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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1301099" data-attributes="member: 143">I'm back!* * * * * Chapter 93Mole took up the bronze die, which felt unnaturally heavy in her small hand.  She looked up at the gathered onlookers, including her friends.  Zenna met her gaze and smiled, and nodded, sending the message, Whatever happens, we’re in this together. Mole cast the die.  When it settled to a stop, the crowd let out a cheer.  The number showing on the die’s top face was clear. Twenty. Todd Vanderboren looked down at the table in disbelief.  “I believe that’s two thousand gold pieces,” Mole said.The young man looked taken aback for the first time since they’d encountered him.  “I... I do not have that much on me...”“I am sure that the club will be happy to advance the funds, in your name,” came a voice from beyond the circle of onlookers.  Everyone turned to see Celeste, the woman who had contacted Dannel yesterday, standing near the main entrance of the chamber.  “After all, we all know the Vanderboren name... and that they honor their debts.”Todd snarled, but there was nothing he could do but agree.  A member of the club staff brought Mole a stack of the platinum bars on a tray, twenty of them.  He was a bit surprised when Mole bade him bend low, and within a few seconds tucked all of them into her magical haversack.  Todd remained only long enough to slash his name onto a receipt provided by the club, then slunk quickly out of the place through the far exit. “I have to say, I’m quite pleased that I came when I did,” Celeste told them, once the nobles had returned to their activities and the four adventurers had moved to greet their hostess.  “That young man has an ill favor about him.”  She frowned briefly, looking toward the arch where the nobleman had departed, but quickly shifted her gaze back to the adventurers, a warm smile returning to her face.  “Come.  You haven’t eaten already?  Well then, I am certain you will enjoy the fare offered by the Cusp.”She led them to one of the side wings of the structure, to a private dining room set off from the main corridor by a short hall and a stout wooden door.  At Celeste’s urging the companions sat around the room’s primary feature, an oval table of considerable size that had been carved with various designs of leaves and vines about its perimeter.  The chairs were plushly padded and of various sizes to comfortably accommodate all of them, and the table was already set with cutlery and dinnerware that shone brightly with the reflected light of the room’s several glimmering lamps.  “Wow, this is some nice stuff,” Mole commented as she seated herself, holding up a crystal goblet that caught the light and spread a rainbow of colors onto the linen tablecloth.  “Please, enjoy yourselves, and do not hesitate to notify the waitstaff if you require anything,” Celeste said.  She waved her hand, and as if summoned magically by her gesture, a quartet of servers in the white and gold livery of the Cusp appeared from a subtle side door, laden with platters of appetizers and chilled bottles of wine.  For a moment the adventurers admired the foodstuffs that were placed before them.  Mole sampled the vintage and declared it excellent.  Finally, as the servers retreated back through the side door, Zenna turned and asked, “So, Celeste, why have you...”But the woman was gone, as if the air itself had swallowed her up. “Perhaps she means to speak to us after we have dined,” Dannel suggested, taking a fair helping of thin breads and cheeses from a nearby platter.“I hope they intend to have real food after this,” Arun said, dubiously examining a plate containing a variety of sliced fruits.“It’s called a ‘first course,’ friend dwarf,” Dannel said, deftly spiriting the fruit plate out from under the dwarf’s doubtful gaze.  “You should try a few of these, they won’t kill you.”“I’ll take my chances against umber hulks and giant spiders,” the dwarf muttered under his breath. But Arun’s fears were misplaced, for the appetizers were only the first in a series of courses that included simmering onion soup accompanied by fat slabs of black bread, a quartet of roast pheasants drowned in spicy mushrooms, a lamb haunch that sizzled in its own juices as it was brought out, a fair dozen selections of vegetables prepared in a variety of ways, and a breaded stuffing fat with chips of fresh bacon and pine nuts.  When the plates were finally taken away, Arun leaned back in his chair contentedly, belching loudly.  “You men and your noises,” Mole said chidingly.  The gnome had consumed as much as any of her larger companions, and more than a few choice selections had somehow made their way into one of the side pouches of her haversack for later snacking.  “I hope you saved room for desert,” came Celeste’s voice from the far end of the table.  They all turned to look at the slender woman—she had returned as silently as she had departed, though there was nothing untoward in her manner.  “The caramel custard is superb.”“We’re really quite stuffed,” Dannel said, “But our curiosity remains unslaked; perhaps you could now tell us why you’ve asked us here?”“Of course.  If you’d come with me, please, I will show you.”  She gestured back toward the hallway door.  Mole lingered behind, a slightly wistful look on her face.“Caramel custard?”</blockquote>

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