Only 20 minutes later, after one circle back, and one wrong turn, they found the cottage. It was late, possibly after midnight, and Isa’s eyes felt dry as dust. Joth seemed more rested, but then, he’d been in pajamas when she’d arrived at his house. Nice hours, if you could get them, huh? As they approached the cottage Isa whispered, “Remind me to ask you about gigs for fighters.”

“What?” he whispered back, but Isa moved past him without clarifying.

The cottage looked much as it had the other day. It might have sat there undisturbed for a century for all she could tell. She started forward, but Joth grabbed her arm. He pointed down and said, “Tracks. Might be yours, but maybe not.” He waved a finger at the ground. “Awful lot of tracks for one person.”

They approached with stealth, and to Isa’s ears at least, the two of them moved in complete silence. At the doorway of the cottage, Isa paused to listen. Nothing but silence from within. If someone, or more than one, was inside, they were like shadows.

She started to move, and Joth pointed at himself and stepped gingerly into the cottage. He paused and then suddenly the cottage lit up with magic dancing lights. “It’s OK,” Joth whispered. “It’s empty.”

“Why did you want to go first? I’ve got better skills.”

“Yes, but you took a couple of big blows with those damned druids. And if you get hurt, I can stabilize you, but I’m no healer.”

“I did second wind. I feel pretty good.” She glanced around the room. With Joth’s 4 lights illuminating, Isa could see much more detail than before. And now, knowing - still hoping, really, or wishing that this is indeed Gerry Tinero’s cottage, Isa saw the room with fresh eyes.

The rotting bedclothes, Gerry slept there when he got too exhausted from the magic. The splintered remains of the chair, did he sit and warm his hands at the fire and make notes in his spellbooks?

And the mantlepiece carving, did Gerry look up at it lost in thought sometimes, looking for the right word or phrase?

Isa became aware that Joth was speaking and moving his hands in the air. He turned slowly as he chanted. Obviously he was making a magic spell, but what kind of spell was it, exactly?

After a moment he stopped and said, “Someone used magic here recently, or maybe there was a magic item here recently.” He stood silent for a few seconds’ more. “It’s that staff. And the scimitar.”

“Really? These are magical? I mean Mery said she thought the scimitar was well-made but magical? How cool is that? Makes me kinda sad to be going home.” Isa looked at the staff. “This is really amazing, don’t you think? Magic weapons. Do you think this, like, shoots fireballs or something?”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Could you - could you take those outside? Away from the house. At least 30 feet, maybe 50 to be safe. That way I can see if anything else shows up.”

Isa walked outside and stood looking up at the stars through the trees. Once more she was struck by the beauty of this place. For all the unknowns, Varana was a simpler place than Portland. Violent, frightening, confounding at times but simpler. And, if Isa was being honest, there was something very satisfying about carrying a weapon and using it against bad guys. When they’d been mugged in that alley in Hanchen, the old Isa would have handed over her bag without a peep, apologized because there wasn’t more money, and then later, when she was alone, she would have bawled her eyes out.

But here, here in this place, she had a magical sword and a magical staff! OK, she didn’t really like the sword, and maybe she could sell it to Gimble, but she’d had quite a few fights in this last week, and she’d done pretty well. Yeah, she’d been hurt a few times, and a few times, it had been on the edge of scary how much of her blood had been on the outside of her body, but all in all, she’d held her own. More than held her own.

She touched her notebook through the fabric of her small bag. And there were kids here to help. She still had that quest to help Mery rescue kids from that Thorn person. Not even a toss up between cleaning kids’ teeth or rescuing them from kidnapping. And that was the good thing about a scroll, right? Joth could read it out any old time, and they’d be home.

In the dim light she saw Joth wave her back inside. She’d talk with him about delaying returning to their world. Hopefully she could convince him to hold off at least a few days. They could go back to Bywater tonight. She’d catch a few hours sleep and then to Deney to meet with Mery.

“So I was just thinking about--”

Joth cut her off. “I’m sorry,” he shook his head, “there’s nothing here.”

“What do you mean? You said there was magic.”

“There is - it’s divination, though.”

“What does that mean? What the fuck does that mean?” Isa glanced around the room, and her eyes fell on the fireplace. In place of the lions carving, Isa saw a small dark rectangle. She strode over to the mantle. “A hidden drawer? But….”

“The magic was strong right there,” Joth said quietly. “I found a small switch. Out popped this drawer.”

“But--”

“Empty.” Joth tilted the drawer for Isa to inspect. “You can see where something sat here for - well, who knows how long.” His finger outlined a skinny spot in the drawer with less dust. “But someone got here before us.” He set the drawer down and shrugged.

“How much before?” Isa touched her rapier. “Let’s find them.”

“Hold up! It’s dark; you’re injured; I’ve used most of my spells for the day, and we have no idea where they’ve gone.” His face twisted a little in the dim light. “Maybe they even used the scroll. We have to accept that that’s a real possibility. Right? It’s a gate spell.”

“Who would do that? That’s stupid. No one would know to look here.”

Joth was silent for a moment, and finally he said, “We knew. You knew.” He shrugged. “It’s not stupid. It’s logical. It’s a logical hypothesis.”

“Well I don’t see any paper laying around so it’s not logical to think they used it.” Isa resisted the urge to stick out her tongue.

“The scroll would be consumed during the process.”

Joth’s calm, matter of fact voice made Isa’s temper flare. “Excuse me for not knowing ALL about magic!” She wanted to bring her staff down on the splintered wood that had been a chair. Where was that pail? Maybe she could whack that nice and hard to left off some of this anger.

When she spied the pail, Isa’s eyes grew big. It was stuck in the soft wood wall opposite Isa. She stepped closer and saw that it had a large dent in the middle, as if someone had done just what Isa had planned to do. Why would someone who was - presumably - successful in getting the scroll slam the pail hard enough to embed it in the rotting wood?

“There are,” Joth said, “really two options. Either they used the scroll or will use it, or they plan to sell it.”

“Well we’ll just buy it then. We’ll go see Gimble right now and--”

“Isa, no.” Joth folded his arms and shook his head. “A scroll like that, it’s expensive.”

With a deep breath Isa said, “I have to scrape up 5,000 for a diamond, anyway. Diamond or scroll, what’s the difference?”

As the words left her mouth, she wanted to take them back. Joth’s face crumpled with disbelief, and he said, “It’s a level 9 spell!”

With an audible sigh, Isa said, “Imagine that I’ve been here a week, Jeff. Imagine that I know fuck-all about scrolls and spells and druids and-- And all of it! OK? Imagine that and then just tell me what you’re trying to say.”

“I’m sorry, Isa. Really. I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be new here. And I admire you. You jumped in with both feet, and--” He stopped when Isa held up her hand.

“Apology accepted. And I’m sorry I called you Jeff. I just, I hate this limbo. I hate not knowing. You know?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I do know. This world is maybe more complex than our own. There aren’t as many rules. No - that’s not right. There are rules, just not laws. Or damned few anyway. But one thing that’s true - magic is expensive. It takes mental effort, of course, but something like the scroll you’re looking for, it’s worth easily 200,000 gold.”

Isa gasped. “Two hundred thousand. That’s what you said. Not two thousand? Not ten thousand?”

“It’s one of the highest level spells you can cast.” He spread his arms. “I’m sorry. We could sooner catch the moon as pick up a copy of this scroll at Gimble’s.” He paused. “I’m sorry. I hear myself, and I sound like an ass.”

A dozen responses sprang to Isa’s mind, but what she did was smile, laugh, and say, “But are you a rich ass? I find myself in need of about 5,000 gold pieces.”

Spoiler: Isa's Character Sheet:

Name: Isa Chamberlin

Race: Human

Height & Weight: 5ft 6inches / 120 lbs

Class: Fighter Level: 4

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Background: Stranger in a Strange Land

Hit Points: 26 AC: 15

Current Hit Points: 16

Combat: +5 to Hit

Weapons: Rapier (left hand) 1d8 +3 / Quarterstaff (right hand) 1d6 +2 (bludgeoning)

STR

11

0

DEX

16

+3

CON

11

0

INT

13

+1

WIS

13

+1

CHA

12

+1

Saving Throws: Str and Con +2

5

Acrobatics* (Dex)

1

Medicine (Wis)

1

Animal Handling (Wis)

1

Nature (Int)

1

Arcana (Int)

3

Perception* (Wis)

0

Athletics (Str)

1

Performance (Cha)

1

Deception (Cha)

1

Persuasion (Cha)

3

History* (Int)

1

Religion (Int)

3

Insight* (Wis)

3

Sleight of Hand (Dex)

1

Intimidation (Cha)

3

Stealth (Dex)

1

Investigation (Int)

1

Survival (Wis)

Special Attack: Two weapon fighting. When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.

Class Features:

(USED) Second Wind - On your turn, you can use a Bonus Action to regain hit points equal to 5 + your fighter level. Short or Long Rest before you can use it again.

Action Surge - On your turn, you can take one additional action on top of your regular action and a possible Bonus Action. You must finish a short or Long Rest before using it again.

Martial Archetype: Surgical Fighter

3rd level - Clinical Eye: Spend 1 combat turn studying your enemy and learn one of the following: if the enemy is equal to or stronger than you in strength, dexterity, or constitution. Can spend up to 3 turns to discern all 3. Can be used outside of combat as a free action - spend 1 minute to learn all three.