FieryKathy Pff, I really need a break, I'll probably take one in July just to load up the batteries again.
“Okay, there’s a couple of quests that I could write out to you. Although I would rather send you on one particular one, I would still like to offer you the option to choose.” Crystal explains.
“Sure, what are the options?” Max asks.
“First of all, we have a couple of standard escort quests. As said earlier, we have a lot of merchants going around lately and these merchant caravans need protection. It’s not the most interesting job but it needs to happen.”
“Hmm, yeah, I don’t think that’s something for us to be honest.” Sam nods.
“I thought so.” Crystal smiles. “Second option,” she continues “a little more dangerous and adventurous is to go and directly hit a couple of the bandit camps that have been kind of a thorn in our sides lately. We don’t really know where they are though, we know the general area they operate in but it will still require a bit of tracking.”
With Sam around, tracking definitely wouldn’t be much of an issue.
“And then there’s the third option, by far the most dangerous one, but also the most rewarding. And this one was written out specifically by the crown.”
“Oh?” Carol immediately pays close attention to this one. It does also sound quite interesting to me.
Crystal looks to me. “Amicia, do you remember that horde you fought with your party on the day we met?”
“I do.” I nod. “With the goblins right? Does it have something to do with that?”
“Yes, pretty much.” Crystal nods in response after which she scratches her cheek. “It’s rather strange actually what’s happening with that.”
“I’m not really familiar with goblins, but what do you mean with strange?” Max asks.
“Well, normally goblins generally fight with their own kind and those related to them. And exceptionally they work together with giantesque races like what happened last time. However, this time, for who knows what reason, it seems as though the goblins have started to team up with human-like bandits.”
“Uhm. What?” I could hear the plate scratch in Sam’s head as she asked that. “It’s in the goblin’s very nature to hate ‘civilized species’.” She uses her fingers to form some quotation marks.
“Exactly.” Crystal points at Sam to confirm her reply. “The goblin attack of this city might have been the prelude to all of this, but the goblins have really started to organize their attacks lately and we can’t really say why. And now that they have started to work together with bandits too,... Let’s just say it’s making some alarm bells go off.”
“And what’s the army doing?” I ask. “Last time they were at the Vinalian border if I recall correctly.”
“Since the tensions with Vinalia have somewhat subsided, a part of it is being used to investigate. But the majority had to relocate up north to the border with the kingdom of Sharab. They would use a bigger force but what has appeared from the first reports is that whenever they would send big groups of soldiers, the goblins were just able to out-maneuver them. So the tactic we’ve been using lately is to send small adventure parties and send those out instead.”
“And the soldiers?” Max asks.
“They’ve been trying to work together with the adventurer parties, but that often just didn’t work out. But now…” She looks at me again. “We’ve kind of been given a pretty good opportunity. And a chance to bridge the gap. Fame and a good reputation goes a long way in getting people to work together.”
“Ah, that’s why you want us to pick that option.” Sam crosses her arms and looks at Crystal. It’s kinda hard to tell what my girlfriend is feeling right now, but she doesn’t look terribly amused.
“Sam, you don’t need to be angry with her, I understand why she is thinking about it and at least she told us why and gave us an option.”
“I’m not angry, I’m just a bit annoyed. I don’t want people to start taking advantage of you.”
“You will be more than fairly rewarded. I can guarantee you that.” Crystal replies. “That is, if you want to pick up that quest. If you deny, we will find someone else.”
I put my hand on my girlfriend’s thigh. “I think we should take it. We are the most suited for the task and I trust Crystal with paying us fairly.”
“Are you sure we are?” Carol speaks up. “We are still really new.” She points at herself and at Max.
“If it’s equipment you are worried about, we can give you a part of your payment in advance.” Crystal suggests. “Taking into account that you already have half of a party here that broke an entire siege, one of which is practically a divine healer, and from what I can tell your armor isn’t terrible either. You’ll be more than fine. Your weapons might need a bit of an upgrade though.”
Sam raises her finger. “Is it possible that we could undertake two quests?”
“Sure thing.” Crystal nods.
“Why do you want to do two?” I ask.
“I was just thinking that while we head over to a camp of soldiers, we might be able to snatch along a normal bandit camp on our way there. That way we can get used to fighting with each other a little bit first before we get into some bigger trouble.”
“Ah, that does make sense. And they can get some more experience too while we are at it.”
Sam nods.
“In that case I’m definitely not going to protest.” Crystal ads. “I can already tell you that the nearest army encampment is to the East North-East, at a village called Getinium which is situated next to the Leizen river. And just so it happens there are reports of bandit activity in the forest up north from that location.”
“How close exactly?”
“Well if we knew that we wouldn’t really need people to go after them. This report is still very recent.”
Sam nods once more. “Okay, I think it’ll be a bit of a challenge but once I get the track on one of them, I will find them pretty fast… at least I hope so.”
“Good.” Crystal smiles. “So I can note your party down for those two quests?”
Sam looks at me to which I look at our two friends, they both give me a nod back. “Yeah, we’ll take it.”
“Great.” Crystal claps her hands and stands up, heading over to her desk. She takes out a pouch of coins, quickly counts it out and then tosses it over to Max who catches it in her right hand. “This is a very small part of what we can reward you with when it’s all over. But it should suffice to buy some equipment and other gear.”
Max looks into the pouch and whistles at what she sees. “Damn, that's quite a lot of gold.”
“I said it was going to be a rather big reward, didn’t I?” Crystal winks. “If that’s all though, I think you probably should get moving. It’s going to be a busy three days for the four of you.”
I nod and turn towards my party. “Let’s let Crystal get back to her paperwork.”
“Pff.” Crystal snorts. “Thanks.”
“Hey, you want us out, so no complaining please.” Sam winks back.
“More than fair enough.” Right before we leave, as a first act for her paperwork, Crystal quickly hands a letter over to Sam that was in one of the drawers, presumably with the quest details.
We say goodbye to Crystal and leave the bar quite quickly, surprisingly not ordering any snacks while we are there, and say goodbye to Rudy as well, who appeared as though he was just about to hand over the counter to another guild member.
When we are outside we huddle together for just a moment. “Okay… what do we do now? We should get moving as fast as possible, right?” Max asks.
“How about you two take the money Crystal gave you and go buy some new weapons while Ami and I get us some transportation and some other basic equipment?” Sam suggests.
“Sounds good to me.” Max nods.
Carol walks up to me and whispers into my ear. “Hey, Ami.”
“Yeah?” I whisper back.
“Bring some good food, okay?”
I start giggling. “I will, I will, don’t worry about that.”
Carol giggles too and gives me a very quick hug before getting back to Max’s side.
“See you in about forty minutes at the Eastern gate?” Sam continues.
Both Max and Carol give us a thumbs up after which they head down the road as it appears there’s some kind of smith there.
Sam takes my hand in hers. “So, we should go buy some snacks first or do you want to do that last?”
“You heard that?”
Sam points at her head and wiggles her ears. “I have these too, remember.”
I chuckle. “I guess so. Still, she was being really quiet though.”
“As a ranger I am pretty perception based too. Got some nice synergy going on with that.” She leans in to give me a kiss on the cheek.
“So you can hear me purring from even further away.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s too useful for that.” She counters. “Most of the time you are purring, you are pressed against me after all.” Sam grins.
My cheeks puff red.
-Can’t say that’s a lie…-
FieryKathy It's more that I can still write and I still want to write, but because of the workload at work at the moment, I can barely write more than 500 words/day.
FieryKathy Pff, I really need a break, I'll probably take one in July just to load up the batteries again.
“Okay, there’s a couple of quests that I could write out to you. Although I would rather send you on one particular one, I would still like to offer you the option to choose.” Crystal explains.
“Sure, what are the options?” Max asks.
“First of all, we have a couple of standard escort quests. As said earlier, we have a lot of merchants going around lately and these merchant caravans need protection. It’s not the most interesting job but it needs to happen.”
“Hmm, yeah, I don’t think that’s something for us to be honest.” Sam nods.
“I thought so.” Crystal smiles. “Second option,” she continues “a little more dangerous and adventurous is to go and directly hit a couple of the bandit camps that have been kind of a thorn in our sides lately. We don’t really know where they are though, we know the general area they operate in but it will still require a bit of tracking.”
With Sam around, tracking definitely wouldn’t be much of an issue.
“And then there’s the third option, by far the most dangerous one, but also the most rewarding. And this one was written out specifically by the crown.”
“Oh?” Carol immediately pays close attention to this one. It does also sound quite interesting to me.
Crystal looks to me. “Amicia, do you remember that horde you fought with your party on the day we met?”
“I do.” I nod. “With the goblins right? Does it have something to do with that?”
“Yes, pretty much.” Crystal nods in response after which she scratches her cheek. “It’s rather strange actually what’s happening with that.”
“I’m not really familiar with goblins, but what do you mean with strange?” Max asks.
“Well, normally goblins generally fight with their own kind and those related to them. And exceptionally they work together with giantesque races like what happened last time. However, this time, for who knows what reason, it seems as though the goblins have started to team up with human-like bandits.”
“Uhm. What?” I could hear the plate scratch in Sam’s head as she asked that. “It’s in the goblin’s very nature to hate ‘civilized species’.” She uses her fingers to form some quotation marks.
“Exactly.” Crystal points at Sam to confirm her reply. “The goblin attack of this city might have been the prelude to all of this, but the goblins have really started to organize their attacks lately and we can’t really say why. And now that they have started to work together with bandits too,... Let’s just say it’s making some alarm bells go off.”
“And what’s the army doing?” I ask. “Last time they were at the Vinalian border if I recall correctly.”
“Since the tensions with Vinalia have somewhat subsided, a part of it is being used to investigate. But the majority had to relocate up north to the border with the kingdom of Sharab. They would use a bigger force but what has appeared from the first reports is that whenever they would send big groups of soldiers, the goblins were just able to out-maneuver them. So the tactic we’ve been using lately is to send small adventure parties and send those out instead.”
“And the soldiers?” Max asks.
“They’ve been trying to work together with the adventurer parties, but that often just didn’t work out. But now…” She looks at me again. “We’ve kind of been given a pretty good opportunity. And a chance to bridge the gap. Fame and a good reputation goes a long way in getting people to work together.”
“Ah, that’s why you want us to pick that option.” Sam crosses her arms and looks at Crystal. It’s kinda hard to tell what my girlfriend is feeling right now, but she doesn’t look terribly amused.
“Sam, you don’t need to be angry with her, I understand why she is thinking about it and at least she told us why and gave us an option.”
“I’m not angry, I’m just a bit annoyed. I don’t want people to start taking advantage of you.”
“You will be more than fairly rewarded. I can guarantee you that.” Crystal replies. “That is, if you want to pick up that quest. If you deny, we will find someone else.”
I put my hand on my girlfriend’s thigh. “I think we should take it. We are the most suited for the task and I trust Crystal with paying us fairly.”
“Are you sure we are?” Carol speaks up. “We are still really new.” She points at herself and at Max.
“If it’s equipment you are worried about, we can give you a part of your payment in advance.” Crystal suggests. “Taking into account that you already have half of a party here that broke an entire siege, one of which is practically a divine healer, and from what I can tell your armor isn’t terrible either. You’ll be more than fine. Your weapons might need a bit of an upgrade though.”
Sam raises her finger. “Is it possible that we could undertake two quests?”
“Sure thing.” Crystal nods.
“Why do you want to do two?” I ask.
“I was just thinking that while we head over to a camp of soldiers, we might be able to snatch along a normal bandit camp on our way there. That way we can get used to fighting with each other a little bit first before we get into some bigger trouble.”
“Ah, that does make sense. And they can get some more experience too while we are at it.”
Sam nods.
“In that case I’m definitely not going to protest.” Crystal ads. “I can already tell you that the nearest army encampment is to the East North-East, at a village called Getinium which is situated next to the Leizen river. And just so it happens there are reports of bandit activity in the forest up north from that location.”
“How close exactly?”
“Well if we knew that we wouldn’t really need people to go after them. This report is still very recent.”
Sam nods once more. “Okay, I think it’ll be a bit of a challenge but once I get the track on one of them, I will find them pretty fast… at least I hope so.”
“Good.” Crystal smiles. “So I can note your party down for those two quests?”
Sam looks at me to which I look at our two friends, they both give me a nod back. “Yeah, we’ll take it.”
“Great.” Crystal claps her hands and stands up, heading over to her desk. She takes out a pouch of coins, quickly counts it out and then tosses it over to Max who catches it in her right hand. “This is a very small part of what we can reward you with when it’s all over. But it should suffice to buy some equipment and other gear.”
Max looks into the pouch and whistles at what she sees. “Damn, that's quite a lot of gold.”
“I said it was going to be a rather big reward, didn’t I?” Crystal winks. “If that’s all though, I think you probably should get moving. It’s going to be a busy three days for the four of you.”
I nod and turn towards my party. “Let’s let Crystal get back to her paperwork.”
“Pff.” Crystal snorts. “Thanks.”
“Hey, you want us out, so no complaining please.” Sam winks back.
“More than fair enough.” Right before we leave, as a first act for her paperwork, Crystal quickly hands a letter over to Sam that was in one of the drawers, presumably with the quest details.
We say goodbye to Crystal and leave the bar quite quickly, surprisingly not ordering any snacks while we are there, and say goodbye to Rudy as well, who appeared as though he was just about to hand over the counter to another guild member.
When we are outside we huddle together for just a moment. “Okay… what do we do now? We should get moving as fast as possible, right?” Max asks.
“How about you two take the money Crystal gave you and go buy some new weapons while Ami and I get us some transportation and some other basic equipment?” Sam suggests.
“Sounds good to me.” Max nods.
Carol walks up to me and whispers into my ear. “Hey, Ami.”
“Yeah?” I whisper back.
“Bring some good food, okay?”
I start giggling. “I will, I will, don’t worry about that.”
Carol giggles too and gives me a very quick hug before getting back to Max’s side.
“See you in about forty minutes at the Eastern gate?” Sam continues.
Both Max and Carol give us a thumbs up after which they head down the road as it appears there’s some kind of smith there.
Sam takes my hand in hers. “So, we should go buy some snacks first or do you want to do that last?”
“You heard that?”
Sam points at her head and wiggles her ears. “I have these too, remember.”
I chuckle. “I guess so. Still, she was being really quiet though.”
“As a ranger I am pretty perception based too. Got some nice synergy going on with that.” She leans in to give me a kiss on the cheek.
“So you can hear me purring from even further away.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s too useful for that.” She counters. “Most of the time you are purring, you are pressed against me after all.” Sam grins.
My cheeks puff red.
-Can’t say that’s a lie…-
FieryKathy It's more that I can still write and I still want to write, but because of the workload at work at the moment, I can barely write more than 500 words/day.
