Nascent Goddess Quest

Winning votes:
[w] Try to reach a compromise: Sign up at the Adventurers Guild with Tobias

---

Within a few sentences the argument had turned into a shouting match between Tobias and Mira, with Liam's more soft spoken words being drowned out. A simple and obvious solution entered your mind...the only problem was announcing it amidst the loudness. You walk into the kitchen that Tobias usually kept off limits (curious as you were you had looked around while he'd been out a few times though) and quickly found the items you were looking for: two pans. Returning to the main room it seemed neither Tobias nor Mira had noticed your absence, though Liam covered his ears as he saw the pans in your hands.

CLANG!!!~

The sound echoed across the room and stopped Tobias mid-shout as the two clutched their ears. "Eshani! What are you doing?!" Tobias demanded, authority in his voice.

"I needed you two to stop shouting. I'm the one you're arguing over so it should be my choice."

"Does this mean you've come to a decision?" asks Liam.

"Yes. I've decided that I want to join the Adventurer's Guild," you announce. Mira silently fistpumps to herself while Tobias' face begins to turn red. You quickly continue, "But I don't want to abandon Tobias either," turning to face him you ask, "So can you come with me?"

Conflict is written all over his face. "My lady, why can you not just remain here with me?"

"I can only grow so much kept locked up in a church away from the world. I need to go out and experience things if I want to return to my full power. And this way you'll be there to keep me safe too," you retort.

"You're asking me to join an organization I've already explained to you that I hate," he counters, deadpan and with hurt in his eyes.

"Then you can teach them how it should be done, you can be one of the true adventurers who isn't obsessed with glory." Tobias considers your words, gnawing not so gently on his lower lip. In a moment when he isn't looking at you, you give Mira and Liam an apologetic glance.

Several long minutes pass in which Tobias seems to be fighting an internal battle, with each side just a hair's breadth from winning. His face contorts and rage threatens to erupt from his visage more than once, but there are an equal number of times he looks hopeful. What his decision is going to be is a complete mystery.

"Alright, I've made my decision," he announces, "I will accompany you to the Guild and assist you, but later on I will decide whether or not I want to continue and if you are ready."

It's clear he isn't happy with the arrangement and that he's only going along with it for your sake, but pointing that out would be stupid, so instead you just nod at him. "Sounds like a plan."

oOo

Liam leads all four of you on the path to the Guild, while Mira stays in the back in case something sneaks up on you as you move. You'd made sure to grab your sword before you left, but they insisted that you should leave the fighting to them. You grumbled slightly but Mira let you cuddle with Shade as you went along. Tobias had glanced at the cat disapprovingly when he thought you weren't looking. You ignored him and hugged the vibrating ball of fur in your arms instead.

It wasn't much of a trip though, just walking along a beaten path for a few minutes, it seemed these two took their job seriously. As you enter the Guild's recruitment and questing office a bell rings over your head, alerting the recruiter to your presence. "I'll handle the talking," Tobias tells you as you both head over. The building looked fairly rickety from the outside but was positively vibrant on the inside, you couldn't believe the contrast. Banners of various famous local heroes, bright green carpets winding around the place, the walls were pristine to the point where you could see your reflection in the shiny wooden walls if you stood close enough.

Up close the recruiter was every bit as boring as you assumed from afar: short brown curly hair, droopy eyes, thin framed glasses and a slightly obese figure the resulted from a desk job and no exercise; there was nothing interesting about him. The signup is fairly simple, information like name, age, gender, abilities, etc. Tobias ends up being marked down as a 'healer' while you are a 'support mage', it took a while for Tobias to work out how to describe your spells though. You're pretty sure he actually made your spells seem weaker than they actually were by accident.

After handing you cards with your designations on them the recruiter spoke up, "You're both new so you can only take Rank F and E missions, though we don't recommend starting with E. Since you're both support classes it's also recommended that you find some others to join up with before attempting missions." It sounded like he was reading off a script…
...and he probably was…

"The Adventuring Guild is not responsible for any injuries and/or damaged goods that result from our quests."

With the legalities out of the way he points to a notice board of quests. Liam and Mira intercept you as you walk over. Liam speaks up, "Might we accompany you on whatever quest you take? Surely it's better us than some strangers." You give him a nod and the four of you walk over to the board. Skipping over some of the ones out of your league you focus on the ones you can do, though one catches your eye.

What do you take?
[] Blackfire Assassins member spotted in city. - A Rank (possible S Rank)
[] Mage looking for brave souls for spell trials - E Rank
[] Bandits preparing to invade. - E Rank
[] Escort for trip through cave. - F Rank
[] Lost dog in dangerous forest. Help! - F Rank
[] Ruffians breaking into homes and stealing. - F Rank

Winning votes:
[w] Lost dog in dangerous forest. Help! - F Rank

---

You took the flier off the notice board and headed back to the uninteresting recruiter, though that didn't seem to be the right term, he seemed to be doing several jobs at once. Now that there were no new people to sign up he was marking people down for the missions they were going on and in the lull between that you spotted him doing a bit of accounting work. "Cards please," he instructed as you handed him the flier, Liam and Mira's cards were noticeably more worn than the new one you had. Quickly jotting down your details he looked up at you four, "Alright, you're good to go, the quest is going back on the notice board though, so you might encounter some other adventurers." He gives you and Tobias a pointed look, "Since you two are new I'll warn you: Some adventurers are territorial about their quests, there probably won't be any with a mission like this, but keep it in mind for the future." He handed you a piece of paper and gestured for you to go.

With the warning in mind, you head out. As you leave you notice someone pulling the quest about bandits off the board, you let out a sigh of relief, it would've been bad if that was left alone, but you weren't confident of your chances if that was your first mission.

"Saving a dog, eh? A noble enough goal, I hate seeing animals in harm's way," Mira muses.

Keeping quiet you find a nearby table and unfurl the paper so you can all read it

Paper said:

Hello! I know it seems like a silly request, but I was walking my dog near the northern forest when I saw a monster. In my fear I lost my grip on the leash and my dog ran off...into the forest. I can't go in there myself, I'm too scared. But I'm willing to give money to anyone who can get my dog back. He answers to Bear and is a brown Malinois dog. Attached is a picture of him.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/EgU4DiUeM4w/maxresdefault.jpg

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

"He's so cute!" you can't help but exclaim, drawing strange looks from nearby people. Liam gives a nervous chuckle as he eyes the picture.

Mira giggles at your outburst. "The northern forest isn't that bad when it comes to monsters, though I guess they'll still scare normal people. Honestly we could go through right now and finish it today without many problems."

Liam speaks up, fidgeting a little, "On the other hand it may be prudent to wait a day or two to prepare." Mira nods in agreement.

"Although...if we wait too long something might happen to the poor dog…" she murmurs sadly.

"Maybe we should start by explaining what we can all do?" Tobias suggests in a supercilious tone.

"We are already aware of what you both can do" Liam replies, ignoring the tone, "We can however inform you of our own abilities. As I said earlier I am a knight, I have been trained to protect those that are weaker than myself, as well as how to make foes cower with but a yell. I can only do so for a short time however, before I tire myself out. As a mage Mira has various spells that can take advantage of elemental weaknesses, as well as inflict status effects on foes...though the spells actually have to hit the enemy first…"

"Look, just because I'm a mage doesn't mean I'm an expert at aiming. Most of my spells just go in a straight line! I have bad hand eye coordination, I wasn't expecting to need it when I took up magic. Too late to change my mind now though." Mira protests.

"Regardless, you must be careful with offensive magic, should you miss you can cause more harm than your target would have."

"Hey! I already said I was sorry to that guy!" she cries, "It's not my fault he built his house right behind where the monster was."

"It wasn't even that dangerous!" Liam counters, "They just said it looked creepy and wanted us to lead it away, you didn't have to start off by trying to burn its face off!"

"I get it! I messed up! Can you please stop bringing it up every times you can? I got the message after the first five times."

You looked awkwardly between the two, they seemed so close that it felt like you were just going to get in the way of their dynamic.

"Hey now." Mira says as she notices your guilty look, "Don't be like that, we'll get used to each other in no time." Was mind reading part of her repertoire of spells? You hope not.

"I'm not so sure," Tobias grumbles, voice so low you only heard it because you were right next to him.

"Since it's you two being outfitted, we shall allow you to choose what we do next." Liam says. You turn to Tobias for an opinion.

"I'm fine with whatever you pick, it's pretty late though, don't monsters get stronger at night?"

What do you want to do now?
[] Go immediately (0 shop options)
[] Quickly get some supplies before heading out (1 shop option)
[] Wait until the next morning before heading out (2 shop options)
[] Wait two days before going (3 shop options) (will leave you broke)

Shops
[] Apothecary (Healing consumables)
[] Alchemist (Damaging consumables)
[] Weapons
[] Armour
[] Magic Training (takes 2 shop options)