Accept The Mission

(Quest Started: Academic Sabotage)

You nod your head in agreement as you stuff the vial into your robes, if you’re gonna earn the good graces of the RA you’d have to play ball, so to speak.

Nika gives little reply as you stand, before you make it out of ear shot you hear her say “We’re not to be seen together until the deed is done..” and with that you take your leave.

You exit her room, stepping back into the hallway, now of course you could check her every floor of the dormitory looking for this dwarf but that might take a long time, if such a concept even exists here.

Instead you reason that the admin building likely have a list of current RA’s on academy grounds, though you might need to do some sleuthing to find the list.

It takes some time but you arrive at the admin building, a large towering building that looks more akin to a castle or cathedral than a municipal building.

The Headmaster must have a flair for the dramatic.

You make your way inside, finding yourself in a waiting room of sorts, with only a single halfling girl filling one of the several chairs lined up in a nook area that’s directly across from a long desk seating several kobolds.

It’s strange seeing them here, normally you don’t see kobolds in such numbers this far from a dragon.

Stepping forward you make your intentions plain. “Hey.. I need the dorm of Guldrick Jultim, I got some things to discuss with him…”

“We don’t give out that information, if you need to know where he is then you already know” their expression is that of stone and voice rasping.

At least you gave the easy way a shot first, you make a show of turning on your heels in acceptance of the response, stopping halfway to the door out.

“Hey… any chance you guys got a restroom?” You ask looking over your shoulder.

They sigh before pointing a filed down claw to a nearby hall. “Final door at the very end of the hall, can’t misssssss it..”

You head down the hall waiting until you’re out of sight to start checking the doors all throughout the hall as quietly as you can manage.

Almost all of them are unlocked but few of them hold anything of interest, finally you reach a door that opens up into a winding hallway that seems to bend and turn at odd angles.

It figures that the chaos of the academy would creep its way in here, the only surprise is that it hasn’t entirely enveloped this place.

You move forward with trepidation waiting for the hall to twist but strangely the gravity of this hall seems anchored to the floor causing you to twist along the hallway with minimal disorientation.

You walk along peering through several of the doors to see where they leave, one seems to lead to one of the pits of the underworld, lost souls screaming out for an escape from the madness.

Another leads to pristine looking desert with miles of white dunes, that seem to… wriggle slightly, like worms…. Slightly disconcerting…

Another seems to lead to the bottom of the ocean, you see horrors through the murky depths that make you never want to swim again, though strangely not even a drop of water spills out into the hall…

Finally after what feels like an hour of looking through these hellscapes you open the door to find what appears to be a normal looking records room with desks overflowing with papers on the millions of students both past and present.

You sigh softly and resign yourself to the search, with any luck you’ll be able to find the file on the student before he graduates.

You stride forward ready to dive in as fast as you can when suddenly… you slip…

Luckily no one is here to watch you eat shit but you can feel the universe laughing at you. You turn to see what caused your fall and find a file, opening it you’re shocked to find that it’s the one you’re looking for!

You brush the odds of you slipping over it off, this is a records room of a magic academy, there’s probably some kind of enchantment that read your mind when you stepped into the room.

Jultim, Guldrick.

Age: 102

Height: 4’2”

Weight: 250lbs

Status: Resident Assistant

Location: Floor 1579, Room 1

With a mighty sigh you climb to your feet, finally this mess would be over soon, soon you’d be able to go back to your studies, back to being boring.

You step out into the hall and make your way out, the kobold at the front desk cocks an eyebrow at you as you exit, you must have been here longer then you though…

The walk back to the dormitory feels easier now, like muscle memory, you just know your way back, walking up the steps you address the tapestry their visage warping to look at you.

“Ah..! Hello again little mage! Back from a busy day of learning g are we…?” Says the woman, clutching a tome in her arms as she bends down to look at you.

The man says nothing, he just shakes his head softly at her overtly cheerful display.

“Um… actually I was meeting with another student..! I need to get to floor 1579, me and Guldrick need to study..!” You say lying through your teeth.

The woman seems a bit confused as though you had told her you are meeting a student with no magical ability at all.

The man joins the conversation with a crooked grin, stepping closer from the background where he originally was posing.

“That little shite? I’d watch my arse if I were you, the only use for you his type got is for cannon fodder or target practice” the woman puts her elbow into his side before speaking up.

“What my… vulgar friend.. is saying is be careful.. we wouldn’t want our newest friend to be turned into a toad or some such nonsense… I’ll send you up…” she says before resuming her original position, followed by the man, opening the door.

Well at least it’s nice to know you’re framing an asshole, not just someone who pissed off your RA.

You step through, finding yourself in a hallway similar to the one on your floor, figuring the room of the RA is the on every floor you walk to the door at the very end of the hall, gently rapping your knuckles on the door to no avail.

You figure this will be easier if he’s not home, you try the door and find it locked, makes sense if your gonna an enemy of everyone you meet, might as well be smart about protecting your goods.

Suddenly you hear footsteps behind you, you turn on your heels to see a dwarf, he sports long red locks that are held together by ornate metal clasps, his beard in a similar shape.

He stares at you with narrowed eyes as he approaches, confident. “What are you doing girl…? Trying to break into my room…?” He words more an accusation than a question.

“N… no sir I just… I’m new here and heard my RA was an esteemed member of the Jultim family and…” you trail off, hoping to flare his ego a bit.

Much to your surprise it actually works his lips curl into a self assured grin, basking in the moment before taking another few steps forward.

“Ah.. it’s rare a… creature.. such as yourself is aware of the Jultim family… though I suppose our greatness can spread far and wide even the beasts can feel it..!”

“Very well then, inside with you, we’ll need to discuss how things work around campus” he says brushing you aside as he pops open the door to his room.

His room appears to be a large palace, intricate carvings line almost every wall, depicting dwarves triumphing over their lessers in grand displays.

He leads you forward, talking about how nice it is that he finally has found someone who recognizes the importance of his family.

It’s only now that you notice his pack, swung over his shoulders as he strides confidently ahead, not sparing you even a glance.

Your hand finds the vial tucked under your robes, all you need to do is slide it into a pocket and bail, Nika will handle the rest.

You get closer to him, trying to be as subtle as possible as you unwind the ties of his pack, working on opening a small pouch.

Suddenly he turns around! You back up, trying to look natural which you most certainly fail at.

Luckily he’s so high off his own fumes that he pays you no mind. “Tell me… what are your thoughts on accepting… the monsters… into the academy…?”

“Um… pardon..?” You ask as innocently as you can manage.

“Oh.. no need to play coy, here, the monsters! Centaurs, giants, nagas… hell even orcs are allowed to study here! What is the use of a prestigious university if they just let ANYONE in…?”

You can tell he’s passionate about the subject and figure the only way through this is to accept whatever horseshit he has to say.

“Oh, I can’t agree more..! Hell… I heard..? That they allowed a goblin to be an RA…” you say doing your best to mimic his passion without coming off as unauthentic.

“You’re right! Un. Believable! Like what on earth were they thinking allowing a primitive like that be in charge of a floor..?! I bet right now they’re burning all the books they can find to dance around the fire!”

Yikes.

You just nod along occasionally giving small approving hums before he turns back around, heading deeper into the palace.

You set to work, you don’t wanna be near this creep any longer then you have to, finally you open the pouch and slide the vial inside.

The long hall of the palace opens up into this grand mead hall with a table so long it could fit half the student body, probably more.

You consider leaving now but then you imagine what will happen when he notices a pouch untied and open.

Surely he would check right…? And then he’d connect the strange find with your visit… you have to cover your tracks.

He heads to the head of the table, slumping his pack from off his shoulder before taking a seat, closing his eyes and letting out a sigh, as though letting go of a stressful day.

You lurk close by, opting to not take a seat, instead leaning against the grand table near the bag.

It’s going to take almost a minute of work to tie the laces back into its proper position, almost a minute of him not looking at you.

He rambles on about perceived slights the dwarven people have endured, from the elves, from the orcs and so on, it’s not long before it devolves into a droning meander in your ears.

Your focus is squarely on the bag, slowly and subtly moving closer to it as the dwarf rambles on, his eyes closed as he tries to relax in the chair that’s much too large for him.

You duck down, taking the strings into your hands and begin deftly tying them together, trying to remember how it had been tied previously.

Suddenly through the fog you sense a change, his droning lifts in tone, denoting a question, up until now you had blissfully banished his voice from your mind.

You shoot up, your eyes turning to him, he still is resting back against chair, now slumped slightly with eyes closed.

What was the question….? Something about elves…? Or maybe he said something about shelves…? It was probably about elves right…?

Your wrack your mind trying to think about what he said occasionally giving small noises as to indicate that you’re in thought.

Finally you decide to bite the bullet before the moment drags on too long, if he catches onto you this whole operation is shot.

“Yeah… I can’t stand ‘em…” you say praying to every god in every pantheon that the answer will be applicable to the situation.

And much to your discomfort the only reply you get is a ‘huh…’ is he onto you? If he is why hasn’t he confronted you? You’re on his turf and an underclassman.

He gives no further indications as to what’s on his mind, you finalize your preyer in tandem to finishing the tie of the pouch.

You ride to your feet and step several silent steps away from the bag before starting your retreat.

“Hey… I just remembered that I gotta study up for war magic… you know how the professor gets…”

“Ay… be off with you, I’ll be keeping a special eye on you..” he says unable to bring himself to look at you.

You slowly creep back out of the long hallway and from their sprint all the way home, not stopping until your door is shut behind you.

It takes several days before anything bears fruit but suddenly the student body is abuzz with rumors that a conservative dwarf was found with elven ****.

The general consensus is that the guy was a dick who got what was owed, suddenly it seems his stay has gotten a lot less comfortable as his funding was cut off.

With that mess behind you, you finally can find it within yourself to rest.