The morning city streets of Gauntlet had long since been cleaned and cleared after the Yestar Tournament. Loud neighbourhoods with clanking gear had been replaced with the natural sounds of leather on stonework roads. Hawkers shouting about their wares and conversations about mundane life was a welcoming soundscape when compared to the dangers of the outside.
But the outside always sent invitations.
Amalia wanted to stretch her legs after being cooped up for so long in her forge, and her most recent quest required her to deal with some monster trouble in the direction the group was heading anyway. Reaching level 18, Amalia was well-equipped to protect herself. Being a smith had its benefits, similar to Logan’s Trinket Craft, the Guardian was wielding almost all Pristine gear.
The convenience went both ways, however, as the couple exchanged items regularly. Logan kept a few prized possessions on hand to deal with certain situations, while Amalia revelled in magic ability.
Many villagers in the streets titled their heads to the party, gave a passing wave or even greeted Logan by his common moniker of Phasing Hunter.
Logan made sure to return most pleasantries, but he didn’t want to stop and chat with everyone coming to him.
Eventually, the trio arrived at the Gerro Guardhouse. The stonework walls had seen a new lick of paint, and even a new guard out front who sat comfy in a chair.
“Logan”, the guard greeted lazily, tilting his head.
Opening the door to the interior, Logan, Marcus, and Amalia entered the familiar entrance of the guardhouse. A rarer sight was two hunters overlooking the board’s quests, that spot was mostly warmed by Logan’s feet.
Jirango had been pacing, the floor’s dust having been beaten away by several boot lifts, and a sweat had formed across the older gentleman’s forehead. He quickly wiped it away with his sleeve as he closed shut a book in his hand, moving it to his side as he took a puff on his minty pipe.
Exhaling a faint green smoke, Jirango spoke, “Good. You lot are here. There are some bad tidings I have to hand off to you.”
Jirango looked a bit tired, though he always did. The white dots across his forehead glistened slightly against the light of his table lanterns. His shirt had been newly cleaned and pressed, as well as his hair neatly brushed back to reveal the lighter highlights of age creeping up on the man. He was prim and proper, the clothing looking almost constricting.
LotS - Chapter 183 - Jirango LOW RES [https://i.postimg.cc/xYBd6fN5/Lot-S-Chapter-183-Jirango-LOW-RES.jpg]
“A heavy week?” Logan asked.
Jirango cleared his throat, “You could say that. A city full of adventures calls for many wandering hands. Sadly, not all those that are severed deserve it, and some plant the blame you see”, he took another puff from his pipe before continuing, “I’m getting sidetracked though. A possibly big-paying job just came in, and I am aware of some minor time constraints on the bonus.”
Logan already knew the basics from his System quest, but knowing the background was valuable too. The Spellthief nodded as if to motion Jirango to continue.
Jirango pulled on his collar to loosen it slightly, “Below curse these meetings”, he said under his breath, “Right. A reputable and large guild has approached us with a bounty put on one of their members. While I cannot use the truth magic at hand to be certain I am rather confident in their trustworthiness.”
“They’re stronger than level 10 then”, Logan calculated in his head.
“They wish to stay anonymous, and I am willing to accept that. The details are as follows: Four days ago, a man by the name of Drustan stole a sizeable number of artefacts from his now-ex-guild. Eleven in total, the worth of this haul is immense, though hard to track as one such artefact makes it impossible for most magi under rank 30 to do so.”
“That would be useful to have for myself.”
“Gauntlet was still full to the brim of adventurers from the Yestar Tournament, so Drustan found an easy theft and escape window. The guildies only found out they had been robbed the day after, and on asking the mages they knew for scrying found that they could not find a trace.”
“You want my tracking abilities, then.”
“Partly. Drustan is a Devout, and you have experience in dealing with that class. Also, he lost his brother in a dungeon raid that occurred at the end of the tournament. Either due to heightened confidence from the matches or wanting to blow off steam, the raid went awry. Drustan’s brother, Ratbert, was a talented Fighter. Sadly his death was followed by complete evisceration.”
“No parts means no revival”, Marcus explained.
“Mostly true. There are… methods. But you can’t commonly request them at a church. And certainly not for anything less than 10 platinum coins.”
“The last payment for a whole body is 640 gold, no doubt it’d be over a thousand for parts”, Logan replied.
“Drustan was understandably distraught. But instead of moving on in his grief, he couldn’t accept it as truth. His guild members told me he tried to convince them to find a way to bring back Ratbert, but they didn’t believe it was within their power. He pushed and pushed, and seemingly had enough of the answer ‘no’.”
“Where do the artefacts come into this?”
“From his ramblings, it seemed that Drustan theorised an item-ritual could bring back Ratbert’s soul and place it within a new vestige.”
Marcus’s eyes went wide at the idea, obviously intriguing the Devout.
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“He needed a lot of power, and as you know artefacts have plenty. He took eleven artefacts, one of which is blocking scrying, and plans to use them as fuel for a ritual of revival. We have been tasked with apprehending Drustan. The prize is 100 gold. If you can, bring in the artefacts and you will be allowed to keep two from a list of seven.”
“What was his rank?” Logan asked quickly.
“His last assessment for the tournament put him at 23, though he is more likely 24 after the dungeon. Or at least what parts of the dungeon they did clear.”
“Only 100 gold for a rank 24 that has ten artefacts that would aid him in a fight?”
Jirango took a long drag from his pipe, “Exactly my concern, and another reason why I asked for you personally. I told the guild it would not be easy to find hunters who’d take this on for such low pay, not everyone could bring back the artefacts in hopes of being awarded two of them. I hoped our amicable relationship would steer this to an acceptance.”
“Any information on the artefacts?”
“Yes”, Jirango started before smoking again, “But that is secret until you accept the hunt.”
Logan tutted, “I can understand why.”
“Seems risky for the reward. The artefacts better be worth it”, Marcus added.
“You want Drustan alive, I take it?” Amalia asked.
“Yes… Amalia was it? I heard about you from Logan. There’s half pay if Drustan is killed, the artefacts are a bonus for the additional objective of returning all the artefacts.”
“Hunting contracts aren’t typically to kill unless the target is a known recurring traitor”, Logan explained as he turned his head to Amalia.
“What is the timeframe? Do we know anything about this ritual?” Marcus asked.
Jirango placed his book on the table, making quite a thud, and pulled up a piece of parchment. “From what the guild members could sus out, you have a remaining two weeks or so before the ritual has been undergone. A spell of this magnitude often takes months, if not a year or more for an individual. Though, with it being an item-ritual, that schedule is much more… hastened.”
Logan looked over to both Marcus and Amalia, “Item-rituals are what they sound like. Sacrifice materials while chanting and focusing on a spell. It’s one of the most ‘money expensive’ ritual types.”
Amalia raised her eyebrow.
“Self-sacrifice and living-sacrifice are prices you don’t want to pay”, Logan explained with a sorrowful look. “Did Drustan mention a component-ritual at all? Or any other form?”
Jirango shook his head and breathed green smoke, “Revival is a timely endeavour. Almost no one has come back a week after death, and reaching close to three weeks on this timeline is going to push that to limits I’ve not heard of in my lifetime.”
“The quest only has 14 days left, so we are looking at a 2-week deadline to be sure”, Logan thought to himself.
“So. 14 days to bring back Drustan alive with all the artefacts, of which there are eleven with one being an anti-scrying item. For 100 gold and 2 artefacts”, Marcus condensed.
Jirango nodded. The “big” part of the pay was the artefacts.
Logan motioned the other two to follow him nearer the walls to converse, it wasn’t too long before they reached a verdict, returning to Jirango rather quickly.
“We’ll take the job. Please sign Amalia up as a hunter and give us the contract details”, Logan answered.
The sign-up process for Amalia was quite fast considering, it gave Logan just enough time to read over the details.
The artefacts were indeed strong. One could replicate a maxed-out Dimensional Jaunt every hour, another increased your sight so much you could see off of reflections from reflections with such clarity to the point your sight was almost endless, while one could be used once a month to grant a person sustenance and sleep for a whole month.
“This one would make ritual casting almost no issue”, Logan mentioned as he pointed out the last one.
“You can see why that is one they won’t offer up”, Marcus added.
“Something that’s been a bit of a bidding war, recently”, Jirango mumbled before approaching the trio from behind his desk.
“Oh?”
“The MT offered ten platinum last I heard.”
Logan felt the air run away from his throat to the auction house, lurching a bit, “That’s just a bit of coin”, he said in a strained voice.
“And they can’t afford more than a hundred gold”, Marcus said offhandedly.
“They haven’t sold it yet. The monarchy was offering money up too. Another week or two and the whole guild could have retired their whole families for a dozen generations.”
Logan rubbed his neck, “I suppose the pay really comes out of the artefacts themselves. Without those, no platinum.”
Jirango tapped the back of his pipe into a small dish before leaning it on its lip. “So… do you think you can find him?”
“These notes say he headed into the forests from guard accounts. North-west”, Marcus explained.
“My tracking abilities might take a while, but if we can find a print, we’ll be sitting pretty”, Logan settled.
“That’ll sort one of my worries, at least.”
“We’ll try and be quick about things, Jirango”, Logan offered.
The half-hand gave a nod to the party before they left the guardhouse. It felt empty without a floor full of unconscious bandits.
Logan’s map updated with one of the largest circles to date, a huge area to search for Drustan but severely smaller than the area anyone else had.
The team reaffirmed their equipment and potions for the mission ahead, Amalia doubly so as her quest was close to the area the party were going to investigate. It was going to be a few days of forested investigation, immersing themselves amongst the flora and fauna would have been a nice trip if not for the monsters lying in wait.
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A wave of rushing wind jingled all the glass bottles amongst the shelves of Ahren’s apothecary. Logan appeared without issue, while Ahren jumped a bit in his seat.
“There’s a door, you know?”
“I gotta make sure your heart is still working”, Logan teased.
Ahren put away the book he was reading and sat up in his chair, “Sure”, he replied with an exasperated tone, “What can I do for you?”
“I was coming to pick up those two regenerations vials I ordered?” Logan answered as he picked out three vials of the troll's blood he had harvested.
Ahren nodded, “That I do”. After a bit of fumbling under his counter, the Irishman picked out two wide-bottom alembics and handed them to Logan.
“Thanks. Your payment”, Logan spoke as he traded the three vials for two. “I’ll be leaving the city for a bit again.”
“What’s the System got you doing this time?”
“Hunting down a man who stole some artefacts, hoping to revive his brother.”
Ahren sighed, “Well. Good luck with that endeavour. Any more orders while you're gone?”
“I got a few ideas, here’s a list”, Logan replied as he flipped open a piece of parchment, handing it to Ahren.
Ahren scanned the page for a few seconds before returning with, “Most of these will be fine, just expensive. 200 gold in all.”
Logan picked out two platinum coins and handed them to Ahren, “No issues there.”
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With all the preparation work complete, the trio reformed and teleported into the sky. With their coats and cloth rolling in the winds up high, Logan scanned the region to the northwest, found a nice little pocket amongst the forests, and continued his warping endeavours in the sky.
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