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Riverside Reunion - Mission Progression: Quest: Passage Through
the Dark River
Wyrm
- 25 Jun 2007
After having rested themselves in their new refuge, the
team of stalwart nudists are approached by someone they think they recognize.
It turns out to be Shadow, someone who was introduced to them as one of the Shining
Blade's chief scouts.
"Greetings,"
she said. "If you've had enough lounging around, it's time to get back to
work." "I
could use a few more days of relaxing," said Arty. "But I suppose if
there's work to be done we might as well get it over with." "Agreed,"
said Buffy. "Finally,"
said Sanskirt. Shadow
handed them a message from Evennia that they were to deliver to someone in a province
along a river back in Kryta. Apparently, their journey had taken them so far through
Maguuma that they had looped back over to Kryta, at least the southern reaches
of it. "If
you meet with the river guide named Old Joness and mention my name, he should
take you all the way to the province and save you a good deal of time," said
Shadow. "Should?"
said Vex. "Well,
you see, he lost his son recently to the Mantle and it's put him into a bit of
a depression." "Then
you would think he'd be eager to help us and get some vengeance." "We
shall see. My pet spider, Carlotta, will lead you to Old Joness." Once
again they were off into the wilderness of Maguuma. Now that they were well rested,
their spirits were higher and they found the goings through the jungle to be easier,
even more-so since they had become adjusted to fighting here and had altered their
tactics enough so that there were very few creatures that could give them problems,
most were merely annoyances now. After a few minutes of following Carlotta, they
could hear the sounds of the river. "Wait,"
said Renebelle. "What
is it?" said Arty. "I've
held up my end of the agreement, wouldn't you say?" "Oh
yeah, that's right, you wanted to go someplace here in Maguuma." "Yes,
and now we're close to where I want to go." "Where
is that?" "There's
a stade nearby. That's where I'm heading." "All
right, I think we can afford to make a quick detour now that we know where this
guy is." And
so they left the path that was being laid out for them by Carlotta and continued
going South, following where Renebelle was leading them. The path was similar
to what they were used to, in that there was very little resistance for them that
they couldn't handle easily, but it would have been too much for just one person
alone, which is why they didn't part company with Renebelle when they were near
where Joness was supposed to be. It
wasn't long before they reached the stade and parted company with Renebelle. The
parting was bittersweet for them, as they had been through so much together and
had almost forgotten that the alliance was only temporary. After their good-byes
had been said, the party returned, one member short, to where Joness was and found
him sulking by a boat. "Greetings,"
said Stargazer. Old
Joness looked up at them but didn't respond, he was obviously depressed. "Shadow
sent us," said Stargazer, hoping to get some kind of response. "We'd
like you to take us to Riverside Province." He
looked up at them as though he was about to respond, the name Shadow obviously
had some meaning to him, but he just sighed and let his gaze wander back to the
jungle floor. "We
heard your son was killed by the Mantle," said Stargazer, again hoping for
a response. When she said this, she noticed the old man start to shiver and take
a deep breath in, recovering and almost forcing himself to not cry. Stargazer
continued, "we're working with the Shining Blade to attack the Mantle. Help
us and we'll be sure they pay for what they did to your son." This
time when the old man looked up at them they could see a smile on his lips. "Hop
on board, we'll be there in no time," he said. And
he was right, the boat was skillfully maneuvered down the river at a very brisk
pace. It wasn't long before the dense Maguuma Jungle foliage started to thin out
and they could notice grass and other non-tropical plant life as they passed back
into Kryta. Shortly after that the boat stopped and Joness let them know they
had arrived. "I
guess we should start looking for our contact," said Stargazer. "I
think I see him over there," said Arty, pointing out a person that did indeed
look like their contact from the description Shadow gave them. They
walked over to him and introduced themselves. Once they were confident that he
was indeed their contact, they handed him the orders from Evennia. After a brief
explanation about what their next mission was (which they again didn't really
pay any attention to; the gist they caught was something like: "White Mantle...
towers... steal... Dinas...") they were about to head off when a familiar
voice shouted out to them from somewhere. "Hey
guys!" said the voice. When
they turned around and saw who it was that was talking to them, it was none other
than Angela, who had just returned from Cantha. "Wow
am I glad I ran into you guys here, I just got back from Cantha and everyone everywhere
is talking about some big to-do going on," said Angela. "That's
putting it mildly," said Arty. "So,
what'd I miss?" said Angela. "A
lot," said Arty. "How'd you find us anyway?" "It
was easy. I just asked around Lion's Arch when I got back if anyone had news of
a group of people wandering around in their underwear beating up monsters." "And?" "And,
I got a lot of dirty looks from the Mantle, some of them were muttering stuff
like 'dirty rotten traitors' and whatnot. When I asked a Lionguard what was going
on, he said it would take too long to explain but that the word was you guys were
heading South through Maguuma. So, I took a chance and went South first, before
heading into the jungle to see if we could cross paths. I guess we just did." "I
guess that's logical enough," said Stargazer. That was all that was said
on that matter. They then briefed Angela on what it was they were doing. "You're
fighting the Mantle now? Wow, I guess I really did miss a lot," said Angela. "Yep,"
said Stargazer.
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