You are on a world known by all of the man races as Sveen.  It is earth size and earth normal for the players benefit with earth normal plants and minerals, nothing exotic to look for here.  This takes place on the largest of 3 continents known to you as the Bowl of the Gods but would be more correctly called the belt since it nearly encircled the world at the equator.  There are 5 kingdoms on this continent and yours is known as the province of Ah-Jeremiah.  There are only 2 cities in the province.  The capital city of Blo 900 miles to the east and the port city of Clii 60 miles to the northwest.  Your continent varied from 600 miles to barely 20 miles north to south but seemingly forever east and west.  The northern side of the continent was shielded from the northern sea by a range of mountains called the spine.  Many of them so high that nothing but sunlight ever saw the peaks since they were well above clouds, weather or breathable atmosphere.  Your kingdom took its name from the Devils bowl, a large desert well below sea level and seemingly barren due to its high temperature and miles and miles of hot burning sands. 

There had been flyers posted in every inn for 20 miles in every direction from the town of Crooksfoot on the Crooksfoot River.  The flyer advertised "Riches or death guaranteed, honor and glory not so much."  Then the name Dragons Belch Inn, look for a tall black man with a hook.  Unknown to any of you the flyers had been specifically made to get your attention and they all mysteriously disappeared when you spotted the dirty ragged flag jutting out from the steep peaked roof.  It was a hard place to miss since it was the largest building in this small river port town.  You walked towards the door of the large 4 story stone and wooden building.   A large man with a wooden leg let you in the door with a snaggle toothed grin, the scars on his face and arms indicated an interesting life.

A large faded painting on the high ceiling now mostly obscured by smoke from countless cooking fires and countless smokers showed a Red Dragon rampant with its mouth open but only a puff of smoke coming out of it.  A smaller version of the painting was painted on a sign board hanging over the door and again on the poor old dirty ragged flag that you first spotted.  This was a large common room with booths on both sides, a long bar on the back wall and there were individual tables in front of the long floor to ceiling iron paned glass window in the front of the room.  The center of the room was filled with trestle tables and benches, half of them occupied with eaters and drinkers and all of the booths were empty except for one where a lone Dwarf sat nursing his large mug of something both foamy and steaming.  He looked around as if he were looking for someone or somebody too. 

The air smelled of roast meat and spices, pipe weed and spilled drinks that the thick sawdust on the floor only partly filtered.  The peoples voices were low and conversational as befitted a mid day meal of working men taking a brief break and not raucous like those who would be there later for a good time.  Behind the bar 6' off the floor was a small stage with stools, musical instruments and a large variety of drums cymbals but nobody on the stage except for an old Halfling woman with a mop.  

A large fat woman in a bright red low cut dress with a dragon tatoo on her left breast supervised a Human and a Half/Orc behind the bar and a Human, Halfling and a Gnome cook kitchen staff from a large high chair on the left side  the bar.  2 young muscular Human women waited tables and a Half/Orc woman was shoveling up a pile of sawdust in the corner with a mess of something green and slick mixed in with it.  It went into a bucket and she carried it out past the bar and out the back door.  The door was open and you could see the river not more than 100' away. 

In a surprisingly loud voice the Dwarf addresses you before you have a chance to ask anybody anything or investigate the place further.  "EH! YOU LOOKING FER TH' BLACKMAN AIR YE?  You can see him standing on the bench in his booth looking over the tall back and waving you over towards him.  Nobody in the place pays any attention to him beyond a quick glance and a frown at his loudness. 

Time to meet the Dwarf.