As soon as Rain was sure that the cleanup of the flesh monsters was complete, even if some had escaped, she and her new friends returned to the Purple Wyrm Inn to check in with Randalla, who happened to be chatting with a few people before she waved them over, allowing the guards to return to their duties.
"I'm glad you guys are unscathed, as I've heard reports of malformed creatures fleeing Bloodmire Manor." Randalla said, a fact that allowed them to understand that she cared for their safety, since she was no longer addressing them as the title of adventurers, though Rain knew it wouldn't be long before someone mentioned it again, "Did you discover anything while you were inside the manor?"
"Yes, we did: it would seem that Luvia is, in fact, in league with the Red Fang Marauders and the Hands of Glory, and has been using the bodies of the slain in her experiments." Allessia replied, though she was disgusted by what they had seen in the laboratory, how people were cut into pieces and reassembled into a new form that served the twisted mind that made them, based on what they had seen previously, to which Rain produced the letter she had claimed, "We have confirmation that she's working for someone, a 'Lady F', but to what end we don't know... all we know is that someone wants her work for some reason, enough to invest a good amount of gold into her dark work. When we found her in her laboratory, however, she decided to flood the place with poison gas and flee."
"I see. I'll present this to the others," Randalla stated, where she took the letter and looked over it for a moment, just to see what it said for herself, before slipping it into her pack so it could be handed to the Harpers, or whoever she felt needed to see it, which was when she let out a sigh for a few seconds, "It is a shame that you were unable to capture the evil woman, but maybe you'll be able to put and end to her schemes in the near future. Now, I have some news for all of you: Captain Sollus has completed his investigation of the map you brought him and should be able to direct your efforts for a time, so I would speak to him without delay."
Randalla also had a map to sell them, to a ruin somewhere in the Wood of Sharp Teeth, which Dorn purchased without even hesitating, though after that everyone headed outside to speak to the merchant once more, selling off the items they didn't need, before tracking down Sollus once more.
"Ah, adventurers, I'm glad you could make it... I assumed you would be resting at the inn or something," Sollus stated, as most people in this profession usually took breaks between missions, or adventures in their case, before seeking to take on another one, before he pulled out his map and let them look at it, plus the one they had recovered, "Thanks to you we now know the resting place of the main base that the Red Fang Marauders call home, as they are camped in the Cloak Wood, an area where an army would be detected easily and routed easily... so I asked Randalla to send you to me as soon as you were available, as she told me you could deal with all sorts of dangers and hazards."
"Considering whose part of our group, that shouldn't be too hard." Vhaidra remarked, though as she said that she and the others glanced at the map for a few more seconds, where Sollus pointed out the path he suspected would give them an advantage over their enemies, approach from the east and hit where the resistance should be light.
"Indeed. To be sure you're well prepared for this venture, I've even called for a cart to take you to the area in question, so you can rest for a time." Sollus said, which Rain found to be a good move, as they had been running around the city with next to no stops since they got their first mission from Randalla, so this would allow her and her new friends to recover before their next mission.
After getting the information for their new quest, they were to find and destroy the Red Fangs, and anyone who might be their leader, Rain and her friends made one last check with the merchant before heading out of the city by using the gate they had entered through earlier, finding that one of the guards was ready with a cart. From there they began the trek to the Lower Cliffs of the Cloak Woods, which was as far as he would take them since any further would allow the Red Fangs to know that they were under attack, so this would allow them to keep an element of surprise. The guard mentioned that there was a fairly nice reward in store for them if they succeeded, no doubt a sneaky way for Sollus' higher ups to make sure they stayed true to the city's wishes or something, but Rain wasn't focused on that, rather she was more interested in taking down the Red Fangs. The others talked about what they would do with their portion of the reward, as Allessia was going to donate to her church and god, Dorn would seek out Randalla's help, Borador had a clan member he wished to lend his aid to, Vhaidra had need of an ally to hunt down a target, and Ysuran wanted to recover more of his memories, a feat near impossible without the local wizard's aid.
Rain's thoughts were focused on tracking down the other Onyx Gate, the one her first friends had emerged from while she and Shadow had emerged elsewhere, because she knew they were out there, somewhere, looking for her so they could reunite and face the dangers of this world, though she made sure to rest over the course of their trip.
When they finally reached the edge of their destination the guard came to a stop and let them off at long last, where Rain and her new friends focused on the area that was in front of them, cliffs with minimal area to hid in or use as cover, so the goblins would no doubt notice their arrival in no time. With that in mind she readied her weapon, now having a scabbard thanks to the merchant having completed the metallic container, while the others did the same without delay, before they marched forward, keeping their eyes and ears open as Shadow searched for trouble. Sure enough Rain found that some goblins and wolf riders were guarding the area they had been delivered to, which was understandable since they had to guard the entirety of the area that their base was in, though instead of wasting time, and allowing a horn to be blown, the group smashed them into goblins and cut them down. Rain had to frown as she heard a horn blow in a nearby area and found that more foes had been on their way to reinforce this location, no doubt the Red Fang Leader realized that this was a weak spot and sent them to keep it safe, but now everyone knew that they were here.
Normally Rain would consider this mission to be a failure, their enemy would know that they were here in no time, but she did discover something that caused her not to make that judgement call too early, the Red Fangs were coming after them in greater numbers, the entire army wanted them all dead. Their Leader had made a dangerous miscalculation, that she and her friends would be easy to take down and that the city would be without it's defenders, though such a thing meant it was time for her to stop holding back, causing her to focus on one direction while the others continued to move on their own. She recalled the lessons that Adrianna gave her on magic and loosed balls of lightning at the large force that was on it's way to where she was standing, surprising the goblins in the process since they weren't expecting her to know such a spell, though as it shocked her foes to death, like her friend's had done before, Rain continued to move as Shadow leapt out and tore the wolf riders apart. In addition to that she called forth two other elements to her side, summoning balls of fire and spikes of ice that she rained down on the goblins who came at her, where she found herself fortunate that she had a pack full of potent magicka potions from her time in the Onyx Tower, because if she needed to restore her mana all she needed was one of them.
It was a different pace than what she used in the past, staying by her friends and fighting by their side, though right now it seemed like the best plan, since there were so many goblins coming after them, or her since her presence caused many of them to rush at her position, but it allowed the others to track down the main camp's entrance.
Of course when Dorn and the others found it Allessia loosed a bit of holy magic into the air, a beacon, that called Rain and Shadow over to their side, allowing all of them to head into the cave in question, even though she knew it would only be a matter of time until the rest of the Red Fangs caught up to them. While they moved through the cave, Borador discovering a number of traps that were triggered by the arrival of intruders and disabling them so the others could keep moving, Rain focused on breaking the path behind them, creating pitfalls that the goblins fell into. There was an area that happened to have a decent drop, so once everyone was on the other side Rain gathered some of her power and slammed a hoof down on the stone walkway without delay, channeling her power into the earth and breaking everything around her, creating a new chasm between them and the entrance. The Red Fangs were surprised by this and some of them tumbled into the depths of the cavern, falling to their deaths in the process, causing her to huff as she backed away and rejoined the others, as this gave them time to figure out where the Leader was waiting, though while the others were worried about her using a great deal of energy she focused on their mission.
There were also hobgoblins and the weird arm monsters resting in the cavern as well, though they were in small groups of one or two, allowing them to take them down and move deeper without wasting too much time, before they found what appeared to be the final section of the cavern, with a humanoid creature, feminine, standing there in red armor that just looked like a dragon's body, or maybe an ant queen as Rain looked at it.
The Red Queen, as Rain decided to call her, lifted her left arm and made a gesture at them, showing that she wasn't very happy with them taking down her army and invading her base of operations, before lifting a longsword that seemed to be her personal weapon. With the challenge silently issued the group rushed at her first, finding that there were a few more goblins hanging out area her chamber and let Rain issue Shadow the command to hunt them down, since she wasn't even worried about the rest of the marauders catching up to them, given all of the collapsing sounds behind them. Rain found that the Queen's power was decent, far more than what most of the humanoid foes she had fought recently had used in their battles against her, though in that moment, as she damaged part of her armor, Rain discovered flesh that looked like Argesh's, meaning this was another of Luvia's flesh monsters. In the next few seconds she and her friends discovered the truth behind this creature, that while she was strong, thanks to Luvia's experiments, there was nothing incredibly special about her, something that caused them to lash out at her and deal some impressive damage to her body, as it was hard to tell if it was armor or an exoskeleton.
As the Red Queen staggered backwards, however, she dropped her weapon, gripped her wounded right arm, and, in an incredible display of cowardice, opened a secret passage behind her throne before escaping, something that caused Rain to grin, as now they could deal with the Red Fangs and their mysterious ally at the same time, and maybe uncover more information while they were at it.