Alikir burst into giggles almost immediately, the strange mix of high court formality blended with idiot level grammar cutting through the tension of the moment like a knife. Captain Kerris sighed before sending a cantrip reinforced fist to her side, which turned Alikir’s giggles to a soft groan.

Garrus had snatched Millat as soon as he saw the youth wasn’t preparing a follow up attack, and, judging by the strained whine Millat started to emit through clenched teeth, had just re-set the broken nose. All the while the youth had simply stood in the entrance, calmly and curiously examining their team.

Kerris signaled Auriean to waste a little mana in speeding Millat’s healing. There was no sense of hostility from the boy, and she’d disband the team and start turning tricks dockside if the five of them couldn’t defend themselves from one unarmed stranger. She smiled confidently at the lad and decided to answer his question in simple words. It was clear, for whatever reason, that he had only a limited command of Imperial Arcane. That detail made her pause though. Everyone for thousands of miles in each direction learned the language in childhood, even the small tribes had their people learn it after their milk tongue was firmly planted. Shaking her questions aside, she shifted slightly to the right so as to examine the way station while they spoke.

“Greetings and salutations. We did not mean to trespass. I am Kerris Shraye, Captain of the Striker Company. We came to exca… see this outpost. We thought it was aban... we thought no one was here. What is your honorable name? What do you want?”

Keriss kept her tone warm and her pace slow, stressing the small changes to the words he had used so he could hear the correct usage. She used simple and formal language, and kept any reaction she felt to seeing the giant pillar of fused manstone connected to an intact spatial array! As she waited for the boy to parse out her meaning and reply, she subtly shook her head as Millat, now recovered from his embarrassing meeting with the door (and oh, how he would be teased over this later over drinks) gestured to the side facing away from the stranger, which held his wicked curved knife. She had her principles. For good or ill the boy had first claim, but there was so much wealth in what she just saw that she could understand Millat’s intentions. Still, the youth couldn’t possibly think he could monopolize such a treasure, he must either have powerful backing or be looking for allies. And Striker company would be happy to be those allies… for a price.

-------

John gazed in frank curiosity at the five men and women clustered outside his door. They were dressed in tasteful furs and leathers over what looked like linen tunics, giving them a sort of barbarian chic. The strange dissonance that made him think of cos-play was chased away as he took in the obvious weapons they all carried oh-so-comfortably. His eyes strayed to the sledge hammer and the hand axe that were a mere 15 paces to his right, concealed from this angle. While he was unsure if he could bar the door in time if they charged him, he could at least arm himself before… dying horribly?

He let loose an internal sigh when the short haired woman started laughing at the way he talked, breaking the tension of the moment for the rest of the group it seemed. At last, the other woman took a step forward and spoke.

“Hello. We__not____tresspass. I ____ Kerris shiny feather ____ of ______ _____. We look ____. We think no person exist. What is your honorable name? What do you want?

Ah, good it seemed they wanted a friendly negotiation. This was ideal. John didn’t catch most of what she said, but he was savvy enough to figure out she was the leader of this group that had come to do as he had done and loot the outpost. John would need to rely on their sense of fair play if he tried to claim everything here, which would likely end poorly for him. He needed interlocutors, guides, and help getting set up in this new world. Running into them actually saved him a lot of legwork, and if they weren’t scum, which, judging by the way the nice leader, Kerris Shiny Feather, just told the man whose nose he’d broken NOT to just murder hobo him, seemed likely.

Still, best to negotiate for the best deal.

______________________

The man considered her words, then once again ran his eyes over the group. She admired him his calm, and could see a keen intellect at work as he gave a decisive nod and stepped out of the door way, pulling it lightly closed behind him after resting his pack on the ground as an impromptu chair. He gestured at her team to settle in, then spoke.

“My name was John Campos. Place now home my. All things own here. Find lot things. Some keeping I want. Most jubilant trade, sell.”

Here he paused, considering his next words carefully. “World hard is. People…many wanting, take and wanting… Some of clock people together job. Others not so. I think together job good. Not know all I find. You seem have data points many have. I also have skills, thnkings. Together job both have wealth, learning. This I want. Is good? What discrete item you want? What data points you want?

Kerris smiled broadly as she parsed through his broken speech. The gist was obvious- he knew he wasn’t able to devour this site on his own, and had opted for a pragmatic approach, while still staking a claim. He would work with them to make an agreement. He had specialized knowledge and tools and first right of the loot. He acknowledged they had expertise and that the world was full of greedy and petty people and that by working together they both profited.

Then she let out a gusty sigh and took out some tools to help pantomime their desires. This was going to be cumbersome.

_______

John rubbed at his eyes, taking in the setting sun and the growing cold, before turning back to observe the hushed discussion taking place among the mercenaries. None seemed to have any strong objections to the terms. Through a series of charades, interpretive dance and scrambled language, he and the Shiny Feather brigade had come to agreements. Kerris was a shrewd and able negotiator, but John was quickly able to tell that the main focus for her was the portal assembly and, surprisingly, his front door. Her second focus was squeezing as much wealth out of him as possible for the contract they had worked out.

The terms they had proposed were simple and, as far as John was concerned, overwhelmingly in his favor. He kept the crystals and currency, they could examine books and scrolls and would pay in equivalent information or services for copies. The metal in the window and doors was extremely valuable for some reason, and he would split it 30/70 as partial payment for contracting their team. The rest of their payment was studying the portal and 4 gold ingots. The reason he had to give up so much of the door was because he refused to let them dismantle the portal. It had led to his home world at one point, and once he had reached attainments in magic he was sure he would be able to return.

In return the group would act as body guards, cultural teachers and market contacts, while filling in the voids in his common sense. The contract would last for… well he thought they agreed for close to 5 months, but that really depends on how their lunar cycle worked. He was silly for assuming they even had a moon, but it seemed that they did have a satellite that waxed and waned in the cycle he had mimed.

Of course, John knew he was overpaying. Some of her crew had terrible poker faces. However, he didn’t care. He was just happy he wasn’t being robbed and cast out naked into the mountains, or murdered in his sleep. Well, that last one wasn’t a given yet, but he was going to be staying inside and they would be camping out here for the time being, and his door had a lock.

Coming back from his ruminations John stood up, stretched, and, making the universal sign for ‘wait’ went inside to start tidying up and hiding away the things he didn’t want to show them yet, certain scrolls and valuables, as well as things that immediately gave away his extra planar origins. He’d let them in a few at a time to use the privy and take a quick look around before going to bed.

-------------

Kerris was mentally exhausted and slightly embarrassed by the things she had done to communicate. Judging by the snickers she had heard during negotiations, she had looked just as dumb as she felt.

“Well, while you slackers were laughing and surveying the area, I just made us stupidly wealthy, gained us employment for the entire slow season, established opportunities to advance the magical knowledge of those interested, and, most importantly, make an ally out of a newly bonded inheritor.”

The other four all sucked in their breath at that. While not the most diligent of cultivators or scholars, they were all well into the late novice stage in mystic or martial mana cultivation. That said, if they had stumbled onto a lineage inheritance none of them would have hesitated to waste their development and start over from scratch if they resonated with the inheritance. Ever since the fall of the Mage Empire and the dark ages that followed, this world had struggled to raise high level mages. Even the most powerful schools and sects in the greater kingdoms would have only a few ancient adepts or archmages, while most of their strength was at the apprentice and magus levels. During the Empire even the most common magus would have access to resources those old monsters would kill for, and while a magus of that era may not have treasured the knowledge highly, they had put in place countermeasures when passing inheritances so that not just anyone could steal their personal and school secrets.

The most important and relevant of these was that once bonded, the talisman would never function for another owner. Only the spiritual sense of the bonded could access the inheritance, and there were sophisticated protections that could recognize duress and compulsion. The only way to get anything out of an inheritor was to work with them. Which is why she didn't question when John didn't try to hide the token and revealed it casually while pretending to get comfortable during the long session. Really, Kerris had to admire the way he had used that to undercut her more absurd initial bargaining position. He had still overpaid, but it was with the thoughtless ease of a young noble that had spent little time in the market, rather than a case of foolishness. What he paid had litlle value to him, so why bother to haggle? Only the more experienced and wiley nobles knew the value of squeezing amber from stonewood.

“While it seems we missed the best opportunity, he claims to have been here a few tendays, and due to his circumstances decided to solidify his gains here instead of looking to the city or towns. If he hadn’t we may have only found an empty ruin. I hope you guys take this to heart, and try to stifle greedy impulses. We may have had greater short term gains for a little knife work, but we would have been chopping the fruit tree for fire today. Who knows what we may be able to gain from this boy in the future? His inheritance could hold keys that could help us bybass the apprentice bottleneck, and bring our potential to the point that we can finally leave this empty kingdom for the midlands.”

Kerris stopped to for a moment… then decided to voice one of the conclusions she had reached.

“Also… I’m pretty sure the reason he speaks with such hilarious ineptitude is because that grand gate is still partially functional.”

Rule Six- Normally, the best trade is one where both sides feel like they took advantage of the other. The actual best trade is one where I get everything and then loot the bodies.