Known World |
| Previous | Up | Next |
Unrest
Having just completed a nice wee job for Mistress Mage (Successful protection of a magic item during the Mistress's two day absence) we were all relaxing at the Golden Goblet.
"So, what next to line our pockets and fill our time?" asked Rory.
"Huh?" responded Anna, again!
I admit it was rather difficult to hear, as there was a very noisy rabble at the adjacent table; an obnoxious halfling, a hulking brute with a wit to match Anna's, a roughly dressed dwarven hobo with a billy, and some pompous ass in a skirt.
Even so, I'm sure Anna was not disadvantaged by the ambience, but rather by the indirectness of Rory's question. What he should have said was "Any jobs?" Anna's not too bad if you keep questions and instructions to less that about three words.
"Nothing on the board, except the usual 'magic experiments' victim request from the Mages' Guild" replied Dingus.
"Huh?" wondered Anna.
I was half listening to the discussion, and half listening to our noisy neighbours. Seems as though they were out of work and running short of coin also. I must admit I was surprised that the halfling was still walking the streets, he had the normal halfling shifty eyed look and his hands kept twitching as people walked by. I'd give him a few more days before the city guard had him on a short leach out of town.
"Wait" said Dingus, "here's something. Two Olive Priests are putting something up on the notice board. That ought to be interesting."
"Huh?" said Anna, "shoot?"
"NO Anna, have another drink" I suggested.
Unfortunately, before we could even get a look at the notice, the pompous ass from the other table had darted across the room, grabbed the paper off the board, and was back in his seat!
Mmm, perhaps the skirt allows for more freedom of movement than the breeches I normally wear? Perhaps he's just a quick bastard? No matter, I'll just lift that note right out of his pocket once he's finished reading it.
Which I did, as they were leaving.
"OK, lets get over to the Olive Temple before those others" I suggested, "I know a short cut that ought to get us past them no trouble."
Which it didn't, as Rory pointed out when we saw them slipping through the Temple doors in front of us as we arrived. No matter.
It seems that the Olive Temple has been engaged by the Mages' Guild to investigate, and quell, some Unrest that has been occurring out at the famed Spite Starfall mine. Quelling unrest is right up Olive's ally, but they obviously need a bit of backup to assist in ensuring that everyone keeps the peace, and their heads, and apply some smarts to the problem.
Olive's typical approach, saunter up and tell everyone they should just calm down, be more cooperative, and everything will work out for the better, seldom has the desired outcome. Surprise!
They teamed us up with the other group and sent us off to the Starfall mines the following day, under the watchful eye of two lovely Priestesses named Monotony and Mediocre.
The trip was pretty uneventful except for a notable incident with the other groups big fighter, named Dufus, and one of the mage's starfall courier wagons. Dufus lived up to his name and didn't seem to realize that these mages are actually capable of clearing the road in front of the wagon with a pattern of repeated "fireballs". Fortunately his companions managed to coax him off the road, just in front of the wagon, with a small subterfuge involving some gold coins.
"Dey didn't look like slowing down" he commented after.
As we approached the vicinity of the mines we noted quite a large crowd milling round the road, just on the outskirts of the small settlement that housed the mine operations.
Two plonkers thought that we should pay some sort of toll, just to get past! We soon disabused then of that notion and convinced them to be on their way.
"Hit again? Hit again?" asked Anna eagerly.
As we moved forward into the crowd we noted that there appeared to be a number of what could only be described as guards, scattered throughout the crowd, holding loaded crossbows. Everyone else seemed to be quite aggravated, and prone to outbursts of physical violence. Fortunately the majority were unarmed and these outbursts only resulted in patches of unruly scrapping. The guards seemed to be trying to keep things under control with the butts of their crossbows, ie. not much blood spilt.
This soon changed in a sudden and disturbing fashion.
"Fuck you!" yelled Anna, suddenly raising her own crossbow and sighting towards the nearest guard in a most deliberate manner.
TWANG ... ... THUNK
As we all jumped towards her to prevent the completion of her reload she started laying into us with her solid fists. Quarrels from the guards' return fire hailed around us.
"SKUM, SKUM, uh ... SKUM" she yelled as we overpowered her and dragged her back up the road, out of range of the mob, to where the hobo, Country Bob, had set up a small fire, and was reclining on a fold-up chair, smoking a pipe and watching the billy boil. Seems he wasn't too keen to get too close to unruly mobs.
"Tea anyone" he asked, "we've been on this dusty road for at least two hours now and that means its time for a break. Can't go racing 'bout solving the world's problems without first having wee sit-down, a cuppa, and making a decent plan now can we. Come on, dere be plenty for everyone, even her"
"Huh? asked Anna who seemed to have calmed down a bit.
The cuppa turned out to be quite pleasant, well brewed, and the break allowed us to have a good discussion about the situation happening just down the road from us.
"Magic" said Rory, "it's obvious to us mages"
"Evil miracle perpetrated by the unholy!" stated Monotony the Priestess.
"No, definitely the result of too much drink" said Caroline the Pompous Ass, totally incorrectly as it turned out.
"I'll just go and see if I can help them" whispered Flipper the Halfling as he slipped off towards the mob with Country Bob's packet of tea in his hand and a gleam in his eye.
We soon put a stop to that.
"Hey look, they are all leaving" said Dingus.
And they did. The whole crowd just seemed to dissipate and drift back towards the village and in a few minutes there was no one at all left on the road except for us.
"Time to move on then" said Country Bob, packing up his gear. I'm still not sure how he managed to get that chair into his small backpack. Pretty neat trick!
So we gave Anna back her crossbow, and headed into town.
"So where is the mine office then?" asked Caroline.
"Over there" replied Rory "the woom with the big sign"
MINE OFFICE
We all trooped into the office and tried to speak at the same time to the little gnome standing on a box behind the desk.
"pleas, pleas, I am only having two ears and one brain" he said, "My name is Arthur Presept and I am being the manager here. What is it I can be doing for you, Mistress of Olive?"
Pretty quick for a little fella I thought.
He assigned us one of the local guards as an escort and suggested we have a good look round and became familiar with the way things worked. Dingus, Flipper and I even managed to get suited up and visit the actual starfall mining operations down in the mine. They were pretty serious about the suit-up procedure so I guess all the stories about being exposed to raw starfall might have some basis in fact.
I've heard that the underground raves run by the Soixante-neuf Temple followers use small quantities of raw starfall to ensure suitable "uninhibited" behavior is exhibited by all the participants! If you're into that sort of thing of course.
Everything looked above board, not that we had even seen the like before.
Flipper tried to take a handful of starfall back through the security office.
"Just to test their security" he reckoned.
Didn't work of course, he was stopped and politely told that removal of starfall material without express permission of the Mages' Guild was strictly forbidden and punishable by expiration from "fireball" dehydration.
"Well, that sounds interesting" he muttered.
To be continued ...
| Previous | Up | Next |