DCA fic - A Night In The Shadowfell

[xt1me]

This takes place during ep 85.

 

It had been about ten days since they’d ditched Izek.

Things between the waffle crew were strained. Paultin was a bit surprised to note that it wasn’t all on his part. It seemed that Diath’s reluctance and revelations in the Zone of Truth had caused tension between him and the girls. Frankly Paultin was fine with it. He had gotten himself nice and trashed during that whole bit so he couldn’t really remember what was discussed other than Diath’s and Strix’s whole Romeo and Juliet thing. He really didn’t get why the others were mad about Diath keeping secrets, he thought it was obvious how much guilt the guy liked holding on to. But it was a distraction from everything Paultin had done with the ring of winter so he was all for it. There was a lot he was trying to avoid thinking about from all of that but he know he wasn’t going to be able to put it off forever. For one thing, he was running out of wine.
He defiantly owed at least an apology, something that he was never good at, so he was quite happy to let it go for as long as he was able.

The crew had taken to stopping for what passed for night in the Shadowfell. Not only for Waffles but also because the rattling off-road travel in the zombie pulled carriage wasn’t very good for rest. They had all travelled together enough that they were able to set things up with minimal conversation.

Paultin had mid watch. Strix was curled up in a ball inside the strange symbols she had drawn in the ground. Evalin was far too still in whatever passed for sleep in her construct body, Simon resting next to her. Paultin wasn’t actually sure if the puppet actually needed to sleep or was just copying those around him but he didn’t what to disturb him. Diath had finally settled into a restful sleep after tossing and turning since the end of his watch. Paultin had already worked out, something he usually did at this time since his two favourite pastimes, wine and music, weren’t something he could safely indulge in when he was supposed to be on lookout. He didn’t know if it was the death curse tiring him out faster or the Shadowfell messing with time but he still had half his watch to get through and nothing to distract him. He decided to kill some time silently practicing fingering on his bagpipes. Absentmindedly casting his eyes around he spotted a glint reflecting from the low light in the hut near Diath. Huh, that was something to do. But he didn’t want to actually go over there and risk waking up the rogue. Luckily he had some options.

Handrew crawled across the ground of the hut. Skirting over and around obstacles it made its way over to the far side of Diath’s bedroll. Skittering along until it reached Diath’s sword it crawled up the scabbard until it reached the hilt. Settling in to get a good hold of the grip it reached out with a finger and tapped the cross guard.

“Wha- oh. The Bard,” Gutters low voice sounded clearly in Paultin’s mind. “You know you really shouldn’t be able to hear me without attunement.”

“Take it up with the DM.” Paultin kept his voice quiet so as to not wake the others, “Besides, we never got to finish our chat.”

Paultin didn’t bother to look at the sword, it wasn’t like it had any facial features after all. He just kept his eyes on his fingers as they silently danced along the chanter of his bagpipes, the mouth piece hanging lose.

“So,” he drawled, “What are your intentions towards our boy Diath?”

“To slaughter his enemies and drink their blood,” Gutter answered promptly.

“Anything else?” Paultin asked.

“I’m a magical sword of backstabbing. What else is there?” Came the calm response.

“So you not out to try and convince him to do something stupid then?”

“The only thing I’m trying to convince him of is to use me more.” For the first time the sword sounded a little disgruntled, “He should stop trying to avoid fighting and start killing his enemies. He didn’t stab that one armed tiefling even a little. What a waste.”

“He’s good guy, I don’t think he likes the idea of killing being his first option.”

“He’s in the wrong line of work then.”

“Of course there also the fact that he’s pretty squishy. I don’t blame him for not rushing in.”

“Well if he killed things faster instead of dithering about then he wouldn’t have to worry so much about being hit. And he never listens to my helpful advice.”

“I’m going to out on a limb and guess you advice amounts to ‘stab it’.”

“It’s perfectly valid advice. If it’s dead then it’s not a problem anymore.”

“Hey, you got no argument from me. I just don’t think Diath is going to listen much if you’re going to go all ‘kill, kill, kill’ on him. You haven’t done anything stupid like suggest he attack any of us did you?”

“I was made for the Woodrows. I am to be wielded only by one of that line. There is no reason for me to care who they choose their companions to be.”

“Just in it for the stabbing?”

“Yes.” The sword paused for a moment, “I don’t suppose you could convince him to listen to me more?”

“Ha! Even if he wasn’t so against the random poking of people I think the fact that you come from his dad isn’t doing you any favours. I mean, I wasn’t exactly paying attention and even I could tell he has issues there.” Paultin thought for a moment, “You want my advice? Stop bugging him about it.”

“That’s hardly going to get me what I want.”

“You’d be surprised. Diath can be pretty practical but he’s stubborn. With the amount of trouble we always find ourselves in he’s not going to throw away something that’ll help defend the party. Keep on at him about his family or being so obviously bloodthirsty that he thinks you’re a risk and he’ll probably stop using you out of spite. Trust me, the way things go with us you’re not going to run out of targets any time soon.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“I don’t suppose you’re willing to spill any info on the fox lady or the keys or anything?”

“Even if I were, that is something only my wielder should know. Unless you going to try and take me for yourself?”

“After what you just said about being only for a Woodrow? I’m not that stupid. Besides, I have a real shiny sword to use when I run out of spell slots. And, no offence, but it’s kind of prettier then you.”

“That overgrown lightbulb?! You never even remember you have it! What kind of-”

Paultin chuckled to himself as he finally got Gutter riled up enough to launch itself into a rant about proper magical weapons. Maybe he didn’t get much in the way of information but he didn’t care. That wasn’t really the goal. Anything he could annoy enough to start to monologue was probably something they could handle.

And now he had an entertaining distraction for the rest of his watch.

___

I cut a lot more forth wall stuff from this including a reference to the fact the this fic take place during the middle of the ep so there was about 1 hr left in it. This is the ep that Chris says that Paultin sees the 4^th wall when he’s drunk but he’s mostly sober in this. Besides, I always liked the theory that the whole 4^th wall thing was something that got worse the more trauma he goes though. And, oh boy, the eps coming up.

I don’t know if it was too subtle but I’d like to point out that Paultin’s looking at his fingers when he’s talking to Gutter not because he needs to see what he’s doing but because he needs to make sure that he’s not wearing the ring of winter.
The last magical talking item he had was pretty manipulative, I think he actually appreciates that Gutter is pretty up front about the fact he just wants to stab things.

About Paultin not caring about Diath’s secrets, well he said outright that he has a bunch of his own. The difference between them is that Diath tries to be responsible & it crushes him when he fails. Whereas Paultin tries desperately to make sure no one ever relies on him at all.

Also the bit where he exercises during his watch is a headcannon of mine since he seems like the kind of guy that doesn’t want people to know how much work he puts into things, see the above sentence of not wanting responsibility. But the guy has the second highest strength score in the party. And he maybe an alcoholic but he’s also a survivor. He’s not going to do something like get drunk on watch or something but it’s a long time to on you own with your thoughts. Not his strong suit I’m guessing.

 This thing could probably use more polish but I have no one to beta this so I might as well post it