"How do we do this all together?" Davin asked, feeling as though the question was on everyone's mind, as they stood in the small room that Big Green had dedicated to Compass.
"I second that question." Hugh raised his hand as he looked at the would-be 'guild master'
"I also have concerns." Cadence agreed.
"Give me a minute, I haven't had much of a need to do a group ritual in a bit. Would you all sit down? Let me get things set." Lighting incense and lighting a few candles. "Let the incense burn down about halfway, then you call him out to speak, have to specifically say that you beseech his audience, but don’t start till I close the door, there needs to be enough of this stuff in the air." He pointed at the trail of smoke that drifted up from the pile of ground herbs.
The three looked nervous, talking directly to a patron was an intimidating prospect. Big Green smiled widely as he backed out of the room, closing the door behind himself.
Davin shrugged, and dropped to his knees, sitting that way for a moment before he opted to shift and cross his legs. "Might want to get comfortable, I don't think we want to be standing when this kicks off.
Cadence and Hugh followed suit, getting as comfortable as they could with the limited accommodations. The rich heady scent filled the air, a mixture of campfires, sweat, and what Davin could only think to call the open road, they all looked at one another and nodded.
"OH! Compass, we beseech thee, please see fit to grant us an audience."
Davin felt strange as he finished the request, his mind was beginning to swim, he repeated himself, Cadence and Hugh joining in time with him.
"OH! Compass, we beseech thee, please see fit to grant us an audience."
Only another moment passed before the familiar black began to swim into his mind.
"I see you all made it! Good, means that I only have to do this once." Compasses voice rang out in the white space that Davin had grown to know.
"I really wish that you'd add in some scenery here, the white is a bit too austere," Davin stated as he tried to stretch the limbs that he didn’t have here.
"You cannot talk that way to a patron." Cadence's voice chastised him.
A scoff rang out quickly followed by the voice of Hugh. "I doubt we could stop him."
"Haha, yes, now that there is more than just the two of us I suspect that a better setting is required."
With that, the once open and empty space warped, dropping them into a simple room, a small round table sat in the middle of it, with four large comfortable chairs sitting just pulled out from the table. The blinding white of the room dimmed to a low glow, no brighter than a fireplace flicker. The most non-descript humanoid that Davin could imagine sat at the head of the table, sipping from a steaming cup.
"How is this? Should make things a little easier on the mind."
"You could do this the whole time?" Davin's voice rang heavy with annoyance.
The forms of Cadence and Hugh stood next to Davin, their mouths open, jaws dropped to their limits.
"You should not talk to the patrons in such a way," Cadence stated, just above a whisper to where if it was the real world Davin and Hugh would have been the only ones that would have been able to hear them.
"Do not worry, I have put Davin through enough that he gets a pass, his world didn’t have the same restraints that the ones that you two came from, I do not intend to enforce on him some arbitrary system that he was not a part of, and to that, I do not expect either of you to go to such lengths either. We are just friends, or in a way I am your employer at worst." the form of Compass seemed to not settle on a single form, as if it was shifting through all available options during character creation, the only lingering notes were that he was humanoid and male. "Please sit, let us chat."
Davin was the first to sit, a tray of what seemed to be cookies appeared in the open table space in front of him, along with a steaming cup of something that smelled chocolate. Hugh and Cadence followed in his wake, taking seats that flanked either side of Davin. Compass picked up one of the cookies that was sitting in front of him, munching it softly as he smiled over his charges.
"These cookies are amazing, the ones with raisins in them I think are my favorite." The tone that Compass used was disarming.
Davin just stared. "You come to my dreams regularly, and we could have been chatting like this the whole time?" Davin picked up a cookie and took a bite, the sweetness filling his mouth.
"No? Well I could when you were binding your gloves and log book, I just hadn't thought of it as an option." The form shrugged and sipped deeply from his mug.
"Out of sight out of mind, fair enough, wasn't a need till we had more than just the two of here." Davin also shrugged.
"And now, why I asked that you all be here? Rewards!" Holding out his arms in a grand gesture.
Davin set down his cookie, leaned in resting his elbows on the table.
Cadence raised their hand. "How can you grant us boons? I know that my patron can grant me boons, but how would you?" Hugh nodded in agreement.
"I have already discussed this with your patrons, I have been granted permission to grant you all such boons, and if your party expands, I will seek the same of them."
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"Handy," Hugh said mimicking Davin as best he could.
"Yes, I have to agree. Although I am limited in what I can offer you, I do feel that it will be helpful. A simple spell that you all can use, it will grant you a shared pocket space that won't be giant, but it will help with your luggage problems."
"Like a bag of holding?" Davin asked.
"Similar to that, but each of you can only have the spell on one item at a time, and the shared space is not unlimited."
"How big would it be?" Hugh asked through a mouthful of cookie.
"Around the size of a travel trunk, and it will expand as you increase in strength."
"Increase in strength?" Cadence asked
"As you gain power in your classes, and if you add more members to your team, I can offer more space."
"Sweet!" Davin almost yelled it as he squirmed in his seat.
"Yes, and I will be granting you all some experience too." Everyone at the table brightened at that.
"Even those that are not your proteges?" Cadence asked.
"Yes. You should even have it now, you won't have access to look here, but as soon as you get back out, you should see it. Now to our next set of business. You all have the next week off, but after that, I do have another mission for you, I'll fill you in on the remaining details as we get closer, but for now, enjoy your time off." Compass smiled and sipped from his mug.
Davin shrugged, picking up his half-eaten cookie and what he could only assume was hot chocolate, and took a long sip. As he was enjoying the drink the familiar brightness that had ended all of his conversations with Compass filled the shared space. Davin found himself back in the small room that they had started in.
Davin let out a groan, hands empty of the sweet treats. "You think he would at least let me finish eating…"
Cadence was staring at Davin, "Cookies come from your world? Can you make them?"
The innocent question threw Davin off slightly, his mind rolling over every kind of cookie that he knew how to make. "Yes? Did you want some?"
Cadence's eyes went wide, "Like the ones that we just had?" A wide smile grew on their face. "Can I have some?"
"Me too?" Hugh asked as he raised his hand.
"Yeah, I can make some for the road if you want, some of the parts are a little scarce here, so it may be limited in what we have."
Hugh and Cadence looked back and forth between one another and Davin, to which the two answered in tandem. "Yes!"
Davin chuckled, "Just so you know, you will have to share with Jes and I think she has a sweet tooth.
"That is fine, I mostly want to try more of them, the tease in the dream was not enough." Cadence smiled and nodded.
The cookies drifting from his mind, he thought about the rewards that Cadence had stated were part of a patrons, he immediately popped open his status to see how much XP that he got from finishing the 'quests'.
Davin O'wild
Human Rogue (1)
Ranger (1)
Level pending (1)
Patron: Compass
AC: 15
HP: 18/18
Experience
1235/900
Condition: normal
Unarmored AC: 13
Temporary HP: 6
Currently: Unarmored
Bonus: well rested
"Level pending?" Davin asked aloud.
"Pending? I bet it's from your 'multiclass', and you likely will need to do whatever it was that you did the last time you switched levels." Hugh said as he began to pull himself up from the floor.
"Makes sense, so in my sleep? With Compass?" Davin looked over at Hugh mildly annoyed as he stood in one smooth motion.
"If that is want it took, yeah." Hugh shrugged in Davin's classic motion.
"Not like he doesn’t talk with me basically every night while I'm in town, so not really surprising." Davin let out a sigh.
"Every night?" Cadence asked with a touch of jealousy.
"Eh, just about?" Davin thought. "I think my first week was the lightest amount of visits, but as time went by he learned more about me and my world the curiosity climbed."
"Your world is that strange?" Cadence asked.
"I think by comparison, most of what I've seen here is only things that exist in fantasy, while my world didn’t have any of it…"
Cadence shook their head. "Even if I never ventured far into my world, I still knew enough that when I came here, there were very few surprises…" Cadence's eyes went slightly wider, as it all settled on them. "How are you not panicking constantly?" Concern was painted over their face.
Davin shrugged, "I'm doing okay, weirdly this has all been a dream for me…. Wait, that does make me sound a bit crazy doesn’t it?"
"Eh, I just accept you as you are you crazy human," Hugh stated before smiling wide.
"What does me being a human have to do with it? Why can't I just be crazy?"
"We do not have many points of reference for humans, what is to say you are not all like this?" Cadence stated as they looked dubiously at Davin.
"You know that is a good point…" Letting out a low chuckle.
The trio made their way back into the bar in The Hall, it having picked up in business over their time talking with Compass. Nodding in agreement, they parted ways, having their own tasks to complete over the next few days. Davin headed over to the bar, Big Green was serving several beers to patrons.
"How long were we out?" Davin asked as he was handed a large glass of amber liquid.
"Hmm? About an hour, I know that those meetings can be a bit weird, time can be a little… off." Smiling as he held up a drink of his own. "Went well I suppose?"
"Well enough, Have a week off, but after that, back on the road, and my team wants cookies, so I have a bunch of shopping and baking to do, can I borrow your kitchen?" Davin asked, drinking deeply of his beer.
"Sure, Jes wouldn’t let you leave with any if they were made at her place." He chuckled.
"I'll need to make some for her too…" Davin sighed, thinking about all of the things that he would need to bake.
"If you have time, you could teach someone to make them? I'll give you a cut of any that we sell." Big Green offered with a wide smile on his face.
"Teach? Hell, that is brilliant." Davin's excitement jumped at the prospect. Davin pulled out a pad of paper that he'd taken to carrying and a charcoal pencil and began jotting notes to himself. "I'll need to get out to Ezeirk's to see about some things…."
Davin shoved his notes back into his pocket, downed the rest of his beer, and tossed a black token onto the counter. Waving at his friend and headed out to do some shopping.
Hugh on the other hand had made use of the new spell at his disposal, packing away the much more compact set of measuring tools, leaving their travel trunk almost empty.
"That should help." Packing away an extra-large sitting cushion into the trunk. "Especially with those long nights on the road, rubbing at a phantom pain at his back, and should leave a lot more room for Cadence." Looking up from the trunk, "Hey Leaf!" Hugh called out to his book, "Can I bring a few novels to read?" The book flapped in its affirmative, as the book lounged on its silken pillow.
Cadence felt awkward in the bard's halls, they hadn't been back into the bastion in what felt like a long time, so this was not the most favorable of situations. Since Cadence had never felt at home in this place, there were far too many people… and the singing… the endless… singing….
"Your sword has been cleaned, sharpened, and is ready for another stint into the wilds." The smith held up the blade to Cadence.
Cadence nodded, dropping a few tokens onto the counter. "Thank you, I appreciate that."
As Cadence walked bake to the room that they had been sleeping in while they were staying in the bastion. The handful of handwritten notes clenched tightly in their grasp. "Why me?" Grumbling to themselves.