by Albion, Rex
“I see,” Roxy said, comparing the examples to the bounty poster for Culling the Cult. “So, this one indicates the bounty will require a party to safely complete. This is the threat level of the enemy, and this estimates their number?”
“That’s right, my humble apologies for the oversight, Vandal. I shall make sure that we discuss bounties verbally with people accepting them in future to avoid anyone taking a task that’s potentially so dangerous,” Myers said.
“Look, Captain, I accept your apology but, seriously, I’m fine. Roxy is fine. I just had to be careful and keep my wits about me. If I’d understood it was a quest for a party, I’d have found some people to help but it wouldn't have been nearly so much fun anyway, you don’t need to keep apologising,” Vandal said.
“Fun? The Awoken who visit Tinshire, never cease to amaze me with this sort of thing. But thank you for accepting my apology. I shall try and make it up to you both somehow...” said, Myers, pausing mid-sentence and frowning in confusion. “Forgive me, but I didn’t realise you were a cleric when we spoke the first time?”
“I wasn’t. Can you keep a secret in confidence?”
“Provided it doesn’t threaten the realm or Tinshire, I can keep a secret, yes.”
“The cultists were desecrating an ancient Temple of Amoria. When we cleansed it, the goddess rewarded us by making us clerics of her cult and charged us with rebuilding the temple.”
“But you wish this to remain secret?” Myers was confused.
“Just for the time being, Captain,” Roxy said. “We need a little time to ensure the temple is ready for worshippers and that we can defend it properly. Once we’ve done that, we’ll let people know they can visit for services and to worship.”
“I suppose it is deep in the forest and I’m afraid we can’t offer you much in the way of protection. Our patrols mostly seek to keep the roads free of bandits near town, but perhaps we can one day expand a patrol to check in on the temple. I’m sure there are worshippers of Amoria in our town who would be thrilled to know there’s an actual temple nearby,” Captain Myers said. “Now, I should give you your reward.”
He stood up and unlocked a heavy oak door, barred with iron, revealing a vault behind it. The walls were lined with spaces which contained plain wooden chests. Myers pointed at each, moving his finger down and mouthing to himself until he located the chest he was looking for. Grunting with effort, he pulled it down and waddled forward awkwardly until he could drop it on a plain side table with a heavy thump.
“These bloody things are so heavy, frankly, I’m too old for this,” he grumbled. Then he picked up the bounty sheet again, checked the symbols on the box and opened a ledger on his desk. Once he was satisfied, he dipped a quill in red ink and marked a big tick next to an entry in the ledger. “There you go, the reward is all yours. It’s not too much I’m afraid, Tinshire is not famous for our gold, as you might imagine. Still, I hope it helps you bring the temple back into service.”
“I’m sure it will, Captain, and thank you for sending Vandal to rescue me,” Roxy said.
“Oh, I didn’t know…” Myers began but stopped when Vandal shook his head at him. “I mean, I’m only sorry I didn’t know that he was going alone, or I’d have helped him find more Awoken to rescue you, myself.”
Roxy smiled and said, “I’m extremely happy with the outcome, Captain.”
“Would you be able to tell me what happened so I can make a proper report please? It will make life somewhat easier?” said, Captain Myers. He dipped his quill in the inkwell and waited for Roxy to begin so he could take notes.
Roxy nodded and began explaining everything she could, leaving out the more salacious elements of course. Myers held up his hand after a few minutes, “Vandal, I’ve ticked the register so if you simply touch the lock, it should open automatically. Like magic. Well, because it is magic. Obviously. Roxy, please do continue, this is fascinating. The Cult of Libidos, you say? Horrific!”
Vandal grinned at Roxy, who was clearly having a lot of fun relating the story, and only embellishing it a little. Just enough to make them both sound great, but not distort the facts. He chimed in with the odd comment to explain the bits she hadn’t seen while he busied himself with the box.
It popped open with a soft click which didn’t really suit the rather simple design of the chest at all. It looked like a simple piece of work, that might be made by an apprentice and had no frills of any kind. But it was much more sturdily and cleverly made than the outward appearance suggested.
A series of notifications popped up confirming the rewards for finishing the quest and Vandal skimmed through them before dismissing them to concentrate on the good stuff.
Quest Completion: Culling the Cult. You have investigated the missing travellers for Captain Myers and dealt with the culprits.
The Cult of Libidos were behind the disappearances and rumours of strange events in the forest. 2,000 XP!
Quest Reward: 50 gold, 2 x Minor Health Potion, Guard’s Map of Tinshire Town (Complete), Quality Backpack
New Map Entry: A new entry has been made to your maps. You now have a Guard’s Map of Tinshire Town (Complete) obtained from the Tinshire Town Watch. 50 XP
Reputation Reward: You have gained 1,000 reputation points with Tinshire Town Watch
While Roxy finished relating their story, Vandal transferred their rewards into their new backpacks, which were significantly larger on the inside, while not being larger on the outside. He moved across the existing content from their old bags, and then stored those in the backpacks so they could sell them later.
In New Albion you stuck with one bag, rather than having an inventory made up of dozens of them, which seemed slightly less silly. Although he was still able to fit objects in the bag that definitely wouldn’t fit in any rucksack he’d ever owned. Picked up a polearm? That’s fine. Barrel of ale? Just takes up six slots. He was grateful that they hadn’t gone with super realistic inventories or made inventory management a secondary game as it was in many games.
“Five bandits you say? Jolly good. Once Sergeant Bercol returns, I’ll be able to authorise your reward for that. It’s just a flat fee of one gold piece per bandit I’m afraid, but every little helps as they say. If you deal with more, just bring some evidence to the guards at the gate, or you can report it if a patrol is nearby. We can’t be gallivanting all over the place to look for bandit bodies the Awoken have dealt with but if you want the reward, that’s how you get it.”
“What counts as evidence?” Roxy asked.
“Heads are the most practical, if it’s just a few. Gruesome perhaps but effective. Mind you, if it’s a large camp of them, we’ll send someone out of course. Can’t have you carrying around a sack with fifty heads in it, and in any case a large number of bodies would just attract a pack of ghouls and that’s another problem we all have to deal with,” Myers sighed.
“I’ve not met one yet, but we’ll watch out for them,” Vandal said.
“They love anything that used to be a person really. Dead bodies of elves, goblins, humans. If you can have a conversation with it while it’s alive, a ghoul will eat it when it’s dead,” Myers explained. “They’re nasty buggers to fight. Claws that leave horrible wounds that don’t heal without the intervention of a cleric to which I suppose you won’t find a problem now.”
“I still don’t want to attract them to the forest though,” Roxy said. “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure not to leave any food out for them, Captain.”
“I must say, I’m slightly worried about the Cult of Libidos though. I wasn’t aware it was them we were having issues with, and they’re considered pretty vile as I’m sure you know,” Captain Myers explained. “Do you know how many escaped your blade?”
Vandal shook his head. “We had to attack or lose the element of surprise I’m afraid.”
“The trick with the barrel was most ingenious,” Captain Myers said, clapping his hands. “Roxy’s retelling was thoroughly engaging. Marvellous
but I do understand it must have been chaotic.”
“I’d guess a dozen or more might have got way though, right, Roxy?”
“About that but we couldn’t see the whole room. Perhaps some smarter ones fled straight away?”
“I wish we could be more certain, Captain. We do think some of them are quite wealthy, in comparison to the rest,” Vandal said.
Captain Myers was about to speak when Roxy shouted excitedly, “I’ve got it! The clothes, Vandal, don’t you see?” Vandal shook his head, nonplussed. Roxy waved her hand in exasperation, “They changed into robes when they got there. We can’t be certain but when we get back, we can just count the sets of clothes that are left and that’ll give us a much better idea of how many there are. We can even tell how wealthy they are from that.”
“How will you know which of the dead came in the expensive clothes though?” Captain Myers asked.
Roxy smiled confidently. “Because the robes made of hessian are cheap, rough and a bit smelly. The fancy linen ones are the robes of evil cultists with money. But we should make sure we get back before ghouls show up, otherwise that won’t work, and we’ll have a ghoul infestation.”
“That usually takes several days, because they don’t like fresh meat. They like carrion that’s started to rot already,” Captain Myers explained. “Well, mostly. If they eat fresh meat, it’s usually while the victim is still alive, I’m afraid.”
“Fuck. That’s nasty,” Vandal growled. Eaten alive by ghouls was not a good way to go. It really didn’t bear thinking about.
“As nasty as it comes, I think. Ghoul heads are worth three gold pieces each for a reason,” Captain Myers said. “But we can’t have the Cult of Libidos operating freely within Tinshire. If you are able to help with that, we would certainly appreciate it.”
The captain picked up a fresh sheet of paper, which had been printed with a blank design for a bounty poster, that could be filled in by hand. “Let me see, I think a flat fee and some more practical rewards with a bonus perhaps.” He finished, made his own copy and passed the one, which they accepted into their Quest Logs.
Roxy took the paper and then rolled her eyes when Vandal looked at her, “I’m going to collect these in a scrapbook, it’s not for toilet paper.”
New Quest: Root out the Cult of Libidos. Captain Myers has offered you a quest to track down any remaining members of the cult in Tinshire and apprehend them. Would you like to accept it?
“If you’re happy to work on this bounty, it would be appreciated. Given your status as Clerics of Amoria, you are the ideal people to oppose them. None of the other bounties suitable for your level of Awakening are nearly so important.”
“We’ll do this, Captain. Don’t worry,” said, Vandal, accepting the quest.
“Is there anything else I can help with?”
“Is there somewhere in Tinshire we can stay overnight?” Vandal asked. “We may have to return to the temple and come back here again to finish this bounty but once we’ve been back and tidied up a bit, and counted the dead properly, we can stay here until it’s completed.”
“Yes, for luxury accommodations and great food, I would suggest The Red Lion but if you don’t like it or it’s too rich for your budget, I’m sure you’ll find plenty of other reputable places. Perhaps in the Eastgate district? No doubt you'll find something suitable without too many problems.”
“What about somewhere to hire a wagon? If we had one, we could bring all the cultists clothes and stuff here. Maybe you or your men might recognise it as belonging to someone in the town? Some of it was quite expensive, as I said. The type of thing only merchants or even nobles might afford,” Roxy suggested.
“Excellent idea, though I’m not sure we can expect to identify any of it. I can send the Sergeant and some men with you though, no need to hire a wagon,” Myers said. “Just let us know when you’re ready to go back. I assume you’re staying overnight?”
“We will do, yes,” Vandal said. “I want to buy some supplies for the temple and find Roxy some armour if possible.
“Ah, well, ask Sergeant Bercol about that, he’ll have a better idea of those sorts of logistics I think, because the new recruits and guards on patrol are the ones we have to buy armour for and get it repaired. He deals with that,” Myers said, indicating a suit of armour in the corner on a dummy. “Mine just needs a bit of spit and polish now and then and hasn’t been in a fight for years so I’m out of touch with the better armourers I’m afraid.”
“Thank you, Captain, we’ll ask him when he’s back from patrol.” Roxy said.
“Capital. Well, thank you for your hard work so far, and remember, we can always help you deal with any cultists you locate in town, if you need support. Your task is mostly to work out who they are and tell us of course. I hope I don’t have to point out that you can’t just attack them without proof. Although, if they attack you that’s a different matter,” Myers said.
“Don’t worry Captain, we’ll be careful. We’re not looking to identify the wrong people.”
“Goodbye, Captain,” Roxy said.
“May Amoria be with you,” Myers said, standing up and offering a small bow.
“And with you,” Roxy replied as they left.
Chapter Twenty
The Red Lion was a rather grand coaching inn with a big cobblestone courtyard, enclosed by brick walls covered in climbing roses with red petals. A large painted sign swung from a post that jutted out from the eaves of a third-floor room, near the wall so it would have been easy to spot whichever direction they approached from.
“I don’t think this is going to be in our price range,” Vandal said, as they walked through the carved stone arch that gave the gateway the appearance of a roaring lion’s mouth.
“It’s pretty fancy,” Roxy agreed but they went inside, since the captain had recommended it. Their nostrils were immediately assailed by the most delicious smells.
“That does smell good.”
“Can I help you?” a rather comely woman with an improbable bust supported by an eye-wateringly tight corset, asked. Blonde locks cascaded down her shoulders and she filled every tavern wench stereotype that Vandal could think of.
“I really hope so,” Roxy purred. “I’m Roxy.”
The blonde’s laugh was like a tinkling fountain, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Roxy. I’m Leona. Would you like a table for lunch?”
“Yes, please. I’m Vandal. Captain Myers recommended your establishment, in case we needed somewhere to stay overnight.”
“The captain and his wife are regular customers. Let's get you seated, shall we?” Leona said, guiding them to a corner table with velvet padded benches. They asked for her suggestions when she asked what they’d like to drink, and soon came back with some delicious mead which wasn’t too expensive.
Roxy leaned forward beckoning to her.
“Leona, what are the rest of the prices like here? We’re new to Tinshire so we’re not really familiar with local costs. The food smells amazing and the inn is really nice, but I’m worried it might be out of our price range to stay overnight.”
Leona smiled, not at all offended, “Well, The Red Lion does cater to Tinshire’s wealthiest citizens, it’s true and honestly, it’s not cheap. I see that you’re priests of Amoria, and even our simplest room here is five gold for a night. You could get a good room at The Spotted Dick in Eastgate for one gold, including meals.”
Vandal almost choked on his mead. “The Spotted Dick,” he asked.
Leona blushed lightly and Roxy rolled her eyes. “It’s just a type of fruit pudding you serve with custard, Vandal. Leona, my apologies for Vandal here, he is, quite literally, a barbarian.”
“Yes, Priestess. I really couldn’t help noticing that, sir,” Leona said, diplomatically. “You’re a bit underdressed to be honest but seeing as you’re clergy and it’s a quiet day I’m sure no-one will complain. We do an excellent Ploughman’s Lunch which is only a dozen silver each. That’s probably the best
price meal we have if you’re hungry but I’m happy to recommend somewhere else if you would prefer? I don’t eat here myself,” she whispered conspiratorially.
Vandal shook his head, looking at the menu, which he could read most of, even with his limited skill in the Common language. “Thank you, Leona but I think Roxy and I can afford a good lunch and deserve it after what we’ve been doing, fighting bandits and all.”
“Gosh! Fighting bandits. You must both need a treat after that, how awful Tinshire must seem to greet newcomers with thieves and robbers!” Leona said, her hand flying protectively to her heaving bosom. Vandal had to suppress a smile as Roxy’s gaze was inexorably drawn to the shapely cleavage and she seemed far away.
He cleared his throat, hoping to snap her out of it in case Leona was offended. “Don’t worry, we aren’t judging Tinshire on a few bandits, Leona. The town has been very welcoming to us so far. We might get rooms elsewhere though until we have some more coins in our purses. I’d like to have the roast chicken, with lots of vegetables and gravy please.”
“And for you, Priestess Lickspring,” Leona asked.
“I’ll have roast beef then, if we’re treating ourselves,” Roxy said, finally wrenching her eyes up to the wench’s face.
“Excellent choices,” Leona, “and I promise you won’t find finer cooks in Tinshire than we have at The Red Lion so it’s a lovely treat.
When Leona returned not five minutes later with their food, she smiled sweetly when Vandal expressed surprise at how quickly she’d returned with steaming plates piled high with food. “We run a carvery for lunch, sir. Roast meat and lots of vegetables and magical hotplates to keep everything perfect, so we can serve the whole inn very quickly. Evening meals are a bit slower, unless you order something like a pie.”
“Magical hotplates, eh? Whatever will they think of next?” Vandal mused. “Do you have any fruit juice, Leona?”
“Fruit juice?” Leona repeated, looking puzzled. “I suppose we have some raspberry wine, and cider.”