82. Wrap-up

Aside from Daemon, Tarisha, and Phil, I also handed out five more official positions.  Most importantly for my purposes, I appointed Sellamander as North Shire’s auditor, as he was the Traveler with the most experience in finance.  He protested that he wasn’t a forensic accountant, but ‘he did know a guy.’  In general I just gave him broad authority to investigate the debt situation and look for proof of Arkan’s corruption.  I promised Sellamander, and any subcontracted investigators, ten percent of whatever coin they managed to recover from their activities, which lit a fire under the druid.

Conveniently, once a Traveler signed the contract to become a canon character, the system began translating the Native writing system for them.  That would greatly simplify everyone’s job.

The next appointment I made wasn’t actually a guild member.  Randal, the axe-warrior whose day job was an architect, had been watching the proceedings with a somewhat bored expression, right up until the point where I offered him the opportunity to design my new home and seat of power.  It took some time to calm him down after that.  While he had the floor, he made a lot of complaints about the slow progress in rebuilding Zhesa castle, and managed to extract a promise out of me that I would see if there was anything I could do to expedite that project as well.  I was as invested in the new Zhesa castle as Randal was, seeing as its destruction was essentially my fault, but I was forced to admit that reconstruction wouldn’t likely continue until the matter of the succession was resolved.

Randal wasn’t happy with that answer, but I managed to distract him by announcing another project of mine.  Aside from building a replacement for Mooncrest Manor, I also tasked him with designing for the Shire a Temple of the Eight Faiths.  There were nine gods, of course, but the Adversary wouldn’t be represented.  The other seven were, apparently, making things difficult for Thedum in the wake of my selection as his avatar – and by extension they were making things difficult for me.  I wasn’t above a bit of blatant bribery to appease the jealous deities.

That led to a somewhat lengthy theological discussion, in which I learned that my Traveler friends really didn’t know anything about the gods of the Natives.  Thedum was the God of Order, not light, as most of the Travelers seemed to think.  Although he was often associatedwith the god of light, Lumina,considering that they were spouses.  He was the head of the pantheon, and the chief god worshiped by human Natives.  The Dwarves, Elves, Dryads, and Dragons each had their own gods whom they worshiped above Thedum.  The most common names for those gods were Stonebeard, Starweaver, Mossheart, and Skyfire, respectively.  There were other names for those gods, of course, but if you talked to a dwarf about Stonebeard or a dryad about Mossheart, they would always know who you meant.

The remaining two deities were Eclipse – god of shadows, illusions, and dreams.  And the final deity was Death.  Eclipse was worshiped sporadically by all races, with a slightly higher proportion among the beastkin who turned to her because they lacked a racial deity of their own.  She was not a benevolent deity, but neither was she malevolent, like the adversary.  And Death, very few worshiped Death, but his place in the pantheon was undeniable.

While the conversation was interesting, I wasn’t a priest of Thedum, let alone clergy to the other gods, and so my knowledge of their worship was very superficial.  And my knowledge of how to build a Temple of the Eight Faiths was completely hypothetical.  It was an easy project to commission, but Randal poked one hole in that boat after another.  It would take him more time and effort than he was willing to expend to design a suitable building for my purposes.  He was, however, quite happy to help judge another contest, like the one that had been held for the rebuilding of Zhesa castle.

That led to a debate on whether to announce the contest to design my new temple immediately, or to wait until the situation with the bandits calmed down.  We launched it on the forums, in the end, although the submission deadline was pushed back weeks and weeks.  I would be a big brother long before we ever broke ground on the temple, but hopefully just the intention of building it would appease the gods who were jealous of my service to Thedum.

With that decided, the discussion moved back to appointing Travelers to canon positions.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, everyonewanted me to assign them something, but mostly I tried to brush them off.  I appointed Laurant as a lieutenant of my armed forces.  I would have given him a higher rank, but was limited by his current level.  Thena was appointed to be the court healer, and Larissa the court mage.  Aside from that, Daemon confirmed that he was able to access a personnel management tool that would allow him to appoint his own subordinates as necessary for the completion of his duties, so when the Travelers of <Nethersong Mavericks> pressed me I cheerfully passed the buck to my new steward.

Well, that’s not entirely true.  I discovered that I could create as many positions for a ‘court jester’ as I wanted.  It was an unpaid position, so I didn’t see any reason notto hand it out like candy, and within a few minutes my court had nineteen jesters.

Finally, after what felt like hours of talking, I had run out of fires to extinguish, and we called an end to the emergency court meeting.  The crowd dispersed, with many of the Travelers rushing to Ebbyvale or the surrounding lands to explore everything that had been unlocked by my arrival.  A few remained behind, but Daemon chased them off, except for Tarisha and my other official appointees.

“I think I’ll hold court again in a week,” I said once we were alone.  “Do you think you can manage to get the elections and everything pushed through by then so I can meet the new aldermans, Daemon?”

“I honestly have no idea how long such a task will take, Hail,” Daemon said, sounding just a little flustered.  “Accepting the contract has unlocked a great many new features, including a list of Natives whom I need to meet with as soon as possible.  If I’m being honest, I’m feeling like you just threw me into the deep end of the pool without making certain I knew how to swim.”

I gave him a squint-eyed glance.  “I’m pretty certain that you can swim, Daemon.”

He sighed.  “Yes, well, it’s going to be a busy weekend.  But fine, very well.  Leave everything to me.  I’ll fix this den of scum and villainy for you, Hail.  Thank you for your faith in me.  Truth is, I was starting to think that you didn’t really like me.”

I tried not to blush.  “I’m not certain what I might have done to give you that impression.”

“Right.  Well, let’s start with glancing through the various financial documents that you secured last night.  It will take some time for Sellamander to perform a full audit, but we have to start somewhere,” he suggested, and so the ledgers came out of inventories.

It very quickly became apparent that the copies Arkan had prepared for me were entirely fictional.  They bore no relation to the original documents recovered from the clerk’s office, nor the documents that Tarisha had liberated from the manor before the battle.  It was difficult to get a clear picture from either set of books, but it appeared that Arkan had been deliberately inflating the shire’s debt for some purpose.

I had a suspicion, and so I quickly [Scribed] a set of documents for Daemon.  Several of the documents were for the banks which held the shire’s debt, requesting access to the ledgers and original loan documents.  Another was a letter to one of my grandfather’s friends, a lawyer, in which I detailed my suspicions and requested his assistance.

I just hope he wasn’t too offended by the last letter I had sent him to help me.  I blushed.  I had meant to compliment his prestigious pedigree … but I saw now that a labyrinth was perhaps not the best metaphor for praising his family tree.  I could only hope that he had taken it in good humor.

Laurant and Phil discussed their goals, which were basically to go out among the gathered Travelers and recruit as many as they could into my fledgling army and meager constabulary as they could.  I pointed out that, for the immediate future at least, the pay for those positions would be zero, but they assured me that it wouldn’t be a problem.

“We’ll be literally beating away applicants with a stick, Hail,” Phil promised.  “Literally.  I have a stick for that purpose, and I’m going to use it.  A lot.”

“Yeah kiddo, Phil’s right.  Peopleare going to really, really want what we’re selling, even if it’s an unpaid position with zero benefits other than being a minor cog in the story.  When we go outside and tell people that we are canonically building up an army to face down the bandits, there’s a pretty good chance there will be a literal stampede of people trying to join us,” Laurant pointed out.  “The hard part is going to be keeping the number down.  I only have five thousand openings to fill; there seems to be a hard limit on that.  Do you know if there’s any way to bump it up?”

“Not without increasing my own ranking,” I answered.  “I’d be allowed twenty thousand troops as a marquis, or fifty thousand as a duke.  If the kingdom ever declares war, then I would be able to gather even more, but that’s as large of a standing army I would be allowed in times of peace.  If we dodeclare war on anyone, then the limit effectively goes away, although some of my social superiors would take issue if I was able to recruit too many more soldiers than they could hold.”

“Right then.  Side note: Let’s try to figure out a way to get Hail promoted,” Laurant commented, pretending to whisper it in mock conspiracy.

“I’m not certain I want that,” I admitted.  “Ruling a land sucks more than I thought it would.”

“You have literally been at it for slightly longer than one day, Lord Hail,” Tarisha pointed out.  “Perhaps your opinion on the matter will evolve once few things are on fire, and you have established a functional government.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I allowed.  “What about you, Phil?  Is there a limit on how many constables you can hire?”

“Yeah, about that,” he said.  “Hail, please give me permission to allow your law enforcement to call themselves ‘Deputies’ instead of ‘Constables.’  I’ve already tried changing the name like twenty times but it keeps saying that it needs your permission.”

I frowned.  “Why?”

“Because it sounds cooler,” he explained.  “And then I can legitimately write off the purchase of a magic six-shooter.”

I considered the question for a moment, because it wasn’t to be taken lightly.  However, I was fully aware that ‘because it sounds cooler’ is actually a very good reason to do something when Travelers are concerned.  I, personally, didn’t see the improvement.  But none of the other Travelers contradicted Phil’s assertion, which implied that I should trust his judgment on the matter.  “Alright, fine.”

“Oh great.  You’re not going to start doing the John Wayne Swagger, are you?” Laurant asked.

“I’m literally pulling up reference materials to practice it right now,” Phil answered.  “That and the drawl.  Can’t be a deputy without a proper drawl.”

I paused.  “Is that an actual rule?”

“Never mind the boys, Hail.  It’s a cultural thing in our world,” Thena explained.  “Phil, you never answered his question.  How many players can you deputize?”

“Um, hold on,” Phil said, and he spent a moment swiping at invisible menus.  “Um, it looks like I can hire two hundred permanent deputies, and up to five thousand emergency recruits to deal with the bandits.  Seems that Hail has declared them in open revolt, which is letting me put a posse together to deal with them, but once the leaders are brought to justice most of them will lose their special status.”

“So between the two of you, you can recruit a force of up to ten thousand players,” Thena provided.  “That’s nice.  All I got for my canon position is a quest inviting me to speak with Thedum’s Bishop in Zhesa.”

“Yeah, same here,” Larissa complained.  “Well, not to speak with a bishop.  Archmage Blanchy-something-unpronounceable.  In some sort of school in Eolstree.”

“Archmage Blancherathetera?” I asked, my eyebrows leaping upward.

“You know him?” she asked.  “If he’s famous, maybe it’s not a bullshit reward after all.”

“Sheis possibly the most powerful mage alive,” I said.  “She’s at least three hundred years old, and I grew up listening to my nurse telling me the tales of her adventures while she was much younger.  She’s mostly retired these days, I’m not surprised she’s not well known among Travelers.”

Thena chuckled.  “Here that?  Sounds like she’s the sort of mage who you don’t want to offend.  Especially not by, say, accidentally mispronouncing her name.  You may want to start practicing.”

Larissa shot Thena a look.  “What’s your bishop’s name?” she asked.

“Luke,” Thena answered smugly.

“Trade you?”

“I’m a little surprised, I didn’t see any additional notification that you were receiving a quest when I assigned you your new positions,” I commented.

“I don’t believe that those quests are ‘House Jeoran’ quests, Hail,” Tarisha explained.  “I suspect that you don’t actually have authority to assign them.  Rather, the system assigned them once you nominated Larissa and Thena to canon positions to begin their personal journeys.  I – I received something similar, although of a very different nature.”

“You got a bonus too?” I asked.  “I’m glad.  What is it?”

“If you don’t mind, I would prefer not to discuss it at this time,” she said.  “It’s a matter that I need to discuss with … my boyfriend, I suppose, before I make any commitments one way or the other.”

“Oh shit,” Laurant whispered.

“You’re dating someone?” I asked, surprised.  “I didn’t know that.”

“Is it someone we know?” Larissa asked, leaning forward with excitement.

“No comment,” Tarisha said.  “Anyway, aside from that possibility which I’m not ready to discuss yet, my position as Hail’s captain of the guard mostly gives me simple personnel management tools.  I’ve already assigned his usual guards official positions and entered their schedules into the system.  It’s actually quite convenient, as it seems that once a guard’s shift is scheduled to begin they will get an option that will automatically teleport them to Lord Hail’s side.  My friends in guild chat are quite happy with that perk.”

“I can imagine,” Phil said.  “That will probably make things much easier for you, especially now that he’s a celebrity.”

“What about you, Hail?” Larissa asked.  “What are you planning on doing next?  I mean, I suppose there’s probably thousands of things that you need to do to help fix the shire, but do you know where you’re going to start?”

“Actually, I think I need to take a step back,” I answered.  “Everyone is looking for me right now, and there’s a pretty good chance that if I wasn’t protected by the system shunting everyone without a [Mark of Karma] away into a different instance, I might have already been attacked.  I can’t think of anything else that I can do in the Shire without drawing all sorts of attention to me, so I’m going to just leave things up to Daemon and Sellamander and everyone else.  I was, I was actually thinking I’d go see my mother in Eolstree.”

I paused, and pulled a [Dungeon Daughter Core] out of my inventory.  “But first I was hoping that you guys would help me hide this somewhere.