Roleplay

@Dracknorin Not enough to be honest with you, were down to seven guards, myself included. With your arrival that makes eight and however many more troops you brought with you. Oh and I forgot to mention. Whatever it is, has dragged off hundreds of dragons that we haven't found. For each one found dead or alive and marked on this map if dead...." She pulled out a scroll from one of the drawers and spread it out on the desk in front of them. [center][img]http://oi63.tinypic.com/2ugc3ys.jpg[/img][/center] "I will award 1,000 treasure each, up to 90,000 treasure. Each one of these X marks is where we have found a body, Oh and just a suggestion Be back before dusk, an travel with company, these mountains aren't safe."

@Nope570 ((Hey, that's a nice map! I like that you included the marks for distance and everything. I can't read any of the words, unfortunately, but I chalk that up to my eyes and the fact that my computer is a potato.))

The guardian leaned in to look at the map, frowning at what she saw. The bodies were all over the place. "Do any of these correlate with where the dragons went missing?" she asked. "Or were they all taken from town and just found out in the mountains?"

She hardly had the heart to tell the tundra that there were only three of them, and that there weren't likely to be any more dragons coming unless some other group of mercenaries fancied a challenge.

However, finding corpses they could do. Misery's sense of smell was almost tundra-worthy, and she hoped that they could bring peace to as many of the victims as possible.

@Dracknorin
"The X marks were the body was found, unfortunately too many have disappeared to mark where they were taken from. As far as correlation goes most of the dead have been discovered west of town."

She tapped the map near the bottom left corner.

"More important discussion is the fact that we have reason to believe that this has happened before. One of the town elders, before he disappeared, said a murder spree like this happened before. He also said it stopped as quickly as it started."

She shook her head and sighed.

"We also have reason to believe that the creature has denned somewhere near or in a mine South West of town. The mine shut down decades ago after a cave in trapped nearly 50 dragons, and the mine foremen took off. Some say that you can still hear the wailing of those trapped in the mine. Though I don't believe any of the stories about the mine. Now I have a question for you. Did you bring any mountain climbing equipment?"

@Nope570

"It's good that we have a lead, at least," said the guardian. "Yes, we have equipment to spare. One of my team can't fly, so we made the trek on foot."

She stepped back, rubbing a thumb over her fins thoughtfully. "We'll need a copy of the map, at the very least. I doubt we have time to head out today, since it was past noon when we arrived."

She flicked her tail slightly. "But perhaps I can take the pressure off of your guards. I can assure that everyone is getting enough sleep, and that there are always eyes on the group," she said enthusiastically. "That is, if they're willing to listen to me."

@Dracknorin
"Well, from what we can tell what ever it is cant fly ether. We would have seen it if it could. But, let's take a walk, I'll introduce yo to the guards."

She rolled up the map and slid it into a scroll case. She then tied the cap on with a piece of string.

"Nobody is planning on going anywhere soon except for you. Take the map with you."

She tossed the scroll case towards Iratha.

@Nope570
The guardian caught the scroll case and slung it over her shoulder. It would prove invaluable later.

As she followed the mayor out of the office she nodded to the other two, who fell in behind her. "What's the word, boss?" asked Rohn, trotting to keep up with them. "Er, bosses?"

Misery just snorted, wiping a string of drool off with the edge of her cloak.

"Ah, I almost forgot," said the guardian. "These are my partners; Rohn and Misery." She indicated them in order, each one dipping their heads politely. "Misery is much nicer than her scars make her look."

@Dracknorin
Flame chuckled

"No-one came here to be nice Iratha. You three came here to get paid for doing your job, I expect nothing more from any of you. Now follow me and I will introduce you to the residents."

She walked up to a set of stairs which descended into the ground. She strode down the stairs.

"This building was built over the old bank from the town mining days. We have been staying in the banks old vault, which has been our saving grace. However, someone has to stay outside the vault to be able to open it in the morning."

@Nope570
The guardian didn't comment further, though her face wrinkled in concern upon hearing that one dragon had to be kept outside. She didn't want to mention it, but if dragons were being abducted, there was a very real danger that the dragon who was to open the door could vanish, trapping everyone inside.

From the soft sound of muttering behind her, Iratha could tell that her companions agreed. Needless to say, they would not be sleeping in the vault.

The group followed the mayor down the old stairs to the vault.

@Dracknorin

The vault was a stereotypical bank vault door. The door looked to be fairly old and was rusting at the corners of the frame, but overall looked sturdy enough. Flame lead the party up to the vault door. As they got closer to it Rohn was the first to notice the gouges in the metal. The door was covered in gouges, none were in a organized fashion.

@Nope570

The skydancer's antennae quivered as he nudged Misery's arm with his elbow. The ridgeback snorted as she spotted them too.

What on Sornieth could leave marks in solid metal like that? He made a mental note to tell Iratha later as he followed the others in.