The Arcane Archer

This underdark seems to have just been named after it because the creator of whoever named this place did minimal research and thought "Hey, that would be a great name for this place!"

Ava walked around the open area and swerved through the crowd of people that littered the area. Occasionally a fight would start between two people without any prior warning.

For example, this one guy was sitting and reading a book. He seemed to be enjoying his book and was about to go drink some tea when all of a sudden, a guy in the crowd ran up to him and stabbed him in the gut. The attacker said something in a language I didn"t know before running away.

The person sitting in the chair fell off the chair and clutched his stab wound while everyone else just kept on walking.

"Tell the b.a.s.t.a.r.d that got me" He started saying to no one. "Tell him he didn"t kill me, a plant did!"

I felt a little bad for him, so I quickly used to inspect and found out his name and a small description about him. His name was Francis g.a.y.l.o.r.d the first and he was involved with some sort of unicorn dust scheme? I had no clue what that was, but I didn"t feel as bad for him because of how literally stupid it was.

After a few more murders and a lot more yelling from people I encountered, Ava put her hand up to indicate to stop. Looking ahead I saw a building with a sign above it saying, "Jenny"s Illegal Info!". I understood that this place is all about illegal deals and what not, but did it have to be that blatantly obvious?

Walking inside, I saw a what appeared to be a regular restaurant. Obviously, I knew that it wasn"t one but hey, there were waiters and people sitting down just like one. Soon a waitress came up to us and asked how many people there was with us today and Ava just indicated with her fingers that it was just the two of us.

The waitress moved us over to a booth to sit down and gave us some free bread sticks which I eagerly dug into. A few minutes later, our waitress came back and got a small notebook out to take out order.

"Welcome to Jenny"s Illegal Info, I"m Carly and what information would you like to illegally have?"

"Hey Carly, I would like information for the king"s guards, the Pope"s current whereabouts, and where the resistance in this town is located."

Carly wrote this down and double checked a few things with Ava first. After confirming that she got everything on the order correct, she gave us the check and left to take some other people"s orders. Ava looked at the checked and flinched slightly upon looking at it.

Reaching into her bag, she moved some money around into a smaller bag and placed it onto the table. A few minutes later Carly came back and checked the bag. Seeing that we had the correct amount, she took it to the employees only area and then returned a minute later with more breadsticks.

Some light banter with Ava later and trying to figure out how much money she just spend, Carly eventually came back to us with a thin book in hand. Placing it on the table in front of Ava and talked to her about the details and limits of what was inside the book. Using the opportunity while they were distracted, I used mage hand to stealthily bring the book over to my side and read it.

The first few pages described the king"s guard and that most of them were Paladins of Aetius who were of complete faith and dedicated to protecting the king because of something we had. But because we didn"t order that information, it didn"t list exactly what he had and why they were protecting him.

After that it listed the Pope"s current whereabouts on a singular page which just said that he was in Smeltersburg. No clue where that was but I can guess the importance of that location.

Finally, the last few pages had a map drawn on it with a few marks here and there listing the locations of the resistance. The resistance was split up between three separate groups that were each made for specific reasons.

Group 1 was made to gather information amongst the population and then feed that information to group 2. Group 2 was dedicated to sorting through that information and finding out what was useful and what wasn"t. Once they had solid information and knew that it could be used, they handed it off to group 3 who used that information to formulate a plan of attack and then proceed with that attack.

By the time I finished reading everything, Ava was just staring at me with a bored look on her face. I handed over the book and nibbled on a few more bread sticks as she read the book herself. Once she finished, she put the book in her bag and stood up.

Leaving the establishment, Carly waved us goodbye and asked us to visit again.

Using the book from earlier as a guide, Ava expertly guided us through the tunnels until eventually we got to a dead end, but I could already guess that this wasn"t one. Doing a quick couple of knocks on the wall while using the book as a guide once again, nothing happened for a couple of seconds before the ground beneath us opened up.

We fell a couple of seconds until we were just a couple of feet away from the ground and our falling speed suddenly slowed down. Thankfully our momentum didn"t seem to just continue as we would just be stuck to the ground like flys on a windshield.

As we slowly fell, a guy wearing robes walked over to where we were falling before looking up and shouting, "What do you need from the Resistance?"

"We"re here from Chance by chance!" Ava responded.

"I thought there would be more of you." He simply responded before a few more people came out of the shadows.

Once we landed on the ground, he walked over to me and put his hand out.

"You must be Leo." He started. "I"ve heard about you and how you would be able to help with our situation."

"And what help do you need exactly? Minding the Resistance itself." I asked while grabbing and shaking his hand.

"A few things. You familiar should be able to help gather more information and with you being able to cast a mult.i.tude of spells without needing components or somatics, you should do well in dealing with a few missions."

"Ah, I see. And when will this first mission be?"

"In about a day or so. During the time leading up to that, we will brief you on everything you need to know." He said before turning around and leaving.

As he did, I mentally questioned how I did that as for the last couple of weeks/months, I haven"t really been given an opportunity to respond and talk back. Most of the time I would just be forced into doing something or not even given a chance to think. Plus, I talked like I knew what I was saying.

I made bulls.h.i.t up on the spot and went with it. Somehow that worked and I am definitely not going to question it too much.

Some of the other people then started introducing themselves and saying how I was such a huge motivation for them and fighting against Aetius. I tiled my head in confusion before he started explaining how almost everyone knew the story of how I p.i.s.sed of Aetius just because I helped another race besides humans and because of that it inspired people to start fighting back.

Though it should be worth noting that it wasn"t humans that I inspired. Instead, it was all the half-humans.

Everyone here was a half-human. The guy I spoke and shook hands with earlier? Half-Orc (I think. He had some tusks and can"t think of any other race but orc with tusks.)

Everyone here was either shamed and treated cruelly because of their heritage and decided to make this resistance because of it. I thought it was stupid how they did this because I randomly found the elves and helped them create a barrier while not knowing about any of this. Still, I said I was glad to help and smiled like a politician cause I didn"t want to be rude.

Curse my want to be nice cause I"m not some edgy edge lord who wants to be evil just because I can.

Eventually we were shown to our separate rooms and I thanked them once again. One of them asked for an autograph with on a wanted picture of me which I signed very awkwardly. Upon me giving it back to them, they squealed like a fan girl and ran off.

I dreaded what might happen the next couple of hours if this was anything to go by.