Given the deceased's dour demeanor in life, Jimmy half expected it to rain, or at least have a heavy fog roll in when they laid Harold 'Guttwist' Gunerson to rest. Instead, the monk of Blabyon performed the last rites in the middle of a sunny day, on an idyllic little corner of the graveyard.
Unlike Frederick, who was laid to rest due to a lack of a body, Harold's passing seemed oddly voluntary. At first Jimmy thought that Harold would be 'raised' from the dead like John the Silent, he certainly made enough coin to afford the diamond dust required by the priests, but instead Harold left specific instructions that he be buried if he would fall in battle. It seemed strange to Jimmy at first. Why wouldn't Harold wish to continue his life, after all, that's what money was for wasn't it? Jimmy always thought the wealthy used their riches to provide luxuries that the poor couldn't afford, extending one's life from work related 'accidents' certainly seemed to fit that bill. However looking at the small crowd that gathered to pay their respects, gave Jimmy a different perspective. If these were all of Harold's friends, maybe being laid to rest was the best choice.
Besides the humble shaven headed monk, there was only Grey Toad, Tovar and himself. Jimmy thought Tovar was here simply for the free food at the post funeral reception, it seemed that Harold spared no expense in preparation for his death, while the young blade suspected Grey Toad was here simply to make a note of where they buried Harold. The Halfling always eyed Harold's daggers, and it wouldn't surprise Jimmy if the little rat would return later, to 'procure' them.
"Good luck with that," chuckled Jimmy. While the monks of Blabyon were humble, they were by no means push overs. Having allied with them several times in his former profession, Jimmy was impressed by their martial discipline as well as their well attuned senses. He was sure they would be more than the Halfling could handle.
Regardless of why they came, at least they showed up. Being a mob enforcer didn't build the greatest camaraderie but they were at least colleagues. Jimmy expected at least some 'drivers' or at least some of Harold's subordinates to pay their respects like they did for Frederick, but no one of that sort came.
Jimmy wasn't sure if he wanted a big funeral or a small one, but in the end he guessed it didn't really matter. All the people he cared about were gone or separated from him less than amicably. Jimmy heard Sir Jose died on some fool hardy crusade in the west, bringing Kit, his poor squire, with him. The Baroness wouldn't speak to him anymore due to his change of profession, and Raoul sailed off to foreign shores. His master Martinez however, he had no idea where he went. He went from a dashing daring duelist that was liquored up half the time, to just a sullen drunk that was liquored up all the time. Not that it surprised him, Demon Hunting was a very taxing profession both physically and mentally. Everyone breaks eventually. Jimmy wanted to help, but his master kept enough of his wits about him to simply disappear. Not simply go invisible, or dancing in the shadows out of sight, but vanish in a way that not even the Baroness' considerable magic could find.
As Jimmy contemplated his non-existent social circle, a well-dressed dwarf approached Jimmy and rolled down his sleeve briefly. Jimmy saw his runic markings and the tug to his left ear. The young blade nodded, and noted that Grey Toad and Tovar were not similarly contacted.
"Back to work," sighed Jimmy.
Before he left the graveyard however, he made eye contact with the attendant monk. Jimmy didn't know the man, but simply motioned his head towards the Halfling and then shook his head slowly. The monk nodded and bowed slightly, before Jimmy followed the dwarf to another awaiting carriage.
"My hero!" shrieked Chloe as she literally sprang out of her chair, hugged Jimmy tightly around the waist, before beginning to do a series of cartwheels around Hoaglie's office before springing forward and hugging Jimmy tightly.
Jimmy shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Maybe I should have left you for dead," he said half-jokingly to the lively young girl before she released him and began doing cartwheels again.
Chloe stopped and pursed her lips in a pouting manner. "Aww, you didn't mean that. I mean, a guy that rescues Princesses would surely save me right? Am I right? I mean, I'm like a Princess too you know. Okay sort of one. Okay not really, but I'm a big deal where I'm from…that is if there's anything left of it…."
"Silence," demanded Hoaglie in a stern voice as he rapped a crude green staff on the floor. To Jimmy's surprise, Chloe stopped her cartwheeling. She simply stood still for a second, precariously balanced upside down, before walking on her hands towards her chair, and then lopping herself back into it. She was still grinning ear to ear and kicking her feet about merrily, but at least she was thankfully silent.
Jimmy sat as well and surveyed Hoaglie's chambers. He often did business with the dwarf in a side room, or brazenly in the corner of the tavern. This was the first time he was in the 'back room'. For the head of the local branch of the Khazag Narg businessmen association, or the Dwarven Teamsters as it was colloquially known, the place more like a pawnshop than a crime lord's lair or even an accountant's office. There were stacks of books with various amounts of dust on them, as well as several fancy cabinets and display cases with some antique looking weapons and odd trophies inside of them. Nothing in the room hinted at the power and prestige that Jimmy knew the unassuming dwarf wielded saved for his fancy black marble desk. Though Jimmy wasn't a miner or craftsman of any sort, the dark stone table reminded Jimmy of something he couldn't put his finger on.
"Ah you noticed my desk eh?" commented Hoaglie as he watched Jimmy's eyes. "Got this from some battlefield combers up north, made from the foundations of Almarth."
Jimmy's eyes grew wide. Besides being the final battle ground between the Demon Lord Yeenoghu and the Great Host of the North, Almarth stone was known for its powerful anti magic properties. Jimmy's master had been able to procure a stone or two, but the young blade had never heard of something as large as a desk to made from the stuff.
"That must be useful to keep important documents…discreet," noted Jimmy nodding in approval.
"Aye, I like to keep my secrets," Hoaglie grinned, revealing a broken jack o lantern smile even as Chloe scratched her head in confusion.
"Enough of my very expensive furniture, I need services rendered from you that are just up your alley," said Hoaglie.
Jimmy raised an eyebrow and leaned in. "Someone threatened? Someone broken? " he asked. He was about to say someone killed, but he didn't particularly like to go down that path if it could be helped. Besides the money, one of the reasons Jimmy worked for the teamsters was that it was a business, violence was only used as a tool of last resort to gain an advantage. Or at least that was what he told himself.
Hoaglie shook his head as he leaned his green staff next to the desk. "I need someone, of how shall we say, with your particular skill set to deliver a package for me," said the dwarf as he pushed some papers towards Jimmy.
Jimmy scanned the papers and narrowed his eyes towards Hoaglie. Northern heirloom, intelligent sword, dangerous mind controlling abilities exhibited. "You kept that nutty thing after what it did to Silent John and Harold? Now you want me to transport that crazy ass sword to Grom City to get it appraised? "
"To the Great Academy outside the city actually, but yes that's the gist of it," replied Hoaglie. "I wasn't going to return it back to its owner without knowing the appropriate finder's fee."
"Yippie! I always wanted to go to Grom City," said Chloe as she jump out of her seat and began doing cartwheels again.
"Chloe, outside, now!" ordered the dwarf.
Chloe stopped in mid hand stand."Sorry, sorry," she apologized hastily.
She then nodded at Hoaglie before flipping onto her feet and hopped out the door. All the time giggling about making prepartions for her trip to "Grom City".
"Sorry about that, she gets a bit excited," sighed the dwarf.
Jimmy shook his head. "Wait a minute. First off, you're not serious about sending me to Grom City with that homicidal sword. Secondly you aren't serious about sending that spoiled little brat to Grom City with me are you?"
Hoaglie shrugged. "Chloe has, how shall we say, unique skills. Very similar to yourself. Wizards and clerics we can hire at a drop of a coin, but you've seen what she can do. Druids are a different matter. We can't be choosy when we employ nature channelers. Especially one that I trust."
Jimmy narrowed his eyes. "Trust? You know she isn't even an elf right? She might look like an elf, but she's something … different."
Hoaglie sighed. "I know…she's a dryad, or at least something very similar. "
"A dryad? Wait..What?" asked Jimmy in shock. Though Jimmy's lore on demons and other denizens of the lower planes was unmatched, his knowledge of fey and other nature spirits was somewhat limited. Despite his lack of familiarity, he knew what a dryad was. Or at least he thought he knew. A woodland spirit, often appearing as a beautiful elven or human woman, that lived in a tree and often would lure unsuspecting travellers to be made into their willing or unwilling slaves. "Why the hell do you have a druid dryad or whatever she is, on the payroll working for you?"
Hoaglie paused at the question and closed his eyes as if he was lost in thought. The dwarf then leaned back and took a deep breath.
"Do you recall that incident in the Blackstone Hills a few years ago?"
"A little, I just started working for you back then," admitted Jimmy. "It had something to do with some mining company right? They wouldn't agree to a 'transportation' deal and 'insurance' policy you guys offered them or something like that."
Hoaglie nodded. "Aye, the mineral firm in question had contracted out to our friends the Red Lotus group. A rival guild to our own that are based in the far south. Seeing how they were woefully out of their territory and intruding in ours, in the spirit of competition, some boys and I decided to take a trip to Blackstone and convince them to reconsider our offer."
"Well, it turns out we weren't the only ones that they pissed off. These guys trampled and burned a lot of the surrounding woods, and drew the ire of the local elder dryad. Well, to keep things short, she sent a few bears, they sent a few pyromancers, then it escalated to treants versus fireballs, and the next thing we knew we walked into an all out war between the druid and her tree hugging legions versus a full fledged Red Lotus hit squad."
Jimmy sat back and took a slow breath. A full hit squad? That meant powerful mages, clerics, warriors, and what not. They weren't kidding around.
"I'll admit, as a dwarf I'm naturally indisposed of elves and their nature loving ilk, but given the choice between the dryad and the Red Lotus, we threw our hat in with the dryad. Despite our aid, the battle was pretty crazy, but in the end we won but …but at great cost. The Red Lotus scumbags were killed or driven off, the forest surrounding the hill was completely devastated, the elder dryad… killed, and more importantly the mine was completely destroyed and collapsed. No loot for anyone."
Hoaglie fell silent again, once again in deep thought for about a minute. Jimmy was about to say something to spur the story forward but Hoaglie finally sighed and continued.
"I wasn't going to return empty handed though, and as I was sifting through the rubble, I came upon little Chloe there. She was going to wither away with the forest. She was lost, scared, and alone…. And I needed to make a profit. Having witnessed druidic magic first hand, I decided I wanted some of that myself….. so I dragged her back to town as my ward, training her under my wing."
"I'm surprised you didn't simply just toss her in the arena," commented Jimmy. "People pay big bucks to see exotic critters like dryads fight."
Hoaglie seemed briefly shock at the suggestion, but quickly fell back into his sinister grin. "Are you not listening to me? She's a druid. I can hire wizards and clerics, but I can't hire druids. Chloe might be a bit …eager…but she is loyal to a fault. I consider her a work in progress. An investment for my future."
Jimmy shrugged. "You're the boss, but aren't dryads tied to their forest? If the Blackstone woods or hills or whatever were destroyed shouldn't she be dead too? Regardless if you took her in or not. That's how it works right?"
Hoaglie nodded. The dwarf picked up the green staff and tossed it at the young blade. Jimmy easily caught it and immediately noted some small leaves growing on it and more importantly a warm feel to it.
"This..this is the last remnant of the forest isn't it? This is how she survives and how you control her?" said Jimmy in surprise and admiration.
"Well, not exactly, but close enough," admitted the dwarf. "I don't care to get into the specifics at this point in time, but you'll need that to keep Chloe at your side for this mission."
"Speaking of which, why do I need her anyways?" asked Jimmy. "Why don't you just teleport that crazy sword to the academy? Why do you need the pair of us?"
"The sword doesn't take to teleporting well. It leaks some sort of disruptive magic. I won't trust it with a simple teleport spell since it might send it to who knows were."
"As for why we need Chloe, perhaps I should show you," said Hoaglie as he opened a lower drawer on his desk. The dwarf then pulled out a roughly three foot object completely wrapped in vines. "If you recall from your brief encounter with this murderous hunk of metal, it has a way of dominating folks it comes in contact with. It already dominated one of my mages, and we were lucky he mostly had divinations spells memorized else my whole bar would have probably burned down. Anyways before we put him down, Chloe managed to 'subdue' it with her vines and broke the enchantment. I'm not sure why it works, but I guess it's a metal hates wood thing or something. I don't know really. I'm not an alchemist or artificer. I suppose I could quit while I'm ahead, and just leave it rotting in a vault like the baron did, but there's no profit in that. I need this thing identified and appraised. The vines will hold it, but they aren't a permanent solution, like most magics they fade away, so you'll need Chloe to renew the enchantment twice a day. Also, and more importantly, Chloe is …how should we say…a person of a different physiology. "
"She's a walking plant," clarified Jimmy.
"Aye, and given her unique nature, the sword does not seem to be able to control her. It seems more apt to charm persons than plants."
Jimmy thought about the strange pair for awhile and then nodded. "Alright, so that's why you need your little pet dryad. Why do you need me?"
Hoaglie frowned at the phrase 'pet dryad' but the dwarf simply grunted and continued. "First off, of all my 'troubleshooters', you have the most experience against resisting charms and possessions. I mean, I'm sure demonic possession is much more difficult thing to resist than sword possession. Secondly, remember the two adventurers that escaped? The wizard and one of the swordsmen upstairs? Well, it seems they still want that sword. I've heard through my …channels… that they're organizing another extraction team to retrieve it. Given your field of experience, I trust you can evade their detections both mundane and magical, at least until you can get to the Great Academy. Or at the very least 'dissuade' them from attempting to retrieve my property."
Jimmy scratched his head. Dryad companion, murderous swords, northern barbarian hit team? It was all too much. "I dunno. This is kind of out of my breadth of experience. Isn't there someone more qualified in your organization to do this. You guys are teamsters right? You transport stuff from one place to another. I'm pretty sure this goes beyond my standard contract I have with you guys. "
Hoaglie smiled and opened one of his desk's upper drawers. The dwarf rummaged around it a bit before pulling out a document. "As you know, one of the …pillars..of my organization is the reorganization of over due principals and interests. Debt Collection or loan sharking if you like. Often we buy troublesome loans from the government and banks, and apply our ..unique.. negotiating techniques to come to an amicable agreement with the truant party. Well last month, we cornered a particularly degenerate debtor that had spent his once vast inheritance on women, gambling, and all manner of legal and illicit drugs. Well the man had nothing left when we finally found him in a lotus den, but he did have one thing. His title. The baronet of Heldann. Not that its worth much. The land and his manor were already sold, but I'm sure I can find someone obsessed with joining the ranks of the gentry to pawn this off on…."
Jimmy's jaw almost dropped. He looked at the vine wrapped sword, then the scroll, and then at dwarf with the broken smile. "I'll do it. Consider that piece of junk delivered."
Hoaglie nodded. "I knew you would."