The atmosphere inside the tavern could easily be summed up by some as warm and friendly, with a few exceptions of some rather shady-looking individuals off in the corners. The fireplace was roaring and filling the room with warmth, the tables were full of people in varying states of merriment and sobriety, and in general it seemed like quite the happy place. The girl tending the bar was a slight blonde, appearing to be no older then around seventeen, having only recently taken over for an older man to work her shift.

One particular patron, however, disapproved of just about everything around her. Tanya Palayan, her armor currently stored elsewhere, sat with her arms folded tightly across her chest. So many drunks. Certainly, her religion did not have anything against the consumption of alcohol, but Tanya definitely did. The taste, the state it left people in, she had nothing but disapproval for those around her. She did in fact radiate a strong field of irritation as she sat upon. Currently, the small paladin was not wearing her armor, instead only carrying her bastard sword, Repharion. The sizable blade was sheathed on her hip, or rather slightly higher in order to ensure it wouldn’t drag upon the ground.

In normal circumstances, Tanya would never be found in a place like this. It was too loud, too full of alcohol. To put it simply, she absolutely hated being in taverns and quite truthfully wished she was almost anywhere else. But the Paladin of Reon had an assignment, and it was an important one at that. And one of the … recommendations from the priestesses was that she seek further assistance in this task. As confident in her abilities as Tanya was, she eventually begrudgingly agreed that it would be for the best to have allies for this mission. With many of Reon’s loyal paladins aboard, Tanya had been instructed to seek those who may be willing to help her closer to her destination.

That is what lead the purple-haired girl here. The town of Balendale was not far from the ruin she intended to reach. It was a simple place, defended by a simple wooden wall surrounding it. She had heard many adventurers stopped at the place, for whatever reason.

Tanya had little excuse to put it off any longer. She had drained her mug of milk completely dry at this point.

Signing to herself, she got to her feet and climbed onto the bench, as to make herself more noticeable. Well, at least this would get potential applicants’ attention more quickly.

“I am a paladin of Reon, seeking to reach the deepest level of the Prison-Castle!” she declared. Indeed, there were few who did not know of what some people called King Haldric’s tomb. Indeed, the allure of the treasure that was rumored to litter it was something she was counting on. “If any wish to join me in this quest, speak now!”

Tanya paused. Now there were so many people looking at her… Grumbling under her breath, she looked away.

“… Or something.”

With that, she sat back down, arms folded firmly across her chest.

She knew it could only get more irritating from here. And yet… her duty was crucial. The thing that lurked deep within the Prison-Castle…

It had to be destroyed.

"Um... Miss Palayen... don't you think looking so angrily at everyone might drive them away?" the already pre-recruited nun wondered, continuing to sit beside the diminutive paladin and very carefully keeping hold of her drink. Unlike the alcohol-averse paladin, Sophia had no real dislike for it... not that she wanted to get inebriated before a mission, but it would have been unsightly to sit in here and not order something. Plus, unlike her more dangerous companion, the harpy really didn't like drinking milk. It was one of those things her people had absolutely no ability to procure naturally, after all.

"Please, Lady Tanya," said the third occupant of the table. "Such behaviour will do little but draw the attention of unsavoury sorts!" he advised. He was tall, almost abnormally so, and his handsome face was framed by his longer-than-regulation hair. He had a small glass of a red liquid in front of him and had been sipping on it all eve. If he had earned the ire of his companions while doing so, well, he gave every indication that he didn't notice.

His name was Marc Ferrus, and he was also a Paladin. Armed with only his short sword and also out of his armor, he looked far more at ease here than his other paladin cohort did. Perhaps it was due to his gentle, easygoing nature. It wasn't hard to fit in with people. He had certainly made a lot of friends on the way here.

"Miss Sophia is right," Marc continued, nodding to their harpy friend. She was truly a noble ally in the fight for justice. "A gentle touch is required here. And perhaps a mite of shifty-ness." Did he really just say that? The honest, good natured Paladin who would never lie on his honour proposing something shifty? Well, he was standing up now, and moving towards the bar. Quiet words were exchanged between the barkeep man and the astonishingly tall paladin, before Marc turned to address the bar.

"Friends! We are embarking upon a great quest, but we have limited openings!" he boomed. "The first individuals we deem worthy for our quest will receive free drinks for the remainder of the eve! Truly a tempting offer, yes?"

That aught to get everyone's attention. Of course, all that talk about unsavoury sorts and Marc had forgotten it himself! Still, he'd see who rocked up.

Leander continued walking down the path, his staff making a small tapping sound every time he moved it further down the path. He was eager to find an inn, or at least some place with shelter, to stay the night. He had no interest in sleeping undefended, under only the night sky. As he walked, he eventually made his way to a tavern. Well, it was certainly better than the night sky. Leander grabbed his money bag and checked to see just how much he had left. Satisfied he had enough for a night's lodgings, he made his way inside.

Leander made his way past drunk adventurers and weary travelers to an empty seat at the counter. He was about to ask the bartender if a room was available when someone shouted something about the Prison-Castle. Normally, he would have ignored it. After all, it was usually a young fool who was lured in by the promise of treasure. What caught his attention this time, however, was that it was a paladin who spoke the invitation. Curious, he turned around to see who it was, and his eyes landed on a purple-haired woman of short stature.

Leander was rather curious as to why a paladin of all people would dare venture into the tomb of Mad King Haldric. After all, it was, quite literally, a collection of death traps and monsters. Plus, paladins weren't exactly known for being foolhardy. They must have some sort of mission. However, were they really so short staffed as to be forced to rely on the help of mercenaries? Or were the mercenaries merely cannon fodder? Either way, Leander was too curious to ignore this any longer.

Leander left his seat to approach the female paladin and her accomplice, as well as the other paladin who used a more... interesting method of recruitment for this mission of theirs. Leander had no interest in the alcoholic drinks, but perhaps he would join them anyway. "A paladin on a mission to the tomb of Mad King Haldric?" Leander asked Tanya. "I must admit, I am curious about this endeavor. Perhaps you will find it in your best interests to bring me along."

Fieri Angharad looked up at the small, rotten palisade separating the supposed tomb of King Haldric the Eccentric, and undulated with anticipation. The tomb was uproariously popular, and many adventurers had visited it in the past. "The Breadwinner", they called it, thanks to its inexplicable supplies of meager wealth and self-replenishing supply of common foes to whet one's blade on. All it took to find the place was to line the palms of a nearby guard, forester, or farmer with copper. The path to it was very slightly overgrown, and the telltale depressions scattered along the path very clearly marked where previous bands of novice adventurers had rested.

With snakelike agility, Fieri wormed her way through one of the many holes in the palisade, and began the trek up the hill to the castle's ruined gates. All she knew of this place was that it was a reliable way to find easily-enchanted equipment, and that it was a favored haunt of the kind of person that would gladly leap headfirst into the wild blue yonder for nothing but some enchanted junk. The only hard part here, Tieri thought, is finding someone to do it. She thumbed the hilt of her enchanted knife, and slithered up to the castle's main gates. For better or worse, she'd find adventurers, and she would sell things to them.

Sergeant Wykes had been on leave for quite some time. She believed she would have gotten word from the King should he have any issues which needed to be taken care of. At her low rank, they must have needed her for something! Escorting some nobles, capturing deserters, breaking out bandit dens... something! Wykes, or Cristine when she was out of uniform, spent a bulk of her time drinking. Her musculature had seemed to deterred many would-be suitors, and in some cases attracted some unwanted attention. She wasn't really embarrassed- or at least she didn't like to believe she was. Naturally, Sergeant Wykes preferred being in uniform to deter some more awkward conversations.

It wasn't long before the grizzled veteran had put down another drink. She knew it was killing her slowly, but couldn't help herself. "An-hick*" she attempted to speak, in a dizzied manner. It wasn't long before a young woman spoke, then another paladin with a bit more chest in his voice which caught Sergeant Wyke's attention.

"WORTHY!?" Sergeant Wykes shouted, standing up from her stool. "I'll show you worthy!" she said, walking over to the paladin in a drunken stupor. She sat, as the fourth seat of the table and held out her left arm, hand open. "You know what to do" the Sergeant challenged.

"Indeed I do", a voice called from a darkened corner of the room. Al sauntered out, a cheeky grin on his face as he raised a large stein to his lips to chug some ale.

"Pwaaah~" he sighed, pushing the tiny paladin aside to sit across from the knight. Placing his arm on the table, he wrapped his fingers around Cristine's.
"Thanks for doing this. This is the first exciting thing to happen all night. They need more games here, you know." he smiled at Cristine.

The knight's eyes glowed and her nose puffed with pride. "Hmph!" she grunted. Sergeant Wykes expected the younger female paladin to respond, seeing as how she appeared to be the leader of the trio with the bigger male paladin, and the smaller bird-woman. Instead, Sergeant Wykes felt a thicker, courser hand than she had expected. Looking up from the hand, she had traced the arm to the body of a young male.

The eyes on the Sergeant widened slowly, and a barely noticeable blush had overcome her face. Sergeant Wykes had never touched a male before. Masculine as she liked to believe herself to be, she had never dreamed of touching a male. In fact, she had not even been so close with her male comrades in spite of the advances of the younger recruits.

She had to keep her bearing. "Alright" Sergeant Wykes announced, her mouth kept open. It was as though her lips were moving on their own. "Let's go then!" she said, applying pressure to push Al's arm down.

"Let's go!" Al shouted back, and with a grunt, pushed against her hand. His muscles tightened as he turned his entire torso, yanking the knight from her chair and into the air. Turning his body around, he flailed Cristine around in a circle, before pulling her back down onto the table. The legs immediately gave way like a schoolgirl confessing to her crush, and the table collapsed onto the ground, the knight on top.

"...Miss, are you okay? Miss?"

Tanya let out a huff. Oh, she had to play nice with the people drinking their minds away here? Okay, fine, the kind of people she wanted would ideally be mostly sober and therefore would be very quick to pick up on any harsh words... but... whatever! Wouldn't they get lured in by the treasure in the ruined old castle? Sure, it was 'popular' in a manner of speaking, but there was a reason she had a target there. No-one had ever reached the lower two levels of the decaying ruin. And, indeed, shortly after the attempt to appeal for the creation of a party, a cloaked man approached.

"That depends on your skills," she said, simply, when he suggested that it may be in their best interest to take him along. If he was in actuality a pumpkin farmer wrapped up in a travelling cloak he would hardly be the useful sort to take into a dungeon, would he? Still, he was not likely to be a simple farmer if he was considering such an offer. "Sophia, if you'd like you can give him an explanation, for now..."

The short, purple-haired girl trailed off as a woman in the garb of the King's Army, smelling strongly of spirits, approached their table and slammed her arm down to challenge... whoever to an arm wrestling contest. Well, she wasn't going to dignify that. "... If you're here to ask about our mission, then you'll have to-"

Someone pushed her to the side. Tanya, not exactly being resistant to such a thing unprepared, stumbled off the bench and caught herself, Repharion's scabbard rattling against the wood. Furious, she swiftly stood up and turned to face a rather sizable man, who had shoved in to take the offer of an arm-wrestling competition.

"...You idiot..." Tanya's violet eyes narrowed. What kind of person did that? It wasn't like she'd been unnoticeable. "Are your heads as thick as the drink she's overindulged in?!"

Tanya gave a swift gesture towards the soldier. "This table's not for..."

She stared blankly as the results of the stupid arm-wrestling competition resulted in the table's legs giving out. After a moment of silence, the short paladin let out a sigh. There was no good expression of anger that truly covered this kind of situation. "... Well then, I'm sure the owner of this tavern is going to be thrilled when he sees that. Perhaps some, oh, I don't know, rational, logical thought may have been in order? Reon's Peace! Are you two even sober enough to understand my offer?!"

"I... am not a miss!" Cristine sat up to slap Al away. Her other arm, the one that had actually made contact with his, ended up in a mangled mess. It wasn't enough to be truly crippling, but still enough to be quite disgusting to look at. In other words, it was pain Sergeant Wykes was used to. The knight struggled as she attempted to stand up on her broken arm in her drunken state. "I" she hiccuped "I work for a living!"

Leander was expecting the worst when more people showed up, and got the worst when the drunks and the arrogant started having a strength comparison contest. Leander really had to question the wisdom of expecting mercenaries to behave and work together, even if under the lure of untold riches at the end of the task. While this was all going on, though, Leander was coming up with suitable responses for Sophia.

"Honestly, I fail to see the wisdom behind actions such as these," Leander said, gesturing to Al and Cristine. "As for my talents, however," Leander began, turning to Sophia and taking out his staff, which was covered in runes from top to bottom. "They rely on more than just brute force, which is exactly what these drunken fools have." Leander then channeled a bit of mana into his staff, causing a small glow of light in the blue crystal to appear for a moment before disappearing again. "Trust me, you'll want more than sheer muscle for this mission of yours."

Liliane had been sitting alone at one of the tables for many hours. Apparently, finding a group of people to go adventuring with was difficult (especially since Liliane never asked anyone). While she didn't drink a single drop of alcohol, she had eaten multiple saucers of various tree nuts. She silently moped to herself.

Though, that moping quickly ended once a not-shady woman aggressively declared that all those who wanted to go into the Prison-Castle would go with her. Liliane had wanted to go to the Prison-Castle for the longest time (in fact, she wanted to go to almost every single not fully unexplored dungeon in Velt), but she never could because the rumored giant-rats were her perfect counter (just like almost every kind of enemy in a dungeon).

Liliane deposited the nuts from the saucer into her hand and stood up. "I'll join you in your adventure!" Liliane yelled out loud. After yelling, Liliane had realized that her table was rather a ways off from the Paladin and the rowdy group of people already near her.

"A-aww. That looks like it stings. I'm sorry, Miss; I think I overdid it." Al frowned, grabbing the knight's good hand to help her to her feet.
"I'll get back to you on the job offer in a minute." Al said to the paladin.
"And as for you, Miss, you should at least let me get you to a doctor. This is kinda my fault, after all." he said, scratching the back of his head.

Well nevermind! Lady Tanya's dramatic outburst had summoned all manner of cheerful reprobates! In fact, from his position at the bar, Marc was able to witness two spirited competitors promptly demolish the table he had been sitting at only five minutes prior! Of course, he also had to listen to the innkeeper grumbling about yet another broken table, but that was beside the point. He clapped quite loudly. "Good show!" Oh, Lady Tanya was going to slap him for that. "Well done!"

But, now was not the time to tarry! The huge paladin disengaged from the table to greet the warriors that had utterly annihilated the table at which they had sparred. Ignoring the man with the staff for the moment, he spoke to the arm-wrestlers. "Spirited! Very spirited! Wonderful!" He was clearly pleased at the shattering of the table, though he knew later he would be the one to pay reparations to the tavern keeper. But that did not dissuade him! "Do you not agree, Lady Tanya? Though they are truly ruffians, I believe warriors of such merit should accompany us on our quest! What say you?"

The mighty gates of the castle stood imposingly as, at their very base, Fieri Angharad pushed uselessly at them. As ancient as they seemed, the oaken doors were still nearly as sturdy as the day they were hoisted into position. Fieri's fingers clenched around her rod in abject irritation, as she impotently slammed a fist against the doors. With nothing but a mocking shower of wood and paint flakes to mark her failure, Fieri briefly decided to turn back from whence she came. Just as Fieri crossed out from the door's threshold, a cunning idea struck her. This castle must be ancient... just think of all the holes there are! All I have to do is find one big enough to fit me! With an impish grin, Fieri began slithering around the castle's perimeter, searching for handholds and piles of rubble.

Haruka's tail wagged in excitement as she sat at the bar. A normal person might have given up after asking perhaps a hundred different bars for sake only to find out that there was none, but Haruka was not normal. Nothing would deter her from her quest to get some sake in the west. She believed that if she was persistent, she could definitely find some some day. Thus, even if she failed 10,000 times, she would not be dissuaded. She would just try 10,000 more times.

"Yes, miss bar captain," she called out to the young woman working the bar, "I am in search of some sake! Might you have any, please?"

Yet again, the answer was no. After some confused conversation establishing what exactly sake was, Haruka was informed that they had nothing like that. With that out of the way, she turned to look at the other patrons with a wide smile still on her face. Westerners were very interesting, she thought as she caught a glimpse of a yelling purple-haired child standing on a bench.

"Westerners really do have hair like the rainbow! Yellow and red and even purple. It is amazing every time I see it!"

Then, there was a Western game of wrestling arms betwixt a drunk woman and a very tall man. How big the Westerners were, too! One would never see a man that tall in the East. Or a woman that drunk, to be honest. Both were amazing, but then the tall man slammed the woman through the table which was bad. Haruka's tail waggled even faster, and she rushed to the scene of the injury. This was the time! Her medical training would really pay off! Finally, she could be of use to someone in need.

"I can doing now this for you now please," she cried as she grabbed the drunken woman's arm. With one quick, skillful motion she set the arm back into place. Then, she snapped some pieces of wood off of the already broken table, reached into her robe to rip off a bit of her sarashi, and dabbed some poultice around the afflicted area before splinting it.

"It will better in soon time! You may do many alcohol for unmaking the pain."

"That was convenient. Thank you, foreign doctor lady." Al smiled.

"Anyways, this is my fault, so I'm gonna do this doctor many alco-Oh! She meant buy her a drink." he exclaimed, his eyes lighting up with sudden realization. "...Just a moment."

The swordsman turned around, and discretely opened up his wallet, to discover a moderate supply of coin. At this tavern, it could cover a nice meal, but not much more. He peeked over his shoulder.

Surely a girl this size couldn't have that big an appetite.

"Miss, let me buy you the drinks." he smiled, tying his wallet back onto his belt.

Sophia was beginning to have concerns about their choice of location, since so many people here seemed to be far too violent and altogether belligerent. Everybody seemed so... unrestrained, and to the sheltered harpy it was all rather overwhelming. It didn't help matters that the only person here she could really trust was her fellow Reonite paladin; Marc seemed to be well-intentioned enough... but the fact that he spoke like a chivalric novel was offputting. Of course, she'd also known Tanya for longer.

"Ah, the castle is--" the diminutive harpy managed to get out before an ominous and sickening noise interrupted her vain attempt to explain what exactly awaited them in the castle. Were all taverns so violent? She didn't want to be in them again if this was a common occurrence, her wings were fragile...

Happily, someone else splinted the injured limb whilst the numb flapped over to take a look at the injury. It simplified the healing process, since she couldn't really align bones manually without considerable pain, but whilst the poultice might be a good anti-inflammatory, it was questionable if it would really help healing speeds.

"Could you please try and keep your arm still?" the white-haired harpy mumbled, wings arcing around to surround the injured arm. It was set, and the poultice would avoid a few nasty effects... so it should only be a few minutes to get it healing at a good rate. If the arm-wrestling girl realised she shouldn't move, at least.

Oh, Reon's Peace... this was a ridiculous mess. Tanya could almost feel a headache coming on at how badly things were going. What a mess. She gave Marcus a violet glare for a moment at his comments on how 'marvelous' it all was.

"I guess that depends on your definition of 'marvelous'..." she replied with a sigh. The woman was drunk and had a cracked arm? At least the... beastkin? It was a dog-eared girl of some sort who approached and supplied some bandages and poultice, which would ideally allow for Sophia to mend the injury. Tanya knew the harpy nun was not always confident in her abilities but ideally this would allow her to fully heal it and they could soon get on their way. "... In any case, this has gained a lot of attention for all the blithering stupidity on display, so I'll reiterate. The Prison-Castle of the Mad King Haldric. Anyone who wishes to join me in reaching the very bottom may apply, you will get a large cut of the treasures found within. My compatriots and I will claim only a small amount for the Church."

She heard someone yell about joining her as well. Looking around for a few moments, Tanya grumbled in irritation at the fact that she could not easily see over most of those around her.

"... Hmph. Well, whoever called to me, come closer. When our scholar and healing mage is finished mending the drunken woman's arm, she'll be able to help explain to you what we are doing."