Sandbox Tristalt (IC)

[Dunkoro]

Link to the OOC thread.

When you all end up in Croatia, each of you separately is called to a meeting. All you were said is that there is an employer requiring an adventurers team and that he chose you as an appropriate one for the job. The meeting is supposed to happen in a tavern "Under a Full Mug"today at noon (it's morning right now).

[darklink_shadow]

Natsu Dragoneel stands in the center of town and takes in a deep breath. Today he was going to do something! He had forgotten any details about any mission he was on, but he was sure he was in the right city! "Crow-something, city of crows!"

"Croatia, not Crow-something. Nobody here is a crow." Yipped Ripsnarl, Natsu's draconic blinkdog companion.

"Eh? Oh, well, regardless! We should see if anyone has seen a dragon, and then go to the mayor's place for our job!" Natsu flexed a bit, then smiled, earnestly looking forward to the day.

"Our job is at the 'Under a Full Mug' tavern." If not for his more attentive companion, Natsu would likely get lost very easily. Fortunately, Blinkdogs are rather intelligent, and this one pays special attention to Natsu's obligations. After all, Natsu pays for the dog to eat, and is generally very nice to be around.

"Right!" With that Natsu spends the first half of the morning coming up to random people and asking them if they have seen a dragon lately. One hour before noon, at 11 am, Natsu will walk into the tavern, and order a large meal.

[Mishkov]

Hafthyer spat on the ground. The stench of the city disgusted him. He missed the scent of the rain as it fell on grass. The sound of the birds in the trees. He sighed. There was a job that he had found, or rather his spirit wolf had sniffed out and pointed him to. He wasn't sure why he should be going to this bar, but he had learned to trust his guide.

Walking inside, he noticed many more fat city-folk drinking more grog, making them fatter and lazier. Hafthyer sighed. Even the mead here was weak and not worth buying. He quickly noticed a few fey and relaxed a little. At least there were a few spirits in this place...

[DrunkenMists]

Mosroda Forgehands wanders around the city for most of the morning; taking in sights and learning a bit of the lay of the land. She questions random people about interesting things, trades some less fortunate a gold or two for a story or a bit of overheard gossip before making her way to the tavern at noon. As she enters; she heads to the bar, asking for a wet rag she can buy to wash the road dust from her joints and polish her shield with while she waits.


((OOC: spending about 10gp through the wanderings, didn't really listen to the gossip and such, so much as wasting time; extra 2gp spent for the rag and tip so the establishment has no problem with somebody not there to spend any money on booze or food.))

[Tiny]

A lone figure clad in finely crafted clothes were making his way towards the "Under a Full Mug" tavern idly observing the buzz of the town yet seemingly lost in deep thought. An interesting turn of events to say the least. Garmine Hadar mused over the possibilities that had presented themselves recently. Several talented individuals.. Yes, this was certainly interesting enough to be worth his time. I shall take my time and learn all I can about their potential, and if they are worthy.. well.. His face broadens in a wide predatory grin, brushing aside a man asking about a dragon before continuing towards the tavern.

[Ravanan]

Were she in any hurry, the pixie would simply have flown. Walking slowly towards through the town, Sakura merely watched the people scurry about, left to her own thoughts, ignoring the looks that many people gave her. A beautiful woman in exotic clothing with large translucent wings tended to have that effect on people.

As always these mortals flit from place to place.

Without really realizing it, she found herself in front of the requested meeting place, an establishment called Under a Full Mug. Imperceptibly shrugging, she enters, sits at a table on the far side of the room, and orders a cup of tea. Many give her second looks, but unlike errands from which they could be interrupted to gawk, alcohol generally required their full, undivided attention and so they could not spend too much time on her.

[Dunkoro]

After you enter you are all asked by a barmaid to follow her. She leads you to a room and then leaves.

There is noone in the room besides you five.

(OOC: You may introduce yourselves to each other now, if you wish)

[DrunkenMists]

Mosroda:

Mosroda leans againsit a wall;the wall creaking in protest of the weight it suddenly holds. She says nothing; assuming if any of these are the ones that called her here; they would speak up.

She looks around at each person; her gaze stopping to assess them each in turn.

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Using Detect evil as I look at each (At Will Incarnate Ability.)

[darklink_shadow]

Natsu grabs a leg of pork to bring with him and munches on it while he waits, looking at the other people. A metal guy, a tiny girl thing with wings, and ... other people.

"Introduce us!" Ripsnarl yipped in the language of blink dogs.

"Eating." Natsu replied in the same, likely not understood tongue.

"Give me the meat and do it."

Natsu sighed and tossed the meat to the waiting jaws of his draconic canine friend. "Hello people." Natsu crossed his arms and frowned. "Since all of you were obviously waiting in the bar, I doubt none of you are the hiring person, right? Which means we are likely to be comrades. So, I'm Natsu. This is my friend Ripsnarl. His dad named him that so he would grow up to be ferocious. But he's not really. Anyways... uh... I'm not good with introductions. I punch things with fire. Ripsnarl is a blinkdog. Just ask if you needed to know anything else." Natsu sighed as he finished his speech in the common tongue he assumed everyone else would know.

Natsu took the meat back from Ripsnarl and went back to eating it, provoking a low growl from the dog. "Hush." Natsu said in the canine language.

[Mishkov]

Hafthyer grunted and began to speak in common, harshly accented common, "I suppose we are." He nodded at the man with the dog-spirit, his spirit guide could seen. The other fey pleased him, they were generally the more pleasant of the spirits he had encountered.

He leaned back, stablizing himself with his arms, while one ghostly arm reached up to scratch his head. "I'm not from around here, thankfully," he said coolly, "And I'm glad to see many of you aren't either. I think we'll get along just fine. I will be useful in a fight and during travel--I trust you will all be the same. Anyway, down to business, who knows what the job is?"

[Ravanan]

Sipping her tea, the pixie looks around the room.

"I sincerely doubt it. I expect we'll find out soon enough though."

[darklink_shadow]

Natsu chewed his meat thoughtfully for a moment. "You don't known he job either? I thought I was just dumb and forgot. I hope we were going to get paid a lot. I'm broke. Mr. Not-From-Around-Here, why don't you like this place? Crow-whatever?

[Tiny]

Garmine have been observing the small group of people from his vantage point by the hearth, listening in on the conversation.

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At will: Detect magic on each person in turn.

"I would not be so hasty as to accept only based on my current monetary status, Master Natsu." A small smile playing on his lips. "I noticed that apart from Master Natsu, no one has had the courtesy of offering a name... While I generally approve, it makes conversation slightly taxing. You may refer to me as Garmine if you so choose." He bows slightly.

[Dunkoro]

Garmine

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You detect faint aura coming from everybody but the human. If you want more details, go to their sheets, I don't want to go into listing magic auras of every single piece of equipment they wear =]

Suddenly, door opens and someone in black robes enters the room. His whole body is covered in black fabric, so it's impossible to discern his/her race, but he is propably a man. On his chest there is a symbol:

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Knowledge (Religion): 25 to recognize the symbol

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It's a symbol of Vecna

Following his enters a human woman in her 30s, also wearing mostly black clothing, but not as covering. The same symbol can be seen on her chest.

The man goes to stand by the window, to see all of you. The woman goes and stands by his side.

He starts waving his hands, moving his fingers at the same time.

The woman starts to speak:
My master would like to welcome you and thank you for arriving when he wanted you to.
First of all, he would like to warn you, that any information you get here must be kept to yourselves. If any of you is not prepared to keep a secret or to engage in dangerous activities, he is free to leave now.

There is a moment of break for anyone of you to leave. For the ones that stay (OOC: I hope everyone) they continue.

It is well known to us that all of you are proficient adventurers capable of dealing with dangerous tasks. Today, we are going to ask you to take care of a more... delicate matter. There are some cultists, who apparently don't want to belong to the cult anymore. We are afraid they might leave the shelter they're currently occupying, and spread around anything they might know about us. We need you to deal with them.
Since it can't be broadly known that you're fighting Vecna's followers, because then there would be questions about who sent you, you need to have a cover story as to where exactly are you travelling.
It is a lucky coincidence, that a Blue Dragon is living in the vicinity, so I need you to at least tell everybody that that's your target, or maybe even kill him, someone will propably reward you for that too...

She then unrolls a map she has been carrying. It looks as if it were a map of the country. She points at a place right next to the mountains located 2 or 3 days north from the city, and then at a place directly within the mountains.

Here is the apostates' shelter and here is the location of dragon's lair. Unfortunately, we can't provide you with specific information as to what exactly constitutes their shelter, but you can be pretty sure they're hiding inside one of numerous caves there. They propably have some scouts on the outside, so if you can take any of these out, they could lead you to their asylum if proparly... persuaded.

Any questions?

[DrunkenMists]

Mosroda:

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I am assuming it's pretty basic knowledge that Vecna is "bad" without having to do a religion knowledge check; even if I don't know deeper about it without making checks or having a RP background. If it's not; I'll edit this post out and accordingly

The Metal Being stands up straight; the wall creaking heavily in relief of the lessened weight on it's load.

"I have no problem with killing followers of Vecna; nor trying my skills againist a dragon; but I have questions 2." the Warforged speaks in a surprisingly female tone; but deep and with almost a faint squeal of rusty metal.

"I mean no disrespect..but what is with the hands?" with which she gestures a charicture of what the man was doing. "I've not seen this before."

Before anybody can awnser the first; she asks the second "Why. Why would we.....I.. work for somebody who has admitted working with followers of Vecna close enough for them to worry you with thier knowledge?" and with that she glares deeply at the man and women; judgingly.

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Using Detect Evil on Both of these two.

[darklink_shadow]

Looking between the cultists and the metal... person of indiscernable gender, Natsu frowns and looks to his canine friend who huffs. "Blue dragon? Not red?"

Natsu isn't concerned with the petty squabbles of different religions. And if this job ended up being bad, he just wouldn't do it after taking it. Maybe he would even help the little cultists who quit. Talking to a dragon would be nice. A dragon might know where his foster father is.

[Dunkoro]

The man starts manipulating with his hands again:
My master is mute. He's using secret Sign Language to communicate, and I'm the one to translate his speech to Common, so that you might understand it.
You do not HAVE to work for us now, you can still back away, provided you keep whatever you were told here a secret.
But if you percieve Vecna's followers as "evil" you could think of this as an opportunity to kill some of them, not as a job for us.

[darklink_shadow]

Natsu frowns deeper. "That's dumb logic. Even I can see that. If they are quitting the cult, and someone hated the cult, they would seek to protect those who no longer wished to be a part of it. I mean... right?" A look of minor confusion, and a little bit of disgust is plain on Natsu's face. Either his logic is sound and these people are dumber than he is, or he is dumber than he thought he was.

[Dunkoro]

They didn't stop worshipping Vecna, all they did is separate from the main cult. We're sorry if our words convinced you otherwise.

[darklink_shadow]

Sighing, Natsu looked down and scratched his arm. "Oh." is all he said in response. This is why I shouldn't do any more talking than I need to.

[Mishkov]

Hafthyer noticed the symbol of Vecna but kept it to himself for now. He cocked an eyebrow "And what might we get for this expedition? I have no problem with the job, but what's on the table?"

[Ravanan]

"That we act for death is enough to have me be willing to accept this mission, but I must concur with the human. What are you offering for our services?"

[Dunkoro]

We can easily offer 3000 gold pieces to each of you. We don't suspect any of you would be interested in receiving services from our cult as a part of the reward, am I right?

[darklink_shadow]

Hmm... Natsu scratched his head. "And buy us lunch?" Natsu asked hopefully. "Or at least pay our tab at the tavern here?"

[Dunkoro]

Yeeah... Sure, why not?

[Mishkov]

Hafthyer furrowed his brow. He wasn't sure that something wasn't awry with this employer to begin with. The cloak and robes, the symbol of Vecna, the general shady nature of this whole meeting. And how did they even find these people? Looked like a powerful group regardless.

"Sounds good enough, though perhaps I can convince you to give me my share in information?"

It's possible we're doing Vecna's dirty work, but we'll see. If anything else, the world doesn't need more cultists and blue dragons are nasty beasties to begin with.

[Tiny]

At the mention of services Garmine smiles and joins the conversation. "The gold.. while convenient, is of minor importance to me. I for my part, am quite convinced that your service could be of potentially far greater value..."

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Detect magic on the pair and Sense motive:(1d20+10)[20]

Garmine is sure he has seen that symbol before... Yet it seems to have slipped his mind for the moment.

"One thing that I have seen as rather odd is your mention of secrecy. Yet you have told us several sensitive things about the mission, before anyone of us have signed a contract. Either you are sloppy... Or you have some insurance that we won't talk even if we refuse. Am I right?"

[darklink_shadow]

Natsu isn't really sure what sort of services are being offered, or what kind the Garmine guy expects, but he might as well ask a question: "Would these services include something like telling me where a red dragon is? Specifically Igneel?"

Natsu didn't remember hearing any secrets. Some people were trying to leave a cult... at where somewhere... and something else... Nothing secretive, or even memorable. I hope Rip remembers all that. I wasn't paying attention.

[Tiny]

Turning towards Naru while still awaiting the response of the black clad pair. "Is that so? Finding a specific red dragon? I could help you with such a task easy enough, for a price of course."

[darklink_shadow]

Natsu frowned at Garmine. "I just said I'm broke. I can't pay anything. And I have bills to pay."