You meet the others at the Auroran Cathedral, making your prayer in a shaft of sunlight. You can sense them coming in, shadows moving against the wall, and get up as they do - turning to them.
Ace is unarmored, in a plain gold and grey skirt matching a top with her midriff showing and her axes at her back; she's smiling, if only a little. Alesha, likewise, is in a dark blue dress instead of her armor, with her sword hanging from a scabbard at her hip. Sekhmet comes in after them, looking lost in thought, with Hikaru following after - no less talkative but more relaxed.
You bow, and take them out of the cathedral and down the street towards Peppercorn Lane and the main gate.
"No armor, but you still have the weapons?" you ask.
"The guards think it's more polite and we needed armor fitting anyway," Ace says, shrugging. "They don't mind us chopping a mugger in half, apparently."
"But would mind being unable to shoot us," Alesha says, voice arch.
Ace replies, "You're right, and I hate it."
You exhale. "I take it the supply run went well, then?"
"It was slightly more expensive than expected," Alesha says. "We had enough to cover it, but we are cutting it fine."
Sekhmet drags their hand down their face. "But you
were able to afford it, and that's what counts," they say, more to themselves than anyone else. "Getting equipped with Not Dying gear is how we'll survive to get paychecks. D'jou get any change at all?"
Ace waggles her hand;
sort of. "A few silvers. Probably going to be spent on lunch - I haven't been this hungry since I was in training."
Sekhmet frowns, but nods that this is acceptable.
Your ears twitch. "In training? Like, IRL?"
Ace smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes. Or her ears. "Used to play soccer. As a striker. A pretty good one."
An ace striker, in fact. "Man, I wish my nom de guerre was that cool," you say.
Hikaru coughs. "You're burning a tremendous number of calories at rest because you now have a physique with - at a guess - Vigor 10 and Agility 10, which is practically olympian," he says. "
This body seems to be spending calories when I cast spells, which is
very interesting and worth looking into later. Expect - and budget for - vast appetites."
"Way ahead of you my dude," Sekhmet says, buffing her claws nonchalantly.
Ace's ear twitches, and she rubs her right hip. "Thanks bunches, Bill Nye."
Hikaru stops, and taps at a sign well above his head - or mine - with his staff. "This should do."
We stop and look up at a woodcarving of a baguette.
"Good thought," Sekhmet says. "Lemme ask some questions."
They hold out their hand: Alesha passes them a bag, and then they slip inside. A moment later they come out with a bunch of bundles over her shoulder.
"Great call," Sekhmet says, grinning fangs at Hikaru. "Landed a twofer deal. Gonna remember this place; erryone take one for now."
Exchanging glances with Ace, you take a foot-long baguette - which, it turns out, is stuffed with ham, cheese, and some kind of pesto.
You walk over, eating, thinking. About your allies in the Free Company, and about the road you'd be taking, and the mission. About a countryside you've seen a thousand times but were about to see for the first time, full of wheat fields and lazily spinning wind and watermills grinding wheat and oats and barley. Hilltops with olive trees and grapevines and grazing sheep, now under attack by what may as well be the game's mascot: creatures as much fae as fox that play tricks on people who dare to brave the Nevergla-
intuition+lorewise said:
Wait.
Wait.
That's not right.
Seedlings are green and pink and vulpine
to hide better in forests and jungles. Every quest involving them involves being creatures
of the forest. What the hell are they doing attacking a hilltop surrounded by heavily farmed plains?
The thought is interrupted by a flash of movement.
agility+athletics said:
You move before you can reason why, punting the relatively soft sphere up with your knee to kill momentum, enough time to see it's a ball; a casual headbutt sends it to Ace, who
immediately does a roundhouse and sends the ball right back where it came from - into the hands of a stunned little foxboy wearing a skullcap, two blocks down.
While you're still catching your breath, Ace grins and gives the kid a thumbs-up.
"I - beg your pardon miss, I didn't mean to -" the kid stammers, backpedaling towards his mother.
"Nice pass," Ace says, trying for sweet but only managing chirpy. "Learn to do that on purpose and you have a bright future in the Holy Leagues."
The kid's face lights up and the mother's softens as she scoops him up and offers the spread-palm blessing of Aurora. Ace blinks, then grins and returns the gesture with one hand while offering her other palm to you.
It would be a terrible breach of etiquette to leave her hanging, so you give her both the high and the low five.
During this whole time, Hikaru has been looking at Ace, jaw open, with one eyebrow reaching for the sky.
"What?" Ace says.
"The Holy Leagues are the first game concept I didn't need to explain to you," Hikaru says.
"Man, fuck you," she says, still smiling as we continue walking.
Just outside of the gate are a steady flow of people trying to enter the city, in two lanes - an expedited lane for incoming merchants with their carts of grain and cloth, and meat still mooing on the hoof; and a lane of frustrated players being interviewed and sent in, one by one, flanked by two knights and a methodical pixie in gold and indigo, peering over her pince-nez glasses at a paper scroll and a blueblack raven quill the size of her head, dipping in ink and filling out forms as people pass.
There was a bit of a line in both directions, so you watch the proceedings as you walk and eat.
"Name?" she asks.
A huge gold and green koboldt with fancy robes and a staff chuckles nervously. "You aren't going to believe it..."
"I am aware of the Adventurer tendency for horrible pun aliases," the pixie says in her best seen-it-all librarian voice. "Try me."
He sighs, first two fingers on his forehead. "...Bolt Vanderhuge."
"Mmhm. And that would be name and family name?" Bolt nods to the pixie, who writes it down. "Profession: mercenary...?"
"Huh? I - I suppose I am a mercenary now," Bolt babbles.
The pixie censor in indigo sighed. "Class, then?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Bolt indicates his staff and robes.
The pixie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Ser, there are any number of classes that use staves and talisman armor. That doesn't narrow it down enough."
Bolt grimaced. "Oh. Uh, Wizard, then."
"Mmhm. Mercenary Wizard. Should I assume your length of stay is also to be indefinite?" the censor asks.
"...God, I hope not. My boyfriend would be -"
"For what it's worth, ser Vanderhuge, it is also our hope that you are swiftly reunited with your lover back at your home," the censor says, softly, "but I will put 'indefinitely' in case of the worst."
Vanderhuge closes his eyes and hangs his head. "I appreciate your sympathies," he says. "Let me know what else I need to do, miss..."
The censor pushes her pince-nez up her nose. "The Honorable Lady Cela Zlatez del'Norte."
Bolt nods. "Thank you, your Honor."
Cela del'Norte flips a page. "Let's continue. Are you a member of a registered Free Company?"
"Yes, Free Company... uh... Always Be Crisis/Desperation Enabled, that's ABCDE."
Cela shakes her head. "ABCDE, and check. Do you have any custom to declare?"
"Some rum and furs from the island?"
Cela snaps her fingers and points at one of the knights. "Follow him to the Hall of Scales with your custom, and good day."
You realized you could make your next steps
far easier with a little help, and took this moment to clear your throat.
"Excuse me," you call out - god, that's Customer Service Voice. "Your Honor, del'Norte? May I have a moment of your time?"
She turns her head to you, scowling. "That is a very valuable commodity right now, dame adventurer."
You take a deep breath. "Just let me know - have you processed anyone else from Free Company DC-slash-AC? Dungeon Crawling and Chill?"
"Anyone
else." She thinks. "How did
you get in yesterday?"
"A commendation from the Captain of the Guard," Alesha says, saluting. "At Costa Dulce."
"I'll make a note of it." And Lady del'Norte does. "No, heroes, I have not processed any other members of DC/AC."
You bow, and return to the line out.
"Just making sure they aren't at the guildhouse, huh?" Sekhmet asks, arms folded, smirking.
"It was worth a shot," you say, shrugging. "How far out of town do you think we'll need to go?"
Fifteen minutes walk down Thorne's Arrow Road, you find them near a farmhouse and an orange grove.
Helping the farmers cook their marmalade.
A massive, busty koboldt, covered with white down and in purple robes, stirs a massive cauldron of the stuff, tipping in a large bag of demerara sugar; next to her, a calico Ubastim in leather gloves and apron, wearing goggles as he slices oranges and the odd lemon into a large glazed ceramic bowl; and flitting among the trees, a dark-skinned pixie in flowing blue, indigo and purple robes lined with silver picking the oranges at the tops of the trees and passing them down to the human farmer couple, as the kids - some adopted vulpes and cattes - run full baskets to the catte in the apron.
You immediately wave to your friends. "Meg!" you say to the white Koboldt. "I'm glad you're
safe - well, as safe as you can be -"
Meghaniel Genetor rose, arms spread wide, and that's a clear invitation. It's
weird to hug someone this freely, but it's virtual - and it's a friend far from home and deep in danger - gods, don't rest your head on her tit -
She lets you go, barking one note of brassy laughter, and says: "I get the idea. Where the hell has
your crowd been? Seen Ralph?"
"Dude owes me gold," the catte says, grinning ear to ear. "How about Talon and the kid?"
"Ralph buggered off early to cram for midterms and
probably missed this party." Sekhmet says, walking up to her fellow catte to exchange fistbumps. "No sign of Talondar. As for Peachi, well..."
"She's safe," Alesha says. "Not in Viacruz, but safe. We have a fair bit of business to catch up on, and things are even more complicated than they seem."
Sekhmet pauses at that, ears flickering between the three other guildmembers, before speaking to them with her palms up. "Lets help you help the locals first, maybe hand you some spare bocas I got in town, and help you
get in town. We five got real lucky and ought to help get you a real roof and a real bed, right?"
"We'll take any help we can get," Thomas Calico Katzenberg says, holding his hand out. "Gimme a sandwich and take over for me for a sec?"
There's an almost subliminal sigh that crosses through the three of them, and you frown, feeling like you missed something. But Sekh nods, hands Tom a sando, and takes over slicing; and you sit down and start to stir for Meg.
"That thing has ham in it," Sekh warns Tom.
"It's an emergency," he responds, frowning. "God might not be happy but he'll get it."
"We do appreciate your coming to find us," says the pixie woman. "And the food."
Aurora shrugs. "As she said, Luna; we were blessed, and want to share the blessings."
You're beginning to think this is true, but not in - or just in - the sense that Aurora and Luna mean it.
"We managed to acquit ourselves well at Costa Dulce," Hikaru explains, "and therefore earn an audience with the Contessa - and paying work."
And as the three of them eat and stretch, and you take over for them, Hikaru catches the rest of the guild up to your activities - and the three of them catch you up to theirs, and their luck in finding work and a roof helping the Heurta clan with the orange harvest.
"It is thanks to their compassion that we have been warm at night," Luna concludes.
"Yeah, I've been, uh,
struck by how much the locals have going on," Ace says. "The Heurtas seem nice, I'm glad you could help each other out."
"DC/AC help each other," Meghan says. "As you've found out, I hope, Ace?"
Ace sighs. "Yeah, I'd be dead meat if not for Deedee and Leesh beating off the Crab Rave."
Tom Katt stretches and yawns from his seat under a broad tree. "What I don't get is why this fetchquest the Contessa wants The Great Slave-Punchers of Oz on top of deserves that, or the pay. I mean, from the sound of things you're dealing with trash mobs; that's worth maybe 100 gil and some equipment, tops."
"That's -"
Your
because and Hikaru's
elementary overlap, and both of you look at each other, Hikaru blinking in shock.
Then Hikaru bows and flourishes. "By all means, tell me what you've determined."
You take a deep breath in, hold it, take a deep breath out.
"That's because I'm pretty sure she thinks PC griefers are behind it," you say.
Hikaru
grins, a hand to his chin
. The others exchange glances, and you turn it over in your head, and explain:
"The monsters attacking are
Seedlings, right? The flower-fox hybrids, with faces that sold a million plushies," you remind them. "Except those are forest creatures that show up in the Neverglades and in woods with faerie rings. So what the hell are they doing on top of a hill,
one week by cart away from the nearest forest, surrounded by plains that've been cleared for vineyards and olive gardens?"
"They can sometimes roam in areas next to woods," Hikaru adds, nodding, "but on roads or within towns? Never randomly. You may not be aware of this, but monsters avoid 'hallowed ground' - for the sake of argument, let's say the coding makes this 'instinctive' behavior."
You
hadn't realized that - and flip that over. "That's one of the things milestones and shrines do, isn't it? There are so many of them to make roads and towns safe from monster attacks."
"That and the patrols of well armed groups of murderhobos travelling down them, yes," Meg says - frowning, as she plays with the fringe of her sleeves.
"We know there are 'pirate' groups of players," Hikaru says.
Tom scoffs. "Well, yeah, you fought 'em."
Hikaru shrugs. "I would
guess that an Erandite is the one that actually smuggled in the creatures, or cast a familiar spell and set them free, or grew them; they'd have both the horticultural knowledge to do so and be able to bypass a set of wards nigh-assured to protect an agricultural community."
You clench your fist. "And it's not like we know any asshole PC Erandites, right?" you deadpan.
"What? - Oh,
that bitch," Sekh says. "It's probably not gonna be her."
"If it is Strawberry Shortcake, though?" Ace asks,
too sweetly.
"Then I'll want your help with her," I say, smiling, all fangs.
Chapter 2.3 is to be concluded, hopefully before the end of August.
No new votes, but:
What, if anything, should we bring to Shadi's father as a gift?
