Commander Bridge approached a pair of large wooden doors and knocked. The wood itself was nothing fancy in appearance, but he knew it to be constructed of the hardest wood of the region, harvested from wyvernthorn trees in the northwestern desert. Either door was bound and braced in woven steel bands that must have been precisely crafted by either an exceptional master blacksmith or a skilled matter manipulator.
He heard a muffled shout from inside that sounded like "come in!"
"Mayor General," Commander Bridge greeted loudly as he entered the office of Mayor General Stanford Clint.
The square office was large by Giantrock City standards, and was one of the few rooms in the city that didn't make the commander feel like the walls were closing in around him. Bookshelves that sparsely held books lined the left and right walls, instead filled with trinkets, trophies and oddities gathered from the region, including various skulls, expensive looking rocks and crystals, and artifacts of previous civilizations. One of the most prominent items on display was a silver-and-bone Orc Chieftain war hammer resting atop a mantel.
Near the center of the room, slightly offset towards the back, was a broad hardwood desk. The front was adorned with carved and painted emblems on either side, the Adventuring Corps emblem on the left and the Emerald Empire emblem on the right. The wall beyond the desk was comprised predominantly of rather extravagant glass-paned double doors, which were swung all the way open to a wide balcony and the open sky beyond. Distant yells, cannon fire and the shrill screams of countless hydra heads could be heard through the doorway. The mayor was leaning against the balcony railing, observing the battle. He turned at the commander's greeting and waved him over.
"I was surprised to hear you'd called," the mayor said as Commander Bridge took a spot on the railing to his left, "I thought you would be preoccupied preparing for battle."
The mayor's office was on one of the highest floors of the massive Giantrock Governmental Complex, situated at the very tip of the jutting rock upon which the city was built. The balcony hung over the edge of the city itself, overlooking the expanse of lake beyond. Only a slight turn of their heads to the right gave them a premium view of the hydra battle, which had begun only moments prior.
"I'm afraid I might be preparing for more battles than the wyvern, Mayor General," the commander said gravely.
The mayor tore his gaze away from the battle to meet the commander's eyes, his face stricken with sudden concern, "what do you mean?"
"You should have received word by now that the source of the aura burst has been located, an ancient construction in the western plains. Several nights ago I entered the structure to investigate. What I found concerns me."
They paused as their attention shifted back to the battle, where a direct hit by a cannonball exploded a hydra head into a shower of shining blue blood, and the Shark Titan's roaring laughing boomed and echoed across the water.
"It's an ancient power," the commander continued, "I wish I could tell you more than that, but even I'm not strong enough to bear its strength. It's buried deep beneath the structure, and I believe we'd need a demi-god to reach it alive."
"A demi-god?" The mayor guffawed, turning his back to the battle to face the commander, "what exactly are we dealing with here, commander? Is this why the Morose are here?"
"I don't know, and I can't be sure," the commander replied, "Right now my hopeful theory is that this is an isolated incident caused by rambunctious adventurers, but that's not based on much. I can't get anything out of the agents of Morose. Bastards won't even tell me their call signs. I can only say that whatever it is, they're interested. Even now, they refuse to hand over the scene, two of them remain posted alongside my men as we speak, and they won't tell me by whose orders."
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The mayor thought for a moment, "don't leave them alone with it. Keep your men on site indefinitely."
"Agreed."
"Should we--" the mayor hesitated, "do you consider it wise to continue with the hunt?"
The commander grimaced, "you couldn't have stopped Clement if you'd tried, you damn sure can't stop him now that he's underway. He'll be at it for days now, at least. And our window for the wyvern is closing, the egg could hatch inside of a month. I don't think we have a choice but to proceed."
The mayor sighed, then stepped into his office and pulled open a drawer on his desk. He withdrew a case of cigars, a bottle of whiskey and a glass. Still hunched over, he raised up a second glass towards the commander with a questioning expression.
"Just a cigar, thanks," the commander said.
The mayor nodded, poured himself a full glass, then returned to the balcony. He took a swig of his drink and placed it on the railing. A massive sand wall formed along the length of the beach below, guarding the shore-side adventurers from a huge wave kicked up by the hydra's tail as it spun to face its heads towards the ship that boxed it in against the beach. A broadside volley of cannon fire blasted through several necks, sending heads crashing into the water. The cannonballs continued on, soaring over the heads of the adventurers on the beach and into the forest.
The mayor clipped the ends of the cigars, then pulled a finely crafted lighter from his coat pocket, which he open with a flick of his wrist. After a moment of breathing and puffing to light his own cigar, he passed the lighter and the second cigar to Commander Bridge.
"I've had every scholar on our payroll scouring records since I learned of the source," the mayor said between pufs, "we have records of the structure and others like it, but nothing about godly powers buried beneath them."
The commander replied after his cigar was lit, "I'm aware of the other sites. I've spent the last few days checking each one of them, so far they're all undisturbed. We don't have men to guard them all, though, and there's probably more."
"I'll have troops dispatched to the sites nearest the city," the mayor said, "I can't spare many, though."
"It'll help," the commander said, then sighed, "I can feel the shit storm coming, sir. I just hope it won't get here 'til we've finished the Hunt."
"Aye," the mayor said, "whether it's the reason they came here or not, if agents of Morose are interested, that's not a good sign."
"No, it is not," the commander concurred.
They watched the battle in silence as the hydra struck out towards the ship like a snake, three heads in a row. Each time, the Shark Titan swept his hand and raised a blistering fast blade of water from the lake, slinging it towards the hydra head. Each blade passed cleanly through flesh and skull and exploded out the other side as rapidly expanding steam. The necks squirmed and withdrew as they began to rip themselves apart and regenerate 6 more heads.
"That thing's been here a long time," Commander Bridge told the Mayor General what he already knew, half-heartedly gesturing towards the hydra with his cigar-holding hand, "Back when I was a Champion, my companions and I once took turns taunting it from the shoreline, it must have been half this size back then. I'll almost be sad to see it go."
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A half mile into the Redwood Forest from the south-western shore of Giantrock Lake, a party of adventurers were climbing old stone steps overgrown with vines and encircled by redwood roots. The archer moved cautiously with an arrow knocked in her bow, while a small rogue made her way around the perimeter to approach up the stairs on the side. The warrior clanked in his oversized armor as he climbed up the steps behind the archer.
"This is definitely it," Jacquie said, following behind the warrior as he reviewed the crudely drawn map on the back of a quest slip he and his gang had stolen two days prior. Despite their trek through the forest, his fine robes remained immaculate.
"This was a waste of time," Synn, the archer, said as she reached the platform at the top of the stairs, "there's nothing here."
Defiance crossed Jacquie's face, "there's always something, we just have to find it."
"I'm telling you, there's nothing--" Synn paused with an incredulous look, as the rogue curiously pressed on a brick in a corner pillar of the platform's roof, and stone began to grind beneath them.