Deep Waters Still Running
Friday, February 2nd, 2007A few days into the seige of Fordham, Delphine decided to take the bull by the horns and ask Blake, the wizard, about the possible location of a dragon, on the pretense of wishing to avoid it.
“Subtle,” commented Cha-rul’s player.
Delphine merely quirked an eyebrow, as if to say, what in our time together has led you to believe that subtlety is something I do?
Not surprisingly, she was spectacularly unsuccessful in extracting the dragon’s whereabouts from the wizard. She was, however, amazingly well-informed about the concept of compound interest after a long conversation with Niall.
That evening at dinner, Baron Fordham requested that the various remaining performers from the Greatest Show on Yrth take on missions particularly suited to their talents. In return for information about the location of a nearby dragon, they agreed. Delphine was asked to scout along the underground aquaduct and “deal with” anything that might disrupt the city’s water supply.
“That’s fine,” she said, “but I’ll have to wait at least an hour after eating.”
“But…don’t you eat underwater?” The Baron looked puzzled.
Dryfolk have no sense of humor.
Still, she agreed to the mission readily enough. Given that it’s winter, and therefore the water was likely to be uncomfortably cold, she took the precaution of coating herself with a protective layer of heavy oil, and set off via the keep’s main cistern.
The journey was indeed long and cold, and she had to stop to rest and get warm after reaching the first wellhouse. Fortunately, nothing seemed amiss at that location. By early morning, she had reached the main access point outside the city. Nothing was amiss yet, but a handful of masons were apparently preparing to cause some trouble with an improvised dam.
Surprise is truly a wonderful thing, as the aqueduct’s access well was the last place from whence an attack was expected. Delphine’s javelins and atlatl quickly dispatched the two who were obviously awake; a well-placed spear thrust took care of a third. The fourth individual turned out not to be asleep at all, but was more than happy to depart with all due speed when offered the opportunity.
GM: Are you actually letting him go?
Me: Sure. There’s no need to torture him. It’s not like he’s an ex-boyfriend or something.
Cha-rul’s player: Dating you? That would be torture.
Fine talk from a character whose entire reason for being with the Caravan of Marvels is not getting murdered by his wife.
A short half-hour’s work with the spear saw the contents of bags and barrels of sand, aggregate, and other cement-makings scattered far and wide. The mules hitched to the wagonload of larger rocks were likewise happy to depart with all due speed, and in a sufficiently random direction as to make retrieval a time-consuming hassle, if nothing more.
A good morning’s work completed, Delphine climbed back into the aqueduct and made her way to the river without encountering any further difficulty. Mission completed, she duly sent the agreed-upon “all clear” signal back to the keep.
Now, all she has to do is make her way to the rendezvous point and find out which of her cohorts has survived their missions…if any.
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