Day 46: Starday the 3rd, Neth, 4707
I woke up entwined with Savah again, but it wasn't morning. I heard a persistent voice inside my head telling me that someone is getting to close to the bikes. I extract myself from the bed-topus that was grappling me and get dressed enough to head downstairs to the stables. It was almost first light, and all I had on me was my pistol and a flashlight. I turned the corner carefully to see that a stable hand was poking and prodding my bike. I watched them for a minute and called out to them that I wouldn't mess with that too much if I was them.
The stable hand jumped up off of the bike about three feet before landing in a panicked way. I whispered to him to calm down. He froze and I told him that it was fine to look at the bike, but not to touch them. I added that I had an alarm enchantment on the bikes and it was what had woken me up. He nodded to that, and I added that since we lived in Sandpoint, he could drop by some time and maybe see how they are made or at least to see them in full speed action. The young stable hand, a teen by the name of Luke, said that he might like that, and went to go deal with the various horses that we had brought into town.
I went back up to the room and shimmied my way back into the bed-topus's embrace. I did decide to make notes of this event for if/when Luke ever comes to Sandpoint so that I can try to get him a good tour of how the bikes are made.
Veronica woke me up again after another hour to indicate that the sun had risen and the rest of the town was starting to get ready for their day. I woke up and Savah was there, waking up right along with me. We spent some time in bed together before we decided that we really did need to get up. We got dressed in our travelling gear and packed up all of our things. I went through and used my abilities to clean and polish the whole room quickly before we left. Savah spent her time hiding silver and copper coins in various locations, just as an amusing thing to do. She also specified that we leave some kind of money to offset the expenditures of the family. I was more than happy to do so.
Everyone else was already up and about when we came down, nursing various hangover symptoms. Except of course for Jonathan, who was already making food for everyone. The tables and everything were already inside and set up, so I figure that Jonathan did that after the party was done and everyone had fallen asleep. It was a decent breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon, and such. Even the Innkeeper and his family were being served. Savah gave me a wink and looked down at her coin pouch. I nodded slightly and she snuck off. I took the focus of everyone to by asking everyone if they were all good for a long bumpy trip back to Sandpoint. There were many audible groans.
Breakfast was a quick meal, but Savah had more than enough time to make it back downstairs and get to her own plate. We all got up and thanked the Innkeeper for their most generous accommodations before we left. The Innkeeper and their family told us that they were glad that we could bring a bit of good news to the town, and a performance to boot! We bid them all good day as we mounted our various conveyances and headed out towards Sandpoint.
We headed off on our leisurely five mile-an-hour pace, with our destination just under six hours away. It seemed good to be heading back to Sandpoint. Honestly, I've ridden bicycles going faster than this, but the wagon and the other horses are slowing us down. Even with that, I can't help but feel like we are going home. I appreciate this a lot. It has been a while since I felt this way, even back in Virginia. I looked over to Savah and smiled. Even if the world was going to be crazy the next few months with orders of bikes, shocking clubs and the what not, but even with all of that, I still think that I might be able to help Sandpoint along to a good future.
When we got closer to Sandpoint, while we were passing through the farmlands, a terrible thing happened. A child ran out of the woods in front of the wagon and almost got killed. They got knocked down and Savah immediately stopped her bike to try to help the child. Dame Rebekah rushed over and channeled some of her divine energy into the child, causing them to rise up and scream. Jonathan checked the young kid over and said that they should be okay. I asked the child what they were running from. They calmed down a little, and recognizing us leapt into Dame Rebekah's arms. The child told us that there were ghouls in the farmlands killing people who they caught out in the fields. I looked to Jonathan, Dame Rebekah, and Faunra who had just run up to be there for the commotion. The three of them all looked at each other and nodded.
Savah nodded as well, and said that they would take the child with them to Sandpoint with everyone else. I thanked her and gave her a hug, telling her to be careful. She said that she would, and put the child up on the wagon with Shalelu and James before telling everyone that they would be heading the rest of the way to Sandpoint and that we would be catching up later. Faunra and I got back on my bike, Jonathan made himself ready, and Dame Rebekah got Bucepherous lined up to follow the trail back to where the child was attacked.
It didn't take too long with our rate of travel to track her back to her farmstead which looked abandoned. Jonathan opened up the door to the house, looked inside briefly, and told us that we didn't need to go in there. I trusted his judgement and looked over to the barn. This was eerily similar to what had happened to us when we first came through the farmlands. I muttered under my breath that I thought that we had gotten all of them. Jonathan must have heard me because he mentioned that the caverns under Foxglove, sorry, Destrier Manor, were filthy with them, and even if we did get all of them, there was still the possibility of there being more warrens in the countryside.
We went over to the barn and Jonathan gave it a listen. Jonathan nodded his head and looked to everyone. We quietly backed up ten feet and huddled up. Jonathan noted that he would open up the doors from back here, Faunra said that she would Web everything up that was in there, and Dame Rebekah would use her burst of radiance spell to blast all of the ghouls. I asked her why she started using it, and she told me that it only blinded people temporarily, and sometimes only dazzled them, but that it did damage to only those of evil inclinations. I nodded and told her that it was a very good reason. I told them that I guessed that I would take pot shots at whoever I thought that I could hit with my rifle. They all agreed that this was a good idea.
Jonathan did his DBZ impression again, Dame Rebekah blessed us all, Faunra took to the air again, and I just shrugged and took up a solid stance facing the door. Jonathan did it one more time and things were floating around him, while Dame Rebekah issued forth a prayer to Iomedae for our success in destroying this undead menace. Faunra pulled forth a magical shield of force in front of her. All I could really do is try to anticipate the danger that was behind the door. Jonathan gave us a last second grunt before flinging the doors of the barn open. Inside there was a pack of undead wretches, including what looked to be four of the dogs from Resident Evil and an extremely obese rotting corpse that was stuffing his face with what looked to be a child's arm. I didn't hesitate when I shot him. That got his attention at least.
Without another second's thought, a Web blossomed in the midst of the pack of ghouls, catching a lot of them. A few of the ghouls were either expecting us or very quick on the draw, because they rushed out of the barn before the web had expanded into their area. One of the ones that escaped was one of the Resident Evil dog-wolf things it ran over and attempted to sink their teeth into Jonathan. I stress attempted, because the wolf never managed to penetrate through the force field around Jonathan. It was a terrible bite, and even a few weeks ago it would have been strong enough to still tag Jonathan, but his command of his powers has grown since I first met him and his shield is now much stronger.
Another of the ghouls, a much fouler smelling one reminiscent of Aldern Foxglove's odor rushed in to attack Dame Rebekah and was rebuked by her shield. I noticed another of the ghoul wolves break free from the expanding webbing, but it just made it outside the barn before Dame Rebekah continued on her part of the plan. A burst of light exploded in the midst of the expanding webbing. I knew that it was coming so I shielded my vision for the briefest of seconds. I heard several inhuman screams of pain in a language that I still did not know. I guess that means that I am not a universal translator. That is at least a little comforting.
There was a lot of squirming heard inside the webbing, but I couldn't really see anything except for just the closest ghouls, another of which rushed forward at where it had seen Dame Rebekah. It was blinded, or at least dazzled, because it whiffed pretty bad on its attempt to bite her. I stepped up and hacked at it with my machete, taking it down. I didn't like the fact that two of them were trying to gang up on Dame Rebekah, even if I knew that she would be able to handle them. You never know when someone might be able to get a freak good shot in. Faunra zipped up into the air another five feet and shot her enhanced bow at several of the ghouls that had managed to get free, dropping a wolf and two of those really bad smelling ghouls, apparently the stronger ones are called ghasts.
It seemed like it was all for naught, because just as soon as we kill the ones that broke free, more break free. I hoped that we could stem this tide here. Just then, the ghast that had just broken free of the webbing blew up from the impact of a heavy rock. Jonathan was certainly in his element here, but more were making their escape from the webbing as I watched, even the extremely corpulent one. That one looked a little burned form Dame Rebekah's hold light.
The fat ghoul roared a vicious roar and through pained eyes, charged at me. While it was running, Dame Rebekah let loose with a burst of radiant energy. I could tell that the thing was wounded by her actions but it still kept running. It got close to me and I slashed at it, but missed. Faunra managed to dip down behind it and stab it in the back with her enchanted gladius, and Jonathan took a swing at it with his enhanced kama, causing it to explode in gore. We had the gross remains rain down on all of us. Dame Rebekah conjured water above us and washed the carnage off us quickly and we took stock of our circumstances.
There might be ghouls still in the barn, and who knew if there were survivors. Faunra enhanced an arrow to be flaming and Dame Rebekah invoked the holy sun into her sword and they both went about burning away the webbing from inside the barn. We were lucky in that we had gotten them all. It looked like they were formerly a mercenary band that had gotten turned, one by one, by the ancient fat ghoul. There were a lot of butchered up remains of children and adults in the barn, as well as animals. I suddenly felt extremely bad for the festivities that we had last night, and when I was asked about why I looked down by Faunra, I told the group as much.
Dame Rebekah was the one who snapped at me. She told me that we can't prevent all of the evil in the world. All we can do is protect those who are near us, and those we can get to. Dame Rebekah was almost yelling when she continued that with the armor that I had made, we were able to help more people, and that with my vehicles, we were all striving to be able to get to places faster. Dame Rebekah finished with telling me that we were even working on doing the same thing for the town guard and the paladins of Iomedae, and that we would be doing even more to help the land from here on out.
I looked to Jonathan and he shrugged his shoulders and noted that he pretty much agreed with Dame Rebekah on this, but that we really could never be held responsible for the actions of others. He added after a second of thought, that evil would do what evil did, and as long as we worked to block them, they would pop up in other areas. I looked to Faunra, and she had been inspecting the ghouls. She told me that the people who these ghouls were before they became so were not even from this area, so it was likely that they were from a different area and that they had just wandered into our area of Varisia and were predating on the locals. Faunra added that the fat ghoul that we had fought last was a version that was native to Ustalav.
Dame Rebekah seemed to sense something in the air and muttered a dark name, Kabriri. I looked to her and she said that they were servants of an evil demon lord by the name of Kabriri. Dame Rebekah explained that Kabriri was an opponent to (pause) Echidna (pause again), and that they had likely been ordered to move into the area when their master sensed that Echidna had lost some influence over the area, likely due to our actions. That made me feel a little better, oddly enough. I mean if we are doing things that cause the other unrelated deities to take notice, then at least we are having an impact.
By the time I was done with my existential crisis, Jonathan had already taken to removing the bodies of those who were in the barn to a place where they could be buried. I asked if anyone had any magic to allow for a quicker burial, and no one had anything prepared, so I found a spade and started digging. It was a while digging through the terrain, but whenever I ran into a large stone, Jonathan was there to get rid of it. And whenever I thought about how terrible it was for everyone, Dame Rebekah would remind me that they would have gone to their respective afterlife, and would probably appreciate us helping to clean out the results of this bloody affair.
After a few hours, we were done, and I had managed to feel a little better about the circumstances. Faunra, Jonathan, and Dame Rebekah had all taken the steps of burning the bodies of the ghouls to prevent any spread of the disease, a sensible decision in my mind, while I had gone ahead and went into the house and cleaned it top to bottom with my prestidigitation powers. It wasn't much, but I hoped that whatever family this young girl had left would be able to start fresh with everything cleaned out. I even focused my sight to try to ensure that there were no hidden curses or spells waiting to go off when someone else came in, or any hidden enemies lurking in the closets or whatnot. Jonathan came through and helped out after a bit with his newfound ability to smell evil. Apparently evil smells like brimstone. I asked him what good smelled like and he told me that I smell like spiced rum. He walked off after that and I was very confused. I know that I had a bit to drink last night but I used prestidigitation to clean both Savah and myself.
When I came back out to the barn, Faunra had created two piles of items, one which I recognized had the equipment that the ghouls had being wearing and one that looked to be a lot more, mundane. I asked Faunra what this was, and Faunra told me that they had segregated off the items that the ghouls had stolen from this, and nearby houses, and their own equipment. I asked her how she could tell and Jonathan spoke up and said that he smelled them. There was a lot of arms and weapons there, that I did recognize that the ghouls had been wearing. My vision was still in the other mode so I could see that there was a faint grey halo around an amulet that I recognized as almost hitting me in the head with when the fat ghoul exploded, and a set of leather armor that had a faint white halo around it looked to be similarly from that thing. There was also a small bead with a faint grey halo around it.
I had made the mistake of seeing Faunra's gear and herself beside the armor with my other "vision mode" active. Faunra had a faint green aura around her, with a lot of other auras around her things. Her bow and her gladius both had grey auras, with the gladius being faint and the bow being much stronger. Her armor had a similar faint white halo to the ghoul's armor. Her amulet had a black halo almost as strong as the one her bow had. Her belt had a green halo as strong as the amulet, as did her laurel. Her cloak that seemed to keep her hidden now shimmered with a faint sapphire blue aura, while some of her arrows also had a blue halo, others had a purple or green hue about them. One of her rings had a white aura as strong as the amulet's black aura, while the other had a faint green aura about it. It was such a clash of colors that I didn't know what to think. I didn't know what any of the colors meant, just that there were a lot of them. I quickly closed my eyes and did my best to dismiss the effect.
I waited a second for my vision to clear and asked Faunra if the riotous color auras were what we all looked like. Faunra shrugged and said that she detected magic with the items vibrating rather than seeing colored auras or anything similar, and that each person's was their own evaluation of the magic that they witnessed. I was silent for a minute, weighing her words, when I realized that I had not actually asked the question I had thought to ask. I asked Faunra what we were going to actually do with the two piles. Dame Rebekah said that they all had all voted and that they had all wanted to get the items from the farms back to the farms that they had been taken from, but had no idea how to, so were wanting to know if I had any ideas.
I said that it would probably be best to lock everything that we thought was from the farm in the farmhouse and notify Mayor Deverin of what had happened. I added that I would likely be putting aside some of whatever funds I might get from the slaughter of the undead to go to the child's future, be it training or farm expenditures. Dame Rebekah said that she could agree to that. Jonathan and Faunra both followed suit and announced that they would like to do so also. We all worked together to get the items where they would belong in the house, then we locked everything up, and left notes that this property was under the protection of the Saviors of Sandpoint.
We packed up everything else and made our way to Sandpoint. As we approached the town, we saw that there was a wooden wall being erected along the Turandarok. It wasn't much, but at least it would decrease the chances of a ghoul attack by the river. Sheriff Hemlock was waiting for us at the bridge. The Sheriff hailed a welcome to us and asked if we could follow him to the Mayor's office. We all looked at each other and just shrugged, and we all followed the good Sheriff at a slow enough pace so as the not cause any problems. I could definitely tell that there had been a change in the social structure since we had left. I mean, we had only been gone a week, so I didn't know what could have happened, but I tried to prepare myself for anything. I told everyone else to turn off their radios for the meeting, just so that we would not be interrupted.
We got to the town hall and then to the Mayor's office specifically, and there in the office was the Mayor, who had a very unhappy look on her face. She was flanked on one side by a beaming Titus Scarnetti, a frail Ethram Valdemar, and an extremely unhappy looking Ilsoari Gandethus. Father Zantus looked downcast, as did Kaye Tesarani. I surreptitiously pressed the lock in button for my radio to broadcast before anyone started to speak. The Mayor told us that she had asked Sheriff Hemlock to gather us because the town council had reached a decision in our absence. While Ameiko had not been there to attend the meetings and work with some of the other members to block certain lines of inquiry, Titus had pushed forward a vote on the Mayor being ineligible for a vote regarding me due to some phony conflict of interest bull shit. Then there was apparently some back room pressure on Ilsoari related to the finances of his academy, and Scarnetti probably made some deals to get his support on this one vote. So the council had voted, three to two for me to be kicked out of town, along with my cousin and my fiancée.
Dame Rebekah was furious, as was Jonathan. I could actually see the anger on their faces. Titus was just smiling his biggest smile. Ethram seemed a little bit out of it, but that might have just been his condition today. I thanked the Mayor, and told her that I had no intention of violating the town council's edicts, and that I would not work against them. Titus' smile got bigger as I said that. I let it hang for a good thirty seconds before I continued. Just as the mayor was about to speak, I started up. I told the mayor that I had a little problem in that I had met with the Lord-Mayor of Magnimar while we were there saving that city from a murder cult, and that he seemed to have ordered me to start up a school for technomancy here in Sandpoint, and that I just didn't know how to square not being allowed in Sandpoint with starting a school here.
Titus looked furious and accused me of lying. I asked if I could be allowed to retrieve something from my bag, and the Mayor nodded. I pulled forth the charter and carefully presented it to the Sheriff and Mayor Deverin. The Mayor validated that this was a true document, with the Lord-Mayor's seal and the seal of Magnimar. I added that the Lord-Mayor had required of me to construct several items for his personal guard, and was expecting them by Crystalhue. Titus yelled that they had already voted and that it was binding. I asked the mayor if there should be a second vote due to the new information that had to be presented, that is the land grant and decree of the city of Magnimar. Titus started yelling about how Magnimar didn't rule this town, and Mayor Deverin shut him up with saying that Magnimar was the only reason why this town was created, with land grants being given to the four noble families.
Titus accused me of trying to swing the council's votes and upend the vote on the Mayor's removal from this case. I told him that there was no such thing. I would not interfere with the council's own internal vote on whether or not the mayor was compromised by dealings with me, but that I was only interested in the sake of my family's stay here in Sandpoint. Titus said that they could vote right now, and that nothing would change. I said that I would gladly wait for the council to vote again, but that it would be good to get all of the council members here. Titus said that they all were there, and I noted that the Kaijitsu representative was not here. Titus was furious and stated that the trollop was off in Magnimar. I told him that she had returned shortly before we had today.
Titus seethed with rage. I could see that he was doing some rough calculations in his head. I'm pretty sure that he was weighing up his possibility of getting his vote through even with Ameiko being here. Ilsoari asked if he could see the writ from Magnimar. The Mayor showed it to him, and he briefly read over the document. He asked me if this school for Technomancy would overtake the academy. I did my best to look shocked and told him that it would do nothing of the sort. I told him that back where I was from, we took knowledge seriously, and that his school would be considered a primary school, where mine was to be a secondary school, where people could learn the advanced skills of technomancy. Ilsoari coyly asked if that meant that his school would be less important, and I told him even more important, and that we would have to figure out some way to ensure that his academy was teaching things that could lead into my school to make it easier for the natives of Sandpoint to get a leg up on those who choose to come here from far away.
Titus seemed to be facing a more uphill battle. Just then, there was a fervent knock at the door. The Sheriff went to go see who it was, and immediately let them in. I saw that it was Ameiko and Savah, so I released the lock on my radio. Ameiko was staring daggers at Titus and there was no love returned. I broke the silence by telling Ameiko that I was most thankful for her offer of residence here, but that I was being kicked out of Sandpoint by order of the town council. Ameiko must have quickly saw what I was doing, because she asked how I would be able to start the school in Sandpoint if I could not be in Sandpoint. Titus yelled that he didn't care about my school and that I could run it in Magnimar for all he cared.
Faunra spoke up and told him that Lord-Mayor Grobaras had specified that it had to be in Sandpoint so as to not create an issue with the two magic schools in Magnimar. Titus seethed more than an emo kid in a Hot Topic in the suburbs being accused of not being hard enough. Ameiko proposed an immediate town council meeting. Titus moved to deny, but Father Zantus, Kaye Tesarani, and the Mayor all agreed with Ameiko, and the meeting was moved to the town council meeting chamber.
Everyone was sat down in respective chairs, and we waited while the town council all got ready. From one side the council was seated. Father Zantus, Kaye Tesarani, Ameiko Kaijitsu, Mayor Deverin, Ilsoari Gandethus, Ethram Valdemar, and finally Titus Scarnetti. Procedural votes were first. The motion to get the Mayor removed from the vote failed. A motion made by Titus to get this meeting to recognize the previous meeting's ruling in this case and end the meeting failed. A motion by Titus to get the meeting to just vote to just weigh the new evidence failed.
Finally, Titus could see how the meeting was going to go. He brought up the motion to have David Drake, Oren Drake, and Savah Bevaniky kicked out of town. Father Zantus was the first to vote, where he said that I had been a good influence in the town, pointing out how conflict between the Gozreh faithful and Gorvi had been greatly reduced by my influences. Titus voted immediately for expulsion based on how I had caused a rift within the Abadar faithful. Kaye Tesarani voted for me to stay, based on the fact that I was a Savior of Sandpoint, and as such it would be bad for the town to show such dishonor to a person who had done good for the town. Ethram just voted expulsion. He didn't give an explanation as to why. Ilsoari came next. He hemmed and hawed for a minute before he noted that with the new information about the school coming to Sandpoint, that I would be the only person who could possibly teach the school, so I needed to stay.
The Mayor spoke up quickly and said that she voted that I should stay, because I was bringing economic development into the town, and that I was bringing the town esteem in the eyes of Magnimar and other locations. Ameiko Kaijitsu was the only one left to vote. She gave me a wink that Titus and Ethram couldn't see, and said that I was a very disruptive influence in this town, and that I should keep in mind the sensibilities of living in such a place if I was to continue living here, but being as she had seen two of the founding senior noble houses vote against me being here, she couldn't vote against them, and said that she would vote for expulsion, to make the tally four to stay and three to leave.
Titus was furious. He motioned to end the meeting, but Ameiko voted against it, saying that scurrilous things had been said about her in her absence and she would like remedy for that. Titus said that he had no idea what she was talking about, and Ilsoari mentioned that he must have forgotten calling her a trollop. Titus apologized and said that he was greatly sorry for the verbal slip. Ameiko motioned for the hearing to be called to an end, and Titus immediately seconded. Ethram thirded and the vote was carried. Titus stood up from his seat and walked over to me, welcoming me back to Sandpoint and saying that I should be careful not to violate any laws. I thanked him for his advice and said that it was advice that everyone, even nobles, should follow. He stormed off.
Ethram meandered off, still looking frail. Ilsoari came over to me and mentioned that he had lost a fair amount of support from his actions today. I noted that I was sorry about that, but that I would be working to ensure that his school was supported. He nodded and headed out. Kaye Tesarani smiled at me and said that she looked forward to all of the business that a school would provide. I told her that I would definitely not prohibit the people studying at my school from frequenting her fine establishment. She smiled and went off.
Father Zantus came over and welcomed me back, saying that he hoped that my influence would be furthering the interests of peace and togetherness in the future. I told him that bigots annoyed me and that I preferred people to just be left alone. Father Zantus nodded and I told him that we had information that involved the faithful of the cathedral, so it would be good for him to be here for the briefing. Father Zantus nodded and we looked to the Mayor. The Mayor asked us what this grave issue was.
Dame Rebekah started out that while we were in Magnimar, we encountered the murder cult that had sent the killer to Sandpoint, and we believe that we destroyed it. She told the mayor that the cult was one that was devoted to an aspect of Norgorber, and that it was a bit of a concern that they might be looking into expanding into Sandpoint. Mayor Deverin looked to Sheriff Hemlock and noted that they would keep an eye out for it. Faunra added that they were being pushed into action through the actions of a lamia matriarch, but that it could easily continue to push this way if they sensed vulnerability. Faunra noted that we had found evidence that the purpose behind the slayings was to kill those of greedy persuasion for some cultic reason.
The Mayor looked a little shook up at that, but said that it at least solved the motivation behind the murderer. She added that we could definitely remove Ven from consideration, as well as Dame Rebekah, of course. Jonathan noted that Ven had made threats against me, and had carried them out at least once. Sheriff Hemlock replied that he had been warned about his actions, but would be informed that the reason his daughter was slain was that her fiancée was targeted because of him skimming money from the Scarnetti mill. I told him that the Scarnettis were not responsible for Banny's murder at all. The Sheriff said that he knew that this was the case, but that he would only bring that up if Ven was going to do anything.
Finally, I brought up our experiences with at the farm today, and how the power vacuum of the evil entities might cause some more problems in the area, and that I was sorry for that. The Mayor said that we couldn't be held responsible for the actions of other things that we didn't know about, much less had no control over, that all we could do would be to stop the evil where we could. I told the mayor that this was our intention, but that we would not be looking into doing anything to bring more evil to this town if we could help it. The mayor thanked us and asked if there were any survivors. Savah told her that we had rescued a young child, but that all of the others looked to be dead.
The mayor noted that the farm would have to be held for the child for when they were grown, but that she would handle it. I noted that if there was no family for them to go with, that we wanted to support their stay in the academy. Sheriff Hemlock said that he would look into it, and get back to us. The Mayor asked us if there was anything else. I asked if I would be allowed to start up my school on the other side of the Turandarok, to minimize the issues with Scarnetti. The Mayor was very receptive to this and said that it was a very good idea.
Faunra asked the mayor if there was anything else, we would probably need to get back to everything that we needed to do. The Mayor told us to get along and get back to what we needed to do. I thanked her for everything and apologized that we had to do this kind of thing with the council. Mayor Deverin nodded and said that we would need to be a bit careful for the next few days to let Titus simmer. We all headed out, escorted by Sheriff Hemlock. Once we got out, Sheriff Hemlock told us that he didn't like any of this, but that the council held a strong sway over the town, and that Titus was a strong influencer in this town. I nodded and said that I knew that I had enemies in the town. Sheriff Hemlock nodded and escorted us the rest of the way out of the town-hall.
Faunra, Dame Rebekah, Jonathan, Ameiko, Savah, and myself all exited the town hall. Jonathan said that he had to go to his restaurant, Dame Rebekah said that she was going to be heading to the cathedral. Faunra said that she would be heading to the Rusty Dragon to go get Shalelu and head out to their campsite. Ameiko said that she had to head back to the Dragon as well. Savah and I headed back to the Armory. We all split up and headed back to our current residences.
When we got back to the Armory, we went in through the garage and locked up our bikes. I took Veronica into the shop and saw that Vaeren was working away on his bike. He smiled to me and saw Veronica and asked if it was a dedicated wright. I told him that she was and introduced them to each other. Veronica nodded, saluted, and got out her gear before asking me what she should work on. I thought to her that we needed at least two bikes manufactured soon. She saluted and went to work. Vaeren smiled and went back to what he was doing. Savah and I went back and unloaded a lot of our things into our bedroom.
We went on to Savah's shop and saw that James was standing there talking to Oren. Oren ran over to us, welcomed me back with a fierce hug, and asked me if I had seen that there was the start of a wall on the shore of the Turandarok. I nodded and said that it was a very good start, and that I was glad that the town was listening to him. Oren asked Savah if it would be okay for him to finish off his day selling goods, as he had some people who were looking to come back to talk to him about some goods. Savah said that it was fine, and we both headed back to the common room.
James came in shortly and said that he had gotten settled into a room and asked if we could give him a tour of everything. We gave him a short tour, including the basement level. James took it all in and asked if there was a place in town where he could get a bite to eat. Savah noted that the Bolting Barghest was a good place, as was Risa's, the Hagfish, the Rusty Dragon, and The White Deer, and a few taverns in town as well, just depending on what he wanted to eat. James seemed a bit overwhelmed, and asked what we might recommend for seafood, and Savah said that he should go for the Hagfish, and gave him directions.
After James left, Savah and I got ready to go see the rest of our group. The day was just about over for all of the businesses in town, so we couldn't really do too much in the way of restocking, so we talked it out and decided that it would be good to just get together with everyone and figure out what they all planned for the future. Savah and I told Oren where we would be going, and he told us to be careful, what with what the Scarnettis had been pushing during the week. Savah told him that we had been told about this, and that we would be careful.
We went to our bikes, and Savah said that she would be okay with just riding behind me on mine. We got on my bike and rode to the Bolting Barghest. The restaurant was closed, but Jonathan was outside waiting for us. He welcomed us in and told us that everyone else was waiting for us. Around the table was seated Shayliss, Faunra, Shalelu, Dame Rebekah and Chelger were all situated around Jonathan's large table, with three seats waiting to be filled. Savah and I sat down according to the scheme and Jonathan followed suit. There were some small foodstuffs and drinks set on the table.
Dame Rebekah started off with declaring that she and Chelger would be making Foxglove manor into an interfaith sanctuary, similar to Windsong Abbey, as it was the only thing that was appropriate, considering the terror that was present underneath the manor. I nodded and asked if that meant that they would be staying there or if they would be staying in town. Chelger noted that they would not be residing there until it was cleared of the malign influences. I nodded and agreed. Faunra said that Shalelu and herself would be making a combination observatory/hunting lodge that could suit their needs while blending in.
Jonathan noted that he was going to have to work on hiring a staff and getting everything up and running for this. Everyone looked to me and Savah, and Savah said that we had a whole lot to do, from building a house and a school, to making all of the stuff that we would need to make to live up to the orders for both bikes and maces. Faunra noted that it sounded like a lot of work for us. I noted that we just had to finish everything by Crystalhue, so we had a sufficient amount of time. I added that with Veronica, we could maybe get this done fairly readily. We all enjoyed a light meal and reminisced about the most recent days' events.
After a few hours, Savah and I rode back to the Armory and put the bike up. We made our way back to our bedroom and I got a mental message form Veronica asking what to work on. I thought to her that she should work on the tools that we would need to make a workshop and a house, complete with indoor plumbing and routed electricity. Veronica agreed and said that she would work on it. Savah and I went to bed and I finished out my notes for the night.