We all sat around a table at the Daisy Do. Kaelen and Jax had drawn the short straw on the quest turn in so Thalia, Selene, Liora and I were sitting at the table. Liora and I were sitting there confused as Selene and Thalia both seemed to be doing various hobbies.
Selene was attempting to draw with her left arm, and while it was wonky in spots, it was surprisingly good. Thalia on the other hand has a small piece of wood that they seemed to be whittling and carving to make a shape.
"I mean, did we mess something up, like were we supposed to keep the Bone Beast Alive?"
Liora asked crossing her arms. I pulled out the quest and laid it before the table.
Stonebone Recovery (E)
Children claim a bone beast sleeps beneath the Stoneflower Shrine. Investigate and recover 1 fused phalange from the offering pile without disturbing the remains.
Reward – 900 Gold + 1 Spirit-Warded Bone Charm
Failure – 500 Gold for shrine disruption and nightmares
"No, from the looks of it we did everything right, but maybe there is a byline or something in here."
I said as I started to read the quest over in detail.
"Ah HA, we must have disturbed the remains!"
Liora said poking a finger to pin the quest paper to the table.
"Did we ever see any remains?"
I asked, trying to think back.
"Nope, there was the bone pile of the nest, but we never touched it, the bone we needed was in the creature's back part of the armor."
Will said helpfully, nodding along.
Liora and I stared at the quest for a moment before we both asked in unison.
"Why was it so easy?"
I thought back to our previous quests. The Blood Trent almost killed all of us, the dungeon almost killed Kaelen and Liora, the Ymer thing was traumatizing in its own right, and sure the salamander quest and ale slime were not bad, but for the salamanders we had an item that fit the situation almost perfectly, while the Ale slime was more scarring than dangerous. So why was this quest marked as medium difficulty so easy?
"Has it not crossed your mind that our starting experience was a bit off from the norm?"
Thalia asked raising an eyebrow. Liora and I turned with a confused look. Selene also joined in our confusion.
"I-I thought the battles so far were pretty average, though we have toned it down in recent days."
"Are you joking, sure adventuring work can be difficult and deadly if measures aren't taken, but the quest rank system is one made over centuries of refinement and tuning, an average quest is meant to have at most a major injury for a party, and at best none at all."
Selene, Liora, and I stared at Thalia with a look of confusion.
"No no, she has a point."
Will said nodding as he crossed his arms. While I wasn't sure if Will could know my expressions, I have him a confused look that was asking for an explanation.
"The plate quest was to find the source, you all then proceeded to hunt down a Blood Trent despite that. The dungeon was an unmarked dungeon you stumbled across, and the Ymer thing was also not a sanctioned quest. Really when you actually do a quest to what its asking, its not easy, but not terrible."
I sat for a moment without saying a word before I silently stood up and said.
"Oh my gods, we have been making everything harder without even realizing it."
Almost on cue, the bar door opened, Kaelen and Jax making their way inside, but something was off. Kaelen just had this disappointed look on his face. Next to him Jax was walking on his back legs, balancing as he made his way over. Kaelen placed the coin bag on the table as he turned back to the rest of us.
"We got the gold guys."
Thalia opened the bag and started counting. Surprisingly aside from combat everyone had taken different roles in the party's logistics. Thalia was the money and finance person, Kaelen was the diplomat, Liora was the haggler for prices, Selene organized equipment and assisted with quest prep, and I was the driver and transportation leaving only… Jax.
"You forgot to grab the spirit warding bone charm; it was part of our quest reward."
Thalis said looking up at Kaelen who refused to meet her eyes with an embarrassed expression. Jax on the other hand has a smug look as he held the menu in a paw and pondered it. Glancing at Jax I noticed a strange strap on his wrist as what looked to be a prosthetic wooden thumb was attached and helping him hold the menu. We all stared for a moment.
"He didn't"
Thalia said sounding both disappointed and worried.
"He did."
Kaelen said letting his face fall to the table. Jax was wearing a set of rather expensive prosthetic thumbs because he had traded in part of our reward. Jax seemed giddy as he held a paw up and ordered a beer, and as it arrived he used a single paw to lift it with the most swavely rich asshole expression he could muster.
"I see where you all find your enjoyment of thumbs, they are marvelous."
He sipped his drink and gave us this haughty expression as Thalia silently stood up and walked behind where Jax was.
"You have a receipt to return those, right?"
Jax raised an eyebrow at her as he took another sip of his drink.
"No, they have to be made custom per fullblood, so its not something you can just return."
Selene and I noticed Thalia bring her strings in front of Jax's neck as we both dove. I grabbed Thalia under the arms as her legs kicked and she bit at the air like she would catch Jax in her teeth. Selene grabbed the string to prevent it from catching and cutting into Jax's neck.
"Don't worry Aiden, I will have a lovely new hood ornament for you, and our party spending will drop significantly."
"No Thalia, stop, we need him!"
I said as she thrashed and kicked against my grip. Selene pulled the string from around Jax's neck as Thalia broke free, so I moved between her and Jax, with Selene doing the same.
We had a stand off for a moment when Thalia suddenly went to a normal posture and walked past us to sit back down. Turning back I saw Kaelen shaking his head as he held his forehead, but Liora and Jax were missing.
"W-Where did they go?"
Selene asked turning to Thalia as she sat back down. She looked up at us with a bit of an evil grin as she said.
"I was a distraction, Liora is currently enacting Jax's punishment."
From outside we heard a yip of pain before the doors opened, a Liora walked in, spinning the straps of the fake thumbs on her finger as a moment later a massive ball of fluff followed her, had I not noticed the fur color I would have been none the wiser to the fact that the ball of fluff was in fact Jax.
Liora sat down with a contented look as she high fived Thalia as Jax walked over and in a teary voice.
"She took my thumbs and kept soaking me and speed drying so I puffed up like this."
A part of me wanted to feel bad, but as we turned to start dividing money Jax started running from the bar. Liora looked at the table where the thumbs had been and jumped up to sprint after Jax. as the rest of us sat there and ate our meal.
"Should we go after them or?"
Will asked as he did a small summersault where he floated.
"I say Jax gets what he gets for thumbing his nose at us."
….
….
"That was bad even for us."
"Yea I agree with you there."