@Bone Father@DocRockKAITOAs his two new companions set off to take care of their own tasks, Kai turned his gaze back to his desk, a particularly foul expression on his face. For the next minute or so, he continued to glare at the piece of furniture as if it were the devil himself. However, he eventually sighed and trudged over to take a seat, pulling a pile of blank sheets of paper. He mentally thanked god for the existence of the logistics skill, otherwise the task ahead of him would have been
significantly longer and more mind numbing.
And so he began his arduous task, creating a small poster that he would have posted on the many,
many noticeboards scattered throughout the fortress. On this poster were the time and location of a speech he would be giving in regards to the future of the guild, and while he would save the details for the speech itself, he stressed the importance that every member of the guild attend. Also that it was mandatory to do so, just in case someone decided to be lazy or that they were just 'too cool for school'... And then he started copying it. Thankfully, a feature of the logistics skill allowed him to do this in a kind of autopilot mode, so while he couldn't really do anything else while he wrote, he didn't have to put any thought into it and could focus on other things, and it would only take a fraction of the time.
So with the expansive size of the fortress, it would only take... oh, six hours... maybe seven?
God this was gonna suck.
It was after somewhere around the fifty-seventh poster (nohewasntcounting) that he came up with a devilishly good idea, a roguish grin growing over his face as he chuckled to himself. With a little more effort than he'd expected to need, Kai broke the autoscribing his hands had been locked into, and instead used them to summon six phantasmal soldiers.
"Ok guys, time to get down to business!" He said to the phantoms. "I need you all to start copying down these posters. Once you're done, deliver one to each of the forts noticeboards. This is
extremely important, so I need you to take as much care as physically possible."
As one, the phantom suits of armour saluted and began to write. He was a little nervous about whether they'd actually reach the same level of quality as him, but a quick check showed that they were thankfully capable of copying the poster right down to his handwriting. Even
if they'd work at about a quarter of his own speed.
Still, the point was that he had freed himself of his awful paperwork prison, and was ready to move on to whatever he wanted!
After a moment of trying and failing to come up with something funner to do, Kai sighed, shuffled back to his seat, and began working on his upcoming speech.
ASTRAAs Astra lead Indiana to Edenkyte's mine, she noticed that he seemed to be fidgeting about and making odd noises and grunts for seemingly no reason. Normally, she likely wouldn't have cared, but they corridors they were travelling through were beginning to get more and more populated, and while she supposed he did look somewhat monstrous, draconic humanoids such as him were decidedly rare within the fortress, and the way he was acting was beginning to draw the attention of the other inhabitants.
"If possible, I would suggest you attempt to cease your odd behaviour." She said to the dragonborn, continuing to stare forwards as she spoke. "The soldiers will not attack you while I am accompanying you, but showing excessive agitation around them may arouse their suspicion."
She took another turn, leading Indiana down a large staircase. As they descended, the walls began to appear rougher and rougher, until it was clear that it was now the original, unaltered stone beneath the mountain. All around them were orcs, half-orcs, goblins, drow, and all manner of races generally considered monstrous or evil. There were even a few duergar! And while there had been similarly large numbers of these races in the upper levels of the fortress, the armour of the ones working down here seemed significantly lower in quality, if they even wore armour at all! Many of them merely wore tunics and the like.
Astra continued to lead Indy through a series of rough-hewn corridors, until they eventually reached another, far cleaner looking cavern. This one, unlike much of what they had passed on the lower levels, had clearly had a significant level of work put into it, and looked more like a room one might have seen in the higher levels than the lower ones. And, of course, it was filled with various kinds of forges and workbenches.
"This is the workshop." Astra explained, as if it wasn't completely obvious. "You will likely spend a majority of your time in here. The probability that we lack certain equipment you may need is low, but you may inform Master Danongorf if you require something we do not have."
And then she was off again, but thankfully, it was not a long walk, and they soon reached a great pit in the earth. Extending downwards almost further than the eye could see, the sides of the pit were lined with scaffolding and elevators, as members of all the races the pair had passed before stood on the platforms digging into the sides. As they approached, Astra stepped on to one of the elevators, waited for Indy to make it on with her, and then pulled a lever to send the elevator slowly down into the depths of the earth.
"This is the mine. As of recently, Edenkyte's miners have documented an unusually high variety of ores for a single location, many of which have magical properties. Judging from the surrounding environment, I have determined there is a ninety three percent chance that the presence of these magical ores are linked to the underground forest Sir Leidos and Lady Shinon have been sent to. You may ask me any questions you may have during our descent."
LEIDOS"A pleasure to meet you, Lady Shinon." Leidos said, giving the huntress a shallow bow. "If you would, please follow me. The forest isn't far from here."
Much like Astra, Leidos turned to lead Shinon through the many halls and corridors of the fortress. However, where as she and Indiana had descended into the bowels of the citadel, Leidos seemed to lead the archer higher and higher. Outside the windows, one could see that they were now quite a bit higher above ground level than they had been just ten minutes ago.
And yet the snow-capped peaks of the mountain still loomed over them. In fact, it seemed like it was looming
even more now, as it became clear that the hall they were walking down was leading towards the mountain itself. After only a few minutes, they reached what appeared to be a small gatehouse. A pair of orcs stood guard at the gate, hands gripped tightly around their halberds as they stared wearily at Shinon. However, a nod from Leidos prompted them to action, and they opened the gate to reveal stark white snow.
Leidos gestured to Shinon to continue following him, and he led her down a cave that was only a short distance from the gate. They continued down this way for a little while longer, the only light coming from a number of glowing crystals planted into the tunnels walls, before they eventually reached another gatehouse. Unlike the other though, this one was
far more intimidating, and clearly more effort had gone into making this a defendable location than with the previous. Even the guards, of which there were many more, looked more intimidating, and one especially large orc approached the pair and bowed.
"Captain Leidos, have you come to continue your scouting mission in the forest?"
"I have." Leidos replied, before gesturing towards Shinon. "This is Lady Shinon, a guest of Lord Danongorf. She has offered her skills as a huntress to our scouting efforts, so treat her as you would an officer, understood?"
"Yes Captain." The guard said simply, before motioning to another guard on a platform above them.
As the other guard responded, the gate fell to reveal it was actually a massive, stone drawbridge. And behind it...
Well, behind it was a cavern filled with giant bio luminescent mushrooms, that could only be described as 'scarily
enormous'. When Kai had first seen it back when all this had just been a game, he had remarked to the other guild members that it could
easily be its own region, and maybe it was even intended to be! It was like it spread all the way beneath the entire mountain range, possibly even further, and it seemed to have a number of different levels, extending deep into the earth.
"So, welcome to the Forest, Lady Shinnon." Leidos said, not quite able to keep the child-like wonder out of his voice as he stared out across the enormous cavern. "I'll be honest, I'm usually not the best at scouting, but the few scouting parties that have returned from deeper in have brought back reports that lead me to believe it is a task for officers, or at the very least those on the level of an officer. Our job for the moment is to try to establish a base of operations deeper into the forest. If we can achieve this, our soldiers can then get to work on occupying the area, and hopefully make it safe enough for civilian settlement later down the line."
