Fire Emblem Tropera

"Honestly girl. You should try not to seem so desperate. Its unbecoming of a woman." *Came a voice from above her. Sureily whoever said this had quite an imposing stature, and presence and—it was actually a small girl probably about a head shorter than Milliana's height. Floating slightly on reddish black scaly wings and having a tail hanging behind her to match. She landed and looked up at Milliana. "If I'm being honest though the requirements for getting into our little group is the ability to not die.so...my name is Kiri, hello"

Something else caught her attention, and she tilted her head to look over at it. That being Astra in dragonform crushing bodies and freezing them. "Ah that's right he was raised by humans. The poor boy is in a rage. Oh well, he'll tire himself out eventually."

edited 23rd Dec '17 4:33:00 PM by Azure

"Honestly Kiri, no need to try frightening the girl with this talk of the grave, she already seems as though she's frightened enough to have one foot in it," Vera said, putting a hand on Milliana's shoulder.

"Call me Vera," she said to the girl. "We always have need of healers..." she glared at her father for a moment. "...competent healers, and where we travel is not safe, but I think we can look after you."

Milliana had been a little nervous about the way Kiri was talking, but hearing Vera's words makes her feel a little better. Everyone in this group seems nice.

"T-Thank you very much! I will do my best to assist all of you... I hope we can all be good friends."

"Oh you poor thing, you must be stuttering from the cold. Let's get you somewhere to rest with a mug of aleeeee....actually, how old are you? Let's settle for something a little less... sharp," Vera said to Milliana.

"I think I see an inn over there which we can settle into for now," Gramps said from the back of the group, sagely holding his stick as he used his old-man powers to find a source of alcohol.

"Let's go then," Vera added, heading towards the building.

Milliana looks a little confused since she's not cold. It's more of her shyness, nervousness, and general lack of experience that causes her to stutter.

"I-I apologize about my stutter... I am simply not used to conversation..."

Milliana then smiles about the offer to have a drink.

"I appreciate your kind gesture... However I am still in my adolescence."

It seems that Milliana speaks rather... stiffly for lack of a better word.

edited 31st Dec '17 4:29:41 PM by CrystalMemoria

Kiri looked Milliana up and down with an incrediulous ook on her face. "Exactly how old are you, girl?"

Milliana has a confused look on her face.

"W-Well... I am sixteen years old. Why? Is something wrong?

"By human standards you're a grown woman. You can have a little mead if you want." Kiri said, as she followed gramps into the Inn.

Milliana is following Kiri and gramps to the inn.

"O-Oh. I suppose I can try mead..."

"Of course, some tea or cocoa should be more agreeable, yes?" Vera said as she went into the inn. She stopped at an unoccupied table that had a bunch of little carved stone and wooden figures, none larger than her thumb - almost reminiscent of chess pieces, though more detailed. Next to them were several thin books.

"I've seen this before," she said. "It's a game of war they play in Sowtland. Like chess, yet it follows a strange set of rules defined in those tomes, and requires us to keep track of mathematical values on sheets of paper. Sheets which we need to purchase from the innkeeper alongside our drinks. Seems as good as any other way to pass the time." She sat down at the table waved over at an exceptionally busty serving girl to bring them ale and mead, as well as something more appropriate for the younger members of their band.

After that little talk on Miliana's age, Damien follows Gramps, Miliana and Kiri into the inn. Luckily, Vera got the drinks in time. Damien grabs a glass of mead and chugs it down.

Damien noticed a group of taverngoers playing a tabletop game with miniature figures and lots of dice. Vera seemed to know more about this game than she let on.

"Sounds like a fun game," notes Damien. "What kind of characters do we play?"

Grendan hovered one hand over Milli's shoulder, almost- but not quite- resting it there; thanks to Astra, he had at least some experience with shy people. "Don't feel pressured to try alcohol if you don't want to. I mean, I never have any, since I don't like how it makes me act." He chuckled a bit. "I've gotten a bit of trouble about it thanks to those 'real men are drunkards' types I keep running into, but I think never having hangovers in battle more than makes up for it on its own."

Astra, meanwhile, had finally calmed down; they were currently ordering a particularly strong drink, but Grendan's comment about disliking booze drew an odd look from them. "Th-that... won't be a problem if... y-you build up your tolerance..." they countered weakly.

"Yes, and the process of building up that tolerance involves getting drunk. Kind of a conflict of interests, I'd say."

Milliana's a bit nervous by Grendan being somewhat close, but she appreciates him telling her this.

"R-Really? If you are certain... I would rather not become, erm, 'drunk'. I suppose I will request something else instead."

"T-Thank you very much. I was really nervous about drinking mead..."

She decides to order cocoa.

"I have no idea," Vera said to Damien as she drank from the tankard of mead the barmaid set down in front of her. "It's not as though I know how these sorts of amusements work, I simply heard about it once or twice before. When dealing with merchants passing by."

Over on the other end of the bar, Gramps held a bucket-sized tankard of mead in one hand, and a dart in the other. After taking a drink, he threw the dart at the dartboard, and landed a bullseye.

Which would have been impressive if it was the bullseye on the dartboard he was aiming at, and not the one several feet to the side.

Zeera came with the others into the inn, eyeing the strange pieces as Vera explained what they were for. She had no idea why people would need books, or why they would need to keep track of anything on separate records. Most games Zeera had encountered, from long, long ago, were relatively simple and could be explained in one go, at least as far as she remembered. Still, even if they were made out of simple materials, they did look kinda valuable and collectible.

She also eyed some of the drinks the others were having, though refrained from drinking as much as the others would have.

"What are the local specials around here?" she asked to whoever seemed to be serving them, after which she would likely order such an item unless it didn't sound like something she'd want to eat.

Kiri was obviously feeling pretty good, as she seemed to drink down an entire tankard in one go, then demanded more of the barmaid that was serving them. She looked over at Vera and the strange game he was looking at. "Ooooh I know this! Gather up four others who are willing. Waitress! Bring us those peices of partchment. About five of them for my friends, and for me the screen." after loudly exclaiming her excitment she reached into her pack and brought out a sack which she dropped onto the table letting strange multicolored dice of many shapes and sizes spill out. "You all are in for a treat, this was actually a game first conceptualized by my kind, then adapted for human use by a group of eccentric mages."

edited 2nd Jan '18 7:15:55 PM by Azure

"Well if you insist... I suppose I'll participate," Vera said. When the barmaid came by with the paper, Vera firmly grabbed one of them and set it down in front of herself, along with one of the pencils.

"Who else?"

Zeera was a bit startled by Kiri's sudden outburst in enthusiasm, though if she seemed to value this strange form of game, then perhaps it was worth at least experiencing. Aside from her time with the mercenaries, there was not much occasion for her to engage in such things, traveling as she once did.

"I guess I could try to learn the rules of this game."

After ordering a Hot Jones cocktail, Damien listened to the others talk more about the strange board game. Vera only heard about the game through rumors, but Kiri seemed very enthusiastic to the point of ordering the waitress to bring her game materials. She even owns special dice for this particular game. Kiri claims that the dragons made the game itself before being passed on to a group of strange magicians.

"Count me in. If she's interested, then it must be fun, right?"

"I, um... I might as well try..." Astra added as they claimed a sheet of their own. "So, um... how do I..." they muttered as they started looking through one of the rulebooks.

Grendan, meanwhile, found himself looking over Astra's shoulder, adding his own comments and suggestions from time to time.

"I want to be a witch." Vera said flatly. She had a rulebook in front of her defining features and traits of a witch class and, more importantly, a sketch of a rather poorly-armored witch.

"That's fine this game is all about being someone different for a little while. It used to be a form of meditation a way to gain another view point." she cleared her throat and stopped being pretentitious about that to quicky. Went through how to make characters for themselves with each one. Then, taking on a theatrical tone of voice she described that each other characters had been hired by mysterious man, offering a not insignificant amount of gold and were to meet at a tavern. Said tavern is teeming with others like them, Adventurers, people who brave the dangers of the real in order to bring back its hidden treasures. :"Now, please introduce your characters."

Damien looks at his character sheet with mixed amounts of confusion and awe. How can this idea be so stupid and yet so awesome at the same time?

"Huh... It says I'm a pasta chef called Ramenman," notes Damien as he reads his character sheet again. "I wander the realm in search for the finest noodle recipes and I beat up thugs who would besmirch the teachings of the honorable Flying Spaghetti God, whatever that is."

"Erm... Rinsewater the wizard... but not a very good one- I got stats that're better for running away..." Astra added.

"Er, can we get bonuses for deliberately adding problems to our characters? Because if so, maybe we could make this guy a better utility character by making him a coward," Grendan piped up.

Kiri sighed a little. "Your character is not a block of numbers. It is a mask you put on to temporarily slip into another life. This is theater, the numbers are simply a way to make the imaginary tangible to our minds. You are Rinsewater, a Wizard who is good at running away. And Grendan either join in or try not to distract the others but if you insist a coward would have bonuses to running away." she turned to whoever next

"Vera its your turn."

edited 5th Jan '18 6:19:21 PM by Azure