>>36017707

“Oh? The handsome doctor left?” Valerie yells from the kitchen. “Maybe I might have to do something to Glen so that he’ll come back.”

You laugh.

Glen gulps in fear.

The captain walks downstairs with Jin in tow. “Alena, Glen.” The captain nods. “Valerie, please call Sarah and Vincent back from the practice yard. I have a mission briefing.” The captain turn to Jin. “Go find Bart.” he says shortly.

Jin leaves the building as quickly as he came downstairs.

“Excuse me for a bit.” Glen slowly stands. “I’ve been holding it in since the doctor came.” Glen walks out of the hall.

Now it is just you and the captain in the hall. You

>Ask what information did he find out about the crystal

>Ask if he’s spoken with Guard Captain Cyril.

>Remain silent.

>Write in

>>36017744
>Remain silent
I'm sure he knows what happened and he will soon brief us. No need to rock the boat just yet.
Also heya Auri.

>>36017744
>Remain silent.

>>36017744
>Remain silent.

>Writing

>>36017891

You remain silent.

The captain clears his throat. “Seems like Glen is recovering just fine. I hate to have one of my soldiers out of commission, but he earned his break.”

The silence returns. You see why Glen left the room.

The captain sighs as he hears Valerie returning with Sarah and Vincent. He turns to you “If you plan to go on a hunt, make sure you have the conviction to go in for the kill.” He raises his eyebrows and turns back.

Sarah and Vincent walk into the hall. Vincent tenses up and stands at attention.

“No need for that here. At ease.” The captain chuckles and turns to Sarah. “Sarah, the practice yard isn’t going anywhere so you don’t have to spend all your free time there. Isn’t that right Glen?” The captain looks at Glen as he returns to the hall.

Both Glen and Sarah blush.

The captain bursts into laughter and you can hear a giggling coming from the kitchen.

A few more minutes of idle conversations continue until Jin and Bart return.

“Excellent, now we can begin.” You, Jin, Sarah, Vincent, and Bart line up side to side as the captain begins his briefing.

"Firstly, the outlying villagers have requested that we investigate something for them. Apparently, they’ve been hearing sounds of explosions far off into the marshes. Bart and Vincent, you are to go with a detachment of the cities guards to investigate the matter and report back to the village with what you find."

“Roger!” Both Vincent and Bart say in unison.

[1/2]

>>36018508

“Secondly.” The captain pauses. “We have a lead on the crystal shards that we found in Glen. The slavers have been spotted a few miles north of the village transporting cargo. They have split off into two groups of seven, which makes now the best time to investigate the matter.”

The captain stops pacing. “Jin, Sarah, Alena.” I want the three of you to stealthily infiltrate their leader’s group at night and take any information that you can. It is absolutely important for you to gather this information. These crystals in the wrong hands can create a great deal of havoc. I want to know just how they acquired them.”

“Understood.” You affirm.

“Watch each other’s backs and above all…” The captain looks at his boots, “Succeed.” The captain looks back up. “That is all, dismissed.”

The captain walks upstairs. Everyone begins to wish each other good luck. Jin stands off to the side as always but can’t get away from Bart’s well wishing hug. Glen says farewell to everyone, but seems to be maneuvering himself away from Sarah. You walk over to him and

>Ask what’s wrong.

>Push him into Sarah.

>Just give him your farewell.

>Write in

>>36018561
>Push him into Sarah.

>>36018561
>Push him into Sarah.

>>36018561
>Ask what's wrong.
I would normally vote for push, but he is injured afterall.

>>36018595
>>36018615
>Writing

>>36018794
“Oh, hey Miss Honors. Good luck on your mission. Although I do suppose you would be well suited to sneaking given your, uh, stature.” Glen grins.

You’re sure that he thinks you wouldn’t hit him anymore after he embarrassed you earlier in the day. He thought wrong.

You wait for the right timing and then you give Glen a shove with your whole body. Given that he is much larger than you he doesn’t go flying but he hits the target. Sarah and Glen collide and Glen trips onto the floor.

“Oooph.” Glen groans in pain. He then realizes what your plan is and then shoots daggers at you with his eyes.

“Sorry…” Sarah extends her hand out to help Glen up.

Glen stands on his own. “No, it was my fault. Good luck on your mission…” Glen doesn’t look directly at her.

“Thank you.” Sarah says softly “Take care of yourself.” She walks to the entrance.

“Hurry up.” Jin shouts to you.

That shove didn’t tell you much, but you definitely know that something happened between those two in the past three days, given how they interacted before Glen was injured.

There’s nothing you can do about it now, so you double check your gear and head out.
[1/?]

>>36019531

After slogging your way through a few miles of marshes your group reaches a small clearing by the middle of the afternoon.

“Here.” Jin stops and sits on the ground. “We’ll rest here until nighttime, we also need to formulate a plan.”

You and Sarah both follow Jin’s lead and rest on the ground. The three of you begin to clear your boots of debris.

“We’re not far." Jin points off into the distance. “Those stalks are probably where they will set up camp.”

You and Sarah look at where he indicates. The fungi stalks are huge to be able to see them from a distance, but you do guess the a little more than a mile away.

“Well into the night is when we’ll strike. Nobody ever bothers them this far into the marsh, so they’ll like only post a few of their men as guards when they sleep.”

He stops and looks at you. “I doubt you ever dealt with these kinds before, but they are no simple undine raiders. They will have had extensive battle experience, so don’t underestimate them.”

“She won’t” Sarah affirms confidently.

“I hope so.” Jin continues “My plan is for us to take out whatever guards they have posted and then I will sneak into their leader’s tent, take him out and then gather what I can. If all goes well then we should be in and out of there with no problem, but if it doesn’t then we’ll be surrounded.”

“How about…” Sarah starts “We do as you say and take out the patrolling guards, but simultaneously we have one of us set off an explosive away from the camp. They’ll be likely to send only some of their group to investigate and then we can take them out in smaller groups.” Sarah looks at Jin expectantly.

“Not bad, we’ll have to take out their whole group for sure, but we won’t run the risk of being surrounded. Hmmm.” Jin scratches his chin.

“What do you think, Alena?” Sarah turns to you.

>Go with Jin’s plan.

>Go with Sarah’s plan.

>Write in (Your plan.)

>>36019568
>Go with Jin’s plan.

>>36019568
>Go with Jin's plan.
We're there to gather information and leave.

>Writing

>>36019893

“We should follow Jin’s plan, if we can get in and out of there without most of them knowing it would be better.” You reply.

“Then it’s decided. Check your gear and rest up. We’ll be heading out at nightfall.” Jin lies on the ground and covers his eyes with his arm. “Also if you two are going to chat go do it away from me.”

“I’m going to get some rest too. That practice this morning really wore me out.” Sarah spreads out on the ground placing her polearms next to her.

“I guess I’ll keep watch.” You say quietly.

You can’t help but feel like both of them are trying to avoid having idle conversation with you. For Jin that’s nothing new, but Sarah would usually love chatting with you. You decide that now is not the best time to press a probably sensitive issue.

“We’ll take turns on watch.” Jin mutters “Switch with Sarah in a few hours.”

Your group rests up in silence and in peace. At nightfall you head to your destination. After hours of marching through a rather thick swamp, Jin signals to stop. The gigantic fungi stalks loom overhead. He points forward.

In a clearing you a number of campfires and a handful of large tents. Jin and Sarah begin surveying the area. After a few moments Jin holds up three fingers, which Sarah nods and returns three fingers. You assume that’s how many guards they see and you begin to scan the area yourself.

Roll 1d20 for what you spot, median result or average.

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>36020357
My eyes see all.

>>36020419
>.>

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>36020357

>>36020448
Phew.

>>36020448
So close. Good roll to counteract the bad one.

>Writing

>>36020562

You look at the camp. You see one guard positioned near a campfire. He’s carrying a longsword and appears to be whittling something. You spot a second guard with a crossbow, he patrols from one end of the camp to the other. You briefly spot another guard patrol, but he jogs behind a tent and out of sight before you see what weapon he is carrying.

You hold up three fingers and nod.
Jin and Sarah nod.
Jin points to himself and then points in the direction of the guard with the crossbow. He then points at Sarah and then the guard near the campfire. Then he points to you and then to the area where you lost sight of the guard.

He nods. Sarah nods. You nod, reluctantly.

The three of you split of quietly. Quietly wrapping around the camp, you take care not to disturb anything on the ground. You here a whooshing sound behind you and then a thud, and then a second thud from the area of the campfire.

You reach the side of the tent of where you lost sight of the guard. You poke your head around the corner slowly and then see that he his back toward you and is armed two swords.

“Ahhhh.” The guard sighs as he begins to urinate into a bush. You pull out your dagger and approach him.

Roll 1d20 for the kill, best result.

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>36020873
rollan

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>36020873
C'monnnn somehow kill two people.

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>36020873

>>36020952
>>36020985
That's not funny dice gods.

>>36021008
Shit. Sorry guys.

>>36021037
You're good. You didn't get a one so there's that. He only counts 1's and 20's to be crits, I think.
This was probably supposed to be an easy task.

>>36020952
>>36020985
>Writing

>>36021104
As you go in for the killing blow, your foot makes a scratching sound on the ground. He turns his head at the noise. You lunge as quickly as you can, dagger aiming for his throat.

The guard throws an elbow to block the dagger. He misses the dagger but lands it solidly on the side of your head.

You wince in pain as you feel your dagger plunge into his throat. You both thud to the ground.

You killed him, but for the moment you can’t open your eyes from the pain.

“We’re under attack!” A voice cries out into the quiet night. Above you? You slowly open your eyes. A crossbow bolt flies near you. You jump for cover behind the tent. You hear shouting from the tents as the rest of the slaver camp rouses into action. Jin turns upwards and shoots at a man hidden on one of the fungi stalks.

“AHHH!” You hear him shout as he falls from his perch and then loudly impacts with the ground. Five men come out from the tents. Two more than expected.

Jin falls back to gain some distance as he reloads, one slaver with an axe pursues him. Two slavers armed with swords begin to attack Sarah.

“Get her!” One of the slavers shouts orders, he turns to you and shouts “There’s another one over there! Kill them all!”

Another slaver charges you with his axe. You pull out your sword and ready yourself. He throws his axe at you with stunning speed. You block with your shield and are slightly stunned by the impact. He tackles you and brings you to the ground.

You

>Roll away from him and get back on your feet.

>Fight him on the ground.

>Write in

>>36021712
My trip turned off for some reason. This was me.

>>36021712
>Roll away from him and get back on your feet.

>>36021712
>Fight him on the ground.
About time we get to use our grapple skill.

>>36021712
>>Fight him on the ground.
Mount and kill his ass we don'thave time for this.

Roll one 1d20 for the ground attack. Best result.

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>36021948

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>36021948

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>36021948

>Writing

>>36022199
Size doesn’t matter so much when you’re both on the ground. You’re more than familiar with a ground fight so you quickly toss your leg over him and get out from underneath him.

You know you have to make this quick.

He punches you a few times in the stomach, winding you, but there isn’t much else he can do besides that. He clutches at you but you’re too agile for him.

You get his neck sandwiched between your one of your legs and thighs. He scratches at your leg futilely. You see his face turn purple and twisted. You plunge your sword through his ear and into the side of his head.

He stops.

You wheeze to catch your breath. You aren’t getting away from these fights unscathed but there’s still more to do. You rush over to Sarah as she fights off the two slavers.

You start slashing from one of slavers sides. He turns his attention from Sarah to you. Sarah freed from fighting at a disadvantage presses her attack. The slaver slashes at her. She catches the sword with her polearm and pins it to the ground. She lets out a fierce kick to the slaver’s knee sending it bending in the wrong direction.

The slaver collapses to the ground, cries out in pain, and clutches his knee. The cries are quickly silenced with a spear jab to the throat.

“No!” The slaver leader yells. He runs off toward the campfire.

You slash at your opponent, easily deflecting his attacks and keeping his attention as Sarah rolls behind him and thrusts her spear through the back of his head. He falls to the ground.

You turn to the slaver leader as you see him setting a large crate on fire. “S-stay back!” He screams. He runs into his nearby tent with the torch in hand.

“Help! Somebody get me out of here!” You hear a female scream from the crate.

An axe flies past Sarah’s head. You see a slaver armed with Jin’s crossbow standing behind you.

Sarah shouts to you “I’ll handle him, go!”

You turn and run

>To the crate

>Inside the leader’s tent.

>>36022711
Feel free to think, speculate, and discuss this decision. I have to go pick up my nephew from an after school thing. So I will be gone for 15-20 minutes. Please keep the thread bumped and I apologize for the delay.

>>36022711

>To the crate

>>36022711
Sounds really important. I'm going to take the free time to think on it.

>>36022711
>to the crate.

I'm back. I'll give it another 4 minutes for votes before I start writing.

>Writing

>>36023271
You head straight toward the crate. The lid of which has erupted in flames. The slaver leader must have poured some alcohol on it for it to be burning so fiercely.

You hack at the top of the crate desperately. It gives way slowly. Finally wood can be separated from the metal latches keeping it closed. You kick off the lid and tip the crate so its inhabitant can get out without being burned. As soon as you see a cloaked figure crawl away from the crate you rush into the tent.

You see that the slaver leader has set fire to a large amount of documents and ledgers.

“Stop!” you shout to the man. He turns to you, wide-eyed. He grabs a crossbow that was sitting on his cot.

“I was going to be safe after this last delivery. I would have made enough money to get as far away from all this as I wanted.” The slaver shakily clutches the crossbow. “You ruined it all. You…” He caustically spits out.

You inch closer slowly.

“We had a deal with you mercenaries. Now there’s no hope left.” The slaver says sadly. He looks at you with empty eyes. “I hope you rot in this world.”

He raises the crossbow pointing under his chin and lets the bolt loose. He collapses to the ground.

You sigh and sheath your sword. You pick up what documents are left and rush out of the tent before the whole thing is caught in the flames.

You look off to your side and see the cloaked woman huddled on the ground. You turn and see Sarah helping a limping Jin.

“Let’s hope you got what we needed.” Jin takes the documents from your hands and stuffs them into a bag.

“Are you alright, Alena?” Sarah looks at you concerned.

“I’m fine. I suppose.” You reply automatically. Your body is in a deal of pain and your mind is trying to make sense at what you just witnessed and heard.

“What did he tell you?” Jin stares at you.

The slaver did mention working with your guild. You’re not sure who to trust.

>Tell the truth

>Lie to cover what the slaver said

>Write in

>>36023848
>Lie to cover what the slaver said
Some fishy shit is going on here.

>>36023848
>Tell the truth

>>36023942
Should we though? We'd lose any head start if the deals have been detrimental to us.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>36023932
>>36023942
Writing the winner.

>>36024102
“He just cursed at me and then he took his own life. That’s all.” You return Jin’s stare.

“Hmm. Shame.” Jin pulls out the documents he just stuffed away. “These are nothing but contracts with a buyer from Myndras.”
He sighs, “Not much to go on.” He looks at the cloaked figure. “I’m tired. All I’ll say is that I hope you made the right choice saving her instead of stopping that fire.”

He settles on the ground. “Just my luck this mission. I get attacked by a wild group of sporelings and then we have to go back to report a failure.” He closes his eyes. “Let me rest for a moment, then we’ll head back home.”

Sarah walks to you. “We should go check on her.” She nods toward the cloaked figure.

The both of you walk up to her.

“Are you alright, Miss?” Sarah says gently as she places a hand on the shoulder of the woman.

“Get your hands of me, filth!” The woman shouts and stands removing the hood of her cloak.

Jin sits up immediately. He gasps. “What in the...”

You and Sarah both stand stunned.

In front of you with light blue skin shining slightly in fire’s light, long flowing dark hair, and dark pupils, a halfbreed stands.
That's going to be all for tonight. As always, my extreme thanks go out to everyone that played. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to post them in the thread.

Next thread will either be tomorrow or Sunday, I will post which later tonight on my twitter. See you all next time!

https://twitter.com/QM_Auri (Twitter)
http://pastebin.com/u/QMAuri (Character Sheets)
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=miasma+quest (Previous Threads)

>>36024545
Thanks for running Auri

>>36024545
Thanks Auri it was fun. see ya next time.

>>36024545
Thanks for running Auri. See ya next time.