{-Llewel-}
He managed a small smile when they were all reunited, though a part of him wished that he could recall a time to truly relate it to.
Elena had been pacing when they got back to the office, mumbling about something that seemed to get more frantic with each step she took. She didn’t look up when the door opened but, rather, when she must’ve noticed there were much more footsteps than she expected.
She immediately came up to the five, moving between each of them before giving a tight hug to the younger of the two women—Muriel, as she’d introduced herself on their walk there.
“Thank goodness you’re all alright,” Elena breathed. “Do you realize how worried I was? I was afraid something terrible had happened to you!”
“Mom.” Muriel glanced at the others and, failing to hold back a portion of her embarrassment, weakly pushed Elena away. “Please not in front of everyone…”
“I get to do whatever I want to, because I was beginning to think I’d never do it again.” Still, Elena stepped back. She turned to the oldest man, Andrew. “What happened?”
“Well, just the usual, at first. We’d gone to look around but we got caught in one of those storms,” he said in a casual yet cautious way, like he was trying to make sure she wouldn’t worry. “We went to the closest spot—you know, one of the usual ones—but that wasn’t all. A rune beast—”
“A huge one!” the youngest of the men, Henry, cut in.
“—yes, it was rather big. Well, anyway, it appeared out of nowhere. It certainly wasn’t something that we’d been prepared for.”
Elena frowned. “None of you were hurt, were you?” She looked at each of them again, studying for something she was pretty unlikely to find no matter what. “Wait, is that why the strap on Lydia’s satchel is torn like that? I can fix that, by the way, once we’ve got this all sorted out.”
Andrew nodded. “We may or may not have been completely terrified and may or may not have simply fled without a thought about where we were going. You know that it’s near impossible to find rune beasts around here—that was the first one we’ve ever come across! We… possibly got ourselves lost. By the time we were sure it wasn’t chasing after us anymore, we had no idea where we were.”
The older woman, Lydia, smirked and gestured to the other five. “Until these guys showed up. You really can pick out the perfect people for the job, huh?”
Elena, at first, seemed relatively calm with the information. Then she realized exactly what it meant. “Rune beasts? They’re not supposed to be over there, especially not any of the bigger ones.” She darted over to the desk to pull out a book with several maps in it. “This might be something we should look into a little more… and warn any others about. I don’t know why this could be happening…”
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“Could they move depending on the amount of runes in an area?” Tinath asked casually.
“Well, that’s what attracts them. But there aren’t as many on that side of the mountains as there are in other places. It’s usually never a problem.”
“You might want to make sure you tell anyone else wandering through there. It’s probably not going to get any better for a while.”
Elena seemed confused but, before she could ask any questions, Zetai said, “We should get going.”
“Ah, you still need your reward.” Elena stepped up and handed the rewards to her. “Thank you.”
…
They actually only dropped Llewel and Myr off at an inn before the players left for the day. Llewel could tell Myr spent way too much time considering what had happened to those adventurers—but his attempts at changing her mind didn’t work.
Was that what he was like most of the time? He almost would’ve apologized then and there, if the situation had just been a little different.
Dahasci had asked for their help around the inn in the morning. Myr seemed happier, at least, talking to the players as they slowly trickled in.
Llewel kept an eye out for the three he recognized and motioned over the first that entered.
“Tinath,” he called, stepping out to a more obvious place. Once she got there, he asked, “Do you know how long it’s going to take Reynneak and Zetai?”
She shrugged. “If they didn’t tell you, they definitely didn’t tell me. I don’t see them outside of here.” She paused. “We should probably talk about that, actually, with things like they are…”
“That makes it sound like I should worry over something.”
She patted his head. “You’re always worrying about something. Leave that part to the three of us.” Her soft smile made him manage one of his own. “Now, it looked like you were doing something else. We’ve probably got a little bit before they show up—it’s still early where I am, and I think they’re in the same area. Is it something that I could help you with?”
He nodded and explained what he’d been doing for Dahasci. It felt like they both wanted to say or ask something, yet neither of them ever did—they worked in silence until Myr told them that Zetai and Reynneak were there. The five of them talked for a little while at the inn—mainly what their plan for the day was going to be—before they started walking through the city.
Tinath didn’t mention whatever she’d meant by what she said earlier, or at least not before they found the person they were looking for.
He was a priest, found right outside of what must’ve been Ilataesi’s temple. There was something vaguely familiar about him, something from a time Llewel could now begin to remember, and the way the priest smiled seemed to confirm it. He greeted them all kindly then asked, “Is there something I could help you with?”
“As long as you’ve got a quest for us,” Zetai said.
“Oh, thank you! I was just beginning to wonder who I might need to search for in order to get it done. It isn’t difficult. Here, why don’t you just have a look for yourself?”
[Quest: Priest’s Precautions
Rhodes is worried about something up in the mountains, but he knows he’ll need some help when he gets there. Every person willing to help him will be rewarded for their time and services, of course. He’s not one to leave his helpers empty-handed!
Rewards: Rewards: 500 EXP, 700 coins]
“Will you come with me?” he prompted after a moment.
Zetai nodded. “Go ahead and start leading the way.”