บท 157: Servant of the Axe, 57 - Look Before You Leap

Servant of the Axe

Chapter 57

Look Before You Leap

[You have accepted a quest to rescue Igrun Sivert, and avenge her upon her wrongdoers.

Required: Slay Sigmund Findseth, Reward: 10 quest points, not accomplished

Required: Slay Olaf Findseth, Reward: 10 quest points, not accomplished

Required: Slay Victor Findseth, Reward: 10 quest points, not accomplished

Required: Free Igrun Sivert from slavery, Reward: 10 quest points, not accomplished

Optional: Restore social status to Igrun Sivert, Reward: 5 quest points, not accomplished

Optional: Slay Agnar Oen, Reward: 5 quest points, not accomplished

Optional: Slay Jacob Hoyland, Reward: 5 quest points, not accomplished

Optional: Slay Odmund Kampen, Reward: 5 quest points, not accomplished

Optional: Slay Svein Bjornson, Reward: 5 quest points, not accomplished

Optional: Slay Tomas Istre, Reward: 5 quest points, not accomplished

Automatic Fail status: Death of Igrun Sivert] <1>

Each person mentioned in the quest came with images, some of which I shared with my companions.

"Given the height for the point of view of these images, I think they're from Igrun Sivert herself." I said.

"Pity she doesn't have any kind of status or at least a class on any of these idiots." Gamilla said. "Let me book passage to Lavin Buscala, and I'll finish this in a night."

"It wouldn't be a group quest if it were that easy." I said. "What worries me is that the death of our hostage might be a very real consequence of acting on this."

Gamilla snorted. "I'm not that sloppy. Let me go, alone, and I can slay these eight men, escape with the woman, easy quest points for everyone."

I steepled my fingers, trying to look learned. "Gamilla, you remember seeing twenty longhouses, each of them holding eight or so families?"

"I'm not going there to kill everyone." She said. "That's why I have to go alone. All of us together can't fight that many people and win. The more people on this kind of work, the more likely it is that one or more of us will be seen."

"Yeah, but if that happens while you're alone there, we can't help you."

Kismet cleared her throat. "We actually need all of us. It'll look suspicious if Rhishi requests an audience for only part of his entourage."

"That is beyond dumb." Madonna said. "Of course, that gets us in the door, but there are easily forty to sixty inhabitants, most of whom will have weapons, and most of whom will be predisposed toward keeping our targets alive."

I shrugged. "Madonna's definitely on the invite list."

"I just said I have NO INTEREST in this suicidal mission!"

"Burning down the governor's longhouse will help cover our tracks, and we may need more than just me to counteract whatever rune magics they employ."

"Rune magics are primarily… oh, you dolt." Madonna said.

"Yeah," Dimmihammas said, "You're on the list, because I won't be. I won't be eating at his tables or toasting him with mead."

"Not my primary idea, but let's keep that in mind as a backup." I said.

"What's our primary plan for avoiding the Hearth Curse if we do this?" Narces said, "Please tell me it's not that Drown Curse spell."

"That would be foolish." I said, moving it rapidly to backup plan D. "Our initial plan is to let them break the peace, and to defend ourselves."

"Wait," Kismet said, "So, our plan is to INSULT them?"

"No." I said, "That counts as a breach of hospitality. What we can do is brag, and challenge them to contests. I can survive drinking contests with up to level five poisons."

"Boss, some of them warriors are gonna have five Might. That's a dumb plan."

I drummed my claws on the table. "Well, hands down I should be able to out-eat any of them."

"Husband, may we BRAG? It seems to me their culture permits that."

I scratched at the tip of my nose. "Bragging about Gamilla's prowess might net us one of them if they challenge her to a duel."

"Let's not try that." Gamilla said. "If we can figure a way past the Hearth Curse, I can kill them all while they sleep, probably without disturbing the rest of the house. I'd rather kill eight of them than one, in any event."

I sighed. "We are all easily recognizable, and if we show up in Lavin Buscala and don't all attempt to stay together, it will raise suspicions."

"Besides, none of us speak Nord well enough to get away with making excuses." Narces said.

"Well, I mean, there's no time limit on this quest, is there?" Kismet asked. "I mean, we're free to go there, earn his trust, have a nice visit and then sneak back and attack him?"

"We might just as well march in there and just tell him we're there to kill him and free his slave." Narces said, "And that's really super-dumb, let's not fight an entire longhouse by ourselves."

"Aha… by ourselves…" Madonna said.

"Yes, the option of finding someone else who wants Governor Findseth dead is among our options. Possibly someone else with a claim on the position of colony leader."

"My understanding is those people don't tend to live long in Norvik cultures." Kismet said.

"Honestly, without wergild, I think the Norvik culture would have extinguished themselves a while ago." Gamilla said. "They do seem to treasure their blood vengeance."

"Good catch." I said, "We should have several pre-packaged wergilds for various levels of Norvik society."

"I see you thinking." Kismet said.

"Oh, I was just wondering if maybe would could somehow not kill Igrun, just pay her wergild, and then ship her off the island as a freewoman."

"Rhishi! Do you UNDERSTAND what a brand is?"

"Oh, do the Norvik brand their slaves also?"

There were several nods around the table. Jeez. Well, it was an overly complicated plan, anyway.

"Maybe we earn enough favor with clan Finsdeth that they give us a slave?" Madonna suggested.

"And betray them with treachery?" asked Gamilla.

"And betray them with treachery." Madonna confirmed.

"I doubt we'll have that kind of time, even if we winter there."

Kismet punched me in the kidney.

"Awgh! Which we might not be waiting for." I said. "But when we go in, it's with a plan. Which we can adapt as we learn things, if there's time for that."

"Couldn't we make that plan on the boat?"

"Even if we plan on a formal invite, it will take a month to just get the response back."

"We shouldn't wait for that, boss. It looks suspicious if he says no and any of us show up anyway."

"Hrm. I was hoping to wrap our national needs into this as well."

"We're an empire ambassador, not just a nation." Gamilla said. "Please do remember that."

"And there are petty kings in Alpin who have fewer families and less land than the landed knights of most of the larger countries. I would rather we become known as a nation than a petty empire, or petty anything else."

From my right, Madonna kicked my ankle, hard enough to be heard at the next table over. "What my husband means to say is that IN SPITE OF his personal feelings on the matter, he will of course do his duty as a SERVANT of the Axe. Isn't that right, darling?"

"Ooh, ooh!" Kismet burbled. "We need to get you one of those ladylike fans, so that you can …" she made a wavy motion with her hand.

"So right!" Madonna and Kismet shared a wicked glance over my chair at each other.

"If they are in style, all the ladies may have fans." I said.

"Point for Kismet." Narces declared. "Hey boss, what about the Neonen custom for men to have fans?"

"And perfume?" I asked, "How far into Neonen custom are you suggesting we go, Narces?"

"Boyfriend we don't know about?" asked Gamilla.

Narces coughed out a mouthful of coffee. "Nothing like that. Just asking." As if to counterpoint his words, he pulled out a kerchief and began dabbing at the spots. <2>

Gamilla turned toward me. "WAS that what you meant to say about your duties?"

"I will perform my duties as assigned, no matter how impossible or ill advised I feel those duties are."

"That was all I needed to ask, ambassador."

"Chicken." Kismet said.

"We need Gamilla with us. Not just for this one quest."

"So… how DO we get to Lavin Buscala?" Narces asked.

"Well, it's a pity that we don't have any trade offers to or from Lavin Buscala."

Gamilla squinted. "You know that we do. And that those offers have gone… oh. I suppose we should CHECK on those offers."

"If just to see why the Norvik haven't answered any of them." I said.

"And if we happen to ask around about how Norvik culture works…" Kismet said.

"The way tourists do." Narces nodded.

"So how long will it take to provision before going to see to the plan?" I asked.

"Well," Gamilla said, "That truly depends what manner of cold weather tents and sleeping gear we can get locally."

<1> All names generated by fantasynamegernerators.com, any resemblance of these characters to real people is not only coincidence, but also highly creepy.

<2> Yes, I acknowledge that the corner of Athal I call my homeland is also home to some rather antiquated views regarding the relations between adults. It's more of a closed-door thing rather than a forbidden thing, but it isn't something you can talk about openly, like in, say, Neonia. Or really, two thirds of the civilized nations.