"The creature you and your compadre happened across is referred to as a 'Goblin Dog'. A most hideous creature whose existence beneath these streets was unknown." Said my translator slash tutor in that annoying Imperial dialect. "You and your compadre will be awarded twenty copper in Guild Credit each for the disembowelment and information thus delivered."
I stared at him. Happy to be paid and I guess I was splitting the reward with Lioran, but the Imperial was getting under my skin and this meeting was only starting. My advisor, Emily, said something and my translator opened his mouth.
"Now about your selection of a class. Have you made a decision?"
"I noticed priest, acolyte, or zealot wasn't an option, did I not qualify for them?"
My translator opened his mouth to translate, but paused and spoke back to me instead. "Do you worship a god?"
Suddenly I felt stupid. "Ah, no. Sorry. I was kind of interested in Druid I guess, but would like more information on how that works."
"An appointment can be scheduled with the Order of the Silverwood. Have you given thought to a simpler class to acquire in the meantime?"
"I guess Rouge. I'm not really excited by the options, but Rouge wins out over Fighter."
"Your advisor shall endeavor to schedule you an appointment and create a list of tasks to be completed to achieve the Rogue class. Is there anything on your mind at this time?"
I looked at Emily and shook my head. This was going to be a problem if I always needed a translator. How would an appointment with the Order go? Was I going to have to pay… Shit I don't even remember his name. Was I going to have to pay my tutor to follow me around? I can't afford that.
I checked my traps several times, but caught nothing. To make matters worse, I received the list of requirements to make Rogue. Three silver. Three fucking Anorian Standard Silver. I briefly enjoyed the fact that this country used Anorian Standards. I had spent most of my time here dealing with copper coins and the little wooden Guild Credit tokens to notice, but that was the rub. I hadn’t noticed the silver coinage was Anorian Standard because I was too poor to have silver coins. Then again, that was the fast way to get the class, three days and some book learning. The slow way was more about doing and learning on the job as it were. I couldn’t see a way around the weapon training, one silver for a day’s worth of learning basic competency with several weapons was cheaper than buying all said weapons and learning by myself. A day of learning how to sneak around and detect traps, that could probably be learned on my own, at least the sneaking part. I had gotten pretty good sneaking around on the wood deck of the ship. Had to in order to avoid Targnur. Hells the book was going to be hard. Turns out, buying the book cost fifty silver. Fucking hells.
***
“Hey.” Lioran said as he sat down next to me at breakfast, which was sausage and eggs, again.
“Hello.” I replied, noting how much better he looked.
“Did you get two Deks for the Goblin Dog as well?”
“Huhaaa?”
“Sorry… Did, you, get, twenty, Guild Credit, for, Goblin, Dog?”
I didn’t if I hated him for talking to me like I was a stupid child, or if I was thankful. “Yes.” He nodded as he got my answer and took a big bite of his eggs. “Class, is three Silver.”
“Hmmm?” He asked, apparently not having expected me to speak to him.
How to say, my first class will cost a minimum of three Silver? “Class dat is mine, Rogue, three Silver.” Hmm, I’m supposed to say, My Class, not, Class that is mine. That’s going to be a hard linguistic thing to get over. Lioran’s violet eyes slowly got wide as he took in what I had just said. Yeah, I didn’t think he had the money either.
“Oh, shit. Shit, we need to kill a lot more rats. We need to hurry.”
I watched him shovel food into his face for a while before I realized what he was thinking. “No.” He stopped suddenly and stared up at me. “I go Order of Silverwood. Den go Sewer.”
“What should I do?”
How to tell him to ask questions about making more money. I probably missed something. “You, talk…” I pointed at the receptionist.
“About what?”
“Coin. Make?” Wow this is hard.
“Oh, yeah okay.”
I nodded. I was done talking for now. Talking is hard when you don’t actually speak the language.
***
The Order of the Silverwood wasn't exactly in the city. You had to walk south along a rather well traveled road just outside of the third tier. The building itself loomed in the distance looking like a squat wooden fort surrounding a small forest. Whereas forts tend to the bland utilitarian aesthetic, this thing was designed with graceful cathedral-like arches and open air rooms surrounded by gardens. The main entrance didn’t even have a door, just an arch composed of interwoven tree limbs that led into a waiting room with a solid looking wooden desk from which a considerably less solid looking boy not much older than me sat behind.
"Oh, hello. Welcome to the Aradon branch of the Order of the Silverwood."
He had an expectant look on his face, like he was waiting for me to laugh at a clever joke. I replayed the getting in my head several times, but couldn't identify whatever it was he was expecting. "Injung. Talk to… person, Class?"
"Ah, you're the person who speaks Ityean, which means…" his smile faded and he scratched the back of his head. "Sorry. Follow?" He pushed some documents he had been working on to one side of the desk and got up. The door into the next room was really just a bunch of leaf covered vines that separated the entry from a hallway that led into the courtyard. A courtyard filled with a small forest. I had to marvel at the small pristine Grove dominated by a single twisting tree with silver leaves. Quite possibly the Silverwood where the order derives its name.
The boy knocked on an actual door, the first one I've seen in the building, and waited for a short, pudgy man.
"Ah, you must be Jak Injung." The man said in Imperial Ityean.
"Injung. Jak is a sailor."
"Ah, I'm going to assume that's an error on the Guild's part. Right this way."
This guy was not Anorian. He was human and he was, as far as I could tell, a slave, denoted by the collar around his neck. The cheap non-magical kind of collar you often saw on cheap, highly abused slaves, or the decidedly better off skilled slaves that were treated well. This guy was no doubt in the later category judging solely on his clean white robes and the girth of his waist. I followed him into a rather bright room with no actual roof, only a canopy of deciduous leaves shading the space in dappled sunlight. This had to be a hell hole in the winter, the Sawtooth islands weren't even close to tropical. Literally the worst shelter I've ever seen.
"Wait here." Said the man, leaving me at a patch of ground covered in a cloth. Like a picnic area or something. Very strange.
The woman that came out of a back doorway made the weird little room seem oddly normal. Though I guess it fit her. She was Tel'ani, with a fairly wide head set on a rather thin and petite frame. Her skin was a considerably paler purple than Lioran's and her piercing blue eyes looked like cold crystals of sea ice. Her robes flowed behind her, a wave of vines and moss, her head made visually larger by a headdress of sticks and twine, and small animal skulls tied to her horns. She was utterly bizarre.
The slave placed a thick pillow down on the canvas and the woman took her seat, saying something in a language I wasn't at all familiar with.
"Please sit." The man translated as he took his own seat, sitting cross-legged on the ground on the left and slightly in front of the woman. Her long black tail curled around her, its tip twisting lazily like a cat basking in a spot of sunlight. The woman watched me with her icy gaze as I sat. She spoke. The man translated.
"Are you a sailor?"
"Yes. How did you know?"
I watched the path of the words. From me to the slave. From the slave to his master. The reply returning the same way in reverse.
"The way you move. This here is Matron Ti'iah. She is a Sahmee Shaman and a highly respected member of the Order." The woman bowed her head slightly in a gesture not common to the Sawtooths.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
I bowed back. "I am called Injung Aoki."
The woman seemed pleased. I don't think she was from here.
"The Order of the Silverwood is home too Shamen, Druids, Witches, and many Rangers. Which of these interest you and why?”
“Druid I think. Mostly due to the utility spells. Healing, Create Water. Light. I don’t really like the idea of bonding with some other entity; that rules out Witch and Shaman.”
The woman nodded as she listened to the translation, considered a moment, then spoke.
“How do you feel about fire?”
“Fire?” The question caught me off guard. “I don’t know. It’s useful for light and cooking. Warming up I guess.”
“How about earth?”
I thought about home. The narrow fields where my family planted millet. When I get some money I should write them. I hope they’re okay. “Earth is… solid. Important for crops. I don’t know.”
“And water?”
Ah, I see where she’s going with this, and she’s going to end with the element she thinks I will find most important. She’s right. “Water is, very important. It’s necessary for everything to live. It feeds us, let’s us travel.”
“Air.”
“Air.” I took a deep breath. How to describe in words a nearly windless day. All the side spars holding out the sails making the ship look like a low drifting cloud. The rippling of sheets in a soft breeze. The terror of the howling wind past the mast. “I don’t know how to describe it. Not air specifically, but wind. I guess it's as important to me as it is to a bird.”
She nodded slowly. “I see. Please, close your eyes.”
I didn’t like that, but did as told.
“I want you to breathe deeply and picture yourself in nature.”
Nature. What is nature? It’s kind of everything. I tried to imagine myself standing in a forest, some generic trees and bushes, but I couldn’t hold the image. It gave way to millet fields just before the harvest. Amber waves of bushy seed heads. I could smell the start of fall tingeing the air even as the sun beat down, though less intense than a month prior. It didn’t stay. I took a deep breath and tried to calm my mind, settling into the fields, but as I relaxed into the image, the world shifted. I was moving in a familiar rhythm. The fields gave way to open ocean, large fluffy clouds drifting lazily across a sky so big and blue it was impossible to tell where the sky ended and the sea began. The creaking of the masts and spars, the waves breaking across the hull, the smell of sea brine and tared sheets.
“Okay.” I said. I was on a boat in my mental image. I don’t know if that qualifies as Nature, but close enough.
“You’re on a ship.”
I opened my eyes and stared at the woman. “Yes.” She smiled.
“You’re not the first sailor to come here. Eyes closed, back to your ship.”
I closed my eyes and returned to the mental image. Not sure what the point was though.
“Describe a scene that has a lot of emotion.”
“Emotion?” I asked. “Like, happiness, excitement, or fear? Is fear an emotion?”
“Yes. Fear is an emotion.”
I grinned. “The ship rocks forward as it descends one swell only to crash into the next. The structure groans with the twisting, the water sprays over the gunwale, rushing across the deck. The wind howls across the sheets, yards, and spars. Dark clouds roil overheard bringing stinging rain and…"
The woman interrupted with a single word. The translator looked hesitant, as if he was unsure if he was supposed to translate that or not. When he noticed me staring at him he said, "Umm, Tempest."
What the hells was that supposed to mean? Guess that's why he hesitated.
Ti'iah spoke again. "How do you feel about animals?"
"Animals, ahh, I guess I like to eat them."
The woman snorted. "I'm afraid you only just barely meet the requirements for a Tempest Druid. You won't go far with it. Witch would be better, but I understand it's not where your heart is. I assume the Guild didn't offer you the cleric class?"
"Cleric? No."
"That makes sense. The Sahmee have never worshiped gods and most invader races shun them."
"Invader races?"
"All races that are not like the Matron." The translator slave said without passing it back and forth to said Matron.
"You would be more suited to Tempest Cleric. However, we have no one to train you how to connect with a Divine domain beyond what a Druid does. We can help you get the Acolyte class, but full cleric is ultimately up to you."
"What is Acolyte?"
"A basic class, like Commoner, but everything is better than Commoner."
"I see." I said and prepared to ask the question that was going to kill me. "How much for Acolyte?"
The woman smirked. Her icy blue eyes glimmered with mirth. "Half silver to learn how to meditate. Acolyte does not require much training, it does require much self discipline."
"I don't have the money right now."
Matron Ti'iah nodded. "The offer will stand."
***
"Okay, so the first level is done as a loan from the guild so long as you get training here and it isn't magical. You have… I'm talking too fast aren't I?"
I paused to stare at Lioran with a jug of lamp oil in hand. I hadn’t even tried to keep up with his rambling and didn't feel dizzy.
"Sorry."
I handed him the lamp oil and he looked at it quizzically.
"Training at Guild. Guild pays. We pay back."
I pieced the meaning together and nodded. A loan then. That made some sense. It would be massively difficult for unclassed people to make the money to get the class, but considerably easier for someone with a class to get the money. "How Guild get money?"
"How does the Guild get paid back? They.. ah, the Guild, pay half reward."
"Ha'al-f?"
"Half, you know, half of something." He looked around before fishing around for a couple copper rounds. "Okay, two copper right?"
I looked down at the coins. He took one away.
"Half."
"Ah. Half… Re-ward?"
Lioran looked at the coin in his hand. "Um, give rat tail, get reward." He handed me the coin with his goofy grin plastered on his face.
"Erm, three rat den"
"Three rats?"
"One rat, bed. Hal-f rat, food. One and hal-f rat, Guild."
"Oh. Ooh. Oooh shit."
Clearly he got the issue. We need a rat and a half per day each just for basic necessities. The Guild would be taking half if we got training first and training would probably take a few days. I dropped four torches and the lamp oil on the counter of the Guild's internal store.
"Fourteen rounds."
I paid in Guild Credit. Guild credit is awesome.
***
Of course there was nothing in my damn traps today. So much for easy money. I motioned to Lioran to grab the rock I had been holding them down with and collected my empty money makers. It took him a moment to realize what I wanted, but soon we were heading down the right tunnel. We reset the traps at the next intersection baited with fish guts again. I'd say that maybe the rats were tired of fish guts, but the bait was gone every day. Lioran took the lead with me lighting the way behind him. He was extra careful around the intersections after getting mauled by the Goblin Dog. Two intersections down he froze.
"You hear that?"
His tone suggested a question, so I listened carefully. What the hells? It was like a swarm of angry insects. Curiosity quickly turned to horror as the insect sounding things turned out to be the claws of a massive Swarm of rats rushing at us. I dropped my dagger and went for the bottle of lamp oil I purchased earlier. This wasn't what I had planned to use it for, but holy shit we sure needed it.
"Lio, there!" I yelled at Lioran, pointing my torch past him at an actual Drie Rat. He turned and swung, then we were buried. There was no aiming the oil as was planned, I just kind of slammed it into the floor followed by the touch. A woosh of expanding air and hot flame forced me back. I scrambled around for the torch and waved it at the squirming mass. Only once the rats were completely off me did I realize I was on my knees with Lioran standing over me. The mass dispersed down all four directions.
Snatching up my dagger I looked at Lioran's bloody face. "Run?"
He looked around, sword raised. His violet eyes returned to me and he nodded.
We ran like something was chasing us. I don't know if anything was. But that's what we did. Another day with nothing to show. Damn I miss sailing.
(Game notes)
Nothing in trap
Reach intersection
Dire Rat stealth. 12
Lioran Perception. 4
Injung Perception. 16
Combat Starts…
Initiative:
Injung: 22
Lioran: 20
Dire Rat: 18
Rat Swarm: 9
Injung Drops dagger and fumbles for Lamp Oil.
Lioran swings at Dire Rat. 11. Miss
Dire Rat Bites Lioran. 9. Miss
Rat Swarm Swarms Lioran and Injung. 2 & 6 Damage respectively.
Lioran Fort save DC 12. 12. Passes
Injung Fort save DC 12. 9. Fails
Initiative:
Rat Swarm: 21
Dire Rat: 12
Lioran: 10
Injung: 5
Rat Swarm Swarms Lioran and Injung. 2 & 4 Damage respectively.
Lioran Fort save DC 12. 8. Fails.
Dire Rat Bites Lioran. 14. 3 Damage.
Injung Smashes Lamp Oil setting the area around her on fire.
Dire rate takes 1 Fire Damage.
Rat Swarm takes 4 Fire Damage.
Dire Rat Morale save. DC 10. 9. Fails
Rat Swarm Morale save. DC 10. 17. Passes
Initiative:
Lioran: 15
Rat Swarm: 10
Injung: 9
Lioran swings at the Rat Swarm. 15. Half Damage is 2.
Rat Swarm Swarms around the fire momentarily ignoring Lioran and Injung.
Injung picks up her dagger and swipes at the swarm with the torch, keeping it back.
Rat Swarm Morale Save. DC 10. 9
The swarm dissipates into the darkness.
Injung. “Run?”
Lioran. “Yeah.”
Do they get out without another encounter? Rolling on Fate Cart 50/50 CR 5. 16. They make it out.
Lioran Filth Fever Rolls…
Onset: 1 Day
Takes 11 days to Save. Will die without magical healing… Lioran Gains debt.
Injung Filth Fever Rolls…
Onset: 3
Takes 7 days to Save. Will die without magical healing… Injung Gains debt.