I don't own D&D or Digimon.
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Sora
The mirror shows so many visions of her friends, each having their own adventures and never really encountering each other. Next to her, Benio also gazes at the fleeting glimpses. They watch as G'roth and Wolfclaw become permanent fixtures within the party they met with during an attack by raised members of a city, to the leader becoming so consumed with vengeance, and to the closeness developing between Sayna and G'roth.
Flickering images of Yair and Orn dungeon crawls shows them fighting along side different people. They catch a few lingering glimpses of peace, with the two often just sitting next to each other, enjoying each other's company and that of their current crew. Neither develop any lasting relationships with those they sometimes ended up in bed with due to being drunk or under magical charms/enchantments.
The images of Gael and Radko seem to be seen through lens touched with water or frost. Much like the images of Cro and Donaar seem to sport the touch of steam or heat while with Harsha and Oakcalm seem to be viewed from a lens that enhances color. Each of these three pairs sport selection of images of not just battle but times of interaction with powerful forces that grant them the barest touch of their power, bit it from Sprits to their Deity.
There are a few images of the youngest two, although each seems to be of rather different from each other. With Ren and Karren, it seems to be of interactions with tribes and packs of werebeasts while with Kero and Asa, it's Kero the Elf or Hiss the Lizardfolk accompanying Asa throughout proper cities, some monstrous, a few truly breath taking, and to the more common ones created by the more common races. While Ren and Karren were often shown being stealthy and stealing from folks, so they watch Kero/Hiss and Asa acting as merchants, selling gear and items they found during their own adventures or that they repaired personally or by paying someone to repair it professionally.
"They seem to be having an interesting time, don't they?" Benio muses softly and Washi nods in agreement. "It's not the same, watching them having all of the fun."
"The images are slowing down, we must be coming to here and now." Washi says and sure enough, the flickering chaotic of images have died down and shows seven groups in different locations. "Three years since we began..."
Benio nods while saying, "A whole year of torture for us before we finally died and a year of traveling this plane until we finally used the mirror."Washi closes her eyes, she feels responsible for what happened to them, after all, she had been the one to pick their races along with classes.
"Hm, looks like there's going to be a run in between two parties."Benio muses and she opens her eyes, gazing down at the mirror. A chuckle erupts as the two teams getting within sight of each other.
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Izzy
Isn't that? But it's a... Could they be?Were just some of the thoughts going on within Yair's mind at the sight of a certain symbol upon this stall banner.
"Yair, isn't that the crest of Hope?" Orn asks him in a soft tone. "What are the odds we'd find them here?" His partner wonders after a few seconds of silence where they are staring up at the banner.
As Yair recovers, he presses through the crowd to find a stall being run by an Elf and a rather pale looking human. "TK?" "Patamon?" Orn and himself blurt out and the two stall merchants glance their way, their puzzled expression shifts into acknowledgement, likely due to seeing their own crest.
"I'll stay here and man the stall." The Elf says and the other blinks before nodding. They move to find an out of the way spot to speak. They end up in a tavern at the bar counter, Yair trying to decide if this is TK or Patamon, although he is leaning to the blond Elf being TK but is waiting for confirmation.
"Ah, you are...?" Orn inquires after they put in an order of drinks. The man hums a bit before replying to the question.
"Asa, also known as Patamon. You should know who Kero is." Asa answers before nodding at them, indicating that it's their turn to introduce themselves.
"Yair, also known as Izzy and this is Orn." The wizard states while the Genasi holds up a hand, waving it slightly before lowering it once more. "So, merchants?"
"It started out selling gear, items, and weapons we loot to adventurers for used gear and coin. We've traveled to some exotic places and have made a lot of money doing so. It helps that we can slip into any setting." Asa explains.
"Haven't done any dungeon crawling?" Orn asks once their drinks have arrived. He is having a hard time imagining an Elf being able to slip into some of those dark and evil camps and cities. A blond elf, that would pretty much cause him to stand out.Were his thoughts on the matter as Asa takes a sip from his mug.
"It's hard to do it without extra hands. Mostly we do mercenary work along with raiding bad guys supply lines." Asa says before adding, "Yea, I know it sounds bad but you have to understand that those serving in said places always take some off the top so our thief of goods aren't that noticeable."
"Hard to imagine that with an elf, you'd get away with it." Yair states with a head shake. Asa blinks a few times before laughing.
"He's a Lythari." Asa states as though it explains everything and in its own way, it does. "So, what have you guys been doing since we last met?" The rather pale man inquires in turn.
"Dungeon crawling and visiting various libraries." Yair explains while he swirls the contents of his mug. He hadn't expected to run into team Hope, team likely Friendship, maybe Sincerity or even Courage, yes, Hope not really. Have TK and I ever interacted much outside of the group activities?
"Ah, well, have you meet up with any of the others then?" Asa asks curiously after a few minutes of silence in which he did take a few sips of his drink. Orn and himself glances over at each other before either of them replies.
"No we haven't and since you asked that, neither have you guys." Orn answers and Asa just nods in agreement with that statement. "It came as a bit of a surprise to see your crest on that stall banner."
"Well, I guess the odds of us meeting weren't that long given as both of our groups seek out cities." Asa muses thoughtfully. "So, you just arrived or what?" The man asks.
"Just looking for some food supplies before we visit the city's libraries." He answers. "How long have you two been here?" Yair asks in turn.
"About two weeks. We'll be leaving after the festival which starts in two days." Asa answers. "I think we'll be heading to the northeast coast, there's been an increase in piracy. Might get hired on as guards or slip into the pirates' camps."
They had heard about that but as there weren't any old keeps or temples about that area, they were planning to head south towards the Crimson Cliff Castle, rumors have it that some cult has been making inroads into ascending out of this plane of existence. "Well, good luck with that, although I can't help but wonder just how you will be able to slip into those pirate's good graces given that Kero is an Elf." He states with a slight shaking of his head.
"We have managed it before and will likely managed it again. Also, you might want to pick out a gift if you visit the Wisdom Center of All Thing Light, and I kid you not, that is the name of the library that was created after some cult set fire to the previous libraries." Asa goes on to explain, "They believed that the written word is a blasphemous act as it give voice to fiends and demons. Of course, since the cult viewed any kind of magic user as evil, including Clerics with the exemption of Invokers and Paladins as they are direct channels to the might of the Gods."
He couldn't help but feel dumbfounded upon hearing this information. "As such, to gain entry into the new library, you have to be prepared to hand over a book of any kind, sheet of music, or even a painting." Yair fixates Asa with a look of disbelief. "They typically send out a weekly list of books and music they prefer to be gifted to the library to all of the book stores and vendors."
I wonder if there's any place with a magical printer around here... He wonders to himself, although the few times he's inquired about such a thing, everyone gave him the strangest looks. Perhaps I should just create one myself and become rich on the profits of owning such a unique device?Yair mentally adds, although that would take time out of their dungeon diving but it would mean he would have one when he really wanted to copy something in a complete way and not by making notes in one of his blank books.
"I don't suppose you ever came across for plans for a copier?" He asks, not really thinking they had. But a guy can hope right?
"Hm, closest we've come across are this magical ink pens. You put the ink bottle on the page you want copied and the pen will begin writing upon the blank page." Asa states and he blinks, but it seems that there was a way to copy something without doing it yourself.
"How many of these do you own?" Yair asks after a few seconds. They didn't run out of them, have they?
"Well, we donated them to various temples and shrines if not to city libraries. Although, if you want a few of them, Kero knows the enchantment, unless you want the spell?" Asa asks, glancing between them.
"Kero's a wizard?" He asks rather stunned as Kero hadn't been dressing as one. "And how much for a copy of the spell?" Why not just make as many I need? Although, I guess I could take one apart to puzzle out the spell...
"Let's see... I do have a price list on me..." Asa murmurs while he checks his pockets only to find it in one of his inner pockets of his leather vest. "It is priced at thirty gold and twenty-five silver."
"That's kind of reasonable." Yair admits and Asa replies, "Well, not much of a market for the spell or for items. Seems that most magic users prefer to write things out in their own hand."
He did think about it before nodding, they finish their drinks and leave the coins under the empty mugs before leaving the tavern. As Asa slips behind the stall, they wait for Kero to finish with a customer before informing him about the sale. Kero then ducks behind this curtain and comes out with a rolled parchment that the spell has been written on.
He digs through his purse for the correct amount while Orn holds onto the spell. "Here you go." Yair says, dropping them on Kero's out stretched hand.
"Pleasure doing business with you." The elf says with a smile and he nods. "Enjoy your time in the city and you should be able to find us here."
"Until after the festival." Yair states and Kero nods in agreement with. He takes the spell from Orn as they are walking away from the stall.
Once about a block away, he unrolls the parchment and reads the writing upon the scroll. Yair nods a bit at some of the ingredients and the preparations needed for both the ink bottle and the pen. "We'll be needing to visit a glass merchant and a blacksmith." The spell ingredients are rather common to find and should be the cheapest part of their new additions of a shopping list.
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Joe
He stares at the icon of the crest of Knowledge with a thoughtful look upon his face. Looks like Izzy and Tentomon visited this dungeon before us. It's hard to tell how long ago they've been here though.Gael muses to himself before finally moving away from the wall upon which sports the crest engraved upon it.
"Are we going to add ours under their crest?" Radko asks him as he comes to sit by the cooking fire. The cleric gets a thoughtful look upon his face before answering his partner's question.
"I guess we should. Did you want to the honors?" He asks his companion as he stirs the stew pot a bit before pulling the ladle up to take a taste of the stew.
Radko gets up after unsheathing a dagger. With a fewer strides then it would take for him, the Goliath makes it to the spot and Gael can hear metal scrap against stone. As his partner does that, he adds a spoonful of spice to add a touch more flavor to the stew.
When Radko comes back, he is once more sampling the stew, finding it done, carefully swings the cooking arm away from the fire. His partner holds out a bowl once the stew pot is no longer in the fire and using the ladle, he add stew to the bowl. As the bowl fills up, Radko moves that bowl down and brings up the other one for him to fill, which he does.
Putting the ladle back into to the pot and swinging the arm holding the stew pot so it hangs a bit closer to the fire, he picks up the second bowl and using a knife, begins to pull out some of the stuff that made up the stew and blows on it for a few seconds before taking a bite out of it.
As the temperature of the liquid cools, he begins to drink some of it. The warmth spreads throughout his midsection and up into his ribs. It's a nice feeling given the weather, which has been rather gloomy and wet. Radko gets up to serve himself a second bowl while he turns to look at the tower they are about to enter into in search of adventure and loot.
"You sure you have a good feeling about this place?" Radko asks him, it's a question he had been expecting given their discovery of the crest of Knowledge. "Wouldn't Izzy and Tentomon have found it if they've already explored this place?"
"Well, I'm not certain that the item we need to end the game is in there but something is in there that might help us. I can't explain it but I really have a good feeling about this tower." Gael admits to his partner, he glances up at the tower's other floors.
"You think maybe we should have recruited some more people before coming here?" His partner asks, not for the first time nor the second, more like the fifth. he just shakes his head, saying, "No, we'll get to it with just the two of us. It's not up more like, slightly down and from what we have heard, not to many people have tried going down, just up so it's likely Izzy and Tentomon went up."
"Well, whatever, just as long as we don't have to encounter more of those metal golems." Radko states and he glances over to the remains of said metal beings, which he thinks might be Warforge. "Might find some here when we get out." He hazards a reply before going back to focusing on his stew.
To Be Continued!