"Why are you holding us at spear point!" Wrottzen cried as they were escorted to the village elder. "Its not exactly the best way to treat your guests!"
"Word travels quickly." One of the captors said. "We've received word that Adventurers had gone mad and begun attacking People of the Land. We won't allow ourselves to be fooled."
Arriving at a large house in the center of town, the trio of adventurers was gestured inside.
"Elder. We captured these Adventurers who came to our village."
"Very good. Very good." The Elder replied slouched in his chair. "Confiscate their weapons and armor."
"That's going too far!" May cried. "You can't expect us to just give up our weapons!"
"If you mean us no harm, then they will be returned to you." The Elder replied. "Now hand the guard your weapons and he will escort you ladies to a private place to remove your armor."
"Why our armor too?" Wrottzen cried, handing his sword and shield over to the guard, "Aren't the weapons enough?"
"Your armor gives you an unfair physical advantage on us. If we left you with armor, you could have eventually fought your way out even without swords and staffs. Once you have been disarmed, we will discuss your presence in our village."
"This way." The guard gestured, leading May and Wrottzen to a small room. "You will change here. Once you are finished, please hand your clothing to me."
"I don't suppose there's another room I can change in?" Wrottzen asked.
"You are both women and this is a perfectly spacious room. Now change!" May and Wrottzen were shoved in the door and stood there in silence as the guard slammed the door shut.
"This definitely isn't awkward." Wrottzen said flatly.
"We have to suck it up and do it." May replied. "You better not peek."
"I won't! I won't! In fact I have to wait for you to get dressed myself."
"Why is that?"
"You got me all these clothes, but I have no idea what's what in my inventory. I don't want to look like an idiot."
"I'm pretty sure you could wear anything and that village elder wouldn't even notice." May said as she finished getting dressed. Out of her lite green shirt and pants, May was now clad in a tight fitting V-neck and a pair of Daisy Dukes. "Now let's get you set!" Rustling through her comrade's menu, May eventually stopped and pointed at two items. "Put these on."
"OK. I'll take your word- HEY!" Wrottzen's clothes materialized to be a black shirt with a large pink heart on the chest, matched with a short skirt of the same design. "Why these?"
"You haven't been a girl long enough to notice, but men are easily distracted by a cute girl." May explained. "Wearing something revealing like that might give us the extra couple of seconds we need if things turn hostile. And seeing you uncomfortable is just an added bonus."
"You better not be lying about this." He grumbled in response.
"I'm not. Watch."
As the two women stepped out of the room, the guard did a double take of their attire.
"See?" May whispered. "Here's our armor sir. I do hope you'll give them back to us." She finished off the statement with a cute pout, making the guard blush.
"W-Well as long as you didn't come here looking for trouble. I'm sure you'll have them back within the hour."
"Thanks that's super nice of you!" May said, "We'll be heading back to the elder's room now."
"O-Ok. Maybe I'll see you later?"
"Of course. I'll see you then." May winked at the guard before leading Wrottzen down the hallway to the elder's room.
"That was incredible! That guard was like putty in your hand!"
"You could do that too if you wanted. Heck, with your body, flirting would probably be even easier for you."
"I'll leave that to you. It looks far too embarrassing for me."
"Once you see how easy it is, it'll become addicting."
"I have my own problems to deal with." Wrottzen said, as they arrived at their destination, "Like how do you girls deal with these short skirts? I feel like the slightest breeze will reveal my underwear to the entire world."
"You'll learn to ignore it." May said, "Hey Bojohn!"
Bojohn had already returned to the chamber wearing a plain brown shirt and pants, starter gear for the swashbuckler.
"Hey May!" He replied before turning to Wrottzen, "Hey- Wow!"
"I'll take that as a compliment… I think. Now let's get down to business. What do you want to discuss Elder? We're kind of on a schedule here."
"You need to learn patience young lady." The Elder replied. "Why have you three come to our village?"
"We are simply passing through on the way to Hudson." Bojohn replied. "We were hoping to stock up on supplies before continuing our journey."
"Why, might I ask are you traveling to Hudson?"
"Hudson is only a rest stop." Wrottzen jumped in. "Our final destination is Gotham."
"You haven't answered my question. Why are the three of you traveling? Why do you want to go to Gotham?"
"Well you see I-"
"We're traveling to Gotham to meet up with a friend." May said, cutting off Wrottzen who gave her an odd look.
"I see." The Elder said scratching his chin. "What information can you give me regarding the outside world? You're the first adventurers we've had in weeks."
"Adventurers are going through a lot right now." Bojohn said. "They've been cut off from their homes and are trying to cope with that, some more successfully than others."
"Is this the reason why Adventurers have been attacking our villages?"
"Yes." Wrottzen popped in. "These Adventurers are having trouble dealing with the changes thrust upon them and have lashed out at anyone they can find, including People of the Land."
"On their behalf we want to apologize and humbly beg for your forgiveness." Bojohn said, bowing his head in respect.
"Thank you." The Elder replied. "Your news has matched reports we have obtained from other villages and your actions have convinced me that you are no threat to our village."
"I am glad we were able to convince you." Bojohn said, "Perhaps we could have our armor returned to us and be allowed to stay the night?"
"Of course! It's the least we can do after our hostile reception. In fact perhaps you can help our village with a problem we've been having."
"What problem would that be?" Wrottzen asked.
"Tis Timitt the Valley Lord." The Elder replied, "He has been venturing closer and closer to our city, destroying crops and homes. Could you please help us brave Adventurers?"
A Quest window suddenly appeared before Bojohn, May and Wrottzen reading: Save the Village! Defeat Timitt the Valley Lord!
"Timitt? Wasn't that the guy we were running from on the way here?" May pointed out.
"It was." Bojohn affirmed, "What do you guys think? Should we accept?"
"We can't." Wrottzen replied flatly. "Fighting that thing would take us a day out of our way, and that's saying we're able to beat him. You're the only one even close to his level Bojohn and you can't beat him alone."
"You're right." Bojohn replied, "There was a reason we ran when put face to face with him before. We'll decline the quest."
"No! We have to accept!" May countered, "That monster is killing the people of this village. We can't just sit back and let that happen!"
"They're just NPCs." Wrottzen replied, "It doesn't matter."
"If we take that logic, what makes us any different from the other adventurers panicking in the city?"
"Rrrr." Wrottzen grumbled.
"She has a point man." Bojohn said, pushing the point home.
"But my body…" He whined in response.
"You've survived this long bro, what's one extra day?"
"Fine." He relented, "But we need to make some demands of the People of the Land first." Turning, Wrottzen spoke to the Elder once again. "If we were to accept, we would need a large supply of healing and mana restoring potions. Could you provide those for us?"
"My villagers will provide you with whatever we have on hand."
"Thanks. Tonight we also require an extra room, one large enough to accommodate me and friends for a strategy session."
"Consider this done as well."
"Then we will accept your quest!" Bojohn replied, "We will face and vanquish Timitt for your village."
Bojohn's statement was met with cheers from everyone present, hopeful that these strangers would be a saving grace for the town.
"Elder, if you could collect all of the potions here, my comrades and I will be retiring to strategize for the battle." Wrottzen said
"Tis the least I can do. Guard! Show them to their room!"
"Yes sir!" The Guard that May flirted with earlier stepped forward and motioned for the three to follow. He led them down a corridor until they reached a cluster of four rooms. "Here are your rooms." He said, "One for each of you and one more for strategizing."
"Thank you." Wrottzen replied curtly. "That will be all for now."
Turning to May, the guard added, "If you need anything, and I mean anything, my room is just down the hall."
"That's so sweet of you." She replied, taking a hold of his arm "There's just one itsy-bitsy thing I need before you go."
"Wh-What's that?" The Guard replied nervously.
"Could you return our armor to us? We need it for pre-battle preparation."
"Of course! Right away!" He replied before scurrying off.
"What was that about?" Bojohn asked, opening the door to the strategy room.
"She flirted with the guy earlier, now he thinks he has a chance." Wrottzen replied.
"Ahh. So that's it. Anyways what's the plan Wrottzen?"
"I have no idea."
After the Guard returned with their armor, May, Bojohn and Wrottzen spent hours trying to come up with a strategy to defeat the field boss but to no avail.
"What if I went to a two sword set?" Bojohn offered after another failed discussion.
"It's the same thing as May switching over to a magic staff rather than the Bo staff." Wrottzen replied. "In theory, it might help but neither of you are familiar enough with those to effectively use them in battle. Our best bets are sticking with our current sets."
"Let's start over again." May said. "We start out with my giving both of you the Forest's Blessing Defense buff before Bojohn rushes into make the first assault."
"After doing as much damage as I can, I get out of there so that Wrottzen can activate Anchor Howl and Fortress Stance."
"My defense will be at its max thanks to Forest's Blessing and Fortress Stance but even still, I'm too low level. I'll only be able to take about two waves of attacks, maybe three depending on when I activate Castle of Stone."
"After those three waves, we'd have to start using healing potions and spells on you." May interjected. "And the battle would become a race of Timitt's Hp vs. our potion supply."
"Which we can't win, even with all the potions the People of the Land have given us." Bojohn said.
"We need something extra." Wrottzen mumbled, "But it's not like that something is just going to drop into our lap."
"Drop…" May repeated. "Did we get any useful drops on our way here?"
"I don't think so" Bojohn replied, "But we can check."
Opening their menus, the three Adventurers proceeded to materialize their day's loot and began rummaging through it.
"Snakeroot, saffron… We have enough raw materials for me to transmute a few healing potions but that isn't going to help us in the scheme of things."
"I guess it's back to the drawing board." May sighed.
"Wait! I missed something!" Bojohn said, and materialized the final item.
Inspecting the item, Wrottzen began to grin. "This might work. OK. Let's start from the top once more but let's throw this into the mix."
AN: Sup everyone! Here we have our heroes' first interaction with People of the Land and the start of an epic quest. Will Wrottzen and the others be able to defeat Timitt and save the village? And how does this new item come into play? Feel free to leave a review with your prediction (It might not be what you think).