Chapter 31: Chapter 31: Grappling with Trauma

Jace tried to catch Esther, but he couldn’t keep up.  She moved through the same path as before, between the gaming tables, each with a lantern hanging over the center.  The carpeted route was not dark, but it was dim enough for her to use the Shadow Step ability in her boots and move over 20 feet with each step.  Also, Gracie’s initial assessment back when Jace had set up his character was correct: walking as an orc with his sexuality set to Severe was nearly impossible.  After he had crushed himself for the second time in five running steps, not a pleasant experience with his pain cranked up to maximum, he pumped 100 mana into his necklace and resumed his human form.  It had been long enough after the priest had dispelled it; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to activate it again.

The main room of The Lion’s Den had a permanent True Sight spell that prevented people from staying hidden in the shadow for long, so Jace saw her popping into view after each shadow step.  With her primarily bare upper body and light-colored skin, she stuck out from the patrons, who mostly wore black.  Jace saw her leave the building while he was still fighting through waiters and waitresses, careful where he put his hands so as not to make them spill their trays or to violate them further than Drescher already was.  It felt like an eternity before he got to the exit, and when he did, he looked around desperately.

“Where did she go?”

{Down the alley to your right and around the building,} Gracie said.  {Hurry.  I’m afraid something terrible is about to happen.}

 

---

 

Tears streamed down Esther’s face as she made it outside and ran around the massive building to the back.  The light spell inside had yanked her out of the shadows one more time as she left, and she didn’t feel like entering again and instead just cast a burst haste spell to get her out of sight.  A wide alley on the back side of the building separated it from the other establishments nearby.  A few characters milled about, but Esther hoped she would be ignored.  She slumped down with her back against the stone and wept.

She knew it wasn’t Jace’s fault.  The spell had controlled his actions, but why was it always the same?  Why did everyone treat her like a piece of meat?  They tried to trick Jace or kill him.  With Wallace, it had been extortion and torture.  But if someone was going to mistreat her, they insisted on exposing her as a sexual object.  She knew she had been an escort, and few had seen her in action since, but she felt she should be given a fresh start to earn some respect.

“Excuse me, miss,” a voice called to her.  “Are you okay?”

Esther wiped her face clean and straightened with the wall still supporting her.  It was a level 12 solo player.  He had a kind face showing genuine concern.  Unfortunately, she recognized him, and it didn’t take long for him to return the favor.  “Esther?  Is it you?  Wow.  I kind of heard rumors, but I didn’t know.  Looks like Drescher moves fast.  Are you just getting some fresh air?  I understand.  But if you’re free, I mean, if you aren’t already engaged with something else, can we get drinks or . . . something else?  I just sold some equipment, and I’ve got a few hundred gold I can part with.”

This was too much for her.  Didn’t he see that she was crying and distressed?  How could he think a woman alone in an alley at night was trying to pick up clients?  She looked down briefly at herself with her nearly transparent top and short skirt.  Why would he think anything else?  Why should anyone think anything else?  Maybe that is who she was.

When her eyes rose back to the man, she had on a fake smile and struck him with a charm spell.  He didn’t have a chance.  “Actually,” she said.  “I have this thing for diamonds.  Do you have anything like that?”

“I think so,” he said eagerly.  “Let me check.”  He was too smitten with anticipation to realize his mistake as he rolled his eyes up into his inventory.  Esther reacted.

She cast True Strike, which usually took a full round, but with her Quick Cast feat, it only took two of the three actions.  Esther used the third to cast a burst invisibility spell, dropping her into the shadows.

“I have this,” he said.  As his eyes rolled back down, he was holding a large ruby.  “Esther?” he asked, as he didn’t see her immediately.

She struck from the shadows, adding her impressive stealth score of 29 to her attack.  If she still had her armor, it would have been 34.  True Strike gave her +10, she naturally had +33 to attack with her right hand, and she was using a +2 rapier.  With an attack bonus of 74, she didn’t even need to roll, but she did and got a 12.  An attack of 86 was not something her victim would have been able to handle even if he were prepared, but since he was charmed and flat-footed, he had a -10 to his AC.  He was a ranger used to engaging at a distance but still, with his Dodge ability active, he had a defense of 27.  Now he had only 5, which she beat by 81.  Esther used all eight criticals on damage, giving her a 9x bonus.  Her rapier did 12 damage by itself, and light weapons could only use half the character’s damage bonus, but she kept her blades filled with the Heavy Weapon spell allowing her to use her full damage bonus up to 36 points for each weapon.  After her recent strength upgrade, she had a healthy +19 to damage, and she used it all, draining her right-hand weapon of over half its Heavy Weapon ability.

An attack of 31 damage was well below what Jace could typically do in a strike, but her manufactured bonus of 9x meant she hit the unsuspecting man for 279.  She used her Surprise Attack feat, as he was not in combat mode, so he needed to roll a Death save against the damage result, but it didn’t matter.  That strike would have killed Jace straight up.  This ranger only had 168 Hit Points.

Esther was more than strong enough to hold him up by her blade as it impaled his chest.  His mouth was open, and his eyes asked her why, but he didn’t get an answer.  Instead, Esther let him take in one last look at her before she dropped his body in a heap next to the wall.  The ruby bounced on the ground next to him, and she tried to pick it up, but the game wouldn’t let her.

[Transaction Restricted.]

As Gracie had told Jace, all exchanges had to include at least one of Drescher’s people, whether that was an NPC who worked for the city, a PC that was part of his party, or a PC he had given authorization to.  Esther and this ranger were none of those.  She cursed that she wouldn’t even get a gemstone out of this and stepped away from the wall.

A few players had been milling about between the buildings, and now they all stared at the woman.  “What are you looking at?” she screamed, her face starting to change into her vampire visage.  It wasn’t as veiny and vicious as it had been before Jace changed her, but it was scary enough to make those nearby retreat.

Yes, she thought, finally, a different reaction to my presence.  Let them be frightened.  She sheathed her blade, regarded her current attire, and switched it to her dress.

“Esther!”

She heard the call but didn’t want to deal with Jace right now; instead, she hid in the shadows and took off.

Jace rounded the corner and saw the dead PC lying against the wall.

{She did that,} Gracie advised.

“I figured.  Where is she now?”

{I’m not sure.  She isn’t sharing.}

Jace was about to guess and run down the back street in a random direction, but a voice from behind stopped him.

“Hold.”

Jace turned to see Psycho walk up behind him.  He had his bow out with a strange-looking arrow nocked.  His eyes found the dead body, and his vision traced what must have been footsteps in the dirt street.  He followed the path in the opposite direction of where Jace had been about to run.  “My goodness, she’s fast,” the elf commented as he stepped further away from the building and aimed his weapon down the alley.  Everyone scattered, but Jace guessed the archer was good enough to miss them anyway.

He fired a shot so far and fast that Jace instantly lost it in the darkness.  After a few moments, an explosion erupted almost half a kilometer away, and what looked like a false dawn rose on the horizon.  The light hurt Jace’s eyes even from this distance, but Psycho grabbed his arm and urged him forward.  They made it to the impact spot in less than a minute, and characters lay strewn about the ground.  None looked severely hurt, as most were still over 100 Hit Points, but Jace had no idea where they had started.  Esther was among the prone bodies on the ground, slowly picking herself up and rubbing her eyes.  It appeared she had taken 15 points of damage from whatever spell Psycho’s arrow had cast.

“Go get her,” the ranger said.  “We need to get out of here.  Guards will be coming for her soon.  She murdered that PC back there.”

Jace wanted to defend his friend, but he knew now was not the time.  He was beside Esther in a few moments, and it didn’t look like she could walk unaided.  She seemed to be recovering faster than the half a dozen others sprawled on the ground, including at least one half-orc guard.

“Jace,” she said slowly, blinking several times as her vision was filled with stars.  “What happened?”

“Later,” he said, picking her up in his arms and running after Psycho, who was already moving away from the scene.

“You don’t need to,” she started, struggling to free herself from his hold.  She was more than capable of grappling herself into any position, but she couldn’t figure out which way to roll to get out of his arms, so she eventually gave up.  “Never mind.  Thank you.”

“I’m sorry for what happened in there,” Jace said, unsure how to address the issue.  “You know I never meant to-”

She tried to stop him, her fingers splaying on his face, searching for his lips.  “Shhh, shhh.  You don’t need to explain.”  Her voice was slurred as if drunk.  “I know it was a spell.  But I did like that armor.”

“I will get you something better.”

“No need.  No need,” she said, smiling as an idea hit her dazed mind.  “I will kill her soon.”

Jace appreciated her confidence, but he wasn’t so sure.  “That man back there.  In the alley.  Did he . . .”

“A ruby,” she said.  “That is what he thought I was worth.   Lousy ruby.  Drescher was willing to pay a million gold.”  She paused.  “How much is that?”

“Not enough, Esther, not enough.”

They didn’t talk anymore as Jace followed Psycho down the back streets until they approached the front gates.  The ranger pulled another arrow from his quiver and fired it 200 feet ahead, so it landed at the city’s front entrance, right between five PCs.  Another bright explosion scattered the group and knocked four guards from their feet.  Jace and Psycho ran through the dazed crowd a few seconds later, and no one saw them.  Snowy was waiting outside the city, having been pushed farther and farther away by the guards over the past hour.  She broke into a run when she saw her master and was soon sprinting beside them.  They were lost in the night before anyone behind them even thought about picking themselves off the ground.

The elf slowed when he thought they were far enough away from the city to avoid pursuit.  Esther insisted she was okay to walk now, and Jace put her on the ground.  She wasn’t her usual dexterous self, but she was up to the task of walking.  As her memories started returning, she wanted more distance, and the two men let her get 50 feet ahead.

“Will we need to worry about the guards at the travel node?” Jace asked.  Their destination was brightly lit on the hill before them.

“No,” Psycho answered.  “The city is coded to alert all the guards when a murder occurs, and they are on high alert.  They all share senses with each other.  But, the six guards by the travel node are on a different network.  No point in them getting worked up about something that happened 20 minutes from their position.  They have different priorities.”

“They have a direct link to Drescher, right?” Jace asked.  “He won’t alert them?  You won’t alert them?”

The ranger grunted a negative.  “My boss told me to get you out of the city unmolested.  He didn’t specify by whom.  He probably doesn’t know what she did yet.  He has an automated guard system, so he doesn’t have to worry.  He’s either yelling at Pieter for not getting you to tell him where the crystal is, or he is getting a lap dance from Catrina.  Possibly both.”

“Let me get this straight,” Jace asked, trying to remove that last image from his mind.  “Murder is illegal, but what we saw Drescher do is okay?  He killed a 14-year-old girl.”

The ranger shrugged.  “That was consensual.”

Jace stared hard at the elf, who refused to return his look.  He thought he knew him better than that.  “You and I have a very different definition of consent.”

“I don’t make the rules.”

“But you follow them,” Jace replied, not giving the elf an inch.

“What is your word worth?” he turned the accusations back on Jace.  “If someone cheats you, do you just abandon every promise you ever made?”

Jace thought of his estranged wife and how he still wore his wedding band and hadn’t cheated on her once, even though he had heard she was on her third boyfriend since she left him.

“How do you know Esther didn’t act in self-defense?” Jace asked.

Psycho shrugged.  “Would you like to go back and plead her case?  There is a court system.”

Jace didn’t answer.  They both knew what had happened.  The man had undoubtedly reacted to her the same way Karren and Slicksword had.  The same way Psycho had.  Jace assumed the elf shared his thoughts and didn’t have to wait long for the inevitable.

“I do have to apologize to you, though,” he said, giving more than he was used to.  “I made assumptions that weren’t correct.  I thought Esther was something she isn’t and, by association, that you were someone else.”

Jace smiled at the admission.  “It takes an Honest person to admit that their Traditional view on a situation may not be in Order with reality.”

“Yes,” Psycho agreed.  “Something like that.”  They fell silent for a few minutes as they moved quickly through the night.  “So, what is she?” the elf finally asked.

“I don’t really know,” Jace said.  “Officially, she is a Fallen Angel, but she still has all her vampire abilities.  She is alive, though, and can move freely in sunlight.  She gets cold and hot.”

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Psycho nodded.

“What about you?” Jace turned the question around.  “You are an NPC, right?  You are more aware than most players.”

“It is hard to work for Drescher and stay ignorant of reality.  I haven’t met another NPC who’s figured it out yet, so maybe Gandhi made me different.  What about you?  An orc?”

“Looks like none of us are normal.”

Psycho didn’t push it, and they noticed that Esther was now over 100 feet in front of them and threatening to disappear in the darkness.  They quickened their pace.

Ten minutes later, they made it to the travel node, and, true to Psycho’s prediction, the six guards didn’t react to their presence.  Jace asked Snowy to heal Esther back to full and then turned to their escort.  “I’m sure we will meet again.  If you ever find yourself unemployed, look me up.”

Psycho frowned.  “I love your confidence, but I think you might be underestimating your opponent.  I’ve not yet met the player who can defeat him.  He doesn’t take many chances.”

“We’ll see,” Jace said, deciding not to give too much away.  “When Drescher sends a nurse, meet me in the neutral zone outside Olympus.  I will tell you where he can go to get his crystal.”

The two shook hands, and Jace moved up the platform steps with his companions.  He reached out to the travel node to leave.

[Travel unavailable.  Illegal Inventory.]

“What does that mean?”

{That trick Esther pulled with the crystal won’t let you travel,} Gracie told him.  {Snowy doesn’t have an inventory.  She can walk around with the crystal within a module but can’t travel that way.}

“That’s unfortunate,” Jace said.  He called his familiar over and whispered into her ear.  The wolf retched as if working on a hairball.  Her body convulsed several times, eventually spitting out the crystal that Esther had fed her.  For once, Jace had been glad she hadn’t asked permission before picking his pocket.  He wouldn’t have thought that maneuver possible, and Drescher would have the crystal now.

“Look out,” Psycho warned.  “I think my boss is watching now.”

Jace lifted his eyes to see all six guards react to the presence of the magical item and stalk toward them, one of them talking into his amulet.  The shaman turned back to the travel node.

[Exit from Ironfel closed.]

{The guards closed the node,} Gracie advised.  {You are going to have to fight your way free.  Once the one with the switch is dead, I think it will open.}

“Any idea which one that is?”

{No.}

The companions jumped off the platform, and Jace was about to get his halberd out when Esther stepped in front of him.  “Can I do it, boss?” she asked, an edge to her voice.  Her memories had come back in full.  “I have some aggression I need to work out.”

Jace shrugged.  “Be my guest.”

As Esther ran toward the first guard, Jace saw from the corner of his eye four PCs entering Ironfel onto the raised platform, showing that only the exit to the city was closed.  Drescher didn’t want to turn away paying customers.  Psycho stepped up beside him before he could turn to inspect the newcomers.  “By herself?  I think you are underestimating the guards.  Each one is far more powerful than she is.”

Jace saw that the half-orcs were level 15 with 555 Hit Points.  They each had an axe and shield with full plate armor.  Undoubtedly, Drescher had built them with all the best defensive and offensive feats, and he would expect they had essential magical equipment too.  He could imagine that Esther at level 10 with 140 Hit Points could look like a mismatch, but he had faith.  “Would you like to bet on it?”

Psycho thought for a while but shook his head.  “No, I think I am done underestimating you two.”

Jace laughed and then had to restrain Snowy, who wanted to run in and help her friend.  He told the wolf to wait, but he was ready to release her if things got out of hand.

Esther eyed up the guards as she raced to the closest one.  They were spread out, but it would only take them two rounds before they surrounded her.  She used a level 15 charm spell she had memorized for 275 mana that raised her spell difficulty to 52, and she got a critical success when the half-orc rolled a 13 in defense.  The charmed condition gave the orc a -5 to his rolls against Esther, but more importantly, it gave the woman initiative once they got to melee range.  She hadn’t drawn her blades yet and instead climbed the first guard like a tree, grappling to his back before he could swing and turning him around to face the other fighters.

Her grapple ability was at 50, and the orc’s defense was 21, so only a roll of 20 would barely pass.  Anything less would be a critical failure.  With his -5 to all rolls against Esther, he didn’t come close to a 20, and she got two critical successes.  She used one with her Vampire ability to consider him pinned and latched on to his neck.

The other guards held up their charge, not used to Esther’s tactics.  They couldn’t see the woman on their companion’s back, her black hair blending into the cloudy night sky, and thought she might have run away.  They spread out slightly to see if she was behind the paralyzed guard.

Each level of the sturdy guards was worth 185 mana (37 Hit Points x 5), and Esther only took one before she cast Enthrall on her prey and told him to attack.  Now she did flip backward off his back and was invisible before she hit the ground.  The guards didn’t realize their “friend” was running toward them to attack, and none of them had raised their shields when he hit the first one in line for a double critical, doing almost 150 points of damage.  Three of the stupid and chaotic creatures pounded on each other for a few rounds while the others realized what had happened and looked for the elusive woman.

They were programmed to spread out to prevent a spell that did area damage, and one of them turned into his inventory to get an item that would create a magical light to yank Esther out of the darkness.  Once he was flat-footed, the rogue leaped out of the shadows, adding her stealth to her grapple check.  She got a million criticals, rendered him Helpless, and then spent them to activate her Coup de Grace vampire ability which snapped the guard’s neck like it was made of fresh celery.

He fell dead to the ground, and Esther landed behind him.  The other two guards not pounding the snot out of each other, looked at her hesitantly, and she took that opportunity to disappear into the night again.  Both half-orcs raced forward to their fallen comrade to retrieve the True Sight device, terrified that this woman would lurch out of the shadows at one of them.  One got there first, fumbled with the item, and dumped his measly 75 mana into it.

Esther suddenly appeared to his left.  The woman still wasn’t armed but was laughing.  He didn’t see what was so funny until he turned to his friend, who was in the process of swinging an axe at him.  The puzzled guard took almost a hundred damage and wondered why his friend was wearing a strange dog collar.  Esther had grappled it onto his neck while the first guard had triggered the device.

She was done hiding in the shadows for now as the night held an eerie glow that banished all shadows.  She shrugged her shoulders and finally drew her weapons.

Her thrall was getting destroyed by two other guards.  Esther had just enough mana left to cast a haste spell on herself and raced to his aid.  The two half-orcs not enthralled were effectively flanking him, but she ran up behind one of them and, with her own flanking bonus, was able to get a single critical with her disarming rapier.  She chose to have him drop his shield, taking his effective AC from 42 to 26.  Esther beckoned her thrall to attack the defenseless guard, and he did a triple crit on him.  Combined with Esther’s four total attacks that round, the half-orc fell dead.

Unfortunately, her thrall died the same round, and Esther was faced off against an enraged half-orc who still had over 200 hit points.  She didn’t have enough mana to charm him and couldn’t hide.  Instead, she walked up to him and took his first attack in the face.  Without her armor which Jace always kept filled with a critical protection spell, she was pretty defenseless against this powerful fighter and took a double crit for 3x damage.  The half-orcs did 48 with each strike, so Esther had to absorb 144 slashing damage.  Her ring took 100, and blood flew from her face as her head snapped to the side from the rest.  But now he was done, as he took the Raise Shield action, limiting him to one attack per round since he was using a large shield.  Esther had three attacks.  With her melee at +35 and +31 for her two rapiers, she could get above the 42 defense with good rolls and did about 40 damage in her first two attacks, but knew she would die if she took another hit from that axe, so she spent her third attack to grapple up on the fighter’s back.

“So, you don’t think that’s cheating,” Psycho asked as they watched Esther drain the life from the guard, refilling her health to maximum and also overloading her mana.  The elf had been watching her technique with interest.

“If the guard had rolled over a 13 in his attack on her, he would have triggered a death save for her,” Jace replied, getting constant stat updates from Gracie.  “She has a ring that absorbs 100 damage, yet she had a better than 25% chance of being stunned or worse.  I don’t blame her for using every advantage she has.”

It took a couple of rounds, but Esther soon jumped off the lifeless body of the half-orc as he fell to the ground.  She had absorbed more mana than she could store, so she spent the excess to refill her slashing protection ring before the magical energy dissipated.  The last two guards fighting were evenly matched, but the one Esther controlled with the dog collar was losing and fell as she walked toward the pair.  The remaining guard had less than 100 Hit Points, and as he looked at the five dead guards around him and the woman responsible walking toward him, he panicked and fled.

Jace tried out his new spell and summoned a stone wall, placing it in the path of the retreating creature.  He didn’t have his timing quite right, and the guard hit it as it was still rising from the ground.  The top of the wall caught him under the chin and flipped him backward, doing a handful of damage.

“Now that is cheating,” Psycho complained.  “She said she wanted to do it herself.”

“I needed to engage, or I wouldn’t have gotten any experience for killing the guards,” Jace lobbied.  “She would have caught him from behind.  Besides, he was almost out of range of the True Sight device.  It would be over if she had gone back to the shadows.”

It was over anyway, as Esther didn’t waste time, jumped on top of the fallen half-orc, and finished him with her weapons.  The only equipment the guards had that interested her was a +6 damage belt like Jace had gotten from the Strength module.  Since these half-orcs were in the city’s employment, she could freely take the item.  She could only wear one belt at a time, but she could accessorize it and swap it with the Resist belt whenever she wanted.  She also retrieved her dog collar from the other dead guard.

Psycho whistled as the woman walked up to them, and Esther smiled, as it wasn’t the type of whistle she was used to getting.  It wasn’t a catcall, but one of respect for her skills.  He tempered the show of appreciation with a mock bow.  “I am sorry I ever doubted you.”

She smiled, but noise from behind them stole her attention.  Jace finally turned to see who had arrived through the node.  The group hadn’t left the platform during the fight.  He couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the Russian half-orc barbarian he had dubbed Karen and her motley crew.  Apparently, she had survived their run-in with the dire bear and was proceeding with her celebratory night out for reaching level 10.  They were now drawing weapons but looked a bit hesitant.  Jace reached for the sword on his hip but realized he had left it on the floor back in The Lion’s Den.

Esther took care of it, meeting Karen’s eyes and finding a little blood in the corner of her mouth to lick as she smiled.  Whether it was her blood or one of the guards she had fed on, it didn’t matter.  It had the desired effect, and the four characters quickly opened the travel node and fled.  Jace laughed.  At least he knew they could leave now too.

Esther turned back to her leader and saw his right hand still groping for a sword on his empty hip.  “That’s right,” she remembered and rolled her eyes up into her inventory.  Soon she was back holding Diamond Etcher in her hands.  “I got this for you,” she said to Jace.  “You’ve given me so much that I thought I should return the favor.”

Now Psycho laughed out loud.  “How in the realms did you swipe that?  I admit I missed the moment outside the city when you fed the wolf the crystal, but I watched you the entire time you were in Drescher’s lounge.  I saw you pick up your weapons, but that was it.”

“I had a free accessory slot, so I picked up Jace’s sword with my foot when everyone was looking at Wallace.  I can redesign some of my items, so I made it look like the sword had a large diamond in the middle and then swapped it with this one when that bitch thought she had spooked me onto the couch.”

Jace remembered thinking it odd that Esther could have been startled that awkwardly.

“I think when Drescher picks it up, the modification I made to it will go away, but it still looked real lying on the couch.”

The elf laughed even more.  “The best part,” he said between gasps, “is that he will think Wallace cheated him and blame Pieter for not realizing the sword was a fake.”

Eventually, the elf calmed down and looked at the pair with renewed appreciation.  “I haven’t laughed in a while, thanks.” 

“Really?” Jace asked facetiously.  The shaman had heard him chuckle earlier, but it had been derisive.  Now Jace could see genuine mirth on the elf’s face, which looked good on him.  “But you looked like such a cheery guy when we first met.”  

Psycho stopped laughing and returned the man’s sarcastic look for a few moments before changing topics.  “Where are you headed now?” he asked.

“My operator is looking for a stronghold.”

“I’ve been everywhere in the realms.  Do you have an idea what you are looking for?”

Jace felt he could trust this elf and confided in him that he was a stone shaman and needed a comfortable cave system.

The ranger listened closely and then nodded his head.  “I know the perfect place.  There is a quest where you have to free a group of gnomes enslaved by orcs in a mine.  You should be uniquely qualified to pass that.”

Gracie was listening in.  {I found that one too; the problem is, the only access point I know of is in Portsmith.  It is a side quest from the dwarven smith that makes you a specialized weapon.}

“It used to only be accessible from Portsmith,” Psycho continued, unaware Gracie was talking in Jace’s head. “But when that city went rogue, I heard access opened to it in other areas, including here.  As an employee of this town, I can put it on your map.”  He cleared his throat and made a dramatic wave of his hand as he went into scripted mode.  “Merchants from the town of Crestfall have ore to sell way below market price.  Most smiths are buying it up and not complaining, but others are suspicious and suspect foul play.  If you have the time, you might want to investigate.”  He spoke the pitch in a false bravado and finished with a smile.

“Thank you,” Jace said, eager to get started on the next phase of his plan.  “I’ll see you in six hours.”

Psycho waved goodbye and watched as the three adventures climbed onto the platform and were transported out of Ironfel.  The elf turned and started the long walk back to town, not looking forward to dealing with Drescher.  Luckily, the gun runner would be angry about so many things that he wouldn’t have much time to isolate on the elf.  He fantasized for a moment about what it would be like to join Jace’s crew, but he knew it would never happen.  Drescher might lose a few battles, as he had in the past hour, but he would never lose the war.