<strong>-Helena Shaw - Magnimar - Underbridge-</strong><br/><br/>The moment she stepped through the door to the Friendly Merchant, Helena could tell she'd come to exactly the right place--or perhaps the<em>wrong</em>place, depending on your point of view.  The wretched exterior of the tavern had not been false advertising, for one would be hard pressed to find a grubbier establishment in all of Magnimar.  The wood was almost audibly moldering, the air thick with loose dust cascading from the rumbling ceiling that did little to stifle the noise of patrons and their whores, and there was a fascinatingly indescribable odor souring the atmosphere.<br/><br/>It became immediately clear that Helena was the happiest person in the entire room.<br/><br/>"Well met," she chirped, walking confidently with the lumbering behemoth of an ape shooting dangerous looks at anyone who so much as looked at her funny--which, coincidentally, was most everyone there.  The only one who seemed utterly disinterested was the thick, yet unmistakeably muscular bartender who was, as if obediently abiding by some unspoken rule of bartending, devoting nearly all of his attention to polishing a grubby glass with a rag even filthier than the floor he stood on.  It was laughably cliche, and Helena loved every moment of it.<br/><br/>The druid sat herself down on an open stool at the bar, clicking her tongue twice to order the ape to guard her back.  Her smile was broad and quite sure of itself, suggesting this wasn't her first time in a run down dump like the Merchant.<br/><br/>"I'll have a whiskey.  Four shots.  That, or whatever rotgut is least likely to make me go blind."