Hero Scout

"It appears to be forged from locally sourced clay, designed to house material and would shatter easily upon impact with a hammer," Almanac drawled, barely having flittered his eyes up despite Jack"s sudden intrusion. Peering around, Jack felt uneasy in the wizard"s lair. Golden mist puffed from the carpet, arcane machinery whirred on a table and the paintings would shift to different postures when Jack looked away.

Then again, Jack had spent years in the criminal magic division. Perhaps all those years hunting rogue mages had made him jumpy.

"Take a seat, Captain," Almanac whispered as he pulled out a gleaming monocle to decipher the scrawl of a particularly chaotically written book. With a wag of his finger, air pushed a chair in from another room to be positioned at Jack"s backside.

"You are ordered to tell me what this material is. Anything that would aid our quest to contain an incredible dangerous demon. These are orders from the One himself!"

"And my response is backed up by the Adventurer League. We are guaranteed protection by King Thunberad from both the church and the n.o.bility as long as we abstain from internal affairs. So, Captain, that is what I choose to do in this matter. Abstain."

Jack started to grind his teeth. How could such a wizard who lived in such luxury while his Guildhall crumbled possibly understand honour and duty? Jack had half a mind to bend him over and slap his rear end until the pretty boy saw sense. Instead, Jack swallowed his pride and pulled out a gold coin.

"A quest then. Identify everthing you can about the material contained within the clay vat and this coin is yours." Jack flicked the coin into the air, Almanac"s wind whizzing it around and into his waiting palm.

"Accepted," Almanac said with a sudden bright smile as he lifted his piercing blue eyes that stared at Jack with an intencity that unnerved him. "Won"t take but a moment, please feel free to visit the bar and get a refreshment while you wait-"

"Unneccessary, my forces are waiting before we enter the forest in search. This is the last matter to attend to before then."

At mention that the Warden Company was preparing to leave, Almanac"s grin only widened.

"Of course, but you"ll have to pay the other fee first."

"Other fee?"

"Fees to be precise. I have the list here, the items your men desroyed in their raid and a c.u.maltive list of mental suffering that came at the cause of your warriors. Pay this price in full, and we can begin."

s.n.a.t.c.hing the sheet filled with neat writing, Jack grumbled to himself as he scanned the cost of the venture. The price demanded was outrageous, and would be a heavy blow to their lavish funds provided by the church.

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Still...a part of Jack"s heart filled with relief. As long as this Wizard didn"t keep it all for himself to buy more fancy gizmo"s, Jack would be sated. He too hoped that some of this coin would go towards helping the common people of Tariak, or at least in better arming the adventurers that defended them.

"I"ll pay, but I"m announcing this to your Guild, understand? Try and withold payment to them, or on spending it in helping the townsfolk, and you"ll be thrown out on your pampered a.r.s.e."

"Agreed," Grinning, Almanac accepted a rather hefty bag of gold, before he opened the vat lid with great interest. Scowling, Jack realised he had been played for a fool and that the wizard must have been hiding his fascination all along.

Dabbing in two fingers, Almanac withdrew them now coated grey and lightly sniffed.

"No scent," his grin widened further as he licked the substance. "No poison, no taste of....anything. It"s like this is nothing - and luckily for you, I"ve experienced something similar to this "nothing" before."

Stoically withholding his look of disgust, Jack leaned in closer.

"What you have here," Almanac said, pulling out a blob and setting it on a crystal. "Is a material that can take different forms."

The crystal activated, flaring a bright electric blue and the blob began to warp and dance on its surface. As Jack watched, the blob turned into a patch of skin, a knot of hair and a wad of scales in quick succession.

"This could be from a variant of a werewolf, mimic, doppelganger or demon. It"s hard to say really, other than this substance could only have such a quality if it was originally sourced from some kind of shapeshifting species."

"Then that"s all I need to know - crusaders, has there been any word of Dana yet?" Jack addressed his guards, both of whom answering with shaking heads.

"We have not found her, Warden."

"d.a.m.n it," Jack knew what that meant. Whoever this shapeshifter was, the dark look in Dana"s eyes before had been no anomaly. It had been the eyes of his enemy, something so cold and unfeeling it could be made of this strange substance.

The ultimate enemy of humanity - it could be any of his followers and Jack would never know. He stared at his left guard, her blonde hair billowing down armoured shoulders, then at his right, the man"s chestnut beard adorned with beads inscribed with the symbol of the Three. Could this shapeshifter be one of them?

"I need to know how to identify the creature," Jack whispered, at least certain the wizard must be himself. No shapeshifter could replicate this magic, nor could a shapeshifter infiltrate a guild such as this in the short time between leaving Jack"s presence.

"I can do that for you. Provide the secret to fending off such creatures - the same all shapeshifters fear. But it"ll cost you."

"Whatever the cost, make it mine." Jack would not half-a.r.s.e this, it was not how he was raised. He needed to know who he could trust, and who he could not.

"That"s what I like to hear," Almanac smirked as he unlocked one of his drawers. Within he pulled free a silver dagger, several strange inscriptions scrawled into the metal. Whatever it was, this dagger was at least ancient. Those same symbols the variety found in the deepest parts of the Cathedral, from whatever shrine the Three had used as a foundation to their much larger house of worship.

"Elvish Spirit Silver. It is said to be the "most real" material one can buy. When this comes into contact with anything not as it should..." Almanac tapped the shifting blob on his crystal, the substance returning to its grey goo baseline at once.

"You are certain this will work?" Jack grasped the knife and admired the keen edge.

"No. What you have brought to me is too alien for me to be certain, but the fundamental forces involved here should at least create a reaction. While you might not force the creature to it"s original form, there should be some sign. Here is my fee."

Almanac pushed a number scrolled on paper across the table.

Jack wilted at the price, yet seeing the grey goo remaining reverted, nodded.

After paying, Jack"s funds were limited. But that was no matter, the church would be sending more eventually. Until then, he just had to focus on when Ozzy returned from his scouting mission.

Only then could the hunt continue.