Tukv groaned and stamped his feet upon entering the drafty albeit warmer, smokey confines of The Frozen Casket, a tavern located in some nondescript village in the middle of freeze-your-nosehairs-off-nowhere. Not caring how loud he was, he continued to complain about the extreme inconvenience it was to hunt down his client and deliver jobs to her when she was so inclined to make her home in the middle of an icy tundra and frequent the bottom of every barrel from Hyoite to Fell and everywhere in between so that it was impossible to track her down.
A string of expletives reached his ears followed by the screeching of chairs as men withdrew from the center table. There in the center of it all proudly sat Tyler Brice, raking in a large pile of coin with the largest shit-eating grin she could muster, the stem of a pipe caught precariously between her teeth.
"Well if it isn't my old friend, Tukv. Aren't you a sight for sore eyes? Just when I thought I was free of you for good, you come wandering in like a tumbleweed in the desert."
"Well maybe if you weren't so damn hard to find, you'd get paid more often and I wouldn't have to go tramping through every marsh, bog, and ice block in search of your sorry ass!" Tukv plopped down in a chair opposite his old friend who had already leaned back in her chair and propped her feet on the table.
"Buy me a drink and let's get this started. There is supposedly a hot spring somewhere nearby in this godforsaken land with my name written all over it. And make sure it's the expensive stuff, none of your hog's swill for the fun of it Brice!"
The woman laughed, puffing smoke rings in his direction as she motioned for the bartender to bring over two foaming mugs that were soon haphazardly slammed down on the table. A swig of ale, a belch and then a pleased sigh later Tyler finally motioned for Tukv to get on with it.
"So what's it to be this time," she queried, "Thieves in Zantaric? Mages in Connlaoth? Vampires in Essyrn?"
"Vampires in Essyrn? What do they have a death wish or something?"
"Hiding where you're least expected is the perfect place to be...so no vampires then?"
"No vampires this time, just some weird fanatic and his mangy mutt. Nothing special but the buyer has placed a large sum of money on this one."
"How much?" she inquired. Tukv paused to cough and swat at the smoke trails she kept sending his way even as he tried to gulp down his drink. "Enough that you won't see me the rest of summer if you can manage to pull it off without pissing off the buyer."
Tyler whistled in appreciation, leaning back so that her chair balanced on two legs instead of four. "So what, I have to travel to the ends of the earth to get him and then drag him to the other ends of the earth for payment?"
Tukv shook his head. "They want him dumped off in Hyoite. Hardest part is tracking him down since he's a bit of a wanderer and a recluse but I'm sure you'll manage. I took the liberty of gathering up what information I could though it wasn't easy," he preened, puffing up with self-importance that quickly deflated in the face of Tyler's snickering. "The usual stats then," Tukv growled tossing a leather-bound package onto the table in front of her, detailing every scrap of information he knew on the target.
While he leaned back to sip at his drink, Tyler engrossed herself in learning everything she needed to about her newest target, from his physical description to his interests and regular haunts, completely oblivious to the raucous nature of tavern's patrons as her pipe began to smolder and her drink turned warm.