Chapter 1

In the room of a tavern, Drazdan awakes. Shirtless, and alone in his room with his trusty hatchet in hand and resting on his chest. A rooster starts his morning routine, but it leaves Drazdan unaffected, he has lived with farm animals for a majority of his life, so he's used to these normal morning sounds.

He does not wake up peacefully, however, since there’s a man screaming bloody murder in the hallway.

Drazdan yanks open his room door, axe still in hand, to see what’s going on outside

And yells, "What the fuck is going on?!"

He regrets that decision… All he saw was a naked man running through the hallway covered in a slime of questionable origin and an extremely satisfied Drow woman blowing a kiss at the man running away, and of course… She’s also covered in the slime and hanging in the door frame of what he assumes was the man's room.

The tavern staff didn’t waste any time either, investigating the scream immediately and seeing the naked man run down the stairs next to them, followed by spotting a 4-foot Harengon standing in a doorway… With an axe in hand…

Then they spot the deeply satisfied Drow, who is covered in the same fluids as the naked man. And then they spot a black man, standing at nice 6-foot with the musculature of a god coming out of his room, which is one over from the Harengons.

It takes them a second to register everything they just saw, and then immediately they stare at the Harengon.

"SIR! Put the axe down this instant, our establishment doesn't allow fighting within it!" they order the man.

Drazdan protests, “M’am, excuse, but if I hear someone squealing like a pig in my proximity, I damn well won’t leave my room unarmed.”

“I don’t care! Put your weapons away and make yourselves presentable this instant! We’re a tavern, not a Brothel!” She yells at him, blushing.

“But you allow a man to run around naked and covered in god knows what that liquid was? You’ve got to admit, y’all have a weird clientele.” he protests.

“Our Clientele is our Business, Sir. He shall be dealt with, but you need to put your weapons away and dress up, or we are throwing you out!” the waitress threatens.

“Alright, alright, calm down. I’ll do as you say.” Drazdan answers before closing the door to his room.

Drazdan proceeds to look around his room, axe still in hand. He takes a glance at the mirror on the far right of his room. In the mirror, there’s a gray bipedal bunny about 4 feet tall, not counting his 1 and ½ foot long ear. Yes, he has one ear, the right one, the other ear was lost in a fight during an ambush by Gnolls in his mercenary days along with his right eye and most of his mercenary company. He also notices that he forgot to put on his eye patch when he went out earlier.

‘Whoops, can’t forget that.’

He walks over to the mirror to remove the eye patch hanging from the top of it and puts it on.

‘Much better.’

He then looks over to his dresser on the left, all his stuff not so neatly placed on top and 2 sabers leaning against its right side. Drazdan quickly puts on his belt and places his sabers on both sides of his hips, neatly within their sheaths. He then puts on his shirt, bandolier and hangs his 2 hand axes on it, to finish off his little routine he grabs his leather jacket and walks out of his room, locking the room which still holds his bag. Then he proceeds down the stairs to the kitchen and goes to the far right corner of the building at a lonely table in the corner. It’s the perfect place to be dismissed and to spot any suspicious movements within the dining hall.

He then spots a Druid coming down followed by the Drow woman and the black Paladin who seems to be berating the Druid with his vision bestowed by his god and him seeing a man that looked strangely like him turn into a gigantic octopus during a fight with an air elemental.

That line gets a shy chuckle out of the Drow woman, who lays a kiss on the Druids right cheek before walking off. The story also spiked Drazdan’s curiosity, since he had a similar dream and is now curious. So he signals the waitress over.

Once she has walked over, she asks for his order. Coincidentally, it was the same waitress who had just yelled at her upstairs.

“What would you like for breakfast, my dear?” she asks bashfully.

“Could I have the soup of the day and a nice fresh carrot?” Drazdan asks.

“Of course, you can, my dear, I’d quite like your carrot as well,” she says brazenly.

Drazdan shocked and refusing to accept the words he heard asks “Beg your pardon?”.

“Oh nothing, honey, I’ll be right back with your breakfast,” she answers joyfully before walking off to the kitchen.

‘That was… Weird…’ he wonders.

Drazdan keeping his ear sharp and on the lookout, he keeps listening to the very loud conversation between the Druid and Paladin. It was about deities and beliefs, and the paladin claiming that the druid was a heretic that he needed to slay. A claim the Druid denied, saying his mission was to purify the Corrupted Forest. And that he has no inclination to mess with any god or any of their minions.

Then Drazdan spots the waitress coming back out of the kitchen with his food and he puts on his nicest smile, and graciously thanks her for the food, leaving the gal with a pinkish blush on her cheeks. He then asks her whether they often get such ‘exotic’ customers, clearly talking about the pair at the bar arguing and threatening to kill each other.

“Yes and no my dear, also might I note, you yourself are quite exotic as well. We don’t see Rabbit Folk around these parts often, especially none that look so rugged and experienced as yourself.” She answers.

Drazdan at a loss for words just answers, “Oh… I see… I think you’d better get back there before we end up with a corpse in the dining room. ” pointing at the paladin holding the unamused Druid by the collar.

“Oh dear, I’ll be right back,” she answers before running over while screaming at the pair of rambunctious men.

Drazdan slowly eats his meal, leaving the juicy carrot for last, as he keeps watching the scene unfold as the waitress tries to solve the situation without much success. Once Drazdan gulps down the last bit of soup, he gets up with his carrot in his left hand and his bowl in the right. And he brings it to the bar and slams it down on it, getting everybody’s attention, including the owner of the tavern who was in the kitchen enjoying the action behind his bar.

“Alright boys, I don’t care what is wrong with you both, but it's too early in the morning to shed each other’s blood at the bar and… You’re both drunk, aren't you… Jesus, y'all stink like a brewery.” He says.

“Shut up, old man! I’m not drunk, a Paladin of my *hic* caliber, who serves his lord with such fervor would not be defeated by a single pint of cheap ale. This *hic* Heretic will taste my steel and pay for his actions!” the Paladin exclaims.

“I’m not drunk. Yet. And you are not killing shit, you lightweight. I bet you wouldn’t be able to see my staff coming for your face even if I told you where it was coming from, you drunk fuck.” the Druid answers plainly.

“How dare you! Goddamn Heretic, be ready to meet your maker *hic* as today is your last day alive you scum of the earth.” the Paladin yells before attempting to pull out his blade but getting it stuck in its hilt instead.

Drazdan notices a strange smell from the Paladins drink and takes it out of his hands before smelling it again. It was spiked filled with moonshine and a tiny amount of ale. Clearly meant to intoxicate the man. The Paladin attempting to take his cup back many times with no success.

"Alright, who decided it was a good idea to intoxicate a brainwashed brute and cause a mess? Give yourself up while I got patience." Drazdan asks loud enough for all to hear.

A waitress walks up to Drazdan from a table of old men and admits to doing it, she was staring at the floor unable to meet Drazdans gaze, but she says she was ordered to do so by the owner. Which instantly gets a violent reaction from the owner, who threw a cup out of the kitchen window at the waitress.

"You little snitch! You would dare to tell on me? Your boss? After all, I've done for you? See if you ever get s job in this town now, you skank!" He bellows.

Drazdan looks at the owner and stares him down before saying, "Sir, calm down. This is a simple matter. I don’t know why you think it’s a good idea to intoxicate your more dangerous clientele this early in the morning, but your actions are clearly putting you, your employees and your clienteles live at risk. Give me one good reason for your stupidity. "

"Why don’t you just shut you puny little rabbit, you’ve got no power here, and no amount of scars will make the strong fear you? You are nothing, just a tiny little rabbit attempting to play big in a man’s playground. Go back to your mama and suck on her tits like the baby you are!" The man answers.

"We could’ve done this the civilized way, Mr shit for brains. But you’ve done crossed a line and I shan’t stand for it. Take your words back this instant, or I will make you regret it." Drazdan says as he pulls out an axe.

"What are you gonna do? Kill me? Hah, you ain't got the balls buns. Not even if I had your mother’s violated and rotting corpse in my basement! You are nothing and will never be…" the man gets cut off as an axe lands right in between his eyes, splitting his head open like a log as he stumbles back until it hits a wall.

"Keep my mother out of your mouth, you disgusting sack of dog shit." He says as he spits on the corpse.

As he turns around, he notices that everyone in the dining room is staring right at him. As it suddenly hits him that he just killed the owner of this place

'Well, shit… Time to bounce.'

He turns back around, jumps over the counter and removes his axe from the man’s face and cleans the blood and gore off with the clean side of the owner’s already bloody apron.

As he turns to leave the tavern back through the bar, he says, "Sorry ‘bout killing your boss. But he did insult my mother and was a huge asshole, from what I gathered."

"Don’t worry about it, dear, the man was a known necrophiliac but without evidence and access to the basement, nobody could bring him to justice until now. And anyway, now I’m the owner of the most lucrative business in the town, so I actually have to thank you." The waitress says as she lands a kiss on Drazdan’s left cheek.

'Well then… Still got it.' He thinks

"By the way, darling, you still haven’t told me your name." She says.

"Oh my pardon me, I am Drazdan Fleetfoot. A former Mercenary and currently looking for a job. Would you be interested in assisting me to find one?" Drazdan responds.

The Paladin no longer staring at the dead body suddenly exclaims "Me too! Me too! Need the money for travelling and killing the damned heretics!”

The waitress looks at the Paladin from the corner of her eyes and asks, “Isn’t it common courtesy to introduce one’s self before asking for a favor? Or is it not taught to you in whatever cult or church you belong to?”

“I… You… Sigh… My name is Marcus Mace, and I am a Paladin of the oath of Vengeance. You better remember it." Marcus says.

The druid, face still stuffed with his breakfast, signs with his hand he'd like some information on work as well. Earning disapproving looks from the other 3.

"Hmm, well there’s a rumor of a family going missing and the mayor announced that he'll pay a fine bounty for the kidnapper’s head and the saving of the mother and 2 children. But you'll need to go see the mayor first for proper information on the matter. I've only got rumors to go on." She says nicely.

Some customers started sneaking out of the tavern during this talk, leaving their payment and tip on their tables and making sure that they'll never forget the faces of these 3 psychos and made notes to notify everyone to absolutely never insult the scarred Harengon’s mother unless they have a death wish.