bringing out a four course meal. Covered plates are set in front of each person and the covers are then pulled to reveal a salad. Leafy vegetables sit on the plate directly, with various other vegetables neatly sprinkled on top, all with a savory oil making lines. Malkala starts biting at the salad as she turns to Linzi, "May I ask what you are drawing, Linzi?"

The halfing woman nearly squeals in delight, "Oh! I hope you don't mind, but I was drawing you! I don't mean to be mean, but I have not ever seen one like you before, except for fairy tails about dragons."

"Do not worry," Malkala says, giving Linzi a smile, "The Dragonborne are a secretive people. But I was asking because it is a beautiful drawing."

There is a blush forming on Linzi's cheeks, "Aw, thanks! Have you made art before?"

"In fact," Malkala trails, pulling out her notebook from her backpack, "I have. Sometimes making doodles helps me calm down and think."

The pair then spend the next ten minutes talking about art and artists, Linzi clearly engrossed in the topic.

At the other end of the table, Zrak eyes and tilts his rodent head around at the salad, observing it with a curious look in his hooded green eyes. The greens has a scent he's rarely felt through his whiskered nose, and one which he couldn't well describe: fresh, strong, and untainted. He has never seen a lot of the other vegetables sprinkled on top either, making it an alien-like display not unlike the woodland paintings on the walls.

As a Ysoki barbarian, he unsurprisingly lacks a lot of etiquette in table manners, picking up a small red ball with his bone-like fingers and chewing at its savory, watery texture. For nearly all the sprinkled vegetables, Zrak is a finger-picker, preferring his sharp and precise claws over the provided silver utensils clanging and clacking on plates.

Though the thin and often-flappy lettuce leaves required the four-pronged forks, much to his chagrin.

At this point, though he stopped drinking, the mead is now deep in his head. Enough alcohol makes for loose lips, as he looks over toward Amiri, who sits next to him. "It's already the best day of my life, and we haven't even set out." He speaks with a more bubbly tone, at times in half-mumble dissimilar to himself an hour ago. He munches on several leaves of lettuce, eating like a very hungry dog with a very long, pointed snout. "The Stolen Lands ain't going to be anything compared to where I came from. Y'know what that place made me?" He shows his right arm, covered in thick, padded bandages, and begins unwrapping it. Underneath it is a shocking amount of muscle for a Ysoki, under his brown fur. He flashes a not-so-lucid smile toward Amiri. "And on a bad day, I could choke-out a bear!"

The way he speaks and waves his arm is less of a simple show, and more of a challenge to the larger woman, as if wanting to impress her.

And in doing so, forgetting a core rule from Numeria: never mess with someone bigger alone.

Amiri looks slightly surprised at the muscle Zrak has under his robes. A smile forms on her face as she flexes her own arm, "This arm has actually choked out a bear. You sure you want to take it on?"

Without waiting for an answer, she slams her elbow onto the table, holding her arm at an angle, hand outstretched, "Let's see what you are made of, tiny!"

Zrak takes her hand and starts counting down to one. At one, their muscles tense and bulge as they fight against each other. There is an air of confidence to Amiri at first. She obviously believes that she is going to win hands down. And it looks like she will, as her hand immediately sends Zrak's halfway down to the table. Yet it stops. With effort, Zrak is able to hold the position, not able to gain any ground, but also preventing Amiri from outright winning.

Her face turns from overconfidence to surprise, then glee, "You're not bad, tiny!"

Unfortunately for Zrak, though, Amiri does eventually overpower his strength and hit his hand onto the table. It was not slammed down like Amiri was predicting, but she did still win.

"Very well done, ratman!" She grins, "I haven't had anyone give me such trouble in a good long while!"

Zrak, despite losing, knows that he had successfully impressed Amiri with his show of strength.

Malkala and Linzi both took a moment from their conversation to look at the arm wrestling, and both give the barbarians a round of applause at its conclusion.

"Well done, Zrak!" Malkala says with a smile, "I'm surprised to see such strength from you."

"Ragaltha would have made a masterpiece from that!" Linzi agrees.

The dragonborne turns back to Linzi with a quizzical look, "Really? I would have gone with Tanl myself."

Linzi starts getting excited again at the topic of conversation, "Ooh! You know Ragaltha?! I mean, Tanl is a wonderful painter, but I think Ragaltha's sharp lines and hard blending of color would have given it the aggressive, combative tone that contest deserved."

"But Tanl's use of brighter colors and exaggerated forms would serve the friendly fun of it."

Linzi seems to think about that for a moment, "Want to split the difference at Yarnal?"

The pair once again go deep into a conversation of art, this time about the artists that make them.

Zrak's arm aches in pain, briefly cradling it like a wound, after losing in arm-wrestling. Under the effects of mead, the Ysoki merely chuckes under his hood. "Ah, damn. And here I thought that blade was for show." His eyes dart down towards Amiri's arm, certainly bigger than his own. "Maybe it even is," he compliments before taking a few more bites out of the lettuce.

Zrak looks around the table between his incisors piercing the lettuce. He hears Malkala and Linzi talk amongst each other about... painting? Art? Both of those are lost to the one from Numeria.

There certainly is art in his land, but not the sort of art one may think.

The act of eating continues for another few large bites, before the silence and mead to his brain convinces him to speak. "I bet I'm gonna be stuffed after this. Leaves me more than ready for the Stolen Lands!" He glances up at the big greatsword user. "So you looking for big things to hunt? Heard the place got a lot of bandits and monsters."

With that, he talks about his bounty hunting days, when he had been on his own, and offering some knowledge and showing his experience of the wilds. "I think there's a lot of swampland in the Lands. Ever learned how to check the water and use it to stay out of sight? One of the best tricks I've ever learned! Just keep your pack out of it and within eyesight, just in case anyone tries to take it."

Amiri seems drawn into the conversation, her brash and loud nature subsiding a bit as she adds her own survival tips and tricks. Zrak seems to understand that Amiri has lived in the wilds for her whole life, never really entering normal civilized society until today. But that does not mean she is just a mindless brute. Her ideas for surviving different environments like the cold and the swamps are impressive and clever. Not many people would have considered all of the things she has.

He can also tell that she is warming up to him more and more. She is being friendlier to him, and is now longer judging him and his actions just based on his size.

As conversations around the table start dying down a bit, Zrak and Malkala look out one of the nearby windows. They can both see the sky turning grey and cloudy, a bad storm starting to roll in and over the manor. No rain has started yet, but it is only a matter of time.

However, they both get distracted by the next course that is starting to be set at each table. One servant comes around to each table and takes the salad plates away, except for those obviously still eating it, and another sets down the next course: a bird of some kind with seasoning rubbed on top. With the first bite, one can immediately taste the spice starting to burn their tongue. It is not unpleasant or overpowering, but present enough to notice it immediately.

As Malkala takes her silverware and starts cutting at the bird in front of her, she can see out of the corner of her eye, Valerie looking at her. The human warrior seems to watching to see what manners the dragonborne has. When her mouth curls up in a smile and her head nods, Malkala knows that she has made an impression on the woman.

"I know we did not start on the right foot, Valerie." Malkala says between bites, "But I hope that you are warming up to us a bit more."

Valerie nods again, "A little bit. There is hope for you yet."

In contrast, Zrak stands on his chair and reaches out towards the cooked bird. He grabs the leg on the bird, takes a cutlery knife with his bony hands, then cuts the skin and fat from the main meat. Holding the warm drumstick by the bone, he digs his long, sharp incisors into it. His teeth collides on bone, piercing skin and meat, as his taste buds tingle at the spice and marinated flavor, dancing with a joy that no simple cooked meat can achieve.

As Zrak ate without much in the way of table manners, chowing on the drumstick with the meat in his furry, puffy cheeks, he looks over at the adventurers again. Malkala seemed to be making an impact with the others. In fact, it bothers him how well she gets along with everyone. He can easily stick with his meal in silence, but he knew what Malkala is doing: she is befriending others, just as she befriended him.

No, wait, he's the one that befriended her when they met... Was it? Damn, he can't remember.

But with a mental shrug, he won't let Malkala become the group's favorite!

A thought crosses his mind; how will territory be siezed? He picked up enough about law and legality in his bounty hunter days; one could not simply hunt down a target and return the messy corpse as proof. But who'd actually know enough about legality that he could impress?

Another quick look over the adventurers, and Zrak presses his hands down on the table's scarlet cloth and leans toward Maegar Varn. "So all this ain't usual for Brevory law, is it? Normally there's a lot more deals and writing with owning land. Whoever's gonna 'own' the Stolen Lands are gonna have a lot of freedom." His mouth flaps and flops while speaking, evidence of a slight inebriation from the mead. Yet he speaks as if knowledgeable in the ways of law, or at least, he believes so.

Maegar Varn stops eating mid bite for a moment, surprised at the sudden conversation. However, he then smiles greatly as he finishes his bite, "Unusual? Yes. Unheard of? No."

He takes a moment to think as he takes a bit more of the bird, "Brevoy is in a precarious position right now. It has a ruler, true, but one in the weakest position it has ever been. Many players are making moves on the crown, including our hostess." He waves a hand in a small gesture at Lady Aldori who is talking softly with the adventurers at another table.

"Just think for a moment what will happen when a kingdom succeeds in the Stolen Lands. There is going to be a lot of attention on it, especially with it being ruled by adventurers, the group of people that have made legendary names for themselves. Now, add the idea that Lady Aldori personally supported the kingdom's birth and growth." There seems to be a moment when he is daydreaming. He then seems to drag himself back into the conversation, "You are correct to point out the fact that the new kingdom will have a lot of freedom to do as it wishes, to create whatever laws it wishes, and rule as it wishes. But, in the grand scheme of politics, Lady Aldori will come out near on top, if not completely on top. The only way that she doesn't is if the new kingdom turns against her. But even then she has options." The smile returns, "Honestly, it is a masterful play."

As Zrak and Maegar speak on about Brevoy's history and law, Malkala has taken to polite conversation with Valerie as they eat. The Dragonborne is focusing on making sure she is acting as Valerie would approve of, making sure there is no food in her mouth when she speaks, not putting too much in her mouth at once, not making a mess, and so much more. Valerie, meanwhile, seems to be impressed with the attempt.

"Your armor is quite well maintained," Malkala comments, "may I ask how you do it? As you can see, I'm not especially clean when it comes to creating my potions and elixirs."

"I am not sure if it would work with leather, but I use elderroot oil with a coarse cloth to help sand out the burrs. With your leather, you may want to try some leather grease. I've heard that it can polish blood off of leather, which might help with alchemy stains."

Malkala's eyes widen, "I hadn't thought of that. Maybe because the tribe I came from did not worry about keeping armor clean. Weapons, sure, but having used and stained armor showed strength."

Valerie wipes her mouth with her napkin, "It is very important to maintain all of your gear. But, I must ask, you come from a tribe, a secretive one by the fact that your people are not well known even in Brevoy. Where did you learn decorum?"

Malkala's mouth curls up, "Lady Aldori. I was fortunate that she found me when my tribe abandoned me. She taught me the ways of a dueling sword and what she could of the life of a noble. Admittedly, I still have trouble with it, but I know enough to make it through a formal dinner."

Zrak listens to Maegar Varn with twitches of his rodent head; the hood of his cloak sways to its side just like his tail does. Every word the human speaks was the same topic, but from a different, unknown angle. Maegar Varn has the looks of a noble, grown up in a higher class and with a political outlook that Zrak just can't comprehend.

He wonders whether to ask more about Maegar Varn, such as the odd clothing for an adventurer, his outlook of Lady Aldori, why he cares about seizing land, and so on. Instead, Zrak simply chews on his drumstick, soaking in the spiced, juicy meat and strong smell, while