Alfredo, eldest and last serving member of the de Trantio family (or what there was left of it), sat deep in thought at his small table located in the gatehouse of Guilamuero castle. He still thought of it as a castle, even if it was now little more than a central keep - something so sturdy not falling easily to the ravages of time and disrepair - ruined sections of tumbled-down walls, and a moat that would barely be able to stop a half-capable swimmer let alone an invading army! 

Fortunately he and his master had little to worry about on that account, people for miles around referring to him as 'the Cursed Duke' and claiming that the castle was haunted; one villager had even invented a plethora of ghostly apparitions from deaths that had not happened anywhere near Guilamuero castle, the rest of his superstitious friends spreading the same tales like wildfire through a dry forest.

Truth be told, he did not expect anyone to come. Oh yes, he believed that money - and of that the Duke still had plenty secreted away - was a most excellent motivator, but he knew for a fact that mercenaries were a troublesome, quarrelsome and unsavoury assemblage of characters. Some there may be, yes, but even if they [b]did[/b] turn up he imagined they would likely take one look at the castle and turn right back around; for days now he had sat hunched-over in his little wooden gatehouse, doing his best to keep the Duke alive, to keep the cobwebs and dust from the main hall in case someone was mad enough to approach and seek employment with a man who had gotten his own sons killed, and he had even stocked up the larder with whatever foodstuffs he could purchase or steal from traveling merchants or villages hereabouts.

"Woe...woe is me..." he began to bemoan once more, his hands coming up to cover his face, his eyes looking down to notice the holes in his hose and how they had gotten much bigger recently, "woe...wo-" wait, was that a sound? No, it couldn't be!

Lifting his head from his hands, and standing up slowly to take a small peek out of the one window of the gatehouse, he almost gave a small squeak of fright when he caught sight of the green-skinned individual standing before the drawbridge, clearly mouthing something to itself in a probably unintelligible tongue. Well, he certainly [b]looked[/b] the part of a sellsword, the pointed helmet on his head most becoming if Alfredo said so himself; perhaps this was the beginning of something after all?

"Welcome!" Half-yelled the servant as he emerged from the gatehouse - dressed in the red and orange livery of his master and a pair of mouth-eaten hose, he was really not much to look at. An elderly man with sun-browned skin like toughened old leather, balding on top of his head and with a slightly puckered mouth, his back hunched from decades of scraping and bowing.

"Welcome, friend, to Guilamuero Castle! The seat of my master, the Duke de Trantio," a wide sweep of his arm was given to make sure that Chengizz realised the majesty and grandeur of the pile of stones before him, "please, if you have come seeking employment, then follow me. This way."

Not even waiting for an affirmation that he [b]was[/b] a sword-for-hire, Alfredo moved off at a sloping gait that was easy for anyone with fully functioning legs to keep up with. He made his way through the corridors of the keep, a square building four-floors high and made of solid stone from the nearby mountains, with the confidence and knowledge of a man who had spent pretty much his entire life wandering those halls, stopping only when they reached a hall - [b]the[/b] feasting hall - illuminated by dozens of candles, although light still came in through numerous arrow-slits in the walls; directly before them, laid out with dedication and precision, was a table capable of seating over twenty-four people that extended to the farthest reaches of the hall, all manner of food and drink presented there - from partridge and wine, to boar and ale, most foods were accounted for.

"Eeer, it occurs to me that I have not even asked your name -" he paused for a brief moment, taking in the Hobgoblin with a quick glance, "um, sir."

[Hider=For everyone] Right then, looks like the Hobgobbo is the first to arrive! Please make your ways to the castle, you can arrive sooner or later, you can go to the hall, look about the place, or just wait at the bridge. It's pretty much up to you.[/hider]

[@Austronaut][@Shorticus][@Kingfisher][@Culluket][@POOHEAD189][@HopelesRomantis]