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Chapter 3: Hunter's Resolve
Finn wished he could say sleeping in the windmill had been more comfortable, but it was just passable. When he awoke the windmill was silent besides Jebediah's loud snores. He sat up against the wall behind him and just stared at the stone wall ahead of him. His thoughts trailed to the other day. The attack hadn't made sense and Finn just couldn't put it together. They attacked one ship and then left. Then they nearly killed a kid. Then Torek lied about being robbed. He couldn't connect the pieces but the sound of talking broke his focus.
"Mornin' Paladin." Jason said walking down the stairs. Jebediah's snoring came to a halt as he sat up noticing the dwarf on the stairs. Finn just replied with a nod as Jebediah let out a stunningly loud yawn. Jason walked past the two and opened the front door showing the sun was already high in the sky. "Let's get movin'." He said before the door closed behind him.
Finn stood up and made his way up the stairs finding Errk and Pellet asleep on the top floor. He woke the two up and led them outside of the windmill. Errk complained about the sunlight as they made their way down to the Durz' household. Jansen and Margaret were standing outside and watched as the group approached.
"We just wanted to thank y'all before we made our way back." Jason said approaching the couple. "But we were hoping we could possibly have a meal before making our way back." Jebediah perked his head up at the mention of food.
"Of course." Margaret said before hurrying inside the house.
Jansen gave a simple nod gesturing inside the house, "got some fresh food for y'all." The group followed the hunter inside and the two kids were already sitting at the table. "I can't tell you how grateful we truly are. These are our kids, Damien and Saura." The two kids weakly smiled but remained silent. "Our table isn't exactly suited for…so many guests but I'm sure it'll work." He gestured at the table that could sit four people.
"It's no concern." Jason said. "Y'all take a seat and we're all good." Jansen replied with a nod as he took a seat at the table while Margaret started making bowls of food. Slowly she handed them out one by one to every member of the team.
Before Finn could even take a bite, he watched Jebediah, who was nearly bent over just to fit into the house, just slurp his stew down almost instantaneously. It was admittedly impressive, but he did his best to ignore the goliath. He noticed the children watching the goliath with grins on their face. It was rather amusing.
Pellet had his face stuffed in his bowl and the gnome let out a couple of grunts and slurps as he consumed his food. It was like how he ate his millet but with more splashing. This was such an odd group. Finn turned and looked at his own bowl and slowly ate as everyone made some small talk. It was mostly the Durz family discussing the goblin attacks and the boars they had recently hunting. It took a moment, but Finn finally put two and two together that this must've been the boar stew Ellen had mentioned the night before. Errk was right, this stuff was delicious!
When everyone finished eating Jansen dug threw a chest beside the bed and pulled out an arrow. He held it out to Jason saying, "take this. It's an Unbreaking Arrow. It's the least I can offer after you saved our family."
Jason put a handout and accepted the arrow responding, "it's no worry friend. Though I think I should help pay after destroying some of your crop out there."
"It means nothing," Jansen looked back at his kids, "absolutely nothing after what you did."
Jason reached in his bag and pulled out a bag of coin and held it out to the hunter. "Just take this kind sir. A small payment in kind."
"No, no." Jansen shook his head. "We're doing quite fine."
Jason slowly put the bag of gold into Jansen's hand. He leaned forward and said, "I insist good hunter. Just take this small payment and we'll be on our way." Finn wasn't sure how much gold Jason had been offering, but more than four gold pieces for the average person wasn't a "small" payment.
Jansen slowly nodded closing his hand around the bag, "ok. If you insist."
"Well thank you very much then." Jason replied turning towards the door. "I believe it's time we make our way." Errk and Pellet made their way out of the door followed by Jebediah who had to squeeze himself through.
As Finn walked to the door, he looked back at the kids one more time, they both looked rough, and their eyes didn't have the shiny look of innocence that most kids have. He wished that he could give that back to them, to give them a life of peace but in his heart, Finn knew he couldn't. They would have to grow up with the scars they were given from the goblins and wolves and Saura would have to live with the trauma she somehow survived. It was a cold world in the wild, but why did it have to be so cold to children?
Finn turned and made his way out the door joining the others in the bright sunlight. He noticed the giant whole in Jansen's crop that Jason must've made. What an odd thing to do.
"Who's leading?" Errk asked as Jason joined the group. Everyone looked at the dwarf already knowing the answer.
Jason looked around with a slight grin. He quickly answered, "guess we know the answer. Follow me." The group followed suit as the dwarf led them back the way they came. He changed a couple of turns throughout the woods, but Finn trusted that he knew what he was doing.
After a couple of hours, they found themselves on a trail that led into a clearing. The trees cleared out and they were left with a large field covered in shrubbery and rocks. As they got further along the path everyone noticed two brown bears in the middle of the path eating on two creatures.
"So…" Finn began as the group stopped walking. "Who knows what to do with bears?" Errk just shook his head vigorously and Pellet stepped behind Jebediah before dashing to a bush on the side of the trail to their right. The goliath himself just shrugged and gestured at his axe. Jason put a hand up to the group.
"I got this." Jason slowly crept forward on the trail until one of the bears looked up at him. "Howdy there." The bear just stared. "I was hoping that we could get y'all off the trail." Jason gestured at the two creatures they were eating. "I see y'all have a nice meal for yourselves. We'd just like to move them off the road and continue on our way."
The bear just stared at Jason before growling and then roaring at him. Finn couldn't help but let out a sigh as the bear charged. It ran right up to Jason who himself turned into a bear. A lot like the wolf from the day before he remained wearing his hat atop of his head. The bear and Jason started clawing at each other.
Finn watched as the other bear charged the bush that Pellet had just hid in. When the bear reached the bush a loud boom of thunder struck, and the bear flew back 10 feet. Pellet emerged from the bush and ran back behind Jebediah yelling the same word the entire time. Finn couldn't understand what he said but he had a pretty good guess.
Finn took into action as he heard a gunshot ring out behind him. He charged the lone bear who was recovering from the thunder boom. It shook its head and braced itself for Finn, but the paladin took his sword and swung upwards summoning the strength of Torm.
He used the flat of his blade to swing up and hit the chin of the bear forcing it to stand up. As the bear was up and tall Finn watched his sword begin to glow a bright silver and gold before he took the blade and struck it through the chest of the bear. It fell over dead as he pulled his great sword out and turned around looking at the other bear. Jebediah was in the action of bringing his axe down and Finn watched as the goliath decapitated the bear in one swift movement.
The valley was silent as the two bears lay at the feet of the team. Before anyone said anything, Pellet let out a loud cheer as everyone grouped up. Jason turned back into his normal self while Errk and Pellet started examining the two bears.
Finn simply looked away towards the food source of the bears and noticed they were two horses. Both were nearly cleaned off the bone as the bears had put in some work, but they still had stuff on them. "Let's go check this out." Finn said so Jason followed him over to the two horses. They both had saddles on them and some leather working along their torsos. It was hard to tell what the leather working was for as the bears had torn it apart. "What happened here?" Finn asked looking around while Jason looted the horses.
Finn noticed some bones on the side of the road but otherwise nothing was around. There was no sign of attack, but these horses didn't seem like they died that long ago. Yes, they were torn apart, but there was only slight rotting. The riders were missing as well. He looked around for arrows or any blood that seemed out of place and there was nothing. How peculiar.
"Paladin." Finn looked over at Jason who was holding two saddles. "One of these is messed up, but fixable. You want it?"
"Yeah." Finn said as Jason handed him one of the two. It had tears throughout it like the bears had messed it up. It also had a couple of small holes in it but otherwise nothing noticeable. "We'll take to a shop."
Jason nodded and the two turned to the others who were still skinning the bears. Errk had his bear pelt nearly done and Pellet was working carefully his. They all watched the two work and in the end they had two pelts and some bear meat Pellet had managed to recover. Jason continued leading them back to town and after a couple of hours they approached the gate to the town.
The Zhelezo aimed their guns at the group and Jebediah grunted. The Goliath stepped up, but Finn put his hand up. "Calm down big guy." Before Finn could turn to the Zhelezo Jason stepped forward.
"Howdy. We're just returning from helping out a hunter in the woods. Ordrog sent us." The dwarf explained and the Zhelezo looked at one another and tightened their grip on their guns. Oh boy.
One of the guards spoke up, "Ordrog doesn't have any hunters in his guild." Jason slowly stepped backwards into the group as Jebediah slowly grabbed his axe.
Errk quickly stepped forward in a shocking move, "we were hired by Ordrog for Regmund at the Nimble Leg Inn. I work for Ordrog." The guards looked at one another and mumbled before they lowered their guns.
"Alright then. Move along." The group made their way into the town with the gates closing behind them. They started making their way back to the inn as Errk led them through the town.
"So." Pellet said. "Where can we go for this stuff?" He gestured at the bear pelt he was carrying. The thing probably weighed as much as he did.
"We can go to a leather worker. But we should speak to Regmund first." Errk answered and everyone agreed. They made their way back to the inn and Errk pushed Finn to the front of the group. "You explain it." Finn couldn't help but grin at his new bird friend and walked inside.
He spotted Regmund and Ellen sitting behind the bar, so he approached them. Their eyes locked on his as he neared so he leaned on the bar and said, "we found Jansen." Fear and worry filled Ellen's face. "Not to worry. They are ok. They've been dealing with goblin attacks for the past week and their kids were hurt." Finn watched Ellen's face twist and knew he needed to explain quickly. "They're safe. We saved them and got rid of the problem. They should be fine and back to normal soon."
"Thank the gods." Ellen replied as Regmund stood up. The older dwarf made his way around the bar and made his way towards Finn. The paladin noticed why the inn had gotten its name. Regmund was an old dwarf with white hair, but he had a peg leg and walked with a cane. Every step he took his body lurched forward as he limped.
He stepped up to Finn and held out a bag. "It's not much." Regmund began to speak as Finn accepted the bag. "But it's all we can spare at the moment." Regmund gestured at the rest of the group and continued, "all of you can have free lodging here from now on. You've down us a massive favor." The old dwarf took a breath before turning around and limping back behind the bar.
"Thank you." Finn replied before looking back at the group. "Anything we need to do today? Sun's still high." He watched as Pellet held up the bear pelt in his hands. "Let's go." Finn looked at the bird. "Errk?"
"Yeah I know the place." Errk answered as his eyes trailed down to the bag. Finn rolled his eyes and divided out 60 copper and 15 gold to everyone. When they finished Errk spoke up again, "now we can go." Errk led the way through the town once again and after 30 minutes of walking the group came up to another stone building that read: Tanner's Guild.
They walked inside and a young woman stood behind the bar. The guild looked a lot like the Black Forge Guild. It was one large building with a long bar with two gateways. The shop was empty besides a small section of shelving along the back wall.
"Hi there, how can I help you guys today?" The woman asked as Pellet trotted up to the counter. He tossed the bear pelt onto it and some dried-up blood fell off. The woman just watched and looked unfazed.
"I got some questions for you." Pellet said as everyone stood behind him watching. The woman just nodded so he continued. "I was hoping you could make this into a cloak for me."
"Of course."
"Ok ok." Pellet mumbled to himself for a second before looking back at the woman. "On the inside I'm hoping for silk on the inside so it's reversible." He paused to see how the woman reacted, but she just nodded and started writing the order down on some parchment. "And a hood on it too." She just continued writing. Pellet stopped talking as he pulled out his own parchment and began to draw. "So kinda like this." He showed her his ideas and her eyebrows scrunched down with confusion. He continued drawing but Finn couldn't see what he was drawing. "Also, can I get a pocket here?" Pellet gestured at his chest and the woman nodded confused.
"Why would you need that?" She asked. Before Pellet could answer his bat stuck its head out of his shoulder. The woman seemed to notice the little bat head and stared for a moment. She slowly raised her notebook and wrote while saying, "bat." She lowered her notebook and looked at Pellet who was petting his bat. "Anything else?" Pellet shook his head and the two quietly talked. Pellet dropped a bag of gold on the bar, and he turned around and walked back to the group. The woman grabbed the bear pelt and threw it on a shelf with the notes she wrote down.
Finn watched as Jason stepped up to the bar and he set his saddle on it. The girl looked puzzled as it was a perfectly fine saddle. "So, I was wondering," Jason said, "if we could turn this into a backpack."
"The saddle?" The woman asked puzzled.
"Yeah. So, I want to be able to put stuff in it while wearing it all times. And a little stand on my shoulder for Po." Jason explained putting his bag on the bar next to her. Po gave a little chirp in acknowledgment.
"Why do you want a saddle backpack?" She asked causing Jason to look back at the group. He had a light grin on his face. Jason stepped back away from the counter before turning into the large wolf that he had been the day before.
The woman screamed and four guards came running up front with crossbows aimed at Jason. Finn stepped forward putting his hands up towards them. He started to yell, "whoa whoa. Everyone calm down!" Jason turned back into his normal self, but they kept aiming at the dwarf. "No need to fight, he's just a little weird."
Jason gave Finn a small look before focusing on the guards once again. "I mean no harm I promise." He fell silent as the guards all stared at him for a minute. The woman was freaking out behind the counter staring at him in horror. Finn couldn't really blame her; he was pretty freaked out when Jason did it too.
After a couple of minutes, the guards slowly filtered into the back and the woman was pacing back and forth talking to herself. Her breathing slowly calmed down before she regained her composure. She looked back at Jason and wrote down the request before taking the saddle. Once again Finn couldn't hear what she said but Jason paid, and he stepped away.
"You're up." Finn told Errk so the bird stepped up to the counter. He watched as Errk set the pelt down on the counter and the two talked quietly. He could only pick up on some place called the Stone Anvil but that was it. The girl took the pelt and gave Errk a bag of gold. Errk quietly turned around and joined the group once again.
Finn stepped up and set the saddle down. "How much to repair this?"
The woman examined it for a second before answering, "it's an easy fix. 5 gold." That was much cheaper than Finn had expected. Awesome. He handed over the gold. "It'll be done in the morning."
"Thank you." Finn replied as he turned and looked at the group. "Let's get moving." He followed everyone outside, and the group stood in a circle.
"So, what do we do now?" Pellet asked his expression kind of glowing. Finn hadn't seen the gnome "happy" before, but he seemed it at the moment. Probably the excitement of getting his new cloak.
"I'd like to go to the Stone Anvil." Errk requested. Everyone looked at the bird surprised that he actually requested something. So far, he had just followed everyone.
"Sounds like a plan to me." Jason replied but Finn had other plans. He looked over towards the docks before looking at the others.
"I'm gonna go check out the docks. Y'all have fun at the Anvil." Finn said making everyone look at him weird. Finn looked up at Jebediah and said, "you're with me big man."
"What do you need him for?" Jason asked as Finn started to step away from the group.
"He's a goliath. I'll get answers." Finn answered as Jebediah followed him away from the group. The others all turned and began walking together as Finn made his way towards the docks. He wasn't very familiar with the town, but he started to recognize parts of the town.
Jebediah was quiet as Finn led the way. The two were still new to each other and the goliath hadn't been super talkative, and Finn wasn't in a chatting mood. The quiet didn't bother either of them as they arrived at the docks.
The scene was better than it had been the two days before. Smoke still billowed in some spots and rubble covered the ground, but at least it was calm now. Half of a ship was sticking out of the water and some people were walking around while others cleaned.
"Over here." Finn ordered walking towards the ship. What had it been carrying? And why was it so important?
"What're we looking for?" Jebediah asked as Finn looked over in the water. The ship didn't look special. It looked just like the Porpoise had…which Finn never talked to the captain. That would be a long explanation when they got back to Port Damali.
"Anything that can help us…" Finn said trailing off as he looked back. He noticed the young Zhelezo that he had saved. Jamie Deshi noticeably alone, was walking along the port kind of examining everyone. "Over here."
The two approached Jamie who hadn't noticed them. As they got close Jamie looked over probably noticing the ground shaking from Jebediah. He looked a lot better than he had before, his hair was still messy, but it was clean of blood. His bruises had disappeared, and the cuts faded. "Hi there."
"Hey Jamie." Finn began. "We were hoping you could help us out with some information?" Finn noticed Jebediah cross his arms standing behind him like he were a bodyguard.
"About what?" Jamie asked looking at Jebediah before looking back at Finn.
"About the attack." Finn answered. The paladin gestured at the sunken ship, "what happened?"
The young Zhelezo nodded and paused. He seemed to be collecting his words before he carefully answered, "well. We were patrolling these docks like normal and suddenly there was an explosion." Finn nodded as Jamie continued to slowly answer. "They stole a load of firearms and ammunition. I don't think the reasoning is hard to figure out."
"Yeah…" Finn trailed off thinking back to the attack. "So, I got a question Jamie." The boy just nodded so Finn continued. "What's the story with Torek?"
"How," Jamie was confused by the question, "how do you mean?"
"Tell me about him." Finn requested ignoring the puzzled look on Jamie's face.
"Ok well. Torek's been my teacher for nearly three years now. He's been my mentor since I signed with the Zhelezo." Jamie paused to think. "He's from Port Damali, guy is nice as can be and he's married with two kids. He's the best guy I know." Jamie spoke with conviction and absolute belief that Finn questioned himself for a moment. Maybe Torek had misremembered or was still out of it when Finn had asked him. The thought only lasted for a moment before Finn shook it off. People don't just forget stuff like that.
"Ok. Well, that's interesting." Finn looked back to the scene of the attack. "What're we doing about the bandits that ran? Are you tracking them?"
"We sent out a team to go track them yesterday. We've yet to hear back but should soon." Jamie's answer caused Finn to frown. He was starting to piece something together, but he wasn't sure what yet.
"Were they on horseback?" It was a wild guess.
Jamie cocked his head a little but answered, "yes. Three of them." Two dead horses but three horsemen. No signs of attack but dead horses and no arrows around. Those damned bears had to eat and get rid of any evidence. Finn couldn't prove it, but in his gut, he knew that those horses were those of the Zhelezo. He'd have to figure out what happened to the third one later.
"Thank you, Jamie." Finn said. "But we should get going."
"Of course."
Finn looked back at Jebediah who was watching intently, "let's get moving big man." The goliath nodded and followed Finn as they made their way back to the Nimble Leg Inn. The sun had started to go down by the time they arrived at the Inn and the others sat at the table from the days before.
The others were quietly talking and laughing with one another. It was nice to see them getting along so well. Finn and Jebediah joined them on the side of the table. Before Finn could even say anything, Jason slammed his mug onto the table with a large grin.
"Welcome back y'all." The dwarf was noticeably drunk.
"Thanks." Finn replied looking at Errk. He had new leather armor on that had studs on it. Finn couldn't help but ask, "new armor?"
Errk looked down at his studded armor and looked at Finn, "yeah." The bird seemed proud of himself. Finn hoped that meant Errk would happily stay by his side for the coming adventures.
"How many drinks has he had?" Jebediah asked causing everyone to look at him. The goliath was pointing at Jason and Ellen was standing to the side of the table.
"Five." Ellen answered and Finn watched Jebediah's grin grow wickedly large. Oh no.
"I'll match that." The goliath said handing the gold over immediately. He lightly laughed as Jason took a small drink. Finn hadn't heard the goliath laugh before and it was oddly warming.
"Have fun with that." Finn said looking at the everyone else. Pellet was lightly drinking and Errk didn't have a drink. At least someone at the table was sober enough to know what he was about to say. "So, we found out some stuff at the docks." Finn explained what Jamie had told him about Torek and about the horses. As Finn explained Ellen slowly brought drinks out to Jebediah who was downing them in seconds. It was admittedly impressive as he slurped them down fast as can be. By the time he finished his final sentence Jebediah was struggling to finish the last one but slammed it down as Finn said, "I think those horses were the Zhelezo that they sent out."
"I did it!" Jebediah cried out happily having finished his sixth drink before Jason could. The dwarf seemed to shrug it off. Everyone just nodded as Jebediah suddenly looked puzzled, "wait." He was silent for a second before continuing. "Do you think those bandits had something to do with the dead horses?" Pellet and Errk burst out laughing at the goliath who didn't seem bothered by it. Finn just gave the big man a pat on the back and nodded.
"I think you're right." Pellet told Finn as he started to calm down. "What can we do about it though?"
"Well." Finn answered. "I think we need to look into Torek Hargman." Errk and Pellet looked confused about who that was. "The older Zhelezo from the attack. He had some parchment stolen and lied about it. I think if we can get answers from him then we figure it out."
The two nodded as Jason muttered something Finn couldn't make out. Surprisingly, Errk popped his head up and looked at Finn. "You will never believe this." Finn just nodded confused. "Jason tried to flirt with a girl at the Stone Anvil and it was horrible." Finn couldn't help but laugh as Jason wildly shook his head. He didn't believe what he had just heard.
"Listen here paladin." Finn put his hands on the table and leaned forward as Jason talked. "In my 80 years of traveling and the three continents I've been to, I have NEVER seen a woman so beautiful." This dude was 80 years old? Dwarfs aging was so odd. The group still laughed and despite Jason's embarrassment the group had never felt more alive…even if this was their third day of existing together.
"Not just horrible. She didn't even acknowledge him." Pellet added while laughing. As much as Finn wanted to hold in the laugh he just couldn't. It had been a while since he had heard something so wildly outrageous as Jason hitting on a woman who didn't even give him the time of day.
As the group laughed Jebediah pointed at Jason and laughed even louder than before. This time Jason finally did react to the laughing and attempted to point back. In his drunken state he didn't really point at Jebediah, but instead between Jebediah and Finn. The dwarf then uttered the insult, "meathead."
Jebediah continued to laugh unfazed by the attempt of an insult. Finn looked back at where Jason had truly pointed noticing a girl looking at them oddly confused. He quickly looked back at their table as Pellet was holding his hands up while Jason stared at him. What the hell did he miss in two seconds?
"Hey. I didn't steal any of it. You told me I could have some." Pellet said defending himself as Jason stared at him. He noticed Pellet holding his cup in his hand and Jason's cup lazily put in front of him. It wasn't hard to put the pieces together.
"I did?" Jason asked and Pellet violently nodded.
"Yeah of course. You said it earlier remember?" Pellet stared at him while Jason seemed to contemplate the question.
"You're damn right!" Jason exclaimed taking a drink from his mug. Pellet let out a sigh of relief trying to ignore the gaze of Finn. Errk simply laughed as Jason sloshed his drink all over himself. Ellen was noticeably watching the group and Finn had a suspicious feeling this night was coming to an end soon.
After a couple of minute Jason gestured at Finn and leaned in before asking, "paladin. I need you to help me to my room please." Finn just nodded and stood up as Ellen approached the table.
"Alright. We thank you guys but you're all drunk." Finn looked at Ellen who waved him off. "Get some sleep please before you disturb everyone else."
"Yes ma'am." Finn replied helping Jason walk to his room. He opened the door for the dwarf and let him stumble inside. "Get some sleep." He said before making his way to his room and he gave a quick prayer before getting some sleep.
The morning came faster than Finn expected. He woke up early once again and made his way out to the table. There weren't many people awake yet, but Regmund and Ellen were both up and about. Finn got some the stew and slowly ate while his companions slowly joined him.
Pellet joined him first and the gnome was pretty spry, Errk then joined them, and he seemed his normal self, then Jebediah slowly lumbered out clearly hungover. His back was hunched over and when he sat down he just threw his face onto the table snoring. Finally, Jason showed up slowly making his way through the crowd. Noticeably his bird quickly said, "meathead!" Jason gave it a scowl as he joined the group. They all ate while Jason and Jebediah both slowly slopped their food up. Jebediah's head hung inches away from the bowl as he ate the food just to survive.
"Alright, what's the plan today?" Errk asked and Finn shrugged. His saddle was ready, but the others weren't. He could afford to wait on that.
"I'd like to go to the Wyrm Guild again. I want to enchant my cloak." Pellet said so everyone just nodded.
"Wyrm guild it is. Anyone disagree?" Finn asked but nobody answered. He waited a moment before saying, "then let's get moving. Errk lead the way." The bird man nodded and led the group out of the inn and back through the town. It was a simple walk as the sun raised in the sky. They walked up to a building that read: WYRM GUILD. When they walked inside it looked exactly like the other stores…who was building these? They needed some creativeness around here.
A skinny man stood behind the counter with his hair slicked up. His face was rather pointy and scrawny. He looked straight at Pellet and said, "welcome back. How can I help you today?"
"My friends," Pellet gestured at the rest of the group, "are wanting some help with items." The man nodded as Errk stepped up to the counter.
"Do you guys have any magical lights? Like on weapons?" Errk asked awkwardly but the man simply nodded with a hesitant look on his face.
"Well." He paused to think. "We don't really do many weapons, but we might have some." The man looked over and one of the assistants walked to the back. After a couple of minutes, the guy returned holding a large piece of cloth. Obviously holding a sword. "Ah yes. Our Moon-Touched Great sword. A very beautiful one at that."
He grabbed the cloth and unwrapped the sword and Finn felt stunned. The blade was a pure white with text carved down the middle. The hilt was a gorgeous white with a crescent moon for the cross guard. It was the most beautiful weapon Finn had ever seen in his life. The paladin slowly started creeping forward as Errk examined the sword.
"Well," Errk said looking back at Finn who was still slowly stepping closer, "swords aren't my thing. This one is all you." Finn looked back at the rest of the group making sure no one else was going to argue for it. Nobody said anything as they watched him, so Finn looked back at the gorgeous sword.
"How much for this?" He slowly reached down and felt along the sword. The hilt was wrapped and soft, this was literally perfect.
"100 gold." Holy Torm. Finn looked up at the shopkeeper. 100 gold was a lot, but he had enough. The sword was so beautiful…how could he not buy it. Finn stared at the sword considering it for a second before looking at the shopkeeper.
"Well, my friend. I was wondering if you could lower this price a little." Finn gestured at the rest of the group. "See my friends and I are trying to go save the world." The group began snickering at him from behind. He looked back at the group and raised his eyebrows. He lowered his voice, "hey come on."
Pellet did his best to wipe the smile off of his face and started nodding vigorously, "yeah. Yeah, the world." Finn couldn't help but grin as the attempt to help him.
"Exactly." Finn said looking back at the shopkeeper. "It would really help us on our journey."
The man simply stared at Finn for a while, and he could see the gears turning in his head. He carefully contemplated the words from the Paladin and finally spoke. "Well, as much as I would love to help, I can't lower the price. 100 gold final."
"Alright alright fine." Finn handed over his five platinum and 50 of his gold and took the sword. He backed up ignoring anything else happening as he ran his fingers over the blade. He had used some swords in his life, but none like this. He looked up noticing Pellet once again rambling to a shopkeeper as he put the sword in his hilt.
"Can you move an enchantment from my hat to my cloak?" He asked and the guy just nodded yes. "Cool." Pellet turned to walk away.
"Just bring it here when you can!" The man called out before they all left.
The group walked outside, and the sun was high in the sky. It was a beautiful day outside and everyone kind of just looked at each other.
"Where next?" Errk asked and Finn just shrugged.
"Well boys." Jason began. "The sun is high, and the day is gorgeous. Let's go see the town some." Everyone agreed so Errk led them towards the town square. Despite the attack on the town was lively and people were walking all about. They passed many families and made their way into a town square like thing. Multiple carts were up with different vendors in them. Jason started making his way toward a booth with flowers.
Finn finally spoke as they walked, "so." Finn gestured at Pellet and Jason. "You two both came in on the same ship?"
The two looked at each other and Pellet answered, "yeah. We came from Marquet. We didn't know each other though."
"So, you guys are from Marquet?" Finn asked looking at Jason. "You mentioned having traveled a lot." Jason bought a flower from the vender before looking back at him.
"I have. I've traveled through the beautiful lands of Tal'Dorei and Marquet." Jason answered as they made their way around the market. "In fact, I'm front the lands of Tal'Dorei. I grew up in Ank'heral."
Finn slowly nodded as he took in the information. After the past couple of days, he didn't expect to get such a direct answer. "You mentioned Melora the other day, who is that?" He noticed a grin grow on Jason's face and the dwarf was more than excited to answer.
"She's the Wild mother. She oversees all living life and everything within nature." Jason spoke passionately so Finn just listened. "She protects those who love nature and is the goddess of hunters." That explained why Jason was so adamant with Jansen. "She is a gracious goddess that we should all respect very much." He fell silent as they walked through the town some more.
Eventually Finn couldn't handle the silence and looked at Errk. He examined the broken wing on his back noticing the feathers changing colors where it was messed up. "So Errk." The bird looked over expectantly. "You don't have to answer, but what happened to your wing?"
"Young man." Jason said before Errk could answer. "It's rude to ask about others' scars."
Finn shrugged, "he doesn't have to answer." Finn looked at Errk who didn't seem offended.
"There was an accident when I was young." Errk paused. "That's all." He fell silent as they walked towards the leatherworker.
"Does walking bother you?" Jason asked and Errk just shrugged. Finn frowned at the question, was he not supposed to walk?
"Not really." Errk answered. "It happened when I was young, so I didn't grow up flying like everyone else." Jason just nodded in response.
"Where're you from Errk?" Finn asked curiously.
"Well." He paused. "Just like any other Arrakokra I'm from Voltanem." Errk left the answer at that as they arrived at the Tanner's Guild. The group walked inside, and the woman recognized them.
"Welcome back." She greeted the group as Jason walked up to the counter first. The group all greeted her in kind and Finn noticed Jason looking at her oddly.
"You good?" Finn asked and Jason looked at him with a smirk. That couldn't be good.
"That's a tall woman." Jason replied making everyone look at him weirdly. "Tall women are beautiful, just watch." Finn could just feel the laughter warming up inside everyone as Jason walked up to the counter. "Ya know you'd be a great asset where I come from." The woman just stared at him for a minute shocked. "It's a compliment where I come from."
She paused for a moment before finally going, "ok." She walked over and grabbed his saddle and slid it over the counter and backed away not wanting to talk to Jason anymore. The dwarf turned around and joined the group with no signs of shame.
Pellet stepped up next excitedly. "Is my cloak ready?"
"Yes, it is." The lady answered grabbing the cloak off of the shelf and she handed it over to him. Pellet reached up and snatched it and put it on immediately. He did a quick spin and flung the cloak around making sure it had enough style on it. He threw his hood up and trotted back to the group.
"I guess it's me now." Finn said stepping up to the shop counter. She handed over the saddle and as he carried it away Finn looked back and said, "I'm sorry for Jason." She just gave a slight nod before they left the shop. How did that dwarf feel no shame for what he just said? Finn wasn't an expert in women but that certainly wasn't it.
"Anything else?" Errk asked and Pellet started making his way towards a direction. That was a definite answer.
"To the Wyrm guild." Pellet called back so the group followed him. They made their way back to the shop and when Pellet went to open it the door was locked. He knocked on the door and after a minute the door opened.
The shopkeeper from earlier stood in the doorway and said, "oh. You just made it. Come in." The group followed him inside and Pellet took his cloak off. He set it on the counter before pulling out a pointy tall hat and setting it on the counter along side it. "This will take an hour or so, but I'll start immediately."
After hearing that it'll take an hour Finn pulled out book about Moradin and began reading. He noticed the hat and cloak floating in the hair but was trying to learn about the All-Hammer when he could. The hour passed by quickly and the enchantment was done easily.
"Thank you." Pellet said putting his cloak back on. The man held up the hat for Pellet to take but Pellet shook his head, "you can keep it. Not my style." The group made their way out of the store once again and Errk asked once again.
"Anything else?" It was a cycle at this point but finally Errk answered his own question. "Actually, can we swing by the Stone Anvil?" He looked at everyone and no one rejected it. They made their way to the store, and this was the first time that Finn had been to it. When they walked inside, he noticed the lady that Jason had tried to flirt with. How peculiar.
Errk walked up to the counter and the lady stopped hitting something with her hammer. She turned and looked at him, "how can I help ya?"
"I was wondering if you had any weapons that could provide light for me." Errk explained and she shook her head.
"We don't do enchantments here." She answered.
Errk paused for a while before finally pulling out his musket and setting it on the counter, "ok that's fine. Then I'm hoping we could do something like adding a knife to the end of this. So that way if someone gets close, I can still use it."
The woman waited a minute as she considered it before pulling out some metal. "Interesting idea." She fiddled with it for a couple of minutes wrapping the metal around the barrel of the musket. "If you give me a week, I might be able to do it."
"Cool." Errk said. "We can talk to Ordrog about maybe adding these for everyone if you figure it out." The lady gave him a strong nod before he walked away. Finn looked over at Jason who was pacing back and forth behind Finn and Jebediah like he was using them for cover.
"Hey man, you got this." Finn told him as he looked back up front. Pellet slid a gold coin over the counter before walking away. He looked back at Jason who was debating with himself. "Come on man! It's easy just go talk to her."
"Yeah, do it." Jebediah said while Errk chuckled watching the scene. Jason paused and looked at the woman who was back to beating on the metal she had been working on. Jason quickly stepped up to the counter as everyone watched.
"I just wanted to apologize for yesterday." Jason said and the woman didn't say anything. The dwarf quickly turned around and basically ran out of the shop. Everyone couldn't help but lightly laugh as they followed him. The sun had started to get low as Jason said, "let's just get back to the Inn."
The group made their way back to the Inn and they had the beet stew once again. There wasn't much talking this time for dinner as everyone had been tired and learned enough of each other. Finn made his way to his room and prayed before going to sleep once again.