Chase stared at the door. Three knocks came again, a little lighter this time.

“Shall I?” Thomasi asked, shooting her a glance.

Why was he being so deferential- oh, right. They’re close enough to hear us. “Let our guests in, Tom.”

And as he moved in front of her, she took the opportunity to buff. She didn’t have many of those, but the one that came to mind might mean the difference between life and death. “Silver Tongue,” she whispered, barely on the edge of sound.

A slight creaking from the side, and she kept her face still. That creak had been inside the room, and from the side the portrait was on. There were living eyes watching through the holes now, she reckoned. No need to alert them to the fact that she knew. It took an effort to keep from looking, though.

WILL+1

Once the door was open, Thomasi moved back to stand next to her chair, and Chase stared at the biggest, greenest woman she’d ever seen in her life. She had to stoop down to get through the door, and whens he straightened up, Chase saw that she had two large, yellow tusks jutting out from her lower jaw. Flat, black eyes stared at her, then roved around the room, taking in everyone and everything. Only after a solid twelve seconds of perusal did she grunt and move inside. Her clothes were fairly fine, she noticed; a loose tunic, sturdy trousers with embroidery, and a fur cloak. Finer garb than any she’d seen in this neighborhood so far. Or on the road, come to think of it…

The second person through the door was a woman with a dog’s head, a sleek Doberman’s muzzle and ears. She was dressed similar to her partner, with the cut adjusted for her figure, and visible, short fur in the few places that her skin was bare. More worringly, she also had a sword hilt visible on her belt, Chase noticed. The green lady was unarmed, but seemed like she could probably bench press Thomasi if need be.

She sniffed, once or twice, then her eyes widened. “Wolf— wait. Wait, no. Fox,” she announced, looking toward Chase. “Faint, though.”

The statement made the big green woman frown, and scratch her head. “Don’t have instructions about wer—”

“Shush. You, why am I smelling fox?”

Chase reached behind her, and the atmosphere in the room grew hard, hard and brittle.

An atmosphere that eased when Chase pulled out Renny and put him on the table. “One has to keep up appearances,” she said, demurely.

The green woman laughed, and her teeth were as yellow as her tusks. She leaned back through the door. “They’re clean.”

“Good, good,” came a man’s voice. Elderly, warm, jovial, it reminded Chase of her grandfather. “Cagna, Lachina, mind the door. We are expecting company, after all.”

The man who entered took his time about it. A genial human, with a shock of white hair, thin on top. He was portly, and walked with the help of a cane. His face, though, seemed loose, even though he was fat. As if he’d been even bigger at one time, and had shrunk down unevenly. Eyes glittered back in their hollows as he scrutinized them, and smiled at Chase. “Well well.” Then his glittering gaze roamed over to Thomasi, and his breath hitched in his throat.

“Tom, get the seat for our guest,” Chase said, steepling her fingers together. “Show some respect, hm?”

“Of course,” Thomasi helped the man to his seat, and poured him a tankard of beer.

The older man took it, eyes never leaving Thomasi’s face.

Chase took the opportunity to glance away from the portrait and guards, and mouth “Silent Activation, Size Up.”

Then she took a good, hard look at the stranger.

“Old Human?”

Charisma – Moderately better

Perception – Mildly worse

Willpower – Greatly better

Wisdom – Moderately worse

Influencing conditions: Blessing – Willpower, Vow - Omerta

Your Size Up skill is now level 2!

More charismatic than Chase? That was a surprise. She licked her lips. That willpower, though… he’d doubled down on it, by the look of his condition.

This size up skill is insanely useful, Chase realized. I should have been practicing it while we were on the road instead of playing keepaway with monkeys.

After the old man was seated, Tom moved to stand by Chase’s side, keeping his eyes downcast and his hands folded. The old man simply drank his beer a sip at a time, considering the two of them. He seemed in no hurry to speak, and Chase, for her part, drank from her water and studied him right back. He had large hands, with several rings that ranged from plain to gaudy. Though his hands shook when he moved the tankard, she could see callouses along the fingers. If she cared about halven conventional wisdom that would have meant that he was trustworthy, since he’d obviously worked for a living.

But they were very far from Bothernot, and she was pretty certain that whatever crime he was bossing, this man wasn’t trustworthy.

But then, neither am I.

He seemed patient to wait, and that was fine. She had formulated her first few moves in this game, and Thomasi had said that he’d back her.

So here goes… “Signore, I am thankful you came to dine with us,” she said, putting on her best smile. “It is a fine day, and I am grateful that you accepted my invitation. May I ask your name, nonno?”

Nonno was the old word for Grandfather, and it was a gamble.

“Don’t call me signore, I work for a living,” the man said, but his eyes twinkled. “Nonno is fine. You remind me of my youngest, once upon a time. Mind you, she wasn’t halven.” He smiled. “Buzo downstairs told me that your man was setting up a meeting between his master and someone of importance.”

“He did. And all are here, now, Nonno.” Chase stood on the chair, leaning her elbows on the table, steepling her fingers below her chin. “Tom works for me, you see.”

“Ah…” Nonno leaned back in his chair and chuckled. “There are less expensive ways to meet with me, you know.”

“Your pardon, but I didn’t know them. And I’m willing to believe that most of them would take more time. I felt it worth the expense.”

“Ah, but some things are not to be rushed. We have a saying in Arretzi. Piano, piano. You know it?”

This one was a struggle. Chase ran back through her lessons in the old tongue… there were a few words that were all about the context, and this one hadn’t come up often. Still, she could guess. “It means slowly, slowly.” she decided.

Nonno’s smile had missing teeth. One of the sockets was stained black, and Chase kept the disgust from her face. How could anyone let their teeth get that bad? It would make it hard to eat, and that’s terrible!

“Slowly, slowly,” Nonno said, tapping his fingers on the head of his cane. Just a simple bronze ball, that had nicks and tarnish on it. “Yes. That is the way I would prefer to do business, most days. For those I do not know so well, at any rate.”

“I apologize, Nonno,” Chase lowered her gaze to the table. That vow he’d taken nagged at her. The word ‘omerta’ meant something like humility, so perhaps he’d appreciate a display of the same? “Like me, time is short.”

The deprecating humor got a chuckle. “But not too short to have dinner with your Nonno?” he asked.

She didn’t look up. “For that honor, I make time.”

“Then I think perhaps we can have dinner. Anything else… piano, piano. Yes?”

“Yes,” she said, smiling.

So she chatted with Nonno, asking questions about the city, and listening attentively as he spoke of his family, the weather, his business down at the wharf, and the prices of olive oil these days.

Honestly, after weathering a decade and a half of having to listen to halven farmers talk about things that absolutely didn’t change over and over again, it was refreshing. She found herself leaning in, and the old man grew more animated as the discussion went on, waving his hands and laughing, and telling stories that she was pretty sure had never happened… or had been so exaggerated that the truth they were built upon was a distant memory buried somewhere deep into the details.

But not once did he ever mention anything illegal. Not once did he talk about any sort of crime.

Chase was starting to wonder if they had the right fish on the hook, so to speak. But a quick glance back to the door, and the two inhuman and dangerous figures guarding it, allayed those doubts.

As the food finally started to arrive, Nonno leaned forward with a sharp look in his eyes. “And where were you from again, mia piccola nipotina?” Nonno asked.

His willpower is massively good. I can’t lie to his face. But his perception is bad, so some deflection could work. After chatting with him for so long, she thought she had a feel for his ways. “I’m from the north, Nonno. Not far, as it goes.”

“But you are south now, not north,” he said, accepting the plate of Prosciutto and olives that the dog lady handed him. “Thank you, Cagna.”

“Ah. I’m attempting to start my own business. Following the family path didn’t work so well, in my case. Thank you Tom,” she said, accepting a plate full of hammy goodness from her own ‘servant.’ He also handed over a set of silverware, honest-to-gods fancy silverware that didn’t match the rest of the taverna at all. Probably stolen, she realized.

“Your own business? Makes sense,” The old man nodded. “Many young people chafe under the yoke of their elders. Sometimes a walk about is enough to cure that, or sometimes it does turn up new opportunities.”

CHA+1

Chase turned her sigh of relief into a small moan of appreciation. The prosciutto was quite good. The thinly sliced uncooked ham made for a good contrast against the bitterness of the olives, and the vegetables and bread that Cagna laid out shortly thereafter made the meal a good elvenses. Not a solid halven lunch, but as short as food had been these last few days, it made Chase less worried about all the weight she had been losing.

A few muttered words from the doorway made her glance back in time to see the thin woman staring disconsolately into the room, holding up another tray and glancing back and forth from Cagna to Thomasi, her face forlorn.

“No,” Lachina told her, and plucked the tray from her with ease. Without missing a beat Cagna moved over, took it, and deposited it on the table, scooting it a bit closer toward Chase. Biscotti, Chase recognized, and swallowed a sudden burst of saliva. She’d rarely had the thin cookies. And that bottle in the center meant oooh, dessert wine, too!

That was dangerous. And expensive too, wasn’t it? Wine was supposed to cost more in the cities than back at home. “I have to admit, I’m impressed by the fare,” Chase said, pushing aside the stack of emptied plates next to her.

“Ah, I told Buzo to give you your money’s worth for the meal. As for the room, do not worry, it is my gift to you, for such pleasant company.” Nonno smiled again.

Wait, we paid for that. We paid gold!

And against Chase’s better judgment, her self-control slipped. She felt her face flicker in surprise, felt her mask slip—

—and the gleam in the old man’s eyes showed that he’d caught that shock. She hastily reassembled her smile, but a trickle of fear oozed through her heart. Low perception or not, there was nothing wrong with his mind.

“Something wrong, signora?”

Signora, he calls me now. Not tiny granddaughter, like he did earlier. That’s a bad sign. She took another pull of water. “Nothing, Nonno.”

“It occurs to me, that I never did ask what business you wished to start. I am very interested in the answer you have to that, my dear. I am in a business myself, you see. And like any honest Merchant, I can tell the difference between true coin and false.”

He reached into his pocket, and Thomasi tensed beside her. But all Nonno did was put a gold coin on the table.

A very familiar gold coin.

And Chase’s heart sunk as she remembered one of the Grifter job’s basic abilities.

Fool’s Gold. Oh Tom, why? I know you have real gold! I saw some in the wagon!

The tray of cookies sat so close to her, and Tom was filling a small cup with sweet, sweet wine that she had only heard about before, never tasted, but her mouth filled like it was filled with ashes.

And the old man’s eyes were boring into her.

Nonno was waiting for an answer.

And he would be very, very good at catching any direct lie.

“I apologize, Nonno. The business I am planning to start does not involve false currency. I thought this room rented with real gold. It was my mistake.”

The old man was silent for a moment. He chewed a biscotti as he thought, slurped at his wine through broken teeth. “I do not think it was your mistake. I know well the Grifter’s gold. And this coin is truly an amazing example of it. If the circumstances had been different… if things had been less strange… I think even I might have been fooled.” And slowly, his eyes lifted from Chase to Thomasi. “She is not practiced enough to make such a thing, is she?”

Thomasi looked to her.

“Answer him,” Chase said, and forced her trembling hand to take a biscotti. If this went bad, she’d at least have a cookie for the road. Or before she died.

“No, she is not,” Thomasi said. “Not in my career, at the least.”

“Ah… Much becomes clear,” Nonno said, leaning back. “Your servant has done you a disservice. But he has done it in your name, Nipotina.”

Chase weighed her options. Nipotina was back, and she hadn’t missed that hint. The old man liked her, at least a little. Audacity. Try audacity. But first… She took a pull of water, and hiding her lips, mouthed “Silent Activation, Foresight.”

And time froze. Everything stopped, and noise faded. In that silent and still spot, inside the beats between the seconds, she saw a blurry outline in front of her. The outline leaned forward, and said the words she’d decided to say.

And though she couldn’t hear them, she saw a ghostly outline lean out from Nonno tilt its head, considering her. Then it laughed, and slapped the table. Chase caught motion below, and saw one of her ghostly outline’s hands turn slightly, with its thumb up.

And then, in a rush of sound and sensation, time unfroze.

Your Foresight skill is now level 22!

This was the Oracle’s greatest advantage. This was foresight. And while it had its disadvantages, it had the very big benefit of letting her try a course of action without committing to it.

But commit she did, as she leaned forward slightly. “If Tom is at fault on my behalf, then I too am at fault. I take full responsibility for his mistakes, Nonno.”

And with relief, she saw the old man tilt his head, consider, then laugh and slap the table. “Good, good! You are a good girl! You do your family proud.”

Slowly, she turned one hand up on the table, giving as large a thumbs up as she dared before turning the motion into another grab for biscotti.

“Responsibility, Cagna, that’s always good to see in the young. Would that my boy had such, hm?”

“He’s young still sir, he will learn,” the dog-woman said, breaking her silence for the first time since she’d entered the room.

“Bah! He’s thirty, he’s a man.” Nonno smiled. “This girl is half his age and has twice the coglioni. Try the vin de santo, child, it’s quite good.”

The sweet, sweet wine was indeed everything she’d been told it was… but the slight tingle in the aftertaste told her she shouldn’t drink too much. Not now.

“What to do…” Nonno mused, while she drank. “You must understand, I have to discourage people spreading the Grifter’s gold among the good, honest businessmen I support. If I didn’t, then everyone would go broke overnight. It would be chaos.”

“I understand completely. What can we do to make it right?”

“I’m open to suggestions. And I do like gifts. Please, surprise me.” His smile was bright, but his eyes were shining, again.

This is another test, Chase thought, irritated. It wasn’t enough that Thomasi was testing her, now ancient, oddly-paternal gangsters were trying to put her through the wringer. Damn it! I bargained with a god, why do I have to go through this?

And with that memory, came inspiration.

“As a matter of fact, I think I can offer you a gift, Nonno.” She reached into her pack, and pulled out a well-worn wooden case.

“Oh?”

“I can tell you your future. It’s all in the cards,” she said, smiling widely… only to have the smile falter and die, as the old man’s face turned to stone.

“This is what you offer me? Arretzi’s got plenty of fortune tellers, with their crystal balls and cards and runes and crystals and shit. They tell me they call up my grandfather’s ghost and use ropes to levitate the table, and stuff like that. This is worthless.”

“It’s not!” Chase said, glaring at him. “Every time I’ve thrown the cards, every time they’ve come true!” Granted, she had only thrown them once, but still, it counted. “I bargained with a god to get this skill!”

Nonno laughed, harsh and barking, completely at odds with his previous manner. He leaned forward, sneering…

…and that sneer broke in the face of Chase’s stubborn glare. “Child,” he asked, his voice without emotion. “What is your business?”

“I am an Oracle of Hoon. All else is secondary.”

That was a gamble.

But he’d called himself a merchant, he was into shady business… from what she’d gleaned from her meeting with the god, it was worth the risk of mentioning it.

“All right,” Nonno nodded, eyes fixed on hers. “Tell me my fortuna. And we’ll see if it’s a good enough gift.”

Chase nodded. “Shuffle the cards and think of your question while you do so. Do not tell me the question.”

The old man complied. Several times he dropped cards as his hands shook, their joints knobby in their cages of flesh. But eventually he handed them over once more.

Chase nodded, and took the top card, placing it into the center of the table between them. “This card represents you, as you are now.”

It was a man in bloodstained leather armor sitting on a throne, while all around him disreputable sorts prostrated themselves. The King of Rogues, upside down, and Chase wasn’t surprised to see it. But reversed… that wasn’t good. As soon as he glanced down she mouthed “Silent Activation, Foresight,” and tested out the results of telling him honestly what the card signified. Her face paled as she saw the results. No, no. That’s bad. Time returned, and she felt the pressure building in her chest, the pressure that signified the possibility of a backlash if she deviated too far from her predicted action.

But she’d used foresight enough to know how far she could push it. So long as her action wasn’t TOO off course from her original test, the paradox would fade. Well, either that or it would disable her foresight for a day and then she’d be stuck with an irate crime lord and her best weapon would be useless.

So instead of telling him how the reversed King of Rogues represented a financially inept figure who was obsessed with material wealth, or a fantastically, stupidly stubborn man, she took a pull of her wine and mouthed “Silent Activation, Silver Tongue.” Instantly the pain in her chest peaked… and ebbed. She hadn’t lost Foresight to paradox yet.

“The King of Rogues is a man of wealth and power, very respected.”

“Nothing I don’t know already,” Nonno grunted.

Your Silver Tongue skill is now level 4!

Chase blinked away her relief, and drew the next card with a shaking hand. “This card signifies the problem at hand.” Then she deposited the card above the King of Rogues. It showed a blazing wall of fire with eyes, sweeping through a forest. “The Elemental,” Chase whispered. She’d seen this one before. In exactly the same spot, come to think of it. Did that mean... no, what were the odds this was another problem with Vaffanculo, or undead, or something on his scale?

“What? What is this crap?” The old man asked.

She used another silent activation, and foresight combination, and found the old man’s ghostly projection receptive to an honest answer. So she told the truth.

“This signifies a powerful and dangerous entity, but a neutral one. Something that’s just acting according to its nature.”

“And this is my problem right now?” The old man asked, exchanging a significant look with Cagna. “You’re sure of this?”

“It’s what the cards say so far.”

“Continue,” he grunted. But now the sneer was off his face.

“This card represents your ally in the face of this trouble...” she said, and laid down the third card, to the left of the King of Rogues. It was a wise-looking sage, lecturing a class of students. But it was upside-down. “The Trainer…” Another gulp of wine, another silent foresight, and another ten moxie and fortune goodbye. She was getting nervous and lightheaded, now. But the skill worked, and she confirmed it was safe to say the truth. “Normally the trainer is a good ally to have. But a reversed trainer means a person who has poor planning skills, or untried talents. Someone who can’t teach you much about your primary skillset.”

“Hmm… Go on.” Now the old man was rubbing his face. Using Silent Activation? Maybe. He HAD to have some Grifter levels.

“The next card is the crux of the choice, the decision that you’ll make that most affects the problem.” It was the Trainer again! She blinked. How… no, wait. She’d used some of the better-preserved cards from the older deck as models for the new art. This was the older one. Somehow it must have gotten mixed in with the newer cards.

“That’s the same card!” Nonno said, staring. “I shuffled the deck. I was watching your hands. No way you fixed that.”

“I didn’t,” Chase said. “This… we can flip another card. This card shouldn’t be in here-”

“No. Tell me what it means.”

“Well.. this is right side up. The Trainer right side up represents resourcefulness, power, and inspired action. Someone who knows what they’re doing.”

“And what does it mean when my ally is my choice?”

Chase gnawed her lip. “It means that choosing to work with a seemingly unreliable ally to resolve your problem will prove your ally’s worth.”

“Interesting. Very interesting.”

“There’s one more card,” Chase said, quickly. “This represents your greatest enemy, the biggest obstacle to resolving the problem.” And as she flipped it to the right of the King of Rogues, her breath caught in her throat. “Oh my gods…”

The thing on the card glared up from the table, green scales filled with innumerable broken arrow shafts, red eyes shining hatred. Fire gouted forth from jaws that could swallow a horse without opening fully, as the great dragon declared itself the King’s enemy. And what’s more, it was reversed.

The old man swore.

“Yeah,” Chase whispered, and used another silently activated foresight. Skills climbed again, but she barely paid attention. “The dragon’s bad enough. But reversed, it represents a powerful and smart monster. Something that’s almost impossible to defeat, that wants you gone. In this spot… Oh my. Oh my.”

Silence, for a long minute. When Chase dared to look up, the old crime boss was by the window, hands folded behind his back.

Chase noticed that he’d left the cane at the table. And his hands weren’t shaking at all, now.

“I was going to dispose of you, for causing a fuss in my domain. For trying to insult one of my friends by passing grifter’s coin. I still may.” Nonno was gone, now. The man speaking was the wicked man she’d been expecting. That he was old made no difference. An old wolf still ate young deer.

She opened her mouth to respond… and Thomasi’s hand fell on her shoulder. Chase swallowed her words instead.

It was the right choice, as the old man continued. “But I wonder, Oracle, can you tell me the sort of monster I face, here? Can you tell me what occupies my mind, these last few days? If you can do that, you might be someone I could use, here.”

Chase licked her lips. She glanced up at Thomasi…

…and behind him she saw Cagna, looking worried. The dog woman looked to her, then slowly, deliberately, tapped her nose. She turned it into a scratch, but she was definitely trying to get at something, here.

Her nose. Something smelled. She’d smelled something. When she came into the room she smelled fox, but she told the old man no wolves.

And then Chase’s mind clicked over to the cave they’d found. The wolf scent all around, and Thomasi’s conclusion.

“Nonno?” She said, and the word was alien in her throat now, but she said it anyway. “You have a werewolf problem.”

LUCK+1

The old man’s gasp turned into a cough, and she watched his back twist with tension. And after a tense second more, he turned, and Nonno’s genial, blackened smile was gaping wide once more.

And then her vision was words… including a set that left her staring in surprise.

You are now a level 7 Grifter!

CHA+3

DEX+3

LUCK+3

You are now a level 9 Oracle!

CHA+3

LUCK+3

WIS+3

Congratulations, by combining skillful lies with actual oracular vision, you have unlocked the Medium job! You may not have told the actual fortune, but the customer got the one he needed to hear!

Would you like to become a Medium at this time? Y/N?

CHASE'S CHARACTER SHEET

Spoiler: Spoiler

Name: Chase Berrymore

Age: 15 Years

Jobs:

Halven level 9, Cook level 4, Archer level 5, Grifter level 6, Oracle level 8, Painter level 2, Teacher level 2

Attributes / Pools / Defenses

Strength: 55 Constitution: 33 / Hit Points: 88 / Armor: 0

Intelligence: 55 Wisdom: 90 / Sanity: 145 / Mental Fortitude:45

Dexterity: 99 Agility: 58 / Stamina: 157 / Endurance: 0

Charisma: 123 Willpower: 46 / Moxie: 169 / Cool: 51

Perception: 65 Luck: 129 / Fortune: 194 / Fate: 32

Generic Skills

Archery – Level 1

Brawling – Level 7

Climb – Level 15

Dagger – Level 2

Dodge – Level 12

Fishing – Level 14

Ride – Level 10

Stealth – Level 14

Swim – Level 7

Throwing – Level 24

Halven Skills

Fate's Friend – Level N/A

Small in a Good Way – Level N/A

Cook Skills

Cooking - Level 15

Freshen - Level 10

Archer Skills

Aim – Level 6

Demoralizing Shot – Level 1

Far Shot – Level 1

Missile Mastery – Level N/A

Quickdraw – Level N/A

Rapid Fire – Level N/A

Razor Arrow – Level 1

Ricochet Shot – Level 10

Grifter Skills

Fools Gold – Level 1

Forgery – Level 1

Master of Disguise – Level 3

Pickpocket – Level 1

Silent Activation – Level 7

Silver Tongue – Level 6

Size Up – Level 1

Unflappable – Level N/A

Oracle Skills

Absorb Condition – Level N/A

Afflict Self – Level 1

Diagnose – Level N/A

Divine Pawn – Level N/A

Foresight – Level 22

Lesser Healing – Level 29

Omens and Portents – Level N/A

Transfer Condition – Level 3

Painter Skills

Fast Dry – Level N/A

Painting – Level 5

Teacher Skills

Lecture – Level 4

Smarty Pants – Level N/A

Unlocked Jobs

Farmer, Herbalist, Medium