Raoul looked around uncomfortable as he made his way through the Pale city cold and unforgiving as it always was. The white-haired man was here on business otherwise he’d be in the Winter’s Howl drinking some nice wine as he heard the bards play. He’d been given a tip from an old colleague who lived here that there was something up, something very very wrong going on here. There had been murmurings of sudden d people just up and dropping off the face of the earth one day, nothing to be heard of again. He’d gone door to door interviewing the relatives and found nothing that was out of the ordinary. All the victims were living normally acting the same as it was any other day. One thing did strike out though that was shared across all of the relatives' recollections of their loved ones that had gone missing. They had all gone to a traveling circus that was staying on the outskirts of the Pale City for the month.



He was going to get to the bottom of this no matter what, the dhampir although cold-blooded had a heart that burned hot for justice. He was going to find the truth about all of the disappearances even if it meant bringing back the victims' cold dead bodies if it came to that.



He entered the line to get in, it was pretty packed while he waited, he looked around observing his surroundings, the circus itself was pretty big and the ticket dispenser seemed normal enough nothing struck the man off the bat, “I guess I’ll just have to wait and see”, he thought.

Admittedly, the Pale City isn’t Perrath’s least favorite place in Charon. So far, he finds that he’s had an easy enough time getting along with the large dark elf population, and the added benefit of half the city being underground makes it attractive to someone like himself who prefers to exist in darkness. There has been talk around the town of the circus that set up outside of the city walls with an especially unique show – one that makes use of illusory magic to tell a tale of great violence, tragedy, and triumph. Finding himself curious about the attraction, Perrath makes his way there, purchases a ticket, and heads inside (though it isn’t without impatiently waiting in a line).

The circus tent is densely packed with many benches filled to the brim with onlookers. A ringleader in a red jacket speaks in a voice amplified by magic, announcing that the show will start shortly. In the middle of the ring sits a large crystal that projects images of performing animals and acts. A pre-show to get the crowd excited. Normal enough, but this doesn’t seem to be the show he expected.

Nevertheless, it wouldn’t be a show without refreshments, so Perrath heads to the stand where popcorn, candies, and ale are being sold. And the line is long. Yet another line. The dragon avoids losing his patience immediately and decides to seek an alternative. Glancing around, he spots someone with a smarmy expression watching the crowd whilst standing off to the side. The two of them lock eyes, and the rugged man’s expression shifts to an inviting smile. This will be interesting.

“You look the type to try something interesting,” the man says as Perrath approaches.

“I did hear this is an interesting show,” Perrath says, noting his posture is generally secretive. “What do you have?”

The man grins a crooked smile. “I have the best drink in the house, the Ringleader’s special.”

Perrath cocks one brow ridge up. “If it’s so special, then why hide it here?”

A ponderous expression crosses the man’s face before the smile returns. “It’s a… limited in quantity. And quite expensive. Reserved for the guests who can handle it. Are you up for it?”

“Fine, let’s try this ‘Ringleader Special,’” Perrath says, offering him payment in exchange for a bottle that seems small in his large hand.

“Bottoms up,” the potion seller says with a wink before ducking back into the shadows.

With an unimpressed expression, Perrath looks at the bottle in his hand before opening the cork and giving it a sniff. It smells… quite sweet and not nearly as expensive as advertised. Hmph, if the man lied, then Perrath will simply kill him later. So, he puts the bottle to his lips and drinks. It tastes cheap too, as if it were in the vicinity of cinnamon without having any actual cinnamon inside, like a cheap knock off of a healing potion.

Then, the world starts to expand.

---

Quest details:

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Honey, someone shrunk the heroes
Participants: Two or more
Location: Anywhere
Post Requirements: 5 post per person, 200 words per post
Reward: +1 Renown
Description: Charon has been plagued with counterfeit potions over the past few months, the Golden Consortium doing its best to put a stop to the production of these fake elixirs. However, as one operation is put to an end, three more pop up, making it a gamble to buy potions from any source at this point. You have found yourself the victim of one of these fake potions, thinking it to be a potion or drink of some other kind. Unfortunately, it's a fake, made somewhere in a back alley by scoundrels. Instead of the potion having its intended effect, it has instead shrunk you and anyone you shared the drink with, making you the size of an ant. The effects of this potion will only last for four posts, making you normal size after its duration, however, you will have to survive in a massive world filled with giant bugs and plants all prepared to kill you. The task is simple, don't die.

Raoul reeled a little in his mind as he handed over fifty solars to the ticket dispenser, he hated spending any money on most things. It was his instinct after living and scavenging for food as a child to be as frugal and keen on savings as he could. It pained him but he just handed the money over not without almost pulling it away at the last minute but letting go anyway.



Raoul lets out a long sigh as he walks forward into the circus tent and thinks, “Paying 50 solars for a single ticket, well I think I’ve found the crime here, damned stealing people’s money. Dammit, that's fifty down the drain, if I knew I was going to get royally scammed out of my money I should’ve gone to the Winter’s Howl to at least drown my sorrows with some nice collection of wine”.



He shakes his head in shame once he remembered why he was here in the first place he thinks, “No, I should just shut up and suck it up, I’m here for a reason to save lives and if dropping a whole 50 solars on a single ticket is what it takes then so be it”.



He walks over to the first row bench holding his eyeliner on the crowd first looking for any shady characters. He was starting to get impatient at this point so far everything looked normal enough. No comically evil-looking bad guys, no suspicious shady people yet. He calmed himself down thinking about this whole thing, “Well, I have two outcomes here just wait and keep an eye on anything shady going on or this thing turns out to be a dead end and I just get to enjoy an overpriced show, either way it's a win-win I guess”.



He continues to madly look around, finding anything suspicious, and focuses his attention on a dragon paladin looking on, following talking to one of the vendors.



He was about to look away and focus elsewhere but suddenly he saw the man disappear, he shook his head blinking a couple of times to make sure he saw this right and it was true. There was someone there standing for a minute and now he’s gone, “There, that has to be it, that has to be where they are doing it”, he screams in his mind.



He quickly rushes forward, walking towards the vendor as he scoops up Perrath and hides him. Raoul then thinks quickly standing around looking clueless as he pulls out a handful of solars looking at the stalls.


The man easily falls for the bait and shouts, “Hey there fellow I see you’re looking to spend some solars on our fine establishment. Why not settle for the best? I’m offering you our house special, it’s a super important drink that we offer here that makes the show so much better once you take it. Trust me it’s an incredible experience that honestly I’m doing you a favor by offering”, with a greedy grin.



Raoul smirks, and thinks to himself “Gotcha you damned bastard”, and says in his most innocent tone, “Oh my goodness you’re offering it to me why I gotta be so special, yes a million times yes give it to me now”, he practically stuffs his solars in the mans face.



He quickly hands the dhampir the potion, Raoul thinks, “Alright bottoms up, the best way for me to figure this all out and bring these bodies to justice is falling for their trap on purpose and taking them down from the inside. A weak wolf no matter how innocent and weak is still a wolf waiting for its prey”, and downs the potion in a single swig.



Wiping it from his lips he looks straight at the man and immediately shrinks down the world before expanding around as if he was now in a different realm of being.

In a matter of seconds, Perrath feels himself shrinking down, and the world gets larger around him. His cries in surprise and anger go unheard, his usually deep voice nothing more than a tiny squeak muffled out by the murmurs of people wandering the circus tent. As he turns to make demands of the scumbag, he finds himself quickly swept up into his hands and into a bag with a handful (literally) of other people in a similar predicament.

“What in Lunala’s name is going on?!” he demands angrily.

The people around him are frightened, screaming for help, and clawing to get over each other in hopes of climbing to the mouth of the bag to escape. And then he sees the bag open above, so he spreads his wings and launches himself toward the top, drawing his blade and ready to drive a dozen tiny slashes into the scam artist’s face. But the shadow of the man’s hand covers the hole, and yet another person is dropped into the bag, landing on Perrath and knocking him back to the fray below.

“AGH! Gods!” he coughs. “Oh, great, the charlatan has another! Did you not see what happened to me only seconds before yourself?!” he demands to Raoul.

Raoul couldn’t help but hold his stomach as he held himself from falling over. He knew it was going to be weird and strange but didn’t think it would be such a terrifying and overwhelming feeling. He could barely hold himself up before suddenly he wasn’t even on the ground. He quickly gets grabbed and swept off his feet and he tries kicking and punching to get out of the man’s grasp but it was all futile as he was easily just thrown into the bag like some sort of toy.

He tries his best to calm himself as he looks around and people are crying and screaming for help. Everyone’s panicked and so is he but he steadies himself as he lets out a long breath focusing himself back to the mission at hand. He then looks over to the figure he saw get shrunken before him and that tried to escape.

“Yeah, I did see that happen to you, that’s why I decided to follow you. Everything’s going to be fine I can promise you that this is all according to my plan”

After all this is what Raoul wanted to happen, to follow this situation through and through.

He then holds his hand out, “Names Ardelean, Raoul Ardelean, what’s yours my fellow shrinkee”

It takes everything in Perrath’s power not to visibly grimace, roll his eyes, or enact something violent against Raoul, someone he immediately considers a fool of a man. “Ah, great, wonderful,” he murmurs angrily. “If you saw this happen to me, why did you not perhaps reprimand or kill the person responsible? Instead, we are now both in this situation. So, sir, what exactly is your plan of escape since you so graciously knocked me out of mine.”

Perrath motions to the opening of the bag that has now been closed off from the outside world, his only means of escape blacked out like an eclipse. He looks with unimpressed eyes at Raoul’s hand as the man introduces himself, but he cannot quell his frustration. Instead of shaking his hand, Perrath offers a deep and very sarcastic knightly bow. “I am Perrath, Paladin of Lunala,” he says regally before standing straight again.

The bag lurches, knocking him off of his feet and into the pile of people who also fall over around them. “Not to worry, dear citizens!” he declares. “Mister Ardelean has a brilliant plan to get us all out of here!!” This causes even more of a stir amongst the trapped people.

After a moment, the bag stops swaying then is roughly shifted forward as if being handed to someone. Bright lights peek through what little openings the top of the bag has to offer, and they can hear the raucous cheering of the crowd outside. A charismatic voice booms, “Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce you all to this evening’s stars!”

Suddenly, the bag turns upside down and everyone inside tumbles out and falls into an open area – the start of a maze for rodents. The lights are bright and oppressive, and the crowd is only a mass of shadows far in the distance. Above them, a large glass dome is placed overhead, and through that, a crystal projects images of the unwilling participants at a massive scale for the crowd to see.

“Don’t worry folks,” the man with the red and gold jacket says, flourishing as his image warps in the view through the glass. “This is all just a projection, an illusory story of life and death. At the end of it all, you will meet the winner! Keep on the edge of your seats and don’t forget to place your bets! The game is about to begin!!”

Raoul places his right hand as he listens to Perrath’s argument the man seems upset at him although the dhapmir has a differing opinion.



He takes a moment to respond, “If I reprimanded the person what do you think would happen? They wouldn’t listen to me at all, kick me out, or hurt me. All disadvantageous to me and this case. Killing them is not an option after all if I kill them I’d be no better than them, just some rowdy ruffian. What and what would that do, mister? It would be way too easy on them, after all these guys still have to have their punishment under the eyes of the law. Trust me friend everything is going to be okay and is all under control, we just have to wait and see how this plays out”.



He chuckles amused at the other man’s anger, “Nice to meet you there Perrath, Paladin of Lunala, can’t see I’ve met someone like you before so I hope we get along better for the sake of our survival as well as all the people here counting on us to help them escape”.



The detective grew annoyed at the other man’s making light of him and he shouted, “Don’t worry guys everything is going to be just fine, we’ll get through this together”.



He stops speaking and crouches down to hear the voice calling out for a performance, suddenly he falls out of the bag as it gets shaken. He struggles to get up as a large light blares in his eyes revealing his lack of sleep, he hisses instinctively before standing up.

Perrath’s nostrils flare as he snorts at Raoul’s reasoning for getting himself into a dangerous situation instead of going after the culprit. “Disadvantageous for you?” he says, exasperated. “I don’t understand how being shrunken down to the size of a child’s toy is less disadvantageous than perhaps following the charlatan and gathering information instead of jumping headlong into this very situation you find yourself in!” The dragon really is trying not to blow a gasket, because Raoul is right, that the two of them could help each other get out of here, but he simply cannot make sense of the detective’s reasoning.

With a dark expression crossing his scaly, black face, Perrath growls, “The only justice the men responsible will face for this act is the end of my blade thrust through their chests once I am freed from this…” He looks up, motioning to the glass dome above them. “Glassy prison!” As if he cares one thing about the people trapped in this situation. What good will worrying about any of them do him? Better a few fall so the one who can make a difference here can escape than them all perishing to whatever “story of life and death” the ringleader claims this situation will be.

Luckily, the walls of this maze don’t go all the way to the top of the dome, so a smirk crosses Perrath’s face. He’ll get himself out of here, fly to the end if that’s what’s required of him to win. Fine. The dragon opens his wings and leaps into the air, ascending toward the top of the surrounding walls in an attempt to go over them. As he nears the top, a faint, shimmering blue in the air catches his eye, and when he makes contact with it, lightning bursts out of nowhere and gives his system a shock. Perrath plummets back down the few inches he ascended and lands roughly besides Raoul.

He coughs. “...Well, now we know we can’t simply go over.”

There’s raucous laughter from the crowd, who witnessed the whole event on the projection above them.

“What’s going on”, the dhampir manages to mutter as he stands back up and looks around him.



He waves the other man goodbye hoping that he could at least attempt out, but he instead decides to observe his surroundings. The man was an investigator and being curious and searching through his problems was his first instinct. He walked over to the nearest wall and noticed that although they weren't very high walls they were fairly durable. He discovered as much as he ran his hand through its material, noticing it was rather durable, not bending, folding, or anything else. He even tried punching it to maybe crack off a piece but to no avail, just an injured hand.



He was about to look up and check if Perrath had made any progress on his escape only to see a large dragon paladin figure descend quickly from the sky down to the ground next to him.



He crouches down and holds his hand out, “You alright fellow? What did you learn? Did one of the performers swat you away? Do they have some sort of magical field around us?”.


After listening to the other man's response he stands there hand on his chin thinking about the next best move.

The crowd’s laughter only serves to make Perrath all the more angry in his embarrassment. After a silent moment of debate, he takes Raoul’s hand and gets to his feet. No need to look more of a fool in front of everyone. Dusting himself off, Perrath says, “There’s an energy field above the maze, just above the walls. It’s charged with lightning, so we can’t fly over.” He looks at the entrance where a few people have curiously looked into the twisted hallways. “We have to go through.”

“Alright, friends in the audience, that was quite a start!” the ringleader says through a chuckle, trying to recover from the unexpected joy of a fruitless decision. “I think it’s time we really get this event going!” The audience cheers, and his fingers drum against the glass dome keeping the shrunken heroes inside. From the edge behind Perrath, Raoul, and the rest a wave of water rises up and washes them forward, forcing them into the maze!

Perrath’s shoulder hits a wall hard before the water rushes him to the right and down a corridor along with Raoul and a handful of others before it stops and washes back gently like the waves on a beach pulled out to see. Getting to his feet, now utterly drenched, the dragon can’t see his mood nor the situation getting any better.

Then he sees the foaming maw of a rabid rat peek out from behind a corner.

Raoul ignores the crowd’s laughter after all that was not productive and only served by their captors to throw them off.



He looks shocked as Perrath mentions there being an entire lightning-charged field above them, “What? What type of goons are we dealing with here? Having the ability to shrink folk? Designing and creating ingenious traps to torture the innocent souls that they abduct”, his hands are then balled into fists his anger rising the more he speaks.



This type of injustice was exactly what the detective worked against and he hated to think that they were just being used as some sort of toy or tool for the sake of a ‘good show’. He glares at the ringleader as he speaks, his blood is boiling and he is even more determined to save everyone.



Water rushes in and completely sweeps the dhampir off his feet and carries him to slamming into a wall before moving him along slamming into more walls before the water stops. He stands up drenched, his hair soaked and fuming. He stands up trying to dry himself off and looks at his bruising from getting slammed around by the waves. His anger is then replaced by fear as he sees a rabid rat look at them with hungry eyes from behind the corner.



“Perrath, get ready it’s up to us to deal with this and keep everyone safe”, he then takes out both his whips cracking them as he sprints forward determined to keep everyone safe hoping Perrath is on the same page.

Keep everyone safe? Is this investigator insane? Perrath’s prerogative here is keeping himself alive. Hells, he’d use the other suckers stuck here as bait if it means getting out of here alive and notably not rabid like this rat. Bah. He’s faced creatures larger than this, and the buffoon who snatched him didn’t relieve him of his sword.

Pulling the massive, gnarly black greatsword out, Perrath interposes himself between the victims and the rat. It’s rather heroic looking, but really he’s just thinking about how this rat stands between himself and freedom. It’s in his way. Forget keeping others safe. If they get snatched up, that’s their problem. He will kill this beast, put it out of its misery and get it out of his way.

The rat screeches and charges the group. Perrath holds up a hand and summons forth a spectral duplicate of himself^[1] behind the rat. With a twist of his claws, he switches places with the echo of himself, appearing behind the rat while the shadowy version still stands between the rat and the people. Perrath cleaves his massive blade across the rat’s backside. It screeches in pain, throwing its head up and exposing its neck to Raoul for a perfect killing blow.

---

1. Spectral Shadow

Raoul glances at the other man, slightly surprised at his weapon, he wasn’t expecting him to wield a small pink dagger with a bow but still, that blade was impressive even from the eyes of a person who rarely fought. The fellow truly looked like a hero from a storybook which Raoul kind of found amusing. The man who so fervently upset and disturbed his attempts at keeping the peace was here standing as a paragon against the heinous rat bastard.



Raoul stands tall behind Perrath holding his whips at his side ready to strike and wrap up the rat at a moment’s notice. He was confident in Perrath taking the focus off the rat the moment the other man suddenly went behind the rat. Raoul was confused but not unprepared as the other man cleaved his backside and provided an opportunity for him to finish it.



He grinned as he slammed his whips around the bastard’s neck and pulled back wrapping it around its neck. He then turned around and walked, pulling his whips as hard as he could as this binding on the rat’s neck got tighter and tighter. He grits his teeth as he keeps walking forward gripping his whip handle as he pushes forward whispering, "Just a little more".

Soon enough after pulling the rat lets out a loud pained squeal before its body goes completely limp. Raoul then pulls his cracks, whips off the beast’s neck, and leans against a wall as he tries to recover his breath. That was a great effort for the dhampir he was used to binding and supporting other adventurers so being the one to finish a monster was a first. He then places his hands on his knees as he keeps breathing hard and recovering his breath. He was not a very strong man and that took a lot out of him.

From behind the rat, Perrath watches the struggle between the rat and the dhampir. It would have been simple enough to cut the thing’s throat, but instead, Raoul chose to dispatch it by strangling the beast to death. For the first time, Perrath finds himself somewhat impressed, having respect for the investigator even. It isn’t enough to kill the thing, it sends a message to overpower and suffocate it.

The dragon hefts his bloodied blade over his shoulder and stands with a hip out to one side, his tail swishing through the puddle of blood at his feet. “Excellent work,” he says. Then he points his sword down the path the rat came from. “Now, onward! I’m sure these game makers have more tricks up their sleeves.”

The ringleader’s voice booms through the arena, adding commentary to what the crowd just witnessed. “Well, well, folks! It looks like we have an unlikely duo teaming up to take on the challenges ahead! Will they make it out alive? Find out tonight! You can only get a show like this right here!” The crowd cheers loudly while they watch Perrath lead the charge forward on the projection in the center of the arena. 

Raoul continues breathing hard and tries to recover his energy as he lets out a long sigh before taking a deep breath and standing up determined to get through this. No matter the effort, no matter the challenge the dhampir was going to save everyone here, he promised their families that they’d be returned safe and sound. He hated breaking promises and wasn’t going to let any of them get hurt on his watch after all that's why he was here.



He responds to Perrath as he walks towards him, “Thanks friend, you’re right we can’t just sit still like this or those bright ballooned bastards will take advantage of our stillness".


He trudged forward cracking this whip wand and reverting it to its normal wand appearance tucking it and the wrapped-up shimmering scorpion blade into his coat pockets. His blood starts boiling as he stops to listen to the voice that is commenting on their actions. These shrinking criminals would pay once they got back to normal he just knew it. He continued forward, following behind Perrath, motioning the rest of the folks behind them to follow, which they complied with. He was going to let the paladin fellow lead them towards whatever was next considering he was out of energy and needed time to recover that and Perrath seemed like he knew what he was doing.