Rivers of Silver to Coasts of Gold

Erlanger inspects the coughing and examines the phlegm as much as is possible within a crowded pub, right in front of the producer of said phlegm. It's a rich, full green, although some gobs are more yellow-ish. All the time spent tinkering so obsessively he neglected to keep his room warm has left Erlanger with some experience in coughs and phlegm. He's not a doctor, obviously, but he's preeeetty sure the colour points to an infection, either bacterial or viral. He finds the coughing sounds an awful lot like a barking dog within a wooden box -- don't ask how he knows what that sounds like. As such, he deduces the phlegm must be getting coughed up from deep within the lungs.

Bartender

"The guard? Ya mean me old mate Waldo? He's HUUUUUUUUUAAAAAARGHHHHH..." Phlegm flies through the air, dousing a candle on the chandelier. "He's probably wrapping up his shift at the barracks. Can't miss him, he's g... GRRRRRRRAAAAH" The cough gets caught with the rag this time, which the bartender rinses clean immediately. "he's got a striped shirt, a cane, a red hat and wears glasses."

"Okay," Gunderson says. "Thanks. I will be back for my abridged performance tonight."

Gunderson gestures for Erlanger to join him, and heads over to Darann's table, tapping Twelve on the shoulder on his way and motioning for Twelve to join as well. Tactfully ignoring the odor as he draws nearer to Darann, Gunderson fills the rest of the part in:

"The barkeep is going to provide us with food and lodgings tonight in exchange for a pedestrian musical performance. But, the reason he had a spot open to hire me to perform tonight is because the troupe of burlesque dancers that he hired seems to have gone missing. A group of pretty girls going missing seems like they might be in trouble. I got the name of the last person known to have seen them. Feeling up for some investigating?"

Erlanger adds,

“I think we should do that but, if it’s the barkeep touching the food, I recommend you don’t eat it. He’s got something nasty festering in him.”

Darann looks at Erlanger and laughs

Laddy, I'm a flashheart. We got stomachs of iron! No silly cold from a barkeep is gonna keep me from eating this here fine food!

He then sighs and begins to put his boots back on.

Looks like the dancing will have to wait then. Let's go look for these missing people.

Gunderson leads the others out of the inn and towards the barracks to find Waldo.

The party goes out of the tavern and towards the barracks. Soon, everyone arrives in the crowded street in front of the barracks. Darann's eyes of a hawk and ears of a fox notice the door to the barracks open, and a quick flash of stripes leaves the building.

Darann yells

There he is boys! let's get him!

And he dashes off towards the target.

"Wait!" Gunderson calls after the quickly retreating form of Darann. "Don't 'get' him! He's not a suspect!"

Hoping to prevent a "tackling the person you're trying to get to want to help you" situation, Gunderson points towards the place in the crowd that Darann indicated, and is running towards, and sends a private message directly to Waldo's mind:

Waldo, we just came from the Silver Buckler. The barkeep there told us a troupe on dancers has gone missing. We need your help to try to find them

Just as he is about to leap onto Waldo. Darann hears Gunderson's shout. He digs his heels into the ground, sparks flying from the bottom of his boots he comes to a screeching halt, his face an inch away from Waldo's face.

... Hi

Gunderson arrives shortly after, jogging behind in Darann's wake.

"Hi," he says, hands on his knees, catching his breath.

Twelve gives chase after Darann, keeping up with him. He turns his head at Gunderson's shout and slows down. His soft moccasins ease him to a stop just the other side of Waldo.

Erlanger sees everyone start to take off and thinks ‘crap, I hate running.”

Despite his hatred for the sport, Erlanger moves at a fast pace with all his tools and bottles clanging along the way.

What are we doing Darann? Who's this?

Darann puts a finger on Waldo's chest.

This is Waldo ... This is the man we're looking for.

Hi Waldo, why are you running?

Twelve checks around to see if there are people paying attention as he moves to flank Waldo.

Yes Waldo, why ARE you running?

"Hi Waldo," Gunderson interjects before Darann has a chance to process and respond to Waldo's introduction. "I am Gunderson. This is Darann, Twelve, and Erlanger. We just came from the Silver Buckler. The barkeep there tells us that a burlesque troupe he hired for a performance tonight has gone missing. He told us that you had seen them today.

A troupe of burlesque dancers going missing seemed to me like they may be in some trouble. We would like to go looking for them, to make sure that they are okay. We came looking for you to find out any information you had about where they were going and what their plans for the day were before they disappeared."

Dwarven ladies dressed as elves? ... what in Tyr's name will they come up with next!

Darann lets loose a bouldering laugh.

Say Waldo, now that we're on the subject of clothing anyway. That's a mighty strange outfit you got on for a guard. How's that silly cloth cap supposed to protect you?

Darann bangs on his own metal helmet.

Why don't you wear one of these?

Darann squints his eyes and looks closer at the cap

Is that a pompon?

"We are going to head over to the Verdant Isles to look for these girls. But we are not from around here. You said that there are reports of disappearances at the Verdant Isles regularly, and that you warned the girls not to go there. But that stories of the terrible monsters there are just tales to keep the kids from playing there. So, why are the isles dangerous? Incidentally, the monster tales don't happen to be about metallic monstrosities, do they?

Also, how do we get out to the isles?"

Gunderson asks this last bit with glances towards Twelve and Erlanger, which he hopes are not noticed.

“Wally, just to be clear about these Isles, are there horrible monsters or is just tales to scare the children?”

Erlanger says all this while still trying to catch his breath.

“Are any of these tales quick that you might regale me with an account of what these children should be afraid of?”