Adventures of a Scribe

by Michael Deyhim

  “He is in bad shape. Twenty eight goblins, eight wargs.” I was out of mana and those were shit odds, especially with a person down. “I think they are debating whether to eat him or do something else.”

  “Flash rune?” Falkerk asked.

  “All my supplies are back at camp.” I said. I cursed myself for not making some beforehand, but I had been in a rush to rescue George and they took time to make. The odds were six to one, which was terrible. “Just have to man up and do it.” I looked around. Everyone looked nervous. “Get your weapons ready. Charge with me, no mercy.” I pulled out my sword and turned around and advanced on the camp.

  Once we got within twenty feet I rushed out. Thankfully the others followed me. In that moment before both sides clashed I realized how stupid I was being. I was risking six people for one person. It would be a miracle if we all survived, if any of us survived this. I was probably going to die.

  I beheaded a goblin just as an arrow flew by me to take out another one. “AHHHHH!” I yelled out and began slashing away. I felt a blade pierce my side. I punched out with my free hand knocking the goblin down. A warg leapt at me but I twisted out of the way and drew my blade along its flank.

  I didn’t have time to finish it off as an arrow hit my left shoulder. I stabbed out and impaled a goblin through the head that had been rushing at me. A warg bit onto my right leg. I shifted my blade to a reverse grip and stabbed down, killing the beast. I tried to pull my blade free but it was stuck. A goblin let out a little shriek as it stabbed at my gut.

  I slapped the blade out of the way with my arm, leaving a gash. I then kicked out with my good foot and hit its heart plate. Its eyes went wide and it collapsed to the ground gasping. I slammed my boot onto its head and the skull caved in a bit. I grabbed my sword again and managed to pull it free. Looking around I saw Max in trouble.

  I rushed over as my injured leg and gut throbbed in pain and killed a warg and a goblin from behind. I left him the last goblin to deal with as I looked around again. Bran and Falkerk were still standing but didn’t look good but were finishing off their opponents. Sam was on the ground heavily wounded on the brink of death. I pulled out my only remaining health potion and poured it down his throat.

  Color returned and a number of his wounds closed up a bit. I looked around for Devon and George. George was still lying on the ground but I couldn’t see Devon. “Devon!” I shouted. I went back to where we had come from the forest to attack. There lying behind a bush was Devon. I checked the party panel and it said he was critically injured.

  “Max, we need some healing.” I looked over at Max.

  “I used it up to shield myself. I didn’t want to die.” He got quieter and quieter as he spoke. I quickly dropped to me knees and ripped off my shirt. I began to rip up strips to wrap the worst of the wounds. “Anyone have a healing potion.” I called out. With the fight over everyone else gathered around.

  No one said anything. The problem was his left arm. It was completely mangled. There was no way to completely bandage it. I needed to stop the blood flow. I grabbed a nearby stick and wrapped a large piece of cloth right above his elbow. With that done I put the stick through and began turning the stick to tighten it. Thankfully the bleeding stopped.

  This was a procedure of last resort to stop someone from bleeding out. If left on for more than a quarter of a day then the limb could die. At least he wasn’t bleeding out.

  “Max, do whatever you need to get some mana. The longer that stays on the more likely he will lose his arm.” I said.

  “What about…” He gestured at me.

  “Get me next, leave the arrow in, otherwise I will bleed out. I help me sit up against this tree and rest.” They remaining people moved me up against a tree next to Devon.

  “Someone check on George. I am going to close my eyes for a bit.” I said and dosed off.

  ***

  I woke to pain. I let out a gasp and opened my eyes. “Still alive?” Falkerk asked.

  “I don’t want to see your shitty face if I die.” I let out a sigh.

  “Good news is, no one died. Bad news is that even after a heal Devon is still pretty bad. We undid the bandage around his arm and bandaged the arm up, but it isn’t pretty. Also George won’t wake up. We can’t tell if it’s poison, mana, or something. Then we got you fearless leader who looks almost dead.” He gave a pointed look at my injuries.

  “Status panel.” I whispered. My health was holding at seven. I was almost dead. “Yeah, a poke would kill me.” I also had the status effect crippled and wasn’t regenerating any health.

  “Can you walk?” He asked.

  “Slowly. Very slowly.” I said.

  “Good enough. Bran is going to carry George. We did manage to find his bow and quiver but his clothes…well he is going to be letting it out for a bit.” I smiled at that since it would be a great thing to make fun of him about in the future. “Let’s get going. Don’t trip.”

  It took a while but we all managed to get up. Falkerk and Sam were carrying the gear for everyone else and they had looted the corpses. At least we got a couple of copper. I didn’t feel very excited about that. The walk back to our camp was agonizingly slow. Thankfully the path was fairly clear with the goblins and then us making mess last night.

  “I can heal again.” Max said once we arrived at camp.

  “Devon first, try and save the arm.” I said. Max nodded and proceeded with his chant. The arm did seem to get a bit better.

  “Still listed as crippled.” Devon said with a sigh. “Also, I can’t move it much.”

  “Just needs more healing. Some food and water would help out a lot.” I said. With access to our packs we had stale bread and hard jerky. “Lift his head up and give him water, should help clear his system.” I said when everyone looked at George. We sat around all day. Bran went to check his snare and loot the goblins and wargs we had killed before.

  Max healed me next so I could remove the arrow and recover a bit. I noted his chant gave me fifty health back. I didn’t feel great, but at least I felt like I wasn’t going to die. Night came and went and Max kept healing Devon and George still wouldn’t wake up.

  “We should get going.” I said. “I don’t think we will survive another serious fight.”

  “Carrying George is going to be a problem.” We all looked at his naked and unconscious form. Thankfully I had covered him with one of my blankets. The things I do for teammates. “Devon how is the arm?” Falkerk asked.

  “Better, but still listed as crippled. I can move my fingers a bit. It definitely gets better after each chant.” That was unfortunate. We only had one healer and he was needed to fix Devon. Letting injuries sit was a good way to allow them to become permanent. I looked at George. Could I sacrifice a man’s arm for a chance to heal him? The answer was no, but it still hurt a bit inside to admit that.

  “Bran you have a long shield. Lay him on that, and you and Sam carry him. Max and I will take your packs. Falkerk you can take Devon’s pack. I guess I am also taking George’s pack as well. We should be set then.” With that we moved out. It was slow and tedious. We had to keep stopping to rest since so many of us were overburdened and I felt like shit.

  After two days Devon was no longer a cripple and Max tried healing George. I received another heal during that time from Max and lost my crippled status thankfully. We all waited and George stirred a bit. “Whaaaaaaaa…..” He groaned out before drifting off again.

  It was on the following day after two more heals that he finally awoke. “What happened?” He groaned out.

  “Quiet, slowly drink some water.” I gave him some water making sure he didn’t drink too quickly. I then explained everything that had happened. “You all came back for me?” He asked.

  “Yeah you lazy ass. I swear, if I have to carry you one more foot or see your naked body…well don’t let it happen again.” Sam said.

  “Glad you are finally awake.” Falkerk said.

  “Wait, where are my boo
ts? Pants?” George seemed to suddenly realize he was only covered with a blanket and lying on a shield.

  “The goblins burned it all.” Bran said with a grin.

  “Oh shit no. Ahhhh, so tired, falling asleep…..” He said clearly faking.

  “You can keep the blanket to cover yourself. Keep it forever. Oh and if your feet get injured from walking, Max can work on healing you at the end of the day.” I said.

  ***

  “Welcome back boys, you look like you had an adventure.” Boron said. We strolled in Jopel just after dawn. We had tried to make it the night before but it was too dark so we all just collapsed until morning.

  “Beds for seven, two nights, and double meals also. We have a hundred and forty seven goblins and thirty six wargs. So two hundred and fifty five copper by my count.”

  “Well a hundred and thirty two copper for the room and the food.” Boron said. He then slid across a pouch with a hundred and twenty three copper after counting it out in front of me. I pocketed it and picked up the keys. Falkerk and George came with me. Falkerk to help sell the metal and the George to buy some clothes.

  With a hundred and two chunks of shitty goblin stabbers I managed to get a hundred and thirty copper. The axe sold for seventy copper, putting our reserves at three hundred and twenty three copper. That meant everyone got forty six copper with one left over.

  I gave Falkerk the money for his group and went with George to buy clothes. That ended up costing a silver, leaving the three of us thirty eight copper. “Thanks man. I owe you one.” George said.

  “Well we are officially broke. With what I had before I have just fifty copper.” I said

  “No bath…” He trailed off.

  “We shouldn’t even have done that before. Now we are completely poor. Maybe you should just run around naked and become a whore. At least then you will get a bath.”

  “How dare you. I would get three baths and four, no five meals a day if I took on that profession.” George said.

  “Only from the blind and the monsters. Who knows what depraved acts they did with you. Maybe in nine months a little baby goblin will pop out.” I said.

  “Ouch, ok, got it. We are poor. Need lots of money.” He said. We returned to the guild hall. I got us both a mug of ale and took a seat.

  “Looks like you kids took a real beating out there.” Yonson came up to our table. I was surprised he was still around.

  “Well it went like this.” I started weaving a tale of our daring exploits and soon all the other patrons had gathered around. The rest of our group slowly came in and everyone was listening in. There was a large round of cheers when I described rescuing George and laughs about hauling him naked through the forest. I didn’t think anyone could turn that red.

  “I haven’t laughed like that in a long time.” Yonson said. “A round of drinks on me for the returning heroes.” A cheer went up. Yonson then disappeared for a moment to return with a lute and began playing some lively tunes. He didn’t sing but the atmosphere was definitely a lot warmer than before. It was quite late before I dragged myself into a bed and passed out with a smile on my face.

  ***

  “Good morning.” Bron said.

  “Morning.” I mumbled out.

  “I am guessing you and your friends are at least level ten.” Bron said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well here you go then.” He passed over a medallion with a two on it. “You made it, not a fish anymore.”

  “Fish?”

  “A joke some old timers use. They flop about, you gut them, and they aren’t good for much except as food. Like ones.”

  “I got it. At least I can take a guard mission, killing goblins doesn’t earn enough money.” I said.

  “True. There is probably going to be a formal expedition next spring to clear them out. Possibly get the army in here and they might post up requests for scouts and so on.” Boron kept cleaning out mugs behind his counter as he spoke.

  “If I am in the area I will consider. I just have seen enough goblins to last a life time.” I pulled out a copper.

  “A bit early, don’t drink your life away.”

  “Give me two mugs and water them down. I just want to drink.”

  “Save the other one for later?”

  “Sure.” He poured water and then ale into a mug. “Ahh, thanks.”

  “No problem. Ternor was asking for you when you returned.” I finished off the mug and left. It was simple enough to go to the merchant’s guild.

  “Hey, morning.” I said after entering. Ternor looked up at me.

  “I heard you were back, excellent. I am in need of a decent scribe.”

  “What kind of job?” I asked.

  “Copies of account books. I was wondering if you could remove some things.” I looked at him as my brain slowly kicked into gear.

  “How many books, how long, how many changes?” I asked.

  “All business, I like that. Two books, around a hundred and twenty folios each. Five days, counting this one. I want to show that iron is selling at about a third less and food selling at about a quarter less.” He said.

  “Why not change the originals?” I asked.

  “I am under a contract not to alter them myself. So with a traveling scribe in need of money.” He looked at me. The laws of the land focused on stealing and killing. This kind of crime should not be picked up by the contract I signed since I was only altering books. Contract mana was good, but it had huge weaknesses. I wasn’t stealing and Ternor was keeping accurate books. Listening to various stories at the guild hall had definitely paid off where my reading hadn’t.

  “Let’s talk price. I hope you have the materials?” I asked. He nodded. “My guess is that you are getting around a gold. I am not going to be greedy, five silver.” I stared at him.

  “True, I expected you to charge more actually.” He said.

  “You probably post the missions for caravans, I want three spots, for me and my two friends.” I held up my rank two medallion. “Good spots. I have heard people talk about how it can range from shitty food and a moldy blanket to sleep under to something a bit nicer. Not expecting a bath every day, but something nice. I also need two silver up front to pay for my room to stick around.”

  “Hmmm, that is fine. My replacement will be here and I will be off to the capital to deposit guild earnings and transport supplies.” Ternor said.

  ***

  The entire group gathered around a table as we had our dinner. Bran, George, and I were all congratulated on earning rank two. “I have a couple things to say.” Everyone looked at me.

  “I am done going after goblins and am taking a guard mission in six days. Bran and George I was able to reserve you both spots if you want to come along.” They looked at each other.

  “I wanted to stay actually.” George said. It took me a moment to notice the glance he shared with Devon sitting next to him. I knew they were sharing a room, but I hadn’t realized it had gone that far. I had heard about such things, but they were often frowned on and not talked about. Children were needed to carry on the family line and it just was never talked about when two men got togeather.

  “I want to move on. This place, well it’s shitty like a barrel of fish guts.” Said Bran. Everyone chuckled at that.

  “Well then, I hope you survive. Next time I see you, you better be a rank five.” I said to George.

  “Yeah, yeah I will.” He replied. It seemed odd that the one guy looking for women had become a sword swallower. I almost couldn’t believe it but I had seen the same look between my parents and other couples. All the times they went off into the woods together and the number of times they placed a hand on the other’s shoulder.

  That night I stared at the ceiling trying to match what I knew about George and what I had found out. It was annoying me to no end that I had completely missed the entire thing. I let out a long sigh at that. It wasn’t the fact that he was into other guys it was that I didn’t realize it. All th
e times we had seen each other naked, was he turned on by that? I hated having questions I didn’t know the answer to. I decided to leave the whole thing alone rather than causing a scene.

  The party split up the next day, leaving Bran and I. Thankfully Boron employed him to clean the guild hall and help cook while we hung around. It would ease the financial strain we were under. It was brutal copying those two accounting books and making sure all the numbers I had changed added up correctly. Ternor reviewed my work very carefully. Only one folio had to be ripped up after I made an error with my sums.

  I finished on the fifth day around midday. I let out a long sigh. That had been completely and totally exhausting. “Perfect, they have time to dry before tomorrow.”

  “Wait.” I looked at the new and old accounting books. “The oldest one is worn. These look brand new.” Ternor looked between the two.

  “That is not good.” He said quietly.

  “Get a small barrel of small clean stones. It won’t be perfect, but if we seal the book in the barrel and shake it, that should wear it down a bit.” It was a trick forgers used. My father had mentioned it once in passing. It wouldn’t fool a master scribe but it should pass casual inspection.

  “You are a clever one. I can handle that easily enough. Swing by early tomorrow with your companions.”

  “Just one other. George decided to go kill some more goblins.” I said.

  “No matter.” I was tired and left after he had paid me the remainder of what he owed me.

  “Welcome adventurer!” Bran said as I entered.

  “Adventure me a mug.” I said. He poured one out for me as I sat down at the bar. “We are set. We should earn about a silver each just coasting with the caravan.” It was five coppers a day and our expenses were covered. Two ten-days to there, so a silver each.

  “It was nice just pouring drinks for a bit and learning to cook. Boron got some time off with his wife, so it worked out.” He said.

  “Wife?” I remembered vaguely that Boron had mentioned something about his wife being in back.

  “The cook, she can’t stand most adventurers and just stays in back. Not missing anything trust me. People come and go, no one above rank three though.” Bran said.