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To my mother, Kathy Hodes.
You started me on this journey and always believed I could be me.
Gaarm’s dull and stupid eyes were on me. I could almost see his alcohol-drowned thoughts swirling through his mind as he tried to decide if I was bluffing. I held eye contact with him for several moments, before lifting my mug of mead to my mouth, draining the last few sips. The mug’s wide brim blocked Gaarm’s stare, and he grunted in annoyance.
I set my empty mug down onto the table with a hollow thunk and jumped as a surge of energy flowed through my body. I looked around in confusion. What the hell was that?
Gaarm took my jumpiness as a sign I was bluffing. He grinned, sucked at some bit of food stuck in his crooked Stonehenge of brown teeth, and pushed his pile of coins forward. “I’m all in,” he said.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Here I am gambling and getting wasted when my Player, good ol’ Gryph, was out there somewhere alone, without his trusty NPC to watch his back. Where’s the loyalty? In my defense, I didn’t start my day getting hammered.
