SILVERYMOON
Chapter 6
Rick was upstairs cooking dinner for himself and Alexis. He had gotten used to Kate not eating or even drinking. All she needed was his blood. Well, technically anyone's blood, but if she didn't drink his blood, that would make him mad at her.
He found that here it was easier to make soups and stews. Just fill the pot and swing it over the fire and watch it, stirring it on occasion. He had the grill set in place over the fire today and was grilling some steaks. And a hearty vegetable soup was simmering in the pot.
Just as he was flipping the steaks, Alexis and Patches entered the house. "Hi, Dad!" Alexis came over to him. "Steaks, I see. What did you do to convince Kate to spend money on steaks?" They had learned that until their business was open, she was penny-pinching both of them.
"You need to talk to Kate about that," Rick told her. "We got an offer and even some money – gold – up front this time."
"Another City project? What would this City do without us?" Couldn't they handle these problems themselves? Not that she was really complaining. Until their business got up and running, the additional money was welcome. "All right. Medium rare, please, Dad." Alexis shook her finger at him. "Do not burn them."
"Oh, ye of little faith." He thought he was a pretty good cook back in the loft. But cooking without electricity was proving to be a challenge.
"Hey, Kate. It looks like you have made it to setting type finally." She took letters and other things from Rick's giant, almost vertical table that held all the letters and other symbols.
"This sounded so simple when I thought this up. First, I sing and play the song to get it right. Then I start all over again, play a little, write that down and do it again and again until I finish. And I have to find all the symbols and the words off of Rick's wall here and place them on the board.
"Once I finally get that done, I have to verify I got it right piece by piece. I ink it and place a piece of paper over it. Put a cover over that after I set this board in place. Then work the machine to get the roller to roll over it. And repeat again and again, so I have something to sell." Kate was on the making the board phase still.
"Dad said someone from the City showed up. PATCHES, NO! You'll get ink everywhere." Patches was getting just a little too curious again.
"They did, and this time, we were given some money up front. It wasn't much, but I let Castle spend it on steaks," Kate admitted.
"So, what's gone wrong this time? Please tell me it isn't a murder." Alexis didn't want to hear it if it was. It was a nice City, and she liked it here.
Kate looked at her and raised an eyebrow at what she saw. "Right after you tell me why you're smiling."
"I'm not smiling." At first, Alexis's smile got even wider. But then she put on a frown. "Fine, he kissed me."
"Your boyfriend?"
"His name is Corimin, and once more, he isn't my boyfriend. We've only been out on one date. And that was shopping for food in the market and then finding a park to eat it together." This place didn't have movie theaters since they didn't have projectors that needed electricity.
"But he kissed you." To Kate, that meant he liked her. Now she just needed to find out if he cared about her as a Demon. Just not an Evil Demon.
"Yeah, he did." Alexis smiled a little and touched a finger to her lips as she remembered that kiss. She wasn't a virgin by a long shot. But all of that was just one quick fuck to get the Cum she needed, make sure he never remembered her, and leave.
"So, what's the job this time?" Alexis knew the steaks and dinner would be ready soon.
But before Kate could say anything, Rick yelled down the stairs. "DINNER!"
"I'll explain while you two eat." Kate stopped what she was doing, cleaned up a little, and followed Alexis and Patches up the stairs.
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Once again, Kate wished she could eat food. Watching them eat steaks grilled to perfection, soup that smelled incredible, and fresh-baked bread, was what caused that wish. But she would bite Castle tonight and be happy with that.
"The City has learned that a city called Neverwinter over on the coast has had a nearby volcano erupt on them. Our job is to go there and survey what has happened to Neverwinter and its people. If it isn't bad, the City's thinking of sending some soldiers and help. If it's been devastated, they won't know how bad it is until we tell them."
"VOLCANO!?" Alexis didn't even know they had one of those anywhere near here.
"Is it as bad as Pompeii?" Rick questioned. He only knew that they had shown up while he was off training to be a Warlock. Kate didn't have a class today while Alexis did for Sorceress.
"That's what they want us to find out. Mitalar warned me that if Neverwinter was hurt badly enough, there might not be enough security, and enemies could be there looting it. We are not to steal from the city itself, though we are free to loot from enemies looting Neverwinter.
"Anything we get off of them, we can keep. Within reason," Kate added.
"That sounds fair. So how far away is this city?" Rick inquired since he had never heard of it before.
"If we accept, Mitalar will return with a map showing us," Kate told them. "He said it might take us up to a week on horseback to reach Neverwinter. Something about it being right on the coast."
"A week? We're going to need a lot of supplies for that. And, for however long we stay there," Alexis warned her since it sounded like a shopping trip would be necessary.
"Mitalar told me that the City would supply the horses for us. After that, everything else was up to us. He gave me 300 gold, a hundred for each of us up front for supplies. Provided Castle didn't spend all of his, we can go shopping for supplies." Kate looked at him to see if he had done just that.
"All I spent was money for the steaks and the soup. Not that I didn't want to, but I didn't. I blame you for that." Rick gave Kate an evil glare. He liked spending money, so shoot him.
"Before you two start a fight, what are they paying us for this job?" Alexis asked her. "Or was the 300 gold it?"
"The same as last time. Six thousand gold, a magical item of our choice worth the same amount, or one year of classes for free. Since the classes are over 6,000, I'm leaning that way." Kate liked that best of all.
"A week on horseback. At the very least, we'll need food for the horses, food for us, and that map. Regardless, we're going to need a lot of other stuff. It might rain on us." Rick paused for a moment. "We have the best sleeping bags, so I'm thinking of a tent." He knew that 100 gold was going to go fast. He looked at Alexis. "How are you with tent camping?"
"I never did it before except for that one school excursion. Even then, we had showers and a bathroom. Pooping in the woods!?" Alexis made a face of disgust. "Patches is going with me this time." Alexis pointed at her dad. "I'm not doing that again."
"I knew you would say that." Rick had learned those two were inseparable from each other.
"Tent for three. Real food or those trail rations we learned about?" Alexis asked and saw her dad had a look of revulsion on his face.
Rick shuddered. "Those things aren't even MREs. World War II rations looked better than them," he complained. But that left them with how to take that much food for cooking with them.
"You make me glad I don't eat food." Kate rubbed it in and smiled at those two.
"Just for that, we're spending money." Alexis saw Kate's face and knew she was wishing she had just kept her mouth closed. "They warned us this place does get snow, and it's been getting cooler lately. The trees are starting to turn colors."
"We need winter clothing. Maybe another backpack or two like the one we have," Rick suggested.
Kate groaned since this job sounded expensive already. Far more than the 6,000 gold they would earn.
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Heward's Handy Haversack – bigger on the inside than the outside – 2,000 gold each – they bought two.
Everfull Mug – 3/day fill with 12 ounces of water, ale, or wine – 200 gold
Everlasting Feedbag – 1/day create feed for one horse – 800 gold
Daern's Instant Tent – This strip of canvas, folded into a small triangle, bears a single black sigil on one side. When activated, Daern's instant tent grows to become a 20 foot by 20 foot square tent. The inside of the tent is always temperate in climate, as the Leomund's tiny hutspell. Cots inside can sleep up to eight medium creatures. The tent also features a fire pit with a smoke hole. The tent has resistance to electricity 10, fire 10, and acid 10, as well as immunity to cold. – 8,000 gold.
Wand of Web – Very sticky spider webs or a large size spread over an area 40 ft wide – 50 charges, one charge per use – 4,500 gold
Wand of Detect Magic – It detects things that are magical – 50 charges – 375 gold
Wand Cure Light Wounds – Cures a small amount of bodily damage – 50 charges – 750 gold
Wand of Color Spray – Cause creatures to become stunned, perhaps also blinded, and possibly knocking them unconscious. – 50 charges – 750 gold
Weekly food bags – Any food you put in the bags will stay fresh for one week. – 200 gold each. – They bought four of them.
Weakening – On critical hit, target takes –4 to its Strength – added to Alexis's dagger – 2,000 gold
Sacred – +1d6 damage to undead or +2d6 to evil outsider, good-aligned for overcoming DR – Added to Kate's dagger – 2,000 gold
Shock – +1d6 electricity damage – added to Rick's dagger – 2,000 gold
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"This should be fun." Alexis looked her horse over. It was a horse too, not a pony, but a full-size horse. "I haven't ridden a horse since I was a little girl, and all it did was go round and round in a circle." Alexis was thinking about just how she would get in the saddle.
"I offered to buy you a pony," Rick commented.
"And just what was I going to do with a pony, Dad?" Alexis fought back "We lived in Manhattan, and I don't want to hear about you stealing that Police horse and riding it naked again."
"Borrowed!" Rick argued yet again.
"Can we please get going before we start a fight?" Kate entreated. "And you stole that horse, Castle." Kate knew the difference even if he didn't.
"Up, Patches, or do you want to run?" Alexis patted her chest and looked down at Patches. With ease, he jumped up into her lap and settled in for a long ride.
"MEOW!"
"We have to stop and walk them eventually. Plus, the horses need to eat grass along the way," Alexis answered him. That only helped confirm for Kate and Rick that she actually understood him. It was just Meow to them.
That was why Rick and Kate were thinking at least one week. They only had the one feed bag for three horses, so they needed to graze on some grass along the way.
"You memorized the map, Castle, so please, lead the way," Kate asked him.
They traveled by road/trail south till they reached a city called Everlund. They were told that it was a good city of around 21,000. They were tired and considered getting an inn and putting the horses in a stable. It was one day south.
After that, it was still south to Yartar. They were told it was mostly just a settlement, so it was likely not to have an inn. If it did, it was small and rustic. Maybe a stable. It would take them three days.
Then it was east to Tribor. It was a small town of about 2,500 people, so an inn was more likely as was a stable. That was one day away.
From there, they travel through grasses, over hills, and maybe across a stream or two or three. Then around the southern end of Neverwinter Woods and north to Neverwinter. That was another three days, most likely. That was where they would be relying a lot on what they had bought. It was likely where the people looting might flee, especially since the volcano was to the north.
The volcano was in a mountain range inside the Neverwinter Woods to the north.
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They learned fast that they would be walking the horses a lot. None of them had done much riding a horse, and while it was easier and faster than walking, it turned out to be a little hard on their butts.
A river was to their right, and a mountain range was to their left. And while it might be called a road around here, it was more trail so far as they were concerned. However, based on what they saw, it was a well-traveled road.
They had stopped and were next to the river letting the horses graze and get a drink of water if they wanted. It was then that they saw a wagon train headed north toward Silverymoon.
A rider on horseback on this side came trotting out to them. He found out they were from Silverymoon and were headed south. He told him there was no trouble the rest of the way to Verlund. Usually, there was no trouble south of that along the edge of the High Forest. The High Forest was home to a large group of Wood Elves that were suspicious of strangers.
He spotted Patches. "Is that cat on fire?"
"His name is Patches, and yes, he's on fire. Even his whiskers. He's a nice cat," Alexis told him. Patches wasn't a kitten any longer. He was a cat now.
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Sure enough, Verlund was a good-sized town. It wasn't Silverymoon. It wasn't built nearly as nicely. It wasn't as green everywhere, and it was more of a dirty and perhaps muddy mess when it rained. Still, it did have more than one inn and more than one stable. One silver piece per horse, and the horses would get a bath, brushed and fed hay, and given a safe place to stay.
If not for their sleeping bags, they would hate their beds. However, their sleeping bags more than made up for the beds.
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The following day, about half-day since the sun was up high, they walked the horses to give them a break.
"MEOW!"
That had Alexis pulling her Eyes of the Eagle up from around her neck to cover her eyes; she was glad they hadn't sold it earlier. "Elves, six of them, it looks like. No horses that I can see." Alexis kept watching them till they retreated into the woods.
"Wood Elves? I guess they didn't want to talk," Rick commented since earlier a man told them that the woods held Wood Elves.
Tonight was going to be their first night sleeping in their tent. They agreed to put it just inside the forest and off the road. Anyone out there might not notice them. They found out that tonight would be chilly, but not inside their tent or sleeping bags.
"Do we take turns keeping watch?" Rick asked.
Alexis immediately spoke up. "Patches can do it. I don't understand it, but he doesn't eat anything and never sleeps. According to my teacher, he's all Fire Elemental. He barely has a body at all and is mostly fire. But he doesn't burn us."
So Patches got guard duty that night.
The next day went the same as the last one. Once again, Patches spotted something in the woods which had Alexis looking with her Eyes of the Eagle. "More Wood Elves or perhaps the same ones. They seem to be just watching us." Alexis took them off again.
"Maybe they're suspicious of strangers," Kate submitted, and so long as they didn't attack, she didn't see the need to talk to them. They most likely didn't know anything about the city of Neverwinter, but they might know more about this area. She was satisfied that they weren't doing anything.
Like the night before, they let Patches keep watch, and he never did wake Alexis or Kate or Rick.
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Alexis pointed at the sky as they rode the next day. "Are those what I think they are?"
Rick knew those birds. "Vultures or something like them. Someone's dead," he said grimly.
Three hours later, they found out what the predators were circling. They had each walked in holding onto their horses. And Patches was already looking them over, having scared away the Vultures.
"Dead bodies." Kate was a little thankful that she was no longer a homicide detective. A person could only take so much death and not be affected by it.
Alexis stayed back and watched the area. Particularly the woods to spot Wood Elves.
"This one looks human." Rick was looking at one of nine that looked just like this one.
"This one certainly isn't. It's a big male, easily 12 feet tall and has to weigh at least 400 pounds." Kate moved over to the other one like him. "Both males, and I think they had those big clubs."
"These nine have spears with metal tips and not much else. No armor like the guards at home. All male. Maybe a little taller than me. Say 6 foot 5 inches and 240 pounds. So why were they fighting?" Rick stood up and looked for more of them.
"What about their coins?" Alexis asked them. Mitalar had told them they could take what they found, only not to steal from the city itself. In the end, they came up with 12 gold, 22 silver, and 56 copper pieces. It all went into one of the backpacks.
Since none of them had anything else to explain it, they got back on the road. It wasn't up to them to solve this mystery. They already had a job and a mystery to solve.
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Once again, Patches stood guard, and again, nothing happened. They were no longer near the forest, so there were no more Wood Elves. The river was still with them, but they chose a place inland away from it. Wild animals needed water, and they didn't need the problem of them. They had filled their waterskins yesterday, so they didn't need water. Plus, they had wine they could drink. The horses could drink come morning.
"MEOW!"
That brought Alexis to a stop, and she got the other two to stop so she could listen. "Do either of you two hear that?"
"I think I hear whips," Rick answered.
"And voices. …That way." Kate pointed out into the grasses to the north. They thought they would make it to Yartar later today before sunset. It was only a small settlement, and it was likely there was no inn or stable, which meant they might be tent camping again.
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The three of them could really hear it now, so they went slower and got high enough on the small rise to see what was going on.
They saw the big male first. Easily 16 feet tall with all red skin, he was wearing armor and had an enormous sword at his side. There were creatures pulling ropes and just starting to come up out of the hole. There were four of them. Then, there were the eight others that looked different. They weren't nearly as large as the four. They were using whips and yelling at them in Common, telling them to put their backs into it.
Around the hole were sixteen little guys. While it was easy to see that they had shovels, pickaxes, and other tools lying on the ground it was difficult to tell if they were still alive since they weren't moving.
"What are they doing?" Alexis inquired softly.
"Digging up something." Rick thought that was obvious. Even from here, they could see that the hole had to be 50 feet wide and deep enough that they only saw the head and shoulders of whoever was pulling.
"So, what do we do?" Alexis asked. "What are the chances all of these guys are Evil? What are they digging up? Do we let them keep it?"
Rick looked at Kate. "She has a point."
"Do you see the size of that one guy? You want us to fight him?" Kate wasn't so sure about this idea.
"Wand of Web can trap some of these guys. Wand of Color Spray might knock the others unconscious, so just him. We have magic items now. We need to see if they work the way we want them to," Alexis argued.
"Do you think you can fly in and bite him?" Rick asked Kate. "Alexis gives me the wands. She flies in while you're drinking, and she kisses him. I can handle the other and help you if you need it."
"That's a lot of blood, and I bit you before we started. I'm not full, but this guy might solve that," Kate cautioned.
"Between you and Alexis, he doesn't stand a chance," Rick assured her.
"Maybe." Kate still wasn't so sure. "This guy isn't a Drow, but it should work."
So they had a plan: Patches guards the horses. Kate flies in as a swarm of bats and tries to catch him from behind. She changes back, and she bites him, letting her bite do its job. No sooner than Kate is halfway there, Alexis shifts and jumps and flies in. Rick is to be right behind Alexis. He's to take the guys pulling and the ones with the whips.
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The big male was on the ground. Alexis gave him one last kiss and turned to look for her dad. Those with the whips looked to all be stuck in webs, while the ones pulling whatever it was, were a mix of stuck in webs and stunned. The little ones hadn't moved a finger.
"Damn, that was a lot of blood." Kate hadn't been this full since biting all those Drow.
"I'm done with kissing for a while," Alexis added and pulled out her Wand of Detect Magic and pointed it at that male. "His armor looks like magic, his sword is magical too, and I think that's it. Oops, I'm wrong; he also has a Rod."
Kate gathered those up to go into their Portable Hole while Alexis joined her dad. "So what is that thing?" It looked like it was stuck in a giant stone slab that weighed tons. What was sticking out of it had two prongs on it.
"Charm one of them and ask him," Rick offered.
"Why am I doing all the work?" Alexis muttered. But she chose one, stepped up to him, and worked on charming him. Then she asked him what it was, what the big male was, what he was, and what the ones with the whips and the little ones spread out on the ground were.
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"It's a Rod of Vanindod. It's used to detect Adamantine with a range of ten miles. The big male is a Fire Giant. That one is an Ogre, the ones with the whips are Hobgoblins, and the little ones are Goblins. The Fire Giant already has a Rod of Vanindod, so that must be the Rod. He found it using that one."
Just then, Alexis yelled at the Hobgoblins that were still conscious but stuck in webs. "SHUT UP, ALREADY!"
So that answered that. "Now, what do we do?" Rick asked. "The rod's stuck in that rock slab, and it will take hours to free it. We don't have the tools to do that. What I did will wear off eventually."
"Well, I'm not just killing them. I may be a Vampire, but I'm not Evil. I say we take what we found and leave them. What do we need another Rod for when we already have one?" Kate queried. "Oh, and the big male had three gems, 345 gold and 23 silver pieces."
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Sure enough, Yartar tuned out to be a small settlement of about 600 people. There was an inn, but none of them really wanted to stay in it since their tent looked better. They chose to tie the horses in place, put the feed bag on the mare, and leave come morning.