Grand Opening
Brom barely remembered Kroth, and what he could remember boiled down to an encapsulation of the word "poise." Even though he no longer remembered her face, whenever he heard the word or thought about someone else being poised, the fleeting memories he had of Kroth would resurface.
Yet his first impression of the so-called gift she had given him came with a heavy tarnishing of that long-held association. Surely no one as classy and put-together as the entity from his faded recollections would step foot in a shit-hole taproom at the back of an alley in the second-shittiest neighborhood in the whole city. Much less might they own it and seem reluctant to part ways with it.
The fact that she had yet to actually appear in the hand-me-down dive bar did help restore some of the luster on her mystique, however. Brom and Kroth had communicated so far only via intermediary and through note cards, a stack of which Brom had found pre-addressed to Kroth on the small desk—no more than a bedside table, really—in the multi-use room at the back of the Stewed Prune.
Brom's first question via the cream-colored notecards to Kroth had been, "Why call it 'The Stewed Prune'?" To which Kroth's reply had been, "There is no particular reason for it, it was the first thing that popped into my head the sunset I bought it." Brom found the letters need only be sealed in one of the provided envelopes and left on the small table. Whenever Brom left the room for a half hour or so, or slept, his envelope would be replaced by a reply from Kroth, bearing her personal seal and labeled "Bromduhr Mountainbane, Proprietor."
The arrangement was to be such: Brom would be free to use the provided brewery (which was quite small and contained much outdated equipment, but had clearly been well taken care of) and run the taproom any way he saw fit provided he did not relocate the business or change its name. Kroth also established plainly that she was still in charge for the duration of an open-ended "transition stage" until she was sure the shop was in good hands.
Brom found all of this quite peculiar, given that it was obvious the Stewed Prune had not been open for business for at least a cycle, though Bold speculated loudly that it was closer to three. But Kroth and Brom agreed that with Ounghui's approach, the festival would be the best time for a grand (re-)opening.
Kroth had been surprisingly open minded about the addition of Bold Rain—Brom's traveling companion of nearly a cycle and the closest thing he had to an old friend in this city—to the payroll. Kroth suggested Bold's skillset would be well-suited to bartending as he could identify any potential troublemakers and deal with them directly if need be. Bold and Brom's newest companions were, if possible, even more warmly welcomed by Kroth. Brom and Bold found this particularly vexing given that Kroth didn't seem to assign them specific duties, calling them "consultants" and encouraging them to hang around the bar and "pitch in however suits you best."
These consultants were Quincy and Beeroy, and though they did in fact do their fair share of sitting around the bar, downing endless pints of ale that had sat in storage too long to sell to actual customers, they also ended up doing a good amount of manual labor. Beeroy fixed the leaks in the roof and repaired a good number of broken chairs and stools. Quincy helped Bold clean, re-organize, and restock and proved surprisingly entertaining to listen to as they worked and he regaled the other three with tales of derring-do from his earlier sunsets as well as a lot of dubious historical facts.
Despite everyone's best efforts, the Stewed Prune missed opening during Ounghui. For reasons fathomable only to their benefactor, Kroth kept pushing the goalposts backward. When the shop was nearly ready, Kroth informed Brom via letter that she had hired them a cook and a waitress, who would be arriving shortly to meet everyone. The individuals that showed up were not what any of them expected: a very tall, peculiar man and his underage... daughter? Ward? They didn't appear to be related necessarily. In any case, he arrived with a young girl with an unsettling air around her and a very odd self-assurance for her age. The man introduced himself as Riv, and called the girl Olivia, offering no indication of their relationship. Despite their awkward initial impressions, the new hires seemed to be willing to put in some work and they pitched in on the final preparations.
Kroth's final message informed Brom that she was searching for one last member of the staff—an absolutely essential one, she insisted—and once she had found this individual they were clear to open. Under protests from the rest of the staff who were all eager to start making some legitimate money, Brom informed Kroth he would be performing a soft open the next sunset, though he left out the bitterness everyone felt about it being one sunset after the end of the potentially lucrative Ounghui celebration. Kroth responded via courier who brought a single barrel of Mountainbane Stout imported directly from Mag Gelduun, which everyone took as her blessing.
The first set they had perhaps five total customers. The next, there were eight including two repeat customers looking for "more of that delicious dwarven brew." By set three it seemed word was getting out and Brom was able to pay each employee their promised wage and use black ink in the ledger after closing time. If their supply of the Stewed Prune's signature beverage could hold out until he could acquire or brew some more, this just might work after all. Business was picking up quickly, so far the staff was getting along well, and though he hadn't heard from Kroth in a few days, she seemed to have given up on her "essential" final employee.
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