We got an inn and split the rooms up. I had the option of sleeping in the same room as Elayne and Paige with two beds or with Deacon in one bed. Zaion chose to sleep in the wagon. I chose to sleep in Deacon’s room. There wasn’t a second bed, but we were both clothed and I wasn’t worried about him.
When we went downstairs for breakfast though, Elayne had this victorious smirk on her face and Paige looked scandalized. Deacon and I shared a look and then laughed as Zaion came back from a counter holding three mugs. He didn’t even bat an eye as I we joined them at the table.
“So, that’s how it is, huh?” Elayne said with a vicious smile. “Couldn’t fuck the duke’s kid so you sleep with the cripple?”
“Not my type.” We, Deacon and I, said at the same time. “And I slapped Elias when he did try something.” I added.
Paige lit up, “I heard about that! Someone hit him hard enough he flew off the stage!” She used her hands to simulate one person falling from a decent height. “I didn’t know it was you, though.”
Deacon smirked and patted my shoulder as he got up to get both of us something. I instead looked at Elayne, “Are you going to be like this the entire trip? Should I just go back with Deacon and try again with a different group?”
She tensed, her jaw working like she wanted to say something but was stopping herself. Instead, Paige piped up, “I don’t think that’s necessary.”
Zaion nodded, “Part of being and adventurer is working with those you do not like. This is just a trial for Elayne. One I suspect she does not wish to fail.” He sat down and gave her a knowing, and sympathetic, look.
Elayne stood up, the chair falling over as she grabbed her sword and headed outside. We waited in silence until Deacon came back and picked her chair up. He spun it around and sat on it backwards, “How’d you piss her off now?”
I shrugged and Paige looked at Zaion. “She is on probation, and needs this mission to go well.” He addressed Deacon, “I suspect some history may be causing friction.”
Sighing, Deacon shook his head, “If that’s it, she’ll just have to suck it up and put her big girl pants on. Our job is to keep you three alive, not… wait…” He looked between us all, counting silently, though his mouth made the words. “Where’s Jason?”
Zaion sighed, “He has family in town and I suspect he is staying with them.”
Deacon pinched the bridge of his nose, the forearm of his other arm tapping on the chair to a beat. “One of the mission objectives is to stick together. If he had family he should have said so…”
Looking towards the door, I scratched the side of my head, “I guess we have two people to go find? Hopefully Daveville isn’t too large.”
Shaking her head, Paige smiled, “It’s not. Though I suspect getting in to see him will be harder. His family is kind of a big deal here.”
After breakfast and collecting the sulking Elayne, we set out to find Jason. It wasn’t hard once Elayne told us his last name. Then it was just a short walk to the only mansion in town, a building bigger than the Rosecrest manor in Cotton Rock. We talked with a guard and were asked to wait while he went to get the lord of the estate.
Around an hour into waiting, Elayne finally lost her temper and kicked the iron gate in. “I am not waiting out here while that pretentious prick makes us cool our heels.”
As we started up the walkway to the main house, a servant started to rush out in a fluster. A look from Elayne caused him to scurry back inside. Then Jason showed up at the door, a smug smile on his lips. He was dressed in elegant nightwear still, some rather nice looking cloth pants and shirt.
Elayne grabbed him by the collar and tossed him into the dirt next to the path. The boy tried to scramble up, shouting in outrage. Of all people, Deacon kicked him in the side to keep him down. With how Elayne was clenching her fist, he was probably trying to save the kid’s life.
The guards finally showed up, though not a single one came to help their charge. A well dressed man who stood with elegant posture and wore a doublet embroidered in decorative patterns came out of the house. He looked at Jason like he’d stepped in something foul.
“Dad! Arrest these miscreants! That ones a thief!” He said pointing a finger at Paige. “She’s probably stole something since she’s gotten here!”
I looked at him with an expression similar to his father’s, “You’re a prick.” I turned and ignored him as I went up to the boy’s father. “I assume you are Lord David?”
“Charles David, Lady Rosecrest.” He said with a smile and small bow. “I apologize for my son, hopefully he hasn’t been too much of a handful.”
“No, but he probably needs knocked down a few more pegs.” Elayne muttered just loud enough for people to hear.
“Feel free. He isn’t supposed to come back until he gets his Tier 2 License.” Charles David turned to look at Jason again, “Isn’t that right, boy.”
Jason hurried to his feet in a huff, his fancy clothes covered in grass stains and dirt, “We’re here about the nest. I figured you’d appreciate that.”
“What I appreciate is that the others in your party took the time to rest at an inn before approaching me for the job, instead of sneaking into the house when they thought I wasn’t paying attention.” Sighing, he turned back towards the entrance to the home, “Come on then, let’s talk details while my son gets dressed in something more appropriate.”
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We followed Lord David into the mansion. As soon as we’d all cleared the door, Jason stormed past and headed for a set of fancy stairs that went upstairs. I watched as he stomped his way down a hall and heard a slam soon after he went out of sight. Then I went and followed the others down the hall on the ground floor.
What we wound up in was a large room with a huge map in the middle on a table. It had raised hills and detailed models of the farms, forests, and other locations within what I assumed was Daveville’s borders. In the middle was a small floating crystal that bobbed gently. I watched it for a few moments.
“Never seen a town crystal? It’s map function is probably the only reason I’ve been able to stay on top of everything.” He sighed and rubbed at a his temples with both hands, “If it weren’t for the frequency of these appearances, I wouldn’t have even bothered contacting the guild but every year it just seems to be getting worse, and now it’s especially bad.
He pointed and I noticed that there were several black spots in various fields and a large angry red showed up in what looked like a quarry. “We’ve been getting creatures tunneling to the different fields and then stealing a bunch of grain and returning through their tunnels. We’ve tried traps, poisons, flooding, and one farmer even said they were going to wait all night for them to appear. We haven’t seen him since.”
“How long ago was that?” Deacon asked while Elayne leaned over and started tracing a finger between the targeted fields and the cave.
“He disappeared two weeks ago. It wasn’t so bad until sometime in the past couple of months.” Something about the way Lord David said that prickled the hairs on the back of my neck. “We did manage to kill a few, but… well, its a bug problem.”
Deacon swore.
Elayne looked pale.
Zaion’s expression became severe.
I looked at Lord David, “I’m lost.”
“It means… if there’s a queen that’s in a production cycle this becomes an issue for the army, not the adventurer’s guild. And they are currently stuck dealing with the Grave Woods.” Deacon said, looking at the quarry, “Is that where you suspect the nest?”
Lord David nodded, “I’m hoping it doesn’t come to an army issue. We’ll be forced to abandon the town, and that’s not an option either. At least half the population would refuse on principle.”
“What kind of bug are we dealing with?” Elayne asked.
“Luckily, it seems to just be Prius.” He said, reaching into a desk near the back of the table. He pulled out a paper that turned out to be a drawing. After handing it to Paige, he went back to talk with Deacon, “Low birth rate for insects, and they’re they are only dangerous in large numbers. The problem is…”
“...you don’t know how long they’ve been breeding.” Elayne finished.
“Exactly.” Lord David nodded, “You’re to scout it out and see how bad the problem is.”
“Fuuuuck, I hate bait missions.” Deacon groaned.
“Bait missions?" I asked, turning to look at Paige as she handed me the drawing.
“You send in a low level scout team to test the threat level. If something takes the bait, you send in a stronger team.” Elayne muttered, glaring at the map.
I looked down at the drawing, “Great.”
The drawing was definitely a bug. Black carapace that seemed to go over its entire back. It had large forward pincers for both of it’s front legs and it had four others that were just sticks on the drawing. It had two antennae sticking out of a small ball that connected the shell and front pinchers, with no real neck to speak of. There was a mouth, but it was more of a hole and no detail of what was inside.
“So, what do these Prius do?” I asked.
Lord David sighed, “Mostly eat other smaller pests as they grow in size. Eventually they get large enough to grow reproductive organs and go out to start their own colonies. They’re a nuisance most of the time, but the scouts have never been all that large.”
“And this one?” Zaion asked as I handed the drawing to him.
“It’s about the size of a small child. I’m not stupid enough to wait for them to get larger to call for help. My guards can handle them, but if another colony gets started…” He trailed off again.
“We’ll deal with this before that happens.” Deacon said, “If it’s still small enough, we should be able to squash them without much trouble. If it’s too large, I can collapse the tunnels and buy time for reinforcements.”
Charles looked like he bit into something sour, but just nodded, “If that’s how it has to be… do it. I’d prefer if the quarry was left alone, but lives are more important than stone.”
I looked at him, then towards the direction of the side of the house Jason was in. “I don’t think he’d share your sentiment.”
The sour look strengthened and he glared in the same direction, “He’s upset I put conditions on his inheritance. He’s got ten years to reach Tier 3 in the Adventurer’s Guild or he doesn’t get anything. If he isn’t Tier 2 by the end of the year, I am disowning him.”
I winced, “Harsh, but probably fair.”
“Not what we’re here for.” Deacon said, snapping his fingers, “How far away is the Quarry?”
“Less than a day by strider. Maybe a day and a half walking.” The lord said. “I’ll happily lend you my fastest for the trip.”
Elayne shook her head, “No. We’d need someone to attend them, and if they’re caught by the Priuses they’ll just have more food.” She looked over the map, “Unless these guard placements are wrong.”
Lord David shook his head, “Not at the moment. I sent a squad to secure the quarry, though it’s more to keep the miners out than the bugs in.”
Deacon sighed, “Great. Let me guess, conscripts?”
“No, just the usual contracts. They have an amount instead of a time, but I made sure it was reasonable. 10,000 per person per year. That’s maybe a month of solid work, and I don’t even take the payments through the system.” He seemed annoyed, “It’s the same policy I’ve used for years, and my father before and the previous owner before that. Trade tax alone covers any costs for the quarry.”
I nodded, following as best I could. I’d read a few other contracts and some of the farmers needed to make ten times that closer to the city. They did so easily, somehow, but it wasn’t something I’d been too interested in. “So, why would you need to keep them out then?”
He shrugged, “I even sent an offer to waive the fee for the year.”
Something didn’t seem right about so much of this but I didn’t think I had enough information. Elayne stood up straight before I could think to ask something, “Alright, we’ll take the striders and rest at the quarry. Any complaints?” She looked around at us.
No one made any objections, “Alright, looks like we have a plan.” Deacon said, slapping a hand on the table to catch everyone’s attention. “Does Jason know where the quarry is?” The bard addressed the question to the lord.
Lord David nodded, “He’ll be able to get you there without getting lost.”
“Then no time to lose. Let’s get our supplies and anything else we need before heading out.” He started towards the door, Zaion and Paige following him. I waited for Elayne before following her out.
I blinked as the red text popped up in front of me. I read through the quest pop up that followed and couldn’t help but start swearing using every word I’d learned.
Save the Fool
Melvin’s location has been found in the depths of the Daveville Quarry. Go and save him, or optionally destroy the spawning pod that he is stuck looping in.
Objective: Save Melvin Accord
Reward: 10,000 EXP and a random trait upgrade.