Heart of Oak

A Special Mission

In one of the booths of the local restaurant, Dwarven Keep, was a group of travelers of five strong. They were passing the night away in food and drink. One member was an orcish woman of yellowish-green skin and two large tusks proudly displayed from her jaw. She spoke with a lisp and a slight slurring in her words as the bourbon whiskey wore down her constitution. "Come now Roderick, surely yer excited about this!" She thrust her mostly full wooden mug in the human's direction.

"Dmahdi, for Etos' sake, control yourself," Roderick snapped back at the drunken orc. "You're chugging whiskey faster than we can make coin to pay for it."

The orc bellowed a hearty guttural laugh, "You worry too much, Rick. Live a little."

Beside the orc was a wood elf with dark olive green skin and vibrant yellow eyes. She placed a hand on the orc's biceps and muttered some words beneath her breath.

The orc's eyes flickered for a moment before the very muscular woman toppled face-first into the table.

"That wasn't necessary, Sedel." Roderick passed a less-than-friendly glare at his wood elf companion.

She rolled her eyes. "Would you rather be four gold deep in beer debt, ol' Ricky?"

Sitting quietly at the table was a tasaki, a species of humanoid foxes and this one was orange with a white chest. He placed a hand in the raccoon-kin's hand and leaned against him.

The racoon-kin spoke up, "I'm inclined to agree with Sedel on this one, Roderick. The orc would out drink us all. She'll be fine in the morning anyway. Orcs don't get hangovers."

Then came the waitress, a dwarf of an athletic build and blonde hair. She seemed cheery enough for the night crowd even if it was wearing her thin. "Anything else I can get you lot?"

Roderick clasped his hands and smiled, "We'll take another plate of your dinner rolls and cinnamon butter."

The dwarf wrote it down on a piece of parchment. "What happened to the orc-friend of yours?"

Sedel said, "drunken stupor. Don't worry too much about it, Jodi."

The dwarf tilted her head, questioning the legitimacy of that claim, but she knew both of them. "Just make sure she doesn't wake up and puke, Sedel, last time was gross enough."

The wood elf nodded as the dwarf walked back to the kitchen. "So," She began, "Now that our brute is out cold, what was this plan of yours, Roderick?"

"The mage said that this meadowy-type area used to be a worship site a couple of hundred years ago. Chances are, some of that religious magic lingers and that may have caused that disturbance he felt," Roderick explained. "Either way, we go in, look around, confirm that nothing is there, leave, and get paid."

The racoon-kin protested the plan's simplicity, saying, "Surely you don't think it will be that easy. Castias said that the sudden magic surge nearly made him purge his stomach. Anything with that degree of magical presence is not something we want to trifle with."

Roderick bobbled his head. "That's why I'm saying we just sneak a peak and leave. Spend the day scouting the area and bail before something does show up."

"If our battle mage says we should be concerned, I'm going to be concerned," Roshka added. "We need to be smart about this. This is not some old tomb smash-and-grab. Not like in Sunkai."

"Roshka, stop with the fear-mongering, please," the human glared at the raccoon-kin. "How about this? Let's place a bet—"

"Oh no, no the fuck you don't," Sedel raised a threatening finger. "We're not gambling on whether you're right or wrong."