Chapter Seven

Here it seemed the world needed some time to rebuild itself. Lockinton, Tabber’s city, was worst off of all. It barely stood, a ramshackle slum of street punks and guardsmen who were worse than thugs. The people starved to death. There was no law, there was no trade, there was nothing but trash and death. Before doing anything here we spoke to Settin; from him we learned what had happened here, in this world. Tabber’s “army” was still loose. They were the T’lok, a group of lizard like shape shifters that took the guise of other people. Their mission had been to destroy this world and its governments. Tabber’s death did not stop their contract. These vermin were on the loose still, and we found the first of their number in Lockinton itself, posing as leaders among the guardsmen. Gaspar, at this time, went on a mission to join the legendary Knights of the Middle Circle. The others went on various journeys, and myself and Huey were left to see what was up in this town. Our investigations lead us to discover Jimmy, one of the last members of the Jade Coin. After talking a while with him, we decided to start up the old society again, initiating Huey as a member. I thought that maybe we could make something good of this Jade Coin; something that could make Lockinton and the world a better place. I was right, but not at that time. Not yet. Still, we tracked down the guardsmen to their base in the city. I confronted them, and they attacked. There in the streets I battled over twenty men, two of them the fiendish shape-shifters. Huey was no help, running at the first sign of danger, leaving me to deal with these bastards alone. Still, I won. Only one man remained, locking himself in the guard barracks. Eventually, I was able to speak with him. His name was General Phillias, a good and decent man among a throng of thugs and imposters. I decided to recruit his help in restoring this town. When Gaspar and Latheric returned, they agreed to help as well, and soon we had Phillias recruiting new guardsmen to replace the dead ones, and we began our efforts to restore Lockinton to a livable state. Waterwind was most helpful here; he brought in the trees themselves to help us build the city, and used his powers to meld the stone to aid us. Somewhere in Lockinton I even discovered the old Jade Coin base again, though where it is I cannot say here. (You’ll have to find it for yourselves). Gaspar began construction of a church, aided by Amy. Waterwind began building his own underground nature preserve, and Latheric decided to build up a castle to rule the city from. Building the city was a long process, and honestly I don’t think that it was my thing. I’m not one to build a town, not any more. Lockinton became a successful place, and I’m even on the town coinage, but I don’t consider myself really responsible for any of it. I was mostly off doing my own thing; hunting down the T’lok, trying to rid the world of their worthless hides, and also dealing with Huey. I also had something made; a sword. Constructed from both of my dragon claws, along with some ultra-rare materials, I commissioned for my good buddy Settin to make the thing: a sword so sharp it could cut through anything, a sword that could chop a man’s head off so cleanly that he wouldn’t know he was dead until he looked down and noticed that his head had fallen off. I called it ?Sweet Oblivion?.

Now I get to Huey…yes, more Huey. His initiation into the Coin was a joke. The kid tried, but he was a terrible assassin, a horrible thief and a wretched liar. His first job was nearly botched, and only by dumb luck was he able to succeed. Afterwards, he decided that it was his job to recruit new members. He did this by walking up to random people on the street and asking them to join. He got one guy to do it. When he brought the poor fellow back to Jimmy, however, the man had a change of mind, deciding that he wasn’t sure, that he didn’t know what he was getting into. Being the brutal thug that he was, Jimmy killed the guy. He was furious at Huey for this little slip up. He beat little Huey to within an inch of his life, then let him go, promising to kill him should he ever set foot in the Coin hideout again. At this time, I was out of town, scouting the surrounding lands with Agamemnon. Thus, Huey ran to Gaspar. Despite his oaths of secrecy, he told Gaspar about the hideout, about the Jade Coin, about what Jimmy had done. Being the hero that he was, Gaspar went right down there. He fought with Jimmy. Gaspar, of course, won. When I got back to town and found out what had happened, I had to have a little talk with Huey. It took him to my underground base and had a long, long discussion with the little bugger. I seriously thought about killing him then. For a second, I was about to pull out my swords and end his sorry life. Still, Jimmy had been an asshole, and the Jade Coin seemed deader than ever. I decided that Huey was still my friend, that all this didn’t matter. He promised to redeem himself, to become a better person. So I let the guy live.