Bastien's massive hand clenched hers, and she ground her teeth, ignoring the pain. “I've got you. Hang on just a little while longer,” she said, even though she knew he couldn't hear her.

A door slammed open behind her. “I've got them. You're sure about this?” Cagna asked.

“No. But if it fails we'll improvise.” Chase stuck out her hand.

Without a further word, Cagna dropped her wriggling, slimy burden in Chase's palm, and the halven closed her fist around a bunch of earthworms.

“Absorb Condition.” She said, and the world went dark.

You have been afflicted with Blindness!

“I can see!” she heard The Muscle Wizaard roar.

“Transfer Condition,” Chase intoned.

You are no longer afflicted by Blindness!

Your Transfer Condition skill is now level 7!

In her hand, the worms wriggled on, uncaring about the fact that they were now blind.

Another few seconds of work, and they were deaf as well, and then The Muscle Wizaard was hugging her and she couldn't see anything save for massive biceps.

“Easy!” She tapped his side with her free hand. “It worked. Good.”

“What happened? What did I miss?” The Muscle Wizaard let her go and looked around the villa's study. Dusty books filled shelves, moth-eaten animal heads lined the walls, and a bear reared in the corner, stuffed and revealing a few wooden ribs where the moths had eaten through to reveal that it was a taxidermied creature.

“Can't say much for the décor,” he wrinkled his nose.

Cagna answered. “The Don's fond of trophies. Used to hunt a lot in his youth. And I'll second the big guy's question, what DID he miss? For that matter, what the hell happened?”

“I've got a big question for you first,” Chase said, narrowing her eyes as she considered the dog-woman. “Did you know that Enrico Rossi had faked his death, and was hiding in the casino?”

“What? No!” Her ears perked. “Wait. WAS hiding?”

“Dead now. The werewolves came for him. We were there at the time.”

“You saw them...”

“Saw them and fought them!” The Muscle Wizaard punched his palm again. “Though it wasn't my finest hour. I fear I was unequal to the task.”

“You survived and held off a bunch of them, you did your job just fine,” Chase reassured him. Then she shook her head, and glared at Cagna again. “So you didn't know?”

“No! But this explains why Raoul was reluctant to talk about a few things...” Cagna massaged her muzzle. “I'm sorry. I honestly didn't mean to send you into danger. Hell, if I'd known Enrico was alive I could have gone through Dona Tarantina, there used to be some connections there... except no, she died last night. Damn it all, they're killing all the—” she shut up. “Okay, so we need to—”

“They're killing all the old hunting party. Everyone important who took down the werewolves the last time. Enrico told me all about that.” Chase held the woman's eyes as Cagna tried to look away. “Is there anything else you're not sharing?”

“No. Nothing related to this, anyway. Can't lie to you, huh?” Cagna considered her.

“Not well. You've got a ton of tells.” Chase took a breath. “Okay, we'll have to trust you on this.” Wiggling in her hand reminded her that she was holding a bunch of worms. “And can you get me a jar? With dirt and airholes? This earthworm trick was useful so I think I'll keep them around for future.”

“That's gross, but all right.”

“They're earthworms. I'm a country mouse, remember? I'm not going to lose it over these friendly little guys.”

“Point.” Cagna went to the door and spoke with a servant, returning to the table. “Now, please fill me in on everything that happened.”

Chase did, holding nothing back.

When she got to the part where the werewolves attacked, Cagna held up a hand. “You heard one of them say 'quench light?' You're sure about that?

“Yes. It was a growly voice. It had to be one of them.”

“That's a Burglar trick. That's a pretty high-level Burglar trick, too. Twentieth level, if I remember correctly.”

“Twentieth level? Impossible!” The Muscle Wizaard said. “I'd be a smear on the ground if they were that strong! The ones that I fought weren't anywhere near that effective.”

Cagna held up two fingers, putting them down as she made her points. “First off, Burglars don't have any real combat tricks that aren't related to escaping and evading. A twentieth-level Burglar is no match for any kind of decent warrior in a straight fight. Second off, the pack is probably all different levels. We think the pack leader can only recruit when he bites people on a full moon. At least half the ones you faced are probably recent hires, so to speak.”

Chase nodded. “I'm willing to bet that the ones the leader sicced on us were the hired help. We were just the obstacle to his goal... which was taking out Enrico. Heck, the Burglar might have been the one you choked out in the beginning of the fight.”

“It's possible,” The Wizaard admitted. “He did squirm a lot. It was all I could do to keep ahold of him”

“Hey, I have a question,” Renny raised a newly-sewn paw. “Does size translate between forms?”

“Excuse me?” Cagna blinked at him.

“If someone's small, do they turn into a small werewolf?”

“Kind of, I think. The basic physical form affects the werewolf form.”

“So there's at least one more out there, if the tiny knife is any indicator. We didn't see any halven-sized werewolves in that fight.”

“Or gnome-sized,” Chase offered, weakly, but that wasn't too likely, to be honest. The gnomes were gone save for a few tiny families, their bloodlines mingled into humans and halvens centuries ago. “Yeah, okay, the leatherworker's killer was probably a halven. Which makes me wonder, why her? She's the one who doesn't fit. If the former runt IS after vengeance, then why is Friatta Castillo dead like the others?”

“They also killed a constable, and I guarantee you he wasn't involved. And some people in the Outskirts,” Cagna pointed out. “Some of them worked for Don Coltello, true, but some didn't.”

“Still something we're not seeing,” Chase paced back and forth in the study, staring at the moth-eaten bear every second turn. “There's something going on here. It's not just vengeance.”

“There was also that cloaked guy who pushed Enrico through the window,” Renny pointed out.

“Him! How could I forget about him!” Quickly she filled Cagna in on the rest of the fight... leaving out the part about how he'd been sitting in the player-only area.

I can probably trust Cagna when it comes to werewolves. But now that there are players involved, I need to know more about what she's hiding before I say anything about the conspiracy.

For a second she worried that Bastien or Renny would throw in a detail that would force some hasty explanation, but it was a fear that never came to fruition. Cagna's eyes grew wider and wider as she described the cloaked figure, and she gasped “Poner!”

“Excuse me?”

“That's the legendary murderer, Poner!”

“Owner?”

“No. It's actually spelled P-W-N-E-R. It's foreign. It's pronounced Pone-er. He's... a bad dream. A legend. A hit man that commands ludicrous amounts of gold and never fails. It's rumored that he can't be killed. a friend of mine saw him... or somebody like him, anyway, get filled with arrows. His body disappeared from the morgue a few hours later, leaving only equipment and clothes behind. It was a locked room, with every exit guarded, and the strongest of magical wards, but the body just... it was gone.” Cagna had gone pale.

“He was an Alchemist,” Renny said. “That was a really big Alchemist's bomb he pulled out at the end, there.”

“Pwner's methods and tricks change with every story,” Cagna shook her head. “There's a hell of a lot of murders on the books that are attributed to him, but nobody knows for certain.”

Cold ran down Chase's spine, and collected somewhere around gut level. He's a player. Of course he can return to life. He's powerful and nigh-immortal, and doesn't care about who he kills to get what he wants.

And the squat werewolf is a player, too.

An ugly suspicion niggled at the back of Chase's head. The Camerlengo was here in the city too, with two captive players in tow. What were the odds that this was a coincidence? What were the odds that ANY of this were a coincidence?

“The thing I'm having trouble seeing is why he's here,” Cagna said. “This doesn't fit Pwner's rumored motives. Someone would have to pay him a wompload of gold to hunt something as mundane as monsters. He's only supposed to take on the really challenging jobs, or the ones that pay ludicrous amounts of coin. Even Don Coltello couldn't afford his price.”

“Could a guild afford his price?” Renny asked.

“Of course!” Chase slapped her knee. “Soluzioni Semplici! They're the ones you said were mercenaries, right?”

“They could, I guess...” Cagna puffed her cheeks out, and blew a raspberry. It looked weird as her muzzle rippled. “This is a lot of conjecture. But if he's involved, that's bad news. The man doesn't seem to have any morals when it comes to completing a job. He just focuses on winning, regardless of the collateral damage. This is... we're going to need to bring this up at the council tonight.”

“Oh! Right. That.” Chase said. “Argh. How much time do we have to prepare?”

“Four hours,” Cagna said. “If I were you I'd get some rest—”

A knock at the door, and Giuseppe Coltello stuck his head in. Meeting three sets of unfriendly eyes, he blanched, but walked in anyway. “Here,” he said. “You wanted this?” The don's son pro-offered a glass jar full of dirt to Chase.

“Thanks,” she said, and dumped the worms in, wiping her slimy hand on the velvet seat of the chair she sat in. Giuseppe winced at the stain. “Did you want something else?” Chase put a bit of iron in her tone.

“I uh, er, I... well yes, I looked into what you asked me to do. The Rossis are still in mourning, but one of the Bianchi dowagers is attending a Verde masquerade ball tonight.”

Verde... Chase knew that name. After a second it came to her. One of the people Enrico mentioned, one of the hunting party was a Verde. Her name was, let's see...

“Maddalena!” Chase burst out, and Giuseppe flinched backward. “Maddalena Verde. Will she be there?”

“She's the one throwing the ball!” Giuseppe said, smiling. “It's all very sudden. She announced it two days ago, barely any warning at all. Tabita begged me to go, and we've got our costumes all picked out. It would be no hardship at all to bring some, er, servants.” He winked, and his tone turned obsequious. “Though I certainly wouldn't expect you or your honored friends to actually BE our servants, just, er, pretend to be them...”

“When is this ball?” Chase asked.

“Tomorrow night. And rumor has it that the very highest nobles in the city will be in attendance!”

Cagna grunted, and Chase shot her a look. When she turned her face back to Giuseppe, she forced it into a smile. “Thank you. Yes, do take us along. This should pay our debt nicely.”

“Ah, good!” He said, and coughed.

“I think you can go now, friend,” The Muscle Wizaard spoke, and Giuseppe needed no more prompting. He fled, slamming the door behind him.

“I don't know what you did to him, but this is the most useful I've ever seen the guy,” Cagna said.

“He climbed into bed with Chase and tried to play with her,” Renny said. “But she didn't want to play, and she beat him up.”

Cagna shot the halven a horrified look. “Oh gods! That slime! Are you okay?”

“Um... yes. Why wouldn't I be?” Chase blinked. “He didn't get too far, and he stopped once I went for his eyes.”

Cagna halted, half-off her chair. “You're fine? Really?” She scrutinized Chase, and her ears lifted in surprise. “You are. That's... not normal.”

“What do you mean?”

“Most girls your age would be a wreck. A lot freeze up when someone tries something like that, and... bad things happen. Even when the perverts don't get their way, it's still... most people need days or weeks or even longer to put themselves back together after an assault like that. But you're fine? You're fine, just like that?”

“Oh... I see what's going on.” Chase sighed. “Don't take this the wrong way, but you're used to dealing with humans, right?”

“Mostly, yeah. They're pretty much everywhere. Why...” Cagna caught herself. “Are halvens different somehow?”

“So... you're good with jobs. I've gathered that much by being around you and talking with you,” Chase said. “I'm betting you're good at thinking about the numbers. And I don't know what beastkin get when they level up, but I'm guessing it includes armor and endurance, yes?”

“Well, yeah. A bit more than humans in some cases.”

“Halvens don't get any armor or endurance. At all. All the points that would go to those instead go towards mental fortitude and cool.”

Cagna thought about it a bit. Then her eyebrows shot up toward her ears. “Damn. So what you're saying is that you don't let things like that get to you.”

“Oh, they get to us. Our willpower is usually low enough that we feel fear, we feel annoyance. But... we get over it. Faster than humans do, usually. We don't really break so much as we bend, and when we bend back we take steps to prevent ourselves from being in such uncomfortable places ever again.” Like locking my door and shoving furniture in front of it every night from now on. “I guess I could have let it eat at me, but... I've got things to do. And I'm not going to put my life on hold just because one drunk playboy mistook me for his mistress.”

“Ah. Is THAT what happened?” Cagna lifted her hand away from her sword. “I guess I can put Giuseppe's gelding off for another day, then.”

“It's what he says happened,” The Muscle Wizaard rumbled. “I will admit to some temptation when it comes to neutering the lad. But a face wouldn't do that, no. If I'd been in heel mode instead, well... you'd have heard his shrieks from the outer walls.”

Cagna shared an appreciative grin with the Wizaard. “Starting to like you, meat mountain.”

“Right back at you, muttface.”

Cagna paused.

“Oh! Er... sorry,” The Wizaard said. “Was that bad? I was trying for familiarity...”

“No, it's fine...” she said. “Lachina calls me that. It just made me think of her. And of tonight.” Cagna rubbed her muzzle, and sat down. “I'll check in with her tonight, and you'll get to see your flamboyant friend, kiddo.”

“Oh! Right!” Chase smiled. Given how hectic the last day had been, she'd almost forgotten about that. Since there hadn't been any news she'd figured Tom was working his magic, so to speak. Hopefully. “So you say we have a few hours to prepare?”

“Yeah.” She scrutinized Chase. “I'd recommend fixing the rips in your clothes, making sure your armor's hidden. Aside from that, maybe a nap...”

“Not a chance. I'm still wired from my level-ups,” Chase said. “Though I think I'm going to murder some mid-day tea once I'm done here. The walk home was work.”

“I'm going to rest. You healed my wounds, but the stamina damage will take awhile to heal.” The Muscle Wizaard smiled, and then turned solemn. “My usual fighting tactics didn't work so well against the werewolves. I kept them busy, but I couldn't inflict enough damage to put them down. They healed as I watched. I might need some silver knuckles...” he flexed his hands.

“I need some supplies as well,” Chase said. “I don't think I'll be resting. I've got some new Oracle tricks, and I've got a Medium skill I haven't been able to try out before now.”

“Oh? What changed?” Cagna asked.

Chase upended her pack, and gold coins cascaded out. “We lost a few when Renny threw it down on me—”

“Sorry!”

“—don't worry about it. But now I think I can afford a crystal ball. And combined with a few other things, I think I can maybe get us some information, and also level up Medium before tonight. That'll refill all my pools, and I'll be fresh for the meeting.”

Cagna didn't reply. She was busy staring at the gold.

“Believe me, we earned it,” Renny said.

The dog-woman got up, shaking her head, and headed out the door. “Talk to the servants and send them into town with money for whatever you need. Lie low. Trust me on this.”

“I will,” Chase promised. On this, if nothing else.

An hour later, the servants returned from their shopping trip.

Chase hefted a four-inch diameter sphere of crystal with both hands, staring into its depths. It wasn't flawless, not entirely... it had a sort of diffused fog of filling the center, that lightened as it approached the edges. “They might have gone a little overboard, here,” she said.

“You think? That's a really big chunk of crystal.”

“I wasn't sure how much it would cost so I gave them a lot of money. But the stuff left over went to potions, so that's okay.” The crystal ball went down to its velvet cushion and he picked up a small red vial, and stared at it. Several others like it mingled with different-colored vials nearby, and one by one they went into her pockets. She spread them out... it wouldn't do to have them end up broken by an unlucky hit, or by landing on them wrong.

“Lucky. You can drink stuff.” Renny said, handing her up one last blue potion. “So what is it that your skills do, exactly?”

“Let me double check that. Status.”

And one by one, she checked through the skills that seemed useful, here.

Influence Fate

Cost: 25 For Duration: 1 Turn

At this level, your foresight extends to the actions of others. You may grant others a brief usage of your own foresight, allowing them to determine the best course of action. This skill is a spell.

Short Vision

Cost: 25 San Duration: 01-100 minutes

The world is full of omens and portents, but sometimes they aren't enough. By taxing your sanity, you can send your mind into a trance, seeking out help from your god. They'll usually oblige by sending you a short vision, related to your question or the situation at hand. It's rarely straightforward, though skilled Oracles can guide the vision, a bit. The harder the question, the greater the wisdom and skill required. The downside of this spell is that it knocks you out for a random amount of time, basically rendering you unconscious and unable to wake up until the vision is over. This skill is a spell.

Crystal Ball

Cost: 50 San Duration: 1 minute per skill level

Through manipulation of the winds of fate, you can use a crystal ball to scry people, places, or things of interest. Time is mutable in such visions, and Be forewarned that the winds of fate are fickle, and the scenes shown may vary... skill and wisdom are required to reduce interference. This skill is draining, and may only be used once per day.

Chase read them out loud to Renny. “Okay. Influence fate might not help all that much. I thought it might, but now that I've read it... no.”

“Are there any other useful Medium tricks?”

“At higher levels? Maybe. But not right now, not for this. Good Fortune lets me heal someone's fortune pool. Bad Fortune damages their fortune pool. You've seen what Séance does, and all Stack Deck does is let me choose which card to pull from a deck.” She shrugged.

“What if you used those fortuna cards and stacked the deck?”

“Then I'd get a false reading, probably.” Chase shrugged. “That book I've got about fortuna readings said that if you cheat it won't work. The author knows her stuff. She doesn't know much about writing or grammar or spelling, but she knows the cards.”

“Okay. So the Crystal Ball sounds like the big winner here. But that one use a day limit is troubling.”

“It's powerful. Especially for a skill you get at job level one.”

“Job level one in a Tier Two job.” Renny pointed out. He put his head to the side and considered, tail lashing. “You should use the vision first.”

“First and maybe second and third. It depends on how much time it takes.” Chase grimaced. “I'm pretty sure it won't level me in Oracle though, not this close to the last two levels. So I'll have to do it first anyway, and use the Crystal Ball afterward... with maybe a few fortune attacks and heals to grind experience, re-level, and refill my pools.”

“Sounds like a plan. How can I help?”

Chase looked at the remnants of her meal. Then at the rather expensive-looking clock on the wall. “Guard the door and make sure I'm not interrupted. Please?”

“Okay.”

Chase lay back on her bed, and got comfy. Here goes... “Short Vision.”

The light in the room shifted.

“Oh, you're awake!” Renny said, as she sat up.

“Nothing happened. How long was that?”

“An hour and a half.”

“Oh no...” Chase rubbed her face. She felt off, like she'd woken from a bad sleep. “It should have done something. Let me check it again.” Back to the status screen, and she read it over. “Okay... so it looks like I have to ask a question. I guess I've got enough going on that the gods can't just tell what I should be asking about...” She gnawed her lip. “Renny, you're smarter than me. What's a good question to ask here?”

“How about... what will help us find the werewolves?”

Chase thought it over.

“Close. But not quite. What will help us win against the werewolves? Yes!”

Before she could lose her nerve, Chase lay down again. “Short Vision. What will help us win against the werewolves?”

Chase closed her eyes... and opened them again, to see a cruel, wrinkled face staring down at her. Steel at her throat, and Chase saw more steel glittering in the hands of shadowy figures surrounding her.

But she couldn't look away from that face. She knew it, well.

Camerlengo Zenobia!

“Give me one reason I should let you live,” the Camerlengo whispered.

And as though she spoke through water, Chase heard her own voice reply. “I'll give you two reasons.”

Then her vision blurred, and Chase's perspective launched through the room, through the lit windows of a city at night, moving so quickly it was like a series of portraits, with a silvery, full moon hanging in the sky like the watchful eye of a god.

And she saw the goblin cave, the dungeon, with furry forms arrayed across the rocks, watching the lights of approaching torches. LOTS of approaching torches.

...Then with a gasp, Chase sat bolt upright. “Oh yeah,” she whispered, as soon as she could find her voice. “That did the trick.”

Critical Success!

Luck+1

Your Short Vision skill is now level 2!

“You were out for uh... fifty-eight minutes,” Renny said, checking the clock. “Not much time left. Do you want to risk another?”

“No.” Chase said, checking how the light from the windows had moved across the floor. As a country girl, she was better at gauging that, then trying to read a clock. “But I think it's time to break out the crystal ball.”

Two minutes later it was resting on an end table, and Chase was standing on a chair, hands hovering above it. “Now all I have to do is figure out what I want to scry. I'm thinking... I'm thinking the werewolf leader is a good idea. The rest of the pack is going to be with him. What did Enrico call that guy?”

“The werewolf alpha.”

“Okay. Crystal Ball, show me the werewolf alpha.”

She was just guessing at the terminology there, but whatever entity governed the usage of skills seemed to accept it.

Your Crystal Ball skill is now level 2!

Chase felt the familiar strain on her mind as sanity left... she was glad that she'd recovered some from resting, while the short visions were going on. The crystal ball glowed, and seemed to fill with clouds. But one by one they thinned, revealing a figure standing in what appeared to be a tailor's shop. He was tall, slim, and dark, with a dashing goatee and piercing green eyes. A pair of servants were fitting him with a crushed black velvet tunic, and buckling a rapier at his waist.

“Are you seeing this?” Chase asked Renny...

...and gasped as the man looked up in surprise, eyes narrowing.

Did he hear me?

“Yes,” Renny whispered back.

After a few seconds the man shook his head and looked back to the servants. He said something and one of them laughed.

And then the clouds were back, and the crystal ball returned to its previous, un-magical state.

“I don't know who that was,” Chase said, “but he was getting fitted for some very fancy clothes. And given that one of the targets on their murder list is throwing a ball tomorrow night, I'm pretty sure I know where he's going to be going, wearing such nice clothes.”

“So what now?”

“Nothing, now. I have a lot to think about.” The Camerlengo's hate-filled face crossed her mind again, and Chase shuddered. Will it come to THAT? “In the meantime, I didn't level. But I've got a few tricks that I can use there, if you're willing to help. Any objection to letting me heal and harm your fortune a few dozen times?”

“None at all!”

And in the time they had left before Cagna knocked on their door, Chase did level Medium, and felt just a bit more prepared.

As it turned out, she wasn't prepared at all...

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, Medium level 3, Oracle level 10, Painter level 2, Teacher level 2

Attributes / Pools / Defenses

Strength: 55 Constitution: 33 / Hit Points: 88 / Armor: 10

Intelligence: 57 Wisdom: 97 / Sanity: 154 / Mental Fortitude:45

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

Charisma: 146 Willpower: 47 / Moxie: 193 / Cool: 51

Perception: 67 Luck: 153 / Fortune: 220 / Fate: 34

Generic Skills

Archery – Level 1

Brawling – Level 8

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 10

Silver Tongue – Level 7

Size Up – Level 3

Unflappable – Level N/A

Medium Skills

Bad Fortune – Level 6

Crystal Ball – Level 2

Good Fortune – Level 8

Séance – Level N/A

Stack Deck – 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 27

Influence Fate – Level 1

Lesser Healing – Level 36

Omens and Portents – Level N/A

Short Vision – Level 2

Transfer Condition – Level 8

Painter Skills

Fast Dry – Level N/A

Painting – Level 5

Teacher Skills

Lecture – Level 4

Smarty Pants – Level N/A

Unlocked Jobs

Farmer, Herbalist

Gear

The Charlatan's Chapeau

Light Leather Armor – level 5

Enrico's Last Hand

About a dozen assorted potions