Silver Peak, page 17
part #2 of Sky Realms Online Series
With a screech, Pike lifted off Hall’s shoulders and into the sky where he circled before flying away, heading southwest. All the eyes, except Jackoby’s, followed the dragonhawk’s flight.
“I was honored to fight alongside you,” Hall said a little formally to the Firbolg Warden.
He didn’t know if honored was the right word, but it seemed to fit. Facing Jackoby, he held his hand out, waiting for a warrior’s clasp.
The Firbolg stared at the hand. The tension grew, becoming awkward. Hall was a little embarrassed, holding his arm out.
“Right,” Hall said and withdrew the arm.
The others were further back, waiting, and Hall turned to join them when Jackoby stepped forward. He raised his head, looking at Hall with an intense glare before turning back to his mother.
“The Half-Elf saved my life,” he started, his large hand grasping the warhammer he held tighter. It was obvious to all that this was hard for Jackoby. The Firbolg looked to the skies, sighed, and continued. “I owe him a life debt.”
Baskily reacted quickly, stepping forward to stand in front of his brother. Hall could see the similarity between the two. He had no idea what Jackoby meant by life debt. He had saved the Firbolgs life, but they were in a group on a quest together. That was just what was done. He didn’t expect payment of some kind.
“Brother,” Baskily said, almost angry. “You cannot.”
“I can and I must,” Jackoby replied.
“Mother,” Baskily said, stepping away. “Talk some sense into him.”
Hall looked back at the others. They all shrugged, not sure what was going on.
He was tempted to just start walking but something held him back.
Yarbole walked up to Jackoby, looking up at him. He smiled down at his mother, staring into her eyes, and just nodded. Since the return from the Tower, Jackoby had appeared lost. Now he looked focused, sure of his direction. His mother reached up, tenderly running a hand down his cheek, smiling. She stepped back and turned to Hall, her smile gone and a serious look on her face.
“Take care of my son,” she said.
Hall started to have an idea what Jackoby meant by life debt. He turned to the Firbolg and held up his hands.
“That’s not necessary,” he said. “There’s no need for...”
“You saved my life,” Jackoby said, locking eyes with Hall, who could see the uncertainty and nervousness hiding behind the strong gaze. Hall’s protest died away. “I will see that debt repaid.”
You have received:
Life Debt of the Brownpaw
For saving his life, Jackoby of the Brownpaw has pledged his life to yours. He will fight
alongside you until he feels that his debt to you has ended.
Hall nodded.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The Season’s Goose was a large building, built of logs with a shingled roof. Two stories, windows in the gable ends indicating a third story under the sloped roof. Old, the building didn’t look worn but had the look of a place that had been there for a while and was comfortable. Next to it were two smaller buildings, a barn and what had to be the Trader’s Post that Baskily had mentioned.
There was no need to visit the trader. None of them had any loot to sell, and each had barely any gold so there would be no purchasing, and the Brownpaw had given them plenty of travel rations and other supplies.
Now that Hall thought about it, he had been surprised by how much Yarbole had given them. Jackoby had none of his own, apparently not fully committed to coming with them until the last minute, but it seemed Yarbole had known what was in her son’s heart. She had sent along enough for him as well.
When they had started the walk, tension had been thick in the air. Jackoby, as sure about his choice as he was, did not appear happy to be there with them. The others weren’t sure what to make of the whole situation. Neither did Hall.
“Just don’t jump in front of arrows for me, okay?” Hall said with a chuckle, trying to be funny. But he was somewhat serious. He didn’t need the Firbolg purposefully getting in the way in hopes of eliminating the debt.
Jackoby just grunted and picked up his pace, taking the lead.
Hall shrugged and the walk continued.
He had noticed that his Alliance standing with Jackoby had not changed. Which was a surprise. He had thought that the Life Debt would have raised the standing instantly. It had not. Jackoby still barely tolerated him.
Which was not ideal in a traveling companion.
It didn’t improve over the day, night alongside the path and the rest of the next day before they got to the Inn.
They walked into the nearly empty Inn, Angus curling up outside with Pike settling on his back. A large open room, two fireplaces on the ends, and a long bar across the back wall. Pictures hung between the windows, a large double-headed axe behind the bar. The barkeep was an older man, Gael, with gray hair and beard. He was polishing a glass, chatting with two men at the bar. They looked like farmers fresh from the fields.
Hall figured there had to be a couple small villages, or farms, around, and it was still somewhat early. The farming dinner crowd would still be an hour out.
A single waitress, dressed in a simple wool dress and shirt, moved about the large room filled with many different sized tables. Broom in hand, she was cleaning up, flashing them a large smile when they walked in. She stopped cleaning and hustled through the door in the back of the room, behind the bar, to tell the cook that dinner guests were starting to arrive.
“Take a seat,” the barkeep said. “Not that many empty spots, I’m afraid,” he said with a chuckle.
Leigh laughed, which meant Roxhard laughed. Hall just smiled. Sabine scowled and Jackoby said nothing, waiting until the others had taken their seats. The Firbolg stood, looking toward the bar before grunting and sitting down. Hall wondered if Jackoby had thought about sitting away from them. Hall just shook his head. Two days into this Life Debt, and he was already annoyed.
“What can I get you?” the waitress asked. “Cook just put some venison over the fire.”
“Sounds good,” Hall said. “Also need two rooms.”
She looked at the group, eyebrow lifted in amusement. A Half-Elf, two female Gael, a Dwarf, and a Firbolg. The waitress was trying to figure out the sleeping arrangements.
“Three and two,” Hall supplied.
Nodding, the waitress took their drink orders and headed over to the bar. Hall glanced at Leigh quickly, before shifting his gaze, wondering if there would come a time he would share a bed with her. There was mutual attraction, but there hadn’t been a time to act on it.
No one talked, enjoying the silence and rest, until the waitress came back with their drinks. Four ales and a wine. Hall put down a couple of silver coins that quickly disappeared into the waitress’s hand.
They all took long pulls of their drinks. Except for Jackoby. The Firbolg stared angrily at his mug, pushing it away.
“Something wrong?” Hall asked.
“I will pay for my own food and drink,” he replied.
Hall sighed. Best get this over with, he thought, leaning forward and pushing the mug closer to the Firbolg.
“I get it,” he said, waiting to continue until Jackoby was looking at him. “You’re not here by choice, not really. If I could just say something and end this Life Debt I would, but I’ve played enough...” he paused. He was about to say ‘games’. He had played enough games. It had been a long time since he thought of this life as a game. “Look, I get how these things work. I can’t just make it go away. And as that’s the case, we are stuck with each other. So let’s make the best of it.”
Jackoby nodded. A sullen nod, but a nod. He didn’t reach for his mug.
“As for that,” Hall continued and pointed at the mug. “You’re part of the group, and as such, you share in the profits. And expenses.” He smiled. “You’ll get your turn to pay soon enough.”
He leaned back and waited, watching. Jackoby grunted and picked up the mug, taking a long pull. Hall raised his own mug in salute to Jackoby and took a drink.
You have earned +100 Alliance points with Jackoby, Warden of the Brownpaw. Jackoby appreciates your gesture and it has softened his ire at being there.
“That reminds me,” Roxhard said. “We still need a name for our Guild.”
Sabine audibly groaned.
The next morning, they set out early. Hall had thought about trying to see if there was a merchant caravan leaving for Silver Peak Keep. Hire on as guards and ride in wagons for the week’s journey. But he decided not to wait. Any caravan would catch up to their walking pace anyway.
Before they left, he opened his map and marked the Season’s Goose location on the map, seeing where their path through the Fallen Green Forest from Green Ember had been traced.
Skill Gain!
Cartography Rank Two +.1
The road was wide, enough for two wagons to pass side by side. Well-traveled, it was decently maintained. Relatively smooth, hard-packed dirt with few ruts and holes. It wouldn’t last. The further from the Inn in either direction, the road would worsen. Trees lined the north edge, grass spreading out to the south, a long slope that led toward the jagged edge of Edin a couple miles away. A dark line in the distance, blue sky and clouds beyond with dark specks that were the other islands.
Unlike Cumberland, which had the shadow of Edin floating above it, there were no islands close enough to cast their shade over Edin. There were a few higher, like Arundel where the Highborn Confederacy had their capital, but that was further south and away enough that the sun never cast its shadow over Edin.
The trees provided some shade, making the morning nice and pleasant.
He set a leisurely pace. They were in no hurry. Fully rested, stocked up on supplies to get them to Silver Peak Keep, the walk would give Hall plenty of time to organize his thoughts and plans. He still wasn’t sure why he had felt the need to ally with the Brownpaw. The Firbolgs were not that close, a week of traveling through hostile country. Even if he built up Skara Brae, what could the Firbolgs offer?
Yarbole had to know this. But she still had done it.
Long-term thinking on her part? A generation down the road? Actual creation of a road between the two villages?
He was glad he had made allies of the Firbolg, just not sure why yet.
The shopping list for Silver Peak Keep was long. Materials were a big item but so were people. They needed craftspeople to work in the village, to at least work to fix it up. Farmers, carpenters, blacksmiths.
Even if they made it just a home for the four, now five, of them, it would end up costing a lot of gold to keep heading back to Silver Peak Keep or Green Ember for supplies. They could spend most of their time doing that instead of adventuring.
That had been his first thought, making it a place to rest between adventures, but the more he thought of it, the more that idea just didn’t work.
To make anything of Skara Brae, they needed people to live there.
But how to get those people there?
“Silver Skarans?” Roxhard asked, his deep voice breaking the silence.
They had all been lost in their thoughts, Pike scouting overhead, as the miles trudged by. Roxhard speaking up startled them.
“No,” Hall replied.
“Yeah, not really that good,” the Dwarf said and fell silent, eyes looking away at the edge of the island.
Jackoby stared at Roxhard strangely. The Dwarf didn’t act how a Dwarf of his age should act. Mannerisms, speech patterns. None of it was what a hundred years, or more, old Dwarf would say or do. Hall wondered when to let Jackoby in on the secret. Not that it was really a secret but how to explain it? They hadn’t needed to with Leigh. She just accepted Roxhard how he was.
“Look,” Roxhard exclaimed, drawing their attention.
He was pointing, iron-mailed hand outstretched, at something in the sky, a couple hundred feet above the island, over the nothing below, just off the edge of Edin. It was moving, a black object against the blue sky, heading in their direction. It never came close, staying just off the island, but they could see some details, the shape coming into focus. A long body, angled at the front and flat at the back, two larger objects at the high point in the back, vertical facing large squares. The shape of an airship.
That’s what we need, Hall thought, watching the ship as it sailed through the air. An airship. A quicker way to get from Skara Brae to Silver Peak Keep and anywhere else. But how to get one? It was a dream, he knew, never going to happen.
He watched the ship drifting through the sky until it was out of sight.
Turning his attention back to the road, they continued walking, having days of travel ahead.
They could see the walls of Silver Peak Keep first. The land rose higher, the road switchbacking up the slope to a large and flat plateau on the edge of Edin. Stone walls, twenty feet high, ran along the edge, made of gray blocks in uniform sizes. Small figures, guards, could be seen patrolling the top of the walls. Towers were spaced at intervals, two larger ones framing the wooden gate. To the north of the city was where the Thunder Growl Mountains started, the infamous Silver Peak itself the first. Its top was lost in the clouds, the sides of the bald face of rock immediately below them shining almost silver in the sun, giving the mountain its name. South was the plateau and open plains below which continued to the east where they had come from, the forest stopping a day or so back.
Because of the angle of the land ahead, all they could see was the walls of the city getting larger the closer they got. Dark shadows on top of the landscape at the horizon from miles away, looming larger and larger as the miles disappeared until from a mile out all they could see was the sloping grass-covered hill and the walls above. It was as if the world ended at those walls.
The closer they got, they could see the shine of the walls, made from the same stone as the mountain, containing flecks of whatever material it was that gave the mountain its name. Small points of silver along its entire length.
Hall had never been a big fan of Silver Peak Keep. An ugly city, the plateau in the original game had been so much smaller, but the wall had still loomed ahead as they approached. Consisting of only a couple dozen stone and wood homes, it had been a major quest hub. He had spent a lot of time there while leveling in this realm.
The city, because of its construction, had never seemed to fit in with the rest of the Realm. Hall was curious what changes this new version of the game, this new version of his life, would have for Silver Peak Keep.
Pike soared down out of the sky and settled on Hall’s shoulder as they started up the long slope of the plateau. They could see a line of wagons ahead of them, stopped at the gate, as city guards looked them over. Silver Peak Keep had two gates. There was the aptly named East Gate that led to the Silver Peak Road and Auld at the other end. The other was on the southern side of the city and led to the farmlands as well as Peakdock.
There was no harbor for airships in Silver Peak Keep itself. The edge of Edin at the city was too jagged, the land sloping up and dropping down sharply. There was nowhere to construct a safe harbor on the height of the plateau, so the docks had been built a short distance away down on the plains. In the original Sky Realms Online, there had been a quest chain that led to a complex under Peakdock, the home of a thieves’ guild. The catacombs had been considered one of the Raid Dungeons, where a party was needed to complete the dungeon.
Slender towers of a whiter stone could be seen where the stone perimeter wall and the mountain met the Keep itself.
The Keep was lost from view as they got to the top of the slope, to a strip of flat land between the top of the slope and the wall. The wagons had moved on, the guards impatiently staring at the group and waiting for them to approach.
Skill Gain!
Identify Rank One +.1
Silver Peak Watchman (Orange)
Hall assumed the guards were around Level 12, like those in Grayhold had been. Possibly lower. There wasn’t much that threatened the people of Silver Peak Keep. The Trow, Caobold in the mountains, Centaurs and Boarin in the plains. But none of those usually came close to the Keep. The farmlands got threatened more but still not much opportunity for the Peak Guards to Level. If they were appearing Orange in comparison to Hall’s own Level Four, then they couldn’t be more than Level Nine.
Besides the quest in Auld that led the Players to Silver Peak Keep, the first quest had come from a Guard at the gate. Hall studied the two on either side of the wooden doors that swung out. Each wore a chain shirt, leather pants and helms, carrying swords and shields. The symbol of the city, a silver tower in front of a mountain, was painted on the metal shields and stitched into silver and blue tabards they wore over the chainmail shirts. Neither of them appeared special, neither was named. There was nothing to indicate either was a quest giver.
Neither of them said a word or even looked at Hall and the others as they walked into the city. Hall was disappointed. He had been looking forward to getting some quests while in the city. Being only Level Four, he felt odd. In the past, being on Edin, he would have been at least around Level Twenty.
They walked through the thick stone gates and into the city. It wasn’t as noisy as Land’s Edge Port had been. The two- and three-story stone houses blocked most of the city sounds. It was noisier than the plains had been, but nothing that was overwhelming.
Most buildings had a first floor made of small gray stone blocks, small glass windows with wooden shutters and wooden doors. The second, and sometimes third stories, were made of wooden planks placed vertically. Roofs were steeply sloped with wooden shingles. The homes of those with gold had two stories of stone. The really wealthy had all three stories made of the gray stone.
Already, Hall could see the city was vastly different. Besides being larger, which he was coming to expect as the new normal, Silver Peak Keep was not as structured as he had remembered. Before, the dozen or so homes had been laid out in a grid pattern. Straight streets and alleys between, all leading out of the round open gathering spot in front of the Keep. There was none of that in evidence. The street they were on ran straight for a couple of blocks before turning ninety degrees to the right. There didn’t appear to be a reason for it. The road just turned.
