Adventure of Dagg Nabbitt

Dagg lifts the heavy purse and adds its hundred thousand gold pieces to his accumulated wealth. The coins settle with a deep metallic weight against his saddlebag.

Caldus returns Dagg’s hat with his uninjured hand. Dagg takes it, settles the brim over his long hair, and watches the last daylight fade beyond the trees.

As twilight deepens, Dagg sits beneath the ash trees and draws purple smoke through his injured shoulder. The supernatural warmth knits the scrape closed without leaving a scar.

The burning pain disappears completely. Dagg rolls the shoulder once, then flexes his hand and arm, fully prepared for the dangerous approach to Pike’s camp.

Moonlight gathers silver along the ravine, while the distant tollhouse remains quiet beyond the branches. Caldus waits nearby, ready for Dagg’s answer.

Dagg’s quiet threat fixes Caldus beneath his stare. Steady Under Watch keeps his voice and posture measured, while Questions Witnesses makes each detail matter. His secrecy remains guarded, wary of anyone who might carry word to the Lich Queen.

Caldus points through the ash branches without rising. Beyond the camp, the tollhouse shows its crooked eastern shutter and red hook beneath the moonlight, clear enough to distinguish from the guards’ quarters.

The answer is precise, and Caldus remains behind as ordered. Dagg has Pike’s quarters, the concealed approach, and a signal for pursuit; the tollhouse camp waits below in moonlit silence.

Dagg slips from the ash trees and threads between the camp’s shadows. His relaxed pace costs him a heartbeat beside a wagon, but Steady Under Watch steadies his breathing before any guard turns.

He reaches the tollhouse’s eastern side. The crooked shutter and red cloak hook match Caldus’s description, while one Pike’s Man sits asleep in a watch chair outside the front door.

Purple smoke winds through Dagg’s sword and ignites into violet flame. He steps in, but the chair shifts beneath his boot; the blade strikes through the guard’s cloak and catches wood instead of the man’s chest.

The guard jolts awake with the flaming sword pinning his cloak to the chair. Dagg wrenches the blade free, but the scrape and sudden movement leave the man conscious, gasping, and able to raise an alarm.

Dagg clamps a hand over the guard’s mouth and drags him behind a nearby bush before he can shout. The body is hidden, but the chair remains crooked outside the door, a dangerous sign.

The guard’s hand scrabbles weakly at Dagg’s wrist. Through the half-open door, Dagg glimpses the unguarded rear passage and a narrow stair rising toward Pike’s quarters.

Dagg leaves the concealed guard breathing and slips through the rear passage instead. The failed ambush has cost him silence at the front, but revealed a quieter route toward Pike’s room.

The sword's violet flame can power the spell Dagg channeled through it.

Dagg pulls on the Pike-marked cloak and draws its hood low, hiding his face behind the white trident. The borrowed insignia gives him the silhouette of another armed servant.

He leaves the captured guard concealed and slips through the rear passage. Steady Under Watch controls each breath and footfall, while his caution against revealing himself to the Lich Queen keeps every unnatural trace suppressed.

The disguise carries him past the unguarded passage and beneath the narrow stair. Moonlight catches the trident once, making him appear to be Pike’s own man checking the building.

A loose floorboard gives a muted crack beneath his boot. Outside, the sleeping guard’s chair scrapes faintly across the boards, but no alarm follows; the sound is swallowed by the wind.

Dagg reaches the upper landing disguised and unchallenged. The cloak has carried him inside, though the creaking board leaves a small trace that someone alert might later notice.

Beyond the landing, the crooked eastern shutter marks Pike’s quarters. Dagg lowers his weight, keeps one hand near the sheathed sword, and advances toward the sleeping room.

The sword's violet flame can power the spell Dagg channeled through it.

Dagg quietly pushes open the crooked-shuttered door. Arden Pike sleeps in the rear room beneath a wool blanket, unaware of the Pike-marked cloak entering his quarters.

Dagg crosses the room and clamps one hand over Pike’s mouth and nose. Pike wakes violently, thrashing against the rancher’s legendary strength as the bedstead knocks softly against the wall.

The struggle strains Dagg’s hurt body, and his old relaxed reluctance makes the close work feel tedious, but Steady Under Watch fixes his grip and keeps every movement controlled.

Pike’s resistance fades. Dagg holds him until the magistrate’s enemy passes unconscious, then checks his breathing before lifting him over one shoulder.

The Pike-marked cloak makes Dagg appear to be another servant moving a drunk or injured officer. He carries Pike down the rear stairs and slips beyond the tollhouse without drawing notice.

Outside the camp, Dagg follows the concealed track into the moonlit trees. Pike hangs limp across his shoulder, while the guards and wagons remain behind, unaware their leader has vanished.

Dagg reaches the darker edge of town with Pike secured and breathing. The tollhouse lights recede behind him, and Caldus’s whistle never sounds.