He takes the waterskin gratefully.
"He sent a projection, maybe a Sending spell or something like that, to us, and told us to leave a note with our response on the roof of the tavern. He said he'd pay us one tenth of his income from the raids each if we carried it out for him. It seemed like a good deal to us. I have no idea where his base may be, but I do have one piece of the puzzle: the wall he spoke to us in front of was red and rough-hewn, but it was not brick. We were supposed to keep the hostages with us, unless we thought that they were very wealthy, in which case we'd use one of these scrolls." He gestures to scrolls in the small leather pouches each of the cloaked figures carries at their hips. "There are three of them."
SpoilerI will be gone for six days starting tomorrow; I'm going on a backpacking trip through the New England Appalachian Mountains. You should get all your planning done before I get back.