Chapter II: The Assignment

After about five minutes of uncomfortable silence in which I was trying to learn their names by heart, the errant boy came back again. The door opened, smashing into a chair. The boy turned red and excused himself. He then walked to the table, and put down five scrolls. Bardryn thanked the boy and threw him a copper as she grabbed her scroll. Everyone followed her example, except Maragh who refused to get why we would pay him, and read the scroll. It said this:

Team: DarastrixMembers: 5

Leader: BardrynAdventure Count: 0

Contractor: Ravensburg Ministry of Safety and Health

Briefing: There is a small Goblin warband that has been raiding travellers

the past few weeks. We want your adventurers to either talk them into going away

or to kill them. We will need proof that the band has been taken care of.

Reward: 30 gold pieces, 100 silver pieces

This assignment has been approved of by Area Cali, Guildmaster of Ravensburg

As soon as I finished reading, I thought one thing: This assignment is too easy for that amount of money. If it was really worth that amount of money, it would be more than the proclaimed 'small warband'. This was a serious threat. I looked around at the other adventurers. Maragh was grinning. He must've been thinking it was easy money. The others seemed to have mixed feelings about the mission. Slowly everyone was looking around. What now? After a few minutes Bardryn seemed to realize that she was the leader of the team. She cleared her throat, and everyone, but Maragh, looked at her, waiting for an order. When she spoke, I realized no one had really talked much since we sat down. Only now did I truly hear her voice. It was a low voice for a woman, but also soft and appealing. I realised that she would probably be very attractive in Dwarf terms. Her accent was not as thick as that of other Dwarves he had heard. In fact, her common almost seemed like that of a Human.

'It is only early morning. If we hurry this up, we'll be able to drink on our first successful mission in the evening. I think this will be a perfect warm-up mission for the team. Let's meet outside the Guild in five minutes as I bless this mission.' She had grabbed her holy symbol by then, as she nervously waited for the others to reply. Slowly, I lifted myself, and the others followed. The Minotaur had to wait until the others had stood up so he could lift the table to get out. Everybody grabbed his stuff and walked away. It was all still very uncomfortable. While we left the room, we could hear Bardryn start to pray at the table. She was talking in Dwarven, so I could not understand what she was saying, but it sounded powerful.

As soon as I left the room with the other three, Maragh disappeared in the gathered adventures in the main hall. I now stood next to Asteron, who, I now saw, was actually more that two times as tall as I was. He lowered his head as far as he could without having to kneel, and spoke to me. His voice was rough, low, and the common he spoke seemed to mix with a series of growls and grunts, but in his voice I heard a kindness and respect that I had never heard from anyone talking to a Kobold. 'Wizard, I hope I'm not too forward, and I know all about prejudices, but would you mind watching the assassin and warning me about anything out of the ordinary?' I was actually quite surprised that he would trust me so easily, and I was going to watch him closely anyway, so I agreed. Asteron seemed pleased by that, and he patted me on the head, that being the lowest he could reach.

After a while I realised it was stupid that I hadn't actually introduced myself to the others properly, so decided I would introduce myself as soon as I saw them. As I was walking towards the exit to meet with the others, I ran into the Dragonborn. I actually found her quite attractive. She was sort of like a large Kobold, except more Dragon and less Kobold. It was confusing. I guess I'm easily swayed. Anyway, I introduced myself and offered my hand. She shook it. 'I'm Surina, and I am delighted to work with you.' I was pleased to hear her talk in Draconic, as not many actually know the language good enough to speak it fluently. 'I hope our team will become the number one.' She added. I replied that I hoped the same thing, and I led her outside.

There, we met with the other three team members. Bardryn was very open, as she shook my hand and welcomed me to her, she jokingly said, team. Asteron and he bowed to each other as they introduced themselves, but Maragh was another thing. He was absent, and not the least bit interested.

'Now, let us take off.' Bardryn said, and she turned around, waiting for the team to get moving. We were off.