by Deck Davis
“They say Jitsog’s got something weird down in his cellar,” said the man with a waxed moustache. The woman next to him looked to be at least a decade younger than him, but the man had his arm around her waist.
“Yes, beer barrels and rats,” said the woman.
“Not just that. Poppin says he went to the toilet once near closing time, and he fell asleep. When he woke up, Jitsog had closed the pub. Must not have bothered to check the toilets. When he went to leave, he heard strange noises coming from the cellar.”
“What was it?”
“God knows. He was so drunk that he passed out, and he woke up in bed with a bruise on his forehead.”
Class: Negotiator [Level 2 – Competent]
Skill: Perception increased from Competent 1/10 to 2/10
Binding of the Seeker updated
You discovered hidden knowledge – something is happening in the cellar of Jitsog’s tavern. +1 gained to seeker knowledge. However, discovering this using your perception skill doubles this. Finding out what the secret is will give an extra boost.
Seeker knowledge +2
Seeker Knowledge Level: 2 [62/100]
Store of Secrets updated
[Minor] Secret added: Noises in Jitsog’s Cellar
After watching the wisps of text disperse from his vision, Joshua looked back at the mustached man and his younger girlfriend to see if watching them using his perception would help gleam any more clues.
“Poppin is full of crap even when he’s sober,” said the woman. “Tell me something else.”
“What?”
She leaned closer. “Tell me what you want to do to me tonight…”
Ugh, too much information. Joshua turned his head and let the conversation fade.
A familiar feeling tugged on him now; this was a mystery, it was a secret. Just like with the secret tunnel in the guildhouse room and with the 5 mysterious doors, not to mention the well that had run dry even though a stream was nearby, Joshua knew that this was a mystery that he wanted the answer to.
Not only that, though; his perception had led him to it by surrounding the couple in a yellow glow.
Discovering the existence of a secret by using his perception had increased his seeker binding. Finding out the truth of the secret would boost it even more.
This could be the start of something.
Perception and the binding. Used right, they could make him powerful, since increasing his seeker binding gave him incredible boosts. Level 1 had given him a one-use ability to see a person’s skills and classes, while level 2 granted a one-use ability to actually use a person’s skills and classes, temporarily. If the first 2 levels offered bonuses like that, what would level 3 bring?
He stayed and watched the crowd for a few minutes, but aside from gleaming pieces of irrelevant and drunken conversation, he didn’t perceive anything else secret enough to boost his perception skill or his seeker binding.
Conscious that he was starting to look a little strange just sitting at the edge of the market square and watching people, he decided it was time to get to business.
He had come here to find the library, which he saw was to his left and along a cobble-stone street. He needed to go there to find a class book so he could learn the requirements for earning the guildmaster and builder classes.
Now that he was here, though, something stopped him. Although the library was just a few minutes’ walk away, a fatigue filled his mind when he thoughts about going there.
Maybe it was because he just couldn’t face guild business yet. Not without…
No. He wouldn’t let himself dwell on it. Joshua’s father had taught him about how to handle grief after his mother had died; you filled your mind with other things so that the grief didn’t have chance to take held.
Was that healthy? Was that how other people dealt with things like this? He didn’t know; all he knew was that he couldn’t face guild business now that he was here.
So, he turned away from the library and looked around, beyond the drunken crowd in the market, beyond the bard strumming on a lute and with a fur rug full of coins in front of him, and then he saw it.
An old, grey stone building with two pillars out front, a wide set of double doors, and a sign hanging above them.
Ardglass Town Guard
On seeing this, his mind disobeyed his earlier commands and it hurtled back to the field, back to the fight and everything that had happened.
He thought of Carlisle and his mob, and how they’d run away after killing Benjen. That made up his mind, and the library could wait.
Joshua strode toward the town guard building with thoughts of justice in his head.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Joshua went into the Ardglass town guard building and, after explaining why he was there, was told to wait in the reception area. There were dozens of wanted posters on the walls showing illustrations of Fortuna criminals, with grizzly crimes such as dwarf trafficking, unlicensed necromancy, and illusionism with intent to deceive. Joshua couldn’t think of a single use of illusionist magic that wasn’t intended to deceive.
The waiting room smelled of green tea from the steam rising from the receptionist’s cup. There was a hum of chatter and the faint ringing of swords somewhere beyond the room, as though someone was dueling. Letting his perception amplify the sounds, Joshua got the sense that the sound of metal hitting metal wasn’t done in anger or in a hostile way. Maybe some of the guards were training.
Lots of people came in and out of the guard building while he waited, and through this he got a sense of the kinds of problems facing the Ardglass residents. Two separate farmers came in and complained about monsters in their fields, while a tired-looking dwarf woman with four children came in to announce that a group of malicious sprites were spawning in her basement at night and wreaking havoc in her house.
Some of the problems sounded like the kind of things a heroes’ guild should take care of, and it was clear that the town guards didn’t have the knowledge or resources to handle everything.
This made Joshua wonder if he should be here in the guard building at all. Perhaps he should be in the library getting his guildmaster class book. Ardglass needed a heroes’ guild, and maybe his time would be better spent getting it open. He almost left, but then he stopped himself.
No, there was a good reason he was here. He wanted justice for Benjen. Until he knew that was being done, his brain would keep ticking over it.
Finally, a guard appeared in the doorway and said his name.
“Joggua Crest?”
“It’s Joshua, but that’s me.”
“Well met. I’m Sergeant Nickall. Come this way, pal.”
Joshua blinked in surprise. Sergeant Nickall was a satyr, and he’d never met a satyr before. His seeker binding boosted by five points at the sight of Sergeant Nickall, leaving him just 33 short of level 3. Joshua dismissed the text and focused on the guard.
Nickall was an inch shorter than Joshua, but he made him look weedy in terms of muscles. His body, humanoid in most aspects but with specially-made boots to hide his goat feet, was well-conditioned. He didn’t wear the standard leather armor Joshua had seen on most Ardglass guards, and instead wore a beige shirt that was drenched in sweat.
Joshua guessed that the ringing of swords he had heard was probably from a training yard, and Sergeant Nickall had worked up a sweat honing his skills.
His custom-made boots aside, the only other thing that marked Nickall as a satyr and not a human were the goat horns on his head. But there was the sad thing about it all.
Nickall’s horns had been cut off almost to his scalp, so that there was just an inch of them poking up over his shaved head. Joshua had heard of this; satyr horns were used in potions by some of the less regulated magic classes, such as the witchery that Kordrude’s grandmother practiced.
It must have happened when Nickall was a young satyr because now, as an athletic town guard, he’d have given most hunters more than a challen
ge.
“This way, Joshua.”
Nickall led Joshua into his office, where he took a seat behind a cheap-looking wooden desk that was littered with piles and piles of paperwork. In fact, the whole room was filled with paper.
Nickall leaned forward and drummed his hands on the table. It was like he couldn’t sit still.
“You told the desk sergeant you wanted to report a murder?” said Nickall.
Joshua found himself liking Nickall straight away; he looked like he was bursting with energy, but he had an easy smile. Even so, Joshua had an in-built distrust for authority figures, borne in him through years of being told that setting up a heroes’ guild was impossible, and that he should just become an accountant.
“It happened yesterday,” he said. “In a field outside of town.”
“You better explain. Excuse the mess; every time someone spots a kobold outside of town, I gotta open a case. Every time an imp sneaks into a cellar, I gotta open a case. Every time an orc gets drunk and starts a fight in Jitsog’s tavern, I gotta…”
“…open a case,” said Joshua.
Nickall grinned. “Right. Of course, old Jitsog can stop trouble before it even happens. It’s one of those eyes of his, one of his triops eyes.”
“I wondered what they were for.”
“Don’t ask me what the other one does, I don’t have a clue. I hardly ever get to go to the tavern anymore; I’m up to my hairy arse in cases. I haven’t been stationed here that long, but they said it’s gotten worse and worse every year since the heroes’ guild closed. So, I don’t want to be rude…but I got somewhere to be.”
Joshua nodded. He explained everything that had happened on the field, even though the words burned in his throat. Nickall listened fully for the most part, but from time to time he got a spark in his eye and he asked Joshua insightful questions. When Joshua finished, Nickall stood up and paced around.
“This guy was your best friend?”
Joshua nodded.
“I’m sorry. I really am.”
“Thanks. But you can arrest the man who killed him, yes?”
“That’s what I’m sorrier about,” said Nickall, and he stopped pacing and he sat back down. “You see the papers in here? This ain’t even a quarter of what we got to deal with. You hear about the taxes?”
“That you’ll only respond to issues outside of the town if farmers pay extra taxes?”
“Right. That ain’t just a money maker; in fact, Mayor Gossidge was hopin’ that most farmers wouldn’t pay. He wanted to get a reason for us not to respond to problems outside of town. Save manpower and all of that.”
“Aren’t the fields part of Ardglass, though?”
Nickall shook his head. He crossed the room and stood by the east wall, where a large map was spread. The map covered half the wall space, but rather than being of Fortuna, it was an enlarged map of Ardglass, with all its buildings mapped out. Joshua could see the town walls and then, just beyond them, was a red circular line.
“Gossidge reduced the town boundaries,” said Nickall, with a hint of annoyance in his voice. “Can you believe that? He actually willingly gave up a bunch of land outside town.”
“So that he isn’t obligated to send guards outside of town to deal with problems.”
Nickall nodded. “Unless they pay for the privilege.”
He then walked over to the desk and he put his palms on it and he leaned close to Joshua and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. “Ain’t he a son of a whore?”
Joshua was inclined to agree. If the fields had once been part of the town boundaries, then Mayor Gossidge had a duty to protect them; you couldn’t just re-draw town boundaries to shirk your responsibilities.
But then, most towns elected their mayors democratically. The next time it came to a vote, Gossidge would be able to exclude anything outside of town boundaries from his crime figures. It made sense now.
He felt a heavy weight settle on him now. He didn’t need his level 2 perception to realize what that meant.
“You’re saying that because this happened outside of town, you won’t do anything about Benjen’s murder?”
“Not won’t,” said Nickall. “Can’t. Believe me, it pisses me off as much as it does you. In fact, if you’re here to open the heroes’ guild again like you said you are, then let me buy you a beer, my friend. Every guard like me who’s up to his eyes in imps will buy you a beer if you can lighten the load.”
Joshua could tell by the tone of his voice that he meant it, but that didn’t help. It amounted to this when he assembled the facts in his head; his best friend’s murderer was hoping to walk free because a mayor had altered town boundaries so that he could win his next election.
“And there’s no way of me changing your mind on this?”
“Maybe things will get better once your guild is up and running. You’re aren’t planning on charging people a fortune, are you? You better not be planning on charging a dozen gold to kill a nest of sprites or somethin’ like that.”
“The opposite. We always planned to keep our prices as low as we could.”
“I’ll be keeping my eye on you, then,” said Nickall. “Gold can get the better of people sometimes. You don’t know how many folks we have locked in our cells who were good at one point in their life, but gold got the better of them.”
“Trust me,” said Joshua. “I’m incorruptible.”
“Call it my guard sense, but I believe you. Even so, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave now,” said Nickall. “I’m gonna be working here until midnight as it is.”
This wasn’t working at all. As sympathetic as he had been, Nickall was trying to get rid of him now that he’d established the reasons why he couldn’t help. As much as Joshua understood the reasons and how little control Nickall had over them, he wasn’t leaving without a commitment from the sergeant that the man who killed Benjen would be punished for it.
He just needed a way to persuade him. The question was, what did Joshua have to offer that would do that? There was always gold, but when he looked at Nickall, his perception told him that gold wouldn’t work here. The satyr sergeant was honest, as town guards went.
No, gold wouldn’t do it. He just needed to know what to say to him.
As he thought that, words came to him. Not just words but sentences, and three of them, fully formed and hovering in his mindscape.
- Offer him gold to investigate the crime.
- Appeal to his sense of honor.
- Tell him that Beula paid the extra taxes, so what happened on her land should be investigated. [Lie]
This was new, but he understood what it was. When he’d first earned level 1 negotiator, he’d felt the difference straight away. It had made him more confident in the things he’d said, and it had given him an intrinsic ability to know what to say. Not all the time, of course, but a lot more than he used to.
Now that he was at level 2, it looked like his ability had improved even more. Not only did he know what to say, but he could weigh the options better in his head.
It must have been his perception feeding him the information, and then mixing with his lie skill.
Judging by how the options were presented in his mind, the lie was the most likely one to get sergeant Nickall to help.
He didn’t like telling a lie, but there was no point having the skill if he didn’t use it. Besides, at least his intentions were good. That must have counted for something.
“I understand about boundaries,” said Joshua. “And I can see how many cases you have. But this is a murder, and Beula the orc owns the farm. She paid extra taxes, and since the crime happened on her land…”
Nickall arched an eyebrow. “I’m a sergeant of the guards, Joshua. You understand that even a level 1 guardsman gets the detect lie ability, right? It wouldn’t be much good if anyone could spin us a lie and we bought it.”
Damn it. He should have known. Now he felt crummy for telling the lie, and stupid that he’d been caught.
/> “I’m sorry. It just makes me so angry that we can’t do anything. He was my best friend, you know? And thinking that they’ll just get away with it…”
“My hands are tied,” said Nickall.
Joshua nodded. “I know.”
“But your hands aren’t. If the man who killed your friend is out of the town boundaries, then if something happened to him, we’d have no reason to investigate. But, you don’t seem like the kind of guy to go looking for cold vengeance.”
Maybe a week ago, that would have been true. Joshua had had a few fights in his time, but they were drunken fist fights back in the village, and they were always forgotten about in the cold light of day, once he and whoever he’d fought had sobered up. He wasn’t a violent guy.
Now, though…vengeance had its appeal.
Was it heroic? No. But there was nothing heroic about any of this. Where was the honor in Benjen’s death? Where was the justice in his murderer getting away?
“Let’s say that I did want cold vengeance. Where would I find it?”
“I heard a rumor,” said Nickall. “About Carlisle and his friends fleeing town. Word has it that they’re staying at a tavern a few miles away while they get some gold together so they can leave for good. You got a map?”
Joshua nodded.
“The tavern is called The Iron Whip Inn. Let me show you where it is.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
He left the town guard building and stepped back into the Ardglass market square. The ale festival was busy now, and the festival-goers were deep into their afternoon of drinking. A brightly-dressed bard was strumming an upbeat tune on his lute, and as he sang a song about a particularly sexy woman, the festival-goers danced and joined in with the words.
The only people who didn’t seem drunk were a family of goblins. There was an adult male, two adult females, and five little goblin children. While human families were often made up of the more standard structure of a mother, father, and children, goblin families often had more than one adult female in them, with the husbands sometimes having up to five wives. It was a structure that wouldn’t have worked for humans, but this family seemed happy.