Chương 354: AF Chapter 353 – Northwatch Keep goes Cauling

Relative to the great uproar of the Resurrections, introducing a bunch of beeswax and superb honey to the population was pretty mild, but it and a whole lot of cheese and milk hit the storehouses with a show of plenty that hadn't been seen in years. Pyreal coins came into circulation again, although they didn't truly replace those of base metal since they tended to be accumulated and disappear after a short time. It was all good, as we had plenty of the base metals, too.

We were sending out the majority of the daily production every day for people to Infuse or Invest into objects, and the crafters and tinkers found themselves with all the work they could handle making the grade of weapons, Implements, armor, rings, bracelets, amulets, belts, boots, gloves, and even clothing needed to take Enchantments and make the world a better place to live in.

Indeed, so many Disks were being poured and polished for Enchantment it just wasn't funny, as they were proving to be ubiquitous for cargo-hauling by and for everyone, with the only limit to how much they could carry being how much magic was Invested into them. If we were giving away so many pyreal bars to power it all up, why not spend it on some creature comforts, too? Oddly enough, it didn't stop the mining of the Elemental Fields, as the jewels picked up still had value on their own…

and the Life Gems for being raised from the dead had to come from somewhere. There was exactly one person alive who could meld a bunch of lower-value gemstones into a larger, purified gemstone that could be used to Raise someone from the dead right now. There were even people claiming that I was a national treasure and I should be kept safe and guarded around the clock so my services would be available to any who needed them.

My statement that none such services would be available to anyone who supported such restrictions on my activities meant those words dried up quickly, and the men who'd whispered them paled to find their names on a blacklist that meant there was no coming back for them at my hands. Divination magic, Rumortracing, was such a nasty spell when it could track words back to those who voiced them.

Our materialization was quiet and very stealthy. We came in silent, and everyone promptly froze, looking about with Masks down and Devilsight up. The Roaches were loving their first tastes of Soul Magic and what it could do, and that was no lie, even if they were dependent on Tats to manifest the stuff. Kris pointed at the Blight visible at the edge of our vision, but the air here was still and dry, and didn't seem to have encouraged or allowed the expansion of the growth.

The stuff was psycho-active, however, and so not even Mark usage was allowed here. Lightfoot was used to skim carefully above the ground, giving them no vibrations or sounds of footfalls to orient on with their own senses, especially the primitive moars still present among them. All their gear close-stashed and Stealthslaked so that even if they knocked into something it was silent, the Roaches split off into pairs.

The amount of dust on the floor was encouraging, showing no tracks and basically undisturbed by the years. I stayed put while the Mick, Kris, and the Roaches glided off into the darkness in total silence. Kris went straight up the hallway that led to the throne room, if the layout was similar to Freebooter Keep. I'd sussed out the former connections to the Portal Room on Freebooter Isle, the more frequent one obviously connected to here.

I gathered that the crew that operated out of Northwatch Keep was also the crew that was smuggling out the results of the mining on Freebooter's Isle. The second destination was a bit more obfuscated, and might have been a totally private Dungeon of one sort or another, shunted violently in reality, much like the Faction Headquarters had been and all other Dungeons.

But now I had a second vector to work from, and that meant triangulation and glorious math telling me precisely where a Portal coming to and from this place and Freebooter had once been centered. Unfortunately, I couldn't infer real-world coordinates from what I was seeing, so where exactly it was leading I wouldn't know until we got there, and I couldn't even send through a Divination to see what was on the other side. Suck.

But I could reach it, and I had the stealthiest kill-team active on Dereth working with me, although Master Oswald might beg otherwise. Oh, well, there was just to wait and see what they found.

The haul actually wasn't bad, a couple boxes of MMD notes which the odds were long on actually getting converted in full, but we were going to try. The NPC archmage in the Mountain Sewers had just started to display signs of glitching out as she doled out dragon's hoards of pyreal to us, and someone might have noticed the way we were spreading out so many ingots to so many people. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

We'd see when I checked in on her later with these last deliveries of MMD's to her, and see just how effectively they'd shut us down. It truly didn't matter, as long as our existing coinage wasn't eliminated… and most of it was currently held in Tapestry form and Itemized on top of that, 'nothing to see here', even as countless tons of pyreal vanished from the System.

After all, it wasn't doing anything that the System hadn't been doing for itself, it was just now being done by mortals instead of whatever arbitrary standards were set by the System. Such hubris, taking matters into our hands instead of waiting for the whims of the System and its controllers here. I shuffled the boxes into Item form and put the scrolls into my Masspack.

One Mass Item could basically handle all the stuff I had Itemized and was holding onto, with the spell lasting for several weeks if I cared to let it ride, and otherwise easily re-applied. The Tapestries wouldn't wear out until they came out of Item form, either. Quaver's Sound Bubble swallowed all of our voices right now, so there was no chance we were going to be overhead here.

"That is definitely another Market Chamber on the other side of the main door back there, and occupied by a lot of real Blighted Sclavi and undead who've given themselves over to T'Thuun." She glanced at the Roaches, and Rogar spoke up first.

"We found platinum veins below, although nothing as pretty as that pyreal vein below Freebooter. Still, I wouldn't be surprised to learn they were the major supplier of plat Scarabs to the magecrafters and archmages back before the Fall with what I saw below," the King Roach reported, then blinked.

"If the NPC's weren't pulling all of that shit out of nowhere," he amended carefully.

"No, they were definitely making Plats," the Mick assured us all wryly.

"But in the quantities they were being used? Not a chance. The vast majority were just like dropped loot off the creatures we slaughtered so endlessly. And I don't know any active platinum mines out there fer making more o' the things, so yer likely right?"

"We can't even use the spells properly without one of those new Virindi Talismans, but King Borelean's been looking for the original mine for years. Oddly enough, nobody knew where it was located," Princess Kristie sniffed, looking around.

"This likely were kept pretty hush-hush, though you have to wonder where they dumped all the tailings and the like. Some dead valley in the middle of nowhere?" I hazarded.

"Think we'll find out on our next jump?" the Mick asked, facing the wall with the vestigial scorched marks and Runework indicating a former Portal had once been active there.

"Likely. The rails lead right up to the Portal, so they were definitely using it as their smeltery and dumping ground," Kris agreed.

"Got enough for a 'port, Ryin?"

"Definitely, Highness," I answered her, grasping Crown and preparing to sweep up the whole team.

"Everyone ready?"

"Weapons out or in?" the Mick asked professionally.

"Be prepared to draw, but stealth until we know what we are facing," Kris stated firmly. Everyone crowded, hands touching the person to their left, all of them reaching to touch me or my Staff as I brought up the Teleport, focused on the proper direction, and shunted us out of there smoothly and across space in That Direction.

It was a bit more twisty and turny than my normal 'porting, as it wasn't along Lived-Lines, but following a connection that had once existed along a different dimensional setting, and was only fixed relative to the surface of the planet. Still, nausea and dizziness aside, I got us there with minimal problem, and everyone was experienced enough to fight aside the side-effects of a non-Line dimensional shunt and be instantly ready to fight.

We were in a wide room with a rail system in the floor, leading left, while another set of tunnels led right and straight away from the Portal.

"I smell the sea," the Mick whispered instantly, everyone's Masks down, scanning right and left.

"Nothing on Detects," I murmured, feeling no Auras other than our own close by, although the stone in the way limited the range considerably.

"Follow the rails outside first." Kris led the way in a silent prowl towards the fresh air, but she didn't have far to go, just down a gradual slope and to a stop block designed to halt and empty an oncoming mine cart. Beyond was a gaping cliffside, and the dashing waters of the sea beating against it, with nothing else in sight to either side.

"Location?" Kris asked shortly, looking over everything below. I stepped outside, cast the Cantrip, and turned around sharply. A Holo flicked up, since we were still keeping the Markspace neutral in case of Blight nearby.

"Oh, fuck me running. We're on the Singularity Caul," the Mick murmured, seeing the location on the outer rim of an island off the southwestern coast of Dereth.

"Nobody went here for much o' anything towards the end, leaving it to the shadows, the cultists, an' the critters what spawned here. Ye might have hunted some o' the unique spawns for their drops, but it were pretty much abandoned to the shite living here otherwise."

"Perfect place to put a smeltery you don't want anyone checking up on, especially if it can't be accessed conventionally," Kris pointed out.

"Everyone noticed the dust, I trust." There was almost none, and what was present had definitely been swept to the side by traffic, occasional or otherwise.

"They had people living here, aye, as well as the Cult of the Raven Hand, which fell in with Bael'Zharon and the Shades here on Dereth," the Mick nodded along.

"The Raven Hand is active on Dereth?" Kris rolled her eyes.

"Fucktards always find the darkest and most twisted arseholes to follow. Where are the Knights of the Golden Flame, then?"

"Ye do know of them?" The Mick was rather startled.

"Never did hear anything o' them back home, but nae surprise. Couldnae even read back then," he admitted without shame.

"They're a cult, as you said, always following dark powers, which might or might not also be affiliated with the darker members of the undead, just as the Knights of the Golden Flame might have been inspired by visits from the Falatacot of the Light back home from long ago visits. Not so surprising, right? Only they just had a creed and faith, nothing really unique to them," Kris informed him.

"Well here, they an' the Ravens had Aegis Shields for the symbols o' their Orders, an' they definitely kept their grudge going nice an' hard, they did. Aren't aware o' any surviving the Fall, however… an' who knows how well the Raven Hand did, although they had large numbers serving as Summons on this place," Lord Mick shrugged.

"It is more likely that they've been recruited by Nuhmudira," I interrupted them calmly, getting everyone's attention.