A/N: An interlude before we get to some of the good stuff. Short chapter, but there's only three or four chapters left to go.
Well, crap.
Amkethran was driving me to drink. Liches. Monks. Mercenaries. Expensive, low-quality food. I've always had trouble with mercenaries, mind you. The Chill, those Black Talon bastards, any number of hired thugs. But these mercenaries have taken particular offense to my walking through their town.
At any rate, my crew and I helped the people as best we could. It's what we do. We butted heads with the monks who were hassling that priest. We killed the lich. We bailed out Saemon again -damn his slick hide- and we helped that girl and her father. After all that, we were tired, and we couldn't even find Melissan. The town's leader was uncivil and undiplomatic. So, that's where we stood, having a beer with Minsc. Having tossed out the local mercenaries, we sat around the small local bar and debated what we would do now. We had the choices of hunting down Abizigal, or hunting down Sendai.
"We have to stop loafing around," declared Anomen.
"We're not loafing around, we're making sure we don't run headlong and exhausted into something we can't handle. We're dealing with bhaalspawn, bhaalspawn with armies. I think caution is in order," I shot back.
The expensive bean-and-rice meal wasn't mixing well with the local stout. I was getting uppity.
"My brother is right," rumbled Sarevok, "in that we are dealing with people who are not to be trifled with. Anyways, we spent all today helping this miserable little sandlot. I would think that the druid having to pull banshee claws out of your shoulder for half an hour would have taught you some measure of prudence."
"Oh, shut up you evil bastard," Anomen snarled.
"I may be evil, but I didn't rise to dukedom by being stupid."
"Alright, settle. What are we going to do?"
"Boo says we should deal with the dragons first. They are the larger, burnier foe."
I nodded. the dragons were tough. The drow were no pushover either, but then again they didn't fly around and breathe fire. Well, usually. With Bhaal's blood involved, all bets were off.
"Addled one, your stupidity never ceases to amaze me," said Viconia, sipping her wine. "What the drow lack in sheer force, they make up for in cunning and numbers."
"True. I don't know which we should go for first," conceded Anomen. "But we should move first. Take the initiative."
"Well, if we move against Sendai, Abizigal might come here and lay waste to Amekthran," I replied. I didn't want to see the people there suffer.
"Well jaluk, if you move against the dragons, then I know Sendai will move against Amekthran to deny you supplies if nothing else. She will catch us while we are weary and hungry, sap our strength, and kill us one by one."
Viconia had a point. Sendai was rumored to be nothing if not cunning and ruthless. There was some small discussion, my friends speaking quietly to their neighbors. The barman just watched. Keldorn stood.
"Then, we attack them both."
I nodded, smiling. Divide and conquer.
"It's the only course of action we have. But how are we going to do it?"
"Well, we split up. You lead one group, someone else leads the other. We set out tomorrow at first light. "
"Keldorn, you're probably the best, most veteran battle leader we have. I nominate you as the second leader."
Anomen began to object.
"Alright, I declare Keldorn to be the second leader. So, how's this going to work? It's your idea, Keldorn."
"We split the entire party, then flip a coin for which bhaalspawn we attack."
"Sounds fair. So, how are we going to split these fine folks up, old man?"
"We can't afford to have one party heavy on one particular profession or the other. So, we do it dodgeball style."
There was a collective groan. Even I was familiar with dodgeball team picking. Hull used to organize games with everyone. Some of the younger monks, Imoen, the watchers and I used to play. I always got picked last. Hull always sent me sprawling when I was younger, the ass. At any rate, I won the toss off and got first pick. Jan shoved his way to the front of the group, waved and clamored for attention.
"Okay, I'll take...ummm... lil' sis. C'mon over."
She giggled and high-fived me. Jan continue to wave and try and get my attention. He obviously wanted to be on my team.
"Fair enough, young man. I'll take Anomen."
The other knight grumbled. I suspected he was starting to get sick of his mentor.
"Excellent. Well, blood is thicker than water, so I'll take Sarevok."
That, and I wanted to keep an eye on him. I didn't know if he could be trusted. Keldorn took Minsc, and it continued back and forth until everyone was selected. Jan was, of course, picked last. I got stuck with him. It was like being a kid again. I actually wanted to play a game of dodgeball by the end, but we had a big day ahead of us. Again, we flipped a gold coin. I called it in the air.
"Heads you get Sendai, tails you get Abizigal."
He got tails. I was going to fight some drow.
The big moment of truth was when we picked the girls. My third pick was Jaheira, just because she was the next most veteran person, and I knew I could count on her. She looked at me, eyes warm, as if to say took you long enough. She ruffled my hair as she passed, sitting beside Imoen. Keldorn took Aerie, a small mercy. Aerie was unflappable. She smiled, and made eyes at me as if I was the only person there. Viconia ended up with me too, along with a waggish Haer'dalis. It was late afternoon, so by the time we were done, it was dinnertime. After the mediocre lunch of beans and rice, I was looking forward to a nice, undercooked hunk of meat, but it was not to be. Beans and rice was followed by rice and beans. We all retired afterwards, paying the innkeep and readying ourselves for the day to come. For some, that meant cleaning a small arsenal of weapons and buffing armor. For others, it meant intense study or prayer. I did a bit of both, then went to sleep.
The two groups shared a breakfast of beans and rice supplemented with iron rations. It was a quiet affair, the total opposite of the feast at the Sea's Bounty so long ago. We waved to each other as we split up.
"See you lot in a few days!" I called out cheerily. I was forcing it, but I had to.
"Don't worry about us, whelp!" Keldorn called out, laughing. "I bet in three days, we'll have a better tale of glory than you will!"
"You're on, old man!"