Red_Snow

Turn

Turn 13

---Back-post: Turn 12---

"Ahhh… That's good!" Tipping his head back, Storm drained the cup. "Does anyone else want any?" The others murmured in reply and he set to gathering beakers, filling them, and dishing them out.

Opening his eyes, Darmon threw off the heavy blanket, and gingerly lowered himself to the floor. Kneeling on the rushes in his undershirt, the initiate, as always, began his day on his knees, deep in prayer. When he finished, he gathered his belonging together and returned to his chair to dress,

Ignoring him, Junither pulled on the last of his clothes, drained the beaker of soup, and headed for the larder in the corner.

---Skip to the Inn---

Storm blew into his hands. "I need a shield. Do you think this Magden will have one?"

"Probably. Tell him I sent you and maybe he won't rip you off so badly."

Storm grinned wryly. "If he's anything like some of the quartermasters I've dealt with, I doubt that'll be enough stop him." Lifting his feet high, he stomped off through the deep snow towards the distant Stores.

"Right then." Lucrezia turned to the others. "Someone said something about going to the walls?"

---Turn 13---

"Yes," Duncan said, taking his eyes off Storm as he trudged off through the snow. "There's guards posted constantly on the walls?"

"Yes," replied Lucrezia. "There's normally half a dozen or so patrolling the walls. There's supposed to be more, but Urkan can't get the Factor to agree to it. The Factor depends on Urkan to defend the town but won't give him any help in doing it." She shrugged. "But he's good at his job so the Old Man keeps him."

"How fascinating!" Xavier broke into his most charming smile. "Can I ask where a small-town girl like yourself learnt to write?"

Lucrezia led them across the square towards a stone stairway that led up to the ramparts. She seemed slightly bemused by the urbanite student's question. "My father taught me to read and write while I lived with him and my mother at the University of Nuln. Now, I'm an Initiate of Verena's Temple in Nuln. I'm to spend the winter here recording the town's history for the Temple's records. If I do well, I hope to be ordained in the spring. How about yourself? Where did you learn to read?" She arched one eyebrow, innocently questioningly.

Xavier shrugged. "What have you learnt so far? Any interesting myths and folktales?"

The female Initiate laughed prettily, amused by Xavier's manner. "Lots! Amos is a goldmine - excuse the pun - of tales. I spend a lot of time with him, so I've heard most of them already. According to him, there are tribes of Snow Sprites in the peaks that tend magically flowers. The dew from these flowers is supposed to be the essential ingredient in the Elixir of Life. There are also giant cats and bears, like cave lions and bears only pure white and much, much larger. Quite frankly, if everything he says is true, there wouldn't be enough space for all the Goblins."

"Anything that walks on two legs and makes a noise like the wind in the trees?"

"Oh yes." Lucrezia stopped walking and began to count on her fingers. "Snowmen, snow giants, man bears, chaos demons from some snow realm, ice-elementals, and…" She ran out of fingers on one hand and began to count on the other. "Dwarven battle-machines that got lost on their way to some ancient battle, Undead hiding from the rotting warmth of the low-lands, and were-beasts trapped between forms and doomed to roam outside of the world of man and wolf." She gave up on the finger counting and threw her arms in the air expansively. "You'd have to ask Amos the details. He can remember all the stories perfectly, and he's got plenty of spare time on his hands." She started walking again.

Moving slowly through the deep snow, the party crossed the square and rounded the corner of the Stores. There was a small side-door tucked into the lee of the solid wall around the building, mostly protected from the deep drifts of snow that had built up where the wind had blown them. Xavier seized the opportunity, and the door handle.

"I'm stopping here. In need some warmer clothes before I freeze to death." Lucrezia shrugged.

"We'll see you up the top then, or back at the Dusty Throat."

---Skip---

From the outside, the Stores were one of the biggest buildings in the town, if not the biggest. From the inside, it certainly felt like it. The huge two-storey building formed a single room, filled to the ceiling with goods of all descriptions. A low counter fenced off one corner. Behind it was a wall of bins holding smaller items like nails, clothes pegs, and balls of twine. Behind that were lines and lines of shelves. The heavy oak racking rose straight up to the ceiling and ran the length of the building broken only by a single asle running the full width. Horizontal bars between the lines braced the unstable-looking structure and provide space to hang ropes, and to store lumber, cloth, and even a small boat.

Storm leant on the counter, waiting impatiently. Seeing Xavier, he straightened.

"You after something as well?"

Xavier nodded. "It's cold out: I'd thought I might dress for the occasion." Storm laughed, as did the Halfling wandering out from behind the wall of bins. The Halfling carried a round disk made from wooden planks pinned together and cut roughly to shape. Leather straps on the back provided formed a crude handle and harness.

"Sorry, but it's all we've got at the moment. I'm trying to get the Blacksmith to make some edging for them, but he's swamped with work at the moment. Tell you what, I'll knock it down to…" He stared at the wall over Storm's shoulder, his lips moving silently. "…Umm…" He looked up at Storm, his decision made.

"I'll knock it down to twenty five shillings. I would have said thirty five, but I reckon we need all the well-armoured fighters we can get at the moment."

Storm took the shield and slipped his arm into the harness. He tightened the straps and buckled it firmly in place.

"Is that sword just for show?" Xavier started, lost in reflection. Storm's eyes twinkled like a child with a new toy. "Com' on, hit me!"

Grinning, the student drew his blade and went for the Mercenary. The two danced back and forth for a moment, the sword flashing and the wooden shield batting it out of the way. Finally Storm called a halt and the two stopped, momentary breathless. Magden grinned again, his chubby face perpetually beaming.

"So you'll take it?"

Storm pulled the shield off his shoulder and set it down on the counter. "You're kidding. This isn't worth half of that. Not even a quarter, most likely." He picked up his backpack once more and swung it up onto his shoulders. "I'll give you eight."

"Eight! That wouldn't cover the wood, let alone the leather, workmanship" Storm snorted "the transport, or the storage! I'd go bankrupt if I traded on those terms!" The Halfling glanced away, his lips working. "If you feel so strongly about it, I suppose I could give it to you for…twenty."

"Ten." Storm was halfway to the door. His voice was bored, disinterested.

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out." The Halfling ignored him and turned to face Xavier. "Now, how can I help?"

Storm was back. "I've been thinking. I suppose I should make allowances for the cost of transporting the thing up here…"

The Halfling nodded, suddenly serious. "…Very expensive…"

"…And maybe I could stretch to twelve shillings."

The Halfling tipped his head on one side and stared at the Mercenary. His face was impassive and his lips didn't move.

"Okay. Fifteen, then!" The Halfling thrust out a podgy hand.

"Done!" They shook. Storm reached into his purse and handed over a few silvery coins. Magden counted them twice before making them disappear into an inside pocket. Turning to Xavier, he repeated his earlier question.

Xavier smiled. "I need winter clothing, say, a thick cloak and a scarf."

The Halfling looked him up and down, noting the lightweight clothing and the soft shoes. "You'll also need leather boots and better clothing, unless I'm much mistaken." He disappeared behind the wall.

---Skip to the walls---

The view over the ramparts was spectacular. Pure white snow covered everything as far as the eye could see, smoothing the inhospitably jagged dark grey rocks into a soft sea of white. The walkway along the ramparts led left and right as far as the eye could see - at least one quarter of the way around the town. Platforms extended back from the ramparts at regular intervals. The nearest one was more than large enough for the Ballista that sat on it. Two men swaddled in blankets tended the machine. One was rubbing wax into the legs while the other sat on the edge of the platform, patiently fitting flights to the pile of shafts beside him. A third man lent forward against the wall, idly scanning a snow-covered outcrop fifty metres from the wall and twenty metres above the walkway. He didn't say anything as the party mounted the steps, just waved them closer and turned back to face the mountain. Duncan gently settled the wooden keg he carried into the snow, straightened gratefully, and followed the others towards the guard.

"They were up there last night." He nodded, indicating the outcrop. "We saw one, but he ducked out of sight when he saw the Ballista coming round. The lads put one into the snow, about a span from the crest, just for a laugh. It disappeared into the snow but I don't think we got him. I reckon it must have scared him half to hell, though."

The beauty of the scene fascinated Lucrezia. "It's so…"

"…Perfect?"

"Yes!"

"The bastards could be anywhere. That ledge is deep enough for half the tribe to sit up there, just waiting for it to get dark again. Or they could have sneaked off and be waiting over there." He glanced sideways at another outcrop further down the valley, "or over there." He nodded towards a third outcrop, higher than the first and slightly further up the valley than the platform where they stood. "They couldn't fire arrows from there if there's even the slightest breath of wind, especially those shitty little things Goblins carry, but they'd only have to get lucky once, and we've got no cover from there." The guard was strangely calm about their predicament. He carried the air of a man detached - aware of the situation but ignorant of its dangers. "Or, of course, they could have shifted over to the other side of the pass. If so, this Ballista would be needed over there instead. If we move it, and they attack this side, here…" He trailed off. Rodger and Lucrezia nodded slowly, appreciating his dilemma.

Duncan stuck out his hand. "Hi, I'm Duncan. I only stopped here for the winter, looking to earn some cash, but it looks like I'm going to end up killing Goblins with you."

The other man shook the proffered hand. "And I'm Rat. Pleased to meet you, I'm sure. Weren't you the guys who went out after Mund?"

Duncan shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea at the time." He paused. "Any way, while we were picking over Mund's wagon, I stumbled across some gunpowder. Do you think this gun powder could be used somehow to combat the Goblins next time they attack?" Duncan took a quick look around the walls to try and count guard numbers and strength. As well as the two men tending this Ballista, another two men tended a similar looking machine directly opposite. Another pair of guards, walking clockwise away from them along the ramparts, were the only other guardsmen in sight.

A flicker of thought danced across Rat's face but faded before anything became of it. "Could be. What do you have in mind?"

---Skip to the Stores---

The Halfling reappeared, hidden behind an armload of clothing.

"I've got a cloak here, plus a hat and some other bits and bobs." He dropped the pile on the counter. "I've got a full-length silk cloak here from Altdorf - that's the green one - and a three-quarter length one made for a Tilean. He had it made for his first visit to the 'cold north' and decided that he didn't really need it. He had some gambling debts to pay, so maybe that helped." The Halfling flicked the cloaks out of the pile and brushed the pile flat. "This one's made of some fancy cloth. It's not one I've seen, but it's toast-warm inside this cloak. The other one's wool lined with silk. Looks expensive - look at that embroidery!" He divided the pile of clothing up into smaller piles, then divided them into individual garments. "Here's a pair of brand-new calf-skin boots. Made by plains-dwarfs this summer." He picked up a pair of full-length boots in a shiny black material. "Oil-skinned boots," he put them down and picked up a pair of nine-hole boots cut from a dark brown leather "and ox-skin boots. These have got to be good - the previous owner drove a hard bargain and reckoned they were worth every penny."

Next in line along the counter were the hats. He held up a badly knitted woollen bobble hat. "Nah, you'd be ashamed of that one." The next hat down the pile was leather with a span-and-a-half brim. "As worn by muleskinners on the plains." A beret in burgundy silk with burgundy piping and a white feather was next. The Halfling seemed to be very impressed with it. "Aha! The son of a nobleman wore this one. He rode through here looking for some hunting in the south. When his party came back, they sold off some of his personal effects and clothing here."

Magden waved a thumb back towards the racking. "I've got some blankets if you want them. Is there anything else you want to see?"

---End Turn---

Index

Go Home

This page is maintained by Silk Kendiron on behalf of the Red_Snow list at Phoenyx.Net.
This page last updated 21/1/00.

We luv Lurkers!