Onirioago cleared her throat, interrupting the suyon adviser yet again. “All League personnel are very concerned about the Infernal Horde. Before we hear more of these concerns, we should hear from the adventurers about their assignment.”

Over the past twenty minutes, Kaldalis was starting to understand why the expedition leader had called the meeting. In his past interactions with her, she had certainly impressed upon him the idea that she needed to claim every ounce of glory from anything anyone had done on the island, and as such he had expected this to be another vehicle for her to make some speech about the strength and reliability of the people under her command. But the last twenty minutes had been consumed by the crowd of advisers talking about those who had been lost in the fight, the horrors they’d seen, and the progress they’d lost.

They - and by extension, the other NPCs - were worried. The attack scared them.

Death worried them.

As such, the meeting was indeed a dog and pony show, but it wasn’t for Onirioago’s benefit. It was to give her the best chance to reassure everyone that every step was being taken to protect them.

And also to publicly put the responsibility for those steps onto someone else.

There was a moment where he inwardly pitied the poor sucker who had the potential failure of the expedition dropped squarely on their shoulders. Until he realized that, at the expedition leader’s cue, everyone was looking directly at Kaldalis.

Shit.

“We three,” he began, struggling not to stammer at the sudden focus, “have been assigned a quest to replace the incense that we used to defend against this attack.” The cabinet of League advisers nodded at that. One of them - the vathon architect - seemed to sigh with relief. Did Kaldalis really have that kind of reputation among them already? He hadn’t actually done much. Perhaps there was a way to track all that… and he’d need to find out. He tucked the thought away for later. “The expedition leader directed us to Haldir, who was about to tell us what we need to collect.” Kaldalis gestured, and was relieved when the attention of the room followed his gesture to Haldir.

“The ingredients are mostly simple to acquire now that we’re on the islands of Ulun.” Haldir produced a sheet of paper, clearly marked with a list of items scrawled in careful cursive. “A number of fruit, herbs, and mineral components have already been located and identified from the adventurers’ earlier quests. Especially in the soil and clay samples near the stream through the jungle. But also a variety of shellfish and other materials that need to be located in the tide pools up the beach to the northeast. We only need them in sufficient amounts to prepare.”

“How soon can we expect to have the warbanner’s censer refilled?” Onirioago asked, speaking quickly, even as one of her advisers opened his mouth to speak. “Will you begin the collection immediately?”

“I understand that you feel the need for speed,” Haldir said carefully, “but many of these ingredients take time to prepare. The shellfish will need to be gutted for the needed organs, and then dried and ground. The herbs need to be dried and ground as well. Isolating and purifying the mineral components will also take time. The real slowdown is for the fruit, which must be properly fermented before the incense can be prepared. And unfortunately, the still for that has not been constructed yet.”

The expedition leader shot a glare to a bhogad seated nearby, who looked away, mumbling an excuse so half-hearted Kaldalis couldn’t hear it.

“As such, having the ingredients before the still is finished tomorrow,” Haldir continued, “would be pointless. Not to mention the second major hurdle.”

“And what would that be?” Onirioago said again quickly, cutting off any other interruptions.

“The final ingredient can only be acquired by killing the Infernal Horde,” Haldir said. “Without the core they drop, the incense might be a pleasant smell, but it would be no more than that.”

“That is a problem-” the expedition leader began, and then repeated, raising her voice over the budding outroar being shouted by her advisers at Haldir’s words, “That is a problem that we will address when the time comes!” She glared around the room, silencing the others. “For now, we only gather what we can. Once we are prepared to add the core, we will formulate a plan to acquire one. Because of the time needed to prepare the rest of the ingredients, we will table that issue today. Until then, we have other matters to discuss.”

“Um,” Balrim said and the talsar cleared his throat. “Will that be all for us, then?”

“One more thing,” the expedition leader said, raising a hand to stop him from standing up. She turned towards the vathon architect, and gestured for him to speak.

“Well, the, uh...” The architect cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. Kaldalis didn’t blame him. A lot of eyes turned his way. “There is the other defense plan. We, um, we are drafting plans for improving the encampment’s defenses, and so there is a, er, need for vital materials.”

“We’ve done a calculation,” the bhogad woman beside him said. “Every member of the expedition needs to pitch in for us to have enough materials to get this done quickly and efficiently.”

“Your work on the censer,” Onirioago cut in, “does not excuse you from this task.”

A quest popped up on the right side of Kaldalis’s vision, right beneath the quest to replace the censer and the quest to explore the dungeon Haldir had uncovered.

Wall for One, One for Wall

0/10 Cut Junglewood Logs

0/10 Large Driftwood Chunks

0/10 Construction stones

0/5 Ulun Oilfish

Kaldalis grimaced at the number of ingredients. Considering each one was going to be from some harvesting type along with a significant failure chance, this was going to be time consuming.

“You have all of your assignments, then,” the expedition leader said, “I trust that Haldir won’t steer you wrong in getting them all accomplished in a timely manner.” She gave a gesture, dismissing the quartet of adventurers before settling back into her seat. “If the rest of you will remain so that we can continue the discussion about these defenses?”

Kaldalis stood up, but one of the expedition leader’s advisers reached over and touched his arm, grabbing his attention. She was a human woman with dark skin wearing a blacksmith’s smock. Her arms were bare and her curly hair was sloppily tied back, a few flyaways dangling around her face.

“Hey, ah, if you could come find me tomorrow before you set out?” she asked. “I have a special task that needs doing, and I’d feel much better if your name was the one put to it.”

Kaldalis gave a nod, and she flashed a pearly-white smile at him. On the right of his vision, another quest was added to the list.

Smithy’s Favor

Speak with Sivima Netherrun privately about the task she has for you.

Kaldalis wondered at the quest. He’d gotten a quest on the boat trip by a similar name - Sailor’s Favor - from Heluna. But he had traded words with Heluna numerous times before then, and the quest seemed to have been about developing his friendship with her. He didn’t know Sivima from a hole in the ground.

He found himself wondering about a reputation system again. Did he really have this much clout?

Kaldalis left the command tent with Balrim, Myrin and Haldir. The sun was already setting, and they hadn’t had their dinner yet. Myrin was already leading the way towards the covered awning that served as the mess hall for the camp. Kaldalis was grateful, at least, that his friends didn’t buy into whatever legend was building around him.

“How are we gonna get all this done?” he grumbled. “Just quests on quests on quests. And the only interesting one is the lowest priority.”

“You mean the dungeon?” Haldir asked.

“Yeah. We’re never going to get there if we have to keep up with this quota and get the incense together.”

“We’ll get it done,” Haldir said. “Don’t worry. I have a cunning plan.”

“Oh?” Balrim turned, curious, “I like cunning plans.”

“We only need to provide the materials,” Haldir explained, as if this were some revelation. “We don’t need to personally collect each one.”

“What are you saying?” Kaldalis asked.

“Divide and conquer,” Haldir said simply. “Splitting up will allow us to get everything done.”

Kaldalis swallowed, hard. The last time he’d split the party, things hadn’t gone too great for him. There was dying involved. Hopefully this time would be, you know, less of that.