"Like your guests would stop in my tavern. Besides you have no clue about my business and what is good for it." Siov tells annoyed.
"Money in pocket is always good for business." Jimmy replies
"You do your business your way, I do my business my way." Siov replies. He seems to have not the slightest interest in the offer these two have to make.
"You think he is related with that bureaucrat?" Gwenhwyfar asks Jimmy. "Let's go. I only have solutions in mind you wouldn't like."
"Let's..." Jimmy says as they step outside, "Do you think he owns the pier? Or just makes use of it?"
"I don't know." Gwenhwyfar replies. Looking along the shore she tells "How about we persuade Abomentolor to build a pier at his new brewery. Don't you think he'd need one to export his beer into all of the world?"
"And we could conveniently use that pier too."
"Now that is a splendid idea, and one that I can see working."
"Then let's go back to our tower. Before the food gets completely cold." Gwenhwyfar suggests and starts flying the direction.
Jimmy follows. After reaching the tower and setting out food, Jimmy says to Abomentollor, "When were you thinking of starting to export your beer?"
"I don't have the beer yet. But why do you ask? You got some market on mind where they would need some good beer?" Abomentolor asks.
"We have need of a pier, and exporting your beer could do with a pier too."
"So you're asking for totally selfless reasons. I can relate to that." Abomentolor chuckles. "But a nice sailing ship prominently featuring my counterfeit would make a cool addition to my ever expanding empire."
"You can go for a sailing ship, we mostly just need a barge."
"But I for sure won't build a pier for a barge. I need a large and wide one where a horse pulled carriage can deliver the goods to the ship... no wait, I'll get an automated trolley system on rails set up. I need Lini. This needs to be planned immediately!" Abomentolor is carried away.
"The only thing that needs to be done immediately is eating this food." Tauriel objects and points to the basket. "As long as it's still warm."
"That's a good idea. I almost forgot about that." Gwenhwyfar tells. She puts a linen cloth on the stage and arranges all the food on it.
"Where do you buy a large sailing ship?" Gwenhwyfar inquires. "It's more like buying a house than something else."
"Most large coastal towns will have a shipyard that you can commission a ship from." Jimmy explains before taking his first mouthful
"Is that how we'll get our small ship too?" Gwenhwyfar asks, ideas of how it should look forming in her head already.
"We could also buy a second hand one, or use the lyre to build one, considering we don't really need anything fancy."
"Is there like a flea market for ships to sell?" Gwenhwyfar asks naively. She also takes something of the food and starts eating. "That's a lot of problems I didn't know they even exist in my former life."
"No. There is not." Jimmy says with a kind laugh
After a nice dinner and a half comfortable nightly rest there are leftovers for breakfast. Then it is time to go back to the abbey to find out what exactly went wrong there and to fix it.
Gwenhwyfar teleports the whole group into the chamber of the medusa again. At least there won't wait a lot of enemies due to lack of space. As the group arrives they find the same bloody mess they left the last time. Just the smell got worse and there are lots of maggots and flies now .
This room is finely tiled with ceramic and glass and smells of pleasant floral aromas mixed with sweet stomach turning smell of decay. A large, circular stone bath rises from the floor in the middle. Of the three stained-glass windows in the room, the ones on the west and the east walls are flanked by large clay vases under copper pipes that descend from the ceiling. The air is pleasantly warm, no doubt heated by the steaming waters in the bath.
"Let's leave." Tauriell suggests and doesn't wait for an answer. Once outside where the air is breathable again she asks "Anyone an idea where to continue?"
"I don't know. Do you remember anything useful from what Koriah's dad told?" Gwenhwyfar replies.
"I thought it simply is 'kill all' and then call the crime scene cleaner." Abomentolor comments.
"That's what we forgot last time!" Tauriell playfully admits. "But you're right. Go down, stand in the middle and call out for all to come at you. Kill all and if the big bad evil guy with the shard isn't among them, leave the last one alive for questioning."
"That's a good idea." Abomentolor replies. He is on his way downstairs to the entrance of the spire. On the way he activates his mage armor and before he starts shouting he activates his shield.
They abbey stays silent. No one cares to come out. If there is anyone left at all. A lot of dead bodies still lie around as a discouragement for anyone who didn't die from meeting this group.
"Oh great Abomentolor, I'll follow your lead." Tauriell mocks the gnome after two minutes of nothing happening.
"Has this funny decoration always been on this door?" she asks and moves over.
Checking on the door and the lock she notices the trap and casts detect magic to identify it. "That is evil. This stupid thing is endlessly complicated, even if you have the right key. And if you make any error while trying to open it, it will cast a maze like spell on you. I could try to disable that, but I'm not really fond of ending in another dimension if that fails."
"Then don't try. Destroy it with lightning." Abomentolor suggests, looking at Gwenhwyfar.
"Only if you can do so from afar. Destroying the door will trigger it too and I don't see how you could stay far enough away here." Tauriell quickly objects.
"Can it be dispelled?" Gwenwhyfar asks.
"I imagine destroying the walls would be frowned upon too?" Jimmy asks Gwen
"Probably, but it would be hard to do." Tauriell explains. "It is magic created by a very potent caster."
"You got the tools with you to get through that thick walls?" she inquires from Jimmy.
"We have time, and magically sharp weapons... What about that spell you used when we rescued the troll?" Jimmy asks Gwen
"That I can do." Gwenhwyfar tells, looking at Tauriell for any objections. As there are none, she tells all to hold hands and stand close and speaks the word.
Obviously no one thought of that when locking the door with that fancy lock and all stand on the other side of the door where the stairs lead down.
Walking down you arrive in what must once have been the storage for large amounts of beer brewed in the abbey and the wine. The odor of beer permeates this huge room. Several crates, barrels, kegs, and racks for wine fill the room—many of which have been opened, emptied, upturned, and shattered. The floor is littered with glass shards and corks and strewn with loose coils of rope.
"Looks like one competition is put out of business already." Abomentolor jokes as he sees the destruction.
"What a waste of probably good beverages." Gwenhwyfar comments.
"Guys, I think you're missing a crucial detail here." Tauriell tells pointing a knocked arrow at one of the crates.
The chamaeleon like humanoids are not only hard to detect, but also swift. Before Tauriell can shoot one, three already let loose an arrow. And they all target Jimmy. Almost all arrows hit Jimmy and pass through his armor, as if it doesn't exist.
Tauriell shoots an arrow at one of those enemies she sees. And keeps shooting as more and more of them appear.
Jimmy glows slightly and some of the arrows clatter down to his feet as they are pushed from his body as his muscles reknit.
Jimmy looks at Gwen, deciding if he should stay next to her or move to assault the attackers.
Considering their ranged advantage he decides the best way to protect her would be to close the gap with their assailants.
Abomentolor decides to target them individually as burning down the whole room is no longer an option. But the result of that is disappointing.
Tauriell shoots an arrow into one of them. Jimmy cuts deep into the same one. Abomentolor burns it some. And Tauriell finishes it off with some more arrows.
From the neighboring room another skulk comes followed by a large metal construct. But the construct hits itself with its hand. But it doesn't even cause a dent.
The skulks keep shooting Jimmy.
Gwenhwyfar casts mage armor on herself and wonders what she could do here.
"Is that thing vulnerable to electricity?" she asks.
"I have no clue. Try it out." Tauriell replies.
Gwenhwyfar sends a line of lightning towards the mechanic creature.