I had just finished my breakfast when I heard a clatter as someone dropped the try they were holding, I turned and saw Kleepers son, seeing the look on his face I got a knot in the pit of my stomach. Turning further to see what he was gawking at I saw my employer walking out of the hallway into the common room. She was wearing another sweater and somehow this one was even tighter than the one she had worn yesterday. I let out a sigh of frustration, it wasn't dragons and sabre cat's that I would be having to save her from, it would be the whole population of males with nefarious ideas, maybe some women as well.
I got up and walked over to her and asked if her breakfast had been alright, as I had asked Kleepers wife to take her some wash water and breakfast this morning. She said thank you and asked if I was ready to go, she needed to find Calcemo and introduce herself, as his investors had hired her to help him with some of the grunt work of going on expeditions that he himself deemed to dangerous.
It seemed Calcemo had something for her to do, a giant spider was keeping his crew from going into a ruin that was under the city, he wanted her to go get rid of it. That is exactly what we did. I am not certain why she needs a crew to keep the expedition safe as she has some wicked skills with magic.
We first ran into some small spiders and folks when I say small I am only talking relative as they were the size of a full grown mastiff. I only got a few of them she took care of the rest. it was a gruesome site the two of us covered in ichor from the spiders. We continued on down the tunnel til we got to a large room, their a couple of the smaller spiders were running around along with some spiderlings. She conjured up a flame Atronach and then a sword in one hand and what looked like a ball of fire in the other.
The smaller spiders were gone in no time at all, then the largest spider I have ever seen dropped down from the ceiling and was hissing with anger. My fierce little elf hissed back and threw a fireball that lit up the room, then danced around a pillar and readied another as Nimhe came at her. I pulled out my bow and started shooting at it from a good distance away, staying near the entrance to the tunnels.
I watched in appreciation as Minervia danced around the pole and threw fire balls at the spider. Her Atronach skirted around the edges of the room. Both were throwing balls of flame that lit up the room, somewhat blinding me, so that I needed a second or two to regain my sight. I saw her place two runes on the floor in the directions that the giant spider was most likely to go and when she stepped on one it exploded, which caused her to jerk in the opposite direction and hit the other rune.
When I could see clearly again Minervia had a conjured battle axe in her hands and was hacking at the monsters head. I drew my sword and ran to help, keeping my shield up,we made short work of Nemhe with our weapons. With one last hack of her battle Axe, Nemhe's head parted from her body and sprayed Mivervia head to toe with Inchor.
As I cleaned my sword and shield with some cloth I found, I head Minervia say that her sweater was ruined as she plucked at it.. I grinned like a fool I'm afraid, I wonder how many she had that could get ruined. I looked up to find her staring at me.
As I dissipated my battle axe I looked down at my sweater and pulled it slightly away from my body... I muttered about it being ruined, it was one of my favorites and that fool of a laundress had already shrunk it almost past wearing as it was. I looked up to find Vorstag grinning grinning like a fool, damn Nords and their lust for battle.
I turned and walked over to the body I had noticed, grimacing when I realized it was a dead Imperial guard. The usual guards for most expeditions, Calcemo preferred anyone but Imperials, as they always reported back to the Military Governor. I grabbed the note that I saw half out of the mans pouch and read it. Just as I suspected the man was a guard from an expedition that had went into the ruins some time ago.
We left out of the spiders chamber and made our way back out to the area Calcemo was using. I gave hem the note and asked him what my job for tomorrow was... Before he could say anything a guard came and said that the Jarl would like to speak with me. I told Calcemo I would see him tomorrow, as I really needed a bath and a hot meal. I turned and told the guard that I would go and see the Jarl in an hour, as I really needed to clean up, The man said that would be fine and he would inform the Jarl.
When we got back to the Inn, I asked the Inn keepers wife if she could heat up a cauldron of water for me, she asked if I wouldn't prefer a regular bath and I explained that I had an appointment with the Jarl in less than an hour, so I didn't really have time. She nodded and yelled for her daughter to come and help her. 10 minutes later they were back with 2 kettles of water and a small tub. As I stripped off my clothing and stepped into the small tub and knelt down, they poured one kettle of water slowly over my head and wash my hair, I used the small cloth that I was handed and started scrubbing at my skin, when they were sure that all the goo had been removed from my hair they started on my back. A knock at the door and Hroki went and got another kettle of water, using the two they rinsed me off.
Frabbi asked me to sit on the bench and they started to dry out my hair, chatting about all the patron's and their quirk's. When I was pink and dry, Hroki said that I should borrow her best dress, because I really should be dressed very nice for the Jarl and none of the clothing I had were really appropriate. I thanked her and wiggled into the gown, it was pretty long on me, but fit otherwise. Frabbi tisked and said to stand on the bench, the two women then hemmed up the gown, with temporary stitches warning me not to step on it as the stitches would not hold.
Vorstag gave me a wink as I came out of my room and told me I looked nice. He had cleaned up and looked pretty good himself. We hurried to Understone Keep to and Vorstag talked to the guard who went and told the Steward we were their. The steward looked our way and nodded. The guard came back and said that the Jarl would see us as soon as he had taken care of some other business. We sat down to wait. I Looked around and almost fell of the stone bench as I spied the most handsome man I had ever seen and that's saying something in my 80 years. Their is something to be said for being half elven, even if you don't know your full heritage.
When the Steward came and got Minervia, I stood and walked just next to the guards. Our job's being the same, guarding.
****** As I write my characters stories as I play... one inspiring the other.. I am putting this story on hold for a bit. I managed to delete the character and their was quiet a bit of things done before I took up the story. I will get back to Minervia, as this is a story that I have very much wanted to play out. It will just be a little while before I want to go back through everything needed to become Thane of the Reach and own the house.....
No comments:
Post a Comment