Chapter 1672 Mountains of Pebbles

--- Kat ---

Meg had spent some more time grilling Curl but for all the worlds he said… no new information really came up. Oddly insightful he might be but Curl was no seer and simply didn’t have much information about the bandits in question. Judging by the expression on Drl’s face though… he probably did.

This was proven true when the team left the tavern, with Meg requested a lead on a place to say. The Rickey Tavern might be remarkably well put together in contrast to its name and first impression but it was very much a place to drink. The upper level was just where the bartender lived apparently so there was no rooms to rent.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Thankfully Drl and Dav both knew plenty of places to check for rooms. Rooms they should all have. They were leading the way when Meg asked, "So what do you know about these bandits?"

Dav and Drl both winced, with Dav looking away awkwardly. Dav on the other hand took a deep breath and started to explain. "It’s a bit of an open secret. The bandits are a mix of older gang members as well as some teens from town and that makes it hard to deal with them…"

Kat waited for Drl to keep speaking. She wanted to ask ’why that made it hard’ but there were quite a few reasons for it to be harder then normal. Eventually Drl brought himself together. "See the issue is the leader… no that’s not true. There are two issues really. The man who calls himself ’the leader’ and wants to be known as ’the mountain shaker’ but is really just a mediocre earth mage who grew up with the nickname ’pebbles’.

"He was a good kid you know," Dav rolled his eyes. "Look I know you didn’t get along with him when you were both kids Dav, but he really was. He’d run around town doing jobs for money. His father was sick you know? And his mother… well she wasn’t a particularly good person. She worked sure but spent most of the money on drink and drugs.

"Pebbles used to go around doing odd jobs for money to pay for his dad’s medicine… then once his mother started stealing what little he did earn, the kid instead traded for medicine or home remedies. We don’t have any healers in town see… and there aren’t many around either.

"Poor kid paid a fortune to have one of the healers from a few towns over come and investigate but whatever was wrong with his dad was too much for the Rank 1 to overcome. Healed Pebble’s dad up as best he could and apologised for not doing more…"

Drl swallowed thickly, clearly not wanting to say more. Dav let out a long sigh and decided to save his uncle the trouble. "A few days later his mother found out how much money the visit had cost and killed her husband in his sleep,"

Drl sniffed a bit. "Indeed. A young Pebbles had saved up six months’ worth of his savings to pay for that visit. He’d needed to get tricky and hide the money, plus spending it in small amounts so it didn’t look like he was saving. It was really more of a year’s worth of work… and what his mother did? It broke him."

Drl rubbed at his eyes. "He used what little magic he had to kill her that day… and well… there had to be a punishment for it. Pebbles wasn’t a kid anymore he was… oh fourteen I think?"

"He was sixteen Uncle," interjected Dav.

"Really? I could’ve sworn…" Drl trailed off with a shake of his head. "Doesn’t matter. Point is he was young, too young really but not young enough that they could just let him off with something like that. So he got locked up in the town jail. There he met… fuck it I’ll just call him Creep. It’s an accurate enough name and he changes his ’real’ name so often nobody really knows what his original name was.

"Creep is a scumbag that came into town with a merchant caravan some twenty years ago. He was in and out of jail with a host of minor offences. Nothing too extreme you know, just little things that would get you in trouble if caught but never too much trouble. Problem was he wasn’t some cute kid. He was a grown ass man stealing bread and cheese and then pretending he did nothing wrong.

"Of course, when Pebbles went to jail he got stuck with Creep… and at some point Pebbles came around to his way of thinking. Now they’re set up out on the mountains. Pebbles is better at his magic now and they use it to move around stealthily in the mountains… and it’s hard to know just who is in the bandit gang.

"See the problem is that other then those two at the top? We don’t really know who works with them. Pebbles made a bunch of fancy ceramic masks for the whole gang and they keep it quiet. Some idiots brag occasionally… but never anyone too old. So are they lying idiots? Or real bandits?

"We don’t know. Suspect but don’t know… and because of what happened with Pebbles we really don’t want to start throwing them in jail and make things worse. Not without being really, really sure."

"You can likely figure them all out can’t you?" stated Hunter bluntly.

Drl twitched but nodded. "Yes… I… for all that they wear masks they are mostly a group of idiots and once again… no healer in town. Sure they don’t kill anyone… which is the main reason that we haven’t sent out a request they be dealt with… but that doesn’t mean nobodies died,"

Kat frowned as she realised what that meant. So did Lily and Kamiko apparently because her girlfriend hissed, tail puffing up in anger while Kamiko asked, "How is that not Pebbles and Creep killing people,"

Drl blew out a long puff of air. "That’s the argument isn’t it? A lot of people think things have gone too far… but who’s going to pay for it? Plus, what do we put on the request form? Bandit extermination is pretty common… but that means we don’t get to decide if the adventurers go in with kid gloves or not…

"And if we wanted people strong enough to use kid gloves and not worry about their safety? Well that’s gonna cost a heck of a lot more. Money that nobody wants to spend and remember, they’re more of a pest. They still from merchants but never their whole caravan and nobody has died… so nobody wants to put up the money. Not the merchants, not the town council. Nobody,"

"We can take care of them for you," said Meg with a smile. A warm smile that seemed to contain no empathy at all. "We do have to get that crystal back after all,"

Drl let out a barking laugh. "You’d kill them all,"

Meg nodded, "Probably,"

"Which is one of the reasons I didn’t know if I wanted to tell you this story. My nephew was probably the same," Dav shrugged not entirely sure that was his reasoning. "We’ve got more than a few guesses as to where they might be hiding out… but what’s important is that we know there’s extra tunnels around…"

"Wait…" Kat mumbled. "Those kids that caused the cave in…"

Drl shrugged, "Maybe but who knows?" Find your next read on empire

Kamiko grumbled. "Someone could’ve been seriously hurt… but I take it the earth mage in that story wasn’t ’Pebbles’?"

Drl let out a dry chuckle. "No of course not. Pebbles is no kid. Not anymore," A dark look flashed over Drl’s eyes. "Though the question is pretty obvious. Who taught a teenage earth mage how to dig tunnels? Sure they caused a cave in… but it wasn’t because their tunnel was poorly constructed. Just that it was built in the wrong place. So… who taught him to dig?"

"No proof though?" asked Kat.

Drl nodded, "None. We have a few earth mages. None super powerful but they make good money in the mines… so it’s technically possible that one of them could’ve taught them…"

"But it’s not likely…" added Kat with a sigh.

"Are they being held in the jail?" asked Meg suddenly.

Drl gave Meg a sighed eyed-glance. "Probably just the sheriff’s lockup for now. Wouldn’t want to put them with the real nasties just in case… again. Though perhaps they ended up in the real prison for a bit to try and scare them. Why?"

"Well… we want to find a secret bandit hideaway… perhaps we can ask the apprentice where his master’s wizard tower is?" stated Meg with a malicious grin.

Kat shivered. *I… do not know what to do here. They’re bandits but… if nobody has been killed by them… but at the same time… hmm… well no I can just not kill any of them… but can I stop Meg? Should I? The drake piece is probably there… and with a bit of guiding and the compass we can find it. Sigh…*