March 14th

Everyone awakens from their various routines, refreshed and ready to face the day of doom.

Zeiss doesn't remember what he did as his third action yesterday.

OOC:

After having come back from the past, Zeiss decided to get to work.

First major action: I will ask around if any recent disappearances occurred in Holtburg recently. I will also coordinate with Higaide's first action and search for a yellow who could scan Sareth's house. Burn one use of Persuasion. If that doesn't work, maybe Higaide could pay for it, if he is so willing?

Second major action: manage the Exchange. Check for letters. See if Mevrak found us some roguish recruits. Ask Van how the negotiations for the food are going. Pay the employees.

Third major action: meet privately the Mites who control the Hub to probe their interest in buying the Leycite. Give them the specifications of the Leycite's power (they're so smart, they ought to know how important it is). Here's a few things Zeiss would be interested to know:

• Would it it be enough to restore access to the Hub within Aluvia?
  
• Would it it be enough to restore access to the Hub within Naverre?
  

Here's the kind of payment Zeiss would ask for (not counting the restoration of access to the Hub):

• Money.
  
• Unlimited access to any Hub on the continent for Zeiss and a select few, alongside any suspicious cargo they are carrying (for whenever the Mites decide to reopen the Hub).
  
• Access to the information network with no name.
  

How fast could it be done?
For anyone curious, I'm doing this just to have a backup plan in case Lady Lightmane tries something fishy. Burn two uses of Persuasion and the non-combat action point.

Note: Advoc is always with me as a "bodyguard". I'll also be on the lookout for anyone suspiciously following me. If that's the case, I'll try to lose them.

All actions: Resolve any pending business in Ritholme, prepare for the journey and finally escort the caravan with their destination.

OOC:

First action: assign recruits to supervised rotations to inhabit Sareth's home and keep it under watch at all times. Nothing happens there without us knowing, not until we can get it scanned. Will collaborate with Zeiss for assigning supervisors(not from recruits), but the plan is to have both of our sergeants rotate, while I resume training the recruits by myself for the interim.

Second action: train recruits. Precision and control.

Third action: Rory will pass around a description of a man and his daughter, immigrants from overseas, could have been shipwrecked(i.e. his father and youngest sister), at the docks for sure(people who visit ports and shores are more likely to have seen them than people inland). If reliable, he will pay a sketch artist or similar to draw their portraits as an "exhibit A" to wave about while asking around.

First Action: I'll eat breakfast and write a letter to Zeiss about how I've arrived and what I've found out about Wildeash so far.

Second Action: I'll go to the local courier's office and mail that letter as well as check for any mail for myself.

Third Action: withheld for now.

First Action: Hunt for literature for my Crew, on the topics i previously mentioned: Management/administration, botany, chemistry, carpentry, large-scale construction, metalworking and jewelcraft.

Got 172g

Zeiss learns nothing of any mysterious disappearances in the district around where he is, though it would take several days to ask around the entire metropolis. He does head to Sareth's house with a low level Yellow Mage hired for 2g to Scan the place until his Mana is dry. Among the things he finds out include; the house has been unoccupied since the 10th, there was another individual who was also a Yellow Mage who was present with him at the time of his disappearance, and fortunately your hireling will offer to do a custom Scan to determine where his Exit spell took him, for an additional 10g.

Javan's ex-soldiers are in relatively good spirits, happy at the success in warning the local bandits by bringing one of them in and hopeful that it will lead to a decrease in the area. They lament that it was so easy, and one of them is seriously considering staying to offer to be a Guardian for the local towns. Otherwise the merchants are quite eager to get going and will leave as soon as Javan allows.

Rory manages to wrangle several people together sufficient to keep Sareth's home under watch while Zeiss and his Yellow Mage do their business. The sergeants seem to take their duty seriously.

Kolson enjoys a nice breakfast of Variety Waffles, where each individual 'hole' in the waffle is filled with a different type of berry and there's no two similar berry types represented. It also comes with a side of creamed butter. His letter is sent without incident, though as he does so he is warned that travel time has been reduced due to complications with Country Rider and asks if that's okay before sending the letter proper.

Higaide buys a decent amount of books for about 2g on various topics regarding things he believes might be useful towards getting his people educated from one of the local Holtburg Universities and sets up his people with them without incident. Some of his people are confused at why he's taking this approach, and ask him of his motives.

Zeiss pays the yellow mage to determine where the Exit spell took him.

Javan tells the to-be Guardian that if he believes that's his best way to serve the people, the dragoon is not the one who will try to stop him. He says something cheesy like "Follow your heart, Bobberts!". Besides that, he's ready for the escorting mission.

Some of his people are confused at why he's taking this approach, and ask him of his motives.

He says this more or less to whoever asks, individually. In earnest.

"Look, this world is a really demanding place, more than Vasseyan was. If nothing else, we don't have the Ley Line going for us anymore, and in many ways the Alluvians outright surpass us.

Now, i took this crew to Janwall the other day, and you guys had your spirits in the ground in less than 24 hours. Granted, no one wants to spend a whole day sifting through rubble - it wears you down bad, especially when you've come from all walks of life and have never done this kind of thing before. Part of it was my fault, i should have spent more time building this party into an actual team, and that means - among other things, making a hierarchy, a structure.

The first thing i did to that effect was talk to each of you and make note of your strengths, so we can play to them better instead of just just employing your efforts blindly. Now, i'm trying to help you expand on your fields of expertise. I mean, at the very least it will help you get to know a foreign culture's approach to your line of work, right?

The books don't have any strings attached, but i recommend you read them. Afterwards, if you think you want to further your studies, come talk to me, and we'll see about enrolling you in one of the local Universities, or whatever else you may have in mind.

Any questions?"

Did you mean to say that the delivery time has been increased? Either way I'll ask for a guess for how long it will take. If it's more than a 30% increase in time I'll go to the Country Rider office myself and see if I can't work something out or help them with their problems. You know, proper adventurer stuff. I have it on good authority I'm still playing one of those.

2nd Action: Talk to the Sales Coordinator lady from my Crew. Early in the conversation, after saying hello and whatnot, i'll say.

"I'm not good at beating around the bush, so i'll just say what's on my mind. Zeiss put me in charge of this crew so we'd be a relief effort, humanitarian party, thereabouts. Thing is, i'm no sort of manager or organizer or anything like that - he put me in charge because i have the habit of caring about people in general. Now, i tried to play the manager part, and we saw how well that turned out at Janwall. What i know i need to do is structure, organize, coordinate, etc, but i have no skill in those fields, and my duties may pull me away from here at a moment's notice, so i'm asking you if you'd like to be this Crew's manager.

I'm not dumping them on you, or anything - i'll still be in charge of them for whatever needs to be done, but i'll let you handle the... smart work. The things that involve the know-how of how to run a large group of people like we have here, and i'll seek your input on any major decision about the party's well-being in that area.

If you want the job, that is."

(if she accepts, could i get a name?)

3rd Action: I'm not sure if this is available anymore, since the last time we took a bill was ages ago, but i'll gonna look for something similar i can take on, so i can earn some money to keep my people fed.

PS: Sorry i took so long.

If Zeiss learns where Sareth is, he will change his second action to go save him. He will inform the other party members of this.

Rory spends his afternoon frustrated trying to teach farmers, fishermen, merchants, and laborers how to hit things with precision and control. While Rory does his best, luck just does not seem on his side today.

Kolson manages to engage in the local Rider personnel in discussion about the problems they're having, which are numerous. The first and most blatant is the sudden total lack of the transportation infrastructure that the Country Rider has relied on for years, which includes the Hub, and the fact that they've just hit the re-negotiation phase of their contracts with Archon Transport Systems, negotiations which are going nowhere due to the fact that ATS is currently struggling not to be nationalized while simultaneously seeking to sell their services towards war efforts instead of letter and package delivery. And of course, there are fairly frequent bandit attacks throughout the entire Holtburg Region which has made deliveries (which are almost universally done by foot or on cart now) more expensive due to the need for defense. Oh and Kolson has no letters yet.

Zeiss learns that Sareth was Exit'd along with his captor towards a particular area of the Warehouse District far to the east, closer towards the shoreline. The Scan is sufficient to actually get Zeiss the exact location, which MIGHT be connected to the Veil, though the ongoing efforts to map the Veil have been happening for days now and they've still barely mapped a fraction of it, stretching for dozens of miles as it does in all directions.

Javan spends his day preparing for and, inevitably, relenting to his now-employers' wishes to leave now and not risk further loss of the bottom line. The preparations take quite some time, as one might imagine given the size of the caravan (over 12 wagons and well over 20 carts). Javan no doubt prepares patrols and rotations for him and his now-reduced troupe to keep the entire convoy safe.

After some considerable thought, Jenna decides she'll think about it for a bit, since she's not used to organizing or managing on the scale that Higaide is asking her to.

Second major action: Zeiss will meet Rory and Higaide to tell them what he learned about Sareth's disappearance and his plan to rescue him. Their help would be greatly appreciated, considering that this encounter will most likely turn into a fight, but Zeiss is willing to attempt this rescue with Advoc only.

He will also roll knowledge engineering to determine how likely a path into the Veil exists. If he feels confident about it, he will use the Veil to approach the location. Otherwise, he will use the streets. Use stealth to scout.

After some considerable thought, Jenna decides she'll think about it for a bit, since she's not used to organizing or managing on the scale that Higaide is asking her to.

"Fair enough. Thanks for hearing me out."

Zeiss will meet Rory and Higaide to tell them what he learned about Sareth's disappearance and his plan to rescue him.

"I'm in."

If possible, i would like to reset my 3rd Action to assist Zeiss in his rescue attempt.

Zeiss lightly grins. He turns towards Rory.

"What about you?"

"By the gods, anything to get my mind off this glorified rugby practice I call 'guard training," he answers with a distressed grunt.

"I don't particularly care for leading, but I thought I'd be used to it by now."

Zeiss laughs a little.

"Let's go kill some bad guys then."

The party then leaves.

EDIT: While Zeiss talk with Rory and Higaide, could Advoc take care of paying the Exchange's employees before we go?

While Advoc attempts to pay several of the workers in a rather long line their silvers for the week, Zeiss thinks on his Knowledge of Engineering and decides that it's incredibly likely that the Veil at least reaches the same area as the warehouse he's after, but directly connecting is far less likely as the Veil only touches on a few buildings every few miles, with very few entrances and exits.

We're going to use the Veil to approach the area and do the rest on foot. After we paid our employees (don't want to alert them by acting like something is wrong). Zeiss is gonna help Advoc with the payment and coordinate with him mentally. If the party has any idea as how to best prepare ourselves, now is the time.

If that's the case I'll offer to break the bandit's hold over the region. For a price of course. I'll need to speak to someone with authority to make this kind of deal.

(Kolson forces NPCs to make quest. Kolson accepts the quest! You can pay me and everything! )

The ... two or three party members deciding to try to head to and storm the Warehouse district have decided to transit through the Veil to reach there, which means they have a choice of resting up tonight and getting there tomorrow on their 3nd action, or heading out now and forgoing sleep to arrive on their first action tomorrow.

While Zeiss is paying the employees, Rory sleeps for one hour (he has that useful magical item that allows him to be rested with only one hour of sleep). Zeiss has an 8 hours endurance potion he can drink when they get to the warehouse area. He will share half of it with Higaide when they get there. As for navigating the Veil, Zeiss also has a magical ring of light which he can use to illuminate the way (white light, 30 feet).

So that's the plan, unless my companions disagree.