Edit by: Flubbykin, tommyjl7
You have successfully finished quest [Watcheye Castle Siege]You have finished optional mission [Infiltration of Watcheye Castle]- Secondary quest [Opening gates] - Completed
- Stealth - Failed - You have been detected
Calculating Rewards:Exp750 [500 + 250 + 0]Gold00g00s00cSpoils of War:3 bags of supplies
You have been detected? WHEN!?
Details of quest: [Infiltration of Watcheye CastleSecondary quest - [Opening Gate]CompletedStealth:Completing quest without being detectedFailedYou have been spotted by [Malcolm Steelfist]Alarm has been raisedRewardsExp250 [250 + 0]
You must be kidding me!
Maybe I shouldn’t complain? In the end it counted blowing out a hole in the wall as [Opening gate]? Tch, still disappointed. Lately I don’t have as many possibilities to obtain exp as I would like to, so every bonus I can obtain is desirable.
And there is one more problem I have to deal with
- “I am sooo fired up!...” Gisele yelled as we were heading toward the bald mountain via a narrow valley passage “… Damn! We decided to help em’ cuz I wanted to distress myself! Yet now I am even more stressed than before!”
- “Didn’t you brutally murder a dozen of people?” I sarcastically asked
- “That makes me sound like a bad person!”
- “Taking into consideration that you destress yourself by killing human beings?”
- “They were bandits, not human, in the moment someone put bounties on their heads they stopped being humans, and became targets instead.”
- “Really? What if someone was wrongly accused?”
- “That would be a political matter, I don’t take politic-related quests. Only bandits, and you can clearly tell if someone is a bandit or not.”
- “How?”
- “Oh, plenty of ways! But mostly? – they would attack you first.”
If someone was being chased by bounty hunters, he would try to defend himself right away… yet I hadn’t the heart to inform Gis about it.
- “Anyway, are we there yet?” she asked for the eighth time in an hour.
- “We would arrive by tomorrow afternoon...” Lanele answered for the eighth time “… and it will not change, no matter how many times you ask.”
She smiled. Lana, just like most of the elves, considered caring for time to be cute. Well, for them, time wasn’t as valuable as for other races.
- “I need an enemy, and I need it now!”
In that moment the bushes at the side of the road shook a little.
- “A FOE!” dragoness yelled. In a split of the second she brought her sword off her back and slashed from above “… what kind of vicious beast did perish from my blade this time?!”
She boasted proudly. Yet, as she parted branches of the bush, all we saw was a single squirrel, that by sheer luck avoided the powerful slash, right now it was shaking from terror on the verge of death by heart attack.
- “May the bards forever sing the song of brave Gisele, the fearless vanquisher of rodents. All hail her good name.” I said with a serious tone.
Lana trying to stop laughing picked the poor animal from the ground, and brought it close to her chest as she started patting its head.
- “There, there, you are safe now, aunty Lana will keep you away from the big, bad dragon.”
- “I could have sworn it was a cave bear…” Gis pouted quietly
I only raised my brow. A cave bear, while standing on its rear legs, could be easily over three meters tall, while the bush didn’t even reach our knees.
- “Anyway, are we there yet?” she asked, probably trying to change the subject of conversation.
As we kept walking, the weather was slowly changing. The cold wind was blowing at our backs, pleasantly removing our fatigue and making our little hiking trip much more enjoyable.
- “Weird.” I whispered to myself
- “What’s weird?” priestess and warrioress asked in unison.
- “There are moments when I could have sworn that the air around us have a little magic, yet the sensation is so fragile and soft that I can’t tell for sure.”
- “The mountain is the place where Sabbaths gather. Indeed, the mountain itself is so filled with magic that it actually affects the environment around it and actually has a mind of its own. You see the closer to the mountain we are, the more it would attract us. It senses that we wish to partake in the ritual, if we would wish it any harm, it would repel us, if we would be just wandering, it would make us avoid the mountain.”
- “Wouldn’t that make it a perfect hideout for rogue magicians that wishes to avoid responsibility for their crimes?”
- “Nope. Not at all. The power isn’t absolute nor stable, still, it is most powerful during days of rituals. Someone more persistent could easily find a way in.”
- “So, it is almost as if…”
- “The mountain is welcoming us. Indeed, it senses our connection to powers of the earth.”
- “I don’t remember having any connection to some mountain.” Gis said, more to herself than as an actual reply
- “Sorry, I was talking about myself and Zari. You are traveling with us, so it ignores you, you could say it does not distinguish you from bags with food.” Priestess showed all of her teeth in a wide small
- “Now you are just making fun of me!”
- “Not necessarily. It’s something I noticed during meditation. You clearly have magic inside of you, I mean, everything has, but it isn’t really different from rocks… If I would have to name it, it would be… dormant?” I elaborated what Lanele just said.
- “It is because of her twin nature, her dragon blood makes her body very rich in mana, yet her human part makes her unable to control it, even to feel and use it. This is why you will never be able to use magic, Gisele.”
- “But makes her valuable for sacrifice rituals…” Indeed, dragon blood, even if dormant, is still a dragon blood. Oil isn’t less valuable just because it wasn’t yet been extracted from underground
- “Whatever, I don’t need it. Magic is good for weak losers that can’t get the job done with their muscles.”
- “Ekhem.” Lanele said
- “Ekhem.” I followed.
- “Ekhem.” Squirrel ended, drawing our attention “… I mean… squir! Squir!... what the hell are squirrels supposed to tell in the first place?”
- “Lanele… Put it on the ground… slowly…” I said looking at the little animal.
Gisele, who already managed to put her meteoric sword away on her back, took off her belt, one of her twin axes. I did the same taking out my blade of embers.
- “Hola! Easy there! I have no ill intentions! I am not harmful kay? I can explain!”
Squirrel yelled with both hands raised in the air in surrendering manner.
Lanele, with very careful movements was bowing down, bringing the animal closer to the ground.
- “We can always kill it and THEN question it, right?”
- “NO YOU CAN’T! I will die if you kill me!”
- “I am afraid that’s the point.” I acceded Gisele’s way of thinking “… furthermore, I never liked squirrels, dogs rules, death to all squirrels.”
- “I AM NOT A SQUIRREL!”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
With a loud
- “See? See?! I am a human!”
From smoke a scantily clothed girl emerged. Green eyes, chestnut hair, improperly big chest and annoying voice. Even more annoying than Aiele’s.
- “Who are you and why shouldn’t we kill you?”
- “WHY SHOULD YOU KILL ME IN FIRST PLACE?!”
- “You sneaked upon us, who knows what your intentions could be.”
- “WHAT!? I never… look, I was heading to the mountain for ritual, but, you know, nature called and I needed to go to the bushes to deal with it… and then that sick woman almost slashed me in half! I used magic on instinct, and only that saved my life!”
- “See? I told ya that something was in the bushes.”
She said magic, not shapeshifting?
- “What kind of spell was that?” I asked
- “Ho-ho-ho! So you noticed? You saw my genius? It’s a spell of my own design! Up until now the spell was known only in fairy tales, yet thanks to hours of studying, hard work, my genius and beauty…”
- “I don’t have time for that, end with 20 words or less.”
- “How could you be such an insensitive brute without releasing…”
- “You have ten words left before I cut your tongue off…”
- “Polymorph. It was polymorph spell.”
Now, that was impressive. Forcibly changing someone’s nature was hard, usually it was some kind of curse like lycanthropy or inborn ability like mimics have. Spells that witches used to turn their enemies into toads or sheeps existed only in stories for kids. That girl has to be quite powerful magician. At least within her field.
- “You were heading toward mountain, were you?”
- “Yes, that’s right, the spell is imperfect, so I thought about improving it, you see, it is common knowledge that during rituals, such as three moons, excessive magical power is generated, and that magicians that participate in those rituals often use it for their own purposes, what I meant to do was stabilizing fluctuation of spell structure to…”
- “Twenty words.”
- “Spell. Bad. Me. Mountain. Woosh-Magic. Spell. Good.”
- “And why didn’t you tell us right away your identity?”
- “W-well. To be honest, I am starving. I didn’t take enough food for my journey, so I was forced to eat some wild berries, which upset my stomach, which made me need a bathroom a bit too often, which almost left me dehydrated, because of which I kept losing energy, because of which…”
I swear to god, if she won’t shut the fuck up…
- “… and as I heard that you are going to the mountain too, I thought that you could…. You know, give me a lift.”
- “Farewell. Girls, let’s keep going.” I turned around and made a few steps.
- “Wait! You can’t leave me here! I am exhausted! And starving! Oh, the world is suddenly growing darker…”
She pretended to faint behind our backs, yet none of us stopped.
Exhausted, starving and fainting woman, despite her lack of strength, got up from the ground, ran ahead of us, and repeated the scene few meters ahead. Once again she was ignored. Gisele didn’t even bother to avoid her, stomping on petite girl’s body.
- “BUEH! Why did you do that!? I think you broke my legs! And ribs! And…”
The vein started pulsating rapidly over my head.
- “Gisele, you prefer your stakes rare or well-done?”
I ignited the tip of my hand with fire magic.
- “Usually? Bloody, but right now I really could use some carbonized one….” Gisele wasn’t less angry than myself.
- “He? You will cook some meat? Great! Can I have some? Anyway, what meat will you have?”
- “Squirrel’s”
- “Waa!? No!-no-no-no-no-no!”
Girl was even louder than before.
- “You are hungry, are you?” I asked eventually.
- “Starving, dying, it’s agonizing!”
I tossed her piece of bread. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t do that out of good will, I just thought that she would shut the fuck up while eating.
Oh boy, I was wrong.
- “Phaa! Delicious, truly, you cwan’t tew hoff guff de fuuf iz tif yu ar sarffin’! Fo a movent der I thouf that I wud die! Yu muzd be som hiro!”
She was talking and eating at the same time.
- “Aw! I diwnt ter yu my nam!” God please, suffocate yourself with that food.
- “Marie, shut the fuck up. I dare you, I double fucking dare you, if you won’t stop talking right now, I will cut off your head and shove it in your ass!”
- “I am quiet now! Not even a word! I shall stay silent as spirits of the dead!” she made a movement with her hand as if locking her lips and throwing key away.
- “And you better keep it that way.” I threatened her with finger
We resumed walking. Marie kept walking behind us, unfortunately, as she was heading in same direction it couldn’t be avoided.
- “… By the way, how did you know my name? I am sure that I didn’t tell it to you, yes, I know that I talk a lot, I mean, everyone tells me that: Marie, the speech may be silver, yet the silence is gold; that’s what they say before adding that because of that I would never be rich, but hey, I am talking so much that I could live with that silver better than all those silent folks with all their gold, anyway, I was told it can be quite annoying sometimes… why are you taking your sword out of your sheath? GAAA!”
She yelled as I swung over her head.
Mighty Allah, Sweet Jesus, Wise Odin, Enlightened Buddha, give me patience, for if you would give me strength, I would FUCKING BUTCHER HER SO HARD, THAT SHE WOULD BE REINCARNATED AS MISCARRIED FETUS!
Easy there, easy me, Zari, you are better than that.
- “Still, I would only want to know if…” Marie started again
- “ARE WE THERE YET!?” I yelled
- “No…”
- “FUCK!”
----------------------------------------
Next day, afternoon.
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We reached the top of the mountain. The extraordinary thing was that the peak of the mountain was wide and completely flat, a huge village could fit in there. All around the place some stone altars were raised and all around them a group of witches (and very few wizards) raised campfires and tents.
And in the very center of that, a not-so-small backwoods, almost a small forest, very-very dense. It was so thick, that you almost couldn’t get past it without cutting yourself a path with a machete. Density of magic that was surrounding it was almost suffocating.
- “That’s our destination, the gathering of hierophants. As an elf, I should be allowed in, Zari, you are druid yourself, so you should be allowed in without much troubles, and if we both would vouch for her, Gis should be let in too.”
- “Hmmph-hmm-hmp!”
Marie, which unfortunately was still there, mumbled with efforts. Why did she mumble? Mostly because we silenced her with a gag.
- “Zari, I think we can take it off her face already… Also where did you take it from?”
- “I am not going to tell you.”
- “Ok, it may be better not to know…”
- “Fine, you convinced me. It used to be part of my private collection. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a pervert, it’s a just-in-case-toy.”
- “Just as whip? And that weird, tight, black leather suit you ordered one day?” Gis said in mocking tone “… and no, I will not allow you to use any of those on me!”
- “Ha, all of em’ say no at first. Fret not, lass, you will learn to enjoy it. You won’t have a choice.”
- “Those jokes of yours are not funny at all.” She squinted her eyes angered.
- “Anyway, Gis, wanna play rape-game?”
- “No.”
- “Atta girl, that’s the spirit.”
- “A-Ano, maybe you would consider rescheduling your private matters for some other day? I mean, among the hierophants we should act with respect and dignity.”
Should I tell her that I am actually hierophant myself? Nah, there is no reason to.
- “We will not reschedule anything, for there is nothing to be rescheduled! Also, aren’t you bothered with all the nonsense he says?!” dragoness roared
- “Fetishes, no matter how degenerated, humiliating or disgusting are a form of love, and thus should be respected. Just please, keep it away from society, you could sicken some people, such as myself.”
- “I HAVE NO FETISH, ZARI, TELL HER?!”
- “Speaking about the whip, do you remember when Marika went into our room as we were…”
- “LANELE! No such thing happened! You have to believe me!”
- “I told you, no matter how demoralizing your activities are, as long as you are keeping them within four walls, one should not judge them.” She said with smile, yet her whole body and voice’s tone said clearly what she thought about it
- “MPH-MHH!” Marie reminded about herself
Eventually, she was allowed to speak.
- “Phaa! Finally! What I wanted to ask: what about me?”
- “Pardon?”
- “You said you would enter that lil’ forest out there, what about me?”
- “Why should we care?”
- “Come on! You are letting me in too, right?! RIGHT?!”
- “No.”
- “YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME HERE! You saved my life, which means you are responsible for me!”
We approached the woods.
- “Halt. What thou wish from these woods, travelers.”
I didn’t even sense the creature that asked. It was a female (another fucking one), almost completely naked, dressed in loincloth. Her body was green and brown, almost completely blurring with scenery around. Dryad?
- “Greetings, keeper of the wild, we came to beg for permission to step into thy woods.”
- “What is the purpose of thy travel?”
- “Greeting the ancient and praising the Mother.”
Dryad gazed over me, Lana, Gis and Marie.
- “The two ladies behind you?”
- “Gisele, daughter of dragon, if you would allow, oh keeper, we wish to bring her in as mere observer of ancients rites. We vow that she will not harm those within the woods, nor offend the gods.”
- “The other one?”
- “A parasite that wish not to leave us. Please, by any means, don’t let her come with us.”
- “THAT WAS CRUEL! We share the bond of fate, how could you toss me aside as overused panties that no one wish to touch!? Cruel!”
- “Gisele, the daughter of dragon, you have my permission to see the ancient one.”
- “Me? What about me?” non-stop-talking witch yelled.
- “Try upsetting the spirits of forest, and thou shall know their wrath.” Dryad threatened
- “…Which means?”
- “Try entering and I would feed your insides to the pigs.” Dryad right away lost her formal tone.
- “Kyaa!”
- “Of course, hierophant does not require permission to enter, step in, the father of rot, the ancient one expects you.”
- “Really?” I raised my brow
- “Nah, not really, at least not for you in person, it’s just a tradition that they can’t start conclave earlier, until all sits by the stone table would be occupied, only your spot is left.”
Once again she said informally.
- “Ha? Father of rot? Hierophant?” Lana was confused.
- “In you go.” dryad, with gesture of her hand, created a path in the woods.
- “You aren’t leaving me here, right? It was just a joke, right?! Come on! Now as I know that you could see the inner circle, there is no way I would be satisfied with regular sabath! Oi! Come on! Let me in! LEMME IIIIN!”
Her screams were dying being us, silenced by dense, thick woods.