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Story:

• The Quest for Sune's Heart
  

The Quest for Sune's Heart

Tal Regrix sat in a darkened corner of the Wounded Wizard's common room, back against the wall, keeping a careful eye on the activities, hardly aware of the ale brought to him over half an hour earlier. He listened to a large group of adventurers swapping tales of their daring from the shadows, and knew their tales to be as true as Elminster the Sage being an orc.

The common room here also housed a rather large casino and, typically, the courtesans could be found here trying to gain some coinage from the winners. It was at a table nearest the casino area that something repulsive caught Tal's eye. A burly man, gone to fat, in black plate mail was accosting an exceptionally attractive red-headed barmaid who could not have been more than fifteen winters in age. The barmaid was yelling at him to let go of her and pleading for assistance from the adventurers. Whether it was their fear of being so close to Zhentil Keep, where the man in armor was obviously from, or that they were hoping they could get her when the Zhent was finished, Tal couldn't establish and didn't particularly care.

The girl managed to pull away from the fat man and backed away from the cheering adventurers only to bump into yet another person. She whirled away from her pursuer to face a man in his mid-twenties, dressed all in black with short, dark hair and grey eyes. His features marked him as having silver elf blood in his ancestry and his fair skin tone made him from the Moonshae Islands. Tal stood firm against the impact of her body against his and even as she spun around, he caught her left hand and kissed it. As he gave her a roguish wink, he pinched her behind and handed her an emerald the size of a goblin's hand. Without missing a beat, he flung his ale into the Zhent's ugly face.

"A marked improvement," Tal grinned as he stepped outside.

"Wait here wench," the fat man demanded of the quivering maid, "I'll be back for you!"

He no sooner set foot outside when his headless, limbless torso crashed through the door. Tal followed it through the now destroyed door and produced 200 tri crowns which he placed on the bar.

"This should take care of the mess."

The maid approached him a bit warily at first, not sure what to make of the situation.

"Don't worry lass, we talked. I showed him the error of his ways and he went to pieces."

She embraced him and kissed him intently. Grabbing Tal's hand, she lead him upstairs. Meanwhile, three of the adventurers went outside to survey the damage. They found the Zhent's lower body lying on the stairs of the entryway, his head in a small garden off to one side, one arm hanging from an apple tree in the garden and the other arm still attached, by the hand, to the doorknob.

Tal left the Wounded Wizard at first light having promised the barmaid he'd return, a promise he didn't know if he'd be able to keep. Anything could happen between here and his destination - Zhentil Keep.