NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 756967" data-attributes="member: 143">Book VIII, Part 2The common room of The Wandering Fool was already a din of crowded activity, even though it was still a good two hours or so until the sun would complete its journey over the western horizon.  Merchants and their guards, townsfolk, and a miscellany of assorted travelers filled almost every table in the long chamber, which was close and hot despite the hint of afternoon breeze that sifted in through the open windows.  Cal and Dana hesitated in the open doorway, looking around the place.  In truth they had the coin for better lodgings, but with the pace that they had set in the last month, traveling from location to location swiftly both by magical and mundane means, they tended to select inns by expediency rather than comfort as their main criterion.  This place had happened to be near the gate through which they had entered Berdusk late yesterday afternoon, and in any case they had not intended to remain here more than a day.  At least their rooms—the best in the inn, their coin got them that at least—were comfortable and private, taking up the entire second story of the annex that had been built later and attached to the main building.  The innkeeper, a stout dwarven matron wearing a spotless wool apron across her ample frame, noticed them and caught their attention with a gesture from the bar.  “Your friends are in the back room,” she said.  “Would you like to take your supper there?  The others haven’t eaten, yet.”“Yes, thank you,” Cal said absently, already turning to join Dana as she walked deliberately toward the doorway to the back hall.  Several of the patrons glanced at them as they passed by, but one look at their faces was enough to turn them back to their own concerns.  There had been a lot of that, of late; although the companions did not realize it, they had all been transformed by what they had experienced, and now an aura surrounded them, a feeling that boded no casual interference in the quest that they had already tacitly accepted.  Lok looked up as the two entered the private room in the back of the inn, but Benzan, seated in the far corner with his booted feet up on the table, continued to stare down into his mug.  A stray glimmer of light that reflected from the metal fittings on the windowframe caught for a moment at his throat, where the black gemstone amulet they’d taken from the dracolich’s hoard dangled.  Cal had finally identified the item as bearing a potent ward against poison, and with Benzan’s role in their group as scout and lock-opener, they’d all agreed that he was the best person to have it.  Cal closed the door behind him and Dana and moved to the table, pulling himself up onto an oversized chair.  There were a number of sacks tied with leather throngs atop the table, laid out in a long row.  “You were able to find what we need?” he asked. “We got everything and more,” Benzan said.  His voice was already a little slurred—clearly this wasn’t the first ale he’d had this afternoon—and his boots made a loud clop on the stone flagstones of the floor as he dropped them from the tabletop and leaned forward.  “We were richer than I thought; Lok was holding out on us with some extra gemstones, it turns out.”  The warrior did not respond, but Cal shook his head—the idea of Lok deceiving them was ludicrous, but he knew that the tiefling was not really trying to deride the genasi.  He understood, as he too felt that tension that came frequently and tightened his insides, until he felt almost physically sick with it.  Benzan’s behavior was only a reflection of what they’d all felt since that encounter within the fastness of the Sunset Mountains. “The priests of Deneir sold us a dozen healing potions; mostly the low-powered ones, but we bought a few of the moderate-strength ones too.  And another of your healing wands, like you asked for, Cal.  Cost a bundle, but we can afford it, right?  After all, we’re rich.”  He drained his mug and put it down on the table.  “Couldn’t find all the scrolls you wanted, but we got a couple, and two more quivers of magical arrows, and a case of bolts for you and Dana.”  “How did you fare?” Lok asked.  “Did you see the Harper Lady?”“Yes,” Cal said, “and while it looks like we’ll have to stay here another day, it seems like we have a new destination tomorrow.”  With that, he briefly outlined their conversation with Cylyria, and her suggestions about the Oracle and the planar city of Sigil.  “So the Alliance is going to take out Darkhold,” Benzan said.  “Can’t say as those blackhearts don’t deserve it.”  He reached for the empty mug again, then remembered it was empty, and shifted as if to get up. “They’re going to bring us supper in here,” Cal told him, and he sat back down for the moment. “Something still bothers me about all this,” Lok said.  “From what Targos told us, and what we learned from the Asbravners... something doesn’t quite add up about this alliance of evil organizations.  There’s something that we’re missing...”“Cylyria thinks much the same thing, I believe,” Cal said.  “But in any case, it’s not something that we can do anything about...”“Too many loose ends,” Benzan interjected.  “Too many loose ends.  I told you we should have killed that hobgoblin when we had the chance—fool to trust someone who wants you dead...”“Look, we’ve been over this before,” Dana said.  “I didn’t know he’d slip the charm when he did, but even if we did, he and the others were watched, but they still managed to get away.  In any case, I don’t think that they are any threat to anyone, not anymore.” “Yeah, I wouldn’t have thought that a lone adolescent hobgoblin would’ve been much of a threat, either,” Benzan barked back.  “Especially after we killed all his kin in the Wood of Sharp—”“Enough, Benzan,” Cal broke in.  “Give it over.  We’re all tired, and our nerves are frayed enough, without more bickering.  You’re right—there’s a lot of loose ends, and a lot of questions that still need answers.  But we have a more pressing mission now, a goal that we all agreed upon, all swore to.”“Yeah, making a little visit to the Abyss, taking on a Demon Prince on his home turf,” Benzan shot back. For a long moment there was only silence in the confines of the small room.  Dana, Cal, and Lok exchanged glances, while Benzan only stared down at the surface of the table before him.  Finally, Benzan stood, his chair sliding back noisily behind him.“I need another drink,” he said, leaving the room. This time, no one moved to stop him.</blockquote>

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