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Message: <blockquote data-quote="megamania" data-source="post: 7188666" data-attributes="member: 9255">THE HIDDEN: BEYOND NEW WATER01 WORK COMMUTESEGMENT 103“PASSAGE INTO ELDEEN: PRELUDE X”7/18/17VULT  26, 999 HATHERIL, BRELANDThe Changeling Chef is tired.   He is seen laughing and joking all of the time.  Why?  Because no one will accept him as a Changeling.   He straightens out his cloth head piece and lets out a long and loud sigh and continues onward through the snow frosted fields in Northern Breland.It is quite boring.  He thinks of different recipes and possibilities he can make and may in the future.  On the way a storm begins to gather.  It is time to find cover.  He has little to no luck but then spots tracks on the side of the road.  Strange, why would anyone walk off the main road in the snow?  Curious he follows the tracks into the woods.Following the tracks he finds an area where a second set of tracks meets with the first.  Stranger yet.  Hoping to resolve this mystery and maybe find shelter, he continues on.The two sets of tracks lead into a cave.  Uncertain at what to do calls into the cave.Nothing.Then he feels a strange sensation come over him.  He can’t move.  His heart beats faster as he begins to panic.  His panic increases as an armored man dressed in black armor with a grey cloak with light blue lining comes out of the cave.   Ziggy tries to speak to apologize and let him leave but finds he can not even speak.  The man turns him over so as to place him on his shoulder.   Now his heart is racing.  He has red eyes and no lips!   Its either one of those Mockery freaks or an undead creature come to eat him!The undead creature carries him with ease through the entrance into the dark.   He wanders further through the dark until Ziggy can just make out some light…. A fire.“Place the interloper over there government slave.”  Ziggy can not see the man but fears he is worse than the undead that carried him in.  Then the man walks over to Ziggy with rope drawn between his hands as if to garrote him.  He is dressed in black and grey with green trim.  The brooch holding his black cape on is a small green fire roughly in the shape of a clawed hand.  To Ziggy’s discomfort, one eye is white and milky.  Blinded by some past battle.Once tied the man snaps and releases his hand Ziggy finds he can move once more.   “Why have you done this to me?!?  I was merely seeking shelter!”“Changeling,” he states as a fact.  “You have no rite to a shelter.”  The man slaps him.   Holding his now stinging hand, the man returns to his work.  The armored honor guard undead watches.Ziggy takes in his surroundings.  There is a few bags and packs here, a sheathed long sword and few other things of little use.  Once he finishes with his work, he once more holds up his brooch and makes some declarations of command and control over the skeleton.  The Control of undead reconfirmed, he walks back to the Changeling and looks through his traveling pack.Scowling, Ziggy watches as the cleric of the Blood of Vol and member of the Emerald Claw, begins to spill out his pack onto the cavern floor.  He looks most closely at the many glass vials and jars which he examines carefully before lining up in a row.“Sage.”“Thyme?” “Curry”“Blue Mushroom”“Are you a mage or a druid?   Is Thyme used as an ingredient to a Haste spell?   Curry…. To curry a favor… like a charm spell?”The Changeling says nothing.  He merely frowns and honestly, looks like he could cry.“What kind of mage are you?!?” He demands and stands up quickly while drawing back his hand for another strong strike.“The cooking kind!   I’m a Chef!”“a….chef….?”   Ha.   Hah.    Really?   A hah-ha chef!” and he begins to laugh uncontrollably. “And a damned good one too!  I was trained by the Master Chef Talmeo.”“You jest.   I have eaten at his restaurant in Regalport.  It was the very best Yellow Grouper I have ever had.  It was…. Spectacular.”“I worked in that restaurant.  I remained in the kitcken. Learning.”The cleric looks him over carefully.  He is trying to figure out the untrustworthy shape changer.   “You use these as… seasonings?”“Many, yes.”“What would you use on field deer?”“I got a lot in there.    What else could I have?  Veggies?  Potatoes?”The cleric has the look of a man about to do something he knows he shouldn’t.  “Have potatoes, a few canned goods and a fresh deer I stole from a cabin nearby.”“Tenderized venison with crème of berry and potato twice cooked with seasoned cheese.   Maybe a strong drink even.  I have dappled with spirits some.”“Tell me how too.” He says with a hint of desperation.“Can not do.  It is an art.  It is about the mixture and timing of the temperature worked cooking.  I would have to be free to do it.  I could show you then.”Unseen by either, the red pin lights of the skeleton shifts from Changeling to Cleric and back.   He can not do anything but obey the cleric and hope.  Hope for the Changeling whom is playing with fire.Within an hour, Ziggy is cooking away.  Every move is watched and calculated.  The cleric wishes to learn but understands the cook may try a trick on him.“Is it done?”“Almost.  Do you wish to try it?”“Yes but first…..”  the wily and cautious cleric castes a detection spell on the foods.  No poison.     The cleric then has the Changeling try it also, just to be safe.  He digs in and the greedy cleric stops him.  “The food portions are to MY discretion shape changer.”  And he spoons on twice what Ziggy had.  He sighs and sits back…. “and it would go so good with the dessert.”“Dessert?” the cleric says nearly spitting out some of the potato.“I didn’t have a proper kitchen stove so it is slightly burnt …. Makes it darker in color.”The man shovels the last of the sauced venison into his mouth and grabs the apple fraps.  He takes a bite and his face lightens up. “Ahhhhh….. so good.   I can not place the spice.   Not cinnamon…. What is it?”Making up something quick he calls it Pastry Spice- a mix of popular spices.He recasts the control undead again then reties the Changeling.   He apologizes for it but this is the nature of his work.The Changeling sits and winks at the undead.  He wonders what the crafty Changeling has done.About an hour later, just after the cleric has gone to sleep he grunts and his stomach gurgles.  Ziggy shape changes slightly and wiggles free of the not so well tied ropes.Suddenly the cleric’s eyes shoot open and he produces a very foul order from his back side.   He barfs from his own smell.  Ziggy slowly walks over and pokes through the belongings.  “ki…ki….”“What’s wrong?  Cat got your tongue?”Barrrrf…… ki…ki……He picks up a parka and a blanket.   “I thought you would distrust me.   Knew you would have me eat some of it first.  Suspected you would even spell check it for poison.  Funny about how that spell works and cooking in general.”The cleric is about to once more try to command the undead to attack him… to kill him.   He is so sick he cannot even get beyond rolling to his knees.“Master Chef Talmeo taught me many lessons.   Most were how to create the perfect meal.  However, he also knows a few things about mixing seasoning.   See, the venison had a spice in it that grows warmer as it is introduced to an acid.  The “burnt” edges on the dessert that you rudely ate all of was not crispy edges.  It was this…..”  He holds a bottle with a fluid in it.“So…… as I said, I expected a few things from you.  You ate the spice that reacts to acid.  All acids. Even stomach acids.   Temperatures of over 110 cause this,” he holds up the bottle again, “ to become more acidic.  Each feeds on the other making for really bad stomach pains and often sickness.  Which you clearly have.” He pinches his non-existent nose for show.“Now, one has to think……What about the skeletal guy here?   Surely you will become a sore loser and have this Bucket of Bones attack me.   So…. Master Chef Talmeo showed me a few…. Unusual…. Tricks of the trade.   How to silence a mage from casting somatic spells.    A buddy of his (a Black Dog) , showed a few admixtures that again, take time to mix that makes the tongue swell.”  He picks up the sword.  “I have never used one of these before.   Are they hard to learn?   I’m good with cleavers and small knives…. Even tenderizing mallets…..” He turns to the undead.   “I bet if I got you out of here you could teach me.”He picks up the greasy and slightly still hot pan.  Hafting it to measure the weight and feel in his hand, he walks over to cleric with one loud “Bong” he strikes him down.    Not sure if he could drag the armored creature out through the snow, he waits, occasionally “bonging” the cleric if he would stir. Once the spell that controlled the skeleton wears off he is quick to introduce himself.“I am Feldrix Dragor, Honor Guard of Lord Kaius the first.  I will train you in the use of the sword if I may travel with you.”Putting out his hand for shake and smiling like a damned idiot-  “I am Chef Zigland but most people call me Ziggy or even Zig.   Ever been to the Shadow Marches or magical lands?”</blockquote>

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