Eat the Pie

The vampire at Ireena's window wasn't there on the master's orders. He meant to carry her to the castle himself and be rewarded. Genji set Ireena behind him and grabbed the vampire by the collar from ten feet away, and for the rest of the fight he never let go.

Beowolfe woke to the noise and ran upstairs in his underwear. "Please put some clothes on," said Lucy. "We don't have time for that." His arrows all ended up in the wall. Ireena charged in wearing her nightgown with her rapier and landed a critical hit. Remi found the vampire shrugs off cold and necrotic, and his lightning hit the vampire, and once, Genji. When the vampire tried to escape as mist, Genji was still holding him, and Nash finished it with his axe. "Just casual murder, and go back to sleep."

In the morning Ismark served dry pork chops and apologized for the curdled milk. A third of the village is left. Gertruda didn't take the road after Doru; she went up to the castle. The party chose the road north to Madam Eva's camp. Beowolfe took villagers hunting and came back with three deer. They shopped at Bildrath's, Ireena got a chain shirt and Beowolfe's scimitar, and Lucy taught Genji Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on a lute.

On a bridge in the rain they found Morgantha, the pie lady, her wagon stuck in the mud. They pushed it free. She paid them a gold piece each and gave Remi a pie: "What are you, ten or twelve? Don't eat it all at once." But something in the wagon was moving. Hay-zel's detect magic lit up the wagon, the pies and the horse. Under the blanket, Beowolfe found children, tied up and unconscious.

Morgantha turned her skin to stone. "Little boy, eat the pie." Beowolfe pulled one girl out of the wagon. Mayla bit Morgantha's arm and she laughed. Then she told her horse to show itself, and it became a little gnome.