On our last day, I stop by Baldemar and thank him for his time, stories and skill sharing. Wish him all the best and to not die.
We all meet up and discuss what Fester found out, share the load of his healer’s kits and then we are off to escort Felicia back to Alpinlight. Each person appears to be a battle caster who is escorting us.
Throughout 2 and a half day trip, Kon attempts to figure out the ring, but after the initial failure I suggest Anatole and I search for reagents. He gets enough reagents to craft a four-batch for free. We eventually land in Alpinlight, a bustling trade hub, far larger than Nightdeep. This place has a single wall with watch towers to its west, and a curve starting at the lake and moving down, encompassing the entire western and southern border of Alpinlight.
There are trebuchets, palisades and the rest of the city is unwalled bar for one giant watch tower to the East. It is very, very tall, with no siege weaponry, but a man is stationed there at all hours and is on watch in case anything crawls out of the Abyss and gets through Bastion. It’s quiet on the Western Front.
The city is otherwise large and sprawling, many races and they all appear to be living finely. The war casters lead us through Alpinlight to its large keep at the northern tip. As we get through the walls, the guards usher Felicia and ourselves out and up to the keep proper. Before we arrived, the guards turned to us as a group and said “All right you lot, you are to be presented before the Lord. In order to collect reward for saving his daughter, Felicia. His Lordship Estrada is not to be messed with. We will be in there with you, and if you make any move against him, we will not hesitate to knock your heads in with mace and spell. For those who have not been to Alpinlight, this is Rex Estrada, referred to as only His Lordship, or Lord Estrada, unless he tells you otherwise. We mention this as he is a kind man, but unless told otherwise, refer to him as Lord.”
“Any questions?”
I ask about Bastion and Alpinlight’s relationship. They provide trade to the southern townships as many people do not wish to through Tundralight as it is a fishing village and it smells horrible. Alpinlight is a very well established trade hub. It is smaller than Netherfire and Maplefire. Then Littlerootmere, Alpinlight and Ober Rocks.
After my questions they lead us into the chamber. It is decorated with woven moss as a carpet, dried, with several large mushrooms growing in pots around the chamber. The seat upon which Rex – identifiable by his attire, clothing rather than armor – looks quite nice, wearing pine-lizard skin. He sits upon a chair carved from a very large dried mushroom. This is quite lavish, so it is clear he has more wealth than he needs. As we are lead in, he rushes up and sprints to embrace Felicia, “Daughter! I was so concerned, I am pleased to see you!”
They stand back at his chair. “Thank you, all of you. I heard from the High Pontiff. I thank you all for being there, and saving her from those monsters of the Inquisition.”
“Not to lead with business, Lord Rex, but I believe Fester has some documents you will want to see.”
“Ah, Fester. Thank you, a courier, I was told?” Fester provides him with the documents and his business card.
“I will ask my men to look further into this, unless you all are looking for work? Ah! Speaking of work, I should pay you for services tendered.”
Rex waves over one of his men to bring over a bag of coin from his table. The guard runs into a room behind the one we are currently in and returns to us shortly after. As we wait I make conversation with the guard closest to me.
“Well, the wall is only to keep out the miscreants that make their homes in the forests. The Watchtower keeps eyes on the odd beasts of the Abyss. Other than that, crime rates are low, everything is good. Those who wish to buy and sell their wares come here. Where they can craft and sell without having to leave town.”
“Sounds like a lovely city to be in. Has the Inquisition been around lately?”
“Well, they are the Inquisition, they are somewhat everywhere.”
Anatole asks, “You don’t seem concerned with that. They did just attack your Lord’s daughter.”
The guard comes back with the sack and the bag of coin. There is a loot table that goes to 84, and Kon rolls an 84, so we do a second roll to determine if we can enter the higher loot table. On the new table he rolls 113. This sack of gold coins is reasonably substantial. It looks like we have 500g to split between the party and a mysterious item. The item is an expensive looking pair of goggles. These are the Tracker’s Goggles, added to Kon’s inventory, there is a second item in the sack. The second item is The Retribution Axe.
As he hands over the payment, “With that all in mind, are we perhaps ready to talk further business?”
“I would absolutely say so, and I would like to thank you for your generosity.” Anatole says.
“Of course, can one ever put a price on their daughter? Of course you can not. Now, let us discuss.”
