(could be this character, maybe some other entirely)

<!-- companion #8, Tabur, bon vivant -->

<string
id="str_npc_intro.9"
text="{=lJkybj3d}Hello, wanderer. Care to join me for a cup of wine?" />
<string
id="str_npc_intro_response_1.9"
text="{=AGBkVF4G}No harm in that, I suppose. So. Tell me about yourself." />
<string
id="str_npc_intro_response_2.9"
text="{=C6GmacOA}I am otherwise occupied, sir." />
<string
id="str_npc_backstory_a.9"
text="{=vl7wgzIg}I am Tabur son of Alqan. You do not recognize the name? Well, perhaps we move in different circles. Any connoisseur of dinner parties, wine, courtesans, and poetry would doubtless have heard of me." />
<string
id="str_npc_backstory_b.9"
text="{=dU3II3Lv}Why, just the other evening I was attending a soiree in this very town, and the host told me that I was truly an ornament among guests, who brought more light to his party than a hundred lanterns, more music than a hundred lutes. It was with great sorrow, he said, that he must call his guards on me, because by some oversight I had not been invited and thus in eating his food I was, by a legal technicality, a thief." />
<string
id="str_npc_interrupt_1.9"
text="{=tEw3TwnM}How blunt of him! What happened next?" />
<string
id="str_npc_interrupt_2.9"
text="{=3tsuUf0H}And he was right to say that! Good day. sir." />
<string
id="str_npc_backstory_d.9"
text="{=qCdrnUWP}Well, I was forced to pull out my sword and cut up his men a bit before vanishing over a wall. But I left his guests with a truly memorable evening's entertainment, and him with a tale that will no doubt make him the toast of many soirees to come. " />
<string
id="str_npc_backstory_d.9"
text="{=nEHOUdf8}I confess that this is not the first time something like this has happened to me. Hosts can be such sticklers about their guest lists. But it has left me at a bit of an impasse, as I should probably leave this town sooner rather than later." />
<string
id="str_npc_backstory_response_1.9"
text="{=TMLpc1mq}So you live by sneaking into other men's dinner parties, I see. But it sounds like you have a useful set of skills." />
<string
id="str_npc_backstory_response_2.9"
text="{=9yWwSi7g}You sound like trouble, sir. Good day." />
<string
id="str_npc_signup.9"
text="{=sQgZR0dA}My friend, why should a man not eat the finest food off of golden plates, if he has the wit to do so? Although I confess I am growing a bit jaded of it all, and perhaps would enjoy a change of pace." />
<string
id="str_npc_signup_2.9"
text="{=swaLbjD1}More importantly, I really should be moving on. I don't suppose you might be in the market for my talents and knowledge? I know a back door into every city in the eastern half of Calradia, or the right guard to bribe." />
<string
id="str_npc_signup_response_1.9"
text="{=blY5YhSL}Very well. That could come in handy. I can offer you a place in my company." />
<string
id="str_npc_signup_response_2.9"
text="{=kn76Y4yi}I have no golden plates for you to dine off. I doubt you'd last long with us. Good day to you." />
<string
id="str_npc_payment.9"
text="{=n5y4faSu}Splendid! I must ask you, however, for a small downpayment of {NPCPAYMENT}{GOLD_ICON}. I have a debt that I had hoped to repay with some silverware, but I encountered some difficulties with that." />