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DemonicDarkwraith -> Red Queen's Gambit (Part 2) (8/16/2025 4:59:14)
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Red Queen's Gambit (Part 2)
Location: Amityvale (Book 3) -> Up -> Thursday -> Quests -> Red Queen's Gambit -> Read it! -> Part 2
Requirements: Completion of Red Queen's Gambit (Part 1)
Release Date: August 15th, 2025
Objective: Safiria's scouts gave you a lead on the Moonbane Hunter base, somewhere upstream from Moonridge. It's time to deal with them for good.
Objective completed: You've cowed the ex-Rose and their rogue hunters. Amityvale's recovery is in a lot less danger now.
Experience rewarded: Scaled
Gold rewarded: Scaled
Monsters
(4) Energizer
(5) ManaHunter
(3) Manahuntress
(7) Moonbane Hunter
(1) Captain Alban, (1) Moonbane Glauca, (2) Moonbane Hunter - Boss
NPCs
Alban / Moonbane Captain
Glauca
Magus Neron
Raven
Rewards
Moonbane Bloom (I-IV)
Access to RQG2 Loot for DCs.
Dialogue
*You are in a Doomwood forest near Moonridge; you fight various ex-Rose members and Moonbane Hunters until you approach their base, which turns out to be a cabin; in the Moonbane Hunter base, you and your dragon meet the captain of the Moonbane Hunters.*
Moonbane Captain: Glauca, when you said we had company, you didn't mention it was so illustrious! <Character> <himself/herself/themself>, and <his/her/their> pet tog.
*The comment from the Moonbane Captain angers your dragon.*
<Dragon>: What the heck did you just say to me, you giant naked mole rat?! I'll have you know I'm— | *Furious growling*
<Character>: Easy, <Dragon>. Let's give him a chance to talk. I don't think this guy will take it, but I'll try to talk things out first..
Alban: And I'm going to save you the trouble. I'm Captain Alban of the Rose. You're trespassing. Leave.
<Character>: Ex-Rose. Now you're only "captain" of a gang that jumps anyone they suspect of being a creature of the night.
Glauca: You might gallivant around running into adventures, but we're professionals. We confirm all our targets!
<Character>: You confirm targets by stealing their silver like common bandits?
<Character>: Or is that just how you save face when you realize they couldn't have been vampires or werewolves?
Glauca: ...What?
Alban: I'm not sure what that sympathizer Neron has fed you, but we're not town guards you can fool with fast talk.
Alban: We're facing an existential threat. One the Rose no longer has the spine to face!
Alban: Do you even realize how quickly werewolves could spread if left unchecked? How vampires can only live by preying on us?!
Alban: If we make mistakes along the way, it's because we can't stop to be slow and careful when facing extermination!
*You analyze Captain Alban's motivations before calling out the Moonbane Hunters' wrongdoings.*
<Character>: She thinks you verify all targets.
<Character>: Your "professionals" rob civilians.
<Character>: Now you're justifying it as necessary haste.
<Character>: Tell me you see how you're not drawing a good picture here. At best, you look like you can't get your story together.
<Character>: At worst, you're a reckless idiot. You're also threatening people researching a way to cure or prevent lycanthropy.
Alban: We don't need to wait for the very beings threatening our lives to MAYBE find a way to not wipe us out. We need to ACT.
Glauca: Captain, if there's research into a cure, we could at least try to learn what they have so far and send it to our old contacts...
Alban: Research that would require a greater risk of infection than what we already face. Eradication is the only way humanity can—
<Character>: Yeah, no. I'm not letting you keep improvising justifications for ruthless banditry and threatening to throw Doomwood into chaos.
<Character>: If you're going to be a threat to innocent people no matter what I say to prove you wrong? I'm done talking.
<Character>: You had your chance.
Battle! - begins battle with Captain Alban, Moonbane Glauca, and 2 Moonbane Hunter.
Heal - fully replenishes HP, MP, and potions.
Run Away! - returns to Amityvale (Book 3).
*After the battle, Captain Alban attempts to fight back, but Glauca hits his head with her hammer.*
Glauca: That's enough!
Glauca: ...Is it really true? Is someone really working on a cure?
<Character>: I can't give them away, and it's a really difficult process, but yes. They're making progress on reducing the danger of lycanthropy.
Glauca: Then... I'm done. We're all done. There's a solution in progress, and we almost ruined it.
Glauca: I've already lost too much to be willing to lose that too. It's bad enough that I let Alban's recruitment go that far.
Glauca: Symone wouldn't work with us, so Alban felt like we needed more fighters. I just took it as a desperate measure.
Glauca: Especially since Akanthus kept redirecting troops for whatever he was working on, and Jaania... *sigh*
<Character>: You thought all of this would be dealt with if Jaania succeeded, and then took matters into your own hands when she didn't.
<Character>: What will you do next? If I'm going to let you go, I need to know you won't do anything extreme either.
Glauca: Look, I won't suddenly act like these creatures aren't a threat to our whole existence.
Glauca: It's just that you weren't the one lying before that fight. This team is no line of defense, it's a bandit gang.
Glauca: I'll take whoever will surrender to Neron. Maybe I'll find Symone. As for anyone who won't...
*Scene shifts to focus on your dragon breathing fire continuously on the unconscious Captain Alban's butt before the scene fades to black; scene fades back in as you and your dragon return to Magus Neron's office on Amityvale, where they report to Magus Neron and Raven about their success against the Moonbane Hunters.*
Magus Neron: It's a small relief that these "Moonbane Hunters" hadn't managed to grow beyond the one gang.
<Character>: They wouldn't even have managed that much if their leader hadn't been willing to recruit bandits.
Magus Neron: It's more complicated. I'm glad none of my people were compromised, of course.
Magus Neron: However, it confirms that we have to worry about any threats that any renegades leaving the Rose could join or start.
Magus Neron: Alban only seemed ridiculous to us because we know the good being done in Doomwood.
Raven: You shouldn't have bothered to talk to him... But then again, you got through to the people he fooled.
Raven: He was always a disgrace, though.
Raven: Before we came here, he wanted to confiscate silver in Swordhaven for a new force to surround Doomwood.
<Character>: I'm sure that would have gone over so well with the nobles filling Jaania's coffers...
Magus Neron: That may have played a part, but Jaania was more concerned by far with understanding the problem.
Magus Neron: Part of why I am here is that she agreed that a medical investigation was essential to any military action.
Magus Neron: Alban wasn't happy to be shut down, but he at least respected my jurisdiction.
<Character>: Until he didn't have to care about it anymore. He just took his fearmongering somewhere else.
Magus Neron: Precisely. And now I have to worry about whether bandits simply joined out of opportunism, or if he radicalized them.
Raven: I'll look into it. Road thugs normally wouldn't even dream of risking a run-in with a werewolf.
*Magus Neron acknowledges Raven's plans to investigate before turning around to face you.*
Magus Neron: Thank you. For my part, I'll discuss it with Grand Magus Hansa. <Character>, could you brief me on your meeting with Queen Safiria?
*You brief Magus Neron about your meeting with Safiria while your dragon flies to Raven, but she stops them from going to her.*
Magus Neron: I wish you could share her motivations, but I respect your integrity. Still, this could revolutionize our understanding of vampirism.
<Character>: Thank you for not pressing me on it. I'm curious— what breakthrough did you make just from learning that she offered me a deal?
Magus Neron: I aim to study where to draw the line between intact mortal behaviors, altered ones, and inherently vampiric ones.
Magus Neron: In this case, the drive to maintain equilibrium with prey coexists with critical reasoning.
Raven: I wonder if it has something to do with the curse maturing... It matches some things Lon has been talking about.
Magus Neron: I can't say just from correlation, but you have a good grasp on his work. If you think it's a promising lead, let's follow it.
Magus Neron: So far, a limited study of the curse only lets us understand the threat and life cycle of an individual vampire.
Magus Neron: Now we have a more complete picture for studying the predations, or perhaps parasitism, of vampire society.
<Character>: I'm always available to advance science by being preemptively rejected by immortal royalty. Just don't tell Lim.
Magus Neron: I'm not familiar with Lim, but your social woes are safe with me.
Magus Neron: Thank you for humoring my rambling, and especially for helping to keep our difficult peace.
*Scene fades to black.*
Complete Quest
Loot for DCs - opens RQG2 Loot for DCs shop.
Other information
A HP/MP healing pad can be found during the quest.
A bag of gold can be found to provide a +200 Gold bonus.
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