by Ryan Rimmel
So, missions gave the town experience points, which it used, along with meeting certain criteria, to level. Sadly, that was easy compared to some of the nonsense I’d had to go through, so far, to level my own person. That just meant I needed to find a mission with some money attached to it, to offset the lack of adventurers bearing gold.
That proved to be surprisingly easy. Each mission had possible rewards and, while some were ‘improved morale’ or ‘better trained militia’, there was one that promised a substantial weekly allotment of gold. It was categorized as a trade mission. If my quick accounting was correct, it would bring in enough revenue to allow the town to turn a profit.
Then, the name caught me:
Trade Mission to Narwal: Narwal needs goods your village has in production. Travel there and setup a trade mission with the king’s representative. Cost: 100 bars of iron per week. Reward: 160 gold pieces per week, plus goodwill from Narwal
Narwal was the name of the town the villagers had been trying to get to, before they were captured by goblins. The mission planner indicated that the town was reasonably close, only a long day of travel. With the barrier in place, Windfall would be safe for a bit. I didn’t really see any better options for money, unless I wanted to go out goblin stomping. That looked to be ill advised, given the current political climate.
The iron mine could be ramped up to over twenty bars a day over the next day or two. Assuming we could get the tools needed to increase production to 20 bars a day, it would only take around 5 days to get the iron bars needed for the trade route. However, it looked like I needed to go to Narwal first to set up the route.
The plan I was developing consisted of a few simple steps. We needed money to get the economy running and buy things. If I went to Narwal and performed this trade mission, I could get that money. I could use that money to buy supplies, such as a saw blade for the sawmill, from the Narwal market. If I got lucky, I’d even find some people there who would be interested in moving to my village, assuming I didn’t mention the goblins.
Just a quick, simple road trip.
What could go wrong?
Chapter 18: Fenris Matters
I finally arrived at the Creek House, where Fenris and Kappa were both being tended. Fenris was being doted over by his wife, AvaSophia, who gave me a sour look as I approached. Kappa was being tended by the children, with EveSophia nestled in his fur. She was reading him a bizarre story about elves and a little puppy. JoeClarance was busy brushing the Warg’s fur.
Kappa seemed to be enjoying his treatment. Fenris, not so much.
“Hi, Mr. Mayor! It’s good to see you,” stated AvaSophia formally, with a dark edge to her civil tones.
“I was just here to check on Fenris and Kappa,” I responded. “We had a harsh battle but were able to reclaim the mine. The town sorely needed this victory.”
Pride welled in her that her husband had accomplished that. It warred with the anger she felt towards me, for dragging him into that place. Of course, intellectually, she probably realized that I’d also saved her husband again. She couldn’t get that mad at me. The problem with marrying a man of action is that they tended to act.
She’d almost settled her emotions, when a dripping wet Badgelor, in his damn War Form, stomped up the porch stairs behind me. “You can’t get rid of me that easily. I can track you stinking humans by smell! What’s for breakfast?”
Fenris half fell out of his chair, and Kappa extradited himself from EveSophia in a fluid motion. His fur bristled, as he got between his charges and the badger. The children were torn between hiding behind the snarling Warg and running to their mother’s skirts. Badgelor seemed utterly indifferent, plopping down on his haunches behind me and waiting.
“Oh, this is Badgelor. He is my animal companion,” I stated.
AvaSophia’s eyes twisted away from the badger and to me, “You have a War Badger?”
“After the attack, he kind of found me,” I stated.
Kappa had calmed down when it became obvious that Badgelor wasn’t behaving threateningly, but he kept a wary eye on the creature. JoeClarance stood to his right, holding a wooden sword. EveSophia had tucked herself behind the front door’s frame; now, she stuck her head out.
“Where did he find you?” the little girl asked.
“In a dark cave. I kind of fell,” I replied.
“You found a War Badger in a dark cave?” asked JoeClarance. “That’s just like Grebthar the Destroyer. His badger was named Badgelor, too.”
“Grebthar the Destroyer died over a thousand years ago,” stated AvaSophia, to her son.
“I bet Badgelor is a popular name for a badger. Especially if it is the name of a famous badger,” I replied.
“Like how Jim is a popular name for puppies!” shrieked EveSophia, who at least had the good grace to look embarrassed afterwards.
“Badgelor say ‘hi’,” I said flatly.
Badgelor waved his paw at them. “What are they saying? I can’t understand human very well.”
“You understood Mar,” I stated.
“Weasels are related to badgers,” replied Badgelor, dryly. “I could understand him well enough.”
Badgelor continued to sniff, as Kappa settled into his previous position. The Warg was still watching the badger, even as the kids also got back into position. EveSophia nestled into his fur. JoeClarance had not resumed combing, though, and still had his sword at hand.
Badgelor walked a few paces toward the door, sniffing loudly. “I don’t smell any food, Fenris.”
“Wait, can you understand him?” I asked the Woodsman, remembering what SueLeeta had said.
“All I caught was my name,” replied Fenris. “The rest of that was in War Badger, which I’m not nearly as proficient in. If it was in Wolverine or Weasel, I’d be okay, but not War Badger.”
“SueLeeta thought you could speak War Badger,” I replied, as JoeClarance set down his sword. He walked toward Badgelor, holding out his hand to let the badger sniff it. Badgelor reached out and shook his hand instead, causing JoeClarance to grin.
“When I was training as a Woodsman, I had a teacher who taught me some Badger speech,” grumbled Fenris. “SueLeeta thinks I’m an expert.”
“Shaking hands is not an impressive trick,” grumbled Kappa. Badgelor did a passable smile at him, displaying many sharp teeth.
“It's okay, Kappa,” said EveSophia in her soft voice. She had her book in one hand, and the Warg debated staying put or going to JoeClarence. He kept his eyes on Badgelor, though.
“Wait, I didn’t have any teachers,” I said. I had learned basically everything I knew about being a Woodsman without teachers. Sure, I’d gotten beaten up a bit in the process, but I’d managed.
“I can tell,” replied Fenris, before kneeling toward Badgelor. “Hello, my name is Fenris.”
“I can see your name, you dullard,” replied Badgelor.
“Yes, this is my house,” grinned Fenris.
“Didn’t Badgelor just insult him?” I thought to Shart.
“Dullard in Badger can be interpreted as a lot of things,” replied the demon.
“Where is the food?” grumbled Badgelor.
“Yes, you can come in,” replied Fenris, causing Badgelor to grumble loudly.
I sniffed once and realized what the issue with the food was. Fenris ate at sunrise, and it was well past 6:30. “I’m guessing no breakfast.”
“We already ate,” stated Fenris. He turned and, using his husband ‘skill’, quickly read his wife’s mood. I saw Fenris, who stared death in the face regularly, considering if this was a battle worth fighting. Then, I saw AvaSophia’s expression and realized the inevitable.
“Where is the food?” Badgelor repeated.
“This is going to be fun,” I stated. “Do you like the taste of hot Robitussin?”
Chapter 19: Tailor Made Problems
“I was lied to and tricked,” stated Badgelor, as we left the communal pots. We’d both gotten a ‘breakfast�
�� of boiled, wet vegetables. It was filling, but utterly unappetizing. I was also unfortunately correct regarding the warm medicine aftertaste.
When the farms were fully up and running, we’d have more food. We would be able to afford eating more extravagantly. Right now, we didn’t have enough to go around without doing this. That meant that if you ate at the communal pots, you had to eat slop.
“Thank you for the meal, EstherSasha,” I stated, before finding space at one of the tables. Badgelor, tiny once again, crawled under the table, his own dish carried in his mouth. He started eating and grumbling with every bite. I was fairly certain he had turned small so he would have to eat less. For me, an American who’d survived on a diet of fast food and rich home cooking, it was particularly miserable. I was eating a soggy plate of root vegetables and tubers with no seasoning at all.
I remembered my wife having the kids and me sit around and eat a plate of turnips once. I hadn’t much cared for it, despite her confident preparation. It tasted like heaven compared to this.
As I was eating the miserable pile of food, GowenDoud noticed I was there. I didn’t much care for him. I’d only talked to him a few times; he just struck me as the kind of person who could drag down anyone’s mood.
“Mister Mayor,” he stated, walking over.
No one called me Jim. GowenDoud was almost 5 feet six inches of smarm. He had greasy black hair, a short mustache, and was just a little bit overweight. This, coupled with his fancier purple outfit, gave him the air of a young Dirk Dastardly, minus the cool hat. He was the town’s tailor, so, there was really no excuse for the absence of some cool headwear. His shop had been repaired early, so people could get their clothes mended. The last thing I wanted was a town full of naked people. I wasn’t trying to run a nudist colony. GowenDoud had interpreted his store’s repairs as a sign of his own personal importance.
“Mister Tailor,” I replied, spooning another mouthful of mush into my mouth.
“Thank you ever so much for finally getting around to paying us,” he smarmed. A hush fell over the crowd as he spoke.
So, that’s how it's going to be.
I chewed for a few moments while I digested that. “Well, after saving you guys and trying to get the town in order, I figured you would want places to sleep before we started building up Town Halls.”
“Well, be that as it may,” he stated, after a moment, “I assume you’ll be paying these good people for the days of labor they spent toiling without reward?”
That actually got a murmur of agreement. People did not like to work without pay. However, the finances of the town were also not so good that I could just go throwing money around. I considered that for a moment but realized that it wasn’t worth the moral hit.
“Of course not. I’ll have everyone’s additional pay by the end of the day,” I replied. That would hurt and drag the town’s money supply to only 5 more days of solvency. Hopefully, Mar could do something with the taxes.
“Did you hear someone scream just now?” asked Badgelor. “It came from the direction of the Town Hall.”
“That's the short sighted action that I would expect from an Adventurer,” replied GowenDoud, with a cold smile.
I think I just walked into a trap.
“The town can afford to pay its workers,” I stated.
“But for how long?” replied the tailor. “It's well known that we don’t have any source of income. Yet, here you are, just handing out money to everyone. We may have earned it through toil, but it seems reasonable that you’d think of the town’s long term prospects.”
“Long term prospects?” I questioned.
“Yes,” replied the tailor. “Without any gold coming into the town, it's only a matter of time before the economy crashes. We will all be left destitute, unable to maintain the buildings or the fields. Then, the goblins will overrun the town. We’ll all be captured or killed!”
That was truer than he knew.
Everyone’s attention was now focused solely on our conversation. I noticed a flashing in my prompts indicating that the town had just suffered a morale crisis.
Then, I noticed another prompt. I had resisted a persuasion attempt. That meant someone had tried to use persuasion on me. I used Lore on the man in front of me.
GowenDoud: Tailor
HP: 45/45
Stamina: 50/50
Mana: 20/20
Skill: Tailoring Initiate
Skill: Mending Initiate
Skill: Needlework Initiate
I had to go deeper into his skill tree, but I found what I was looking for:
Oration Initiate: GowenDoud is great at convincing people to follow his way of thinking.
The little asshat was using Oration against me. Why was it that I never got cool battles with awesome skills? I was always counting on Hiking or Herbalism. I didn’t even have the Oration skill. Could I counter him with Administration?
“What is your plan?” I asked, stalling.
“It's obvious, despite your skills and powers, that you aren't really cut out for this. I could take over as Mayor for you, leaving you free to roam and quest. You’d have even more time to go adventuring. Leave the town to us townsfolk.”
That was his pitch? He wanted to be the mayor? The mayor had to do a bunch of little garbage quests that involved killing monsters. The tailor certainly couldn’t manage that. Then, I remembered that, with the Town Hall fixed, quests could be redistributed. I had thought the mayor was mainly a quest doer for the town, but the town could just assign those.
I heard a growling that I originally attributed to Badgelor. However, he was still under the table and the low snarls were coming from my right.
Did I really want to be the mayor of Windfall? I hadn’t considered it before now, but the thought of not being responsible for the town wasn’t entirely bad. I could go out and adventure, quest, and do heroic things, instead of killing rats in an outhouse. Then again, I had won the town through my own blood and sweat. I had saved these people. Part of me felt responsible for them.
Plus, GowenDoud rubbed me the wrong way. Menu time allowed me to examine him closely, standing there like a statue. Even here, I could tell that I’d never want to interact with him any more than necessary. He was an opportunist, who had waited until the hard work was done before deciding to confront me.
“Well, If I did that, what’s to stop me from leaving? I mean as mayor, I have an obligation to stay and help you guys run the town. As an adventurer, I think I’d find better prospects towards Narwal,” I stated.
That brought a hush over the crowd. It was a bit more hardball than I’d really wanted to play, but that was the crux of it. I was here because I was the mayor. I’d help these people out, and, maybe, I’d hand that job over to someone. Eventually. Just not to GowenDoud.
“Why would you leave us?” asked the tailor, lamely. “There are goblins east of here.”
“I will be safe, or at least able to fight them, because I am an adventurer. The town will be safe because of the barrier.” I noticed GowenDoud’s face fall. “What else? Let me guess. The title of your entire economic plan was ‘Jim Runs Endless Quests for Money’.”
GowenDoud said nothing. I continued to stare at him hard until it became uncomfortable. His plan had been for me to work like a mule to pay for the town through quests. Under his leadership, I would be made to act like the entire core of low level adventurers this place was supposed to have. He hadn’t even conceptualized that I would ever leave. The man was an idiot.
I heard more snarling, followed by an odd snapping noise. Again, it seemed to be coming from my right. Finally, GowenDoud backed away, retreating with his tail between his legs.
You have learned the skill Intimidate: When you can’t convince them, scare the crap out of them. Get them to do what you want!
After GowenDoud left, I finished eating my now cold mush. Briefly checking the town interface, I saw that the town’s morale had dropped several points. People were talking in
hushed whispers about the town’s money situation. They didn’t even consider the more serious goblin situation that would be following it. They weren’t even aware of the current Warg situation.
“Jim,” stated EstherSasha quietly. “Is what he said true? Is the town going to go bankrupt?”
“Of course not,” I replied loudly. “I already have a plan to bring in cash.”
“Thank the gods,” replied EstherSasha.
“I’m going to Narwal,” I stated, and her face fell.
“But you just said -,” she began, before I smiled.
“I’m going on a trade mission there. That will fix the unemployment and money situations all at once. I’ll be back in a few days.”
Chapter 20: Trade Missions
I wasn’t sure how everyone would treat the trade mission. Would they be upset? Would they be happy? I guessed people would be worried that I was running out on them, or at least somewhat upset that I was leaving. I was wrong. It was ridiculously popular with everyone, and not just because of the reward. Everyone had something they wanted me to sell. Jarra the Healer had some tinctures, while the merchants had various knick knacks. I eventually had to put a stop to that, after my pack became hilariously overburdened.
Apparently, they had brought the goods with them to sell in Narwal. Of course, they never made it. Their goblin captors hadn’t had time to strip their caravan before my arrival at the fortress. So, when the villagers made their way to Windfall, the merchandise went with them. Most of the items weren’t at all useful to the town; several of the shopkeepers specialized in glass and wooden carvings. Hopefully, Narwal would be interested in these offerings, as I also had a shopping list of what to pick up with the earnings.
Once again, my Hiking skill saved the day, allowing me to carry far more than I normally would have been able to.
