After much deliberation, someone from the group was eventually sent out to jostle through the small crowd of monster hunters that crowded around the bounty board. The group had taken long enough however, that most others had already left to whatever hunting grounds they’d planned out, and it was clear that most of those depicted upon the board were threats that were far beyond what people of Matteo, Ash, and Hannah’s level could handle. From decorated orc warriors with 50 gold bounties to half-giants who’s heads came for a platinum coin a piece to even wolf-like creatures that were worth hundreds of silvers, the bounties were enough to make their heads spin, but the death toll, marked with crossed lines on the corner of the paper, was similarly gruesome. A reward equal to the amount of lives already claimed, was it?

However, further inspection did grant the investigator some bounties that weren’t quite as fatal. Directly west of the town, there was a bounty for a spear-wielding goblin, the flesh of his head damaged to the extent that his countenance was absolutely skeletal. Residing within the ruins of Rugome Fort, he had claimed the lives of four others, and was noted to be deceptively tenacious despite his small form. Due southwest, amongst the meadows and plains, a large toad with a black-and-red striped back was quite a terror to grazing livestock as well. Though it had claimed only the lives of two foolhardy adventurers, it certainly did have a higher bounty placed on it than the Skull Faced Goblin, perhaps due to the amount of livestock raisers that wished it dead. Northwest, however, was a familiar face to Ash: a bounty for a Man-Eating Bear, a terror that stalked not only the mountain forests nearby Andeave, but also occasionally encroached upon the sacred territory of Kur-Inuus. This was the highest bounty, but the death count was the highest as well, and Ash’s own body still throbbed with the phantom pain.

Those were the viable options left for the adventurers, but conversely, there was no real need for them to take these bounties on to begin with. After all, meandering through the wilderness while picking off nameless, fameless monsters in their natural habitats were an option as well, and considering how fatal their profession appeared to be…perhaps it was better to play safe instead of play hard?