"The Vetrini are pulling out?" Abbess Angelique asked in her thin, reedy voice She sounded flabbergasted. The other monks and nuns clustered around the large table in the Refectory, back at the Abbey of St Ursula, were also gasping in astonishment.
In the process of completing their mission, and rescuing Sister Clara, the heroes had uncovered some very important information, information vital to the survival of the Abbey of St Ursula and likely the entire region. Driven by urgency, The Lady Jezebel had wasted no time returning, her crew cracked on all sail and made the short run from the town of Puerto Lejos back to the Abbey in less then three days. They had only tarried long enough to ensure that the Summer Gale had made good on her promise and actually departed the harbor, to complete her contract and deliver the Abbey's cargo of supplies and weapons. But they had not delayed to escort the slow Galleon. Time was too precious at this point. Pieces were in motion, the winds of change were blowing over The Northern Reach. Blowing hard.
"Since the mithril mines at Cerro Rico seem to have permanently closed, the Vetrini bean counters that run that Merchant House have come to the conclusion that there is no profit for them here, and they are going home." Whisperleaf elaborated to the startled nuns.
The ancient Abbess continued to look flabbergasted, completely at a loss for words. Prioress Theodora stepped into the conversational void. As second in command of the Abbey she was used to handling all the practical concerns for the elderly Abbess.
"They have so much invested in the town, how can they possibly abandon all that? Buildings, fortifications, infrastructure..."
"Sunk cost" Ricmo quipped. "They seem to be willing to abandon it all, to avoid continual ongoing losses year after year. Merchants." he snorted.
"Unbelievable" the Prioress marveled. "Much as everyone hates the Vetrini, if they leave, the consequences for this Archipelago, for the entire Reach will be catastrophic. , They will leave a major power vacuum. The pirates will run unfettered, economies will collapse, towns will burn..."
Tello raised his head from where he was contemplating the diffraction of light caused by the stained glass windows. "It is the nature of vacuums to be filled." he offered tranquilly.
"Indeed" agreed Ricmo, a twinkle in his eye. "And it just so happens we've been talking to several power brokers in Puerto Lejos who aren't planning on going anywhere and seem quite keen on filling it. It seems this area was ruled by a Duke once before and could be again. Viva La Revolucion!"
"Of course there is the minor matter of bankrolling such a revolution " he added "but we were thinking the Abbey could help there, in the short term, and it just so happens there is a large, abandoned mithril mine a couple weeks sail from here that might provide a more permanent economic solution. All the plan needs is an enterprising band of heroes to figure out what happened to the mine, and deal with whatever catastrophe has so dismayed the Vetrini. Deal with it for the appropriate percentage of course. Where would you find such an intrepid band I wonder?"
Ricmo smiled happily. Dakhir groaned. The nuns listened as the heroes broke it down for them. The cost to "bankroll the Revolution" was not cheap, mostly because the Red Watch was not cheap, but the Abbey was quite wealthy and it wasn't like they had a lot of choice.
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The map table in the great cabin of
The Lady Jezebel was pretty amazing, Ricmo thought. It had been invested with some serious magic, imbued with a number of amazing abilities. The table had a memory for one thing, a memory of any of the locations the ship had visited during it's five hundred years of existence, All that was required to produce a detailed chart of such areas was to lay a blank piece of parchment on the table, along with a quill and bottle of ink, and write on the parchment the precise coordinates you were interested in, in the Annish system of course. Just as Tello was doing now. The table would do the rest, as an invisible hand quickly sketched an accurate chart centered on those coordinates. You could even control the resolution of the chart by specifying coordinate boundaries along the corners of the parchment, allowing control over the level of detail the chart was drawn at. The ancient
Annwyn Empire has certainly had some tricks.
The math for the Annish coordinate system was beyond Ricmo but Tello ate it for breakfast. The Tortle loved crunching numbers. He was damn good at it too, even if the way he thought about math made most scholars eyes cross. He had even begun experimenting with what he called "a three dimensional coordinate system" which he used to instruct the table to create lovely, highly accurate, isometric drawings.
The charts were damn good but not perfect. The table drew fast, but still took a few minutes to render a chart. The charts sometimes had odd gaps, blank spots in them, Ricmo suspected the ship only "remembered" what it had actually "seen" during it's voyages. And most importantly, it only knew an area as of the time it had last visited it, so it often created charts that were pretty out of date. Really out of date, hundreds of years out of date sometimes. At least it dated the charts it created helpfully, in the Annwyn Imperial Reckoning, so at least you knew the chart you were looking at was as-of five hundred years ago.
Still, pretty damn useful. And a bit creepy. The table worked quietly and efficiently but still gave the impression that an invisible hand was drawing the map. The air temperature around the table dropped noticeably when it was in use, and it gave Ricmo goosebumps if he stood near it while it was in action. Every map ir produced was signed. "By the hand of Leftenent Krigspeil, Chief Navigator, Annwyn Imperial Navy". Ricmo had asked Dakhir whether that meant it was some kind of ghost making the charts. Dakhir had just looked grim and said "in a manner of speaking, perhaps" and then didn't want to talk about it anymore.
Still, damn useful, Ricmo and the other heroes watched as the table produced an updated chart of the minor archipelago of islands known as the
The Lejos Archipelago, centered as they were around the town of Puerto Lejos. When the chart was completed, Ricmo was careful to thank the unseen cartographer. "Excellent work as always,
Leftenent Krigspeil, much appreciated. You have a beautiful hand. That will be all". As usual, the ghost, if it even existed, didn't acknowledge him. Still, better safe then sorry he figured.
Ricmo reached over with a quill and made a note on the map of the last known location of the pirate flotilla known as
The Bigtime. The heroes looked at the map somewhat morosely.
"There is so much that needs doing." Dakhir groaned. "We have to manage the withdrawal of the Vetrini and make sure our little band of revolutionaries ends up in control of the town. We have The Bigtime who could, at any moment, sweep down on the Abbey with a half dozen pirate ships crewed by giants and burn the place to the ground, despite the additional manpower and weapons we've provided. There is the mystery of the lost mines of Cerro Rico to solve, since they seem to be the key to this regions economic survival."
"And the key to god knows how much money, of which we get a 5% cut" Ricmo reminded him. "Don't forget that. Most important part."
"I could also make use of that mithril for many projects, including forging new cannon for the ship" Tello added. "It's a lovely and useful material."
"And then we have whatever is going on with the ghosts and spirits under the Abbey, in
The Undercroft." Dakhir continued.
"The Undercroft also has upside." Whisperleaf added. "The Abbey library is reported to be quite extensive and powerful. In addition to magical power it supposedly has the missing volume of
The Books of the River which is basically why we came out here in the first place."
"Indeed. And then there is Freddy's psycho girlfriend running around trying to drag him off to Faerie on top of it all" Ricmo added to their laundry list of woes.
"She's not my girlfriend. I barely know her" Freddy argued.
"Well, someone should tell her that." Dakhir answered irritably. "She seems quite...attached."
Ricmo and Freddy locked eyes for a second. They were both pretty excited about that one, though for different reasons.
That would be a song for the ages. We'd be famous for all time!" Freddy murmured to the Halfling.
"Treasure. Fleet. Whole Fleet filled with Treasure!" Ricmo murmured back.
"There's so much going on right here, right now. I don't see how we can deal with half the shit that is right in front of us, and
that treasure fleet isn't coming back for months." Dakhir concluded. "And Black Alice's Island has been lost for two hundred years it can stay lost a few more weeks. Neither are a priority right now."
Freddy and Ricmo both pouted. Dakhir put his head in his hands and groaned.
"When overwhelmed, it often helps to divide the problem up into smaller, more manageable chunks, then tackle those one at a time." Tello advised, patting the despondent Warlock on the shoulder. "Also helpful, the liberal application of fire."
After some discussion, the companions settled on tackling The Undercroft as their next move. They were currently sitting right above that dungeon after all, they had Sister Clara with them finally, who supposedly knew at least some of it's secrets, and the magic and knowledge hidden down there should help with all the other problems.
"Good plan" said Ricmo chirpily, happy to be prioritizing one of the treasure and looting option. "And, if worse comes to worse, and the whole
Lejos Archipelago gets torched, we will still have what we came for, plus treasure. We move on."
Radiant Lightbringer, who had been relatively silent, glowered at that and interjected. "We must save the nuns and the people of this land." he stated.
"Of course. Of course. Just saying, worst case..." Ricmo backpedaled.
"Ok so the Undercroft it is!" Whisperleaf agreed excitably. "I'm looking forward to that library!"
He later came to regret those words.
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