The Dungeons Call

Someone else had approached. Nicholas watched unworried, not at all surprised when the newcomer introduced themself and inquired about joining the party. It wasn't his decision, of course, but he was somewhat pleased when Favyaura accepted the other. More people was a good thing, as far as he was concerned. Nicholas was almost certainly going to be the one standing in front of whatever it was that needed standing in front of, so the more people they could have that could pelt whatever that happened to be so he had to spend less time getting stabbed, clawed, kicked, or slimed by whatever it was, the better.

There were a few others he thought seemed interested as well, he would have to see if any of them summoned themselves to join. He had noticed that Favyaura had gone ahead and introduced herself as the party's leader, even though she wasn't on the paper as such. Nick didn't comment about that. She was the one leading, after all, no matter what the paper said.

He gave a little nod when he was introduced, and was trying to come up with something appropriate to say that hadn't been said already, and what do you do? didn't seem polite - he was worried about that being a mushroom-girl question, and so maybe it was best not to ask it - but then again, he did want to know what the stranger did, and-

-The terrain had other ideas about this line of questioning. The ground moved a little, and then everything else moved quite a lot. There were sounds of breaking, and the usual sounds of people's surprise or fear or whatever they preferred to call it. Nicholas felt the runes on his skin blaze as the darkness fell over the room, sickly gray gloomlight ready to protect him from...

...Well, it wasn't precisely obvious, and it wasn't precisely here. He supposed if an ale tankard fell in his direction, the runes might protect him from that, but only in the sense of injury and not in the sense of dignity. He'd held his own, anyway - ale, that was - and the light returned, and with it a sort of stunned silence as people needed to figure out what they needed to do next.

Favyaura was quick thinking, but he had known that already, from outside. Nick shrugged, raised the tankard of ale and downed half of it, then rose to follow the Myconid.

"She does that," he commented, perhaps unnecessarily, to the newcomer. Hopefully, they didn't mind.

Hopefully they would keep up.

Their plan was working. It was an effort to keep the satisfaction off of their face as Favyaura introduced them to the group, but Quill managed to keep their smile tamed into something appropriately friendly, turning it on each of the other members with a small nod. “You can call me Quill. I’m a-”

Something was wrong. Quill cut themself off, glancing around as they were seized by a sudden apprehension that made their horns itch. Was their cover blown already? That should’ve been impossible; they hadn’t done anything strange, at least not in this town.

They got their answer in the form of an earthquake, the ground rising up under their boots as though intent to throw them off their feet. They kept their balance, somehow, stepping quickly and already regretting choosing a form that didn’t have a tail, but it took all of their concentration. They couldn’t spare a thought for the weird glow from the walls, or the shattering glass, or the even weirder glow coming from Nicholas.

And then it was over. The lights flickered back to life, and Quill didn’t have to feign being just as confused as everyone else was. They weren’t out of breath, but they were pale, freckles stark against the pallor of their skin. Some people had fallen, they saw, as they fixed their hair and tugged on their shirt, straightening their appearance out. They moved towards the nearest victim without a second thought, and were in the process of helping them up when Favyaura made her announcement.

They finished helping the person up, then followed the Myconid, falling into step beside Nicholas. “Ah,” they said, slim fingers dipping into their pocket to deposit a single silver coin. “Good to know.”

Well, at least their leader seemed to have a very good idea of what she wanted and how to get it. There were worse people they could’ve gotten roped into following. This promised to be interesting, if nothing else.