The onset of autumn was a beautiful one to behold. It was as if you watched the younger years of spring grow into a strong, youthful summer; which then aged gracefully into a seasoned fall. The scenery would change to warm sepia tones in the afternoon, practically black and white shades at night, then back to sepia in the morning. The air was feeling brisk as Rig was walking on the tree-covered path through the woods. It was rough a little while back when it was still summer. But even the bandits and highway robbers seem to be taking a break to enjoy the change of the season. Rig breathed in the cool, dusty air as he continued to walk onward. Even now he could see the tree line beginning to break up and give way to an open field. According to the map in his palm menu he was in an area called Astorea. This field was going to be the first sign of civilization in Astorea that he would see. (Despite the small size of the field.) According to the map he was coming upon the Constance Farming Community. As he broke the tree line and walked over the first little hill he finally saw what a farming community was. It was too small to be a village but too big to be a camp. There was a great windmill that made up a large portion of the community that he figured was for grinding all the wheat that these fields were made of. Since it was the beginning of autumn, the fields were tall and golden. Just about ready to be harvested for the upcoming chill of winter. There were about six houses that Rig could see and there could even be more. Rig smiled as he made his way down the hill towards the community. He loved little villages like this. There were similar specks of people that lived in his home country in the outback. It made him feel somewhat homesick. He came up to the main road and was walking along the first crude wooden fence that was housing sheep. As he continued to walk along he noticed that there was a gathering of many NPC villagers near the furthest corner of this fence. It might have been the whole community that was gathered here. Rig crept closer and heard tense voices and a stressed air. Something seemed to be wrong. "Now quiet down this is no reason-" "Can you believe it? Another one-" "Looks like we need to move-" "Da farms are cursed-" Everywhere Rig listened was voices of distress and worry. He rubbed the back of his neck as he pondered. This obviously was some kind of in-game mission to accomplish in this community. He decided to take some action and see what was going on. He pushed his way through the crowd which spawned more whispering. Before anyone stopped him he made it to the center and looked down at the ground. Laying there in the dirty, surrounded by its own blood that came from a gash in its throat, was a ram. @Aden
After several in-game days of wandering through the forests of Astorea, Aden found traces of civilization when he came across an unkept forest path leading to a clearing. While he spent much time inside the dense forest lands to train, he had not yet ventured beyond it before so he was seeing everything on the other side for the first time. He would marvel at the homey atmosphere of the farmlands that stretched before him as the crisp Autumn weather heralded the transition from green hues to an orange shade of the tress colors. The golden fields that stretched out as far as the eye could see in the horizon contributed to the countryside feel of the place. If ever there was an option to purchase a homestead in the game, Aden would definitely choose settling down on a place just like this, away from the tumultuous noises of the city crowds but not entirely isolated from civilization. Checking his map, he found out that this area was called the Constance Farming Community. That would explain the abundance of crops waiting to be harvested in the fields. Walking down the hill, towards the village, Aden decided to stay at an Inn or a lodging for the night to reacquaint himself with society and know more about the village and its residents. After spending a lot of days by his lonesome in the wilderness, it seemed necessary to reconnect with people and practice his social skills, one of the main reasons he signed up for Terrasphere. But as he got closer to the town, he began to sense that something was amiss in this quaint, countryside village.. From what he could tell, almost nobody was tending the crops for harvest even though they looked just about ready to pop out of the fields. In fact, nobody seems to be doing any sort of work at all as they were all gathered at the center of town. At first, he thought they all gathered there to hear some sort of announcement but that all changed when he began to hear the hushed, fearful whispers of the villagers. Something was definitely amiss in this town, and it was enough to terrify most of the villagers to such an extent that they'd abandon their duties of harvesting the crops. "Now quiet down this is no reason-" "Can you believe it? Another one-" "Looks like we need to move-" "Da farms are cursed-" It was starting to look like some form of quest that needed the players' intervention to resolve. From the barely audible murmuring he had heard, it would seem that whatever this incident was, already happened at least once before. And it was troubling enough to insert ideas into people's minds that the farmstead was cursed, or that they would need to move out of there as soon as possible. Gently pushing his way to the center of the commotion, he came face to face with the source of the people's distress. A ram with a large gash on its neck, laying in a pool of its own blood. "Can anyone please tell me what's going on here?" Aden asked urgently while his eyes were still affixed to the ill-fated ram's corpse.
There was a hush that fell across the crowd of farmers at the approach of two visitors. One with long, crimson hair spoke first with firm calmness. The farmers, wives, and farmhands all looked around nervously. Some just kicked at the dirt, uncertain what to say. One very sweaty and heavy set man that appeared to have moved all his hair from head and moved it to his face and chest stepped forward and begin to speak aggressively. "It's those damn night hunters again! They are driving our town to ruin!" This was echoed by some more angry shouts of violence and confirmation. It was here that Rig decided to step forward to be behind other newcomer who he recognized as another player named @Aden. He was hopeful that Aden would want to team up on this venture. Rig stood behind Aden with his arms crossed looking like the big brute partner to the lithe and limber Aden. "Wait did you say night hunters? What do you exactly mean by night hunters?" Rig asked with sincere confusion. "I mean vampires ya big oaf! Have ya grown up with yer head layin' on a bar table like those rich bastards in the city?! It's vampires that have done this AGAIN! We can never get rid of them. Them come and take all they want! When all of our cattle our gone and we are penniless they are coming after us next! Just last night one of the vampires attacked me! When I fought the devil-whore off she went after my livestock! I lost five of my sheep and my best ram here! I say we go to their lair and slowly cut off each and every one of their-" "Jed! That is enough!" It was here that a tall, gangly man of the community stepped forward while holding a black hat in front of his chest and glaring and the sweaty man named Jed. "I am sorry for the rudeness of my friend here. It is true that he lost a ram but we are in not so dire circumstances as he gracefully portrays. My name is Finley. I am the local holy man of the community. Mostly everyone here calls me Priest even though I have told them I am not of that rank. As Jed was "calmly" saying, we are indeed cursed by a band of vampires. Now from your dress and aura I can tell you are adventurers, yes? How about we strike up a deal? If you can help us get rid of these vampires we will award you with some gold, eh? You would be doing us a great service." At this Jed humphed loudly and began to load the dead ram up onto a nearby cart. "Two low-life adventurers ain't gonna cut it! The community is cursed! K-U-R-S-D! We need to slaughter every last one of them ourselves and use their heads to ward off any more evil here. I deserve retribution!" Priest turned and gave a stern look back to Jed. "Jed enough! Everyone here knows you were drunk last night when they came. You weren't even around to fight, so how did this vampire attack you, hm?" Jed hopped down from the cart and came as close as he could to being nose to nose with priest. They stared at each other from a long pause then Jed turned and began to cart his ram away. he called back mockingly at everyone still waiting with the two adventurers. "I know what I done seen. You will all see too! There ain't nothing we can do and you all are gonna pay! I will just wait till you all come running back to me." At this he spat at the ground and continued on. Priest sighed as the big man waddled off and turned back to the two adventurers. "So what's it going to be fine gentlemen? Willing to help out our fine community?"
After a few moments since he had inquired about the incidents plaguing the town, an irate old man stepped forward claiming "night hunters" to be the one responsible for their misfortunes. He was about to ask the old man just what exactly these night hunters were as he was quite unfamiliar with the term when a brawny, red-haired guy interjected and asked the old farmer the same thing. The geriatric man explained that the night hunters were actually vampires though not without firing off a bunch of nasty insults and remarks to the bulky adventurer. He also said of one of them, presumably female by the way he described it, attacked him but fled after he had fought her off. Consequently, however, she went after his livestock taking 5 sheep and killing his best ram, the one that lay before them in a pool of its own blood. He touched the ram again and made a startling discovery, one which he would keep to himself for now until he could find someone trustworthy to confide with. After launching all those retorts at the large man, a priestly looking gentleman by the name of Finley quickly put a stop to the farmer, Jed's barrage of insults and provided a more concise and believable explanation. Even though Jed's live stock had been attack it seemed they weren't in such dire straights as the farmer had adamantly claimed before. He told them that he was often referred as a priest even though he was not of such rank and was only just a "holy man" Finley also told the two that their community was indeed getting attacked by a band of vampires to the point that the villagers think the land is curse. Finally, he offered an enticing contract to the two red haired adventurers. In exchange for wiping out the vampire band that had cursed the town was, of course, the promise of reward in the form of gold. While under normal circumstances, any adventurer would be hard pressed to help a town under constant terror of the threat of vampires, specially when there's the reward of gold on the line, he somehow felt that there's something a little off about it all. "I'll have to look into things more before I accept your offer. It would be a waste if I were to accept your offer but couldn't hold up my end of the bargain by not being able to produce results." Thus, Aden was hesitant to take up the offer... It would be for the best to piece things together first and look into this situation from different angles before plotting any decisive action. One more crucial piece of information fell upon Aden when Finely revealed that Jed was, in fact, drunk when these attacks happened. When the crowd had dispersed after the brawny red haired adventurer had given his reply, Aden quickly confronted him. Seeing as he's the only adventurer here with him in this town, there's nobody else he could turn to for help so he'd have to place his trust on the stranger. "Excuse me, but could you spare me a moment of your time?. Preferably somewhere far from the prying ears of the villagers." Upon reaching a secluded part of the town, the arcane archer began confronting the red haired muscle man. "I believe you are a player too, correct? My name is Aden and I specialize mostly in archery." He said as he introduced himself. Next, he willingly shared his findings to Rig in hopes that he would be reasonable enough to believe that there's more to this than meets the eye. "I assume you've also picked up that there may be more to the townsfolk's stories as they let on, right? See if you think about it, if the vampire girl was out to attack humans, Jed would not have stood a chance, considering that a.) he should not have fighting prowess sufficient enough to fend off a vampire, and b.) he was in a drunken state, making him an easy target for this vampire girl. But she did not kill him, and went after his livestock instead... why? Another thing of note is when I touched the ram, it was still pretty warm, meaning that it only had been killed recently. But it isn't even evening yet and if the vampire did attack last night, and Jed did fend it off, the ram would have also died last night, but its corpse was still surprisingly warm to the touch... I believe we must investigate this case even further before doing anything concrete. Our best bet of finding the truth is finding this vampire girl and having a chat with her. What do you say, comrade?"
Rig was surprised at the request of Priest. Was the situation so dire that they would spend their hard earned gold to get rid of some vampires? Either the situation was worse then he thought, or they just were spending money poorly. While he was pondering on these thoughts the crimson-haired man approached him. "Excuse me, but could you spare me a moment of your time?. Preferably somewhere far from the prying ears of the villagers." Rig was excited. Was this another adventurer? He sure hoped so. He could definitely use some help fighting off some vampires... It turns out that the gentleman was, indeed, an adventurer. He said his name was Aden and that he was interested in the whole situation. He also wanted to talk to Rig about some troubling points. Aden brought up the evidence that the ram was still warm to the touch and that Jed didn't seem likely to be the one that could fight off a vampire (which Rig agreed with). Aden then brought up other facts that Rig didn't think of or wasn't sure that he could have to begin with. After Aden finished speaking Rig was itching his head. "Um...I am not sure if you can tell or not but I wasn't exactly found useful in the thinking side of things. But it sounds like you have a good idea of whats going on! I may not be the best thinker but my muscles have been useful my whole life. If you want to go give this vampire-shiela a chatting then I am with ya mate!" And with that he opened his palm menu and invited Aden to be his friend. While he was waiting for Aden to confirm or not he continued to ask him some questions. "So you think the villagers are being sneaky for some reason? Why would they do something like that?" @Aden
