Tavern Brawls S04W03

Raelyn and Aerich were bored.  Last week they delivered the documents to the Syndicate and were told to “Stand by and wait for further instruction.”  They translated that message as a direct order to drink heavily at the Tipsy Turtle Inn.  Most of last week’s wages had already been exhausted in drinking and gambling. Still, they knew something was suspicious about their last mission.  

The intercepted documents revealed a large shipment of stolen Royal Thandarian gold coins to be smuggled through the tunnels underneath the Tipsy Turtle Inn.  The details about the armed caravan were clear,  but the proposed map route was a puzzle. There was something wrong with the map as some of the tunnels routes highlighted on the map had been destroyed seven years ago by a flood. As a result, new tunnels were constructed to be more stable, leaving Raelyn and Aerich with a copy of a stolen map to nowhere.

With alcohol fueling her confidence, Raelyn decided to charm Gerard, the Barkeep, and see if he might have some good intel to share. Though she was more confident on the battlefield, Raelyn got Gerard talking and procured a few free drinks, as Gerard seemed enamored enough with her. Finally, after some friendly banter, she got the barkeeper to share some stories of the old days to try and fill in the history of the Brawls and the Turtle, as she and Aerich had only recently moved to Thandar. Then the moment of truth occurred, “It was interesting when the Brawl pits were moved from the alleys behind the Inn to newly constructed fighting pits underneath the Turtle.”

Raelyn’s eyes lit up; she played with her long dark hair momentarily and prodded Gerard to continue. “Yes, the old tunnel system under the Turtle had a troubled past; several smuggling rings ran their goods underground, and a girl was kidnapped and held captive.  And then the tunnels were flooded out, and one of the Brawlers drowned there. Only recently, the entire system was renovated per the instructions of the BrawlMaster and the Commissar.  Now we have a safer site for the brawls and more profits for the Inn and the local tax collectors.”

Raelyn took a long drink of her ale, then asked Gerard, “Do you remember anything else about the drowned Brawler?”  Gerard sighed momentarily as he realized Raelyn’s flirtations were not romantic; she was fishing for information.  Still, he played along, hopeful that he may make spark her interest in the future. “I can’t recall his name, but he was a Daredevil.”  Gerard turned away from Raelyn and stared at the scoreboard with the list of eleven Brawling teams: Sneak Attack, Heroes, Heathens, & Hoes, Misfits, Miscreants, and Misanthropes, Straggler, ZooNopeia, Pack of Thandar Peppers, Wild Bunch, Flexxers, Elven GIFs, Lost Villagers, and Decepticons.

Gerard’s memory was triggered.  “The Brawler who died in the Flood was the Daredevil of the Decepticons. Sadly, we never did find his body, even during the most recent excavations.  His name was Dragovar.”Raelyn smiled and excused herself to rejoin her friend Aerich. Finally, she had a clue to follow up on the tunnel mystery.  And now she had a family name to pursue.