"How much is it?"  Saralyssa asks, nodding to the drink in her hand.  She sits it down, not sure if she should drink yet or not, depending on the price.

"I be a bit of a wordsmith, meself," say Tyrus to Mairi, sounding a bit uncertain about the whole thing. "But I don't be using no paper and pen. I use me voice to tell my stories."

Looking a bit uncomfortable at this admission, he turns to the gnome with the drink and, holding out a hand, says, "On special for opening day: 5 coppers."

"Nice to meet you, Mairi Myzzin.  You only said the first part before, the Mairi .  I'm Briga, Briga Blazingblood.  I think I settled on that.  Just stick with Briga, actually, I'm ditching my original last name, and the replacement is a work in progress I think. 

Sorry to come on strong, there.  I guess it makes sense that all the writers and journalists in Waterdeep would know the big players.  We had a weird experience with the chief of the Wazoo, a local news rag, but that doesn't give me an excuse to be rude to every guest who comes in with a paper and pen," Briga says.  "Are you a freelance reporter, or with another publication?  Or a different kind of writer, like Volo?  He wrote books about ghosts and monsters and things, non-fiction I guess, but some people don't agree.

"Tyrus here is definitely a wordsmith, too, but yeah, out-loud like.  Griff, as you saw, is also a pretty damn great orator.  Real charmers, these two.  I talk a lot, but there's very little editing going on in this brain.  Feel free to ignore most of what I say, I don't really pause to filter, if you get my meaning.  No editor, in your newspaper speak."  

"And welcome to you, as well, lady gnome," Briga adds apologetically to Saralyssa, acting a bit awkward at having a customer overhear the exchange.  "Everybody is welcome here and we totally don't have any problems with other local businesses, or journalists.  Everything is great and awesome, and look, beer."

"Name is Saralyssa."  Saralyssa says with a shrug. She hands over the 5 copper and then takes a drink.  "Nice." She says in appreciation as she gives the tavern owners a nod of approval.  "I tend to stay clear of the broadsheets, since they tend to only be whatever the masses want to hear normally, and not really having anything worthwhile in them.  Now give me a good tome on how dragons manage to breath those fabulous breath weapons of theirs, but still keep from being harmed by it themselves, then you could get my attention.  Vistor Helmvaden has a great volume on that very topic I was reading..." She trails off as eyes start to glaze over. 

"Good to meet you, too, Saralyssa," Briga says.  "That sounds like some heavy reading.  Have you read any of Volo's stuff?  He's actually the guy who gave us the deed to this tavern in exchange for some work we did for him.  His books dealt with a lot of stuff like that, how monsters and spirits work.  Not really my thing, I mostly read trashy pulp crime books, 'copper dreadfuls' and all.  It made me want to be an Urban Bounty hunter after I wandered down to Waterdeep, and learned to read, of course.  Bounty Hunting was less glamorous than the books.  Adventuring, on the other hand, is pretty great." 

Mairi nodded and smiled sympathetically at Tyrus, prior to her attention being snapped back to Brigga. Who all in all left the half-elf staring wide-eyed at the nearly endless stream of information, and fingers idly twitching in the direction of her pad again. Fortunately, one hand finds another, and once entwinned are easier to manage. "I-It's not even the masses, really. But-..." She sucks in her lips for a moment as if trying to eat back her words, only to smack them. "Not suppose to say that!" She chuckled nervously, and looks around.

"... Oh right! Uhm, I'm freelance, more or less. Used to not be, but, uh, between my pops and my own curiosity getting the better of me, it... it wasn't viable thing to really... ya know. B-but I've gotten by fairly well! And in fact, I've been looking for more leads in regards to this whole mess between the Xanathar's and Zhentarim's recent spat heating up all of a sudden. So strange."

[OOC: Your tavern, your prices, but the stock costs about 2 gp for a large keg of the good ale, 1 gp for a keg of normal ale, and a bottle of wine you can buy as a wholesaler for 8 gp - as to what you charge, that's entirely up to you - it's your tavern.]

The opening day of the Abandoned Dragons Tavern is going in full swing, drinks are being served and you find drinks floating over to your table.  There have been rumours going around that the tavern was haunted by a ghost, and it seems that the ghost just happens to be the bartender of the tavern as mugs float around to the various patrons of the bar.

Briga actively ceases her rapid fire stream of consciousness dialogue on the mention of the feud between the gangs, recalling the clandestine meeting about which they were sworn to secrecy, and visibly becomes less animated and more composed.  "I'm sure that's very interesting."   She drains her mug, and requests a refill from their resident ghost.

"Of course I've read Volo's stuff."  Saralyssa says with a nod.  "Not quite the in-depth thing I normally like, but a good all-over study of topics.  I prefer tomes that deal with a specific item, and has very detailed information on that single subject.  Volo tends to jump all over the place and puts in just a little bit about everything."

"I've even heard about the gang wars."  Saralyssa speaks up when that topic comes up.  "And I am normally locked up in a tower reading, so that is saying something.  Anyone know what is causing it?"

"Uh, I dunno.  Mairi, any theories for Saralyssa?  You said you were looking into leads on this, right?" Briga gives Tyrus and Griff an awkward sidelong glance.  

Mairi lets out a dramatic sigh, and if she hadn't already, wiggles her way onto a bar stool. "That's just it! I've come up with a hundred and one different reasons, but none of them seem to match any of the reports I've managed to dig up. It's not something simple, of that, I'm sure." She rubbed her chin, and seemed to not have noticed the awkward glances yet.

"The Zhentarim, at the end of the day, are all about profit and power. So, an increasingly obvious war against the Xant's isn't worth it without a HUGE pay off. N-not to mention the risks involved in alienating what few allies they have in the city by letting things evolve....Hmm... O-oh! And I'd like a glass of wine, if you would. Any kind is fine."  She asked brightly to whichever of the trio seemed in charge of the tap.

"I'll get ye that, missy," says Tyrus, whose attention has been more on the succession of drinks floating across the room than the conversation.

[OOC: I'm an Aussie, so I'm probably in a very different time zone to the newcomers, which will hopefully explain my apparent silence at times.]

He then crosses to the bar and talks to one of the halfling staff to make sure that someone is actually paying for the drinks being dispensed by the ghostly servitor. If not, he tasks one of the staff to follow the spirit around and make sure that all the drinks are actually being paid for.

Having made sure that the profits of the opening aren't being given away for free, he will find a clean goblet, fills it to the top with wine (from any bottle that is already open; he's an ale-drinking dwarf himself and doesn't know the difference between cooking wine and the most expensive vintage) and bring it back to the table.

"There ye go," he says placing the goblet carefully in front of Mairi. "That'll be setting you back a whole dragon of the golden kind."

"Yeah, the Zhents used to walk that line of being able to present a semi-reputable front as an 'ask no questions' mercenary group, you'd think open warfare in the streets would be bad for business," Briga says, still much less animated and energetic then before.  "Strange days in Waterdeep."  

"Anyway..."  Saralyssa says with a shrug.  "Seems like you guys are doing fairly good for your first night." She looks around at the business the place has attracted.  "How is the business side of this run?  I've always been interested in owning a business, and it seems like you guys have that down pat... How did that all come to pass?"

"Or it could just be being a clash of personalities," comments Tyrus while waiting for his coin. "There's been lots of wars fought because a couple of leaders just don't like each other."

"Well, we did a favor for Volo. It involved some rather unsavory trudging... and the loss of my sword. But uh, we saved his partner and he repaid us with his establishment. But I must say Tyrus is a whiz with the bookkeeping here. I'm uh, just a pretty face."

The weathered face of the black dragonborn smiles a big white toothy smile.

Saralyssa throws back her head and laughs.  "I can definitely see that..." She says with a grin at the dragonborn.  "Now, how about another of these..."  She holds up her now-empty mug.

Quote from DragonDenn >>

"Anyway..."  Saralyssa says with a shrug.  "Seems like you guys are doing fairly good for your first night." She looks around at the business the place has attracted.  "How is the business side of this run?  I've always been interested in owning a business, and it seems like you guys have that down pat... How did that all come to pass?"

"Someone be owing us, and couldn't be paying in coin," replies Tyrus in common, while looking suggestively at Mairi and putting his hand out. "Be seeming like a good idea at the time, but it's also be being a lot of work getting the place ready."

Then he begins speaking in gnomish to Saralyssa. [OOC: Hidden as an experiment because I have never done it before. Should only be read by those who speak gnomish.]

"With pleasure," says Tyrus, taking the empty mug, but not leaving immediately.

[OOC: Mairi speaks many a languages, and someday, many a more. Alas, Gnomish isn't one of them!]

"... Hm? O-oh! Sorry. Here." Mairi slips a dragon forward. "I tend to zone out sometimes when I find something interesting, or someones being a bit interesting. And Brigga here's been acting strangely for a while there, so..." She shrugs helplessly, and goes back to her drink. "But Volo... volo.. volo... I believe I heard of him! Awfully generous of him too to have a place like this be payment. Mind if I ask what sorta job it was?" She asked, grinning from to ear.