Bree
Gods, life was miserable. I chugged down more orange juice as dad refilled my goblet. It helped little in actually cleansing the taste of that vile concoction clogging my mouth and throat even an hour after those damn kids had force-fed it to me.
Had I been perhaps a little too ruthless and rough with the kids? In retrospect perhaps, but the kids were clearly a lot more competent than we had originally expected. That whole bait and run leading into using that found rope as a tripwire was inspiring, a technique we might have to use ourselves in the future. Then it seemed like some actually had a modicum of training, they at least kept up somewhat early on with my swings too.
So I let loose a little more, normally not an issue with our normal faire of foes, but I did swing a bit too seriously with sending the sprogs flying, and they took offense to that. Still, who thinks to try and forcibly drown a troll by force-feeding it acid?
And so I sat upon my thankfully comfy throne that was sadly unseen during the actual adventure, my entire character introduction and lines skipped over out of efficiency. I think Aelar was the most put out by it though, with how the poor dwarf sulked off to the side playing idly with his “weasel”. At least he got that part of the act out of the event.
It was just us three, me, Aelar, and my dad fretting over me like he did when I got sick all those years ago. Of course, now I was a good bit bigger than I was back then. I think he may have been putting off having to use magic to fix up some of the stuff that I bro- that got damaged during the events of the adventure. Knowing how to magically mend damaged clothes and other knick knacks was convenient, but once you revealed you could do it suddenly everyone was begging you to use all that knowledge and training for their convenience instead.
Thinking about my difficulty in actually following in his footsteps on climbing the “staircase of knowledge” reminded me that it was one of the larger disappointments I had probably left him with, much as I tried. What little I had gleaned was of a practical nature, tricks to help me in fights or on the rare occasions dad wasn’t around to cast his wide array of spells.
My introspection and suffering were interrupted by our final two companions finally joining us. It’d somehow been nearly half the hour before they had finished with their tasks before finally joining us for the big after-event meeting.
Miri led the way opening the door, shuffling along exhausted from her job of dealing with healing all the bruises both the kids and our trolls likely suffered. Neither group had been entirely gentle in their treatment, which was why I was glad we had the priest along to help smooth over any issues to be raised because of it. Much of a weirdo as she was to be a city girl worshipping the big daddy of the wilds, she’d patched me and the others up enough I had stopped questioning her over it.
Ekemon walked behind her, distractedly writing in that notebook of his with his long red tiefling tail swishing behind him. He was attractive to some, but too bookish and slim for her liking. The horns and such didn’t bother her as much as many, and despite the common tales of devil-blooded individuals had dealt alongside them fairly and reliably. He was probably writing down notes he wanted to touch on for the meeting, the boring details that he felt would need addressing. She’d leave those to be talked about by her dad, with how much it sucked to talk for the moment.
Their arrival signalled to Aelar that it was meeting time though, so he slunk further into the room dragging a chair along. Ekemon and Miri found their own as well, but dad stood by my throne ready to help refill my drink or feed me grapes. If I wasn’t so miserable I would have perhaps taken more joy in how the seating arrangement felt like they were my subordinates rather than my party.
“So we can all safely agree that the kids went well off script, yes?” And somehow my mood became worse with Ekemon’s opening statement, a bit of tact would have been well appreciated.
I tried to speak up, but all it resulted in was a groan and coughing fit from me. I could only hope it got my displeasure across, whatever concoction Ekemon had procured as a stand in for that ‘acid’ was absolutely vile, I doubt actual consumption had ever actually been a consideration beyond ‘how do we make sure stupid kids don’t try to drink it’, but I’d have to get him back somehow later on.
“At least my acting with my familiar went over well,” Aelar spoke up, the creature in question jumping and wriggling between his hands, “even if all that practice and planning for the illusory effects upon their entrance went to waste. They seemed quite convinced by your combined work though. You taught her well enough, Merric.”
“The orange might be a little different from the apple tree, but she still enjoys its shade.” And there’s dad embarrassing me again with a chuckle from the peanut gallery. We were quite the eclectic pair to most. Merric stood at a mighty two and a half feet tall, his braided grey beard nearly reaching a third of that in length and dressed up in all sorts of colourful and embroidered clothing. He looked the model wizard if you didn’t mind his height too much. I, on the other hand, stood at a bit over six feet tall normally. Hair pulled back into a braided ponytail and I wore practical leathers much of the time with a big ol axe strapped to my back.
Of course, that appearance was quite prone to changing thanks to my grasp on illusion magic. Certainly not to the degree Aelar had focused on, and even without much focus on it dad had me beat. Even so, it was plenty enough for my half of the “troll”. Perhaps a bit too convincing, given the kids’ reaction to what they probably thought was a genuine article.
Ever the busybody though, Ekemon moved on to the actual points to be made. “Well, much as there’s likely plenty of discussion to be had about how off the rails it went, I think it best we start from the beginning of things. Merric, we ought perhaps to make an addition to the safety speech telling the kids that any strange liquids acquired are not meant for consumption unless explicitly stated. For safety's sake.” Oh fuck right off with that, right as you are you bastard.
Dad just stroked his beard in that ‘old mysterious wizard’ way he loved to do with others. It was hard to take it as seriously after he confessed to me how much he loved the aesthetic of it. Not that I could blame him though, I’d likely do the same in his shoes. “Hmmm yes, that is likely for the best, even if today was likely more of an exception than anything. They’ll likely presume the other kids did such a thing as well, so hardly suspect.”
Ekemon nodded along and jotted down another small note before moving on, “Excellent, next on the docket would be the riddles then. The kids splitting up was expected, but thankfully both groups proved decent at actually solving them.”
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“I’m a bit surprised they did, I’m fairly certain a number of us would have struggled to solve and find a few of those.” Miri making what was likely intended as a slight dig at me would have normally warranted a response, but honestly? I was actually one of the better in the group at solving them. Most were derived from local landmarks that were actually somewhat familiar. “Do we want to try and dumb any of them down or assume this group wasn’t an outlier?”
“They knew much, but not so much more than many locals are likely to. I can have my familiar and maybe Ekemon trail behind any groups to watch for struggle.” Aelar cut it, with a fairly reasonable suggestion. Mostly because it made Ekemon actually work during the event rather than just be organizing.
“A reasonable suggestion, if there are no objections.” Ekemon said with a sigh, “Merric, I assume you’ll be repairing some of the ‘loot’ that was damaged? I’m fairly certain Bree managed to crack or break a few of them.”
“Aye Ekemon, I’ll be doing that a bit later once Bree’s back on her feet. Got to fix up that door frame too. Hope you don’t mind skipping those crates though, pain in the ass to deal with all the bits.”
“That should be fine, we have an off day before we actually start running it proper after all.” Ekemon responded with that winning smile of his.
“Actually I have a question, how in the hells did you manage to get Durnan personally to help out as one of the stations? Old man is normally so taciturn and private about things.” Miri asked. I hadn’t actually thought much of it, I’d only been to the Yawning portal a few times, and it was normally the waitresses I’d deal with rather than the legendary bartender and adventurer.
“Oh, that?” Ekemon answered bashfully, “I managed to win in a bet with him. Originally I doubt he was expecting ‘a small favour that doesn’t require you to leave the bar’ to be helping us out like that, but he warmed up to the idea after a bit of buttering him up. Helping teach the youth and give them a memorable experience and that sort of thing.”
Miri was nodding at the explanation, finding it satisfactory. “Well in that case let's get to the troll in the room,” Hardy har har you bitch, “Aelar, good job on the weasel druid act. I was talking to the kids afterwards and they totally bought it, told them we just used some pig’s blood and he’d be all healed up.”
“An unnecessary deception at that juncture, though it warms my heart they held such investment for the injured.” Aelar stroked his beard as the weasel in question scurried into his collar. It was always weird when he did that weird moralizing thing, did it more than the cleric even. He claimed it was due to some connection to the celestial or something, I wasn’t actually sure of the details even if I could probably ask dad to explain it to me.
“I guess we’re just lucky none of them know how druid wildshaping actually works so they had the initial buy in. Normally they aren’t actually able to talk.” Miri cut back, jealous of him stepping on her mystic shtick?
“I wouldn’t expect most in the age group we’re actually working with to know that sort of thing,” Ekemon countered, “since it’s mostly all urban kids with working class parents, none of them to my knowledge has connections to related clergy or the parks. Miri, what’s the state of the kids and actors, nothing that won’t be healed by tomorrow, yes?”
“Everyone other than Bree was fine afterwards, just some bruises. A few prayers to heal those around me cleared all that up. She’ll have to flush out that mixture herself though. Maybe try flushing it out with salt water?” Well damn, Miri actually gave a half-decent suggestion if that works out. I’d have to ask dad to help mix together some after the meeting. Pretty sure there was some bags of salt somewhere down here…
“That makes for an easy segway,” Ekemon clapped, “to the actual bulk of the discussion needed, the actual battles with the trolls. I think we can all agree the first encounter went as intended?”
“Aye, though knowing that this test group might be a bit more capable than most, perhaps we ought to reduce the opening number to two.” Aelar would have had the best idea of how that went, being the only one there to see thanks to that familiar. Miri was able to ask about it afterwards with Ekemon, but that’s not quite a true substitute for seeing the difficulty with your own eyes, even if they weren’t actually his. “They solved nearly every riddle we had prepared so were well equipped, and they had a plan. Reducing the number so it’s a three to one ratio for the kids is probably better to ease them into things.”
“That’s probably a good call for balancing things,” dad spoke up after tossing another grape into my mouth, I was getting good at catching them, “though you bring up quite a good point in that the group was quite capable. That younger girl with the black hair, whatever her name was, was the one to come up with that plan to lead the other trolls into the room, yes?”
“Know her name is Tayvra, younger sibling to Pelsot. He was the one with the Flametongue. The logic she presented for the gamble of leading them all into a trap was quite sound, and clearly paid off.” Aelar informed us.
I took a swig of the orange juice before finally struggling to speak up, “What’s her deal anyway, I thought the group was mostly the kids of the local dockworkers and fishermen. She solved most of her group’s puzzles and strategized better than we do half the time.”
“I actually asked them a bit about her afterwards,” said Miri, “Same background as the others, but apparently spends a lot of her time over in the Font of Knowledge and associated public libraries reading books and studying. Beyond her relationship with her brother, she got invited along for, and I quote them here, ‘being the biggest book reader and so she’s good for riddles’. I don’t think any of them were expecting the strategic side too when they actually reached the dungeon and expected her to be closer to dead weight.”
There was a moment of silence at that. Dead weight? Really? I’d have to make sure to remember her name for the future. The kid was likely to be a menace when she grew up.
Aelar was the first to break it though, using his more normal voice when he wasn’t being weirdly mysterious, “She was the one to plan out the door ambush and using the rope to trip over the trolls, as well as the one to bait out Bree at the end to get buried under the boxes to restrain her. With how she baited you I’m surprised you didn’t swat her for it.”
If my face wasn’t already pale and a bit sickly looking I probably would have blushed, “I tried to, she was slippery.”
Ekemon raised his hands as if to ask for a pause, the others also looked a bit surprised by the admission. “Wait a second, like you tried to casually or like, tried tried to hit her?”
I sighed, then regretted it as it made my throat hurt even more when I coughed and I had to take a moment to take a few breaths to ease it. “Tried tried. Kid was slippery, ducking a lot of my swings. I doubt the rest of you would have had much better luck. I know Aelar didn’t have a great view since the kid he was with was prepping the pile. Pretty sure she also saw through the illusion, that or she just wasn’t afraid to possibly be fighting a real troll.”
Ekemon whistled, which ended up being a bit too loud for the headache I had with how it echoed in the room. If I wasn’t paying attention I could have believed he used magic to enhance it or something. “That’s… quite the achievement for a seven year old, on both of those statements. You don’t think she was using magic right? Kid must have a screw loose, but then why would the other kids have thought her just a bookworm if she could pull something like that off?”
Miri jumped a little in her seat, looking like she had some sort of epiphany. “That’s it! I knew she seemed a little familiar. When I was at the Shrines of Nature trading some gossip with some of the other priests there, one of them mentioned there being something weird going on in the area when a young black-haired girl showed up to collect flowers during one of the festivals. They also said…”