The next few days passed uneventfully, and the adventurers were glad for a break from trouble. However, trouble always seemed to find them. It came around a short time later.
Dirac awoke first. It was very late at night, but he was restless. The room was bathed in moonlight, and he blinked as his eyes adjusted. He sat up slowly, trying to avoid waking anyone else.
The only sounds were the crickets outside and the heavy, sleepy breathing of his companions. But Dirac couldn’t shake the feeling of unease. It was the same feeling he’d had right before the bandits attacked. Dirac had doubted it then. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake this time. He would be the first to see the threat.
He moved out into the common area of their lodgings. Marill was asleep in the closet, as usual. Thorin and Adrie took up the remaining beds. His eyes swung around cautiously, and landed right on the one unoccupied bed: Niggaroso’s.
Dirac had a sudden sinking feeling. It was like déjà vu. He half expected to see Adrie behind him, cautioning him to be quiet. He turned around. She was still asleep.
Dirac turned and strode forward purposefully to open the front door. The night was pitch black and deathly quiet. He moved around to the back and sides of the inn, but no one was there. Puzzled, he ventured forth a few yards into the woods – right to where they had battled the bandits. The trees that Twinblade had ignited were in ashes on the forest floor. A soft, peaceful breeze blew the ashes across his shoes.
Dirac was thoroughly confused. Niggaroso had left – but why? How long ago? And which direction?
“Too many questions,” he muttered to himself. But one thing was sure – Niggaroso was long gone.
Back in the inn, Dirac shook Eidward awake.
“Niggaroso is gone,” he said.
“What?” Eidward said, still half asleep.
“He’s disappeared,” Dirac said.
“To where?” Eidward demanded, fully awake now.
“I don’t know,” Dirac admitted. “I went into the woods and checked around the inn but found no sign of him.”
He and Eidward moved into the common area. Thorin, Adrie, and Marill were all wide awake.
“Heard you talking,” Adrie said. “Where’s Niggaroso?”
“No idea,” Eidward said. He gestured to the empty bed. “Seems he’s abandoned us.”
Thorin cursed. “Traitor. We should inform Jaina – she will surely revoke his monetary reward and split it between us.”
“No,” Eidward said. “Jaina will know nothing about this. It makes us look unorganized and irresponsible – we can’t even keep track of one of our own. She will consider it a breach of contract –” he gave Thorin a meaningful look – “and will not pay us.”
Thorin grumbled but nodded in agreement.
“The best we can do now is go back to sleep,” Eidward sighed. “It’s no use looking for him in the darkness.”
No one was going to argue with that. They all headed back to their beds.
…
The next morning, there was another surprise awaiting the adventurers.
“Who are you?” Adrie demanded, leveling her crossbow at a strange man who had helped himself to seating at their dining table. He lounged comfortably in one of the chairs and was seemed to be just finishing up a mug of ale.
“Please don’t shoot,” the man said, holding up his hands. He didn’t seem afraid.
The man was average height, with hair as black as a starless night. He wore robes dyed a dull orange and worn sandals that had seen better days. He carried no weapons, but Adrie knew that people who didn’t need weapons were often far more dangerous than those who did.
“My name is Wong Fei Hung,” he said. “I have heard about your great deeds, but I know not your names.”
“I lead this band of warriors,” Eidward said. “My name is Eid – ah, Edwin Ku Len.”
“Well, Ku Len,” he said, still eyeing Adrie. “Might I ask for your hospitality?”
Eidward looked over. “Oh! I’m sorry, yes. Adrie, put down the crossbow.”
Adrie’s hand wavered for a second, but she lowered her weapon.
“Wonderful!” Wong said. “Ku Len, I have come to offer my services to you.”
“Your services?”
“Yes,” Wong said, shaking his head enthusiastically. “I am a drunken boxer. A mercenary, if you will. And as I said, I’ve heard a great deal about your services to this village. I want to help.”
“Sir,” Eidward said, “we appreciate your offer. However, we are but poor mercenaries ourselves –” he kicked Thorin, who was about to protest about their financial state – “and cannot afford to pay another to serve with us.”
“Ah, but it is not gold I seek,” Wong said. “I am merely hoping to improve my drunken boxing, you see.” He flashed a wide smile.
Eidward was taken aback. “No gold?”
“No gold,” Wong repeated. “However, in the event that I do not see any action today – I would like to see some action with you.”
Eidward raised an eyebrow. “Would you?”
At that moment, a commotion could be heard outside. The adventurers rushed to the windows in time to see a great mages’ caravan arriving in the town. Just then, Jaina knocked on the door. “Oh Eidward!”
“Eidward?” Wong asked.
“Edwin,” Eidward corrected him. He opened the door. “Hello, Jaina.”
“The Archmage Kael’thas Sunstrider and his best mages have arrived!” she said breathlessly. “They are excited to meet you.”
Lead by Jaina, the party moved to meet Sunstrider. “Greetings, Archmage Sunstrider,” Jaina said humbly. “These are the adventurers I told you about.”
Sunstrider looked straight down his long nose at them. “Who is your leader?”
“I am,” Eidward said, stepping forward.
Sunstrider laughed, tossing his blond hair over his shoulder. “You’re kidding.”
“With all due respect, Archmage, I have lead this group into battle and –”
“Yes, yes,” Sunstrider said, looking bored. “Decent job, and here is your reward, and all that.” He motioned to one of his lackeys, who tossed Eidward a sizeable bag full of gold.
Sunstrider moved forward, but Eidward grabbed his sleeve. “What of our weapons?”
“Weapons?” Sunstrider said. “There are no weapons for you.”
“But Jaina said –”
“Jaina has no authority to issue you weapons,” Sunstrider said. “Now, if you don’t mind…”
He and his lackeys entered the inn and slammed the door shut.
“That’s our room!” Marill protested.
“I am sorry about all this,” Jaina said, wringing her hands.
At that moment, a man caught their attention. He stumbled from the woods, as if he were drunk. His clothes were torn and dirty, his helmet sat askew on top of his head. He was carrying a heavy sack, which was slung over his shoulder. He took a few steps towards them, ranting and raving. But no one could make out what he was saying.
“Get away from him!” Adrie said. “There’s something wrong with him.”
But Dirac’s keen sense of the arcane told him exactly what was in that sack. Dirac pointed at him. “He has our weapons!”
Eidward made a split-second decision. “Attack!”
The man looked up, madness clouding his eyes. He roared with the rage of a grizzly bear – and began to transform into one.
Shocked, the adventurers watched as, in a few seconds, he had become a full-grown werebear. Standing at eight feet tall with thick, shaggy brown fur and long, deadly black claws, the bear growled, pulling his lip back to reveal a set of sharp white teeth. Beside him, a rat bearing a pickaxe and two woodland toads stared hungrily at the adventurers.
At that moment, Kael’thas Sunstrider slammed open the door to the inn. “What is this ruckus?!” he boomed. He looked from the adventurers to the werebear and his companions, unimpressed.
“Figure it out,” he sneered, and shut the door again.
The temporary spell over the two groups was interrupted as the werebear roared with bestial anger. Marill threw a carefully aimed dagger at the creature, who shook it off and charged Marill, Thorin, and Adrie, knocking them to their feet.
Wong emerged from the inn, and rushed to Eidward’s side. “Seems like I’ll be getting some action today after all!” he said gleefully, and rushed to attack one of the werebear’s frog friends.
Dirac took action and jumped into a nearby tree, narrowly avoiding the werebear’s swift paw. He began firing arcane missiles at the bear’s back. Eidward moved quickly out of the bear’s range but was cut off by one of the frogs, who promptly licked his face.
Eidward, disgusted, spat out frog bile. In another second he felt his head swimming. Filth fever! He sat down and tried to keep his thoughts straight. Glancing over, he could see that Thorin had also been affected but was fighting on with waning strength. The others still had the bear to contend with. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Wong, who was battling both the rat and a frog.
Suddenly, Wong spun around, finishing off the rat. The vermin dropped to the ground, defeated. In one graceful movement, Wong swept the frog off his webbed feet and raised him above his head. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Eidward watched in horror as Wong reached out delicately with his tongue and licked the frog, running his tongue down the frog’s horned back. He licked over the bumps and right down to the base of the frog’s spine, a small string of parting bile attaching his lip to the frog as he pulled away. He then threw the frog up in the air and impaled him on his pointer finger, tossing the corpse into the bushes.
Eidward blinked in disbelief. Instead of being affected by Filth fever, Wong was actually drunk from the frog’s fluids.
Another loud roar from the bear dragged his attention to more important matters. The bear was in a frenzy, slashing and clawing at the rest of the adventurers save Dirac, who was still firing from the tree. Eidward scrambled to his feet and turned to face the remaining frog. With a few quick blows from Dirac, the frog was finished.
Jaina appeared in the middle of the fray, using her mage ability to teleport. With the werebear distracted, she seized the bag and teleported away. The bear turned angrily towards her.
Just then, Thorin swung mightily and hit the bear right on the head. The animal dropped like a bag of cement and began to change back to human. In another few seconds, a man lay on the ground, bleeding profusely from his head.
Wong cheered and ran over to them. “That was fantastic!” he said. “I must write this accomplishment in my drunken mastery journal!”
They all stared at him.
“Drunken mastery journal?” Dirac said. He was just climbing down from the tree.
“Yes, the journal that is supposed to chronicle my journey to become the greatest drunken master that ever lived!” Wong said, his eyes practically alight. “I shall return to you momentarily!” With that, he ran to the inn and slammed the door shut behind him.
“He gets to go in there?” Marill grumped.
Just then Jaina hurried to them, and presented Eidward with the bag. “I believe these were the weapons you were owed,” she said.
Eidward opened the bag. Indeed, they were the weapons Jaina had promised them. An axe for Thorin, longsword for Adrie, portable crossbow for Dirac, a rapier for Marill, and for himself, a bandore. The remaining weapon belonged to Niggaroso – a staff. Jaina pulled it out last and held it out, but no one took it.
“Where is your companion?” she asked.
“He was sent on a… reconnaissance mission,” Eidward said. He reached out and took the staff. “We will present him with this staff when he returns.”
“Very well,” Jaina said. She looked over at the inn. “I will see about finding you… other accommodations.”
“Yes, thank you,” Eidward said. She departed.
“Well,” Thorin said. “In the meantime, we might as well have ourselves a drink.” He slapped Marill on the back. “What say you, Halfling?”
“Agreed,” Marill said, wiping the blade of his dagger on the grass. “I could go for some ale.”
“Anyone care to join us?” Thorin asked.
Everyone began trudging towards the inn.
“This morning, we discovered Niggaroso is gone,” Eidward said, ticking off a list on his fingers. “We were insulted by the most arrogant Archmage I have ever encountered. Then our lodgings were taken by him. We were attacked by not only a werebear, but two feverish frogs and a rat.”
“An axe-bearing rat,” Adrie reminded him.
“And it seems we have an annoying tagalong drunken master hopeful.” Eidward finished. “Could this day get any worse?”
At that moment, a great rumbling shook the ground. Just ahead, the inn began to vibrate. The wood squeaked and squealed as it was torn from its foundation. And in one quick movement, the inn was lifted up off the ground. The group stared as it turned towards the noonday sun and zoomed away.
The innkeeper, who had been buying supplies in the village, ran up to them.
“You!” he shouted accusingly, stabbing a finger at the adventurers. “What have you done with my inn?!”
But all they could do was stare.-Kim
