"A round trip to the Red Wastes is less than a day's travel?" Eefina asks, curious. "For some reason I assumed it was further away than that. Yeah, I'm in. Oh! But I'm rich now! So, I'll pay for our... supplies?"

"We'll be getting a fast ride most of the way there and back 'cause I told them I charge by the hour." He grins. "And good for you! Is that like C, B, A, or S rank rich? Good to hear any which way, of course. Maybe I should take you equipment shopping to prepare properly?"

"Maybe you should! I'm not sure, but they were talking about large-scale investment and I've got more in my pockets than I could earn in weeks of dungeon runs, so, a lot. A noblewoman's son needed dhar cleansing."

"Oh. Oh I think I heard about that... Yeesh. Did you save him? Please tell me you saved him."

"I did! It took about an hour of non-stop Curia, but I cleansed him."

"Wow. I don't know the guy, but he has a good reputation, and corruption is a bad way to go."

"It was awful," Eefina agrees. "I'm really glad I could help."

He shakes his head. 

"...There were like forty of them. I think."

Eefina nods.

"Lady Runestet is arranging for me to cleanse more of them tomorrow. I think I can do ten in a row, so I can probably help them all by the end of tomorrow if they can get them together so I don't have to do one at a time."

"Ah. So you probably want to skip out on the day-trip job? Or delay it a day or two at least? Maybe I can get them to do that, 'snot an urgent thing, really."

"As long as we're back before tomorrow morning, it should be fine. What is this 'fast ride' you mentioned? Is it reliable?"

"That doesn't leave a lot of time for going out, investigating, and getting back. -Oh, it's a Peregrine Chariot. Really fancy flying vehicle that people use for couriers and messages. I've never had a problem with them, though you shouldn't try to take over from whoever pilots it for us."

"I didn't even think of that, now I want to ask for piloting lessons..."

Eefina hums. "If you think we might not return before tomorrow, I should probably stay, but."

Tret shrugs. "Pretty good chance we'll be back by tonight if we don't stop to shop, unless something goes really really wrong. If you don't wanna risk it, I'd better head out by myself soon. Scheduling, what are you gonna do?"

On the one hand, it could be argued that risking herself is irresponsible while others are depending on something only she can do.

On the other hand, her presence could help keep things from going wrong. Everyone else is completely defenseless against dhar, but with her along that changes.

"I'll go with you. Shopping can wait."

"If you're sure. Let's go then!"

He swings by a store and has Eefina buy a healing potion and a disease-resistance potion, and then they're off to a tall tower near the edge of the city.

"Hey, Moonwind," the guard who answers the door nods politely at him. "She your dhar-killer?"

"Yep! If it's a corrupted monster I want her along."

Guard shrugs, then she waves them in. "Can't argue with useful Skills. We might want you on retainer, ma'am - but I'm not the one to make that pitch. Chariot's on the roof. They'll drop you off at a little village and continue to Glendale, then come back and wait for you at around sunset."

To the roof! To the chariot!

Eefina is curious to see the chariot.

It's an open-topped box made of some strange sort of wood, with silvery metal pieces, with lots of wing and bird imagery, painted in blues and whites and gold highlights, about five feet wide and eight feet long with a pointed front and an aerodynamic shape. A long spar reaches forward, with two elaborate wooden wings spreading out sideways from the front, and the whole thing rests on metal skids. There's a curved windshield, little bins that are also passenger seats with seatbelts, and a pilot's seat with a recognizable control yoke. The whole thing positively hums with magic, but not the raw Winds - something else, forged and shaped into a densely and extremely magical - and incomprehensible, if pretty - object.

The pilot is about three and a half feet tall and has big floppy mouse ears and aviator goggles and a little pointy mouse nose.

"About time my special cargo showed up! Get in, you two, and get ready for some fun!"

Nifty! Eefina hops in.

"This is so different! I learned to fly a warp skiff but those aren't like this at all."

"Piloting's a great job if you get the skills for it! Come on, strap in, strap in."

Once they're secured, the Peregrine Chariot shudders all over and smoothly transitions from sitting on a roof to floating above the roof. They rise up about thirty feet, then accelerate swiftly forward. And keep accelerating. The wind sneaks around the side of the windshield - Tret kind of leans forward and hunches down.

Eefina enjoys the view, and the sense of speed from flying so close to the landscape.

She hunches next to Tret. "So what's our mission, exactly?"

"Find the 'swamp monster' that's been menacing this little fishing village. Figure out what it is. Gather as much information as possible. Kill it, if it's irredeemably hostile or corrupted. Apparently it just grabs some vines and trees and makes them part of itself if you cut off a limb - that's when the previous set of hunters ran away."

He shows a sketch with the 'monster' placed next to a human - it looks to be about twelve feet tall and almost six wide, a hulking and only vaguely humanoid shape made of thick plants and vines.

Eefina studies the sketch.

"Is there anything we can assume based on the... category? Of monster this is?"

"It's not a standard dungeon monster as far as I can tell. And I don't really trust the reports all the way. It could be some variation of Plantoid Construct, maybe even a boss version, but I don't really want to count on that? It doesn't sound right, I don't think this is a dungeon monster at all. I'm going to be relying peering at it real close with Windsight, to be honest. Ah, things that regenerate usually have a core, and will go down if that breaks?"

Eefina nods.

"We should probably try to think of extra ways to try talking to it, in case talking to it doesn't work but it isn't mindlessly hostile."