Reginald looked sympathetic.

 

 

 

 

 

"I am going to go out on a limb here and guess you had your memory wiped because you got kicked out of the kingdom of Edge, right?" Reginald pointed at Andrew's face, "I mean, it's fairly obvious. Just look at you. The hair color. The eyes. The little bump on your nose. It's a dead giveaway, really." He hooked a thumb over his shoulder, "There's a whole community of exiles here in the capital, you know? Edgetown."

 

"Bump on my-?" Andrew was about to argue, then caught himself, "Well... yes, I suppose. But I shouldn't have forgotten where I went to college."

 

Miriam spoke to Andrew in familiar, "[Andrew, Did you really forget, or is something wrong?]"

 

"[I really forgot and it's not on my character sheet.]" Andrew muttered back, "[My background section is truncated. I never thought about it until now. I had about eighteen pages to carefully justify my background, but for some reason, until now, I didn't realize it was missing.]" He scratched his chin, "[I know I outlined where I trained because there are certain features you can only get if you attend certain magical schools and I put down I attended three.]"

 

"Status." Andrew resummoned his character sheet and started stabbing at the air to cycle through the various windows, "[It wasn't just to explain the various things I know and was exposed to. It was also to make it easier to use certain types of spells. But I can't REMEMBER the specifics and it isn't written down!]" Andrew smashed his fist on the table out of frustration, "[If I can't remember the name, how am I going to know what feature to take?]"

 

Reginald narrowed his eyes as he listened in, "Ah... Familiar speech?" He nodded knowingly, "Private stuff, eh?"

 

Andrew refocused his attention on Reginald, "Sorry. Didn't mean to be rude. I'm just trying to figure this out. This gap in my mind is maddening." His eyes glazed over, "There was this specific... thing. It involved... fire magic. Elemental Metamagic and... something. It had a very specific name after the college you learn it from and I was going to learn it eventually, but I wasn't high enough level at the time of my training but..." Andrew started to grind his teeth in frustration, "Nobody does this to me. Nobody-"

 

Reginald leaned over to give Andrew a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, "RELAX." Andrew blinked at Reginald's touch. Reginald pulled away and gave Andrew a sympathetic look, "You aren't the first person from Edge to be having memory problems. There have always been Edge adventurers wandering about for the past two centuries, ever since Edge was founded. Nobody gets let out of the country without a mind wipe." He shrugged, "They are a powerful, yet mysterious country. Rumor has it the country was founded by infernalists, but that was two hundred years ago. The people you meet these days from Edge seem normal enough."

 

"I bet you are from the most recent purge in that country." Reginald shrugged, "I wish I could help you, but nobody knows what happened four years ago. It's assumed there was some sort of revolution and the losers all got the boot. Every one of the exiles, to some degree or another, has elf cheese brains. However, even with the memory loss, most of them are so skilled and knowledgable in their chosen field of expertise, no nation would think of turning them away."

 

Reginald hooked a thumb over his shoulder again, "Have you been to Edgetown? Sad little community. Rather insular, but they don't cause trouble. Mostly servants who bet on the wrong master when whatever change of government happened over there. You can find a few ex-nobles there as well. The memory loss affects them the most."

 

Reginald paused and looked wistful staring into the middle distance, "I remember when a small band of them was moving through Gulflund. Father invited them to visit the castle. I think he wanted to try and get them to settle down in our county. There was this beautiful young lady. She had an air of sadness about her that only made her all the more alluring." He blinked and came back to the present, "A rather dour lot if you ask me." He tilted his head to the side, "Hold it... have you contacted your fellow countrymen maybe they can help you fill in the gaps?"

 

Andrew held up both hands flat towards Reginald, "NO."

 

Reginald blinked, "Huh? Why not?"

 

"I don't know why, but I got a BAD feeling about meeting anyone from my hometown. Like... I screwed up BAD and I should avoid them like the plague, sort of feeling." Andrew shook his head dismissively, "Besides, the past is the past. Let sleeping dogs lie, I always say. Anyways, back to the topic at hand." He took a deep breath, "Fourth circle druid spell. Easy as pie. I learned all the techniques myself for forging. If we can get enough gemstones together, we can make as much of the ore as we need. Once we have the materials, making the weapon shouldn't take long." He pointed at Reginald, "The hard part will be getting you the right classes."

 

"Which classes?"

 

"Two classes to be specific, with an optional third." Andrew gritted his teeth, "I don't think there are any Nobel Rakes in town to ask to be your mentor." He winced, "Which means you'll need to qualify the hard way."

 

"And I qualify... how, exactly?"

 

"Not too complicated. You just have to crash an upper-class party you were not invited to, drink alcohol you didn't pay for, get slapped by a noble lady, and receive a challenge to a duel by a noble lord." Andrew paused then abruptly added, "All in one night."

 

"JUST???" Reginald placed both hands on the table to half stand up and lean towards Andrew, "Are you MAD?"

 

"I'm dead serious." Andrew rolled a hand in the air, "If you do that, you will qualify for the Noble Rake class, all your aristocrat levels will be added to your bard level for calculating your bard abilities including spells." He paused then snapped his fingers, "Oh. I almost forgot the most important part."

 

"What's that?"

 

Andrew grinned, "Nobel Rake applies your aristocrat levels to EVERY bard class you have."

 

Reginald looked confused, "So what? There is only one bard class."

 

Andrew grinned as he shook his head. Slowly Andrew held up both hands and extended three fingers on each.

 

 

"There's six."

 

 

"What do you mean there are SIX bard classes? How can there be SIX bard classes???"

 

"I mean there is the basic bard class, then there is the Bardic Sage, the Divine Bard, the Savage Bard, The Tainted Bard, and finally, the Prestige Bard." Andrew leaned back in his chair, "You can read, so you no longer qualify for the savage bard. While becoming a tainted bard is remarkably easy, it's also antithetical to the party I'm trying to build, so that's right out." He rolled his off-hand in the air, "Unfortunately, A Bardic Sage is kinda difficult to get as it requires a rather specific set of conditions. So unless you want to go live in the forest for a few months, that one ain't an option.

 

Andrew held up two fingers, "So that leaves us the Divine Bard, which you should pick up a level when you have a chance, no rush. And last but not least, the obscure class known as The Prestige Bard, which is the one you absolutely NEED to pick up. Fortunately, you already qualify because you have two levels in bard, so we'll get you that one first, before getting you a level in Noble Rake."

 

"I NEED to pick up that one? Why?"

 

"Prestige Bard very very strange. It exists somewhere between an advanced class and a base class. It's both, yet neither at the same time. It's just WEIRD. It is a bard in every way, except that that class doesn't have its own spell progression. Instead, it adds two-thirds of its level to another arcane spell-casting class and grants THAT class access to the bardic spell list."

 

Andrew paused to sip some water, "It was originally a way to make a wizard into a bard because the creator of the class thought that the combination would open up a world of possibilities for wizards and sorcerers." Andrew shrugged, "Nobody took it because of the slow spell progression." He held up a single finger, "However, the way the class was created, there is no reason you can't link it BACK to Basic Bard."

 

Andrew narrowed his eyes, "Actually, now that I think about it, Maybe we can apply the retraining rules and change one level of your basic bard to Divine bard. While we're at it." His eyes went wide, "Of course! That's how to do it!"

 

Andrew pointed at Reginald, "So when you take a level in Noble Rake, if you have one level in basic bard, one level in divine bard, and one level in prestige bard which you link back to the original bard class, all your aristocrat levels will add to all three classes, making you a tenth-level bard for the purposes of casting spells and a sixth level divine bard for spell casting as well, but those will be divine instead of arcane."

 

Andrew stared off into the distance as he tapped his chin in thought, "The Divine Bard features won't stack unfortunately, so you're bardic features will only be twelfth, but when you think about it, that's a lot of punch for someone whose only ninth, eh?"

 

Andrew thought for a bit then added, "Oh, for the divine bard, I highly recommend you take Healing Hymm and Hymm of Fortificaton. Making you and your allies immune to mind control and possession is no joke."

 

Reginald had a glazed-over look as he tried to process the deluge of information, "Hold it. WHAT? That's not..." He started to work out the math on his fingers, "Wait." He stopped when he finished his calculations, "Holy Sweet Gods Above if what you are saying is true then..."

 

"Then you'll go from a loser dragging everyone down to being an absolute bardic BEAST, ESPECIALLY because of the Noble Rake's primary perk."

 

"Which is?"

 

"They can cast party beneficial spells on the entire party all at once via music. Meaning that you can cast buff spells on the entire party by standing still, casting the spell, and playing your instrument." Andrew waggled his head back and forth, "Single-target buffs turn into party-wide buffs. You can only do it once per day per level, but still."

 

Reginald stared at Andrew.

 

Andrew stared back.

 

Time passed.

 

Andrew was starting to get worried by Reginald's inactivity when a single tear rolled down his cheek. Andrew abruptly sat up and leaned in, "Hey, you okay?"

 

Reginald turned away and held a hand to his face to shield his eyes. He took a few moments to compose himself, "I'm sorry. That was... unseemly of me." He cleared his throat, "It's just that... I had resigned myself to being a complete failure in life. Unable to contribute to anyone or anything. Forced to live my life dependent on the charity of others." He cleared his throat as he composed himself before turning back to Andrew, "If everything you just said is true, I might be able to... be... become someone again."

 

Andrew was at a loss for words. He looked off to the side, to avoid looking directly at Reginald's bloodshot eyes, "Regardless of the veracity of my words, you aren't a nobody just because you aren't strong."

 

Reginald let out a bark of laughter, "Oh GODS, do you truly believe that?" He shook his head and let out a rueful chuckle, "Things must be truly different in Edge. Here, if you aren't strong, you're nobody, ESPECIALLY if you are a noble. Nobles cannot have a title without levels in aristocrat, but if you ever fall out of favor, or lose your title, those levels become a millstone around your neck." He raised a finger, "That's why they make nobles take the class. To help keep us in check. Those levels are useless without a title or land you are tied to."

 

 

"In this world, if you are useless, there is no place for you."

 

 

Reginald closed his eyes and tilted his head back, "But to be useful again. To BE someone again..." He took a deep breath before opening his eyes and looking back at Andrew with nothing but endless gratitude, "If you can do this for me... if you can SAVE me..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I will follow you to the end of the world."