Day 4: The Rocky Road on the Lost Coast – Ghouls are REALLY assholes. Starday the 22nd Rova, 4707
That next morning, Jonathan handed me back the phone. He thanked me and asked if there were more of these "Audiobooks". I told him that I had a couple dozen in various subjects. I'd key up whatever he wanted the next night before I went to sleep. I had Metaphysics, and that was near 7 hours long. Dame Rebekah was in a better mood this morning, and even Faunra didn't seem so hateful of everyone. Breakfast was a simple ordeal; I was far too used to Jonathan's cooking for my own good. I'm certain that he could get a good position at a restaurant back home if he wanted. Maybe he'll want to go with me if I find a way back. He's probably the person in this group that would acclimate the best to this. Hell, he could be an action hero for movies with his telekinesis. No special effects needed. Not that Faunra or Dame Rebekah couldn't do amazing things, but I think that his abilities could be a bit more fantastic, for the silver screen at least. He could even have his own mini-series. Maybe Marvel would pick it up.
As we set out, the weather wasn't much better. Lots of rain, apparently we'll be passing by a lot of goblin territory later today, so we decide to not have any music playing. Doesn't mean that I can't read. It'll keep me quiet, and I can keep my Gamo loaded and ready to fire. I decided to study up on focusing my Scope and a book on animal ambushes to try to prepare myself for whatever might happen. I mean, just because it happened once means it will never happen again like that, right? Yeah, right. I was going to be ready. So it was that we spent much of the first half of the final leg of our journey being super vigilant. We stopped for lunch just outside of the Nettlewood and cast baleful glances at the wood line, trying to ensure that the goblins wouldn't sneak up on us. The woods were apparently rife with them, from what Dame Rebekah had heard. Another funny thing, I just found out that Dame Rebekah is the only one of us four that has any idea about what is going on here. Jonathan doesn't have any memory from before a few days ago and Faunra's village was to the north a great distance, and had not been this way in over a decade. I will gladly defer to Dame Rebekah's superior intelligence on the matters of Forest Goblins.
I guess Irony isn't just an entity in my world, because the attack that came at us didn't come from the Nettlewood, but from the Pauper's graves to the west, shortly after we had restarted. The rain had settled down a bit, but the sky was still extremely overcast. I'm sure it's only me that is having the problem because the others seem to be just fine. I swear I'm going to make myself some night vision goggles or something. Well, the ghoul lunged at Jonathan, even as Jonathan noticed him first. The filthy maw of the wretch bit into Jonathan's leg, doing a fair amount of damage. I didn't know what was happening, but Jonathan brought down his kama towards the thing's head, but it just glanced off the boon, yielding only a minor scrape in the scalp of this putrid thing. Faunra unsheathed her gladius (I thought all elves used longswords?) to take a stab at it and her blade bit deeply into the vile abomination lost a good portion of its' guts as they spilled out on the ground.
Not wanting to risk firing into this mess, I pulled out my trusty machete and hacks hard down on the thing's shoulder. I shuddered when I heard a crack, and I hoped more than anything that the sound was from the thing's bones breaking rather than my machete chipping. Dame Rebekah finished off the ghoul with an overhead chop that swung down from on high and cleft the undead's skull from cap to tooth. Without missing a beat, I rushed over to check on Jonathan's wound. I knew that I might only have seconds to help him, I quickly got the Hydrogen Peroxide out of my kit and splashed it over his wound. I bandaged it up quick and told him that we'd have to look after him for the next day to make sure it didn't take. At least I hoped it wasn't the fast acting stuff in some movies. We were not too far from Sandpoint apparently, so we decided that it would be best to get Jonathan to the town to maybe be seen by someone who has more knowledge about this that my only possibly relevant stuff. Jonathan was pretty much out of his wheel house too. While I was trying to take care of Jonathan, Faunra and Dame Rebekah were getting the corpse back to its grave and making sure that there were no other threats apparently. I was purely focused on what could become a very real danger. Who knows how the zombie virus would interact with a telekinetic? One of the two even brought back my machete, it was even clean of zombie gore. I will have to thank them for that, whichever one did that. I don't need to worry about spreading a disease like that when I attack other beings. With my suggestion, we gathered everything up and started off on our way.
For the next 2 hours, we pushed forward at speed and followed the Lost Coast Road to Sandpoint. I'm sure if a goblin had jumped out in front of us either Bucepherous or the Donkey would have just run it over. We made it to the town of Sandpoint in the afternoon, much sooner than the rest of our days of travel so far. We got to the gate and were stopped by the guards. They asked us what we were intending to do in Sandpoint. These guys were just kids basically. I don't think either of them were even old enough to drink back home. We, well I, yelled at them that we had been attacked by ghouls and that we needed someone who could tell if someone was infected. The Guards balked for a minute and one of them sent a runner for a Father Zantus. While we were waiting, they asked us again what our purpose in Sandpoint was. Dame Rebekah had a cool head about her and told them that we were here for the Swallowtail Festival. The Festival was actually tomorrow. We were here early, and would have time to get settled in before going to the Swallowtail Festival tomorrow. Jonathan made light talk with the guards, inquiring about what events the Swallowtail festival would have, and perked up when he heard that there was a cooking festival. There were three main competitors, and most people thought that it was definitely down to just two people. Before they could say more, a middle aged man with a goatee came up and asked what the issue was. One of the guards referred to him as Father Zantus, so I am guessing it was him.
Father Zantus asked which one of use was exposed, and Rebekah pointed to Jonathan. Father Zantus looked over the wound, said some mystical words and made a magic sign. He asked who had bandaged the wound. Figuring that I had done something wrong, I admitted to doing it. He acknowledged the skill in bandaging up the wound and asked what was used on it. I told him that I had an "alchemical solution" that was useful against diseases, but that it was never tested against magical ailments. I had remembered that the gnomes had told me that it was a supernatural disease. Father Zantus nodded his head to that and confirmed that our friend was not inflicted with Ghoul Fever (as he called it). He asked if I had more of this "alchemical solution". I told him that I would have to get a lab set up to make more. He nodded to that as well. Then held out his hand, and Dame Rebekah gave him an intensely blue colored stone. I'm guessing it was a gemstone of some sort. Probably from one of the ghouls. She later told me that it was worth around 10 gold pieces. That was mystical "doctor visit" just cost us $3800 worth of gold, and that was just for a consultation and a diagnosis. I really need to get a handle on what I have to spend money on. I'll also need to get better armor from somewhere. I don't think leather is going to cover it after all.
As turned to go back to whatever he was doing, Father Zantus asked us why we were here. Dame Rebekah told him that we were sent from Windsong Abbey for the Swallowtail Festival. He again nodded his head, while looking at us side eyed. He nodded to the guards as well and they let us all in. So much for small town hospitality. Well, I will say this, the villages I have been in while I have been on this world have been much smaller than Sandpoint. That being said, I think my rural hometown back on my own world was larger than Sandpoint by far, and it was up in the mountains. As we passed the guards, Jonathan asked the one he was talking to about the festival if there was a good Inn was to stay at. That guard answered back to us that right ahead of us was "The White Stag".
The previous inns that I had stay in were much better than sleeping in a tent by the road, obviously, but this place was much better than them by far. It might be a bit too much for us if we have to stay here a long time. Scratch that, if I have to stay here a long time. I don't know what the rest of my companions are here for. I just know that I have to travel on to Magnimar after Sandpoint and find some way to make 10 million dollars in gold. Probably more if I want to take my car with me. That is going to be a LONG slog if I am only making somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 gold a night telling stories. Hmm, 4 gold a night, that's at least 1500 bucks. Maybe not so long after all. I doubt that I can make the kind of money that I need to get home if I'm grossing 1500 bucks a night, that doesn't take into account that Inn rooms here are like 750 dollars in gold. That's of course if I am remembering the spot price of gold correctly before I ended up here. I swear, if I can make enough, I'll bring some home and be set. If I can load down my car with even 600 pounds of gold, we'll be set for the rest of our lives. In any event, I am going to have to find some get rich quick schemes to get home sometime before I am 45. We got rooms at the White Stag, with stabling included. The innkeeper was a fairly brusque fellow by the name of Garridan Viskalai, took our money and gave us our room keys. Another 750 bucks a pop, plus food and drink.
Dame Rebekah thought it best if Faunra and I stay in the rooms for the time being, if only to guard our stuff. Really, Faunra didn't speak the language and I was too weird to just let have free movement without some kind of awareness of what the rules are. Fine with me, I decided to focus on getting the rabbit skin done up into some nice gloves for Dame Rebekah. I figured that she would like them the best out of the four of us. The two of the were gone for a long enough time for me to stitch up one glove and start on the second. I think I'll get the last bit done tomorrow night. When the two were done and back, we had a meeting where we confided in each other what we were in Sandpoint for. I started, as I didn't care who knew. I told them the whole story, about how I got here, how I couldn't get back, and how I needed to simultaneously find my way to Magnimar and make a whole lot of money so I could get home to my family. Jonathan confided in us the truth about what he remembered about the place he was at and how he wanted to find the monsters and get revenge. I told him that I was totally willing to help however I could. Faunra told us, and Jonathan translated for me, how her entire village had been wiped from existence and how she wanted revenge on those who wronged her and her people. I could totally get behind that, and would have told her such if I spoke her language. I'm going to have to work with Jonathan to learn it. Dame Rebekah was last, and she told us how she had wanted to be a Paladin in the tradition of her parents, but could not meet the requirements of that position. She followed the goddess of her family in her own way, and was out in the world trying to prove to her family that she could be a hero too.
She was shocked when I told her that I couldn't get behind her in that goal. Jonathan was shocked as well. I told her that I would be glad to help her and support her in whatever she wanted, but that it should be what she really wants, not what she thinks her parents would want from her. That mollified the outrage somewhat and Jonathan understood where I was heading with it. I think that Rebekah will too in time. I went on ad said that if her only goal was to do good in the world, I could easily get behind that, as the goal could be hers. I think I missed something there, as the conversation kind of died off at that point, and she and Jonathan handed out a few bags of coins to both Faunra and myself. With that, everyone retired to our rooms for the night. Now I'm certain I screwed that conversation up. Sit, nothing I can do about it now. Guess I'll work on the gloves until I fall asleep.
The day started off not too terribly, with the lot of us going to breakfast in the morning. I had not even noticed that Jonathan didn't ask me to borrow the phone until the alarms woke me up in the morning. With the group gathered seated around the table, breaking into their meals, I reached into my bag and got the gloves that I had made for Dame Rebekah. I gave them to her and apologized for my manners yesterday night. I told her that I was never one for common sense, and that I sometimes blurt out bad things. The cut of the gloves looked decent and they fit her well, so she accepted them graciously. I told her that if her goal was to prove to her family that she could be a hero, that the goal she had was a noble one and that she should be proud to follow and achieve that goal.
We went together to the Swallowtail Festival, hopefully we won't end up in any fights, but I don't think that I should just consider myself safe because I am in a town. I'll write more after the Festival. Maybe they'll have funnel cake. If not, I'm going to have to tell Jonathan about it so he can invent it and we can have it. Maybe it will have to wait for the next festival to set it up.