Day 98: Toilday the 25th, Kuthona, 4707

I woke up and started my routine as normal. It was going to be a busy day, so I wanted to do what I could to get started. I summoned up an unseen servant, and had it go through the motions of making coffee and fixing up some simple food for all four of us. While it was doing that, I headed down to the workshop. Veronica and Igor had fabricated up the parts for another three guns, this time rifles. The preferences seemed to be split between pistols and rifles, which Sheriff Hemlock had approved of as well, so this morning I assembled the components into three rifles to match the three revolvers from yesterday.

Savah came down to the workshop and to check in on me, and was amazed that the work was already done for those three. I told her that most of the work of fabrication was being done by the twins, and I was just assembling the items. Savah countered that my ability to put these things together had really ramped up drastically since I came back from Turtleback Ferry. I told her that I guess I just realized the urgency of the situation and was putting my all into it. Savah shook her head, saying that from an outside observer, my hands just seemed to go in a blur for a short period of time when I focused. I told her that I would ask Faunra and Dame Rebekah about this after this was all done.

I got up and headed into the store with Savah and saw that Vaeren seemed to be a bit more worried than yesterday. Savah asked him what the issue was, and he told us that he was really getting worried about upcoming battle. I sighed and told them that I would be right back. I went up to the bedroom and pulled out my air rifle. I got all of the pellets and brought them down as well. I went back into the shop and handed it to Savah. Savah looked confused, and I told her that I had agreed that I would give her the air rifle back when early on when we first met. Savah smiled and took it from me, and turned to Vaeren and then handed it to him, saying that this would be something that he would have to repay with working at the shop until it was paid off.

Vaeren readily agreed and asked if Savah or I would train him. Savah said that she would give him some pointers. I told him that I would go through the training for making the guns when he was able to work in the workshop. Vaeren thanked us both profusely and I went to get ready for the day's classes. Right on cue, Niddler gave me an alert that the troupe of town guard were on their way. I passed this along to the others and Savah declared that she was ready to help. I told Vaeren that I would be focusing on the tear down and rebuild of firearms today, and that he could participate it Savah thought it okay to shut the store down for a day. Savah said that they could just put up a sign that said to knock if needed. I noted that Bailey could tell her if someone approached as well. Savah nodded and had a faraway look in her eyes for a second. Savah said that Bailey would be taking up position on the store's porch.

I got the various guns that would be used for the demonstration ready in the workshop. Niddler gave me the warning that the group was arriving, and I went out to welcome them in. Sheriff Hemlock was there with the guards that had come the previous day. As I welcomed them all in, they took up spots in different areas of the workshop, and I asked the Sheriff and Savah to help sort the group into thirds. After this was accomplished, I took a revolver and a rifle to each group. I asked Savah and Sheriff Hemlock if they could help one of the groups through the safe tear down and build-up of the firearms.

I took what I expected to be the most difficult group to work with, being Rip, Fumi, Naru, Olhart, and Ileana. Sheriff Hemlock took Jubal, Quera, Jaren, Paltero, and Rhian for his group, and Savah ended up with Hazgan, Kilana, Merin, Vaeren, and Nilly. I put up boards that had all of the parts individually labelled and an exploded drawing of each firearm. It took almost four hours to get every one of them through the process of disassembling and assembling the various firearms, but at the end, I felt like they had made very good progress. I told Sheriff Hemlock that I would be stopping for lunch and he told me that he had something arranged, and that I should keep the class going for a little while for it to show up.

I started to take some questions from the group. Quera took the opportunity to ask if I was wasting their time with all of this just to get out of my commitment. I asked Savah what to do if her rifle doesn't fire when she pulls the trigger. Savah answered back as if by rote that she keeps the barrel pointed away from herself and any that she doesn't want to shoot, clears the clip and the chamber and then when time permits, looks for obstructions. I asked her why, and she answered back quickly that the round could possibly go off when it is accidentally pointed at a target that you are not intending to hit. I asked Sheriff Hemlock what the first thing I told him about firearms was. Sheriff Hemlock responded back that a firearm is always like a loaded and pulled back crossbow that you cannot tell is loaded. He continued that if something bad happens, the trigger could be pulled and you could hit someone you are not intending to hit.

I looked to Quera and told her that I was bringing tools to this town that no other town in this area had. They were dangerous, more dangerous than some spells, and that a person needs to understand the weapon and how to repair it if they are to use it. Otherwise, all the firearms really are, are oddly shaped expensive clubs. Quera seemed a bit miffed at the response but accepted it. Jaren took the opportunity to ask a good question. He asked if all of the firearms would use the same ammunition. I smiled and told him that as it turned out, I was designing all of the firearms to utilize the same caliber of ammo, to make things easier for those who had one or both styles of weapon.

Jaren followed up this answer with another question. He asked what changed when firing the ammo from the revolver to the rifle. I told him that when you have a revolver, the barrel is shorter, so the round has less guidance, whereas the rifle's barrel is rifled, which provides a spinning effect that causes the round to be more accurate. Jaren asked if I could draw it to show what I meant. I took a board and drew up a simple cone pattern from the center of the bullet to the edge of the barrel, and did the same for the rifle, and showed how the cone was tighter in the rifle. Jaren seemed to understand what I meant and a few of the others followed suit.

Just then, I got a message from Niddler that Jonathan and some others were carrying some boxes up with them. I smiled and looked to Sheriff Hemlock, who smiled back. I told everyone that lunch would be served shortly, thanks to Sheriff Hemlock. The guard all looked as the door to the workshop opened up and Jonathan and his crew came in with boxes of food. Everyone got what they wanted, and Jonathan stopped to talk to me for a little bit. He asked me if I thought that the Sheriff would be understanding if he roughed up some Sczarni who were trying to shake down the help at his establishment. I told him that we had some issues like this earlier, and he was fairly understanding. Jonathan added that he didn't kill the people, just roughed them up and scared them off. I told him that he should just go talk to the Sheriff and he said that he would.

Savah came up after Jonathan went to go talk to the Sheriff and asked if everything was okay. I told her that I was certain that it would be fine. Savah asked if Sheriff Hemlock had told me when they were going to announce to the town that this was going to happen. I told her that I didn't know, but that we definitely needed to pack as much training as we could into the next day, because I wouldn't expect the town council to hold off any further than that. Savah nodded and asked why I thought that. I told her that the Mayor was probably holding off until as long as she could until the town guard was available to answer calls from the ensuing panic.

Vaeren came up and thanked me for being so thorough in my training, and that he was actually looking forward to the school that I would start. He asked me what I was thinking of calling it, The Drake Academy? I told him that I was kind of torn between the Sandpoint Hinterlands Institute for Technology or the Symposium on the Natural, Applied, and Formal Universal Sciences. Vaeren thought about them both for a minute and gave me a look, saying that he thought that the second one would be better. I told him that it was pretty much exactly what the school would teach, so it was a good name.

Vaeren then asked me what Snafus actually meant. I laughed and told him that it was an acronym, Situation Normal: All Fucked Up, but pluralized. He asked why I had such disdain for this school if I was pushing for it. I told him that back where I was from, schools of this nature tended to be associated with those who looked down upon the people who could not go to those schools for the vagaries of fate. I wanted to pass along my knowledge to everyone, but it didn't make the person receiving it any better than anyone else, just more fortunate in the regard that they were able to get there. Vaeren said that he'd ponder it, but that the second one was still better than the first.

Vaeren went back to studying his new firearm before Savah said something to him and he walked off to the store. I sent messages back to Niddler, War-Bringer, Igor, and Veronica to see how they were all doing. Niddler noted that he was tending the chickens, War-Bringer noted that he was patrolling the Southern part of the wall, and the Twins were working on collecting raw materials for the guns and ammunition. I smiled and came back to reality. Rip was there and he said that he had to ask me a question.

I told him to go ahead, and he went about asking me if it was true that the four of us had slain the monster from the depths. I told him that I had indeed been part of the group that had slain Black Magga. Rip told me that slaying a Linnorm was part of the tradition for the Ulfen to become a Jarl. I told him that Black Magga wasn't a Linnorm, and that I didn't do it on my own. I finished with saying that I had no idea how to even slay something like Fafnir, or anything that powerful. Rip blanched and said that Fafnheir was the grand-daddy of all the Linnorms and only the most powerful of kings could ever slay him. I paused for a second and asked Rip if he was serious that Fafnir was here. I recovered a little and told Rip that I really wasn't in the position to take on something that powerful by myself. Rip nodded, but noted that if I did end up doing so, it would be a phenomenal thing, and that he would be proud to be Karl under me, that he felt that I could bring a good influence to the Ulfen people.

I sighed and told him that I really didn't have much in the way of aspirations to being a leader of people and Rip looked around and told me that I already was. I thought about it and said that I really wasn't the leader of the group, just to spokesperson from time to time. Rip shook his head saying not of the group but of people. Rip added that the whole group were developing into leaders, even Jonathan with his tavern and the workers under him. I told Rip that I wasn't planning on leaving Sandpoint any time soon, and Rip said that I should still consider it, that there might be secrets in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings that would help me on my search. I told him that I would keep it in mind.

Sheriff Hemlock was free at that point, and I told Rip that I had to go talk to the Sheriff about something and he bade me well. I went to the Sheriff and pulled him aside politely. Sheriff Hemlock asked what was wrong, and I asked him if he had been made aware of when the Town Council would be making the announcements. Sheriff Hemlock noted that he wasn't sure, but that he'd try to find out and get back to me. I thanked him and offered to help with the announcement in any way that I could. Sheriff Hemlock smiled and said that he would relay that to the Mayor. We all finished our lunches and I told everyone that we would be going through the last little bit before we got to go shooting.

I told everyone that they would be timed in the clearing of a potential jam, and graded on how safe they were. Surprisingly, everyone seemed to do really well with this task. It seemed like they were the kinds of people who could soak up information readily. The only real issues were with barrel discipline, which I helped people get cognizant of by attaching a laser pointer to the front of the barrel. Suddenly, everyone could see where the gun was aimed. We got through the clearing procedure, and moved on to the next exercise, aiming. We all headed out to our area of the yard that we were using as a range and I made some targets. I had everyone line up at the increments and, using the laser pointer, see where they would hit. After some practice they were doing very well.

I told everyone that we would spend the whole day tomorrow with live fire exercises, but that I needed them to practice with the training grenades. This went almost as well as expected, but they all complied. By the end of the day, there were less people getting hit with paint spray and the guard were beginning to control where they threw them even when they were less than accurate in their throwing. At the end of the day, I promised them again that we would do live fire shooting tomorrow, and that we would be travelling a bit further out of town, as we didn't need to upset the Scarnettis. Quite a few of them laughed at that, and the Sheriff led them back to the Garrison.

After they left, Savah asked me if I was going to really show them how to shoot tomorrow, or if I was just stringing them along. I told her that I would indeed be going through the training for shooting tomorrow and that having her and Sheriff Hemlock there would be more important than ever. Vaeren asked if he could go with us tomorrow to do some shooting, and Savah agreed, as long as he could find someone to mind the shop that he trusted. Vaeren smiled and said that he had an associate from back in Magnimar that just came in to town that he would talk to, that he trusted with his life. I asked their name, and Vaeren said Erika Brati.

I looked to Savah and she just shrugged. I asked him to invite Erika over for dinner here at the house tonight, and we could all learn a little bit more about each other. Savah agreed and Vaeren ran off to go get in contact with Erika. I asked Savah what she'd like to do with the rest of her night, and she said that after we had dinner with the new apprentice shop keeper, we could watch that movie again. I asked her, already knowing her answer, The Princess Bride? Savah smiled and I went upstairs to start to get food ready.

After a little while, Vaeren came back with Erika and we all introduced ourselves to each other. Erika was indeed from Magnimar, and was somewhat familiar with the groups exploits there, but was convinced that I was a wizard of some sort based on how I modified the construct that protects the Lord-Mayor. Savah took the opportunity to correct her, and added that she could confirm that I had used no magic in the modification of that golem. Erika seemed like she absolutely could not believe that, and she asked how I had managed to trick both Toth Bhreacher and Master Leis Nivlandis. I told her that there was no trick, and that Faunra, our friend who specialize in matters of the arcane was there to verify it as well. Erika asked me to show her something that was appropriate.

I thought about it and asked her if she could perform the arcane spell of invisibility, and if she had it prepared today. Erika told us that she did not have the higher level invisibility prepared, but that she did have the lower level Vanish spell. I asked her to be ready to cast it while I went to get my phone. I popped up my kirlian app that allowed me to see the outlines of invisibility and told her to cast it. After she cast it, I pointed out where she was and what she was doing for the next eighteen seconds. When she reappeared, she asked if she could inspect the item I was using. I put it on the table and watched her cast what looked like Detect Magic, but had some altered aspects to it. I asked Vaeren what she had cast and he told me that it was a greater version of Detect Magic.

Erika spent a two minutes attempting to find any kind of magical aura on the item. After that, she took a look around the room and stopped at me. She asked me what spell I had cast today, and I told her that I had cast an Unseen Servant spell earlier, and a spell to fast-armor me and someone else. Erika nodded and asked me if I had the ability to cast these spells back when I had modified the golem. I told her that I only gained the ability to cast these spells after the slaying of Black Magga. It might not have been exactly right, but it was close enough for her.

Erika nodded, noting that participating in doing something like that could easily awaken magical abilities. Erika said that she would like to study this phenomena, and Vaeren told her that I was starting up a university after things calmed down here in Sandpoint, and that it was already approved of by Lord-Mayor Grobaras. Erika said that she'd like to study there when it opens. I told her that the school would be open to all, and that we could not have any hostility between those of magical persuasion and those who did not have those abilities. Erika said that she could understand that. Savah told everyone that she felt that Erika would be okay and a stand in for Vaeren, as long as she understood the basic rules for the shop. Erika smiled and they bid us good night as Vaeren went to go out and celebrate with Erika.

That left Savah and I alone for the rest of the night and we ensured that the place was as locked up as it needed to be before heading in to the bedroom to watch the Princess Bride. I had an unseen servant bring us in some snacks and drinks and we relaxed before turning in.