Claude paid no mind as his mark was placed on his arm, though normally he would consider such a "branding" extreme cause for concern, he was far more interested in studying the surroundings of The Garland Citadel. There was something off about how immaculate and beautiful it looked inside, highlighted even further by its clearly despondent ruler, this palace was a place of triumph and wealth, an air of desperation and hopelessness seemed obscene within these halls.

But then Claude took the time to study his new companions, to be frank he wasn't exactly thrilled either. While his motivations were, as ever, purely personal he had hoped finding a cure for the plague would attract more capable looking adventurers. The two children were the first to catch Claude's eye, unless they were perhaps monk-types trained from birth he did not think they were going to be of much help and to be frank he wasn't too hopeful about their chances of survival either, better to keep a distance from those two, Claude could be incredibly heartless but he wasn't enamored with the prospect of seeing children die.

The other two fit slightly more in line with what Claude had envisioned, muscular, bearded, scarred to hell and chances are more than willing to brag about a few after a flagon of ale. Although they seemed like they could handle themselves in a fight he wasn't really jumping for joy at the prospect of being forced to work alongside either of them, when it comes time for diplomacy or, more likely, subterfuge in regards to finding research notes and such for actually getting the cure, Claude doubted they were going to aid much in that regard.

The High Lord's words fell on deaf ears for Claude, a pardon would be useless to him as he'd go right back to his old ways once this was all over and being lauded for "heroism" didn't seem appealing to him in the slightest. The money and security however were factors much more useful sounding to him and perhaps having The High Lord's favor couldn't hurt. Yet having to stick with his new allies was beginning to seem like more and more of a difficult prospect each time Claude thought about it and glanced back over to further assess each of them.

[I][colour=LightSteelBlue]'Think of the coin Claude, think of the coin.'[/colour][/I] he continued to reassure himself