D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

--- Kat ---

"Alright," said Lachlann, "I had some other ideas for what I wanted, keepsakes and such... but I realised that most of them are probably frozen in time as well and not things you could move. So what I will do is this. I will open the doors to the basement so you can set up the node, and then make two requests. The first is of course, that if you find the previous residents of the village... or their descendants, you set up a second node where they set up the new village to allow them to return to me should they desire. Even just news would be appreciated, but I know this will be largely down to luck.

"So my second request is that you check up on a few places for me. I saw and heard about a number of important people in my life before they all left... but not about everyone. In fairness, I was struggling to remain awake at the time. Holding back the strange time freezing effect seems to be easier now, and I was far more concerned with ensuring everyone was able to leave the house at the time...

"But it does mean there are quite a few names I no not the fate off. First, my old friend the blacksmith. There are only two shops in town, and her shop was the older of the two. You should be able to tell because of the massive chimney at the back attached to the forge. Along with the bellows pumps. Her house is... somewhere off to the West... perhaps halfway to the edge of town and a bit of the main street. You can just barely make out her chimney from my window if you care to look for it, but obviously I can’t point it out...

"Next, I’d like you to visit my great granddaughter’s house. She lives to the South of town. That’s directly out the front door by the way. She lives right on the edge, just a few houses down from it and she’s a painter by trade. Her house will stand out for being far and away the most colourful... but she never could garden so the best she has is a few trees in the backyard I planted for her to give some shade. I suppose ’lives’ was the wrong way to describe it... regardless you know what I mean.

"Now, more... South-West ish is a place you can visit between those two. That belongs to another old fart I used to adventure with. He took up leather working for a bit before moving on to wood carving... but he’s still got a few leather pieces on display. Look for big wood carved statues and leather on the walls. That’s his house. Not another like it in the city.

Lachlann sighed, "Now, the last house I want you to check is going to be a pain in the ass to find. I don’t know them the best and there wasn’t too much in their house that stood out. They’re sort of... East-ish from here and they’re the grandson of an old friend of mine. I was asked to make sure he had a good life you know? His grandfather sacrificed himself to save another friend of ours a long time ago. Healing potions weren’t quite enough when he ended up loosing both legs."

Lachlann wiped away at a tear that had started to pool in the corner of his eye. "Regardless, I’d just like to know if the kid made it out... but I’m struggling to think of what identifying features the damn house had. Kid hadn’t even owned it long. Got married a bit before everything went down and finally moved out of his parents place... I... I think the new one had a rather impressive garden? His wife was into that sort of thing, and the old fuck who owned the place before him was my gardener before he passed. Still... he was MY gardener not his own, so it wasn’t anything too grand."

Lachlann tapped the side of his head, before moving on to slapping it a few times before shaking his head. "Honestly I’m struggling to get any more details out of this ol’ brain of mine. I’d just ask you try and take a look that way for me I suppose. Or maybe duck back here after you’ve seen the other three? I might have remembered something else to help you find the house in question."

"Alright, that’s all fine," agreed Kat before turning to Appoline. "Do you want to come for a walk with Lily and I, or stay here until we get back?"

Appoline considered the question for a while. "I think I’ll stay here. There’s space out back for me to set up my brewing equipment so I can make some extra potions with the ingredients we’ve picked up so far."

Lachlann shrugged and said, "You can set up in here if you want. I’m not worried about anything getting damaged in the process for obvious reasons. Though if you’d prefer not to have an old fuck watching you work I won’t stop you setting up elsewhere. Oh, and the doors to the basement are open. You can either take the ones under the stairs or the ones outside."

Kat glanced over at Appoline asking what she’d prefer... only to realise Appoline was already setting up her equipment. With that answered, Kat shrugged and left, scooping up Lily into her arms along the way so she could mess with her girlfriend’s fur while they travelled. Once in the basement Lily did have to transform for a moment to set off the node, but that was fine.

The node itself was... certainly sluggish. The cellar thankfully had a few empty spots to set up in away from the wine and what had probably been the cold storage so there was space... but the threads didn’t seem to want to fill it up all that fast. The node unwound slowly as thick threads unwound and slunk towards the walls. Still, Weaver had warned them this would take a while so it wasn’t unexpected.

Once they were confident the node would be fine, they left the building and moved back around to the other side. Glancing over the tops of the house they tried to identify the smith’s house from here... and sort of succeeded. The problem was that there were two notable chimneys that looked to be almost the same size as the houses around them. Neither reached far up into the sky either so even then it was more a guess.

One of them was directly West... but the other was only slightly further North. More annoying, was that Kat was quite sure you could see both of them from the window up above. *Alright so which one do we head for? The one off to the north or the one straight west? We have to curl west anyway so if we need to visit both we should head north first... but I have a strong feeling that the place we need to visit is the one straight west.*

[Let’s just cover them all. We’re not in a rush and we can move pretty fast.] Kat nodded and then the pair zipped over to the first smithy. They didn’t even need to look inside to know that whoever lived here had gotten out. Mostly on account of the big double-doors on the side of the building near the furnace that were wide open. It looked like they used them to deliver coal and perhaps also let larger projects leave without tearing down the wall. With those doors wide open it was unlikely anyone had been trapped inside but perhaps it was best to double check.

Walking through the place revealed that whoever lived here didn’t believe in closing doors. Three separated the work area from the bedrooms. First into the house proper, which was open, the second into the kitchen and dining area, was also open, and the third for the bedrooms was not only opened, but wedged so with a wooden stopper on the ground. Sure there were some doors shut in the house, but frankly none of those rooms had the footprint to be a bedroom. So they made a note that whoever lived here had certainly escaped and moved on.

The next smithy was larger, but the land it was on also had a house nearby. The smithy was similarly open and a quick glance inside showed that it was unlikely anyone had been trapped. It was also notably older. Soot and burn marks covered the stone and vines crept along the outside in a few spots. The pair didn’t linger, moving swiftly over to the smaller house... a bit more worried as to what they’d find.

The windows were barred shut, with wooden coverings that looked like they could slide into place from the side. The front door was similarly shut... but when they circled the place, Kat and Lily felt themselves relax. The back door was open... sort of. It was split into two halves perhaps for a dog or something and the bottom had been left wide open. A quick look inside revealed much the same for the other doors. Likely left that way so whatever animal the food bowls near the door belonged to could get around and interact with the family. So the blacksmith was safe, or at least, not trapped here. Good. Now for the others.

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