#rivervale_lodge

"Weird..."

"Hey, you think it'd be.. like.. jumanji? Like, ha, we'd have to bring dice to do stuff?"

"Huh. I don't know, Symon's the expert."

"But wouldn't hurt?"

"I want to help." Stubborn.

"You're going to. Heck, you help every day" Gerd says

Eyebrow.

"Patrols. Horse. Adam. Now this quest. You're helping."

"I... guess."

"You are," She says "No guessing. Helping a lot more than I am that's for darn sure. You're as bad as the Chief sometimes wanting to take it all in sometimes, but she knows that it's not doing nothing to help others do it. And the Hearth assigns tasks, but that in itself is doing something. Working together is like..well" she rolls her eyes 'The Power of Teamwork"

A snort.

"I can see how much that just pained you."

"Yeah, I Knew it would be lame but I had to anyway"

"I get it."

"Good. Never tell Uncle Vali I said that phrase or I know he will probably get me a t shirt with it"

She snerks.

• **bzzzt A phone buzzes, if on or near Dagmar's person.

She checks it.

(You at the lodge or over at the barn? Nearby and got some good intel.)

(Lodge!)

(k) And not too much long afterwards... that trademark soft rapping at the door.

Gerd raises a brow "I thought we'd have to have a seance to fetch him"

"Well, it'd work I bet..."

She goes to open the door. "Hey."

"I heard that." He grins, and greets Dagmar by shoving heavy bag towards her. "Here, I GOT to get a bike with baskets or something... " It is teeming with folders of printouts each with colorful tabs sticking out here and there.

"Oh shit... you got everything. I just found the one map and know we need this hammer thing..."

"I figured you would" Gerd smirks

"Sorry I didn't get in touch earlier. Do you know HOW MANY Dragonlance books there are? Even figuring out which ones are trashy side-quests and didn't need reading took a full day after school. I hadn't read most of them because they're old, but not old enough to be cool like Tolkien... turns out if you ignore the silly bits, the story isn't half bad. But... I got some good info."

She nods. "Figured. You're the D&D god."

"Hey Gerd. Nice color pallet." He gives her a small wave. "You on this deathrun with us? Or just here to provide black-and-white commentary?"

"Black and blue. Like a bruise." A wry grin.

He flops into a chair, catching his breath from hauling the bag there. After a moment, he sits forward, leaning scrawny arms on his knees and says, "Well, there are a LOT of different options in these realms. The Dragonlances are only one of them. There are also Dragon Orbs, Dragon slaying swords - at least THREE of those, and that's not even touching on magic."

"Oh lord, the puns. " She says "I'm in"

"Well... more options are good, right?"

"Better chance of finding something useful."

"But... if I had to pick ONE direction, I'd say to go for a lance. Can you tell me why?" His black eyes interested at Dagmar. "It's not a test or nothing... just want to see if you reached the same conclusions I did. "

"Um. Well, the books are called "Dragonlance" so I bet they're the most powerful?"

He gives her a grin. "That's one thing. Here's a few more - the other main dragon slaying items, three swords mind you, Wyrmslayer, Wyrmbane, and Lost Star, all were longswords know to kill dragons. But they were all forged by elven smiths, or by elven mages. And swords are well-and-good, but you're more of a Pole-arm or Distance weapon weilder. Not that I don't think you could slaughter with a sword, but might as well go for what you're most skilled at right now. If we're arming you. Even if not, with a Troll's reach, a lance can be deadly. Not to mention NOT wanting to get in melee range with a Dragon if you can't help it."

"Well.. that makes sense, yeah. Though it's supposed to be a Heart, Storm & Mountain who slay it..."

"But it'd be nice to have something close to what I use, just in case?"

"Yeah, we don't get to do the killing"

Gerd shrugs

He ticks off points on long, slender fingers, each with nails that are ragged and torn. Even without chewing nails they can still get pretty beat up! "Next is that there is even religious connotations with lances being used on Dragons. St. George, Archangel Michael - both pictured slaughtering dragons with Lances. I mean, they're weeny-looking renaissance dragons, but every bit of lore on our side helps." He nods to Dagmar. "Yeah... they're trolls too though. And, at least in the books, there are multiple lances. Can't hurt to arm a few folk."

She nods.

"Can hurt it, even if we don't kill it."

"But, the main thing is...." He flips through a few pages then stabs a finger at a section he has highlighted and doodled roughly. "The dwarves in Dragonlance - and other mythos, have a lot in Common with Trollfolk other than the height. Except Gully dwarves, they're only like SOME trolls." A sly glance at Gerd - is he actually making a joke? His face is solemn so it's hard to tell, but she DOES have a long history with Vali to fall back on. "You mentioned knowing about the hammer, right? I assume you meant the Hammer of Kharas?"

"Um.. there's a hammer and this silver arm..."

She digs through her wiki notes.

Gerd holds up a middle finger "Oh look, my hand has a mace. One. No more than one." She has read the trilogy

Then she smiles