Xavier stood at the old bulletin board with a look of barely concealed frustration upon her face. There were many articles to choose from in fact, but the majority either took far to many hands to complete, or simply were not worthwhile in the first place. 
She hissed under her breath, sending smoke rushing from her lips. Her pipe was keeping her busy as she steadily approached her widths end. The tavern was raucous, filled with many drunk pirates and sailors and whatever else the tide had swept in.

She pulled a few possible enquiry's from the board, the bone dry paper crackled in her grip and she turned her back on the board and took a seat at the bar. The woman serving looked almost as irritable as she did and did not hold back her temper as she slammed her drink in front of her and snatched the coins from her hand. Xavier didn't mind though, it was almost calming to see her temper matched in such a way.
The sea and the sky were very calm for the time of year, and the fine weather seemed to have brought out all the worst into the place. Through her observation she had found that aside from simply drinking oneself into a stupor, the only worth while activity in the bar was to squander your drinking money on card games.                                                             An occasional fight broke out amongst the patrons, but none were particularly bloody.
Xavier was very good at card games, in fact it was how she cut her losses in the first few days on landing in the pirates haven. Of course it was not so much luck as, skill and maybe a slight pinch of cheating but she was cunning enough to get away with it. In fact, her true calling with cards was those of the Tarot variety, and although she looked like a thug at best, her spiritual bond with her deck usually wielded precise responses for those whom approached her. 

Her thoughts returned to the pile of leafy job pages and then to the door. If things did not get more interesting soon she believed she may have to cause some mischief of her own. 

Darian entered the bar after a long journey allowing himself to sit and count the silver he earned from his last job, of course he would make twice the much he partipicating in the local games using cards or runes, being the person he was though he couldn't resist the cooling taste of Ale from the bar maiden who seemed more annoyed than normal with all the fight going on, or it was just because every time Darian entered the bar something seemed to break or go wrong.

Sitting at the table of rough looking individuals he put his coins down and started betting highly which of course he knew these gentlemen couldn't resist so they started with simple card games which Darian counted the cards allowing himself to have the perfect hand in each ending and even used the cards he slid into sleeve before entering which sadly resulted in the "kind" most "handsome" men playing the game with him to get a bit suspicious of his winnings and also ending up with a chair smashed against his back, he took note to escape after the fight before the Bar Maiden got to him.

With a large shove he ended up on the same table as the elf which he looked at "Oh you must be the person i'm looking for, How are you?" he said before simply offering the brute of a man a silver piece allowing him to wander off to get a drink, leaving Darian's face almost unscathed from the fight before hand and allowing him to sit at the table looking strangely at the Elf in front of him.

She couldn't help but laugh at the sudden introduction, but made no move to help him up. "Scared to get that pretty face hurt, hmm?" She took a long draught of ale before introducing herself. "Kit, it's a pleasure to meet you Mr?" In any case she slid a drink across the table top to him, her intuition told her he was indeed the one she was expecting. An opportunist and a thief by the looks of it and by the quality of the enquires sitting piled in front of her, she hoped he was a good one. 

She was distracted however when a group of drunk sailors heckled at her to join them in a game of cards. "In a while, my darlings" she called jovially, fully aware that most of them were two sips away from total blackout. 

He raised his eyebrow at her "Robin Hood or Thief if you must, if I truly must give my name away it doesnt make me a very good thief now would it" he replied with a coy smile raising his hand to the Bar Maiden Gesturing to get the Men who were near black out another round of drinks, with a sigh the Maiden took the Silver from his pile and went to gather more drinks.

"Now Miss Kit you suggested work from what I gathered, and hopefully well paying since my expertise doesn't come cheap" he said taking a long drink from the drink she gave him, now looking at the men who are are out cold leaving their winnings spread across the game table, he looked at the Elf with a sly smirk "Seems that Drink did them in"

Her taste for easy coin aligned with his. "It appears, Mr. Thief that our friends are in need of relieving from the burden of their winnings. I don't suppose any of them have that much room in their purses." She feigned a helpful tone as she drained her glass. "We can take the lot after we've spoken, they're not waking up anytime soon." She spread the various pages of enquiry, bounties and such in a fan shape in front of them and flagged the bar maid to bring her a refill.
"These are the jobs that pay well for their trouble, but they do require equal effort. They can't be done alone in other words." She pointed to a few for his consideration.
"Which ones take your fancy?"

He sat putting his feet, simply gazing over the old pieces of paper some that hand been torn or had some sort of drink spilt across them, and simply shrugged "Whats the one with the most excitement and money involved" using a mock salute he continued "Im sure a lady like you already had one picked out from the start, so no need to be polite" he said standing up and walking over the the drunkards on the games table slowly counting all the coin, "I saw in your eyes that you have the same intentions as me to make as much money as possible from this partnership we are about to begin?" he smirked quietly stating the next line "Even Shapeshifters cant hide the urge for money now can they?" he chuckled.

A small chuckle ghosted past her lips as the human called her out. "It's not so much the desire for wealth, than the desire for action. The money is a nice incentive however." She stretched in her seat as she watched him collect the drunkards' spoils. "You must be familiar with Shape-shifters, not many can call us out. Unless I'm just having a really bad day?" She added jovially as the bar wench filled her tankard. The woman eyed her with a new found curiosity after overhearing their conversation. 

"You are correct though, I have already picked out an itinerary for your consideration." She took a quick swig from her cup before rearranging three of the pages into order.
"The only way to get your money's worth around here is to play in smart. These three jobs, although varying in needs, are all connected upon closer inspection." She tapped with a long fingernail on the first page in the sequence. Out of the three it was the closest to the Pirate Haven, a bounty, and the least in payment. 
"By doing this job, we are firstly eliminating, unbeknownst to the poor devils in question, our competition for the second enquiry." Her finger trailed across to the second crumpled page, this time a robbery. "The second job, would take us to a pirate lord's mansion, where we would endeavour to steal an artefact. An artefact valuable in itself but ties in to this next job." Her finger moved once again to the third and final page, it was most damaged in appearance. Various spillages, the corners dog-eared and ripped from its various times on and off of the bulletin-board. 
"The artefact is what we need to get inside this dungeon ruin, and the spoils inside far outshine the ones we would had collected so far. If we make it out alive that is. The various anti-theft measures placed inside are unknown to me, but the valuables inside are not." She looked to his face to observe this thought process. The tavern was still about its own business and she was certain that not a soul was eavesdropping on their conversation. Even if they had, the enquiry of the treasure hiding inside of the ruins of 'The Delves of Poison Morass' had been a fools dream for many years. 

He smiled as he proved he was right, he respond with ease "Your just to pretty, most people who come in here are at least a little beaten up for example the Bar Maiden, now look at you with the hands of the princess herself and face perfectly smooth all apart from one fatal flaw, The scar, from my theory you cant shape shift that little beauty away can you?".

He continued reading the last piece of paper "And you should know no trap is impossible, Each Dwarven Ruin has its Cogs and Each Dragon has a Bad tooth, Either way you put the saying I can easily break into the Ruin, However it could come in handy to see that the whole face thing inst the only trick you have" he'd wink placing his hand out to say he agrees to the terms shes set out in front of him.

She smiled at this, beauty was nothing but an illusion to her. It was not that she could not remove the scar if she wished, just that the memory tied to it was cautionary. She also found it distinguishable, although she would not admit it out loud, no matter how vain she appeared. Her shape-shifting abilities moved far beyond simple face changing, she was old enough and strong enough to change in which ever way she pleased. She was also cunning enough to fake feelings and emotions too. 

She watched him extend his hand in sign of the gentleman's agreement and did the same. But she stopped an inch away from contact.
"One little detail, they do not mention of the flyer" She paused, wondering if the next tid-bit of information would be a deal breaker. "The ruins actually belonged to a god once" She let him decide if he would still shake her hand. She took the gentleman's agreement very seriously.
"If you don't mind me asking, what is your motivation for the work you do?" She watched him almost hawkishly, something she did unconsciously, as her mind stored every unique physical detail that made up his face. 

He sighed "I almost got excited there, you shouldn't do that to man" he chuckled "My goal in life is a difficult one, for money is a huge part in my life I mean I want to own a estate some times. However my biggest goal in life is to steal from a Deity an living one at that, and I would do what ever it takes to get to that point" he smiled and then continued "so that's what im going to do at one point in my life but I guess stealing from a dead god is a start that someone has to do" he happily shook her hand "But I do suggest we take the Coins now that is quite a lot the Drunks have over there"