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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 3427458" data-attributes="member: 11760">Back in the graveyard, Renraw Kem casts a spell."I would've helped you willingly, you bastard!" Renraw shouts like a petulant child.Before he can complete his spell, however, the unpleasant black cat leaps on him, sinking its claws into his thigh as it runs up his leg and bites a very sensitive place.The pain breaks Renraw's concentration and interrupting his spellcasting. As he attempts to dislodge the cat, he barely notices Khenemet-Apep casting a spell until it's complete. True to the Kemite's word, Renraw finds himself unable to move.The Wizard of Green Mountain opens a sack at his waist and pulls out a rope. He touches it to Renraw, saying a command word, and the frozen wizard feels the rope snake around him, wrapping tight and then tying itself around his wrists and ankles.Reaching back into the sack, Khenemet-Apep pulls out a filthy rag, opens Renraw's mouth, shoves the rag most of the way in, then closes his mouth again.He mutters something in disgust and sits down on a gravestone, eyeing his prisoner. He then begins the lengthy process of casting his geas.* * *Bufer had been torn. On the one hand, Renraw had been led away, into the graveyard of all places, by a powerful wizard he was obviously frightened to death of -- and who appeared to be an ogre's backside, besides. On the other, he'd left Hazel and her brother behind in the middle of a brewing bar fight.On the one hand, there was a good chance Renraw deserved whatever was coming to him. On the other, Hazel and Reed were with Emmerson.On the one hand, though, when all was said and done, Hazel could take care of herself -- and her brother and Emmerson, too, if it came to that -- while on the other, Bufer wasn't so sure he could say the same about Renraw. A pitiful example of a human he might be, Bufer couldn't in good conscience let Renraw face Khenemet-Apep alone, at least not until he had a better idea of why he was facing the wizard at all.So now here he is, holding his breath as he creeps though the cemetery, moving as quietly and deliberately as possible as he creeps ever closer to the two wizards, ducking low to the ground and using the tombstones for cover. Neither appears to be aware of him yet, nor does Apep's mangy cat -- so far, so good. Just another yard or so, and he'll be close enough to hear what they were saying.Approaching the pair from Apep's rear, Bufer pauses a moment to slide a dagger from his sleeve. He hopes he won't have to use it -- he's fairly certain things won't end well if he does -- but it never hurts to be cautious ...In the graveyard, Khenemet-Apep finishes his spell. Bufer doesn't know a thing about spellcraft beyond the spells he can cast himself, but the Kemite spelled it out with his final words, which were in the Imperial tongue, presumably so Renraw would understand them: "When the attack comes on Maidensbridge, you must kill Tucker Gallaway."The Kemite wipes his face with a dirty sleeve. The spellcasting apparently took a lot out of him. His cat wraps itself around his ankles, purring with approval and then makes a small noise of surprise: It's seen Bufer. It makes a small unintelligible noise, but the wizard apparently understands it, because he turns and his eyes lock with Bufer's."Do not run. Come here, gnome."Bufer blinks in surprise, more at the wizard's reaction than at his actually having been caught in the act of eavesdropping. He hesitates, silently reviewing his options. It only takes a second -- he doesn't really have any. He carefully slips his dagger back up his sleeve before he stands up and steps around the tombstone he'd been hiding behind."I feel it only fair to inform you, sir," he says as he calmly saunters towards Khenemet-Apep and the captive Renraw, "That I be the apprentice of High Priest Boddynock Barennackle -- a good friend of the constable's -- and that my pa's an old, dear friend of Lord Rubik, who's a right powerful wizard in his own right, and a school chum of the Baron, besides. I'll also remind you that at least a dozen gnomes, dwarves and men-folk witnessed us leavin' The Cat & The Fiddle together, an' me pesterin' you about kobolds in the street outside. If anything unfortunate were to happen to me -- say, I didn't come home tonight, or got turned into a chicken, or something of that nature -- I reckon there'd be some pretty uncomfortable questions in your future, sir. To start."Bufer grins good-naturedly at the wizard and he halts well beyond the Kemite's reach."And I am a personal friend of the baron," the Wizard of Green Mountain smiles. "We play chess and spellflag and gossip about classmates of ours.""Fair enough," Bufer replies, his smile flickering for the briefest of moments. "That all said, what say you untie my friend, here, and explain what in the Glutton's name is going on, eh?"</blockquote>

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