Currency Quest - Empty Coinpurse

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There are people in Golarion - Adventurers! They delve down into the most dangerous areas of the world, traveling it's breadth for a variety of reasons. For glory, for honor, for revenge, to prove themselves, for wealth... and it's those that travel for wealth that share something in common with you. Though, you've always fancied yourself... different. Smarter - see, your choice is to get your riches from these adventurers... and the rest, too!

Perhaps your thought is to serve these adventurers delicious food and keep ale flowing as a tavern-keeper. Forge them mighty armaments to start their journey, or forge legendary weapons and armor used to defeat their greatest foes. Brew wealth through alchemical wonders. Trade for incredible exotic goods. Simply steal the lot with a group of bandits under your call. Whatever your idle daydreams, the problem seems to be with implementing them. Self-taught or trained by a master, it doesn't matter: no one will hire you. No one will buy your goods. No one will give you a loan (even the shady sorts you can normally trust that sort of thing to). Perhaps you're... not that great with people. Perhaps your trainer or family have a poor reputation that you've inherited. Perhaps you're of a "non-standard" race.

Whatever the reason, you're meeting a few others of similar problems at a local tavern. Here, the mightest metropolis in all Golarion: Absalom, the City at the Center of the World. The importance and influence of Absalom upon the Inner Sea and the whole of Golarion cannot be overstated. The city not only holds a key strategic position for both commercial and military endeavors in the region, but encompasses the site of the ascension of four deities and claims to have been founded by none other than the Last Azlanti, the god Aroden. It is not without reason that the passage of time throughout the world is counted in Absalom "Reckoning".

Which makes it all the more embarrassing that you couldn't get even a lick of work outside of the cheapest and most sketchy prostitution rings.

The Empty Coinpurse sets the scene for the beginning of our tale: a fitting name in a place of Absalom known as "The Puddles", a slum known for it's damp environment and common diseases. It is not uncommon for the sector of the city to have an inch-high layer of water on the streets and even in the homes, with wooden dens set precariously atop rotting homes and shaky dangerous walkways cross-crossing over rooftops.

The tavern in question is wonderfully dry, thanks to the uncomfortably hot bonfire placed in the dead center of the tavern. Recycled tables and frequently-repaired chairs from the many barfights litter the area without any order between them. Old stains of vomit and blood litter the floor and walls - as well as a mysterious vomit stain placed on the ceiling, a common target of urban legends and drunken boasts. The clientele - rowdy sailors and too-thin thugs - sit on opposite sides of the tavern with the bartender sitting between them... keeping his crossbow loaded and visible. Unwashed dancers gyrate on a makeshift stage for entertainment, as similarly-dressed women keep the ale flowing.

This is the best place you could afford as a meeting place... and on that note, we begin at the single empty table in the tavern. The first character in this tale enters the tavern before the others: