“Where are the caravans?!”

My day had gone to shit real quick. After a month of negotiations, I had managed to set up a trading deal between the Merchant Guild in Radasanth and the mining town of Stormhope. I should have been kicking back at a bar enjoying a Corone Sunrise and playing with the little Akashima folding umbrella in my cup, and instead after only one shipment the caravans had stopped. Instead I was sitting in the officer one of the Merchant Guild’s representatives getting yelled at by a man who looked like the love child of a potato and a shaved cat.

“Well!?” he spat.

“I don-”

“You don't know! You don't know! I bloody know you don't know!”

“Then wh-”

“Because Miss Remedy Blue, because I wanted to see you say it! Now this is what is going to happen. You will go to Stormhope, you will find out why they stopped and you will start them again. Am I clear?”

I nodded.


“Y'edda’s butt!”

I paced in my room trying to work out what I was going to do. As soon as I had heard the caravan hadn't arrived I sent out a man to check it out. He had not come back, so I sent another. Then another. None had returned, a sizeable issue given they were only to be paid upon returning the information to me. That left only a few options. Robbers could have taken the caravan and the riders out en route. However it would be rare for robber to take a load of quartz as their prize. Perhaps it was something with the town itself….

I sighed and huffed in frustration. There was no choice, I had to go. The contract had an clause providing me with ongoing stipend to ‘ensure the contract is fulfilled’. A throw away line that is generally just there to ensure a steady stream of income. Now it forced me to investigate the missing caravan. But I couldn't do it alone. Well, perhaps I could have… but it wasn't wise to do it alone. I needed to hire help.




I had put out the call for hired arms three days ago. I didn’t wanted anything fancy, well to be honest, I didn't want anyone expensive. Fancy was fine, as long as it didn’t cost any more coppers. As long as they could handle themselves in a fight and were not a fall down drunken fool, they would do. The tedious nature of the journey meant that I needed to organise supplies, a few horses and wagon. Three days was enough to get all that sorted well enough. Any quicker and I’d have ended up paying a premium. The notices I had put around the local haunts had been simple:

Mercenaries and Adventurers wanted.
Danger at Stormhope?
Investigation leaves by east gate
Day of rest, third of the morn’

Truth be told, I didn’t like how the writers of Radasanth formed their prose, but they remained resolute in their format. A few minutes to the deadline and I was sitting in the back of the wagon, my chin rested in my palm, and my arm perched on my knee. I had attempted to pack light, at least somewhat. In the wagon was food and water enough for the trip there and back twice over. If all was well and I was able to start the shipments the moment we arrived in Stormhope, I could even sell the extra food to some weary traveller, too hungry and tired to realise the price I was peddling. My red hair was getting long and I had tied it into a single long plat running down my back. I wore a leather jacket over my leather suit. It offered some protection from the cold wind. While there was some time before the harshness of winter, summer had long since left. There was another bag in the back of the wagon full of my bits and pieces. If things really got serious, the contents of the bag would become very handy.