[SD:M/H] Other Views - Chapter 12

Back in the new player starter town, there is a meeting of nobles and guild officials.

A man in a green suit laughs, “Why yes, I did manage to grab two of the new travellers of interest. Some people just don’t know what travellers want. Or maybe someone might not be able to actually offer such things.”

A lizardkin raises a neck drill in a show of derision, “And how many travellers did you aim for and yet miss? In fact, from what I heard there was an aligned traveller that didn’t even wait to hear your offer!”

The man in green scoffs, “I can’t help when someone doesn’t have good taste.”

Across the table a deerkin man snorts, “Besides, that little slip of a being avoided all our people. And to be honest? I think it might be for the best.”

A woman in blood stained leather armor nods, “They somehow not only managed to penetrate deep into the forest, but then lived long enough to cause a monster stampede. Besides, they’re aligned with Chaos. Even if you recruited them, it was inevitable that they’d leave, eventually. At least this way, it won’t involve explosions.”

The man in green shrugs, “You just need to handle them carefully. Send them away before it reaches the boiling point and then cut them free while they’re nowhere near anything you personally value.”

The woman in blood stained armor snorts, “They’re of Chaos! Even thinking you can predict when they’ll leave is asking for your guess to be catastrophically wrong.”

Near the woman, a humanoid slime slaps the table, splat “I will not stand for this slander! Just because you’re both law bound, does not make your words law. Many of us have the unchained in our organizations. You’re both simply unable to keep them around and the fact that you worry about them leaving in an explosive manner says more about you than them.”

The deerkin man nods, “Even lawful organizations will have one or two unchained kicking about. If only because the organization’s goals match their own.”

The humanoid slime sighs, “Besides, they escaped. Chances of them coming back here before they’re strong enough to have some standing in the adventurers guild is almost certain. We all are so free with exerting our power until the actual big dogs get involved.”

The woman in blood stained armor sighs as well, “You aren’t wrong about that. Even my fellow law bound that manage to get out of town tend not to join an organization like ours. Which is a shame as this is the easiest source of new law bound. Otherwise, you have to depend on raising regular people and hope they manage to lock in an alignment.”

The humanoid slime laughs, “Always amusing that you lawful sorts and your organizations have such a hard time raising up people to look in law.”

The woman in blood stained armor rolls her eyes, “Almost as shocking as how often people from chaos miss it as well, but manage to land chaotic evil.”

The slime shrugs, “Just as you end up with a bunch of lawful evil sorts. We both know the odds. Of the combo alignments, organizations breed those mixed with evil more than not.”

The deerkin interrupts them, “And basically no one locks in an alignment in the first place. No reason to argue over this. Evil just has looser requirements to lock in when combined with another alignment.”

-----

A stampede of monsters charges through the forest, long ago having lost their target, but not their rage. A certain cat-eared character might feel a bit bad about this “monster train”. And to be fair, if it had ended up slamming into a small town it would be their fault to some degree.

Good thing for them and any such towns that did not happen. And once there wasn’t anything to aggro them, the instincts of the boss monsters kicked in. Instead of charging straight, they began to curve back towards that line between the inner and outer region of the forest.

And now? The stampede of monsters is slowly making their way around the perimeter. Though, as with most things, this can’t last.

Soon they reach a point where the inner forest was pushed back recently and while they stampede can follow that, the point where it curves back out is too sharp. And so, the stampede breaks into the inner forest. At which point, a new instinct takes over.

They angle towards the center of the forest. Ever forward they charge, but finally the stampede begins to shrink. Various predators pick off the weaker monsters on the edge.

Eventually, well before the true center of the forest, there is only a single monster left, a certain boar charging through the forest. Though it begins to slow, the pressure of high-level monsters forcing the red haze of rage to recede. Said boar slows to a stop as a shadow falls over it.

Towering over the monster that causes Gem and June so much trouble is a truly massive boar. A mountainback boar with crystal tusks, a back made of stone and shaped like an actual mountain, and pits for eyes like caves in the side of a cliff. It rumbles in an imitation of a boar’s call except made by the grinding of stones together.

The boar trembles in front of this magnificent specimen of what it might one day become and submits, joining the beast’s herd.

-----

Two guards have returned to their post. They look quite similar in their armor, though that says more about the armor than it does what they look like. After all, one is a human and the other an elf. For the armor to be able to make the famously sleek elven form appear similar to a buff human is quite impressive.

The human guard turns to the elven guard, “You owe me five gold. They ended up surviving and got into the town.”

The elf guard shrugs, “More like you owe me five gold. They managed to beat the turtle.”

The human sighs, “Maybe we should be on the same thing. We’ve ended up in a draw on the last 11 bets we’ve made. Or at least, bet on mutually exclusive things.”

The elf, “Not like we’re betting all that much. Besides, we rarely disagree on a particular subject. At least, not the ones we bet on.”

The human nods, “We’ve been doing this for a while. Got a good sense of things.”

The elf shakes his head, “Nah, we’ve been guarding the gate for a while, but these travellers are new, especially with how our world is just a game to them.”

The human scrunches their brow, “Huh, yeah, I see what you’re getting at. Should be harder to guess at what they’ll do. Though I see us still betting the same way.”

The elf sighs, “You aren’t wrong. Though I do hope that more of them are like those two. A bit of harmless fun that they keep away from the town. Would have been a shame if we had to arrest them.”

The human nods, “Yup, a crying shame.”

The elf glances over to the side, “So, I’ll take the five you owe me in drinks.”

The human smiles, “Same, meet you at the inn after the shift?”

The elf shakes his head, “Not tonight. The wife wants to watch the sunset!”

The human laughs, “We can swap drinks this weekend. You still up for the meetup with the other guards?”

The elf nods, “The wife’s been looking forward to being able to look after all the kids with the other significant others in our group. We aren’t ready for kids yet, but I know she’ll be a wonderful mother with how much joy taking care of children brings her!”

The human smiles, “She really does! You’re lucky to have met her. When me and my husband adopt a kid next year, she’ll be on the top of the list when we need a babysitter!”

The two fall into an easy silence as they both consider the future.

Checking Stuff - Chapter 11

Friends Squared Preface