Lords of RPG

Gabe urged on the horse pulling his crude wooden cart.  The horse was doing more than his fair share, because the cart was completely overloaded.  Behind Gabe, covered with a tightly tied canvas tarp, was a towering load of something mysterious.  The shapes of boxes and other indistinguishable round lumps pressed against the constraints of the tarp.

He was smiling ear to ear, and his eyes glistened with happiness.  Obviously, whatever he was hauling was a treasure beyond belief.  Something that brought joy to his heart, and made his heart sing.

The cart turned the bend, and ahead of Gabe lay Riverbend.  It was still a mostly empty town.  A few dozen people had wandered in, taking full advantage of the cheap and widely available homes and businesses.  A tavern called the Brass Lantern (formerly named the Randy Boatswain), had opened up and seemed to be doing a steady business.  A blacksmith had arrived, and a few other enterprising businessmen.

Gabe steered his heavy cart down mainstreet, headed for home.  

Walking down the side of the street was Sympos.  His facial expressions were flat and unreadable.  But, gone was the filthy animal tender from the circus.  Replaced with a pale (but clean), pasty, properly attired (though not fashionably) dressed gentleman (well, not much of a gentleman at that.)

Gabe waved at Sympos, and brought his cart to a halt so that he could talk with his friend.  “Sympos!  You won’t believe what I found!”  Gabe gestured to the canvas-covered pile behind him.

Sympos looked from Gabe, to the pile, and back to Gabe.  “Where were you?”

Gabe was thrown off balance by the question.  “Montebre...the town of Montebre.  I is all dairy country around there, and they have the most clever cheese-makers there.  Craftsman in the curd-arts beyond comparison.”

Sympos nodded.  “I like cheese.”  He stared at the covered pile in the cart for a moment, then continued.  “You were absent from our mission.  We went to the floating castle.  Things happened.”

Gabe took that in.  Was Sympos angry at him?  Was he disappointed in some way.  It was so hard to tell.  “Well, I’m sorry about that.  A merchant tipped me off about Montebre, and I thought I should strike while the iron was hot.”

Sympos rubbed a hand up the side of his head, as though brushing off a bug.  “We went to the castle, almost had to kill one another to marry princess, and then escaped riding hippogriphs.”

Gabe’s eyes opened a bit.  “Did you manage to nab me one?”

“No.”

Gabe smiled wistfully.  “Well, you can’t have everything, I guess.”

Sympos nodded, acknowledging the logic of this old truism.

An awkward moment passed between the two men.  Then Sympos said, “We have your share of the Riverbend haul we took to Bassot-Garmon.  Timm has your portion, minus the money you were supposed to hold onto for me.”

Gabe frowned.  “Money I was supposed to hold onto?”

“Yes, the money you held onto for me, but when I needed it for my Temple, it was gone.  Timm has your portion, minus those coins.”

Gabe’s pure joy regarding the cart-load of cheese seemed to have been somewhat diminished.  “Well, fair enough.”

But Sympos had already continued walking, heading on whatever errand had been interrupted by Gabe’s arrival.