You awake, once more, *CENSORED*

You give her a few minutes to collect herself again, and then start to stir, this time moving your wing first to allow her scent to dissipate. By the time you 'awake' a second time, Sapphire is sat upright, leant against your chest and dressed. Or at least as dressed as she ever is.

“Thank you sir,” she murmurs, “I've never felt so safe, sleeping, before.”

Without waiting for a response, she makes for the tunnel out of the cavern, presumably to wash up and drink. As she passes, her hyena pulls itself up and follows her, tongue lolling from his mouth. You give them a minute to get ahead of you, so that Sapphire can clean herself in privacy, and you look over your fame sheet.

What you see there chills you to the bone.

Fame: 362

Scanning the recent activities, you see a litany of quests, hero deaths and a new entrance that shows up several times.

People are talking about you

What is more upsetting however is that for every hero that seems to have failed whatever quest has sprung up, more have not. Then, you expand a few of the quest actions and chill once more.

A few, spaced out, were of the expected format, denoting it was an escort quest of some kind.

Many of them were not.

Quests? You had quests? Plural? You stand on shaking legs and make your way to the pool room, wondering how to deal with this.

As you enter the room, the hyena whines and Sapphire looks up at you. She seems to realise something isn't right.

“What's wrong?” she asks in her perpetual half whisper.

“Adventurers are coming. Quite a lot of them, I think”

Sapphire looks dismayed at the news, and her hyena cocks its head.

“I think we're rapidly running out of time. We were granted a grace period as people downloaded the update, and there are less players than there were... but I think the game is undergoing a bit of a revitalisation. More players than ever, and I'm a low level boss in a medium area at the minute. Whatever quests have been created most probably aim at slightly newer players. We're going to be seeing a massive upswing soon”

Sapphire walks over to you, with steel in her gaze. “We'll defeat them. What do you want to do?”