Chapter 4: Trip the Light Fantastic

The head of the bloody axe thumps onto the ground following a weighty grunt. She wipes away spatters of blood from her face with her free hand. "Damn close with that tail. Should take to calling you Renly the Shield at this rate. Now, you want to head into this thing's dwelling and get the mirror? It reeks." Lauretta covers her mouth and nose with her arm as she stares down at the stinking remains.

"Understood. Perhaps there is some helpless young I can eliminate without any hint of moral qualm." R3N-L3 intoned in his usual deadpan voice, before beginning his foray properly into the lake, after having tied a length of rope around his waist and a nearby tree.

For a blink of a moment Tzal thought that he was going to be pierced by the tail of this fey creature but once again, R3N-L3 saved his life. He recovered from the shock and turned to the clockwork, "Thank you for saving me, R3N-L3. I thought I was going to die and froze up. How are you doing from all these combat?"

Pausing waist-deep in the lake, R3N-L3's head twisted 180 degrees backwards to regard Tzal like an owl. He tilted his head slightly to the side in thought. "Minimal damage to gears suffered. Combat efficiency, undiminished."

"Let's hope those gears don't freeze up entirely from the water or whatever else is waiting down there. Nothing we have accomplished so far has been easy. I don't expect this to be either."

Renly had proved invaluable to their efforts. It would be a great loss if he were lost.

"Stand ready for anything," he added.

Tzal waited for R3N-L3 to climb up wondering what this mirror will actually be. Will it be a cursed magical artifact or some other weird thing.

Soon, R3N-L3 re-emerged from the lake, water gushing out of countless segments and gaps in his armor as he hauled out...Everything, bound together with rope. The mirror was strapped right next to the shoe and a broken clock, along with what looked and smelled like some very ancient socks. It wasn't that R3N-L3 didn't understand the concept of market value, and that some items were worth more than others...


It was just that R3N-L3 proscribed to his own esoteric table of values, which seemed to mean he would take everything that didn't belong at the bottom of a lake, and haul it up without discrimination. It was also entirely unrelated...That he appeared to have no idea what the mirror was, beyond being a pretty bronze thing.

Tzal looked at the mirror with intense curiosity and interest. "This is fascinating! It surely must be magical. Let me have a look at it."

Chuckling at the items the clockwork brought up from the bottom of the lake, Wolfram couldn't resist shouting, "Watch out, you don't rust and seize up!"

His grip tightened on his special dagger once again when Tzal examined the mirror. Maybe looking directly at it would release some kind of magic. He hoped it was the good kinds.

Tzal looked at it while turning it around. "A fascinating piece of artifact that acts as a miniaturized portal. Very interesting. However, we can't stop here. This is a dangerous place. We need to find our next objective, if we are to get out of here."

Lauretta's eyes watched the rope as each bound item trailed out of the water after the clockwork. "And there's the mirror. Great work. Some copper for your troubles too, looks like. Not sure why you felt the need to clean the pond of the rest of this trash, but it's far from the first thing I haven't understood your reasons for."

After strolling up beside Wolfram and Tzal, the Preceptor eyed the object with some curiosity. The mage's explanation was met with a nod and a glance back towards R3N-L3. "Yes, let's move as soon as our shield back there is unwound and good to go. Curious to know where that portal goes though."

"I remain ready." R3N-L3 intoned, pouring the assorted copper pieces into an empty pouch by his side, before taking up the vanguard once more and setting out to achieve more of their fae client's objectives.

Wolfram leans toward Lauretta. In a low voice, he says, "Only to be expected of such a machine, isn't it? Perhaps there are things among the detritus that could prove useful."

Wolfram eyes the copper pieces as they disappear into Renley's pouch, and then the mirror, their prize found and retrieved.

"Let's hope for future successes such as this one!" he says, ready to move on to their next objective.

Lauretta's eyes were closed as she sat with her back to a log next to the campfire. It was difficult to let her guard down enough to sleep, but the effort to relax was being made. Her mind's eye was locked on redcaps eagerly waiting in the darkness to spill more of her blood upon this forest's floor. Her actual eyes snapped open as the sound of movement in the brush reached her ears. The haft of the great axe was gripped as she had shifted to look back. Something as normal as a bear was not what she had expected to see. Until it spoke.

"Aye, we wandered in unexpectedly. Been trying to find our way out." The priestess's tone was calm and steady, but her face contained bewilderment. A magical disguise, perhaps? But for what purpose? Remembering how the attempted interrogation with the powries went, she cautiously bided her time instead of immediately affixing her inquisitive eyes on the creature's weaknesses.

"It is good to meet someone civilized for once." R3N-L3 intoned, before gesturing to the party. "Black bears, by proportion, are much less murderous towards other creatures than humans are." Rising from his sentinel's position, he offered the black bear a napkin-wrapped slice of cheesecake from one of his pouches.

How by any god any pastries had survived his dip in the lake, let alone a slice of very soft cake, was up to anyone's speculation. Perhaps R3N-L3 was simply a very well-armed toaster oven masquerading as a warform.

"As I live and breathe, a talking bear."

While Wolfram was skeptical and sensed Lauretta's doubt, he glanced at Tzal as if to say, be ready for anything. Renly was already on guard.

Unhelpfully, Wolfram asks the "bear", "Where are you headed?"