His work done, Cunning steps back, allowing others to tend to the prince. Tending battle injuries was fine, but he preferred to leave this type of care to those with knowledge of magic and medicine. Plus sympathy wasn't really his forté either.

People rush in close to help the prince and carry him out of the room. When no one is left, a woman enters the room. She's very elderly, wearing a simple pine-green dress and a veil over her face. She has a small, teal-scaled snake with a pair of long thin wings wrapped around her left arm. Her skin is pale gray with greenish patches. "Saviors of the prince." She says in a low, raspy, and high-pitched voice. She cackles after asking this, and adds, "I thank you for inviting me in. I just love the shattering sound. So close to his flesh. But of course, you wouldn't want that." The snake on her arm turns its head and looks at the prince, who is wrapped up in a thick red blanket and talking with a few scribes. The snake flaps its wings a few times, and the woman reaches her hand slowly into a leather purse at her side, pulling out a single green leaf rimmed with white thorns. "But I guess you could have." She cackles again and slowly walks towards the corner. She chews up the leaf, spits it into a small iron cauldron with a chain, and begins mixing in a white liquid with her finger. She dumps out various items onto a table: A bottle of greenish sap, a glass eye, a live worm, a tiny knife, 3 vials of blood, a pile of several assorted leaves, a large carrot, a lump of white cream, a copper ring, a small bottle of white liquid, a whole finger bone, a compass, a pink flower, a quill and bottle of ink, a wooden 20-sided dice, a tinder box, several 6-inch wooden sticks, 2 torches, a pair of silver handcuffs, and a tiny iron urn. "It's quite a sight, how men kill, cheat, and betray." The woman mixes in the white cream, attaches the chain to a hook on the ceiling, and lights a torch fire. "It's only natural." She laughs loudly after this and begins searching through her ingredients.

 Titus eyed the old woman suspiciously, quietly watching as she went through her motions until the subsequent unfilled silence lasted just a bit too long.

"Ma'am? Not trying to be rude, but may I ask... who are you?"

Thrudor watches the old woman and Titus' interaction "Indeed and where have you come from?"

The woman smiles in an eerie way. She searches through her items a bit longer and adds a drop of greenish sap to her mixture. "Who am I?" She looks at Thrudor and begins mixing her creation with a stick. "Do you know where I can find Angler Root? It seems I forgot it." She mutters something under her breath and the mixture suddenly begins to bubble. "And do you have a spare bottle?" She looks through her purse. "What was it you asked? Who am I, where did I come from? My name is Syslex, and I'm from afar. I can't tell you where I live though, can I?" She opens a pocket on the side of her purse and finds a wrinkled brown root. "Ha! Here it is." She cuts the root into tiny pieces with her knife and adds it to the mixture. She then looks through a few more pockets and pulls out a single snake fang. She raises it in the air and begins reciting what sounds like a poem or an incantation in another language.

The woman finishes her incantation and turns towards Thrudor. "You look like you know the wild. What happens when a predator claims too many prey?" She finds a spare bottle and cackles as she hands Thrudor the potion. "This is a bottle of poison, enough to kill a dozen men. I will let you have it if you get a scarlet letter from the White Kobold. You'll know him when you see him. You'll find him in Kraken's Tongue Bar, look for a ravine and you'll it. If it comes to it, poison him. He's working with the enemy. Will you do this for me? I... I can throw in a magic item."

Titus' eyes widened a bit. Was this a witch? She'd certainly managed to mix together a poison fast enough, and she didn't exactly look like a stealthy assassin. In either case, she was clearly not as harmless as her antics might have made her seem.

He'd had a number of questions for her, but now, somewhat wary, the fighter tried to hide his discomfort with the woman by simply turning towards Thrudor expectantly.

Cunning had watched the old woman with a mix of curiosity and unease, those from the frozen north tended to distrust witches. As she handed the mixture to Thrudor he listened to her words, which were now less rambling.

"So you're saying that this white kobold is linked to the strange weather, and is affecting the balance."

"As to your question;  the predator will starve until the prey recovers......." he pauses "or they will look for other prey."

Thrudor confused looks at the other 2 before proceeding "Yes but why would we trust you? You show up seemingly out of no where, offer us poison to kill a kobold and speak in riddles....This is highly unusual" Thrudor finishes a little flustered. He looks back and forth between his companions and the old woman

"Highly unusual, but what is your grand task? Change the weather?" She thinks for a moment, and then puts her hand into her bag, not yet withdrawing it. "I have my own prey to feed on. He's been taking mine. I bet you have seen the suspicious things the kobolds have done. So what is your choice?" She puts the rest of her items in the bag and leaves the poison in Thrudor's hands. Her flying snake hovers right in front of her arm as if waiting to be grabbed. It transforms into a bamboo staff as she grabs it.

Thrudor narrows his eyes "To be fair quite a bit has happened that confuses me....Kobolds, the weather, invisible creatures, frozen princes, and now you....Pardon me for my confusion, but trusting anyone besides my 2 remaining companions is all I know for certain"

She laughs to herself after these words. "I savor your distrust." She walks towards the door. "Was that a no?"

 "We will... attempt your task," interjected Titus, trying to provide a diplomatic yet non-committal response. "Although I'll admit, we're still skeptical of all this."

He leveled his gaze at the woman. "So thank you for the info, but just know that we'll be testing this claim as to who is working for the enemy. If it turns out not to be this kobold... we'll be back."

"Very good. The Kraken's Tongue Bar is half a mile to the west. Follow me." She walks out the door and to the west.

Thrudor huffs and grunts but without objection follows along.

This is an unusual bar. The dining area is a 60 by 60-foot boardwalk built over a massive ravine. The ravine is 60 feet wide and hundreds of feet long, made of jagged rocky cliffs and covered with moss and vines. There's a 4-foot tall fence around the boardwalk and a small building in the center where the bartender serves the guests. About 70 feet down in the ravine is the surface of a deep river. Something massive is swimming in the ravine and the customers excitedly wait for it to surface. Almost every seat is taken.

The bartender waves as you step into the bar area, a 6'10 muscular Goliath with gray-tan skin and thick hide clothing. He closely examines the party with his pale gray eyes, his Viper fang earrings dangling in the cold breeze. "Welcome to Kraken's Tounge Bar! What can I get ya? Rumor has it the world is going to end. I'd say that's an exaggeration, but the whole town is coming for one last drink, so you might have to wait for yours. But hey, it's good for business." He pulls out various drinks from under a counter. "Beer, wine, ale, we even have vodka."

*You can roll perception to try and find the White Kobold.*

"What nonsense is this?" muttered Titus as he watched the witch-woman walk onto the boardwalk suspended over the ravine without any noticeable hesitation. Going a bit slower than normal, he followed, and soon found himself face-to-face with the bartender. He wondered if it had been his idea to set the bar up in such an odd location.

Quote from KingOrc >>

"Beer, wine, ale, we even have vodka."

"Ale," came the terse response. He could definitely use the drink.

Slapping a silver on the counter, the fighter forced himself to relax and exhaled as he waited for his purchase. He then glanced around the bar, trying to be discrete in his searching for their target.

(( Perception Check: 24 ))

"How cold is your vodka?" Cunning asks. Whilst he waits for a reply he scans the area, taking in the unusual location, and the crowd in attendance.

Perception 8

After a minute, Titus's Ale is served. The bartender then turns to Cunning. "We keep our ale cool, not too cold. If you want it warmed we can do that, and thanks to this odd winter we can cool it as much as we want."

Titus perception:

Cunning's Perception:

"On second thoughts I'll start off easy, just an ale for now please."