Main Quest

“First objective- find out where Wolf ran off to and what it is he’s doing.”

With the five members of the Verdant Inferno walking down the marketplace with the dragons overhead in the afternoon sky and their new Royal golden (painted) armor shining brightly under the sun.

“Now this feels like a real quest, am I right?” Serah tried to forget all about her kidnapping after their short lunch break. “A real villain, real stakes… oh, isn’t it all just so refreshing?”

“Y-yeah.” Percy really did want to share in the compartmentalized sentiment, but he just wasn’t able to with all he’d seen. He’d never forget those dungeons. “Frankie, why- why are you so set on stopping the Traumkäufer? I… understand your park’s at risk, but why not leave it to Lord D? You weren’t born here in this strange place…”

“Scared, Sir Percival?” Serah teased, bumping up against him. “Need to hold my hand?”

“I made an oath to stop this man. Just a week ago, in fact.” Frankie marched onward, currently telling herself over and over again that the gun Wolf had pointed to her knee was just a fake. Or that he wasn’t really going to shoot. Or that it was loaded with rubber like the ones in Venge. Anything to keep her knees from buckling over in fear. “By the looks of it, he’s hurt so many people that you’re bound to run into one of them sometime or another.” Anything to keep her from wanting to run home scared again. That wasn’t an option anymore.

“You’d be right there.” Greg nodded. “My grandfather had a run-in with him, once. Turned his home into a casino city, minda like the one they’ve got in Kidneyland, but… a lot more predatory. He lost his job… but that’s when we moved here, and my parents got together. So, not all bad.”

Suddenly Serah gasped.

“Rocco!”

She ran up to hug the gentle giant. He had new armor and a shiny ax.

“Looks like someone was having a better time than we were. Where did you get these?” She compared the decent new daggers she’d been granted by the King to his wonderful custom-made weapon that made all their replacement gear blush. “The Royal Armory’s holding out on us…”

“I have been… saving up.” He spoke in his usual strong yet almost bashful tone, preferring to remain quiet. “Though I’ve been able to purchase less action figures lately thanks to that investment.”

“Huh?” Percy chuckled at his collector friend. “What about the crazy Namos the Wicked figure you got this week?”

“Oh.” He sheathed his sharp new toy so that Serah wouldn’t cut herself hugging him. “That was a present from my mother.”

“I guess Serah filled you in, but…” Katie spoke to the barbarian boy. “We’re looking for signs of Wolf’s activity here in Everfair. Seen anything?”

“Hmm…” The party tank racked his mind. “Serah, you mentioned men in suits?”

“Yeah, exactly!” She nodded.

“We were just talking about him, but… I swore I saw a few of them walk into Namos’ tent.”

“Namos?” Katie asked. “Your action figure’s a real guy?”

“Yes, a very popular Raven Mage in the marketplace who people go to meet every day. That… is to say, an actor hired by Lord D to drive guest profit.”

A lightbulb popped up above Frankie’s head- that was one of the people she was supposed to try and get to break character, as ordained by her list of royally-appointed chores. She felt like Lord D ought to owe her after all this, but figured it was pointless to waste the opportunity.

“What are we waiting for, then?” She grinned. “I wanna meet this guy!”