Quarry

Quadarch 30, 973 P.C.

We got out of the mine about 45 minutes after our short rest. When we finally reached the surface we got blinded by the sunlight, by the time we got out it was around 11pm, an hour away from noon. We walked towards the entrance and greeted the guards, one of them escorted us to their guardhouse while the other stood guard. While we were walking through the town a few people seemed to stare at our group, probably wondering if we had succeeded or not. Some ran away when they saw us, whether it was the fear of armed strangers or the smell of rotting flesh on our persons I didn’t know. Walking through the village now, Ryciden wasn’t that big of a village, maybe a few hundred people at most. The only thing I knew about this place before coming here is that their main income is mining, and exporting common metals in large amounts. When we got to the guardhouse on the other side of the village we were escorted to the second floor of the building where Luca seemed to be handling some paperwork.

“Welcome back kiddies, I assume since it's been nearly 3 hours since you left to the mine the undead are killed?” Luca greeted us as we entered the door. She had put down her quill and rolled up the paper she was working on, rolled it up, tied it, and gave it to a messenger bird on her window sill.

“Yes the undead monsters, which called themselves ‘Decayed 'have been slain. Monsoon if you would please?’” NoName replied as they walked up to her desk, motioning for Monsoon to come to it with them.

It took a bit for Monsoon to notice as she was still inspecting the bones, when she came back to reality she went over to the desk and handed some of the bones over, along with a bag of decayed flesh… ‘Decayed’ flesh. She spoke up and said, “Uh yeah, here you go Ms.Luca some bones and flesh, stinks by the way would advise you to close your nose. I was inspecting it on the way over here and like while this is the flesh and bones of dead people, the flesh just stopped dying? Like it seems to have been decaying and rotting in the past like maybe a few months ago, but like it stopped. I don’t know how or why and the bones seem to be in perfect shape too, like the flesh just slid off it without any problem. But again the flesh is the freakiest part, because even though this piece has already been torn off whatever body it had, it’s like its blood from when it was alive is still pumping, look.”

Monsoon placed the wrapped up piece of flesh on the table and we all watched as it pulsed. Monsoon then proceeded to just kept talking about the oddness of the undead and how weird the flesh was, which seemed to go over the head of Captain Luca cause all she said to reply was “...Okay understood, and by that I mean I understood nothing besides this is proof you killed the undead, so good job. I have some semblance of understanding what you’re saying about the undead’s remains but what you are basically saying, they’re weird and need to be investigated more.”

Monsoon deep in thought just nodded in reply and went back to examining the remains.

“I think our business here is done now isn’t it? Since we were already paid through all the services the town provided we should be on our way, thank you Captain Luca.” Kellen told the guard captain as we all started to head out.

Before we exited the door Captain Luca called to us but let out a large cough.“Ahem! Excuse me Ms. ummm Quallen? Was it, before y’all leave I would like to give you a proper reward.”

At this moment it took us all a bit to realize that she was still talking to us. I think she might have confused my name and Kellen’s. Before Kellen was able to correct her Corrin ran up beside Kellen and closed her mouth. Corrin said “Thanks Captain Luca! So what’s the reward”.

Kellen broke out of his hold, but again before she could speak up, Captain Luca replied “Well…Kelrin? Here are 8 gold pieces, one for each of you. I know that you adventurer and mercenary types usually get paid big sums so this may seem like nothing. But this 8gp is a gift and a personal thank you from everyone here in our small village.”

All of us were very thankful and knew what 8gp meant for a small town like Ryciden. Well most of us, Kellen was still a bit shook from having her name mixed up with someone else’s again, while Corrin was trying to keep himself from laughing. Honestly I think Captain Luca just may be bad with names and Kellen, Corrin, and I have way too similar of names for her to actually remember properly. I think this because the next words to come out of her mouth were “Oh yeah and uh… Monster!” she said as she snapped her fingers referring to Monsoon, like she figured something out… despite NoName saying Monsoon’s name not even 5 minutes ago. “Ah yes Monster…can you leave some of that, ‘Decayed’ flesh or whatever you called it? I got an old friend at Capital Academy for Arcane, who might be interested in it.”

Monsoon accepted, handed over some of the flesh, and corrected her saying, “Ah yeah sure Ms.Luca, and also you messed up all our names, I’m Monsoon, the person you called ‘Quallen’ is Kellen, and the man you called ‘Kelrin’ is Corrin.”

“Ah yes apologies to you all, uhhh…?” Captain Luca, seemingly trying to remember our group’s name, was interrupted by Seethe.

“We’re ‘The Chromatic Cardinals’ Ms.Luca.” Seethe corrected her before she even said anything.

“Well then ‘Chromatic Cardinals’ thank you again, and Mayor Grady wanted to see you all at town hall if you ended up completing the job. He’s probably got all of your stuff packed up for y’all so you’re all set and ready to leave. Also if you could leave quickly now that the mine is cleared we’re going to start sending miners in there in small batches. So I need to organize a lineup of guards just in case” She replied with a much more professional atmosphere than previous conversations. We then left the room and started heading towards village hall.

We asked the guard who took us to the guardhouse to take us to where Mayor Grady works. Another walk through the village and another round of stares from the villagers. When we got to the hall in front of it was Mayor Grady waiting for us, fiddling with something new on his finger. Beside him were our horses and carts, and as we approached he motioned his hand forward as if to ask us to hurry up.

When we reached him he let out a huge sigh of relief, and said “You’re all finally here, I was worried about you kids for a while there, scared you weren’t going to come back. Honestly I was even more scared of what would have happened if you died down there, what if you guys got infected than our town would have more problems blah blah blah. You get the point, anyways, thank you from the bottom of my heart thank you. I may be called the ‘mayor’ of this place, but that's only in a legal sense, honestly my family and I have been more like chieftains of Ryciden since before it was called that. Political dynasty some might say. Anyway here your horses have been fed, carts cleaned, and we gave you some extra feed for them too, as thanks for getting it done so quickly.”

Corrin spoke up after the Mayor finished speaking. “Don’t mention it, Mayor Grady, we’re just happy to help. Also I want to say if that guy who thought I was a monster feels bad about it. Tell him I forgive ‘em and I didn’t mind at all really”

Mayor Grady let out a relieved smile, came up to all of us and individually shook our hands, before removing his ring and handing me the ring that was on his finger. After handing the ring to me he said “Also here, take my ring, and before any of you try to deny it, I would like to say two things. Corrin, Quarry, and Lizles, yes? I want one of you to have the ring. Corrin, the man who noticed you does feel about calling you a monster and I will deliver your message, but if he hadn’t noticed you, we might not have told you all about our problem. Quarry if you hadn’t extended your hand to help, we might’ve been stuck in our homes waiting for soldiers to come. And Lizles, if you hadn’t been so abrasive and blunt about our need for you…”

Mayor Grady then sighed before continuing.“Ryciden might’ve disappeared, I thought that this village, my home, would’ve died out with my generation, because of some real bad luck depriving us of our only source of stable income. This place where I grew up, where my family have been living and protecting for generations. This ring, the ring I gave you has protected me and my family for generations. This is my extended gratitude. I also hear that you fought eight of them down there. Originally when we first found them there were only three, last time we had people check five, if you didn’t stop them now this place would’ve been overrun by the time the soldiers or any sort of backup came. So once again thank you.”

No one else greeted us off, just Mayor Grady and the guard that showed the way through the village. I tugged at the reins of our horses, Kinsley(who Monsoon and Corrin affectionally call 'Kipp'), a tan horse with a blonde mane, and, Goliath, a large black horse with an orange mane, and signaled them to go. While making our way through the village though, many people came out of their homes and just said thank you to us. When we finally got out of the village I noticed the rolling hills we saw as we came in, when we first entered it covered by dark clouds and heavy rain. Now we could see the beauty of the area around Ryciden without the gallons of water pouring down from the sky. We were now off, probably never going to see any of these people again. If not for that massive storm passing through this area we would've never stayed in Ryciden long enough to help them with their undead problem. Originally we were supposed to only drop by Ryciden for supplies and go straight to Alucaya, if that storm hadn’t come, this place might’ve been gone. I'm glad our plans were delayed though, ever since I was asked to be moved to inactive service I had been feeling off. I don’t feel off anymore, now I’m feeling better than ever.