The mismatched pair of adventurers were halfway across the city in no time. Mavec was particularly grouchy as he fought through the crowds to keep pace with Bait, who managed to seamlessly scamper between the bustling people with an ease Mavec envied. The sun was still high as they finally reached the gate they needed and headed out onto the open road. It couldn’t have been more than an hour before Bait stopped raising a hand over his large, beady eyes and looking down the road.

“Mavec might be trouble. See thing hiding in the brush,” Bait said, grabbing out his musket.

“Got it,” Mavec said as he reached down and touched Piquora; arcane energy warped around her, insulating her from any would-be attacks. The pair approached the possible ambush sight carefully.

“Everyone come out,” Came a voice as a goblin riding on top of a goblin dog emerged from the underbrush. The creatures still vexed Mavec. They looked like a medium-sized dog, a hairless cat, and a rat, all at the same time. Lanky, naked, and gross. “Just another Goblin. Where clan?” He asked, pointing a spear at Bait.

“Bait no know, who you?” He said, looking up at the goblin on its dog. He was shirtless, with lots of jewelry made of teeth. Bracelets and necklaces were full of incisors. What clothing he did wear was furs over his legs and waist. He had far more hair than Bait, a nice little mohawk of chalk blue hair.

“I am Boogie, Leader of the BOAR EATER CLAN!” he shouted as he brandished his spear into the air.

“Boar eaters sound dumb. Cheese better.”

“Boar eaters eat cheese too, but we hunt boar with the spear. Spear best weapon,” Boogie insisted.

“No, Boom-boom, best weapon!” Bait shouted back.

“No, stab-stab best weapon.”

“Boom, boom!”

“Stab-Stab!”

“Are we seriously debating which weapon is better... because it's the gun,” Mavec stated.

“Who ask you, hooman?” Boogie asked.

“No one, but your argument was dumb, and Bait was clearly right,” Mavec responded.

“Why you here?” Bait asked, pointing at the goblin.

“We travel far to fight in Festival of Blades. Prize money helps us find a thing. No tell dumb boom-boom lover, though.”

“How you pay?”

“Of course, spear is best weapon; of course, we pay. We no dumb boom-boom goblins. See!” he said, pointing to several large sacks of coins.

Bait frowned. “Bait wish Illaria was here; then we take their coin, problem solved.”

“Yeah, we’re not stealing. It would make this faster but bring me down to Warren’s level. No, thank you,” Mavec replied.

“As if you could, Boar Eater Clan too strong to be robbed by lonely little boom-boom maker.”

“Yeah yeah, eat shit, too,” Mavec said as he walked past them. “Come on, Bait, we’ve got to talk with Ben. We can leave this prehistoric trash behind.”

“Bait agree,” he said, jogging past them and continuing down the road to Archers Market. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and they reached Ben’s cheese shop before the mid-day. Ben and Biswell were both outside. Ben was still particularly bandaged up, and Biswell was thankfully not. Bait ran over to Ben, and the two wandered off momentarily to chat. Leaving Biswell and Mavec alone.

“So, uh, why exactly do you work here?” Mavec asked. Biswell smirked at him.

“HEY, BEN,” Biswell hollered over to the pair of short humanoids, “I need a raise!”

“Consider it done,” Ben shouted back.

“He didn’t even ask how much,” Mavec exclaimed.

“I’ll need two more gold a month!” Biswell shouted.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“So it shall be,” Ben shouted once more.

Biswell turned and smiled widely at Mavec. “I could ask for the same thing tomorrow, and I’d get it without him even batting an eye. The little guy is a loon, but he pays his people well. As a former supply officer, doing this kind of work is easy for me, and the pay is exceptional.”

“Got it. I should have guessed the little weirdo paid well,” Mavec said, nodding.

“Ben, Bait need money. Forty thousand gold pieces. Bait and friends want to fight in Festival of Blades. We promote Ben’s company while we compete. Name team after Ben?”

“Ah, I see,” Ben drawled. “Are you sure you will win? Bring honor to my cheesery?”

“Bait hopes to win.”

“Hope is not enough, Bait; you must win if I am to give you the gold.”

Bait wanted to say yes. It easy to say yes. Bait know he could win. Bait no know if he will win. Every battle a risk. Boom-boom was good, but couldn’t make sure he won.

“Bait, no promise to win. Battles hard. No knowing till dust clear,”

Ben smiled wide at Bait's answer. “Then I shall not be supporting you with gold but something else. In the Valley of Steam, you will find a rare goop harvested from the hot springs. Use this ingredient when making your first cheese in your own forge.”

“Oooh, Cheese quest. This help Bait, too! Forget Festival; need cheese ingredient. Mavec, we go now!” Bait said as he headed back over to Mavec and Biswell. “We go now, no fund, but gather team, we go to Valley of Steam. Get super-rare cheese ingredient, start cheese empire!”

“Yeah, Bait, I’d be willing to go there, but I don’t think we can start a successful cheese empire that could make us forty thousand gold in two weeks. Just seems like a lot.”

“Do not doubt the power of cheese?” Bait asked as he wagged his finger at Mavec.

“Let's head back; maybe someone else will have had better luck figuring out how we’re going to get forty thousand gold,” Mavec said, heading back towards the road to Sha-Laial.

Illaria at the church

Illaria sat in one of the private rooms enjoying tea with one of the head priests. The room was opulent, and she felt out of place there. Especially since she was in just plain old clothing. The cup of tea was in a porcelain cup on the desk, and she sat in a delightfully comfortable chair. The man across from her was old enough to be her grandfather with white hair.

“Unfortunately, we won’t be able to honor that request,” he said before he took a long sip from his own cup of tea. His robes were primarily white, with an inlay of gold, silver, and some copper wound jewelry.

“Even if I offer the deed to the tower as collateral?” she asked.

“While a fantastic offer, unfortunately, I still can’t go for it,” he said as he swept his head from one side to the other. “I hate to pass up on such a good offer. Father Efran of Ac-Rilir wanted that property so badly.”

“Could you be providing an explanation as to why? I don’t understand what about this proposition isn’t good?” Illaria asked.

“It's simple; we’d be competing against ourselves. While the church doesn't have a specific team, our members are hired out to nobles frequently, and more importantly, the Red and Blue Banner armies are supplemented with members from our ranks. We would most assuredly be fighting against our own brothers. Thus, we can’t, in good faith, fund another team.”

“I understand,” Illaria stated, taking another long sip from the cup before her. “Thank you very much for the tea. It's not my usual beverage of choice, but I am thankful nonetheless.”

“And I thank you for thinking of us and stopping in. Your group has certainly livened up the street. It's also nice to see Sarbie and Hoc making friends near their age.”

“They’ve both been very helpful to us. It's a pleasure to have met them,” Illaria stated.

“I wish I had any tips or advice for you. Perhaps one of the barkeeps will have a better idea of what you should do? This challenge could be insurmountable, though. Forty thousand gold, in only about two weeks, will be more than most people could hope to raise.”

“I know, it's just that our artificer really wants in on this. One of the opposing teams has a man who stole his designs on it. The only chance he has of putting the spotlight on this other man's theft is to participate at the least, if not win,” Illaria said as she finished her cup, thanked the cleric, and left.

Hoc met her in the lobby. “Illaria, is it really true? You guys are going to compete in the festival?”

“We’re trying Hoc, but so far, we’ve not been able to secure funding. It's a lot more than any of us have on hand. Hopefully, someone in our group hasn’t struck out.”

“It would be so cool to see you guys competing.”

“It would be exciting,” Sarbie chimed in. “I wish I had any advice for you guys, but I’m not sure how you’d get that kind of money quickly.”

Illaria bid them goodbye and headed back to the tower. Over the day, the rest of the party filtered in and gathered to discuss how their efforts had gone.

“So we’ve got nothing,” Alvec said.

“This is impossibly frustrating!” Mavec shouted.

“Maybe Edis and Nora have that kind of money saved away? Former Green Banner army and all?” Naya suggested.

“I already told you, we go to Valley of Steam, get special cheese ingredient, then we make amazing cheese to share with world. Gold flow like da river into our hands.”

“Bait, I appreciate that you think we can be solving every problem with cheese, but I don’t think it actually works like that,” Illaria said.

“Truth, some problems are solved by boom boom. Wish we could have boom-boomed stupid boar eaters.”

“Either way, I think we’ll be needing to find a new solution,” Illaria stated. The group gathered around the dinner table as Alvec started to cook. The team floated dozens of outlandish ideas as they broke bread over the long wooden table.