"I mostly haven't stumbled into any adventures that really musted at me. Some people have all the luck."

"I suppose there was an amount of luck involved," Jojo says, his nose twitching.

"You kidding? You had great luck. That quest was morally unambiguous, epic in scope, paid for by the government... A little bit incomprehensible towards the end by all accounts, but that's nothing for you to worry about, that's the bards' problem."

"I haven't actually heard this story, I'm from another planet."

"Wow. That one's new on me. Uh, do you in fact want to tell this story or should I?"

"Please, go ahead."

"Alright. So, there was this big magic-resistant plague in the city of Neverwinter, right? Jojo here was a monk in the service of Tyr in that city, when suddenly the Lady Aribeth, this big-time paladin higher-up, comes to him and says, basically, 'we screwed up.' They'd brought in some magical creatures to use parts of them to make a cure for the plague, but the creatures escaped. So Jojo and some compatriots hunt down the creatures, and they make the cure, and along the way it turns out the plague was actually an enemy action, and Aribeth's boyfriend was in on it. So he gets executed. Now, they're searching for who sent the plague in the first place, and Aribeth's having a real hard time because her boyfriend got killed. Jojo finds out the plague was inflicted by this archmage from Luskan, and whoops-a-daisy, Aribeth vanishes, and next thing anyone knows she's a blackguard leading a Luskan army against Neverwinter. But Jojo found out along the way that the archmage is looking for these ancient artifacts called the Words of Power, and the best idea anybody has is 'find them before he does'. So they do. And it turns out along the way that the archmage is a servant of the ancient lizardfolk - no relation - who ruled the world before the dragons, and they want to turn the planet into an eternal jungle and rule again, and so they're puppeteering this archmage, and that's why the plague and that's why the Words of Power. And then Jojo vanquishes Aribeth in single combat and defeats the archmage and uses the Words to go into the pocket dimension with the ancient lizardfolk and kill their evil queen. And we're all very proud of him."

"Cool. What went down with the lizardfolk power vacuum?"

"The pocket dimension collapsed without Morag to sustain it," Jojo says quietly. "I believe any who were not personally devoted to Morag and her plan of conquest had already perished in the ice age, however."

"Wow, rough day to be a lizardfolk who found a qualm under the couch cushions though."

"Yes," Jojo says. "It was the most important thing I have ever done, but it may be the one that has made me lose the most sleep."

"Most important thing you done yet," Deekin corrects absently. "...wait, no, missed mood there. Ignore Deekin."

"Congratulations, condolences."

"Thank you and thank you," he says wryly. "Deekin has a fascinating story of his own, but I'm not sure I'm qualified to tell it. Then again he also published his story himself, so you could read it at your leisure if you prefer."

"Will I miss much if I do it with comprehend languages rather than as a language exercise?"

"Deekin has always felt Deekin's work highly translatable," the kobold says humbly. "Content universal; language largely incidental. Might miss subtlest wordplay."

"I will imagine some subtle wordplay. I don't usually feel like I can use a new language for light reading till I've been fluent in it for longer than this."

Nod. "Deekin not fluent in anything except Common and Draconic and old kobold tribe pidgin, sounds stressful."

"Being suddenly on another planet is sure an experience improved by access to Comprehend Languages and Tongues."

"Deekin certainly imagine so."

He roots around in his backpack and pulls out a slightly beaten-up copy of The Shadows of Undrentide, the cover of which features a human in black armor facing off against a medusa. "Here, Deekin lend you copy. Deekin not want you buying from publisher unless you have to, bastards stiffed Deekin."

"Aw, thank you."

"No problem, uh... drow... lady... What be drow lady's name?"

"Belmarniss."

"Nice to meet you! Deekin be Deekin. Scalesinger, but Deekin mostly just get surname for publicity."

"I don't have enough publicity to get fancy with so far."