In a march of adventure the team disembarked The Ember into the small hamlet village.
Twill followed by Filbert, Jim and Burnie with Paxx hovering on his broom quickly began to assess the town.
Filbert tapped Twill on the shoulder whilst keeping his eyes scanning the small one story rooftops.
“Where are the dock hands?” He asked.
“I know, odd right. Something happened here for sure, you can feel the depression in the air.” Twill said as he motioned to some of the individuals of the town.
Jim followed his team mates, keeping one hand on his hammer as they walked towards the centre of the town square.
“Burnie, is this normal for smaller villages? It seems really quiet.” Jim asked the Draconid.
“It’s not unheard of, usually I’d expect it to be this quiet in the borderlands maybe. Not this close to the cities though.” Burnie replied in a grumbling gravel voice.
“You feeling ok after the Alphagull fight by the way? I’ve not had a chance to thank you for the big distraction yet. Awesome ability by the way.” Jim smiled as he remembered the power of the Dragon transformation.
Burnie let out a smouldering laugh.
“Ah it’s all good, I need to use that ability more anyway. Level’d it up, so I should be saying thanks to you too.”
The team gathered into a circle in the town square, facing each other.
“Ok, Paxx go grab some potions, looks like there’s a store over there, Fil you ok to go with him? I don’t want us splittin’ up or going anywhere alone from now onwards.” Twill asked, keeping his eyes ready on the surrounding buildings.
“Can do boss man.” Paxx replied, Filbert nodding in agreement.
“Burns, Jim, we’re going to try and find a ride to Dulcey.” Twill pointed to the town entrance, a pair of janky looking gates were open leading to a wide gravel path through distant fields. “It should be due East, about a day’s walk, half of that if we can find transport.”
Twill, Burnie and Jim approached the gates of the town, again no guards or welcome party were in sight. A brick small outhouse stood just beyond the exit of the town with a grey haired figure sat in a rocking chair.
“Twill, shall we ask this fella?” Jim motioned towards the man.
“I’ll handle this. You two stay put.” Twill said, marching towards the man.
“Good Day fine sir! May I borrow a minute of your time?” He said in a loud, friendly voice.
“Sooo, Burnie. A druid that can turn into a 30 foot dragon. How did you get that ability?” Jim said awkwardly, tapping his foot anxiously.
“Draconid racial ability.” Burnie said, not turning his eyes from Twill and the man conversing.
“Cool, cool, cool.” Jim paused in silence.
“There is nothing cool about it, lots of fire involved.”
“No, cool is.. You know, a term of approval.”
“I don’t use slang words.” Burnie said with a small plume of ash expelling from his snout.
“I think you could pull them off.” Jim said, tapping the top of his hammer with his nail.
“Not really my thing, I’m more to the point. If you hadn’t noticed.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re not the best person to work on my Charisma stat with.”
“Actually, I’ll be the best person to train with. You gain more levels by pushing yourself, gaining experience from challenging feats. Not today though.” Burnie turned towards Twill, showing a slight impatience.
“Great! I’ll hold you to that, you’ll end up liking me eventually.” Jim said with a smile.
“You know I don’t dislike you?” Burnie replied quickly.
“What are you like with people you dislike?” Jim asked incredulously.
“Lots of fire involved.” Burnie gave Jim a small wink. “Looks like we have a ride.” He said, motioning his head towards Twill as he approached the pair.
“Good news lads, we have a Centitour being brought round.” Twill said.
Burnie let out a discomforting groan. “Oh by the gods, not one of those.”
“Don’t be like that Burns, I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Twill said as he jabbed a fist into the Draconids arm.
“I hate those things, too many legs.”
“What’s a Centitour?” Jim asked.
“Top half human, bottom half big bug with a load of legs. Used for transporting groups.” Burnie said with an air of disgust. “Gross things, make this awful tapping and scurrying sound.”
Burnie shivered his shoulders.
“You’ll be fine, just read a book or something, you have that old druid tablet to decipher right?” Twill asked.
“True, but I get travel sick If i read.” Burnie quickly said.
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“No way, me too!” Jim said. “Look at us with something in common.”
Appearing from the gates of the town Paxx and Filbert moved towards the group.
“Get the stuff lads?” Twill shouted towards the pair.
Paxx swooped around the team, back atop his flying broom. “Well, that was a largely fruitless trip. The Scions stripped this place clean.”
Burnie immediately became agitated, gripping his staff tightly.
“Scions were here?”
“A few days ago according to the shopkeeper. Took most of the townsfolk for a cleansing excursion, sounds like they were getting a little free willed.” Filbert said, handing out a health, mana and stamina potion to the rest of the team.
“Virgin sacrifice and deflowering ceremonies.” Paxx said as he spun his wand between his fingers.
“Paxx, come on now, calm yourself down.” Twill said, pushing the floating gnome.
Filbert shook his head at the group, “Believe it or not… he’s serious. Apparently in the last few months most of the town went rampant. Started worshipping a god of fertility and things quickly got out of hand.”
“Like one of those cults in the cities?” Twill said.
“Not exactly, they’re more clubs than cults. More physical activity based than sacrificial murder. A good time though if you go in with an open mind.” Paxx said as he stared into fond reminiscence.
“Are all gnomes as promiscuous as you?” Burnie asked, looking down at Paxx.
“There’s no one like me, dragon boy.” Pass said with a flip of his hair.
“Our rides here!” Twill shouted.
A muffled chattering and galloping slowly built from within the forest behind the small brick shack. Birds scattering into the air from the undergrowth as the sound grew closer and closer to the team.
The Centitour broke through the edge of the forest, its upper half reminiscent of a Sumo wrestler and the lower half a long leathery body with 10 legs on each side. It slid in a serpentine pattern toward the team with fluid grace and surprising speed.
The stomping legs vibrated the ground as the creature snaked towards the shack, leaving a plume of grass and dust floating in the air behind it. It stopped to talk to the man in the rocking chair, taking a bag of coins and tucking it into a satchel around its waist and making its way to Twill and the team.
“You go to Dulcey?” The half human, half bug creature spoke in a thick Eastern European accent.
“We do indeed find Sir!” Twill said with gravitas.
“Ok, you keep weapons drawn on road. Road is dangerous.” The Centituar said.
“Of course, what name may we call you sir?” Twill asked, nodding his head slightly.
“Olovorskiniki.” The creature replied.
“That you for you service Oloborskiniki, it’s very much appreciated.” Twill said.
“Yes, yes, very nice, nicey nicey. Now get on.” The creature turned to be parallel with the team.
Between each pair of insect-like legs sat black leather saddles. Each had spurs and a small handle.
“I won’t fit in that. I’ll walk.” Stated Burnie as Jim and the rest of the team hoisted themselves onto the saddles.
“Plus, I’m too tall, my feet will hit the floor” Burnie continued.
Olovorskiniki turned his head to Burnie as a pair of his legs began to vibrate. The section of body where Burnie was standing began to stretch with a crack of ribs and a stitching sound of scales, making the gap between rows bigger. At the same time all ten pairs of the creature's legs extended longer, pushing its body higher and away from the floor as its limbs cracked. “Tis no problem.” Olovorskiniki gestured with one of his hands for Burnie to take a seat.
“Get on Burns.” Twill waved a hand for Burnie to get on board.
“Eugh, fine.” Burnie cautiously dragged himself up on to the creature, one leg at a time trying not to touch its insect legs.
“He’s got a bit of an insect phobia.” Twill whispered to Olovorskiniki.
“No problem, common thing. I’m no bothered by.” The creature shrugged off the issue without fault.
“All aboard?” Olovorskiniki asked loudly to the team.
With little time to react the creature took off at a running pace. It’s stomping legs charging rhythmically in motion.
“Weapons out lads, let’s review the strategyyyy!” Twill said his voice running off as the Centitour leapt over a fallen tree.
“We get to the town, scope out the locals. Remember, if it is a Skinwreaker it’ll probably already have a small influence on the main town. So only Filbert is going into the actual town.” Twill said loudly as he flipped around from the front saddle to face the team directly.
“Paxx, you’ll be keeping a lookout at the top of the tree line, see if you can see any suspicious behaviour. Jim and Burnie set up camp in the forest at the edge of the town with Me.” Twill looked to the team and saw a sea of thumbs up and nods.
“Good, now fighting this thing. We’re going with Paxx’s plan as the main strategy. Paxx, go ahead.” Twill opened a hand to Paxx, his queue to take the lead.
With a flair of magical agility Paxx pushed himself up from the saddle, standing on the seat seemingly unaffected by the bouncing and winding motion of the Centitour. With a bouncing and dramatic pronunciation, he took his stage.
“Yah, so, as we heard in the previous planning session the Skinwreaker is a poison and psychosis speciality creature. It has an affinity to demonic magic and it is weak to holy and water elemental schools of magic. It’s about average for physical strength, very stealthy though. It can shape-shift, but only into its most recent sacrifice to its demon.”
He paused, taking a deep breath.
“When we do find the Skinwreaker, it will have a den with a sacrificial table connected to its demon. If we can sever the connection to the demon, the Skinwreaker will lose most of its abilities, becoming in essence a zombified husk. Chop off the head and then we collect the bounty. SO, Burnie and I will use our water spells to draw the creature away from the table. Twill and Jim will destroy the table with Filbert providing ranged cover for distraction purposes.”
“Will the table be magically protected?” Jim asked, his voice bumping in pitch as the Centitour galloped.
“Yes, it will. Hence I give you this young Jim.” Paxx said, throwing a scroll into the air towards Jim.
Jim frantically grabbed the scroll from the air.
“Are you mad, what If I dropped it?” Jim yelled.
“But you didn’t!” Paxx smiled.
“What is it?” Jim said.
“That is your first Runic Ritual!”
“Why are you making me the key to killing this thing, with something I’ve never used before?” Jim asked confusingly.
“Well, Twill can use it too, but you should have a go. It’ll go a long way to helping you start using magic, anddddd you'll get much better rewards doing things in the field. It was Twill’s idea.” Paxx said, pointed to Twill.
“You’ll be fine! Easy enough to activate, and apparently you’re a natural with magical items!” Twill shouted from the front of the saddles.
“Finee, I only have one grenade left if this all goes tits up again by the way.” Jim said as he frustratingly stuffed the scroll down his shirt.
“No need for that, Paxx, the backup plan please.” Twill announced.
“Yas, so if that fails, we’ll be using a combination of capture magic and brute force to take the creature alive. This however is risky. If the worst happens and the Demon controlling the Skinwreaker intervenes then we go to plan three. Plan three is to set the cave on fire, Burnie that’s all you, and we run for it. If the creature follows us out of the den then it should be far enough away from the sacrificial table that it can’t open a portal for its demon and we can default back to plan 2. Got it?” Paxx said with a clap of his hand.
A round of agreeing nods and thumbs up were aired by the team.
“Good, now weapons out for our friend Olovorskiniki here. How long out are we fella?” Twill asked, leaning towards the head of the Centitour.
“4 hours, ish.” The creature replied.
“Paxx, tell me how this scroll thing works then?” Jim shouted over to the gnome.