[IC] Overlords. (Sarpedon/Sanquin)

[Sarpedon]

Oliver didn't know what to tell Sanguine when she said she missed regular food. He supposed even the best flavour would get old if that was all you could taste. He considered that while he enjoyed the delicious variety of things he had in front of him, until, too soon of course, he was full. Before he could do much of anything, though, it seemed that his glorious leader already had plans. The paladin couldn't argue with that, so when she handed him letters, he supposed that would be a good place to start. She then headed off to do something else, while the warrior took care of his own tasks.

This time, he hefted his massive sword onto his shoulder, the hilt poking out backward, as he headed off to find Garreth and Jan. There was a fifty-fifty chance he'd find them together, probably fighting, or they'd be at opposite ends of the guild hall working on whatever shenanigans kept them occupied while they weren't fighting either each other, or the guild's enemies. He lucked out this time, and the two were in full armour, arm-wrestling like their lives depended on it. It didn't matter who won. It never did. This was just another link in a mind-blowingly long chain of competitions the two would engage in.

"Aaand, it's a tie! Cut that shit out." the sword-toting guild warrior declared as he walked up. The two generals begrudgingly ceased their struggle so that Oliver could toss letters at them. "Jan, put together a ten man troop of light cavaliers. Garreth, put together a section of warriors. Not spearmen. Make sure they don't mind roving around a lot. Your soldiers are going to pose as mercenaries. There's more instructions in the letters. And, this isn't a money-making scheme, so make sure that they undercut the competition a bit. They aren't rivals either, so don't start that shit. We're here to make a name for ourselves as quickly and as positively as possible."

With that, he turned and walked away. The generals could handle it, they just needed to be reminded of the big picture occasionally, when they were being people, they tended to get caught up in their rivalry. So while they took care of the mercenary business, the Cleric decided he should go and pick out some equipment. Since they were just adventuring around he figured it would be better to look the part, rather than roaming around like the demigod he seemed to be in this place. He picked over the armoury, kitting himself out more like a common mercenary. He traded his kukri and greatsword in for a bastard sword and a tomahawk, and he traded in his favourite custom armour for a more typical hauberk, though he still refused to carry a shield.

Outfitted like this, he looked a lot more like any old mercenary, though there was still an air of lethality about him that most mercenaries didn't get until they'd gone grey. Now he just had to find Sanguine so they could take off. He didn't remember her telling him where to meet her, though, so he supposed some more wandering was in order...

[sanquin]

When Sanguine stepped out of the armoury holding items for mages, by chance, Oliver came out of the door opposite the hall as well. Though not entirely by chance since, even though he had to travel further, she had taken quite a while picking out an outfit she actually liked. In the game it was normal to just wear whatever had the best stats, not caring about appearance. But now that this had become their life it was different for her. She wanted to at least look a bit fashionable when possible.

"Oh! Oliver! Great timing, and I see you also went with lower level gear. Great~" She spoke with a smile. The vampiress hadn't told him that it was probably best to not look too flashy, so she was glad he had thought about it himself as well. "I've given orders for a carriage to come pick us up at E-Rantel in the evening. Since it's about two hours by carriage I figured we could use a portal to get near the gates right now." The portal was one way and once a day only. But it would save them quite some time, leaving more time for potential adventuring. Even if it was just a low level quest, the idea of adventuring for real actually excited Sanguine a little. While gaming she had sometimes wished to be able to experience it for real. And now that wish was coming true. So it was hard not to be excited.

"I just hope the npc's won't cause any trouble." She finally thought out loud. They would surely follow orders. But it wasn't like they were actual npc's any more. So their personalities could become an issue. Even so, a good leader needed to trust their followers, and let them learn if they did make mistakes. "So, you ready to go as well?"

[Sarpedon]

Oliver jumped just a tiny bit when Sanguine was stepping out of the armoury at the same time as he was. She seemed pleased by his choice of equipment, but he just shrugged in response, not sure what to tell her. She explained that she'd arranged for their transportation home, and that sounded good to him. He chuckled when she expressed worry that their npcs might cause some issues. "Garreth and Jan will sort them out." he assured the guild leader. And if they weren't sorted out by the time they left, they would be sorted out thoroughly when they got back. "Ready when you are." he agreed, nodding, and gesturing for the vampire to lead the way. He figured it would be best to let the glorious leader lead the way. Plus he didn't mind the view at all, and thought it prudent to take advantage of such an opportunity since it had presented itself.

It wasn't a long walk to the teleportation room, but it was definitely an enjoyable one for the Paladin. As long as his boss was in front of him, the Cleric was perfectly happy to follow. Of course, he paid enough attention to his surroundings that he could avoid being caught, should such evasive maneuvers be required. He hadn't put so much time and energy into training to be a peerless warrior just to be taken down by not paying attention. He wasn't so concerned about the vampire's opinion, since she seemed to like him at least as much as he liked her, but he didn't know how she felt about their underlings being aware of such shenanigans, and didn't want to upset her unnecessarily...

[sanquin]

It wasn't hard to notice Oliver's eyes on her backside as they walked up the stairs. But Sanguine chose not to say anything about it. After all, if anyone would ever be allowed to stare at her figure, it would be her boyfriend right? Plus he seemed to be enjoying himself quite a bit.

Once at the portal room Jeeves and Danïelle were waiting for them to arrive already. They both bowed as the couple entered, wishing them a safe journey. Both npc's were worried about something happening while their leaders were away. But they wouldn't dream of disobeying orders, so this was all they could do. Sanguine didn't really pay attention to them apart from assuring them that they'd be fine though. She quickly headed to the navigation crystal, moving the image around until she found the city of E-Rantel. There was a forest reaching almost all the way to the south city gates so that's where she decided they'd go. It would get them close to the city while also hiding the fact that they used teleportation. Soon after, the portal opened. So the vampiress joined Oliver in front of it and stepped through together with him a moment later.

Once they were on the other side there was indeed a forest around them. Though it was a little unexpected that they now stood in the middle of the dirt road that headed to the city. Luckily there was no one around, or two people suddenly appearing would have probably caused quite the commotion. In front of them, if they looked carefully through the trees, the city walls were already visible. So it would only be a few minutes of walking. "Well, here we go then. Time to see what it's like to be an adventurer in this world." Sanguine spoke, getting excited once again.

After a short walk to the city gates they were stopped by two guards at said gates. One of them stepped forward, holding out one of his hands. "Identification please." He spoke, looking a bit disinterested. "Identification..." Sanguine mused, sighing a little. She should have asked about such a thing while they were in the small village the day before. "We don't have any yet..." The guard nodded, waving for the other guard to step closer. The second guard took two small scrolls out of a pouch on his belt and handed them to the couple. "Since you have no papers, you'll be issued this temporary document. With this, you can stay at most one day in the city before it expires. Make sure to register at one of the guilds or at the castle before then." It seemed pretty weird. Needing identification to enter and having closed gates during the day, yet being allowed in for a day for free if you didn't have any. But Sanguine wasn't about to question the kingdom's customs at this time. "Thank you. We plan to go to the adventurer's guild straight away anyway." She told the guards. And with that the gate was opened for them.

[Sarpedon]

Oliver mostly stayed quiet while he waited for Sanguine to get the teleporter up and running. She assured their immediate subordinates that there was nothing to fear before setting their destination. This was the part where the Paladin would have been sitting in a lobby waiting for a raid to start. Instead, he was standing around. Not much difference, but things definitely went quicker, which made him happy. The long raid queues were always the worst part, and that seemed to be fixed almost entirely because the vampire at the controls had everything ready to go in a moment or two. The two of them barely paused to wave at the pair staying behind before stepping through the portal.

Just like in the game, teleportation was instant, and surprisingly, not all that disorienting. The lack of loading screen was probably his favourite part, though. A quick glance around told him they were standing on the road to their destination, just out of sight of anyone who might have been shocked by the sudden appearance of two strangers. "Adventuring! Fuck yeah!" Oliver sang to himself, to the tune of Team America's most memorable performance. This was definitely his favourite part, exploring strange places, slaying great beasts, and collecting trophies and treasures.

Of course, they needed a quest first, so they couldn't just strike off into the wilderness. Lucky for them, the trip to the city was short. Unfortunately, the guards seemed to have something to say about people without "Identification". The Cleric was prepared for anything, though, and backed up his glorious leader by looking as big and unpleasant as he could. She handled things remarkably well, though, getting them a free pass into the city and they were on their way.

"That was surprisingly easy..." he spoke quietly as they passed through the gate. He wasn't sure why, but wasn't going to question it. Now it was just a matter of finding the adventurer's guild. That didn't seem too hard, though. The city appeared to be rather well laid-out, at least initially. Entirely round, it had three main "spokes" leading to the centre, with much smaller roads shooting off to what were likely residential districts. They reached the main plaza easily enough, and it seemed to hold everything most people would need. There was plenty of space in the centre for whatever events could come up, and the edge of the plaza was ringed by all the largest, and fanciest shops that looked to be every major service this place had to offer.

"That's pretty cool." Oliver agreed to himself, slowing down drastically as he soaked in the plaza. After a moment admiring the architecture, he spotted their goal. "I'm going to assume that the big building that says 'Adventurer's Guild', is the place we are looking for." he pointed for Sanguine's benefit, but wouldn't have been surprised if she'd already spotted it. It was definitely one of the larger buildings around, and the Gothic styling was a nice touch. He looked around some more as they crossed the plaza, but nothing really excited the warrior, he figured that was probably because their guild artisans were far more capable than anyone here, so there wasn't much point in wasting time perusing various shops. So unless his fearless leader had somewhere else she wanted to check out before they joined the Adventurer's Guild, he figured they should head straight there. The fastest route to domination was directly in front of them. Assuming they didn't want to take the actual fastest route which involved an incredibly large amount of murder...

[sanquin]

"Even cities have a game feel to them." Sanguine commented as they arrived at the plaza. "I used to play a game where you'd also get quests at an adventurer's guild. Kinda brings me back. Anyway, let's go." She then added, just wanting to voice her thoughts as they headed to their destination.

Once inside the large building it was everything Sanguine had expected and hoped it would be. A bar to get some simple food, drinks, or apply for jobs. A large notice board filled with notes, wanted posters and other such things to take on as quests, and the rest of the ground floor space being occupied by tables and chairs. If her guess was right, the first floor would probably have things along the lines of sleeping rooms, private rooms, or the place where the guild leader or leaders would go to. As the two walked in immediately a dozen or so eyes pointed to their direction. Some of them looked more like thugs than adventurers, so the vampiress figured the quests didn't consist of entirely legal ones. But those kinds of quests were unimportant for their goals anyway.

At the bar a very short, yet rough and strong looking man looked at them curiously as he saw them. "Newcom'rs eh?" He spoke. "If yer 'ere te sign up it'll cost 10 silv'r each an' I'll grab some forms. If yer 'ere te put up a quest it be 2 silv'r." Sanguine stared at the man for a brief moment, surprised at them running into of all races a dwarf already. She had expected they would live near mines or underground, yet this man was clearly a dwarf! "Oh! Yes...we're here to sign up. Bartholmew Burgresh said he'd recommend us." She finally spoke. "We don't have any money, but we can pay you in actual silver." The woman reached inside her bag of holding and took out a rather cheap silver ring with a small gemstone in it. One of the many items she had randomly looted while the two of them were playing the game a bit before it shut down. In the game she would have sold it to a random vendor for 15 to 20 silver depending on where she would have sold it. But right now it might come in handy as a bargaining tool.

The dwarf was definitely immediately interested. So it looked like dwarves in this world liked metals and gemstones quite a bit too. Looking over the ring carefully for ten seconds or so the dwarf decided it would suffice for their payment. In truth the ring was of high enough quality that it could be sold for at least 24 silver if you knew the right buyer, so the man saw a this as a way to make a little profit. "Bartholmew eh? I'll hav' te confirm tha' la'er. But fer now it'll do." He spoke. "Name's Caddoc Blackcarbon. I deal wit' th' standard guild stuff so ye'll be dealin' wit' me fer questin'. I'll go get yet forms." Not exactly the friendliest of types. Straight to the point, to say the least. But at least it looked like there wouldn't be any problem in them joining the guild, even if that was possibly only because she had mentioned Bartholmew's name.

(( Caddoc: pre00.deviantart.net/b511/th/pre/f/201.. ))

[Sarpedon]

The world definitely felt a little arcade-y, as Sanguine had pointed out, but it also meant that everything was conveniently located, and Oliver wasn't going to argue with that. It was a short trip across the plaza to their destination, and the warrior was excited as they stepped inside. This was their first step toward becoming real heroes. Once he crossed the threshold, though, he lost that train of thought. Despite its size on the outside, it still seemed to be larger on the inside. The place seemed to be designed for an adventurer's every need. Of course, most adventurer's probably didn't need much beyond more quests and a place to drink and recover, and that was all he could see right now. Not one to disagree with that, the Cleric stuck to his companion's left side as they strode up to the counter. He didn't say anything while she negotiated their payment, instead studying the room around them, and the various "adventuring" types.

Their host seemed a little gruff, but he supposed it made sense. You didn't want to get attached to the new guys until you knew they'd be coming home after a quest. The dwarf disappeared through a door behind the bar, and reappeared just as quickly, leaving the door swinging idly behind him. Now he was holding everything they would need to register with the guild. The shorter man laid out the forms and began instructing them on how to fill them out. His thick dwarven accent gave Oliver a bit of a ride as the Paladin tried to sort out all of the details that he was supposed to include. It was pretty straight forward when he did more reading of the form than listening to Caddoc, though.

It seemed like registration really wasn't much of an inconvenience. At least on their part. The forms were filled out in moments, and there didn't seem to be any other steps that they needed to complete. Caddoc took their forms and disappeared again, this time for longer, and when he returned he had a scroll for each of them to sign. It was a bit difficult for Oliver to make out, but the gist he got was that they needed to sign the bottom and then this scroll would serve as their identification papers while they were in the area. It sounded like anywhere there was an adventuring guild, this would be all the papers they needed.

"So where do we get some quests then?" he asked, eager to get started. Now that the administration was dealt with, he was even more excited to go save some damsels or something. Really, anything would do at the moment, he just wanted to show people how good they were...

[sanquin]

"Going by logic, it would be that notice board." Sanguine replied, pointing towards where it was. They started walking to it right away. However on their way there a guy suddenly passed them, and bumped into Oliver 'by accident'. "Ow! Hey, watch where you're going newbie! That hurt you know?! And I'm not just gonna take a simple apology." The man turned around, facing the two angrily. Just like most adventurers here, there was a small plate hanging from a necklace around his neck. His was silver, and she had seen iron, copper, and even a gold plate as well. So it was likely some kind of ranking system, and this man was likely higher rank. It was obviously his fault, but the way people in the room were staring at them made it clear that the man himself, and pretty much everyone there knew that already. Plus three more guys had turned to the two of them, as if readying themselves to step in as well if needed. Sanguine audibly sighed at the little display. She didn't want to deal with this kind of thing as there was a quest waiting to be taken by them.

"Tell you what, you let that girlie of yours stay and drink with us for a while and we'll call it quits." The man grinned deviously as he looked at Sanguine. Though she in turn didn't show any interest or worry towards the man's words. In fact, she looked a little disgusted by him. "Really now...I thought this stuff only happened in movies." The vampiress muttered softly, only Oliver and the man being in range to hear. "Oliver, this man seems to be bothering us. Could you toss him aside or something?" Of course she could likely do just that as well. The man looked quite muscular, and was almost as tall as Oliver. But considering how she could stop a huge mace from a summoned angel with brute strength alone, this man was probably pretty easy to pick up. But he was talking to the paladin and it would probably be weird for a woman dressed as a mage to toss around a grown and fairly big man like that.

[Sarpedon]

Oliver was excited to get a quest, so he didn't notice the man about to bump into him until it was too late. He immediately recognized the tactic though. Hazing the new guy. The Cleric stood stoically, thinking that if he beat down the meanest dog in the junkyard, maybe the others would show him some respect. The warrior didn't get a chance to act before the man who'd bumped into him was demanding that Sanguine stay and drink with them. The Paladin remained deadpan. The vampire was his, and he was about to demonstrate that. "Yeah, naw, I'm good thanks. Let's take this outside, mate. Settle this like the savages you lot clearly are."

If the taunting didn't work, Oliver was fully prepared to step in past the man's guard and elbow him in the neck as hard as he could. Lucky for him, though, the man took the bait. It started as a complete flushing of the man's face as rage built up. He turned bright red, and the others behind him shuffled a little, clearly waiting for this man to make a move before they did anything.

"You lot can wait here. We're going to step outside." he informed his assailant's supporters. They looked a mixture of relieved and enraged at their dismissal.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Oliver's newest rival demanded to know.

"Let's go find out, mate." the Paladin offered in reply. He turned his back on the man to step toward the door, fully anticipating the haymaker that followed. Hazing the new guy wasn't going so well, and this adventurer was about to learn the consequences of unchecked anger. The man had to good sense to step in, using his whole body to propel his fist toward the Cleric. Unfortunately for him, Oliver's senses were heightened, waiting for the sound of a dishonourable swing. He stepped off the line, swinging his body under the flailing fist, and shooting his elbow into the man's solar plexus. He followed it with another elbow to the ear, and then completed his about turn, using his momentum to kick the man's left knee out from under him. The adventurer collapsed, his silver pendant unable to keep him from being brilliantly outclassed.

To add insult to injury, the fighter grabbed his opponent by the head with both hands, and gently bumped his temple with his knee, emphasizing the force he could have put behind the blow. Then he whipped out his tomahawk and smacked the fallen adventurer on the back of the head with the flat of it. "You're a dead man." he stated. He wondered if he was going to regret such bold actions, realizing that he hadn't been paying attention to anything else while he taught the other man a lesson. He supposed he was about to find out...

[sanquin]

Instead of throwing him to the side, Oliver decided to start a full on fight right there and then. Well, more like Oliver beating the crap out of the other guy than a real fight. As expected the man didn't stand even the slightest chance. Sanguine wanted to just stand on the sidelines, letting the cleric do what he wanted. But it didn't take long for his three cronies to stand up, wanting to join the fight. Clearly they hadn't realised yet whom they were dealing with. Simply raising her hand, two of the three were surrounded by a wall of ice. It was pretty weak, but there wasn't enough space inside to put proper force behind breaking it. So they would be trapped for a little while. The third one decided Sanguine was the better target of the two, her looking quite a bit weaker. However when he tried to grab her, she grabbed him by the arm instead.

"Bad boy, go to the corner." She spoke teasingly, holding out her other hand to aim at his torso. A large ball of ice formed in her hands in a split second, then crashed into the man the vampiress was holding. It sent him flying back quite a distance, followed by a satisfying crash in said corner as he landed on top of a table. Sanguine didn't even pay attention to him any more, making it clear that they didn't matter in her eyes.

Now that the fight was settled both on her and Oliver's side, the woman quickly scanned the room with her eyes. They had caused quite a bit of commotion after all. No one seemed to do anything though. They all either averted their gaze or were whispering among themselves. That is, apart from a single person. "You bitch!" A woman now fast-walking straight towards Sanguine yelled. "You broke my potion! It took me a full year of saving up to buy it and you just broke it! Pay me back, now!" The other woman had fairly short and spiky brown hair. Her muscular, slightly broad body was covered in full studded leather armour. Not to mention the long sword and and dagger at her side and the iron plate around her neck. The appearance of a seasoned warrior, surely. And though she showed plenty of hostility, there didn't seem to be any signs of her attacking Sanguine. She just wanted her payment for an apparently expensive potion.

Sanguine in the mean time was a bit taken aback by the sudden appearance of this woman in front of her. She wasn't entirely sure what to do. It was easy to either to ignore her or use violence, but she felt that either option would only make the situation worse right now. After all, she technically did break that woman's potion by throwing that man in her direction. But neither she or Oliver probably had enough of this world's currency to pay it's costs...

[Sarpedon]

Oliver reacted quickly when he realized what was going on. Sanguine had easily stopped the trio of thugs that had thought to back up their compatriot. But now there was a new threat storming in their direction. The woman was shaking, her voice filled with that about-to-crack roar so characteristic of someone ready and willing to make rash decisions in the name of rage. The Cleric produced his tomahawk and slowly eased his way into the woman's path before she could reach his partner.

The violence with which this woman strode toward the vampire was impressive, but she was no match for either of her opponents, let alone both of them. The Paladin gently pressed the flat top of his tomahawk against the woman's neck, keeping her from moving any further forward unless she wanted to try her luck with the blade or the spike of the axe. "How about we start by calming down?" he challenged. "You don't get to talk to her like that." he added firmly, waiting for an excuse to wipe the floor with the woman. She started to yell again, but didn't get out a whole syllable before the warrior had smacked her across the face with the flat of his throwing axe. "You calm the hell down, or I'll do it for you." he promised. He'd struck her just hard enough to hurt, but not hard enough to do any real damage. He was just trying to make a point.

Lucky for her, she managed to take a deep breath. Angry as she was, the woman did seem to understand that she could, quite possibly, be out of her league. "We'd be more than happy to replace your potion. You're going to have to show us some patience, though." he started. "You can start by telling us what kind of potion it was. Do you have a recipe, or know where we can get one?" If she bought it straight off the shelf it would be a different story, but at this point he was pretty sure it would be easier to make her a new potion than it would be to buy it, if she really had saved for a whole year to get it. Whatever it was...

[sanquin]

Luckily it seemed Oliver was quite adept at calming the angry woman down. Or at least calm enough to be reasoned with. The woman held up a broken top of a small bottle with the cork still in it. The anger was still quite clear on her face but it wasn't as bad as before. Probably because there was now the chance that she'd indeed get a replacement. "A healing potion. That's one gold and twenty-five silver! Judging by your armour and her staff you surely have the money to replace that." Sanguine frowned. A simple healing potion? That was it? That was what she was so angry about? The vampiress always had a hundred or two of those with her since Oliver's holy healing magic only hurt her. "A healing potion? I have one on me right now." She spoke, reaching into her bag of holding.

Out came a glass bottle crafted and formed so perfectly it almost looked like crystal. A fairly transparent red liquid was inside. The transparency of the liquid determined how strong it was. This one was a level one potion healing about 20 hp, similar to a cure moderate wounds. But she hadn't specified what kind of healing potion so Sanguine went with the lowest grade she had at the time. "Here, this should cover it." She spoke, handing it over. The woman stared at it for a few moments before looking at the two. "For now...but I'm going to have this appraised first. Otherwise I'll find you again." To Sanguine this meant something important. These potions were apparently close to what they had here. And a potion of this grade was apparently worth around 1 gold and 25 silver. Or maybe a grade below it or something.

"Sure sure...now if you'll excuse us, we're busy." Sanguine spoke with a sigh. This whole ordeal felt like a waste of time. Hopefully there wouldn't be more days like this in the adventurers guild. "So, time to pick a quest." Sanguine spoke, heading for the notice board once more. However as soon as she arrived there was a problem. Every single one of the notices was in a kind of writing she had never seen before. This was something she hadn't accounted for. She turned to Oliver and whispered a little nervously. "Well, this is a problem...I don't want to let on that we can't read this..."

It took her a bit longer before she decided to...just do something. Standing there for ages would probably look weird too. So the vampiress grabbed a random one from the board and turned around to head back to the guild master. Surely she could get some more information out of him.

"Caddoc, I'd like to know more about this quest." She spoke once arriving there. "Hm? Lass, ye cannae take tha' one. It be fer silv'r plates an' up onleh." Sanguine frowned slightly, quickly thinking of where to go from here. "I know... It's just, we may have copper plates now, but our abilities are far above that. I'm a-" Sanguine thought quickly. What lever of caster would be good in this world, but not too amazing? "-A third level caster, and my friend here is a warrior with some holy affinity of similar level." Describing the two of them as such felt like she was hugely underplaying their power, even for this world. But the gasps and turned heads that came from around the room quickly pushed that feeling away. Apparently a third level caster and warrior was quite amazing. Caddoc looked up in surprise as if studying the two more closely. Then a moment later he sighed and shook his head. "That may be true...but we're a proper organisation. Everyone has to follow the rules. Though if your achievements match what you just said you'll rise up to silver or even higher in a matter of weeks, depending on how many jobs you take." Sanguine gave a fake sigh, as if she sounded highly disappointed. Though in truth she was delighted that she had managed to avert the situation of them not being able to read in this country's alphabet. "Very well, then give us the most difficult copper plate quest you have." Caddoc nodded, looking a bit glas as well since the couple hadn't started trouble over having to do copper ranked quests. "I think I still 'ave a few tha' need reviewin' fer rankin's. I'll go check fer ya."