Random Happenstance

I thought this was a different issue, but I had blogged that one already, so it works out. From 1991, Forgotten Realms #23, "Unreal Estate" Written by Jeff Grubb, pencils by Chas Truog, inks by Dave Simons.

The crew of the Realms Master is in bad shape after the end of the Avatar crossover: their ship had been destroyed, for one thing. Since the rules of magic had changed--somewhat literally, with a new edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons--wizard Omen was addled and useless. Golem (and former dwarf) Minder had a new body. Paladin Agrivar's alcoholism had been amplified by an angry god; namely Labelas, the patron of elf cleric Vartan. Labelas had been a colossal prick during the crossover and had nearly taken over Vartan's body, which was a little disillusioning for him. When a random encounter brings them to a band of elves fighting a human merchant caravan; Vartan is somewhat unsurprised to discover Labelas put a lot of spin on the events in Avatar, painting himself (and incidentally, Vartan) has the big heroes of it.

The elves are, somewhat overzealously, defending the ruins of Myth Drannor. The merchants claim to have written permission to travel through there, which halfling Foxy immediately recognizes as a fake. Defensively, the merchant admits he won it in a card game, from a "little person" like Foxy. To calm everyone down, and maybe keep Agrivar from drinking for five minutes, Vartan sends Foxy and Agrivar ahead to investigate the "little person." Who has been hanging out in the Black Cross, a tavern. Okay, there's a few problems with Vartan's plan.

At the Black Cross, Foxy and Agrivar find the "little person," who claims not to be a halfling, but "just one of the many 'little folk' you find anywhere in the Realms. Just trying to survive in a world where everything is bigger than us." It's a pretty obvious play for sympathy, he seems to be doing just fine. Still, he loses his enchanted mug to Agrivar, who thinks he can take him, then proceeds to lose his shirt. The "little person" was a leprechaun, polymorphing the cards as needed. Foxy then challenges him, betting Agrivar's services, and also losing, badly. Still, Foxy had only been stalling, for Minder's arrival. Although Minder would be immune to polymorph (or at least so Foxy claims...) he challenges the leprechaun to a final high card match. That Foxy wins, since he had been cheating, too. In the end, even though he had made mistakes, Agrivar is willing to continue on with his friends, rather than drink himself to death. The small victories.