Opportunities beckon

As I got a good look at the giant gator, I decided that the best thing I could do at that point was to head back to the surface and warn the rest of the upcoming battle. I also told them not to kill the thing. See, I have no problem with killing animals when ya have to, it’s a part of life. I mean I like em sure but in the end I’m gonna value intelligent life like humans, elfs and whatnot over the lives of an animal. That’s just common sense. But I wasn’t gonna kill something as magnificent as that gator over something as ridiculous as a magic sword. I mean can you imagine how old a gator has to be in order to grow to that size. The fights it had to have won over the years, the troubles and challenges it must have gone through. I mean a gator that size in the sewer was a bloody miracle to me right there. Aah, if only.

So the rest of them placed themselves around the pool, armed with their crossbows and at the ready for when the gator surfaced. But it just ignored their puny attacks and chomped down hard on Spade. With just one massive crunch, it almost bit Spade cleanly in half. Bloody glorious that was. I mean it sucked for Spade who was bleeding out, but the sheer raw power behind that bite was rather majestic. And it didn’t stop there. Cause just then, the ground started to shake as another quake was building up in strength. Probably due to the awesomeness of the fight we was having. I mean who knows. But at that point the Gator decided to dive down, Spade still dangling in his maw. And just as we were ready to consent Spade to a watery grave in the sewers, it charged upwards and launched itself upwards towards the ceiling. Now as you can imagine, when a beast like that puts it full weight into it, there ain’t much that’s going to stand against that. So with that massive crash, he broke straight through and climbed towards the surface and into the town.

Now as we dodged the rocks that came crashing down as a result, we immediately decided to launch the pursuit of it, in order to retrieve Spade. I quickly jumped up and climbed my way outside using sheer will, moxy and the magnificence that are the power behind my muscles. And as I emerged from the murky deeps, flanked by both Majid and Yanika, I stood in awe of the chaos that was taking place right in front of me. The beast thrashing around, knocking down several buildings in the process. All the while still chomping down at Spade. It was magnificent in its brutality. But I have to tell ya, it was only Yanika’s magics that was keeping Spade alive at that point. Otherwise, he would have been gator food a long time ago.

Now all this enraged Majid to the point that he was seeing red. And I clearly remember yelling at him: “No Majid, it’s too big for ya ta take on by yarself.” as he charged towards the beast. And with a mighty leap, Majid soared through the sky and came down upon it, sanking his blade and mace deep into the beast’s skin. I’m telling ya, the guy almost has as much moxy as me. Even brought a tear to my eye out of sheer pride. Sadly unlike me, he ain’t as bulky and when his charge also meant that he was of balance and wasn’t able to dodge as the beast gave him a mighty blow with its tail. Launching him into a nearby building and knocking the wind out of him.

Upon seeing this and knowing what needed to happen, Yanika and I looked each other in the eye, nodded and resolved ourselves to take revenge for our fallen comrades. It was also at this point that I realized that me and Yanika made a pretty damn good team. So with a mighty roar, I charged forward at the beast and landed a rib shattering blow straight at its side. The beast released a mighty roar fueled by pain and anger, dropping Spade from its gaping maw as it turned to face me. However this was wat we was waiting for as he had himself wide open for Yanika. And using her eagle eyes, she took aim with her crossbow and hit it straight in the eye, a killing blow as I’ve ever seen one. In fact it was so perfectly placed that it actually knocked its eye straight from its socket. With that it released one final roar, before coming crashing down onto the pavement. A motionless mountain of scales, claws and fangs. I might not have known Yanika and Majid for long at that point, but I knew that them two is solid folk you can rely on.

Scruffy retrieved the eye, which was apparently made from solid crystal, as I took to the task of retrieving the sword from the beast’s gut. It was also at this point that I realized that the beast itself was not an actual gator unfortunately, but rather some kind of golem. That was rather disappointing as my awe of it was shattered. But the bonus was that I wouldn’t have to crawl down a living gator’s throat in order to retrieve the sword, so that was a small win. Regardless, we finally had the damn sword in our hands. We helped the others out from the sewers, collected our fallen comrades in order for them to get some medical attention and proceeded to head back to the Rackhole.

At least we were doing that, until we was stopped by some awestruck guards. They wanted to know what happened here and I explained that Kayne’s mercenary group and associates had taken care of the beast that had threatened the town. Ace was a bit miffed at that as she wanted to introduce us as the Ace and Spade’s detective agency and I get that, I really do. But they still owed me for the damage they did to my rep by aligning myself with that idiot Brand, without my consent I might add. As well as then forcing me to go along with their half brained scheme in order to go against said employer. So in my book, that made us square again, as for a mercenary, having a good rep with the local guards is very important. I mean it can lead to some very interesting jobs coming my way. Which I would happily share with their detective gang, even if them involve themselves with some unsavory people from time to time.

But anyway, we returned to the Rackhole and had ourselves a breather as we waiting for Majid and Spade to regain consciousness. During which time, Yanika, Scruffy and Ace inspected both the eye of the gator and the sword, but sadly even their combined smarts was not enough to discover the secrets of both of them. Thus Majid decided to take the sword to a friend of his in the Arcanum Guild in order to see if he might be able to discover some more. And for safety, both me and Ace decided to go with him, just in case.

When we got to the guildhall, we found that a massive swarm of people was standing outside. apparently some kind of hot shot guildmember was inside and thems wanted to get a look at him. Hell good for him. I mean if yar good enough to get a rep like that, the boasting rights are for free. In fact it becomes a duty to do so in order to inspire the little ones to aspire for greatness.

Once inside, we quickly met up with Majid’s friend, Rothgar. Yeah, I don’t like Rothgar, the bloody beard goblin, he talks to much for his own good. I mean ya might not even believe it but he actually had the gall of calling me a flesh golem. I know right! The nerve at that. That was one of the worst insults that I had ever received. At least he had the ball of insulting me in my face, otherwise I would have decked him right then and there. But as a courtesy to Majid, I held back even if it wasn’t easy for me. I mean a flesh golem, really. Have ya ever seen a flesh golem in real life? No, well I have and those things is plain ugly. And I don’t mean in a mother-in-law kind of ugly, but rather dang nasty looking. I mean that was just plain rude of him. Don’t get me wrong, ya wanna call me a golem, that’s fine. But I mean, just look at my chiseled abs, my broad shoulders and my large, tanned and firm muscles. This does not come naturally my friend. It takes a lot of painstaking effort on a daily basis in order to maintain this level of physical perfection. And for him to come around and insult that like that, well that’s just plain rude. I mean with my physique, I’m more like a brass golem or a marble golem or at the very least a steel golem when I’m on an off day. But certainly not something as hideous as a flesh golem.

Luckily he was at least able to identify both the sword and the eye or things would have gotten ugly. Now from his description of the sword, we figured out that it was indeed the sword we were looking for. Which was good, cause I wasn’t going to climb down into the sewers again to look for another magic sword. As for the eye, it was actually a Dwarven made crystal orb. It wasn’t magical though, but it was however some kind of key or the like. He didn’t know what it would open though. Luckily I remembered the book that we was investigating in order to find some hidden dwarven treasure. So I figured this might have something to do with it.

When we was heading back, we were stopped by a messenger who wanted to talk to us. Seems that our little stunt with the gator has brought us to the attention of some bigshots as apparently, the guildmaster of the Arcanum guild, also known as Majid and Yanika’s boss, wanted to talk with us. Seemed that he had a job for us. And this my friend is the importance of a good rep. when your rep is solid, you don’t have to go look for jobs. Rather the jobs come looking for you. Make sure to write that down as one of my lessons as that is an extra important one right there. So we agreed to fetch the rest of us and go meet with the man.

Arriving back at the rackhole, it seemed that things were getting rather busy. First, they had received a threat from the Jester. Whose goons had stapled the letter Spade had sent them earlier to his door with a knife. As I predicted would happen if ya recall. See here is another lesson to make yar life easier. When a plan has to many moving parts, don’t even bother. It doesn’t mean that your plan is smarter or more impressive, it just means that it is that much more likely to fail and blow up in yar face. That is why it is so rare to see potionmixers and alchemy guys with both their eyebrows and/or ears intact.

Apart from that though, they were also visited by a giant. And I don’t mean like me, but instead an actual giant. This guy, Ortir was his name, also wanted to hire our services. Like I said, let your rep do the work for you. Now he represented the old council, and if ya have to know anything bout this town, then it’s that the old council is a pretty big deal. Don’t bother with gangs and guilds, them is the real power in this town. They wanted to meet up with us tomorrow in the morne in order to discuss the specifics of the job, which was okay in my book.

Now before we headed out, there was still the question of what to do with the sword. Some of us, like Ace and me, wanted to sell it. What don’t look at me like that, look like I told ya, I had some set dreams that were rather expensive for me at the time. I couldn’t just pass up a 1.000 gold payday like that. But the others weren’t too keen on it so that option was out. They had asked me if I wanted to bond with it in order to unlock its power but like I said, swords are overrated. Even if they know a magic trick, so I passed on that. In the end it was Blue that decided to bond with it when Majid also declined and Spade decided that he wasn’t that good with a sword like that. So that solved that issue.

We then headed back to the guild hall where folks was still waiting on the big shot. Fortunately we had no problems meeting up with the guildboss, a man by the name of Ravan Dox. The job he wanted us to take care of was a rather simple one. See a couple of years back some potionheads managed to burn their old guildhall. Which was why they’ve been holding up in a somewhat larger inn instead. Now thems was starting to build the hall back up again, when folks started going missing at the worksite. Which was a problem as Dox wanted it finished in time for the big festival that was gonna take place. So he wanted us to find out what was going on and put a stop to it. Spade accepted and he payed us a bit in advance for our troubles. Which was fine I guess, Though I would have liked it if we first went to the old council in order to hear what they had to say before taking this job. Ya know to see if they paid better or had a better job for us, but it’s fine. See Spade is still new at the mercenary gig so he’s bound to make some mistakes. And yes he might call himself a detective but I’ve watched him over the last few days and it is basically the same as any other merc, only with a fancy title. But that is another important lesson for young mercs. Don’t be greedy when it comes to jobs. It is better to do one job well than to muck about with too many jobs at once. It might help ya more in the short term, but in the long run ya will always have yer comeuppance.

Now while Spade was still asking Dox some questions, I had already figured out what we had to do. See if we joined up as daily labor, we would simple have to wait for someone to come and try to make one of us disappear. At which point we could deal with it easypeasy. It’s basically setting a trap with yarself as bait. Simple and efficient. But I could already see the gears in Spade’s head turning as he started thinking up another one of his overly complicated braindead schemes. In fact I’m gonna start calling him that from now on, Gears.

After that, Gears and Ace wanted to go talk to the big shot downstairs, Estar was his name I think. But it quickly became clear that he was more interested in flirting with Ace and Yanika, along with talking about himself rather than talking about the case. So I decided to quickly head over to the bar and have myself a pint or two while them kept talking shop. I did however catch a glimpse of Scruffy trying to imitate Gears as he asked Estar some questions. Witch was rather cute I guess. Like a younger brother trying to impress his big brother. Which isn’t to bad, Gears might be a good influence on Scruffy. I was just gonna have to keep an eye on them to make sure that Scruffy didn’t pick up any bad habits from Gears.

When Estar finally stopped talking, we headed out and on the way back to the Rackhole, or maybe I should call it Racknest, not sure. It does sound better doesn’t it. So on the way to the Racknest, I decided to go have some fun at the Reverie in order to celebrate getting a new job. I invited the rest, but they weren’t interested. Which is stupid if ya ask me, see the Reverie is the best place in town. It has good folk, good food, good drinks and animals. And I don’t know if ya noticed, but I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for animals. So I started to turn around when we suddenly got surrounded by some thugs. Seems the Jester wasn’t to keen on Spade’s note and he wanted us to come see him. At that point I was done with the idiot and I made it very clear that I wasn’t going. See the idiot is a bully plain and simple and when dealing with a bully it is very important to stand yer ground. Cause if he ever catches ya backing down, then he will never leave ya alone. So stand yer ground, make some threats and if that don’t work give him a good thrashing. Now I wasn’t the only one who was done with that idiot as Majid quickly drew his weapons. Sadly for him though, he was still nursing his gator wounds. So he wasn’t in the best of shapes at that time, which allowed one of the goons to jump him. Otherwise Majid would have destroyed him. Now Blue quickly intervened and talked some of the goons down. I helped with the rest by giving them a good scowl and thems ran back to the idiot with their tails between their legs.

And with that, I left the rest of the gang and made my way to the Reverie. Not a care in the world.