text stringlengths 0 41.4k |
|---|
"Apart from bloodlust? Not much, a vampire spawn is much more powerful than a feral one as well as having been killed by a full vampire and being under their total control," he explained, eliciting worried expressions from the two girls. |
"And a full vampire instead?", she asked again. |
"Oh, they are a completely different beast, much more powerful, fast and intelligent, they can shake off magical effects a limited number of times a day, summon beasts of the night, enchant people and if they are not killed under certain conditions they become a cloud of fog and retreat to their coffins until they are ... |
"And what are these certain conditions?", asked Luz this time. |
"Mh, the usual ones, expose it to sunlight or running water or if that can't be done, buy time so that it can't reach the coffin within a couple of hours", he replied and then saw Freya approaching them. |
"I'm done with the ceremony, we can go now," the young woman said, giving them a nod. |
"Okay, I've got all my gear here," Merren said, patting a shoulder bag under his trench coat. |
"Great, what about you two? Do you have what you need to travel?" Freya asked. |
"Yes, the store clerk was very kind to give us a discount, also I must say that these leather armors are quite comfortable," Luz replied, eyeing the armor on top of her clothes while she had a duffle bag on her shoulder. |
Amity also had the same outfit, a comfortable leather armor covering her torso and shoulders while her brown duffle bag was strapped to her shoulder. |
The two witches recalled their Palismen, turning them into flying staffs and sitting on them, they invited the two adventurers to do the same. |
Merren climbed onto Luz's staff and Freya onto Amity's. |
"So these "Palismen" function like Brooms of Flyiiiiii-," Merren exclaimed, only to be thrown by the momentum and grab hold of the young witch who flew at high speed towards the west. |
The two witches quickly zoomed through the sky, leaving Silverreach behind them and traveling towards their next destination, Pearlpoint. |
"Oof, I'll never get used to this," Merren commented, climbing down from the staff in a distraught manner. |
"Not even my steed Daggerwind can go that fast, we have completed two weeks of travel in just a quarter of an hour," said Freya, somewhat amazed as she dismounted from the staff. |
"Yup, pretty cool huh?", Luz commented with a smirk, returning Stringbean to her snakeshifter form. |
"So this is Pearlpoint... it looks nice," Amity said, taking a few steps from the hill they were on to look out over the city. |
Pearlpoint was a coastal city located far west of the Golic Steppe, right on the edge of the continent of Artania and leading to the Aurenian Sea. |
The city was beautiful to look at, protected by high walls and laid out in a crescent moon shape, Pearlpoint was built mostly of white brick houses, wooden palisades and brown tiled roofs while taller buildings could be seen made entirely of stone and with bronze roofs, in the center of the city there was the port wher... |
"Yes, Pearlpoint is one of the few imperial cities located on the Golic Steppe," commented the half-elf, coming alongside her. |
"Is there an empire?" Amity asked, curious. |
"Yes, located in the center of the Middle Realm, right in the middle of the continent and allied with the dwarven and elven kingdoms, Mercurius Belisarius founded it more than three hundred years ago by allying himself with the king of the dwarves and the queen of the elves to take the imperial city from the hands of a... |
"Oh, you seem like someone who knows a lot about history," the witch observed. |
"I am a bard, it is my job to remember and tell the stories of great heroes and maybe one day there will be someone who will tell those aboute me," said Merren and then set off towards the city. |
Amity shook her head slightly, a slight smile on her face as she followed him, the rest of the group behind her. |
They passed through the city gates, entering the crowded streets. |
Luz and Amity could see mainly humanoid people, a large part of it was human but they could see several half-elves, dwarves, tieflings, dragonborn and here and there some genasi. |
Obviously apart from the half-elves, the dwarves and a few tieflings, for them all the others were new. |
They passed through the alleys of the city, reaching a small square full of stalls made up of tents of all colors while beyond a wooden stage stood a rectangular stone building with a red roof and windows. |
Above the door lay a symbol, a compass with a feather next to it and the name just above. |
"Four Winds Agency" |
"Oh, there it is, that's where we can take on some assignments," Freya began, pointing to the building. |
"Oh, how do you get an assignment? Do you need to have a license first to become an adventurer?" asked Luz, heading towards the building. |
"It depends, usually those who want to take one are accepted first if they have an academy diploma for a profession such as warrior, cleric or in my case bard, but in general anyone can take up an assignment... if they are of age obviously", he explained. |
"In addition to this, taking on an assignment is simple, you choose the one with the reward you like best from a notice board, you give it to a certifier of the agency who makes a copy and stamps it for you, if you don't return with the copy within a month and proof that you have completed the task, they place the orig... |
They immediately entered the building, being greeted by a pleasant smell of books while the polished wooden floor of the corridor led them into a large room illuminated by the windows. |
There were noticeboards hanging on the walls with what were supposed to be the tasks printed on parchment leaves and a group of adventurers of all kinds were standing in front of them choosing. |
At the end of the room there was a counter divided by a line of bars from which the certifiers could be seen, dressed in green canvas shirts with short sleeves and with the agency's symbol embroidered on the right pectoral. |
The group approached one of the noticeboards, picking out something among the papers that could offer enough to buy two scrolls of Revivify. |
"Mh, hey, how about this? Owlbear hunt, if we bring its head we will earn five hundred gold pieces," observed Merren, eyeing an assignment. |
"Do we really have to? Watch it! It's a bear and an owl! The combination of two adorable animals!", exclaimed Luz, somewhat annoyed, pointing to the drawn figure of the animal. |
The half-elf eyed the assignment for a moment and then the human's face. |
He let out a soft snort. |
"Okay, if you care we can leave the owlbear alone," he said and then looked around and eyed Freya from the opposite side of the room, noticing that she had an assignment on her hands. |
"Hey? Found something interesting? Because if it's an animal that our kind-hearted friend thinks is adorable, I guess she won't let you take it," he exclaimed, pointing his thumb at Luz while she glared at him. |
Something, however, caught the young bard's eye, noticing the paladin's arms trembling slightly. |
"Hey... are you okay?", he asked, approaching the young woman and placing a hand on her shoulder. |
He saw that Freya's gaze was extremely serious, staring at the task in her hands like a hawk stares at its prey. |
Merren raised an eyebrow, looking at what was written on the assignment. |
He showed a surprised look as he saw that it was about hunting down and bringing all three heads of the coven of green hags from Talagan's Rotten Forest, offering a thousand coins for each head they would bring. |
That name rang a bell in the bard's mind, he remembered having read somewhere that several years ago a coven of hags had settled in that forest and had disfigured it, reducing it to an infested swamp. |
"I take this charge," Freya exclaimed in a tone that seemed to accept no objections. |
"Are you sure? A coven of green hags is dangerous," the half-elf warned her. |
"I've never been more confident in my life," he said, looking extremely determined. |
Merren nodded and then approached Luz and Amity. |
"Freya has chosen... and she seems adamant about it" |
"Why? What did she choose?", Luz asked, perplexed. |
"Killing a coven of green hags," she replied, earning slightly worried looks. |
"What are green hags?" Amity asked. |
"Mh, during my Warlock initiation I researched various planar creatures, I remember a piece of a tome that described green hags in detail," replied the half-elf. |
"They come from another plane, the Feywild ... and not in the beautiful part where there are fairies and flowers, but the ugly and dark one, they are ... witches with a perverse and sick sense of humor, they love to screw anyone within their reach and they corrupt the nature that surrounds them", he explained, causing ... |
"And... and do you know anything about how we can deal with them?" Luz asked. |
"Obviously, one hag alone is not a problem but three together have abilities comparable to those of a wizard whose knowledge of magic reaches the spells of the sixth circle, although with the difference that they share the physical and mental effort to cast them as a one person," he explained. |
"And how powerful are the sixth circle spells?" Amity asked, tilting her head slightly. |
"I don't know, I've never seen one in action, but I know one thing for sure... we can exploit their weak point, they have a mystical eye that they use to spy on and that they entrust to one of their servants to keep it safe , if we take it and destroy it we will make them blind for a whole day, which will give us a hug... |
"Oh so if we found this eye we could kill the hags more easily, but we would need someone who is good at stealing and wouldn't be seen," Amity exclaimed, running a hand over her chin. |
"I could try, but unfortunately I don't have a glyph of invisibility with me," Luz shrugged. |
"I can make you invisible," Merren commented, catching the human witch's attention. |
"Really? So we're gold!", she exclaimed, clenching her fist with determination. |
"I'm going to get the assignment certified, we'll stop at an inn for the night and we'll leave tomorrow, I need time to meditate," Freya said in a hasty tone, heading towards the counter. |
"Mh, have you noticed it too?", asked Merren, eyeing Freya with a worried look. |
"Yes, she seems more serious than usual," Luz observed, a worried frown on her face. |
"And... she's furious, like she's holding back her anger," Amity commented, putting a hand apprehensively to her chest. |
"Maybe it's about the hags, I saw her arms tremble as she held the paper," the half-elf revealed, increasing the concern of the two witches. |
The group retreated to the city inn, "Silver Shield" was the name, somewhat expensive but welcoming. |
They took a spacious room with three bedrooms and a small room with a coffee table, a fireplace, a sofa, a wardrobe, a clothes hanger and a few trunks to store objects. |
Unlike their first night in Silverreach, Pearlpoint brought them a peaceful night's sleep and the morning sun illuminated the city walls, making the sea waters shimmer. |
The four adventurers woke up slowly and at their own pace. |
Merren dressed and took a moment to tune his lute from his bag. |
Freya instead knelt in the sunlight, beginning her morning prayers. |
Luz and Amity instead woke up with a soft moan and a yawn, sharing the same bed while their palismen were balled up at the foot of it. |
They got up and got ready comfortably to then meet the half-elf and the young aasimar. |
"Hey there, did you sleep well?" asked Merren, giving the two witches a friendly smile. |
"Yes, you can sleep better if you aren't woken up by a nocturnal vampire attacks," Luz smiled, shrugging. |
Amity, on the other hand, eyed the ball, the latter seemed lost in thought. |
The witch stepped closer, placing a hand over her shoulder and catching her attention. |
"Hey, are you feeling okay?", she asked in a slightly worried tone. |
Freya gave her a small smile, nodding slightly. |
"Yes, my mind is just crowded with various thoughts," she said in a calm tone. |
"Is it about the hags? Because if it bothers you, you can talk to us about it," the witch said, showing her a sincere smile. |
Freya watched her for a moment, analyzing her intentions, and after seeing nothing but genuine concern in her eyes, the paladin let out a soft sigh. |
"There's...one thing you should know about the hags, all of you," she said, catching Merren and Luz's attention. |
"I was born in Oakwell, a small village located in the Talagan forest, my family and I lived in peace together with the rest of the inhabitants ... until a disease took over the surrounding clearing, depleting our crops," she began , making the rest of the group quite interested. |
"Three old women came to our rescue, proposing a deal ... they would cure the disease in exchange for a part of everything that would grow in our village, at the beginning the agreement seemed too favorable ... until we didn't realize that those three witches meant literally everything that would grow in our village, p... |
"They... they didn't want children too, I hope," Amity murmured, horrified. |
Freya narrowed her eyes, a deep feeling of anger pervading her chest. |
"We turned against them, it wasn't what we wanted from that agreement... but we soon discovered that a bunch of rebellious peasants had little hope against a coven of hags, many of them understood this very quickly...my parents were among them," he revealed, causing a deep sinking feeling in the hearts of the rest of t... |
"I was just a child when this happened, I fled along with the rest of my people and we scattered across the steppe... I was welcomed by a druidic circle and spent most of my time training, I took the oath of the ancients, becoming a paladin to prevent things like this from happening again," she said, inhaling with her ... |
"I... I have to close this circle, I have to do it... or I will never find peace" |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.