A common travel cart moved over the plains between tradebreak and St Baalz. it came to a stop when a large bull-like creature with a head that looked like a rocky wall.

“Passengers, it seems a rockbull is blocking the road. we might be delayed until the guards deal with it.” the cart's rider announced. 

Rockbulls tended to be docile creatures but had a habit of blocking your path. Aggravate them and you better hope you have a way to sidestep. 

Out of the cart jumped prince Tristan “No! We cannot be delayed.” 

He picked up his greatsword which had a beautifully decorated hilt. He swung his sword filling it with mana. The attack came down and split the Rockbull's head in two. while the guards were pushing its body off the road Arce and Bruce were watching.

“I can't deny his power.” Bruce said “I still think there's more to this investigation than he lets on. I mean an entire party of skilled guards wiped out leaving no survivors.”

“He gave us enough money to prepare,” Arce said, looking at a ring she had bought. The tiny ball shape on top was decorated with small gems and would help enhance her magic. She returned to a book she had brought on advanced elemental magic “Besides, that was with prince hobart’s men and Triston said his brother didn't know much about combat itself.”

“Even so. They were at least as strong as us and if we had taken more jobs in Kings city we could've been ranked B.”

The prince returned to the cart “We'll be in St Baalz soon. we'll head to a noble i know, stay there for the night and head out tomorrow.”

Bruce leaned on his one handed hammer on the bench”and the elf we were supposed to meet there?”

Triston smiled “I'll go pick her up. You'll meet her by dusk. You two just settle in the marquis or get information in town.”

Arce looked up from her book saying “That might be a good idea. the adventurer guild might have some info.”

Triston grabbed Arce by the shoulder bringing her closer “I knew you were a clever girl. You can also ask the marquis some things. Naturally my brother stayed with him too during his time here.”

Arce felt this hand was sweaty from the fight earlier. She tried hard not to show her discomfort, just removed his hand from her shoulder and returned to her book. 

Bruce decided to try and get Tristons attention away from Arce “Not to be rude. but can you explain why we took carts that regular adventurers take? I thought a prince like you would have his personal wagon.”

Triston let Arce be and leaned towards bruce. He forced a cheery tone and said  “Simple my dwarven friend. we're going as adventurers. so we can be approached if there's any rebels.”

“but your portrait is in every castle that belongs to your kingdom.” 

Triston waved it off  “I'm pretty sure only nobles have seen that. had we gone in a royal wagon it would have announced i was royalty. any rebel would go into hiding if a royal cart came. if it were as easy as just look and find then the adventurers would've found something. Hell, I would've sweeped the forest with the royal army.”

Arce tried tuning them out. arguments like this had been going on since the boat out of kings city. Bruce's questions weren't explicitly rude or even unfounded and the prince always answered with equal politeness. Even so Arce could not deny there was a hint of animosity between the two. she just assumed it was due to how others in kings island had treated Bruce. so she just let them argue. They arrived in St Baalz just after noon. They stepped off the cart at the gates and headed for the marquis's mansion. The guards didn't let them pass into the mansion. until Triston gave them a letter to pass to the marquis who quickly came to properly greet them. Each of them was given a room in the mansion. Once they left their luggage they went into town and split up.

***

Arce headed to the local guild. Upon arriving she noticed the town wasn't nicknamed the adventurers town for nothing. As many different classes could be seen. Much more than kings island ever would have due to the forest nearby.

She approached the guild's information desk. “I'd like the latest information on the dark forest.”

The receptionist nodded and pulled some files out from under the desk. She pulled out a map and said “recently an outpost built by the 3rd prince has been attacked so now the ruins of said town make an easy resting spot. Some of the houses still stand and if you're lucky they might still have some furniture left. A good spot if you plan to explore the forest multiple days. We do have to warn you that recently more adventurers have gone missing and those we do hear about have decided not to return from the forest for some reason.”

“Aren't they dead?”

The receptionist shook her head “We're not sure sometimes a party member returns saying the rest decided to investigate something and had been told it would take a while before they could return.”

Arce considered the situation. it was an interesting way she put it “they have been told? like someone had set a date for how long they'd be gone?” 

She pointed to a table in the back “You could ask Odores. a few days ago she was the first to return saying her party had left.”

Arce thanked her and approached Odores. the young woman had clearly seen more adventure than her yet she clearly hadn't seen a lot more  recently. “I heard you were in the forest recently”

The woman sighed “is this because of the disappearances? I don't know much and what I do know I can't tell. all i can say is if you see a golem you either run or hear it's master out.”

“A golem? it won't kill you if you run?”

she didn't respond. 

"Any advice in case we have to fight it?" 

The woman laughed a bit “Listen if you HAVE to fight that thing. then you better be at least an A class or S class. if you are not you better pray.”

“Is it that powerful?”

“It's body is made of metal, little girl. I’ve seen my friends' arrows bounce off it and the mana... oh the mana radiating off it. It was immense. I'm not sure the woman calling it her summon was really its summoner.” she realized she was revealing too much. “Look, just forget I said anything and just either hear them out or run.”

 Arce was persistent though, placing some gold coins “at least tell me. where did you meet them?”

the girl looked at the gold  “look i'm afraid of whatever actually summoned that thing.” There was a short bit of silence as she pondered what she could say when she picked up the coins and said “I can say that I've been told the pass to the desert has been blocked off. no one has checked whether that was true though.” Arce was about to leave when Odores grabbed her robe “just promise me. if it or its friends tells you to do something you either do it or run. and if you talk to them... can you ask how the first parties they brought with them are? or if they know when they'll be able to return? herb gathering is getting boring.”

After she thanked her for the info Arce left the guild. What was behind this? it could be a powerful mage or maybe even a warlock was in the village maybe destroyed it and killed the 3rd prince Hobart. but why would he or she recruit adventurers and for what? how powerful was this golem Odores kept warning her for. In short there's a mysterious group in the forest guided by a powerful golem recruiting adventurers. If this group killed Triston's brother then he might do something drastic. 

***

Bruce had left the mansion to wander the streets looking to buy some more potions for the investigation. He had asked around the common folk about the black forest. Most of them had things to say about frequent earthquakes, loud strange noises and explosions. to Bruce sounded normal for a forest frequented by strong adventurers. He passed some stalls when he noticed the second prince near a shady man. the building was obviously a slave house. Bruce figured this 'elf' would not be very free. something he didn't expect was a skinny man getting spooked by seeing the prince. Bruce saw this man run into an alley trying to hide. Once Triston was in the building Bruce made his way to the alley the man had hid in. He found him hiding in some rubble. Bruce scared him when he took some rubble off the man “you look like you've seen your debt collector friend.”

The man relaxed as he saw it was not Triston “oh thank the gods it's not him. out of my way, dwarf.”

 The man tried to shove Bruce aside. Bruce responded by pushing him back down and crushing an old beam with his hammer “better start talking”. 

“about what?” the man asked. 

“Why did you get so spooked? I saw you earlier.”

“ok. ok. you saw the well dressed fellow near the slaver house?”

“yes. What about him?”

“He's actually a prince. I don't know if it's the first or second.”

“second one.”

“ah yes... wait you knew? Does that mean you…”

“Relax, I'm not here to catch you. Why does the prince scare you so much? also you don't look like a noble, how did you even know?” 

He relaxed a bit hearing Bruce wasn't after him “well i knew the 3rd prince. You see, I was hired as a saboteur. I'm a mage skilled in runeplacing.”

Bruce had seen Arce place rune traps. she had explained to him how it worked with an example. one could place a rune making water drop on someone as he passed it. If you adjusted the ciphering of the full rune you could make the trap different like make it drop poison or bless someone, make it spawn fire on a set time or even recover. depending on the mana put into it it could be a one time trap or a longlasting one. “So you're a trapper?”

“I said I was a saboteur. I specialize in runes that go off at a certain time.”

“What did the 3rd prince have to do with this? doesn't sound like you killed him.”

“I didn't. but I was there the day he died. In their eyes my unwillingness to act might as well have killed him.”

“interesting. That could help. now speak up or you're going to meet the brother.”

“Fine. I was asked to sabotage the town.”

“The one in the dark forest?”

“Obviously. I stole some farmers keys and placed a fire trap in his shed, made it so the gates opened once dusk approached. He also wanted monster luring spells.”

“So the town was a setup? by the 3rd prince?”

“I don't ask questions on a job. But I did stick around to watch it work. I hid in a tree near the front gate to see the madness unfold. The town was overrun with direwolves by the time the sun went down. There was an earthquake and shortly after lights appeared in the sky. it came from... I don't know what to compare it to... flying boxes.” Bruce was starting to doubt him. seeing bruce's doubtful stare he continued “Look i know how it sounds. I know you won't believe me but there were big boxes with lights. it dropped a big golem into the town. I even think it spoke.”

Bruce was getting convinced the man might have hallucinated the whole thing. still he could maybe get a hint from his ramblings “so what did the golem say?”

“I didn't catch all of it but it definitely shouted: yeet the puppy.”

“what is yeet? Is that a name?”

“I have no idea but he nearly tossed a direwolf in my tree after that. it kept killing direwolves. The other flying box landed near the church and people came out of it.”

“Beastmen? Elves? Dwarves?” 

“Nothe didn’t have any animal features, they were too tall for dwarves and I don't think they were elves. But I can hardly describe what happened after that. They used a series of small magic to kill the direwolves that attacked them and went house to house looking for survivors. The guild never even let me get to the part where more of them showed up and started guiding villagers to their skyboxes. They flew them away.”

Bruce remembered the castle that had appeared over kings island. Maybe some overseas country had made it and were invading the kingdom. like we needed another kingdom in this mess of a continent. “Then what happened?”

The man stared wide eyed “well color me surprised you're hearing me out. Anyway after things calmed down they kept searching for people. When some headed towards me. I thought they knew I was there. Luckily it was the prince and his guards who arrived before they got out of the gate. The prince managed to trick their leader into being enslaved. When he held up the necklaces holding the enslavement gems the guy they put in the belltower made the gems shatter.”

“A guy in the belltower?”

“Oh yeah. The box that held the golem stopped near it and ever since, a small burst of fire came from it. seemed all of their people had some spell that could make little bursts of fire to kill direwolves. when it destroyed the gems the beastmen guards turned on them and with the strange people started killing guards.”

“Then what?”

“I had enough when the gems shattered and the bearmen turned. so i ran dammit.”

Bruce had to sit down on a crate for a second. That was a strange story but considering the flying castle it was possible. The man sounded so sure too. 

The man stared at him intently “so?”

“if i hadn't seen the flying castle over kings island i wouldn't have believed you either.”

“Flying WHAT? there's bigger ones?” the man stood up “You know dwarf, i thank you for believing me. but after hearing that, I'm taking a ship to get as far away from this place as possible.”

The man ran off before Bruce could even respond.he didn’t mind. The story he just heard had him thinking. flying boxes, small bursts of fire that could kill direwolves, giant golems...Bruce could not even begin to imagine. He slowly walked back to the mansion.