The Golem, Meteo City

Sat in the empty bar, I am presently waiting for Winfrey to log into the game after receiving a message from her last night stating that she'd renewed her licence and finished maintenance and safety checks on her old if still extremely pricey Explorer 204-B VR capsule, which was state-of-the-art about four years ago according to the quick internet search I did.

I'm not really familiar with all that, though. I just bought whatever reviewed well and replaced it as needed without any further thought. Odds are, I'll end up doing the same again unless I get wealthy enough to consider bleeding-edge models with useless peripherals a valid expense. Which I very well might.

After what must be twenty-ish minutes of waiting around and staring at the bronzed dire wolf fang that's been clogging my inventory for about a week, the clomping of boots rouses my consciousness from it's fugue, my soon-to-be subordinate standing in the doorway of the back room.

"Good morning. Settling in well?" I inquire politely.

"Not all that well," Windy sighs, "I miss Paris."

Walking over, she pulls out a chair adjacent to me and gently lowers herself into it, grimacing all the while, "Ew. Forgot how nasty this feels to control."

I mumble agreement, "It really does help if you just don't think about it and let your subconscious mind take the reins. It's like how when you think about how you have to breathe and suddenly it's something you're doing actively, rather than automatically."

After a moment of consideration, Windy glares at me, "Fuck you, now I can't stop thinking about my breathing."

I chuckle, "If it's any consolation, I did it to myself as well."

Flipping me the bird, she leans on the table, "So, I talked it over with my Uncle, and he's agreed to let me bum around in here until the first of March. Then he wants to get a report from the both of us about how it's...y'know...going."

I smile, "Great. You don't need to sign the contracts until the Guild is formed, if you're worried about that. Still have work to do yet."

Windy nods, "Mhm, so, what have I missed, what're we doing next?"

Raising my hand, I extend two fingers, "For now, two things need to happen. The first, is I need to make some progress on a very important Quest that I'll go over in a minute. The second, is that we need to get a group together for the next dungeon expedition; That means recruiting a healer at a minimum, and ideally either an off-tank or another damage dealer, but that's not a hard requirement."

"Do you have anyone in mind for that?" She questions.

"No," I shake my head, "You and Jade are the only two players I've made an effort to recruit so far. I have my eye on an Assassin-type Scout, but as far as magic classes go, nobody. We'll have to stop by the city gate and corner one. That's where most party hunters operate."

Windy raises a brow, "Oh? Who's the assassin?"

I wave her off, "Don't worry about her for now, she's already in a different unofficial Guild for the time being, though I don't know if that'll last."

"Alright. What actually is the name of the Guild anyhow? You keep avoiding it," She asks, pointing out my reticence.

I grumble, "Not...entirely decided yet, if I'm honest. A Guild's name is important to set the proper expectations for what it's about, so I've been vacillating on the subject. I'll bring up what I decide on with you all before I make it official; Once it's set, it can't be changed, after all."

Nodding, Windy points at the Fang Pin, "What's that you've got there?"

Holding it between thumb and forefinger I hold it up, "A memento of unknown purpose I got during my Quest. Near as I can tell it's pretty worthless in it's current state, but I dunno, maybe it'll have a use later on. Regardless, I wouldn't feel right getting rid of it."

"Ok. What's this Quest about?"

Putting the pin back into my inventory, I ponder how to summarise it, "In essence, I'm looking into the disappearances of NPCs in Meteo City over the past two decades, give or take. The victims are primarily non-Firm, but not exclusively. Henna's father for example, vanished after ignoring a warning not to look into the matter further. Currently, I need some help from you gathering useful leads around the city."

Windy's head recoils back a little, "Wait, you can share a Quest like that?"

I blink, "You got the Quest?"

Windy shakes off her surprise, "The Magpie Demon Part 2."

"Huh," Sharing Quests isn't an exact science until RotA gives you the option for eligible Quests, "I suppose yours might differ slightly as I'm the primary investigator. What's it say to do?"

Clearing her throat, Windy reads off an abridged version of the Quest window, "Silver Nosster has requested your assistance in looking into the disappearances. Get information and bring it to him, Quest Reward dependant on Silver Nosster's completion rating."

I incline my head, "About what I expected. In any case, I have a few specific NPCs that I need to track down and talk to. I'd like for you to go around and question random locals about the disappearances and the legend of The Magpie Demon. Just go for as many ticks as you can get, don't worry about finding anything big, I'll be handling that - your job is to try to increase the potential rewards, essentially."

"Alright, got it. When should we meet up?"

After a moment of thought, I stand up, "Meet at Stone Arsenal. I'll be waiting there when I'm done on my end and we'll hit the last spot for the turn-in together whenever you're satisfied you've gotten enough info."

---

 

Godly Golden Vaults, Meteo City

One thing I need to take care of before anything else, however, is my currency situation. Which is what brings me to the grandiose marble and aurumite building, decorated with pointless crenellations and glowing magical arrays that are as much for aesthetic as they are to protect the building - though speaking honestly if they were truly serious about it they wouldn't be visible on the exterior.

Questionable defences aside, it's the only Bank in the city and the safest place for a player to store their money. A 1-Star establishment like this one will hold up to 2000 Stone Gold in a regular Citizen's account, and it's equipped to handle theft attempts up to around Level 65. Smashing the building open by force would require significantly less effort by comparison, at maybe a hundred well-equipped Level 35 offensive casters.

Both are eventualities I don't have to care about.

There are only one or two players present here, loitering around inside the equally over-the-top hall, with a row of tellers and those glass teller window cages at the opposite end of a long Prussian blue carpet, a small-ish area behind them alongside a set of stairs leading underground into the vaults.

Approaching an available teller, I flash my Citizenship Pin, "I'd like to open a Citizen's Account."

The mechanically-minded teller gives me a vacant smile, "Certainly, Citizen. The Bank offers Citizens the ability to open an account for a modest fee of thirty Stone Silvers and will hold up to 2000 Stone Gold in value. The Bank will also offer the ability to change denominations of coins and convert foreign currency to its local equivalent for a fee."

I groan as the NPC ignores my request to instead launch into a tutorial spiel which I have no interest in, knowing everything I can and can't do here already.

---

 

Stone Arsenal, Meteo City

Sitting off to one side of the forge while Henna works after taking a quick stroll around the city to a few storyteller and informant NPCs I know about, I await the arrival of Windy. Who I swear I'm going to end up calling Wendy at some point by accident.

After a few minutes of silence, Henna - surprisingly - takes the initiative to start a conversation with me, "How are you doing today, Silver?"

"Took the money to the Bank, then went around the city talking to informants and gossips about the disappearances," I admit casually.

She stretches her arms out and rubs what looks like a sore spot, "Find anything useful?"

I drop my chin onto the back of my hand, "Not so much. A lot of blather about The Magpie Demon, nothing grounded."

Henna snorts derisively, "That old story? As if."

I shake my head, outwardly looking perhaps like I agree with her, "Need to stop in with that Kon fellow when my companion show up with her share of the information."

"That Panoplast vixen?" She tilts her head.

"No, not her. She's busy working on something else," Her actual job in reality, that is.

Speak of the devil, and she shall arrive. Windy pushes her way past a few players heading into the market area and gives a friendly wave to the pair of us as she approaches.

"Hey, howdy. You been waiting long?" She looks a little pleased with herself, so she may have found something big.

I wave back in the negative, "Nah. You look chipper."

Windy gives a big thumbs up, "See, I was asking around by The Golem and I found out something interesting from a p-"

She glances at Henna, "From a Newborn, and he said that some flashy Silva dude was poking around some corpses a few days ago when the Guard clocked him out after he started yelling about a conspiracy."

I frown. What?

In the back of my mind, I can feel a niggle, but I don't recall why exactly. Either way, it sounds like I'm definitely not the only one on the trail, but this poor moron managed to run into one of Geronil's flunkies in the City Guard after me and Henna ran into that piss-poor excuse for an ambush.

That being the case, now there are two people in the City Jail I need to handle. For fuck's sakes.

Tricking Rambling Rose into trying a breakout instead of drumming up the evidence of the appraiser's innocence might actually become a necessary plan now instead of a distraction to keep them off-kilter. I can just taste the added stipulation to the next part of the quest chain. Getting the appraiser out was one thing, but no way in hell is Geronil going to let a Silva Newborn walk out as well.

One person he could quietly bump off on the way out of the city, two is completely unacceptable as a liability.

My palm gravitates inexorably to my face, "By the Lady, damn it."

I groan, "That might complicate matters going forward."

Maybe I could have avoided it if she hadn't told me, I complain inwardly, as she proceeds to relay the rest of the information she collected, much of it being a repeat of what I already gathered myself, but still awarding a few extra to the evidence counter.

I mentally apologise to the imprisoned player, but on the off chance that the next Quest has a time limit attached I don't particularly want to trigger it at this exact moment in time, "Well, we'll have to push forward with our other task instead for now. We're not nearly ready for what I fear is the next step of the investigation just yet."

Windy looks a little confused but agrees instead of questioning me on it, "Alright. Should we go find that healer now, then?"

"Yes. I doubt we'll be able to accomplish much else today without Jade here to round us out as a group," I sigh, "Let's go then. If there's time before sundown I'll be back to do a bit of smithing work, if that's alright with you, Henna."

The smith shrugs, "I don't mind so long as it's not right as the sun nests below the horizon."

Windy waves dismissively, "I doubt it'll take that long to find a healer. You've got yourself a rep, you know? We'll be beating party invites off with sticks, same as last time."

Thinking about it I murmur optimistic agreement, "Perhaps."

Walking away with a quick wave farewell to Henna, I point to Windy, "Beyond my only consideration being someone trustworthy and competent, what exactly do you look for in a healer, speaking as a tank?"

Windy tilts her head, scratching at the back of her head, "What do you mean?"

I roll my wrist, "What style of healing, essentially. Regen, Shields, Direct, Hybrid DPS, Hybrid Support/Debuffer."

She hums, "Direct, mainly. I'm not the kinda girl to just stand there and take a big swing for the sake of it, but I've gotten into the habit of blocking and parrying incoming attacks from my PvP career in VA, and successfully pulling those off in VA negates damage altogether, whereas in here blocking is more of a heavy DR or defence stat buff. Not fought, like, people yet, so I don't know much about how parrying works."

Flexing her fingers a couple of times, she continues, "I suppose I was always going to have to adapt my fighting style to how things are done here, but I don't know if I want to throw out all the experience I built up so far in favour of something different. I'd rather stand my ground and stay standing than zipping around like a Spy player. I mean, Scout."

"That's fair. So long as you don't get complacent and strive for improvement, that's all I ask of my teammates," I agree, "If you want, I can do some sparring practice with you. I'm not quite as familiar with the sword and shield as I am with two-handed blades, but my training focused upon many of the same concepts."

Windy considers it, "Sure thing, boss."

I laugh hollowly, "Is that going to be a thing, now?"

She smiles beatifically, "Why not, boss?"