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Turn 14

---Back-post: Turn 13---

Lucrezia led them across the square towards a stone stairway that led up to the ramparts. She seemed slightly bemused by the urbanite student's question. "My father taught me to read and write while I lived with him and my mother at the University of Nuln. Now, I'm an Initiate of Verena's Temple in Nuln. I'm to spend the winter here recording the town's history for the Temple's records. If I do well, I hope to be ordained in the spring. How about yourself? Where did you learn to read?" She arched one eyebrow, innocently questioningly.

"Forgive me!" Xavier said disarmingly. "I had presumptuously leapt to the conclusion that you were a native of this quaint little town. Were you born in Nuln, then? My own mother city! Maybe you knew my aunt, Gunhilde, a priestess of Verena herself. I was practically born reading, myself, but it was she who introduced me to the joys of academe."

Lucrezia shook her head sadly. "Sorry. A lot of Priests and Priestesses pass through the temple and I don't know them all yet." Xavier shrugged.

"But why is the Temple interested in some little mining town's historical records?"

"The Temple's interested in all records. Amos -"

"Ah yes, the toothless greybeard with a bottomless store of stories. Every village has one. Sometimes some of their stories even turn out to be true!"

" -looks after the local shrine and I'm spending the winter with him documenting his research. When I'm finished, I'll take my work back to Nuln to be added to the Temple's records." Xavier raised his eyebrow, questioningly. "It's past of my Initiation" Lucrezia added. "Every Initiate has to add something to the Temple's wealth of knowledge before they are considered worthy to preach the message."

---Skip---

Magden waved a thumb back towards the racking. "I've got some blankets if you want them. Is there anything else you want to see?"

"Hmm. No, I think that's enough to be going on with. Do you have a mirror? I might give this green cloak a twirl... but I simply *must* have the beret, and I'm not sure if they don't clash. Maybe this 'fancy cloth' instead." Xavier ran his hand over the cloaks tentatively. "But I'd better try the boots, first, to see which ones fit. Let's start with the calf-skins." As he struggled with the boots, Xavier asked "what sort of price would you charge for beret, boots and cloak?" Magden's lips flicked for a moment.

---Skip---

Duncan stuck out his hand. "Hi, I'm Duncan. I only stopped here for the winter, looking to earn some cash, but it looks like I'm going to end up killing Goblins with you."

The other man shook the proffered hand. "And I'm Rat. Pleased to meet you, I'm sure. Weren't you the guys who went out after Mund?"

"Yeah," Duncan replied, folding his arms, "That was us. We didn't get back fast enough though, and he didn't make it. I hope he rests in peace."

Duncan shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea at the time." He paused. "Any way, while we were picking over Mund's wagon, I stumbled across some gunpowder. Do you think this gun powder could be used somehow to combat the Goblins next time they attack?" Duncan took a quick look around the walls to try and count guard numbers and strength. As well as the two men tending this Ballista, another two men tended a similar looking machine directly opposite. Another pair of guards, walking clockwise away from them along the ramparts, were the only other guardsmen in sight.

A flicker of thought danced across Rat's face but faded before anything became of it. "Could be. What do you have in mind?"

---Skip---

Darmon the Initiate finished his daily prayers and looked around. Most of the others had moved on. Martha, sitting by the bar, nodded towards the door.

"They've gone out. Lucrezia's taken them up to the walls for a look around."

"Oh, right. Thanks."

Darmon quickly gathered his belongings and shuffled after them. A trail of footprints led across the square and up to a gate in the wall surrounding a boxy two-storey building.

---Turn 14---

"Umm, say…" Xavier flipped the burgundy beret onto the green cloak, winced, and snatched the hat off again. "… 7 Crowns for the beret, 25 Crowns for the cloak, and 10 Crowns for the other cloak."

"This one?" Xavier pointed towards the glossy midnight-blue cloak. The cloak was long enough to hang to his knees and light, although it was stiff enough to follow as he turned. The hood was a comfortable size, although it threatened to bend the beret's feather.

"Yes, that one. How are the boots?" Xavier stamped his feet experimentally. "They're not too bad. How much do you want for them?"

Magden stared at the wall for a moment before looking back at him. "Those ones are 35 Crowns." Horror flitted across Xavier's face.

"35 CROWNS!" Magden shrugged. "That's robbery! That's insane…" Magden shrugged again.

"Comfortable?"

"That's not the point!"

"Try the Ox-skin ones. They're about the same size, and only 10 Crowns." Muttering under his breath, the student loosened the boots and pulled them off. The ox-skin boots had thicker leather, thicker soles, and a much stiffer sock. Xavier tugged the laces hard, forcing the stiff leather to fold along age-old creases. ""How are they?" The Halfling looked solicitous.

Xavier frowned. "They rub."

"That's the leather. Good stuff, ox-skin. It takes a bit of getting used to, but after a week or so, it fits like a glove." Xavier scoffed.

"You go barefoot! What do you care!?" The Halfling shrugged again.

"I know a bit about oxen. Ox-skin's cheap. Lasts forever, too "

"How much?"

"Umm…"

"Hmm?"

"…14 Crowns."

"So that's…31 Crowns."

"Yes, 31 Crowns."

"I think I can stretch to…" It was Xavier's turn to look calculating. "…10 Crowns."

The two haggled for a while. Xavier made his position clear and made great efforts to point out his contribution to the town's defence. Magden pointed out that if he was so important, he could borrow the money, or get it directly from the Factor. Xavier got upset. Magden got grumpy. Xavier got sarcastic. Magden dropped the price to 16 Crowns.

---Skip---

Aenarion rose from his meditations and looks around, re-orienting himself within his environment. He stretched his sore back and arms, and snapped the vertebrae in his neck back into alignment. Hearing noises from one of the back rooms, and glided across the taproom to investigate, running across Amos in the process. Martha hid her smile behind her dishcloth.

"Well met, my good man. Are your dark seasons always this cold?"

Amos gave him a faintly suspicious look.

"Go on, answer him!" encouraged Martha.

"Umm, yes, I guess. We've had some colder ones, of course. I mean, back in '72, or was it '74? No, it was definitely '68…" A dish-cloth sailed harmlessly past his shoulder.

Seizing the opportunity, Aenarion skilfully switched the points on the old man's train of thought. "Have you ever encountered anything in these parts that seemed to be of a super-natural or magical origin?"

The old man thought for a moment.

"Well, apart from the thing in the cave I was telling you about before - and Lucky's ghost…"

"That beaker of milk disappearing and all that yurt appearing was pretty miraculous"

Amos ignored Martha's sarcasm. "There's the noises down pit 13 - no-one knows what's making them, and the rock-spirit that led those boys out when that tunnel caved in, and…" Martha cut him off.

"In other words, yes, lots. Was there anything specific you wanted to hear about?"

---Skip---

Duncan smiled, and began thinking. "Well, firstly, we could use that barrel of gunpowder for any guns that are in the town, if you know of any. Other then that..." Duncan paused and took the opportunity to reach up and scratch his chin. "We could place it out there, and use a flaming arrow to hit it and cause an explosion next time the Goblins attack." He smiled and stopped scratching. "That's an old trick a fellow showed me a while back. As well as an explosion, we could throw some horseshoe nails on there, which might make this very dangerous indeed."

Junither peered over the wall. Rodger had to give him a bit of a boost up onto the wall. The Halfling surveyed the surrounding country. Thinking about what the guards had said about the goblins, he tried to see any small clues that their lesser human eyes might have missed. He couldn't see any. If the Goblins were up there, there was no sign. If they'd left, they'd not made any tracks he could see from that position.

Rat scratched his chin in sympathy. "Not a bad idea, I guess. I don't know much about gunpowder myself. Verholm's Alchemist deals with that side of things in the mines - I just know about this Ballista." He smiled proudly. "And I know a lot about Ballistas. If you can put your barrel somewhere we can see it, we can hit it with that flaming arrow." He scratched again, lower this time. "We've not got a lot of guns in the town. I don't think we've got any, to tell the truth. We've got wood and feathers for arrows and no money for shot and powder, so there's never been any need." Duncan and he took another moment to stare up at the ledge. "I suppose we could catapult it up there, with a fuse or something. Problem is we might bring the whole mountain down on us. The Alchemist might know, if you trust him to admit that he doesn't, which I don't."

"Well, it doesn't look like we have exactly a lot of gunpowder here, do you know if there's any more for sale in the town?" Duncan asked Rat, casting a quick glance back into the town.

"Doubt it. The Alchemist might have some, but we don't do a lot of blasting in the mines, so maybe he just buys in what little he needs. You'd have to ask him."

"How many guards are there?" Junither was still staring out, over the wall, "and what are the plans for defence and retreat?" Rat shrugged.

"You'll have to ask Urkan for that. I'm just a sergeant in charge of this Ballista"

Junither straightened his arms to push himself back off of the wall. He landed easily and silently on his feet. "Lucrezia said something about a Snow Beast. How often does it appear, how strong it is, how many are there, can they be killed, and WHAT is it?"

Rat laughed patronisingly. "You sound pretty spooked, little guy. Has Lucky been telling you some of Amos' stories?" He shook his head depreciatingly. "There's no 'snow beast'. That's just something mothers scare their children with. 'Come inside before the Snow Beast smells you' " His voice whined as he mimicked a stereotypical old wife. "Hogwash! There's nothing scary out there… apart from the Toa-Suo." His voice quietened to a whisper as he bent forward so the other two guards couldn't hear.

"The Toa-Suo are a race of evil, shaggy beings. They live in caves high up in the mountains and only come down to hunt when there's deep snow on the ground. They look like men from a distance, but their fur is snowy white and they can hide, invisibly, on the open hillside. They hunt in packs, and can smell blood from miles away. They have very, very sharp claws and razor sharp teeth and eat human flesh…" Lucrezia shrieked and spun round. The two guards sitting on the side of the platform behind her were rolling about, laughing hysterically. One of the long Ballista quarrels were lying on the flagstones were one of the guards had dropped it after poking her in the rear with the sharpened end. Rat wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.

"I told you we'd get her!" He gasped between chuckles. "Oh, wow, you should have seen your face!" He paused, laughing too hard to speak. "I thought the game was up when we told you about the ghost the last Priestess of Verena, and you stayed up all night sitting in the graveyard…" He gave up talking to concentrate on laughing.

"The sheet!"

"The howling!"

"Her face!"

"Oh Grundi, her face!"

The three guards collapsed into hysterical laughter. Lucrezia looked like she wasn't sure whether to laugh or get angry.

---Skip---

The door opened and Darmon apologetically entered.

"Umm, hi."

Magden forced a grin. "What would you like, youngster?"

Darmon cleared his throat. "A hammer. A war-hammer. Please. And some suitable clothes for this weather." Magden snorted.

"There's cloaks, hats, and boots on the counter." Scratching his head absently, he disappeared behind the wall of bins. He soon reappeared with an armload of non-descript tunics, leggings, and the like.

"I've got woollen breeches, doublets, shirts, tunics, leggings, hose, vests, you name it. I can do you a complete set for…10 Crowns. Or less if you don't mind something that's been properly 'worn in'." He put the pile down on the counter and disappeared behind the wall again.

"I've not got any war-hammers, I'm afraid. We don't get many of Sigmar's Templers out here, you see. I can do a…no, that's a broom. I can do a - damn, what's that doing there? - axe, and a… two-handed axe. That good enough?"

---End Turn---

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