Top leaves bright and early with his cart. Kib wakes up with him and enjoys some breakfast with him. When the halfling leaves the kobold isn’t left alone for long. Fenbar Rinkling shows up to the table and helps the kobold find the mine another thirty minutes to the west of town. Kib, Mr. Rinkling, and a dozen other gnomes ride an elevator down a long chimney.
Kib stares at the gears turning on the sides of the elevator, and the ropes slowly lowering the metal cage. A gnome slapped a metal helmet on Kib and opened up a small compartment on the front of his new cap. They held a small match to the compartment and lit a candle on his helmet. Kib watched several other gnomes doing this for each other.
Kib took a match and lit a gnomes candle with joy. The elevator jerked and Kib’s attention was drawn to a metal clank and a squawk that came from the other side of the elevator. There was a small cage with a little bird in it. Kib cocked his head as he stared at the morsel.
“Why bring snack?” He pointed a claw at the cage.
Some of the gnomes shifted uneasily around him.
“If there are any gases in the mines, the bird will be affected by them before we are.” Fenbar yelled over the metal gears grinding to a stop.
The gnomes exited the elevator quickly and scuttled about the mine.
“Kobolds are especially good at digging out natural tunnels, correct?” Fenbar speaks louder than the clanging of a dozen picks.
“Yeah!” Kib replies.
“Then I’ve got the perfect spot for you to work. We need some exploratory digging done. There’s a small vein that we depleted, but our divining instruments have been picking up more that we just haven’t been able to find.” The two walk through the tunnels ducking underneath wooden supports.
A human would have to crawl through these tunnels.
“Leave it to me!” Kib replies.
Earn Capital
Result = Silver Earned
35% chance random event
Profession: Mining
20(D20)+10(Skill)=30=60
17%= Event
Downtime Event
Result = Event Occurs
Random Event % Reset
Generic Building Event
59(D100)
Infighting (6 Days)
While on break a gnome shoves Kib. The kobold leaps into action wrapping his tail around their throat and pulling them to the ground. The kobold places a foot on their chest and looks around at the other gnomes.
“I’m not going to roll over. I am not a mindless lizard. I am a kobold. And I am an adventurer; gods be damned.” Kib looks around the room with a huff.
He relaxes his tail and turns to go back down the tunnels to work. Some of the other gnomes rush over to help the bully gnome on the ground.
----------------------------------------
El wakes up, feeling a bit groggy, like he still hasn’t shaken off everything he drank last night. He sits up, a dozen joints cracking, as sunlight blinds him through the window. He looks out the window at a sprawling vineyard.
El jumps up from an incredibly comfy couch and looks around the room he is in. It’s some sort of study, but the room is huge. The size of most houses in Belrond. This can’t be in Crestfall. Where is he?
He turns and spots an alcove, there’s two seats, a coffee table, and a slender elven woman. She stands at the window with a small plate in her hand, a tea cup on the plate, as she enjoys the view out the window in front of her. It’s a view of the whole town.
Yet, El quickly notices the view he has with this woman only wearing a shirt. It's long enough to cover anything and make him question if there are shorts underneath the shirt. She turns back towards El who quickly snaps his head away. It’s Sheriff Grace Amfall.
“Your stamina is remarkable for a commoner born of this world. Although you could learn to tolerate booze a little better. You told me everything about your sad little life last night. Something a Zone of Truth could never do.” The Sheriff walks past El towards an exit door.
“Did we?” El stammers not being able to bring himself to say more.
“You know already. The exit is down the hall and on the right. You should leave. I’ll see you at the barracks in the afternoon for training.” Grace leaves the room.
El blinks. What happened to him?
He walks out of the study and heads towards the door. A man with dark brown skin, green hair, and a butler’s uniform stops him in his tracks.
“Sir, as a guest of the Amfall house, have this fresh pastry for the road.” The butler bows slightly.
“Thank you for the food.” El says clasping his hands together and bowing to the butler.
The well dressed servant gives El an odd look before the young man takes the pastry and runs. It's flaky, warm, and has some sort of cream filling. El devours the delicious treat on his way to the bar. He looks back at the house as he exits surprised to see it is a literal mansion.
El enters the bar and tries to purchase a room, but finds that Top already took care of their lodgings. The field hand retires to his room and opens his letter.
Quest Log
El, you have the aura of a hero, anyone who can read auras has seen it. Beware of each member of the town you saw when you entered. The guard Xavier Spellsear and the druid Tulzia T’click will see your aura.
Quest 1
Investigate Sir Icinklast
His two acolytes are suspicious
Quest 2
Turn the Staff Sergeant against Fenil Tor
Fenil is pocketing our taxes.
Quest 3
Uncover the reasons behind the Kreaks reclusive habits as of late
Quest 4
Kill the captain of the guard;Khazadin Boardin
No witnesses.
Quest 5
Find the son of Tulzia Tclick. The Aven was last seen two weeks ago.
Don’t Die
From your own little lucky charm
FBR
El felt a pang of anxiety in his gut. All these people whose lives were on the line. Could El really upset the balance of this town. What was Mr. Rinkling getting at by giving him this letter?
El breathed in deep, calming his mind, and reread the list.
He could easily do some of these or at least start to investigate them all. There were motives behind each of these quests. El just needed to figure out what the motivation was behind each of these.
El turns the letter over.
“Erin Dardes had family in Crestfall. They might deserve to hear what happened. The Linkman’s house, small and boxy, to the east of town before you reach the farms.”
----------------------------------------
El walks down the road of town. Stops at a small and boxy house on the east side. He considers knocking on the door when he hears laughter around the back of the building. Taking a quick peak he spots an older woman watching her teenage son and pre-teen daughter play in the garden.
The daughter is howling with laughter and the boy is pretending to be upset as she waves a small yew wand changing the color and pattern of his clothes again and again.
I guess if Erin could be magical, so could her family. They didn’t need their home life ruined just yet. El keeps repeating this in his thoughts as he walks past the building heading further east.
There was no way he could confront that problem yet.
As the letter said he eventually reaches fields of farmland outside the town. He follows the roads between the fields until he spots a grove of trees further south where no trees grew for hundreds of feet around the patch of overgrown vegetation.
El walks to the grove, finding a path between the trees covered in lush grass and flowers. El ducks under some tree branches and comes face to face with a small hut. Sitting in the middle of a hammock is a small woman covered in light brown feathers, with a beak, and wings coming off her back.
“Hello.” El makes a very reserved motion to wave a hand at the bird woman.
The bird opens her eyes slowly and blinks away the light flooding in between the tree’s branches.
“A farmer? No, maybe a hunter? But with that sword…” The woman mutters.
“Are you Tulzia?” El slowly lowers his hand unsure how to feel about her studying him.
“The one and only.” She steps off the hammock and grabs a gnarled piece of ivory, her walking stick. “And tell me son, you came for a reading, right?” She walks to her front door and opens it.
“Ugh, yes, I did. How much for one of those?” El follows her into the hut.
“Ten silver.” She hums as she walks to the far side of the hut.
In her home there are a few throw pillows around a table and a few crates in the corner. There are a few clay jars around the room. She has a small hot plate that she lights with the command word “Fumos”.
“I sense you need Chamomile tea.” She mutters.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“What would make you think that?” El takes a seat on a throw pillow.
Tulzia casts a worried look at El. She notes his posture, stares into his eyes, and watches how his chest rises and falls. El shifts uncomfortably.
“Am I so easy to read?” El brings a hand up to run through his hair.
“You are. Heavy hearts are hard to hide.” Tulzia sighs.
El watches her heavy chestfall. Her arms move slowly. He would expect maybe for them to shake with her age or for her to move slowly with precision. Yet, her movements never seem purposeful or direct. She’s wandering. Floating through life.
“Birds of a feather.” El mutters.
“What?” Tulzia squawks raising one brow up to stare at the human with a wide eye.
“We’re one in the same. You aren’t breathing right. I would assume you were sick, but Arkin told me that bird’s feathers lose most of their beauty when they are sick.”
“I’m far too old for you to be flirting with me.” Tulzia turned her head towards El.
“I’m not…” El stopped as he saw the glimmering eyes of Tulzia. She was joking. El smiled and wiped his hand down his face returning it to his side.
“You are worried about me instead of your own. That is admirable.” Tulzia poured steaming water into two cups.
“It’s nothing special.”
“You are so much like my son.” Tulzia pushes a cup over to El with a few flowers floating on the top of it.
“What tea did he drink?” El held the warm cup in his hands.
“Usually black teas. But I always could tell that he was making floral teas when no one else was here. Thought he could get away with taking some since I keep so well stocked.”
“Black tea is about tradition and strength, right?” El asks receiving only a nod from Tulzia. “So he wanted to appear that way, but was actually girly?”
“No,” Tulzia taps a finger on the table. “Instead of answering that immediately why don’t you tell me something about yourself?”
“My name is El. I grew up under Arkin in Belrond, I’m a field hand by trade, but I want to train to fight. I want to be more than just a field hand.”
“You’re a liar.” Tulzia takes a sip of her tea.
“I told no lies.” El sets his tea down as he glares at the Aven.
“You don’t understand. You are not lying to me, but to yourself.” Tulzia looks at El with her chin cast down in a disappointed stare.
“Fine. Arkin says my real name is Eltherian, I grew up in a barn house because no one wanted me, and I’m a murderer first. Field hand second. I don’t want to be special. I want to kill everyone who thinks they’re special and abuses their power.” El pushes a fist into the table trying to ignore every fight or flight emotion rising in his stomach.
“Saber T’click was my grandson, we fled here after our roost was destroyed by Drow, and have lived here since he was five. Nearly twelve years now. He loved this town, he loved his friends, and he trained to fight with the militia. He left two weeks ago chasing a group of adventurers to a dungeon. Neither the adventurers nor him have returned.”
“I lived in Arkin’s barn since I was twelve, I loved a girl who followed me when I left town to adventure, and I buried her a day's ride from here in the middle of the forest. I drank for the first time when I finally made it to this city and I think a woman took me home. I feel so wrong in my skin, wrong in my head, I couldn’t even tell her family what happened to her.”
“Thus I made chamomile for us. We both needed the relief.” Tulzia raises a hand up, waving it next to her beak, as she takes in a deep breath.
El copies her breathing and syncs the rhythm of his body to hers as the aroma of the tea clears his head. His body starts to loosen up and he feels a bit better.
“Where is the dungeon Saber went to?” He begins to drink the rest of his tea.
“It’s just south of here in the Sunken Barrens. The sands revealed the peak of a tower for the first time in thousands of years. Thus he followed adventurers out to the location.” Tulzia sits her tea down and gives El an odd look. “You really did kill adventurers. Didn’t you?”
“They were clearing a dungeon. But the dungeon was just a kobold warren full of innocent people. There were men, women, and children killed. They hadn’t bothered our village. I don’t know who called the Guild.”
“And so you tried to save the kobolds like a good boy would do.”
“No, I killed four kobolds. The adventurers saw me as competition and then found reasons to target me and get away with it. I killed all three of them. Those helping me killed eight lord’s guards and the Lord himself.”
“Must not have been him. Fenil collected taxes for the lord just three days ago.”
El sets his empty cup of tea down and makes eye contact with Tulzia. She looks surprised by his gaze. Then some of her feathers ruffle.
“That little blight.” She curses under her breath.
“It’s getting late. I need to meet the Sheriff today.” El puts his feet on the table ready to hop up.
“Hold on.” Tulzia reaches across the table with her ivory cane and pushes him back down. “Let me do the reading. Cough up the coin. Tulzia still has to eat.”
El smiles and pulls out a gold coin for her. She takes it and his cup. She looks into the cup, pondering its contents while muttering an incantation. Suddenly the candles in the room are snuffed, the light outside disappears, and the only visibility comes from a faint golden aura emanating from El.
There’s a screech, something falls, a clay pot breaks. Suddenly Tulzia emerges from the darkness, her face terrifyingly close to El before the aura illuminates any part of her at all, but her eyes are pitch black.
“He wants you to go to the ruins, suffer the same fate as the last, become his pawns, he doesn’t want you to know there’s a spy among the town, he doesn’t want you to know he’s vulnerable to, to, to…” Tulzia struggles with the last few words as pain overwhelms her.
Her eyes turn a cloudy black as color starts to return to them and then green. El moes to reach out and grab her shoulder but stops when her eyes move. They move in her sockets spinning around. Small claws emerge from the corner of one of her sockets and with a sickening rip a scarab beetle pulls itself free.
El falls backwards screaming as his golden aura disappears.
“What's the matter?” Tulzia asks from across the room.
El opens his eyes to see the lights are back to normal, Tulzia has both eyes, and she is still holding his cup.
“I said you seem like you will have a chance to change all your sorrow for the better in the distant future. That life has a route for you that you will need both skill, luck, and patience to endure.”
“Oh right, yes, I heard you. I have to go though.” El leaves with a smile and a wave.
He exits the hut and runs when he is out of eye sight. Crashing through the grove to get back to the outside he curses under his breath.
“What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck….”
El emerges from the Grove, this time on the southern side of it. He looks out over an expansive desert that stretches on into the horizon to the south. El walks forward, feeling a call to the desert, and nears the edge of the grassy fields that surround the town.
At the furthest reaches of the town's southern border there is a cliffside. A ridge that goes east until you hit the Thalas Sea and west until you reach the Aldric Frith. The Sunken Barrens was a peninsula that was slowly sinking into the ocean.
El peers over the cliff, hundred of feet down is the sands of the desert. They say the Barrens were cursed. A whole region was doomed by a single action. Even as a simple fieldhand El did not believe the stories. Yet, it was hard to discern any other possibility looking at it now.
The teen makes his way to the center of the town. He sees more and more people milling about the town. His village was composed of halflings and humans. If it weren’t for a small boom in the halfling population Belrond would still be a hamlet. Similarly Crestfall has long since been overdue on receiving its Township. The machinations of politics usually take years if not decades.
“El!”
The teen turns towards the sound spotting Sheriff Grace Amfall. She stands with three guardsmen, well, militiamen. Guards usually were employed by nobility and worked in large towns. The militiamen were usually volunteers or prisoners under spells of oath.
“You decided to join us.” She smiles at him.
“Yeah, of course.” El walks towards the group.
There are two humans; a blonde male and a brunette female. There is a dwarf with dark black hair and a braided beard. There are two draconians. One, a slender green female draconian. The other, a brass male draconian, who notably possessed wings and a tail where she did not. He was also massive.
“Alright, training will be done for the next five days, I won’t go easy on you, and I expect you to remember everything I tell you.” She only continues after El nods. “Top helped pay the 100 gold fee, he is going to be doing me a favor in Belrond, so you will only owe me 60 gold.
“You will train for four hours every day with Sairene Boardin and her husband Khazadin. The first will test your reactions and dexterity, the later will test your strength and fortitude. For three hours I will supervise while you spar with any of our three guardsmen; Zander Spellsear, Adriana Bellfrost, and Talot Forgedusk. A Magus, a Duelist, and a Forge Master. Then at the end of every training day I will challenge you to a tactical game. Sharpening your mind is just as important as sharpening your sword.”
“Alright, I’m ready to start,” El says eagerly. Inside his mind turns. He would have to watch Khazadin closely. If people want him dead El needs to know why first.
----------------------------------------
Sairene gives him a fencing sword and teaches him the finer points of attacking an enemies weak points for three hours. Although she trips El up several times with her fancy footwork and deft maneuvers. After a while he begins to get the hang of basic choreography in combat; dodging, parrying, riposting.
Then he is sent against Khazadin with nothing but a shield. He viciously attacks with a sparring axe again and again. El barely manages to block the onslaught of attacks with his wooden shield. The fighting is called off again and again as El’s shield is knocked away or he is knocked to the ground by a power attack. Though he gets no reprieve, they shove the shield back into his hands, and the draconian attacks repeatedly.
Exhausted and beaten, El barely manages to hold his own in the next three spars. The spars consist of short fights and then huge lectures from Sairene, Khazadin, and Grace.
Zander uses a few incantations here and there to speed up his attacks, increase his accuracy, and even deliver harmless electric shocks when making contact with his weapon. Adriana dances around any attacks he makes and continuously uses his moves against him. The guard disarms El again and again and again. Talot fights El like a living suit of armor. His skin is thick, his body durable, and he repeatedly moves to intercept blows. Each of El’s attacks, even when aimed at his weakest spots, end up hitting armor padding. A well armored enemy could prove dangerous to El if outside of a duel, but El’s killed an armored opponent before.
“That's it. We’re done. El, meet me at my study for a game of Dragon Chess after you’ve had a bath.” Grace turns and leaves.
“Yes, ma’am.” El says with a heave of his chest.
He’s exhausted. Trying to beat her in a tactical game is going to prove impossible. El heads back to the tavern. He attempts to pay for a hot bath, but whatever Top paid for his lodgings covers any baths. El relaxes in a tub in the back of the tavern with his own private room.
Retraining - El
Class Levels
Takes 5 Days
Fighter Level 2
⅕ Days Trained
Costs 100 Gold (60 discount)
El travels to the mansion, before he can knock on the door the butler opens it, and the man lets him in. He takes in the butler’s dark brown skin and green hair once more. His skin almost looks like it has dirt or gravel on it, and his hair seems like blades of grass more than strands of hair. The man must be plane touched. The planes of earth can sometimes affect the races of this world in odd ways.
“She is already in the study, waiting.” The butler says with some irritation.
“Thank you.” El bows and then heads to the study.
Opening the door he sees the room lined with bookshelves once again. He walks past the couch towards the alcove that has the small table and two chairs. Grace sits in one chair drinking black tea.
El sits across from her and she looks up at him. A grey rectangular box sits on the table.
“Have you played dragon chess before?” Grace asks.
She sits with her legs crossed, her hair is down, and instead of the law keepers armor she is wearing a rather normal pair of trousers and a blouse.
“I have not.” El remarks.
“Then you’ll have to learn fast. I don’t like beginners.” She grabs the top of the box and pulls it open.
Supports fold out to raise two platforms above the box. Small tokens pop up into minifigures on the top two platforms and the base of the box. Three playing fields are before El.
“Alright, the middle platform is the land battle. We each have a fort that can not move, but it can attack adjacent enemies. It’s good to keep your general around the fort. You have infantry you can send forward, archers to support, cavalry to flank, and siege engines to bombard.”
“The top platform is the air battle. You have an airship that you must protect. From the airship you can launch ranged attacks at other air units or bombard land units. You can use griffon fighters to clear the sky of enemies, wyvern fighters can gang up to defeat a griffon fighter, and razorbacks can move further but can be killed by one of either or killed by the airship in one attack.”
“The bottom platform is the battle underground. Use your miners to clear a path to the enemy, stone walkers for direct conflict, gloom stalkers to create ambushes, and bullettes to attack enemies underground, clear paths, or attack enemies above ground on the land platform.”
“How do you win?” El asks.
“You kill the General of the opposing team.” She replies.
“Alright. Simple. Let’s play.”
----------------------------------------
El crashes in his bed at the gnome tavern. Kib sits in a bed across from him. The kobold stares at El as he holds his hands to his face in shame.
“She beat me in 2 minutes. I tried again and again. And I couldn’t win.” El whined.
“Well, it's just a game. Get good.” Kib replied.
“Oh and what did you do today?” El rolls over to look at Kib.
“I met these two guys. Fubar recommended I go see them.”
“Fenbar, but continue.” El sits up to listen.
“So these two guys said they were married, but I never met their wives. So who knows what that's about. But one of them collects tea leaves and sells them to people in town and the other is a hunter. They are teaching me how to shoot and how to boil water.”
“Boil water?”
“Yeah, did you know when the water gets bubbly cause it's hot you are supposed to put leaves in it?” Kib looks at El with large bright eyes.
“Kib, that’s just for tea.” El shakes his head slightly.
“So basically I gave them fifty gold and now I’m learning how to shoot better.” Kib shrugs.
“Oh, alright. That's useful.”
Retraining - Kib
Class Levels
Takes 5 Days
Slayer Level 1
⅕ Days Trained
Costs 50 Gold
“Alright. Go to sleep, Kib.” El turns over and pulls a blanket over himself.
“Goodnight!” Kib calls across the room.
Long Rest 1 x Level
El
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