It was midday, and the caravan had stopped to give the draft animals a water and rest break, and the drivers a chance to stretch their legs and grab a bite to eat while not driving. During the slow drive, Lance had managed to increase his MESAR, Magic Manipulation, and Active Meditation skills, to 8, 8, and 10 respectively. The boost to his Active Meditation came with the bonus of now being able to triple his resource regeneration. With his current regeneration, he could now regenerate what it took to ‘Duplicate’ the loaded rucksack in one hour instead of almost two. They now had 5 rucksacks plus all the equipment and supplies inside them to use for trade goods, laying in the wagon being pulled behind the truck.
They climbed out of the truck and Lance fed most of his Magic into his MESAR skill, sweeping about 30 meters into the treeline on each side of the road. Suddenly, Lance shouted “Contact left!” and drew his pistol. The rest of the caravan started scanning the trees. Lydia grabbed her rifle from the truck and provided overwatch for Lance as he advanced on the figure he saw laying inside the treeline. Lance advanced on the position from an angle, being sure to stay out of Lydia’s line of fire.
As Lance pushed through the brush into the trees, he came upon the prone figure’s position. They hadn’t moved since he detected them, and when he had them in sight, he understood why. Shouting “All clear!” and then “Mo, I need you and your kit”, Lance knelt down next to the individual who was face down with a crude arrow sticking out of their back. The wore what Lance would consider homespun clothing, and carried no visible weapons. The most shocking and striking things to draw Lance’s attention however were the furry triangular ears on their head and the fluffy tail on their backside.
As Lance checked for a pulse, Lydia pushed through the brush with her med bag over her shoulder. He looked up at her, and said “Penetrating wound to the upper back, pulse weak but steady, they're all yours.” He then stood and walked back to the roadway to tell Bj?rn what they had found. Bj?rn agreed with Lance’s conclusion that there was no apparent threat, actually reinforcing that in Lance’s mind when he said that there were no tribes of beastkin living in Skallheim, and one rarely even saw one except an adventurer or trader in one of the capital cities.
Telling Bj?rn that he had no idea how long it would take Lydia to treat the injured beastkin, he asked Bj?rn if he would have one of his men watch over Lydia as a precaution while he backtracked the trail the wounded man had left behind him. Bj?rn agreed and made a hand signal that had Viggr quickly approaching. Lance turned and headed back into the trees. As he reached Lydia, he saw that she had established an IV, and hung it on a bush and was now probing around the arrow wound with her Magic Manipulation. He let her know that he was going to follow her patient’s trail back to make sure there weren’t any nasty surprises headed their way, and that Viggr would be around to keep an eye on things.
Focusing on the tracks leading up to the downed beastkin, Lance started into the trees. The whole time he was pushing his MESAR skill to the maximum. He could tell from the deep impressions, the drag marks on many of the steps, and the occasional knee and hand prints in the trail that the poor soul was running on fumes before he collapsed just out of sight of the road. His tracking skill told him that the tracks were no more than a few hours old, and so Lance was wary of running into whoever had shot the guy following the tracks the other direction. He had followed the tracks for nearly a mile, watching how the evidence of their victim’s passage became less and less until even his tracking skill could no longer highlight any tracks. His best deduction was that this was the point where the wound in the guy’s back had finally been too much for him and he was no longer able to mask his trail from anyone who might be following behind.
Deciding that he would have most likely encountered anyone who had been capable of tracking the beastkin this far, Lance turned and hurried back toward the roadway. When he arrived, the caravan had moved on, and Lydia and Viggr had moved her patient next to the truck and wagon. Viggr was in the process of unhooking the wagon from the trailer hitch. Lydia explained that she had told Bj?rn that they would easily be able to catch up to the caravan or reach the town of árstr?nd before nightfall and that they should go ahead and move on. Viggr stayed behind to ensure Lydia’s safety as well as ensure they would be able to get into árstr?nd if they hadn’t caught up to the caravan before they reached there. Viggr was unhitching the wagon so that they could more easily lift the injured beastkin up into the camper.
Lance stepped in and gave Viggr a hand unhooking the wagon from the truck and pushing it back a ways. He then climbed up in the camper and cleared the dinette off and dropped it into its bed configuration. By the time he completed that and stepped back to the door, Lydia and Viggr had arrived with their patient. They had slung him between them on a sheet that Lydia kept as part of her med-kit. As they raised his head up as high as they could at the door, Lance took a knee and grabbed him under the arms, doing his best to support his head with his elbows. As he backed up and stood, Viggr stepped up into the camper lifting the lower body, and they positioned him on the bed. Lydia climbed in and took the IV bag from her patient’s chest and hung it from one of the overhead cabinet handles while Viggr maneuvered his way back out the door.
Deciding he had to quit just thinking of the poor guy as that beastkin, Lance ‘Analyzed’ him.
Vargb?rn - Rodan; HP 180; Disposition - Agitated
So, Rodan was his name, and he was a wolf-born or wolf-kin. He seemed to have plenty of Health, and when he mentioned that to Lydia, she said that between the IV to help with the blood loss and dehydration, and her removing the arrow and casting her minor heal several times, she had brought him back to 180 from 5. Using her Magic to probe first the wound and then his entire body had garnered her the Profession Skill ‘Diagnosis’, and her treatment of his injuries and condition had gained her enough energy to gain a level. Her level gain had in turn given her access to a new spell ‘Sleep’. With the healing of his wounds and the restoration of his HP, her patient had soon started returning to consciousness, but was yelling and thrashing about violently, so she had used her new sleep spell on him.
Lydia was going to ride in the camper with her patient in order to monitor him and recast her sleep spell if necessary. Before exiting the camper, Lance grabbed the spare med bag and duplicated it. He then told Lydia that they wouldn’t really need more than her one med bag, and if she could dig a box out from under one of the cabinets and consolidate all of her medical supplies from the two copies, he would duplicate that in the next 30 minutes or so. This way he felt they could ensure they had adequate medical supplies. Climbing back out of the camper, he helped Viggr push the wagon back up toward the truck and hook it to the trailer hitch. They then climbed in the cab of the truck and started off up the road.
All told, Lance’s tracking foray, Lydia’s field medicine, and their loading of the patient had taken a little less than two hours. Even making good speed on the enchanted roadway, the caravan couldn’t be more than six or seven kilometers up the road. They should handily catch up with them within less than an hour, even with Lance driving slowly so as to not jostle Lydia or her patient. Using party chat with Lydia, Lance kept updated on the status of Rodan. Lydia said that her sleep spell should have worn off by now, but that he hadn’t woken up, nor done anymore flailing about or hollering. Lance had duplicated the box of medical supplies, and Lydia had taken the time to restock her active med bag. True to his prediction, about 45 minutes later, Lance could see Grimble’s trailer just ahead as he crested a hill.
Lance slowed the truck almost to a stop, and Viggr hopped out and hurried off to the front of the caravan to give Bj?rn an update. Cruising along with his custom cruise control set in crawl mode, Lance kept spiking out his MESAR at maximum Magic power, then letting it settle back down to a moderate level. In this way, he was able to stretch his range, and almost completely eliminate the interference that solid objects like the metal and glass of the truck cab presented. They encountered no further excitement, and the only thing of note before they reached the gates of árstr?nd, was Viggr returning about 20 minutes after leaving to brief Bj?rn and hopping back up into the cab of the pickup. When he saw Lance’s questioning look, he smiled and said that since Lydia was still in the back with her patient, he was going to take advantage of a nice soft comfortable ride.
Arriving at the gates of árstr?nd, Bj?rn spent a few minutes speaking to the guards stationed there and turned over their bandit prisoner, and then the caravan began entering the town. When Lance arrived at the gate, Bj?rn was waiting on his daleva, and motioned for Lance to follow him. Instead of turning down the first road to the left like the rest of the caravan, they proceeded straight ahead. In 3 blocks, they came to a large central plaza about 50 meters in diameter, and Bj?rn led them a quarter of the way around and turned off to the right. As they were navigating the plaza, Lydia informed Lance through party chat that Rodan appeared to be waking up. She would keep him updated on his status and behavior. Lance let Viggr know, and he hopped out and climbed up in the camper as the back end passed by. They proceeded only a block, before hitting a cul-de-sac in front of a fairly large, governmental looking building. As they circled around in front of the building, Bj?rn came to a stop and dismounted, waving for Lance to get out of his truck.
Lance exited the truck, and walked over to Bj?rn and told him about Rodan. Bj?rn said that would probably work out for the best, because then they wouldn’t have to explain an unconscious beastkin to the local authorities or the Union. This wasn’t the first time that Bj?rn had mentioned the Union, and Lance asked him about it. Bj?rn told him that they were called the Union of Sovereign Explorers, most just called them the Union for short. They were a multinational organization of explorers, adventurers, and mercenary types. Union membership granted the right of travel between the nations, the ability to select jobs posted at Union Houses ranging from courier jobs to escorts to gathering and harvesting to beast or monster exterminations. Lance immediately pegged it as the local analog to his fantasy books’ Adventurers Guild.
Bj?rn went on to say that because of the freedom of travel, and the ability to turn in jobs across the guilds, he required that all members of his company be registered members of the Union. The Union Houses all had access to a ledger-like system similar to what he had seen the Jarl use when registering their titles and deeds. Jobs taken at one Union House, could be turned in at another. Even those with deliverables such as alchemy ingredients or recovery of property would be paid out and credited at any Union House, and that house would then post a job to deliver the materials to the Union House where the job originated.
They were here today, to check the list of items recovered from the bandits against jobs posted to the Union for recovery, and to afford Lance and Lydia the chance to register with the Union as Sovereign Explorers should they wish to do so. They would also now be able to check if there was a bounty posted on a wolf type beastkin, and if not allow Rodan to check in with the Union if he was registered, register if he wasn’t and wanted to do so, or post a job with the Union for aid or information.
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Nodding to Bj?rn, Lance updated Lydia with the party chat in as close to real-time as he could. Lance suggested to her that joining the Union could only benefit them in their situation, and she agreed. She then informed him that Rodan had fully woken up. When she analyzed him, his disposition was ‘Guarded’. That however was a reasonable mindset to have when waking up in a strange environment after being attacked. He did not speak the local language well, which Viggr called common. Lydia, however, was able to speak to him in his native language due to ‘Omniglot’. Lance and Bj?rn made their way to the back of the camper while Rodan spoke to Lydia.
According to Rodan, his people lived in semi-nomadic family groups that ranged an area that belonged to their tribe. His family group (his father and mother, along with his two younger brothers and younger sister) had been ranging along the edge of their territory up into the mountain range that divided their nation from Skallheim to their south. They had been attacked by a troop of goblins, and he had been knocked unconscious by a rock from a sling.
When he had come to, he was bound, and the rest of his family except for his sister were dead. He and his sister were forced at spear-point to hike up and over the mountain range to a cave on this side. Inside the cave was a goblin tribe. His sister was presented to the hobgoblin chief, and when she refused to service him, he struck her. When she was forced to her knees in front of him the second time, her seeming acquiescence left the chief complacent and he wound up dismembered because of it. One of his guards struck her in the head with a horrible club affixed with sharp rocks, and split her skull. Rodan, in a rage, broke the bindings on his arms and gutted the guard with his claws, and then laid about with the guard’s own club.
His sister was dead, and he proceeded to make his way back toward the entrance to the cave system when he encountered another troop of goblins in the tunnels. His fleeing skirmish left him with the arrow in the back, and it took all of his woodcraft and Skills to flee and remain undetected. He ran and hid for two days before he caught a glimpse of the roadway over the treetops, and started making his way toward it. It took him another two days, he thought (as the blood loss affected him more, and his situation deteriorated, he lost moments of time), to reach the roadway. The last thing he remembered was stumbling again and falling to the ground with the road in sight.
Lydia finished relaying Rodan’s story and also told Lance that his disposition had changed from ‘Guarded’ to ‘Indifferent’ at the conclusion. Lance let her know that if she felt Rodan was ready, they were ready to go into the Union House. Less than a minute later, Lydia climbed down from the camper, followed by Rodan and then Viggr. Introductions were made and the group, except for Viggr who would be staying behind to watch the daleva and Lance’s truck, headed toward the steps in front of the Union House.
Entering through one of the large double doors, Lance expected to encounter grandeur and opulence, making a statement of wealth and power, or rusticity and ruggedness with beast and monster head mounts on the walls and a saloon style bar. Instead, what he saw was clean and simple utilitarianism. A simple grey seamless stone floor (which he now knew was relatively simple due to the prevalence of earth and stone skills) transitioned into almost black counters spaced throughout one side of the massive room.
The other side of the hall was covered in tables and chairs, many occupied with patrons either reading or playing games, some with books and parchments spread out over top, and others with individuals or groups eating or drinking. It gave the general impression of a common room of a university dormitory, complete with a small counter that wouldn’t be out of place as a little coffee shop window.
Opposite the entry doors, was a stone staircase heading up to a second floor balcony that went both left and right, disappearing into the wings of the building. Beside the stairs, there was a door on each side. The left door had a placard that translated to logistics, and the right training.
As Bj?rn made his way to the left toward the counters, Lance saw placards hanging above the different stations. Registration, Information, Missives, Federated Union Banking and Reserve, and Jobs. Next to the Jobs counter was a large sign board covered in four inch by 6 inch postings. Lance let out a little chuckle thinking about the letters for the bank. Lydia looked at him questioningly, and he nodded his head toward the bank sign. It took her only a moment to catch on, and she almost guffawed at the mental reference to the military acronym.
Bj?rn led them up to the counter for registration. Before approaching the attendant, he told them that they should register before they check about postings for any of the recovered items, that way they would be eligible for any experience credit and a share of the rewards. Bj?rn then approached the attendant, and leaned across the counter a bit and spoke softly to him. The attendant’s eyebrows rose, and they reached under the counter and pulled out a bell that they then rang. However, the bell emitted no noise. Bj?rn then stepped back and waited.
It wasn’t long until a tall, almost excessively beautiful elven woman came down the stairs and headed toward their location. She stepped up to the attendant at the counter, and the attendant hurriedly whispered in her ear. Turning back to the group, she smiled broadly and said, “Bj?rn you crafty trader, you always bring the most interesting things to town!” Then to the whole group, she said “Please, if you will, follow me”, and turned and headed back toward the stairway.
They followed the elven woman up the stairs and left into a hallway into the wing of the building. The corridor was lined with dark wooden doors, and she led them all the way to a door set into the end of the hallway. Entering, they found a well appointed office with several windows. It was furnished with a large desk that had several folders of paper on it and a comfortable chair behind it. In front of the desk were two plain but padded straight back chairs. Off to one side was an armor and weapons rack, and to the other side was a couch and two armchairs, with a coffee table between them, flanking a fireplace.
After Bj?rn, bringing up the rear of the procession, entered the office and closed the door, the woman turned to him and said, “I believe introductions are in order.”
Bj?rn made a half-bow, and said, “Indeed. Lady Astrid Skarphsdottir, may I present to you Traveler Hersir Sergeant First Class Lance Raven; Traveler Hersir Staff Sergeant Lydia Morales, and Vargb?rn Rodan of the nation of Dyrfell. Sergeants and gentleman, please meet Lady Astrid Skarphsdottir, the executive in charge of this branch of the Union of Sovereign Explorers.”
Lady Astrid let out a very unladylike snort and said, “Enough with the Lady stuff, Bj?rn, I work for a living. Please just call me Astrid, or if you must Foringi (omniglot let Lance and Lydia know that was the equivalent of using ‘Chief’). It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Hersirs and Herr Rodan.”
Lance gave a slight bow of his head and replied, “Of course Chief, we would also like to dispense with superfluous titles. Please call us Lance and Lydia, or if you must, just Sergeants. We also ascribe to the slogan of ‘I work for a living’.”
Rodan nodded, and interjected with, “Just Rodan is fine please.”
“Very well”, said Astrid. “Please have a seat. I would ask that Bj?rn start off this tale for me.”
Astrid and Bj?rn each took a seat in the armchairs, and Lance, Lydia, and Rodan made themselves comfortable on the couch.
Bj?rn gave a detailed accounting of both Lance’s and Lydia’s arrival, their travels, the encounter with the bandits, the incident with the rhionox that led to their titles, and his observations of their character. He then went on to describe their finding of Rodan, his story as Bj?rn understood it, and his good conduct upon awakening and arrival at the Union House.
Astrid nodded along as Bj?rn gave his briefing. When he was finished, she stood and walked to her desk, returning with three small booklets and a large clear crystal that she placed on the coffee table between them. She gave each of them one of the booklets, stating that they were the Union’s rules, and gave them a few minutes to read them. She then turned to Rodan and asked him, in his language, if he knew how many goblins he had killed in his escape. He replied that he did not, but that it was at least seven or eight, and possibly more. The crystal on the table shone a bright lavender color. Then she asked him if it was truly his desire to join the Union. He said that it was, and again the crystal lit up lavender in coloration. She asked if he was willing to follow the Union’s rules, and he said yes again. Finally, she asked him if he had any nefarious designs against the Union or any of its members, and he replied in the negative.
“Wonderful”, she said, “due to your goblin extermination, verified by truth stone, and my knowledge of the vargb?rn’s innate increased attributes, I can offer you membership in the Union at iron rank.” She then reached in her pocket and pulled out an iron badge embossed with a scene of a mountain range, a plain and river, and a replica of this building over top of it. She injected it with some of her Magic, and then passed it to Rodan explaining what a blood bond was, and instructing him to place a drop of his blood on the badge. He did so, and it flashed brightly for a moment, then went back to normal. She then welcomed him to the Union, and gave him a wooden token that she pushed some more of her Magic into, and asked him to please wait in the lounge area of the hall while she finished with the sergeants. She told him that the token would allow him to get something to eat and drink from the service window in the lounge, at her expense.
After Rodan had left the room, Astrid looked at Lance and Lydia and said, “Now what am I going to do with the two of you?” At their confused looks, she explained, “With Rodan, even though not many beastkin are seen in Skallheim, almost everyone of them, barring a few merchants or political designees, are explorers and members of the Union. Plus, the Union spans all the nations of the continent and we have access to all those records. Beastkin are notable specimens of high attributes, maybe on par in intelligence and wisdom to humans, but exceptional in all the rest. I stretched my authority as Branch Executive and a platinum ranked explorer to place him at Iron instead of copper or tin.”
“You two”, she continued, “have demonstrated that you already need to be placed higher than iron, and we haven’t even addressed anything Bj?rn might not know about, nor Lydia’s healing skills. What I am facing is placing you too highly, will have some whining about favoritism for the Travelers or new nobles. Whereas placing you too low, will have Union officials, some of the nobility, and a large portion of the public screaming for my head. Let us start with some questions.”
Looking to Lydia first, she asked, “Have you eliminated any monsters since your arrival on Hearth?”
Lydia replied that she had killed one goblin and five mara, but that Lance had run over the mara before she finished them off. The crystal flared its lavender coloring.
Astrid said that that was no matter, and as long as she participated, it counted toward her count. Lance interrupted and said that her count should be two goblins then, because she had bashed the second one around before he finished it.
Astrid nodded and continued with her questioning. She asked Lydia if she wanted to join the Union of her own free will and was willing to follow its rules. Lydia replied in the affirmative, and the crystal flashed lavender again. She then asked Lydia if she had any intent to cause harm to the Union or any of its members. Lydia replied in the negative. Additionally, she asked if, in the event of a catastrophe, Lydia would be willing to use her healing skills for the benefit of the Union and/or the local populace.
Lydia said, “Of course, I would do all that I could to ensure the health, safety, and survival of those affected by a disaster!”
Smiling, Astrid said, “Excellent, in that case my dear. Let me welcome you to the ranks of the Union of Sovereign Explorers. It is my great honor to bestow upon you the rank of Bronze explorer.” She then walked over to her desk and took a bronze badge out of one of the drawers, and repeated the same process with it that she had with Rodan’s badge.
Lydia took the badge, pricked her finger with a pocket knife Lance conveniently handed her, and placed a drop of blood on it. Once again the badge brightly flashed for a moment and then returned to normal. Lydia then pinned it to her other shoulder board, opposite her badge of Hersir.
Turning to Lance, Astrid put him through the same questioning ritual she had the others. When she was finished with those and satisfied with his answers, she walked back over to the desk and returned with a shiny grey badge. Looking at Lance, she said, “I’m once again stretching the utmost of my authority, but after a bandit subjugation, monster exterminations, heroic intervention in the danger to a noble, and the rescue of an extra-national entity, I bequeath upon you the rank of Steel explorer.” She then imbued the badge with Magic and passed it to Lance who received his knife back from Lydia and placed a drop of blood on his badge with the same light show.
Lance pinned the badge to his own shoulder board like Lydia had done, and looked back to Astrid asking, “What now?”
“Now,” Astrid replied, “Bj?rn will show you around the Union House, get you a copy of the rules, and get you started as an explorer. I look forward to hearing great things about the both of you!” With that, she stood and Bj?rn followed suit, being quickly copied by Lance and Lydia. Bj?rn walked toward the door and exited, and Lance and Lydia gave Astrid a polite nod of the head and followed him out.
