The First Five Written Out

The party gathers their stuff up and heads out the door. Clay thumbs a gold piece to the waitress who was already bringing a pitcher over.

The five of them jump on the horses and ride to Crux, get there about 45 minutes later. They unmount, Velencia tells the blonde servant girl to watch the horses, make sure they are ready to go.

In a little team huddle, Velencia quickly goes over what’s going to happen. Clay will shadow her, Nicola and Chance. They will go back to Malik’s house first, find out where he is, then go find the welf and crush the information out of him.

The Priestess stops the party just at the entrance, a guard looking at them wearily, it’s late and after you came barreling in, he is suspicious. He goes to say something but the look Velencia gives him makes him stop, eyes grow big and then stands up straight.

She paused for a moment, got his attention so behind him Clay can walk to him, blowing dust in that guard’s face and making him collapse.

The town is quiet, not many people out. The Priestess, the Barbarian and the Champion walk into Malik’s house. The two guards turn unsuspecting. The one went for his weapon then stops, smiles seeing “Clara.”

She quickly grabs him by the throat, with more strength than it looks like she has, wheels him around and slams him up against the wall. The other guard goes to unsheathe his sword but Chance has already done the same and has the tip of his very sharp longsword at his throat.

“Where is Malik?” She says with fire in her eyes, “We need to talk with him, for a moment.”

The guards eyes are bulging, Velencia is at the start of her soul sucking, so it looks weird. His face getting drawn into her, like someone drew a picture then smeared the pencil.

“Uhhh My Pre… Uhhh Cleric, Clara, I do not think he can speak with you doing that.” Nicola says, pretty much knowing she already knew, but just in case she was too angry to think straight.

Chance is still eyeing the guy suspiciously, who has already looked down at his weapon twice, “I don’t think that would be a good decision, unless you wanted my sword as a snack?” He quips at the guy, who then nods his head and stiffens up.

Velencia finally lets the guy speak. “He is down at the Inn, “ he says in between coughs. She glances at the Champion for some kind of confirmation.

Chance glances for a second, then back at his opponent, “Slippery Lobster?” he asks to verify. The guard nods his head in agreement.

Velencia then looks over to Chance again, the Champion digs a bit further into the guy’s throat, just piercing it a little. He turns to meet her gaze. She nods, and he knows what that means. His heart sinks and his stomach starts to turn.

She turns back to the guard that she helped relax, earlier. “I was impressed with, you know,” she looks down at his crotch, and he smiles a bit, “but not that impressed. You didn’t last 30 seconds.”

The room flashes a blue / purplish light and the guard Velencia was holding tumbles to the ground, motionless. The Priestess shutters a little, glows for a second, and takes a deep breath. She then sighs and gears up to kill the other one, figuring Chance would not do it. Clara, or Velencia, turns only to find the other guard lying against the table, slumped into a chair, blood streaming from his neck.

Chance just stood there staring at him, rigid, and eyes wide. Blood dripping from his sword, and he is slowly shaking his head. “Killing people in battle is one thing, cutting throats in cold blood, I will never get used too,” he says to himself.

He jumps a little when Nicola puts her hand on his shoulder, “you did what you had to do Chance, don’t dwell on it.”

“I am never going to figure out this idiot Champion, am I?” Velencia softly mumbles to herself, and the three of them leave the house.

Chance is quiet, his sword still out, dripping blood, almost in a trance. Walking out of the house, door closing behind them. Nicola stops him, grabs his sword and sheathes it for him. “Focus, Chance, focus, we are heading into the lion’s den, so to speak, we need you,” she says softly but sternly.

The two of them exchange glances, Chance shakes his head a bit to try and re-focus himself. He nods his head and the two of them then catch up with Velencia.

Clay is trailing behind them non-chalantly. Then he disappears into an alleyway.

Velencia is on a mission, head down and walking with purpose. A guard outside the bar see’s this, goes to stand in the way and some dust flies from behind him. The guy turns confused, sucking in the dust, wobbles a bit and falls forward, flat on his face. Clay steps out of the shadows, waving his hand around, getting rid of the sleeping dust.

Velencia walks aggressively on, bursting through the doors. Nicola and Chance hold their breath and follow suit. Clay merges back into the shadows.

Everyone in the bar area whips their heads around to look. Velencia, scanning the area, realizing she doesn’t know who she is looking for. Chance nudges her and points to a short elf, with some weird tattoos in the middle of his forehead, fairly well dressed too.

“Chance, nice to see you again?” Malik says in a half question, looking at the other two people he brought with him, “Nice to see you again too, Khamyra, uh wait, you are not Khamyra. Hmmm.”

The Priestess walks without hesitation to the elf and grabs him by his shirt and pulls him up to her level. By then the entire bar has weapons drawn, as does Chance and Nicola. Most of the patrons were eyeing Nicola up, her beefy cleaver, she pulled out and swung around with precision and ease. It makes a metal piercing sound as it gets whirled around. No one liked that, surmising just how sharp that thing has to be.

“Where is the quiet gem,” the disguised priestess says, with a growl, but not loud enough for many to hear, just the welf.

In his usual form, he is half terrified and half thoroughly amused, “Oh THAT, well, I guess we will have to talk about where it is.” He says looking over the woman, and getting slightly aroused.

Velencia holds her hand back to Chance, who fumbles for the necklace, then hands it to her. She then brings it forward, smacking the welf in the face with the gem. He flutters his eyes, refocuses and then giggles a little.

“Hey, do not get mad at me for getting swindled my dear, surprisingly strong lady,” he says, trying not to laugh at her, but he was interrupted.

The Priestess leans in, lays her body on him, including her ample bosom, that is thoroughly distracting Malik, and she whispers “This is from your safe you idiot, and I am not amused by it.”

She pulls back looking at him in the eyes. He has a genuine look of confusion, “say what now?”

Chance pulls out the other fake one and holds it up, “This is another fake too,” the Champion says, glaring at the short elf.

He is shaking his head, wanting to call a bluff, but realizing, it might not be one.

Velencia puts the welf down, still staring through him. She tilts her head, raises an eyebrow, “well?”

Malik looks about the room and assesses the situation. There are 11 of his people, half in the bag, and they would face this very aggressive attractive woman, a scarred Onyx Elf with a weapon of mass death and of course, the short tempered Champion. He takes a deep breath, sighs.

“Let’s talk out front, ok?” he says gazing back into the beautiful copper eyes of this exotic woman, “for both our sakes.”

Knowing she has Clay up her sleeve, she agrees, lets him go and the four of them leave the Inn.

When they get outside, he wheels around, looks over the three of you, “I’m calling your bluff, no way you made it into my house without any resistance.” He says in a half smirk.

Nicola leans to Velencia, “Well, at least we know it was at his house now,” she muses.

His eyes grow big, “Listen, it is well guarded, and I’ll have the town guard on your ass so fast…” he continues but gets interrupted.

“Dumbass,” Chance blurts out, “We’ve been to the bedroom, we have seen the safe, broke a few picks, but we got in. If this gem was anything…” he continues with him holding his hand out.

Velencia hands him the gem, and then he continues, “I would be glowing, going nuts, and who knows what else.” He then pauses to look Malik in the eye, “You think we would have traveled this far, been away from home for so long just to barge in and play a trick on you? Even I am not that dumb.”

Velencia glances back at the Champion, shrugging her shoulder, “Well…”

Nicola nudges her, the Priestess refocuses and turns back to Malik.

“Where. Is. The. Real One?” Velencia says, starting to lose her patience.

Malik now, eyes as wide as saucers, shakes his head. “If that is from my safe, which I highly doubt, then that is the one, I made the fakes from that one. There is a way to truly tell the difference.”

Velencia taking a step forward, red faced, Malik getting on her last nerve, “then tell us, you little shit bag.”

“With making the fakes, I could always tell which ones were what by a divot at the very bottom of the necklace. The real one does not have one,” he says reluctantly, but he is way out gunned and is getting worried that he might have been swindled too.

Chance holds up the first fake, looks at the bottom and it has a divot. He looks at the Priestess, and nods his head, “This would be a fake then.” He then hands Velencia the necklace. She does the same and nods too.

The Champion then looks at the one they got from the safe, and it does not have a divot. He slowly shakes his head, hands it to Valencia, she looks and shakes her head as well, face turning red again.

Malik is watching this, and then looks on when the disguised Priestess holds both of them up, one with a divot, one without. His mouth drops, and it is all the Priestess needed to see.

“This fucking idiot thinks this one is real,” she shakes her head. “It’s all I got, anyone else have questions for this douche?”

Chance perks up, “how’s your brother?” he says with some sarcasm, knowing that was the last scam he was trying to pass off on him and Khamyra.

In a dead serious look Malik responds, “he’s dead, I received his head in a crate a few months back.”

The Champions smirk turns to a frown, and he looks down. “Damn, sorry to hear that.”

Velencia looks at the welf, who again is conflicted between amusement and despair, she all but puts her breasts in his face. She touches his cheek and again a weird stretchy light from Malik to Velencia happens.

In a few short seconds he stumbles back gasping for air, “what the fuck was that?” He says, shaking a bit, trying to catch his breath.

“It’s called ‘the void’ my dear Malik, and if you want to try and exact revenge or do anything as stupid as Chance looks over there, that is where you will end up, understand?” she says with pure authority and force.

Nicola smirks, looks over to Chance and they nod to each other. She is back to her old self, thinking the both of them at the same time.

The Priestess nods to what seems like a shadow at the side of the Inn. The three of them walk away, Malik still stunned at the events, all of a sudden is sucking in some dust, he coughs and everything turns dark for him.

After about 5 hours of riding, the group decides to give the horses a rest. They are at some rickety village called Nettlebed that barely has torches lit for light; in fact they almost missed it, it was so dark.

“I am guessing it’s 3:00AM now, we can maybe get a few hours of nap time in, then we have to ride again. I don’t know the level of power that Malik has, and I would rather not test it either, at least not right now,” Velencia says patting her horse and paying the stable hand a silver, “give them extra water and feed.”

The Stable hand nods, puts them all in stalls, and then heads for some water buckets.

After waking the Buzzing Boar’s Inn owner, they all have to pile into one room, and a single bed. Chance finds a wall to lean again and slides down it, pretty tired from the days events, being up for over 20 hours. Clay is setting something up in front of the door, for uninvited guests then heads inside, closing and locking the door. Nicola and Velencia both plop into the bed, much to the dismay of Clay. He grabs a towel, makes a pillow with it and finds a spot on the floor.

Everyone falls fast asleep.

---

Tuskalay (Tuesday) 7:00 AM

---

Clay wakes up with a start, as does everyone else. Nicola has her dagger drawn, holding it up, looking around. Velencia lets out a little laugh, “Just their town crier, no one needs to get gutted, my dear Onyx Elf.” She sits on the edge of the bed, still groggy. “Damn, I wanted to be gone by now. Sorry, you all are going to stink, because we just need to get far away from the swamp as possible.”

Everyone grumbles but they don’t disagree. The group, packs the few things they brought and head out to the stables. Meanwhile as they are slowly walking, Clay is trying to fidget with Velencia’s disguise a bit, it was lopsided from her sleeping. They round the corner and there stands 4 people; they kind of look like an adventuring party.

“Up early I see,” says the short female elf with dreads, a big forehead and armed to the teeth. With her is a hooded person, with dual crossbows, another hooded person, has a short sword drawn and the final person is in full armor, helm covering their face and one huge axe.

Velencia stops, looks at this raggedy bunch of adventurers and grins ear to ear. Nicola notices that and starts to worry.

“Yes, early to rise, early to see, get the fuck out-the way or you can blow me,” she says in a rhyming fashion. “Always wanted to use that…” she mumbles to herself. Nicola, Clay and even Chance giggle, raising an eyebrow.

The party looks her over, looks over the Onyx elf, the tall half elf and the good looking blonde man, not to mention the mousy blonde girl trailing them. That gives Nicola and Chance an opportunity to unsheathe their weapons. Clay takes out a dagger, and he steps behind them, to back them up.

The make shift adventurers, look them over again, and you can tell, they seem a bit overwhelmed. They are probably thinking they have bit off more than they can chew.

Velencia is at her horse, gathering her reigns, “Well out with it, I don’t have all day, we have a long ride ahead and I do not want you to delay us any further,” she says, glancing over at the elf girl, that she surmises is a wild one or even a Welf too, probably the leader of this bunch.

“You have a certain necklace that belongs to our boss,” she says. She steps forward to face Velencia. “We would like it back.”

Chance suppresses his smirk, as does Nicola. Clay walks over, and starts negotiating, like the Priestess hoped. “We are willing to barter for it, our long term plan for this artifact does not really include it any longer, so it’s expendable.”

They all glance at each other and then back at him, “wait, what?” the dreaded elf says, confused.

“What you got? Money, gems, whatever it might be, let us see and we can make a deal,” Clay continues with a smile and a nod, winning them over with his words and demeanor.

After 15 minutes, Velencia hands them the necklace (Chances fake from long before) wrapped in a cloth, explaining to them they can’t touch it, because it will go nuts; to keep up appearances, of course. Clay has successfully bartered for 15GP, a small emerald, a gold and ruby necklace, (2) pro ridged daggers and a staff that caught Velencia’s eye (it had the symbol of Finster on it, and she felt a little power when she grabbed it).

The two parties go their own way, the five of them ride north at a quicker pace than before. After about 5 hours, they stop. It’s cloudy and it is humid out. The temperature is mild and there is no wind to speak of. They head into a small town called Stagcross, roughly a few hours outside Uisge-Labhair.

Chance walks over to Velencia and she glances at him. “Don’t try to apologize again or be buddy buddy, ok?” She quips, looking back down at the ration she is eating.

“Far from it Blondie, I see that your hair color is affecting your intelligence, what there was of it to begin with,” Chance blurts out, as her eyes light up, chuckling and looking back at him. Chance realizes that there has to be this level of ball busting, or else it will most likely overflow like it did the other day.

“You smelled it too, didn’t you?” Chance asks the Priestess.

Nicola’s eyes light up, “I’m sorry, eating and running, it gives me some cramps…” She says, starting to blush, looking down.

Velencia looks over, and uncharacteristically belts out a laugh. Nicola looks around, confused a bit. Clay is smirking.

“Yes Chump, I did smell it, but I wasn’t going to ask about it, it was not dialogue I wanted to pursue. I just want to get back, and start to figure out where the fuck this goddamn gem is,” she confirms to the quarter elf. “But this can’t be a coincidence that we are starting to encounter these things and people that smell like…

“Sulfur & ass,” Chance blurts out, nodding his head.

The Priestess nods her head as well, and finishes, “It is definitely something we need to keep an eye on and figure out.”

Chance nods his head and looks at Nicola, “I smelled that too, whoa nelly.” He says teasingly, waving his hand in front of his nose. Her eyes bulge and smiles, pushing the Champion in jest.

“Shut up!” she quips.

They jump on their horses and ride to the town, stay an uneventful night, get up early and head out of the clan lands, all in one piece. They end in Little Bridge in the late afternoon, and the group decides it was enough for the day. They stable the horses, find an Inn and they hunker down.

They are standing in the Inn called the Trimmed Peacock, keys in hand, and the Onyx Elf is shaking her head, “I need to go to my family, I have enough daylight to make it. I will be back tomorrow morning, if that is ok?” She says hoping for not too much backlash.

As expected, the Priestess rolls her eyes a bit, sighs and drops 5 PP into her hand. Nicola’s eyes bulge and smiles at Velencia who sneaks in a smirk. She waves her off, in perfect Priestess fashion, “be as early as you can be, we will wait, I do not want to travel Teeters without you.” She was half way to the stairs of the Inn by then.

The Onyx Elf turns and nods at you and Clay, then yelps. Nicola turns quickly to the Artificer, staring him down, giving him the stink eye. “If you pocket me one more time, Artificer, I swear to Finster,” she growls at him.

With a big smile, Clay puts his hands up, one holding her coin purse. “easy, easy… no need to get hostile.” he smirks again, hands over her purse and heads for the stairs.

Chance was just watching the exchange, looks up to her, shrugging his shoulder. Then it hits him, did that thief grab mine too? He reaches for his pouch only to find it still hanging on his belt. He lets out a sigh of relief.

Nicola and Chance lock eyes, both shaking their head. She looks inside and becomes confused. Nicola puts her hand in the pouch and pulls out a very large diamond, her mouth open and eyes huge. She turns to the stairs, to see Clay sitting there, big smile. He winks, nods, gets up and races up the stairs.

Chance gets to his room, drops his things off, heads back down. After an hour or so, Velencia, Clay and the servant girl join him at a table and they have a good dinner, with little said. They all head up to their room and fall asleep… well at least Chance did.

---

Wedmak (Wednesday) 7:00 AM

---

The group wakes up, makes their way down to breakfast, and they waited an extra hour for Nicola. She arrives and they get going towards Clovendale. The ride was long and tedious, but without event. They get a place in the big city, have a good dinner, a few laughs and then hit the hay.

---

Thuralay (Thursday) 6:00 AM

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Chance wakes up, and jumps out of his bed right away. He wants to take a bath, because there will be no real spot to do that through the teeter winds, at least not without it being an ice cold wiener shrinking bath. The rest do the same, then they get going right away to find that farmhouse in the middle of the Teeter Wind Plains.

The two creatures pop up for Velencia, at the Plains edge, and they help guide them to the farm house. They get there in the late afternoon, settle in, get some decent grub, and they end up getting to sleep fairly early.

---

Freya (Friday) 1:00 AM

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The group is awoken by a weird screeching noise, what they realize is their two creatures outside giving them a warning. Nicola is scrambling for her things, as is Chance. Velencia busts out of her room, “What the hell is that? the creatures?” she says looking around, “Nicola, Chance, look out and see what is going on with your elf eyes.”

Nicola looks out the front window, dirt covering some of it. She is squinting out, “Something kind of big, ok two, something kind of bigs and some orcs,” she says, still trying to look.

“Nothing in back!” Chance yells from the window in a back bedroom.

“I can’t see for shit with this window all dirty,” she says frustrated. Nicola goes to open the front, but before she could, two figures burst through the door almost running her over…

Battle Written Out

Nicola watches as two masked people run by her. Velencia halfway into the front room, glances at them, wide eyed, with one eyebrow raised. She looks at the Barbarian who shrugs her shoulders. Chance returns from the back bedroom almost running into those two people. He dodges them and makes his way to the front room.

“What the hell did I miss, who were those two masked…” is all Chance could get out, Velencia shakes her head.

“Not now. We stand a much better chance in the open then in the house. Lets go through the back door then along the side of the house, and hopefully we can take them by surprise, they don’t know we are here yet.” She says looking at everyone.

The group nods in agreement. They gear up as quickly as possible, head out the back. By then they could hear commotion in the front. Some babbling. Nicola says quietly, “they sound almost… military.”

They head out the back, Velencia makes sure the servant girl is safe. Puts her on a horse, has her take the rest of the horses and rides a safe distance away.

Four of them make their way around the western wall and stop. Nicola peeks around the corner, whispering “They are standing there, looks like that Red Orc is leading them.”

The group hears some babbling from the red orc, and Nicola smiles, “They are sending a few in back to make sure no one escapes out that way.” She continues to listen and translate, “and make sure, the bodies are in good… shape? what?”

Velencia shakes her head, “Yeah doesn’t make much sense, but it doesn’t matter, I can hear them moving now, the opposite side of the house, divided they fall, am I right?”

“You all know what they are saying? All I hear is some mumbling like they are eating a bag of dirty socks,” Chance says hearing the incomprehensible gibberish.

Nicola shakes her head and giggles, “I learned Orc a long time ago living in the area, had to if you wanted to reason with them, if that’s possible anymore,” She goes on to explain.

Velencia, peers around the corner as well, then ducks back grabbing for a pouch. The Priestess and the Barbarian exchange looks, “Let’s Go!” Velencia says with a hiss.

By the time the group of monsters realized it, the four of them were upon them and the Champion lighting up after taking off his necklace. The lineup:

(1) Redfang Orc Warchief
(6) Teeter Wind Orcs
(1) Half Ogre
(2) Ogres

Versus

Velencia; High Priestess of Finster
Clay; Artificer (high level Thief)
Nicola; Barbarian
Chance; Duskblade & Champion of Finster.
(2) Adult Kruthik from the underearth

Clay stops first, has a weird odd colored bolt loaded in his crossbow. Aims and fires it for one of the Ogres. His aim was true, hitting it square in the chest (10hp). The ogre that stands a good 11 feet in height, looks down at it, semi-annoyed, then its eyes get real big. Black veins form around it and a little smoke drifts from it (Fire Poison – made saving throw 8hp additional). It lets out an odd yelp, rips it out, burns his hand and he throws it to the ground angry.

Chance rushes an outlying Orc, half its back towards him. He slashes hard, ripping through the Orcs upper back (10hp), blood goes flying, the Orc moves and dodges the next attack that Chance went for, making the quarter elf curse under his breath.

Nicola, next to Velencia glances over to see the Priestess pull out a component, throw it in the air, draw the destruction symbol. Nicola’s eyes grow big and she yells, “look out! Fire in the hole!!!” as she combat rolls out of the way but continues to run at the monsters afterwards.

Velencia generates this wall of fire, burning everything from her to the monsters. The Red Orc turns only to get a face full of fire (37hp). He flails around on fire. Most of the others get hit (11hp), and wave off the flames that grow on them. The smell is a whole other story. Velencia did not get a chance to see her handy-work take form, she instantly felt sick, dizzy and her legs gave out from under her. She collapses in the weeds.

The 3 monsters who were heading for the back of the house hear the commotion and skitter to a halt. Turn heel, and head back to the front (will enter in round 2).

Nicola reaches an Ogre, this one is a bit shorter and fatter, and swings hard with her Cleaver. The Ogre deflects it with his rough metal bracer. She then twirls and swings again, but she did not finish it, the Ogre bats her away, sending her tumbling a bit, trips and lands on her ass. She gets back on her feet, unhurt except for her pride.

The one Kruthik takes a stab at an orc and misses. The other one lunges a bit and gets an orc right in the leg (6hp). With the fire damage and that hit, the Orc, grabs his leg and collapses.

All the Orcs and Ogres look terrified and disgusted by the creatures.

Clay grabs his bag of blinding dust and throws it. The red orc catches it before it could do anything, he grunts and throws it away, doing no harm. “Well… shit,” Clay says. But he has time, and aims his crossbow at an Orc who finally is not on fire. Turns to look and “thud!” a bolt lodges in his skull (9hp). He falls over backwards, dead.

Chance’s skin is turning into this dark brown bark, while that happens he swings his sword at the Red Orc who is still smoldering. The orc with surprising skill, parries the attack. Shing! Is heard, chances sword deflected.

While the Champion was engaged with the red orc, the Ogre with the Axe sends it down at Chance. At the last second, he jumps to one side avoiding the massive hit. The Axe hits the ground sending dust, mud and weeds flying.

With the Ogres and Orcs, for some reason, hating the weird bug like creatures, it attacks one of them. As it went to swing it’s club, the Kruthik makes an odd turn and darts in between the legs of the Ogre. The Ogre loses grip with one of its hands, and tries to adjust but it was no use. It hit itself in the nutsack. It yelps, yells and his eyes cross(2hp). That same bug stopped, turned and jammed its clawed front legs deep into the Ogre’s ass. The Ogre jumps and yelps again, getting angry (8hp).

Another Orc goes after the pesky bug looking creature. Slams its sword down in it, it shrieks a little, backs up(7hp). It’s partner tries to defend it, but misses completely with it’s attack.

Angry, Nicola goes after that same Ogre that swatted her. The monster glanced over, almost annoyed and went to swat her again, but she ducked and then brought her Cleaver up, digging deep into the Ogres under arm and armpit (13hp). It yells a bit, jumping back, swatting again, and missing again.

The red orc in a fluid motion grabs an evil looking dart and throws it at Nicola, but her erratic movements while dealing with the Ogre makes it sail on by, not even noticed. Cursing in Orc, he turns and brings his sword hard down on Chance in front of him. He smiles in satisfaction, but then frowns in confusion. The Champion, skin all dark, except for his eyes radiating light, turns to give him an annoyed look and an evil grin. It did not damage, could not make it through the bark.

Clay stands in front of Velencia, protecting her. (DM: He rolls a 1. But Todd chose to use the creroll here; the party once a battle can choose to re-roll a critical failure.) The 2 orcs and half ogre are almost in full gallop around the house, the one orc just makes his way to the front yard only to get hit square in the chest by a bolt shot by Clay (11hp), It makes him fall and slide a little, he scrambles to get back up, weapon still in hand.

The Red Orc’s eyes wide with his attack just bouncing off of Chance, the Champion turns and slashes down hard, ripping through the armor, shoulder and chest of the oddly colored Orc (10hp), he stumbles back grasping for his chest as blood spews from it.

With their fascination and disgust for the Kruthik’s, the Ogre with the Axe swings for the bug like creature. It hits, (8hp) but the bug seems to have squirmed out of any major damage. With that movement, the Ogre with the Club also goes after the Kruthik, hitting it square on the back, putting it deep into the ground and when the Ogre brings the club back up, it sprang up, seeing stars and hurting bad (13hp).

In retaliation, it quickly darts at the clubbed Ogre and drives both sharp front legs into the Ogres leg (6hp). The Ogre jumps back swatting at the bug.

As it was doing that an Orc backstabs it, almost missing (4hp) the Kruthik. But it does enough damage to make the creature cry out in pain, it is stuck in the middle of the battle.

One of the Orcs that made their way around the house, kept on running at Clay. The Artificer watched as the creature bolted for him, but it gave him plenty of time to parry the attack with the butt of his Crossbow and then kick the Orc in the ass as his momentum took him further.

The Orc with the bolt in him, sneaks up on the 2nd Kruthik and brings its rusty old sword down on it. It gets practically split in half (18hp). In anger the bug turns to retaliate but the damage was worse than it thought, it wobbled and fell. The Orc then took a few steps and kicked it 5-7 feet across the weeds, it landed in a cloud of dust (4hp).

The Half ogre, bringing up the rear with the party from the side of the house, heads right for Nicola. She was busy with other things until she felt a sharp pain in the side of her back. She turns and rolls out of the way, but the damage was done by the Half Ogre’s raw cleaver (13hp).

The poor bug that was caught in the middle, finally meets its end. The red orc catches a glance of it, swings hard and splits the bug in two (9hp), both pieces spewing green substances, and convulsing. Then in a quick motion, brings his weapon back around at the Champion who instinctively blocks the attack with his shield, much to the surprise of the orc leader.

Clay grabs his pro style boar spear that is made of the finest white wood, the sharpest bluesteel and has barbs along the front of it. He swings the weapon around, and lunges, stabbing at the Orc who attacked him last. It buries deep into its side, half in the armor the other half into its skin (6hp). He then pulls back, twirls it again and slashes, hitting his face, just glancing off a cheek and through the nose a bit (2hp).

Right after Chance blocked the Red Orcs attack, he brings a surprising slash downward with his Bluesteel Longsword, it enters at the side of his neck, and is driven down to the center of his chest. Unable to breathe, or anything, it gurgles blood, and falls over once Chance rips the blade out.

The one Ogre seemed distracted, until it saw the 2nd Kruthik shake off the dirt from getting punted. At least its death was quick and painless. The Ogre put his axe right through the creature, essentially ending its existence forever (16hp).

The Ogre with a club, grabs something from his back and its a big ass spear made of a fallen young tree. He hurdles it with all his strength at Clay, who only saw it at the last second. But the spear / tree rings off the Artificers head with such force it took a lot to keep standing (13hp).

An orc in the middle of the battle just freaks out, drops his weapon and makes a beeline out. Chance without hesitation, and precision, slices through the Orcs neck, decapitating him. Blood spurts, the body just lunges forward and collapses, head falls with a thud.

An injured orc thought of running, but then saw an opportunity; Chance was paying attention to the running Orc. The Creature brought his axe down hard on the Champions shoulder, making him bend at the knee a bit and wince (7hp).

While clay was knocking the cobwebs out of his head, another Orc lunges and drives a sword deep into his side. Lucky it was not into any vital organs but enough for him to step back and yell a little (7hp). At least now the cobwebs are long gone.

With Chance dealing with an Axe in his shoulder, the Ogre with the great-axe brings his down as well. Chance deflects it a little, but not enough, the bludgeoning damage was enough for him to momentarily go to one knee (7hp).

Nicola fed up with everything, her blood starts to boil, her face flushes and she rages. She turns to the Mini Ogre, “Take this spanky!” she yells, swinging that Cleaver with pure precision, speed and strength (18hp), then does one of her patented twirls moves and drives the cleaver through the back again (22hp) essentially making a “plus sign” across his back. It was so deep, his spine was popping out, organs falling, blood pouring. He screams in pain and falls to the ground on his knees. Lets out a groan, falls to the side and dies. Unfortunately for Nicola, she was spent, she goes to one knee, keeps an eye on things, hoping no one attacks her.

Clay stops a moment and tries to figure out who the hell spanky is, then finishes loading another specialized bolt in his crossbow. He fires hitting the Ogre with the club (2hp) then it explodes in this green dust, the Ogre sucks it in and coughs and frantically starts waving its hands around (14hp).

With a frantic and too quick of a motion, Chance brings his sword upon the closest Orc. It jumps back, and smirks at him, with taunting eyes. The Champion lifts his eyebrow a bit, the Orc’s eye’s then grow and chance brings his sword back down, through his helm, side of his face and into his chest area. Not as deep as Chance wanted but it was something (6hp).

The Axe Ogre, grabs another spear and throws it at Clay again. This time the Artificer was ready for it, “Not this time, Spanky?”

Nicola was smirking at Clay and didn’t realize the Ogre set it’s sites on her and bought it’s club down so hard onto the Onyx Elf’s head. Her face is just crushed into the dirt (17HP), blinding pain, and for a moment she couldn’t even breathe. The Ogre pulls up the club and Nicola rolls over gasping for air, dirt – mud – blood covering her face and armor.

Another orc runs to Nicola, seeing her get crushed he was thinking to finish her off (she had 100 HP left, so yeah). He stabs at her twice only to have her roll out of the way.

As Clay is fumbling with his Crossbow and Spear, an Orc rushes him and skewers him, making him drop his crossbow and bolt to the ground (11hp). He brings the orc around, using the weapon in his body, then kicking him away. The Orcs weapon falls into the weeds, his blood spewing out. Clay coughs a bit and grabs his spear tight. He swings for that Orc and it hits him, but it was just the shaft, and it did no damage.

Chance see’s an opportunity, and lunges and slashes at the same time at an unsuspecting Orc, the creature was walking then it turned towards him. The attack was so violent, it rips the orc in half (14hp). The bottom half of his body walked 3-4 steps before collapsing, the other half just stopped and dropped into a new puddle of its own blood.

Chance turns to see the last Orc, he races for it and as the Orc turns to him, the Champion drives his sword so hard and fast into the creature it makes it gasp, eyes big. Chance puts his foot up to its stomach and forcefully kicks it off his sword making blood fly everywhere and the orc tumble down into the low weeds.

With Clay’s thieving background, he pulls out an extra move, throws his spear at the Ogre hitting it square in the head (5hp). It reaches for it and frantically throws it to the side. It is starting to wobble a bit, staggers to catch its balance. The giant was just in the middle of attacking Nicola, this allowed the Onyx Elf to scoot out of the way in time before the Axe fell hard.

The Club wielding Ogre, is blinded with frustration, anger and pain. It races for Clay and winds up with all its strength, and down the weapon goes. Clay, just side steps it enough, grabs the edge of the club, flips himself up on the Weapon, looks the Ogre in the eye’s that were pretty much at his level, and Clay rips out a Pro Dagger and drives it deep into the Ogres eye. It recoils back, grabbing for it’s eye, squirms for a minute and then slowly stops moving, dead (7hp).

With thoughts of Cassie and Rohlia floating in Chances head, he decides to try and end this with a bit of flair. The only problem? Chance is not them. He races for the last Ogre who is wobbling a bit. He grabs his custom pro dagger, and his sword is turned down for a lunging attack. The Ogre turns, and sees him, watches him for about 3 seconds and then backhands the quarter elf as soon as he left his feet. Chance goes flying 10-12 feet into deeper weeds, landing hard, dirt and grass flying (4hp).

DM: He wanted to do this final move, and I was waiting for him to roll. I say, and I quote: “Just don’t roll a “1” ok?” and what does he roll? Yes, a “1.” I fell out of my chair, I am not even kidding about that. Took about 10 minutes to regroup and continue.

The Ogre, angry at you, comes after you slamming the weapon down here and there trying to hit you as you roll around in the weeds. While it was preoccupied, Nicola, gathers up as much strength as she could, rushes the Ogre and drives her Cleaver so deep into the big creature, it pokes out the front a bit (14hp). He just staggers, stands for a moment, silent. Chance stands up and turns around to see where the Ogre was, only to have it fall flat on him (3hp).

“Timber!!” Nicola yells playfully, then her eyes get big and races to pull the monster off the Champion. As the quarter elf stands, he wipes down the front of his gear with his hands, smearing the mud and blood across it, he then mumbles, “well… shit.”

Nicola scans the area and sees nothing else. Chance puts his arm around the Onyx Elf, “great job with baby huey over here, you opened him up like a roasted pheasant!” She giggles a little, nods her head in thanks.

Both of them stop, witness what seems to be a tender moment; they see Velencia’s head in Clay’s lap. He is looking down at her, smiling a bit, stroking her hair. She is awake, but looks pale and sweaty. “You lazy bitch,” he says jokingly.

The Champion and Barbarian stop next to them, “blew your load I see, Priestess,” Chance says with a smirk, “Happened to Khamyra a bunch of times.”

“I am the High Priestess of Finster, I should have plenty of…” she pauses thinking, and gets interrupted.

Clay smiles, “Mana? No, your true power comes from the big guy, no mana involved,” he says while Chance is nodding his head.

The Champion starts to heal Nicola, and both Velencia and Clay glance up wide eyes hearing the Onyx Elf moan, “ohh, damn, that feels good. Amazing.”

Velencia smirks, “Yeah, it’s like a little extra additive Finster puts in his recipe, euphoria and orgasms,” she says, finishing it off with a giggle and cough.

Chance glances at Clay, “get over here for a minute, let me heal you, then we will get the light weight into the house and into bed.” The Artificer helps Velencia lean up, Nicola helping. Then stands and gets healed. He distorts his mouth and looks at the two girls. “I’m not jizzing my pants here,” he says musing a bit.

After a long chuckle, the four of them make their way into the farm house, Velencia is put to bed. Chance puts his necklace back on, and joins Nicola in looting the bodies, and quickly bury the poor bugs who were just destroyed by the band of Orcs and Ogres.

XP: 600 each, LOOT: 4GP, 15SP, 33CP, Long sword, Breast plate armor, and a note. NOTE: Keep bodies whole and fresh, good:1GP, salvageable 5SP, parts 1sp.

Everyone was settling in. Clay was out with Chance and Nicola, and only her servant was in the room with Velencia. Chance walks to her doorway and sees Velencia out of costume, drinking from a skin. She glances over and scowls, “Oh what do you want now?”

“I think you should have a sit down with Khamyra when we get back, she can help you understand the magic better, she,” is all he got out before Velencia scoffs.

Waves her hand, “I will be fine, I’ll find my way, so stop worrying chump,” she says looking away and taking another drink, “quit trying to be the sage like friend, you are too dumb and too annoying.”

Chance slowly walks to the bed, and glares down at the High Priestess, she takes a deep breath, and glances up with pure annoyance.

“I tell you this because I do not want you falling over like a 13 year old girl who farted too loud,” Chance says fairly quietly, growling, through his teeth. “We won the day today, but it wasn’t really that big of a test. When the chips are down, and we need to fight side by side, life & death, I need you there, not face planted kissing dirt.”

The stunned Priestess gets quiet, looks straight ahead her jaw clenches. Chance turns and walks to the door, then looks back at her, “So get over yourself, take the help you need and,” he pauses a moment for dramatic effect, “shut the fuck up, ok?” he finishes. He walks out and down the hallway.

Velencia sits there staring at the wall of the room, thinking that this Champion has to be schizophrenic.

The servant girl pauses what she is doing, looking scared after witnessing these two go at it before. The Priestess just smirks, nods her head; almost impressed. Then drops down into bed, quickly falling to sleep.

Turn Based Starts Here

Chance: Chan: Wait, wasn’t there like people with costumes or masks running around here? I didn’t imagine that, did I?

DMaster: Nicola distorts her mouth,
NIC: Oh, yeah. That was weird… wasn’t it?

Chance: Chan: more than just a bit weird, costumes or a mask on? I know I dodged them coming from the back but, surely they couldn’t have gotten far since the battle.

DMaster: Clay taps his chin.
CLAY: Hanna was perched about 3 stones throw from here, I wonder if she saw anything.
He heads down the hall, peeks his head in the room. After a minute, both him and the blonde girl end up in the living room with you & Nicola. The blonde girl looks around, she sees you pacing, Nicola has half her armor draped over her shoulder. The blonde girl shrugs her shoulders and starts to unclasp Clay’s belt. This makes him jump.
CLAY: Whoa, Hann, babe, need to ask you a few questions, that can wait.
Nicola is frowning, looking at the two.

Chance: Turn around and straighten up trying not to smirk, seeing this unfolding.
Chan: Hanna before the battle there were two figures in costumes or masks, did you see where they went?

DMaster: She is thinking and shaking her head.
CLAY: She doesn’t say much, as you can imagine with our little priestess in there.
NIC: When you were with the horses, did you see anyone running around, come out the back door, besides us?

Chance: stop pacing around and find a wall to lean up against, as we are asking her questions.

DMaster: She shakes her head. She begins to talk and it’s a quiet mousy voice that everyone leans in to hear.
HAN: I saw the masked people running in the house, but I was ushered out back so quickly, thrown on a steed and got the reins of all the horses. I was a bit away as you all battled… but the next thing I saw was Clay coming for me.

Chance: Chan: well this is getting us nowhere with the weird figures. I think I am gonna go check around out back since we have to wait on sleeping beauty.
Thumb in the direction of the room, chuckling.

DMaster: Clay and Nicola exchange glances.
CLAY: Uh, wait on sleeping beauty?
Nicola gets his attention and shakes her head. The Artificer just shrugs his shoulders. You head out, and search the back. Nothing unusual, even with your dark vision.

Chance: shaking head and go back inside. Give the farmhouse a quick walk through.

DMaster: Nicola looks at you.
NIC: Oh we are looking?
she chuckles.
NIC: I figured they are long gone from here, I know I would be.
she starts to look, Clay also does.

Chance: Chan: I mean what if they didn’t leave, with the battle going on outside?
Continue to look.

DMaster: Clay walks to you guys and motions you three to huddle with him.

Chance: Walk over to Clay.
Chan: okay, what did you pick up on?

DMaster: CLAY: OK, the women get naked, then me and chance will meet them out in the bush in back, Hanna bring the lube.

Chance: shaking my head and look at him not knowing what to think.

DMaster: Hannah nods, and pulls off her shirt. Nicola’s eyes get big and swats at Clay. He is laughing, then his eyes bulge seeing the blonde just start to strip.
CLAY: Hun, nice titties, but I was joking.
She stares at him, not knowing if he is joking, or not, or what. Clay smirks, points down the hallway.
CLAY: Back closet, across from Velencia, there is a false door.

Chance: Chan: Maybe since you know where it is you can check it out. I will back you up and Nicola you stay at the door to the room.

DMaster: They nod. Clay tweaks one of Hannah’s nipples and she jumps, smiles, then puts her shirt back on.

Chance: Chan: and no more weird plans of people getting naked and using lube.
Chuckling softly.

DMaster: CLAY: At least not in that order.
Nicola shakes her head, smiling a bit. He gets to the door, checks it out. Glances at you and Nicola.
CLAY: Blood, hastily wiped (quiet).
He pulls the door open ever so slowly, and its pitch dark. Eyebrow raises and shakes his head.
CLAY: Hey, you or Nicola need to do this, I was expecting light, you two have dark vision (quietly).

Chance: Move in and look. Give my eyes a minute to adjust.
Chan: I will do it, just have my back.
I will get closer and give my eyes a chance to adjust to the darkness as I look around.

DMaster: He backs up, It’s a bit cramped. You look in and down, your eyes focus. Looks like it’s a 6-7 foot drop ladder on the opposite wall leading down.

Chance: Chan: well there is a drop here and a ladder on the opposite wall from what my eyes can see (quietly).

DMaster: CLAY: Head down, we got your back. Well, Nicola does at least (quietly).
snickers a little getting a nudge by the Onyx Elf.

Chance: Chan: okay. She is a lot prettier than you anyways.
chuckling, I look down at the drop before, if I enter to see if it is safe.

DMaster: Nothing in there, you lean in further. Looks like a 10-12 feet wide, 6-7 feet across room, maybe 8 foot drop at most.

Chance: I enter and climb down, making sure to take my time.

DMaster: You get to the bottom. You are wicked quiet, first thing you notice; stepping on a very dusty wood floor. You are quietly walking around checking everything. DM: Todd rolls a 9 for a DC10, because of course he did. Can’t find anything, looks like an empty room, with just a hole leading up to the house, with a ladder on the far wall.

Chance: climb back up to where Clay and Nicola are.

DMaster: He frowns.
CLAY: That blood didn’t just form there on the wall because it’s just creepy, someone put it there.
Nicola’s eyes get big.
NIC: Clever deduction Artificer. Now if you can just explain the color of the sky now.
He frowns playfully, giving her a look.

Chance: Chan: I gave it a once over but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Maybe if we got a light down there you could find something I might have missed.

DMaster: He climbs down, and with just the light from the hole, within a second. He runs his hands along the floor, and he scoffs. He turns and walks to the stairs.
CLAY: Took me 2 seconds chance (quieter).

Chance: Chan: Oh, hear that often do you? (quieter).

DMaster: Nicola snorts, clay gives the quarter elf a resting bitch face look.
CLAY: that swat from the ogre affecting you? There are tracks leading to the door, the obvious indentation, the… (quieter).
Nicola gives him a look from behind you and he stops. He beckons you all to come down.

Chance: Chan: shut it Clay. It’s been a long day.
Shaking my head as I climb back down.

DMaster: He is now squatting by the hatch.
CLAY: Be ready.
He opens and light beams out. You and Nicola kind of turn from it, dark vision and all. He sees that and shrugs his shoulders. You hear him say.
CLAY: Awww, fuck it.
He jumps down into the hole.

Chance: Eyes bulge a little.
Chan: damn it, wait for us would you.
Jump down too.

DMaster: You jumped down about 7 feet, it was a hard landing. Nicola spies the ladder, and walks quietly down it. It’s a large room, 20×30, well lit. If you didn’t know any better it looks like a room in the average house, not a dungeon like a basement. A fireplace, on the south wall, made of metal with 6-7 pipes leading into the wall, Couch, table, dresser of sorts on the west wall. A table, food, etc right next to you. far wall has a door. It doesn’t look like anyone is in the 20×30 room, but light is coming from under the door.

Chance: looking at Clay and Nicola, pointing at the door on the far wall.

DMaster: You all exchange glances, but before anything else happens, The door opens up. A woman, in a dark robed outfit walks out. It looks like she has some sort of mask on that resembles a Deer. She is holding some towels stained with blood. She skitters to a halt seeing you three, eyes grow big (as much as you can see them behind the mask).
WOM: Uh, who are you?

Chance: Chan: we could ask the same of you…?
Looking over the woman.

DMaster: Her eyes are still big, getting somewhat frantic.
WOM: We do not have anything worth of value here, we are just taking refuge.
NIC: Easy, we are not here to rob you.
She says hands motioning to not entice any actions.

Chance: Chan: we definitely aren’t here to hurt you either. Where is the other person that you ran into the farmhouse with?

DMaster: She is still unsure, and shrugs her shoulders.
WOM: Umm, if you are not here to rob us, then please leave.
She points at the ladder on the wall.
CLAY: We might be able to help you with that.
He is pointing at the bloody towels.

Chance: Chan: please lead us to your friend, I think we can be of some help.

DMaster: She is eyeing you three up suspiciously, and then after a few moments.
WOM: I don’t have much of a choice, do I?
She says with some sarcasm.

Chance: Chan: well it’s either you let us help or your friend possibly dies from the amount of blood I see on those towels. The choice is really yours, have to learn to trust somebody.

DMaster: Nicola nudges you, gives you a look.
NIC: You don’t know what she has been through, trust is not something easily accepted for some people.
The masked woman opens the door, and beckons you to go in, a light shines in there.

Chance: Chan: I know but sometimes we have to take a big leap of faith and hope our trust was put in the right person.

DMaster: She shakes her head, disagreeing with you. The three of you go to the door.

Chance: my hand goes close to the necklace as we walk to the door.

DMaster: On a bed is another person, holding their gut, leaning against the wall. Pretty sure it is a guy. (even though the pic looks like a girl) The man is trying to move back a bit, he is shaking, looks to have taken a good slice from a sword, axe, etc

Chance: I will approach the bed as my hand is gripping the necklace. Then take the necklace off and let the power flow into me.

DMaster: You are taking off the necklace when you are slammed into the wall by Nicola. You lose your footing and crumple to the ground, trying to keep your feet. The woman in the mask backs up, wide eyes. The man is even creeping back further.
CLAY: Chance! No. Dammit.
Nicola is over top of you, her eyes just piercing you, glowering in anger. She is holding your hand with the necklace.
NIC: You have to be the dumbest person I know, do you not learn anything??!?!
The woman has grabbed a dagger, holding it, shaking a little. Clay sees this and tries to smooth things over.
CLAY: Our apologies, our friend here was dropped on his head as a baby, a few times, multiple times, so many times he has a tattoo of the floorboard on his head. He even has issues even putting on pants. We just have to talk to him about his actions.

Chance: Shake head.
Chan: damn it here we go, with the lessons again.

DMaster: NIC: Lessons? Again? Common sense, more like it.
She snarls, you can tell she is furious.
NIC: Goddammit Chance!
Clay walks over to the woman, smiles. It seems to calm her down.

Chance: slumping my shoulders.

DMaster: She looks at her hand holding your hand. See the necklace.
NIC: For the love of Finster, put this back on.
she glances back, then at you, shaking her head.
NIC: You are a piece of work.

Chance: grabbing the necklace and putting it back on. Shoulders are still slumped as the frustration returns. I remember back to Velencia telling me about the consequences.

DMaster: Nicola walks to clay, you see an exchange of something in their hands that neither of the two masked people noticed (rolled 17 & 28 for DC15). The Onyx elf walks over to the bird man, making it look like she wants to see the wound and just randomly says.
NIC: Ok.
She blows some dust in the birdman’s face, his eyes bulge, he coughs and passes out. In unison, you see dust fly and the woman in the deer mask also falls over, Clay catching her, and softly placing her on the floor.

Chance: Get up from the wall.

DMaster: You look over to the bird man, Nicola backs up, turns and walks a bit a way. You go for the bird man, suck in the dust and everything turns dark. You come too, and hear Nicola and Clay talking.
NIC: She said watch out for when he starts saying weird things, doing rash things, acting stranger than normal. She wasn’t kidding, he goes off the deep end apparently.
CLAY: Odd, in the battle he was on point, was great except for the swat.
Giggles a little. He sees you coming too.
CLAY: Have a nice nap?

Chance: Look around.

DMaster: You are on the couch out in the bigger room of the basement. You are in full Champion mode, it is what must’ve brought you out of the sleep.
CLAY: Yeah, when you see the dust, hold your breath, wave your hand around, you know. Another tip; don’t breathe it in, ok?

Chance: Chan: yeah, got it Clay, got it.

DMaster: NIC: Go heal the guy so we can get out of this basement, and get something to eat. I am starving.

Chance: Head into the other room, give him a closer look without taking off the mask, see if there are any kind of markings on the masks. I will gently lay my hands on him and heal.

DMaster: It’s ornate but you don’t really see anything that grabs your attention. As you heal him, everything goes dark. Suddenly, light comes back to you, it’s evening on a plateau. You can see a vast army in front of you, moving towards you. Sounds of large armies moving, yelling, clanking of weapons and armor.

Chance: keep looking at this vast army knowing what I am seeing has to be another one of those dream states. I remain calm. I keep looking at this vast army moving towards me.

DMaster: You glance behind you, and you see a vast army behind you as well, maybe even bigger, more organized. Some nondescript banners fly. It turns all blurry and before you know it, you see Nicola’s beautiful face, half worried, half angry.
NIC: Chance, goddammit… I swear.
She glances back to Clay who has a worried look on his face.
NIC: It’s like taking care of a 5 year old!

Chance: Shake my head.
Chan: Damn it Nicola, something just happened.

DMaster: She helps you sit on the edge of the bed.
CLAY: Yeah, a weird flash came from the room, we came running in and you were half on the bed, stiff as a board. It was fucking creepy, man. At least you healed the guy.
NIC: I am assuming you sucked in more sleeping dust, though I don’t see any.

Chance: Chan: hey I can’t help when I get these damn visions.
looking over to see if the man and the female are still out from the sleeping dust.

DMaster: They will be out for a good hour according to Clay.

Chance: Chan: These visions of the eve of ascension, it has happened to me like three times now.

DMaster: NIC: What? Why are you…
Clay interrupts.
CLAY: Not the time, let’s get back to the top, shall we?
He opens the door and points to the ladder.

Chance: get up off the bed and try to steady myself see where the necklace is.

DMaster: Nicola hands you the necklace.

Chance: grab it and put it back on and look around.

DMaster: The three of you make your way back up to ground level.
NIC: So we think there is another masked weirdo floating around. We found three beds, three sets of glasses, three this and three that. We need to make sure the door can’t be opened while we are here. No lock, so Clay can jerry-rig something.

Chance: Nod head.
Chan: Be vigilant on watch then.

DMaster: They look at you.
NIC: You should be anyways… I mean…
She shakes her head, looks at Clay. He just shrugs his shoulders already working on some weird wooden thing. You three make it to the Living room. Grab some rations, eat quick. You were assigned the last watch. Nicola is wired so she wanted to watch now, 2:30AM. Just one and a half hours each, until sunrise. A nice breeze coming through the house with a window or two open.

Chance: Finish eating and lay in my bedroll. Close my eyes and go back through my thoughts of this new vision.

DMaster: You toss and turn, by the time you get comfortable, Nicola shakes you. It’s about 4:00 AM.

Chance: giving her a look as she shakes me. Cursing.

DMaster: NIC: I could hear you toss and turn from anywhere in the house.
She puts her finger to her lips, to be quiet. Clay and Hannah are sleeping.

Chance: Chan: I know, I am up, damn it, so much for sleep (quiet).
Shake my head.
Chan: Sorry, probably more thoughts of the vision I had. That is for me to deal with. You need to get some sleep, one of us needs to be fresh. (quiet)

DMaster: she falls into her bedroll. You see Clay and Hannah all cuddled together, fast asleep.

Chance: find my spot to keep watch and just sit there, thinking to myself.

DMaster: After an uneventful couple hours, the sun is starting to rise and you hear the door trying to be opened. Looks like Clay made this “flying buttress” type contraption to hold the door closed.

Chance: go check on the door to make sure the contraption is still good, I don’t want to be hearing “oh… shit” this morning.

DMaster: Glancing across the hallway into the bedroom, you see Velencia looking out the doorway at you, she is sitting on the edge of the bed, she looks terrible.
VEL: What the hell is that? What is that noise?

Chance: I go on to explain everything that happened except for me getting tackled by Nicola.

DMaster: Her eyes big.
VEL: Was one a cat? I mean the mask?

Chance: Shake my head.
Chan: A deer maybe? A bird, kind of like Rawek.

DMaster: VEL: The bird, the beast, but, where is the prowler…?
She says to herself. Looking down in thought

Chance: Chan: okay, care to share what you are thinking?

DMaster: She coughs, wavers a bit.
VEL: Where is my girl?

Chance: Chan: she would be cuddled up with Clay sleeping, last I saw.

DMaster: VEL: Can you get her, for, me…
She doesn’t look good, white as a ghost.

Chance: Chan: just get back in bed, because you look like, well… shit.

DMaster: She waves you off, then runs for what seems to be a bucket and you hear her tossing her apples. That pretty much wakes the house up. It’s loud. It’s gross.

Chance: shaking my head as I head back into the living room.

DMaster: Everyone is leaning up.
NIC: What the hell is that? Chance?

Chance: Chan: Your Priestess is just revisiting dinner this morning. She is not looking too good.

DMaster: Hanna’s eyes bulge, rips out of bed and goes racing to the room. Clay stretches.
CLAY: Morning, already?
Nicola rolls over and scowls.
NIC: Yeah, already, you slept the entire time, you dickbag.
She looks around, gets up.
NIC: Well let’s get going, we can get the contraption off the door, then take off.

Chance: Chan: I am not sure we are going anywhere, someone is still tossing cookies.
pointing towards where Velencia’s room would be
Chan: she still doesn’t look very well. White as a ghost, but she did say something about the masked people, something about one missing?

DMaster: She leans her head back and sighs. Clay is standing, looking interested.
CLAY: Oh? One Missing?

Chance: I go on to explain what Velencia talked about with me.

DMaster: NIC: The prowler? a cat?
CLAY: Yeah, a pussy. I know where a…
NIC: CLAY!
Giving him a stern look.

Chance: Chuckling.
Chan: Wow, Clay, must you always be thinking about that?
Looking at him just shaking my head.

DMaster: Nicola and clay are getting their things in order, packing. You pack up, give Toby a little snack of an apple. Everyone is heading out. Velencia is wobbling a bit, but she makes it to her horse

Chance: Help her to her horse.

DMaster: As you grab her hand she pulls back,
VEL: Shoo…
Her eyes grow big, she grabs your hand and is touching it, squeezing it.

Chance: Uh, why is she grabbing my hand?
Chan: My hand is fairly soft, I use a lot of lotion from time to time.

DMaster: She looks at you.
VEL: I got nothing, no surge, no spark, no connection.
The Priestess looks frantically at her hands.

Chance: Chan: Uh duh, yeah. You overused the mana, you’re dead in the water for a few days Priestess.

DMaster: She gives you a scolding look.
VEL: Why don’t you tell me these things?

Chance: Chan: I don’t know, maybe because you’re a bitch?
Finish feeding Toby and hop up in the saddle looking out over the plains thinking of home.

DMaster: As you are ready, there is an argument between the three of them. Nicola feels they should stay an extra day, because of the Priestesses condition. But Velencia wants to get home, she vetoes it. Nicola runs in the house, then runs out, jumps on the horse.
NIC: The door can now be opened, lets go.
VEL: They wouldn’t hurt a fly, just wondering where the Prowler is…?
Before Chance could ask, the group heads out.
They travel 12 hours, find a spot to camp. All goes well.

---

Sagalay (Saturday) 6:00 AM

---

They head out in the early morning, clear skies, windy and hot, over 100 degrees. They travel another 5-6 hours and get to the edge of the Plains. Some small villages can be seen, farms being worked.

Chance: Get off Toby, let him rest for a minute or two.

DMaster: Clay walks over to you. Put his hand out and you two shake.
CLAY: This is where we part ways, Chance. Nice meeting you. I have to admit, you keep things… well, interesting.
He gives you his patented smirk, hands you your coin pouch and walk back to his horse.

Chance: Chan: I must say it was interesting meeting you, artificer.
smiling at him, shake hands.

DMaster: Nicola walks over. You shake hands.
NIC: Yes, take care of yourself. Keep your tongue out of other girls’ mouths, ok?

Chance: Nod my head, chuckle.
Chan: Yes, yes, that sounds boring, but I will try. Maybe we will see each other again, Barbarian.

DMaster: Velencia, is leaning on her horse, still white as a ghost. They get her on the horse. You are looking on. You think you hear her talking:
VEL: Get bent, chump.
is what you think you hear her say as she rides off.

Chance: Let out a laugh. Shaking my head as I watch them ride off before I jump up, pull the reins on Toby and spurn him on.

DMaster: You get to Grayshale in another 3-4 hours or so. Get to your home. Dash outside, take your reins.

Chance: Chan: it is good to be home, Dash, I missed you all.

DMaster: He nods.
DASH: We missed you as well.

Chance: nod my head, then go inside the house and get a big grin on my face.

DMaster: First thing, when the door opens, you get hit with an amazing smell of Novalee’s stew. Almost everyone is at the table. Your two kiddo’s on the floor, playing on a big blanket.
Then there is someone sprinting for you, pushing Cullun out of the way. She slams into you, hug, lips locked.

Chance: kissing her back passionately and whirl her around.

DMaster: KHA: Oh my god did I miss you, my love.
she says quietly in your ear.

Chance: Chan: you have no idea of just how much I missed you.
Whispering back into her ear. Wrap my arms around her and lift her up looking into her eyes.

DMaster: After a few moments, they all gather around you welcoming you. In attendance is Griffin, Luella, Dash, Cullun, and of course Novalee. The kiddo’s too!

Gallery of occupants.

DMaster: They all greet you, welcome you home. You pick up both of your kids and they are yappy, giggly smiles all around.

Chance: make a few noise and giggles at them before laughing real hard.

DMaster: You get unpacked, have some side conversations. Take a quick bath, change your clothes and head down for dinner. Griffin lets you know Trinity is off on a retreat for Gypsies, witches, she will be back in a few days.
GRI: Well, Champion, was the trip a success?

Chance: Chan: let’s finish eating and then we will discuss everything.

DMaster: He frowns a bit, knowing things probably did not go all too well. You finish eating. Cullun grabs a quill and his book for the meeting. Griffin calls it, amidst everyone fanning themselves, sweating. The kids are upstairs, you help put them to bed, the heat is getting to them.

Chance: giving the kids a small kiss on their foreheads, head downstairs afterwards, hand in hand with Khamyra.

DMaster: You go on to tell the tale.

• Howlers
• Healing & raising the dead
• Fight with Velencia

Everyones eyes light up and looked concerned. As you sigh, Dash is getting a shit eating grin on his face.
DASH: You wiped the floor with her didn’t you M’Lord.

Chance: Chan: Dash, that wasn’t the point of that. Well, I am not sure exactly the point I was trying to make. She killed people thoughtlessly, and I got a little angry.

DMaster: Khamyra sitting on your lap looks at you with concern.
KHA: Oh no. A little angry?

Chance: Chan: I don’t want to make a big deal about it ok? We had words… I kind of threw us both out a 3rd story window and then it was like a blur…

DMaster: GRI: Whoa whoa! Wait, what? You threw her… you too?
Everyone looking at you wide eyes mouth open.
KHA: Hun…
She is shaking her head, worried look on her face.

Chance: Chan: Just let me finish the story, please?

DMaster: You avoid a few stares, almost questions and continue.

• Summer Rise Festival
• Finding stinky things
• Malik
• Breaking an entering
• It was a fake
• Confronting Malik
• he doesn’t know shit
• Head back
• Fight the ogres
• Velencia blew her wad
• Odd masked people

Chance: looking at Khamyra when I tell her about Velencia blowing her wad, so to speak.

DMaster: She doesn’t look completely surprised.
KHA: So she is a Warlock now too?
She frowns.
CULL: Wait wait, masked people, what did you, or Velencia call them?

Chance: Chan: she called them the bird, the beast and said the prowler was missing. Cullun what does that mean?

DMaster: Khamyra, Cullun and Griffin all have their eyes huge.
GRI: She will go back after them, we have to get to them first.
KHA: Yeah, we can’t let her capture them again.
CULL: Caught a break with her overspending on her mana, she is likely still hurting.
GRI: Myself, Dash, Reneta and Luella will leave tomorrow morning. Lue, we need you to get one of those creatures that Chance gets to help guide us.
She gives him a fake smile, nods her head unsurely.

Chance: Lean forward, speaking loudly.
Chan: okay. Someone care to explain this to me since I am a bit in the dark.

DMaster: Cullun puts down his quill.
CULL: Our apologies, It’s not easy to explain. There are rumored to be 4 beings.
Griffin stops him.
GRI: Wait, FOUR? I thought three?
Cullun nods his head.
CULL: Only 3 have ever been discovered, The bird, the beast and the prowler. Together I am not sure they can tell the future or they can create it… it’s not exactly known. The warden, gatekeeper, the doorman, is the 4th. Not sure anyone has ever seen him. He might be dead, gone or hell, on vacation in Summer Isle.
KHA: Velencia’s rise in power, well, was powered by a few things, ambition being the biggest. But the trio surely helped a lot. She had them enslaved for years.

Chance: Chan: oh just grand and I let her go again, damn it.
I go on to explain what happened when I was healing the one.

DMaster: Cullun nods his head.
CULL: That would make sense, future and all. As the eve gets closer, my guess is you will remember more, get to see things more clearly.

Chance: Chan: unlike my other vision, I don’t know why but I was rather calm looking at both these armies with me standing there. I don’t know how far they are gonna get with the shape she is in. So…

DMaster: GRI: In her condition?
KHA: They are probably heading to her stronghold. She will recover in a day or two. Then head back out.
GRI: That can give us a day or two head start.

Chance: Nod head.

DMaster: DASH: So that little fight was you and Velencia at each other’s throat. Give her a smack or two?
He giggles.

Chance: Chan: well, yes, as I said, I got a teensy weensy bit angry and…

DMaster: KHA: What? What could of possibly made you so angry you sent you and her threw a 3rd story window… wait, how?

Chance: Shake my head.
Chan: Not my fault she pissed me off, and did things she never should of.

DMaster: The entire room stops and looks at you.
DASH: You really did throw both of you threw a 3rd story window?

Chance: Look innocent.
Chan: Well she told me something… That… (scoff).
Pause, look down and clench my jaw, face will get flush. Shake head and continue.
Chan: I just couldn’t help it, it happened so fast, like I always do for some reason I ran for her, and instead of slamming her against the wall, I kind of missed, and sent us both through the window. It was only… 3 floors.

DMaster: The room is just staring at you. Eyes wide, jaws open.

Chance: I threw her around a little, took some of the poison she jammed into me and shoved it in her face. I think I was going to kill her, but Nicola was able to pull me out of it.

DMaster: KHA: How could she? You were ready too… umm… excuse me?
Khamyra’s eyes are big, giving you a look.
KHA: How DID she stop you?

Chance: It was dark! I was tired, just flipped my frenzy switch. Almost high moon! She has the same skin tone as you… and… So did I mention I killed an Ogre?

DMaster: Khamyra lets out a big laugh, and shoves you playfully.
DASH: So is Velencia ok? She still has all her limbs, and her head?

Chance: Nod head.
Chan: If I had an extra minute, I might not have been your Champion any longer. Finster would have probably killed me for ripping Velencia in two.

DMaster: Everyone looks around, some smirks other nodding in agreement. Most of them look proud of their Champion. Griffin stands up hands you a note
GRI: The past 3 days Camerondale guards have stopped by asking for you.
KHA: Hmmm, Maybe the Princess wants your… uhhh… help.
Her face turns red, and giggles.

Chance: Chuckle.
Chan: well the only person I want to give my help to is you my dear.
touching her face gently.
.
DMaster: She leans into it. Hugs you.

Chance: Chan: they better not want me to go on something crazy. I just got back and would like to spend some time with you and the kids and perhaps unless you have done it while I was gone make plans for our wedding.

DMaster: KHA: Agreed!
Everyone is looking at you. They are looking at the note.
LUE: aren’t you going to read it?

Chance: Chan: fine let’s see what is needed of me now.
glancing around the room as I look at the note and start to read it.

DMaster: “Chance, urgent matter, please come to the castle asap, King Boz”

Chance: Chan: damn it by Finster ,the king wants to see me, as soon as possible.

DMaster: KHA: you can go in the morning.
DASH: you don’t think they know you were buddy buddy with Velencia again do you?
LUE: maybe they want to shake his hand for almost killing her?
Everyone giggles. Novalee walks over gives you a hug.

Chance: Give the cutie blonde elf a big hug.
Chan: Okay, let’s call this meeting we are all getting a bit silly. I would like to spend some time with my bride to be.

DMaster: everyone disperses, you and Khamyra head upstairs. You two check the kids, then head over to the bed. You spend some tender moments, make love and fall asleep in each others arms for a bit. Its hot, so she gets frustrated and lays naked on the other side of the bed. Both of you find yourself awake, laying down facing each other.
KHA: It felt like a year. How long were you gone?

Chance: Chan: almost 2 weeks, it felt like an eternity being away from you.

DMaster: You two clasp hands, little sparks.
KHA: I cant believe we still don’t have that goddamn gem, where can it be??

Chance: Shake head.
Chan: I am still trying to figure that out myself. I am beginning to wonder if it has anything to do with the Iron Wench. But there is too many variables going on here

---

Starday (Sunday) High Moon

---

DMaster: You two chit chat a bit more, doze off again. You are awoken, flashes of lightning outside, Thunder rolling in the distance. the kids are screaming, they are scared. The thunder did not sound normal, but with Kids upset you did not think too much of it.

Chance: get up out of bed and pick them both up in my arms.

DMaster: Khamyra takes one. You two are holding them, Khamyra walks over, closes the window, cooler air ushering in; problem it’s ushering in at a high velocity. It did not rain. You guess it’s close to High Moon. After about 2 hours The storm dissipates. Probably some property damage from the wind. Oddly enough there was no rain with this. Just a lot of wind, loud thunder claps and blinding flashes of light.

Chance: lay back down with Khamyra and the kiddos in bed. Try to calm both the kiddos down and get them back to sleep.

DMaster: They fall asleep shortly after, put them in their cribs. You two sneak in a little poke, fall asleep again at 4am. By 6am, the kids are up again, Novalee accidentally dropped a pan. You got maybe 3 hours sleep, slept odd, sore neck.

Chance: look over at Khamyra and sit up trying to work the soreness out of my neck.

DMaster: She shrugs her shoulders, hears the kids fidgeting, Novalee whispering ‘sorry! My bad’ and you sleeping weird.
KHA: Welcome home, hun!
She chuckles.

Chance: Chan: I wouldn’t trade this for anything, my love. Remember I still owe the big guy ten fold for meeting you and blessing me as he has.

DMaster: She gives you a concerned look.
KHA: Please keep focused today with the King. You already sound like your spacing out.

Chance: Nod my head. Help her take care of the kids before I grab some clothes and head downstairs.

DMaster: Novalee is sitting at the table, sipping tea. Oddly enough Griffin is making breakfast.
CRY: Wieners are like Dragons, stick them into places they don’t want to be, they start to spit fire. Anyone got any cream I can use? GET UP!
well its 7:00 AM, you know that now. Might as well eat breakfast.

Chance: Chan: I better go see the King before he begins to worry that I haven’t gotten the message.
Head to take a bathroom and get dressed in there and make myself presentable.

DMaster: You get clean, get dressed, grab some grub, watch Novalee feed the kiddos. It’s about 8:30 am, probably a good time to go.

Chance: smile at Novie and thank her for feeding the kiddos,and then find Khamyra and give her another kiss before heading out to Toby. Ride to Camerondale.

DMaster: Its a nice day out, if not a bit cloudy. Seasonal temps and limbs, leaves everywhere from the wind last night. You get to the City, stable Toby, and head to the Castle. It’s a Sunday, so the streets are fairly empty, and it is quiet. The guards recognize you, let you in.

Chance: Look around for someone to tell, that I am here.

DMaster: A guard comes to you, you tell them what is up. He leaves, comes back and lets you know it will be about an hour.

Chance: Chan: that is fine, I shall wait till he can see me.

DMaster: From the door leading into the ball area, two women burst out, big smile on their face. Erikka dressed in a nice blue dress, hemmed with white lace and is a bit short, cooler for the Summer. Birgetta has a fancy halter top with some expensive leather pants, nice boots. Both of them look great, and it warms the heart seeing them smile. They rush over and hug you.

Chance: my eyes light up seeing them and I hug them back.
Chan: so good to see you two.

DMaster: They smile. They start chatting with you, their usual banter and talk over each other.

Chance: Chan: okay, how about one at a time you two.
looking at them both and bust out laughing.

DMaster: they shove you playfully and for a few minutes you are taken back to a time you almost forgot about.

Chance: as they shove me, pull them in and give them a big hug.
Chan: So how is Karson doing Erikka?

DMaster: She tells you he is doing great, he is all but quit his normal job and going full time as a bard. One of the double doors for the throne room opens, Cassie comes out, dressed down somewhat, being an off day.
CASS: Jebus, we have only been trying to get you here for four days now. You pick our day off to come in?
She playfully scoffs at you, then sniffs her pits, and looks at you.
CASS: Nope, we don’t smell either.
The two girls giggle, give you another hug and head off.

Chance: Return the hug.
Chan: of all people I wouldn’t avoid it’s you Cassie, after all you have done for me.
smirking a bit.
Chan: and thank you again for the help with the ring.

DMaster: she smiles and nods, leans in and gives you a hug. Beckons you inside. You see a group of people talking by a newer larger table in the middle of the throne room. King Bozutto, Queen Affinity, Duke Xavier and the retired King Jeramiah. They are all dressed down a bit.

Chance: follow her inside wondering what’s going on, as I walk in.

DMaster: They are talking, look over to you and nod in greeting.

Chance: bow a bit before I straighten back up.
Chan: I am sorry I was detained, my King. I was dealing with something of a personal nature.

DMaster: He nods again, then tilts his head.
KING: Soo… where have you been?
Affinity’s eyes grow bigger and bigger, reading you. Cassie gives her a scolding look. Luckily, the king did not notice. He then smirks a bit, points at a chair across the table.
KING: Please, sit, sit.

Chance: grab a chair and take a seat. Shake my head frustrated at Affinity.

DMaster: The door opens, in walks Captain Harlow, looks also dressed down, hair kind of a mess. It is a makeshift meeting. She is looking good otherwise.

Chance: Smile at the Captain, good to see her.

DMaster: Doors close. She sits next to you.
HAR: Chance! Nice to see you again. You need to visit more often, Killian always talks about you.

Chance: give her a warriors handshake
Chan: how is the big lug doing?

DMaster: She smirks and shakes back.
HAR: Big, smelly and always hungry.
everyone giggles a little.

Chance: Chan: I will try to make it a point to visit more often, and bring a nose plug.
chuckling a little from Harlow’s comment about Killian.

DMaster: Harlow laughs, then looks at the King who nods at her. The rest of the group sits except for Jerry, who stands a bit a way, rubbing his beard now and again.
HAR: Well Chance, you were the one person we thought could helps us the most with this… issue.
She slides a map over to you.

Chance: Grab the map. Looking at the map as my eyes get big.
Chan: well you know I will do anything I can to help… why is there a symbol of Finster on this, or almost?

DMaster: HAR: It’s not completely unusual to have murders in the city, especially in “the pit.”
KING: I wish we could call this something other than “the pit.”
CASS: That is… what it is called, everyone calls it that.
HAR: Anyways, two weeks ago, there started a string of murders, or deaths. Bodies dumped in alleyways, back doors to houses or stores.
She is pointing out things on the map.The filled circles on the map.
HAR: This handwritten circle is where we feel the next murder or body dump will take place, for obvious reasons. But it’s off schedule. The others were every 2 days like clockwork, but it’s been over 3 days now. Our last meeting, Bastian had a brainstorm, that the murders or bodies were purposefully planted, and when we plotted the points, that map is what resulted. The symbol of Finster, plotted throughout the slums of Camerondale.
King looks at you.
BOZ: So I have to ask, where have you been for the last 2 weeks?

Chance: Chan: well not out murdering people, if that is what we are getting at.

DMaster: XAV: We know, but for the record, can you tell us where you have been? Maybe someone who can verify it?

Chance: Chan: I have been trying to track down a certain item for the big guy.
looking down and sigh a bit.

DMaster: Cassie sighs, the King is getting impatient.
CASS: Chance. Where. Have you been? Not why, but where. Simple question, please for the love of Animax give me a simple answer?

Chance: Chan: fine, you want to know where I was? I went to Crux.

DMaster: The king tosses his parchment up in the air. Affinity grabs his arm, to calm him down. He is getting red faced. Cassie chuckles a bit.
CASS: Some things never change, still get flustered and blurt out weird unrelated things.
She leans over, touches your hand.
CASS: Focus. Location. On a map. Where were you? Crux? I am the Land Baroness and even I don’t know of a place called Crux.

Chance: Frown.
Chan: I was at Crux Hayward.

DMaster: They all look at each other, shoulder shrugging a bit. Jeramiah steps forward, tilts his head squinting a bit.
JER: Swamp infested stink hole, on the edge of the Wild Elf lands.
Everyone glances over to the old king, then back to you, wider eyes than before.

Chance: nod my head at Jerry
Chan: That is, quite, oddly, accurate.

DMaster: BOZ: Damn. That’s… 6-7 days away. OK. Well, thank you, as painful as you made it.
He refocuses on you.
BOZ: Would you know of anyone wanting to murder people, or take bodies and lay them out around the streets of Camerondale, to create the symbol of Finster?

Chance: Shake head.
Chan: No. Definitely not.

DMaster: Harlow buts in.
HAR: Maybe any idea why? Could this be a ritual? Have you heard of this before?

Chance: Think for a moment.
Chan: I am not sure of why anyone would want to do it, unless it was to draw me or someone tied with Finster out. I know of no ritual that would involve this, and I have not heard of anything quite like this.

DMaster: Xavier’s eyes perk a little.
XAV: Hmmm draw him out. Or draw someone out? A message? That’s a hell of a message.
HAR: One of the biggest mysteries is we have yet to identify any of the bodies. They are dressed in common clothes, no jewelry, nothing out of the ordinary.
The King shakes his head, as does Xavier. The Duke leans back, hand on chin.
HAR: According to reports, the final “dump” should have been last night, possibly the night before. But nothing. Now whether it is delayed for a reason, or they know that we are watching the area, I am still baffled a bit. We now have our best on this, Valentine and her crew are stalking the area.
She takes the map, looks it over, then rolls it back up, hands it to you.
HAR: Well, If you are not traipsing all over Legon, if you could team up with Valentine, one more time for me, the next few nights, we would be very grateful.

Chance: Nod head.
Chan: I want in on this, if they want to draw me out or whoever. Not happy they are using Finster to do so.

DMaster: They all nod and smile.
CASS: If she can pry herself away from your adorable twins, Khamyra might be of help too.

Chance: Chan: Actually, she would probably jump at the Chance. Well, jump at the Opportunity, I mean she jumped at me last… anyways.
Waves hand knowing you said too much.

DMaster: Harlow, wide eyes looking at the babbling Champion. Affinity trying not to giggle probably getting visions of you porking your fiance.
HAR: Excellent, meet Valentine at the compound tonight at 9:00 PM.

Chance: Smiling and looking at everyone.
Chan: but I will be at the compound as you say.

DMaster: They thank you and disperse. You stand up. Cassie smiles at you and walks to the royal doors. Affinity walks around the table and meets you.
AFF: Good to see you Chance.

Chance: Give her a warm smile.
Chan: As it is good to see you.

DMaster: AFF: Congratulations on the engagement, I better be invited!

Chance: Chan: Of course!
Give her a big hug.

DMaster: She hugs back, turns and follows her mother. The only other person left is Jeramiah, just giving you a once over. You walk over to Jerry. He waits for the room to clear out, no ears, no Psi.
JER: So, I guess you know then.
He has a shit eating grin on his face.

Chance: looking at Jerry with my eyebrow raised.
Chan: depends on what we are talking about. I mean…

DMaster: JER: A year or so ago, reports came out that Malik was running his hometown now, Crux Hayward. Oddly enough, he was also reported to be in possession of a certain artifact you were probably looking for.
Staring at you, looking at your reaction.

Chance: Eyes wide, slowly look over to him.
Chan: Well, yeah. That turned out to be a fake. damn Welf got conned.

DMaster: He chuckles, seems pleased with himself.
JER: Yeah I could have told you that it was a fake. I am the one who commissioned it.