Next day the group eats their breakfast with the sunrise. Once finished they leave the inn to find Peter waiting there for them. He has a set of leather armor on that is dyed green with darker speckles and on his back a chocolatey brown backpack. The pack is obviously empty and has been tied down to his back so it doesn’t flop around. On his head is perched a jaunty little hat in the style of a bycocket, though most would recognize it as robin hood’s hat. Though instead of green the hat is a pleasant shade of blackish gray.

His thumbs under his backpack’s straps and a lopsided smile Peter asks, “so can I come along then?”

Courtney scrunches her eyes shut and rubs the bridge of her nose. “I am sorely tempted to tell you no right now. However, however, we decided to let you come along with us. Though I will note, this has more to do with how us saying no likely wouldn’t stop you anyway.”

With a wide smile on his face Peter shrugs, “I can neither confirm nor deny your guess. Though since I am going to be coming along let’s set some ground rules, shall we? First up, I’m not going to babysit you all on the way. If something gets out of hand? Sure, I’ll dabble but otherwise just consider me an observer. Secondly... Secondly... You know what? I only have the one thing. It sort of covers all the extra nonsense.”

“About the only other thing to mention is that the path we are taking has a problem with Swarm Cats. Think of them like ants that are cats. The only catch is they have extra long prehensile tails which they use in concert with others to drag food which is too big to carry normally. Now Tally Ho!”

Courtney raises an eyebrow at him, “These swarm cats wouldn’t happen to be swarming at the moment, would they? Might you have been here in the first place to travel this path and clear out the extras? Because it seems like, you might be foisting your own work off on us.”

Peter laughs and nods, “totally. Think of it as paying for your lessons!”

Courtney just shakes her head and turns to the others, “well let’s set off then. Going by the rough maps I’ve seen, this kingdom is actually quite small and we should only be a week or so away from the bamboo city. My guess with this surprise quest which isn’t is that there is probably a singular nest between here and our goal. Likely we will be able to get information on when we should see the monsters from the way stations.”

Rosha nods, “quite possible. Though if they are like ants, then in all likelihood it is mating season for them so we should see multiple packs. Either that or the largest swarm you ever did see. Reminds me of when father bought that one vacation house. He went to stay there right as the local ants did the same thing and one entire wall inside the place was just covered in winged ants. It was crazy and because it was an actual house and not in the arcology, he had to hire specialists to move as many as possible.”

Rosha continues her story for a little more but when she takes a deep breath to continue Peter interrupts her much to Jason’s relief. “While that story is quite interesting, Courtney reminded me of something I needed to do. After all, it isn’t fair if I give you a quest without actually giving you a Quest. So I, Peter Grey-Tail, request your service in culling the swarm cat outbreak between here and the bamboo city thataway. Do you accept?”

Courtney crosses her arms, “well, what are the rewards? We could always take a longer route that goes around that nonsense.”

Peter shrugs, “I don’t know, like ah, well I’ll vouch for you? Get you some help from my husband, he’s an enchanter and all your gear is trash. Maybe some cash, though the System can deal with that bit. I could even throw in some general helpful tidbits while you’re fighting them as long as you accept.”

Courtney smiles at the last bit and nods, “deal! You seem like a ranger of some sort and Rosha could definitely use some extra lessons.” The others nod in agreement and there is a ding as the System pops up a quest window.

Cat Culling

The Swarm Cat nest is once again preparing to split and Peter has kindly offered to let you do his work for him. As a bonus just for accepting this quest Peter has promised to provide helpful advice on the way.

Difficulty: Second Break+

Goal: Kill at least three quarters of every Swarm Cat group you meet between your current location and the City of the Grey Bamboo

Failure: Peter won’t vouch for you and he will have to go back and actually do his job

Reward: Peter vouches for Courtney when she goes to learn Kitsune illusion magic; Peter will badger his husband, Gregor, to enchant some gear for the party; System determined amount of money taken from Peter’s pay

Peter looks at the quest and scowls, “no fair System! I wasn’t offering any of my money. And what’s this about badgering Gregor? I was just going to ask him nicely for some stuff!”

He pauses as a screen only he can see pops up, “what do you mean my pay will be determined by how well I give them advice? My job had a predetermined payout already and you weren’t even in on it.”

Another pause, “fine, whatever. I better still make enough to make my time worthwhile! After all, I can’t give them too much advice.”

One last message pops up for him. “Okay, I can agree to those terms. It won’t take me long to clean up like that anyway. You better not upgrade any of them though! I know exactly what kind of Swarm Cats should be along this route. Others have taken up the more core areas around the nest already.”

With a sigh, Peter turns to the group, “well with that out of the way, let’s head on out!”

Everyone just gives him a deadpan look.