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New horizons, A fairy's journey


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Ayu Break

Evard's Tentacles of Forced Intrusion
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Sorry for the hold-up, life happened.

The girls decide that as they are already a day behind they will waste no more time and make straight for the town. The plains, unlike yesterday evening, are abuzz with wildlife, rabbits, and birds can be seen all over, there is a strange tension in the air, but it's still a welcome sight to the girls used to being surrounded by life.

A few hours of walking the plains and mild hills it has, they come to the drawbridge leading into a stone walled tow, the flood cobbles and the building stones with that roofs. They can also see the town is tiered with larger more ornate buildings higher up.

Heading in they attract a lot of looks, some curious, many suspicious, a few uncomfortable and delicious due to their outfits. The girls, however, looking around the area then collaborate.

"Where do we do next? The tavern?"
"Maybe sounds scary though... this marketplace I hear of is meant to be a good place for information? Maybe we should ask around for that doctor thing?"
"Perhaps, should we go through that narrow side path, the streets have a lot of people after all. and we might get separated if we are not careful."

What do they do?
1) Go to the 'Gutted Dragon' tavern.
2) Go looking for the market along the main road
3) Go looking for the market through the alleyway
 

moonblack

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1) Go to the 'Gutted Dragon' tavern.

Taverns tend to be a good place to get information, the alleyways is just asking for trouble, and the market is in the middle - they might get some information, but might also get in trouble. So I vote for the tavern, especially since Frank recommended it. Hopefully the fact they know Frank will make the innkeeper a bit friendlier (or at least less hostile).
 
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"No, let's stick to the directions so we don't get lost." Ivy makes a choice and leads the pair through the streets.
It doesn't take them too long to find their destination, the building sticking out from the surrounding building as it seems to have built around the skull of a giant monster.
"How... grizzly..." Lily says.
"I guess that's the reason for the name...

The pair head inside and find it full of rough surly looking patrons, many of whom watch the pair and they sheepishly creep towards the bar to find a huge gruff looking man behind the counter scowling at them.
The pair having second thoughts at this time is startled a little by the barmaid speaking up.
"Come on you lot, ease up, you're scaring the poor dears. And you Max, you're doing it again, enough with the stern face."
"My face always looks like this..." The brawny barkeep pouts giving quite the different image from a moment prior.
"Are you sure we can let our guards down? wasn't it one of their ilk that stole a valuable treasure from Cid?"
"We fairies are not thieves jackass, why do humans keep saying that?!" Ivy snaps back
"Shh!" Lily responds trying to quiet her companion.
"Really? Apparently, one of you lot with some imperial looking weapon stole his backpack."
"Imperial?" Lily questions
"Humans in black armor, they are another nation, very advanced and they use that to flex their muscles against their neighbours."
"Black armored... You think he means Misha?" Lily asks Ivy
"You you admit it?"
"Not unless those panty things are valuable," Ivy says dismissively
"Sorry, what?" The man asks a little confused, a few chuckles around the bar with Ivy's dismissive response.
"The way Misha tells it some herbologist was grinning over a pair of them while bathing in the river and ran screaming when he saw her." She shrugs
There is a roar of laughter in the bar as someone in the back rapidly leaves.
"Didn't say anything about a backpack though... although she only gave us a quick brief explanation, if it was the same situation," Lily adds.
This time it's the bar maid's turn to seem hostile. "That whoreson, I knew it was him who stole those..." She then takes a deep breath to calm herself "Well take a seat girls, this is an adventurers bar, everyone here looks tough and rough but that's more part of the job, many of them are nicer than they look." she ushers the pair to a pair of empty bar stools. "so how can we help you?"
"Well we have a letter from Frank." they hand it over and the Barkeep reads it.
"A minotaur, damn so that's what was spooking his herd, and you girls actually slew it?" He asks doubtfully.
"Well, it's not like we fought it toe to toe or anything that crazy, we used shadows and the sides of the building to stay out of view. Damn things are magic resistant though which made it quite the bother to drop it, but it had to split its attention and that proved to be its downfall."
"I see. well with that in mind I can sign you up as a temporary member of the adventurers guild easily enough."
"Erm, as fun as that sounds that's not why we are here."
"I realize, he explains but the town only has one doctor after a recent plague took the others alongside its victims and being a doctor serving nobles his services are not cheap. It's dangerous but it's also potentially well paid as long as you don't over stretch and do something too dangerous to handle. Frank said once he's back on his feet he will deal with the fee alongside repayment for services already rendered. A little unorthodox but I've known him years and know he's good for it."

"What do you think?" Ivy Asks lily
"I'm not thrilled but what're our other options?"

After some discussion and negotiation, it is agreed that Ivy will use her unique experience to deal with some of the rapidly growing issues on the board while lily will earn their keep helping in the understaffed bar as her condition renders her unlikely to be of much assistance. This way everything earned by Ivy can be pooled for whatever extorsion this noble doctor charges.

After that is dealt with Max speaks up.
Normally rookie adventurers are limited to gathering jobs, low risk but low pay too, however as you took out a minotaur as a B rank monster I'll authorize you to take hunts too.
Expedition quest involves raiding monster hives such as old ruins and clearing them out, but these are not authorized for solo adventurers. That how they wind up food or.. well, increasing the monster population."
"I see, well I can check out the board and figure out where to go from here," Ivy says.


-----
I've not quite finished designing some jobs but here's a wall of text to amuse yourselves with while I work on that. If anyone has any ideas of what you want to see jobwise or something to do in the interim, by all means, share it.
Rather than throw some stock missions i am putting more thought into anything I can do that is more than 'go here and kill x then go home' even if its complications that expand it.
 
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Evard's Tentacles of Forced Intrusion
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Alright, I have four so far.

a) Investigating a girl who went missing in the slums. Discover her fate.

b) A strange creature was spotted in the aquaduct.
While it's not caused harm yet, it has caused alarm, one witness has claimed a snake-like appearance, another a multilimbed being. the guild wants to know what it is.

c) gather moonlilies from the nearby woodland
They do however only bloom at night which means a night out of the city limits

d) a rabbit was spotted wearing a top hat and monocle
Belived to be a drunken-fever dream, the client wants proof of this to protect his dignity, it was supposedly sighted in the hills

e) suggest something more routine, goblin bandits, killing slimes and so forth.

f) don't take a job, do something else for the rest of the day (suggest)
 

moonblack

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Okay, C is out - now is a really not the time for night excursions.

Each of the other three is interesting in some way... Based on my curiosity about them I would order the jobs B, D, A, C.

Therefor I vote B as well, especially since the job is only to find out what it is, not to get rid of it.
 

Renestrae

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dbac is my priority list, that rabbit sounds too funny
 
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Looking at these Votes, a heavy leaning on B and D next.
I'm not likely to have any missions 'time out' unless plot progression renders it improbable to work so even as the plot advanced, side missions will be possible.

I'm taking the vote as B, I'm hoping what I have in mind is considered interesting at least. I'll start writing this up.
 
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Looking at the jobs she finds one, mysterious creature huh, she knows a lot about monsters and it's only identifying it.
She takes the posting to the Bar
"What are the details on this?"
"Hmm, that, well the simple side is no-one knows if it's an odd fish or something more sinister and so it's desirable for someone to find out what it is, both shapes if possible. Bringing some kind of evidence is also helpful as proof, especially if it proves dangerous and you opt to slay it or them. Stops just anyone claiming just anything for the reward, or killing some and being called a liar is more are seen.
"That makes sense, where is this aqueduct?"
"There are three ways in, well four but three you have access too. The first is leave the town and enter via the moat, you'll need to swim there to get in and head towards the slum area, you should be able to get to land before it gets too vile. The next is in the slums, it's not very pleasant though as their waste tends to get thrown into it, someone once tried to release slimes to see to the problem. Giant slimes. All that got was giant slimes. The final one as the upper area of the town keep their locked and guarded against the general citizens at all time would be to head out and around town towards the source and follow the flow down clean but you'll probably spend half the day."

"Hmm..."

Which route will she take?
1) The moat entrance
2) Brave the slums
3) Travel to the source
4) Other


Just so people know I'm participating in Nanowrimo and at the end of the month starting a seasonal job so my replies will be hindered. I won't freeze the story, but it will probably slow.
 
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Renestrae

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I vote "1) The moat entrance ", just seems like the least fucked up way.... at least from what we've been told! ;) Which I'm sure is completely false, but that's what the characters know. Oh, and because he said we can get out of the water before it gets "too vile" I am making the assumption that we can then dry off our wings before we get to the hard part... (not that they'd be overly helpful when inside a cramped space anyway)

PS.: care to elaborate on "nanamowri"? I googled and got exactly nothing helpful.
 

moonblack

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Let's see if I got this right:
- the moat entrance
- the slums entrance
- the upper area of town entrance - guarded and unusable by us, unless we can persuade the guards to let us in
- travel to the source (and lose a lot of time)

No option seems much better than the rest, so I too will go with:
1) The moat entrance

Hopefully it won't be too smelly and dirty...
 
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PS.: care to elaborate on "nanamowri"? I googled and got exactly nothing helpful.
National novel writing month, to which I realized I screwed that acronym up (Nanowrimo). I'll not share my progress here mind due to a desire to keep this work separate from my more official stuff. I just wanted to warn people I might be distracted 'til Christmas.
 

Renestrae

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Oh so you got SFW storystuffs too? that's pretty dope, and I understand why you'd seperate the two
 

Torlok2000

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I have an issue with moat option, I think is the only one where we will for sure have to swim. Unless the water has efficient draining, it will be full of disease.
So my vote is to take a look at the Slum first, while it may not be rosy there should be a path to access the aquaduct by the population.
If there is no way around the slimes and trash, we at least have a better lay of the land if we go through the moat path.

I vote 2)

And have fun with the Nanowrimo :)
 

theragglefraggle

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I'd probably go with the slums, we know whats in the slums, we do not know at all what is in the moat.
 
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Just waiting on a tiebreaker unless someone's reasoning changed minds.
 

moonblack

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After thinking about it, I'll change my vote to 2).

Hopefully I won't regret this...
 
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Not a long one, but not Nanowrimo is over I'll be aiming for weekends as my temp job is weekdays.


"Hmm, rather than go up the mountain or leave town I'll check it the way in from the slums, I can always change my mind if it's too disgusting."
Ivy after getting directions heads towards the district in question.

While wandering around she noticed so many people here seems unclean and badly fed, many of whom begging for coins off passers-by. Avoiding too much eye contact as many people start at her, some confused, some curious, but others seem hostile or even leering.
it doesn't take long to recall what Misha said about their outfits. She makes a mental note to look into investing in a new outfit if they is to be staying in town for very long.
walking down the road trying to ignore the prickling sensation of being watched she finds a opening large enough to get in where directed, although their appears to be some form of blockage of sludge and trash taking up much of the tunnel below.
"This must be why they tried slimes in the past." she muses to herself when the smell hits her like a hammer.
She could easily jump down and try and clamber over but the idea is not an attractive one.

Looking a little further down the road she finds a grate, it seems the ladders broken but she can propably hop down to the walkway without much trouble. It's kind of dark though so she is unsure how level the walkway is.
"Trying to find a way down little one?" she turns to face the male voice she hears.
"Yes?" The man is a bit cleaner and healthyer looking than most here, he is also making no effort to hide the fact he is oggling her.
"Their is a crawlspace in a nearby building people use instead of here it will be a squeeze but I'm sure a slender girl like you will be fine."

"I see.." Ivy thinks about her next course of action.

She decided too...
1) hop down on the mass to
a) try and bypass it
b) hop down in front of it so she can see the way down better
2) hop down the grate a little infront of the mass and
a) then bypass it
b) look for a way around
c) other
3) take the mans advice
4) just find another way (which?)
5) Other
 
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