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Well … though that answer might have been nothing but a stone wall, at the very least there wasn’t anything indecent about it. Feeling that you are grasping at straws here, you decide to take an entirely different tack. While Cold-Touch was developed with pure water as the intended working material, it is very accommodating with substitutions. All it really needs is a liquid that freezes at a temperature close to the freezing point of water … and most ales, beers and wines do not have enough actual alcohol in them to throw the freezing point far off enough to render it unusable.
“Then, perhaps I could have a drink? Some … ale?”
He looks at you again, same as before – until his face breaks into this impish little grin. You had not even noticed but sitting to far side of the pile of ledgers that he was looking over was this battered looking tankard. Without a word, he picks it up and places it on the counter right in front of you, spits in it and then resumes flipping through the pages of the ledger seemingly aimlessly, though his face is still twisted into a gleeful leer.
Choking down what is left of your pride, you force yourself not to rise to the provocation. Instead, you turn away from the flesh-floundered fool and survey the common room. From your spot in front of the counter, you can basically see the entire room, save for the little vestibule by the front. Trying not look too conspicuous, you quickly glance at each of the patrons, until you are satisfied that there are no new arrivals – and more importantly, there have been no departures.
You can also see that there is another way in and out of the room, on the far back wall – and if there is actually a second set of stairs somewhere in this place, then the men who made those prints could have walked down <span class="mu-i">those</span> stairs and could be among those down here right now. Your mind races as you try to figure out what makes more sense – should you check to see if the men are among those at the tables right now, or should you find their room first? Staying down here and looking for them runs the risk of them noticing you, especially if they have some way to detect the Strangeness, but if they are down here and you go upstairs first, then you are going to run the risk of them either returning while you are trying to break in or leaving the establishment entirely.
After only a moment of thought, you decide on taking a sweep through the room – and in a small turn of white luck, everyone just happens to be sitting close enough together that you should be able to check all of their boots in one pass through the room.
