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278 quotes (278 spoken, 0 mentions)
“We’re not doing a suicide charge. Just give Ceria a chance. If she can damage it, we’ll fall back and try to escape. The horses are—”
“It’s a Runner! She just charged down the hill at the Lich! She’s coming this way!”
“Beriad my ass.”
“You can’t! I mean, that’s even crazier!”
“That was the most amazing sight I’ve ever—you just ran right past that Lich! Are you insane? Or crazy?”
“Seal? Oh, of course!”
“Dead gods!”
“He’ll blast you the instant you leave cover!”
“Thank the Five Families.”
“Wait—are you going?”
“She did it. She actually did it.”
“Drathian? What’s one of them doing across the world?”
“She’s doing it.”
“At least let us reassemble and give you a diversion. Once we get these potions to all our members, we can finally bring this guy down.”
“I think Terr got rid of the last of them, but we still can't get close. It's too flaming quick.”
“I think Terr got hit by a [Fireball]. Coblat and Grimsore dragged him away, but he’s down for the count as well.”
“You’ll get roasted. No way.”
“They’re trying, but whenever they fire at that monster, it just raises a shield. It’s got more mana than all of our casters combined. We need to get in close if we want a chance.”
“Who is that?”
“She’s foreign. Chandrarian? Balerosian?”
“Coming from our bug-eating, tree-kissing half-Elf? It must be bad.”
“We can ask later. She looks different. Drathian, you said? She’s definitely new; no one around here has the guts to do an Emergency Run like that.”
“That’s a scurrilous accusation, Ceria. Don’t go throwing that around.”
“You’re letting him go? Are you mad?”
“And in a lot of pain. It’s already forgiven.”
“I insist. Please, let me—”
“Without the potions, the best we could have hoped for would be a retreat where we didn’t lose too many of our party. In the worst-case scenario, we’d have lost over half of our group, and that’s if the Lich didn’t follow us.”
“The Adventurer’s Guild has bad ones too, like former [Bandits]. Hunt, stop spitting on the floor. This Runner’s Guild must be riddled with bad Runners, though. We’ll remember that if we need help.”
“But—”
“You don’t understand, uh, Miss Garia was it? I’m sure you City Runners do a good job for civilians. But adventurers? Most Runners don’t do deliveries to battlefields, and some of the ones that do only deliver after the battle ends. We could be in serious trouble, but your people won’t approach until all the monsters are gone. And even then, we have to pay triple—sometimes five times as much just for deliveries to areas we’ve already cleared.”
“Everything’s better in your home. Go swim to the House of Minos and bring one back, Calruz.”
“In that case, allow me to help you up the stairs.”
“Too bad.”
“This is unacceptable. I’m going up there.”
“Your job? No other Runner would have pulled off a feat like that. You saved our lives. I thought we were responsible for you getting hurt at first—but it took us a while to track you down.”
“We owe you a debt of gratitude for that delivery you did for us a week ago. Without it, we’d all have been killed by that damned Lich. Thanks to you, though, we managed to kill it and recover a lot of magical artifacts. Ceria’s got a new set of mage robes she owes all to you.”
“Ryoka Griffin? We’re part of the adventuring party the Horns of Hammerad. You bailed us out of a tough situation last week. Do you mind if we sit?”
“Are you serious?”
“—And they decided to run her over with a cart?”
“You can’t have finished so quickly! You must be lying!”
“Is she okay?”
“Calruz—”
“It’s not the Necromancer we’re going to meet. Just an ordinary [Necromancer], so don’t worry. Az’kerash is dead. Everyone knows that.”
“You told him what you want him to do?”
“We’re happy to repay our debts, Ryoka. And it hasn’t been that much of a chore so far.”
“In the past, they never found his body and he’d pop up. But the Tidebreaker, Zel Shivertail, beheaded him and they burned him. Still, some people remember him, and everyone hates [Necromancers]. They’re not outlawed everywhere—but close enough.”
“He’s still the same level as most of our group. That’s not bad. But why did you say he was hiding out, Ceria?”
“Tired?”
“What did he do?”
“Yeah, shut up, with respect, Captain.”
“Goblins. Looks like a fight within their own tribe.”
“Hm. Looks like one of those Goblins has some experience fighting. See—they’re using formations and fighting together.”
“This isn’t our area, and besides, it’s a tiny tribe. Let the local adventurers deal with it if it becomes an issue. Let’s go find that [Necromancer].”
“We’ve travelled over a hundred miles to get here, mage. You’re supposed to be a [Necromancer] able to help us, but I haven’t heard how you’d be able to mend bone. [Necromancers] deal with the dead, so what makes you special? No [Healer] from Wales to Celum could help Ryoka!”
“If it was that simple, why couldn’t you have done that? The entire spell barely took seconds!”
“You hear about the Healer of Tenbault, and Named-ranks have the highest-grade potions in the world. But…no. I know a lot of Silver and Bronze-ranks who take a bad break and it never heals.”
“The flesh—”
“No problem.”
“Don’t burn her leg off. Just get that slime—grab my arm, Ryoka.”
“How did—I’ve never seen anyone do that.”
“That would not be…a good outcome.”
“We have cooking supplies. Calruz has them in his bag of holding.”
“I’m glad. Well, uh, what should we do now? It’s been a long trip, and there’s the inn or Liscor…Ryoka, did you want to, uh, do anything?”
“…Does anyone smell smoke?”
“How’s it feel—”
“Sure?”
“What?”
“We understand. I’ve broken bones before, too.”
““Will it—will it do anything?””
““Let me get this straight. You’re going on a dangerous delivery, and you need our help. And…you want us to take your belongings?””
““We could lend you—””
““I’m still not sure I agree with this. Are you sure you have to do this? If the Runner’s Guild is giving you so much trouble, why not seek work elsewhere?””
““But—””
““I never knew the Runner’s Guild was like that.””
““Then what about magic?””
““What? What is it?””
““If it’s broken, can’t you repair it?””
““Why would they do that?””
“Ryoka Griffin!”
“Hey, Ryoka, this is blah blah or someone someone who’s here to hit things or shoot people with arrows.”
“There’s got to be more than that. What kind of wolves were they? Normal kinds or were they actual monsters?”
“See, Gargoyles I understand. They’re terrifying monsters when you find one holed up in a cave or terrorizing a village. But goats? What do you mean, ‘goats’?”
“What’s a ‘pugilist’?”
“Ryoka. This isn’t a good idea.”
“What? They were getting into it.”
“Calm down, Calruz! Hold still, dead gods damn it!”
“He shoved me off. He and Ryoka were just talking punches and kicks. He’s good at it, you know.”
“Wait a second, Cervial, if you’re going to recruit Ryoka, the Horns of Hammerad have the right to make the first offer.”
“I assure you, Mistress, um, Erin. This was all a mistake. If we’d seen the sign, we wouldn’t have attacked.”
“There’s a sign?”
“They’re Goblins! And there’s a skeleton in there!”
“They’re Goblins. They’re monsters. We’re adventurers. I’m sorry Miss, but we were just doing our jobs.”
“We were, ah, here before.”
“I believe you were out at the time.”
“What’s ‘chess’?”
“Maybe that’s all the protection she could afford.”
“You’re most kind. And this looks delicious.”
“Good thing you caught me. I’d forgotten—”
“Thank you for the meal, ah, Miss…”
“Good service, food, and we’re not getting dirty looks every two seconds. We struck it lucky coming here.”
“Probably. Calruz and the others will meet to discuss tonight, but we’ll need to interview other adventurers and see what’s been found. You’ve got at least four days by my count.”
“Not too far. It was barely an hour’s walk even with us getting lost.”
“Well. So long as we’re here, monsters aren’t an issue. And this is a good inn.”
“Well, we’re here a bit sooner than I thought, but shall we begin planning?”
“Talk with the innkeeper, but we’ve occupied most of the second floor.”
“Exactly. And it’s not that heavy.”
“In what way exactly?”
“Good food.”
“Did you see what one of them was armed with? A…a jar of something?”
“Good thing we didn’t get into it with those Goblins.”
“But the bugs—”
“What an odd innkeeper.”
“It’s sweet!”
“Got it. I’ll tell the others when I see them. You still working on the spell…?”
“If I went out there, I don’t think I could stop myself.”
“No.”
“No. Calruz won’t listen to me anymore than you. And if he does pick a fight, better it’s only him. Besides—”
“The other two might be able to stop him. If they get to the innkeeper in time.”
“What?”
“I don’t think he slept. He went after the bug—ah, I mean, the one called Pawn.”
“No helping it, I suppose.”
“So. Last night.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“Pass.”
“Good morning, Miss Erin.”
“Is that sugar?”
“A very big difference, thank you.”
“What was that? Was it a spell?”
“But that wasn’t it either. Those songs—”
“I think I’d prefer normal food, thanks. Where’s the innkeeper?”
“I see.”
“Something? It was—”
“Not even in my dreams.”
“Odd?”
“Think nothing of it.”
“Oh.”
“That can happen? I thought—well, it’s just being sick, isn’t it?”
“We’re going into the city. I think Calruz is already gone, but the others are still asleep. Don’t worry about feeding us—they can always go into the city.”
“You’re right. I’d forgotten because she won, but since when do the Silver Spears fight civilians?”
“Yes, yes. And supplies are underway. It’s just—”
“Once should be enough. Just so we have an area permanently lit to fall back to.”
“A few months?”
“But if you leveled up your, um, [Mage] class, you’d learn those anyways, right?”
“Someone has to worry. As far as our leader is concerned, this is going to be a simple extermination request, nothing more.”
“We still don’t know what’s down there. Cervial found someone who was willing to explore and map out the first level, but no one is willing to go any further.”
“The, ah, local reception isn’t helping either.”
“Say we do get gold and gems rather than a magical item. We have the largest shares after the Captains. What would you buy?”
“Just that? If the reward is all Calruz thinks it could be, you’d have a lot more money than that.”
“Armor. And a good sword. Or maybe just a magic ring.”
“What Yvlon said the other day. You’re sure she has no levels?”
“If he gets arrested before we enter the Ruins—”
“Sostrom!”
“If I had that, I could polish my sword skills. Rank up. Start earning a Gold-rank adventurer’s pay…”
“So. A strange [Innkeeper] we’ve met. I’ve never met stranger, have you?”
“Every bit counts. If I had good armor, I could worry about other expenses. But that’s the first step.”
“A good sword.”
“Yvlon important? Or Ryoka important?”
“I hope she doesn’t do anything rash.”
“Lady Magnolia.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Wait. You said—”
“It could be a while if these ruins are as deep as they seem.”
“Um, how can we help you Miss, ah—Adventurer Pathseeker?”
“But what’s his level? A mage living alone like he is has to have some skills. And a [Necromancer] would be perfect if there’s a large amount of undead in the ruins. Come on, Ceria, at least tell us his classes.”
“With us? You know our names?”
“Anything.”
“We do—we do know that girl! We were in her company only two days ago.”
“Um, pardon me. But you wouldn’t happen to be…?”
“Um yes, I mean, that’s correct. We are. All of us.”
“Aren’t you being a little too harsh?”
“And he was expelled for his experiments. Yes, I recall. But does he have any combat aptitude? We could hire him for the expedition.”
“She was in Esthelm just two days ago!”
“Celum. There’s an inn she stays at quite often there, and she takes most of her requests there.”
“Damnation!”
“But she was only looking at us.”
“A half-Gazer? Is that what she was?”
“I only know the basics. She’s a Named-rank. And she served the King of Destruction. What more do you need from me?”
“We were under a spell?”
“Have you seen Calruz?”
“Well, since we’re on the topic of secrets…what’s the story behind you and this Pisces character? I thought I saw him last night, but you two hardly shared a word.”
“Soon.”
“Ryoka.”
“Tell us now. If she’s after us—”
“A good thing I was never born with a talent for magic. I don’t have your patience—or your time.”
“A good set of magic armor? I’d be able to fight without worrying about some monster clubbing my helmet in every five seconds.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The [Illumination] spell. How’s it going?”
“The Bloody Tankard.”
“No one who’s gone down too far past the stairs has ever come back.”
“He left the inn, and he hasn’t slept since last night, I think. You know what he’s like when he’s irritable.”
“What kind of magical artifact was that? Sostrom, I’m pinned. Can you—?”
“This Pisces is that good of a mage?”
“That’s odd. Was that large rock there yesterday?”
“We’ll see if anything else needs doing in the city. Calruz, do you still want to join us?”
“That explains why the crab ran off. But why is it afraid of a tiny bit of poison? It’s a lot bigger than we are.”
“It’s one of the Five Families!”
“Well then, that makes things simpler. At least for now.”
“We do?”
“Hit the rock?”
“A skeleton…cooking?”
“How did you do that?”
“I’d like to go into the city and collect our share of the supplies. We also need to visit the Adventurer’s Guild to make sure we’re still cleared to enter the ruins. But, ah, we can’t go if that adventurer is still around.”
“The longest battle we’ve had was against an undead Lich a while back. We ran out of potions, and half of our group could barely move from healing up. We can’t rely on magic for everything.”
“We’re part of the Horns of Hammerad. We—and four other teams—put in a request a few days ago to enter the ruins as part of an expedition. We were wondering if we had permission—”
“It may come in useful, Ceria. Besides, it shouldn’t break if I put it in my pack.”
“May I buy one?”
“One is fine. It may be quite useful, but I’ll trust to my usual preparations rather than rely on it.”
“I’ve never seen anything funnier.”
“It was, ah, just a thought. We could use all the help we can get.”
“No worries. I’ve got that securely put away.”
“Well, we’re all set here. We’ve got a battle plan worked out, and my team and The Horns of Hammerad are set. Menes says his folks have enough mana potions. The only group not accounted for is Gregor’s. Where is he?”
“Beautiful. Crossbow Stan’s got the best ones I’ve seen, and he’ll go green with jealousy when he sees yours. What’s the range compared to a bow…? We should have you and Marian compete for range and accuracy and power.”
“And this is your trump card for the expedition?”
“Take a good look at this.”
“The Reinharts, Veltras, Terland, Wellfar, and El families were the first Humans to ever settle on this continent. They were aristocracy—related to kings from the continent Terandria. They’re still very rich and influential today.”
“Oh?”
“Did we find anyone useful?”
“Are you sure?”
“Oh it’s just—”
“No, ah, it’s not that, Miss.”
“Um. We don’t need any seals? Any letters or proof we can enter?”
“I hope he goes easy on her. I’d hate for him to hurt her accidentally.”
“Still. Do you think he’s going to teach her how to use a weapon? In a day?”
“I mean, why does she need training? You saw how she handled that crab thing.”
“Only Calruz would think about teaching an [Innkeeper] to fight.”
“Well, you saved our hides from a nasty encounter. That thing was big, and I don’t relish wasting any more healing potions before we go into the ruins.”
“Fair point. Well, how do you want to tackle it? Freezing spells and then we charge in?”
“Are you sure?”
“I believe you, but my [Dangersense] hasn’t gone off.”
“We’re not sure. I wouldn’t count on our return, but it could happen.”
“I suppose we should be going. The meeting is about an hour’s time away, and we don’t want to be late. Is everyone finished?”
“The last adventuring Captain, ah, pulled out at the last moment.”
“We’re not clearing out every room. As soon as we strike a treasury or find enough to justify the costs, we’ll leave.”
“There are no Dragons on this side of the world, miss. Probably anywhere.”
“Ceria is just teasing you Mister, ah, Olesm. We are quite well known locally. It’s just that we’re hardly the only Silver-rank teams in the north. And if you count the coastal cities—well, there are a number of Gold-rank teams and adventurers up there, and we can hardly compare.”
“We specialize in monster slaying. If a troublesome group of monsters is infesting a region, we’re usually one of the first groups who answer the call. The Horns of Hammerad are a close-combat group. We close in and smash the enemy while our mages provide backup. Gregor’s Pride is the same.”
“Good at defense, coordination, strategy; a solid team. The Flawless Flights on the other hand do a lot of scouting work and hunting troublesome monsters that hide.”
“‘Death before dishonor.’”
“It’s what we live by. Our leader is Calruz. And you know what Minotaurs are like.”
“A crypt or a tomb is good because there’s probably treasure buried with the dead. But it usually means traps, ancient curses and hexes on the lids of tombs, and so on. Not to mention the undead.”
“Dead gods, I saw it from far away, but up close, this is something else entirely.”
“But they do have their own style. They prioritize all contracts with anything magic related. It’s their specialty, just like how Cervial has a lot of archers in his group and Yvlon’s team wears silver armor.”
“Indeed we are. We and four other adventuring teams are going in.”
“Ah. Miss Erin. I hope you are recovering from your cold? We were intending to leave payment and go without bothering you, but you were up before we were.”
“…Not so much a feature as a code. We don’t break our promises. We don’t retreat, and if we have to abandon a job, we repay all we took in advance.”
“We’ve got an hour yet. Plenty of time. Let’s not rush things.”
“Well, if we’re going in, we might as well go all in.”
“We have enough supplies for at least four days. I doubt we’ll be down there that long unless we need to do excavation, though.”
“They’ve already hidden themselves again. If we keep going, we’ll just run into another ambush. Granted, we know it’s coming, but I’d rather not do that again.”
“Any idea on how?”
“Dead gods, this is a mess. Where are the others?”
“Of course!”
“Do it.”
“Form on me! Horns of Hammerad, to me!”
“Sostrom!”
“Strike me blind, Calruz!”
“How’d you know that would work?”
“Wait a second. That’s doesn’t sound like a vault to me. It sounds like a guarded treasury, the kind that has the nastiest monster waiting right behind the door. You didn’t try to open it, right?”
“Most likely. We just haven’t found it yet, and we’re all tired. Why don’t you go with Sostrom and check those rooms out?”
“You know he’s never done this before. And he helped us get through that fight a lot more easily than we would have otherwise. Just don’t snap at him.”
“A warning? Who writes their warnings so—so cryptically?”
“If—”
“Ceria!”
“I know how you’re feeling. But he’s trying to be helpful.”
“Run. I’ll—I’ll buy you some time.”
“Run, damn you!”
“Go. Run.”
“Hey, what’s happening? Where are Gregor and—”
“Oh…Flowers of Izril. Five Families preserve us.”
“That was disturbing, to say the least. But what does that mean?”
“Any word on the other team’s progress?”
“He’s no idiot. But Yvlon has the right idea. Regardless of what’s in there, we can turn the passageway into a killing field. Even ten Crypt Lords wouldn’t survive a fully spelled passage if we combine resources.”
“Death before dishonor.”
“Yeah.”
“Uneventful. We killed a few zombies, but they’re mostly cleared out here as well. Has Yvlon seen anything?”
“Coffins.”
“This is where a Runner would have come in handy.”
“We’ve still got a ways to go. There’s plenty of chances the vault is just ahead.”