Step by Step

Ulric took stock, 8 civilians and 5 guards, and the guards were beaten and their equipment was damaged, he hated escort quests by reputation as NPC's tended to be suicidal loonies when being escorted but he hoped this would be different.

The guards needed rest but resting in or near the town felt like the dumbest thing they could do at the moment so Ulric organised them, the civilians would stay in the middle while the guards would protect the sides and back and Ulric would take point, they then began walking under Ulric's urging.

Although they were not the stereotype they did complain, a lot, but Ulric ignored their complaints and pressed on, with his higher senses due to his stats he knew they were being tracked by a small squad of goblins, and he could spot a few monsters lurking just off the road, if they stopped now they were dead so he kept them going but as time went on the townspeople grew more and more resistant until,

An angry woman stepped up to him, "Why are you pushing us so hard?! we aren't being followed so why are you making use run ragged?!" she screamed in his face,

he was a little shocked, he had literally saved them all and this was his thanks? for a ,moment he considered just leaving them all to their own devices, but he needed the karma.

He took a deep breath, "so you think i am pushing too hard and you are not in any danger yes?"

"YES. I. DO." the woman sang at him,

"fine, wait over there in the tree line, and watch, then you'll see if i am pushing too hard," he instructed,

although a little reluctant and grumbling the whole time the civilians did as they were told, Ulric had taken a look around then this area was clear for the time being, he ran a little way down the road back the way they came, he got down on one knee and dug a small hole, he then took a pile of his cooked meat out of his inventory and dropped it in the hole, he glanced at the monsters in the tree line and they reacted as he knew they would, the smell of the freshly cooked meat was intoxicating and the monsters began to leave the forest, Ulric darted back to the group and had them watch.

At first the monsters were just investigating the smell but it didn't take long for them to start fighting over the meat, and something Ulric didn't expect happened, an elite monster was attracted by the meat and noise, it chased away the other monsters quickly, it stood 3 feet high and 6 foot long, it's forward body was quite husky like, the white eyes and silver fur, but at the shoulders the fur gave was to shiny silver scales the gleamed in the sun, under the scales you could see the outline of it's bulging muscles, and it had a long tail that ended in a sharp bone barb it even had a name Singan.

Singan sniffed at the meat experimentally, and deciding it was safe picked up a piece in it's jaw and swallowed it whole, it was clear that it was happy from the fact it's tail was wagging, it was then the goblins showed up, they were dashing down the road as fast as they could waving the weapons and shouting, Singan didn't like that.

The goblins first realized their problem when a silver-white blur landed on the two at the front and ripped one's head off with it's teeth, and used it's tale to poke a hole in the other's head, the goblins got ready to fight, while two more were shredded by claws and bitten in half, 10 goblins were now 6, they attacked Singan their weapons striking it's scales with all the effect of a plastic butter knife trying to cut steel, 2 more fell to his teeth, another was tripped by his tail and was trodden to death by it's paws, the last 3 tried to run, one was cut in half by a slash of it's tail, while the other two were chased down and ripped apart, in less than 30 seconds the goblins were scattered in pieces all over the road.

After his little exercise, Singan returned to the little hole and picked up the remaining food in it's jaws as carefully as a mother holding it's baby, and just before it left it looked directly at Ulric.

The villagers stood there petrified, some stood in smelly puddles that weren't there before, Ulric stared intrigued at Singan who's name was now yellow not red,

HIDDEN QUEST ACQUIRED: Who's afraid? reward: ???????

Ulric turned to the woman and smiled, "you were saying?"