View source for LongestRoad Ellowyn: Corrolith - Krikkle

I may already have mentioned Krikkle. He was an old, blind gnome who spent much of his time in the town square at Corrolith. Raine had spoiled me through my adolescence in terms of developing my ear for music. Most street musicians make me wince, but Krikkle had that lilt to his music that swirled around you and wrapped you up in the melody. He obviously had some talent, great love for his instrument, and years of practice. I always stopped by to say hello.

One morning, I came through the square on my way to buy a few cooking supplies from the general store. As I grew near his usual place, I noticed everyone was walking swiftly by. Usually, some people lingered to throw him a few coins. A few steps closer, I could hear a young man's taunting voice.

"What's the matter, old man? Ya missing something?" Not very funny, but two other people laughed. Someone walking by paused a moment, and started to speak.

"Hey, what -- " He was interrupted by a stout cudgel. Nothing else makes that sound. It was a little sickening, hearing him crumple to the ground.

That was about when I decided today was a good day to have a little fun.

First, I put Krikkle in a Message with me, so I could let him know things were about to get weird. Then I started on these guys with a few little Ghost Sounds. Murmurs in their ears that they couldn't quite hear, an arrow twanging off a bow string, a sword being drawn. After a minute they started getting jumpy, and arguing with each other. As they got angrier, they started beating up on Krikkle more.

At this point, Krikkle yelped, mostly acting, and I stumbled over to pretend to help him. Picture it, the blind guy helping the blind guy. So of course, they immediately started picking on me as well. One of them had dropped a bag when he started roughing up Krikkle, so with some fancy pyrotechnics, I set it on fire. There's always something extra special about fire in a town square, no matter how small the fire is, when it's unexpected. Now I really had their attention -- but I'd done it all silently, and they hadn't noticed it was me yet. It's quite easy to mask your movement when you are flailing about blindly with a staff. I stepped in front of Krikkle and cast a cantrip to put a big, glowing, flashing orange arrow up in the sky, pointing down at us. I don't think they even noticed that one.

By now, they were getting pretty mean. One of them was a little younger, but the two older boys were showing some skill with their clubs. When they chose to press the attack against us, I created them each their own, personalized Flare effect. While they were busy clawing at their eyes, I sent some Magic Missiles their way. I was nice enough to split them up, two each for the older boys and one for the kid. At this point, they were freaking out, swinging wildly and shouting at us.

I just couldn't keep a straight face any more. It's very hard to cast when you're laughing. It's also very hard to sound imposing when you threaten someone while you're laughing. They blinked, their eyes finally clearing, and came back swinging. So, I Held them. First, I went through the ringleader's bag and found Krikkle's flute, unharmed by the small fire, and returned it to him. Then I sat for a few moments.

"You alright, Krikkle? I hope they didn't really hurt you." He chuckled.

"I've had worse, friend. A few bumps, a bruise here and there. Did they go away?"

I took a few minutes to explain how the Hold Person spell works, carefully monitoring our assailants for any sign of movement. By now, the crowd was re-forming, gawking. Someone threw a rock -- I jumped up and turned that way.

"What was that for?" I asked the crowd. People were quiet for a moment, but I waited. I'm told I have a very accusing stare, in spite of the blindfold. After a moment people started speaking up. This one had been beaten by these boys, this other had food stolen from his house, another was robbed on the road into town.

I turned back to the three stationary boys. "You certainly have been busy, haven't you?" I thought for a moment, then sat down at their feet. The wonderful thing about cobblestone roads is that they're stone. I began casting another spell, not silently this time, but quite openly, and fitted my hands around one of the oldest boy's feet. Slowly, it sank into the stone. There were a few shouts from the crowd as they started to get the idea. One foot at a time, I sank each of them up to his knees in the cobblestone square.

Humming a little tune to myself, I retrieved my staff and began making my way through the crowd, headed in the direction of the general store. I recalled that the town guard's barracks were up the same street, and left a trail of glowing arrows on the road behind me, everywhere I tapped my staff, all the way back to the barracks.

When I had finished my shopping at the general store, and was heading back through the square and out of town to my camp, I could hear quite a lot of arguing still going on. There was plenty of shouting about an unfair fight, lots of muffled laughter, angry crowd noise, and a few guards discussing how to get these boys out of the stone and up to the jail. I stepped up next to Krikkle, listening to them whine for a few minutes. The oldest was doing a lot of yelping about who was supposed to be watching whose back, and even reached out to smack one of the other boys, almost toppling over onto his butt.

I just put my hand on Krikkle's shoulder and said, "Two blind men against three strong young lads does seem like an unfair fight, doesn't it?" At that point, the guards looked at me and Krikkle and just punched the three guys senseless. One of them stepped up next to me.

"You're the caster?" I nodded. "Uh...if you wouldn't mind...we'd like to take them up to a cell behind the barracks. Could you let them out?"

I must have had an absolutely priceless smile on my face as I pulled them back out of the cobblestones. Some days, all the hard work really pays off. As I was leaving, one of the guards caught up to me again. "Sir? Sir, there is a reward out for the ringleader. He's apparently quite a thief." I turned partly around.

"I don't need any reward for helping a friend..." The guard just pressed a small pouch into my hand and ran off. It was the first time anyone had given me more money than throwing me a few copper or a silver for telling a story. I thought for a moment, and then headed back to the square one more time, to sneak half of it into Krikkle's hat.