Arc I: The Deadly Rose

## Summary

Group heads out on their first mission: Go to town of Grimmgrass and work with the police to investigate mysterious ghost sightings in the graveyard. They leave on foot. They meet a goblin named Clump who is creepy and makes friends with Estel, who gives Clump a piece of paper with the address of their guild on it, and then Clump leaves. Later that night, Estel is stirred from her trance to find five bodies of thieves around their camp that Clump killed and put their heads on stakes around the camp. Clump gives Estel a mask Clump made out of the paper that lets Estel read any language. Group wakes up, Tantris kicks heads like soccer balls.

They reach Grimmgrass, play a rigged Carnival game which Tantris wins and gets a pair of booty shorts with Juicy written on the ass. Atticus and Estel also compete, with Atticus doing slightly better than Estel and gloating despite neither of them winning. They find a fortune teller, some have their fortunes told. Tantris is told he will soon fight a great enemy which he will revel in defeating, Elovi is told she is quickly approaching a decision that may split her life down two paths and that they hope Elovi chooses the right one. Atticus attempts to trip the fortune teller up by asking about his ex wife, to which the fortune teller states that they know Atticus has never been married.

Group heads to graveyard, finds it covered in Corpse Flower plants, sees ghostly figure, follows it into a mausoleum and down into an underground dungeon. They solve some puzzles and come to a crossroad, going down one end where they find a red door. Inside the red door is a doll sitting in a room that appears to be drawn from crayon. The doll is very pale with shiny, glittery hair and has bloody tears down its face drawn in crayon. It wears a tuxedo. The doll is strange and talks through a type writer. The group befriends the doll and names it Snow. They get two Soul Gems from the doll, which Atticus and Estel keep. After leaving, the group will find there was only ever one pathway.

They head down that path and run into two people who Atticus gets the same ominous vibe from. These two are members of a terrorist organization known as Legion, which Elovi seems relieved to hear. Their names are Leonidas and Barask. Atticus attacks them, telling Tantris to as well. Tantris immediately attacks the biggest one, Barask, who crushes Tantris’ skull and knocks him out. Leonidas states that they don’t want to fight and they were simply checking in something set up by that malicious entity Atticus has a history with. Atticus tried to shoot Leonidas, but he opens a portal and sends that bolt back at Atticus, hitting him in the forehead. Estel asks why the two are evil and Leonidas says it’s because nothing truly matters. Tantris wakes up again and bites Barask, who knocks Tantris out again and the two Legion members leave via portal after convincing the group that this isn’t a fight they can win.

The group then leaves the graveyard and warns the police about what’s beneath the graveyard. Tantris runs back to fight the monster below, a fully grown Corpse Flower, and Atticus, Haylen and Elovi go after him. Estel stays behind. They fight the Corpse Flower and beat it after Elovi destroys it with Magic Missile. The group is thanked by police and leave Grimmgrass after all the other Corpse Flower buds shrivel up and die.

The group comes back to the Guild, reports their mission to the Bounty Collector Nashandra and head back to their rooms. They are then interviewed by Aegis, who asks them all to rate their teammates cooperation skills. Tantris and Estel are interviewed separately from Atticus, Elovi and Haylen. Estel scores the lowest. Tantris gets interviewed and is berated for his reckless behavior and is told that he needs to work as a team next time and stop trying to do things alone. Estel is interviewed, getting berated that she failed to assist her team when they ran into danger and that if she continues to have that attitude towards being a Guildmember, she will be forced to resign. She states that the group didn’t need her in that fight, to which Aegis comments on the irony of that given how useless she considered Elovi, Atticus and Haylen for being human. When she rates Atticus’ teamwork abilities, Aegis comments that he’s surprised given Atticus rated her higher than she did, which shocks Estel. She asks Aegis what Atticus rated her, but he refuses and dismisses her.