"The agitators are all around! Open thine eyes my people, the rotten falloff of demons has infiltrated reat society and poisohe minds of many! Crusade! Crusade!" A man on a podium speaks to the crowd outside, he is dressed like a member of the church of life. People from every rung of society except nobles are attracted to the speech, peasants selling their goods, guards on patrol, workmen w what the otion is all about.
"People have gone missing! Kilograms worth of Adamantine gone! Demons south of us as if it is normal! The local cemetery i as our fathers and mothers are corrupted by vile magic! We are being preyed upon by vile things, but worry not! Belluzoar's avatar has arrived to strike down the heathens! He protect his flock with much greater ease if the faithful were to make a small donation for the cause, all profits go to purchasing supplies for our crusaders." Esstrey munches on some mystery meat she found i while looking outside of her window at the shameless preacher. Sure, plenty of the profits would be going to crusaders, but he never really specified what kind of supplies to which crusaders. Who knows, maybe the hard-w priests o hire a girl to keep them warm at night as they worry in their fortable beds as the cemetery they were sworn to protect is trying to eat the visitors.
As iing as the zealot shouting outside is, Esstrey is more worried about the avatar of the war god, that one has caused plenty of trouble acc to some very illegal books. Books that speak of a terrifying being with six arms, all with adamantine swords. A lithe golem so heavily armored that it actually takes off the armor in more publiviros as to not scare children too much. A being that s itself in fmes, punishing anyone daring to get close, quite the cause of drums for the close-quarters fav Esstrey.
Not that Esstrey has to fight him, officially the gods are friendly with all the civilized races, arey is a subordinate of the duchess. Officially, Esstrey doesn't know anything about any demons or missing people cases, but officially there is no war in Ba Siher. Officially, Esstrey and her eeam were pronounced dead after having gone missing, and most of her life ent as an apprenticeship to a carpenter. Iy, the gods are suspicious of the mortal races, arey's real resume looks kind of like dots oiht-wing politis have with Israel.
"Esstrey! Were you listening?" Jake snaps his fio get the mermaid's attention, who stops looking outside the window.
"Huh? Uhh... what if, hypothetically speaking, I wasn't?" She faces Jake properly now, who simply massages his forehead.
"An expedition was called for, a demon has taken trol of a church to the south. Ronald said that while some of the demons around are reted to his cult, the ohat took trol of the church is not. When the demon was initially spotted, it wasn't a cause for a rge fuss, but that adventurer group that had caused so much trouble for you guys revealed evidehat this demon is trying to summon... something. They also revealed that resistance would be heavier than any predis, and the lo takes, the worse it gets. Belluzoar corroborated this, stating that [The Veil] is thi around churches, and any major summoning taking pce there would have an easier time. Malencia was drafted by the king to provide aid, but I o return to Malencia as my mother doesn't want me near Belluzoar when anyone of the paranormal division or their activities are close. The other members of the paranormal division will be returning as well, and I would like you to represent Malencia in this expedition. Quick expedition, in and out. No big deal." Jake says the st part with more hope in his voice thaainty.
Esstrey bites through something hard from the mystery meat, bone maybe? As is ches under her teeth, she taps her shovel, p on what Jake said. "Right, I think I have some time, will I be getting reinforts?"
"A captain and his men are assigo you, but your participation is mainly formal, the duchy has no i over spilling blood over some clearly blown out of proportion issue. I'll take my leave so you prepare now." Jake leaves Esstrey behind, who goes back to looking outside the window, the moment the door closes, a figure moves out from beh the closet.
"Are you [pnning/plotting/scheming] something?" The shoggoth takes her usual form, and Sofia begins to form enough to listen in as well.
"I'm alnning something, but telling too soon would ruin the surprise. As a matter of fact, I think I may be plotting somethiremely devious. Say, the preacher said kilograms of adamantine was stolen, that doesn't sound like a lot..." Esstrey tries to think of what the paranormal division is pnning as well, but as expected, trying to decipher the thought processes of the insane is a fool's errand.
"The [tales/stories/cssification] of adamantine was no idle boast, it is incredibly light. I wasn't [spotted/seen/observed] while acquiring this, as anded by the dy." Cathy spits out a LOT of adamantine from some pocket dimension, or in other words, roughly a few kilograms worth of adamantine.
"Good, with that we are almost ready. I'm guessing we won't be able to stay for very long here when shit hits the fan, but we won't be leaviy-cwed. Get the adamantine in a barrel and assign it under 'special provisions' before handing it off to our dear captain. Sofia, I need you to track the movements of the paranormal division until they leave for Malencia as well, 't have their interference making things any more dangerous as they are. As for me? I'm making uest of honor some 'high quality padding'.
Prickly
