Thread: Shadows of Nurontha

RE Shadows of Nurontha Ron walked towards the village square pondering about Cleo's words. Everyone knew huh? he muttered to himself. Ron occassionally looked about the village as he walked. The buildings here were much like Cleo's, with the exception of a few that were just small shops or other business. Those people lived on the northern edge of town having made enough money to own a seperate home. Most of the buildings in his village were clean and well-maintained. Everyone here took pride in their businesses and homes for the most part and kept appearances pleasing to the eye. The few larger buildings were mostly guild houses, places people went to learn a craft or a trade that they would use as their profession. Ron often pondered his fate when he walked by them, wondering what he might've done had his father not stuck him in the Academy. He turned onto one of the main streets and kept walking, a few of the people nodding and passing the courtesy of a greeting. He returned as many as he noticed. A couple of children ran up to him pretending to be monsters and he just smirked and ruffled their hair before shooing them back to their parents. Rangers were a sort of special forces, used by the regional leaders to take care of interesting or unusual problems. They were often used where the presence of the normal army might cause problems or make the populace uncomfortable. They lived in secret, being housed as ordinary folk or pretending to be wayfarers and journeymen. Ron posed as a wandering fix-it man, taking care of odd jobs in town. Minteur was also a ranger, but he was in semi-retirement and had an actual job as a horse groomer and a woodworker. There were two other rangers as well, but they travelled around the fields and forests and were rarely seen in the village, those two posing as military scouts. The general populace didn't know about the rangers. The village guard knew of Ron and one of the others, and treated Ron a bit like a troublemaker at times. The village mayor and the lieutenant in charge of the village guard were the only two that knew of the four rangers. Four rangers in a village of this relatively small size was odd, but after Ron and Minteur were unable to deal with the problems the other two were dispatched to assist. The monsters had been appearing out of nowhere lately and at the start only appeared in the forests and fields. Merchants and travellers sometimes were attacked, but that was it. Then they started showing up in the village itself. Minteur would deal with those while Ron patrolled the outer areas but then the beasts popped up more and more in town and they both were unable to keep up. Minteur requested the other two and took on the role of their commander as the other three were tasked with keeping things as quiet as they could. Ron had to take the whole of the village on his own most nights. Ron was too busy lost in his thoughts and didn't even realize he was in the village square until one of the village guard and he bumped into each other. There was a bit of a racket as both men fell over and had to pick themselves back up. The guardsman sneered when he saw Ron. You fucking punk, showing yourself in broad daylight eh? the guardsman spoke with heavy disdain. Ron just glared at him, I thought I would see myself at the tavern for awhile is all. Nothing special. The guardsman snorted, You just keep out of trouble you vagabond. We've had enough problems lately. Ron shrugged and gave a condescending bow and walked away. When he got a bit away from the glowering guardsman, he surveyed the area where he got into the fight the previous night. The creature's blood still stained the ground in places, and where the body had been left the village guard conveniently dug a hole there with their flags so people would avoid it. How convenient, Ron muttered. They got used to cleaning up a little too well. Outside of a few blood stains, there was nothing else showing that a battle had been fought here. A cargo transport rumbled by, but Ron seemed oblivious. He was intently studying the ground as if he was hoping for something to pop up. He looked about a few and walked away. He figured since he wasn't that far away, the tavern seemed like a good choice, so he decided to stop in for a drink. He began a trot across the village square to a tavern with a rather gaudy sign hanging from the front. It was done in a bright green and orange and had a picture of an upside-down fool on it with the worlds The Tumbling Jester. Ron pushed the door open and walked into the sounds of a violin being played.