Part 14 “Morning Stroll”

I wake up early enough that the only other person active in the building is the inn's owner. He's preparing to cook breakfast for the current guests and silently trying to rouse the rest of his staff. It's a small group and once they are started working he notices me, as I take a seat at the bar. He brings over some poached eggs, bread, and bacon.

“You're up early, have someplace you need to be?”

“No, just habit.”

“Ahh, yes, now I recognize you. You were with those mercenaries that left yesterday. Why, didn't you head out with them, or is that something you'd rather not talk about?”

“I have some work to do solo. I'm heading out as soon as some armor I've requested is finished. Today I'm grabbing a map and traveling gear, know any place that you would recommend?”

Even though I checked some of the stores yesterday, it would be a good idea to ask a local. As an innkeeper, I figure he would probably know about this. He does, and names a few trustworthy cartographers and a few to avoid. He also tells me which general stores have the best gear according to what he's heard from guests here. He asks if I have any good war stories to tell, but now people are starting to wake up and he has to get to work taking orders and cooking. Having finished my breakfast I turn to leave, but as a parting shot he calls out to me, “Perhaps during dinner, you must have seen some neat things out there.”

Could be worse, he could have figured out who I was, then the whole town would probably be asking me the same question. I do have a few stories I don't mind telling though, mostly about other men in the company.

While shopping I find much more in the way of enchanted supplies than I was expecting, they must be easy to make with the price they are being sold at. I keep it simple though; tent, a pair of torches, bedroll, flint, tinder and a pack large enough to hold all of that and a fair supply of travel rations.

On my way to the cartographer's, the streets begin to crowd up. A cloaked man begins walking very close to me. “You shouldn't have roughed up our boys yesterday.”

“Hmm?”

“If you don't want any trouble you will leave town today.”

“I'll leave when I'm ready to.”

“You'll leave today.” So that is what the belt Norrin gave me feels like, I sense that the man is pulling a knife. Almost like someone only I can hear is calling out, 'Knife to your left!' I can probably draw my mace and drop him before he can stab me, and I don't have the patience to deal with him in any other way if he doesn't back off.

“Keep the knife to yourself, if you like chewing your own food.”

I turn toward him just enough to see the look of surprise on his face, both of his hands are still completely concealed by his cloak. He turns and disappears into the crowd. I should see how long Dartac is going to take with my armor, might want him to hurry. I should probably tell the watch about this encounter as well.

I wonder how many days of 'fun' I'll be having in this town.

Part 13 “Logistics”

I come back to my senses. Another blackout, did I hurt anyone?

There's the golem, took off both arms and then the head. Still some smoke rising off of it. Never seems to take me long to come around once the last opponent is put down. Shop area isn't too much of a mess, Syl is hiding somewhat clumsily behind one of the anvils. I guess that toss wasn't too bad for him. Mace did as good as I could expect it to given the circumstances; can't really expect a one handed weapon to do it's job as well as a two handed weapon without something in your other hand.

Where did the mace go? Not at my belt, should visit a tanner next and get belt loops for the mace and axe, if they don't sell those here. There it is. I must have been disarmed as I was blacking out. Hopefully I can still buy the weapons and get out of here without too much fuss after all that.

“Yeah, I'll take it.”

“I'm dreadfully sorr- wait, what?” He looks surprised, perhaps he saw my switching to the claymore as dismissive of the mace.

“I'd have stuck with it if I had a shield or a non-throwing off hand weapon. Under those circumstances, I felt the claymore would get the job done better. Nothing against your workmanship.” I can't help but feel my explanation is more just to hear myself say it. He still looks confused.

We head back to the front of the shop to work out the price of the weapons. All of the apprentice smiths are hurriedly trying to explain to Anton what was going on back there. Anton seems lost in the chorus of conflicting voices and descriptions. Syl tells them all to get back to work and we renegotiate the prices of the two weapons. His offered price is somewhat lower than it was before. I hand over a fair portion of what's left of my advance pay. I feel like I should help cover some of what they need to replace with the golem, but Syl insists that it was their fault. He even pulls a long-knife from under the counter and gives it to me, “on the house.

“This way you won't have to worry about an off hand weapon, also has some minor enchantments to make it more useful as a utility. Good for skinning and cooking.”

As I am leaving I can overhear the voices of the apprentices cleaning up, they seem to have forgotten to close the door to the back room. One is complaining about losing a bet about who would win that fight. Another is claiming that it would be impossible to cut through the metal at the shoulders of the golem the way I did. Yet another still is declaring that he can't wait to tell old Barleyhorn at the tavern about this one, oh no. I expedite my retreat from the smithy, before they get a better look at me. I don't think I gave anyone my name. Somehow, though, the bards always know...

Next is to check on the prices of food around here. I've never had to worry about logistics in The Emerald Dragons, time to learn how long I can expect to live off of what is left of my pay.

Good thing rooms and meals aren't nearly as expensive as weapons and armor, let alone magic weapons and armor. I should be able to travel for quite some time off of what's left. Longer if I hunt while on the road. I decide to wait on buying my traveling supplies until tomorrow. The food can wait until my armor is ready. Food can go bad, may as well buy fresh right before I go. I could buy some enchanted to keep fresh longer or self cook, but that seems rather excessive. I've dealt with dried or salted meats on long trips before and it would greatly extend the amount of time I have to travel before finding some supplemental income.

I go back to the tavern to settle down for the evening. My company has already moved along. No surprise there, shouldn't be too hard to find them again if I try.

I do some footwork exercises and pushups before sleeping.

Part 12b “Man o' War” =Syl=

I was stunned, but found my breath in time to see our latest customer facing off with what I had previously considered to be a harmless training automaton. Now it would seem to have fused with the reject and unenchantables pile.

What a mess. How does this even happen? This type of golem isn't supposed to be able to go berserk, of course, it isn't supposed to start gluing weapons to itself either. I can't spot any major changes in the auras of the weapons, nor in the golem. Perhaps something smaller, too small to see while it's moving as much as it is.

It has a piece of a spear I had attempted to lightning enchant, but could only get an incredibly weak amount of power into. A short sword that didn't seem to take to any enchantment at all, but I guess must have something behind it. I can't remember the rest. Oh, there goes the crossbow I had intended to grow its own bolts, but instead decided to fire flower petal bursts. I was actually hoping to find a buyer that would want something of that sort, I think that I will try to duplicate the effect. Surely it would make a great ceremonial weapon, with enough of them firing petals in unison.

While I had intended to run away, my fear gives way to curiosity as I watch the big spender do battle with the thing. It isn't often that I get to see my work wielded in actual combat, by actual trained fighters. His motions are fluid and, except for the occasional stutter or aggressive parry on the construct's part, I would say that he was doing a fair job of holding his own. He has a stern look to him now, not the amused posture I had seen before. For a human his age, he's stayed in shape quite well, I don't think I've seen Anton keep up this level of activity for this long.

Eventually, a hit is scored on the warrior, a small scratch to the shoulder with a sting of electricity from the spear. I don't think I'd be able to bear it if this thing kills anyone. It isn't a golem made by me, but all of those weapons were. I hope he can pull this off. Looking frustrated, he puts his hand against the hilt of his sword.

Everything changes.

It had looked impressive before, I could see several layers of magical enhancement, an ability I had spent many decades honing. As soon as his hand touched the blade, it was like lighting a torch with a candle. The auras of magic not only grew in intensity, but they also enveloped the man. This I can not understand, none of the auras seemed remotely similar to the sort I've seen that increase the wielders physical power, or do something of that school of enchantments.

His expression changes as well. Frustration, fatigue, fear, it all disappears from his face. Leaving what starts as a look of curiosity, examining the mace now in his off hand as though it was his first time seeing such a thing. Quickly this seems to change to anger or, perhaps, contempt. He throws it off to the side while fluidly avoiding a swing directed at his head.

I think I may have just lost a sale...

What happened? Is he really that used to this weapon? He moves with amazing precision, each swing is short, surprisingly fast for such a weapon, and with no wasted motion that I can see. Having discarded the mace, his face seems distant, as though this wasn't anything new to him. He moves as though he had fought this enemy every day, and has brought it down to a routine. Each attack beautifully intercepted, each counter would be crippling if there was actually a person inside of that pile of arms and armor. I haven't seen such a fluid connection with a weapon even in the elven realms, the technique is wonderful in it's simplicity. He removes one arm and than the other. The berserking golem takes no heed and proceeds to attempt to kick the swordsman or hit him with one of the weapons stick to its legs. Does he remember?

“You should take the head off if you want it to stop!”

A sharp glance in my direction makes me feel as though I distracted him at a vital moment. A swift twist of a parry knocks the golem into an awkward spread eagle, followed by thrust with a crackle and bright flash of lightning, and the head is rolling along the ground leaving a small trail of smoke.

The brightness of the aura fades somewhat, and he looks amused as he put the sword back in the harness on his back. His expression quickly changes to confusion or disorientation as he looks around for a short period at his handiwork, spots the mace again, and goes to pick it up. Our latest customer spots me and heads in my direction. Here it comes, he's going to shove the thing into my chest, tell me it's not good enough, and leave fuming.

“Yeah, I'll take it.”

“I'm dreadfully sorr- wait, what?”

Part 12a “Presenting a Threat”

I wouldn't want this thing loose on the streets. I knocked it into that pile, so I guess it's my problem to fix. Though, I'll see if I can do it with this new weapon first. Oh, look, it is going to salute this time. I draw the throwing axe in my off hand as it assumes a stance somewhat different from the previous one. Now threatening me with a small sword attached to its right forearm and a broken off end of a spear somehow stuck to its wrist. I should look out for kicks as well, a dagger and an axe head seem to have stuck to its legs. The rest of the weapons stuck to its body are positioned in ways to render them nonthreatening. I'm assuming that they were reject weapons, but that doesn't mean they weren't any good. They might just not have been good enough to sell.

I am startled when the empty crossbow that has attached itself to the left side of the pelgolem's torso draws itself back. I sidestep to my left to avoid any sort of shot. When I hear the mechanism fire, a small burst of flower petals comes forth and drifts slowly to the ground. I find myself dodging toward my right when the golem takes a swing, aiming to stick me in the shoulder with the sword on its right arm. Much more dangerous than before, not something I should be doing unarmored.

I step back and toss the axe at the things head, but I'm high and to the left. Okay, not something I'm accurate with in my off hand. The axe imbeds itself in the wall behind the weaponized golem, vanishes, and then reappears in my hand, throwing of my balance just enough to let the golem deflect a mace shot I had aimed at it's elbow. Right, putting that away for now. I deflect an incoming spear thrust as I stick the axe back into my belt and adopt a two handed stance with the mace. The crossbow is still firing occasional puffs of petals, that distraction isn't helping either.

I take a few more swings, but the golem's defense is much tighter than it was before, and the counter attacks are enough of a threat to keep me back a bit. The spear tip grazes my shoulder, adding a small spark and shock that stings like hell.

No shield, one-handed mace, sure it was doing just fine for a weapon I considered using with a shield, but damn it. . .

I shift the mace into my left hand so I can hang it at my belt as I grab my claymore. . .