#neverwinter 1933

The set-up: We're at the Runekill farmstead at last! This is a longer update than some of the others, so bear with it. It's worth it.

The Game: After days of driving through field after field of corn, we've made it to Edith's childhood home. Everyone is sick of the car and desperate to stretch their legs except Mal who's sick and desperate for more understandable reasons.

The group is then greeted warmly by... the family dog.

Nora R.: A farm dog of indeterminate breed and generous disposition comes bounding up to the party. It hops onto Edith and starts licking her face.

Capridi doesnt like dogs

Capridi stays in the car with pepper

Edith Runekill: "Oh! Hey, Leif!" Edith starts smiling for the first time in days. She scratches the dog behind its ear. "Who's a good boy?"

Grim looks around at the dog. finally something she can relate to.

Nora R.: The dog sniffs at the rest of the group curiously, but he comes to realize that they are shaped and smell like Friends.

Sydney Gaydos won't be one of the ones left in the car! Plus there's a DOG. She gets out to follow behind Edith and TO SEE THE DOG WITH A HUGE GRIN.

Grim sets a cigarette in her mouth, then crouches to say hi to Dog

Pepper squints at the dog. She's used to smaller.

Nora R.: bark bark, etc.

Malkas: "Hey, so what if you tell them I died?"

"Got carried off by a bird, like your uncle."

Pepper: "Would they take our word for it?"

Edith Runekill: "Please don't make light of our family tragedies."

Grim does something useful with a ranger skill for once in her life and non verbally asks the dog what the mood is like in the house

Capridi: "Wow, and people think I'm manipulative."

Malkas: "Sorry."

Edith Runekill: "Look, it's gonna be fine. I told them you're coming and they said it's okay and we're just gonna eat dinner, sleep the night, and be on our way in the morning."

Malkas looks extremely unconvinced.

Edith Runekill: "And. I mean. If I told 'em you'd die. They'd ask what we were doing where people were getting killed..."

Capridi: "So I don't have to talk to anyone?"

Nora R.: The dog tells Grim, in a series of barks and assorted dog noises, that the house is busy with preparations for guests, one of whom has already arrived. He also says that his owner is very happy to see Edith again.

Grim gives the dog's ears a scratch and communicates to him silently that he is, in fact, a very good boy

Nora R.: The dog barks happily.

Grim straightens up and lights a cigarette

Grim socialised with Edith's family

It's a start! As a follow-up, the group also gets to socialize with Edith's older brother Tom. Edith asks him how it's going in the house and he shrugs before being introduced to the rest of them. He shakes Mal's hand and apologizes in advance for anything their parents might say but tries to assure him that they mean well. Mal most definitely is not assured, but says nothing. The group silently gives him moral support, but he gives no response—he's not expecting anyone to stick their neck out for him when things go south.

The group heads on in for dinner.

The farmhouse is nicely and neatly decorated with various country knick-knacks and pictures, but it all takes a backseat to Runekill—the family's ancestral greatsword engraved with runes—which hangs above the fireplace. In the parlor, a large man we assume to be Pa Runekill converses with a serious looking man in religious vestments as the group enters.

Malkas internally: Oh god they're banishing me to Hell.

Edith Runekill: "Oh... Pastor Jack. I... I didn't know you'd be here...?"

Capridi sees the pastor in the room, immediately regrets following the group in.

Edith Runekill looks very confused.

Pepper is already completely lost vis a vis Runekills.

Pastor John stands up and bows stiffly. "Reverend John Icedirge, Reformed Church of Auril." He sits back down.

Capridi doesn't make eye contact, is genuinely hoping for once that she's mistaken for livestock

Edith Runekill turns to look at Pa. "Hey Pa. Sorry to drop in on such short notice, but, well, like I said, we were headed down this way on our way to Prastuil University, and..."

Pa Runekill: "Why don't you go help your Ma and Grace with dinner in the kitchen? Got a lot of company tonight."

Edith Runekill: "Uh..."

"O... okay...?"

Capridi gets up "I'll help, c'mon edith."

Malkas looks desperately after Edith.

Pa Runekill puts up a hand. "Making guests do the cooking is bad manners. Have a seat, all of you. I'm eager to have a talk with my girl's... associates."

Edith Runekill vanishes kitchen-wards.

Capridi pretends not to hear and follows edith

Pepper watches Cap go, unsure if she ought to be jealous or not.

Pa Runekill glares after Capridi, who has flagrantly violated Hospitality Rules.

Grim glances after them, then back at Pa. She takes a seat because in certain very specific contexts she has manners.

Edith Runekill: {T Mal: hang in there, ok?}

Sydney Gaydos already on edge, this doesn't seem... the best. She sits down after Grim does at the table.

Pepper awkwardly perches on the closest thing that could be called a seat.

Malkas: {T Edith: This is how I die..}

Tom Runekill looks obviously uncomfortable at the exchange that just took place and sits down, worriedly.

Pa—whose name is Gordon, but that's neither here nor there as he is Pa—opens conversation by saying he's surprised to see Mal's stuck around as long as he has. The group comes to his defense, telling Pa that Mal is a solid and dedicated person. Pa then asks the rest of the group what their future plans are.

Pa Runekill: "Well."

"Why don't y'all tell me a little bit about yourselves while the girls are busy in the kitchen? What're you headed down to Prastuil for, anyways?"

Grim: "Miz Runekill's got some contacts down that way, going to look in on some research of theirs or somesuch. Well over my head."

Pepper watches Grim take point. What even IS Plaguewrought Land?

Pa Runekill looks at Grim, trying to place her.

Pa Runekill looks REASONABLY at ease with Grim. He gets Grim. Unlike the others, he's met people like Grim.

Pa Runekill: "How'd you end up mixed up with Edith, anyway? You don't seem like the college girl type. Since... you seem real, y'know? Like you care about real things, that matter."

Malkas , internally, passive-aggressive, "oh i guess your daughter doesnt matter bc shes all i care about"

Pastor John stares at Mal. It's a little upsetting.

Grim: "Don't know 'bout that." Grim takes a drag on her cigarette and considers for a moment. "I care about seein' right done where I can, and all these folks do too. So I guess we kinda fell into company."

"Y'all have worked the land out here a long time, so I hear?"

Malkas is used to humans giving him nasty looks for no reason. He's used to this.

Pa Runekill: "Since this land was opened up for settlement again, after the reclamation, yeah. The Runekills homesteaded on this land with the first wave of pioneers from Luskan."

Grim raises her eyebrows and nods

Pepper stares at Pastor John, for lack of anything else to do. He looks like an undertaker that got mixed up with one of his corpses.

Grim: "Miz Runekill's rightly proud've her roots. Saw the land on our way comin' in, hell of a bit of country. This been a good season?"

Pa Runekill: "Well, sayin' you're proud is one thing, puttin' in the work is something different, y'know? But yeah, we've had some good seasons. It's hard work, hard livin' sometimes. But it's a good life."

Pastor John then takes point on asking Pepper and Sydney a few questions.

Pastor John: "You two have been very quiet."

Pepper: { T Sydney: is it too late to pretend we don't speak Common }

Sydney Gaydos stiffens oh No. "That is because it would be rude to, ah, interrupt the conversation between Mr. Runekill and Grim."

Sydney Gaydos: { T Pepper: That would have been good to plan beforehand...}

Pepper grins at the Pastor with her best Elven graces.

Pepper: "Just taking in the scene, my good chum." What. "Sir." Her grin grows wider.

Pastor John smiles back. The expression does not sit naturally on his grave face.

Malkas expends an action to stop himself from openly sweating.

Pa Runekill glances at Pepper, then at the pastor. He sends a complicated series of small Plaguewrought facial tics. The pastor gracefully puts up a hand.

There's nothing suspicious about them or this group or this conversation at all.

Pa then asks the group if they've been having any trouble on the road. Grim tells him they came by the Dragon Coast and with Mal and Edith as navigators there's hardly been any trouble. A few bulletes, but otherwise a smooth trip.

Grim offers to repay the Runekill's hospitality in by way of pest control, but Pa turns her down. It's against hospitality and there aren't as many monsters in the area as other parts of the continent.

From the kitchen, Edith tries to get a feel for how the group is getting along in the parlor. Mal tries to be optimistic, but there's only so much he can do.

Edith Runekill: {T Mal: Everything going okay out there? I didn't expect to just be sent outta the room like that. Although in retrospect maybe I shoulda. I'm family, not a guest. But I left all of you holding the bag.}

Grim: "You got a charmed life out here, Mr Runekill. Glad t'know we got things worth defending."

Pa Runekill: "And folks worth defending."

Grim nods at that and puts out the end of her cigarette

Malkas: {T Edith: Not actually sure.. Grim's taking point, going surprisingly well. I think the Pastor's gonna kill me but I'm used to looks like that."}

Edith Runekill: {T Mal: Pastor Jack being here really threw me for a loop. Maybe he and Pa are friends now that I'm away? I don't remember ever seeing him outside of church. He's way different when he's not inhaling the weird fumes from burnt offerings to Auril, I gotta say.}

Capridi is watching edith stare into nothing, unsure why she's spacing out.

Edith Runekill: "Oh, sorry! Got a bit distracted." She goes back to plating dinner.

Malkas: {T Edith: He's giving me the creeps, that's for sure.}

Edith Runekill: {T Mal: We'll be out soon. And then its smooth sailing.}

Capridi: "Is it cool if i stay in here? That old fool in the cloth is creeping me out."

Ma Runekill: "Excuse me."

Malkas: {T Edith: If you say so...}

Capridi: "[Celestian]I'm sorry, I dont know what you're saying. I don't speak the language."

Ma Runekill: "You were just speaking Common a second ago."

Capridi: "My languge is uhhh [celestian] not good, [common] apologies."

Ma Runekill: "You been in my hair long enough. Out you go."

Ma Runekill shoos Capridi out of the kitchen. Grace gives her a sympathetic look.

Capridi: "[celestian] jeez lady, take a joke."

Capridi walks back into the room, reluctantly

Pepper watches Cap come back in the room.

Pa Runekill: "Glad you could join us again."

Grim isn't

Pepper is glad for the distraction.

Pa Runekill: "Have a seat. No need to be a stranger."

Capridi takes a seat "[celestial] Fine, whatever."

Tom Runekill returns to the dinner table. He flashes Mal what he hopes is a reassuring smile; it's an expression Mal might have seen on Edith's face before.

Malkas makes that White People Smile at Tom.

Pastor John: [Celestial] Always a pleasure to meet a fellow speaker of the Celestial tongue.

Tom's children come in as a distraction while Pastor John attempts to talk with Cap in celestial and Cap attempts to ignore him. Mercifully, Ma comes out to announce it's dinner time and everyone heads to the table to eat.

The elder Runekills exchange a look before everyone sits down to a veritable country feast. Grim, Pepper, and Syd take notice of both the look and that Pastor John has something in his lap.

Pepper percepts the hell out of this scene.

Pepper gives Grim a sidelong glance like "this is weird right".

Malkas becomes 80% more nervous.

Grim glances at Pepper. Yep.

Sydney Gaydos curiously leans over to see what the Pastor put on his lap, given her size she probably doesn't need to lean over too much.

Grim spots Syd leaning over and gives Pepper another look

Pepper raises an eyebrow at that. Ha ha! Now Plaguewrought folks aren't the only ones who can talk without speaking!

Grim nudges Pepper and her eyes move to Syd and back again

Pepper: {T Sydney: What's old creepy holding over there? }

Pa Runekill stands. He cuts a dramatic figure standing in front of the eponymous family blade, Runekill. It's not even really undercut by Grace's commemorative plates underneath.

Pa Runekill: "Pastor Jack."

"Wanna lead everyone in saying grace?"

Capridi thinks "fuck"

Pastor John begins saying an incantation to Auril... and casts Zone of Truth.

Well!

How about that?

Sydney Gaydos eye narrows suspiciously. "Are Zones of Truth a normal occurrence at dinners in Plaguewrought?"

Malkas 's eyes flick to the Pastor, then to Pa. He carefully says nothing.

Grim looks up at the pastor and clenches her knuckles on the table, just barely stopping herself from getting to her feet. She looks ready to kill

Capridi is thankful she had caught on. She can't handle anymore awkwardness, especially from someone like pastor john.

Pastor John sets the thing he'd kept in his lap on the table; it's a black briefcase. He opens it-- you catch sight of three scrolls in it before he removes a newspaper and closes the briefcase again.

Malkas tries to catch Edith's eye.

Pepper sees Grim out of the corner of her eye but grins at the pastor. "I dunno, Syd, they were common enough around my dinner table."

Edith Runekill looks at Ma and Pa all like wtf

Tom Runekill looks appalled

Pastor John: The newspaper is a copy of the Baldur's Gate Globe from a few weeks ago. 'HEROES SAVE TRAIN MENACED BY KRAKEN' screams the headline. There's a photo of the mayor of Baldur's Gate giving an award to an extremely bedraggled-looking Edith, Sydney, Mal, Pepper, and Grim.

Capridi just pretends she doesn't know celestial either. She nods "[celestial] be thankful for bathroom days of ten"

Pa Runekill: "Now then."

"'Not much trouble', huh?"

"A few bulettes."

"How about you tell me what you're really up to out here?"

Grim: "You accusin' me of bein' a liar, pastor?"

"We met a couple bulettes on the road. They didn't slow us down too much."

Grim speaks in a growl

Capridi sits back and lets grim be the awkwardness sponge for once.

Pastor John: "Why are you going to Prastuil?"

Grim: "Miz Runkill's got contacts there. Checkin' on some research."

"Like. I. Said."

Grim is so angry she's rigid

Pastor John: "Researching what, specifically."

Grim: "The hell's it to a man who won't ask straight up?"

Edith Runekill: "Er, the medieval cultures of the East...?"

Pepper mage hands a roll.

Pastor John: "Not you, Edith. I want to hear it from the others."

Capridi hopes grim gets angry enough to punch out the pastor

Grim is close

Grim: "If you got somethin' to say, I'd rather you say it."

"Than go interrogatin' us like no-good lowlifes that weren't invited here fair 'n square."

Pastor John: "Okay, fine. I was going to give you one last chance to own up. I was even willing to facilitate that with some of... Auril's grace."

Pepper: "HAH! Say grace! I get it!" she guffaws, pointing between Pa and the Pastor.

Grim: "Own up?"

Grim does get to her feet, staring at the pastor

Pastor John tells the group that he knows Edith called her mother a few weeks before asking about her uncle in Secomber, he knows that there have been lich sightings in places the group has been, and that Prastuil is a leading authority on ancient Thay.

Grim stares at the pastor like she's daring him to object

Grim: "And?"

Pepper: "Sounds to me like he's got some weird lich obsession," she says to Grim, taking a bite out of a roll.

Pa Runekill cuts to the chase. "You're dragging our baby girl out chasing a Lich."

Pa Runekill: "You gonna deny that?"

Grim shoots Pa a disbelieving look

Sydney Gaydos: "We do not drag anyone! Much less Edith. She's coming with us of her own free will!"

Grim: "Mr. Runekill, your daughter's been on the front line of this fight from the first day Szass Tam showed his rotten ass face in Neverwinter. She's a goddamn hero, and you all ought to pray you measure up when the time comes it matters round here."

Grim shoots that look at the pastor too

Grim: "Just what have you done about the long dead evil trampin' over good folks these last months, Pastor John Icedirge?"

Capridi leans over Mal towards Syd, "[draconoc] Syd, this is weird. Why is this guy so hard pressed to get in our business? Sounds like something a hard boiled detective would need to investigate."

Pepper , in a sing-song voice in the Pastor's direction--in Elvish so it sounds EXTRA beautiful--"[Elvish] You fu-ucked u-up."

Pastor John: "Looking after my flock. And I won't say fighting a lich is an honorable thing. But you aren't gonna get Gordon's daughter killed doing it."

Edith Runekill: "I know what I'm doing!"

Pepper is just helping herself to bits of the meal while this unfolds.

Edith Runekill: "Grim's right! I'm doing this of my own free will. I want to do this."

Grim looks the Pastor in the eye, hands flat on the table as she leans over towards him

Grim: "I ain't gonna get Edith killed."

Capridi whispers to Syd some more "[draconic] You'd think a guy who's all about god would be delighted someone is taking care of a lich..."

Pa Runekill: "Just 'cause you want something don't mean its good for you, Edith."

Grim is like zone of truth up your own ass

Tom Runekill and Grace exchange some truly alarmed looks and, as the conversation gets more heated, they take their kids and leave.

Pepper waves as the family leaves.

Sydney Gaydos looks surprised at the sudden draconic, but replies to Capridi. [Draconic] "It's her parents' poor attempt at "concern" and an invasion of privacy is what it is."

Capridi: "[draconic] I'm not talking about her folks, but this dude. He was the only one who knew about this, its not like her folks invited him to convince her."

Pastor John sidles around the side of the table and stands next to Edith, by the seat vacated by Tom, Jr.

Malkas clenches his fists.

Malkas 's hands are under the table, on his lap.

Grim moves around the other side of the table, around Pa, oh man oh man oh man

Pepper just. Stands.

Pastor John: "I was afraid it would come to this. Girls like her never do see reason or think of what's best for her family. I'm afraid we must insist she stays here with her family, where she belongs."

Grim raises a finger in the pastor's face

Grim: "Lay one goddamn hand on her, I dare you."

Edith Runekill stands up, furious. "Let's-- go. Let's just go. Get our bags and leave."

Capridi "[draconic] condescending old fart"

Malkas stands. His heart is pounding in his chest and the look on his face is exactly what people worry about when they see tieflings.

Pastor John pulls the scrolls out of his briefcase and, off of one of them, casts Sleep on Edith.

Malkas launches over the table.

Pepper recoils from the Pastor and Mal and heck, just everything from that side of the table.

Oh.

Well then.

Game on!

Mal's first order of business is to smash the hilt of his sword into the Pastor's face before grabbing Edith.

Pastor John: "I knew it!"

Malkas: [Infernal] "GET AWAY FROM HER YOU SON OF A BITCH."

Pepper: "Hey, you don't get the moral high ground on this!" she says to the Pastor.

Capridi: "[celestial]KICK HIS SORRY ASS!"

Pepper fist pumps. "[Elvish] Eat shit, you weird old scarecrow."

Grim smacks the pastor with a tray, restrains him with vines and silences the room fuck you

Capridi: "Grim I take back all the shit I said about you!"

Pepper has the last bit of her sentence cut off by magical silence, but the point got across.

Capridi realizes no one can hear her, gives grim two thumbs up.

Grim is still holding the tray, breathing hard. She is So Angry.

Sydney Gaydos LEAPS across the table to pummel the Pastor with her fists.

Malkas 's wild snarling is even worse without any sound. You get the feeling this is what that Devil Hunter saw on Ocila's face seconds before his throat was slit by a child.

With the room silenced and the Pastor restrained by vines, the fight is over and—aw who am I kidding, both Syd and Cap join in and give him a few good punches as well. He tries to retaliate with his war hammer, but it's difficult from under vines and two dragonborn without any way of casting spells.

So Pa takes Runekill down from the mantle and smacks Grim in the back of the head with it.

Grim is so fucking pissed at you Pa Runekill

Grim IS DISPLEASED THAT YOU SWORDED HER IN THE BACK UNPROVOKED

Grim DICK

Pepper distracts him by throwing pepper in his eyes, allowing Mal to escape out the door with an unconscious Edith.

Pepper salutes Mal as he passes.

Malkas yells "THANK YOU FOR DINNER, SORRY ABOUT YOUR DISHES MRS. RUNEKILL."

Malkas: "Nice to meet you, Tom, we've really gotta get going on account of your father tryin' to kidnap Edith."

Tom Runekill: "I didn't know about any of this, I swear!"

Malkas: "It's fine, you seem nice, you should bring Grace and the kids over to the city sometime, we'll get lunch!"

Malkas is speaking as he's running.

Tom Runekill: "I don't... I'm not gonna pretend I know why Edith wants to do this kinda thing, but-- but it's her choice, right?"

Malkas: "I won't let anything happen to her. If I gotta slay Asmodeus himself."

Tom Runekill: "And he broke Hospitality rules. I... I don't know what he's doin'..."

Tom Runekill looks SUPER grossed out

Back inside, Grim takes a few swings at Pa while Syd does her best to headbutt the Pastor into submission. He's too determined to go down from that and avoids a wild swing from Cap who's cussing him out the whole time.

Outside, Edith tries to make sense of what happened.

Edith Runekill: "Uh... wha... what's going on?"

"Did I... faint?"

Malkas: "Sleep spell from Pastor Asshole. Pasthole."

Edith Runekill: [infernal] "What the fuck?"

"Pastor Jack? Is that why he was there?"

"Ugh... I... I led us right into this..."

Malkas: "I may have slammed the end of my sword into his face? Bit of a rage blur."

"Your brother seems nice. I don't recommend going back in there."

"Maybe you should hide in the camper?"

Meanwhile, Pa's proven himself too irresponsible to wield a sword—he does keep swinging it at unarmed people—and Syd grabs it from him. Enraged, he turns to go outside to find Edith, but Pepper and Grim block his way.

Grim just gives Pa such a look

Pepper grins at Pa.

Pepper: " 'Sup? My good chum?"

Pa Runekill glares daggers at Pepper.

Pepper grins back. She's like right between him and the door now, good, great.

Edith Runekill: "Should we go back in? Where is everyone?"

Malkas: "No no no, they're coming. I think."

Malkas leans on the horn.

Edith Runekill: "You THINK?"

Malkas: "It's only been like 10 seconds give them a sec!"

Grim gives Pa a warning look, then turns her attention to Pepper and jerks her head at the Pastor

Grim: "Tell him to stand down."

"This ain't gettin' resolved by blows."

Pa Runekill: "Stand down, Reverend! This ain't working!"

Pastor John gives Pa a thumbs-up, as if to indicate that everything is still under control and he's got this.

Capridi keeps tearing at the priest

Pepper uses prestidigitation to flash a message right over the pastor's big stupid face. "GIVE UP." There's also a lewd Elvish word tacked on to the end of it.

Grim considers Silencing the car

Pastor John loses the battle of wills with Grim and gives up, though Cap is still on top of him. She gets in a few more hits before Grim hauls her off into the parlor. Beaten and thoroughly chumped chagrined, the Pastor makes to leave.

Pa Runekill stands and just glowers at the wreckage of the dinner. And at the Pastor.

Grim: "Get it together. We're done here."

Pa Runekill: "Shoulda never let you talk me into breaking hospitality."

Capridi struggles as grim drags her away

Grim drags Cap into the living room before she's released

Sydney Gaydos follows Grim and the struggling Cap out closely, still clutching the sword blade whoops.

Pastor John: "Is that more important than your daughter's life, Gordon?" He looks absolutely livid.

Pa Runekill: "You told me this work, you told me it'd be worth it in the end, you told me... you..."

Pepper pulls a bag out of a pocket, shovels some of the dinner inside, and seals it up. "We'll see about getting her to call more often, eh?" she grins at Pa.

Pepper heads out to the living room.

Capridi wrestles herself away from Grim. She glares at her for a bit, knowing she went overboard but doesn't want to admit it. She sits down and tries to take a few deep breaths, still livid.

Grim turns back to look through the door at the two men, still mad as hell

Malkas wipes his tail on the grass. It was covered in potato.

Pastor John glares at Grim, and at the door, and back at Grim.

Grim steps in front of the pastor as he makes to leave. She looks him up and down, then looks him in the eye

Capridi picks herself up and heads outside without a word.

Grim: "Look to your own soul, pastor. Think about who needs the protectin' around here. And from what."

Grim steps aside and shoots Pa the same look over the pastor's shoulder

Grim: "You both oughta be ashamed."

Tom Runekill: "Yeah! What she said!"

Pepper slaps a dinner roll down into Tom's hand.

Grim sets her hat back on her head and lifts her rifle from the doorway

Pastor John stares at Grim a while longer, then turns and leaves. He gets into his station wagon and drives away.

Malkas watches him as he goes.

Pastor John a cloud of dust rises as he drives down the access road.

Grim sets a cigarette in her mouth and speaks to Pa around it as she lights up

Grim: "You're gonna live to see your daughter become a hero, Mr Runekill. Kind books're written on."

Malkas gives Cap an approving nod.

Grim: "Try to make peace with that."

Sydney Gaydos sees that Grim has it handled and heads outside towards the car-camper.

Capridi sits in the car and lights up. She doesn't look at Mal.

Pa Runekill says, in a low voice, "I'd rather have her here than in a history book."

Grim: "World needs history books. S'what keeps us here."

Pa Runekill: "Guess I... I don't got much of a leg to stand on. I brought dishonor down upon myself and my family, and got repaid by losing here tonight."

"Just... just go, all right? Just go."

Grim looks Pa up and down and pauses for a moment, then offers out her hand

Grim: "You'll see her again, sir. Promise you that."

Pa Runekill: "Don't make promise you can't keep."

Grim: "Never do."

Pa Runekill: "Hm."

Pa Runekill doesn't shake Grim's hand.

Tom Runekill gives Pa a reproachful look, and slips past Grim and Pa to go outside.

Grim leaves it open for several moments, looking him in the eye, then nods and turns to head for the door

Outside, Tom is still stunned by what happened. He apologizes to Edith and swears he had no idea what their father had been planning.

Tom Runekill: "They broke hospitality!" He looks aghast.

Malkas eyes Tom.

Tom Runekill: "Malkas. I... I still don't really know why anybody would wanna live their life like... all of you..." He gestures vaguely at the group. "But... but you seem like a good man."

Malkas: "Thanks. You seem like a good man too. Tell your mom I'm sorry if I broke any plates."

Tom Runekill smiles wanly. "They were Grace's plates. And Pa broke most of 'em."

Pepper sits in the car with a huff.

Grim drops her things in the car and leans against it, surveying the endless fields while she smokes

Malkas: "Well, still sorry."

Capridi just wants to hurry up and get out of this corn carpeted hellscape.

Tom Runekill: "Yeah."

Malkas sits next to Edith. "You guys keep safe."

Tom Runekill turns to look at Sydney. Or, more specifically, at the sword in her hands. "Runekill..."

Malkas lights two cigarettes and gives one to Edith.

Tom Runekill: "That blades been in our family since long before we came to Plaguewrought Land. Our ancestors wielded it back in the far north, when they were still pirates and explorers and raiders off the coast of Luska. It's seen... a lotta adventures."

Pepper: "It also saw the back of Grim's head," she frowns.

Sydney Gaydos: "Oh! Gaydos had forgotten she disarmed the sword from your father." She holds it, hilt out, towards Tom. "Would you like it back? It sounds very important to the family."

Tom Runekill: "It's been passed from father to son for generations. But for the last few, it's just been an ornament on the mantelpiece. But... but that ain't right. It's... it's an adventurer's blade."

"And there's only one Runekill who's having an adventure now."

Tom Runekill smiles at Edith.

Tom Runekill gently pushes the sword back towards Sydney. "Keep it. Keep my sister safe. And... and... and make it part of a STORY again."

Tom Runekill: "Anyway, Pa's shown he clearly can't be trusted with the thing in the house."

Sydney Gaydos hums in agreement. "You honor Gaydos with such things. Both sword and trust in Edith's safety. However..." she then holds the sword towards Edith. "This should be yours then."

Grim: "That man's all pride 'n no honor." Grim mutters from the back of the car where she leaning.

Pepper starts singing "Yer Pa Is A Fuckin' Dick." It's a traditional Elvish ballad. At least, that's how her dad tells it.

Edith Runekill takes the sword because it's such a touching family moment. Even though she has literally no idea how to use the sword and will probably give it back to Sydney.

Edith Runekill waves the sword experimentally.

Edith Runekill stares in wonder as the runes all start glowing.

Edith Runekill: "Oh!"

"Um."

Pepper stops singing. "Nice."

Edith Runekill: "Th-this is. It's an honor."

"I... I didn't think a Runekill girl would ever get to... get to. Well. Have this."

Capridi wants everyone to stop talking so we can leave. This place sucks.

Edith Runekill looks from Sydney to Tom and back to Sydney again. "Thank you."

It's a bittersweet moment as Edith makes plans with Tom to have him and his family visit her in the future before the group gets in the car and leaves. Pepper—who definitely swiped the Pastor's briefcase after the fight—starts rifling through his notes and reading them.

Pepper is reading this priest's shitty notes out loud on the drive.

Pepper: "This guy's a piece of work."

"This shit-eater was gonna try to banish you, Mal."

Malkas: "That's not how tieflings work."

Pepper: "'Grime'. I think this is you Grim. 'Make her leave her gun outside'."

Grim grunts

Pepper: "'The elf'. 'Take away her musical instrument, keep her from bolstering the group's morale'. This joker thinks I'm a bard."

"'The dragonborn'. 'Trick into fridge? Find a big bird??'." She wrinkles her nose.

Sydney Gaydos: "That's... not how dragonborns work."

Pepper holds the notes out the side of the car and incinerates them, scattering the ashes.

Malkas stares straight ahead.

Grim regrets starting a fight before dinner, in retrospect

Capridi is ready for this day to be over with.

Pepper offers the bag of Dinner to Grim. It's a little jumbled up, but not too gravy soaked. "I swiped some stuff Mal didn't step in."

Malkas: ".. 'm sorry, Edith."

Edith Runekill: "It's... it's 10000% not your fault."

Grim eyeballs it like she might turn it down, then takes a roll and stacks it with whatever she can find

Malkas: "I coulda handled it better. ... There's a motel at the next rest stop..."

Malkas points to a passing sign.

Edith Runekill 's eyes are fixed on the road. She's very hungry.

Edith Runekill takes that exit.

Grim: "Gotta find somewhere to eat," she says with her mouth full

Pepper nods and mumbles in agreement, unable to speak around a mouth of chicken.

Helia (GM): The car pulls up to the "Best" Diner in the "Area"

Edith Runekill parks at the rest stop. She's still in an area she recognizes; she used to eat here a lot. There's a few teens eating burgers outside.

Sydney Gaydos: "Pepper... if you have no need for the briefcase, may Gayods have it? It's very official and nice looking."

Pepper: "Mm," she licks her fingers. "Help yourself," she hands it over, tucking the scrolls into her pocket first.

Sydney Gaydos makes a delighted little noise and starts examining and touching the briefcase with oohs and aahs. "Thank you! She will put this to great use."

Edith Runekill hops out of the car. And then realizes she should probably not carry a sword into a diner.

Malkas wordlessly exits the car.

Grim finishes eating before she enters the diner, as is only polite

Edith Runekill picks up her staff instead.

Malkas sits at a booth and buries his head in his hands.

Edith Runekill sits next to Mal and drapes her arm over his shoulders.

The group tries to decompress over a diner meal, but the day's events are a lot to process. Mal and Edith both wonder if they did something wrong.

Grim: "Weren't nothin' you two did."

Malkas orders a beer.

Grim: "Runekill, you're a good kind. An' that's worth all the more now, seein' where you come from."

Pepper: "That creep was gonna kidnap you! And your dad was just--ugh." She crosses her arms.

Edith Runekill: "What did Pa do...?"

Grim takes a drag on her cigarette and drags an ashtray over, frowning

Capridi gets up to go to the bathroom. She doesn't wanna hear about this again.

Pepper: "Well he thought it was a good idea, for starters."

Edith Runekill: "Yeah."

"I... I knew he didn't exactly approve of how I been living my life, but... I... I wasn't..."

Helia (GM): The diner lady comes by, "Well, Edith Runekill. Ain't you a sight for sore eyes!"

Grim: "Mal 'n me restrained the priest. So your pop took down that old sword and-..." She raises a hand to the back of her head, only realising dimly now that she's still sticky with blood.

Helia (GM): She goes :| "I'll come back later."

Grim looks up at the diner lady, rubbing blood from her fingers

Edith Runekill: "Oh, so that's what Tom meant about dishonoring the blade..."

[infernal] FUCK.

Malkas: "I... overreacted a bit."

Edith Runekill: "I-- I-- I'm mad at HIM, and at myself, and... and..."

Grim: "You reacted about right from where I was stood, Malkas."

"Got Edith right outta there."

"Best way things coulda gone."

Sydney Gaydos: "Gaydos is in agreement. It was the right thing to do."

Edith Runekill: "I mean. If. If he really put me to sleep to try to kidnap me after I said I wanted to leave. Then... well. I think a strong response was kinda justified."

Pepper: "You didn't, you absolutely didn't," she says to Mal. "You protected her more than her dad did." She bangs on the table once for emphasis.

Grim: "Didn't mean to go startin' a real throwdown in there, but there ain't so much choice in it when a man comes at you from behind with a greatsword." Grim is still pretty pissed about that.

Pepper: "Who sits by and lets someone do that to their own daughter? Who thinks that's a good idea?" She's ranting at the salt shaker.

Sydney Gaydos: "Ah because of that... Grim, would you like some healing? Only if you feel comfortable with it." Sydney holds out her hand towards her.

Edith Runekill: "My... my parents did, apparently." She's still kind of trying to grapple with this.

Malkas: "Not your mom, I don't think."

"She didn't seem on board."

Grim waves Sydney off

Edith Runekill: "Oh..."

"Well. That's good to know."

Grim: "I'll knit up good with a li'l rest, and a good meal. Teach me to be less trustin' of folks I turn my back on."

Capridi comes back, wiping her hands with a paper towel. She tosses it on the floor behind her and sits on the bar nearby.

Sydney Gaydos sighs internally, and gets up to dispose of the paper towel in a trashbin.

Malkas: "I feel like I should write a letter of apology."

"For jumping on the pastor."

"And stepping on the potatoes."

Edith Runekill: "Pastor Jack cast a spell on me with hostile intent. He oughta apologize to us."

"But... maybe you should apologize to Ma and Grace about the potatoes."

Malkas: "Yeah."

Capridi speaking of potatoes, cap orders some fries.

Pepper: "That pastor's a jackass, you don't owe people like that the time of day."

Edith Runekill takes a long drink of her beer.

Pepper drinks but she's frowning so much a good portion dribbles out around the corners of her mouth. She ain't even give a damn. >:C

Grim ashes her cigarette, watching Edith

Pepper does use magic to dry her clothes, though.

Grim: "You okay, Edith?"

Edith Runekill: "I... no, not really."

"I just... I don't know."

Grim nods

Grim: "Well, I reckon we all had enough silence. F'you wanna talk."

Grim is not used to saying these words, ever

Edith Runekill: "It's just... that was my home. It's one I had a lot of mixed feelings about, one I was glad to leave behind in a lot of ways, but it was still... it was still home."

"But... it isn't anymore, I reckon."

Grim nods slowly at that, smoking as she listens

Malkas nurses his beer and listens quietly.

Pepper runs her fingers through her hair.

Edith Runekill: "Wasn't expecting something like that to go down there. So. So I let my guard down, I wasn't watching carefully enough. But. But I didn't expect that to happen at the table I ate dinner at for the first 18 years of my life, beneath my sister in law's collection of novelty plates, over a meal I helped cook."

"I just... it... I feel... dislocated now?"

Grim removes her cigarette from her mouth and exhales, nodding. She thinks about it for a moment before she answers.

Grim: "Edith, I ain't ever had a fixed abode, so I don't know what you're comin' from. But...as I see it, home is where your life is."

"This-..." She gestures around. "This is just a place you come from."

Pepper: "And all that about 'I let my guard down', 'I wasn't watching', that's bullshit, none of this is on you." She picks up and points at Edith with the salt shaker.

Capridi finds herself agreeing with grim. What the hell.

Edith Runekill nods at Grim and Pepper. "I guess..."

Edith Runekill: "It's just. I... I can't help but feel like I lost something big today."

Pepper: "Family shouldn't do what your dad did. Family should be there for you. Like Mal was." She looks like she has more to say but she just sets the salt shaker down.

Grim regards Edith, then gives a twitch of a half smile

Grim: "S'about time you started travellin' light."

Edith Runekill: "'Cept for the big heavy sword I drove off with."

Grim smirks

Grim: "That sure don't hurt."

"....poor choice've words, it sure did hurt."

Pepper peers at the back of Grim's head.

Grim places her hand over Pepper's face and pushes her back out of her personal bubble

Capridi turns around on the stool, and casts cure wounds on Grim.

Edith Runekill: "Yeah. It hurt. But. But it's still a big thing. Both literally, and... yeah."

Pepper: "Grouch," she says, muffled around Grim's hand.

Grim stiffens a little and glances sideways at Capridi, taken by surprise.

Capridi turns back around to eat her fries.

Pepper raises an eyebrow and busies herself with her drink.

Grim shivers a little and raises a hand to the back of her head, then lifts her cigarette and settles down again

Edith Runekill: "I... I'm still kinda shocked Tom just gave it up. He spent his whole life expecting to inherit that blade. It's his birthright as the oldest son, y'know?:

Grim: "You hear what he said about that sword, 'n adventurers?"

"I reckon he half wishes he was goin' with you too."

Edith Runekill: "He... he's proud of his family. And farm life suits him. But... well, you're right. He grew up on the same sagas of our ancestors I did."

Grim: "You might just be the first Runekill in a while who ain't afraid've the past."

Grim still can't believe they were j'accused over hunting a literal lich like it's a bad thing

Edith Runekill: "Well..."

Malkas: "We didn't even hunt that Kraken."

"That was just bad luck."

Malkas is talking distantly.

Malkas: "Weird thing to accuse us of..."

Pepper: "He's a weird guy!"

Edith Runekill entwines her hand in Mal's. The one she's not holding her beer in, anyway.

Edith Runekill: "I mean. It is true that we're doing the kinda thing where a run of bad luck means you nearly get killed by a kraken. No sense denying that. But... well, we know. We made a decision to do this."

In the end, the group does end up having a nice family dinner in their own way.

Pepper starts in quietly with an encore of the Elvish classic "Yer Pa Is A Fuckin' Dick" while waiting for her food. She's substituting 'Pastor' for 'Pa' this time.

Edith Runekill: [Elvish] "I am honor-bound to warn you that, for the last decade, Elvish is taught as a foreign language at the high schools here, and therefore your ribald lyrics might not go as uncomprehended as you might have preferred."

Pepper: "[Elvish] Dooooon't care."

Grim: [Elvish] "Yeah knock it off dipshit."

Edith Runekill does a double-take

Pepper is unperturbed at the lyrical sounds of bards and poets creaking out of Grim's mouth.

Grim continues to smoke and drink

Pepper locks eyes with Grim, reaches into her pocket, and pulls out her Hat. She puts it on and sips her drink.

Grim eyes her over and goes back to her beer

Edith Runekill: "Excuse me????"

Grim: [Elvish] "Seen it at the store I sold Mal."

[Elvish] "Still funny."

Edith Runekill: "We're gonna get thrown outta here and I haven't eaten yet and I'm so hungry so please take that off"

Pepper mage hands it on top of Edith's wizard hat.

Edith Runekill yelps

Pepper: "[Elvish] Shhhh, do you wanna get us kicked out?"

Grim: [Elvish] "Quit it, you jackanapes."

Edith Runekill mage-hands it off and onto the seat, out of sight.

Pepper snorts.

Grim: "An' I thought we got out've eatin' with kids."

Malkas silently eats his burger.

Pepper retrieves it and puts the hat away.

Edith Runekill: "Dorothea and Junior's table-manners are way better than we're doing right now, to be honest."

Grim: "Who the hell calls a kid junior anyway."

Edith Runekill: "People... here? He's Tom, Jr., so we just call him Junior. Is... is that weird?"

"I don't think that's weird."

Grim eats her burger like she didn't eat basically a light meal in the car

Grim: "What happens when they grow up"

Pepper ordered some sort of chef's special.

Pepper: "Sometimes THEY have a kid and call him 'the third'."

Pepper shakes her head.

Edith Runekill: "Well then he just reverts back to being Tom...? I don't know. Remind me not to name any of my kids 'Malkas' I guess."

Grim: "Hell's wrong with folk."

"Give your kids people names, damn."

Pepper: "Got that right."

Grim is unaware of any irony in this statement

Pepper ditto.

The set-up: Two stories down, it's Syd's turn now.

The Game: Cap's awake now and leaves the camper to join the group at the fire hoping to score some food. There isn't much left, but Hiram gets Grim to fix a bowl for her and she sits down.

Hiram: "Didn't catch your name, big'un?" Capridi "Nancy Drow" Pepper squints. Malkas sighs. Edith Runekill just looks confused Hiram: "Sure." "You come down from Neverwinter too?" Malkas: "Had a good time in the trailer, huh, Nancy? Sydney Gaydos makes the biggest O:!!! SHE LOVES NANCY DROW. Capridi holds up the rest of the fruit leather she's eating in a cheers gesture. Pepper: "Nannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnncy," she says, trying the name out. Capridi eats the rest of it and takes the plate of beans and rice. Edith Runekill looks at Capridi, obviously disappointed she'd try to lie to poor Hiram :C Pepper doesn't like this name as much as Cap. Grim smokes and s t a r e s at Cap

Grim explains to Hiram that Cap is working for the group to pay down the bounty Mal holds over her. Hiram nods, then turns his attention to Syd.

Hiram: "Where'd we get to, now? Gaydos, ain't it? Says you were some kinda detective?" Sydney Gaydos was about to once again help Pepper up BUT OH STORY TIME! "You are very correct! And to come with that title, Gaydos has many exciting tales and adventures." Hiram grins Pepper has given in to gravity's sweet pull. Hiram: "Y'got a favourite?" Capridi isn't paying attention. She just stares into the fire. Sydney Gaydos taps a claw to her chin in contemplation. "Gaydos is fond of one of her first outings, specifically the story of where she gained her very first gumshoe." She stands up suddenly and puffs out her chest, raising a finger in the air. "It is called The Great Bejeweled Rapier Caper!" Pepper hopes Syd remembers she's down here by her feet. Pepper is in no condition to help herself. Sydney Gaydos didn't step on the floor Pep don't worry. Malkas: "Oh God." Hiram nods and gestures for Syd to go on, settling down to repack his pipe Sydney Gaydos: "It all started when Gaydos first founded her detective agency, and she was assigned to find out who capered the rapier..." [ohhhhh FLASHBACK TIME] Pepper sees the sky around Syd get all wavy. Weird. Capridi is used to seeing things Pepper knows how to fix that! And a very unsteady mage hand pops into existence near Mal and begins dragging one of the more full alcohol bottles towards her. Sydney Gaydos as a much younger version, meticulously examines every little trace of evidence over the shattered glass of the case. "It seems..." "... this glass was BROKEN by a blunt object." Yes. Good detective skills. Sydney Gaydos: ("The Great Detective is allowed a few uncritically examined investigations...") Capridi is mildly impressed Jemily as the NPC Jewelry Store Owner: "That... is obvious, detective. You know maybe I should look around s'more, see if there's some more seasoned—" Sydney Gaydos: "N-no! Gaydos can do it!" Sydney waves both her hands, flustered. "Just, she has her own way of doing things, please trust in her." Pepper: ( "I believe in you, Syd," Pepper whispers. Flashbacks are a little too advanced for her to wrap her mind around right now. Jemily: "Fine." He crosses his arms, annoyed. "So what else have you figured out?" Sydney Gaydos: ("Your vote of confidence warms the depths of Gaydos' heart always, Pepper.") "It's—" she glances around the store, looking at the floor, just, for something! "There—... there was a group! Yes!" She motions towards the ground, pulling out her magnifying glass to get a better look. "As see may see there are several different sets of footprints! We are searching for a group of capers!" Malkas: ("I don't think that's what a caper is.") Sydney Gaydos hands the magnifying glass to the owner. "As you also may notice, they are small and reptilian with three claws. Gaydos deduces—!" she pauses for dramatic effect and POINTS, "—they are Kobold in nature! Which is supported by the Kobold's love of jewelry and jewelry-like accessories!" Sydney Gaydos is also, being VERY animated in the present, making these gestures she are in the story. Malkas: ("Racist!") Sydney Gaydos: ("Gaydos is not proud of her younger self's blatant disregard for contributing to racial stereotypes. She apologizes now and tries to do better in the present.") Pepper: ( "Mal, is that racist?" she asks a full half minute later. Time is in a precarious state for her right now. Malkas: ("Yeah but it's like when Infernal Tieflings and Abyssal Tieflings don't get along. It's, like, a thing.") Jemily: "I knew it!" He slams a fist on the frame of the broken case in anger. "Those little scaly filthy thieves! I knew it was them!" Sydney Gaydos looks... uncomfortable now at the "term", and a little less confident. "I— yes if you know of them, then it can be inferred they are the ones behind this! Tell Gaydos where they reside if you know...?" Malkas: ("This took a turn.") Capridi is thankful there aren't enough people who look like her for jerks to call her a wooly, despite actually having scales. Pepper: ( She frowns. This guy sounds like a jerk. Jemily: "'Course I know! I've chased those little thieves back to that alley they live in! Weekly! Always lookin' in my store. I knew they'd do something like this eventually—" he grabs Sydney's arm to drag her out of the store and point down the street. "That way, and take a left at Elfroot and keep going til you see the hovel they live in. And don't come back til you have my stolen rapier." He slams the door to DeBugBeers. Sydney Gaydos awkwardly looks between the door and the street, now visibly uncomfortable before setting off in the direction she was told. Jemily: [OOoo oOOOoO OO TIMESKIP] Malkas: ("You don't gotta make that noise, Syd.") Capridi: "yes, she does" Sydney Gaydos: ("It's important to the world building of the story!" Sydney goes back to her Story Voice "And then, The Great Detective arrived to her destination! Suddenly, she was surrounded! There a dozen, no— two dozen! A dozen's dozen Kobolds! Closing in!") Pepper: ( She squints. Pepper: ( "That many?" she asks. She's having trouble visualizing a dozen dozen anythings but that sounds wrong. Malkas: ("That's a lot, Syd.") Malkas isn't quite paying attention, he's waiting for Edith to keel over. Sydney Gaydos: ("Y-yes! Gaydos' memory is not the best but she clearly remembers that many..." she lies so very hard.) Hiram gives Syd a level look Edith Runekill: ("Sounds reasonable to me.") ("Sydney's tough!") Sydney Gaydos SEES that looks and deflates. "Mmmaybe it was less then that." ) Edith Runekill takes that in stride ) Edith Runekill: ("Well, every story grows in the telling!") Sydney Gaydos gives a Edith a small smile. "Quite right Deputy Edith! Gaydos will be more accurate about what happened." ) Edith Runekill smiles back. ) Sydney Gaydos does, in reality, take ONE step into the alleyway before she's caught up in a single snare trap, strung up in the air upside down, and then surrounded by four young Kobolds with daggers. Sydney Gaydos: ("The following conversation is in Draconic, but she will do her best to translate into Common.") Vhinzizzork: "The Hells ya' want, Dragonborn?" she points her dagger towards Sydney's head threateningly. Sydney Gaydos struggles a bit, trying to free herself before dropping her arms. "Gaydos is investigating a theft of a valuable jeweled rapier not too far away and she suspects you did it!" she swings forward to point an accusing claw towards them. Pepper: ( She's having trouble following half of this story now, Syd is occasionally making dog noises for some reason. ( She drinks, rather than ask for clarification. Vhinzizzork she pokes Sydney's head a little with the dagger, looking annoyed. "Rapier? Haven't seen anything like that "Gaydos". Go sniff around somewhere else." Sydney Gaydos: "She found evidence! You were in the store!" Vhinzizzork: "Must'a been some other gang of Kobolds." Sydney Gaydos HUFFS. "She knows you did it! So just cut her down from this darn thing and accept your criminal actions and punishment!" Vhinzizzork with the group, darken considerably and she pokes Sydney's head again with the dagger, a little deeper this time. "Listen up, Gaydos. We didn't steal NOTHIN' that didn't belong to us FIRST y'got that?" Sydney Gaydos blinks at that. No longer annoyed or angry, she looks thoughtful. "What... do you mean by that?" Malkas: ("A twist!") Edith Runekill: ("Gasp!") Pepper: ( "Did you say gasp." ) Vhinzizzork is taken off-guard by the question, and glances between the group before nodding slowly. "That slob owner ripped us off. We needed the money, so we worked and worked in some mines of his!" The grip on her dagger begins to shake in anger. "We didn't understand Common. We didn't understand getting a handful of copper per WEEK wasn't right! Now look at'im! He's selling our hard word for quadruple the price while we live HERE! That's not right!" Sydney Gaydos lets out a heavy, sad sigh after the explanation. "No, that isn't right. Please, let Gaydos down, she only wishes to seek justice for the wronged. " She looks directly at Vhinzizzork. "For anyone." Grim is actually listening with interest for the first time tonight Edith Runekill has been interested all night but she looks PARTICULARLY interested right now. Capridi wants cheetos Vhinzizzork once again glances between the group before they they all agree silently. She throws her dagger at the top of the snare to cut Sydney free, probably none too gently. The group takes a few steps back but Vhin stays right where she is. "You really mean that?" she asks hesitantly. Sydney Gaydos lands with a hard fump and a grunt, before rubbing her head and standing to her feet. "Of course. Gaydos is a detective for that reason! She will see criminals be punished, " despite the dull pain, she gives the group a smile. "Please, do trust her." Vhinzizzork glowers. "You gotta' prove ya' deserve that trust, " she states harshly before softening, "but if ya' do this, ya' get that slob punished or whatever. It'd be earned, " Pause. "Detective." Pepper: ( "Give 'em hell, Syd!" She fist bumps Syd's foot. She's way into this story. Sydney Gaydos: [present making noises sound] "... and due to Gaydos' wonderful charismatic talent, that store owner was shut down and jailed for severe neglect and abuse of underaged employees under his care due to under payment and poor living conditions, while the young Kobolds only received community service at the Private Eye, where! Vhinzizzork decided to remain after the service hours were up." Malkas: "W- But how?" "How did you, like ... prove it?" Sydney Gaydos: "Lack of payment records. It was also four against one on what had happened. Not to mention Gaydos' own account of the owners rather distasteful opinion on scaled races." Pepper: "And she's the great detective!" She's being sincere. Syd is just the greatest. Malkas: "Well, good job Syd." Hiram: "Justice kinda sides with the seven foot fire breather in private disagreements, I found." Edith Runekill: "You did a really good thing there, Sydney." Capridi: "syndeee, champion dogooder" Edith Runekill glows with admiration Grim grunts affirmation Edith Runekill: "It's always good to be able to look at a situation from another angle and figure out what's really the right thing to do."

Sydney Gaydos: "Also that. Gaydos assumes she was "lucky" in getting some police officers who were rather.. small and a bit more easily swayed." She BEAMS at all the praise. "Gaydos thanks you for the kind words, and hopes her actions continue to speak for herself."

The set-up: It's Edith's turn to tell a story!

The Game: With Pepper dead asleep, Hiram turns his attention to Edith and Mal asking where they're from and how they got acquainted with Grim.

Hiram: "Y'all are from all over, hm?"

"How'd you wind up keepin' company on a job like this?" Edith Runekill: "Well, Mal and I were both living in Neverwinter when we met." Hiram nods Hiram: "Right enough, said that's where y'come down from." "Long way west for you, girl." He looks at Grim. Grim shrugs and keeps eating Grim: "Had a contract on Malkas." Malkas: "Mistaken identity." Edith Runekill shrugs too. "There's a lot going on out west... uh." Edith Runekill: "Yeah." Grim: "Tiefling. Looked like 'im." Hiram raises his eyebrows and studies Grim Hiram: "That right?" Grim grunts irritably at him Edith Runekill exchanges a glance with Mal. Malkas shrugs, "Bad photo." Edith Runekill: "Yeah. Coulda been anyone in that picture." "And I guess we were in the same neck of the woods when it was taken..." Edith Runekill shrugs. "Water under the bridge at this point. Mostly it just meant we were all in the room together when Szass Tam busted up the world's fair, which is how we got on his tail." Hiram: "Together?" Grim: "Weren't givin' up the contract on Malkas 'til I was sure." Grim mutters into her bowl, scraping it clean Hiram: "That so." Edith Runekill: "Sometimes you make friends the strangest ways." Grim putS HER BOWL DOWN Hiram smiles Hiram: "Sometimes the only way."

Hiram admits he didn't take Edith and Mal for a couple at first, but if they're happy together it's no one's business but their own.

Note: Lines written (“Like this”) are comments from a character in present time.

Edith Runekill smiles ruefully. "Wish my parents could see it like that." Helia (GM): FLASHBACK~~~ 8 Months Ago ~~~ Ma and Pa Runekill arrive in the city of Neverwinter via train. Edith Runekill waits on the platform, standing beside Mal. Edith Runekill: "You nervous, Mal?" Malkas: "Nah, I'll be fine." ("I was gonna shit.") Nora R. | The train pulls into the station. Passengers slowly start disembarking. Most of them look like they're from well west of Plaguewrought. No sign of Ma and Pa yet. Pa Runekill finally disembarks, Ma Runekill behind him. He's carrying two large suitcases. Malkas takes a steadying breath. Edith Runekill waves, and then rushes forward to take the bags. "Here, let me—" Malkas: "Oh, I'll uh - " Edith Runekill casts Tenser's Floating Disc beneath the bags, artfully levitating them. Malkas is kinda left reaching for ... nothing. And looking like an idiot. Edith Runekill: "There, that'll make it easier to... uh..." Pa Runekill is stone silent. Ma Runekill: "You're being a bit of a show-off, Edith." Edith Runekill is chagrinned. Edith Runekill: "Uh." Edith Runekill attempts to smile brightly, as if that was just good-natured ribbing. "Anyway! This is Mal. Mal, this is my Ma and Pa." Pa Runekill and Ma Runekill exchange A Look. Malkas: "Hello, uh, Mister and Missus Runekill." Malkas reaches out a hand to shake Pa's hand. Pa Runekill takes it and gives it a quick, perfunctory shake. "Nice to meet you, son." Edith Runekill withers at this clear sign of Plaguewrought Hostility. Edith Runekill: "Uh... should we... uh...?" Malkas: "Did you, uh, enjoy your trip?" Pa Runekill: "We had to spend a week on that train just to see our own little girl. Do you think we enjoyed it?" Ma Runekill: "It was fine." "We just wish you were a little closer to home, Edith, that's all." Malkas: ("Her dad is terrifying.") Edith Runekill: ("He's... well. Guess meeting some dads who weren't him put things in perspective...?") Edith Runekill: "Er... I guess I should hail us a cab?" Grim: (Grim digs her own flask out of her pack, ego bruised enough by the Jhuil at this point) Malkas: "Hey, uh, why don't I go do that?" Malkas gives a fleeting smile to the Runekills and flees. Ma Runekill: "He's... a little different than I pictured him, Edith," she says, just before Mal is out of earshot. Edith Runekill: "Er... how so...?" Ma Runekill: "Well, he's..." "Hm." Pa Runekill: "What your mother is trying to say is that when you told us his father was from Ormpetarr, we were picturing somebody a little more... human, y'know?" Edith Runekill winces. Edith Runekill: "Does... does that really matter...?" Ma Runekill: "Of course not," she says, in a tone of voice that means Yes, it matters a lot. "The important thing is that you're happy." Edith Runekill walks outside with her parents in sullen silence to see if Mal had any luck finding a cab for them. She looks pale and withdrawn. Malkas has successfully located a Taxi. Edith Runekill levitates the bags into the trunk and opens the door for her parents. She murmurs the address of the hotel her parents are staying at to the cabbie. Grim: (Grim stretches out against a rock a little way back from the fire, working on her flask and a cigarette while she listens to Edith) Edith Runekill: (Edith lights a cigarette of her own with prestidigitation. "People from out where I come from can say a lot with silence. Saying nothing can mean real different things depending on how you do it.") ("Sometimes if you know someone real well silence can be comfortable, calming, companionable. But in this case, what was being signaled was intense unhappiness and disapproval.") ("Speaking the same language Mal's dad does, I reckon, but saying something real different." ) Hiram: ("Reckon I know how that is.") Malkas: ("They were real weird about me helping them with their bags") Edith Runekill: ("I think they thought you'd run off with 'em. Even though that doesn't make even a little sense?") ("They... in retrospect they were kinda weird about me using magic to help with them, too. Like I wasn't doing it the honest way. Like I could carry all that stuff with my skinny noodle arms.") ("Well. Maybe if I'd had some jhuild first.") Hiram: ("Oh, I bet that would've gone down real well with these folks.") Edith Runekill: (Edith manages a slight laugh at that. "Anyway... things didn't really go downhill until dinner after they got settled in at their hotel. We went to this really nice kobold place that was well outside of my normal price range, but I figured it had to be my treat 'cause I was already being rude by not letting them stay at my place, because there was no room, because it's the size of a shoebox and I share it with another girl.") —at the restaurant— Ma Runekill peers at her surroundings— the temple stylings, the kobold waiters, the crowd of hungry Neverwinterers happily eating pasta and pizzas. She prods at her spaghetti uncertainly. Ma Runekill: "It's... nice." Pa Runekill: "Maybe a bit ethnic." Ma Runekill: "That's how it is out here, I reckon." Edith Runekill is dying Malkas holds her hand under the table. Edith Runekill picks up a breadstick and accidentally snaps it in two. "Haha.. whoops." Ma Runekill: "Don't play with your food, dear." Malkas is eating his breadstick with a fork and knife he doesn't know what to do. Ma Runekill turns to Mal. All smiles. "So. Tell me. When did you and Edith meet?" Malkas makes sure his face doesn't have any crumbs on it or anything in his teeth, "We, uh, met at her work. I came in with some reclaimed artifacts I had found and was donating them to the museum." Malkas: "And Edith was working at the artifact desk that day." Edith Runekill nods. "Yeah. And... and we, uh, worked together a lot after that. And got to know eachother." Malkas: "You have a wonderful daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Runekill." Ma Runekill and Pa exchange another Look. Pa Runekill: "What kinda work?" Edith Runekill: "Uh. Museum stuff. Some digs and the like. Maybe a bit of travel...?" Edith Runekill exchanges a Look with Mal, because she's from Plaguewrought Land too and grew up speaking the same language. Malkas: "Organizing dig sites, taking photos of the, uh... artifacts if we're moving them." "There's a whole team of archaeologists at the museum we work with and go to dig sites with." Hiram: (Hiram is listening quietly. He notices Grim dozing off, however, and gives her a prod in the ribs.) Grim: (Grim does not appreciate it but sits up with a frown) Ma Runekill: "That's nice." She gives Pa another look, but a slightly different one than before. Pa Runekill suddenly pins Mal with a death glare. Malkas sweats. Pa Runekill: "'Archeological digs'." "Huh." Edith Runekill looks extremely nervous. More so than before. Malkas: ("I still am not sure why that set him off.") "Uh... I'm sure Edith will be happy to, uh... show you some of the sites the team has worked on, if you guys were planning on going to the museum." Pa Runekill: "I know all about the kinda things that go on at archeological dig sites. The sorta things people go through to retrieve old artifacts best left beneath the earth. I ain't naive." "Malkas." "Are you leading our little girl into danger?" Malkas: "Uh... N-no, sir. We - we're not doing any kind of dungeoneering, really." "M-most of it's, uh, say a farmer or landowner ... finds some kind of old fragment of pottery or armor scraps on their land and... sometimes calls us to investigate further." "Any danger is ... fairly minor." Malkas: "And... You know, if there was, I promise I'd ... put myself between it and Edith every time." Malkas gives Edith kind of a fleeting smile. Pa Runekill is caught off-guard by how detailed that explanation was. He glances at Ma, who nods at him slightly. "Well. Suppose I'll take your word for it." Malkas: ("Basically I'm full'a shit.") ("Except that last bit.") ("We had fought, oh, seven mummies by this point.") Edith Runekill: ("Well, it's true you aren't leading me into danger. We get into trouble together.") Malkas: ("Yeah, if anything we're leading each other into danger.") Hiram: ("Still, takes some balls to lie to a gal's father, face to face.") (It's not clear whether Hiram sees this as a good thing or not.) Edith Runekill: ("They... don't really approve of 'adventuring'. They think it's too dangerous. They think just plain old living in Neverwinter and working in a museum is too dangerous. Too many people, too much crime, so easy to get hurt. Think I shoulda never left home." ) Grim: (Grim gets up to start clearing away the dinner things, leaving Hiram to enjoy the tale of archaeology and parent child relationships) Hiram: ("They know how far you disagree?") Edith Runekill: ("They're... hard to argue with. Gonna... gonna be some tough conversations when we pass through Plaguewrought Land on our way east." Hiram: ("Sounds to me like they ain't so easy not to argue with neither.") Edith Runekill: ("Rock and a hard place.") Hiram: ("Nothin' wrong with standin' on solid ground when it's the choice you got.") Ma Runekill: "Well. Anyway. I'm glad we had the wrong idea about that. Suppose someone still needs to pick up all the pieces when old things best forgotten surface." Pa Runekill slightly inclines his head; the faint whisper of a nod. Edith Runekill: "Uh... it's real important stuff! A few pieces of pottery or a coin hoard or an ancient midden can tell the story of all the world's people. Even Plaguewrought Land's in history's long shadow— the old Golden Plains, the Spellplague, the Luskan migrations and centuries of reclamation efforts— it's the stuff that made us." Ma Runekill: "Still just like you were as a little girl." She smiles. "More interested than what's in old books than what's in front of nose." She smiles again. It's jokes. Clearly. Malkas has literally never been more uncomfortable in his life. Ma Runekill: "You know. For a while we thought she was gonna grow up and be a priest; she always loved old things and old stories and magic." Pa Runekill: "Woulda kept her closer to home, anyway." He doesn't smile. Just tightens his lips strangely. Edith Runekill: ("I literally never wanted that and I still don't really know where they got that idea.") ("Maybe it was just wishful thinking...?") Grim: (Grim straightens up with the dinner things and heads down the hill to find water and wash up.) Edith Runekill: ("And... it went on like that. Just.... lots of little things. Small slights. Backhanded comments.") Hiram: (Hiram watches Grim go, then looks back at Edith. "That the last time you've saw 'em?") Edith Runekill: ("Thank Auril they believed Mal's story about our work or it would've been an absolute crisis. But it was still... upsetting.") ("Yeah. But like I mentioned we're headed back that way again. And... and this time, I don't think we're gonna manage to hide what we're really up to.") ("Can't imagine they'll like how much danger I'm putting myself in. Or that they'll believe I'm really the one putting myself in it. But...") Malkas: "I think your father might actually murder me." Edith Runekill: —it's the present again— Hiram considers this for a few moments, sucking on his pipe Edith Runekill: "Well... You know, if he did, I promise I'd ... put myself between it and you every time." She gives Mal a crooked grin. "I... I feel like I gotta go back though, precisely because of how much danger we're going into. It'd... I wouldn't want to lose what might be my last chance to see home. Since... it's still home. They're still my people. Y'know?" She stares at the fire. Hiram nods slowly at this Malkas snorts at Edith, "Hey come on, I was bein' sincere." Hiram: "My son took up bounty huntin' when he was just seventeen." "Never did want that for him, tried to stand in his way." "But he kept on, an' I realised after a time, I'd wind up walkin' one of two roads. One where he keeps on speakin' with me 'til the day he's cut down, or one where I'd lose him while he was still livin'." "Ain't easy for a parent, seein' a child walk into the way of danger, but...it's harder, seein' a life without 'em in it." "That's my learnin' on it, anyhow." Edith Runekill nods. "I... I can't pretend that it's not awful to see your kid go out into danger. I get that. I really do. But... but is it wrong for me to have wanted something outta life different from what they did?" Edith Runekill throws her cigarette butt into the fire. "I dunno." Hiram: "Hells no it ain't. We all have had our young days, an' we all got our own fights to stand in." "Ain't no sense to a parent, is all." Edith Runekill: "Guess... guess I just gotta try to do better when I'm a mom. If... if I live long enough for that, anyway." Hiram: "Seein' you put away the Jhuil, I got faith." Hiram smirks Hiram: "Somethin' to you, that's for sure." Edith Runekill smiles. "I can be tougher than I look." Hiram: "Most can, but damn few try." Hiram glances down the hill after Grim, then looks back at Edith Hiram: "Don't go tryin' too hard, is all." Edith Runekill: "Well. I try to know my limits, too."

The set-up: Three stories down, three to go!

The Game: With Syd’s story done, attention naturally shifts to the other dragonborn in the party.

Edith Runekill: "It's one thing to try to do good, it's another to be able to actually... navigate that."

Grim: "Tryin's more'n some ever get around to." Grim is looking at Cap again.

Sydney Gaydos: "Also that. Gaydos assumes she was "lucky" in getting some police officers who were rather.. small and a bit more easily swayed." She BEAMS at all the praise. "Gaydos thanks you for the kind words, and hopes her actions continue to speak for herself."

Capridi isn't paying attention to Grim, the fire is too captivating

Pepper: "Nancyyyyyyyyyyy, Grim's talking to yooooooooou."

Capridi forgot who the hell Nancy is

Pepper is more alcohol than elf at the moment.

Edith Runekill: "Nancy?"

"Oh, right."

Capridi: "who?"

Edith Runekill: "You introduced yourself as 'Nancy Drow' for some reason...?"

Hiram: "You doin' okay there, scruff?" Hiram eyes Cap

Capridi shrugs "probably"

Capridi looks up at Hiram "yer not lookin' so trim yourself"

Hiram cracks a grin

Hiram: "Ain't that the truth."

Grim lights a cigarette, staring at Cap

Grim: "How 'bout you tell us a li'l somethin' about yourself, now."

"Nancy."

"Reckon it ain't before time."

Pepper: "Don' make fun of Hiram, I like him," she frowns. This is clearly a convincing argument to her.

Capridi: "I was a traveling circus performer caught up in a pyramid scheme. Those were younger days. You do whatever you can to make money for the family back on the farm. The jerks on top decided to pin it all on me, me... being a dumb kid who didn't know shit. So I had to run from my job at the traveling movie theater and then I ended up in a library aaaaand then you guys found me. Pretty cut and dry."

Pepper, Mal, and Edith accept this at face value but Grim and Sydney aren’t fooled. Grim’s had enough.

Grim: "It's bullshit, Runekill, like everything out've this one's mouth."

Pepper starts to sense this conversation's taking a bit of a swerve. She looks up at Grim, very confused.

Capridi throws up her hands "What the hell do you want? My birth certificate?"

Edith Runekill: "We wouldn't have wound up here, doing this, if we didn't each and every one of us walk a strange path to get here."

Pepper: "I took a boat," Pepper adds, helpfully unhelpful.

Grim: "I want to know you ain't about to turn around and put everythin' to waste the day it suits you, Ozu."

Capridi is hardly what you call sober but she knows what Grim is wanting from her "Fiiiine, what do I gotta do to prove to you that I won't murder you in elaborate ways in your sleep like some sort of vaudeville bad guy?"

Capridi: "I mean, if I wanted to murder all of you, I'd be more willing to tag along. Instead I got a gun pointed to my face if I don't take up the job."

Grim: "You can start by cuttin' the horseshit. If you got nothin' honest to say, say nothin'."

Edith Runekill looks unsure of this. "Cap's saved our lives a whole bunch of times by now..."

Malkas: "Cap, if you tell us like, a truthful story, I'll give ya... Forty gold."

Hey, that’s a good deal. Everyone else was doing it for free.

Edith does her best to defend Cap, pointing out all the times she’s healed up the group. Grim says they still don’t even know who she is beyond a few healing spells and she doesn’t like the idea of owing anything to a criminal who’s done nothing but lie to them.

Capridi is getting annoyed, "bitch, we all gotta do what we need to survive. In this case, I gotta survive a gun toting lunatic with a hair trigger. Who knows what'll set you off? Crime or no crime."

Grim: "Or 'less you'll do just about anything to stay alive."

Pepper: "Hey don't. C'mon now. Don't." She's trying to sit up. "This isn' about Grim." It's not clear who she's talking to.

Grim: "Go fuck yourself, lamb chop."

Capridi: "Wow, sheep joke. Haven't heard that one before, hillbilly."

Edith Runekill: "Grim..."

Hiram: "Girl." Hiram looks at Grim and grabs her arm as she lurches to her feet.

Edith Runekill looks Worried

Hiram: "Get on down and clean up the pans. And cool your head down in the creek if you got half the sense."

Grim glowers at Cap, then at Hiram, then growls and snatches up the pan to go do as she's told

Capridi: "yeah, listen to your dad."

Hiram looks at Capridi

Hiram: "You. Tread careful."

Sydney Gaydos carefully moves Pepper Away from the fire as she's sitting up.

Capridi is deadpan, slow sarcastic jazz hands

Hiram guesses correctly that Cap and Grim haven’t gotten along the whole trip. Cap tells him that no, they didn’t, she finds it hard to move on from being shot. He tells her it probably wasn’t anything personal, but it’s hard not to take being shot personally. She relents, though, and tells a story.

Capridi sighs "If you guys want a story, I'll give you one. But don't cry to me if you get bored."

Sydney Gaydos claps her hands together. "Gaydos will listen with rapt attention!"

Pepper WON'T. She folds her arms and looks away down to where Grim went.

Capridi: "I'm more or less a drifter. I stopped in one town, brightlake, or something. I stepped into a bar, a kinda seedier part of town. After a few comments about livestock, one guy needed a prescription for a five finger sandwich."

"Haha, get it, i punched a dude"

"Anyway, these drama queens had to start a bar fight. Next thing I know the paddy wagon is heading our way and I duck out the back through the window in the rest room. Well, more like the wall? Those windows are small even for you humans. Hardly accommodating but I guess that keeps people from skipping out on their tabs."

"I lost the feds and stumbled into the brush. Next thing I know, I'm locked in a library for like two weeks. The books that weren't magic traps full of dragons or whatever weren't even that interesting to read."

"I built a fort, carved my name into a bookshelf, you know, stave off boredom."

"And then you guys show up, there's a dragon, and Grim shoots me."

Edith Runekill: "I'm... I'm sure you could'a found something interesting to read in Candlekeep."

"They got a lot there."

Capridi: "what, reference books? Cookbooks? Academic texts? Yeah, real fun"

Pepper: "[Elvish] Fort Asshole," she says, a bit late.

Pepper is mumbling mostly to herself.

Edith Runekill: "The length and breadth of world culture and knowledge! The cumulative scholarship of an age! Lost texts unknown to the outside world on every shelf!"

Capridi: "THERE WEREN'T EVEN ANY PICTURES"

Hiram: "Books is overrated."

Capridi: "Right?"

Hiram puffs on his pipe

Edith Runekill looks bummed about that.

Hiram: "Burn too easy for holdin' real important stuff."

Edith Runekill: "I was real careful! I didn't prepare any fire spells the day we went in."

Malkas passes two twenty-gold notes to Capridi.

Capridi pockets the notes.

Capridi sinks against the log, and stares into the fire once more.

The set-up: The group stops at a campground for the night. (Note: This was a long RP double-session, so most of the recaps will be long quote blocks. It will also be broken down into single character sessions. Hiram was played by Grim’s player, Rosa.)

The Game: The group has stopped at a campground in the middle of nowhere for the night. It looks like it’s seen better days, but Grim notices someone has been there recently and is still nearby. Whoever it is isn’t camping on the actual campgrounds and doesn’t want to be spotted from the road.

Mal offers to go invisible and check out the area. He comes back to tell them he only saw an old man—he looks unarmed and doesn’t seem to be in any trouble, maybe even a local.

Grim: "Why'd a local avoid the campsite?" Malkas: "Maybe he just likes privacy. Or he was screwin' his sheep." "Don't let him see Cap." Grim doesn't look convinced, but she lowers her rifle at least Grim: "Somethin's off, I don't know." Malkas: "Well, go take a look, I'll be behind you." Grim is in two minds for a moment, but then she shrugs again and moves quietly up through the trees Hiram strikes a match off a rock and calls down the hill Hiram: "That you, girl?" Grim frEEZES Hiram: "You'n your friends come on out, now." Edith Runekill bolts in the direction of the voices. Hiram lights up a pipe and puffs on it while he watches whatever play out down the hill Malkas pops back into the visible spectrum. Pepper nudges Syd to indicate "should we" and "you first" at the same time. Hiram is a human, probably in his eighties at least. He looks pretty much like an old farmer, super weatherbeaten, dressed in plain work clothes and apparently unarmed. Grim remains rooted to the spot

The group—save for Grim—introduces themselves to the man when prompted. Grim identifies him as Hiram and asks what he’s doing out there.

Malkas steps around the fire and sits next to Edith. "So, uh... Hiram... You and Grim know each other, I see." Hiram: "Grim." He sounds like he's trying out the name, surveying her as he says it. Grim gives him a fleetingly more petulant look Hiram: "Sure, we go back a way." "You folks got business out here?" Malkas: "We're heading out east, to Thay. We're following a Lich." Hiram gives a thoughtful grunt around the pipe in his teeth. Pepper hooks her thumbs into her pockets, trying to project an air of the lich-following type. Edith Runekill begins to frame a reply around Prastuil University and Plaguewrought Land and etc. before realizing it's not necessary. She nods, instead. "Szass Tam." Edith Runekill: "He caused a lot of trouble back west." "And... well, even more trouble back east, historically speaking." Hiram: "Thay ain't ever been right." "Szass Tam. You sure?" Malkas: "Near as we can tell." Hiram nods and studies the group Sydney Gaydos gives a friendly little wave. Hiram: "Well, if you're lookin' for a fire for the night, won't grudge you this one." He eyeballs Grim again. "S'long as you ain't above sharin' a little of the road behind you with an old timer." Grim draws her knees up and folds her arms over them Pepper rubs her chin. Sydney Gaydos: "Ah, stories from our pasts?" Hiram: "My assumption bein' you ain't got none from the future." Pepper snorts softly. Sydney Gaydos: "Haha! Incredibly fair!" Edith Runekill nods. "Sounds like a reasonable trade." Edith Runekill LOVES stories.

The group shares their food for dinner and makes small talk as it cooks.

Hiram eyes Grim for a second, then digs into his pack and pulls out a flask, which he tosses over to her Grim uncoils enough to catch it, eyeing Hiram warily before she uncorks it and takes a sniff Grim looks up, a little surprised Grim: "Jhuild?" Hiram nods Hiram: "Growed up, ain't you?" Grim: "Guess so." Grim hesitates, then takes a cautious swig Edith Runekill looks intrigued. But is too polite to ask how they know eachother. Grim splutters and holds the flask away from her mouth Grim: "Fuck me-" Hiram laughs uproariously Hiram: "Live up to your expectations, girl?" Pepper comes back with Syd to see Grim's body rejecting DRINK. Edith Runekill smiles briefly before hiding her mouth behind her hand. Pepper raises an eyebrow. Grim looks like she's dying for a few moments while she regains her composure Sydney Gaydos for SURE comes back just in time to see that happen and she can't help but snicker a tad. Edith Runekill: "Strong stuff, huh?" Hiram leans over and takes the flask back. Hiram: "Mmhm." "Anyone else?" Edith Runekill raises her hand. Hiram tosses the flask over Malkas: "Edi..." Edith Runekill takes a swig. Edith Runekill puts it away like nobody's business. Edith Runekill: "Yep. Strong stuff."

Pepper darts her eyes from Edith to Grim Pepper: "Is this a prank?" Malkas boggles at Edith. Sydney Gaydos: "Gaydos agrees, it must be some sort of joke." Grim looks at Edith like what the fuck even Edith Runekill passes the flask back. Hiram takes the flask and nods to Edith with a kind of wicked smile

Hiram: "Well." "Where you from, li'l miss?" Edith Runekill: "I live up in Neverwinter now, but I'm from Plaguewrought Land. Little farm town out in the central plains." Hiram: "Country gal?" Sydney Gaydos takes her seat back and puts the food near Hiram, a little suspicious that there'll be another joke. Hiram: "Build 'em tough in the south." Edith Runekill nods. Edith Runekill: "Life is bleak enough that we're bored to drink all sorts of bathtub moonshine that'll strip paint off a fence and make you go blind." "I can still see after drinking that, so that's a good sign." Edith Runekill likes Hiram, she's decided.

Who even is Edith.

Hiram: "Mmhm, you'd do alright in the east, I reckon." "Fair trade about, as this 'un's gone soft." He gestures to Grim with a pocket knife Grim scowls Pepper: "Oh, no sir, she's all elbows and knees." Edith Runekill feels compelled to rise to Grim's defense. "She's one of the hardest people I ever known." Grim gets up and takes a walk around the treeline. She leaves her pack, gun and hat where she was sitting, though. Hiram watches her go Pepper rubs her chin. Hiram: "Still easy embarrassed, though." Hiram sets a pot on the fire and decants some Jhuild into another flask, diluting it about half and half with water Hiram looks across the fire at Pepper Hiram: "Pepper, you said?" Pepper: "Hm?" she raises an eyebrow. She'd been watching where Grim had gone. "That's me," she grins. Hiram nods and passes over the diluted flask Pepper squints at it.

Pepper sniffs at the flask. Hiram | The Jhuild has a rich sweet smell, kind of plummy and herbal at the same time. This is only discernable now that it's been diluted, as before it smelled like Murder.

They tell Hiram they’ve been on the road for about two and a half months and that they’re adventurers. “Mercenaries with morals” he calls them.

Pepper: "This is nice stuff, no wonder you liked it," she says, waving the flask at Edith. "Very Edith." Edith Runekill nods benignly at Pepper. "Probably a little less interesting when it's watered down, I reckon." Pepper: "I'm not sure I'll take your word on that, you barely tasted it the first time around." Hiram: "Jhuild ain't made for the flavour. S'what the berserkers drink, out east." "But watered down's how most prefer it out this far." Edith Runekill nods at that. "There's a lot more to a drink than just flavor." Malkas: "Edi, warn me if you're gonna keel over or try and take my head off, huh?" Edith Runekill: "Sure thing, Mal. I'll try to give a hand signal or something before the blood fog fully descends over me."

While he prepares dinner, Hiram starts asking Pepper a few questions.

Hiram looks Pepper over Hiram: "Wizard?" "Bard?" Pepper flushes and looks up and away. "Sorcerer," she mumbles. Hiram nods Hiram: "Ah, got a blessin' on you." Pepper 's face reddens more and she sinks down in her seat. "Yeah. That's a word for it." Sydney Gaydos gives Pepper a reassuring pap. Edith Runekill smiles supportively. Pepper: "People say it but, I dunno, never really felt like it was." Hiram: "Young 'un still, ain't you? Elf wise, don't know how you kind count it." Pepper: "Your human ways of counting suns and seasons mystify me," she says raising her hands to the sky and throwing her head back. She pauses, hands up in the air and swaying on the makeshift seat. "I only just left home like a year ago," she says, quietly. Hiram: "Mm. You got that shine on you. Time'll learn you, but I hope it don't fade too quick." Sydney Gaydos looks surprised, but says nothing and simply continues listening. Hiram unpacks some tin cups and starts to fill them with food and pass them around the fire Pepper catches Syd's expression. "Yeah. I should've been gone a long time before then. Not for, like. Me. But for my folks." Pepper: "[Elvish] Oh hello, Ivy. What's that? Addi still hasn't moved out you say?" She frowns. Edith Runekill frowns, too. Hiram: "They ain't troubled by this here line of work?" Pepper lets out a short laugh. "My dad's over the moon. Mom is. Not so much. They have trouble seeing eye-to-eye about me sometimes." Hiram: "That so." "Ain't often nobody's excited to see a child off into this world." Pepper: "They both worry, don't get me wrong, but mom—" she groans. "She's always had this idea she could fix things or I dunno. Keep problems away." Her head is swimming a little. Edith Runekill gives Hiram a look at that. Pepper: "But I am the problem! I mean. I'm not a problem but. I'm me," she sighs. "But Mom tried anyway." Hiram: "Goat in the garden's a problem." "Goat on the hill's a living." Hiram passes Grim a cup of food without looking around as she reappears silently by his shoulder and sits down Pepper frowns. "If it was just goats that would've been fine." She doesn't get the saying AT ALL. "Goats don't usually knock down walls." Edith Runekill gingerly begins to eat; she's suddenly unsure of the point of her stomach's remaining capabilities now that several layers of it have been burned away. Hiram: "Depends on the goat." "And the wall." Pepper is staring at the sky, now. Lost in thought. "My mom had this great idea once, to just keep up an antimagic field. So simple right? Real wizard-y way of thinking." She almost looks at Edith but keeps her gaze fixed on a treebranch. Edith Runekill casts her eyes downwards anyway. Pepper: "Except for having to keep it up all the time. And stay close by me. An'—I dunno. Whatever else you do for it." Edith Runekill: "It... it can't have been a lotta fun. Being in an anti-magic field was rough for me, and magic wasn't even something I was born with. Felt like losing a limb. Or having my hands tied up." Pepper: "Yeah but it worked! An' that's all that matters, right? Problem solved." "For a few weeks." Grim eats ravenously with her head down, listening without making eye contact Pepper hasn't touched her food. "We were at the market, me and my folks. Just like every week. Maybe I got too far away from mom, I dunno." Hiram settles back with his pipe while he eats, listening much more politely than the feral animal beside him Pepper: "I don't remember what happened. I mean, back then, I never could when a surge went off but this was different." She's still talking to that tree branch. "I woke up in my bed at home, when it was dark out." Malkas eats quietly. Pepper hasn't left anything in this flask to share by this point. Pepper: "An' I could hear my folks downstairs. They were—I mean they weren't fighting but. They weren't agreeing. See, Mom never liked telling me what all I'd done, but pops would tell me anyway. He always thought I should know. But this time was different, she'd said." Grim looks sidelong at Pepper, then goes back to her food Pepper: "She really put her foot down, there," she chuckles. "He spent the night at my uncle's. Mom came into my room later on. I asked her 'Did anybody get hurt?' And all she'd tell me was 'Everything's fine, now'." Her face is blank, her cheeks are flushed, and the flask is empty. Grim stops chewing for a moment and seems to consider this, eyeing the fire Edith Runekill looks up again. "Pepper..." Malkas is frozen a state of awkward anxiety. Hiram is still eating Sydney Gaydos reaches out to give another pat, hovering her hand in the air for a few moments before making contact as gently as possible. "Thank you for trusting us to share this with us, Pepper." Edith Runekill nods emphatically. Hiram: "Was it?" Pepper: "I'm here, right? An'. An' my parents didn' split up so, yeah, I think so." She smiles suddenly. "My folks are havin' a baby." Grim glances back up Malkas returns to life. "Oh. Uh, congratulations." Grim: "No shit?" Sydney Gaydos GASPS. "A second Pepper!" Pepper: "Mom just told me the other night. I'm really glad..." she trails off, beaming in a drunken haze. Edith Runekill is shaken from her reverie. "Oh! That's great news!" Hiram nods "Y'keep in touch? That's good." Pepper: "Yeah!" she haphazardly throws a fist in the air and topples backwards onto the ground. She's laughing and crying now. Malkas thinks that seems about right. Edith Runekill feels a brief wave of obligatory guilt over not calling her parents. Edith Runekill shakes herself out of it and smiles at Pepper again. Edith Runekill: "I think you'll make a real good big sister, Pepper." Hiram rescues the empty flask from Pepper and tops it up with some more diluted Jhuild Pepper: "Yeah we're gonna—I'm gonna—don' mess with second Pepper!" she laughs, and points at the sky. Then, "I think I landed on an anthill." Hiram: "That'll learn you." He passes the flask to Grim this time Sydney Gaydos: "Would you like help up. Pepper. or are you okay on the ground with the ants?" Pepper sways her arms up in Syd's direction like "please". Sydney Gaydos turns to lean over to pluck Pepper up from the ground and plop her carefully back on her seat. Pepper steadies herself and shakes bugs out of her hair. Sydney Gaydos looks REALLY closely at Pep and picks off the lil ants she's missed. Pepper grabs her soup bowl and concentrates reallllllllllly hard to warm it up, then drains it in one go. Hiram: "First year on the road, chasin' down a lich. Just as well they're turnin' out a spare." Hiram offers Pepper more food. Pepper is, in the half minute that's elapsed, asleep and somehow snoring. Unusual because elves aren't known for snoring or sleeping, exactly. Edith might want to look this up in a library later.

The set-up: Grim and Edith get up to some good old-fashioned country girl fun.

The Game: It’s evening, the group’s checked in to a motel for the night, but neither Grim nor Edith feel like turning in. They find each other in the forecourt--Grim writing something in a journal and Edith emerging from a traveler’s shrine. They both agree that the motel, the car, and the whole situation feels too claustrophobic and they decide to take a walk.

Grim: "Lotta memories even all the way out here for you, huh?"

Edith Runekill accepts the cigarette gladly

Grim offers her a light and then lights her own

Edith Runekill: "Yeah. Getting out this far from New Luskan wasn't hard once I got my driver's license. And some of the kids at school lived out here, too, the district extends past city limits a ways."

Grim nods, eyeing the darkened Corn Wastes peppered with small distant buildings

Grim: "Gotta say, kinda nice bein' back out somewhere that ain't all paved 'n high rises."

Edith Runekill nods.

Edith Runekill: "I'm happier in the city, but you really learn how much you take just... having space for granted, when you're living in some shoebox-sized aparment out west."

"Air's probably healthier to breathe, too." She takes a drag on her cigarette, but because it is 1933 she does not see the irony of this.

"And, you know, you can see the stars.”

Grim grunts and nods, glancing upward as they walk

Grim: "Half familiar out here. Time we get out east, I'll know 'em again."

Edith Runekill nods again. "Seein' the stars around here's like seeing old friends again, really. When I was a kid I read every book I could about 'em, and learned all their names and what different cultures saw when they looked up in the sky; the names they gave their constellations, the figures they immortalized in the heavens."

Edith Runekill: "First real time I started thinking about history and mythology and old stories, really."

Grim smiles a little

Grim: "What're these, out here?"

Edith Runekill: "We call that one the longboat. That one's been watching over us since long before we came here; Iluskan reavers navigated by it back in the old days. But west of here, back along the Dragon Coast, it's the Longbow. And if you go further south, it's the Minotaur's Horns."

"The people who lived on the Golden Plains before the spellplague, before we came along, called it Chauntea's Plough. Even though I don't really see it."

Grim watches where she's pointing and nods, taking a drag on her cigarette before she responds

Grim: "Heard've it as the Plough, or the Moon's Rest."

"Don't barely see it out east, except dependin' on the season."

Edith Runekill: "Neverwinter's not really a place for stargazing no matter what season it is, truth be told. City lights drown out most all the stars."

Grim nods

Grim: "Always miss 'em in Thay. Different kinda lights there, though."

Edith Runekill: "Lotsa neon lights out that way, right? There's some places like that in Neverwinter, for the tourists, but mostly the light's just the natural consequence of squeezing eight million people into one city. Lotta light, lotta heat."

Grim: "Mm. Hard to describe 'til you see it. Ain't never known a place like it, for good or ill."

Edith Runekill: "I seen Thay in pictures, but that's not really the same. And I read all the old history of Thay, the rise and fall of the Zulkins, Szass Tam, and such. But that doesn't really tell you what kinda place it is now."

"Anymore than cracking open a book about Old Sespech'll tell you about Plaguewrought Land."

Grim glances across the open fields and grunts

Grim: "Folks out here seem real...rooted in history." A little pointed there, perhaps.

Edith Runekill: "Well, not much was left of Sespech but its history, after the Spellplague. And the first Homesteaders to come here when it was safe again didn't come with much more than the shirts on their backs and the history in their stories."

"Kinda has a way on pressing in on you from both ends."

Grim didn't mean that but it's okay. She takes another drag on her cigarette and huffs out smoke.

Grim: "Guess everyone's got their reason."

They muse more on the nature of city versus country life. The city’s full of constant change while the country tries to stay rooted in its old traditions.

Grim: "That's the country for you. Ain't no reason to go changin' things that ain't broke, for the most part."

"In the cities, everythin's breakin' over and over every day."

Grim takes a contemplative drag on her cigarette and shrugs

Edith Runekill: "Mn. Yeah. But..."

Edith Runekill frowns, and looks faintly agonized. "Considering how things went back home I can't help but think things here are broke afterall."

Grim: "Out where I come from, land's different but folks are farmers just the same. Old grudges on Thay still alive 'n well. Folks keep the house spirits, look to the witches, same as they have on hundreds of years."

Grim glances at Edith and nods

Grim: "Some things gotta break."

Grim then changes tracks and asks Edith what it was like growing up in this place, romance-wise.

Grim: "How was it, growin' up here, bein'...one for the ladies?"

Edith Runekill: "Well I managed to not realize it until... like... a couple weeks ago. So." She smiles ruefully. "Could be better."

Grim: "Y'never had a, uh, a real good friend out here? Or grown folks to look to or nothin'?"

Edith Runekill shakes her head. "The only place I ever saw things like that was in history. Ancient poetesses strumming lyres. Warrior queens. Things like that. It was all stuff that appealed to me, but it seemed like it was something that was gone. Something for someone else in some other time."

Edith Runekill: "Turns out actually it just meant that my only exposure to anything other than the way things were here was in history books so of course it seemed like a thing only in history."

Grim watches her quietly, taking this in

Grim: "Mm."

"Ain't no wonder you never thought on it, I guess."

Edith Runekill looks thoughtful; she's thinking this stuff over for basically the first time ever.

Edith Runekill: "Guess some of my friendships with other girls were... um. Kind of..."

"Intense?"

"But that's just how it is when you're a girl."

Grim smirks

Grim: "That so?"

"Guess I wouldn't know."

Edith Runekill smiles, embarrassed. "I'm still... thinking things through."

Edith Runekill: "Looking at a lot of things with fresh eyes. You know."

Grim nods, more serious

Grim: "I do."

"Weren't so much of that where I came from, neither. I know how it is, comin' around at first."

Edith Runekill: "Yeah. It's like... it's not just a thing that happened all of a sudden? It was always right there in plain sight but I just never seen it. And since I like boys too I thought... I thought I was just how everyone was..."

Grim nods

Grim thinks of something and laughs a little, ashing her cigarette

Grim: "Y'know, I had a boy of my own once."

"Long time back, before I figured my own head out."

"Was a real quick way to seein' what was what."

Edith Runekill: "Ha."

"Kinda a miracle my high school boyfriend didn't turn me off boys entirely. Lucky subsequent boys were an improvement, I guess."

Grim: "To each their own, I guess."

Grim then asks if Edith ever even had any fun, growing up in a place like this. Edith confesses that the town they’re in was where she and her peers would buy moonshine.

Grim thinks about this, then breaks into a slow grin

Grim: "I recall somesuch about jumpin' out've cars?"

Edith Runekill: "...oh, did I happen to mention that?"

"Turns out the grass here's real good at breaking your fall."

"With the help of a little liquid courage, anyway." She smiles in a most un-Edith-like manner.

Grim is kind of all about that smile

Grim: "They still sell this shit?"

Edith Runekill nods. "And getting ahold of it's gonna be a lot easier than it woulda been back then since I'm actually an adult now."

Edith Runekill: "I mean nobody really cares out here but it's simpler."

Grim: "Well hell, old times' sake?"

Edith Runekill: "Now that I've had jhuild I'm pretty sure I can drink literally anything."

Grim snorts

Grim: "I gotta show you up after that. Ain't never gonna hear the last, if not."

Edith Runekill: "You're on."

Slipping back into her old high school routine, Edith leads Grim to a shack/stand by the motel: 'Aldorn's Magical Supplies, Potions, & Tinctures'.

Edith Runekill: Edith knocks shave-and-a-haircut on the side of the stand and a metal shutter opens, revealing an extremely old-looking human man. He's wearing an apron over wizard's robes, and his pointed hat, while tattered, is perched at a jaunty angle. He doesn't look Iluskan, but when he speaks, his accent is pure Plaguewrought.

Nora R.: "Well, well, well, if it isn't little Edie Runekill all growed up! Heard you skipped town, Runekill."

Edith Runekill: "Kinda did. But I'm passin' through again. And now that I'm a qualified wizard let's just say I'm burning through the 'potions' and 'tinctures' real quick these days."

Grim looks at Edith

Nora R.: The old wizard peers at Grim. "Who's your friend?"

Grim: "A friend."

Edith Runekill: "Um. Anyway." She fishes her wallet out of her purse and slides some gold notes across the counter. "I'd like to buy two... healing potions."

Nora R.: "Now, before I accept your money, since you been away for a while I feel obliged to remind you that since you're not actually a high school student anymore. You... you know you're allowed to just buy normal alcohol from a real liquor store, right?"

Grim has never seen an illicit deal this nerdy in her life

Edith Runekill: "I... well. I gotta lotta memories of this place, is all."

Nora R.: He takes the money, shrugging dramatically. "One like you in every class, I reckon. Gimme just a sec." The shutter closes with a bang.

Grim: "Never knew you had it in you, Runekill."

Nora R.: There's some clattering from inside the stand, and the shutter opens up again. The man hands Edith two large flasks that don't even slightly look like healing potions.

"Mixed you up something a little special this time, Runekill. Call it... a belated graduation present."

Edith tells Grim people have been buying moonshine from this fellow since her parents were teens. Grim wonders how the town can be considered “dry” if he’s been here as long as anyone remembers to sell his liquor but Edith shrugs her off. They each take a drink--it’s not as strong as the jhuild, but it’s not far off, either--and keep on with the evening.

Grim: "I'll attest. You got some grit, Runekill."

Grim raises her flask to Edith and takes another swig. It's surprisingly drinkable for something that takes all the skin off the inside of her mouth

Grim: "Where'd you kids go to huck rocks, anyhow?"

Edith Runekill: "Well if we go exactly there there'd probably be some kids huckin' rocks still."

Grim smirks

Grim: "Fair 'nough."

Edith Runekill: "Still! Let's think of something to do. Drinking's only step one. Step two is findin' some hell to raise."

Grim raises her flask to Edith

Grim: "You're speakin' my language."

Grim glances towards the motel

Grim: "Reckon Syd'd notice us borrowin' the car?

Edith Runekill: "Even if she does, and she won't, it's just legitimate sightseeing. I'm just showin' you 'round my old stomping grounds. Nothin' wrong with that."

Grim nods to her

Grim: "She can recall the damn thing anyway."

Edith Runekill: "I'm sure it'll be fine."

Grim heads for the car with no further debate, pausing to unhitch it from the camper

It’s the ‘30s, people would think you strange if you didn’t drink and drive.

Edith Runekill: The car zooms down the darkened, winding highway. Windmills, barns, and silos are silhouetted against the starry sky. Brightly lit billboards for roadside attractions punctuate the trip, as do seedy rest areas and motels blazing with neon light. The neon's new, even just in the last four years; Edith eyes it curiously as she drives past.

Finally, she pulls off the road and onto a clearing adjacent to a barbed wire fence. The car skids to a halt, sending up a cloud of dust. It looks really cool, but it gets in Edith's face so she just starts coughing.

"Well! Here we are."

Grim vaults out and heads after her, sizing up the fence curiously

Edith Runekill attaches the sword in its scabbard to her belt, and then pulls a gun (!!!) out of the glove compartment and puts it in a holster.

Edith Runekill hops out of the car and starts walking towards the fence.

Edith Runekill stares at one particular stretch of the fence. "Oh, they finally fixed the hole. Guess we're stuck."

Edith Runekill: "Haha just kidding."

Edith Runekill Knocks the gate open.

Grim simultaneously knocks Edith in the back of her head with the heel of her palm

Edith Runekill: "Ow!"

Grim: "Sorry, y'just reminded me."

"Now we're even."

Edith Runekill: "Wh... oh."

"Ohhhhh."

Edith Runekill laughs.

Edith Runekill: "Had that one coming."

Grim: "Hell you go listenin' to Pepper for, I just don't know."

The pair of them trespass into the area’s local junkyard/makeout point/teen loitering arena. Edith has plans to practice her non-magical target shooting at the range.

Edith Runekill: "And by 'shooting range' I mean 'a board we put bottles on'."

Grim slowly grins. A grin that takes over her entire face as she looks at Edith.

Grim: "Fuck yeah I do."

Edith Runekill: "Neat." She starts walking down one of the paths, until they finally arrive at a slightly more open area. Off to the side, there's a sign with a long list of names and numbers scratched into it. At the very bottom it says "Edith R.: 0".

"High scores," she says, ruefully.

Grim looks over the list, her eye settling last on "Edith R." She snorts.

Edith Runekill: There's a few other familiar names-- it doesn't go far enough for, say, Pa Runekill or Pastor John, but you see a "Tom" in the middle of the pack. And a "Grace" near the top.

Grim: "I bet you could flick a fly out the air with one've them magical hands you get. How come you ain't able at this?"

Edith Runekill: "Since this was back before I could mage hand a feather off a duck. I'd like to think I'd do better now. But I guess there's only one way to find out!"

Grim: "Show me what you got, Runekill."

Turns out she doesn’t have much and misses the bottle on the first shot, but does pretty well on the second. Grim takes a shot to show her how it’s done and they alternate killing bottles while she gives Edith some tips.

Grim: "Ain't shot target like this in years."

Edith Runekill: "Neither have I. Well. I guess I ain't actually shot the targets ever before now. Shot at 'em, maybe."

Grim: "Used to shoot like this with the kids, back on the circuit. Me 'n Byrd and Kray 'n the others out've Thay."

Grim finds a low wall to settle on and smoke as Edith sets back up

Edith Runekill: "Universal pastime of the bored yet well-armed." She shoots Grim a grin as she lines up another shot.

"Looks like my luck's turnin' around!"

Grim: "Ain't no luck about it, you got your eye in." Grim steps up to take her shot.

Grim almost wangs it, but catches the bottle on one side, spinning it to the ground to shatter

Edith Runekill: "I think that one's just wounded."

Grim makes a Psshh sound

Grim: "Like hell. You go count the shards, that's a dead-ass soldier."

Edith Runekill walks up to inspect the fallen warrior. She puts up a hand and casts Mending on it. She cradles it in her arms and carries it up to Grim with mock solemnity.

Edith Runekill: "It was touch and go, but... he's gonna make it. He's going home..."

Grim cracks up

Grim: "Well shit, now I ain't got the heart."

Edith Runekill laughs too, and gently sets the bottle down. "A hero..."

Grim nods and tips her hat to the bottle

Grim: "Doin' about as well as us, this far."

Edith Runekill: "Ha."

"Guess if it ever comes down to me needin' to make a shot with this little gun we're probably in trouble..."

"But every arrow in the quiver counts, y'know?"

"Every arrow in every mixed metaphor."

"Wait that wasn't even mixed was it"

Edith Runekill takes another swig of 'healing potion' rather than think about this

Grim: "Comes down to it, you can make a shot." Grim raises her flask to Edith and takes a swig. It doesn't make her flinch any more. That might be a bad sign.

"I'd bet my life on you, anyhow."

Edith Runekill: "And I'd bet my life on you. And, truth be told, probably already have a bunch of times, kinda scrapes we get into." She takes another swig. She hadn't flinched at all from the start. Which is probably a Very Bad sign.

Grim nods at this, eyeing the target bottles

Grim: "Hell, if I die by your side, I reckon it'll be about as good as I could hope for."

Edith Runekill smiles. "I'm optimistic enough to think we maybe got a shot at this. But... if not. Well. Hell of a way to go."

Grim: "Right?" Grim smirks and smacks Edith on the shoulder.

"Ain't ever trusted many, and it's been a long time since, but-" She looks at Edith and shrugs, huffing around her cigarette. "-I sure as hell trust you."

Edith Runekill smiles, and actually wipes away a tear or two (!).

Edith Runekill: "Aw, Grim..."

"That's... you got no idea what an honor that is to hear from you."

Grim snorts and raises her rifle

Grim: "Don't get used to it."

Grim asks Edith what set her on the wizard path, she seems like she’d be a good enough fighter if she’d put her mind to it. Edith says it’s not so much the fighting that she enjoys, but the knowledge and learning that goes into being an accomplished wizard that she loves. Even though she never had much of an education, Grim can admire that in Edith and appreciate the passion she has for her profession.

Grim asks if she thinks young Edith would be proud of how she turned out. Overall, she thinks her younger self would be impressed, even with as sheltered as she used to be.

They take a break from shooting to talk about Edith’s old high school in New Luskan--they drove by it on the way to the junkyard. Specifically they talk about its mascot, the Rashemi Barbarian complete with plaster and wood statue. The Rashemi, if it isn’t clear, are an ethnic minority and it’s the 30s and we’re in fantasy Nebraska so the statue looks about how you might imagine.

Grim: "What d'you reckon she'd make of that mascot?"

Edith Runekill: "Too sheltered to get why it's bad, probably."

"That stuff just fades into the background until you been away a while..."

"And then you just see it and you're like, how was I just okay seeing that every day as a kid?"

Grim glances at Edith and smiles

Grim: "Wanna go fuck it up?"

Edith Runekill: "Hm. I'm not... I'm not sure."

Edith Runekill takes another drink

Edith Runekill: "Okay, I'm sure."

Grim grins

Grim: "That's my fuckin' girl."

Edith Runekill: "We'll be doing the town a public service anyway, that thing's an embarrassment."

Grim: "No fuckin' shit." Grim hops up and heads back towards the car.

The night is going super well.

They start driving back towards the school and along the way, Grim reminds Edith about the car jumping.

Grim: "Hey Runekill."

Edith Runekill takes advantage of the fact that it's the 1930s and everyone still drives like manics to drive like a maniac.

Grim: "How fast this car goin' when you jumped out b'fore?"

Edith Runekill: "Um... slower than this. This car's got more punch to it than anything we were driving around."

"But this is about the right stretch of highway for a soft landing..."

Grim: "Y'wanna break another record?"

Edith Runekill grins the grin of somebody driving like a maniac and willing to do something extremely dangerous to get hyped up to destroy some public property.

Grim has never been seriously into Edith until this moment

Edith Runekill: "You first."

Grim stands up and crouches on the passenger side door, then hurls herself out and rolls

Grim rolls over and flops on her back, then sits up and looks to Edith in the speeding car

Edith Runekill trusts the Magic Paladin Steed Car to know when to stop and follows Grim out the car. What a good idea. What a good thing, that Edith is doing. This is good.

Edith Runekill gracefully flips out of the car and onto the pavement which was rushing by. [infernal] "SHIIIIIIIT!"

Edith Runekill: "Oof. Well."

Grim watches Edith wipe out and swears, launching up to her feet to race over

Edith Runekill sits up. She's got a nasty scrape where her calf scraped the pavement, and a rapidly darkening bruise on the side of her face. She gives Grim a thumb's up.

Edith Runekill: "Guess that's the first time I did it from the driver's side..."

"Didn't compensate for that..."

Grim slows as Edith gets up, then shakes her head and snorts

Grim: "Dumbass."

They both compose themselves and break into the high school for a little after hours education on proper respect for all cultures.

Edith Runekill stares up at the imposing figure of the New Luskan High Barbarian.

Grim comes to a halt by her shoulder and follows her gaze

Grim: "...what a piece've hateful fuckin' ignorant ass bullshit."

".......let's light it on fire."

Edith Runekill: "I was gonna offer a, uh, non-fire-based way to dismantle it. But... but if you want a fire, I can set a fire."

Edith Runekill looks delighted at this turn of events.

Grim: "Wipe it the fuck out, Runekill."

"If my folks died this way, this thing don't oughta get no better."

Edith Runekill does some mental math, determines that nothing else flammable is within a 20 foot radius of the Barbarian, and then Does What Comes Naturally To Her

Grim flinches a little, closing her eyes and turning away as it goes up in flames

Edith Runekill puts a steadying hand on Grim's shoulder.

Grim flinches but doesn't shake her off. She takes a deep breath and then a swig from her flask without opening her eyes

Edith Runekill: The NLHS Barbarian burns and burns and burns. It's already nothing more than a metal superstructure embedded in a nimbus of flame; everything that made it identifiable has been burned away.

Edith Runekill would never admit it in current company. But, privately, she thinks that this looks totally sick, and that fire is really cool and good.

Edith Runekill: Runekill's runes-- usually a soft blue-- are all glowing fiery red; it's the first time she's cast a spell with it. She's... pretty into it, honestly.

Grim seems rooted to the spot for a minute, not opening her eyes. She takes a deep breath and then another, and then she raises a hand to find Edith's arm silently.

Edith Runekill sheathes the sword and lays her other hand on Grim's.

Edith Runekill: "Want me to put it out now?"

Grim grunts

Edith Runekill: "Put it out in the fantastically destructive way this piece of garbage deserves, of course."

Edith Runekill takes out Runekill again and summons an Ice Storm.

The burning statue is pummeled by a column of ice, snow, and wind. The fire is put out, an the metal frame-- badly oxidized by the fire-- is crushed by the force. There's nothing left of the Barbarian but ash and rebar.

Edith Runekill: "Well. We sure showed him."

"I... I can't believe I did that, haha."

Grim inhales but doesn't open her eyes, still gripping Edith's hand for a minute

Grim: ".....he done for?"

Edith Runekill: "Yeah. It's gone."

Grim nods

Edith Runekill: "We... should probably get gone, too."

Grim: "Yeah, no shit." She finally opens her eyes and glances at the smoking ruins of the mascot, then turns about to head for the door.

Vandalism is a cool and victimless crime and this will have no lasting consequences.

The pair gets back in the car to head back to the motel, Grim cursing the town as they drive and telling Edith she’s better than the place. Edith takes the compliment, but acknowledges it took a lot of work on her part and that most people in the area are content not to change.

Grim: "Don't rightly give a shit about other folks. You came outta here, an' you made somethin' good've yourself. An' I ain't seen much good since we got here." Grim falls into a thoughtful silence for a moment, then adds. "They din't never deserve you."

Edith Runekill: "Yeah," she says, quietly, barely audible over the car's engine, "But that's a hard thing to reckon with about the place that made you."

Grim remains silent for some time, then shifts in her seat and slugs back some moonshine

Grim: "Place that made me ain't on earth no more."

"Burned down, 'long with everyone that might've been my kin."

"I don't know what a place oughta be, that makes you, but I know you're better'n this."

Edith Runekill drives silently for a while, taking this in.

Edith Runekill: "That's... an awful thing to gotta go through."

Grim doesn't answer for a while, watching the dark fields race by

Grim: "Don't remember it, mostly."

"Only know what I'm told."

Edith Runekill drives silently a while. She hears a siren off in the distance, in the direction of New Luskan, and speeds up.

Grim glances towards the mirror at the sound of the sirens, then back out at the fields and takes another swig from her flask

Edith Runekill: "It's just... this place is always gonna be the context I came from. A lot's changed about me since I left-- or even before I left, in the run-up to making that choice-- but I still got a lot of it in me, too. I talk Plaguelands. I still get a thrill outta driving like I am right now, all alone on the road. I still believe in Auril, even if... even if Pastor Jack tried to hurt me...? I still look at this landscape and think home. But it's not, it's not, it's not."

Grim: "S'where you come from. Like I come from the far out desert, no matter how far I go." She's staring off at the endless fields in the dark. "I come out've ash 'n ghosts, 'n that sticks. Don't matter where you live after. But it matters how y'choose to live, after."

Edith Runekill: "Yeah... and. And I case how I chose to live, in the end, was in the city. Even though it's somewhere where the stars don't shine, where everyone's all cramped together, where there's smog in the air."

"Or... or no. Maybe what I really chose... was this."

"Chasing Szass Tam halfway across Faerun."

"Since it seems... like the right thing to do?"

"I dunno."

Grim smiles a little

Grim: "Don't know myself, Runekill. But I know I don't regret a second, bein' out here with y'all."

Edith Runekill: "I... regret a few seconds, maybe. Like when I jumped outta that car."

"And frankly I regret thinking going out here again would be a good idea at all?"

"But... but I don't regret... I don't regret this."

"This... whole... thing..."

Grim snorts and glances at Edith

Grim: "Y'gave it your best. Don't ever go havin' regrets on that account."

"Truth be told, I wish I could go on with the. uh..." she trails off searching for a word. "The...faith you got."

"In people. In places. In history turnin' out right."

"I got no faith in folks. S'how it took me so long comin' around to all y'all."

They finish their heart-to-heart by noticing the police are behind and closing in. Being the only speeding car on the road near a scene of wanton arson has a way of making you a target.

Grim glances at the police lights in the mirror and purses her lips

Grim: "Shit, we gotta lose this heat."

"Else Syd'll be real disappointed."

Edith Runekill: [Infernal] "Shit, I thought they'd still be back in town..."

[Infernal] "Fucking shit-ass fucking pigs fuck them."

[Common] "Don't worry, I'm sure we can shake 'em."

Grim glances at Edith. She has no idea what any of those words mean, but it's weirdly hot.

Grim will never admit it

Grim: "You done this before?"

Edith Runekill: "...no. Not... not as such."

"I know some side-roads, though."

Grim: "Alright, so let's get it right first time."

Grim nods to Edith and sits forward, squinting at the stars to get a bearing on where they are

Edith Runekill makes a truly alarming hairpin turn past a billboard for fantasy Burmashave onto a rocky dirt road.

Grim hollers despite herself. Blood will out.

Edith Runekill: "This oughta loop back around to the motel... trouble is I don't know if the cops know to look this way..."

Grim shifts up to sit on the passenger side door, leaning over to sight along her rifle at the pursuing cars

Grim: "Don't go leadin' them to the others, we got this."

Grim wangs a shot off the road just ahead of the cops

Grim curses and reloads

Nora R.: The car vanishes.

Grim drops suddenly and rolls as she hits the road

Edith Runekill Blinks

Grim lunges to reach for Edith, only to freeze when Edith vanishes right in front of her

Grim watches the cop cars pass and then kind of fREAKS OUT??

Grim scrambles into the middle of the road, feeling around like she might find an invisible Edith

Edith Runekill reappears.

Edith Runekill: "Sorry. Blink cloak."

"Had to vanish in a hurry after I messed up the landing."

Grim stumbles and lands on her hands and knees, staring at Edith

Grim: "SHIT."

"You scared the HELL outta me, girl."

Edith Runekill: "I'm... kinda disappointed in the car."

Edith Runekill: "Destroying the Barbarian was the right thing to do."

"Sorry..."

"You okay?"

Grim flops down to sit in the middle of the road

Grim: " Well, shit, I guess so, since you ain't DEAD or nothin'."

Somehow the paladin car wasn’t down for the festivities, leaving them to walk back to the motel. It’s a nice night for it, anyway, and it’s easier to talk when you’re not driving and being chased by Johnny law. Despite the turn the evening took, Grim and Edith both agree they’re feeling better than they were after leaving the farm.

Grim looks across at Edith as she lights up, studying her

Grim: "Y'know, first day we met, never would've reckoned on spendin' a night this way with you."

Edith Runekill: "Yeah. Remember the next day? The museum? Me digging out the records for everything Mal and I recovered from Tethyamar?"

"Guess that's two times now I met somebody important in my life in a way where I wound up frantically trying to provenance a bunch of artifacts."

Grim laughs a little

Grim: "Y'wanna know the truth?"

"Din't know shit about what I was lookin' at. I just wanted t'see how you pair acted under pressure."

Edith Runekill laughs.

Edith Runekill: "I was real mad that you thought Mal had stolen stuff... but also I was a little mad you thought Mal had stolen stuff when, if we had stolen anything, then darn it, I woulda stolen it too."

"Felt like I wasn't getting credit."

Grim laughs at this

Grim: "Shit, Runekill. Weren't nothin' personal."

"I only get paid for the one on the sheet."

Like all drunks having a good time, they also have deep philosophical discussions.

Edith Runekill: "Ahh, women in academia never get written up for the work they do."

Grim: "Or jailed, I guess." Grim nudges Edith with a smirk.

Edith Runekill: "Well. If we keep up acts of cultural criticism like what we did tonight I might manage it."

Grim: "If I ain't behind bars yet, I reckon you got a long future on the outside." Grim toasts Edith with her flask and takes a long swig.

Edith Runekill: "Or maybe a short one, depending on how things shake out with Tam."

Edith Runekill grins and takes a swig, too.

Grim: "Fuck that rotten ol' Thayer asshole." Grim turns her head and spits into the ditch. "He died more oftener'n us so far, ain't he?"

Edith Runekill: "Plus he apparently got locked in a basement for... oh, 1400 or so and only just managed to find his way out."

*since... oh, 1400 or so

Grim nods and snorts

Grim: "Fuckin' dumbshit. We got his ass dead to rights, don't even worry 'bout it."

Edith Runekill is still drunk enough to believe this

Edith Runekill: "Yeah. He's a goner."

Grim toasts and swigs again, looping an arm around Edith's shoulders as they walk

Grim: "Like I told your pa, Runekill. You're gonna be one've them folk books get written on. That's for real."

Edith Runekill: "You said that to Pa?"

"Well, first, thanks, that's really flattering."

"But, second... y'know. Yeah. I think we are. This thing we're doing... it's the kinda thing stories are made of."

Edith Runekill looks up at the stars again as they trudge down the dirt access road. "Not sure what they'll say about this part of the story, granted."

Grim snorts

Grim: "They don't never tell this part."

"Probly just as well."

Edith Runekill: "On the bright side, if they do tell that part everyone will remember what a bullshit mascot in a bullshit town that was."

Grim: "If nobody remember that shit, I ain't ever about to complain."

Edith Runekill: "Anyway. Every story could use a lighter interlude."

"Something to give everyone a break even when things are getting rough."

Grim nods at this

Edith Runekill: "So. We've done wonders for pacing, is what I'm getting at here."

"The car vanishing even left room for this lovely walk together and a long talk under the stars."

Stares at the camera like I’m in The Office.

Edith makes a mental note to ask Syd what the deal was with the car: as far as she’s concerned, they didn’t do anything immoral by destroying the statue and losing the cops. Grim admits she never really saw eye to eye with paladins--Syd included--but trusts her heart’s in the right place.

Edith Runekill: "Yeah... she... she seems different from most other paladins I known. Or... or heard about." She casts her eyes downwards, remembering the story Mal told.

Grim: "...more I find folks workin' off their religions, less it seems regular people can stand up to the gods."

"Ain't one of us one thing or another. Not like the gods. Even Ilmater."

Edith Runekill: "Faith's... important to me. It's... a community, a cultural tradition. History that ties us to our ancestors even when they were far away, even when they were leading totally different lives. It's still a thread connecting us to the North, y'know? It's... it's important. Even after everything that's happened these past few days it's important. But... I mean..."

"That can't be the only tool you use to figure out what the right thing to do is, right?"

Grim nods slowly

Edith Runekill: "When your only tool's a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. When your only tool's Auril, every problem looks like it should be set on fire."

"Wait. Well. You know what I mean."

Grim glances at Edith and nods.

Grim: "Findin' Ilmater's the first time in my life I ever had anythin' to work for. But I ain't ever measured up. Don't know that anyone does. Maybe it's part've the deal, that we gotta keep on tryin', or maybe this world just ain't made for mortals the way it's made for gods."

"Either way, I found somethin' to live for. An' for me, that matters. Even if it don't to Ilmater, in the grand ol' scheme."

The triumphant pair returns to the motel to find Syd and Pepper still awake and outside.

Grim spots the silhouettes of Pepper and Syd in the badminton court and raises her empty flask to them in greeting as they approach.

Edith Runekill looks super thrilled to be back, even though she's limping slightly, bruised all over half her face, and she has a bleeding gash on one leg still.

Grim is a little less thrilled, she actually quite liked being out in the middle of absolutely nowhere

Pepper has her racquet down at her side and has been having a somewhat animated conversation with Sydney. She catches sight of Grim's flask glinting under the street lamp and seems to wince.

Sydney Gaydos follows Pepper's eyes to see a certain pair returning and oh, the usually cheerful dragonborn glowers at seeing them. "It seems they finally decided to show up, " she comments to Pepper.

Pepper raises the racket a precise 45 degrees before lowering it like a drawbridge.

Grim expects approximately zero pushback from these two, and looks at Edith as they arrive back in the forecourt

Hm.

Grim: "What's the story, Runekill, you headin' right on up to bed?"

Edith Runekill: "Well. Should probably eat something first to soak up all this.... healing potion. And... and drink some water. But yeah, I'm pretty... pretty exhausted, by this point."

"Good exercise, though."

"We oughta go for more walks."

Grim smirks and claps her shoulder, then nods to the all night eatery

Grim: "Get you a burger?"

Edith Runekill: "Auril, yes."

Pepper , in a sing-song voice in Elvish at NO ONE IN PARTICULAR sings "[Elvish] You fu-ucked u-up." It's just what she sang at the Pastor back at Edith's house. Weird.

Pepper scratches at her head with the racket and admires the gutters on the motel.

Edith Runekill: {t Pepper: wait what}

Sydney Gaydos waits til they get nice and close before stepping to the side and stopping them. "You both have some serious explaining to do, " she grunts, staring down at both of them.

Edith Runekill: {t Pepper: im so drunk}

Grim steers Edith towards the eatery, still kind of relying on leaning on her to stay upright and walk in a straight line

Grim stops as they almost collide with Syd

Grim sizes up Syd, mildly perplexed

Grim: "Some problem, Scales?"

Pepper gives Grim the most pitiful of looks. So this is how her parents felt oh-so-many times.

Edith Runekill: {t Pepper: oh shit}

{t Pepper: peppper}

Sydney Gaydos: "You can say that, " she starts off slow. "Taking Gaydos' holy paladin mount on a joyride to the country without her permission then FIRING on police vehicles?!"

Pepper: {T Edith: whyyyyyyy}

Edith Runekill: {t Pepper: im so druink rigt now. did you know that.}

Grim looks right back. She's never experienced parental disapproval, this means nothing to her

Edith Runekill has learned not one day ago that parents are bullshit and is feeling punchy

Oh.

Edith Runekill: "We destroyed a... a hated symbol of the racist, backwards attitudes of Plaguewrought Land, and then took certain actions to evade the enforcers of that violent cultural hegemony who objected to our political message."

Grim nods in affirmation of Edith

Pepper squints at Edith, then looks to Grim for help deciphering that mess.

Edith Runekill: {t Pepper: we lit that awful high school amscot statue on fire and good riddance it was so tacky and made the whole town look bad and just driving by it made me feel grossed out but everyone heres just used to it so Drastic Measures Were Takaen}

Pepper rubs her temple with her free hand.

Pepper: "Okay," she says in response to nothing in particular.

Edith Runekill: "It's not our fault the cops chose to leverage their monopoly on state violence to repress our important act of cultural criticism!"

Grim has no idea what Edith just said, but she nods anyway

Sydney Gaydos regards both of them carefully. "And you thought by shooting at them, which could possibly of caused harm to them, was right? For your own actions? Did you even consider thinking far ahead? Or acting on impulse as you usually do?" Sydney turns to look straight at Grim.

Grim: "Din't nobody shoot at 'em, I went for takin' out a tire." Grim eyeballs Syd right back, getting a little annoyed just by merit of being stared at.

Sydney Gaydos: "Knowing your skill and powers, Grim, " she finally says it, "you could have easily blew out a front end of a car. Did you not think that could cause harm? A tire going out, cars crashing, and so on?"

Edith Runekill: "Sounds like the car's aligned itself with the hegemonic power structure of Plaguewrought Land's cultural mores."

Grim: "Did that shit happen?"

Oh boy.

Sydney Gaydos FUMES. "The car is directly tied to Gaydos' own moral code! She would have also been against firing at law enforcement." Back to Grim. "Knowing you, you would have not stopped firing until you achieved your desired results."

Grim lets go of Edith and straightens up, staring back at Syd

Grim: "An' just what're those, you reckon, Gaydos?"

Edith Runekill is becoming increasingly drunk as the effects of finishing the flask all at once begin to hit her; she sways visibly as Grim lets go of her.

Grim catches hold of Edith again, better safe than sorry

Sydney Gaydos: "Achieving whatever you selfishly want. Like previously with your firing at the Lich's car or even more recently that drug bender of yours with Malkas. Do you think these actions through? Think of the consequences?"

Grim 's jaw sets

Edith Runekill: "You'd've needed a time machine to know how shooting the car woulda turned out!"

Grim: "You got a problem with me suddenly?"

Edith Runekill: "That's unfair to pin on Grim and you know it."

Pepper slides up between Sydney and Grim, facing Sydney. "Hey, c'mon."

Grim attempts to shoulder Pepper aside, still looking at Sydney

Edith Runekill: "Anyay, just 'cause somebody has a badge doesn't mean they're doing the right thing! Cops here are as bad as everyone else who's made it their business keeping things they way they are, from Pastor Jack on down!!!!"

Grim: "You sayin' I'm responsible for that shit? For Secomber?"

Edith Runekill begins singing drunkenly, remembering political meetings from Undergrad: "Arise, ye workers from your slumber! Arise, ye prisoners of want!"

Pepper stays put in front of Sydney. "Edith, please."

Sydney Gaydos doesn't try to move past Pepper, but does elect to ignore and talk over her. Also Edith too. "Did you think shooting anything, especially the car of the Lich, would result in a good outcome?!"

Edith Runekill: "Immobilizing the Lich woulda been a real good outcome and at the time it seemed like it played out that way!"

"He had to push his car out instead of flying away!"

"You're being real unfair, Syd."

Pepper: "He had that one coming. If he dug around in her head half as bad as he did mine, she should've shot it twice."

Pull up, gang, pull up.

Grim glowers at Sydney, fist clenched and physically trembling with restraint

Pepper flicks her eyes back at Grim then up at Sydney again.

Grim: "You be real clear, now, Gaydos."

Edith Runekill: "Y-yeah..."

Grim: "You sayin' I'm responsible for Secomber?"

Sydney Gaydos: "I'm not saying you are, " ohhh she dropped her speaking quirk, "but do you truly consider yourself not responsible at all? I don't."

Edith Runekill punches Sydney

Pepper looks at Edith. She doesn't need to dodge because there's an awful lot of Sydney and not much of Edith.

Grim is too surprised by what just happened to do anything except look at Edith like 0_0

Sydney Gaydos that makes her head snap a little, but it doesn't hurt. She turns to eye Edith. "Not an action I expected of you."

Pepper: "You had that one coming, too," she mumbles.

Grim is still 0_0

Edith Runekill: "Well I didn't expect you to have such a shocking lack of empathy for how it went down when we faced off against Tam and what finding out about Secomber was like!!! So THERE!!!"

Edith Runekill is DrunkMad now

Pepper just pats Edith's head with mage hand. settle down

Pepper pokes Sydney in the chest. "You said you were gonna talk to them about the car, you didn't have to really. Bring up all that other stuff."

Edith Runekill attempts to swat Pepper's mage hand away with a mage hand of her own, but she's a.) too drunk and angry to navigate this complex 3D spatial relationship and b.) mage hand doesn't work like that

Grim is kind of stunned by this entire interaction, tbh. She looks from Edith to Sydney and back, at a loss.

Sydney Gaydos: "Actions have consequences. Big ones, and small ones. " she looks between the group. "It is long past high time that gets learned." However she takes a step back, more somber now. "Capridi is in her room, it is obvious you need healing." Sydney would offer but you know, lol.

Pepper runs her fingers through her hair.

Grim stares through Sydney, then shakes her head and speaks blandly.

Edith Runekill: "Like, okay, whatever, yell at us about using the car without permission, or about the cops or whatever, and I'll argue. But-- but that-- but what you said..."

Grim: "Go fuck yourself, Gaydos."

Well.

Grim steps around Sydney to head on into the diner. She's over this confrontation.

Edith Runekill thinks that maybe getting healed actually is a good idea but she's too mad to admit it. She puts a hand on Grim's shoulder and follows her towards the diner.

Sydney Gaydos: "Edith, " she says as she passes by, "your car privileges are restricted until I decide otherwise. It is the same for Grim but I don't think it effects her as much."

Pepper starts muttering in Elvish. It could be a prayer. It could be cussing. The only two Elvish speakers are too far away and drunk to tell.

Grim finds a booth and doesn't even order food. That's how fucked up this is.

Edith Runekill looks over her shoulder, looking more annoyed at Syndey than she has in her entire life. "Good luck navigating our awful Plaguewrought highway system without me."

Pepper just gives Edith a weird look she figures she won't remember in the morning.

Edith Runekill Will Remember This

Edith Runekill: "Without me driving, I mean."

"I'll be there."

"Well, anyway."

"I'm going into the diner now."

Edith Runekill does so.

Grim glances up at Edith as she enters, hands flat on the table in front of her. She honestly doesn't know where she us right now, but Edith's here so it's probably okay.

Edith Runekill puts her hands on Grim's. "You're okay. It's okay. Nothing she said was right."

Edith Runekill: "Right as in factual or right as in moral."

Grim takes a breath and focuses on Edith, then exhales. She holds onto Edith's hands for dear life.

Grim: "...the fuck did I do, Runekill?"

Edith Runekill: "You didn't do anything, Grim. You made a tough call in probably the scariest fight of all our lives with Tam getting in our heads. And if you hadn't he would've just flown away right then and there."

Edith Runekill: "If Szass Tam thought, well, my car got busted, time to ravage a city known for its auto industry and hurt lots of people to fix it... that's an awful thing Tam did. It's him."

Grim shudders and grips Edith's fingers, then lowers her head to rest on the table

Grim: "...I'm too fuckin' drunk for this."

"What the fuck."

Edith Runekill: "Let's... let's order those burgers. And drink lots of water." She's ALSO too drunk for this but she's trying Very Hard to keep it together for Grim.

Grim grunts assent. After a moment she releases Edith's hands and folds her arms over her head without moving from the table

Edith Runekill orders food from a waitress who, thank Auril, does NOT recognize Edith. The waitress regards Edith and Grim with the mix of pity and impatience she reserves for the soon-to-be-hungover.

Grim takes a long breath and lets it out, cradling her head on the table for a few minutes before she pulls herself together enough to sit up and find her cigarette.

Grim fumbles a cigarette into her mouth and lights it, then slides the packet over to Edith. Her hands are trembling.

Edith Runekill lights a cigarette, too. For some mysterious reason she isn't keen to go to the car and get her own cigarettes back. Wonder why.

Grim rests her chin in her hand, fingers covering her mouth as she smokes.

Edith Runekill smokes too, watching Grim in silence.

Grim is a billion miles away, and it doesn't look like a good place to be

This is fine. Getting back to outside.

Sydney Gaydos doesn't say anything after that, and turns her head to face forward, starting into the darkness ahead.

Pepper: "Uuuuuugh Plaguewrought Land sucks!" she says to the open sky.

Sydney Gaydos: "That it does, Pepper, " Sydney comments quietly, still staring ahead. "Are you going to go join them inside?"

Pepper: "Huh? Oh." She looks back and forth. "I dunno. Not. Right now?"

Pepper: "Syd," she's quiet and sounds almost pleading. "What the hell?"

Sydney Gaydos takes a long breath in, and lets it out slowly before speaking. "Not my most tactical way of confronting things." She tilts her head towards Pepper. "Was it?"

Pepper: "Not the--oh my god, Syd," she buries her face in her hands. "That shit was like a month ago, it couldn't have waited one more night?" She sighs. "You know that was. Gods I don't even have a word for what happened just now." She ponders to the night sky.

Sydney Gaydos: "A miscalculation, " Sydney offered helpfully, ignoring the rest of that. She sighs again. "Go inside Pepper. Make sure Edith and Grim get healed. I'll be sleeping outside in the camper, the car, or wherever is convenient."

Pepper gives a supportive pat to Sydney's arm.

Pepper: "I'm not a fan of kicking someone while they're down, but that goes for you, too, okay? If you need to talk or. Not talk. Or whatever."

Sydney Gaydos 's body sags at the pat and Pepper's words. "I... thank you. Your offer means more to me than you will ever know..." she hesitates, but places a hand on her shoulder. "For now, I think the best place is inside for you is with the others. They... need the support, it seems."

Pepper: "Yeah. Okay." She pats Syd's hand, then heads off to the diner.