[Cuchulain82]

After the skirmish with the orcs and the cache they discovered on the original orc corpses, Setanta and Snirf had more armament in the cart than they could ever use. Surprisingly, Setanta found the cart fairly comfortable. It was small- surely the gnome hadn’t built it for a person his size- but the ride was very smooth. And with the chest of holding, there was never a shortage of space, although Snirf did seem to be quite the packrat. He would have stripped the orc bodies down to their loincloths if Setanta had let him, but eventually Setanta convinced him that while, yes, missile ammunition was a valuable asset, there was no need to bring the spears (longspears, in fact, not even suitable for throwing!) from every corpse! Furthermore, it was dark, and they needed to get to town more than they needed several dozen sets of “slightly used” leather armor sized for an orc.

“Why did you jump out of the duo-cyclic-all-terrain-war-cart during the battle?” Snirf asked, killing time.

“It’s the way I do things in a fight. I like to keep my enemies close.” Setanta replied.

“Humph” the gnome retorted, “I like to keep my enemies far away from me and on fire!” A glint appeared in Snirf’s eyes as he said the word fire.

The night dragged on, and Snirf and Setanta talked to kill the time.

“Where are you from?” Snirf asked, “And who are your people?”

“Well, I’m originally from the East, from a city on the Western shores of the Moonsea. As for my people, well, I’m sort of an oddity… I don’t really have any.” Setanta wasn’t sure how to bring up his mixed heritage, so he changed the subject.

“How did you get to the surface? You’re far from your people too.”

This sent Snirf into a storm of incomprehensible muttering. “Ohhh, the fire was sooooo big… blah blah blah! They didn’t understand the test! Who knew books were so flammable!…” Setanta wasn’t sure exactly what Snirf was talking about, but Snirf was working himself into a visible fury, with little licks of flame spirting off his fingertips and dots of mind-energy sparking in the air.

Just when Setanta was really starting to get worried about the Gnome torching the entire cart, Windhaven came into view. The town was easy to make out in the distance, a definitive point of light in a dark night.

Setanta was happy at the thought of a bed and a bath. The thought of barmaids and taverns made him happier.

“Let’s make our way to town with haste. There are a few Inns in town and maybe we can get a few hours sleep before sunrise.”

They made it past the night watch and into town, but not without considerable talking to the night guard. While the guard didn’t know if cart-pulling lizards were allowed in town, a substantial sum of gold swayed his decision. Setanta was pretty sure that the guard didn’t have any idea how he would keep them out of town anyway, had they been intent on entering.

“Let’s head towards the center of town” Setanta said to Snirf “There’s an Inn there called the Lady’s Blessing. It always has an open room for the right price, even at this time of night.”

Finding the Inn was no problem- it was the only place in that part of town that still had a bustle about it at that time of night. Setanta had been to Windhaven before, and knew enough to know that if you wanted to sleep you could should stay at the Lady’s Blessing. If you wanted rumors or a fight, go to Hanging Door alehouse.

As they came to the front of the Lady’s Blessing, Snirf piped up,

“I think we should leave the cart out front for the moment. Nhutcluk is very particular about his accommodations and we shall have to speak to the innkeeper about this.”

Setanta wasn’t about to argue with him- What are they going to do with that big lizard anyway?, he thought- so they walked in to the Inn through the main door. Setanta took a look around and what he saw made his hear skip a beat. Across the room, in a corner sitting by himself, was someone Setanta had seen only once, but that had been enough.

“I know that man” Setanta said to Snirf.

“Which one?” the gnome replied, “The thin, tired-looking person in over there? With the dark hair?”

“Yes, him.” Setanta answered. “I have seen him fight. I watched him cut through a swarm of Zhentarium mages, killing them as if he was Kelvemor incarnate. His blade whirled and danced, and he grimaced with every spell they threw at him but none ever seemed to have an effect.”

“You saw this and lived to tell about it?” Snirf was getting interested.

“Yes. I was young then, barely even a man. I was a veteran of the pits, but had never been outside the walls of my city. I was with my master, escorting a group of mage underlings who served him on a training errand. We became lost and turned around in the fall of night, and we stumbled on a campfire in the woods. Zhent mages are a vicious lot, and they decided that they would turn their misfortune of being lost into an opportunistic kill. They marched into the firelight, sizing up the lone inhabitant.

My master and I were following them to help in the robbery when he grabbed me and dragged me to the ground. ‘This is an ill-omen!’ he said, ‘I know this man, and for mages he is death walking. We must flee!’

At that point it was too late for the magelings. One thought to paralyze the man with a Hold spell, and then rob him and kill him slowly. As soon as the first spell was thrown, the battle was both begun and ended. It took him no time to dispatch those weak mages, and I was afraid of that man for weeks after. I asked my master what the name of that warrior was, and how he could shrug off magic so easily. My master said only that he was the 'Stalker of all who manipulated the arcane energy', and that he could 'smell the magic in the very blood of all mages.’

I don’t know if he saw me and my master hiding in the weeds, or if he noticed when we teleported away.”

“Wait, you worked with the Zhents?!” Snirf asked, suddenly putting the missing pieces together.

“No, well not really” Setanta answered back, still watching the thin man, “I was raised as property of my master, a powerful member of the organization. But that is not important.”

“Well, then what IS important?” Snirf snapped back. He was tired and wanted to get to the point.

“Well,” Setanta responded, “I think the Stalker has just noticed us.”