With that the innkeeper waved them out the door on to their first contract.
The First Contract: Mapping the Marsh
After a week of walking to the east, the same route the Ludan troops had retreated on, the mercenaries came upon a dense swamp with a smaller path leading into it. Taking this path, which consisted of beaten dirt in some places and wooden walkways in others, they arrived at a small cluster of buildings which seemed to blend into the marsh itself. Looking more closely, they realized this cluster wasn't small at all. It stretched back into the swamp quite a ways, but all that was apparent of the more distant buildings were faint lights. The mercenaries experienced an odd mixture of a sense of grandeur and quaintness all at once. While pondering this feeling, a dark green robed man approached them, followed by a smaller female in light green robes.
"Well you lot stick out, don't you. You must be responding to our contract." He gave them a glance up and down.
"Well, I can't say you are what I expected from mercenaries, but you'll do for marching around a swamp. This here is Alice. She'll be drawing the map itself. We'd rather have one of our own doing that." At this he shot them a suspicious look before continuing his briefing.
"You'll be mapping the northern bit of the swamp. Find as many landmarks as you can. Giant trees, clearings, clusters of specific herbs, funny shaped rocks, I don't care what. So long as other novices can recognize them and orient themselves based off of them, they'll work. We'll pay you 5 iron shillings per landmark, and if you can get to the northern edge of the swamp with enough landmarks to find your way back, we'll pay you a flat sum of 60 shillings. Follow me."With this he led them north through town. They passed a building much larger than most, which they assumed to be the guild's headquarters. When the reached the northern edge he told them,
"Listen, I know this isn't the most glamorous job, and the pay isn't great. But this city needs this badly. Without new territory to work in, there's no way we'll be able to make the payments in that blasted treaty. If you see any herbs that this one recognizes," he shot a glance at Alice,
"you can keep them. Not that there's much hope of that." Shaking his head, he walked off.
As he left Alice said in a tiny, timid voice,
"I'm not that bad. He just doesn't like it that he's my mentor, and I'm not as good as some of the other novices." She blushed as she finished, and looked away almost as if to apologize for having spoken out. In front of the group lay a dense swamp, with no clear path.
How will you map this dense marsh?
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Topic: Roll for Hire - IC - 4th Contract: Goblin Caves (Read 26503 times)