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On day six, the crossbows arrive. Their arrival is preceded by an unexpected appearance of Gunther. As he prances and dances around a bit, he comes close and whispers, "There's a surprise coming." It is enough, I'm alerted to both the surprise coming, and the fact that Gunther thinks the surprise is not deadly hostile. A half hour later, the crossbows come. They are packed in crates, and carried in a wagon. My man is driving the wagon, and beside him in the front seat is another, hooded man.... Well, perhaps it is a man; the hairs on the back of my neck go up: this must be Gunther's surprise.
My man motions to the stranger, "He came with the merchandise. Said we needed him along to get full use out of the equipment." My man's motion is one of annoyment. Clearly this other fellow has not displayed his worth, yet.
The hooded man is small, but he clamors down from the wagon with agility. He comes up to me and says, "Baron Rostov, I presume." he immediately waves me off and continues talking in a most peculiarly intoned voice, "No need to stand on formality. I'm Lazar Weaponmeister. When I heard that this style of crossbow was headed into your valley, I realized immediately that you would be in need of special ammunition as well, am I not correct?"
I had only opened my mouth when he continued,
"No need to answer that, but I do have need of food and refreshment -- the journey has been long." At which point he turned to the man on the wagon and said, "Please hand me down my bag, John, and thank you for that superb display of mule skinning. You are a credit to wagon masters everywhere."
John handed down the man's bag without a word. I got the feeling this little fellow had talked him to death on the trip, but John was not acting suspicious of this little man, so all the talking had had some positive effect.
As soon as his bag was in hand, he turned back to me and asked, "Is lunch ready yet?"
I, too, decide he is not sinister. I laugh and call out, "Ladies, prepare a lunch, and, Gunther, won't you sing at it for us?"
The wagon master departs, leaving just the ladies, Gunther and myself. As we sit down for lunch, the hooded man removes his traveling clothes, including the hood. He is a large gnome, rather than a small human. The ladies have now been around the elfs enough that they are not taken back by this revelation. "Serve us, then leave." I tell the ladies.
The gnome eats quickly and gustily, but not much, and then starts talking again in his fast clipped style.
"An excellent repast, Baron. I presume, Baron, that this minstrel is a trusted man concerning your new merchandise?" I barely nod before he continues, "Excellent! Then you may want to see some additional hardware I bring that is of my own design." He places on the table a long, lacquered box that looks as if it should hold a magic scroll, and pushes it towards me. I open it, and inside is a steel quarrel of intricate design: The tip looks hardened and deadly, the shaft is covered with intricate glyphs, hollow, and slotted to allow the contents of an internal vial to quickly leak out once the quarrel has penetrated its target.
"Impressive workmanship." I comment.
The Gnome's style suddenly changes, instead of sounding like a shallow know-it-all, he now sounds like someone quite knowledgeable, possibly wise, "If you hunt with crossbows such as these, then you hunt something rather large, I presume.... something rather difficult to bring down.... If I am not mistaken?"
"I do." I admit, but this whole conversation is bringing my hackles back up. Have I been that obvious that this wandering stranger knows my tactics for the upcoming battle? If he knows, does the Queen know? If so, I must call this whole plan off -- only surprise makes it viable!
He holds up his hands, "Your secret is safe with me. I am privy to information that another member of this valley does not have, and won't get."
"And what brings you, Lazar Weaponmeister, to our fair valley?" I ask.
"Why, the story, Good Baron, the story. Which tale is to be told has not been decided yet. But your actions of late insure that the tale will be an interesting one, and that is why I have come."
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