Chapter 7: Meat pies, Lightning, and an Abundance of Caution

The bank vault was never meant to hold six large men and my sister ... and myself. We had known this would be an issue and Timothy had volunteered to stay and ‘hold down the fort with these two lovely ladies’. It was a smooth move, but the rest of us thought we could manage the discomfort if only to force the clever asshole to join in...

The cramped space got worse when I started passing out weapons, saddles, packs and armour. Eventually the box was empty of things we could use and I scooped up my purse and tucked it into the insides of my leather jerkin.

Hero Andre had a short sword and a couple of simple vambraces that fit him. Pierre had the medium crossbow and a travelling pack. Tim had the short spear and another backpack. The elder Timothy took two heavy daggers with the one saddle over his shoulder. Benjamin and John took the two smaller crossbows and a dagger each, that left me carrying the other two saddles with the strange long sword and its matching short sword and knife. I’d forgotten it was there, and I’d also forgotten to ask Diane about them or the ring and box we’d retrieved. They were extremely light and without a proper inspection I would be quite hesitant to use the long one in battle, but given no choice, it’d get pulled if necessary. My sister went unarmed (except for the small knife that matched my swords) as was the custom of women on Chaos.

Stepping out into the bank we caused a small amount of panic from the lone teller who (obviously) didn’t know we were in there. I drew what cash I had, hoping that we would be able to outfit our large group as well as possible for the short trip to the next town where our Damsel (also named Sue, but short for Suzette) was being held by the locals for reasons unknown.

Leaving the bank we headed left (South) towards the Center of town first. Our plan was to re-arm and armour ourselves up to a reasonable level then gather kit for our trip. Depending on our available funds, we would buy horses or not. The disadvantage of walking (besides arriving tired) was that we needed to buy more supplies, so the cost savings really weren’t that great. Adding to our concerns was the fact that we had to return to this town to get to the bank in order to leave with the Damsel.

Typically new Heroes have a hard time of it at first, they look clean and shiny, just what a group of brigands likes. Hero Andre however had six bodyguards and that made us almost the size of a mercenary company, (as I have mentioned before).

We remained unaccosted on our trip to the blacksmith/armourers and that giant of man had quite a bit of worry with seven fighters piling into his shop. I ended up sending the eldest three outside to keep an eye out, and to appear less threatening. We managed to get some good quality finished quarrels and arrows from him which surprised me. Typically archers and crossbowmen made their own, from purchased materials and tailored them to their own preferences as best as they were able. Good archers made themselves good arrows.

One of my best teachings from my Uncle had been to save a glance for the fletching of any arrow or quarrel you could see on a man. If it was neat, tidy, and well made ... you were in serious trouble.

I knew we were not going to be able to buy six horses already. After cycling the other three into the shop, I’d managed to use a quarter of my funds already. This town was a good ten weeks ride from my interests at Millpond and beyond, so anything we were going to need was going to be purchased with only the funds I had on hand. I mentioned this to Timothy.

“My lord, do you see yon buildings?” He replied.

I looked where he was pointing. Seems a fire had broken out, damage was extensive to four of them, with a fifth badly burned and under reconstruction. All these were stone and the walls and hearths were still standing. Many of them still had the solid beams that had held the roof up still there.

“They have some work ahead of them, those owners. The harvest is due to be brought in soon and they will be lucky to get those roofs covered in thatch before the cold fall and winter comes.” I said, trying to see how they could help us.

“Shame, my Lord, that there isn’t a company of competent, unemployed Thatchers lying about ... they could make some good coin in about two weeks, couldn’t they...” he looked at me and smiled as he spoke.

I looked back at the burned buildings, then back to Timothy. “How would you go about it?” I asked, finally understanding what he was getting at.

“Well, if they were owned by the same man, I’d make an offer to do all the work, provided that he feed and put us up. The fee would be paid half up-front and half on completion...” he said.

“And if they were owned by different men?” I asked, finally following the thread of how we could make this work.

“Well then, as honest businessmen we’d have to work for the highest bidder...” he said with a toothy smile. “If you had four horses, and say ... my youngest. Could you get there, get the girl, and get back in 10 days?” He asked.

“Honestly, depending on how tough the thugs there are. I can usually handle two to three armed men, so long as they don’t have an archer or crossbowmen, all by myself”. I responded thoughtfully.

“Begging you pardon sir, but I’ve seen you train, if the men here are only marginal with their weapons, you could probably handle 6-8 of them. You are frighteningly fast sir.”

I was.

Whatever Diane had done to us in that healing box, we were all faster and stronger. That Celt, Tarl ... by all rights he should have been able to take me easily. I’d have survived, and Diane could have put me back together again but I’d managed a tie, and he’d been lucky at that. (The tie was a sore point between Andre and Pierre. I was still going to have some revenge on Pierre for daring to wager against me)

Timothy wandered over to the burnt buildings with his sons and I tagged along at a distance, covering their backs. These men might have been newly trained warriors, but they had a lot to learn about being wary in unknown towns on Chaos.

There was a man on top of the smallest building, hollering down to a boy on the ground. About six feet of thatch had been laid, and even I could see it’d been done poorly. The man was climbing down warily as the seven of us approached.

“Morning sir, you’ve had some damn poor luck with those roofs, lightning strike?” Timothy opened with.

“Worst possible time too, we’ve other things to do, but I have to stall them just to seal these damn buildings back up.” He said.

“Tim, Pierre, Ben, John ... go lay the first course for this good man.” Timothy said abruptly.

“Yes father...” the boys intoned and got to it. The four of us and the boy watched silently for about ten minutes as the men first removed the work done so far, and started setting down thatch until it became obvious that these four alone could probably finish this small barn in the remainder of this day ... so long as a deal was made.

“I suppose you’ve done this work before...?” The man asked, he’s and his son’s eyes on the workers who were already tying the next four bundles of reeds.

“My names Timothy Thatcher, my boys and I can get all this sorted for you in a week or so as long as we can come to an agreement...”

“A week? How long is that?” He said, clear confused by the concept.

“Few less than a ten-day.” I threw in from afar. The people here did not have a calendar like ours, but Timothy would not know that.

The man nodded, then spoke to the boy “Jim: you watch these men and learn what you can. The rest of us are going to the tavern.”

Now it was the young boys turn to say ‘yes Father... ‘. That phrase was always a safe bet to use. I’d relied on it quite a bit in my own youth.

The ‘tavern’ as the man called it was the largest of the burned structures, and it was worse than most. We sat down on a surprisingly undamaged table while a young woman brought us watered wine. Timothy glanced up past the ruined roof. “This one was where the fire started, wasn’t it ... the major beams still look good, but the secondary beams here are too damaged to be reused, we will need to replace them too or the roof will fall in during the first heavy rain. It must have been a very fast burning fire, the thatch old and no rain for a few weeks, um ... ten-day.” He said absentmindedly.

The barkeep just grunted and nodded. “So then let’s talk business. Room and board for ten days, and four quads when the last roof is done.”

Timothy just laughed. “You’re facing ruin here, and we don’t need the work really. We can do a better job than you could, and you get to bring in your crops and run this ‘tavern’ as well in the evenings. A Shell for each building and you’ll feed us while we are working. The small size of the shed and the larger size of this building basically cancel each other out”

His eyes bugged, Five Shells was a huge amount, but the alternative was ruin, as Timothy pointed out.

“We will also teach your sons how to do it ... it’s a valuable skill...” Timothy dropped as he sipped his watered wine. That did it for the barkeep, you could see it in his eyes. The older man held out his hand and they shook.

“You eight are going to get this done in ten days? Correct?” He said.

“Six men. The girl is with them but not working.” I said. Allowing my sister to lobor when I knew her heritage wouldn’t help her realize a high status when I finally revealed her to the commoners. Any woman without high status was worthless in my world.

“Five men ... Andre is going with you my Lord, we’ll keep the young lass here where there are more eyes to look upon her. Young Tim’s eyes can’t seem to see anything but the wee thing anyways...” Timothy smiled, letting me know his son’s intentions and his own feelings on the subject in one simple act.

The barkeep looked confused, then pleased when he realized that he had fewer men to feed and house. I had mixed feelings over this. On one hand the two of us could cover the ground quickly and with just four or five mounts to buy and just the two of us to buy supplies for, I could easily afford it. On the other hand these five men wouldn’t be getting any experience in real combat, and that was the whole point of this exercise.

The deal was made though and the tavern owner (another John) handed over the deposit to Timothy who passed the majority to me to me once we were outside. “Horses, gear and provisions?” He asked with a smile at both myself and Andre. Then dropping the remaining two quads in his own purse he said “Extra Ale and wine!” Tavern keeper John looked pleased at the thought that at least some of his money would be coming back to him as the Thatcher’s spent their wages on drinks.

We got to work, redistributing some of the weapons and armour to Andre and myself before trying to get six good horses with the extra tack we would need for the two of us plus the girl.

We ended up getting only three, the rest of the nags were only fit for the knackers. Good thing we hadn’t needed to move all eight of us.

Andre and I were quiet on the trail. He had a crossbow across his saddle, and we each had one long sword and a good short sword or long dagger on our person. My short bow was out of reach and unstrung so to use it for anything but making our own ambush would be problematic.

Two travellers are deemed to be easier prey than eight, evidently. Our first road agents were a group of three. They just stepped their horses out of the trees that lined the side of the cart-path we were on and pulled their weapons (the lead with a sword and the two behind him with crossbows). I was surprised we hadn’t heard their horses (they usually aren’t known for their stealth).

For his first time, Andre did very well. His crossbow came up quickly and he shot the biggest and best dressed man in the chest. Their leader must have taken the bolt in something non-vital and was screaming a whole lot at both the two of us, and his own men. Those idiots fumbled their own shots, luckily shooting high at the two of us.