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Chapter VI: The Routine
We never talked much about the first mission. Nobody felt good about what happened, and we all knew that the awkwardness of that day would stay with us always.
So what else could we do than move on? We took our second mission, third, fourth, eleventh mission, and everything was fine. Now, however, our team had climbed a rank. And for good reason too. We had all been honing our skills, and I even learned some new spells relatively quickly. Everybody improved, and our missions were going well. We never had an experience like the first mission again, and I don't specifically mean Asteron's frenzy.
The job had become a routine. We found our target, tried to negotiate, and if they would not listen, which happened surprisingly often, we'd force them to do what we asked them to. This often led to combat in which we had no choice but to kill the enemies, but it didn't bother us anymore. Even the looting had become a simple routine, in which Asteron stood guard, Surina and Maragh searched the corpses, I identified magic items and Bardryn watched over us. Jokes were made about the dead and the fight, and more and more often we caught ourselves talking about the battles like it was an epic story instead of killing.
Even though it was not humane to do all of this, it was also a prerequisite for surviving this job. Those who still cared about their actions after eleven missions were going to be having some serious psychic problems.
We soon got ourselves some horses, so we could get more missions done in a short amount of time. When we'd get close to our target, we'd tie our horses to the surrounding and I'd cast several rituals to conceal them.
Then came our twelfth mission. Our rise in rank also meant rise in danger in the missions, and this danger often formed itself in lack of information and knowledge.
Team: Darastrix/Members: 5
Leader: BardrynAdventure Count: 11
Contractor: Ravensburg Ministry of Agriculture and Cattle
Briefing: Cattle has been disappearing from farmer Jones' meadow at night,
and there is as of yet no clue to what's causing these deaths. The only things
found are the bones and leftover meat of the cattle. It seems a predator is killing
the creatures, but there have not been recent sightings of animals large enough to
kill them. Find out what's causing the deaths of the cattle and report back to the
ministry as soon as you've taken care of the problem.
Reward: 60 gold pieces, 300 silver pieces
This assignment has been approved of by Area Cali, Guildmaster of Ravensburg
This is generally a really bad mission to be assigned to. You don't now what you're facing and it involves the deaths of large creatures. We'd been on missions like this before which almost got us killed. However, our rise in rank had also given us a rise in ego. We could handle anything, just follow the plan, right?
After we received the mission scroll, we needed to come up with a plan, so we sat down at the tavern to talk about it. Bardryn always liked a good pint when working, and it did help her concentrate for some reason.
'Since we don't know what we're dealing with, I want us to keep watch tonight. We'll go to Jones' farm and stay there, concealed. Your rituals can help with that, Ghrak, so take your components with you. We will stay there all evening and watch the cattle. If anything comes out, we identify, negotiate, then fight.' We drank our beverages while nodding; it's the team's basic plan, and this was just another mission wasn't it? Bardryn turned to Maragh. 'I want you to get us information on this. Find out what people know so we can be prepared. I'll create some tanglefoot bags just to make sure.' We all nodded again, and Bardryn lifted her pint. 'To Darastrix!' We raised our pints, replying. 'To Darastrix!'
So that day Maragh tried to find out as much as possible about the case, Bardryn went home to make some tanglefoot bags, and the rest of us prepared ourselves for the evening. I started memorizing my spells, while Surina and Asteron prepared their weapons and armour. We had no idea what was going to happen.