The Life and Times of Gossim the Panty Thief: Meeting Xarkris
Gossim began her morning the same way she had began every other morning for the past few months, creeping through the back allies of the market district, looking for a rich mark. The way things had been going lately, she would settle for a careless merchant who might not notice the odd cheese wheel falling from their cart. As she surveyed the area looking for errant cheese wheels, her eyes fell upon a rather odd sight. Standing behind a stall filled with clothes and bolts of silk, stood a seven and a half foot tall black dragonborn. The male was clad in, what she assumed he thought passed for high fashion in this town. Although,Gossim couldn't really talk, her current style consisted of little more than a rag covering her groin. After a moment the distraction that was the oddly dressed dragonborn passed, and Gossim continued her survey of the stall and the male. A moment later, her eyes fell upon on a cute little lock box with a flimsy looking lock. Even if she couldn't pick the lock, Gossim felt sure she could persuade the lock to open with a little help from her good friend Mr. Pointy Rock and his wife, Large Piece of Broken Drainage Pipe.
With a self assured nod, Gossim began to creep slowly forward. As she moved, the little kobold paid special attention to the shadows and tried her best to stick to them. Several aborted thievery attempts had taught her that the most important part of this whole endeavor was staying unseen as long as possible. A handful of heartbeats later, Gossim found herself at the end of the alleyway. The kobold closed her eyes, and took a slow deep breath. Nerves calmed, Gossim slipped from the shadows and inched towards the lock box. Gossim hoped that any noise she may make would be covered up by the ruckus of the market. The closer Gossim got, the harder she focused on the dragonborn. Both eyes and ears focused for any signs that she had been spotted. A moment before making contact with the lock box, Gossim felt the vice like grip of the dragonborn's sizable hands wrapping around her wrist. Within moments, Gossim found herself snout to snout with the large male.
``Well well well, what do we have here?'' he rumbled. Rather than sounding angry, the big dragonborn sounded amused, almost proud. ``What?s a little kobold like you doing this far into the city? Where are your parents and clutch mates?'' As the dragonborn spoke he slowly lowered Gossim to her feet, though he never released his grip on her wrist. With a voice that had grown course from lack of use, Gossim said ``I've been on my own ever since the city guard purged the under-hives... please don?t call the guards. I?m sure you know what they will do to me if they find me, even more so if they know I was trying to steal.'' Despite herself, a soft sniffle escaped Gossim's lips, though she quickly reigned in her emotions. ``If you let me go, I promise to never try and steal from you.''
The dragonborn moved to squat in front of her, then said,``I think I will do you one better. How about you come with me and I will teach you how to be a better thief. I will teach you to be such a good thief that you will be able to steal from anyone no matter how well guarded.'' he paused, looking her up and down then continued ``But first, I think I'm going to take you home and feed you. You look like you?re about to fall over from hunger. What?s your name little kobold?'' Gossim fidgeted before saying ``It's rude to ask someones name without introducing yourself first.'' A moment passed, then the air was filled with the loud booming laughter of the dragonborn. ``I'm sorry little one, where are my manors? Xarkris Veld-rash ex-rogue and highwayman and current purveyor of all things fancy and silky at your service,'' he let go of her wrist and gave a deep bow, even going so far as to take his hat off as he bowed ``it is a pleasure to meet you.''
Gossim was slightly taken aback by the sudden bow, however, she quickly spoke to hide the fact. ``My name is Gossim... I uh... I'm just Gossim.'' She held out her hand to shake, unsure of what else to do. Xarkris? hand engulfed Gossim's tiny hand as he took it to shake. ``if you'll give me a few moments, I will break down my stall, and we can head to my home for lunch, and talk about your future.'' With that, Xarkris turned and began collecting items and placing them into a small satchel. For a moment, Gossim considered running away while the strange dragonborn collected his things. However, as Gossim watched, she realized the dragonborn was using a bag of holding to collect his items. Gossim did not know much about the world at large, but she had heard stories on the streets from the other urchins about these wonderful magical bags. She had also been told that very few people could afford them. Seeing Xarkris use such an item gave her pause, and with a moments thought she decided to stay. Maybe he was lying about being able to make her a better thief, maybe he wasn't. If he was lying, Gossim figured she could easily steal his fancy bag and run... But if he was telling the truth... Oh the things she could learn.
