Xaltwind

Guild of Renta-Experts [[CANCELLED]]

As the werewolf called out to her, the drwosy-looking raccoon-woman snapped to attention and cast a quick, sideways glance over her shoulder. When she realized who it was that was calling her out though, she relaxed considerably before replying.

"Ah, good morning to you too, Miss Keller. It seems you're doing well this morning. How'd the hunt for that horned rabbit go yesterday? And where's your friend?" She responded in a polite, but largely disinterested tone of voice.

The two would reach the guild hall swiftly, and Karin would proceed to slide onto the cushioned chair at the front desk, fiddling with some papers and documents, before lazily putting them aside on top of an old drawer... Which already had a stack of paper on top of it... And from the looks of it, nobody had organized or gone through any of them in a long, long while...

"If you're just waiting around, why not have a look at the board? Or brew me a cup of coffee." The receptionist said after having finished her little charade of morning routines, giving Alice a wink and winning smile... She must've really wanted that coffee.

The quest board was, as per usual, sparsely populated with only the most basic of basic jobs. There was a 'quest' to pull out weeds in someone's garden, help pick apples, finding mushrooms, picking medicinal herbs, locating a runaway cat and - amusingly - delivering a letter to the not-too-far-away town of Gnarlton. Apart from that though, the rest were either just ads for local establishments, fliers for events and festivities that had already passed, or childish scribbles and charicatures done by local brats as a prank.

Soon enough though, a voice called out for Karin. It came from the Guild Mistress' room. The tanuki-woman sighed, took off and polished her glasses with a small hankerchief, before excusing herself and walking over to the tiny witch's office. Going through the door after knockingly gently, she vanished into the black, looming dark that seemed an awful lot like void-space, before the door closed behind her. Luckily, there were not screams of agony or shrieks of unceremonious fear.

... For now at least.

Meanwhile, as the minutes ticked on, a few familiar faces began to appear. It was some of the other adventurers who frequwnted the hall - most of them locals. Most of them were also just adventurers in name, having joined the guild because they were either curious, bored or liked to brag about it. There were also those who had ulterior motives for joining, such as finding a suitable life-partner... Or just oggling adventurers in general... Regardless, they greeted Alice with hello's and hi's, engaging in brief conversations before looking at the guild's board and letting out disapproving, disappointed or exaspperated moans and sighs of a plaintive nature. One girl grumbled under her breath about how there was never any good jobs 'in this backwater village' as she left the hall in a foul mood.

Moments after her departure though, the door to the guild flung open and slammed into the wall, causing its hinges to complain loudly. A bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and extremely confident-looking little satyr strode into the building. Her white-beige short hair, brown-red eyes and healthy tan - not to mention those ridonkulous boobs - made it very apparent that this was none other than the legendary Brandy! ... or, at least that's probably how she was seeing things, given the swagger in her movements.

She was wearing a different outfit again today. this time, she wore a white, long-sleeved shirt that showed off her shoulders... And... Either she was wearing a very, very micro-skirt, or she wasn't wearing anything at all below her waist, aside from those black panties that had been clearly
vissible the first time she showed up at the hall in her really, really revealing outfit. No matter the glares, stares, murmurs or reactions of her peers though, as soon as the satyress spotted Alice, her smiling face lit up even more, with eyes dazzling like the sun.

"Al!"

With bouncing noise, and bouncing bounces, she bounced over to where her friend-of-two-whole-quests was standing. Grabbing the other girls hands (paws?) and excitedly bobbing up and down, as if she was raising and lowering herself on her tippy-toes... Even though she didn't have toes... Well, not toes-toes, just hoof-toes...

"What's up? Ya lookin' like yerself today, girl. None of that silver-highlights-stuff ya pulled last night. Gonna be hundred-percent with you, you 'totes rock this look waaaaaaay better, Al. So wha'cha up to? Wait, where's that fat-tailed-chick that's usually lazing over at the desk? She not here yet? Maa-haa-haa~! What a slacker!"

She was, as per usualy, full of energy today too.

Aether Saga: A Hero's Unlikely Journey (The Irish Tree and Xaltwind)

Mammonie had a mixed expression on her face as she watched the little angel-nightmare fall to the ground and dissolve into sparkly particles. she looked both relieved and annoyed at the same time. Probably because, for all the trouble that that thing had caused, it went down surprisingly easily. Also, the fact that she had just heard a robotic voice inside her head, and manifested her game avatar's weapons, were still something tat felt a bit surreal and hard to digest. However, the avarice demon had no time to stand around and daydream, as the elven paladin - carrying an unconscious Cruella - came stumbling up to her side, slinging elated praise her way.

"I... Dunno... I wished really hard for a way to fight, and then I heard a robot's voice i my head." She paused and blinked, before realizing something important. "Oh, right. A robot's kinda like... Uh... A golem, I guess? Anyway. It spoke some kind of technobabble and then POOF! My magigun appeared right into my hand, right outta nowhere." She pasued again, looking down at the elaborate fusion of technology and magical artifice resting in her hand.

It was an odd sensation, to be sure. She could almost feel her items, well, the ones she had kept on her character at the moment of being pulled into the computer, at least. It was like they were in a big... ethereal... omnipresent trunk or grocery bag, and she knew exactly where everything was, despite it being nowhere and everywhere at the same time. It was, put it mildly, really bewildering and actually a bit nauseating, for it was a feeling and sensation that was completely alien to her mind. She could p0robably make use of it again if she tried, but right at this moment the golden lady didn't feel like faffing about with hammerspace-dimension-shennanigans.

"Huh. Good to see that you two survived. I'd be royally screwed if you guys bit the dust." Mammonie then added, a bit nonchalantly and perhaps a bit more pragmatically than was socially polite. "Anyway, this little fellow is called Chromecalibur. It's a magigun and one of my two main weapons. Wait. sorry, do you know what a gun is to begin with? Bah, it's too much hassle to go into details! It shots magic. Think of it as ... Uh, what's a good comparison...? It's a ... Wand... That's... Not a wand... ... ... ... You know what? Let's go to that cave you mentioned, okay?" It was apparently not her strong suit to explain things, and using game-jargin and terminology that possibly didn't exist in this world was probably not gonna help any.

There was another thing nagging at her core though. The feeling she had gotten after the angel-baby had died. that strange sensation of having performed physical activity, when she really hadn't... And the strange surge that came after... Had she just gained some kind of power, or boost? Was this what 'experience points' felt like to 'absorb' or 'gain'!? But wait.. She was max level, so how could she gain any EXP? That didn't make a lick of sense!

As she followed Vani, who had once more checked her out with a not-so-casual-gawking, along the snowy terrain, Mammonie couldn't help but be preoccupied with all of this weirdness that kept cropping up. The most noteworthy of cousre being that she was frickin' Mammonie! A game-character! How was any of this even remotely possible!? One minute, she's sitting at home infront of the PC, sipping a cup of coffee and lazily playing MOFU, and the next she's stuck in Not-Canada fighting flying death-babies in the bod' of a fictional avatar of her own creation! She rubbed her temple with her free hand, letting out a small sigh. She then looked over at the draconic woman in the paladin's arms.

"She gonna be alright? For that matter, are you hanging in theret? Looked like both of ya took a really nasty beating to that thing. Which reminds me... What the heck was that thing anyway? You guys get a lot of flying, murderous babies in this world or what?"

Goblin Slayer: Newblood (CANCELLED)

Druid Girl nodded in agreement when Steppe Archer brought up the proposal to head back. Even if the injury to Big Red's leg didn't look or seem that bad, it could still get infected... But, the big lizard brawler seemed to think otherwise, and promptly stated that he was right as rain... He didn't seem like the type to grit his teeth and act macho, nor did he seem the type to try and impress and flaunt his masculinity... Mostly because of how mind-numbingly pragmatic the fellow seemed to be. So, Druid Girl would just accept that if the large swamp-warrior said he was alright, then he probably was alright.

She was about to go on to speak, when she noticed Steppe Archer walking over to the slushy remains of their defeated opponent, bend down and pick something up. Red flags and sirens buzzed all trhough Druid Girl's mind, and she quickly paced over to her ally, grabbing hold of the other girl's wrist and inspecting her hands and fingers. Once she was sure the little lioness wasn't having her skin melted off by residual slime, she gave the archer a stern but concerned look.

"You dummy! What if the remaining slime-goop were to burn you like how it did with Big Red? You need to be more careful, alright?" It was a scolding, but judging from the tone of her voice, the look on her face and how she seemed genuinely relieved that nothing bad had happened, it was clear to see that she was far more worried about her compatriot's well-being rather than being angry at her carelessness.

Now they were at an impass though. Steppe ARcher had suggested going back, but Big Red wanted to press on and keep going. Both decisions carried value. If they left, they could make sure Big Red was safe and unharmed, but they wouldn't get paid for the quest and would've wasted a lot of time and money on something that yielded no return. On the other hand, if they stayed and pressed on, they could probably finish the quest quick enough - if there were no more surprises at least - and get their reward, with the possibility of Big Red getting an infection or something even nastier... After all, while a sewer might be as damp and smelly as a swamp, the two were still fundamentally different. One contained stagnant water and putrifying vegetation, the other contained feces, amonia, humanoid waste and various types of mold and animal droppings...

"If you're sure that you're alright, big guy, I think it's best if we just finish up this quest real fast and then head back up." Druid Girl fianlly said, gently scratching her cheek with an index-figner. "Still, it's weird." She added. "That... gooey slime thing... I've never seen any of those before, in all the times I've been down here... And it didn't seem shy about advancing on enemies even when outnumbered, so I doubt they'd be smart enough to keep hidden all this time..." She thought aloud, now giving her chin a slight rub. "Maybe... Maybe it got in through one of the sewer grates outside of town? Or... Maybe somebody flushed it down here? Well, whatever, I just hope there aren't anymor eof those... Things... around." She finished, before coming to a realization.

"Y'know... if we hadn't killed that thing, it might've become the apex predator of the sewers. Think about it. The rats and bugs down here wouldn't be able to even hurt it. Hah... I guess we saved the natural order of the sewers." She ended off her thoughts, with a slight laugh. "Well, what should we do then? Head back and pick another tunnel, or keep pushing on in this one? Though, given the lack of critters, I'm not sure we'll find more if we keep moving on in this area." Her last comment was based on the fact that there hadn't been anything up until the slime in this particular sewer tunnel.

For now, in the warm glow of the torch, the nature mage would wait for what her allies wanted to do.

Guild of Renta-Experts [[CANCELLED]]

Brandy laughed, a mockingly valley girl-esque laugh, as Alice threatened th bandits with permanent castration should they ever try to do somehting like this again. Although, whetever they actually heard the threat or not, was a different matter entirely. After all, they were all lying on the ground, in fetal positions, both hands ontop of their respective junk, and making plaintive and whining noises... Which was completely understandable, given the circumstances.

As they began to walk, and Alice promptly thanked Brandy for her ... Whatever it was she had done... The satyress just laughed and gave the werewolf a few pats on the back in a friendly manner.

"Maa-haa! No biggie. I am pretty awesome though. And a smokin' hottie too. Maa-haa-haa~!" It seemed Brandy wasn't shy about accepting compliments, or tooting her own horn. "You're pretty cool too though, Al. I'm so glad I got to team up with ya." The little satyr added, flashing a happy, sunny smile at Alice as they walked back towards home.

The road back to Litroot was uneventful and unworthy of commentary beyond the incident with the bandits. Once the girls returned, they'd find that the Guild Hall, while still open, had no staff present. The tanuki receptionist had left a folded sign that read: 'Gone to bed! Please wait warmly. (HEart-Emoji)' on her desk. There were no light seeping out from under the Hall Mistress' room either, and no sound wa to be heard if one approached and place an ear on the door. It seemed that, apart from the sparsely populated quest board, there was nobody around.

Brandy pouted and complained about how her triumphant return from her first real quest was a total bust and how she'd make that glasses-wearing fat-tailed raccoon-woman pay for shirking her duties. She also made further comments about said tanuki's outdated dress-code and lack of yaddiyaddiyadda....... You kind of zoned out after the beginning, since most of the whining was irrelevant and/or completely misplaced.

Regardless, after she calmed down, Brandy sighed and told her companion that she'd return to the inn where she was staying. She was feeling a bit peckish and was going to see if she could rustle up some grub in the kitchen without the innkeep noticing... Or so she planned anyway. Of course, Brandy failed to specify which inn she was staying at, as Litroot - despite its size - actually had two locations for lodging. One was an inn of modest comfort and standards, while the other was a sleazy mix of both a tavern and inn, where those with less coin, or more inclination to drink, typically ended up staying.

Waving and telling her new friend good night, the satyress bounced off into the night, and returned to whichever locale she had left all her stuff in.

The night passed poeacefully.

Come monrning, the weather was a bit less favorable than yesterday. There were more clouds in the sky and a cheeky breeze. But regardless of that, the inhabitants of the little village still got up at the crack of dawn and began their daily routines. Once the sun had begun rising over the horizon, a sleepy-looking raccoon woman in a business suit could be seen, slowly walking towards the GORE Guild Hall, stretching her arms and letting out a seeries of exaggerated yawns... It seemed Kariin was on her way back to work, at a relatively early hour no less.

Aether Saga: A Hero's Unlikely Journey (The Irish Tree and Xaltwind)

"... Wut?"

Mammonie would state, in befuddled confusion, at the item that had just apepared in her hand. Out of nowhere. There was also the fact that she'd just heard a voice inside her own head, which didn't belong to either Mammonie or Camilla herself. Was she beinmg possessed by some evil, alien data-mind-hacking super-entity? Had she been turned into a video game-character and all of this was just someone else controlling and playing as her!? There were many questions and alarming tidbits to sit down and give a good thinking too.

Unfortunately, now was not the time to worry about such matters. There was a malicious flying death-baby that was trying to kill her, and her new ... Friends...? For some arbitrary reason. Now that a weapon had appeared in her hand, as she'd wished, the time to use it had come!

But could she use it? As Camilla, back in the fleshy world of meat-men, the only thing remotely resembling a weapon she'd ever held was maybe a squirt gun... Or a baseball bat during gym class back in her school days... Would she even be able to use this thing? Sure, Mammonie would've had no problem wielding it like a pro, but she wasn't just Mammonie, she was Mammonie's player stuck inside Mammonie!

But... For some reason... This feels... So natural...

The weight and feel of the gun in her hadn, the motion of moving it... The way to grip and hold it steady... It all felt like the most natural thing in the world. Like she was trying to ride a bicycle again, a bit rusty and wobbly at first, but with her body and senses quickly adjusting to remembering something that it knew perfectly well how to do. It was almost like her mind's eye could visualize an aiming reticule for her, moving to where the she was aiming the magic pistol. The confused epxression on her face melted away, and was replaced instead by a big old smirk.

".... Alright. You're the one who picked a fight, ugly."

BZORT!!

A strange sound errupted as she pulled back the trigger, and a blue flame was spat out of the end of Chromecalibur's muzzle. From it, a baseball-sized orb of luminous, crackling azure light was produced, and sped towards the cherubean nightmare at high velocity. But Mammonie didn't seem satisfied with just firing off one shot, oh no. The sound from earlier repeated multiple times, as she pressed down on her weapon's launching mechanism and unleashed several more shots of high-endisty magic bullets. All aimed for the little fiend in the sky.

If the macabre thing were to try and fly off or dodge, she'd lead her shots and try to intercept and anticipate it's flight and movement-path. If it tried to counter with any more of those painful, byt seemingly ineffective light-based attacks, she'd take off in a sprint, side-hop, pirouette or even cartwheel to get out of the way. Her muscles, limbs, reflexes and mind were all seeming to wake and warm up, as if they'd been asleep and waiting for something or someone to give them a shake and make them wake up again... And they seemed to be doing just that...

Guild of Renta-Experts [[CANCELLED]]

Brandy readied herself, steeling her resolve and getting ready to charge head-first at the villains before her!

... And then Alice went bonkers.

The satyr could do little more than stand where was she was and look on, in total awe, as the mighty werewolf unleashed a day's worth of frustration on these poor, unwashed fools. It looked and felt so one-sided that you'd be forgiven fro thinking it was actually the two girls who were robbing the robbers, and not the other way around. Balls were kicked, bodies were thrown into trees, Alice was stabbed and didn't give two fudge-waffles... It was a dervish and level of ass-beating that the little satyress hadn't seen since the last time her adoptive family invited all the relatives, got drunk and had a good ol' fashioned rough-housing ho'down... But that'd invovled several fully grown minotaurs, this was just one werewolf alchemist who was kicking butt on the next level.

When the battle had been _resoundly won by the werewolf, and the girl was gleefully spouting out her plans and desires for what to do next, Brandy raised an eyebrow.

"Uh... Al... We... We 'totes didn't bring any rope, remember? And uh... Iunno how things with the guild work'n all that yet, but I don't think we'll get any money if we bring a buncha dirty, pervy, beat-up homeless guys along back." Brandy commented.

Not for not though, as the Guild was hardly a fort or sheriff's office. There wasn't anywhere to lock up criminals there, and it was more than likely there wasn't any place lik that back in Litroot at all, given the small size of the village. No, common sense dictated that if they were to bring these bandits back with them, they'd get complained at by the receptionist, and probably scolded by the guild mistress. It didn't seem like the best idea.

"Can't we just like, take their weapons so they can't hurt nobody more and then just leave'em here? Don't think any of 'em will be getting up anytime soon after the castration you served up, maa-haa-haa~" The satyress proposed, and laughed.

The bandits did not laugh. They were too busy lying on the ground, holding their junk with both hands, and groaning in unified misery.

Brandy proceeded to do what she'd suggested though, without waiting for Alice's reply. She gathered up the club, cudgel and knives, carrying them in both her arms, prssed against her squishy bosom. Returning to Alice's side, she smirked.

"Well, let's go! The town's this way, yeah?"

After which, she began to lead the way back to the village, leaving the now-robbed-robbers in the dirt, alone to wallow in regret and pain for the rest of the night. Unless Alice felt like kicking the shit outta people already on the ground, then they'd probably be feeling their bruises for the next couple of days instead.

Aether Saga: A Hero's Unlikely Journey (The Irish Tree and Xaltwind)

Mammonie didn't like the reaction that Gram was giving her after she'd asked about potential weaponry. She liked even less the comments and questions that followed. It seemed for all this dragon-woman's poise and attempts at making herself seem like some sort of mastermind, she was hardly infallible... Which was discouraging, seeing as she was supposed to be Mammonie's ally in this 'war on the evil god'-business... At the question of whetever Mammnoie was sure she didn't come with any of her own equipment, the avarice demon sighed and stretched out her arms.

"Does it look like I've got pockets? I already gave myself a search after we got into the carriage to make sure I wasn't carrying something in some weird place. Lo' and behold, there ain't nothing on me." She stated matter-of-factly. When Vani offered up the option of a sword, she merely shook her head. "I don't think I'd be much use with one of those. Didn't have any sword-skills back in MO-- home, and my class couldn't even equip them." She replied.

After Gram asked what types of weapons she used, the golden demoness tapped her chin. Did these people even know what a gun was? Let alone a magigun? Would there be any point in trying to explain that she used strangely shaped wands in order to choot magic without casting spells? Speaking of, since some kind of HUD was seemingly getting more and more clear to her, perhaps her skill-bar and other useful things like the mini-map would be coming back soon too? That'd be a huge he--

-- Suddenly, Gram shouted something, and then the carriage blew up.

"DA FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--!?"

Mammonie, now stuck in a pile stuck, with her butt sticking up towards the sky and a her head stuck downwards, was unleashing a barrage of muffled noises and sounsd which were, more than likely, a plethora of swears and curses. Eventually pulling herself free from the impromptu sub-zero airbag, she looked around at the bizarre scene unfolding before her. Vani was on the ground, obviously injured, and Gram was a ways off as well, but in slightly better condition. Though both of their health-bars had dropped - a lot. The demon did a quick once-over of herself but... Really... Nothing seemed to be off. Despite herself having just been at the point of origin of an explosion, she seeemed... Fine..? She didn't even feel any particular pain or discomfort... A bit disoriented and confused, but no agony or sense of dying.

That is, until she heard a voice from above that sounded all kinds of ominous. Looking up, she spotted what could only be describe das nightmare-fuel, and her eyes that were usually half-closed opened up fully in disbeleif. A dumbfounded expression was on her face with her jaw hanging slightly agape, as she gazed upon something she'd never seen, or even imagined, before.

"... Awesome... A Death-Baby. Nope, this is just all kinds of nope." She saidk, before bracing herself for another attack by the flying cherub-monster... Only to be saved by the sudden appearance of a wall of ... Bones... Followed by being shouted at to run and flee if she couldn't fight. Mammonie's eyes narrowed and she put her hands on her hips in a display of annoyance, despite the situation.

"And where would I run? Did ya forget I've got no clue where I am, or where to go? If I ran off now, I'd probably just freeze to death in the snow somewhere, ya moron." She stated, irritated in her tone, but not enough so to be yelling.

Plus, there was another reason to staay. Usually, she wasn't the type to lend a hand or do anything for people unless they asked or paid. But, this draconic monochrome-woman who had brought her to this strange new world, had just shielded her from an attack by an unknown assailant. If there was one thing Mammonie hated, it was being indebted to people, no matter the reason. There was nothing worse than having people who had leverage over you. Also, thhe whole running off into a frigid, frozen-over wasteland with no knowledge of where to go or what to do seemed like a supremely good choice if she was ever feeling suicidal.

Still, what to do now?

Damnit all! If only I had something I could use as a weapon... Anything, even the damn starter-weapon from the tutorial areas would've work! This is just my look, I'd put all my weapons away into my inventory 'cuz I wasorganizing shit, and then I dragged off to Wonderland and get attacked by Frankenbaby! Jeeeeeeez! C'mon, internal HUD! Show me the skill-bar or menu-bar! At least lemme get my inventory! If I got sent here without any of my items, how the fuck am I supposed tro do anything?! That'd be way too unfair. C'mon! C'mon!

While internally mologuing with herself, and not paying any attention to her wounded ... Summoners... Or the flying baby of doom, the demoness was absorbed in her own little world, irritatedly making small stomps with one legs and making ... Chopping... movements with her arm, while flicking her hand open from a balled fist into a palm... As if she was trying to make something appear in it. She really, really, really wanted to just be able to summon something to fight with...

'Cuz running way wouldn't solve anything. If she didn't freeze to death, this flying baby-monster would just snuff Gram and Vani, and then come after her anyway. So, there really was only one logical thing to do: Kill the damn thing before it killed them!

Aether Saga: A Hero's Unlikely Journey (The Irish Tree and Xaltwind)

Kinda unfair to just, y'know, summon me to some weird place and then tell me to 'do this or I'll leave you in the gutter'... Not that I'd expect someone to baby me or anything, but still...

The avarice demon-who-was-actually-a-mortal-human-stuck-in-her-game-avatar listened to Gram speak and then, at some point, raised an eyebrow. Though not at what the draconic woman had said, but rather more due to the sudden appearance of... Well, some kind of Termintaor-like info pop-ups that suddenly started appearing next to the two other individuals in the carriage. It was... Bizarre, to say the leeast, to suddenly have text just randomly float next to someone you were looking at... But, more than anything...

What's with this text? Is it supposed to be some kind of objective, universal information about them? Or is my subconscious doing this? Wait... That elf's been staring at my-- uh... Mammonie's tits this entire time!? Like, I get that the're amazing, but c'mon dude! Show some self-restraint. That derscription for the monochromatic lady isn't very... Uhm... useful, either... I kinda already gathered that on my own, thank you very much Inner HUD.

The answer that she'd been summoned without any items was a rather big downer though. She wasn't exactly sure what this lady opposite her, sipping tea, was expecting her to do if she didn't have her gear. Not like someone who specialized in shooting stuff from afar was just gonna run up to a God and sock it in the nose and win... Her earlier search of herself had also revealed that she, in fact, had neither pockets nor secret compartments on her... Which made total sense, given her lack of clothing and attire. Still, there were perhaps more pressing things to ask.

"Alright. So, I'm here because you need someone to fight a bad God, I get that. However, I don't know how much you actually know about me, but let's just say that if you think I'm going to be able to punch, kick and bite this bad God into submission, then I think you'd have better luck asking Benny here to fight instead." Mammonie stated, one eye closed and the other looking at Vani, arms folded under her redonulous chest. "But I'm sure you've prepared something for me to use in order to fight, yes? Such as a God-Slaying Weapon or Anti-Divinity Trinket? *Sigh* Ah, if only I still had Chromecalibur or Star-Ender on me... Or that ridiculous railgun I got from the Christmas Event..." She asked, then went off on a slight tangent and monologue with herself, before returning to reality. Well, this reality. "Oh, and Barney, my face is up here, ya perv." She added, with a coy smirk and pointing with one index-finger up at her unfairly pretty face.

Goblin Slayer: Newblood (CANCELLED)

"R-right! Of course! I'll get rid of that thingy right away!" Druid Girl, who was still a bit flustered and panicked, responded to both her companions. Moving closer to Big Red's raised leg, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes momentarily, cleared her mind and began the chant for her spell.

""May winter's touch chill your bones, shiver in the icy cold, frost fingers!""

With both hands outstretched infront of her, white-glowing azure light formed at the tips of her fingers, and then shot outward like a wedge. Unfortunately, trying to hit a single creature with an attack that travels in a non-linear shape wasn't exactly easy. As such, Big Red would feel a bit of biting cold envelope his foot and knee, as well as the shin where the slimey monster was... Though in the latter case, it'd actually feel a bit nice having something cold permiate the area which was being acidically burned.

The squishy creature of goo did, as expected, not seem very fond of the sudden jet of sub-zero temperature magic that assaulted it. With a shudder, it instantly let go off Big Red's leg and dropped to the sewer floor with a wet, goopy sound. Bits of ice and frost had formed on its exterior, but ih hadn't been frozen solid or turned to ice... Not really a surprise, given that Druid Girl's spell was one of the most basic low-level attack speels a druid could learn.

Still, the freezing had done something, and the creature was noticeably more sluggish and less viscuous now. It almost looked like a lump of frozen pudding. A thought that may have delighted the black-haired girl, had she known what pudding was and had this creature not made its home in a subterranean wasate-canal. Still, as the globulate being tried to make a sluggish and rather poor attempt at an escape, the nature mage was on the case!

Unhooking the staff from her back, and sliding it around herself, she grabbed the weapon in both hands, raised it up and then slammed it down, as if she was trying to pierce the ground. With a sound that was vaguely remeniscent of someone breaking a ripe watermelon with a wooden mallet, the oak staff struck the chilled slime-monster, and consequently turned it into semi-fchilled paste. Drops and bits of goo went sailing through the air as the nasty critter was made into an actual puddle this time.

There was also a weird clinking noise following the squashing.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Druid Girl then seemed to remember something, as her head snapped back upwards and turned to look at Big Red again.

"Oh, geez, I forgot! Are you alright? Do you want me to heal your leg? I really don't think you should be walking around in a place like this with a leg that's injuured. Who knows what could get into the wound."

Albeit, thre was less of a 'wound' adn more of a burn on the lizard fighter's leg. Still, as it turned out, drinking an entire healing potion to mend an injury like this would probably be a waste. Then again, having Druid Girl cast another spell would mean she'd only be able to cast one more for the entire day. Really though, it was up to Big Red if he felt he wanted to risk walking around with a damaged limb, or get it patched up and have less fire-or-support power later on.

Guild of Renta-Experts [[CANCELLED]]

"Hmm, must be rough, huh? Havin' to deal with 'two tomes of the mont'? I feel for ya, Al- Yup." Brandy sage, while folding her arms under her chest and offering a sagacious nod to accompany her comment. Too bad it wasn't nearly as wise, or intelligent, an observation as the satyress seemed to think it was...

"... Uh... Iunno if ya know this. but I think you're def's 'spose to actually cook meat before ya start eatin' it." She added, in response to Alice's newfound butchness of just tearing raw meat, and fur, straight from the bone of an animal carcass. The scene made Brandy actually blink a few times, like she'd just seen a prim and proper librarian jump onto ther reception desk, torn off her top and screamed something like: I MAKE BABIES! or some other nonsense. Needless to say, she was a bit surprised to see her previousloy collected and calm companion turn into a crude carnivorous and directionally-challegend chump.

Still at the notion that Alice had lost her sense of direction, and was now relying on Brandy for geting them both back to Litroot, the satyr seemed to beam with a newfuund sense of pride. Thumping her - very considerable - chest with one hand, the little goat-girl let out a nasally snort before pointing in the opposite direction of where her werewolf-pal had walked towards.

"It's 'totes this way, ya goof!" She said, not seeming too phased by Alice's gruffer and more aggressive attitude... At least not yet. "Try not to scarf that whole bun-bun down before we get back to town though, yeah? Thinkin' you'd enjoy it more if'n we got someone to grill up for ya first, maa-haa-haa~!" She added, and laughed.

The two then set off, into the darkening night, back towards the village to report on their success.

5 Minutes Later.

"Yer money or yer lives!"

Well, that was totally expected.

While on the path back towards Litroot, the girls had at some point been waylaid by ruffians. The bandits had hidden in the forest and undergrowht, and then made themselves known by having their leader, a particularly unwashed human with a scruffy beard and unkempt hair, step out infront of the two ladies' path, flanked by two cronies. Behind the girls, two other thugs had emerged after they'd been stopped, properly catching the women in a puncer-move.

By the looks of it, these weren't any sort of particularly prominent bandits though. None of them wore armor and their weapons, mostly consisting of cudgels, clubs and knives, were hardly what you'd consider impressive gear. Most likely, these were just some roughnecks from the local region who'd just started out their careers as notorious highwaymen. That, or they were really terrible at robbery. Aside from the human leader though, there were two other human men, an orc and a hobgoblin.*

"What do you want fellas? We're tryin' to get back to the village and you're kinda in the way, sooo..."
"Didn't ye hear me, girlie? I says; Money or yer life!"
"Yeah, see, I'm not really gettin' what that's 'spose to mean..."
"Wha--?! Ya daft or somethin'!? Touched in the head? It means ya either fork o'er yer coins, or we kill ya, ya dumb bimbo!"
"Whaaaaat!?"
"Oi, sir! Don't be hasty now! Lookit them, part from them claws on the silver-haired ones, these be some fine lookin' pieces of tail they be! Maybe we dun hafta kill'em if'n we findin' some other use for'em, aye?" One of the other humans said.
"Hmm, now that ya mention it... Heh... Hehehe... Aye, they ain't half-bad to look at, now are they? Mmmm, yeeeaaah... I'm sure we could come to an arrangement, little ladies... Heeehh....." The leader of the bunch said, with a crooked toothy smirk and a very uncomfortable amount of heavy breathing. "Tells ya what, strip on down and let's have a lil' fun together, and we'll be on our way, aye... We'll be takin' yer coins 'swell, o'course, but ya dun needa worry 'bout yer lives... Hehe... As long as ye do as we says... Mhmhmhm.."

Brandy looked, unexpected, physically disgusted by these men and made a sudden, gag-like noise as if she were about to throw up.

"Gah... Ew, like, no. Just no. I wouldn't let some gross, pervy, low-life losers like you scumbags lay a finger on this bod' of mine! ... Or Al, for that matter!"
"Oi, c'mon now, lass. Dun be like 'at! I betcha ya'd be enjoyin' yerself right quick once we gots started. Ehehe~ I could even help'cha unlaoad some o' that milk ya gots stored in them their jugs o' yers!" The bandit who oriiginally suggested the new course of action said, wiggling his eyebrows and make creepy, suggestive movements with his hands and fingers. His comrades all cheered and roared with enthusiasm in response.
"I wanna pet this one's tails and ears... She's just my type, uhuhuhu~ Make ya my lil' puppy, uhuhuh~!" Said the orc, now making an unpleasant bee-line towards Alice while reaching his hand and arm out towards her, making patting-motions as he drew closer.

"Don't worry, Al! I'll protect ya!" Brandy bostfully claimed, with no real way of actually backing up said promise, as she had neither armor, shield or even a weapon to speak of on her person at this time.

This was a really unfortunate situation...