Marpenoth 6

Marpenoth 6, 1369: (full moon)

    Around 10am, Mika Marros, an attractive young lady in a somewhat
    revealing outfit, showed up to apply for the Majordomo position.
    The party interviewed her and learned that this would be her first
    job as a majordomo.  She explained that she had previously been
    employed at her parents bookstore in Baldur's Gate, but later
    revealed that she couldn't actually read herself.  The party
    warned her about Rarchnarorg and sent her in to the kitchen for a
    tray of cookies to see how she would do.  They heard one "Eep",
    but then some grunting from both of them.  Afterwards she emerged
    and said she couldn't find a tray or cookies.

    The party then brought Mrap-M'rap down to meet her.  She called
    him a "nice kitty", but obviously was a little turned off by his
    appearance.  Then she tried "Here kitty" and Mrap-M'rap leapt at
    her and managed to get his head buried in her cleavage.  She was
    not thrilled.  They showed her the bear and she was very nervous
    about it and obviously didn't want to get close.

    Maanamere led her out, saying they'd be in touch.  He offered to
    walk her home and ended up walking her to her guildhall.  He asked
    her out to dinner and they agreed she would meet him there at 6pm.

    About a half hour later, Gulkker Thricesblood, a rather formidable
    looking half-ogre gentleman, arrived to apply for the Majordomo
    position.  His speech was slow and halting but he explained that
    he had been previously employed by Davros of Waterdeep for at
    least a few years (the party didn't ask for duration).  They
    showed Mrap-M'rap to him and his response was basically "Oh, a
    Tressym."

    The party took Gulkker in to meet Rarchnarorg. There was a bit of
    awkwardness when Gulkker tried to shake his hand and Rarchnarorg,
    mistaking his meaning, handed him a mushroom sandwich.  After that
    however they began talking in what turned out to be bugbear.
    Gulkker reported that he had difficulty communicating with
    Rarchnarorg - apparently his command of bugbear was limitted and
    Rarchnarorg spoke an entirely different dialect - but that they
    were able to get by.  Afterwards they took him to meet Dexter's
    bear, which he asked if he could pet.  He was very gentle with it
    and the bear didn't seem to mind him.

    Stewart asked him if he could fight if the house was robbed.  He
    explained that he had no combat skills but he had he could "shout
    really loud for the Watch".  He offered to demonstrate, but
    Stewart said that was ok.  Gulkker presented a letter of
    recommendation from Davros, which spoke highly of him and
    expressed regret that he was leaving Davros' employ.  Davros made
    a point of mentioning that Gulkker's limitted ability with the
    common tongue should not be mistaken for a lack of intelligence.
    Gulkker explained that he had to leave the job because the new
    Mrs. Davros was frightened of him.  It came up that Darius was a
    magic user and Gulkker offered some advice on setting up space in
    the stable (rather than the house as Darius had planned) for
    magical research.  He seemed to have a good grasp of the basic
    needs of a magical lab.

    The party was explaining that they would get in touch with him
    once they had interviewed all the candidates when he mentioned
    that he also had landscaping skills and could handle the
    groundskeeping work around Fair Winds as well.  The party brought
    him back inside for further questions.  They had him meet
    Mrs. Amtirask, who got along fine with him, of course.  Stewart
    gave him a hypothetical logistics problem regarding house
    management.  He talked to both Mrs. A. and Rarchnarorg about
    details of the house, its supplies, etc.  Then he came back to
    Stewart with several questions, some of which he couldn't answer.
    The party took Mrs. A. and Rarchnarorg aside and asked how they
    felt about him as their boss, both thought he seemed ok.  AFAL
    hired Gulkker as Majordomo/Groundskeeper for 10gp/month.

    Maanamere went down to the guild hall at 5:00 to arrange for
    hiring Gulkker Thricesblood before he was due to meet Mika Marros.
    He filled out the paperwork for Gulkker and waited for her.  She
    met him at 6:00 and suggested they go to Mother Tathlorn's House
    of Pleasure and Healing for "dinner".  Being aware of the prices
    there, thanks to Dexter, he declined and asked for another
    suggestion.  Mika then suggested The Blushing Mermaid, which
    Maanamere hadn't heard of but agreed to when he heard it was in
    Dock Ward (on the mistaken assumption that it would be cheap).
    When they arrived there he was surprsed by the lavishness of the
    establishment and let Mika talk him into dinner in the famous
    dining pool, where naked guests eat from floating trays and are
    waited on by mermaids.

    During dinner Mika tried to find out how the selection process was
    going.  But when Maanamere was evasive, she switched to safer
    topics.  Like the exploits of Maanamere and his band of merry men
    and the conversation between her foot and his nether regions under
    the water.  Between dinner and two bottles of wine (one that
    Maanamere bought to take home after they agreed to go back to his
    place to "try some of the wine he had there") Maanamere did not
    get off cheap, but managed to contain costs somewhat.

    When they got back to Fair Winds, Maanamere and Mika snuck in
    through the back door and up the back stairway "so as not to
    disturb anybody".  They spent the night in bed together.
    Maanamere woke up when Mika was getting ready to leave.  He snuck
    her out the back door.  She tried to convince him that this would
    be simpler if she gave him a back door key, but he put her
    off.