Chapter 298: Tinkers, Pirates, and Troublemakers

Chapter 298: Tinkers, Pirates, and Troublemakers

Lucas has outdone himself with his latest novel. Tinkers, Pirates and Troublemakers: The History of House Franklin paints a fascinating story that discloses some of the secrets of one of the oldest and strangest Founding Families who formed the Empire. House Franklin has given the Empire its most dashing rogues, shining heroes, strange crackpots, and most perplexing villains. While other authors have chronicled chapters of the Franklin history, only Lucas Lashwhip has told a story that takes us from the day when Harmonia Franklin stepped foot on the deck of her first ship all the way to the family's latest adventure when two junior couriers, Harmony and Ben the Seventh, rescued dozens of paladins from the threat of the Necro-Wolf.

-Available soon from Nile Books or in audio format as performed by the Bardic College on Friday nights at Bly's Tavern and Grill.

Harmonia backed away from Ben and turned to Harmony. "I made a mistake. After you told me of your adventures and meeting a new relation, I became suspicious. My investigations led me to suspect that Damien might be involved. I thought my suspicions were confirmed when Benjamin was resurrected in Franklin House, in Damien's room. I suspect this is the fault of the system. It delights in tricks like that. It may have placed him there because Ben was wearing Damien's signet ring. I thought Damien was up to his tricks again and decided to settle things with my sword. Luckily for all of us, your cousin is proficient in cheating."

Ben grinned. "No one ever expects you to bring a book to a sword fight."

"I was feeling guilty for almost killing an innocent man. That comment evaporated any of that feeling."

"Spend time with him, grandmother; you'll find he isn't so innocent. He'll fit in fine with the rest of the family. Just surviving a duel with you should prove that. Do I have a promise from the two of you that you'll talk this out and not start another duel? I can't stay to chaperone you."

"I was supposed to be on my way to the academy to pick up a special delivery that needs to be to Graymalkin by midnight. I'm already running late. I'm sure they'll believe me when I explain that I had to untie my ink-stained grandmother and catch a crafty assailant wandering through the old galleries. So, please behave, and I'll be back for a complete explanation tomorrow over breakfast."

"I think we can manage that; if not, there are more books and inkwells lying about." Ben took it as a good sign that Harmonia laughed. He'd gotten lucky once.

Harmony departed, giving both him and Harmonia a kiss on the cheek and a second warning about dueling. "If you must, go to the salon and get a judge."

"A good idea, but first some strong tea and discussion are in order. Does that suit you, Benjamin?"

Ben was more than happy to leave the room and go elsewhere. He felt like an imposter when standing next to the huge statue of himself.

"I looked for you but never found you, not on any of the oceans."

Ben sighed. "I screwed up. I underestimated the assholes I was working for on my last job. They sued me for the cost of all the stuff I tossed to the crowd, claiming lost revenue, and estimated the earnings at ten times the normal value. I was royally screwed. We settled for me doing a lot of jobs for them at half my normal rate. It tied me up until the end of EOQ2 and most of EOQ3. If it hadn't been for my friend Rolly loaning me money for rent and food, I probably wouldn't have made it."

Harmonia was sitting across from him at a table in a side parlor. After the shock of seeing Ben, she had changed back to what he assumed was her normal self. "I heard rumors of someone I thought might be you, but I wasn't sure and didn't want to leave the sea. I was still too young and learning the rules of acting correctly and fitting in with people. But I wondered about 'Quickfoot Ben, the scourge of the Mountain Barons' and 'Dead-eye Franklin, Lawman for Hire'; the descriptions fit you, but not well."

"Oh, lord, those were horrible roles. I was always the underdog in those stories, leading a group of 'plucky heroes.' The company setting up the adventures would fill my group with people of little skill and a lot of money, then ensure we won. We'd go up against two hundred outlaws who shot worse than stormtroopers. We only had to point a gun in their general direction and pull the trigger. Three bandits died for every bullet we shot in the air. But the rubes loved it, and I had to act out those adventures repeatedly."

"The only big role I got was the Siege of Orleans. I was playing 'Ragged Bennie,' a noble whose castle was burned by the English and who chose to live with the beggars and run the resistance in the small villages. The role was difficult. I looked hideous and smelled worse. But I had some fun. I worked with some friends on the inside. They gave me targets to hit, and I used that job to send group after group of rich assholes on suicide missions, causing havoc."

Harmonia looked intrigued. "You were Ragged Bennie? The descriptions said he was an ugly beggar surrounded by flies and dying of the plague!"

Ben got up and started staggering around the room; one arm held crookedly as if paralyzed, the other holding out a bowl. He coughed and whined in a horrid voice. "Alms? Alms for a poor dying soul? Please ma'am? Pay Ragged Bennie, and he'll go off to the other side of town and bother you no more."

He straightened and took a long sip of tea. "Hard to do that voice now that I'm not starving for food. I smelled so bad; I could hardly eat. I kept rotted sausage in my pockets and stuffed it in my sleeves with garbage to attract the flies and breed more. The funny thing was, everyone loved it. Ragged Bennie got run ragged doing two and three missions a day. By the end of it, I was emotionally drained. That was a hard one to lose."

Harmonia looked puzzled. "But your side won the Siege. Roland of Ebonmount brought the dragons. He completely routed the English."

Ben shook his head. "Rolly was too late. We managed to save Cardinal D'arctangeant but couldn't save the Maid of Orleans. Change of script based on paid voting. They burned her at the stake early. It just didn't matter much to me after that. All of us were so invested in the game at that point. We hadn't been out of our pods in a month and were going days without sleep in the game. It felt so real. Watching her die was real to us."

The table grew silent until Harmonia broke it. "Yes, that was not well done. I remember hearing arguments about it. Money was controlling the story, warping the plot. It made a mockery of things. The...developers...working on EOQ3 vowed not to let that happen again. The bigger stories were decided by those playing in them, not by outside money. There was pressure against the new direction. The game was becoming a huge platform for real-world money. You should take heart that the bad things that happened in the Siege led to changes."

Her eyes grew wide. "Wait...that explains some things. Harmony said you summoned the Maid! She came to your aid against the wolves. Dammit, the engine has noticed you. Probably as soon as you started playing."

Harmonia passed by the main entrance and went to a side door. Ben followed down a hall to a room on the first level. It was the size of a gymnasium, and with its wooden floors, it resembled one. Racks of weapons covered the walls, along with practice armor and safety gear. Several young men and women were taking lessons or observing. Harmonia led him to a rack of dozens of different types of swords. Harmonia took a broadsword and shield to work with. "Pick one, and let's see if you can use it. We'll move on to the next if you get the message for using a default weapon."

Over the next four hours, Ben tried blade after blade. ACME and the other Corporations had worked hard on that list of weapons not usable by contract workers, adding weapons normally used in EOQ3. As usual, Ben couldn't use any of the swords. He sucked with a saber and was bad with a broadsword. A great sword felt like a log in his hands. He could barely hold the weapons and could only manage clumsy swings. When he hit Harmonia's shield, he was told that the weapon wasn't usable by him and only gave him a 1% base chance to hit.

They fell into a pattern where Ben would choose a weapon, swing at Harmonia twice, stop, and choose something else. Katana, epee, rapier, odachi, Tachi, longsword, broadsword, claymore, hand-and-a-half, bastard, gladius, tanto, falchion, zwiehander, flamberge, cutlass, shamshir, xiphos, scimitar, tulwar, kodachi, khopesh, nijato, spatha, Carolingian...on and on they went, working through a hundred different types of blades.

One of the instructors, curious, came over and started to help, and finally, the rest of the students joined in. It became a game with people tossing him weapons as fast as he could test them and find he lacked the skill to use them. Ben's arms burned when someone handed him a strange sword with no edge. Instead of a blade with two edges, it was diamond-shaped, making it much heavier and stiffer. It was blunted but came to a wicked point at the end of its four-and-a-half foot length. He took it in both hands, executed a figure eight, and lunged at Harmonia. She dodged the blow barely and advanced on Ben, who evaded three of her strikes, backing away and controlling the fight. They paused for a moment after that.

Ben stared at the blade. He'd used an Estoc only once before, during a battle. It was a heavy sword used to pierce a knight's armor. There was no edge to slash with. It was considered a specialist weapon unsuited for fencing or normal fighting. Its one advantage was piecing heavy armor and leaving a bleeding wound. But it was a sword and one he could actually use. "I think I can use this type of sword properly."

The instructor assisting them was enthusiastic; it had been a long afternoon finding a blade that Ben was allowed to use. "Let's put you to the test, then, if Dame Harmonia doesn't mind?" Harmonia nodded. "By all means. Charles Leguaan, this Benjamin the 7th, gracing us with his presence here in the capital after an exciting upbringing in the far north. Charles is 5th cousin to you, Benjamin. Charles? Ben could use your assistance. He suffers from a unique curse, and we are working to find a weapon he can use."

Charles raised an eyebrow. "I'll want the story someday, cousin. But for now, let's pair you against Barry. He would be your 4th cousin, Bartholomew Franklin. Barry? Go slow, please; he's learning."

Ben was working through forms normally used with a claymore. The length and weight were the same, but he would have to learn to kill with the point, not the slash. "If you don't mind, I'd like to go faster. This is coming back to me, and I can heal any small cuts we give to each other." He gestured, and the radiance of a healing spell lit up his hand.

Barry bowed. "And I am fine with that. I will try not to injure you grievously but will push you. Feel free to throw whatever blows you wish at me. I'm sure I can take it."

The two young Franklins began to duel, Ben slowly finding a style he liked and mostly blocking Barry's blows. He lunged four times, but the other man blocked or moved aside each time, and Ben took small cuts from his return blows. When he immediately healed each cut, several people laughed and nodded. It wasn't unheard of for a family member to inherit a few paladin blessings. Finally, Charles called a pause. "I think that weapon will skewer someone in heavy armor, but against an agile opponent, it has problems. Barry knows he can ignore a slash and only get a bruise. That leaves you wide open to his counter-blow."

Harmonia called from the sidelines. "Then I suggest Benjamin quit holding back and use everything he can bring to the fight."

Ben saluted her. "Again then, if Barry doesn't mind. This may hurt, though." Barry laughed. "Give it your best then; I'm curious."

They approached each other, and on this encounter, Ben made a small slash to Barry's leg. Barry accepted the blow and stepped forward to thrust at Ben. Before he could, his leg burst into flame. He dropped his leg and rolled to the ground as Harmonia summoned mists to extinguish the blaze. Ben cast a healing spell to fix the damage. Barry looked at him warily. "That wasn't normal fire."

Ben gave him a hand up. "Phoenix Fire, it burns hot. I can add it to any blow I give with a melee weapon. Barry rubbed his leg. "That was a hard blow as well. It might be a blunt weapon, but you put some strength behind it. How strong are you?"

Ben sighed a bit. "Not as strong as I should be. I neglected it in the first Tier, but I've raised it to 13 in Tier 2."

Charles whistled. "13 points in just the second tier? That explains how you can whip around that heavy weapon with one hand and will make your thrusts do considerable damage. What is it that you need so much strength for? Are you training to be a Paladin?"

With an embarrassed look, Ben admitted. "No, but I lost to a barmaid in arm wrestling. I focused on dexterity and agility and was the weakest of my adventuring group. That trouncing encouraged me to participate in the Baron's special training."

"Well worth the effort. You've given me a few bruises and a healthy respect for your fire magic."

Harmonia laughed. "You aren't the first to feel the sting of his spells today, Barry. Benjamin has a unique fighting style. He used that brawn to throw a table at me and beat me with a heavy book. Fencing lessons are a way for me to get my revenge. Thank you all for the help. I think that weapon will work for him after a few hundred hours of practice in the basic forms. We'll take a break, and then you can see what you can do against me."

You have gained the weapon skill: Estoc.

This heavy sword is used for piercing the heavy armor of knights and dragons. It takes both a high STR and DEX to wield it properly, knowing when to lunge with one hand like a rapier or with two hands like a spear. The heavy blade may be swung for inferior damage for those who prefer to club an opponent to death.

Thrusting Damage: 200 + 5 additional points for each point of DEX or STR over 10. This weapon negates 100 points of mitigation when thrusting.

Blunt Damage: 50 points plus 5xSTR