Alex left his room and proceeded through the narrow corridor and down the stairs to the tavern.
The place was as full as one would imagine a tavern to be early in the morning: not at all. Most of the tables were empty, the very few patrons consisted in a chubby human guy in what seemed to be fancy pajamas and a night cap eating breakfast and a seemingly passed out elf sleeping face-down, shirtless, in the bar counter. Sweeping the tavern's floor was a half-orc woman dressed in a hide shirt and kilt and behind the counter was a burly pine green skinned tiefling dude, wearing a simple linen blouse.
Alex approached the bar, maybe he could get some information about this world. As he got near the counter he took in his surroundings: the lustrous wooden countertop, lined with meticulous decorative carvings. The brass stools, each of them a masterwork of functionality and comfort.
"Hello there, good morning, I trust you had a good stay this night, was everything to your liking?" Said the barista. Alex tore his eyes off of the magnificent wall of beverages, as he sat down, and looked at the man, who was looking back expectantly with deep-grey slit irises. The tiefling seemed to be on his late thirties, his magnificent greyish green horns stuck out about 20cm in a slight spiral to either side of his forehead beneath his short styled jet black hair. His shirt was snug enough, and the V-neck low enough, that Alex could make out just enough of his massive hairy pecs, that jutted forward just a bit further from his soft belly. Now this man is a professional, thought Alex. He somehow knew that he was the harworking man that made all of this possible. It was all thanks to this man the this wonderful place was possible and he knew that was only possible because patrons of this place had contributed to that. And he wanted to do his part. He needed to.
Alex patted his short's pockets, but he already knew they were empty. But then how could he help this grand establishment to become even grander? He remembered the bronze bracelet, maybe it was worth something, maybe the rock was valuable enough. He started rolling up his left sleeve to take it off when--
"Oh, you're a newcomer." Said the guy behind the bar looking at the bracelet, his eyes going from the deep grey to a pitch black, slight disappointment evident on his tone. "Are you looking for work, then?"
Alex blinked a few times as he got his bearings. He looked around, the tavern looked... Fine, he guessed. It was a nice place, but that was it. Somehow that disappointed him. What was he thinking? He felt like he was in the middle of doing something. He couldn't quite remember. He felt vulnerable somehow, like someone had rummaged through his things without permission or something. But that couldn't be, he had no -things- in this place, yet anyways.
"Oh hello, sir, I... Yeah, I'm looking for some work actually." It was a good idea, Alex noted. He didn't have any money, after all. "Could you help me with that?"
"I certainly can" He said as he took a cleaning rag and started cleaning the glasses that were behind the counter. "The blacksmith is looking for someone to do some errands for him, after the previous guy..." The barkeep pauses a bit, thinking about what to say. "Resigned. The apothecary is looking for a test subject for some new potions he's experimenting with. He has been looking for a while now so the pay is a hefty one. Even so, no one in town has taken him up on his offer yet. And there's His Highness Count Gallaghan the IV over there." He nods to the guy in the pajamas. "He is always looking for... Entertainment, if you know what I mean. Not that a man like him would have any difficulty meeting his needs for free, but the guy gets off on spending the money he gets from running the mines." He shrugs. "Not that I would complain." His eyes flash back into dark-grey for a split moment as he looks at the Count. Moments later the half-orc woman shows up carrying the dishes the guy was eating out of and throws a very big bag of coins to the tavernkeep, who looks at it with a smug smile. They talked amongst themselves a little about preparing for lunch time while Alex considered the possible jobs available.
"Anyway, since it is your first time, I'll proppose a deal: you get to stay the night for free today, and all I need back is for you to consider the idea of extending your patronage while you're in town. Deal?" The tiefling extended his hand and Alex gripped it firmly in a handshake.
"Deal." Why did that feel so final? Alex asked himself. "My name is Alex, by the way. What can I call you?"
"I'm Dharron. It's a pleasure doing business with you. Were you at the room on the end of the corridor upstairs?" He says, getting a key from under the counter and giving it to Alex. "Newcomers always say the room looks much better the second time around."
As Alex pocketed the key and got up from the bar bench he turned around and saw that the chubby guy was done eating and probably went back to his room upstairs. He looked at the door thinking about the jobs that Dharron had told him about.
He could work as an errand boy for the sexy dwarven blacksmith guy he'd seen from the window, but something happened to the previous guy that made him... Quit it seemed.
He could work as a test subject for the apothecary's potions. That sounded both exciting and very dangerous.
Or he could prostitute himself to the count who had a money spending fetish.
All of them tantalizing possibilities.