rudequests
rudequests
You wander into the village square, taking in the sights. Reaching the adventurers' guild, you catch the eye of an old man standing near the village bulletin board. He smiles at you and waves you over.
"Hello there, traveller. Visiting our faire town? What brings you here?" You came here on a friend's recommendation. "Oh, a friend you say," the old man replies, stroking his long beard.
He pauses and looks you up and down. "Now if I'm not mistaken, you look to be the adventurous type?" You nod and explain your friend had only said that there's something in the village you had to see, in the square near the adventurers' guild.
The old man chuckles and smiles. "Your friend must be talking about this over here." He beckons you to come closer to the postings and says, "It really is one of a kind. This here is the requester." You look at the bulletin board. Not seeing anything special about it, you shrug, now wondering if your friend was playing a prank.
The old man laughs and says, "By the way, I didn't catch your name. You can call me the village idiot." You do a double take and start to wonder who this old man really is. Then out of the corner of your eye you see it. The ink and words on the requester are changing. Someone from behind you clears their throat. Stepping aside, you observe a well-armed group approach it. The leader steps up and pulls a post down, which is immediately replaced by a new one.
You ask how this came to be. The self-proclaimed village idiot explains, "This magical board was created by a wizard, long ago, to help the adventurers' guild. For you see, it's a list of requests from our villagers." He pauses for effect. "But, the villagers don't have to come here to post them."
"It knows what they need."
"I don't recall which wizard it was, but the villagers aren't happy with it, as you can imagine. Everyone here calls it the rudequester for obvious reasons." The old man snaps his fingers. "Oh that's right. I do remember a wizard that collaborated with the creator. John Earnest? He wielded two spells, Decker and Hershey." The old man taps his chin. "Wait. Am I thinking of the candy bar?" He shakes his head to clear his thoughts. "Anyways, he was said to also pull some arcana from the great library, The Open English Word Net, too."
The village idiot looks off in the distance, lost in thought. After a moment, he turns to you again. "Before I go, let me show you how it works." He points at the golden badge in the lower right. "If you rub this, a new quest will appear." He then points to the upper left, where a lightning bolt rune is engraved. "And if you touch this with a journal, it will scribe a drawing of itself on one of the blank pages."
"Why? Who knows."
"Anyways, I'll leave you to it then." He smiles and waves. Walking away from you and rounding a corner, the village idiot calls back, "Good luck out there, and I hope you find your fortune." Turning to face him, you thank him, shielding your eyes from the sun. Squinting, you notice a wizard's tower looming far off in the distance. Why didn't you notice it before?
