by Jamie Davis
"Looks good, partner," Hal said. "How's it feel?"
"It's rubbing a bit on my wound from last night, but I think it will do well once I'm healed up."
"Here, drink these, both of you," Colin said, strolling in from an entirely different direction than he'd left. He handed each of them a glass vial filled with the now-familiar red liquid. Hal took the healing potion and drank it down.
HEALING potion effect - restored to full health points.
KAY, who must have been more injured than she let on, let out a sigh of relief after drinking her potion.
"Feel better?" Colin asked.
They both nodded.
"Excellent!" The outfitter exclaimed. He leaned over and picked up a new backpack for Hal and a sack with supplies for Kay. "There are more healing potions in there because I'm sure you'll be needing them soon. I've also added a few other odds and ends to what you might have lost during the fight this morning in the harbor market."
"You heard about that?" Hal asked.
"Sonny, everyone’s heard about that. Between that and the raid on the slave compound, it's all anyone is talking about. I wish I'd been there to see you throw a few thousand gold pieces away like that. You've turned this 'Hood' character into a popular legend with the townsfolk."
"Uh, Colin, one more thing," Kay asked, pulling out her pack. "We found these four potions in our travels last night, but we have no way to decipher these runes."
"Let me see them," Colin said, holding out his hands.
Kay pulled the potions from her pack and handed them to Colin. He smiled as he looked over each one then set the lot down.
"You've got a nice collection there." He pointed to each one and named them in turn. "There's a charm potion that gives the drinker the power to influence people around them. There's a strength potion. There's a potion of speed. And the last one is a potion I've never seen before in person: a potion of luck."
Hal nodded and smiled as Colin handed the potions back to Kay. She replaced them in her pack. They'd all be useful additions to their arsenal as the two of them planned their future endeavors against the Wardens.
"How much do we owe you?" Hal asked. Kay had half the money from the slaver compound. He hoped it would be enough.
"You took imperial gold crowns from the slavers I heard?"
"Yes, we did," Kay said.
Colin looked around, taking note of the new armor they wore, the items in the new backpack and looked up at the ceiling.
"Twelve hundred crowns and I won't charge you for identifying your potions."
"That's about all we have, Hal," Kay said. "It will only leave us a dozen crowns or so."
"Things are cheap where we're staying," Hal told her. "I think we'll be fine. Pay the man."
Once they'd paid up and divided up the items between them Hal checked his inventory panel for the first time in a while. He was happy with what he saw.
LEATHER PANTS
Cotton Shirt
Leather Boots
All-Weather Cloak
Studded Leather Armor (+2 to defense)
Steel Dagger (2)
Throwing Knives (8)(+1 to attack/damage)
Leather Backpack
Flint and Steel
Wet Stone
Lock Picks
Climbing Grapnel
Sturdy Rope
Light Healing Potion (3)
Potion of Luck
Potion of Speed
HE AND KAY decided she'd do best with the strength and charm potions. She also had a supply of sleeping draughts Colin included. These small vials could be slipped into a drink and put your mark to sleep in a few minutes.
"We should be going before anyone else shows up, Kay," Hal said. "Thank you, Colin. We'll be back next time when we're ready to re-equip."
"I'll be here," the strange, little man said. He strolled off down a long aisle with a hand raised in a brief wave goodbye. "Let yourselves out. I have things to attend to."
"I suppose we'll have to find our own way out of this maze," Hal said.
"Come on," Kay said. "I think I know the way."
"I sure hope so. We didn't buy any food or rations for an extended expedition. Lead on."
20
IT WAS NEARING dark when Hal and Kay left Caravansary Outfitters. Hal was fine with that. It would make it easier to make their way back through town without getting picked up by the increased guard presence.
They still had to skirt around several road blocks where everyone had to submit to a search. This circuitous path led them to a new section of town. There were tenement buildings on either side that obviously weren’t maintained very well. The people who resided there lived in absolute squalor.
“What is this place?” Hal asked.
“It’s called the Merchant’s Gardens,” Kay said. “In reality, it’s where the Merchant Warden keeps people in a state of constant debt by charging them for everything in their lives short of breathing.”
“So, this is the ‘company town’ concept,” Hal said. “The bosses own everything including the general store, so you have to buy everything from them at inflated prices.”
“Pretty much,” Kay agreed.
“Sounds like slavery to me,” Hal grumbled.
He was lost in his thoughts and didn’t see the wagon loaded with iron-bound chests ahead of them. The pair of fugitives turned the corner and faced a group of guards clustered in front of the wagon. There was a thin, weasel of the man sitting on the wagon’s seat.
Before he knew it, the slot machine was rattling in Hal’s head again. Before he could stop himself, Hal walked into one of the guards from behind.
“Hey, you bastard. Watch where you’re going.” The guard said, pushing Hal.
“Sorry, friend, my mistake,” Hal said. “I’ll walk around.”
“I’m not your friend. You should know better than to accost a guard of the Merchant’s Warden.”
“I didn’t accost you. I bumped into you by accident,” Hal said. The slot machine was rumbling away in his head now.
The guard’s companions turned and started to circle around Hal. Kay had backed away and stood nearby in the shadows.
Hal tried to keep an eye on all four guards while they circled around him. All of them were armed with wooden cudgels in addition to their swords.
“You, there, stop distracting my guards,” the weaselly man on the wagon said. “I have work to do.”
“He needs to be taught a lesson, boss,” the first guard said.
“Be quick about it. I have to get the rent back to the Warden,” Weasel said.
Hal had enough of this. He wasn’t going to stand around and get a beat down from rude guards. He drew upon both his luck and his acrobatic dodge skill at the same time.
He dove to one side as soon as the first guard raised his cudgel to strike. Rolling to his feet, Hal found himself next to the horse pulling the rent wagon. He reached up and pulled the weaselly man down from his seat with one hand, then yelled as loud as he could and slapped the horse on the rump with his other hand.
The horse reared in his traces before bolting, pulling the rent wagon along behind it. Hal grabbed ahold of side of the wagon’s seat and pulled himself up as the wagon lurched away. Two of the guards were run down and crushed by the wagon wheels as it was propelled forward by the startled horse. The other two dove out of the way.
500 EXPERIENCE POINTS awarded
500 experience points awarded
Level Up!
HAL SMILED. That was easy. He leaned forward and took up the reins.
He didn't know much about driving a horse drawn wagon, let alone how to control one careening along at full speed, so he just held on and hoped the horse knew where it was going.
Kay ran from the shadows as he passed by and vaulted up into the seat next to him.
"Hal, what do you think you're doing?"
"Hold on; I'm kind of making this up as I go along."
"I was afraid of that. Do you kno
w how to handle the reins?" Kay asked.
"Not really. Uh oh, hold on!"
Hal pulled on one side of the reins, and the horse turned the corner ahead. The wagon tilted up on two wheels, nearly toppling over, as it followed the horse. Once they were on a straight track again, the wagon slammed back down on all four wheels.
"Great. You know we can't hide this wagon, Hal. We don't have anywhere to put it."
An idea occurred to him. A crazy, and yet ingenious idea.
"I'm not planning on hiding it. I plan on cracking it open. The people need their rent money back."
"What?!"
The second he said it, the slot machine stopped rattling with a chime, and he knew he'd chosen correctly. His luck was with him once again.
Hal pulled on the reins and turned the corner again; bringing the horse and wagon around and heading back up the road to where it started.
"Kay, when I get up here to the place you hopped on, you might want to jump off. I'm not exactly sure how this is going to work."
Up ahead of them, the rent collector and the two remaining guards stood in the street. The guards had dropped their cudgels and held their swords now. That was fine with Hal; he didn't plan on fighting fair anyway.
He shook the reins, slapping them down on the horse's back and spurring it to run faster. As he approached the guards and their boss, Kay jumped off into some brush by the road. Hal hoped she was all right, but he didn't have time to worry about that. This had to be timed perfectly.
The two guards had seen their friends squashed and they were itching for revenge. They didn't want to join them as road kill, either. As the wagon charged down on them, they scattered, both diving to the same side of the street with their boss.
Hal pulled on the reins at the last instant, yanking the horse to the left. The wagon started to turn, then the harness snapped, and the horse ran free. The wagon continued its turn, going up on two wheels and then starting to roll over.
Hal used the wagon's momentum to propel himself up and over the guards and their boss. They stared upward as he sailed over them, then the overturned wagon smashed into them, and the three of them were rolled under the heavy projectile.
500 EXPERIENCE POINTS AWARDED.
500 experience points awarded.
800 experience points awarded.
LANDING on the hard-packed dirt drove the air from his lungs, but Hal managed to tuck and roll, absorbing most, but not all, of the impact.
HEALTH DAMAGE: Health -10
DAMN, that hurt. Hal managed to jump to his feet and keep running with the momentum from the leap.
It was a good thing he did.
The wagon rolled over several more times before it came to rest right where he'd landed.
Hal turned as he came to a stop to check his handiwork and smiled. It worked. The chests in the back had all been crushed in the process. The trail of splintered wood and smashed bodies were lined with glittering coins in the packed dirt of the street.
People started to emerge from the nearby tenements, drawn by the noise outside. As soon as they saw the money in the street, they rushed forward, scrambling to recover as much as they could.
"Hal, you are a one man wrecking crew," Kay said, limping up to stand beside him.
Hal grinned and yelled out to the people gathering up the coins. "Enjoy and share with your neighbors. The Hood has struck again!"
A cheer went up from the crowd. People began to chant, "Hood, Hood, Hood."
Lowering his voice, Hal told Kay, "We should probably go. It's always best to leave the scene of the crime before the guard arrives."
"You think?" Kay asked.
"Come on," Hal said. "You have to admit that was pretty spectacular, right?"
"It was terrifying," Kay replied. "I'll drive the next time we steal a wagon."
"Sure, take away all the fun." Hal patted Kay on the back, and together they walked from the neighborhood leaving the happy residents behind them.
Hal pulled up his stats and looked them over. He was going to allot two more attribute points and a skill point. He dumped two points into his brawn score, raising his attack and damage scores. He also increased his acrobatic dodge to level four.
NAME: Hal Dix
Class: Rogue
Level: 7
ATTRIBUTES:
Brawn: 14 -- +3
Wisdom: 8
Luck: 20 -- +6
Speed: 12 -- +2
Looks: 8
Health: 46/56
SKILLS: Taunt - 2, Dark Vision, Acrobatic Dodge - 4, Hide in Shadows - 2, Sneak Attack - 2, Open Locks - 2, Find/Remove Traps.
Experience: 11,600/19,200
HIS STATS LOOKED PRETTY GOOD, and there was still plenty of opportunity in this town for carnage and experience points.
The next opportunity would come when they hit the Merchant Warden for real. Hal decided that he would be their next target. The Hood was ready to strike again.
21
THE BACK-CORNER TABLE at the Chum Bucket was open when Hal and Kay arrived. Sitting down, they nodded a hello to Griff behind the bar and ordered fish stew and two ales from the waitress.
Hal felt something hard inside his cloak when he leaned back against the wall. Patting the cloak, he realized it was the small ledger book he'd picked up in the Slaver Boss's office. He reached inside and pulled the book free.
"I'd forgotten all about this," Hal said, setting the book down on the table between them."
"What is it?" Kay asked.
"I saw it in the Slaver Boss's office and picked it up. I slipped it into my cloak’s pocket as we were leaving."
Hal flipped through the book until he found the page with the heading he was looking for.
"This is what caught my eye on the desk" Hal stabbed a finger down on the page's handwritten heading.
Kay spun the book around, so she didn't have to read upside-down. Hal's finger rested on the words "Noble Slave Disposition and Locations."
"Have you looked through it yet?" Kay asked.
"No, I forgot I had it in all the excitement of the last twenty-four hours. This is the first chance I had."
Kay started skimming the entries, flipping through several pages. She stopped and pointed. Hal leaned forward and tried to read the handwritten cursive text from where he sat, but he couldn't make it out.
"What does it say?"
"It’s the entry for my family when we were brought here and sold," Kay said. "It shows my sale to my former master and the amount paid. Next, to my younger brother and sister it only lists the letters 'TW' and a blank for the amount."
"Is there a legend anywhere that shows what the abbreviation stands for?" Hal asked.
"Not that I've seen, but there are several other entries with the same or similar abbreviations. Look, here's one for the Duke of Tandon's family. The notation next to that entry only says 'MW.' If we could find and free the Duke's family, he'd be free to act on our behalf and help eliminate the other Wardens. Then we could go after my brother and sister."
"It's got to be a destination code of some sort," Hal suggested. "How many different abbreviations are there?"
Kay flipped back and forth through the pages, scanning the column where the abbreviations appeared.
"There are only five: TW, MW, HW, CW, and PW."
Hal tipped back in his stool and stared at the ceiling for a moment. He mused aloud as he considered the puzzle before them.
"We have five entries that were special in some way. All the entries are in the spaces where other slave masters are listed. We just have to decipher the code.”
"Wait," Kay said. "What if they're not a secret code? What if they're initials?"
"What do you mean?" Hal asked leaning forward in his chair again.
"It's the Wardens, Hal. It has to be."
"That makes sense, actually," Hal noted. "They're the most trusted of the Emperor's people in Tandon. It would make sense that slaves from certain noble families might be seen as a rewar
d of sorts for services rendered."
"The Duke's family is being held by the Merchant Warden," Kay said. "He has to be our next target."
"We've been picking away at his strength for a week now including our recent adventure with the rent wagon," Hal said. "Now may be the time to strike before he has any more opportunity to reinforce his guards. Agreed?"
Kay nodded.
QUEST ACCEPTED - Assassinate the Merchant's Warden.
Quest accepted - Locate the Duke's family.
"ALRIGHT, IT'S DECIDED THEN," Hal said. "Any ideas on how we get to him? We'll want to be able to question him about where the Duke’s family is or at least search his records once we have him."
"His compound isn't far from the warehouse we hit earlier in the week," Kay said. She flipped the ledger to a blank page and dug in her pack for a wooden pencil. She sketched as she described the home. "I've been past it several times, casing it for a job like this. There's a wrought iron wall around the property. The best way in is to climb that wall and enter where his small lemon orchard is located. The trees will offer us some cover as we move up to the house. Since our attacks started, he probably has increased his guard numbers. We've been picking away at them out here, though, so I have no idea what to expect once we get inside."
"The orchards look like a good entry point," Hal agreed. "Once we're over the wall, we can make our way around to this rear entrance. That’s probably the kitchen entrance and more likely to be open and unguarded compared to the main entrance."
"It's worth a try. I think we're making some risky assumptions, but the plan will change once we get there and see what’s going on." Kay said.
The barmaid appeared with their stew, and Kay flipped the book closed in a hurry to hide what they were looking at from the woman's eyes. Hal paid her for the stew and ordered two more ales.
"The next question," Hal said. "Is when do we hit him? Do we take it on tonight?"
"I don't see why not," Kay replied. "Every extra night we wait he gets another day to replace guards we've killed or disabled."
Hal smiled. "Then I guess we're going Warden hunting."
The two companions finished their stew and ales, got up and headed back out into the deepening night. Hal noted the cloudless sky. There was no moon tonight, which would help them hide once they were inside the Warden's property.