Dregon murmured the prayer that would infuse Geffry with the life of his gawd, but it wasn’t working! He wrestled in prayer with his gawd, while all around him the battle raged. He didn’t see why the gawd chose now to demonstrate his displeasure with Geffry, but if his gawd withheld the healing only he could give, then Dregon didn’t know what he could do but continue asking.
—–
Meanwhile, Sir Breck dealt out gleaming death to those around him, right and left. His blade flashed alongside Skaarg’s while Feltar slung magic missiles into the fray. Sir Breck gave silent thanks to the gawd of Dregon for finding a mage with the magic-missile spell in his arsenal. Quite often, young mages began with almost no useful offensive spells, and it had seemed like far more than luck when they came across Feltar sipping a glass of wine in the village of Sargen. Sir Breck was a little puzzled, however, that it seemed to be many lowly kobolds only who attacked the party. He spun to lazily lop the head off the nearest kobold and shouted for Dregon.
“Father! Where is Geffry? I need him behind this band of stinking kobolds!”
“Sir, the gawd denies his healing to Geffry! I am beseeching him, but he does not answer!” Sir Breck nearly swore, but remembered himself almost too late. He had foresworn cursing in an effort to better serve Dregon’s gawd. Was that not worth something?
“If he dies, Father, I will need you to raise him!”
“Sir, I cannot! The gawd grants that power to clerics holier and more experienced than I. One must serve the gawd for several years before being given that amazing blessing!” Drat, thought Sir Breck. More silver he did not have down the drain to get the thief raised; and a delay at that.
The knight quickly dodged a spear thrust from a kobold that he barely saw out of the corner of his eye. He began to pray out loud in a shout while he protected the squishy mage, Feltar, who had run out of magic missiles, and was now thwacking the heads of kobolds.
“My lord gawd, I am your most unworthy servant, you well know! Nevertheless Good One, I AM your servant! At this moment, I need Geffry alive.” The knight shouted as he carved yet another kobold from shoulder to hip. “I find myself in a battle against YOUR enemies, Great One, and I am unable to defend your name without the thief! I know you frown upon his ways, but alive, we might yet convert him! Dead, however, he cannot even serve you unwillingly by preserving the lives of your servants in this group!” Sir Breck flinched as he felt a sword clattering against the back of his plate armor. He spun just in time to see Skaarg’s greatsword slice through a kobold arm and send both the arm and the sword spinning away. “If you see fit to spare the life of your most unworthy servant, Good One, please grant the gift of your healing to the thief! May it be so!”
At that, Dregon shouted that it worked, and before too long, Sir Breck saw Geffry in the rear of his opponents, thrusting his short sword into their relatively unprotected backs. As always, Sir Breck marveled at the small thief’s speed and agility in spinning, dodging, flipping, and rolling, all the while keeping out of sight of most of the enemies. It was how Geffry worked in a melee, and Sir Breck was thankful for it. He had time only to breath a sigh of thanks to the gawd of Dregon before he had to concentrate fully on the battle at hand.
Within minutes, the kobold threat was put to rest when the last few monsters ran screaming into the forest bordering the clearing. Sir Breck cleaned his sword on his spare cloak, and sprang into the leader role without hesitation.
“Feltar, Skaarg, keep watch. I do NOT want to be surprised again. Tend to one another’s wounds until I am finished with Dregon and Geffry. I’ll send Dregon to you as soon as I can spare him.” Feltar looked crestfallen as he had a wound above his right eye he wanted looked at before it began to fester. Skaarg only nodded and held his bloody sword at the ready, while scanning the edges of the forest.
“Geffry, come here and listen. Father, tell him what happened.”
Geffry, wiping his short sword on his only cloak, wobbled on now-unsteady legs over to where Sir Breck and Dregon were huddled.
“Geff, when I saw you fall, I was on you that fast. But the gawd did not at first grant healing to you. I have told you numerous times that the gawd does not approve of you stealing from the good, and…”
“…aye. This, I’ve heard. The good Sir did not tell you to preach at me, holy man.” Sir Breck quickly placed a hand on the thief’s forearm.
“No, Geffry. This is important. The good Father Dregon did not say that the healing didn’t work, as though this were one of Feltar’s spell mishaps. No, the gawd denied his healing to you.” Geffry rolled his eyes and made as though he would complain until Dregon spoke again.
“Geffry, I have never withheld healing from a one. It is not mine to judge who the gawd helps. I merely ask, and the gawd grants…until now. I know what the Holy Writings say about thievery against the good, and I have told you these things. The good Sir Breck had to intercede for you, and for whatever reason, the gawd heeded him. You are healed because Sir Breck asked the gawd to help us. Sir Breck, this is unheard of, and you may want to consider what it means. If the gawd is bestowing some manner of favor upon you, as his paladin, you may want to step up your giving, your preaching, and your defense of all that is good. That means that you must stop the thief from taking from the good. I…” Geffry sputtered.
“Wait a minute, holy man! This is my livelihood we’re talking about here. Breck, you MUST…”
“SIR Breck, Geffry, and Father Dregon has a point. I cried out to the gawd in desperation, because you were fast dying. You are alive because he chose to grant my request. This is something I will consider more fully as we journey through the mines. However, you will cease your stealing from the good until we can figure out what all of this means.” Geffry made as though he would protest this treatment, but Sir Breck interrupted him again. “No, Geffry, you listen to me now. You are alive because I vouched for you with the gawd. I will not let you sully my word, and if it means I have to grant you extra shares in these mines, so be it. You will not go hungry, but if you steal once more from the good, I will consider ending your life, myself.”
“Very wise, my lord,” began Dregon.
“No, Father. I wanted to speak to you as well. The gawd may have granted his favor to us this afternoon, but I need you to make sure you’re on his good side, here. The gawd has granted his healing to Geffry before. What has changed, and you cannot tell me it’s Geffry’s behavior. He has always stolen against your protests, and always the gawd healed him. Perhaps you ought to look within your own heart to see what it is the gawd doubts in you. I must have the gawd with us on this adventure. He, himself, granted us the sign of his favor in Sargen, I need not remind you. He indicated he was with us, and now we have this near-devastating setback. I need also not remind you that were something like this to happen inside the Mines of Chaos, we would be in dire straits. We are going to spend the evening out here, and I suggest you and I spend that time in prayer. Skaarg, Feltar, and Geffry will keep watch, but you and I will pray. Yes?”
“Yes, my lord. You are, of course, right. I do not know why the gawd did not grant my request.” Sir Breck stood and gave the orders to have camp made up, and then knelt to pray with Dregon.
—–
Geffry, walked to gather wood with Feltar while Skaarg took first watch. He didn’t understand what the gawd wanted with him, but wasn’t entirely comfortable with Sir Breck potentially becoming a paladin. In Geffry’s experience, paladins were powerful, but far too…righteous for Geffry’s taste. They also did not seem to care how a man ate, or indeed whether a man ate, so long as the divine rules were upheld. He would stay with Sir Breck for as long as it was profitable; while the promise of more shares in the take held. But as soon as it was more dangerous for Geffry to stay with this group than to leave, he planned to look out for number one…as he always did.
