Finally they see reason

After beating the crap out of those thugs, we took another look at those worms. Turns out that they was what you call Slaad Tadpoles. You know like the thing that we fought earlier in the sewers only smaller and more wormlike. We asked some of the surviving gangers bout it, but they had never seen a Slaad before. All they knew was that the idiot wanted the doc dead. Now we was starting to put together that the idiot might also be infected by one of those Slaadpoles. Which meant that we would probably find ourselves in the black maze real quick like. But fortunately unlike last time, the doc had a way to help us out. See he knew a recipe for a potion that keeps ya healthy for an hour in the Maze. Which he taught to Yanika. So while she learning that, I decided to go out and take care of some business.

See the way I figured, is that this was bad news. I mean a Slaad infection in the racks had the potential of quickly growing out of control. So I went to see Leif and Harold Trode of the old council in order to inform them of this. Now the problem here is that they couldn’t just go into the Racks in order to take care of that gang as that would start a war in the Racks that would quickly spill over to the rest of the town. Thus I offered to take on a small bounty on each confirmed Slaad kill. An offer that they were quick to accept, just as I had planned. See at that point I’d been round that gang of misfits for a while to know how things was going to go. I was guessing that Gears was already foaming at the mouth to head into the Maze in order to figure things out. Not helped by the fact Yanika had herself a new toy. And as you know, she is still a gearhead herself and if there is one thing that is true for all of them it is that when they have a new toy, they will find an excuse to use said toy. Which isn’t a problem in itself, were it not for the fact that that potion is pretty expensive to make for all of us. Not helped by the fact that Gears and Ace have a general dislike for anything related to gold. Just like many cases, they had accepted this on the premise of a promise given with uncertain terms. So beside the income of possible looting, we weren’t really being paid for this. Thus I wanted to make sure that we would at least have a chance of breaking even on this one.

But I’m gonna be honest and admit that I had two other motives as to why I went to see Harold. The main one is that I am fully aware that what we do is dangerous work. And while unlikely, we must always accept the fact that we may fail. Thus I wanted them to know so that in said case, they would be caught with their pants down while a Slaad infestion spread through the racks. I mean that’s just common decency. The other is simple for the fact that I felt like I had to work a bit on my own reputation. See I pride myself on being a professional mercenary who chooses his own jobs. But lately I feel like people are beginning to treat me as just Gears and Ace’s lapdog. Which might be the case for some of our group, but not for me. I mean the reason I work with them for now is that on one hand I like several of them, the jobs are interesting or necessary and the pay is good. But when those things are not the case, you can rest assured that I will politely refuse on that job and find another gig. Thus I wanted to build some rep with the old council as an independent, just in case.

Later that evening, Ace and Blue decided to go and pay Naill, the guy who hired them, a visit. Turns out they weren’t the only one as two gangers had gotten to him first. Thus our employer was dead, meaning that we was now working not only for free, but also without the prospect of removing the bounty on Yanika. This is why you get paid in gold and partly up front. To minimize your losses when shit hits the fan.

The good news is that finally after all this time and bodies, the rest agreed that the Jester was too dangerous to live and needed to be put down. I mean I knew this for the moment he send over a jacket made of human skin, but some folks is slow to form an opinion. So at the crack of dawn, we raided the inn that the Red Ice Gang called home. It was glorious, hadn’t taken part in a raid for a good while, so I was due for one. Sadly there was no Brand. Plenty of his goons though, with the most of them pregnant with a Slaadpole. So all in all, combined with the loot of the place, it was a good raid.

And hey, we even found a clue to Brand’s location in the form of his journal. There wasn’t much in there except for confirmation that he was as insane as they come. Namely that for the last 6 months he had been hearing voices as well as dreams of some kind of floating city on a giant crystal in a sea of fire. With acid rain falling from the skies, all the while beckoning him to come to it. Off his rockers. Now he believed that the city was somewhere in the sewers, so he took some of his gang in order to find it.