Investigating some Disappearances...

Arien arrived in the meeting room to find that with the exception of Davri, the rest of his party already there. Irina looking tired as she often did, garbed in her shining silver armor, Lana dressed in a pastel blue skirt pared with a bodice of the same color cut so low it was a wonder it didn't show off her nipples, and Garn stood at the back, looking as disheveled as ever, but his eyes told the truth, they had an alertness as he looked around the room, as if he was ready to bark out orders for defensive positions at any moment.

"Good to see you Arien."

"Good to see you too Garn."

"Glad to see you wearing your new outfit Arien. It fits just as perfectly as I hoped." Arien blushed at Lana's comment. He was wearing what could only be described as a very revealing leotard, cut from a regal purple fabric that was inlaid with shimmering strands of silver thread. The leotard was tight enough on him that it left none of the contours of his body to the imagination, and the bodice was cut so low that if Arien had had breasts they would be spilling out of it, as it was his nipples were on full display. The leotard had two windows cut out to show the skin, one in the front and one in the back. The front window showed off Arien's tattoo, pulsing just above his crotch purple with sensual power, the back window was in about the same place though it was a bit smaller, it showed off a hint of his ample behind, showing just the edges of the crack. Arien didn't feel nearly so embarrassed about his outfit as he might have earlier, before his new training had progressed so far, but he would be lying if he said he felt no embarrassment being seen like this. The leotard had been expensive, too expensive he'd thought, especially since he'd already had a functional set of gear, but Lana had insisted, going as far as to buy the materials with her own gold and personally enchant it to her specifications. She said it was necessary, how else could she get the thing to resize to fit him as needed? Lana had outdone herself with the enchantments on this one. At a word the two holes in the bottom of the leotard would grow and resize, allowing full access to Arien's front and backside. Irina and Garn had raised some eyebrows to that, but Lana said it was necessary and Arien hadn't argued, so it went through, although Garn had managed to convince Lana to make the default version of the outfit one that protected Arien's modesty somewhat at least, although it had taken a lot of arguing with Lana to make it happen. Arien was thinking about all this, and about how far he had come since Lana's new training had begun, when Davri finally entered the room.

"Good, let's get right to business." Garn stepped forward, spreading a map out on a table in the middle of the room. The rest of the party crowded around, looking as Garn pointed to the map. "The village of Qualaer has been having problems lately, lots of people missing, strange sounds at night. People are scared to leave their houses, so we've been hired to deal with it."

"Do we have any idea what's going on? It's not like you to rush in without a plan Garn." Irina's eyes didn't leave the map as she spoke.

"I had a few theories, none of them good, but then;" he pulled a small scrap of parchment out of a leather pouch on his belt as he spoke, "this symbol was found scrawled into the door of the meeting hall a week ago, so that somewhat narrows it down." Irina gasped as she saw the mark revealed, a twisting circular symbol of interlocking rings, the whole thing made of slithering lines of an alien script that didn't look quite right to look at, almost as if it was about to crawl off the page.

"What in the hells?" Lana exclaimed.

"I don't recognize the full symbol, the inner ring is isn't in any of the holy codices in the grand library of Arkenrol. But the outer ring..." She paused for a moment, Arien could almost see her breath solidifying in her breast, being forged to hold the weight she was about to put on it.

"What? What is it?" His voice shook as he said it, thinking he knew the answer, hoping he was wrong.

"Demons."