final fixed displacer beast

They called it Longsaddle, personally, I found the name fitting. Because it took a long time to get there, and as soon as you did, you wanted to saddle up and head out. But for me, I was born there, or at least near there, and that meant I was stuck there, as it's a long way to anywhere, and I didn't have a horse. All that changed though, the day She walked in. Paz'kole, she called herself, but said I should call her Pazzy. I had never seen a Drow before, elves, sure, but this woman, her silken dress, "spider silk," she told me, clung to her tighter then a locking gauntlet on a greatsword. I had seen my fair share of trouble, working as a manhunter in Longsaddle, but with her, well, let's just say I was prepared for burning hands, and she rode in on a meteor swarm.

"It's awful what they did to me Ravok" she said the next morning. "But the guards here, they won't do anything! They say it's because I'm a Drow, and that makes me a liar, those humans won't even hear my story!" I knew where she was coming from, in a town like this, if you arn't human, you don't get any respect, and if you're hoping for justice, well, let's just say justice and non-humans go together like blink dogs and displacer beasts.

She had an ebony bust, well, two to be specific, I was interested in one, but she wanted to talk about the other. She came into town with a small black statue of a bird, about as big as a fist. Stolen, she said, by some noble cretin who lived in a mansion downtown. A gnome named "Talvarni Greesesprocket." Apparently, he had a thing for the deities of Mulhorand, and this ebony bird head was just the thing he needed to complete his collection. "He stole it, when those rotten guards searched me at the gate he just walked up and took it! The guards wouldn't even listen! They just let him take it!" I reached into my pouch and rolled up a cigarette. Then I rolled up another and gave it to her. We laid there for about an hour before I sat up. "So you need me to break into his mansion and get it back for you?"

"Yes yes, I can describe it exactly, it's about the size of a fist, and has a chipped beak!" She said, happy and excited, "It will be upstairs, on his shelf, with the others, there will be a snake, too, but only the bird, it's an Ibis, is mine," her words seemed genuine, she was able to tell me exactly what it was, and among her belongings that decorated her room in the Gilded Horseshoe were several ebony or jet figurines, "please, if you do this for me, I'll be eternally grateful." Still, her plea didn't quite sit right. I'd been used before, once to chase an innocent man down for deserting a militia, I unwittingly turned him over for his own unlawful execution, and I wasn't about to be used again. I agreed to do the job for her, but had my own plans.

I don't usually break into houses, it's bad form for a manhunter like me, to be caught and arrested as some sneak-thief. I shook off my reservations like the rain off my shoulders. Downstairs window, pried open, inside, I put large socks over my boots, so my footprints would be harder to trace, the rain worked to my benefit, thunder and pounding rain hiding any noise that I had yet to make, but it worked against me too, I couldn't hear any noise inside the house, nothing but the rain.

I crept upstairs, found his little shrine to gods he didn't worship, and saw the Ibis, chipped beak and all. So much fuss over something so meaningless. Pazzy was a devout follower of lolth, and Talvarni worshipped Garl. Yet here they were, fighting over a small statue of a deity neither of them gave a damn about. I pocketed the thing, and left the home.

But I didn't head straight to Pazzy, I instead headed to the guardhouse. I had about as much faith in the local police as my client had in the whole of the Mulhorand deities, but still, I didn't want to be used. "Hey, you guys been looking for this? I found it in Talvarni's place," I said, and held up the statue. "Actually, we have. Good work Ravok, now hand it over, then crawl back to whatever hole you crawled out of. " I held the statue at arms length, and dropped it onto his desk. It landed with a loud dull thud that quieted the room. "So this is what you get for doing the right thing?" I asked. His brow furled, his face changed to a scowl, "No, that's what you get for being an Ogre." I let myself out.

I went back to Pazzy. "Found your statue, turned it into the cops. They said they were looking for it. You should be able to pick it up from them in the morning." She seemed happy, and I was surprised. I thought for sure she would be upset at me for not bringing it back. She went up to hug me, and I felt a sting on my side, she pricked me with something, I hit the ground. Before I blacked out, all I could think about was the rain hitting the window.

I woke up in the hotel room, exactly where I hit the ground. Pazzy and her stuff was gone, and outside, well, there was a roar. At first I thought it was the rain, but as I slowly stood up, I realized it was people. There was a giant crowd outside. "This is all I need."No weapons, but still expecting a fight, I walked outside. I see the crowd is gathered around a makeshift gallows. I push my way through until I can see a gnome about to be hanged, I ask the man next to me, "What's all this?" The man pulls my head in close and whispers, "That's Talvarni Greesesprocket, they say he beat some dark elf's head in a few days ago, he used some black bird statue, hit her so hard he broke the beak off in her skull. She had been hiding under the Inn for at least a month, guess that's who she was hiding from. Someone found the rest  of the statue in his house last night and turned it in, broken beak and all, guards said the broken bit fit perfectly with the rest. Never woulda thunk a gnome could do something like that, huh?" Right about then, some Harpell-family wizard took the stage, always a showoff, and turned that gnome into a damn rabbit, right in front of our eyes. They carried that poor trembling thing to the outskirts of Longsaddle and let it go.

I pushed my way back through the crowd, which was now all cheers and applause. I went back to the hotel room, even though I had my own place. I told myself that I needed to clear my head, but all I did was fall asleep. A few hours later I was awoken by the sounds of an all percussion orchestra, the innkeeper was mad and was beating on the door, it was afternoon now, and I needed to be out of the room. "Yeah get the hell out of here," he shouted, "And that drow bitch of yours, tell her to stay gone."

I felt a twinge in my neck, and raced to the end of town, there I saw a horse on the long road north. There she was, saddled up, and leaving. She even had a new scarf, a rabbit pelt. "You put that statue in his house didn't you! You had me go steal it to frame him!" She stopped, and turned her horse around, once again, she smiled at me, the same smile I've been seeing this whole time. "Puzzles just arn't fun when a piece is missing, are they Ravok? I needed that elf gone, and with the gnome hung, well, I can't leave any loose ends. It's a shame too, I wonder if he died thinking he never got to complete his little Mulhorand collection." She turned to leave.

For some reason, I shouted to her, "Will I ever see you again?"

"We might," she replied, and with a smirk, "I did say I would be eternally grateful."

That was the last time I saw her. Shortly after framing the gnome, I headed north too, along the same road. I didn't have a horse, or a saddle, but I had a long way to go.