Outside Meteo City, Fander Field

Although it's probably a little slower than just taking the time to walk on our own, riding with the supply carts of Sheveret Troop makes for a more relaxing and less strenuous journey, and lets us chat about our thoughts on current events in peace. When we arrive, with a large number of curious players trailing after us, we find just as many people, if not more just loitering around outside the gatehouse, unsure of what to do about the situation.

Stopping in front of the gatehouse, the officer who saved our bacon from the DDA ambush the other day marches out, flanked by his direct subordinates to greet Captain Sheveret, but as far away as we are from the front of the formation, we can't eavesdrop on the conversation, only infer from the reactions the good Captain displays with his body language - summarised as irritated, a little fearful, and hesitant.

"What d'ya think they're talking about?" Windy mutters, leaning toward their direction as if she can somehow catch a word or two by doing so.

Jupiter grins and clears his throat, "'Sir, the city is overrun with demons and assholes.' 'Assholes, you say? Mm, that is serious.' 'Yes sir, assholes everywhere, we are drowning in them.' 'Fuck that.'"

Angelus chuckles, "Probably not too far from the truth."

"Indeed," I nod, "For now, at least, it's not our problem. We should go look for Wolf Hunt, and get the hunting party underway."

"Speaking of, didn't you mention that we could do a Quest to forgo the Kinstones as a requirement now?" Windy recalls.

Irritated, I sigh, "Yes. Problem is, we need to go to a Church to get it - and with the Cathedral on lockdown at the other end of the city..."

"Gotcha," Windy frowns, "This thing is burning a hole in my Inventory, is all."

"I hear you," I commiserate, "Just another thing to add to the pile of nuisances this Event caused."

Hopping off the cart, I help the others clamber over the sacks and boxes, and onto the grassy floor. Twisting my back, I work out some of the kinks that set in from the bumpy ride then dust myself off and start walking toward the crowds, the Guild and Henna trailing along behind me. I'm not comfortable bringing her into the forest with me yet - once she's gotten a Class, she'll be able to handle the place by herself, unlike me - but until the encampment is set up, there's nothing better for her to do, I suppose. She can help out with gear repairs and the like once it is.

"Hey, isn't that the delivery girl?" Jade points past a few groups to a larger gathering of people, with Miss Leovoldt among them, all looking in our direction anxiously. I also recognise some other faces here and there, but mainly the bulky, blue-skinned Quirstic man - Wolf Hunt's Leader, Jericho Fathom - A Trapper player, more specifically, a Magic-type Trapper like Geronil, only focused on support and healing if I'm remembering right. I only met the man once in passing while grouped up with some Wolf Hunt members to raid WLR back in the day.

Setting aside the obsessive hatred of wolves that all Wolf Hunt members share, I recall him being an alright guy, for the time Wolf Hunt was in operation - once they'd thoroughly conquered WLR a few months from now, they all went their separate ways. After that, Jericho didn't quite vanish in the same way Olrica did, rather he melted into the raid scene gestalt as just another player with an unusual gimmick.

"Greetings," I wave as we approach, "I hope we're still on for the hunt?"

Mr Fathom bows his head slightly in greeting, his voice unhurried and bassy, "Yes. Fortunately, we resupplied yesterday in preparation for today's expedition. You must be the famed Silver Nosster. My name is Jericho Fathom, Hunt Leader of Wolf Hunt, pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Likewise," I proffer my hand, and engage in a stiffly formal handshake, "These are my teammates, go ahead and introduce yourselves to everyone."

"Windy Fields, Vanguard."

"Jupiter Trail, Not-Quite-A-Wizard. I'm like, twenty k off of Level 10."

"Hey, my name's Jade Fairy, I'm a Harrier."

"Beacon. Angelus Reach, pleased to meet you all."

Mr Fathom cocks his head, "I'm assuming that those are the Classes you gained at Level 10?"

"Yep," Jade confirms cockily.

He smiles appreciatively, bloodlust leaking in, "It'll be interesting to see just what kind of mayhem and destruction you can inflict upon those mangy beasts."

"A grand and audacious kind, rest assured," Jupiter boasts, striking a pose with his staff, "Those monsters won't even see their makers after how thoroughly I will annihilate them, hahahaha!"

Jericho chuckles darkly along with him, "That's what I like to hear. Especially now that the city is in chaos - we could use the stress relief."

"Just ask your people not to die faster than I can heal them," Angelus requests, "Otherwise they'll join the others trapped in the Cathedral."

Sobering up a bit from his eagerness to kill wolves, Mr Fathom murmurs agreement, "We're well-aware. But we'll be relying on you to keep us safe, all the same."

I scratch my ear, "Just find us a good target and keep us out of the way of the patrols, and we'll handle the rest."

"That won't be a problem, all going well. Dusty is coming with us, and she's our best tracker," Mr Fathom waves to a young-ish looking Kon girl, named Dusty Coates. I remember the name, vaguely, but nothing else.

I decide to take his word for it, "So, how many people are coming, and what are the average levels?"

"A dozen, including myself," He explains, "4 Fighters, 6 Scouts, 1 Trapper - me - and a Hedge Mage, mostly Level 6."

I guess they haven't had much luck getting through Miner's Nightmare yet, but that's hardly surprising. Either way, our end of the deal for being shown around the place was to powerlevel them, so it doesn't change anything. Similar expeditions are and were how the organisation makes it's money - guiding or playing bus driver to Newborn for a fee, and not robbing them blind the moment they left the protection of the City Guard.

Thinking it through, I agree, "Alright, we can work with that. Would have been nice to have more Trappers, though."

With three or four Trappers working together with me and Jupiter, we could easily lay waste to multiple packs at once, but with just Jericho, who is likely working off a sub-optimal stat build in preparation to switch to a Magic-based Class, we'll have to take them, one group at a time, head-on. It'll be good practice for our new abilities and WLR, if nothing else.

Mr Fathom spreads his hands expansively, "It is what it is, I'm afraid. Moving on, what do you know about Ujax Forest?"

I glance away as I try to quantify my knowledge of the subject, "Not as much as I'd like, to be honest. I know the identity of - and a few drops from - the monsters, common resources and roughly how to get to the Wolf Lord's Remains, but not so much how to navigate the forest itself or anything too detailed location-wise."

Same as now, I got all of my levels and gear by progressing through the local dungeons, rather than pay Wolf Hunt for a space on one of their buses, so I never really took the time to explore the place. I only know what I heard from other people.

In the interests of efficiency, teaming up with Wolf Hunt is better than wandering the Forest blindly then getting ambushed by monsters and PKers constantly.

"Interesting," he rubs his chin, "Besides killing Dire Wolves, is there anything else you're looking to do while we're there? It'll help us set a route to follow."

I consider it, "If you can lead us through a herd of Goldmoss Deer, that's all that I can think of right now."

"Oh? Any particular reason?"

"Their carcasses are more valuable than Dire Wolves and give around the same experience," I shrug, "Might as well maximise our gains, yes?"

Mr Fathom nods in agreement, "You'll have no objections from me. How are we splitting the loot?"

I recite the conditions I decided on, "Any Copper-Tier Weapons and Armour go to you, we split the carcasses 30/70 our way and anything else that we find we negotiate on. Sound fair?"

"40/60, if no Copper-Tier items drop," he counters.

"Deal," I offer my hand and shake his again.

Each Dire Wolf Carcass is worth around 18 Stone Silvers on it's own, and each Goldmoss Deer Carcass is worth 25 Stone Silvers - however, they each take up one slot of the inventory each, they need to be in good condition, and you need to be a 4-Star Novice Butcher to break them down into potentially more valuable materials which do stack, which makes longer farming trips annoying, especially after RotA changes it so you have to manually disassemble the carcasses, and when Alchemical Marvels drops next year, Butcher gets another overhaul that makes the process even more tedious, although highly lucrative for particularly skilled Butchers if they have sponsors that continuously offload rare and high-level Carcasses and so on. A decent skill level of Butcher is also necessary to unlock the new advanced subclass released with AM, Surgeon.

Not something I have the stomach for if I'm honest. Once Geronil is gone and the crafting facilities in the Pioneers Alliance are freed up, I'll be able to dump any Carcasses we get with the Butchers there for a small cut of the end results.

"Dusty, Reit, come here a second!" Mr Fathom calls.

The Kon girl and a scruffy red-headed Silva gentleman with a crossbow from the starter equipment weave through the other Wolf Hunt members. The Silva nods respectfully to me and the team, then addresses Mr Fathom, "You called, Hunt Leader?"

The Trapper nods, then spares an introduction, "Reit here is one of our better pathfinders - We need a route that takes us through a herd of Goldmoss Deers. Thoughts?"

The pair glance at each other, "Through Goldmoss, then?"

"Then up into Dire Straight and out Backwood?" Miss Coates proposes.

"No, too many patrols in Dire Straight. We'd be swarmed under before we got through with just the one pack. Goldmoss into The Thickett and across Ujax Proper, then out of Periphery on the North East," Reit counters.

"Not as many patrols in Ujax Proper, though. We'll have to spend more time searching, if we want the same effect," Miss Coates observes, a bit of bloodlust seeping through.

"We're not looking to drown in a sea of wolves, Dusty, don't get greedy," Mr Fathom admonishes, "Our friends here aren't all-powerful, no offence meant."

"None taken," Angelus shrugs, Jupiter swallowing back some boasting.

"You're throwing around a lot of names," Jade raises a brow, folding her arms.

"Essentially, we'll be moving from the western edge, into the centre and out the northeast with this route. The first area is Goldmoss, which is where the Goldmoss Deer live," Reit explains.

"It's also really dark from the impenetrably thick canopy, 'cept for the glowing yellow moss. Hence the name," Miss Coates adds, "It even grows on some of the wildlife, too, like the deer."

"Weird," Jade comments blithely, "So, like a fungal forest kinda deal?"

"Somewhat," Miss Coates nods, "It's got a bunch of mushrooms and shit too since it's dark and damp. Just don't eat random plants and we'll be fine. The monsters in Goldmoss are mostly herbivores that eat the moss, from what we've gathered. They won't fight unless you attack first or get too close, but the Dire Wolves sometimes invade on the south side, looking for a meal."

"Circle o' life," Jupiter nods, "Though with all the weird plants they eat, d'you think that the wolves trip balls when they eat the meat of these things?"

"Doubt it," Windy shakes her head, "The fauna in Goldmoss will have evolved ways of processing any narcotic or hallucinogenic properties, and their predators will have done the same when it comes to whatever's left in the muscle and blood of their prey after they've processed it."

"Neat," Jupiter smiles appreciatively, "You a vet or something?"

"Biochem graduate, specialised in pharmacology," Windy explains, "It was part of a study I did on venomous creatures and their resistance or straight-up immunity to their own venom."

"Cool, haven't decided what I'm going to study yet," Jupiter claps his hands together, "We good on this whole plan thing now then?"

"Almost, we need to talk formation first," I turn to Mr Fathom, "When we're travelling it'll be the trackers out ahead, followed by me and Windy, the rest of you grouped up behind with melee on the outside and ranged on the inside, Angelus and Jupiter will walk along the flanks and Jade will take the rearguard. Prior to combat we'll set a strategy that works best for the situation. Any objection?"

They voice their agreement with the plan.

"Alright, then if there's nothing else, we'll restock our supplies from you, and we're ready to go, I think?" I look behind me for any disagreement, meeting eyes with Henna who's been silent this whole time. I smile apologetically and get a dull stare back.

"Before, that, you were riding with those soldier NPCs that showed up, weren't you? What's the story there?" Mr Fathom questions, the nearest of his subordinate's pricking their ears up to pay attention.

I consider hiding some information, but don't see the use, "A Questline we're on triggered the Event and they're here to set up a temporary encampment for people stuck outside the city, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't spread it around. "

Odds are, rumours will spread regardless of whether I stay quiet or don't, so I might as well keep the record straight.

"Interesting," Mr Fathom looks thoughtful, "You certainly like to cause a ruckus."

Shrugging, I raise my hands in defeat, "Not all of it by design, but I won't deny the fame will have it's uses in the future so long as we maintain it."

"Try not to let it go to your head," the Hunt Leader advises seriously, then turns to his subordinates, "Hunting Party! Form up, we're moving out!"