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[Malek Deneith]

Prologue - Pick up my sword, it's time to do business

You meet in a tavern over a frosty mug of ale...

...

... oh how you wish it were that simple. Instead you wake up in what seems a small clerical station, to memories of being beat up by a bunch of thugs, and feeling of whacked heads. Thankfully you don't seem to find any permanent damage - ah the wonders of clerical healing: they take away hurt, leave the pain. There is an acolyte in the room that you are stationed in but it seems he didn't notice you two waking up yet - he seems to be more preoccupied with person lain on the third sickbed. Judging the nonsense the last person seems to be spounting - you catch something about dungeons made of solid gold and guarded by three headed firebreathing ogres - he must have been hit on the head harder than you were, but oddly enough the acolyte seems to be intent on writing down his feverish raving.

Spoiler: "GM Notes" (click to show/hide)

Right, decided to go with a slower entry post rather than full out infodump for start so the ball is in your park. Jasper and Gard are awake, Sho Lee is still... unwell, but that won't last long I promise.

Klear - if you appear again and see it: Your character will be worked in somehow at later point, assuming you get back and finish the creation. For now we started three strong just to keep the game going.

[LuckyDee]

...Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwkay... No idea of where I am, can only trust I've been in good hands over the last - what, hours? Days? Hoping against hope these bastards didn't nick all my stuff, or at least not the most important bits. Ezmuth had better have defended those with his life, although I'm not putting any money on it...

Gard is feeling a little peckish, probably, but isn't going to let that distract him. Needing a moment to get his bearings, he decides he might as well spend it useful and listen to what's being said further down the room.

[S.K. Ren]

Groggy, Jasper raised himself from the bed. A light touch of his head sends a sharp lance of pain through him, though it quickly dulls. 'Least I appear to be in good care. Slowly he glances about in attempt to locate his belongings, taking note of the robed figure standing next to one of the other beds and the black-skinned elf laying on another.
*psst* "Oi... dark skin. You up?"

[Malek Deneith]

Gard tries to listen in to what's happening at third bed but it seems the man in it seems to be coming out of his dreams or hallucinations, whichever they might be - all the elf manages to overhear is his last mumble, something along the lines of "Dead, all dead..."

[LuckyDee]

Gard, not quite expecting the hushed question, takes a moment to let it sink in. When it has, he replies in the same semi-whisper, "Haven't decided yet. You?"

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I do hope this is a gnome (I forgot), which adds a nice touch of insolence to this last question. I've gone ahead and edited my first post; the content has remained the same, I only decided to take the previous campaign's IC thread as an example, put everything in third person and add a little color for Gard's speech/thoughts. Hurts the eyes, don't it? :S

[S.K. Ren]

Oh, he's trying to be clever. "Yeah, I think I am. Oi! Cleric!" the Gnome Titan shouted to his immediate regret. Concussions and loud noises mix poorly.

[LuckyDee]

"Nnnghrnh..." Gard replies to the shout, wincing. He opens his eyes carefully, and when no more sudden noise presents itself, risks looking around.

"Ezmuth?" he asks, half mumbling. Then, just loud enough to try and exert some authority "Ezmuth! Haul your miserable self over here and get me something to eat!"

[Malek Deneith]

The cleric straightens up hearing voice calling him out from behind. He quickly rolls the scroll he was writing on and puts in a pocket of his robe before standing up and turning towards you.
- "Ah, you have awoken. Well then, now that all of you a... re..." - he pauses and glances at the figure on bed he was sitting near - "...excuse me for a moment."
Acolyte quickly walks up to one of two cupboard standing near the opposite wall, opens it up and takes out a waterskin out from it. Without missing a beat he walks back up to the bed, and splashes large amount of water from the waterskin on face of the third patient. Loud scream of protest and coughing announce that the last person in room came to, as the cleric turns back to Gard and Jasper.
- "As I was saying now that all of you, including Mr. Wu have awoken I'd like to welcome you to this humble abode. Father Johnson told me to bring you three to him once you wake up - I'm sure he can answer all questions you might have. Your clothes are in the other cupboard. Please change into them - I'll wait outside of the room to guide you once you're done." - with that he starts walking towards the door.

Spoiler: "GM Notes" (click to show/hide)

Sho Lee Wu is awake now. Pardon me for the slow posting thus far - physical labor has a negative impact on my will to do anything that requires tinking.

All dig and no rest makes Malek a dull boy.
All dig and no rest make sMalek a dull boy.
All dig and no rest makes malek a dull boy.
All di- *AHEM*

Oh and by the way the thread formerly known as interest check is now OOC thread so you don't have to resort to spoiler tags if you want to discuss something OOC

[LuckyDee]

Gard, while carefully getting up, takes a moment to inspect himself for gaping wounds and missing limbs. Provided the counter remains at zero, he goes over to the cupboard the acolyte indicated and goes through his belongings, taking stock.

[S.K. Ren]

Finding his personal belongings took little time and even less to strap on his Broadsword and Mask. With the rest of his gear equipped and stowed Jasper took off to join the cleric, eager to ditch the Drow and delusional Human.

[shark20061]

Still groggy and confused, Sho slowly gets up, his face completely drenched.

He goes to the cupboard and collects his things, puts his clothes on, and tries to catch up to the rest of the group.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You'll have to bear with me, I'm not great at roleplaying.

[Malek Deneith]

You open the cupboard to find your clothes safe - and in Sho Lee's case even fixed. In addition the clerics seem to be accustomed to paranoid patients and managed to fit your backpacks and also - with great difficulty - your weaponry. Alarmingly you don't see your mules or the goods they were carrying inside. You can only hope they are stored elsewhere like, for example, a stable.

***

Dressed and equipped you step outside of the room and find the cleric who took care of you waiting. He leads you on a short trip to corridors, then up the stairs. In there you enter another corridor with doors on both sides - most likely living quarters for local clergy. In distance a trio of people - two humans and a dwarf - stand before one of the doors. You hear one of the humans ask:
- "So where are we going? That cave that was found by the mo-"
Here he stops, silenced by a gesture of the dwarf who apparently noticed you. Your friendly cleric leads you to door just next to where the trio is waiting.
- "Please enter. Father Johnson is waiting inside."

[LuckyDee]

Gard busies himself with measuring up their current company, wondering whether the monk belongs to some cult that practices extremely flagellistic rituals or if he was just as unfortunate as he and Ezmuth were. Upon hearing the human speak, his attention is diverted, however.

"I wonder who would be stupid enough to send out monkeys on recon missions," Ezmuth remarks after a considerable mental effort on his part, unsuccessfully trying to connect the dots.

"Well, seeing as I've met monkeys who stand a better chance at tying their shoelaces than you do, I'd say you had better not try to insult me again, or you'll find one of my boots has mysteriously disappeared while you suddenly have a lot of trouble when trying to sit down," Gard says, in an only slightly hushed voice. His remark is followed by a cheerful wave and a curteous nod of his head towards the other travellers.

[S.K. Ren]

I'm guessing our 'savior' has a 'request' for us. Looking back he sees the Drow muttering something unintelligible. I hope to gawd he wasn't mocking the temple. Come to think of it... "You appear to be a brother of faith. What gawd do you serve?" he asks the cleric.

[Malek Deneith]

- "I'm afraid that details of my faith are limited to those who are called to serve it." - replies the Cleric - "All I can say you were under the care of Church Of Resource Procurement."

Ding-dong. You can hear the alarm bells starting to go off in your heads. Oh you heard of them. C.O.R.P. is a fairly new organization, barely present a year or two but they already managed to find a spot for themselves. Nominally a religious organization, but nobody outside of it knows who or what they worship - almost certainly none of the known gawds - but the fact that they are able to call on divine magic is a sure sign they have to worship something.

One thing is certain - they provide their services to anyone so long as they can pay. Sure, the prices they charge for spells are noticably higher than in churches devoted to Gawds of Twilligh Last (you didn't think the "Resource Procurement" in name came out of nowhere, now did you?), but the lack of consideration for devotion of client made them popular with some of the wealth but not very devote groups... like adventurers for instance. Some on the street speculate they also deal in information brokering and even shadier deals - no proof was ever found but that would help explaining how they keep faithful of Gawds of Twilligh Last of their backs...

Either way things are not looking good for your purses.

[LuckyDee]

Gard hisses through clenched teeth: "Ezmuth, o-gay ind-fay the ool-myay..."

Then, out loud, to the Cleric: "C.O.R.P., eh? I've heard some... intriguing things about your faith. How did you come to be converted?"

[S.K. Ren]

"C.O.R.P? Never heard of ya. Alright lets get on with it." Jasper grumbles as he walks through the door.

[Malek Deneith]

- "I simply had what the faith needed, and thus a cleric got sent my way to... convince... me to join. That's all" - nameless cleric quickly responded to Gard before motioning towards the door again.

***

Opening the door Jasper finds himself in a small study where a middle-aged man, wearing an elegant vest and doublet - both of fashion unfamiliar to you, is working behind a desk covered in various documents. Upon hearing you enter he stops writing and straightens up and beckons at Jasper and his two companions.

- "Please, come in." - the man waits until all three of you are inside and door closes behind you

- "Mr. Grindle, Mr. Wu and Mr..." - he pauses and checks something on one of pieces of paper on his desk - "...Gard, no surname given? Figures. At any case it is nice to finally meet you in person - My name is Johnson and I am, for the moment at least running this here branch of C.O.R.P., located in the village of Winter Tree. I've been told you had unfortunate meetings with some bandits... except Mr. Wu of course who had his own predicaments. The world is a dangerous place these days, truly. Thankfully all of you were delivered at the humble doorsteps of our branch here, and we managed to put you back together. I hope your stay here was enjoyable, at least as much as it could considering the circumstances."

He pauses his monologue for a second, barely giving you time to think before resuming - "Alas I am afraid our churches, while open to anybody, aren't as charitable as some other faiths, and thus I am forced to ask for a payment for services rendered. Normally I'd just name an appropriate sum here, but it just so happens that there is a small problem in the area that I'd like to get rid of, and the three of you look like able men that could help me. A service for a service - what do you say? Will you hear me out or would you rather deal in hard coin?"

Spoiler: "GM Notes" (click to show/hide)

You know what is awesome? Sleep is awesome. Also - Map Update

[LuckyDee]

Mask's sake, look at us you old coot - you scraped us out of the local scenery because we're the types of people that, when faced with 'adventure', get trodden on in pretty severe ways. You must have counted our money to make sure you'd have a offer we couldn't refuse.

While this crosses his mind, Gard keeps an eye on the alleged misters Wu and Grindle to see how they respond to the news.

[S.K. Ren]

"How much coin are we talking?" Jasper grumbled sourly, shaking his last 3 gold pieces in their pouch. Had he the coin, he would sooner leave and track down those bandits for payback.

[Malek Deneith]

"Well thankfully your wounds weren't all that serious, so..." - Johnson ponders for a moment - "... 125 gold pieces. Each. Plus two more for Mr. Jasper and Mr. Gard since we had to take care of their mules also."

[LuckyDee]

"...oooh-kay... And for the record, what 'service' are we talking about here?" Gard asks sourly.

[Malek Deneith]

- "Oh not much, really. It's just so that we've received a report of a band of kobolds appearing in vicinity. Pesky buggers are trying to rob people traveling to the village - we've learned of it because last merchant coming here had enough protection to scare them off, but considering one or two other travelers that come here regularly failed to appear lately... well I think you can piece that together yourselves. Normally we'd look for a party of adventurers to take care of it, but the only one I'm aware of is preoccupied otherwise at the moment. You could say that your appearance here was a gift from the Gawds." - Johnson smiles then suddenly produces a small pouch from a drawer in the desk - "Just so that I don't seem too much of a scrooge I am willing to sweeten the deal with 100 gold pieces. Upfront. And if the monsters really did kill some travelers already you can probably get more from their lair. How does that sound then?"

[S.K. Ren]

"Kobolds? Those ratty buggers are always causing trouble. A'ight, I'll help you with yer problem, then we're even correct?".

[LuckyDee]

100 gold pieces and an overeager stunty to lead the charge... this might be going somewhere.

"And what, pray tell, actually comprised 'enough protection'? I mean, Mr.... Grindle here is raring to go, and I know I am," Gard lies, "so we can use all the information we can get."

In the meantime, he starts getting impatient for Ezmuth to return. Blundering tit probably couldn't find the mule anyhow, and a plan for which this doesn't matter anyway is starting to form in Gard's mind. And - with a slightly repressed rumble - a second, totally different plan is forming in his belly.