Racknar sighed. “Davy, Ivory, and Krys'tal all come from cultures with no concept of nobility. Giuseppe is a commoner and even if he wasn't Mari is adopted. That just leaves you and me.” Ariagoria tilted her head to look at Racknar. “Yeah, didn't you tell me your mother said something about being descended from a queen?” Racknar grumbles. “All spiders are technically the descendants of the queen and goddess of spiders, Arachne. But there's no way of knowing how far back that goes.” Ariagoria gestured to the doorway. “No harm in trying, right?”
Racknar looked at the doorway and his body started to shake. He then asked a simple question of Ariagoria. “As you are well aware, for other-blood races like demonblood, angelblood, and dragonblood, there are two ways to get a first generation. There's the way you were born, or there's the magic shenanigans way. Done by a mage messing around. If an other-blood makes a kid with someone on the mortal side it dilutes it and they lose features of the other race until they just become a sorcerer with that is their bloodline. Do you know how many generations of dilution it takes before an other-blood loses all their other-blood features and becomes nothing more than a regular looking human with magic?”
Ariagoria gave a confused look. “No? I actually don't know that.” Racknar then put up his hands with fingers in the air. “Six. At generation six you get just an alt skinned person and after that all that's left is the lingering ancestry magics. Do you realize what the implications would be if I were able to step through that spell?” Ariagoria's eyes widened. “That… would make you an angelblood. Though not quite a demigod.” Davy then points out. “Also as a highborn he'd be eligible to court Elisabeth. The rules don't state the suitor has to be from the Empire or human similar to the door spell conditions.”
Racknar facepalms. “This isn't about that, okay. I have no plans to court the princess, stop bringing it up. There was and is nothing between us and I doubt there will ever be.” Davy puts both his hands up. “Okay okay. I'll lay off. Let's just… take your advice from earlier and focus on the mission.” Racknar took a few breaths. “Right, okay.” They broke the huddle and approached the door. Ariagoria slowly put her hand to the entrance before taking a breath and walking right in. The man grumbled. Racknar than said “You didn't specify a noble from the Empire, race, or even realm. Just how far the separation was.”
Racknar slowly reached out his own hand, sweat beading down his body as his arm and hand shook violently. “(The implications of my ability to pass through this barrier… I'm not sure if I can handle that.)” he took a few breaths, then stepped through with ease. “Shhhiit. God damn it. Whatever, focus on the mission. I'll catch up with the rest of you later, just wait at the cart with Ivory.” Everyone nods and starts heading back while Racknar takes a few more breaths. “Let's go arcmage, you have your end of the bargain.” The mage grumbled before leading them through the castle.
The mage continued to grumble as he escorted the two all the way to the throne room. The king on the throne shifted to sit upright. “I was not expecting visitors. You should properly announce them before entering.” The mage bowed. “My apologies but they actually came to see me. However, I wanted your presence while they made their plea. Much like how I often advise you.” The king did a handwave, the old man clearly didn't care. “I'll still have them introduce themselves.” Racknar and Ariagoria both bowed. “I am Racknar Aradae.” “I am Ariagoria “Charity” Wrath.”
The king shifted in his chair and looked at the mage. The mage twirled his staff a bit and the king looked back to the two. “Racknar Aradae of Riverside?” Racknar rose. “Well I wasn't born there but I did frequent the town in my early years.” He then checked with his mage who nodded. The king then did another handwave. “You may speak freely about whatever it is you came here to speak about.” Racknar and Ariagoria exchanged looks. Racknar then started talking.
“As you know this kingdom has recently seen an uptick in activity from the golden dragon that calls it home. We took the job to investigate why the dragon has been more aggressive and after finding the source of the problem sought out the high mage for a solution.” The mage let out an exasperated sigh. “Oh, this is going to be good.” He said sarcastically. Racknar continued. “Kha’makal, the last golden dragon of Bramble, is, despite her relatively advanced age, experiencing estrus. She has agreed to forgo the normal tribute for up to six generations in exchange for summoning a mate for her. She has a realm anchor to keep the summon in this realm for long enough to… complete her transaction.”
Both the mage and king looked at one another and Racknar pulled out a paper. “Also I have a detailed plan to help keep the dragon fed without needing your livestock. Written here on this paper you'll find it quite inclusive.” The mage grabbed it and shared it with the king. The two whispered among themselves for some time. The mage then asked. “And what is in it for you and your party?” Racknar looked at Ariagoria who nodded. “She has offered us a significant amount of gold from her hoard as well as one magic item each of our choosing from it.”
The mage and king whispered some more among themselves, the king then put his hands together. “I won't have my mage cast zone of truth but would like you both to respond honestly. Who are the kings or queens you each descend from. I, King William Autoreus Bramble the Second, expect an honest answer without the use of magic.” Ariagoria cleared her throat. “I am Ariagoria “Charity” Wrath. Daughter of Amon the Wrathful. King of Stygia, fourth of the nine hells.” Racknar also cleared his throat. “I am Racknar Aradae, son of Alitha Aradae. Descendant of Arachne, Queen of Spiders.”
King William shifted in his throne for a while, he then looked at the mage. “Bring out the sword.” The arcmage bowed and teleported an ornate sword with a white thread handle that was stuck in the stone. Racknar sighed. “You're going to require me to pull the Sword of Selection before letting your mage accept such a simple and logical request?” King William shifted in his throne again. “Oh, he's already accepted your request. We both think it's quite good. This is for my own benefit. To learn what kind of person Sir Aradae is.”
Racknar grumbled. “I'm not actually a knight. Black Knight is more a moniker in reference to my armored appearance.” He reached out for the handle knowing full well the requirements and the implications of him being able to pull it. He put both hands on it and put his foot on the stone. He then pulled, there was a sound of grinding when he did and then Racknar let go. “I guess I'm not pure enough.” William put both his hands over his mouth as the mage looked at him. “Sir I-” the king raised hand to silence the mage. “Alright, take the mage with you to the dragon's lair. Make sure he returns safely.”
Racknar loaded the mage into the cart. “This is everything you'll need, arcmage?” He sat inside the cart. “Roland. Arcmage Roland of the Green.” Racknar tilted his head as he hopped into the driver's seat. “You're… a druid?” Roland laughed and shook his head. “Fae ancestry sorcerer, actually. But I have dabbled in the druid arts. Just like the great Merlin before me.” Racknar starts the cart. “Right. Anyway, counting use of the gate it's not exactly a long trip. So the food you packed is probably way too much.” Roland laughed again. “Oh, that's not for me.”
After a brief cart ride through a Yggdrasil gate they then ride to the dragon's lair in the abandoned castle. The mage whistled. “This used to be the capital, back when Arthur Bramble united the kingdoms of the island.” Racknar grumbled to himself. “Yeah yeah, the sword Excalibur and the knights of the round table. Can we move on from the regurgitated history likely recreated by a reborn and do this thing already?” Roland cocked an eyebrow at that comment as they unloaded the cart and moved forward into the castle.
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The mage looked in awe at both the dragon and her hoard. He bowed. “
Racknar rolled his eyes and led the rest of the party outside leaving Davy behind. Racknar Pat the spider in front of it, taking to it briefly. “We've got a few hours before we get paid. So feel free to take a load off out here in the town. Perhaps keep busy by helping the Kobolds prepare the farmland for the livestock they'll be keeping.” The part then spends several hours, well into the night. Adjusting the farmland and fixing the homes. Racknar wipes his forehead off. “You know, maybe with the help of some goblins this place could be self-sustaining again. Just gotta convince the king and mage to let it slide.”
The group returns to the castle to see the mage and Davy exit. “I'm done here, you can get your payment.” Racknar hands the mage a note. “A revision to my farm plan to keep the dragons fed without your livestock.” The mage looks it over. “This would mean recognizing a village of monster as legitimate.” Racknar shrugged. “A small price to pay for peace of mind. Don't you think.” The mage stashes the paper. “I'll forward this to my king.” He then teleported out. Racknar and the party minus Ivory went in.
Kha’makal lifted her head, an egg nestled at her tail. “The mating was successful and the male returned to his home. As promised.” A spell was cast putting five bags of gold. “A bag of gold coins, each with your respective weights. You may now pick one magic item from my hoard.” Davy starts sorting through things using the identity spell to find something. Ariagoria looked to Racknar. “I trust your judgment.” Marionette and Krys'tal both nodded. “Same.” Racknar then started sorting through the pile looking for anything that stood out or that he could identify without magic.
Racknar spent a while going through things until he popped out of the pile with a doorknob in hand. “Jackpot. Dimensional Doorknob. It allows the user to create a demiplane similar to the spell dimension door. It's an even better version of a bag of holding. We can put large objects and even living creatures inside it.” Ariagoria claps. “Good find. Just three more to go since Davy is finding his own object.” Racknar dives back into the pile once more.
After more time he eventually crawled back out. This time he had a gem with blue purple energy running through it in one hand, a golden lockpick with a skull on it in the other. “I'm not one hundred percent sure but I think this gem might grant Krys'tal a body to their gem movement and this lockpick is a skeleton key. Can open any non magical lock. Just need something for the cleric.” Racknar hands over the items and dives in one last time. Davy walked over with a new staff that had an octopus tentacle on the end. “Found my item. Who are we still waiting on?”
Krys'tal pointed to the pile. “Racknar is still looking for something for Charity.” Racknar shuffled and sorted before eventually coming out with a ring. “This… it would go on your horn. It uhh… gives you resistance or even immunity to set mind altering effects. But uhhh… it's an Infernal artifact.” Ariagoria grabbed it and put it on her horn. “If it benefits me, then I don't care where it comes from.” A light flame emanates from the ring. “What was that?” Racknar put his hand on his chin. “Maybe you unlocked a secret requirement of some sort?”
Ariagoria sighed. “Maybe. We got our payment, so let's just… go.” Racknar nods and they take their items to the cart. Racknar puts the knob to the cart floor and opens it up before tossing his bag of gold in. Everyone else tossed theirs in as well. “The bags are marked so I'm not worried about it.” Marionette says as she sets hers in. Racknar closed the door and they all hopped on. “On to the next adventure then. To the temple in Midterranus? We could get a start on forging alliances for when we start moving against the Empire.” Marionette and Krys'tal look at each other. “Let's stop in Flowers first. Check on with home.”
With some gate hopping and a boat ride the Monster Mash returned to Flowers. Racknar looked at his bag. “You know, if we pooled our money we could probably buy a nice sized plot of land. An entire village and the area around it. After all, each gold coin is basically a hundred dollar bill. I alone am easily two hundred pounds. If we assume that each coin is point one pounds… that's over two thousand coins. One hundred thousand dollars. Enough to buy a manor in this world.”
Ariagoria turned to look at Racknar. “And what would we do with this plot of land?” Racknar put out his hand. “Move Krys' and Mari's family. Move the Da Vinci family. Put everyone we need in Bramble now before we start our revolution. Besides, if we buy say… the village that is the old capital then our base would be protected when we are gone by goblins, kobolds, and giant spiders.” Krys'tal and Marionette both take their time thinking. Davy waved his new staff around slightly causing the tentacle on it to wiggle. “I mean we were going to move everyone and everything to Bramble anyway. So let's talk to Lisa about it first.” The rest of the party nods.
Racknar knocked on the door to the Da Vinci workshop and eventually the door was opened by Leo. “Ah, it's you lot again. Come in.” He led them to the workshop where Lisa was hard at work on a revised version of her glider. When her brother taps her shoulder Lisa looks up and sees the party. “Can you guys… come back tomorrow?” Racknar looked at the party and shrugged. The group then found a spot to camp out till the next day.
When they got back around noon the next day they were led into the tea room where Lisa was already entertaining a guest. “If this is a personal or private visit it'll have to wait till my guest leaves.” Racknar sits. “This visit is business, sort of. However I'm unsure if I can talk about it with a stranger.” Lisa gestured to the man. “Ah, right. This here is my fellow ally in a little resistance group against the Empire. Dante Alighieri, as in the poet. Apparently he was reborn here in Flowers around the same time I was born here.“
Racknar bowed. “Ah, hello there sir. Your work is highly regarded in my time on my version of Earth.” Dante tilted his head. “What was the year of our lord when you died?” Racknar poured himself a tea. “Two thousand and twenty. Da Vinci's dreams of underwater and flying transport were fulfilled long before I was born in that world and were commonplace. Anyway, since you're also not a fan of this Empire I'll fill you in.” Racknar then goes through his plan with them.
Lisa rubbed her chin. “As much as I would love to stay in this city that looks just like home, if we want to actually fight, having an entire country with its own military plus an alliance would be the best option. Although the Empire is at a stalemate do you really think Bramble can turn the tide? I feel like the only reason the Empire hasn't crushed the other nations is because each one is just one nation fighting one other nation. The Empire is in no rush. But if attacked directly…”
Racknar nods. “That's why we'll have to outgun them by a massive margin. Unlike most people of this world, I know the real reason why the French rifleman corps is so much more accurate than any other. It has nothing to do with skill, but is a technological advantage. One that I not only know how to replicate but how to improve on. There are also other technologies that I could explain in a way that would make it easy for you to reproduce them. I'm talking about making your flying screw viable, having guns that are more accurate and powerful than any in this world, making your glider actually able to fly full time, horseless carriages, and even flying machines that use methods you haven't discovered.”
Lisa lights up. “I would do just about anything for knowledge like that! Can you also tell me how to make an underwater transport vessel?” Racknar did a so-so gesture. “I can explain a few of the basics but I'm not sure I have enough knowledge for you to be able to replicate the technology. I can, however, give you the gift of electricity. Thanks to magic I can fill in a lot of gaps and substitute things that would be far too difficult to make with the current level of technology. So instead I'm going to help you start the aetherpunk movement.”
Davy squints and looks over at Racknar. “The what?” Racknar did a handwave. “You know, like steampunk but with magic. Although I could explain the steam engine fairly well it would already be outpaced by what we can do with magic. I'll get some paper for drawing to help me explain things. But I'm not giving you this knowledge unless you agree to move to this town we plan to buy.” Lisa put her hand on Racknar's shoulder. “Are you kidding me, for this kind of knowledge I'd do just about anything you asked of me. Hell, I'd even become your wife!”
Racknar looked away. “Please don't joke like that, let's just get to business. I'm not trying to marry you.” Davy looked to Krys'tal and Ivory then sighed. “Apparently neither am I. As attractive as you are, I've got enough on my plate.” Dante finished his tea. “I'll go pack my things. As fun as helping run the underground has been, it is far past time our movement surfaced. I'll gladly move out of here if it means liberating this city from a worse version of the Church of my world.”
Dante left and Racknar started getting to work. He made multiple drawings and made several hand movements as he explained modern concepts to Lisa. Everything from density and buoyancy, to airflow and aerodynamics. Explaining why rifling a barrel works as well as how to make gunpowder from scratch. Something Da Vinci already knew but not that adding a bit of sugar can increase the effectiveness of the mixture. Racknar explained some basics of electricity and how a magic crystal could theoretically be used as a battery. Racknar spent the better part of the day explaining various things to Lisa to the point it had become night.
Lisa looked over the various notes she had made and sorted them all together and paging through them before looking up at Racknar. “I could kiss you right now. Hell, you got me so worked up I want to bed you right now.” Leo started walking away. “I'll be elsewhere.” Racknar looked away from Lisa. “I don't want your hand in marriage or to lay in your bed. That's not why I'm doing this.” Lisa laughed. “I know I know. I was just teasing anyway. I'll start packing since it'll take a while.” Racknar showed her the doorknob. “I can stash everything you and Mari's dad owns using this. I can even grab Krys' family and everything else we're moving.”
Lisa looked over the doorknob. “A dimensional doorknob. These are rare. Well I guess there's nothing left but to get everything together and for you to buy that land.” Racknar nods and the party spends the next several days helping everyone pack, including the tribe of Goblins led by Rek that Racknar knows and his remaining spider siblings. Once everything and everyone being moved was put into the dimensional door the Monster Mash made the trip back to Londinium in Bramble to purchase the plot of land.