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.
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[attr="class","shadowsHead"]Investigate to find their hideout. [Int]
After repelling the larger conflict of Minotaurs knights were tasked to figure out where they were coming from. Knights must find someone who can tell them about the minotaurs as well as give them information on their whereabouts.
[break]Additional Information: Survivor laric, the same guy from before has become infatuated with the creatures and has begun tracking their every move. Talking to him will tell you the whereabouts of the creatures. They live in some sort of cave off the west side of the road exiting the main entrance of the city, roughly 3 miles out.
[break]Additional Information:- Guard Captain Miles, the captain of the guard of the city fought the creatures before and managed to even talk to one in its dying moments. He will tell you that they are minotaurs whose Father was brought back. But that before he was told how the minotaur died. He knows that they are called minotaurs and fight without magic but are big, fast and aggressive. He is mostly unhelpful.
That same night, Griswold had been given a lot of things to think about, things to consider when moving forward. For even after the boy had gone to bed, he still wondered if giving the boy the same level of treatment he had been given in some measure as an even younger boy was the proper way to go. That said, there was still one thing that bothered him a whole lot more about this whole situation, this being the whole bull man issue. Because if there was one thing he prided himself in after spending the vast majority of his life outdoors, wandering through the fringe and forsaken realm, it was knowing quite a bit about the local wildlife. And seeing as how this particular breed of creatures was entirely new to him, the fact that they suddenly just popped up this close to Sosshi was beyond weird. It was unnatural in every way.
Up until now, whenever he had been called in to respond to something caused by the local wildlife, it was something along the lines of people quite literally poking the bear. Not too long ago, he had been tasked with making sure a tribe of goblins wasn’t about to raid Hapshass, which he did by killing a good number of them, leaving one to tell the tale to his kin. Unfortunately, what they took from this was the fact that Hapshass itself was too well guarded, leading them to send out a secondary raiding party to attack the surrounding farmlands. Knowing the goblins to be quite savage and not killing instantly but actually making their victims suffer excruciating pain before letting them succumb to their wounds, this time, Griswold had made sure to kill every last one of them. It was one of those times where he had come to the conclusion that those that were sentient enough to premeditate their murders were also opening themselves up to the notion of being murdered.
But that was just one of his encounters with something like this, another being caused by a bear that was too close to one of the towns in the common regions. In this case, Griswold had decided to relocate all of the bear’s cubs and have the mother chase him for the better part of an afternoon until they were far enough in the forest for them to look for a new home, and hopefully not make it into the crosshairs of those same hunters again. And finally, there was the time where he had to figure out why a pack of wolves had suddenly left their own territory in the forests bordered on the fringe and the forsaken region in order to come and attack a nearby farmers’ cows. To make a long story short, after a few days of trying to scare the wolves away and even taking out a few wargs that seemed to be pushing the wolves out of their region, it seemed that even the wargs were victims in the whole story.
In this particular case, the main problem had been caused by werewolves dwelling in some kind of cave that stank of coagulated blood, seemingly taking control of other lupine creatures within the area to do their bidding. Though these were all stories that had various origins and outcomes, there was one thing they all had in common: They all originated from within the nearby region. In Hapshass, it was known that there were goblin tribes nearby. In Hage, it was known that there were large packs of wolves in the nearby mountains, as were most loggers aware that when venturing into the forest, one might encounter bears. However, in all the time Griswold had spent in any of these regions, he had never once encountered these bull men, or he would have remembered it for sure. And seeing as how they had been attacking and killing people this close to town, it just conflicted with everything Griswold knew about sentient “monsters”.
Having seen the tears in the eyes of one of the bull men before he had incinerated it, one that resulted from seeing some of his own kind dead and in the ground, there was no doubt in Griswold’s mind that they were a sentient species. Wearing some level of clothing, wielding weaponry, choosing to eat animals instead of the people they had killed, it all seemed to point in that direction. Which left Griswold with a question that needed to be answered. Several questions even. He needed to know what these creatures were, where they had come from, why they had appeared only now and why they chose to attack people along the main road leading out of Sosshi. As a member of the Black Bulls, he knew he would have some pull around town, which might make it easier for him to find the answers he needed. On the other hand, the fact that he was hardly ever here might make people somewhat distrustful, which he hoped would not be the case based on what he had done for their caste in general.
Deciding to leave the boy behind to get some sleep, he imagined that if he was interested in continuing, that he would find his own way back into it. Since he had brought up the name of the survivor, Laric, he imagined that the boy had some idea as to who he was. This might make it easier for him to get some information out of the guy, especially now that he had been discharged by the medical staff. Remembering that he had spoken to some of the local guards himself before requesting access to speak to the survivor, this Laric person, he wondered if maybe they had managed to pick up some information as all of this had been going on for longer than the day Griswold had spent in Sosshi looking into the matter. Even if it was information he had already dug up by himself, it would still be worth checking in with them to deposit some of his own information with them too.
Going to bed sounded like a wonderful little reprieve just about yesterday, before he managed to find a place with Griswold where he could lay his head down and rest. Except, he hadn’t gotten much of any rest, perhaps a total of an hour or two. His entire night was spent staring up at the ceiling deep in thoughts he couldn’t escape from. He had hoped that the comforts of sleep would push those all aside until the morning, but trying to sleep here was far too unfamiliar. The beds were soft and gave in to his weight and the pillows strangely suffocating, he couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to sleep in a place like this. Truthfully, he had already grown seriously accustomed to sleeping outdoors where he had to find a way to get comfy in an uncaring environment where everything was sturdy and had a hardy, often rough exterior. It was merely too much, and that small difference lent to his building paranoia.
To get himself through the long, harrowing silence, he had to shove those thoughts away however he could manage. Unfortunately, that left him feeling rather apathetic when he finally decided to give up on this futile attempt at rest so early in the morning he was beating the sun to rising. He could tell by paying close attention to the sounds around him, basically, nobody around was awake right now. The attendant downstairs was keeping busy and Griswold… was much harder to read. In either case, he didn’t want to disturb them, so he opted to sneak out of the window. He pulled the sheets over the pillows in a weak attempt to pretend there was still a body under the sheets. Climbing over the window sill he found some difficulty in reaching each foothold, as he was too short to span the distance between many of them, and near the body, he trusted one more than he ought to. Air was expelled from his lungs as he landed on his back in a clumsy heap, but he was free from the prying eyes of the other tenants.
Wandering the streets with morbid ideas floating through his mind, he eventually found himself nearing the gates. The town guard was out in force considering the recent events, making a big to-do about looking like they were doing their jobs. It was odd, even Koji knew that the patterns of the attacks were against small groups or individuals on the roads. Maybe a vigil was enough to make people feel safe? In either case, his only route to the outside was pretty well blocked, he had no intention of getting mixed up with them in the darkness, good intentions or not. What would he do out there anyway? Sure it felt more welcoming, but the need for sleep had long since passed. He gave the watchmen a defeated sigh from afar as he walked off in another aimless direction.
His journey came to a stop at an alleyway between two buildings and exterior walls, and he sat down in the shaded darkness contemplating yesterday. He couldn’t defend himself against those bull creatures. Sure he had his walls, those were very safe pieces of cover and could probably do better at defending him from a distance, yet up close and personal… well. The wound on his shoulder had plenty to say about using walls for defense in a melee. He needed something else, otherwise, the next time he and Griswold came face to face with them or whatever stronger version of them showed up next, he needed to be prepared for the worst. Griswold could protect him, but if they ever got separated, then he would be in a real predicament. Even still, he couldn’t bring himself to harm something sentient. The first time he met them his imagination immediately led him to believe they were animals, but now he knew better. He needed something else entirely. A defense that he could take with him, something that wouldn’t have to be facing the “right” direction. He pulled out his grimoire, creating various teeth from the bestiary of information that he kept inside of it, studying each of them for their practical purposes.
With single-minded focus, he continued doing this well after dawn finally broke. For a long time, dwelling with the recesses of his mind, he forgot himself and people’s aversion to his magical element. Studying in this delirious state made him oblivious to passersby, commenting on the weird boy staring at teeth in an alley. He already didn’t have a good reputation in this city, but he had taken it far beyond reason now. It wasn’t long before he was interrupted by a couple of guards who were more annoyed than afraid of having to deal with a tiny alley creep. The slam of a spear shaft on the cobblestones was enough to bring Koji back to reality, even though he had no real grasp of what was going on. Sleepless for countless hours toiling away for many more, he wasn’t exactly cognisant enough to make himself reasonable when they approached. The kid was taken into the guardhouse, lifted by one hand and his grimoire carried by the other.
The guardhouse wasn’t equipped for any sort of interrogation, so they sat him at a table with minimal oversight, a single guard watching over him while they went to retrieve the Captain in hopes that he could mediate the situation.
Doing a bit of tracking of his own, seeing as how the captain of the guard was likely not going to be going anywhere anyway, it seemed that Laric had ventured out of Sosshi a while ago. Judging by the state he had been in not too long ago, Griswold wondered as to whether this choice was really the wisest one for him to take. And for good reason. He had been a victim of these bull men, he had been injured by them, and now it seemed like he hadn’t had enough of that whole situation yet. For judging by the direction he had more than likely gone into, the man had ventured back into the direction of the attacks. So even though Griswold had killed the creatures in that general area, the fact that he did not know where they came from and how many more of them might be out there somewhere bothered him.
Moving about as fast as his legs would take him while still maintaining a pace in which he could get a read of his surroundings and any potential tracks, he left Sosshi behind and made his way back over to the place where the bull men had been killed. From that point on, it became easier for him to distinguish any new tracks as most people would not pass through this region due to the aforementioned attacks, which worked out in his favor. Passing by the makeshift graves, it seemed that the man had been here too, at least that was what the tracks indicated as they were neither his nor those of the boy. Following them further along into the woods and away from the path, he knew that there was a more mountainous route up ahead. Hoping he would not need to venture down that whole region, he eventually found the guy sitting in some bushes.
Only partially covered and not having showered since his discharge from the medical station from the looks of it, Griswold imagined that if the bulls were actually here, they would most likely have sniffed him out or sensed him, so they were probably not here. Approaching the man and startling him half to death, the black bull more or less stated that the man was going to be escorted back to Sosshi right now. Being the kind of person that he was, he was not going to be accepting a No at this time, as he was not going to have to go through the trouble of digging another grave for someone. But as it turned out, Laric had managed to make some progress into the case, claiming he had found where some of the creatures came from. Though they had more or less been moving in and out for some time, not venturing out too far, likely due to some of their kin having died, they were undoubtedly dwelling there.
Not really sure what to do with this information since Griswold really did not want to go in and commit genocide if it could be helped, if these creatures kept targeting humans for no reason, he would need to do something about it. This was Sosshi, and as a Black Bull himself, that meant that the place fell under their protection, as well as the rest of the forsaken region. So if they were sentient or not, as long as they made the decision to be murderous without trying to make any attempt towards communicating, he would do to them as he had done to a tribe of goblins in the past. For now though, he decided to leave that much for a later point in time. For now, it was more important to get this guy back to town, giving Griswold himself the chance to have a talk with the local guards and see what they’ve managed to learn before making a decision on how to move forward.
As time passed sitting at the singular table and chair in the room, the guard watched as Koji’s mind slowly pieced itself together again on the way out of his self-imposed stupor. His eyes were no longer unfocused and he now looked around at things with distinct recognition, it was clear from the look on his face that the kid was suffering from sleep deprivation, yet he wasn’t sympathetic to his current situation or looking to lend a hand to the kid.
Koji was leaning against the back of the chair rather lethargic when his senses returned to him, his eyes scanned the unfamiliar room with a rising sense of paranoia. Words formed on his lips and yet he didn’t make a sound, that was until his gaze fell upon the man watching him. He yelped in a very unbecoming manner even if he didn't hold any sort of stature or position, he only somewhat recognized what was going on around him. "This room is very… quiet, and the chair is stiff, and you've been watching me this whole time… did I… do something wrong?" He questioned aloud, many of those thoughts were rhetorical but his confusion was obvious.
The lone guardsmen placed a hand on his forehead wondering how he got stuck babysitting this idiot when a voice echoed from down the one hallway proceeding to this room. "I don't know kid, why don't you tell me…" the voice was low and gruff, much like Griswold's but distinctly different. A man nearly as wide as the door frame carefully navigated his way through the entrance, not wanting to bump into the doorframe. His scale armor was gleaming under the dim natural light inside the building. He carefully removed his helmet and sat it on the table, giving Koji a chance to see the captain’s face. Dark brown in a thick beard around his chin and cut short on the top of his head. He looked about as gruff as Griswold and perhaps about the same age if not a little older. The captain probably thought that his presence would be a little intimidating, sending the only other guard away to fulfill other duties, but instead of seeing a very strong man in the opposite corner looking to press him for information all Koji saw was the answer to his problem.
“So, tell me. What were you doing out on the streets with… teeth I hear?” He asked rather plainly, partially recounting things from memory yet also referring to a sheet of paper he pulled out from his armor. Koji had to recollect his thoughts in order to answer the man properly. “A-Ah, well you see, sir I was-”
“What’s your name, boy?” he indignantly interrupted, narrowing his eyes at Koji.
“Koji, sir…” That was the one well-practiced manner the boy had, calling authorities “sir”, other than that he was unfamiliar with this situation. Had he committed an actual crime he might’ve been too innocent to know he should lie for his own sake. The captain stroked his beard while he thought to himself. “That name is vaguely familiar… are you the one that came back with Griswold on that hunt?” The boy merely nodded in response, seeing that his previous acts had at least garnered some recognition with the man. “You’re very kind to put yourself at risk like that, but what you did has everyone scared.”
“I needed something better.”
“Pardon?”
“I was useless out there. If it weren’t for Griswold…” He meant to finish that statement but forming the word dead or death in his mouth would bring about more tears. “And then he… he got rid of them. So I needed something better. Something that would prevent me from needing saving. And now that you’re here, I have my answer.” Koji smiled, gesturing to the captain’s armor but the inference seemed to go over his head. Miles however was quickly warming up to the kid, the desire he expressed was quite admirable, to say the least.
“That’s great and all, but what does any of this have to do with teeth?”
“Oh, well… you see, that’s what my magic is, sir. Teeth… It tends to scare people so I usually keep it under wraps, but…”
The captain held his hand up. “I’ve heard enough. Nothing against ya’ kid, this was frankly a waste of my time anyway, there are plenty of other things to concern myself with right now. You’ve learned your lesson, haven’t you?” Koji nodded hesitantly, unsure of what the lesson actually was. “Good. So, you were concocting a new way to face the monsters. Does that mean you’re going to go and face the minotaurs again?”
“M-Minotaur? Is that what they’re called?” “That’s right. They seem to have been enraged due to the actions of some of my men, one of them was killed recently, their father I suppose. I don’t know to what ends they’ll be retaliating, but it’s probably not over. So tell me. Are you going out there again, kid? Those things are brutes, and they won’t hesitate to kill you.”
Koji frowned and did his best to hold in the tears and not think about the past. His indecision was obvious, but he had to make a choice eventually.
“You don’t have to go. Someone will handle this one way… or another. You were very brave to have gone out to face them once already and lucky to have survived. There’s no shame in walking away from something you can’t manage, and you seem to understand pretty well just how capable you are.”
“...No, I can’t turn my back on this right now. I know that there are things that I probably don’t want to see, but I care about what happens to these creatures. If that means they’ll be wiped out, then I’ll carry on their memory.”
Miles smiled with a knowing nod, the kid had enough heart to be a magic knight, he just hoped this wouldn’t end poorly. “So, about that idea you had.” The captain began, indulging Koji for the little bit of time he had. He was busy, but why deal with work when he could get away with slacking off for a bit.
More or less shoving the man into town, Griswold had made himself rather clear when he said that he was not to go after the bull men again from this point on, even though the information he had managed to get for him had been quite useful. So instead of just scolding the guy, he also thanked him for the aid. It seemed only fair, even though he hoped that it would not be considered as him reaffirming the man’s beliefs that he needed to be out there in order to look into the case of the bull men and their supposed lair. There was no denying that without the work he had done, it would have been incredibly difficult to pinpoint their location this early on in his investigations, so the praise he had been given was very much earned and deserved. That said, he really hoped he would not be running into the guy out there again.
Saying his goodbyes and once again making it clear that if he were to find the man skulking about a dangerous lair of monsters again, that Griswold would break his legs, his next stop was going to be at the guard station. As he had already established prior to learning Laric had ventured out of town to look for the monsters that the guards ought to know more about things due to the severity and the number of attacks, it seemed like the only logical choice to check by them. However, as he arrived, it seemed like there was something already going on. As it turned out, they had brought someone in who had apparently caused a bit of a commotion in town due to the use of magic. While he agreed that using magic around town was often not one of the wisest decisions to make, especially depending on the kind of magic it was, it seemed like a strange thing to arrest someone over.
Due to the nature of his magic, Griswold never really used his unless he had to, which was one of the primary reasons as to why he had started relying more on his weaponry and physical skills. After all, it had already been more or less established that his magic was only good for destroying the opposition, and that was more or less all there was to it. While he often hated it, there was no denying the amount of times where it had saved either his life of that of someone, or something else, so there was really no debating its usefulness. Asking the man at the door what had happened, it seemed that he did not really have a very clear idea as to the specifics, just that it had been someone who had probably received their grimoire fairly recently. This allowed him to do a bit of the math himself, as most people got their grimoires at their fifteenth at the earliest, which seemed to be some kind of magical rule that would not budge.
Listening in at the door and using his Ki, he could tell that it was in fact the same boy that had been tagging along during his bull man antics. Due to his extrasensory capabilities, Griswold could tell that the people inside doing the talking were in no way stressed or angry, in fact having what seemed like your average conversation. Had that not been the case, he would have used the authority that came with his station to enter into the conversation and keep things from escalating. Luckily, it was not long before the guards allowed the boy to be on his way as they opened the door for him. Leaning against the wall on the side of the door, the boy would most likely not see him straight away, not would the guards that came out with him, allowing him to listen in on their discussion a little bit longer than he otherwise would have been able to. He did not have super hearing after all, so he had only heard bits and pieces when the door was closed.
Hearing how the guard spoke about how the kid should have learned their lesson, it soon turned into a back and forth about responsibilities one felt towards seeing things through, in spite of arguably not having been able to do all that much. Griswold was not the kind to indulge in fantasies, meaning he knew quite well how everything that had transpired had done so because of the work he had put in, and not much else. The sole reason why he had allowed the boy to tag along as it were was for no reason other than to teach him about the dangers of this world, the things a magic knight might face if they were as unlucky as Griswold was, and perhaps most important of all, that the wilderness surrounding the forsaken region specifically was no place for children and teens to be wandering around in. So aside from learning how invested the boy had become in seeing things through, Griswold also learned something himself, this being that the bull men were called “Minotaur”.
It was not a term he had ever really heard before, not even back when he had still lived in the enclave, which meant that these minotaur might not be local creatures after all. And that meant that someone was going to be responsible for this mess, someone that might very well be human. And if that were truly the case, it meant that the minotaur were not entirely to blame for their actions, which would have been quite sad. Still, it did not absolve them of the crimes of hurting and killing people unprovoked, so the ones that had been slain had more or less deserved what was coming to them. With a bit of luck, they would be able to arrive in time to put a stop to whatever was going on for good, a chance which increased more depending on exactly how quickly they left. So as soon as the boy walked out, Griswold would speak up.
“So, are you ready to see things through to the end?”
When it seemed like the boy was still not entirely recuperated from the events of the other day and all of the deaths that he had seen, Griswold decided for him that it was better if he ended up staying in Sosshi. With there still being no way of knowing what might await them in the cavern he had found, these “Minotaur” seemed like the kind of folk that would not just sit back and let some humans invade their lair. And if he had to drag a kid around that could barely hold his weight around some of the lesser minotaur they had faced, it was going to be the safest option to bar him from joining. As such, he turned his attention to one of the guards, winking him over and pointing towards the boy with a few instructions he hoped the man would be able to see through.
“If you would be so kind, escort the kid to the tavern and hand him a room. Put the cost on my tab, I’m sure that won’t be an issue.”
While the gaze from the kid told him enough in that he was not pleased at all, there was no way in hell that Griswold was going to be dragging him along with him when he wasn’t sure if he could handle himself. And with how distant minded he seemed, there was a chance that he might get caught up in some trouble because his head wasn’t all in it. Seeing as how the kid was still young and seemed to have only recently obtained his grimoire, there would be plenty of other options where he might be able to prove his worth to the people of this country. But for now, he was going to have to sit things out until he felt okay enough to be a reliable member of a party. And with that, Griswold said his goodbyes and left Sosshi behind.
