RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 201

He continued to ask other NPC merchants in the vicinity and came to know that the guard did enter the market. He needed to make a couple of purchases or give a few silvers to loosen their mouths. The temple was situated at the centre of the market. So, it was very hard for Shadow to not suspect the temple, when the man had already entered the market. But none of the NPC closer to the temple could remembers seeing a coastal guard. A coastal guard would be dressed in his uniform, so he would attract the attention of the passersby and also the merchants, who would try and sell their wares to him.

This was all very confusing. It looked like the guard had disappeared somewhere in the middle of the market. He first thought about someone kidnapping him, but that felt stupid as such a thing would cause a scuffle and NPCs would talk about it unless it was an entity that they didn’t want to offend. Apart from the temple, he couldn’t think of anyone else. He also understood that the coastal guard’s investigations would be similar and there was a high chance the found out the same.

The only other thing he could think of was that the guard had decided to get away with the goods of his own will. Either way, he was stuck. He could only go to the deacon, talk with him to explain his findings.

As he entered the temple, he was taken to the deacon by a friar. The evening mass had just finished, and the temple was clearing of its devotees. Shadow immediately explained the situation to the deacon and informed that the lieutenant had requested for another week’s time to deliver the supplies. He then proceeded to inform the deacon of his own investigation and he was informed that the coastal guard would have probably come to know of this already.

“No wonder, they are a bit hostile,” said the deacon. “The market is considered by the majority of the community to be under the protection and the order of the temple. If the coastal guards have learned of this, they are sure to suspect us. We must know of the situation as early as possible. Else, the good name of the temple would soon be in tatters.”

“Adventurer Shadow, please accompany in finding out the issue. There is a chance that someone in the market might not be willing to divulge the information to you. So, I will accompany you,” said the deacon as he got up to make a few arrangements and the pair of them got out of the temple.

Balthazar was now sure that he did the right thing in the quest by talking to the deacon. The fact that the deacon had joined him to find out about the missing guard implied that the quest is moving forward irrespective of whether the deacon was a friend or an enemy. So, Balthazar was sure that it would help to bring the quest to a conclusion faster. Moreover, three is a high chance of him getting coastal guard reputation if he managed to either help the missing guard or find out about a corrupted guard based on the situation.

He took the deacon to the last NPC who informed him of the missing guard. The deacon went to the NPC merchant and a few seconds later returned with a confused look. “He says that the coastal guard was arrested by the town guards and was taken there along with the supplies. He was warned to keep it a secret from everyone else by the town guards,” said the deacon.

“So, what should we do next?” asked Shadow with the hope that he could go ahead and inform the coastal guard, or the temple will handle it on its own. The town guard were a force as strong as the temple in the town and he didn’t want to meddle in it. He might get kicked off from the town. The quest was going in the worst direction possible in his eyes.

“No. We can’t completely take action on the town guards based on the words of a merchant. We need proper proof. The coastal guard will be kept in the prison. You need to infiltrate it,” said the deacon.

“You want me to break out a prisoner?” asked Balthazar surprised. “That would definitely put me out of the town,” he thought. “Isn’t the prison supposed to be something that couldn’t be broken into in an NPC managed town. If that was the case, there would have been guilds which would have definitely attempted it.”

He had heard of large guilds attack an entire town and try to take over the town in an attempt to break out someone important to the guild, but he never heard of them focusing on the prison. He only heard of them taking over the entire town and he thought that it was the only way to get someone out of prison in the game.

“Break out? That is beyond your capabilities young man and beyond mine too. I need you to get into the prison and gather intel. Find the coastal guard. These military men are not like the local forces like the town guard. They will have a token to signify their identity. You need to make a recording of the person while taking the token,” said the deacon as he handed him a small device with a lens and a red crystal on it. It looked like a scope, but Balthazar recognized it as primitive video recorder in the game.

“That can be used to record the words of the coastal guard. You need to take his token and recording to the lieutenant. He can mobilize his men and set the matter straight,” said the deacon.

Quest Modified: Missing Supplies.

Quest Description: Break into the prison to gather evidence of the foul play from the coastal guard who is imprisoned.

“How do I break into the prison,” asked Shadow. That was the thing that had him stumped the most. He only had seen the prisons of the guild owned town and was sure that any player who came close to the prison regions in NPC owned towns would be thrown into the prison by the system.

“The prison is at the rear of the town heads mansion. It is a desolate building with a few guards. You need to be careful. He will probably be in the lower regions of the prison. Neither I nor the lieutenant can protect you if you are caught. They will have legitimate reason to keep you in the prison and if required even execute you. As for the actual breaking in and finding out about the reason for his capture that I am leaving to you,” said the deacon.

“Clearly the worst scenario that I could end up in,” thought Shadow. “How could a mission which had a peaceful heading like finding missing supplies end up being one that would pit me against the town?!” he cursed the system as he went in the direction specified by the deacon.

He went and found the mansion to be almost similar to the one he saw in Jarko Town. It had stone walls about 9 feet high bordering it, with guards patrolling the area and a pair of guards near the gate. The difference was that the mansion was smaller than that of the Jarko Town and there were more guards making it much more difficult. He decided to first notice the patterns of the guards and their words to get an idea of the place.

“Did you know one of the coastal guards was taken captive by the young master,” said one of the guards at a gate to a patrolling guard who passed by him.

“The young master is back in town?” said the patrolman. “He is the worst possible heir for this town. He just mucks around everything he finds. What was the reason for arresting the coastal guard?”

“Nothing. He found the guard carrying something in a case. Looking at the guard he thought it might be something valuable and asked him to part it for a price. You know how greedy and stupid he can be, right? You remember the number of idiotic things he did before,” said the guard at the gate..

“So, he arrested a coastal guard for that? This is a bit stupid even for him,” said the patrolman shaking his head. “I wonder how many people the head will have to bribe and pacify for him this time. The coastal guards are not trifling matter. We might even need to take some other jobs soon.”

“Don’t worry, the head had already stopped him when he came to know of it. It is just that the idiot had whipped the coastal guard and though he tried to reason with the guard to keep this quiet, he refused. So, he is in the prison for now. Anyway, the main reason for me to tell you this is to keep a lookout for a new job. I heard you know of a merchant in the city. It would be good if we can secure a job there. I don’t see the young master, Dominic changing anything soon,” said the guard.

“Sure, will send a message. Thanks, brother,” said the patrolman as he went along with his patrols.

“That is the stupidest reason, I have ever seen for a quest. That is just lazy writing,” thought Balthazar as he began to observe the patrolman.

He moved to the back of the mansion in stealth and he got onto the wall from a tall tree. He found the prison to be a dilapidated stone building of two floors with a crumbling roof. There were no guards specifically on the prison but a pair of patrolmen who moved past its door frequently. “The first floor is probably being used as a prison,” thought Balthazar.

He could see two option for entering the building. One was to pluck a key from one of the two patrolmen. He had to pickpocket these NPCs but there were all level 20 characters. It would be hard and very risky. If he failed to pick their pocket silently, he could quickly use the poison to put the guard down, but it would raise alarms and he knew that he wouldn’t have enough time to get the recording done.

The second was to break into the prison through the second floor of the building. The building looked quite old and this seemed to be the less risky option. He had a rope which he had kept with him from the dungeon Bungar’s Keep and he could use it with the piolets to have a way back to the second floor. He had handled far harder situations in real-life before, the only difference is had the tools to make infiltration simple and this time he had to go beyond old-school. He felt that it was downright primitive.

After some deliberation, he chose to go ahead with the second method. He made his way from the walls to the roof of the prison building in stealth. The roof was made of mud tiles with one quarter of it broken. He jumped down the broken room and found himself in the second floor of the building. It was filled with leaves stones and even a few critters were moving around the place.

He moved around the place and looked for a few minutes before he found a broken-down staircase. At the bottom of the stairs, there was a small locked iron gate which prevented entry into the actual prison. He could see the prison cells through the gate and realized that the stairs opened into one of the prison cells.

Most other occupation players would be stumped at this point, but this is a simple task for an assassin. Pickpocketing and lockpicking are the two most commons skills that they practice. The lock sprung open for Shadow on his first attempt and he got in.

He moved through the place in stealth as he observed the various people in the prison. Most of them were in tattered clothes and looked like they have been in the prison for a long time. Unlike the modern-day prisons, the prison in the game didn’t have specific designed clothes for prisoners. So, he was sure that the guard could be recognized by his clothes.

He went around looking for the guard but didn’t find him. The only place he didn’t look was a solid iron door which was at a corner of the prison. Then, he remembered that the deacon inform him that there was a possibility of him being imprisoned in the lower regions of the prison. So, he went to the door and started trying to unlock it.

This door was harder to unlock but after a couple of tries, it opened. He made his way down and found himself in a bas.e.m.e.nt. There weren’t any prisoners here. Only a few skeletons and dead bodies hanging from the a few chains. It was a dreary scene which made would make any one imprisoned there feel stifled due to the smell and the bodies.

He doubted that it would be where the guard was imprisoned but thinking of the guards’ conversation that he overheard, he thought that it might be possible, if the town head wanted to silence him. He soon found a prisoner alive and in a cage about 4 feet tall. He was sitting slumped his back on the bars of the cage and wearing the uniform of the coastal guard missing his badge.

Shadow crept to him and got out of stealth. “Hello, are you awake,” he asked tapping the guard with his daggers through the gaps between the bars of the cage. The coastal guard grunted before he slapped away Shadow’s dagger.

“Aren’t you a bit too early. Had your dinner early today?” mocked the coastal guard. “I got nothing to tell you idiots. Have heard that the town head and his son are stupid, but this is the worst. I would suggest you to leave this place to find a new job.”

“I think you have misunderstood my intentions. I don’t work for the town head,” said Shadow as he pointed to the badge pinned on his chest. “I work for the temple and was sent to retrieve the supplies that haven’t been delivered by you. I went to talk to the lieutenant Bloom who told us about you. After some investigation, I and the deacon came to know of your predicament. Though we can’t do anything ourselves due to lack of proper military might, I hope that you could provide me with enough proof that you were imprisoned here,” explained Shadow as he took out the recorder.

“Do you have any token or something that would convince him or your capture. I doubt a video recording is enough for them to attack the town head,” said Shadow.

“I don’t have any token. Even if I had, I wouldn’t just give it to someone with a badge. I don’t trust you enough,” said the coastal guard. “Still I have been starving here and even if it is one of the town heads tricks, I am willing to give you a recording and something that will convince lieutenant Bloom.”

“There is a broken wooden box over there,” he said pointing to some rubble. “That was the box containing the supplies. The son of the head broke it and took the merchandize and the note that I had from the lieutenant to the deacon, but there is supposed to be an inventory of the goods in the box which I am sure that he hadn’t taken. You can provide that to lieutenant Bloom.”

Shadow quickly went to the rubble and after a minute of shuffling he found the piece of paper with the stamp of the coastal guard headquarters indicating the goods being transported. This was enough proof for him to convince the head that he had at least come into contact with the missing guard or had found out about reason for him to be missing. But it still would serve better as a proof against the town head if it was left here and found the inventory here after they raided the place. If the missing guard was moved, then there would be a lot of trouble to him from the town head and also from the coastal guard if they think that he was misleading them. So, after he took a recording of the place and the prisoner, he asked the missing guard about it.

“This would be better served as proof of their misdeeds if you were removed from this place by the time the lieutenant gets his men here,” said Shadow hoping that he would get some other piece of information.

“Stranger,” said the coastal guard. “I don’t trust you. I have other arrangements and the coastal guard will realize that I was held captive if they come here, but I am not going to inform of those things to a stranger. I only trust my brethren. Move ahead with a recording if you will, you won’t get anything more from me.”

It was clear that he wouldn’t get any more from the NPC and decided to make his way back. From the first words of the missing guard when he tapped him awake, there is a high chance that someone would come for him in a few minutes. So, he quickly got out of the place as he pulled the gates back into place and made his way out.