Maya followed the sprite to the construction site, but instead of a busy group of people at work they found a dozen townspeople wandering about fairly aimlessly.

"What happened here?!" demanded the sprite.

A felinis worker replied forlornly, "It seems most of our building tools have been ah . . . misappropriated. It was strange. One minute we were readying for work, the next . . . our tools had been stolen. Whether we were holding them or wearing them, all gone.”

Maya and the sprite joined in the search, but the construction site was completely empty of tools. Finally, he turned to her pleadingly.

“None of us are trackers or fighters. We don’t know how to find whoever is responsible, or make them return what they've stolen even if we could."

Maya glowered at the man. "And you think I am? The whole reason I came here was because these are building quests, not fighting ones! Want to know my ability? I can throw knives! You know how many knives I have? Zero! What can you possibly expect me to do about this problem if you guys can't solve it yourselves?"

"But you're a mage, aren't you? Can't you do something magic and get our tools back like that?"

"Even if that is how it works, I don't have a spell to magically retrieve tools." Maya sighed. Stupid game, turning everything into a fight. She should have known better than assume that a building quest would actually involve building anything. "Guess this was a waste of time. Good luck. I'm off to find work I can actually do."

"No! Please wait. I can send along some of our workers to help you with whatever you need help with, or protect you if you find the tools were stolen by a raiding party of goblins."

“There are goblins in the area? Wait, of course there are. There’s a quest for their spears. But you really think a bunch of unarmed workers would be enough? I’m not going to be useful in a fight until I get some equipment.”

“Please. We'll pay you double.”

"Double what? I never actually heard the number you are offering for the help."

"Ah, Yes. We were offering 85 copper for the bridge, 70 for the cleanup, and a silver for the new dam. If you’re staying to help with all of them, it’ll be 5 silver 10 copper for the day’s work."

A few other workers within earshot scowled or grumbled, but the sprite ignored them.

Maya crossed her arms. She had one idea, but it was a shaky possibility at best. "I'll see what I can do, but I need 2 silver up front, now. I promise I'll do my best to help you, but those are my terms."

"50 copper. It's easy to say you'll try to help, but you just finished saying you couldn't do anything. 50 copper, and you spend the rest of the day helping until the job is done."

"Then I want an additional silver at the end if I'm able to finish all your tasks, because I'm going to be expending a lot in the process."

The sprite glanced about nervously, counted on his fingers, scratched his head, and finally said, "80 copper now, and 5 silver if everything gets done. That's our final offer. We may be desperate but we’re not fools. We're already paying double."

Maya hesitated, to see if he would waver, but this looked like the best deal she was going to get. She nodded. "Agreed. Now, I'm going to go over into the forest there. I'll be back soon."

Maya entered the forest, found a fallen tree to sit upon, and pulled out her Trickster’s Orb. She stared at it for a long time, trying to think of any alternate way of accomplishing the missions.

She wasn't a tracker. She didn't have combat skills. She didn't have weapons or any way to earn them.

80 copper might be enough to get at least one or two knives, but that wouldn’t help her track down the thief. And she wasn’t going to spend an hour or more trekking to the city and back.

If only the building project hadn’t been interrupted by someone stealing their tools! She glowered at her -5 luck. She wasn't sure if it was to blame, or if the quest always went this way. It could even be a completely unique quest altogether. She hadn't played long enough to know whether they would repeat or if each was distinct.

That did give her another idea though. She pulled out the Trickster's Dice, holding the oversized die in her other hand. She could reroll it, accept the -5 increasing to -10, and hope that she would roll higher than 10. If she rolled high enough, she may even be lucky enough to stumble on the tools left in the shed or something.

She stared at the die, then back at the orb. She held the two objects and considered. She could risk trying for more luck and end up needing to use the orb anyway. Or she could ask the Trickster for help only to find there was no help to be found.

Either option could be right, or could be wrong. And with her current luck it was more likely to be wrong.

Well, then. For better or worse, her current luck would change.

She rolled the die, holding her breath. It spun, positives and negatives flickering, and landed. +12. She glanced at her luck. Two, after taking the -10 into account. Well, probably not exceptional enough to do anything great, but as long as it wasn't a negative she would take it.

She let out a relieved breath, then held up the orb.

"How can I accomplish this quest with the resources available to me before anyone else does?"

She stared down at the ball. After a moment, a second spot disappeared and the prompt to visit Asgard appeared. She accepted at once.

She did not appear on the balcony as last time. Instead, she found herself on what seemed to be a narrow rope bridge. The sky was deep blue and empty, stretching as far beneath and above her as in either direction. Disconcerting. The bridge itself stretched forward and back in a perfectly straight line that looked stranger the longer she stared at it.

"Back so soon? You must really miss me. Which brings you here, trickster?"

Maya spun to face him, then swayed and grabbed the railing as vertigo dizzied her. She wanted desperately to sit down, but refused to show weakness. She was here for answers.

"You know as well as I do why I'm here. I need to do this mission in order to earn enough money to outfit myself, in order to complete more missions, in order to find someone who is arguing."

He grinned a little at this. "I'm glad to see your priorities remain properly in place. However, I don't have time to keep track of every little mundane occurrence within the world. If you need help with a specific task, I'll need to know a lot more than ‘please help me with this mission'."

Maya described the town, the creek, the flood. She told him how she'd gone to help clear the destroyed dam and construct the new bridge, only for the workers to discover all their tools missing.

"Is that all? I'm sure they're just misplaced somewhere. Surely if you look around you'll find them. These sorts of things don't tend to be as complicated as they sound at first. It's so easy for people to imagine that a band of roaming goblins came sneaking in and stole the tools required to build a bridge. But, really, why would they? It's not as though the bridge is a strategic point upon which battles could turn. It's a convenience so people don't get their feet wet. I can think of no malicious reason for anyone to want to steal those tools."

Something about his tone of voice made Maya immediately suspicious. "Did you send another trickster to hide the tools from me deliberately?"

"I? Set you against one another? Do I seem like the sort do that?"

"Yes. You seem exactly the sort to do that. In fact, I'd almost be more surprised if you hadn't at this point."

"Well, fortunately for you I'm feeling generous today. I can tell you a few things. First, the tools have not been stolen by goblins, nor have they been creatively misplaced by the townspeople. Second, I don't know where exactly, but they're somewhere within reach of the village. Not more than a half hour away."

"That’s still a very, very large area to search."

The trickster shrugged. "Do I care? You're the one who decided this is such an important task that you'd ask for my help. You're really so desperate for a new pair of boots?"

"Boots are the last thing on my mind right now. Speaking of, though, do we not get starting gold as tricksters, or did I miss something?"

"No no, no one gets gold at the start. You earn extra skills from the tutorial, you get extra stats from your character creation, and ..." he shrugged again, smirking. "... Well, certainly no gold. Class items, of course, but those are more utility. You simply aren't working hard enough. Well, no, you're working very hard. You're just not working very efficiently. These quests were intended for characters so much weaker than you. And yet you’re so stumped by one set of missing tools that you have to call on me for help? I may have chosen wrong."

"You didn't choose anything. I chose. You're just one of hundreds of options. Not even one of the better options."

"You wound me! Surely I am well above average. You don't see my sisters popping down and giving out advice willy-nilly."

"Nor do they interfere." Maya's tone was icy.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that you feel so dissatisfied with our agreement. I do hope you don't decide to give up on me and turn to someone else. That would be such a tragedy, for everyone involved. Then again, what do I know? I'm only in charge of fate."

"If you're in charge of fate, then how can you not know everything? No one would hire an illiterate person to write a novel, so who would hire an ignorant deity to manage something as important as fate?"

"I believe we have strayed from the subject, my dear trickster. You asked how you could accomplish this quest before anyone else with only what you have to hand. The answer is obvious. You do not have enough to hand. You need to find more. How can you find more? That is simple. I have told you. The tools required are within a half hour's walk of the village. Somewhere. I don't know where. I didn't ask to know where. I in fact specified that I must not know where. If they were hidden well enough to hide them from me, then they are hidden well enough to provide a challenge to you.

"Of course, things have changed since then. You see, one of my other champions has just fallen out of favor. So, you are in the rare position of being very close to my highest ranked follower right now. Isn’t that sad? How close to neutral my other champions remain? It’s as though they don’t care about my high opinion of them."

The Trickster grinned. "Do keep an eye out for a way to accomplish my first quest. At the moment, you're tied for sixth, but the others above you have already completed - or refused or failed - their tasks for today. You have a rare opportunity, my dear trickster."

Without warning, the bridge and the endless blue sky sky disappeared and once again Maya sat on the log in the forest.

Character Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Level: 2 Affinities: Magical Physical Tier: 1 Class: Trickster Specialization: Path of Life Total Base Items Modifiers Sturdiness: 8 8 0 0 Momentum: 12 9 0 3 Agility: 9 8 0 1 Control: 8 8 0 0 Attunement: 10 9 0 1 Focus: 9 8 0 1 Intelligence: 11 9 0 2 Flexibility: 9 8 0 1 Luck: 2 12 - -10 Unassigned: 0 Health: 88 of 88 Will: 18 of 18 Stamina: 56 of 56 Energy: 56 of 60 Speed: 82% Switch penalty: -52%, 10.2 secs Stealth: 78% Chain bonus: +4% Awareness: 66% Cooldown: 95.5% Max abilities: 3 Abilities Abilities: [3 of 3] Wind Whisper

[5 energy] Blow into cupped hands, then push the air toward the target.

Creates a light breeze, a quick gust, or a damaging slash.

[Overcharge: +5 energy, +0.2 sec cast time, +50% force/duration/dmg] 2.2 sec

5 dmg

(wind) Throw Knife

[5 stamina] Throw a knife at a target with high accuracy. Requires a knife. 1.1 sec

n/a dmg

(physical) Sense Balance Discern if an area is lacking in or has an excess of any materials, creatures, etc. Equipment & Inventory Item Name Slot Stu Mom Agi Con Att Foc Int Flx Newcomer's Tunic Body Newcomer's Leggings Legs Trickster's Mask (Mage) Special Money: 80 Copper Quality Item name Details Soulbound Trickster's Dice Soulbound Trickster's Orb 3/5 uses remaining Flimsy Shary's Orchard Brochure Normal Apple x2 Consumable Missions Mission Description

Time Reward Windy Creek Reconstruction Complete all Windy Creek reconstruction tasks N/A 3 silver, 25 copper

(80 copper up front, remainder upon completion) Reconstruction Prerequisite Locate the missing workers' tools. N/A Access to Windy Creek construction missions Damaged Dam Construct a new dam to redirect Windy Creek to the mill run. N/A 1 silver Windy Creek Cleanup Clear the wreckage of the old Windy Creek Dam. N/A 70 copper Building Bridges Complete construction of the new Windy Creek bridge. N/A 85 copper Trickster Day 1 Side with a person who is losing an argument or disagreement. 13h 19m Trickster's Reward

??? Missing Delivery Find the overdue delivery boy. Ensure his safety and the successful delivery of apples to Shary's Produce Stand. DONE 5 copper

3 apples

+10 reputation with Shary and Elaph