Case File Number: HR-600-1I-N2B-C

  Personnel Name: Silas

  Species: Cyclops

  Height: 10 human feet tall*

  Weight: 8 Boulders**

  Current Quest: Ody’s Path

  Sub Quest: Nobody to Blame

  Current Storymancer: Ody Eus of Ithika

  Current H.R. Representative: Penny Iliad of Sparkan

  Assigned Location: Dark Abandoned Cave

  Assigned Quest Occupation: Sheep Guardian and Caretaker

  Current Occupation Ranking: Crucial

  Quest line location: Ody’s Journey, Isle of Eyes

  Type of Request: Medical Examination

  Reason for Request: Silas has noticed a decrease in his vision. A healer’s exam of his eye is requested.

  Request History: The same request for medical has been made three previous times. Each request was denied due to storymancer intervention. Silas cannot leave their post until an adequate replacement can be found to relieve them.

  *Human feet have been designated the Royal Assessment Department and Adventurer Welfare Council standard unit of measurement pertaining to height.

  **One boulder is the equivalent to approximately one hundred dwarven stones.*** The boulder is the standardized unit of weight for larger creatures.

  *** One dwarven stone is approximately seven human pounds and is the historic unit of measurement for weighing creatures.

  The Isle of Eyes was a small, rocky island that didn’t offer much to anyone stranded or passing through. Which, according to the novel Ody’s Path: The Path Taken by a True Hero, was intentional. The famed hero was stranded on a similar island with no supplies of any kind to support the war heroes they were escorting home. Keylynn chose to purchase the novel, Ody’s Path, to learn more about the large quest that features several sub quests that she’ll be dealing with and to fill her time on her trip.

  Down the coast from the dock she could see the beach in which the adventurers are meant to wash up, stranded on the island. From there they explore the island and discover a dark, abandoned cave, where they find a massive herd of sheep just waiting for them. The sheep are the only noticeable source of food available, motivating the party to herd the sheep to the beach to feed both their starving war heroes and themselves. The name cleverly ties into the real threat of the quest: the herd of sheep. The moment the sheep touch the beach, they transform into mid-sized minotaur-like creatures, where instead of being part bull and part human, they are part sheep and part human.

  She pulled out her name tag and slid the magnetized backing under her shirt, holding her name tag in place. It’s ideal to stay out of sight of the adventurers to maintain their immersion within their quest, but ideal doesn’t always happen. Next she checked the status of the Nobody to Blame quest because it’s one thing to do her best to prevent quest disruption and another to stumble in surprising them. There was a group on the way to the next stop on Ody’s Path and a group on their way to the Isle of Eyes. This is the best opening she will get.

  The cave was a short brisk walk from the dock, instead of the longer, more vigorous walk the adventurers will take. She found a single entrance, which increased the risk of running into adventurers if she wasn’t careful. She made a note of that on her matrix because it is regulation for all quest dungeon designs to have an alternate entrance for staff to use so as not to break immersion.

  Despite the name, the cave was dimly lit with torches hanging at irregular intervals along the wall. She made a note of the light accommodation as well, marking it as a deviation from what the description of the cave provided to aspiring heroes: An impossibly dark cave filled with long windy tunnels meant to beguile and confuse all but the bravest of heroes. It’s home to the guardian of the isle, a fierce cyclops who had his first taste of blood when Ody had the misfortune of being stranded here. This guardian happens to have a lovely herd of sheep ripe for the taking, if you dare. She found the lacking of the aforementioned long, beguiling tunnels concerning as well. She understands the need to be verbose or use eccentric language to quicken the hearts of adventurers to get their blood pumping, but so far the description of the cave has been a lie.

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  She itched to conduct a complete assessment of this quest. The misleading language that she's seeing indicates that there are larger problems with the quest, and it's been ages since she and Dauven did a complete quest assessment. Acting against protocol, she reached out with her magic to quickly assess the flora and fauna of this cave. What she found only added to her concern: a complete lacking of life. She added it to her growing list of notes on the quality of this dungeon and continued on. She shook her head gently, admonishing herself. She's here to help Silas, not to assess the quest.

  She heard the sheep and Silas before she saw them. The sheep bleated without a care in the world as their hooves shuffled against the floor in a symphony few would understand or appreciate. Silas’s deep voice crooned at them as a parent dotes on their offspring. “That’s my good girl. Drink it all up, that's right. It will help you feel better.”

  The herd of sheep caught her eye first. They wore brilliantly white wool that shone with a pearlescent sheen. Each one had a delicate gold chain with a small gold medallion hanging from it around their left front limb. The sheep all bore the same dreamlike quality in their faces. They had perfectly large, round, soft brown eyes, soft button pink noses, and soft floppy ears.

  She cleared her throat, facing the herd of cute and menacing sheep. “Humanoid Resources Consultant Keylynn. I am here regarding Case File HR-600-1I-N2B-C,” she explained, pulling out her authorization badge.

  In response they bleated at her and moved aside, clearing her a path to a cage in which a large cyclops resided. She frowned. That doesn’t seem right either. The adventurer quest description of this cave is: At the end of the winding tunnel you will find the Cyclops Den and his herd of sheep. In order to get to the sheep, you need to get through him first. He’s very fond of his sheep and loves to chew on bones. You have bones.

  She thought that making notes while she walked was a good compromise to her desire to conduct a complete assessment and help Silas. She noted all the changes as she approached the caged cyclops. She would love to know the logic behind all of these changes.

  “I wasn’t expecting you to come in person. The others didn’t. Thank you for coming. I recommend joining me in cage. The adventurers today are in a killing mood,” the cyclops in the cage rumbled. Their eye was white and clouded, hinting that their vision problems are far worse than she initially thought.

  She approached the cage and looked for an entrance. In the back there was a door that stood wide open. Upon closer inspection she saw a mechanism at the top and bottom that reminded her of something Barnibus would make. “I am joining you. Is your sheep requiring healing?” She asked, seeing a smaller sheep curled up on a pile of rags, she assumed made up his bed within the cage.

  Silas turned his face towards her. “She is. I was hoping to hide her when more adventurers come. I requested a healer, but one hasn’t arrived yet.”

  She made note of the lack of healing for the sheep and the apparent lack of an emergency exit in the cage before kneeling beside the sheep. She ran her hyphae over the sheep gently. She was weak and recovering from various wounds. Keylynn cast her healing spell, rejuvenation mushroom, resulting in a cute, button-like white mushroom that tastes delightful to all who eat it. She held the mushroom out for the sheep and smiled when she began to nibble on it.

  “She should start to feel better very soon,” she assured Silas, easing his worried expression. “How many adventurers come by on any given day?” She asked curiously.

  The large creature shrugged, scratching their head. “Hard to say. I don’t see so good no more and before that they always came in groups and all took turns skewering my eye.”

  She wrote more notes, feeling her fury bubble and churn like a stormy sea. The way Silas has been treated for years is immoral and breaks at least a dozen protocols. Adventurers should not all be taking turns to blind one creature. That should trigger an adventurer assessment and have them removed from the quest. That behaviour is not reflective of a hero; it reflects a future BBEP, a big bad evil person.

  “What’s that buzzing?” Silas asked nervously, looking around. She looked up and sighed. The bees.

  “My apologies. Being a druid, I sometimes summon bees,” she explained, dispelling them irritated. Hyphae reached out and snatched each one mid-flight. She requested her hyphae to keep the bees under control. “From my initial assessment it seems you are not as crucial to this quest as I was led to believe.”

  “I'm optional. They do not need to fight me but choose to. Most choose to keep me in a cage, cheat if you ask me,” he grumbled.

  She sucked in a deep breath, longing for Dauven. If he were here, he would know the appropriate channels to follow in order to conduct a full assessment of this quest. She planned to message him later for advice, after she helped Silas.

  The door to the cage slammed shut with a clang and a click as the lock engaged. She turned to Silas, who draped a heavy dirt-crusted blanket over the sheep. "You can crawl there." He gestured to a small alcove in the cave wall. "Shouldn’t see you." Silas declared.

  She looked around and made a decision that definitely breaks protocol. “Lie down as if you are dead. I’ll disguise you as a compost pile. They won’t know any better.”

  His clouded white eye widened and looked in her general direction. “You can do that?”

  “Yes,” she answered confidently. For the first time since she’d met him, Silas looked truly happy. He laid down awkwardly in a heap on the ground. It truly didn’t look comfortable, not that he has much room for his large body to lie comfortably in a dead pose.

  With her help they found a position where he leaned against the stoney cave wall, obscuring the alcove, making a hiding spot for both his sheep and herself when the adventurers walked through.

  She worked quickly, summoning more soil than she’d ever needed previously, layering it over Silas’ body. She used a small layer of air over him to ensure he didn’t get smothered by the soil. Next she added many spores of mushrooms that were common around her home on decaying logs. She compelled them to form a scaffold along the bottom of the dirt. With that in place, she was then able to lay it over him gently.

  She added carrion beetles and worms to crawl and slither over the surface of the soil. She added spots of decaying flesh and freshly cleaned bones together, replicating the size and general shape of a cyclops. She added several clusters of varying types of moss before she lifted an edge of her compost pile blanket and squeezed herself in.

  Within minutes she heard the clanging of steel armour, weapons in scabbards, and the scuffing of boots against the ground in a rushed walk. The adventurers were here, and they weren’t subtle at all. “Holy sheep! They weren’t kidding! This is the motherload!” One of the adventurers shouted back to their party. Keylynn held her breath, hoping her disguise worked.