“Come on now, friend! Be reasonable!” Kaebos Morales shrieked as he swung back and forth in the air like a frenzied marionette, dangled from the Bronze Vault Bridge by a groaning tether of frayed rope.

“Where’ za ruby?” Chengrizz said for the fifth time, his attention fixed on making sure his shortsword got a decent coating of cleaning oil. He ran the cloth back and forth over its steely blade, feeling the cold metal against his gnarled green flesh. 

“R-ruby?!” Kaebos spluttered helplessly, as he swooped beneath the bridge, the wind muffling his words “I promise you, good sir, I don’t know anything about a ruby!” 

“Then yer no use to me, blighta’.” The goblin shrugged his shoulders, sheathed his sword, and made his way over to the spiral of rope which bound Kaebos to the bridge. 

“No! Wait! Please!” The dark-skinned man wailed, as Chengrizz pressed the sharp-edge of his blade against the rope “The Ruby...I sold it to a merchant named Argumant! He lives out in Guilmuer; that haunted castle!” 

“Spirits don’t frighten me, Blighta’.” Chengrizz smirked “Can’t be that tough if they managed to get ‘emselves killed.” 

The hobgoblin rose to his feet. 

“Maybe someone’ll come along and save ya’?” He called down to Kaebos, as he turned and walked away, leaving the man to bellow insults and obscenities up at him, whilst he continued to swing back and forth beneath the bridge. 

[hr] 

Chengrizz fought and bit and bullied his way to the man called Argumant, until he found him hiding out in a small shack on the verges of the ruined castle’s borders. 

The man had been disagreeable at first, but once Chengrizz started taking fingers, he suddenly became that much more amicable. Not only did he return the hobgoblin’s ruby, but he also mentioned that the noble Duardo de Palanza de Fallucci de Trantio was looking for mercenaries. 

[i] Something that would interest an [b]esteemed [/b]sellsword such as yourself, no? [b]GAAAAH[/b]! Please! No more [b]flaying[/b]![/i] 

The Hobgoblin arrived at the drawbridge but a few hours later, clad in the armour of his craft. 

“This betta’ pay well.” He grumbled under his breath.