Episode summary[]
Following the Ginaron incident, the Party and Don Horatio's guards search the area for the Dark Ancient responsible, but only find the tracks of some large machine, which they lose when crossing a river. Accepting that they've lost him for now, they instead head to Don Horatio's Estado for some downtime.
While relaxing with GE-7, he mentions off-handedly how silly Little One's "fake troll jaws" look, and is informed that they are real. Shocked and appalled, he explains that the real reason they are taboo is that Trolls can regenerate from their indestructible jaws, making them true immortals. He also reads the legend of The Death Equation from one of the Ytaran books retrieved from the Ginaron library for added context. Little One promptly removes the jaws from his shield and stores them in an extra-dimensional backpack for the time being.
Storytime over, they all head to a feast Don Horatio is throwing in their honour (except GE-7, who desperately wants to research the past few centuries of history and doesn't eat anyway, and Daggerface, who would put everyone off their meals). However, it soon becomes apparent that Don Horatio wants the cut of Ginaron's loot he was promised by Don DiCorso. A cut that DiCorso had neglected to mention to the Party. They present some Ytaran tools and a dozen colos cloaks they took from the Deluvian infiltraion team, but Horatio is unimpressed. He begins turning the room against them, deftly brushing aside an attempt by DiCorso's Steward to defend them.
The Party, however, are no slouches in social situations. Draven's a trained noble, after all, and quickly finds common ground with Horatio's court wizard, discussing Ytaran portal technology and the various interdimensional beings in Ginaron's labs. Black, meanwhile, starts a wrestling contest (Dwarven national sport), in which he does about as well as a muscular 6-foot man whose armour has a special stability mode can be expected to. Little One also wrestles a bit, but is then starts telling tales of their adventures with Angel, first the battle with the Deluvians in Ginaron and then the battle alongside B'ob and finally the duel with Marp (with added commentary by Greypike, who had apparently watched from the Chasm's walls). By the end, the room is fully on their side and Don Horatio is grudgingly forced to give them genuine hero treatment, along with big medals and souvenir goblets.
After they return to their tavern, Little One hits upon the bright idea to recruit the trolls to his cause. He places the jaws in the middle of the town square and challenges them to regenerate, reasoning that they likely have a degree of situational awareness in jaw form so that they can choose when to re-emerge. Sure enough, after enough cajoling and threats, they emerge and Little One offers them a deal: he'll train them in the ways of the Warblade, and in return they'll fight for him in the hypothetical future war against the Deluvians. They agree, and the Party dumps them in the Peacebond for the time being, en route to Bankton.
In Bankton, Angel meets up with her local Organisation contact, Hood, to get some information on Coren Dahl. However, he also tells her that there's a bounty of 10,000 gold on Little One's head, and 5,000 for "the rest" (each or between them is not made clear). Once she explains that she's one of the rest Hood promises to have the bounty rescinded, but in the meantime the Party must watch out for Organisation assassins.
Trivia[]
- The Party are level seven at this point, having levelled in Ginaron.