Ymiden 1st, 718
The woman was scratching down various notes down on a piece of paper. It was vital that Dru followed these notes to the letter. She hoped that everything would go properly or else there were going to be some issues moving forward. She really shouldn't be leaving town as soon as The Roost opened, but the reason she was going was extremely important. If anything her little trip could be beneficial to The Roost as it gave the opportunity to look for new workers as well as advertise. Her own abilities made it so that she could do a lot a lot of jobs that were 'abroad'. Technically no matter where she was she could still do her work for The Roost, she could even come back with a little extra cash to invest if she was proactive enough. Of course, a lot of this season was going to be spent in travel so that wasn't likely to happen. She'd make up for it in Saun no doubt.
The half-breed looked down at the note which would hopefully only be seen by the eye of Dru. Even then, she wasn't going to be telling Dru the full story of what was going on out of anxiety that the woman might accidentally mention the distance between the half-breed and city. The thought that it would somehow get back to malicious beings made her worry. As if her presence alone was keeping away the total destruction of the city, but it didn't hurt to be prepared in the event of an emergency. The only ones she'd told about her absence were the inhabitants of Lakewatch, who had, of course, agreed to cover for her in the event of an emergency after she'd told them why she didn't want the fact she'd be out of Etzos to be public knowledge.
Dearest Sister Dru
It pains me to say that for a large portion of this season I'm going to have to spend an uncomfortable amount of time away from the city. If anyone wishes to know where I'll be, I intend to spend the majority of my time helping out the town of Lakewatch. Please do not send anyone after me as it's a rather dangerous area and the inhabitants of the town tend to be violent towards perceived intruders. They're good people, but they have reason to distrust and because of this it'll be extremely dangerous to contact me while I'm away.
As for The Roost, I leave it in your capable hands. I urge you not to mention too much about my absence to Yn or Ryder. Please do your best to avoid the subject let alone the idea I might not be in the city. I have a reason behind this course of action that I encourage you to not look into. As far as they need to know you are the Assistant Manager and while I am absent from the shop it is your job to give out assignments. I do encourage you to actually do this. I've contacted a good number of people who can act as informants, they will bring you as many jobs as needed to keep both Ryder and Yn busy until I return on the 77th of the season, possibly earlier depending on what happens in the coming trials.
As for assignments, I would like you to keep the following in mind:
Ryder should completely at least 5-10 different assignments. Do not let him teach classes unless you are there to supervise and completely certain that he's okay to do so.
Yn should be given a similar number of assignments however you should not let her teach classes. She doesn't have the appropriate skill level in unarmed while I trust Ryder to know what he's teaching. While neither one has any experience in teaching others Ryder at least has knowledge of what he would be teaching.
As for you, since I expect you to manage you only need to complete somewhere between 2-5 assignments. I trust you to use your own jurisdiction on if you'd rather do a job or teach a class. You will also be in charge of assigning what jobs go to who, so please pay attention to what the jobs entail. If you have any worry about giving a certain job a certain person, I've included a list of mercenaries and guards on the back of this paper who would be willing to help, as well as what skills they excelled in. They are all old friends of mine and while they don't work for The Roost I trust them enough to work with The Roost
While these are rough guidelines of what needs to be done I encourage you to complete as many jobs as possible, as the more jobs completed means the more wealth we have with which to spend on charity.
If ever you have difficulty with a situation you can contact the very first person on the list I've included on the back. Alexander is a friend of mine who goes back for Arcs. He's a Blackguard so he should be the easiest to track down. Just try The Broken Blade or asking another guard what his route is. He should be able and willing to help with most situations or contact the Captain of the guard for help. Both of which have been alerted to my current absence beforehand to make things more simple if you do run into an issue.
Sergille was told in Night's last meet about Lakewatch that she would be taking a portion of the season to talk with a potential business partner as well as to get assets in order to better help Lakewatch and Etzos. Which was true. The Roost could end up becoming a part of Isonomia depending on how the following interactions with Faith went. In addition, setting up an Isonomia branch in Etzos was at the top of Night's list of things that might help Etzos. It could provide a strong basis for accepting the mutants better. Alexander didn't know the exact details of where she was going be during her absence, but he was roughly aware of the time frame she'd be away. In addition, Night had set up a contact point between him and Lakewatch in case things went awry during her time away from home. Should anything go wrong Alexander was set to be on the night watch in the outer city until next season. During this time he would always stop by a single dead tree with a hollow in the center. Said hollow was created by Nightshade and one of the flying mutants to be used as a transfer point for information. The pair had been using it during Ashan when Night was too occupied to visit often. Of course, most messages were specially coded using various names that weren't real to throw off intrigue in case a note was discovered.
After teaching one of the winged mutants how to fly the pair had set this up in case of emergency as well when a message really needed to get to Etzos. So far no one had thought much of it as the mutant who had been assigned to deliver messages to the tree had skin like midnight, darker than even the wings of the half-breed. The mutant traveled well in the darkness and went completely unnoticed thanks also in part to their small size. The only one who would think to check the tree was Alexander, who patrolled alone in the middle of the night, or a child who would have no ability to make sense of the notes.
In addition, Alexander wasn't even aware of what the code meant in case he got caught with the notes. The code for the notes was known only by the half-breed woman, Cricci who had helped her design this plan when told of her absence, and the Captian himself who would be getting the notes delivered to him while the half-breed had to spend time away. She didn't even think Lady Terris had been told of any of this.
The plan was hopefully foolproof, but her heart still twisted uncomfortably with anxiety as she thought about leaving even for a small amount of time. Everything should be okay, account for properly and all. She left Dru with plenty of back up plans in order to properly deal with jobs, there would be informants coming to her with jobs, and her control over The Roost would even be monitored by trusted mercenaries as well as Alexander. Nothing should go wrong on that front since hopefully as far as Dru, Yn, and Ryder all knew she was helping out with the towns. Lakewatch would hopefully be cared for thanks to her plan. Of course, no one was happy having her away for so long as it was still safer for her to deliver the messages to Alexander who in turn gave them to the Captain. The code had been designed for the fact she couldn't deliver the messages herself but Cricci had been worried about the part played by Alexander. They both understood the necessity but everyone preferred the code.
With any luck, nothing was going to blow up in her face, but even that filled her with a certain dread. All she could do to protect herself was lay down the ground work and hope that no one destroyed it. Yes, hopefully this would all work.
