New Country, New Wagon
Around noon we approach the town Mr. Jenkins told us about. It seems people here tend to mostly build their houses with wood as there are many rows of log houses.
“Woah…Look oki, even the common people have glass windows.”
“They must be pretty rich here.”
Sher Aka chuckles, “Glass is a lot more common the closer we get to the middle kingdoms. The nations west of the Skar mountains are just so shut off from the east that they don’t get much of the resources needed for glass.”
“I see, I didn’t know that!”
We then go further into the town, it really seems like this is the town we were supposed to end our tour through the mountains as there are a lot of merchants here and the town seems to cater to travelers.
Rayla asks a man passing by, “Excuse me, Sir? Do you know where we could buy a wagon and some horses?”
“Eyup, just go down that away and turn left at John's store.”
“Okay, thank you Sir.”
“You’re welcome, Miss.”
We go down the path we’re told about taking in the different culture on the way. People here dress a lot differently than people in the west. Even the common folk seem to like wearing semi formal clothes and the rich walk around with canes and tall cylindrical hats. Well trimmed beards also seem to be in fashion.
After a bit of walking through the busy streets we come upon a place called ‘Jebediah’s Wagon repair and retail shop’. It looks like a big business with a huge repair shop and some wagons and carts for sale. Going inside what looks like the main building a slightly overweight man with a black suit, long white beard and a top hat greets us, “Hi there, my name's Jebediah, how can I help you lot?”
“We’re trying to purchase a wagon and horses.”
“Oh, then you’re in the right place, Miss. What budget are we working with?”
“Up to four Big Silver.”
“Ah, that will put you into our medium price range then. What sorts of horses are you looking for? Fast ones? Strong ones?”
“Preferably sturdy ones that can travel for long periods of time and don’t mind the heat or cold. We intend to eventually travel to the south with them.”
“Hmm…I see. Do you intend to have them pull heavy loads?”
“We need them to pull us and whatever traveling equipment we need.”
“Alright, that would be a medium load then, for that you’d be best dealt with Applecore and Margaret. They’re both sturdy horses, young adults with mild temperament. They'll cost you a Big Silver each and together with a decent wagon we’ll get to a price of about three and a half to four big silver. Follow me to the back.”
We follow him to the stables to inspect the horses and walk past the repair shop towards the wagons when a familiar voice calls out to us, “By the Gods, you survived!?”
Looking to the origin of the voice we see Myra, our guide through the mountains. It seems she came here to have her wagon repaired.
Sher Aka answers, “Yes, no thanks to you.”
“H-how? Did you manage to outrun Rayden?”
“No.”
“Then did you defeat him!?”
Sher Aka keeps answering bluntly with an expression of slight disgust on her face, “No, we got caught but he let us go.”
“He let you go!? Why?”
“Because we made him laugh with a joke.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“That is very important information! We should go to the police and report this!”
“No thank you. We’re about to leave today, we don’t want to talk to the police.”
“But this could help a lot of people!”
Her face of disgust becoming more pronounced, she answers, “We’re not interested. Leave us, I don’t want to see you again.”
“Look if it’s about us running then I’m sorry but we told you before we would do that and you agreed to it.”
“I’m more concerned about the fact he found out about us in the first place. To be direct, I believe either you or your troop are working with him so leave us alone.”
Sher Aka then motions us to keep moving and so we do, completely ignoring Myra who somewhat dejected leaves for her wagon.
A little later, we leave the store with a new horse drawn wagon. It’s not quite as nice as our old one but it's functional. The original price in total was three Big Silver and eight regular but Sher Aka managed to haggle it down to three Big Silver and two regular ones. Which, after buying our supplies, leaves us with nine regular silver and some copper between the four of us.
After packing our wagon John says, “Alright, now that that’s done we only need to find out where to go.”
Sher Aka answers, “Don’t worry I already did. I asked the clerk at the grocery store. Apparently it’s a pretty popular destination, so as long as we move along the road there should be multiple signs pointing us there.”
Rayla sits down at the coach seat, “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” and we move to leave the town. Unfortunately though, we don’t get very far as the moment we leave the town multiple people on horseback surround us pointing crossbows at us.
A woman in her early thirties wearing a shirt, jeans, armor, a fur cloak and a brown hat approaches us on her black horse, “You seem like you’re in quite a hurry.”
Rayla fletches her teeth, “That’s because we are. Are you trying to rob us?”
“Heh, far from it darling." She tips her head, "My name’s Kerry. I’m the sheriff of this here town and I’m putting you under arrest for suspicion of colluding with Rookie Killer Rayden.”
“Oh? Do you have literally any proof of that?”
“You being alive is more than enough evidence for me. Now then, I expect ya’ll to drop your weapons and slowly, with your hands up, leave the wagon.”
Rayla grids her teeth, “Fine. Let’s comply for now.”
We drop our weapons and step outside with our hands in the air.
“Search em!”
The guards search both us and the wagon and when they get to me they pull my cultist necklace off my neck but surprisingly there is no bad smell coming from me.
The sheriff then looks at it with a grin, “Well, looky here, seems like we got our first death sentence.”
Panicked, I answer, “I’m not a cultist, I have a letter from the Guildmaster in Rostock explaining why I wear it! Usually I emit quite the stench when it’s off but I don’t know why it’s not happening right now.”
“That so? Guess the cultists have infiltrated that town's guild too, thanks for the information.”
The guard searching me yells, “Sheriff, we found something else on him. It looks like another occult artifact,” he then pulls out the moon pendant the Clown Carnival gave me.
“Well, well, well. Looks like we’ve gotten ourselves a bigger fish than expected. Separate them! Put the cultist in a high security cell for enhanced interrogation.”
“Yes ma’am!”