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You <span class="mu-b">{POPUP}</span> in the forest, nearby the Smugglers' Harbor under the lake.
You spend a long bit of Time patting your still smoking clothes out, just getting your brains back.
And testing out <span class="mu-b">Daggy</span>. It's acchurly blunt now, nothing like it used to be. Bout as cutty as a sharpy shiv when you try it against your thumb.
Noiffy's plenty sharper.
But. When you press it, <span class="mu-b">Daggy</span> slice deep. Not the slow melty curly effect it's got before, when you use it to notch metal plates and work wedges out of rocks: now it <span class="mu-b">reely</span> cut.
To test its limits you force it through a fat old tree trunk in one full-body push, and with another hard lean, lop the tree clean through.
You scramble out the way as it falls.
>cuorrr
<span class="mu-g"><span class="mu-s">[DAGGY UPGRADE]</span></span>
>Daggy is now 3 melee dmg, +6 Vorpal
>Vorpal damage destroys Dur directly as though hitpoints
>Where target is unarmored Vorpal is considered direct damage; ethereal, higher undead and the like do not benefit from their resistances
•••
You sit in the shade, just having a much and calming down. You deserve it. In the distance there's a huge column of smoke coming up, all black like burning pitch.
The lake the Smugglers' Harbor is in has lost some inches; the water's going down, doesn't rise again.
When it's about halfway down you see the Rhea Drood scrambling out of the fallen hollow log, the entry into the Harbor, carrying two travel bundles on his back, two more in his arms.
He only notices you when you stand up from where you've been resting.
"Oats! The hell you've beenwhatthehellhappenedtoyou?"
You're charred black, gashed up, bashed, filthy, with a fresh collection of fascinating scars.
"<span class="mu-g">Buggs.</span>"
"tui Was that you?" he points at the distant black cloud, a fiery column still growing. "And that?" The draining lake.
"<span class="mu-g">Mebbe.</span>"
"Green Earth, what did you do?"
"<span class="mu-g">A good job.</span>" The manner of speech you adopted from Seafood kicks in. No question marks. Badass.
"No, no, what I meant was, what did you <span class="mu-i">do</span>??"
You're fully stumped. Is this one of those questions with no right answers.
"<span class="mu-g">What. I'z. Wuz. Tolt.</span>" Without the question marks, your confusion comes across as a dire <span class="mu-r">promise</span>. He doesn't ask you any more, so at least you both save time.
•••
There's no pickup ride, and you don't want to pull Wagon out in front of the Drood.
Instead he uses a Drood zappy to turn into a hairy brown pig Wild Shape class feature, and another Drood zappy to call and send off a sparrow Animal Messenger, lvl2 Spell ahead of you. After that he's nearly spent in terms of zappies, so it's a hard quiet ride for both of you for a day and a half.
When you break out of the forest onto a 3way road, a grimfaced rabble with a covered wagon - a Rhean "Street Circus" - receive you both without a word and make for Whythistle.
