Chapter 10 A contract...
We spent the last five days doing small jobs, quick things like killing some hobgoblins that were harassing a family on the outskirts of the town, a quick escort mission to a small village a days march outside of Uljits. Things like that...
Now, however, we had grabbed a real contract as Harland called it. The guild hall had not been given any information aside from the pay, and a request to visit Lord Brandmount's estate for further instructions. So that was where we set off to, seeing as the pay was good, really really good...
Lady Brandmount was the wife of Lord Brandmount, the master of coin here in the city of Uljits. The manor they lived in was massive, more than four times the size of the average peasant's house. It was a great sprawling thing that unlike the houses of the common folk, stood tall towering a good three stories above the ground. That also meant however that it was not at least partially buried in the ground and therefore lacked the protection such a building would undoubtedly have. Meaning the building was rather cold and drafty when we went to visit. The lord of the house was away on business, but his wife was able to fill us in on the job that needed to be done.
“Hollow Fang Keep used to belong to my grandsire, he was a great and powerful man, unfortunately, we were forced to abandon the building quickly after a rift was opened and demons and other foul creatures invaded it.” She was a beautiful woman, around the age of twenty or so, with bronze skin and white hair, which was complemented by the white dress and diamonds she wore. She was a rather elegant lady...
“So, you want us to go clear the keep?” Harland asked.
“Oh good heavens no!” she laughed, “I want you to go in there and retrieve a chest, it will be in the storeroom, and it contains some rather precious family heirlooms.” she pulled a necklace off of her neck, fishing out the key that had been laying between her breasts and tosses it to Harland, who snatches it out of the air with a single hand, not breaking eye contact with the woman. “It will be in a small ironwood box, this key should open it, at least part of the way, the chest is magically sealed as well, meaning it will only open a crack with the key, but that should be enough to make sure you have the right chest.” she laughs “Don't fret about loosing the key, it is a replica made by the local blacksmith, we can make more if you lose it.”
“Where is this keep?” Harland asked, looking at the key in his hand.
“A weeks ride southwest of town, I have a set of maps prepared for you, as well as a layout of the keep itself and I have taken the liberty of marking the location of the chest, or rather the most likely location of the chest, seeing as it could have been moved by the new owners of the keep, though the chances of them stealing it, or opening it is extremely unlikely, seeing as it is warded against such things.”
“I see,” Harland nodded, “So we need payment for this, half upfront, half when the job is done,” he crossed his arms and went into full negotiation mode. It was always impressive to see when he did that. Standing there like the bald-headed bear he was, grumbling about this price and that price...
“Fine,” she shrugged, catching him off guard, he had no doubt expected much more resistance, but she just called out a maid and instructed her to get the coins. Half the job ended up being 15 silver coins. It was a staggering amount of money, more than I had ever seen in my life. Harland looked at the money his eyebrows raising, but he simply scooped the coins into a pouch and put it in his bag. “I hope that you don't get the idea to run off with that money...”
“Ma'am, with all due respect, I am a rank six adventurer, you don't get that high by running off without finishing your contracts.”
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“Good, then I will also say there is a bonus for completing it quickly, if you can get it to me in the next two and a half weeks I will add in an additional 10 silver coins for the effort.” she smiled, revealing perfect white teeth that seemed to gleam in the firelight of the hearth. “ Hopefully you are better than a few other members of your guild.” she snorted.
“Oh?” Tamerian asked. “We are not the first to be hired to do this job?”
“No, I have hired five others, and none of them have returned, so either they ran off with my money, an outcome I am thinking is more and more likely, or they died, in which case I wish you the best of luck, also should you find any of them and the silver coins on them they are yours...”
the thing about being an adventurer that I had noticed in the time I had spent traveling with my new companions is there is very very little actual adventuring done. The majority of the action we do is packing, organizing, moving and traveling, with a dash or two of preparing, after that you might get a quick fight or subjugation mission, but besides those things, it was all travel and the tedium that came with such a task. Indeed that was exactly what we were doing right at this moment.
I sighed as I packed away another layer of dried meats into my rough leather sack. They had offered to get me a new one, but this one was given to me by my sister, so I was not about to part with it anytime soon. I layered the meat in the bag and divided the layer form the next with a strip of leather, hopefully when I looked through the bag later I wouldn't confuse the two, though I supposed it didn't really matter, seeing as the leather and the jerky both tasted about the same and likely had the same amount of nutritional benefit. “Rin wonders why she has to pack this, she thinks It would be better to hunt her food,” I grumble as I add the last of the supplies I had been tasked with carrying.
“Oh shut up!” Alania narrowed her eyes at me, “If you get trapped somewhere where there is no food you will be very very happy to see that bag and the food within, the same goes for all of our supplies, each and every one of us carries enough for ourselves and one other to survive for two days, four if you are alone, which with any luck we will not need but if we do then we are all better prepared.”
“Rin apologizes, she did not know she had hit a sore spot,” I mutter under my breath, though apparently, I was not as quiet as I had thought I was.
“Sorry, just on edge after seeing Sarena again, its hard you know?”
Sliding over to Alaina I whispered to her.
“Rin wonders what happened there, she saw much bad blood,” I ask her. Alania bit her lip, worrying it between her teeth as she thought about what to tell me. Finally, she looked up into my eyes and told me the truth.
"Hamin and Sari used to be part of our team, along with Leah, we were on a mission, and we were ambushed, A group of Kobolds, you know the small lizard-like humanoid monsters?”
“She has never seen a Kobold,” I admit, trying to visualize what she had just described.
“Well, they are-” she looked at me and chuckled a little, “They are a tribal people, scaled, with digitigrade feet that are reptilian in nature, in fact they are even intelligent, though unlike your tribe and people they are considered monsters,” she shrugged, “It would seem that the only deciding factor is the aggression of the tribe to civilized society and the intelligence.”
“Rin wonders if a new scar will teach you how civilized she can be,” I say, my eyes narrowing, Alaina's eyes opened wide as she realized she had just inadvertently insulted me, quickly she smiled at me, in a pleading way before continuing her story.
“A-Anyway Sari chose to support Hamin even when Leah needed her help more, and because of it Leah died," she glanced over at me, before continuing. Harland confronted Sari about it, it got so heated that Hamin stepped in, and it went to blows since then, and as you can see it has gone downhill.
"She wonders why she supported Hamin and not Leah?" I had a feeling I already knew the answer but didn't want to jump to conclusions...
"Because she was bedding Hamin," which is exactly what I was expecting to hear, Alaina snorted. "it is one of the reasons its part of our groups rules now, to make sure the same mistake is never repeated, we all need to be impartial, we cant prioritize, and when the heart is involved it gets too complicated in the heat of battle, people die." it was a good rule to have, practical, though it meant I had to stay away from Alaina's bed... “It doesn't matter, it is the past now, are you ready Rin? We should go meet up with Har and Tam, they are likely waiting for us.”
“She is ready,” I nod and shoulder the now much heavier bag, following her down out of our room in the inn to meet up with the rest of my companions…