POV Fools:
Three men and one woman sat behind a table in a dark room. There were no windows, with the light source being a candle flickering on the table, illuminating a large piece of paper with a map drawn on it. The room was filled with dust, old boxes and spider webs, looking like storage that wasn’t used for years.
“To leave the town, they will have to pass through this street. That is where we will strike!” a man with a moustache and shoulder-length raven-black hair pointed at the paper with his finger decorated with a small silver ring with a piece of black onyx embedded within it.
“I am telling you this is a foolish idea, to steal from a wyrm!” the girl in her late teens with long, freely flowing brown hair stood up from her chair, turning towards the exit.
However, the man grabbed her by her hand, firmly holding her, “Sonia, my love, you are paranoid. We are not going to fight the wyrm. We will steal that gold a long time before it even reaches them, and then we will lose any pursuers in the town’s streets.”
One of the two remaining men, with his whole body covered in a mantle with a hood hiding his face, joined in, “It is not even stealing. We are taking it from the monster!”
She just shook her head, her long hair waving around and her body trembling, “No, Tom, it’s still too dangerous. Do you think that the wyrm will just let it go? They will be hunting us!”
“Darling, we will wait through it in our hideout! This will be our last job. With so much gold, we will be able to live a decent life for the rest of our lives.” The man hugged them from behind, her trembling body calming down.
“Can you stop with this? We have the plan to plan…” a tall skinny man with his skin covered in old burns marks couldn’t hold himself and struck the table with his fist, the loud bang resounding through the room.
Sometime later:
The town returned to its everyday life. Streets were bustling with people, thick crowds mixing together. The sound of hammering and sawing was resounding through the streets, and people were carrying wood, bricks and stone, fueling the town’s rebuilding efforts.
A person in the black mantle with a silver decorated maks of a dragon made of brass pushed himself through the street, people making way for him. Right on his tracks were two iron-masked cultists, following him and holding halberds like guards.
Sonya kept her distance, her simple dress fluttering in the draft as she followed the cultists, her eyes firmly locked on them, not losing them for even a moment.
Suddenly one of the masked cultists turned, looking over his shoulder. Sonya quickly jumped behind a nearby corner, her back on a cold stone wall, her heart beating so fast that it almost jumped out of her mouth.
‘Calm down; there are too many people, so there is no way they could notice me.’
She stuck out her head from behind the corner, her heart calming down as she saw the three cultists walking forward, oblivious to her following them.
She walked out of her cover, mixing into the crowd, her eyes on the eye-catching black mantles of the cultists.
Soon they reached the main square, fully packed with a dense crowd, people stacked head on head. Massive footprints of the wyrm were still on its pavement, crooked from the rapid heating and cooling down.
Shivers passed down her body upon seeing them, remembering the monstrous wyrm that she saw in the sky.
A beautiful girl with long black hair with traces of red mixed in stood on a raised podium. Heavily armoured guards stood all around her, holding their halberds. The morning sun reflected on their polished plates, making them look like charming knights from a fairy tale.
Sonya immediately recognised her as the new baroness, her heart filled with disgust, knowing that she never had to work in her life, living like a princess.
The moment the masked cultist stepped on the square, the baroness raised her arms, signalling for the crowd to quiet down. Sonya stopped in her tracks, observing the proceeding in front of her.
“Welcome, our saviours!” her voice amplified by magic spread everywhere, her tone confident and gentle.
The crowd split in half, people moving aside to create a corridor for the cultists to pass, a loud chorus of cheers filling the square.
The masked cultists looked at each other and stepped forwards, hastily walking towards the podium, their black mantles waving behind them.
‘This is ridiculous. What happened to this town? We are celebrating greedy monsters and evil cultists as if they were some heroes.’
The tall, bulky man next to the baroness suddenly raised up a small wooden chest from the ground, opening its lid, and revealing glittering golden coins.
Sonya’s eyes bulged out upon seeing the glittering gold, feeling all of her doubts disappear.
The important-looking cultist in the decorated brass mask spoke, his voice muffled by the mask on his face, “The church of the dragon god accepts your payment.”. He stepped forwards, grabbing the chest from the hands of the captain, and holding it firmly.
He immediately turned, quickly walking away with his two iron-masked guards on his heels, their steps tapping on the stone pavement.
A smile crept onto Sonya’s face seeing that, ‘Like pigs in a slaughterhouse.’
POV Drake-Kun
The priest player, the only one with the brass mask, hurriedly walked through the street bustling with people as he checked over his quest once again.
//Mission:
Objective: Safely transport the gold into the hideout.
Reward: 2000XP; 100 faction points; 50 Gold
Failure: Very, very, very angry dragon
//
“We need to hurry. We are like magnets for thieves with so much gold on us.”, His two guards nodded, speeding up their steps, knowing that it would be extremely bad if they lost dragon’s gold.
Their eyes were fixed upon a few players with glowing nametags above their heads, mixed with the crowd of NPCs watching their every movement.
They quickly exited the square, entering a mostly empty straight street to avoid thick crowds that would make it harder for them to spot an ambush. Tall three stories tall buildings with the bottom half made of heavy decorated stones, looking like a renaissance building, with upper floors made out of wooden structures on its both sides.
Suddenly hurried steps came from a dark sidestreet, and three black-robed people with their faces hidden behind the stone masks appeared from the shadows, walking towards the players guarding the chest.
One of them immediately raised their hand up, signalling to the three players, “Hold! We are here to reinforce you. The wyrm does not want to risk anything happening to their gold.”
Drake-Kun immediately noticed that they were missing nametags above their head, making him confused, ‘They are more NPCs in our faction? How is it that I hadn’t seen them before.’
His whole body immediately tensed, sensing something fishy, his grip over the chest tightening.
POV Fools:
Sweat was running down his temples, his whole body feeling hot under the thick black mantle and mask on his face. He stepped forward towards the three masked cultists in front of him.
To his surprise, the cultist with chest took a step backwards, and the two cultists with iron masks pointed their halberds at him.
Tom stopped in his tracks, confused why they were acting that way, “What up with you? We are working for the same wyrm.”
‘Something is wrong…’
The atmosphere was tense, and then suddenly arrow whistled through the air, piercing one of the cultists through the neck. Blood surged out, staining his black robes as his body collapsed, blood quickly pooling under it
‘That was Sonya! Right on time, she had to sense that things weren’t going by the plan!’
Shrieks echoed through the street, the observing people turning back, quickly running away.
Immediately the remaining iron-masked cultist dashed forwards, stabbing with his halberd at Tom. Tom unsheeted his rapier in a blink of an eye and sidestepped. The halberd narrowly passed by his side, winds from its movement fluttering his mantle.
“What are you waiting for? He is unarmed, kill him and take that chest!” Tom, shouted at his companions, waking them out of their shock.
One of his two colleagues moved, unsheeting his two long daggers from his belt, dashing towards the brass-masked cultist, his body becoming blurry under his speed.
His dagger swished through the air, glittering as it moved at an incredible speed, heading straight toward the brass-masked cultist’s heart.
The cultist moved one of his arms, holding the chest with only one. His free hand moved at inhuman speed, catching the hand of the man with a dagger and twisting it.
An ugly cracking sound came out of it as the man dropped the dagger, screaming in pain. The cultist kept squeezing his wrist, crushing the bones in it. The cultist’s hand gripping the attacker’s wrist ignited in bright orange flames. The flames immediately enveloped Tom’s friend, his painful cries echoing through the street.
‘So fast.’
“What are you waiting for, Greg? Help Igor!”
Suddenly the blinding yellow light and incredible heat descended from the sky, blinding everyone.
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon was flapping his wings high in the blue sky, his body hidden by clouds of steam rising from his body. His golden reptilian eyes were looking like hawks towards the ground, fixed upon the small chest held by his minions.
He wasn’t such a fool to let his minions carry his gold without any supervision.
They looked like ants from such height, quickly moving through the streets of the town.
The next moment three more black dots appeared from another street, approaching his minions, the dragon’s focus deepening with his ears straining up to catch up on what they were talking about.
One of his minions fell on the ground, blood leaking out of his body.
The anger erupted in the dragon, his eyes brightly glowing, a bright yellow light condensing in his mouth, forming a spike of concentrated magma.
‘Thieves! They are trying to rob me!’ Dragon’s eyes were flashing his mind in a storm.