by Tom Larcombe
“I know there's nothing you can do to rush that, I'm just letting you know what's what,” Griff continued.
“Yeah, material transport is an issue, but once Bjorn is back from his current run, that's going to ease a bit. He's going to get us a few more oxen. I figure we'll make a few more carts, or even full-sized wagons, and that will speed things up a lot,” Eddie said.
Griff nodded in reply.
“Anything else?” he asked.
Eddie shook his head and Griff turned back to his work as Eddie continued to the crossroads.
This time when Eddie got to where they were working on houses, there was a problem. One of the refugees was standing there, yelling at the building crew.
“You were supposed to work on my house next! I was the next one in line!” the refugee yelled.
Eddie walked over to the man.
“Really? Where is your building site?” Eddie asked.
The man pointed down the road to the north.
“I announced that we'd be building these in order along the road, so either you never heard me when I said that or you're lying to try to con my building crew. Which is it?” Eddie asked.
The man stopped cold, then took a closer look at Eddie. Before, he'd barely swung his head towards him when he was answering. When he saw who he was looking at, the man paled slightly and started backing away down the road.
“Well, which one was it?” Eddie asked, getting a little bit angry. “You're not paying for a damned thing right now, we're going to build you a free house, and you're lying to try to get it sooner? Get out of my sight. If you keep harassing my construction crew then when we get to your house site, you'll be waiting even longer. And let anyone else thinking about trying to con my building crews into building their house sooner that they'll be treated the same. Got it?”
By the end of it, Eddie was shouting. It was partly due to his anger and partly due to the fact that the man had continued down the road, quickening his pace as he left. He heaved a heavy sigh as the man continued off into the distance, then walked over to the crew.
“Thanks, Eddie, sir,” the new crew chief, a man named Colborn, said. “He's been by several times in the last few days, yelling and claiming he was being cheated. I asked him how the first time, but he never answered me. Finally I just told the crew to ignore him. I don't think he'll try it again now though.”
“I hope not, I almost lost my temper with him. I hate people who try things like that, utterly ignoring the fact that if we did what he wanted then we would be breaking faith with the others we made a promise to.”
“Do you want to go through with what you said? Skip his site if he keeps it up?” Colborn asked.
Eddie thought for a moment.
“Yeah, we'd better. Can't have people saying I lied or bluffed or anything. Just make sure to warn him about that first if he shows up again, alright?”
Half of Colborn's mouth lifted in a wry grin.
“I like that. It'll keep your word, but remind him of what you threatened before you have to do what you promised. That way he can't say he didn't know the consequences.”
Eddie nodded.
“I hate doing things like that, but...”
He shrugged.
“I get it,” Colborn said. “Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and damn the consequences, right? Especially if your emotions get involved?”
Eddie started at the man, blinking several times.
Okay, so Freyja has them using colloquialisms and is referencing emotions? he thought. She's really getting a feel for people now. Makes me feel like I'm talking to real people as opposed to NPCs, even more now than I felt earlier.
He shook his head.
“Yeah, especially with emotions. I tend to let them run away with me at times. Sometimes that's good, sometimes bad, but either way I have to deal with the consequences. Anyhow, how's the building going, need anything?”
“No, we're good now that you chased that nutter away,” Colborn said.
“Okay then, I'll talk to you later, tomorrow at the latest,” Eddie said.
He turned and headed back to the temple to meet up with Tiana and head for the inn, then the farm.
~ ~ ~
As Eddie waited for Tiana he was watching Lucky. The cat was, once again, playing at the koi pond. As Eddie watched, a familiar looking man cut across the back of the temple lot, swinging very wide of the bobcat, but stopping at some bushes and trees to pick berries and fruit.
It was the same man that had been haranguing the construction crew and Eddie was curious to see where he was going. The man had continued across the back of the lot, away from where his house site was, and turned onto the road.
When he saw the man walk up the steps to Arvid's house, Eddie was pretty sure he knew why the man had gotten on his nerves immediately. Arvid had been the same, even getting on Ingolf's nerves, and Ingolf was Arvid's son. If this man got along with Arvid, then Eddie was pretty sure they were two of a kind and Eddie wasn't going to get along with this new man either. He was almost ashamed when he felt a wave of justification for his earlier yelling at the man wash over him.
Tiana was by the front door when he came back around the temple.
“I thought you were here a few minutes back? Where'd you go?”
“Just one question first. Did you tell the refugees they could just pick the fruits on the temple grounds?”
“No, but I didn't forbid it either. Normally the acolytes gather up all the harvest for the day just before dinner and put it out in baskets in the front of the temple for people to grab.”
“Just a man that I had a bit of an altercation with, I saw him cutting through the temple, grabbing fruits and berries, then going down to Arvid's place. I was keeping an eye on him since I think he may end up being a problem.”
“There had to be one, at least,” she said. “I've actually been surprised that we haven't had more problems with some of the refugees.”
“Yeah, well this guy was claiming his house was supposed to be the next built. Lying his socks off, mind you. I'd never even seen him before and I'm the one that dictated what order the houses will be built in. Then helping himself to your harvest, and finally going to Arvid's place. My thought was that if he got along with Arvid, I probably wouldn't get along with him.”
“From what you and Liv have said of that old crank, I'd probably agree with you,” Tiana said. “I'd give this new guy the benefit of the doubt if he hadn't lied about you though.”
Eddie nodded.
“I'll keep an eye out for him. It could get worse. I told him if he kept harassing the construction crew that he'd be waiting even longer for a house.”
Tiana raised an eyebrow and stared at him.
“Hey, he's trying to make others wait longer than they should. If he keeps it up, I'll do the same to him. Golden Rule and all that, right?”
“I suppose,” Tiana said, but her tone told Eddie that she thought differently.
“Let's head out. Go to the inn and get lunch for ourselves and the rest of the groups. Maybe we can convince Charles to take an actual lunch break today,” Eddie said. “Then we'll go get food from the farm for the goblins.”
Eddie whistled for Lucky and a minute later she came trotting over. It was a quick walk back to the inn and since he'd had already warned Liv that he'd want lunch to go for two groups, she had it ready and waiting. They picked it up, dropped it into Eddie's inventory, then headed farther east to the farm. Osmond was in the fields and Eddie heard Brandr chopping away someplace.
There was a decent sized stack of raw planks in sight, the ones that Griff was using for the market stalls and Eddie was using for the brewhouse, whenever the cart managed to make it up here and get some down to him anyhow. Eddie waved to Osmond, then headed for the garden. Osmond came out of the fields and joined him.
“What's going on, Eddie?” Osmond asked.
Eddie had broken Osmond and Brandr out of the habit they'd been developing of cal
ling him sir. All it had needed was him sitting down and having a few beers with them and they were back to using just his first name.
Now if only I could get the rest of the NPCs to do the same, he thought.
“Not much, I just need to grab some food from the garden. Do you still have it turned up for production?”
“We'd turned it down about five points,” Osmond said. “Why, are you going to be needing it a lot again?”
“Looks that way, for a while at least,” Eddie replied. “If you give it back those five points, how long on the grains?”
“About two weeks now, so maybe a few days more if we turn it back down. Still not sure about those herbs you have us growing, they look like they're going to take longer.”
“Well, take a lot of care with those. That's going to be our cash crop, the grains are for our brewer once I get his brewhouse finished.”
“We'd heard, that's why one of us goes chopping every day. Gotta make sure you've got the wood to build the brewery. Beer is kind of dear right now, at least the better beer is. We're hoping it gets cheaper once it's made locally,” Osmond replied.
Eddie grinned at yet another proof that his ideas about enlightened self-interest were valid. Offer a man something he was interested in as a result of his work, and you'd be sure to get the best from him, or at least more than average effort most of the time.
“That's what we're hoping, but we'll have to see how it works out. I'll let Dominic know that the grains will be ready in a couple of weeks, and I'll try to finish the brewery by then as well.”
“Alright then. I'll go check the herbs again. They were fine yesterday, but there's always a few weeds out in those fields.”
Eddie waved as Osmond walked off, then he proceeded to start filling his inventory with all kinds of vegetables that he thought would last for a few days before the game started deteriorating them. When he was done, he and Tiana headed for the smithy, taking the shortcut through the woods that led them past where Brandr was currently cutting wood. They waved to him as they passed by and Brandr gave them a big grin, not taking his hand off the ax.
Yeah, he's grinning like that because he's thinking about the extra coin he's earning off me, Eddie thought. Not that I'll begrudge them that, they've been working hard for it.
They were early and none of their group, or Charles', was waiting at the smithy when they got there, so they stepped inside to watch Delgar and the apprentice smith working. Lucky, of course, took off towards the nearby stream.
Eddie had a thought and quickly stepped over to the dwarfish smith.
“Delgar, got a minute?” he asked.
The dwarf shrugged. He'd been working at a sharpening stone, one of the pieces Eddie had supplied that had been taken from a goblin village.
“Sure, What do you need?”
“I was wondering if you could make me a stove door, and maybe a solid metal sheet for the top of one. The door will have to have hinges that can fasten to stone.”
“Not a problem, as long as you have a way to drive spikes into stone,” Delgar said.
“How long?”
“Pshaw! I can finish that in about twenty minutes. It'll only take a minute to get the forge back to temp, and mostly what you need is sheet metal there, with a touch of a hole in the base of the doors to allow for airflow. That's all. The hinges will take the longest, but I've done a bunch of those already so...”
“Good, I'll toss you an extra five silver if you can have it done before the rest of the two groups I'm heading out with arrive.”
“Is Karl with them? If so, then I don't need to rush,” Delgar said.
Eddie suppressed a chuckle.
“Then we have a deal?” he said.
“Deal,” Delgar replied, pulling out a hammer and placing a sheet of metal in the forge fire.
~ ~ ~
When Eddie stepped out of the smithy, he found a row of prey lined up. There were seven fish and three bunnies just lying there. Lucky was lying on the other side of the line, looking up at him.
“What's all this?” he asked.
Lucky chuffed and Tiana laughed.
“She saw you getting food from the garden and tossing it in your inventory, so she got you some more. At least that's what I think is going on,” she said.
Lucky chuffed again, this time staring at Tiana.
“You know, one of these days I'm going to ask Becky to use a Speak with Animals on Lucky, just to see how much she understands,” Eddie said. “But Lucky's still so nervous near Becky that I think it'll have to wait a bit longer.”
Eddie turned his head when he saw motion on the road. He quickly slipped the fish and bunnies into his inventory, the bunnies stacking with ones he'd already had in there. The rest of his group, minus Karl and Allie, plus all of Charles' group were heading for the smithy.
Eddie was glad he hadn't bet Delgar about Karl's timeliness. It was twenty minutes after everyone else arrived when Karl and Allie showed up.
“It wasn't my fault this time, honest,” Karl said.
“Really it wasn't,” Allie said. “He was just selling maps, a lot of them actually, and some of the people buying didn't have the coin on hand. They had to turn in meat, corpses, and pelts for the rewards first. Karl offered to wait for them while they did, and that's why we're late.”
“Okay, being late because you were being nice is acceptable, I suppose,” Eddie said.
Charles nodded.
“Although I wish you'd let us know somehow,” he added.
Eddie wasn't all that upset though. He'd gotten Dominic to remove the heat from the pieces Delgar had made more quickly than they would've cooled on their own, so now he had a plan and the parts needed for it. All he needed was a favor from Tamshir. He'd noticed that she was a bit cooler towards him today, but hoped that he could get her to cast at least one or two more of her stone shaping spells to help the goblins.
The combined group headed into the cave and arrived at the mine without incident. Once they were in the passage leading to the mine, Eddie asked everyone to pause.
“I want to let the goblins know you're all here. They're used to you, but I don't want to spook them. Plus, I'd like a short break here if no-one minds. And a favor from you, Tamshir. I know it's really rough accommodations in there, but if we give them a stove, that should make it much nicer. I got the metal parts from Delgar, but if you'd cast your Stone Shape spell a couple more times to make a stove cubby inserted into the wall, and a chimney headed up to let the smoke out, that would be perfect.
Tamshir grunted something that sounded like an affirmative.
“Thank you,” Eddie said. “Now let me go make sure that they're still there and okay.”
The goblins were still there and about half of them were asleep. The others startled as Eddie walked in, but immediately calmed down when they recognized him.
Eddie spoke to them, in Goblin Speak.
“The magic woman will make more magic, we give stove. Burn coal, cook food,” he said.
Eddie started pulling out all the produce that he'd brought for them, stacking it on a section of the bench areas they'd left that had no goblins in it. He noticed that all the bunny pelts he'd given them yesterday were in use, either as new loincloths or all folded up and used as pillows.
Although the ones sleeping are all nude, so maybe they just fold up their loincloth as a pillow? Eww, Eddie thought.
Tamshir came in and Eddie pointed towards where he thought the stove should go.
“How far underground are we? The range on my spell is only fifty feet, so if we're deeper than that, it might be a problem,” she said.
The rest of the party was right outside in the hallway, and had obviously heard her question.
“We're about forty-seven and a half feet down, at least out here in the hallway,” Jern called out.
“Huh, how'd he know that?” Tamshir asked, softer this time.
“I can still hear you,” Jern replied. “It's a skill we Hamme
r Dwarfs have. We developed it after we'd lived underground for several generations.”
Tamshir shrugged, then went to the corner Eddie had pointed to. She took out a chunk of chalk and sketched out a section.
“Here, plus the chimney up? Anything else, that's not going to use my entire cubic.”
“Um, maybe a few shelves built into the walls so they can store stuff? Just remove the stone above each shelf and make it another little cubby.”
“That works,” Tamshir said. “But you might want to get them out of the room before I cast. Like I said, people in the Area of Effect can sometimes be problematic.”
Eddie nodded and spoke to the goblins again. It no longer sounded throat-twisting to him, it just sounded normal. But Tamshir just stared at him and shook her head as the goblins filed out into the corridor.
“I can't believe you're picking it up this quickly,” she said.
He shrugged.
“The difference between doing it the hard way and the easy way, I guess.” he said, then turned and stepped out of the room himself.
A minute later he heard Tamshir shout happily. She came bustling out into the corridor.
“That was awesome,” Tamshir said. “I actually had to stretch my imagination a little to picture everything I wanted to do with one cast of the spell, and when I did that, I gained another point in it. I'd been stuck at an eight in Stone Shape for what seemed like forever.”
Eddie looked into the room. The hole for the stove was just how he'd wanted it. He turned to a goblin and pulled a pickax out of his inventory.
“There's a coal vein right over there, mine it out and bring it into the room please?” Eddie said.
The goblin took the pickax, then just stared at it for a bit.
“Good quality,” the goblin said.
Eddie nodded.
“I told you I'd get you better equipment,” he said, then entered the room.
He pulled out the doors of the stove and the top, then rested them in place.
“A hand here please?” he called out.
Karl came in and Eddie had him hold the door in place as Eddie drove spikes into the stone, affixing the doors where he wanted. The top just rested in place, and he hoped that there wouldn't be an issue with smoke from it.