“And so he went like this!” Ash yelled, leaning forwards, noting an extremely rude gesture with his hands.

“Hahh!” They all laughed, Jaret widely laughing along with them to the joke even as he continued to keep all his concentration on the young spoiled noble boy who was currently stirring the iron black charred stew pot. Eyes half-closed. Continually staring at the iron pot that currently held a mixture of all varieties of spices, herbs and meat that had spent the last few months stored, freshly preserved in Jaret's storage ring.

‘Agh I’ve missed this, being around people you trust, people you’ll die to protect there’s nothing quite like it….’ Jaret sighed. “A toast!” He shouted, raising his cup high over his head, his eyes turning to each of his fellows in turn, pints of water spilling out from his cup. “A toast to you! May we have many adventures to come!”

“May we have many adventures to come!” They all yelled, lifting their cups in turn, responding with the same ritualistic phase as expected, Jaret quietly following along as they put their cups to their lips, drinking the day away.

“So Jar….” Ash said a cheeky grin on his face. ‘Oh I’m in for it now’, Jaret thought, knowing that to be the sign of a bad joke coming on.

“How did the…” Ash said clear intent to go into yet another of his rather rude yet funny jokes only to stop, an unknown voice suddenly appearing, shouting out from nowhere,

“Ho the camp!” An unknown voice shouted coming off from far to the south.

‘What, how’ Jaret thought, shocked, abruptly sitting up from his log chair, pulling out his sword out from its hilt upon his hip. Tam, Ash and Alan the nobles brat all doing the same, hastily equipping their own respective weapons as fast as they possibly could. Immediately turning to the south upon doing so.

Sighting 5 men in hoods, each and every one of them carrying bow’s the size of Tam, with a 6’th battle-hardened elderly man who’d clearly been in more than a few battles,

’Hmm, a Mercenarie perhaps?’, Jaret thought noting both the many, many scars that laid both upon the stranger's face, neck and jaded bronze sword handle, yet not seeing any colures, banners or any discipline of any kind, all that might mark them as members of any of the many noble forces that filled the lands.

“Ho the camp!” The unknown stranger shouted again. Walking up further forwards through the swamp infested trees, revealing clear layers of mud and swamp water covering the eternity of his clearly ragged travellers' robes as he did so.

“Stop right there, stranger!” Jaret shouted, threateningly pointing his orcharnium layered sword out at the elderly, scared bearded filled old man. “Who are you, what do you want?”

“Why I’m Captain Martosh of the Red falcon troop, a scout by trade if not through Class and as to what I want,” The wrinkled man honked, stopping and looking up to Jaret. “Well, I am currently employed by the Gia Adventure guild, and I have been tasked with finding the paladin named Jarashet and his party, I assume that is you?”

“You assume correctly,” Jaret said, not letting his hold upon his sword go for a second. “Though I am still at loss as to your purpose, Were you perchance sent by the council? Are you to be my replacement? '' Jaret asked, fearing that his future position might just perhaps be in jeopardy.

“The council, hah, those fools, no,” The elderly scared, leathered, filled old man said, Jaret hurriedly pushing his face into a neutral stance, not letting his feelings of disappointment and joy both show.“, no, my troop was hired by a….“ The old, battle-scarred, mercenary captain said, looking downwards, pulling a piece of paper out from his leathered armoured pocket filled pants as he did so.

“, by a Guildmaster Blaze!" Martosh, the scout mercenary captain said, looking up, a small half crumpled piece of paper in hand.

“And what exactly is your mission captain?” Jaret asked, noting the mercenaries' use of Troop, meaning that he wasn't alone, but just one of at least 2 maybe 3 captains, carefully keeping his sword raised, ready to fight at a moment's notice.

“To find you. To scout ahead, and to find and destroy all threats to the cavern. Let me tell you the ride wasn’t fun, Right lad’s?” The old merc captain said, turning to his men, each nodding their heads in turn.

“Right!” They all individually shouted, replying with the same half-assed travel-worn enthusiasm that Jaret knew could only come from those who had been travelling for way too long on their feet, something he’d experienced far too many times to count.

'hmm', “A Caravan you say?” Jaret asked, packing his sword back into his hilt seeing no threat to his life from this grey-haired, battle-scarred filled merc captain and his 5 quivers leathered armoured filled troops, Ash, Alan, and Tam all following his lead and doing the same. Loud swishing sounds overwhelmed the background as they did so.

“Yes, the one my Troop’s been hired to protect, Full of bloody merchants and know it all crafters,” The mercenary captain said, a distaste filled look upon his face as he continued to talk about his charges,

'Interesting, they must have started travelling quite some time ago, maybe even before we started, to have arrived here so fast’, Jaret thought, not even that surprised by the captain's reveal since it was standard procedure for the guild too, once a dungeon had been properly discovered and surveyed by an advance team such as his, to send a convoy such as the one the captain described, filled with merchants, crafters, goods, and anything else a beginning dungeon outpost that might need.

'But still, how did they get here so fast,' Jaret thought, befuddled.

It had taken them as a group three months to even get here, and that was just them four travelling on foot, with just 1 spatial backpack full of rations between them and no mounts to speak of.

'So the only thing I can think of that explains how they could have arrived so fast is, negating any magical means of transportation, of course, is if they had left just before or after we did, But still why didn’t the guild master tell me any this last night, it would have been nice to know, And for that matter why in the shadow lords did he hire mercenaries instead of assigning a Guild team,' Jaret thought, beguiled by this entire situation, especially the Guildmaster’s decision to hire a troop of mercenaries instead of Adventures, who could have so easily been hired for half the price of these guildless mercs. 'Surely he should know better...'

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“To shadows with all of them!” The caption went, continuing on with his declaiming of his destain for his charges, his loud gruff voice bringing Jaret back out from his musings as he did so."Why one of them attempted to cut me open the other day, saying it would improve my possum or something pe-ish, and the merchants are no better, let me tell you, But a job's a job, am I right!” The captain ecstatically said, looking to Jaret.

“Yes…” Jaret said, half whispering the words, unsure of what else to say, unable to blame the mercenary captain one bit for his distaste towards his charges, Jaret having felt the same way on more than one occasion.

“Anyway me and me lads here are just the vanguards,” The grizzly merc leader said, saying the words with a very northern barbarian style type pattern attached to his word as he said them.. “, The rest of the troop are a day or so off protecting the caravan with the commander. Hhhh…,”, The Mercenary captain said, sighing, a distant glowing look upon his face as said the words.

“,….Hah, And now,” The captain, the same hardened look he had seconds now back where it belonged, the glowing look of puppy-eyed affection, or whatever it had been, gone from his face, vanished, disappeared into the far wind.

“Now that I’ve…. ” “Sir!” A small scout, whom Jaret would have thought to be a girl had it not been for the lack of any obvious womanly attributes, went, interrupting his captain mid-speech, surprising them all with a well-placed shout as he did so.

“Tammy!” The captain yelled, turning, glaring up into the shortest of the scouts, whose name was apparently Tammy, face.

“I’m sorry captain I can’t take this any longer,” The short hoodied scout, said.”Can I please have some food, please sir I’m starving?” The small scout said, summerly interrupting their captain yet again, turning to Jaret for help.

“Quiet, Tammy,” The old white scared mercenary captain said, giving a fierce glaring look to the boyish man merc who had just spoken a few seconds before.

“I’m sorry for that, he’s new, He just doesn't quite understand the chain of command. Just yet!Though I intend to beat it into his thick skull one of these days!” The captain said, addressing his apologies to Jaret, aiming another fiercest of glairs toward the boyish scout, yelling at him with the loudest tone Jaret thought possible as he did so.

“It’s ok, we're all a bit hungry, right now,” Jaret said to Mernarry captain, turning his head to the side, towards the rough boyish lad who had started this whole mess with his sideways glance.

With grey hair, an unshaven face, ragged leather armour the size of Tam that clearly did not match his size, and skinny bones with a body that clearly had some growing left to do, Jaret could tell from the moment that he’d saw him that this young Lad clearly had clearly lived a hard life up to now to be a mercenary at such a young age.

“Lad it’s okay, you can eat, In fact, you can all eat, I think we should have just enough, right?” Jaret said, directing his question to Ash who had ever so subtly taken over Alan’s duties without Jaret’s, or from the shrug Tam gave him the rest of the party's, knowledge.

“Nope, sorry boss, just no, just not enough, we barely have enough for ourselves as it is,” Ash said, shrugging his shoulders, Dashing Jaret's hopes only to raise them right up again with his very next words. “But it’s not quite done yet so perhaps I could go hunting?” Ash hesitantly asked.

“Sure if you think you can find anything out there, though why not just take some of the men with you, with your permission of course?” Jaret asked, turning to the wizened old mercenary captain.

“Sure, Sammy, Po, Mole, you heard the man,” The captain said pointing randomly to two of his men as well as the small boyish now clear as day teen who had clearly angered him with his defiance. “Go with him, And catch us some juicy games for dinner”.

“Yes sir!” They said halting for attention for one short second, Ash nodding as they did so, before quietly turning and rushing into the marsh bog forest.

“Now I was about to say something, what was it,” The captain said turning to Jaret, them both quietly watching as the 3 began their hunt, seemingly stumped for words.

“Yes, I believe we do, please….Have a seat“, Jaret said, his eyes turning back to face the three-foot-tall caption, his arms pointing in the direction of Ash's now-vacated log chair as he did so.

“Thank you, Aghhh,” the muscular lean filled mercenary captain said, stepping forwards and going to sit on the hard rock like wood.

“Agh…” The merc captain happily muttered, glee filling his face as he happily leaned forwards into the fire only for him to quickly turn and look up towards his men, an agonised guilt-filled look now upon him.

“But out of respect for my men, I’m going to have to refuse your kind generosity” The muscles, filled out captain said, quietly standing up and returning to his men.

“Yes, Of course,” Jaret said, a smile upon his face, happily watching the mercenary/scout captain as he returned to his men, not at all displaced by the captain’s choice, whom, unlike some certain other leaders, that Jaret had known through the years, who would have had just gladly sat down and gazed upon the warmth of the fire, with not another thought to their men’s discomfort, had chosen to remain standing.

“Of course, I completely understand, so what were you to do after finding me, finding us?” Jaret said, ever so quickly changing his words at the fiery glare that Tam sent his way.

“Well it’s no secret, just need to find a path for the caravan, this marshland isn’t exactly the easiest place for carts and wagons, not to mention the horses, why we’re setting up camp in this dump is beyond me!P!” The mercenary said spitting out washed out selva onto the ground.

“You don’t know about the dungeon?” Tam asked butting in, Jaret sending her a glaring look hoping she’d stop before too much could be revealed.

“A dungeon!” The caption exclaimed, shock filling his eyes, excitedly leaning forwards, turning to Jaret for answers.

“Yes, It’s true” Jaret sighed, sending a fierce irritated glance Tam’s way, Jaret having hoped to conceal this information from the good captain, for a little bit longer.

“We did find a dungeon here. Well, the guild did, using magical means of course. We were just sent up here as the advance team to find, evaluate its condition, and then guard it till the guild could send reinforcements to help build an outpost, wherever form that they might take, ” Jaret said, internally leaving out the part where he was to be the leader of the said outpost.

“, You're free to roam it if you wish, though I have to warn you dungeons can be dangerous to the uninitiated”, Jaret informed the good captain, seeing no need to hold anything back any longer than he already had.

“No, No, dungeons are a young man's game” The captain nervously said, seemingly full of panic at the mere idea of entering a dungeon. Hesitantly adding, ”Though if any of you boys want to try it, go right ahead, that goes for sam and hotshot too,” The captain said, turning to his men, all of them shaking their heads in answer. None seemingly showing even the hints of interest towards entering the dungeon.

‘Not that I blame them, most of them are only level 10 for divine's sake, scan’, Jaret thought, quietly activating his scan, quietly analysing the mercenaries mid-conversation something that they would have rudely objected to had they known. Though fortunate for him, they were too low level to even notice his lowly placed probe.

‘Huh, the captain is impressive for someone who’s never entered a dungeon before’, Jaret thought quickly looking through the good captain’s status profile, impressed by what he saw.

Name: (Veteran)Martosh pacific O'Donnell

Class: mercenary Captain

Profession: Hunter

Level: 45

Faction: Red Falcon

.‘And this is only a basic scan. I wonder what I’d get if I used the advanced version’, Jaret mused, quite impressed by the mercenary captain veteran level 45 status, quietly settling in to listen in to what the good captain had to say.

“Good then It’s settled then, Now where are those men with that food, I’m starving… “, The captain said rubbing his hands together, his belly rumbling mutch to the merriment of most of his men,” Hahh-Hahh-Hahh….” Jaret laughed, he and the rest of his companions joining in on the mercenaries scouts' laughter much to the chagrined annoyance of their captain who quietly stood glaring away in the background even as they continued to laugh.