Part 17: Wherein bonds fray

: Come on! Faster! Don't want to miss the dragons!
: I will be glad to put an end to the draconic menace if only it means we need never again stomp around a filthy swamp.
: Oh, is that all? Good to know there's some reason for this waste of our time detour.



: I can only hope we made it in time to save the village! _{That house was like that before right?}



: Yaay! Everybody okay!
: It appears so… although they are outside their walls…
: Maybe they're celebrating the wizard's safe return with a picnic?



: Okay yeah this looks like trouble.
: Maybe that's a training dummy?



: Maybe we could-
: It's exactly what it looks like. These muck-farmers are so boned.



: Why big dragon not attack? Afraid of Beef? Beef would be, if Beef were dragon and dragon were Beef.
: But then… dragon would be Beef, so…
: Why big dragon not attack?
: He likely waits to see what we do first. We appear as no threat to him.
: Someone has to go up and talk to it, I guess.
: This sounds like a job for the Paladin's code!
: I am so glad to see we are not exploiting my tight moral constraints.



: Of all the dragons we might have faced, must we face the one that breathes noxious, pore-clogging fumes?



: Wait, what?



: Oh great, here it comes!
: How could you want to side with the dragons over innocent people?
: I echo Pick's sentiment, although in a slightly less surprised and disappointed manner.
: "Innocent" people? Ever since this company began we've made nothing but bad decisions! At least until now we've kept up the pretence of having some personal stake in the proceedings - revenge, profit, necessity. Now here we are staring down a dragon-
: Actually two dragons, if Agda remembers right.
: Two dragons, and for what? We don't owe these people anything! Their reward is less than what the dragons are offering! Don't even begin to tell me it's part of some moral principle because their own mayor was the one who started this mess!
: Beef confused. We not fight dragons now? Beef sorta looked forward to that.
: Were foolishness enough to forfeit the right to justice we would all have died ten times over by now. I have no choice but to side with the villagers.
: You wanted this company to stay together, Heronius, and that's exactly what we're doing. Right now the majority vote is to save the village and that's what we're going to do!





: Pick! Agda! Kill the lizard men guards! Beef, we must distract the dragon! Heronius, I can see you are already casting magic.
: Oh, this isn't me casting magic. This is my white hot fury at this turn of events. I'll get to the magic soon enough.



: Waaaagh! Beef fight dragons! Be biggest hero ever!
: Watch out, Beef! It has an acidic gas cloud breath!
: Beef battle burps too! Beef not afraid of cola-breath!



: Whuppin' some lizard men, woooo! No match for us!
: Considering if I were standing on your shoulders we still wouldn't reach their shoulders, that's true.
: The bigger they are, the harder it is to explain how we can sword-fight 'em so good!



: His guards are dead! Everyone concentrate on the dragon, he cannot watch all of his flanks alone!



: Good plan! I'll just watch them from over here - you know, because you launched an attack before I had a chance to recover any of my spells.



: Beef make itty bitty dragon run away! Run before Beef breath own stinky gross breath at dragon!
: We did it! We're winning!



: Why Beef seeing double?
: Son of Hoar!
: Rolling to disbelieve!



: Well if we're all about to die… I guess now's as good a time as any to break out my new fireball wand.
: You looted a fireball wand without telling us?
: Now's not really the best time to discuss division of spoils!



: Come on! We took down one dragon, we can bring down another!
: What if third dragon?
: Then the next target of my vengeance will be the gods.



: Waaaagh! Bad dragon touching Beef! Shoving!
: Leave Beef alone, big dragon bully!
: No, he's over-extended! Quick, hit him in the-



: Hold on… is the dragon fading away? Did we kill it? Is it dead?
: Dead enough.
: Victory by default! Dragon disqualified for disappearing!



: Waaagh! Beef dragon-sleigher, just like in stories! When get own sled?
: I choose to pretend that last comment did not happen. It appears we are all still alive?
: Regrettably, yes.
: Then let us see what our good mayor has to say for himself.



: Well if we are finished-
: Oh no, not by a long shot.



: That's it, Pasquale. The 'fighting plural dragons without any spells for a village that can only afford to pay us in beer' step was a step too far!
: If you want to leave, Heronius, you are still free to-
: Okay, cut it out! Look, back in Samarach we agreed to stick together at least until we were safely back in the Sword Coast, right?
: Well we haven't found Cornelius yet, which means we're not all back safely. Once we find him, then we can talk about who's staying and who's leaving.
: You merely hold back the tide, Pick… but I will relent for the moment.



: Before we leave we had best finish our business.
: Giving old ladies their blankets back is business?
: The only business we seem to get into, anyways.



: A garden spade. Oh, the wages of nobility.
: Magic shovel, yaaay! Beef dig own little garden! Now Beef need magic beans to grow, maybe magic water can too…



: Crossroad Keep is north of the swamp. That's where we were going, so that's where Cornelius probably is.
: Makes sense. Assuming he didn't get lost along the way.
: Or was gated somewhere else entirely
: Or was killed for being a damn fool wherever he ended up.
: Or went go look for us too!
: Now it sounds like Cornelius could be anywhere but Crossroad keep… so we should go there to wait!



: Crossroad Keep. What a needlessly portentous name.
: Worried about signs from a god?
: More the chance of oblique narrative devices, but yes, much the same thing.







: About time the rest of you turned up!



: And here I was worried that I'd have to keep doing the bidding of that bothersome woman myself.



: Our journey was less than easy. The portal deposited us all over the coast.
: Yes, a pity. For all their engineering prowess the gnomes still do lack a certain… reliability.
: Stow it, old man. You wouldn't have made such a point of going last if you hadn't known something was up.
: We were about to cross an ocean in a millionth of the time it took us to cross it originally via a machine operated by a cabal of secret agent lumberjack gnomes…
: And you thought something might not be up?



: Right, we found the relic. Terms met, now give me my share of the party treasury and I'm through with this business.
: Be my guest! I am sick of your malign influence and becoming a businesswoman's lackey was never my intent when I left the temple anyways.
: Hold on, did I miss something? So now we are breaking up the party?
: There's no point in continuing on. I thought we'd be more profitable together but now I see the suffocating weight this group has become. Better to leave now before it becomes deadweight!



: Guys! Come on! Why are we doing this? We were getting along so well in Samarach-
: We were?
: There'll be plenty of chances to make money and be heroes if we just stick together!
: Friends all fighting! Beef scared and confused! Is not problem can be solved by any axe!
: It's no good, Pick. They really mean it this time.



: Come on, Beef. We'll do better on our own.
: Beef, you needn't go with him!
: Heronyus friend, get hurt if Beef not there to help. Beef go!
: If I ever see any of you again it'll be too soon. Alive, anyways.



: …I believe I may have made a grave miscalculation somewhere. I must give my report to the university, perhaps go over my findings. Hopefully I'll be in touch.



: I thank you for your company, brave Halflings, and I hope we meet again, but I need time to think and pray. I have been away from my temple for too long.
: Hoar light your path with… Oh, I dunno, vengeance or something.
: Agda'll stick with Pick. We can still be great big heroes, even without the others.
: Thanks, Agda. I'm glad you're still here…



: Because all of a sudden I feel pretty small.






Editor's note:

This is the lowest point of the party's fortunes, but it is not - as it may appear now - to be the end of their story. No, in fact this seeming end was what made possible their eventual triumph. All six members still have a role to play, although at the breaking of their fellowship their paths did begin to scatter.

From this point on evidence of their accomplishments becomes more confused and intermingled with the stories of others. We will be following the particular fates of these six to the end, but it may become necessary in coming chapters to also illuminate some of the character and challenges they overcame in isolation. It was a convoluted road indeed that lead to their eventual destiny, and this is the point in the road that every previous chronicler has given up on their tale

I have no such intentions. The full account shall be rendered, and a grim tale it will be - for the darkest details have yet to emerge...






: OH MY GODS WE FORGOT THE WHOLE DRAGON HOARD AAAAHHHHHHHHHH