Hollow Henry

Do you know what the reasonable compensation for a stolen bar of soap is? Because neither did Henry. He sat at his new desk with two fingers pressed firmly into his forehead in frustration. Hilda the soap maker and Hundor Grikslay the hunter sat across from him with red faces. This wasn't the first civil dispute he'd had to deal with in Henhole's founding week, and it probably wouldn't be the last. Just 3 days ago he had to break up a fight between 2 villagers that started over bread. Apparently one man's bread was softer than another's, so combat was the obvious next step.

The current dispute was over the aforementioned bar of soap. Hilda had settled in Henhole with a small supply of her stock to be ready for business as soon as possible. Apparently Hundor took it upon himself to borrow a bar to wash his dogs with. The hunter insisted that he would compensate her with a good portion of meat eventually. Henry took in a deep breath and held up his hand to thwart any further attempt to pelt him with complaints.

“Hundor,” he said firmly, trying to hold back his frustration. “You can't just take things without asking. I can't believe I even have to say that.”

“It weren't like I wasn't gunna come back,” the portly man defended.

“That doesn't make it much better,” Henry sniffed. “You'll be compensating her with a week of meat, as well as a week of labour,” he paused, and shot a sideways glance at Hilda. “Labour related to her trade,” he emphasised.

Hilda folded her arms and grumbled. Her demand was that Hundor would pay the carpenter that was building her home in order to compensate for just a single bar of soap. The woman was delusional enough to think a gold slab was an appropriate price for her products. Many of the settlers had a similar entitlement.

The population of Henhole now consisted of a good number of wealthy craft and trade workers, and a small civilian force of common citizens. It was an expensive endeavour to establish new lands. Every citizen was expected to be able to afford to have a home built and to establish themselves properly. Given the intricacies and location of Henhole, the cost of settlement was high enough to encourage only the wealthy to endeavour towards. There were some guards that would be living in the guardhouse that the kingdom sponsored to be there, along with a few of the more essential tradespeople. The dynamic left a divide between most of the citizens and the few sponsored souls. The rich were all too used to having things their own way. It was a difficult adjustment to go from being someone important, to being just another villager.

“Very well,” She eventually sighed, clearly not satisfied with her victory. “But if this happens again, I'll be writing to the king's advisor. I know him personally, you know,” she threatened with a honey voice.

“And I'll be sure to send it as soon as the next leaving party goes to The Hollows,” he said sarcastically. “If that will be all?” He asked rhetorically, doing his best to bring the meeting to an end.

The villages begrudgingly stood and shuffled out the door with their awkward goodbyes. Both of them felt slighted in some way by their new lord, but with a total of 40 heads besides his own to worry about, he didn't really care about their petty feelings. He was already doing everything his very limited experience in leadership would allow to keep everyone happy. He only hoped that as the week's went by, the people would actually settle properly. He couldn't wait to not have meetings all day.

He leant back in his chair and let out a long breath. Hettik was in the corner of the office behind him eagerly taking notes. The young man had become a citizen of Henhole upon Henry's request to the king. Henry desperately needed someone with a brain for information to handle the administration of his new village. Hettik had shown himself to be more than capable in the short time they'd spent together previously, so it was an easy choice to make. It also helped ease Henry's stress slightly to have a somewhat familiar face on his staff. Hamish and Andy were living well in Henhole, but they both acted as guard captains since the establishment of the town. It meant that he had to rely mostly on strangers to keep things moving smoothly.

“She sounds like she might be a headache,” Hettik admitted reluctantly, obviously picking up on Henry's frustration.

“We have a title for her kind where I come from,” Henry replied. “I want you to refer to her as Karen in the notes from now on,” he added with a smirk.

Hettik gave him a strange look, then shrugged. “Very well, my lord.”

“What else is on today?” Henry asked, changing the topic quickly. “I want to actually get somewhere today. I didn't even leave Henhole yesterday. At this rate we will never make it out of the kingdom proper.”

Hettik flipped through his notebook, speed reading under his breath the whole time. “There's a few people that still haven't paid their water tax. A request for travel to a town along with leave in order to, and I'm quoting directly here, exact a revenge on an ex lover the likes of which the world has never seen. And finally you are expected to open the pub at sundown. Some of the villages are planning on making a ceremony out of it, so be ready for that.”

Henry raised an eyebrow. “A revenge that the world has never seen, huh?” He mumbled curiously. “Put that on the maybe list. I want to meet this guy. As for the taxes, I'll ask Hamish if he feels like being scary today.” He stood, and adjusted his cape. Since he'd gotten his armour back, the cape had a habit of getting hung up on the leather pieces of his shirt. It was a little frustrating to be reminded that he would only really look cool in the outfit if he was standing still. Regardless of the tedium, he was glad to have his original armour again. The king's men clearly had a gift for their crafts. The armour had been dyed in the Therveinian colours, with black chain and red leathers. The set also retained its original enchantments, so he might still get the chance to actually use them. The thing that stood out to him the most about his improved armour however, was the unmistakable scent of cinnamon and honey.

“I'll put on a light show for the pub tonight. People love pretty lights,” he declared.

“Pretty lights for the pub,” Hettik muttered as he scribbled it down. “Other than that, you should be free to take the first party out for the rest of the day.”

“Time for The Henry,” Henry sighed with a satisfied smile. “I'm gunna go fight some monsters.”

He made his way outside of his house for the first time in hours, and took a deep breath in the fake sun. As stressful as the last few weeks had been, he still felt a sense of pride when he looked upon his lands. The king had been generous in establishing the village, to the point that Henry was provided with enough essence to construct an entirely new island. The village island was nearly a kilometre square, which made for reasonably tight quarters. Many of the families had agreed to share a shelter together until more land became available. From his front door, Henry could look over the village island below. Land bridges connected the various islands together in a messy and tierd network. His overgrowth power had been useful in covering the islands in a variety of plants and trees. It was hard for him to picture the small floating rock it all started out as. He was the ruler of his own little world, and it had only been a few months.

He rang a large bell he put nearby in a specific pattern to inform the first leaving party that it was time to meet up. The bell was another of the many gifts from the king while the village was being set up. It had a series of runes on it that worked like buttons. Each of them made the bell ring on its own with a different pattern. It was an incredibly useful way to communicate simple information to a lot of people at the same time. The meeting place was the now former training island. There was still a bit of space for the outworlders to train, but most of the island had been taken up for the pub and communal meeting area. Any time the villagers needed to gather together, they would begrudgingly meet beneath the ‘no kissing on the mouth’ sign. By the time he floated down to the meeting place, a few of the more eager villagers were already waiting. The first leaving party only consisted of hunters, miners and collectors. Their location in The Hollows was deep in the Callister Forest. Anybody ill equipped to protect themselves would have to sit the opportunity out. The miners and hunters usually worked together in just about any town you could come across, and it wasn't any different in Henhole. The existence of metallic beasts was enough to reinforce the standard. Henry was yet to meet one of the creatures himself, but they were common enough. The metal beasts were the reason Hamish carried around his crystal pickaxe head. The crystal picks were almost always enchanted with a variety of effects to make them more devastating. With the crystal itself also having some kind of magical effect on the world, the crystal picks made for expensive items. They weren't very practical in normal combat. If metal beasts were tough enough to warrant a specialised weapon, Henry was excited to see how much essence they yielded.

He waited for everybody in the leaving party to show up, then had Andy distribute some cheap speaking stones. The stones also worked as a light map, giving the villagers a way to find Henry wherever he was. It wasn’t a fantastic feeling to have a bunch of rocks out in the world that would let people track him, but for the time it was their best option. It would take some creative explaining if they had to tell the king they lost someone in the woods. Henry had a master speaking stone that did the same thing, but showing the location of the villagers stones instead. Everyone was under strict instruction not to wander too far from Henry's position, and to check in every hour. Hopefully the 6 villagers coming along were ready to listen.

With the rules stated, and the usual requests a leader might have regarding common sense, the leaving party braced themselves for the twist back to the Hollows.

Back in the Callister Forest, the frigid air immediately bit at their skin. Winter was on the way, and the icy leaves emphasised the fact. Henry's destination remained to be the dungeon. Hamish was planning on joining their party when they entered, but they were still yet to reach the ruins and cave entrance. With the amount of time they'd spent in that particular forest so far, the players were reasonably confident in making their way through in smaller numbers. For the rest of the day they would be travelling in a group of 3. The extra party member was Lee. To Henry's surprise, Lee had insisted on joining them for a while.

She was at a point in her own life that she felt she needed to see the world. It was common for royalty to spend some time as a trade adventurer, since it helped them grow in power and understand. It didn't hurt if they could make more of a name for themselves along the way. Her wandering was the reason they met in the first place. She wanted to spend some time working and training with the guards before she left the kingdom proper. Her destination was a Therveinian island called ‘Tetra-Flontah’, where she would meet with her older brother before embarking on the next leg of her wander. The players didn't mind that plan at all. It would still take them out of the kingdom's main lands, and it gave an avenue for Henry to see to his lordly responsibilities. Rubbing elbows with another member of the royal family would serve him well. The king's plan was for Henry to become notable enough among the court for his voice to matter. If he knew the royal family personally, his voice would be pretty damn loud. As for Lee being around, Henry couldn't help but be a little happy about it. He would just never be brave enough to admit that to her.

With a stern reminder of his expectations, he sent the hunters and miners off to do their job. The men and one woman were eager listeners, thankfully. He didn't need to stress the dangers of The Hollows to a bunch of natives. Lee stayed with the players and gleefully held her grimoire tightly to her chest. It looked awkward to hug something in heavy armour, but she still held on with a vice grip. She had been working on a new spell that she was all too keen to try out. Thanks to her time in Henhole, and her experience with the players, she had grown her understanding of essence significantly. She referred to it as soul magic, and had made a rune to detect it. It was complex enough of a topic that Henry had glazed over when she tried to explain the rune to him. What he gathered however, was that the rune would point a talisman in the direction of a large source of essence if it was close enough. Using it in his Temple made the talisman point towards his core, so they were confident it worked well enough. Her plan was to use it to help narrow down exactly where the dungeon was. It was handy that the players got a notification when they were near it, but that would only help so much. If the dungeon door was encased deep in stone or beneath a subterranean lake, they would have no hope of just stumbling upon it.

By the time they reached the ruins, Henry was practically bouncing with excitement. Hamish and Andy insisted the dungeon was the fastest way for any player to level up. The amount of essence that could be gained just by being inside the thing made the trip worthwhile. The most appealing prospect was the loot. The dungeon would spawn a whole manner of unique items and monsters. They were one of the primary sources of true magic things. Runecraft was fascinating and versatile, but it was still systematic. Some things were impractical to try and achieve through runes. The natives of The Hollows referred to any systematic magic as ‘natural philosophy’, and the items from dungeons as ‘true magic’. There was no telling what an item found in a dungeon might be capable of, but it was a good bet it was far more complex than the average rune. The achievement items the players received were considered true magic too, even if they still had runes.

Henry smiled into the deep caves below as he pondered the toys he would soon have. The next day would hopefully be a dungeon day, and they had already agreed that Henry would be taking the king's share of what they found. He had done a lot to build something for all of them, and his friends were keen to show their appreciation. Henry just tried not to think about the fact that the king's share also came with an important job. The ‘door guy’ would always get the best choice of loot, but only if he was the first one in. It was a dangerous job to have, and he needed to make sure he was prepared. Dungeons and traps went together like a seminary and a daycare, so he would be dodging a few things in the coming future. Still, he couldn't shake his excitement. His life had consisted entirely of walking and politics for the last few weeks. The game was back on, and it was time to get stronger again.