“Probably a novice, babe,” added Olaf.
“What he said,” said Micaela, pointing at her husband and grinning.
Olaf could only roll the single eye in the middle of his forehead. “Olaf Crushhammer, Grade I, Ogre Artillery.”
The man gave Olaf a nod of respect.
“Heath Rickards, Pickpocket, Thief,” Heath introduced himself. I didn’t know what the thief ranks were, or where Pickpocket ranked but given he said he hadn’t ranked up yet, I imagined it was the bottom of the pile.
“Babies Breath, Novice, Sage,” Baby then added. “Please call me Baby or if you must, Miss Breath.”
“Pleasure Great One,” said the major with a small bow to the fairy, earning a blush from her in return.
“Bye-bye Jacko, Initiate, Warrior Priest of Issara,” I stated proudly. I was kind of annoyed the major knelt down and started that same mumbled prayer I’d seen from the citizens when they found out who I served, but I felt a little too pleased to see the same reaction from the obnoxious lieutenant.
“Well now, this is a pleasant surprise,” said the major, standing once again. “Would you all care to come in for tea? I do not think my host will mind the extra company.”
A quick glance between us and there was no doubt all of us were interested in exploring this little nugget of intrigue.
The inside of the home was as opulent as the exterior, maybe more so.
“May I present my gracious host, the Duchess Mardi of Hammerton,” the major introduced a woman that could only be a dwarf and dwarf royalty by the sound of it.
“Greetings,” she replied with a heavy brogue.
After a quick introduction by the major and another bout of prayer from the Duchess at hearing I was a servant of Issara, we were escorted to a very fancy sitting room. I was surprised by just how accommodating the home was as Olaf and Micaela fit without a problem height-wise and even had suitable furniture for them to sit upon. I was equally impressed when they were provided with teacups appropriately sized for them as well.
“I must say, I heard rumors about the servants of the Justice Gods and Goddesses, but I never thought I would have the opportunity to meet one of them. Let alone the very one that rumor says helped a pair of fallen Gods ascend,” stated Mardi.
“I couldn’t have done it without a lot of help. I have great friends,” I said, trying to divert attention from myself.
“I would expect nothing less,” said the Duchess, pausing to sip from her tea.
“Where will you adventure next?” asked the Major.
“We have no idea yet,” Olaf answered. “We all have a bit of business to take care of here in Root City before we move on.”
“So, you plan to stay a few days?” the Duchess asked, perking up slightly.
“Yes, ma’am,” replied Olaf formally.
“Where do you intend to stay?” Duchess Mardi asked.
“We were just asking the guard outside for directions to a cheap inn nearby,” I answered, feeling a little hope that this line of conversation might lead somewhere.
“Nonsense, I shall hear nothing of the sort. You shall stay here while you conduct your business. Prior to your arrival, the Major and I were just discussing my security detail while I am staying here. I cannot think of a better guard than a servant of justice. What do you think major?” the Duchess asked, looking at the major.
I couldn’t help but glance at Olaf, the man’s grin threatened to split his face in half.
“A very reasonable suggestion, would you ladies and gentlemen mind undertaking such a task?” Major Daws asked. “It will be a five-day engagement of service. Mind you, you will only need to protect her during unofficial activities such as shopping or touring the city, the remainder of the time is yours to do with as you please.”
Quest Alert: Guarding the Duchess of Hammertown (Recommended Level 6-8)
You’ve been offered a contract to bodyguard the Duchess for five-days
Reward: Experience, 10-gold, Room and Board for 5-days, Mark of Hammertime
Do you accept this Quest?
Yes
No
“We’d be honored,” answered Olaf for all of us. This really was a good opportunity for us. Free room and board at probably one of the nicest homes in Root City in addition to a quest that could pay some seriously good dividends in the long term. Sure, it extended our stay in Root City by a couple days, but this seemed like too good a deal to pass up.
“Excellent. I will inform the king,” said the Major, stunning all of us silent. “His royal guard will arrive promptly tomorrow morning to escort you to the castle, Lady Mardi. Do you require anything else from me at this time?”
“No Major, you’ve done more than enough. Please tell Leo, I look forward to our talks and that he’d better have a good ale on hand should our negotiations go well,” said the Duchess.
“I’ll see to it milady. Adventurers, I wish you well in keeping the Duchess safe. I trust I do not need to tell you the cost of failure in this task?” Major Daws asked, standing in preparation to leave.
“We’ll keep her safe, I promise,” Olaf stated with conviction.
“One last thing, Mr. Crushhammer, the passphrase for the guards tomorrow,” said the major, handing a small slip of paper to Olaf. “Memorize that and destroy it.” He then handed Olaf another sheet of paper.
Olaf reviewed the paper quickly before loudly saying, “Yes sir,” then giving a proper military salute to the Major.
“Good day,” said the major after returning Olaf’s salute.
As soon as the man was gone, Olaf started to grin. “I just got a class quest.”
“Well now, seeing as the stuffy Major has departed what say we pour this rotten tea down the drain and have a proper drink,” said Mardi, all sense of propriety gone as she simply slid the skirt of her dress to the floor to reveal pants and plate boots as well as three hammers hanging on either side of her belt. “That is much better. So, who is drinking with me?”
Why did I suddenly get the feeling we had just bitten off way more than we can chew?
Chapter 2
I’ll say this for the dwarven princess, the woman could drink. She successfully managed to drink all of us under the table in short order, even Olaf was eventually knocked out drunk by the woman despite a valiant effort to the contrary.
As such, most of us were not at our best first thing in the morning. In fact, I would guess we were all rather unhappy to be woken by Olaf at the crack of dawn. How the man . . . ogre was even moving I had no idea.
“Come on, everyone up, we’ve got things to do today,” said Olaf, yanking my sheets away. I was so very content laying in what must have been the most comfortable bed I’d ever laid upon. Why did he have to go and take that away from me? “If you’re not dressed and downstairs in ten minutes, I’ll be back with a bucket of water.”
I groaned pitifully, I knew he would do it too, but that didn’t make getting up any easier. I was sluggish and hungover but eventually made my way downstairs. I found everyone waiting in the kitchen where it appeared only Olaf was wide awake. Micaela was actually glaring at her husband while she nursed a beer. A quick look around showed only Rose was missing and everyone else was also nursing a beer.
After Olaf promptly placed a beer in my hands, I sat on the bench at the kitchen table. It appeared to be a staff kitchen with benches instead of chairs placed around a long rough looking rectangular wooden table. We had discovered early on that this world used hair of the dog as a literal hangover cure.
“Just waiting on Rose,” said Olaf, pouring one more beer and setting on the table next to me, assuming Rose would choose to sit there, I guess.
Rose came into the kitchen pouting and did indeed take a seat next to me, reluctantly taking the w
aiting beer and starting to drink it slowly.
Thankfully, Olaf gave us all a few minutes to drink before he started the impromptu meeting he woke us up so early for.
“Right then chaps, after the quest we got yesterday courtesy of Bye-bye, our plans have shifted slightly. We need to make a few adjustments to take guard shifts into account,” he began. “First, Heath, you haven’t really spoken on what your plans are while you’re in Root City, is there anything specific you need to do?”
“No quests or thieves’ guild stuff, just continuing to level my thief skills. Assuming I do nothing but work on those I might be able to complete my Jack of All quest before we leave the city,” he answered.
“So that’s stuff like stealth, lockpicking, pickpocketing, and eavesdropping?” Olaf asked.
“Pretty much,” said Heath.
“Can I ask you to shadow Duchess Mardi at all times, except when she’s in her official meetings?”
“I think I can do that,” he answered.
“Thank you, and when she is in her official meetings would you be willing to guard the house. Well, not exactly guard the house but pay attention to the comings and goings. Keep an eye out for anyone watching the house, that sort of thing,” Olaf added.
“Like thieves casing the joint? You got it, mate,” answered Heath.
“Thank you,” said Olaf. “Baby, you mentioned going to a fairy tree once you hit level ten, how close are you now?”
“Very close actually,” she replied. “92% of the way to level 10.”
“Okay, I think your time would be best spent trying to find a few easy quests today and getting the rest of your level. Since we’ll be here for five days if you can hit level 10 by the end of today you can make your trip to the fairy tree and be back before we leave, that is if you’re okay with it,” continued Olaf. I was getting the impression that Olaf had been planning for this all night which also made me wonder if he’d even slept.
“As for guard rotations, we’ll work in groups of two, Mic and I, Bye-bye and Rose, that puts someone capable of healing in each group. Mic and I will handle today, Bye-bye and Rose tomorrow then us, then you, then all of us. Sound good?” he asked.
“Should work just fine,” answered Rose, a little more alert than a few minutes prior.
“And I’ll be around too as back up,” added Heath, reaffirming his role in all of this.
“Wait, why all of us on the last day?” Baby asked.
“The way I figure it, if anything is going to go wrong it will be on the last day. That’s the way this kind of thing usually works, right?” answered Olaf.
“Pretty much,” I replied. He was right, the common theme in such quests was that everything would go wrong on the last day, just when you think it’s over.
“Good, so any other questions?” Olaf asked.
“Why did you have to get us up so early for this?” complained Rose.
Olaf froze, looking unsure of how to answer before eventually sighing. “I wasn’t sure how long this would take . . . and I might have been a little excited. All of this is part of my class quest.”
“How is that?” Rose asked.
“Well, when I verify the passcode to the Royal Guards, I’m supposed to provide them with a guard rotation and plan that will be delivered to the major,” explained Olaf.
“Great, and of course none of the staff are up yet so we can’t even get breakfast,” complained Micaela.
“I’m going back to bed,” I stated before guzzling down the last of my beer.
The others all agreed and followed up behind me.
I was awoken about two hours later, according to my in-game clock. There came knocking again though this time I didn’t mind as much, I was both more rested and no longer hungover. Plus, there was no demon fowl crowing at the break of dawn to drive me from my sleep.
“Breakfast will be served shortly, Master Bye-bye,” called a voice through the door. It must have been one of the servants as none of my friends would ever call me master.
I was a bit livelier on my return to the kitchen only to get a bunch of stares from the staff upon entering.
“Breakfast will be served in the dining room, Master Bye-bye,” advised one of the house staff. He was dressed properly and spoke with a certain authority that made me assume he was the head of the staff.
“Thank you . . . uh?” I replied.
“Barkley, Master Bye-bye, and my pleasure sir,” replied the butler.
“Thank you, Barkley,” I stated again.
I found my friends crowding around one end of a dining table that could have easily sat twenty people.
“Bye-bye, top of the morning to you,” greeted Mardi, with a very unladylike raise of a mug of ale in my direction. “Come join us, the staff has whipped up quite the feast to break our fast.”
I was happy to join them, finding the table was indeed laden with food. Several kinds of sausages, bacon, eggs, biscuits, and a few pieces of fruit that looked like they were more for decoration than to be eaten.
After eating and chatting a bit, Olaf steered the conversation toward the actual business part of the day. “Duchess, what time should we expect you to return from your negotiations?”
“I should be back no later than mid-afternoon bell,” she answered. Everything time wise was measured by bells or rather the chiming of bells. Morning bell usually hit at 7:00 AM and then chimed every two and a half to three hours there after until 9:00 PM. As such, the mid-afternoon bell worked out to be about 3:00 PM.
“Micaela and I will provide you escort this afternoon,” started Olaf.
The Duchess clicked her tongue in distaste. “I was really hoping Bye-bye would be my escort today. I was hoping to visit the temple of Ivaldi with him.”
“I can wait until tomorrow to visit the God Ivaldi’s temple,” I interjected, the last thing I wanted was to throw off Olaf’s schedule.
“I suppose that will have to do,” said the Duchess, not looking too pleased.
“We can swap days,” volunteered Rose, her shoulders giving a small shrug to suggest it wasn’t a big deal.
“Wonderful, then I will see you and Bye-bye around mid-afternoon bell. I had best go get ready to greet the king,” said Mardi, shot-gunning her ale then quickly bustling away from the dining room.
“Breathe, babe,” instructed Micaela to her husband. “Rose was just trying to accommodate the Duchess.”
Olaf took a deep breath and kind of deflated a little as he let it out.
“Sorry for messing with your plans, Olaf,” said Rose, now seeing the man’s irritation and looking apologetically at him. “I was just trying to help.”
“I know Rose, and I suppose it doesn’t really matter who guards her on which day,” said Olaf, probably more for himself than anything. “I’m more annoyed that I have to redo my write-up for the major.”
“Better do it quick, I imagine the guard will be here soon,” warned Baby.
Olaf grumbled as he pulled out paper and ink from his bag and started writing only to pause about halfway down the page. “Have any of you gotten a skill, ‘Stratagem’?”
“Never heard of it,” I replied.
“Me neither,” said Heath.
“I read about it, I thought it was made up,” said Rose, her mouth slightly agape. “Does it really increase party damage and healing?”
“Not exactly, it’s 0.5% increased damage only and doesn’t stack with anyone else that has it, but still . . . wow!” Olaf exclaimed appreciatively.
Wow indeed. Even if it had no additional rank by the time it reached level 100 it would increase damage 50%, that was a lot of extra damage.
“Hax,” cried Rose, crossing her arms and looking more than a little annoyed as she glared at Olaf.
“It’s not my fault, I didn’t even know the skill existed,” Olaf tried to defend.
I could understand Rose’s annoyance. Generally, in any fight we’ve been in, Rose does the planning and gives the orders, that’s part of
her role as our tank. I would have thought that if anyone would have gotten it, it would have been Rose.
“Hey Rose, you’ve done most of our strategies for fights, maybe you could write them down and send them to Sergeant Butters, ask him to give them to the other adventurers in Hurlig Ridge?” I suggested. “Olaf only got the skill when he wrote down his strategy or guard plan or whatever you want to call it. That might be the missing component.”
Rose’s glare seemed to soften slightly as she immediately reached into her bag and pulled out a book similar to my journal along with an inkwell and pen. “I’ll give it a shot.”
Olaf sent me a quick look of thanks.
It only took about 10-minutes before Rose cheered in victory. “Yes!”
“Got it then?” Olaf asked.
“Yeah, never would have found it without you finding it first, so thanks,” she replied, a tinge of embarrassment present in her voice.
“Glad I could help,” replied Olaf with a friendly smile, returning to his own writing a moment later as did Rose.
“I’m usually the peacemaker around here,” joked Baby softly from the seat next to me.
I shrugged. “I can be too sometimes.”
“Anyway, I’m sorry for being so . . . prickly with you yesterday. I love my sister dearly, but she can be impulsive. When she told me, she kissed you just before logout, I was worried. I know you two flirt a lot and push each other’s buttons and that’s fine. But, starting something real puts a lot at risk. For you two emotionally and more selfishly, for the group. I am really protective of my sister and I don’t want her to get hurt.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that.
“Anyway,” started Baby before I could respond. “I’m going to head to the hospital. There’s usually a lot of easy XP for healers there.”
And the fairy was gone.
About 30 minutes later the guard arrived and the Duchess left with them, leaving the four of us standing in front of the house. Heath had already vanished from sight, presumably to snoop around the house undetected.
“So, where to first?” Micaela asked excitedly.
World Tree Online: The Duchess of Hammers: 2nd Dive Begins Page 3