Out of work, out of luck, out of time, out of choices and out of resources... three distinctively different creatures have somehow someway made their way into this saloon, the dewing-ed blight. The walls constructed from rusted formerly painted aluminum with uneven insignia of the ancients: a running horse etched one part of a wall and strangely on another a weird jumping deer with spikes for antlers on another which appears to have originally been blue or even faded green.
Since it is mid-morning the bar is only barely open, with what looks like a pure strain human cleaning ceramic cups behind the bar and a sleeping bush humanoid sleeping in a chair with a sprawling tentacle or a root rolled out, outside the doors to the bar keeping the doors ajar inserted in the brown clay colored dirt outside.
Entering the bar, you see a human of Asian descent with skin that shimmers in the light. His hair moves slightly as it blowing in the wind, and he is wearing shining armor with a sword buckled on his hip and a shield currently on his back. He scans the room, then is visibly disappointed before taking a seat at a table near the wall.
A large 8-legged Tiger forces its way through the entrance, clearly annoyed by the fact that doors don't seem to make any allowance for antlers as magnificent as his own. Oddly enough, the beast seems to have some form of chain armor draped over him, along with a large pack with a multitude of small leather scroll cases affixed to it.
After successfully besting the door, he strides forward confidently, eyeing all the patrons as he approaches the bar. Sitting back on his haunches, he places his front paws on the bar, at which point his tail begins fiddling with various scroll cases on his back. As it does, the end of the tail seems to unravel into five smaller tips with which it flips a scroll case open and delicately pulls out a worn sheet of paper. Placing a paw upon one end and unrolling it with his tail, he then lifts it up and shows to the bartender. "Whiskey and Milk in a Large Bowl," it reads in neat, if a bit faded handwriting. His tail then produces a small amount of dromar to pay for the drink along with a generous tip.
Nearly four meters of plant seems to materialize in the doorway with a groaning noise, branch and trunk and root strain to twist in to a mass that can make it through the door. After what sounds like an eternity, the tree gives up and plants itself in the clay dirt outside. This societal interaction was going to be more difficult than it originally planned for. For now it would stand, a mighty willow in this town, waiting for something to come near enough to interact with. In the ground it begins to carve out a message that reads "Bored, give me a job please."
The bartender turns around and says, "Welcome to the Dewing-ed Blight" he stumbles as he starts to slowly read the note...
"Whiskey in a bowl with milk... hrmmm, sure...."
He grabs two large ceramic jugs, one that was sitting in some machine covering only the bottom and the other from behind the bar. On the jug from the machine there seems to be frost about two inches from the bottom and the other is normal. The man pours 50/50 into the bowl and hands it over.
He notices the tree lumber in and sees what it wrote, "Can you pour drinks from outside? If it were summertime we would open the patio and you could have been the outside bartender."
He then moves inside and looks at Hiru and says, "What'l be chief?"
"I shall have an...ale. And do you know of any pirates in this area? especially ones with ships?" Hiru says, hope in his eyes.
The man says, "Well sir, I can definitely help you with the first request but not necessarily the latter. I haven't heard much piracy on Lake Michgloom."
He stops chews a bit of straw in his mouth and says, "What kind of jobs are you qualified to do?"
Hobbes works through his bowl slowly, his ears cocked, obviously paying attention to the conversation going on beside him. Interested, he pauses for a moment to fish out another scroll, this time also bringing out a quill and ink bottle. He puts his forepaws on the paper, holding it flat on the table and begins swiftly and deftly writing on it using his tail. When he finishes, he holds it up to the bartender and the man seeking pirates.
It reads: "I am called Hobbes. I am looking for work as well, to pay for my travels. My tribe sent me to learn about the world. I am trained in the ways of combat of my people, much like this one appears to be." An arrow on the page points in the direction of Hiru. Beneath it, the text continues: "Also, have either of you heard of the Great Tiger?" The neat handwriting matches that of the earlier worn parchment.
As they read through it, he fishes out another scroll, this one covered with snippets of the teachings of the Great Tiger and passages extolling his wisdom. When he does, he looks at the two with what passes for a look of reverence on a large cat.
Looking at the three of you and then says loud enough so all can easily hear, "If you three are of a resourceful ilk, you may be interested in meandering your way to the Aspiration Hall and talking to a Restorationist named Justinian. He has been coming by every other day looking to form a triad or larger. He is a pleasant and honest man. You may consider going there."
"Ooh, a quest giver! Can you point me in the direction of this Aspiration Hall?"
The tree begins to scratch a new message in to the hard clay, "Thank you, if he does not have work for me I will be back to mix drinks." at which point the tree starts heading his slow meandering way towards the largest building he saw floating over the city.
The bartender collects Hiru's money and then sends you on your way.
It takes you about twenty minutes until you reach the Aspiration Hall and the door has an ancient lock with a knocker on the front.
Hiru will knock excitedly on the door, then again if he does not get a response.
Hobbes finishes the rest of his drink quickly, and growls in a thankful tone to the bartender before hopping down and heading out the door. He tails the other two, eyeing the large plant creature as they head towards the hall. Along the way he pulls out yet another piece of parchment, this time with a request for introductions, and uses his tail to wave it in front of the two when they arrive at the hall.
"I am called Hobbes. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintence," the parchment reads.
He then waits both for introductions from his new travelling companions, and for whomever might come answer the door.
"Would you like to join my group, Sir Hobbes? and have you ever heard of a pirate named Bikke? I have to beat him to get his ship so that I can sail to elfland."
Hobbes nods his head in response to the first question, and then seems to shrug in response to the question about a pirate.
The tree runs a specialized branch over the paper, reading the page by the rise of the ink. Suddenly it whips the branch down and starts scrabbling more words in the dirt. "I have not met one of your kind, you are interesting. May I study you?"
"Well, then, Sir Hobbes. What class are you?"
As you are speaking a woman in bright orange robes with brown hair that evolves to green feathers, her hands have long finger nail brightly lacquered and after an inch from her finger tips, form the talon of a bird, opens the large door and says, "Welcome to Aspiration Hall, if it wouldn't trouble you greatly, may you feel free to state your business. For this is Meriga's headquarters for the Restorationists."
The woman waves you into the hall and you can see the place is filled with many ancient artifacts most of which you have no idea what they actually do. On a pedestal you see a glass bowl connected to a walrus with big metal teeth.
Use Artifact to decipher what it is DC 9
"Lady guard NPC, I am here to meet with quest giver Justinian!"
......................................................................
The lady guard says with a smirk on her face, "Well Male Visitor NPC, Tiger NPC and Large Tree NPC, if you follow me you will be able to meet with Justinian, our lodge leader. By the by what does NPC stand for? Nanaduck Parmajuke Chromastat? "
She then waves her hand and gestures you to follow.
"Non-Player Character. I'm one of the warriors of light, so I'm a Player Character, or PC. I'm working on preventing the decay of the world." With that, Hiru produces a crystal that seems to radiate light from within it.
The woman says, "Well I am a Restorationist, a person trying to bring back the light from the darkness, so I think I am a "according to your terminology" Player Character and you must be the NPC, fore I am not just trying to prevent the decay of the world but actively trying to counteract the mistakes of the ancients by understanding them better. Which is inherrently the goal of our order but of course, you need to speak to our leader. Good luck Male NPC..."
She then giggles and exits stage left, most likely to get tricked by an evil cleric in a chaotic cave or to find a KGB spy on the Orient Express or even bring a silly Tian Xian girl to the land of her forebears to kill a Tiefling.... but who knows where she may end up... not I..... .
Not having handy dirt to write in, that tree ponders the odd actions of sapient animal creatures. It does not try to decide on the nature of the walrus as such things are beyond the scope of its caring.
Hobbes gives a half-shrug to Hiru's question about his class, unsure of what he means. In response to the tree's query, however, he quickly produces the scroll which serves as a pamphlet on the Hobbesians' beliefs and the teachings of the Great Tiger and hands it to the tree.
When the lady appears at the door, he is content to let Hiru do the talking for now as he listens intently. When they pass by the crazy metal walrus, Hobbes takes a moment to inspect it, but can't make heads or tails of it.
A man comes in wearing a red wastecoat with some archaic looking insignia and underneath he wears a frilly tuxedo shirt with a bandoleer and a powder horn slung across his chest, with an orange cummerbund and a pair of skin tight breeches that seem to have some sort of plastic pieces on his thighs and knees.
He says, "Well, my name is Justinian, leader of the Restorationist movement in Ascension. As you may be aware, we are trying to learn from the ancients and their mistakes to make the world better for all peoples. What pray tell are your names fine sirs?"
He then hands over some paints and some cardboard to That Tree.
"Greetings Quest Giver Justinian! I am Hiru, one of the warriors of light! I am here to prevent the decay of the world."
That tree accepts the scroll from the ten-pointed. Without any sign of understanding it runs a soft branch a crossed the page and then places it in a sack held in its branches. Following along with the others it listens calmly as the "Hiru" continues his constant stream of odd sayings and terminology for everything.
When given paint and a cardboard it suddenly becomes animated, whipping around its specialized ranches and began lovingly crafting a sign before attaching it proudly to a branch and placing it in the are. It reads
"BORED.
Will work for experience and money."
Justinian smiles after reading the tree's sign and then says, "Well, you folks, no offense, are in luck."
He then shifts his feet a little and says, "Here is the situation: An agent of ours is missing. He had been sent to an ancient installation called the Sagow Enstoot a month ago. He is presumed to be dead. It is our standard procedure to attempt to recover the body in such cases. We would like you to do that for us. "
He continues, "Our base rate for such a venture is 200 domars per sentient, 100 of it paid in advance. If you recover the body, there is a 250-domar bonus for each of you, 500 if you bring him back alive. If you bring back proof that he is alive and some clue of his whereabouts, that is also worth 250 domars each. If you return with the results in ten days or less, that is worth another 100 domars each. Of course, we only pay surviving members of the expedition. Are you still interested?"
"Quest Accepted!"
The tree strips off a portion of cardboard and writes in a yes and a no. Holding it up he points to yes with another branch and waits.
Justinian shakes his head and looks at the cardboard and says, "This is a job. Anyway, good. Now, we will provide you with a map to get to Sagow Enstoot, but you will have to provision yourselves. You should be able to so with your advance. The missing agent's name is Daradall. He is a snakeman with wings. He hired a group of sentient squirrels to go with him. They are known to be trustworthy so we have little reason to suspect treachery."
He continues, "I can't tell you much about Sagow Enstoot. The map I am giving you only shows the entrance to it. The reason Daradall's group was sent there was to make preliminary explorations, so we don't have any more detailed information."
He pauses to take a quick breath and asks. "Do you have any questions before you go?"
The tree waits for the others to ask questions while it quietly points at no on its sign.
Justinian gives each of you 10 silver domars(each silver domar is worth 10 normal or bronze domars) and then says in a grave manner, "Does any one of you happen to have any questions that I could answer for you"
"Do you know anything about the Sagow Ensnoot dungeon? does it have a particular theme?"
Justinian says, "I am not sending you to a prison of the pre-ancients in Ropers but an Enstoot, which we are not sure what it is. However, what I can tell you that there is a large hill kilometers across as you can see on the map. Somewhere on the top is a moss- and ivory covered stone hidden in a thicket of trees. That should be the entrance to the Enstoot."
He then walks over to Hobbes and whispers,
"Well, it looks like we have two different ways to go: either overland, or along the road. If we take the road, we're less likely to get a random encounter, which means that we'll get further along before we do. if we go overland, we'll be slower but higher level when we get to the dungeon."
The tree thing ignores the constant barrage of oddness coming from his new companion. It now had something to do, add to that it was getting yet more of those currency things. All in all this should keep it occupied for a few weeks, maybe. With a grown of limbs and a purpose of motion the tree starts its long march towards its new target. One thought coursed along every inch of this plant's being, This better be interesting.
Hobbes looks at Justinian and gives a half-grin and a shrug. He then lays out the map and unrolls it so he can get a better look at it. After a few moments he points to the road, indicating that he would prefer to travel as far as possible by it.
Satisfied, he rolls up the map again, his tail picking it up and handing it back to Hiru.
Taking the map, Hiru will say "Very well. Let us proceed down the road then." Hiru will then begin walking.
Hobbes bows to Justinian in thanks before turning to leave along with Hiru and the Tree.
You make your way out of the city of Ascension through the windy streets and after an hour of travel you finally get to the city gate and walk your way following the road which is pot marked and in disrepair. The black soft rock named for its internal blackness not its external grey blueness is unkempt, there seems to be the remnants of a yellow line and at point a double yellow line. You do not really understand why it is there but it is colorful so it keeps your attention for a time. For the first six klicks, the area surrounding the road is being used as farmland where large rye plants the size of tree line the streets. You just imagine how delicious the whiskey made from such grain would taste. Afterwards, lining the road are the thistle forests, the thistle grows six feet tall with a large flower on top.
After about four hours you make your way to the town of Hahl. A vassal city of the city state of Ascension the people here are a mix of mostly pure strains and mutated humans. They seem to be mostly farmers and those bartering their wares.
You continue along the roads where the Thistle tree forests change to pine tree and then breaks away where farm land continues as you get closer to the town of Cold Water, Cold Water is a bit larger than Hahl, and to the west you can see the waters of Lake Mitchican. It is mid afternoon.