E started to feel the weight of the basic requirements it took to be in a party. The mere day and a half of his time in Brackbush let him privy to the overwhelming amount of preparation it took to feel even remotely prepared. He began to think about the necessities as a wall that appeared before him before he could even become a fledgling adventurer. He summarized everything into a simple one word answer. "Gold"
E wandered into the barn passed the stable boy to see if he would even be capable of taking in Topher. " May as well try my hand at these skills before I make an offer. Don't want to waste anything on a mule that won't even be ridden." E had taken the 5 gold from Mae as a show of faith, but it was a mere drop in the bucket as far as he was concerned. The only good thing that came from their interaction was that Mae felt a bit more relaxed than this morning in his eyes.
E came to the stall where Topher stood. He leaned over the railing and stared at him. Topher was like a statue. He stood to the corner of his stall, he wore a solid grey coat with a black mane and tail. Regardless of his lack luster beauty a closer inspection revealed to E that he was a rather toned and muscular Mule. Being half donkey only seemed to lend to him a longer and straighter set of pointed ears and a tail and main that seemed short compared to the horses around. E admired Topher briefly and decided to activate his skill.
Wild empathy activated. E felt his mama drain from him and a gentle woosh fell over him humbling him. As he stare longer at Topher he began to feel sad. Topher wore a blind. He just stood there unable to see in the corner of a barn where even the stable hand felt uneasy to approach him. E about brought himself to tears as he imagined the lonely life that Topher had been subject to.
" Topher hey bud.. My name's Everest. I know it seems all bad being in here.. But I'm here now I'll get you out of here how does that sound huh? Come here let me get that off of you." E reached his hands over the railing and pleaded to Topher from the gate. Topher turned his ears to E but didn't budge he seemingly heard him but deemed him unworthy of a response.
" Come on Topher what's it gonna take I know you don't like it here, I'm a half breed as well. The rest of the horses don't pay you any mind do they? I bet many folks have made remarks about you even. I promise I won't treat you that way. I'll be honest with you from the start. I just want to be a legendary adventurer. I just got a party started and we need you. You're our missing link! I'll take extra care of you please just be my friend."
E didn't get any response from Topher. He simply put his head down and chewed some lose hay.
" That's a compelling story you got there but I don't think you're gonna win him over that way." E turned around to see a Tall elf woman standing behind him.
" Oh heh Hi, sorry I didn't know anyone was here." E scratched his head and felt embarrassed.
" Name Ru'Jai. This is my stable. Nice to meet you. So your interested in Topher huh? Why don't you step in his pen with me. "
E was surprised he hadn't seen any of the townfolk that were elves. He recognized some obvious travellers as such but didn't expect to see this lady here. She was a dark haired tall woman who looked no more than 30 to him. Lean and beautiful she smoothly swoon E the more he look at her. He shook off passing thoughts and stepped into the pen beside her.
" Topher he was abandoned. Unfortunately I believe he had a deep attachment to his previous owner. A pretty well off party came through on a quest towards the Dregskol Caves to clear out some space for a mine to be opened up. Evidently they ended up stabling him here and died or something. The mine never opened up and the guild party was disbanded shortly afterwards. I only know because their fees were coming in from their guild card but halted a few months later. I've had him since and that was a few years back. As time went on he became more and more closed off to interaction. He's only somewhat okay with me since I tend to him." She approached Topher with a few shh's and patted his hind. She produced a few carrots and removed his blind from him.
" We've kept his blind on him because he tends to get anxious around new faces and can make a mess of his own with quick paces knocking over his troft. He come here. He won't hurt you while I'm here." Ru'Jai waved E over.
E grew nervous staring into the eyes of Topher he felt his sadness. He slowly approached him. Topher shuffled his feet as if to show E his rear end but Ru'Jai reigned him in a bit to prevent anything unfortunate from happening. E felt a strong urge to speak to Topher. A compelling force came over him and he spoke out in one of the elvish prayers his mother taught him. " Your life stays with me and I will grow with you in spirit"
Topher and E stared at each other for a few seconds. Topher's nose began to sniff at E and he stepped forward. After a few seconds of a snout in his face Topher gave E a gentle lick of his hair standing it upright with spit.
" Well what a surprise young man. Not only do you know the elven tongue of the Spirits call prayer, but you seemed to have made a decent impression on Topher. Here give him some carrots." E was handed some carrots and proceeded to feed Topher and stoke him gently. He began getting a few licks and giggled at the tickle of Topher's whiskers on his face.
Ru'Jai stepped out of the stall and looked on at the two of them and they familiarized themselves with one another. She grew a simple smile and spoke out to E. " He's all yours kid. Good luck on your adventures. He's been a leech on my funds for quite some time, I just haven't the taste for Equine and it doesn't sell well or he'd have been a gonner a winter ago. I'll keep him here til you leave but to house him again you're gonna pay!" After that she left the stable. A few minutes afterwards E stepped out.
" Topher we're going to have a bunch of fun you just wait! I'll go find us a quest and we'll get on the road and stretch your legs soon enough." E waved and left the stables interior. He found the stable boy and bought a saddle and reigns for 2 gold. He spent an additional gold to order a oats bag and some feed. He briefly spoke with the stable hand and told him what happened and told him not to sell the female light horse he wanted to purchase her but need to gather his party and make a financial decision on supplies and priorities. Afterwards E went to the Guild hall.
E entered the Hall to see that it had returned to it's original fashion. He was glad he needed to find the quest board and seek out a proper quest.
E approached the quest board. It was rather a wall in size as it took up the remainder of the wall to the right of the clerks desk. He quickly scanned it and realized there were sections on the board the partioned it through grade. It went from F to B in equal size categories until that last section which only a couple quests were pinned to the A section. Above each section were a standard in which the party must reach. It seemed that at most he could take on a rank D quest. F and E ranked quests were usually procurement quests and available to even civilian classes without a requirement of a guild party. D seemed to be the entry level for low level quests and it required a non-civilian party as these could require killing monsters, or beasts, or even other quests that required magical abilities for various reasons. Beyond the D section it required specific minimum levels of the party members, party rank evaluations, or even them to be in their Advanced or Prestige classes. It seemed that A rank requirements were all of the latter and Renown. Likely some of these quests were perhaps even politically or business affiliated.
E began to look about the D rank quests, a few of them seemed simple enough but offered very little rewards, from 10 gold pieces to 50. Withing the section he began to see some quests labeled D+ and the rewards for these quests seemed to vary in the 100 to 500 gold piece or even smithing or item's in that range of value as compensation. The difference between even these D+ and the regular D rank quests were quite large. Some of them even required an entire cave or forest to be ridden of a nuisance race of beast. There were even a few wanted posters pinned in that section. E took his time a browsed for something he thought they could accomplish.
After a good while of weighing risks and rewards E settled on his first quest.
Rank D+
Clear an old church of Manepedes of Grove Spiders for reconstruction.
Location Wirewood Grove.
Reward : 200 gold pieces, and the carcass' of your prey.
E had heard talks of Wirewood Grove it was a stretch of farm land with a decent amount of trade that passed through it on the road from her to the capital of Lionne. He took the quest from the board and approached the clerk.
" Hello I'd like to take this quest under our party" E spoke into the mesh. Only to look up and see the gnome again. He seemed indifferent this time and E just wore a Blank expression to mask his dislike for the him.
" Okay hand me the quest slip. Hmm a Level D+ quest for your first quest? aren't you a bit zealous. The wood Knights party of three. Interesting, no healer or spellcaster at all. Well I wish you luck. Those insects don't mess around best find some antidotes, and bring lots of fire." With a quick few stamps he passed the slip back to E and wrote some things down in his book.
" That's it? I don't have to like talk to anyone? Is this quest only ours? No one else can like beat us to the lunch or anything"
" No. If a quest requires or requests that it be open to any or all to attempt it will have it's pre-requisits listed on itself. What's it matter if a few fledgling party's throw themselves into the maw of a beast ? Eventually someone will take care of the issue at hand and only then doth the requirement of pay come into account. It's yours, you may even come back to a Guild Hall and drop the quest from your parties assignment at any time. Just don't make a habit of that or you may be barred from taking some specific quests. Good luck."
E walked away from the counter excited. Everything else was so tedious. Accepting a quest took seconds! Sure he'd have to travel and take care of business, but the sounds of clanking coin and the sheen of shiney armor took up the imagery in his headspace. E look up at the clock there was just over an hour before his Archery tournament. At that moment his stomach growled and he realized he hadn't eat yet today, due to some disgust that put him off earlier. He head over to Jaspers bar.