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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2636881" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 466Mole wandered the halls of the urdunnir settlement.  She was battling an enemy more treacherous that dragons or wizards or fiends… boredom.  It had been at least two hours since she, Lok, and Gaera had come down from the tower above.  The lift had been interesting, especially when she’d leaned out over the edge, looking down the shaft which vanished into darkness that sounded (from the echoes of the wind currents) like it continued for miles below.  Lok had simply stood stoically in the middle of the lift, saying nothing for the entire descent, while Gaera had paid her little heed, her own worried features focused on the genasi.  She’d looked forward to the meeting with the urdunnir elders, but she’d been disappointed when Lok told her that she could not sit in on the council, which by custom was restricted only to the People.  Gaera, as a fellow dwarf, and a recognized ally, got a pass, it seemed, but a gnome… a guest! at that, was not allowed…Exploring the urdunnir settlement was interesting… for all of about ten minutes.  The tunnels and chambers were all so uniform, and the people equally drab.  Their main interest seemed to be work, and most of that involved painstaking shaping of metal or stone objects, at a pace that sometimes made it appear that the worker had fallen asleep.  Or so it seemed to Mole, who might have been surprised at the way she appeared to the urdunnir, who saw her as a flighty spirit who danced through their midst and was gone in a flash, before he appearance could even fully register upon their senses.  That was when they detected her at all; stealth had become such a habit to her that she blended with the shadows almost subconsciously, even when she wasn’t using the power of her ring to become entirely invisible.  She finally found herself in a side tunnel that appeared to be unpopulated, at least until she emerged with surprising abruptness into a small square room much like all the other small square rooms she’d explored thus far.  While the urdunnir work areas had been dimly lit by small stone disks that shed a pale gray light as faint as a candle’s flame, this corridor had been unlit.  The urdunnir, like all dwarves, possessed darkvision, and so Gaera had lent her a small candle that was enchanted with an everburning flame.  Drawing out the taper from her pocket, she had pressed on down this side tunnel, wondering if the darkness hid anything interesting.  With her excellent vision she needed no further illumination, but in that weak light she did not immediately realize that this room was occupied until she was almost in the middle of the place. That figure was an elder urdunnir, ancient if the maze of canyons and ridges etched into his face was any reliable guide.  His skin, beard, eyes and tunic were a uniform gray, causing him to blend into the surrounding stone, explaining her initial failure to detect him.  In fact, at first she thought him to be a statue, until his eyes shifted ever so slightly, following her movements. “Hey,” she said.  “I thought all you elders were at the council meeting.”The dwarf betrayed no reaction at first.  She finally was wondering if he spoke Common, or if he was senile, when he rumbled, “I am not so old as all that, little daughter.”It was an odd thing to say, but inwardly she shrugged; the urdunnir were a weird people with odd customs.  “I’m a friend of Lok’s,” she said, moving around the perimeter of the room, looking for anything distinctive.  The place seemed to be pretty much exactly what it appeared; a small dead-end chamber.“You are like quicksilver,” the old dwarf said.  “You travel the world, slipping through the cracks, undetectable, unstoppable.”Mole grinned, taking the comment as praise.  “Well, I am pretty fast,” she said, casually twisting with her next step into a cartwheel that brought her left foot around in a circle above her head and then back again to the ground without breaking pace. “And yet, you often act without thought.  Action follows stimulus; there is no consideration in between.”Mole’s smile disappeared.  Had she just been insulted?  What did this old dwarf really know about her, anyway?  They’d just met. The dwarf slowly drew his hand out from his cloak, and opened his palm to reveal a small stone.  “Take this from me, if you can.”Ah.  So the fogey wanted to play a game, eh?  “I don’t really think you want to…” she began, turning toward the wall, running her hand along the stone.  In mid-sentence she twisted and kicked off, flying across the room like a bolt shot by a crossbow.  The dwarf hadn’t moved; it was like taking candy from a…There was a sudden twist, and she found herself lying on her back a few feet away.  There was a vague pain, nothing too bad, but mostly surprise. She snapped her body and sprang up to her feet.  The dwarf was still sitting there, the stone unchanged in his palm.  “What did you do?” she asked.  “Are you a wizard?”The dwarf laughed.  “Come, try again, little daughter.  And this time, think as you act.”Time passed, and Mole found herself being repeatedly humiliated by the aged dwarf.  Her cheeks burned and her backside was feeling particularly sore, but the dwarf did not seem to take pleasure at her misfortunes, instead urging her to react, directing her with subtle hints and clues.  For all his aged appearance, he appeared able to move at the speed of light when he desired, changing position so quickly that she didn’t even see a blur in between.  She quickly realized that she had no chance of outmaneuvering him; she had to outthink him, discern where he was going to be, figure out how her adversary thought and use that against him.  She was coming close, she thought, finally; something new was opening up to her from these impromptu lessons.  But as she pulled herself up—no more hopping to her feet, not after the last few failures—the dwarf rose and came to her, placing the stone on the ground before her. “Your friend comes for you; our time is at an end.  I hope that you will take to heart what I have tried to show you.”Mole nodded.  “I will,” she said earnestly.  The dwarf turned and walked past her out of the room, but she forestalled him.  “Wait!  I don’t even know your name.  I’m M…” she hesitated.  “I’m Clarese, Clarese Calloran.”The dwarf nodded.  “Some have called me Lord Liggett, in the past.”What an odd name, Mole thought, but she only nodded, offering the dwarf a respectful bow. “Take the stone,” he told her.  “You may have need of it someday.”She bent to recover the gift.  The stone was little more than a pebble, oddly smooth, and it felt cool in her hand.  When she turned back, the old dwarf was gone. She took her candle, which she’d laid aside during the… training, I guess it was, she thought.  She left the room and looked down the corridor, and wasn’t really surprised that there was no sign of the dwarf.  It fit with his odd personality, and the strange skills he had possessed.  But she could hear a familiar clank in the distance, and then her name being called. “I’m coming, Lok!” she cried, running down the passage back to the main halls of the urdunnir citadel. * * * * * Mole's just taken a new prestige class; I'll update the Rogues' Gallery thread in just a moment.</blockquote>

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