Lannon walked along the beaten dirt path, marvelling at the dust as it kicked up in his footsteps. He did notice certain individuals who eyed him with a certain degree of wanton lust, certainly for any of the items he might have. He wondered how many individuals get their games ended before they really begin by these NPC characters. From what he understood, the Cavalier's Den was THE place for noobs to gather when first starting out. If it was always this difficult to get to, there was no telling how many people got blasted in their wake.
Lannon felt a grumbling in his stomach and was absolutely amazed. He could actually feel his stomach growling, and felt hungry because of it. He idly looked around, seeing if there was an eatery stand anywhere nearby, and as luck would have it he saw a fruit stand. He felt into his pocket and saw the 500 gold pieces that he had been given to start the game with. As an alchemist, he started with more money than the usual 300, at the expense of reduced inventory spots in his weaponry and items. He walked to the fruit stand and was instantly apalled.
The owner, an obvious NPC, was an ogress, with a large warted nose and fat hanging off her bones. Her black hair was scraggly, and her eyes were drooped by bags the size of bowling balls. She was repulsive to say the least, Lannon could have sworn that the flies were purposely avoiding her.
"Can I help you," she said in a voice so irritating as to make nails on a chalkboard seem appealing.
"How much does an apple cost?" Lannon asked, making sure as to hide how much gold he actually had.
"20 gold pieces," the old hag replied, "and the price is non negogiable." Lannon was taken aback at the abruptness of the "woman", and hadn't even considered haggling. He reached into his pocket and pulled out twenty gold pieces (the gold was actually divided into small sacks of ten) and handed it to the old woman. She smiled, sort of, and replied, "Bless ya sir." She then belched, which nearly caused Lannon to lose his appetite. Nevertheless, he took the apple and expodisiously moved along.
As he neared the Guild, he deposited the core of the now eaten and, rather delicious, apple into a trash can. He then heard behind him screams of "There he is! There's the thief!" He thought little of it, until he was tackled from behind by a large man.
Lannon landed with an audible thud on the ground, and he tried to reposition himself so he could see his attacker. He turned and saw three individuals, one a boar-like creature walking on two legs, riding a creature like the one L'rak had been riding before. His two compatriots were on the ground, one a goblin dressed in armor not as fancy as the other two, and the other a man with long blonde hair, who was currently pinning him to the ground.
"So, you're the thief who robbed this poor woman?" the boar creature asked, dismounting onto the ground as he did. Lannon was released from the human's grasp, and he quickly got to his feet.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Lannon defensively replied. He hadn't any idea, till he saw the person who was crying out.
"THAT'S HIM! DON'T LET 'EM FOOL YA!" It was the ogress from the fruit stand. She was now stamping her rather large and rather hairy feet on the ground, claiming that Lannon was a thief.
"I am rather inclined to agree," the boar-creature replied. "You should know the penalty for stealing, even something as simple as fruit."
Lannon was flabbergasted. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about, but I paid for the fruit I got from this woman."
"So you admit you took fruit from this woman," the goblin chimed in interrogatively, sneering as he did.
"I didn't TAKE fruit from her, I paid 20 gold pieces for an apple that I purchased."
"See!" the hag replied, "He doesn't even know that an apple from my stand costs 15 gold pieces, not 20!"
"But I..." Lannon was cut off by the boar-creature.
"I've heard enough. You've been found guilty of the crime of stealing, the penalty for which is repayment of the debt by means of indentured servitude, that is of course, unless you are willing to part with certain objects of your person."
"What do you mean?" Lannon asked. The last thing he wanted to be was a serveant for the ogress.
"If you were to part with, say the items in your bag, I could forget this little thing happened. And my goblin friend here could also use a new pair of shoes." The boar-creature smiled a toothy grin, drool falling from his lips. Lannon could hardly believe what was happening. He hadn't done anything, but there was nothing to convince these sentries. He considered using his pendant to summon another sentry, to try and act as an intermediary. He thought it'd be best to know these character's names. He focused a bit on them, and accessed their class/race, but something was wrong.
Nothing came up, especially in the name category.
Remembering what L'Rak had said, Lannon proceeded to stand up to them. "You three aren't sentries! Who are you!?" In truth, he didn't stand a chance against them, but then something happened that he did not expect. There was a loud scream of a highpitched voice coming from the middle of the four individuals, and then the boar-creature, the man, the hag, and the goblin, all faded away, leaving a small satyr-like creature in their place.
"Oh fiddlywinks!" the small creature said, kicking its hoof up in protest. The creature then sat down and crossed its arms in protest.
"What and who are you," Lannon demanded to know, holding his arms on his sword for defensive purposes.
"I'm Plithy," the satyr replied, "a member of the Children of Oberon. And you weren't supposed to see my disguise!"
"Wait, are you a..." Lannon again focused and sure enough, Plithy's name came up when he saw his personal information. Lannon realized that he was being duped by this guy.
"Yes, I'm a real life person, and the boss is gonna be pissed when he finds out you broke my streak."
"Streak of what?"
"Marks...I'd gone for 9 straight folks I'd fooled with this fake sentry bit until you came along. Now I have to abide by the rules."
"What rules?"
"Jeez don't you know anything? I'm a magical creature of high advanced level, I'm supposed to give you something of mine if you figure me out. Company policy. Unfortunately all I have is this page from a magical tome that gives you the disguise spell I just used on you. I liked that spell." Plithy handed over a piece of paper from out of nowhere, which Lannon looked at the paper, and then pulled his tome from his bag, he looked to the back, where additional spells could be placed, and slid the page in. Magically, the page unfolded itself, and bound itself to the book.
"Thanks," Lannon said, as he walked off with a smile, leaving the satyr in a huff.
Lannon finally arrived at the Cavalier's Den and walked inside. It was a typical Medieval tavern, with wooden walls, lit by candlelight, and a roaring fireplace in the corner. Again there was creatures of all types in the tavern, laughing, discussing, and generally having a good time. Lannon looked for the womanish rogue that would be Suzie, knowning that her callsign was going to be Hanna. When he finally found her, he was amazed by what he saw.....
