Jok and Scar finish explaining the situation to Ezekiel as Victor lay unmoving. Ezekiel then reports his progress visiting the local churches looking for one of Bahamut. He also looked around town for any work that seemed available and a local guild of bards caught his interest.
"They say that their head master was assassinated and the assassin is hiding out to the north." Says Ezekiel. Jok is the one who responds back.
"That's great, but first do you think you could seal Victor like I was by that dead bard?"
"Its not that easy, Victor's power isn't divine in nature, I'm afraid I can't do anything to seal his magic." Scar pauses then jumps in.
"Wait, What if instead of sealing him, we charm him, like what a bard could do? You think if we get this assassin they could pay us in a charm spell?"
At the sound of the word 'Pay' Victor is up and on Jok's back, saying, "I need 50% upfront, no fake coins, travel expenses are extra."
Jok leaps up from the table and whips Victor off his back in shock. Victor flips once in the air and lands before taking a bit of a drink and waltzing back over.
"How much of that did you hear, Victor?" Asks Scar, worried.
"Bards, assassin, and pay, that's about all I need lets go."
Ezekiel shrugs and says, "Works for me. Let's go to the Bardic Academy." The group stands and begins walking, Scar uses a bit of his mental abilities to talk over the plan with the others.
"So I think that the bards would be willing to charm Victor so he takes his daughter's pregnancy well." Projects Scar
"Hopefully, I've actually come to like him in just the day we've spent together. Would be a shame to have to kill him." Thinks back Jok.
"If you ask me, he's a ticking time bomb. I told you I wanted to see if this town had a temple to Bahamut then leave, instead, we're stuck watching this man child." Responds Ezekiel.
"A man child who laid you out flat with a bit of magic." Jokes Jok.
"Oh burn, and it wasn't even from me." Says Scar out of his mouth, prompting Victor to turn to him. the group stops staring at Victor stare at Scar. Victor takes a large swig of his Drink and responds.
"Yeah Zap, just like I do." Says Victor, feigning understanding a joke he thinks he heard. They all arrive at the Bard's Academy the new head master. Ezekiel steps forward to speak with him.
"Evening, We are here to help hunt down your master's killer, can you give us an idea of where he is?"
"Yes, he seems to have a stronghold north of the city. I sent some of our own to scout the area out, but none have returned, if you can retrieve my other bard apprentices then I'll pay you double."
Ezekiel shakes the man's hand and turns back to the others, Victor looks to be walking toward a direction. Jok shouts to him, "Victor, I know you are excited, but that is south."
"I know, but for some reason I don't recall getting Lacey home, so I'm gonna go check and make sure she is alright."
"NO!" Shouts Scar, prompting Victor to turn suspiciously.
"You shouldn't... Because she had a really long day at school, and needed... to take a nap." Victor smiles and begins walking north as he says, "She really is a little over achiever, well let's get moving . That shit should be dead by sun up."
Scar leans in to speak with Ezekiel privately, "We should be able to cover this, make sure they have the charm before we get back." Ezekiel nods and Scar, Jok and Victor take off toward the Assassin's hideout.
Victor flies into the sky and gets a good view of the surrounding area, eventually spotting an old ruin about 20 miles north of the town, he lands back with his group and notices the little girl Mana has returned. Victor starts leading them to the hideout while speaking.
"Hey Scar, that girl there hasn't spoken once since I met you, she special or somefin?"
"Oh very special, this is Mana, and me and her are connected, you see..." Scar begins going through a tale about how he, Jok, and Mana are from a different world, and that Mana is actually his Psi-crystal given the form of a little girl in this world to blend in. Victor, truly couldn't care less, he just checking to see if she was weird like many things in his life.
"So different world huh? Same here." Jok and Scar look at him shocked. Victor takes a drink and begins explaining, "I told ya I'm from Harlasator right? Well That ain't here, There is normal, but here I fit in, how long you been in this world mate?"
Jok chimes in. "Like maybe a week, and so far we lost two friends to ghost pirates, a third to a nest of Rocs, killed a dwarven king giant, and got changed into humans, met an Deva then back to our old forms, then we met Ezekiel, and you. Pretty sure we also teamed up with a Dark Lord for a bit there."
"Sounds about right, this plane is some sort of limbo of weirdness and chaos, hence why ghosts get to set up in town, and why I ain't in some prison cell for being me. Sorry about your friends, but don't worry, when people die I'm pretty sure they go back to the material plane."
"So does anything here hold consequences?" Scar asks and Victor twirls at that question.
"What if it didn't? What would you do?" Scar thinks for a moment then responds, "Without consequence, I suppose I'd do anything I wanted."
Victor touches his nose twice while saying, "Ding-ding, and there you have it." *Gulg* *gulg*
Finally the group arrives in the hide out and Scar begins thinking out a plan as they stand before the giant stone doors that stand in their way. Jok pushes the massive doors open then turns back and Victor slowly walks up to the doors and shouts.
"OI YA CLOAK AND DAGGER FUCK. GIVE BACK THE BARDS AND WE'LL MAKE SURE YOU DIE QUICK!"
Moments pass and Scar shakes his head and says, "What made you think that they would-"
He is interrupted by a scraggly voice shouting back, "FUCK YOU!"
Victor walks back over to Jok and pats him on the shoulder, "Time to dine then, Jok lets kill use a shadow man."
"Kay then." Jok and Victor waltz into the darkness as Scar hangs his head behind them. he suddenly remembers Mana and turns to her saying, " Mana watch the door, if the assassin comes through here you know what to do." Mana nods and Scar rejoins the others.
The dungeon was dark and foreboding, and as the group searched deeper in they found a living area with papers that had people with cross outs over their faces. Victor recognized some of them as people from town who turned up dead.
"What's that noise?" Asked Scar hearing struggling and muffled screaming from a nearby door. they opened the door to see half a dozen bards tied up and gagged. Jok formed a dagger out of the air and undoes their bonds. Some of the bards looked hurt and one of them comes forward.
"Thank the gods you are here, we're hurt, can any of you heal us?"
Scar shakes his head, but Victor pushes him aside.
"Wait a moment, are you telling me that you guys are bards who don't know how to heal?"
"Yeah, none of us know the spell." Victor holds the bridge of his nose and says, "Dear sweet Socca you guys are the worst bards I've ever met, keep safe and stay down, we need to take care of the guy who kidnapped you."
The group walked down the living space toward another hallway before coming to a large doorway and entering a huge dark room with precisely 17 phylacteries of blood set up in a giant star shaped glyph. Sitting in the middle of the glyph is a man kneeling with skin as black as night, very clearly not human.
"Welcome fools, to your death. For you see I have finally killed and stolen the blood of the great ancestors of the shadow killers, and so with their blood mixed in with the essence of the fade-" *CRACK*
Victor had punched the man clear in the face while Jok, Scar, and the bards stared on at them. Victor proceeds to kick the man on the ground. The man defends himself saying, "Damnit! Will you just. For the love of. I'm trying to scare you!"
"Can't you see? I'm terrified." Says the straight-faced Victor as he lifts the man by the head and punches him in the gut. Finally the man kicks off Victor and flips landing on all fours. He brandishes a slender thin dagger with the same glyph on it and he speaks.
"Fine then, I'll show you why children are scared of the dark." And the man disappears where he stood, and the room grows cold.
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