Cave [https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ABLVV85D6CtC_XtpGa-yuB2AIriIec0LFYlj6D8rp1kuF0PkQjWsA1EDTkuVh6jWL5dejraIi9iiDetgX-jhYk3OI35MTMMDwaeFWa4bWtZqoLtrYQZLCBwQ3caLGVZpZY0F60dwVy3wTdv3fcpyABKFfZfg=w621-h931-s-no-gm?authuser=0]
“Are you sure this is the right way, Tan?” Mohala asked from behind Polissa and Simmon as the dryad trailed between her party and Dazien along the cliff's edge. All of them were tied together with a long rope to be able to help if one of them should slip and it had already saved a couple of them from a potentially deadly fall. The only saving grace at the moment was that they hadn’t been attacked by monsters while on this terribly narrow path that none of them were certain was actually a path.
“Of course I am!” Tanner snapped again, apparently even more irritated with both the talking and poor environment that threatened to claim their lives than she originally thought, “It should be just around this next bend and we’ll start heading downwards again towards the small valley that the mission report mentioned seeing one of the Reapers at.”
Just as the Pack Harbinger had said, they finally got to a landing where they could spread out more comfortably and were sheltered a bit from the chilling wind. The weather was starting to turn and the sky was threatening to halt their progress as they would likely need to wait out the impending snowstorm. They took only a few minutes to rest before Tanner called for them to begin moving again.
Phoenix groaned as she stood and tried to stretch her tense muscles having been strung taut while adrenaline and fear had battled within her. Not because she feared falling herself, but because she had worried she might not be quick enough to save one of her companions from a fall they wouldn't revive from.
Another narrow path that led in a different direction caught her attention as the group began to move ahead of her along their route. Something felt off about the other road but Phoenix shook off the strange thought as she moved to follow the voxen twins when her [Guide Book] surprised her.
New Quest: The Road Less Traveled
You found a path that leads off the main trail.
Objective: Reach the end of the road.
Reward: Rare Crystal Caste tool.
After it had suddenly appeared in front of her face, demanding her attention, it began floating towards the slightly obscured bend leading further up and around the mountain. She found herself looking between her book and party then called out to them, “Hey, Daze! Can we go check this out real quick?”
Both parties paused to look back at her and saw the glowing book floating in the air by the path they had all missed before. King’s Dream had looks of surprise and curiosity while the Chaos Summoners simply looked confused and Tanner seemed even more annoyed than he had been a moment before.
The aggrieved runeforged man almost growled as he said, “Quit wasting our time. We’re already running behind with the slow pace we were forced to take on that ledge, plus that shopping trip this morning, and I’ll likely need to waste one of my summons to act as mounts for the way down to make it up. Now hurry and fall back in line.”
Dazien glanced at the other leader and tried to explain, “That’s one of Phoenix’s more esoteric abilities. It would most likely be in our best interest to follow it.”
“Esoteric?” the Sapphire Caster repeated dubiously, “We don’t have time for more games or mysteries. We have Soul Reapers to find and eliminate.”
The gemite frowned, “This isn’t a game and it may even be a clue to what we should do.”
“What nonsense are you spouting? An ability that tells you the future? Please, I know you didn’t grow up in the best of circumstances but I didn’t think they’d put an idiot in charge of nobles,” Tanner scoffed as he looked at Dazien with a new level of distaste on his face.
“Tan!” Polissa scolded and put both of her hands on her hips, apparently about to go off on the Pack Harbinger.
Phoenix interrupted before arguing could delay them even further, however, and her book had begun to act odd, as though it was impatient for her to follow it, “Listen, how about we follow this real quick and then I can portal us back here. It shouldn’t take too long.”
“It’s going to take time we need, either way. Precious time that we can’t get back,” the group leader argued, “The snow is going to fall soon.”
She glanced up at the dark cloud and knew he was right but she also knew that she was right too as she pleaded, “Isn’t there any way I can convince you?”
“How about I have Tinsel scout it out?” Mohala asked, gesturing to the little icy sparrow sitting on a blue branch that was wrapped around the dryad’s bicep, which Phoenix didn’t recall being there earlier. The dryad’s combination of Wing, Swift, Eye, and Forest for the Scout Nest Class had an interesting effect of making quick-moving summons that Mohala could see through and be able to rapidly find what she was looking for, even in a sea of trees.
“I’d still like to get credit for my quest…” the Wayfarer said wistfully, glancing back towards the path that held loot at the end of it, one way or another.
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“Please, Tan?” Po asked and the cinderen’s stance softened, seeming to take a gentler approach to help persuade the man, “We can take a little bit of time. It seems important to them.”
The runeforged glared at his teammate but his expression seemed to instantly melt and the tension in his shoulders seemed to relax. He then looked back to Phoenix before giving a pained sigh and saying to her, “Fine. We’ll follow this… esoteric ability of yours then portal back here. Mohala can scout ahead to let us know if there’s trouble but the reports mentioned the valley, not some aval trail this high up.”
Phoenix nodded before he could change his mind, “Thanks, um, Mister Neired.”
The group leader glanced between Polissa, who was smiling at him, then over to Mohala, who made an overt head tilt towards her, and the man grimaced slightly as he added, “You can drop the titles as you do with the others. Just call me Tanner.”
She smiled, wondering what might have happened between the group to get him to start warming up to her now. Perhaps the poor attitude earlier really was just the stress from the rough cliffside. Maybe he was afraid of heights or something?
“Thanks, Tanner. I don’t really like the titles,” she admitted, “They make me feel more important than I actually am.”
Before Rayna could interject again to refute her statement, the Wayfarer added, “Anyways, I promise this won’t be a waste of time,” trusting that her book wasn’t lying and actually trying to kill her this time. Then the whole group began to follow her [Guide Book] along the other narrow path that was nestled between two cliff faces rather than a deadly drop as Tinsel flew ahead of them and out of sight.
Mohala froze after about a minute of walking and said, “Uh, I think we need to move quieter but this is definitely the right way.”
“What does that mean?” Tanner asked, crossing his arms in annoyance, “You know I don’t like those leading statements you do. What’s the point of scouting if you’re going to make us walk there anyway?”
“You’ll want to see this for yourself,” the dryad said, the leaves around her literally wilting slightly at the rebuke, “I don’t think you’ll believe me and I think we’ll need to use a Sense Stone to record it all and take it back to the AOA. I don’t think they’ll believe me either.”
After another five minutes of walking, the trail turned sharply and went into a crevice within the side of the mountain itself. They continued following the glowing book into the dark cave as the little aura fairies Phoenix provided each offered some light to help guide the way deeper into the tunnel that slowly widened until they saw a soft glow at an opening further down.
Mohala used their mental communication to inform them as they got closer, “Complete silence from here on, there are a lot of them. Phoenix can you do that shadowy aura thing again?” the dryad asked her.
Phoenix wasn’t sure how silent the Familiars would be, between the clopping of siva hooves and flapping of sparrow and seagull wings, but she complied anyway, not feeling good about leaving the aval Familiars behind alone. At least Simmon’s little wyrmling was quiet.
The Astromancer nodded and dismissed all of the [Starlight Companion] effects and instead triggered her [Embrace of Shadows] Aura, shrouding them all in darkness and causing her armor to grant her the [Blackest Night] Boon, turning her red locks to inky black. The glow caused by Tala became a shadowy mist as her now solid black eyes searched the path before her, unencumbered by the lack of light.
She slinked into the shadows, leading the way to see what awaited them at the end of the road and was happy to note that Rayna moved beside her, donning the new cloak that helped the bard scout with her.
As they got closer, the Wayfarer realized that she hadn’t really needed to worry about the sounds the Familiars would make as the dull murmur instantly became a wild cacophony of growls and shrieks as they seemed to pass through some sort of sound-dampening barrier to reach the edge of the opening.
Quest: The Road Less Traveled
Objective complete: Reached the end of the road.
[Prism Brush] has been added to your collection.
Quest completed.
10 [Crystal Mana Bits] have been added to your collection.
Mohala hadn’t been great about trying to prepare them for what they were about to see, and she didn’t know exactly what she had been expecting to find, but the giant cavern full of a wide variety of Caged monsters and avals had not been it. The picture the reports had been painting for all of them originally was of a small group of Reapers that had been scouting out the area. What lay before them at that moment had Phoenix trembling.
An army of monstrous enemies was gathered below and they looked full of barely contained rage. It was as though the mountain itself was just a giant façade hiding the forces mounting against the city that was only a couple weeks' walk away.
Walking through the noisy horde were various people, fully clad in sleek black armor that looked straight out of a sci-fi film from back on Earth. The sight was actually more chilling to Phoenix than the mess of monsters, as the futuristic body suits were a much more overt indication to her that their interdimensional enemy really was more advanced than what this world could muster against them.
The picture brought to life before her, made the hope of actually winning against the Soul Reapers plummet and she found her prayers changing to that of mere survival for her friends and new family.
Phoenix turned to look towards her own party leader, the man she had learned to trust to guide them with every surprising encounter, and whispered through his communication power, “It’s the Soul Reapers’ forces but…” she looked back towards the ocean of enemies, “There’s hundreds of them, Daze. Maybe thousands. There’s no way we can take on that many.”
“This… this isn’t possible…” Tanner said through the chat in obvious shock, then he turned to stare at Phoenix.
His next words shouldn’t really have surprised her but they did. It also came with the new realization that perhaps she shouldn’t share the knowledge of her magical book seemingly knowing things that nobody else had seemed to, as the man accused, “How? How did you know they were here? You… You must be a Soul Reaper spy.”