Once fully equipped and ready to go, the party of adventurers heads out, ready to take on a group of manticore. The group walked and talked as they headed out of the village. Ariagoria took this chance to tease Davy. “So Davy, how did you sleep last night? Any stiffness? Maybe feeling a little blue balled?” Mari then quickly quips “Thanks to his skin, his balls are always blue.” The joke getting a chortle out of Racknar and Krys.

Racknar than states: “As much as I enjoy busting Davy's testicled chops, we should probably focus on the mission.” The rest of the group agreed “Right” and the group continued walking in silence for a while. Marionette moves from being in the front with Racknar to the back to walk with Krys with Ariagoria and Davy being in the middle. Marionette starts having a quiet conversation with Krys. “So I thought you didn't have an interest in sex or romance?”

Krys lit up while they talked quietly. “Apparently I still crave human physical contact in a way. So… platonic cuddling.” Mari shuffled her feet a bit. “Yeah, I guess I can get that. But why Davy? I mean I'm sure Charity or I would have been willing to cuddle you.” Krys tilted their head “I mean I guess I could have. After all, you have the same physical limitation I do when it comes to physical intimacy.” Mari sighed “Actually I had Lisa fix that. But still.”

Krys thought about it for a bit. “I guess I was curious as to what it would feel like to be cuddled by someone who was interested in me that way despite my form. Davy being a perv helped with that.” Mari chuckled, “Well, did you learn anything?” Krys giggled “I learned my sense of touch is better than I knew. I also learned that despite being grown in tubes, Illithid are still equipped for traditional reproduction. Or at least Davy is.” Mari chuckled “Oh, so you got an idea for what Davy is packing?~”

Krys turns their head away from Mari “Shut up, it's not like that for me. Even if it was, I couldn't… I can't…” Mari chuckled, “I was just teasing Krys. Besides, can't Shatterkin shape shift a bit?” Krys looks at Mari and their light flickers. “I… am not sure if I would get anything out of that. Then again it wouldn't be for me, would it.” Mari shakes her head “You said yourself you wouldn't get the same thing from it anyway. I'm not going to try and tell you who you can and can't be with or how. After all, I'm only twelve. I'm not even old enough or ready for anything like that myself.”

There isn't much talking for the rest of the trip. Eventually Racknar stopped to look at the ground. “Krys, we've got some tracks here. You're the one with tracking skills so you're up.” Krys does a stretch and moves to the front of the line and knees down to look at the tracks. “Yeah, these aren't normal lion tracks. They've been here, but not that recently. I'll see if I can find fresher tracks.”

Krys leads the group as they follow the tracks. Eventually they indicate they had found tracks that are somewhat fresh. “We're getting close. I'm not sure but there might be even more than the high end estimate of five. We could be dealing with ten of these damn things.” Racknar grumbled, “That could be a problem, even with our equipment.” Davy waved a hand around. “Couldn't we… you know… set a trap? Like with the dragon. Put up some bait with a net or a spike pit.”

Krys shook their head. “They'd smell a person on whatever trap we set. We can't use Racknar's webs for a net because they wouldn't fall for a trap that uses them since they would smell the scent of a black iron spider.” Racknar puts a hand on Krys' shoulder. “You don't have sweat glands, if you set up a pit trap it wouldn't smell it. Granted manticores can fly so that kind of trap wouldn't work anyway.” Krys thinks about it for a moment. “But I could set some kind of trap, maybe with tripwires? Unfortunately I'd have to build it myself otherwise they'd catch on. More trouble than it's worth.”

Racknar removed his hand from Krys “It was a nice thought though. We'll just have to play it straight. Let's find those manticore.” Krys continued to track as the group followed them. After a bit, the group stops as Racknar and Krys pick up growling in the distance. Five manticores close in from the party’s three, and a second group of five close in from their nine. “Crap, they flanked us.”

Mari started getting scared. “What's the plan Racknar?” Racknar draws all four of his swords “The plan is to get mad while Davy blasts and Charity heals. You and Krys can move around while I agro so we are the ones flanking. Since you both have alternate movements that can avoid attacks." Everyone nodded as the group deployed.

Marionette used her shadowstep ability to appear behind one of the Manticore and cut right into its tail with her weapons, making three successful attacks. “Thirty seven of sixty eight.” Davy then casts “shatter” aimed at one of the groups of five. “Twelve on all five of those.” Krys fires three shots at the one Mari attacked, all three landing. “Twenty one. Fifty eight.” Racknar runs at the injured manticore and slashes into it with one of his swords and cuts right through it with so much force he gets the one right next to it too.

“Nine manticores left. Six damage on the new target.” He then makes three attacks on a second manticore nearby that was hovering, with all three hitting. “Forty two. Forty eight.” All the manticores but the one engaged by Racknar take to the sky and fire three tail quilts each for a total of twenty four ranged attacks. Racknar, Ariagoria, and Krys take two hits each with the rest missing completely. After pointing at the Manticore that shot her and casting “hellish retribution”, Ariagoria fires two bolts at one of the flying manticore that took a hit from Davy before and lands both. “Ten. Twenty two. Fourteen. Twenty six.”

Marionette shifts to the shadow of the Manticore that Racknar attacked once more and attacked at the underside of the hovering monster. It died after two of her strikes leaving eight manticores. Davy then cast “shatter” a second time on the same group of flying manticore. “Twelve. Twenty four. Thirty four. Thirty eight.” Racknar points to the one that's taken the most damage by his math. “Krys, Charity. Fire on that one.”

Krys fires three arrows at the indicated target and lands all three. “Twenty one. Fifty nine of sixty eight.” The manticore all go higher, out of Racknar's reach, and all of them fire a volley of three quills. All aimed at Racknar and Davy. Though Racknar seemed to take minimal damage from the barrage, Davy wasn't looking so hot. Ariagoria moved to him and cast healing magic. This unfortunately meant she didn't have time to attack for now.

Racknar moved over to the other side to throw javelins at the ones Davy had injured. It takes two to take down the one Krys shot with the other two going at the next one with the lowest health by Racknar's math. “Twelve. Forty six. Seven targets left.” Davy cast “shatter” for a third time on the four remaining injured manticore. “Twelve. Thirty six. Fifty eight.” Mari threw three daggers at the one Racknar attacked last, only two of them hit, but that was all she needed to kill it. Six targets remaining with half of them being damaged.

Krys fires three shots at one of the injured manticore once again hitting with all three. “Twenty one. Fifty seven.” Once more a volley of quills. This time aimed at Ariagoria and Racknar. Both take a few hits. One of the strikes that hit Ariagoria was from the most injured manticore allowing her to cast “hellish retribution” on it and burn it to death. Half of the manticores are dead but Racknar is looking a little rough having taken a lot of attacks and received no healing.

Ariagoria casts a healing spell on Racknar from a distance, once again foregoing any offensive measures. There are still two injured manticore left so Racknar throws javelins at one. “Twenty four. Sixty.” Mari then finished it off with a dagger throw, sending two more into the final injured one. “Twelve. Forty eight.” Krys fires three shots at the final injured manticore, landing all three. “Twenty one. Fifty nine.” Davy then fires a ball of purple lighting at it, killing the last of the injured and leaving only four left.

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Seeing that they aren't going to win, three of the four fly away. Each in a different direction. One of them dives straight at Racknar. It claws at him twice and then bites down on Racknar's shoulder, holding him with its teeth. Ariagoria fired three bolts at it hitting it all three times but it didn't let go. Racknar couldn't help himself but got extremely angry at this manticore specifically.

Blood red flames started to emanate from Racknar’s body as he began to growl like an animal. The Manticore growled back and Racknar sank all four of his swords deep into the monster as they two became enveloped in blood red flames. The monster itself started to catch on fire as Racknar moved the blades that impaled the beast and left only a singed and mutilated mess of a corpse.

Racknar huffed and growled as his shoulders moved up and down with every draw of breath. His body was still covered in blood red flames. Ariagoria carefully walked to him and put her hand on his other shoulder. “It's over Racknar, you can stand down now.” Racknar looked at Ariagoria, his eyes glowing the same blood red, filled with an immeasurable rage. But after looking at her, his expression softened and the flames died down.

Racknar came back to his senses and looked around. “I… sorry about that. I haven't exactly got full control of the infernal wrath yet. It's stronger than the base rage but I almost never use it because I basically black out whenever I do. Everything becomes this blood red haze as my only thoughts are of destroying everything in my path that would even remotely upset me normally.”

Ariagoria nodded “You are channeling the wrath directly from my father's realm, I’m surprised you didn't turn on one of us for some minor gripe like leaving a toilet seat up or something mundane like that. You showed greater control than I'd expect, all things considered.” Davy nodded “Yeah. At least you don't have an otherworldly entity regularly talking to you that no one else can hear.”

Racknar tilted his head “That reminds me. Your Warlock patron is a Great Old One, right?” Davy nodded “Yeah, he said he was the Eldritch God of Knowledge or something like that.” Racknar perked up. “Oh! Your patron is Ernie! That makes sense. He's a chill dude.” Davy had a confused expression on his face. “You… know my patron?” Racknar did a so-so gesture. “It's difficult to explain, but I've had a few encounters with him. Best explanation I could give is that I've been to the library once or twice.”

Davy put his hand on his chin as he mentally addressed his patron. “Why didn't you tell me you knew Racknar before?” Ernie responded with “It never came up. You never asked. I didn't recognize him till he actively said something. All you mortals look and feel mostly the same to me. I only track the interesting ones.” Davy then spoke out loud “So how do you and Ernie know one another exactly? I don't know what you mean by saying you've been to the library.”

Racknar does a hand wave. “Either myself or Ernie will explain it later. For now let's see if we can get anything from these corpses before we turn in the quest and get a bonus for it being more than predicted. We didn't kill all ten, but I don't think the remaining manticore will be as much of a problem.” Mari jumps and skips. “That was so cool! We made that look easy. Only two of us collected any significant injuries and thanks to Charity even those are nothing. We were doing so much damage and hardly missed an attack. And Racknar, I feel like you could have easily taken on three of those things at the same time and been fine without us. You're so cool!”

Racknar groaned in pain as Ariagoria treated his wounds. “You think I'm cool? I'm a freak who's freakishly strong and durable. I'm just lucky the race I was born in is incredibly broken for my class. Yeah, I worked hard to get the most out of this body, but I doubt anyone outside our party would think I'm cool.” Krys put out a hand and gestured to Racknar “What about Lisa? It may be in a scientific sense but she definitely thinks you're cool.” Ariagoria nods “Not to mention Princess Bramble. She looks at you with such respect. How you look doesn't affect her opinion of you.”

Racknar perks up a bit. “Yeah, she said so herself. I guess I am kind of a badass. Spiders are cool so naturally I would be too. Granted not everyone thinks spiders are cool. Who cares? Not me. Although cool I doubt anyone would find me- nevermind. I should try and remain positive.” Ariagoria nodded “Let's let the nearest village know what's up and turn in this quest.”

Although nothing they could salvage from the manticores could be better than dragon gear, it was still worth some money. The group then got a small bonus on top of the advertised reward due to the unexpected extra challenge. However, even with the bonuses the group didn't exactly have enough to buy anything fancy. Racknar returns to Lisa to drop off the two outfits made with his improved thread as part of the agreed payment.

“Welcome back everyone.” Lisa greeted them kindly “Oh and Racknar, don't forget you still owe me some stories. How about you tell me about your childhood here?” Racknar nodded. “I was born to a normal black iron spider, a named monster. Alitha Aradae.” Mari and Ariagoria both looked a bit confused. Ariagoria was the one to point out why. “I heard you took out two named monsters at a young age, Alitha being the second of the two.”

Racknar nodded. “The first named monster I fought was Karriona, the chosen champion of Locath. At least that was what she claimed. A Razer Locust Queen who was infected with Locath's Blessing. I'm not sure how it happened because me and my spider siblings were extra careful, but somehow a number of my siblings and my mother contracted the illness while myself and some of my siblings were out doing things some time after that quest. I had no choice but to put all the infected down since no healer would cast the necessary high level recovery on a spider.”

Mari put her hand over her mouth “Oh God, that's horrible. I can't even begin to understand what it must have been like to be forced to kill your own mother. What about your siblings?” Racknar sighed “Those that survived went their separate ways. I keep tabs on the siblings I named and could potentially call on them if I needed.” Davy then asked “How many of your siblings are you still in touch with?” Racknar replied “Seven.”

Davy’s hands then got somewhat animated as he talked with frustration “Then why in the hell are we spending money on renting horses and a carriage when we could be using spiders?!” Racknar tilted his head “I figured people would be made uncomfortable by me traveling via spider all the time. If you guys are cool with it then I'll gather them during our down time. Maybe we can buy a carriage with our reward. Nothing fancy but it'll save us money in the long run.” The party nods in agreement.

Lisa puts a hand on Racknar's and gently runs her thumb on the back of it. “I'm so sorry to hear about your mother. Although that story has some interesting implications. What if the first beast-kin were all Reborn? The human soul causes it to take a more humanoid shape either at birth as it developed and having a human level intellect thanks to the previous life. Although considering the fact that avian, reptilian, and amphibious slash aquian beast-kin are more rare than mammalian ones, I imagine insects, bugs, and arachnids to be even more rare. It's possible you aren't actually alone or fully unique. Just an extremely rare case.”

Racknar sighs. “That's… somewhat comforting. I do actually know of one case that although not like mine is similar. The goddess Arachne, mother of spiders.” Lisa put a hand on her chin. “I've seen depictions of how she's seen in this world. More human looking than you are but definitely something. Then there is that so-called goddess some of the dokkalfar worship. Lilith? The one that creates those drider abominations.”

Racknar nodded “She's not actually a goddess, even by the standards of the world. She's just a really powerful witch who has an obsession with spiders and took advantage of an existing story in the lore of the dokkalfar. I'd love to take her down and rid this world of her but even as a group with the help of my seven siblings and an entire tribe of Goblins we would get wiped out.”

Mari couldn't help but stare at Racknar's hand being caressed by Lisa's. “What about the commission the Duke made with Lisa and my father? That was due a year from now and would be at least most of the way done. My father was building an army of living armor to follow the orders of whomever my father linked them to.” Lisa nodded “He commissioned my brother, or rather me through my brother, to build him flying machines that could rival a dragon. I was having trouble getting it done but had a breakthrough thanks to Racknar pointing out a flaw I somehow overlooked. I guess it is possible to overthink something.”

Racknar nodded “It might not be enough. Fighting her would be like fighting an Archmagus. One that's had lifetimes to collect high powered artifacts. She likely has multiple legendary artifacts and possibly something mythic. By that I mean a one of a kind and very powerful magic item. Something potentially on par with Excalibur.” Lisa moved her hand to her chin and nodded “Definitely not an easy enemy to take down.”

Racknar tapped the table “We'll definitely have to take on more quests and gain more experience and magic items if we are to take on something like that. Right now I'm broke and just finished paying off my last set of magic items from you. I doubt there's anything I could do for you worth anything now that you've gotten any information you can about me without doing a full dissection. That's not something you can do while I'm alive so you'll have to wait until Charity can resurrect people before that would even be on the table. Even then it would be more like if I died we'd let you cut open my body before I'm revived.”

Lisa chuckled “Oh I bet I could think of something you could give me to pay for a magic item~ After all, there's a fluid I've yet to get a sample of.” She wiggles her eyebrows while doing a lewd hand motion. Racknar shook his head and lightly chuckled “Thanks for trying to cheer me up, but I'd prefer not to receive those kinds of advances right now. Especially considering you aren't actually interested in me that way. For you it's just another scientific curiosity, a thing to research. Despite the fact I don't think it's going to happen for me, I'd Rather have a full and meaningful relationship with an actual connection.”

Lisa smiled “Alright already, I get it. I'll stop teasing you. We can talk more professionally if that's what you want. Though that's definitely more boring. I'll let you and your crew crash here free of charge tonight. I'll see you in the morning.” The group then finds a place to crash for the night so they can be ready for another quest and another reward. Everyone in the group has a clear goal in mind to reach for.