Today at the bar, there's a couple of Pinque Wing wizards whining (the way they always do), today about being stranded here for the winter, and a pair of kavalaars keeping to themselves. None of them give me a second glance. Good. A little later a red-robed priest walks in. He starts when he sees me, and comes over to talk. It's clear he thinks he knows who I am, but doesn't want to actually say anything. I don't help him by saying much, but instead ask if there's been any excitement in town recently. Apparently there has been, and I've lucked out in happening across a man who likes to hear the sound of his own voice.
A week or so ago, a reaper priestess with a set of reaper paladins came into town, looking for someone named "Marlee", obviously planning on cutting her life short. (I keep my face impassive, and I don't think he noticed that I recognized the name.) This Marlee character was not too impressed, and made quick work of the grunts, slaying all the paladins. The priestess, as you might expect, ran off while her loyal followers were being cut to ribbons, and hid herself somewhere.
The same day (coincidence?) the High One's harpist, and Dorian Hawkmoon show up in town. They with Marlee search out the priestess' hiding place. They dig her out of a New Scientist assassin's lair. The scientist makes his escape, though he loses his gun, but the priestess is condemned, and executed by being dropped into the lake with lead weights attached to her legs. The red-robed priest is pleased to be able to report that he gave all and sundry their last rites.
The priest goes on to relate that some damn fool tries to say "Please, Mister Hawkmoon..." and Hawkmoon deafens everyone with a quick handclap. All the Important Persons eventually leave town, and things have been back to normal since then. I wonder to myself where Marlee went, but it's just as well. I don't really want to get into that level of power games again, at least not yet. I must have missed part of what the priest had been saying, but next time I notice he's back to a month or two back, just before winter started, when the big excitement was the arrival of some Lios Elfar, who came to see the town's sage, another Lios. Within two days of their arrival, the sage left town in haste, abandoning her whole library, but nobody can make anything of it. Who knows why the Lios do anything? The priest says that the whole crowd of elves left town yesterday, leaving behind two humans that had been keeping them company. He lowers his voice to tell me that he's heard it said that the humans have been Sleeping an unnaturally long time... maybe they're..... Dreamers.
I let him babble on for a while longer, till he's telling me how good the crop was last year. Eventually I get myself disentangled from him, and head over to the sage's treehouse. I'm expecting it to be empty, but as I approach I see that some of the priest's information was wrong, or at least out of date. There are a couple of elves active in the treehouse, that much I can see from a distance. Is it Uskar? Is it Ryndall? This is weird. Maybe I should just walk away, but it's just too intriguing to pass up. As I approach the tree, I call out, "Hail, fellow adventurers!"
I'm introduced to Missy, Crimson, and Uskar. One elf and a couple humans are sleeping nearby. They must by Ryndall, Tanri, and Derek. Uskar is paranoiacally unfriendly while Crimson and Missy are overly trusting -- Dreamers for sure! :-)
Missy and Crimson start filling me in on their plan to get the ransom for their kidnapped brother by getting the Ogre Master Control Device from the Hellenes. I keep my silence on my dreams, and just focus on helping them improve the plan by critiquing it.
At one point, Uskar puts on some red spectacles to look at me. I turn and stick my tongue out at him and we inadvertantly make eye contact. He falls down, dying. Missy acts quickly to give him CPR, which saves his life. I don't think they associated the event with me (maybe). I try to cover my surprise by showing concern for him. I'd just about forgotten about that, and I certainly never expected it to happen without conscious intent. It must have been the "True Sight" spectacles.
While he recovers, we continue discussing the plan. Missy will impersonate Jil Sander, and the others will go as her entourage. We arrange for a jeweler to make some korariel-type pins for everyone to wear, which may help prevent accidental social faux pas with the Hellenes. Making the pins takes a week.
Recalling my last encounter with the Hellenes, I'm thinking it might be better for me not to go along on that particular trip. That might just be a bit too much excitement.
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