As we hobble our way behind Gult along the main street I see shops of all kinds lining the main thoroughfare. Buildings are made of anything ranging from sturdy stone construction to barely livable thatch huts. Packed together like sardines in a can the houses are wall to wall, not even an inch of space in between them, save for the occasional alley that leads to the next sub street over. The shops themselves fall into five main categories, weapons, armor, food, potions, and other. Other being things like clothing, general goods, and whatever assorted knickknacks are being sold. Smaller sub shops only the size of a single small table are intermittently placed between the entrances to the larger buildings or in front of alleyways.
All buildings on the main street seem to be shops without fail, all marked by a sign hanging over or placed near the door with a symbol showing their type. I can see a few of the larger food buildings also have a second floor and a bed underneath the food symbol, so it may be safe to assume that those are inns. Not much color or personality to this place either, everything is yellow thatch, grey stone, or a faded brown wood. Doors barely fitting their frames look so old they are about to fall out. Not a great first look when you get straight into town, but it seems to get nicer towards the center. The footprint of the buildings starts off at around five by five and slowly moves up to twenty by fifteen as we move further into town.
After about ten minutes of walking down the road at a snail pace we come across a building much larger than the others. Its size is about four of the surrounding buildings put together and unlike other buildings this one has three floors. Made completely out of wood, it somehow seems both newer and better kept that the buildings around it. Hanging over the double doors is a sign showing a bear with a giant sword going through it. I assume this is the hunting guild, lodge, thing.
Gult turns and enters the building, pushing his way through the right door. Following him into the building we end up in the lobby area. The ground floor appears to be a sort of bar, with an open kitchen at the very back separated from the rest of the area by a bar. The rest of the first floor is full of rickety tables and benches. I’d say the total footprint of the building is close to a thousand square foot, maybe a little over. Various walls and pillars partially partition the area, but overall, it seems to be an open floor plan. On the right-hand wall is a staircase going up to the second floor.
Gult turns to check that we are still following and when he sees we are he turns back around then heads for the staircase. Most of the few eyes in the room are on us as we make our way over to the stairs then start the arduous climb. Alex’s leg is really hampering the climb speed, it takes us a full minute to climb the fifteen-foot staircase. Gult to his credit waiting patiently at the top for us to hobble along. I took him for one of those I’m too important to wait types but guess I was wrong. From below I hear someone yelling something loud enough for us to hear it even upstairs.
“Hey someone go tell Shara her boyfriend somehow made it back here alive.”
I’m going to assume they are talking about Alex, who while not in the best of shapes is very much alive. Speaking of his condition, I don’t feel the pit in my stomach from low mana anymore, but it should take a lot longer than this to regenerate. I pull up my stats to check its level.
Health: 650/650
Mana: 2738/2958
Stamina: 563/663
Well would you look at that, it’s almost full again. Maybe the regeneration rate got boosted by my upgrades, but which one? I’ll have to test it later, but maybe I’ll be able to hit Alex’s leg again after the interview is over. Why do I feel like this will be more of an interrogation?
The second floor of the building looks to be a central long hallway, with several doors dotting its length along with smaller hallways that branch off into various other areas. At the very end of the hall is another staircase that goes up to the third floor. Gult continues his silent stride to wherever we are going next. We walk the entire length of the hallway without stopping, and again slowly climb our way up the staircase to the next floor, Gult silently waiting at the top. The third floor has a similar layout to the second floor, with the main difference being that instead of a staircase at the end of the hall it opens up into a small waiting room with a desk next to a well-crafted double door. Behind the desk is a woman who looks to be in her forties, straight dirty blonde hair with green eyes. She’s wearing nothing but a basic brown cloth dress. As we approach, she looks up from her work.
Tally (Human, Level 41 Archivist)
“Oh Mister Gult, has something happened? If you need to speak with Mister Bardin, I’m afraid he’s in a meeting right now” Tally says a bit timidly.
“And I’m afraid I just took the timeslot; my issue has precedence.” Gult says.
He then walks over and throws open the double doors and walks into the room. Almost immediately I can hear some woman screaming from within the room. Followed by a deep voice replying to her.
“What do you mean we can’t do anything?! I’m offering up money and you can’t at least put up a posting to look for him?!”
“I told you Shara, we cannot post a recovery quest for someone we know is dead. It doesn’t matter how much coin you offer. I simply won’t send more hunters to their deaths looking for someone who was torn apart by those savage beasts.”
“Enough, Bardin we need to talk. Some of your hunters reported some concerning sightings outside of town so you and I are going to sort this now before we lose more time.” Gult bellows.
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“But…”
“Shara, that is captain Gult, this meeting is over. I’m afraid this issue demands my full attention. You are free to personally hire anyone you see fit or search for Alex yourself, but I will not be posting such a request on the guild boards.” Bardin says.
“Shara? Shara you're alive!” Alex yells, right in my ear.
“Alex?! By the gods Alex!” Shara yells.
Shara (Foxkin, Level 30 Archer)
As we enter the office I notice two interesting things about this Shara woman. First, she has what look like fox ears on her head that match the color of her blonde hair, blue eyes to match the hair. Second, she is barreling at us even faster than the wolves in the forest were. Before I can react Alex pushes off of me and stumbles towards the arms of his friend. She closes in on him and they crash together, and immediately start making out. He did say something about his girl Shara a while ago, guess they are more than friends. Well beats me getting tackled, and it's another soul to call Alex insane when he tells his story so works for me.
“If you two could please save it, this is my office not your room.” Bardin says.
Bardin is a small stock man with brown hair, green eyes, and a beard going down to his waistline. Hmm, I’m going to bet this Bardin fellow is a dwarf.
Bardin (Dwarf, Level 59 Fire Mage)
Nailed it! I honestly thought the awe of seeing a new magical race would last longer. I guess being a magical plant girl really pulls the pizazz out of it.
“So Gult, to what reason do I owe the honor of a visit to my office?” Bardin asks.
“Your hunters here saw something outside of town. I figured it would be best to get your opinion and worse case, coordinate quickly. You, Alex, tell master Bardin the story you told me and my guardsmen, do not omit a single detail.” Gult says.
Alex, who was busy yammering away with Shara, about jumped when Gult called him out by name. Alex quickly recovered himself and started to tell Bardin and Gult his full story from the beginning. About how they were attacked, how he wandered through the forest. How he wandered into my glade, and his encounter with me. His tale ended with him waking up to find me gone, and me standing over him.
“You're sure its name was Petal, and that it was a ‘Willow Dryad’?” Bardin asks.
“Yes, I’m sure of it. It was trying to keep me for later I know it.” Alex says.
“And what about you miss, did you also see this dryad? He says you found him; did you defeat it? If not, how did you get away?” Bardin asks me.
“When I found Alex it was just him tied up with vines in the middle of the glade. There were also some wolf corpses scattered about, killed by either smashed skulls or repeated stabbing.” I say.
Bardin strokes his beard and contemplates for a second then asks me another question.
“Did you notice anything out of place before you found Alex, any unusual or moving plants?”
“No I didn’t see anything like that, everything seemed normal for a forest until I stumbled across Alex.” I reply.
“Hmm, we have something on our hands. But that kind of behavior is not indicative of a baby dryad.” Bardin says.
“I’m telling you hunt master, it was a dryad. No mistaking it, she was green and controlled the plants.” Alex says.
“Alex while I want to believe you, none of this make sense. In my fifty years as master here I’ve never seen or heard of anything quite like what you just described. Baby dryads are not smart or developed enough to take prisoners, they just tear everything they can get their hands on apart.” Bardin says
“You said it was a willow dryad right? Is that some kind of sub species? Might explain any erroneous behavior.” Gult says.
“No, I’ve never heard of a willow dryad. But the other oddities we can’t ignore are it leaving him there and moving in the first place. Dryads don’t move, they are literally rooted in place by their connections. Break that connection and eventually they die if they can’t reestablish it. There is no way that a dryad could move its person away like that, and even if it did its pod most certainly can’t. This can’t be a dryad, it has to be some other creature.” Bardin says.
“You said the glade contained dead wolves, what were they like? What was the condition of the glade?” Gult asks me.
“The wolves all were either stabbed to death or had their skulls caved in by some blunt weapon. I can’t tell what exact types of weapons. The glade was fairly disturbed, a lot of trampled grass and some foot prints here and there. There was a giant dirt patch in the middle that seemed newer than the mud pits around it.” I say.
“Hmm, we could be dealing with bandits.” Gult says.
“But Alex said he saw a dryad.” Bardin says.
“Yes, he saw a dryad of a never before seen subspecies, one that not only played guessing games with him but also healed him up then left him for dead tied up in the middle of the forest, while doing the impossible by moving away from its location.” Gult says.
“I admit it’s very farfetched, not impossible mind you. But I believe a dryad is the least plausible solution. The problem is now that we have no idea what we are actually dealing with.” Bardin says.
“I’m telling you it was a dryad, it even tied me up with vines for fucks sake.” Alex says.
“Alex baby, you were in bad shape from the ambush. Only the gods know what you saw in that forest, or even what happened after we got separated.” Shara says to Alex, trying to comfort him.
Yes, exactly like I had hoped and planned. Even his own girlfriend thinks he is delusional. I’m going to keep my mouth shut and let this play out.
“I know what I saw! It was” Alex says, only to be interrupted by Gult.
“Enough! Master Bardin has many years on you boy, if it is not a dryad then it is not a dryad. End of discussion. Master Bardin, do you think this is some kind of monster? Or should I start preparing men for bandit control.”
“Honestly I’m at a loss mister Gult. Neither in my years as master of this lodge or training to become master have I ever seen or heard of a situation like this. I will send a message to the headquarters in Rebel Peak requesting information and additional assistance. I would advise also preparing for bandits, I will have scout requests posted on the boards. I know it seems like a lot to prepare for both, but if it’s a monster or bandits capable of making us second guess which it truly is we should be fully prepared. Lest we foolishly fall to one while preparing for the other.” Bardin says.
“I understand, I will take the advisement under consideration. Thank you for your time master Bardin, please contact me as soon as more information is received.” Gult says.
Gult then turns and walks from the room, closing the door behind him. I’m left standing with Shara and Alex, the later now being supported by the former. Good, I won’t have to carry his ass around all day. Bardin speaks up, breaking the silence.
“Well Shara, I stand corrected. Your partner has in fact come back alive despite the odds. You have my congratulations and condolences, because with a leg like that I’m afraid his days as a hunter are over.”
“Actually, miss Nina here has agreed to fix my leg up. So hopefully I’ll be back to it within a week.” Alex says
“I don’t know which soul of your unborn children you traded to her for that but I hope it was worth it. Now, if you are done please leave. I have even more work I have to do now.”
With that Bardin sits back down and starts filling out paperwork. I turn to Alex and Shara who motions me to follow them out of the room. We leave, closing the door behind us, and head back downstairs.