Amos wonders the boat, talking to the crew. Asking questions about the crew, the ship, the town we are headed too, the country. Anything that he thinks he might learn from them.
Ky spends the time interacting with the crew he will attempt to gather info on the land but also takes an interest in learning about boats and sailing.
Ivan pays attention to the hazards of the river and asks questions about navigating the more technical areas. He seems at ease out on the water.
He also spends time with Mircalla fishing.
"So you are into books? I like to read books on many subjects. I am guessing your employer has many. Do you know if he brought any along? Or did you by chance bring some along?"
"Doctor, did you bring any good books with you on this trip? Ky? Amos?"
Mircalla admires Ivan's skill as he lands fish after fish.
"Sure! Books are full of interesting things. Well, some books. Mostly I like books about history - I love reading about all the awesome things that have happened. Hey - do you think we'll end up in a book? This is pretty awesome, right?"
"The Boss banned anyone taking books out of the library. He went sort of crazy about it. All I've got is my Journal..." she sounds reluctant "I guess I could read bits to you if -" here Mircalla perks up "hey, wait - do you want to learn magic?"
She looks out
"Or we could do some practice shots."
Amos looks at Ivan looking as if caught off guard. Books? No I don't usually have time for many books. I am more the keep busy type. Plus there is always praying to be done. There is just never enough time for reading. Now if you give me a map or some sort of information about an enemy, then yea, there is time to read that. No books here though, so no.
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Ivan finds the Doctor, strangely enough, sitting outside on the guards, back leaning against the keelboat's cabin, reading a book - Baglsey Billington's Flora and Fauna of Ustalev, Numeria, and Lastwall.
"The information on the Shudderwood is lacking, I'm afraid. It was for an addendum to this work that Billington undertook his fateful journey into the Shudderwood - the one that ultimately drove him mad."
"But, to answer your question, yes, I brought books - a small library in fact. The books are stored, along with my papers and writings, in a chest in my coach. Anthropology, religion, botany, zoology, cryptozoology, medicine, the occult. Subjects like that. Feel free to grab a book. I ask that you leave my papers be though, Droht. Some of those writings are private."
"I am sure I would love to hear parts of your journal, but my magic talents lie in the lands around me. I do not think I will be able to learn book magic."
Ivan responds to Mircalla before looking at Amos.
"Do you have any hobbies or interests you like to pursue? Swordsmanship, riding, archery, they are all arts in their own right. Reading expands the mind and besides learning weaknesses in your enemies it can teach you their strengths you can incorporate into your own portfolio. If there was only one way to do things I the world that was superior, we would all be of the same race, culture and creed I think."
Ivan is very pleased with the Doctors response.
"Thank you doctor, I would love to peruse your books and don't worry about your papers, I doubt I will be publishing any research papers in the near future that would require me plagiarizing yours, ha ha ha!"
Being a silver tongued lot, your inquiries are met with tales of dread creatures in the night, dirty loggers and swindling boat captains.
As evening descends, rows of shanty houses begin to line the west bank of the river. The dwellers of these shambles look dirty and impoverished.
Ivan dines on a delicious bass.
"These people live a subsistance lifestyle. They depend on the river for so much. Imagine if there was a lord to help organize and lead them. What one could accomplish with so many hands. The opportunities that go wasted in these lands disgust me."
The Doctor picked over his catfish. It was always a little, well muddier, for lack of a better word, than lakefish, but tasty none-the-less, and the cookhand was good enough for the Doctor, who never allowed himself to take too much enjoyment from food to begin with. "Indeed, Droht. There is opportunity here. There is also danger, however. The keelboat won't be traveling much further tonight, and desperation breeds crime. We should stay on the boat with the hands and the captain. And set a watch."
Mircalla talks through a mouthful of "sautéed frog cuts with a hint of pepper and a minnow garnish".
She sounds dubious
"I guess if the lord offset the effort spent on internal security and allowed increased effectiveness through a larger cooperative advantage, then it might offset or exceed the effort spent on the additional food requirements..." she suddenly switches tone "Hey, what're we eating at Ascanor? Are we just hunting in the woods the whole time?"
Edward spends most of the trip sleeping, dragging himself out of bed at dusk, and as night falls he perks up. He's all to happy to sit down to his pot of tiny boiled crustaceans.
"I'll volunteer to help with a watch. I've been told I have excellent night vision."
"And well rested to do it. Something tells me Ky is a person you want standing watch as well. Where is the silent one?"
"Tell me Edward, if Mircalla is a wizard and you called her your apprentice, that would make you a wizard as well. Yes?"
Pointing at the village along the bank. These people require a leader. A great leader. Perhaps we are the group to make this place great. I would be happy to take a watch as well.
"Agreed Amos, feed and organize those people, give the mothers hope for their young and you could transform that rabble into a community."
Ky has been lounging on top of the cabins listening in to random conversations as they waft by, at the sound of his name he will sit up, he is shirtless but still wears his scarf. He is all lean muscle with multiple thin white lines across his exposed chest and sides. "I've been relaxing, something I doubt we will have much time for in the coming days. I have no issue taking a watch, as a matter of fact the view from up here is quite nice."
"Tell me Edward, if Mircalla is a wizard and you called her your apprentice, that would make you a wizard as well. Yes?"
"Indeed. I don't want to brag" brags Edward "but I have mastered first order spells and made significant inroads into the second order - specialising in the conjuration of creatures from other planes. Mircalla has been mostly self taught up until now, but I feel confident that with my instruction she'll soon master first order spells completely."
"I only know some of your families through your symbols not your faces. I am the Droht of Vacia. I maintain control and lordship over my lands and peoples. My domain straddles borders, but it is most correct to say that it lies in Lozeri."
After ensuring none of the crew are listening in.
"So, Droht. You've said the small people still favour the previous government, realising this new palatinate does nothing to protect them. You're obviously moved by the plight of these riverfolk. You mentioned your domain straddles a border, but is primarily Lozerian. You catch fish well. I'm fairly confident it's not the Vieland border - or at least the north of it. Is Vacia nearby?"
The shanty town along the river slowly transforms into a town as you go further down the river, though the proper buildings and populace are ragged at best. Great loads of lumber wait on the docks or are moved carefully onto barges.
Captain Arter steers the keelboat over to one of the sparse openings along the dock and calls for someone to tie on the moorings.
Aldous gazes out on the city as the boat makes its way to a mooring post, a slight smile playing on his face. The largest 'city' in Lozeri. So different than Caliphas.
Lighting his pipe, the Doctor takes leave of the others and makes his way along the riverfront, looking for a fishmonger. Stopping in front a slightly less shabby storefront, Beauturne enters and greets the woman - middle aged, gaunt - behind the counter. "Hello. I'd like to take a look at your smoked fish, madam shopkeep."
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Back at the boat, the Doctor settles in for the evening with a bit of candlelight reading, and a dinner of fish and river water. The water is gritty - the trick, he soon finds out, is to let it settle a few minutes before drinking just off the top.
"Captain Arter! I won't keep you long. I was wondering what other stops you think we might be making on our trip. No reflection on your skill, I can assure you, I'm simply trying to work out some shopping logistics."
Amos wonders around not to far from the dock. He spends time talking to the local people about their local government. Looking for any weaknesses they may have to exploit later.
He will later return to the boat to take a nap.
Arter nods to Edward, "Tomorrow evening we land at House Beumhal, then Ardagh, after that it should be two days to what's left of Ascanor."
Henric stays on the boat, and doesn't take his eyes off the port, or its hardscrabble inhabitants. As Aldous settles in for dinner, Henric inclines his head toward him, "Reminds me of some of the places I visited in the east, I only needed one lesson to learn that people like this, they'll eat the flesh off your bones if you aren't careful."
Amos returns to the group. When there is an opportunity to speak to the group away from the boat, he speaks to them all. These people have no government. The old government fled. We can rule these people. They need strong rulers. This maybe just the place Asmodeus wanted us to go. Perhaps we should take a strong hand and rule these people.
The Doctor looks out at the people on shore, for awhile before answering. "I have not been far from Ustalav in my life, master Millair, so I'll have to take your word on the people to the east. I suspect that like most places without much hope or opportunity, the people of Chastel very well eat the flesh off my bones, if the risk is low enough - or the reward high enough. Still, give them the chance for betterment, and they'll take the honest path. Most will every time."
"For now though, that desparation is a good tool. One we can point at the leadership of the Palatines. But we best do what we can to curb it when we are in charge, lest Ustalav become the next land of perpetual revolution."
Nodding towards the shore, Beauturne changes the subject back to Millair's wanderings. "What exotic places does the shoreside remind you of?"
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"Indeed, Amos. They are a people in need of a strong hand. But they need a just hand as well. If we are successful, they need not love us, but they should respect us."
"Well said doctor."
"There is a government Amos, the rightful nobility. The leaders of the rebellion overthrew the count, but had no real plan for governance. The became bloated with wealth and bore. They care nothing for their lands and peoples, but they will fight to maintain the flow of wealth and vitality they have become addicted to. They will use their wealth and power to fight us. We need to build our own first. We are not going to just march into town and declare lordship."
Edward nods in acknowledgement. "Thank you Captain. Most helpful. I'll let you be."
"Well said indeed Doctor. That is what separates true rulers from simple leaders. The ability to understand their people and the larger picture, and work to benefit all."
"Millair, was it? I'm sorry - I wasn't quite myself this morning. Delighted to meet you - Earl Edward Caromarc." he holds out a hand for shaking - the hand turned so the signet ring is easily visible.
Edward looks pensive
"It does seem a very fortuitous situation. If we could raise a small force... Ah! If, and if, and if again. Even assuming we could take power here, there would be nothing to enforce our rule."
He continues, energetically, a far different man to the slow tired mage of the morning.
"And on the border of Canterwall! If we started here it would be too easy for the Tamrivenans to invade."
"It must be fifty miles to Ascanor. Forty of that is Shudderwood. It would take three days to walk it even with a trail. So four days by boat... it's just too far."
"I think that will be the downfall of Ascanor. It may be well defended, but military campaigns are won by logistics - at least according to Karzoug. We'll be trapped in the Shudderwood, unable to resupply or project force."
"Ivan, do you have your map? I remember there was a town... Morcei? Perhaps thirty or forty miles up the river, a few miles inland. It was connected to Ascanor directly by river. Could we use that as a port?"
He sighs
"Or will we need to carve a road?"
He sighs again, and turns to the Asmodean. "This is good intelligence, Amos. I congratulate you. Had we known it earlier we could have made better use of it. You have demonstrated Xanderghul was right when he said: 'I'd rather have ten good spies than a thousand troops.'" Edward quotes quickly, blithely uncaring that the line he attributes to Xanderghul is widely thought to have been an invention of a thousand year dead Taldane playwright.
"We need to know if the situation changes. Ideally we need to ensure the people remain dissatisfied. We need an agent in the town. Sadly, I cannot leave Mircalla, and it will take weeks to move someone else. Perhaps we should consider recruiting someone local?"
One day we will. We will march in, and no one will stop us. The strong always rules the weak.
I can see what I can do about getting us an agent here but see no need. The "rulers" aren't going to come back anytime soon and even if they did the people have no good will left for them. They are under constant attacks from the Shudderwood and something they call "The devil in grey." Perhaps we could play ourselves off as do good adventurers passing through and take care of this issue. The locals will remember us as heroes and willingly accept us as rulers when the time comes but we don't give away our true intentions to early. The only problem is we may lose our ride and be forced to march through the shudderwood.
"The devil in grey?" he thinks "The carriage would never make it through the Shudderwood."
Edward pauses
"That reminds me. It is no secret there are things not human - nor elf, dwarf, gnome or slip - in the Shudderwood. Yet it may be that these things can be bargained with. Allied with. There are stories of compacts and treaties. What will be our approach?"
"After then humans have so disastrously and treacherously abandoned their lieges, I am inclined to treat any creature that can talk as one we can treat with."
"If the werewolves are willing to swear vassalage, and obey laws, why not welcome them."
I like your thinking Kyraska. We shall show them how great we are. They will have no reason to put up a fight when we take power.
"Our county is the wildest of all Ustalav, the Shudderwood is the majority of the land within our border. The people are wild and free at heart as well. Those living here have found a way to survive off the land and the things that live in it. The small people need protection, those that ensure their ability to live will earn loyalty and dependence. I believe whomever kills this Devil in Grey and claims it will earn great power and influence."
"And, to be perfectly clear, those in Vacia will not submit to Asmodeos. So, it is one thing to believe in your religion, quite another to try and force it on the people. The small people revere Desna and Our Lady of Graves."
"Your symbols are quite provocative and memorable. I would hide them while we are about our business here."
I have great pride in my lord. I know I shall strike down any foe that dares. If I shall fall in battle, it is because the strong will dominate the weak, and I was the weaker foe.
The Doctor searches his memory for a "Devil in Gray."
"Edward, if there are werewolves that wish to bend there knee to us, then I for one will not stop them. But we must take their natures into account. People have natures that mutable, over time. Even the most depraved individual can be redeemed. Werewolves - I'm not so sure it is the case, and they are apex predators. I'd rather not let the hawks in to pray on our chickens, even if some of our hens are rotten."
Edward quotes "Like most places without much hope or opportunity, the people of Chastel very well eat the flesh off my bones. Still, give them the chance for betterment, and they'll take the honest path. Most will every time."
"I have never heard a story of a werewolf where it is the wolf side that is a monster. We killed how many Sarkorians because we were afraid their might be Demons hidden with them? Yet none - at least to my knowledge - were found. The invasion of the Worldwound brought with it great evil. It is to our shame our act was one of the greatest."
"I am confident we can find a methodology, doctor, to study the nature of these 'monsters' and determine a way to discover if they are born to evil, or simply people."
Henric almost answers Aldous, but Edward's introduction silences him. A slight frown tugs at his face as he reciprocates the handshake, hand still gloved. "Caromarc. Right."
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"Yes, the woods and our lands are inhabited by more than humans. We live with uneasy truces and understandings. Stupidity and greed are repaid threefold here for those who fail to understand that or respect old ways."
"For instance, near Morcei there was an ancient and named tree, The Daemon's Hand. Well known by the children there. Logging destroyed it, and from it has poured demon bats every night since it was felled."
"There in lies wisdom for those who seek to rule these lands, some things are better off left alone so that we might all live in peace."
"Very wise, Droht. I agree. The old ways should be left alone whenever possible." Edward nods in agreement "But we cannot simply seek to restore the status quo that was. The Worldwound is coming. Our new order must be better. The Palatines have squandered decades that could have been spent in preparation."
"Ascanor is our agreed goal. Once we have claimed it, we should branch out to Morcei. Bring an armed force. Save the people. Turn their gratitude into fealty. Forge a road to the river. Then we hunt down the Devil in Grey - in force - and do the same with Chastel. Meanwhile we reopen the Old Roads through the Shudderwood."
"But critically we need the support of the neighbouring counties. Even if the monarchy abandoned us, surely we can have some support from other nobles."
"You cannot think of the woods in terms of conquering it. One must learn to live with it. Even the founder of our great Kingdom could not tame the wood with his vast armies, nor the Whispering One drive the life from it."
"While I stand by and support my count, it must be pointed out the event sparking the rebellion which spread to the other two counties came when he took a heavy hand to the populace. He sought to demonstrate his strength."
"Also, those on the Palatine Council are of noble blood, save two."
"In essence minor nobles fed the rebellion and pulled a cunning coup. We will have to deal with rival noble families as well as unruly subjects. After so many years of mismanagement, I believe the people will flock to us once we demonstrate our worth."
When Edward throws his words back at him the Doctor smiles his curious flat smile. Truthfully, he was quite pleased at the wit that young Caromac had displayed, and happy to hear another talk of 'methodology' and studies of nature.
"I suspect we don't disagree to much, Earl of Caromarc. Your stories may or may not have considered whether the wolf or the man were the monster, but I can say with no hesitation that I've never heard such a story where the werewolf was not the monster. Is this because of human nature or something else inherent in their condition? I cannot say, but I'm happy to hear that you're willing to work with me to find out."
"Regardless, I'd caution against welcoming creatures of the night into our lands until we know more about them, but as I said yesterday, I am but a facilitator of others. I will not make you do anything you do not wish to do."
"Your points are well made, Ivan. If we simply seek to conquer the forest, we will simply weaken us both. That cannot be allowed."
Edward looks grim
"I have studied the endless hordes of the Abyss. Would you have me summon one of the lesser dretch? Compared to the evil and power of the demons, even Tar Baphon himself pales."
"My research clearly shows the general aptitude of the noble lines is to rule. These lesser nobles - without a way in which to prove themselves - have risen to positions of power because of all those involved their aptitude is superior." He sighs, sadly "But while the general aptitude is superior, the specific aptitude is another matter. I do not hate those who have made the best of a bad situation. They have done what they can to work within the system. What they lack is the foresight, education, courage and demeanour to realise that the system itself is flawed. Only starting again, as we are, from true principles has any chance of success."
Edward casts a glance at the Doctor.
Aldous stands, brushing off his pants. "Gentlemen, we'll have time enough to discuss rulership and principles, once we establish our base at Ascanor. For now, I'm off to bed. Wake me when it is my watch, please.
The night passes uneventfully, aside from the beggars...there are so many beggars here. The morning smells of lukewarm s++*, as if the city itself was pushing you back out onto the river.
The day is long, but the river is quiet. As dusk settles, Captain Arter directs to boat to a large dock on the eastern side of the river. There is a sign next to the path that leads up into the hills: "House Beumhal. Travelers Welcome!" Below the lettering is a small, freshly panted mansion, with little cartoon ghosts flying about it.
As you follow the path with your eyes, you can see the manor itself nestle into the hillside.
With a look of disgust on his face, This place smells vial.
After docking and walking the path with the others, That is quit a home. House Beumhal, might just be the base of operations that we need.Keep a close eye out for anything or anyone.
Is this our final stop Captain or is there a place closer to our final destination you can get us to?
"Any of you related to this family?"
"I hope they do not charge extra for haunted rooms."