Rule 3: Your teammates are what stands between you and a messy death. Trust them, and make sure that they have reason to trust you. The more you know about each other, the better you’ll all be able to make plans for the expected, and to deal with the unexpected when it inevitably happens. (Yes, this is why we have those stupid icebreaker exercises at the start of each term. No, you can’t skip them.)

- “1001 Rules for Adventuring,” standard issue to all new Adventurer’s Guild initiates.

Greentree

“... two hundred silver to retrieve the body; fifty more if by some miracle you can bring him back alive. Twenty silver for every left ear you bring this one, and you can keep the eyes to sell them to Nettlebane.”

“Deal.” I smiled, and extended a hand. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

Captain Marahm gave me a grudging nod, and shook my hand, being careful not to mark me with his claws. Yet another good reason not to drive too hard a bargain with the man.

The “bargaining” had actually amounted to less than a minute of haggling; we both knew that there was still the possibility of a man’s life at stake, so we didn’t drag it out. I wasn’t entirely happy - this could be a lot more danger than that much money was worth - but I was willing to extend a bit of good faith that the captain and his people would make up for it later.

I turned to the lady druid who’d been waiting for us to finish up, leaning against the wall of the house with a resigned expression on her face. “Miss Hogsworthy, if you’re still interested and willing to accept some rules of engagement, then we’re willing to take you along with us.”

Her eyes went just a bit wider, betraying her surprise, and she sprung up off the wall like someone had jabbed her with a needle, grabbing her staff and bag hurriedly. “I- yes, absolutely! Whatever you need, I’m happy to help.” She glanced at Faraday and Cherubix, then back to me. “Thank you, it means a lot. I promise I won’t get in the way.”

Marahm coughed. “For the record, if anyone should ask, this one disapproves of involving a civilian in such an expedition, no matter how capable she may be.” He glanced at me and the other two members of our team. “Keep her safe, yes? This one understands that bad things can happen, but it would result in many unfortunate complications if she were to not come back.”

“Enough, captain,” Ladybird said curtly, glancing over her shoulder at him. “I’m not a child, no matter what my mother thinks, and I’ll thank you to not treat me that way.”

Marahm’s whiskers twitched in a small smile. He lifted his hands like he was surrendering the fight, and said, “Yes, yes, and you may tell her that.” Lowering his arms, he gave us a more serious look, meeting each of our eyes. “In all seriousness, this one wishes you all luck. Bright Queen light your path.” Then, with a small bow, he turned and headed back into the house where his men were holed up.

“So,” I said, looking between companions old and new, “Shall we get moving?”

Greentree Outskirts

“So, whatcha got?” I asked with a smile. Sure, I could’ve been more specific, but where’s the fun in that?

“I… beg your pardon?” Ladybird looked at me uncertainly.

“Spells. Tricks. Nifty things you can do to pull your weight. Whatever let you pass three field expeditions ‘with flying colors.’”

She smiled, her expression clearing up. “Ah, yes, those. Well...”

We were walking down the trail that had been worn in the tall grass between Greentree and the grove. Ko had returned, saying that other than a picked-clean carcass of a small deer on the edge of the wood nothing seemed amiss, and was riding on my shoulder, watching our new addition with interest.

Ladybird started ticking things off on her fingers. “Longstrider for faster movement. Barkskin and Rhinohide to protect against physical harm. I know the various Resist Elements wards as well, though I doubt they’ll be necessary here. Tiger’s Grace, Auroch’s Might, and Mammoth’s Constitution for bodily enhancement. Regeneration for healing, although at my current tier it’s limited and that spell is always risky if you have it on and take the wrong kind of wound. And, lastly, Camouflage and Muffle if stealth is called for.”

My brows had been steadily climbing during that recitation. I could personally only do the equivalent of a couple of those, only one of them near the tier five mark, and I was theoretically our team’s offensive support. I shared a glance with Faraday.

“Damn,” Faraday said, taking the words right out of my mouth. Turning back to her, he asked, “So you’re that kind of support. How many of those can you keep up at once, can I ask? And on how many of us?”

She scrunched her nose up. “Only one spell at a time, I’m afraid. I can, however, apply it to up to four people without too much trouble.” The last was said a little smugly.

I snorted. “Without too much trouble” she says. It took me a good thirty seconds of preparation and a ritual to cast a combat enhancement spell on more than one person and make it stick, and here she was claiming she could do the whole party without any issue.

“Any offensive options, or are you all boost and no boom?” I held up a hand to try to soften the words. “No disrespect intended - even if you can only toughen us up, so long as you hang back and stay out of the way that kind of thing still makes you a welcome addition. I just want to know if you’ve got anything we can use to take these critters down faster.”

The small, toothy grin she gave me in response was notably more feral than any expression I’d seen from her thus far. “Polymorph and Entangle were what I used when we were hunting as a group,” she replied. “I can do damaging spells as well, but I’m afraid that those take a bit of setup, and the target needs to be near some kind of natural wood or stone.”

“Polymorph… by that do you -” I started, before Cherubix interrupted.

“Oh, oh, can you turn them into frogs? That’d be so cool!”

“No, I’m afraid not,” Ladybird said, giving Cherubix a small smile. “That kind of transmutation is an order of magnitude more complicated than I can manage at the moment. No, my spells are limited to a more moderate alteration of the physical form. With willing targets, I can manage something within the same class of creature - mammals into mammals, reptiles to reptile, etc. Against unwilling targets it’s more along the order of, well, orders - humanoids to other humanoids, carnivora to carnivora, that kind of thing.”

She reached up with the hand that wasn’t holding her staff, tapping her chin in thought. “With fey, like gremlins, they tend to be more susceptible to magical transformation. I should be able to amplify the effect and turn them into something even less dangerous than normal. But they’ll also be able to undo the curse faster than the beasts I’ve used it on before. Treat it as a moment of weakness, when you see me hex one of them, not as if they’re stuck that way.” The hand that was tapping her chin moved over to her other arm and started rubbing it, as her face took on a much more sober and serious expression. “Believe me, the magic can break at the least opportune time, if you aren’t paying attention.”

I raised an eyebrow, and exchanged a glance with Faraday, before turning back to her. “I take it you had a close call?”

Ladybird paused, as if debating whether to go into detail. “A smilodon,” she eventually said, nodding. “We were supposed to bring one back alive for the Collegium’s collection. I’d shrunk it into a more manageable size, and my partner and I were binding it for transport. One of the other teams distracted us, and it took the chance to break the transmutation and some of the bindings on a fore-limb. Got me on the arm,” she said, and patted the bicep, “and Jalana in the ribs. Only the fact that we were almost done with binding it kept that mistake from being crippling or fatal.”

Faraday and I both winced. We’d not had any similar incidents during our time working together, but Guild field training featured a team hunting exercise, tracking and killing a dangerous predator. Every class had somebody who had to be rescued by the instructor - usually after they’d been chewed on a bit, just to make the lesson stick.

“Well, we’re not trying to take anything alive, this time, so no worries on that,” I said. Then I had a thought, and I could feel the corners of my mouth turn up in a mischievous grin. “Although…”

“No.” Faraday said, expression flat and not budging an inch. “Gremlins are not pets, Dezi. Even less so than a grease weasel. We’re not going through that again.”

“Aw, you’re no fun.” I stuck my tongue out at him, but then schooled my expression. “Seriously, though, if we can take one of them alive, I think it could be worth the hassle. Since this is apparently the first time that this grove’s seen a gremlin problem, if there was a reason for them infesting it now then I’d like the chance to ask one of them what it was.”

“Did… did she try to tame an oligeseil?” Ladybird was still stuck on what Faraday had said, apparently. Her expression of shock and disgust was priceless, which made bringing it up absolutely worth it.

“She tried,” Faraday ground out, giving me a flat stare that I just returned with my cheekiest grin, before turning to explain to Ladybird. “It even worked, for a couple of days, until the thing decided that it wanted to eat the innkeeper’s cat. At which point no amount of her ‘persuasion’ could keep it in its cage, so we had to find it, kill it, and then get rooms at another inn.”

He looked back at me then and nodded, conceding my actual point. “She’s right, though - a prisoner could be useful if it has information on what’s causing this. Cherubix, when we’re down to the last few, or some are running away, could you try to stun or freeze one?”

The brownie in question looked rather displeased at the idea. “Awww, but why? The only good gremlin’s a dead one! Dezi can just find out why they were there after they’re dead, right?”

“Actually, that brings up a point,” Ladybird said, before I could respond. “You know what I can do, but I must admit that I’m curious what the three of you are capable of.” She pointed at my bow and Faraday’s sword. “I can make a decent guess, but at the same time if I’m going to be part of this then I would like to know what to expect.”

Faraday, Cherubix, and I looked at each other. Cherubix grinned, and shouted “Woo! Show and tell!”

She drew Walter and flourished him in the air, saying, “This is Walter! Say hi, Walter!”

“Hey,” the sword said in his flat, dull voice, to Ladybird’s obvious astonishment - and, to be fair, it wasn’t every day that a sword talked to you.

Cherubix, though, was moving on with her demonstration. “I cut things up with him, and I throw fire and lightning and frost and wind, and I can make walls! Oh, and I can fly!”

She thrust Walter behind her, pointing him at the ground, and a jet of sparks spat out of the blade before Faraday held his hand up in front of her face, interrupting her takeoff.

“Woah now. Let’s not go setting the grassland on fire, aye?” He said, trying to temper her enthusiasm with a smidgeon of common sense.

She didn’t look particularly pleased at the interruption, but then looked back and saw the tall grass only a couple feet behind her, and let out a very quiet (for her) “... Oh. Yeah, okay, you’re right.”

The disappointment didn’t last long, though, and after a couple seconds had passed she’d perked right back up. “Anyway! They say that I’m the ‘designated offensive caster’ or whatever but I just like lighting bad guys on fire. And so does Walter! Dontcha, Walter?”

“Oh yeah, it’s buckets of fun.” The contrast between the words and the dull monotone of Walter’s voice made me crack a smile, but it also gave me an opportunity to butt in.

“Anyway, as Cherubix was saying, she’s our heavy hitter whenever elemental attacks work against something. She’s small, mobile, and dangerous to targets both close by and at a distance, so she also tends to be the one we rely on when the unexpected happens.” The brownie just grinned at me as she sheathed her sword.

“Faraday,” I continued, gesturing at the man in question, “is our front-line, though since he prefers his longsword over a shield and shorter blade we can’t rely on him to do any of the deflection tricks that some sword-and-board types are capable of. Still, he hits like an angry troll and his armor makes it hard for the weaker types to get at him in return, so we generally use him as our anvil to Cheri’s hammer. And, as you’ve seen, his connection to the Light makes him handy afterwards if one of us needs to be patched up.”

“And Dezi acts as a ranged offensive support,” Faraday interjected, smiling at me, “aiding us in our magic with her knowledge of spirits and rituals and using that bow of hers to pick off stragglers, while Ko gives us eyes in the sky and reliable navigation.”

He looked back at Ladybird. “I don’t know about the other two,” he said, “but my vote for which of your arsenal to use would be one of Barkskin or Rhinohide, whichever you think would be more effective as a defense against the gremlins’ attacks. The Light strengthens my arm, so I won’t be needing that Might spell, and I think in this instance having something to keep their blades and claws out of us would be the best use of your magic.”

He glanced at me and Cherubix. “Sound fair?”

We both nodded. I was definitely all in favor of something to keep the gremlins from doing to us what they did to that kid.

Ladybird was glancing between the three of us. While she still seemed a bit weirded out by Walter’s existence, otherwise she’d taken most of that in stride. “I see. Well, let me know when you want it put up - it takes a few moments to cast it properly.” She looked at the blur of trees that had been slowly appearing on the horizon, and a spark of emerald light appeared in the depths of her eyes. “In the meantime, might I suggest we make use of Longstrider to get there sooner? I wouldn’t want to spend any time in the grove at night if I could avoid it, even before it had a host of little terrors infesting it, and the sun is only going to keep getting lower.”

I smiled at her. “By all means, let’s be about it.” So far so good. We’d see whether she could hack it when we got into the thick of things and monsters started appearing out of the woodwork trying to kill us, but so far the signs were promising.