Post date: Jul 7, 2020 5:04:40 AM
The city’s taverns have seen happier nights.
They are not, to be fair, happy places most of the time. Crowds of drunk, resentful men rarely are. But the past few days have been especially rough. Men cradle broken arms. Smashed noses make drinking the weak ale a challenge. There are, on average, fewer teeth per patron than one would expect. Such are the wages of attempting to claim the bounty on Socius.
It hasn’t been going well. One man, that half-krolvin Erikson Eriksonson over there, came pretty close last night. But it turned out that ‘Socius’ was actually a gang of halfling muggers and Erikson Eriksonson was in fact incredibly drunk, and it ended about as well as you would expect. He still has all his fingers, and that’s a kind of victory.
Most nights, the grumbling is over how difficult Socius has proven to corner, much less take down. But tonight the grumbling rises from a different complaint. Many men clutch fliers in their grimy fists, or wad them up and toss them on the floor. A stack of fresh copies sits on the bar.
“ATTENTION,” the headline screams. It continues in smaller type: “In consideration of good-faith efforts by the people of Mist Harbor to recover the CRIMINAL and MONSTER SOCIUS LEIFFEN, the bounty of FIVE MILLION SILVERS offered by ALOSAKA for the return of Socius to Wehnimer’s Landing for trial is temporarily suspended. As such, no bounty will be paid prior to the sixth day of Koaratos for his return. Individuals who seek to claim this bounty after the sixth day of Koaratos are reminded that he is extremely dangerous, and to avoid harming innocents to the greatest extent possible.”
The message, it seems, is not being well received. The offer of five million silvers was like a dream for too many of the town’s underclass — an honest-to-gods shot at making something for themselves. And now… stolen from them, like so much else. The air is filled with sullen talk and growls. More than one of them wonders how anyone would know what day, exactly, Socius was taken.
Bounties, it seems, are a bit like fires. Easy to start; harder to put out.
[Original: 07/02/2020]