The Guard Captain walked in, while being irrefutably fair and surprisingly young-looking for her station, she also appeared to be worthy of that title based on the brief interaction between her and her subordinate. Totsu took a seat and was about to close her mouth again when she realized that in a world like this, she would have to rethink her preconceived notions of danger outside of bureaucrats, bullies who had nothing but their vitriolic words and mediocre muscles to aide them, this evidently was a world of myth and magic, where the extraordinary was commonplace. Every single glance in whatever direction had been a new experience in it's own rate, people with mild animal features were more normal than the rest, often seen on advertising where some cute girl with an obvious headband and not dressed for the weather at all tried to sell you something you really didn't need. The further divorced from humanity or even just reality it got the harder it was to keep one's concentration after seeing one for the first time, snake people with hands seen in some religious texts or talked about by that one obnoxious dude in high-school, tall, slender blue alien looking things with hands reaching nearly to their ankles. The hooded man was especially memorable, looking right out of a fairy tail too, reading about such things could feel so vivid in your imagination but seeing it in front of you as if real was a bigger shock that Totsu was willing to let on. Totsurugi's mind was already ablaze trying to piece together the what they had been so lovingly exposited, some magic that brought inanimate things to life, seemed to merge animate and inanimate things together and... something to do with glowing blue line, 'magic' was the only reason she could muster up, as general as that sounded. She'd have to pull some bullshit out of bullshit her way through this, but hey, at least those Latin classes they was forced to take finally came in handy, most of magic names seemed to be based on it. [color=45bd2a]"Well. From what i have gathered, there is a town not too far a way from where the refugees hail. Shelia is believe is the name. A town of great artists, painters, toy makers, all sorts. Until they started to experiment with Animagic. Using magic to make magic come to life. Dolls that dance by themselves, golems to help with the fieldwork. But they didn't stop there, if they could make their doll alive... why not people too? I have no confirmation but a logical conclusion of animagic would be necromancy, i know that they started to experiment with human souls at least which is a step too far. I know not what tragedy befell them, to have such a mass exodus is unlikely to be the result of a political disagreement, i can only guess that one of their magics or even a sufficiently powerful mage had gone rogue"[/color] Most of that was just strung out of the aether and a lot was flair for dramatic effect but she'd hope that it would have gotten across most of the information that Totsu had learned so far. "I see... In such a delicate matter i am loathe to rally the guard and raise awareness to our actions. Thus i would ask of you to go under my command to Shelia, i will reach out more of my contacts while you scout ahead. Can i trust you with this?" Totsu could see in her mind's eye a small text reading "Answer" a second after the guard captain had stopped speaking, prompting her to nod slowly [color=45bd2a]"Yes Ma'am"[/color] and just then she could see another text, in what appeared to be gold saying [center][h1][color=gold]Quest Complete[/color][/h1][/center] [center][h1][color=gold]Quest Accepted: The Deadland's Trail. [/color][/h1][/center] [color=45bd2a]"Alright, next objective is.... 'arrive in the dead forest' it says"[/color] [color=68bcdd]"We have to move through the Trostlands to get there. She should have another quest to kill some pests in the farm fields, might as well pick it up if it is on the way"[/color] Beardo responded. Totsu nodded, looking through the quest list by quest giver and there saw the name of the guard captain, one aptly named "Pest Control" seemed to be the one she was looking for. [quote]Farmers of Trostland Fields have sent request of aid in dealing with Riebo plaguing the crops, eating large chunks and leaving the rest to rot. May this notice serve as bounty for dead Riebo, either whole or head only for proof of kill. -Maryl Decroux. Captain of the Royal Litopian Guard. [hr] Objective: Collect 10 Riebo Heads from slain Riebo. [0/10] Rewards: 20 silver. 20 XP.[/quote] The party of two exited the building and walked across the street until they exited the gate, being met with rolling plains with the occasional farmhouse indicated by their stable and tilled farmland. There were several roads leading to several places, the direction Beardo pointed to however showed a less than vibrant forest in the distance, practically a black mass some walk away from them currently. It was a few minute's hike towards the farmland, in there were small squirrel-like creatures, short and thing with large, bushy tails and rather adorable faces. Having an icon above their names similar to the quest icon, marking them as what they should be killing. [color=45bd2a]"So, what? I just... killed them one by one?"[/color] she asked, taking out her staff and looking at one of the furry critters that made a rather delicious sandwich. Beardo sighs, mouth and skin twitching a little before he resigns himself to saying it [color=68bcdd]"No, you just deal them a little bit of damage, to as many as you can. I'll do the rest."[/color] Totsu raised her eyebrow and looked towards the Riebo, starting running and bonking one over the head with her staff, causing it to become hostile and start attacking her. The inhaled sharply and ran away, towards the next one and made another minimally damaging head-smack with her wooden staff, moving from critter to critter, gathering them all up. As the crowd grew, Beardo suddenly leapt forward like he was a part of some anime, closing the distance between himself and the group of rodents before giving one large swing of his axe, cleaving the entire group at once, being massively over-leveled for this area, even the most basic of attacks was enough to kill them in one hit. They continued this routine for a while, getting more than doubled the required amount and a fair chunk of experience before they looked towards the forest, nodding to each other and dusting off before making their way towards the forest. It did take a bit of walking but they finally arrived at a grove of dead, black trees as far as the eye could see, there was nothing the first few dozen feet, not even so much as a patch of grass. Further in however one could see something shambling in the distance, white bones and leather rags hanging off of them, a forest in which skeletons called their home.