76

--TheirWorld--

It took them several hours over the course of the next few days to get their next lead as to Octarius’s whereabouts — and even then, all they had found was the location of one of his captains.

Through the bushes about thirty feet back, Guin watched as the guards at the front of the camp stood guard. Their silver plate glinted in what rays of sun made it through the canopy above, and purple and gold cloth tunics marked them as soldiers of the Noble kingdom.

“How do we go about this?” BronzePaw asked, crouched down on all fours next to her.

“We can talk to them, right?” Tea went from the other side of her.

Drakov, kneeling just behind, said, “The other groups talked about this encampment as being a way point. Venders and stuff… Why are we hiding? Look — they are going in and out...”

It was true. Dozens of players were going in and out.

Exchanging a glance with BronzePaw, Guin laughed. “I guess we don’t really need to.”

“Stalking prey, are we?” the garule woman mused. “Caution is good, but if we can survey the grounds we are going to raid before the actual raid, that should prove far more valuable.”

Guin stood and dusted off her knees. “Honestly, I don’t even know if we have to attack this guy, yet. I’m still hoping for a pleasant conversation.”

The only one who hadn’t at least tried to keep a low profile behind the bush, Star yawned behind them. “I say we just kill them all,” she said. “They are only level twenty and there are five of us. Half the corruption beasts are higher level than these guys. We could take ‘em.”

This was also true. And a consideration — but probably a no-go.

They had been running around in the corruption for three days at this point, and, considering that they had each gained several levels and had improved their teamwork along the way, saything that the corruption had gotten ‘worse’ would have been considered an understatement. Not that they hadn’t managed — and them, better than many others.

There were quite a large number of groups and teams throughout the gooey woods now, fighting their way through hordes of Gobos, Moarbits, other such creatures scattered throughout the lands. NPC groups, like the encampment they were staking out, had joined the fray, too. They were quest givers and merchants, generally carry healing potions, food stuffs, and other such survival gear — but they noticed that, as time went on, more and more had showed up with more advanced goods and gear to sell.

And this encampment? It was less than 24 hours old, judging from conversations that they had with the other groups around them.

But this captain they were after? He was a different story. The right hand man of the Prince, he was the one in charge of cleaning up after any mess the young ‘Hero’ made. If the stories of the forums were to be believed, thus far, he had failed miserably. Not for lack of effort, it seemed, but simply because fighting the the corruption was a fruitless effort unless you first dealt with the underlying cause — an underlying cause that did not yet seem to be public knowledge.

“Come on,” Guin waved them forward.

The soldiers in the camp weren’t very strong at all, but that wasn’t the most uncommon thing to see among NPCs in these early zones, it seemed. Upon inspection, though, it was easy to see that those the soldiers themselves may not have been worth much, their gear was. All elite, magical items that the average person wouldn’t have been able to acquire on their own. However, each piece on the front guards held the label ‘Standard Issue Military XXX” — which told her that while they were better than what the player might have at their level, it wasn’t as state of the art as the rarity might otherwise suggest.

Frowning, she looked around the camp as the entered. She guessed that there were at least a good twenty or so soldiers that were wandering around. Those not in plate either wore thick gambison or hardened leather chest guards and bracers marked with Imperial seal of a dancing unicorn. A half dozen white tents were set up in a spiked wooden palisade, along with a single tent with similar purple and gold patterns to the clothing on the guards.

The white tents were mostly unremarkable; a few had signs on them indicating various merchants and a rest area with healing available. The purple and gold one, however, had two guards flanking its front wearing armor that was clearly of a different classification than the others.

She sent Drakov and Star to investigate with the vendors, while Tea and Bahena went over to a quest board, similar to the one at the front of the Hunter’s guild. Guin went toward the purple tent. Before she had the chance to ask, the guards at the front closed spears across the entry without a word.

“Pardon me,” Guin went chewing on her lip before going on. “Is this the tent of Captain Roger Othren?”

Silence.

Guin growled, but didn’t fight it. Instead, she inspected their equipment. As she suspected, it was a higher tier than the others. Though she wanted to believe that they could take the encampment as it was, she rather hoped that the Captain was as reasonable a man as people said he was. Killing them all might have been satisfying, but the reality was that it wasn’t just the soldiers they’d probably have to deal.

Aside from the twenty some-odd NPCs in the area, the two dozen players roaming about told her just how vital this small outpost was those questing and leveling in the area — and Guin and her group weren’t all that remarkable when it came to levels or gear. The high powered creatures birthed by the corruption had been a call to arms for all those looking to increase their skills and take part in the corruption phenomena — and she was sure that she and Drakov weren’t the only ones that had had former experiences with corruption.

Turning back to the purple tent, she peered in, stepping on her tiptoes to try and get a better view. It was dark inside, but the daylight helped her to make out a long table with a map spread across it, with a half dozen unlit candles that had been burned enough to look like sculptures of dripping monsters that no doubt came alive when the flames were lit within them. A large cabinet was behind it, a globe and miscellaneous tools of navigation rested upon it. Beyond that, a room divider of purple velvet, stitched with a white dancing unicorn cut off her view. Over to the side, however, were an empty armor and weapons rack.

She leaned a bit too far, almost losing her balance before one of the guards pushed her back with his spear.

“Noona!” Drakov ran over to her then. “The Captain isn’t here.”

Guin looked back into the tent. “Do you know why?” she asked. It was surprising, given that he would have been the main quest giver for those following the Imperial story line.

Flying over to them, Starshine added, “The vendors are talking about the appearance of a massive corrupted creature to the north, over by the mountains.”

“And they sent an NPC to deal with it?” Guin asked, furrowing her brows. “That’s a bit strange isn’t it? It would have to be connected to a player quest then, wouldn’t it?”

“They mentioned a group of adventurers led by someone named Cagoran going with him, so I think that’s a safe assumption,” Drakov said.

Guin shook her head. “Do you know how long ago they left?”

“The vendors seemed to think it was ‘yesterday’,” Star said. “Since it’s coming from an NPC, I’m guessing that means an in-game day, which should mean between four and six hours ago, our time.”

“And they haven’t returned yet?” Guin asked. Now that would be strange. What monster would take more than an hour to bring down? “Where are Bahena and Tea…” she muttered, looking over the heads of the players before opening up a video chat with the group. “Guys, where are you? I think we’ve had a change of plans.”

“Still at the board,” Bahena said. “There seems to be more than a simple change of plans. Take this.”

A shared quest notifier popped up on the screen:

———————-

[Quest Offered: Den of the Corrupted Rift Dweller]

The Corrupted Dark Wolf 0/1

The Corrupted Etherite Shaman 0/1

The Corrupted Kitewing 0/1

The Corrupted Skyflare 0/1

The Corrupted Rift Dweller 0/1>

This quest is optional. It can be skipped. (Difficulty: C)>>

———————-

“This whole place is talking about it,” Tea said. “This dungeon apparently just randomly appeared out of nowhere earlier today. Apparently it’s a nightmare of a place, too. Giving a lot of people a lot of trouble.”

“Everyone is trying to gather a group of experienced players, level 20 and up. Some are saying 30 is preferable,” Bahena told them, crossing her arms. “The board is overrun with fliers for group requests rather than quests.”

Star smirked. “We are going, aren’t we? No doubt that Mr. Captain is going to be other there. Maybe that’s why that first group hasn’t returned. It’s not because it’s a monster they’re fighting, but many monsters.”

“Noona!” Drakov raised his hand.

Snorting, Guin went, “Put your hand down. What is it?”

“Treasure,” he said, his eyes brightening with the smile that stretched across his face.