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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 1261973" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Draelond #9] The Worst Laid Plans[/PLAIN]And as you're about the see, these guys aren't particularly interested in making it easy for him.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> --------------------------------"My name is..." Draelond stopped himself short and swallowed the surge of anger that had risen from his gut. He looked at Harcourt and loosened the tension from his face. "It... it's going to take some getting used to," he sighed."Sir Alechtus of Gudiberg..." the halfling said with a great deal more pomp and circumstance in his voice than he needed. There was applause from the two as-yet unseen members of Harcourt's entourage. The halfling smiled winningly and bowed at them before addressing Draelond once more."I'm just saying... you could have done worse," he explained. "I mean, you could have ended up a half-orc or a bugbear or something. You lucked out to be honest. The parchment we read from suggested trying the whole process out on a grimmelfish first. Lucky for you we didn't have time."The woman exchanged glances with one of the others. The look on her face made it clear to Draelond that she didn't know if Harcourt was joking or not.Draelond smiled a bit and was happy that he had at least that much control over his muscles. He thought under different circumstances that he could have taken a liking to Harcourt."So I am to parade around... around... wherever I am.." Draelond began and Harcourt nodded. "...pretending to be someone I know absolutely nothing about..." Harcourt nodded "...in a place where I know nobody." Harcourt nodded again."Now you've got the idea," the halfling grinned and gave Draelond a playful nudge on the shoulder. His face fell when he saw that Draelond wasn't smiling back."Surely you've thought this plan through a little better than that?" the warrior asked looking closely at Harcourt's eyes, waiting for his answer, trying to determine how much of what he heard was to be believed. To his surprise he found that he had no trouble believing Harcourt's response at all."Um. No. Not really," he said, making an exaggerated production of thinking. "That's about it.""And that seems like a good plan to you?" Draelond asked."It seems like a good plan to me," Chemb said, dully and Harcourt shushed him."You're not helping, Chemb," the woman said."Sorry," Chemb replied."I told you we should have saved his stuff," the other woman said and Harcourt snapped at her."And what would we have paid Skyfox with?" the halfling asked. "The money you gambled away in the Merchant's District?"The woman made a huffing sound and said in a sulky voice, "How was I to know he was a Fatespinner?""The holy symbol of Lukane might have been a clue!" the human woman said smugly."That's it!" the other woman said angrily. "When I'm through with you, people won't be able to tell the difference between your face and a troll's butt!""Just try it, shorty," the human woman replied with a laugh. "Although, I'm sure at your size you're awfully familiar with people's butts!" The other woman roared angrily."Enough, Resseka," Harcourt intervened. "You know how much Claret hates short jokes. And they grate on me as well after a while. Why don't you two entertain yourselves in the market. They should be just setting up right about now, and it's still fairly dark. I'm sure the two of you can find some way to amuse yourselves."The human woman nodded and slid out of Draelond's sight. "Good idea," she said. "I'm getting bored here anyway. Nice to see you again, Sir Alechtus." Her laughter trailed her out of the room."Now. Where were we?" Harcourt pondered then thrust his finger at the ceiling. "Right! I was getting ready to tell you that you're pretty much on your own from here on out.""What?" Draelond tried to process."My associates and I have places that we need to be, but you're welcome to stay here," Harcourt said with a wave. "I'm afraid there's not much left with any portable value, but you'll have the run of the place, at least until the guy who owns it gets back."</blockquote>

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