Rise of The Runelords - David Drake's Saga

by Raulfur

This is the Rise of the Runelords series as told by of David Drake, an American pagan who got tricked into the adventure. This series shows how he comes to understand the world and his journeys through it. The first three posts detail his companions, Faunra: a time displaced elven Magus, Dame Rebekah: a child of crusaders, and Jonathan: a skinwalker monk/kineticist. Still ongoing.

86. Day 82 or An Uneventful Day Trip

Day 82: Sunday the 9th, Kuthona, 4707

I awoke to the sounds of reveille. Again. Double Ugh. When I got up I felt slightly different. There was more knowledge there that I had not opened up yet. Before I had gone to bed I had summoned every unseen servant that I could and put them to cleaning up the room and getting ready for travel. They were not good for all that much, but cleaning equipment was a suitable usage for them. They were still there when I awoke, so I had them help me get armed and armored up very quickly, and then had them help carry my things to my bike and then go get my breakfast for me.

When I had sat down to eat, Jonathan told me that he had relayed the message to Sir Jasper, and that the Lord-Mayor had seen Sir Jasper after that and he passed along word of both the fallen fort and the invasion force that was coming to Sandpoint. Jonathan noted that there wasn't much else to say except that all of our non-essential stuff had been put onto the horse for Dame Rebekah before the steed was enchanted. I thanked him for that update and finished my food in record time.

Faunra kind of snickered when she noticed the unseen servants, and asked me if I really just cast them all before I got here. I told her that I had summoned all of them just before going to sleep last night and that they were still around from then. Faunra seemed a bit more perplexed but let it slide. Everyone was a flurry of activity. Jonathan had prepared three days of meals for quick eating, Shalelu was going over some last minute things and Jakardros had done up the enchantment for Bucepherous. He set the command word as the steed's name, and all Dame Rebekah would need to do is set the small stone figurine on the ground and say the word, and the steed would be restored. We got packed up quickly and followed the trail down until the point at which we could avoid any mountains. Shalelu cast her trail sense spell and took off through the woods. We followed, with Dame Rebekah on my bike and Jonathan on Faunra's. We were at a dead sprint, and travelling at a good seventeen miles an hour.

We rushed down through the Kreegswood and across the river into The Sanos Forest. I could swear I saw Yap waving to us as we rushed by doing comparably breakneck speeds. Shalelu's enchantment did us well, and we kept following her. We ended the day in Nybor, a nice little welcoming village. There was a nice place to stay for the night called the Watch Inn, which held a Water Clock. We sprung for rooms since it was very late in the day and we needed to get rest for the upcoming day. We got enough beds for Dame Rebekah, Jonathan, and myself while Faunra and Shalelu got a suite.

We got to bed early and set ourselves up to get up and be ready early too.