Roland twisted a gold coin in his fingers as he stared across the table. The man sitting on the other end was a twitchy fellow, who craned over his ale at an awkward angle sipping the foam from the edges of his cup. The boar's meat inn was exactly the type of place Roland would normally find himself drinking the night away at. Its rustic, wooden interior, combined with cheap ale, and desperate women were all things he actively sought out of a drinking establishment. This afternoon, however, he was here on an actual quest. Well, he was in Brissal for the quest, but he always liked to start things out with a round at the bar. So he had convinced his contact in the area, the twitchy man sitting across from him, to meet him here. "So..." Roland said in a hopeful tone, "I hear you know a little something about Gold Fiends." The term was something new to Roland, apparently it was what the locals were calling those who ventured into the forest to collect the abundant gold dust. In response the man lapped at his beer like a cat for a moment, before jerking backwards as if suddenly becoming aware he was in public. "Hummm, I thinks I knows something, I can't quites remebers it easily though, " the man said coyly. In response Roland tossed the coin in his hand towards his twitch contact, "Yes, yes, Lorain" Roland said amiably, "I'm sure I can help that memory, but understand I could just go look for them myself." Lorain quickly nabbed up the gold piece as soon as it hit the table, gnawing on it with one of his few good teeth. "Mmms.." he said, "Yous could go looks and possibly find a fews of them, but it won't do yous much good. Yous need to talks to the leader, Maltans." Roland's lip flickered to a smile as he produced another golden coin, "And where would I find Maltan?" he asked... A few minutes later Roland exited the inn by ways of a large wooden door, the sunlight assaulting his eyes as he tried to look around the immediate area. He had promised to meet a few people here due to the nature of the quest since it seemed that whenever there was gold involved people always tend to get jumpy. Lorian's information hadn't turned out to actually be that great, but it gave Roland a general idea on how to go about things. Waving Roland would try to flag any party members he saw while waiting for the others to show up. Once everyone seemed ready to listen he would inform them of what he had found out, "According to what I've heard one of the larger groups of Gold Fiends have gathered in the northern section of the forest, camping in a portion cleared by lumberjacks a few seasons back. The leader may be named Maltan, I say we try and simply talk some sense into them and get them on their way...." He neglected to add, "And hopefully we can get some of the gold dust for ourselves afterwards". @Magi Heart @Stelluna @Temperance
Things had been quiet and calm since the very... random and exciting nonsense involving the volcano. She had had no inkling what was going on during the entire event, but had since had time to get the full story, and was glad she had fought on the 'right' side of things during the engagement. Then again, the strange heroes did choose to side with a necromancer, so... how much better than world-ending madmen could they really be? It was because of their relationship to the woman named Lucia that Temperance had not lingered when the airships touched down in Norforva once again. Rather, she had set immediately off on her own and continued her missionary works into Falderen's Brisshal area spreading the word of her god. Some were receptive, but without a church to maintain converts there would be no hope of actually growing the faith in this area which was dominated by worship of the Elysid. But that was fine, as her goal was not to subvert local deities; rather she merely wished for people to become aware of other options, and seek them out should their spirit be moved to do so. It was unlikely that a single one would leave their leisurely laymen lives behind to do so, but it was not her responsibility to make them go, or to fault them for staying. Like that silly drunk-looking man waving to her from across the street, trying to flag her down like a prostitute. Very early in the day for that sort of thing... She blinked and raised a hand, waving tentatively in return, and then recognition settled in. Add some angry lines across his face. Cinders and ash and some blood here and there... Stoop him over and hunch his shoulders. Bathe the place in a red-orange light from lava. It was mister shouts a lot of mean things! The idjit that had tried constantly to get himself eaten by Azog and the horrible little monsters the Prince of Fire had kept summoning to fight them. He seemed very much alive and well still, which meant he still hadn't found a violent way to kill himself. She hoped he didn't know about the sawmill near the river, or the town would have a very bloody suicide on their hands... Maybe, since he felt he had nothing to live for and had tried to get a giant fire elemental to kill him, he would make the pilgrimage to where her gods hailed from! Looking both ways, the priestess crossed the street and avoided the little morning traffic as she made her way across to the man who was explaining some sort of job to some friends of his. It seemed as though they planned to walk into the camps of those angry gold-scavengers to the north of town. "You'll have to remember that many of them are desperate!" she chimed in, smiling at the others around. "So you'll need to make a strong case for why it doesn't benefit them to keep going, or try to scare them off, which won't be easy considering their superior numbers! People get STUPID when they think numbers count for anything! If you need to add to your own, I'm happy to tag along!" @Stelluna @Magi Heart
Why was Magi here? The magical girl stood a bit confused by her own choice today. This place more than others had a lot of scary looking guys. Magi always tried to act respectful to her elders, even dirty old men worked hard and most were totally nice people! This place had a lot of really creepy ones though even for Magi. Some of them reminded her of Ebeneezer Scrooge! He was mean for sure until those ghosts taught him a lesson! Magi continued to wander around looking for some kind of quest or adventure to do. It was hard to go save the day when not many of those, that she actually could handle, came up. She heard the stories of a big battle with some kind of fire thingy. That sounded pretty neato but Wendy had spent that period in school unfortunately. As she wandered about basically just hoping something would come to her. Magi caught sight of someone who stuck out in this game almost as much as she did! Wow... that lady is so pretty, cute, and awesome! Were those bunny ears! Gee whiz! Magi had the desire to go see what they felt like just like when she saw Tyris aka Nyanko way back at the beginning when she first started playing. Her birthday was coming up, so maybe she could ask for a birthday present from the lady and get a chance to touch them! Hmmmm that probably was not going to work. Awww shucks! The magical girl followed the priestess for a while until she suddenly found herself having entered somewhere she definitely did not think she belonged. Magi made a nervous look as she was obviously not of age for this kind of tavern.... @Stelluna
Stelluna walked into the bar, not the most ideal choice for a meeting but very accessible. Brisshal wasn't a place she would normally swing by but it wasn't bad. The details of her current job were sparse but it seemed to be a pretty general problem. Having preferred more direct solutions to problems, she was a bit out of her area of expertise. Already she could tell that a simple beating or two wasn't going to quite cut it. Not with how many there were and she doubted that escalating the situation to life or death was going to end well. Then again, she had heard a few tidbits during the journey here. Even got into a couple fights with some overzealous 'prospectors'. Looking around, she could see that the group she was supposed to be with had already gathered. It seemed like she was the last one to arrive. She recognized @Roland Rutledge and Temperance from the battle with Azog, though really only in passing. The last girl was new to her though, shorter than the rest and a bit... out of place. Not exactly her first choice but she's suffered with worse. Well, Stelluna wasn't going to get anything done just standing around. Walking over to the rest of the group, she grabbed a chair from another nearby table and sat down. Names were a good place to start, she would hazard. Drawing back her hood a bit, she said, "I am Stelluna, here about the gold business as well?" She doubted that the rest of them were not here about the job but if anyone was out of the loop now would be the time to kick them out or bring them in.
Roland grinned as Magi Heart and Stelluna made their way past him, entering into the bar. He had planned to merely meet them outside the inn, given Magi's age he assumed she'd have issue with going inside, but he was happy to be proven wrong. As he moved inside he shot both the girls a friendly smile before retrieving a flask from his pocket, after all the mead here was dreadful. Turning to the previously hooded girl Roland replied, "Indeed I am, My name is Roland and I remember you from the Azog fight, it will be nice to have you here if things go sour." After this Roland gave his take on the situation as he warily eyed the muted Magi Heart. She seemed out of her element, Roland hoped it wouldn't last, a young girl's pleas would work much more effectively on a man's heart than he could hope to match. A brief glance at Stelluna's expression told him she'd be about as convincing as he was. As soon as he finished speaking a familiar voice spoke up behind him, turning Roland saw the busty bunny girl, whom he flashed a friendly smile, "Your help would be more than welcome here, but I never caught your name back at the fight with Azog..." after her reply Roland pointed to himself and his two compatriots as he spoke, "I'm Roland, this is Magi Heart, and Stelluna. To be candid our goal is to try and force the drifters out using any means possible, but I do not want to resort to violence if it can be avoided." With that said, Roland stood up brushing himself off and finishing his flask, swiftly placing it back in his pocket. He had replaced the contents with a dark red wine that was brisk enough to still have flavor while warm. It was a little easier to stay somewhat sober with it than the whiskey he normally traveled with, he just hoped it didn't turn on him later. "Ok then, I think I know the way well enough, I'll try and lead us to where my contact said they might be.." Several Hours Later Roland tried to resist his urge to abandon the quest to track down Lorian for the fifth time. His directions, though vague to begin with, seemed entirely inaccurate. It had sent them traveling through the area for a few hours without running into a soul somehow and with the sun now setting, light was becoming more and more sparse making navigation even harder. Luckily one of the more perceptive members of the party spotted signs of humanoid activity close to their position. Eager to get on with it Roland pushed forward through the thick forest that made up Brisshal and soon found himself standing in a clearing with ten or fifteen tents set up before him. It took the owners of the camp a minute, but they soon caught sight of the traveling party, and quickly picked up their arms which were a variety of field tools such as scythes and mining picks. "Woah woah!" Roland said shaking his hands in front of him, "We aren't here for a fight, we're just hear to talk!" The men didn't seem to be calmed by Roland's words however as they clearly shook in fear and confusion slowly moving forward with violent intentions written across their faces. @Temperance @Magi Heart @Stelluna
It was Roland! He had fought the big fire thing? Wowzers! Magi had met him a few times before.and knew he was a good person. He did seem a bit off this time though. It took awhile but eventually Magi noticed he was drinking. Oh he drinks? That was not good for his health! The group had all gathered together for a quest. Magi Heart really wanted to hang out with better players and had little else to do right now so she definitely joined up. She hastily introduced herself and tried hard to stay positive about everything. "Yep ,Magi Heart, bringer of love and justice! Um... maybe you've heard of my theme song?!" She struck a pose and hoped she was not over doing it. It had been awhile since she went full magical girl mode in game. She had been just kinda playing at random lately. Stelluna looked really intimidating and the bunny girl was really cute. What a weird but fun group! Magi really needed to stick this out. This would go good! Roland explained what they had to do and said he did not want violence... Magi hoped that too. It always seemed to lead to that. At least she was not alone with this opinion this time. "Yeah! ....We need to stop hurting people. " Magi said a bit quieter now. She then followed the party off to start the quest. Roland led them, he was really leader like after all. After a really long time traveling, the sun started to go down, Oh boy... baddies usually are stronger at night. The girl decided as it was getting darker to help. She had been trying to make the spell less bright so that it could be used for this kind of thing. It was one of Magi's really rare aha! moments when she learned the spell. Sadly they were rarer than a Wabbit. "White Clearance Light! Brighten the world!" The girl had not figured out a good name yet. Her body lit up like a light bulb and helped them navigate. Unfortunately the fact they were now insanely obvious to everything around was missed by the young magical girl.... hopefully nothing bad would happen. Then came tents and Roland yelling. There were people all pointing sharp things at Magi and co! Magi ran up next to Roland all glowing like a little angel and waving her hands. Her eyes blurry due to having light around them for so long. "Please don't fight! We aren't evil and neither are you right?! So why fight, okay?! Please!" @Temperance @Stelluna
Stelluna wasn't really sure what she expected when the group walked to the camp. The open hostility was a bit much, in her opinion, but she could tell that her allies didn't want things to descend into violence. Still, she would leave the talking to the others. Her talking was more likely to be the start of actual fighting more than the resolution of it. Drawing her spear, she undid part of her traveling cloak avoid it getting in the way and inadvertently showcasing her demonic armor. She didn't actually advance into the camp proper though, instead, she stopped at the front of her group. Her actions and presence sending a clear message to not start anything they would regret. She said somewhat softly, as to not direct the message to the camp's residents, "If any of you have something to say, now would be the time. If things start getting messy, I won't be holding back." Personally, Stelluna would rather march into the camp and start killing, it was a fairly elegant solution if she said so herself, but that was more suited to being alone. And she had agreed to take on the job as a group, and to try and avoid violence if possible. If things broke down however... @Temperance
Temperance nodded enthusiastically all through introductions, excited to meet all the strange new people, even if some of them looked pretty familiar. It seemed like they were pretty set on going on this adventure, to stop some people from getting gold or something something she wasn't really paying attention... In fact, the more she thought about it, the less it seemed like something she ought to get involved in. Following the group out of the tavern, she walked silently behind them... until she was sure she could slip away, unnoticed, while they busied themselves with the path to their destination. Abandoning the mission, she opted instead to find a nice quiet place to build an altar and pray before heading back into town to get super drunk. [dropping out of mission]
