Tobias's eye spasmed as he surveyed the new arrivals. A goblin with a nasty-looking shortsword and a zombie with some kind of pixie-flower... thing. What was worse, nobody else seemed too concerned by this - the other human woman (Sana?) was even pleased to see the goblin; apparently, the two went back a ways. Well, a reason to distrust her had just landed in his lap, as though in answer to his prayers. 

And what was even better, the nuns wouldn't let slip what the payment was! And once again, nobody seemed bothered by that! Everyone assembled was apparently prepared to march off to do battle with Mist Dragons and Eyewings on the vague say-so of a nun who only promised 'something valuable'. Bloody [i]adventurers.[/i]

Well, he'd promised Fiona he'd take a look, and take a look he had. And guess what? He didn't like what he'd seen. Too much danger, not enough security, too many weirdos. Hell, he'd even mollified his conscience - there were enough people here to handle the job, enough actual adventurers. The orphans would be just fine, and Fiona... she knew what she was getting into.

As the others began to filter out to meet up in the inn, he was just opening his mouth to tell Fiona about his decision when her words from earlier appeared in his mind. [i]"But look at this group. What if someone we meet needs to be persuaded of something? Most of them don't look like the sociable type to me. You could be really valuable to us."[/i]

She was right, even if she knew not how. These people, the wizards and warriors, the goblin, the elf, the demon, whoever 'Big Brut Pally Hugh' was, they all had something in common. They were bloody [i]adventurers.[/i] Insane, the lot of them, all of them willing to blindly trust and run around fighting other people's battles for some misguided sense of heroism. They were going to get killed the first time someone offered them a trinket to slay a lich or fed them poisoned meat or in any way attempted to play them. If they were going to get anywhere... maybe they'd need a healthy dose of fear, cowardice, paranoia. Maybe they needed someone who wasn't an adventurer.

Dammit.

He turned to his companion and gave his best winning smile. "Well, this has all been informative. Suppose we'd better go meet the others at the inn, get to know each other? ... Don't turn your back on any of them." With a wink to the nun, the thief grabbed a few vials from the stockpile and, without looking to see if Fiona was behind him, made his way over to the tavern.

"Behold," he announced as he entered the... aromatic establishment. "The warrior and the tramp!"