A simple little tavern in a predominantly human village looking like a faithful portrayal of the fictional medieval era, after all these places were not very common in this time of humanity. However, this story is not set in the real historical world of Europe, but in a medieval-themed fantasy world where humans share space with diverse humanoid races.
The forest fairies and the lords of immortality, the elves. The lords of the mountain and masters of the forge, the dwarves. The discreet, warm and kind people, the halflings. The noble people descended from the mighty dragons, the dragonborn. The curious and explorer gnomes. The descendants of the infernal creatures, tieflings. And two half-breed peoples who share the culture of two races but belong to neither: the half-orcs and half-elves.
A world of adventures, gods of all kinds and mythical and legendary creatures. From the vast lands of Zaron where humans and elves share the same ambition to have a relic of the gods called the 'Stick of the Truth', where its possessors hold the power of the universe at hand.
Pastoria City is not a big city, but it is busy with a relatively successful trade having several paths and a port. The Golden Barrel tavern is very well managed by the friendly Jo Golden Barrel who maintains quality for three halfling generations, an average of 100 years each generation. The space features large wooden tables with backless stools, a counter with stools, mead barrels and a staircase that connects to the rooms on the upper floors. It also has a stage for bards to sing their songs.
At a table a human finds himself alone serving a profile and a mug of mead. This human has an apparent age of 25 years, average height, well-groomed brown hair, no beard, brown eyes and a keen eye for everything. Even though he is above the ideal human weight - which gives a large abdomen -, he has the care of someone vain and a relatively trained body with muscular arms, broad shoulders and thick legs. His butt is a little big for a human of your profile, but nothing to be weird, it just might generate some bad nicknames. Smooth skin without any blemishes or scars. A discreet hole in the slightly squared chin.
Black pants, boots and a red sleeveless shirt that shows a pattern for an adventurous outfit. A red thigh-length robe, a light blue belt with a bag of components, a dark blue cape attached to some gold jewelry, and a bottle detailed with red liquid. A light blue wizard's hat with a gold star in the center. A backpack next to him and a wooden staff.
While eating, a bard sings another song that catches his eye. It tells about the feats of the legendary Grand Wizard, the ancient king of humans. He's famous for getting the title even though he's not noble. By his magical power, he managed to take the Stick of the Truth from the elves and managed to ward off the bloody disputes with a kind of agreement. Really when referring to the king always comes the title Grand Wizard, the king of all humans.
The bard continues to sing and play with his lute on the dedication of the Grand Wizard. The song narrates precisely how he managed to defend the Stick of the truth from several onslaughts by the elves. He even remembers how clever the king was in making a deal with the elf king that the Stick would be placed in a fortification near the border between the kingdoms of Kupa Keep and Elven. This allowed both kingdoms' casualties to decline relatively.
Part of the song tells how the king trained the only descendant of the former royal family, The Princess, to rule in his place. And when the time came, the Grand Wizard willingly relinquished the throne. In an excerpt of the song, the bard pauses for a brief narration.
- Finally, the princess was ready to reign with all wisdom and intelligence. The legendary princess falls in love with our hero. But he is the Grand Wizard. He swore to the kingdom that he would never marry - the bard pauses and begins to sing - The princess reached out, but achieved nothing. But of course, our hero continued, never looking back.
When the bard has stopped singing, the tavern door opens revealing a couple of adventurers. From the clothes you can assume they are a ranger and a martial arts monk.
The man with an apparent age of 18 years has a tall stature and athletic build thanks to his training and performance as a ranger. He is not muscular like a barbarian, but he has enough muscle to be balanced in strength, agility and endurance. His hair is unruly black, brown eyes, a friendly masculine face that has a peculiar lightning bolt scar on each cheek. He wears burnt beige pants and blouse. Long boots, blue-plated wrought-leather gloves. An armor of beaten leather under a blue cloak. Leather belt with a pouch on the side and his two medium sized swords. A black cape and a blue hat.
The monk is of the same age, average height, brown hair and blue eyes. She has a well-trained body and well-developed genetics. Thick thighs, medium-sized breasts and ass, very flexible body worthy of an acrobat or yoga practitioner. She wears a white bandanna with a pink symbol of two snakes in profile, one to the right and one to the left representing a hydra, which is a monastic icon meaning the order highlights the hydra's ability to deliver multiple attacks simultaneously. Her hair is arranged in a loose-backed tail that leaves considerable volume, along with two side strands. She's wearing a white blouse, a black leather vest, a pair of tight blue shorts, and wristbands on each wrist.
Both are carrying adventurers' backpacks and sit at a nearby table. The wizard, who has been watching, notices that the ranger has naive features, a perfect opportunity to sell some worthless trinket for a high price, but the monk seems to be smarter. She has personality traits to work things out with her fists.
"Let's order something to eat, Hilda." the ranger said to the monk.
- Not yet. We need to plan our next mission, Ash. - answers the martial arts monk - our money is halfway through.
- Still, we have money.
- But if we don't worry about it now, we could be in a difficult situation.
- I can hunt easily.
- Look, Ash. I'm not against eating meat, but we need to eat some vegetables and fruits. Not to mention that we are losing focus. We need more people in our group to fight Team Plasma.
- I also have problems with the Rocket Mafia in my homeland. The problem is that many do not want to face these organizations.
- Yes. It would be nice if we could get well-skilled arcane people for our mission.
- I can unleash magic.
- Okay Ash, but your magic level is much lower than a wizard, a sorcerer and a cleric.
- And a warlock?
- Depending on the patron. It might be. We also need a warrior or a barbarian.
- Can't we do the job?
- We could, but if we could find one that is more specialized in distant attacks it would be very good. Or find a relatively trustworthy rogue.
- A bard is easier.
- Not someone with a rogue's skills.
- There's a wizard right there. - Ash turns his head to the fat wizard who is a couple of tables away.
"Be more discreet, Ash." Hilda said.
- Sorry.
- I heard you were looking for a rogue - said a female voice calling the couple's attention.
In front of them there is a hooded woman. She is also tall and has great curves, especially big breasts. She has completely red clothes. Knee-length boots. A short skirt, a black vest capable of offering a tight, lightweight protection and a small hooded overcoat that only has a few buttons buttoned up that leaves the rest open, gloves and a leather belt on top. The most peculiar thing is that the hood prevents them from seeing her face and she has two pairs of horns.
"Yes we are." said Ash.
- We are willing to put an end to some criminal organizations. Take the risk.
- I care more about the payment, if it's good I can face up to a tarrasque - what is most impressive is that the voice is quite cold, slow and difficult to describe. Perhaps because of the lack of emotion and the robotic voice, it is difficult for Ash and Hilda to have an accurate description.
- What's your name? - Hilda asks.
- Courtney - she responds by pulling her hood revealing her face and her white skin (something that could be confirmed by her legs). Short hair combed to the left side, purple eyes and mature expressions. Appears to have an apparent age of 28 years.
The watchful eyes of the two adventurers notice that the girl is not human. Despite all the human characteristics, it has some traits… peculiar if not to say… infernal. The hood horns aren't the outfit's adornment, but it's sticking out of Courtney's head. She is a tiefling. A humanoid being who has devil or demon blood in her veins. Fire resistant beings and a hellish legacy for some spells. Being a tiefling she has a real name, after all like many races the real name is only said between people who trust and the name in the common language to communicate with any being.
"Why, you bitch." said one angry female voice, as two women entered the tavern. One more expressive and one less expressive.
The most expressive girl can clearly see that she is a warrior. Ginger with short hair, green eyes, a little short for an average adult human and apparently 25 years old. At first glance she looks like a very thin girl, but has wide hips both in the bone part and in the flesh of the region. She has small breasts. She has somewhat naive features, looking like she is the daughter of farmers and that she had hardly any contact with the big urban centers. In the human world, pale people who are farmers are called Rednecks. Her white skin with several freckles spread across her face and perhaps her body shows that she is a real ginger.
She is wearing white pants along with a dress shirt of the same color. She is wearing a thigh-length leather boot, two belts that the left side has a purse and the other a strange object, a beaten leather vest, black leather gloves, a red cowboy style scarf and a matching black hat. A female warrior who wears medium armor and specializes in archery that is on her back, along with an exotic club or at least that is what Ash, Courtney and Hilda think it is. On the handkerchief there is a blank design of a skull stuffed with a knife. Heraldic Symbol is a symbol that everyone in the warrior class uses to characterize their warrior style. The symbol she is wearing means: the torment you bring to your enemies.
The second girl is medium height, has wild short black hair and is overweight, but good tongues can tell she's plump. She has big breasts, but the part that draws the most attention is her huge ass. A peculiar feature is that she has the unhealthy appearance of a serious illness, but does not show any other signs of it. She has a very cold expression almost free of all traces of sentiment in her round, full face.
Poe's Plague is a rare disease that affects a person in a painful way. Symptoms are loss of skin color - turning whiter than normal, white pupil, black lips, black spots around the eyes, black tongue and not being able to see the veins in the bloodstream. Other symptoms are high fever, body aches and coughs accompanied by bleeding, but this woman only has symptoms that alter her appearance.
This disease is quite repulsive to most races, but a line of bards called Goths have a certain fascination with this disease and dress up to look infected.
In the way she dresses she looks like a goth, but she is not a bard but a warlock. Warlocks have pacts with powerful and strange creatures that act as patrons. The goth being a warlock explains the sick look, as it is a bond mark.
The outfit she's wearing is a sleeveless black dress that has a generous neckline, open to show her right leg. Black boots, black gloves, a leather belt, a black leather strap that gives light protection. The only weapon she has are two small scythes.
Both girls are arguing, or rather, the ginger girl talks to herself, while the goth warlock just stares coldly but doesn't say a word. Soon the three return to talking, but suddenly an arrow breaks the window almost hitting Courtney. In fact it would hit if she didn't lean back.
The door is broken open and windows are broken and several people enter the tavern. All are pirate men and women dressed in blue and white striped shirts, faded blue pants (for women this is shorts), black waistband, black shoes, socks in the same color as the shirt, gloves and black headband with a white skull on the front .
- Pirates? - Ash gets up and draws his two swords, while Hilda gets up and gets into an attack position.
Courtney pulls out two knives. The bard who was playing runs out to the counter to hide along with the attendants. The ginger who was near the door quickly draws her bow and shoots three arrows every second which already kills 3 pirates. At the same time she walks backwards. The goth runs deeper into the tavern to start attacking with her spells in safety. The wizard sits ignoring the danger.
- How did the pirates get here? There was no city alert." Hilda said.
- Most likely those pirates came stealthily - said the ginger girl - let's attack.
"Kill them all," said one of the pirates.
Four pirates charge at the warrior, but Hilda has already advanced on all four and applies multiple kicking attacks so quickly that they can barely see her leg movements. This is thanks to the Flurry of Blows movement, a technique of the monks.
- Thank you. - the female warrior thanks.
Ash stands in front of the goth to face eight pirates at once. As a ranger, he specializes in facing hordes of enemies and can attack with quick slashes with his medium sized swords.
"Get down." Ash hears something speaking directly from his mind. A voice that seems to speak on all sides at the same time, even without any sound with a sinister tone. Ash bends down and the warlock screams:
- Mystic Blast - she points a finger and releases three straight energy beams that hit three pirates. The impact of the blow is so strong that it knocks them down.
The blow used is a warlock's trick that can be used at will. Depending on the warlock's strength, he/she can release between one to four beams. Dropping three beams shows that the goth is powerful. Ash only wonders why she used a mind communication spell.
A female pirate tries to attack the rogue, but feels a hand that prevents her from launching the attack on her. The pirate woman's eyes didn't see anything, except that in this action of watching, she didn't notice a cut in her throat.
The warrior guards her bow and draws her staff to physically attack the closest pirates. Hilda dodges the stunt attacks, staying close to the tavern's central fireplace. The pirates who are attacking the monk are stopped by the warlock who pulls out her small scythes and goes on the physical attack, while the others are hit by the warrior.
Taking advantage of her breath, Hilda makes some circular movements with her arms and the fire goes in front of her and accumulates in a ball. So when it accumulates in a small sphere, she throws it at a pirate that catches fire.
- A monk from the Path of the 4 Elements? Interesting - the rogue says while attacking the pirates with her knives quickly and dodging all blows.
'Exactly.' replies Hilda.
Her eyes go to the wizard who is sitting at the table as if there is nothing. Hilda soon shouts:
- Oh chubby. Are you going to sit down or are you going to act?
- A monk with sand in her vagina - he stands up with a glass in his hand - is the only explanation.
- Hilda! Leave the wizard alone. - Ash is fighting two pirates at the same time.
Four pirates go towards the wizard, but suddenly he disappears and a very loud sound wave emits at the point where he was knocking the table and the pirates.
- How did he manage to let go so fast? - says the goth speaking. She knows which spell the wizard cast: Thunder Step, a spell that allows a small teleport effect to release a sound wave that deals physical damage. It is an experienced wizard spell even simple that requires the user to say a few phrases of ritual.
"Be prepared, rogue." said the wizard.
The rogue just nods and waits for the wizard to do it.
He just takes a strand of hair from his own head and points the glass in his hand towards the entrance where the pirates are entering. With the other hand, he starts gesturing in circular shapes, while speaking:
- I summon the sky trace that comes from the storm to inflict damage on my enemies. Lightning! - an electric ray practically comes out in the glass that hits the pirates who were entering. The victims entering received a direct hit.
The rogue understands the wizard's intent and uses a trick of her kind called Thaumaturgy to create a harmless earthquake and speaks in a sinister voice.
- Your souls will be mine.
The pirates are startled by Courtney's words. Nor were they having an advantage against the ranger, the warrior, the monk, the warlock, and now the wizard. They leave.
"Thank the gods, it's over," said a hobbit seeing the confusion over.
Ash, Hilda and Courtney are in the town square meeting with the wizard, the warlock and the warrior.
- So you want to face two criminal organizations - said the warrior - correct?
"Yes. We are gathering forces to fight these organizations," Hilda said.
"Looks like they're already attacking." said the female warrior.
"Those pirates are the Aqua Pirates," said the wizard, "I imagine you must know more." He looks at Courtney.
- I do not know what you're talking about.
- You were from the former rival Magma criminal organization of the Aqua team.
- Wait, how did you…?
- Magma organization? - Ash asks.
- It was a predominantly tiefling organization.
- How do you know this information? - Asks the rogue.
- I worked in the capital for a while. I was informed by this.
"Looks like you were a charlatan who made several scams in the capital and in order not to be caught you ran away," said a sinister voice inside the wizard's mind.
"You must be a warlock with a Great Old One patron." said the wizard.
- Great Old One? - Ask Ash and Hilda at the same time.
- Also called The Great Elder, is a type of mysterious entity whose nature is deeply alien to the fabric of reality. It must have come from the Far Realm, the space beyond reality, or it might be one of the ancient gods known only in legend. His motives are incomprehensible to mortals and his knowledge is so immense and ancient that even the greatest libraries pale in comparison to the vast secrets he holds. The Great Old One may be unaware of the wielder's existence or be utterly indifferent, but the secrets the warlock has uncovered allow her to get her spells from him - he pauses and continues:
- One of this patron's abilities is the Awakened Mind, which is to communicate telepathically with someone. It can't read minds, but whoever is listening to the user's voices needs to think about responding.
- She is loose and rarely speaks - said the female warrior who takes a slight push from the Goth.
- So what about you guys joining forces with us? - Ash asks.
"I want to take out the Aqua Pirates." Courtney said.
- We only need money, but we accept the risks,'' said the female warrior.
The warlock expresses nothing in agreement, but also nothing in opposition.
- I'm looking for someone missing.
- Okay. My name is Ash Ketchum. I'm a Hunter-type Ranger.
- I'm Hilda White. I am a Four Elements Path style monk.
- I'm Courtney. I am an Arcane Trickster. I can cast spells.
- I'm Lorrah Thomas. I am a gunfighter warrior.
- Gunfighter? - Ash asks.
- They are warriors who master the art of firearms.
- I'm Mel Gibson. I am a wizard of the Enchantment school. At your services.
