In this world, Magic is Everything. All people, all races, are granted with the power to perform mystical and magical feats via grimories, mystical tomes granted to each and every child on their 15th birthday. Those blessed by the mana can have their names written down in legend.
Shattered Grimoires is the work of the mind(s) of Ardere & Shattered Grimoire's staff. All characters and content are copyright their creators, and may not be replicated without their creators' permission. Black Clover is owned by Yuki Tabata and published by Viz Shonen Jump. All images belong to their original owners. The theme you are currently viewing was made by Eliza of ElizaCodes exclusively for Shattered Grimoires.
Description: There has been a suspicious amount of wolves spotted by farmers on the outskirts of Hage. A request has been put forth to cull their numbers because concern is rising. Bring their pelts back to the farmers to reassure them of your success.
Minimum Number of Players: 1 Minimum
Minimum Word Count: 1000 words each
Location: Hage
Name of NPC: N/A
Enemies: Wolves x 6 per person
The wolves attack in packs, which means that all six of them tend to move together. They have junior health and deal junior damage. They tend to attack one right after the other and coordinate, leaving their opponent little room to breathe. They move at 12 m/s
Special Conditions: N/A
Taking on missions for the country often had some kind of undertone to it, especially for junior members of the magic knights. It would be something along the lines of going after small runaway animals like cats or dogs, doing stupid things to boost tourism in certain sections of the country that got plenty of it already or by taking part in dick measuring contests with other knight squads as a means of keeping the people occupied. But all of that was pointless in his eyes. There were so many other things that needed to be taken care of within the country that were far more pressing, but were overlooked because these silly little antics took priority, and he was getting rather sick and tired of it. They were magic knights, not some kind of trained monkeys they could call upon at random to do their little dance and tricks so people could have a laugh and a cheer.
So while some of his other junior squad members were sent out to take on temporary babysitting jobs for the nobles of the capital, he set out on a journey to get back to the forsaken realm, a place that actually needed help. The nobles of this country could have hired just about any kind of nanny or babysitter or anything else along those lines because they had the funds. But no, they had to utilize the magic knights because it was their duty to do what was needed for the benefit of the country. And as long as their pockets were lined with the money from the noble families, they would be able to continue doing so for a longer period of time. Griswold was very much aware of this fact as only a fool believed that they would be able to keep going about their business as usual without proper funding. He wasn’t an idiot.
He also knew that there was little to nothing to be gained in terms of money by helping a place like Hage in their time of need. With what they could scrounge up, one would earn twice just by babysitting some overprotected, stuck up noble child in the safety of the noble realm. Now, where one had to draw the line as a magic knight was to do what needed to be done for the people over making money with the excuse of being able to help the people. It was a thing he had heard a bunch of times now as a means of explaining why one went to do the pesky jobs for a noble over helping a bunch of commoners and wretches from the forsaken realm. At the end of the day, one had to take a moment to make clear for themselves whether the money they were bringing in was actually going to be used towards helping the people.
Because if everyone was fixated on earning money for the sake of helping but no one went out to do the actual helping, what was the point of actually making said money. The point being that it was merely an excuse, public relations talk for saying “it’s not our direct priority”. So when word reached him of a mission taking place in the forsaken region, more notably involving the town of Hage, Griswold did everything he could to convince the higher ups to let him have that one instead of something involving a noble’s missing cat or annoying kid. Truth be told, if that was all there was to life as a junior magic knight, he would not have ever made it towards the next rank without repeatedly trying to kill himself or just quit being a magic knight. Whichever of the two options came first.
Wasting no time in getting himself ready, he passed through the capital while visiting his three favored spots; The butcher, the bakery and the fresh produce stall. Bring several loafs of bread, dried beef and a whole lettuce, the only things he brought with him from the headquarters of the Crimson Lions were a large bottle of water and a sleeping bag. Knowing better than to be left out on the open road without food or water, he figured that if he moved fast enough, he might not even need his sleeping bag or the food he brought as he would be able to reach an inn before midnight. But seeing as how, the further north one got, the more distrusting people became, it seemed better not to barge into any places after the witching hour. Besides, as someone who trained under the hunters and huntresses of the Shadesinger settlement, he knew quite well how to protect himself in the wilderness.
Walking with his broom in hand to the nearest exit, he did not want to be one of those annoying guys that just hopped on their broom in the middle of the city. He personally always hated it when someone suddenly swooshed past him or over him as it more or less triggered his instinct to protect himself from a potential attacker. And as a member of the magic knights that was also a commoner and an elf, it wasn’t all that paranoid of him either. There were a lot of people out there who did not like people who were different, as well as entire hordes of people that did not enjoy having commoners around to sully the name of the magic knights with their impure bloodlines. For these people, Griswold really only had a few things to say, or rather a hand gesture existing out of but a single finger.
It was at times like these, when he thought of just how much corruption was going on within the royal capital and among the people that lived in it that he just wished to not be there. Once he stepped onto his broom, it would not take him long before he made his way out into the world, leaving the capital behind him for the fresh air of the common realm surrounding it. Along with it, he could feel some of the burdens he had been experiencing just rolling off of his shoulders and falling to the ground far beneath him as he raced through the air towards the common realm. Being the kind of person that preferred walking over a broom ride, mostly because it had taken him some time to actual steer properly, he made an exception for the simple reason being that he just really wanted to help out the people he considered to be his own.
Even as far away as the capital, one could already see one of the scariest landmarks he had ever seen or heard of up in the distance. The massive demon skull that stood near the town of Hage was all he had ever seen of the actual town as he had never been there. But whether one was a foreigner or not, everyone had at some point seen or heard of the demon skull, and for good reason. It was humongous and instilled fear into those that were more or less aware of the fact that demons were not just a story told by people to frighten their children into wandering off on their own, or sneaking out in the middle of the night. While he did not know where they came from or what their motivations were, he knew that they were innately evil beings that sought to either use, subdue or destroy humanity by any means necessary.
Using the landmark as a means of navigation, it was hard not to follow or stray from the direction of such an easy to see “structure”, for lack of a better word. With darkness quickly falling over the world, Griswold found himself a quiet place to settle down for the night, unrolling his sleeping bag in a high perch overlooking most of the area. There, most of the wildlife would most likely not even take notice to him, while those people that had bad intentions towards traveling would probably think twice before even attempting such a climb. Falling asleep with little to no issues at all, he awoke early on in the morning to find out that he hadn’t been rolling about in his sleep or plummet to his death as a result of it. Getting a quick bite to eat, he hopped onto his broom again and made his way to the village some time after.
Having gone there with the intention of helping them in rebuilding several of the buildings that had gotten unstable or had just collapsed, he instead met up with a group of seemingly concerned members of society. These farmers and civilians were clearly upset over something, which was when he saw a cart that carried a dead calf. From the looks of it, it had been killed by a predator as it had its throat ripped out, which fit the profile of your average grey wolf. With the other wounds it had sustained, he believed the rest had been inflicted after death as they seemed like the kind that was inflicted due to feeding. Once he got close enough to be able to differentiate the different voices inside of the rowdy mob, he heard that there had in fact been wolves sighted nearby, and that they were growing in numbers for some reason.
Judging by the way they spoke, wolves were not all that common here as there were plenty of forests nearby where they could hunt deer, rabbit, hare, badger and wild boar. They did not need to come this far south looking for food, especially in such large numbers. To many of the townsfolk and farmers, none of it made sense. Talking about how they sometimes had one wolf wandering about that seemed far larger than your average grey wolf, others talked down on it and claimed that people were just making up tall tales that had no grounding in reality. Whatever the case, it was clear large packs of wolves were uncommon here, meaning that as a magic knight, he should probably investigate. Asking the farmer that owned the dead calf as to where he had encountered the pack last, as well as inquiring to the location of the farmland where the actual attack had happened, several thoughts came to mind as he listened to the man providing him with answers.
The last time people had told him that wolves were responsible for something, he had ventured into a forest where even the vegetation had taken to devouring human flesh and using their remains as fertilizer. Shrugging the thought off so as to not go down that particular memory lane again, his focus went towards his New mission. The way he saw it, rebuilding was something he could do once he got back, something that would continue as normal even if he was not around to help out. In that regard, handling these prowling predators took priority. Deciding to go to where the people had seen the pack moving about, he could only think of two conflicting things right now. One involved his “family” back at the Cromwell farm, three simple farmers that would not have had the tools to deal with a growing pack of hungry canines of such size.
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On the other hand, the location of the pack meant that Griswold knew exactly where these animals had been coming from, as well as why. With the nearby forest being a place that had been infested with all sorts of unnatural life forms such as the plant and spore creatures he had encountered, these wolves would not be able to hunt and dwell within their original territory. And what happened next was so clear, even a blind man would be able to see it. The same thing happened when human expansion meant deforestation, meaning that the animals that once lived there would at some point return in search of food or would just go somewhere else. One way or another, it made sense for these wolves that had likely been orphaned by the plant monsters to band together and create a new pack, as well as seeking out a new place to mark as their territory.
And if there were people in that area that were farming the land and looking after livestock, that would only make it easier for them to fill their roaring stomachs. At this point, most people would likely have gone in guns blazing without showing any sign of remorse, not even giving a damn about the lives they might be snuffing out. But as an elf who had lived out most of his life in a vast forest within the neutral zone, Griswold had been raised to care about all life, not just those of humanoid origin. For him, things were not so easy, though he knew that he would need to take care of the animals one way or another. On his own, relocation would not be possible. And even if they managed to move all of them somewhere else, there was a chance that they would just move out and make life impossible for others. Starting to believe that taking them out might be a kindness, he made his way over to the place that had been pointed out to him.
As soon as he arrived, he could already see some of the animals moving about, howling loudly as they saw him approach, alerting the rest of the pack to a potential threat, and potential dinner. By now, the only ways out were by him opening things up by attacking, or by turning around and returning to Hage. The latter clearly was not an option by now. Seeing the state these wolves were in, it was a miracle that they had not already attacked the town itself as they seemed to be nothing more than skin and bone. Directing his broom down, he crashed it into one of the wolves as he leaped off, firing several bolts of fire at the animals. From the surrounding shrubbery, his keen ears could already hear the footsteps of several other wolves that had been called in by the rallying howl. Coming at him one by one, Griswold did his best to use all of his heightened senses to discover a pattern in their attacks.
Slowly but surely, he figured them out more and more, until one of them suddenly broke pattern and lunged. Biting into his arm and ripping out his sleeve, he was lucky that only two or three of its teeth had really managed to sink in deep enough to cause any real damage. Tearing into his flesh, but not ripping any of it out, it made for a rather painful wound that bled quite a bit, though it was not his most immediate problem. Because one of the wolves had just attacked him, he knew another would have lunged at him by now, an attack that seemed to fit quite well with their current pattern. And while animals were smart to some degree, they did not possess the brain power of a human being that could more easily adapt to his surroundings. Besides, he had trained for things like this, for situations where he would be put against various enemies that wanted to see him dead at the same time.
Deciding to use the inherent fear animals experienced towards fire, he turned on his heel and fired three of his firebolts at the wolf that had already begun his lunge towards him. Unable to stop it from attacking, he could prevent it from biting by setting it on fire. Normally, his attacks caused first and second degree burns upon contact. However, with these animals that had such thick fur coats, he was quite certain that he would be capable of doing more than just that. Once the bolts connected with the wolf, it winced in pain as it closed its mouth, the flames from his spell rapidly expanding across the entire body of the canine due to how quickly it was moving. Once the flames had enough oxygen to fan themselves up with and enough hair to properly fuel them up and keep them going, it would only take a little while before the entire beast became a walking fireball.
Making an attempt at escaping the battle they themselves had started by going after what seemed like an easy target by going in with superior numbers, it bumped into another of the wolves, causing the pack to become disorganized and fearful. At that same moment, Griswold activated his cauterization spell, causing magical flames to erupt from his body and begin healing the wounds he had sustained. Scratches, nicks and bruises were all covered as the flames remained only in the area local to the wounds they were meant to be healing. And even though there was not a single harmful factor to the entire spell, there was no way for the wolves to know that this was the case. There were, after all, but animals that possessed intelligence limited to their species. Proving the human mind to be vastly superior, the wolves became even more disorganized.
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Trying to decide between continuing their attack or backing up, some tried doing both at the same time as they approached him rapidly, only to suddenly break off their assault and retreated by a few steps. It was to be expected of animals, though to be entirely fair, Griswold had expected that they would have backed away and left by now. It was quite sad to be honest, seeing these creatures in such a state of hunger that they became truly ravenous, not even fully tempering their hunger with overwhelming fear for burning. Even the wolf that had been set ablaze and had by now fallen to the ground still showed some signs of life, a life his flames would soon snuff out to be sure. Had there been any other way, the magic knight would have grabbed hold of it with both hands, though the truth of the matter was simply that there wasn’t one.
Extending his uninjured arm, he used the skills he had built up over the past weeks with this particular spell to fire various bolts of fire towards the wolves that currently seemed to be on the verge of either attacking or retreating. When one of them got hit, the other decided to make a run for it, prompting one of the others to attack out of sheer desperation. Reaching for his broom and striking it over the head as hard as he could, Griswold managed to deflect the attack long enough for him to strike it at the side with a salvo of firebolts. Turning a second wolf into a walking ball of fire, the others had decided that they had seen enough, running for the hills as one of their own had already perished in the fire and a second one was about to meet the same fate. By now, these animals were no longer a pack, they were just a group of loners that did not know how quickly they should get away from one another.
In so doing, it seemed that the danger to the people of Hage had been averted as the remaining wolves would not dare get near humans again no matter how hungry they were. With enough incentive, an animal could be made to fear something to such a degree that the mere sound or sight of them could make them flee in terror. Right now, he could only hope that this was what he had achieved with these animals, as no mere wolf would be able to put them up against a human target again. At this point, it would require something far more dangerous and far more intelligent than your average wolf to pull off such a trick. And since no such things were to be found in this part of the world, Griswold made his way over to the suffering wolf and used his broom to break his neck, putting an end to its life of pain.
With that, he hopped onto his broom and returned to the town of Hage so he could deliver his report. On the way there, he could not help but return to that dark place in his mind where he had put the memories of the accursed forest and all the things that had transpired within it. If these wolves had been prowling around outside of it even now, that might mean that they had not done their job properly and that there were still threats lurking inside of it. Really hoping that that was just him taking things a bit too far out of concern, the likeliest reason was simply that they had all ventured out of the forest some time ago and were simply too frightened to go back there. And for reasons so obvious they should probably not even be mentioned, Griswold could not fault them for not having tried to do so. It was just a shame that these poor animals had only been able to venture south as their path to the north had been cut off.
Allowing a deep, drawn out sigh to escape his lips, he made his way back to the village some time after and landed in the center of town. As per usual, the nosy townsfolk all came towards him and started inquiring as to what had happened, and whether or not he had been successful. Claiming that if he had been unsuccessful, he would not be standing in front of them in once piece, some of their brows either lowered or raised due to his tone. But that was to be expected of him, as he well and truly hated putting an end to a life, especially those that had turned out so tragically. Once he spotted the farmer that had one of his calves killed by the pack, he let him know that he had two of the wolves killed, several others injured and made sure that they would not even bother returning again. Claiming he had put the fear of god into them as they scattered, the farmer signed in relief.
Stating that he would put out word that a member of the Crimson Lions had helped them out in their time of need, he asked for his name, to which he simply responded with “Griswold Cromwell”. Hoping that if these people were to tell stories, that they would at some point manage to reach the Cromwell farm and let them know that he had been doing just fine in the past weeks. Because the farm and Hage were all in the forsaken realm, chances were that people would inform one another and that they would hear about him and his good deeds from traveling merchants and farmers making their way from one market to the next. However, that was not the reason why he had come here. He had made his way over to the town so he could help them out with rebuilding some of what had been broken during the shattering.
However, right now, he really just wanted to find a place to sit down in and get some proper food in his stomach. That, and he wanted the chance to sleep in a bed rather than having to sleep in that same sleeping bag again. Believing he had at least earned that much, he went into the local tavern and ordered a pitcher of ale and whatever kind of food could be considered the chef’s special. Whether it was a roasted chicken, some cow ribs, porkchops or even the prepared meat of the wolves he had just killed, it would end up inside his stomach all the same. While considerable more tame than the case had been with the wolves, once Griswold’s hunger set in, it was unwise to get between him and his food. And that was all there was to say about that day.
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