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Polaris had been waiting for almost an hour now and within that past hour, people began to appear. First someone named Jenso, then a demon who was apparently of royal blood. Before the Glacerian could even blink, others began to file in and he had quickly come to the conclusion that these people were quite definitely the "chosen ones" that he would be traveling with. Although he was told by the advisor that thirteen people had been invited in total, he was not exactly sure what to further expect of said people. Among the crowd, he was familiar with one face: the court healer who had seen once at a glance during one of his three brief visits to the castle. She introduced herself as Selene.

Aside from Jenso, Selene and the demon of royalty (whose name was apparently Astiroth), the crew was also greeted by three women: one who had yet to introduce herself, one who introduced herself as a "doctor of some renown" named Josephine Prendick, and one that had introduced herself as Artemis. By his count, seven of the twelve members had arrived. That meant that six chosen members were still missing from the group. Good to know, he supposed.

"Polaris," the nicknamed "King's Man" spoke in a slightly gruff tone, "Polaris Yukon. And it seems that we are missing six people yet."

Vauldis finally arrived at the city gates before looking around for the point he was told to meet at.
Vauldis quickly found his way to the allotted meeting point, it was hard to miss ,and made his way to it with little event other than a few suspicious stares. As he arrived at the meeting point, he noted it was a fairly odd group, ranging from a large demon to a young, cloaked girl "Hello." the lycan said as he finally decided to drop the guise of an old man and raised to his full height "I am Vauldis, and I trust we're all here to assist the king in his...current predicament?" the necromancer spoke as he dropped his hood and revealed his slightly rotten wolf appearance to the group.

Rem followed Artemis up the hill, catching the invite as it was carelessly thrown back to her. Not here to make friends, I see Rem noted, yep, she definitely reminds me of previous clients.

As the sun began to rise, she began to hear the beginning of the hustle and bustle of the town behind her. Rem let out a sigh in relief that she wasn't still in that maze of a city, she already felt claustrophobic back there and a crowd would only make things worse. Rem shuddered thinking about how much she hated crowds; she had learned to tolerate them in a market setting, but anywhere else, crowds led to judgmental staring, hateful glances, confrontation, and all other sorts of things that made her hair stand on end.

The hill she climbed wasn't very steep so she immediately saw the people she supposed she was to meet up with.

The first person she noticed nearly stopped her in her tracks; he was an absolutely majestic demon of which the likes she had never seen before: first of all, he was massive -over a foot taller than her- and second of all, he had antlers rather than horns. Rem had to stop herself from allowing her eyes to widen, and she feel deeply ashamed that she allowed herself to stare when she herself hated the action so.

He must be royal she thought, taking note of the other people. The second person to catch her eye had just announced himself and he appeared to be some soft of Lycan...a sickly looking Lycan at that. Nevertheless, she felt somewhat relieved that there was someone who was at least a little bit like her...even if he smelled like death. The third person-er-thing to catch her eye was a peacock with snakes instead of feathers, she then noticed the rather interesting woman she was with. There was also two human men, one looked blindingly chipper she might add, and a haughty looking witch.

Rem settled next to the man who addressed himself as Polaris and waived to the party members with her signature lax smile, waiting for an opportunity to introduce herself.

"Been walking for hours..." The robed man mentally groaned... He walked for hours upon end, hardly resting, his large feet hurting to the point where he had cramps... This was defiantly how he wanted to start a virtuous task- bitching about his inability to move faster than he wanted. Was this really to the Brihen Party...? It was an awful long way, especially for a mansion he was seeking... He came to the conclusion the Noble's formal Writer had no idea what a sense of direction was... He would deal with that later.

His helmet felt rather warm, he could channel energy to cool himself... but it would be such a waste... But then... He saw a gathering of a sort- Maybe this was the party he was seeking...? But... There was a demon... And rather diverse people that he did not seem too phased by... A Ginger looking man yelling. He could be the one man party... So he thought. He strolled over, somewhat observing from his helmet, taking glances to one another.

"So... If I had to guess, this ISN'T the Brihen party..." The man finally spoke. His lisp just scratching one another's ears.
He finally walked over before presenting the set of letters he had to Polaris... He looked undoubtedly the most important person there... Not because he was a man, but there was just a stark look in his eyes compared to the colorful contrast around him. "Well... I think there was a mix up with the letters... I was... Looking for a party... but what exactly is all this...?" He asked, not bothering to take off his helmet.

To those who could see in the masked fighter, they could see he had a rather feminine and decorative frame. His attire was rather foreign, but not unknown. He stood roughly six feet in height, quite toned from what they could see of his frame, a feline tail to boot, but to those who looked closely, they could see pale skin through the mouth of his helmet. The eye area had a form of lens to one see better, though they were slightly tinted, his eyes seemed quite lively, accompanied by dark circles as well. "Yeaah... This isn't the party..." He had an awkward toothy smile.

For a moment, Artemis was distracted by the break of dawn. For the past few days, she was more focused on the mission ahead or how bad it's been. To her, the area now seemed to have its charms. Somewhere familiar, she thought. She stopped herself half way before a flash back, another time.

She immediately turned back to the group. How am I supposed to play with these people? Artemis could try to take something without asking, but that would be too early and random. Surely an opinion would get them a little heated, even if they claim "I won't do such a childish thing." As she felt a little excitement take over, she shook it off. Not now, not now. Feast upon them later.

Artemis then heard upon a strange being. She looked to Vauldis and nodded to his introduction, a little phased by his appearance. Maybe it was an old client that mentioned it or streets talk. Its the same description, she reflected. Shuffling over in his direction, she tried looking closely at his his features. He probably was that person. It wouldn't hurt to question him.

"What are you?" she dared, tilting her head upwards. "I've heard of the old werewolves take a form like yours, but that was mere whore gossip."

Silently, Selene counted the group in her head. It was already such a large party... The witch shuddered. She wasn't one for crowds.

At the appearance of the Lycan, a sudden shock of pain racked her head, she grabbing her temples quickly and squeezing her eyes shut as her ears began to ring with a familiar voice: her own, distorted and childish. No, that wasn't Selene speaking in her mind, it was Folle.

"Won't you look at that? Another necromancer! Oh, I can smell the delicious death on him, hehe~ He's like us, Selene, pure evil like us! Isn't that just wonderful?! Ahahaha!"

Selene lowered her hands with a shuddering breath, growling quietly so as not to be heard by the group, threatening Folle to be quiet. After finishing her outburst, Folle fell back to her incessant whispering in the witch's head, unintelligible and just as frightening.

After her vision had cleared, Selene noticed yet another member of the group. One with a cat's tail. Her curiosity got the best of the her, the witch silently going over and reaching out to gently grasp at it, lips pouted in interest as she looked it over. "You're like a kitten." She teased joyfully, the pain of Folle's appearance completely gone and pushed to the back of her mind.

Illistrianna was taken aback for a second when she heard what sounded like poetry coming from the Orc. She didn't want to think of such racist thoughts, but she had heard his kin being crude and brutish. Well, now that she was thinking about it, weren't she ben told they were quite feral and bestial-looking? The one standing in front of her sure looked imposing and a bit intimidating, but he was far from what the young elf had heard from her kinsman. Plus, his manner of speech didn't sound much of a brute, but rather that of a poet?

Maybe was he a travelling bard? That must explain the sudden poem he just recited to her. Or so she seemed to believe he was saying, ignoring completly what the would be Orc bard's true meaning behind his words.

"Ah yes, the moon can really be of such beauty some nights. So tell me, Mr. Malakaus, where do your travels bring you, to be awake so early in the morning, if not to watch the sunrise?" Illistrianna asked, curious as to where this travelling bard might be going next.

Who knows, perhaps she would have been joining him on his travels if it was not for the journey she was just about to embark.

@Lucius Cypher

Astiroth sighed as he heard Josephine follwed by Jenso. His eyes gazed toward Jenso. "There is no need for formal greeting." Astiroth turned back to face Josephine. "I did not expect many to be interested in the plague. Most things that hirt are considered a blessing by most." He paused for a moment and appeared to be in thought. "You said holy plague. Interesting. We did what we could to hide information about the plague to be honest. None answered our call for aid so we didn't want anyone knowing what was destroying us. I assure you. Nothing about that plague was holy. If ot was, we would have had a better chance. The disease...was originatong from a plant." Astiroth believed this news would frighten Josephine. The idea of a single plant being able to cause such damage to a species was shocking. Imagining what it could do to others could be more so. "We burned everything before we fled. Destrpyed every trace of that vile plant. Our home had to burn with it."

Yet another person made their way up the small hill they were all standing on who appeared to a part of their make-shift adventuring group; this one appeared to be quite flamboyant in appearance rather than intimidating, and they also seemed to be suffering from heat exhaustion due to the helmet he was wearing.

Rem could see he was addressing the Kingsman so she stood in comfortable silence until something caught her off guard: the which, of whom she missed the introduction of, reached out to grab the traveler's tail. Her eyes grew in horror at the disrespectful act and she felt herself move closer despite herself.

"Ah, lass." Rem coaxed, "I really wouldn't if I were you, folks typically don't like it when you go pulling on their tails." She calmed down a little seeing as it was a gentle hold rather than a harsh grab that a child would use.

In her other ear Rem could hear serious talk of plagues and having to burn one's home down. She gulped at the severity of another party member's situation, realizing that not everyone was here just to get paid.

Jenso gave the new arrivals a quick glance, deciding to refrain from stating his name again until everyone would have arrived. He gave the masked fighter a confused look, who apparently had arrived at the wrong place. His attention darted to Selene for a moment who seemed to be frustrated for a little while. He thought nothing of it, assuming that something might have just briefly annoyed her. Astiroth's words caught his attention. "That's...terrible man..I'm sorry to hear that." Jenso stated, frowning. He did not know the demons or what they did too well, but a plague that ravaged his people like that had to be horrible either way. He could relate to Astiroth's past in a way as everyone within his hometown was also killed, even though it wasn't due to a plague.

Cassius blinked in his helmet, his tail was being stroked. He gave a nervous chuckled as he raised his hands to face her. "Meow meow meow~" He teased, his hands up in a pawing like method. "Don't let my appearance get the better of you. I'm actually a skilled Monster Slayer from Lumya. But it is... nice to see such interesting company." He quipped. Though he was curious why she chose to stroke his tail. He endowed a flame at the tip of it, he would not actually burn since his body was a catalyst, but he would at least humor her.

"Now look what you did.~" He spoke rather gaudily. He didn't flail, he simply chuckled before turning the flame on and off, he did this a few times before stopping. "Taaadahhh." His hands somewhat flailing. He must have seemed like a street performer. But his attire was much too refined with his Velvet. The helmet wasn't exactly cheap looking either. But he did over heard something about a plague. This however did send some form of distress. A Sickness of any kind was usually a cause for alarm. He chose to speak not of it. They all were clearly here for something else, and he could live with that.

Jenso looked back at Cassius, glancing curiously at him as he endowed the tip of his tail with a flame. It seemed like he wasn't the only flame user of the crew. It wasn't too surprising, as flame users weren't that uncommon. However, he believed that it took a lot of focus and training for Cassius to concentrate his powers like this, to only light the tip of his tail. It took a lot of control, something that Jenso was never able to do. "Hey...who're you?" Jenso asked Cassius, somewhat interested. "I'm a flame user too. My name is Jenso!" He said with a smirk, creating a flame ball in the palm of his right hand. He kept the flame ball at a safe distance from anyone, but it was clear that his control over it wasn't as good as Cassius's. He absorbed the flames back into his palm. He intended to wait earlier before introducing himself yet again, but the man fascinated him.

Vauldis inspected Artemis for a moment, slightly startled by her confidence , he thought his features alone would discourage that. He quickly recovered however and replied to the question " I assure you, the whores gossip is true, werewolves are still lurking in your little cities, slowly increasing in numbers as their existence is forgotten by the average peasant. But I'm no werewolf. My bloodline has held the curse for so long however, we have became our own race. Lucky for you, the curse is no longer contagious either so if a beast starts assaulting us at a full moon, don't blame me." The lycan seemed to grumble the last part in a rather irritated tone, as though he expected any night time attacks to be blamed on him.

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Polaris raised an eye at the newcomer and Selene. The former of the two was completely lost and it seemed that the latter of the two was completely entertained. This entertainment evidently stemmed from the newcomer's Lumyan heritage. True, Polaris himself had never seen a Lumya in person either, but at least he didn't reach out to pet random strangers.

Especially those of whom weren't were they belonged.

Getting a good glance at this individual would be pointless as they were wearing a helmet. Telling them to leave would be equally without a point as it seemed that Selene and Jenso had already taken interest in this man. Besides, Polaris wasn't the leader of this operation and had no right to say anything, "King's man" or not.

"This is a confidential quest to be undertaken for the sake of his majesty, King Horace III of Naviance," Polaris spoke in a deadpan as he glanced over at the newcomer's invitation. Same place, same time. What kind of joke was this? Was this some disguised effort to get this man on board? Why? Certainly the king's advisor would come along soon enough to set this situation straight.

"And it is not the 'Brihen party' that you speak of. Might I ask who you are?"

Cassius took interest in Jenso's interaction, he even chuckled at the man as he took note of his Pyromancer capabilities... But he sensed he was far stronger than he let on; Cassius strength paled in comparison. But he could tell there was much more to his demeanor than he let on. But he did not quite have time to talk, but the matter seemed far more serious once he heard the King's Knight speak.

He formally removed his helmet; his long silky smooth hair blowing in the wind, as he looked to Polaris. "I am Cassius Alexandros Lumya Svent. A Lumyian from Lumyia as you can clearly deduce. But a mary band out here in the open seems quite dangerous if people wanted to snuff out any hope of saving your monarch, wouldn't you agree Sir Knight?" Cassius' eyes were well trained. His hazel eyes staring into Polaris'. "I can see by the temperament of your eyes that you're well trained in hand to hand combat. Your eyes do not let go of a single detail." Cassius dropped his act really quickly. Granted magic could be used for entertaining purposes. But he was in the presence of a man under the monarch.

"It is clear to me this letter was a waste of my time if this was what it was meant for... They only disguised it if they knew I would not want to be in battle..." He lamented for a moment. "Yet, doing nothing feels like the wrong thing to do... Very well... If you'd like me to be here as a man who channels from the abyss, than I suppose I can be the hand you need me to be... But the moment you do any sort of wrong doing... I will leave where you stand. Promise me as a King's Knight, that you strive to do the right thing. Hold your oath, and in turn you hold mine as a committed person of causality." Cassius extended his right hand to the King's men.

Selene immediately released his tail as he spoke, her curiosity fading now that her investigation had confirmed it was indeed real. She blankly glanced at the girl who approached her, giving a look of confusion before smirking. "I was only teasing..." She explained curtly, turning to Polaris as he began to speak in his cold voice. "Buzzkill..." She muttered, already sensing her more curious and apathetic personality would collide with his serious one. Selene quickly turned her attention back to the catboy. Though that was not accurate, and he had already given his name, Selene still would insist upon referring to him as such.

The witch took another scan of the group... Quite a strange rag tag team indeed. However, she easily lost interest, nothing could really keep her focused for too long. Instead Selene separated herself from the group by a few feet, staring out over the edge as if recording every minor detail.

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Polaris did not like being questioned especially when it came to his loyalty towards the royal family. Nonetheless, he could respect this man's purpose and words, even if his arrival was believed to be a mistake. Additionally, he certainly wasn't wrong about the strategic placement of their meeting. Polaris had considered that himself and came to the conclusion that the royal advisor simply wanted to keep the journey a secret to the public. After all, why wouldn't he? Showing that the king needed help would only distress the kingdom further.

Polaris took the man's hand and gave it a firm shake, "Polaris Yukon, second enforcer of Lady Foll'a and King Horace III. Anything I do is at the request of his majesty," a pause, "Which I hope will be 'right.' I take it that you will be coming along with us?" Truthfully, Polaris had no problem with it as long as the royal advisor didn't. Or if the thirteenth person showed up after all and it wasn't Cassius.

Whatever ultimately happened, only time would tell.

Artemis clicked her tongue. She could still find out later if he was the one. If this is what a Lycan looked like, she supposed those of her backround would mistake one for a werewolf. Artemis was no stranger to the supernatural, but it's still supposed there are more creatures she wouldn't have known about. She sighed at that thought.

"Forgive me for the sudden question," she half grin. "This group is.. Er- varied, I believe?"

She then looked to another stranger who dressed in an unfamiliar fashion. Before she could nickname him, he had introduced himself as Cassius. She paid some attention to his conversation with Polaris. To her, his speech was a bit formal for her to truly translate. As Polaris replied in the same manner, she had a conclusion they were either a knight or a noble. Artemis slightly cringed, remembering her many encounters with them.

"Buzzkill," she heard from "Little one". She hadn't paid any attention to Selene except for when the nicknaming from afar. Artemis observed as she took a step back from the group. Probably one to get bored easily, she thought. Not her business, really, but if she knew something , everything seemed more comfortable.

Smiling to himself, Malakaus was glad that his flirtation seemed to distract Illistrianna from his origins. That was good too, because from here on out any other romantic quip he had would have to be improvised. Maintaining a facade of intelligence and class was harder than it looked. Soon the elf asked Malakaus more about why he was here, which reminded him that he did have some business to attend to. He took out a piece of paper from within his cloak and showed it to Illistriana. "A quest. I found this flyer in a tavern one day and felt that I must answer it's call."

Of course Malakaus omitted other details, such as the fact he found this flyer when he needed something to white his mouth after eating a particularly greasy meal, or that he joined this quest mostly because he was bored and figured that working for the king would be interesting. Indeed, the flying, between the creases and grease, detailed a quest to help the king find a cure for his kingdom. They needed any brave and strong soul to embark on this quest, with promises of great reward and glory. Gren could care less about money (He could usually get a good haul from robbing bandits) but the glory would be good. To get on the king's goodside could open up many opportunities for him.

"I had hoped to enter the city yesterday and gather supplies, since the quest is suppose to begin today. Alas, I may have to forgo a trip into the city and instead head straight towards the meeting place. What about you?"

@Riffus Maximus

"An extreme reaction," Josephine said to the demon lord, cupping her chin in her hand. "Though the correct one, if the stories contain even the slightest truth." She wondered what it could have been. Poisoning of the ground water? Parasitic spores? A miasma released by the plants? Some invasive species that made these plants their home, carrying some unknown pathogen. Or perhaps a simple mutation of a diseases common in plant life?

She would have to inquire about the details later. Maybe head out to the demons former home, try to find a sample, finally put one of the worlds greatest medical mysteries to rest. For now, she watched as others began to file in. She knew that this endeavor was important, but the size and make up was a surprise. Fortunately, someone voiced he thoughts for her.

"Forgive me for the sudden question," she half grin. "This group is.. Er- varied, I believe?"

"And large." She amended with a small smile. "It makes me curious how many of us are expected to return. Someone at court is going to make quite a lot of money when we all do."