Chapter 48: Deadland Tourism (2/2)
The guards collapsed where they were as soon as the last undead fell. The rest of the group walked around, keeping an eye out. Only the walkers were still fresh.
Arthur landed and paraded before Viv, who lavished her with praises and rewarded her with some meat. The proud dragonette preened and spread her wings wide so that all could bask in her victorious illustriousness.
“You did such a good job!” Viv congratulated, “they didn’t stand a chance against you!”
“Squee!”
It was at that time that one of the walkers whooped in delight. He picked something from the ground and waved it where all could see. It was the glint of gold, tarnished by time and sorcery, but unmistakable. It came from a rectangular coin at the limit of being an ingot.
Arthur’s gaze turned and she spotted the coin.
It suddenly occurred to Viv that she had never used one of her very few gold talents in Arthur’s presence. The denomination was simply too large to be exchanged on an everyday basis. The most expensive things she had bought in Arthur’s presence had been paid in silver.
In the dragonette’s eyes, the light of cupidity shone like a star.
“Oh dear.”
The party rested for twenty minutes during which Viv pulled black mana from the few wounds the warriors had suffered. Then, the looting began. Viv had almost forgotten that for typical undead hunters, half of their profit came from checking revenants for valuables while the rest was the bounty. It soon became apparent that this location had not been cleared for centuries, and everyone started piling valuables. A lot of the stuff was steel or faded, enchanted pieces of gear with just enough magic left not to fall into pieces. They did not find another pouch of money like the walker had found. There was still quite a bit of silver left. Lorn was giddy.
“This is my favorite part. We get money, and nobody died.”
“How very avaricious. Are you sure you’re not a follower of Sardanal?” Viv teased. Sardanal was the god of wealth so the joke should work.
“Nothing said that good deeds cannot pay!” the guard captain exclaimed.
“Yes,” Koro said, “we punish evil, get rich and get laid. That is the good life.”
Viv could get behind that.
They ended up with a pile of scrap that could nevertheless be used by talented smiths as is, but that they could not transport for the moment. It could wait since it never rained in the deadlands. The rest was the more valuable stuff. They had usable weapons, mostly steel short swords, which they decided to leave as well since they were damaged. They also had a collection of ancient coins and some jewelry. Arthur trotted forth and grabbed one coin.
“Squee.”
“By tradition, casters get ten parts, officers three and footmen one. That coin covers your share, I believe,” Farren said in a rather subdued voice.
“Works for me.”
While the rest split up the loot, Viv asked for one of the walkers to help her with something. A knife, a needle, some thread and a few straps of leather, Viv had made a pouch which she presented to Arthur. The dragonette was still clutching the precious, tarnished coin within two claws with consideration, inspecting it from different angles.
“Here.”
Viv placed the coin in the pouch with only a small resistance, though there was clear distress in Arthur’s face. She fastened the pouch around her neck where it was unobtrusive, and then showed her precocious student how to open and close it. Arthur squeaked impatiently to show she understood and resumed her study.
Meanwhile, the group was ready to go and they moved down the slope, finishing off the revenants that had started to regenerate. They used the opportunity to explore the empty base building by building, finding broken foundry equipment like crucibles, furnaces and the likes, all covered in dust and the rusty remains of scaffoldings.
“It would make sense for the Min Goles mines to have a foundry nearby so that they could transfer ingots directly inland,” Farren noted.
They continued their exploration and found the decrepit remains of barracks and what looked like administrative quarters. They found a lot of coins in the various collapsed remains of chests, but the real treasure was in the topmost office of the tallest building. A safe, damaged by falling stone, easily disgorged its contents with the help of Lorn’s sword.
“Neriad’s fetching buttocks,” Koro exclaimed, “we’re rich!”
They had found the Min Goles treasury. There was enough gold and assorted silver to buy half of Kazar.
“Holy shit.”
“We’re loaded!”
“Squee!”
“Wow,” one of the guards said, “why haven’t we come here sooner?”
“Hmm, the undead infestation?”
“Oh right.”
The group decided to spend the night there and check the mine entrances in the morning. They used the rest of the evening grinning like idiots and splitting the loot, including the walkers who looked slightly less enthused. It was an unexpected boon. Everyone took refuge in one of the barracks which two of the guards meticulously swept and cleaned until it was livable.
“I’m sort of jealous,” Viv admitted as the pair carried on their tasks. One of them, the only female guard besides Koro, turned to her with an amused frown.
“I’m jealous of someone who can depopulate an entire undead town in fifteen minutes. Guess that makes us even?”
Everyone was in a good mood, and jokes and banter fused as Koro cooked the meal. Viv went out and sat next to Marruk who had gotten busy polishing her mace as she kept a vigil on the darkening landscape around them.
“So, you’re rich now,” Viv started.
“So it seems.”
“That means you can leave my employment, if you wish.”
“Yes. I know. But I don’t think I will. I think I want to know everything about guerilla warfare first.”
The Kark placed her weapon down on the ground and massaged her hands. They were quite scarred.
“I told you many times that I left my tribe.”
“You did.”
“I think I was just running away then. Running away from a fate where things would keep up as they were, I would bear witness to my people’s slow death. I told myself that I was looking for… something. A magical weapon. Anything that would stop our extinction. It took me years of wandering before I figured out that I needed a new art of war. It took meeting you. Now that I have finally found it, I want to keep you alive long enough to learn it.”
“You make it sound like it’s hard,” Viv joked, but Marruk was less amused.
“It is. You have an uncanny tendency to end up in the most dangerous situations. One day, that insolent luck of yours will run out.”
Viv thought of her divine spark.
“Or maybe it won’t.”
“Well, I hope we never find out. In the meanwhile, this boon changes nothing. Money will not save us. The best use I can make of it is to buy the best armor I can for myself and try to drag that knowledge back to the steppes. And then probably bang a few heads together until those stubborn idiots are willing to listen to me. And if I get even richer, well…”
“Well what?” Viv asked, curious.
“I’ll hire you.”
Viv smiled and nodded. After she was cured, perhaps.
The group slept soundly and studied the caved-in mine entrance in the morning. It did not take long for the strongmen of the group to open a passage into the complex large enough for people to pass. The last boulder was lifted to reveal an interior completely submerged in darkness. Viv heard something large shuffle in the distance. Farren’s voice echoed in the passage.
“The Min Goles iron mines, ladies and gentlemen. Shall we?”