The Mason's Defeat
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Combat in the Icehouse
The masked bodyguard stands inside his rolling veil of darkness with Azalie, Fizz, and Wicks closing around him.
For several seconds, nobody moves.
Then his voice comes quietly from within the smoke.
The contract is finished.
A final glance passes toward the fallen Mason.
Shadowy mist curls around the bodyguard.
You've won the room. You haven't won him.
He disappears.
A heartbeat later there is movement somewhere in the corridor beyond.
Then nothing.
The Elite Bodyguard is gone.
(As a retro action, any player may choose to pursue the Bodyguard, as a skill challenge)
For the first time since the door opened, the icehouse becomes quiet.
Not truly silent.
There is still the crackle of damaged lanterns. The settling of broken ice. Heavy breathing. The occasional groan from one of the fallen enemies.
But the fighting is over.
The Mason lies unconscious among the wreckage.
Both Duergar are down.
The strange masked warrior has escaped into the halls of the icehouse.
And Hagag is alive.
She stands amid the debris with a stolen dagger still hanging loosely from one hand.
For several seconds she doesn't seem to know what to do with herself.
Her eyes move over the Howlbears.
Dorf.
Fizz.
Orin.
Azalie.
Wicks.
Then they stop on Mutt.
Really stop.
The hardness in her face changes.
Not much.
Hagag has spent too many years learning how not to show people what she feels.
But enough.
She lets the dagger fall.
It clatters against the floorboards.
Then she walks toward him.
Slowly at first.
As though she still isn't completely convinced he is real.
Her eyes search his face, taking in the years that weren't there the last time she saw him.
A rough laugh escapes her.
Half disbelief.
Half relief.
Gods...
She shakes her head.
Look at you.
For once there is no sarcasm behind it.
No warning.
No coded message.
No trail left behind for someone who might never find it.
Just Hagag.
And Mutt.
She closes the remaining distance and pulls him into a fierce embrace—the sort given by someone who had long ago accepted that she would probably never get the chance.
When she finally releases him, she keeps both hands on his shoulders and studies him again.
Her eyes are wet.
She pretends they aren't.
I heard stories.
A tired smile finally breaks through.
Half-elf bard. Strange lute. Running around Icewind Dale with a bunch of lunatics calling themselves the Howlbears
She glances briefly at the battered adventurers surrounding them.
I figured either it was you...
Her eyes return to Mutt.
...or somebody had gone to an awful lot of trouble to impersonate an idiot.
There she is.
The Hagag he remembers.
But the smile doesn't last.
Her gaze drops briefly toward the fallen Mason.
Then toward the shipping ledgers, crates, maps, and scattered papers filling the room.
There is a great deal here that still needs explaining.
A great deal she clearly knows.
But Hagag looks back at Mutt before anything else.
It's been a long time, boy.
She waits.
Whatever questions have been following Mutt across Icewind Dale...
He finally has someone standing in front of him who might be able to answer them.
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