Day 117: Sunday the 13th, Abadius, 4708

I woke up and smelled the glorious smells of bacon and eggs. I got up carefully and used my powers to get dressed instantly. I carefully headed out to the kitchen and found Jonathan making a large pile of food for breakfast. He smiled and indicated a tray that was already set up for Savah and me. I saw that ours was the last one, as the others had all woken up earlier.

I took the food and drink to Savah and welcomed her to the land of the awakened. She smiled and propped herself up in bed. I set the tray down for her and asked what she had planned for the day today. Savah told me that she still had a bit of trading left to do, especially with the new resources that we would have with the Pathfinders. I thanked her and asked her to stay safe. Savah smiled and reminded me that I was the one that was normally targeted in Magnimar. After we ate our fill, I helped her get geared up, and we left the bedroom to head to the den.

Five of the other six people in the house were there talking amidst themselves. Faunra was apparently still working heavily on the enchanting. I noted that I would be working on the design for the plane today, and I would try to get a list of parts that I would need to purchase before we leave Magnimar, and Shalelu told us that Faunra was planning on teleporting back to Sandpoint tonight. I thanked her for that and noted that I would likely not be able to get a full list, but noted that a lot of the parts for the bikes would need to be repeated, with enough for two bikes.

Savah nodded and said that she had to order enough for a few bikes anyway, and she would just add a bit more to account for the increased requirements. I thanked her and noted that we would need the more of the components for the boron carbide. Savah said that these were already on her list for the store. She also added that she needed to talk with her guild about something with the store but that she would definitely be done by the end of the day. Jonathan and Shayliss added that they had some scouting to do for the possibility of opening up a branch here. I smiled and noted that they were going ahead with their plans.

Dame Rebekah and Chelger were again doing charity work at the Chapel of Iomedae and Chelger was going to help open up a shrine to Shelyn here in Magnimar. I told them that I thought that this was an absolutely marvelous idea as well. I added that I would hope that I could count on Shelyn for some inspiration with the aesthetics of the design later on. Chelger nodded and said that he was certain that she would help in whatever way she deemed valid. We all wished each other well again and went out to our individual tasks.

I headed back to the room that I had previously taken up to work on the "Fistigons" for the Lord-Mayor's clockwork golem. There was the table that I had worked on before. A familiar sight. I summoned up the group of unseen crafters, not to help me out, but to work on repairing any minor issues with the Villa. I wanted to make sure that we were keeping this place up in as good a condition as possible. Also, I wanted to be as useful as I could even while I was just working on design work. For some reason, working on a designing a project with the sounds of work being done in the backgrounds seemed to keep me focused.

After a few hours, I had finished. I decided that since Faunra was going to make me into Ironman, we were going to have a Quadjet. Or at least whatever facsimile I could create with the technology and magic that I have access to. There will be a lot of work to modify it enough to be four micro-steam turboprops, but these things could put out phenomenal amount of lift and speed. I still haven't found a limit beyond what I am comfortable with on the bikes and with the current metallurgical capabilities of where we are. I don't really plan on making this thing go into outer space, and I'm no Fitz-Simmons, but at least we can greatly increase our rate of travel from the bikes. At least get it up to eighty or so miles an hour. That ought to be sustainable.

This is gonna be a bit expensive, at least for all of the valuable components. I figured that I would present the price to group to see what we can do for getting the rest of the components. The engines and skin were already likely being dealt with, so the peripherals and comfort based items would be the next thing. Maybe we could offset with a little with what we find in the new area, but it wasn't likely that we would be able to just drop twenty thousand gold on a project that might blow up in our faces.

The best part about it was that if I was completely honest, I would be able to make one of these extremely quickly. Since I would be working with my own materials, it would be very quick and I could ensure the exact specifications. Unfortunately, there was a small caveat, in that I would still need a little help to get this off the ground, unless I get some help from Jonathan. Maybe working with Faunra, Jonathan, and myself we can get the whole thing enchanted to lift up on command, just like a Quadjet. Or else I will need to figure out how to get landing strips made everywhere I want to travel.

When I emerged from the room, it was already past lunch time, and I looked around for any snacks. Jonathan had solidly thought ahead, and there were sandwiches. I could see that there had been someone else nibbling away at the pile, from the crumbs around the plate. I headed back into the room with my trophy and went about double checking all of the math. I didn't want to be in the air and have something stop working.

When I was done, I heard people coming in to the Villa. I got up and went out to check out what all was going on. When I went out to check in with them, I noticed something that I wasn't expecting. Everyone had some number of rocks flying in patterns around their heads. Various different shapes, colors, and apparent materials. Savah rushed up to me and noticed my confusion. She told me that these are what are known of as Ioun Stones. They apparently provide their abilities to the person by flying around them. I nodded slowly and she produced a series of three stones of two different colors, a pair of pale greens ones and a pearly white one.

Looking at them, I noticed that the pair of pale green prisms, were similar to the ones that I saw around Jonathan and Dame Rebekah's heads, and the pearly white spindle was one that I saw zipping around Jonathan's head as well. Savah pushed them off into my hands and suggested that I throw them into the air and concentrate on having them orbit my head. I did so and they all started doing flight patterns about one foot away from the crown of my head.

I somehow knew that my body was being knitted back together at a rate that I had never known before, and that I was being blessed with better accuracy and luck when it came to avoiding others effects. These three stones were providing me with an ability to heal much, much faster than before and an increased ability with both accuracy and avoidance. I knew instantly that these would be very valuable stones in the future. The three stones managed to be ostentatious without getting into my way. A miracle if ever I saw one.

I immediately saw the problems of theft or damage and decided to get to work on modifying my helmet to contain these whenever I needed. I decided that I would do that when we got back to Sandpoint. For now, I had three new orbital additions to my increasingly eccentric wardrobe. I noted that I had possibly the fewest among the people who had gotten back, with everyone else having at least as many of different types. Apparently a lot of these were rather cheap additions to one's arsenal and I had not known about them.

Savah even had a few of different types. I asked her who picked them out and She said that she had picked mine out, saying it seemed like they would be what I needed most. I thanked her and noted that they would be most helpful in keeping me safe. I asked everyone else if they were happy with what they all got and they all beamed when they said yes. Just then, Faunra popped up out of here work center with more stuff for us. Shalelu handed her a set of four stones, two of which were similar to mine. Faunra immediately set them into orbit, noting that there were similar things back when she was from.

Faunra then presented all of the stuff for us. Apparently, she had taken to transferring most of the enchantments rather than actually enchanting stuff. While this was quicker individually, it was a bit more repetitive and mentally draining to do multiple rituals. She would not or could not share the ritual with anyone else to allow the burden to be spread, so it all fell on her. When I asked her about this, she brushed me off, noting that she had six extra hours a day to do this kind of thing than me. I took that the best way that I could and changed the subject to the plane.

When I told her that I had finished the design, and but that it would take a while to build, Faunra asked to be walked through the designs. All eight of us went over to my drawing table and I had the craftsmen work on repairing and upgrading somewhere else. I showed everyone the different aspects of what I would be making, from the mounted machine gun that I would be providing, to the structure that I would be having my crew make, to the engines that Veronica and Igor would be working on. Then I brought up the enchanted aspects that would need to be done a bit sheepishly. Faunra listened intently, and gave some feedback about what could be helped. Jonathan noted that he would be glad to assist in any way that he could.

Faunra asked how fast it could go, and I told her that it was in no way as fast as her teleports, but that it should be able to go at least twice as fast as what the bikes can travel without issue. Everyone seemed impressed with this and Dame Rebekah asked what it would take to get it off the ground, money wise. I pointed to some numbers in the bottom of the drawings, where each subtotal was divided up. The frame was really the cheapest part, which we could make for just over four hundred gold pieces, with more going to the skin, which was something that we were making out of the B4C. The engines and the guns would be the next block, which would be extremely expensive, with eight thousand gold in materials for just that. The magical enhancements Faunra scratched out a few numbers and noted that it would be three thousand two hundred and fifty.

I noted that if I put my shop to making more of the components than us purchasing the rest of them, we could in theory drop down the technological price to four thousand, and Faunra said that she could do the same with the magical components to just over sixteen hundred, but we agreed that it would take us a fair amount of time. We all looked at the amount, which would have been insurmountable barely a few months ago, and realized that we could pool a fair amount of our gains from previous adventures and we might actually have enough.

I had long since decided that Savah had the much better mind for this kind of thing, and she had gladly taken over the finances of the household. So it was with little shock on my part that Savah told the assorted crowd that we could cover the entirety of the eight thousand for the engines, and the one thousand for the frame, as long as the rest of them could get the magical components and sundries squared away. I smiled at her and she smiled back at me, nodding. Faunra immediately stepped up to the bat and said that she could handle the rest of it, with just auctioning off the adamantine scroll case that she had taken as part of her cut. In fact, she noted that she could take some of the magical items that we had gotten for the trip to Jorgenfist and repurpose them into working as part of the ship.

I nodded and noted that this would be great. Dame Rebekah added that she would get everything that we needed for these future parts and get back here. She grabbed Chelger, Shayliss, and Jonathan and rushed off. I shrugged to the others and we went over further details about how we can do all of these different things and what we can use to get this operating even quicker. Faunra and Shalelu said that they would head out to Heidmarch Manor to get our request for funding for the trip. At over four hundred miles, it could be a fair amount. We also needed to announce that we would be undertaking this expedition.

That left just Savah and myself. I had done what I had intended in Magnimar, and didn't know what else to do, so I asked Savah if there was anything else that she wanted to do while we were here. Savah smiled and noted that it wasn't a long trip to go from Sandpoint to Magnimar anymore, so she just wanted to spend some time with me. I smiled and we relaxed and talked for a bit. Nothing major or impressive came up, just us getting to have a relaxing time together. We talked for a few hours until the rest of the group came back. It was kind of interesting getting everything sorted out and where it all had to be for Faunra to teleport us, but we managed well enough.

We arrived back at Faunra's abode, in the room we had left from. We all headed back to our individual modes of conveyance, and headed back to our individual homes. Jonathan and Shayliss hitched rides in our bikes, as they would get them home the quickest. Along the way, we spied a pack of seven ghouls lurking ahead. My light being the furthest out, I noticed them the quickest. We ended up making short work of them. I would have made a comment about barely worth the time, but I knew it wasn't true. Every ghoul that we destroyed was one less that would be available to attack another family or farm.

These ghouls looked to be from far away as well as the last set we had found on the road, so I assumed that we were fully legitimate in killing them and disposing of them through fire. Not that anyone would really miss them. Savah, Jonathan, and Shayliss all helped with piling up the dead and burning the bodies, before burying the remains. We got back to the town and dropped Jonathan and Shayliss off at the Bolting Barghest. We wished them well and continued on to our place.

Niddler was the first one who welcomed me back, telepathically. He seemed to rejoice that we were back, and that he had to tell us a lot about his details from the chickens. I thought to him that we were glad to be back, but that we were very tired, and that we could catch back up with him tomorrow. Niddler sent back agreement and that he would be waiting for us to get up. When we got closer, I noticed that Savah had gotten the same kind of far off look for a second, that I took for her telepathically communicating with Bailey. We got to the house and I could see that progress still being made on the university. The campus grounds were looking really good, the lumber was being processed and used as needed.

We pulled the bikes into the garage and saw the that Erica and Vaeren were there to welcome us back. They both noted that Oren and Arika were having a lot of overnight shifts recently especially since the events of this week. We thanked them and noted that we would have more things to put in the for sale (things we got from the ghouls), and that I would be working on a massive project and invited Vaeren to join me on it. Vaeren seemed intrigued but I noted that we would need rest for now. I checked in on the twins, and they were working on more of the B4C cloth. That was a good thing for the upcoming projects.

Savah and I unpacked what we needed to and headed up to our bedroom. We doffed our armors and put them back on the mannequins. Maybe I can get Faunra to enchant the mannequins to allow for quick transfers on and off. We got ready to relax and we got to get to bed. I asked Savah if she was okay with me being a Pathfinder. Savah told me that she was, that she had heard good things about them, much better than that Aspis Consortium. I thanked her for the reassurance and we headed to bed.