The Butcher of Gadobhra

Long after the rest of the family had gone to bed, Ozzy sat in the guest room, sipping on a bottle of Vassily's brandy. It was good stuff, and he was finally starting to feel the alcohol hit him. Regular beer or wine, and even something harder like brandy, had little chance of making him drunk unless he drank a huge amount quickly. Thirty large flagons of beer and two bottles of brandy turned out to be the point where he finally felt something. The huge increase in Poison Resistance he'd been awarded and his high CON made minor poisons irrelevant, including alcohol. Makken's dwarven whiskey was another story, and Suzette was getting better with her brewing. Her wine tended to sneak up on you, especially the stuff that doubled as an energy drink. Some of her enhanced beer recipes also had quite a kick to them. Of course, nothing compared to his few shots of ambrosia, but he doubted he could pick up a bottle outside of visiting Mount Olympus. If there was a Mount Olympus.

Feeling just a little tipsy, he lay on the comfortable bed, finding it easy to relax on the goose-down featherbed. It was a hell of a lot more comfortable than the old bed he slept on in Sedgewick. He added a new bed to things he needed to shop for tomorrow. Just because he and Suzette didn't sleep that much didn't mean they shouldn't do it in comfort. And he had some money to burn.

Today had been fun, he had to admit. He hadn't pulled a scam like that in a long time. Greed did silly things to people, and that went double for corporations. It was interesting how they'd been so interested in his property. He knew Billy and Vern had bought a tiny little shop to sell magic items, but that had been with Building Points. It seemed that if you were a corporation, money was no good for buying property unless the rules were bent. That told him why Billy and Vern valued those building points so much. Billy and Layla were still pissed that Vern had kept control of that little shop. Vern was pissed that it had nothing to sell with Billy controlling the items that came out of his dungeons. And Billy had trouble converting those to gold unless someone visited Gadobhra or Sedgewick, and couldn't sell them for real-world money. But Ozzy was pretty confident Billy would be able to fix some of those problems soon. He'd already been pushing Ben to find a way to repair or replace Gadobhra's old teleport stone.

It was apparent to him just how big an advantage that salvaged teleport stone, and its proximity to the Gnomish Bank of Sedgewick might be. Coupled with the Kallvek merchant network he saw quite a few interesting things they could start doing. But they had to be careful, and not get greedy. Too much too quickly would tip people off. If they could get a teleport stone created for Gadobhra, or put the shattered one back together, everyone would assume the flow of items came from the Baron. He'd talk to Ben about that when he got back, and see if there was any way he could help with that. Until then, they'd funnel most of their manufactured magic items, like the Hellboar tusk daggers, through the Kallvek family.

They had to be careful with the gold they earned as well. Thank all the gods they had a secure place to hide it! Earning 30,000 gold today had been fun and profitable. He'd been angry that they were trying to steal his building and causing some trouble had been his original goal. That changed when he got a handle on the people in the auction and read the rules. It was pretty obvious someone had spotted a loophole in the laws and thought they could take advantage of Billy defaulting on Gadobhra. It had probably looked like a sure bet from their end. He could guess that bribes had flowed from corporations and nobles to the petty bureaucrats setting up the deal. Then they'd brought in a reputable Auction House.

Based on the rules of the auction, the Auction House had taken one look at the deal and recognized it for what it was. There was a very good chance that the whole thing would fall like a house of cards, leaving them holding the bag. The high percentage of fees was their cut, knowing Stravos would be happy with 50% of the sale, money he never expected to get. But to make sure they didn't get stiffed, they'd added the clauses that had them get paid first out of the seller fees. They needed to mitigate the risk they were taking on, and this type of deal had a lot more risk than usual. Hell, he'd taken a big chance that the corporations didn't just drop the auction on him. That would have been trouble. A choice of either losing money or admitting to his little scheme. He would have paid the money to avoid the complications. Better a drained bank account than open himself up to whatever bullshit the imperial accountants and taxmen could cook up. As things had shaken out, it was probably heading to the courts, but that wasn't any problem of his.

Splitting the money with Vassily's daughters had simply felt right. That windfall would help them get a start, and they'd been helpful with pulling off the scam, even if they hadn't known it at the time. Having two good-looking girls standing next to him added to the outrageous pirate persona and created a distraction. He'd seen both Chuck and Jerry staring at them while they negotiated. Neither of those guys was much of a poker player, that had been obvious, and he doubted they had read the terms of the auction as carefully as he had. Its language was like something a corporate lawyer would put together, and he was sure that's where it had come from. No gnome would ever be that sloppy. But he could see where the auction house had changed the wording and covered all their bases, taking no chances of things falling apart. The corporate lawyers and agents had been sloppy this time, but that didn't mean they'd be sloppy the next time. The competition was going to start heating up as they grew their infrastructure. The more they got down in the mud and learned about the world, the smarter they'd be.

Billy was going to be a player in that, even if Gadobhra was out in the ass-end of the Empire. Teleportation and cheap mana meant access to markets far away. Choice of markets meant extra profit. And picking the right people to sell to came with advantages. The Red Company was a good example of a good customer and secure market. If anyone interfered with his shipments to them, they'd find an angry Duchess or Mercenary Captain in their face, depending on how she handled it.

Billy and Layla were an interesting problem to contemplate. The Baron and Baroness had an amicable relationship with their workers at the moment. Billy was getting more out of his Contract Workers than he'd ever dreamed of and was repaying that with a loose hand on the reins. But Ozzy was under no illusion how quickly that could change. Vern and Billy were fighting with each other over resources and trying to convince the ACME higher-ups who should have control of resources in the game. If Billy lost, they might have to deal with Vern.

Or Layla and Billy could have a falling out. And pressure from the board to produce more could make Billy grabby. He'd seen what the pressure of working for a corporation did to people. Hell, he'd seen that today with two guys too eager to please their bosses. All good reasons to keep any wealth hidden away in the bank and not divulge all their business dealings. Just in case.

This trip had been a little spontaneous. When he had time, he'd begun infusing smoke into the timbers used in the keep as a precaution against fires. He'd suggested to Bill that he should take a load of wood and be first through the teleporter, based on how trigger-happy the Mage's guild had been on a previous trip. A load of wood was easier to replace than a load of sausage, and he wanted to see if there was a market for the strong, fireproof timbers at the Carpenter's Guild. Billy liked the idea. Wood and Smoke cost him nothing. Both of them liked the idea of creating the illusion that this was just 'business as usual' in Gadobhra.

Ozzy was going to take one timber over to the Carpenter's Guild on his way back, but the rest were going to his new building for repairs. Billy also wanted him to drop by the Red Company barracks and drop off some pamphlets for his new line of war machines. The Red Company were light cavalry, and not likely to want to tow along wagons of heavy ballistae, but their Captain wore another hat, and the Duchess had a city to defend.

Despite not needing more than a couple hours of sleep, he found it easy to stay in bed and nap until he heard noise and smelled food cooking. Outside his door was a pitcher of water and a fresh towel. He quickly washed up in the basin in his room, then used the Cleanse spell on himself and his clothes. He'd gotten a lot of use out of the cantrip and it saved a lot of time. Butchering was hard on your clothes. The huge dining room table was filled with people eating, but a large chair was reserved for him at one end.

Vassily waved him to sit down, and his daughters rose from the table to bring him a mug of tea and fill his plate with a lot of everything on the table. He noticed they'd been sitting next to two young men who looked a little shell-shocked and both girls kept glancing at the simple silver bands on their fingers, rings that hadn't been there yesterday. After he'd had his fill and a little more, the girls each grabbed an arm of their betrothed and brought them over to meet Ozzy. He shook hands with Jacob, who was with Daria, and Polina introduced Hector. Both young men were about twenty years old. After that, the boys stood nervously behind the girls and Ozzy suspected something was up. Vassily was sipping his tea, looking far too nonchalant.

"Why do I suspect you two have something to ask me?"

Daria looked at Polina, and as they'd rehearsed, she took the lead. "We do. You are going to need to hire people to work in your warehouse. If you don't have people watching it, you'll be cleaned out some night and lose everything. According to Father, the biggest problem in hiring people to work in a business is finding trustworthy people. When the time comes to open, we'd like you to consider Jacob and Hector. You can trust them, and they'll be living right here, able to constantly keep an eye on your shop and be diligent workers."

Ozzy glanced at Vassily who nodded slightly. So his friend trusted them, which made sense since he was taking them into his household. "Well, that's true, I do need some people, and it would be awfully convenient to have the people working my shop be so close by. But we're talking hard work in a warehouse and running a butcher shop. Do you two know anything about doing either of those jobs?"

Hector spoke up, "My father has a restaurant, and I've cut meat in the kitchens since I was 14, but most of my time is spent in the warehouse doing inventory and moving stock. We supply other restaurants with barrels of olive oil, wine, and pickled vegetables. It's good work, but I'm a fourth child and won't inherit. I'd thought of bringing Polly to live with me and work in my family's business, but she thinks working for you would be better. I'm a hard worker, sir, I won't let you down." Polina gave him a look that said, 'Darn right you won't'.

"How about you, Jacob? Similar situation?"

Jacob smiled at Daria and took her hand. "Oh, no sir. I'm not fortunate like Hector in being only fourth in line. I have six brothers and three sisters older than me. I work in my family's eatery, mostly cutting up meat and vegetables for pies and sausage and feeding the animals that supply the meat. And cleaning. There's always cleaning to be done."

Daria added, "And if they need more help, we'll work as well. We can help our family here, and help our husbands if things get too busy. " Polina nodded in agreement.

Ozzy took a moment to consider. He had thought about hiring a couple of the likely lads from the hamlets who were training to be Butchers, but that meant tossing them into the deep end of an unfamiliar city and finding them places to live. These two knew the lay of the land and would be living right across from his place. The girls would keep an eye on them, and Vassily and his wife would watch all four. And he could get started a lot faster.

He looked at all four of them. "All right, let's get something straight right from the start: I'm not some high, muckety-muck noble. I work for the Baron of Gadobha as a Butcher and get my hands dirty working long hours. So don't stand on ceremony if you need to talk to me. Call me Ozzy, or Sir, either is fine as it suits you. I'm not saying yes, but I'll think it over. And while I'm doing that, I've got work to do. If you want to help, change into some work clothes, grab a good pair of gloves, and follow me over." The boys nodded, thanked him, and ran off to get out of their good clothes. The girls gave him hugs and ran off to talk to their mother. Vassily moved down to Ozzy's end of the table.

"They will work hard for you. Although they won't believe you about being a simple Butcher. The girls told them of the two times they've seen you here. They think you are some great warrior-wizard in disguise. My wife is sure of it, and I'm half convinced. And I want to know, are you really a pirate?"

Ozzy blew out some smoke and it turned into a miniature replica of Splinter. "I got lost one time and ended up in the Smoke. Sailed around for a while and had some adventures. I was never a pirate, but I fought a bunch of them and was promoted to the rank of Captain. Might go back someday. Stock up on brandy, and I'll tell you some stories next time."

Vassily laughed, "I look forward to it. Here come your workers, I will have the girls bring you lunch and dinner. I think you have a lot of work to do over there."

An hour later, after snapping the chain some idiot had used to lock the doors shut, Ozzy was getting an idea of the work he needed to do. The fire had been hot, but brief. Most of what had burned were interior furnishings and the thin walls dividing up some of the spaces. The big beams were slightly charred, but sound. The roof needed work, mostly from not being repaired for years. He put Hector and Jacob to work gathering up any of the broken barrels and trash into the center of the room, and the debris that he left in his wake as he took out his flensing hatchets and took down the interior walls that had created a warren of offices and store rooms. The butcher shop was one small section at the front and he left it intact, but cleared the rest of the lowest floor, turning it into one large warehouse.

The second floor was more of the same, with large openings so that pallets of goods could be hoisted up from the first floor. The ropes were charred and useless and would need replacing. He moved around like a cyclone of destruction, clearing out everything but the main supports and tossing the wood downstairs to the growing piles. At one end of the second floor was a stairway going to some sort of loft where the pitched roof narrowed. He went up to investigate and found a locked door. Keys hadn't come with the place so he breathed smoke on the door to infuse the wood, then warped the door so the lock disengaged.

He laughed when he saw the apartment behind the door. Stavros must have used it for entertaining guests of one sort or another. It ran lengthwise under the eaves of the building in what Ozzy thought of as a 'shotgun' floorplan. Kitchen and hearth first, then a dining area, another room with a large table and chairs, and then two more rooms that had half a dozen beds in each of them, like a barracks. Finally, two narrow rooms, side by side. Small dormer windows jutted out in the middle room, letting in light and giving a view down onto the courtyard and the other businesses. The roof was intact here and the fire hadn't gotten to the rooms. He'd have to double-check the supports underneath. The place was a mess with dozens of empty wine bottles, dirty dishes, and an empty beer keg. It would need cleaning up, but he had an idea of what it could be used for. He shut the door, leaving it unlocked, and went downstairs to help the boys push all the debris into one pile in the center of the room.

Hector brought his attention to an oddity. He'd found something strange in one corner of the warehouse. Rough wooden boards had been put down in one of the destroyed rooms, covering the floor. They'd come loose when the fire heated the glue used to hold them in place over the stone floor. With the flooring removed, Ozzy saw that set into the floor was a 6'x4' slab of stone that didn't match the rest of the flagstone flooring. Ozzy could see where a winch and pulley had hung overhead. It was right over a recessed steel hook securely fastened to the stone. "Any ideas, boys?"

Jacob nodded, "A couple. It might be access to the sewers that drain out of the city. They could have dumped their waste from the butcher shop into the flow. But I don't think so, everyone knows that's how you breed slimes and sewer badgers. But if it's one of the larger tunnels, they might have used it to gain access to the sewers to move goods. We're only a hundred yards from the city walls."

"Smuggling?"

Hector spoke up. "You hear about it all the time. People want to avoid taxes on high-value goods like alcohol, and pipeweed, or get people in and out of the city that have a price on their heads. Sit in a tavern long enough and someone tells a story about knowing a guy who knows a guy who can get you cheap whiskey with no taxes."

The Butcher was curious, "Only one way to find out, step back a dozen paces, just in case." The boys moved back and watched as the Butcher hooked two fingers in the loop and levered the block of stone up. It proved to be six inches thick. Once he'd moved it up enough to get a hand underneath, it was easy to pick up the block and set it to one side. Looking down into the dark, he saw broad stairs leading down to a ten-foot-wide corridor that ran in two directions. It certainly wasn't part of the sewers. The air was cold, giving him a chill, and there was an odd smell to it that he couldn't place.

"Well, well. I wonder what Stavros was up to. I'll have to have a talk with a friend about this. But for now, I think I'll seal it back up. Keep this quiet for now." Hector and Jacob just nodded, silent as they watched Ozzy set the rock back in place. Lunch was long gone, but they heard the girls at the front doors with dinner. The boys needed a break and Ozzy wasn't going to turn down another meal from their mother's kitchen.

After they were done, Ozzy decided it was time to see how they handled a little of the crazy stuff that revolved around him. "It's going to get smokey in here. Why don't you four stand by the door? You can watch, but if you start coughing or get hot, head outside." They all nodded, curious about what he would do next.

Ozzy summoned the Ancient Billhook of Entwined Fates. The chains on his arm slithered off and began stacking the debris higher and higher. Ozzy pulled some heat from his pit, then breathed out flame and heat, igniting the pile with Butcher's Breath. He wasn't trying to burn the building, just create a lot of smoke and make sure it never burned again. "I want the smoke to get into every beam and floorboard, Chainey. Hold off on the third floor for now, but I want the rest of it shiny and as black as we can get it" The chains rattled happily. Shiny and black was Chainey's favorite color.

The pile began producing smoke, and the Butcher controlled the heat, holding it in the pile and not letting it catch anything else on fire. The debris pile started glowing as it was reduced to coals. The smoke billowed in heavy clouds, only to disappear as the Butcher and sentient chains forced it into the wood. At some point, his audience went outside for some fresh air. It took Ozzy over an hour to reduce the pile to fine white ash, leached of any smoke and heat. The wood wasn't quite where he wanted it, but it was getting there. Chainey had scrubbed off any charcoal while it worked, and the smoke had left the oak and ash beams as dark as mahogany. The building looked clean now, cleared of debris. Certainly, it was free of vermin and insects. Chainey wrapped around his arm, and he put his weapon over his shoulder and left. The two couples were standing outside, talking.

Jacob was the first to speak. "That was amazing! Are you a fire mage? Daria said you were a pirate!"

Ozzy winked at her, "A little of both sometimes. But I'm just a Butcher who knows some tricks with smoke and heat. Think you still want the job? Things can get weird around me."

They all nodded. "Fine. Here's the deal. I'm going to talk with Vassily about some work that needs to be done on the building and what is a proper wage for my valued employees. We need new windows in the Butcher shop for one, new countertops and display cases and some work on the roof. I'll leave money and a list. One of you lads will stay here and oversee that work. The other is heading to Sedgewick for a crash course in running a Butcher Shop. My partner Runt will teach you the basics, and we'll have some fun for a couple of nights at the stockyard. The next week, you'll switch places. We'll also get you registered with the Butcher's Guild next door. I'll pay your guild fees the first year."

He let all that sink in and then said, "I know you'll have questions. Come find me at the restaurant in an hour, but for now, go take a look at the third floor. If it suits you, we'll fix that up for one or both couples to live up there." They didn't waste time, running into the building and pounding up the stairs. Ozzy walked over to drink some of Vassily's brandy and get his advice on what to pay them. He hadn't planned on spending a second night but let himself be talked into it. He left early in the morning, just as the sun was coming up with a mostly empty wagon and some shopping to do.

A few quick errands and then he'd head back to Sedgewick