A Whole New World: Chasing Worms

Gunderson cuts the deck a few times, palming the card that Darann place in the deck. He shuffles the deck a few more times. When he's finished with the showy shuffling act, he palms the chosen card back onto the top of the deck and places the deck on the table in front of Twelve.

"Twelve, if you would turn over the top card, I think you will find that it is the card that you chose before."

Gunderson gives a big exaggerated bow, looking up towards Darann and Twelve expectantly.

Uh. Yes that's going to be my card. Uh for sure.

Twelve picks the card from the top of the pack.

See, I had the 12 of Silver Dragons. Here's the sign you made.

Twelve shows the other dwarf the card and looks directly at Gunderson, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

Gunderson stands back up straight and shrugs. "Everyone's a critic," he says. He silently commands his unseen servant to retrieve the deck of cards. The cards appear to float up off of the table and into Gunderson's pocket.
His cards back in their place, Gunderson prepares himself a bowl of stew and sits down with the others to eat.
Shortly thereafter, the unseen servant spell ends, and the invisible helper fizzles out of existence.

But that was dragon awesome

Erlanger, unaware how the trick was done, stands up and claps his hands.

Well done Gunderson! I didn’t know you were a sorcerer too.

He sits back down, spoons a few servings into his mouth, and then says,

What’s the plan? Darann, what do you think we should do? I would like to find out more about these metallic monsters as quick as possible.

I can’t remember what the captain told us and I can’t look it up on my phone without losing all this text, but that’s what Erlanger wants to do and with haste.

Darann is focused on Gunderson's card. He has taken out a dagger and is carefully scraping at his signature as if he's expecting it to come loose from the card.
Without looking up he responds.

Well, I for one could use a good night's rest laddy. Then in the morning, I guess we should head out to Kitin Matar to look for this little Fireglow fella.

Unable to remove the signature from the card, Darann sighs. He stands up and heads towards the bar. As he crosses the room he spots a pile of red goo lying on the floor.

Oi, barkeep, what's that over there? You need to clean your place up, that looks pretty unhygienic!

Gunderson finishes the stew in his bowl and takes a long drag of ale.

He stands up and announces, "Alright. I am off to bed."

Timed with the word "bed," Gunderson drops a flash bomb. There is a brief flash of flame and a cloud of non-magical smoke appears surrounding Gunderson. When the smoke clears, Gunderson is no longer in the guardhouse room. He is in the adjoining barracks room, climbing into one of the free bunks.

Anyone who rolls a DC 26 perception sees, in the smoke, Gunderson crawling on hands and knees to the door to the bunk room

Darann bumps Twelve with his elbow and points to the smoke.

He does that sometimes

Then he finishes his food, heads towards the barracks room, lies on his back in the nearest bunk, and begins snoring ... loudly

He's really magic then? That's grand... I sometimes think I have some power but I cannot seem to reach it, I keep trying though.

Twelve looks at the dissipating smoke and then looks at Darann,

Does he turn into the smoke or does he go somewhere else and the smoke comes from there? Like, am I dragon breathing him in right now?

As dusk turns to night, both the cauldron and the benches run empty. One by one, everyone goes to bed to get a good night of well-deserved sleep.

The first rays of dawn shine through cracks in the window, warming the bunk room. Chirping of birds outside the window wakes everyone up. Perhaps the rooster's crowing might have been some help as well. By the time everyone's out into the cafeteria, captain Boulderbeard's already putting an empty mug down, wiping some froth out of his beard.

Captain Boulderbeard

"Aye laddies! You finally decided to wake up, ey? Half the day's already gone!" You look at a nearby clock. It's barely 6:30 in the morning. "I can't dally. Got lots of mourning families to visit. Feel free to stay if you want, or leave if you must." He looks over at Twelve. "I don't even know who you are, laddy, or how you got into my guardhouse. What're ya gonna do? Want to join my guard team? Several positions recently opened up!"

Twelve gets up out of the cot and stands an approximation of a guards stance.

Will there be adventure? I'm all for it and I'm sure I'll be useful.

He looks eagerly around the room... and then his face turns down,

Why, exactly, are there positions open recently?

"They definitely weren't eaten and subsequently ground into hamburger meat, and that thing Darann was dragging around on his boot, by a giant mechanical worm," Gunderson chimes in, helpfully.

I'm in

You hear a bouldering laugh as Darann steps into the room. Having just woken up and not donned on his armour yet you can see him walking In wearing fancy-looking underwear with his family's crest printed on it. Also, his name is written on his undies at the back. He yawns and scratches his crotch.

You would join with captain Boulderbeard? With no military experience? How about you hang with us for a while first kid. I'll teach you the basics and then you can decide if you want to join the ranks of this fine hero of the dwarven empire.

I thought you were his troop. I want to adventure with you guys.

Darann slaps Twelve on the shoulder.

Excellent! If you need any basic gear just speak to Dewey over there, I should have some spares.

Darann grabs a piece of food, takes a bite from it and burps loudly. Then he heads back into the the baracks.

Imma put my armor on, be back in 15 minutes.

As everyone gathers their things, you say goodbye to the old captain. He goes off to tell the bad news to the relatives of the soldiers he lost, as the group sets off south, following the rivers towards Âhun-Kibil.