“Ok, so time to talk about what our plan of approach is for the quest?” Tinker asked
“I think we must pretend to be travelers. It would give us the excuse to talk to many people and ask questions. I am not sure how bright you are, but I will assume you won’t be obvious in your questions.”
“No, I will ask the usual stuff and try not to be too obvious. So we each going to go ask our own questions?”
“Yes, divide and conquer. Besides I do the best of my gathering alone.”
Tinker could just imagine how that went. She faking interest in what a person has to say. Laughing at all your jokes, hanging on your every word. He got the shivers when he thought what evil intentions hid behind that pretty face.
“We also need a backup plan.” Trixy said.
“Ok, what did you have in mind?”
“We pretend we are a couple and want to adopt.”
Tinker actually missed a step. “What now? Will they buy that?”
“I can’t see why not. We young, I am a High elf. Better to adopt then to have a half breed baby and all that. Also we are players so adoption is pretty much our only option if you get what I am saying?”
“I do, it’s just that I don’t see myself as the married type. What if they ask more questions or want proof?”
“Don’t worry. I doubt they will ask for our marriage certificate or something. We can fake and act the part of a married couple. If they want the proof, we will post pone and buy time while we look at our options for adoption.”
“Ah ok, so should we not think and work a bit on our back story.”
“Yep, It was love at first sight. Me, the jewel of the High elves, you a warrior of great renown. We met weeks ago in the palace gardens. I was there for my love of plants and nature. You were there for the simplicity and to focus your thoughts before your next battle. You were sitting at the best spot in the gardens, I came over and you offered me your seat without hesitation. From there the rest is history.”
“Hmmm, sounds bit farfetched but stranger things have happened.”
“O really, like what?”
“I donno, just seemed like the thing to say. So after I gave you my seat then what happened?”
“We talked of course, we talked for two days without pause while wondering the entire grounds. After the two days you proposed on the spot. I accepted and we got married about a week later. Now we have been happy ever since.”
Tinker just nodded. It did not sound at all like him, but best he just went with her story. That way it was easier to remember and he could always use the line “You tell them the story honey, you tell it so much better than I.”
“You happy and fine with the story?”
“Yes, it’s ok I guess. So what type of child we looking to adopt?”
“A girl, young, maybe about 7 years or so. One that will become a great beauty one day, like her mother.”
“Sure,” Tinker said while giggling.
They swapped more ideas back and forth on their way to Tear. Trixy would talk mostly to men and the lord in charge of the place. That would leave the woman and children for him.
Not long after they arrived at the town. It was larger than Tinker thought it would be. It was also well fortified. He could not help but wonder was it to keep something out or the orphans in? They passed into the town easy enough and saw what you would suspect to see in a normal town. People going about their day. It did not seem like there was many kids running around though. They parted ways and agreed to hook up later.
Tinker walked over to the nearest guard and asked if there was a warriors guild here.
“No warriors guild. The garrison acts as the muscle around here.”
“Is there anything special about this garrison? I am pretty sure every town that has a warriors guild also has a garrison.”
“That they do. Ours is rather large. Instead of a military camp, we have one of the largest garrisons around with training ground and facilities.”
“Ok. That explains the heavy fortifications. Are there like any monsters or beasts that threaten the town?”
“Not really no. People just get stationed here for a while before they are redeployed elsewhere. We train about 1000 soldiers every 6 months here. They all come from somewhere and after basic training they get sent away and a new bunch come and take their place.”
“Ah, so are you one of the 1000?”
“No, I live here now, moved here about 5 years ago. Got myself a wife when I was a doing my training here.”
“Congratulations. So where do those go and work that join the training from Tear?”
“Some stay and others leave to see the world. I don’t know if you know this. But Tear has the largest facilities for orphaned and troubled kids in the province. Those from all the neighboring regions send their unwanted to us.”
“You don’t seem to mind.”
“I don’t, my wife is an orphan and came here from some city. There she lived on the street and sometimes went days without eating, at least here they get food and have things to do.”
“Really, I can’t imagine kids listening to you lot.”
“There are enough guards around the town to prevent them from running off. We have a simple system here. If you don’t do what you are told, you don’t eat. Don’t get me wrong friend, we don’t treat them like slaves. It is better than the alternative of beating them. At one stage or another all these children were beaten, where they come from. This way and method we get the best results.”
“I see yes, so are there any quests or things that need doing around here?” Tinker thought best not to press the issue, he got his first lead.
“Not that I know off. Between us and the children almost everything gets done. The few things we can’t, the rest of the town does or the Lord Lopen gets someone to do it.”
“Very good, I might go and ask him if I have the time. Can you tell me the way to an Inn?”
Tinker found himself at one of the inns. It seemed good enough. Not the best, but it would do. He ordered a drink and when asked what he wants to eat, he asked to speak with the cook. The waiter was not happy. The cook was not either. After some back and forth between Tinker and the cook it became clear that the cook was losing her patients. The inns owner came to the table to hear what all the fuss was about.
Tinker claimed to have a very delicate stomach and needed to give precise instructions for his meal. Since he knew a thing or two about cooking it came naturally. After some more arguing he finally said he would go into the kitchen and supervise the cook personally. The owner did not mind, he wanted the money. The cook did not seem happy, but what can she do when the boss gives an order.
Tinker had his glass and started giving orders. First he told the cook to cut his meat with the grain, to cut the vegetable in equal blocks and not strips. Between the orders he asked a few questions. All of them were about cooking and food in general. Here towards the end of his meal he casually asked do they have theft problems from troubled orphans.
“We did, almost every day some years back , they would try something funny. But as of late they do not come anymore.”
“Really, why is that?”
“I think lord Lopen finally got of his noble behind and started doing his job. Now that you mention it. Less and less of them have been causing trouble and running around in town. I don’t believe that it is the guards doing a good job. They keep them from running off and only do light patrol work in town.”
“Sounds to me, that things are going well. Are there many people adopting these days?”
“I doubt it, most of the time orphans get taking in by an aunt of grandparents. I am not sure where and how they find all these kids, but they do.”
Tinker had just gotten about all the information he was going to get from her. He thanked her for the food, settled the bill and left. Outside he was thinking of who to talk to next. Maybe a child of some kind. It took him the remainder of the day to find a child that was alone. The child went into an alley. Tinker followed.
As he came in said alleyway it was a dead end. There were three doors and not any places to hide. He went from door to door to try and open them. All three were locked. He highly doubted the child would have unlocked a door, go in and close it again, unless she had a key. His options were to wait or break down a door. In fear of causing a scene he did not kick down the nearest door.
After about five minutes his eye saw something wooden in a dark corner, caused by the shadows of setting son. He missed it the first time, but as his eyes adjusted to the dark he could see it. He went over and saw it was a type of cellar door. As stealthy as he could be he opened it and entered. His eyes needed some time to adjust to the complete darkness. He was in no hurry and waited. He heard no sounds and when he could see as well as he thought he would in complete darkness he went forward.
There were some barrels and other junk in the hallway leading away from the entrance. In the distance he could hear voices faintly. He followed the sound ever deeper. As he came closer he could clearly hear it were children voices. He crouched down by a door, which was the room the sounds came from.
“What about old man Pearson?”
“He already gave us food three days ago.”
“Then we have no more options. What you brought today will not last long. I will go out tonight and try and steal what I can.”
“But Hans, Gretal went out two days ago, she has not come back and she is not at the institute.”
“Maybe you just missed her.”
“She, like the others have all gone missing.”
“I heard that that Tomtom got a letter from his half brother that was adopted a while ago.” A third voice said.
“I don’t trust it. As soon as the others start talking about how those that leave never contact us again, some random letters arrive. I just find it hard to believe.”
“We were seven two weeks ago. Now only the three of us remain.”
“What else can we do?”
There was crying and someone tried to calm down the little girl. Tinker waited another 10 minutes but it seems they were done talking. At least the crying stopped. To him it sounded like these kids were in trouble. Now he had to come up with a plan. If he just walked into the room, they might run away. He had no idea if there were other routes in and out of the room. Running in with a sword would probably not be the best approach. He decided to use food.
He took some out and stood at the entrance. “Evening, I have some free food for you guys. I am here to help.”
“Run!” was all he heard. Tinker lit his torch. The room was small and seemed to have a small fire place and rags that looked like beds. In various places he could see three people trying to hide.
“I can see you. Come now, if I wanted to harm you guys I would have done so already.”
The little girl started crying again.
“I was sent here to investigate why so many of you have gone missing.”
“We don’t believe you.”
“Believe what you will. Here take this food and tell me what is going on. The sooner you do, the sooner I can help.”
After about 15 minutes of sweet talk and arguments they came to get the food and sit down. They were not very talkative and Tinker did most of the talking. After some time he realized that something was terribly wrong here and no one could really be trusted. It sounded like these children all got adopted and then they never get heard from again. In a conspiracy of this size it was hard to tell how many and who all were involved. He could only say with certainty that Lord Lopen was involved.
He told the children to wait here. It was about time to hook up with Trixy and hear what she has found. He left some more food behind and left them. Trixy sent him a pm and said she needed another hour or two. That left him some time to go scout the house of this Lord Lopen. He highly doubted he would see anything, but the way things looked now he would need to go in that house to snoop around. He marked possible places to enter, the number of guards and so forth.
Two hours later Trixy met him. “I have found some things, what did you learn.” Tinker asked
“That Lord Lopen and more than a dozen guards are selling children in groups to cults and the shady type of people that need little children. They have been at it for years. But since Lord Lopen became the leader or a high up in a cult that moved here recently the number of kids that have gone missing increased greatly. I don’t think the commander of garrison here is one of them, but the second in command is definitely involved. What did you learn?”
“About the same” Tinker had no idea how she managed to get that all in just a few hours without being chased away. He should definitely be wary of her. “I found a hide out with some kids in them. They also seem to notice that their friends have gone missing and that something is off.”
“Ok, so now what do we do?”
“We need proof, how much of what you just told me can you prove?”
“Nothing, all just talk and hear say. I don’t think I can persuade any of them to confess.”
“Then we need to catch them in the act or find damming evidence.”
“How does this Lord’s house security look?”
“Easy enough I guess. How is your lock picking skills?”
“Fair to good.”
“Ok, then maybe you should go in there and have a look around.”
“Ok, what will you be doing?”
“I am going back to ask those children where are possible places where cult stuff can be happening in town and also going to ask a guild member to go over to Lord Collins and ask him what type of evidence we need to get, so that he can take action or people can believe us.”
“Ok, guess we will meet just before sunrise.”
“Works for me.”
He went back to talk to the children. They were sleeping but at least they helped. It turns out there are more than a few places. They suggested the most likely place was the institute. It was the largest building where all the orphans slept and ate. Underground were the cells for the trouble makers and the rest of the rooms underground were off limits.
Trixy found a hidden room. It seemed more of small study to the occult than an occult ritual area. In her opinion it was not damming to have those kind of things, merely embarrassing. It is clear from that study that no funny things are happening in there. The rest of the house was clean and normal looking. She could not get into the safe of the Lord, but she doubted there would be anything damming in there. The safe was located in the real study, not the hidden one. She said she would go scout out this institute and see what she can find.
Tinker sent a guild mate over to Lord Collins as early as they could. After some back and forth with their intermediary Lord Collins said he would send a dozen or so men that can be trusted to make the arrests if they could prove that there was a cult there. Until that point there was not much else he could do. He did say that they needed witnesses or probable cause before he could send the men. You can’t just arrest the Lord, conduct a search of his premises, if you then find bad things, it is all dismissible in his trail.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
That night they broke into the institute. It was not that hard, Trixy did all the hard work and Tinker just followed. They had a few close calls from people walking about or a child or two that saw them from the cells. After about an hour of searching the lower or underground levels they finally found a room. The room was not even hidden. It was a large room with an iron door. It was locked and had no window so a person could not see what is going on inside.
Trixy used her hunter skills to determine that there was no one inside and she picked the lock. Inside the room smelled of blood, had skulls of children of various ages stacked in a corner. The place had an alter in front a statue of some demon looking monster. Even the weapons used for the rituals along with all other manner of equipment were just lying around. They hit the jackpot. They left the place without disturbing anything. They successfully left the institute.
Now that they found the ritual place, they needed a witness or someone that would turn on the cult.
“I think the second in command of the garrison is our man. I learnt most of the things I know from him. He does not seem to be in the cult, only doing it for the money.”
“So do we bribe him or what?”
“I think we need to make a deal with Lord Collins that this guy, if he turns, will not be prosecuted with the others.”
“Sounds good, I will tell someone to relay all that info.”
The information was sent first thing in the morning and Lord Collins said he would send the men and that if the person gave names and testified, he would not be harshly punished.
Now came the awkward part of making sure the guilty guards won’t run off. Tinker decided to go visit the garrison and asked to see those in charge. Normally a request like that would be denied, but he flashed his Collins sigil and it gone done. After breakfast the commander of the garrison and about 10 men were in an office with Tinker.
“Now, tell us what is dam important that you assembled all of us here. Some of us work for a living you know.”
“Very well commander. This is an important matter I assure you. It has got the making of a twisted story. It is about betrayal, corruption, money and murder of children.”
“Leave the story telling for those that care, get to your point.”
“I was sent here, to investigate why there are so few children left in Tear.”
“Easy, we and Lord Lopen have been doing a good job.” The guilty guard spoke.
“Yes, on paper it seems things are going well. The reality is far from the truth. Listen good and listen well. There are people heading this way with the intention of arresting people involved in the sacrifice of children.”
“That is absurd, if things like that were happening here it would have come up.” The commander said
“Not if Lord Lopen and people close to you are guilty commander. Lord Lopen will soon answer for his crimes and so will the guilty. I need you to help arrest your guards that are guilty. Leave Lord Lopen to me.”
“What proof do you have stranger?”
“I do have some. I also feel obligated to tell that I have an offer, which lasts until I walk out this door. The offer is that the first person to come forward and confess their crimes and role in the conspiracy afoot, he or she.” Tinker looked to the guilty guard.” Most likely a he, would not receive harsh punishment or be executed like the others.”
“Really you can’t expect a thing like this?” The commander said, he too was no looking at the guard that was guilty. He started to notice that he was pail as death. “You!”. Was as far as the commander got before the guilty guard blurted out he would take the deal.
“Good, now we need the names of your fellow guards that are guilty.”
“All right.” He started naming names. After about 20 or so he stopped.
“Commander can I trust you will arrest these men and the traitor here in a discreetly manner as possible?”
“Yes, I will call them here a few at a time. Take thus scum down to the jail.” The commander actually punched him in the face. “You are the worse, not only do you do evil things, you betray those that put their trust in you.”
Tinker walked with the traitor down to his cell. While they were waiting for the other guilty to arrive
Tinker did some interrogation of his own. More than a few names other than the guilty guards were mentioned.
Well before midday a carriage and some mean looking guards arrived. They went over to Lord Lopen house, they escorted him to the carriage. After that it went to the institute. There Tinker and Trixy joined up and led the way down to the room. Tinker just hoped that they did not move the things like they do in the movies. As soon as the door opened everything will be gone. He held his breath as Trixy picked the lock. The door opened and thank goodness the room still looked the same.
An official of the king was along with the guards and when he saw the room he told the guards to chain Lord Lopen. He took it rather well and said something in demonic tongue which no one understood. Some guards stayed behind and the rest went back.
“We are heading back to the capital so that the king may pass judgment. Where is the one witness?”
“He is in the cells at the garrison, along with 20 others or so.”
“Good, we will take him and the Lord with us. The rest will stay here until judgment is passed. Do you wish to accompany us back?”
“Yes please.”
They arrived sometime in the afternoon back at the capital. A speedy trial was held. Lord Lopen was found guilty and he was promptly executed on charges of demonic worship and the murder of untold number of children. It was hard to estimate exactly how many he had a hand in killing.
The traitor told the king he and the other men would escort groups at a time to ‘families’ awaiting them abroad. In truth they were taking them to the different cultists and other shady characters. But the bulk of the children were slain and sacrificed in the town. They also had the job of rounding up trouble makers and making sure the secret does not get out.
At the end of it all, this traitor was demoted and sent to one of the worse postings in the Heaven kingdom. The other guards all got killed. An investigation would be launched into finding fellow cult members of Lord Lopen. At the end of it all, it was declared he was the leader and very few others were found. The official word was that it was a small cult, but very active and that those 20 or so guards that also got executed were the main members. The matter was soon forgotten.
Unofficially a lot happened behind the scenes. The traitor that spoke, named many names of powerful lords and ladies that were involved in this scandal. Lord Collins deemed it would be too great a disaster if all the names came out and could destabilize many regions in the Heaven Kingdom. He said he would take care of the matter. Months later Tinker would hear that Lord Collins was blackmailing many lords and ladies to get them to do things that he wanted to further his political plans.
Lord Collins seemed to be one of the good guys, but if he was blackmailing others to further his goals, just what were the bad guys doing to further their agenda’s?
Some of the names of Lords and Ladies Tinker remembered and he passed them on to Major. He knew Major would do things with the info. At first Tinker did not plan to do any of this, but since none of the names were mentioned at the trail he was not sure what was going on. After Lord Collins told him, he would take care of the matter, then did he only decide to give the names to Major. After all was he not the one known for blackmailing, extortion and who knows what else? Major, with the help of Dismas made good use of the information and increased the guild influence and wealth greatly.
Before Tinker and Trixy left Tear, they went to go fetch the children that were hiding. It turned out there were more than a few groups of children hiding. Once word got out, all was made right again. An intern was sent to run the institute until a proper replacement could be found. Once the word of Lord Lopen death and reason for it reached the town of Tear, more than a few employees at the institute went missing.
Some small and young girl that neither of them had ever seen walked up to them after they freed those down in the cells.
“Thank you for all your help. You have stopped a great tragedy. For that you will receive my blessing and be blessed from this day onwards.”
Orphans Blessing
A passive skill that increases your stats by 15 % when you are alone or more than 1 mile away from your nearest party and/or raid member. At night time the effect will increase to 30%.
Information gathered from children will be more accurate and truthful.
If you visit and pay tribute at a temple, shrine or any other holy site of the Goddess of Night, your blessing will double in strength for one week.
WARNING : Harming innocent children will result in the Goddess removing your blessing.
The little girls eyes seemed to change and she looked around for a moment all confused before she ran towards a group of others.
They figured that the Goddess of Night had just spoken through her. Later after some research they would learn the Goddess of Night was a patron for assassins, thieves and the orphaned children. It seemed she was ok with killing for money, as long as you don’t kill children. Which made sense considering the best thieves and assassins were mostly orphaned children that had a rough childhood.
Tinker was pleased with this new passive skill. Unfortunately in raids or big battles it won’t mean anything. But if he is on his own, like now, it was a major boost to his abilities.
They completed the quest. Trixy got her sigil and went to the garden to try and gain access. She departed by giving Tinker a kiss on the cheek and adding him to her friends list. He did the same. He could not deny how easy and fast she made this last quest. Without her he would probably still been looking for the problem.
“Now, about that other quest you were talking about?”
“Yes, it seems it starts in just over a week. We are not really permitted to know what is going on. What I do know and can tell you, is that there is going to be a challenge or two, maybe three. We, the 12 prominent Lords and ladies are going to each send our champion for the test. I think the winner gets a title along with land and the favor of the king.”
Now that interested Tinker. He could do with a title. The land did not appeal to him though. It was probably going to be some barren wasteland or something ridiculous. With his new blessing he felt confident he could take on a level 130 player. He doubted that the big boys around 150 will compete.
But the problem was that it started in a week and he had to keep busy until then. He decided to go focus on one of his skills that was the closest to going down a level. When he checked, to his surprise it was a skill he only noticed now. Called mounted combat. He had no idea where that came from but since it was on level 1 and at 0%. He checked and saw his scavenger skill was on level 3 and 4%, a death will easily let it go back to level 2. Thus he found his skill that he would work on.
But first he logged out to see what the all knowing internet had to say. Scot first went to the dark games union web site. He found that the information here was more what he was looking for. On other sites there was just too much info and a lot was just made up. The guys here were at least serious.
For the sake of learning something new he fist looked what they had to say about this mounted combat skill. It is a skill as the name would suggest that helps your fighting from a mount. Knights got the skill with their class. Paladins and rangers get it on level 50. Warriors and a few other classes got it on level 100. They speculated that other classes like mages and so on would get it on level 150 or 200.
The skill involved two things. First was that you do your normal damage and bonus damage depending on type of situation. For example if you charge on your horse and hit an enemy they take the normal damage plus the extra bit. In time that extra bit became rather a lot. Second was that the skill reduced your chances from falling off your mount and also the stamina drain. As you can imagine being struck by an arrow may not be enough to knock you of a horse but a javelin or weapon blow might just. But the higher the skill, the lower the chances.
While he was looking and reading about the topic his saw what other things got unlocked when you are a warrior at level 100. One thing was that it became much easier to specialize into a specific sub class of warrior. For example shield man, berserker, pike man, cavalry man, infantry man or duelist. The list goes on. A person could have become one of these classes beforehand if you found a trainer or did the right quest. The other thing was that paladins and knights could also specialize in to the above mention sub classes. As a whole they all belonged to the plated melee fighters class or group.
Some classes had specific things only to them. Like you can only go from a paladin class to a crusader class. Knights had something called a champion class. Those with more exotic classes were keeping it a secret. So far they knew spell swords were out there, but not what you have to do, to become one or which is the best or only class from to specialize into it.
Scot did not mind still being a warrior. He tried looking for suggestions on a more specific class for him, but it seems the only other dual wielding warriors chose berserker class. He did not see himself as a berserker. He did not enjoy being hit and the fear of only getting stronger the lower you hp gets, was too much of a risk. He was sure his unique class was still out there.
He actually read what it meant to be a duelist. It turns out you only become super strong in controlled, organize showman fighting. Dueling sounded more like a gentleman’s sport. There were a bunch of rules to follow. Procedures to undertake before you may duel. While you duel you needed witnesses and a recognized official. The only up side of choosing this class was that you and every other person from the class join a global ranking system which you can watch and monitor at all time.
Like any list of this type. Those at the top enjoyed the fame and status that came with it. Years down the line the number one ranked duelist started a school. He made a small fortune teaching and giving lessons for princes and lord lings from all over the continent.
He decided to post something on his Tower of Terok nor in Bremen experience. He left out major details and just mentioned the loot in general. He made sure to say that he and his 19 companions completed the towers 20 levels.
Next was what they had to say about his scavenger skill. He had a good idea what the skill did and to this point he had not seen it give him major rewards yet. According to the skill he is getting extra things from loot and he has found a few gold pieces here or some pieces of leather over there from others corpses. What caught his eyes was that a person claimed there was two ways of leveling the skill.
The first was the way he had been doing. Going over corpses and loot from others kills and checking for things. Checking one’s own kills also helped to increase the skill in this way. Since he needed to skin, harvest and just check most of their kills in general the skill level went up. The second way was digging up corpses, or grave robbing for short.
The person making the post made the suggestion to stay away from common graves. It is the rich and famous graves a person would want to loot. He also said to make sure you do not get caught. People rather hated those who disturb the dead. To make matters worse they would fine and punish you for the theft, trespassing and digging up the dead. He jokingly added the punishment was less for killing a person than it was for digging them up.
----------------------------------------
Ok. so here is the latest chapter and ends the whole Orphans calls and blessing. I wanted to make it only one chapter long and it ended up being two. Guess the name of next chapter is going to give away allot what is going to happen.
So the classes i named like deulist, crusader, champion, pike man and so on. Not sure they exist in LMS but they do in my story. Also no where do they mention the goddess of night, I made her up as well to justify giving a strong blessing like that and even the dodgy guys like thieves and assassins deserve a goddess or patron that looks out for their interest.
Feel free to ask and leave any and all comments.
Next week chapter should be on time.
Chapter 29 : Late night activities.