Saturday, June 16, 2018, 8:00 PM Norfolk

I woke up feeling a bit better than I had when I had gone to sleep last night. A night of rest helped with the remaining wounds. I took a LONG shower, massaging my muscles and getting the pain worked out from the grazings that I had gotten from the bullets. Getting out of the shower, I saw that Rex was awake and pacing around. I asked him how he had gotten in last night and he told me that the balcony door was unlocked when he got up to the balcony at the end of the day.

I snapped to attention and immediately summoned a Sift spell to look for any signs that someone had been in the room. Thanks to a heavy attention to detail, I saw that someone had searched through my room, someone VERY good at hiding their traces. I only managed to find a single red hair that had seemed to have almost been suspiciously left for me to find. This was a calling card for me to know that I was being watched. This means that I will HAVE to up my timeline.

I opened up the balcony door for Rex, before indicating to him that we would probably be moving to the storage unit sometime in the next week, or at the very least, the week after. Rex nodded and I informed him that I would work on making him a few items to help him get into the storage unit easier. I had a few ideas for what I could make for him, and also myself, that could help get us in. I was also on a decreased timeline to get the items made for the storage unit. Sighing, I got myself dressed and got my bike ready for another day of driving and getting everything ready for whatever I can do to get all of this done.

I went down to the buffet breakfast, and was treated really nicely by the staff. I guess that I was helping to keep them safe in some way. It also means that me being here is also somewhat of a draw for this. I covertly asked one of them if there was anyone who worked here who was a redhead, showing her the long singular red hair. The worker said that there was no one here who had quite that shade of hair, and offered up that it was possible that it was just a former resident of that room.

I took that answer for what it really was, since I had done a thorough scouring of the room when I got in with Prestidigitation, I knew that it wasn’t there before I left for work that first day. Since that first morning, I had let Rex out through the Balcony door, and every day since then, as I had locked the Balcony door on the way out. Someone had been inside my room, and might have left any number of methods of monitoring in the room. They could obviously know of Rex and I was very happy that I didn’t think I did anything special when I had gotten in last night. I realized that I needed to keep up the pretense of using the room, which included having Rex in there with me.

All of this was just to note that I needed to ensure that my storage unit room would be completed as soon as possible. I finished up my breakfast and I went to head out for a quick trip, picking up four bags of salt, two of which went into the central cavity of the backpack, one was split into the two side cavities, and the last bag was placed in my regular backpack, before taking everything back to the storage unit. I opened up the unit, quickly checking the unit with another Sift spell. No one had been here yet, at least. I transferred the salt to the unit and then I tried to figure out how much more I would need to get Rex his way into the storage unit quickly.

Running up the math, I figured that I would need another forty pounds at least, and if I needed forty, there was no point in not getting as many as I could. I went back to that store, and went to look to see what I could do in the way of mass carrying, and realized that I would need to get more than just what my backpack could carry eventually. Or I was just going to have to make some more of these Hefty Haversacks and style them as saddlebags, or whatever the appropriate term would be here. I went back to the hardware store where I had gotten the salt, and bought another four bags. This time, the cashier asked me if I would just like it delivered to an address.

I shrugged, and said that I’d consider this going forward, but that it would have to be during the week, as the drop off can’t be done during the weekend. The cashier nodded and said that he could understand that. I thanked him, got a few beef jerky bags, a pair of smaller dog collars, and a drink, and headed outside to load up everything into my bags. I got onto my bike and pedaled my way back to the storage unit. Shutting the gate after I got back into the unit, I took all of the Salt into my dimensionally expanded tent, and started making the items that would be Rex’s entry into the storage unit.

Loading everything up, I decided that I would need to reference some of the manuals throughout this world to see if there was anything that I could take from this world. Using Page-Bound Epiphany, the spell reacted oddly, and came back in some very technical jargon about cross dimensionality and convergences. I happened upon a hint that showed me exactly what I needed after getting the study materials. I stitched the runes into the collars, and got them ready for imbuement. The magic almost IMMEDIATELY soaked into the collars. Maybe this realm is just that much more receptive to dimensional magic, or maybe it is the extradimensional aspect in the tent, but it barely took an hour for the magic to set into the wraps. Using the extra time that I had allotted, I enhanced my boots to be masterwork and they changed to have a split toe aesthetic with a thinner, yet enhanced, sole.

I started on enchanting them immediately, to try to “strike while the iron is hot, so to speak”. Working off of the same diagrams and designs, I stitched in the Runes and set up the salt diagrams in the tent’s main central area. Again, the salt damn near flowed into the boots. At about five in the evening, I was done with all of the enchanting, and my boots would provide just what I needed to get into the storage unit, so I decided to go out on a tour through the area. Before leaving the storage unit, but outside the extradimensional area, I decided to invoke my Eyes of the City spell.

The first six seconds didn’t show me much of anything new, unfortunately. Then I got a full immersion into the area of Norfolk, seeing people talk about how the Painkillers had another four people rounded up and in the hospital, before getting charged with disturbing the peace, drug possession with intent to sell, firearm possession by a felon, and a few other crimes. There was talk about some kind of vigilante in green armor who had been the one to jump four of them. I knew that I would have to get a good getup, and that I also would need to get my armor up. Maybe I’ll work to get a bulletproof version of this armor, and get it designed like my current armor.

The next thing I saw was people talking about some super strong gang member who was working with the Warlocks, and that they were also working on taking out the Painkillers and Pepsi Boys, on their end. I sighed internally, noticing that I was causing a bit of problems for them, but if I got rid of the Painkillers, I could then move on to the other gangs. I couldn’t glean much more from that assessment, but then the scene changed again, where I was in a bar, where some people in plain clothes, but with the bearing of military members talked about how there was a large ice block that was out in the middle of the sea, but no one was being allowed mess with it. The military members, who seemed to be naval personnel from the clues that I could ascertain, were talking about how the ice block seemed to be getting closer and closer to Norfolk, despite not being able to do anything to or about it. I set that aside for future dealings as there wasn’t much I could do while it was still out to sea.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The next scene that I got was of some other obviously military people talking about how the contractor who had been in the restricted sector and had left in a hurry with that sheaf of paper. One was claiming that the way that they got out was really weird and that they had managed to get out without tripping and doors or alarms on the way out. Transferring my focus to the next set of sights that I could see, there was a group of what looked like young toughs talking about the status of the Pepsi Gang, and how they would likely not be able to make their way out of this, and that they might end up having to leave the area. Useful information, but nothing that I could do anything about. If it was a gang, and they were responsible for drug trafficking and assaults, then they had no place in my new city.

The second to last sight that I got was of a group of people talking about how they had heard that there was a guy around who had been causing problems in a different area of town, who was causing people to fall catatonic when he spoke, but he wasn’t being all that pushy about using his powers in large areas. There wasn’t any more information than that about this guy, so I figured that he was fairly new in the area. Finally, I got my final vision of the area and there was a group of women in a shelter of some sort talking about how they were there because of an abusive boyfriend, another because of an abusive husband. For a minute of compressed time, I figured that there might be a miss here, as I couldn’t do much about this unless I got more individual information, at least until the third woman in the circle talked about how she was here because her abusive ex-boyfriend was dead, and that she was worried that the woman with bladed nails would come for her.

My eyes opened to the world around me, after less than a minute of true time had passed. Nothing from what I had gotten from the visions I had undertaken had given me anything to go off of, so I just decided to spend a few hours just riding around on my bicycle and getting a handle on different areas and ensuring that I didn’t see any gang related activity. Maybe everyone was sleeping off a banger from last night, or preparing for one tonight. Stopping by the hardware store once more, I picked up a bunch of thin wood, pipe, a shower head, a dial, a bucket, a toilet seat, various sets of tools, and a trio of five gallon water tanks, and into my haversack they went after I ducked into an alleyway. This would give me the resources that I would need to make the next portion of my buildup for the storage unit.

I dropped everything off in the storage unit, using my new Dimensional Stride Boots to get into the storage unit without opening the gate. I set up everything to be worked on while the night went on, inside of the tent, to make sure that there was no noise that would be overheard. I animated a bunch of carpentry tools to create the shower setup that I was planning, as well as the commode that would need to be made. WIth three water tanks, I could keep everything separated for the purposes of not mixing waters, and the focus on ensuring cleanliness and safety. Finishing up for the day, I left the extradimensional portion of the storage unit, and used my new boots again to hop out of the unit again with my bike.

I left the unit area and headed back to the hotel, with no issues. When I got to the restaurant, Amber was the bartender again, and had me set up with an order fairly quickly. The bar was a bit busy, but she took the time to fold up a newspaper that had something that looked a bit like a drawing of me on the front page with the line, “Verdigris Vigilante?” underneath it, and place it next to me with a side look. I got my steak and drink, and ate without issue. I got a thought of annoyance from Rex as I was eating, but that just meant that I thought that he couldn’t get into the room from the balcony. That could change as of tonight, but I’d have to talk to him to let him know that it wasn’t the best idea.

After a bit more, I caught a glance from Amber who looked at me with a bit of humor. I finished up my meal and Amber, noticing that I was about to leave, came over to see if I needed another drink. I thanked her, and got what she told me was a “Long Island Iced Tea”. It was quite a bit stronger than the whiskey I was used to, but at least it wasn’t as syrupy as the soda that I drank here. I thanked her and Amber said that she should be thanking me, as it seemed that I was getting quite the following. I stood to get up, a little more shaky on my feet, and Amber told me that I shouldn’t forget my newspaper.

I took the paper with me, along with the bike, and cautiously checked into my room, quickly doing a Sift cantrip to see if there was any sign of inspection. Bringing the bike in, I locked the door behind me before I looked around the room cautiously. I went to the balcony door, and opened it up, making a scene of Rex stinking and needing a bath. Rex followed me in protesting a little in Draconic that he had bathed in the river after catching enough fish for his day. Once inside the bathroom, I did a Sift cantrip again, specifically looking for any cameras or listening items.

I found that there was an audio recorder in the room, but no visual recorders that I could find in the bathroom. I got the hot water going for Rex and made it extra steamy, so that the glass from the shower was getting fogged. I talked to Rex and asked him details about his day, while I wrote out that there was something that was listening to us, but that couldn’t see us, and that Rex should continue to tell me about his day and I would give him the message that he needed written on the fog. Rex nodded and continued to tell me, in Draconic, that he had caught all of these fishes over the past few days. I wrote about how I had made him an item that would help him get into the storage unit, and that it worked from visualization and a command world, which I told him

We finished up the bath, which had Rex smelling good, and I dried him off before getting him out of the bathroom, for me to get my own shower. Another day and my wounds would be completely healed as of tonight. I was planning on working on the surrounding area, to try to get some information that can be passed over to the local town guard to see if they can get some more gang members dealt with. If I needed to defeat each one individually, then I would, but it would be better if I could get the “cops” to do their job. Finishing off my day, I cast Eyes of the City repeatedly, and I focused for the next three and a half minutes, and opened myself to ALL of the rumors and stories about the different factions and villains in the area.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything much on the three individuals that I had the most concern for, the knife-nailed woman, the sonorous man, or the muscle-bound mafioso. Mostly the rumors for the Painkillers, the Pepsi Boys, and the Warlocks and where their local haunts were. I wrote down everything that I had seen, separated into different categories for each gang. Looking over all of my information, I figured that the Pepsi Boys or the Painkillers would be the best bet, as dealing with motorcycles wasn’t something I was prepared to do just yet. I got everything I could ready for the next day, and finished off with repeatedly casting Page-Bound Epiphany along with Amanuensis to keep the information that I would get.

My decision to focus was on the subject of yesterday’s debacle, that of getting more information about the religions and faiths of this world. Interestingly enough, there were some deities of the same name or at least similar names, here as there were for some far off areas in my old home-world. I had copied everything that I could, and studied everything that I had found, just to make sure that I was not in any way infringing on any prophet or religious teaching for those not of the faith. Mainly I didn’t want to insult anyone anymore. I yawned and got myself into bed, getting ready to rest for tomorrow.