"Nice level up! ...We should probably be getting outta here, right?" Maya gave the others a slightly shaken grin, waving her arm towards the general direction of the dragon.
"GAH!!!" Daigo couldn't help but to flinch when the wolf tore his left arm open. He really had to choose between continuing the assault or retreating and trying to do something about the bleeding arm. But then the archer girl's yell threw him into a panic to the point of scampering behind a nearby tree. As soon as the passerby dragon (?) had gone, the bangaa lizardman sheathed his twin blades with his right hand alone. "Man, if only I could do something about this..." Daigo lamented out loud about his bleeding left arm. To be fair though, he didn't see Maya's healing spell in the heat of the battle earlier.
@LassusVulpes @ChocoChicken A moment later, Daigo noticed the archer girl's level-up... stuff. Like in the RPGs, yeah, he couldn't help but to cringe at both it and his bleeding pain. (Also doubles as a bump because Daigo needs help.)
(Not sure if this'd work, since I don't know if spells work outside of battle - Lassus talked about some separate stuff in the past and I asked, but I suppose it's worth a shot. Also not sure if she has enough energy to cast this at the moment, she's used 61 energy so far if it helps-) Finally seeing the bleeding on Daigo's arm, Maya snapped to attention. "Oh! Uh... gimme a moment... actually, could you bend down for a moment?" Being about three feet tall now made for some difficulting in reaching his arm.
"Eh, sure," Daigo did as Maya had instructed. Being a dwarf, it would've been hard for her to treat his arm without him kneeling down anyway.
"All right, here goes nothing." Maya took a deep breath, placing a hand just above the cut and focusing her energy. Please work, please work...
(sorry for delay, been busy ending the school quarter, Yes Choco, spells can be cast out of combat. We each have 100 energy , You'd not be able to cast it, but if you had some food , you'd be able to regenerate Energy at a faster pace, but no worries I got a solution for this ) Spoiler: Music Angela stretched and Iva looked the dulled dagger, as the reptile and the dwarf talked. As Angela stretched she listened in on their conversation. She sighed as Maya tried to use heal on Daigo , even when her stamina was low. "It won't work, best you'll get is a sputter of energy." She reached into her backpack and threw a slice of bread at Maya . "Eat that, it'll help you get back on your feet. And for you , Coldskin. Since you did help us out there. I suppose this is what I can do for you." Reaching into her backpack, she pulls out gauze and a primitive tape. Wrapping the Gauze around the wound, then lacing it over with the tape. "That'll slow it down, but when we get to the first town, you'll have to buy some health potions if you're gonna take hits like that. Just know, health potions will not stop bleeding , that's what these are for. Now we should get goin before it gets far too late." Angela rambled on. Iva stopped staring at her Dagger and started to continue the walk on where they were going. "Then lets pick up the pace." She rose her finger to point at the setting sun. "How far off is the nearest town ?" "Only a bit away, we'll hit it very soon. I guess since we're gonna be in an outpost, not a town. We're gonna want to do some shopping. And since none of you know how currency works, I'll tell you how it works. When you kill enemies, they drop Gold, Exp, and Items. Gold is used for upgrading your equipment, while we barter the items we get . Imma give an example, I got a bundle of gauze for giving a handful of wolf pelt. If you wish to buy items, you gotta give them the required resources to make it, and also some gold." She places her bow over her shoulders and walks side by side with Iva. "Just know, once we get to where I'm taking you. I will no longer be able to travel along side you, as I have my own destiny. But I of course will not be leaving you to rot." (We'll arrive at the outpost in around 2 turns)
"Aw. Well, I hope we run into you again, Angela!" Maya responded. "And thanks heaps for the help." With that, she stuffed the bread in her mouth as she walked onwards, feeling her energy return. Note to self, use spells... not as much.
...Coldskin??? Daigo's new nickname (?) sounded a bit weird to him. Maybe because he's still getting used to his new body for now. But still, not that the lizard guy could really complain about it (or anything else in this world, for that matter). Miss Archer here did guide the newcomers and helped them all out, after all. As the group walked, Daigo simply listened to more of the archer girl's, uh, tutorial. Since she had mentioned shopping, he figured that some potions should be handy in case Maya's spells were a no-go like this... right? (I'm not sure if Daigo heard Iva and/or Angela introducing themselves beforehand...)
Angela smiles at Maya " I mean, i'm not departing now. It'll be a few days before we get to the town.. . well at this pace at least. Hopefully at the outpost , we can find a ground-dragon." She shuffles in her pocket and pulls out a silver token. "This is how you'd typically buy one. It's as simple and placing one on a registered dragon booth, and it'll form as many as you want, but this one only lasts one hour." She places it back in her pocket. "What is a ground-dragon?" Iva asked. Angela breathed in . "I forgot you guys really know nothing of these areas. . . A ground dragon is our typical way of transport, they're much faster then what I believe you called horses. Along with that, they have razor sharp claws allowing them to defend themselves. They do not have wings, which is what differs them from normal Dragons." Iva nodded and looked forward in the path, the sun was falling past the mountains , the beams of light dance around on the path as a stone wall forms over the horizon, long black flags with a white cross in the middle fly in the sky. "Welcome. To your first outpost. This one is named Jawohl , it has a strong defense, hence the walls. But it's welcoming to have great walls. " (edit) Angela looked at the three "Are you guys ready to walk in?" Iva nodded and Anglea looks at Daigo and Maya.
Maya gazed in awe at the huge barriers that stood before them - her little hometown had never had anything as tall as those! Although it probably helped she was shorter than usual. After her moment of staring at the outpost in front of her, she turned to the others. "So... we should probably head in, yeah? Night's coming. Probably more wolves, too." Or something worse like the dragon, but it was best not to bring that up.
As for Daigo, he simply nodded at both Angela and Maya with his hands in his trousers' pockets. And then he wordlessly entered the outpost.
As the group ventured forward to the towering walls, "Halt!" A deep voice calls from behind. Iva turns to see a tall person coated in metal armour walking towards them . "Is there something wrong?" Angela askes. "There's been a recent sighting of a dragon nearby, Jawohl is right now not accepting anyone of the reptilian race, under suspicion of a beast tamer." The guard stood in front of the group with a tall posture , a shiny Halberd in their left hand with a red cloth hanging off the socket. Angela bowed and spoke, "Sir, there's bound to be a misunderstanding. This reptile was with us earlier while we fought a pack of wolves. They have no knowledge of these lands, and had the dice roll poorly for them. Please, we'll leave come the break of the dawn." The guards grip tightened on their Halberd, "Very well, I'll be watching so don't act up." The guard walks towards the gate, and gives a thumbs up. With a short break the gates creak open, revealing a large plaza with markets scattered about, large buildings made of stone bricks and oak. Stone pathing, all illuminated by the setting sun, and lanterns hanging off chain. Spoiler: Map |||||||||||****|||||||||||||||||||||| ||S||||||||||||||||||||||||||Z|||||| ||M|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||W|||||$||||||||||||||||||||||||||| * Iva - $ Bank * Angela - S Smithy * Maya - M Market * Daigo - W Woodsmith Z Inn Iva looked around the small outpost and questioned why it was called an outpost, and not a Village. "Alright, where to first?" Angela calls out to the group.
@LassusVulpes @ChocoChicken Welp, seems like Daigo was in for a bad time. The outpost guard had outright stated that reptilians weren't allowed here due to the possibility of them being beast tamers. But as Angela said, Daigo practically had no prior knowledge of this world, let alone how to control a beast. He gave his thanks to the guard as the group passed through the gate. And now that they're here, Daigo could hear Iva wondering about why this was not a village. "Maybe because a village is bigger than this?" he mused with hands behind his head. His eyes then darted at that one market between the smithy and the woodsmith. "Maybe the market first? Y'know, stocking up and all," the lizardman suggested to answer Angela's question.
Maya added a nod of her head, mentally thanking Angela for sticking up for Daigo. At least they had one more person vouching for him. "Yeah, the market sounds pretty good. ...Wait, do we... even have any currency on us, Daigo?" She checked everything she was carrying in a bit of a rush.
@LassusVulpes @ChocoChicken "Eh. Shopping here is basically bartering, right?" Daigo mused before checking out his GABN at the inventory menu. "So we have 18 wolf pelts, 7 fangs, and 2 vials of blood," he dictated. "Wonder if that's enough..."
"I think the best we'll get with these, is some basics like string, a dagger or two, and a loose bow and arrow if you pile your resources together, but I'm feeling generous so I'll lend you some of my items." Angela opened a bag and pulled out around 42 fangs and 18 vials of blood. "I'd recommend the smithy for anything weapon based, but the market sometimes has some cheap weapons. never know what they'll bring." Spoiler: Markets As said before, Markets run on bartering, and their barters are not determined by a specific number. Instead, we'll of course . .. roll the dice. a roll of 1/100 , if it lands, they take the deal. for each item picked it's rolled a dice. so with our current loot we have 94 pulls *42 fangs +18 blood + 18 pelt +7 fangs + 2 blood + 5 dingo fur + 2 bones for the math* This is the general trade of 1/100, HOWEVER sale items are a 1/50 roll . Mass sales also exist, for when a product doesn't get bought often. This lowers to a 1/25 roll. which later in, is effectively free. One for one , Give one item , for an item . most common in inns for ale. The way to increase your odds, is Charisma and reputation. Each player starts with 1 charisma *5 if bard, but cannot gain charisma by general means*, to gain more charisma you need to do basic deeds, have conversations with townsfolk and make them agree with you, however some races / classes have negative reputation, which means shops will refuse deals. Luckily the clerks here don't give two shits because we got good loot. meaning yes, Daigo can trade here. Reputation also makes conversations harder / easier. meaning if you get a gear rolling you can go pretty fast of earning a reputation, be it good or bad. *oh and leveling gives reputation, forgot that* Current reputations Maya : 0 Iva: 0 Daigo: -5 *reduced due to race* Angela: 15 Reputation can be raised by helping around the town, say fix a plumbing issue, kill a eldritch horror near their gates, get a cat out of a tree, slay god. many things. Quest boards in the Inn will help with that. "Well, imma go to the inn for a bit, you guys have fun trading" Angela waves as she walks. Angela waves back and looks through the markets. Spoiler: Market Fruit basket (5)*sale!* Dagger (2)*sale!* Nails (28)*sale!* Bucket (1) MRE (20) *mass sale!* wooden bow (1) Spoiler: Smithy Bring me items, and I'll see what I can make for you, only need some gold for it, along with somethin special *Bring him some recoures, say fangs, pelt, and sticks and he'll make makeshift hunters arrows, but he'll want around 50 g, and some nails in this case. higher level forges, and upgrades require more recourses, and a higher rarity item for the special* Unlike using an anvil and smithing everything on your own, smithing gives a 100% chance of getting a status effect , these can be special benefits say , inflict bleed easier, soundproof, Resilient . But when forging on your own, unless you get your smithing high enough, this is unable to happen . Spoiler: Bank Store some Gold with us! We'll keep it safe for your next death! Spoiler: Inn Beer *one for one* Ale *one for one* Water *FREE* Quest board Lost child - 5000g - will give anything Dragon of the north - 10000000g - will give a sword of the cosmos *scratched out* Lost dog - 100g - will give 26 nails
Checking the sales at the market, Maya made note of anything that looked decent. Everything except the bucket seemed to be on sale, but in particular the bow, MREs and dagger seemed particularly valuable. "What do you guys think of those?" she asked, gesturing to the items in question.
ACT TWO Wolves Howl Tik, Tik, Tik, Tik, clack. the sound of wolves paws striking the cold dirt echo through the forest. A wolf's instinct to hunt in pacts saves them from not only predators, but from other animals eating on what they slay. A pack of twelve wolf walk through the forests , the leader stops in its tracks, and the rest follow. It sniffs around and growls. "The scouting squads were killed . Warned them to not attack during the day, and yet they never learn." The leader mutters. The rest of the pack lowers their head. "Their scent however, remains . . ." The leader sniffs into the air... "North" The leader darts off towards the north, and the pack pursuits. Iva scours the market , before realizing there wasn't much for her. She went to the smithy to see a man kicked back in a chair, snoring away. "Uhm , excuse me." Iva taps the table . The dwarf coughs and makes a shrugh sound. "What do you want kid? I was having a great dream about something to bare to be said here, better be worth my while." "Uhm, I was hoping to be able to forge a bow?" Iva made a forced smile at the rudeness of the man. "Show me what ya got." the dwarf grumbles. Iva lays out some branches she grabbed off the ground while walking around, a handful of twine she found in a crate, and some wolf pelt. "This at best will get you a low quality bow, it will have the strength of a seven year old with inverted bones . Unless you give me some flavoring." Iva paused and thought for a bit, before snapping . "I'll be right back!" Iva kicked off the ground and ran towards... The bar. Spoiler: Music She ran to the counter, sliding to a stop. "Uhm, is everything alright darling?" A barmaid walked over with a platter flat to her stomach. "I need some ale, not for me. how much is it?" Iva was out of breath so she talked in a race. "First ale is on the house, after that it's 5 g, and an item." The barmaid smiled. "That's perfectly fine." Iva caught her breath. "How much for one bottle of it?" she rummaged through her pocket and threw 6 dingo fur and 40 gold, to the counter. "Will that do?" The barmaid counted the coins and nodded. She grabbed a bottle off the top shelf and handed it to Iva. Iva smiled and ran back off waving at Angela as she passed. "That girl has too much energy . . " Angela muttered. As she placed her GABN drone on the table The GABN forms three monitors , and a keyboard. Angela tacks away on the keyboard. Replying to messages, and checking the stats of certain items, with description lines that it filled the screen. Bding ???: "Hey, got some newbies here. seem to be . .. chaotic. You got time to deal with them? I saw you were around." Angela: "I got a few on me, but what's the worst that could happen? I'm at the bar, bring them over." ??? : "ok" Iva closes her monitors and watches as a man stands up from a bar stool with three others, Angela looks at them, "Greetings. I am Angela, what can I do for you?" "WE LEGIT, JUST SPOKE. IS YOUR BRAIN A CAN OF REFRIED BEANS LADY??" The man yells. The man was a tall and slim , skin to bone male whose face made a shape of that of "the scream" , a black cloak draped over his shoulders, and a large mechanical scythe with a large eye that seemed to drip an ominous liquid , "Sorry Grimm. hard to tell that's you when you're not in your soul form." "Anywho! These are the three people I was talking to you about." Grimm waves his hand to the three new deviants +~+ @Jupjami @Captain Comet @BZRich64 , raise hell. +~+ Iva walks back to the smithy, and places the bottle of ale on the table. The dwarf looks at it, and cups all the materials pushing it onto a desk, and places the bottle on a rack. "It'll be ready come dawn." The dwarf grunts
Tam studied the what looked like burn victim sitting next to them, talking to themself. "Gray appearance, severe burns, deformations in the skin..." They grabbed the man's arms and looked closely, sniffing his hand. "Smells like ash, but not a corpse. Fascinating. Whoever reanimated you must be incredibly skilled to make you resemble a living creature so well." Someone came and introduced herself as Angela. Grimm stood up, apparently annoyed for some reason, and motioned to Tam, the man they were studying, and the large orc playing a lute across the table. Tam dropped the mans arm and looked at Angela. She looked like an adventurer. "Hi there. How many things have you killed in the last few hours?"
