The streets of Swordhaven were far more packed, with people from the arriving caravan heading inside to buy supplies. I recongized a few of them, exchanging quick pleasantries, and pushed our way out. Workers from outside the city were coming in too and the group of teens saw us. They pointed at me and hurried off, with the fox boy shaking his fist in my direction as they fled.

Shaking my head we wove our way out of the sea of people and reached the open fields outside the city. It was a breath of fresh air, and I spied Elkan the dwarf chatting with Maran around a cart, still holding my spear.

“...this place is too crowded. I might as well head back with Josh and his companions. Strike out against the gnomes, give them some payback,” Maran said.

“Seems like a decent lad, but that makes an old dwarf like me suspicious. He might be working for someone else to hold the fort. Plus a good spot like that will bring envy,” Elkan said.

I slowed my pace down, keeping an ear out to their conversation. Lin did the same while Yara hung back to talk to the wagon owner and Sheila. I leaned against a stack of crates men were moving around, pretending to get a rock out of my boot.

“I’m no stranger to being on the edge of the law, and he does have a thief girlfriend. They probably got caught stealing, skipped town and are waiting for the heat to die down while holding that fort. I’d take my chances with them over a city of scheming nobles,” Maran said. She dragged a whetstone down the length of her axe blade. “They said something about enchanting weapons to throw out fireballs. I want an axe with that.”

“That so? Count me in. Guild bastards stole my gear when I quit, claiming it was guild property, and this spear makes a decent replacement for now,” Eklan said. He rubbed some oil on the head of the spear, shining it to a polish. “Almost as good as new.”

Waiting a few seconds for them to return their focus on their weapons Lin and I sat down on a crate next to them. “It was good to meet you all, but we need to head home. Have a trade offer from the locals. Figure they will buy some of our old junk at a decent rate?”

Elkan tugged on his beard and looked between the spear and me. “Say lad, I am a skilled trainer and you seem to me as a young adventurer that likes to explore. My old bones can’t take much more of the roads, so I have an offer. I’ll teach you some martial skills for when you run dry of your magics, and keep an eye on your base while you're out.”

Maran hefted her axe and gave me a thumbs up. “Mind if I tag along? I promised to teach you some tricks for fighting gnomes.”

Lin leaned against me and narrowed her gaze.

An ally has passed an insight check!

“What’s wrong with your buddies Maran? You seem quick to change teams.” Lin asked.

“Nothing. Just want to see the sights, and…” Maran struggled to come up with a reason and her shoulders sagged. She could tell she wasn’t going to land a lie. “Someone was asking Tim and Ben a lot of questions about me.”

“And they are looking for you because?” I asked.

Maran wrung her hands around the hilt of her axe. “Some…minor crimes.”

On one hand having extra warriors in our ranks would help deal with threats. Elkan was also right, a lot of the time I was in the thick of it, sword in hand. Some extra training wouldn’t be a bad thing. But hiding the dungeon would take some finesse. Eklan did see the automatons we had, so I could play up the old goblins below the town had built everything. I simply came across it and claimed it.

“What do you think, Lin?” I asked.

“As long as they don’t ask what crimes I did to be wanted, we are glad to have you!” Lin said.

Maran pointed at the dwarf beside her. “He just didn’t want to give up the magic spear.”

“Now don’t throw an old dwarf under the minecart,” Elkan protested.

Yara returned, and I saw her sticking two bottles into her bag. After filling her in she looked at our two new allies. “Trying to start a fighter’s guild in our fort? Not a bad guild to have.”

We could tell Maran wanted to leave, so we headed for the road. Elkan passed a quick word out to a dwarven guard and by the time we reached the edge of the parked caravan all the lent out equipment was returned to us. After saying our goodbyes we followed our map.

We followed the edge of town, walked past one of the farms with the nimble little deer creatures watching us go. They ate the slop out of their troughs, more worried about feasting than an assorted group of adventurers passing. It wasn’t long before we were at the rocky shore of the massive lake. In the far distance I could see other columns of smoke, and when the wind blew I could smell bread. Ships sailed around the lake, and I could spot another of the cities on the edge of the horizon.

It took a bit to find the inlet of the river heading towards home. The massive lake had several rivers coming to it from elsewhere in the valley, and I wondered who else might live out there. If they were friend or foe only time would tell.

The rushing waters carried little chunks of melting ice, and the banks of the river were solid. We headed on our path to head home, each step bringing us closer to the safety of my dungeon.

Lin held up a colourful wax paper coated in glitter and opened it up. Her eyes lit up and she gasped. “Salt water taffy! Josh bought us snacks for the way home!”

It didn’t look like my treats were going to survive.

…

Two days. Two boring, cold, wet days full of slush, rain turning to snow, and camping out in caves and in tents. All to find nothing, not a single thing between my fort and Swordhaven. I threw another log onto the fire as we waited for the wind to die down, and the snow to settle so we could see where we were going.

It might have been boring, but at least it had been safe.

I ran a hand through my wet hair, and tossed the blobs of hail towards the pine boughs defending the cave from the wind. “I will admit, adventuring during the winter sucks.”

Yara was wrapped up in blankets with her bare feet practically inside the circle of stones with the fire raging inside. She sniffed, and rubbed her nose, absolutely suffering. Lin and Maran on the other hand seemed fine, using the space in the back of the cave to practice boxing moves while Elkan gave advice.

“You have a lot of speed and good strength, but you need to follow through Lin. Don’t strike your target, aim behind it,” Elkan said.

Lin sent a series of quick jabs at Maran who held up her arms wrapped up in cloaks to absorb the blows. They danced around in a loose circle, until Lin managed to land a solid right hook knocking Maran out of the little circle in dust.

Maran shook out her arms to free them of the cloaks and shook Lin's hand. “Thanks, that got my unarmed skill to go up one. It’s good to have, but I don’t really plan on losing my axe.”

“Hey, you never know. Sometimes you just need to punch someone in the face, not decapitate them,” Lin said.

“Disarm, trip and grapple are common moves used by martial warriors Maran, even beasts. It’s a good fall back,” Elkan said. He picked up his cloak, dusted it off and put it back on. “Josh, Yara, how's the soup?”

I stirred the pot once more, the mixture of hardtack, old cheese, dried berries and jerky made for a strange meal. With a little bit of salt and pepper from Lin’s supplies, and a splash of wine from Yara it would at least have a hint of flavour. I sniffed at the wooden spoon and got several pop ups.

Cooking has increased to 1!

+5 XP gained.

New Talent available!

Road Side Chef

Requires 1 skill point

With water, a fistful of old rations and a bit of cheer you can turn a poor man’s meal not only into something filling, but something to put a bit of pep into your companions. Whether soldier, peasant or adventure, all men and women find themselves needing to stomach bland meals once in a while. So why not make it better?

Cooking with poor quality (but food safe) ingredients has less impact on your final creation. Gain +1 to cooking skill checks, and +1 to checks involving finding basic herbs or spices in the wild. Cooking utensils are considered simple weapons for you instead of improvised weapons.

“Huh, well apparently it's good enough to give me a new talent I could buy,” I said.

My allies sat around the fire and we passed out the soup, as well as my talent information. Lin poked her head out the wall of pine boughs and returned with frozen eyelashes, and icicles at the end of her hair. “I think the old storm eye is back.”

“The demi-god? The sentient storm?” I asked. “Why now?”

Lin shrugged. “Josh, if divine beings didn’t exist to do things on a whim then most of Ewyernar’s history would be boring.”

“It has been rather warm for winter,” Elkan said. He downed half of his bowl in one go. “Better than army food.”

Yara had a distant look in her eyes as she looked at the fire, holding the hot bowl in her hands. “Funny enough I have the same talent, it just has a slightly different name. My friend taught me and shared it with me.”

Lin paused with the spoon hovering by your mouth. “Oh yeah, Yara used to be a cook. Wait, why did we make Josh or Elkan cook most of the time?”

“Because this old dwarf didn’t want to run around getting pine branches and the young lord offered to,” Elkan said. He gestured to the book at my side. “Plus he wanted to read. Anything good?”

“Mostly magic theory, which I’m still trying to learn, and a few custom spells. I’m having a hard time with some of them, but I almost have this one figured out,” I said, reaching to grab it off my bag. I opened the messy page covered in scribbles with Sera’s notes, a few sketches of rocks and something blowing up. I was careful to not show Yara just yet. “It’s weird, I can’t figure out what’s the component.”

Maran peeked over my shoulder. “I’m not the best mage, but if I was to hazard a guess it wants you to use a river or lake stone.”

“River stone? That would make the skipping phrase make sense,” I said, narrowing my gaze. I blew on the hot cheese soup and downed it. My knowledge skills mixed with this new hint and several archaic runes turned into words I could read. “Oh.”

Tov’s Skipping Thunder Wave

Tier 2 spell - costs 3 mana points

Requires a river or lake stone that can fit in the casters hand.

Throwing the stone causes it to skip when striking water or a solid surface, casting the spell effect each time up to a maximum of 5. A short range burst of thunder damage affects creatures in a small radius forcing a constitution saving throw. On a failure they are moved 5 feet away, and suffer a minor amount of thunder damage. On a success they suffer half the damage and are not moved. Additionally unsecured objects are automatically pushed, and the effects of the spell are audible out to a great distance.

For every 3 caster levels the initial damage increases and-

“Hey Maran, can you figure out this last part?” I asked.

“No, I think that's old flint based dwarvish writing. Elkan?” Maran passed the book along.

Elkan grumbled in his beard and brought the book up to face. “Old eyes…I think it says, rock goes bigger boom, and further away. Then something about skipping more? Whatever dwarf wrote this barely knows his grammar, Borros save us, what has this world come too?”

“Well the damage goes up, so that’s good,” I said. I looked over the spell a few more times. “Could be dangerous to use if friends are around.”

“So throw rocks at people away from us,” Yara said.

Scholar Livy

If I may, I think the wizard who once held this book was a dwarven mage. Their use of natural materials in their spells, and body motions are quite common. For upsides, their spells tend to have high impact, are quite stable and typically involve things you find in the earth. The downside is their spells can be hard to use against aerial foes, and can be quite devastating to the terrain.

“I like it, the easy component, sounds like it can deal damage to a lot of foes, and I used to throw plenty of rocks at the local river back home when I was a kid,” I said.

I showed off the information on the spell and the rocky cave went silent. The cracking of the fire and the howling wind that much louder as my allies traded worried looks.

“So, I’ll be using my bow more,” Lin said.

“Needed to practice with my crossbow anyways,” Yara said.

Maran patted her sides. “Uh, throwing axe practice?”

Elkan looked at the fact he really only had the spear. “Shite. Can I trade weapons with someone?”

“What? It’s not going to be that bad guys. I’m not going to throw it when people are fighting ahead of me,” I said.

“The famous last words of many warriors tend to be telling a mage off when he throws a spell into the thick of it,” Elkan said under his breath.

“Fine, I’ll only try this out when everyone is behind me,” I said.

Lin scraped the bottom of her bowl and looked at me with her curious blue eyes. She scooted closer to me and leaned against me. “Hmm, when was the last time you tried skipping a rock?”

I tried to think back and frowned. It had been a long time since I had been home at my parents place with the little creek and pond near their property. For a fleeting moment my homesickness rose, and a little candle of hope was lit. Maybe I could find a portal to visit home for a bit, and bring my friends with me for a little vacation.

I shook myself out of the haze and shrugged. “Years-”

Lin cut me off by squeezing me in a fierce hug, ruffled my hair and planted a kiss on my forehead. “Hun, I can’t be your girlfriend if you explode yourself.”

I dusted off the glitter from the book cover and stuck it back in my magic bag. In the firelight I could see some of it had made its way into Elkan’s beard. “Alright, practice first. I promise not to use it yet.”

The room collectively sighed in relief. Were wizards blowing up their allies on the regular here?

While we waited out the storm we traded little stories, from our railroad rumble with the forgotten, to the random adventurer team we came across. Lin described Snowflake the paladin goat girl in a little too much detail. Yara shared a few stories of her staking out a den of supposed cultists with her fellow judicators. When they finally had enough and rushed the warehouse after a few days of observation they found a small cheese party instead.

“Cheese?” I asked.

“Yeah, the local baron had been stockpiling it to drive up costs. One of the locals found out where he stashed it, so they threw little dinners every night, steaking away a cheese wheel each time. The rogue who was using a once per day invisibility ring to steal the cheese gave up the ring and his contacts, so we let it slide,” Yara said.

“Damn I could have used that this year,” Maran said, blushing. “Got in a fight with a rock golem at a wizard tower. I used my acid arrow spell to break the torso joint, but the thing was too close. My barrier spell protected my skin, but my armour and clothes? Not so much. Was a bit awkward hauling loot back to town topless.”

Lin elbowed me and wiggled her eyebrows. Her voice came out in a low whisper, her breath hot on my ear. “How long till you accidentally blast my clothes off?”

“That might not be as hard as you think,” I whispered back, thinking back to an evening I had with Rolada.

“Aye, can be a little rough when it happens,” Elkan said, bringing me back to the conversation. He tugged at his beard and showed several hairs that were a metallic grey. “Testing a potion for the local alchemists. Ironside potion that makes your skin harden letting you deflect regular weapons easily. Good for people lacking the talents to shrug off damage. Sadly the apprentice mixing it messed up, not washing away their last potion, one making you giant sized. The potion they gave me also did not apply to clothes. A lot of questions about why the guild had a giant nude iron statue outside that week.”

The storm outside eventually died down as we started to get bored of waiting around. We left the safety of the cave to see the world covered in a layer of ice, with frozen bridges crossing the river. The stillness of everything was the most eerie part, with the only thing in motion being the river. We put out the fire and kept going, the promise of home several hours away.

I cast my eyes to the heavens, trying to see shapes in the overcast sky. The frozen demigod, Cul’Onimbus, the great blizzard elemental was nowhere to be seen. I mentally sent off a prayer thanking the god for letting us go in peace, just in case.

Your prayer has been received.

Our boots destroyed the delicate, freshly fallen snow, and I kept looking over my shoulder. Hoping that us destroying the fresh work of a demigod would go unnoticed. We were however noticed by a creature in the river watching us walk by, a large frog with snow coloured skin, covered in slime. It was a harmless creature and it vanished back into the freezing water, out of sight.

In the stillness we heard talking, and we crept towards it, unsure of who or what they were. I climbed up a snow bank and poked my head over the top seeing a flat plain, a burned down farmhouse, gnomes and a handful of grey scaled minions carrying supplies into the cellar. A gnome riding a flying boar followed them, wearing the best armour and gear of his fellows. His saddle was lined with extra padding, his boar’s tusks were capped in steel spikes, and he held a spear that sparked with lightning magic. He raised his other hand, and I felt my heart go cold.

He had a keeper crystal.