Everest entered the bar. It was the busiest he had seen it. No tables were left vacant, nearly every stool at the bar occupied. He rushed over to a chair at the far end of the bar as someone stood up. He noticed a few ladies seem to be manning the bar and bringing out food. He stopped one and asked for the special that was on the the dinner menu, and a mug of ale. She poured him a drink and then went to deliver some other things. A few minutes later he received his food.
He began to drink his beer and noticed he wasn't immediately drunk at it's first taste.
Fortitude rolled - Success.
His eyes lit up." Huh that's what it does?" His class has used his fortitude skill to overcome the effects of the alcohol leaving him with a more pronounced flavor of the berries. He deemed it quite refreshing. E ate quietly and finished his drink at the bar and decided to leave. He saw a rare glimpse of Jasper peek out of the kitchen briefly only to point a waitress in a direction before stepping back in. Obviously he was busy so E thought not to bother him. He head back to his room.
E got to his room and opened the door to see Bean had woken up and was sitting on his bed talking with Mae
" .... Yeah and that was when everyone realized something must have been wrong with the food and started throwing up all over the place. I lucked out by not eating that dish and all the other contestants dropped out and left. Since I was the only one there I guess I won all the prizes but it sure sucks to win that way.." E looked at Bean who wore a pitiable expression as he spat out a lie to Mae.
" Aww you poor thing, I bet they all envy you. At least you won you can't deny that fact, I made it to the last round of my tournament and ran of of MP for my rage skill. That Gregor is a tough guy, at least he was a gentleman. We spoke after the match and he was already in his advanced class, A freaking War Priest! Imagine that. Oh hey E Bean and I were waiting for you. How are the Supplies going?"
E had been standing there silent listening to them speak. He was caught off guard when Mae referred to Brock as Bean. Something he had yet to say outloud. He looked over at him and saw that he was rather indifferent.
" Well I ended up getting us a Mule. It's a long story but we got one. There is still a light horse available within our price range but I'll essentially be left with less than 20 gold there after. You do know how much horses cost right?"
Mae looked up to E and shook her head slowly. " You ever thought about just renting them? You dummy. Your mother never taught you to ride it before you buy it? Are you even qualified to be our trader? If you go out and buy everything and leave us broke and stranded how will we survive? Shouldn't be much more than what I gave you to rent the horse for a couple weeks. You only pay in full if you don't bring it back. Guild Cards hold a lot of power."
E closed his eyes and sighed. " Damn I'm an idiot." he thought. " I uhh just thought it would be a good thing to own, like an investment." He tried to cover his ass.
" Look I've been on only a handful of quests but only really well of or experienced parties have a full horse and carriage in tow. Just rent them until you've made it. I will say you did good clothing and gearing up our friend Bean here but you could have gone a bit easier on that as well. You lucked out with his armor. He's better off than both of us
now." Mae retorted.
Bean look over at E and smiled. " I thought you were rich so I didn't say anything. But I really appreciate it. I'm your buddy for life." He gave a thumbs up
E felt kind of down. He had been spending gold his parents left to him and was out of his depth in so many areas. He began to feel inadequate. Then he remembered he picked a quest that had good rewards and he smiled brightly at them. " Well that's good Bean I was just looking out for you. I did pick us a good quest, 200 gold and spoils of battle are all ours! It's in Wirewood Grove clearing out a church."
Bean and Mae both looked surprised at one another. Then Mae asked a few more questions." So clearing out a church? Like what bandits moved in? or kobolds? Why so much coin for a church? And Wirewood huh. That's not to far just a couple days travel on horseback."
" Yeah I guess it's full of Manepedes and Grove spiders sounds easy enough, The clerk sai.. "
" Are you fuckin kidding me you want us to die?!? Do you know what a Manepede is ? Or how big Grove spiders get? You're crazy." Mae shouted back at him then a cold shiver ran through her visibly, " I hate spiders"
E thought about it. He had killed some spiders in his forest some of which were the size of a dog. Couldn't be to bad. He had no idea what a Manepede was though. " I've killed plenty of big spiders in the forest don't you worry. But yeah no... I don't know what a Manepede is. I guessed like a type of centipede or something."
" A MAN.. epede. It's as big a a person you dummy! And one bite can cleave off limbs a sting will poison you so quickly that you have minutes to live!"
E looked at Mae and at Bean, who seemed fine with the quest and became wary from Mae's words. E started to think hard about what his options were he knew he couldn't drop the quest or he might get penalized. He fell into deep thought about the situation and sat down on the bed next to Mae. " Hmmm.. I'm not to scared of bugs or poison. But Mae seems upset, Bean doesn't really know what he's getting into from the looks of it but there has to be a way we can use our skills to our advantage. Mae has Power attack and rage. From what I gather rage gives her strength, and I'm sure power attack is something that works with that. If we use bean as a second form of ranged attacks with me we should be able to kill them before they even get close. The problem is the insects are in a church. We just have to find a way to get them outside.." A light went off in E's head.
"I GOT IT! We just have to smoke them out! If we get some way to smoke out the bugs you can strike them down as they leave and Bean and I can hit them from a distance. You just leave the spiders to us and we will get your back. We should prepare a defensive barrier around the Church to funnel them towards us. And we can even find some ingredients and I may be able to fashion an anti-venom."
Mae liked his initial summary of a battle plan but her brow's perked up at the idea of her standing forefront. " I think it's good but it needs some tweaks. First of all, I'm not standing gaurd in front of a church as bugs flee, I'll be overwhelmed by their numbers or caught off guard. Secondly Bean what's the range on your Javelin throws? I assume relatively short. Only you have the real range capacity E. Smoking them out sounds good though it will force them out to be hit easier and away from any webbing we may get caught in. The only thing is we can set the Church on fire, so it has to be something that burns slow and won't carry a flame, preferably a good smoulder with will snuff itself after it loses the oxygen to burn."
E hadn't thought about a fire, and he had to admit he hadn't fully grasped Beans ranged ability. Or Mae being over ran, who knows how many bugs there were. " Bean have you thrown a javelin before?"
Bean look up at E and shook his head no. " To be honest not really. I've thrown sharpened sticks, rocks, gross stuff like slop and poo, but never anything of real quality. And I don't know how far I could throw really. We can always find out before we get there though.. "
E pondered for a minute wondering the best place to position themselves based on their skills. " Okay, on our trip we will gather our steed's dung and dry it. We will make small balls of it with a wick and toss them inside. As the building begins to billow full of smoke we will position ourselves. Bean you will be at the very front, we will gather small objects in a pile for you to lob at the enemies your task will be to gather their attention. After you will be Mae, she can fend off the insects that come near you. I have a limited amount of arrows, just under 20. If I use them carefully I will pick the bugs off one by one as they leave and charge you guys, when you guys get overwhelmed you will run to me. Passed a pitfall trapped area and that will thin them. I'll use my arrows til I'm empty at which point we will all pit ourselves against any remaining in a sortie of attacks. Sound good?"
They all agreed, the plan sounded good enough any modifications to it will have to come after the are on scene. They familiarized themselves with each others skill sets and lay bare all the items they had gathered which didn't amount to much. Mae was seemingly happy about the stove and the available rations. She turned to E and ask for the food supply she asked him to pick up. " Crap I forgot we can pick it up before we go. Let's head out tomorrow morning, it's about time I go to my tournament anyways, sorry there was just so many errands on my plate.
" That's okay E you've done a lot let me go rent the horse and pick up food." Bean stood up, hoping to prove himself with further assistance.
Mae giggled at his little size acting as if he had become the hero of the situation.
" Haha I'll join you. We can go to the stable and rent the horse as well."
The group disband and went about their business. E head out to the same area the wrestling tournament had been held and prepared himself. " I've only got 1 MP left let's make it count." He stood amongst a small crowd that had gathered. Targets had been laid out at intervals of distance in front of them to a maximum of 100 meters.
" Haha don't get your hopes up, you washed out lot are going to lose. It's I Zane Hodd, The best Archer in any C rank Party in Carth. And no I will not be giving out any autographs or coin, thank you."
E and some other members of the tournament that had gathered turn around after hearing the boast. Some of the people outright walked away with their heads down.
" What the fuck is he doing here"
" Wow okay, guess I'll settle for second"
" Shit, its the dukes son"
E listened to the gripes of some of those who remained. He looked to the man who so proudly announced himself. A slender white male in very formal attire, he wore a very pristine looking leather jerkin and had a long bow that was easily 4 foot long on his back. His face was rather simple not to handsome but he held an air about him that reeked of status. He even held his nose up and walked passed many of the participants and crowd and just stood there as if to assert dominance. E was immediately not a fan of his attitude. " I'm going to offend his ego, he's so clean he's probably never even had a proper hunt. Time to show the arrogant brat who he's messing with. I'm the son of a Knight, And a party leader. Everest Lumin." E spoke to himself proudly in his head as if to dismiss the poor attempt at demoralization Zane spat forth.