Expedition Planning

“So,” John said once everyone had settled into the meeting room of the central hall, “how do we want to do this?”

The late afternoon sun poured through the windows, painting the room a warm orange. On the conference table, their small collection of business cards sat, along with several sheets of paper Vivian had prepared. The redhead herself also had a notepad in her lap, pen at the ready.

“I think it would be best to get what each of our prospective partners will bring to the table and figure out just what we’d need to get them on board,” she suggested.

“Sounds like that’s the best way forward,” Brenda said, her own sheet of paper before her. “So, who do we have?”

“Starting from the top, we have Jeri and her coffee growing endeavors,” Vivian rattled off. “Then we have Nadiya’s offer to get us in contact with a logging group.”

“Don’t forget Cleo,” Estelle chimed in as she tinkered with something that John compared to an overly elaborate compass. “I know we haven’t heard back from her, but I’m sure she’d jump at the chance to work here.”

“I’ll put her down as an option,” Vivian said, pen gliding over the page. “Now, we have the two groups Melody suggested, a cotton grower and a sheep herder. And the dwarves with some kind of mining organization.”

“And we'll need hard proof we have something for them here to get them to the negotiation table to begin with,” John added. “So we might need to look for some sort of evident mineral deposit to try our hand at to get said proof.”

“Working on that,” Estelle remarked before a small crackle of electricity filled the air, a small wisp of smoke rising from her project. “This should help to locate those. Especially ones with enhanced properties from mana proximity. Those should turn their eyes.”

“Let’s hope,” Vivian said, pen tapping the table. “So we need to find a good place to set up a mine, a grazing area for sheep, ample fields for growing a wide variety of crops, and stretches of forests we don’t mind getting chopped down.”

“I would prefer if that last one is kept to a minimum,” Verida spoke up, her voice harsh. “I don’t mind some being felled to produce things or make room for farmland or settlements, but I don’t want wide stretches of land being stripped bare.”

“Of course we aren’t going to allow that,” Vivian assured the goddess. “And we’ll make sure the loggers are replanting trees as they go.”

That soothed the dragon goddess’ worries and Verida relaxed in her seat. “I’m sorry if I was a bit short there.”

“You’re a forest goddess,” Beth spoke up, shrugging her shoulders. “I’d get pissed if someone was knocking over the walls of my home.”

“Bit of a stretch there, princess,” Aeolia smirked. “But the idea’s on the right track.”

“Sue me for not being a wordsmith,” Beth shot back.

“Can’t. We didn’t find any lawyers to recruit,” Aeolia retorted.

That caused a number of chuckles to break out, though Anita and Teri looked a bit confused, the gnoshroom more than the goblin.

“What are lawyers?” she asked, head tilting to one side.

“People that make sure the agreed upon rules are being followed,” Brenda explained. “And if they aren’t, they can show how and have a punishment decided by a neutral judge or a group of people called a jury.”

“Ah,” Anita intoned, nodding.

“Getting back on track,” Vivian said, slightly louder than before to get everyone’s attention. “With the various needs now on the table…”

“Literally,” Senka interjected with a shit eating grin.

“... we need to decide which one we’ll tackle first,” Vivian continued unabated, only sparing one annoyed glance at Senka before looking down at the list. “I think, given what we’ve explored of the area around the World Tree, that we should focus on the mining thing. Areas for growing and grazing are going to be easier to locate than finding a good vein of metals.”

“Metals are not my forte,” Verida spoke up. “I may be intertwined with all of Pruzonia, but beyond the forests, my awareness is limited. But I do know where the mountains are and can point out where ley lines pass through to increase our chances of finding useful magically charged metals. It will take some time. I can’t fly everyone out there in one shot and will need to find a spot where I can land. That could still be some distance away.”

“Little bit of walking never hurt anyone,” John said. “And we can look for anything else we could farm.”

“I can come, right?” Anita asked, a hint of timidity in her voice. “I- I want to see more of the Kingdom! And this’ll be so much further than I’ve been.”

“I’m alright with it,” John said, smiling at the gnoshroom. “I think we’ll have enough firepower to deal with any dangerous animals that might be out there.”

Out of the corner of his eye, John noticed Brenda shift uncomfortably in her seat and he held back a grimace. He knew she had issues with the fighting stuff, but there was a bit more danger to exploring the far reaches of the Kingdom than going into one of his barriers and clearly it was a bit more than she was comfortable with.

‘I’ll have to talk to her later,’ John thought. ‘I don’t want her to worry.’

He wasn’t too worried about running into anything too dangerous out in the wild. The worst he could recall getting past them was something like a wolf, and with Verida with them, he didn’t think they would be a problem.

“I’ve been meaning to try out something, so I don’t mind walking through some dubious areas,” Estelle said, ignorant of John’s internal plight.

“I think that brings us nicely to the next topic of discussion,” Vivian remarked. “Who is going to be coming along?”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to swing it,” Teri answered, a bitter note to her voice. “Today’s probably stretched things a bit far with me being away for most of the day. Don’t think I can convince the elders that going so far out to look for a mine will be to the benefit of the clan.”

“They’ll probably sing a different tune once we start pulling out some bullshit overpowered metal,” Beth said.

“And try to make us look bad for not including them in things, even when we tried,” Aeolia added.

Teri shook her head, ears tilted down in resignation. “That sounds about right. They’ll say they don’t want me or anyone else going out to explore more of the area, right up to the point where they can leverage the appearance of being left out to gain an advantage over you.”

“So nice to see politicians are pretty much the same everywhere,” Brenda remarked in a dry tone, drawing rueful chuckles from a few of them.

“Don’t know much about your people, Ter,” Estelle spoke up as she tinkered, “but you could try and twist their arm a bit. Play up that we’re looking for more people to invite in and they’d be losing out on getting first dibs to resources.”

“I can try,” Teri said, her cheeks flushing at the witch’s affectionate nickname. “But getting them to bend is going to be a hard sell. They don’t want to admit we’re kind of reliant on ‘outsiders’.”

She did the finger quotes on that last word, spitting it out with disdain.

John sighed. “If the elders aren’t going to bend, then all we can do is wait for them to change their tune once we start getting things up and running. Don’t leave anything out about what we’re doing, so they can’t claim we’re trying to stiff you guys.”

“Sounds about all we can do,” Teri admitted. “If Vrexty had his way, he’d have us somehow close borders and be one hundred percent insular, prior obligations and debts ignored. They’ll play nice, like letting me come today without much protest.”

“Speaking of talking to people we’re already in contact with,” Senka spoke up, “when do we contact the Order and what do we tell them?”

“I think we can put off contacting them with our plans until we’re ready to start inviting prospective groups to discuss terms,” Vivian answered. “They only want a hand in dictating our external trade policies, so us going out into the wilderness without their supervision isn’t something they can complain about.”

“Let’s hope they have that opinion when we do tell them what we’re up to,” Aeolia said, her dry tone clearly showing her skepticism on that happening.

“If they have complaints, they can send them to the complaints department, once we open it,” Senka joked. “We can put it right next to the law offices.”

“Again, we’ll cross that bridge when we’re **** to cross it.” Vivian smiled. “Getting back on track, anyone else going to bow out?”

“I think it’s fair to say I won’t be coming along,” Brenda responded. “I’ve got work, and even if I could call out, hiking through unexplored forests in a magical Kingdom without any powers sounds like it’d be a bit much.”

“We would protect you,” Verida said with a firmness to it that left no room to disbelieve it.

“I know,” Brenda replied. “I just don’t want to make you have to keep me in mind while adventuring forth.”

“We do need to try that experiment again,” Estelle remarked absentmindedly “Without seeing if the idea is sound, we can’t work on making it possible to empower you, Bren. And we know to not include volatile stuff that will resonate with emotional magics.”

“Yeah, we don’t need esoteric magics to bring to the fore our desires any more,” Senka purred, leaning into Kiera, who blushed fiercely.

“But even if things went as intended today, I still would be dead weight,” Brenda insisted.

“You’re not dead weight, Mom,” John protested immediately.

Brenda smiled at John, her expression a bit melancholic. “Sweetie, there are times and places where someone won’t be needed and their presence would likely be a hindrance. I can’t help you find mineral deposits or good farmland or trees with some mystic properties. And I certainly can’t fight off any wild animals or fantasy monsters. There’s no shame in saying that.”

“Won’t always be that way,” Estelle said, turning her gaze from her tinkering to look at Brenda, a confident smile on her face. “We’ll get the binding working and, boom, you’ve got magic!”

“Anyone else imagine that last part like that old AOL mail notification thing?” Beth asked, which drew a snort from Brenda. That cascaded into full blown laughter from most of the humans in the room.

“I don’t get it,” Anita said to Aeolia.

“We’ll show you later,” the winged woman assured the gnoshroom. “It’s an internet thing.”

“Okay,” Anita nodded, “I’ll ask what an internet is then too.”

“That’ll be fun,” Senka murmured, a sly smile on her lips.

Vivian, once the chortles got under control, said, “So, is anyone else going to sit this one out?”

When no one else spoke up, Vivian nodded. “Alright, so close to a full group. Verida, how many trips do you think it would take for you to ferry us over to wherever we decided to start our survey?”

“It would depend a bit on just how far we go,” the goddess answered. “I’m not all powerful. Divinity does not give me endless stamina. At least, not right now, with only the dregs of my mother’s power.”

“How would you get stronger?” Beth bluntly asked. “Do we need to open a church next to the law and complaints office?”

“Nothing so formal,” Verida replied with a light laugh. “I suppose we’ve never really talked about what it means to be a god.”

“Think we stopped at ‘generally powerful’,” John said. “But since you haven’t been able to leave the Kingdom, I figured there was some limit.”

“Gaia has played a part in my continued internment,” Verida remarked in a sour tone. “Tied to our development of the Kingdom. She hinted at it earlier. Probably right before you received your quest.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” John apologized, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.

Verida gave John a soft smile. “If it weren’t for your powers, I wouldn’t be here. Your powers are what allowed the World Tree Seed to find good soil, and what allowed Yerda’s power to flow into this place to allow my existence to bloom. A small, hopefully temporary, limit is the least I would pay to see the sun rise.”

John felt a blush work its way across his face and he continued to awkwardly rub his neck.

“But back to Beth’s question, I would gain power through the promotion of what I govern,” the goddess explained. “So the Golmerks planting their crops and tending them will slowly empower me. There’s a bit more to it, but we don’t really have the time for a deep conversation about divinity. Getting back on track, if we go to the closest location I think will bear fruit, I could manage it in three trips, taking three with me.”

“I could remain unsummoned,” Senka offered. “Makes no sense to add to your burden when I can just ride in John’s aura.”

“And I can fly,” Aeolia added. “So that brings us down to what? Six, seven if Teri can convince those elders to let her go.”

“So three trips at most,” Vivian said. “Not the most convenient. Such a trip on foot would take several hours I presume.”

“At least,” Verida nodded. “And not through the easiest terrain. Flying is the best way. I don’t mind helping in that way.”

“An early start would be best regardless of our travel plan,” Vivian added.

“Yippie, an early night,” Beth cheered in a deadpan tone. “Can’t wait to go to bed by 8.”

“I can think of a few ways to tire you out,” Senka purred, her smile growing as Beth flushed slightly.

Ignoring the teasing spirit, John spoke up, “We should probably bring food and water, just to be safe. I can keep most of them in my inventory to keep things simple.”

“Sounds like a smart move,” Vivian said before looking at her phone. “We’ll need to stop somewhere to pick up water and things like granola bars. Probably should do that soon before having dinner and turning in.”

“We do have some water bottles in the garage,” Brenda interjected. “There should still be enough for at least two per person.”

John knew better than to protest Brenda’s attempt to help them. To her, it was all she could do to aid them. And he was happy to accept her help, whatever it was.

“So just snack bars, and some fresh fruit perhaps,” Vivian said. “Stuff that’s easy to carry and quick to eat.”

“I can bring some nutrient potions,” Estelle offered. “Not the best tasting things in the world but they’ll fill you up. And I’ve also got some regenerative ones that should still be effective. Definitely should bring those.”

John noticed Beth’s expression shift at the mention of potions but decided to hold off on asking her about it. It likely was about her sister and it probably wasn’t the time or place to bring that up.

“The healing potions are definitely good to bring along. We probably won’t need the other ones if we eat a good breakfast before we go,” Vivian said. “Anything else before we adjourn?”

When no one spoke up, Vivian nodded. “Then I think it’s time to head out for the evening and get ready.”