Quest Dispatching Kraits

Elbion proved a place far outside of Reven's reckoning. Now he'd of course heard of it over in the Reach, how could you not, but word of mouth, even the tallest of tales, didn't do the actual sight justice. Magic he'd not seen often in his lifetime. But in Elbion? They had floating buildings. Floating. Buildings. Hell not all of them, but even just one was one enough to give Reven some considerable pause and have him commencing to gawk at the sight. Maybe nothing yelled outlander more than that, standing in the street, staring.

But he wasn't here to spectate open displays of magic and wonder at buildings reaching for the sky. He was here for work—turning swings of his sword in the right direction into pay. And that pay was to go toward something important.

Inquiries pointed him to the "Chamber of Preservation". Fancy talk for Elbion's lawmen. They had work—plenty, and often enough, as he had been told—and they didn't disappoint. Open contract on some monsters called "kraits". Reven didn't think himself a monster hunter of any notable description, but the krait contract would do.

He stood now in the office of one Captain Gilcrest, him along with a couple others. The Captain had gone out, saying that he'd return in a moment or two, as he had a witness or something who could aid in the details of the contract. Outside the office Elbionese Marshals and guardsmen and mercenaries of both local and foreign outfits walked by the open door, spoke on their own matters, gathered and departed, and altogether busyness defined the whole of the Chamber of Preservation's Headquarters. Nervousness clawed at Reven's chest, being around the weight of all this authority, but he kept a cool head about it.

"Ain't never heard of a krait before," said Reven by way of light conversation with his soon-to-be fellows. "You boys ever see one? Kill one?"

Kaelan Pomrick Bloomsfield

A vote of confidence from the elf. Well and good in Reven's book. And the elf's gear didn't much surprise him; not on account of him having some preconceived notion about elves and their gear, but because some men in his old Company of raiders preferred roughing it, making their own gear from what the land and their own two hands could fashion, and the like.

He didn't know what to make of the younger man though. Best he could reckon was that the redhead inherited a bunch of mismatching, poorly-fitted gear and decided it was good enough.

"Well shit I ain't got no magic," said Reven. "But I figure we can bait em one way or another. Wipe em out. Stab anythin enough times with some steel and it'll die. These kraits can't be no different."

He cut a glance specifically to Pomrick then and said, "Stand up straight and act like you've killed somethin before. Wouldn't want the Captain thinkin otherwise."

Kaelan Pomrick Bloomsfield

The elf had his head on straight. The redhead? Well, so far as Reven knew, lots of would-be monster hunters died young or quit early. And he didn't have much reason to doubt that.

Hardly a moment later, Captain Gilcrest returned to the office, and he had another man in tow. Long blond hair, eyepatch, half-cape over his right side, and a weathered look to his face, like he'd seen the sort of things that robbed a boy of his youth.

"Apologies for the wait," the Captain said. He stood before the three of them, then swept his hand to his associate. "This is Zael. He has some...knowledge on these happenings."

"Hey there, hotshots," said Zael, his eye passing over Reven, Kaelan, and Pomrick in turn. "Looks like this problem's been goin on for a few years now."

"A few years? This ain't new?" said Reven.

Zael shook his head. "It ain't. Or, it don't seem to be. Had a big damn pack of kraits attack me and the caravan I was with those years back, and that story's been repeatin itself—different times, different people, all goin that north/south road. Awful smart for a bunch of wild monsters."

Kaelan Pomrick Bloomsfield

The room—Kaelan, Reven, Zael, Gilcrest—all looked at Pomrick. A chasm filled with hard silence marked the end of his longwinded response to Kaelan.

Then Reven gruffly stepped forward and dropped a heavy hand on Pomrick's shoulder, saying sidelong to Captain Gilcrest as he did, "Gimme a moment with 'im, Cap."

And it was his intent to shove Pomrick along, to force him just outside the office, out of immediate earshot and sight. He needed to have a word with him, alright.




Pomrick Bloomsfield

Reven's brow immediately took to a furious slant, and he glared at the younger man in the preposterous gear. He leaned his face close to Pomrick's own to make sure he got the message loud and clear, even though he would speak in a low tone to keep this all between the two of them.

"You think this is funny? You think this is some kinda joke? I oughta slap the white offa yer teeth."

His nostrils flared and his lips curled like he suppressed some thought or urge.

"You ain't gettin me killed, but if you get that elf killed, I'm gougin out both a' yer eyes an' skullfuckin what's left. You got that? Get yer ass together or get the hell outta here. You hear me?"


Pomrick Bloomsfield

"You better not be lyin to me—remember what I said."

And with that Reven left the matter be. Though he put hands on Pomrick to drag him out of the office, he didn't touch him on the way back in. Just opened the door calmly and walked back in himself, leaving the final choice of whether to walk or come back in up to Pomrick.


Meanwhile, right after Reven and Pomrick had departed from the office, Captain Gilcrest looked to Kaelan and said, "To answer your question, yes, many a time, in truth. Each time the Chamber received reports of mass krait attacks, we would deal with it—or so we thought, at least. Our own Marshals, foreign mercenaries, adventurers like yourself, even the Noct Yaegir; we spared no expense. None of these missions returned empty-handed, but no matter how many kraits heads were collected, or how many supposed lairs we scoured, some time later, scattered reports would come in again."

"A hell of an infestation," Zael commented, with an air of knowing otherwise.

"So one might think," said Gilcrest, looking more so to Kaelan as he said it. "But wild monsters, even if they have a sort of feral cleverness about them, would not be this...strategic? Coordinated? I struggle to find the precise word, but the sense of it is there."

It was around this time that Reven, and perhaps Pomrick, came back into the office.

Captain Gilcrest continued with only a minor glance to them, not bothering to repeat himself, as he was coming to what he believed the true substance of his answer. "Now I mentioned the Noct Yaegir. Monster hunters of lifelong profession. But there is a reason I have not called upon them again. If...and this is a rather large 'if'...these creatures are not guided by some extraordinary leader of their own kind, then I posit that the Noct Yaegir would be...inappropriate to the task at hand."

Kaelan Pomrick Bloomsfield

Gilcrest let Kaelan have the moment with Pomrick. A small beat passed after the latter's truncated reply, and then Gilcrest said (mostly to Kaelan, but with extension to Reven and Pomrick too), "And that's a better prospect than the Noct Yaegir—they've got some...code, or some such. I'm not asking any of you to be a manhunter, but I can't rightly say such a thing is entirely out of the question. So be ready for the possibility."

"You got no qualms from me," Reven said. "I'll kill him graveyard dead if that's what it takes."

Gilcrest drew in a breath through his nose. "If a man is truly behind these attacks, and it comes to that, so be it. You have to defend yourselves. But if you can take him alive, I'll make sure there's a bonus in it—just don't get yourselves killed over a few extra coins."

And now Zael spoke. "First things first, you all actually have to find yourselves some of these kraits. Take the North-South road, the one that runs right along the edge of Amol-Kalit and the Aberresai. Back when they attacked me and that caravan, they did it right by this bridge over a small ravine—you can't miss it, it's the only waterless bridge on the whole road. Plenty of rough country there for them to hide, and it might well be one of their haunts still. Good enough place to start."

Kaelan Pomrick Bloomsfield