Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

Aldrich could only describe the guild hall of the Knights of Last Sustar as unexpected. This place looked like a respectable hotel rather than a guild hall.

it was brightly lit with moss lamps and decorated with green drapes over the half covered windows. The tables and chairs were made of high quality Redwood, the chairs were cushioned with silk.

The chandeliers were elegantly designed in a simple but artistic fashion, the light green carpets were lined with golden intricate designs.

"Next."

The participants were standing in a line and Aldrich was one of them, they were taking a simple card inscribed with a number from the employee upfront.

He was flanked by two other employees, all wearing the guild's badge on their uniforms, the badge was of two unfurled wings with feathers flying at random.

The young man was taking out the cards after checking for ID.

It was seven in the morning and Aldrich was trying to restrain his excitement by counting the participants. They were of all kinds of races, elves, dwarves, halflings, half-elves and humans.

"Next."

He counted to fifty before he was distracted by the voice of the employee, his turn has come. Aldrich did as he was told and presented his ID papers in an orderly manner.

However after seeing his ID the employee paused for a moment and if Aldrich wasn't looking for that moment he wouldn't have noticed it.

Next the employee didn't take a card off of the top but from the side of the table there was an ashtray, from under the ashtray he pulled a card and gave it to him, the number was two and the letter beside it was A.

"Good luck. Next!"

The employee no longer looked at him and Aldrich proceeded to sit at the table marked with the letter A.

There he found two others sitting before him, a boy and a girl. They stood up when they saw him approaching the table and the shook hands with him.

"Hi, I'm Katrine. You can call me Kate."

"And I'm Kip. Looks like we will be a team. We just have to wait for the guides and pray that we get an easy quest."

Aldrich laughed, "yeah lets do that. I'm Aldrich by the way. Have you guys had breakfast yet? If not then we can go together after the boring matters are over."

"Oh, I am hungry now that you mentioned it…" Kip rubbed his tummy.

"My mother tried to get me to eat but I was too nervous and couldn't ear a bite." Remarked Kate.

Aldrich smiled reassuringly, "I know that feeling, but after getting my number I feel much less nervous."

Before they could talk more two more people joined them, two young men. They were clearly older than them and they carried a confident aura as they joined the group at the table.

"Welcome examinees, we will be your guides on this first quest. My name is Sam and I will be the leader on this quest." The short haired man introduced himself as he shook hands with everyone.

"I'm Liam, good morning to you all." The taller man besides Sam was next.

"Take a look this is our quest." Sam passed over a bundle of papers on the table.

Aldrich was the last to get the papers and as he read it he nodded to himself. This was the correct quest.

The basic gist of the quest was to investigate a well in a farmstead outside the city in which two people went missing in, after going inside. Gather information, if possible find out the cause of disappearance.

It was at its heart an information gathering quest, the real quest, which was probably to rescue the missing father and son was for someone else.

But there was one problem in this quest in his opinion, how much was enough? How much information should they get for the quest to be considered a success?

Should they give the well a quick look and then write down that it looked normal? He didn't know, which is why he was glad that they gave them two experiences guides.

Sam, the leader, took the papers from Aldrich and asked, "so, what did you guys think?"

Kip replied first, "I don't think it's going to be that hard but we should talk to the family of the missing people first. They should know what happened better than what's described here."

Sam nodded, "that's right, always ask the locals about the subject and recent happenings in town. Things may have change in the time when the quest was submitted until we actually got to the site."

Kate and Liam both nodded. Aldrich was glad that his peers weren't the reckless type.

Aldrich coughed to get Sam's attention, "so when does out role end? What type of information do we have to get to successfully complete the quest?"

Sam smiled, "that's a keen question, what was is? Aldrich? Well, from my experience, I believe we need at least to confirm a body or the condition of the missing people, are they dead? Alive? What took them?"

Liam then continued, "what took them? What tracks did they leave behind? It could have been done by a human and not any monster at all."

"You mean someone did… this?" Kate asked looking pale all of a sudden.

? Aldrich couldn't help but be reminded that these two, Sam and Liam were truly experienced. They weren't Crestmasters but they were adventurers all the same.

The fact that someone might have disposed of the the pair of father and son and blamed it on a 'mysterious' well, might be true. It was all the same they had to report at least one important fact.

All in all this was not a difficult quest, but it did mean that they will have to go down that well searching for clues.

"So… are we going now?" Asked Kip.

"Now? No way. Look here we have three days to complete this quest, it's a two hour ride. And we need to prepare some things just in case, don't be in such a hurry."