It took the group another hour or two of scouting around the crumbled sheds and vige huts. They didn''t manage to find anything else other than a few gold coins or ruined goods. From those they managed to prove that this had definitely been a spot to stop for merchants at one point. It might have even been what fueled the experimentations.
"Now that we have dealt with that, we should head out, right leader?" Walker looked at Onyx who had managed to get them back in to a group to go over their findings so that Walker could send as detailed a notification to ra as possible. He didn''t get a response since she was exceedingly busy but this was not an extremely pressing matter. It was a random urrence that the party had happened uponpletely by ident.
"Yes, party member. We will get in the carriage and continue on if songstress Alice is feeling up to it." Onyx teased Walker right back a little but was serious when he looked at Alice. She had gotten much more active and felt very good about heading out now. She raised a small fist to show she was all in on getting them ahead of their travel schedule. "Then onward we go!" With the starlight crickets behind them, the party was on their way yet again.
"… You go out to hunt for a ravine and search it for serpents and you find mutated magic crickets? What even is this." ra was in her office rubbing her temples. She had no idea what kind of luck her party had but it was extremely unusual. Not only this, but she saw that they had documents and other evidence for the adventurer''s guild to take and use to investigate.
Since the group had been out, ra expected some interesting results about the ravine. It was a worry that many merchants hade to the guild with since it was a danger they could face while transporting goods. There was the possibility that it could grow more like some had in the past and cause ascertain trails to be unusable. But this was just out of nowhere.
"We need to send a party to investigate an abandoned vige. I want four mages, two tamers, and the rest guards!" ra yelled out and a staff member just outside of her door rushed to get a party together. "I need someone to contact the demi-human representative as well. I want them toe by my office!" ra also saw the notice from Walker about demi-human connections meaning that it could have been a small group of researchers that split off from the two kingdoms and joined together in their slightly twisted ideals.
The next ten minutes were filled with ra sifting through some old documents hse had been brought about experimental farming. There were many that had strange ideas to improve farming but the human kingdom had not delved in to this too much. They trusted their farmers to rent thend and work hard to make everything that the kingdom needed. It tended to work out since the farmers always had great pride in the way their produce grew and hoped they could show off their hard work. That and they would be able to sell their best produce for better ie.
"Someone came to ask me to see you. I didn''t think the adventurer''s guild would be asking from me, especially after your big announcement. Need some advice on infighting already?" Scy had assumed that she was called upon because of her battle strength. She knew that there might be some trouble between some of the smaller and inexperienced adventures trying to get the best herbs.
"No, nothing like that. It''s about farming. In particr, experiments farming with monsters. Mutated monsters." Scy held up a hand. She was much more serious.
"We put a stop to that some years ago. During a reduction in food due to root rot and additional rain, we lost a few fields. Those that wanted to prevent that came up with many different ideas. Some were not eptable. Mutating nts can work. Mutating monsters…despicable." Her voice was heavy. This was something that the demi-human kingdom had not been proud of. From what they had learned, they had acted swiftly.<sub> </sub>
"We stomped out those problems as soon as they arose. The fools made berzerk hounds, venomous lynx, and even tried to turn a simple fish in to a fast growing monstrosity which caused us topletely bury ourrgest reservoir. But they and everyone that fell for their ideas were imprisoned or dealt with otherwise. My people do not stand for such experimentation." Seeing that Scy felt so strongly assured ra that this was something she could rely on her for.
"Then it will not be a surprise to you that our heroic friends found an abandoned vige that was once used by humans that spoke with your prisoners. Apparently, they followed those theories and experiments to create something called a starlight cricket. One that they had an encounter with since the vige apparently still had living specimens there." The look on Scy''s face was one that could silence any army out of fear. This was the look of the real general that stood at the front line of battles.
"Then I will personally take troops to handle it. Do not worry yourself. This is on my shoulders. I may have been a few years younger when I learned of it, but that does not mean my feelings have changed over this matter. It would be a failing of the entire demi-human race if I did not clean this up." ra nodded and handed over a document she had been writing with all the information and location the party had just been in. She trusted this matter to Scypletely.
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