“What’s the plan for today?” Stella asked Markus as he logged into Astrana. “Questing? Clan formation? Shopping?”
“I have some stuff I have to talk with Luna about,” Markus told her. “She’s finally gotten back to me with her own interviews of the others I want to join the Party and the Clan and her own choices for the Clan.”
“And then Sir Markus has meetings with Sir Nargen and High Priest Chesterfield,” Rankins reminded them both as he finally spoke up. “I believe that after that, Instructor Rook and Instructor Janks wanted to meet with you. Additionally, Mister Stabler has said that your Kalexia’s saddle and riding tack has been completed, you’ll need to go by his shop and pick that up.”
“Sounds like you’ve got a full day,” Stella said. “Shoot me a message when you’ve got some free time and want to hang out, maybe do a Job of something.”
“See you, Stella,” Markus called after the Halfling woman as she moved away from him and Rankins. As they watched the small woman turn the corner, Markus turned to Rankins and spoke again. “Let me send a message to Luna and I’ll be ready to go to see Sir Nargen and Chess.”
“No need,” Rankins said. “Miss Luna will be at the meeting with the two of them. After you introduced her as your assistant in all matters pertaining to your Clan and other Last Stars, High Priest Chesterfield enlisted her help in making this matter a reality. I dare say she has a better grasp of the minutiae of this whole thing than you do, Sir. No disrespect intended, of course.”
“It’s fine,” Markus waved the other man’s potentially rude words away as he started toward the High Priest’s office. “Let’s just get these meetings over with. Did I ever tell you that I hate meetings?”
“You have, Sir,” Rankins said with a nod. “Several times in the past ten days alone.”
“Sir Markus,” Chesterfield greeted Markus as Rankins led the way into the Halfling man’s office. “So good to see you today.”
“You too Chess,” Markus said, returning the shorter man’s grin. “Sir Nargen, great to see you as well.”
“Always a pleasure, Sir Markus,” Nargen said with a nod. “Miss Luna was just talking with me about making use of some of my trainers for your new Party members.”
“On behalf of them, thank you for at least considering it,” Markus said. “I’m sure they’ll all need it.”
“Not just them,” Luna, the name Lana had settled on for her own Moon Elf avatar, said. “I have several things that I wanted to talk with you about, some of them your potential Party members, others pertaining to the Clan and state.”
“Let’s get through what Chess wants to talk about and then we’ll focus on that,” Markus told her. “Speaking of that, what’s on the docket today, Chess?”
“A simple update of material gatherings,” Chesterfield told him as he settled himself behind his desk. “We’ve managed to rent out, if not buy, several warehouses in the city and even a few in villages and towns closer to the Ubarion Peninsula.”
“That’s great to hear,” Markus said happily. “Have you spoken with the Alchemist’s Guild and had them begin making potions and such?”
“Of course we have,” Luna said as she held out a folder toward Markus. “This is the lists of warehouses and their locations as well as the lists of what resources are held where.”
“The projected timeline to begin moving toward the Peninsula is in seven days,” Chess said. “We’re preparing wagons and carts, as well as guards, for the initial first trip. We believe that it will take no less than two weeks of travel on the road to arrive at the Peninsula. Plenty of time for our cartographer to finish searching for a suitable location for us to begin our construction efforts. We would like you to lead this caravan to the Peninsula.”
“After we’ve arrived at the Peninsula, the second caravan will set out,” Nargen spoke up. “This caravan will have more construction materials and the majority of your crafters and teachers. By the time they arrive at the Peninsula, we hope to have the walls for our fort constructed and ready for enchantment. I will lead this caravan and take over your duties in constructing the fort.”
“Just after they arrive at the Peninsula, you’ll return to Hero’s Crypt and we will make our formal announcement to the other Last Stars,” Luna said. “Once the announcement is made, Clan Starwalk will officially form and we will announce recruiting for lower level members.”
“Lower level members?” Markus asked, curiosity rearing its head.
“We’ll discuss that later,” Luna told him. “Anyway, after the Clan is formed, you will be expected to lead the new members and the other Last Stars on the larger trip to the Peninsula. You’re going to be the face of this to them, it’s only right that you lead the way. Any questions?”
“What are we calling the fort that we’re building?” Markus asked. “I’m getting tired of hearing and calling it ‘the Peninsula.’”
“It was decided to go with a simple name for this,” Nargen said. “It’s on the Ubarion Peninsula, it’s guarding the Peninsula from undead threats, it’s the Ubarion Fortress.”
“It has also been decided by the greater Gray Pantheon that the Gray Churches will retain ownership of the fortress and build it up into a fortress city,” Chess said. “Grindel was pleased by your efforts to aid His church and he has already ordered several rewards for you to be made available. One of those rewards was access to trainers for use by your Clan for a period of six months.”
“I’ve already discussed which ones we’d like to make use of with Sir Nargen,” Luna said.
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“Oh, thanks,” Markus said. “Both of you.”
“It is Grindel’s will and Sir Nargen and I are nothing if not his servants,” Chess said.
“If that’s all, I do have other matters to attend to, Chess,” Nargen said.
“I believe that we are done,” Chess said with a nod. “Thank you for joining us, Sir Nargen.”
“Miss Luna,” Nargen said with a slight bow toward her before offering a nod to Chess and clapping Markus on the shoulder as he left the room.
“Now,” Chess said, “I believe that Miss Luna mentioned that you were going to have a meeting with her after our meeting, and she has asked to use my office. I of course have no issues with this. Please take your time and be comfortable. If you’ll all excuse me, I have Church matters to attend to.”
“Thank you again, Chesterfield,” Luna said with a radiant smile. “We both appreciate your kindness and help with all of this.”
“It’s no trouble for me at all Miss Luna,” the Halfling said with a grin as his ears reddened slightly. “If you’ll excuse me.”
Before anyone could say anything else to him, Chesterfield exited the room and left Luna, Markus, and the largely silent Rankins in his office.
“Squire Rankins,” Luna said kindly. “Would you please leave the room? Several of the matters that Sir Markus and I will be discussing are of a sensitive nature to us. Some privacy while we talk about them would be appreciated.”
“Of course, Miss Luna,” Rankins said with a nod. “Please excuse me.”
Once Rankins had left the room, Luna turned to Markus and held another file out for him.
“This is Trevor Wallens, aka Yogi,” she said. “You marked him as one of your choices for your Party and a paid member of the Clan.”
“That’s right,” Markus said, opening the file and seeing notes, painstakingly written by hand, clearly copied over from the real world by Luna’s memory.
“I don’t think that Mr. Wallens is a good choice for your Party,” Luna said. “He shows promise as a member of the Clan, one in charge of his own Party. Additionally, his friendly nature would make him an excellent mediator in any disputes that might occur between Clan-members.”
“You took his ‘nature’ into account?” Markus asked Luna with an odd look as he tried not to squirm in discomfort as the idea of her doing that to him occurred to him.
“You asked me to help make both aspects of Starwalk a reality,” Luna told him. “One of the ways I can do that is to be objective when I interview potential employees, no matter what capacity their employment takes.”
“Just sounds weird,” Markus said.
“That aside,” Luna said, ignoring Markus’ discomfort as she passed him another folder, “I selected a group of your ‘hopefuls’ and ‘maybes’ that would fill Mr Wallens’ role in your Party. My top recommendation is Alicia Janis, aka Ally. Unlike Mr Wallens, Miss Janis has made her chosen weapon one that will work excellently with your chosen shield. She plans to use a halberd, specifically one that is longer than the average to extend to a full six-and-a-half feet. The spearhead, coupled with the hammerhead and the hook, will allow you to more easily protect her in a fight with larger monsters, while also giving her a much better range of damage to bear against smaller, more varied opponents.”
“Okay,” Markus nodded. “I can get behind this.”
“Great,” Luna smiled. “The next choice I made was that I’m in agreement with you about Stella Cane joining your Party as your Rogue. Stella has the best portfolio and training for the position compared to your other choices. That said, I’ve spoken with her about potentially training other members of the Clan to act as Rogues as well.”
“She didn’t mention anything about that to me,” Markus said with a frown.
“It was something that I asked her not to discuss with you until I did,” Luna told him. “I wanted to be the one to tell you that I’d spoken with her about that.”
“Okay,” Markus said. “What did she say?”
“She’s open to the idea,” Luna said vaguely. “The next Party member I looked into was your Healer. You had a total of five potential Healers that applied for your Party and none of them stood out to you as a good fit. If you don’t like my choice, then I really don’t know what to do about this.”
“Who is it?” Markus asked.
“Eric Vaughn, aka Ric,” Luna said as she passed Markus another folder for him to page through as they talked. “Unlike your other Healer hopefuls, Mr. Vaughn was the only one that I interviewed that said that he was not looking toward changing from his declared position of Healer. Additionally, Mr. Vaughn also plans to look into support spells that would be useful whether in your Party or the Clan.”
“I remember Ric,” Markus said as he looked through Luna’s meticulous notes. “He was pretty serious and seemed like he’d be a stick in the mud. Are you sure that he’ll fit in with the rest of us?”
“I would go so far as to say that his seriousness will be very helpful to you,” Luna said. “Mr. Vaughn also displayed an observation sense that would be very useful in scouting and planning attacks and defenses. Without them, which of your Party members would be best for that thus far?”
“I’ll give him a try,” Markus said. “Thanks for looking into this for me Luna.”
“It’s my job,” Luna said. “So far, we’ve covered your catch-all Rogue, your Healer, your Damage Dealer, and there’s you filling the role of Tank. That leaves two more for a full Party line-up.”
“And I noted that I was thinking of a Mage type for AoE attacks and an Archer or Hunter for scouting,” Markus told her. “What did you find?”
“Your Scout,” Luna said as she passed another folder to Markus. “Brandon Hart, aka Brand. In your interview with him, he said that he was leaning toward a Ranger class, which would give him a pet for scouting and protection, a bow for long range attacks, and a melee weapon. I think that he’ll fit in nicely with your Party.”
“Looks good,” Markus agreed as he read through the notes Luna had made. “I’m not seeing a reason to say no to any of these suggestions.”
“That leaves you with the Mage choice,” Luna said, handing another folder to Markus. “There were only two potential Mages that I saw in your interviews and choices that looked like they would work for you and one of them already said she would be a part of a duo deal so that left her out.”
“Alara and her sister Alana,” Markus nodded. “They would work, you’re right, but I don’t want them in my Party.”
“I agree, which is why I would recommend them for Mr. Wallen’s Party.” Luna said. “Your other choice was Grant Abraham, aka Grand-lich. He said that he would specialize in Elemental Death Magic. With such a large potential for damage, he would make a good choice for your Party.”
“However,” Luna said before Markus could speak. “I can’t recommend him the way I could any of the others just for his abrasive personality.”
“That’s one way to put it,” Markus agreed with a nod. “The guy told me in our interview that he wouldn’t ‘play second fiddle to just anybody.’ That and a few other things told me he was a grade-A asshole.”
“He is,” Luna agreed, giving Markus another folder. “That’s why the only real option I can recommend as your Mage is myself. I hope you’ll at least let me try to meet your expectations in that.”
“If you throw yourself as thoroughly into being a Mage as you have into being my manager, then you’ll do great,” Markus assured her as he opened the folder and saw it was filled with notes on potential classes and play styles that Luna would look into. “And it looks like you’re doing just that.”