Chapter 3. Part 4.

Action at the Capital.

At noon the group arrives and finds an Inn. They park the wagon in a small shed next to the stables. Lewen makes sure it is secure, while the others rent rooms and order some lunch. Gwen is rather excited to see the grandeur of this city. While Midvill was much like she imagined a medieval town would be, the capital was more like what a fantasy city should be.

When they are done lunch Mark asks Gwen to drop off a letter at the royal palace. “Dont wait for a response, just tell the guard all he needs to know is written on the envelope.”

She agrees to make the delivery, while she is out touring the town. Naturally she will take the squire with her. Meanwhile Mark and Lewen will go see the merchant. Fenra will tag along with them of course. They will all meet back at the Inn for dinner.

The Merchant Mark had made contact with in the capital was, JC Farthing - expert in adventure equipment. A fat man, who claimed to have been a travelling merchant in his youth. He liked to brag and tell stories, which always made him look good. He was a friendly fellow, but there was something fake in his smile. Indeed, his loud persona hid a very cunning intellect. If he ever did anything underhanded, he did it with great skill. There was never a crack in his friendly facade.

Farthing, was happy to see the adventurer with the exotic goods again. After their first meeting he had suspected that a few more items might be forthcoming, but he had not seriously hopped for a sizable shipment. Now here was the young man wanting to propose a business venture.

“Lets talk in my office.” Farthing suggests.
Mark made no mention of his title, just as he had done in Midvill. He preferred to be known as an adventurer rather than a lord. Lewen of course played along.

A few minutes later the three men are sitting comfortably in the fancy office, talking casually. Fenra takes a seat near the door and promptly pretends to fall asleep. Farthing is in no hurry to get down to business, as he hopes to gain as much info as he can before any serious matter is put on the table. Lewen stays mostly quiet but does pay close attention to all that is said.

When Mark makes the actual business proposal, Farthing is surprisingly receptive. Unlike Mr Gambol of Midvill who had seen the new deal as less profitable than the original 50/50 split, Mr Farthing is all smiles and quick to agree. “Only a fool would pass up a chance to get access to the sort of goods you are providing.” he says with open honesty.

The merchant calls for one of his assistants, orders him to bring some wine, and passes him a note.
“Before we have a drink and sign the document, I was wondering if the next shipment of goods would include all the same items as before?” Farthings asks opening a lively little conversation about what sort of things Mark might have access to.

They talk and drink, the paperwork is signed, then a tray of delicious sweet bread is brought in. Farthing launches into one of his stories about the old days when he was a travelling merchant.

 

Missing Goods.

By the time they walked out of his office, the sun is starting to set. So its back to the Inn for dinner.
However, when they got there, they learned the bad news. “The wagon is gone.” Gwen said bluntly.

Timmy then explained, “I went out back to check on the horses, they were fine. But I noticed the shed door was open a bit. The lock was broken. The wagon was gone.”

Mark was stunned. He really had no idea what to say.

Lewen on the other hand was calm and orderly. “Lets go have a look.” he suggested.

As the group stood around and looked at the empty shed, he speculated “They must of had their own horses or been freakishly strong. Which means this was not a random crime of the moment. It was likely well planned.”

“How about we see if a location spell will work?” Gwen offered. They had been riding in the wagon for several days, so they knew it rather well. They also knew it was full of goods not native to this world. Thoes facts should make it possible for the spell to seek out the wagon in question.

Mark was not sure of success, this being the first real test of the spell. But he gave it a go.

The result was a vague feeling that the wagon was 'that way'.

“Follow me, it seems to be working.” he said and then set off at a brisk walk.

A few minutes later the group found the wagon. Abandoned a few streets away, in an alley. It was empty. The thieves had made off with the valuable cargo. Mark tried the locate spell again, this time focusing on the cargo. But got no sense of it at all. “Maybe there was some kind of magic interfering with the locate spell.” he speculated.

Meanwhile Fenra had been sniffing around. “They sprayed something to mess with the smell. It would be impossible for a normal nose to track them.” She said with confidence. “Lucky for you, my nose is far above normal.”

Lewen smiled at her. “By normal nose she means an expert ranger.” he said with pride.

“Ok then, we shall follow you.” Mark said

Eventually they arrive at a warehouse, that looked the same an the half dozen warehouses next to it.

“You sure its in there?” Mark asked

The wolf-girl gave a nod.

“What do we do now?” Lewen asked.

Both Fenra and Gwen answer “We go get it.”

Mark almost busts out laughing. Then he says “Yes. We get it, as quietly as possible. That means no lightning spells,” he looks at Gwen “and try not to kill anyone.” he looks at Fenra.

No guards were posted outside. “That is normal enough.” said Lewen.

There was a regular door, it was locked and a large barn door, it was secured with a drop bar from inside. “Also very normal for a warehouse at night.” Lewen commented. “Front and back would likely be the same”

Mark and Gwen scanned the place for mana. They detected a small amount like a fog filling the interior. “Maybe its what prevents the location spell from working.” Mark made a wild guess.

“Lets hope it is not a trap.” Gwen said softly.

“How do we quietly brake the door down?” Mark wondered aloud.
Lewen knelt down next to the lock to have a better look. Then he got out a small set of tools from a pouch. “This should not take very long.” he whispered, then set to work picking the lock.

Mark put his hand on his squires shoulder, “You should learn how to do that.” he suggested.

Timmy gave a nod, “Yes sir.” but his mind was more focused on what would happen next.

Gwen leans close to Mark and tells him, “Iv got a darkness spell and a silence spell, Iv been working on. Problem is they are both area affect, and would hinder us just as much as the enemy.”
“Good to know.” Mark says as he ponders their possible use. “If an alarm bell starts going off, use the silence.” he advises her.

Lewen gets the door unlocked and opens it as quietly as he can.
Fenra goes in first. “She will slip into a good attack spot before we enter.” he tells the others.
Mark can feel the jitters of adrenaline. Just like the time with the Bent Blades, when they took out the bandits. The anticipation before the fight was more nerve wracking than the actual combat.

“Use sleep spells as much as you can.” he tells Gwen, then he says to Timmy “You stay close to us, watch our backs, dont let anybody sneak up on us.”

The warehouse was not a large building, in comparison with modern ones on Earth. There were no endless rows of boxes or shelves. There was the main loading area, with a wagon taking up much of that space. There were three cargo bays on each side, and a loft above these. Voices came from the loft. Likely a few guards, playing cards.

Mark wished he could cast an area effect sleep spell. But he knew that the odds of that working were very low, when you could not see the targets. Magic worked best the more you knew about your target. So he would have to sneak closer and get a better view.

Luckily the guards were not very attentive.

The assault was fast and efficient. You could not call it a fight.

Both Mark and Gwen cast sleep on the four guys at the table playing cards. They all folded.

Fenra pounced on the one guy who had been walking around on the main floor. She slammed his head hard enough into the cobblestone that he was unconscious, if not dead.

A quick check of the wagon reviled that it held their goods, along with some other stuff. “The cargo is mixed so it looks like its all part of one delivery.” Lewen pointed out.

“Any idea who the owner of this wagon is?” Mark asked as he helped tie up the sleeping men.

The merchant shrugged “I could find out who owns the warehouse. But off hand, I dont know.”

“Off load anything that is not ours.” Mark ordered “We are going to borrow the wagon then dump it, back in that same alley.” He looked over at the wolfgirl, who was clearly disappointed the fight was over so fast. “You are the strongest here. Think you can pull the wagon for us?”

“Of course I can. But Im no sled dog.” She answered.

“Lets consider it a challenge. If you can get the wagon back to the Inn, real fast, then I will buy you the best meat in town.” Mark tried this rather obvious bit of manipulation.

Fenra laughed and said “ok”