Open - That Ruin Bounty

Most of the people, the citizens would go on their merry way doing their raily routine but that clearly wasn't the case when the citizens could sense the tension and horror in the air as the guards laid dead in the streets after the serial killer escaped the town somehow and fled into the forests of brisshal. Parchments of posters littered the street and on every corner displaying a portrait of the masked serial killer that was wanted, on the poste itself, there was only one line. "Anyone who claims this bounty, must bring the killer back alive, If they do they will be rewarded." The statement was brief and got right to the point with its one line of text. Since than the town was put under secruit by the guard, securing the perimetor walls, they were determined to keep that bastard out.​

In the town, there was a wooden door sealed away with a red X painted on th door, it was sealed off as the Serial killer most likely used this way to escape the town that was under heavy guard. Unfortunetly it led to an abandoned keep in the forest nearby. Despite it being sealed, the door was guarded by two guards who choose to stand there just incase anyone had any "bright" idea's about opening it or If the serial killer by chance would try and open it. The front was vastly secured making it rather difficult to open from the other side however somehow skilled enough could perhaps blow it away or undo the seal that was performed on the door. Despite the killing only occuring only yesterday when the serial killer killed a young girl and her family as well as the guards that tried to arrest him, the guard captain was quite good at his job, keeping the event down so there wouldn't be mass panic to an extent. It worked so well that a portion of the villagers were curious about the old door being sealed away.​

Normally under most circumstances, Seto wouldn't care about such things but it became aparrent to him that this person needed to be killed when news reached him a person had broken out of a Astorea prison, killed a dozen people in Astorea before fleeing in Brisshal. He knew he couldn't leave this threat unchecked since he knew it could cause more damage in the long run and he might win the hearts of many people in both lands. He departed at once and traveled over the border of Astorea and into Brisshal within two days, wanting to elminate this threat quickly. With the sun rising and a nice, soft breeze washing over him and the forest line near him, Seto found himself in the town near the border, he was at first stopped by the perimeter guards for being a intruder as well as the town being off limits to regular folks but they came to their senses well enough when the guard captain found out Seto was in his town, he told his men that Seto was no ordinary man, no he was Ebony Duke of Southern Astorea which demanded respect, even in foreign lands.

After the guard captain told him the situation, he also told his men that anyone skilled enough like the Ebony Duke here was allowed to enter the town since they could prove useful with their skills or information they could bring. Seto himself wasn't quite sure how to handle the situation at hand, there was two ways into the keep, through the forest doing a frontal assault or by using the underground tunnels that led into the keep, decisions decisions. On one hand he thought it would be more useful and smart to wait for any players to come yet at the same time, any time wasted waiting could give the serial killer more time to escape further into brisshal.​

 

There is always a good reason for a job to be completed. Even more so, when the lives of NPC's and even Players were at stake. Hearing information of a convicted criminal escaping prison, and making a rather dreadful body count follow him in his wake. Yes, the game was creating the code for this, and sure enough, each reaction to a players actions cause the world of Terra to change just a little bit in direction. Which direction that was, only the gods knew.

Each NPC of the town were on high alert. The local officials only opening their doors to people who could potentially end this threat, or otherwise keep known civilians safe. The problem for Zayne, was that he was still quite the distance away from the town. Yet, his "borrowed" horse didn't take too kindly to how hard Zayne had pushed him.

It had been three rough days of riding. Zayne was no where near the best at it. Not the worst, but fairly low. So he didn't understand what this horse wanted, needed, or desired. Instead of riding the bugger the last little bit. Zayne was holding onto the reins and almost pulling the horse the rest of the way. Spitting vile insults at the horse. Yelling at it, cursing it for denying him the chance to get to the town faster.

Zayne was a very dedicated young man. One who pushed himself and others to their breaking points. Not because he wanted to break people, but because Zayne had fairly high standards. Justice was to be kept in the land. Order was a tool used to fight Chaos, and his skills would be that order. Be it defusing a situation, which didn't seem like the best choice at the moment, or by the tip of a sword.

Or in Zayne's case, a spear. A trash spear, one that was very simple in design, but still functioned and got the job done. It was the average spear that any polearm guard, or user would have. Nothing fancy, nothing extra powerful like the Artifact level gear that some people seemed to be getting. More over, the heavy armor he wore was battered and could be useful, but would be shredded by any powerful foe.

His boots sank into the drying mud from the dew. While it seemed others had arrived earlier, Zayne was almost an entire day late. Walking up to the main gates, they questioned his presence, but when presenting forth the message that the local officials had opened the door to those who sought to bring a guilty and vile man back into chains, They lessened their grip upon Zayne and his stupid horse. Walking in through the town, his filthy gear was well traveled, and well worn. However, he still showed up to the Guard Captain.

"Are you still on high alert for the escaped prisoner? I don't see a whole heck of a lot of players around here."

Taking this moment, he popped open his menu, and was attempting to look for any players in the area. He couldn't believe his mind when he only found what seemed to be only one near by player. Closing the menu, Zayne's eyes changing from the glowing yellow back to their natural green, He shook his head.

"I guess not a lot of people showed up. Mind if I take a gander at finding this man?"

@Seto Kurama

 

"Ah! A town! Finally!"

After a long day of exploring, Majolica had come upon a town. As she got closer, she noticed it seemed to be on high alert.

"Hehehe... it looks like the entire town is on the lookout. Probably because the heard that the evil Grand Witch Majolica was in the area! Hehehe, looks like I'll just have to infiltrate the town to show them that their paltry patrols don't stand a chance against the magic of the Grand Witch!"

And so it was that Grand Witch Majolica was about to get herself into a situation she didn't fully understand. Why break into a town that was looking for you? That doesn't make sense to you reading this, does it? Of course it doesn't. Why would it? But you know who it does make sense to? Majolica. Why? Because she likes to show off that she can do things, and also, somewhere in the back of her mind she probably thought it would be fun.

Creeping on the edge of the surrounding woods, Majolica surveyed the town's guard patrol on top of a portion of the town wall. They look organized and very serious about finding someone, though Majolica was sure that they just had to be looking for her own witchy self. Looking for a gap in the guard, Majolica noticed an area where security was a bit laxer.

"Hehehe... perfect..."


********

THEME

As a distraction, Majolica shot off two shadow bats, they flew around the guards and burst causing a flash of light and a bursting sound. Taken aback, the guards rushed towards the sound.

"Olympics, here I come!"

Majolica held her staff out like a pole vault and started sprinting towards the town wall. Reaching an optimal distance, Majolica jammed her staff into the ground. As the staff bent, the Grand Witch began having second thoughts about her entire plan.

"Maybe... Maybe this wasn't... Ah--"

The next thing Majolica knew she in the air, rocketing over the wall. She was so scared she couldn't even scream. Her life might have flashed before her eyes, and she kind of felt like she wanted to puke. Then, gravity took hold and the ground started rushing up to greet her. All she could do was tuck into a fetal position and hope for the best. Squeezing her eyes shut, she felt herself hit what felt like grass, then the rolling started. She felt her body roll for what felt like minutes before she finally finished her last tumble. Opening her eyes she saw a clear blue sky above her.

After a few moments, Majolica got to her feet and looked behind her. Apparently, she had hit a cart full of hay which had broken her fall. She had then rolled for a few feet before coming to a stop. Basically, she had messily succeeded in infiltrating the town.

"I... I did it. Heheh! Yes! Oh--"

Majolica quieted herself. She wasn't supposed to get caught after all. In her best attempt to be sneaky and not look suspicious, Majolica began skulking around town.

@Seto Kurama @Zayne

 

Guard Captain Hallows

The armored man that stood before @Zayne at the main gate, guarding against any threats to the town as it's Guard Captain was surprised to find another person presumably wishing entry into the town. Initially, Captain Hallows held suspicion when the young man approaching him, ready to unsheath his sword until the young man before him asked if the escaped prisoner was still on the loose and If he could help. The Guard Captain sighed in response as he laid his right hand on his forehead before nodding slightly.

"Kid..didn't you get the mo? There's a high-level serial killer running among in these parts, you should know better than to be wandering around kid. The town off limit since a number of my men were killed by that serial killer, we don't know where's he's at. Listen kid, move on from here and travel to a nearby city, don't get yourself killed here playing the Hero. The Duke of Ivalice is only accepting those are skilled and are prepared for battle, your wearing rags and a common spear, you won't last five minutes."

With a gesture of his hand, he waved the man off before he crossed his arms.

meanwhile, on the other side of town, the countless patrols continued within the town, hell-bent on finding this serial killer that took the lives of their comrades, they weren't showing any exhaustion or fatigue despite being on the job for so long, it didn't seem they were going to let up anytime soon either. Obviously, due to current events, the people living in the town were still in their houses or businesses as they were told when the town guard's search began and many choose to abide by it, only a few wondered or traveled to another location in the town than getting bantered at by any patrols coming across them. When the so-called @Grand Witch Majolica threw herself over the walls into the town, none of the lookouts managed to see her somehow however after Majolica pulled herself out of a cart of hey, she couldn't help herself but speak out loud, telling herself she made it until she realized she had to complete her mission quietly. Her sudden outburst caught the attention of a nearby patrol from the street over, clearly, when they arrived, Majolica or the person they thought they heard was no longer here. The Sergeant couldn't help himself but think that someone who didn't want to be caught was now in the town. He wouldn't make a fuss about it but he couldn't ignore it either so he decided he would send one of his men to deliver a message to the Duke of his potential find.

Seto

It had already been some time since Seto had decided to take his leave from the streets of the town after taking command of finding this serial killer and either eliminating him or dragging his behind back on a silver platter, he really wasn't a fan of those who killed the innocent for no reason. As per usual since he was forbidden by his Lioness to drink alcohol when she was away, Seto made himself comfortable at the town's tea shop, taking a tea room for himself after a few guards gave him detailed reports of the situation and maps of the area. He needed to figure what would be the best course of action to take after he took in the martial prowers of the town and to see If any skilled players would join in on the hunt, unfortunately all his retainers were not around so he wouldn't be able to count of them for this. Seto sighed at the thought before picking up his clay teacup and taking a sip out of it than he brought his attention to the maps laid before him on the table.

"Sigh........What a drag this is, I won't be able to count on the town guard for this probably, at this rate I'm going to have to storm the keep myself. Granted that will be easy of course for someone of my ability but it would have been to have forces to attack both sides so at least one side would be a distraction or a decoy at the last. The serial killer himself must be decently skilled If he managed to kill guardsmen but Is it a player or a person who has lived in this world solely?

 

"Hehehe..."

Majolica had crawled into an empty barrel to hide from the patrols. Through a small peephole in the barrel, she watched with a smirk as several patrols flew past the barrel while searching for her. After it was quiet for a moment, she tried to get out... and couldn't. The lid was stuck.

"Uh, oh."

Trying to be as quiet as possible, Majolica again attempted to remove the lid. She didn't know why or how it had all of a sudden had gotten stuck, but it would be extremely embarrassing if someone were to find her in this situation. When it became clear that simply pushing upwards wasn't going to work, she decided to do something a bit more drastic. Looking through the hole and listening intently, Majolica waited until she thought it was clear. Then, in a rocking motion, she tipped over the barrel. With a loud thud, the lid slid off. The noise had been louder than she expected. Guards began shouting as they approached her position.

Crap!

Majolica scrambled to her feet, but it was too late. The Grand Witch was boxed in between two sets of guards. As they pointed their various weapons at her and shouted commands, Majolica realized that she would need a plan.

Oooh... there's a lot of them! What should I do...

It didn't take Majolica long to realize there was only one way out of this. If Plan A was to simply not get caught, then Plan B would just have to be to catch everyone that was trying to catch her. Basically, it was going to come down to a fight.

"Hehehe! You fools dare brandish weapons against me! Grand Witch Majolica! Well... hehehe... now see the error of your ways!"

Majolica held out her staff towards the guards.

"SHADOWY BATS DESTROY THEIR STATS!"

Shadow Bats

​

As the guards charged her, Majolica conjured a stead stream of shadowy bats from the tip of her staff. Through the flurry of bats and purple flashes, one guard saw an opening. Rushing at Majolica from behind, his blade almost pierced her back before a bat blind-sided him bursting near his helmet. As he was in the process of being knocked to the ground, several more bats fallowed suit. As the guards watched in horror, the man seemed to breath his last breath... except he didn't. As he lied on the ground shadowy smoke sparkling with bits of purple glitter washed over him. As they smoke cleared, a frog with a mustache hopped out of the armor and croaked. Confused, many of the soldiers could only look down and stare at the surreal looking frog, which was a mistake. As they looked to see the frog hopping, they themselves were bombarded by bats and again, right as they were poised to greet death, they too were transmogrified into critters. Some of the guards morphed into small snakes, others snails, some kittens, and like the first, some frogs.

"Hehehehe! Now you're mine, my pretties!"

Almost immediately, many of the critters started slithering, hopping, and crawling off in different directions away from Majolica.

"Ah... no! Wait!"

Majolica reached into her bag and pulled out a large folded up sack. She unfolded the sack and scrambled to capture each of the critters. After a great deal of effort, some snake bits, and a couple of cat scratches, Majolica hoisted the sack of various animals over her shoulder. As the animals in the sack writhed and scrambled, Majolica lightly slapped the side of the sack.

"Hey! I know you can understand me so quiet up! And watch the snails! The more you scramble around the more likely it is that your hurt one of your friends!"

The bag quieted down with a few kitten mewls.

"That's better! Now, where can I get a drink around here. Oh!"

Majolica spotted a tea shop out of the corner of her eye. It looked like a clean and comfortable place for her to relax after all the work she had gone through bewitching the guards then gathering them up in her sack.

"There we go!"

Feeling like she deserved a nice little rest, The Grand Witch happily skipped towards the tea shop. Reaching the shop, Majolica pushed the door open with her foot. Setting down her sack she stretched her shoulder.

"Man, this is heavier than I thought it would be."

Paying no attention to anyone else in the shop, Majolica walked to the nearest empty table, picked out a chair. carried it back to the door, and secured it under the handle.

"There, now I can have my drink in peace without anyone barging in. Woo... long day, hehehe."

Majolica then walked behind the counter to the kitchen where she found various teas, and pots. The tea shop workers looked both confused and scared as she merrily walked in. Not much caring for what was in each of the pots, Majolica grabbed the closest tea pot and poured some tea into her mouth directly from the spout. She was thirsty after all.

"Ahh! That's the stuff!"

Majolica looked up at the shop's employees.

"You guys can just put it on my tab."

Majolica left the kitchen and drug her sack of critters across the floor until she found a room with closed doors. Shoving the door opened, Majolica noticed a dark haired, grave-faced looking man with a variety of maps on the table in front of him. Paying him no heed, Majolica roughly closed the door behind her and took the seat across from him while plunking down her bag next to her.

"There we go!"

Majolica looked up @Seto Kurama .

"Move your maps over. The whole table isn't yours. You have to share."

Majolica kept her eyes on him as she tipped the teapot spout into her mouth and drank again. As she did, a couple of frogs, a kitten, and a snake escaped her sack.

@Zayne

 

Guard Captain Hallows

The armored man that stood before @Zayne Captain Hallows was still standing at his post at the main gate when he turned his head back towards the town from as the sound of running reached his news. He was puzzled when a guardsmen fell to his knee's due to fatigue, by the number of tears of sweat running down his face, Hallows must have figured this guardsman must have been sprinting quite the distance to be this fatigued. Unfortunately, the next thing that came from the guardsmen forced Hallow's face to intensify almost to the point of anger when he was told there could have been a possible intruder in the town.

"What? Are you serious?....sigh...nevermind, return to your unit soldier, I will inform his grace himself, he must know what is happening.....He is not going to like this one bit..."

Captain Hallows took off like a rocket, wasting no time as he walked quickly down the street for the tea shop the Duke was located in while the guardsmen hurried back to his unit whom was still on patrol.

Seto Kurama, Duke of Ivalice

Seto couldn't lie to himself, the idea of charging head first into battle was a tempting one as he sat in his room quietely, remembering the old days when he was free of responsibility and was a simple monster slayer, the days where he could go on adventures and quests or freedom all the time.....unforunately such days for Seto were long over since now he was responsible for Ivalice and her people, he had no time to act like a child like many of the players did on Terrasphere, something that easily irritated him greatly. Seto removed such thoughts from his mind since such thinking got him nowhere in the present, he could only think about the future. Seto sighed as he turned his attention to the window, his eyes caught the eye of the so called @Grand Witch Majolica , he couldn't make much out besides a red or pink hair woman in a ebony white like attaire sneaking about. Seto sighed again, closing his eyes, he figured that girl was the reason the patrols had became more frequent in the last several minutes due to the sounds of marching becoming more frequent as well but he did wonder how in the bloody hell she got in the first place? All the enteries into the town were sealed off at the moment, forbidding access unless one was skilled enough for the job but how that girl was sneaking around, he doubted she was very skilled at all. He took his mind off the girl, returning to his work at hand. He picked up the quill from it's resting place in it's ink horn and began drawing up a routes of entries into the keep as well writing a few mental notes from his mind on an empty parchment of paper when he heard the enterance of tea shop slammed opened.

Seto rolled his eyes at the noise, she hoped she would leave as soon as she came since he was in the middle of something rather important after all, you know making a plan to capture a serial killer whom been killing the innocent, he had no time to play with children. What came next was not something he was expecting, just as he was about to take a sip of his green tea from his tea cup, the door to his room was slammed opened revealing that girl he had seen outside from the window several minutes ago. She closed the door than took a seat across from him at his tea table, telling him to move his maps over since she stated he didn't own the entire thing. Seto couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the girl, he laid his tea cup on the tea table before he rested his head using the palm of his right hand like an arm rest. Seto simply sighed as he flashed his eyes at the woman before.

"Sigh.....go figure....Do you have any matters or common sense? You do realize you just barged into a private room that I paid for and on that matter, is being used by a noble. eliminating a serial killer is a matter far more important than whatever THIS is. I'm going to have to ask you to leave, I'm sure someone else can entertain you."

Before he could say anything, he took notice of this weird woman drinking burning hot tea from the kettle into her mouth, a few frogs, a kitten and a snake escaping from her sack. It wasn't good now with all these animals dirting his documents and maps all over the table and tipping his ink horn over, spilling his ink all over the table. Seto couldn't help but face palm himself with his hand from the situation, he should have seen this coming the moment he saw her and now it was bitting him in the ass, this was really his luck..........he was getting irritated now but he couldn't get angry from this alone since it was his luck after all. He swore the game had it out for him, throwing noobies at him to drive him nuts. The thought of teleporting himself from this location was tempting until the heard the hurried footsteps getting louder and louder.

"Now what is it?"

Guard Captain Hallows

The Captain barged his way through the doorway to the Tea shop and hastily making his way to Seto's room and threw opened the door

"Your grace, there may be an intru.........uh"

Captain Hallow's words fumbled when he took note of the girl sitting across from the Duke, he had no idea how she got in his town but he was sure she gonna answer for it! Or at least he thought that until the Duke spoke.

"Sigh.....Yes, It's quite easy to see this girl is the intruder, Captain Hallows, I will deal with her since she is no threat to me...........It seems it's my luck that these type of people are drawn to me for one reason or another.

Captain Hallows with a serious expressen on his face, soluted before he turned his attention to the girl.

"You there girl, you better behave before his Grace and pick up this mess. If you do anything to wound this town, I will kill you If his Grace doesn't first."

The Captain than bowed to show respect to Seto before leaving the room and closing the door.

 

"Ahhh, I see, I see. So, this is the room you paid for and are enjoying... hmmm... wait one second."

Majolica opened her bag, pulled out some things; a pinecone she thought was pretty, some neat rocks.

"No... not in here. Maybe.."

She put her things back in her bag then started going through her dress' pockets.

"Damn, nothing in here. Well, I'm sorry but it looks like I just can't find a single care on me. I guess that means that I really couldn't care less about you buying the room or being a noble. Oh, wait!"

Majolica took off her hat and looked into it, then sighed.

"Nope, sorry. No cares in their either."

Majolica put her hat back on. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a mushroom, took a bite, then poured some more tea down her throat.

"That guard is pretty stuffy, huh? I bet he would have been pretty angry if he knew that I turned a bunch of his guards into snakes and stuff. Wait, did you say serial killer? Ohhhh, so they weren't looking for me? Well, that's dumb. I thought they locked up the town because I, Grand Witch Majolica! Hehehe... had been sighted in the area. It would only make sense that a small town would cower in fear before the evil Grand Witch! Hehehe!"

Majolica stopped herself.

"But, I can't have serial killer murdering my future subjects! Someday I'm going to rule this whole realm, and there's going to magic mirrors and a candy slide, and well... you get the picture."

Picking herself up, Majolica proceeded to walk around the room gathering up the animals that had escaped her sack.

"There we go."

Having gathered the animals into her sack, Majolica used her forearm to firmly sweep all of the maps and paperwork to the ground.

"You can play with your maps later! We got a killer to catch!"

The Grand Witch went outside the room and set the critters down, then let the rest of the animals out of her sack.

"I guess I should release my captives. It won't do for the town to be missing all these guards."

Majolica readied her staff, pointing it towards the bewitched critters.

"Whether bewitched frog or witch's cat, now you’ll return to your previous format!"

The same shadowy smoke that appeared when the guards had originally been transformed covered each of the critters. As it left, the guards were back to their human forms, though unconscious.

"Well, this is probably fine."

Majolica turned back to the room where she had left @Seto Kurama and shouted at him.

"Well! What are you waiting for! Let's go! Or do nobles need to be carried? I'm not carrying you! Use your legs!"

@Zayne