D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

--- Kat ---

"You guys wait out here. I just need to chat with the sheriff to work out the details," said Meg as she stepped inside.

They’d decide to try and limit the number of people they needed to babysit. They were all fast, exceptionally so, but twenty people was just too many to manage. The goal was to get it down to five but ten was an annoying but acceptable number. Hopefully the conversation would go well.

As Kat glanced around though… she noticed a piece of paper that quickly burnt up in Hunter’s hands. Kat raised an eyebrow as Hunter gestured for them to follow her. They didn’t go too far, just a bit up the street to rest on the steps of someone’s house. "We have a problem. Focus on me, don’t try to broadcast your words to everyone else. Try and make it so that only I can hear you when you respond. It might not work due to lack of training but please make the attempt," whispered Hunter.

"Does this work?" whispered Kat back.

"Oh… umm… like this?" tried Kamiko.

Lily simply remained in her Memphis form without replying. If this was a concern it was better to be safe then sorry. No reason to risk one extra person talking. Kat could ask any questions she had.

"It is hard for me to be sure, while I took the course myself I did not spend sufficient time developing the skill to teach it and ensure that the instructions were being followed. Keep focusing on it and you should be fine… but we have a problem. Meg left behind a note when she stepped in. The sheriff is almost certainly on the take," explained Hunter.

"Wait… but wasn’t the sheriff fine before?" asked Kamiko.

Hunter shook her head, "No that was the deputy. The note Meg left me contained a few more details I can go over. The deputy is properly loyal and the sheriff exploits that as a front. It’s not his job to do anything overt, just to send regular reports. They work with the town guard, but are technically a separate organisation and he hates that apparently, and has been hoping to find a way to take over both…

"Our issue is that Meg is going to have a hard to convincing him to make taking out the bandits easier on us. Meg wasn’t able to tell just how connected they are from a quick glance in the short time we had so he might be willing to let it go, play the act of someone that’s above board… or he could decide to try and take us out, or warn the bandits in some way."

"Well what do we do? Should we knock the guy out before we leave or something?" asked Kat.

"It was on Meg’s short list of suggestions but depending on how loyal the rest of the department is it could turn into a big mess. While we do work for the church… we don’t have infinite leeway. If we start a fight with the sheriff, the deputy WILL join in. Then the rest of the department is likely to at least try, and if one of them gets the guard we’ll need to disable everyone in town…" Hunter explained, trailing off somewhat.

"Which would be great for the bandits," mumbled Kamiko.

"Exactly," agreed Hunter. "I am a hunter of beasts and monsters. While I do know how to apply the correct amount of strength for a hunt… that level of strength is still usually quite a bit above what a mortal can deal with. I don’t know how many within the guard and the police force have magic… but if the more normal townsfolk get involved it could get deadly quite quickly.

"Plus even just knocking them all out would still cause some health issues. Or if we instead made use of our auras… well that would likely have long term effects as well. Fear aura could traumatise them long term or perhaps empty the town out. Which again, provides a bit opening for the bandits,"

"So… what damned if we do damned if we don’t?" asked Kat "How are we meant to sort this out then? Because I’m not really seeing any great solutions…"

"Meg will likely try and argue to have the sheriff come along personally," stated Hunter. "If we leave swiftly and the sheriff is among the group then they can’t send the message… but it is likely that others will do so and the sheriff will attempt to slow us down. Meg might suggest knocking them out once we get in the tunnels but while that will limit the damage it could still be an issue…"

"Can we… hmm… maybe go to the mayor or something?" asked Kamiko.

"Meg’s note didn’t include anything about that and I have no idea of the political situation within the town. If I had to guess talking to the big mining companies here… assuming there are multiple could get us permission to act… but we’re not really here to fix the towns issues, we’re here for the drake crystal and well… we weren’t exactly the most careful with our questioning of Curl. If someone works out that we’re after that specific ’gem’? Then someone could run off with it, forcing us to follow," grumbled Hunter.

"Well… surely we’d be faster then them?" asked Kat.

"Likely yes but we can only head straight for it and if they take to the tunnels they could try to lose us in the maze they’ve created. Sure we can break down walls… but do that too many times and we risk the ceiling collapsing on our heads. Not fatal but a major setback," explained Hunter.

[I guess that means we’re stuck with taking him along then?]

*In theory yes… but Meg has to get him to go along with her without revealing that she knows there’s a problem I guess? Not sure if Meg can do that.*

[I mean if anyone can it’d be Meg.]

*True enough…* "So we’re taking the sheriff along and knocking everyone out then?" asked Kat.

"That does seem to be the best plan we currently have access to," agreed Hunter. "However we are still going to need to be quick, and there is a risk that the bandits will still know that we’re coming. Hopefully they will not also know what it is we’re after. Really it will depend on how efficient Meg is. It’s a good thing we detoured to the crystal caves before heading here,"

Kat winced. She’d advocated for going to the caves after they’d talked with the sheriff so that said sheriff would have time to organise everything and they wouldn’t have to just wait around while people were mustered up for the effort. "It’s not your fault," said Kamiko. "You couldn’t have known. Plus it didn’t end up being an issue anyway,"

Kat sighed. The visit was nice. The crystals had been stunning and even Meg and Hunter had been entranced on their first viewing. It was almost as good the second time, though for Kat and Lily it was easier to tear themselves away once it came time to leave. Though… sneaking back in for another look before the mission ended might be a good idea once the bandits were dealt with.

"So it’s decided then?" Hunter stated bringing them out of their musings.

"I feel like there should be a better way to do this," mumbled Kat.

"I am not against hearing alternatives but for the moment we have one working plan and nothing else. Personally I find it acceptable in it’s current form. The damage will be limited, the bandits will hopefully be dealt with and the crystal should be easy to destroy once we have it. I see no reason to complicate matters. Even if the bandits get some forewarning we can likely still take them," stated Hunter.

"I just feel like we’re missing something. I dunno if I feel off about the plan or there’s some detail we’re overlooking but I can’t shake the feeling that if we just go for knocking everyone out once we’re in the tunnels we’ll end up with problems…" mumbled Kat.

"While I can agree that it’s good to trust your instincts, in this case I cannot think of anything we’ve obviously missed. Perhaps there is some concern over the travel time? It is not likely that we’ll be finished with this job today," said Hunter.

"Wait… why not? If the hideout is close enough to go back and forth why would it take us extra time?" asked Kat.

Hunter shrugged, "I personally suspect that the bandits would not want to be so close to town. Perhaps they have ways of riding along an underground river to speed up travel in one direction? Though I am unsure which direction that would be. I would personally suspect ’towards’ town,"

Enjoy new tales from empire

Kat thought it over and that seemed reasonable. It also didn’t seem like the detail she’d been missing. Was there even anything? Kat didn’t know. Lily didn’t either but she seemed to only find worry in the fact Kat was worried, rather then feeling like there was something missing herself.

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