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The last day of travel, and the finish towards Erast. Aered, Gnosha and Brozin took the usual shifts scouting at point, while Mr and Mrs Emberfury drove the wagons. It was still before noon, when Gnosha was scouting, that he smelled something, smoke. He signalled for the wagons to stop and for Aered and Brozin to take one side each of the road, while Gnosha carefully moved forward.
Ghosha’s senses were on high alert and he had his crossbow in his hand. When the road turned around the next corner, he saw a tree across the road, a classic bandit trap. He also saw the shapes of two humanoid creatures, with tiny horns in their foreheads and bluish skin. Kobolds Ghosha thought and quickly loaded his crossbow, assessed the situation and realized that the one to the left would be easier to hit. Gnosha fired his crossbow, then tried to get some cover, and he hit the Kobold on the left side of the road in the shoulder, and could hear him shout in the Draconic language: -”Damn, damn, he shot me, get him!”. Gnosha signalled to Aered and Brozin that there are two enemies ahead. Aered, who had heard the shouting of incomprehensible words in a strange language, drew his sword and charged shouting: -”Yield you filthy bandits!” Brozin also draws his huge two handed sword and charges, but not with the same enthusiasm as Aered. The kobold that Gnosha hit, stands up and slings a stone towards Gnosha and hits him in the chest. Gnosha thought that hurt, then the kobold dived for cover behind a log. The other kobold, stands up and fires his crossbow and hits Aered in the leg and Aered shouts loudly: - “Ouch! That hurt!”.
Gnosha dashes forwards to the kobold that he had hit with the sling, drawing his rapier while running, and finishes the Kobold with a perfect strike.
Aered rushes towards the other kobold swinging his sword and misses. Then Brozin comes swinging his huge sword and hits the kobold with the sling over the left leg, severely damaging it. The kobold pulls his short sword and swings at Brozin, but misses, then tries to crawl into cover. Ghosha jumps after the Kobold, puts his rapier on his neck and says in Draconic: - “Yield!”, and the kobold replies: -”I yield! I yield!” in Draconic. Both Aered and Brozin ask: -”What is he saying?” and Gnosha replies: -”He just yielded.”
Gnosha tries to take care of the kobold’s wounded leg. He stops the bleeding, but the wound might be bad enough that the leg needs to be amputated. Gnosha also quickly takes care of Aered’s and his own wounds, then he looks at the kobold and says in Draconic: - “You and me will have a little chat.”
Gnosha asks the Kobold what his name is, and he replies Uba, then Gnosha asks Aered to lift up Uba onto the wagon so he can interrogate him, but Grugnir loudly protests: - “You load no Kobold into my wagon Mr Curosinei!”. Gnosha tries to explain that he needs to interrogate this Kobold who goes by the name Uba, and by doing it on the wagon they will save precious travel time, but Mr. Emberfury has made up his mind, so Gnosha quickly interrogates Uba with Aereds help, while Mr Emberfury and Brozin remove the tree blocking the road. Aered picks up his knife and juggles a little with it but whispers quickly to Gnosha: - “I would never harm him, but I learned this trick from Master Didethor.”
Gnosha asks Uba: - “Who gave you the order to attack us?” and Uba replies: - “The Bandit King pays us silver to rob all caravans around Erast.”
Gnosha says: - “Tell all your friends that the Bandit King values his silver more than he values your lives.”
Uba says: -”Please just let me go, you are free, no revenge.”
Gnosha says: “One last question before you are free to go, Where can I find this Bandit King?”
And to his surprise, Uba replies: -”Three days east of Erast along the river, where the river opens into the great lake is an abandoned village, this is where he usually is hiding. They have boats and can go past Erast.”
Gnosha asks Aered to cut Uba a walking stick and Uba hobbles off into the woods.
The journey continues and they hurry as it’s not far to Erast. After a few hours, the road widens and they see farmlands on both sides, cultivated fields and farms. The land is flatter, less hilly and wild and they can really feel that they are close to the town. Gnosha says in a cheering voice: - “Now, look, we are almost at the end of the journey.”
After a few more hours and the day has turned into late afternoon, they see the town of Erast. The town is surrounded by a townwall with occasional towers, and to the east they see a castle. The area outside of the town on the eastern slopes are covered with fields and a few farm houses. There is no shanty town outside of the townwall, at least not on the South side of the town. They are approaching the Southern town gate and they can see a lot of people in motion inside the wall. The gate is guarded by town guards, some look like veterans and some like new recruits.
When they approach the gate and a young town guard asks about their business, Gnosha says to Mr Emberfury: -”Thank you Mr Emberfury, but here our ways will part”. Mr Emberfury starts to declare his business and the town guard calculates the taxes he has to pay to bring his wares into Erast.
Gnosha and Aered walk to another town guard and Gnosha says: -”My name is Gnosha Curosinei and I am here to see Mr. Ennet Woode, Captain of the guard.” The guards start to talk to each other and they say that Captain Woode is not here, he is probably training some new recruits. Gnosha replies that then they can just send a messenger to tell him Gnosha has arrived, but as none of the guards could write, Gnosha wrote a short note on a piece of paper and handed it to the older man who seems to be in charge. A young recruit was given the order to carry the message to Captain Woode. The commander says to Gnosha: -”First time in Erast?” and Gosha replies: - “Sure, I am Gnosha Curisinei, which inn do you recommend?” The guard replies: - “Sergeant Thomas Auber, at your service. It depends on your preferences. We have Elenfrilles, very cheap and popular, and then we have the Silver Unicorn, expensive, it even has white painted walls in the commons room, and then several others in between.”
Gnosha says to Aered: - “I think we go for the more expensive one, less chance of having uninvited guests coming through your window in the middle of the night.” Then Gnosha thinks for himself: - “Anyway, it’s the temple, and Aered who pays the bills.”
Gnosha and Aered thank Sergeant Auber for his kind help and tell him to inform Captain Woode that they are staying at the Silver Unicorn, then they walk into the town of Erast.
They did get directions, but Gnosha decides to take the scenic route and pass some of the important locations to learn about the town. They pass both the great market squares, one of them is located at the Western docks. The river that runs through Erast is rather strong and wild in the middle of the town, so boats cannot pass. That’s why Erast has two docks, one to the East and one to the West. Ships have to unload and load at those docks, and goods that are continuing in either direction have to be transported by the town teamsters, either carried or transported on carts, for a cost. Teamster is currently the second most popular work next to town guard among the young farm boys from the areas around Erast.
Erast is a real hub. Goods are transported in east-west directions by boats, and in north-south directions by caravans, and the toll and markets is what have brought money and prosperity to Erast. When the empire was still ruling, Erast was a very crowded town, but then the population fell down to around three thousand people. The castle is on the large hill in the east, and the posh quarters are located on the hillside closest to the castle. Finally they arrived at the Silver Unicorn. There was a merchant with a half orc mercenary carrying his chest with gold entering the Silver Unicorn just before Gnosha and Aered arrived, but they did not really catch the hint that this is a very expensive establishment.
Gnosha and Aered enter the Inn, and ask the innkeeper for a room for two. The innkeeper asks: -”One or two beds?” Aered and Gnosha say with one voice: -”Two!”. The innkeeper looks in the ledger and says: - “I’m so sorry gentlemen, we are fully booked. You know we have a festival in two weeks.”
Gnosha asks if there is a single room available and they could put a mattress on the floor. - ”A mattress on the floor?” the innkeeper replies? -”That is far below our standards. If you wish to sleep on the floor, I can recommend the common room at a simple ale tavern.” The innkeeper pretends to look in his ledger and says: -”Sirs, I do have the top suite available, a late cancellation. You can have it for only eight pieces of gold a night.” Gnosha looks at Aered, who desperately tries to figure out how much eight pieces of gold is worth, and replies after a brief moment of silence: - “Eight pieces of gold? Are you trying to trick us? That’s about the cost of a common riding horse a day! You must be out of your mind!”.
Gnosha says aloud to Aered: - “Shall we talk to Captain Woode about this?”
Gnosha says: - “Thank you for your kind offer” and they leave The Silver Unicorn and walk in the direction of the South Gate, away from the posh and expensive district.
They see a sign saying The Double Otter Inn after a few minutes and decide to see if they have better luck there.
Gnosha says to the innkeeper: -”Evening Sir, do you have a double room with two separate beds available?”
The Innkeeper looks at Gnosha and Aered and replies: -”Yes, we have a few available rooms. Your first time in Erast? Do you know about the Festival? You are not here as merchants I guess.”
Gnosha replies: “Yes, there is a first for everything, and no, we are not merchants, we are here as spectators.”
The innkeeper replies: - “I hear that you come from the South, there is not much to see in Erast.”
Gnosha calls for one of the young errand boys out on the street and tells him: - “Go to the South gate and tell them that we are at the double otter inn. Have you understood?” The boy just looks at Gnosha, until he continues: -”Here you go, five silver coins, now run”, and the boy dashes off like an arrow.
They go up to the room, which consists of two beds, a small bed table between them, and a small window above the bed table. At the foot end of the bed is a small lockable chest, and above the chest is awall mounted bar to hang clothes on, and the door is between the chest. Not much room to move around, but the beds feel quite nice. Gnosha calls for a laundry boy to wash some of the dirty clothes they have and it costs five pieces of silver, which he will put on the expenses tab to either Master Didethor or Captain Woode. They go to the washing room and scrub themselves clean from a week of road dust, spider webs and other interesting things, and dress in common clothes for dinner in the tavern commons room. Looking out through the small window, Gnosha sees dark clouds coming from the east, and bad weather is approaching.
At the tavern Aered finds one of his favourite dishes, liver stew with turnips. He tells the tavern keeper that he wants a large portion as he is hungry and hasn't had liver stew with turnips in weeks. Gnosha orders a half grilled chicken with bread. When the waiter arrived with the food, Aered got a huge bowl of food, large enough for a family of eight, and the tavern keeper said: -”Big enough?”
As no sign still of Captain Woode, they decide that when they have eaten they go up to the room to rest. Gnosha is a little fascinated about some of the clever architectural ideas here in Erast. Instead of having a fireplace in each room, they have fireplaces in the basement, and then the chimneys go between two rooms to heat them. As it’s still warm outside, the basement fireplaces are not lit, except for the one in the kitchen, and that chimney goes through the center of the common sleeping room. A very clever solution, to avoid guests having to keep the fire burning, which always is a risk of causing fires.
I'm really enjoying this story! I just wanted to let you know that the last two posts, the images don't work, at least not for me. I've been able to see all the rest of them. You have an amazing talent for both renders and writing!
Thanks for letting me know, I had some weird bugs when posting so probably that. I wanted to post before heading off for a week so I will fix when back.
Great, thanks! I'll look forward to seeing them next week then! ^_^
I have the images in a google doc and I grabbed them and tried to upload again from the phone but seems to not work.
No, they're still not working, unfortunately. I know several people have been having trouble with the forums over the last couple days, maybe it's something on Daz's end that's causing it?
OK, I got the images there, forum was pretty buggy when trying to edit the posts, I hope they stick now.
Yup, I can see them now! Yay!!!
Before going to sleep, Gnosha decided to make a list of items to bring up with Ennet Woode. While Aered happily and full of liver stew and ale snored away in his bed, Gnosha sat in his bed and composed a list and wrote it down in his notebook. If it’s not written down, it does not exist.
First, he would need a full background on the case he and Aered have been assigned to solve. People, places, statements and whatever clues Ennet Woode and his town guard has gathered, if any at all. Gnosha was not overly impressed by the Erast townguards.
Secondly, he needed a room, preferably in a basement as some of the alchemical ingredients he needed were best stored in a cold basement as the weather was still rather warm. It needed to be secure too, and with a fireplace of some sort, furnished with tables that would not mind the spill of alchemical substances, like acids or different powders, that would make ugly marks or miss colourings.
Third, he will need to locate an alchemist shop to purchase some vital alchemical components. First he would need Shadow Brass powder, petals from Drifting Angelica and some Shrouded Bitterweed to be able to make the letters appear on the note he found, which he considered to be one of the most important clues.
Ghosha looked at his detailed list and smiled silently for himself. Tomorrow will be a good day, he thought, the beginning of cracking down on this case.
He decided to withhold the information he retrieved from the Kobold Uba about a possible location of the Bandit King for a bit, just in case there was a leak within the town guards, someone passing information to the Bandit King.
Before blowing out his candle, Gnosha checks the window and it opens outwards. He attaches a small piece of string to the window and two forks on the other end. If someone opens the window, they will hear it. He also attaches a string to the door, with Aered’s tin cup on the other end, placed on one of the chests. No more nightly surprises.
Aered snores like a hurricane and at one time the guests in the next room bangs on the wall, and Gnosha put a bottle with sulfur rose under Aered’s nose and he changed sleeping position and stopped snoring.
When the sun went up it was quite weak as it had been raining all night and the sky was grey and foggy. It still rained, but not as heavy as during the night. They went down to have some breakfast, mixed porridge with some blue berries in it. Aered ordered double portions. Gnosha said to the innkeeper, Younette Bretel, that if the townguards or Ennet Woode comes to look for him, send them to his room, he has a meeting. But while they sit and eat their porridge, a young boy comes rushing in and shouted: - “Is there a Gnooshi here? Mr Gnooshi?” Gnosha shouted “Here I am”. The boy rushed to Gnosha’s table and said: - “I have a message from Sergeant Tomas Auber. Meet me at the South Gate.” Gnosha replies: - “Thank you”, and the boy runs away.
It is just a few minutes walk to the South gate from the Double Otter Inn, and Aered and Gnosha take a quick walk. When they get to the gate, Sergeant Tomas Auber greets them and says: - “The messenger came back from Captain Woode. He is at the training ground west of the town, on the Northern riverbank. It’s about an hour to get here. He wants to meet you but is busy training new recruits.”
Aered and Gnosha walk back to the Double Otter Inn to pick up some equipment and then walk to the West gate to exit Erast north of the river. After about an hour on a rainy muddy small trail, they see a group of grey shapes on a field below a tall wooden tower. A man on a horse rides back and forth and shouts commands. The grey shapes have wooden swords, wooden shields and wooden spears. Gosha shouts: - “Captain Woode!”, and the person on the horse shouts to the other shapes in grey: - “Ten minutes rest, drink water, you will need it.”, then he rides towards Gnosha and Aered.
When he approaches Gnosha and Aered, Gnosha says: - “Gnosha Curosiei, at your service.” Gnosha suggests that Aered could train the recruits while he and Captain Woode have a talk, but Captain Woode says that they will need the rest, but Aered can give them tips and help as every little bit of help will be needed to shape this crowd into soldiers.
Then he turns to Gnosha and says: - “It was I who called for you, after some correspondence with Master Didethor. We used to fight together, me and Didethor, many years ago, but we have both aged and are not as fast and agile as we once were. Erast is under a lot of pressure, we need all the help we can get. There has been a theft at the Dutchess Jacobina Maimux, in her private library, but no one is sure of what has been stolen. I’ve run my investigation into a dead end, I get no further. Everybody’s back is covered by somebody else. That’s why I need someone with experience to take a fresh look at this. I asked for a Paladin of Light, but Master Didethor said he had none to spare, but he had this newly trained Paladin, Aered, and we made a deal that I would get you to help him solve the case.”
Captain Woode continues: - “Everything is connected, the Kobolds in the south and the Goblins in the north are moving their positions forward. We have problems with bandits, and with the festival in a couple of weeks, a lot of people are coming to Erast and we cannot check that everyone’s business is what they claim.”
Gnosha says: - “One name has come up, the Bandit King.”
Captain Woode replies: - “Yes, the bandit, who now claims to be a king. If I decided, we should have gathered the knights and town guards to find and catch him, but we do not have the resources to do that right now.”
Gnosha says: - “A Kobold I interrogated said that the Bandit King pays them to raid.
Captain Woode replies: - “Who would hire Kobolds? They hoard their loot as dragons, what could you possibly grain from that?”
Gnosha asks more about the theft and Captain Woode replies: - “There are two libraries at the castle. One in the public and administrative part of the castle and one in the private part of the castle, the section in which Dutchess Maimux has her residence. The inner library contains many rare volumes collected by Dutchess Maimux and her colleagues. Many books are unique and exist only in one copy. The lock is complex, but the door was found open in the morning, even though Dutchess Maimux had been sleeping with the key around her neck. We suspect that several volumes were stolen but no one can say which.”
Gnosha thinks to himself, books about Necromancy I guess, then he says: - “Then it is of the utmost importance that I can get a room, preferably a basement, where I can set up my Alchemical laboratory to begin to perform forensic analysis. Is the room sealed now and untouched?”
Captain Woode replies: - “Yes, it’s locked and we have even posted a guard there. This happened several weeks ago, but it has taken time to get to this point when you finally can take over the investigation. Master Didethor wrote that you are the best and he has never been wrong.”
Gnosha continues: - “Do you have a list of possible suspects or persons that had an opportunity, that were in the castle that night?”
Captain Woode says: - “Yes, that has been much of my investigation so far, to establish who were in the castle, I have a list of names together with my notes in my room here, in a small chest. I was afraid to leave it behind in Erast. And speaking of a room, there are a few empty rooms in the basement of the towers guarding the river coming from the east. No one would attack using boats anyway. You can ask Sergeant Auber for the key. The towers are not very nice to live in, so I recommend that you find a room to rent close by. I will write an order to Sergeant Auber about your access to the towers. I’ve trained him not to trust people, he is the trusting kind.”
Captain Woode hands over his chest with notes to Gnosha, who quickly writes down the names in his case notebook. He browses through the rest of the notes, and concludes that the rest of the notes are just what led to the list of names. Interviews with different people to find out who were in the castle and who were not. Captain Woode writes a note for Tomas Auber and Gnosha gets the chest with notes. The persons who Captain Woode has listed are, except of course Dutchess Maimux herself:
Personal Guard of Dutchess Maimux, Adlile Ferrus, Female, Catfolk.
Personal Guard of Dutchess Maimux, Rodulf Talbot, Male, Human
Servant Kanna Ukkura, Male, Human
Chef Raîne de Blays, Female, Half-Elf
Guard Nicos Alekou, Male, Human
Guard Jan Valt, Male, Dwarf
Guard Hjartur Boman Male, Human
Paragon Knight Hesken, Male, Dragonborn
Gnosha looks through the names to memorize them. He really needs to get the letters visible on that letter, so see if one of the names matches, then he says: - “Do you happen to know a shop where I can buy Alchemical materials in Erast?”
Captain Woode replies: - “No, that’s not really my expertise, but I think there is one as I was offered a substance that would make weapons unsharp, to be able to use metal weapons in training. But they wanted four pieces of gold for each weapon, that was outrageous. I pay a copper coin for a wooden sword.”
Captain Woode continues: - “The list of names are the people who had access to the private part of the castle. In the public part the knights have their quarters, there are ballrooms, and an audience chamber. There are a few ways over from the public part to the private part, and those are guarded, and the guards said no person went either way that night. The reason Dutchess Maimux appointed me for the investigation is that Paragon Knight Hesken is head of the knights and also head of the castle guards. She wanted someone from the outside to run the investigation.”
They leave Captain Woodes’ chamber and walk out to the training field, and they can hear Aered shouting: - “The rest is over, time to continue, you will not win any battles laying on your backs!”
They say farewell and hope we’ll meet soon again to Captain Woode and walk back to Erast. Gnosha is already planning his next move. There are so many things that are wrong in all this. Even the Duchess herself seems to be worried that this is an inside job.
You've put a lot of work in to the story and the pictures to go with it, I'm impressed.
Thanks!
The story is what evolves when we PathFinder 2.0 (D&D), I play Gnosha. Most of the dialogue and what happens are either something happening or in some cases (which makes then quite fun), results of bad dice rolling. I do write down everything though to be able to write the story, and sometimes I see the pictures when things plays out. Gnosha is a very fun person to play, like a fantasy Shelock Holmes, I do love mysteries. Credits are due to my son who is DM:ing and also plays Aered as a DM PC, and he has created the base setting and the adventure. it's a points of lights kind of setting, which means, most of the world is not defined, the world evolves as things happens.
Gosha started directly on the way back to make a strategy for how to proceed.
Ask Tomas Auger if he knows an Alchemist shop, and also for a list of known petty criminals.
Get the tower access and alchemist laboratory setup.
Try to get the information from the letter.
Get somewhere to stay, close to the tower.
The rain has slowed down, but they are both wet down to their underwear. Aered mutters that he will need to oil his chainmail when they get back, or it will start to rust. “You cannot kill enemies in a rusty chainmail” Master Didethor used to tell him.
They return to Erast through the West gate, and hurries back to the Double Otter Inn, where they change clothes. The wet clothes are hung on a cloth line that sits on the wall where the chimney is. It’s not hot, but a little warm, perfect for drying clothes.
Then they hurry down to the East gate to talk to Sergeant Auber. They can see that there are even more people in the area around the South gate now, both travellers and merchants from far away, and local peasants. The shit gutters on the streets are getting full. The bigger main roads are all cobbled, with the gutters possible to avoid, and the smaller streets are dirt only, but people have put pieces of wood on the street to let you walk without having to wade through whatever is on the streets. You do need real boots here though.
Down at the South gate, Sergeant Auber is busy taking toll from the people arriving. Gnosha approaches him and says “Sergeant, do you have a minute? Can we talk somewhere private?”. Sergeant Auber shouts at a private and tells him to take over the toll charge.
They go into the guards office, where Gnosha hands Sergeant Auber the letter from Captain Woode. Gnosha sees how Sergeant Auber tries to make words with his mouth while slowly, very slowly reading the letter, and after a while he points at two words saying Gnosha Curosinei and asks: “This is your name right? And this is the Captain’s signature and seal? OK, what do you need?” Gnosha reads the letter for Sergeant Auber and explains that they do need the key to the water way guard tower. Sergeant Auber says ok, they walk into another room, and after a while he comes back with a huge rusty key.
Gnosha asks if he knows any place nearby the tower where you can rent a room, but Sergeant Auber says he works at the South gate, but there is an inn somewhere close to the tower. The Gnosha asks about an Alchemist shop, and Sergeant Auber knows one, The Mad Chimera, located here in the south district. Gnosha and Aered thank Sergeant for his time and help and are about to leave when Sergeant Auber says: - “Good luck, the towers haven’t been used for years, they are damp, dirty and not very habitable at all.”
Gnosha says to Sergeant Auber that he only has one small question left, then he will be on his way. Does Sergeant Auber happen to know the names of a dozen or so petty criminals here in Erast? Sergeant Auber replied that of course he knows many of the known criminals here. Many of them have spent time in the jails to be released and get caught again. Some people just cannot live an honest life. Sergeant Auber gives Gnosha a list of names: Oxton Fast Fingers, Sidwell the Mad, Smiling Beldon, Yvette the Silent, Weasel Walton, Bug Eyed Roland, Jarred One Eye. Welles the Crook. Damian Black Eye, Fast Fingers Susan, Ariel the Dwarf & Viper Audry
Gnosha thanks Sergeant Auber again for his kind help and service, and tells him that he and Aered will try to find a room close to the tower, then Gnosha exits the South Gate guard house, finding Aered looking at all the wagons arriving for the market festival. They head off to where Sergeant Auber described the location of the Mad Chimera shop. The rain has finally stopped but everything is wet. They follow the directions which are to walk slightly Northwest from the South gate. It's just a few minutes walk, about the same distance as between the South gate and the Double Otter Inn.
The Mad Chimera is located in the longest and most narrow building in the whole of Erast. It’s so narrow that it has only one very tall shelf in the middle, going all the way to the ceiling, about 9 feet up.
There is a counter at the end, and a very steep staircase leading up to what most probably is living quarters on the right side of the shelfs. The building itself is about three stories tall. Gnosha already has a list in his head of what to purchase. A very tall elf, almost seven feet tall looks at them from behind the counter and says: - “Welcome to my shop. I am Lathlaeril Varalei, owner of this very shop. Are you adventurers?” Gnosha replies: - “Yes, you can call it that. I’m looking for the following ingredients, Shadowbrass Powder, Petals from Drifting Angelica and Shrouded Bitterweed. I also need a complete Alchemist starting set as mine is back home.”
Mr Varalei replied: - “You have an interesting taste, and you think you just can come here and find everything you need?”
Gnosha: - “You look like the owner of a shop that can deliver what I need.”
Mr Varalei: - “But can you afford what you ask for, or will you settle for a bottle of ordinary lamp oil in the end?”
Gnosha: - “I think I can afford what I’m asking for.”
Mr Varalei: - “Everything has its price and its time. How much do you need?”
Gnosha tells him that he just needs a small pouch of each of the ingredients. Mr Varalei continues: - “While you are here, can I interest you in some Mufflestep oil? It will keep the armour silenced for about an hour? Very good when you need to be stealthy?” Aered says something for the first time in the shop: - “Stealthy? Why would you ever have to be stealthy? Silent armour? The sound of my armour makes me brave and strong.”
Gnosha: - “It does not sound like my partner is really interested, do you have anything else to offer?” Gnosha thought that if he could purchase something of the Alchemists’ own items, he might be on good terms if he really needed something in the future.
Mr Varalei: - “What about an oil for your armour that makes you stealthy as a cat?”
Gnosha asks: - “Does it work on locks too? I take a bottle, how much is it?”
Mr Varalei: -”It’s only 4 pieces of gold, and it took me months to make this, it’s a real bargain.”
Gnosha paid a total of 10 pieces of gold for the Alchemist lab starter kit, his ingredients and the interesting oil, and they decided to walk to the tower, Aered carrying the big crate with everything in it.
On the way to the tower they passed the Five Markets market square, just in time for lunch. Merchants and farmers had already begun to prepare for the festival that was still a week away, and several stands sold streetfood, like skewers, in many different sizes.
Aered walks towards a market stand selling skewers, and points at the largest skewer on the grill and says: - “Can I have one of those please?” The farmer replies: - “But of course noble Sir. We don’t have many Paladins of the light here. Can I ask you, how many are you? This is a large family skewer, enough to feed six grown up people.”
Aered replies: - “Just me, but I’m hungry, Master Didethor said it’s because I’m growing. And can I have that small one for my friend here, he’s not eating so much.” The farmer replies: - “Yes my good Sir, no problem my good Sir. This will be eight pieces of copper. When you return the big skewer stick you will get two pieces of copper in return.Those are expensive to make, but we use iron so they do not catch fire like common wooden sticks tend to do.”
Aered happily chews on his skewer and ignores the looks he gets from people around him. Gnosha politely tells Aeredthat he got grease all over his face and hands over a small towel from his pocket to Aered, but as Aered has the crate in one hand, and his precious skewer in the other, just leans forwards and lets Gnosha wipe his face clean. Gnosha thinks for himself: “Aered, he’s just one big baby, he needs a lot of polishing before he will be a fully grown Paladin, but his heart is in the right place.”
They cross the river two times from the Five Markets Square to the tower. When they come closer to the tower, which is close to the castle, the streets are narrower and the houses a little more worn. There is no slum in Erast, but these are the lower districts, that’s ironically are close to the castle. When they arrive at the tower, the left tower of the two towers raised on each side of the river, they can see that the river is running fast here, not possible to go here by boat. Gnosha picks up the big key, looks at it, and removes some rust from it with his nails. Suddenly he senses the scent of something, and gets the feeling that they are observed. He says loudly to Aered: - “Take a look around, isn’t this a very picturesque town?”They both look around and Gnosha spots someone in an alley two blocks away, hastily hiding around the corner when he looks that way.
Gnosha walks to the large tower gate, inserts the key in the lock and tries to open it, but the lock is stuck. He tries for a while, then picks up his trusty crowbar from his backpack and hands it over to Aered and says: -”Try to open the door, but carefully, so I can repair the lock.”
Aered opens the door, but the lock falls off, the wood in the door is quite rotten. Aered looks at Gnosha, then hands him his crowbar and walks down the street looking for someone that can repair the door. He knocks on a few doors and after a minute he returns with a carpenter that is willing to do the job. Aered pays him 10 pieces of copper up front. When Aered returns to the tower he says to Gnosha: - “Sir, this is daytaler Oliver Baro, he will repair the door, so you can repair the lock and we save a lot of time.” Mr Baro looks at the door, and hurries away to pick up some material to repair it with.
Meanwhile, Gnosha tells Aered to look through the tower while he tries to repair the lock. Gnosha says to Aered to clean up the place as it’s dusty, dirty and full of cobwebs and other things.
After an hour, Mr Baro has repaired the door, and Gnosha has realised that the lock will not be worth repairing. Gnosha looks at the door and says “Thank you Sir, a job well done. Do you happen to know where I can find a locksmith in Erast? This lock isn’t worth repairing.” Mr Baro guides Gnosha to a locksmith four blocks away, while Aered carries furniture around for Gnosha to be able to set up the Alchemical lab on level one. The stairs to the basement are locked with an iron grate, and Aered just checked that it was safely locked. Gnosha buys a good lock for five pieces of silver, installation included. The locksmith, Maurice Destain, was a very nice and helpful gentleman.
Now it’s time for Gnosha to set up the Alchemical laboratorium, and to try to get more information from the letter. When the alchemical laboratory is set up, Gnosha says to Aered. -”Damn, you did a great job, look how nice this tower has become. What do you think about moving a little closer? We should try to rent a room here.”
Aered walks down to Mr Baro once again and asks if he knows anyone who has a room for rent nearby? Mr Baro says that he might know, as there is an empty loft just 50 yards down the street in the house there. You might be able to rent that. Aered gives Mr Baro a copper coin for his service, and they walk down the street and knock on the door. There are several people in the house, and they find the owner who tells them that the last occupants were thrown out as they were months behind with the rent. The room is fully furnitured, which suits Gnosha and Aered very well. It has two beds, a fireplace and some other main furniture, plus a lot of stuff left behind by the former occupants. The rent is 21 pieces of copper per week, paid in advance, and Gnosha pays the rent.
After they got a key, and checked that it did work, they walked the fifteen minute walk back to the Double Otter in for a meal, and then some sleep. They decided that they would sleep this night at the Double Otter as they would have to pay for it anyway. Aered ate a double portion of Turnip pudding with pork pieces, while Gnosha settled for a dark bread sandwich with some smoked ham.
In the morning, Aered and Gnosha check out from the Double Otter Inn, after having the last breakfast with mixed porridge with raspberry jam and a cup of strong tea. “Tea is good for your mind” Gnosha told Aered, “it makes you think better and smarter”. After they checked out, they went back to their rented loft and settled in, but Gnosha was in a hurry to get to the tower and his Alchemical laboratory to try to get some letter off that note.
Ghosha spends half the day in the laboratory, and Aered is there as his assistant, and to learn the basics of forensic alchemy. Even though most of what Gnosha says just goes in through the ears and bounces right out again, Aered seems to at least pick up the some of the basics, that things might leave clues unseen to the untrained eye and unseen to those who do not have knowledge about forensic alchemy.
When it’s time for lunch, Gnosha has come far enough with his work, and left the letter to hang to dry over a small pile of stones that Aered heated in the fireplace. They went out to pick up some street food at the closest market square, the Haymarket Square. The food was not bad, but not as fancy as Aered’s skewer from yesterday. Two slices of grilled dry bread with some diced pork and mashed potatoes between, seasoned with horseradish and cumin. Aered was told they were called Wallies and that it was a local and traditional street food here in Erast.
When they come back to the tower, Gnosha can see faint letters visible here and there where the letter was burnt badly before. Gnosha takes his notebook and starts to add the letters, and after some work he has figured out what the letter really said. Some parts are still impossible to figure out, but the essence of the letter is Finish your missions! and he has two new names to add to the list. Jeras Falck and the letter was signed by Odan, The Destroyer.
Gnosha now knew that everything was connected, and connected to the secret cult of the Whispering Way. Everything that has happened, from the raids by Goblins and Kobolds, he theft at the castle, to the Bandit King and things in between, like the attacks on Aered and Gnosha at the Pickles and Plough to the spiders and the zombie at the old tower ruin, it was all connected.
The main problem Gnosha was facing now would be how to proceed without revealing what he has figured out, to avoid being targeted again. But he had a plan, and the names from Sergeant Auber would come really handy. He had planned this approach to the problem, as a plan b, if the letter would not reveal anything, and basically it didn’t. Two names, Jeras Falck and Odan the Destroyer, but how could he ask around without revealing he knew those names. His task at hand was to figure out who on the list of persons with access to the inner castle on that very night, was associated with the Whispering Way, without revealing that he knew anything about the Whispering Way. Gnosha smiled when he started to write down the names from the petty criminals he got, eight names on eight different pages, then four additional names on four of the pages, to a total of the twelve names he had got. Then he wrote the name of one of the eight possible suspects from Ennet Woode’s list at the top on each page, and then added one name from that list to each page.
The final list looks like this:
Suspect 1: Personal Guard of Dutchess Maimux, Adlile Ferrus
Possible contacts: Oxton Fast Fingers, Sidwell the Mad & Chef Raîne de Blays
Suspect 2: Personal Guard of Dutchess Maimux, Rodulf Talbot
Possible contacts: Smiling Beldon & Guard Nicos Alekou
Suspect 3: Servant Kanna Ukkura
Possible contacts: Yvette the Silent, Weasel Walton & Guard Jan Valt
Suspect 4: Chef Raîne de Blays
Possible contacts: Bug Eyed Roland & Guard Hjartur Boman
Suspect 5: Guard Nicos Alekou
Possible contacts: Jarred One Eye. Welles the Crook & Paragon Knight Hesken
Suspect 6: Guard Jan Valt
Possible contacts: Damian Black Eye & Personal Guard of Dutchess Maimux, Adlile Ferrus
Suspect 7: Guard Hjartur Boman
Possible contacts: Fast Fingers Susan, Ariel the Dwarf & Personal Guard of Dutchess Maimux, Rodulf Talbot
Suspect 8: Paragon Knight Hesken
Possible contacts: Viper Audry & Servant Kanna Ukkura
Now, his plan was to question each of the eight of Ennet Woode’s suspects and ask each person about the names listed under Possible contacts, if they know that person, what their relationship was etc. They would of course deny any knowledge about any of those petty criminals, but Ghosha thought that if one of those petty criminals suddenly disappeared or was found dead, he would know who was working for the Whispering Way. He knew this approach might not go down very well with Aered so he decided to keep the method for himself. He also needed to take a close look at the library in the inner castle. He would need to pay Dutchess Maimux a visit, and he was not really comfortable around royalties. And while at the castle, he would try to book appointments with the eight possible suspects from Captain Woode’s list to start seeding them with the petty criminal’s names to see if anyone will take the bait.
The castle is, as Captain Woode mentioned, divided into two sections. The public outer section, where many of the town administrative offices are located, and an inner, private section, where Duchess Maimux lives.
During daytime, the gates are open so that anyone can reach the public sections as that is where you handle many different day to day business, like applying for permits of different kinds, settle legal disputes and many other common day to day duties. There are of course guards at the gate, but they nod politely when you arrive and wish you a pleasant day. They are of course ready to close the gates if something does not look right.
The private section has always been under guard, but after last week's events, the number of guards guarding the gateways between the outer and the inner sections are doubled, and the guards are on high alert.
Gnosha and Aered look around and first they decide to try to book an audience with Duchess Maimux, which is done through the office of Royal audiences, located on the third floor in the administrative section of the palace, next to the public library. After that, Gnosha wants to visit the public library as he wants to read up on a few things, and wants to take a look around to see what kind of books that are available to read at the public section. He explains to Aered that you need to know and understand the current situation. In this case what kind of books they have in the public library, to later when we are granted a permit to visit the inner, private library, understand the difference, and also be able to quickly see the difference. But that’s later, now, the important task at hand is to be able to have an audience with Duchess Maimux.
They pass guards watching one of the passages between the public and the private sections, and the guards look at Gnosha and Aered, swords ready, showing the world that they take their guard duty very seriously.
Gnosha and Aered walk into the public part of the castle and the guards politely say good morning sirs when they enter into the large hallway. They walk the large staircase up to the third floor to try to see one of the royal servants that you talk to when you want to book an audience with Duchess Maimux. The servant in the chamber welcomes Gnosha and Aered with a discreet curtsey and asks them what matters they would like to bring up with the Duchess. Gnosha replies:
- “My name is Gnosha Curosinei and I am here in Erast together with my companion Paladin Aered Ealchfrilen, on orders from Captain Ennet Woode. Our task is to help Captain Woode to solve the mystery that he was appointed by Duchess Maimux to solve. We would like an audience with Duchess Maimux rather urgently to talk about the task and how to proceed. We will be in the public library learning about the history of the Erast and its surroundings while you ask the Duchess.”
The servant nods and says: - “Thank you sir, I have been informed about your business here. I will talk to the Dutchess and inform her about the urgency of the matters. I will look for you in the library to inform you when the Duchess can receive you in the audience chamber.”
Gnosha and Aered walk out of the chamber and down to the public library, which is located on the ground floor, but accessed from a staircase at the first floor. The library is quite astonishing and Gnosha is impressed by the amount of books, neatly categorised. Gnosha starts to look at the shelves for History and Traditions as he thought he needed to read up a little on the history of Erast and specially the ancestors of Duchess Maimux, which could come handy when they talk to her. Know your enemies and know your allies even better. All he knows is that anything royal is always a game of lies and betrayal, power corrupts even the strongest of heart.
Aered, who has learned how to read and write at the temple while studying to become a Paladin, found a shelf marked “For the brave of heart”. He saw a book, laying open on one of the reading tables, where the writing itself caught his eyes. He was used to the strict writing of military history or the holy books of the temple, but this book was something completely different. The writing was beautiful, the letters were like butterflies or flowers. He picked up the book and started to read the page that was open, and his head started to spin when he read the text. it was something he had never heard off and even less experienced himself. The book’s title was “The life and sins of Madame Rouge”, and it took his imagination to places he never even knew existed. Blushing, he put the book down and strolled over to the History section as his heart was not brave enough for what he had just read.