Heretic's Kingdom

25th of Kusha, the month of harvest.

2289 years since the new gods came.

I had a dream last night. The goddess of Wisdom sent it to me. Why does she bother? I don't need to know how the 'Universe' works. Moron.

She said “In some places, the universe is happy and helpful. In other it is malevolent, and cruel. Ours is neither; it has forgotten our world, and moved on to other pleasures.” What in the hells is that all about?

In other news, we made almost 30 miles today! New horse for me, her name is Strident. She is barely six years old, and quite spirited. I'm sure we will get along famously.

28th of Kusha,

Stupid horse threw me today. I swear she was laughing at me! I wonder if she is to young for glue?

29th of Kusha,

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Strident got hobbled today.

30th of Kusha,

She threw me again! I think I will ask Brandy to say something to her.

31st of Kusha,

A curse on Brandy and her family! She was telling Strident to throw me!!! Stupid fairy. I have decided to stop talking to her.

- - -

“So this whole time, you were telling her to throw me?” Max seethed. “You little...FAIRY MUNCHKIN!!!”

Brandywine kept laughing, even with the insult. “Serves you right for abandoning me like that, you jumped up wannabe!”

“Wannabe? Wannabe what?!?” Max snarled.

“Wannabe god.”

Max stopped. He stared at Brandy. He walked away.

Brandy watched Max walk away, “...oh crap...”

- - -

35th of Kusha,

Things have been quiet. Strident doesn't throw me any more. I'm still angry with Brandywine. Why would she accuse me of wanting to be a god? The Cost/Benefit analysis doesn't add up.

Pros of being a god? Big power, long 'life'.

Cons? Stupid coworkers, people constantly bothering you for stupid reasons, religion, working on your vacation days, no overtime pay, giant responsibilities... the list goes on.

Definitely not becoming a god.

36th of Kusha,

It's been long enough. I talked to Brandy. Waste of coffee.

- - -

“I will never become a god. I don't want it. I don't need it. I refuse it.” Max stared at the evening fire.

“I didn't think you would.” Brandy replied, also gazing into the fire's depths. “I'm still mad about you leaving, you know.”

“Yeah, I know.” Max sighed, “Just don't say things like that again, okay?”

“Fine.” Brandy smiled, “God lover.” She ducked as Max threw his coffee at her.

- - -

37th of Kusha,

Met a small pack of worgs. Had a nice talk. Shared a kill. Good people.

40th of Kusha,

We are finally nearing the border. The only way I can tell is the signs stating “End of Country – 20 Miles”. Tomorrow we will pass the border.

43rd of Kusha,

Realized today that the road we have been following is called the “Heretics Highway”... I don't know what to think about that.

350 miles as the crows fly, so about 15 days by road, is our next destination, Rether. It is a city of trade along the highway. I hope to find some interesting trinkets there.

* * * * * *

Hello Ladies, Gentlemen, Both, and Neither! I am Vast Listen, 2nd Assistant Curator of Esmeralda, the Goddess of Knowledge's Museum of Facts and Knowledge. I was assigned the “Maxwell Smithson, Heretic” project some years ago, after the last curator quit (15 years of service, and not one piece done! The man was a complete mess). It is my job to properly reconstruct, annotate, and collate his, and others, papers as they pertain to 'Maxwell the Heretic'.

I announce myself now, so that I may inform you that I will be skipping what I deem to be 'uninteresting' travel days.

Now back to the archive.

* * * * * *

2nd of Anael,

We made it just in time to beat the snow. Rether is a trade city on the Saltan River, which empties into the freshwater Pondshear Sea. As a major trade city with almost fifty thousand permanent inhabitants, there is a wall, with a slum surrounding it. The markets are booming year round with thousands of people travel through each month, and winter only slowing the numbers somewhat. We will be spending a few days before traveling on, so we can gather more supplies and see some new sights.

3rd of Aniel,

The architecture is fairly standard for what I remember of the world, but there is a new building being constructed in the 'Dell' style of metal and glass. It is slated to be completed next year, and will be a full five stories tall!

A young Dwarf has manufactured a new concept weapon! It is a new style of crossbow. It is called a 'Compounding Crossbow' as it uses pulleys to 'compound' the force of the spring arms. I had a long talk with the young dwarf about the working of the design, and how he came up with it. He is now ten pounds of gold richer, and will be working on a longbow variant.

7th of Aniel,

We departed for the next leg of our trip this morning. We have joined a trade caravan heading north. Their final destination is Hatford of the Xuekorian Brotherhood, where the Rock Trolls live. We will be splitting off from them at Newleigh, so we can take the roundabout route for Newleigh in the Dwarven kingdom of Hasandrian.

11th of Aniel,

Bandits struck at noon today, during a light snow. They were rebuffed. Brandywine hates bandits more than I do. She left to 'finish' the threat.

12th of Aniel.

Brandywine had a large string of bandit ears today. She claims she only took the left ears. There are forty of them. We now have a string of fifty three horses and such to trade while on our journey.

Goats piss themselves during mating season to 'smell good' to the opposite sex. I find myself having a dislike for goats.

We are averaging 22 miles a day, even with the snow. Around fifteen days left before we split off from the caravan.

18th of Aniel,

Ruts in the road called us all to a halt. Six broken wheels and two axles. It will take a day or three to fix. We are between towns and wagon rests. I have lobbied for a larger guard than normal for the night. The caravan master agreed. He is a tough old bird.

19th of Aniel,

More brigands attacked in the night. Brandywine now has three more strings of ears, I helped. I am now the 'proud owner' of six wagons, fifteen oxen, a dozen sheep, four goats, ninety seven more horses, and a caged flock of chickens. At least the wagons fit all the feed, I'm sure as hells not putting all of that in my chest!

I guess I'm a right proper merchant now. Oh, we are also a number of weapons, armor, and trade goods richer. Idiots.

- - -

The last bandit went down hard, with a pixie fist shaped hole in her chest. Max and Brandy took deep breaths for a while.

Finally Max spoke, “A hundred and some bandits? How do they keep the highway open?”

“One hundred twenty four bandits. You barely kept up. You feeling sick?”

“No. Just out of shape.” Max winced at the rebuke, “Time to start evening weapons training again.”

“Or just stop eating so much.”

“Look, in the underworld the food is a pale imitation of the real world. Much like unlife itself, actually.” Max pondered this thought for a moment before moving on, “Are there any...non-combat people about?”

Brandy and Max did a quick search of the sprawling tent city that was once the bandit camp, and found nothing but animals alive.

Brandy smirked and giggled. “Maxwell, you know we can't just leave all these poor animals for the elements. They can't take care of themselves!”

“...Fine, you drunken trollop. Lets get the loot loaded, and secure the line of animal flesh.” Max shook his head, exasperation flowing off him in waves. Stupid pixie.

- - -

21st of Aniel,

We are back on the road. I hope we can offload some of this baggage on the local farmers.

23rd of Aniel,

We arrived at the inland seaport of Dradow at midday. We will be staying for an additional day for repairs. Gives me time to offload some of this horse meat.

25th of Aniel,

Profit made! I'm some four thousand gold richer, and down to just thirteen horses and a pair of oxen with wagon. All the goats are gone! Got a cover for the wagon so we don't have to set up a tent every night. Pulled the old iron camp stove out of the chest too. Hot wagon, here we go! We leave in the morning.

26th of Aniel,

Apparently bandit ears are worth money. Brandy has decorated her bedroom with more gold too sleep on, and a new silver swing.