Cacrash at the Lakehouse

Friday 3:00pm DST (Dwarf Saving Time)

“Oh, hey Keratis” said the tall pointy eared man at the door “Pleased you could make it, put your stuff down there and I’ll give you the tour soon. I’ve just gotta turn the oven off.”

“Thanks Dobbyn, no need to worry about me” said Keratis dragging his bag in behind him.

“Hey Roto!” said Keratis waving at his old friend on the couch “I didn’t realise you were going to be here”

“Well, I wasn’t but it was too good an opportunity to turn down, are you up for a game of ‘Cacrash’?”

3:30pm DST

“All right sorry that took a while, you guys ready for the tour?” said Dobbyn

“Yeah, we can pause the game here” replied Roto

“You say that because your winning” Traubon said half joking

“No, I just think it’d be great to make sure we finish the game off”

“So anyway, as you can see, we have a boat by the jetty” their host interrupted eager to get the tour going “and I’ve got the firepit ready to go. Take your pick of the rooms there’s heaps, mines on the end, oh we have two bathrooms, I do have to ask you to limit showers to 4 mins each though” the doorbell chimed “you guys pick your rooms I’ll get the door.”

3:45pm DST

“Traubon! I thought you would be too busy fighting the dark lord” greeted Dobbyn

“Well, everyone needs a break occasionally and at times it feels like a never-ending battle. Oh, I hope you don’t mind I’ve invited my girlfriend she’ll be here soon” Traubon replied

“Of course not, um I’ll just get a bed made up for her” Dobbyn replied.

The voices of Roto and Keratis drifted to the front door “if you move the boat to your town, you’ll win by trade victory”

“No because on the days of the week track it says its Tuesday, I still have to cleanse the evil mountain”

They had apparently chosen their rooms and were back at the game.

“Oh, hey Dobbyn you weren’t wrong about the rooms, now can you help us out with a game question?”

“Of course, first though I’d like to introduce Traubon the Hero of Adelia, Traubon this is detective Keratis and Roto”

“A pleasure to meet you please just Keratis though, I’m having a break this weekend”

“Oh, and please just Jack for me”

“That’s what I said”

“Did you? Sorry I must have misheard”

“It’s good to finally meet you Keratis” said Traubon stepping in to fill the awkward silence “you really helped out my king by finding the missing slippers”

“It was nothing, just a few questions here and there, couldn’t figure out who actually stole them though, anyway, have you played Cacrash before?”

“Have I played before? You don’t become the hero by simply slaying a few thousand monsters, deal me in”

“Well, if he wants in, we’ll have to start a new game” said Roto grumpily

“No problem let’s just ignore the last game shall we” grinned Traubon

“Oh, hey guys since we are going to have extra people here the showers are going to have to be limited to 3 minutes” Dobbyn piped in. The three nodded their heads in understanding.

“Also, Traubon you can’t bring your sword in here”

“Sorry it’s a magic sword that won’t leave me alone, do you have a room that I could put it in. It shouldn’t cause any trouble as long it’s nearby and I don’t summon it of course” he laughed.

“Of course,” said Dobbyn carefully thinking about how wise it was to have a magic sword inside the house, he decided he didn’t have much choice.

“I’ll show you a room where you can put it”

“Great and it has to be by itself, it makes an awful racket talking about my quests and many accomplishments”

Friday 4:30pm DST

Traubon returned and joined the other two for the game

“Why don’t you join us as well Dobbyn?” Keratis called

“Just let me get the roast veggies on, then I’ll be right with you”

“Okay, Traubon which team do you want to be?”

Friday 4:45pm DST

The door rang again “I’ll get it” yelled Dobbyn.

“Hi, I’m princess Almenia, Traubon invited me” the lady at the door said, Steve bowed and allowed her entrance. Her luggage floated in behind her, where shall I put these?”

“Allow me, it’s good to see you Almenia” Traubon said appearing next to Dobbyn

“You too, my love, have you arranged for separate rooms for our swords?”

“Oh, right I forgot about that, our swords don’t like each other much” Traubon explained to Dobbyn

“Um okay, is it safe to keep one in my room?” Dobbyn asked cautiously

“Do you have in evil in your heart? Because it will make a terrible racket all night if you do” inquired Almenia

“Okay um then you can probably use the spare room down on the left, just to be safe”

4:50pm DST

“Oh hey, guys! I didn’t realise you were here. You have to try the lake it’s awesome” said a very wet humanoid creature standing on the veranda rinsing her hair.

“Hey Alkedra, maybe after this game, it’s a bit icy for me yet” replied Roto “do you want to play Cacrash?”

“Absolutely, I’ll just finish drying off”

“Okay everyone give your cards back and I’ll re-deal them,” said Roto

“Sorry guys I’ll be ready in a minute, just wanted to let you know we can’t use the boat, my dad said it needs a lot of work so it’s probably not safe” called Dobbyn from the kitchen.

4:51pm DST

“So Traubon how is business going?” Alkedra asked

“Oh, you know not too bad, mostly lost objects and missing persons I did help solve the problem of the window of time breaking”

“Wow what happened?”

“Well, it was a hot day in the office, and I got a mysterious note with a picture of the broken window saying to come quickly”

“How big was the crack? That window is huge” Alkedra asked literally sitting on the edge of her seat

“That was what made the case so important, there was untold danger going to leak through if we didn’t find who did it and get it repaired soon.”

“Keratis it’s your turn” interrupted Roto

“Okay just give me a sec, wait a minute…I didn’t think enchanted wombat was in this version.”

“We’re playing with the expansion”

“Shouldn’t I have gotten two points last turn then when I flipped my house”

“No because I had the flaming leopards within 3 squares of it”

“Wait a minute which expansion is it? I’m pretty sure the flaming leopards have to be closer in the wings of the panda expansion” added Traubon

“Do you need any help with the food?” Said Alkedra looking to leave the discussion until it had cooled off

“Oh no I’m all good, I should be done in a few minutes, you can get the plates out. I figure we’ll eat whilst we watch the sunset over the lake” replied Dobbyn

Overhearing the discussion of dinner princess Almenia asked her beloved “Darling did you tell him I’m allergic to mushrooms?”

“Of course, I sent a raven through the portal ahead of me”

“You do know that ravens can’t go through the portal, don’t you?”

“Hmm, I’m just going to have a word with the host, can you take my turn for me” said Traubon running off.

7:00pm DST

“So, who’s up for a fire on the lakeside tonight?” Alkedra said excitedly

“Sorry guys I just realised that all the wood is wet” interjected Dobbyn

“Does anyone know a spell to dry the wood?” Alkedra asked

“I only know one fire spell and it will likely burn the place down, so we probably shouldn’t use it” Almenia said quietly

7:15pm DST

They all ate on the veranda watching and appreciating the colours the sunset produced in the sky and equally amazing reflection they made on the waves of the lake.

Until dark clouds suddenly formed covering the fiery beauty. Lightning flashed, and thunder roared. The group sat shocked not sure what to make of the quick change of events.

A voice boomed from the clouds “I have found you, you thought to run, but you can never escape me”.

Traubon stood up and called out “Magnas I’m on holiday. I thought we’d agreed to this”

“No Hero! we must fight”

“How about you join us for the night and take a break? we’re going to be playing Cacrash after dinner”

“hmmmm” the clouds funnelled down. The sunset returned and standing on the jetty was a tall man in dark spiked armour.

“Okay I’ll honour the truce for the weekend” then snapping his fingers his armour drifted away like smoke and in its place, he wore a faded yellow t-shirt and purple boardshorts. In one arm he carried a large bag of chips in the other was a large esky.

“It looks like someone came prepared”

“Yeah, well to be fair I was kinda lonely and it’s not fair that you get to have a holiday and I don’t”

“Hey, the more the merrier, oh host were going to need another bedroom”

“Oh, and a separate room for my sword” added in Magnas

“Let me guess it will fight with both Almenia’s and Traubon’s” said Dobbyn dryly

“Absolutely it will, believe me the racket those three make together will stop you sleeping for a month”

“Why don’t you guys just get the swords to stop it”

“We’ve tried before, unfortunately they were each made by a different brother. Each excelled at sword making, however they were incredibly competitive, and that spirit got channelled into them as they were being made.”

8:30pm DST

They sat around the unlit campfire

“It is a kinda warm night at least” said Roto to no one in particular

“So, princess how’s the knitting going?” asked Magnas

“Well don’t think I’m letting you off the hook for kidnapping me, but what I learned from the other prisoners in your dungeons was amazing. I’m so much better than I was before”

“I’m sorry did you say that you learnt to knit whilst I was risking my life to come and rescue you” Traubon interjected angrily

“I’m sure she wanted to escape; however, I find if my prisoners have something to do then they have less time to plan an escape”

“That’s not the point”

“I know some good knitters at the north pole, I can introduce you to them if you’d like” offered Keratis

“You’re not helping!”

Alkedra decided to ignore the argument and talk about something else “So Dobbyn up for a night swim?”

“No way that water is too icy, I’ll swim in the morning though”

“Okay suit yourself, I’m going for a quick dip before we have desert”

“About desert, umm I better go and get it ready” said Dobbyn and scurried off.

“Alkedra apart from swimming what have you been up to?” asked Roto

“Well, I’ve been really busy working on my website, and I’ve taken up RC racing.”

“I thought you lived underwater how does the website thing work?”

“Finding out how, is what got me into it in the first place…”

“But darling you loved the scarf I knitted for your birthday” Almenia called out after Traubon who seemed to be getting as far away as he could as fast as he could.

“Should I go after him?”

“Let him cool down a bit first, play a game of Cacrash whilst you’re waiting” offered Magnas

“We we’re surrounded by these glass shards that could have sliced us open at any moment. Father Time was unconscious so he couldn’t turn them back to sand. Then one glass shard as big as Traubon and I put together came and said “Bow before me and surrender or I shall destroy your past as well as your future” luckily, I had a backup plan that would work perfectly here. I slowly slid the gum out of my mouth so that it didn’t notice.”

“Can everyone come inside for a moment please I’ve got desert ready, and I have something to tell you all” Dobbyn called not really interested in Keratis’ story.

9:30pm DST

“One quick thing before I get to business, the shower time is now 1 min. Sorry I wanted to get that out of the way, so I didn’t disrupt the mood too much.” No one looked impressed.

“It’s been nearly 5 years since we all got together, well except you Dark lord although it is surprisingly nice to have you here and you…. talking squirrel um sorry, I didn’t get your name”

“Oh, that’s okay my name is Alford I live a few trees away near the waterfall. I was on a quest for some dry firewood when I saw Alkedra down at the lake I was so surprised as I absolutely adore her website. So anyways I asked her for an autograph then she said come join us for a game of Cacrash. So here I am, oh is it okay if I choose purple?” said the squirrel quickly.

“Yep, sure I guess that’s fine, so I’ve got an announcement to make”

“Reducing the shower time again?”

“Come on it’s not that bad I mean we could all go for a swim in the ice lake” added Keratis

“Oh, that sounds fantastic” piped in Alkedra

“I think he was joking” said Almenia

“Oh” said Alkedra looking disappointed

“That cake looks amazing, who made it?” asked Alford

“Yes, thank you, that was my mum”

“Let her know it looks great, shall we slice it up?”

“Give me a second!” said Dobbyn breathing heavily “I’ve forgotten why I asked you all here to begin with, well the ones that I actually asked, oh it doesn’t matter, does anyone have a knife to cut the cake. I don’t have one in the house apparently”

“I know what to do” said Traubon as he raised his hand unthinkingly summoning his sword. There was a crashing noise followed by another crashing noise as his sword flew through the far wall of the room.

“Does it have sugar?” asked Almenia as she stepped closer to the cake before Dobbyn could answer she let out an almighty scream as the pummel of the sword smacked her in the jaw.

“What the heck?” she shouted holding her jaw as tears streamed down her face.

“Honeybun!” cried Traubon horrified at what he had done.

“I thought we had sorted things out, you just couldn’t accept an apology could you!” she yelled at Traubon.

“I didn’t mean to” he replied not sure what to say.

The princess ran to the bathroom Traubon hesitated and then decided to follow. Screaming and several choice words could be heard, at which point everyone realised that they were not going to be sleeping anytime soon.

9:50pm DST

“Um I think I might be able to start a fire” offered Magnus, “in the firepit of course” everyone agreed. It took a fair bit of work, but they got a fire of sorts going and Keratis told the tale of how he ‘repaired the window of time’ into the early hours of the morning.

Arguing finished around 2:00am DST

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Saturday 9am (or close enough) DST

Keratis stumbled over the debris left from the sword’s escapade through the wall. He was surprised to Almenia and Traubon sitting together at the end of the jetty.

“Do you want to ask or shall I?” Alkedra said coming up beside Keratis.

“Oh, we better let them tell us in their own time” he replied.

10:30am DST

“Well, I should be off” said Magnus after breakfast “I’ll have to invite you all to my place once I’ve conquered the world”

“I think I might have to give that a miss,” said Roto.

“Oh well suit yourself, still we should do this again sometime, we never did get to finish that game did we?”

“That’s true, let’s make it not to long then”.

“Very well, until next time” Magnus walked away from the house then they heard a large thunderclap, and he was gone.

10:45am DST

Traubon and Almenia walked in “We just wanted to say we’re sorry for last night, we’ll pay for the damages”.

“Thank you, I don’t know how I’m going to explain it to my parents though, anyway how’s your jaw?” replied Dobbyn

“Oh, it was just a broken tooth, Traubon gave me some healing herbs and it’s all better”

“Yes, sorry again, also I’m afraid we must be going as well, if Magnus has gone back then we need to be there to keep him in check” Traubon said

“It was good to see you again” said Dobbyn as he and the others waved goodbye.

11:30am DST

“Well, that was an interesting weekend, anyone want to try for one last game?” offered Roto sitting after eating another round breakfast.

“Hey, watch it” a small voice said from beneath him. Alford stood up looking rather grumpy at being sat on

“Sorry little guy, did you want a game, you can be purple?” Alford decided he wanted to play rather than be grumpy. So finally, the five remaining guests played a full game of Cacrash.

3:00pm DST

Only Keratis and Dobbyn were left now. “I know what you were going to talk about last night” Keratis said.

“What was that?”

“You were going to announce that you had finished the latest expansion to Cacrash”

“It’s a masterpiece, I thought it would have been great if everyone could have played it together” Dobbyn said wistfully

“It would have been, there’s one other thing I have to talk about though, I know you took the slippers”

“What! no I didn’t”

“You did and I know it wasn’t exactly intentional”

“It was a big misunderstanding”

“One that lead to the princess getting captured by the dark lord”

“Yeah, so what are you going to do with me?”

“Well, I think an apology first to the king and then perhaps a demonstration of the new expansion of a certain card game might help reduce your sentence a bit, I hear he is quite a fan” Dobbyn suddenly perked up

“Okay let’s go, um can we pack up first though my parents are going to be here on Monday and if they see the house like this, they are going to kill me”

“Of course,” smiled Keratis

3:30pm DST-Case complete