The story so far: Our heroines are stuck in a vent in a cellar wall, with a bloodthirsty troll on one side and some very upset property owners with a cudgel on the other. How much worse can it get? Guess.

Your clothes are getting covered with slimy bits of decayed food.

From behind you, you can hear little squeaks and snarls as the troll jumps up and down.

Nikole starts hollering, "Ow! Leggo! Get off me you stupid varmint! Ow! Hey! Not my shirt!" and the like!

Darklis jerks violently. "I'm not doing anything!"

Nikole carries on the commotion, attempting to sound both distressed and barely dressed!

Whispering and hushed comments are audible from behind the door. "Do you think it'll kill her?" A snort of disgust. "It's only two feet tall!" "But..."

Nikole shrieks incoherently in anger and dismay!

"Fine," mutters the male voice. "Oy! Crawl up the chute, you!"

Nikole calls back, "I'm trying! Ow! It's got my trousers!" while keeping an eye on the crack of the trapdoor.

Darklis stares up at Nikole. Then, helpfully, she says, "Grrr!" Darklis the troll!

Suddenly, the door is yanked open. A burly male arm in shirtsleeves reaches down the chute, grabs Nikole's arm, and starts to haul her up.

Nikole yelps as she is grabbed and dragged from the chute!

Darklis yelps, too, and grabs on to Nikole's ankle!

Nikole is hauled out into a lamplit kitchen, with much grunting.

Nikole looks around frantically for a way out!

"Hey!" exclaims the owner of the concerned voice, who turns out to be a middle-aged woman with a wrinkled but kind face. "There's more'n one of them!"

The owner of the burly arm does not look kind. He dumps Nikole in the corner and hauls Darklis up. "Don't move, you."

Darklis shrieks, hauled.

The third person in the kitchen is a scullerymaid with saucer-wide eyes, watching from her corner.

Burly Man waves his cudgel threateningly. "More thieves, eh? What are you all after? Think you can break in here and steal things?"

Darklis sniffles, rubbing her hand under her nose.

Nikole tries to keep the sack full of fish from breaking as she's dropped, using her chest to cushion it!

The woman clucks. "Look at them, they're filthy."

The door to the kitchen is about six feet away, beyond the two adults. The scullerymaid, who looks a bit older than you, is sitting next to it.

The man nudges at the sack with his toe. "Hand that over. What you been stealing? What is this, a thieves' holiday?"

Darklis bursts into tears, and wails, "We didn't *mean* to!"

Nikole says nothing, letting Darklis be the center of attention while her own somewhat beer-steeped brain tries to come up with a plan!

The women clucks. "Well, you should've thought of that, shouldn't you? Let's put them with the other, Pimsley. And maybe a bite to eat; they look starved."

Pimsley grunts, and reaches down to grab the sack, still holding his cudgel threateningly at Nikole's head. "You want to feed 'em for stealing? Next you'll be handing them the silver. What you got in here, kids?"

Darklis, through tears, snuffles, "We couldn't fit kids in there, don't be stupid."

He pulls the sack open. "Hey!"

Nikole snatches the sack from his hands and dives between his legs!

"What, what?" The woman leans forward, and the girl cranes her neck in vain for a view. "Well, I never! You took a _fish_!"

"Ack!" Pimsley topples backwards and grabs for Nikole's ankles. "Hold the other one!"

The woman eyes Darklis as though she were a stray dog. "Now, dear, stay very still."

Nikole scampers out from under the falling lout!

Darklis, predictably, fails to stay still. She charges forward, trying to scramble around Pimsley!

Everybody lunges at once. Pimsley lunges for Nikole, the middle-aged woman lunges for Darklis, the scullery-maid lunges in front of the door. They all look very silly and fail to grab anything.

The girl braces herself in front of the door, terrified. "Ma'am Grosvenor, ma'am, what do I do?"

Nikole goes for the door!

Nikole looks ready to eat the scullery-maid alive if she doesn't get out of the way!

Darklis darts around the middle-aged woman, looking quite wild and fierce at the scullery-maid herself! Raar!

She squeaks in terror, but the wrath of a ragamuffin thief is as nothing to the disapproval of Pimsley, coming up behind with his cudgel. She stays put.

Pimsley takes a swing at Nikole's backside with his cudgel!

Nikole is busy going for the door, which is fortunately away from Pimsley!

Darklis, in a fit of something that probably isn't exactly brilliance, charges at the scullery maid. If this were a perfect world, she would catch the other girl right about the mid-thigh, and with the strength of panic, more or less upend the girl over her (Darklis') shoulder.

Being smacked with a wooden cudgel hurts. A lot. Grosvenor squeaks in sympathy. "Stop it, girls! It's no use!"

Nikole yelps! But the swat propels her even faster toward the door!

Grosvenor is hanging back from these undignified actions, making small ouch noises when anything gets hit.

Darklis narrowly misses cracking her head on the door, and succeeds, at least, in smashing the poor scullery maid's head instead. Shrieking ensues, mostly, but not entirely, from the maid.

Grosvenor winces a lot.

Nikole tries to elbow the maid (and probably Darklis) aside so she can open the door!

The maid goes whomp into Darklis, shrieking some more, but clearing the door.

Nikole yanks at the door!

Pimsley swings his cudgel at Darklis' backside, this time. "Stop, you! Sit down!"

"OOOOOOOOOWWWWW!" Darklis lets out a truly god-awful howl as the cudgel smacks her hard in the butt, real tears forced from her eyes. She kind of drops to the floor, trying not to howl again.

Nikole flings open the door, hopefully squashing the maid and not Darklis!

The poor maid gets squashed, and the door opens onto another kitchen-room, this one empty.

"No you don't!" Pimsley grabs for Nikole's shoulders, trying to hold her back.

Nikole tries to slip away from Pimsley's hand! (The other hand has a cudgel in it, so can't grab much.)

Darklis, since she's on the floor anyway, and Pimsley was a big mean nasty who hurt her, lashes up a heel towards Pimsley's groin!

A heavy hand descends on Nikole's shoulder, and then falls off immediately. "Owwwwwww!" Pimsley folds up, dropping the cudgel.

Darklis shrieks, "Run!" and sort of rolls towards the door, trying to get her feet back under her.

Muttering "oh dear, oh dear," Grosvenor starts toward Darklis, as gingerly as if she were a rabid stray dog.

Nikole stops and brandishes her knife at the old lady! "Back off!"

On the other side of the door are chairs, a table, a fireplace, a closed door, and an open door. The closed door is thumping, muffledly; the open door leads into a hall.

The woman shrieks, and backs away. She's further hampered by the scullery maid flinging arms around her neck and sobbing.

Pimsley is starting to unfold, very very slowly. Tears of pain and a murderous glint mingle in his eyes.

Nikole waves the knife impatiently, waiting for Darklis to *move!*

Darklis manages to get to her feet, and tears partway down the tablelength towards the open door. Then, being Darklis, she hesitates, and then turns and runs towards the closed one, checking it frantically to see if it's locked.

Nikole slams the door to the kitchen and runs too!

The closed door - it looks like a pantry - is locked, but has the key in it. There's a _lot_ of banging from the other side.

Darklis turns the key and jerks the door open!

Beauregard falls into Darklis' arms, flailing.

Nikole grabs a random part of Beauregard and drags him along!

Darklis yells, "You IDIOT," and smacks Beau until he lets go. "RUN!" She demonstrates.

Beauregard squawks like a chicken, but shakes Nikole off after a second, and sprints ahead of you out the open door.

There's a despairing shriek in the next second, and he reappears, pursued by the big black dog, who is barking enthusiastically.

Darklis, hopelessly, yells, "Bad dog! Bad dog!"

The dog looks completely unimpressed. It lunges at Beauregard, snarling.

Nikole screeches to a halt, stands up as tall as she can (not all that much, but taller than a dog), and says firmly, "Down!"

Suddenly whining pitiably, the dog drops in its tracks. It eyes Nikole warily.

Nikole points back the way the dog came. "Go home! Go!"

Darklis stares at Nikole, impressed. "Wow!"

Beauregard looks no less awed. He notices the door to the kitchen starting to open, though, and hisses, "Hurry!"

Growling sulkily, the dog backs off down the hall.

Nikole starts forward. "Good dog. Go home."

Pimsley, slightly shorter than usual because he's bent over, emerges into the kitchen. He growls.

The dog flicks an ear at the sound, and stops.

Nikole figures the chances of getting the dog to attack someone he knows are pretty small, so just runs!

Darklis edges along behind Nikole as fast as she -- Darklis runs!

Down the hall! A very familiar looking hall, which used to have a sleeping dog at this end and still has a door leading outside at the other end and a dining room off to the left.

Nikole runs *out*!

Good thing the door isn't locked. But it is heavy, and takes a second to get open. Beauregard is right behind you, hopping with impatience.

Darklis, not helpfully, shrieks at Nikole until the door gets opened.

Pimsley yells, "Get them! Stupid dog!", from farther back.

Nikole glares commandingly at the dog. It would obviously have to be a much more alpha dog than it actually is to challenge her.

Trapped between two masters, the dog freezes, and settles for growling at Beauregard. This does not improve the latter's patience. "Open the- here!" He yanks the door open.

Darklis, apparently, shrieks at herself until she yanks the door open, since she got ahead of Nikole while running. The door, finally, flies open! "RUN! Run! Run!"

Prudently, Beauregard flattens himself against the wall to let Hurricane Darklis go past.

Nikole runs right after Darklis! If Beauregard wants to bring up the rear, that's fine!

Actually, Pimsley is bringing up the rear, shouting and waving his cudgel. He's trying to urge on the dog, who is not cooperating.

SMACK! goes the cudgel, and suddenly the dog remembers who it's most afraid of. It sprints after you.

Darklis tears out the door, down the steps (there were steps, weren't there?) and heads for the corner!

Nikole is right behind Darklis!

The gardens are empty and very very dark. Beauregard trips on something and stumbles, with a curse.

Darklis shrieks and goes down in a tumble of thumps. Or a thump of tumbles. It's a pity she lands on her face, not looking at the thing she tripped on, which is actually a very pretty ornamental stone. A shame she's not in a position to admire it.

Nikole realizes that she's lost her raiding party and slows up! "Hurry! Don't just lie there!"

The dog does not stumble at all. It leaps upon Beauregard, who looks like the safest target. He screams and flails.

Darklis wheezes a moment, then scrambles back to her feet, shrieking. "Stop the dog! Bad dog! Bad dog!"

Nikole stops and turns around. "Bad dog! Off! Down!"

Pimsley disagrees. "Good dog! Good dog! Hold that one!" He lumbers towards Darklis.

Darklis, wisely, runs.

This is too much for a poor canine to handle. With a whimper, it flees into the shrubbery.

Beauregard scrambles to his feet and backs away from Pimsley, whimpering much like the dog.

Nikole says "Hurry *up*!"

Darklis is hurrying! Run run run!

Pimsley menaces Beauregard with great skill. "Make one move and I'll beat your head in, ye thief!"

Beauregard, not being an alpha thief, freezes.

Nikole is tempted to run, but no. Saving boys is too much fun. She grabs up a stone from the ground, tucks it into her sling, and whirls it around her head!

Darklis, finally, notices nobody's following her, and turns around, squinting. What's going *on*!

Nikole's stone whizzes past Pimsley's head and clatters off the wall of the house!

Pimsley instinctively ducks; Beauregard instintively runs!

Darklis ohs, we're running again! Run! Everybody run!

Nikole runs!

Everybody runs! Beauregard runs the fastest, passing both of you as you hit the street. He turns left, heading towards the center of town.

Pimsley runs the slowest, but curses the loudest. He slowly drops behind.

Darklis doesn't curse at all, tearing down the hill after Beau. Run! Run! Nikole! Where are you!

Nikole runs after Beauregard! If he gets away, how can she gloat at him?

Beauregard vanishes into an alley at the intersection near Frond's.

Nikole runs after, although somewhat burdened by a large crystal fish.

Nikole does not actually run straight into any traps, though.

Darklis hisses, "Mindy's!" at Nikole! "Who cares about Beau! Mindy's!"

Beau is flopped in the alley, gasping like a fish.

Nikole hisses at Beauregard, "Don't stop yet! This way!"

He staggers to his feet. "Wha? Where?"

Darklis jumps up and down impatiently. "Mindy's!"

Nikole attempts to navigate the alleyways of an unfamiliar city, in the dark, carrying a crystal fish. Obviously the recent excitement hasn't burned *all* the alcohol from her blood.

Darklis will take the fish if Nikole looks in danger of (god forbid) dropping it!

Nikole has the fish in a bag which is attached to her body by a sturdy strap. That's about as safe as it's likely to get.

Darklis hop! hop! hop! "Mindy's!" Darklis has a one-track mind.

The route to Mindy's is pretty familiar by now, if one hasn't been drinking. Even Beauregard knows it.

He slogs tiredly in the lead. "Well, that didn't go so good, did it? Thanks for letting me out."

Darklis says "How'd you get *in* there?"

Darklis isn't going to tell Beau they got the fish, no way! Not until they produce it for Mindy!

Nikole says "Did you meet the troll?"

He looks superior. "Back door, while they were at church. Wasn't my fault they came back ea- a troll?"

Darklis, smugly, says, "It was no big deal."

Nikole says "Aye, in the basement. How's your leg, Darklis?"

Beauregard stops to look you both up and down. "You didn't fight a troll. You're not even bleedin'."`

Well, it was fine until you reminded her. Darklis stares down at her ankle. Bleeding again. "I'm dying," she says morosely.

Darklis starts limping.

"Well, only a little bit," he amends. Considerately, he offers a shoulder to Darklis for leaning on.

Darklis beams gratefully up at Beau. What a nice boy. Even if she's covered with spoiled food ick. Ick. Maybe there's a bath or something at Mindy's. "Thanks."

Nikole politely ignores Beauregard and Darklis snuggling, and hurries toward Mindy's, also in fond hope of a bath or fresh clothes or something.

Beauregard glows with manly pride. "So, you two find anything yet?" His tone is oh-so-casual.

Nikole says, oh-so-casually, "A couple things."

He stops. "No! Really? What?"

Darklis shrugs. Limp limp. Pooooooor Darklis. "Nothing much."

"Oh". He stays silent until you reach Mindy's. The little shop is dark and silent, like the rest of its street.

Nikole slips inside.

Nikole says "Mindy?"

Darklis hobbles in behind Nikole.

Nikole taps on the doorframe.

After a minute, Mindy calls, "Come in!"

Nikole enters the shop, beaming brightly. "We got some more!"

Nikole unpacks the fish onto the counter, while watching Beauregard's expression.

Darklis hobbles in behind Nikole now! "Plus we rescued Beau. How's Rey?"

Mindy has clearly been sleeping at his desk; he slumps blearily in the chair. "Eh? Oh, phfm, you. What is it this time?"

Beauregard's eyes bug out. He waves a finger helplessly at the fish, open-mouthed.

Mindy rubs his eyes to clear away the hallucination of a fish, and then stares as it's still there.

Darklis smiles brightly up at Beau, and then beams wildly at Mindy. "We got the fish," she proclaims. She seems to need to proclaim this every time they get something. We got the _blanks_.

Finally, Beauregard says faintly, "I thought it was the goldfish."

Nikole digs around in her bag and pulls out a dry, faintly yellowed cylinder. "And we think this is a wizard's fingerbone."

Darklis ohs! She's forgotten that. She grins hopefully.

Nikole beams at Beauregard with enough smugness for a dozen foxes and an entire chicken coop.

Embarrassedly, he peers down at a pocket, which looks suspiciously wet and squishy. He prods it dolefully.

Mindy coughs. "Ahem. Yes."

Darklis holds her breath. "*Is* it a wizard's fingerbone?"

Nikole whispers to Darklis, "You cozied up to someone with a *fish* in his *pocket*?"

The gnome attempts to be brisk, sort of. "Fish yes, finger no. From the Carp, yes?"

Nikole says "Aye."

Nikole says "I reckoned it might not be, after the holy water."

Nikole says "But it couldn't hurt to try!"

Beauregard looks suddenly more cheerful, but says nothing. He edges back from the desk.

Nikole looks over at Beauregard!

Nikole says "You got a fingerbone?"

"Quite," Mindy says faintly. "You'll be wanting me to keep the, phfm, fish?"

Darklis sticks her hands on her hips. "Well, that's *five* things, anyway."

"No," he says with dignity. "_I_ knew they weren't real."

Beauregard's mouth falls open all over again. "You did _not_!"

Nikole beams at Mindy. "Please!"

Nikole says "We'll be back with the rest of the stuff soon! ...after we get a bath and some new clothes."

With a sigh, Mindy pushes his chair back, and fumbles in a drawer. Little "phfms" and "hms" and yawns come from underneath the desk.

Darklis peers at Mindy. Or at the desk. "Mindy?"

Beauregard is still waving his finger at Nikole, indignantly. "You did not. They didn't, Mindy. Right?"

Nikole picks unhappily at her besmirched clothes.

Eventually Mindy comes up with a large velvet cloth, and wraps the fish in it. "Hm? Oh. You know better than that, young man. Confidentiality." He stows the fish away somewhere you can't quite see clearly.

Darklis blinks at Beau. "We didn't what?" she demands, then looks at Mindy again. "Is Rey all right?"

Nikole just beams at Beauregard.

"Hm. He will be, after some more rest. Not that he stayed for it, phfm; no time for that tonight."

Beauregard persists, "You didn't _either_ get five things. It's not possible."

Darklis sniffs. "Stupid boy." She could be talking either about Red or Beau.

Beauregard sulks. "Well, if you're going to lie, I'm not staying." He stalks out.

Nikole ignores Beau and scoops out some assorted jewelry and fingerbones and such onto the counter.

Nikole says "We need some cash money."

Mindy turns them over with a practiced finger. "Junk. You do know that, phmfm?"

Nikole says "I reckon they're worth a bit anyway, since there are people who *don't* know."

Darklis whispers, smugly, "Five!" at Beau.

The gnome grunts. "True, phfm, but Mindy has a reputation; people who don't know don't buy from Mindy. They go to places like the Carp." He looks up a bit plaintively. "No silver? No plate? No gems?"

Nikole looks over at Darklis.

Darklis looks small. "We were in a hurry," she says lamely.

He phfms disapprovingly. "Opportunity is the friend of every skilled thief. Don't neglect it."

Darklis pulls a face. "I need a bag," she concludes.

Eventually, with many phfms, Mindy agrees on ten coppers for the lot.

Nikole says "Deal."