Xaviers!

Tosh had used what artistic sensibilities he had to craft a small sackful of merchandise to trade his way to a gemstone large and clear enough to help get them home. These odds and ends included exotic looking but non-anachronistic metal jewelry, a couple of knives, and a decorative tankard because getting drunk is always popular. It had added a few days to their stay and Tosh hoped that time spent would prove fruitful in the end.


So the hooded form of Tosh scratched his week-and-a-half growth of beard and walked into the nearest town, sack of wares over one shoulder. Trying desperately not to look shifty, he set up shop in the town center. How hard could playing merchant be anyway?

It's certainly simpler than in modern times. Nobody seems to care about permits or any such non-sense here. The town isn't huge, but it's large enough to have a decent number of people setting up shop as well and Tosh has to kind of fight for a spot, at least to get a somewhat decent one. People mostly sell produce and tools, things for everyday life. Jewelry and trinkets draw a lot of attention, even if only a few actually buy something, which at least tells Tosh he's not putting a horrible price on his wares. People do constantly ask him where he got these things from or how he made them and just generally asking for his story...

He told anyone who asked that he was a traveler from the east who needed to sell some of his possessions to continue his travels. He also asked people about where he may procure a gemstone for his waiting bride to be.

"Oh how lovely!" one woman exclaims to Tosh's story. "But I'm afraid you'd have more luck trying to find a lioprachán to swindle outta one, lad. Not many precious gems round these parts and the ones they do dig out of the ground are claimed by Mac Lochlainn."

"Is this Mac Lochlainn the local lord?"

"Aye. He's laying claim to be the High King." she says, then adds in a hushed voice, "But so's everyone else, eh?"

"You must be from quite a ways away indeed if you don't know that."

"I'm afraid I am," he smiled. "Where, good lady, might I find this High King? I may have something worth trading for a stone of which he surely has many greater than I'd need."

"Oh, he rarely comes out of his castle by the lake nowadays. Thinks he's too good to meet with the rest of us, he does."

He thanked the woman and, once some time had passed, packed up his wares and headed for the lakeside castle.

"How much historical data do you have on hand?" a radioed Ashlie.

"Not an awful lot for this area and time-period, why?" Ashlie's voice comes over the radio.

"I got a name of a self-supposed High King. Mac Lochlainn. He's between us and what we need."

"The clan is mentioned as existing but that's as much as I can find. My records on Irish succession are rather spotty though."

"Oh well. It was worth a shot. I'll improvise. If I'm lucky, I can get the crystal the civil way," he said, continuing on.

"That'd be ideal. Good luck, Tosh. Let me know if you need any help."

"Will do."

When he reached the castle, he took a good look around as he approached.

There wasn't much in the way of guards around the castle--a couple bored middle-aged people in ill-fitting armor hanging around the entrance of a sturdy, if less than perfectly maintained, castle.

Tosh approached.

"Good afternoon sirs," he said with a smile modeled after his father at the family shop.

"Uh, Halt! What business do you have here?" one of them said, after a moment's thought.

"Me? I am but a traveling artisan. I was hoping to offer my services to the High King."

"High king has no need for artisans. Piss off!"

A friendly lot, this.

"Surely a great lord needs great art?" he asked, confidence in his ploy wavering.

"Not from a mere boy. Piss off!"

Close-minded, aren't they?

"Suit yourselves," he said, wandering off and doubling back to check out the lake. If it went up to the castle, he'd dive in and look for a way in as Bruce.

It very much did! It was designed as a security system to keep wannabe commoners out. Most wannabe commoners couldn't turn into fish, though.

The lake jutted up to the rear of the castle, where some sort of unguarded back door sat, uh, unguarded.

Bruce surfaced and returned to being human before climbing out. Tosh gave himself a few moments to dry out and cracked open the gate to sneak inside.

It was...a kitchen! Filled with servants VERY busy, obviously stressed out and arguing. No one immediately noticed Tosh as he quietly opened the door.

Tosh thought things over carefully.

Steal one's clothes? No. I'm not remotely passable.

So he just tossed a small rock at a servant's unobserved back for a distraction and would sneak by while the agitated servants bickered. He hoped that was a thing that actually worked.

It really shouldn't have worked.

But it totally did! The distracted servants started arguing with one another, allowing Tosh room to squeeze by! Hurray for things in movies.

There was noise coming down a long stone corridor--more servants were going that way, but there was also the sound of some voices talking. Arguing? Something like that. That seemed to be where most of the people were--whether that's the direction Tosh wanted to go, well...

He risked eavesdropping on the argument.

"...told you once, I've told you a thousand times! Don't get meat from that filthy MacTaggert!"

Then there was the sound of something metal bouncing off of something, and a belch.

He tried to peek at what fell.

Some sort of goblet, that had been thrown at a servant.

He decided to explore in the unoccupied direction. Having to Bruce his way out after getting caught would definitely affect the timeline.

If I were a treasure room, where would I be?

He looked for stairs down.

After a few minutes, he did in fact find some stairs down, though at the bottom there was a locked wooden door.

Tosh frowned and, after making sure he was alone, turned into Bruce long enough to quietly bust the lock.

There's a limit to how "quietly" someone can bust a lock, but at least it was fairly simple.

This was definitely a treasure room of some description--coins, tapestries, goblets, the works.

There was also one very large, pure-looking gem that might be just what he was looking for.

Tosh headed inside, nervously hoping he'd been quiet enough. He marveled at the discovery with a grin as he moved toward the gem. Feeling more than a little bit like a certain green-clad elf, he picked up the gem and examined it carefully before beginning his escape.

It was indeed, a shiny gem. Very shiny.

Now, all he had to do was find a way to secretly get it out of the castle.

Step one was getting out of the castle basement, so he headed upstairs. He then began searching for a window overlooking the lake to either dive out or throw the gem out.

His snooping around, this time, did eventually draw the attention of one of the servants.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?"