6.04
“See the classic play against a band of Five is to split them up. They can’t use the power of friendship when they are at least 4.916 kilometres away from each other. Believe me, I‘ve tested it.” - The Revenant King
“So what’s the available quests like?” Noam asked the one employee. “Oh! I never asked for your name, mine’s Noam by the way.”
The young man looked at him quizzically, both were fully aware there was a request board, which Tai and Utoqa were perusing at the moment, but Noam wanted some conversation.
“I’m Tignflut. We pay a bounty for every rabbit or cat scalp you return,” the receptionist quickly answered, his voice carrying a somewhat hopeful tone. “There’s also an unknown monster near the centre of the forest.”
“I see that,” Tai replied, biting her thumb as she read the bounties, “who pays to kill rabbits and cats?”
The young man sighed, and answered with the practice of someone well studied in the subject, “Mostly druidic circles, cats and rabbits are harmless to us, but they are devastating for local environments.”
Noam raised an eyebrow, he’s heard of stuff like this in passing, something about invasive species. Not much though, the subject wasn’t worth teaching when all creatures larger than a dog were exclusively found in zoos.
“How so?” he continued, now somewhat intrigued.
“Cats hunt and kill everything,” Tignflut answered. “They over hunt anything about rat sized, leaving other predators with no food.”
“What about rabbits?” Tai asked, “How could those cute things hurt?”
“Because nothing here naturally hunts them,” the receptionist sighed, “Winters are strangely warm here in Gestrand, basically meaning they don’t hibernate, so they reproduce all year. They eat everything remotely green, and when they run out of green they eat the trees, ringbarking them and leaving massive parts of the forest barren.”
“What about introducing another predator?” Noam asked.
With a slightly bitter tone the man answered, “The cats were originally brought here to hunt the rabbits, but it was a nocturnal species, so the rabbits are left completely free during the day.”
“I don’t see problem,” Utoqa said as he parted from the board and walked towards them. “The fittest survive.”
Frowning, Tignflut replied, “The creatures in this forest are unique, and are being horrifically over hunted by invasive species and poachers. If they all die, there will be no more left anywhere else.”
Completely unperturbed, Utoqa’s reptilian looked over at the receptionist.
Tignflut tensed somewhat, not knowing what the lizardfolk would do, before he spoke.
“It is one copper for rabbit scalp and three for cat scalp?”
Tignflut looked surprised for a moment, “Umm. Yeah, that’s the bounty of it right now…”
Utoqa nodded, “I will bring scalps,” he said simply, before he turned away, heading for the exit.
Tai glanced at the board again, then shrugged, following behind.
Chuckling, Noam got up from his seat beside the desk, “I thought it was survival of the fittest?”
“It is,” Utoqa answered. “I am fit, and the rabbit and cat is not.”
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The Mercantile Church was a fucking strip mall.
I felt like it said something about the Merchant Goddess, how her ‘temples’ of worship were literally just marketplaces.
My only encounter with a priest of Ethelinda before now was that merchant who harrassed us on the train, which made for a really poor first impression. Though he did turn out to be an Osshiven'Kai cultist in disguise, so I suppose right now was my first real experience.
I’m pretty sure I preferred the cultist.
I left the smiling priest with a supremely regretful expression. In my hand was a fresh vial of Holy Water, known to be especially effective against undead creatures. Continuously I repeated the fact that this was a necessary purchase, a comfort that did not make my purse regain any of its lost weight.
It was unfortunate that the Merchant Church was the only place atheists could get holy consumables. The other churches all required belief, of us, only Johnny probably qualified for.
The Weeping Child might’ve gotten a good laugh if we asked him for Holy Water to use against his servants.
Both mine and Noam’s split of Lake Bayt’s reward were spent on this one vial, so gritting my teeth, I put it inside my cap as I stepped outside the M-Church store.
Quickly I found Celine, well, Yellow found Celine since I was not wasting True Sight on a marketplace. She was clinically inspecting some kind of hard purple fruit, rapping it with her knuckles and listening to the sound the shell made.
Shaking her head, she turned to examine another one, how she was able to determine the quality I could not tell, even with True Sight from my secret. Maybe if I still had Analyse, I might’ve been able to determine it from copying Celine’s actions.
Johnny was by her side, holding onto her hand and half obscured by her cloak. That I figured out pretty quickly after I got the sight. That cloak was some kind of magical item. It was at least able to animate a skeleton, as evidenced by the crow cadaver it used before, and seemed to be distinct from Celine, as in… It wasn’t made by her. They didn’t give off the same feeling.
The cloak helped hold an increasingly large bag of materials. Most of which were paid for by Tai. Thanks to the party fund I didn’t have to worry about running out of potions anytime soon, well, given if Celine had time to brew them into drinkables.
As I neared, I made sure to stomp loudly on the ground, revealing my presence.
“I bought what I wanted,” I said, putting out my hand in a gesture to take the load of materials.
The cloak, Nappy I think it was called, handed me the bags which I quickly stuffed up my cap.
“We’re almost done as well,” Celine answered, “I just need to find better Aafin’s Fruit.”
I nodded, having no idea what the fruit was, but presuming she knew what she was doing. She was the one bright spot in all of this, with her, we could buy the potions literally at material cost.
That meant we could get twice the number of consumables compared to just straight buying the potions. I needed to help Celine set up a store at one point, I could call the potato dude to help with management and making a decent front, maybe check if those geckos were still looking for a job…
I pushed those ideas to the back of my head for the moment, suddenly aware I had turned silent. Nodding to Celine, we went off to explore the rest of the market.
One of the first things I checked was whether or not there was a Church to the Hearth here.
Unfortunately, I knew the answer from my first time here in Bartin, it was a relatively new port city, so the old gods had yet to establish a presence here. Only expansionist religions had churches here. We needed to move further inland to find such a Church.
Strangely, the place seemed a lot more rowdy than last time, the crowds were a lot larger and we were bumping into people significantly more.
“It’s a festival!” Greenie excitedly squeaked.
I raised an eyebrow, and opened my True Sight for a moment, taking a good look of our surroundings.
Following everyone else's gazes, I saw the numerous stalls and festival games that started to dot the streets ahead of us.
Frowning slightly, Celine asked, “Should we head back?”
“Maybe,” I began, before noticing Yellow tugging at my shoulder.
The place it was gesturing to was close enough for my Manavision to make out.
Johnny, staring at a large, toy wooden dragon, one of the rewards displayed by one of the stalls.
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Utoqa walked out of the bush holding three more dead rabbits by the ears.
At this point Noam was just whistling as they walked deeper in. Utoqa alone was doing the brunt of the work, better at tracking and hunting than either of them combined. Tai and Noam rightly assumed that they would be more of a hindrance than help to Utoqa.
After a few more minutes of this, Noam groaned, “Ahh! We have nothing to do!”
“Speak for yourself,” Tai said, looking at a map of the forest that she had borrowed. “Utoqa, have you seen any people tracks yet?”
“No,” he simply answered, stuffing the rabbit corpses into the numerous pouches he was wearing.
He had dozens more dead game in those pouches, Noam realised pretty early on they had more space inside than appeared out. Likely Pouches of Holding.
Biting her thumb, Tai murmured, “We haven’t spotted any poachers… Did you catch anything about the monster the dude talked about?”
Utoqa shook his head, “None.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Should we focus on finding one of the big targets?” Noam asked, bored out of his mind. “We have plenty of dead rabbits. More than we know what to do with.”
“We can eat, skin and make cloth of,” Utoqa said.
“I better get a good rabbit fur scarf out of this then,” Noam muttered.
Suddenly, Utoqa perked his head up. Nose sniffing the air like a predator.
“I smell cooking smoke,” he said, glancing towards a direction further into the forest.
A few moments later, the smell wafted enough that Noam and Tai began to smell it as well.
Silently, they all nodded to each other.
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The dart missed the target by a massive margin, slamming into the space between the targets.
“And that’s a miss!” the stand owner yelled with increasingly annoying cheerfulness. “If you want to try again, that's five more copper!”
If I had eyes they would twitch madly right now, swiftly, I took out the last of my coins before Celine placed her hand on my arm.
“Let me try it,” she said, placing five of her own coppers on the bench.
The owner smiled and gave her three more darts.
Celine raised her first dart, eyes narrowing in concentration.
And threw.
The dart slammed into the edge of the target board, on the outermost ring.
“And that’s a miss!” the owner declared again. “Can this little missy get it on the second?”
Celine breathed in deeply, glancing at Johnny before she took up the second dart.
Steadying herself, she threw the second dart.
It flew true, and landed solidly on the fourth ring from the centre.
“Oh that’s pretty good!” the owner praised, “But can she win it all with the last dart?”
She raised the dart, her very form the epitome of concentration.
And she threw it.
But as she did so, a burly man accidentally bumped into her, knocking off her aim as the dart went completely wild.
“And that’s a miss!” the owner yelled. “Too bad, wanna try again?”
“Oh fuck off,” I said. “This game is rigged.”
“It is not my good shroom-”
I slammed my hand down, “Yes it fucking is, and I can prove it mathematically.”
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Three figures ghosted through the underbrush.
Well, two, as Tai was slightly more noticeable than Noam or Utoqa, but she had the basic idea down.
Regardless, the encampment they happened upon was loud as they celebrated an apparently good catch. Four people, one plucking three dead turkey looking birds with rainbow feathers, the other three roasting some meat over a fire.
“Let’s avoid killing unless necessary for this,” Noam quietly told Utoqa.
The lizardfolk nodded.
Noam raised a hand, three fingers up, one finger went down, then another, and finally…
All three leapt.
Noam reached them first, a fly kick slamming into the head of one of the poachers, knocking her head into the fire.
Utoqa quickly grabbed the second as he was getting up, throwing him by the shoulder into the tree.
A sheathed blade knocked away a weapon as the third raised his weapon, another swing and he was knocked out.
The fourth surrendered when seeing themselves completely outnumbered and outclassed.
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“... and from the observed data of more than thirty attempts, it can be reasonably concluded that there is a less than zero point six percent statistical chance of landing all three darts, not to mention the un-aerodynamic design of the darts, as well as their soft tips…”
I had gathered a crowd at some point, people curiously standing by to watch my loud ravings.
“Thus! There is empirical, undeniable proof that your game is rigged!”
“Security!”
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They dumped the poachers in the guild, knocked out and tied up, before heading back out.
“That was too quick,” Noam said.
“Was easy money though,” Tai smiled, counting the silvers. “Your share, and your share.”
Noam took his money with a grumble. “I was hoping we’d get a better fight or something…”
“There may be,” Utoqa said.
Noam’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
Utoqa nodded, “There was a strange scent on the birds they were hunting, venomous, powerful.”
“Well let’s head there!” Noam cheerfully said.
Tai shrugged, and together followed Utoqa back to the location of the poachers’ camp.
He dropped to the ground, sniffing the air and flicking out his tongue, “I’ve caught the scent again.”
Following behind Utoqa, they went deeper and deeper into the forest.
Slowly until there was a noticeable change, where it was getting very, very quiet.
They all unintentionally tensed at this, given their previous experience, only Utoqa seemed unperturbed as they continued.
They pressed on, eyes wary, and deep into the forest, they began seeing the trees covered in thick white webbing.
Suddenly a loud screech sounded throughout the forest!
Eight massive, malignant red eyes stared down at them from the trees, large enough if dwarfed all of them.
“Oh thank fucking god it’s just a big spider,” Noam breathed out in relief after realising it wasn’t another Accumulation.
In that second, a thick thread of webbing shot out. Noam dodged, but not quick enough, it expanded into a net, and though Utoqa and Tai got out, Noam was ensnared to the ground.
Both immediately drew their weapons, Tai’s sword and Utoqa’s tomahawk, Gift. The lizardfolk immediately moved to free his ally, but the spider jumped down.
Tai leapt out of the way as Utoqa stood his ground, weapon blocking the venomous fangs before they could sink into Noam. Aura shrouded Tai’s blade as she moved to attack.
A powerful slash bit into the spider’s carapace, but it wasn’t enough, Tai didn’t spend enough time charging it up, leaving only a scratch. The spider broke away from Utoqa, backing off, but the lizardfolk swiftly ran up to match it, Gift biting into a leg, but not drawing blood. Two powerful legs slammed into Utoqa away as Tai sheathed her sword and tried to charge up her draw swing.
But the spider kept moving, skittering with unnatural speed for something of its size, Tai couldn’t get a good lock on it, and when another web net was fired she was forced to abort to attack to dodge.
The spider jumped towards her, fangs bared while her sword was still sheathed.
Utoqa jumped down, Gift slamming into the head of the creature, blinding one eye as it writhed, its fangs missing Tai by the barest of margins. Utoqa rode the thing like a demented rodeo, but it slammed its head into a tree, forcing a grunt as Utoqa let go, falling onto the ground.
The spider cried an ear piercing screech, as suddenly skittering sounds were heard all around them. Smaller spiders, each not larger than a hand, began moving to attack.
Noam was still trapped under webbing, his screams muffled, Tai ran to slash him free, but the spider got between them, she parried the fangs with her blade but a swiping leg slammed into her midsection, throwing her off. She slammed into the ground, rolling. The spider went for Noam, fangs biting into the writing mass beneath the net, injecting its venom.
After a solid dose, Noam stopped struggling. The spider rose back up, watching the two remaining fighters. Utoqa warily matching its gaze, Tai holding her midsection with a painful grunt.
“We need to run,” Utoqa said. “We are surrounded.”
More spiders were gathering all around them, ready to pounce at any moment. Neither of them could deal with such a swarm.
“I agree, but should we save-”
Utoqa was already running straight towards the spider, Tai groaned, hoisting herself up by her sword, matching his speed.
The spider ran and met them.
Utoqa dropped and slid right underneath it as Tai matched it with her blade.
Now behind the spider, Utoqa quickly cut open the webbing, freeing the pale looking Noam.
He slung his limp body over his shoulder like a potato sack, turning to see Tai trade blows the spider’s fangs and legs.
As she blocked a leg swing with her blade, the fangs came in from the other side, forcing Tai to block with her arm. The venomous fangs stabbed through leather and sank into her flesh, eliciting a wince before she slammed the pommel of her blade, hard, into the spider’s fangs, breaking one off and causing it to screech as it retreated.
Her arm hung limply, a fang still stuck in there. She tried to pull it out, but found her strength waning.
When Utoqa reached her, he grabbed her and threw her underarm as he ran for it.
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That was a shit show.
I could have probably taken those guards in a straight fight, but I would’ve been insane if I started throwing out my mainly AOE attacks in a massive crowd, and Celine was also too specialised to really do direct fighting, in the end, we grabbed Johnny and ran for the Wayshard, returning back to the forest.
Celine tried to look on the bright side, “At least we got all the ingredients.”
“That’s a bonus,” I agreed, though I noticed the slight disappointment on Johnny’s face. He had wanted that dragon toy, it was unfortunate that most festival stalls were rigged.
I hoped Noam and co to have done better on their end, and waited on a bench in front of the guild.
Before Celine gasped and rose.
I opened my True Sight, just as Yellow and Greenie started telling me what they saw.
Utoqa running with both Noam and Tai limp under his arms.
Bandages were hurriedly tied around Tai’s left arm and Noam’s right shoulder. Rushed, but sensible, Utoqa’s work no doubt. Both of them were affected by venom, I saw through my True Sight. There was a blackness that permeated their bodies.
Celine rushed to them. “Put them down,” she ordered, to which Utoqa quickly obliged.
She began unwrapping the bandages, they were feverish and pale, but weren’t bleeding, which was slightly more worrying given the size of the holes in them.
She sniffed the wound, “Elder Brood Mother venom, it’s strong as well. Dustin, I need the Holo’s White Root, three Testicles of the Hurane Bull, eight newt eyes…”
She rapidly listed off ingredients, which I pulled out of my cap as soon as she spoke them. Celine immediately went to work creating an antivenom, taking out her tools to process them into a fine soft paste.
She spread the paste over their wounds, and took out two dolls, quickly winding a piece of hair from both of them around them.
“Bind the flesh, bind the bone.
Form the link to make like-kind.
So bleed as one, heal as one.
Now one fate, forever twined.”
Finishing her spell to create the sympathetic dolls, she took out a needle and dipped it into the paste, “Dustin, cast your healing shroom.”
I nodded,
“Pain pain go away,
Rain leave for next day,
Now feel the numbness,
Bring Fix-Up-Fungus!”
The shroom sprouted between Tai and Noam, puffing out healing spores and healing over the bite wounds they suffered, just as Celine began quickly stabbing the dolls at specific points.
Both Tai and Noam’s body jerked as fresh, tiny holes appeared in them and healed as healing spores covered them. I quickly realised from the fact she was constantly dipping the needle in more paste, that she was delivering the antivenom through the dolls.
But why? Why didn’t she just deliver it directly?
It was when the paste quickly began to diminish that I realised the answer.
She was injecting more paste than there physically was, because the dolls were smaller, even a small, barely dipped amount of antivenom amounted to a lot relative to the dolls’ bodies, and those translated to Noam and Tai, giving them more doses of the antivenom than we actually had.
Eventually, the paleness and fever faded from their faces, and Celine breathed out a sigh of relief as they were cured.