Jamison and Grumbar packed a few things together and teleported away to Greyhawk. While there, Grumbar did his best to entertain himself… but seeing as Vek thought it would be wise if they stuck together, the half-orc found himself fighting boredom in the Greyhawk archives while Jamison researched memory spells.
For a time Grumbar tried to amuse himself by looking through books with pictures, but he only managed to find a few with dirty pictures (usually medical journals of some long-dead medical practitioner). He found a small number of books with pictures of combat inside, but these only entertained him for so long. Add to this that he was always told to “be quiet” by the other library patrons, and the Knight was one unhappy fighter.
On the third day he quit trying to make sense of a diagram of the constellations and tossed it over his shoulder. “Books. Can’t read ‘em, can’t eat ‘em.” He got up and wandered around. The library was very large, and he managed to wander into a section he hadn’t seen in his time in the city. It was a large bulletin board filled with drawings of mens’ faces. “Ooh, scary men. Mean faces.” He looked over them and tried to out-scary every scary face on each picture… Then he stopped when he saw the corner of one of the pieces of paper, and something he recognized.
It was the upper right hand corner of a man’s face. The rest was covered with other pictures. He peeled away the others and saw Jamison’s face staring back at him from the yellowed paper. “Neat!”
He ripped it down and went back to show Jamison. “Jamison, did you know they draw you here and put your picture up on the wall?”
Jamison looked up from a millennia-old text on enchantment spells. “Whuh?” Grumbar handed him the wanted poster and he looked at it. “Whuh!” He dropped it on the table and reached into the sack on his side, then pulled out the Hat of Disguise he kept there. He put it on and his appearance changed, so he would be unrecognizable to anyone who might have noticed the poster.
“Hey, how much am I worth?” He picked the poster back up and saw.
JAMISON CROW
500,000 gold pieces REWARD
“That’s pretty good!”
Wanted for innumerable crimes
against the people of Greyhawk,
including mass murder, conspiracy,
treason, torture, kidnapping, and
other fiendish deeds.
~DEAD OR ALIVE~
“That’s not good.” He sighed. “Grumbar, I’m going to need a pseudonym to go by.”
“What?”
“Uh… a fake name. I can’t be known as Jamison here.”
“Ohhhh. How about Chorby… Chorby Drobber-Flounding the third, esquire, junior?”
Jamison ignored that. “Gregg Flamebrow. That’ll be my name. Call me ‘Gregg’ from now on, okay?”
“Okay, Gregg.” Grumbar winked and said loudly “I’m just standing here talking to my buddy GREGG, whose name is Gregg.” He smiled his half-orc smile.
Jamison rubbed his forehead and went back to reading his book. It was becoming clear that he wasn’t finding anything in the books, and his easily distracted mind kept flitting from topic to topic. He always wound up back at the subject of the Spellforges, and what he’d done to them. What could he do for Kizzlorn, now, to win her trust back? Was he worth investing himself in, to that end? How do you bury the past? At that, he had an idea, and thought about it for some time.
Back in Spellforge Keep, a knock at Kizzlorn’s door disturbed her from staring off into space, as she had been doing next to her hearth in her father’s old chair. “Who is it?”
“s’ Shade.”
“Come in.”
Shade entered carrying a tray with some food and drink on it. “You’ve been locked up here so long, thought ye could use some rations, luv. How’re ye feelin’?”
“Better… and I’m starving, thanks.” She took a piece of bread and ate.
“That’s fresh-baked… had to be, after Grumbar’s eatin’ everything and all.”
“It’s good.”
“So, uh…” he eased into the chair opposite hers and looked at her. “Everyone’s kinda wantin’ to know what’s in yer head. What are we to do next?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m guessing Acessiwal is watching to see how long our grief lasts, and when we’ve-“
“No, I meant- uh- what are we to do with Jamison?”
“Oh.”
“I know how ye feel, luv. I myself lost both my parents. My da’ killed my ma, and I killed my da’ in turn. I know somethin’ about pain in this area.”
“I guess you do.”
“The point I keep comin’ back to, when I think about it, is how much I miss both of them… even though da’ was an assassin. He was a great man to us and we loved ‘im. Sometimes I find myself wishin’ I’d heard him out insteada doin’ the rash thing. I still feel I was right, but just sometimes, I miss havin’ ‘im around.”
“What would you have me do? I bear Jamison no great love. To learn that he murdered my parents and had me believing the dragon did it-“
“He didn’t remember himself, luv,” Shade interrupted.
“He’s lucky I didn’t kill him.”
“Aye. But then, could ye have lived with yerself? Ye’ve adventured with him for a time and you know how he is. Jamison’s a trap-touchin’ cur, but he’s a good man with a good soul. He just… LOST that soul for a time when he got fool-careless about handlin’ things in evil temples. Jamison’s not evil, though he was under its control. Would killin’ him now, the GOOD him, have brought you any satisfaction?”
She sat and looked into the fire.
“Well. I’m not here ta lecture ye Kizz, I’m just talkin’. You’re an adult, ye can make yer own choices. Yer parents did, too. They were adventurers. They knew the risks o’ goin’ out into the world with a sword and a spellbook. The odds aren’t good that ye’ll see your gray hair, livin’ that way, is the simple truth. Adventurers die young.” He paused, looking at the flames himself. His voice softened. “I’ve died three times now. I get weaker each time I come back. Y’know… next time, I don’t think I’ll be returnin’.”
He shook his head and stood up. “Listen t’me, all prattlin’ on. Sorry. Just came to bring ye some food. I’ll be headin’ back out, now…”
“Shade.” She got up and stood on her toes, kissing him on the cheek. “Thanks.”
He smiled that smile at her. “A friend is a good thing in this world, and terrible to lose. More terrible, still, to throw away. G’night luv.” He left.
Kizzlorn sat and stared into her fire, sipping at the wine he’d brought her.
MORE TO COME...
