Underneath the streets of Blackrock Bay was an extensive series of service tunnels and sewage channels. Over the history of the city the tunnels had been excavated to provide services that the city so badly needed, as well as serving to provide stone for the city's construction effort. With how elaborate the system had grown over the years there were many parts that had been abandoned due to redundancy.
It was in those tunnels that two teen lovers found themselves. Jerrit, the guy, had convinced Olivia to come down into the tunnels to explore. They were making their way through the well lit tunnels talking and being generally flirty while holding each other's hands.
“You know you'll have to meet my mom eventually.” Oliva said. Jerrit made a dismissive tone. “Oh come on now, it won't be that bad.”
“I am still worried she won't like me, after all I am sleeping with her daughter.”
“Yeah, but she doesn't know that, she will like you, I like you, so I promise she will too.”
Jerrit stopped Olivia and pulled her into a hug. “Oh you like me do you?” He asked in a playful tone.
“I guess you're alright.” she jabbed back.
“I'll tell you what, I will meet your mom if you do something for me right now.” The inflection on his voice left little to Jerrit's meaning.
“In your dreams, these tunnels rarely have people in them, but that doesn't mean they aren't down here.”
“Oh come now, you know you want to do it just as badly as I do, it is after all, why we came down here.”
It was Olivia's turn to give a playful smile. She shoved Jerrit back and took off at a sprint down the tunnel calling back over her shoulder. “Catch me and I'll do it.”
Jerrit smiled and took off at a sprint after her. He was in better shape than most his age. A lucky encounter had given him a level and he put those points into his physical attributes. He was an uncommonly good looking teen for his age, which is what allowed him to catch Olivia's eye. The beautiful young human was the envy of most kids their age, and quite a few older. She was naturally gifted with beauty and speed. As such she was able to out pace Jerrit. She moved just fast enough to stay ahead, sometimes getting so close Jerrit almost caught her. Giggling and laughter echoed through the tunnel as a game of cat and mouse ensued.
Olivia created some distance between her and Jerrit as she rounded a corner. In the tunnel ahead of her it traveled forward for a short distance before turning again. In the wall to her right though there was one of those tunnels that had been left abandoned.
Making a snap decision she sprinted up to it and then ducked into the tunnel, stilling her breath as she waited for Jerrit to catch up so she could jump out and scare him.
As Jerrit rounded the corner into the straight section of the tunnel he took off down it at a more moderate pace. All of a sudden he stopped as an unusual sound could be heard from the tunnel ahead of him. There was a thud that sounded like a body hitting stone, and then a sliding sound came down the tunnel.
“Olivia?” He called out, when no response came he started forward again this time a lot more carefully. “Olivia?!” He called out again, this time more urgent. He made it to the tunnel which was dark, the long time of unuse making it so the lights had been forgotten about and gone out.
Being a human himself he wasn't able to penetrate the darkness of the unused tunnel, so he quickly went to the end of the tunnel. Rounding the corner it was a long empty hall, guessing she had gone down the dark tunnel he made his way back to it.
Steeling his nerves he started making his way down the tunnel. 5 feet in he wasn't able to see anything. Swearing at his stupidity he went back out to the main tunnel. The magical lanterns that lined the tunnels weren't permanently affixed. They were placed in such a way that they could be removed, replaced, or repaired. Grabbing one of the lanterns he started making his way down the tunnel again.
The entire tunnel was covered in a thick layer of dust. Holding the lantern up high hoping to illuminate what was ahead of him. What it did illuminate though was a large disturbed patch of dust. Leading away from the dust were two trails leading further into the tunnel. “Olivia?” He asked, trying his best to keep his fear out of his voice. When no response came he started to make his way down the tunnel following the drag marks. As he walked and the light behind him from the tunnel shrunk his fear only grew.
There was a small skittering sound that made Jerrit freeze in place, and in that moment he made a split section decision to run. Turning back to make it down the tunnel something heavy hit him from behind and he felt something bite into his body. He let out a scream of pain and terror all at the same time. Unlucky for him nothing caring was near to hear his screams as they echoed through the cave.
The next morning as Bjorn and Alaric made their way to the bar they were still dressed the same way they were the night before. They weren’t able to retrieve their clothes last night as they hadn’t been finished yet. After the incident with the sailor they had made their way to bed before anything could happen. As such they were both famished as they skipped dinner to avoid getting ogled at.
As they made it to the bar Kent was behind it still, it didn’t seem like he moved much from the night before. “I am sorry about those outfits. They promised they weren’t going to use them for any nefarious reasons. I figured they would take one of my guys upstairs and ask them to wear the outfits. I think your laundry is done, wait here, let me go check.” Kent left the room and came back a few minutes later carrying two sacks. “There you boys go, that should do it. If you want to go upstairs and change I will make sure you have a breakfast for kings when you come down.
They made a hurried retreat away from the bar, sacks of clothes in hand. Making their way upstairs they quickly changed into their more normal clothes. Once changed and their clothes stored they refilled the sacks with the ludicrous outfits the girls picked out for them before returning to the tap room. This time when entering the room Meira was sitting at a table. They made their way over to where she sat, taking seats near her, they set their bags on the table.
Alaric sat there glaring at her. “Are you happy with yourself? He asked.
“Hmmm? Oh yes, quite.”
“You know that could be considered cruel.” Alaric accused.
His words seemed to fall on deaf ears and she was smiling from ear to ear, barely containing laughter. “Oh come now, it wasn't that bad. Besides I figured while here in town you could make some extra money. At the very least it was worth what we paid to see you dressed like that.”
It might have been Bjorn’s imagination, but it seemed like she was talking to just Bjorn when she said that. “I am with Alaric on that one, how would you like it if I gave you the choice to be paraded through the room either naked or in your underwear?”
“Oh now that sounds fun, if that is what you want me to do, I'll do it just for you.” Tayla's voice came drifting through the almost empty room. Her voice was dripping in her exaggerated sultry tone she liked to use to flirt.
Ignoring her, Bjorn pushed on. “Besides, did it have to be another cock house? I find it hard to believe that you didn't know by the time that you had paid for the rooms.”
“We found out as soon as we entered.” Tayla said. “Besides who are you to begrudge us some eye candy from time to time.”
Their conversation was interrupted by Kent bringing out 4 laden plates piled high with food. It was egg, sausages, bacon, biscuits, and warm slices of bread coated in butter. “There you go.” He said as he set down the plates. “I am assuming you don't want those.” He asked as he pointed at the two bags. Which they both shook their heads at. “Thank you, I'll leave you to it then. If any of you want more there is plenty left over.”
One nice thing about their time out in the woods, with the changing shift of keeping watch they required less sleep than most for them to function. As such they were the first ones up, making them almost the only ones down there. Kent was the only other person around.
“Yes I can begrudge you some eye candy, I had an overly drunk sailor get awfully handsy with me last night. How would you like it if the roles were reversed.” His words had adverse effects on the two girls. They both shivered but for different reasons. Tayla shivered in excitement at the thought of someone doing what they wanted to her in a public space. Meira shivered at the memory of her time back in the gnoll encampment.
“I am sorry Bjorn, I think you were right and that was a little heavy handed of us. I hadn't thought through the ramifications of my actions.”
Tayla booed Meira. “Party pooper, giving up like that?”
The look Meira shot Tayla could have cut glass. Meira's look wasn't lost on Tayla, she also saw Bjorn's dark expression and Alaric's normally ever present smile gone. Feeling the vibe change she changed the subject. “Anyways, we have at least two weeks here, we are paid up. What do we want to do while we are here?”
“I'd like to explore this town a little bit more, see what other wonders I can find while we are here.” Bjorn said after a pause.
“I don't have much of anything I'd really like to do.” Said Alaric. “I guess it would be cool to take a deeper look into what this town has for sale.”
They all looked at Meira whose expression had gone into a thousand yard frown, caught up in her own world. They waited, and she didn't speak up.
Tayla decided to fill the growing silence. “Growing up in Vanta, I have always been a thief. I think I'll spend some time out and about in the streets, seeing what I can find out about the comings and goings of this town. If anything I bet if I find the black market there will be plenty of interesting things to find there.”
Bjorn gave her an inquisitive look. “Are you sure there will be a black market? There seems to be plenty of money to go around here. I can't imagine there being much need for one in such a prosperous city.”
Tayla gave Bjorn a look that said ‘honey please.’ “I'm going to let you in on a secret. There will always be a black market. Every city of sufficient size will have one. There will always be a need for items to be sold outside of the law. Especially in a trade city such as this.”
“Alright I bow to your wisdom.” With the conversation done they all quickly finished eating before heading out into the city. As soon as they left the tavern, Tayla broke off and headed off into the city, going and doing whatever she wanted.
That is exactly how they spent the better part of 5 days. Bjorn, Meira, and Alaric would spend time exploring the city, there were a lot of small cool nooks and crannies to look at. One day they found a small secluded courtyard to sit at and have lunch. Another day they were able to make it to the upper level of the city and explore, surrounded by large impressive buildings. Each day they would make their way into the city to see what there was to see, and each time Tayla would break off and make her own way into the city.
It was on the fifth day that they found out about a public library. Bjorn was excited to be able to read all the little things that the rest forgot to mention. Conversations with them were oddly infuriating at times. As came with the territory, a new world with new customs. Who was to blame them for forgetting to mention that sprites and goblins were racial enemies, or that elves and sprites didn’t get along even though they both wanted to preserve the forests and had a natural connection to them. All the small nuances of society were the details that were constantly overlooked in conversation.
So they made their way to the library. It was a public space, but they still charged a small price for everyone who wanted to enter. It was as small of a fee as they could make it, a single copper gave you access to the entire repository of learning for the day. For the group it didn’t seem like much, a single copper was chump change in comparison to what they had managed to obtain over their exploration. The average unskilled laborer made a silver a week.
The standard week was actually another annoying oddity of the Eld for Bjorn. Instead of earth's standard 7 day week, in the Eld the week was actually 8 days. It made it easier to remember what day of the week coincided with the numeral counting, but their use of the same term for a different amount of time was annoying to keep track of. With 8 days in a week, 4 weeks in a month, and 16 months in a year for a total of 512 days.
With all of that said, it was hard for an average person to spend almost 10% of their weekly earnings on a visit to the library. As such, when they paid their copper a piece they were surprised to find the library mostly empty.
The library itself was a massive two story building, with the center of the building open to the second level. On the first level there were bookcases built into the walls, with even more stacks of bookcases filling up the center of the room. The second floor of the large open space was filled with chairs, tables, and reading nooks.
Once they were inside they each grabbed a book, and made their way up to the second floor to see what they had found. That was when they realized another major problem. Bjorn couldn’t read. So far all the various languages he had learned to speak he hadn’t come across any chance to actually read. The spell books apparently didn’t count as the knowledge held within the pages was magically imprinted into his brain, and he didn’t actually read it at all.
Bjorn’s inability to read was the next project Meira decided to tackle. As Meira and Bjorn sat around a table and she tried to teach him how to read, Alaric sat at the same table reading. After three hours of Alaric listening to Meira sounding out words of Bjorn as she followed along in the book, Alaric was about to lose his mind.
“Gods damn it Bjorn, I have seen dwarf children smarter than you. I can’t take it anymore. I am going out, s-ee y-Ou b-a-ck at th-e inn.” Alaric sounded out his last sentence the exact same way Meira and Bjorn were doing. In the middle of his outburst he stood up and grabbed his book. Once he finished mocking Bjorn he turned and made his way towards the stairs. At the top of the stairs they had someone stationed for people to leave their books there. Turns out they don’t trust people to put books back in the correct spot.
Meira and Bjorn just sat there shocked at Alaric’s outburst. “What's gotten into him?” Bjorn asked.
“I don’t know. Come on, let's keep working.”
They spent the rest of the day slowly teaching Bjorn how to read common. They would have kept at it if it wasn’t for one of the librarians kicking them out as the sun started to near the horizon.
Back at the inn they found Alaric sitting by himself with a tankard of beer in one hand, looking sullen. As they approached Alaric had to fend off another overzealous suitor.
Bjorn slid into the empty seat next to Alaric. “You okay bud? That outburst was a little out of character for you.”
Alaric heaved a big sigh. “Yeah, I am fine. I don’t know what came over me. Maybe I am just stressed from this town, I don’t know what it is but something just doesn’t feel quite right. I think once we get my shield from Ella, we should find the first ride out of town.”
Bjorn and Meira just looked at each other. “If you think that is what is best, then yeah I am all for it.” Meira said.
They settled in to eat their evening meal. Halfway through Tayla slid into the seat next to Meira. “Guys, there was a murder in town today.” All three gave some variation on a surprise. “I don’t know all the details, but I heard on the streets today that an elf was found dead around noon today. Again, I didn’t get all of the details, but apparently the body was messed up quite badly. I think we should lay low for the time being.”
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“Where was the body found?” Asked Meira.
“It was found somewhere in the residential district. It was an older woman. It sounded like whoever did it to her tore her open.”
“What do you mean tore her open?” Asked Alaric.
“Once again I don’t have all the details, but from what I heard it sounded like she was missing a large section of her chest. And on top of that it looked like she had been dead for a while. Apparently her skin complexion was ashen gray. Like she had no blood left in her body.”
“Should we do something?” Alaric asked. “It doesn't feel right, just leaving it be.”
Bjorn put down his fork and leaned back in his seat. “What can we do? It sounds like there isn't much detail to go around. Besides, the city guards are there for a reason. Them doing something is their job, not ours. I say let's leave it be.”
“I agree with Alaric, there must be something we can do.”
Bjorn turned his head towards Meira. “I disagree, so far it is only one person who has died. Let's leave it to the city officials whose job it is to find out what happened. Besides if we go poking around we are more than likely to become suspects. We are just some average people in their eyes, some new to town average people. The death just so happened to happen after we came to town, we have been seen all over the city. We have no one in the city to vouch for us. We would be any investigators number one suspects.”
“Regardless, I don't think this city is entirely safe. I think we shouldn't walk around unarmed anymore.” Tayla said as she started to scan the room with her eyes.
Alaric's face was one of someone who had bit into some meat and all he got was gristle. “It still doesn't feel right leaving it to someone else to find out.”
“I agree with Bjorn, he made some valid points.” Meira said. “We are suspicious. On top of that if we actually start to carry our weapons we will become doubly so. I do agree with Tayla though, we should carry some sort of defensive weapon.” She paused and gestured around the room. “Some of the people here have some sort of belt knife, so I think we should not go above that for the time being. This murder might be a one off thing.”
Alaric winced at the end statement. “I don't know, something in my gut tells me this isn't the end, but just the beginning. Also why did you have to go and tempt fate like that. Now for sure it isn't going to be a one and done type of deal.”
Bjorn stood. “And with that decided I am going to go to bed, I will see you in the morning.” He said to the girls as he gave them a slight bow before heading up the stairs.
The next day Bjorn's and Meira's plan was to go back to the library and keep working on Bjorn's reading skills. Alaric was going to explore the trade district, trying to discreetly find out more about the murder. And Tayla was going to do whatever she had been doing.
As such, when they went their separate ways Meira and Bjorn told them to stay safe. It wasn't an overly large distance from the glittering goose to the public library, at least as the bird flew. To cross that distance though they had to go through two separate walls, and cross 3 bridges to get there in a decent amount of time. It took a little over three quarters of an hour to cross that distance.
As they walked the city felt off. There was a subdued calmness that had fallen over the streets that weren't there before. There were fewer people out on the streets and people talked in more subdued tones. The booming metropolis was still a large city that had a lot of industry that needed to be done. But today on the streets there were less people.
Once they made it to the library it was even quieter than usual. The librarian behind the counter took their coins. “I didn't think we would see anyone today, what with that poor woman yesterday, still it is early in the day.”
Bjorn perked up at the comment, feeling like he might be able to find more out about it he pressed a little. “I heard a few rumors about that last night, that can't be true though right? What are the odds of a body going unnoticed for a few days in a city like this?”
The portly librarian shook his head. “As far as I can tell it was real. I don't know how it is possible for the body to go unnoticed, as you said. That isn't the only unsettling news though. For the last few days there have been people going missing.”
The librarians saw their disbelieving looks. “Believe me, I didn't believe that one either. But it keeps happening.” He reached under his desk and pulled out a small stack of papers. “These are the list of missing persons according to the duke.”
By the thickness of the stack there were at least 20 different names, pictures, and brief descriptions of each missing person. “How new are these?” Bjorn asked.
“These are all of those who had missing person reports filed with the city guard. All of these are no older than a week.” Just then another librarian walked through the door, an older wizened man. He shot the librarian they had been talking to with a disapproving look. “Anyways, thank you for your patronage, you may enter.” The dismissive tone of the librarian gave little room for interpretation and they made their way into the library.
They spent the entire day working on Bjorn’s ability to read again. It was hard, the common language had 37 characters to learn, and their combination led to sounds that were nothing close to English. Trying to learn a new set of rules as well for how the language worked was difficult but not impossible. By the time they were kicked out of the library he was starting to get the hang of it.
Making their way through the streets heading back to the Glittering Goose everything was still. The normal hustle and bustle of town was gone. In its place an unsettling quiet had settled over Blackrock Bay. On their walk they only saw ten people, and those ten were a patrol of guards. As the guards passed Bjorn and Meira they gave them a suspicious look before continuing on.
When they opened the door to the Glittering Goose the taproom was dead. Where there were normally 30 up to 40 people in the tap room, now there are only 5. Tayla and Alaric were two of them.
Bjorn made his way over to where they sat and sat down next to Tayla. “The city is dead today, any idea why?”
“Yeah, two more were found dead today. Both in similar states. There was a large empty cavity in their chests.” Tayla said. “The city is scared, there is not enough information going around, and what is going around is the bare minimum. The city is on lockdown, the city guard is limiting travel to the day and they are suggesting that you don’t go anywhere alone.”
“That is sound advice. If we can, I would like to go back to the library tomorrow with Bjorn, I think he will finally be able to fully read common tomorrow. Today he was able to read a few words without having to sound them out.”
Alaric turned to Tayla. “You have been awfully quiet about what you have been up to.”
“I noticed that as well.” Tayla replied. “What about it?”
They sat there and glared at each other. “Alright, Tayla you don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to, but it would be nice. Alaric, stop trying to push her into something she doesn’t want to do.” Meira chided. “If you are both amenable to it I think you both should go together tomorrow.”
“We’ll see.” They both said simultaneously. Unable to help themselves they both started to smile.
“Alright with that settled, I also think we should arm ourselves a little better tomorrow. I don’t think we should get fully kitted out, I still think we would stand out a bit too much. But it would be foolish to ignore the fact that so many have been found dead. Bjorn and I found out today that people have been going missing with surprising regularity as well. I think they are related.”
That got Tayla’s attention. “I haven’t heard anything about that. How many have gone missing?”
Meira and Bjorn filled them in with what they found out from the librarian today.
“Hmmm.” Tayla said. “I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting anything of the sort. So far there are at least 20 people missing and 3 people who have been killed. I am willing to bet everything I have that whatever is responsible isn’t a person, but a monster.”
“Why do you say that?” Bjorn asked.
“Well those 20 plus people have all gone missing within the last week, according to your librarian. In small groups that would be one thing, but that many within a small time frame, that screams monster to me. I also find it hard for one person to most likely kill 23 people in a week and get away with it, especially in a city as large and densely populated as this one.”
“All valid points.” Alaric said. “On top of that the fact that the missing people are still in fact missing. To me that is the biggest indicator that it isn’t a person.”
“It could still be one, back on earth we had plenty of serial killers who were able to rack up that many kills.”
“But here is the kicker. Were they able to kill that many in a week and still remain at large?” Asked Meira.
Bjorn frowned. “No, I don’t think so, I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so.”
Alaric looked at Tayla and got a mischievous look on his face. “You spent today investigating the murder weren’t you?” Tayla all of a sudden had plenty of very interesting things to look at that weren’t Alaric. “That is what I thought. Tomorrow we are going out into the city together, and we are going to see what we can find.”
Meira frowned. “I could have sworn that we agreed to not look into the murder last night.” This time Tayla had a hard time meeting anyone’s eyes. “And yet you seemed to have disregarded what we agreed upon.” She paused and glared at Tayla for a long few seconds before sighing. “Oh well, nothing to be done about it now. If you are going to look into it you should be careful. Both of you. We still have no idea what is responsible for the murders.”
Alaric gave her a beaming smile. “Of course we will be careful. Besides I doubt there are many things in town that could really give us a run for our money. On top of that Tayla is a professed Rogue, that has to count for something.”
“That is true. Today I spent the entire day making my way around town and I had no issues. No one suspected a thing.”
“There may not be many, but I recall a half dwarf half elf that gave you a run for your money less than a week ago. I bet if she had a real weapon and wanted to hurt you, you would struggle to survive.”
“Hey, that’s hardly true. She is working on making me a shield, why would I hurt her before she made it for me? She is a competent fighter. I will give her that, but Ella is a smith first and foremost.”
“Alright, Alright. Just be careful, I'd hate to lose you, or have to hunt you down tomorrow.” Meira said. They both promised.
“With that settled again. I am off to bed. My head hurts from our work today. I will see you all in the morning.” Bjorn said as he left the table, stumbling up the stairs slowly before making it to Alaric and Bjorn’s shared room. He crumbled into bed and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
The next morning Bjorn was the first one up. He made his way down to the tap room and sat there waiting for Meira to join him. She was actually the next one down the stairs. She walked over to where he was sitting, he stood and they made their way towards the door.
“Hey wait.” Kent called out. The entire time Bjorn sat in the tap room he hadn’t noticed Kent behind the bar. “Come over here, I want to talk to you.”
Meira and Bjorn looked at each other before making their way over to where he stood. “What’s up Kent?” Bjorn asked.
“I just want you guys to be careful out there. I know you had nothing to do with these murders, but the town is on high alert. The city guards are spooked, they don’t know what to make of it. But you guys are new to town, the murders started happening after you got here, you don’t really know anyone.”
“Thank you for pointing that out Kent.” Meira said and turned to leave.
“Wait, I just want you to be careful. Besides the city guard there is a murder on the loose, just stay together, and watch your backs.”
“Thank you for your concern.” Bjorn said. “I promise we will do our best to come back alive and not in jail tonight.” With that they made their way out the door and started walking down the deserted streets heading for the library.
If they thought the night before was eerie they were mistaken. When the day before there had been fewer people in the streets, today there was no one. It was quiet, empty, and just felt wrong. As they walked through the streets they caught multiple people staring out their windows watching Meira and Bjorn walk. Each time the residents of Blackstone Bay were caught they would quickly pull the curtains or the shutters of the windows closed.
Today they decided to take the longer way to get to the library. It took over half an hour longer to get there, but the streets they traveled were wider. They figured that the added chance of seeing danger before it got them was worth the trade off of more time out on the streets. As such they only had to cross 2 instead of the 3 bridges. As they walked they ran into multiple contingents of guards roaming the streets. Luckily none stopped them.
The same was true when they got to the first bridge. The second bridge though, the guards stopped them and held them there for over an hour questioning them and their motives. They only let Meira and Bjorn go because they sent guards to the library to fetch a librarian. When the fat man who had checked them into the library the day before came waddling into the guardhouse he quickly confirmed the pair's story. It wasn’t far from the guard house to the public library, but still the city guard sent two men to escort the trio back to the library. As they walked, the librarian and the pair made small talk, the guards were stoic and refrained from talking to anyone.
Once inside the library the guards quickly made a hasty retreat. “You two are either exceptionally brave or exceptionally stupid to make your way here today. We were actually going to close the service for the day, figuring no one would make their way here. I was actually in the process of locking up when those guards came and got me. Today you are welcome to use the facility for free and take as long as you like. I am in no rush today.”
“Thank you.” Meira said. “I didn’t catch your name yesterday, what was it?”
“Tuck.” he replied.
“Thank you Tuck, it is nice to meet you, I am Meira and my companion is Bjorn.”
Tuck gave a small head bow to the two of them before busying himself with picking up a stack of books and starting to organize them on the shelves.
Meira and Bjorn made their way upstairs and started going over reading common again. Finally after 3 hours all of their efforts paid off. Bjorn got a prompt. Meira’s perspective was almost the same as when he learned spoken languages, but instead of his ears glowing slightly it was his eyes.
You have gained the ability to read and write common to a competent level.
With their success they were overjoyed and decided to cut it short today, and start to make their way back to the Glittering Goose. They packed up, bid Tuck goodbye and made their way out back onto the streets. They were making their way back when a light rain started to fall on them. Meira started to cast her weather shield spell when Bjorn stopped her.
“Here in town no one knows that we are spellcasters, I think it would benefit us if we kept that secret to ourselves. Anyone watching would be able to see the small bubble around you where the rain just won’t go. The effect is obviously magical.”
Meira nodded her head. “That is a good point, let's hurry, the streets are giving me the creeps.”
They took off at a light jog heading back, this time they were able to make it through both checkpoints easy enough. The guards saw them earlier and remembered them, as they had passed less than a quarter of a day ago.
As they were making their way into the lower residential district it was nearing noon. As they were around halfway through the residential district Meira stopped him.
“Look over there.” She said as she pointed down an alleyway where there was a single elf standing still in the middle facing towards the street they were jogging on.
“What do you think we should do?” Asked Bjorn.
“As long as she stays over there we should let her, if she comes towards us I think we should prepare for the worst.”
“I think we should go.” Bjorn said.
“But what if she is the killer, in comparison to the average citizen here we are stronger. Even some of the guards we are stronger than.”
Bjorn chewed on his lip a little. “I still don't like it, I think we should go.”
The entire time the two had been talking the elf lady was standing there in the middle of the alleyway shoulders slightly slumped, with a slouched posture.
“Why not use your identify ability on it?”
Name: Joanna
Race: Common Elf
Age: 22
Level: 3
Often considered the fairer races, elves are long lived, and have a predisposition towards nature and magic. Elves gain +2 to dexterity and +1 to charisma, they also gain 2 free points to distribute per level.
“Well whatever is going on I don't think we have to worry about her, she is only level 3 after all.” Bjorn said.
Meira nodded. “Still something feels a little off, I think we should be weary but we should check it out. It could be another dead body.”
“Alright, let's go.” Bjorn said as he reached into his portable pocket and retrieved his bow and quiver, slinging it across his back. Then he reached in once again and pulled his sword out this time. Once his preparations were completed, he nodded at Meira and took the lead.
They both slowly walked towards the elf woman calling out to her.
“Hey, we aren't here to harm you, why don't you come over and join us?” Bjorn called out. No response.
“It is awfully dark and dreary in the alleyway there. Why not join us out in the street, we can have a conversation there.” Meira tried, no response.
They continued to slowly inch forward. They went from twenty paces away, to ten, to five, the entire time no response.
They stopped 5 paces away, standing there looking at the top of the elves head as her head was slumped. The way she was slumped they couldn't make out her face.
Suddenly the elves' right arm jerked upward, the sudden movement made both Bjorn and Meira jump back a few paces. The arm hung there for a second, she rotated her arm briefly before the arm dropped and hung limply at her side. Soon her left arm followed suit doing the same as her right, the motion wasn't as alarming as it had been the first time. Still they didn't walk closer.
After the woman just stood there not moving, Bjorn and Meira looked at each other. “Are you alright, miss? I have a few healing potions I am willing to share. We can get you to a healer.” Bjorn asked.
They stood there looking at the elf for over a minute waiting for some kind of response out of her. When nothing came Bjorn began to inch forward again, sword raised in between the two.
The sound of pounding footsteps behind them made them turn around quickly. It was Alaric and Tayla running down the alleyway to get to Bjorn and Meira.
“Get back and away from her!” Alaric called out forcefully.
Unfortunately their entrance surprised Bjorn and he had let his guard down briefly. Something shot forth from the elf woman's chest, as her corpse collapsed uselessly to the ground. The only thing Bjorn saw was many limbs before the monster slammed into him.