Adventurers of the Empire

Dubbult stepped off of the carriage, stretching as they looked around. So this was Marlly huh? Never been on the inside. Didn't look too bad, they supposed. But that may have something to do with it being rich enough to afford proper walls and a castle. Popping their back, the duo checked to make sure that their armour was on before looking at the rest of the group. Having bothered to learn the names of the people that will most likely get eaten and Flavia, they quickly speak to the group.

"Right. We're just gonna-" "head out to the forest, no-" "point in sticking around for us, we don't really like nobles." The two cheerily say. "Any of you-" "wanna come with?" They ask, crossing their arms as the two internally go over their respective methods of combat, Dub making sure to remember the typical human levels of strength and Bult making sure he can still tap into his powers. Of course, nothing changed from the n+1 other times they did this, but it didn't hurt to check.

Coro hops off the back of the carriage. "Yea not a big fan of nobles either but........ If we do go negotiate with him then we can get a big reward and he cant screw us over yea know?" Coro glances around looking at the city. "And since he is a noble with probably lots of money to waste im sure we could get a lot. So lets have a vote then yea? Who wants to go bargain raise your hand."

Raice exits the carriage and stretches with a soft grunt. He's not very fond of carriage rides, especially not when its with more three people in there.

While he'd rather not deal with nobility, he had to admit the beastman had a point. He nods at Coro but does not raise his hand. "Better to talk to client, I suppose. But I don't think all of us need to go just to talk to them. You go ahead if you want..."

Flavia dropped her trunk out of the carriage first. The whole ride, she'd felt pretty self conscious about the room she was taking up, so it felt good to move around. She tugged her shields out of the trunk, slipping them on her arm and pulling out the smaller bag that held her maintenance things. "You shouldn't go out yourself," she warned Dubbult. "If all of you are going to the noble, then I'll stick with them to make sure things don't go too wrong."

After climbing out of the carriage and dragging her belongings with her, Lea eyed the Hair Toad and her companions. After such a long ride together, she'd gotten somewhat used to the little idiosyncrasies of her party. "I'm ready to get started," She admitted, not really interested in seeing the finery that was the life of a noble. It would be a boring and political discussion, dealing with Nobles always was, and she was ready for action.

She gave her small luggage a gentle kick, "Let me just drop this off and relieve myself before we go." She'd been holding her bladder for the last six hours and she was starting to sweat. That or her body had decided to expel the waste another way.

It only took her five minutes to achieve both of her stated goals and when s he exited the inn she had her traveling boots, a small pack, and her weapons (which were not all obvious and all were hooked to a belt). She eyed those who were ready to start the mission, "Ready?"

"Right then!" Dubbult claps his hands once, before spinning to look at Raice and Coro. "You two have fun talking to the-" "Old stooge, we're gonna go break-" "some cannibals!" They say with a cheery grin. Looking at Flavia and Lea (Codename: Most likely to be eaten #3) they continue. "Pretty sure we saw the forest to the..." "East, we saw it to the east." "The east! So let's get moving. Didn't look too large-" "and the sword is most likely gonna be at-" "the largest cannibal camp, so if we can-" "scare one of them enough that they run-" "it should lead us back to the goal."

Turning around, the duo made sure everything was in place. A small satchel filled with enough food for two people for about three days, four if they rationed it. Some rope, a knife and a sleeping roll. With a nod to both the bag and the group, the duo start making their way towards the east of the city.

Flavia dumped the now empty trunk back into the carriage, tugging the small bag onto her back. She looked to Lea, and then to Dubbult. "Yes, but what if they come back and find reinforcement?" She said, walking after the brothers. "Maybe it would be better to follow them some other way. Footprints, maybe?" She offered.

"but if we follow the footprints they would possibly lead us into a trap or while we are following them we run into a large group" Coro also followed after the brothers and suit of armor. "Also we shouldn't be splitting up strength in numbers and so on."

Raice looks at Dubbult and then to Coro. "Er...I'm not going with her to talk...not good at that kind of stuff..."

In the end they were all going to end up going into the forest right away, weren't they? He's just going to go with whatever the others were going with. He hitched his bulky looking backpack onto his shoulders. "We don't even know where the sword is in the forest...."

Lea eyed Coro, "I thought you were going to bargain with the Nobles?" She shook her head, "Anyway, nothing in the assignment did it say that the cannibals actually have the sword, just that the sword supposedly exists in this forest that happens to be infested with cannibals. Why go straight in toward the enemy when we don't even know where it's at?" She tapped her shoe, in thought, "Charging head on into the forest didn't work for large armies, and so a small group was suggested. My vote is toward stealth for the time being. If we are confronted with cannibals, kill them, but no point in seeking them out."

"No no no, you don't get it,-" "we want a large group of them, that way-" "we can take em all out at once and-" "put the fear of a proper god into them." The two say, punching a palm. "It helps dissuade any random-" "attacks from behind, should there-" "be any survivors." "The number one killer of adventurers-" "Is letting their guard down after they think the mission is completed."

Looking at Raice (Codename: Most likely to be eaten #1), they pat the giant Nug on the back. "Don't worry meatsh-" "Raice. How hard can it be?" They say cheerily. "Plus, most of the time all the precious stuff is where the most enemies are." Bult adds cheerily as the duo continue to make their way down the street, pass a merchant waving around a bunch of red flags.

Coro looks over to the nug."The forest is filled with them we do not want to alert them to our presence if we do encounter a group then yes we should take care of them however we cant just go in there fighting all of them we cant do that." 'I like the plan we get to slaughter a bunch of people and get paid it a win win come on just do it.' 'I thought i told you to shut up aine that is a terrible idea we would overwhelmed if enough of them show up'

Raice just gives the wastelanders a look. Were they just about to call him a meatshield? Wow, how reassuring.

"I will admit that I do not know much about quests like this. But I hear the number two killer of adventurers is letting their guard down before even starting."

An hour's walk later.

The team traversed through the city outskirts and farmland past the natural tree barrier and made their way into the outer ring of the Marlly forest. The forest itself, at least this part, was dim as the trees covered kept the natural sun from entering in. The adventures stuck to a dirt path, hidden by overgrown grass as the cannibals had made it impossible to maintain the roads. While it isn't exactly quiet, it wasn't loud as the birds didn't sing, save for the occasional cawing of ravens and crows and animals weren't anywhere to be found save for small rats and bugs. There is an unnerving aura as the it seemed as if the group was being watched at every step and a foul smell came from the deeper parts of the forest.

Dubbult hated this part of the mission. The part where there was nothing to really do. They had never bothered to learn the funeral points of hunting or tracking when they were younger, because if there was a beast nearby in the wastelands you and everyone born with eyes knew about it. That said, they weren't completely useless. The advantage of having two heads, one of which could feel every mind nearby, meant that would be ambushes were gonna have a hard time sneaaking up on them.

They didn't like the eerieness of the forest. The feeling of being watched. Even with two pairs of eyes looking everywhere they could, they couldn't see anything but trees and vegetation. Luckily it wasn't just their eyes they were relying on. Bult could feel the minds of the cannibals, only a couple, but they were there. Watching. And the smell. It was basically what they had been following since they first encountered it. It just screamed creepy shit, which incidentally was where they needed to go. Not to mention that the closer they got to the smell, the more cannibals seemed to appear. "Keep your guard up." "One's in the tree to your left Flavia, the other above Raice." The duo say quietly as they peer up through the branches, pretending to be looking for them.

Coro had volunteered to go up ahead of the group to spring any traps and was currently getting rid of a pitfall. 'Honestly its like they aren't even trying with these things..' A cannibal was currently sitting in a tree about to jump down and ambush coro but as soon as his feet left the tree the branch he was standing on snatched him from the air wrapping around his windpipe and crushing it. The cannibal was left hanging there.

Coro continued ahead of the group but was still within sight of the group but barely as the could only slightly see her silhouette moving. she continued disarming the traps on their path. 'This is to easy i don't like it.' 'Dont complain so much this is fun isn't it?'

Raice tails at the back of the group (but still sticking close to the others). Someone's got to watch their backs, right? Not that he's doing much good here. He was more accustomed to traversing mountainous areas, not forests packed with leaves, bugs, and...cannibals? At Dubbult's prompt, the nug looked up.

Sure enough, there's someone up there, looking right back at him and- oh geez, they made direct eye contact. That's always a little awkward. The cannibal was already drawing their crossbow. Raice grabs the nearest sizable branch sticking out at him, tearing it right off the tree it was attached to. The crossbow was drawn. Raice tries to knock the cannibal off their perch with the branch. It worked. The crossbow went off, sending a stray arrow flying into the ground next to the nug's foot. That fall was definitely not enough to kill anyone, but the cannibal had fallen on their back and for the time being seemed dazed. Raice goes over to the fallen cannibal to break that crossbow and maybe at least get something out of the guy.

Lea like standing next to Dubbult. The two heads were fascinating to her science-oriented mind and she had so many questions about their anatomy. Thankfully she kept them to herself avoiding the risk of embarrassing herself and her player.

For someone who looked like she never spent a day outside, Lea actually made little to no sound with each of her steps. Never once did a twig or branch snap under her boots. She was ready, when the two cannibals were mentioned, but they were both quickly dispatched. Lea didn't let up her stance, though, were there only two or could more be lurking up ahead. She wasn't letting her guard down.

At the prompt, Flavia looked. Her eyes found the cannibal in the dark, wielding two rather gnarly looking daggers. With her long shield, she stabbed between the tree trunks and brought it down on the cannibals head. She didn't think about maybe interrogating it before she brought down her spiked shield on the cannibals head, killing it. She stepped away, wishing that if they were going to ambush, they would just do it, already; her role wasn't to be on the attack, and that was the role she had to take until they started fighting properly.

She looked over her shoulder, watching that Raice had managed to get the cannibal. She would have smiled if she could have, seeing the cannibal on the ground. "Hey, here's one to interrogate!" She called to the others more towards the front, stomping over to the cannibal on the ground. She placed one of her heavy feet on the cannibal's arm to stop them from running off.

With their position exposed, the remaining 4 cannibals quickly take to the forest, running deeper and deeper into the darkness. As they ran, one trips and drops what looks like a signet onto the ground as it picks itself up and continues to run. The forest was suddenly silent for a moment before the sound of crows and birds returned. A trail of footprints was left as the cannibals ran away.