Thursday, March 28, 2024

Terra Povos: Durest's Funhouse

We consider what to do with the tarasque; opinions vary widely, but the general consensus is that we need to keep it in some kind of stasis for a while, and not give it to anybody else. We head back with Stonebeard and Beerbelly the innkeepers, and their kid Queely. 

We load everybody back into the carts and arrive to a tearful reunion. Baldy soaks it up; the rest of haven’t quite gotten over nearly being poisoned. Astrid, the courtesan, seeks to reward us with 20 GP – which Amergin refuses – or her body – which we all refuse. We’re on a timeline after all. 

Lithos takes Mister Pibbles, the tame carrion crawler, as a reward. We get everybody back on board and just follow the wall around until we can get back. We keep our prisoners tied up in the cabin. Whisper will guard their unconscious forms. Archibald will handle the wheel; Lithos goes up front with his new mount, and Amergin will be keeping an eye on the tarrasque, which we have chained to the mast. We’re about a day out from stoneshore. 

Brynja and Durnek wake up once, and then we start just blackjacking them every time they stir. Then we look up and realize that the Tarrasque has ripped the bag off its head. Archibald attempts to fascinate it, but fails; he can’t make another attempt for a full day. 

Amergin tries to grapple it, and gets bitten as he approaches. The struggle, and Amergin gets ahold of its snout; Baldy gets the waterskin back in place, and we wait for it to drown again. Meanwhile it’s thrashing around, and rips the skin off; we get it fairly well tied down and get another sack on it. Meanwhile, we have to feed Mister Pibbles; Amergin feeds it some of our rations. 

We manage to navigate our way back to port (the respectable one) and greet the customs office and one of the guards. “Good day! What is it you have here?” 

We explain that we need to talk to the Alderman, and manage to explain that he needs to take the prisoners and put them in a very deep, very well-guarded hole. He rewards us with 100 GP, and a letter from Senator Ragnus Goldbeard; it’s a personal invitation to his house in Silverkeep for dinner, a far more valuable reward. 

Amergin and Lithos stay behind to guard the terrasque. The others bring Pythia’s body. Tara and Marduk are deeply upset; Marduk thinks he’s going to have to sell the inn. Archibald manages to convince him that the Senator will cover it. Once Marduk has passed out, Tara comes out and wants to talk to us about a couple of stray visitors. 

The first was Dane; he said we… stole from him? Marduk scared him off. She’s worried because he looks… dane-gerous. The other visitor claimed to be some sort of investigator into smuggling; apparently the customs officer back in deepwatch was taking bribes. Maybe a spy for the Quaestor? Mom told him everything before she got suspicious and he left. 

Meanwhile Amergin and Lithos spend the night fending off suspicious onlookers and hiding the tarrasque behind a sheet. 

They explain to Mom that we need to use Stone Shape to make a hole for this thing. We look over the Gunwale and our buddy Max the goblin is selling tickets. 

Amergin drops Obscuring Mist on us. “Please go away.”

Max: “And by the way I’m really sorry to hear about Pythia.”

Amergin: “This man does not have access to the turtle. Please get your refunds from him.”

Archibald tries to entertain the crowd as he, James, and Whisper return with Mom & Dad, and our new Pinnace Master who’s going to be sailing the ship for us; his name is Pubert Edward Addams. We sail out for an hour or so until we can find a proper ledge; Mom shapes a hole in the stone, and we take the thing off the mast and then put the whole thing – bag and chains and all – and then seal it over with a layer of stone. 

We circle and return to town from another direction to drop Mom and Dad off, then set off for Durest’s Puzzle Dungeon. We arrive at a stone landing with a small ledge; carved into the wall is an image of a powerful dwarven necromancer, with the words: “Crypt of Trickery“ and under that “Durest’s Funhouse”. Lithos brings out a ten foot long pole, and hands it off to Whisper. 

The door is in the shape of a face, and there’s blood all over it. The door itself has a large metal crank on outside. Mage hand is not strong enough to activate the lever in the mouth. After a bit of examination, the smaller bit in the mouth is a latch that allows you turn the lever, but turning the lever swings a blade around that will take off your hand if you're still holding the latch.

We jam the latch and then swing the lever around. The door clicks open. We go in slow and paranoid, tapping the floors and walls with the ten foot pole. 

Carved on the wall is a set of four dots with an upward pointing arrow and a four beside it. A bunch of bugbear skeletons start pouring around the corner. Skeletons are notoriously resistant to anything except bludgeoning damage. Lithos casts Shield; Uncle Baldy starts singing. James moves up and smashes one of them; it does not die. Whisper moves back and pulls out a sling; he whips a stone around and promptly hits the stone wall. The one in front of James swings his morning star and hits him for four damage. More of them move up, and James swings again, smacking the same one. Amergin has prepped his staff with Shillelagh, and smacks a bugbear skeleton; it goes down. Baldy drops Cure Light Wounds on James, healing him a bit. James swings and misses. Whisper tries another shot and misses; James swings again as they try to press past him and hits, while one swings and misses at him. One swings at Amergin and misses; another swings at James and hits. Archibald heals James again, this time to full health; James swings again and takes another one out. One attacks Amergin, but misses. Two attack James, and hit. Baldy heals James again, a bit. James swings at an injured skeleton, hits, and takes it down. The others move in and surround James; he hits one of them. Two attack James, and one hits him hard; James goes down. Amergin swings again and manages to connect, finishing another one. Baldy cures James again. James is on the ground beside two bugbear skeletons; he tries to tumble to his feet without getting attacked, and they miss him. He attacks again, smashes, and does damage. Whisper whips out another sling stone and does a bit of damage to one of them. Baldy continues healing James, and James smashes down another skeleton. The bugbear misses, Amergin misses. Archibald pull his whip out and tries to trip the skeleton. He hits James instead. James looks at him, and then bludgeons a skeleton into fragments. Whisper bounces a rock off its head. 

We continue tapping our way down the hall with the ten foot staff. There’s a door in the right wall, and an armoire at the corner; there’s another door past the bend.

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Challenge: Interesting Story

(This post is part of the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. You can find links to other writers' answers over at Long and Short Reviews. I have not been following along as reliably this year as I did in previous years, but I'm still participating! Mostly.)

Prompt: An interesting story about family or friends

Oh dear ye immortal gods, I have so many... 

All right, so:

I'm in my senior year of college. I'm rooming with one of my best friends. He's... I don't know how to describe him in a way that lives up to just how him he really was. He was quirky, incredibly smart, and a lot of fun; his sense of humor was both hilarious and surreal. He was one of those friends where we simultaneously got each other, and could still surprise each other. 

We'd gotten to know each other because I'd decided to run a roleplaying game based on Clive Barker's Cabal (later made into the movie Nightbreed, and expanded into a line of comics). Rather than the typical RPG setup, where the characters were human or nearly so and fought against monsters in a medieval fantasy setting, this would be a game where the characters were monsters trying to survive in the modern, human-controlled world where they were the last remnants of magic, myth, and legend. 

The group came up with some amazing character concepts. This particular friend decided that his character would be a werewolf -- the sort who tears out of his human skin in a berserk rage, does incredible amounts of damage, and then wakes up with no memory of what just happened. His denial was complete, absolute, and invincible. He spent the entire game thinking that he was on the run with some shady characters who had some weird ideas, while he tried to find out who murdered his wife. When we finally got the characters up to the Pacific Northwest to meet his parents and his own father slipped off his skin and emerged as a beast... he fainted. When he woke up, he didn't remember any of it. 

Anyway, I was rooming with the guy who played that character in a game that I was running -- a game that actually had a bit of an audience, which was unheard-of at the time.

It was very late at night. I forget what exactly we'd been talking about -- egotism and self-image, I think --  and he'd just laughed and said, "Well, you know, you're lucky because I'm the destined savior of the human race." He stood up, crossed the room, and flipped off the light switch. Then he crossed back to our bunk-bed -- he had the lower bunk -- and said, "The funny thing is, sometimes I really believe it."

Then he threw himself down onto his mattress in the dark, and missed by a good six inches.

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

The Lost Girl, part nineteen

(I went back and revised the last entry, and added a chunk of new text. You may want to go back and re-read it before you continue here.)

"We weren't--" Elyssa swallowed.

Chris found his eyes still locked with Tammy's, and his mind filled with knowledge that he didn't want. It weighed his tongue down, pulled at his lips, and he knew it for a truth-speaking that Tammy had laid on them...

So he spoke truth. "You lost someone there," he said simply. 

Tammy nodded. Amelie was still busy bringing Peter and Morri through, and for this one moment they could still speak. 

"A brother? A sister?" 

"A cousin," Tammy told him. "Closest I ever had to a brother, though."

Chris closed his eyes for a moment, but he didn't try to push the truth-speaking away. "I'm so sorry. The wolves were a part of that, and I hate them for it still. I defended those I could and it wasn't enough." That was more genuine emotion than he'd intended to show, but he was committed now whether he liked it or not. He stepped forward and leaned in so he could drop his voice to the barest whisper. "If you'll grant me your card, I'll tell you what I can. And I am so, so sorry.

He stepped back just as lady Amelie Hargrave said, "Tabitha, dear? Are you quite all right? That beast wasn't threatening you, was it?" 

Tammy took a moment to study Chris' face as he shifted a step further back. Then she met the Hargrave Materfamilias' eyes and said, "No, he was most sympathetic. Could we perhaps host them here a day or so longer, while I reorient to the fact that it's now... April?"

Amelie Hargrave's expression suggested that she wasn't best pleased, but she nodded regally. "Of course. Your health and comfort are our foremost concern right now. Would you permit my brother Etienne to look you over?"

"Of course," said Tabitha Carterhaugh. "Though he'll find neither wounds nor indignities. The shadow-walkers treated me well except in the matter of time's passing, and the agents of the Ministry conducted themselves with admirable restraint."

"That is good to hear," said Amelie Hargrave, ominously. Or perhaps she only sounded ominous to Chris; he supposed it might be something in the nature of a guilty conscience, an awareness of all the thing that he wasn't telling people.

Monday, March 25, 2024

The Lost Girl, part eighteen

When they were well away from the town, Peter pulled his deck of cards from its spot on his belt. He drew a card, held it up, and said: "We have her. Timeslip in the Grey, mostly. Will you bring us in?"

There was a momentary pause, and then Peter said: "Tammy?" He stretched his free hand out. 

She approached him, took his hand, and then stopped and focused. When she stepped forward, she vanished, leaving only a rainbow outline behind her. Agatha stepped up next, and Peter handed her through. Morri was still behind them, looking carefully around.

Antoinette turned to look at Chris and Elyssa. "These are the Arcana. They create a connection between a magus and the person depicted on the card. Peter has borrowed a card for Amelie Hargrave, so we can go back directly."

Chris nodded at that. "You go first. We'll follow." 

Antoinette sighed. "Could you please just do what I say? For once?"

Chris shrugged and turned to Peter. He put a hand on the older man's shoulder, waited until he could see Amelie Hargrave standing in a hallway in her ridiculously well-appointed home, then extended his free hand to hers. She took it and drew him forward, and as she did the Grey faded behind him and the hallway became solid and real. He stepped past her, to where Tammy stood beside Agatha and Maggie Hargrave, making room for Elyssa as she followed. 

He watched as Amelie Hargrave extended her hand again and drew Antoinette through. He wouldn't sigh in relief or scowl at her for waiting behind, but he studied her for just a moment before he turned back. 

"So," said Tammy Lynn Carterhaugh, catching his eyes as he turned back, then glancing at Elyssa. "You're wolves?" 

Chris nodded, then flicked a glance at Agatha, who looked surprised and perhaps a little fascinated. 

Tammy looked them over shyly, then said: "You're not what I expected."

Chris offered an apologetic shrug. It was Elyssa who asked, almost diffidently, "How do you mean?"

"I mean..." She blushed. "I just... What happened at Pettibone... I thought you'd be..." 

The silence dragged out for a moment, and Chris asked: "More bloodthirsty?" He shouldn't have said it, he knew he shouldn't have said it, not where Amelie Hargrave could overhear them, but the weight of it was irresistible. 

Tammy Lynn Carterhaugh met his eyes and said, "Yes."

Friday, March 22, 2024

Dark Armor: Questions and More Questions

"Irksome," said Amedin, regarding the shattered obsidian fragments that had once been the massive enchanted gates of the citadel. "Your father makes peace with Idrias, gathers his army, and moves on Marinul -- and in that exact moment, the Emissary comes here, to Teregor, to assault us while the bulk of our forces are seeking it elsewhere. It is well he sent you back, though I have doubts about involving the Ancestors in this."

Since Amedin was old enough to qualify as an Ancestor himself, Pallian decided to ignore that. 

Instead, he turned his head and surveyed the area around the gates. There were corpses sprawled everywhere; those in decent condition would join the citadel's servants, perhaps even its guards, or be sent to the Crypt to serve there. Death was never wasted in the Obsidian Citadel; every drop of blood spilled here fed the throne and increased its power. If his father had remained behind, been seated on the throne when this invasion began... things might have been very different. He turned his head, looking around, but the helm showed no indication of anyone else listening in, except a very faint shadow that might have been Ashmiren. 

Was it treason to ignore that she might overhear this conversation? Yes. Did he care? No. No, he most emphatically did not.  Conspiring with the third-princess of Idrias against everyone else might not have been the smartest thing he had ever done, but so far it was very possibly the most satisfying.

"The Emissary isn't the threat," the Black Knight said, in its deep, distorted voice. "When we reached Marinul, we found one of the Second there."

"A Second?" asked Amedin. "Emerged from the Tomb?"

Pallian nodded. "It damned near killed me. Fortunately, the Ancestors had sent a demon to call me back; when the carriage returned to the Crypt, they were waiting to tell me of the invasion here."

"Your father and your brother? The royalty of Idrias?"

"I do not know," Pallian admitted. "I hope they live, and have triumphed."

Amedin hesitated. "Ordinarily, I would order you back to their defense. But it's not impossible that you're the last remaining heir of House Teres. I cannot risk it. You must remain here as the Black Knight. If you are the last, then I will find another to take the role and present you as the new wizard-king. The bloodline must remain intact."

"I trust to your guidance," said Pallian. Amedin, at least, could not read his thoughts.

Thursday, March 21, 2024

Terra Povos: The Deep Dwarf Who Can Somehow Corrupt ANYBODY

We’re heading back to try to capture the Duergar who jumped ship. 

Ugly Kevin wants to take the Tainted Rose. Archibald is okay with this; Whisper is uncomfortable about it. We okay it, and we have now acquired a pinnace, which we plan to rechristen Pinnace McPinnaceface once we get back to the docks. We also inherit Bromilda, because the tainted rose is too large for her to haul. 

We have also leveled up. 

We sort out how to do this. We’re basically going to make the dinosaur do most of the work. We approach the spot where the lifeboat left off, and there’s a ship ahead of us that has smoke coming off of it. We suspect that this is our target, and that the egg has probably hatched. 

The boat is pretty well towards shore, and we have one bolt for the ballista that we pulled out of Rose. James is now using it as a spear; it’s his lucky bolt.

The boat is following the edge of the lake, and is drifting a little ways back from a tunnel. The boat has dead bodies on it. They died violently, but from stab wounds rather than fire; none of them are red-headed or duergars. We check it out anyway, and it looks like most of their heads were bashed in by a very large flail. It looks like food and water were taken, 

We can see a couple of braziers burning on the shore inside the passage; these guys seem to be regular sailors. 

We move as far into the cavern as we can manage. We leave Bromilda to guard the boat. In the distance we can see a couple of goblins, but nobody really out and about in the cavern

We arrange it so that it looks like Lithos is bringing in a bunch of prisoners. Whisper has rigged the ropes to look legit, but actually they can be shrugged off. The two guards come over and are very disturbed by the arrival of prisoners; Scrit and Scrat are alarmed at the mention that they were following Brinja. 

As we’re about to jump them, a door opens and a pretty dwarf lady emerges. She calls out a second dwarf woman, an exceptionally pretty one named Astrid. Astrid saunters over to check the ropes; she clearly knows from rope play. 

Whisper blackjacks her. Kelda and Gaird run inside. One of the goblin guards runs away. Amergin tries to clock him, but he gets away. Lithos looks at the other goblin and says, “Dude. Walk away.” He runs after the first guard. 

We tie up the courtesan. Amergin: “We need a hostage at this point.”

Pythia sighs. “I’ll go knock.” We follow her over to where the dwarves went. We talk them into opening the door. We show them that their friend is still alive. 

Whisper and James, meanwhile, have gone after the goblins. The dwarves introduce themselves as Gaird and Kelda, and the courtesan Astrid. This is their piece of shit tavern in the smugglers’ cove. They don’t want any trouble, and they hate “that red-headed bitch”. 

Pythia notices a bit of a mark on Kelda’s face, says something sympathetic, and heals it. 

Brinja came through her with her Duergar; they stole one of the carts and a couple of the lizards, fleeced them for supplies, and left. The Duergar didn’t look good; she doesn’t think they’ll go far before they have to rest. 

They calm down a little bit, and set out a bunch of drinks. They came in to port on a ship, killed all the sailors. She’s gone down the tunnel. 

Meanwhile, Whisper and James are outside the door the goblins retreated into. They try to kick in the door, but fail. They start looking for another entrance, but the stables are carved out of the side of the cavern. They start assembling a fire. 

Goblins: “We give up! You can have our best spear. Wait! No! You’re going to kill us.” 

They light the door on fire. 

Meanwhile, Lithos suggests that we should look around through the inn just to make sure that Brinja isn’t here. 

The goblins open the door, lay down their spears, and go cower in the corner. Simple Bof starts saddling up lizards to the cart. James takes the spears. Whisper sidles up to Simple Bof, who is albino and not that smart. Whisper gives him a platinum piece. 

He runs across to the inn, finds the tray of drinks, drinks all of them, and drops dead(ish). Apparently Brinja kidnapped some of their family members and told them to poison us. Barrelhand and Flintbeard are the husbands, and Astrid’s son Queely. There’s also a halfling cook named Cottur, who’s pretty broken-up about Queely being gone. 

We get better info this time around: they did go down the tunnel, about two hours ago. The Duergar really did look bad. And the main reason that Brinja took the cart was because they were taking hostages. 

We get on our new cart, promise the lizards extra mushrooms, and head out moving doubletime. About three hours later we come up to a bend with a little barricade, where they are camping. We stop 100’ out. 

We cast Obscuring Mist on Whisper; he and James move up very slowly, carrying the mist with them. One of the guys looks over the barricade: “I hear something!”

Brinja comes over and is looking out into the distance as well. They’re suspicious, but they haven’t spotted us yet. 

They come a little closer. Brinja says: “I do hear something. Wake up the duergar!”

They continue to advance slowly, and the rest of us follow about forty feet back. Brinja and the duergar are accompanied by two “guards” who are actually the husbands; there’s a child tied up at the back of the camp. Pythia casts Shield of Faith and Magic Weapon herself. She is ridiculously loud. 

Brinja pulls something off a necklace and throws it through the fog, targeting Pythia. It's a red gem that explodes into a fireball; she has a necklace of them. We take damage. 

The Duergar enlarges himself and comes stomping out, swinging a really large flail around. Lithos tries to hit him with a Ray of Enfeeblement. Amergin heals Lithos and then moves up. 

One of the husbands charges into the mist, sees James, and swings but misses. The other guy tries the same thing and also misses. “I’m sorry, they’re making me do it!” 

James: “So I’m not not supposed to kill you? Are you Brimble-Bramble and Fistbeard? Could you continue running that way and let us go get the boy?”

They don’t think we’re going to win. 

James: “I don’t want to stab him but he’s not making me not want to stab him…” He looks at Whisper. “Should I kill him?”

Whisper gestures. 

James tumbles past  them, and they swing but miss. Whisper is now flanking them. Whisper moves past them as well and goes after Brinja. Surprise! He tries to stab her but misses. She takes a step back throws another fireball. Baldy goes down, 

Pythia heals Archibald and then moves forward. If she can get to the Duergar, she can do some real damage. Durnak the Duergar attacks Pythia but misses. 

James tumbles past Durnak, and cimes up beside Brinja. She attacks with a spear and does a bit of damage. Lithos tags Durnak with Ray of Fatigue, and Amergin drops Entangle, hoping that the rogues can cope. Of our enemies, only Brinja avoids being entangled. Whisper and James avoid being entangled. Archibald convinces the two husbands that they should be on our side, and loads his crossbow. Whisper moves up on Brinja and tries to stab her; they miss each other. 

Brinja takes a five foot step back and throws another fireball. Durnak swings at James and misses completely. James steps forward to follow Brinja, but misses. 

Lithos drops Glitterdust, blinding the two husbands amd making both of them and the Duergar glow; if he turns invisible again it won’t do him any good. Brinja reaches up for her necklace, finds no stones. She tries to stab Whisper but misses.  Pythia heals Amergin. 

Lithos fires off a Magic Missile at the Duergar, and does him some damage. Amergin fires off Flare and blinds the duergar. Whisper attacks Brinja and does a bit of damage. She attacks Whisper and misses. Lithos drops Glitterdust and blinds the Duergar and Brinja, and also Whisper by accident. Amergin cures Archibald, who shoots the duergar. Whisper manages to stab Brinja, who goes down; Pythia moves in and attacks the Duergar, doing quite a bit of damage; he ripostes but misses because he’s blind. 

Lithos tags him with Acid Splash, doing a tiny bit of damage. Brindlebeard manages to break out of entanglement and hits the Duergar. Archibald moves in towards Whisper and James as the fog dissolves. Whisper (blind) feels his way over to James and makes sure he’s still breathing. Pythia carves into the duergar, who swings at her and kills her. Lithos throws another Acid Splash and hits. Archibald attempts to move in and stab the duergar, crits and takes the fucker down. 

We move to check on Pythia, but she’s legitimately dead. 

We collect a +1 Heavy Flail and a +1 Chain Shirt, Brinja had a +1 Mithril Chain shirt and and masterwork shortsword and masterwork light crossbow.James claims the Heavy Flail, since it’s magic and will adjust to his side. We now also have three hostages and an egg. Whisper takes the Mithril chain shirt.

At this point we’re standing on 1,381 GP. 

The egg has a leathery shell, and it’s kind of soft and pliable; something is definitely moving inside of it. We’re pretty sure it’s not the world turtle. Now that this thing has been freed from the stone, whatever’s inside is going to hatch… but it’s not healthy. 

Amergin heals it, and it starts to hatch. We get this little Bowser-turtle thing coming out. It attacks Amergin, doing a bit of damage. Amergin tries Calm Animal, but it is not an animal. Whisper stabs it from behind. It goes after Amergin again, but misses. Lithos tries Ray of enfeeblement, but the spell bounces off its shell. 

Amergin manages to hold it down, and Whisper stabs it again. Archibald stabs it as well. It’s healing, though – way faster than it should be. We beat it down, but we’re kind of stuck since it keeps healing. Whisper ties a water skin around its head, and we tie it up with a shitload of rope because while we can’t kill it, it isn’t all that strong… yet.

We are now in possession of  baby Tarrasque. 

May the gods help us all.

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

The Lost Girl, part seventeen

"What was that?" asked Peter. 

Chris shook his head, and Antoinette said, "I don't know."

"I think we should trust Agatha," said Morri. "She knows Tammy, and she knows these shadow-walkers. We don't."

Peter looked at Chris. "Why did Egallon approach you instead of us?" 

Chris spread his hands. "I don't know. Possibly because Elyssa and I were leading, and then stepped aside to let you approach Tammy. She might have mistaken that for us giving you orders, but that's pure speculation on my part."

"What do we do if they don't come back?" asked Antoinette. She didn't sound worried, exactly, but there was something insistent in her tone. 

Peter looked at her. "There are bindings..." 

"And a giant who isn't all that pleased to have us here in the first place," Antoinette observed. 

Chris stepped back, placing himself behind Antoinette. Elyssa stayed where she was, carefully out of the way. Clarissa was still hidden in the amulet, but presumably aware of everything that was going on. Morri shifted her weight, then said quietly, "I don't think I could take that thing." She glanced at Chris, but he kept his expression blank. 

"So we're right back where we started," Peter said. "We don't want a fight. We just need a few minutes to talk, and then Tammy either comes back with us or chooses not to."

"It's very good to hear you say that," Egallon said, emerging from the shadows beside the booth. The shopkeeper, her skin touched with scales like glittering jewels, looked at the shadow-walker and hesitated. Her expression changed from anger to exasperation. 

With her were Agatha, Tammy, and Arguil... along with an older man, broad-shouldered and black-haired. 

Agatha stepped away from them immediately and went to stand beside Morri. 

"What are you all doing here?" asked Tammy. "Agatha said I've been gone for weeks, but it's only been an afternoon..."

"Time works differently in the Grey," Peter said quietly. "Different realms move at different paces. When we left the Hargraves, you'd been gone for almost two weeks. I don't know what day it is back home, but it's later than you think." 

Tammy looked shocked. "Truly?" 

Chris turned his attention to the market around them. They'd attracted a certain amount of attention, and down at the end of the lane beside the gate the giant was tossing a boulder back and forth between its hands. 

The shadow-walker Arguil said, "My lady, I thought you knew. I wanted the time to court you, but..."

"You said we would spend an afternoon in the Grey," Tammy said, turning on him. 

"As we have," he answered smoothly. 

"And it's been weeks back home," she answered angrily. "That's not an idle afternoon. I have studies, and a family who's likely worried sick about me!"

Egallon winced. The older man looked like he wanted to object, but held his peace. 

Arguil said, "Ah... I only wished..."  

Tammy sighed. "You're still cute, so I'm going to assume you meant no harm. But you've caused me a great deal of trouble, and I must go now. Or hours ago; that would have been better, it seems."

She turned to Peter, but Arguil said, "Wait. I could come with you..." 

"Could you?" she asked. "After all you spoke of how your people are so important to you?"

Chris watched with no small amount of satisfaction as Arguil turned his head to glance at Egallon, and she responded with a very definite shake of her head. "No," he said. "I suppose I could not." He sounded genuinely saddened by that, though Chris had his doubts. 

Evidently Tammy did as well, because she turned away from him and walked over to Peter. "Take me back."

Peter inclined his head, and then offered a slight bow to the shadow-walkers. He turned away, and Tammy moved with him. 

"Wait," said Chris, and crossed to Egallon. "I doubt we will ever meet again, but if we do then we will know you for honorable folk. I am... relieved... that this was no worse than it was."

Egallon, who looked to be three times his age and might have been centuries older than that -- time did funny things in the Grey, it seemed -- quirked a grin at him. "I am likewise relieved that you did not try to rip us apart. Will this... affect our trades with the Hargraves?"

Chris offered a thoughtful half-frown. "I doubt it, but I don't presume to speak for them."

"Then we will remain cautious, and learn. Safe travels, wolf."

"And to you as well." He nodded quickly to Arguil and the unnamed older man, then turned away and followed Peter as he led them out of the village and back through the Grey.