Plue Presents: Travelers and Tales

A series of stories Plue collected from his years of traveling and spending time in inns and listening to Stories.

Randomly, some stories will change perspective to the story teller, rather than Plue himself. The woman known as Pause shows up frequently, usually around stories told from other's perspectives.

Werret Barck and Kagari Villers
“Two ducats for a meal, five ducats for a meal and a night’s stay.” The innkeeper drooped over his metal counter, a moustache running down to his third chin. A tankard was his constant companion, forever being shined. He never had any other glass, so that they became a wonder to taste every night. The innkeeper never claimed he had clean beds, good food or even unquestionable company.

“I’ve got three ducats. Night stay and meal.” She placed three ducats, Arcadian, and stood back.

The inn-keep shook his head. “Unless you’re planning to dance, darlin’, you don’t have a place here.”

The traveler shook her head. “I have no desire to dance, but I am an adventurer. A tale will be my payment.”

The inn-keeper shrugged. Really, he was pleased someone was renting his rooms. Bards were a waste of money and drunkards besides. Arcadian ducats were solid currency, and never changed much in value.

The traveler took a plate and cut off a hunk of meat from a spit. Both the visuals and taste prevented identification. The fire underneath it roared merrily. A hunk of bread found its way to her plate. No vegetables ever graced the tables of the slap-dash inn. Ale flowed decently freely, if low quality. She didn’t drink but enough to wash down the food.

The other inhabitants in that drab, metallic inn were nearly unmemorable. There was a poor businessman sitting in a corner trying to escape his humdrum life. He was fat, bald and entirely unable hold his liquor. A pair of working class stiffs were eating and talking in low voices. A ‘thing’ in a spiffy suit was writing something, his woman, by tail marked an Utan, draped herself over him.

As she ate, more working class stiffs came in. Apparently the inn was used more for the cheap food than the beds. In retrospect, a good idea, but the innkeeper wasn’t the refunding type. A police officer came in to chew the fat with the innkeeper. Finally the people stopped coming and were too busy eating to leave.

“I suppose I should tell a story for my supper.”

She stood up. Her drab traveler’s coat draped around her legs. She stood before the fire and raised her hands for attention. Only the thing who wrote and his woman looked at her.

“Time was the world was wild long ago. Everyone had to fight for what they had. The only difference between us and them are our weapons, swords against industry and horses against motorcycles. It is the way of things.

“My story begins during recent eras, when Columns broke the sky in their battles and entire cities could be wiped out on a whim. This was before Ducats and the Pillars. This was during the great Column Wars.

“Werret Barck was the scourge of Navroth. He and his Dreadknights routed armies, burned cities and tore down the status quo. Every time he killed, he laughed. There was nothing but the battle for him. There was nothing but the contest.

“Pillar Kagari Villers was the first of the great guardians of civilization to fight him. It was at the sack of Ennissie in the Neutral Lands. The city had been a great ally of Colton and the Pillars and its loss to Colton was great. The greatest loss was a record of supporters in the Neutral Lands, with it Navroth could systematically wipe out Colton’s allies in the Neutral Lands.

“Kagari was sent to retrieve or destroy the list. She found it, as Werret had intended. He tried to take it from her. The fight was brilliant. Up and down the capitol building they danced a tango of death. Werret could feel no pain and Kagari would not let him touch her.

“He summoned great demons of Shadow to detain her to get that list. She used her powers as the bearer of the perfect blue topaz to cancel their assaults. They battled all over the city, but it was not enough,

“Kagari began to tire. While she was a great pillar and a warrior, Werret Barck’s stamina was unmatchable by nearly any warrior of the realm. She ferreted herself away into a warehouse to hide.

“QUIET! Werret is passing by now. Step. Step. Sniff. Sniff. He smelled her out like the dog he was. But he walked by. As she sighed and turned to escape, Shadows, dark tendrils of evil itself, pulled her into the walls before she could even cry out in surprise. Bond in Shadow, she could not move as he took the list of supporters.

“But he burned them in front of her eyes. ‘My actions are not so strange as you might think, Pillar.’ he intoned, voice like booming steel. ‘Many honorable combatants are on that list, and to kill them with poison would be dishonorable.’ He picked up a strange stamp.

“‘As for you, my lovely Pillar, I have no desire to kill you. Killing you would bring the wrath of the other 11 Pillars on me at once, and I could not win that battle, as you may guess. So instead I’ll mark you with a token of my victory.’ He took the stamp and slammed it upon her hand, scarring and tattooing her with the symbol of his Dreadknights. ‘Now off you go!’ He cast her into the shadows again.

“Kagari returned to Colton and told the story of the strange warrior who would cripple his own leader for honor.”

The traveler finished the story. “That was boring!” Came a heckler. “Where’s the sweet love making?” A woman nearby, likely his wife, smacked him upside the head.

“Never said it would be a good story, just a story.”

A voice, feminine but with a peculiar growl, ground upon their ears. “And true, more than likely. Let me guess, you’re a Pillar?”

The traveler just smiled. “But very incognito.”