Chapter 10: Flicker to Inferno

Well, at least one positive thing was confirmed when we got to Dangruf Wadi. My instincts were improving. When we got there, the landscape was literally littered with Beast Men corpses, but additionally, many of the adventurers we had seen in Norhtern Gustaberg were here too, apparently downed, but strangely, none of them seemed to have been injured... I think "what the H' fits the bill here.

"Heyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaa felllllllllllllaaaaaaaaas howw yaaaaaa... ehhhhhhh, neva minnnnn..." Whoa... it was a thief, not the one would seen before, but a hume, and apparently, someone had zapped his mind somewhere off planet, and o say that he looked "unenthused" was akin to saying that... er I can't think of an analogy here... Never mind forget it. Anway, the point was, he was not the only one like that. As we walked through Dangruf Wadi all we saw was the same thing, corpses upon corpses, and adventurers who's minds were in another universe and were about as enthused looking as... an overweight guy forced to do track, THERE HAHAHA! I GOT ONE... what? Oh please, it was just an analogy, take your protest elsewhere.

Finally, that odd sensation known as logical thought progression began to kick in in my head. Seeing as we weren't getting any answers as to what the H happened by just examining the scene, I decided it was best to interrogate the adventurers milling about. I sent everyone off in random directions to be able to do this more quickly. The first person I pulled for interrgation was an elvaan warrior, who, frankly, didn't seem to be quite as affected as all the others were. At least as far as his mind was concerned...

"What the H happenned here?" I asked simply, I wanted to tack more onto the question but despite the guys seeming lack of being affected mentally he most certainly seemed to be just as lacking in charisma as all the other adventurers around here. What the H was goin on?

"Uhuuuu... I dunno really... one minute me an my friends was fighting up some Quadav, next thin' you know everyones minds go bye-bye and everybody suddenly gets alll, whuuuuuuuuuu, and ehhhhhhhhh, an ahhhhhhhhhh..." the sounds he was macking, I assumed, were those indicitave of boredom, more specifically, a lack of charisma.

So let's see, everyone's minds were fried, and along with that the had the enthusiasm of slugs. Sooooooooo what was the connection here? I decided I would see what one of the others had found out so far. The first one I decided to hear from was SIlvie (an entirely arbitrary decision...really!) anf found her among some rather admiring elvaan and hume males... her particular method of "interrogation" left something to be desired, to say the least.

I grabbed her by the ear and pulled her away, much to the chagrin of the male crowd, but fortunatly, they we're too listless to muster up the will to pursue us. "RRRRROWWWWWWW RRRRROWWW LEGGO LEGGGO! RRRRROWWWWW!" She shouted in a hissy fit. I did not do so until we were some distance away from aggressive male humes and elvaan. "Whats youuurrrrrr prrrrroblem! That hurrrt!" I crossed my arms and cocked an eye at her.

"And what exactly was it you were doin over there young lady? We're suppossed to be investigating these people, not seducing them." Silvie looked indignant. She leaned back and shook her hands, in an 'I'm innocent' sorta way...cute... ARGH that didn't mean nuthing hear me?

"I WAS NOT SEDUCING THEM! I WAS JUST...ERrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... PERRRSUADING THEM TO OPEN UP! YEAH THATS IT!" I shook my head. Good to se that she didn't get shaken up easily at least...well, mebeee that was just cuz she had friends now. No telling if she might be quite so cool if she were on her own.

"Riiiight. Anyway, while you were 'persuading' them. Did you manage to find out anything useful?" Silvie looked almost paniced for a moment, as though she'd been caught thrifting something. her face lit up red in the cheeks and she started sturtering like a fish out of water... I know it doens't make sense, just bear with it okay? I'm not good with this whole metaphor thing.

"Ohhh, errrr ummm, they said something about seeing a guy in heavy lookin' armor blowin in and taken out Beast Men left and right, and when that happenned everyone else got zonked out at the same time...I think..." Well, that was certianly helpful...maybe... the despriction was familiar in some way... I knew I had heard or seen it somewhere but WHERE? anyway, I gathered up the other three and essentially they had nothing different to add excelt that the guy in armor could aslo use spells, and who seemed almost impossible to hit through physical means.

"So let's see, we're dealing with a Dark Knight, who can wipe out entire areas of Beast Men on his own, and has a mastery of spells that can be used to totally disable people... anyone got anything against that assesment?" A general nay went through my three allies. "Mkay, anyone wanna hazard a guess who this Dark Knight might be?" I asked. Already pretty sure I knew the answer.

"The only one I can think of is that thief guy, he seemed keen on getting power, and wanting people out of his way, from what I see here, seems to fit him perfectly." Murris said with irritated intelligence. It was clear he didn't like the notion of being shown up as a tough guy. Silvie seized the opportunity an half-second before I could.

"Awwwww, pooorrrr Murrrris's ego's gettin all brrruised, I don't think he can take much morrrre." Murris huffed indiginantly and turned away and crossing his arms with another humph.

"Heh, anyway, yeah, him, it's gotta be, how many people out there would actually attack other adventurers in an informal non-duel setting like this?" Lauria added her own thoughts in, which I accepted as valid arguments.

"THis meany-weeny, bas-taru needs to be put in his placey wacey! We can't justy-wusty let-aru him do as he wants to other adventurers!" I nodded at Curru's assesment, which seemed to make Lauaria rather indignant.

"What happenned to not involving youself in another hunters business?" she asked sarcastically. She certainly seemed rather confident when she thought she'd caught someone in something or whatever the H it was that went through that womans head when she wasn't bein' talked to.

"He's attacked other adventurers, he looses the privilege, the Red Wings cannot let such dishonor stand," I said with authority, I was beginning to get the hang of this whole leader thing. "We're gunna find this Dark Knight thief and teach him a lesson or two about how to be an honorable adventurer, the good old fashioned way." I added slyly. I held out my hand palm down. "Red Wing pledge, you guys with me! I wanna HYA RED WINGS!" At first the others staed at me then, one by one, hands were placed over my own, well, three at least, one had to touch the bottom.

"HYA! RED WINGS!" We all shouted and threw our hands into the air. That felt good, indeed it felt really good, up till now I had felt we we're just a group of people traveling together and adventurin' together, but now, with this, a focused purpose to all shoot for, the Red Wings had become a true team, we had gone from a Flicker, to an Inferno.

And so the Red Wings set off to hunt down their new prey.