Ch. 5, Page 27

"This calls for a celebration," Otto said.

"Yeah, let's go get stinking drunk back at the Green Dragon," Quij said.

"I wouldn't say no to something with a bit of some kick to it. Coming, sir?" Otto added, turning to face Robilar.

"Go on, I'll catch up," Robilar said.


Tenser was deep in thought when he noticed the hand on his shoulder. Under normal circumstances he might have appreciated the gesture, but at the moment all he could think about was that one misspent afternoon had crippled his plans for his future.

Ch. 5, Page 26

"Wait," Endelar said to her driver. She glanced back at the figures in the smoky haze that filled the street. No man had ever allowed her to get this far without running after her. If he did not come after her...the indignity of it...

Ch. 5, Page 25

Naturally, shouts for a fire brigade had brought a swift response from the City Watch as well. The innkeeper was still fuming, despite the fact that his inn seemed like it was going to survive intact, and was quick to let the watchmen know.


"Over there, officers! Those are the culprits responsible! Be wary of them..." Felipe Namarhz called out to the approaching watchmen, but then was nearly knocked over from behind.

"Excuse me! Out of my way!" yelled a lady in fine gown, muscling her way out into the street from the inn. She was not dressed for walking unescorted, as the train of her dress was held by no servant and had clearly dragged though mud and offal from the curb and had torn on something. She stomped off through the street, her dress becoming more disheveled, until she approached a carriage. "Get me home!" she hollered at the driver with no trace of refinement.

Felipe turned his attention back to the watchmen. It was a paltry size for a watch patrol and Felipe feared it was not going to be sufficient to enforce justice on this hoodlum in strange armor, his orc flunky, and the dwarf-like man who accompanied them. That they had magic between them was unmistakable. Surely, they were plotting between them even now how they would best the watchmen and escape. Ah, but the sergeant of the watch was approaching him now...

Ch. 5, Page 24

Even in a city as ruthless as Greyhawk, a shout of "Fire!" netted quick results. The innkeeper, Felipe, had six people out in the street in a nonce, all lining up with buckets at the water trough (that only had bits of Quij floating in it), with more people on the way.

The shouting from the growing crowd drew Tenser to his window...

Ch. 5, Page 23

The sudden rush of wind had taken Robilar by surprise. His first thought was that it was some new form of attack the stalker was demonstrating. But no, he had felt the impact of his sword -- and he had killed enough beings to instinctively know when he had struck vitals.

The wind had bowled him over, but Robilar stood up and listened for a moment. The wind was gone. There was no movement. Robilar poked around at the ground in front of him with the sword. There was no invisible body, but he suspected the creature had simply dissipated, returning to its home plane, as some other outer-planar things had done upon his killing them.

Ch. 5, Page 22

Robilar was sick of this stalker. He was sick of conjured other-planar beings. He was sick (if not also a bit jealous) of the power magic-users had and wielded with such reckless abandon, and how often they wound up using it against him with reckless abandon. And, in that moment, he himself was filled with reckless abandon. With a single magic word he ended the magic of his levitating boots and dropped downwards to the newly web-shrouded street.

Only in the very last moment did it even occur to him that his flaming sword slashing through the magic web might have consequences.

Ch. 5, Page 21

Tenser, at long last, reached his room. He made straight for his dresser, where all his magical paraphernalia was kept under lock and key.

Otto finished casting his spell and then remembered to breathe. Fighting monsters always got the heart racing, but Otto had decided that fighting things that were invisible was his most terrifying experience yet.

He could not wait to get his hands on an invisibility spell.

Ch. 5, Page 20

"This is neither the time nor the place for such a discussion!" Tenser hissed through gritted teeth at his currently troublesome paramour. "Just...just come with me to my room."

"Tenser, the impropriety!" Endelar exclaimed with an audible gasp.

"...I mean, just to talk to me from the hallway while I look for something in my room!" Tenser glanced from side to side as he spoke and tried to check the anger that he felt that this exchange was being heard by every man in the common room of the inn.


Outside, and opposite the inn, Robilar stood his ground on the rooftop in a strange sort of standoff with the invisible stalker. It was cunning, this stalker, and Robilar knew he had overplayed his hand by revealing that he was observing the roof tiles move when he last attacked it. He tried to imagine what its next move would be. Fight, or...

Ch. 5, Page 19

Quij had seen Robilar levitate plenty of times, but being able to fly himself was a brand new experience to the orc hero. He pushed off into the air like he was pushing off from the shore into a river and tried to "swim" through the air.

Otto made his way inside. Combating the invisible stalker with bags of flour seemed like such a natural idea, he could not think why it had not occurred to him earlier. He made to the innkeeper with lightning precision and made his demands.

Tenser, meanwhile, was eager to reach the spellbooks and scrolls in his room upstairs. He could think of a half-dozen spells that would help with the stalker -- all of which he had, by chance, failed to prepare that day. He had no time to prepare new spells, but if he could just find the right scroll...

But then, Endelar started to resist his tugging hand. In the middle of the common room, she decided she had had enough.

Ch. 5, Page 18

The remaining mastiff barked angrily at the rooftop a few more times, then turned and went back to where its companion lay still in the road. The still-living mastiff laid down beside the other one and went silent, only staring up at Robilar as he went running past them.

"I'd love to cut that thing in half, Rob..." Quij growled, gripping the haft of his battleax nearly hard enough to break it.

Robilar paused, listened, and over the background din of the city, he was able to make out the faint sound of roof tiles clattering. And that was when he knew he had the stalker where he wanted it.

Ch. 5, Page 17

"T-Tenser, m-make them s-slow down!" Endelar managed as she felt every bump on the road.

"I-I'm sorry, d-dearest, b-but this an em-mergency!" Tenser said, holding the seat tightly.

Endelar was thrown into him and held Tenser tight, making this his favorite part of the whole day so far.

Ch. 5, Page 16

Tenser turned and called to Robilar, waving at him frantically as the idea developed in his mind. "Come back here!"

Robilar did not plan to comply at first, but curiosity got the better of him and he walked back. "What? Why aren't we moving forward?"

"Because we have that!" Tenser said, pointing to Endelar's carriage.

Robilar mulled the idea around in his mind and came up with his own plan. "Are we commandeering it?"

"No, no!" Tenser said, suddenly having to correct Robilar and allay Endelar before she could get upset. "Just borrowing it."

"But the inn is not that far..." Robilar protested.

"Endelar and I have catching up to do. We can do it right here and you can wait, or we can do it on the ride."

"I suppose..it would be more dramatic if we arrived by carriage," Robilar mused.

"Absolutely," Tenser agreed.

"What's going on?" Otto said, finally catching up to them.

"We're riding the rest of the way in the carriage," Robilar said.

"Oh lovely. I've always wanted to drive one of these things."

"The driver is driving it," Robilar countered. "Come to think of it, there won't be room for you inside. You'll have to stand on the side of it."

"I'll what now?"

Ch. 5, Page 15

Robilar did not have time for this nonsense...but, on the other hand, he did not want to get too far ahead of the others on his own. Glancing back, he could see that Quij had his hands full keeping the guard dogs they had bought from attacking some bystanders in the street. Otto was still struggling to keep up. Tenser had this opportunistic young maiden after him, undoubtedly after the riches he had accumulated over two years of delving the depths of Castle Greyhawk.

Well, he would spare Tenser one minute -- but not a second longer!

Ch. 5, Page 14

They made slow progress, trying to guide their dogs in the right direction. Every so often the dogs would stop and smell something. Robilar or Quij would start to go for their weapons before someone would guess that the dogs were sniffing something more mundane, yet curiously enchanting to the dogs, like the garbage lining the gutter or the dung on some stranger's boots. Quij almost lost one of them to chasing a cat.

What they were not aware of was that Lady Endelar was on that same road, heading in the opposite direction. Endelar was on her way to an important engagement at the Cartographer's Guildhall to gain an important commission. Endelar did nothing small, so she was planning on arriving in style to wow the aristocrat that wanted an accurate new map of the Cairn Hills. Almost nothing could make her late for such an appointment.

Ch. 5, Page 13

Robilar laid there for a moment, listening and watching the hay on the stable floor. The invisible stalker was definitely moving in a straight line for the front doors after knocking Otto aside. Robilar picked himself up and sprinted after him.

Lucien, the stablemaster, was so upset at the damage to his property that he foolishly tried getting in Robilar's way.

"Hey, you can't leave until we've settled damages!" Lucien said, before Robilar brushed him aside.

"Otto, hand this man some gold!" Robilar shouted at his henchman. The last thing he needed right now was the law after him.

Outside, Tenser heard Lucien shouting at Robilar, but was distracted by a breeze, as if something was moving past him...

Ch. 5, Page 12

Lucien hated dealing with adventurers. Oh, the more easygoing ones were a steady source of income, always needing pack animals and riding steeds for trips out to the Castle Greyhawk ruins, but the worst of them barged in and ordered him about like they could just take what they wanted. The city had strict laws protecting the merchant class from all manner of threats, including spells, but that still hardly put stable masters like Lucien on equal footing with men who could shoot fireballs from their fingers, or wielded magic swords.

But the worst of them had to be the lunatic who was destroying his stables right now. He had chopped through the support pillar of his hayloft with a single swing of his sword! And now the man was babbling about needing to fight something that was not even there. "Adventurers," they called themselves. Surely this Castle Greyhawk just turned them into madmen!

Ch. 5, Page 11

Tenser was getting impatient waiting outside, and more than just because he wanted to get back to his inn for his spellbook. All the offal had just recently been shoveled out of the stables into the gutter of the street for the dung collectors to pick up. It smelled worse out here than it probably did in the stables. Tenser scowled at the open entrance to Lucien's, half-expecting this delay inside to be some cruel trick on Robilar's part to make him suffer.

Of course, inside, this was furthest from Robilar's mind, since he now believed the invisible stalker was inside the stables with them...

Ch. 5, Page 10

Tenser wanted to go fetch his spellbook right away. Even a simple spell, like one that would allow him to detect the invisible, would be immensely valuable in this situation, if he only had time to prepare it. That is what he tried to convince Robilar about on their way to Lucien's Stables, anyway.

"I know how long it takes you magicians to prepare new spells," Robilar said stubbornly. "We need the dogs first while we wait."

Robilar had always been, of course, an intense man, but Tenser sensed that there was something else underlying Robilar's tone this day. Dread? Fear? They seemed to be things unknown to the man. And yet...

Tenser pondered this more intently as he waited outside. Robilar, Quij, and Otto were heading into the stables.

Ch. 5, Page 9

Invisible stalkers. Tenser knew the term; invisible stalkers were urban legends, whispered to be summoned and controlled only by the most powerful wizards.

The temptation was there to continue telling Robilar off for all his foolish decisions, like enraging evil wizards -- or go off on a side rant about how Robilar's henchmen were laying siege to one of the main dungeon entrances at the castle and charging adventurers tolls to go down. The temptation was there to tell Robilar to solve his own problems and just leave him to his perhaps well-deserved fate.

So far, it was just a temptation...