DAY 340 (13th Alturiak)(February)
Fenrir, alone, served as the Day Air Watch of Westgate today.
Veddic went house hunting.
DAY 341 (14th Alturiak)(February)
Another day of Fenrir patrolling the skies above Westgate.
Veddic arranges the sale of the house on Wizard's Cut.
DAY 342 (15th Alturiak)(February)
Another day of Fenrir patrolling the skies above Westgate.
Veddic accepts the keys of the house on Wizard's Cut.
DAY 343 (16th Alturiak)(February)
Another day of work for Fenrir. As well as ordering the Ring of Knock he had ordered some magical goggles of 'Spotting'. They arrived today at Spectre Island. Random did not let on who had made them.
DAY 344 (17th Alturiak)(February)
As he flew over the city again in the morning, trying out his new glasses, Fenrir realised that even without them he was getting to know the city of Westgate very well. From the air at least. The morning traffic, the markets, the rhythm of the city, was laid out for him each day. He was now pretty familiar with the streets, alleys, grand houses and buildings of the entire city. He was almost at the stage of getting bored with it.
He was shaken out of his boredom when a gnome mounted on a decent sized dragon took off from the city and made to leave west. The gnome was impertinent when questioned and flew off at high speed when Fenrir demanded that he land. There was nothing Fenrir could do as he was limited to the walking speed of his magical wings.
When a sleet and rain storm closed in he went and talked to Trepplemar in her office. She said she would soon find some other people to join him so he wasn't on his own.
Back at Spectre Island he talked to Random who reminded him of the current quests that needed doing:
1. Get rid of Trepplemar from the watch
2. Go through the portal in the Plane of Shadow and see what the 'FAMP' looked like (Failed Alternative Material Plane)
3. Do the next thing in Random's war against the vampires
4. Investigate a pirate ship that was anchored east of the island.
Fenrir was not aware of the fourth item on Random's to do list, so Random took him up to the watchtower and pointed out the lights of the ship.
'It turned up a few days ago. I don't know who they are or what they want, but I should imagine they are curious as to what we are up to here. I can't let Barry's Gang go anywhere until that ship has gone. They might be aligned to one of the pirate factions or just be independents. Pirate politics is very fluid though. If you want you could fly over and check them out some time.'
Fenrir agreed.
'Well then,' continued Random. 'Have you a hat of disguise? Use mine if you don't. Go as another race or gender or something, we really would not like to advertise that a member of the Westgate watch is out here!'
Fenrir had the beginnings of an idea and went to the sick house on the island. A young adept called Uma was tending to the two sick men there.
One of the men had 'PSNBD' or 'Plane of Shadow Nasty Bum Disease' and the other had some sort of disease that had driven him crazy.
Fenrir told Veddic to collect their poop and flew off to their house back in the city. The house was perfect in every way except for the three servants that had been part of the sale, a man, his wife and lout of a son.
As part of the deal they were to retain their employment at the house. Presumably the person selling the house had not wanted them as they were so horrible.
Walking into the main room Fenrir found the son sat in the best chair by the fire drinking the expensive brandy. Fenrir punched him in the face. The lout then went running to his mother crying.
There was a bit of a hoo-haa but in the end Fenrir scared them all into behaving themselves and eventually went to bed.
DAY 345 (18th Alturiak)(February)
It was another day of high winds in Westgate so Fenrir had some time to talk to Trepplemar again. He learned the following things through his usual charming banter:
- She was native to Westgate.
- She has a husband and three grown up children. Four grandchildren.
- She lives in a well defended house in town. Typical wizard's abode full of fireball traps and stuff.
- She believes in the rule of law, but behaves in neither a good or evil way.
- She is 60 (or so) and is considering retiring, but has no obvious successor.
After work Fenrir headed back to his house. He smelled cooking in the kitchen and went in to take a look. His cook was in the middle of cooking something like forty pies!
She tried to lie about it, but it was clear - she was running a business from the house's kitchen.
'Finish them,' growled Fenrir. 'I'll take them to the watch with me tomorrow morning.'
DAY 346 (19th Alturiak)(February)
Fenrir came down in the morning to see a big batch of fresh pies on his kitchen table. They looked good, but he wasn't entirely sure of their contents.
He summoned to cook and told her to eat one, but she refused and ran to her room.
He then angrily stuffed them all into his Bag of Holding and went to work. He sat at the top of the watchtower and read through the paperwork for the house. Since it was all gibberish to him he summoned one of the more clever watchmen he was friends with - a man called Curly - who read over it.
'It's a fairly straight forward contract, my lord. A clause that is often put in to protect the staff of a house when the previous owner leaves. At the end of the day though its up to the sheriff or magistrate who settles the dispute, if there is one. With you being a lord and a man of the watch I can't see how you would have any issues if you slung them out on their arse.'
Fenrir, grumbling, took a pie from his bag and opened it up. All the watchmen agreed it looked like a good pie. Determine not to let the whole pie issue lie he then flew over to another watchtower where he had been told there was a watch cleric who could cast 'Detect Posion.'
He didn't have it memorised so Fenrir said he'd be back the next day.
After work he then hired a steward, a dwarf called Jasper Pen, who then hired three new servants on his behalf. When he returned home he told the horrible servants that they were demoted to toilet cleaners and were to be paid one copper piece a month from here on in.
DAY 347 (20th Alturiak)(February)
When he got to work in the morning Fenrir took the possibly tainted pies to the watch cleric who confirmed that the big pile of pies were poisoned. He did warn that could simply mean that the meat was off, not that there was something deadly like arsenic in there.
After his shift he went and talked to a magistrate called Xender Holysword. He was a paladin and a good man, but he did say that in general a magistrate would take his side in any attempt to remove his unwanted staff, especially if it could be proved the cook had done something nasty to his pies.
[I'm tempted here, dear reader, to wonder why Fenrir wasn't concentrating on more important matters, and not spend days obsessing about pies, but possibly he just wanted to make his house a happy home before doing anything else. I can only speculate.]
He returned home to find that Pen was ruling the place with a rod of iron. Fenrir approved.
He then went to Spectre Island, got Random's Hat of Disguise, Veddic's churn of diseased poop and then flew out to the pirate ship.
It was dark, some of the pirates were getting drunk on deck by the light of the ship's lanterns. He also
saw a man tied to the mast who had just been flogged and two wenches being pestered by more drunks. Another group of drunken pirates were largely failing in an attempt to launch a small boat, with the notion of rowing all the way to Westgate in search of a decent tavern.
Invisibly Fenrir moved through the ship, into the galley, some of the rooms and storage areas. Everywhere he went he smeared some of the effluent in his small churn. He was like some kind of Poop Fairy. A group of pirates below decks did hear him as he wafted by, but they could not locate them.
As pirates went to the tap of the barrel on deck to get another drink he dropped a little of the poop into their tankards.
He then went up onto the crow's nest and waited.
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