Formalities over with and with a brand new, but still the same quest, they continued to wait for the supposed messenger. Customers started flooding inside the inn, buying drinks, screaming over each other trying to have ‘civil’ conversations about their sex life and how they fucked over one person or other. A fair number of races other than elves were present as well, some of them in some form of armour, signifying their adventurer status. Rogues tried to steal coin, barbarians started fights, paladins held both of them back. Stories were told, lutes played, coin passed around. And none of them even looked their way.

“Outside the backdoor in five minutes”.

What didn’t stop them from talking to them. All four started looking around for the source of the message, but the usual fights and alcohol induced talks have swallowed the person talking to them. In any case, the message was delivered loud and clear, and with little internal debate, except for the obvious eye roll from the halfling, they walked straight to the backdoor, which doesn’t envelop the struggle to do so.

One could say that the back alley behind the inn was even worse than the front, but that one sure hadn’t been outside of Butovo for his whole life. Same piss puddles and wet stones were only made more claustrophobic due to the building, barely two meters in front. Not to mention an elf in black leather from the top of his head literally down to the bottom of his feet. His outfit wasn’t one continuous overall, but it might as well had been: the line between his shirt and pants was barely visible, even if you looked for it. The only grey part, only because of his elven skin could be seen through a slit for his unnaturally yellow-blue eyes.

“Bose sent you a message”, he purred. From somewhere within his outfit he got out a scroll, tied with a red silk ribbon.

“Fancy”, Syln said.

“Indeed, my stout friend”. Two long slender fingers grabbed hold of one of the ribbon ends and pulled gently, but firmly. The scroll unrolled, as if by itself, showing the fancy writing, the wrapping suggested.

My dear friends, hope you’re ready for your first assignment. You might feel that I am being harsh, but trust me, I’m most generously giving you the shittiest and thus the easiest job I have at the moment.

In the guard post near the edge of the city, in our prestigious Butovo neighborhood, for all here are my neighbors and friends, someone incompetent, who will be punished, let me reassure you, left a very grave package. What’s inside isn’t important, not to you.

As you might have guessed, your job is going to be to retrieve that package and bring it to a secured place. That is bring it to my dear friend Torik, the innkeeper. He will make sure that the package will be safe, until I will be able to get it myself.

Go to the guard post on the edge of Butovo and retrieve the package. Bring it back to the innkeeper

Accept / Deny

The word ‘Accept’ was underlined was much bigger than the ‘Deny’ next to it, as a subtle suggestion from Bose. The elf in front carefully slid the paper right into Syln’s hands. The dwarf looked at him with a question ready to throw at the elf.

The elf’s mask slightly moved, as he smiled slyly. “Questions?”

“Yeah. Couldn’t you do that?”

“As I am sure, Bose has written that there’re more important jobs, that the likes of me must pursue. Besides, the guards here, couldn’t give two shits, even if your foot was stuck in their breakfast. You’ll do fine”.

Syln’s gaze was still skeptical. He looked at the paper, to try and find anymore details, he might’ve missed after reading it three times in a row, and looked back up, only to find the elf gone. He turned to ask his companions about his whereabouts, but with no words spilt, they just pointed up. When he brought his gaze the said way, he only saw a dark shadowy blurr jump from one roof to another.

“Wel, then...” the dwarf whispered to himself and stared back at the paper and pressed his finger against the still warm ink of ‘Accept’.

You have accepted the quest ‘Special Delivery’ from ‘Bose Dellier’

Retrieve the ‘package’ from Butovo guard post and bring it to Torik 0/1

Reward: 250XP

“Should we get started?” asked Felia, trying to keep her voice down.

“We might as well”, Cervella added and started going out of the alley, leading the way.

******************************

The guard post wasn’t as far, as they have anticipated. Butovo wasn’t a very big district, but it didn’t mean that it was the only one, where the bottom feeders of Boremar city lived.

The guard post wasn’t very hard to spot even though it blended in perfectly with the rest of the buildings around it. What gave it away was a platoon of heavily armoured soldiers, armed to the teeth, with swords, shields and spears. All of the guards’ equipment bore Parva’s symbol: a golden libra with the same golden halo above it. But it didn’t tell much about their allegiance. They could have been the regular guard, who had a bucket of alcohol to scrub the image away and another bucket of paint to draw the appropriate insignia of the next prince in line, or the privateers of a Tohcraft fanatics, raised to worship the one and only ‘true’ family.

Even though Felia was a cleric from Parva’s church she never had any sympathy for the politics surrounding the church, and the whole country for that matter. It wasn’t her forte, exactly. As an orphan she only had two ways to go: the church or the streets, begging for coin, in vain hope to earn enough for a meal that week. Looking back at her sudden job change, she was wondering, if she made the right call back then. Who knew, how high her rogue level would be, if only she chose the streets over the now inaccessible church.

She shook her head. No, this wasn’t the time for such thoughts. They had a job to do and friends to rescue, and she couldn’t be the only person, not paying attention to the guards in front of them.

An elf went out of the building, seemingly underdressed for the occasion, that is, he wasn’t wearing a helmet as the rest of the troop. “Roll call of the day!” he called out, keeping a piece of yellow paper in front of him. “Aleas!”

“Aye!” screamed an elf, bonking his metal glove on his metal helmet, saluting.

An elf put a checkmark on top of the paper with a goose feather. “Foma!”

“Aye!” echoed the second elf, bonking the same helmet, saluting as well.

“Erom!”

“Aye!” BONK

“Besrium!”

“Aye!” BONK

“Tromum!”

“He was killed today, herr!” screamed an elf from the crowd of guards.

The elf without a helmet clicked his tongue. “Shame”, he said as he scribbled out a name. Ink was soaking through the paper on the other side, similar to several other marks, as Felia noticed. “Umka!” the obvious captain continued.

“Aye!” BONK

“This might be our chance”, whispered Syln to them. “We should go. Now”.

He was about to take off, when Hudal cut his attempt. “And what do you think we can do? Just look at them!”

BONK

“That’s exactly, why I am proposing to go now. While they are hitting their heads together, they might as well be blind”.

BONK

“Even a blind person would be able to notice you!”

“Any other bright ideas?”

BONK

“I can do it”.

Hudal and Syln both looked at her. And then at back at each other.

“Yeah, that might just work”, said one.

“Yes, it just might”, said the other.

And then they looked back to her. Syln looked with almost fatherly warmth and reassurance, Hudal with the look of a chess player finally putting his queen to use.

The dwarf murmured to her: “If something happens, we will wait for you right here”.

“Be careful, but quick. If they notice you, run like Hel, until you are out of sight”.

“You do remember that it was I, who saved your ass back at the market?” Felia raised her eyebrow at the halfling.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s supposed to mean that I know how to stay out of sight. Maybe, better than you”.

“Yeah, fine, sure, whatever”, he spit. “Just go!”

Felia gave them a nod, threw a gaze at unusually concentrated Cervella and ran into the street from cover to cover. That is, she had to run from one side of the street to the other. There was nothing in the street, but the building shadows from the bright moon. She had to make it work.

Stealth is now level 5.

And somehow, she did. Well, to be honest, it wasn’t as if the guards were looking her way, but she tried her hardest to stay from the sight of the captain. Couple of bonks on the helmets later, she was around the guard post’s corner and was heading right to the back door. This was when, someone went out of that door.

“Yeah”, said the first guard with a voice of rocks being rubbed on other locks. “Tell me about it”.

“I just can’t believe that shit!” said a much younger voice. “Release the guy, who killed one of us? We should’ve at least beat him up for that!”

“What can you say? Money makes the world go round”.

Felia watched them from behind a wooden box labeled with an arrow and ‘this way up’, both upside down. A slightest tinkling of glass on glass could still be heard from the inside, when she accidentally pushed it. Both of the guards looked her way.

“Must be a cat”, said the first voice.

“Yeah… but still, accepting money from a Dellier? Isn’t that a crime of some sort?”

“I don’t know and don’t care”. He fell silent for a moment, and a satisfied gulp later, he added: “Besides, you got your share! And that parcel must be worth something. Didn’t the captain let you have it?”

“He told me it was a present, for my first week”.

“See? No need to worry about anything, if I say so myself”.

“I guess…”

They fell silent. Then Felia cursed them under her breath. Move! she thought. Move!

One more gulp. “Can I have some?” asked the new guard.

“Sure”.

The young elf sniffed, took a swig himself and started coughing. “Parva’s scale! How do you drink this shit?!”

“You get used to it. Not that we can buy anything else here”.

“Oh fuck...” A stomach grumbled. “I think I’m gonna...” He couldn’t finish his sentence, because now he was holding his hands on his mouth. Felia could tell that he did, because he stood right in front of him.

Short red haired elf barely older than her in armour twice his size stared at her boggle eyed. Then he threw up. Felia was spared the worst of it by jumping from her position over the box. Then some quick thinking later she grabbed hold of his hair, drew her dagger and put it to his neck. It was still pulsating with the upcoming alcohol induced contents of the elf’s stomach. The other guard was much older, his hair almost white. He put his hand on the hilt of his sword and was ready to strike her at any moment, but for some reason, he hesitated.

Before his mind could come up with the idea, Felia hissed at them. “You scream, yell, call for anyone or do anything stupid and I will cut his throat”. An empty threat at best, considering the number of scribbled out names on the captain’s paper, but it was better than saying nothing. Especially, that the guard in front was raising his hands in grim surrender.

The younger elf gulped whatever was coming up to his throat and quietly said. “Uncle?” Felia rolled her eyes. Of course, they had to be relatives. She thought what could make her hesitate and that was it. They were related. Now she just couldn’t kill the guy, not that she would in the first place.

“Take me to that package, and no one will be hurt”. She said firmly, trying to keep her voice from shaking, she felt was coming up from within.

The older guard looked her dead in the eye and said. “You won’t be able to make it. There are too many people for you to handle”.

“You're bluffing!” she said almost joyful, listening carefully for any more clinks of metal on metal. “They are all outside, on the roll call. If we go inside, take the package and go back out, we should have just enough time”.This raised a question that she decided to store for later. “And again, if you do anything funny, I think you know, who sent me here”. The gray elf silently nodded. “Good. Let’s go”, she kicked the boy.

Felia took notice of how firm and calm the boy was. it certainly was a relief from the yesterday’s pissing one. When they entered the building through the door, she relaxed for a little bit, since she was right on the uncle’s bluff. Speaking of which…

“Why were the two of you out here and not on the roll call, as everybody else?”

The elf coughed to clear his throat. “My uncle’s a friend of captain’s. He wanted to talk, so he marked us before everyone else”.

“I see”, she murmured, looking around for the package. “Where is it?”

“It’s in the room upstairs”. He fell silent, as the rogue stared him down. “Want me to take you there?”

“What do you think?”

As they went carefully up the steps, the boy trying not to cut open his throat, Felia trying to assist him and not make too much noise at the same time. Which was cut short by the metal armour the boy was wearing. It clunked with every step they took, but the guards outside were too busy ayeing and saluting to hear anything, but themselves. This was good, she thought to herself, as she wouldn’t know what to do, if they did hear. As quickly as the metal joints let them, they got to the room the boy indicated. When they went inside, it was as the young guard told her. The package was on one of the beds, where it was clearly labeled ‘Property of Bose’ swiftly underlined by another line ‘Do not steal’.

Felia quickly took the parcel, threw the boy on the bed and was ready to run out the door, when she heard a series of voices coming from downstairs accompanied by the same clunking metal. “Shit”, she spat and ran to the window. When she was about to open it, the young guard grabbed her around the chest. She bucked, trying to get rid of his hold.

“She is up!...” he started, when the rogue put all her strength in her neck muscles and hit him in the face. She felt some blood splatter against the back of her head and finally opened the window. She heard the metal steps rush up the stairs, on their way to kill her, no doubt. And so, without hesitation, she jumped, glimpsing the youngster bleeding from his broken nose, as several guards got into his room.

Felia landed on the rocky pavement and made a quick roll. That was a bad idea, as hundreds of small sharp rocks punctured her back, overflowing her head with a burst of messages.

You have received a minor scratch. -0HP

You have received a minor scratch. -0HP

You have received a minor scratch. -0HP

You have received a minor scratch. -1HP

You have received a minor scratch. -0HP

You have received a minor scratch. -0HP

You have received a minor scratch. -0HP

You have received a minor scratch. -0HP

Light armour mastery is now level 3.

Harcour parkour is now level 2.

Trying not to focus on them, she ran not looking back. The streets were empty, which was good and bad. No people meant that nobody would slow her down, but it also meant she was much easier to spot. Thankfully, the guards’ armour was too heavy to run as fast, as she did.

Felia saw Cervella, Syln and Hudal sharing their gaze between her and the guard post, but she didn’t even stop. She had to get as far away as possible. And so she ran. And ran. And ran…

*************************************

It was only fitting, when she ran out of breath. One ray after another pierced the light fog that the night left for it. The morning sun was glistening on the horizon, warming up and putting a smile on everybody’s faces. Everybody’s, but hers.

She hid behind the Butovo inn, in the same alley that Bose’s rogue met them. She was clutching the package right to her chest, as it was rising up and down. She felt her nipples poke through her shirt, as the cold sent her whole body shivering. Or could it be that she was just frightened?

Felia didn’t worry about getting caught. Level 5 stealth should do the trick, if her hiding spot behind a couple of wooden boards didn’t.

The back door suddenly rushed open. Startled by the noise, she almost jumped, but managed to keep herself. What kind of rogue she would be, if she let something as common an occurrence break her cover? Not to mention, that it was the sixth time that happened.

“Felia?”

But this was first.

“Syln?” she slowly peeked from behind the boards only to find the dwarf standing there, looking her way.

“Oh, thank Leche, you are still alive! Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine. What about you and the others?”

“What about us? You were the only one running from the guards?”

“They didn’t notice you?”

“We ran as soon as we heard someone yell. Guessed that it was about you”. He nodded at the package. “Is this it?”

“It’s supposed to be”, she said, as she looked at it, still close to her. “I think”.

“Well then, let’s not keep Bose waiting. C’mon, get inside”. He held the door, as she went inside, and had done the same himself.

They had to make their way to the counter through the usual crowd of drunks and adventurers. Torik was busy with the drinks and customers, when he saw them coming in. A few served drinks later, he could give them their full attention. Felia ripped the parcel away from herself and slid it across the counter. The dwarf looked at it, raised his gaze up at her, and slowly took it in the bosoms of his work area. She felt a little bit uncomfortable, as he did so, since he never took his eyes off of her. A tinkle glistened at her from them, and she felt the need to get her concerns out. “Did we do something wrong?” The dwarf stared at her for a moment and then shook his head. Torik got back to work, as a drunk halfling wearing nothing, but a barbarian loincloth around his junk, ordered another set of drinks.

Quest ‘Special Delivery’ from ‘Bose Dellier’ was successfully completed

Retrieve the ‘package’ from Butovo guard post and bring it to Torik 1/1

You have received your reward: 250XP