Friendly Faces
When I wake up, I’m in the wagon. I’m covered in bandages and in a surprising amount of pain.
As our eyes meet Scarlet yells, “John! She’s awake!”
John then comes in from outside the wagon and asks, “How do you feel? Can you breathe well? How about your shoulder?”
“In pain, yes, it hurts but I think I can move it normally. Here let me tr-”
“Don’t move it! You need bed rest!”
“I don’t think it’s that b-”
“I said you need bed rest. Doctor's orders. Don’t move around!”
“Okay…Sorry.”
“Rayla! Your turn.”
John leaves the wagon and Rayla comes inside, she looks pissed, “I’m really disappointed in you, Rose.”
“Wh-what? Why?”
“You broke formation, got yourself in mortal danger and by extension everyone else as well. I expected this from Scarlet, not you.”
“I…I’m sorry.”
“And what’s even worse is that despite being shot through the lung you kept on fighting. Even though John told you not to! You could have seriously worsened your condition that way or even died!”
“I-I’m sorry…”
“Why’d you do something so reckless!?”
“I…I didn’t really feel the pain and I thought I was fine after John healed me so I wanted to help…”
“And why’d you break formation?”
“Well…Scarlet couldn’t do her fire breath so I thought I could get rid of the swarm real quick…”
“I’m going to only give you this one warning, Rose. Do something like that again and it’s over.”
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“I mean if you keep being reckless like this I’m going to force you to quit adventuring.”
“Wh-what!? Isn’t that a bit much?”
“No. You’re on probation now. No more risky or reckless behavior allowed. Understood?”
“Yes…”
“Good. Now rest. John said you’ll be fine again with his help, provided you don’t strain yourself, in three to four days. So until then stay put.”
“Okay…”
She then hands me Hoppy, gives me a kiss on the cheek and says, “Go to sleep now.”
Frustrated with myself and not wanting to anger everyone further I go to sleep and over the next three days stay put until I’m fully healed thanks to John’s magic.
On the fourth day, we go back to Falkswreath and with the help of my darkness ritual get rid of the few rattes that remain. Rayla also goes to check out the place with the magical items I saw. It turns out to be a music shop full of enchanted instruments that play by themselves. The instruments seem to have worked as a way to scare of the rattes as this is one of the few houses that stayed completely unused by them.
“Alright, it looks like we’re done here. Let’s get out of here and turn in the quest. If we hurry we’ll get there by evening.”
Moving through the decomposing corpses with some cloth strapped to our noses we go back to our wagon and make way to Colabar.
It is close to sundown that we get the first glimpse of it. The architecture looks completely different from what we have seen so far in the NU. It must be dwarven architecture. Houses are all made from stone and many of them have sharp spire-like roofs and towers seem to be common. It looks somewhat eerie how the streets are illuminated by light coming from stained glass windows towering over them inside stone arches.
Following the path closer. we get to a giant stone door where, after explaining to the guards why we’re here, we get let inside. Driving through the streets, the town seems to be inhabited by mostly humans and dwarfs with Wolf-Beastkin being the runner up. The city has a dark yet endearing feeling to it.
As we get to the guild we can hear loud music from it. It sounds like they’re having a party so I preemptively put some beeswax in my ears before we go in.
Inside, the layout is very familiar but the people give it a different feeling. Most of them are drinking, listening to music and having fun. It seems like a very warm place.
Going to the counter, Rayla puts down her card and says, “Hi, we’re here to report that we have eradicated the rattes in Falkswreath.”
The dwarven secretary, a younger dwarf with a long brown beard reaching down to his belly, answers overjoyed, “That’s great! We’ll of course have to confirm it first but still thank ya! No one here wanted to do this quest so you’ve really helped out a lot.”
“Why did no one want to do it?”
“Because it’s hard and dangerous. There are safer quests to do that give you the same rewards. So truly, thanks for helping out.”
“Uhm, you’re welcome. By the way, are you celebrating something?”
“Oh no, this is just a regular Tuesday here. If you want to see a party you should come here on the weekends, haha. Anyways feel free to join us, if you can hold your liquor that is.”
“Maybe we will, haha. But could you recommend an inn for us first?”
“Oh there's no need for that. You lot can sleep in our guest beds. They’re right next to the infirmary in the training area.”
“Uh, sure! How much will that cost us?”
“Do you plan to stay for long?”
“No, we’re just going to stay until we find a new quest.”
“Then it’s on the house.”
“Wait, really!?”
“Yep, I swear on me beard, haha.”
“Well, thank you Sir.”
“Don’t worry bout that. Go have fun!”
“Sure! Thank you.”