Chapter 175

New Magic Ingredient

Brewer’s Reputation: 95

The atmosphere on the Hermit Tavern plane was deeper than any other plane. With some modifications, its own light was close to true sunlight. Dusk domes of spectral colors mottled the distances.

But right here in the center of it all, Dream Cutters labored to continue the tavern’s build, block by block. I felt foolish working alongside them. My Dream Cutter skill was in its infancy, despite meanwhile leveling up. However, I could not help but to put in as much effort in building the columns, the flooring, the seating, the yard, the cave.

The cave was made of every stone that the Dream Cutters could pull from their dreams. They drove a tunnel through the stone with alternating chambers on either side. The tunnel screwed below the tavern for at least a thousand feet. Soon it would be filled with bottles and barrels which the bartenders would heave up to the bar.

The construction of the eucalyptus globe bar had just come to a finish. Dream Cutters worked on the details of columns and chairs to show a picture of craft. There were nearly one hundred chairs sprawled amongst the columns. I wondered if the tavern would ever receive that many patrons at once.

The tavern was surrounded by acres of gardens. Dream Cutters installed the most fantastic plants which thrived in the nourishing atmosphere. It was decided that some of the plants could remain half formed. I could pass my fingers through some flowers. It gave an illusion of some ghostly ethereal light among the plants. Firmed plants intersected with the more mirage ones.

And among the tangle of true nature and mirages, Abigail appeared.

“Do you have a moment?” she said. She came to me, drifting in the light gravity of the plane like wings over a warm current.

“For you,” I said. “Of course.”

We shared smiles, and we took each other’s hands. My heart pressed against my ribs, and I blushed in her presence. Did she feel the same? Is that why we chuckled together? The moment was at the same time fleeting and eternal. It was fleeting for the experience, yet now a fond memory.

We left the plane like it too was some memory and returned to the coast.

“Look,” said Abigail.

Two ships bobbed at sea. There were humans and goblins aboard. The goblins seemed miserable, and each one was wrapped in a cloak or towel too large. They filled rowboats and rowed ashore.

I addressed the goblins first. “See all that wreckage there?”

“Maybe,” spat a goblin.

“It’s yours. You can use the freebooter ship building rules to fix up a sloop. Maybe something smaller with how many of you there are. I’m sure you’d like to go right back to sea.”

“Eyes off the goods! That’s our wreckage no matter what you say!”

The shorter goblins, seemingly bolstered by their leader’s attitude, growled at me. Yet, judging by the way they cast off their borrowed cloaks and towels to skip across the sand to the wreckage, they were shedding their misery. In just a few moments, they had shaped together a keel.

The humans struggled with their own keels as they dragged their rowboats ashore. Their robes were gilded at the edges. There were golds, silvers, rose golds, and emerald threads of metal embroidered in their robes.

“Everyone here looking for the same man?” said one of the men, dashing the sand of the coast from his hands. “Hawkin Ballow?”

“That’s me.”

“Elliot Allencour. Gold rank Glass Glower.”

He withdrew from his inventory a glass bottle. It was the second torpedo style bottle I had ever seen. The glass was volcano red and the neck was pleated. A dragon had been reliefed around the belly of the bottle. Diamonds had been etched around the dragon. As Elliot rotated the bottle in his hand, the light of the volcanic red glass changed hues from yellow to orange to blood red. The play of light colored the dragon, and caused an illusion of animation. It seemed the dragon was slithering around the bottle like a screw turning in place.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Wow,” I muttered. “I’ve run across some beautiful bottles in the last couple of years. Built up quite a collection.”

“I guarantee you haven’t run into any of mine.”

“I believe it. Here, this has to be my favorite so far from my collection.” I showed him the bottle made of the skeleton of leaves. “The cork disintegrated.”

Elliot picked the bottle from my hands like it was a kitten. “This is the work of the Alik. It’s worth several thousand gold.”

“I just thought it was awesome.”

He gestured to his comrades who had come up behind him. “Most of us are Glass Blowers. Is there anywhere we could talk?”

The large tent had the most seating, and it offered conversation the most privacy. We sat circled around a table where the glass blowers set their most impressive works of art. I couldn’t help but think of Boggo. Each one would have seemed to him like a colossal rare gem. They seemed to move light on their own. I couldn’t take my eyes off the brilliant show of near gems. It was thus hard to stay focused on the Elliot proposition.

“So you don’t want me to just choose a beer?” I said.

Elliot possessed a book that was new to me: The Brewer’s Reputation Leaderboard. The book was flipped open to the second page.

“You have quite the reputation in the Brewer’s world,” said Elltio with a finger on the page on my name. “We do too in ours. I’m in the top ten percent. Instead of pulling a beer from your current catalogue, we should work together on something new.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“The most important aspect of blowing glass is light. It gives glass its definition. Whatever you put inside anything translucent will affect light. We’d like to collaborate on a beer style that will pair best with our particular bottle designs.”

I couldn’t believe how thrilled I was to work with a Glass Blower. It was almost strange to be excited to work with folks. Part of me had been wanting to work with a Glass Blower since the beginning of my quest path.

“I would love to work with all of you.”

“We would purchase eighty percent of the bottled beer from you to sell to Collectors and high profile customers. You’ll keep twenty percent to do with as you please. We’ll ask in writing that you treat each of our brands with respect, and that you never sell below a threshold price.”

“I’ll have to summon Thrush if you want to draw up contracts. He’s the Merchant who takes care of all of that.”

“I would expect nothing less.”

I pulled a smoky crystal bottle from the cluster on the table. It was a twisted cylinder from top to bottom. The neck was offset and shorter than a quarter of an inch. It reminded me of the stone bottle from the Vale of Ara ale.

“Where do we start?” I said.

“Could you brew your lightest and darkest styles?”

“Gladly. But before we begin, I have a condition of my own.”

∞

Abigail and I strayed north along the coast.

“I spoke with the folks on the other ship,” she said. “They’re here to propose an idea to you.”

“Would you want to work with Elliot and the Glass Blowers as well? I’d love to see some of your beers in their bottles. They’re gorgeous. No other Brewer would be more deserving than you.”

“That depends on them.”

“My condition was to include your beer. They already know who you are, and they’d love to work with us together.”

“I’ve never worked with a Glass Blower before. But I’ve always wanted to. Margaux zapped me of any free time to explore such a thing.”

“So this will be a first for you?”

“Guess we’re doing a first thing together!”

We lay in the sand and listened to the surf foam over the rocks. The sun warmed our shoulders. I kissed her knuckles.

“About those other folks,” Abigail said after we’d brushed the sand from our clothes and began our amble back to camp. “They want to propose that you create inventory beers.”

“Easy enough. The Dream Cutters and I are already one step ahead of them.”

“That’s a yes, then? They’ll be thrilled.”

Sand shifted beneath approaching footsteps. Maz the Alchemist stumbled toward us. “Hawkin! My lady!”

“Is everything all right?” I said.

Maz whipped out his Brewer’s Guide to Magic Ingredients. He wet his thumb and flipped to the S section. He put himself beside us so we could see the page he isolated.

“Is this because of you?” he said. “A note of origin hasn’t yet appeared in our Alchemy journals.”

Soul (Human).

(New Ingredient!)

Necromancy (WARNING: See rules R.4.1 regarding laws on Necromancy.)

Aggregate addition: Human soul

An ethereal plane must first be obtained. The necromantic Osmous ritual must be performed to seal the human soul upon the plane. Product: Ethereal Beer Phylactery.

I found that my Brewer’s Reputation had risen to 89.