Obviously, they were siblings. The familiar resemblance was too great. They all had the same brown hair and light gray eyes. It was very striking. The eldest of the three cleared his throat and said "What are you doing here? If a 'taur is going to start trouble, we're going to stop it." He had his arms on his hips as he said it. He was playing hero for his siblings. I just rolled my eyes. "The priest said I have to deliver this urgent message to the blacksmith. If you are him, I can get your response and take it to him." The third brother was the youngest. "Father is still in the privy. We are his apprentices. You're going to have to wait." he said. I sighed and waited. The brother that was stoking the fire in the forge went back to work. The others watched me in a mix of fascination and fear. I looked back at them. "Hey!" the eldest said as he pointed at me. "Yeah?" I responded. "Aren't you gonna... you know?" he demanded. "I know what?" I demanded. "You know! Get drunk and try to rape women or shoot people with arrows as you run with your tribe!" the youngest supplied the answer. I just shook my head.
Stereotypes aside, I was impressed that they thought I could be that dangerous and just stood there waiting for me to make the first move. "What would you have done if I was that type of centaur?" I asked out of curiosity. The eldest smirked as he stepped forward. Walking right up to me, he poke me in the stomach. "I already said it. If a 'taur like you were acting up in the village, we'd put a stop to you. We've made lots of weapons and we know how to use them. You wouldn't stand a chance!" I really doubted that. On the other hand, the random villages sometimes spawned random villagers with heroic feats. It was to discourage slaughtering NPCs. You never knew if some kid had God Hand, a legendary unarmed fighting style that did 75 force damage on a miss and 1000 damage on a hit. Or even worse, Holy Seal, the ability to cut your exp. in half just by touching you. The game guide on the forums said that these were all latent abilities that only emerged when attacked. It made some sense, if you wanted NPCs to rise and become heroes and powerful characters, you needed them to survive.
With this, it also had a good built in backstory for each of these characters. 'I was living a normal life in my village, until insert-baddie-here attacked. I then awakened to a new power that I will use for justice/evil.' It was genius in a way. These three brothers could be instant death, and I did not want to risk it. Waiting for the blacksmith took a while, but he did arrive. He obviously had not seen me yet as he sighed and said "Don't tell your mother, but today's breakfast really did not agree with me. Do not go into the privy for a bit. It might even need to be redug later. Wow!" He then saw me and flushed in embarrassment. His sons all laughed at him. "Oh yeah!? We'll see who is laughing when I send you to cut a switch for me." he snapped. That shut them all up. The blacksmith then looked me up and down. The man was rugged and built due to his work. He had shaggy brown hair, but his eyes were blue. The must have gotten their gray eyes from their mother. "What do you want? We don't see your kind around here." he said. I gave him the message and let him read it. "What a waste of time." he groaned.
Under the terms of my fetch quest, I just needed to take back his response. Finding out what would be a waste of time was not part of it. I waited until he finished reading it all. "Okay, I finished reading it. What else do you want from me? I don't have all day." he said. "Father Clinas would like a response. Will you write one, or should I send him a verbal message from you?" I asked. He rolled his eyes. "I can write. Just give me some time to tell him what I got to say." I nodded. He looked around his desk for a quill, ink and paper. "What did the priest want, Father?" the eldest son asked. The blacksmith rolled his eyes. "I'll tell you when we are alone." he said. The three boys got to work doing things around the workshop and forge in the meantime. When the blacksmith was done, he handed the response over to me. "This note is for his eyes only, 'taur. Got that?" "I understand." I replied as I began to leave his workplace. I galloped over to the chapel to give the letter to the priest. Hopefully, Father Shalo was not too frazzled from their conversation. When I got there, Shalo had a small smile on his face.
