Filthy Lucre

OK, so alluvasudden it's like the middle of a season of Buffy where Giles reads something that accelerates the race to apocalypse. EXCEPT IT'S ALL REAL. What's a happily side questing party to do? Tracking down the names of God seems now Priority One, but the location of said sacred monikers remains hazy. Eorl hands out some largess to aid in high-level missions: for Gershom, plate mail from Xenon's corpse; Marcella, the Cloak of the Manta for underwater shenanigans; Gwynn, some boots of leaping and striding to enable him to hop out when the fray gets too hot; Arben, an ioun stone for successful airlessness; Kolya, a +2 bow; Zombres, the Robe of the Archmage. Best case scenario: the DG heads back to the Cave of Gold and Shit (in the depths of Si An Bhru), untraps and gathers the former, and pays off the Oracle of Didima to maybe cut out some aimless wandering.

And it is thence that they hasten their footsteps, first paying respects to the Sidhe themselves--Tethra is unexpectedly miffed at their having de-chin-haired his dad. They hand over the thimble that makes wee adorable pigs as a peace offering, which gains them a guide back to the cave. Bypassing Crazy Ol' Pops, they find themselves in a large flooded room, where a bald, one-eyed, two-spear-carrying old lady is hovering over the water. "Oh, you're the ones who killed the nuckelavee," she says, not unkindly. It's true, they are--Kolya in particular. She says she's looking for a pech, just to ask him something, of course, no funny business . . the DG are skeptical. But they do find said pech moping about nearby, in a magically protected room the old woman can't enter. Poor little guy, he tunneled into the cave but became trapped, and was a prisoner of the nuckelavee and the hag in turn. Her name is Muireartach, and she's a Scottish sea goddess seen in storms. And after the DG beat her to a draw (feinting with Arben disguised as the wee rockish fellow), she reveals she just wanted to pester the pech for information: apparently she's involved in a prank war with the Callanish, and wants to find the Stone of Scone and bring it back to Scotland to annoy them. Good clean fun.