Chapter 185: Talking with Joe
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Chapter 185: Talking with Joe
Ben saw Rolly coming into the Town Hall. As he did every day in the past week, Ben was trying to help Suzette and Billy run the town, the work crews in the city, and supply what was needed at the keep. Each person had a different style of getting things done, and meshing the three together was Ben's constant headache. Suzette focused on the town, solving problems and looking out for the workers. It was the other two that played tug-of-war with the limited resources they had.
Billy demanded to not be bothered, wanted to know everything that was happening, and had an ever-changing list of demands for work crews. One day it was gargoyles on the front gates or oak trees planted around the ACME building. Not saplings, full trees. Somehow, he thought that could be done with shovels and wagons. The next day he'd ask for one of the empty buildings to be turned into a department store for magic items and later on he'd want a 'visitors' center. It was like the man was mad, with more than one personality in his head. And like as not Layla would come along and tell him to forget about anything that Billy started. Ben compromised by picking a project, completing that project, and starting up the next one on Billy's list that made sense. He lied to Billy a lot about what was going on, and promised miracles.
Ben had huge hopes that his talk with Ozzy would straighten things out. As Ben had left the ACME building that night, he'd seen Ozzy shifting from "Shucks, folks, I'm just a simple sausage maker" to "Here's the truth, whether you like it or not." He'd expected to see flames roaring up the ACME building at some point, but in the end, Ozzy said things went as well as could be expected.
Jorges approached his project with a frighteningly narrow tunnel vision. He saw the work he needed to do, and not much else. If a road needed building, nothing better be in his way, and he would run it straight across the countryside making the landscape move aside and get out of his way. Building the Keep was a much bigger project, but he approached it in the same way. Nothing was more important than getting the work done, and Ben often found materials and workers had disappeared from other projects and were reallocated to the keep building project.
In a way, he was right. The rebuilding of Rowan Keep was essential to everything. On the other hand, not having a harvest because the food was rotting in the fields was going to cause problems. So Ben was trying vainly to keep track of everything, and make sure it all got done. Currently,
was adding more information on what was formerly a large white wall of the Town Hall. Scraps of paper were stuck to the wall with glue, notes were scribbled in pencil or charcoal, and multi-colored yard connected everything. Too many of those bits of yarn went to a large circle marked "and then a miracle occurs!"
"Busy Rolly. I have to figure out how to do too much with not enough resources, not enough organization, and too much weird shit going on."
Rolly glanced at Ben with a scowl, and then looked at the wall for thirty seconds. "Not your problem right now. I'll help you fix it tomorrow. Grab your hat, we have a smoke golem to talk to."
Ben hurried to do just, that and followed after his friend. Rolly was serious, and not smiling, and that wasn't good. Not good at all. Squirmie wasn't even talking. Just sitting quietly on his shoulder. "What happened? Trouble with the Sphynx? I was trying to get an hours work in before you dragged us off to the Menagerie."
Rolly shook his head and answered in the same serious tone. "Nope, she's fine. All settled in."
"Suzy got hurt really bad by a Ghoul Lord while they were walking out of the city. Ozzy caught on fire and went berserk to kill it. You know how he gets when someone hurts her bad. Then he turned into smoke and blew away. You and I are going to go visit with the old guy teaching him smoke magic and see if we can't get some answers."
Ben processed all of that as they walked. "Well, shit. I suppose you want me to do the talking as usual?"
Rolly stopped and looked at Squirmie. Ben got the oddest feeling they were arguing. Then Rolly smiled, tossed the butterfly in the air, and she few away. "Naw, I should talk."
"I don't mind speaking to him, Rolly. Talking to people is sort of my job. And Joe seems like a decent guy. Is there a problem?"
Rolly stopped and considered Ben's words, but then shook his head. "Trust me, whatever Joe is, he's dangerous and powerful. Squirmie can feel it. There's a lot more to him that you can't see. So, if trying to get information about Ozzy pisses him off somehow, it might as well be me that takes the hit, and you can try to run. I have someone in Tartarus I need to visit again anyway."
"Tartarus? Why in hell would...no, you know what? Never mind. I don't need to know." Ben knew better that to get bogged down in Rolly's stories and plans. It was better to just wait and see if anything happened. "Your call on Joe. I'll back you up. Is this a case of where there's smoke, there's fire?"
"More like, where there's smoke, there's a lot more smoke. Squirmie says most of Joe is somewhere else, but he can see it if she looks at him just right."
Ben grabbed a much different looking bottle from the table, and poured a shot. The amber colored liquid went down smooth. "To tell the truth, at the time were thinking 'Don't let the damned alien monster burn out our brains and turn us into zombies'. "
Joe sighed. "Fair enough, I suppose. But actions have consequences, and now you have something that might be equally bad. I can hold it back some, but that's the job for a Butcher. It wants a Butcher in there, feeding it meat to smoke. When it hits Tier 4 it will be ten times worse and need a heavy hand to keep it in line. You don't want to have it slip it's leash."
Rolly looked at the building. "Leash? Will it grow legs and run off? That would be neat to see."
Joe looked at him strangely, then shook his head. "Maybe. More likely it will grab most of the town, eat it, and try to turn into a dungeon. With there already being dungeons in the town, and the proximity to the city, I think you'd see some horrible things happen. The Butcher of Gadobhra would probably just expand his realm and take it all over and expand the city."
Ben suddenly had a bad feeling. "This all started when a Charnel Daemon from the city formed here out of left-over meat. Ozzy told me it had a quest to kill the town and make a pit. Was this something the city planned all along?"
Joe shrugged. "Who knows. It makes for a nice story if you want to tie up some loose ends that way. Or it might be total coincidence. And I might be wrong about the thing. Maybe it hits Tier 4 and just sits here patiently waiting for Ozzy to get back."
Ben asked. "You think there is a chance of that happening?"
Joe looked him in the eyes. "Nope, not a chance in any hell you want to pick. Like I said, a mean streak a mile wide."
Makken poured drinks all around. The dwarf would hate to see them all die with bottles still full. "So, we just wait for the big lug to learn some magic and come strolling back to town?"
Rolly held up several fingers. "As I see it, we have a classic conundrum here with no good choices. One, we can get the band together and go look for Ozzy. This is tough because we don't know where he is or how to get there. Tricky details."
"Two, Joe can go look for Ozzy while we stay here and deal with the pit."
"Three, we all go look for Ozzy, since it won't be safe here. Or, four, we all stay here and deal with the pit."
Makken drank. "I'm good with any of them. I'll get a bag packed with extra socks and salsa."
Joe shook his head. "Won't work except for your fourth plan. There are reasons I'm not in the Smoke. Me going back isn't an option. And I don't see wings on any of you. Unless you do like Ozzy did, you can't get there directly. You need to go through Sky or Fire. Not happening."
The smokehouse groaned suddenly, wood twisted and stone melted. Any materials nearby disappeared and the building grew ten feet taller.
Joe stood up, and changed into a thirty-foot tall black whirlwind of smoke and chains. "Out of time. Only thing left is for it to ignite the fire in the pit. It would help if I had a constant supply of meat to feed it and keep it tired."
Rolly jumped up. "Right! Double-Secret Plan Five it is! Come on Ben, time to get to work."
Ben followed after him. "Dammit, Rolly, you never tell me about the Double-Secret plans."
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Chapter 185: Talking with Joe
Ben saw Rolly coming into the Town Hall. As he did every day in the past week, Ben was trying to help Suzette and Billy run the town, the work crews in the city, and supply what was needed at the keep. Each person had a different style of getting things done, and meshing the three together was Ben's constant headache. Suzette focused on the town, solving problems and looking out for the workers. It was the other two that played tug-of-war with the limited resources they had.
Billy demanded to not be bothered, wanted to know everything that was happening, and had an ever-changing list of demands for work crews. One day it was gargoyles on the front gates or oak trees planted around the ACME building. Not saplings, full trees. Somehow, he thought that could be done with shovels and wagons. The next day he'd ask for one of the empty buildings to be turned into a department store for magic items and later on he'd want a 'visitors' center. It was like the man was mad, with more than one personality in his head. And like as not Layla would come along and tell him to forget about anything that Billy started. Ben compromised by picking a project, completing that project, and starting up the next one on Billy's list that made sense. He lied to Billy a lot about what was going on, and promised miracles.
Ben had huge hopes that his talk with Ozzy would straighten things out. As Ben had left the ACME building that night, he'd seen Ozzy shifting from "Shucks, folks, I'm just a simple sausage maker" to "Here's the truth, whether you like it or not." He'd expected to see flames roaring up the ACME building at some point, but in the end, Ozzy said things went as well as could be expected.
Jorges approached his project with a frighteningly narrow tunnel vision. He saw the work he needed to do, and not much else. If a road needed building, nothing better be in his way, and he would run it straight across the countryside making the landscape move aside and get out of his way. Building the Keep was a much bigger project, but he approached it in the same way. Nothing was more important than getting the work done, and Ben often found materials and workers had disappeared from other projects and were reallocated to the keep building project.
In a way, he was right. The rebuilding of Rowan Keep was essential to everything. On the other hand, not having a harvest because the food was rotting in the fields was going to cause problems. So Ben was trying vainly to keep track of everything, and make sure it all got done. Currently,
was adding more information on what was formerly a large white wall of the Town Hall. Scraps of paper were stuck to the wall with glue, notes were scribbled in pencil or charcoal, and multi-colored yard connected everything. Too many of those bits of yarn went to a large circle marked "and then a miracle occurs!"
"Busy Rolly. I have to figure out how to do too much with not enough resources, not enough organization, and too much weird shit going on."
Rolly glanced at Ben with a scowl, and then looked at the wall for thirty seconds. "Not your problem right now. I'll help you fix it tomorrow. Grab your hat, we have a smoke golem to talk to."
Ben hurried to do just, that and followed after his friend. Rolly was serious, and not smiling, and that wasn't good. Not good at all. Squirmie wasn't even talking. Just sitting quietly on his shoulder. "What happened? Trouble with the Sphynx? I was trying to get an hours work in before you dragged us off to the Menagerie."
Rolly shook his head and answered in the same serious tone. "Nope, she's fine. All settled in."
"Suzy got hurt really bad by a Ghoul Lord while they were walking out of the city. Ozzy caught on fire and went berserk to kill it. You know how he gets when someone hurts her bad. Then he turned into smoke and blew away. You and I are going to go visit with the old guy teaching him smoke magic and see if we can't get some answers."
Ben processed all of that as they walked. "Well, shit. I suppose you want me to do the talking as usual?"
Rolly stopped and looked at Squirmie. Ben got the oddest feeling they were arguing. Then Rolly smiled, tossed the butterfly in the air, and she few away. "Naw, I should talk."
"I don't mind speaking to him, Rolly. Talking to people is sort of my job. And Joe seems like a decent guy. Is there a problem?"
Rolly stopped and considered Ben's words, but then shook his head. "Trust me, whatever Joe is, he's dangerous and powerful. Squirmie can feel it. There's a lot more to him that you can't see. So, if trying to get information about Ozzy pisses him off somehow, it might as well be me that takes the hit, and you can try to run. I have someone in Tartarus I need to visit again anyway."
"Tartarus? Why in hell would...no, you know what? Never mind. I don't need to know." Ben knew better that to get bogged down in Rolly's stories and plans. It was better to just wait and see if anything happened. "Your call on Joe. I'll back you up. Is this a case of where there's smoke, there's fire?"
"More like, where there's smoke, there's a lot more smoke. Squirmie says most of Joe is somewhere else, but he can see it if she looks at him just right."
Ben grabbed a much different looking bottle from the table, and poured a shot. The amber colored liquid went down smooth. "To tell the truth, at the time were thinking 'Don't let the damned alien monster burn out our brains and turn us into zombies'. "
Joe sighed. "Fair enough, I suppose. But actions have consequences, and now you have something that might be equally bad. I can hold it back some, but that's the job for a Butcher. It wants a Butcher in there, feeding it meat to smoke. When it hits Tier 4 it will be ten times worse and need a heavy hand to keep it in line. You don't want to have it slip it's leash."
Rolly looked at the building. "Leash? Will it grow legs and run off? That would be neat to see."
Joe looked at him strangely, then shook his head. "Maybe. More likely it will grab most of the town, eat it, and try to turn into a dungeon. With there already being dungeons in the town, and the proximity to the city, I think you'd see some horrible things happen. The Butcher of Gadobhra would probably just expand his realm and take it all over and expand the city."
Ben suddenly had a bad feeling. "This all started when a Charnel Daemon from the city formed here out of left-over meat. Ozzy told me it had a quest to kill the town and make a pit. Was this something the city planned all along?"
Joe shrugged. "Who knows. It makes for a nice story if you want to tie up some loose ends that way. Or it might be total coincidence. And I might be wrong about the thing. Maybe it hits Tier 4 and just sits here patiently waiting for Ozzy to get back."
Ben asked. "You think there is a chance of that happening?"
Joe looked him in the eyes. "Nope, not a chance in any hell you want to pick. Like I said, a mean streak a mile wide."
Makken poured drinks all around. The dwarf would hate to see them all die with bottles still full. "So, we just wait for the big lug to learn some magic and come strolling back to town?"
Rolly held up several fingers. "As I see it, we have a classic conundrum here with no good choices. One, we can get the band together and go look for Ozzy. This is tough because we don't know where he is or how to get there. Tricky details."
"Two, Joe can go look for Ozzy while we stay here and deal with the pit."
"Three, we all go look for Ozzy, since it won't be safe here. Or, four, we all stay here and deal with the pit."
Makken drank. "I'm good with any of them. I'll get a bag packed with extra socks and salsa."
Joe shook his head. "Won't work except for your fourth plan. There are reasons I'm not in the Smoke. Me going back isn't an option. And I don't see wings on any of you. Unless you do like Ozzy did, you can't get there directly. You need to go through Sky or Fire. Not happening."
The smokehouse groaned suddenly, wood twisted and stone melted. Any materials nearby disappeared and the building grew ten feet taller.
Joe stood up, and changed into a thirty-foot tall black whirlwind of smoke and chains. "Out of time. Only thing left is for it to ignite the fire in the pit. It would help if I had a constant supply of meat to feed it and keep it tired."
Rolly jumped up. "Right! Double-Secret Plan Five it is! Come on Ben, time to get to work."
Ben followed after him. "Dammit, Rolly, you never tell me about the Double-Secret plans."
Chapter 185: Talking with JoeBen saw Rolly coming into the Town Hall. As he did every day in the past week, Ben was trying to help Suzette and Billy run the town, the work crews in the city, and supply what was needed at the keep. Each person had a different style of getting things done, and meshing the three together was Ben's constant headache. Suzette focused on the town, solving problems and looking out for the workers. It was the other two that played tug-of-war with the limited resources they had.Billy demanded to not be bothered, wanted to know everything that was happening, and had an ever-changing list of demands for work crews. One day it was gargoyles on the front gates or oak trees planted around the ACME building. Not saplings, full trees. Somehow, he thought that could be done with shovels and wagons. The next day he'd ask for one of the empty buildings to be turned into a department store for magic items and later on he'd want a 'visitors' center. It was like the man was mad, with more than one personality in his head. And like as not Layla would come along and tell him to forget about anything that Billy started. Ben compromised by picking a project, completing that project, and starting up the next one on Billy's list that made sense. He lied to Billy a lot about what was going on, and promised miracles. Ben had huge hopes that his talk with Ozzy would straighten things out. As Ben had left the ACME building that night, he'd seen Ozzy shifting from "Shucks, folks, I'm just a simple sausage maker" to "Here's the truth, whether you like it or not." He'd expected to see flames roaring up the ACME building at some point, but in the end, Ozzy said things went as well as could be expected. Jorges approached his project with a frighteningly narrow tunnel vision. He saw the work he needed to do, and not much else. If a road needed building, nothing better be in his way, and he would run it straight across the countryside making the landscape move aside and get out of his way. Building the Keep was a much bigger project, but he approached it in the same way. Nothing was more important than getting the work done, and Ben often found materials and workers had disappeared from other projects and were reallocated to the keep building project. In a way, he was right. The rebuilding of Rowan Keep was essential to everything. On the other hand, not having a harvest because the food was rotting in the fields was going to cause problems. So Ben was trying vainly to keep track of everything, and make sure it all got done. Currently, was adding more information on what was formerly a large white wall of the Town Hall. Scraps of paper were stuck to the wall with glue, notes were scribbled in pencil or charcoal, and multi-colored yard connected everything. Too many of those bits of yarn went to a large circle marked "and then a miracle occurs!""Busy Rolly. I have to figure out how to do too much with not enough resources, not enough organization, and too much weird shit going on."Rolly glanced at Ben with a scowl, and then looked at the wall for thirty seconds. "Not your problem right now. I'll help you fix it tomorrow. Grab your hat, we have a smoke golem to talk to." Ben hurried to do just, that and followed after his friend. Rolly was serious, and not smiling, and that wasn't good. Not good at all. Squirmie wasn't even talking. Just sitting quietly on his shoulder. "What happened? Trouble with the Sphynx? I was trying to get an hours work in before you dragged us off to the Menagerie."Rolly shook his head and answered in the same serious tone. "Nope, she's fine. All settled in.""Suzy got hurt really bad by a Ghoul Lord while they were walking out of the city. Ozzy caught on fire and went berserk to kill it. You know how he gets when someone hurts her bad. Then he turned into smoke and blew away. You and I are going to go visit with the old guy teaching him smoke magic and see if we can't get some answers."Ben processed all of that as they walked. "Well, shit. I suppose you want me to do the talking as usual?"Rolly stopped and looked at Squirmie. Ben got the oddest feeling they were arguing. Then Rolly smiled, tossed the butterfly in the air, and she few away. "Naw, I should talk.""I don't mind speaking to him, Rolly. Talking to people is sort of my job. And Joe seems like a decent guy. Is there a problem?"Rolly stopped and considered Ben's words, but then shook his head. "Trust me, whatever Joe is, he's dangerous and powerful. Squirmie can feel it. There's a lot more to him that you can't see. So, if trying to get information about Ozzy pisses him off somehow, it might as well be me that takes the hit, and you can try to run. I have someone in Tartarus I need to visit again anyway.""Tartarus? Why in hell would...no, you know what? Never mind. I don't need to know." Ben knew better that to get bogged down in Rolly's stories and plans. It was better to just wait and see if anything happened. "Your call on Joe. I'll back you up. Is this a case of where there's smoke, there's fire?""More like, where there's smoke, there's a lot more smoke. Squirmie says most of Joe is somewhere else, but he can see it if she looks at him just right."Ben grabbed a much different looking bottle from the table, and poured a shot. The amber colored liquid went down smooth. "To tell the truth, at the time were thinking 'Don't let the damned alien monster burn out our brains and turn us into zombies'. "Joe sighed. "Fair enough, I suppose. But actions have consequences, and now you have something that might be equally bad. I can hold it back some, but that's the job for a Butcher. It wants a Butcher in there, feeding it meat to smoke. When it hits Tier 4 it will be ten times worse and need a heavy hand to keep it in line. You don't want to have it slip it's leash."Rolly looked at the building. "Leash? Will it grow legs and run off? That would be neat to see."Joe looked at him strangely, then shook his head. "Maybe. More likely it will grab most of the town, eat it, and try to turn into a dungeon. With there already being dungeons in the town, and the proximity to the city, I think you'd see some horrible things happen. The Butcher of Gadobhra would probably just expand his realm and take it all over and expand the city."Ben suddenly had a bad feeling. "This all started when a Charnel Daemon from the city formed here out of left-over meat. Ozzy told me it had a quest to kill the town and make a pit. Was this something the city planned all along?"Joe shrugged. "Who knows. It makes for a nice story if you want to tie up some loose ends that way. Or it might be total coincidence. And I might be wrong about the thing. Maybe it hits Tier 4 and just sits here patiently waiting for Ozzy to get back."Ben asked. "You think there is a chance of that happening?"Joe looked him in the eyes. "Nope, not a chance in any hell you want to pick. Like I said, a mean streak a mile wide."Makken poured drinks all around. The dwarf would hate to see them all die with bottles still full. "So, we just wait for the big lug to learn some magic and come strolling back to town?"Rolly held up several fingers. "As I see it, we have a classic conundrum here with no good choices. One, we can get the band together and go look for Ozzy. This is tough because we don't know where he is or how to get there. Tricky details.""Two, Joe can go look for Ozzy while we stay here and deal with the pit.""Three, we all go look for Ozzy, since it won't be safe here. Or, four, we all stay here and deal with the pit."Makken drank. "I'm good with any of them. I'll get a bag packed with extra socks and salsa."Joe shook his head. "Won't work except for your fourth plan. There are reasons I'm not in the Smoke. Me going back isn't an option. And I don't see wings on any of you. Unless you do like Ozzy did, you can't get there directly. You need to go through Sky or Fire. Not happening."The smokehouse groaned suddenly, wood twisted and stone melted. Any materials nearby disappeared and the building grew ten feet taller.Joe stood up, and changed into a thirty-foot tall black whirlwind of smoke and chains. "Out of time. Only thing left is for it to ignite the fire in the pit. It would help if I had a constant supply of meat to feed it and keep it tired."Rolly jumped up. "Right! Double-Secret Plan Five it is! Come on Ben, time to get to work."Ben followed after him. "Dammit, Rolly, you never tell me about the Double-Secret plans."
