"122, 123, 124…" Oliver scowls down at the table, hoping his expression alone could carve another notch out of it, he would use his dagger, but the tip broke off recently.
"That's enough for what, a day?" Gideon asks, kicking his feet up onto the old slab of wood and rocking back in his chair, to balance on the back two legs.
Aria drops her legs onto Gideon's, forcing his chair to slam back down to the ground with a thunk. Gideon's large body smacks into the table uncomfortably, sending some of the coins clattering to the floor.
"Don't break another chair, please, we don't have any money as it is" Aria sighs.
As much as Oliver hates to admit it, she is right again, not that it is any grand conclusion to come to.
Oliver conjures a small magical hand, to pick up the stray coins.
Oliver doesn't know many spells, and the spells he does know are rudimentary at best, like the "mages hand". In practice the spell is supposed to conjure an invisible hand capable of lifting of nearly 20lbs, dexterous enough to pick locks or paint with oils or even write letters. Oliver's however…is not quite that refined.
"Hey no, watch where you move that thing!" Gideon swats at the very visible, clumsy hand that flops about on the floor, bumping into the legs of the table as it fumbles around, half smacking, half sweeping the coins into a pile.
Gideon, frustrated with the display bends down and swats at the Mages Hand until it vanishes in a puff of bluish smoke. He gathers the coins himself and places them back down onto the table.
"We need another quest" Oliver says, the notion haunting him, still in recovery from their last outing nearly a week ago.
"The guild board in town should have fresh picks" Gideon offers as he begins to sort the coins into three piles.
"Fresh is a….choice word" Aria moans,
"Beggars can't be choosers" Oliver retorts, knowing Aria's propensity for the dramatic.
"No, i suppose not, but beggars or not I have standards" she brushes her long dark hair off her shoulder with a swish of her hand and a rolling of her neck to further amplify her point.
"A Beggar with standards? Isn't that just a prostitute?" Gideon asks.
With a flash, Arias hand comes down towards Gideon's face, only to be intercepted by Gideon's own hand, another slap, another black, two more slaps, two more blocks. In a perfect display of practiced martial adeptness Gideon skillfully blocks the onslaught of Arias assault until she sits fuming, arms crossed and steam rising from the crown of her head, and a shit eating grin on Gideon's.
"A prostitute with standards", Oliver snickers, and Aria turns on him next.
Oliver smiles wide, and closes his eyes, knowing that his best friend will-
SMACK
Pain shoots up through Oliver's cheek and rattles his skull like a raindrum on festival night. His ears ring, and he gawks as he opens and stares in betrayal at Gideon.
"I thought you would protect me!" Oliver shouts, rubbing at his cheek.
"Huh? Why?"
"Why? You're…my friend!"
"Friends let other friends grow strong, I can't always be here to protect you" Gideon nods sagely.
"What kind of excuse is that!" Oliver sucks in through his teeth. "You're a tank! Isn't it your job to…you know….tank?"
"You're a mage, isn't it your job to cast spells?" Gideon raises an eyebrow with a half cocked smile.
"I'll show you a spell" Oliver stands from his spot on the table, and points his finger at Gideon.
Blue light builds at the tip of Oliver's finger, air swirls around the room as pressure builds and the crackling scent of ozone permeates through the space.
"Oh?" Aria lifts her legs from Gideon's lap and takes half a scoot backwards in her chair. Gideon's confidence begins to drop as he throws a sideways glance to Aria. "have you…been holding out on us man?" Gideon asks, bringing his hands up defensively. "I didn't mean anything by it-"
"I've been training every day and night, on this one spell!" Oliver declare as his eyes ignite blue and a wicked smile wraps its way around his face. "And now you will feel strength of my resolve!"
Light bursts from Oliver's fingers, the room crackles.
"Shit!" Gideon brings his arms up as the point on Oliver's finger leaps forward headed straight for Gideon.
Aria laughs, as the beam of light leaves nothing more than a slightly discolored mark of red on Gideon's forehead, as if he had been resting the palm of his hand on it for too long.
"Damnit" Oliver lets his full weight collapse back into the chair, and his head smack into the table in utter embarrassment.
Gideon looks to Aria, who is still laughing hysterically, and then to Oliver.
"Oh nooooo owwwww!" Gideon tries, though not very convening. "It…it hurts!" he shrugs his shoulders to Aria who laughs even harder, half falling out of her chair, letting out pig like snorts between bouts.
"It wasn't that funny!" Oliver protests, "I'm serious I've been practicing that for so long!"
"It was good! It was…you know, there was a lot of fanfare! I'm sure it could scare some goblins, so long as you don't actually shoot it off"
"It was- it was so-" Aria laughs sarcastically, snorting some more and unable to finish her thought "maybe it was just performance anxiety? Its perfectly natural Oliver it happens to one in five men they say"
'"I perform just fine!" Oliver crosses his arms and hangs his head.
"You know, they say for some older men it just stops working"
"I'm only 20!" Oliver tosses a single copper from his pile at Gideon, but the throw goes wide and misses him by several feet.
"You-" Oliver looks down at the piles Gideon had placed in front of them. "Are you serious?"
Just as Aria is almost recovered from her laughing fit, one look down at the table and the laughing returns, this time causing her to fully fall from her chair and crash into the ground. Aria doesn't even have the strength to hold herself up, and resigns herself to laying on the floor propped up on her elbows.
"What's so funny now?" Gideon asks, looking down at the table
"You organized our money by color…" Oliver says in disbelief, looking at the collection of gold, copper and silver. In front of Gideon is the Silver pile, in front of Ara the Gold, and in front of Oliver the copper.
"Right, that way we know whos money is whos, I get the silver ones because of my armor, Aria gets Gold money because yellow goes with her eyes, and you get copper because you're the leader and it had the most"
"How have you survived this long before you met us" Oliver shakes his head.
After explaining to Gideon how money has different values, and learning about many purchases he had made without that knowledge, their informative teaching lesson quickly turned into an interrogation about the myriad of poor financial decisions Gideon had made over the course of his life.
"My Old party" Gideon starts, "we were clearing out some fishfolk who made a nest too close to a dockyard. They build they nests inside the gutted hull of a huge ship. And we found a big chest, inside there was a lot of money, I mean, a lot a lot. We each got a cut."
"Oh by the fates, if you did what i think you did…" Oliver says under his breath.
"Two of them retired, they said it was enough to live off of for the rest of their lives, which confused me because I had already bought lunch which was 13 copper, but I didn't have any of the copper colored ones, so I asked if he would take the platinum colored ones instead and he said sure. And i just spent all the platinum."
"Platinum?!" Aria puts a hand to her head as if she is going to be faint.
"Holy hells Gideon, are you serious? How much platinum was it?"
Gideon shrugs "not sure, i couldn't fit it all in my pouch, and it was too heavy to just haul around everywhere so i just left tips and gave it away and stuff…it was…i don't know maybe 1000 pieces?"
"A thousand pieces" Aria stumbles a bit "that's…oh goodness Gideon you absolute buffoon" She shakes her head.
Gideon turns to Oliver, but finds no comfort in his friend as Oliver too shakes his head "the things I would do for a single platinum…." he mumbles to himself.
"Somewhere out there, is a very wealthy fishing town" Aria grumbles.
Gideon shrugs "oops, now we know though, next time we wont give it away"
"There will never be a next time!" Aria shouts. "Stumbling across that amount of money is a once in a lifetime, no, not even then, its a once in a generation kind of luck!"
"I'm sure if we do enough quests we will come across more money laying around" Gideon shrugs.
"Speaking of quests" Oliver clears his throat as they reach the double doors to the town guild hall.
Aria takes a deep breath, bringing her hands through her hair "deep breaths, you are noble, you are grace, you are not traveling with an imbecile" she whispers to herself.
"I resemble that remark" Gideon states
"We know" Oliver and Aria says in unison.
The large double doors of the guild hall swing open, revealing with it the sights and sounds of revelry, and hospitality.
Warm air carries with it the scent of hearth fires and fresh food, drifting over the nearly one dozen long tables splayed out haphazardly over the cobbled floor. A skeleton of a long forgotten beasts hangs suspended below tall vaulted ceilings, framed by the mounted heads of Dire wolves, goblins, Giant rats and even an Ogre skull.
The sounds of ambient conversation bleed over the dancing music being played by a band of bards on the stage to the west, while the more rowdy adventurers tumble in playful brawls on the balcony level above.
"Feeling any better?" Miriam, a small trickfoot woman asks as she approaches. She stands only 4 feet tall, average for most trickfeet, but her lions mane of bright orange hair adds an extra 4 inches on top, despite making her body look much smaller, nearly vanishing in the mound.
"Much better thank you!" Gideon smiles wide and pats at his back "still healing, but its healing clean" he confirms, causing Oliver to turn away in embarrassment slightly, at the mention of the nasty wound.
"Glad to hear it! Any chance you'll be paying off your tab this time?" She tries, through mostly a joke, one that everyone is in on as the party, along with Miriam laugh.
They move to their usual table, a heavily stained, battered, carved and well loved hunk of wood with two bench seats on either side, positioned nearest the eastern window. Oliver picked this spot for them the first day they had all met up, as the guild policy, according to Gideon, was "first come, first serve. Once you got your spot, it's what you're stuck with"
The day they chose the spot it was late, and rainy, and far away from the fire much to the dismay and protest of both Aria and Gideon, who reprimanded Oliver for the decision. Now, as the morning sun rises, it sends down its rays in warm pools of yellow orange, illuminating this window more than any other in the entire guild hall. Aria and Gideon haven't complained since.
"The usual" Miriam states, more than asks, and receiving nods of acceptance from the party, she moves to fill their orders.
The food comes, wooden soup bowls filled generously with a hearty local dish of rabbit and vegetables, an ironic combination, not lost on the guild cooks, as it has been aptly named "Farmers revenger"
"Not a very appealing name for a soup" Aria notes.
"I was just thinking that" Oliver agrees.
The soup is served with a side of warm breath and butter, and mugs of water, they would normally serve ale, wine, or mead, but it seems that Miriam is still a little sour about the tab not being payed quite yet.
Oliver gathers a collection of quest papers from the huge board against the northern wall of the guild. Each guild hall in each settlement offers its own variety of quests catering to the needs of the people of that area, as well as catering to the needs of the guild. As such, in larger cities you might see a large variety of quests being offered, both by the government, private citizens, factions, or the guild itself, all ranging in difficulty. However, in a smaller town such as this one, the quest variety leaves a lot to be desired.
"I really really really don't want to do another Giant Rat quest" Arian groans, placing her head in her hand as she uses one finger to drags the quest paper back and forth along the table.
"We don't have the strength or the numbers to take on anything else" Gideon pouts as well, tossing back a quest for clearing a skeleton outbreak near the outer bank of the river.
"What about this one?" Oliver asks, setting out a quest posted by a nearby elven tribe. "Its a Bronze II quest to clear some Lancerjackets, which, yes, I know is low for you two" he looks to both Aria and Gideon, who both seem to already hate this quest.
"But!"
Oliver tries to recover his pitch, pointing feverishly to the reward at the bottom, which causes Aria and Gideon to not shut down entirely.
"Two lots of healing balm? That's hard to pass up"
"We don't need healing Balm, we need money" aria rubs her fingers together.
"Right, but think about how many more quests we can go on, if we don't have to worry about resting up for weeks after every fight? Sure its not healing potion but id take 1 day of recovery over 3 weeks"
Gideon nods along, already convinced. "And then we can go take on the undead by the bank for the real fun!"
"For money" Oliver corrects slightly, and looks to Aria who is still apprehensive.
"We still don't have the numbers for undead, any more than 2 are we are as good as dead…"
"Which is why~" Oliver smiles and turns the paper to Aria, pointing at a specific clause noted in the quest that grabs her attention more.
"Urgent, discretion required" Aria reads the notice and raises an eyebrow. "Sure its curious but so what? Not everyone wants their business broadcast"
"Then why post it on a quest board?" Oliver tries, rhetorical.
"Hmm, you're right" Aria leans forward, far more interested now, though likely due to the intrigue she desperately misses from her time before being an adventurer.
"Is it because they are elves?" Gideon offers.
"Believe it or not, that's right" Oliver smiles. "Elves don't make their way into human settlements, ever really, not the wood elves at least, which is really all we have around here."
"So that means they are going to move in!" Gideon says all too confidently.
"What? No…" Oliver shakes his head "Wood elves are famously isolationist, they don't get involved with humans nearly ever, not that they hate it, but its a spiritual thing. The only reason an elf would ever come to a human settlement to post a quest with the need for discretion is because they don't want their other elves to know. Why wouldn't they want the other elves to know? Well maybe it would be interfering with an Elfs ascension ritual"
"Ahhhh clever… so you're suggesting that we might be able to leverage this to gain a bigger reward?" Aria smiles.
"Ahh, again not quite, but close. If the elf if offering 2 lots of healing balm, then its probably safe to assume they have access to medical supplies regularly, probably a healer themselves, or an apprentice or something, plus they are willing to break elven traditions, interact with humans enough to post this quest, it means we might be able to add a healer to our party" Oliver concludes.
Aria nods "I follow the logic, and even if we can't get them to join, leverage" she winks.
"Yes, leverage." Oliver confirms.
"Wait, I'm confused, why does this give us leverage exactly?" Gideon scratches at his head.
"Wood elves undergo a process as they mature called the ascent, its like their puberty but more magical, and it usually involves them going out into the wilderness by themselves as they journey to a specific holy site or historical site. Other elves aren't allowed to interfere with this ritual, and no one is supposed to give them any aid at all. Its not uncommon for elves to break this rule but it usually results in some sort of punishment. Who ever posted this job, clearly old enough to read, write, offer reward and so forth, believes who ever is supposed to make the ascent, wont survive without interference, hence the need to ask for outsider help, and discretion" Oliver explains.
"Why not just fight them off herself discreetly? And besides, doesn't coming into down have the same risk of getting caught, in case someone sees them post the job?"
"Not necessarily" Aria takes over "if this person is a healer as we believe, its not entirely uncommon for healers to frequent more civilized spaces even for elves, in order to help the injured and buy supplies not always found in the forests to help with healing magics. It would be normal for a healer to be in and out of the towns, at least more normal than any other elf"
"Which also means that this healer is a fully fledge one, not an apprentice, or else they would risk their superior seeing them post the quest." Oliver chimes in.
"Well damn, it seems you two got it all figured out then…i say we take it" Gideon nods, as if he wasn't already on board by seeing the words "two dozen", thinking that's a lot, and agreed on that alone.
"Should be pretty quick too, Lancerjackets are simple enough" Aria yawns and stretches.