Augusta had spent enough time now in Orhcidia that she was becoming more and more comfortable, believing that her time in the city was going to come to an end soon enough, though it was honestly impossible to say entirely whether that could actually be the case or not. She was coming to see more and more of the things within the city, but that did not mean that she had seen everything, as that was far from true, if not an outright lie to say at this point. The fact was, she had never taken these sorts of measures in the past, not when she was going about her crusades outside of Fiore, but this was different now. She could not afford to act aimlessly and go about things in a manner that put her at risk, let alone her legions, whenever and however many of them she would have at her control. To know all of the weak points, to know where her forces could enter and exit easily, to be able to suffocate the city with any and all forces stuck in there only to suffer through and face their demise, that was the key point of what she hoped to achieve. But to do that, she would need more. More information. More recon, and more time invested in this city. And that would certainly extend to that of the other areas throughout Fiore as well, but while she was here, she might as well continue to go ahead and learn about what she could.

Something that happened to draw her eye, for whatever reason it may have been, was what appeared to have been a smaller house, if not even a manor based on the actual size of it and its relative location to everything else in Orhcidia, as though it were pouposley set up to be as obscure and out of sight as it could have been, and had Augusta not been in that direction at all, she dobuted that she would have even seen it, let alone know that it was there or something to that effect. It worked out and she was interested, particularly given its size relative to everything else that was nearby. There may have been something of value or an asset within it, something that if not right now, at least later she may have been able to seize. It looked abanonded, as though nobody had lived in there for a long period, which if ti really came to it, would be a great forward outpost for when she would eventually go ahead and begin her shiege on ORchidia. Looking around,s eeing nobody was out and about in the immediate area or even for that matter appeared to have been home at the time, she figured it was a good enough of a reason to goa head and look and see what there might have been there. Looking for a window, she decided that now was a chance to see.

500/2000

She could not help but be impressed by her ability to get into the place without a single person noticing her, even though there were nobody near by. But even if there might have been some people, she was so quiet or at least she had believed that she was so quiet that there was nothing at all that people would have thought to believe that she might have broken into the place. It made her wonder if this should be something that she should be doing more often, going ahead and breaking into homes, using what she might have found within those homes and pawn them off, suing that currency to further reinforce not only her own forces but also to go ahead and use that moneyt o bolster what would eventually become her own legion and force. That would be something to consider, though a lot of it would come down to determine whether or not there was naythnign worth while, and if not, then she knew that that may be more repsentative of the rest of the icty, while e thtt same time it may have been a lone case for here as after all, the place seemed abandoned, so the chances that it was not already raided was very likely something that could have been full of wealth and interesting items, but at this point now it seemed that whomever might have had the same idea as Augusta may have already gone ahead and taken what they might have wanted.

Stepping inside the house, she was surprised that it wasn’t as she figured it would have been given its outer state. It was as though people were still living here, and just recently even. There were things on the walls, stuff in place, looking like it had just bene cleaned, ther was no reason to believe that some oene was not living here. It had her wondering if she was going about this too laxed than how she should have been, but that was beyond her control at this point. The point was that she was inside here now, and the better and sooner that she went through and took out what she needed of this plac,e it was going to be something that she was happy with. Whatever there was going to be here, there might ave been some sort of jewel total that she could walk away with which would have made it worthwhile, and if she could find that this place was going to be something that would end up serving as a forward base as she had hoped within the back of her mind, then it would be whorthiwle. Thought hat even might have been soethings that she might not have been able to really use, and that was more depending on what more of her scouting of the city would enable her to do. But for the time being maybe, this was going to be something ath would be of use.

1000/2000

However, as Augusta began to look through the house, she found that there was something that was very odd, something that would be even a bit wrroy some to someone who might not have been a bit more familiar with traps and other defenses, though with all of her time outside of Fiore, she was ready for things, even something like the doors closing on their own, unable to be opened at some point. However or why it was that it might have bene the case, by checking to see if one of the windows would open or not, she knew for a fact that even in a worst case scenario she would be able to escape if she really needed to, but so far she found no reason to believe that that was going to be the case. O(ne thing that she did not realize at first, more because she was curiosu than anything else and didn tot seem to think that there was going to be any reason to be worried was the fact that ehtere appeared to have ben a duck that was fololwongin her around, goignf rom room to room with her, as though the duck was attacked to her. It was cute, and she did give a little bit of thought as far as keeping it as a pet, but to walka around and scope out the rest of this city with a duck was going to be something that would have made it impossible, and for things like this, to break into buidlignds and scope out wwhat aws going on with inside of there, it was unliky that therew as going to be any chance that people were not going to notice that there was ad uck folowoing her along. It would not be able to move with her in the same manner and would be a liableitiyt in almost every scenario that she could think of. Regardless, he decided that it was fine for the duck to follow along because it was not going to go ahead and cause her any real problems, and if it did, then it would have been aeasy enough tot ake out and remove. She figured it would maek enough sense for it to just follow along and if nothing else, it would be something ot make her b leiveve that the bplace that she was in was not entirely alone, and that would have given her a reason to think that there might have been some reason to wonder what was going on. How funny would it have bene if the duck was there to own the manor, that would have been quite entertaining in itself, and she figurd hthat if the worst case scneairo was that there was nobody in the place for whatever eraosn, then she would have at leas the ability tot talk to the duck to keep herself entertained. The duck wuldn’t be able to do anything more than quak, but she could deal.

1500/2000

Looking around, something that she did not expect to find, something that felt a bit more off than anything else she had found in the manner was that there appeared to have been a ton of medical supplies laying about, as though they were being used recently, though there was nobody handling them, which had her enough sense to take out her Millienium Rod, jus tin case there was something that she was going to need for them. Looking around in a different room, she noticed that there was a large portrait on the wall, no dobut that of the people who lived here, a young couple by the looks of it, but it made no sense that thyey would not be here, and given the fact that there was only this duck that kept following her around, she had to believe that something had to happen ot hem given that it was unlikely that someone would dleav ea pet, albeivet it a very odd pet, alone to their own devices. In a different room, she found someone finally within the manor, who had Augusta wondering what was going on, given his odd behavior. More than anything else, the only thing she could have noticed of the man was the fact that he did not appear to act human at all. If anything, ti seemed more that he was acting like that of a duck, waddling around and quaking, which couldn’t help but bring a smile to Augusta’s face, knowing that this was a place in which the duck seemed more human than the acutal humans. Leaving him be, she continued through the entire place, and there was nothing more that she could find, other wthan some other things that may or may not have told a story within it if she might have cared more abut it, but she did not. At this point, it was just her and the duck, but after a short amount of time shd eidd find someone who did seem to be very odd and crazy, and aguasta did not know exactly how to respond to the man and instead just figured it was better to doa way with the man and used her wand to make the man go insane and just run right into some of the weapons on the wall, taking one and slamming it into his head, all against his own will and by the power of the wand. After he died, the duck seemed to change into that of a man again, and going back to the room with the man who was acting like a duck, he eappared to have been normal again, with Augusta realizing that there was some sort of curse by the man which turned the fiancé in to a duck and the male fiancé into that of a man that thinks he was a duck. With them back together, augusta simply decided to leave, knowing now that she could not use this place later.

2000/2000

MP: 950/1700

Magic: