The Thieves Guild ch.03

    Days have passed, time on the road isn’t easy, not when it’s on foot. Betty has never gone so long with out talking to someone or listening to music. This world, all this nature, and all this silence is more alien to her than anywhere she has ever been. Her whole life the world has had music playing, back home, her ship, space stations, pretty much everywhere. When out in the wild her crew was always with her, singing her praises and other wise chattering.

   She looks around the party walking silently in the dimming light, all looking ready to fight, listening to the sounds of the forests. Yeah they’ve fought forest wolves, steel claw bears, and even a fire breathing dinosaur thing that was fighting along side a green squid with dinosaur legs holding its body up, Rhulan and Hollia had explained they were a flame raptor and a necro-squid, but the two helping each other hunt had never been documented before.

  Betty yawns just thinking about trying to start up another conversation with those two, its far too obvious Rhulan loves teaching and Hollia is a grade-A student. Every conversation starter question to either one has started up a long description, the researchers who studied the animals, the biology of a land walking squid where two limbs are vertebrate limbs, even asking about how they keep grass and plants off a dirt road so far away from towns got her into a long history lesson about magical stones laid down in Rhulan’s time to keep the plants from taking over which was switched off to Hollia to explain how plants regenerate super-fast…blah…blah…blah…

   Her other options aren’t much better; one is a pirate captain who is way too serious. She is even walking with her hands poised to pull her swords out in a flash, her predatory eyes scanning the forest edge darting between bushes and towards any movement behind trees.

   LinLin…LinLin doesn’t talk, yeah fun and cute especially with the chirping sounds, but she is Hollia’s little baby. Right now LinLin is curled up in Hollia’s arms resting, but Betty has seen LinLin spring awake in a flash to fight off some random monster attack.

   And last and least as far as Betty is concerned is Scrags. The thief in the group, who just hangs around in the back of the party keeping up the rear; who seems to be just as happy not to talk.

  “Well, the guy is a thief.” thinks Betty, yawning again.

  “Tonight we get a real bed.” announces Rhulan.

  Appearing just past the trees they can see a large wooden wall with guard posts and a double door opening large enough for a horse drawn cart to fit through.

  “Thank the goddess.” sighs Hollia to herself.

   She leans down to LinLin, “we get to sleep on a nice comfy bed tonight baby.”

   *chiiiiiir*

   LinLin’s cute little chirp-purr showing clear approval.

    *******

They are not alone in the forest. Elsewhere in the forest as night begins to fall a strange pair are following the path the party had been on, standing where the night before’s camp had been.

    For any place this pair would not only stick out, but together they stick out even more, a woman with a very well endowed chest restrained by a blouse and wearing dress pants, a woman who would look more at home in an office building on some mundane human world obsessed with money than standing out in the middle of a forest where dragons and cat-girls dwell, even with her long straight canary blond hair.

  The man next to her would seem less out of place in a forest with his torn shirt and blue-jeans covering his muscular yet not bulky frame, however his spiky orange hair draws the eye.

    “Pillage?” says the man addressing the girl.

   “Yes, Plunder.” she says kicking the logs still sitting in a circle.

   “I don’t think Scrags is here.”

   “really, you don’t say.” kicking the log again.

   “Why didn’t we…you know like teleport right in front of them.”

   She glares at him, “I’d rather not jump right in front of a legendary evil empress and her friends when all we were told was to get Scrags. From this far back we will be able to track them, follow the path of their battles, and ascertain what we are up against and keep back far enough to find a way to get Scrags when he is alone.”

   “Uh-huh.” he says eyeing her, “you just want to play cat and mouse. Seriously, this shit…” he kicks the buried spot the fire had been, “is like a day old.”

   A wicked look and smile crosses her face, “What ever, just get your ass in gear little brother.”

   The two oddities dash off into the night as fast as the wind. The dirt around
their foot prints caves in covering any trace they had ever been there.

    *******

    The next morning the party sits around a nice wooden table in the tavern across from the Inn where they had spent the night before. Their meal oddly enough is on the house; around them the other patrons are watching them from the corners of their eyes and whispering amongst themselves.

   Rhulan thinks back to the night before, in the inn a messenger had come shortly after sun-down asking them to meet a representative of the town’s authority the next morning at this very tavern, the only tavern in this very small town. From the outside they had only seen a wall, but inside it was clear the town’s population wasn’t likely to even be over a few hundred at most.

   Everyone in the tavern grows quite as a young woman, perhaps even still young enough to be called a girl walks in. Her simple appearance hides the fact that compared to most in the town her ridged dress and vest/blouse combo tells others she is born from wealth. Her long straight black hair clearly brushed and cleaned everyday while most in the town despite their best efforts aren’t nearly as clean.

   “Unless I am mistaken you are all adventures right?” she says in her all to sweet voice and equally sweet expression.

   “Yes,” says Rhulan, “and you unless I am mistaken are the one who sent that man to ask us to come here last night?”

   “Why, yes, so you’re the one in charge of this adventurer party? Oh what am I saying?”

  She looks around the group, while to most she would look like a young girl showing an exaggerated expression of scouting, however to Rhulan her eyes show a whole other story all together, a story of experience and eyes that shine with a rare special trait.

   “I see,” she says smiling like a cute girl, “The scruffy man in the back there is either a thief or a street brawler, perhaps even both.”

   She points at Betty and Cata, “you two are clearly sea farers, but obviously not from the same boat, yet both high ranking officers on your ships, perhaps even a captain…hmm…maybe you are both captains. For some reason I get the feeling there is something off about the blond one, but I can’t put my finger on it, and of course our other friend here is a Kuhrai, perhaps a hybrid.”

   Cata’s expression is one of both surprise and a bit of disdain.

   “The lady here closer to my own age is an assist type magician, and this cute little creature must be her familiar.”

   *chiiirrrr*

   “Oh what a cutey isn’t she? Oh the way she plays with the apples like little yarn balls for a kitty is tooooo cuuuute.”



   She clasps her hands together and just watches LinLin for a time until an overly loud, clearly fake, cough brings her back to her senses.

  Straitening herself up and regaining her regal posture, “My apologies, I tend to loose my senses around cute things. And of course this last person, is both the leader of the party and an offensive magic user.”

  With another cute expression and wink of her eye, “am I right?”

   Rhulan nods her head looking around the group, while no one had ever brought up the issue of party leader, to anyone in the group the fact is not completely clear to them that all along Rhulan had been making the decisions and following her lead.

   “Oh I am being rude.” The young girl says with curtsey, “I am the village chief’s eldest child and acting priestess Rhulan.”

    *gra-chu-chgraget..spl..spu..*

    Scrags chokes on his drink and dipped bread roll, “chu..wha?”

    She dips her head, “Yes I know it’s an unusual name, especially given what most every one says. However it’s been the tradition of our town since ancient times to always name the eldest daughter of the head family Rhulan, after the goddess that once united the world. Yes I know most everyone says she is evil, that is why our small town of loyal pilgrims was formed so far away from normal trade routes. I would understand if this alone put you off from helping us.”

   Everyone around the table looks at the original Rhulan, who just shrugs, she is genuinely baffled.

    “I take it,” says the original Rhulan, “you got a job you need an adventurer team for, however being so isolated its hard to get one, and add on your town’s more unorthodox view point the few you can get might think this is one of those weird off the beaten path towns you hear about who end up being a town where they worship some monster, dragon, giant man eating plant or something and the mission is really a trap.”

    “I assure you that’s not the case.” says the young girl named Rhulan.

   Before she can continue Rhulan puts up her hand to stop her, “Trust me when I say we aren’t the types to think that just because a town had decided to hold on to its ancient traditions and names its children after a character most the rest of world argues about even have existed.”

   Scrags raises his eye brow, a troubled look on his face as he mutters to himself too low for anyone save for those with animal ears to hear, “speak for yourself.”

   Cata narrows her eyes but says nothing, her eyes jutting to her right in the direction Scrags is sitting behind her but not reacting anymore than this.

   “One moment.” says Rhulan as she looks around the table.

   Cata shrugs, “at the very least we should see what the job is.”

   Betty nods her head, “yeah, I mean, like, we’re going to need money for this journey right? Like I don’t know, I mean you guys said we would have to do adventure jobs.”

   *shrugs*

   Hollia looks at Rhulan with a raised eyebrow wandering why she is even asking them, after all they don’t even know what the job is and they had already decided they would need to do jobs along the way.

   Rhulan can read Hollia’s expression, after so many years with Hollia’s visits to her as a statue she could practically read Hollia’s mind just from her expressions.

   “Okay then,” says Rhulan, “At the very least we can hear you out.”

   “Oh thank you.” she says, practically in years.

   “Uh, she said hear you out, not take the job.” interjects Scrags, who is a bit miffed at not being asked about the whole job thing.

    The young girl looks up, taken back.

   “Never mind him,” says Rhulan, “he’s being paid by me to help….right?”

   Rhulan glares at him.

   Scrags just shrugs, “what, I get paid, they pay you, you pay me. Asking about this and that, like anyone going to disagree with you of all people. I just want to know how much the job is, pay to work they say.”

  The young priestess looks back and forth between them.

   “Well,” says Rhulan, “He does have a point; all this stuff about not taking the job because of issues with the town and what not are irrelevant. Real adventurers wouldn’t care about that sort of thing, it all comes down to if we can handle the job, and the pay.”

   “It is an adventurer’s duty to aid those in need so long as they are able.” says Hollia with a smile.

   “Thank you, thank you,” she says, “We aren’t a very wealthy town, but we can pay you with free food, board, and even supplies for taking the job.”

   Scrags stops in mid-bite into a chicken leg looking at the meal set out before them they had been eating, and thinking about the great rooms they got to sleep in last night.”

   He looks around the table, everyone thinking the same thing roughly.

   Rhulan smiles, on the verge of laughing, “an act and trap,” she thinks, “either they really needed help and wouldn’t take no for an answer or this is one big trap. Either way this should be fun.”

    Hollia looks to be oblivious focusing in as the priestess talks.

   “Over a week ago a strange monster moved into the cave temple of Rhulan in the mountain near our village. We have been unable to enter since then, and…”

   She looks around the tavern at the people there, “The monster is a liar, its almost as you feared. This monster has tricked many of our people into thinking it’s a living god. It tells the people our goddess is silent, the goddess the travelers and people of the larger towns is also silent, yet it lives and will grant us eternal bliss and power if we give ourselves to it and its master gods.”

   “We’ll kill it.” says Rhulan standing.

   Rhulan heads to the door, “Hollia, Betty, Cata, Scrags, and LinLin, we have an adventure to get to and a monster to kill.”

   They look around the table and rise quickly behind her.

   “But,” says the priestess named Rhulan, “I haven’t even told you where the temple is exactly.”

   Rhulan points west, “Three miles exactly west of here, right next to the ruins of a black stone tower. Now we have no time to loose.”

   Rhulan’s sudden urgency has the group a bit nervous yet motivated to move. The priestess just stands there, hands clasped together, “Huh? Uh”

  Rhulan turns back one last time, “Young girl, you didn’t need to trick us into spending two thirds of the payment for this job to take it.”

   The group now looks to her like heroes, her shining eyes seeing what may very well be a goddess send.

   “Do you think they can do it?” asks one of her guards.

  “I really hope so.” she says, “I…I tried to scare them off. I’m sorry, its just.”

  “I know mistress.” he says, “those last three teams of adventurers, either dead or enslaved by the monster.”

   “These people though…” she says, “there is something different about them, something that reminds me of something, something about the goddess.”

   In the woods outside of town Cata just has to ask, “Okay, Rhulan, I know that had to be freaky and all, but what’s the rush?”

    Rhulan stops and turns, “You heard what she said right? Forgot what I told you before? The monster, living in a temple, making people worshiping it? I could be a Dah-Hoth.”

   “And if its not one of those freaks?” asks Scrags.

   “Either way,” says Rhulan, “Dah-Hoth or some other monster using that temple to make these people worship it, it will die.”

  Hollia smiles and nods proudly walking alongside her child hood hero, doing exactly what she always dreamed, walking determined to battle an evil force twisting the minds of innocent people.

   ******

   Three miles straight as the crow flies, is a little longer to travel up hill through the thick woods than Hollia had thought as she uses her staff as feeling stick along the ground, after all these mountains are known to be home to dagger snakes hiding in the brush. LinLin flies about the tree branches giving short mock chases after the little glider squirrels, which dash in all direction like small yellow comets.

    As LinLin vanishes behind a tree she suddenly turns back in a flash and takes up her battle stance just above Hollia, an all too familiar growl is heard. From the thick brush the looming form of a steel claw bear appears, its long metallic claws glistening in the streaks of sunlight cascading through the breaks in the foliage.

   Cata draws her swords prepared to fight.

   “Please don’t” says Hollia with a huff, “We’ve kill…killed too many of these guys. We’ll be past the legal limit for an adventurer party for the season.”

   “You…you’re kidding?” asks Scrags pointing at the howling beast.

   Hollia apparently not hearing or ignoring him raises her staff in the air, waving it about as green wisps of mist like energy flow about it

   Hypnos
   Morpheus
   Great lords of sleep and dreams
   Grant thy gift of silent rest
   To that which stands before us

  The green mist focuses and as a spiral beam strikes the great roaring beast in the head.

    *rrrr…rar…grrr….gra….rr..*

    *thud*

    -The steel claw bear has entered a deep sleep-

   With the large beast snoring the party carefully walks around it continuing up the slope. Scrags looks back with a raised eyebrow, “Assist type? Assist type my ass, that girl is scary.” he thinks to himself.

   Further up the hill a man in an odd red swordsman attire wielding two thin blades, katana, a rather uncommon weapon for Ravashira, walks out from behind a tree twirling his swords nonchalantly.

    “Pilgrims or villains?” asks the man staring over the top of their heads.

    “How about, get lost or get hurt.” chuckles Scrags spinning his daggers around mocking the swordsman.

    The swords man’s eyes flash yellow as a worm like ripples crosses under the skin of his neck, “Villains, worshippers of the false goddesses you will serve the great Danrag or die.”

   “Fa….”
   *swoosh*
   *kra*
   “..lse”


   Before Hollia can finish even saying the first word of her complaint Rhulan rushes past her with the speed of the wind and punched the man square in the gut toppling him over.

   With a wave of her green glowing hand over the man’s head he falls unconscious.

   The others stare in confusion as she pulls from the shadows of her cape a strange spider like metal device and places it on the back of the man’s neck. The device opens up a pod in the center of it and stabs a needle into the man’s neck.

   “Uhm…miss Rhulan,” asks Hollia, “what…is that?”

   “Huh?” says Rhulan, “Oh, this man has been infected by the Dah-Hoth. This device carries the cure for this level of infection. He’s just a pawn, so he should revert back to normal after a few hours.”

   “So…you just carry around Dah-hoth cure stuff in your cape?” asks Scrags.

  Rhulan stands after putting the man up against a tree and placing some monster wards around him to prevent anything from eating him while he sleeps.

   “My cape has sub-space warp pockets in it,” she explains, “They connect to a ware house equivalent worth of supplies kept in stasis. I just think about what I want, and so long as I had stored it at some point I can pull it out.”

   “Isn’t that a little too convenient.” he says, “Seriously, whose ever heard of something like that?”

   “Uh, like, I had one of those too.” says Betty.

   She opens a black portal and pulls out her second gun, “It’s where I keep my electric gun, some maps, treasure I…find, and stuff.”

   Cata shrugs, “yeah, its not really all that strange, the Kuhrai use these little red gems that have the same function.” she pulls one from her pocket, projecting an inventory grid. “Although I must say mine certainly looks more high tech…aside from looking like a magic jewel.”

   Scrags grumbles, “Great, everyone but the thief has a fancy storage device.”

   “If we’re done with the exposition,” says Rhulan, “we have a cave with a world threatening monster in it to deal with, villagers to save, and likely more adventurers who took this job before us under its control.”

    About twenty minutes later Rhulan is standing over a young girl in a purple witch costume with star patterns on it, administering another cure device while Hollia puts repel wards around her. She looks up and see the six or so others from this latest fight, down the hill there are at least four others who had tried to ambush them.

    Hollia casts a life signs tracking spell.

   “No more people waiting for us.” she says with a sigh of relief.

   “At least we took out the look outs,” says Scrags, “even if we had to use kid gloves, at the very least we were able to keep a little quite about it.”

   He turns his ears up to the sound they had been hearing for some time now, the sounds of worshipers singing.

   “Those villagers,” says Rhulan, “Don’t know we’re here, but that Dah-hoth does.”

   “You mean that Danrag thing? How the fiery hell would it know we’re out here?” he asks.

   Rhulan raises an eyebrow, “Did I forget to mention that they have a psychic link with their minions? It’s known we’re out since that first guy. We won’t be sneaking up on it.”

   “Then what’s the plan boss.” says Cata to everyone’s surprise, more surprised by the boss remark than anything.

    “Boss?” asks Rhulan as Cata shrugs

   “Any who,” she continues, “The plan is simple, that thing needs these people to worship it to gain power, we have already diminished some of its strength by curing its stronger victims.”

   She gathers everyone into a circle, turning to Betty and Cata, “I am going to need you two to draw the people out.”

   She turns to Hollia, “When the people get outside you put them to sleep.”

   She turns to Scrags, “and you become invisible and sneak inside in the commotion, I want you distract the Dah-hoth while we move the people out of harms way, it shouldn’t take but a moment to levitate them all out of harms way.”

   Standing back up they head on their way, Scrags shakes his head thinking, “Contract, I can’t believe I made a contract with this psycho chick.”

    As they approach the entrance of the cave the sound of singing echoes from with-in, a soft glow of torch lights illuminating the entrance.

   Hollia moves off the left, staff at the ready to cast a mass sleeping spell. To enhance the strength of the spell LinLin circles about like a draconic halo. Cata and Betty nod to one another.

    “Double Guns!” yells out Betty summoning both her guns unleashing a volley of fire balls and electric bolts around the cave entrance and nearby areas.

   “Wind Slicer!” yells out Cata unleashing an arc of blue energy from her sword swing at the hill side above the cave.

    ….nothing….no screams, no people rushing from the cave in terror to run into the awaiting spell of Hollia’s.

    “Come inside” yells out a woman’s voice.

   “Yes, we can all play together” comes a child’s voice.

   “We can all be together.” says a man’s voice.

   Scrags appears next to Rhulan, pale as a ghost.

   “You were supposed to attack it.” she says sternly

   “and there…there were…su…suppose…supposed to be people in there.”

   Rhulan narrows her eyes, looks down in thought, “oh shit.”

   “Everyone, inside now, be ready to attack!”

    In the cave the sight before them is hideous, no people are to be seen, but floating above an alter is a fleshy mass covered in plates that are clearly the whole shells or turtles embedded into the assimilating mass’s hide; four wriggling worm like tentacles squirm from the back end out of what can best be described as some monstrous oozing anus. The front end sports a massive shark tooth filled mouth, with a soft fleshy spot above it with a human face looking like putty circled by eight large round red eyes.

    “We have been waiting.” It says in a man’s voice.

   The face sucks into the mass with a sickening slurp to be replaced by a woman’s face and voice, “yes, come join us, be one with us.”

   The face again slurps in and is replaced this time by two faces stuck together, one a little boy and the other a little girl speaking together, “yes, come play with us, its ever so fun in here.”

   The face is replaced by the original male face.

   “Play with this!” yells out Scrags as he tosses a pair of flaming daggers at its hide, only to bounce off the shells.

   “Hah, hah, hah!” it laughs, “I am the god Darnag, we are unity. All that lives shall become one with Darnag.”

    Rhulan is about to say something when Betty bursts out, “Bastard!” her voice echoing off the cave wall.

   Her hat slowing spins and floats in the air above her, her long hair flowing out and her ears returning to their natural pointed form.

    “You ate them.” She says steaming, bits of flame actually emit from the corners of her eyes, her fingernails extend to claw like points, her eye teeth grow like fangs.

   “Men, women, and children, you ate them. People who believed in you, worshipped you, you dared use the power of faith to consume innocent people.”

   She looks straight ahead, her expression one that would curdle milk, fire literally appearing in her iris. Rhulan puts her hand out for Hollia to back up towards the cave entrance.

   Betty extends her hand as though to choke the beast from a distance, instead yellow glowing archaic symbols appear in a circle on the cave floor. From this portal an old iron cannon with wood wheels appears.

   The Dah-hoth laughs at the side, its toothy mouth opening wide.

   “Canon Fire!” she yells, a ball of lava blasts from the cannon.

   Just as the ball clears three feet away from its opening Rhulan faster than the blink an eye constructs a spirit barrier, blocking the back of the cave from them.

   In this instance of time the lava ball blasts right into the mouth of the beast and explodes. This explosion is expanded by the ignition of the gas with-in the Dah-Hoth keeping it afloat. Against the barrier the flames form a beautiful sight.

   Betty’s hair flows up as her hat comes back down. She sighs as she sits down on the stone surface, “Uh…sorry about, I guess I kinda lost it there.”

   Hollia sits down and puts her arm around Betty’s shoulder timidly as LinLin licks her face.”

   “Thanks.” says Betty, “It just those things, they always make me lose my temper.”

    “Perfectly understandable.” says Rhulan, “but please try to not fire an exploding lava bomb in a cave again, a fire ball from your gun would have worked. That thing was filled with flammable gas.”

   “Really?” says Betty, “I thought they just floated using levitation.”

  “Common mistake,” says Cata, “Dah-hoth seldom use magic other than dimensional portals.”

    Betty starts to chuckle, “My bad. Heh heh heh.”

   She stands and clasps her hands together in prayer, “Great goddess of Heaven, please guide these poor souls to rest.”

   With the fire died down they take one last look around to insure the Dah-hoth is completely destroyed.

   “What the Hell!?” yells out Scrags from a back chamber.

   They all rush to a chamber that was blasted open by the explosion. Inside down the stone hall there is a small room illuminated in a warm blue glow from special jewels in the water around a platform, upon which stands a statue of Rhulan. Hollia looks in awe at the artistry of it, blue gems set in for the eyes, with a strange green gem set around the neck in a pendent.

   Scrags sees Rhulan feel around her own neck as though feeling a phantom sensation of the gem being there again.


   In detail Scrag’s thief’s eyes spy on the upward stretched arms as though in prayer to some power in the sky a pair of bracelets also missing from the real Rhulan, on the right brace with a red gem, and the left arm a snake winding bracelet with small green gems for eyes.

   “So,” says Rhulan, “you already knew I was worshipped, and the girl back in town with my name made it perfectly clear they still worshipped me.”

   She narrows her eyes, “or were you exclaiming because you couldn’t remove the gems. Ha, this is one of the statues I myself made.”

   She looks closer and examines it, “yep, back when I proclaimed myself a goddess I had a number of statues made out of faux-magitian, nearly indestructible. My guess is that Dah-Hoth’s first act to proclaim its self a god to these people was to show them they wouldn’t be punished for this statue going away, but failing to be able to damage it buried the entrance instead.”

   “Fine, what-ever.” says Scrags, “Well guess its back to town to get the rest of our reward.”

   “We hardly deserve it.” says Betty solemnly, “Uh, I mean, like, we don’t like deserve it, I mean…the towns people we came to save…” she just stares at the charred chamber as they walk back out into the main opening.

    ******

    As the group leaves the cave, solemn expressions all around, they are un-aware of a figure further up the hill watching them. Crouched behind some bushes, his torn sleeves t-shirt providing little protection from the brambles, is the man known as Plunder.

   Reaching into his pocket he pulls out a small communication device, looking for all the world like a walkie-talkie.

    “Reporting in and sending position signal, targets sighted.”

      On the other end a deep, possibly described as dark voice speaks back, “Good, relay to Pillage and keep a close track on them this time, but remain out of sight. You are to ambush them in the next town they stop at. Its best not to battle a goddess so near one of her temples, especially surrounded by her worshipers.”

   “Okaaaay.” Thinks Plunder.

   “As you command, Commander Impchin.” He says before clicking out watching the party walking by, checking on the defeated adventurers as they pass.