Storm Chasing [Lucia/Roen/PM For Entry]

[Lucia Stark]

If one was seeking out mercenaries then one needn't look further than the Kingdom of Ibium. Usually, that was. In reality Lucia highly doubted she'd actually find her parents, Cyrus, or Aurora anywhere in the Kingdom. If they were in such an established location surely they could send a letter. Or Cyrus could teleport them, or even just himself, from Ibium to the Divide, if not Arcadia itself. So yeah, the blonde didn't exactly harbor any optimistic delusions about what she'd find there.

However it was incredibly friendly to sellswords given their preference to hire out warriors to deal with their banditry issues, as opposed to enforcing the might of a standing army. And mercenaries knew the word around. Even if Nameless wasn't too big yet, the names of its founders held a bit more weight. Perhaps some or even one of the many mercenaries who made their home at Ibium would be able to pass on some clue as to where one of them may be.

For the most part Lucia's travels had been quiet. She'd argue TOO quiet. Not just out of boredom or restlessness (though she was ITCHING for some action at this point) but...well, she knew better than most how wild the lands beyond the Divide could be. She expected to be hit with more monsters and bandits or tricky Youkai.

Yet as she strolled into a small village, not far from Ibium if her map was right, it was just downright quiet. The blonde stretched her arms lazily as she sauntered through the town. She always thought it was brave for people to reside in little settlements like this, yet as she treaded down the dirt road her eyes did catch a few oddities. Genuinely armed men, walking amongst farmers and hunters. Mercenaries? This was close to Ibium, could be they were hired to work as guards...but by who? Someone in the village had enough money to afford this many mercs?

Eh, she supposed it didn't REALLY matter. Her violet eyes just began to search around the otherwise humble and quaint village. Did it have a tavern? An inn? Surely these mercenaries had to be staying somewhere...

[Roen]

Stuck in the deserts of Ibium with only a handful of stories to show for it. Some journey this was turning out to be.

Roen had been expecting some sort of adventure since leaving off on his own, but didn't quite expect for it to involve so much deafening solitude. It's not that he minded, nor did it mean he hadn't met a few folks along the way, but it was clear that the boredom was starting to get to him. Even more so, the straining in his soles and the sun beating down on his sweat-drenched body were beginning to do the same.

It has just the red-head's luck that Roen came onto the familiar sight of a village. If nothing else, it meant plenty of food, water and a place to rest for the moment. However, it soon became clear that the fledgling swordsman was as low on funds as he was on energy. Stuck on the desert and being poor beyond belief would dry up any traveler's enthusiasm, but Roen wasn't exactly ready to keel over. On the bright side, there at least seemed to be some work available for those able to carry a blade.

So, here the red-head was, looking for any kind of work to keep himself fed. While the harsh conditions of the environment meant that Roen was cut off from his magic, he could at least get some practice in with Leafwind at this side. Strolling around the crowds was somewhat easy, even if it does tend to feel like people could turn on the sword-mage on a dime if they knew of his abilities. The village was populated with civilians and guardsmen alike, much more of the latter than what he was used to seeing back home. It was intimidating, but standing his own against a few bandits shouldn't prove too difficult.

At least, Roen hoped.

He paused for a moment to look around, a pair of yellow eyes darting around, eventually finding what appeared to be an inn. Roen began to venture into the inn's entrance, almost feeling like he was being watched...

[Lucia Stark]

Yeah, there was deeeeeefinitely some tension in the air. Lucia followed some pretty red-haired girl into the what LOOKED to be the town's inn. Even in the inn seemed packed with sellswords. Sure the seats at the inn's storefront seemed lined with farmers as well, but again, some of these men and women were definitely not farmers. A few Youkai stood as well, notably a pair of Kitsune that seemed to be with the sellswords. Lucia uh...made sure not to have her eyes linger on them. She had an admitted weakness for their tails and ears: they were just so fluffy! A shame they were usually douche-schnozzles.

Ahem, moving right along...Lucia strolled past the mostly seated inn-patrons. The building was big, but she wondered if it would have any room? Better yet she wondered if there was a tavern, and if the tavern took rooms. Town was a bit small to have rival businesses but stranger things have happened, especially near a place so well known for foreigners as Ibium. If the tavern took in patrons then there was a chance Lucia could actually sleep in a BED!

Beyond just rooms, though, Lucia ALSO wanted to know the up and up. As good as talking to some of the mercenaries would be, especially for leads on her parents, she knew that innkeepers much like tavern owners got all the juicy gossip from the locals and travelers. After all they got to see the men and women when they were tired and plastered.

So Lucia strode right up to the desk of the inn-keep and flashed a smile at the lady. “Business is booming, huh?”

The young lady evidently tasked with keeping track of the books and patrons and keys and...whatever else inn-keeps did blinked up at Lucia from her chair and smiled. “Always is around these parts. Passerby on their way to Ibium...”

“Oh I believe it. That'd be the category I fall under.” Lucia replied casually. She didn't exactly keep her voice quiet: she wanted the attention. She wanted the other mercenaries to know she was curious. They'd either shy away from answering any questions right off the bat, or they'd speak for one reason or another. Maybe because she slips them some coin, maybe because she was easy on the eyes. Didn't really matter. “But these folks here look a bit too cozy to just be passing through, and there's an awful lot of them! Besides, let's be honest, the air is so thick you could cut it with a broadsword.”

“Ah yes. Well these men and women are more...permanent guests, for the moment.” The inn-keep girl carried on, a light blush on her cheeks. Add in how she glanced about the room and Lucia could tell she was a bit embarrassed by how loud Lucia was. Welp, if the blonde hadn't turned heads on her way in, she sure was starting to now. Good.

“Fooooor?”

“Town's chief hired 'em out. A few townspeople hired some of their own. We've um...the village has come under threat lately. Not just from the usual bandits either. They had monsters with 'em.” Huh, so the bandits had monsters WITH them? Not entirely unheard of but, yeah, definitely not the norm. Depending on the class of monsters Lucia couldn't blame the town for shelling out what gold they had for the protection. Still, she doubted they could keep it up along.

Besides, the Queen and aristocrats of Ibium had far heavier pockets, and Ibium was just a bit of aways ahead.

“All right! Uh, don't book me down for a room then! Just point me out to the direction of the chief.” Lucia needed more details before she could decide how exactly she wanted to handle this. She knew that she was going to help these people out, one way or another, but she couldn't exactly spend however many days just lazing around this town while her parents were still out there. Besides, she could do this in the name of Nameless, heh, and get some good PR for the guild.

“Um, well his house is the largest one in the town. If you head to the north end you can't miss it.” Of course. Big town chief has to have a big house so everyone knows he's a big big man. If he's married, Lucia just hoped the house wasn't big to compensate.

“Thank you.” Lucia said with a smile, reaching into her coin purse and placing a single silver coin on the desk. She uh, wasn't actually certain if Ibium strictly used their own currency or if Arcadian coin was fine. Given how open they were to travelers, especially mercenaries (seriously, the Queen must just have a thing for sweaty, dirty, strong men and women who were hardened by the road...) Lucia figured they took and gave out all the currency they could get.

How that worked on the economic scale Lucia did not know, nor did she WANT to know. What she did know was that she now had a bit of a plan formulating in her dreadfully underover-worked brain.

Either way she turned from the inn-keep, glancing at the people around her, all of whom likely heard her conversation. Well, they probably figured she was a merc as well by this point. So she shrugged her shoulders and flashed smirked. “Anybody want to come with me? I promise it'll be a LOT more fun than sitting around here.”

Prooooobably more lucrative too, if her hunch was on point, but Lucia figured it was probably for the best that she left that bit out. She wasn't doing this for the coin, but oh baby would it feel sweet to strut in front of these sellswords with a heavier coin purse than them.