Of Sorcery and Ale: Chapter 2

Why oh why does the Attic always requires me to login once again, even after I have ticked "Login each time I visit" checkbox?

--Chapter Two
--Of Turnips and Griffons

The next morning, Kyron woke up with a start from a nightmare involving several Sword Spiders. He had dreamt that they were back in the Cloakwood forest, he had accidentally set off a trap and he was webbed, helpless, and could only watch as the spiders advanced and prepared to feast. It was Kita and Xan who saved him that time, as Xan managed to strike one spider with his Moonblade and Kita threw a dagger in the eyes of another. Xan managed to launch off a spell that pushed the spider back when Kivan finished it off with an arrow to its eye.
He barely remembered what happened last night. Kita, to celebrate her newfound friend and job, had drunk a lot of ale. Kyron tried to warn her, but as usual she didn't listen.
Now that he was awake anyway, Kyron decided that he should probably wake Nalia and Kita up so that they may get to Nalia's keep sooner, because the best time to travel is usually around dawn. With that in mind, he dressed and advanced to Nalia's bed.
"Nalia." he whispered. "Nalia. Wake up."
"Mmm, yes Daleson, thank you...what will breakfast be this morning?" Nalia muttered sleepily.
Wondering briefly who in the nine hells Daleson was, Kyron continued to prod her and tell her to wake up, until after about five minutes she finally did so. And then she screamed upon seeing Kyron.
"Who are you?!" she asked after screaming.
"It's me, milady...Kyron...you met me yesterday..." Kyron said with a sigh. Short term memory?
"Oh...oh. It's you...I hired you, didn't I...yes, hired you! We must go to my keep!" Nalia said, sitting up. "Err, could you please turn around so I can get dressed? Thank you." she said as Kyron did so.
"So," Kyron asked, though shuffling of robes and Kita's snores. "Why did you become a mage?"
"It was my dead mother's wishes." Nalia replied. "I had teachers to teach me every second day. He's a very nice man, although rather poor. I used to give him some extra money, it's only fair for us to help the lesser folk...and you can turn around now." she added.
Kyron did so, and saw that Nalia was dressed in a light blue robe. He himself was wearing a robe, although his was dark blue laced with black. He walked over to Kita's bed and tried to wake her up. As usual, this was proving to be a challenge.
"So...are you a mage, then?" Nalia said, taking her weapon and equipment from a corner of the room.
"Not by choice." Kyron replied as Kita turned around in her sleep and mumbled something incoherent. "I suppose you could call me a...sorcerer."
Nalia gasped and dropped her short sword.
"That means...you were born to cast magic? I never thought I'd actually meet one of them...wow."
"Yes, I was born with an ability to use magic, although its powers are hard to control - in my early years, there were lots of accidents involving my powers. Watch this." he added. Kita was proving to be difficult if not impossible to wake. Desperate time calls for desperate measures...
Kyron focused his powers and his hands set on fire. Nalia gasped again as Kyron used that hand to touch Kita on the cheeks briefly, then extinguished the flame while he watched Kita jump up yelping.
"Hey! What was that for!" she demanded.
"You won't wake up, so I had to burn you!"
"Well, you could at least TRY to wake me, like tell me to wake up or prod me with a stick or something!"
"Of course. Why didn't I thought of THAT?" Kyron sighed. Again.

The three of them ate breakfast downstairs. Nalia urged them to hurry up and go on, but Kyron insisted that to fight off whoever is attacking her keep three people will not be enough, so while eating he was keeping a constant watch out for mercenaries.
As he was eating, he spotted a familiar face in the crowd. "Yoshimo!" he called out, and the man turned around, then looked overjoyed to see them. "Ahh, my friends, it's good to know that you have escaped from that prison." he said. Yoshimo was the rogue they met while in Irenicus' dungeon.
"Look, Yoshimo, we need your help." Kyron said.
"Indeed? I'll be glad to assist you in any way possible." the Kara-Turan thief said. "But what does this job involve?"
"Let her explain." Kyron said and nudged Nalia, who then broke into a story about her keep been invaded.
Meanwhile, Kyron looked for more candidates for helping them. He spotted two likely adventurers: one, a human with a fuzzy moustache and an arrogant expression sitting in a corner alone, and two, a dwarf with a large axe who was sitting at a table drinking ale alone. Kyron judged those by the fact that they don't seem to belong with the rest of the crowd, what with the armor and all. He decided to approach the dwarf.
"Greetings!" he said as he sat at the dwarf's table. "Might I ask your name?"
"Me name be Korgan Bloodaxe, longlimb." he replied and took a swig from his cup. "What is it ye want?"
"We're looking for mercenaries." Kyron explained. "To help save her keep."
"Oi, mercenaries, is it? Well there be a coincidence, I be lookin' for mercenaries as well!" Korgan said, spilling a bit of ale in the process. "So somebody actually decided to help that lass, eh? Well listen up. I'll help ye, but only if ye pay me well, and only if ye help me afterwards."
"Help you? For what?"
"Belly up, comrades, and let Korgan flail the bladder for a spell." the dwarf said. "A fortnight past, me fellows and I were in the midst of obtaining an ancient text fer our patron when a skirmish visited our midst. Vile words, alas, became a lake of bloodshed."
"I see." Kyron said.
"So it goes the sacred grimoire ne'er made it to our benefactors hand. And now he awaits its arrival with a zeal reserved for a grog-blossom in an alekeg."
"I...see." Kyron said, trying to keep up with the dwarf's language.
"The scuttlebutt is the pay is handsome and worthy of note--sacks of loot and odd magics. The volume sits not far from 'ere and the bibliomaniac he paces the floor in the meantime."
"Ehh...I...see. Who is this book collector?"
"Pimlico. Pimlico collects books just fer the pleasure of collecting. Arcane, bizarre, peculiar; it matters not. Upon hearin' of a curious map, chart or book e's travelled countless leagues to obtain it, fearful of entrusting his commission to anyone else. This was his first outside hire." Korgan explained. "As fer the book itself, it nay matters to me what lays 'twixt its skins. I'll not risk knowing I've bled for Elminster's memoirs or a Drizzt loblolly recipe. 'Tis called the Book of Kaza."
"I think I've heard of that book before." Kyron murmured. "At Candlekeep. Where is this book?"
"In some hobnail's tomb over in the lower crypts of the Grave District. It's nay abandoned but rumors and half-truths only scare the young and infirm. Keeps the curious away, me guess." Korgan said, finishing his tale.
"I guess we could help you, then, if you help us first. The keep is, after all, a keep." Kyron told him. "Nalia will be willing to pay you."
"Fair enough then, me guesses. I'll go talk to her about my pay."
"You do that."

After Korgan and Nalia set a deal regarding the payment (two thousand gold), Korgan was all too eager to get going. "'tis a fine, fine day fer travelin'" he was saying. "An' I can guarantee ye that it won't rain anytime soon!"
And by the time they reached the city gates, it was pouring down with rain. Kita shot a venomous glare at Korgan, who was looking rather sheepish. The five of them entered the Crooked Crane, a tavern located at the city gate district, to wait for the rain to stop, and Kyron set off to gather supplies such as rations and rope from the Adventurer's Mart.
While he was gone, a gnome had entered the tavern and was approaching people and talking to them. The people he talked to listened for a while before explaining that one of their relatives happens to be deadly ill and left the inn hurriedly. Kita and company hadn't been paying much attention to him, until Kita felt someone tug her pants. She looked down. It was the gnome.

"Hi there. Want a turnip?" the gnome asked brightly and climbed on the seat next to them.
"Eh, no thanks." Kita replied. "What did you want?"
"Oh, yes. Are you interested in buying some of my merchandise?"
"Merchandise? And what do you have?"
"Those things." the gnome said as he took out what seemed like a skull from one of his pockets. It had what seemed like a dial on the top, and it seemed to be filled with some kind of powder.
"What exactly is that?"
"Those things," the gnome said again rather proudly. "Is called a Jansen Flasher Bruiser Mate. Now listen closely. You take one o' these babies and chuck it at your average Joe Orc, close your eyes real tight and WHOOSH!, he's running around in circles clutching at his eyeballs and screaming and yelling like Uncle Sven after three days on a turnip beer bender and..."
He was interrupted by a nobleman who had just entered the tavern with an Amnish Guard behind him. The noble saw him, and said, rather loudly, to an extent of unnecessarily so, "Jan Jansen!"
"Yes, yes, Trax, I'm here." Jan said, and then he muttered something under his breath. Korgan heard him and chuckled heartedly.
"Hold, gnome, in the name of the Amnian Revenue and Taxation Board!"
"Argh, not again! That bottom-feeding, turnip-hating, scum-sucking brigand! Nothing better to do then stop an honest businessman from selling high quality illegal Flashers for a reasonable price. Here he comes, cover for me!"
And indeed, Trax was approaching the gnome while his bodyguard pushed curious onlookers aside. The bartender was looking quite annoyed but decided that he shouldn't argue with an official.
"Jan Jansen." Trax said when he finally reached the gnome. "As a gnomish citizen of Amn, you have been charged was tax evasion and the illegal sale of illegal items in an illegal manner."
Several people snickered to this comment. Jan put on his best innocent act.
"Trax, old friend. You do me a great wrong! I would never break the law. As my pappy always said..."
"Enough! You'll not sidetrack me with your cursed tales again. I'm smarter than you think!"
At this point, his bodyguard snickered behind him. Trax heard him and was looking very annoyed.
"Shut up, you! Latrine duty beckons..." the guard fell silent. "That's better. We've been onto you for days, Jansen. We've caught you in the very act of selling your dangerous and illegal contraptions!"
"What cruel fate! Falsely accused by an old friend! And they are NOT dangerous...well...maybe some of them are, but like my..."
"I'm not your friend, Jansen!" Trax bellowed, wisely cutting Jan off before he can spin another tale.
"You're not anyone's friend." his bodyguard muttered under his breath.
"Oh, that's it!" Trax said, annoyed. "Do you enjoy guarding used chamber pots?"
"Sorry, sir."
"I swear, this job will land me in an asylum...and who might YOU be?" Trax said, pointing very rudely at Kita, who was beginning to feel ignored.
"None of your business, Trax." she snapped back. Kyron raised an eyebrow. She usually was rather polite, but she had something against nobles.
"Listen now, peasant. You WILL cooperate. I represent the law."
Kita opened her mouth to argue but Kyron decided that it was better not to annoy Trax any further. "That is Kita, and I am Kyron. We're adventurers." he said.
"Well then, did this gnome try to sell you illegal merchandise? And specifically, 'Flashers' as he calls them?"
At this point, Jan spun around and tried to make his eyes appear as big and as watery as possible.
"I don't know what you're talking about. He was just telling me about his... Uncle Sven. No go away." Kita finished.
Jan beamed.
"Indeed, I was! Trax, old friend, let me tell you about him. He used to brew very good turnip beer, see? Except that he would get drunk on his own beer, and then one day..."
"Silence! Jansen, you can no longer peddle in Athkatla. And as for you, Kita, you have made a dangerous enemy."
"Is that so?" Nalia said from behind Trax. "Trax, is it? I believe you know my father?"
Trax spun around, looking very annoyed.
"Who...oh, Nalia. And how are you today? Why are you associating with those..." Trax gestured around him in disgust. "...rubbish?"
"They are NOT rubbish!" Nalia argued. "Just because they're poorer then we are, that doesn't make them rubbish! Now, what were you saying to my friend?"
"Eh, she's your friend, is she?" Trax was now sweating "Sorry, miss Nalia. I'll bother you no more." he said, and shot a venomous glare at Jan, then marched out of the tavern, passing Kyron in the process.
"Ahem, hem." Jan said, trying to attract attention. "Listen. It seems like that I can no longer stay in the black market. Not for long, anyway. Soooooooooo...ahh...wherever you're headed, can I come help you?"
"And what skills can you offer our party?" Kita asked him.
"A fast crossbow, a faster mouth, all the illegal gadgets I can invent, and magic spells at my command."
"Sure, why not? You should probably know that we're going to her keep -" Kita gestured at Nalia. "-and it would be quite dangerous."
Nalia looked uncomfortable.
"Great! I have been an adventurer before, you know. When Uncle Scratchy formed his 'Seven Gallopers' band, he asked me to be in it. Except he always told me to scout ahead, see? 'Scout ahead, Jannie.' he would say, and I would reply 'But uncle, there's orcs up there!' and he would say 'Well, how many are there?' and then 'I don't know!' and then he would say, 'That's your job, Jannie! Go find out!' and I would be pummeled with orc arrows. Ahh, the good old days..."

Why oh why does the Attic always requires me to login once again, even after I have ticked "Login each time I visit" checkbox?

Have you tried to login on the gamejag main site, rather than the attic itself.

I have an advice. Write shorter pieces of text, rather than the long sections in this chapter. Very long pieces of text, with no empty spaces are very annoying to comment on, which is why i didn't. including more empty lines make sit esier for the commenters

Hunter

For once, I un-checked that box. And it worked...

I have an advice. Write shorter pieces of text, rather than the long sections in this chapter. Very long pieces of text, with no empty spaces are very annoying to comment on, which is why i didn't. including more empty lines make sit esier for the commenters

I'll look out for it in the future.