The various qualities of dungeons and wyrm shards left a great deal of freedom to their masters in the particulars of magecraft.

Some dungeon lords spread out their dungeons in confusing, branching mazes, while others maintained a single endless corridor filled with their mightiest defenses all in a row.

Some dungeon lords kept their dungeon a secret, while others threw away subtlety to build up the strongest defenses they could.

And some dungeon lords spread out development over many different dungeons to not have one weak point, while others build up a single mega-dungeon.

Arlette, the water witch, was in the mega-dungeon camp.

The Stillwater Ocean was a structure fit in size to house a thousand regular dungeons.

The opening to the surface, from which it derived its magical flow, was a trio of roaming whirlpools on the windless sea. Each siphon large enough to swallow a cargo ship like the Roving Mare, yet a thin proboscis to the underwater cave it led into.

Great aqueducts snaking in all directions like tangled knots.

Giant works of glass to make the craftsmen of Grienice blush, that separated bodies of water, shielded treasure, and trapped unprepared invaders.

That, and the plethora of unique aquatic species, evolved and mutated into its own otherworldly ecosystem. A food chain of graceful but ruthless violence, in which humanity stood with the very bottom.

It could very well be called a realm of its own. As it would take a month to reach the very bottom, even without all these obstacles.

Scratch had taken the warp circle instead.

-

Arlette resided in a massive lake, the ends of which were not visible from the middle.

Scratch tentatively tested the water surface with his heel. The water-walking spell prevented him from breaking through, but it felt like there would be a maximum force the tension couldn't repel.

Anyhow, as it were, he was able to stand, and he took a few steps out towards the emptiness. To where Arlette was waiting patiently underneath.

He bend over to talk to her face to face, as the merwoman was suspended horizontally in the crystal water below.

"Your vampire friend is not with you then," she bubbled.

"Now that you mention it, no. I must have left him somewhere."

As she spoke, the still aura of silence was not broken. Laying there at the other side of the water's surface, she was like an otherworldly thing, speaking to him from beyond infinity. Untouchable.

"Most dungeon lords would rather die than expose themselves so vulnerably in a rival's dungeon. Alone." She said.

The blood was flowing to his head, so he righted himself and turned away from her. "Well, you have nothing to gain from hurting me. And anyway, he's not stellar as a bodyguard."

Giant white fins, shark fins, briefly circled around them at a distance and then sunk into the darkness below. Not to come back up anytime soon.

"I meant to ask before..." he said, feigning nonchalance, as if it were a passing interest, "your magic is a kind of witchcraft, isn't it?"

"I have left the service of Guth, and I now practice dark sorcery. But I suppose... it finds its basis in witchcraft."

The image of a very young child appeared in the air. Some sort of projection showing a scene from a foreign land.

The child had red hair and was flying over a desolate wasteland.

"I can conjure up visions of faraway places. This one shares a divine connection with you, so your presence led me to her. And now that I can see her form I may reach out over the thread of sympathetic magic." A tendril of water moved out of the lake and into the vision, where it encircled the kid's throat and formed a ball of water.

The child gasped for air and inhaled water, beginning to drown. It landed gently on the ground and sunk to its knees, struggling with imminent death.

"I have never seen this gremlin in my life." Scratch said.

"Liar, see how you recoil at seeing her suffering."

"That's enough!" He yelled.

The magical water disappeared, and the kid stood up and healed herself. For a second it seemed like she looked directly at them, then the vision disappeared.

"You will show fear in my domain, servant of the Lich." Arlette demanded.

Scratch breathed in and out, a small meditative ritual to expel unnecessary emotion. "I apologize. As a goblin, I am slow to pick up on fear. It's a species-wide genetic condition. Didn't mean to offend you."

She looked at him superiorly.

"But witchcraft, I mean it's fascinating, right?" He said as gently as possible. "We have a witch at the Promise, and she's up to all sorts of things. Building a temple out of wood and bone, collecting fairy parts. Wants to have it all concluded before a certain day in the year. Really esoteric stuff. I just gotta trust that it's for the good of the tribe, noamsayin?"

The false goddess of the sea suddenly curled over into a wicked belly laugh, so that her head burst out of the water's surface. "Hahaha! Just got to trust her! A follower of Guth! Ahaha!"

Although the laughter was wicked, it broke the illusion of spiritual unreality as she was birthed into his world of air and sound.

She wiped a tear from her eye and the distance between them seemed a lot less than infinite right then.

"Is that funny?" He asked.

"Let me ask you something, frightless goblin. This day, it would be the the June solstice that she aims to complete her work, is it not?"

"I seem to remember something about the middle of June, yes?"

"You fool! That day is the blood moon!"

He opened his palms to her in a gesture of innocence and ignorance.

"Let me break it down for you. Guth, she is the goddess of magic and the goddess of the moon, isn't she?"

"Yes."

"So the moon is her greatest weapon. And once every few hundred years it eclipses the sun during an equinox. That's when Guth's creations can overpower those of Benesant. This witch owes you no loyalty, that much is clear. When the bloodmoon is here her temple will command the stars in the sky and steal the very lands your people reside in for the goddess' domain." She inspected her fingernails, "but sure, let it happen. It would take a chunk out of Ritter's power to see your children driven back underground, so my kishin Zajjit and I would only be all the more pleased."

"Especially since that would constitute a betrayal." Scratch noted.

Her eyes lit up. "Exactly! But now I know you're just teasing me, come tell me what your true business is here."

He hesitated, his true business had indeed been to gather intelligence on witches, but it would be best not to try her patience now. "Just tryin' to be friendly," he smiled, "just because this is an alliance of convenience, that doesn't mean we can't get along. Ritter thinks so too."

"You must have brought a gift, then, to appease me."

"....yeees."

-

He dug around in his pockets.

"I have. Wait just a minute... aha!"

From his person he conjured a small cloth rectangle, with Lydia Harkness' face on it.

She approached him and her face kneaded a bit, "What is that filthy rage?"

"It says 'five' on it," he explained, and flapped the thing like it was a coveted treasure. "You can use it as that many gold pieces in my territory."

She took it out of his hand, "you thought... this would please me?"

"Ah- Hehe, not so much the amount. But think of what it represents, huh? There is no earthly way you installed all this glass without outside help, you paid for it. Had to go through a convoluted scheme to keep it clandestine, I reckon-"

"I will periodically flood and enslave the lower banks of Grienice to provide me with industry, until the adventurers' guild conquers it back."

"I- Well... there you go, can't be cheap neither. But with my credit bank and the entire population of destitute bandits at my disposal, I can install economies. Get it?" He flicked the paper in her hand, "you pay with these ones and you have a willing workforce. No finding middlemen, no flooding and enslaving, just a clear exchange of goods and services. Glass, weapons, bespoke industry, uhmm... etcetera."

She rose up, once again donning her distant aura. "And I should be dependent on you, for these tokens, huh? Able to spend at your coastal shop as much as you allow me to."

He threw up his hands, "no... no! Of course not. You may exchange them with me for gold, of course. But you can obtain them any number of ways; sell to the bandits, tax them of your minions, maybe loot them of a body. They're much like gold in that way, exactly like gold, really."

Arlette rolled up the bill and hid it in her cleavage, "the crucial difference being that people that take gold can be persuaded to serve other masters."

"The crucial difference being-" he gently corrected "that people that take gold are of interest to the adventurers' guild."

She took pause, "you mean..."

"The guild is a fundamentally mercenary organization Arlette. They won't be 'freeing' any towns they can't loot, not if there aren't any good bounties."

A little smile crept up to the side of her face, "I see. Come on then, what's the catch?"

"The catch?" A catch would be good for credibility. "Ah... you caught me. The catch is Kato- that is to say: Abyss- will be keen on stationing some of his shadow bandits in all my cities. Spies, you know. Lydia is setting up something similar and... well it's a competitive field."

Arlette was content with this small victory over him and dropped her reservations. "Good. I will take action to protect your town against Abyss' forces if I deem it profitable to myself. He is our mutual rival after all."

"Indeed!"

"Wouldn't want him to destroy this world before I do."

"...yes."

-

"How much gold can you exchange for now?" The witch asked.

"Now? We haven't even started the town yet. You're just going to trust me with your money?"

Arlette chuckled, "well I do have enough of the worthless metal."

The dark depths underneath turned clear, or displayed yet another illusion, showing an endless horizon of gold, silver, and chests of currency.

"All of the sunken treasures of the world are mine." She sang.

Scratch took a few steps back on the rippling water, overwhelmed in his senses by the immensity of the hoard that had surrounded him. "This is- How much is this?"

"Oh I'm sure it's more than can be found in all the coffers and pockets of the overworld. All dungeon lords except Yanis are much the same, gold is not much more than an onerous side-product in the pursuit of magical power. We're all bursting with it."

"This, uh- this might affect my plans." He stuttered.

"Whatever you like. I will give you time to prepare, Scratch. But don't test my patience, I will not indulge you again."

She dove into the water without disturbing its surface, and the depths extinguished their lights once more.

He was alone on that stretched surface now, the only ripple coming from his magically floating soles.

"You're gonna leave me here? Do I gotta find my own way ba- Oh shit. Sharks."

He hurriedly skipped back towards solid ground to find the warping circle.

Two hours later Lydia was pleased to see Scratch frequent the temple again.

She had had the suspicion for a while now that he was more spiritually significant than he had let on. After all, Benesant had returned him from the dead and Guth had blessed their children.

Hopefully, there was some connection to be made with the gods that would save them. Some alliance or friendship, some...

"Yeah! Get lost then! And your accent's fake too." The goblin came stamping out of the moon goddess' alcove.

The expanded temple had separate corners for each god, so they could be prayed to in privacy, free from the eavesdropping of other gods or mortals.

The woman grit her teeth for a second and then relaxed. "Scratchie... you didn't cuss in your confessions to our goddess, did you?"

"Nasty woman double-crossed us." He said with a sincerity of emotion he seldom showed. "Do me a favor and send for Lacrima, I need her in a cell before midnight."

"I don't understand."

"Guth. And Lacrima. Are in cahoots. Against us." He said in a slow and condescending manner, as if speaking to an idiot.

Only after saying it did he realize he was venting his frustrations against her, so he breathed in and breathed out deeply to quiet his emotions.

"I just spoke to Guth," he said softly, "and I was told basically to go take a hike. Lacrima is setting this whole side of the map on fire over some stupid fairy shit, so we better put a stop to it ourselves or there won't be much of the colonies left."

That she understood.

In an instant, Lydia had disappeared. She had taken on her wolf form to race with the wind.

That Scratch had been able to record and list the preparations Lacrima had made to another witch came due to the face that she had taken him up on his offer to provide for her entire operation.

Due to the resources of the Promise, that temple was now the centerpiece of a small sanctuary.

A grove had been cleared out in the thick woods, into a patch of verdant grass on which her hallows stood.

The temple in the middle, a horizontal hoop of braided twig and carved bone suspended high to receive the moon by likewise pillars. And huts and pens encircling it, a three-armed spiral of bound wood to accentuate its majesty. All within that patch of clear sky between the foliage of the woods.

Lacrima let her old boney hand knock against the uneven ruffle of branches and twigs that was the wall of her observatory.

The buildings spiraling out from the temple could contain no steel or stone, as that would disturb the bloodmoon ritual, so they had a wild character not wholly unlike dead hedges lain out by woodsmen or peasant farmers. A pile of dead sticks that opened up to the sky.

The observatory was the tallest of these buildings, and she ascended her stairway to its elevated floor with a strained haste. She had already felt they were coming for her.

-

The wind howled into the dead walls, and a chill gripped her shoulders.

She had waited her whole life for the bloodmoon and she was now an old woman, the short climb had taken her breath.

But she found what she was looking for.

Hidden between the gaps, underneath the thicket of assorted woods, lay hidden a tiny poppet.

An item of witchcraft containing the goblin baronet's essence.

She clutched it tightly and looked out the window.

Outside there were still goblins unloading materials and laying foundations, they knew of nothing.

Then, a streak of air rippled the grass and three shadows swept alongside it.

By the time she had turned around to face the stairs they had already rushed inside and stood bearing their fangs on the upper floor.

"Stay back!" She commanded, holding up the poppet. "The slightest magic and this poppet will drain the very moisture from your master's bon-"

She was on the ground.

The wind wolves had pinned her down in the time it took to blink.

The teeth on her wrist had made her drop the talisman, and the teeth around her throat made her freeze up and stop moving.

"If it were me I'd rip out your throat," the she-wolf said, "but Scratch wants you alive."

The witch clenched her jaw.

Lydia poked her. "You may be very grateful."

Two hours later, Lacrima was tied against a heavy wooden chair in the mansion.

It was a thick ornamented piece imported from Reddington's heartlands. A wealthy man's oaken approach to a throne, which a man couldn't just rock with his weight.

It anchored her to the floor.

A cold splash of water briefly drowned the witch.

"Good morning." The baronet said.

"I was already awake you idiot!"

He raised an eyebrow. "I know. It's morning."

Lacrima stretched her fingers. She didn't have the poppet, but she had her magic, and he was right in front of her...

Scratch snapped his fingers and the troll behind her tilted the chair, hanging it out the open window.

The the moon jilted upside-down before her eyes, wind blew into her ears, and blood rushed to her head. She was about to fall from the second story with her head directly onto the stone plaza.

"Ah! No!" All planning and magical spells slipped from her mind as she was faced with imminent death.

The troll leaned her slightly back, so she could face the Baronet, but not so far that she could feel at ease.

"What I used to do is- I used to send some guy over to break kneecaps and snip of fingers with a pair of clippers. Alas, we don't have clippers here- unless it's for toenails- and I wanted to interrogate you personally. Don't have the stomach for torture myself." He snapped his fingers and they turned her upside down again.

"No! No! I know what you want! I know! I'll tell you everything."

"Your friend the goddess has already told me everything. How about you talk to me in your own words, and we'll see how well your stories match. How about that?"

There was nothing left of the smug and irreverent rogue. The Scratch before her was a dead serious killer.

"All my life have I prepared for this bloodmoon..." she gasped, still drenched from the cold water, "I have mastered the goddess' magic of transformation and control... so we could claim the witchwood for her domain."

"And what does that mean? Her domain."

She eyed the troll. "It means... a ritual."

Scratch made a gesture and she was dangled out again.

"It means you're transforming the entire forest into something nasty, something that will poison the earth all the way to the shoreline," he said while she hung over the broad rocky tiles of the mansion square, "do you even know what for?"

She closed her eyes and cringed at incoming death, so she had to be pulled in again before she could answer.

"I have served the glory of Guth since I was a very young child. I don't do it for any reward, not that someone like you'd understand."

"No- What. For." He balled his tiny fist in her face, "did you never ask why she needs the forest?

-

A shadow appeared in the window.

Noss Fleder stepped inside, going from bat to man. "Let her go, Scratch. You can't stop-"

He clutched his chest and fell to the floor.

"Why is not important," Lacrima huffed, "if I needed to know the goddess' greater plans she would have seen fit to tell me."

Scratch raised his voice. "Well she saw fit to tell me."

Lydia knocked on the door and came in. "Is the threat contained? If need be I will kill her for you." She paused to look at Fleder, dead on the floor.

"Stop..." he pinched the bridge of his nose, "can everybody stop coming in? I'm trying to intimidate someone here."

"Oh, sorry." She closed the door behind her but didn't leave, instead opting to stand by the opening like a guard.

He gave her a side-eye but returned to the conversation. "You sold Guth's blessing as some sort of reward to us, but it's really for her sake, isn't it? That's what makes gods go, spreading their aspects into the world."

"The goddess is the personification of her demesne," Lacrima said through her teeth, "the more magic there is in the world, the more powerful. The fairy grove is a great power that does not fall within her aspect of magic, we must capture all fairy forests to bring feykind into her fold."

"So you do know then, thanks for being open with me." He sighed. "You could have done the same thing that you did for us."

"I am an old woman, and I will not be around to control the witchwood forever. Soon after me, it will produce a new fairy queen and it will reject the witch-magic. That's why we must transform the grove by the time of the bloodmoon, to make the communal baptism permanent." She struggled against the restraints.

"After you? You're talked about years into the future."

"Faith allows mortals to plan beyond their death. Bestial self-interest only until their next meal."

At any other time he would have wagged his finger and acknowledged her dig at his insult, but he kept a sober disdain.

"You need me to control the fairies," she said, "without me to transform into a fairy queen- even if only periodically- they will regain their wills and attack your lands once again."

"It's been years since that last happened. Our population has doubled many times over and our infrastr-"

"Let me through," Youthere demanded from behind the door, he managed to push it open but Lydia shut it on him. "I must be there when the master first develops a taste for torture."

"I will do the torturing, if it were to come to that." She said.

Noss Fleder had woken up, "Zhis is all a misunderstanding."

"That's it. Everybody OUT!" Scratch waved his arms and herded Lydia, the troll, and Noss out the door.

-

Once he had them out he rested his back to the door. "You're so filled with it." He said spitefully.

"With what?" Without the troll there she retrieved some confidence, and balled her fist to start casting magic.

"I don't know. Obsequiousness?"

"Is that a word?"

"Lost me a scrabble game once."

"...what?"

"You worship this woman, like she's some... some..."

"Goddess."

He scoffed. "I've talked to her a few times now, and every word is burned permanently into my memory. As far as I can tell, Guth, goddess of magic is just some chick doing a bad Shakespeare impression. There's nothing eternal or exalted about her."

This enraged the witch. "You hold your blasphemous tongue! You will know her majesty be the forms she bestowed upon me. TRANSFORM!"

Briefly her eyes bulged out and her form swelled, but then she returned to normal.

"Ah... TRANSFORM!"

Nothing happened.

Now Scratch's smug cheek returned, as he swung a talisman around his finger.

It was the poppet she had made of him.

"I replaced the inside," he explained, "if it's my hair in there it connects to me, if it's your hair, it connects to you. Right?"

He held it up over his outstretched hand, and to both their magical eyes, the curse on top was visible.

"Since, if I curse your body directly you can just walk up to somebody to get it removed, I decided to just steal your sympathetic magic thing."

The curse was a stripped down frantic creation, like a watch that had all but two gears removed, but with those two gears spinning like flywheels.

"Designed it myself." He said.

"You don't say..." she said it a low voice.

"I may not know much about what makes spells work, but I know curses use the host's magic juice to cast them."

"They use the host's mana."

"That's what I said. Anyway, this one just wastes the mana. Opens up the valves and dumps it in the either. Gone."

She rocked her body and screamed. "You've taken my magic from me!"

"I'm putting you in house arrest. Just like Second."

"You are defying the goddess!"

"The goddess and I will have to work things out between the two of us, without you." He opened up the door. "You can take her down now, and bring in the vampire. What do you mean he lef- go find him!"

"How..." Lacrima seethed as she was untied and escorted out, "How did I let you grow so powerful? When?"

"There's no such thing." He said dismissively.

[No!] Wahnzin is screaming at the top of her lungs.

[We must have lost another one, if I hear you screaming like that.] I say.

I'm already excited to see what the battle looked like!

Wahnzin has build a big scrying eye in the rafters of the factory. There's a platform with a sofa and rugs there, so it's actually really cozy.

If I didn't have to oversee the production I would sit up here all day watching mech battles.

[Oh. Diedrich.] She's saluting again.

[Jeez, don't salute me like some general. We're friends aren't we?]

[It's the captain model that we send to the Reddington coastal region...] She sighed.

[Did we make some mistake?]

[I don't think so. Well... just take a look.]

She enchants the scrying eye to replay what it was just showing.

It's like a big TV. I wonder if we could show idol shows on scrying eyes in people's homes.

[Here it is, the last moments of the captain model in the monster corrupted barony...]

We're seeing through the siege harness' eyes. It's making its way alongside a river and the goblins' chimneys are already visible in the distance.

Suddenly, pair of giant plants rise up above the treetops begin crossing the water.

[Poison ents.] Wahnzin says. [Enemies of manmade structures and technology.]

[I see. So the siege harness was destroyed by some powerful creatures in the area.]

[It's a rank D zone,] she complains, [there's not supposed to be any powerful creatures!]

The pilot draws the harness' weapon. A rod of elemental lightning is not going to be as useful on ents as it is on other harnesses...

But the ents ignore him! They're facing off with a shield wall of soldiers. None of them have siege harnesses, but there's a lot of them. Rows upon rows with tall metal shields.

This is getting exciting!

[Are those Reddington soldiers?] I sit down on the sofa to watch the spectacle unfold.

[Diedrich... these are the hobgoblins that the Reddington crown leaves the territory to.]

[Wow. I didn't know hobgoblins could be so advanced.]

The pilot loses his nerve and charges, attacking one of the ents with the rod.

We don't see much of the others fight as he beats down on the ent and cracks open the weird front bit with all the holes in it.

Spores come flying out.

[Ah. He had no problem with the ent after all.]

[As expected of Diedrich's masterwork.] Lothar says.

I didn't even notice him coming up here.

We bump fists.

[Lothar. Properly hail the master smith.] Wahnzin demands.

[You want me to fall off this rope ladder?]

We both laugh.

As the spores clear, the recording of the siege harness comes face to face with the hobgoblin army.

[Hey, wait a minute. How did those little guys defeat those big ents already!?]

[Pay attention!] Wahnzin demands.

After a few seconds of neither side attack the other, the pilot lunges forward.

But instead of trying to block him, or scattering, the shield wall recedes to let him in.

Now they can attack him from all sides!

The pilot swings the weapon around to drive them away, but they stay where they are at a safe distance and fire low level magic spells at it.

[Hah, elemental fire and ice can't break through are dwarven rune plating.] Lothar cheers, as if he was the one that came up with it.

But the spells are only a distraction, the legs of the siege harness are being bound by metal cables and harpoons are digging into its arms.

The pilot breaks and flings most of them, but it's forced to one knee anyway.

[And now come the trolls...] Wahnzin says.

The siege harness can still swing its weapon pretty well, but can't get up and move its feet as quickly.

Before you know it, a bunch of gray gorillas are have jumped in front of the shield wall.

They have big shiny gauntlets that extend past the arm like pointy shovels, and they can use it to block the mech's swings.

Whenever it hits one with the side of the rod, it twirls around using the impact as momentum and ends up clinging to it like a monkey on a branch.

They're just too fast! They leap right up to the mech's chest and shove their shovels right between the plating.

How can they break through it so easily...?

[It's STEEL!] I yell out. [They get to use tons of steel!]

[Are you sure?] Lothar asks.

[That shine, that flexibility but still with strength. It's tempered steel.]

[Then they truly are a serious military...] Whanzin bites her thumb as the last images show the subhumans dismantling the mech.

[Che.] Lothar clicks his tongue. [If it were me piloting I would have won there.]

[There was a young noblewoman piloting that siege harness,] Wahnzin says, [she is presumed missing now. In the hands of... those creatures.]

Lothar falls silent. I guess that is pretty sad.

[Sorry Diedrich... I know it was only supposed to be a test run for the new model. But now...]

They're not getting how exciting this is.

[Isn't this great!?] I say.

[Wha- huh?] They both say.

[There's a region we can field our siege harness in with giant monsters and complicated woodland field battles! I already have so many ideas. Whanzin, using our special technique, can you grow some forma lines like a many legged creature, such as a spider?]

[I- My witchcraft can do that. But will it be alright? Aren't we supposed to focus on the war?]

[The war will be fine, it's getting boring winning every battle anyway. A real challenge will help us improve our designs!]

[Well that's fine but- I can't guarantee such a design will work. Okay? Whether a pilot can make sense of that many limbs.]

[That's up to my control scheme. I already have a plan...]

[And I will be there to test pilot as always.] Lothar says.

We bump fists.

This is going to be so cool! My machines are going to run all over that goblin town!

Special Event: Driving Back the Invading Sea

Adventurers active within Grienice may apply at the location marked on the map. While this event is active, no other adventuring may take place within the southern Beauteaux barony, other than by special request from the Grienician senate.

At the strategy camp, adventurers will be delegated jobs based on their ability. This may result in the temporary break-up of parties.

Defending the Waterworks

Adventurers of rank E & F may be delegated to the defense of the sluices and dykes being installed to drain liberated territory of sea water. In this effort you will be supported by high ranking staff members and expected to engage only with rank appropriate monsters, such as sea-slimes, razor morays, and merfolk soldiers.

This task pays 5 silver pieces a day and comes with rations and living quarters.

Repelling Darkness

Adventurers of rank E or higher that have the mage or bard class may be asked to identify, seek out, or neutralize dark sorcery. They will be asked to stay within the confines of the strategy camp. Adventurers with the healer class may be asked to stay there as well, to receive returning parties.

This tasks pays 6 silver pieces a day and comes with rations and living quarters.

Freeing Territory

Adventurers of rank D or higher may be placed within the auxiliary forces for the liberation effort.

They will be asked to support the Grienician army by scouting ahead, breaking up concentrations of monsters, and taking down high profile boss monsters.

In this effort you will be expected to face merfolk soldiers, mudsharks, and water elementals. With the opportunity to claim bounties on higher level monsters, such as sirens, giant mudsharks, and named merfolk generals. As southern Beauteaux is currently a flooded urban area, means of traversal through water are advised. Flight or suitable acrobatics for rooftop traversal may serve as substitute according to the adventurer's own judgment.

This task pays 5 silver pieces a day, as well as the bounty for high level slain enemies and whatever can be looted of their corpses.

The mission to slay the Kraken will be drafted after suitable headway has been made into gaining territory, and the parties will be selected based on performance in freeing territory. This will be a promotion quest to rank B.