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Sir Heskan says with his deep thundering voice: – “It was a diversion then, but lucky that you seem capable when you have such slow horses.”
The knights set off again and after another thirty minutes the little troop left the main eastern trade route and turned left onto a small trail that leads north in the direction of the von Kettling manor. After about two hours of hard riding, there is a pause to rest and water the horses, and eat some lunch. The journey continues with between two and two and a half our riding, and then between fifteen and twenty minutes of rest. In the evening they came in the vicinity of a lake called Loch de la Tanesse. They decided to make camp about ten minutes northeast of the lake. Guard duties are set up like always, and this time Gnosha was paired with another Knight, Sir Pieter de Willems, and his combat name was just Piet. They got the wolf hours, between two and four in the middle of the night.
After about an hour, Gnosha hears something, a sound, like a flapping or buzzing sound, and he gets the feeling he is being watched. Gnosha looks around, trying to see what it is, but in the moonless dark night, it’s hard to see anything. He says: – “Piet, there is something out there, something with flapping wings”, but Piet just replies: – “It’s probably just a bat or something, nothing to worry about.”
Gnosha sniffs the air to try to locate whatever it is with his nose, but he doesn’t pick up any scent at all, so he loads his crossbow, just in case. He then looks in the direction of the horses, but they seem to be calm. He walks a little round around the camp, better to be safe than sorry he said to himself, and he keeps his eyes out into the darkness, hoping he will spot something, but nothing.
Suddenly, something comes flying from behind and attacks Gnosha, and bites him in the neck. Gnosha spins around, and seems a little pink and purple coloured thing, the size of a little rat, but looking like a small dragon. He tries to figure out what it is, and Coral Capuchin comes to his mind, before he shoots it with his crossbow, and the little beast explodes as Gnosha really hits it straight on. He quickly looks around and doesn’t see any more, but he reloads his crossbow and says: – “Piet, it was a Capuchin, and it attacked me.”
Before Gnosha can’t really notice if Piet got the information, he is attacked by two more Coral Capuchins that both fail to bite through Gnosha’s leather armor. Gnosha spins around and fires his trusty crossbow once more, and hits one of the small beasts in the wing, then he quickly reloads. Gnosha hears some movement from the camp but ignores that as he is under attack. The two Coral Capuchins attack again, sneaking up from behind, and one of them bites him in the back of his left shoulder and it hurts, and the wound feels wrong, but Gnosha doesn’t have time to think about that now. Gnosha fires another crossbow bolt at the one he just wounded, and it hits in the other wing, and the little beast falls to the ground. One down, one to go Gnosha says to himself. He drops his crossbow and draws his rapier instead. The remaining Coral Capuchin comes up from behind again and bites Gnosha in the neck, and it hurts. Gnosha suddenly feels all sweaty, but he turns around and pierce the Colal Capuchin with his rapier.
He suddenly feels very thirsty, very very thirsty. He tries to investigate the wound, and recall what he knows about these small beasts. He is sure the cause of his sudden thirst is not venomous bite, but probably some kind of transmutation, as these creatures are semi-magical, and they live in water. He tries to make some first aid on the wound, but fails, and he still feels very thirsty. He shows the wound to Piet, who just says: – “You have to be careful and avoid getting dirt into the wound, that can be dangerous.”
Gnosha meets Aered who has been woken up by the sound of Gnosha’s crossbow and when Aered sees one of the dead Coral Capuchins he says: – “Oh, that is a Coral Capuchin, they are cursed. Don’t tell me you let yourself be bitten? I don’t really know how to get rid of it, but I’ve heard of it.” Gnosha thinks for a while, a water based curse, how can I get rid of it. He really has no skills whatsoever in any kind of curse removal. He thinks to himself, maybe I need to find some kind of hive-queen and kill her, or maybe not.
He feels even more thirsty, and starts to feel a longing for water, like his skin is drying out. The thirst is really hurting him, and he feels worn down by it. Aered puts his hand on the wound, and Gnosha feels a bit better, but the thirst is still there, hurting him badly, he starts to feel weak soon again after Aered heals him.
Gnosha feels that he really longs for a bath, to get his whole body into the water. It was still dark and night, but he said to Aered: – “We need to get down to the lake, I need to take a bath.” Aered replies in total surprise: – ”To the water? A bath? Now?” Gnosha first asks Piet if he knows how to remove a curse, but Piet just looks at Gnosha and replies: – “A curse? You’re just weak.”
Gnosha and Aered walk down in the Loch de la Tanesse and Gnosha strips off all his clothes and the shore. The lake is dark, the sky is dark without any trace of moonlight, and they hear frogs in the water edge making funny noises, and the water looks a bit murky. Gnosha slowly walks into the water, with his rapier in his hand, deeper and deeper into the rather cold water. He feels that he wants to go below the surface, dip his whole body into the water, but he resists that urge and instead he walks out of the lake again. It was very refreshing, he didn’t feel dry and thirsty anymore, maybe that was it Gnosha thought.
Aered wraps a towel around Gnosha and asks him if he feels better now, and Gnosha says that indeed he does. Gnosha gets himself dressed again, and they walk back to the camp, but as soon as he leaves the water, he starts to feel sick again, and after when they are back in the camp, Aered looks at Gnosha and says: – “You look sick again my friend”, and gives Gnosha a new healing on the wound.
The sun rises and Gnosha says to Aered: – “This bloody wound keeps hurting me, I feel so thirsty and dry all the time, I don’t know what to do, I feel so lost right now.” Gnosha tries to push his head into one of the water buckets used for the horses and the head felt good, but the rest of his body still ached for water. Gnosha said to himself, I really need to go to the lake again and dip my whole body. Gnosha tells Aered to fetch a rope, but Aered had already done that, and replies: – “Great minds think alike.”
They went down to the lake once more, and now it wasn’t dark anymore, and after he has removed his clothes again, Aered tied a rope around Gnosha, and Gnosha went into the water, and when it was deep enough, he put his whole body below the surface. He started to count for himself, one bottle, two bottles, three bottles… and when he got to twenty he came up again. He realized that it was not at all had to hold his breath under the water, much easier than he ever felt.
He decided to stay longer below the surface this time, to a deep breath and started to count bottles again. When he had counted to sixty, he felt like a pressure over his chest was released, and he suddenly had to quickly surface to catch his breath. He went back to Aered, who wrapped him in a towel again. Gnosha dried himself, got dressed and they walked back to the camp. When they reached the camp, Aered asked Gnosha how he felt, and Gnosha replied: – “I feel great, just as I did before that thing bit me. Not at all thirsty or dry, and I’m hungry, let’s have some breakfast before we set off again”.
Gnosh writes some notes about this strange beast in his notebook during breakfast, and then they set off north to reach the von Kettling manor at lunch time. Gnosha and Aered feel a bit tired due to the lack of sleep, but nothing to worry about, they have been through worse. They ride fast with only one break and at lunchtime they arrive at the von Kettling manor. First they pass through some farms, and many orchards, as apple trees like the soil here and the farms around the von Kettling manor are mostly large orchards. The farmers stop working and look at the troop of six Knights of Erast, lead by Paragon Knight Sir Heskan, hurrying on the road towards the mansion.
When they approach the mansion itself, and hold their horses outside the large main building, a well dressed elf approaches them and says: – “My name is Aloden, can I ask, what brings the Knights of Erast here?”
Sir Heskan makes one of his grunting sounds, which Gnosha have learned means that someone else can speak, so Gnosha replies: – “Sir, my name is Gnosha Curosinie and I have some important information regarding a large group, probably over a hundred people, that is heading this way, by boat, under the command of the evil necromancer Odan, to bring death and destruction to this very place.”
Aloden looks shocked, and replies: – “This sounds terrible, let me take you to the Baron without any further delays.” Gnosha asks if they could stable the horses, and Aloden calls for two stable boys to help with that while he runs off to tell the Baron that he has important guests.
Sir Heskan, Sir Pieter de Willems, Aered, Gnosha and Thefvae follow Aloden to the main building, the rest stable the horses with guidance from the stable boys. They walk through a large hallway and Gnosha looks at the building itself. The outer walls are stone, and the interior is mostly built in wood. From the main hallway they are led into a large room, not as large as the Audience hall in the castle in Erast, but quite large. In the far end of a large table, sits a man in a large grand chair, not a throne, not a chair, but something in between. When he sees the guests, he says: – “Come and have a seat, you seem to have a lot to talk about.”
Gnosha climbs up to stand on his chair, and says: – “Baron Admulf von Kettling, my name is Gnosha Curosinie and I was hired by Baroness Jacobina Maimux of Erast to try to solve the mystery with the stolen books from her private library. To my assistance I had Paladin Aered Ealchfrilen. We started to unwind a very tangled web of lies and deceptions that led us to the Whispering Way and the evil necromancer Odan. This Odan is bringing over hundred followers via ships to this very location, to bring death and destruction to make an example of what happens to those who oppose him. Erast has mobilized and is sending troops here, and we are the spearhead, here to prepare whatever defenses we can prepare.”
Baron Admulf von Kettling replies: – “My friends, look through the windows, this is a manor of peace and tranquility, not built as a fort for defense. And you are only six knights plus Sir Heskan himself. But I understand now, what is in the works. Our beloved daughter, my heir, Baroness von Kettling, was kidnapped and murdered in Erast at the beginning of the Marda-Zam. She was supposed to be kidnapped and used to blackmail me, but the kidnappers made a huge mistake and she was killed. I even got a letter, telling me to wait for further instructions and obey, or my daughter would be killed. ”
The meeting with Baron von Kettling continues, and Gnosha says: – “Sir, we must try to stop Odan’s men when they are still in the water, and I have a plan.” Baron von Kettling replies: – “In how many wars have you led forces to battle?” and Gnosha replies: – “None, but as the numbers look, the element of surprise is of utmost importance.” Baron von says: – “Thirtyfive years ago, I had the command of the Dragorport expeditionary force that I led into the mountains.”, and Gnosha replied: – “That’s fantastic, but you had troops back then. Right now we’re pretty thin on troops, even though reinforcements from Erast will hopefully arrive soon.”
Baron von Kettling looks at Aloden and says: – “Aloden, can you handle such things?” And Aloden gives a short nod as an answer. Baron von Kettling looks at Aloden and says: – “Aloden, make sure you help them in every possible way. We can never let them come ashore here, never, after what they have done to me.”
Gnosha describes his plan, which is based on several things. As the waterfront is a rather high cliffside, the boats need to approach the jetty and unload the soldiers that will need to take the small trail that leads up to the manor from the jetty and the fishermen’s boathouse. The plan consists of:.
For this, Gnosha says, he will need men and women that can work and work hard and work fast. Baron von Kettling says to Aloden: – “Gather all men and women, send out the messengers that they are all called in for duty. They need to be here within two hours.”
Then Baron von Kettling looks at Gnosha and the rest of the group and says: – ”They spied on me, those bald wizards in the tower. He was the rat catcher. I bought this mansion thirty years ago, after a long and adventurous life, to settle down with my beloved wife, who also was the adventuring kind. She passed away several years ago, and left me and our daughter. This old house was full of holes in the walls and those holes were full of rats. I hired a rat catcher, but he was spying on me, on behalf of the bald wizards circle. A group of adventurers succeeded in stopping him.”
After a couple of hours, somewhere between two hundred and three hundred people had shown up at the von Kettling manor. They came from all over the area around the manor. A large number of Hobbits showed up, as there were a lot of apple orchard owners and workers here that were Hobbits. You could see that, as many apple trees were kept very short.
Gnosha with help from Baron von Kettling and Aloden selects a handful of team leaders, who then pick their teams among the people. They were lumbermen, boatmen, rope makers and blacksmiths. Gnosha makes some drawings of what he wants them to construct, and everyone looks a bit confused, when Baron von Kettling climbs up on the top of a wagon to speak to the people of his lands:
– “I arrived here thirty years ago and most of you and your families have arrived after me. You have all turned this land into a prosperous and thriving community. I remember when you, farmer Theodwin Fairfoot of the short folks, and your lovely wife Rhoda, settled down and started your orchard. I remember when you, blacksmith Douldrelin Cragbrew and your husband Korbir decided to come and work in the iron here in the forge. I remember when you, fisherman Niek Trilsbeek and with your wife Lisanne and your newborn twins came here to work by fishing the lake. This is not just my home, this is our home, and we want this to remain the safe and tranquil place it has been for the past thirty years.
An army of evil is coming soon, and plans to burn our homes and kill our loved ones. We cannot make that happen, we must stop them. We will build defenses, so we can stand up and defend what is ours, defend it for ourselves and for our coming generations. This will not be easy, this is nothing any of us have ever wanted, but this is what is happening. Erast has mobilized and is sending troops, but, until then, I can only say one thing, hold, until relieved.”
The speech inspired the people to work even harder. When the first day was coming to an end, as days were getting shorter, Gnosha decided to help out with the preparations for the food that would be served, and he baked apple pies for three hundred people, and that was the best apple pies anyone had ever eaten, as Gnosha added a rare but delicious spice to the pie, cinnamon.
For those families and farms with animals or small children, a special team had been put together that took care of that in case the families were working with the defense preparation.
In the evening Gnosha talked with several people, and he was a bit astonished how well everything seemed to go, and how much the people here liked Baron von Kettling. The farmers rented the land from von Kettling, and some had even borrowed money to start up their farms or businesses, but the rent and interest was low enough to let the farmers earn enough for a good living, and they all felt they were all fairly treated. Most of the men had some military training, as all men did military training a couple weeks every year, from a young age. The sheriff, Joren Crozier, who lives at the mansion, is responsible for the protection against the Kobolds in the south, and it happens a few times every year that the militia is mustered to protect the farms against Kobold raids.
The second day, everyone came early, and Gnosha created a set of Moderate Alchemist fires, but after discussions with Aloden, they decided to try to find as many Greater Feverbush branches as they could find in the wood, to try to cook firepitch on them. The reason for this is that the pitch from the Greater Feverbush, if prepared correctly, will set itself on fire, when it comes in contact with air. So, the plan is to fill a large number of small jars with it, and place those sealed jars in the water.
Aloden, Gnosha and a group of hobbits went out to cut down and gather the bushes, as the orchard hobbits had both the tools and the skills to quickly cut bushes and load them onto wagons.
When they came back, Aloden helped Gnosha with the very difficult preparation of the fire pitch, but Gnosha knew exactly what he was doing, and Aloden learned a few new alchemist’s tricks. The whole community works for another long day, and in the evening of the second day, one of the boats with scouts comes back. They reported that Odan’s army had reached the shores on the other side of the lake, and was building some temporary boats. But, two large ships and four smaller boats had joined him from the east.
The second day came to an end, and in the morning on the third day, everything and everyone were as ready they would ever be, Anyone not fit to fight were now moved to the farms and houses far away from the mansion, and a small group of Militia under the command of Sheriff Crozier were with them just in case the Kobolds would try something. Gnosha felt stronger this morning, stronger, sharper and better than he had ever felt before. The past two days had taught him how well a society can work together, under the right leadership, that leads by love and not fear. The same could be said about Duchess Maimux in Erast.
An alarm system had been implemented, the sound of the Karudu bird, two times in a row, “Kah-kaah, kah-kaah, kah-kaah”. Scouts had been placed on each flank to watch the coastline and the lake for approaching ships or boats. Gnosha and Aered see a boat rowing fast across the lake. The archers in their positions ready their bows, but Gnosha says “Stand down, these are our last scouts returning back.”
When the boat hits the shore, a group of militia men quickly carries it up from the water and hides it behind some large bushes at a prepared place. The two returning knights that have been scouting on the other side, Sir Junius Pandulph and Sir Fulcaire Mende de Santilhana say that Odan’s army is breaking camp, the invasion is coming. Gnosha looks around and all preparations they had planned are done. The premier defense line, the second defense line, the surprise explosive traps in the lake, the sticks that can be raised or lowered, the spike hedges, cheval de frise, that can be pulled to block the track from the shore up to the mansion. Orders are given to the archers, hold your fire, wait for the signal, stay low.
Gnosha picks up his spyglass and looks across the misty morning lake, here they come. He sees one larger sailing ship with sails, three middle sized row boats with about a dozen men in each, and then a makeshift raft with about thirty men, ten paddling on each side, but it moves much slower than the rest of the fleet.
The fleet seems to head straight for the pier, and straight towards Gnosha’s surprises in the water. First comes the three rowing boats, then the large ship, and the barge last. Gnosha instructs those that can pull the ropes to raise the spikes to let the small boats pass, then raise the spikes to stop the large ship and hopefully make it catch fire from all the flasks with fire pitch sitting at the end of each of each spike.
Aered is down at the first defenses, hidden, ready to give the order to pull forward the spikes. When the small ships have passed the spike barrier, one heads for the pier and the other two for the beach, and then Gnosha signals: “Raise the spikes!”. Aered draws his sword and the spike hedges are pulled into position to block the path from the beach up to the manor. The archers open fire at Odan’s disembarking soldiers.
Gnosha also fires at the landing troops, while the large ship suddenly rocks and turns and the sound of breaking wood echoes over the battlefield, and fire pitch ignites and sets parts of the large ship on fire.
People jumped in panic from the large ship, and some were surprised by the sudden impact and fall overboard. Most of those falling into the water start to swim towards the shore, but those wearing heavy armor have less luck.
When those enemies on the shore starts to attack the spike hedges, Aered and two Knights, Sir Carlinos Sardvia Pires and Sir Tristan de Monteil attack the intruders together with a group of the farmer’s militia, and Aered is taking quite a beating, Gnosha can see that he is bleeding.
Gnosha sees that many of Odans men are now swimming towards the beach, and the raft is also closing in. Thefvae is attacking the intruders with her Magic Missiles, and Gnosha fires three Alchemist’s Fires with his crossbow at the barge, to stir up some more panic by setting it on fire. Then Aered picks up his spyglass to try to spot Odan on the big ship, but he is not to be seen.
The battle is fierce, and Gnosha sees that the left flank is collapsing as the militia is falling back. Heskan storms there shouting “Weaklings!” Some enemies are moving up on the side of the path up to the mansion, and Gnosha starts to move in that direction, when he hears a roar, Heskan shouts: - “Fall back!” and blows his horn. There are many enemies and they are coming from the sides, they have flanked the outer defenses. Gnosha rushes to the left flank, but Heskan signals with his horn to fall back to the net line of defenses. The troops start to retreat back to the manor. Sir Pieter de Willems catches up with Heskan and Gnosha and says: - “Odan with a large troop landed west of us and came upon us from behind.”
Gnosha thinks for himself, ok, Odan is there, and suddenly there is a signal from the other side, and the enemies seem to let the troops fall back to the manor. Gnosha sees that they have managed to put out the fires on the large ship. The defenders successfully, thanks to the enemies temporarily cease combat, retreat back to the manor. Gnosha looks south, hoping that the army from Erast would arrive soon, they are more than needed, the situation is not at all good.
Archers are placed on the manor’s roof, and in windows and openings around the manor. Soldiers are placed at all doors. All are gathered and Sir Pieter de Willems says: – “They sneaked up on us from behind, our scout never gave us a signal.”
Suddenly a spooky voice is heard in the distance: – “Baron von Kettling, spare your people. You fought bravely, but from here on, it is all about death for your people. Send a negotiator so we can discuss your surrender.”
Gnosha sees that enemy troops are encircling the manor, they are completely surrounded. Time passes, and no negotiator is sent. Baron von Kettling says to Aloden: – “Use your magic and reply: ‘Screw you and your undeads!’ ’”, and Aloden speaks with the same kind of hollow echoing voice.
Gnosha asks Thefvae if she knows what Odan’s Achilles heel is, and she replies that if she knew, she would have told him. Gnosha says that I knew that, but maybe you know something insignificant that we all oversee, but Thefvae replies that she didn’t know Odan that well.
Suddenly the voice is heard again: – “Times up, prepare to die!” Enemies are moving closer, and Gnosha is certain that the guy charging towards the window where he was standing was the guy he shot on the beach, but he was paler now, and his eyes looked dead. And there, farmer Alwin Boorsma, one of the archers from the left flank, also pale and with dead eyes, firing his bow directly at Gnosha. Gnosha said to himself, damn, stupid old fool. He used our fallback not only to regroup, but also to raise the dead as undeads, making his army even bigger.
Gnosha asks Aered to look at the enemy tactics and to find faults and glitches that could be exploited to turn the tide.
Gnosha uses his spyglass to try to see what orders the commanders are giving using his lip reading, but nothing comes out of it. He then tries to use his battle medicine to heal Aered a little but that also fails, but he got an idea and saw an opportunity. One of Odan’s commanders was quite close, and only a few undeads were between them and the commander, Gnosha quickly says to Aered, Sir Benoît van Panhuysen and Sir Pieter de Willems: – “We have a chance to take out the commander.”
They fight forward through their rank of weak undeads and Gnosha fires his Alchemical crossbow with an Alchemist’s Fire straight at the commander, but the commander’s bodyguard steps in and is killed instead. Sir Pieter de Willems hits and downs the commander with a mighty blow with his longsword.
Gnosha decides that bringing the commander back to the mansion would be very good, and Aered is tasked to drag the unconscious commander back. They quickly realize that the undeads now have figured out what is happening and are quite determined to have their commander back. The little taskforce is quickly surrounded by undeads, and in the fierce battle when they try to move back to the mansion, Sir Benoît van Panhuysen is mortally wounded, bleeding violently from his right leg. Gnosha decides that the body of the commander has to be destroyed so he cannot be turned into an undead and sets fire to it using his last Alchemist’s fire. They now found themselves cornered at one of the small houses outside the maison. Gnosha starts to think that this is it, we are doomed, Odan will win, and he will enslave the world as we know it.
Suddenly, the sound of a horn is heard from the south, and is answered from the maison, and someone shouts: – “Erast it here!”
All the enemies start to retreat, except the undeads, as they seem to cover the retreat for the rest of Odan’s army. Gnosha sees Odan at a distance and tries to shoot him in the face with his crossbow, but Odan deflects the bolt with some kind of magic shield and gives Gnosha a twisted smile with a look of hatred back. The battle continues until all the undeads have been killed again. Odan’s troops leave using the big ship, as they have got it free floating again.
Gnosha uses his newly learned skill and quickly creates a simple healing potion for Sir Benoît van Panhuysen, that miraculously stops the bleeding. Sir Benoît van Panhuysen is no longer mortally wounded, and will live to see another day. He is carried into the maison and laid together with all the other forty wounded men that fought bravely to defend what is theirs. Sadly, twenty farmers from the von Kettling lands have made the greatest sacrifice, they had laid down their lives, defending what they believed in. They count fifty dead soldiers from Odans men. Most of the Knights of Erast have wounds, and even Heskan is seen walking around growling for himself, puffing smoke through his nostrils, wearing a bandage over his right arm.
The commanders from Erast, Herman Gild Huml, commander of the auxiliary militia, and Halke De Roos commander of the cavalry and the town guard troops, decide hastily that 75 men, mostly town guards, stay at the von Kettling estate, just in case Odan tries to come back tomorrow, the rest set off back to Erast right after the battle, except a few wounded that will return in two days. They also decide that twenty five of the men from Erast will form a permanent garrison at the von Kettling estate for the foreseeable time, and the rest will return to Erast in two days. The Erast garrison will assist with whatever duties that need to be done. Those families who have lost fathers, sons or brothers, are compensated in gold the same way any family of an Erast soldier would be in case of the death of a soldier. Duchess Maimux treats this part of the land as belonging to Erast, even though she acts here through the members of the Erast council. The knights under Sir Heskan will return to Erast, except for the wounded Benoît van Panhuysen. It is too early so say, if he could ever work as a knight again, even after the wound has healed.
The slain enemies are put in a big pile down at the beach and are burnt with oil, just to prevent sickness from spreading, The fallen militia men of the von Kettling lands are one and each honored with a traditional burial fire, and the name of each and every one of them will be engraved into a huge memorial stone, paid for by Baron von Kettling, and crafted locally by the talented craftsmen.
Aered, Aloden and Gnosha, and several of the women are treating the wounded, the great hall of the mansion is being used as a hospital. For those in grief, who have lost a husband, son or a brother in the battle, Aered uses one of the rooms in the mansion as a temple, to comfort them and pray with them. Aered shows the people that he is not only a formidable warrior, but also a man of true faith.
What Gnosha does not know is that on the second day, before the remaining troops that will return to Erast set off, there was a secret meeting in the study of Baron von Kettling between Baron von Kettling, Herman Gild Huml and Halke De Roos. Duchess Maimux gave, through the two council members Baron von Kettling one choice, to receive all this help from Erast. He would not adopt an heir to his title, and he would swear an oath that he didn't not have any bastards. This would mean that when he passes, the title von Kettling is returned to Erast and the land with it. Baron von Kettling bought the title those 30 years ago from Duchess Maimux’s father, for a large amount of the gold he had collected through his adventuring years. The gold helped the Duke of Erast to develop Erast and pay town guards and knights.
Baron von Kettling was not very happy with the deal Duchess Maimux had presented to him through the council, but he had no other options than to accept it. It was a somewhat bitter ending to all of this, but at the same time, he might have done the same under similar circumstances. High level power diplomacy is a very special game, and Duchess Maimux seems to know exactly how it is played.
Baron von Kettling thought to himself, if you see this in the context of the Bald Wizards being allied with Odan the destroyer, it all comes much clearer. Duchess Maimux cares for her people, and she knows that as Odan wants this piece of land, so will the Bald Wizards, so putting it under Erast governance when I no longer walk among the living, prevents the land from falling into the hands of Odan, claiming he has the lost bastard heir of von Kettling among his followers. Baron von Kettling had to share this with someone he trusted, so he sat down with the wounded Sir Benoît van Panhuysen, who now was resting in one of the many guestrooms in the manor.
On the third day, the rest of the Erast force is moving out, except the troop of twenty five men that stays behind as an extra garrison. The men are also instructed to help and fill in for those men who fell in the battle, as the apples need picking, fields need plowing, and many other day to day tasks have to be done that until a few days ago, were done by those who fell. Grief is still holding the community in a tight grip.
The commanders, Halke De Roos and Herman Gild Huml leave too, and Gnosha, Aeref and Thefvae will follow the troops. Sir Benoît van Panhuysen har recovered miraculously well from Gnosha’s healing treatment and is well enough to ride, but slowly, but as the troops are moving on foot, this will be a very slow ride for those on horseback.
The journey will take about three days, and no one expects any ambushes along the way, as who would be foolish enough to ambush a fully trained troop of fifty soldiers? And everyone was right, as the journey back to Erast was quite eventless.
When they reach the South Gate, Gnosha hears a voice he hasn’t heard in a few weeks, the unmistakable voice of Sergeant Thomas Auberg. Sergeant Auberg steps in front of the open gate and shouts: – “Who are you and what is your business in Erast?”
Gnosha replies: – “Sergeant Auberg, so nice to meet you again. Do you have any important tidings to tell me about?”
Sergeant Auberg replies: – “Mais oui monsieur Gnosha, please enter. The duchess has requested your immediate presence and you are to head up to the castle straight away.”
Halke De Roos, Herman Gild Huml, Gnosha, Aered, Thefvae and Sir Benoît van Panhuysen all ride up to the castle, while the soldiers walk back to their barracks to muster out and return to their civilian duties.
When the group arrives at the castle, Gnosha says hi to the palace guards, and they ride straight to the stables outside the main building, where they hand over the horses to the castle stable boys. Gnosha informs them that Firefly Shadow, Duke Blizzard and Lucinda Clover are to be returned to the stables belonging to the knights of Erast.
When they walk up the the main entrance, another palace guard shouts: – “Halke De Roos, Herman Gild Huml, Gnosha Curisinie, Aered Ealchfrilen, Thefvae and Sir Benoît van Panhuysen, you are all expected in the audience chamber”. They all walk across the palace, a route everyone knows well, except maybe Thefvae. Aered is supporting Sir van Panhuysen a bit as walking with his leg is still a bit more difficult than riding. As they walk though the castle, servants says: – “Duchess Maimux is waiting for you, the meeting has started, please hurry.”
There are a lot of people in the audience chamber, the whole Erast council is gathered. When the group enters, Duchess Maimux says: – “Halke De Roos, Herman Gild Huml, Gnosha Curisinie, Aered Ealchfrilen, Thefvae and Sir Benoît van Panhuysen, you are back, and alive. Heskan has told me about the battle and the victory. I want to know more, I want to know what happened, where do they get their resources from for example.”
Gnosha stops, bows, and says: – “Your highness, The Whispering Way has taken control of The League of the Hidden Blade, and I suspect many of the soldiers were from the ranks of them. I am also confident that they have secret sponsors. The Bald Wizards Circle is also highly involved in all this.”
Duchess Maimux looks at Gnosha with her sharp eyes and asks: – “Mr Curosinei, do you have any evidence of this?”
Gnosha replies: –”Your highness, I have circumstantial evidence, and I will present this to you here and now.
First, The traitor Kanna Okkura fled with a ship that took him to the Bald Wizards Circle. There is no solid evidence that he went to the tower, but evidence that he jumped onto a ship heading in that direction.
Second, Baron von kettling told me that a wizard from the Bald Wizard’s Circle, posing as a rat catcher, spied on him. The wizard was exposed by a group of adventurers.
Third, At the secret meeting at the Bugbear, a person who went by the name of Kallan, asked a Bald Wizard, also attending the secret meeting, for a status report and why the war hadn’t yet started. The bald wizard replied that things like this take time, and that Kallan never had been close to anything like this.
And to this I want to add that Odan promises immortality and wealth to his followers.”
Duchess Maimux looks very concerned, and says: – “The situation is even worse than we expected. Let us eat some dinner, then we can continue the meeting.”
They walk to another room where a grand dinner table has been made with plenty of food, There is some smalltalk during the dinner, and Gnosha also informs Duchess Maimux and some of the other council members about how Odan created a secondary troop of undeads from the fallen soldiers from both sides. He summarized by saying that Odan is a very powerful Necromancer.
After the dinner break for about thirty minutes, they all walk back to the audience chamber to continue the meeting. Suddenly a group of people enters the audience chamber. It is the spy Tijan Danso followed by the four adventurers that Gnosha sent Mr Danso with to Willowdale.
Mr Danso looks at Duchess Maimux and says: – “Your highness, I have been saved by these adventurers, several times, I am in debt to them for my very life. Please listen to what I have to tell you.
These four, brave adventurers, were my traveling companions to Willowdale. When we arrived at Willowdale, I stopped there and they continued south. I rented a room and only a few hours later a group of Hobgoblin city guards broke my door and brutally arrested me. They put me in a cage in the city market square, accusing me of being a spy. The only thing I had done was to visit the local temple for a blessing and a prayer, as I traveled as a pilgrim.”
Gnosha thinks to himself, someone in this room as dual alliances, and works for either the Bald Wizards or Odan.
Mr Danso continues: – “After a few days in that horrible cage, these brave adventurers returned, and they decided to defend me in the trial, held by the grand farmer, Dinis Caesein, who was the prosecutor, and also is the highest ranking official in Willowdale. With their skills in law and persuading skills, they convinced the board that I was innocent. Mr Caesein did say that he had been given information from Erast that I was a spy. When the board asked him to present his information, he said he could not do that, but I later learned that it was a letter stating that I was a spy as I had been seen in the company of the known Erast spy Gnosha Curisinei.”
Duchess Maimux says: – “The only people knowing about your true identity are the members of this council..”
Gato the cat person, one of the adventurers, says: – “Someone in this room is a traitor.”
Suddenly everything turns into chaos, and accusations are flying across the room. Some council members accuse the adventurers of being traitors. After a short while, Sir Heskan raises his voice, smoke coming out of his mouth: – “Enough! Shut up!”, and everyone instantly shuts up.
Mr Danso continues: – “The board council freed me and decided I was not guilty, but then Mr Caesein’s wizard whispered something in his ear. The wizard, whose name is Cristovan Soarez, is an elder, bald human, wearing a purple and white robe.”
Gnosha says: – “Bald Wizard’s Circle.”
Mr Danso continues: – “I do not know what was whispered in Mr Caesein’s ear, but he said that this will be taken to a higher authority.”
Gnosha says: – “See, the Bald Wizard’s Circle has the control of Willowdale, the town is lost for Erast.”
Mr Danso continues: – “They said that they should transport us all to the tower the next day, as anyone defending someone that is convicted, will be convicted too for the same crime. They fled with me in the night into the forest, and we have fled ever since. We have been on the run, survived dark forests, deep waters, howling monsters on the moors…”
Sir Heskan interrupts Mr Danso by saying: – “Mr Danso, I think we all got the picture by now.”
Gnosha thinks to himself, not the best spy in the cupboard. But we either have a spy in the castle, or a magic animal or some other magic in this audience chamber. Erast is in a bad shape, and I guess I need to fix this.
Duchess Maimux summarized what has been said: – “The tower is in an open conflict with Erast at this very moment, and someone has leaked critical information to them. What actions can we take, which key figures can we effect? Willowdale is as I see it lost to the tower.”
Gnosha says: – “We still have the control over the von kettling area. It should be reinforced, and it was a good call troops were left for protection. The big question is, how can we weaken the Wizards?”
Duchess Maimux addresses the adventurers: – “You have saved the life of our diplomat, and you will have your reward for that.” Duchess Maimux then makes a short recapitulation of the events and the battle with Odan’s army at the von Kettling manor.
Gnosha says: – “Keeping in mind what Baron von Kettling told us about his rat catcher, who was a spy for the Tower, there might be more someone else who is not who he or she claims to be.” Gnosha said that just to startle anyone who might be someone else.
Duchess Maimux now address the other adventurers directly: – “I give you the mission to find, capture or kill Odan’s closed allies, Relak Jones, Tarasha the Bleek, Frori the bandit king and Odan himself.”
The puppet held by one of the adventurers says quite loudly: – “How about our reward?”, and the guy holding the puppet quickly says: – “Yes, it would be very appreciated with some kind of reward.”
Duchess Maimux: – “You will get one hundred pieces of gold for your work so far, and now, please leave this meeting.”
Before the adventurers leave the audience chamber, Gnosha tells them what he knows, as he thinks that any piece of information or clues will be good to share. He tells them about the meeting at The Bugbear, about Odan, Tarasha, and that Frori the bandit king’s last known whereabouts was that he was going north on the lake from the abandoned village. He also informs them that Odan fled north across the waters after the attack on the von Kettling manor. When the other adventure party left the audience chamber, Duchess Maimux looked directly at Gnosha and said: – “You will get two hundred and fifty coins of gold for your war effort, for what you have done so far, and for future missions.” Then Duchess Maimux gave Gnosha the look saying: I know that you know that I know what you are planning so go ahead with it, without saying a word. Gnosha understands that the mission for him, Aered and Thefvae will be to smoke out the spy or spies, but doing this so secret that no one except Duchess Maimux will know what they are doing. Gnosha discreetly notices that Aered and Thefvae are getting closer to each other, in a maybe more than just a friendly way. He has no objections to that at all. Thefvae needs stability and safety, and who would be better to provide that than Aered?
After some more, rather pointless discussions, the meeting ends, and Gnosha, Aered and Thefvae head over to their rented room, and Gnosha asks Thefvae if she can accept to get her own room, and then for a nice warm bath at Mrs Fournier’s Washing Parlor.
Thefvae likes the idea very much of a proper bath with hot water and scented soaps. While in the bath, for hours, changing water several times, Gnosha decides that it’s time to step up their living. They have the tower, they can hire the carpenter to fix some better separate bedrooms on the third floor, and a couple of rooms for some hired help, as Gnosha thinks getting a butler and a guard would improve things a lot, and they could move out of the rented room when it’s done. This also is a good and valid reason to stay in Erast, and also spend a lot of time talking to people, recruiting a butler and a guard.
And Gnosha also ponders about how to be able to ask around among the higher society folks in the castle, and remembers Baron von Kettling’s sad story about his daughter being kidnapped and killed during Marda-Zam. A perfect excuse to ask around, pretending to solve that disappearance and murder, and get to talk to maids and other staff at the castle, but also other nobility that might have alliances elsewhere. Also try to figure out if there are double walls somewhere around the audience chamber, or just a small secret and hidden listening alcove.
This will mark the beginning of a new chapter here in Erast, a town Gnosha never thought he would stay very long in, but he had made some remarkable friends. Aered, the young and hungry Paladin that has proven over and over that he is more than worthy that title. Thefvae, the lost soul that has proven beyond doubt that it was the right decision to bring her in under his wings, where she can grow. And not to forget Duchess Maimux, a young woman that rules Erast with both power and love, and they have come close, they understand each other, and she is one of the best employers Gnosha ever had.
After the bath and a good dinner, the three of them walk back to the rented room, where Gnosha rents a separate room for Thefvae, for one week. They all went to bed early to sleep in real beds for a change. They all slept in, and late in the morning, they went for some breakfast and Gnosha said at the breakfast table: – “Friends, I have a plan. Aered, go find daytaler Oliver Baro, see if he can get two or three other able men, and tell him to build three bedrooms on the first floor, and two smaller bedrooms on the second floor in the tower. Meanwhile, I and Thefvae will be asking around to hire a maid and a butler. It’s time we settle in for real here in Erast.” Thefvae looks quite astonished and stumbles on the words when she says: – “A maid and a butler, my own bedroom? I feel like a lost princess in a tale by a bard in an alehouse.”
Gnosha just smiles, he is in a very good mood, but as always, there is a plan behind this. The plan is to help Duchess Maimux to find the spy, and to do that, he needs to be here in Erast, and have reasons to go around and talk with people.
After the breakfast, Aered walks off to look for daytaler Oliver Baro, to hire him and hopefully some other good daytalers for a week of work, and even more, depending on Gnosha’s plans for the tower, their own tower.
Gnosha and Thefvae walk off into the eastern quarters around Beggar’s Chase, looking for maids that are looking for work. They post a few notes in the taverns around Beggar’s Chase, and in some other taverns, and also talk with a lot of people. A bit after noon, they grab something to eat at one of the taverns, and as Marda-Zam is over, there are more free tables, and the prices have gone down a bit too.
Meanwhile, Aered successfully gets hold of Mr Baro, and when he sees Aered he says: – “Sir Ealchfrilen, so good to see you. Have you broken another door?” Aered laughs and thinks that this is a very likable fellow, and replies: – “No, not at all Mr Baro. Mr Curosinei has plans for the tower, and as you did such a splendid job, he thought that you and some men you trust, could get a week of work, well paid, to make three bedrooms of floor one, and two servant bedrooms on floor two in the tower. We know it is a lot of work and that it requires a lot of wood, but Mr Curosinei has decided we will stay here for a long time and have started to like the tower very much.”
Mr Baro shines up like the sun and replies: – “Thank you good Sir, this sounds like solid work. I assume you want tiled stoves in the rooms, or something similar, as winter is slowly coming and it can get a bit nippy here in the north. The timing is excellent, as work is always slowing down after Marda-Zam. Let’s take a look and I can make some sketches of how it could be built. I would need to contact an architect to make some drawings too. So good to see you again Sir Ealchfrilen, very good indeed. And I know trustworthy and hardworking men that I can hire.”
Aered replies: – “Good, but the tiled stoves can wait a bit. We need to move in rather soon, like in a week, or two, maximum, if that is possible, and I think Mr Curosinei will chalk up the designs and make the drawings, as he is an expert in many things, one of them is construction of things. He has the brains to build and construct things, but lacks the muscle and body to actually do large things.”
Gnosha decided to rent the small back room at The Lonely Duck, the small tavern owned and managed by the nice elven lady Ilyana Reyqen. The Lonely Duck is located just about one hundred and fifty yards from the tower, so it’s close and still a bit away. He booked the room for tomorrow, and paid twelve silver coins, which also included some cheese and ham sandwiches and refreshing ale. He told all the potential maids and butlers that he would hold his interviews at The Lonely Duck tomorrow, to find the best candidates for the jobs.
After dinner, Gnosha, Aered and Thefvae walk over to the tower, as Gnosha needs to measure things up, to prepare for making drawings. It will be busy days ahead, and he needs to have drawings ready by tomorrow, so Aered can finish the deal with Mr Baro and get the workers hired, the job started and materials ordered. Construction work is always more complicated than it really has to be, so many things to think of and so many small details that can go wrong. Doors need to open without slamming into each other for example, something Ghosha experienced more than once on his travels.
As the Alchemic laboratory had been temporarily set up on floor one, it was packed up and moved down the ground floor. Gnosha said that he planned to let Mr Baro fix the basement and then move the laboratory there, but in the meantime, it was on a table in here on the ground level, just in case it would be needed. Thefvae looked at the laboratory and said that she would love to learn some alchemy one day.
Thefvae and Aered get a quick course in how to use a piece of string and a small ribbon to measure distances, and together they find a way to place three bedrooms and a small washing cabinet on the first floor. As the river flows right outside the tower, Gnosha decided that a rope and a bucket outside the window would be a smart way to easily get water into the washing cabinet. Thefvae asked Gnosha if she could get the bedroom with two windows, the right one, as the windows on the tower were unevenly distributed. Gnosha replied that it was a splendid idea to have Thefvae in the room with more daylight.
After a few hours of intensive measuring and note taking, Gnosha was satisfied with the basic design, and decided to make some drawings. And as the tower has roughly the same dimensions on the second floor, he used the measurements to also draw the servants quarters that would be on the second floor. One thing they would have to wait with was the kitchen, cooking was still something that wasn’t possible in the tower, but Gnosha liked the idea of a central stove, and heating the rooms with the smoke pipes, as they seemed to do up here in the north. But, heating was a secondary problem, and as long as he added that to the drawings, Mr Baro could probably put that in later, at least Gnosha thought he could.
After a good night's sleep back at the rented rooms, a new busy day arrived. Gnosha handed the drawings to Aered, together with a purse of coins, so Aered could strike a deal and also pay in advance for materials, which usually sped things up a lot. Any lumber mill owner seeing a purse of coins would quickly deliver the lumber.
Gnosha and Thefvae headed over to the booked back room at The Lonely Duck to prepare for the interviews of maid and butler candidates. Thefvae was not really sure that this was the best way of doing it, but Gnosha insisted that this was the only way to do it properly.
There were several people waiting in at The Lonely Duck, eager to get a job, as now, after Marda-Zam being cut short, and the militia being called into service, people has lost their jobs as business has been having to be more careful as the profits from Marda-Zam and everything around it fell short of expectations. Gnosha discreetly screened the people to make a quick first impression, and then he told Thefvae to sit outside the door, and call them in one by one, when he shouted next.
First is a young girl, barely in working age according to Gosha. Her name is Mélanie Grandis, and she comes from a family living close to Beggar’s Chase. She seems honest that this was the first time she tried to seek work as a maid, and that her mother asked her to do it, as the family is in need of money. Gnosha carefully asked questions about her family, and her friends. The girl had only been doing odd cleaning jobs at one of the taverns, and was in love with an older boy named Rogier Fortuin. Mr Fortuin was nineteen years old and was training to become a town guard, under the command of Captain Woode. He gave young Miss Grandis five pieces of copper, and told her to use them wisely. He told her he would be in touch to tell her yes or no in a few days.
Then there were a couple of younger boys who had not really understood the tasks to be performed by a butler. Gnosha explained that it involved everything from ensuring supplies were fresh in the kitchen, to being able to act as a guard and defend the residence in case of intruders. It also involved helping the maid in her daily duties.
While Gnosha and Thefvae were busy trying to hire the best maid and butler, Aered was busy with Mr Baro, visiting Hrogrol’s lumber yard west of Erast. Hrogrol was a huge, ginger haired half-orc, with a roaring laugh and a keen sense of doing business. Mr Baro had accepted Gnosha’s offer to build the two floors with a total of five rooms in the tower, so now they were busy haggling with Hrogrol about lumber prices and deliveries. Hrogrol was saying that there was a shortage of workers currently so he would need to recruit some more to cut the timber into the dimensions required for the build, which would cost extra, as there was a very short delivery time. Jiggling the pouch of gold in front of Hrogrol telling him that he would get half the money up front, and the rest when it all had been delivered, and adding a bonus of two pieces of gold if the deliveries came in time as scheduled by Gnosha. The rough cut framework wood was to be delivered no more than two days from now, while the planks to be used for floors, walls and ceiling could wait another two days, and finally fine wood to be used for doors, door frames and window shutters could arrive yet another two days after the planks. Hrogrol gladly accepted the offer and sent his foreman, Mr Giel Valkman, off to Erast to find some more able workers.
Next, a woman in her mid twenties came into Gnosh’s back room. Her name was Sunnia Andersdau, which was an old tradition for some families, to name their daughters after their fathers, and dau did mean daughter here in the North, so she was the daughter of Anders. Anders was a dockworker, working at the Low Docks, quite close to the tower. Her mother had passed last winter from sickness, and Miss Andersdau was widowed since her husband had been killed in a goblin attack in the spring while he was driving a caravan up to Erast. Gnosha thought that this was good, as he did not want any maids or butlers that had families, not at the moment, as they would need to be at the tower at all times and he did not want any strangers there until he knew more about what was going on in Erast. He also gave Miss Andersdau five pieces of copper, and told her to use them wisely. He told her he would be in touch to tell her yes or no in a few days.
Now a few less interesting women and girls applying for the maid position passed Gnosha, and none of them, for one reason or the other, seemed to be up for the job. Gnosha started to doubt that there would be any better suitable candidates other than the two he already met. Now a few more men applying as butlers showed up, but they did not really fit what Gnosha had in mind. One smelled of alcohol, another was too old and had problems standing up after the brief meeting
The last was a cocky young boy by the name of Onke Wybenga, who bragged about how he had worked as a butler in the house of a former envoy. Ghosha, who quickly understood who that envoy was, knew that there was no young cocky butler in Mr Throinain’s household, so he gave the boy a long interview. He was seventeen years old, and recently moved to Erast with his uncle, Walraad Wybenga, from Willowdale. His parents had both been killed when Kobolds raided their farm in the spring, and his uncle, who was a saddle maker, took him under his wings and they moved here.
Gnosha started to get a little annoyed, when another gentleman entered, applying for the butler position. He was in his early fifties, well built, well trained, with a polite behavior and a friendly face, and well dressed. He introduced himself as Luc Beniers, said that he was fifty two years old, widower with grown up children. He had worked as a butler for seven years for the van Ulst merchant family, but they recently decided to move back south again, to Dragonport. He was offered to move with them, but declined, as he liked it here in Erast, where he was born and raised, and where his children and grandchildren lived. He had three children, two daughters and one son. His son was a Sergeant in the townguard, commanding at the West Gate, following in his fathers footsteps. His oldest daughter was married to a miller on a farm south of Erast, and his youngest daughter moved to Winterhaven and married a blacksmith.
Gnosha thought that this was the person he was looking for. He asked about Mr Beniers military training, and as Gnosha suspected, he had been in active military service as a Lieutenant in the townguard for several years, but after his wife got ill, he stepped down to care for her in her last months. He knew the van Ulst family from his many years at the West Gate, both professionally and privately, and when they heard about his wife, they offered him the job as a family butler.
Gnosha was now convinced, and told Mr Beniers that the job was his, if he wanted it. He told him that the residence was under renovation, but expected to be ready in a maximum of two weeks. Gnosha offered to pay for housing in a rented room, but Mr Beniers told him that the van Ulst family had provided him with a room until he was able to move elsewhere, for up to two months. They shook hands, and the Gnosha asked Thefvae if there were anymore women seeking the maid position, but there were not, only a few seeking the butler position, so Gnosha went out and gave each of them two pieces of copper for their interest and wished them good luck elsewhere.
After the visit to Hrogrol’s Lumberyard, Aered and Mr Baro rode back to Erast to visit the blacksmith Mr Nout Heegeman, who had his workshop in the South district of Erast, between South Gate and the Mad Chimera. Mr Heegeman, a sturdy dwarven blacksmith, stopped his hammering when they entered his workshop and shouted: – “What do you need?” Mr Baro looked at Gnosha’s notes and drawings and replied: – ”We need five sets of door hinges and twelve sets of window shutter hinges, and latches for the window shutters. We also need twelve dozen large four inch framework nails and twenty dozen two inch nails, plus some woodworking tools and five hammers.”
Mr Heegeman looked at them, and said: – “You know this is gonna cost you, cost you dearly. Lucky for you my apprentice was making nails last week, and I have a few hinges. When do you need this?” Mr Baro replied: – “The hinges we can wait with for seven days, the framework nails and tools we will need right away, and the smaller nails in half a week. You will get half upfront, and there is a bonus of two pieces of gold if you deliver in time.”
Aered got two huge heavy wooden boxes with the framework nails and another one with the tools, and they settled the deal to be nine pieces of gold now, and another nine upon delivery, plus the bonus if the delivery is in time. Mr Heegeman, was completely honest and said that he might need to source nails from some of his competitors, but that was common when someone got a large order with a short timeframe, and this was a very short time frame. Usually he would say two weeks minimum, but as Marda-Zam was canceled early, all work was good work, especially in times like this.
After a long and very productive day, they all went to have some dinner together at The Lonely Duck, and Gnosha told Aered and Thefvae that he had found a butler and hired him, and that he has two candidates for the maid position, and that he will talk to them again tomorrow for his final decision, as he gave them a little test, and the result of that test will hopefully guide him to the best choice. They were all pretty tired, not that they had been on any adventure of any sort, been in a fierce battle of life and death, but doing tasks like this can be tiresome too, and they all took an early night.
In the morning, after they had eaten a nice breakfast at The Lonely Duck, Gnosha and Thefvae stayed. Ghosha sent a young message boy to ask the two possible maids to come to The Lonely Duck, the young Miss Mélanie Grandis and Miss Sunnia Andersdau.
Meanwhile, Aered went over to Mr Baro, as they were to hire some more builders today to get ready to start to build the tower rooms and also a better staircase. Mr Baro had a pile of good planks that he had bought from Hrogrol when Marda-Zam started, just in case some merchants needed emergency repairs of stands or wagons, or a tavern needed more benches or tables. To be honest, he hadn’t really bought it, he had asked Hrogrol to put it there and then he would pay for what he would use, and any unused planks would be returned later. Now Mr Baro had a good use for them.
Aered and Mr Baro went down to Elchfrild’s alehouse, a place where you would find able men looking for work. Aered remembered his last visit here, when Gnosha found that cultist Withen, who they later found and killed at Vandamere’s Tower. It felt like ages ago, but it was just last month.
During evenings, Elchfrild’s alehouse was a roaring pot of ale-infused emotions, while in the mornings, it was a sober place where daytalers met clients and got a job. When they entered, Mr Baro happily waved at a large group of men sitting around three round tables. It was quite a motley crew, but they all looked happy to see Mr Baro and Aered. They joined the table, and Mr Baro said: – “Guys, let me introduce you to Sir Ealchfrilen, who works for Mr Curosinei. Mr Curosinei is starting up construction work at one of the derelict towers at the northern rivergate. They are moving in there, and need it to be not just inhabitable, but comfortable. Mr Curosinei needs four or five men, willing to work for good pay. The work will be hard, long days, and there will be a bonus for everyone if it is completed in time. Any takers?”
A lot of talking began, and after a few minutes, Mr Baro had contracted five workers for the job.
- A half-orc named Khish, a skilled woodworker with frameworks as speciality.
- A dwarf named Reinam Brownshield, a skilled stonemason and stove builder.
- A half-gnome named Gognibac, a carpenter skilled in many things, including stairs.
- A halfling named Marroc Finnagund, a skilled carpenter, paneling and flooring specialist.
- A human named Frederik Cluysen, a carpenter skilled in making doors and windows.
Together, these five men, with Mr Baro, were confident they would be able to perform the tasks needed to get the tower in order. They all left the alehouse and walked over to the tower. On the way to the tower, Mr Cluysen said to Aered: – “I recognize you, you were one of the warriors fighting along the Knights of Erast at the von Kettling manor. You fought bravely and inspired us men of the militia. It’s an honor to work for you.”
Well at the tower, Mr Baro presented the basic idea, showing some of Gnosha’s drawings, and the men instantly started to prioritize the tasks, discussing in what order things should be done. Aered quickly understood that these men knew their trades, much like a professional soldier knows how to fight a battle.
The workmen decided that the stairs needed to be rebuilt first, so they could easily carry heavy timber up the floors without problems. The wooden floors in the tower were all checked and they were all still in good condition, so they started to carefully tear down the old stairs up to level one and the wood was laid into two piles. One for wood that could be used for the new staircase and one for wood that could be used for the framework or other things, like simple scaffolding and a ladder to be able to climb up and down while building the stairs.
The half-gnome Gognibac takes charge of the stairs and Mr Baro takes Khirsh and Mr Cluysen to help him move all his spare timber over to the tower to get the staircase construction going, Outside they set up a sawing bench to be able to cut the planks as Gognibac draws them. As Gognibac knows that Mr Curosinei is a gnome, and quite short, he decides to make the step height more adjusted to short legs, but it requires some more steps and a longer staircase. The original staircase is quite steep and have a high step height which makes it uncomfortable for humans and rather hard to climb for a gnome or a halfling.
Meanwhile, back at The Lonely Duck, Gnosha and Thefvae have been waiting for young Miss Grandis and Miss Andersdau. They arrive both at about the same time, and when they both had calmed down from running across the town, Gnosha asked them, one at a time, to tell him what they had done with the money he gave them. First he asked Miss Grandis, who replied that she had given it to her mother. Then he asked Miss Andersdau, who replied that she had put them in her purse to save for when she would need it. Both answers satisfied Gnosha, which was a problem, as he could not really afford two full paid maids, at least not for a longer period of time, but both seemed to be needing the job.
The thought for a while, then he asked Thefvae, privately: – ”What do you think Thefvae? We have two very fine candidates, one who has the experience, and one young and promising. Do you think we should hire both? Let them share the room, I can always change my drawings to make the maid’s room a bit larger. I think we can pay young Miss Grandis a little less and say it’s training, until she’s ready, then we can decide. What do you say?”
Thefvae looked a bit shocked by Gnosha’s question, and replied: – “Two maids? Do we even have work for two maids? I know Aered is a bit sloppy and you yourself sometimes drop things both here and there and we do need clothes to be repaired, meals to be cooked. But two? But if you say so, I like them both, and I think a bit of female company in our new home can make it more homely.”
So, said and done, Gnosha tells them about his arrangement, that he will hire both. Miss Andersdau as a maid with full maid salary, and young Miss Grandis as a maid apprentice, with an apprentice salary. Miss Grandis will get full pay when she has learned her trade. They will share accommodation at the tower, at least for now. They will start today, but will only be able to move in when the construction is finished, until then, they will only work daytime and show up at the tower in the morning. Gnosha also tells them that they are currently staying at the rented rooms, so they could start there as rooms tend to get a bit messy around him and Aered, which they haven’t met yet.
Gnosha bought lunch for himself, Thefvae, Miss Andersdau and Miss Grandis at The Lonely Duck. After lunch, they walked over to the tower to meet Aered and take a look at the work at the tower.
Aered introduces Mr Baro and the builders to Thefvae and then Gnosha introduces Miss Andersdau and Miss Gradis to Aered, as the new maids that will work and live in the tower. Gnosha also informs Aered that Mr Beniers, the Butler, will come by the tower tomorrow to acquaint himself with the tower, Aered and the maids. The maids will only help out the tower a little during daytime until the construction is finished.
Gnosha told Mr Baro that the maid chamber on level two would need to be a bit larger, with a small sleeping alcove with space for some personal items, as the maid apprentice, Miss Grandis would also sleep in the maid chamber. Mr Baro made some notes about it and went up to the second floor where Khish was chalking out where the framework beams would be placed, so he could make the necessary changes to his chalking.
Mr Brownshield approached Gnosha regarding the stoves and heating and said that he would need some special metal pieces for this to secure the chimney pipes in the walls to avoid risk of fire caused by the heat where the pipes passed the floors of the different levels. He also suggested that they should clean up the basement so he could prepare for a heating stove there, which would be a perfect spot, that also would remove some of the dampness. He said that even though this is not the main priority, we need to prepare for it, as the winter is surely coming, and then it is too late. He also said that all sawn off wood pieces were piled outside right now, but if they could clean out and fix that basement as soon as possible, the wood could be stored as firewood down in the basement.
Ghosha let Mr Brownshield describe what he was looking for, and make some drawings and then told Aered and Thefvae to head off to Mr Heegeman’s forge and order these pieces. They were not very complicated so it would not take long, and even his apprentice could make them.
Aered decided to walk by one of the street food stands that was still open, even though Marda-Zam was long gone, and grabbed one of those large skewers that he loves, as he was very hungry. Thefvae politely told Aered that she had already had lunch with Gnosha and the maids at The Lonely Duck.
They continued to Mr Heegeman, who smiled when he saw Aered again, and asked what he could do for him now, as he was busy making hinges right now.
Aered replied that they had some special metal pieces that were needed for making the chimney pipes for heating, something that dwarf Mr Brownshield asked for. Mr Heegeman looked at the drawing Aered showed him, gruntled a little, scratched his beard with his hand and said: – ”Ah, yes, I’ve seen those, a typical dwarven solution, they look easy to make, I put my apprentice on it.These are also needed very soon I assume, I make sure you can pick them up tomorrow. This will be two silver pieces for the metal and four copper pieces for the work.”
Meanwhile, Gnosha decides that the basement and the sewer entrance from where the slimy ooze entered needs to be investigated before turning it into a stove room. That sewer exit might be useful as a secret passage in and out of the tower, in case they get eyes on them from Odan’s followers.
He also decided that he needed to talk to the maids and the butler about this, and how they should act in case someone approaches them threatening someone dear to them, to make them do something or steal something from the tower.
The situation was not unheard of, but a smart way to communicate imminent danger without actually talking to Gnosha or Aered would be a good idea. He came up with a few ideas. First, he needed a plant to be placed in the window to the right of the door. If something was out of the ordinary, just move that plant to the left window. Secondly, a personal marking, like a different coloured hair band for the maids, and a different coloured napkin for the butler would do it. They should always carry that with them, and in case Gnosha or Aered needed to be warned, change to it. This way the issue could be communicated without actually talking to Gnosha or Aered, and then they could go somewhere out of sight to talk.
Some people might think Gnosha is a bit paranoid doing this, but he has seen the sheer evil Odan possesses, and he knew how evil and sinister his followers are, how far they would go just to please their master, and nothing was allowed to happened to his employees under his watch, absolutely nothing at all.
He made some plans to examine the sewers, but not today, this would be when the first part of this project was done. Clearing out the basement was another thing, this could be a good job for the maids and the butler, and also a good way to make them know each other.
In the evening, everyone walked home for a good night’s sleep, and the following morning Mr Beniers and the two maids showed up at the tower for work. Gnosha told them that the rest of the week and probably next week as well, they will be doing some cleaning work. The cleaning out the basement, and removing all the junk and garbage there. Any nails or iron items should be loaded onto a cart that will be handed over to Mr Heegeman as iron from the dwarven mines in Hammerfast is quite expensive. Wood that is not rotten should be put to dry in the sun to be used in the winter as firewood. And any strange things found should be given to Gnosha, whatever it could be.