The Golden Perch Inn

[MaskedNicci]

"Well, if you insist." She replied, watching the flummoxed innkeeper scuttle away once more. When he returned with a mug, which he offered her, then his mind switched as fast as a bumblebee on the first day when the flowers begin blooming again, and he was gone. In spite of herself, she had to give the slightest of smiles. It was a small flicker of amusement, then it vanished as quickly as it had come, and her previous look of seriousness and suspicion returned dutifully.

Alassë turned to the one who had offered her his handkerchief, and realized it was probably polite to start some conversation, as he looked a little concerned about what to do. Society rules... Her mind reeled with the possibility of herself creating smalltalk as though she trusted him. But then again, how could she convince him she was being caught in this web of deceit, without him realizing she was on to the collaboration possibly betwixt him and the bustling innkeeper?

In an attempt to appear friendly, she opened her mouth to offer some starting question to the topic of the weather, when a loud clatter interrupted her. The furious dwarf started causing a great commotion, howling about some stolen object of his. Another flicker of amusement shone in her piercing eyes. Then, she turned to good sir handkerchief-on-hand, and muttered in an almost good-natured fashion, "I can't really blame him. Looks like he's having a rough day."

Watching him curiously for a moment, she realized the alleged next step in conversation would be introduction, given the circumstances. Alassë gave a firm nod in his direction, and said, "My name is Alassë, good sir. My memory does not often fail me, but I don't believe we had the chance to be properly introduced."

[Folwren]

Dick did not possibly think that his bad day could get any worse. But he had not even returned with the man’s ale yet when a new disturbance showed up. It seemed all hell broke loose in an instant when that unreasonable, probably insane, dwarf came back into the common room, shouting at the top of his lungs as though he had lost his mind. Dick gave him an unforgiving glare, thinking to himself that he probably didn’t have any mind to loose - it was gone already. The shout had so surprised him that he had very nearly spilled this second mug of ale.

But now the dwarf came steaming towards him at full run, and the words that he bellowed right in his face did so upset poor Dick that he sloshed half of the contents of the ale onto himself. He gaped in horror at the dwarf’s furious and filthy face. The words sounded gibberish. No one ever stole anything in the Shire (except mushrooms) and it seemed even more ridiculous that he should blame it on him and his establishment.

A newly arrived elf thought so, too, apparently and stepped in with a quiet word, “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m sure killing the innkeeper won’t help. Just take it easy. I can help you find whoever took this ring of yours.”

Dick looked from the elf to the dwarf and back again. And then he felt the wet on his shirt and looking down, he saw the partially emptied mug in his hand, and the remaining ale swaying back and forth wildly in the mug. His patience snapped and his good temper was thrown to the wind.

“Why you great, blundering, big footed, filthy faced ox!” Dick shouted back at Kuric, trying to bellow like the dwarf, but probably squeaking more like a rabbit. “Look what you’ve done!” He lifted the ale, succeeding to spill more. “It’s you that’s thieving from me, making me spill all my finest ale! Don’t come threatening to take my head - I’ll throw you out! I’ll have you arrested and locked up!”

The brief flash of rare fire faded and went out nearly as quickly as it had come. Dick realized that for the dwarf to have lost a ring was indeed a very bad thing to have happen. The ale was probably a small loss compared to such a thing, but it was a pity for him to have spoiled one of his nicest vests.

“You lost a ring, hey?” he said in a more controlled tone. “Well, don’t come yelling my head off, it wasn’t me who took it. It’s probably some prank. It’ll be returned. Just calm down and don’t kill anyone.”

[Newsman]

The hobbit's squeak caught Vehil's attention. So much emotion in one so small, few men would be fool enough to berate a maddened dwarf. Yet, here he is. Vehil did think the halfling looked comical, dripping with spilled ale, yet trying to hold his own. What ever this Dwarf lost doesn't matter at the moment. If he keeps on like this, he might really hurt somebody.

Vehil stood his ground however. This sort of thing was the last thing he needed at the moment, and the fact he was itching for a fight didn't help either. If he tried to take the dwarf down, who knew what friends he had lurking nearby? Also fighting might hurt his chances of finding any trace of who he was searching for.

"You lost a ring, hey? Well, don’t come yelling my head off, it wasn’t me who took it. It’s probably some prank. It’ll be returned. Just calm down and don’t kill anyone.” Little hobbit was obviously scared back to his senses as he addressed the dwarf. So it's a ring eh? Vehil thought. He quickly weighed his options, and realized that he had come too far to go back now. Resting one hand on a long-knife at his side, he braced himself. "Take a deep breath, and calm down. If someone took it, we'll find them. You have my aid." Vehil paused and waited for a reply.

[Firefoot]

Cela was startled by the sound of shouting coming from the Common Room, enough so that she nearly dropped the knife she was using to cut another slice of pie at Dick's request. Normally she would not have become involved in such arguments; Dick, she supposed, was quite capable of handling unruly patrons himself. But when the second shouting voice she heard belonged to Dick, she knew that there was trouble and dashed out into the Common Room.

"Now none of this!" she began to declare, but realized that Dick's flare of temper, at least, had faded, although his vest was dripping with ale. The Dwarf in front of him, however, was still red-faced and heaving, and it was he that Cela addressed as she came out and stood by Dick, lightly resting her hand on his shoulder as if to further calm him. "Now don't you go talking that way about Master Dick! His is a perfectly respectable inn, and I'm sure there's some misunderstanding. What's this about? A ring, I heard? A small item, then, and one easily misplaced. I'm sure this is all simply a misunderstanding."

For all her small stature, Cela was an imposing figure when she wanted to be, and as she made her closing point, she realized that she had never set down the knife she had been using to cut the pie and had been shaking it about in the air just as she had earlier used her spoon to scold Tollers. "Now, there'll be no more raised voices in here - I'm assuming you are all quite capable of behaving like gentlemen?"

[Finduilas]

Elorn felt sorry for the innkeeper, but wasn’t worried about his well-being. He was happy that an elf had gotten up to help him, but it didn’t occur to Elorn that an elf probably wouldn’t improve the dwarf’s state of mind. But even if the elf didn’t improve the dwarf’s temper, it looked as if the hobbit could take care of him, even though he did squeak.

His thought returned to the female elf beside him when she addressed him.

“No, we weren’t properly introduced,” he replied, “ Unless you considered a mug of ale an introduction. My name’s Elorn, at your service. It appears that tempers are rising today. I had thought that the Shire would be a peaceful country, but I guess the variety of races causes friction.”

He wished to cheer Alassë, but as he said this it occurred to him that she may take what he just said as a personal insult. He sincerely hoped she wouldn’t, but thought the less said, sooner mended.

[Tevildo]

post for Tollers

Tollers had had a rough day. It seemed that everything was going wrong. He had tried to stay out of all the yelling and the highjinks, remaining in the background and quietly doing his job. He looked up in alarm as Master Dick exploded. It wasn't like the Innkeeper to get so upset at a guest, even an unreasonable one such as this pushy dwarf. Perhaps the fellow had misplaced his ring and would find it sitting on his nightstand or tucked inside his satchel. After all, the Innkeeper had a point. The Perch wasn't the kind of place where folk went around lifting things that didn't belong to them. In fact Tollers couldn't remember a single time when someone had actually stolen anything other than a hungry hobbit making off with a piece of pie that Cook had left sitting in a tempting place.

No, he'd best ignore all this and be off to work. He had to take some blankets to a room that was located in the same hallway where the Dwarf was staying. His fingers slipped inside his pocket as he searched for the key. Then he remembered. He had set the key down behind the serving counter in the little basket that Master Dick had put there for the convenience of the serving folk. Tollers went back to get the key and reached down into the basket. To his surprise, the basket was empty. He scratched his head in puzzlement and frustration. "I know that key was here earlier this morning," he muttered in frustation to himself. He searched everywhere behind the counter, thinking the key might have dropped out, but did not find anything.

A horrible thought came over him. What if the key was somehow connected with the dwarf's ring missing. He didn't want to be the one to point this out, but thought he had better say something. The Innkeeper might be extremely perturbed with him if he neglected to say anything.

He raised his voice and announced, "Excuse me. Sorry to but in, but it seems we've got another problem. The key that sits in the basket behind the counter has apparently grown wings and flown away. I know I saw it there earlier today and now it's completely gone." He was careful not to raise his voice so that Cela would not chastise him.

post for Daisy

As the children sprinted around the courtyard, they were soon stopped in their tracks. The loud noises coming from inside could be clearly heard through one of the open windows. Daisy stopped to listen. First, there was the dwarf bellowing out his anger about having been robbed. Then there was the Master Innkeeper also sounding infuriated and Cela trying to calm things down.

Daisy looked over at her brothers and sisters and exclaimed, "We're in for it. Can't you hear what's going on. That dwarf is going to take his axe to whoever stole his Ring." She glared directly at Tom, "I hope you have a plan up your sleeve to get us out of this one!"

[Child of the 7th Age]

"Alright, alright! I'll come up with something. Just let's get into the cellar. Hold your tongue for a minute so I can think."

By this point, they had reached the old wooden door. Beneath it was a series of steps that led downward into the basement of the Inn. Tom leaned over and grabbed the handle of the trap door, bracing his feet and tugging in an attempt to get it to budge. For a long moment nothing happened. The children stood wide eyed, saying nothing as they imagined the terrible moment when Kuric would come storming up and catch them out in the open with his Ring.

"Come help me now," Tom called out to Daisy who quickly stepped forward and latched onto the other side of the long bar.

"One-two-three," he panted, "then we'll both tug at the same time."

With one long and determined pull, the hinges creeked in protest, and the door slowly gave way. Tom peered into the stairwell. It was black as night. The steps diappeared into what looked like a large empty hole.

"All right. Everyone be careful. Go slowly and hold each other's hands" Tom closed the trap door behind them and then pushed to the front of the line. The others filed along in back of him. The lad desperately wished he had brought a torch with him. But there was no torch and not the faintest glimmer of light. The children slowly made their way forward in the darkness.

[Elfchick7]

Suddenly the door burst open to reveal an elf-maid.

"Innkeeper," she cried, "I need a room for the night."

The elf-maid, Luriniel, noticed the tense energy of the room. It seemed to her that there was an unresolved conflict amongst the room's occupants. As she continued observing those persons in the room, her eyes caught those of another elf.

For a moment, she thought that he seemed familiar. In fear that he might know her, she dropped her gaze. Still having no response from whoever the innkeeper might be, Luriniel spoke again, "Speak up, if you are the keeper of this inn. My sister is wounded and she urgently needs shelter."

[mormegil]

Kuric looked at the new arrivals hatefully, especially the elf. Reason had fled his mind and now he was drunk with rage, the elf only complicated the problem. He didn’t understand what was being said to him, all he knew, for the moment, was that his ring was missing and nobody was going to do anything about it.

Something held him together and kept him from attempting to kill the three in front of him, but just kept him at bay. Kuric couldn’t comprehend why everybody wasn’t shocked at his news and knew that he must find the thieves alone. Scanning the room quickly he realized that the thief or thieves knew the value of the treasure they had stolen ergo had left the necklace, while fairly valuable in its own right it paled in comparison to the worth of the ring. They would be smart enough to not stay in the commons area. Kuric thought. “Bah!” Kuric spat, “A pox on all of ya here, I’ll go an’ find ‘em meself”.

Just as Kuric began to move to run outside he caught a glimpse of Tollers coming up to Dick and began to speak to him. Kuric finally thought that he had an ally and was about to run outside thinking his new comrade would be following. As he made his move he hesitated when an elf-maiden burst in to the inn calling for something, Kuric didn’t bother to pay attention and was too concerned with his own affairs to care. Roughly pushing the nosey elf and the unconcerned inn keeper aside, knocking poor Dick down, Kuric began to spring toward the door. “Move out of me way,” Kuric yelled as he made his way for the door, he would run the elf-maid over if it came to it so bent on getting his ring back and making them pay for the theft.