Dungeon Life

Chapter Two-Hundred Sixty-Eight

Everyone sits around for a few minutes while Kennith and Unsil catch their breath, before Teemo glances over at the Stag. “Did you still want to get a direct look at it?”

The Stag pales as his ear flicks, and sighs in relief after a few moments. “My Lord is satisfied with simply knowing the Harbinger will no longer be a threat, and that all possible is being done to ensure that threat ends here. If you don’t mind, I think I will take a look around Silvervein. My Lord would like to get a better understanding of what they might wish from delving him.”

Teemo smirks. “Fair. It looks like the Harbinger is being more than a little rowdy right now. Can’t imagine why it’s so upset, heh.” The Stag chuckles, but doesn’t have any other reply to that, giving Aranya a chance to speak up with her own curiosity as he goes, though at Kennith instead of the other Voice.

“So, what will the contract negotiations entail? I understand Lord Thedeim already has a quest. I wanted to be involved if there are negotiations to be had, but will they even be necessary?”

Kennith fiddles with the sleeve of his robe as he thinks. “Ordinarily, I don’t think it would be necessary. The few times I’ve been involved in something like this, I’m basically just notarizing the completion of a quest. With this monstrosity, though, I’d like to be as official as possible. Can you bring a table and some chairs, someone? This could be awkward trying to work on the floor.”

Teemo looks around the room for a few moments before agreeing. “Yeah, it looks like this place was decently furnished, but the fighting wasn’t kind to the furniture.”

Unsil speaks up. “I’ll see what I can find. There should be a lot of my fellow followers nearby I can ask to help.”

“A medium table and three chairs would be perfect, but even just a single table or a podium would be better than trying to sign on the floor,” suggests Kennith, and with that, Unsil heads out to find some help and some office equipment.

“So, what’s official Order business entail, then? I think the last time someone tried to get fancy, it involved incense, chants, and maybe some holy water, back when that one guy tried to consecrate the cemetery.”

Kennith smiles and shakes his head. “Lord Order prefers parchment, ink, and signatures. I’ll need… let me see…” He starts looking through the pockets of his robe, and from what Teemo can see, it’s like he has a filing cabinet inside each one.

“Notarization of a completed quest, official transfer of… I think prisoner is most appropriate, witnessed authority to transport said prisoner…” He looks up to Teemo and Aranya. “You said the local authority is in flux at the moment?” At their nod, he resumes looking through his pockets and thinking out loud. “Can’t appeal to the local government for any permits to strengthen anything…”

“Is all that really needed?” asks Teemo

Kennith nods absently as he continues looking through his pockets, even pulling out a tome with a title of ‘Cross-Pantheon Agreements’ as he answers. “In more ordinary circumstances, I would probably simply write you a signed receipt for the Harbinger, but as I said; I want to do this by the book. The more order that can be imposed on this, the more likely Lord Order will be to keep anything unfortunate from happening.” He pauses to squint at the page, clearly reading some regulation or another, before shaking his head and putting the book away.

“I think those three are the most I can do. Thankfully, I should be able to transfer the Harbinger directly to Lord Order, thanks to my affinity, so there should be minimal chance for it to escape in transit.”

“How’s that work?” asks Teemo, curious about how someone else works with spatial affinity. I’m curious, too. I can guess, but with him there, I don’t need to.

Kennith looks like he’s about to go into a long-winded explanation, before he pauses and smiles. “Right, you’re spatial affinity, and rather strong with it. The deities that have fully ascended exist in higher dimensions than we do. Even with my affinity, the specifics are complex, but the end effect is similar to one of your shortcuts, allowing me to connect and even move the space the Harbinger occupies into a space chosen by Lord Order.”

Aranya looks a bit lost, but Teemo explains it. “It’s like how a piece of paper is basically just length and width, but no real height. If all you could sense was that paper, you’d never know when someone picks it up, because you can’t sense up in that case. I basically put the Harbinger on its own piece of paper, and it sounds like Kennith will… basically be a courier to deliver it. None of us can really feel the paper moving around, so we don’t notice anything besides the Harbinger being gone.”

Kennith nods. “There are details that don’t really translate well to our reality, but that’s the gist of it. To extend the metaphor, I’ll be sealing the Harbinger in a scrollcase to ensure it can’t somehow break free, and placing a wax seal to not only further keep it contained, but also to allow Lord Order to accept the delivery. The extra contracts help strengthen those.”

Aranya ponders that, and I can feel Teemo chewing on the metaphor to try to glean some more insights while Kennith seems to be checking for parchments and inks in his pockets now, too. I bet he has fancier ones than normal, too. A contract written in pink ink on normal binder paper is probably still binding, but I bet something like proper vellum and some kind of magical ink will lend it even more weight.

It takes a few more minutes before Unsil returns, looking a bit embarrassed by what he’s managed to find. “All I could dig up is what I think was a food or drink cart. The wheels can lock and it’s nice and stable, but that’s all I could find.”

Kennith smiles and waves for him to bring it over. “That will do just fine. There’s a rise in the floor here I can use to access the top easily enough. There are three... oh, receipt!" He smiles to himself before continuing. "Four contracts I wish to invoke for this: A notarized witness of the other three contracts, a recognition of my authority to transport the prisoner, an official transfer of prisoner, and receipt of prisoner. Thankfully, as the Harbinger is not in the territory of any dungeon, the contracts can be deity to deity, and thus be transactional. If it was in a dungeon’s territory, I believe a pact would be required with the dungeon.”

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Teemo smiles as he feels my relief at that. “That all sounds good to the Boss. He’s trying to avoid any pacts.”

Kennith nods at that. “As am I. They come with a whole slew of obligations and responsibilities that I don’t think Lord Order is interested in at this time. First: the witness agreement. Do you, High Priestess Aranya and you, Paladin Unsil, agree to act as witnesses to these contracts and verify that all parties involved freely agree to all terms involved?”

Unsil nods, and Aranya mirrors him after a few moments of consideration. Kennith produces what I’m pretty sure is magical vellum, because I can feel a weight to it through Teemo’s senses, just as I can feel weight behind the ink and quill the Head priest of Order produces next.

“Then please go over the wording here, and sign directly underneath it to show your agreement. I will name each other contract as we proceed, and you will sign again for each witnessed as freely accepted.”

They sign, and quiet power thrums in just the witness agreement thing. I’m not usually one for this kind of legal formality, but it’s pretty clear he wasn’t kidding about Order being able to effect his power through the contracts. If that'll keep the Harbinger secure, I'm not gonna complain.

“This is the Recognition of Authorty to Transfer a Prisoner. By signing this, I assert my authority to transport this prisoner, and Thedeim recognizes that authority.” He places it on the food trolley and signs, then turns it for Teemo to read. For a ‘contract’ it’s very brief, with only a few more words than what Kennith said. It looks legit to me, Teemo. Please sign it for me.

Teemo steps forward and pauses for a moment. “Do I sign my name, or the Boss’?”

Kennith smiles and shakes his head at himself. “Ah, of course. Sign it as ‘your name, representative of who you are representing'. I’ll be signing as ‘Kennith Ridgeward, representative of Lord Order’ for the final notarization of the completion of your quest.”

Teemo nods, and is pleasantly surprised when the quill shrinks in his hand. I get the feeling spatial affinity is surprisingly useful in this kind of situation as he signs, not only for the quill being easily held in his hands, but his writing landing large enough on the page to make it easily legible. Once signed, Aranya and Unsil sign the witness agreement, and I can feel the two pieces of parchment resonating with each other.

“This is the Transfer of Prisoner Authorization, dependent on the completion of the quest Lord Order gave Thedeim. Please double check that all is in order, and sign if it is.” Once again, the contract is refreshingly simple, making me wonder if legalese makes things more or less legitimate to Order. I’m pretty sure Aranya said he’s even less concerned with ceremony than I am, so simpler language is probably more binding than complex. Teemo signs it again, Unsil and Aranya sign the witness form once more, and I can even start to feel the harmony of the contracts all the way by the field hospital, where Honey and Queen are organizing a dissection of the least and lessers.

“This is the Official Receipt of Prisoner,” Kennith declares, and even though he doesn’t raise his voice, it feels like it reverberates through the room. For a third time, the contract is straightforward, and signatures are added to it and the witness form. Kennith gathers up the contracts and goes over them one last time.

“All parties declare they are aware of the stipulations of the agreements and will abide by the terms fully?” At the nods of everyone, he continues. “Then, as an Official Agent of Order, I declare these contracts in effect and ask Lord Order to invoke them to their fullest extent.”

For a brief moment, nothing happens. Then I get a popup.

Quest Complete! Accept Reward? Y/N?

Of course, I accept, and suddenly I’m drowning in mana! Teemo grunts for me as I shunt almost all of it into the ally pool. I take a moment to try to recover from all that and the confirmation that, though there doesn’t seem to be a hard cap to how much mana I can have, it definitely gets uncomfortable if I have too much. I can feel surprise from the Southwood, Hullbreak, and Violet at the ocean of mana in the ally pool. There’s definitely more in there than I want to hog to myself, and I trust them all to not just empty it out before we can all discuss what to do with it.

I can also feel there’s more in my options, but for now, there’s one last thing I’d like to discuss with Kennith.

“Whoof, that quest wasn’t kidding about the mana gain. How soon do you need to get going, Kennith?” asks Teemo for me. The gnome hums as he considers, putting away the contracts into a pocket of his robe.

“I should probably leave soon, possibly tomorrow. Why?”

“Can you stick around for a while?”

Kennith looks confused at that, as do Aranya and Unsil. “Why do you ask?”

“Because the Boss wants to make sure Silvervein gets their political structure sorted without any major pitfalls, and you are an Agent of Order, right?”

The gnome looks uncertain. “Yes, though I do have obligations back at Holdhome to attend to.”

“Can your boss have someone else handle it? The Boss isn’t going to ask for your help for nothing, of course. You still want the information on the least and lessers, right? I think Tarl of the Dungeoneers is also investigating. If you stick around, we can give you a copy of what we figure out, and probably a corpse or two for Order to look at himself.”

Kennith looks conflicted for a few moments, before his eyes widen. “I… I believe Lord Order would want me to stay. I just received a quest to secure this additional information. There are others in Holdhome who can tend to my duties there, if they must.”

Teemo grins. “Great! Sounds like you’ll be sticking around here for a while, then. There’s a couple inns and such around, so you can get yourself a room, and head to the field hospital once you’re ready. If Tarl finds anything, that’s probably where he’ll go to let us know, and that’s where Honey and Queen are, too.”

Unsil smiles and claps Kennith on the back, nearly sending the gnome flying. “I’ll make sure he gets settled in, Teemo.”

“I’ll come with you,” offers Aranya. “I believe Ragnar and Aelara are at one of the taverns, with the latter trying to keep the former out of trouble, and I think Yvonne is also searching for any clues as to the mystery spawner.”

“You guys have fun! I’ll probably go hang out with Queen and Honey for a while, maybe get at least one of them to help with the search. See you guys later!”

I smile as everyone heads off to do their thing, and while Teemo checks in on my two eusocial scions, I’m going to see about plotting out a bit more for the Forest of Four Seasons. With that windfall from the quest, there’s a lot I can do, even with splitting the reward.