[Ransom]

Whatever herbs Gandalf had sprinkled immediately began to work upon the sniffiling soldier. His head began to clear, allowing him to perceive the occasional sounds as music and not some demon’s attempts to stimulate his migraine headache. He gently put down his spoon and wordlessly emptied the vial into the small cup of water that the servants had provided him with. After sloshing it around for a few moments, Ransom downed the entire mixture. Despite the bitter taste of the mixture, the soldier’s coughs gradually became quiter.

Ransom set the cup down on the table and looked at the wizard. “Thank you kindly, Gandalf, for your timely intervention on my behalf. I feel obligated to order you dinner at this fine establishment, but I am at a loss at the finder points of the menu. This soup does seem to be a nice place to start, though.”

Another of the gray cloaked servants approached the table. He briskly wiped the ashes off the wood before placing a bowl of soup in front of the wizard. Ransom noted with some interest that this servant walked through a small door on the other end of the common room instead of simply disappearing. Perhaps they were human after all.

He noticed that two other cold figures were sitting in the table to his right. Both were certainly female, and they both seemed to be sipping some strange black broth. Ransom sniffed the air for a moment looking surprised. They were drinking coffee! The last time he’d dealt with the wonderful liquid, he’d almost been skewered when the coffee loving noble got himself into a bar fight in the middle of Gondor.

But the siren’s calls of his soup was too much for him, so Ransom turned and continued to eat. It seemed he’d just had another sip of the soup before a female elf slid into one of the empty seats at their table. Ransom smiled to himself. Having some sentient companionship was greatly welcome after weeks of wandering upon the road.