Roloth, the old man and I are walking towards the center of town. We are walking thru a residential area. The houses seem nice but not too remarkable; the people live well but not luxuriously. The people of town are full of life, I could hear laughing children wives happily chatting all in all the people of the town were rather lively. As we reach the central plaza we stand in front of either a small mansion or a big house. It seems to be the town hall and the mayor’s house.

 When we enter we find ourselves in a rather big room with some chairs for waiting and a bell on the far side. The old man is heading for the bell while I’m looking around.

When the bell was rung a man came along. The man seems to be in his 50s, he seems healthy although the bags under his eyes suggest he’s going thru some turbulent times. He goes towards the old man.

“Lemas what brings you to my humble abode?” {Mayor}

“I’m afraid it’s an emergency. This young man here while defending me killed two bandits from Missio’s group.” {Old man}

The mayor’s expression turned stern, one could see smoke coming from the top of it. The mayor might die just from the stress of the situation I’ve thrusted upon him, sorry my bad. He turns his gaze towards me; he probably expects an explanation and maybe a solution, sadly I only have one of those.

“Well, where do I start…” {Pr}

“Maybe from the begining” {Mayor}

I tell the story to the mayor, the old man adds some details here and there but there isn’t much to lie about. I don’t regret my actions so no other option than to push forward. A question formed in my mind while explaining.

“What about the Lord, or kingdom can’t they do anything about these marauders?” {Pr}

“Missio seems to have an arrangement with the current Lord of this hold, and as long as the taxes keep flowing the Lord doesn’t care about us.” {Mayor}

An idea was budding while I was explaining to the mayor, and after having my question answered it bloomed.

“So that is the state of things, huh. I might have a solution for this though.” {Pr}

“What is it? If you have a way, out with it!” {Mayor}

“Basically I’ll raise a local militia formed from volunteers and defend the town along them” {Pr}

 “If the lord won’t defend you then I’ll teach you to defend yourselves. Do you plan to continue living in fear of a group of outlaws?” {Pr}

The room falls into silence, I need to push my option more strongly.

“Because this is sort of my mistake I’ll defend the town for free; I only ask that the belongings of the bandits I kill be mine.” {Pr}

The mayor looks at the old man, Roloth and finally me. As if he had given up he sighs.

“Ok, I’ll ask for volunteers. Because you got us into this mess the town will keep a third of whatever you get from the bandits.” {Mayor}

“That is fine with me; we should have a couple of days to train as those two won’t be immediately missed.” {Pr}

Once the plan was accepted Roloth and I leave the hall, the mayor and the old man were discussing something. I got a decent deal out of it; they could have asked me to do it for free.

“Roloth you should do your business and leave town quickly. I wouldn’t want you to get caught in this mess.”

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Anyhow Roloth has a wonderful family I vowed to protect. He should go on his merry way. If he gets injured by a bandit, well let’s say I might turn into a bat and instill fear into the hearts of criminals.

“Ha I can’t leave a youngster to fight by himself. I’m also partly to blame for not stopping you, not that you did anything wrong.” {Ro}

“Do it for my peace of mind, I’m confident I can handle it.” {Pr}

After some back and forth he finally agreed. I’ve said it once and I will say it again Roloth and his family are too nice.

I hear the chime of a bell, its coming from the town center. When I arrive at the plaza a huge crowd had gathered, the mayor was in front of the town hall. The mayor in a loud voice calls for me, I make my way thru the crowd and stand at his side. He explains what happened so far and what my plan is. He skillfully tugs the heartstrings of the townsfolk; after all we need to the volunteers to be as motivated as possible.

“We will need volunteers, who will be trained by Prudan here to defend the town.” {Mayor}

Ten brave souls step forward. A woman and nine men, most of them look like farmhands. Their bodies look fine, but it is painfully obvious that none of them ever held a weapon nor wielded magic. At least they have already developed working muscles and some endurance. It’s better this way, blank slates without any bad habits and no magic element.

The mayor tells everyone to disperse. The townsfolk go about their business, the earlier lively atmosphere is gone, now only grim looks are to be seen. A man with a strong build came over to me, he is wearing a leather apron and his hands are rugged. He introduces himself as the town’s blacksmith. He then offers to make ten spears and shields for the recruits to use. He is keenly aware that equipment is likely to be the deciding factor. I also ask him if he has some helmets and something to protect the chest. Head protection is vital, before getting any other piece of armor you must always protect the head.

As I round-up the volunteers, they look at me with expectant eyes. I’ll only be teaching the basics to them; after all they only need to be able to protect the town from bandits, not a trained invasion force or legendary monsters.

 “I’ll be training you in the use of the spear and water magic. The reason for using the spear is simple. The weapon is common and doesn’t require much training, as for water magic it’s the element I’m attuned to.” {Pr}

I have the group run for about an hour most of them are panting heavily. Yes you might resent me now but stamina will help you in the long run. After they finish the limbering and strength exercises; I begin teaching the group the basic water chant. I plan on having them create ice javelins, because adding speed consumes mana they don’t have, they’ll throw the javelins themselves.

“Imagination and intention is everything in magic, if you can see it in your mind you can create it.” {Pr}

I show them an ice javelin I created so that they have a clear image on their head. Two thirds manage to create rough-looking sticks, it’s close enough. The remaining people who failed created what can only be called a toothpick. Looks like more training will be needed.

At the end of the day everyone could make the javelins. They could produce around 3 javelins each which will come in handy in the looming battle. Next is training them in the use of said projectile some basic spear techniques. But it’s already late so I tell them to return home, tomorrow will be combat training. I also tell them to continue the chanting practice whenever they can. Tomorrow I should also scout the bandits, depending on what I find I will create an appropriate strategy to deal with them.