Battered and bruised, broken and beaten, bloodied and banged up, the entire gang found themselves outdone by a single man. Whatever pride and self worth each one had was nowhere to be found. The two who had attempted to hold back Diego were wailing in pain off to the side. The one who lunged at Loretta, tripped up by Diego's foot, and face smashed in from falling on the ground due to Loretta's side step, and then made worse by her use of the chair, there was not an ounce of fight left in them. Before another word could even be said by any of them, however, the loud thonk of the flagon hitting the bar's counter echoed throughout the room and pulled everyone's attention over to the bard. Each of them listened to the man's words, the bully holding onto his groin scowled through grit teeth at Donovan before turning to his companions. Knowing when enough is enough, he moved towards his large friend who was still stunned on the ground and begrudgingly lifted him up, albeit a bit haphazardly. He motioned his limp friend to drag the man who had fainted by the doorway out as he was smaller and easier for his injured friend to handle.<br/><br/>The man with the remodeled facial features lifted himself from the ground, groaning from the splitting headache that began to form, his vision causing the room to spin. He hadn't heard anything Donovan had said over the loud ringing in his ears. He could only see what was ahead of him, which he found was two Lorettas spinning around one another. He leered at her, taking an uneasy step towards her, only to trip himself up and fall back to the ground again. The man who was half carrying, half dragging, the large balding redhead, could only roll his eyes and growl at him, "Forget it! Let's get out of here before we're to lose our heads!" The first man groaned again as he slowly got up once more, swaying and tripping, barely holding himself upright, as he made his way towards the door with his friends. He turned towards Loretta, or at least in her general direction, and slurred out an almost unintelligible, "Ahm nert finshd wi youuuuuuuuuu yet. Malk ma wahdsh." He pointed at her, again not directly, but close enough, and narrowed his eyes pointedly, before sidestepping, clumsily, out of the tavern.<br/><br/>As the commotion died, a few heads poked out from the kitchen door. The barkeep and a waitress hesitantly opened the door before the rest of the help made their way into the trashed tavern. A blond waitress sighed sadly, a small whimper sounding from the back of her throat, at the thought of the cleanup she and her colleagues would face that night. She immediately got to work, flipping tables and chairs back to their proper orientation. Another waitress gathered up the broken pieces and bit by bit, carried them out to be discarded. The barkeep moseyed on over to the strange trio and thanked them, "Those guys have been needing a beating since they first started coming around here. You may have done some damage to the place, but we've seen worse thanks to those guys." He nodded towards the door that they had just left, scrunching his face as if he could still smell the body odor that exuded from them wherever they went. "I want to show my thanks for running them out of here. If you need a place to stay for the night, you're welcome to one of our rooms, free of charge." He gestured Loretta and Diego towards the stairs leading to the second floor inn. He looked over at Donovan, "I'm not sure what more we could offer you beyond what we already owe you, so if you need anything from us, please don't hesitate to ask."<br/><br/>As the waitresses continued cleaning, the gamblers that had stuck around clapped for the three heroes. While some of them had lost money from betting against them, they couldn't deny that what they watched was entertaining, like seeing a story reach its climax and the great hero finally came to save the day. With some banter amongst them, they began to depart from one another. Some stayed to help in the clean up, while others had to leave. A few words could be heard from two of them in conversation. "Go ask Rufus to loan me some money!" One of the men said to the other as he handed over his coins from losing the bet.<br/>"Hah! Yeah right, go ask him yourself!" The second man laughed off as counted the coins his friend had just handed him.<br/>"You work for him."<br/>"No way, mate. I'm not going to put myself in his sights again for you. I'm still sore from the last time you wanted me to demand something from him." He rubbed at his arm, highlighting one of the places he felt the muscle aches, and shook his head as he started towards the tavern entrance.<br/>"My goodness you're such a pansy." The first man crossed his arms and laughed.<br/>"Don't make me come over there! I'll beat you harder than he beat those assholes!" He pointed first at his friend, then at Diego, whom he had referenced. He laughed as well, the threat being merely a joke as he waved him off in the end and left.<br/>The first man waved his goodbyes before walking over towards the heroes of the night. He bowed his head slightly towards Loretta, "Ma'am" and then turned his attention towards Diego, "How's it going?" He extended a hand to him to shake in greeting. "I was one of the guys you were playing cards with back there. That was quite a show." He looked at Donovan briefly, "You as well. You have quite a powerful voice. It's good to see it has more use than just singing." He gave him a genuine smile before looking back at his fellow gambler once more, "Listen, I overheard you talking to Rufus earlier. You said you were looking for Shay? I heard that name before. I think he came by here a couple weeks back. Came to this tavern, too. He met with Rufus, they chatted, and then they left together. I'm not sure where he went from there. I can only assume to his mansion, but it wasn't my place to follow. That Rufus is a bit of a character. Not a bad guy, from what I've seen, but I tend to stay away from folk like that. Anyway, to finish my ramble," he chuckled a bit, realizing he started straying off topic, "if you need any info, I'll try to help you with what I can."