Champion of the Goddess Pt. 01

We have surmised we should easily fit 9 barrels in each portable hole. 9 at a time, close one, the next 9 barrels. We considered telekinesis but thought that was too risky for jostling the contents."

The dwarves looked at her and then to the Countess, "Teleportation circles is what we normally have set up to move it from the alchemist to the lower mines. The idea has merit.

Teleportation circles would not work well in this solution because the caster would be in the middle of the barrels and they are packed together. A barrel at a time would be best."

Jonni came back into the conversation, "Countess, Francis Kettle wanted to give us a 1,000 gold pieces to ride to our death with that load. We would request that he pay us 30,000 gold pieces to cover his attempted murder of my group.

We would also request permission to transport the portable holes to the quarry and upon successful delivery, we are allowed to keep one of the portable holes, without the explosives of course."

The Countess actually chuckled, "I like that your team brought this issue to my attention. We will work with our mages to get this done promptly.

As to Mr. Kettle, I would say 27,000 thousand paid upfront to you would be reasonable. If this is handled safely then I will not execute him. But I will bar him from my city and doing any business here. He has to pay you first and the problem has to be neutralized. Until those two things have occurred, he will spend time in my dungeon. Do you have the funds, Mr. Kettle, to pay them?"

He nodded, "I do Countess, I have them on me in this bag of holding is 25,000 thousand gold pieces."

Raven interject, "Countess we did not come here with packs or bags. We would be willing to accept the bag with the 25,000 so we can carry it out, Countess."

She nodded, "Agreed." My Kettle handed over the bag to Raven and he gave it to Jonni.

She looked at us, "Where are you staying?"

Jonni replied, "The inn next to where this wagon is outside the gate."

She nodded, "I will send the portable holes to you once they are filled. I will expect you to depart with them first thing tomorrow."

They bowed to the Countess and Jonni smiled, "It will be our pleasure, Countess."

She signaled that they could depart. She looked at Mr. Kettle, "Enjoy our accommodations. Get him out of here!"

They beelined to the door. He asked her, "What did you notice about Mr. Kettle when he handed me the bag?"

She looked at him, "He wanted to kill you and he kept hovering his hand over it until you snatched it from him."

He nodded, "I bet he had a weapon in there as well."

She opened the bag, "Two longswords, a bastard, sword, a longbow and a pair of daggers. We got more than twenty-five thousand from him."

He nodded. "He will be looking for payback."

He smiled and turned around, "Could I get a guard to take us back to the Countess there is an issue she needs to be aware of immediately."

One of the guards escorts them back to the Countess and she looked annoyed to see them again, "Forgive us Countess, but we encountered an issue you needed to be aware of. What is the penalty for concealing a weapon by magical means inside your palace?"

She looked at him, "A year in the dungeon." He knelt down and pulled out each of the three swords, the bow, and the two daggers.

She looked livid. She looked at them, "Thank you for bringing this to my attention please remove that from my court."

They walked back out with the weapons and bow in hand. Jonni looked at Raven, "He will not be seeing us anytime soon!"

Raven nodded, "That was the idea."

He stored the weapons once they were outside. He got up on his horse, "First thing is first, we secure mounts, at least extra supplies for the horses. You did good in there. Very good."

She smiled and hugged him tighter. She leaned over, "You cut off him pursuing us!"

He nodded, "Directly. That does not mean he does not have any associates who will be pissed at losing him."

He stopped at the magic emporium. He lowered her down, "Let us see what they have that we might be able to afford."

She smiled, "What are you thinking?"

He smiled, "Armor for your clerics, ranger, rogue, and fighters. If I can find a particular set of armor it might be costly."

He walked into the shop, "Hello Samuel. We have some coin and wanted to see what you had in the way of armor."

He smiled, "This way like you don't know."

He smiled, "Well I am on my way out of the city when we find something major that netted us a minor reward. Sometimes it is dumb luck."

He laughed, "Emphasis on dumb. What kind of armor are you looking for?"

Raven smiled, "Let us start with the harder stuff. low-end stuff. We are looking for a set of full plate and chainmail that would fit dwarves. Yes, we got two and one is even a female. The others mate."

He laughed, "A woman you are not chasing after. Let me see, I have this set of chainmail, and this dwarven plate will be expensive as it is adamantine."

Raven sucked in air, "Too much, see if you have something for us poor old sods."

He laughed, "I have another set that is just steel with a minor protection enhancement."

Raven nodded, "Set those aside for us at the moment. I have 3 full plate users two fighters and a cleric all women."

He laughed, "How many have you talked into your bed?"

He smiled, "All but the two dwarves."

He laughed and shook his head. He pulled out 3 sets and one had Myssara holy symbol on the shoulder. He looked at me, "Three sets of the full plate at 3,000 each."

Raven smiled, "We know it should be closed 2,200 each. We can split the difference and go 2,600."

Samual smiled, "2,700 if you are buying all 3 sets."

He nodded, "We can do that. What do you have in elven chainmail, non-magical as I know it is expensive?"

He smiled, "I got one set that is human size but it is not blacked out like yours. 5,5000 gold pieces, Raven looked at him, "5,100."

Samuel smiled, "5,300."

Raven looked at him, "Add it to the pile. The dwarven chainmail and full plate costs?

Samuel smiled, "The chain has been here a while I will give that to you for a 1,000 and the full plate is 3,000. Higher demand for that from the dwarven district."

Raven nodded, "Alright, we can agree to that."

Samual smiled, "That is 17,400 gold pieces."

Raven looked at him, "You got a handy haversack for me, in black." He laughed, "I have five of those. Two are in black. They are 2,500 apiece."

Raven looked at him, "2,300 and now I am being generous."

Samual smiled and they shook on it. Raven looked at him, "What do you have for a halfling rogue armor?"

He looked at Raven, "I have one you might be interested in it is black and dark green leaf armor. I will sell it to you for 2,600.

Raven nodded, "Finally a fair number."

He laughed. Raven looked at Jonni, "That is one item for everyone. 22,300."

She smiled, "I will start counting coins you look over these objects."

He looked it over the three swords; a bastard sword and two longswords all low level. One dagger had a returning property and the other was keen. Then a plain low attack and damage.

Jonni looked at Raven, "Samuel seems to know you pretty well."

Raven shrugged, "We ran the streets together for a while before landing apprenticeships. We watched each other's backs growing up."

She passes him a charm bracelet and it was magical. "He called forth another composite longbow and she looked shocked. He set it on the counter. He pulled forth a big two-handed battle-ax with some savage looking spiked on it. A massive war hammer with dwarven runes on it.

Samuel looked at Raven, "32,000 gold pieces for that."

Raven looked at him, "It is closer to 40,000 and you know it. What do you have in terms of rings of readiness?"

He heard Myssara "That is a second edition item."

He thought, "I know but it is no real difference from folding plate mail amulets. The cost is comparable when you take into account the cost of the armor.

It also eats a ring slot instead of an amulet slot."

She sighed, "I could see those working but they would be specific to armor and not weapons you have gloves of summoning that do that. I could make them bracers. Forcing one or the other item. I think I will do that."

Samuel looked at Raven, "That is old magic while I do not have those, I do have bracers that will summon stored armor I will give you 5 sets for the bracelet. At 4,000 each." He nodded, "Do it. That is for everything we have on the table and the 5 sets of bracers."

Samuel sighed, "And 10,000 in gold."

Raven nodded, "Almost got you."

Samuel nodded, "Almost got me fired from here if I had made that deal."

She looked at Raven, "Why are you doing that?"

He smiled, "Because a naked warrior in the middle of the night is a meat sack. This will allow all of our full plate wearers to be armored for a fight at night. Weigh getting 4 full plate users and one standard chain mail user nearly naked. Against a bracelet that can hold 4 weapons for one character."

She nodded, "I see your point. I had never heard of them."

He smiled, "The rings I asked about were in an older version of the game and there is a necklace for armor that does the same thing but the armor is enchanted into the amulet. I had a talk with an influential Goddess over the merits of one over the other."

He heard, "The weight of the armor is split between those two bracers."

He smiled, "The one thing she did is divide the weight of the armor into each bracer. Kept it while stored with half in each arm. That is overkill but her call."

She smiled, "Nice compromise."

He smiled, "We do that sometimes. Especially when I can argue it exists in a different form that has no weight to it. That should cut the cost down even more as it does not remove the weight."

He heard, "It is a full-round action. The only thing someone can do during this is stand."

He smiled and thought, "I expected nothing less love. Nice exception for standing. Should we lower the price again for the delay from instantaneous to a full-round action?"

He heard Myssara groan, "We can discuss it further in the future. You surprised me with this request and I am having to adapt to something new. I want to see how game breaking it is first."

He looked at Jonni, "It also is a full-round action but it is better than fighting naked. It will allow you to stand during that time but not move. We talk during times like these."

She looked at Raven in awe, "I cannot believe I got my virginity taken by The Raven."

He chuckled, "You gave it, I did not take it."

She laughed as Raven looked at her, "You get all the coins counted?"

She nodded, "I did. I got it sitting there. There are still over 16,000 gold pieces and a few gems."

He looked into the bag and checked the gems and he chuckled, and he handed her one, "Hold this at the end of your fingers and hold it in front of your forehead and spin it."

She did and the ioun stone took off spinning and he looked at her, "You can grab it for now but that is a low-level resistant ioun stone. The thing is it is worth a small fortune as it will stack with other resistance items."

Jonni looked at Raven, "Why did you give it to me?"

He smiled, "Try and keep you alive. Fighters do not have great saves. The other fighter has a lot more lives under her belt than you do. In this universe, she has more than me. She is prone to making fewer mistakes."

She looked at Raven, "Couldn't we get something to help each of us if it is worth so much?"

Samuel showed back up, "If what is worth so much?"

She held open her hand and he looked at it. "Well, it has been a while since one of these has come across my counter."

Raven took the other two gemstones and held them out. "How are your appraisal skills these days. I have a very good idea of what they are worth."

Samuel looked at them, "What are you wanting?"

Raven looked at him, "Three resistance cloaks, four resistance rings, three cloaks of elvenkind in black, and two boots of elven kind in black. Not gray. With 2 rings of protection." He chuckled and nodded, "I have one of those in black and two in gray for each of the elvenkind items. That would be another 5,000 gold on top of that."

Raven looked at him, "That is a trade we can make."

Samual nodded and got him the gear and the scroll.

He strapped a sword around her waist and she smiled, "Putting a sword on me."

Raven sighed, "I much prefer getting women unburdened than burdened."

She laughed at him. As they paid for everything packed up. She looked at Raven, "Is that a lot to put in a bag of holding?"

He smiled, "Hold the spiked ax as it could damage the bag. It is a second-tier bag it can hold 500 pounds of gear."

They got mounted up and rode out of the city and back out to their comrades who were sitting under the tree. He dropped down after lowering her down and Jonni was all smiling.

Raven looked at them, "She did very well. I also stuck it to Mr. Kettle and we will not be seeing him. Friends of his probably but not him. Take this ax, Anna. I need Flar and Pine to go with me to the stables but we have goods for everyone so I will go to the inn with the bag here and you can catch up as I get us a couple of rooms. She can tell you what happened."

He mounted up and rode over to the inn and the bartender looked at him, "Back already!"

Raven smiled, "Back. You have a merchant's room?"

He nodded, "One upstairs."

Raven looked at him, "I want that for this evening if it has the larger bed."

He nodded, "It does."

He smiled, "I also want a room for my pair of dwarves. As far away from the other room as possible. I do not wish to keep them up this evening."

He laughed, "Entertaining those 3 ladies again?"

He smiled, "5 this evening."

He looked wide-eyed, "The Goddess must have truly blessed you."

He smiled, "Me and all the women in my bed."

He laughed. He set a few coins on the counter. He took what he needs and Raven looked at him, "Tonight dinner and drinks will be on you again."

He looked at Raven, "Why?"

He smiled, "A wagon of dwarven explosives is sitting between your inn and the city walls. We saw the Countess and gave her a plan to safely move the material away. We will transport it safely away from the city tomorrow morning. It would level this place if it went off. Along with every other business outside the gate."

He looked at Raven, "You have dinner and drinks all night for your group."

Raven smiled, "Dinner with a couple of ales or meads each and hot baths for both rooms would be plenty. Else the dwarves will drink up all your stock. But give the dwarves each a shot of dwarven spirits as well."

He nodded, "Good point."

Raven chuckled, "Make sure the dwarves get the most floral scented soap you got; tell them it is all you have. Give us the regular stuff."

He laughed at Raven and nodded. He gave him a key, "For the merchant's room and the first room on the left for your friends. The merchant's room is at the end of the hall straight in front of you."

The rest of the group started walking in and he looked at the bartender, "Six ales, I will take a mead, and the 2 dwarven spirits." He sets them down and looked at the dwarves, "Be careful and not spill that stuff, it will eat through just about anything wooden. He handed them those 2 and they downed the shots in one go and Flar smiled at Raven. Anna tried to catch her breath.

He handed everyone else an ale, "We will be down in a couple of hours for dinner. Can we get you to hold that corner booth for us please?"

He nodded, "I can do that."

They headed upstairs, "This room belongs to our dwarven love birds. It comes with a hot bath later so you will be nice and clean for when we leave tomorrow."

Flar grumbled and the ladies laughed. They got to the end of the hall and Raven opened the room. It had a nice big bed, "I figured if I have 2 assess to take tonight and 5 cunts to fill a larger bed would be in order for the night. I Told Jonni and Pine the decision to share our bed belongs to you ladies."

He sat at the edge of the bed and pull out the first set of armor, "All, right you all have new armor. We made a stop at the store and went shopping. So strip out of your old armor."

Flar looked at Raven, "I ain't wearing anything under my armor."

He smiled, "Well that will change but we have all seen you naked; well not Jonni or Pine. Rhonda might have seen you naked last life."

She nodded, "Yes I saw it alright. I wondered how that barbarian could take that thing in her."

Raven laughed, "It will be educational for them and I am all about training."

The ladies laughed and Flar started stripping out of his armor. He handed a set of the full plate to the fighter and then the one with Myssara's holy symbol on it to Rhonda.

She smiled, "I can bless my armor and use it for my holy symbol."

He nodded. "Keep one around your neck as well. Do not put your armor on yet."

He pulled out the set for Flar and he smiled. He looked at Flar stood there naked. Jonni and Pine stared with a wide-open mouth. He sighed, "Put some clothes on first."

Flar got into his pack and put pants and a shirt on.

He handed the walking cans and Anna bracers, "Put those on first." He pulled out the leaf armor and looked at Mary and she jumped and hugged him, "Perfect!"

He smiled, "I thought you might like that."

He pulled out the two daggers, "These, were in the bag. As well as these. The dwarven war hammer and the ax you are carrying Anna."

The dwarves smiled. "Everything was a mild attack bonus except one longbow. Which should go to our ranger. The other longbow to Rhonda. The ranger will be doing the hunting and not just combat. Mary a set of boots, a set for me, my black cloak, Two gray cloaks for Mary and Pine. Here is the chain mail for the barbarian and here is the non-magical mithril chainmail for our ranger. A ring of protection for Flar and Rhonda.

Under your clothes so strip!" She looked wide-eyed, "Why strip and why under?"

He looked at her, "Too bright to hunt in. You need darker colors. Mine I can wear over or under. Everyone here will see you naked at some point. He is a healer after all. The rest are girls and I have already seen you naked."

She sighed and stripped down. He pulled out the four other cloaks and rings.

He tossed a ring to the ranger. "Low-level resistance rings and cloaks. One for everyone. He put one ring on and toss one to the rogue.

She smiled. He handed a bastard sword to the ranger and Pine's eyes went wide. He handed a long sword to Tawny. "Everyone has magical armor, a magical weapon, and a resistance item. I have another of those handy haversacks.

The bag of holding should go to Flar. I will take half the coins to place in the backpack. Fair warning. Critical warning. Bags of holding and portable holes do not mix. I want Rhonda holding the portable holes when we get them. The boots help with acrobatics and the rogue and I are the only two I know who do acrobatics.

The cloaks help with stealth, The ranger and I will be hunting together. I will be teaching her about the hunt and the woods.

The remaining funds we need to get shields, sixteen bedrolls, arrows, two heavy crossbows for the wagon. You are still not riding a horse correct Flar?"

He nodded. He looked at Anna, "I know better, you will be up there swinging away."

She laughed and nodded. "Our halfling will need a war pony. All tin cans should get heavy war horses.

Mary, you have a bow, you plan on hunting with us?"

She nodded. He looked at them, "That leaves 5 with the wagon and 3 hunting and scouting. Mary did not hunt with me last time so that leaves jobs."