The New Game Master

Raven nodded and asked, "Do we wait here or get started dragging these toward the wagon. He smiled, "We will wait and save the horses the effort."

He nodded, "What will Rosette's response likely be?"

He laughed, "That you are out to impress her."

Raven smiled, "I thought I did that last night and again this morning."

He laughed as they sat there. He then commented, "Don't go getting it in your head that you are exclusive. She has enjoined the company of about every guard in the group. Including women."

He nodded, "No discussion on being exclusive. I did enjoy myself. I do not regret the night or even another night."

He laughed, "If you got her to agree to another night expect Olivia to join you. That is her true longtime lover. Just as beautiful but fully elven. She is driving one of the royal carriages on this trip."

He smiled, "If I learn something new it would be worth the time." He laughed again, "You are taking this all in stride."

He smiled, "She called me lover all night and again this morning."

He smiled, "That means you did well kid. She would not have stayed the night if she did not see something in you."

He smiled at him, "Speaking from experience?"

He laughed. "Just a bit. Apparently, I was not packing what she was looking for. I had a hard time getting her off by just fucking her."

He smiled, "I got her off with my mouth, hands, and cock. I may have even gotten her off by massaging her breasts and nipples. I figured I did OK for a virgin."

He laughed, "First time and it was with her. Did you tell her?"

He nodded, "Only after she sucked me off. I wanted to be sure to know how to please her orally."

He nodded and frowned, "Maybe I should have been more forthcoming in my lack of experience. Things would have gone better."

Raven shrugged, "Just learn from your mistakes and move forward."

He nodded, "I have. I moved on to other men though. Frankus is my lover these days."

Raven laughed, "I have no interest in doing guys so I will stick to the ladies even if it is not exclusive."

He smiled, "Good. I do not have to worry about you trying to steel Frankus from me."

Raven laughed at him, "To each their own. I only have eyes for the ladies. Let all of the guys who have their eyes set on me know that. You can set them straight."

He laughed, "Only a couple of them. But I will let them know of our conversation."

About that time the first wagon and riders came into sight. The riders came forward. He signaled the first wagon and she was shaking her head.

He asked him, "What did you signal?"

He looked at him, "That we will lose a day smoking most of this meat." Raven looked at him, "We saw more if she wants us to go after it."

He shook his head, "She is going to shit seeing this much meat."

He shrugged, "She told me if I saw something big I better get two. I just wish I could have gotten the other two.

Then that buck as well. That was what I was after when I encountered the boars."

He smiled," Boars are not easier prey."

Raven nodded, "I burned through over a dozen arrows. That big one had me treed. That was his mistake."

He looked at Raven, "She will not be happy you left your horse."

Raven laughed, "If I had not then I would have had a dead horse. While they can be used for food I do not think that is what she intended when she assigned him to me."

She rode up and stopped at what he had roped off and the plucked birds. She looked at me, "You get all of that?"

He laughed, "Just the three boars. Missed out on the other two and a big buck."

She looked at Trevon who simply nodded. "Saw the tracks for the others heading deeper into the woods."

She looked over, "Andrea, You want to lower the gate and help them get all of that into the back of the wagon."

He looked at her, "Did you want us to ride ahead and see about getting more?"

She glared at Raven, "You will likely not be doing any major hunting for several days. It is split up between all of the guards. You being new got the first-day test. I am not sure if this is a pass or fail?"

Trevon laughed at her, "You told him if you get one you better get two. He is a bit of an overachiever or at least a pleaser."

She smiled and gave a wicked grin, "Oh I knew that already. He follows instructions well. Very well."

Andrea laughed at that, "You are building a reputation already."

Raven helped get them all loaded into the wagon and some noble came storming up, "What is the delay."

He remembered his orders, "The hunt this morning was good. We are loading the meat into the back of the wagon."

He looked at Raven, "That is Duke you fool."

Raven looked at him, "I am from a simple village. I am good with a bow which is why we shall eat well. Duke you fool."

The noble looks seething mad, "Duke. The 'you fool' was aimed at you."

Raven smiled, "It must be true then Duke. I thought you were giving me your full name. My apologies for ensuring you shall eat well this evening. I shall endeavor to do better in the future."

Andrea could not help but laugh at Raven's comment and the Duke went storming off. Andrea got back to her seat to relay the encounter and Raven finish getting everything loaded and the gate up.

He rode up front, "Did you need me guarding the carriages now, or did you have something else in mind? If we see something like quail or wild turkeys are we allowed to add to the pile?"

Rosetta looked at him trying to be all serious but failed miserably as she could not talk without breaking into laughter. "You fool. You though his name could be 'you fool?'"

He smiled, "Heard of a man with a title with the name of Dumass. Sounds like 'dumb ass.' How would I not know his name could be Yufull. He just had a speech impediment. He got upset because I did not add his title. Everyone should know who he is when we are not allowed to speak to them unless spoken too. Just does not work out very well."

She got the wagon moving and openly laughed at Raven, "You made your point. I will see about doing introductions when we stop for the evening meal. As to the hunting. To hell with it, if you see something from the road and can kill it fine."

He looked at her, "I went through about a dozen arrows bringing those down. Nine on the big one as I was doing most of my shooting from a tree above it."

She reached over and handed him a stack of arrows, "Why were you off of your horse?" he looked at her. "I had a line on a great looking buck and I wanted to sneak closer to it. I encounter five boars between me and the buck. I went for the boars instead. I kept my horse at a safe distance this way. Boars will attack horses and I did not want a dead horse to be your evening meal."

Trevon smiled, "Come on great hunter we still have scouting duty upfront for the rest of the day."

Raven nodded and left the ladies laughing. He saw about a dozen quail and a few wild turkeys along the way. he got two of the turkeys and four quail. He brought them back to Andrea. he left her his small bag which had arrowheads and feathers in it.

He pointed out which feathers he like to use for each of the birds. She nodded, "You make your own arrows?"

He nodded, "When I find all the right material yes. I have to keep an eye out for the right kind of wood. Hickory, ash, cedar, and I really like ironwood but it is hard to come by."

She looked at him, "How do you keep the feathers to stay on?"

He looked back at the wagon, "Sinew from the animals works best. We have that."

She laughed, "So all you need is the wood."

He nodded, "I saved most of the arrowheads from the ones I used but found broken."

He rode back up to scout and he saw something off in the woods, He looked at Andrea, "Nobody told me how do you signal when you see trouble. Like bandits in the woods we are approaching." She looked at his side of the road and saw what he saw.

She threw a hand signal at Rosetta who brought her wagon to a stop and she pulled out a crossbow. She looked at me, "Go, scout. See if they talk, shoot, flee or just attack."

He rode out to Trevon, "Tell me you saw the riders in the woods. He looked over and saw half a dozen riders on each side of the road."

Trevon looked at Raven, "I see you got the wagons stopped, that is a start."

They rode back to the wagon and he looked at her, "Do not like this. They said nothing they knew we saw them. They wanted us stopped here. She looked at Trevon, "Alert the others." The Duke came walking up again and Raven looked straight at him, "There are a dozen bandits in front of us. We are trying to figure out if they have friends.

Might be looking to kill any people of royal birth. So you should go and let your master know that this fool is working to save his life. He should work to stay undercover."

He was about to object and realized what Raven told him and he turned around and returned to his coach. Andrea looked at Raven, "Nicely done."

He shrugged, "He will chew me out for it later I am sure."

A few seconds later and the first fireball was launched by one of our royal coach drivers. It was off into the woods on Raven's side of the road. Raven moved toward the area and into the woods. He saw one dead and five running away. he drew back and fired on one of the running ones and caught him in the shoulder. He kept moving.

He flipped his horse around as the second fireball went off on the other side of the coach into the wood. He looked at Rosetta, "If I had a wand with that I could really do some damage to the twelve in front of us. She looked at him and reached into the back of the wagon, "Think it only has four charges."

He nodded and rode a few feet forward. He let the first charge go. He centered it in the middle of the six riders on his side in there hidden little grove of trees. Their horses bolted and a few fell off. The riders from the other side made it to the road. He aimed the second charge in front of where they were going. To ensure it got them all at the pace they are moving. He got the front four in the group.

His horse caught an arrow and reared up but he held on. One pierces his leather but not the elven chain-mail.

He fired a third fireball and kill off two of there horses and sent three riders to the ground. The two less injured ones fled with their brethren and picked up a couple of the fallen riders from the group on the right. They took off. He tossed the wand into the wagon. He started shooting his bow at the one man who was still on his horse.

Rosetta and Raven hit him at the same time and the damage from the two strikes sent him to the ground. raven fired another at a downed rider and caught him in the shoulder. The three up front still alive surrendered. He looked at Rosetta, "What do we do with prisoners?"

She shrugged, "First time any have surrendered."

Raven looked at them, "You have any information that you can provide us that would spare your lives?" One man went to talk and the three men were hit by crossbow bolts from the woods." Raven jumped down from his horse and extract the arrow. Then he got behind a tree and took the one out of his armor. He looked out to see if I could find any would-be assassins out there. he saw nothing.

He looked at Rosetta. "What do we do now?"

She looked over, "Secure the extra horses. See if they are worth saving." He ran out keeping low and he got behind one of the horses. This new horse. She was not too badly hurt and brave for standing and taking a fireball. He looked at his friend who was about ready to fall over. He moved him to the side of the road and slit his throat.

He led the one good horse away. He searched bodies and pulled saddles off of the fallen horses. he looked at her, "Where can I store this kind of stuff?"

She looked at me, "The wagons are full except for the back half of this one. They looked pretty fried."

He smiled and ran his hands over the leather and mended the damage.

She looked at. "OK put them in back away from the meat."

He nodded and handed them up to Andrea to load from the front side. He looked at her, "A hundred and twenty gold pieces on those four."

She nodded. "They were hired to hit us. If the horse is good then it is yours. You earned it." He smiled and looked at the black and gray horse.

He thought for a second, "I'll name her 'Soot' because she is covered in it and her coloring helps to mask it."

Andrea laughed at that. He looked at her. "Brave horse to take a fireball and not flee." She looked at him, "It might have had some training done."

She looked at him, "Hand over the valuables. They get split across the team for those who survive the journey."

he looked at her, "They were testing our strength. They only attacked after we did. These guys were expendable."

She nodded, "I know, hang onto this wand." She handed it back to me. "It may only have one charge left it is still one more than you can cast."

He nodded. Andrea looked at him, "Are you injured? I saw that arrow pierce your armor."

He smiled," Nothing serious it did not even break the skin. The horse took a shot but it is not life-threatening. I will rinse it with some water and tie him off on the back of your wagon."

Andrea nodded and Rosetta smiled, "Good plan. Then clear those horses." I looked at her, "Do you want to see if our guest wants to eat early. We have several freshly fried horses. Do you want them added to the pile?"

She shook her head, "No I am not eating a horse. Andrea, you assess if the meat might be of any use to us. If so, lover here can strip them down and then quarter them. Andrea comes back, "Just clear them off the road. Not worth the trouble."

He stopped and mended his armor real quick and then head out and cleared the bodies.

He skinned the horse hides off and stow them away for the moment. He snagged another 40 arrows from the guys but their bows were crap and burnt. Nothing magical and no jewelry so he just got them off to the side of the road. He took off the breastplate and shield off of a couple of them. He took the arrows up to the front wagon after filling his quiver.

"More arrows. Think we might need them on this trip."

She sighed, "I think we are about two dozen guards short. Get us moving again. She looked at what he collected, "That is pretty standard stuff."

He smiled, "I know but I have an idea on how to use them differently. The same goes for the horse hides. Wait until we make camp before passing judgment."

She sighed, "Start scouting you two."

Trevon handed some gold to her, "From the battle at the side of the caravan."

They rode ahead for a bit and the wagons start rolling again. Raven looked at Trevon, "We have to spend an extra day smoking that meat in an area with bandits trying to kill us?"

Trevon smiled, "Yep. Guard duty will be a blast. You are new so it will likely be a middle shift for you."

He looked around and he saw the horse tracks led into the woods. He looked at him, "They went off the road here." He looked around. "Only to your side."

Raven turned around and report the info back to Rosetta and then went back up front. They continue forward and found a campsite. Trevon points it out and Raven started scouting the nearby woods for intruders and for wood. Very specific wood.

He found the wood he wanted but need an ax and a saw. he headed back to Rosetta, "I need an ax and a saw to collect a few things."

She looked at me, "The second wagon under the seat. Just ensure you return it."

He nodded and went off cut down what he needed and drug it back to camp. Rosetta was looking at me. Raven asked one of the guys, "Could you cut this into foot logs for me?"

He nodded and cut the logs. Raven took several other long thin trees and cut the branches off. He now had 8 4-foot long poles. He started undoing the cover on the back of wagon one and Rosetta came and asked, "OK, I give. What are you doing?"

He looked at her. "The wood I asked him to chop is mesquite wood. Good for adding a little flavor when smoking meat. Non-toxic wood for cooking with; unlike that fir tree, someone else dragged back that will poison the meat. Fire for warmth sure, but not for smoking meat.

I am lashing together two sets of four poles. At the bottom will be those breastplates. I put holes in the edges of those rounded shields and I run the straps for the breastplate through the holes and buckle them in place. This puts the breastplates over the poles. The shield is supported on two ends. The top of the breastplates and the straps buckling them in.

Then we take those horse hides I pulled and we set it for trapping smoke. You build small smoking fires in the shields and you smoke the meat as we go. No sitting around waiting for us to smoke it all. Little risk to the wagon. Time saved."

She looked at him, "Build it. I want to see what it looks like." He nodded and continued.

He got to the shield, "Does anyone have a hammer and spike?" She smiled, "The second wagon." He grabbed the tools. he punched the holes in the edge of the shield to line up with the straps of the breastplates. He cut out the leather from the inside of the shield. I went and strap it all together. He hung the horse hides over and around the area on the wagon.

He left room for air to come in the bottom and smoke to slowly escape from the top. he sat there and split logs for another hour while the food was cooking for tonight's meal. He went and place the log fragments into the shield. He looked over, "You want to check this out, Rosetta?"

She walked over and looked at my setup, "The wood is to green to burn."

He smiled and grabbed a small burning piece of wood from the fire and set it in the bottom of the shield. She saw the smoke come up from the 'green' mesquite wood. It quickly filled the enclosed area. They step outside of it and She looked at it, "We can give this a go. I like the idea of not wasting a day. If this works then we can continue hunting.

Then decide what we want fresh and what we want smoked. What about the leather straps?"

He looked at her, "Remember what I did to that saddle?" She smiled, "So you could just mend it."

He nodded, "Any caster with that cantrip can mend it. We mend them up every morning. We have enough logs we will not need to find any more mesquite for the rest of the trip.

We split them up as we go and they will not take up a lot of room." I could not tell her this is the concept for an outdoor portable smoker and grill. he looked at her, "Necessity is the mother of all inventions. We have hostiles who want to kill us. The food we have to preserve. Wagons we don't want to damage. People to protect and feed.

Easier to do if we keep them moving and not make them a stationary target. A way to smoke meat while we travel. With little risk to the wagon. That was why I had the logs cut so small. To fit inside of the shield."

She looked at him, "Why the horse hides?"

Raven smiled, "Two reasons. It allowed me to collect some sinew from the horses for crafting arrows. The hides would be large enough to do this without cutting or removing canvass from something else."

She smiled at him, "You just might get that second night after all. When we find another inn."

He laughed, "Will this be with or without your lover I keep hearing about?"

She turned red, "The guys told you about her?"

He shrugged, "It does not bother me either way. I saw her casting and she is a beauty as well. I can see why anyone would be attracted to either one or both of you. I need to put tools away except for the saw. I need to cut those small saplings down to arrow size. Those are ash saplings. Good for arrows. Ironwood would be better. I work with what I can get."

She smiled at him, "I will pass along your praise to her."

He smiled as he went about his work. He stopped briefly to eat and find they only have the one duke and his entourage in the two carriages. So the one man is the only one with a title. He looked at this Duke Assinberg, "Duke, do you know why anyone would pay to have you killed?"