Menan stands and nods at each of the women as he says "Lady Eleanor, Lady Margaret, Lady Adelaide, it has been a pleasure to meet your acquaintance. I look forward to next Sunday at the manor. Until then." He takes Arawyn's arm and they exit the establishment.
They head to the Fat Goose to get out of their clothes and into their normal garb. They check out of the hotel and head for camp.
A rough-and-tumble-looking woodsman heads over the place towards the city gate, followed by a young noble dressed in finely tailored, studded hunting leathers. The two men push through the thin crowd, oblivious to anyone else’s concerns. Several scruffy-looking hirelings follow behind them leading a pair of horses and carrying wooden crates marked with heraldic symbols. As they shuffle past, the woodsman calls back to the noble, "For the last time Corvin! I’ll take you there, but I ain’t bringing my dogs!"
The arrogant noble hollers back "You think you can do it without them? Fine. But I'm not paying you for a walk in the woods. I want results. I want a trophy!"
Menan and Arawyn stop and observe this group.
The group passes through the marketplace and once they are on the outward road the woodsman and the noble get on their horses leaving the city through the gate to the south.
"Interesting. I wish to be here when that group returns." Menan chuckles. "Let's stay here a while. This should be interesting."
The pair and their animals head to the Pig's Whistle.
"A little early for ale, but we can stay outside."
In The Pig's Whistle, a few corners away in the old, narrow part of town the party is going on. Stew and ale is served, music is played and all are in high spirits.
"Hi, there." Faerveren greets Menan and Arawyn. "How did your tea party go?"
"Very well, thank you. We met three very interesting ladies of old wealth and lineage. They seem to be very kind on first impression. We shall keep in touch with them. What is going on here? What is the occasion?"
"That's the runover of this morning's church service here. Who would have thought, that this is a temple." Persephone replies.
"Well I never...."
"Cayden Cailean?"
"Indeed! Praise to the drunken hero!" Isabella calls over from the bar.
The whole bar echoes "Praise to the drunken hero!" with raised mugs.
Menan chuckles at the praise. "I would like to join them, but this time of day, nay."
"How about going on a hunt then?" Persephone inquires.
"A hunting party just went south. Rather unimpressive group. A young noble, a guide and some hirelings. A name was called out. Corvin. Yes, Corvin. It was actually humorous to watch them head out. I plan to be around when they return. If they return. There will be no peace south of here for at least a few hours. Do you know of this Corvin?"
"Yes, a son of house Tergsvor. Self proclaimed big game hunter. Rumors have it, he does his hunting in zoos."
"But what if he is successful? At least he throws a lot of resources at his endeavors. Spoilsport."
Menan chuckles at the half elf. "I find this interesting indeed. Do you think he seeks the owlbear? Regardless he could stumble upon it in that direction."
"If there will be no hunting today, I'll head home." Persephone tells. "Tomorrow is work again, and I for sure had enough ale for a day, so no need to stay longer in this tavern. I've been here since morning after all."
"Our next opportunity will be Saturnday. Sunday is taken as I will be entertaining the wealthy ladies."
"This is an ending for this day unworthy of worship of the drunken hero. We're just drunk enough for heroic deeds!"
"Worthy of seeing the results of this hunt. Care to join us? We will wait for their return."
The Variel clan finds a good location to sit and wait for the hunting party to return.
"Nah, I'm off. Have fun." Persephone walks home.
Faerveren joins the elves. "Where you want to wait? It's going to get cold."
The sun sets over the sea. It is still a comfortable temperature. On the marketplace is a well with a nice bench around. From there one has a good view of the gates.
Menan leads them to the bench by the market. He offers his cloak to Faerveren should it become chilly.
The three have a nice time in the evening. It gets longer and longer, darker and after a while chill. The stars come out and the half moon. Less and less people are outside and as it is dark, the gate is closed.
After that, only a pair of guards comes past every now and then. No sight of the hunting group so far.
Also this night passes uneventfully. The new day starts with the toll of the bell. Or it starts anyway, but the bell tells those who didn't notice yet. With the bell, the gate is opened too.
The market fills with farmers and others, offering their goods on the market and with those, who buy it.
An hour or two later, as the market is most busy, Corving Tergsvor and his hunting group come back. The noble riding on his horse. His woodsman leading the horse that drags a makeshift travois a dead owlbear. The creature looks impressive even though it's dead. Like a large bear, covered in feathers instead of fur and a large beak instead of a mouth.
Corvin rides through the crowd, followed by his trophy and the hirelings. One of them limping. Once he reaches a position he feels most can see him, he proclaims "Valued people of Abadon. The threat posed by this mighty beast is no more, for I, Corvin Tergsvor, have dealt with it. So that the people of Abadon can continue to live their life in safety and the life stock of the farmers can live in peace."
Then he turns around to ride back to the garrison, to collect the bounty and brag there some more.
Most of the people applaud, as it is no small task to bring down such a beast. Some roll their eyes at Corvin's need to broadcast his deeds.
Menan chuckles at the display. "Well he did it with a little more flair than I was prepared to show had we the chance. That is a shame to me, though. The girls seemed fired up about the hunt. If they truly like to hunt, we could take them on one for sure. The deer are well populated not far from our camp."
"Hunting is not that interesting. The gold he is fetching right now was the interesting part." Faerveren tells.
Persephone leaves with the bell to the docks to do another day of work and maybe get to know the workings in the office of Marinelli Inc. a bit better.
Through the day she hears the gossip that a noble got the owlbear. She sighs. She is not sure though if it is disappointment or relief.
Through the day some interesting processes are to be seen. There are different kinds of transactions going on. One kind is Marinelli Inc. buying wares that are delivered by ship. Those go directly into the small warehouse. The wares are written into the inventory. Then someone comes with the signed list of delivery to Gorm who gets up, walks with the person into a small office with a locked door. A few minutes later they come out again and the person leaves.
At other times there are wares that are delivered to Abadon for someone else, or that just wait for the next ship to bring them to their final destination. In those cases, Marinelli Inc. is paid for the muscle to unload the wares and put them into the big warehouse. Sometimes, if it is only a small delivery, it is put from the ship on the cart of the customer of the wares. But still Marinelli gets paid for the unloading. As the mooring places belongs to Marinelli too. And therefore no captain would let anyone else on board to unload wares.
Also interesting is the way the payment goes. For smaller loads it's often someone from the ship who is paying, or receiving the price of the wares. With bigger deliveries there are commissioners of the trade partners that accompany the wares and take care of paying, or collecting the price of the goods.
There is no obvious way to get into the upper stories of the building. And they don't seem to play a role in the day to day business.
Mid afternoon Menan and Arawyn head to the Unfurling Scroll. Their concern is that he may still be teaching children and they do not want to interrupt that. They look about and listen for any activity.
There are two children there at the time reading, but no school is going on. Inquiring about it, Alendru informs you that regular classes are only held on Sundays, or in winter in the late afternoon. As most children have to work. Only a few lucky ones get to have a higher education instead of learning a profession.
"I understand your desire to retire but I have a need that you can fill. And, I can help you with this task as I know the spell required to modify the item but lack the skill to modify arms. Arawyn needs to place the agile condition on her +1 rapier as she is not strong. The cost of this should be 2,000 gold and will only take two days work. Possibly less on both counts if I work with you. Will you undertake this for us, Alendru?"
"I'm sorry to disappoint, but I don't know how permanent weapon enchantments are made. Maybe one of the smith's in town do? I trade in minor magic items, mostly scrolls I scribe myself. But nothing of that kind." Alendru replies.
"Thank you, sir." Menan is visibly frustrated. He just looks at Arawyn and refuses any words. He leads them to the camp.
When back at camp. Arawyn and Apollo decide to do some hunting and gathering.
They return to camp with a deer that has been field dressed. She butchers and cooks the better cuts while throwing the dogs a shank. As Menan is reading and scribing and not talking, Awawyn heads to the Pig's Whistle with venison aplenty.
She heads to the kitchen and begins cutting the meat into proper portions for cooking various ways.
Faerveren leaves to Persephone's house and compensates for the long night with a long afternoon nap. Once she is well rested she cuts some slices of bread, takes some cheese, and a bottle of wine, as well as a rope and walks to the docks. There she waits for Persephone to finish work.
Once Persephone get her share of todays work at the docks and received her stack of coins she leaves the Marinelli Inc. building. There she runs into Faerveren. "Hi. You here?"
"I got cheese and wine. How about a romantic picknick watching the sunset?" She nods towards the roof of a building in the second row.
As Persephone looks confused, Faerveren drags her along through the narrow alleys to the second row building. It is a run down building where sailor's can rent rooms while they wait for the next ship to hire them. Or anyone else who isn't really choosy about their room.
Through the stairwell she leads to the top floor and through a trap door onto the roof. There she unpacks a blanket to sit on and the food. "See, this nice view over the sea."
"And the nice view on the Marinelli Building?"
At the camp, Menan and Arawyn hear the howling of wolves.
As the sun sets, the work at the docks come to an end. But that doesn't mean the life there stops. The whole dock is lit street lanterns that are refilled with oil and lit by the guard. They are placed three feet from the water and 30 feet apart. On the opposite side, in the dim light in front of the buildings some ladies and gentlemen come along. With the intent to meet some attention starved sailors to get them to part with their coin.
To the east the windows of the houses of uptown are lit, one after another. Over the rest of town, the taverns are also bright beacons in the dusk. But most houses of commoners are dark.
The office of Marinelli Inc is also lit. But only Gorm is still sitting at his desk.
Menan notes the direction of the wolves. Boomer is looking in that direction already. "Guard, Boomer." He looks at Dancer and holsters a dagger to cut the horse loose if needed. He loads and cranks the crossbow and sets it on his make shift table. "I dare you."
After another hour, Gorm gets up, moves out into the yard. He closes the gate and locks it with a bar and addition locks it with a large key.
Then he walks over to the storage, takes a moment to listen inside and then closes the large sliding gate and locks it with a chain and a large padlock. He pulls on the gate to check everything is locked in place.
He walks back in. He extinguishes the light, but one candle. From the outside one can see that light walk to the far side from the entrance and then disappear. I reappears on the second floor, where it is placed on a table.
Gorm takes supper and tafter that sits some more over a book or other documents. It's hard to tell from the distance.
Menan throws some wood on the fire that Arawyn used to cook the venison dinner. "That should keep them away if they happen to get close. We will be fine." He digs through his belongings and produces a map of the area. He begins measuring the distances to the next large towns and cities and studies the terrain as well.
The wolves quiet down and are not heard anymore.
plus scent
Boomer begins barking and moves toward the wolf by a couple fett. Dancer is extremely upset. Menan looks in the direction of the Boomer's attention and sees the eyes reflecting.
"That is not normal behavior for a wolf.They are afraid of humanoids and fire."
Menan stands and levels the crossbow at the eyes. He other hand is poised for a spell.
He moves over to Dancer.
There is no visible or audible reaction from the wolves. Just the crackling of the fire and the noise the woods make at night. A crackle of a twig here. A branch of an old tree breaking of fin the wind. The hooting of an owl. And every now and then a pair of eyes reflecting the fire.