Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 453 (Patreon)

Five weary travelers walked to the front gats of Wolfsburg in the early morning hours, bundled in ragged furs and heavy woolen cloaks pulled around them. This wasn't out of the ordinary for the guards on duty. The cold snap had taken everyone by surprise and wearing layers of clothing with furs on top was the new fashion style when outside the city walls. These five had the look of adventurers with heavy backpacks, bedrolls, belt pouches, potion bandoliers, and an assortment of weapons on each of them. They broke into a jog when they got close to the city, anxious to get inside the walls. The sergeant stepped to the middle of the road and held up a hand.

"Hold up for a moment, travelers. We need to ask you a few questions before you enter."

"Oh, sure, but can we do it off to the side by your brazier? We haven't been warm for two days."

The sergeant smiled at that and gestured them to huddle around the fire. He felt the same way on cold nights. "Warm yourselves up while we talk. First question: Are any large monsters chasing you? Angry tribes or packs of anything? Vengeful daemonic cults?" It was a standard question to get adventurers talking and often yielded interesting answers.

"Maybe? We pissed off a group of Winter Ice Chanters who were doing something bad. We got a quest to disrupt their Weather Witching ceremony. When the Weather Witch they were summoning showed up, we nailed her in the face with snowballs and she went ballistic on the Chanters She killed most of them with Lightning Bolts before she flew away. She was really pissed off."

"Pissed, and beautiful."

"Don't get started with that, Franky, please? Anyway, the Chanters whistled and chased us on some big dog-hippo things and we had to jump in a river to get away. We spent two days hiding in a small cave that turned out to be infested with Gibberlings. They didn't have much treasure, but we took the fur rugs they had in their lairs and used them for winter clothes."

The sergeant sighed, "And that would explain why some of you are scratching constantly? Next time you'll want to have a Druid or Shepherd rid the furs of fleas first. Alright, I think we can handle a few Chanters if they show up. Names?"

"Ricardo Montenegro, Dungeon Scout, Level 17."

"Frank N. Furter, Stalwart Defender, Level 16."

"Hasslehoffen, Arcane Dabbler, Level 19."

"Dandio, Sword-Bard, Level 16."

"Swiftfoot, Warrior-Merchant, Level 16."

The Sergeant lowered his voice and smiled at them. "We have a daily special, here at the north gate. For only 1 gold each I'll put down the little lies you just told me. Or you can enter for free and my report will show that your party included a Half-Elf Rogue, Half-Ogre Berserker, Human Hedge Witch with a Chaos tattoo, a Human Bardic-Romancer, and a Halfling Pastry-Thief. Either way, I'll give you a map to a bathhouse next to a 2nd hand merchant who sells cheap clothes, and my favorite bar."

Ricardo couldn't help but smile and Swiftfoot let out a low whistle. "Wow, you saw all of that?"

The Sergeant nodded, "Getting a lot of practice these days. So, what will it be lads?"

"Oh, we'll pay, and thank you for your service, and the map." One exchange of gold for a map and they were on their way.

Ricardo turned to his friends, "This is a step up from the little towns we went through. Let's be careful here. That means no stealing, Swifty, and stay away from the girls, Dandio."

"And the boys?"

"Them too. Just behave for once. We need to find out how the hell we get to Gadobhra with all the Teleporters out. It's a hell of a long way to travel. Maybe we can find a carriage or something." Five baths and some surprisingly cheap second-hand clothing made them feel like new men. The bar wasn't bad at all, and they could spend the night there. Showing them the Sergeants map got them a 10% discount and probably earned the guard a kickback of some sort.

The bar was obviously meant as a hang-out for adventuring. They'd only been there a half hour and been offered an assortment of quests cleaning rats and rabid badgers from basements, finding lost children, stealing an idol from an old temple, and delivering dubious-looking bags of something that smelled bad to the steps of the Ducal palace.

They turned them all down but noted the place as a good starting spot for anyone in the guild who needed to reroll their character. It wasn't happening as much as it had in the early days, but as more and more information about the game was discovered, some people became upset at missed opportunities or quests that would have let them gain a much better class when they tiered up. Not that starting over guaranteed that, but some people had to try to achieve whatever they thought was 'the perfect build'. Not every member of the Blackguards was a max-min gamer, but certainly 75% were.

Dandio spent some time chatting up the barkeeper and inquired about the possibility of a merchant caravan heading North or the cost of buying horses. The barkeeper kept his voice low as he wiped the beer mugs with a dirty towel. "Oh, I might at that. Buy a round for your friends with a generous tip and I can tell you how to find a fair-dealing horse trader with an interesting set of mounts for sale." Dandio did so, having had every intention of buying more beer anyway. The barkeep motioned with his chin to a man in the far corner enjoying a roast chicken and wine. "That's him over there. Calls himself Jack, but when I was in the Legion I knew him as Decurion Faustus. And you didn't hear that from me. He was trying to sell a fine set of ponies earlier to a group, but they didn't have more than a few coppers on them and asked for a loan. Jack just shook his head and laughed."

Dandio grabbed the beers and passed the info to Ricardo. The two of them went over to visit with Jack. Jack was an only man with a tanned and weathered face, but he smiled as they came up to talk. "Sit and rest your feet, you look like you traveled far today. Walking keeps a man healthy, but your feet pay for it at the end of the day. You look like a couple of Legion vets after a twenty-mile march, not sure which sore foot to stand on."

They sat down and he shared the bottle of cheap wine he was having with his meal, filling their mugs half full. "We hear you might have a way to take the load off of sore feet. We need five good mounts for traveling."

He looked at them for a moment, then at the rest of the party. "I might have just the thing, especially with you having that hefty boy in your group. The Legion buys dwarven mine ponies when they can. Stout beasts with tough hides and tougher teeth. I've seen them chew gravel when there was no other fodder. The Legion loves them because they don't complain and can walk forever, unlike some of the lazy sods I served with. Anyway, I happen to have a few I can let go to the right people and a mule for your big guy. In this weather, you don't want something pretty, you want something tough. I could let you have the five of them for 35 gold. They'll even come with saddles and tack, used stuff I repair. A friend saves it up and gives it to me in return for a little drinking money."

"Thirty-five gold is pretty steep, how many travelers are there looking for mounts? How about 25?"

"You'd be surprised, what with the Teleporters down. Few places can you get to and the Mages will charge you dearly. But I like you boys, I'll give them to you for 33." A half-hour of haggling later, they'd agreed on 30 gold. Jack was drawing up a bill of sale and casually asked them where they were headed.

"Rowan Keep and then on to Gadobhra."

Jack looked up, interested. "Really? For the dungeons I suppose? Dangerous place but they say gold is pouring out of the place in a river and even the farmers are wearing enchanted gear there. I wish I was 20 years younger. I'd pop up there for a little delving on a slow day. But tell me the truth. Are you headed to Gadobhra? I may have a better deal for you."

"We are. What's the better deal."

Jack leaned in close and whispered, "The Baron has a Teleport Stone now. Leads right to the city. But the Mages Guild hates him with a passion. They charge a fortune to go there and only let certain merchant houses use the direct route. You'd save a couple of weeks of travel and dodging wolves on the way there. I happen to know a Mage that owes me considerable favors, like keeping my mouth shut about where he goes on certain nights. I could wrangle you a teleport for only 25 gold."

Ricardo was not looking forward to more traveling through the cold. "You have yourself a deal, Jack."

The group decided to head out immediately, anxious to see the city. It was easy to find the Teleport Stone Jack had told them about. It was sending people out like clockwork, every minute. At the head of the line, Ricardo said, "Kallvek trading house, party of five, compliments of Jack the Horse Trader. Heading to Gadobhra."

The Mage didn't bat an eye, "All good, stand on the stone, don't move, hold your hands at your sides, and no horseplay. Not responsible for people goofing off and leaving parts of themselves here." The party disappeared, on their way to Gadobhra. The next group in line was a party of eight players.

"How much to go to Gadobhra?"

"Free if you are heading to Gadobhra, compliments of Baron William. Stand on the stone, don't move, hold your hands at your sides, and no horseplay. Not responsible for people goofing off and leaving parts of themselves here."

Back in the bar, Jack had slipped the barkeep 5 gold, splitting the take evenly between them. He excused himself, and a few moments later a different man sat down to enjoy the rest of the chicken dinner at another table. A group of seven new players came in, all dwarves.
"We hear someone is selling real dwarven mine ponies?"

The barkeep nodded to the old man in the corner. "Didn't hear it from me, but old Ferny back there is half dwarven on his mother's side. He buys and sells horses to the Legion and is known to have some good stout ponies." The players bought beer, tipped, and went to work out a deal with the man called Ferny. An hour later he was showing them seven ponies in a nearby stable, "Ignore the Legion marks on the old equipment, those styles are discontinued and I buy them up cheap. Same with the brands on the nags. Why they'd change from that beautiful brand to a G for Gus, is beyond me, but they sell these beautiful mounts cheap. By the way, where are you headed?"

"We have a contract to mine coal and a quest to find a lost passage to Dura Duram. Need to travel west for a week."

"West is some tough country, but these are the ponies to get you there, and they can pull your ore carts in the mines. I can let you have them for 10 gold each."