A momentary look of confusion passes over Iados' features at the girls response. By this point he was all but used to being ignored by the general populace - simple conversation wasn't something he had had much time to refine. It takes him a moment longer to realize he hadn't actually responded yet. "Sorry. Iados. My name is Iados. It is good to meet you Amycipus." The paladin gives a short bow though he does not take the child's hand.

Luka nodded solemnly. "Indeed, that should be more than enough, although if I may, I would also like to request somebody get my rig set up in the dining hall while I track down my comrades, we'll likely stay the evening and set out in the morning, in which case I'd like to put on a performance tonight. I'll give you a diagram." she replied, handing Kaylessa a piece of paper, which, after a bit of scrutiny, appeared to simply be a crude drawing labeled "Chair (for sitting). That's it."

Gesturing at Obed to stay put as she walked past the dining room, Luka made her way to back outside the entrance of the inn and did a quick scan for any of her other adventure buddies, and/or common townsfolk running away in horror gibbering about "monsterfolk."

~SE++

Kitar remains calm during the old man's accusatory speech and answers Harburk without raising the tone of his voice. "That's easy, mr. constable. This Grund attacked me twice and I defended myself. I was just trying to ask about the town's problems, which I was sent to investigate and solve, if possible, by the great Order of the Gauntlet." He shows a token of the order he has sewn on the shoulder of his leather armor. "My name is Kitar, by the way."

As Hexion caught up to Iados, he found the Tiefling in the company of a little girl who seemed to be asking, unbelievable as it seemed, the Tiefling to pick her up.

"Hey, Red! Where'd you find yourself such a lovely lady?" laughed Hexion as he approached the pair. He soon stood next to Iados, where he threw his left arm around the Tiefling's neck in a playful manner.

"Hello there, little miss. I see you've met my good friend Iados here. You see he's not the most talkative of sorts, but he's good to be around when there's monsters about." Pausing for a moment, Hexion gave the girl an awkward bow, one arm still wrapped around Iados's neck. "The name's Hexion, by the way, nice to make your acquaintance."

Before the girl could possibly return his introduction, Hexion turned once again to Iados, holding him at an arm's length and clapping him on both shoulders. "Say, Red, why don't you escort this fine lady home?" suggested Hexion with a smirk and a wink. "I hear there's a bird-headed monster about the town, and it wouldn't do to have little miss here go home on her own!"

Finding no real reason to stay anymore Dev followed after the bard, exciting the inn with her only to eventually be spotted with an amusing sight. Iados with what appeared to be a young child, immediately Dev breaks into laughter, unable to fully contain himself. "Well then, looks like Red finally found himself a friend, Let's go introduce ourselves yeah?" he quickly headed on by towards the other members of the group.

~SE++

Kitar folds his arms and shifts his weight from one leg to another. "Well, I was sent here to defend your ass, mr. Rowland, much like everyone's asses in this city. If you could stop calling me a monster and throwing rocks on me for five minutes, we could easily sort this out and help each other."

As a shift is mentioned another time, Kitar frowns. He realizes that might be his ticket to get the constable attention to important matters. "Mr. Constable, why are you taking shifts inside the city? What is going on here? Maybe me and my traveling companions can help with that. Maybe even take your shift. You seem to be very tired..." Says the Ranger as he follows Harburk.

Luka stifled a grimace at the sight of the child. "If we must. Personally I've never been a fan of children. I mean, they're cute and everything, but have you ever tried explaining a pun to a six-year-old? Not to mention that like half of my repertoire has been declared too raunchy for adults on occasion. In fact, my old troupe once decided to try going super experimental with I Want to be Your Canary, like total theatre of the absurd. I forget the details, but a few of them still aren't allowed back in that country. Although I suppose it is prudent to make sure we're around in case Team Arbitrary Xenophobia shows up and tries to turn an easily explained misunderstanding into this whole subplot."

Taking a moment to compose herself, Luka began walking towards Iados. "Ah, speaking of which..." she sighed, trailing off as she slowly came to a stop, seeing some commotion occurring around Kitar as she passed an alley. She quickly waved to make sure Iados and/or Hexion saw her before she turned and approached the group accosting Kitar. "Come on buddy, I know even an hour without my glorious presence can feel like days, but no need to go stirring up trouble with the locals" she joked. "But seriously, what's going on with all this here?"

Kitar nods to greet Luka and repeats what Harburk does after the girl talked to him (He'll stop if the constable stopped, but will keep walking if the constable didn't). "It's more like the locals that are stirring up trouble with me, Luka. I'm just trying to ask the constable about the problems that plague this town and what we can do to help."

~SE++

Despite himself Iados couldn't but but chuckle. Honestly this whole situation had been so strange as to throw him entirely off balance. Kneeling down so that he is on the same level as Amy he does he best to give a reassuring smile before nodding in Hex's direction. "I admit I had my doubts about him when we first met but, as strange as he is, Hex means well. In his own way." He looks up the road, seeing both his rapidly approaching comrades and hearing the indignant squawking of Kitar and the clear sounds of an argument. Turning back to Amy he continues. "Still he is right. We really should be getting you back to your mother. Could you show me the way?" He makes to stand back up before pauses for a long moment a sighing slightly. "Come on then - climb up. I suppose I can carry you this one time."

~SE++

"The name is Obed, friend. Have you found vengeance against the kobolds?"

Luka flinched as Harburk snarled at her and Dev. "Well to be fair, sticking one's beak where it doesn't belong is kind of a prerequisite. Nobody ever clamors to hear the tale of Norin, the Mighty Barbarian Who Didn't Save the World Because the Evil Wizard Politely Asked Him Not to. Although I suppose that might be partly because that name is an absolute nightmare-" She paused, noticing the villagers had dispersed. She then turned to Kitar. "Well on the plus side I found us a real actual plot hook. I'll go into detail later but for now meet us back at the Swinging Sword as soon as you're done getting harassed by the locals. Speaking of, gonna go try to keep another fire doused before it starts."

She jogged over to join Iados, gave the child a polite wave, then said "I see you've been busy. Dunno what you've dug up, but got the rooms taken care of, and got some information to share once we're all reassembled," keeping a casual lookout to see if any villagers seemed to be approaching Iados.

~SE++

Iados nods curtly towards Luka, forgetting for a moment there was a child attached to his horns. "Sorry about that Amy. And good work Luka. I'll be heading back now I think. Town's had enough little adventures already thanks to Kitar - let's try to avoid starting the next one eh?" With that said he begins walking at a brisk pace towards the Swinging Swords, either oblivious too or completely ignoring the stares, points and whispers of the townsfolk as he goes.

As Iados walked away, Hexion approached Luka's group, chuckling. "Can you believe it?" asked Hexion. "She liked Red, but didn't like me." He turned to watch as Iados's back grew smaller, a smile still on his face. "See how perceptive children are? It would do the townsfolk well to learn a bit from the little miss."

Turning, he only them seemed to notice the others with Luka. "Oh, hello there Kitar. You seem to have made yourself famous around town."

~SE++

Luka cleared her throat, speaking up once she had everyone's attention. "Okay, so here's how the story goes: We found out there's a treasure on the Cairn Road, there's no doubt- wait, nevermind, I was thinking of that one play. Right, so lets just say a little birdie told me-" she glanced at Kitar and hastily added "No offense," before continuing "that apparently there's some sort of evil presence out in Lance Rock to the southwest of here. Sounds like it could be a highly dangerous situation requiring all the finesse and derring-do we can muster. So I say we see what else we can find out today, meet back here to share intel again and rest for the evening, deal with the inevitable midnight assassination attempts and/or other commotion, then head out in the morning to face-check the hell out of it."