The following is from a conversaion between Da Boss and Kitiara Majere, a recently recruited Free Man

The tall man (as he approaches it becomes clear that he is a man) wears a dark swirly cloak. The brim of his hat is so wide and floppy that it makes it impossible to get a good look at his face.

Oddly, you note several burns and holes in his cloak, and his hat has a charred spot. They seem out of place on him.

"So dis is da spiritual Kitiara Majere. I am pleased to meet youse. I have a lot to talk to youse about, so please get comftable."

He speaks in an oddly high-pitched tone. The dwarf, mudman and halfling gather too, but at a respectful distance.

"I saw youse in a dream, Kitiara. I know how weird dat sounds, and I'm not much for da hocus-pocus if youse knows what I mean, but still dat's what happened. I saw lots of udder people too, Hammer and Lodobi and 'Vangeline and udders."

"But dis is not da start of da story. I am old, Kitiara, not like an elf or nuttin' but still older than a human has a right to be. Dis is my third world. I started a long time ago as a small-time hood in a place youse never hoid of called Philadelphia (though he pronounced it "Fuluffya"). I was connected but strictly small-time, ya know, ran some numbers, sold some grass, broke a few legs dat needed it, dat kinda thing. Mostly I rode my hog and did what I was told. But I got old and slow and moved to Miami."

"Then some weird shit went down dat would take too long to tell, and I was in a whole new place, anotter woild wit' magic and swords and stuff, named Macca, kinda like dis place actually. And I had dis goofy tiny body wit' fairy wings and all. I was in dat udder place for a long time, most of anudder lifetime, did lotsa stuff and made new friends and adventured all over da place, but alla time I kept tryin' to get back home."

"Got close, too, coupla times. One time I thought I was home but it wasn't, it looked like it but was all different people and weird creatures, well, youse get da picture."

"Anudder time I made it back, honest to god I was standin' in south Philly again, but some of my new friends got themselves in a jam while we was travellin' dere and I had to leave to get 'im out. And da way between exploded so's dat was dat."

"But den later while I was adventurin' some more, I made a deal wit' one of da Maccan gods, a "you wash my back and I'll wash yours" kinda thing. I did what she wanted, and she gimme a wish. But dis chick, I dunno, wanted to screw wit' me or sumthin' cause da wish didn't work like I 'spected it would."

"I wished to go home, to da place where I was wit' da people I loved. But not old and all, and not Miami, I wished to be younger, so's I could do my life up right dis time. Know what I mean? I kinda wasted my life da first time, so's I wished dat dis time I could make a difference, ya know? Be more dan just some wise guy biker wit' an attitude. I wished to matter to da woild and not just to me."

"When I finished da wish, I fell asleep or sumthin' cause I started dreaming. Real vivid-like. And I saw faces, yours and others, and I saw a place, and I saw a dark cloud over dis place, and I saw da faces again and dey was fightin' beside me against dis dark cloud. And I loved dem, all of dem. Like family. Weird huh?"

"Right den I woke up, and I was here on dis woild. But dis time at least I didn't change bodies or nuttin, and I still had all my Maccan stuff, so's I wasn't like naked or nuttin'."

"I laid low for awhile, finally made it to a city. I gotta talent for showin' people what I'm thinkin', and I showed da faces to a guy who drawed 'em up real good. Den I started lookin' up seers and oracles and dem kinda wackos, and dey told me about the people I'd seen. Dey was real people."

"I been here two years now. I found da place in my dream too, haven't seen da dark cloud tho, must be one of dem mystical references, dere prolly aint no cloud at all but some kinda bad thing gonna happen maybe? So's I set about makin' myself useful, building some stuff dat I thought would help, puttin' myself in a place where I could meet useful people and stuff, and I spent a lotta time lookin' for da people I saw in my dream. I found 'em too, not all yet, but youse is one of da last, dere's only a handful left."

"But ya know, dey was all thieves and sneaks! Or folks who maybe wasn't thieves but fit right in wit' em. I figger dat's on poipose ya know? Like I aint da kinda guy to go raisin' no armies or startin' crusades or whatever, I'm a thief, so's if I'm gonna be makin' some kind of difference in dis woild, it's gonna be as a theif too. Or sometin' like dat."