Renose is rather good at pointing characters at where to go.
It was rather difficult to extend my post to more than just "He went over to the barkeep and said GIMME A QUEST."
But thanks to that I was able to be a little bit faster. Maybe. I just hope I didn't sacrifice anything for that speed...

Edit:
Despite being a meat-shield, Leifr does a good job at dying very quickly in our little side-thoughts.