The Butcher of Gadobhra

The Fairy lights that illuminated Sedgewick were glowing bright, illuminating the town. Some of the regular residents looked out their windows to see the Baron's Workers running everywhere, hauling wagons and barrels. While it wasn't unheard of to find them working late into the night, this was excessive. Some of the people simply drew the heavy drapes to block the light and went back to bed. Others, more attuned to what such chaos might mean got up and looked for how they could assist the Workers, and share in the profit.

The Banker woke to find his wife who was already dressed for battle and had cooked a large breakfast with strong black coffee. He ate quickly while she kept watch out the window. "Early hours?"

He smiled at her, and said, "Indeed. If the town is awake and busy, they may have need of our services." He was delighted to eat her breakfast first, of course. He was still surprised to wake up and find himself happily married to such a competent and beautiful wife and was eternally thankful to his Mother for seeing Helga for the valuable asset that she was.

At the home of the local alchemists and tailor, everyone was working and hadn't stopped since Benjamin had brought word to them. Aleister and Zephyr were mixing full barrels of basic Health, Stamina, and Mana potions using the mass brewing techniques Suzette had discovered. Each barrel took pounds of ingredients and thousands of mana, but there were a dozen Contract Workers helping them. An enlarged version of Aleister's earlier apparatus took up half of his expanded laboratory. Suzette had allocated Building Points to him months ago to enlarge his home and create enough room to teach Alchemy classes to those workers who could learn the skills.

The Brewers who worked in the underground brewery could manage the basic potions, and all of them had large mana pools because of their levels. They assisted the alchemists in creating large batches of basic potions, and when their mana ran dry, they brought in friends to help. Clyde and Althea, the leatherworkers couldn't manage the potions, but while learning basic alchemy from the Zephyr, they had come up with some interesting recipes for magical waxes and oils for curing their leather products. The new cantrips became available to people in the third tier with Enhancement Points to spend. The way came in handy for many things, including sealing barrels and stoneware that held magical liquids.

Now, all of those people were helping with the production of the needed potions. A huge copper cauldron sat above a fire, held by two uprights that would allow it to pivot and pour. Instead of pinches, whole heaps of herbs and powders were added along with pure spring water from the village well. As the cauldron heated, the Workers added the huge amount of mana needed until the potions activated. Betty used one of her cooking cantrips to cool the boiling mixture to room temperature and the fifty gallons of potion were poured into the barrel and sealed tightly. One by one a dozen barrels of each type of potion were loaded into wagons, carefully tied down with layers of hay cushioning to keep them from accidentally bumping against each other.

As the workers gained levels, experimented, and unlocked skills with Enhancement points, more cantrips were uncovered. A Stoneworker named Barnoff had unlocked a more potent quicklime recipe that led to a hardened mortar they used to construct Rowan Keep. Betty had half a dozen that helped her curdle milk for cheese, make bread rise in only a few minutes, or water boil in seconds. Suzette kept track of the new cantrips and urged other workers to learn them.

Meanwhile, Adrianna was converting leather and furs harvested from the animals in the Beastwoods into heavy hooded coats that would cover a person from head to knees. She had a dozen women from the hamlets assisting her, each one a competent seamstress after working with Adrianna for several months. The former peasants had arrived in Sedgewick clothed in rags with only the clothes on their backs. Now, every person was the owner of several sets of clothing. Roderick Kalvek had brought in wagonloads of cloth each month along with wool, yarn, dyes, needles, and thread. As fast as he stocked the shelves, they were cleared again by farmers and their wives shopping with the extra money they made from selling grain to the Baron.

Chainey was hard at work in the smokehouse. Whole wagonloads of wood were being pushed into the Smokehouse and burned in the roaring fire pit. The Smoke swirled around the carcasses hanging from the ceiling as Chainey finished smoking every bit of meat in a single night. His chains loaded the smoked sedgebeast into the wagons that had brought the wood and ejected them outside, to be taken to Runt's butchershop where he and several apprentice Butchers stripped the meat and packed it into barrels. The wagonloads of barrels went back to the Smokehouse and parked beside it where Ozzy worked to infuse Smoke and heat into each barrel to continue the curing process.

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Another wagon, filled with an assortment of barrels and jugs was parked behind the Smokehouse. Makken, in full protective gear, was carefully opening the containers one at a time and mixing the contents with concentrated pepper juice before putting the volatile mixture into large clay pots sealed with special alchemical wax. It was grueling and dangerous work, made doubly dangerous by Old Joe as he picked up each pot and poured in Heat he pulled from the raging fire in the Smokehouse.

The dwarf mumbled through his beard and hood, "You know, a more polite fellow would leave off doing that part until the folks who aren't fireproof have had a chance to depart the scene. Bad enough that I'm sinning against the gods seven different ways by using whiskey for something other than drinking, but at least they won't put me in the flames until I die!"

Joe rolled his eyes at the nervous dwarf, "Oh, quit yer bitching. And you can't fool me. I've never known a dwarf who burned, they usually just charr a little bit. What I'm doing isn't anywhere near as bad as that liquid death you added to the mix. And from the bragging I've heard from the local dwarf population, your race is tough enough to survive most anything. Don't blame me for being curious about what it would take to burn through that fancy suit of yours."

"Well, maybe so. We are a hearty race. And at least this isn't the worst stuff they pulled out of that old distillery they found under the town. I was excited at first. 'Poisonworks' sounded like a traditional Gin factory, but no, the idiots actually used all those tanks and distilleries to make poison!" He shook his head in wonder at the foolishness humans could get up to. At least they'd cleared the worst of the stuff out of there.

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Elsewhere, Rolly was pulling a wagon with twelve barrels of 'The Worst Stuff' through his meadows with Suzette following along. She noticed that none of the animals were coming anywhere near them. A good indication of the potency of what was in the barrels and the intelligence of the local animals. She noticed other things that had changed.

"Rolly, are your calves getting bigger? And why does that one have a head like a lizard?"

"The answers are 'Yes' and 'I wanted to mention that to you, but got busy.' All of the newborns are getting bigger and tougher, and you'll see the answer to the other question in a few moments. The sedge is getting thicker and absorbing more mana from the city. Part of the same thing that's happening to the forests." The forest parted in front of him, and in a few minutes, the Barmaid, Shepherd, and wagon full of barrels disappeared into a small cave and disappeared.

Entering her Realm gave Suzette mixed feelings. She'd tried to forget about it at first, desperate to get back to what counted as normal in Sedgewick, but she knew she couldn't ignore it forever. That was a good way to create bigger problems. As soon as she was past the gate and within the Realm she had inherited from the Duchess, the swirling Silver and Poisoned magic of the pocket dimension welcomed her back and her mana, depleted from brewing potions, refilled immediately. Her form shifted to that of a tall, pale, High Fae and she was encased in a full set of enchanted Silver armor. Rolly had seen this before, but the change was sudden and intense.

"Wowza! That was a quick change. It takes me a lot longer to armor up, and that's with Squirmie helping me to do it."

Suzette looked at her arm and hand, encased in the gleaming armor decorated with thorns. It felt like a second skin. She'd known that within her realm she would be more powerful, but experiencing it was far different. Here, this was who she was, and the Barmaid was the disguise. She shook off the feeling and looked around, noticing the fields full of animals.

"What the hell?! Where did all the damned Sedgebeasts come from?" Hundreds of the creatures were now in her realm and while some of them were dying from the poisons here, the bulk of the herd was happily eating the vegetation and digesting it. She could feel them becoming hers. Thousands of bleached skeletons attested to how many generations of the fast-breeding cattle had died here before they grew resistant enough to survive.

"Well, from talking to some of them on the other side, a few of them went to get a drink out of the stream and got curious about what was through the gate. They wandered in and have been breeding, living, and dying since then. Sedge grass seeds were in their manure and the plants took hold. It was designed by the Druids to absorb the Dark Mana that Gadobhra spits out, but it doesn't seem picky about grabbing the poison in the ground and absorbing that too. I've been keeping watch on them and trying to keep these critters from going back. Ozzy's smokehouse gets rid of the poisonous taste of normal sedge beast, but I'm not sure how it would handle these. With all the new growth outside, I even brought in another couple of herds. At this rate, we can clean up at least part of this place for you. Cheaper than unicorns, and a lot less drama."

Suzette could feel the difference. The Realm had natural connections to Poison and Silver magic, or had it been constructed that way? She'd read in the library that some Fae Realms were constructed by their owners. But the Duchess had chosen to concentrate poison in her realm. Suzette didn't want to follow in her footsteps. She looked at the herds and as she accepted that they were helping, they moved a little closer to being hers. Then she saw the dozens that had claws, scales, and familiar-looking mutations. "Oh no, they ate all the Dire Beasts and mutated?"

She reached out and was relieved to still feel the small herds of the reptiles not far away.

Rolly scratched his head, "Some, for sure. They fought and killed each other, but those are actually crossbreeds. Some aspects of the fertility magic the Druids used? I'm still figuring it out. The mama sedgebeasts are having calves by the Papa Dire Beasts, and the other way around. Except those crossbreeds hatch from eggs. Biology is strange in Genesis and totally bonkers when you start mixing up Fae and Druid magic. Fun stuff though."

Suzette smiled at that. "Sure, let's go with fun. And before we get sidetracked more, let's drag this wagon over to that little pond. It has what I think I need. The pond in question was fed by a stream and about four acres in size. Silverthorn vines grew in places on the banks, and a few wary Rippy Fish were in the center. The fish had been sadly disappointed to find out that not only did the sedge beasts taste horrible, but the fish tasted great to the sedge beasts. Only a few fish that learned from the mistakes of others survived. Suzette sent them calming thoughts and told them to stay clear of Rolly, mentioning that he too ate anything.

Rolly unloaded the barrels and set them in the water near the Silverthorne and then stepped back. He was curious, but he had a sleeping bug wrapped up in his backpack to think about. Squirmie had said that this upgrade and metamorphosis would be her most complex ever.

As Rolly watched, the green-tinged water began to clear. Suzette moved from barrel to barrel until she'd touched all twelve. They glowed slightly to Rolly's eyes. These containers had come from the distillery they had found beneath Sedgewick. These older barrels had sat there for untold years and were hopelessly contaminated with poison and filled with deadly sludge. They'd been used to drain off whatever was left in the large vats before the old Poisonworks was cleaned, converted, and used to produce Blud Dark. The barrels of poisonous sludge had been sealed away, but not forgotten.

"You cleared all the poison from the lake?" Rolly could see all the way to the bottom where the nervous fish darted back and forth.

"For now. Poison will leach back into it, but it's easy to pull the poisonous mana from the water. The stuff in the barrels accepted the mana easily. I'm a little scared by how potent the stuff is. I've reinforced the barrel hoops with Silverthorn rings. I don't want those bursting apart until the right moment."

"Is there ever a right moment for using Poison Infused Sludge Bombs?"

"A point. Ok, make sure they don't break until the wrong moment. I'm sure it will be wrong from someone's standpoint."

"Well, the General did say to get creative."