Adventurers Guild Adventurer's Guild - Receptionist's Desk

A heavy sigh came from the masked alchemist as he read the report. He shook his head when he read the part about the goblins' weaponry. He quickly finished reading it and put the report down before pulling out a small bag filled with coins.

"There is your reward, 15 Large Copper Coins. I will also let the staff give you 4 guild points for your work." He then let out another sigh. "As if the trouble we have is not enough. Now we have a group of armed goblins. My goodness.... Anyway, good work to the two of you. The client will be happy that they got their ingredients. I will call upon your services again in the future." He paused a bit and then glanced at the report. "And judging from the content of your report, that time might not be too far away. Take care, you two."

OOC:
@Haitaka @Unreachable Hope
Good job. We might use them for later quest. Who knows. Good job~!

 

The black haired girl stumbles in with a bewildered expression, her entire left arm wrapped up in bandages like an oversized present, and handed over a report with her free right hand.
"The issue has been solved, but I have a feeling we'll see more requests from that village in future."

Spoiler: Trailing the Unknown

Finding a lost horse sucked. Rainy weather sucked. Breaking an arm sucked. Experiencing the third event while the first two were both occurring definitely sucked, a lot. There must have been, what, an entire village of those things living near the human settlement? I still don’t know what happened exactly, but if that didn’t happen, then I probably won’t even be around to write this report anymore. Thank goodness.

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The usual stuff happened, as to be expected whenever I visit somewhere new; I most definitely did not lose my way, and certainly did not stop for an impromptu two hour break after tripping over a rabbit. That didn’t happen. The meat tasted good over a fire, but it still didn’t happen.

The village guards were understandably confused when I showed up sometime after dusk, looking as if I had spent a day wandering about the wilderness (which I technically had). That confusion soon turned into concern when I showed them my Adventurer’s Guild Card, and informed them that I was here for the job. They had to call over a few more people before they decided to believe that I was indeed an adventurer.

I was then directed to the Village Chief’s house, where I had to again convince him that a) the adventurer’s card was real, b) I wasn’t crazy, and c) I knew exactly what kind of task I had taken. For some reason, he gave me the once-over before sighing.

“If you want details on what kind of creatures they were, go seek out the head guard, followed by the head hunter. Between the two of them, you should be able to find the information you need.”

Mystified, I went out of the room, and was immediately met by a much older lady, who insisted that I stay the night at the chief’s house. Trying to refuse that didn’t work, so I guess I’ll have to go to sleep instead.

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Woke up early the next morning without suffering from any blood loss, missing limbs, or vanishing organs, which was quite surprising. Guess Alina was wrong when she said that there were cases where people went to sleep and woke up with missing body parts, after all. I declined breakfast from the same old lady who insisted that I stayed over, and after she stopped looking disappointed, she pointed me in the direction of the nearby houses, where the guards and hunters stayed.

The result was that after a while, even though I had learnt more about this village than I had ever wanted to, I didn’t learn anything of value with regards to the current task. The most valuable piece of information that I gained was that the mysterious assailants moved as if they knew the layout of the village, and weren’t afraid of garlic. One of the guards swore to me that he saw the mysterious creatures ransacking the village storehouses as well, carrying away large amounts of grain, while another told me that when he was outside the village on his rounds, he had seen two of those creatures from afar, sitting around a campfire and drinking bottles of mead…

Now I knew why the village chief had looked so complicated when he saw me; this simply wasn’t enough information to investigate anything.

Then I went to look for the person who was supposed to help me track down the missing horses, and found him in his bed, his left leg wrapped up in bandages like a present.

“...What happened to you?”

The middle-aged man winced, cradling his left leg.

“Tripped and fell down the stairs yesterday. Broke a couple of bones, and the doctor said I won’t be moving for a few weeks at the very least.”

“Well, that’s a bummer. You should rest up then, I’ll go see if someone else can help me with the job.”

I was about to turn and leave, but he told me to wait a few minutes, and soon enough, a boy almost my age showed up at the door, dressed for travel. I stared at him, and then at the boy, and then back at him.

“This is my son Sebastian, he’s also quite well versed in the tracking of animals. Since I’m not able to help you look for the horses, could you bring him along instead? The lad is young, true, but he is quite sharp for his age.”

Well, it was better than not getting any help at all, but this is a bit...well…

“I don’t mind, but is Sebastian able to protect himself against a goblin, at the very least? Otherwise, if we ran into a tricky situation, I might not be able to protect both of us.”

The old man laughed heartily, his laughter bouncing off the walls of the house.

“Young lady, you really don’t act like a lady, do you? If I didn’t get a chance to meet you myself, I certainly wouldn’t have believed that you came here alone, no matter what the chief said. Hahaha! You’re very confident. Still, I believe you’ll find the boy to be a great aid if you bring him along, haha!”

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And so, the two of us found ourselves outside a cave, a few miles downstream of the village. I wasn’t too sure myself, but according to Sebastian, the tracks definitely led to the mouth of the cave. The horses were probably inside, so it was my turn to get the job done. The problem was what happened next; he initially wouldn’t go back.

“Please bring me along as well!”

“No way.”

I didn’t know what was in the cave, so just going by myself was already plenty risky. I didn’t need someone else to come along, because he would get in the way. I didn’t say that, though.

“I won’t become a burden, I promise!”

“That’s not the point here. You want to become an adventurer someday too, don’t you? Then, you’ll have to know how to split the job so that it goes off smoothly. Even if we were in the same party, I have my tasks to perform, and you do too. You already got us here; now it’s my job to go in and see what’s going on, understood?”

I thought it was quite a reasonable argument to convince him to go back, so I was definitely not prepared for what he said next.

“Then, it’s part of my job as a village resident to ensure that you bring back the horse alive! I’m not going back alone!”

...Okay, the old man was right. This lad was sharp, that’s for certain. But still, that’s a no.

“Fine, then you go hide yourself in the vicinity, and wait out here. I’ll go inside and investigate, and if I’m not back within two hours, get back to the village. I’ll leave what to do then up to you.”

As it turns out, we didn’t need to have bothered to argue about who did what, because while we were busy bickering over that matter, neither of us heard the leaves shifting, and by the time we finally paid attention, we were surrounded.

Simply wonderful.

To start with, I guess I should describe their appearance. Massive, creepy, and incredibly disgusting, three centipede-like beings surrounded us. Their eyes were glowing, which was never a good thing, and those fangs looked sharp enough to tear apart metal armour. Something about the scales on their bodies also told me that they were harder than conventional metal, and my rapier would most likely break if I tried piercing through.

The only good thing was that we were near a tree, and those things moved rather slowly; the bad news? The tree looked barely sturdy enough to support one person, and I had to slap Sebastian to get him out of his daze, wasting valuable time. We were on the edge of a forest, so there was no hope of hiding.

“T-Those are…”

“Now’s not the time, idiot! Climb!”

“B-but…”

“Hurry and get the hell back to the village! That’s your job as a village resident; to warn them about any possible threats! Tell them to lock up and stay on guard, and if I’m still not back by tomorrow, send someone on a horse to the nearest city for reinforcements! Look at the mushrooms growing on those things, and look at mushrooms growing at the cave entrance! Those things must be living in there!”

He looked like he was going to argue more, but finally scrambled up the tree, and started maneuvering over to the next tree from the branches.

“Hey, ugly! Look here!”

I bounced a few rocks off the carapaces, which was sadly ineffective, but managed to get their attention, at least. Still, rocks weren’t going to help me defeat them...Fire was great against insectoids in general, but just like last time, I couldn’t risk starting a forest fire…

And so, I ran in the only direction that wasn’t blocked; into the cave itself. And judging from the hissing and slithering noises, they were all coming after me.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Sometime after I entered the cave, I lost my rapier. Turned the wrong corner and ran smack into an ugly bastard, fangs unhinged to bite. I immediately jabbed my rapier into its mouth, through the brain, but the blade snapped and broke off, leaving me with a hilt. The bloody insect didn’t die.

I would have backpedalled at that point, but the enraged clacking behind me encouraged me to run deeper inside the maze-like cave, and so I did. Thank god for the luminous mushrooms, else I would have ran into the cave walls repeatedly; I was feeling pretty confident of losing my pursuers until I ran into a dead end.

But hey, at least I found the horse. It was looking pretty thin and probably saw better days, but there it was. Huddled in the corner, it stared at me.

I stretched out a hand, but all I got was no further reaction; this horse was definitely a fan. Then I realised something; there were huge bones stuck into the ground, at roughly regular intervals. Like some kind of ribcage...or a fence to keep the horse in.

Those insect things don’t have hands to build this, and I doubt they managed to the the horse over. Which means...something humanoid lives down here too.

“Oi, old girl, I’m not here to hurt you. Here.”

Thankfully, the bones weren’t jabbed too deeply, and I managed to pull enough enough to let the horse fit. Then I backed up, and stared at it while it stared at me.

“Hurry up and come over here. Or do you want to stay there?”

It took a bit, but the horse finally made it’s way over. I gave it a few pats, and as far as I could tell, the legs weren’t broken or anything, so I can actually ride it; probably the only real upside of the damned cave was that the passages were wide enough to ride a horse through.

“Say, will you let me ride?”

The horse snorted. I didn’t speak animal language, but I had a feeling that I was being mocked by a pony, which was a rather ridiculous feeling. So I shrugged, and climbed onto the unsaddled horse. There was no reins, so it felt rather dangerous, but I wasn’t going to go dungeon diving for a saddle.

“Let’s get out of here...Oh, nevermind.”

*Creak*

The sound of chains being dragged across the floor, accompanied with the scratching of many legs on the rough stone floor. My eyes had acclimated to the darkness by this point, and I wasn’t surprised to see my multi-legged friends crawl out of the gloom, but this time, there was something else with them. They looked like elves, down to the pointed ears, but...god, their faces. The eyes were practically gone, and their teeth were obviously stained, even with all the darkness and the distance, I could smell old iron...or blood.

Well, this is not looking too good, heh?

I watched them getting closer and closer, without a weapon to use and outnumbered more than six-to-one. It was quite a terrible thing to think of, what they would do when they caught me...And all of a sudden, I didn’t feel like dying. I was mysteriously feeling angry.

You know the feeling when you’ve buried an old grievance that you never really forgot, but tried to ignore it for the sake of keeping your temper? It was somewhat like that, except that I felt a lot more frustrated. I didn’t care for dying, and I definitely wasn’t going to fall here, in some nameless backwater cave. So I let my instincts take over, and spurred the horse forward. At the very last second, when we were no more than a metre apart, I shouted at the top of my lungs, mustering as much force as I could.

“GET LOST!”

I was planning to break through while toughing out any injuries sustained by that maneuver, but when I finally got the nerve to open my eyes and look behind, we were heading through the cave at a full gallop, and the creatures were only beginning to shake off their dizziness and turn around, trying to pursue us. There was a few scratches here and there, and a huge gash along my shoulder, but we were otherwise unharmed.

“Left, right, right, left, left, left, ri---Watch out!”

When I said tall enough to ride a horse through, I meant barely. I had to duck to avoid cracking my skull against the ceiling, and the horse only snorted when I complained. He(?) was definitely warming up to me, that’s for sure. We managed to get through the maze thanks to his speed and my backseat driving, and before long we were back out in the open, the cave entrance far behind us. I contemplated jamming the entrance, but I had no equipment and thus decided to drop that idea, slumping forward and hanging on as the horse ran back to the village, the last rays of the setting sun painting the surroundings a deep orange.

We got back again, sometime after dusk, but this time the guard rotation at the gates was heavier than the previous night. They peered at me from over the gates, and opened the doors to let me into the village. Behind the gates were several more armed men, the village chief, and the boy Sebastian.

“Missus, you’ve brought back the horse safel---Wait, your shoulder! Let us wrap that up for you---”

“No matter, this is but a mere scratch, and there’s more things to worry about, anyways. This village is located in quite the dangerous spot, really. I would suggest that you guys relocate, but that doesn't seem to be a valid option, so I suggest you tighten the guard, and if need be, please consider issuing an extermination request. Those things move rather slowly, but their scales are tougher than common steel. Also, I saw clumps of what looked like eggs in the cave, so…”

I relayed most of what I learned to the Village Chief, as I dismounted the rather disgruntled horse.

“Well, I figure that’s the end of my job, so I’ll be heading back to the city...Eh?”

Something chilly had gripped my spine, and when I turned around again, the very friendly old woman was hovering right behind me. I definitely didn’t see her around when I came in, and I most definitely did not hear her approach, but there she was.

“You were saying something about staying the night here? That’s a great idea, sweetie. Come along now, we’ll get you bandaged up, as well as a nice dinner and a warm bed.”

...Those eyes are no joke. Looks like I’ll be heading back to the city tomorrow, then…

Spoiler: Notes

Extra Skill: Voice of the Emperor (Inferior) --- A shout that forcefully calms all enemies in a 20 metre radius, for 5 seconds. Affected enemies respond slowly if attacked while under this effect. One use per day.

@AliceShiki

 

A gourd briskly entered the guild and made a beeline into the nearest receptionist, rather starkly different from his usual laidback attitude.

"Miss Aria? Big trouble. Not sure how much time we've got but at least half the town is cursed and people could start dying any moment now." He smiled weakly. "Jynxed from last time, I suppose."

Spoiler: Reports

Gourd, Sol, Nero

"Well, nice to meet you again. Nero, this is Sol. Sol, this is Nero." The three stood in the guild near the quest board, getting to know each other. "We took the quest but any idea where to start? It's a big town and I've got the feeling that it'll take a while."

"Nice to meet you, Nero." Sol was more serious than usual, like the result of this quest was more personal than anything.
"Let's check the quest reports first."

"Hi Jack, Sol.", Nero greets his two colleagues as he approaches them.

Sol took a look to the reports.
The first report was related to a cursed lyra. The adventurer who did the job forgot to ask the man details related to the lyra.
The second report was related to a curse disease.
Sol was slightly annoyed that the report was hardly considered an investigation. It basically find the place and give the job to others to investigate.
"Do we want start to the minstrel's husband or the secret lab? Or we want check the belongings first? We don't have a mage so unless you have some magic detection, I don't think we can get much from it. But the book may be useful."

"We're no mages, and I doubt we can find a plague specialist anyway. Let's split up, one of us investigate the minstrel's husband, one check the secret lab, and another request to see the notes," He winced, although it's hardly visible. "...as well as asking the receptionist lady to table the area where the cats died the most."

It didn't need mentioning which receptionist lady he's talking about.

"I prefer to go to the secret lab." Sol said.

"Then I'll check the minstrel's instrument." Nero followed.

"I'll try to talk to Aria, I guess." He grimaced. "Won't be a pleasant topic."

Spoiler: Sol's Investigation

Sol arrived to the suspicious house thanks to the informations provide by the guild.

Nothing was touched after the last report. The guild's staffs don't have enough man power to check everything. They have already their hand full for scouting and checking suspicious reports. Adventurers are their main way to get the job done.


A sudden urge of wanting breaking something hit Sol. Imagine what kind of obscenity they was doing on the pedestal in the center of room on poor cats was piss him off. Sol was taking deep breath. It was no good to have emotions take control of him. His master once said "An unclear mind lead to an unclear solution."


After calming down, Sol started to check the room for more clues. There was something behind one of the shelf(I'm not sure they are called shelf, someone correct me). He moved it away.


"A statue?" A religious statue of a goddess with lyre. Sol doesn't know much about religion but it seem like the ones who was doing the experiments was cultists. Sol heard many bad stories about cultists. There wasn't much else and the statue was ominous so Sol decided to cover it with the previous shelf. Whatever religion it was, he leave it to guild.


Sol didn't find anymore clues, but a certain odd feeling troubled him. He decided to sit down and think carefully about it.

His master give him often odd and difficult tasks where he need to push his creativeness to overcome it. Everytimes he found a new tricks, his master will simply forbit him from use them to force him to be even more creative. "If your strength is insufficient, you need to use your brain to beat your opponent!" was a common phrase from his master. All this helped him to develop his critical thinking.


Something was suspicous about this laboratory. Why it feel like it was abandoned? Like they already achieved what they need to do? But if they already did that, why did they leave clues behind?


Sol started to suspect that the books and notes was leaved behind to mislead us. But if they have time to mislead us, did that mean they already accomplished their objective long ago? What was their objective?


Sol thought more carefully about it. Trying diseases on cats? This doesn't make sense. People will soon find about them if they tried to harm cats and it seem extreme troublesome to catch them to do experiments.


Like pieces of puzzle that was putted in the right spot, a more horrible possibiity was coming out. What if the disease was already spreaded? What if that pedestal was used for something else than trying experiments on cats? The possibility that it was used to extract simple to be analysed. The possibility they do the same thing to something else than cats. Cats was simply the first creatures that reach this advanced staged of this disease. They probably already go enough samples from other creatures that they don't need this place anymore.


Reached this terrible conclusion, Sol leaved the house to meet his party to hear about their investigation.

Spoiler: Nero's Investigation

As the team decided to split up, it became Nero's task to find out the origins of the cursed lyre. The obvious place to start would be at the Low household, the previous owners of the cursed item. He reached the house quite quickly as it was near the tavern and was fortunate enough to catch the man leaving for work, his child on his back.

"Mr. Low? I'm Nero from the adventurers guild and I have a few questions about the cursed lyre."

"From the guild you say. Ask away my friend, but I'm afraid I don't know much for it belonged to my wife."

"Do you happen to know how she managed to get her hands on something like that?"

"It was told that it was a gift from a fan. She was very popular, you see. And it isn't that odd for minstrels to receive gifts, which is why we didn't think much of it. Maybe the folks over at the minstrel guild would have more of an idea."

Having found a breadcrumb, Nero decided to head to the minstrel guild to learn more about this 'fan'. Due to the directions provided to him by Mr. Low, he arrived at the theater square pretty quickly. Asking around, he found out that quite a few minstrels have received lyres as gifts from the same person.

"One day, a couple of carriages arrived at this place. A group of four got out of one to distribute the gifts on behalf of their master. They said that he was a huge fan. Low had received a lyre, quite a lot of us did.

"The other carriage was much smaller but it was obvious that their master was sitting inside. I saw him briefly when I went up to him in order to thank him. It was an odd experience. He had a heavily wrinkled face and white, bushy beard. He never really responded to us, just sat there staring into the distance.

"Once we got the instruments, they just got back in their carriages and left. We never saw them again."

Feeling that he had learnt all he could, Nero decided to head back to the tavern to meet up with his companions.

Spoiler: Gourd's Investigation

The notes was... a dead end. He roughly understood that someone made a disease and spread it to the cats, but while he understood most of the individual words together they formed a specific technobabble that he doubt anyone not specialized in plagues could decipher. Sighing and thanking the guild staff, he went to tally out the spread of the plague from where the cats died after Aria outright refused to talk about the matter.

It took half a day to investigate the cats' death, paying some pocket change to street urchins for information gathering. But eventually he got a good figure of where they concentrated, drawn into a map he copied from the guild earlier.

"Granaries, food markets, public wells, taverns and inns, slum area..."

There are several methods for disease to spread. Most commonly are by consumption, rodent, or contact with the sick. The cats, meanwhile, died in droves around here...

He pored over the rough town map drawn with Aria's help. There were circles noting where each notable institutions were, as well as dots where the sick cats died - meaning where the plague infected them first. There were about four large concentrations of death, as well as a dozen smaller ones. He noted that one of the small concentration focused on the labolatory that was found hidden in a residential district. The others were mostly spread covering the area missed by the large concentrations, and he'd bet his gourd that at least half of them were similar small labolatory as the first.

The large circles, though, centered at the four particularly famous place; Nazgrand's only theatre, the minstrel's guild, and two largest inn-slash-tavern in town. That's... concerning. Either these four places are in cahoot or there's a lining between them that spread the plague. But what? If anyone ask him what's the best method to disease cats he'd answer feeding them with plagued food. Not the best place for entertainment...

Wait a second.

He traced several of the oddly elliptical small circles. If it's in fact part of two overlapping source instead of a single long one, then the center would be...

"...more tavern and inn."

What's with that? I don't think they all conspire to kill the cats of the city. So they're being used to spread the plague somehow. But why go so far to kill cats? The mayor was right, there was something fishy in all this.

"Too much headache for me to process from here. I'll see the others."

"Ah, sorry I'm late. What did you guys found?" He took a seat at the table where Sol and Nero already await, the roll of rough map in hand.

"The lab was weirdly abandoned. There was no clue of fighting. Nothing seem said that they hastily prepared and run away. I suspect all the laboratory are from another organisation. A religion one. I found a religious statue. I think they are trying to misslead us. I don't believe the labs was used for spreading the disease but for observe it."
Sol took a sip of water before giving his last conclusion.
"While it's extremely concerning, we need to focus on our current quest. I believe the cats wasn't the only things infected by the disease."

"Well, the perpetrator would be a really old man who is pretty well off. He has donated several cursed lyres to the minstrels at the theater square. And he comes across a little unhinged"

"In my parts I got the cats dying mostly around these four establishment - the Minstrel's Guild, Nagrand's Theatre, and the two biggest inn in town."

"The statue had a lyre. Maybe is related to the disease? Maybe we should check."

"Isn't that only a coincidence? You don't spread plague using cursed... lyre..." he trailed off. "...curse. Of course. If it's not a plague then it would all make sense."

He unrolled the map. "There. Taven, inn, so it's connected to the lyre. Just by the minstrels playing it all over town it would spread. But... say, don't you think it's more suited to target humans than cats?"

"I suspected that cats wasn't the only one affected. They was just the first unlucky one that was affect by the advanced stage of it. But we need to go to check to make sure."

"If the curse affects humans as well, we should find this person as soon as possible. How would we go about finding him? As far as I know, he has been seen once. No one knows who he is."

"I have a... conjecture. But I'll need to see how the curse spreads. Let's visit the Minstrel's Guild."

*****​

Well, the conjecture was right after all.

The moment they opened the door to the Minstrel's Guild, gourd recoiled as a beautiful strumming sound echoed from within. He discreetly pulled his companions aside, ignoring the few gazed it attract.

"...yep, that's definitely involved. It triggers on something I consumed today; what, how can I tell? I'm having a little problem with curse right now, and it reacts in unpleasant way when new ones tried to take hold in myself." He unrolled the map. "Let's see... if it need something to he consumed then the only possibility is the town's water source. Otherwise it wouldn't spread so evenly and so wide. Don't the town use a river tributary? I think that's where the taint comes from."

"Looking at the location of the poisoned cats, it looks like the river is poisoned even before it enters the city. But if the lyres were distributed over here, the culprit mustn't be far away either. Oh! if we consider that he doesn't want to poison himself by drinking the same water as us, we can assume that he doesn't actually live within the city limits."

Sol stares to his party member a bit confused. Then he took the map from Mr Gourd hands and start to study it. After few second he put it on the table and move his finger toward a certain manor near the river.

Mr Gourd and Nero stares at him.
"You talk too much. There is only few manors outside of city and only one if so near to the river. Rich people usually have large domains so if the guild didn't receive any report of strange activity then is a suspicious manor."
After saying that he move toward the manor.

Following Sol's lead, the trio decided to head over to the hills on the outskirts of the city. After an uneventful couple of hours, the gang finally arrived at the hills by mid afternoon. As they took in the scenery, Nero observed some guard towers a fair way up the winding road. Deciding that it wouldn't do any good to alert the possible enemies of their presence this early, they chose to abandon the road and follow the river instead.

The alternate path led them through a valley and they were quickly surrounded by trees. Their journey through the jungle saw them encounter various forms of wildlife, none of whom seemed eager to interact.

Eventually, they heard some noises coming from ahead. It was a clearing with a path leading away from the river bank. At the riverbed stood a couple of workers who had just finished emptying a sack of powder into the water. They talked freely and threw the now empty sack into an empty wagon. The horses were untied and they left the clearing, following the forest trail.

"What do you know, these guys are really up to something.", Nero whispered, a smile forming on his face.

"Let's follow them." Sol said. Of course our speed cannot catch up horse's speed but the carriage still leave marks on the terrain. The forest trail seems heavily used, like they passed here many times. Unusual for something that wasn't the main road. It was easy to track them to the manor. "It isn't a bit too easy?" Sol smiled awkwardly. "I guess they didn't expected to be found so easily."


The manor was like any other manors except for the ominous vibe it give. The garden was in a poor state. Like the gardener didn't touch it for more than one month. This is how much we could see from the outside.


Adventurers had a bit more freedom than guards when it's related to breaking in a house. People, specially bad guys, aren't so kind to open the door and warmly welcome us. To give up the element of surprise you need a far better equipment to fight a disadvantage situation. Adventurers doesn't have that kind of luxury. Of course if we go overboard, we will get heavily punished so we need to be careful when choosing what kind of house we want to break in. The manor in front of us was suspicious enough for that.


We decided to wait for the night. It didn't take much time. The sun was already start to vanish behind the hills when we arrived. During our time of observation of the manor, we roughly estimated there was something around 10 people in the manor. They didn't look the usual people will see in a manor. They look more like mercenaries or bandits. The security was very lax. They didn't bother much about patrolling and just put two guy on the front door. They was playing with cards. They seem trust the wall around them but the gates was unguarded.


We took the opportunity to move near the rear gate. Sol took out a lockpick and start to work on the gate. Tricksters have some similarities with Thief. Skilled hands was a must for a Trickster. Failing a trick could mean death. Learning lockpicking wasn't unusual for them. The gate's lock wasn't a easy one. It took half hour of delicate work and it broke one of lockpicks, but it was worthy for the element of the surprise.


We decided to enter from the rear door. The element of the surprise only on two guys on the front door with risk of awakening everyone else wasn't worthy. That door was much easier to crack. Five minutes and it was done. "If we need to catch someone, we catched the captain of this mercenaries" We finally entered.

"The servant's entrance was completely unguarded. So sloppy."

He complained, adding a few final cut to the sharpened branch he made while waiting Sol to pick the locks. Nothing special, just a rather thick branch about a foot long with both ends sharpened into stake. It's actually crooked slightly and wouldn't even made a good stake, but it's enough for his purposes.

"I'll check ahead."

Storing his trusty knife to the belt pouch, he stalked forward so quietly in a way a man in heavy plates should have no business doing. The more he checked though, the more his complaint build up. No sentry, no trap, not even an early warning systems. Not like it would make much difference, but some challenge was necessary to keep sharp.

The only source of sound was a raucuous room that was maybe a dining hall for the master of the manor to entertain their guests. Now it's filled with what could only be bandits because even mercenaries would try to keep a semblance of uniformity for a professional vibe. These people had none, unkempt beards and hair and the few that actually had arms wore completely mismatched stuff. Most of them weren't even wearing their armor.

He slowly retreated back to his allies, idly noting that he could probably scythe in and slaughter the whole room in the same time it took him to walk back.

Remember that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer. No matter where I go, that advice rings ever true.

"Well, good news. I find where they are, about ten people in the dining hall partying without care. Not a single trap in there. That's also the bad news, they're all in there so we cannot pick them off. Thoughts? We could probably wait a few hours until they're completely drunk and sleeping."

"Let's get them when they least expect it", Nero replied as he strode in the general direction of the dining hall. It wasn't long before he heard sounds of rowdy men echoing through the hallway. Now that he was close enough, he decided to increase his pace. The voices were coming through the massive doorway on the left.

Time slowed down as he burst into the hall. The room was rectangular but spacious enough to accommodate two long tables. Five men sat at the table to his right, which is where his momentum carried him. More men sat on the other table, but he had to focus on the men right in front of him.

He used the spear on his bottom right hand to pierce the head of the unfortunate fellow sitting nearest to him. The spear didn't stop there as it went through and pierced the shoulder of the man sitting adjacent to him as well. As everyone on the right of the table collapsed, he used the spear on his other right hand like a whip to swipe across the table, catching two of the three guys on his left. The tip of the spear left a shallow gash on the chest of the man furthest away from him as he managed to jump away on time. The man nearest to him had ducked to avoid his slash and was attempting to unsheathe his weapon. The person who sat in the middle caught shaft neatly with his forehead and fell on his back, unconscious.

He decided to abandon the spear that joined the two guys on the right and used his now free hand to flip the table on the guys to his left, sending them to the ground. The mercenaries were left sprawling on the floor and were promptly stabbed through the heads.

"Straightforward as always."

The gourd zipped through the right side as Nero flipped it, meeting no resistance as he rounded onto the head of the other table. There sat the leader, the only one with steel chestplate among the rabble. He was the first to completely enter combat mode but drunken stupor wasn't easy to ignore, and he seemed to have drunk a plenty.

The leader misjudged the distance and swung too soon, the gourd already passed through the sword's reach before he recovered his stance. A sharpened branch plunged into his right shoulder followed by a stomp to the side of the right knee, breaking the limb.

The two nearest underlings were up by then, so he kicked the closer one on the croth and stomped on the neck as the man doubled down in pain. The second swung a dagger at him, he ignored it as the sharp edge screeched against his iron plate and yanked the branch from the falling leader before introducing it to the second henchmen's eye.

"So this are the kind of guys that made Aria cry." Sol felt his own rage going out of control. His master's words feel so much distant. The path of true master trickster was still long for him. But currently he cannot care less about it. He need to vent his rage.

Without giving time to understand of what about is happening around, he cut the head of man with a sprint.

The second man was more prepared but he wasn't holding his weapon properly. It was a piece of cake to disarm him. Sol decided that was more satisfying smashing a plate from the table on his head.

Swiftly he took the sword from the ground and throw it to the third man. The man didn't successfully dodge and got injured. Without giving him any time, Sol did a legsweep. The man fall on the ground and got merciful stabbed to death.

A beast. A hungry beast. A beast covered with bloodlust. A beast that was still unsatisfied by the amount of preys. The two person that was guarding the front door was alerted by the noise and rushed in the room to became the new preys of this beast.

*boom*

A loud sound and a sudden flash. One of Sol's firecrack. That wasn't enough to blind someone but when a person is particularly concentrated or in high alert, it was enough to stun them for few seconds. A strong tool in the right situation but its weakness was a bad. If the opponent expect it, it was nearly useless. The surprise element was the core of it.

The two man was incapable to focus and take a decision. Sol picked a chair and crashed it on one of them. Then kicked the other one and finished him when he hit the ground.

"So many wasted moviments and energy." This was the kind of word his master will said to him right now. A very ugly fight for a trickster. The enemies was already weak by the alcohol so it wasn't so hard to kill them all without sweating. But he took his time and wasted energy to bully and brutalise them. He need to learn to control his emotions better.

A wooden spoon sailed in a perfect arc before lightly bonking Sol's head to snap him out of his berserk frenzy.

"Chill, I thought you're the calm one among us."

There was a lul in the fight, with two remaining mercenary still standing up and a third one that was stabbed by Nero earlier. Gourd waved his hand at their general direction.

"Surrender or die."

Their weapons clattered to the ground, and concluded the fight.

*****

"...so, you lot were hired to guard an old man in this manor as well as occasionally help him dump the grey dust into the river. The group who hired you periodically send someone with your payment, never the same person twice, and they'd check on the old man while they're at it. You have no idea what he do and was explicitly told not to pry, and the one time someone did the next batch of payment was decked and your captain got so mad that he beat up the nosy bastard. That's all?" He summarized the last five minutes of questioning, idly sharpening a wooden spoon while he's at it. The prisoner's eyes switched back and forth between the knife and the wooden spike, nodding fearfully in confirmation.

"Well, that's matching with what your friends told so congratulations, you're not getting stabbed. I'll be right back."

His companions were so hopelessly green at interrogation, so he had to show how it's done. It's quite simple application of fear - the captives were tied up, the conscious one separated in different rooms. Then he told them that he'll ask each of them the same questions and if anyone's answer is different they'll all get stabbed somewhere unpleasant. The questioning itself was done while sharpening a spoon to unnerve the captives, with Nero looming behind while Sol watching for the sorcerer's reaction. There were none so far.

He convened at Sol's perch, idly noting that the rage was still smoldering within the man.

"These guys know jack shit, they're paid to do their stuff and not ask questions. The sorcerer up there is our main venue of information, the mercs brawl quite often that he probably didn't suspect anything different tonight. It's quite late in the night, I think we can grab him easily. Any additions?"

"Let's get this over with."

"Agreed."

The rest of the night was rather uneventful after the short tussle with the mercenaries. The sorcerer was sleeping, it takes a total of fifteen seconds to choke him unconscious and tie him up. Then it was time to ransack the whole place, although the manor itself was picked so clean months or even years ago that most of the rooms were empty and unused.

"Ah, looting. My favorite part."

There was a staff that the sorcerer owned, made out of some gnarly wood. There were several books, a rather well kept book titled "Archmagus Pneumonic’s Introduction to Organic Invasions", a strange black book with "First Step into the Darkness" written in crimson, as well as a number of the sorcerer's notebook. They also found a room used to manufacture the plague, with glass cases of vermins and critters and an alchemical table. Connected to that room was a ritual room of sort with a magic circle carved onto the wooden floor, with a human-sized statue of a goddess holding a lyre.

"...this is rather bad."

They're skimming through the books to see what's to be found. The first titled book was scholarly in nature, albeit on a questionable topic. The other was an introductionary spellbooks for initiate acolytes despite the pompous title. The sorcerer's note though? It's enlightening. It recorded the plague since its conception, and it's nearly the worst possible scenario.

"In summary, the cat plague was a distraction of the actual one targetting any living things. Both spread the same way, manmade disease spread through the water with a hidden curse interwoven within. But that would require massive consumption to build up enough power to kill a human, so they spread the lyres that would greatly increase the buildup. The curse's power grow geometrically the more it build up in one person, but a portion would pass with touch in order to infect as much people as possible. Unlike the cats' lengthy suffering this one comes sudden and fast, with similar symptom to heart attack. Then, when the victim dies, a portion of the curse's power would spread to nearby people..."

There was a rather distressing line at the last page.

"...anytime now, the people Nagrand would reach tipping point. The cascade of death will rolls through the town, and the Mistress would claim their souls for her glorious Divine Kingdom. As She rightfully deserves."

"Fellas, I think I'll run back to town. Also, you two should probably pay a visit to a priest, just in case."

He wondered if he'd notice it sooner if he just pay a visit to the entertainment districts, or if he allowed some skin contact with others. Well, what's done is done. The worst hasn't come to pass, perhaps further damage could be avoided.

Spoiler: Notes

Loot:

• Nine sets of worn leather armor
• Two worn bronze chestplate
• One worn iron chestplate
• One worn steel chestplate
• Eight wooden bucklers
• Five bronze swords
• Three bronze axes
• An iron mace
• Two iron swords
• One steel sword
• Archmagus Pneumonic’s Introduction to Organic Invasions - scholarly book
  
• First Step into the Darkness - Initiate level spellbook
• An unidentified wooden staff
• Alchemical kit(?)

When all is done, would like an appraisal of the loots.

TL;DR - Discovered breadcrumb trails to the man responsible for concocting the plague and caught him alive, but the cultists behind him was nowhere to be found. Good luck interrogating the zealous lunatic. Also, town need mass purification ritual soon.

@AliceShiki @wraith @SpearOfLies

 

Spoiler: Report

My body is creaking.
It seems no maintenance over 200 years is too much for my automatic repair function. Honestly, it's a miracle how I can even wake up in this condition. Though I could say it's as expected of father, he is a genius after all.
I can still fight, but I'd rather not exert myself. Time for a covert mission!

***

According to the locals, there are a total of 3 human guards in this town.
One is Graf, which is the main reason this quest was issued. He got his asses kicked hard that even human children look down on him so I can let this one out.
Let's investigate the other two.

"Jack is it? Not a bad person I think." (a fruit seller with no customer)
"I saw him getting a drink with Kalik the tigerkin often, so he probably doesn't hold discrimination." (a mid-day drinker at the tavern)
"He's pretty loud when drunk though, so children don't like him too much." (a plain and poor-looking village girl)
"He told me to keep that dropped coin I picked up. I can vouch for his good ethic!" (a NEET)

"By the way."
For some reasons, everyone says the same thing after I asks them about that one guard.
"Can you stop treating me like some worthless individual?"
It's like they can read my mind. It's a mystery.
"No, because you said it out loud for !@)&#$*!(*# sake!"

Anyway, with this, half of my task is done. I want to meet the person himself later, but these testimonies are good for now.
However, when I asked about the other human guard, the reactions are always a weird smile.
"Don't ask me."
"Go see for yourself. Actually, no, don't see."
"It's for your own safety."
"I don't want to have anything to do with him!"
"Little miss, you can just report to the guild that he's safe, I can guarantee it. But don't ever meet him."
"Hey, who gave you this quest? It's fine to beat him up you know?"

What is this? They all want to keep him at a distance from me. This is so abnormal. I'm curious. I'M REALLY CURIOUS NOW.
Let's tail him!
"""STOP!!!"""

It seems it would take a while for my habit of talking to myself to fade away.

***

I observe Bartz the guard from an alleyway. He looks like an average easily-forgettable young man with no redeemable point you can see everywhere. He is in the middle of his patrolling duty, though his gaze occasionally focuses on the children playing nearby.
Suddenly, his walking stops. Then he turns around and walks over here.
Huh?
"Hey girly, you shouldn't stay in this dark alley. Who knows what would happen to you where eyes can't see." (Bartz)
"Um, how did you know I'm hiding here?"
"What are you talking about, I can smel... I mean, I am a guard, my duty is to protect everyone in this town. Of course detecting little girls in dangerous situations is my specialty." (Bartz)

L-Little girl? Hey mister, let's sit down somewhere and have a talk. Can't you see how beautiful and elegant of a lady am I?

"I'm not a little girl. Also, I'm from the Adventurer's Guild and I'm here to investigate the discrimination within the guards."
"Is it about Graf again? Damn it, if only I knew he did this behind my back I would beat him thoroughly in front of Milly and receive her affection. Anyway, you don't need to worry about him, I had a... lecture with him some days ago, so he won't bother the kids in the neighborhood anymore." (Bartz)

What is this, isn't this guy just a good model of a citizen?

"But still, to think someone as young as little miss here became an adventurer, the guild has fallen pretty far for letting that happened." (Bartz)
"I'm annoyed about how you treat me like a little girl but since I'm a lady, I'll let that go."
"Do you want some candies?" (Bartz)
"I DO!"

Even though I can survive on mana alone, some pleasure here and there doesn't hurt. I have been staying out of touch with civilization for a while after all.

"So, how old are you?" (Bartz)
".....I'm 16."
".........................................." (Bartz)
".........................................."
".........................................." (Bartz)
".........................................."
".....What year were you born on?" (Bartz)
"388 DE."
".........................................." (Bartz)
".........................................."
".........................................." (Bartz)
".........................................."

Bartz is the one who broke the silence.
*spit* "What a waste of a candy. I thought there's a new cute little girl in this town but all I got is an old hag." (Bartz)

O-Old hag? THIS GUY IS COURTING DEATH!

"Even my great-grandfather is not that old if he's alive by now. You may as well change your occupation to Christmas Cake and get on with life....... Hey, where did all those swords come from?" (Bartz)
"It's okay. I'm a lady, so I won't let you die."
"STOOOOOPPPPP! TIMEOUT TIMEOUT! I'M SORRY OKAY?! HERE THE REST OF MY CANDY PACK! SO CAN YOU STORE AWAY THOSE SWORDS? NO? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..............." (Bartz)

Spoiler: Notes

Aside from Graf, the other human guards are safe. One is on FBI's watchlist tho.
Also, Takako got one candy pack.

"Hey mister @Naraku , I'm back. I can't believe they let a criminal into guard position though. Huh, for what crime? Obviously it's for insulting the refined and mature lady me............................................... Um, the silence is hurting me, so can you say something?"

 

OoC: *curse in korean about my internet connection that keep me out for the last half hour*
I like to add a bit of explanation about some decisions.
We decided that the mastermind was cultists because of clues of two quests (not much really but some of core informations was a bit tricky). We decide to not chase cultists because it wasn't something 3 E ranks is supposed to capable to do. It was more a A rank or many C rank quests. We still catched the main culprit.

We tried to have the mercenaries/bandit to be a reasonable number, something that a C rank can beat and with reasonable equipment. It's the first conpleted C rank quest so we tried to make it look like a C rank quest. We tried to keep the loot to the lowest level possible to not break the economy of the game. We remove any treasure chests or other valuable things from the manor (we assumed the sorcerer spend a lot of money for spreading the disease)

The end was all write by reacchi because of my mood getting worse because of my internet connection and wraith being busy. Reacchi said tomorrow he had no time so...

Side-note: A C quest with 4 people in half week was probably impossible not only because of time zone but also good coordination required and the fact is a C rank quest. A week is hardly enough probably. We got lucky to get roughly same time zone and good coordination.

@AliceShiki

 

You mean a party quest. A C ranker soloing C rank quest wouldn't take that long.

 

Oops

 

Anything in the report with *text* is not stated in it.

Spoiler: Signet

Having arrived at the castle of the deceased Lord Oxbow regent of the area near and around Flaminis, I show the guard of the castle the proof that I am the adventurer that has been appointed with the duty of making sure that the case is completely honest and run with the utmost sincerity after all I'm the most partial observer at the place. A servant comes out and leads me towards the room which I am to be staying in to place my stuff there. Then he proceeded to ask me anything that I required and I said that I would like to meet with Lord Mirel Bowgrace if he is here and if he has not yet arrived than I wish that I be notified upon his arrival. The servant replies that the Lord has not yet arrived and they are surprised that I have already arrived at the castle.

*The castle was a thing of beauty and looked immensely defensible it had fairly high walls and some sort of magic device on the top of the actual main building it was also heavily segmented and had 20 major gates to reach the castle proper. Most of which are sadly unmanned due to a lack of people due to the declining income of the estate (Only 4-5 are manned unless a ceremony is going to occur in which case all are manned). The castle also had 3 major towers one every 5 gates which also had some sort of magic item on top of them. The main castle was probably once practical to defend but additions and changes had made it fairly impractical. The castle was actually situated on top of a man made hill where the gates had been created to force people to take a single pathway. As it would be near impossible to scale the walls. Due to them being situated on the next layer of the hill which has been worn away till it's almost flat and has much stone. The making of this castle must have been a ridiculously expensive affair.*

After having found out about all the daily rituals of the place and deciding to avoid them for the longest time possible. After having his night time meal and skulking in the shadows to find out about the "important" people in the castle, I heads off to my bedroom for a well earned nap. A few hours later I woke up due to hearing a sound in his room, I choose to stay extremely still so that the intruder did not notice me within the room. The intruder proceeded to stab at my pillow so I proceeded to whack the intruder with my tail. This sent the person skidding across the room due to their extremely light weight. Getting up from my bed I slowly moved towards the being that I had hit with my tail. I was a winged being wearing the clothes of a maid with heavy makeup upon her body. I moved towards the doorway and stood there with it open.

A few minutes after this a guard comes by, I waved to him and asked him to enter into the room and escort the lady within to wherever they store prisoners with me. The guard agreed came close and tried to attack me for some unknown reason so I dispatched him as well after a medium length scuffle Tera subdues the guard and drags him into the room with the original assailant. The night was an interesting experience but well I'm kind of used to being attacked randomly due to my species. I waited another minute before guards came running down the corridor in a small group. I spoke to them saying that I had already been assaulted two times tonight and did not want a third occurrence to happen. A smaller guard came to the front and said asked if I was fine if only they came in I said I would prefer it if two of you came in after all there are two people to be taken away. I then continued on that I would prefer it if no one is allowed to speak to them until Lord Mirel Bowgrace has a chance to talk to them and seeing as how he is expected to appear tomorrow that should not be to hard correct. I then followed the guards down into the dungeons to make sure that nothing happened to them. I returned to my room and decided that I would end up not sleeping until Mirel arrived.

I spent the entire night awake, waiting for Mirel. About two hours after sunset a messenger came running to my room, it appears that they had been sent here by Lord Mirel and wished for me to wait near the opening. He was an average human from his appearances very dissimilar to most of the people within this castle. What with most of them being some form of beastman or angels. This was likely because the dowager was an angel whilst the Lord had been a creature that had features which were similar to rats and moles. With his father being a moleman and his mother a ratlass. I exited the room and followed the messenger until the entrance I was asked to stand opposite the messenger. I was not happy with this arrangement due to my body shape. *Anyway back to only talking about the very important things* After having stood around for about 10 hours on this spot waiting for Mirel Bowgrace he finally appeared. I proceeded to watch the messenger carefully and copied his movements to the best of my ability.

After having waited around for the lord to get settled in I was finally summoned by him. In the room I noticed how he had three advisors sitting around him, Lord Mirel Bowgrace was a being that had 3 black lines upon his face and 4 large tails. All three advisors appeared to be humans. From the conversation I ended up having I have come to the conclusion that Lord Mirel Bowgrace is not the true power on the throne but instead his three advisors of course this could have been a neat trick. The conversation was basically about what exactly I was to do. *Which was most of the work as it turned out* He said that he would take care of the questioning. I asked if I would be allowed to sit in on the questioning since after all that would be the fastest route. Which of course one of the advisors accepted for him then another started speaking about exactly what I had to do and so on and so on and so on.

After this we went down to the dungeons where the advisors asked the two prisoners questions which they wouldn’t answer. I left and walked to one of the guards at the front entrance at this point and proceeded to ask him whom had come to talk to the prisoners so far. Of course I was prepared to give him a small amount of incentive to loosen his tongue but it was unnecessary. Well the dowager came down to see them and the some caretaker came to seem them. I think he was the lady to be's direct caretaker or something.

I proceeded to inform my compatriots that these two had been poisoned it seems. And that they would not be giving us any more useful information. The guard then proceeds to die right in front of my eyes proving my point. The investigation of the attackers turned out to lead to a dead end. As soon after the man the lady died and we where back to square 1.

After about 4 days of listening and snooping around in the servants quarters I heard about Johann Von Cabanoora a human whom had some sort of tie to the Empire of Man supposedly. So I decided to investigate and followed him around. It turned out that he was a deserter from the army cause he believed that Cat girls where love and life. Many more such rumours where sprouting up lately. All in all over the entire period I was there I investigated over 60 accusations of a similar nature.

In the end the crime was way too cold for someone of my level of experience and this is why I feel I ended up doing way to much of this. In the end I followed a hunch and stalked the Dowager whom was holding onto the ring to remember her husband. As they had never had a child to inherit the line. Hence she wished to both keep as much power as possible and to keep the memento of her husband. My job ended after I reported as much to Lord Mirel Bowgrace. *I celebrated by having a long nap*

The next day it turned out that I had to sit through the torture of the dowager and her execution and stay all the way until the end of the inheritance ceremony with the Lord Mirel Bowgrace in the end I of course participated admirably *I hope* and got the signed signature of Lord Mirel Bowgrace with an indentation of the signet ring on it from the newly enstated Lady Penelope Oxbow, *a follower of the church of The Way* the closest relative to the deceased Lord Roger Oxbow by a long shot!

Spoiler: Notes

Talk on the castle which probably needs editing
Two assailants appeared on the first night. Why?
The Lord Mirel Bowgrace it seems is a figurehead or some such after all his advisors do most of the work. It turns out that they are chosen by the people of his territory which is quite surprising.
Lots of negative rumours spread during this time and I ended up investigating 99% of them
The dowager turned out to be the culprit I was so lucky to actually find out.
Lady Penelope Oxbow thus took over the reigns of lordship in the area.

A weary looking Tera walks up to the receptionist counter and puts down the signed papers from Lord Mirel Bowgrace in front of my receptionist then proceeded to fall asleep standing there.

@Naraku

 

"...I was rereading the report. I usually stay quiet when I read something."
Considering the report, it seems that little miss has anger issues, Gaap thought that she should chill and drink some strong stuff. After reading, he did not find anything weird.

"Candy..."
He sighed, so even in another world, there is this sterotype of nasty people giving candies to childlike people. Searching the rewards, he gave them to Takako after a chuckle.

"Well good work, we will deal with the guard. But he doesn't seem to have done anything severe as for now, here is your reward, 5 Large Copper Coins, you get as well 4 Guild Points."

OOC: It gave me a good laughter~ *thumbs up*

 

After reading the report, Gaap sighed, so in the end, it was a wife who did not wish to let the power go. However, it seems that some people wanted her to keep the power as Tera was assaulted during the first night, how troublesome. Can't people stop causing so much troubles ? Why everything in this region seem to be a mess, it's like plunging your arm into a bag of needles.

"Tera... look like it was quite rough on you. You did a good work, especially since you found the culprit. Anyway, I suppose we will have to investigate why people assaulted you."
Searching the rewards, the receptionist took out everything that was needed and gave them to Tera.

"Alright, here is 12 Large Copper Coins along with a Supersilk Thread, may those be useful to you."
Then, afterwards, Gaap proceeded to reread the report while annotating this.

OOC: That was nice~
Tho, I admit that I had some troubles understanding some stuff in your report, but after, there were some words I was unfamiliar, and some stuff I didn't understand~
But I understood the most important~

 

Task: Orphanage Repairs [Taken by @Razogul, @MaliMi and @Exitiumm ]
Requester: Shiori, Nagrand's orphanage caretaker
Quest rank: E
Rewards: 10 Large Copper Coins for each.
Description: It seems that due to lack of maintenance from previous owners, Nagrand's orphanage is in a very poor condition, to the point it might risk collapse. While it's current owner already did what was possible to reduce the risks, the situation is not really getting any better.
The requester asked for at least 3 adventurers to aid in fixing the orphanage's state to at the very least remove the risks of collapse from it.
The requester also requested the construction of at least 3 more windows in specific locations within the building as certain areas clearly lack proper air circulation.
The requester will pay for all material costs appropriately.

Raz, Bob, and Rickard come inside and report that they've done the quest.

Spoiler: Orphanage Repairs

Coming to the front of The Witch's Hat, Raz says to the others, "It seems like this is the location, it appears the materials are in the yard. We should go get them first before we go inside."

Still wondering who in their right mind would build a house in the shape of a witch's hat, Bob replied to the unfortunate soul who he had forced to learn exorcism: "We just have to build some walls and three windows, right?"

"We have to build some supports to support the roof and also split the floor into sections. I suggest we do two large sections just in case they need a big room for something else. How do you two think of this plan?"

Raz says his plan to his companions, wanting to see what their consensus should be.

"I call two large rooms. Don't want to demolish them in case the quest giver changed their mind."

"I don't see a problem." Rickard answered nonchalantly, "Though I feel like I've been here before on a ridiculous request... Must just be some déjà vu."

"Is that so?" Raz mumbled to himself, "Well, time to go and get the tools and materials in the yard."
* * *
Going into the yard, Raz finds the tools and all the materials required to complete the construction. He gets the tools and gets up some of the material with him. "Well, hopefully, we can get this done by the end of the day if we work hard."

"Come on!" Bob cursed as his head was once again drenched in cold water.
Turning around, he could only catch a faint shadow as the culprit had already scuttled away.
'How I wish I could let my minions loose and scare those little punks.' He complained in his head as he once again focused on the task at hand.

***​

Laughing at the maliciously pranked teammate of his Rickard walked outside and grabbed some of the tools as well, and began work on separating the floor into two sections.

​

Raz began working as soon as he told the orphans to go to the lower floor so they don't disturb them. Seeing what he has to do, he begins putting supports up.

***​

*Sigh* Bob wiped the sweat off his forehead. It had been tough work, but the trio finally managed to both separate the room in two and build the supports. The only thing left to do was to punch three damned holes in the wall so the annoying brats would have a nice chilly summer breeze install some windows. And so, Bob had tried to pass some of his carpentry wisdom, no matter how limited it was, to his colleagues, before they began their final task.

​

"Haaah~" Rickard let out a breath as he looked at the now carved out holes for the windows, and wiped the sweat off his forehead before stretching and bringing the windows and their frames up to finish the job completely.

Helping Rickard do the windows, they're finished installed and look neat and proper. Observing their finished job, he smiles.

"Seems like we did a good job and at the nick of time too! We did it before the day was over!"

"Yeah. Let's call it a day and report to the guild." Bob said as he slowly went downwards subtly checking for a possible sneak attack from those little runts.

"Aye! You guys wanna celebrate at the pub after we receive our reward?" Rickard stretched a bit while saying so, before chuckling as he noticed a mischievous kid sneaking up behind the man called Bob...

Looking to see a kid sneaking up on bob, Raz remains quiet and waits to see what happens.

Trying its best to hold her giggle a tiny little girl, watched her prey with the eyes of a tiger. Like a skilled assassin, she moved through the shadows and within seconds, the objective was within her reach.

The girl snapped her fingers.

A shiver ran down Bob's spine as he heard that damnable sound. But it was too late. Before he could even turn around and glance at the assailant, he realized: His pants caught on fire.

Raz seeing this hurriedly casts a water ball with hardly any force and put out the fire.

"Oh my god! That's way too dangerous!"

Rickard laughed at the prank even though it was rather dangerous and began walking towards the guild.

"Oi you slowpokes hurry up, let's turn the quest in before night hits."

"Indeed, let's go." Raz shoo's off the troublemaker and they all report to the guild.

@Exitiumm @Naraku @MaliMi

 

"We're back~ That was an easy request~"
Elaine hopped to the counter.
"Ojisan (@Way)~ Me and the Gourd (@A5G_Reaper) have completed the task~"

Spoiler: Avian Troubles

Elaine was feeling rather energized, so she decided to partner up for one more quest. After all, nothing could possibly go wrong, right?

Gourd had just rented some garden plot, so another quest for money was very welcome. He'd retire rent the garden for a month if the job went well.

"Let's get going! Uhm...Do you know the way?"

The 'experienced' trekker decided to ask beforehand, just to avoid unnecessary complications.

"You kinda pulled me back there, so nope! What are we supposed to do anyway?" He shamelessly tossed all responsibility to the energetic girl.

"Let's see, this request says that...uh...this mister requires guards for his trip to Skyfall Keep. Apparently we'll have to travel over a deep chasm on bridges while fighting over lesser undead and small flying monsters~"

Elaine stares at her map.

"Where's this Keep?"

"Sounds survivable enough." He nodded.

"I don’t remember seeing that name in the guild's map. Just how long have it been abandoned?"

"I recall seeing a few other quests from the same employer on the board. According to the details...The Keep was built 500 years ago? Wao! That's pretty darned old!"

Elaine grins, tapping her waist. There were two rapiers strapped there.

"Oh well, now I remember! It's in the mountains you can see in the distance~ Let's get this done blazing quick, I still need to deliver some items to a friend next week~"

"We should meet up with this Mr. Crestfall. Although I do worry if he could keep up." He shrugged. "Employers eaten by undead wouldn't look good for future jobs."

"Well, I'm sure there's nothing that can stop us. Lead the way."

"It seems that some adventurers have already gone ahead to scout out and set up an advance camp before the real expedition, so this mister should be somewhere around that area, I think! Let's go~"

Elaine bounces about.
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A few hours of carriage ride later, the two arrived at the forward operation base - if it could even be called such. It's a glorified campsite, albeit with rather disciplined hires. The gourd looked around attentively, noting that whoever this Mr. Crestfall is he wasn't skimping on cost for the expedition. Must be important.

"So far so good. Everything's just planned, we'd be back in time for your delivery."

"Eh, that was quite fast~ Too bad it wasn't long enough for me to have a nap. Oh well, I think I remembered someone taking the scouting task...ah, it was Maya! Apparently, she marked the walls with charcoal so we know where to go, but we have to be careful, because she said that the way is dark and filled with critters, also there's......"

Elaine stopped talking for a bit.

"Well, if it's in the mountains, a little fire won't hurt, right...?"

"Eh? Strange. Our job description said dangling on precarious rope while flying critters tries their best to splatter us onto the ground before eating what remains. Are you certain about your path?"

"Hmm...Oh, now I remember. The main bridge in is blocked, so we'll be entering the Keep from the secret path through the cave system, which is filled with flesh eating bugs, apparently...Also, Maya said that she saw something huge in the Keep, but didn't say what it was."

Elaine taps her other rapier.

"After we get into the Keep proper, I think that's where the dangling and splattering begins~"

"So we have to fight through an unknown behemoth? I don't really like this..." he shook his head. "Nevermind, let's get this over with. First of all, report to our employer."

"Let's. Hey, we're looking for Mister Crestfall~ We're here for his guard request~"

Elaine looks around the camp, approaching the nearest person to ask some questions.
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They were ushered into the largest tent where a man leaned over a large table military-style. He looked middle-aged with his hair starting to grey, a magnificently curled mustache decorating his face. He raised an eyebrow skeptically at the gourd's heavy plate but refrained from commenting just yet.

"You two are the guards for hire? I was expecting more, but can't be helped on such short notice. I need to reach Skyfall as soon as possible, thus I have engineers prepared to make a temporary bridge. Your job is to ensure that they get across happen with minimal harm."

At least he didn't said unscratched. Might as well give up on the quest then.

"Okay! But before that, how many more will be coming with us? Or will it just be the three of us making our way there?"

Elaine starts thinking about the layout of the place, as well as how a larger party would change things.

"How many can you reasonably protect? Even one engineer will do, but the more the better."

"Let's see. As long as they are capable of self defence, I believe I can bring two with me. My partner here should be able to do the same, I think?"

Elaine stares at the gourd, wondering.

"That greatly depends on how much we'll get pestered along the way. Two would be safe enough, I suppose. I hope we don't meet much resistance on the way."

"So four it is, then. Very well, I'll be sending you three engineers and one scout who will show you the way to the door. After that, you job is to just protect them while they fix the bridge, and escort them back down again via the repaired bridge. When will you be able to leave?"

The requestor stares at the two of them.

"Soon as you could arrange it." The gourd replied. "We still have plenty of daylight."

"Alright then, I'll tell my men to come over in five minutes. Good luck up there, the mountain can be treacherous."
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The plan was simple. The scout as an experienced mountain climber would take lead by hammering pitons onto the rocky walls. He'd also be responsible to connect the engineers' safety rope there - and more callously, cut one of them loose in case of emergency -, while the guards should climb by themselves so they can provide assistance whenever they're needed. There would be other engineering team on Mr Crestfall's side of the bridge to coordinate the construction once they're on top. He'd provide men to guard it after it's up and only then the job could be considered done.

"Looks quiet. Let's start."

"Yes, let's."

Elaine had climbed another mountain in this range before with nothing but a rope, so having climbing gear only made it easier.

"We can follow that incline there to climb more steadily, it's slightly out of the way so we'll have to climb faster, though."

"Quite a lot faster, if we want to give support in timely manner. Can you attack from that distance?" He said, curiously examining the climbing gear. "huh. Got nothing like this back at home."

"I can try, I have a rough idea of how to do so, but my range attack methods are rather limited. What about you?"

"Completely nil at the moment." He shrugged. "I could close the distance quickly though, but it's an exhausting process. Can't do that everytime a random hawk tries to eat the climbers."

"Hawk? Ah! That reminds me, the last time I passed through this mountain range, I encountered these huge birdlike creatures called Kijin. They hunt in the daytime and don't have too good eyesight, but they communicate by screeching. Don't know if we'll see any here, but better safe than fall off the mountain."

Elaine went over to the group, telling them this extra bit of information before they started.
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The climb went rather well halfway through. The gourd let Elaine took lead to avoid complications should he fall in his armor, following remarkably well for someone clad in that much iron. Of course it won't be something that paid so well if it had no danger - this time heralded by echoing screech from the distant ravine.

"I assume that's not a good thing."

"Of course they'll be over here...Jeez! You guys, don't move an inch, and stay silent! The Kijin's eyesight is damn bad, so it won't see you if you don't move!"

Elaine whispered harshly to the team that was climbing, and they all paused, falling silent while hanging mid-air. Meanwhile, she grabbed on to an outcrop of rock that served as a decently sized ledge, and offered a hand to pull the gourd up.

"I don't know if it heard me, but having more space to move around will be good. Just in case."

"I don't think simply staying silent would help against bats!" He retorted but kept his voice in a whisper anyway. Then he started picking up pebbles and randomly throw it to the other side of the ravine.

Elaine had her hands on her blades, ready to pull them out if things went awry.

"They're not noticing us. Go away, shoo. Shoo."

Of course, that's the exact moment the kijins decided to take notice. One screech started it from one that passed slightly closer to the climbers, then as one the flock of hundred-odd grey birds changed course toward the intruders of their cliff.

"Aww, shite."

"Well, looks like we'll have to lure them away. You guys, stay out of detection until they're gone, then make for the bridge! We'll handle these!"

Elaine sized up the birds, each about the size of a small chair, as she drew out her first blade.

"It would be great if we could find a bigger place than this, but---Over there! That's a good spot!"

She pointed at another ledge below them, this one large enough to allow a carriage through. In fact, it looked like a section of a road in disrepair.

"Over here, uglies!"

The gourd put both index fingers and middle fingers into his mouth, blowing a shrill whistle through the ravine. It echoed on and on, temporarily sending the flock into disarray before he had to draw breath. At that point most of the grey birds were reorienting. Straight into the two of them, of course.

"Say, how did you deal with this number last time?"

He had the audacity to ask that after luring the whole flock.

"I closed my eyes, and prayed to the Saint for a free pass! But since we're in the mountains, we can do this now!"

Elaine hopped off the ledge, sliding down to the road where she readied her blade, watching the horde grow closer.

That familiar sensation was back.

Seriously?

Too late for anything, he followed the slide down and landed in a heavy roll to kill the momentum - very nearly tumbling off the edge as the result. The broken blade was ready as he retreated close to the mountain wall, the noise of their descent pinpointing their location.

The birds were light for their size, but with the speed they dove they still packed considerable momentum. He smashed heavily on the first one heading his way, idly noting that it's standard flying hazard. Dangerous if they nick you with their claw or push you off the edge, but otherwise had fragile body from the hollow bones that granted them flight. He was glad for the iron shoulder pad, it would ward off the worst of the attack the birds could do.

With idle thoughts in mind, he started cleaning the vermins.

"I have a trump card of sorts, but we'll need to be quick! How many downed birds can you kill in 5 seconds?"

Elaine shot off a question, getting her rapier ready as she parried a bird away.

"As many as I can reach." He tapped his blade, barely longer than a standard sword. "so, not many."

"Then, I'll wait until the bulk of the flock is about to hit us! And..."

She channelled her inner energy upwards, taking a deep breath to precede the skill that was about to follow. The majority of the flock were on their way; just a little bit more until they entered effective range...Now.

"FALL!"

The charged shout blew the flock out of the skies, causing them to rain down and hit the floor. Elaine drew her second rapier, and begun piercing as many through the brains as she could.

"They won't move for five seconds! But they'll still attempt to strike back, so you'll have to kill them on the first hit!"

Unlike Elaine, the gourd was not limited by his weapon of choice. Those birds were fragile enough that a straightforward whack would pulp half their bones, so he hopped around landing on wings and heads while rending any that were still falling as he passed.

Five seconds were up too soon, but the birds were all falling then and most couldn't return to air and fell on the platform instead. And losing their flying advantage they scrambled off the edge to fly after the drop, but why let them had it easy? The gourd barrelled through the grounded flock like an oxen in pottery shop, chopping even more than the five seconds window let him considering that they're now packed so closely together.

Elaine pierced and sliced, aiming for heads, wings, or legs, and waded her way through the flock that were on the ground. Some cuts got through, but her armour covered most of it, and after the effective time was up, most of the birds were in no condition to fly.

Then she lit a torch, and tossed it into a particularly dense cluster of birds.

"Is that really necessary?" The gourd mused, wrapping a bleeding cut on his forearm. The burning pile were mostly dead or crippled but even that made quite a cacophony of sounds. The rest of the flock were already flying away.

"Probably not, but sometimes you have to show that you mean business. Those probably won't be bothering us any more for this trip."

Elaine wrapped up her own cuts.

"Let's slowly catch up, shall we?"

"Just a moment." He lightly cut at the back of his left hand. "Hardlight."

The wound smolders in the shape of an unknown rune, and simultaneously translucent blue platforms appeared on the air forming a path toward the other climbers. Some birds were still pestering them, that would need some rectification.

"Be right back."

"Woah?! In that case, I better start climbing."

Hopping nimbly now that her blades were sheathed, Elaine pushed her lightweight advantage quite a bit, grabbing and ascending quickly via ledges that were hardly bigger than apples.

After discouraging the few persistent birds, the climb could finally resume. One of the engineers were bleeding rather badly and the rest had varying degree of wounds, but the platform the gourd provided helped them to get proper bandage. He was rather lightheaded from burning too much blood then, but it would be no problem as long as it went without further fighting.

The engineers got to work immediately once they reached the tops, which was basically launching a projectile from a ballista-like thing with rope bound to its end. Then they secure the ropes on the stakes they brought along and the job's practically done on their side. Now the engineers on the other side started to secure planks between the two ropes to form the complete bridge one inch at a time.

Took most of the next day before the bridge finished. Mr Crestfall was one of the first to cross it, seemingly pleased with the survival rate.

"Well done, none of them actually died. I'll station some bowmen here to ward off the flying critters. Good job driving off that flock, you've no idea how stressful it is to watch."

"Ah, here!"

Elaine hands over a few metal bells.

"They are rather sensitive to sound, so jarring noises like the ringing of bells will disorient them sufficiently, and they'll probably retreat afterwards, too."

She was rather pleased too, having harvested plenty of feathers from the birdlike monsters. Soon she'll be able to get a feather pillow to sleep on.

"Let's make our way back down slowly~ Are your wounds alright?"

"It's mostly healed. Let's return."
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And so, the tales of a weird girl and a pumpkin fighting their way through a flock of murderous birds would be added to the history of the Keep's archives, but that was a story for another time.

 

The now awake old man smiles a little as he takes in the report.
"Now, an impressive feat, younguns- Mr Crestfall sent a letter to us, stating his approval of how you both handled such an unexpected scenario- frankly, I cannot say a lot of E-Rankers have the skillset to ward off a flock of birds in such a precarious scenario- just a bit of a rarity, and I know stronger teams that would have fell...and have fallen."

He seems to shiver a bit at that, muttering to himself. "Those damn crows..."

Shaking himself awake, he returns to the topic at hand.
"Well, so indeed, you both did excellent at the job. Keep it up!"

Saying that he passes two sacks of coins across the table.
"Here are 21 crown coppers- sorry, I mean 21 large coppers, for each of you- the last copper is a tip of encouragement from my pocket, no worries about it- just don't get much reports often nowadays. Also, that is 4 guild points on each of your records. Hope to see the good work and stories flowing!"

 

Oh dear... So many things happening at once... So what was supposed to be a simple quest to rescue horses turned out to be about a village located right next to a nest of centipede-like monsters? And they have mad elves working with them too?

Dear Gods, just what's wrong with this world these days... Haa...

Well, no matter, it's their problem and you did a good job. Here is your reward of 5 Large Copper Coins and a Bottle of Aromatic Liquid, as well as the 4 Guild Points of course.

Do try resting for a while Elaine-san, you certainly earned it~

((Just wanted to point out we don't have a Card, just an identification badge with your name and the guild's symbol in it~))

 

So... Let me see if I get this straight...

You did get the sorcerer, great~

... He was a pawn though, and the very water we drink is either cursed, infected or both? And the minstrels themselves are making the curse worse...?

Add to that the fact that the curse has no visible symptoms before death, so you don't even have people visiting the priests for cleansing...? Oh dear gods... Makes me wonder how deeply concealed this is... This many cursed people in a single church should have such a thick miasma that any priest should be able to notice it normally...

Haa... I wonder if I'd be better off not knowing... Ignorance is bliss after all... Now how to solve all this... Wishing for a miracle doesn't hurt, does it?


Well, thank you for the report and for finding out so much, I'm sure the mayor will be... No, he won't be happy with it, he'll go nuts once he gets the report... Buuuuut, you still earned your rewards nonetheless.

So... There you have it. 100 Large Copper Coins for you to spread as you see fit, and 6 Guild Points for each.

Take care now... Gods blessings upon you all, we're in desperate need of some.

((*pokes @SpearOfLies and @wraith too*))

((Teehee~? Your fault for asking the people that felt their death the most! xD))

 

Loot:

• Nine sets of worn leather armor
• Two worn bronze chestplate
• One worn iron chestplate
• One worn steel chestplate
• Eight wooden bucklers
• Five bronze swords
• Three bronze axes
• An iron mace
• Two iron swords
• One steel sword
• Archmagus Pneumonic’s Introduction to Organic Invasions - scholarly book
  
• First Step into the Darkness - Initiate level spellbook
• An unidentified wooden staff
• Alchemical kit(?)

"It's about this much. I'm not sure about all those weird reagents but they probably worth something."
@shad12ow

 

"Eh, you built quite a lot in such a short span of time, are you sure you want to keep being adventurer and not become a carpenter ?"
After reading, Gasp commented on a joking tone, then. He began to search the rewards, handing then to the trio.

"Each of you get 2 Guild Points and 10 Large Copper Coins. Anyway, being a carpenter should be easier and safer to be fair."

 

*pokes @MaliMi and @Exitiumm*

 

*whispers seductively* Join the dark side, it is really fun ~