Fetch Quest

Save the Man

"What are you doing?" Azazel asked as she peeked into Lang's room. He was sitting at the table with the map of the county at his left and another piece of paper on his right. The man was sketching on the largely blank parchment, referring often to the nearby map.

"Oh, good morning," he said as he looked up, "I'm just making a new map of the village and the surrounding area." The woman stepped closer and looked at the semi-completed document. The village took center stage and each house was drawn in. Most of the rest of the map was blank aside from the road they had originally entered from as well as the cave they had visited the day before.

"See all of this?" Lang gestured to the white space all around the town, "We'll need to fill it in to clear the area."

"You're getting ahead of yourself," Azazel smirked, "While you are an excellent cartographer, your skills are wasted on a map that will never be finished."

"Oh ho, somebody's confident!" Lang said as he put away his mapmaking supplies, "Are you ready to go prove that time always works in the hero's favor?"

"We shall see, we shall see," the woman nodded, beckoning her companion out of the inn. Lang followed with a smile.

"Okay, so I've never actually done this before," Azazel admitted.

"Done what?"

"Talked to someone about a quest."

"Oh, I see. It's pretty simple. Just walk up to someone and ask if they need help. Sometimes they'll be in obvious distress. Those are the people you probably want to talk to."

Azazel led the way down the street, looking around for someone in trouble. On the outskirts of the city a lone warehouse stood two stories tall. It appeared to store the village's food as well as supplies for the local militia. A pulley system was used to lift crates up to the second story but it looked as though the cable had snapped. A man was holding on to the end of the frayed rope and hollering for help.

"Aha!" Azazel exclaimed. She made a beeline for the man and called up to him. According to him, the pulley had gotten stuck when lifting a large box. He had climbed up on a ladder to see what the problem was, but then the cable had broken, causing the box to fall and knock the ladder down in the process. The man had grabbed the cable, saving himself from the fall, but was now stuck.

"Fear not good sir! We will accept your quest and get you down!" Azazel raised her finger to the sky as she made her grandiose declaration.

"You don't have to be so fancy," Lang laughed as if he was a mentor talking to a rookie.

"You say it like that all the time!" the woman shoved him.

"Mm, but I do it correctly," he replied, "Alright, we now have a quest in urgent need of completion. If this man falls, you win. If he is still there when we return, I win."

"Wait, won't he get hurt when he falls?" Azazel asked, beset with concern.

"If he falls," Lang corrected, "But I'd say he'll be fine. It's not that long of a drop so the worst that would happen is a broken leg, which, rest assured, I will pay for out of my own pocket if it occurs."

"I feel bad rooting for this guy to fall," she glanced back at the struggling man.

"If you just want to admit I'm right then we can get him down right away," Lang offered.

"Some hero you are," the woman grumbled, "But no, I'm not backing down." Lang nodded and called up to the man, "Oi, how long do you think you can hold on?"

"Not long hero! Please get help quick!"

"We'll be right back sir! Hold tight!"

With that, Lang and Azazel left the warehouse yard and walked back into town. The woman glanced behind her several times but still followed her companion.