After lunch, I ran some errands around the town's market district to kill time before the meeting scheduled for later that afternoon. Even so, I was one of the first to arrive for the debriefing.
One of the Guild staff I didn't recognize led me to one of the conference rooms in the back where I took a seat and prepared to wait for the rest to arrive.
Priscilla arrived next, her usually neat appearance ruffled, and her face pallid with stress.
"Are you alright, there?" I couldn't help but ask.
Her replying smile was shaky, but genuine. "It's probably nothing, but I haven't heard from Petros since yesterday. My brother usually lets me know if he's out longer than that, but I can't help but worry, especially after what happened."
Right, I had forgotten that one of the Class D Fighters in the party had been her brother. Petros had been able to escape the centipede the most easily with his superior speed and agility.
"Well, he and the rest of Lukas' party are supposed to be here for this, so you can give him an earful then."
"Yes, I certainly plan to."
We fell into a period of quiet then, but it didn't feel awkward the way many silences do.
The next to arrive was Sally, as the staff member who had issued the quest, followed by a diminutive figure in the brown and green robes of an Earth Mage. Their good was pulled low over their face, so the only visible features were their short height and a magnificent braided auburn beard. Probably a dwarven fellow, though some of the beast-kin favored beards as well.
After that, a set of higher rank adventures in the blue and white tabards of the investigation team, as well as a representative from the town guards, and some more people I did not recognize arrived and took their places around the room.
"I know a mis-ranked quest is serious," I murmured to Priscilla, "but this crowd seems a bit overkill, do you think?" I wasn't entirely sure, this was the first time I had to attend one of these follow-up meetings for quests gone wrong.
Priscilla shrugged. "There is more of the investigation staff than I thought there would be."
"Ahem. Excuse me!" One of the investigators, a tall and wide-set man with salt and pepper hair and a large mustache called out from the front of the room. "Is adventurer Tor here?"
I stood up and raised hand to he could see me. "Yes, I'm here."
"Very good. When was the last time you had contact with the rest of the party?"
I had a sinking feeling. Lukas and his party had yet to show.
"I would have to say around mid-morning, yesterday. We met up to submit the incident report paperwork to the Guild."
He gestured to an aide standing to his left, who started scribbling notes on a notepad as I sat back down.
"And is Healer Priscilla here?"
"Yes!" Priscilla practically shot to her feet, tension running through her slender frame.
"You last saw your brother yesterday as well, is that correct?"
"Yes, that's correct! Do you know where he is?"
The large investigator nodded. "Yes. We will cover that in the meeting shortly. Everyone, take your seats and let's get this things started."
Priscilla appeared even more distressed at her brother's absence, even though she was assured he wasn't missing. There were several worst-case scenarios that jumped to mind, and I hoped - for her sake - that none of them had come to pass.
There was a moment of shuffling as everyone save for the mustached man, his note-taking aide, and the Earth Mage took a seat around the long table in the middle of the room, and the door was closed.
"Okay! So!" The big man clapped his hands once, loudly, to gather attention back to himself at the head of the table. "My name is Captain Richard Gilmore - I am the Lead Investigator on this incident. I am going to start by laying out all the data we have collected so far, and what our options will be going forward. Before I begin, are there any questions?"
Priscilla raised her hand.
"Go ahead, Healer Priscilla."
"You said you know where my brother is. Is Petros okay?"
Gilmore nodded. "Yes - we are sorry for worrying you. Your brother and his party are currently being interviewed separately."
"Phew." She exhaled in relief. "I'm glad. Thank you for letting me know."
"Then if there are no more questions..." He paused, looking around the room. "No? Good." Clearing his throat, he began to outline the data so far.
- Farmer Travis Smythe submitted an extermination request for Giant Ants that had appeared in his field.
- Primary quest ranking was "C", but a preliminary scrying by a Guild Wizard noted the few numbers of Giant Ants, and the quest was graded down to "D+".
- D-Rank party led by Lukas and C-Rank adventurer Tor accepted the quest.
- At the site, no people were encountered near by, there was just the ant hill and three sentries.
- After killing the sentries, the party proceeded to smoke out the ant-hill with fire magic.
- An A-Rank Giant Centipede emerged, seeming to have eaten the ants.
- The party split to escape, adventurer Tor leading the centipede away to try and outrun its 'spawn area'.
- The centipede's mana depleted and it died.
"These are the main points of what happened. Further followup, to fill in the monster tunnels under the fields revealed that the centipede was not a naturally occurring mana monster, but had been spawned in around a high grade mana crystal. Filling in the tunnels revealed several depleted low grade crystals buried in the farmer's field as well. Furthermore, Mr. Smythe was scheduled for an interview this afternoon regarding the incident, but did not show. No one has seen him since he submitted the quest a week ago."
Sabotage?! No wonder there were so many people here. This quest wasn't just mis-ranked. It was rigged from the start!
"The D-Rank party which accepted the quest are currently being interviewed separately by a Divination Wizard with memory viewing magic because they observed a strange phenomenon when the centipede ran out of power. We will be hearing the result of that shortly."
It was at that moment, with almost impeccable timing, that there was a terse knock at the door before a messenger barged in and scurried to Captain Gilmore to whisper in his ear.
"Mmm. I see." He turned back towards the room at large, brow furrowed in a deep frown. "Adventurer Tor..." He called out to me.
"Yes?"
"What is you relationship with the Disciples of Ashran?"
My jaw droppped. Ashran? The dark sorcerer? Why was he being brought up?
"As far as I know, I don't have one," I managed to get out, still completely shocked.
"Then explain to me this: why is a self-proclaimed disciple asking to see you?"
"Haaahhhh?!"
The whole room burst into noise.