I remember when I was showing Jax my little minecart system in the woods he was amazed and excited for when we would go down the mountain after completing the quest. I have ridden it for years, and it was always enjoyable, even if it wasn't as exciting anymore, the ride itself was fun, and combined with the sights it was well worth it every time. However, as we rode down the rails, Jax literally howled in excitement as we rode, I found it was hard to enjoy the sights around us, mainly because it all looked like fuzzy colors to me at the moment.
"This thing is awesome!"
Jax yelled as we went around a corner.
"Just try not to fall out, I don't want to go stumbling into the moat outside of the city accidentally."
I said as we passed by another batch of brown tall blob trees.
"Relax, I'll only let you hit a few trees on the way."
Jax said jokingly, at least I hope he was joking. As we reached the bottom of the track, and made our way to town, I heard the familiar voice of the uptight guard from a week or so ago, I think his name was Qos. As he held out his hand for my information I turned to Jax and asked,
"Can you reach into that side pocket for me?"
"What, feeling lazy mountain boy?"
Qos asked with a snarky lilt to his voice. I quietly blinked at him, both in confusion as to why he seemed to be angry with me, and partially because I wasn't 100% sure I was looking at Qos, and not the pillar next to him, the blurry colors all looked so similar.
"I'm sorry, it's just my glasses bro-"
I was cut off by Qos who walked past me, bumping my shoulder as he passed his armor added momentum, and combined with how unexpected it was, I stumbled back and fell on my butt. As I did next to me, I heard Jax bark,
"Hey jackass, what did we ever do to you?"
I heard Qos stop where he had been walking towards another approaching group before he turned back and 2 crackling circle blobs appeared behind his shoulders as two black cannon barrels poked out of them, the pirate classes signature cannons.
"Are you threatening me plateless?"
Qos asked with a voice that seemed to be begging for a fight. I saw Jax seemed to still at this a bit as I heard a low growl reverberate from Jax.
"Qos, what in the hells are you doing!?"
Came a booming familiar voice of Larz as I heard what seemed to be the sound of his armor and badge bouncing as he ran. Qos turned, his cannons breaking like glass and vanishing as he walking back to his post. As the large, blurry form of Larz came running over he held out a paw that I took to pull myself up.
"Commander, your guards seem to be lacking some basic discipline training."
Jax said in a surprisingly cold voice. It was only then that I realized Jax had never met Larz and was probably still expecting a fight.
"Don't worry Jax, Larz was a friend of my grandpa's, he's cool."
I said turning to Larz and squinting at him as I saw what I assume was Larz facepalming.
"Did you break your glasses?"
I turned to what I hope was Jax and not a grayish patch of dirt in a fuzzy Jax shape and said
"In my defense, the two of us were running away from a fire ghost. Also, before I forget, Larz, this is Jax, Jax, this is Larz."
The two gave each other a polite nod as Larz turned back to me,
"What's this about a fire ghost?"
He asked as he started to look over the paperwork Jax pulled out for himself.
"Its part of my quest we're doing"
I said as Jax grabbed the quest page from his bag. As Jax handed the page to Larz I didn't even need to see his face, I could feel the smugness of his look as I accidentally said we about the quest.
"We found that the smoke was actually coming from these fire ghosts, and they are starting to do a controlled burn of part of the mountain by grabbing trees till they ignite. They even make sure the fire doesn't spread which is weird"
Jax explained. Larz slowly nodded as he turned to Jax,
"Does that mean todays the day you get your plates?"
Larz asked Jax a look of excitement on his face as he turned to me as well. At least I think it was, he could also be making random faces at me while I couldn't see them well.
"No, it's Jax's quest, I'm just a guide."
I said quickly as Jax put the page back in his bag.
"Don't mind him, he is in denial."
"I can see that."
"I AM NOT!"
I barked out flushing with embarrassment,
"Besides the quest isn't even done yet! We found some weird magic stuff in the area the fire ghosts are burning; it looks like it was a part of an old traveler's shrine."
Larz nodded and said in that case you all might be in luck, a caravan just came through the north gate from Elmgrove, and there were quite a few prospecting adventurers with them, you all can probably find a mage and a party member at the same time.
"Perfect, then we can have a full party!"
Jax said his tail wagging.
"Yes, then you and your party mates can complete the quest together."
I said crossing my arms. Both Larz and Jax turned to each other as they turned back and in unison said.
"So much denial."
My face flushed again as the two started snickering as I stormed inside and towards the shop where my spare glasses were kept. While I will never admit it, I went to the wrong building first before I found the shop. As I made my way inside and I made a stop inside the shop to pick up my spare glasses I saw that Peridot was not in her normal napping spot. Walking over to the counter I saw someone had written something on a small note. I walked back behind the counter and reached into the drawer where my spare glasses were kept. As I whipped the dust off and put them on, I was relieved to see that everything in fact had corners and edges and weren't just squiggly lines. I looked over to the note to see that Peridot had written in big and squiggly handwriting the letters O.T.L. I blinked for a moment before muttering to myself.
"You couldn't even write the words out to lunch out?"
I looked to the shelf and grabbed an extra potion of vigilance, 4 extra healing potions, and 2 more potions of night vision, and placed them in my bag. As I made my way back out to the street, relieved that things looked sharp again I saw Jax was sitting by the door. He turned to me and asked,
"You own this shop?"
"It's my grandfathers, but he left it with me when he went on his trip."
I said, closing my bag up as we both started down the road.
"What happens if you leave the shop?"
Jax asked, seeming genuinely curious. I thought for a moment before I realized that Peridot was lazy, but she did her job, she knew how to make medicines and sold those trough the shop, so even if I stopped supplying potions, the shop would still be fine. Instead of telling him that I turned and said,
"Why do you ask?"
"When you're traveling as part of my party you will need to leave the shop so, I figured I'd ask."
Jax said with a coy smile.
"So, help me I will throw you in the moat." I said picking up my pace. Jax laughed and asked,
"Different question, where is this city's library?"
"Feeling a bit studious, are we? I was always told most fullbloods don't like books because of how tedious they are to use without fingers."
I said thinking back to the time Larz asked me about books because he didn't see the appeal.
"That's why you're going to be doing the research, while I see about scouting out a mage in the library, mages like reading, right?"
Jax asked, scratching the back of his head as we walked, hopping along as he did. I rolled my eyes at his mages like reading comment and started towards the town library. After a minute of walking, I turned us down the road to the Central Library, its wide walls and towering columns always amazed me when I was younger. Even now it was one of my favorite buildings in all of Hopestone. The front of the library was surrounded by activity as people seemed to be standing with travel bags and talking with each other.
"Looks like we found the caravan drop-off"
Jax said as we made our way inside. The open middle of the building stretched before us; a second floor had the middle open so you could see up to the ceiling even from the first floor with stairs leading up on either side of the main area. A large circular table sat in the middle with the clerks having chairs on rails so they can swivel around and talk to people at any point on the circle. I turned to Jax, but he was already looking at a group of people looking over a book together.
"You see what you can figure out about our fire ghost situation, I'm gonna see what I can do to get us a mage in our party. "
Jax said walking away.
"Were not officially-"
I said trailing off as Jax continued walking, not waiting for my reply. I grumbled to myself a bit as I headed towards the encyclopedia section of the library. As I looked over the book covers, I grabbed a couple of books, ensuring they were all by different authors so there wasn't a particular monster that one author missed that others have seen. I opened the first book called Monsters of the Mountains by the Relic Helia. I opened the index and looked for fire monsters. I flipped to page 548 to a page about will o wisps. I flipped through the pages, as I passed by salamanders I thought back to Misty who had decided to sleep in, she had gotten bored of the stakeouts every other day and insisted on staying home to keep the herbs in the garden watered. I continued to flip through, Fireeaters, no, Heat hawk, no. It took a moment, but I think I found the kind of monster we were dealing with.
Ash Spirit(E)
HP: 50
Spirit: 50
---Stats---
Str:10
Dex:20
Con:10
Int:10
Wis:20
Cha:30
---Notes---
When a fire is started in a location that causes death and the fire is not cleaned up, these monsters can form. Their bodies are made from burning ashes that are hot enough to start fires with contact to flammable materials. This effect is reflected in one of their main abilities that allows them to leave lingering ashes in wounds they inflict that will flare up and cause burns after a delay, often catching the target off guard. Built from the resentment of those killed in the flames these creatures' temperament is heavily dependent on what the desires that the dead had in life. As such these monsters can often be seen as being hostile only when someone or something attempts to stop them from completing their last goal in life. The following below are some examples of grudges I have found and the behaviors the spirit had.
Trapped in a burning building - caused the Ash spirit to become extremely claustrophobic and get aggressive when attempts were made to entrap it or bring it back to the location of its death.
Burned to death in their sleep - Ash spirit attempted to move around and do chores they did in life, and for a time being confused as they set clothes they touched on fire when trying to fold them before sinking into a depression and refusing to move.
Murderer burned to death when fighting fire mage - Ash spirit continued to lurk and was extremely aggressive, attacking on sight and seemingly enjoying its new form.
As I read I quickly pulled out a small piece of paper in my potions journal and scribbled some basic notes about the Ash spirit.
"Have you seen Ash spirits recently young man?"
A voice from behind me asked. I turned to see someone that looked to be in their 20's. Their hair was a golden mane of gently waving curls that I assume took hours to do every morning. Their face was extremely pretty, to the point that I wondered if the figure was a beautiful girl, or a guy with a pretty girlish face. The figures build didn't give anything away as they wore the robes of a priest that hid their figure, but I wasn't sure what god they worshiped. A small wooden staff rested across their back as they leaned down to look at my book with me. I nodded, having to take a moment to pull my eyes away from their face and slid the book over a bit so they could look as well.
"I'm acting as a guide for someone trying to get their adventuring plates and we saw a group of them in the mountains burning the area around a traveler's shrine."
The priest stood up, and held their chin as they asked,
"They are burning everything but the shrine?"
"Yes, we are not sure why, we didn't even know what they were until we came to see if we could find a reference",
"Then the shrine must be still active, for shrine maidens their shrine is said to remain even after they leave the area, its said to only reappear if the skill is used elsewhere. Did you see a ceremonial looking thing? They generally take the appearance of an object that can create warmth, like a stove or a fireplace."
"Nope, the building we saw was empty, but there was a magic circle left behind, so thats one of the things were trying to figure out."
The figure stood up and seemed to hold their chin as they thought. Jax jump up on the chair across the table, startling the new person and myself as we were greeted by loud Shusses from people around us.
"I found our mage."
Looking beside him was a woman that also looked to be young. She wore a gray cloak covered in what looked like eagle feathers as it took a moment, but her slitted eyes and fluffy down feathers on the back of her hand marker her as a light blood beastman.
"Jax has been telling me all about you and your helpful potions."
I shook her hand and asked,
"and you are?"
"Liora, Liora Aeras, and I'm a wind mage trying to get their plates."
"It seems we all share a common goal then"
The priest next to me said. He brushed some of the hair behind his ears as I saw his pointed ears, marking him as an elf.
"I am Kaelen Therindor, a priest of Freyungen the goddess of love who is also seeking my plates."
Jax turned to me with an excited look as his tail wagged enthusiastically.
"We just doubled our party size."
He said with his entire body tingling with excitement. I wanted to remind him we were not a party before and that we were in a library, so he had to keep his voice down, but a horrifying thought gripped me. There was no way the cart can carry 4 people and gear, we will have to go on foot back up the mountain.