~ This story is written mostly from Zagthaan's view, as I am her player. ~

"Go, travel, explore, adventure."

Waking up to the morning sun touching her red-skinned face, Zagthaan stretched, the words from her dream still in her mind, a divine prompt to go travel, to explore and adventure. Clinging to them, she dressed quickly, walking into the kitchen of her adopted parents. Food sat on the table waiting for her, her father already filling a mug with steaming coffee. Her thin tail scooped up a sausage, delivering it to her mouth as she accepted the coffee.

"Morning sleepy head," he said in dwarven to her. "Your patrol is due to start at midday."

"Pappa," Zagthaan said hesitantly as she sat with her coffee. "I had a dream."

A thickly furred eyebrow raised as he sat with her, prompting her to continue with a wave of his hand.

"They visited me, the same one that taught me magic." She placed her hand on her mug and it shed light. "It wants me to travel and explore."

He nodded in reply. "Then you finish your patrol tonight and tomorrow you go."

She stared at him before hugging his head tightly. "Are you sure papa?"

"Of course child. We knew one day you would need to go, whether to try and find your family or for some other purpose. A divine calling is one not to ignore." He hugged her back. "We will help prepare you."

Releasing each other, Zagthaan went about her day.

~

Zagthaan met the sunrise with a smile, her pack full and her heart light. Metal armour, bronze edged with typical dwarven design, green coloured shield and various weapons gleamed in the sun.

"Child," her mother said, handing her a cloth wrapped parcel. "For your coffee." Unwrapping the parcel revealed a metal and copper stein, similar to her armour, large enough for several drinks, a screw-cap lid sealing it shut. "It'll keep your drinks at the right temperature."

Dropping to her knees, Zagthaan hugged her parents tightly. "I'll send you letters, okay?"

"You better child," her father said gruffly. "Now, get going, they're waiting for you at the docks."

~

After several weeks of quiet divine prodding, Zagthaan found herself in the sprawling city of Nonhatten, on the steps of a ramshackle infirmary.

"Move!" came a growling command from behind her. As she jumped and stumbled out of the way, a red dragonkin, armed with hammer and shield brushed past, blood dripping from a gash on his snout. 

Following him in, Zagthaan found a rough house that had been turned into a triage type facility. "Sit down, the healers are busy," a scrawny and rough looking city elf, an eladrin,  snapped as it passed between two doors and behind a desk. Sounds of flailing and groans of pain wafted from the doors before they closed.

The dragonkin stood, holding the wound with his shield arm. Locking eyes with him for a moment, Zagthaan's gaze shifted to the wound. Taking out a small spiraling symbol, she held it up. "I can heal that," she stated.

Unflinching, the dragonkin lowered his hand only a little, keeping the shield between them as she stepped forward. The dull grey metal symbol was lit from behind as her pale red palm brightened. "Pharasma bind and heal your wounds," she intoned, tracing a quick rune with her fingers before touching his snout. She felt the scales grow and knit under her fingers as she cast a pair of healing spells.

Drawing her hand back, she looked at the new, paler scales, nodding to herself before the dragonkin nodded, leaving the building quickly.

"Well, if you wanted a job girl," the scrawny eladrin said from the door they'd gone through, "you just needed to say. Drop your gear in the third room on the left, bring your axe and any focusses you need back here. Throwing you in the deep end."

~☆~

Zagthaan sat quietly in the large waiting room, occasionally sipping from the oversized, rune etched, metal stein. The room was filled with people like her, broke and seeking well paid work. A well dressed, slightly frayed at the edges but gorgeous eladrin, clothed in a shimmering white robe with a white staff, pearl perched on top, a pair of trolls, one with drums, dressed in leathers, the slightly smaller troll armoured with an axe, a red dragonkin with shield and a variety of weapons, a dwarf with a bandolier of pistols and bullets, and a few others that looked like they had dragged their weapons and armour out of the muck, hoping for a job.

She watched calmly as a dragonkin walked around the room, chest puffed out, before going to the largest creature in the room, the troll with the drums. The size comparison made her smile into her steaming black coffee.

A door to her right opened and a small, wizened looking gnome walked through slowly, stopping in front of the open door. Taking a piece of parchment from his pocket, he squinted at it before retrieving a pair of spectacles from a pocket. Taking a moment to read it, Zagthaan felt the urge to help rising, stopping only as he put his glasses away before starting to announce names. "Zagthaan, Stigr, Abs, Ragnar."

Zagthaan jumped to her feet, screwing the lit onto her stein, her armour clattering as she hurried after the man. Glancing back, she saw the dragonkin and troll following, along with a gnome who she hadn't noticed before.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Taking an offered seat, Zagthaan waited as the others entered, the troll closing the door behind them all. Behind the desk she sat in front of were the elderly gnome, a black dragonkin, an eladrin and a dwarf, the latter two being armed and dangerous looking. The androgynous eladrin wore an open white robe and glittering, silvery chainmail. The humourless smile they also wore did not reach their eyes. The dwarf had gaunt, sunken eyes and scraggly hair, definitely someone who had led a difficult life, Zagthaan thought as she took in his breastplate, shield and five short spears.

“We need you to go into the sewers and kill some big rats,” the black dragonkin stated.

“How big are we talking?” someone asked.

“Big, they're rodents of unusual size. We’ve sent some maintenance workers down, those that have returned have said larger than an average size dog. They are creating problems in the sewers and need to be removed. You get paid 10 gold each now, 10 gold each per confirmed kill. One of these two will guide you and confirm kills.” The dragonkin waved a hand at the dwarf and eladrin, the eladrin then waving to the dwarf, who sighed in disdain.

“I’m Dur Durham,” he grumbled, nodding to the group. “Ready to go?” The group nodded reply. “Let’s go then.”

Taking a rarely used path, travelling lower towards the sewer entrance, they travelled under a bridge which traversed over small river. Graffiti smeared the area under the bridge, hidden from everyday sight. All hail King Torg. Zagthaan ran her fingers over the graffiti as the group started entering the sewers.

Taking her designated spot at the front, she was joined by Ragnar, the dragonkin hefted his own shield and hammer. Nodding once to him, she turned her attention to the sewers ahead as she tapped her hammer to a small jar containing a firefly. “Sun, light my way,” she chanted under her breath as the weapon started to glow. As she raised it again, the light reflecting off the eyes of several rats further down the tunnel.

As Zagthaan readied her hammer, getting it ready to strike, a drumbeat permeated the air, Stigr beating his drum and raising his voice, bellowing out a song in troll tongue. The song, foreign to Zagthaan, still infused her with a sense of strength and purpose. As the rats ran and swam forward, the group readied themselves, defending against bites and scratches before relatiating.

A spear flew past Zagthaan's head, clattering against the stones further down the passage. Glancing behind her, she saw Dur glaring after it as he pulled out another. A splash from her right and behind alerted her to a rat and she found herself defending against one while bringing her warhammer down on another, the light glowing from it throwing crazy shadows across the walls nearby.

Stigr's song became a yodeling, drumming beat and the group quickly found themselves working in unison, the last of the rats being taken down by Abs and Ragnar as Zagthaan attempted to trip it up.

Shrugging off the bits of rat on them, the group moved forward, splitting across the sewerage line as the path narrowed. As they moved towards a central funnel point, Zagthaan refreshed her light, hammer leading the way.

The dull roar of a distant waterfall and water falling into water reached the ears of the party as they came across a wide, circular chamber with more rats. Glancing about, Ragnar and Zagthaan, almost at the same time, pointed at a large shape in the water. As they did, Zagthaan spotted a quick movement off down a side path, black and electric blue fur of a badger, gleaming silver eyes catching her light. Glancing up, whatever had been there was gone and by the time she turned back to the tunnel ahead, she was set upon by a swarm of rats, followed by several larger rats. It was a few breaths after they engaged that Stigr’s battle song roared to life, a different tune, but still the same strengthening and encouraging song.

Zagthaan felt bites all over and, while trying to ignore them, brought her hammer down on the back of a large rat in front of her. As the small bites started to take its toll on her, she heard a splash and a grunt of pain from Ragnar as he moved into the water and to the edge of a small stone bridge that crossed the sewerage. A rat under the bridge bit him hard and, at the same time, Abs was bitten and dragged towards the water.

The creature under the water broke the surface, an enormous rat emerged, mutations clearly showing with two extra heads, one growing out of it’s shoulder, the last from the side of the neck of the main head, shrunken and deformed. Bile ran from the mouth of the sideways shrunken head as its tail lashed back and forth, a hooked bone spike on the end of it.

"Pharasma bind your wounds," Zagthaan growled in dwarven, splaying her fingers of her shield arm out towards her injured teammates. Divine magic flared from her, closing the wounds of the injured two, while a deep wound appeared on her arm, under the shield. Sucking in her breath, she swatted at the swarm on her as she kept trying to smash her hammer into bigger rats again.

Acid washed over the group at the massive three headed mutant rat vomited acidic bile over them. Sputtering at the revolting liquid, Zagthaan began casting a healing spell for herself, only to be interrupted by a bite from the swarm covering her.

A screech reached their ears as the giant rat's spiked tail lashed out, catching the bridge just above Ragnar's head before retracting, leaving a deep groove where it had struck. The large rats started dying around them as the swarm was also squashed under the hammers of Zagthaan and Ragnar, with Abs and Dur squewering them on their weapons, rapier and spear respectively.

Dur rushed past Zagthaan, drawing the largest rat's attention as Zagthaan drew on her reserve magic, closing a few of her smaller wounds before joining Ragnar and Dur, facing the mutant creature. As the rest of the group finished with the swarm and larger rats, Zagthaan and Ragnar joined the dwarf, swatting away with their variety of weapons. The tail lashed out, catching shields and armour while the group struck back, impacts and slashes causing numerous wounds.

The three headed mutant rat squealed in pain and lashed out, its hooked tail piercing Dur’s chest and, as the rat fell backwards into the drain hole, it dragged the now probably dead dwarf with it.

"Fuck, there goes our pay check," Stigr muttered as he ended his bardic magic.

Looking over the sewer, Zagthaan sighed and confirmed that the drain likely flowed down and out into the ocean nearby, advising not to go after the dwarf or mutant rat. As she infused herself with the last of her reserves, she wandered over to where she had seen the badger, Abs followed her. "Best to stay together," he stated.

Nodding thanks, Zagthaan raised her glowing hammer, illuminating the spot where the badger had been. The disgusting sewers were spotless, the stone looking cleaner than it had in a millennium. "Huh," Zagthaan said to herself. "Guess there was something here."

"Come on, we're leaving," Ragnar said loudly, holding up a bundle of rats tails. Nodding, Zagthaan scrambled over, not wanting to be left behind.