The "Best" RPG Ever-107

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Loren came out onto the balcony of the living space he'd been provided and almost immediately spotted the short, dark-haired woman in armor looking up at him—seemingly an unbroken gaze that had begun who-knew-how-long-ago as expectantly watching the closed door. He sighed quietly to himself, heading down the stairs to go see what she wanted.

"I'd say we should stop meeting like this, but I fear the consequences of that even worse," he said.

The captain of the guard just shrugged. "This is not as urgent as last time," she informed him neutrally. "You can teleport to an uninitialized crystal, can't you?"

"..Sure. It'll attract any teleportation targeted nearby if there's nothing more focused around."
"May have a job for you, then. Come to the guardhouse as soon as you are prepared." She swept off immediately after that, not giving him time to question those instructions before disappearing into the crowd. How did someone as famous as her do that, Loren wondered.

Well..this was as good a time as he was going to get to eat breakfast before casting some mildly costly magic, he thought, and started toward what was starting to become his usual morning haunt.

---

Rose carted the door into her forest and came back to the house through it by suppertime. She had it placed against a particularly large tree's trunk with its roots twisting up around it almost like a decorative, living doorframe. She then returned to her forest to sleep for the night, and Mira joined her, citing a desire to "sleep among the flowers" again.

Nora's fox form was within an inch or so of Zack's height, and she kept it active the rest of the night, including when going into his room to help him sleep. Lupa just dove into her own bed and fell asleep instantly, as usual. Everyone present at the house, except for Clera and the small wolf-girl, met up in Aria's dream to relax and talk for a while. The dragon-girl and the witch returned around the time Katherine was mostly finished making breakfast.

It was the beginning of what could be called mid-morning by the time they finished eating, and that was about when a very distinctive, assertive knock came through the door to town. The knight volunteered to answer it, standing up right away and heading for the hallway; indeed, Ezra was waiting there. "Morning. Got a more involved job for some of you. Good time to talk about it?"

"..Sure." He indicated the direction of the kitchen—since everyone was already there—and followed after her. With Mira and Katherine already busy with the dishes, the captain of the guard just claimed the first empty chair she came to, looking around the room for a moment before she spoke as if evaluating each person present for some quality she hadn't considered important enough to know before.

Finally, she said: "You may already be aware of this, but one of the princes of our host country has been on a journey here for the past few weeks. His help was invaluable in securing a transport crystal to be brought to our town, which is also among the items in that caravan. I received word this morning that they were raided by some especially fierce goblins, and lost some of their supplies. No casualties, but the soldiers assigned to this task are..unused to fighting monsters, and sustained significant injuries in just driving them off."

"So..you want us to go escort them the rest of the way?" Mira said.
Ezra nodded, then said: "Not all of you. They are still a few days' journey off. Loren assured me he would be able to send people to them, but of course that teleportation would be a one-way trip. Some should remain here, in case any especially large threats appear in the meantime.

"..Also, while the prince himself is very open-minded, his escort is...uninitiated in frontier culture," she said. "To have them cooperate, and so keep them alive, it is necessary to send people they will already believe to be trustworthy. Of course, a tactically solid combination will also be needed, in order to actually deal with the monsters. For these reasons, my proposed group to send out is: Zack, Katherine, Clera, Rayna and Lynn."

"I suppose that makes sense," Aria. "Don't wanna scare 'em with any dragons or demons, after all."
"Correct. Besides that, they will see an Empath in the best possible light; one or two may recognize Rayna and Lynn from their previous travels; and their perception of your group will be greatly improved when they see a member of the nobility leading it."
"I'm not a noble anymore," Zack said. "I gave up any titles I had when I abandoned my order."
"I know that," Ezra said, "but they won't. They will see a knight, and know that you were born a noble; so long as nobody contradicts that impression, things should go relatively smoothly. However...

"It would also be best not to mention your curse to them, for the duration of the trip. Again, for their safety—lest they mistrust or fear you by that association."
The knight exhaled a quiet sigh, but nodded. "Yeah, I guess that is best."

"Psions don't have such a great reputation either," Katherine pointed out, changing the subject slightly.
"Yes, but people are more accepting of them than of witches or warlocks. As long as everyone else seems perfectly trustworthy, they should accept you by association with them," the captain said. "And since the group we are sending will need to keep several secrets from the prince and his soldiers, the ability to still communicate freely amongst yourselves will be indispensable. I thought to send Nora also, as a priestess of Haestra would improve their perception of your group still more, but..."

"We need to have a healer here, still," Mira concluded, and she nodded.
"The wounds the soldiers have sustained already are not life-threatening, but they cannot be safely moved in their condition, much less fight off another raid. The prince's request to me was characteristically humble, just to send one of our healers so they could get moving again, but they are already in the part of the frontier where monster attacks are practically guaranteed.

"If you'll accept this mission, I can offer to instead send some replacement supplies, along with a few of our best adventurers, one of which is an exceptional healer. It should go without saying, the reward for getting the prince's caravan here safely will be generous," she continued. "The prince himself has been my ally in the mainland for some time, to say nothing of the value that transport crystal with him has to our town."

Katherine channeled some brief mental chatter among the group—everyone except for Rose and Lupa—and they all expressed wordless agreement with taking the job. "We'll do it," Zack said aloud, some of the others nodding or mumbling affirmation to indicate that he hadn't made this decision alone.

"Good." Ezra stood up. "I'll leave you alone to pack. Once you are prepared, come to the guardhouse."

Once she was gone, Zack said, "Seems like this really is important to her, to show up in person like that."
"Hey, she called us her 'best adventurers'!" Rayna said. "When'd we climb that high on the ladder?"
"Probably around the time we recruited a dragon," Lynn replied.
"Or fought off a fire giant," Mira added. "Hey, you guys go on up to pack, I can finish this myself."

Lupa looked up at Zack. "So um..Master, going away with them? Without this one?" She was making an unsuccessful attempt to hide her dissatisfaction with this plan, complete with lowered ears and sad puppy-dog eyes.

"By the sound of it, those guys wouldn't get you at all," he said, reaching out a hand to place on her head. "Hey, you're strong. You can survive three or four days without me, right? The others'll still be around."
She whined, but then put on a determined face. "Y-yes. This one will try!"
"Good. Look, uh.." He glanced Nora's way, getting the psion's help to ask her approval first. "While I'm gone, you do what Nora says, just like if I said it, alright?"

"Okay!"

He got up. "The rest of you better not just slack off while we're doing a three-day escort mission."

"Hey now, whaddayou take us for?" Aria said. "I've got levels to grind, and a bloodthirsty sword to feed, after all!"

"Heheh, yeah," the witch said. "By the time you're back, I'll be ready for demon number seven. You all just watch yourselves, mm-hm?"

Already on her way up the stairs, Katherine asked the shifter: Will you be okay? At night, I mean?

Yep! I can meditate now, remember? Plus, I've seen you 'change the channel' on that staticky stuff enough times that I should be able to figure out how to do it for myself. Then, maybe, I can get a 'virtual' game system running or whatever. I mean—not that I won't miss being with everyone else, but I can manage a few dreams as long as the demon isn't too starved.

While they were still upstairs packing, a polite, almost inaudible knock came through the door, and Nora went to answer. When she opened it, she found a short, blue-haired Vulpin girl in glasses and a loose coat that hid most of her figure. The elf's own presently fox-like senses also picked up an intensely pungent smell coming from her, a complex scent composed of multiple distinct, clashing medicinal odors. "Greetings," she said in an emotionless monotone.
"Hello. You..must be Vaedin," she concluded for herself after a second or two.

"Correct. Is Rose present?"

She had her answer before Nora could vocalize it, as the dragon-girl quickly skittered into the hallway and stopped just short of knocking the weaver over. Nora just chuckled softly and moved aside.

"Hii! Good morning," she said brightly. "Um, this is Nora, she's a priestess of uuhhmm."
"Haestra," Nora prompted.

"Yeah, that!"

"I have heard of you. But are you not an elf?"
"Oh, ah...I am, but Haestra's blessing allows me to take on other, beastfolk-likes forms temporarily, each with their own advantages," she replied.

"Please, come inside!" Rose urged the short herbalist, waving her in. While Vae took a few calm steps inside she chattered nervously: "I'vegota, I mean, there's a linky..door thing."
"We had that door linked to one which is now installed in her forest," Nora helped, pointing to that one. "So travel to and from there should be more convenient now."
The short Vulpin nodded. "That will make our visit much more efficient. But...you must trust this group quite a bit, to give them free access to your hoard."

"Heheh. Yes, they've more than earned it," the dragon-girl said, "but it does have a lock, still." She produced her own key (of which there were three other copies, all presently in Mira's possession) and fumbled with the lock for a moment before getting the door open. "S-shall we?" she said, gesturing for Vae to go ahead.
"Very well."

Once the door was shut, Nora noticed that Lupa had been watching this exchange from the corner of the hallway, and presently had her head tilted upward, sniffing the air and wincing. "Smelly fox," she commented.
"It's Vaedin, or Vae," the elf said, going over to her. "While she may not actually complain, most people do not enjoy being called 'smelly'."
"Okay!" Lupa replied cheerfully.

There was plenty of room in everyone's inventories for everything they wanted to pack: Equipment, changes of clothing, a few extra snacks beyond the provisions the caravan would have. Zack put on his armor and brought the set he'd started with as a spare; the others brought what armor they had, but just wore casual, easy-to-move-in outfits instead. The knight led the way out the door and toward the guardhouse.

On the way, he projected through Katherine: Okay, nobility 101. When we're introducing ourselves to the prince, bow or curtsy. And it's highness, not 'majesty' or 'sir' anything else even stupider. Act like you respect him at all times, whether you do or not, even if he says not to stand on formalities or something. If he goes for your hand, just let him take it and accept that he might kiss it. If he seems upset and you don't know why, or you think it's unreasonable for him to be, apologize anyway.

Lot of sucking up to royalty in this world's memories, huh? the catgirl replied.

I'm just telling you what I was taught. The soldiers with him will expect that kind of behavior, at least at first—even if he doesn't want it.

Once we've been marching with them for a day and saved their butts from a monster attack or two, I'm sure they won't mind a bit of informality, Rayna thought. But I do agree, making a good first impression will be important.

When they came near the guardhouse, they found a large, circular area just in front of it cordoned off by some rope held a foot or so off the ground by a few posts, with some crates of food and other supplies placed near the center. Loren was with the Captain just outside of that area, and some members of the guard—including a particular Canis they were all familiar with—were carrying what seemed to be the last of those crates inside.

After carefully setting down his load, Rast ran up to the group—or, more specifically to Lynn. "Hey there. I, uh, heard you'd be away for a few days, so I reckoned I might try an' send you off?" he said, slightly nervous.
"Awwh, that's sweet of you." She hugged him for a moment before pulling back. "We shouldn't have too much trouble getting his Highness here, I think. You just be careful on your patrols, 'kay?"
"'Course," he nodded, blushing as she reached up to ruffle his hair a bit. "Bye, Miss Lynn."
"Bye. See you again soon!" After this, she hurried to catch up with the rest of the group, hopping over the short rope a couple of times to get to the other side of the circle.

"Everything accounted for," Ezra said, looking not at the group but at a clipboard in her hands which probably held a manifest of the supplies or something. "Are you prepared?"
"Yeah, sure," Loren replied. "Okay, you lot just stand close to the center there," he said, pointing. "For you, this shouldn't feel any different from when we all went to Rose's forest and back again; it'll just tire me out a bit more."

"Don't you teleport people around all the time, usually?" Katherine asked.
"I do much more setup, tuning and repair, myself. Rote sending is a job for people with more magical energy to spare. Not that this once will be an issue."

Once they were in place, the Captain briefly stepped forward. "Thank you all for taking on this task," she said. "It should not be difficult for you to get them here safely, but this isn't something I want to leave to chance. Keep in mind what I said before."
"Certainly," the psion replied, most of the others nodding. Clera looked (and felt) just slightly impatient to get to her patients and start healing them.

Ezra nodded, stepped back, and gestured for Loren to get to work. He chanted a spell, carefully targetting the area she had shown him on a map a couple of minutes ago, and pushed his hands forward, sending them away.

---

Mira finished with the dishes as Nora returned to the kitchen with the wolf-girl in tow. "What is the status of your sword at the moment?" the elf asked Aria.
"Ehh. You know," she said, putting out a hand and tilting it left and right, "still...managable. It hasn't fed since that demon night before last, but that isn't too long. I know I could go another day or so before getting on edge."

"Nonetheless, I think the four of us could easily handle any low-grade monster-slaying quest, right? Perhaps we should go looking for something like that on the board," the witch suggested.
"I agree with this plan," Nora stated, looking to the wolf-girl, who nod-nodded her approval as well.

"Hunt!" she chirped happily.

"Lupa and I will need to retrieve our weapons from upstairs first, then."

"Alright. Meet you down at the door," Aria said.

Placed centrally on the quest board was not a quest, but a notice. It gave the descriptions of three individuals, names Donovan, Thrace, and Mia, complete with sketches of each one's face. Likely hostile. Exercise extreme caution if encountered. Prioritize escape or capture; kill only as a last resort.

Mira finished reading the notice first. "Wonder what this is about..."

"It says that they are, or were, guards for one of the neighboring towns," Nora said. "No indication that we have a quarrel with that town as a whole, so...what could have happened to them?"

"Well, either way—they're not our problem right now, are they?" Aria asked. "I mean, if we were supposed to deal with them the Captain woulda mentioned it."
"True enough." The witch turned to the postings on either side, picking one out. "Hostile giant lizards sound more up our alley for now, hmn?"

"Big lizard...Rose?" Lupa said, sounding slightly worried.
"No, other giant lizards. Monster-type lizards, not dragons or any other kind of people," Mira clarified, pointing to the writing—before remembering the wolf-girl probably couldn't read all of it.
"Okay!" Thankfully, this still succeeded in consoling her.

---

Vae stood just a few steps past the doorway, staring around at the abundance of colorful trees and flowers, herbs and grass, sniffing in the air quietly now and then. The dragon-girl followed and shut the door behind them as quietly as she could, not wanting to disturb the herbalist's concentration, and slowly stepped up next to her to watch her examine everything, trying to restrain herself from interrupting. Eventually, however, she just couldn't take it anymore.

"So um..this is my forest," she said. "Wha'd'you think?"
"Well. I do not share the aesthetic sensibilities of most people," Vae said, crossing her arms. "But to me, this is a place of beauty. From this vantage I have spotted no less than ten species which are ordinarily almost impossible to find, and two or three which I do not even recognize."
"Well uh, feel free to look closer!" Rose said, sweeping her arm forward excitedly. "Orrr, I can tell you what I know about pretty much anything here, even if I dunno the like, technical words the experts use."

"I would appreciate that," Vae replied, taking some careful steps forward. She had an obvious respect for the plant life around, avoiding stepping on anything that looked like it might be delicate. Although of course all of Rose's plants were quite durable to being stepped on, she still very much appreciated the sentiment. She followed, fully prepared to gush about whatever the short, cute fox-girl picked out first.

---

I have been planning this "escort the prince" quest for a very long time. You can see the first hints of it when Zack picks up a newspaper in part 13 of this story, although I think some of the details of what he read would need to be semi-retconned; I imagine the prince would've already been underway by that time. The idea has undergone several tweaks since I originally had it, but I'm still fairly excited to get to this part of the story.