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The room was oppressively quiet.  Tension filled the room, weighing on all the gathered players.  When everyone had sunk into a seat, Alisea rose from her chair beside Reylan.  [color=ec008c]"Ahem.  I should be direct.  This is about Karma's murder, and the murderers behind it.  We [I]will[/I] be going after them, but carefully and in a way that gives them no opportunity to escape.”[/color]

Alisea paused to glance around at everyone’s faces, gauging their reactions.  A few of the newer faces seemed indifferent; some of the others wore expressions darker than night.  [color=ec008c]“Valentine was the one who made contact with us, but he has three friends.  All of them are close to or above level 15.  I doubt I have to explain what would happen if one of you tried to go after him alone.”[/color]  Here Alisea looked at each member, but her gaze lingered a touch longer--and her glare grew more intense--on Shiba.

[color=ec008c]“As fortune would have it, they were last seen fleeing to the Ravine.  We were already planning on traveling that direction to challenge the Dungeon.  However, now…  We need everyone’s thoughts.  As I said, they are four level 15 players.  None of us have broken level 10.  Reylan and I spoke briefly on this, and if possible we would like everyone to subclass before we confront them so we can fight on more equal footing.  This would mean postponing the hunt, my guess being for three days, in favor of intense grinding in a Dungeon.  The other option is to gather everyone and march to the Ravine, then try to bring them down through sheer numbers.  Finding them will be difficult, and their chances for laying an ambush are high; and even if we meet on level ground, they are all stronger.  As I see it, half of us would die.”[/color]

Alisea looked around once more.  She wanted her words to have a powerful effect.  She wouldn’t accept any hot-headed, spur-of-the-moment ideas of vengeance.  They weren’t going to rush in unprepared and shouting for justice--and risk Valentine escaping after he killed a few more of them.  When they took revenge, they would do so with a guarantee of success.  [color=ec008c]“Those are our thoughts.  What are yours?”[/color]