A Man on a Mission

4/23 afternoon

Now that I had committed to the probably stupid idea of walking right up to a gang of violent criminals with a sack full of stuff they wanted, I saved my new look as a preset labeled "Hobo Erich." I got lost fairly quickly, unfortunately. I don't know the area very well and I've barely been camping in my old life.

Checking my simple map, the valley is ringed by basically impassable mountains with one river running right next to the vineyard. I walked in as close to a straight line as I could manage, keeping an eye out for the abbey's tower. After a couple hours of wandering through the underbrush under the sun, I was thrilled to find the river. I immediately knelt down to drink from the river, and the water was divine.

I walked down the river bank, crossing when I saw a shallow bit so I'd be on the side away from the abbey. I had to hide behind some brush when I saw an alliance patrol on the other side. Luckily I had seen them before they saw me; I didn't want to answer any awkward questions. The next patrol, on the other hand, was exactly who I wanted to see.

Honestly I was a bit surprised to see Darcell in the first group of Defias I saw, but I wasn't complaining. "Hey. The Brotherhood will prevail" I flagged them down with a random slogan I remembered from the game. Hopefully audacity would work with them. All four members of the brotherhood patrol turned to look at me, grabbing the hilts of their daggers "Oi, don't get excited. I'm here to help. Thought you might be a bit low on supplies." I pulled out a sack full of dried meat and cheese from under my cloak and opened it to show them.

That got their attention. "Who are you?" And "Who sent you?" A reasonable pair of questions from two different guys, and ones I didn't have particularly good answers for. I noticed that Darcell was not the one asking them; instead she was staring directly at the dried meat I'd pulled out to show them. "Name's Otto of Westfall. I'm not much of a fighter but I can get in and out of places without questions. I just heard about your group and thought I'd check in. You lot doing alright?" It was a bit of a non-answer, but they didn't really want to know about me. They wanted to know more about the contents of my bag.

"We are doing shit," was the answer I got through a mouthful of cheese,"The raid on the vineyard went well, but if the garrison gets its shit together we are toast. We need a distraction or something to get out of here." I nodded sagely, and scratched at my patchy beard. "It'll be a bit tough but I'll see what I can do. I need to get out of here, but I'll leave you with something you can use to contact me."

I ducked behind some trees, returned to my default face and clothes, and pulled several more sacks of food out of some bushes nearby, clearing out most of my inventory. Once I was set to go back to the abbey, I turned back to the surprised thugs. I guess living in a world of magic doesn't count for much if you're not the rich types who can afford to study it. I smiled, "I don't do parties. Don't worry, the Brotherhood has all sorts. Now. I need to see if any of you have the right energy to use this." None of them seemed to really be in charge, or in any better shape than the rest, but only one was female.

Holding up my amulet to each of them, when I reached Darcell I willed it to start glowing. "Jackpot. Alright love, put this on and when I get back to my hiding hole, I'll be able to talk to you lot through her. It has a few other effects, but nothing I suspect you'll object to."

Handing over my amulet meant I'd be locked out of most of the active resources the company had given me. It was a gamble, but only until tomorrow morning. If this didn't work to get me that stamp, then I'd need to improvise. If it did, I'd take anyone at this point. Darcell was probably a better fighter than me, and the amulet would whip her into shape. I was ready to see what athletic talent would do to someone on the edge of starvation.

I bid the defias adieu, to very little response as they were back to tearing into the cheese and jerky, and went back up the river. I kept an eye on the other side and waited at a shallow ford. I took off my shoes and rolled up my pants, then dashed across the river when I was pretty sure the patrols were nowhere near. I could see the abbey in the distance, so once I got back into the woods and put my shoes back on, I circled around it until I found the road, and strolled right back to base. I felt pretty damn good about myself, but I intended to do less stressful activities for the rest of the day.

I went to the library. Reading was fun, and I wasn't sure if my Talents worked with the written word but I certainly hoped they would. I found an arcane text with the librarian's help, waved at Auffrey who seemed to be doing almost precisely what I was, and started reading. As it turned out, books were not as good as teachers. Either that, or I needed science talent to grok arcane magic. As I dejectedly put the book back, I noticed another woman enter the room. Drusilla. Excellent.

I needed to discredit her, but for that I needed to know what she wanted, or at least what people thought of her. Totally unsubstantiated rumors or lies probably wouldn't go far. I grabbed a text on the history of the Church of the Holy Light and parked myself nearby when she started speaking to Brother Paxton, the librarian.

"You are sure you cannot relax the restrictions? I have served the Alliance for decades, and this magic may be what I need to do more. You can not allow me to teach without also allowing me to learn." Drusilla seemed agitated about something, but kept an even tone.

"No. If I had my way you would be doing neither here, but the marshal insisted we needed all the help we can get. I disagree, but here we are. You dabble with demons, I will not allow you to also invite the void into your soul." He seemed just a bit too smug about it for me to believe his motives were entirely pure.

That could be useful. Very useful indeed. I didn't know what book she wanted, other than it being about shadow magic and presumably locked up somewhere, but if she was known to want a restricted book, then maybe I could stage a robbery? As long as it started rumors and she didn't get killed over it, I'd be golden.

It wouldn't be tonight though. I went back to reading after that until the bell called me to help mend the training targets. Without my amulet I couldn't access the company app, so I could justify just relaxing for a few hours.