Brandr, your meeting with Soft Whispers was supposed to begin an hour ago. His reputation suggests that such laziness is typical; the man is a womanizer and slothful in the extreme, preferring parties and cute women to any serious gang activity. However, despite this attitude, you know Soft Whispers has tremendous influence in the city, primarily as an information broker. If you need to learn something about Fortitude, he knows or will know. He's also quite adept at making people disappear - whether they want to or not. This contradiction between his attitude in public and his reputation has made the man unpredictable and his activities hard to trace. He would be invaluable to have on your side.......... if he would just ****ing meet with you already!!

Reflection, the waitstaff tries to get your attention, but they stop pretty quickly after you brush one or two of them off. Syl Geas was always cryptic about his exact motives for sending you anywhere. You know you're meeting with a Solar of some description, but you don't know their name, their appearance... or even their gender. All you really know is that he's excited about this particular prospect (well, relatively excited; Syl was always a bit dour). Finding him in Fortitude will take time, but Solars rarely keep themselves quiet for long; you're certain you won't spend much time waiting.

Marius, you get your drinks, and a wink from the cute barmaid. She twists a bit of brown hair around one finger, looking you over. "What brings you to this neck of the woods, handsome?" There's a soft purr to her tone.

Larin, Brandr looks impatient. He's waiting outside of one of the doors out of the main common area. You've seen such places before. This building was repurposed from the former prison, so you know the door he's waiting by leads upstairs, towards what would have been cells for the inmates. In all likelihood, Soft Whispers has set up an office or personal lounge for himself up there. It'd be easy enough to sneak upstairs... but with so many prominent criminals here (and from the looks of it a giant golem) lighting that powder keg may not be the best idea.

Allev, trade hasn't been good lately. Fortitude needs a lot of that trade to survive; Grieve in particular has been a great source of revenue in recent years for the herbalists and miners. But of course, none of that matters if you can't get a caravan from Fortitude to Grieve and back. Some caravans aren't returning, others that are expected never arrive. It happens, of course, especially this close to winter, but the tradesmen still get hurt by it.

The gangster stalking towards the fire doesn't seem interested in the kids. Instead he heads right for the man looking after them, and grabs him by the shoulder in the rough, confident manner of a hunter finding his prey. The younger man panics for a moment, backing away towards the fire, arms raised in a placating gesture. "Oh, h-hey, Butcher! How's the-"

In answer, Butcher grabbed Ilari by the neck and slammed him against the wall, drawing the attention of the entire room.

"Ilari you little ****." The man growled. "You didn't come back, we figured you died."

"D-did you mourn me?" Ilari tried and failed to give a smile.

"The boss hired you for a simple job." Butcher growled. "And you're alive. So. Where is it?"

"couldn't... get it..." Ilari choked out. "Butch... choking..."

Usho blinks twice, then glances at Saint. "Huh. Speak of demons and they'll come, I guess."