I was awoken by the morning sunlight peeking through the window, the light making its way through my closed eyelids despite my attempts to shut them tighter. Sitting up I saw that I was the first of the group to wake up, still asleep around me were the others, Jax laid spawned next to the woodstove, his tongue out as a small puddle of drool formed around the floor near his head as his legs occasionally twitched. On the other side of the rug Kaelen laid in a very polite curled up pose, and while there was the temptation to grab the necklace to see what he had shown yesterday I managed to resist the urge. Turning to my bed I saw Liora was sprawled out, her arms and legs in angles I couldn't possibly assume were comfortable, but her content snores seemed to say otherwise. With her face and stomach being covered by one of Liora's arms and legs respectively laid Selene who did not seem as comfortable with the arrangement.
It was strange to imagine how only a month earlier I would have woken up alone only to now see my small home crowded with people I would call friends. As I walked over to where my dresser sat, I started to place clothes into a bag to carry with me, making sure to be careful where I stepped remembering how I had stepped on Jax the first day he stayed over accidentally. As I finished gathering my bag I walked over to the screwed in floorboard that I used as a hidden spot, reaching in and pulling out the 1220 gold that served as my life savings. Grandpa had left me with most of it, but aside from material costs, maintenance costs on things like the minecart and more I had managed to save quite a bit of money. I placed it in my bag, being careful to place it snuggly between layers of clothes so as to not rattle and give away I was carrying a lot of gold.
Turning back to my workshop area I made my way around my sleeping companions to see the dawn light illuminating the mountain out the window. Grabbing the Alleha and Borage jars, I was surprised to see they had been somewhat restocked. I glanced down at my pendent where Misty still slept and smiled, knowing she had been working hard while we were sleeping to prepare for our departure. I grabbed my Mortar and Pestle, the small runes of its enchantment assisting in keeping the consistency of the grind more even as I worked. I continued until both the Alleha and Borage were powderized before placing them in the small boiling cauldron, grabbing two of my stored vials of Liquid crystal I also held my hand over the cauldron
"Liquid Crystal Consolidation."
The crystalline mana pouring from my fingertip into the cauldron as I spent 30 mana to get 3 more vials worth. I took the cauldron to the stove where I grabbed a small log from outside and placed it inside, grabbing the flint and steel as I layered burn starter components like wood shavings and dried leaves around it. It took a minute, but as I worked, I heard Kaelen wake up behind me, yawning and stretching as he rose.
"You sure woke up early this morning Aiden, any particular reason?"
"I only woke up because the curtains were not fully drawn, but it's definitely helpful to pack up and make some of Selene's medication."
Kaelen seemed to nod, satisfied with this answer as he stepped outside to do a morning prayer. As the liquid crystal and powdered herbs started to boil, I made sure to keep stirring which woke up Jax and Liora next. Liora mumbled something about keeping it down before trying to snuggle back down into my bed while Jax stretched and walked over next to me and asked.
"Is that breakfast?"
"Nope, it's Selene's medication, I figured we would get breakfast in town before we figured out where we were headed next."
Jax nodded at this and went outside to do his morning practice as he called it, to the rest of us it was watching Jax try to do a bunch of various poses his body did not seem suited for, but Jax said that it was in fact very helpful, however as he posed on one of his fore legs, the rest of his body looking like he was trying to form various letters of the alphabet as he wiggled to balance, I didn't see the use in it.
After around 10 minutes of letting the potion simmer on a light boil while constantly stirring its color changed to become almost refractory of the light like a liquid gemstone, pulling the cauldron off the stove, I set it aside to cool as Misty doused the fire in the stove. I walked over to where Liora and Selene were sleeping and gently shook them, Liora grumbled before glaring at me over my pillow.
"Must you wake us up so early, for true beauty to set in it requires time, effort, and plenty of sleep."
"Well true beauty might miss the trip on the cart down to get breakfast if they don't wake up."
Liora quickly jumped up and flicking her hair she said in a mock haughty tone.
"When one reaches such a stage of beauty as I have you can skip on one of the 3 steps, I am willing to give up sleep if you're buying."
"No way."
"Cheapskate."
Liora said jokingly in a sing-song voice as she made her way over to where her clothes were piled and grabbed them to get changed into her normal attire in the bath area. I made my way over to where Selene was still asleep and gently shook her. She opened her eyes as she quietly sat up and rubber her eyes using her right hand. As she got up, I walked over to the now cooled potion and poured it into 5 bottles. I grabbed one and held it out for Selene to Grab.
"Morning, got your medicine for you."
She seemed to mumble something along the lines of thank you as she started to slowly sip on the potion. Her face seemed to relax a bit as she quickly downed the rest of it before handing me back the bottle.
"I know the taste is gonna get old rather quick so I figured when we stop in town I could grab something to change the flavor, any particular preferences."
"I liked those honey things from before."
I nodded and went outside to give Selene some privacy to finish changing, my bag slung over my shoulder. As I went outside, I turned to Misty who followed me out.
"I know you don't like violence much, so I won't force you to come, but if you would like."
Misty shook her water droplet head, letting out a small burble that seemed to be her way of saying I'm sorry. While I had expected this to happen as Misty had always hated violence and blood, there was a ripple of sadness that went through me for a moment, but I remembered back to when my grandfather had left to find my parents he had said that you never leave with a frown as that's often the freshest memory people will remember of you. So, I forced a smile as I crossed my arms.
"Then I trust you can take care of the house while I'm gone."
At this Misty perked up, doing a mock salute with her little droplet arm. Selene left the house and Liora rounded the corner from the bath as I turned to see Jax and Kaelen done with their morning rituals. My bag was over my back as I saw the others grab their bags from inside. Stepping out I gave Misty a smile as she flew in to hug me. I hugged her back before she flew back over to the house and waved as we all headed for the mine cart. The ride down the mountain was uneventful, but as we went down Jax stared back up the tracks.
"Damn, now I'm getting sentimental about that place."
"Don't even start or I'm gonna be too tempted to go back."
Coming to a stop at the bottom I hooked the minecart to the rope as it slowly started its trip back up, while I didn't think Misty could use it, I figured it was a bit of security that it took a while on foot to get up the mountain. We walked to the city walls, passed the Security check in and made our way to the Seared Tusk to grab breakfast. Walking inside I was a bit surprised to see that The Bar was mostly empty, but what surprised me most was that Peridot, Larz, Kinwal, and Xenovia seemed to be sitting and talking with Eustus. As we stepped in, They all turned and Eustus called us over.
"Well, if it isn't our newest plated team, so what quest have you all planned next?"
We all took a seat at the bar as Eustus turned to the grill, various pans, plates and more starting to move under his power to start breakfast. As we all sat down Kinwal slid what looked to be 3 quest scrolls across the counter for us.
"The great Kinwal has prepared for your departure and as such with the assistance of others prepared 3 scrolls to start your magnificent life of adventuring, though do not mistake yourselves for honored, it was something I merely threw together in a few minutes."
As Liora unrolled the scrolls Larz scoffed.
"For someone who threw it together in a few minutes, you sure spent the entire past two days running around getting advice from every plated adventuring group you could on what made a good quest, I can only imagine how long you stood in front of that quest board reading the pages over and over again."
At this Kinwal turned beat red and turned to Larz with an embarrassed hiss.
"Dude, not cool, you're ruining my mysterious seerer appearance."
At this I couldn't help but laugh. After a moment plates were slid across the bar with eggs, sausage, and more prepared. As I grabbed my plate, I turned to reach into my money pouch, but Eustus held up a hand.
"Today it's on the house, after all we need you to have good memories if your gonna come back when you're famous."
Jax didn't need any more encouragement and he dove into his plate and started to eat like he had been fasting for the past week. As we all ate, I turned to look over the quests that Liora, Kaelen, Peridot, and Selene were looking over.
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Rouge Clay Golem Retri
A student on an academic venture in Chillmoss recently lost their Clay golem who wandered off with 3 skill books in toe. Retrieve the skill books and clay golem unharmed (avoid using fire at all costs).
Reward - 900 Gold + 1 E rank skill Book
Failure - 300 Gold for purchase costs.
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Smelter Salamander Quench(E)
A small fire elemental called a salamander has entered into the coke stocks in Coalhill and started to burn them to make its own nest by burning them. You must either kill them, or contain them so they stop burning the supply.
Reward - 800 Gold + 1 fire ward charm
Failure - 600 Gold for burned coke and replacements
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Moon-Sap Tap Run(E)
The Silver Elm Trees just outside of Elmgrove are known to make a sap that nourishes saplings during the full moon, collect 6 vials of it, but be cautious, many dire wolves wander the groves due to the sweet intoxicating taste of the sap.
Reward - 700 Gold + 1 Vial of Silver Elm Sap
Failure - 600 Gold for lumber ungrown and lost vials
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"Seems like the first one would be the best, we don't even have to kill anything."
Kaelen said sliding it over towards Jax. However, before he could respond someone called from the door.
"Excuse me, mind if I weigh in my two sense?"
Turning to the door Jax and I both perked up as we saw Todis make his way inside, holding the door for a dwarven women with platinum hair that went down her entire back.
"I'm assuming a friends of yours?"
Liora asked as Jax, and I got up and made our way over to Todis.
"Yes, we meet in line for the plates, he's a full certified Steel rank adventurer."
I glanced at the dwarven girl who despite knowing they were a dwarf, looked like a young human girl with oddly wide shoulders.
"Is this one of your party members?"
Todis shook his head and said.
"She was at the guild trying to find party members, she's a victim of plate hopping."
While most of us were confused, Larz let out a whistle.
"Yikes, sorry to hear about that miss…"
Larz trailed off waiting for a name as the girl crossed her arms
"Platinum, Thalia Platinum, I'm a level 5 puppeteer"
Looking the girl over she couldn't have been more than 3 and a half ft tall, with thick platinum colored hair that ran down her back, she wore a plain brown dress with a coat overtop and a backpack that was mostly covered by her hair but could be seen if you were looking. She could have been mistaken for a child due to her slightly puffy cheeks and short stature, but her sharp demeanor and to the point way of speaking got rid of any doubt of her age.
"W-what is plate hopping?"
Selene asked raising her hand timidly as if not sure it was appropriate to do in this setting.
"Well to put it simply some groups already have plated members assisting those without to get their plates, but other times nobles will pay these groups to find someone else without a plate and register them under the wrong name for a price, the group goes out, and does the quest while the buyer gets to relax at home, once it's done the victim tries to go in for their plates after their party said they were still being worked on or not yet done only to arrive and find that they are not on the list for the quest, noble gets plates, and victim gets stiffed for money, and more. The guild does stuff to try to mitigate this but often times the party in question run out of town and get to another guild office getting their next plate rank up so while the procaline plate is rescinded, they still have their Obsidian plates, many nobles use it to show off that they were adventurers at parties and stuff."
"Yikes, that sucks."
Jax said probably thinking back to the almost month of work we did before fighting the Blood Trent. Todis walked over to the quests on the bartop and pointed to the one clay golem one.
"The prices are never for no reason, retrieval missions, especially ones like this with restrictions will often have the quest giver complain about the smallest damage to cut down the price, so even if you leave the smallest fingerprint in that clay golem he could make it so the reward is only 450 Gold period, and that's not even counting for things like the work it will take to find them in an unfamiliar city, or even the fact that a golem like that with skill books will have everyone looking for an easy way to get a quick skill."
As he started to read over the other quests I saw Thalia hold her hand out as small thin light blue strings drifted down from her fingers as after a minute she swung her hand back over her head like she was throwing a rock and whipped the strings around one of the rafters overhead, using that to pull as she jumped, she landed on one of the barstools with a practiced trick.
After a moment Todis shook his head tapping his finger on the moon sap tap quest.
"You need to be careful, from a brief overview of the quest it seems like a good deal, but they don't list a reward for any wolves driven away or spared, that combined with the failure cost of future lumber is a scam waiting to happen. Generally, you want to look for a quest where you have options, take this Salamander quest, they don't care if it's killed or contain, they just want them out, that and the price VS penalty scale is even enough to mark them as someone who has posted quests before. Personally, I would recommend this quest."
As Kaelen nodded and grabbed the other two quests sliding them over to Eustus who nodded and set them aside, we looked over the salamander quest one more time.
"Even if it was a plate hopping thing, what plate quest did you do?"
Jax asked jumping up in the seat next to Thalia.
"We were tasked to kill 3 dire wolves causing overhunting due to pack clashes, you?"
"We were supposed to find the cause of a problem on the mountain but ended up defeating a Blood Trent."
Thalia turned to Todis with the silent question of what that on her face is. Todis seemed to understand and said.
"Nasty things, created when a Baby Trent is made to absorb blood instead of water, makes them rather blood hungry, they can even get up to C rank if they are left to sit and grow for too long."
Thalia nodded before seeming to think for a minute and asked.
"Your party has 5 members, would you be willing to take me in as a 6th, your party has a lot of potential due to your current successes and my skills are adequate as to not hold you back."
Jax jumped up as if to yell yes but was grabbed by the scruff of his neck by Liora
"Give us a moment to do a little group huddle."
Thalia nodded and we circled up.
"I'm not against it, from what I'm told Puppeteers are a control class that specializes in assisting allies and hindering enemies with their strings, plus they are seen as a helpful class because their strings come in handy in a pinch."
Kaelen offered, Liora shook her head.
"Regardless of that fact look at our composition, we have two front liners with Jax and Selene who are more tanking oriented, one midliner in the form or me, and two backliners with Aiden and Kaelen, having a third backliner won't help."
Selene poked her hand in.
"I-I always heard that puppeteers are more of a midline role, plus they are helpful for getting people in and out of bad situations."
Jax nodded enthusiastically.
"When it comes to the best parties, they always have 6, she could be our 6."
I took a moment to process what everyone had said before offering my own thoughts.
"I think more people can be helpful, but at the same time, with things like adventure targeted scams, I can't help but feel like someone joining just because they asked is too much."
"Then let's do a probationary period, let them prove themselves as we travel to Coalhill, that way we can evaluate if they stay or not."
Looking around Liora agreed that that was fair, so as we broke, Liora walked over to Thalia and spoke.
"We have agreed to take you on at a probationary level until we arrive at Coalhill, does that work for you?"
Thalia nodded and said.
"My one condition is that I travel with your group leader to ensure the paperwork is done correctly."
Liora nodded as she, Jax and Thalia headed out the bar towards the adventurer's guild association.
"You all better get going before too long or your gonna miss a whole day of travel."
Todis said looking out the window.
"You say that like Coalhill is 100 miles away."
"230 actually."
".... what?"