After investigating my status screen and the changes in it since I had last looked two days earlier I decided to invest one of my two stat points into Intelligence and the other into Wisdom. Some of you reading this who aren’t as of yet familiar with the planet of my birth, my father's adopted home may be wondering why I wasn’t more tactical in the use of my free stats, well the fact is that Telondian, the God of Telondia and the creator of the system that governs it isn’t too fond of those who do so, at least until after they reach level 25 that is.
I know a total wanker as my dad used to say, never explaining what that actually meant. When I was seven or so I once spent a few days asking anyone I came across how I could gain wankerdom. That all ended after I asked the local priestess of Telibdian, what a hiding my mother give me that day.
With that done it was time to have a look at my banked potential class skills to see if I was still interested in taking one of them now that I had an open slot. The fact that I currently only had the one made that rather easy and so without too much indecision I decided to go for it.
Class skill: Muscle Memory (Basic)
Passive Skill
When you have done a single action often enough you learn to do it without thinking, this increases the damage done by all attacks by 5%
With that taken care of I satiated my hunger by eating half my remaining rations and took care of both White Star, my deceased captain's horse and my newly acquired one, giving them the last of the remaining feed I had on hand. All in all, it was barely enough for any of us though the horses were able to supplement it with the nearby vegetation. Once my remaining rations were finished I would have to resort to hunting some of the local wild animals and gathering wild fruit and or roots while the horses munched on whatever was available which would all in all slow me down.
I could of course have started to do so already but I didn’t yet want to risk providing anyone who might still be trying to track me down with extra means to do so via the fire necessary to cook any meat I might acquire by such means. Plus though I knew it was possible I didn’t have the know-how to set a fire in such a way as to mitigate the visible production of smoke. In case of an emergency we had carried a further day's extra ration on the overnight patrol we had been returning from when we were attacked or I would already have had no choice but to do so.
After the barely adequate meal, I headed out to find the area I believed corresponded with the mark on the rogue's map. I had thought it would take two or three hours to reach said location and that it was unlikely that I would be interrupted before doing so but I was wrong on both counts. It wasn’t an enemy that I encountered on the way but rather an overly aggressive stag that charged at my horse.
This unusual activity even during rutting season, which was still months away was met with deadly force by the horse even before I could instruct it to do so or bring my Lance to bear upon the clearly diseased animal. I had heard of similar attacks from diseased animals before but usually, it involves canines and other small animals or some of the usually less aggressive monster species. The force of the horse's hind leg didn’t of course manage to kill the animal but rather daze it and I then put it out of its misery.
You Have Slain (Level 5 Diseased Stag)
Even though I was in a hurry to continue my journey I spent a good half an hour or so looking for other diseased animals in the area and had to dispatch five other animals.
You have Slain (Level 3 Diseased Deer)
You have Slain (Level 2 Diseased Deer)
You have Slain (Level 6 Diseased Wolf)
You have Slain (Level 7 Diseased Wolf)
You have Slain (Level 5 Diseased Wolf)
Mission: Be a Distraction Completed
This wasn’t the only interruption to the journey as I encountered a single mounted warrior who upon spotting me fled back the way it had come and if I hadn’t retrieved my last arrow still thankfully intact from the body of the rogue I had dispatched earlier in the day then it might well have gotten away and reported my location to the others who were no doubt searching for me.
You have Slain (Level 9 Warrior)
Unfortunately, when I tried to retrieve the arrow from the second body I found it no longer intact plus the warrior in question had only a few copper coins on his person and both his horse and sword were of poor quality so I let it go. This encounter made me glad I hadn’t lit a fire earlier and forced me to take things more slowly.
It took me twice as long as I had first planned to reach the spot marked on the map but when I arrived I wasn’t at all disappointed even before I discovered why I believed the x had been added to the map in the first place.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
After successfully completing another contract the Brothers n Arms Mercenary Company that I was a member of had been hired a little over a month ago by Sir Percival Covington of Gray Haven Manor to help him with a dispute he was engaged in with one of his neighbours Sir Walter Babbingcock of Stevenage Grange. It had all started when the said neighbour had for some reason or another diverted a small river or spring that had previously flowed past both their territories. As such things tend to do it had over time escalated until Percival rightly so in this particular case feared an armed conflict might break out.
Only employing a few slightly ageing guards he had set out to hire a small E-ranked Mercenary company and had eventually chosen us for the job. We had arrived to find that Walter who had thrice as many guards had employed his own E-ranked Mercenary company. With the help of the locals, we set up a small border post on land near the border between the two rival domains and began to patrol the area. After weeks of patrolling and finding no signs of encroachment, we had become complacent and paid the price for having done so.
From what I could tell the now diverted river had once supplied water to some sort of mill that was now long gone, The only remaining sign of this had until recently been a small pond that was now almost completely dried out but still slightly muddy in places. What was really strange about the whole thing was not that at all but rather what else was now no longer covered by water, a large slab of concrete that to my eyes looked like a covered grave of some kind complete with a metal plate at the top of it with some writing engraved or otherwise added to it. A closer inspection of it once I got off White Star confirmed my first impression and I was even able to read the writing.
William Montague Stonehaven
2134 - 2201
Lies buried elsewhere
But this plaque is located near the site of his birth
Awaiting you
Come open it up below
And be rewarded
Or so it is hoped
The name seemed somewhat familiar, some famous soldier I think and the rest sounded intriguing so I went looking for some tools to open it up and see what if anything might be found within. It wasn’t an easy task chipping away at the concrete especially since all I could find was an old poorly maintained entrenching tool from my saddlebag. It took almost an hour before I caught my first glimpse of something other than concrete and another while before I was able to free it and look upon what I had unearthed. It was a small locked wooded chest that I quickly busted open to discover that it contained nought but a smaller chest inside. Opening this in turn thankful produced three items and not yet another potentially empty chest.
New skill available: Find/Disarm Traps
What a lucky bastard most need to trigger a trap to gain this skill but you got lucky and yours was too old to still operate as designed.
Since you have no open skill slot it has been banked until you do.
The items in question were a single platinum coin, what appeared to be a key and a sealed envelope. Before opening the envelope I checked to make sure the coin was real and that the key was intact. It contained some kind of a seal or something and a piece of parchment that I began to read.
To whom it may concern
My name is William Montague Stonehaven and it is my hope that by the time you read this, I am long dead but hopefully still remembered if only by historians. I leave behind no immediate family just a grand nephew whom I despise and he will only get the bare minimum I think he deserves but that leaves quite a lot to dispose of. Half will go to old comrades and their families and most of the rest to deserving causes. But what to do with the rest, well one day you might find out.
My father was a simple miller employed by the local lord to produce flour, I unlike my elder brother did not take up the same occupation but instead became a warrior and for a while fought for the same employer as he. I then took up the life of a mercenary for over twenty years before joining the royal army and settling down in one place for a time before a war broke out that lasted many years and cost me an arm and a leg.
But that is enough about me if you present the enclosed seal to the Imperial and provincial Bank in Liban and when prompted for a password tell them the series of numbers and letters you can find at the end of this letter. If you also provide them with proof from the mercenary guild that you are the captain of a mercenary company with one or more completed contracts then you can use the key provided to open the vault they will take you to and see what might await you inside. If you do not include the proof then I am sorry but all you will receive is another platinum coin.
But I think the chances of that occurring might be lower than one would think after all I chose the location to hide all this not just because this is where I was born. I have calculated using my knowledge of the lower nobility in general and the economic situation of the Manor of Gray Haven and its neighbour’s that the family that employed my father will not be able to hang on to it for very long.
In exchange for permission to build the grave you have since recovered and keep the pond filled with water, I paid them enough and provided them with investment advice to extend their ownership by a few centuries. Yearly payments were made to their much more stable neighbours at Stevenage Grange and money was held for them in a long-term escrow account to be paid out once Gray Haven Manor changes hands in return for then damming the river that supplies the pond's water.
All this I think will ensure that by the time the pond dries up the chances mercenaries will be in the area and while the changes others will find this are much higher my hope is that the odds will be kind to me. Diabolical I know but barring political or economical upheavals I believe the first part of my scheme will come to pass and if it ends there then so be it.
I have yet to decide whether I will communicate with you via the vault so whether or not you are a mercenary I wish you all the best with your future endeavours and spend the platinum coin wisely.
Yours sincerely
Marshal William M Stonehaven
M4a7m1S3e1a2n
Quest: X marks the spot completed
Quest: Vault Access generated