"Not So Fast, Good Sir,"

Kaspar only notices that the constables are more intent on keeping the angry crowd back than they are covering the rest of the street. The finely-dressed man keeps calling for aid and promising reward, great vast amounts of unspecified reward, and people just keeping walking by. One stops long enough to spit and glare at the finely dressed man. The older craftsman behind the finely dressed man keeps scowling.

Castille notices that the people behind the hastily erected barricade are all women. They are calling the finely dressed man a liar and a murderer and telling him to go get their husbands and boyfriends. One of the women in the forefront is actually a shifter, a rare race in this town. The rest are predominantly human with one or two half-elves and one that may be a halfling or a gnome, you cannot tell from your vantage point. (There are just over a dozen protesters.)

The woman Castille approached (a human) looks at him with a face that is out for blood. Her eyes are shadowed and weeping, and her teeth are clecnhed. "Who are we rooting for? Fellow, you must be new in town if you don't know who we're 'rooting' for! That's Fast Eddie, Edward Rendell the Sly, and he should be dancing at the end of a rope! Our menfolk are down there, and what is anyone doing about it, eh?" (Make a Diplomacy check)

As Kaspar stands there looking, a constable eyes him, then decides that he isn't a threat. Kaspar now sees (from his new vantage point it is a Spot DC 0) that there is an open manhole cover behind the finely dressed man - aka Fast Eddie, and that it is surrounded with kerchiefs and flowers. The scowling man with the tools takes his glare off of Fast Eddie briefly to give this half-orc an appraising look.

When Kaspar attempts to shoulder the dandy, the shiny platinum knob whips out of the walking stick revealing a keen rapier blade, the edge of which is now by Kaspar's chest. "There, there gentle soul," Fast Eddie says, dropping his voice from the booming pitch that he used to beg for aid. "In this town one should be careful how one steps, as the city council has taken way to long to effect repairs. Are you coming forward to answer my requests? Because if you think that you will enter my shop you are mistaken, the mission is out here." He chuckles. "Or should I say, down there." Fast Eddie has swordsman's callouses on his fingers, and a steely look in his eye.

"Put the blade down, Mr. Rendell," says an approaching constable with an officer's stripe. Fast Eddie complies swiftly with a large, warm smile, and immediately goes back to calling for aid. The officer sizes up Kaspar. "Big one, aren't you? You almost look like you could be a hireling for one of the Dragonmarked Houses. Are you?"

Kaspar is close enough to notice a medallion around the neck of the scowling man that has a symbol on it. He needs to make a knowledge religion check, DC 10. (Knoweldge checks can be made up to DC 10 untrained, but beyond DC 10 a player needs at least one rank in the skill.)