We begin back in Alpinlight, a major trade city. The Lord Estrada had offered us additional work should we desire it.
In tracking the down Inquisitors in town, now understanding the problems they pose, due to Fester’s letter.
“What would you ask of us?” We ask him.
“Well, my good adventurers, your news is “freshest off the press”, so I would know less than yourselves in this instance. If the Inquisition is ready to threaten my daughter then we have a problem with them.”
He offers a writ of exemption for murder, or other crimes, if we need it. So, I suppose our first order of business is to familiarize ourselves with the locale. Notice boards and recruitment information may shed more light on the situation.
“Is there anything else pertinent you might be able to tell us about their presence in Alpinlight?”
“They seem to be behaving themselves in our city, so we haven’t had much reason to track them.”
As we are tired, Rex is offering us access to a lovely local inn to rest up for the night. On the house.
“Are there any slums in this city, or places less trod?”
“There are, over the far north-eastern side, closest to the open air. Apparently everyone, though there is no need, wants to own property by a wall… These areas have become homes for the destitute.”
“I see, thank you, we will have to spend some time familiarizing ourselves with your city and finding clues before we
Rex orders one of the guards – the one I had been talking with, to take us to the inn. The Innkeeper is called Olwin.
I ask him about the city, surrounding areas, the sorcerer academy, thaumaturge guilds, and the guard acquiesces to my questions and offers to take us around the town and back to Lord Estrada tomorrow. His name is Balthazar. Alpinlight has both an academy and an SCP hub, as well as some other thaumaturge schools and alchemy places.
After another 10 minutes of walking, we arrive at the Inn, where he leaves us with a crudely drawn map of the main trade districts, the slums, and the two thaumaturge hubs.
“Good sir,” Balthazar says, “The noble Lord extends courtesy to these visitors, he will picking up the tab for whatever they require.”
“Yep, sounds good mate, we’ll get that sorted.” says Olwin.
The barmaid, Belba, offers us some expensive drinks, but we decline, and instead buy expensive lizard meat.
We had a discussion amongst ourselves to discuss our business ventures, and my initial plan to have us work with Lord Estrada to earn goodwill to leverage to get into the Thaumaturge guilds. I recap the plan from Nightdeep to Alpinlight and check that we’re all ok with that plan, no one is put out. We seem to all be on the same page. Olwin appears after a few minutes of discussion and brings the lizard steaks out, and we all go fucken feral for this steak. Like, juice spraying everywhere, no utensils used, full on carrion-animal chowing out. Olwin watches in awe and horror as we go gremlin mode. Then he nods, satisfied, and offers us more food and drink and heads back to the counter.
“You wouldn’t happen to be heading over to old Manaborough, or Maplefire any time soon, are ya?” Olwin asks, as Fester hands him his card.
“We have some business here, but we might.” Anatole says.
“If you head up there, be sure you pick me up some Maplefire lizard flanks. It’s a very particular grade of succulent.”
“We certainly wouldn’t be opposed if compensation was provided.”
“Yeah… well, whatever price you pay up there, I’ll double it when you get here. Just make sure it’s genuine.”
“Is there a way to tell?” I ask.
“Yes, skin is bright orange, and the flesh is a deep crimson. They bask in the heat of the lava. Really makes their flesh succulent.” Then he heads back behind the bar.
Anatole and I discuss who should focus on healing crafting and who is doing damage crafting. He is happy to focus on the destruction if I focus on the healing.
“It’s not that I don’t appreciate your… artistry, but it’s just that I’m stupid.”
“I forgive you for being an imbecile. Perhaps in my pursuit of the mutagenic arts I can fix that.”
We have some more discussions about the state of things, where we should spend our efforts. We discuss the sobering thoughts of how the Lord High Chaplain Arctus escaped – on full health – with means to communicate magically over long distances and she may have followers in the city already. It comes about that we’re bringing down the value of the establishment and if other patrons arrive Olwin will move us into the Pool rooms.
We find out Anatole knows how to play, so we learn and then fuck around. Eventually, other patrons leave and Olwin let’s us out; they have enough rooms that we can each have a room with extra beds, or share two rooms between us. Olwin kindly gestures us the stairs and let’s us pick rooms. We do so, then go to sleep for the night.
We feel a slight enchantment from the sheets as we hop into bed. But as we wake up, we feel incredibly refreshed and not even the slightest bit hungover. When we get down stairs I wave at Balthazar, who is already here, eating some kind of bird. “Good morning!”
“Mornin! You gotta get you some of this, sauteed bird carcass, it’s spot on.” Then we have all this breakfast discussion about mushrooms, coffee, teas and breakfast ale. We learn that coffee exists in Netherfire, and that they also kill anyone who has coffee that isn’t part of the city, in order to better control the price and scarcity.
The bird is sumptuous and delicious, the mushroom steak is nice and umami and flavorsome. We come to understand that Olwin knows how to cook and whilst the ingredients are surely good, he understands how to bring the best out of them.
As we finish our food, Balthazar approaches us and closes the tab in the Lord’s name. We politely decline any further orders and attend with him back to the Lord’s towns.
Balthazar congratulates us on the fine decision we’ve made to continue working with Lord Rex Estrada.
“I find working under him to be profitable and quite enjoyable. Save for the odd incursion of the bestial races, it’s been quite fun. A learning experience, opportunity to grow, he’s always offering apprenticeships and career developments. A few years ago I took an apprenticeship with an esteemed swordsman and received an increase upon its completion.”
“Valuable information, thank you!”
“But yes, in a few more years I should have completed enough apprenticeships to earn work on the Western Wall. If we’re all fed and watered, shall we go?”
We agree to go. We leave The Slumbering Serpent Inn and are led back to the Estate. We notice the town is much more busy during the day than it is at night. The trade hubs we walked through are all bustling with activity, carts coming and going, as well as boats docking up and bringing their goods in as well. A small dock in the northern end of the town, and larger trade vessels are mooring over to the west, in a much more heavily guarded dock. As we move through town into the estate there is palpable energy – the people are excited and happy, compared to other towns that we’ve been to.
As we reach Rex’s estate, we are ushered into the same chamber as last night, where he awaits us sitting in his nicely adorned chair. Balthazar lets us in, then stands to attention at the door behind us.
Rex’s face lights up in a big grin, “It’s good to see you all! Thank you for accepting my invitation, I trust the Serpent was good to you last night?”
“We greatly appreciate your generosity, thank you.”
“Any time.”
I attempt to perceive the room. As per the user agreement, we roll blind, only Kon has any sort of bonus for this.
Anatole and Kon note a flash of recognition through Rex’s eyes as he notices the ring on Kon’s fingers. Kon specifically notices that his eyes fell on his hand. Anatole does not react, but mentally glares daggers at Kon.
Rex, for his part, has a big grin, then sees the ring and continues grinning at us. “Ah, I see it’s happened.”
“Whatever do you mean?” Kon says.
“Oh, I think you know. My beautiful daughter, has finally found someone to make her a woman.” Rex says.
“Yes.” Kon says, blushing furiously.
“She certainly had a lot to say about you last night when I was chatting with her, so this isn’t entirely surprising news.”
“She’s a lovely woman.”
“She is. I imagine you treated her well if she’s given you that.. Take care of it, it is quite expensive.”
“I will… uh, may I ask what it does?”
“It is an artifact of old, I never did tell my daughter. A beautiful piece. The item can allow one to flee danger and escape wherever one needs. Particularly useful down here in the dark.” Rex says.
“It takes time to activate, so one needs to hide first to use it for fleeing, but it only takes a minute. You can sink into the ground and emerge elsewhere anywhere within 100miles of your current location. You must have at least 5 foot of earth wherever it is you are going, so you cannot travel over water… and if you wish to go somewhere, you must know exactly where you want to go, or the bearing and distance you wish to travel… You cannot travel with extra-dimensional spaces, as they will explode upon trying. It spewed its goods over my poor servant, who died instantly.”
“I will be very careful with it.”
“The worst part was paying someone to take a carriage back to collect all my goods.”
“If we might perhaps discuss business?” Anatole calls.
“Of course, of course. Yes, to business then. How did you go with decisions?”
“We have agreed among ourselves to do the work. But we need to understand the extent of the work. If we consider it done in tiers, we could say the first phase is scouting the situation. We need to understand the extent to which the Inquisition has a presence in Alpinglight and whether they pose any further risks to the people of Alpinlight, the city, or his Lordship and others.” I say.
I continue, “The next steps would be to wait for his Lordship’s decision based on the reporting we have come back to him with. It may be dealing with the threat, or it may handing the situation over to the guards. The final step would be contract fulfillment and discussion of further work as it comes up.”
“First tier for retrieval of information. What is the Inquisition doing in my town, including their current location or hideout.”
“Of course, we would be thorough.” Anatole replies. “Then further payment depending on what is required of us to resolve the issue.”
“Yes, there would be an additional fee, as well as access to an item from my personal vault. If the results turns out to be worth more than a few low-tier murders… if we need to eliminate their higher leadership in town, we can discuss further payment based on the gravity of the situations.”
From us, “We will come back to you with word if we are requiring any further clearance for our actions. We will come back when we find out something important.”
“If you’ve stumbled across any nuggets of wisdom, or things to place into the purview of my guards, you are welcome to do. You are encouraged to work as quickly as possible, but do take yourselves seriously. Three of you I will put up at the Golden Crane, and Kon, at the request of Felicia, the guards have been notified that you are to come and go as you please. You need only flash my signet at the door. You are welcome to stay here or at the Golden Crane also.”
“If everyone is satisfied, we should be off and get to work.”
“Yes, consider this a requisition,” then throws us a bag full of gold, with 50g pieces and a series of rolled up parchments. A Writ of Exemption for petty crimes, one for each of us, signed by Rex himself, with the same insignia stamped on it in ink that is on Kon’s signet ring.
I ask the good Lord for a map of town and bid Kon farewell, Anatole and I will wander together, Kon will join us later, but Fester will do his own thing for the most part in terms of gathering data. The centre of town has the Church of the Host, and around that is the primary merchant square, then various grades of residential properties, then more merchant areas sprawl out from there. The two thaumaturge guilds have head quarters close to the central trade hub. The closest notice board to ourselves is not too far south of us, but there are many, many of them. The one near the slum district is our best bet to start looking for ne’er-do-well invitations. Aspis Consortium is the courier guild.
This morning’s conversation and our current comment, it took 6 days from our initial encounter to get from Nightdeep to Alpinlight. The inquisitors have already arrived and have had 3 days to prepare, IF they came here.
Anatole and I will hit up the notice boards, get some potions and find out information, Fester will do rat things, and Kon will catch us up after talking with Felicia.
As we leave the meeting room, we are greeted by Felicia. She is dressed nicer than before, she bounces up to Kon, “Kon! You came back and you still have your head. Both of them in fact!”
I ask Kon if his dick is visible through his pants. He has an 11 inch dick.
“So, daddy said you can just come by whenever you like. Let me show you to my room! So you can find it later.”
“Bye guys!”
"Bye Kon, bye Felicia!" I say.
