Old Man in the Bar

"Oh Gods, not this story again" Johnny One-Eye muttered as he pushed the grime around the inside of a cheap tin mug before filling it with Ale and passing it to one of the wide-eyed travellers passing through town. Young enough to have forgotten life in the Empire, born a generation too late to know what life was like when you could walk a road unarmed. Back when everyone knew how to read, could go to university, when you could afford to have a few poets or philosophers around.

Those wild halcyon days of the Holy Human Empire, when the dwarves worked hard in the mining camps and the elves were crammed into row-planted forests to keep them in line, and everyone paid taxes. One-Eye spit into the mug to clean off a spot before laying it out to dry.

"So, we're ambling up toward the old capital" the old, drunken pile of rags was just getting started, "And we're just close enough to see the parapets above the walls when all of the sudden" He slammed his mug on the table for dramatic affect. "A column of fire shoots up from the imperial palace all purple and blue and screaming like a banshee."

He drank until a small voice from the back begged to know what happened and then rubbed his mouth with the back of his wrist.

"Well, I says to Vinnie and Tom, I says to hell with this, we're taking the caravan back to the inn and waiting until this blows over, and they say this kind of thing happens all the time in the big city. Hah!"

"So I come back the next day" At this point in the theatrics he leans back, staring at the sagging rafters. "And the capitol city is empty. The buildings are still there, but there wasn't nobody! Not even a blade of grass! Miles of empty city! Imagine that. The greatest city in the world, gone! I didn't know what to do. I slept in some missing blokes house, and by the time I woke up, my damn mule was gone too! And the laughter, I could always hear someone laughing a few feet away but whenever i'd turn there was nobody there."

"But the strangest part is, by the time I had walked back to the town..." And he threw back his hood and opened his milky white eyes.

All three of them.

He couldn't see the reaction of the small band, he guessed they were 4 or 5 among them, but he heard the gasp, and that was enough to lower his hood back over his features.

"Hark my words, lads, and stay far from the old capital city. There's nothing there but death and empty streets. 'tis the Devil's city now."

And he turned back to his mug, satisfied in his day's work.

Until the small voice in the back, with the mark of Ioun on his forehead, piped up once again. "Sounds more like the Summer Queen's work, if you ask me."

The entire bar seemed to focus on the bookish eladrin, who seemed to shrink under the attention like a wilting flower.

"The what queen?"

"I - I was joking of course. The Summer Queen rules over the Feywild. Sometimes travelers will see dancing purple flames and disembodied laughter before being stolen away into the Feywild. But," he laughed "Even she couldn't steal a city."

Dissatisfied with this answer, the crowd returned to their drinks. And the young librarian, returning to sit with his four friends, felt the empty stare of the three-eyed drunk long after he had gone to bed and fitful rest.