Chapter 2. The Frontier Kindest.
The woman knew no one believed in something as free help. So it was easier to sell themselves as mercenaries, that seemed to ease the people of the town, particularly the mayor of the town. "No one died today… and that is thanks to all of you, how can we pay you for this?" "Metal works as good as always." The heir noticed that everyone around the major seemed to relax at the simple fact they wanted money…was… was this normal here? Mercenaries were so common here?
"To be honest, we send a request to an adventurer guild but apparently the money we offered was too little for this…" He presented the heir with a small sack of coins. Coppers and a few silvers. She made a mental note that her gold was just as valuable as before if not more judging by the size of the coins, that promised they wouldn't have trouble with their funds but seeing that apparently things like goblins attacking were as common as thieves in her homeland, she felt good knowing that the rest of the group was back in the hamlet.
"I see…" she also noticed an odd naming convention, people seemed to call themselves through titles. The mayor presented themselves as The Mayor. Whatever happened, she already knew it, but this only served to confirm her suspicions they were somewhere else entirely different from home. "Well then sir, I believe I must go on. We are travelling towards the east." "Oh, I am guessing you are going to The Frontier then… I know you only asked for metal, but I would feel more comfortable if you allowed me to give you something else." He looked at his desk for a map. "On my days of youth, I used to fantasize to travel through The Frontier, but the gods had other things in mind for me… so I all I could do to fantasize about adventure was to get this map, it would mean a lot for me if you were to give it use."
Behind the heir, the graverobber was already getting a feeling of what the heir would say. The methodical woman had a soft spot after all…
"… my own land is not that far, so I will have to come here again, I will visit as many places as I can from your map and write you a chronicle. That way you can experience the lands even if you can't get out of the town." She offered a smile, a simple smile that cheered the heart of the mayor.
"Do the roar again!" "Yeah do the roar!" kids surrounding Bigby were all over pleading for the man to do the roar again. The arbalest and the jester were currently sitting in the wagon, both fixing strings, one for her weapon the other for his instrument. "Kids adore him." "Did you like giant beasts when you were a young kid?" "… not particularly. Then again, I had to grow up fast. You?" The jester shrugged "I was too into music and tricks to really focus on stuff of the sort. Though I did once go see a caged lion."
The roar of the abomination coming out of the human brought a small tremor all around that made the kids fall on their behinds, yet they all cheered in delight before trying themselves to roar. The man wasn't a fool, he knew that while the kids were having fun the parents were not that fond of his roaring, but the roaring had an effect they wouldn't know. The wild beasts around the land would not approach for a while.
After their small visit to the town, no wolves nor any beast would dare approach the town for a couple of weeks in fear of the beast that roared from the town.
With their action done and procuring a map, the heir took to thank the people for their kindness and remind them that she would not forget their kindness. Through the town the heir became a figure, an odd mercenary with long black hair and demeanor of ice, yet kind when she chose to spoke. Her group would also start rumors. Rumors that would travel through merchants in the oncoming weeks.
On the road to the west the group of the Goblin Slayer was in a wagon taking the road to the west, hoping to find the source of the light. It was by no means a hard quest, it was simply a long trip that they had been enjoying for a week. "Ah, how exciting! The west of The Frontier! Who knows what we will find!" High Elf Archer, always enjoying the idea of journeying was the most excited about their road, Priestess was also enjoying the view from their wagon, Lizard Priest and Dwarf Shaman were mostly chatting about themselves while the Frontier Kindest was managing the horse of the wagon.
"Anything on your mind?" The elf took to sit at his side asking as she took on the road. "Goblins." "No, I mean, out of that." "No, I meant there are goblins in front of us." Indeed. There were goblins, but they looked hurt, weakened, as if they had been going away for a while now. "Eh? Are they survivors from a fight?" The wagon came to a stop. It was time to make sure they wouldn't move forward.
A small and efficient showing of butchery from the Goblin Slayer and the Frontier Kindest was confused. "Some of these were lacking limbs, they saw combat… and ran away…" "… Any idea what could scare of the goblins like this?" The elf asked confused "Some wild beasts can claim lands and force everything else out, like dragons." The Dwarf Shaman commented as he saw the remains of their enemies. "Don't know about dragons. But this was done with a scythe." The man knew about farms, and he had an idea how a cut from scythe would look, he had used on himself to cut a goblin before… but the rest of the wounds.
"Knifes, scythes… bolts?" One goblin had a crossbow bolt on its back. "They would have died from their injuries even if they didn't cross path with us, guess this could be called a mercy?" The dwarf spoke shrugging but Priestess didn't saw any mercy on this. Then again, she knew the dangers of a bunch of goblins running around and finding a small town or a village…
"The west of the Frontier hasn't been that explored by adventurers compared to other zones… but then again, I don't believe it will take long for us to find the cause of this." The Lizard Priest commented pointing towards the front where a wagon was moving towards them. A woman with black hair and glasses was looking at them with a cold demeanor.
"I apologize, I noticed a small group running away, are you hurt?" There was something in the woman demeanor that made everyone stand up a little straighter. As if they were speaking with a figure of authority, the heir had that effect in the opinion of her partners.
From the wagon came out the group responsible for leaving the goblins hurt.
"No." Spoke the man with the helmet covering his face. The heir remembered Reynauld. "Good…" from the wagon came out the rest of the group of the woman. High Elf Archer noticed something, the group in front of her looked… dirty. Not in a manner of hygiene, rather on a manner of having come out of combat not long ago. "You wouldn't happen to know where we can get ourselves clean do you?" the masked man spoke tired. The woman with the hat removed it from her head showing blonde hair matted with blood. "Those bothersome things make a mess…" The man with the coat looked disheveled in itself but the group of the Frontier felt that man often looked like that, only the woman manning the wagon and the one with a crossbow looked clean.
"… do you… come from the west?" "My land is on the west yes." "You wouldn't happen to know of a pillar of light do you?" Priestess asked kindly looking at the group.
"Ah." The party of five all answered at the same time.
So that's how they arrived. In a pillar of light.
See you all next time. With the party of the north for chapter 3.
Chapter 3. The vampire of the north.