The Beginning: Zigil-Dûm Market - Darann & Erlanger

The party wanders around, getting separated from each other. Darann is looking for Brumdek Longblade, the person in charge of the market.
Erlanger happens to follow in the same direction and general path as Darann does.

Darann looks over at Erlanger as they happen in the same direction. Suddenly his eyes widen as his facial expression turns surprised and suspicious.
He points at the little robot in Erlanger's arms.

What's that?! You found a baby?

Erlanger looks at the cabbage merchant and says,

This guy? That creature we're here to see knocked over his stuff and now he's carrying on like a lunatic.

Then, Erlanger sees Darann looking at his homunculus and feels a bit sheepish for calling the merchant a cry baby out loud.

Oh, you mean this little guy! Yeah, I kinda pressed together some of those wolf parts and holding it together with a bit of magic.

Erlanger sets the robot on the ground and commands it to gather the cabbage. The creature, being of small size, cannot lift the vegetables but rolls them instead.

Now Sir, if you would calm down for a moment and tell me about the creature, we can help.

Erlanger tries to lay his hand on the merchant's shoulder to calm him but his meaty fingers squeeze too tight for the human.
Persuasion on the merchant: 0
Perception on the cart area: 20

Cabbage Merchant

"Calm down? CALM DOWN?! Do you even realize how long it takes to grow a cabbage? How many months of income I miss growing these? And look at them! LOOK AT THEM! THEY'RE ALL SMASHED AND USELESS AND YOU! TELL! ME! TO! CALM! DOWN! HOW DARE YOU!"

The merchant starts to wheeze in-between his words, and goes back to inane ranting. Looking at the cabbages on the floor, they're pushed around and squashed. There's no footprints, except those that are clearly from the cabbage merchant. Whatever it was that pushed these over, must have slid across the ground.

Darann ignores the Cabbage merchant for now. He keeps his eyes trained on the little robot as it starts rolling cabbages around.

Are you sure that's safe Erlanger? Maybe the other one also started out like this and then it grew up and started killing people.

Daran grabs his Warhammer and holds it at the ready.

I say we don't take any changes and just get rid of it before it has the chance to do any harm.

Ok, I can see how you’ve jumped to that conclusion. It’s a fair point.  

Erlanger steps in front of Darann and holds his hands up. 

I’m pretty sure it’s not going to go rogue on me but, if it does, it’s just small guy and you can crush it with your mighty hammer. Deal?

The homunculus continues to roll back and forth, pushing cabbages.

Darann seems to relax a little but still keeps his eyes on the little robot.

Alright. Fair enough. It seems harmless enough ... for now.

Darann then turns his attention towards the cabbage merchant.

Oi, cabbage boy. My name is Darann Flashheart, from the clan of Flashheart. If you stop your whining right now and tell us what we want to know I'll look into getting you some kind of compensation for your lost vegetables.

Code:

Persuasion: 12

The merchant turns to Darann, his inane rage now focussing on him.

Cabbage Merchant

"You're from the family running this market, aren't you? You better compensate me in full for every single cabbage! How do you expect people to do business here if you can't keep it free from freaky worm things! What was that, anyways? You dwarves creating some weird machines again? It's always the same with you tiny freaks, always fidgetting around, pushing things further! Someday it'll be that one push too much and we'll all be doomed! Doomed I tell you!"

Darann was trying to be fair to this merchant. But dwarves don't take kindly to insults. And Darann is a proud dwarf through and through. His left eye starts twitching and his lips are squeezed together with anger.
He grabs the merchant by the scruff and leans right into his face.

Alright, you bastard. You have just lost all your Zigil-Dûm privileges. You got a choice to make now. You can tell us all about what you saw here, and we will let you gather what's left of your vegetables and walk out. Or I can drag you to the edge of the city and throw you out myself.
What's it gonna be?

Code:

Intimidation: 18

To add to the moment, Erlanger picks up a cabbage and says,

That's right, and if you don't cooperate, heads will roll!

For effect Erlanger tosses the cabbage on the ground when he says "roll". However, rather than the bowling ball movement he hoped for, the cabbage barely moves. To add insult to injury, the robot glides over and brings it to the collection it has made.

Intimidation: 5

A crowd gathers around. Eager passersby try to see what the ruckus is about. Merchants trying to catch a glimpse of how House Flashheart treats unfortunate peers. The merchant was already in quite a precarious emotional state due to everything that happened. The threats remove the last shred of hope and strength he had left. In a paroxism of despondency, he falls to his knees, covers his face in his hands and starts to weep softly.

A guard pushes through to see what's going on, another man following right behind him. They notices Darann and Erlanger threaten the merchant, sees the smashed cabbages around the place, and the weeping merchant. Darann immediately recognized the man that came along with the guard as his oldest brother, Derann.

Derann Flashheart

"Well? What's the meaning of this? Are you harrassing this merchant, young brother? You know our duty is to ensure they can conduct their business safely! I heard of some sort of trouble going on in the market. It better not be you who knocked over all these carts and stalls! You know uncle would be most displeased!"

Darann does not turn around. He replies to his brother Derann while still standing over the merchant staring him down.

Aye. It is brother. I was trying to be fair to this one. I offered him compensation in return for nothing but some information about what happened here. But in return for my trouble I got nothing but insult.

Now Darann turns around and looks at his brother.

Tiny freaks he called us. And then went on to insinuate we dwarves have somehow created whatever it was that destroyed his merchandise.

Darann pauses for a second and then continues.

I think this one has worn out  his welcome in this city. Even though he was a victim of this attack, his own behaviour leaves much to be desired!

Code:

Persuasion: 9

Erlanger stands there waiting to see how things play out

Derann Flashheart

Derann squeezes the bridge of his nose and sighs deeply. "We've been over this before, dear brother. The merchants pay us a fee to be allowed to sell here. In return, we make sure the merchants, their wares and their clients are safe and secure. It is stipulated in article 54, paragraph 92 of the Charter of Commerce. In article 54, paragraph 106, the sanctions for not keeping our end are described. None of these sanctions include harassing the aggrieved trader. Illicit harassment from the organization's part towards any merchant, on the other hand, is handled in article 54, paragraph 98. You should know this by now, including the sanctions as mentioned in article 54, paragraph 110. We will take this poor man with us to the station to process his grievances according to the Chapter of Commerce. We better not catch you break article 54, paragraph 98 again. Uncle will not be pleased with you breaking it once today, let alone several times."

With that, one of the guards help the merchant up and dusts him off. Another guard comes forth to pick up whatever cabbages remain and puts them in the cart. The crowd makes way for Derann, the guards, the cabbage merchant and his cart to move towards the station.

Being scolded by his brother, Darann seems to deflate a little. The volume of his voice lowers the more he continues with his answer.

Yes brother ... Ofcource I know of article 54 ... paragraph 98 and so such. I tried ... but he offered us insult. We are still dwarves are we not?

As his brother begins to move back towards the station, Darann straightens his back and stands up as straight as possible as he regains his composure.

I will take care of the situation here brother, don't you worry. We have been given this task by the king himself!

Darann notices a forgotten cabbage on the ground in front of him. He puts the heel of his boot on top of it and crushes it on the floor.

As the quarrel is over, the crowd quickly disperses. Erlanger's robot can't find any cabbages anymore, so it starts pushing leftover leaves onto a pile. It seems to have more trouble with it than one would expect from cabbage leaves.

Erlanger shakes his head in disbelief and scoops up his robot. He peels away pieces of cabbage from the wheels and says to Darann,

What in the Avernus was that about? T'was a bunch of goblin shite if you ask me.

He spits on the ground.

We have a directive, from the king himself, and this is how we get treated? It's not right.

Still, we have a job to do. Maybe someone else could be more helpful than Crybaby Longlegs over there.

Erlanger points to the merchant.

Erlanger turns to the nearest people around asks,

Can someone please tell me what happened here?

Darann puts his hands on his hips and says to Erlanger.

Well, between all the nonsense there seem to be two things everyone agrees about. There was a giant worm and it went thataway

Darann nudges his head towards the gate.

Let's go!

Darann begins moving towards the gate. A cabbage leaf has gotten stuck under his booth and gets dragged along for a couple of feet before getting stuck behind a pointy piece of cobblestone.

You know what I think is weird,

Erlanger says as he begins walking with Darann.

First, there's no such thing as giant worms anywhere near here, as far as I know. And, if there were something like giant worms, extrapolating from regular worms, they would either have no mandibles, and thus be unable to dig through the hard rock and minerals from the mountains, or their mandibles wouldn't be strong enough for anything tougher than clay. So either that very short and to the point man who was not at all bothered by a giant worm in the market was lying or maybe it just looks like a giant worm. Do you think he said wyrm and I misheard him?

Something catches Erlanger's attention and he says to Darann,

Is that Dwarvenbanger and Thrazaz over there?

As Darann and Erlanger walk through the market towards the gate, further up ahead, they do indeed see Dwarvenbanger and Thrazar talking to a rotund merchant.