Home-1 “Hazard Pay”

As part of the original town, our house is somewhat near the castle. Dad says he bought the place with money he made selling off one of his magical weapons from his mercenary days. He 'kept the good stuff' and is waiting for me to do something to earn it he says.

The smell of the garden in bloom greets me as I enter the yard, another nice thing about being in the area of the original town is that they didn't reapportion it at all. The city grew around it, but we still have plenty of space around our homes.

The garden is beautiful in the midday sun. I don't often get to see it until the sun is low in the sky. Near the door are the tulips, each one 'broken' as Melanie calls it, into two colors. Then roses outward from there. At the corner of the house are the sunflowers, truly massive flowers. I was worried that she had fallen for a con when she bought them, promised 'flowers taller than a man' by a trader from far to the southeast.

One thing I learned quickly about Melanie, is that she loves flowers and gardening. Much to my chagrin, I also quickly learned that she does not appreciate cut flowers, she loves them as a living thing. It would always amuse my father that while I was courting her I would leave the house, not with a bouquet of flowers, but with a handful of seeds.

The door creaks loudly as I enter. No matter what I do, nothing seems to fix that. This, of course alerts all of them to my presence, I'd better get ready.

“Dads back!'

“Papa!”

Both Samuel and Diane come running from their room. I gently place the pot of honey on the floor next to me and the bread on top of it. Just in time to catch both of them and hoist them up onto my shoulders. Oof, Sam is starting to get a little big for this.

“How are my kids doing? I bet you've been good enough to deserve some honey loaves with dinner today.”

“Well, I guess we'll leave the rest of that story for next time then!” Dad's gruff voice comes down the hall after them.

“Grampa was tellin' us a story 'bout a wizard that tried to turn a whole army into statues!”

Both of them love it when dad starts telling tales. Some of them are even true, usually the ones where he's talking about his mercenary days.

“That's a good one, I'd better not ruin the end for you.”

I put them back down and tousle the auburn hair they inherited from their mother. Picking up the bread and honey, I head toward the kitchen where I can already smell lunch being prepared.

Melanie stands near the large fireplace a pot of thick beef stew cooking over the fire. Every time I see her, it feels like the first time all over again. Long auburn hair draped along smooth shoulders. Her slender figure still curving perfectly all the way down, Dad still doesn't understand what I see in a woman lacking 'huge tracts of land.'

“Welcome back, Dear.”

“Sorry, I couldn't be back sooner.”

And when she turns to look at me, those eyes. Beautiful deep green eyes that I feel I could get lost in for hours on end if I let myself. Always calming and refreshing to see after even the hardest days. A knock at the door interrupts me this time, sadly.

I open the door to find Lord Hawkins. I salute and he returns it. What is he doing here?

“Hello, Watchman Nivar. I came by to give you this, you could call it 'hazard pay.' Despite how quickly we managed to take that thing down, it was quite dangerous. I'm off to give the rest of the men their shares, spend it wisely.”

With that, he hands me a large pouch full of coins, and heads back to a wagon with a chest on it with a few of his men and rides deeper into the town.

I place the bag on the kitchen table. Everyone gathers around after I say who was at the door. I empty the bag onto the table.

That's a lot of money, after stacking them in tens I find that it comes to two hundred Platinum Sovereigns. That's the kind of money that could buy decent magical arms and armor, or a house, depending on your priorities. I had heard of Lord Hawkins' bouts of generosity. But this...

Melanie asks, “Why did he give us so much money.”

“It was an interesting two days of work.”

'Interesting' is a code word I use when a routine workday becomes suddenly dangerous, but turns out alright in the end. It lets Dad know that there's more to the story for him to hear after I can get him alone. I don't want to worry my wife, and the kids wouldn't believe me if I said I got hurt. If it doesn't turn out all right in the end it's a 'debacle.'

I tell them how the last two days went, lightening the story. The stew is ready before the story is over. We eat lunch, I prepare for a peaceful day at home.

1-22 “Case Closed”

Stanton is dangling over a tree branch near the edge of the clearing. Did that gemtree mange to throw him over here? I spot his bow and a crumpled piece of iron a small ways away. I alert the rest of the group to his presence, as I go to pick them up. Looks like this used to be a helmet, and whatever crushed it also tore the chin strap.

Lady Isabella uses a spell to pick him off of the branch and gently lay him down on the ground. Lord Carlmon and Lady Celano examine him, he's still breathing. Large gashes on his forehead and cheek indicate he must have struck his head at some point, and his hardened leather jerkin is heavily scraped along his midsection. Both nobles channel healing magic, no scar is left behind. Stanton opens his eyes with a start.

“Look out for the thorns!”

He looks around a bit, rubs his head. “Where's my helmet? How long have I been out?”

“If you left yesterday, you've been out for a night. You'll need a new helmet, because this one is more of a plate now.”

I hold up the helmet that could still be used if your head was a sheet of paper.

“You managed not to land on your bow this time. Looks like it's learned how to get out of the way better than you have.”

I toss him his bow.

“Nivar, did they send you to look for me?”

“No, spent a while investigating. The Lords and Ladies showed up and let me know that leaving a piece of that thing in a tree was a bad move.”

“I dunno, looks like it made for a great fertilizer.”

“We came here, but had to rest for the night, we thought the thing would emit darkness like all of the other ones.”

“I had it covered, no need to hurry, huh?”

He looks around at the group, and must recognize them. He salutes as he slowly gets to his feet. He sees past the Lords and Ladies and looks somewhat confused.

“Why are all the trees knocked down?”

Lord Hawkins fills him in on the battle.

“Guess this standard issue stuff doesn't measure up to your armor at all.” Stanton looks down at his damaged jerkin. “For us it wasn't as big as when you got here. We took a look at it, I saw it start to move. It tossed Watchman Andrew into a tree nearby, I saw thorns forming above us. That's all I remember.” Sudden concern hits his face. “Did you find Watchmen Andrew or Gerald? They came here with me.”

“Guess we should go look for them.” Lord McGee is also skilled at tracking, and coordinates a search of the area for signs of the other two watchmen.

We find tracks of someone dragging something leading northward. Following them to the road, we find an activated light rod stuck into a tree. It's a watchman's signal, we're supposed to jam a light rod into the corner of a building if we go into an alleyway alone to follow someone suspicious. This lets other watchmen follow or report on the signal.

It's been here for hours, so it's almost gone out entirely. If he was heading to the city to get reinforcements, a watchman would have left this here to mark where to turn south off of the road. I remove it, we'll run into anyone sent looking for it on the way back to the city.

We find a large contingent of the castle's soldiery halfway back. They were deployed to deal with the threat. Lord Hawkins explains the situation to them, and we learn that both Watchmen Andrew and Gerald made it back alive. They weren't doing very well though. Andrew was unconscious and Gerald was stubbornly dragging him along even though his leg was broken. I'm sure that mobilization scared all of the bandits back into their holes for the day.

The lot of us make it back, The men and I take our leave of the Lords and Ladies and head back to the guard house to file our reports. I find myself glad that, if there aren't charges being placed, and no one gets killed, reports only need to be a list of items lost or spent. I unfortunately remember the bandits we had to kill yesterday, and end up writing out a full report.

I turn in the account of what happened over the last two days to Assistant Commander Staghorn, who gives me the rest of the day off for my effort and overtime. I thank him, and leave the guard house. Just as I'm leaving, I hear Stanton.

“Hold up, Nivar!” He runs out the door to catch up with me. “I'd like you to have this, as thanks for saving me out there, and finding me someone that could fix this old bow up good as new.”

He presses a long dagger in a finely made sheath into my hands. The pommel has a small emerald embedded in it.

“It's grade two enchanted, and further enchanted against plants. I'd been using it to clear paths for myself through brush. That bow is really important to me, so take it.”

“You don't...”

“I'm not taking it back!”

He runs back into the guard house with a wave before I can protest further. Something even grade one enchanted is very expensive. I draw the blade, finely honed and engraved with a vine pattern. I guess I'll replace my belt knife with this when I get home. It's such a nice gift, I should at least use it.

The trip home is peaceful, I pick up a fresh loaf of bread and some honey.

1-21 “Tree”

It was a very restful sleep, and an early awakening. We all finished breakfast before dawn. The sun must be just above the horizon now. The forest becomes quiet as we approach the place where I had encountered the amalgam. There wasn't a clearing here before.

A sky blue crystal tree at least fifty feet tall stands in the middle of a circle of uprooted and broken down trees. Its branches move regardless of the lack of wind. The area nearby the tree looks somewhat burned. As we approach the tree line, it bends its branches in one massive sweep, scratching the bark off of the trees at the border. It must still be growing if that was the first time it could reach these trees.

The Lords and Ladies start discussing what spells they should use before approaching, and who should stay back. They think those burns look like acid burns, one of them has a spell to protect against that.

Lord Hawkins calls me over, “You all have ranged weapons right?”

“Yes, sir, crossbows.”

“This thing can topple trees, I think it'd be best if you all stayed back and offered ranged support.”

“Yes, sir! You heard the lord, crossbows at the ready.”

I guess now it's time to find out if keeping my bolts in my bag instead of the belt box is a good idea. I reach in to pull out my crossbow and a bolt. It's already drawn and loaded when I withdraw my hand from the magical bag. That's... How does it do that?

Lords Hawkins, Hawklight, and Gimaim, as well as Ladies Maple and Hefthammer all advance toward the tree over the fallen trunks of trees uprooted by the corrupted one. Zilo flips up his hood, and his silhouette begins to fade as his cloak blends with the surrounding foliage, I quickly lose track of him. It's a good thing we can aim high to avoid friendly fire, though he probably knows how to avoid the line of fire if he does this frequently. Sephram stays between Lady Averdine and the tree, holding a defensive posture. Lord Mcgee starts firing arrows from an exquisite looking bow with remarkable speed.

The rest begin to cast spells. Lightning and fire burst forth, streaking toward the tree. Much of it dissipates as it contacts a hitherto unseen field around its trunk and branches. Lady Averdine finishes an incantation that leaves me feeling lighter, and it has obviously affected everyone else as we all begin moving faster.

Lord Alejandro turns out to be a spell-caster as well, I never would have guessed from the full suit of plate armor that he wears. I have heard armor interfered with one's ability to channel magical energy. The globe of fire he throws begs to differ, penetrating whatever protection surrounds the gemtree and leaving large cracks and scorch marks around the point of impact.

The tree makes reply by swinging massive branches down hammering on those that advanced with massive limbs. Those that are hit by these smashing attacks immediately receive healing magic from either Lord Carlmon or Lady Celano. A vine twists around and blasts a large gout of a greenish liquid that mostly dissipates where it contacts one of us but leaves distinct burns in the ground or trees that it contacts with. Lord Alejandro receives a volley of arrow sized splinters from the higher branches of the tree. All of them bounce off of what must be at least grade four armor. Crystalline roots also burst forth from the ground at Alejandro's feet, and are just as ineffective at penetrating his defenses.

The watchmen and I might as well not even be there, each volley of bolts we fire bounce off of the trunk. This thing has less gaps in its crystalline hide, and the gaps keep moving.

The advancing warriors make it to the trunk and begin smashing through the tree. Sword axe and hammer leaving cracks and notches with each swing. Lady Maple's punches are doing just as much as Lady Hefthammer's massive maul. Zilo's form fades back into view near the gemtree, he looks up it perhaps thinking of climbing it. He reconsiders and proceeds to stab at it with a pair of short swords.

More blasts of fire and bolts of lightning are launched. The gemtree seems to feel the warriors are a greater threat though as the root spears and branches are all focusing on them. Leaving only the occasional hail of thorns to threaten us, mostly aimed at Alejandro, whose spells seem to be doing the most damage. Only one even manages to break through the magical armor. It is quickly removed and the wound healed.

One of my bolts actually manages to hit a soft spot and stick, I wonder if that did any good.

Cracks begin to spread along the trunk of the gemtree. The constant hammering of spells and blades leaving the area near the ground looking much like the patch of cobblestone road in the city where a worker managed to spill a wheelbarrow of bricks from the second floor of a building he was working on.

Lady Averdine fires a quintet of small radiant bolts of energy at the gemtree. That was the last straw, the whole thing shatters and disintegrates. While everyone else starts congratulating each other on a good fight, I look for signs of Stanton.

I think I see him.

1-20 “Crepuscule”

We immediately head for the area where I had encountered the first amalgam with Stanton. Hopefully, if something dangerous did happen with that tree, Stanton got away safely. In the end though, it is too far for all of us to travel before it becomes dark. It is decided that if the resulting creature is likely to further the darkness, then it would be far better to camp the night and approach in the morning light.

Seeing the Lords and Ladies start to unpack their camping gear, Lady Averdine stops them and says, “Don't bother, I can do us better.”

With a few moments spent chanting and a few arcane gestures, a door appears. It stands freely, with its bottom a few inches from the forest floor. Turning the handle she, swings the door open, though there is no visible hinge that it attaches to. Behind the door, instead of the forest, is a well furnished room with several other doors leading out of it. She walks in and looks around the room for a bit, “Well, come on in.”

We all enter, the magical room. A lit fireplace sits along one wall, while almost all of the rest of the wall space is taken up by further doors leading out. What small portions of wall are left over are concealed behind statuary or paintings. Large comfortable looking chairs are arranged around a fine oaken table. Behind one door is a kitchen space, well stocked. The rest have bedrooms, too large to be next to each other in this small space. I don't think I could ever make it as a wizard, I'd spend too much time thinking about how all of these impossible things work...

Everyone in armor picks a room to unsuit in before coming back to the common room. It takes me a while to redetermine who is who now that the armor is off. Sephram offers to prepare a meal for us before we go to bed, Kenneth follows him offering to help. Hopefully the rookie knows how to cook. He quickly brings out several cups, bottles of wine and a bucket with chunks of ice inside. “This kitchen has everything,” excitement is clear on the rookie's face as he heads back into the kitchen.

Everyone else starts to drink, and after a short while Zilo starts up a tale from when he was working with a different group. I start to lose focus. I hope Stanton is doing okay, and Melanie is sure to be worried that I didn't come home this evening.

My distraction must have been apparent, even though I sat in a chair nearer to the fireplace. Lady Averdine walks over to me, “You don't seem to be enjoying yourself.”

“I know everyone decided it would be safest to wait until dawn, but I feel like I should be going as fast as I can, what if Stanton is in trouble.”

“Do you know him particularly well?”

“No, but even though we just met this morning we've already saved each other's lives at least once.”

“Oh, that's too bad. I have a spell that allows you to speak with someone far away, but it only works if you know them very well.”

“Really, do you think I could talk with my wife? She's probably worried sick that I never came home today.”

“Certainly, just focus on the thought of her, while I cast the spell. You'll only have a few sentences to say, she'll be able to say a few back.”

Focusing on the thought of her isn't hard, she's already on my mind. The Lady chants a few words and taps my cheek and then my ear. A strange tingling sensation passes through my head, and suddenly I feel like I'm at home, right next to her.

“Melanie?”

*Nivar? You're home! Wait, where are you?*

Her voice sounds like I'm right there. Nothing is more calming than her voice, except for looking into her eyes.

“Sorry, I won't be able to make it home tonight. I'm camped out with some of the watchmen, and, you won't believe this, our Liberators. They had particular interest in something I was investigating. I'm talking to you through a spell. I don't know how long it will last, but I wanted you to know I was fine, and I'll be back tomorrow.”

*That's good, we were worried that something had happened. It's not like you to come home late. Be sure to tell us all about it.*

The tingling passes. The spell must have ended. “Thank you, milady.”

“It's no trouble,” a smile crosses Lady Averdine's face, “It's nice to see a man as concerned about his wife as you are.”

I follow her back toward the rest of the group just as a meal consisting of roast chicken, bread, and salad is brought in from the kitchen. Zilo is just wrapping up a story where a dragon, purported to be a vicious man slayer, scared off his companions and then proceeded to talk with him for hours on end. Turned out the beast hadn't left his cave for years upon years, and was feeling quite lonely.

When the meal ends, everyone starts heading into the bedrooms. Lady Averdine stops and counts the doors, “Oh no! I seem to have made one room to few... Sephram, I guess you'll just have to share my room tonight.”

Mischief is clearly played out on her face as Sephram straightens out and salutes. “Yes milady.”

His face is nearly as red as the wine. The watchmen that haven't left the room yet share knowing looks. We all go to bed. One skill I've learned since the city started growing, and my workload with it, is falling asleep immediately. The skill doesn't fail me now.

1-19 “Liberators”

There's thirteen of them. It takes me a second before I recognize the arms and armor of those in the lead of the formation, It's the Lords and Ladies, our Liberators. Eight of them are, at least. The other five joined their group later. I wonder if that makes them Lords as well, the king awarded the land to the group. I would think not, but I don't know the laws and politics of the realm in that regard. Regardless, I salute. The rest of the men follow my lead. Most of them salute back, some of the newer members seem unused to such attention.

At the front of the group are Lords Hawklight and Hawkins, Lady Hefthammer, and one of the new members of their group. In the middle is Lord Carlmon, Lady Maple, Rose the druid (who I've heard of simply because of that large lizard beast she tends to ride around), a priestess of The Sun, and a rather shady looking fellow. Quite literally shady, his cloak or leather armor must be magically generating a very small aura of darkness, a classic thief's trick for those that can afford it. In the rear are Lords Gray and McGee, an unarmored woman, and a rather heavily armored man with no weapons.

They are equipped much the same as when they freed us from Iztram, though some of their gear seems to have more of a glow of magic to it. There isn't a standard among them, most of their armor varies wildly, from the heavy adamant plate armor of Lord Hawklight to the unarmed and unarmored Lady Maple. Their weapons are less visibly varied, mostly swords and longbows, Lady Hefthammer's massive maul being a notable exception. Lady Maple also stands out from the rest, being one of those body-as-a-weapon types, unarmed and unarmored. Normally, I would think that's crazy, but I've heard multiple times about her punching through someone's breastplate, I guess if you have at it hard enough it really works.

They dismount, Lady Maple takes the opportunity to show off by dismounting with a flip and a cartwheel. They ask us about the creatures and the strange effect on this delta. They would like to see the body of the creature I slew. First, they'll want to check on the sword at the middle of the crystallization, though. Lady Averdine starts walking, I guess floating would be more accurate, towards the area we avoided during our sweep. We figured that the nearer to the epicenter, the less likely we wanted to be there in the dark. Our Liberators approach the crystal landscape, and when they are with a few feet it starts to recede before them. The crystal flakes up and disintegrates leaving behind the original terrain. I'd like an explanation for that, seeing it makes me feel like we did absolutely nothing for the last few hours by clearing away those amalgam plants.

While the rest of them go off to see the sword that's caused this mess, the shadowy fellow sticks behind and comes over to us. “So, how are the fine watchmen of Midrange doing this evening?”

Sam responds, “Feeling like we might just as well have stayed home and just told you guys to go talk to Lady Averdine.”

“How are they doing that?”

“I don't exactly know, myself. From what I've gathered, they found some fountain of energy that runs counter to this strange crystal infection. Since they had this power they decided to go around and do stuff about it. I've heard that the stuff infects through a wound if you leave a shard inside, or just spreads like mold if the source is large enough. Only the original eight of them have that ability though, so I figured I'd just wait and see how you all are doing.”

“So what do you do for them?” The rookie actually just asked that. From the way he moves and the outfit, he is clearly a scout or something similar.

“I'm Zilo, master scout, infiltrator, and trapman. Entry facilitation, as well as spotting and disabling traps, those are my specialty. If the opportunity presents itself, I also like to counter ambush. According to them, the last guy they had in charge of the role got himself killed. Wasn't even a trap that got him, he just didn't know his place on the battlefield.”

We talk and introduce ourselves. He fills me in on the names of the rest of the group that I don't know, Gimaim the dwarf, the priestess is Celano, the unarmored woman is Isabella the sorceress, and the armored yet unarmed man is Alejandro. It doesn't take too long before Lady Hefthammer comes back to speak with me.

“Milady.”

“Looks like the sword that was causing this is already missing. Since our mere presence seems to remove the infection, they've decided to jog around the area.”

She questions me about the details of the encounter, how we were injured, and who healed us. She looks relieved when I tell her we went to Ziegfried.

“Are you certain that no shrapnel from the thing was embedded inside any living thing nearby?”

The only piece I even remember breaking off was that horn that...

Crap.