The corridor stretches on and on through the mansion. We arrive at large hefty double doors, a guard on each side, the same pale human look with dead eyes. Natasha motions for them to open the door and they grab a door handle each. Their muscles bulging at the weight of the doors as if they were made of pure metal.

Ahh that explains the walk, looking past the doorway a football field sized ball room opens ahead of us, 50 plus tables are set up scattered around the room, along the sides of the room are countless tables of food and drinks, the middle strip is clear for walking space, or possibly for dancing? It is a party after all.

At the very far end is a large throne of gold and red with a slightly smaller throne to its right-hand side of similar theme, both empty of persons, at least this probably means that we weren't late? Not that we were given a start time… weird, the room has no windows, only colored marble representing where windows should be, the top of the room has enough candles on chandeliers to be a fire hazard.

Hundreds of people mingle around, some eating, others sitting talking to each other, many varying races but humans being the majority. All looking like nobility, absolute superiority in their fields, noses stuck up each other's asses, finding out who gets the biggest sniff.

“Smells like rich ass in here nye!” fuck, reading my thoughts.

“You said it moo!”

Natasha clears her throat and announces us to the room, “By special invite, Champions of Utor, Keeks and LilMoo wan!” wait what.

“Hey Natasha, how did you know our names moo?” She looks at me puzzled and pulls out the invitation.

“It says it right here, Keeks and LilMoo, killers of the Bone Bear that was plaguing Utor, please step inside and find a seat, enjoy yourself, the party should hopefully start soon wan!” I see a glint in her eyes as she steps back, unfocused, in a daze, uncertain.

“FOOB NYEE!” Keeks throws herself towards the nearest table of food to her liking on all 4's. I move forwards to stop her from causing chaos but she's ready to put her life on the line for the best nom’s. I turn back around, and Natasha has her eyes closed, the guards close the door behind me with a thud, I look around quickly, this is the only entry and exit apart from over near the thrones, there’s a small exit, fuck.

My worries exacerbate further when I hear a noise at the door, subtle but one I've heard before, one that haunts my dreams, the sliding of a big solid lock, we aren't getting out of here under our own initiative…

I sigh and re-align myself, striding over to where Keeks is. I miss my new sexy armor, I would feel so much safer right now, going a little more zoomies. Keeks hasn't bothered with a plate, she’s sampling all the food by hand, there's a group of old women next to her, half of them judging her manners and the other half looking like they are ready to sign adoption papers on the spot.

I poke her on the back of the head and she turns around with some kind of sweet pie in her hand, she jumps up and tries to feed it to me, so that she doesn't just smash it into my face I kneel down to her level, it's actually quite good, gooseberry or something, some kind of tart, damn the rich live in style. No wait fuck! “Keeks we are trapped in here, they've locked the doors and there's only that and a small way out that I bet is guarded, it feels like a trap moo!”

She looks at me, then back at the food, horrified, “Do you think they are going to make us pay for the food?!?!” Ahh yes that's the issue, I donk her on the head and she half closes her eyes in contentment, right... bapping is not a punishment.

“No dingus this is a trap, and we might not make it out moo!” she looks at me puzzled, “But… the food's still free right nye?!” I mean she's not wrong, not that this is IRL.

“Well if we die we lose money, does that count, moo?” Realization hits her harder than a well-placed slap.

“Noo we earned that gold! I'll fight to the death!! nye!!” well that may happen regardless of what we want.

“Concerned about a possible trap?” We are approached by a green female lizardfolk with red spots up and down her body, she’s wearing a very revealing red sparkling dress, although not much breasts to show off, that could just be a lizard thing?

“Yes, although my friend is more worried about having to pay for the food, I’m LilMoo and this is Keeks moo” They smile deeply and shake my outstretched hand, they look quick, lithe and their strength stat is definitely above mine with the force I’m getting from them, a pure damage class maybe?

“I’m SunOnAWarmRock, this is 100% a trap, the creepy duke, daughter’s birthday, there's nothing about this I like, but, the more risks you take the better the rewards!”

“That's an interesting name, wait what language are you speaking moo?” They connect the dots as it seems I do.

“I'm from the Korean central region, I was wondering about your names as well, the translator works so well that I thought everyone was region locked in the starter zones, I guess it's too hard to do custom names perfectly though hah, still very cool, at least I still get your racial traits translated well miss moo” She winks and I put my hand against my head shyly, maybe I should get that turned off, it feels so me now though, soon enough I'll be saying it IRL, that's when the embarrassment will really hit.

“Australian Outer Region, recovering from an injury, moo.” They smile understandingly.

“American central region nye!” Keeks jumps up and waves her hand in front of the lizard woman, shaking very vigorously. I bet she's never been beaten up by a lizard woman before, probably on her list. She graciously takes Keek's hand, she must have used a bit of pressure because Keek’s eyes are gleaming looking at her crushed hand, dream come true.

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I check messages and see that it's currently disabled, I look over to the shared stream chat and see that it's also disabled. “Uhh Keeks chat and messages are disabled moo” She shrugs.

“Yeah I know nye” I look at her dumbfounded.

“And you were going to tell me when?!” She looks guiltily at the table next to us.

“After foob...” Fuuucckkkk. SunOnAWarmRock starts laughing at our antics, well at least some of us are having fun, fuck it, shows not started yet at least.

“Can I call you SunRock? It's hard to say the whole thing honestly, hopefully that's not offensive or anything moo?” They nod and motion for me to continue, “Is there somewhere you're seated or if there's other players here with their own table moo?”

“Yeah we've got one at about the center right hand side, managed to keep the nobles off it so far with my very… angry, looking hobgoblin partner, they are hard to miss, bring some food over and we can talk about the quest, seems like a weird one.

They grab a plate and start making their way down tables, playing a balancing game with everything they can get, must be getting for the others too, definitely high dexterity and strength character, or a former waiter, both applicable.

I turn around and Keeks has moved back to the groups of old women, “and that's why the Gnoll matriarchal way is the best, women in power, taking what they want! None of these stupid men to mess everything up!” Like butter in her adorable paws, they never stood a chance.

I pat her on the shoulder and tell her I'll meet her at the table and start gathering supplies, she nods, I think some of the younger women have started taking notes, oops, there goes the neighborhood.

…

Tray in one hand and a mug of some kind of strawberry fruit drink in the other I make my way through the middle area, past countless people talking this and that about accomplishments, trying to one up one another of the effort of their children. Little Timmy knows 5 words and he's only 4 months old, oh absolute tosh, yes little Timmy is definitely going to grow up well-adjusted with you lot, bah!

I easily find where the others are seated, we have a table seated for 6, 3 of the spots are taken up, one the lizard woman, another the hobgoblin, the last, well, a plant? Or someone has left a pot in one of the chairs places, although it's definitely sitting. I didn't even think that was an option to be fair, not that it interests me, gods I wonder how it feels.

Placing my food and drink down, SunRock introduces me to the group, “Everyone this is LilMoo! their friend Keeks should be joining us shortly too, LilMoo this is ChewedBone and Oak, we somehow managed to get onto the same start together!” I don't need hand motions to tell which name belongs to which, going with a very literal path of naming… not that I can really say anything about naming sense at this point.

“Nice to meet you all! Weird quest isn't it! Glad we have other players here to help when things inevitably go wrong though moo!”

Oak speaks up although I can't really see their mouth, a hollow creaking of wood in the wind comes from somewhere internally perhaps “Wee were invited soon after the killing of a mutated creaturre, wass it the same for youu?” Their words string out with endings added randomly, like wind blowing, a behavior of their race maybe?

“Yeah me and Keeks killed one and got the invite on our way back to town, must be some kind of continued questline then? I wonder if this is just another piece or the end of it moo?”

ChewedBone spits some of its food out of its mouth onto the floor, just where a noble man started approaching looking for a fight, they seem to think better of it, ChewedBone ignores them completely “It better be the fucking end I just want out of this shithole town, I want some real action! You can't get above level 10 while we are here, so we are just loading up on exp with nothing to do with it! Can’t even wear all our fucking loot in here, fucking rude after all we've been through!” all the while spitting out more food with every word, am I glad the table is extra-large sized.

SunRock shakes their head, “It must be some kind of skill based quest then, no armor or weapons means that it's up to our base stats or abilities to win whatever is thrown at us!”

Keeks is wandering around with multiple plates balancing above her, she peeks under it every now and then trying to find me, seeing my horns she makes a beeline and throws her plates onto the table, thankfully it's large enough that she only moves it around a bit.

“We talking about all the creepy shit nye?!” She starts making grabbies at her plates, they went too far out of her reach from her throwing them down, when she finally climbs up to her seat I move them back to her, she stands on her seat and reaches over to stuff it in her face.

“Oh yeah, I don't know if you know this but we talked to pop’s in town and he said that the Duke's daughter died like 10 years ago, so no idea how we are having a party for her moo?”

The sound of metal on glass tinks from the throne area of the room interrupting us, The Duke’s Butler is next to the throne hitting an empty wine glass with a small spoon, it reverberates throughout the entire room.

“I feel like we are about to find out, nye!” We all look towards each other in agreement.

And oh we did, how I wish we didn't.