Chapter 28: Rumours?

Morning arrives after yet another uneventful night, once all of the gear was once again loaded onto the coach the party set off back towards the city. Making a stop at the void zone on the way to take care of business there before heading back inside the walls to resupply and plan the next course of action they’ll be taking. From their journey to the lake void the party know that this journey should take around three days to complete to get nearby the site of their second target void. As they travelled the party started discussing the characteristics of the land near this void trying to take guesses as to what earth creatures they’d probably encounter in void form when they arrive. Studying the map the void looked to be located just in the middle of a grassy plain, so Arano suggested that it would probably be things like sheep or cows that they find corrupted with the void energy. Aromi quickly disagreed with him saying it was far more likely to be rabbits and a predator bird of some kind that would call that void home, Ami disputed rabbits suggesting rats as a more viable animal as so far, the voids have been populated with animals that have been known to attack humans. Suieol suggested that it could be foxes, with the kitsune legends that could have inspired them to make a void boss based on one of those, that and she can remember creating a fox creature but couldn’t remember what for. Lekly backed Suieol up on at least one fox being something they will have to fight at some point but agreed that this void would probably be a bird like a hawk with something similar to a wolf being there as well. Ilev mentioned that they probably made a spider enemy as they were fairly common for this type of game, this caused Lexa to instinctively summon a water spell and start shaking her head wanting anything but that to be what awaited them when they got there, and quickly changed the topic to the Burasu and that they hadn’t seen it in a while and wondering if it was a boss of one of these voids or if it had something to do with the Dark King at all. As she remembered Eule’s reaction was quite shocked to hear that she had survived an encounter with it, meaning it had either been around a long time or only appeared recently and any attempt to remove it had failed. Ilev added that if they had created a creature based on the Kitsune then it was probable that the Burasu and that Kitsune creature were likely to be Lieutenants or a part of a core court of strong monsters the Dark King has. Overhearing the topic of discussion turn to the Dark King the coachman adds in.

“I hear that the Dark King is some form of demon, who is rather magic resistant but is otherwise quite the frail thing which is why they sent out those strong lieutenants and created the voids across the land to hold off and distract the human adventurers from getting to their castle or at least give them the impression that they were also physically strong.”
“Well Ami, Arano when we have our meeting with the Dark King looks like it’ll be on you both to get him if the rest of us can get you in range.”
“Sure, it’ll probably be the easiest part of this whole quest then. Considering there are seven of us and Lexa is just a cheat code.”
“Thanks?”
“Coachman, do you have any other information like that?”
“I only have more rumours, I would hardly call what I told you or can tell you information.”
“Rumours are better than going in blind, and most of the time there is some truth to rumours but one part of that truth has been exaggerated to an extent.”
“Well if you’re happy to listen then I do have a few other rumours about the Dark King and those ‘lieutenants’ I think you called them, I can tell you about. After moving to Seolford the first thing I heard was that somehow the city of Ehccihster was involved and their crown had something to do with the arrival of the Dark King, but something happened, and the Dark King went rouge according to Ehccihster. The next thing I think I heard was that there were four supremely strong monsters that were now roaming the world and that one of them had taken out three quarters of the best adventuring party we had in the city at the time, mind you that was some time ago and now that party would have been bang average, but back on track that monster was described as an extremely large ogre that had the ability to speak too. Not long after my daughter was taken, there was a rumour that the Dark King was using the voids to take people into their castle and subjugate them and make them sympathetic to his cause and spread lies around what their goals really were. Finally, not too long before you all arrived a rumour spread through the city about the Dark King starting to expand their land claim in the direction of Seolford and wanting to go to war, that one has been shut down after adventurers were sent out to assess its validity, but it was all just a lie.”
“Well that’s interesting, means that we were probably right in thinking that alongside the Ogre there’s also a Kitsune inspired creature and the Burasu leaving one spot open still. If Ehccihster did have some deal with the Dark King that would explain their sudden shift in how they delt with us when we first arrived in this world. The King wanting to expand his claim but not acting on it is an odd rumour to spread about, I wonder if it was because we had taken out the Alpha in the valley. And finally, they use the voids to build sympathy with people seems like a very odd way to go about diplomacy if that’s the goal.”
“Ilev you think it was a good idea to reveal we’re otherworlders to the coachman?”
“I mean if he didn’t already know or was thinking we might be, then at some point I bet Lord Connor would have announced the fact that we are.”
“Fair enough.”

Arano fell back into his seat with a defeated slump, the coachman mentioned that he had guessed that they were not from around these parts by the way they spoke but did not expect them to be otherworlders. The rest of the day was spent with idle chat with the party making some loose plans on how to tackle the void, as they assumed it would just be a section of the plains that was covered with void energy meaning that there wouldn’t be many places to hide but that also meant that they would have a clear view of the enemy at the same time. Night fell once more prompting the party to set up camp and begin the seemingly pointless watch cycles.