Jason wakes up next morning bright and early. Not that he had a choice, what with the loud knocking at the door. Groggy from his forced wake up he gets dressed before he answers the door. Behind it, about to knock again, is a chipper young man dressed in the Adventurers Guild uniform. With a short bow the man greats him, “Hello there! Could I see your Guild card to confirm your are in fact Jason? I have a letter for you that someone paid to get to you at the earliest possible convenience.”
Jason with a yawn stumbles back into his apartment. After he digs around for a moment his mind catches up with him. After retrieving his card from yesterday’s pants, Jason presents it to the Guild runner. The man takes out a small pearl and waves it over the card. Once the pearl turns green the man smiles, “You are indeed Jason! Let me grab the letter out of my Space and we can both be on our way!” A small black hole appears next to the man, just suspended in the air. He reaches into it and pulls out a rough envelope with Jason’s name on the front.
Jason takes the letter from the man and takes a look at the envelope. When he looks up to thank the man, he finds himself now alone. With a shrug Jason closes his door and locks it. Not having many people who would bother paying for delivery means this letter comes from one of three people. His mom wouldn’t bother with an ingame letter and the writing doesn’t fit James’ style. Though why Rosha would need to spend money on the letter is a mystery. Not much of a mystery as it will just take opening the letter to find out. The envelope opens and Jason spreads the letter out.
Hey Jason,
I hope this reaches you before you head to the Adventurers Guild next. Hate being the bearer of bad news but it is better if you hear this ahead of time. James sort of became a jerk since we went our separate ways. Though with how fast he changed I have to wonder why he was even nice to us to start with. The second he hit level 10 the boy joined up with a nasty group of dwarves. Apparently it is a family tradition or something? I did a little internet sleuthing. Don’t know who he is but James likely comes from a nasty family. Former politicians who after losing power irl went and started a cult ingame. I wish this was just his family pushing him into it but god he had that ‘young master’ snear down pat. Luckily the cult is not in this area. Read they spread out the new members around to recruit more Locals. Going by how the dwarven guides he had to the dungeon left while we did our first dive it didn’t work out for him. Anyway, bad news aside I would love to meet up with you again. Do you mind if I bring a friend with me? Someone I knew from school so they won’t heel turn on us. Wasn’t planning on meeting up with her this early but I kind of needed a healer. You can bring a friend to the group as well!
Hugs and Hope,
Rosha
“Well, that’s a message. I guess I will wait till I actually go read James’ letter at the Guild. Hopefully things aren’t as bad as the letter makes it. I didn’t get a sense that James was like this at all. We spent a night in the woods together. Then again, that is about the only point we spent any significant time together. Yeah, now that I think back on it we didn’t hang out much did we? I need both sides of the story because it also means I don’t know Rosha very well either. I didn’t want to head back to the Guild before heading out today but this is a bit of a situation. Oh, and if James’ letter doesn’t change the story, I need to agree to Rosha bringing her friend. Healers are in short supply no matter where you are. Doesn’t matter how important they are, too few people have the personality for it. Anyway, time for breakfast”
After cleaning up a bit Jason gets his meal. Today it is an oddly classical dish of eggs, hash browns, and sausage. Of course the hash browns are made from a bright pink potato equivalent so it isn’t exactly the same but the flavors match. While he finishes the dish off Jason catches Fern for a quick question about the Adventurers Guild delivery guy being able to just show up outside his door. The answer doesn’t exactly surprise him though it seems he needs to pay Rosha back for the message. It seems the Guild offers multiple levels of speedy delivery and Rosha spent at least 10 gold. That guy didn’t just seem to disappear but rather literally did so as the ritual formation that sent him in the first place pulled him back. Fern offered to for a price upgrade my room security so any incoming teleports get redirected to the front desk. Though after a bit more questioning she admitted that only pre-approved teleports can get through in the first place. Jason easily declines this offer to double the cost of his rent with that last bit of information. Someday he might annoy some organization big enough for this to be a worry but that time isn’t now.
Finished with breakfast Jason heads out at a jog. The visit to find out what James’ response put him behind on his schedule. Not that much is in that schedule but he really wanted to be out of town before the heavy traffic starts. Then as Jason arrives in the Guild, an alert pops up that he has a letter from James’ waiting for him. This actually causes him to relax because at least he will have an answer about what is going on. He heads over to mail desk and receives the letter then heads over to a stool in the bar to read it.
What...?
James is a bit of a cultist, oops?
TFTC!