The "Best" RPG Ever-87

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---

Randall's first response when they came in sight of the town was another "Crikey!" He stared quietly for the next several steps. "That's your town? I though' all the frontier towns were ramshackle huts outta sticks an' glue. You've got a bloomin' wall. Tall one, at that."

"To be fair, I think any such town that's survived more than a year or two has a wall by pure necessity," Mira said. "But this one does have a reputation for being unusually persistent and stable. The guard's very good at their job, too."

"They're even trying to get a teleport crystal thing shipped out here," Aria volunteered.

"Hmnn..guard, you say?" The earth mage chewed on that for a moment or so. "Their, ah..captain. Wouldn't happen to be named, Zair, say? Or Rezzy?"
"No..?" the witch said.
"Hmn. Ezra, then?"

"You know her?"

"Ohhh, gooods," He leaned back, putting a hand on his forehead as though the inevitable hangover had suddenly materialized all at once. "Yeah, I know her. Not lookin' forward to this so much now."
"I suppose you were in her party before?" Lynn asked.

"We didn't exactly part nicely," he answered, with an implied 'yes'. "I think—and it's been a very long time, see—but she might'ave threatened to tear my ears off if she ever saw my face again. S'pose we'll just have to see, ey?" He gave a somewhat drier chuckle than usual with this, but continued on with them, evidently not taking the remembered threat too seriously.

"Now, where do you stand on witches and warlocks, then?" Mira asked.

"Cripes, how well do ya know the woman?" Randall complained. "Or is she just a looser talker than she used to be? Either way—I thought that whole row was just daft! No matter what sort a' person someone is, you can't act on somefin' you don't know about, much less resolve to attack people for what they might do, eh? Right stupid notion, that." He punctuated this with an emphatic hiccup, about as they came in earshot of the guards standing at the gate.

Once they were inside the city walls, the Felis man visibly took a moment to take in the sight of the town. "Ahh, civilization. You don' know how much you miss it 'till you spend a couple months out in the sticks." Halfway turning back toward them, he said, "I don't s'pose you can direct me to the guard station or like? I don' think I'll ever have such a lovely escort again, but if ol' Ezzy's here there's no use tryin'a hide myself from her, either."
"We need to go that way to report on our work anyway," Mira said. "Besides, I don't think I want to miss her reaction to seeing you at this point."

"You're crueler than you look, lass," he said, his ears lowering just slightly. "But—a'right, then. Lead the way."

---

"Say, Jacob," Rayna said. "You've been studying monsters and chaos magic and stuff for a while, right?"
"Not exactly. It's mostly ancillary to my primary area of study, and even then..."
"Well, surely you know more than I do about them just to know that spell and what you needed to analyze from it, right?"
"Perhaps," he conceded hesitantly. "I presume you have some sort of question?"
"Yeah. Chaotic magic is..more concentrated out in the frontier than it is elsewhere, right?" she half-guessed, from the evidence she already had.

"Certainly. It's well-recorded that the deeper you go, the denser it is. And there is an obvious correlation with the population and strength of the monsters present, as well."
"I don't suppose any of your research has turned up anything about the center of the frontier?"

"Center," he repeated—a confused repetition of the word bordering on being a question.

"Sure. If you look at the maps, the frontier is roughly an oval-ish blob, and 'deeper in' is always closer to the 'middle'."
"I'm not much of a cartographer," he admitted. "That is..highly interesting, however. Yes, it makes sense..." he half-muttered to himself. "...If it's some sort of propogation from..."

"But you've never read anything to that effect at all?" the fox-girl pressed. "It seems like an almost obvious conclusion once one has the right information."

"Hmmn. Some topics related to chaotic magic can run into dangerous knowledge," Jacob stated. "That is the most logical conclusion. A mind instinctively avoids such knowledge without the right kind of deliberate focusing, and often there will be...coincidences...which prevent those stubborn enough to learn it from recording it, or at least from having those records published too widely."

"I see. 'Coincidences'?" the illusionist said.
"Sure. Who do you think makes information dangerous in the first place? All it takes is a few nudges, maybe a couple of bad dreams for the right people," Jacob said.

"Have you ever actually learned something dangerous?" she asked.

"I'm very careful not to. More than once I was warned it can cause quite the headache," the elf said. "So whenever I find it particularly difficult to focus on something for no apparent reason, I allow the subject to be changed for me." He shook his head slightly. "I feel a little distracted about this topic already, in fact. I really need to focus my efforts on analyzing the data from today's scan."

"I suppose I'll drop it for now, then," Rayna said.

Funny, I don't feel all that disinclined to think about it. And neither did Lynn, or...anyone else in that dream meeting when we spoke about this.

Maybe we're 'allowed' to think about it? Katherine suggested, restricting this conversation to the three of them from Earth. Which could mean it's related to our 'mission', even. But you still saw something directly through that crystal which did hurt.

Ugh, don't remind me.

---

"Heeey!" Despite his earlier reactions, the instant Randall caught sight of the Captain on her way out of the guard station was to cheerfully yell and wave at her, and then walk—in a brisk sort of half-drunken-stumble—over to her. "Ezzy! Been a dragon's age, 'asn't it?"

She stopped, crossing her arms and glaring up at him. "Randall. What are you doing here?"

"You know, tha's the sort a' question I was hoping you could answer for me," the Felis answered. "See, for the past—mus' be about a year by now—anytime I slept in the same place more th'n two nights in a row, I got these horrible nightmares. Or if I didn't go in a certain direction, I'd have one right away. Seein' as you're the only one of us I can imagine still bein' in the gods' good graces, maybe they'd'ave been polite enough to inform you of why."

"I should say not. This is as much an unpleasant surprise for me as it is for you."

"Well, I wouldn' say entirely unpleasant. You look as dashin' as ever," he said. It didn't elicit any response beyond the usual glare.

While Randall evidently didn't care, it had hardly escaped Ezra's notice that they had an audience. After briefly glaring around at them, she waved him back toward the guardhouse. "We should speak in private," she said, leading the way back to her office.

Once inside, she shut the door and took a moment to pick an object resembling a dreamcatcher off of a nearby shelf and hang it on a hook on the inside of the door, speaking a four-syllable activation spell which caused the center of it to glow. The earth mage, still standing not far into the room, watched this with interest, as well as her progress around to behind the desk. "Privacy charm, 'ey?" he said. "Fair enough; you've made some awfully nosy friends 'round here."

"I hope you're still capable of blanking while drunk," she said, sitting down. The stern expression she'd worn outside had been taken off like a mask, replaced with a softer, more neutral one—perhaps a bit tired.
"Whaa?" He didn't get it for just a second, and then he did. "You mean that bloomin' psycho is here too?!"

"Ron's mellowed out somewhat," she stated, "and anyway he's not a psycho, and isn't the only powerful psion in town, either. Please take a seat before you trip over yourself and land on something important."
"A'right, a'right." Randall half-stumbled around to sit in the chair in front of the desk.

"But I say, anyone who threatens to pop my head like a balloon, is a psycho in my book."

"I threatened to tear your ears off," she countered.

"Sure, but I'd still 'ave most a' my head, then," he insisted. "Anyway, did you forget 'e can control a whole population of folks if he really wants to, these days? I just don't see how someone with that sort a' power can possibly be stable, or safe to be around."

"At any rate, he respects that this is my town," Ezra said. "He won't go exploding any heads without my permission. So you should be safe enough if, as I said, your blanking works."
"I can blank in my bloomin' sleep! I'm not even half as drunk as I could be, either," Randall insisted.

"So, you don' know why I'm here, ey?" he said, changing the subject when she didn't respond to that.
"Not specifically. I can tell we've been gathered here for a reason. Bimorphaeus deciding to do that to get you here only confirms that theory. In which case, the three of us may be the only ones left."

"Ah." His ears folded down just slightly for a second or two, and he looked away. "Tha's a shame."

"You know," Randall leaned forward a bit. "Before I get offed by the psycho or somethin' else out 'ere, like whatever we were supposed to fight in the first place say...I never did mention how I died. Sure, he knows, but you don't. It don' seem right at this point, in my book."
"It's yours to share or not," Ezra said. "I won't press you."
"No, no. It's alright. I don' really know why I ever thought it needed to be a big secret in the first place. It's pretty simple, really. I was walkin' on my way home from work, see. Late in the afternoon? Some bloke was robbing a store, and I knew the owner pretty well. Somehow or other he got a hold of the officer's gun, and I got there about when it fired off." Leaning back again, he put a hand up to his chest. "I thought it'd be a brilliant idea to disarm him, since he had 'is back to me and all. We get in a right scuffle, and I get shot too. By then there's more police, and they tackle him down just after, get the gun off him. Now I don't think I died right off, then, since..now, this part none of the rest a' you seem to have.

"I had a sort of, out-a'-body experience, for a minute or so, before I woke up in the place. I could see myself lyin' in a hospital bed, with my wife leanin' over me. I think—I don' know much about how it all works, but I think she was saying goodbye. They were just then turning those machines off, I think. Maybe my kids were 'round too, but it was a weird sorta vision, I couldn't see too much. I always wonder how long I was in that coma, before that. Anyway..in the middle of the nightmares I'd have every third night or so if I wasn't on the way here, after bein' chased by wha'ever horrors the dreammaker cooked up to make my sleep unpleasant, I'd find myself walkin' into tha' room, see my wife and kids all standing around me in that hospital bed just looking at me." He shook his head, and gave a single, very bitter "Heh."

Ezra looked concerned. "Are you all right?"

"Sure, sure. It's been a long time," he said, his expression a bit more neutral. "Jus'...you were old and retired, Ezzy, got to see your kids grow up to the point where they took care a' you. Not me. I was the breadwinner, and still just gettin' by with the family I had. I had life insurance, yeah, but if I ever got a distant look in my eye back then, it was me thinking, wonderin' if, or how they were getting on without me. Thinking, that's what being a hero gets the folks you care the most about. If it wasn't bad enough I hardly slept every coupla nights, having that old wound opened up every single time was worse. I admit, I was drinking plenty before all this. But if you wanta know how I got on a habit of drinkin' my eyes out every opportunity I could, that's it. I think the ol' dreamweaver is a pretty cruel one, and if the other gods were involved in that decision then I hardly want anything to do with 'em or their—hic—machinations."

Ezra sighed. "You're right, that is unusually cruel. There's no denying it was effective, however." She paused for a moment, thinking. "Tell me: Would you have come here at all if you felt like you had a choice?"
"I don' suppose I would, no. Like I say, bein' a hero just gets you killed," Randall said. "If everyone else is dead, that's why. We both know it's how Valorum died, and Ceres too."

She glared at him for this, looking ready to make good on the ear-tearing threat.

"You know it's true. No' that I don't appreciate what they did, we'd maybe all be dead otherwise, and that...monster still about. But...I guarantee the psycho's been avoiding keepin' his own hands dirty this whole time, to 'ave survived, and from what I hear a' your exploits...I'd guess you're just lucky, or too bloody good for it to ever catch up to you."

"Maybe so. But in my opinion, I've lived long enough anyway," Ezra said. "I'd rather my death actually accomplish something rather than fading away, personally."
"Heh. That's what separates you from the two of us, I suppose. But 'ey, if you've got any major construction you need an earth mage for 'round here, I seem to be trapped in this area anyway, so I'll lend any help you like."
"Are you fixing to leave?" Ezra asked, tilting her head just slightly. "I haven't even told you what's going on around here yet. Besides us being gathered here."
"Eh? Well, what's that, then?"

---

"Well, that was disappointingly boring," Mira said.
"I could've predicted that," said Aria. "Her charisma's way too high to make a real scene in front of the rest of the guard." She waved toward the station after the two of them entered. "If he comes out earless then at least we'll know something happened."

"We need to go in there anyway," said Clera, "in order to report our quests."
"Mmh. Just one from each party, maybe," Lynn suggested. "Don't want her to think we're trying to eavesdrop. Clera?" The winged girl nodded, and followed her inside.

"Hmph." The witch crossed her arms. "You could eavesdrop," she waved toward Nora, "but you're too nice, eh?"

"Um..I don't really want to be involved. Even putting everything else aside...they're both unfathomably powerful," the weaver stated. "It is...one thing to see the Captain's martial skill on display, but...was another entirely to feel the immeasurable strength of Randall's casual tug on the earth. While inebriated." She shuddered slightly. "He doesn't seem entirely stable, either."

"Yeah, and Ezra's such a good actor she could be totally insane and none of us would ever know it," the shifter agreed.

"Heey!" Everyone turned toward Rayna, the source of the voice, in the lead of the group who'd gone out first. She waved and then ran closer.

"Yooo, everyone's intact!" Aria said with a bright grin. "I guess you were successful?"
"Yep! So what have you all been up to?"

"We found another member of Ezra's party. He's truly the worst kind of person—a killstealer," she said with a clenched fist and an exaggerated, dark tone of voice. Jacob watched this with obvious bemusement, while Zack went around to quietly stand close to where Nora was.

Katherine cleared her throat. "Jacob, these are some of the others. Rose, Aria, Mira...I think you met Nora before.
He gave the latter a confused look—as she was still in the catlike form at the moment. "Er..right. But, weren't you..?"
"I am using a...power, to look different," she explained.

"Ah. And..." He further stared at Rose for a moment. "Ahm...I had heard rumors there was a friendly dragon around. It is, most kind of you to grace us with your presence."
"Uhm. Okaay?" Rose didn't understand the reason for the sudden formality any more than she had with Loren.

"Aah-at any rate," the elf said, turning back to Katherine (as a more normal or at least familiar person present, and friendlier than Zack or the wolf was), "At this point it's fair to consider my request complete. However, we, never exactly discussed the matter of payment..."

"It's pretty close to lunchtime, isn't it?" the catgirl said.

"Er.." His eyes darted nervously toward the small multitude gathered, including particularly the one who was a dragon.
"Oh—don't worry, I wouldn't ask you to feed ten people. I just meant we could discuss it over that, if you like?"
"Ah. Well. Certainly." He nodded once, then paused, hesitating again as his mind caught up on a particular detail. "...Ten?"

---

"...All nine?" For a moment, the tall Felis seemed snapped out of his drunkenness, sitting up straight and appearing to concentrate seriously on a topic for a moment. "I suppose I understand why you've told that lot so much, then. And the dragon, too?" Ezra nodded. "Heh, unbelievable." His grin returned. "I knew there was something kindred about that lot. I suppose you want this private as you haven't quite disclosed everything yet?"
"Neither I nor Ron want them to know we're from Earth just yet," she said. "Which is why you had better remain sober enough to properly blank around their psion."
"Oh, sure, sure. It's easy to find another source of entertainment besides blackin' myself out in such company. 'Less you're telling me not to associate?"
She sighed. "I know you would, even if I forbade you. Just remember this: Our theory is that the gods want them to accomplish something—whatever it is we didn't or couldn't do. They want us to help them, all of us, desperately enough to put you through what they did. If you do anything to or with them that might compromise that...they probably won't be very happy with you."
Randall fixed her with a lopsided look, one of his ears up and the other at the side. "Ezzy, I don't really know what sort a' person you think I am. I just wan' the opportunity to get to know 'em a bit."
"As long as you're clear on that. I'm only giving you this warning out of concern for you, after all."

"Alright. So, what do the other three look like, then?" he asked, leaning in just slightly. "For, ah, future reference?"

The Captain of the guard shook her head, air coming out of her nose in what might have been a suppressed chuckle. "You'll probably just recognize them by association with those you've met already, but...The other psion I've been telling you about is a dark-haired Felis, solid-color fur. More of a show-off than Ron is these days, so she shouldn't be that hard to identify. There is also a white-haired Canis knight named Zack, has a dire wolf following her around all the time; failing to refer to her as male is a good way to get on her bad side quickly. The last one is a redheaded Vulpin illusionist."

"Oh, one of those? She have the proper Sight?" he asked, leaning in a little more.
"I thought that might get your attention. I had a chance to see it myself just recently; as the pattern is with this group, her talent exceeds any other I've seen.

"Amazing. Can't wait to meet 'er. If I'm not mistaken, they went for one of each again, only countin' dragons too this time?"

"Seems so," Ezra nodded. "And a half Avian rather than full."

---

I can't fully remember whether it's been explicitly stated that the first group all died on Earth before coming to this world, so I'm not sure how much of a reveal Randall's statements here are exactly. At least I'm pretty sure there's a bit more detail about Ezra here.