Adventure of Alizard the Gnome 1

Rain needles the crooked lane as Alizard the Gnome nears the hedge-witch's cottage. The roof is already half-stripped, rafters exposed like ribs against the gray sky.

Three mercenaries stand among the fallen shingles, working with practiced speed. A fourth keeps watch at the door, spear angled outward.

Inside the cottage, in the center of the dim room, a pilgrim crouches low and trembling. In both hands he clutches a glowing ring, its pulse weak and unsteady.

A board cracks under Alizard's step. Every mercenary turns at once, weapons lifting in a single practiced motion.

The others spread just enough to block the doorway, blades and spear points steady. The pilgrim flinches around the ring as its light gives one slow, desperate throb.

Alizard eases back into the rain-dark lane, boots finding the mud without a splash. He keeps the cottage in view, turning his shoulder to the wall of wet hedges.

Inside, the ring's glow flickers thinner. The mercenaries hold their line, waiting him out, while the pilgrim bows over the failing light.

A crack runs through the roof beam above the entry, and a sheet of wet thatch slumps with a hiss. The Watchman glances up, then steps inside to keep the roof-cutters from losing their footing.

That order pulls one blade inward and leaves the threshold briefly open. Alizard answers from the lane with a sharp burst of magic, the spell snapping out through the rain and catching the rearmost cutter off guard.

The man's pry bar skitters across the boards, and the shout he makes carries too far. The others whip toward the sound, while Alizard's focus stings hot in his hand from the cast.

Alizard slips farther along the hedge line, small boots sinking into the lane's black mud. He keeps the cottage between himself and the mercenaries, a moving shadow under rain-swayed branches.

He snaps another spell from cover. The flash skips past the doorway and bursts against the wall, loud enough to pull the Watchman and the Roof-Cutters a few paces after it.

The doorway empties just enough for the pilgrim to lurch free of the threshold, ring-light trembling weakly in his hands.

One cutter lunges after the glow, then checks himself as the roof gives a wet groan overhead. Everyone's attention drags outward into the trees.

Alizard reaches the deeper brush, but the last cast leaves his focus hot and smoking in his palm, and the cottage door now stands half-open behind him.

Behind the mercenaries, the pilgrim stumbles into the lane, clutching the failing ring, while rain hammers the exposed entry and the men start turning toward the woods.

Alizard raises his focus and lets the next spell fly. It strikes the exposed beams under the roof, and the old timber gives way with a cracking shudder.

The ceiling sags, then crashes inward in a rain of shingles and splintered wood. The mercenary inside disappears under the collapsing edge, swallowed by dust and dark.

The shout comes too late. The doorway jerks wider as the frame twists, and the cottage spills heat, dust, and a sharp burst of light into the storm.

Alizard backs farther down the lane, keeping low as rain hisses off the fresh wreckage. His smoking focus cools in his hand.

The pilgrim sees the gap and stumbles away from the cottage, ring-light trembling in front of him, while the mercenaries lunge between him and the hedge.

Alizard narrows his aim through the rain and snaps the spell at the mercenary leader.

The leader stiffens mid-step, his voice cutting off as the magic seizes him hard enough to drop him to one knee.

The men around him falter, their advance breaking as they glance toward their commander instead of the pilgrim.

But the pilgrim uses the opening at once, ring-light shaking around his hands as he runs for the trees beyond the lane.

Behind him, mud splashes under scattered boots while the cottage stands open to the storm, the mercenaries divided between their fallen leader and the fleeing pilgrim.

Alizard steps out from the hedge, rain slick on his sleeves, and the spell hits the kneeling leader like a hammer to the chest. He slumps sideways into the mud and goes still.

The surviving mercenaries freeze at the threat, then break, boots slipping as they back away from the cottage and the hedge alike.

Alizard closes the distance in two quick strides and snatches up the fallen crowbar from the churned lane.

The pilgrim staggers through the last black branches and vanishes into the woods, the ring-light bobbing once before the trees swallow it.

Behind them, the cottage stands open to the storm, and the mercenaries are no longer trying to hold it.

Alizard lifts the crowbar and speaks a final crackling word into the rain. The nearest mercenaries flinch hard, one stumbling into the ditch while another drops his blade and bolts for the lane.

Without hurrying, Alizard crosses to the fallen leader and plants a boot on the mud beside him. The man does not move.

Alizard searches the body with quick, exact hands, pulling free a coin purse, a signet ring, a belt knife, and a battered pouch of charms.

He strips the boots last, working them loose from the slick mud and tugging them free with a wet pull.

The Watchman sees the looting and tightens his grip on the spear. His voice cuts across the storm. "You have what you want. Now decide whether you are staying for the rest of them."

Beyond the lane, the last fleeing mercenary hesitates at the hedgerow, torn between running and looking back.

Alizard turns from the looted body and pads to the blade in the mud, rain hissing on steel. He hooks it up with two quick fingers, then straightens and tips the Watchman a slight, dry bow.

His free hand traces a simple working over the lane, and the air answers in faint ripples. The pilgrim’s trail flares in his sight, a thin wash of lingering magic running toward the trees.

Alizard steps past the broken threshold, blade in hand, the storm washing over his shoulders as he follows the visible wake left by the fleeing pilgrim.

The mercenary at the hedgerow jerks away from the cottage at once, and the gap to the woods pulls open before Alizard like an invitation.