Tacha approached silently the side window of ‘Sally’s Trove’. The thief that had sneaked in was busy going through the counter. Was it searching for money?
Hmph, how dare he rob an innocent and sweet kid? As an outstanding law-abiding citizen, she was determined to teach that rogue a lesson. Quitely like a cat, she vaulted over the windowstill and landed as silently as she could. Unfortunately a few floor planks creaked under the sudden weight.
Seeing the thief halting his movements, Tacha rushed towards him, ready to grab her sword from inventory. She, however, had completely forgotten that her sword had broken down the last time she played, so she changed her swinging motion into a punch.
The thief staggered after being hit straight to the face, and crashed loudly in a pile of canned food not far from the counter. It was too dark for the both of them to see each other’s face, but by hearing the faint cursing of the thief, Tacha could tell that the intruder was a male.
Before either of them could take action, a fleeble light came from upstairs. The thief quickly sprung up on his feet and rushed towards the granny. “Umph” The thief may have thought that he could just charge at her to escape through the window, but she was an experienced old woman. When they were only a few centimeters apart, she lightly sidestepped and tripped him down with one of her legs. Then she used her body to press down on the poor guy on the ground, keeping firm hold over his arm and neck.
Quick footsteps could be heard rushing down and the thief, panicking, squirmed energetically under her. However she was keeping a firm hold on the guy. When the thief stopped moving, she thought that he was finally accepting his fate. But when she relaxed for a bit, the rogue took out a spheric object from thin air and threw it towards the ground. Immediately the surroundings were filled by a white mist that made Tacha cough and cry.
The thief took that moment when the hold was the weakest to break free and rush towards the window, giving the granny a hit in the chest in the process.
In the midst of the tearing gas, Tacha gritted her teeth over her carelessness. The one that was going through the shop was a player all along!
Even after the mist had cleared up, granny Tacha was still unable to stop the tears. There was no way that she could catch that little rat now.
She heard the shy steps coming from the stairs. Then she heard the sound of metal clinking. With difficulty she looked over the source of the noise and could barely make out a small figure illuminated by the lamp that he was holding.
“G-granny!” the kid hugged Tacha with trembling hands. He looked up to her, tears welling up. “I’m scared” Granny Tacha hugged the kid back by reflex. “It’s alright. It’s all right now, granny is here”
She kept giving him pats while waiting for his sobs and her gas-induced tears to stop. When he calmed down he looked up to her a bit hesitantly. “How about you tell me your name?” The kid fidgeted for a bit before spating out his name in a whisper “Kirio…” “Kirio, you were very brave tonight. The thief wouldn’t have run away if not for you showing up”
Kirio clenched his little hands on Tacha’s simple garments. “Granny Tacha… t-this is not the first time…” At those words, the old lady became all ears “Tell me what happened, maybe I can help”
“Me and mommy came together to this village a year ago. We travelled, no, ran away from a land in the far south. M-mommy told me to keep this amulet always with me, that it was very important” He reached from beneath his clothes, and took out a dark grey medallion inlaid with seven opaque citrines and inscripted with three strange symbols.
The first symbol looked like two horizontal hooks connected by a straight line. The second one looked like a bonfire burning a prism, while the last one looked like an overly complicated replay button.
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“Back where we lived there were people that begged mother to look at the amulet with a scary look in their eyes. But mother always refused. When a scary man broke into our house, she decided that we should run far, far away” when Tacha thought that Kirio was going to cry again, he started talking again “A month ago mother said that she had to go the ruins north of the ruined shrine on the hill, I don’t know why, but she said that it was a secret to the other villagers”
Kirio looked at the granny with his big black eyes “Granny, I never dared to ask for help from the villagers, they never looked at us too kindly. But I’m worried about mom” The kid’s tears stabbed the granny’s heart and she couldn’t help but to hug him again. “I’ll go look for your mother. You should stay here and close everything tightly” The little shopkeeper simply nodded.
A Cry for Help!
Kirio, the current shopkeeper of ‘Sally’s Trove’ asked you to help find his mother, whom has not been seen for one month.
He told you that she went to the ruins north of the shrine for some personal matter. Bring her back before it’s too late!
Careful! The locals don’t see with a good eye those who wander near the ruins north west of the village , beyond the Shrine of Beginnings. You might lose relationship and reputation points with the locals if you’re discovered.
Quest rewards: ???, Relationship with Layla and Kirio Kang increased.
Depending on the completion percentage of the quest, your rewards will increase or diminish accordingly.
You have triggered a special quest!
Your actions might determine the life and death of some characters.
Think carefully of what’s the best course of action.
Seeing the quest appear, she was not surprised in the least. She would have been more surprised and suspicios if a quest didn’t appear instead.
However, when she read the quest description she made an ugly face. Lose relationship and reputation points if she’s discovered snooping around about the ruins? Was there some dark secret about this quiet village in those ruins?
Would Molly turn hostile too? And Hans… Well, he hated her anyway. She didn’t really think it would matter if he became even more hostile.
Maybe.
She was actually scared of his shotgun. Giving him one more reason to fill her with holes wasn’t that smart of an idea.
Then, Tacha looked at the quest rewards and became puzzled. Who was Layla? She thought that the kid’s mother was Sally?
But considering that they might have escaped from some terrible place, it was smart of the mother to change her name. But then why didn’t the kid change his name? Did he simply give her his real name because he trusted her?
“Kirio, what’s your mother name?” the little shopkeeper fidgeted for a bit, looking unsure on what to say “It’s… Layla. It should be fine if you tell her that I asked you to search for her”
She felt a bit touched. Kirio was a really good kid.
After taking some extra supplies, Tacha recommended again and again to not open to anyone suspicious before she came back with news. Ruffling his black hair one last time, she left determined to see the quest through.
ᴥᴥᴥ ≈ ° ≈ ᴥᴥᴥ
Frӧst kept on running till he was out of breath. His search… was a total failure!
He didn’t have the time to really go through the stuff in the shop, before he was assaulted by a small individual. At first he thought that the scary kid had discovered him, but when he was pinned down he could feel the dry and wrinkled hands touching his skin.
Maybe it was some kind of old guard NPC seeing how easily he got him pinned on the ground. He had to use the tear bomb that he had crafted as an insurance just to escape from them. It was truly a pity since that was the only one he managed to craft. Frӧst might have tried other methods if only his ability didn’t inform him of the hair-raising danger approaching.
Going there a second time was out of question, now that the kid had been allarmed. He had no class and no combat abilities; he would lose in a straight-up fight with an NPC. He might have had a chance if he were prepared and took them by surprise. But unfortunately the materials that could be found around weren’t enough to make use of the alchemic recipes that he knew of.
Now that one lead was lost, he thought carefully over what he knew of Layla.
She was and NPC that knew, or at least had ties with the ‘Rites of Purification’ that were practiced in Khari’enn, a country south-west from the Leronell kingdom.
When the Night Crunchers started appearing in the central kingdoms, she was one of the few NPCs that offered a way to cure the bugged status effect without travelling all the way to the holy lands of Khari’enn.
Plus, she had a fixation with the ancient ruins of the lost civiliaztion that had fallen a few eras ago. Some of her general quest required to bring back various items from those ruins.
What if she was currently somewhere to explore those? The problem was that he didn’t rembember where they were located around here. It had been a long time since he last came around here.
Moreover the villagers were of no use. In fact, they were particularly aggressive against the players that asked about them. The only exception was the Shrine of Beginning located near here.
It’s as if the two ruins had different meanings for the villagers. But why had no one ever discovered why they hated the ruins so much?
What if there had been a quest to get rid of the secret? A villager might have comissioned a player to destroy said secret, and well. If the reward was entincing enough, the player would have done it for certain.
Like a special item, or a hidden class.