Four Horsemen: Chapter 6 Part 1 of 5 (Patreon)

Chapter 6:

Valter rolled his shoulders to bring the waterproof hide higher on his shoulders and against his neck. Eyes bouncing between alleyways and shadows that might hide a person. He patted his mount, Petor beside him as Mya led with Desari beside her.

Waste that had been thrown into the open gutters on the sides of the main roads were rushing down towards the wall, swept away with the day’s rain, burning his nose.

Mya led the group up the streets, no one tried to talk in the rain.

A man opened a door wearing darkened clothing, a bag over his shoulder, his face covered with a mask. His hand moved to his blade as he watched the group pass.

He ran out of the house, four others wearing similar garb.

Looters.

The adventurer’s guildhall came into sight, three stories tall with a large courtyard, stables on either side, the hall extending across the entire block, general good stores on either side, to supply their neighbors needs, dark with the early hour. Forges released smoke into the sky, the sound of metal on metal ringing through the streets, the apothecaries lit, releasing multi-colored streams of gas from their chimneys, the hall’s lanterns illuminated the courtyard and the smoke spoke of a fire lit within.

“Remember we’re all copper adventurers, newly formed party. No name,” Desari looped her plate to a length of leather Petor attached his to his belt. Mya pulled out a bandolier, messing with it under her cloak to keep it dry, and put it on.

They rode through the gates laying open.

“Not even a guard,” Mya said.

“The place is filled with some of the strongest fighters, think the looters are going to try and steal from here?” Petor asked as Desari led them to the stables with an open door. A boy stepped out under the eaves as they arrived, leading them into the stables, it was rough, but the straw was clean and regularly changed, beasts  of all kinds, from horses to wolves and even a bear in the back filled the stalls.

The boy let out a low whistle, two other boys moving from their jobs.

“Six copper per mount per day.” The boy said. “Pay in the hall.”

“Alright,” Desari slid off her mount, turning over their horses.

Valter landed, pulling the sides of his hide closed with his left hand.

“Lets go,” Desari led them through the courtyard and up the stairs into the hall.

A basic tavern lay to the left, a few fighters eating breakfast as servers moved between the groups. The wall to the right was covered with papers grouped under copper and silver signs. Counters stood right ahead.

Two people sat at the desks looking overly tired and bored.

A man spoke in the lady’s ear at the counter and disappeared into the back.

“The guards send you back?” she asked.

“We were down in the tunnels, didn’t hear about the fighting till we came out,” Mya flashed a smile.

“You got a request?” The woman raised an eyebrow.

“No, we were looking for ourselves. Our friend is a smith,” She clapped Valter on the arm. “And our leader is an alchemist.” She grabbed Desari’s arm too.

“Oh,” The lines on the woman’s face spread apart. “How good are you at smithing and alchemy?” She asked, flipping through papers under the counter.

“I have a fair understanding of refining and working on simple tools,” Valter said.

“I am still learning Alchemy and can only make basic potions,” Desari said.

The woman grimaced, clicking her tongue, eyes focused on her papers, speaking under her breath. “Well, the church has said that they want every alchemist and smith.”

She pulled out two papers, eyed Petor and Mya.

“Do either of you have any skills?”

“I make holes in things,” Mya shrugged. And then bring them back to life. Valter cleared his throat.

“I know how to do some minor wood working and I was a farmer,” Petor scratched the back of his head.

“Got plenty of farmers in the city now with the heretic armies at our gates.” She muttered as she scanned through something under the counter and pulled out a third paper.

She tapped the first. “This is a request from the church to make potions, you prove your ability they’ll let you make stronger stuff till you can’t.” She pushed it towards Desari and tapped the second. “Same thing, but with smithing. This last one is a supply run. The armories and caches down near the wall were hit by saboteurs. Church needs people to help move gear from the storehouses and warehouses around the city. I’ll need your plates.” She held out her hand.

“I, umm, lost mine?” Valter said as the others pulled theirs from their gear.

The woman let out a sigh, pulling out a rod with a ball of cloudy quartz at the top of it.

“Hold this.”

The ball started glowing, the woman grabbed it out of her hand. “Be a silver for a new plate.”

Valter reached into his pouch and put the coin on the counter.

She took it and pushed it through a slot on her desk, pulling out a drawer and a copper plate.

“Name?”

“Valter.”

She put the plate into a vice with a slot down the middle, pulling metal stamps and a hammer from the drawer, putting the stamps into the slot and hitting them with a hammer. She pulled out the stamps, throwing the hammer into the drawer and pulling out the copper plate.

“Keep a hold of this.” She looked at Valter and placed it on the counter, taking up the other three plates on the desk.

“Yes ma’am.”

She slotted the stamps away, picking up the copper plates and writing something on a ledger.

“Alright, you’ve accepted the requests.” She put the plates back ontop of the papers and pushed them over.

“Thanks, uhh we heard that the heretics lost their powers?” Petor said, gathering up his and Mya’s request and plates.

“Yeah, heretic gods stopped answering their priest’s prayers, bet they’re on the run from Jorai. He must be teaching them a lesson up in the Celestial realm for attacking Sorelli.” She said with a self-satisfied smile.

“Right,” Petor smiled and nodded, “Thank you.” He passed Mya her plate and he moved for the tavern.

Valter picked up his sheet and started reading with Desari.

“How did you know about the tunnels?” Petor asked.

“The requests on the wall. Most of them talk about the tunnels, protection contracts or gathering contracts. If we said that we were in the city but we didn’t take on a contract then it might get us in their bad books.”

Valter put down the page, pulling off his hide to throw it over the back of a chair.

“Supposed to head to Alan’s forge, going to be refining metals,” Valter said.

“Get to test out what you’ve been reading,” Petor sat down, having shed his cloak.

“Yeah,” Valter pursed his lips, it would be a quick trip if he couldn’t do what they needed from him. He was nervous that his skill would be too low and they’d kick him out. He started mentally running through what he’d read about turning iron into steel.

“Ingredient harvesting,” Desari grimaced. “I have to figure out which ingredients they’re using. I hope they tell me how they want me to refine it.”

“On the plus side, I think we’ve got some time before things heat up again. Or at least till the priests start hurling spells at one another again,” Petor leaned on the table.

“Why, are the gods actually fighting one another?” Mya asked.

“Aren’t stronger essence users supposed to be able to use spells,” Valter asked.

“We’ve only seen coppers and silvers, and there might not even be golds,” Petor nodded at the two boards on the opposite wall.

“This is a big city and they only reach silver.”  Desari caught on. “I have an entire book on spells and they take incantations, movements, requiring focus. They might only have a few people that can actually cast spells.”

“They’re reliant on the gods for magic?” Valter said.

“That’s what I think and no the gods aren’t fighting one another. Those books on gods, there’s information on the gods of this world. They have become demi-gods, they need to walk the material plane before they can ascend as a true god.”

“Wait so there are gods of other worlds?”

“Yeah,” Petor nodded.

“Adventure!” Mya practically leaned over the table with her grin, eyes shining.

“What I mean is that something is interfering with the god’s power, all of them at the same time.”

“What about the champion?” Mya asked.

“Like bringing an army to a street fight,” Desari said.

“If the champion was to come out, then it would escalate things, it would also draw power from this Lord Jorai that might need the power himself,” Petor said.

“So what’s the plan?” Mya asked.

“We lay low, learn about this city, Sorelli, learn about the forces involved, try to figure out who we are, what we know and get a plan together to escape the city and survive this fight. We arrived three days ago and we were involved in a fight with the other god’s fighters. We were strong and adventurers.”

“Maybe whoever is on the other side of that card can tell us,” Petor said.