[SP | F24] <<Incognito Analysis>> Tactical Errors

[Freyd 0]

A special request bounty?  Not exactly a common occurrence.  And who had gotten it into their heads that he was in the bounty business?  Freyd sipped at a new tea he'd recently picked up at Cintamani's as he read the unexpected missive.  His feet were up, resting on a heavy crate next to his workshop at Freyd Edges.  He'd been beyond busy evaluating items for the last few days and had decided to take a short break when the notification window popped up.

The source was an information broker that he knew and trusted.  If it was true that this mob had knowledge on the Sundered Spire's ongoing activities, he had to pursue it.  Too much time had gone by without signs of their activities, and he had never found any leads concerning their leadership - until now.  That alone made it worth investigating.

"Dingo," he called to his youthful apprentice.  "I have to go check on something.  Mind the store will you?  Thanks."

***

Freyd consumes: Liquor of Light (DMG 3) [167338-1]; Pixie Sticks (ACC 1) [166155]

Freyd, The Whisper in Shadows | HP:1190/1190 | EN:116/116 | DMG:22 | MIT:79 | EVA:2 | ACC:5 | KEEN:1 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | BH:47

Spoiler

Name: Freyd, The Whisper in Shadows
Level: 58
HP: 1190/1190
EN: 116/116

Stats:
Damage: 19 + 3
Mitigation: 79
Evasion: 2
Accuracy: 4 +1
BH:47
KEEN:1
HLY:6
FLN:6

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: Samael's Pride (T3-2HSS, ACC 1, HOLY 1, FLN 1)
Armor: Skirmisher's Garb [T3 LA, MIT 2, EVA 1]
Misc: Assassin's Cowl (T2-Trinket, ACC 2, KEEN 1)

Skills:
2H Straight Sword [Rank 5]
Light Armor [Rank 5]
Searching [Rank 3]
Battle Healing [Rank 4]
Parry [Obtained]

Extra Skills:
Disguise
Familiar Mastery: Fighter 3
Survival
Meditation

Mods:
Precision
Finesse - Rank 3
LA Athletics
Ferocity
LA Sprint and Acrobatics

Battle Ready Inventory:
Teleport Crystals*2
Concentrated Joy (T3 Vitality 2)*1
Missing You (Instant T3 HP Recovery)*2
Fruit-Infused Tea (T3 HP Recovery)*5
T3 Blank Dungeon Maps*5
Viperion (T3 Toxic Venom)*5
Requires Extended Weight Limit 1
Requires Extended Weight Limit 2
Requires Extended Weight Limit 3

Housing Buffs:
Rested: -1 energy cost for the first two expenditures of each combat
Clean: The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 20% (rounded down)
Hard Working: +2 EXP per crafting attempt and +1 crafting attempt per day
Filling: Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot.
Item Stash: +1 Battle Ready Inventory Slot
Relaxed: Increases out of combat HP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.
Col Stash: +5% bonus col from monster kills and treasure chests
Multipurpose: Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll

Guild Hall Buffs:
Lucrative: Reduce LD needed for Salvage by 5 (10+ for Alchemist crystals, 6+ for everything else). +2 EXP per craft. Rank 9 crafters receive +1 crafting attempt per day. Rank 10 crafters receive +2 crafting attempts per day.
Col Deposit: +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests.

Scents of the Wild: n/a

Wedding Ring:n/a

 

[Freyd 0]

The journey to floor 24 was uneventful, but then Freyd was making a conscious effort not to draw any attention to himself. He wasn't especially stealthy, so much as nondescript.  People just tended not to notice or forget that he was even there.  He'd discovered the trick long ago and become uncannily good at it during his early exile in the Town of Beginnings.  He couldn't recall having travelled this close to the front lines since he and ChaseR had gone after the Raging Rhino.  He needed to check in on Blue, at some point.  He needed to do a lot of things - too many.  All in due time.  

It didn't take long to find his quarry.  The information provided by his contact had proven accurate.  He owed the man a bonus, if the rest was equally true.

"Hogo-sha.  We have business."  Freyd's tarnished silver sword came into existence in his hand, ready and eager for battle.

***

Freyd activated Parry (-5 EN)

[Freyd 0]

"Go away, shadow-man!  I'm not in the mood to talk, and you'll get squished if you stay."  The threat was hardly veiled.  Hogo-Sha was a burly, savage-looking man with a heavy projecting jaw and a heavily sloped brow.  He resembled a small ogre by his build and features, and the hefty club he carried over his shoulder was more akin to a tree trunk than the more conventional weapons carried by players.

"The Spire and I have unfinished business.  I'm going to put an end to it, whether with you or through you."  The hulking man-thing before him just laughed, large slabs of flesh all about him jiggly with mirthful disdain.  

"Didn't Skalaugh and his bunch teach you not to mess with fire?  Keep pushing, shrimp, and you're going to get burnt."

Freyd shrugged.  So much for diplomacy.  Freyd lunged forward and missed, only to have the neanderthal slap him on the backside with his tree trunk.

Not how that was supposed to happen.

Spoiler

Freyd, The Whisper in Shadows | HP:1189/1190 | EN:110/116 | DMG:22 | MIT:79 | EVA:2 | ACC:5 | KEEN:1 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | BH:47 (Parry 1/3)

Galaxy Destroyer (x13): Miss (Rested) = 1 EN

ID 169045 BD: 1 (Miss), CD 5 (n/a)

ID 169046 MD 10 (Crit +2).  Freyd parries.  Hogo-Sha deals (102*0.5 = 51 - 79 MIT = 1) damage to Freyd.

Hogo-Sha | HP: 1000/1000 | DMG: 100 | MIT: 50 | ACC: 3 | EVA 1

Expecting Eye: Hogo-sha is expecting someone to attack him, as the conspiracy has made him paranoid. He is immune to Sneak attack, and he will parry the first attack you do.

Parry: On a roll of CD 9+, Hogo-Sha will block your attack, blocking 50% of the damage and dealing half of your damage back instead of his normal damage, along with getting to attack you

 

[Freyd 0]

Freyd recovered quickly, scampering back to his feet and giving his opponent a vicious slash across the thigh for his trouble.  

"We could have made this easy, but nooooo... you have to get all-stubborn-like. I can work with that too."

"Do you always talk this much while fighting?"  Hogo-Sha seemed irked by the constant chatter.  Good.  That could be useful.

"Only when it seems to be an effective distraction.   Get'em Persi!"  Freyd had maneuvered himself to place his shadow beneath the burly man's feet, where Persi had slunk and lay waiting.  As soon as he gave the word, she sprung up from beneath his defenses, right up his battle skirt and unleashed mayhem at all the tender fleshy bits that lay so vulnerably expose.  Hogo-Sha's eyes boggled and he yelped like a pre-teen girl at the unexpected attack, dancing and squirming like a raving lunatic while Freyd assailed him with his sword.

Spoiler

Freyd, The Whisper in Shadows | HP:1168/1190 | EN:102/116 | DMG:22 | MIT:79 | EVA:2 | ACC:5 | KEEN:1 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | BH:47 (Parry 2/3)

Freyd heals 1 HP (Battle Healing)

Galaxy Destroyer (x13): Miss (Rested) = 13 EN - (Rested (2/2), Finesse 3, Turn Recovery) = 8 EN

ID 169048 BD: 3 + 5 - 1 = 7 (hit), CD 7 (no effect).  Freyd deals (13*22=286-50=236) damage to Hogo-Sha

ID 169049 MD 9 (Crit +1).  Freyd parries.  Hogo-Sha deals (101 - 79 MIT = 22) damage to Freyd.

Hogo-Sha | HP: 764/1000 | DMG: 100 | MIT: 50 | ACC: 3 | EVA 1 (1000-236)

Expecting Eye: Hogo-sha is expecting someone to attack him, as the conspiracy has made him paranoid. He is immune to Sneak attack, and he will parry the first attack you do.

Parry: On a roll of CD 9+, Hogo-Sha will block your attack, blocking 50% of the damage and dealing half of your damage back instead of his normal damage, along with getting to attack you

 

[Freyd 0]

Their frantic melee continued as both chased each other across the narrow spans that mark the strange terrain of floor 24, neither seeming to get the upper hand.  Freyd was unaccustomed to facing a mob that could parry so effectively.  It also felt strange to have one's own attacks reflected back.  Hogo-Sha was a difficult opponent, and wary of the types of tactics Freyd normally employed.  

Skidding to a backwards stopped as the force of his blow diffused around him, Freyd resumed his stance and started circling his foe to seek an opening.  Hogo-Sha simply stood there, a growing pool of drool dripping from his open mouth and furrowed brow.  He looked a lot dumber than he was.  Duly noted.  A quick click of the tongue was enough to send Persi skittering to flank, forcing his foe to divide his attention.  His prowess would count for less if he had two enemies to face.

Spoiler

Freyd, The Whisper in Shadows | HP:1104/1190 | EN:94/116 | DMG:22 | MIT:79 | EVA:2 | ACC:5 | KEEN:1 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | BH:47 (Parry 3/3)

Freyd heals 22 HP (Battle Healing)

Galaxy Destroyer (x13): 13 EN - (Rested (2/2), Finesse 3, Turn Recovery) = 8 EN

ID 169050 BD: 4 + 5 - 1 = 8 (hit), CD 12 (Parry triggers).  Freyd deals (13*22*0.5=143-50=93) damage to Hogo-Sha.  Hogo-Sha reflects (143-79 =64 damage back onto Freyd)

ID 169051 MD 9 (Crit +1).  Freyd parries.  Hogo-Sha deals (101 - 79 MIT = 22) damage to Freyd.

Hogo-Sha | HP: 671/1000 | DMG: 100 | MIT: 50 | ACC: 3 | EVA 1 (764-93)

Expecting Eye: Hogo-sha is expecting someone to attack him, as the conspiracy has made him paranoid. He is immune to Sneak attack, and he will parry the first attack you do.

Parry: On a roll of CD 9+, Hogo-Sha will block your attack, blocking 50% of the damage and dealing half of your damage back instead of his normal damage, along with getting to attack you

 

[Freyd 0]

Another lunge made for another rebuffed clash of blades.  Clearly, the mob didn't operate under the same rules for Parry that players did.  Also good to know.  Unfortunately, there was little Freyd could do about that except keep on pressing, hoping that his energy reserves held and that his battle healing could keep up with his oddly self-inflicted wounds.  The barbarian ogre-man was quite the swordsman, but Freyd managed to keep his distance and deflect most of his attacks.  His health bar was dropping steadily, and both knew that this fight was only a matter of time if it continued like this.  That suited Freyd fine, but Hogo-Sha seemed less inclined to accept his fate.  He made a surprisingly quick feint then tried to make good his escape down the nearest island span.  Freyd gave chase and Persi scooted to the underside of the bridge to get ahead of them both.

Spoiler

Freyd, The Whisper in Shadows | HP:1035/1190 | EN:85/116 | DMG:22 | MIT:79 | EVA:2 | ACC:5 | KEEN:1 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | BH:47 

Freyd heals 47 HP (Battle Healing)

Galaxy Destroyer (x13): 13 EN - (Finesse 3, Turn Recovery) = 9 EN

ID 169052 BD: 10 (Crit +2, Holy 6), CD 10 (Parry triggers).  Freyd deals (13*30*0.5=195-50=145) damage to Hogo-Sha.  Hogo-Sha reflects (195-79 =116 damage back onto Freyd)

ID 169053 MD 4 + 3 - 2 = 5 (miss).  

Hogo-Sha | HP: 526/1000 | DMG: 100 | MIT: 50 | ACC: 3 | EVA 1 (671-145)

Expecting Eye: Hogo-sha is expecting someone to attack him, as the conspiracy has made him paranoid. He is immune to Sneak attack, and he will parry the first attack you do.

Parry: On a roll of CD 9+, Hogo-Sha will block your attack, blocking 50% of the damage and dealing half of your damage back instead of his normal damage, along with getting to attack you

 

[Freyd 0]

Hogo-Sha was still watching Freyd as Persi rose up before him, creating a wide shadowy net of angry badness.  He ran right into her - literally - and she made him pay for it.  Bits of his fur-covered hide armor sprayed in all directions as she shredded him from the front.  Freyd caught up and slashed at him from behind.  Hogo-Sha's health bars took an unpleasant nosedive in to the yellow, closing in on the red.  He swung his log around to try and buy space, scratching at Freyd in the process, but not enough to break off their engagement.  Desperation was sinking into the ogre-man's face.

"You're never gonna get to the chief.  You don't have what it takes!"  He grinned, showing off a remarkable lack of dental presence.

"Guess we're just going to have to take our chances, big guy."  Freyd closed in again, feeling his injuries healing.  Hogo-Sha didn't have that little ability, did he?  Good.

Spoiler

Freyd, The Whisper in Shadows | HP:1061/1190 | EN:76/116 | DMG:22 | MIT:79 | EVA:2 | ACC:5 | KEEN:1 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | BH:47 

Freyd heals 47 HP (Battle Healing)

Galaxy Destroyer (x13): 13 EN - (Finesse 3, Turn Recovery) = 9 EN

ID 169054 BD: 8 + 5 - 1 = 12 (hit, Fallen 6), CD 4 (no effect).  Freyd deals (13*28=364-50=314) damage to Hogo-Sha.  

ID 169055 MD 8 + 3 - 2 = 9 (hit).  Hogo-Sha deals (100 -79 = 21) damage to Freyd.

Hogo-Sha | HP: 212/1000 | DMG: 100 | MIT: 50 | ACC: 3 | EVA 1 (526-314)

Expecting Eye: Hogo-sha is expecting someone to attack him, as the conspiracy has made him paranoid. He is immune to Sneak attack, and he will parry the first attack you do.

Parry: On a roll of CD 9+, Hogo-Sha will block your attack, blocking 50% of the damage and dealing half of your damage back instead of his normal damage, along with getting to attack you

 

[Freyd 0]

Persi struck again from the rear, wrapping herself around the mob's head to blind and disorient him.  Freyd seized his opportunity and thrust his blade into the large man's gut, causing him to immediately burst into a cloud of reddish crystalline motes.  

"Damn,"  Freyd muttered to himself.  He had really been hoping to incapacitate him in some way and question him about the whereabouts of this elusive chieftain, and the nature of the Sundered Spire's involvement in all of this.  As if on queue, a sealed cylinder appeared where Hogo-Sha's body had fallen, its exterior casing clad in black leather with a red profile of Aincrad on it, split by the glossy black image of a sword - the emblem of the Sundered Spire.  Freyd snatched it quickly for fear that it would vanish with the rest of him.  The case felt strangely warm, even through his gloves.  The red sigil seemed to flare as he ran his fingers over it.

Spoiler

Freyd, The Whisper in Shadows | HP:1108/1190 | EN:67/116 | DMG:22 | MIT:79 | EVA:2 | ACC:5 | KEEN:1 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | BH:47 

Freyd heals 47 HP (Battle Healing)

Galaxy Destroyer (x13): 13 EN - (Finesse 3, Turn Recovery) = 9 EN

ID 169056 BD: 9 (crit +1, Holy 6), CD 1 (no effect).  Freyd deals (13*29=377-50=327) damage to Hogo-Sha.  

Hogo-Sha | HP: 0/1000 | DMG: 100 | MIT: 50 | ACC: 3 | EVA 1 (212-327)

Expecting Eye: Hogo-sha is expecting someone to attack him, as the conspiracy has made him paranoid. He is immune to Sneak attack, and he will parry the first attack you do.

Parry: On a roll of CD 9+, Hogo-Sha will block your attack, blocking 50% of the damage and dealing half of your damage back instead of his normal damage, along with getting to attack you

 

[Freyd 0]

The seal on the case appeared similar to one he had found on floor 21 while trying to divine the Sundered Spire's plots to attack Coral and the Lake of Reflection.  Glancing around, he expected that Hogo-Sha might have left a token similar to those he had found among the ranks of other Sundered Spire mobs on other floors.  Curiously, there was none.  He'd successfully used a token from another area on the missives from 21, and so summoned the same one to hand.  It was an alabaster stone with a red ruby tower inlay and a black sword formed from inset jet.  Simply pressing the token to the missive had worked in the past, but this one had no effect whatsoever.  He had, by now, collected quite the assortment of the things, and was quite content to take his time trying them out.  Having eventually exhausted all conceivable options with the alabaster stone, he dismissed it back into the ether.

Spoiler

ID 169057 - LD 5 (Failed)

 

[Freyd 0]

The polished sandstone found back on floor five would be his next test.  It was the first one he had found, after stumbling across a group of Spire agents who had been seeding the wilderness with false material nodes.  The red tower in Aincrad's profile looked to have been painted on with blood, as was appropriate for such a savage landscape.  The black mark of the sword looked to have been drawn with charcoal.

Unfortunately, this particular token did no more than the last one to unlock the secrets of Hogo-Sha's missive.  Could there be some trick of numeracy to combining the token code keys to align them with the cipher?  Did it rotate over time?  Perhaps his tokens had lost their currency over time and were now useless.  Still, it was his best option, and so Frey explored every option he could devise, but to no avail.  Another stone went back into storage.

Spoiler

ID 169058 - LD 11 (Failed)

 

[Freyd 0]

The hunk of charcoal from floor six was next.  It had the look of still-burning embers on the one face, though they emitted no heat.  A long sliver of sharp obsidian provided the guise of the sword in the Spire's emblem.  This one had come from a flaming feline in the jungle.  He'd discovered it while questing with Vigilon.  Freyd has somewhat lost track of the exhaustive trail he had followed to connect all the wayward dots that had ultimately led him to the Battle at Cratered Lake, and subsequently here in search of more answers.

This key offered no more success than the others, but his resources were far from done.  Shunting the lump of coal back into storage, he pondered whether there might be some other means of opening the damned thing.  He'd followed a hunch and some poor intel to catch up with Hogo-Sha in the first place, though his sources would receive generous bonuses for yielding reliable results.

Spoiler

ID 169059 - LD 6 (Failed)

 

[Freyd 0]

Maybe the obsidian shard from floor nine, where he'd first met Oscar?  One face of it glowed with an inner flame in the image of Aincrad, split by the image of a sword etched onto the glassy surface.  Freyd tried pressing it to the surface of the missive, but without success.  None of the tokens he had obtained seemed able to release the seal.  Could the material somehow matter?  Each token he'd found had been a drop from a local mob on the floor.  They were always comprised of local materials that reflected their origins.  

He didn't have anything even close to approximating the elements common on floor 24, which was mostly water.  What was he supposed to do, throw the missive overboard and hope that some friendly sea monster would open it and spit it back at him? That didn't seem likely.  But the token idea didn't seem to be working either.  Time to try something different.

Spoiler

ID 169060 - LD 15 (Failed)

 

[Freyd 0]

Freyd chose to take a bit of time and tour the rest of the floor, hoping to find some inspiration.  There was a beach near a bright blue bay nearby.  Dozens of players were lounging around the area, scantily clad and most sporting the latest vanity skins to make themselves look far more impressive than the genuine article.  He stood out like a sore thumb, wandering around in dark and concealing clothing, drawing a number of strange looks.  Several even glanced over his head, as if they were wondering whether he'd somehow managed to conceal an orange player icon.  No.  He was just working while they laid about and sunned themselves.  Perhaps some of them had earned the reprieve.  He didn't care.  There was a job to be done, and his pasty pale skin wasn't likely to look good in the beaming sunlight anyway.  Freyd always felt more at home in the shadows.

Spoiler

ID 169061 - LD 11 (Failed)

 

[Freyd 0]

Kneeling down, he collected some of the near-white sand from the beach and sifted it through his fingers as he let it fall over the mysterious missive.  Nothing.  Not even a flicker or suggestion of hope.  Taking a chance, he wandered over to the water, away from the main crowd, and drizzled some of the water over the seal.  Also nothing.  

*Sigh*

What other options could there be?  This place really didn't have that much to it.  His neck craned up, looking at the massive floating island of Paraneze.  He remembered fighting the Raging Rhino in the colosseum at the heart of the City, with ChaseR.  Pushing aside his frustrations with the man-child, it occurred to him that Hogo-Sha might have found the bloodsport of the arena inspiring.  Clutching the missive before dismissing back to his inventory, he started looking for the nearest means to ascend to the city proper.  There was a lift not far from the beach.

Spoiler

ID 169062 - LD 1 (Failed)

 

[Freyd 0]

Paraneze was typically quiet.  The NPCs and players here seemed strangely oblivious to the to fact that the front lines were merely one floor above their heads.  No wonder progress seemed to have crawled to a halt of late.  Everyone was becoming too comfortable.  He pursed his lips at the thought.  Who was he to judge?  It had taken him two years just to stick his scrawny neck out the City gates.  

The architecture of the City was simple, and covered in white stucco to reflect the warm sun's gaze.  It reminded him of a Greek island he'd visited once as a child.  His father had insisted on taking the family with him on some damned sabbatical trip to visit an archaeological dig to which a colleague of his was somehow connected.  Freyd just remembered it being unbearably hot and humid, and about twenty years behind the rest of the world in technology - a practical nightmare scenario for a child such as himself.

Spoiler

ID 169063 - LD 2 (Failed)

 

[Freyd 0]

It was a shame that the NPCs of this world could not be marshalled into an armed force to assist the players in their efforts to reach the top floor and escape. Yet, the Sundered Spire had somehow managed something equivalent to that.  Was it some kind of modification of code?  Were they being corrupted or reprogrammed, like switching programs from blue to red accents in the Tron movies?  There was certainly something 'infectious' about the whole thing, which left him uneasy.  

Most of the men and women in this place were healthy, strong and able-bodied warriors.  Yet instead of helping, they were trapped in repetitive in the repetitive cycles of their programming.  If only there was some way to expand the Spire's trick but free the mobs from its controlling influence.  Free willed mobs?  It would be chaos.  But would it truly be any worse than the chaos that already existed?  Not likely.

Spoiler

ID 169064 - LD 15 (Failed)

 

[Freyd 0]

The arena loomed before him.  It was a massive structure of meticulously carved stone, which seemed particularly odd on a precariously floating island over an infinite ocean, but whatever.  Freyd had only been here once before: to challenge the Raging Rhino in the company of ChaseR.  The beast had been defeated with relative ease and his usual dose of personal embarrassment.  It would be nice to be able to beat a boss without fumbling catastrophically, literally landing in or stepping into a pile of shit, or faceplanting on his opening move.  Sigh.  'It build character,' he supposed.

The arena floor was vacant at this hour, too close to the midday hours when the heat was at its worst.  Blood stains of offal still littered the combat floor.  Didn't anyone ever clean up around here?  Hopping over the rails, Freyd wandered onto the sandy floor, searching for clues and options.  He nearly stepped into another pile, stopping himself at the last minute.

Spoiler

ID 169065 - LD 14 (Failed)

 

[Freyd 0]

Looking over at the great sprays of blood soaked sand, he remembered Hogo-Sha's last words.  "You don't have what it takes."  Calling the missive to hand, he knelt down and pressed the seal firmly against the sand.  A sizzling sound caused him to jerk back.  Turning the scroll around, Freyd watched the seal binding the missive dissolve, as if being eaten away by acid.

"I'll be damned.  Hogo-Sha, you literal son of a bitch."  A grin split his face from ear to ear.  Shedding the remains of the broken seal to ensure that it didn't damage the rest of the message, Freyd quickly unrolled it only to face more consternation.  The message itself was also encrypted.  Was he going to have to go through this all over again?

"Got a problem there, sonny?"

His hooded head perked up and turned to find an elderly man, who was barely more than skin and bones, leaning against a heavy rake with his head cocked questioningly.

Spoiler

ID 169066 - LD 20 (Success)

 

[Freyd 0]

"Yeah.  You could say that."  He stood and turned to face the old timer.  By his garb and manner, plus his equipment, he looked to be here to clear out the arena floor before the next show.  "A friend left me this message, but didn't bother to tell me how to decode it.  I don't support you know what... frag-nokt..." he turned the sheet sideways... 'or nek-nok...mean?  Hell.  I can't make sense of any of this."  The janitor approached and smiled at Freyd in the same way that one smiles at a child who can't pronounce a simple word.  

"You don't speak Paraneze, do you?"

Freyd blinked.  "You guys have your own language?  Why doesn't anybody tell me these things!?"

After a lengthy facepalm, Freyd politely asked if the old man would help him out - one janitor to another.

"Ummm... sure, but, I gotta get my work done."  He pointed to the steam pile of Rhino shit Freyd had nearly stepped in.

Hanging his head, the Whisper in Shadows nodded weakly.  "Fine.  Deal."

He held out his hand for the rake.

Vanity Tag: @ChaseR

Spoiler

ID 169067 - LD 16 (Success)

 

[Freyd 0]

There was no way that it could take this long to translate.  The old man was definitely milking this.  Freyd, for his part, had completely cleared and leveled the entire arena floor.  His companion had perched himself on the arena wall, dangling his legs over the side while sipping at some sort of bright pink cocktail with all sorts of fruit and a frilly little umbrella.  

"Thanks, kid.  It was nice to get a break for a change."  He pointed down at the note.  "You 'friend' left you some very unusual instructions."

Freyd's eyes barely showed beneath his cowl, and he was in no mood for further word play.  "Spit is out, old time-"

"Gru-Shu."

"I'm sorry?"

"My name, is Gru-Shu."

"Ohhhh-kay.  So, Gru-Shu, about the message..." Freyd opened his palms, expectantly.

"How do I know I can trust you with this?"

Freyd glared at him for a minute.

"Don't make me put the poop back."

Spoiler

ID 169068 - LD 9 (Failure)