Day 73: Fireday the 30th, Neth, 4707
Faunra and Dame Rebekah woke everyone up at the crack of dawn. Faunra because she was awake and ready to go, Dame Rebekah because she had just finished her devotionals and was similarly ready to go. Jonathan had been contemplative for several hours but had no issue with getting up. It was only Savah and I who had any issue getting up, and that was only because we spent a lot of time last night getting ready for bed. We all got up and got geared up before having Jonathan's take on correcting some of the issues with the food from last night. The cold box had long since had the ice melt, so we dried up all of the water and ensured that there would be no damage to anything before we headed out.
As we went to the stables to pick up our bikes and horse, there was an individual standing out in front, casually eating an apple. We walked past him and gathered up our steeds and our gear and headed out to head to our appointment with the Lord-Mayor. The man stopped us before we were heading out the gate and asked us if it was true that we had killed the ogre that had been using the great axe and the cloak. Faunra added that there was a set of chain shirt that had belonged to it as well, and that it was my blow that had finished it off. The man just nodded and went back inside.
I shrugged and suggested that I check my app before we head out. I pulled up the app and set it to cast another throw while I concentrated on us heading out to the Lord-Mayor's office in our current gear at this time. We came back as neither good nor bad, and I told everyone as such. Since it didn't come back as bad, we all kind of gave it a miss and headed out to the Capital District, to the Pediment Building. We got there without hardly an issue at all. The only thing that came close was the downpour that had threatened us, and Jonathan was Johnny on the spot with stopping that. As we entered into the Pediment building stables, the young stable-boy was taken aback at the sheer oddity of pegasi and motorcycles. Savah gave him a whole ten gold pieces and recommended that they keep close eye on anyone who looks to be giving the bikes or animals more than a passing glance.
When we entered into the lobby, the initial page tried to stop us until Valanni happened to be walking by and told us that we had made excellent time in getting here. Savah thanked him and he led us up to talk to the Lord-Mayor. Along the way, as we passed by offices and courthouse rooms, Valanni told us that the Lord-Mayor had specifically summoned us to fulfill this task, as he felt that our great deeds had shown us to be up to the challenge. I cleared my throat, punctuating what was obviously a line of bullshit, and he smiled back to me. Valanni noted that we would be discussing a trip that he required of us to make that would take us to Turtleback Ferry and then on to Fort Resnick.
Valanni noted that we would be receiving a stipend for this, but that the amount of such was not revealed to him as of yet. What this told me is that Valanni knew how much it was, and that he didn't want to tell us for fear of us not wanting to do the job because it is fairly low. I asked him how far it was to Turtleback Ferry. Valanni told us that it is a two-week journey by foot, some four hundred miles of lightly patrolled terrain. Valanni continued that by horse it was a one-week journey, and that there was also the option of taking a ferry that could reduce the time to one week as well.
I thought to myself that I could get there in two days if I needed to, as long as I had a way to bring everyone else along with me. Maybe Faunra could figure out a way to do it so that we had the people and horse/bikes taken care of, I could zip across the terrain at a speed of twenty-three miles an hour and get there in just under two days of travel. Hell, Faunra and I could swap out and we could get there in a day and a half. Something to think about anyway.
Valanni took us the rest of the way to the Lord Mayor's office with some minor questions about this and that, mostly about how Sandpoint was doing now that Black Fang the Dragon was dispatched and how the fight against the ghouls was going. He was obviously flexing with showing how much access to information that he had, but he wasn't willing to go too far with it. Jonathan talked to him at length about how the meal he had made from Black Fang's carcass had been loved by all who partook in it. Dame Rebekah spoke up about how the Church of Iomedae was sallying forth now to help eradicate the ghoul menace. Just before I could stop her from discussing things further, we arrived at the Lord-Mayor's offices.
Valanni let himself in after knocking and after a few moments, beckoned us to come in. When we arrived, the Lord-Mayor was pouring over a stack of papers. I recognized the Scarnetti crest on the upper left hand corner. The Lord-Mayor point blank asked me if I knew what these were. I shrugged and said that for all I knew, it was paper that was only worth being used to whip one's arse with. The Lord-Mayor looked at me for a few moments and then began to laugh. He noted that these were all complaints from Titus Scarnetti, one of the resident nobles of Sandpoint. He asked how I had managed to get him so riled up.
I looked to the Lord-Mayor and realized that while he might have a good sense of humor, I shouldn't do anything perfidious, so I told him that this all started when I first arrived in Sandpoint. Titus had apparently marked me as a rival while I had given him zero thought whatsoever. I added that Titus had opposed projects that would help defend the town of Sandpoint and bring recognition to Magnimar as a whole before I could even leave the town the first time. And when I came back with the Lord-Mayor's gracious order to start work on constructing a school for my new form of learning, Titus Scarnetti has used his agents in the local government and external to the government to stymie my building such that I have only been able to start work on the Campus Buildings.
I noted that speaking of which, I did have time to fabricate four of the stun batons that I had been commissioned to make. I pulled them out of my Handy Haversack and handed them to Khonderian, who had materialized right next to me for just this purpose. He turned one on and gave it an approving look. He asked how we could recharge it, and I noted that the golem that I had modified could be further modified to recharge those, but that it would take time to recharge them. Khonderian seemed even more approving of what I was saying.
I added that they could be enchanted for recharging, but that it would be better to fabricate a place where a baton could be placed to recharge, so that one could recharge any baton, rather than repeating the enchantment on each individual baton. Khonderian caught on to what I wasn't saying, and noted that by having control of the recharging mechanism, they could ensure that the batons became useless clubs if stolen away from the Lord-Mayor's Guards. I smiled and nodded. Khonderian stealthily slipped Savah some funds for the stun batons, and I only managed to catch it out of the corner of my eye. I probably would not have caught it at all back before I learned to have to deal with such laumufarþegi.
The Lord-Mayor said that he was glad to see that my arts were showing so much progress, but that he had actually called us here for a different reason. The Lord-Mayor continued after taking a drink of what I knew was Elderberry Wine, with saying that one of the city's furthest outposts, Fort Rannick, had stopped sending missives back regarding their monthly operations. He needed a group of experience trouble-seekers to head over there, find out what was wrong, and inform them that the Lord-Mayor needed to know what was going on or they would be getting replaced. He continued on with saying that the group that inhabited the fort, the Black Arrows, were kind of foul-tempered, and all of his people were busy, what with dealing with the fallout of one of the city justices being silently permanently retired and the people he had associated himself with were running amok.
Savah noted that this would take considerable time away from my work on fulfilling the contract with the city, and others that had requested services that were to come after the Lord-Mayor's contract. The Lord-Mayor sighed and asked her what it would take to get us to do this little detail. Savah started talking about deferred fulfillment of contracts, opportunity loses, hold on construction due to inability to supervise intricate parts of the construction. I stopped her and said that we didn't want to take up more of the Lord-Mayors time, and suggested that two platinum trade bars apiece could probably get us what we need, and coverage for the ferry.
The Lord-Mayor hemmed for a second before nodding to Valanni. Valanni said that he would take us down to disbursing to issue the payment. We all thanked the Lord-Mayor for this opportunity to help Magnimar and he motioned for us to leave. I caught him tossing the papers that he had been reviewing into the trash before the door shut. Valanni took us down several flights until we came to a vault which had a grizzled man at the front. Valanni passed along a measure of several passwords and finally got what was needed, twelve bars of platinum and six one pound bags of gold sails. Valanni escorted us back to the front lobby and asked if we were actually intending on taking the Ferry or if we were going to do something else. I noted that we would be travelling much faster than the Ferry, and I figured that the Ferry just meant that they wanted us to go to this mission quickly. Valanni said that he wouldn't bring it up at all, but that we should probably head out of town today, as the ferry heading that way leaves today. I thanked him for his advice and we went to collect our bikes and horse from the stables.
The stable-hand said that they had gotten some weird looks, but nothing serious. Savah thanked him and gave him another few coins as a tip. While we were getting set up, I asked if anyone needed anything in town before we headed out. Faunra said that she'd like to pick up some rations and such for the road, as did Shalelu. Dame Rebekah noted that she had to pass word back to Chelger that she would not be heading home immediately. Jonathan said that he's update Shayliss tonight, and that he was okay. Savah said that she would be heading back to Sandpoint immediately to get work started on portions of the University, since we should strike while the iron is hot on that, and she had no interest in heading to Turtleback Ferry.
I asked if she was okay with me going, and she told me that of course she was, but that if I died, I 'd better know that she'll have me resurrected so she can kill me herself. Faunra told her that they would keep me safe. I asked Savah if she could help me get a kit set up for meals, and she said that she would. We all decided to reconvene at the Naos Gate in one hour. Savah split up the profits from the sale of all of the goods that we had confiscated from the enemies we had defeated. This coupled with the payment from the Lord-Mayor was a pretty penny, and I wasn't really thinking about anything that I truly needed to spend it on.
Savah had some ideas, especially since I wouldn't be bringing a cart behind the bike, I could use some cargo capacity, on the bike, so Savah had already commissioned some saddlebags to act as minor bags of holding in addition to their normal holding capacity. I just needed to open up a secret pocket sewn into the lid of the bags. I told her that I knew that there was a reason why I loved her. Savah noted that she would be taking the majority of my share back to Sandpoint to start the work on the University (with the addition of two workshops and a bedroom for the two teachers. She noted that it definitely would not be done before I got back, but that it didn't mean that I should dawdle. I told her that I definitely would not.
By the time an hour was up, we had made our way back to the gate with all of the goods that Savah had recommended for me for this trip. There was a lot of various spices to go along with the meals, along with a fair amount of honey and mead. Jonathan was back and sporting new boots, to go along with his new gloves. Dame Rebekah's horse was shod in new shoes, and I could tell already what they did. Faunra and Shalelu were both ready to go as well. It was at this point that I asked Savah how she was going to get back to Sandpoint. Savah smiled and said that she would be contracting Derexhi to escort her back, and that they should really open up an office in Sandpoint to help people on the road from here to there and back.
Dame Rebekah, Jonathan, and Fauna all had things that they needed her to inform people about to get done, so Savah took meticulous notes and said that she would get everything accomplished. As we reconfirmed that everything was set up, Savah made it a point to wish us swift travels. I suggested to Jonathan that he ride with either Faunra or myself, for the first few hours, because he would have trouble keeping up with Dame Rebekah's steed until it tired itself out. He hopped on the back of Faunra's ride and said let's go.
Dame Rebekah took off like a shot and the rest of us worked to catch up with her. Her horse was much faster than it used to be thanks to the new horseshoes. I was glad that Jonathan was on Faunra's bike, as he would not have kept up to Bucepherous in any way shape or form. We were heading at a good clip and I could see us making decent progress for a good five hours before we needed to slow down to a mild ten miles an hour. After we travelled for a full eight hours, we decided that we had made some really good progress. We stopped for the night after that hundred miles and started setting up camp. After a few minutes of putting up the tents, Jonathan was jumped by a trio of firepelt cougars. There were another two who leapt after the rest of us as well.
Jonathan and the rest of us took out the cougars fairly quickly. Shalelu couldn't quite explain why they would have attacked us, as they were all adults. Shalelu said that she could understand if it was a mated pair and three cubs, but that it was completely bizarre that five adult cougars would be together. The most that she had ever heard of travelling together was four, and that was a one in a million circumstance. All that Faunra could suggest was that it was possible that we had interrupted a territory battle. We decided to process the bodies and retain the furs, since it was the least we could do to respect their bodies.
We got the bodies together and started processing the meat for steaks and jerky. It was an odd thought, eating cougar, but it was much better than wasting the animals. I just hope that they didn't have rabies or anything, but I shall have to observe Jonathan for a few days to see if he will be okay. Speaking of Jonathan, he made a terrific meal out of some of the meat, and he noted that he would be preserving the rest of it tonight while we all slept and got ready for the next day of travel.
Jonathan noted that he would take first watch, Dame Rebekah noted that she would take the last watch, and Faunra offered to take the second to last watch. That left Shalelu and me for the last two watches. I took the second watch and Shalelu took the third watch. Normally, this would be an issue for sleep for a person, but since elves only need to have four hours of meditation, no one should really suffer. And Jonathan only ever needed two hours to sleep.
When I went to sleep in my tent, Jonathan told me that he would wake me up when it was my turn. I thanked him and got myself set up for a quick nap. Jonathan woke me up on time and I got up and started my shift while Jonathan took his bedroll and set it up in my tent. For my shift, I'm glad to say that nothing happened. I kept watch and ensured that everyone was safe. I woke up Shalelu for her watch, and she told me that everyone would be woken up after Dame Rebekah performed her morning devotionals. I thanked her and went into the tent. Jonathan was just getting up, and thanked me for the usage of the tent, and said that he would be making jerky and breakfast for us for the morning. I nodded and thanked him for all his work before heading to bed.