Adventurers Guild Adventurer's Guild - Receptionist's Desk

"Alright time to work for a bit, slacking's over.", Gaap said to himself as he stretched his arms.

After reading the report, the receptionist felt quite perplexed and rubbed his head after a sigh.
"Good job, you have done your work properly, but... a bastion, eh? I suppose I will have to report it to the guild and perhaps some researchers that might be interested, hopefully they will not be busy."

Seconds later, the rewards were taken out and handed to Lethe, with a smile, he continued to speak.
"Anyway, here is your reward, 10 Large Copper Coins, right? And four guild points as well. Good work and see you for another quest report."

"Mhmmm.", after reading it, Gaap felt interested but was not sure if he could play it properly, he would need to have a card game first, and considering that he is not so good at taking care of items.

"That's rather good, you made me discover a card game, and might as well try it later on when I have time.", after saying this, the receptionist took the rewards and handed to SoL with a smile.
"Here's your reward, 4 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points, both deserved."

"Mhmmm. So, some cultists didn't go to their hideout after running away?", Gaap said, wondering what was up with this situation, unless they did not have any sense of direction, it is odd. Or perhaps they just needed ressources to be done with it. For a few minutes, he seemed to be thinking.
Quickly, he handed the rewards to the two adventurers with a smile.

"Good job. So here are... your rewards, 25 Large Copper Coins split as you want, but I suppose it will be in two? As for your guild points... it makes 4 Guild Point each. As for what you have reported, I suppose the cultist will be questionned by... the Church of Lord Ralditorias, poor man. It's gonna hurt.", imagining what will happen to the cultist, Gaap could not think about anything but something terrifying.

 

@Arexio

 

"Ah yes. It seemed like a small cell of them still wanted to do a bit of damage to Nagrand by attacking the convoy delivering the raw goods for reconstruction," Ryul shook his head.

"And I feel the slightest bit of pity for the captured cultist. But only just a bit. They are still technically murderers and terrorists," the half-elf's eyes narrowed, "I trust Head Priest Soren will do whatever is necessary."

 

Task: (Yet Another) Good Game of Cards [Taken by @SpearOfLies] [Taken by @strikegunner ] [Taken by @kyuukestu ] [Solved by @jbturkle ] [Solved by @wraith] [Available]
Requester: Razer, Priest of Fuzor
Quest rank: E
Rewards: 4 Large Copper Coins
Description: I can't believe it! I lost twice! First against Fen and now against Elaine! You people are incredible at cards! I want more! Bring me the most unique and amazing card games you have! I'll beat you all this time!!!
This Quest can be taken multiple times within the week, though only once per adventurer.

Spoiler: Reports

The two decks of blank card were cheap enough to procure, and after some minutes of scribbling the gourd made some simple but functional enough denotations of the suits as necessary. It's not supposed to be a difficult game, he'd do it accordingly. Rechecking the address, he went toward the card addict priest and knocked on the door.

"Hello, you're the one looking for card games?" He greeted the priest.

"That would be me! You bring a unique one?" The priest answered excitedly.

"It's simple enough game, but rather difficult to finish. Called Patience, roughly translated." The gourd explained. "Shall we?"

They sat across a small table where the gourd laid cards from one deck, four line of thirteen cards going from the largest to smallest.

"Four suits of thirteen cards each, numbering from one to ten followed by knave, queen, and king. The suits are split into the chalice, the coin, the club, and the sword." He pointed and explained each cards. "Now, let's first shuffle it."

"How will it be played?"

"It's for one player, although we can match together to see who finish first. Alright, arrange it this way. Make seven stacks of cards face-down, the first stack have one card, the second have two, all the way until seven on the last. Put the deck above them. That's the setup, now we can begin."

He flipped the topmost card of each stack.

"The goal of Patience is to rearrange all the cards by their suit in order from the smallest to the largest." He said. "While on the field, however, the cards are arranged with the largest at the bottom. You may only move the card onto another card one point larger, no more and no less. You may open the face-down card if there's no other card atop of it. Finally, you may move only a king onto the empty spot."

He paused to breath.

"Then you may reveal the card from the deck one by one. It could then be moved into the field, but cannot be returned. If there is no valid card to stack it upon, or if you do not wish to, you may reveal another card from the deck and so on until it rans out. Then flip the deck stack so that the order is preserved."

The gourd did an example of all moves.

"Now, for added difficulty you could apply more restrictions, such as some of the suit cannot be stacked in addition to their numerical value. As well you could change the deck drawing into a set of three and you have access onto the topmost card only. But for starter, we'll stick with the basic."

*****

"...I think I'm out of moves." The priest stared hard at the cards, flipping through the deck another times without progress.

"Then that's it, you're done." The gourd said.

"Just like that?"

"Yep! Luck does play a big part in this. You'll fail more games than you finish, that's why it's called Patience."

"Then face me off! You said we can match the time!"

"With pleasure."

*****

"And that's another one done." The gourd smugly placed the last king onto the last suit, neatly arranged while the priest haven't even got halfway through.

"Impossible! You can't be that good with random deck!" He exclaimed in disbelief.

"I had a long time to practice this. Besides, I cheated." A gourd shamelessly admitted.

"...wait, what? How?"

"I wonder? You've seen me play. I'll let you keep the card, you could try figure it out. It's a bit late, I'll be leaving then."

"Darn! I'll challenge you into a rematch once I figure it out, don't even think of cheating then!"

"What can I say? I like to stack the odds in my favor."

Spoiler: Notes

-Gourd is a cheater
-The priest would probably stare hard at the cards
-It wasn't marked. It was only some sleight of hand to switch around or check an unrevealed card

@AliceShiki

 

"I'm back. Already met up and talked to the historian over on that end, but I'll report it just in case."

Spoiler: Quiet Peace

Having taken the quest, Elaine did a bit of investigation and realised that the location of the ruin in question was quite near where she had been to before, so she simply went to look for a merchant convey that was heading to the great volcano, and managed to secure transportation in exchange for escorting them.

Four days later, the caravan set foot into the same town she’d visited previously, and Elaine bade farewell to her newfound acquaintances before hopping off to ask for directions. She was looking for the historian’s abode, and it didn't take too long for her to get there. After that, some three hours later, the adventurer had finished information gathering, and managed to reach her destination, making her way down the same hole in the ground that she was told about.

From there, it took her no time at all to get down into the Nest, get lost, and accidentally wake up the guardian when she inadvertently stumbled into the room where the treasure chests were kept.

Then, as the guardian rose out of the surrounding earth and showed itself, she realised why the name made so little sense.

“And here I was wondering why a snow golem had any business around a volcano...This isn’t a flipping snow golem! It’s a serpent golem! So why’s the nickname snolem?! Which idiot made such a misleading nickname?!” - E

“HISSSSSSS!”

Elaine sidestepped narrowly as the serpent lashed out with its tail, carving a huge chunk off the wall behind her. From the size of the dent, she estimated that the tightly packed and compressed earth must have been harder than steel. Good news for the golem, but not great news for her.

“Woah, woah, woah!” - E

The next time the serpent reared, charging her, she leveraged off a broken pillar, and vaulted onto the back of it’s head, grabbing onto the earthy material that made up it’s skin. It thrashed, trying to throw her off.

She was doing a great job at holding on, actually, until the serpent golem begun forming spikes along it’s back, causing her to hurriedly hop off, landing on her feet.

“That’s cheating?!” - E

The huge snake charged at her, the entirety of a few hundred kilograms of tightly packed earth moving at a tremendous speed, aiming to crush her into meat paste.

“Hold it! I’m not here to rob, and even if I managed to snatch a treasure chest, it’ll be a fat lot of good to me when I don’t have the keys!” - E

“Hissssss?”

The serpent slowed down, slithering slowly towards her instead of charging like it did so earlier, and hovered a few inches before her face, beholding her with carved gemstone eyes. At that range, it could probably swallow her in a single gulp.

Elaine reached out and rubbed the golem on the side of it’s earthen face. The eyes blinked, staring at her.

“Ne, I’m not here to pillage or loot, so could you let me be? Please?” - E

“Hisssss!”

“Shhhh. Go back to sleep. Dream of eating delicious frogs.” - E

“Hiss...sss?”

The serpent golem tilted it’s heavy earthen head, obviously confused.

“After all, you have to wake up every time someone intrudes here, in order to ensure that they don’t mess around with the treasure, right? Then, as long as I don’t try to steal any of these, shouldn’t it be fine?” - E

“Hissss?”

The ruby eyes kept blinking. The girl did make some kind of sense. Still…

“Then, why don’t you settle down at the entrance while you wait? After I’m finished with the stuff here, you can check that I didn’t bring anything that isn't mine out with me.” - E

“Hiss.”

Apparently fine with that notion, the serpentine golem extended out even further, stretching itself in a complete circle around the room and blocking the exit, leaving the young girl alone with the pile of chests. Then, it merged back into the wall, leaving no trace that it had just been laying there a few seconds ago.

“Well, that’s that! Let’s see what we have here.” - E

She examined the chests that were placed on the platform.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Marth, Golas, Madulsa...No surnames, so they’re commoners, huh.” - E

Then, she moved on to the other chests.

“Joseph Harker. Victoria Van Helsing. Hoden La Mare. Henrietta Tepes. Theresa Fantaria. Darryl Pendragon. Beatrice Ilinichina Amiella. Ernest Crestfall…Wait, this name is…” - E

An image of a certain senile revenant appeared in her mind, before she decided to focus her attention back on the names. Some of the names were naggingly familiar, and she was sure she had seen them before, but the memories stayed annoyingly out of reach, elusive.

“Let me see...I’m pretty sure Ernest Crestfall was the name of the founder of Skyfall Keep. The surname Van Helsing rings a bell...And I’m pretty sure one of the swamps located in the Holy Empire is ruled over by one Lady La Mare. As for the other names, I have no idea.” - E

From what she heard, the chests only allowed pure blooded descendents to open them, so she couldn’t exactly open them to discover what the contents were.

“Oh, great…If only there was some kind of archives here, that would be of great help…” - E

Then, she heard rumbling, and turned to find the serpentine golem lurking behind her, but not to strike. It was making no noise as it’s ruby eyes blinked, sticking out it’s forked tongue towards it’s own back.

“What is it, big guy? You want me to get on and follow you somewhere?” - E

“Hiss.”

The snake rumbled, nodding. She took that as a yes.

“Alright, excuse me, I’m climbing up…” - E

It was somewhat like climbing onto a horse, except that the snake then formed ridges to make it easier for her to grab onto. It didn’t take Elaine long before she found a spot on the head to comfortably settle down on. She nudged the golem.

“All right, giddy-up, boy!” - E
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The serpent came to a stop outside a sizeable cavern, and lowered it’s head to the ground, allowing Elaine to hop off. Then, with a few blinks of the ruby eyes, the torch sconces mounted on the cave walls were lit, revealing marble columns holding the room up.

“What did you bring me here fo---Wait, this is...!” - E

She was staring at a transparent coffin left in the centre of the room. Within laid the perfectly preserved body of a...boy(?) who seemed to have just reached his(?) adulthood; although the thick layer of dust made it apparent that no one else had entered this place for…a long, long time. At the feet of the coffin stood a plaque, inscribed with the name: “Asura Tepes.”

Elaine frowned. The surname Tepes…Why did she remember seeing it somewhere? That went for the surname Van Helsing, as well. She was sure she had came across those two surnames somewhere before while researching…But where?

The serpent golem prodded her gently.

“What is...Oh.” - E

To her right, the marble pillars had been inscribed with some sort of writing...Elaine grabbed a torch off the wall and got closer, staring at the letters.

To whoever may be reading this.

I am Henrietta Tepes, Lady of the Tepes household in the far North, in the lands beyond the glacial mountains. And as I’m sure you’d already know, the Tepes household used to be of the vampiric houses out there, at least until the Evernight Incident long ago. When one of the Scarlet Household plotted to cover the sun and create an everlasting night, it caused a rift to develop between us vampires and the other surface-walkers, resulting in a war that we ultimately lost.

The Evernight managed to drag on for several months, until a coalition of forces led by a mysterious shrine maiden, with inside information provided by the Tepes household, managed to break the tie and end the incident And once the great purge was finally over, every single vampire had been dragged and burnt to death at the stake...Or at least, that was something most people have been led to believe.

Lady Van Helsing came up with an idea. She would, along with Lord Pendragon and Lady Ilinichina Amiella, announce to the world that vampires have been completely exterminated, and in doing so allow us of the Tepes household, as well as the other households allied to us, to return to the safety of our ancestral homes, the catacombs of the Underdark, an area under the governance of Lady Fantaria in the West...On the condition that we would never show our faces to the surface world again. Vampires would disappear into history, as a race that ‘once’ existed.

Still, none of them, God bless their souls, were really happy about having to exile us underground, so Lady Ilinichina Amiella offered to keep Asura here, such that should the day come where vampires were no longer as feared by the surface races, there would be someone to come to us, and free us from the Underdark. It was decided that the key to the magical lock would be broken into eleven pieces, and placed into treasure chests under the care of a guardian.

The serpent golem that guarded this place was the work of one of my friends, Duke Harker of the Iron Hills, and with the help of three certain adventurers, the golem is capable of discerning lies and malice, so if you stand here now, reading this, then the guardian must have tested you and deemed you worthy of trust. As such, I will entrust this, the last pure-blood of the Tepes family, to you. Asura is in magically induced slumber and will not wake unless you willingly do so. Whatever you should decide is completely up to you, but no matter what you might choose to do, know that we will not fault you for the outcome.

The message ended there.

“...So is the vampire a boy or a girl? How am I supposed to address them if I don’t even know the correct gender? Jeez!” - E

The golem slithered over to her side, and stared at her once again. She could almost hear it talking, hear the unspoken question of ‘What will you do?’

“I honestly have no idea. Sleeping is good, but napping for too long is no good. Also, Asura has a really huge task waiting upon waking, so I’m not sure if it’s a good idea. I guess I’ll go report my findings first, before we have any idea of what to do.” - E

The serpent seemed to nod, before once again lowering its head to the ground, allowing Elaine to climb on again. It turned around to leave.

As it neared the only entrance, Elaine mumbled.

“Still, if you feel like waking, then you should wake. Sleeping too much is not a good thing.” - E

Then, when the snake and rider duo were long gone, the doors had slid shut and the torches went off, allowing darkness to set in once again…

One of Asura’s hands twitched.

@AliceShiki

 

"All done"

Spoiler: (Yet Another) Good Game of Cards

Lethe wandered around town looking for Razer only to find him hunched in a corner rocking back and forth seemingly traumatized from that last game with Arawn and losing to, of all things, a gourd. Approaching the priest, Lethe gave him a little poke to get his attention. Letting out a small shriek, Razer turns to look at his “assailant.”


Seeing the man’s horrified expression, Lethe tries to explain to the man that he was only here to complete the quest. Immediately forgetting the nightmare that was his previous game, Razer jumps to his feet in excitement.


After giving himself a good brush to get rid of all the flying cats that had attached themselves to his priestly robes, Razer enthusiastically greeted the little challenger.


“Razer, Priest of Fuzor at your service! What card game have you brought for me today?!”


Without a word, Lethe reached into his pocket and withdrew two decks of card, one large and one small.


“Is, is this the banned version of the game Murderous Bunnies, Crusade for the Mystical Carrot?!? No way, man! No way! How did you find this treasure?!?”


“I’ve m’ ways.” responded Lethe working to keep a blank face. This was a bit of a blight on his past so he didn’t really feel like discussing it.


In the midst of reverently examining the cards, Razer started to fangirl.


“These are the originals! The OG deck of Murderous Bunnies, I’m going to play with the OG deck!!! Let’s start, let’s start!”


Razer, whipped out a blanket which he snapped open and laid on the ground. He then proceeded to impatiently drag Lethe into a seated position, still in the random corner that he had been found in.


“Y’sure y’ready?” asked Lethe cautiously. He really hoped the man knew what he was getting into as he was definitely not liable for whatever damages, physical or emotional, that occurred as a result of this game.


“Of course, of course! I know all about this game! Be prepared for an overwhelming defeat!”


Lethe chuckled under his breath at that. The poor priest actually thought he could win against one of the crea-*cough cough*, I mean, the most credited player of the game.


“M’kay. Be prepared.”


----please know, no actual bunnies were harmed in the playing of this game ----


The game started off rather tame, they had each summoned Bunnies and hadn’t started battling to the death or anything and there weren’t any crazy Bunnies so all was well.


Razer was feeling rather confident so he made the first offensive move.


“Thieving Bunny, attack that pathetic little Dying Bunny with this Kitchen Whisk of Eternal Damnation!”


The little bunny ran over with a gleam of madness in its eyes as it decimated the poor already half dead Dying Bunny.


“Haha! Take that!”


Slowly Lethe revealed a malevolent smile sending a chill down Razer’s spine.


“Rise Phi Hai Tong Bunny!” Lethe said, staring Razer down at the while.


As Lethe activated his Vengeful Reanimation card Razer wanted to cry. The Phi Hai Tong, one of the most feared of all ghosts, certainly wouldn’t rest until its murderer and all those related were dead and buried.


“Now’ll jus’ use m’ Bloody Bucks to buy a Mystical Carrot and apply a Satiate Your Bunny Card to your Thief Bunny.”


And with that Lethe concluded his turn.


Now that Razer had to deal with indulging his Bunny in his vice every turn there was a greater chance of his Bunny ending up on Dead Rabbit Row. That is unless he bought a Self-Restraint Card. The only good part about the Thief Bunny being low on the totem pole was that he didn’t require too many Self-Restraint Points to keep him from stealing.

Razer wasn’t entirely sure what to do but he decided to risk it. He had faith in his Bunny!


“First I’ll summon this Kidnapping Bunny then I’ll activate Mad Bunny Disease and play it on your Phi Hai Tong Bunny! Good luck rolling a 12! Next, I’m gonna take my chances with letting my bunny steal.”


Razer was really nervous at this point, but went ahead and rolled the die to see what would happen.


He had rolled a 8! He was safe! While he was celebrating though he looked down to see the Thief Bunny holding his priestly deck of cards… What the heck? He actually stole something?


Taking a minute to think about it, Razer then started to wonder what the other Bunnies would do if they were let free. He shuddered. This was not good, really not good. Now he finally understood why the card game had been banned in the first place. It was just too dangerous. What if the Serial Killer Bunny got free or the Mass Murder Bunny? There would be death and chaos everywhere!


As the game continued and the Bunnies grew in number and strength, Razer broke out in a cold sweat. If anyone of these Bunnies was let to indulge in its vice then it was practically going to destroy Nagrand.


This was bad, really bad: Razer only had one card to play— it was a Satiate Your Bunny Card. While he was internally crying a little bit, he decided would just play it on the least damaging Bunny and hope for the best.


“I’ll play this Satiate Your Bunny Card on your Serial Arsonist Bunny and buy a Mystical Carrot.”


“M’kay. First ’ll buy equip my Insane Fascist Leader Bunny with this Serial Killer’s Chainsaw and have him attack your Yakuza Boss Bunny.”


The Fascist Leader dashed with glee over the Yakuza Boss and inflicted egregious damage but didn’t manage to kill him.


“Then’ll also buy a Mystical Carrot. Now’ll take m’ chances.”


Lethe rolled the die.


It was a 12. They were doomed: it was a 12.


The Serial Arson Bunny began to rub its cute little paws together in anticipation as insanity flickered in his eyes. While it was getting ready to execute its heart’s desire it felt a very cold, very terrifying stare on its back. Turning around, it came face to face with Lethe. It took one look at his face, gave an audible gulp, and sat back down like nothing had ever happened.

Lethe hmphed and gave a bit of a smug look to Razer.


What the heck! You could do that! Why was he so worried then? You just had to intimidate them into obedience! Looking down at his Bunnies though Razer shelved the idea. There was no way he could control these crazies. They’d probably just snicker and rush off to do what they wanted…


The game continued for 3 more turns before it was time for the battle royal to see who would get the final Mystical Carrot. While it was a bloody, gory mess-- certainly unsuitable for the eyes of children—Lethe’s Bunnies reigned supreme.


It was now the moment of truth! They would now get to check which carrot was the Mystical Carrot!


They took turns flipping card by card from the small Carrot pile showing which Carrots were not The Mystical Carrot until they reached the final card. It was Razer’s turn to flip. He reached out shakily, still rather scarred from witnessing the battle royal, and flipped over that last card.


He quickly went to check which Carrots he had purchased. It… wasn’t one of his!


Razer hung his head, not even bothering to look at Lethe. This was shameful. How could he call himself a priest of Fuzor? So many losses in a row…


Seeing the priest’s downcast expression, Lethe gave him a pat before proceeding to send the naughty rabbits that were still summoned back and tidying up the decks.


“Just learning, ‘ll get bett’r.”


The priest didn’t really respond so Lethe decided to leave him to his contemplations and headed towards the guild to report.

Spoiler: Notes

-Playing the banned versions of games is ill-advised
-Razer has suffered yet another defeat

@AliceShiki @Naraku

 

"...what?", even after reading it, the receptionist didn't know how to react. What was that... Summoning? Were they playing Yu-**-** or what?! And that defeat, that defeat! No wonder it's banned! Where is the balance?!

"Oh well... Poor Razer... He must be used to it by now, good job, you... Earned 4 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points, good job. That's one terrifying game.", there was one thing he understood. It was that he pathetically lost!

 

"Here we go..." Zoan stood before the receptionist. He looks worn out and his arms were covered by bandages. The same goes for Cinis too, although he seems to have been hurt more than Zoan. Kathicia on the other hand is physically still perfect, without any wounds whatsoever.

Spoiler: Report

TiggerBane = Green
Zone Q11 = Orange
Unreachable Hope = Purple
--- --- ---
"According to the map in the guild and the quest sheet, the cultist's hideout should be at the east of Flaminis, in the mountains. Do any of you have a means for transport? As in, a horse? A carriage?" Cinis asked while remembering the map he had in mind. He did have a horse but they were three, so unless one of them had something similar, he would have to let Odio in the stables.

"I have none," Zoan said. "However, at least the journey is not as far as the journey to the Haunted Forest. Adding the fact that the cultists' hideout is inside the mountains would mean that we would have to leave your horse at Flaminis, it might be best to travel by foot."
Then Herst, the former farmer orc and Zoan's current employee, began to speak up. "Sir, I would like to remind you that our destination is located at the Empire. As such, I believe it would be difficult enter for Ms. Kathicia, Mr. Cinis and myself. Ms. Kathicia is able to disguise herself, but I believe I should stay at Nagrand for the time being." Zoan had been spending around two to three days with Herst, and he understood that most of the time, he is right. "Understood. You stay at Nagrand."

Kathicia retracts her wings into her body, hiding them from the world. "Generally I can fly to places so I have little need for a horse when the routes I take makes travel almost as fast. But yeah even if we took the horses we would have to stable them in Flaminis. So it's the 3 of us against however many cultists escaped~ I hope I will be able to properly express my loyalty to my lord when we finally fight them" Kathicia pulls out one of her fans and begins waving it in front of her face, "So either of you need to do anything here before we leave? Cause I don't, other than maybe a little nap." Very small flecks of red dance around in Kathicia's eyes.

Thinking about what he could need, Cinis already had everything he needed. Weapons, food, water, he shook his head and looked toward the east.

"I don't really need anything. I suppose we can set up a sort of strategy on the way, so I suggest we talk about it later and well, that's all. Let's go?" Cinis said without minding much his words. He preferred to go along with the flow. However, taking care of it in advance was impotent in this mission.

* * *

After a few days of peacefully travelling to Flaminis and resting there, our group have finally encountered an enemy on the way towards the hideout. It was a group of goblins. Goblins in general are creatures which live in caves or shelters. Stray goblins are goblins who have been excommunicated from their tribes, or survivors from a destroyed nest. Hence, there ought to be less than five of them in general, but the three E-ranked Adventurers have encountered at least a dozen goblins. There is no way so many goblins are stray goblins, which means that they are... planning to steal livestock and women from a nearby village.
While most beginner adventurers seem to drop their wariness when they encounter weak monsters such as goblins, Zoan's wariness grew as he knows the terror of numbers. He looks at the goblins' equipment. Some leather armor, some dirty iron daggers and the rest were equipped with rags and dirty bronze swords. It seems that there were quite some unfortunate newbies and villagers who have died in the past month.

"Those weapons. Don't get stabbed by them. They are poisonous," Zoan said. This was not wrong. While living on the mountains, he had encountered goblins as well. Those weapons were coated with their excrement and poisonous herbs. Primitive, yet effective.

"That is nice I'll let you guys deal with this however you want," Kathicia flies up into the sky and watches from above, "I'm not going to deal with such weak things it would be an insult to my Lord."

"...I should've known this was going to happen." Zoan grunted, and gave up on support. The terrain is a paved road surrounded by tall grass. This was clearly an advantage for the goblins as they could hide in tall grass with ease.
"...I guess I will go with that weapon then." From the back of the huge animal fur that the barbarian is always wearing, he drew an iron sword. Said iron sword was rather in good condition, and he had planned to sell it when he needed to, but he never thought that he would use it. He put the club away to the place where the iron sword was. With the idea of creating more open space for him to see, he began cutting the tall grass surrounding him while taking caution for an ambush.

"Huh, not so unexpected I suppose. Just goblins.", while Cinis did not mind that Kathicia did not help, it was rather annoying for him. The first thing he did was to draw his crossbow with his right hand and load his bolt. He began to whistle, as if he was just going to have nice stroll.
Even so, it did not mean it was not dangerous. He just felt at ease at this particular moment. 'In the tall grass, how annoying, but it should be fine'. While Zoan is making space for himself, the half-elf just tried to observe. Too see whether there was a careless goblin or not. Will one try to ambush him? If he expects it, then it is safe.

While waiting for them to appear, he wondered for a little second if he should shoot at Kathicia. He quickly dismissed this thought as... well, one came by behind. 'How unexpected'. As if they would come in front of him after all, sidestepping to avoid its sword, he used his elbow to crush its throat. Seeing this, the goblins hidden would probably intervene. One at his right, and one at his left. 'Surrounded by three of them so early, eh? Looks like they were quite the hasty ones, they probably left their comrades behind so they do not have to the loot they might win by killing him.'
Perhaps they took it as a competition? He wondered less than a second before extending his right arm holding his crossbow. The bolt was launched a second corpse fell to the ground.

'And two down, the third one...' Coming from the left, he did not have the time to draw his weapon. Either he avoids, or he gambles. He decided to gamble and counterattack. It rushed and with its right hand, it wished to stab the adventurer.

Well, multi-tasking is a thing after all.

Closing his left hand, his left arm descended and smashed on the goblin's wrist. Due to the shock, it released its blade which fell on the ground. Short figure, short weapon.

"Mmm, behind, right and left?" Perhaps it was just a concidence, but basically it seemed like a strategy. While their bodies were not fit for this kind of fight, with humans, if one attacked behind you, another at your right and a last one at your left, it will be insanely hard to avoid any harms. While goblins... poor skills, weak bodies, childish thinking, easily bashed...

"Well, three down."

* * *

"It appears that you don't need my help so it looks like I made the correct decision not to get involved in this." Kathicia begins laughing at the situation where the goblins where so absurdly weak, she placed them upon the same level as ants.

Meanwhile at Zoan's side, his surroundings had been completely flattened down. There is no more tall grass to hide from. Suddenly, a goblin ran onto him from the front --and got its head bashed to the ground with its skull split open. Immediately followed by an ambush from the left, Zoan punched the second goblin with his left fist and sent the goblin flying.
More and more just arrived. This time two from the front. One went to the left, the other to the right. Following his instincts, Zoan went to kill the goblin to his right, and threw the corpse on his fourth goblin. He stepped in, and killed the fourth.
The second goblin was sent to the tall grass. He had only punched it, so it should be still alive, but Zoan did not want to risk killing that goblin as there might be an ambush in the tall grass.

Suddenly, a fireball went flying from Zoan's right. He tried to dodge it, but it went too fast. He managed to block it somewhat using his sword, but his arms still got burnt. "Shaman!" Zoan shouted. He did not see a shaman before, so it must've hidden in the tall grass back then. Two more goblins spawned in front of him from the tall grass. Swinging the iron sword brutally, the barbarian vertically stroke away the goblins' swords, and decapitated the goblin's head to his right.

"There you are!" Zoan saw the shaman. It had just finished chanting a cast for another fireball. The shaman shot the fireball. He rushed towards the goblin to his left, grabbed its head and used it as a shield. He then threw the sizzling burnt black goblin at the shaman as fast as he could, and went to thrash the shaman with his sword and feet.
The remaining goblins, having lost half of their original numbers and their shaman, attempted to flee from the adventurers.

"Oh, bad idea when we have the cultists next, but that's fine I suppose. Might as well, kill a bit more." Cinis commented as he noticed what was going on. In his opinion, Zoan should have played it safe. It might be slower but he would not be that injured. Especially when they have the cultists later on this day, or perhaps the next day. In both cases, it was not good at all. Keeping on whistling, he reloaded his bolt and took his Sica out. First, he threw his Sica at one goblin, it missed, instead of the head or neck, it pierced its thigh, the goblin fell onto the ground and rolled in the dirt.

Meanwhile, with his crossbow, he shot at another goblin which was obviously killed since between throwing a blade and shooting a bolt, the latter was the easier. And two more then easily died, or one at least. The rest kept on running away. There was one crawling with a blade in its thigh. Just in case since it had poisonous weapons, Cinis used another bolt to kill the goblin, thus keeping his distance with it.

"Mmmm, time to retrieve the stuff or... Not actually. It will only be a bother as we will need to kill the cultists and basically, those will be luggage that will be a burden... what about hiding the loot somewhere around here like... under the roots of a tree or something along those lines? I will not forget anything, so no worries." They should choose a fairly easy place to remember as well. Afterwards, he looked at Zoan and with a sigh, he asked.

"Do you have bandages, alcohol or anything? For your burn that is." Better take precautions. If Zoan's arm become temporary crippled, it will be troublesome.

"I have none, but these burns won't get in the way of fighting. It will be fine, I have a thick skin. I will heal after we return. Let's hide the loot and bury the body. Goblin undead are more annoying than living undead."

"You guys should at least take the left ears from the goblins you can get 3 coppers for each goblin you have killed after all." Kathicia reminds them about the bounty on goblins. "Ohh and maybe we can tell the nearby town that there are iron weapons lying out here so that more goblins don't get them." Kathicia comes down from the sky slowly and retracts her wings.

"The weapons are dirty. Coated with excrement and poison herb. I want to bury it and take them when we get back home." Zoan said.

After doing everything that was needed, the sun fell, the moon rose into the sky and darkness came to engulfs the sky.

* * *

Night time. On the mountains, the adventurers could see little lights hastily running to the right, to the left, climbing, descending, entering, exiting...
Cultists. They were there, with their torches, panicked, they were disorganized. They also seemed to argue, from the caverns, shoutings could be heard and so on...

They seemed to have predefined roads, on which they could move with more ease. Probably paths they made themselves. As they mostly seemed to be careless, it seems that the party could hide from them quite easily.

The three had extinguished their own torches as to not get noticed by the cultists.
"They seem to be still disorganized from their losses. From what I could gather, there should be around 20 to 50 cultists left. Us three fighting them head on is asking for suicide. Let us whittle them down one by one," Zoan slowly said.
"...having that said, my way of combat is aggressive. They will surely notice me if we fight indoors. So we need to lure them out. ...by the way, do we have anything burnable? We could potentially smoke them out that way."

"I have nothing on me, nothing like that. I beg Kathicia doesn't either. She just seems to be the kind to fight without anything else than herself... but I do have an idea. We could for example... kill one of those guy running around with their torch, take their clothes and disguise ourselves as cultists and we could enter and check if there is something like... alcohol inside, we could still smoke them out," while looking at Kathicia, to see if it was as he thought.
He was thinking about what could there be in the hideout, there must be a lot of valuable items there. It was the cultists' hideout, the people who created that hellish golem.

They must have a lot of rations, of water, of common necessities as well. So there is a high chance for alcohol to be there. After all, they seemed confident to win when they attacked, and when you are confident, you prepare a celebration since you should win, and what would there be at that celebration? Alcohol.
On top of that, they were mages. There must be books, letters, bookshelves and so on. They could enter and burn everything, quite easily as well, unless they put magical barriers on every objects... albeit, that is doubtful.

"Uhmm I think you can tell by looking at me that I don't have anything for lighting fires on me. I mean I only have two bladed fans, two swords and armour on me." Kathicia replies to Zoan about his silly question as she doesn't even have a bag on her body! After hearing about the plan to sneak in, Kathicia wonders whether she even saw any females in the forces of the cultists,

"Uhh did either of you even see any females in the cultists group when they attacked because I didn't and if they have no females I'm never going to be able to sneak into their camp due to the casual clothing they all seem to wear." Kathicia thinks that she really shouldn't have accepted this quest it seems. "I'll just clean up all the guards outside whilst you deal with the insides of the cultist lair." Kathicia shrugs at the two of them.

Then remembers something: "Also the cultists are just wearing regular clothes you two, so any civilian wear is close enough to the ones the cultists wear. Also it's probably better than wearing exactly what one of the other cultists wore."

Zoan was surprised. After another observation on the cultists, all of them were actually wearing casual clothing and while he could find some females, the majority of them are male. "They probably also have a dress code though," Kathicia said, "but... seeing that one of you is wearing armor and the other... animal pelts(?), it might be best to take their clothing after all."

"Mm... So it is back to square one after all. In that case, let's start the plan. We will lure the cultists outside, take their clothes, disguise as them, infiltrate their base, and set the place on fire." Immediately after finishing his sentence, Zoan took a pebble, and threw it as hard as he could towards a wandering cultist. The cultist got unfortunately hit on the head, and sent all five cultists outside to investigate.

The night is awfully dark, and moonlight does not shed well either. Hence, using a torch to see one's surroundings was natural. ...however, that also meant that they were easy targets.
A whistling sound could be heard, and then a bolt had suddenly appeared before a cultist's eyes, instantly killing the poor man in an instant. The other four were taken aback, but regained their composure soon enough and two of them started chanting a fireball spell.

Having no issues with seeing in the dark while the cultists took their time to chant their spells, Cinis loaded one more bolt and as quickly as he recharged. Another corpse fell down to the ground. Afterwards, Cinis knew: He did not have much time to load another bolt. He drew out his Khopesh and wondered a fraction of second about what to do.

'Three left. If we let them speak or scream...' A sigh escaped his mouth as he decided that he will first avoid their spells then see how it goes when they are finished with their chanting. They will need to finish them as quickly as they could.

"This would be so much easier if we weren't trying to crush them all. I'll take the one furthest to the right." Kathicia turns and slowly moves in the direction of the cultists who was furthest to the right whilst trying not to make a sound, with both her fans in her hands. She decided not to fly because it would be harder to remain silent whilst flying compared to whilst walking and she would be much more visible with them out.

"Alright. I will take the one furthest to the left," Zoan whispered in a low voice and dashed towards the cultists. He swung his heavy stone club towards the chanting cultist.
The cultist on the middle protected the chanting cultist by crossing his arms to block the club, but while the shaft got blocked at the end, the stone end had reached the cultist's head first with enough force to kill the poor soul.

"I will take the last one then." Hearing the both of them saying their targets and seeing the situation, Cinis felt that it was a bit too easy to kill them. Is that because they are mages and not warriors? Couldn't they have physically trained before becoming mages? He did not know, nor did he actually care.
It was basically a one against two people. Unless he had the time to call for help, everything was useless. The closest to him was Zoan, who in front of his eyes, eliminated one of his comrade. There was still one left, but he was too slow. Having been distracted by all of these events, his chanting was disrupted and took longer than expected. It was a lost cause.

Dashing toward his enemy, Cinis was at ease. Abruptly waving his arm, the blade dug into the opponent's throat. While it did not kill him, it stopped him from chanting and screaming as well. He tried to draw off a dagger, to at least injure someone. However, in the end, it just quickened its death. Moving while almost half of your throat is slashed? Bad idea.

Kathicia carefully moves towards the last one so that she can sneak behind them. Soon after she arrives behind him, Zoan proceeds to take out his and then Cinis took out the other one. After this, Kathicia quickly put away one of her fans then grabbed his mouth with her hand so that his screams were muffled completely. After covering his mouth properly she quickly slit the throat of the cultist. Kathicia puts out the torch and slowly drags the body deeper into the forest.

Noticing that everyone was dead, Cinis first stashed the corpses and then retrieved the bolts from the bodies, to save up of course. Without waiting any seconds, he took one of the corpse and removed the clothes. He checked his leather outfit and thought for a few seconds before undressing and throwing his whole armor away.

"It's too damaged to be kept anyway." The outfit of the cultists seemed to be the common everyday clothes, what peasants would wear the whole day. Nothing too cheap, nothing too expensive either. 'Quite easy to fade in the crowd,' he supposed.
Dressing himself with those new clothers, Cinis tried to remove the blood that stained them.

* * *
Zoan's POV

After everyone finished removing the blood and putting on their "disguises", the three went each on their own path.

Zoan went inside the cavern, found many passageways in there. He enterered one randomly, and soon found a room with a group of four cultists drinking wine.
The room was not underground, nor the cellar. It was more like one meeting room for these group. However, the size of the room was meant to fit at least ten people. Clearly their numbers have been cut since the night of the raid.
Zoan could perform a surprise attack, but he wanted to know more about these cultists first. Miss Aria insisted that all cultists attacked Nagrand because their deity told them so, but Zoan doubts that that is the whole story.

"Those damned adventurers! Why wouldn't they see the reality!? Those vile beasts are meant to be exterminated from this planet! Only then will we humans find our true peace!" The first cultist is a big man. With him wearing a farmer's clothing, one would have believed that he truly is a farmer. Not a part of some cult.
Zoan wonders whether he could even uses magic, but with everyone in the room being either drunk or at least tipsy, he should be able to eliminate them all within a short time.

"Brother Nikolai, you're said that for the fourth time already this night alone! We'll get them soon. It will be fine..." The second is a young man. He has light brown hair and appears to be tanned.
"Our pope may have fallen in Nagrand, but Our Lord shall grant him peace in the afterlife." The third is a woman in her prime. She wears oddly enough not casual clothing, but a nun's clothing. She even has the habit on. Most likely, it is to have her disguised and infiltrate the church of Ralditorias.

"...Sister René, what do you think about the new pope?" The young man asked.
"Pope Lloyd... I think he is unfit to be our new pope. I am pleased that he organized our community within such a short time but... I heard rumors from our sisters that he plans to stop the extermination for an indefinite amount of time. Had it been for a couple years, then I would have understood, but... the way he says it feels as if he does not wish to shed any more blood."

"Then, shall we get rid of him?" The fourth cultist is ironically the only one who looks like an actual cultist. He is a bald old man who kept putting on what one could describe as a wicked smile.
It was at this point that Zoan stepped in. It was evident that this bald cultist will be in the way of Zoan's agenda.
Out of nowhere and without any explanation, Zoan vertically swung his club and caved in the cranium of the old man. The other three could not comprehend what had just happened, and the alcohol had also intoxicated them, slowing down their thought process. Zoan took advantage of this, and swung his club at the big man. The latter managed to defend using his arms, but those will surely be numbed for a while.
The young man took something from his sleeves, revealing a dagger. However, he was unable to draw it fast enough due to the intoxication, and thus Zoan smacked the weapon away. He then proceeded to bash his club into the big man's face, and smashed it again after he fell onto the ground to ensure he was dead.

A third party might ask: "Why is he doing this? I thought he wanted the cultists to turn over a new leaf?" ...and they would be half-right, and half-wrong. In Zoan's chaotic mind, he only wanted to find out why the cultists attacked. If it was some grudge, then he would like to hear it, but if it was pure religion... then he doesn't really need these troublemakers alive, does he?

"Well then. Let us talk."

* * *
Cinis' POV

Seeing that everyone made their plans, Cinis, while wearing these unfamiliar clothes, felt much more lighter but clearly remembered one thing. The cultist that needed first-aid went back inside. He must know that something is off with this situation. Cinis has to kill him before he realizes that something is wrong.

Throwing away his coat as well, Cinis wondered about how he should hide his weapons, with the clothes he had at the moment, it was hard to hide such a sword, there is also the crossbow that could not be hidden as well. He did not have a bag either... He will find one inside, perhaps. Hopefully.

Anyway, moving up toward the cavern, Cinis entered and noticed that everything was turned upside down, as if they were trying to move all of their furniture? Or at least the people in this section. Cinis wanted to chuckle when he saw the blood on the floor. While it might not be original, it was quite practical for him. He could just follow and kill the runaway once he got him.

"Mmmm, since I am in the Holy Empire of Men... might as well use this." He took out the rusty seax he had. It was a symbol to him, using this abomination to stab a cultist seemed to underestimate the weapon. But that was fine, it was still rotten blood, so it was fine. Rotten blood on an abomination, isn't that fine? Of course it is, of course it is.
Approaching the injured cultist, he wished to ask something but decided not to bother as he plunges his knife into the back of his head, and hop! He dropped! One witness down!

"Let's see what I can find here..." Was it a sort of dormitory? He wondered a few seconds, it seemed to be so, he could count the beds to estimate how many they were, but no, it will be inaccurate since lots of them died in Nagrand. He could just... search everything here, furniture, beds and so on. Perhaps, there was another path inside, to lead to another room. Who knows, maybe a huge living room?

First came throwing all the beds, then, came the seeming empty shelves. He simply destroyed them, to see whether there was something else than the planks. Nothing either except... a map, a map of Nagrand which is quite useful. However, the map is a rather detailed one... compared to what can be seen in the stalls. They deeply investigated the city it seems.
Afterwards, there was nothing else. He saw three other passages. Again, where to go? Where there was much noises. Thus, he went into the left road, which seemed to go deeper into the rock. Once he crossed the passage, he peeked at the entrance and saw... five? Five cultists? Perfectly sane, they seemed to be deep in thoughts, all reunited around a table.

"What do we do? Once we get back, we might be..."
"Shh! Such ludicrous talks!"

Internal conflicts? Unfortunately, he knew it won't escalate unless enough time passes, but of course, the three adventurers did not have enough time. They needed to kill them as quickly as possible. At any moment, they could discover the corpses. The party can't spare any moment to them. Taking a torch and his crossbow, he thought that he will just ambush them, casually. Screams should be fine. They were deep inside the hideout... In the worst case... well, all cultists will be reunited in a place, and his comrades could take them from behind.

'Alright... while they are sitting...' Suddenly, Cinis dashed toward the table. Immediately, one of the cultists saw him. He felt weird that someone came here without permissions but once he saw his equipment, he knew what it was.
'An intruder,' and that is his last thought when a bolt destroyed his brain. He fell backwards, the chair balanced, everyone turned toward him then to the half-elf who just came. They thought shivers could ran down their spines. But, they saw a terrible show.

The intruder, with his torch, burnt the face of one of them. No, not only, due to the pain, the burnt cultist was going to scream, however... the burning torch was plunged into his mouth, stopping him from screaming while incinerating at the same time.
While someone was literally burning with hatred and pain, Cinis threw his crossbow at the cultist at his right. Unfortunately, it did not kill the opponent. However, for sure, a crossbow to the throat would stop someone from talking and breathing for a while.

There were two of them left. Realizing the gravity of their situation, they were prepared to call for help. Both of them were in front of each other on the table, on the other side. So, since Cinis was going to kick the table to push someone, he could not strike two of them. One was inevitably going to call for help, unless... he showed his back. Okay, it might be a solution.
His feet lifted and kicked the table, throwing it in the air. It was unexpectedly light, perhaps so they can move out easily, they brought light furniture? He is glad he won't have to exert much efforts. Since he released his crossbow and torch, both of his hands were free. He caught one of the table's feet and threw the table at one of the cultist.

His back was open, the cultist joint his hand and... instead of beginning straight away to chant, he-
"HELP!", screamed for help. It did not work. Oh well, it was to be expected. Cinis turned back and sprinted toward the last one, which immediately chanted and cast a fireball.
The fireball was easily avoided, and on top of that, it exploded on the table that was covering his still-alive comrade. One less to kill he supposed as his hand formed a punch that struck the last cultist's throat. The cultist couldn't breathe, like one of his comrade. However, instead of lying down on ground, something then entered into his body.
A seax. That was his end.

"Alright... time to retrieve everything..." Cinis wished to retrieve everything he could. First, his belongings, then he finally had a view on the whole room. It was a place where they reunited to talk about issues. It seemed that there were lots of paper here.
Minutes later, he retrieved his belongings and dragged all the corpses to the fire made by the table that was burning. At that moment, he began to supply the fire with some furniture that were light enough to be quickly transported to the fire.

"Ah..." Then, he heard noises of people running. It was time for him to go back on his tracks and go to the dormitory. Cinis just screamed "EAST!" to mislead the cultists.

* * *
Kathicia's POV

Kathicia stays at the entrance to the cultists hideout for a few minutes before proceeding along one of the pathways. Kathicia comes across a large room with cooking utensils in it. A singular cultist is messing with the utensils in the room, and a second person in a smaller room with large amounts of food in it. Kathicia throws one of her bladed fans into the person who was cooking the bladed goes right into the back of his throat.

Kathicia enters into the room with food in it the cultist begins looking around the for some item of food. There is a butchers knife on the shelf next to him, so Kathicia slowly walk over towards the shelf, and picks up the knife. Then with the knife she taps the man on the shoulder. "Hey mister, what are you looking for in here?"

The cultist continues searching without looking at Kathicia and responds: "I'm looking for the garlic I can't seem to find it though." Kathicia moves and smashes the butcher's knife straight into the man's head. "You guys are completely useless I thought the cultists who escaped would be better than this!"

* * *
Zoan's POV

The two cultists before Zoan trembled. The woman attempted to take the dagger from the ground, but instead got kicked to the side of her face by the barbarian. The young man then desperately grasped Zoan's waist and shouted: "Sister René! Forget about me and call Our Brothers! I will hold him off!"
The room they were in was nearby the main entrance. Any cultist nearby might have heard that shout. Zoan grunted. "So you have chosen to not talk? How unfortunate."

With reinforcements possibly drawing near, Zoan dashed forward ignoring the dead-weight on his waist, and swung his club horizontally as fast as he could towards the female cultist's head. The latter could not dodge in time, and did not die immediately.
As for the young man, he has fallen into despair after seeing the woman brutally murdered. "Truly unfortunate. I was thinking to let a few cultists live if they were reasonable but..." Zoan then looked at hollow eyes, staring at the woman's corpse. Zoan raises his club... "May Lord grant you peace in the afterlife." ...and thus the club was swung.
"...bah. How stupid." Zoan mumbled. He gathered the corpses over onto table and poured the leftover alcohol on the corpses. After getting into a safe distance he threw a torch from one of the passages onto the table, setting it ablaze.

While slowly watching the fire burn, Zoan was thinking about the four people he had just murdered.
'The big man was a lost cause. After ranting that much, it is clear to everyone that he will never accept beastmen as equals.'
'The bald man was a lost cause. He had planned to kill the new cult leader who might be more reasonable than the former cult leader.'
'The sister and the young man were not a lost cause... but they did not talk.
...
Most likely because I killed two of their comrades in front of them. Mm... It can't be helped. I have chosen strength. Not stealth, nor persuasion.'

After a couple of minutes in deep thought while waiting, he finally heard footsteps from the passages. "Here! The fire is here!" "Hurry and douse it then! Where are the buckets!?"
Two cultists. No water magic. More cultists incoming soon. Without thinking much, he ambushed the cultist who had entered the room first.
That cultist did not know what happened to him, and died instantly. The other cultist reflexively cast a fireball spell in an instant. However the fireball was very small, and thus easy to dodge compared to the big fireball with the long cast.
The barbarian swung his club at the exhausted cultist, and thus seven has died by his hands.

"...now then. I think it is time to see the others," he said after throwing the new bodies into the fire.

* * *
Cinis' POV

Knowing that there were people in his track, Cinis, instead of hiding outside the caverns, was in the dormitory. He knew that they will take the right path since be misled them. Although, they will expect someone to be there, to be in front of them, the one who shouted East. What if there is nobody? They will know that they have been tricked, so before it happens, he will kill them once they take the right road. He will ambush them. Hopefully, they won't be too many.

Taking a torch and loading his crossbow in advance, the half-elf waited and counted how many they were... It seems that they were four, at the moment all of them entered the path.
His legs moved on its own, dashing, he first launched the bolt, immediately, he let go of his crossbow and took out his Khopesh. One down.
The one in front of him almost fell due to the shock of the corpse getting thrown toward him. When they turned their head behind themselves, they saw a dead cultist and another one that was stabbed, the curved sword was half inside, half outside the body. Seconds later, the murderer used one of the corpse as a shield and charged a third cultist.

Then the torch came. When the adventurer arrived near the third one, the burning charcoal stroke him to the chest. A scream echoed as the clothes began to burn, to turn to ashes along with his life incinerated by the flames.

A look on terror appeared on the last one as he skillfully began to chant. A fireball swiftly appeared between his hands. 'Scared but kept his calm,' that was unexpected. If all of your comrades died in a matter of seconds, how would you be able to keep your calm? But he did, nevertheless, it was far from enough.
Using the meat shield, the fireball was launched against it and exploded at the contact.
Cinis' ears began to whistle due to explosion, and the heat almost loosened his grip over his blade. The scent of burnt melting flesh suddenly became abundant. Not leaving any second to the cultist, he charged while keeping the incinerated corpse as a shield. Once he shortened the distance between the two of them, Cinis leapt on his enemy and punched into his throat, once, twice, thrice...

Honestly, did he have a thing for throats? He always aim there. After a minute, he wished this damned cultist was still alive. He wanted to curse all aloud when he saw... His weapon, it was too damaged. The explosive fireball just...

"Oh well... A bolt and a sword were lost." What did he have left? Five or six bolts, a crossbow, a rusty seax and a sica. Either short weapons or a firearm.

"Aaaaah..." He felt terribly exhausted by this situation, he lost quite a lot during his quests.
Now, that he killed the ones who were following him, he should check on his comrades unless there were more cultists to kill. As well that he should not forget to loot the hideout, he lost a bit too much according to him.

"Ha!" Pain spread out over his arms. He looked at his palms and noticed that they were slightly burnt, as well as his hands and wrists. It was almost reaching his elbows.

"Fortunately... That's some light injuries..." It was not severe enough to need health potion or to go get healed by Mary. Just a few days, and everything would be fine.

After noticing that there was nobody following him, Cinis found more or less cool water. He would prefer if it was cold, however, since they were fire mages, it is unlikely to find cold water. He had one flawed logic.

Relaxing his arms into the water, he then thought about a cultist. Wasn't there one who went to search first-aid? And didn't he kill him before he could do so? Since it was in the dormitory, it was rather near.

Minutes later, he found what he wished and found linen bandages in different pieces Overall, it was enough to cover half a body. It was a bit annoying for him because these seemed to be bandages that will fall off rather easily. He needed something to stick it to his skin.
Then, he found ointments. There was not much but hopefully, it was enough for both of his forearms. Dozen of minutes later, Cinis' hands and forearms were fully covered in linen bandages, he still had some on him, he wondered about how to take them. A sigh escaped his mouth as he simply decided to let it here. He will pick it up once he finds something like a bag.

* * *
Kathicia's POV

Kathicia notices the smell of smoke and goes back to the kitchen to check out the situation. Noting that there are currently no fires in the kitchen Kathicia decides to head back to the entrance just in case something dangerous had occurred even as unlikely as it is what with the fact that they were in a cave.

* * *

Kathicia arrives at the entrance again and meets up with the other two members of her party. "So who lit the fire out of you two? I still don't get why it was done really."

Later on, leaving the caverns, he saw Kathicia and heard her question, he then explained.
"Well, a cultist lit a fire by 'accident' and I just took this opportunity to nourish the fire with a lot of things like furnitures and so on.", concretely, he was not wrong but never was he right. It was not really an accident.

"The plan was to smoke the cultists who remain inside, and thereby also forcing them to come outside. Fighting many cultists on their turf is a disadvantage, hence we fight them outiside," Zoan quickly explained. However, it seems that half of what he had said was too fast to understand.

"...anyways, they should come out any minute now," Zoan said as he looks at the black smoke coming from the main entrance. Right after he said that, the party could hear a group of five cultists inside the hideout running towards the entrance.

"You! Did you do this!?"
"No! It's gotta be that fool Nikolai again!"
"Nonono, it is probably Danny!"
"All of you shut up! I am dying faster by listening to you guys than the smoke! There is the exit! Hurry up and get outside!"

"Mmmmm, you just had to say it.", Cinis said after a sigh. They really have came the moment Zoan said that they should come out. Isn't that practical, no need to wait.

For a few seconds he was hesitating, two of them seemed to be a bit special. Cinis did not know how to explain. While their clothes were your common everyday outfit, they seemed to have weird tattoos on their arms. What were those...

"I think those two are... more special than the other cultists. I am unsure though. It means that two are stronger than the usual, while three are completely normal," Cinis quickly said after doing the usual, loading his crossbow.

“Let us deal with the annoyances first shall we? Kathicia then proceeds to throw one of her fans into the neck of one of the regular cultists.

"Alright sure do so. Deal with these 5 please, I will go search the leader in the meantime. They must be the last ones," Cinis said as he returned into the cavern while secretly being annoyed by this whole situation. He just wanted to be done with it.
He lost too much items and time, the half-elf passed by the dormitory and took the central path among the three that were there. Afterwards, he went deeper into the cavern and noticed that there was only one road. It was perfect, he could hear someone furiously shouting.

"How... How can they have this place?! What should I do!?". It was a elderly voice. His tone was oblivious, it was enraged, filled with anger because of first the failed attack on the Church of Ralditorias plus the many explosions, accidents he has been hearing. The cult leader was in a room at the end of the corridor, guarded by two cultists. How troublesome. Quickly launching a bolt, he sprinted the quickest he could and drew out his seax. Overworking his legs, the two cultists were frankly shocked to see someone sprinting at them.
Before they could do anything, one died due to the bolt while the other, while chanting, had his throat slit by Cinis. All that was left was to open the door and see how it was going with this scum.

"Who is making a ruckus?!" Unlike the other cultists, this one was probably panicked. As their leader, he was probably someone that was socially higher. Like a noble, considering how the cultists were until now, he was probably a fallen noble or something along those lines.
Without waiting, Cinis kicked the door, breaking into the room. He was met with the cultist leader, who originally shocked, swiftly sent a fireball. Rolling on the ground and barely passing under the projectile, he felt the heat from rather near. Had it been a bit bigger, Cinis would not have been able to avoid and... well, he would be dead or he would need to flee. But they did not have the time. They needed to kill them all before they come to the decision to flee for their lives.

His leg lifted and hit into the cult leader's groin. Cinis needed to slow down his enemy who immediately crouched down due to the pain, the half-elf then quickly stood up and crushed the cultist's face with his knee, he could clearly hear the bones of his nose cracking into pieces. Then, trying to get back from the pain, the cult leader looked up at his enemy. His thoughts were hazy, but one thing was sure: Rage was filling his heart. Some seconds following this event, Cinis' elbow stroke into the half-elf's cheek and broke his jaw. The cultist leader was then knocked out.

"Alright, time to search this piece." After checking that the cultist was really unconscious, he decided to search the room.

* * *

Zoan took his sword from his storage, and threw it towards the cultists, hoping to hit one by pure luck. ...and it actually pierced through a random cultist's throat!
The two elite cultists were in shock, and stressed by their raid loss on Nagrand and the current raid on their hideout, they have lost their good chunk of sanity.
They both cast different magic. One elite cultist emits a dark aura as he chants, while the other drew a sword and ran towards Kathicia! The sword slightly emits a fiery red light. It seems to be a magical sword, imbued with fire attribute magic.

Kathicia dispatches the man with the flaming sword by lacerating his arms until he was no longer able to hold his sword properly whilst avoiding getting anywhere near the man. The man lands a few punches, elbows and kicks upon Kathicia. However most are just slightly glancing attacks. In the end Kathicia decapitates the enraged man calmly and efficiently.

Annoyed by the fact that the cultists before him have lost their ability to reason, Zoan decided to follow suit as well and crushed the normal cultist's cranium with his club. However, the dark aura-emitting cult elite had finished his chant! Suddenly, blood streams from his eyes, his nose, his mouth and even his ears. And just like that, he fell to his death.

The curse was unknown, but it appears to have no immediate effect. Thinking that the elite cultist was simply stressed to death, he ignores him and confirms that all cultists have died.

* * *

Verifying whether there was any cultist left, Cinis searched all around, but it seemed that all he found were corpses, burnt bodies, and so on. Thinking that it was finally peaceful, they could finally check every corners of their hideout to see what secret they might hide. Especially, what loot they might have since after all, some of the adventurers lost plenty of things.

Apparently, they have been cursed. The effect was unknown, and nothing seem to have happened, but the half-elf had an eerie feeling about this. The adventurer thought that once they are back at Nagrand, they should go to the church as quickly as possible.
Afterwards, there came the looting. Picking every items that could seem to be pretty useful, while both Zoan and Cinis burnt books, furniture and so on to smoke the cultists out. There were still books. Furthermore the most important books should be kept where the cultist leader was residing, which is a place that was left untouched.

'Let's keep the best for the end,' Cinis thought as he first proceeded to check every rooms he hasn't been to. Lifting some furniture, opening drawers, searching bodies... They were more than twenty after all, and of course, there were even more cultists when they attacked Nagrand.
Obviously, the spoil will be heavy. After checking the batch of found items, the half-elf could wondered about how they will deal with that.

* * *

Unexpectedly, there were no books or something along those lines in the cavern. Nothing magical at all, except in the cultist leader's room where there were books, letters and an odd scepter.
A few books could be interesting, while there were... letters. A lot seem to be from the Holy Empire of Men. He looked at the letters and the half-elf felt like he was going to cough blood. He recognized a few of those names. There were exactly eight letters, half of them had no value in terms of how dangerous these contacts could be, while the others were... questionable.

Those were actually threats, but threats toward whom? The cultists. Some people knew about the cultists and warned them. As in, if the cult 'accomplish their project', they will strike them down. All of the letters were rather vague.

"R..? Why do some of them uses just... a letter? What am I saying... because it's vague and only concerned ones would understand who they are..." Cinis sighed as he saw four letters signed with what? Just the letters R, K, S and H.
Back to the people he knew, two of the letters were from people whose name was familiar to the half-elf. Orlando and Baroque, both of them were rather known in the Holy Empire of Men. It seems that they were the ones who bankrolled the cultists. Giving them the money they needed to start this operation... Then, they were not that much involved. It was a trade, it must have benefited them in any way.

The moment 'money' was involved, the half-elf sighed. Afterwards, the rest of the letters... They could wait and be read by the Guild. Overall, among the eight letters, half were threats, two were economic support while the others had no value.
And then, Cinis decided to check the books with his comrades later, there was also that scepter... How will they deal with that? For sure, since there was already the curse, the half-elf did not want to touch it.

* * *

Hours later, after dealing with the stuff they wished to bring, the party also needed to get to where they killed the goblins. Their left ears were cut and then they looked at what the goblins had to give. ...and after deciding what to take among all of this, they decided to go back to Nagrand and in a few days, as days and nights passed, they were back to the Adventurer Guild, to give their report to the receptionist.

Spoiler: Note

Loot from the cultist hideout:

• There were like some dozens of backpacks. Probably for the cultists to move out as soon as they need to after destroying the Church of Ralditorias, Cinis thought. Obviously, the party could only take one or two each.
  
• There was also a bunch of linen bandages, probably enough to cover two bodies of an average human. The party would probably split this into three. Unfortunately, Cinis didn't find any more ointments. Perhaps he did not search well enough.
  
• The cultists had a lot of daggers, of short weapons and the such. Most of them were made of copper. Some were in iron or steel it seems, but they were rather rare however.
• Of course, there was alcohol, and not few. There was a lot. Cinis did not find everything but there were perhaps some dozens of kilos?

Loot from the goblins:

• "A poisonous substance", subtracted from the goblins' daggers into a glass jar.
• 15 Goblin's left ears
  
• Some copper weapons and iron daggers. Better than nothing, and it seems like there were three iron daggers.
• Leather armors, albeit damaged ones.

@AliceShiki @TiggerBane @Unreachable Hope

 

A tiny wyvern walks in riding a squirrel. They arrive on top of the counter and set down a vase full of tree sap and flowers. Chip probably lifted it using her strength.

Spoiler: Even a Dragon Needs a Steed!

After getting the okay for the quest, Chip flew off while clutching her coin in search of adventure! Or rather, in search of some moonlight flowers and a vial of tree sap. Only, what’s a vial? Maybe they’re those large things humans store flowers in? It would make sense since she’s getting flowers too. Grabbing one from the guild since it’ll be returned later, Chip flew out the doors after one of the adventurers kindly opened it up for her.
Once Chip got outside it was already night time, perfect for her since it meant the flowers were harvestable! Or rather, she hopes they are. The person who named the flowers might have been evil and decided to name them after the time they’re not available. Either way, she made her way to the entrance of the forest in hopes of finding them. Her first night...was unsuccessful. Most of it was spent exploring and hunting fireflies for food. They look shiny and delicious, what more do you want from her?!
Seeing as she couldn’t work during the day on the flowers, Chip instead decided to try to locate a tree with sap in it! Only...she doesn’t know how to gather tree sap. So she does what someone of the mighty dragon race should do! She forc- er, asked the local wildlife to search for trees with sap in it!
No one listened to her!
Feeling heartbroken that her bloodline hasn’t kicked in yet, Chip goes back to searching for trees on her own. The only clue she got was that the tree has a leaf that looks like a five-taloned foot. After a few hours, Chip found one! Only...she still doesn’t know how to gather the sap. Looking around, she can’t seem to find anyone to help her either. Feeling stumped, Chip decided to slow burn the tree until reached the sap. Normally this is a very bad idea, but as a dragon she has great control of her flames! Which is why the forest fire that came about was not her fault! Probably some other adventurer nearby who set up camp!
Of course, Chip would never set the forest on fire, nor could she with her tiny flame, so it must be someone else! Which is why she, being the brave dragon she is, flew over to the cause of the fire to see- a furry dragon roasting nuts! Why does a dragon even need to roast nuts? Don’t they just eat them raw? Thinking this, Chip flew over to the furry creature and socked it in the face! After which, she proceeded to sit the dragon down while giving it a sermon on fire safety- all while the forest behind them continued to burn down.
But that’s fine! It’s not her fault, and that’s all that matters! Instead, Chip had a brilliant idea! She’d have the dragon pay for its damages by working for her! After threaten- er, negotiating with the dragon, Chip added her to the party! Her name? Why what else but Squick! Now that Chip had Squick on her side, nothing in the world could stop her! Well, except for water. Water is scary since she can’t swim. But besides that she is invincible! Ahahahaha!
Ah, right, this isn’t about evil villains…. Um, where were we? Right! Tree sap! So Chip and Squick went around, ignoring the fiery blaze around them, and finally found a tree to tap at dusk! Grabbing the vas- vial from...where did Chip keep her stuff again? Either way, she passed it to Squick since she knew how to tap a tree for sap. It was very simple, actually, to the point that Chip felt a bit embarrassed. All one had to do was smack the tree until it screams and it’ll cry tree sap! Why did it scream? Who knows. What matters is it gave Chip the tree sap she needed! After filling up the vase, Squick put the vase...it's gone. Is there some sort of ninja squirrel storage network? Must be. It's the only way Chip could have brought it with her.
Feeling happy after finishing half of her quest, Chip sat down to talk to Squick around a campfire- this time one that was properly regulated and didn’t burn down to much of the forest. Only an acr- okay, fine. It didn’t burn down anything. Chip and Squick talked about various things, such as what kind of food is the best, how best to start a fire, and where the moonlight flowers would be located. At least, they probably talked about that. It was all chirps and squeaks to me.
Well, the moonlight flower part was true, at least! The next day Squick took Chip to a small patch of them that had a bit more than she needed. Picking them, Chip asked Squick to fetch the vas- vial once more as she stuck the flowers in it. Immediately after the vas- vial once more disappeared and the duo returned to the guild with Chip riding on Squick’s back!

The squirrel then takes out a piece of paper that seems to be...a registration form?

Spoiler: Registration For a Furry Dragon

Name: Squick
Gender: Female
Race: Furry Dragon (Flying Squirrel)
Age: 1
Class: Assassin
Rank: E
Points: 0

Spoiler: Appearance

A tiny gray squirrel slightly larger than Chip.

Spoiler: Inventory

Weapons: Claws
Armors: Fur
Coins: Acorns. Lots and lots of acorns.

Spoiler: Skills

Dragon Squirrel Claws: Can cut deeply into a tree.
Dragon Squirrel Speed: Can evade most strikes due to its nimbleness and small size.
Dragon Squirrel Sneak: Can sneak around so that enemies don't attack it. Especially effective when someone else drags the aggro.
Dragon Squirrel Storage: Can call a squirrel to deliver an item from storage. The squirrels are usually extremely smart and can predict when an item is necessary! Unfortunately the first quest was a trial run and now they'll start charging nuts. Due to this Squick invests all her money in acorns to keep the storage open! Only Chip and her party's storage can be accessed. Only one trip per day can be made or the squirrels will be extremely angry.

Spoiler: Storage

None

Spoiler: Backstory

A troublesome squirrel that caused a forest fire. She was reprimanded and dragged into becoming an adventurer by Chip. She's hoping to one day get rid of her debt.

@Naraku

 

"Hello again, Mr. Gaap."

Ryul remarked, "It seems the priest is just dreadful at card games. I don't understand why he keeps seeking them out."

Spoiler: Report - It's Time to D-D-D-Duel

"I hope you are ready, Priest Fuzor. I heard you've recently played a 'dueling' card game of sorts against Lethe. This is of a similar style," Ryul smirked as the priest paled slightly.

The half-elf lectured, "However, this one is much more...legal and has its origins derived from the early Modern Era, a time when war was rampant between The Empire and other nations. This had been a card game that mimicked such conflict but, unfortunately, was lost with the passage of time."

"But I've now recreated these two identical decks myself using a few reference books and updated them to the standards of recent times," the scholar said.

"Please allow me to run through the rules and demonstrate how to play some of the game for you," Ryul added.

. . .​

The card game was called Black & White and, for the most part, was quite complex. That was another reason why Ryul chose this particular game as he loved the strategy and scheming behind it.

There were three types of cards: Character Cards, Action Cards, and Power Cards.

Character Cards made up the majority of the deck and were the mainstay component of the game; there were 3 Tiers of Character Cards, each denoting their respective strength.

Action Cards allowed players themselves to perform "actions" such as drawing additional cards, searching one's deck, etc.

Lastly, Power Cards temporarily boosted the strength of Character Cards during the battle phase; thus, they were deck-limited and the rarest of cards as they could easily be used to turn a situation around.

There was a fun twist in this particular card game that separated it from other "dueling" card games and made it faster-paced than most.

The cards themselves were pulled from the deck and added to a player's "Hit Counter" whenever they took damage. As an additional consequence, the added cards were removed from play and were not able to be used anymore.

When 7 damage had been accumulated, the player himself went up a Tier, unlocking the ability to use the corresponding cards at that Tier rank but not any higher. For example, a Tier 2 player may only use Tier 2 or lower ranked cards.

However, the player that rose to Tier 4 first (i.e. took too much damage), lost the game. It sounded counterintuitive, but this intentional design allowed for faster gameplay and more risk-taking as the closer the player was to losing, the more powerful the cards he had access to.

. . .
​

The card-addicted priest immediately urged Ryul to go ahead and start the game after hearing the gist of the rules and only making it halfway through a practice game. Ryul shook his head at the over-exuberant gamer as they started playing.

When players were both at Tier 0, the game was a bit dry and slow. Goblin cards fought against Skeleton cards. Flying Cats versus Kobolds. The game really started picking up when Ryul entered the Tier 1 rank, with Priest Fuzor doing the same shortly after.

"Ha! My Hobgoblin Druid just defeated your Earth Elemental, take that!"

For every small victory such as this one, the priest felt the need to point it out and gloat about it for at least a few seconds. Ryul just wrote it off as him trying to compensate; Fuzor did have a record of losing many, many card games.

Combining the Power Card, Fairy's Enchantment with his Novice Adventurer card, the half-elf immediately took out the Hobgoblin much to the priest's dismay.

When Ryul managed to reach Tier 2, he played a card that baffled the gaming priest. "Bill Seywikh? The bartender at the Guild tavern? Why is his card on the same Tier ranking as Liches and Orc Warchiefs?"

The scholar responded casually, "I caught a glimpse of him in action during the Festival Incident. He is most definitely at least on par with an advanced-level Adventurer, so I ranked him at Tier 2."

Still a bit skeptical, the priest didn't say any more as he used the Legendary Mythril Armor Power Card in conjuction with his Guildmaster Dagon card to bring down Bill the bartender.

The card game continued with this back and forth for a while with Ryul always slightly having more damage than Priest Fuzor, who couldn't help but grin increasingly wider over time; it seemed like the priest of God Razer might finally achieve victory at this rate.

Tier 3.

Also known as the sudden death zone. It was all-or-nothing here. Go up one more Tier and players immediately lost the game.

So when Ryul smiled a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, Priest Fuzor was extremely confused. He wasn't sure why the half-elf had such an expression. Can he not see that he's been on the losing end all this time?

It happened in quick succession. Ryul played his Beastman Tribe card which easily wiped out the priest's Tier 2 cards from the field. Barely now entering Tier 3 himself, the priest countered with an Elder Drake card.

Afterwards, the half-elf revealed what he had been holding onto for quite some time and saving just for this moment.

Unintermittedly, Ryul put down his Mother Superior card, which increased other Character Cards' damage output, and his Tier 3 Action Card that allowed him to summon two additional cards: Head Priest Soren and - one of the strongest cards in the deck - The Hero card.

It was an utter defeat for the priest after that. There was no contest.

The card-addicted priest's mouth gaped wide open as Ryul explained, "The Tier 3 rank is the 'goldilocks' rank. It can make or break the game in just a single turn due to its powerful cards. Many players in the past would reach Tier 3 first intentionally in order to take advantage of this fact."

He added, referring to the gamers in history, "I was merely just standing on the shoulders of giants."

Ryul felt pity as the priest seemed to have not taken his loss well, so the half-elf offered to play a few more games with him. Priest Fuzor's expression did a complete 180 and excitedly brought his other fellow priests to come join them as well.

The scholar shook his head once more. It seemed like it would be a long night.

. . .
​

The next morning, Ryul reflected on last night and all the games they managed to play. It turned out the other priests were fine at card games, and it was really just Priest Fuzor who was terribly awful at them.

He approached the Guild's building, shook his head, and felt sympathy for the priest who couldn't get enough of card games yet was never any good at them.

Spoiler: Notes

- Priest Fuzor of God Razer learned a new card game, Black & White

- Ryul has some mad strategies

- The card-addicted priest is just terri-bad at card games in general

OOC: @Naraku
P.S. - This is totally the same game as Weiss Schwartz, just with an "AG deck", more so than it is Yu-Gi-Oh haha. Fun fact: the strategy here works IRL too.

 

Spoiler: A Hand of Cards

Another day, another quest, another task and another set of shiny Large copper to add to her pouch -which, at this point, emitting the melodious jingle of near 50 Large copper coins. The coinage rang noisily, but to the Lamia, there was no sweeter sound, save perhaps, for the distinct sizzle of meat over a grill. Now was, however, not the time to fill her stomach. She had a job to do.

Fully intent on relaxing, Plumeria had picked up a mission to play a game of cards. The requester was Razer, a Priest of Fuzor, and the reward from this game of cards was 4 Large Copper Coins. A hefty some for a task so simple. The task had been completed multiple times throughout the week, but it seemed like the Fuzorian Priest had pockets of the finest silk and linen, stuffed to the brim with gold and silver coins. To have been spending money so freely, could he be anything other than filthy rich?

Not that it was any of Plumeria's concern. Her mission was simply to transfer some of that wealth to her own pockets by means of a deck of cards, and she knew just the game to play.

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

As she arrived at the designated location, both the priest and a deck of cards were already waiting.

She took her seat gingerly, her unhealed wound still susceptible to sudden movements. Unpacking the cards, she began to shuffle them in hand, and as she did so, she greeted the Priest and begun to explain the game.

"We'll be playing Egyptian Rat Sssscrew. Have you heard of it~?"

It was a simple game with simple rules. Players would each hold a deck of cards face-down, and from it, they would play the cards face-up in a pile.

As the cards in the pile were played one on top of the other, when certain criteria were met, the player could 'slap' the card pile, and secure all the played cards in their hand. There were a plethora of criteria that could be used to play, but for this game, Plumeria would only go with the most basic, for they were the easiest to remember and play with.

Marriage - A marriage occurred when the King and Queen of any suite were played next to each other in any order.

Sum of 10 - A sum of 10 occurred when, as the name suggested, the two cards on top of the pile added up to a sum of 10. E.g. 2 + 8, or 4 + 6

Ascending - Ascension occurred when the cards on top of the pile were in consecutive order E.g. 2, 3, 4 or J, Q, K, A.

Sandwich -A sandwich occurred when any card was sandwiched between two cards with the same number or face value. E.g. K, 7, K or 3, 8, 3.

Doubles - Doubles, much like the sandwich, occurred when cards with the same value were played, however, a double did not require anything between the cards. E.g. 3, 3 or 5, 5

Jokers - Jokers, whenever played, could be slapped immediately. Simple as that.

The game was won when a player managed to gather all the cards in the deck into their hand.

Egyptian Rat Screw was, for all intents and purposes, a game of speed and reflexes. There wasn't much to say about the game itself at all, there was no trickery, not strategy, no bluffing, and not even the appearance of Lady luck herself. No, it was merely a matter of whose hands were faster.

Back and forth they went, the only evidence of their activities the resound slaps against the wooden table. If this had been another place, and another situation, perhaps someone would've looked twice at such things. However, naturally as a devout and pious priest, such thoughts were as far away from the mind and Pluto was from the Sun.

Nevertheless, the games when on. The serpent was faster, more sly, quicker on the draw, and while the Priest was most certainly a poor opponent, the handicap hole-in-the-abdomen more than made up for what the man lacked in speed, technique, and experience.

Plumeria won the first few games, they went rather quickly after all, but as the Fuzorian Priest grew increasingly familiar with the cards, and more accustomed to recognizing 'Slap' combinations, the games slowly turned in his favor. After a solid hour...or two...or five. The score had finalized itself with the Serpent at 21 games, and the Priest at 18.

Bidding the man farewell, Plumeria returned to the guild to submit her request.

Sliding her report across the Receptionist desk, Plumeria added a question that had been tickling at her curiosity. "By chance...are there any magic cardsss avialable?"

A game of cards complicated by the arcane arts could only more fun, and she had been told to have fun after all. However, a magic tool, no matter how simple, seemed to be far too taxing on the Lamia's pockets. Perchance, at some point in the future, if this quest still remained, she would take it once again, this time with a bit of magic up her sleeves.

OOC:
Writing any dialogue...felt so awkward...so I ended up omitting it entirely...this is why I do quests in parties ~w~

Or maybe I'm just dulled out today :v Oh well.
@AliceShiki

 

Spoiler

“So, what are you waiting for? Aren’t you the one who challenges me?”

“Hmph! I’ll show you my perfect deck that will mow you down”

“Hoh~? It seems you didn’t learn anything from last time. Come!”

“Duel!!!”

*Draw a card*

“Summon Supreme King Dragon Darkwurm, set 3 cards facedown and end my turn”


“Draw! Rejoice! The strongest and mightiest power that surpass all dragons, the emperor who descends from another dimension to defeat all the kings. Fusion summon! Blue-Eyes Alternative Ultimate Dragon!”

“Blue-Eyes Alternative Ultimate Dragon’s skill, I can destroy up to 3 cards!”

*Darkwurm and other 2 facedown cards destroyed*

“For my hand, I activate magic card ‘De-Fusion’. Now I have Three Blue-Eyes on my field! Blue-Eyes Attack!!”

“Trap card ‘Phantom knight’s fog blade! Now one of you Blue-Eyes Alternative cannot attack this turn!” Fen’s LP 8000 → 2000

“I activate another ‘Polymerization’. Descend! Blue-Eyes Alternative Ultimate Dragon! There is no way to reach my height now Fen, and you also don’t have any card that can destroy a monster in your deck so just surrender to me!”

“Surrender? There is no such thing as surrender in my dictionary! ”

*Draw* “Final turn!”

“What! Final turn again? Don’t you think you can pull it easily”

“That’s right, with this 3 cards I will destroy you. From my hand, I activate magic card, Pot Of Greed” (OOC: what!?) *Draw two cards*

“I use Dragon Shrine to send Red-Eyes Black Dragon to the graveyard, and because Red-Eyes B. is a normal monster that means I can send another dragon to the graveyard. I choose to send Supreme King Dragon Darkwurm to the graveyard. Then I activate Darkwurm’s effect. With no monster on my field, I can summon Darkwurm the graveyard and search Supreme King Gate into my hand.” *search Supreme King Gate Infinity*

“I activate Gate Infinity from my hand and normal summon Black Metal Dragon. Supreme King Dragon Darkwurm! Black metal dragon! Link summons, Link 2 Twin triangle dragon! Twin triangle and Black Metal’s effects I summon Red-Eyes B. from my graveyard and add Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon to my hand. By removing Red-Eyes B. from the field can special summon Red-Eyes Darkness Metal and revive Black Metal Dragon from the graveyard.”

“Twin Triangle Dragon and Darkness Metal Link summon! Link 2, Summon Sorceress! Effect Activates, I select Black Metal Dragon on the field and special summons another Black Metal Dragon from my deck to the field.”

“Black Metal on the right link summons Guardragon Pisty. Black Metal Dragon’s effect, I add Red-Eyes Black Dragon from deck to my hand. Also Black Metal on the left side, link summons Guardragon Elpy, also Black Metal’s effect, I add one more Red-Eyes to my hand.”

“Pisty’s effect, special summon Darkness Metal and its effect, special summon Red-Eyes B. Darkness Metal, Summon Sorceress link summon. Link 4! Saryuja Skull Dread. I use Guardragon Elpy’s effect, Special summon Red-Eyes B. from my hand.”

“Hmph! No matter how many dragons you summon, you can't beat my Blue-Eyes with those power. Even you exceed summon Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon you cant burn my whole Lifepoint!”

“Hoh~ I wonder if it’s true. By sacrificing one Red-Eyes B. Dragon on my field, I can summon my strongest Red-Eyes from my hand! Tribute summon! Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon!”

“Red-Eyes Darkness!? So you were sending dragons to the graveyard to increases its attack this whole time!”

“That’s right, but don’t be hasty because there is one more card I need to play. From my hand, I activate the magic card, The Claw of Hermos. Using Red-Eyes B. as material, I summon Red-Eyes Black Dragon Sword and equip it to Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon! Red-Eyes Darkness’ power increases for each dragon in my graveyard and Black Dragon Sword give him more power for dragon on field and graveyard. Now, my Red-Eyes Darkness dragon has an attack power of 13900!”

“13900!? That’s mean”

“YES! You are already dead!”

“NANI!?”

“Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon attacks Blue-Eyes Alternative Ultimate Dragon!”

“Noooooooo!!!” Fuzor’s LP: 8000 → 0

“No, I can’t accept this! Let’s play again Fen! A loser have to treat the food”

“Haha! Even though I always lose to me. Deal!”

“Duel!!”

@AliceShiki

 

"I'm back", Vandrin said walking up to the receptionist desk.

Spoiler: Report

Grabbing the basket of flowers from the receptionist desk, I began to walk towards the church.

____

I arrived slightly before the ceremony began.

A few people glance towards me, but they only nod when they see the flowers.

Seeing a table to set the flowers on, I walked forward, carefully placing the flowers towards a free area on the table.

As I was getting ready to leave, the ceremony seemed to have started.

I decided to sit at the pews, and pay my respects, thinking it rude to just leave after the priest started speaking.

____

Listening in on the stories of the life of a woman named Naya, I came to know quite a bit about her.

She was a stubborn old woman who always believed in the best of people, giving her entire life to helping support and raise those who were in need or went without.

She helped support the local orphanage by cooking meals, and tailoring clothes which no longer fit them.

Sitting around, some of the funny stories began to be told, such as the time a dog had bit her leg while she was carrying a meat pie to the orphanage, causing her to drop the pie directly on the dog’s head. It apparently started to run around the town with the pie covering its entire face, while Naya yelled at it, chasing it down.

A few of the sadder stories came too. Such as the fact Naya’s daughter proceeded her in death by several years, and that her only grandchild went missing while they were still a baby, though the exact time frame was not stated stories such as that are never easy to listen to.

After politely waiting and listening for almost an hour, the funeral procession ended. The priest told all of those present to proceed to the cemetery if they wished to be there when they buried Naya.

Some of the others started to grab the baskets of flowers to move to them cemetery, so I followed suit, carrying my original basket of flowers.

To the cemetery we all walked in a silent procession.

___


An hour or more passed at the cemetery. The gravediggers had already lowered Naya’s casket into the ground, many of the people who were at the church cried as they started to bury her, their cries drowned out the sound of the dirt hitting the casket.

Eventually the people began to file out, one by one. Some of their appearances were more worse for wear than others, but not a dry eye could be seen, besides mine.

All that remained at the cemetery after a long while was me, and an older lady who was touching Naya’s tombstone.

“I’m sorry for your loss”, I said approaching the older lady.

“Thank you”, she said with a hoarse voice, “But at my age, there aren’t that many people left to lose”, she said looking at me, her eyes mostly dry but a sadness could be felt from them.

“She lived one hell of a life”, I said recalling all the stories told at the reception, “or so I heard”

“Aye, that she did”, the older woman said with a nostalgic sigh, “Naya never knew how to rest”, the older woman continued, “She lived a life with few regrets, which is a rare as a pearl”

“A life with few regrets”, I said repeating her, “It sounds blissful”

“Blissful? Maybe”, the old woman continued, “It just means the things she did regret hurt her that much more”, she said with a sigh.

“But it also means she spent more time enjoying life”, I said looking up towards the sky, “She most have enjoyed her days, and touched a lot of hearts at the same time, after all so many people came for her”, I say with a small smile.

“So it would seem”, the voice seemed to crack mid-sentence this time, and a faint sobbing could be heard, “Thank you young man”, she said looking directly at me, a sad yet happy smile on her lips.

“It’s my pleasure”, I said trying to give a comforting smile.

After spending an extra couple of minutes to make sure the older woman was okay, I made my way back to the guild.

@Naraku

 

After having a rather busy day, Gaap sighed at the sight of three people who called for him to appraise his report, he wanted to grumble but he just thought that he will do it quickly then go back to work in the archives, perhaps if he feels like it, he also rememberd he had a game at home, he could play it with Geruto after a nap.

"What?", he still wanted to ask how did that thing became an adventurer and then tried to read at the report, then he did not know how to react, his face blanked out. A sigh escaped his mouth, he stared at the two fluffyballs and wondered if he should even try to understand that ridiculously tiny handwriting he could barely read...
Let's just not think about it, okay?

"Alright... while Chirp accomplished her quest... you came with registration form while you burnt a forest, is it right? Tell me, what are you? A fire elemental or something..? Aaaaah... just become Chirp's slav- servant instead. Shoo shoo, both of you will count as one adventurer, and well...err... here is your reward I guess. 9 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points... since Squick made an error before she became your partner, I should not punish you but if there is a second time... I will. "

"...didn't Fuzor got wrecked by your because you actually created the decks, know all the cards and thus strategies? Plus all the defeats he has been receiving, he must be... demotivated.", Gaap first exclaimed his doubts after reading the report, he thought that in way, it was a tad unfair for Priest Fuzor, perhaps people should play on cards game he knows, maybe he will win at least once.
Learning a card game takes a long time after all... or so the receptionist thought as he was preparing the rewards.

"So, here are... 4 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points, poor Fuzor, getting beaten so many times, perhaps he just shouldn't ask about card games he didn't know or isn't familiar with."

"Aaaah, good job with this, while funerals must be done, I always find them too sinister, on top of that, sometimes, it seems that there are funerals every day... well, I suppose for the next few weeks, it will be like this.", Gaap commented and gave his opinion after reading the report, he disliked this quest, he didn't hate Naya but he disliked funerals overall. After all, while it is sad, which dead person would like his close ones to be in this state? Not that you should rejoice of her death... he didn't know how to say it. Only a sigh escaped his mouth as he went to take the rewards.

"So here are your rewards, 7 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points, good work."

 

"I told him we should've done a few more practice rounds, but he wouldn't listen. And the other priests were just fine at the card game - many of them beat me as well," Ryul shook his head, "I'm afraid it was only priest Fuzor that hadn't."

 

Reading the report, Gaap let out a laugh and checked quickly the quest sheet as well, after two or three minutes. He began to speak.

"Well, it never was said that cheating was forbidden, good job, good job. Here are your rewards, so, it will be 4 large copper coins and 4 Guild Points, here you go.", after handing out the rewards to Jack, he continued to discuss.
"I would have loved to see his face when you told him that, it must have been funny to see. Continue like this."

"Ohoh, it seems that for once Fuzor succeeded at not being pathetically defeated, did he actually get better at card games during all his defeats?", as a smile slowly drew itself on Gaap's face, he commented after reading the report.

"As for Magic Cards... that is unusual, but I already heard of it, I think a noble had a hobby of playing Magic Cards... perhaps Baron Kuin has some like these? I don't have much details about it, but I can suppose that it should be way cheaper than low enchanted weapons for sure, even if it's rare to see some, it's still not worth an enchanted weapon... the simple Magic Cards should be... perhaps something like 1 or 2 Silvers? I am rather unsure, never really touched this subject. If I have time, I should perhaps ask one of my friend, and if I get a reply, I will give you a more proper response I guess?"
After realizing that he forgot what he was supposed to do, Gaap coughed twice before getting back on the main subject.

"Enough sidetracking! Well... your rewards, right, that's the last thing I should forget... so here are 4 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points, good job on this quest."

OOC:
*pat pat*
Well, it will get better for sure~
(I say that but I actually don't know how you write usually... I have only read one report you made after all. :x)

"...what?", no, no, no, he sweared, it was really Yu-**-**?! Come on, be serious, it can't be that game, how did it end up here? Before, he has read another report that seemed rather similar to Yu-**-**... but after rereading this report times and times again, Gaap sighed and covered his eyes with his palms, he rubbed his forehead.

"What.", he still did not know how to deal with this report, did some otherworlder who knew all the rules exported the game here or something along those lines? How did he not hear of this? Or perhaps he ignored those concerning news? He did not know how to react.

"...", he closed his eyes, looked up at the ceiling and thought a few seconds about the meaning of l- wait, it was not that bad. Of course, it was not that bad, it was just due to the repulsing shock of seeing Yu-**-** here that he reacted this way.
"Aaaah~, I am really getting old, getting panicked for only this...", he grumbled for easily a dozen of minutes before getting the rewards and giving them to Fen on a exhaustedd tone.
"Here are your rewards... 4 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points...", it looked like he was going to drink at the Tavern later.

 

"Well then. That was fun," Zoan said with a wide smile as he gives his report to Gaap.

Spoiler: Report

"So you are the next challenger?" Priest Fuzor asked the big man with unkempt chestnut brown hair.
"Yup! Well. The game I am about to introduce you is rather a well-known one though. It's called domino."

"Hm... I have heard of the game alright, but isn't that a game where you put blocks in a row and topple them at the end?" The priest, having spent many years dedicating his life to praise Razer and card games, knows many games. It may not have been every games, but it was certainly not a trifling amount.

"No no no. I was talking about the one where the players need to match the eyes of the domino cards."
"Ah. I see. I must say, that game is rather uncommon to play nowadays. Even I have only played it on rare occasions. Not to mention, it is usually easy to finish..."
"I have heard the 'common' game, but what I am about to introduce you is my tribe's variant of it. It's got not much changes to it, but still. I want to introduce it," Zoan said.

"Well... Alright then! Show me what you got!" Priest Fuzor excitingly shouted.
"First of all, unlike the domino 'blocks', we will be using these," Zoan then presented a set of domino 'cards'. The cards were not much unique. It was just some cards with a size about a third from common cards. The back of the cards all have some wavy pattern on it, filled with mixed colors that are found within the nature, though it mainly consists of varying colors of brown and yellow.
"Oho! I heard from others that these are common in another country, but I never got to see them around... How did you get your hands on these...?" asked the Priest.
"I was a member of a nomad tribe. We travel from village to village on a monthly basis, and one of the villages gave these set of cards to each one of us. Perhaps the people in that village were travelers from that other country who decided to settle down? ...anyways let me explain the rule now," and thus Zoan began to talk more slowly, to ensure that the other party could clearly understand his words.

"As you know, this game of domino starts with a deck of 28 domino cards (though blocks are also accepted). The cards are distributed to the players depending on how many people are playing. Usually I play with 4 people, and while you might think that each player get 7 cards (in a 4 player game), we actually get 6 cards instead. The remaining 4 cards are to be left unused for the entire match. One match ends when all player's cards were used, and the game ends when someone either reaches 50 or 100 points."

At this point, Zoan paused to see whether Fuzor was carefully listening or not, and to his delight, he was.
"The goal of the game is to have as few points as possible. The starting player usually places their biggest card (which is usually a [6-6] if they have one) and the others match the numbers. For example, Player 1 places [6-4], and Player 2 places a [4-2] on the 4 of [6-4]. The board then has a 'row' of 6-4-2. If Player 3 does not have any 6 or 2, then he is forced to put a card face down in front of him. My tribe and I usually call it a "dead card", which is why we keep saying "Drop dead!" during the match..." It was at this point that Zoan chuckles and reminisces about his past. He really missed some of his tribe members. His family. His friends. ...but in the end, survival is number one, and they will reunite when fate lets them to do so.

"Where was I... right, so the dead card is usually their card with the lowest eyes (the best would be the [0-0], because it is literally worth zero points). Though, some people drop their cards strategically. For example, if they have [4-4], [5-4] and [4-0], then those kind of people will drop [4-4] as it would leave them with a 5 and a 0 in exchange. Now then, about the 'common domino'... I have heard that when they have a row of [5-3-6], that they could place a 3-X... Yeah, no. We don't do that. In that row, you can only put a 5 or 6, or you drop dead a card," Zoan says that last sentence with a grim smile. He really seems to enjoy reminiscing huge cards slowly dropping down from one player. No harm was done yet the pain and sadness could be seen from their face, and it was exactly why it was fun.

"...anyways, I have talked too much. You two, do you want to join?" Zoan asked towards a pair of siblings who were hearing their conversation. It appears that Priest Fuzor had been famous for a while for inviting people to introduce new card games. The siblings agreed, and thus the four strangers played a game.

--- --- ---

The result? It was a total loss... for both Fuzor and the nomad. The siblings had often emptied their hands without dropping down any cards dead, and while Zoan was able to minimize the damage, even he could not get constant empty score! At least it wasn't him who 'lost', because the 'true loser' is the one who reaches 100 points first, and that simply happened to be Fuzor.

"Man... You two sure are pros at this..." Zoan admitted. The score was 16-16-77-104. For anyone who have played the game, they would know that -while it is not impossible- winning with less than 20 points is amazingly and extremely difficult. On top of that, they tied too? It was unbelievable!

"Weeell, it was not about luck only though. You read your opponents move as well, and we had even joined forces to let someone drop their card dead, right Shiro?"
"Nii... You're so mean..."
"Well... It was a good game nevertheless," Zoan said with a big smile. "I have to go now though. The sun is about to set after all."
Fuzor then thanked the nomad and the latter went back to the Adventurer's Guild before sunset.

@Naraku

 

"Mmm, rather interesting.", Gaap said but then found himself in a plight or so he wanted to say as he wondered about how he should judge this quest.

"Partially solved? None of you won after all... Mmmm, well, I guess partially solved should do since you presented to him an amazing game as he says in his quest!... wait, it never was said you needed to win to get the reward. Oh, so the point was only to bring a good game of cards? Nevermind then, it's solved, it's solved!", after saying this, Gaap added a comment while muttering

"I guess he never expected to win any games. At least, it wasn't Yu-**-**..."

"Anyway anyway, before I sidetrack too much, here are your rewards, 4 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points!"

 

You know... You totally forgot about checking the requester's archives for information and then check the Esoteric Sanctuary for confirmation and instead went straight towards the sanctuary...

Half of the job done, half of the reward it is, 15 Large Copper and 4 Guild Points for you.

Take care Elaine-san, be more careful when reading the quest directives next time~

((Tepes household... Scalert Evernight... Defeated by a Shrine Maiden... Those touhou references...

Oh well oh well~))

 

Yet another curse? Good grief... I hope you went to the church already...

Well, good job clearing it, I'm sure Grom will be happy with the result~

The rewards will be of 100 Large Copper Coins to split as you see fit, as well as 6 Guild Points for each. You can take the ears to Lakeside Village later to get the bounty reward I suppose~

Take care now~

(( @Unreachable Hope @TiggerBane ))
((Ah, and you don't really need to write about taking them there I guess, you can just add the money to your inventory~))