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Flann drops a handful of paper on the table. "The way I see it, we could build our own inn, a proper-looking place, market it as a luxury spa, and make our money back and then some before we leave. We just need, like, two thousand gold." Flann looks up at Vim as if there were any question what the answer would be.
Kotsi shakes her head.
"A good idea in theory, but not advisable in practice. Building a business takes more than a space, it takes time - more than we have, with only a year or so to work with- and clientele, which may be hard to accrue given we are all foreigners, and will likely be mistrusted by most locals and travelers alike. Not to mention any potential bureaucracy we may need to contend with that can tie us up in permits for months before we can even begin to think about building anything. It simply doesn't seem feasible."
<"Which is a shame, considering having a finger in the hospitality industry is one of the best ways to gather information."> she continues over the Collective.
She cocks her head. <"Perhaps better is to find a failing business and buy it out, allowing the original owners to work as our front for the time we are here. It would also allow them to see to the day to day running of operations we would not always have the time to perform.">
"Very well, no mansions. Perhaps later. Still, I have found that the longer the lease, the more arrogant the innkeep. Guaranteed income makes them lazy. We should keep the inn rental to a month, no more than two at a time. And upwind from all that smoke!" Connor said.
Connor is going to beg Sanita to allow him to reduce his Mindhunter and Correspond reporting to once per week. Using Mindhunter has the drawback of not recovering psionic power points each night, and Connor is getting drained. Correspond is easier, but with little to report about Grimjowl and their own location, it would be more cost-effective to report only when things change, or once per week.
Connor also hypothesizes Grimjowl is using advanced magic like Teleport or Plane Shift if he is changing locations on the Surface so suddenly. Which is really bad, because it means the lizardman is not dependent upon his flying ship. Connor will try using Mindhunter on one of the extra-large lizardman he saw on Grimjowl's ship last time, to test his theory.
Sanita accepts weekly reports, or even bi-weekly. Report if something changes, or if two weeks passes with no change, so she has some information about your health.
Looking into buying a house big enough for the crew, it turns out that would cost about 8,500 GP on average (there's 3-4 mansions that the city has taken for failure to pay taxes that are for sale). Alternately, they can be leased from the city for around 500 GP per month. If you want it for a year or more, buying it is probably the better way. You have 40 crew, so none of the mansions as is would hold 40 crew, but you can have some additional rooms built on to handle the extra crew (most of them would handle between 12 and 16 crew). Adding on an extra wing would take a couple of months.
Flann is dumbfounded that his idea is being considered, and holds his tongue lest the magic be lost.
Flann is dumbfounded that his idea is being considered, and holds his tongue lest the magic be lost.
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"Well now, that's different." Connor guffed, hearing the new information. He looked at the others. "All this is moot until we find out just how precious the new engines are going to cost us. Buying, compared to renting, might not be an option. We cannot depend upon another 'Prison of the Elements' to give us additional coin. And the Prison cost us too much." He shuddered at the memory.
"It's still three or four days. Our advantage is something these Wingless don't have." Connor declared, confidently crossing his arms. "Psionic repair, astral workers, sailors with wood and brass engineering skills. Look for a 'fixer-upper'. Low cost, full purchase, with an acre or two. With some reliable breezes. Make sure the hallways can accommodate our wings. Even if it's too small, we can add on another story in true Atalantian fashion." he grinned at the challenge.
<I can contact Sanita and ask if the 'tel Mintakias want a diplomatic house a year from now.> Connor added over the network, away from non-adventurer ears.
Ishthraxa muses, "I expect that we'll end up having to do major renovations on an existing structure to fit our needs, but starting with a base gives us a place to live while we work on it."
"Let me see if I can find us a place." says Telv, and then he takes off.
"Telv! Not so fast!" Connor started, reaching out a hand, but drawing it back quickly, as if remembering the last time he did such an action. He watched the girl-form wing away from the Elephant.
Connor looked back at Adran. "He takes after you." he accused the Halvavian.
Telv moves through the city, looking for a good place nearby to set a house. Once he finds one he likes, he will say "I wish that I owned the land around here, and there was a house here with enough rooms to comfortably house 50 people."
Vim laughs out loud as Telv hastily departs, and then claps Flann on the back. "I don't guess that's what you had in mind, eh Flann?"
"Let's get a few floors for now at one of the inns, to start," he chuckles. "Let's do the one with the fluffy carpets in the common area. It was a bit cramped upstairs, but the food looked better. Bar was stocked a bit nicer, too."
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Telv grabs his gem and makes his wish. The large field he picked is filled with a howling wind, like a massive tornado. As if it had picked up a house from another place (or another reality), the tornado slowly dies down, and a house slams into place on the land.
The house is complete with a fence around the property, brick and cold iron. A small plaque on the gate reads '1313 Mockinbird Lane'. The two chimney's smoke cheerfully, adding to the miasma from the city a few miles away.
A piece of paper flutters down to Telv, a land deed for the land and house...
As he watches, a dozen bats fly out of a hole in the eaves of the roof of the building and screech as they fly out to explore their new environment.
As Telv watches the bats fly away, he is glad that they have left his new house. Picking up the deed and putting it in his pouch, he changes into the form of his father and takes off at a breakneck pace to the group's location.
Coming tromping back into the meeting, Telv says excitedly "I got us a house. Come see!" barely giving the people in the room a chance to stand up and follow him before bounding back downstairs and out of the building.
"A bit of a creepy place, and somewhat kooky, but I suppose you can't complain too much about free real estate."
"Come on Kotsi, it's not like it came from Cemetary Lane, now that would be all together ooky. I'll bet you won't find a single vampire, werewolf, or flesh golem in this house. This is perfect, Telv, just like home." Flann beams. He's halfway to the gate before he stops. "You know... All this munster talk has me thinking maybe we should take it slow, settling in, I mean."
"...how exactly...?" Vim asks, as they move towards the miracle-house.
"We're not going to have the locals all up in arms, are we?"
"Vim, I'll forgive your naiveté, you weren't there when Telv got how..." Flann stops abruptly and looks back at Telv. "-he got how he got what he's got... So you haven't got any idea what he's got." The Vitalist smiles and takes a breath. "He may own this place... but who knows what's been squatting till now..."
When the group tries the front door, it's locked. Yanking on the velvet cord by the door causes a dozen bells to ring within the distance in the building. A few minutes later, the front door opens.
A massive form is in the doorway, almost 8 feet tall, it looks as if it's been stitched together from various cadavers. It's wearing a very well tailored black and white suit.
The figure looks down, and makes a rasping sound. "You... rang..." Before it's eyes settle on Telv. "Master... home..." It says with a bit of a struggle to get it's vocal chords to work, and then moves to the side, making a motion for everyone to enter.
"You not only acquired a house, but you hired a staff in a couple of hours?" He seems a bit dubious of all this. "At least it has high ceilings. But what are those odd lanterns mounted up there?"
Connor was all set for a fatherly lecture when Telv came back, but the male form surprised him, and Telv's enthusiasm put off any lecture. "All right, let me grab my stuff." he told the excited male Telv, going and acquiring his backpack-and-staff from his quarters. "First Mate Braden, you have the ship! Wait for our return, we might have a base of operations now!" Connor called out as he took wing, getting a nod in reply from the older Humavian.
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Seeing the house, Connor swooped low, landing with the others and listening to their comments. Connor starting thinking. Telv. His/her naiveté. Needing a house. Telv's only way of getting this house, since he didn't have a stack of platinum coins and gems in the old of the Elephant. Connor's face fell as he said "Oh Telv, that boon was yours, it even had to learn with it, to help you..." with regret in his voice.
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After the - butler? - opened the door, Connor voiced out loud "Telv, if this came from one of your father's tales, I'm not sure this place is safe."
Tenfa, help! I think Telv-the-younger just used his wish to get us a house out of this world. Is this safe? Do you recognize it?
Well dear, he obviously didn't wish for any specific type of house, or anything, so the wish went out and found a house that nobody would complain about it suddenly vanishing. I did tell you that those wish stones were not run of the mill wishes like you'd get from a mage or a djinn. You got four wishes from the being that birthed all Djinns and Djanns and such. They're significantly more powerful. As to safe... who knows, I don't think he wished for a safe house, just a house and to own the land...
"This place is mine!" says Telv as he pulls the deed from a pouch on his hip and hands it to Connor.
Flann has stopped dead on the porch and openly gawks at the giant. The lights in the waiting room of Flann's psychic network dim and take on a rosy hue as the antiseptic camfer scent is replaced with clove and cinnamon.
One wish left... Connor thought to himself as he read the deed Telv gave him. Well. Tenfa said they were "mystical" now, gods-touched and legends-in-the-making. Connor hoped he could teach Telv things like property tax and land rights.
"Oh. So it's yours. All right. Let's go inside. Mustn't keep the servants waiting." Connor said lamely, folding his wings and following the others.
It's a scroll, it says the land and home belong to Telv the Shifter, and it describes his three main forms, along with property taxes marked as being payed forever. It is written in Atalantian when you read it. . It fully describes the land and the exterior of the house over what would be 10 pages of description. There's also the equivalent of a page of notes on what would happen if someone tried to steal the house or property, including plagues, undead armies, storms, droughts, and other both mundane and supernatural disasters.
Inside the massive double doors is an even more massive foyer. A set of stairs leads up to a landing that branches to lead both left and right up to the second floor.
Standing at the base of the stairs is another stitched together servant, this one a female in an elaborate black and white uniform. The apparent maid gives an awkward curtsy, as if her limbs don't quite work the way they are supposed to.
Next to the maid is a woman with red hair and eyes, with black 'whites' in her eyes. She has what appears to be permanent red tear stains on her cheeks, as she doesn't seem to be crying currently. She wears a long black dress with lots of lace. As she stands there in a sunbeam from the glass panels in the roof, wisps of smoke rise from her skin.
Finally, there is a rather bestial looking man with bright yellow eyes, fur on his face, pointed ears, and pronounced canines. He wears a pair of leather pants, boots, and a black silk shirt that balloons out around his torso, as if he needed extra room sometimes.
The woman with the red eyes steps forward. "Master, you have returned. Your quarters are prepared." She turns to the maid. "Rasha, take the Master's pack to his room."
The stitched maid nods and jerks into motion. "Raahhshhh..." She says, her throat working hard to make the sounds.
The red eyed woman turns to the bestial man, catching his eye, then to the massive doorman. "Calbain, Grah, show the Master's guests to their rooms." She eyes the rest of the people with Telv, and there's enough question to the word 'guests' that it's obvious she's asking Telv if they are indeed his guests.
The bestial man lets out a low growl. "Grrrr, sure. This way, 'guests'." His tone implies that if the group is not guests, they may well end up being dinner, or spell components, or something else they may not like.
The massive doorman just makes a single long loud earth vibrating sound.
"Ghhrrrraaaaahhhhhh."
Turning back to Telv, the woman in black bows. "Shall I prepare a meal... for your guests, Master?"
"Yes please!"
Connor very carefully rolled up the parchment and handed the deed back to Telv. "Telv, you probably want to put that in a safe place. Like a vault. Somewhere here in this house."
Looking at how the servants presented themselves, Connor added "Uh, Telv? You might want to tell them to make sure the meal is 'appropriate' to 'normal', that is, 'living' humavians. And others." as he caught the eyes of Flann, Ishthraxa, and Kotsi.
"Oh, you poor things! Grah? Rasha? I'd like to have a chance to give you each a medical examination. Your throats especially sound like they could use some attention."
"Telv, I'm not even going to ask, my friend. Nice place though. Unique, for certain, but it suits you, I suppose," Vim says, clapping Telv on the back as he moves to follow the attendants to his room.
Flann finds that Grah and Rasha, from a quick external examination, are both quite dead. But they seem to be ok with that.
The best clues to their deadness is the lack of pulse, breathing (other than when trying to speak), and their room temperature bodies.
A cursory examination of the red eyed woman notes a distinct lack of color to her cheeks (other than the red streaks) as well as a distinct lack of breathing as well (other than when she talks).
Watching Flann do his examinations, and coming to the realization himself, Connor is going to ask, "Telv, what have you gotten us into? What will the, uh, neighbors think?"
Ishthraxa's fingers keep twitching, as if he's reaching for something that's not quite there. "Where did your servants come from?" He's not familiar with these powers, but undead is not something he takes lightly. Especially it they were created from recently living people.
"We don't really have any neighbors, so that's not a problem Connor. and the servants came with the house, as I didn't hire them or anything."
At Connor's suggestion, however, Telv will say "Make sure that my guests have something that is healthy for them to eat please!"
The woman nods. "Of course, Master." She turns smartly and walks away on odd shoes that give a 'statatat' as she walks, the very long heals making her imposing height even taller, although she looks like a midget next to Grah. The heels are metal and look like rather effective, if short ranged, weapons.
Rasha takes Telv's pack, and begins hobbling up the stairs slowly, one ankle obviously not working correctly.
Calbain and Grah get on either side of the rest, and chive them along (Grah's great hands very firmly pushing them in the direction he wants them to move!).
Telv is taken upstairs and down the central hall to a massive bedroom/office with black curtains, desks, couches and chairs[/url], a large fireplace, and a massive four post bed made of solid darkwood.
The others are taken to the west wing, and each given much smaller but still airy rooms with plenty of wing room. It's hard to tell for sure, but the place seems to have 70 or 80 rooms spread around it's large interior (the interior also seems to be somewhat larger than the exterior would indicate!).
Calbain smiles, showing a lot of very sharp white teeth. "These are your rooms, 'guests'. Do not poke into the Master's private chambers, or his study, or his research labs in the basement. This is for your... safety... something unfortunate might happen to you. Dinner will be served in the dining room in 90 minutes. You will enjoy it." That last bit seems more of an order than a promise. "Grah will come and get you when it's feeding time."
"Ghrraahhh"
With Flann's network, Connor stated Telv made this house with something we were given on our last mission. It created this house, these servants - but Telv is Master here, and the wording of his desire must have reflected that. Be guests - and be wary. It's better than we could have hoped for in the city. But keeping nearly a hundred sailors here without breaking things - or getting broken - now, that's going to be the challenge.
"So we've got an hour and a half. I'm exploring the outside for landing areas on the roof, that might be safe." Connor announced out loud.
<I, for one, will not be sleeping tonight. I can prepare up to three more Extracts to counteract the negative effects of sleep deprivation should anyone else wish to employ such precautions.>
Flann is not reading the room well.
<These thralls are in a state of extreme disrepair. Their homeostasis is nominal. This one looks like he's been exsanguinated for a decade or more, and that one's more fauna than gut. Whatever they've got keeping them going is doing a lot of unnecessary work...>
Vim spends his time waiting getting to know the house and his quarters to the extent the help allowed it, and working hard to not laugh out loud at Flann's concerns. Any good infiltrator got used to dealing with different folks without acknowledging the differences. This was... an extreme version of that, but a challenge Vim was prepared to meet.
Adran takes it all in smiling.
"Boss I'm not sure I need to say it but none of this was my fault. Woo man that felt good to say. So Flann it looks like all the monsters you mentioned are here. Golems, werewolf, vampire. The vampire lady is kind of cute. Not sure if I'm excited or scared of her though. Well I'm going to relax until dinner. If you guys need me I will be here in my room."
Connor finds that there are many balconies and such outside apparently empty rooms on the outside, that work well for landing places. Additionally, there are flat sections of the roof that work well as landing pads, although they appear to have been originally intended as sun decks (or moon decks?).
Vim finds that the rooms are dusty, but would probably be considered 'noble' or higher level as far as furniture goes. All the rooms in the floor of the wing they are in appear to be bedrooms, with the exception of a large communal type bathroom area (complete with several large bronze bathing tubs) and a large sitting area with a fireplace for communing with others (or just enjoying a drink and a fire).
When the time has passed, Calbain returns. "You will come this way." Again, it sounds more an order than a request. The group is led down to a large dining room that could double as a banquet hall. Only the main table is made up, with Telv seated at the head of the long dark wood table. There is a black tablecloth made of some sort of unusual cloth that is smooth to the touch but very thick (think velour thick). Dark plates and glasses are set out with what looks like silverware (but on closer inspection, is apparently some sort of white gold alloy).
The major dommo, the woman with the red tear streaks, seems to be in charge, and as she claps, the shambling duo bring out food. Grah brings out a platter loaded down with a whole roasted pig, with a black apple in it's mouth. Rasha brings out what looks like deep fried bats, in batter, on another platter. Calbain takes up a large knife that looks like it's more suited to a torture chamber than a table, as well as a long tong and after sharpening the knife on the tong, begins to slice bits off the pig as if the meat were tissue paper. The slices are neatly flipped onto a serving platter, one after another, nearly as fast as you can count. The man obviously has plenty of expertise slicing meat off bones.
While this happens, a large bowl of purple mash is brought out. A trower of spiced purple roots piled high enough to choke a horse are brought out, still steaming.
Finally, several loaves of black bread are brought out, with a delicious fresh baked smell. The loaves are still warm. White butter is also put out, room temperature and easily melted.
The vampire raises an eyebrow to Telv. "Anything else Master?" She asks, as Calbain finishes slicing meat and begins to uncork a dusty bottle of wine to fill the glasses with. When poured in, the wine is a dark red burgandy that's almost black.
Looking around at the group to see if there are any requests. Once those have been attended to, Telv will say "No, this looks really good! You all did a fantastic job!"
Vim digs in enthusiastically when and as manners permit, making sure to properly respect the professional, if unorthodox, serving staff. "Truly Wonderful!" he calls out, complimenting the chef on the exotic dishes. "A novel delight!" he adds, thankful for his experienced and well-traveled palette.