The party carries on into the night. Towns folk come to join in with the music and merry making. Kav, Z, and Aegis drink long into the night and the early morning. When the sun rises the three of them are on the roof of the Boot and Blade toasting to their fallen compatriot. They make their way down to their bunks. 

It is now early morning. 

Merrick wakes up, feeling better. Since he a boundless extrovert, the music and partying has relaxed him, and he feels a kinship to those that were in the tavern. He orders a breakfast of ham and eggs, and waits for his new companions to arrive, humming happily.

Kaemar rises feeling alert and calm, her energies replenished by the sleep and rest in general.  She joins Merrick in a sizable breakfast not knowing quite when another well-cooked, hot meal might be on offer. She is pleasantly surprised that Merrick doesn't look a little worse for wear, as when she went to bed he was still entertaining the patrons of the tavern and having fun.  

Merrick happily waves Kaemar over to the table. A new dawn, a new day. Most of yesterday's unpleasantness has faded into the past for Merrick. "So Kaemar, I don't know much about you. What's your story?" he asks. For once, Merrick is listening and is eager to listen.

Louis goes through with his morning preparations and meets with the others in the common area. 

Louis sits just as Kaemar was about to answer Merrick. What do you want to know my friend? To be honest there are quite a few things I don't know about myself either. I have no idea how I came to have my powers, one day I woke up feeling different, as the time wore on I started to understand it was like a reservoir was in me, it took time to learn to draw it out and I seem to be getting more powerful all the time, it seems like the more I use it the more there is to use."

She looks down at her forearms which are covered in her long bracers leaving her upper arms bare, she seems about to say more but holds off.

"What about you Merrick,  how did you come to be here, I know you have a brother Artim, but where did you learn your skills?"

"Wow that's cool! Just waking up with powers, huh? I wish I had that. What kind of powers? Firey ones? My older brother would adventure with this crazy woman, she could shoot fire and sparkly things from her fingertips. That seemed like a lot of fun. She would say it was a curse in some ways, but what's cursed about shooting FIRE? I think that's cool. I would want that. I wonder if she could shoot ice cubes. That would be cool too. Haha, cool! That was a pun. I didn't mean to say it. That's funny when that happens. What about you, can you shoot fire or ice cubes? You made my ale cool, so I guess you can. 

"For me? My skills? Oh nothing special really. My brother is the one that can do cool things. He brought an injured duckling back to life. Well the way he says it, he didn't do anything, but it just came back to life on its own. He says he doesn't do anything, it's just some nature god that does it all. I don't know, it looks to me like he's doing it. All I know is that when injured halflings or animals need healing, they take them to his burrow. But me? No, no special skills. I spent some time playing and roughhousing a bit, like all kids do, and then there was a caravan that said they were going to a ship on the sword coast. I'd never been on a ship before so I asked if I could come, and they said yes. I went on the ship, and it was fun. Got really seasick at first. Learned to tie some knots, and to clean the latrines. That's gross. I don't want to do that again. I'm good at climbing so I took the crow's nest. Much better than the latrines. I puked about the same amount, just because of how high it is. But still better than the latrines. And, umm, I learned to swear pretty good! But that's it. No duck healing powers, or magic ice cubes, or anything like that. Except the bagpipes. But that's just practice. A lot of practice. You can do it too, I'm sure, anyone can!"

Louis's face looks stunned by the amount of words that poured out of the halfling in such a short span of time.

Kaemar just smiles at the infectious happiness of the halfling. 

"Yes Merrick, I can shoot fire and if I want, ice or acid or lightning or other things, as Louis found out I can send things to sleep too - sorry again about that. It's one of those things I was saying to Merrick just now, the first time I did that I made someone yawn, the time before this i made someone sleep and another person drowsy this time four of you were snoring away. But I'm still a long way from hurling fireballs and lightning bolts sadly so don't expect me to be taking down ogre after ogre just yet.

Any sign of Ragnor yet? I get the impression we don't want to be hanging around too long this morning."

"He's probably sleeping in. We're supposed to depart for our mission at first light, per Tuugum the experienced, and it's past that. He said Kav would draw us a map with the path to follow.... Who wants to be the one to wake Kav up and ask?"

As Louis finishes the question he turns to look at Merrick. 

Kaemar follows suit, turning to Merrick smiling broadly.

"Wanna take a shot at the big guy not flattening you? I can come and give you a hand if you want, to be honest people are normally fairly agreeable I find, unless of course they've been getting hammered the night before drinking to the memory of a comrade who just got killed by ogres, those people can be a hard sell"

"Kav? That's the big one, right? If it was that half breed," Merrick looks at Kaemar, "No offense, I know some don't like that term. If it was her, I'd suggest the bucket o' piss treatment. That's something we did on the Sea Witch. If someone was late for their station, we all took turns pissing in a bucket, and then upended it on their face for a nice wet wakeup! Lots of fun, especially when the dwarves had a full bladder from rum. You ever smell dwarf piss? I'm pretty sure their bladders are just receptacles for more alcohol. You can get drunk just sniffing the stuff. Doesn't make it pleasant though, unless you like the smell of fermented asparagus, vinegar, and dead cat. 

"That human that insulted Louis too. I've only known you all a short time, but we seem like friends. We're friends right? Yes, we're friends. An insult on one is an insult on us all. So piss bucket for him too. I'm fine with that. Speaking of which, if we're friends, and defending our honor, you should know that the half-breed called me a 'little shit'. So I went off on her. I don't suppose you speak halfling? Not many do. It's a *great* language for insults. Anyways, you should know, since she's insulted you all too. Because we're friends." Merrick nods sagely.

"The big one though, he was kind. So I'll save the piss bucket treatment. I can wake him up. I don't mind. I understand that you're scared," says Merrick matter of factly, "You want me to wake him up because you think he might hit you. It's okay you two, I'm your friend and you can count on me. I'll make sure he doesn't do anything to you," Merrick says with sincerity.

"Thank you for offering to protect us, Merrick, it is highly appreciated. I also think that Kav seems to be the most reasonable one, and the lot of them like you the best - and they like Kaemar, of course. Let's just say I'm not a people person."

Kaemar sits reflecting on why Ragnor hasn't joined them for breakfast yet, she wonders if he is going to join them at all as they strike out on the mission, his sword and courage could prove to be useful if they did get into trouble.

Merrick goes upstairs, and gently knocks on the side of the bunk where the Goliath is sleeping.

"Not now Izzy. I'm tired. Just fight with the dumm..."

After moment he sits up and rubs his face.

"I'm sorry, I...was confused there for a moment. How may I help you, friend?"

"Hello! I'm Merrick, from last night. Hope you slept well! I did. I liked the music,  I saw you were up late too. Do you always stay up late? I'm a night owl. Much better than an early bird. Who wants a worm anyways? Plus owls are actually really ferocious! 

"Oh, we were supposed to get a map from you. My friends sent me. Do you want to come down? I think they are a little intimidated by you. But it's okay, I'm sure . How about breakfast?"

"Oh yes, that's right. Here give me a minute." 

He takes literally a minute to draw the following map.

Kavell's Map

"There you go. That should get you there. Just don't sleep by the river and camp out in the bluffs to the west of the mine. We'll look for you there. Ok, off you go."

He rolls over and tries to go back to sleep.

 "Ok thanks!"

Merrick takes the map and, after reading it, folds it in his pocket. He then goes down to the main area of the tavern, ready to go.

Kaemar sees Merrick come back down looking pleased and gives the halfling a thumbs up.

You look like you got what we need, shall we get out of here? Times wastin' and we should get going before Tuugum sees us still here.