"89!" One of the receptionists yelled and Chess glanced down at the number on the bar before them and sighed. It hadn't changed from 103 in the few minutes since the last call. This is going to take forever.
The place held a surprising number of people, speaking a surprising number of languages, only two of which she understood. I guess this should've been obvious. I bet most races have multiples of their own and if I include rift cultures it could be damn near infinite. Maybe I shouldn't worry so much about teaching English to my friends openly.
Taking a large pull from her hoppy beer she took another casual glance around the bar area filled with people waiting their turn. This is kinda genius, if the DMV back home served beer they’d make a killing. Then again, the cops would just wait outside for you to drive away.
She sighed as some of the tension left her shoulders with the reminder she’d no longer have to worry about such things and as her mind moved further from the horrors of the last few days.
She spent some time studying the people around her. The diversity in the large room far outstripped what she’d seen outside, though there were more than a few dwarves, and she was treated to the sight of many intelligent fantasy creatures she’d heard of and a few more besides. No dragons though, not even the draconians Amber mentioned. The closest was a pair of blue-skinned Kobolds arguing with a dwarven receptionist over a large hairy corpse that Chess hadn't seen before. Some bear-goat-like creature.
The weathered dark-skinned dwarf caught her gawking, and she raised her tankard in a silent salute before turning her gaze elsewhere, doing her best to keep a look of bored curiosity on her face.
After a time she grew tired of people watching and glanced at her quiet companions who didn’t seem in a chatting mood. With a shrug and beer in hand, she ducked into her vault to retrieve Sprig.
Which she immediately thought may have been a mistake. An incredible amount of attention was suddenly fixed on her.
Oh right, bards are rare. Chess had a sudden urge to slap herself in the forehead but resisted. Instead, she smiled, moved to the far end of the bar, settled Sprig in her lap, and played a few riffs to get warmed up before slipping into 'I want to hold your hand' because she wanted something cheerful.
"Typical flowery elven drivel," a rather obese dwarf at a nearby table snorted dismissively. He was literally wider than he was tall and bedecked in red and green suede. He looks like a short and fat Santa Claus.
Both Gia and Amber laid their hands on their weapons.
"Freya, save me from idiots," Chess rolled her eyes and muttered before turning fully to the offender.
She gave him the finger and said, "sit on it and spin, you Santa wanna-be. Did your mother dress you? Because you can totally pull off a troll’s veiny prick." In case he didn't understand her gesture.
“Come say that to my face, you twiggy slant-ear!” Santa Claus had turned a satisfying shade of red, and Chess was happy to see his companions were keeping him in check.
Chess raised an eyebrow. “I thought I just did?”
“She has you there, Brogu,” another of the dwarf’s companions said. “Now, sit down! If you piss off the bard, you’ll have us fighting half the people in here.” He smiled encouragingly at Chess.
His female dwarven companion chortled with the rest of their table. "At least you have spunk, Elfy. Do you know anything more...militant?" she asked with a crooked grin.
Chess wanted to laugh. Most of these people don't realize what music can be. She'd heard more than a few local songs now. The most impressive was what she’d call sea shanties and marching songs. Even orchestrated music didn't exist yet outside rumors of the elven capital that Kan spoke of. A few of what Kan called mage songs were good but had effect-tailored lyrics and tone.
"No, I don't, but give me a few minutes to come up with something," Chess said dryly.
She found herself smiling as she set Sprig aside, setting her to playback the last song, and took out writing material. She'd been wanting to try something.
A few patrons seemed to take a more detailed interest in her instrument, moving closer, and both Amber and Gia shifted to block them from approaching.
A handful of the others were making an attempt to sing the song softly.
Behind Chess, the bartender spoke when one man wasn’t deterred. "There will be no problems, right Adarsh?"
"Oh, aye, that's a pretty instrument is all," the rail-thin man with a scarred face and fox ears, and flat gray eyes said, raising his hands before finding his seat again.
Amber relaxed a notch, moving into something that resembled parade rest, while Chess played part of her intended song into Sprig's memory before summoning another guitar.
With her best mock bow to her heckler Chess said, "Now, you'll have to forgive my lack of a drummer or proper instruments for this. It's meant to have a lot more...impact."
That said she cranked up Thump and Amplify and started Sprig's playback, then began to play the counterpoint before belting out the lyrics, stomping and kicking the bar behind her for a beat. It had a satisfying hollow bass sound. Soon a handful of partons were stomping in time with her.
"’ Watch your tongue, I'll have it cut from your head’…" She thought the first line was particularly fitting.
Halfway through the heckler and his companions were openly gawking at her.
What I wouldn't give for a drum machine and proper e__ guitar. The broken thought made her frown. She could envision it perfectly, even how it sounded. The word simply wouldn't come.
After finishing the song she thought, I'm an idiot. Summoning a kick-drum.
"I'm not sure that was a wise choice, my lady," Amber interjected in a harsh whisper.
"They ate it up," Chess waved her off, even Brogu seemed to approve. She picked up Sprig and launched into another song she'd translated before. It took most of the first two songs to get reacquainted with the drum. She hadn't used one since high school and she’d been adequate at best with it.
A few songs later she noted a young human woman collecting a group and pointing to an open receptionist.
Huh. I guess they don't want to interfere. She nodded to the bartender as he refilled her mug, and she drank half of it.
A few patrons had even found paper and quills and were no doubt copying the songs. Chess just shrugged. They're not my songs.
A few people asked for specific songs and largely Chess had to admit she didn't know them. Instead, she let them give her topics and she searched Musical Memory for something that fit. The bartender kept her glass full and she found herself having fun for the first time in recent memory.
It turned into a game with the patrons challenging her with obscure topics but she had no problem finding a song that at least seemed to cover a topic.
When a young man asked for something to do with sex, half the patrons groaned but Chess laughed. "That can be most songs, but I think I have just the thing."
This gathered an even larger groan from her growing crowd. The bar area quickly filled with people coming from both the street outside and the hallways at the rear of the room. Amber and a few others, including the cat-kin guard from the front door, had set up a loose semi-circle of free space around her place against the bar. Most of the beer service had moved to the far end away from her.
Chess winked at the young man. "I promise you've never heard this one," she said before launching into 'Girl from Oklahoma' with a few word changes, which got more than a few laughs, groans, and cringes from her audience.
"Okay folks, I'm sorry to interrupt but I believe it's their turn. But if you ask nicely she may consider continuing when they're done," the bartender said before Chess could start another song.
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More than a few patrons booed the bartender but then laughed good naturally when Chess shrugged noncommittally as she and Amber collected their things and made for the dwarf who'd been helping the Kobolds earlier. Gia eyed the two guild guards by the receptionists then elected to stay at the bar and nurse the half-full small beer she’d purchased, to begin with.
The din in the room was considerably louder than when they had arrived and most people seemed content to linger and drink.
"How can I help you, ladies?" The salt and pepper-haired dwarf didn't look up from the ledger he wrote in.
"We would like to join the delver's guild," Chess said.
"Qualifications?"
"Qualifications?" Chess mimicked him.
The dwarf sighed, looked up, and gave her a flat appraising look. He left no question that he found her wanting. "Military experience? Delvers for parents? Hunters? Other fighting experience? We don't as a rule let just anyone buy fancy armor and jump into a rift to commit suicide. If you're looking to die, join a mercenary company. They'll oblige you and if you live you might learn something. If you'll take my advice, I'd say stick to the music, you have the beginnings of a real talent there. It's a much safer way of leveling."
At a loss for words, Chess scowled at the grey-bearded asshole.
"No? Is that all? There are others waiting in line." He looked past her. What a miserable...
"We have what we believe are delver heads to turn in?" Chess's statement turned into a question under the dwarf’s returning stare.
He raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Oh? So you think you can apply the brainless idiotic stupid halfwitted foolish crazy person clause to join my guild?"
The string of adjectives made Chess snort despite herself.
"Crazy person clause?" Amber asked.
"Meritorious service? I think they called it. You know? Where a couple of untrained dolts find a rift and ask themselves, 'how hard can it be?' Then proceed to die painfully, if they're lucky?"
"Maybe?" Chess tucked her hair behind her ear and looked at Amber, as she shifted onto her heels.
The old dwarf swallowed audibly and when Chess turned back to him his whole demeanor had done a 180. He looked like a cloud, all whites, and grays. Sweat had broken out on his brow.
What the hell?
Standing up unsteadily he leaned closer to Chess. "Lass," he said in a hoarse whisper. "Where did you find," he coughed, "them?"
"Them?" Chess tilted her head in question, glancing at Amber again.
"Mind and Body," he said with a touch of some emotion Chess couldn’t quite parse, something between hope and grief, raising his hand towards the side of Chess's head before jerking it down when Amber stepped forward to block him.
"Master dwarf, I suspect your answer can be found in what brought us here. If you would forgive my lady, she's not accustomed to strong ale and is more intoxicated than she realizes, I believe I can explain," Amber interjected calmly.
The dwarf eyed Chess critically for a moment before nodding slowly and focusing on Amber. "Talk."
Amber turned to Chess with a frown of disappointment. "Would you retrieve the remains while I explain, my lady?"
Chess nodded emphatically and summoned her vault. Thank Freya, that was a cluster fuck, she thought as she stepped inside. She wanted to slap the side of her head in frustration. The dwarf had reminded her too much of Gramps when he steamrolled you.
She pulled the extra dryad wood from each block, leaving the plain ironwood box, while in her vault, before taking each head out and stacking them beside the desk.
Her head swam a little when she stepped out the first time, and she had to admit Amber might have been right.
She caught snippets of the conversation, including something about a skystone notice more than once, as she worked but found herself grateful for the task. The handful of beers she'd drank in the last hour quickly caught up to her and without the hidden boon of her Sea Legs perk she was sure she'd be stumbling about. Her telling the story would have been terrible.
When she set the twentieth box on the stack she stopped to…take stock. The dwarf had been joined by another two people, a female dwarf who took each box to a side room before returning with an amulet and a mixed humanoid—Chess couldn’t begin to guess at the species that encompassed his family tree—that had a stack of ledger books he was ruffling through.
Amber had wrapped up her explanation and was haggling a price for the headboxes of all things. The old dwarf looked to have aged a decade–or would that be a handful of decades in dwarven years?–but still managed a spirited haggle. Why isn't she just giving in? It's not like we need the ironwood, Chess wondered.
That's when Chess noticed the silence and looked behind her. A cold shiver ran down her neck when she found nearly the entire crowd standing at attention with their eyes fixed on her. Not two steps behind where she worked. Only Gia and a few others remained in their seats. How the hell did I miss that? she wondered.
No, that's not true, she corrected herself when she traced their gazes to the man with the ledgers. The lack of even whispers was eerie.
Chess found herself crowding closer to Amber and the dwarven receptionist paused to frown at the crowd.
"Back up," he said in a soft but commanding voice. Magic clung heavily to his words.
It was all Chess could do not to move back more than two steps despite knowing his ability hadn't targeted her.
The effect on the rest of the room was surreal as almost half of the patrons quickly rediscovered their seats. A few even left entirely, the heavy doors slamming behind them. While the rest took two smooth steps backward. Only the cat-kin, back on his stool at the door, seemed unfazed by the skill.
A heavier silence descended until the dwarf said "thank you," then turned his attention back to Chess. "If you would continue, young lady?"
Chess swallowed and nodded before ducking back into her vault. Thankful to escape the room of people studiously watching them. How bloody powerful is he? she wondered.
The female dwarf took the 29th box from her and Chess said, "that's it."
When the dwarf woman returned from the back she looked relieved. "It's from last year. He's not here," she said, handing the amulet to the ledger man.
"But his entire team is. He wouldn't give up Body and Mind or his hammer if he were alive," the old dwarf countered.
"We could have missed him. Only Dent is left, and I'm not sure if I should take him out here," Chess said, looking from one to the other then the silent crowd. Wait, didn't Dent have the hammer?
"Jax, your brother, was he a full-blood dwarf too?" Amber asked.
Chess's mouth went dry at the word brother.
Jax shook his head. "Half bear-kin."
"Damn, it has to be Dent. Uh, he's sorta not… that is," Chess fumbled for an explanation before Amber took over.
"He's a powerful undead we were keeping to train willpower," Amber explained.
Jax gave them a sharp nod before looking over her shoulder. "Chandan? A minute if you would? The rest of you, Lidya, will post a list in a minute. Family costs will be tallied before opening tomorrow."
The sound of departing feet filled the room.
A tall cat-kin man in a tailored vest and capri pants appeared and moved around to stand in front of them. His eyes found Amber and fixed in place. "What can I do for you, ladies?" His smile showed sharp teeth.
"Undead suppression," Jax said flatly.
"Of course. Whenever you're ready." Chandan didn't take his eyes off, Amber.
Chess shook her head, brushed her fingers into Amber's for a fleeting second, then stepped into her vault to retrieve Dent's delimbed skeleton.
"I see why you nicknamed him Dent," an ever flatter business-like mask had fallen over Jax's features as he pulled the amulet from around the skeleton's neck.
Chess shook off the fear aura then swallowed, "Is?"
"Aye, lass, it's his. Chandan, could you?" Jax stared at the amulet in his hand for a long minute before setting it reverently next to the others.
"Of course," Chandan said, before reciting a short chant that immediately suppressed Dent's aura.
Chess coughed. "I… I have his limbs in another box. We were thinking of maybe having him repaired, for well, that doesn't matter anymore," she explained with a bit of a wince and shrug.
Jax forced a smile, "I think he would have appreciated being useful to the young delvers. But if you have his limbs, someone like Chandan here would pay a small fortune for him."
Chess hesitantly matched his smile. "He was your brother…" His statement left her feeling unbalanced again. The sheer practically surprised her.
"Still, your intent was to use him as a bonded creature was it not?"
Chess nodded.
"That leaves me in a bit of a web. The guild laws are clear on this. As you acquired him legitimately." Chess frowned and Jax explained further. "You obviously didn't kill him, as he's been like this for at least a few centuries. Not to mention you both believe everything you've said since you started talking to me. You took him without ending his undeath and he's been bonded at least once already."
"He's still your brother. In my book you have more right to him than I ever could," Chess protested.
"My brother is dead. His skeleton holds value. A value neither I nor my sister-in-law can possibly match right now even if we were willing to end his undeath and harvest him. Which would be a waste. If you were to give him to us I'd owe you an honor debt I'm not sure I can repay."
"What about the bounty money for bringing him back?" Chess asked.
"Doesn't apply until he's no longer undead," Amber interjected.
Looking at the hammer at her side Chess said, "I could…"
"No!" Both Chandan and Jax cut her off.
"Alright," Chess raised her hands.
Chess looked to Amber. "Undead aren't really my area of expertise. What am I missing? Why are these two being so squirrelly?"
"It's rare to find old unmodified undead with good pyth and cores, it's even rarer to know exactly what they have without very particular skills. There are whole dynasties running off the undead of their forefathers for this very reason. The fact that he knows, we know, he knows that, means we could charge him a lot. That and Ashley could get better use now that we know he's worth investing abilities into," Amber explained.
"This is getting to be too much of a headache for me. I think we're making out like bandits on these others already, right? Can't we do a trade instead?" Chess asked. "I'd feel horrible keeping or selling his brother to someone else." She looked to Amber for her agreement.
Jax eyed her warily. "What kind of trade?"
"Since you think so little of my potential fighting abilities. How good are you with that hammer? Or say a spear?" Chess smiled and nodded at the familiar-looking weapon leaning against the dwarf’s desk.
Jax smiled for the first time, and Chess wanted to take back her words.