The whisper stone chiming was what Davin woke up to, the soft vibrating buzz with a soft ring of a bell that was just above a whisper. As soon as his hand grasped the stone the voice rang out in his mind.
"Davin! Good, you're awake" The voice of Hugh was clear as if he was standing right next to him.
"Woah, that’s kind of spooky, it's like you're standing right next to me." Davin subconsciously looked around just to make sure that he wasn't.
"Oh, wow, yeah, I always thought people were exaggerating about the clarity of these things, but that is far beside the point, I've been talking to some of the other adventurers about some of the hazards of the wilds, and I think we need at least one more party member." the excitement clear in his voice.
"Oh, yeah, a frontliner would be nice, and of course a healer, but you’ve got magic pretty well handled, right? I'm planning to be melee with a mixed bag of ranged support, but yeah, at least one more member." Ticking off the list he'd made in his head.
"Huh? Oh, you already know? I thought you were new to all of this?" The confusion was clear in his voice.
"I am, but we had similar ideas in my world, it’s a bit hard to explain, but from what I understand, healers are a bit less common." The disappointment tinting his words.
"Yes, and most get scooped up quickly. I still don't think that should stop us."
"Agreed, I figured we would take our time and be smart about it, It's not like we have a time restraint, so we can go at our own pace." The excitement climbed into his words again.
"We also need to get some gear, I don’t have a tent or anything…. I've been in the tower for far too long." A hint of shame tinging the words as he trailed off.
"I was planning to try and do a few more easy quests for some of the towns folk, see if we can get ourselves some starting capital. We all have to start somewhere." Davin smiled to himself.
"Sounds like a plan! I know I can get some extra work with the alchemists over the next few days, so I'll start working on that. The plans are all set! I'll get started, okay, talk to you later."
The buzz he felt in his hand and the light chime were clear signs that the conversation was over, letting go of the whisper stone and letting it fall back to his chest, Davin finally pulled himself out of bed. Some training and some more intelligence gathering were on his to-do list for the day, he knew that Big Green would be able to help him find a quest or errand that would help him get a little extra coinage. Getting used to the tokens was going to take some time, since every fiber of his being wanted to keep calling it gold, silver, and so on…. Tokens were the generalization for them, and the most common token was an Onyx, which thinking about it, remembered that the tokens 'colors' were all precious gems that he was familiar with. It wasn't as important of a thought compared to everything else he was working on, so he would just push it all to the back burner, shouldn't be any different than it was to learn the coinage of games, especially since these had actual value compared to a video game. He got dressed, and readied all of his supplies for his training, he'd come back for his backpack before heading out to the city. The hall, started with one of the more difficult sets he'd encountered so far, feeling that any missed step would shatter his eardrums again, after the first threshold, it all seemed like it was all build-up and bluster, that is until he tripped….
Davin felt his foot get hooked on something, to say he was unprepared would be an understatement, he was in mid-step when his toes seemingly stopped for no reason, but since he was already in motion, he couldn’t stop himself, he pulled his arms over his ears, anticipating the alarm, that… never came. He lay on the floor breathing heavily as the panic attack that hit him as he was falling slowly faded away. Cursing Gale's name under his breath for the invention of this stupid hallway, and everything in it. Once his breathing calmed down, he looked for what he'd tripped on, feeling around he found, what felt like a block, no bigger than his fist, seemingly glued to the floor and made invisible, right in the middle of the path that he'd been following for days, easy enough to say that he would make an effort to check for things like that from now on, he wondered if he could get some powder or dust for when he needed to check for traps, he needed to get far more familiar with the tools he had at his disposal.
Gale started chuckling the instant he saw Davin, knowing exactly how heavily he would have followed the same path through the hall every day, so setting up a few trip-ups was just part of his job, once anger from the event simmered down Davin had a good laugh of it too, having not noticed that he followed the same path.
"Don't worry, invisible trip hazards aren't common, but I do have to admit, they are effective in the right setting." Gales mirth tinting his words.
"Who has the time to glue down invisible blocks in the middle of the night? I mean really, Who does all of this stuff?" Davin asked.
"Everyone throws in where their skills shine, that one was a group effort though, finding someone that would enchant a block with invisibility was the hardest part, but the money I won off of that whole thing more than made up for it." Chuckling softly.
"Don't you all have better things to do than prank the newbie? I've had enough trouble with that stupid hallway than I ever want to remember…" The groan Davin let out as he remembered some of his first few days in the hall.
"See, that’s the thing, most of us trainers don’t have anything better to do, not unless our patron specifically requests it of us, this is our job, to make sure the ones that come through are ready for everything out there, last thing I want is you getting stuck somewhere that you can't get out of." Gale's voice sounded slightly melancholic with those last words.
"Stuck? What do you mean by stuck?" Worry in his voice.
"Everything outside of the bastion is not under the control of anyone, it's dangerous, I've heard stories of some souls getting trapped out there, and having to break their own form to get out, and let's just say that that will leave some scars that aren’t seen." The shiver that visibly ran down Gale was sobering.
"Oh, I hadn't thought of that, I can only imagine…." Davin drooped, his anger about the hall nearly forgotten.
"Let's pray you only have to imagine it." His normally playful tone turned stern.
Davin couldn’t do anything but nod.
"Well, how's the training going?" His previous somber mood was gone.
"Just have one of my expertise to unlock, takes a bit more…. People interaction, insight is hard to train…." Shrugging.
"Hmm, I may be able to help with that, I can lie to you all day." The smile that passed over Gale's face made Davin nervous.
The next few hours, were strange, to say the least, Davin and Gale hung out in The Hall listening to people chat, every now and then Gale would ask if that was a lie or the truth. Oddly, this whole exercise seemed much more of a Jes kind of a thing, but Gale's skills did involve interacting with people, while Jes was far more focused on things going on. Davin did feel he was learning quite a bit, especially when Gale started mixing in a weird version of two truths and a lie as he was pulling random bar patrons into disastrous conversations, listening to the wild tales that Gale was spinning was a joy in itself, the tall tales were something to behold, especially once he got going. While entertaining, it didn’t feel right to Davin, it all felt too forced, as if it was a bad setup, he didn’t feel like this was going to be how he did it. He felt it was going to be a little more organic…
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Since he was already in The Hall, it was going to be easy enough to see about getting an errand from Big Green, He floated over to the bar proper, waving the big man over.
"What other kinds of quests do you offer?" Davin asked.
"What kind of quests are you looking for? Most of what I have are simple fetch quests."
"Do you have any social quests? Things that are more akin to either talking to anyone or building up reputations with any group or faction?" Davin's apprehension trickled into his voice.
"Social? What in the name of the patrons are you talking about?" Big Green looked over Davin as if he was on something.
"I guess that’s a no… Just Trying to work on my insight, and I just don't think that Gale's way is the best for me…. I should have asked Jes." Davin's dispirited tone in his voice was clear.
"Oh! If that was what you were wanting, you should have said so, heck, I'd suggested you head up towards where the true performers and storytellers live, a lot of people call them bards, but you shouldn't have any trouble finding any of them, they tend to perform near the center of the city each day, a chat with them should do something…" A hint of distaste in his voice.
"Bards? I'll keep that in mind, but was hoping for something a little different…" Thinking about all of the horny bards from every tabletop game ever.
"Ha-ha, that’s the usual response. I'd suggest working with Jes, she's been at this for a while, she knows her stuff."
"You make a good point, was just wanting to pick up some coin while I'm at it too."
"Well heck, why didn't you say so, can't promise skills, but I can get you some coin, I always have stuff that needs doing."
"I figured that wouldn’t be the hard part, but was hoping to multitask while I was at it." Acting slightly abashed about the whole thing.
"always have a run to Edge's Rest, could always send you to the bay… Yeah, the bay, some fish would be good on the menu for a few days. That takes some negotiations, but I think you got a good handle on it." Big Green pulled out a bag. "This should get you two barrels of fish, and anything left over is yours, deal?"
Davin stood there blinking, trying to process the task at hand. "Two barrels of fish and everything else is mine?"
"That’s the short of it, you in?" Big Green smiled wide.
"Hell, I'm in" nodding vigorously.
The bag the Big Green passed over to Davin was nearly full of tokens. Most of them were the smallest of them, so he didn’t
think that they would go all that far, but he didn't doubt he still would have some tokens to show for his efforts. The trip to the bay was a lot longer than the trip to Edges Rest since the ships only seemed to go the one direction out and then just come back the two tracks running side by side around the edge and then out to the furthest edges of the wild. The Bay was a sight to behold, the water's edge pouring into the abyss that lay between the wilds and the bastion itself, thick mists drifted up, creating a dense fog that hung in the air, crashing through the fog as the freighter cruised towards the docks. The smell of salty sea air was one of the first things that hit him, it was nostalgic, bringing back memories from his childhood, trips to the beach, fishing, and the boardwalk, it all left him feeling a little homesick. The long narrow dock that ran from the edge for what looked like miles to the beach, an entire town built on a dock that got wider as it got closer to the beach and had several arms that had ships docked at them, the prime fishing for the day seemingly finished. The few people that got off when the freighter finally stopped were a trickle compared to when people were let off at Edges rest, making his own descent to the docks an easier experience. Fishermen sat along the edge of the dock, nodding or saying hello as Davin walked towards the trunk of this dock town. The somber entrance to the town was a lull compared to the chaos that was the market that seemed to be set at the first widest point on the dock, mongers chanting and hocking their wares, his own thoughts were drowned out by the sheer cacophony that surrounded him.
Davin kept walking, mostly looking as he worked his way deeper into the town that was a giant boardwalk. Houseboats were an unexpected sight, some of the largest anchored further out, but close enough that he was sure a scream for help would be heard, the first non-stall structure stood out, placed upon what seemed to be a large rock sticking up from the sea, steps carved into the stone, leading up to a large open patio, to where is you were looking down from there, Davin was sure you'd be able to see the entire bay, as both the tallest and most structurally sound, this seemed liked a good place to start his introductions. Making his way up the steps was still surprising for him, even though he's done things like it multiple times, the memories of being winded from things like this were still fairly fresh in his mind.
"Welcome! Don't get many visitors from the outside that come all the way up here, what can I do for you?" What seemed to be an aged voice broke the silence as he crested the top of the stairs.
The voice catching Davin off guard made him yelp sightly, but he tried to not make it as noticeable, he was not successful. "Yah! Oh, sorry… was seeing… what was… up here." His breathing was heavy more from the surprise than the climb, but his pants broke up his words.
"Hehehe, Sorry bout that, I wasn't expecting company." The sunbaked man sat in his rocking chair, seat sat in such a way that he stared right over the market and the bay.
"Sorry to intrude, I was hoping to introduce myself to some of the locals, and this was one of the first places I'd come across that didn’t seem to be just tossed up, or a boat." Waving his hand towards the market below.
"Well, I'm as local as it gets! Heh, I think I'm even the first, I'm sure I built most of it." The man stood up, his chair hiding his true height, when the small man walked over holding out his hand to Davin. "You can call me Warf Rat, and I officially welcome you to Long Dock.