a traditional crowd," Ian decides out loud, once everyone has piled out the door and is on the street again. "And enough fighters in there to make a prodigal lord's life interesting if they decided to take things that way. Especially if he were alone and not expecting it."

Escorting Lady Neilda out of the tavern, Denica turns her head towards Ian and considers. "But would they hide it? I mean, it's not like we could really do much about it. If anything, it would send a message to say something. Islanders aren't really sneaky on a whole," she says with a small shrug of her shoulders. "Hard to say though, given the state of things, they might not want a hassle with all of us," she chews on her lip. Denica is looking a little antsy, like she's thinking how she can provoke the situation to get more answers.

Ian raises his eyebrows to Denica. "You're asking me why a bunch of commoners who beat up a noble wouldn't want a bunch of other nobles to find out about that?"

Jan says, "Gods. Did some raisin-dicked bigoted goat-fuckers kill this kid?"

There it is, the Jan that Aethan was expecting. He gets to his feet, coin placed on the table for the drinks. "I suspect we should be going now." He says, looking to the group he'd entered with.


Lady Tesha gives a look around as they are leaving, but the Oathlander is calm as they leave. She gives a frown once they are out the door, "If people have a hate for the Shavs like they do in other places I wouldn't put it past them." she whispers as she grimaces at that.


Titania looks at Jan when she goes off, her brows raise up and her look is a bit surprised at her cousin. She nods to Aethan, getting up to follow them out, "I agree, I think we are pushing our luck at the moment."

"More likely that he got the crap kicked out of him and is off licking his wounds somewhere," Ian opines to Jan. Then he looks to Aethan. "Like remember the time we thought Wash was dead for like three days but it turned out that he was at a bar the whole time?" He's presumably standing around on the street with everyone else at this point.

"Junia," Neilda murmurs, sing-song, beneath her breath toward Denica as they exit the tavern.

Canting her head to the side, she quirks a brow at the story about Wash then shakes her head, since this is probably the least strange story she's heard about him. "I mean it's possible, but why not go home at that point? He's clearly left for a reason," she says chewing on her lip. "And that reason is something he won't tell his family about. So, in my experience, it's something they don't want him to do, either because they won't allow it or it's embarrassing, or something. We just...need to find that reason and we will find him." Simple right?

Titania is overheard praising Medeia.