Chapter 9-254: Actually Stopping to Celebrate a Holiday (1/2)

The Taiwanese were both understanding and envious that we were celebrating a holiday... but quiet words that we would be bringing back some help were very appreciated. Just bringing in some new cell phones and computers would be a big help, let alone something like, oh, new ammunition, and maybe some volunteers and experts in infrastructure development from Heavenbound Hall.

Bard/5 had dinged over last night, carrying with it Resist Nature’s Lure, as well as Voice of the Mage for a Feat (distinctive Voice, carries up to a mile with no Casting or expenditure, +1 to all Skills that use the voice) and Bardic Lore/2, +2 to all Lore checks. I did get the option of picking a General Feat, and selected Dazing Spell, a powerful +3 Meta that dazed people a number of rounds equal to the Valence Level if they failed their saves... and they weren’t going to be making the save. That was a minimum of three rounds, and possibly much longer, of having their head reeling from mental and spiritual shock, which was naturally an eternity in a fight. Being unable to actually do anything but defend yourself was basically a death sentence.

Given we were twelve hours ahead, I Teleported us off hours before dusk, so that we would get there early in the morning, ‘going back’ on the clock, first Waterjumping to Baja, then on to a certain ghoul-run eatery south of Chicago.

I dropped Shvaughn off in that parking lot near Chicago, where The Mick, Sir Pellier, Father Bower, and Helix had all gathered to meet us. They were a bit trepidatious about fitting in to a big dwarven clan dinner, but Sama just laughed and said they’d fit right in without any problem.

I shrank their van down, as I had Sleipner, and when the Seal lit up in the distance after Sama fed me the configuration, we hopped across the miles and appeared in the corner of a large back yard, in the middle of a Teleport Seal of fine dwarven make that literally had never been used before that moment.

A very large cheer went up all around, as those who had not been Teleported before reeled a bit from the spatial distortion, difference in relative velocities and air pressure, realignment of magnetic fields, and all the other little things you had to acclimate yourself to, despite the spell taking care of a lot of it.

Everyone blinked at the absolute horde of people there, and only some of them were dwarves.

Even I blinked at the numbers of urukhar, halvry, hyn, ogryn, a couple gnomes, humans, dhatun, and dwarves all cheering at our arrival, adults and children alike, eyes bright with awe on seeing the magic literally deposit us here from hundreds of miles away.

Hank Blakhamar, his eyes beaming with pride over his dark beard, stepped forward with his big hand extended to me, and I took it promptly. “Welcome to my home, Lady Traveler!” he declared in excellent Human. He glanced sideways, including everyone else. “You all are probably going to have a very busy day. It is not often we have heroes of such caliber on our grounds!”

The Mick wanted to cover a cough, looking over everyone, and was astonished to find his eyes sliding over to meet those of a slender Blooded woman in black, feeling her presence as surely as she did his.

-That would be Amaretta Blakhamar, one of his first adopted daughters,- Sama /informed him dryly. -She’s free-Blooded, or, more precisely, this is her Family. You might want to talk to her.- His expression said he was already well past the want stage and barreling forward.

“I think all of you know who this is!” Sama exclaimed aloud, reaching out to drag Helix forward, definitely standing out in that bowler.

“Helix the Fool!” everyone cheered him, and he doffed his bowler with a bow and an abashed smile, now perfectly happy at playing the role, and the groans of sympathy that arose on the heels of that statement.

“Please tell me none of you need to be Wraith-drained!” he called back earnestly, sighing, and the groans grew even louder. Dozens of arms lifted up, and he winced for all of them. “Oh, Tiirith. You are going to remember that for the rest of your life!”

“We can take it!” declared a stout young dwarf, a proclamation that was taken up by the whole clan, and then everyone was coming forwards to grab a member of the company and start the talking and yakking, the children were racing around in excitement, and the animals were dancing about excitedly.

Quiffio the Citybound was here, having a standing invitation to the Blakhamar festivities. He almost blended into the fence over there, but Master Fred naturally spotted him instantly, and caught my eye. I inclined my head, and he went over to the talk to St. Paul’s Senior Citybound, who was naturally quite nervous after feeling the power of a Grandmaster Warlock.

Sama slid into the embrace of her Hagsisters; Lily, Rose, and Tulip were all here, and somehow two or three halvryi got suckered into the group embrace, including the stern-faced and cold-eyed Shivaelli.

There were half-a-dozen Priests of various Faiths among the Blakhamars, who naturally attracted the attention of Father Bower, while there was no end of soldiers with long service who were eager to chat with Sir Pellier, the man driving the New York Cleansing.

Helix naturally had no end of fans here, and his embracing of the image of the guy who made all the mistakes only made him that much more approachable. He could alternate between wild enthusiasm, total groaning idiocy, and grim sighs with practiced ease, and soon had a crowd hanging onto his every word as he laid out a story of haplessness for every occasion. “Y’know, everyone said to do it this way, but I thought, what if I tried this? Wouldn’t that be cool?” And everyone groaned, able to tell what was coming...

Of course, he hadn’t actually done all that, but Minstrels had to perform, so he was. He collected ‘I’m an idiot’ stories like a living encyclopedia now.

Briggs found himself surrounded by starry-eyed brutes who were amazed they had to look up at him... and the only one who didn’t, a big purple-skinned ogryn with overlong arms and horns on his head, was outmassed by at least twenty kilos. He was the only Ancient in attendance, which seemed to excite the beefy brutes even more, and with his Source Charisma, he had no problem utterly dominating them.

That he could wrestle around Sama, who, by the careful looks they shot after her, these beefy lads were very respectful of, also got their admiration.

Briggs, of course, was very laid back in person, but the elemental strength he exuded was just not something these guys could miss. The air was full of Crystal-style ki and chi, and the way his footsteps reverberated through the others had them all kind of starry-eyed at the subtle and absolute dominance of his lower-end heavyfoot.

I could see a lot of arm-wrestling and hammer-tossing matches in his immediate future, as well as a lot of potent beer.

There were over twoscore spellcasters here, of multiple races, and they all wanted to talk with me. Hank Blakhamar didn’t even need to say a word, as all his kids held back, opened up a path for us, and closed it behind us without saying anything.

“Sama told you that a lot of clan heads wanted to meet with you, Lady Traveler,” he said without preamble. I could feel his presence in the Markspace, as he was wearing one of her Marks, just like me, although he kept a careful distance there and limited his contacts through Sama prudently, not out of fear.