Day 505 - Chasing the almighty gold piece
Day 506 - Doublecross
Day 507
Day 522 - Delivery succesful
Day 525 - Lunch with the Duke
Day 526 - Attacked by highwaymen
Day 528 - Attacked by giants and wolves
Day 535 - Leaving Ginsel
Day 539
Now I'll be the first to admit that, even though we've helped a lot of people and saved the day on more than one occasion, our quest has been mainly one of profit. Well now, more than ever, we are chasing the almighty gold piece. Is it because we are greedy? Not really. We're just trying to buy a bigger ship and that costs money.
Imagine my surprise when Anna brought me an advert requesting a band of intrepid adventures (must supply their own ship) needed for a delivery to Ginsel. It was perfect for us. I definitely want to return to Barretstown. So we went to visit a weaselly little businessman by the name of Torgan Betz. He agreed to pay us 2000 gold up front and 3000 more upon return for delivering a package to a fellow in Torvan by the name of Berthoven. For some reason he wanted us to drag his Gif bodyguard around for the trip too. ship's anniversary.
It almost comes as no surprise these days when we get ambushed by pirates. We were almost out of the grinder when a damselfly darted out from behind an asteroid. They fired on us with their ballista and the battle was on. What's worse the Giff, Second Assistant Sub-colonel Darm Larbo, waltzed onto the bridge and started pounding Zeke. Needless to say we rushed to his defense. Giffs are tough suckers, but one second assistant sub-colonel is no match for the combined might of the crew of The Royal Flush. The battle was short enough that we had time to get back on deck to prepare to repel boarders.
Anna and I unleashed spells upon the attacking pirates. It was the first time I've had a chance to try casting the sleeping spell. I was delighted to see one of the pirates snoozing do to my amazing magic. Huzzah! Next dozens of ill-trained pirates were swarming around us brandishing dangerous cutlasses and the like. I set into those around me, taking down all opponents in my way, and grievously wounding the pirates' leader. But the tricky bastard disarmed me and retreated to his boat. This is where my bad luck began. I chased him, but lost Justicebringer between the ships in the process and had no time to retrieve it. As beloved as that blade is to me, there were more pressing issues. It is a good thing that I have not completely abandoned preparedness. Granted I have taken to leaving most of my useful equipment behind, but at least I had the foresight to remain well armed. I drew forth a pair of swords and set into a new wave of pirate who came up from below deck. The pirates had done one thing right. They had seen fit to allocate a large force of manpower to the task of attacking The Royal Flush. However, I found myself frustrated by a sea of clumsily wielded steel. Fighting 5 to one odds including a gnoll, (I haven't seen one of those pesky jackals since I left Oerth) I soon found myself badly wounded and about to be overwhelmed. Luckily, I got the hang of using the long and short sword in unison just in the nick of time. With a flurry of devastating attacks I chopped down most of their number just as Liam and Anna arrived to reinforce me. (They had beaten the remaining pirates back on The Royal Flush and even grabbed Justicebringer on the way over. The gnoll surrendered and the Pirate leader ran off below deck, so of course we chased after him.
I fear I'm growing tired just writing all this down. These battles are really wearing me out these days. Once the fight is over I'm just drained. It never used to happen I tell you. What's more I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life. Maybe I should take on fewer opponents. It's hard to say. Well back to the chronicle of another victory of Fritzholm Hammermill!
That cowardly pirate captain locked himself in the bridge with a hostage. Liam scrounged up an axe and I started hacking down the door. My first blow thudded awkwardly and to my embarrassment I had used to wrong end of the axe. Liam and Anna smirked but remained ready. My next blow shattered the door in a manner impressive enough to make up for past foibles. I charged through the broken shards of the once sturdy door and tackled an utterly stunned pirate captain clean out the front window of the ship. As we hung out teetering on the brink of deep space we exchanged bare fisted blows. After giving and taking quite a beating I socked the scoundrel so hard he floated off. I hooked him with my grapnel so he would drift off into space, but he chose to cut himself free and was never seen again.
This entry has become one of my longest winded yet, so I will wrap it up quickly. We tied up and tossed Darm Larbo and our other prisoners into a secure room in the Damselfly. By the time we went in to question them Larbo had headbutted everyone to death just out of spite. Well not quite everyone. We didn't toss the mage lady who had been flying the ship in there with everyone else. She didn't seem very piratelike. Anyhow the Giff basically confessed to everything. He had planned this whole thing, and he would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling kids.
Doesn't anyone care about Justice anymore? We returned to Bral to turn Darm Larbo over to the authorities and they wouldn't take him. Here he has masterminded an attempted piracy of our ship and murdered three of his co-conspirators, not to mention assaulting Ezekiel Moonstartulip, and the powers that be on Bral are happy to have him walking around free to commit more vile deeds. I had half a mind to just let him go free and see how they liked having a murderer on the loose, but instead we brought him to Betz. Torgan Betz was a little apprehensive to see us, and I'm not sure he believed our story, but at this point I don't really care anymore. He did want us to deliver the package, so we're off to Ginsel once again.
We delivered our package to an art collector in Tarven. The piece was seriously ugly, but you know how collectors are. They want to own everything. So we got a transaction receipt and went on our way.
When we got to Barretstown we were all taken aback by how much it changed. The place is now a bustling city. Traders are coming from all over space and new businesses have sprung up all over. There's a spaceport and everything. It's great! There was no room in The Twisted Oak, so we went to an expensive 20gp a night place. The posh luxury reminded me of our time in Yendoril while Mustafa was on trial. It was nice in a way, but it's not my style. I'm going back to The Twisted Oak as soon as there's an opening.
We had lunch with the Duke today. Liam even made a sign for our stall in the market - HAVING LUNCH WITH THE DUKE. That was pretty cool. It was good to see the Duke again. He was excited about the growth in commerce, which lead us directly to our next topic. We had a Damselfly we wanted to sell him. There were some details to iron out. We agreed to train a crew for him and the deal was done.
There was one disappointing thing about the lunch. There was no sign of Tara. The Duke said she was mad at him, but he didn't mention why. Some family thing, I'm sure. It turns out Tara is living out at their mountain retreat. It was not a place we could fly the ship so I made plans to take a trip out there by horse. For some reason the rest of the crew wanted to tag along. I guess that's reasonable, but it'll cut down on my chances to spend some quiet time with Tara.
Some foolish highwaymen thought they'd rob us of 500 gold pieces while posing as official tax collectors. Is there no peace from these petty thieves? One would think that eventually word would spread far and wide that we knock in the heads of all evildoers who cross our path. I even told them who we were. They still wanted to throw down, so we did to them what we do to thugs, pirates, and criminals everywhere. We pounded them but good. Sure, some of them got away. Hopefully they'll learn from their mistakes, or at least tell a few of their friends that Fritzholm Hammermill and the crew of The Royal Flush are not to be messed with!
It's so good to see Tara! She is like a breath of fresh air, and you know fresh air is sometimes hard to come by. Tara had quite a set up here, with all sorts of magical enchanter stuff in the basement. I can tell you *I'm* enchanted.
Astute readers might wonder why I said Tara "had" quite a set up. Well it's because no sooner had we all gotten settled in and comfortable then the place was attacked by giants and giant ice wolves! It was terrible. The wolves ate Tara's guards before we could do anything. These wolves breathed magical frosty blasts all over us until were meat Popsicles. Man, if I would have known all this was going to happen I would have armed myself for war. I just wanted a peaceful little trip out to visit with a princess. Is that too much to ask for? On the other hand, thank goodness we were around. I'd hate to think what might have happened if we weren't.
Thanks to some timely spells from Liam and Zeke, we survived the attack. I took such a beating from the beasts that I could no longer even stand. My blackout didn't last long, though, Liam stepped in and healed me a moment after my grievous injury. Thank goodness I have such a high quality of traveling adventurers at my side. This crew kicks butt, and now there are a bunch of monsterous frost corpses to attest to that fact. But before we finished them all off they did manage to do some major damage to the cottage. We're going to pack up and head out in the morning.
Tara's not happy about having to go back to her dad. I told her that she could join us if she wanted to. Pretty soon we'd have a big, new ship. There'd be lots of space, a magical lab on board, and a great wizard (Zeke) for her to learn from. It seemed like a perfect solution. She said she'd consider it. For now she had to stay, since she was the heir to the country. However, the Duchess is pregnant� I hope it's a boy.
Our business in Barretstown is complete. We have some new cargo for Bral, huge heaps of gold from the sale of the Damselfly and percentages of the shipping profits, and a bunch of green trainees. There's Father Goodnoe and Signar, the spelljammers. We also have 3 general crew-in-training, Kempt, Ruley, and Couth. The ship is packed! We had to install another bunk just to fit everyone in.
After much study I have developed my very first original spell. I call it Hammermill's Heroic Appetite. It will allow me to eat even more pancakes. After all, I've got to do something to keep up with all these exaggerating stories about my powers. There will come a time when even eating 30 pancakes no longer captivates the imagination of the crowds. When that time comes, I will be prepared.