The next morning greets the hero’s party without any more fanfare than the golems retrieving them for breakfast.

Margarette had spent some time with Marvin the night before and listened to all his regrets. All said and done, she left him with the words, “Next time, don’t wait so long.”

Finishing breakfast with the Other only resulted in a mild headache for Marvin today, and he counted that as a plus. The party had decided to take the Other up on the offer of equipment at some not-so-subtle pantomiming of the golems, and that’s what they were occupied with at the moment.

Marvin was looking at various leather armor sets that gave him enough freedom of movement in battle. Ernest was looking at similar items, but seem more concerned with the spears than the armor. Rory and Rachel were perusing the robes and comparing them before moving on to the staves.

Marvin found a fairly nondescript set of leathers made out of six-footed behemoth hide, lined with fabric made from the March Spider’s thread. Stronger and more comfortable than his last set, but nothing terribly unusual for a hero back by a country.

Ernest found a set of armor that he thought ‘looked cool,’ so he went with it. Unbeknownst to him or the rest of the party, it was made out of Arctic Megalodon of all things, which functioned somewhat like chainmail while providing slightly more resistance to impacts and magics of water or ice. The spear he selected was made of Kingwood with a steel-nickel-wolfram alloy head with a strength enchantment that activates with mana.

Rory was their traditional mage, and picked out a drab brown robe made of purified satansheep wool, normally blood red, which naturally provides an even temperature year-round to the wearer. As soon as he found it he made a point of bragging ceaselessly about it and how he was going to be the envy of every mage in the kingdom. After that, he picked out a staff that was intricately carved and made of teak wood with an emerald affixed to the top and what seemed to be a fairly standard steel dirk as his backup.

Rachel was their healer and chose a white robe with blue trim and made from an unusual fabric made from weaving together silk and mithril, though only a truly exceptional set of eyes would be able to tell at first glance. As she was about to pick out her staff, one of the golems stopped her and motioned her over to the training room and handed her a white and gold staff shaped like a shepherd’s hook.

After a while, as Marvin and Ernest were comparing the finer points of the hunting knives they were picking out, Marvin pauses and looks around.

“Did you hear that?”

Ernest and Rory look around then at each other.

“Hear what?” answered Rory.

“I could have sworn I just heard an explosion. And now that I’m listening, I think I’m hearing… Children? Laughing?”

“Old man going senile?” chuckles Ernest. “Or are your ears acting up again?”

“Probably the latter,” replies Marvin, who pauses as soon as he finishes his sentence as Rachel walks out of the training room following a golem and followed by a small puff of smoke.

The golem points out the purification function of the robe as Rachel notices the stares of the others. She waves her staff lightly and smiles as she activates the robe’s self-cleaning option and begins shining.

“Hi guys! Found a good staff!” she says while enduring the looks of the men. “The golem said it was designed by a healer so it works really well!”

Marvin turns to the golem that walked out of the training room with Rachel and asks, “Was this a shady dark haired individual with a penchant for plots and schemes without end?”

“Well now,” says the female golem placing a finger where her lips would normally be, “How would I know where an antique like that came from?”

Marvin shakes his head and mutters to himself. Finding no solace in his thoughts he turns back to the knives he was inspecting previously.

Not long afterwards they all gathered with Margarette at a room with a teleportation circle. After their final farewells and a bright flash of light they find themselves in a slightly dusty cottage with light filtering through the windows.

“We’re here it seems,” says Rory, “No replaced body parts, nobody is missing, nobody was added.”

“Well, we don’t need to stick around any longer than we have to, but we should at least figure out where we are and if we can catch a ride to the capital,” replies Marvin as he heads towards the door.

With a slight groan as the door opens, Marvin steps out and begins groaning himself. The others behind him are immediately curious as they follow him out the front door. Looking around they see somewhat run down houses and weed filled streets, with only a few birds and other wildlife in sight, and the entire town surrounded and partially filled with trees.

“Seems like I know of this place,” says Ernest. “What did he say, village near the capital, about a day away? Abandoned sure, but what was the name of it…”

“Dunner,” answers Marvin in an exasperated tone. “Was hit by two disasters at once. The century blooms of the sleeping cactus the old pharmacist snuck into town, which vacated most of it, and the invasion of that.”

Marvin points towards a large, squat tree in the middle of town. The bark on the tree stuck out for several reasons, the first being the fact it is quite rough and has a bit of a metallic shimmer, and the second being the large hominoid face looking off to a perpendicular street.

“Ah!” says Ernest, finally placing his thoughts. “That’s the Cursed Ironwood Treant isn’t it! Of all the luck this town could have had, it happened to be in the forest where a black mage set up a lair under an ironwood tree. Didn’t they say if that Treant dies the entire forest will turn into treants?”

“That’s the story at least,” says Marvin. “Hard as dragonscale and liable of destroying plenty of alchemical and pharmaceutical agents if you defeat it and the forest walks off. Was just about to become my first official assignment as a hero until the arguing started. Actually, the only reason it moved was because the last assignment I had as an independent adventurer was to arrest that black mage and clear out the lair…”

“Ah,” replies Ernest, leaving an awkward moment of silence hanging in the air before continuing. “Then you know the way back from here?”

Sparing a brief glare at Ernest, Marvin turns to Rory and asks, “Time to try out that new staff for real. Care to speed us up a bit so we can get out of here? There’s another town on the edge of the woods so I’d like to make it by dark.”

Rory happily agrees to this and casts two spells in quick succession for lightening weight and increased stamina. As soon as he finishes however, a fifth voice comes from their surroundings.

“Acquisition of two spells complete. Please name entries.”

“What?” says Rory, looking at the staff. “Is this staff talking?”

“Acknowledged. Are the names, ‘What’ and ‘Is this staff talking’ acceptable?”

“No!” shouts Rory as the rest of the group shift their gazes between Rory and his staff.

“Please re-name entries.”

“Featherlight and Endurance,” Rory replies while glaring at the staff, which repeats the previous request for affirmation. After Rory answers yes, the teakwood staff continues.

“To autocast ‘Featherlight’ and ‘Endurance’ in the future, maintain your grip on the emblems flashing now and provide the requisite mana.”

Rory looks at the staff and finds two distinct spots on opposite sides of the shaft about two thirds of the way to the top. He brushes one of them and jumps when he hears his voice say “Featherlight,” which then stops flashing, and does the same with “Endurance.”

“Registration of new spells complete. Seven of Nine slots filled.” (AN Yes that’s a nod to a TV show)

“Wait, what was that?” asks Rory. “What are the spells already in this thing?”

“You can listen to it as we run,” cuts in Marvin as the staff complies with Rory’s request. “We can see how much of a disaster this will be later, and I want out of this forest.”

The five other spell slots were reported as “I don’t know, cleaning the dishes,” “Destruction,” “Calamity,” “Fool that was too much water,” and “Mr. Margraves Magical Mephisto.” The first and fifth spells were recorded in the Other’s voice, the second and third in a young man’s, and the fourth was an older gravely voice. When Rory asked what the spells did, the teakwood staff only replied, “Descriptions not set. Would you like to set them?” At this, Rory replied no while lamenting.

“Fairly interesting artifact you have there,” says Ernest as they are running along the old road. On this note, the two wearing robes had rolled them under their belts so they could bend their knees easier while running.

“Yes,” cuts in Marvin. “I’d be willing to go so far as to say almost too interesting. There was an old court mage when I first started out that gave me a lecture every time he saw me or any other hero for that matter. Sounds a lot like that younger voice just aged forty years. He was also notorious for having flooded an entire valley with a new staff when he was young, just the third time he had ever used it in battle. Took out the monster horde approaching but he and his master barely survived, and he lost the staff in the process. Fortunately he’s gone else he would recognize it, but he did have an apprentice that was in one of the battalions at that time. Not sure what happened with him though.”

“Wait,” says Ernest. “I think Papa knew him. Was his nickname ‘Mr. Raindrop?’”

“Behind closed doors yes, though I once heard him ranting after he caught another hero say it. About how it should be ‘Mr. Cloud-drop’ because apparently it cleared an entire set of clouds from the sky that day.”

The hero’s party continued to reminisce about old times and magical shenanigans as they traveled. The entire group agreed that the first five spells should never be used unless they happened across a wide and flat wasteland with flight and haste already cast.

Several hours and a handful of skirmishes with the local wildlife later, they arrive at a small yet bustling town just before sunset. Marvin walks with confidence along the main street heading into the forest until he arrives at Mabel’s Motel, a two level complex surrounding a dirt courtyard.

As the group walks into the office building, or as Rory put it, Office Shack, they are greeting by a Dark Elf behind a counter. “Welcome to Mabels, Entrance to the dark woods.”

“Hello Mabel,” greets Marvin. “It’s been a while, but I’m here for two rooms if you have them.”

“If it isn’t the young hero~,” Mabel replies with a smooth voice. “Last time you were here was when that dark mage was giving you trouble wasn’t it~. Quite a memorable experience for all of us you know, waking up with a notorious criminal hung by his trousers from a pole~. I have to thank you though as I’ve been using that as a threat for the more rowdy guests.”

Marvin’s face turns slightly dark at the memory. “I really wasn’t in that good of a mood at the time so it may have been excessive.”

“No dear,” Mable replies with an evil grin, as if from experience. “Excessive would be doing that and then smearing him with rustweed during ironfly season.”

“So if I’m hearing correctly,” says Ernest, “Don’t make you angry?”

“Unless you’re into that sort of thing~. We have two rooms on the corner of the second floor. Place your hands on these crystals~please~.”

Marvin motions to Ernest and Rory as he touches one, and points Rachel to the other. The crystals shine briefly after contact and Marvin removes his hand. Rory is intrigued by this as he watches Mabel place the crystals on a replica of the building, where their rooms are located. Marvin hands over three gold to Mabel, much to the surprise of Rachel and Ernest. Mabel goes over the few rules, which included check out times as well as what should be done with any weasels found on the property, and then hands them small wooden chips with their room number on them.

The hero’s party make their way up to the rooms and decide to talk for a bit before grabbing food from a restaurant. When Rachel tries to open the door of the guys’ room, she finds she can’t. Marvin reaches over and touches the door handle and pushes in.

“Magic locks,” he says. “Thought it was strange the first time I saw them, but they don’t let anyone in who isn’t registered to the crystals we touched. They will let everyone out though. Windows included.”

“So that’s why it was so expensive,” says Rachel. “We hardly ever see you spend that much money on rooms so I was surprised.”

“Yes,” continues Ernest, narrowing his eyes as Marvin walks through their door. “We’ve known you for a while but I think you owe us an explanation. The rest of us have all heard stories of him but you seemed like you knew him. And from what the various souls were saying, this was unusual for his guests.”

“And everyone was so nice,” continues Rachel. “Well, apart from intentionally trying to irritate you it seems. And he even gave us equipment.”

“Indeed,” Rory says, closing the door and casting a sound isolation spell, without the staff this time. “What is going on, Hero Marvin?”

Marvin sighs lightly and motions for everyone to take seats on either bed or the couch. “It’s about time for you three to rank up anyway, so treat this as a bonus for now as you’ll be told soon enough. You know the symbol he uses for everything right?”

The three nod, and Rachel says, “It’s something everyone learns about when we’re young and every organization I’ve been with says something about it. ‘Ask whoever shows this symbol for confirmation of who they are, and if they completely heal you or someone you point out nearby, don’t fight them. Pay close attention to everything they say, and don’t make them mad or try to stop them or everyone will suffer.’ Things like that. And we always draw it in the dirt or something that fades away. Unwritten rules and what have you.”

“Yes,” says Marvin, “Well they’re unwritten for a reason. Every time he finds literally solid evidence of how a group operates he changes how he works with everyone. At one point people gave him a name or a title, only to find out about a decade later he managed to put together some sort of name-oracle spell that would literally light up the sky above them for several days. And then send down some sort of healing lightning until 24 hours after the speaker was struck. One rule they may or may not have told you is if someone shows an actual symbol and doesn’t get fully healed, they are attacked almost immediately. Even the gangs will send someone after the guards if someone shows up and fails.

“At the end of the day though, here’s what you’ll learn in a while. First, if you ever see the real him you will walk out of whatever situation you find yourself in alive, at least until he disappears. Second, if he ever offers you something take it, first because it very well could be better than most other items available, and second it may keep it out of someone else’s hands. Third, expect him to tell you the truth, but lie about it.”

“And what does that mean?” inquires Rory.

“Do you know where his lair is located? Where we came from? I found him after the fight in the middle of the capital at a corner shop. He opened the door for me and invited me in, closed it, and literally opened the same door which was connected to the room we woke up in.”

Ernest and Rachel were contemplating the questions while Rory sat there with his mouth ajar, shocked to the point he may have fainted with his eyes open. Ernest notices Rory and pokes him in the side.

“So,” continues Marvin, “What we do know is that he has a lair with soul stones implanted in the walls, which everyone at my level and above knows. The only extra thing we found out is that there’s a connection to the frozen wastelands to the south, which I didn’t know existed. Could it be there? Maybe. Can I say for sure, not at all. It could just be a door. The more paranoid you are, the less you will be disappointed, that was the last thing you’ll be told. And given our, circumstances, I think we should keep quiet about running into him for the time being.”

“So answer my first question,” says Rachel now that Rory was back with them. “How do you know him?”

“You remember that dark mage I told you about? For about six months before and three after, my party at the time had picked up a wandering druid as a healer and support. I’ll give you one guess as to who that actually was.”

“Well, honestly I can’t say the personality wouldn’t match, him acting like a druid,” says Ernest.

“Someone who we expect could easily flatten a fortress, was running away from a very angry Dire Grizzly while dressed in a robe and carrying a leafy staff. We were crossing a tall bridge when he was being chased so we jumped in to help, and he insisted we just knock it into the river Charyl and it would be fine. We found out later that he had found its cub and returned it to the den as it was lost, then got chased by one of its parents.”

“Typical druid behavior,” says Rory.

“Exactly what we thought, and we were down a person at the time so we figured why not see if he would join us for a while. He kept using that same lilting tone the entire time we were working together, and even when we finally had an audience with the Royal Court after they decided what to do with the aftermath of the black mage and hand out our rewards.

“We got up to the point where they announced, ‘kneel before your king,’ when the King cut in and said, ‘except for you, you old monster.’ I look around quickly as the court becomes noisy, and see a wide grin on the druid’s face. He takes two more steps forward and says, ‘It has been quite some time kiddo.’ The King was in his 8th decade at the time, and before anyone else could rebuke the druid, the King said, ‘Please show the court who you are.’ The King said please. Needless to say we were all shocked, but less so than when a magic circle covered the entire palace grounds and swept through everything. Then, he starts giving out numbers of ‘this many people’ with broken or missing limbs, an obscene number of healed scars, various diseases, at least two people were poisoned, and a few other things. The King must have known well beforehand though as he said, ‘Thank you, I had several people brought here just for this.’ It turned out later the King was about to hand over the reign of the kingdom and wanted a number of competent advisors still in good health for his son and this was a golden opportunity.

“Needless to say it was all explained to me later, but that was twenty years ago and he was very, very annoying while in our party, so adding his identity onto that gave me quite a bit of trauma…”

“It’s okay Marvin,” Rachel says while getting up to pat him on the shoulder while grinning. “But at least now we have something to tease you with~. Also, is that what the acorn was about~?”

“I’m not sure if I should plant it or hold onto it…” says Marvin while shaking his head. “It could be a normal acorn, or it could turn into something absolutely strange.”

“Whell,” Ernest says, also standing and stretching. “We can always sell it as a magical acorn and spend the money on food. Let’s go eat.”

With that, the hero’s party leaves their traveling packs in the enchanted rooms and head out to find a restaurant.