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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 3625029" data-attributes="member: 11760">Skeeter thumps his tail against the floor and stands as the chapel door opens. He attempts to leap up and greet Tucker with muddy paws, but the deputy blocks the dog, and scratches his head while looking up at the assembled group."I got nothing. How's everybody here?""Constable Bridger didn't have any advice?" Emmerson asks as Tucker closes the door, shutting out the rain once more."Same thing he says every time you people decide to go on one of your adventures: 'stay home.' But you've never listened before, so I don't know why you'd start now.""The reason they do not stay is that they are charged by Bishop Lehmann himself, with the holiest of missions," the acolyte offers. "The devotees of Lothian deserve their final peace!" His last word squeaks out, as Tucker rounds on him."I don't know you.""Oh," the acolyte stutters, "I-I'm--""I didn't say I wanted to know you." Tucker takes a step back, giving the young man room to breathe. "I assume you're the bishop's man.""I serve in the light of Lothian, creator of --""Yes, but unless Lothian himself came down and signed the papers to send you here, you're the bishop's man. Will you be going with them to the abbey?"The acolyte nearly has a convulsion at the suggestion."Sir, I'm, I'm ... I'm a librarian."Bufer blinks as he looks from the acolyte to Tucker and back again."That works. I understand they had lot of books at the abbey that need taking care of." He glances back over to Tucker. "I assume you got the authority to conscript him?""You know, I believe he's right," Tucker grins. Before the acolyte can protest, the deputy produces a folded sheet of paper and holds it up between them. "By power of Lord Nicodemus Midwood, and as witnessed in the light of Lothain, I hereby charge Acolyte ... say, what was your name, anyway?"The young man opens his mouth to answer, but Tucker cuts him off."Doesn't matter. I hereby charge you, acolyte, as a defender of the Tarsisian Empire and the church. It is your legal and spiritual duty to protect both body and soul of all legal, law-abiding citizens, to render unto them whatever aid is within your power, even unto death. Do you accept this holy vocation?"Before the librarian can refuse, Tucker continues."Good man, I knew you had the steel in you. Lothian will be pleased! He'll surely welcome you directly to his side in the afterlife.""A-afterlife?" The word comes out as a squeak."Oh, yes," offers Bufer. "I understand martyrs are always given a special place in the Heavens. That's right, isn't it, Father Grant?""Martyr?""Indeed it is, Brother Bufer. And the more horrible the manner of death, the more honored the soul.""Horrible death!" offers Bufer, testifying, waving his hands and waggling his fingers."Why, I'd imagine Lothian is clearing a space in his court for you even now. Possibly right next to him.""Horrible death!" repeats Bufer, and he begins to hum."Next to him, Emmerson? With what we're going to be facing tomorrow," Tucker throws an arm around the acolyte's narrow shoulders, more to keep him standing than to console him. "I wouldn't be surprised if Lothian offered you his own chair when you arrive in his holy presence.""Horrible, mutilating death!" Bufer seems, clapping his hands in time to the song he hums."Ah, you're probably right, good deputy." Emmerson lifts the pile of papers on the table. "You've read of the way the abbess killed her nuns, haven't you, acolyte? The things she did to them." In unison, Emmerson and Bufer cross themselves. "Who knows what may happen to us when we venture there?""Horrible death," offer the rest of the group as one, before Bufer can get it out. He shoots them a dirty look."Oh, now, if I thought it would be that bad, I wouldn't have conscripted the librarian, here," says Tucker. "And acolyte, don't fret: even St. Daris was a simple man before he took up his hammer. In Lothian, you shall find greatness."The acolyte looks slightly relieved."Find it, of course, when we go to face horrible death," Tucker finishes."Now see here!" The acolyte shakes off the deputy's arm, and steps away from the three who have been badgering him. "I am a librarian, and a messenger for the bishop, nothing more! I have brought you your message, and I will wait in town until your expedition is completed, one way or the other, at which point I will report back to Bishop Lehmann."He turns toward the exit, only to find Emus leaning against the door, his great club leaning next to him."I am no soldier!"Tucker rattles the paper he held up earlier."There are other ways to serve your duty once conscripted," he says. "There is more to a battle than fighting.""Such as?""You arrived just today and presented us with an incredibly brief timetable. It leaves us almost no time to prepare for this quest or to ready our equipment. Though another set of hands would not be turned away if you did want to come, what we really need now are supplies and the gold to buy them."Now, a simple rural priest may rely on the kindness of strangers when traveling, but I've met the bishop, and seen his public rooms. No man who loves opulence as much as he does would ever think to send an acolyte on a journey this far into the wilderness with no provisions. You bring us any supplies you brought with you, and any coin you have, and we can consider your conscription fulfilled. We'll make sure your room and board are taken care of for the next few days until your return to Middleborough, and you'll have an official, successful service marked on your record -- a great boon to one who wishes to advance his standing in the church."So tell me, acolyte, how would you like to fulfill your charge: with gold, or with steel?""By Garl, I do believe the boy's onto something," Bufer mutters in Gnomish.As the acolyte sputters, Bufer looks up at Emmerson and gestures for him to lean closer."Does he really have the authority to, you know, extort money from folk like this?" he whispers to the young priest."I assume so," Emmerson whispers in return. "Tucker's a law-abiding soul, and I've never known him to lie. And he is the deputy, after all.""Wow," Bufer says, looking at Tucker in a whole new light. "For the first time today, I'm glad I'm penniless!"The acolyte sputters with fear and outrage."I am subject to church law before all else and thus under the bishop's rule before the sheriff's! And, in any case, I have only what I need to stay at the inn. I am merely an acolyte, not a curate or high priest!""Ah," Bufer nods. "Steel it is, then?""Steel." Tucker draws his sword, then offers the handle to the acolyte. "Have you ever had any training with one of these? Time is short, but I'm sure we could at least teach you how to not lop off your own legs when you swing it.""As I said before, I am bound to church law, not the sheriff's.""Ah, true, you did," says Emmerson, tapping a prayer book with a knuckle, "But that's not entirely accurate. It is Lothian's law that is be your highest calling, not the church's. And while the temporal church may not fault you for leaving us to our fate, I do not think Lothian approves of broken vows."We are not asking you to serve a mere sheriff above his holiness the bishop: We are asking you to serve Lothian himself. It takes more than the Order of the Dawn to defend the faith: It takes all of us, every day, in the choices we make. The times we choose to stand for our faith, rather than sitting quietly. I ask you now, here in the house of Lothian, will you stand for our lord and god?""Look, nobody's trying to get you killed, lad," Bufer adds, suddenly serious, "But I already told you, I ain't much on book-learning. You've got more'a this stuffed into you noggin than all of us combined are gonna be able to absorb in one night. To me, it's pretty clear: bring all of this, or bring you. And I don't want be wasting time paging through a book in a life or death situation. You might very well be the one who keeps us all from an early grave, tomorrow."Besides, ain't there at least part of ye filled with a healthy academic curiosity about the place? If we succeed in this, you'd be the only scholar to have had a front row seat at the proceedings, and the first to catalog just what happened at the abbey in the first place. At least a couple books gonna be devoted to that, I figure. Someone's gonna write 'em. Why not you?"The acolyte miserably nods."I'll come with you, may St. Gustav preserve me."</blockquote>

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