A Villain In A World Of Heroes

[Hyp3rB14d3]

I don't find it monotonous. I'm rather enjoying it.

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Well I'm glad you are enjoying killing random monsters in a random forest. However, I personally am following this quest because I was looking forward to going on a quest for revenge.

Instead, we've been dicking around in a forest for two months.

And the only reason I'm saying we stay longer is cause it's been TWO DAYS. Giving up the Trail of Blood after only two days makes it seem like we give up easily. After only two days of struggle and fighting, we are calling it quits. No, I want us dedicated, we are a determinator, we keep going till we are done, and we are far from done with this forest.

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I think you're underestimating how quickly a trail can disappear. It's been two days, which is more than enough time for the hero to have left town. If we wait much longer, the likelihood of anyone knowing where he went is going to drop significantly.

Heroes can get pretty monsterous. It would mark us as someone important, not neccessarly a villain.

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The difference is that people can explicitly identify heroes on sight. If we're blatantly monstrous, but not a hero, then we can be assumed to be a villain by default.

And who knows what magics or abilities we might acquire that allows us to disguise our true nature.

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Good idea. Let's leave the forest and get a magic instructor to teach us them before we start looking like a monster that people will avoid interacting with.

I'm only proposing a month. If people can't remember a hero coming to town for atleast a month, then I have been mis-informed about how Heroes are percieved. The way Cedra was describing it, it was akin to a God coming to town.

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Oh, they'll probably remember that a hero came through town. But do you really think people will remember where the hero said he was going a month from now?

If possible, I'd rather trail the hero while accumulating power than search randomly for decades hoping to stumble across him.

Just cause we are powerful does not mean we are important. All we are doing is dicking around in a forest, who cares about this forest? Unless a Hero happens to come along, and opposes us (it's a big forest, we could easily never meet), we aren't relevant in the slightest.

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Fair enough. Let's get out of this unimportant forest we've been screwing around in for the past two months and get to the plot.

 

[Arkatekt]

I think you're underestimating how quickly a trail can disappear. It's been two days, which is more than enough time for the hero to have left town. If we wait much longer, the likelihood of anyone knowing where he went is going to drop significantly.

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There may not be a trail to follow. Remember that the hero (as far as Cedra knows) only came to this town/city to confront her father about the "fireproof" leather he claimed to have purchased from us. When he realized he killed father and was burning the shop, he didn't just leave, he teleported away.

"Put out the-" Your father tries to grab the hero's arm to get him to cancel the spell, but the hero releases the spell instead, blasting your father back against the wa with a thump, and scatters fire all across the shop. The hero's face takes on a expression of smug superiority, before quickly shifting into one of horrified panic, and then, he just disappears.

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It is entirely possible he teleported to another town without saying a word to any other people in the entire town. If that is the case, there is no trail for Cedra to follow, unless she wants to try and track where the Hero entered the town from and hope he frequently visits one of the places he had been before.

Also, this Hero is pretty recognizable, since he has an entire arm that was burned with cursed fire.

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@Dark Ness I had a few questions I wanted to know if you would answer.

Is there a recognizable seasonal system* in this world, and if so what season is it currently?
Did Cedra remember to bring a waterskin with her when she left for the trial, or is that and other common items not important enough to note unless we are about to run out?
The Shoddy Chainmail Cedra found, is it a full suit of chainmail or is it a chainmail vest/shirt?

*for lack of a better word

 

[Dark Ness]

Is there an established seasonal system* in this world, and if so what season is it currently?
Did Cedra remember to bring a waterskin with her when she left for the trial, or is that and other common items not important enough to note unless we are about to run out?
The Shoddy Chainmail Cedra found, is it a full suit of chainmail or is it a chainmail vest/shirt?

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Standard, late spring. where you are

She has a waterskin.

Vest

 

[Hyp3rB14d3]

There may not be a trail to follow. Remember that the hero (as far as Cedra knows) only came to this town/city to confront her father about the "fireproof" leather he claimed to have purchased from us. When he realized he killed father and was burning the shop, he didn't just leave, he teleported away.
It is entirely possible he teleported to another town without saying a word to any other people in the entire town. If that is the case, there is no trail for Cedra to follow, unless she wants to try and track where the Hero entered the town from and hope he frequently visits one of the places he had been before.

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That could very well be the case. But if it isn't, and we never bother to check, we could be stuck wandering aimlessly for a long, long time.

 

[Simulium Novitius]

I want us to leave, nothing says we can not do the trial of blood again.

 

[Trondason]

I think you're underestimating how quickly a trail can disappear. It's been two days, which is more than enough time for the hero to have left town. If we wait much longer, the likelihood of anyone knowing where he went is going to drop significantly.

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If the Hero was a normal person, sure. But no, he's the Hero. EVERYONE takes note of him when he passes by.

The difference is that people can explicitly identify heroes on sight. If we're blatantly monstrous, but not a hero, then we can be assumed to be a villain by default.

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Can they? Or can they identify people of import? Because the latter is easy (usually). It's how they carry themselves, self-assured, unafraid, full of power. A rogue can probably slip by without notice, and appear as any other person, but our Hero isn't a Rogue, he doesn't hide.

Good idea. Let's leave the forest and get a magic instructor to teach us them before we start looking like a monster that people will avoid interacting with.

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I meant from one of the monsters that we are eating. I'm pretty certain at least one of them is some sort of shape-shifter. That, or we can get the mental powers many creatures here possess, and make people just not pay attention to us. And even if absolutely no creature here has anything, we can always steal more magic books.

. But do you really think people will remember where the hero said he was going a month from now?

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Yeah. He's a celebrity, people tend to remember their words.

Fair enough. Let's get out of this unimportant forest we've been screwing around in for the past two months and get to the plot.

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And then Fate would start actively working against us. Which is exactly the thing you didn't want us suffering.

I want us to leave, nothing says we can not do the trial of blood again.

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Nothing says we can either. And it seems thematically appropriate that it's some kind of magic ritual, not just us dicking around in the forest, and if that's the case it's highly likely that its a one-time deal.

 

[Simulium Novitius]

If the Hero was a normal person, sure. But no, he's the Hero. EVERYONE takes note of him when he passes by.

Can they? Or can they identify people of import? Because the latter is easy (usually). It's how they carry themselves, self-assured, unafraid, full of power. A rogue can probably slip by without notice, and appear as any other person, but our Hero isn't a Rogue, he doesn't hide.

I meant from one of the monsters that we are eating. I'm pretty certain at least one of them is some sort of shape-shifter. That, or we can get the mental powers many creatures here possess, and make people just not pay attention to us. And even if absolutely no creature here has anything, we can always steal more magic books.

Yeah. He's a celebrity, people tend to remember their words.

And then Fate would start actively working against us. Which is exactly the thing you didn't want us suffering.

Nothing says we can either. And it seems thematically appropriate that it's some kind of magic ritual, not just us dicking around in the forest, and if that's the case it's highly likely that its a one-time deal.

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Oh get off your high horse.

This quest isnt fun anymore for some of us, and I dont like that. That is how quests die.

 

[Trondason]

Oh get off your high horse.

This quest isnt fun anymore for some of us, and I dont like that. That is how quests die.

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I don't see how I'm on one. Your not enjoying it, but I am, and so are the people who do vote to stay. If it was JUST me, fine, I'm out voted. But, again, that is not the case. I didn't even bring up personal enjoyment, instead just stuck to logical reasons, Hyperblade(not bothering with the numbers) did, and besides a short-snippet responding to it I moved on.

 

[Dark Ness]

I feel like I should clarify something here: Yes, there is a chance that you will not find anything pertaining to the hero and he just teleported out, but, assuming that he didn't, the longer you stay, the hard it will be to find that info. Another day probably won't make a difference, a week might, and a month definitely will.

But, heroes who do not rule or "claim to protect" (generally their home town, country, etc) a certain place will move around a lot. So, unless you immediately chase after the hero, the trial will go cold even if you go back to the city.

 

[Simulium Novitius]

I don't see how I'm on one. Your not enjoying it, but I am, and so are the people who do vote to stay. If it was JUST me, fine, I'm out voted. But, again, that is not the case. I didn't even bring up personal enjoyment, instead just stuck to logical reasons, Hyperblade(not bothering with the numbers) did, and besides a short-snippet responding to it I moved on.

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Let's put it into perspective then, with logic.

I have run a lot of quests.

Almost all of which have died.

Almost all of which died because they stopped being fun. Only four have managed to stay fun, and they died anyway. One because I lost the muse, one because of Mod intervention making me not want to risk anything. One because I ASKED for mod intervention and it was too heavy handed, making it not fun anymore. The last one was because of real life.

The longer we stay in the forest, the more people are going to find it not-fun. That is a fact.

We should stop while we are ahead and continue trying to make this quest fun.

 

[chocolote12]

But, heroes who do not rule or "claim to protect" (generally their home town, country, etc) a certain place will move around a lot. So, unless you immediately chase after the hero, the trial will go cold even if you go back to the city.

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Dangit, making us leave the Death-level tutorial. We'll have to just stay a week and a day then, for symbology's sake, and then return to the city before the trail runs cold. This means, of course, that we can't just time-skip it away; we have to be hunting as much as possible so that we get maximum returns for our effort, unless we think that we can rustle up a tracking spell using some sort of focusing spell (that we'll, presumably, learn when we get back to town) to enhance our innate sense of direction and make it point towards the Prantagonist. If we can do that, then we should stay for a year and a day, which is most traditional and will net us a whole lot of power that we can then go and train up under a Wizard master for a bit, before enacting "Plan- Heroic Cat's paw/cannon fodder". But we probably can't, so we won't. Advancement of the plot it is, then.

 

[Arkatekt]

The thing about leaving now, or staying a week and a day, then leaving to try and track down the Hero, is that we won't be strong enough to do anything, even if we were able to track him successfully. He will still be leagues ahead of us in terms of strength, skill, and magical power, because he is a Hero, and he has had (presumably) years of experience fighting monsters and other Heroes, that are significantly deadlier than the Fenric Wolf was.

 

[Dark Ness]

that are significantly deadlier than the Fenric Wolf was.

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And, that wolf was literally the lowest level (besides a cub) it could possibly be. A mid-level wolf could crush you right now, and even a lower level one would be likely to win.

 

[Zaratustra]

people I don't know if you all forgot but let me put this way , if we started as an 1 and are currently a 10 the hero is at least a 1000 as far as power is concerned , theres no point in rushing to find the hero because we aren't getting powerful enought to even stand in his presence anytime soon

 

[Trondason]

Let's put it into perspective then, with logic.

I have run a lot of quests.

Almost all of which have died.

Almost all of which died because they stopped being fun. Only four have managed to stay fun, and they died anyway. One because I lost the muse, one because of Mod intervention making me not want to risk anything. One because I ASKED for mod intervention and it was too heavy handed, making it not fun anymore. The last one was because of real life.

The longer we stay in the forest, the more people are going to find it not-fun. That is a fact.

We should stop while we are ahead and continue trying to make this quest fun.

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When people stop finding dueling forest monsters fun, they will stop voting for that. When they stop voting for that, majority will fall away from that, and we will stop doing that.
Besides, if we do do the time-skip, that means only about 4-5 more updates of forest fun, and then we are done here.

We'll have to just stay a week and a day then, for symbology's sake

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Why a week and a day? A week flat seems better, 7 days, and 7 being a heavily magic number.

The thing about leaving now, or staying a week and a day, then leaving to try and track down the Hero, is that we won't be strong enough to do anything, even if we were able to track him successfully. He will still be leagues ahead of us in terms of strength, skill, and magical power, because he is a Hero, and he has had (presumably) years of experience fighting monsters and other Heroes, that are significantly deadlier than the Fenric Wolf was.

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Well, we might be able to do something (not beat him, but we aren't done training either) after the week. We grew fast in these two days, keep up the pace (or perhaps go faster, profiting from the advancement we have already done), and we should be pretty impressive (for a normal person) in a week.

 

[chocolote12]

When people stop finding dueling forest monsters fun, they will stop voting for that. When they stop voting for that, majority will fall away from that, and we will stop doing that.
Besides, if we do do the time-skip, that means only about 4-5 more updates of forest fun, and then we are done here.

Why a week and a day? A week flat seems better, 7 days, and 7 being a heavily magic number.

Well, we might be able to do something (not beat him, but we aren't done training either) after the week. We grew fast in these two days, keep up the pace (or perhaps go faster, profiting from the advancement we have already done), and we should be pretty impressive (for a normal person) in a week.

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Your points are good and you should feel good.

Fun fact: Did you know that the wizard stereotype actually came from what Jewish prophets looked like back in the Old Testament? It's actually kind of interesting to know that that's where that aspect of our culture originated from.

 

[Arkatekt]

Well, we might be able to do something (not beat him, but we aren't done training either) after the week. We grew fast in these two days, keep up the pace (or perhaps go faster, profiting from the advancement we have already done), and we should be pretty impressive (for a normal person) in a week.

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What would we actually do once we found him though? Right now, we don't have any skills that would allow us to take from him anything of any value, or hurt him in any significant way without us getting killed for trying. He (probably) saw Cedra's face when he made her a homeless orphan, and we have no idea how he would react to seeing us stalking him (which he will almost certainly notice).

Yes, we're growing at an incredible rate... for someone who isn't a Hero. We would be quite impressive... for someone who isn't a Hero. We would be very good at killing things... for someone who isn't a Hero. We should have died several times over the past two days, against creatures that would be curb-stomped by our target.

We are nowhere near ready for an encounter of any kind with him.

 

[Hyp3rB14d3]

I feel like I should clarify something here: Yes, there is a chance that you will not find anything pertaining to the hero and he just teleported out, but, assuming that he didn't, the longer you stay, the hard it will be to find that info. Another day probably won't make a difference, a week might, and a month definitely will.

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Dangit, making us leave the Death-level tutorial. We'll have to just stay a week and a day then, for symbology's sake, and then return to the city before the trail runs cold.

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The QM tells you that another day won't make a difference, but a week might, so you decide you want to stay another eight days?

When people stop finding dueling forest monsters fun, they will stop voting for that. When they stop voting for that, majority will fall away from that, and we will stop doing that.

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Actually, when people stop finding dueling forest monsters fun, they drop out of the quest, leaving only the people who like level grinding. Meaning that the grinding continues, causing more people to become disinterested in the quest, causing them to drop out too. Meaning the grinding continues until the quest dies.

Don't believe me? We had 27 people voting when we started the trial of blood two months ago. Last vote had 8.

What would we actually do once we found him though? Right now, we don't have any skills that would allow us to take from him anything of any value, or hurt him in any significant way without us getting killed for trying. He (probably) saw Cedra's face when he made her a homeless orphan, and we have no idea how he would react to seeing us stalking him (which he will almost certainly notice).

Yes, we're growing at an incredible rate... for someone who isn't a Hero. We would be quite impressive... for someone who isn't a Hero. We would be very good at killing things... for someone who isn't a Hero. We should have died several times over the past two days, against creatures that would be curb-stomped by our target.

We are nowhere near ready for an encounter of any kind with him.

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Keep an eye on him. Trail him from a safe distance and continue to practice and improve our magic and swordsmanship. Find out how strong he is. Accumulate allies from the people he fucks over (and if what we've seen of him is representative of how he generally acts, there will be others) and help them to grow strong. But make no moves against him until we know we can kill him.

 

[Arkatekt]

Actually, when people stop finding dueling forest monsters fun, they drop out of the quest, leaving only the people who like level grinding. Meaning that the grinding continues, causing more people to become disinterested in the quest, causing them to drop out too. Meaning the grinding continues until the quest dies.

Don't believe me? We had 27 people voting when we started the trial of blood two months ago. Last vote had 8.

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Correlation does not imply causation. Yes, the number of voters has dropped since character creation, but that happens in almost every quest. Notice that in the very first vote we had 44 voters, then when we voted for the Trial of Blood, we had 27, then it dropped to 13 when we blinded the wolf 11 when we killed it, 17 when we ate chose to eat it's heart, 15 when we fought the Elk Lord, 17 when we headed to the edge of the forest, and has been around 13-17 voters per vote since then, including having 17 votes on the vote for wandering after fighting off the plant seeds, barely two updates ago. Yes, this last vote had a significantly lower voter count, but it was also extremely one-sided, with little discussion, like (almost) every other vote has had.

Keep an eye on him. Trail him from a safe distance and continue to practice and improve our magic and swordsmanship. Find out how strong he is. Accumulate allies from the people he fucks over (and if what we've seen of him is representative of how he generally acts, there will be others) and help them to grow strong. But make no moves against him until we know we can kill him.

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And when he notices the 14 year old girl stalking him all across the lands, what then? He may be an ass, but he isn't blind. You don't last long as a Hero if you don't pay attention to your surroundings.

 

[Trondason]

What would we actually do once we found him though? Right now, we don't have any skills that would allow us to take from him anything of any value, or hurt him in any significant way without us getting killed for trying. He (probably) saw Cedra's face when he made her a homeless orphan, and we have no idea how he would react to seeing us stalking him (which he will almost certainly notice).

Yes, we're growing at an incredible rate... for someone who isn't a Hero. We would be quite impressive... for someone who isn't a Hero. We would be very good at killing things... for someone who isn't a Hero. We should have died several times over the past two days, against creatures that would be curb-stomped by our target.

We are nowhere near ready for an encounter of any kind with him.

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Poison, bombs, poison bombs, etc. Brains over Brawn, after all. No need to actually engage him in a fight.

And when he notices the 14 year old girl stalking him all across the lands, what then? He may be an ass, but he isn't blind. You don't last long as a Hero if you don't pay attention to your surroundings.

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Then we (maybe) die. We are henging on he either doesn't see us, or dismisses us when he does, it's plausible he wouldn't recognize us (especially with how much we are changing). And while Heroes might be super-observant while raiding dungeons and what-not, it's plausible that they drop their guard when they are "safe" in a city or something. After all, cities usually aren't lined with traps and monsters waiting to kill them.

Actually, when people stop finding dueling forest monsters fun, they drop out of the quest, leaving only the people who like level grinding. Meaning that the grinding continues, causing more people to become disinterested in the quest, causing them to drop out too. Meaning the grinding continues until the quest dies.

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They shouldn't have left just cause we did something they didn't like. They should have stuck around, keep voting till things do go the way they wanted. If the people who did drop it dropped it because we are grinding (which might not be the case for a number of them, we started on post two after all, people generally give quests more time than that to see if they like it), then too bad for them.
Of the 8 voters, the only ones who expressed dissatisfaction is you and Tsjoat, and if you two do decide to abandon ship, that will leave us with 6. Not many, but if Dark Ness still wants to do it, is enough to do it. That's about how many voters Rookie Death gets, and it's a awesome quest in my opinion.

 

[Arkatekt]

Poison, bombs, poison bombs, etc. Brains over Brawn, after all. No need to actually engage him in a fight.

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Where is Cedra going to learn how to use poison and bombs? Brains over Brawn is fine, but it needs to be something that is actually likely to happen. Who is going to teach a 14 year old leatherworker, who is barely a fledgling adventurer, with no previous experience with anything of the sort, and who only has 7 gold to her name, how to use poison or explosives?

Then we (maybe) die. We are henging on he either doesn't see us, or dismisses us when he does, it's plausible he wouldn't recognize us (especially with how much we are changing). And while Heroes might be super-observant while raiding dungeons and what-not, it's plausible that they drop their guard when they are "safe" in a city or something. After all, cities usually aren't lined with traps and monsters waiting to kill them.

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If we only stalked him in a single town, then hedging your bets on him dismissing Cedra is more likely to happen. However, the plan I'm seeing suggested involves tracking him to his current location, then spying on him while he is there, then following him when he leaves, then hiding and doing more spying while he is out in the wilderness, then repeating until we can do... something, all the while, trying to find people to train Cedra, who only has 7 gold to pay for these lessons and all of her food, drink, and lodgings, because she is too busy stalking the Hero to work.

I went a bit on a tangent I think. My point is: Once is a coincidence, but if he sees us several times everywhere he goes, there is no way anyone would not suspect something.

Snip

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@Dark Ness this story post is not threadmarked.

 

[Trondason]

Where is Cedra going to learn how to use poison and bombs? Brains over Brawn is fine, but it needs to be something that is actually likely to happen. Who is going to teach a 14 year old leatherworker, who is barely a fledgling adventurer, with no previous experience with anything of the sort, and who only has 7 gold to her name, how to use poison or explosives?

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Books that we buy/steal. I mean, we got a book on magic, who knows what else we will find. Poison is rather straight forward, bombs not so much but they still are not terribly complicated (gunpowder for example takes only 3 fairly common ingredients, ground up and mixed together, and if they (the people making the book we stole) happen to know of it, Thermite only takes two).

If we only stalked him in a single town, then hedging your bets on him dismissing Cedra is more likely to happen. However, the plan I'm seeing suggested involves tracking him to his current location, then spying on him while he is there, then following him when he leaves, then hiding and doing more spying while he is out in the wilderness, then repeating until we can do... something, all the while, trying to find people to train Cedra, who only has 7 gold to pay for these lessons and all of her food, drink, and lodgings, because she is too busy stalking the Hero to work.

I went a bit on a tangent I think. My point is: Once is a coincidence, but if he sees us several times everywhere he goes, there is no way anyone would not suspect something.

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I assumed it would be a bit before we caught up to him, what with his head-start, and the fact that we actually have to figure out where he went, and it's during that time that we figure out whatever, and we would only stalk him for a town or two to put the plan in motion.
Worse comes to worse, we might be able to force ourselves to pretend to be a fan of his (and that would be REALLY swallowing our pride and dignity).

 

[Alphaleph]

Actually, depending on some stuff, Cedra might be running into someone that could point her towards her target.

 

[Trondason]

Actually, depending on some stuff, Cedra might be running into someone that could point her towards her target.

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Well, yeah, in a world of magic there are a lot of possibilities. Best not to assume stuff though, that could bite us hard.

 

[Hyp3rB14d3]

You don't last long as a Hero if you don't pay attention to your surroundings.

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You sure? From the sound of it, the universe bends over backwards for them.