Tethyr Welcome Mission

Attention: Participant, you have just taken your first steps into the dangers and unknowns of this world. To aid you in your endeavors, a nearby resource collection box has been marked on your personal maps. Lists of available resources in your area that will be accepted, their corresponding descriptions and rewards may be viewed at the collection site.

“ Oh, It's right there,” Troy said mildly as he pointed towards a spot around a hundred feet up and a little left of the nature trail moments before the map update popped.

“How did you do that?” Lilly asked.

“It's not much different than the Ravens of War ability that you have from the blessing of Scathach. It's just for places of importance instead of places that possess strong killing intent and death. The distance is a lot shorter too,” offered Troy.

“Mind filling me in?” Wren added, slightly annoyed.

While Wren had been taking a small break underneath the apple tree, Troy and Lilly had been discussing a few aspects of themselves to each other and now took this moment to fill Wren in.

This is probably a discussion we should have had in the safe zone but hopefully nothing will bug us this close to one. It's a little too important to leave for later. The SYSTEM locks direct share of information “for security reasons' but it doesn't block me from compiling my own note. I'll have to do that once I get some time.

The short and sweet version being that Lilly is a special class called Battle Maiden that carries martial abilities and a bit of buff and elemental magics deftly supported by the Combat Medic profession. The Blessing of Scathach, aside from granting her access to her class, also included Ravens of War (essentially a fight scouting passive with Essence absorption properties) and Dark Premonition (a complex intuitive prediction passive that helps her and nearby allies avoid enemy sneak attacks and fatal traps.)

Troy netted himself a nearly unheard of class called Wanderlust Skald, a scout style Ranger with strong bardic, rather than minor druidic, undertones. He currently didn't have a profession but the Blessing of Taliesin was pretty impressive, boasting:

Questing Spirit (an intuitive, objective scouting and discovery ability), Minstrel Incarnate (a passive that increases Dexterity, Perception and Charisma) and Sensitive Soul (a mysterious passive that allowed the avoidance of intangible attacks and shrouding himself and nearby allies from supernatural detection.)

By the time Wren's teammates had filled him in they had reached the black metaled footlocker covered in various sigils and accompanied by a short, fat obelisk with a screen on it.

Alright, it's listing a few different types of local flora and a request for slime cores. Slimes!? Could we get anymore cliche? Ooh, ten mission achievement points for the two types of request and a starter pack for up to four people for completion of either one with an upgrade for completing both!

“We don't know how tight time is but this is definitely worth doing. What do you guys think?” Wren said.

“I think it'd be dumb not to. I'm not sure what comes in a starter pack but I don't think it'd be useless,” Troy nodded sagely while stroking his stubbly chin.

“Taking a couple of minutes to look around isn't going to affect us much one way or the other. If it's too hard we'll just move on,” Lilly said, looking uneasily at the surrounding bushy growth.

Moments and roughly two handfuls of dirty rooted grass clumps later a nervous Lilly whispered, “I think I found one of those slime things.”

Converging on her from the few arm's lengths away they kept themselves from each other, Troy and Wren looked over to where Lilly was pointing.

Handing her grass to Wren, Lilly picked up a slender but sturdy tree branch laying nearby and poked at the green jelly blob sitting on half of a several days old looking squirrel corpse.

“Lilly I don't th-,” Wren tried to spit out before a small, wet bead of green stuck to Lilly's cheek, eliciting a surprised shriek that quickly evolved to one of terror and pain as the offending creature attempted to scoot underneath the nearby brush.

Wren, immediately unstopped a clay pot of water and began trying to wash away the corroding snot while Troy grabbed her free hand and tried to calm her down.

“Alright Lilly. I'm going to heal over this wound for now and finish it up later. The last thing we need is for me to be dead on my feet and barely even a quarter into the day. And in the future, lets try to approach unknown things with as much caution as possible guys,” Wren said as invisible knots of anxiety writhed in his belly.

What if had been her eye? Can I even heal that? Keep your shit together. Worrying about what ifs isn't going to help anyone. Okay. I don't know what this starter pack is but it better be worth it. Invisible Man (servant tulpa), pick more of these without tearing the roots. Bacon (boar/spider [fear] combat tulpa), squish slime balls. Sylph( air tulpa), bring me the hard part in the squished slime balls. Gno-

A sharp needle of pain shot through Wren's head as he tried to summon a fourth Tulpa.

No? Guess three's the limit for now. Cool beans. Looks like I can't focus on other kinds of abilities either. Looks like I can either do up to three tulpas, two tulpas and one instant effect kind of thing or one tulpa and one sustained ability. Good to know.

“Alright guys, I'm gonna sit here on my ass and try to keep in a rest state. Troy, keep an eye peeled around us. Lilly, take a second to get yourself back together, dry them peepers and then supervise my little guys. They're new and I don't really know how smart they are but it doesn't feel very promising.”

“You got it Chief,” Troy fired off with a smarmy salute.

“Sniff. Alright Wren, but I'm not getting anywhere near THAT!” Lilly said, pointing at Bacon.

“ And that's exactly what I want for now. Wherever Bacon's at is the last place I want you, or any of us, to be until we have some protection and a real weapon,” Wren said wryly. After Lilly started bumbling after Sylph, he continued in a low voice, “This may not be the best time to ask but how come you don't seem to mind much when I start tossing around orders? I mean, don't get me wrong. I appreciate the hell out of the lack of chest pounding and pissing contests but I don't really believe I'm some sort of leader type with all the answers or anything. At the same time, you don't really look like the type to take a backseat and let others make decisions.”

Troy took a moment to chew it over in his mind before answering, “Don't get ME wrong. Anything you've told me to do seemed like it's probably what I'd be doing anyway if I thought of it first. Top it off with not telling either of us to do something dumb or acting selfish and I don't mind letting you keep running with the ball, for now.”

“Well, thats-”

“Wait! Let me finish.” interjected Troy. “You jumped in front of us with no chance in hell of beating that boar. I don't remember it that well but I'm pretty sure you knocked yourself out trying to fix my hand and it looked like you hurt yourself trying do what old girl asked you this morning. I, um, we would be pretty screwed without you so maybe look after yourself a little better, Yeah? Just keep in mind how weird it'll look acting like some kind of dotting daddy when we get around other people, with you looking around the same age as Lilly. I'm sure not looking for someone to replace my Pops. As far as I'm concerned, that's one of the best things about being here. Um, and thanks, you know, for everything.”

A few moments of awkwardness hung in the air as Wren scrambled for something to say.

“What's got the two of you blushing as you stare into each others' eyes?” Lilly cheekily said as she stepped back onto the trail.

In a bid to recover their dignity Wren spat, “I'm beginning to believe you're one of those rotten girls who tries to ship all her male friends inside her head.”

Lilly's face quickly grew to match her hair as Wren realized he hit the mark a little closer than a random quip had any business doing. In a bid to get everyone out of their heads he got them to help sort out the random stuff that ended up coming back with the cores and herbs. After about twenty minutes and a couple of repeat summonings later Wren had finally collected enough materials for each of them to turn in one of each request with a few cores and herbs left over.

Congratulations for completing the Tethyr Content, heartland starting mission.

For completing at least one flora and fauna objectives and requesting only one starting pack you receive:

30 Achievement points

One Ever Clean traveling mage robe set w/ boots

One serviceable hunting knife

One Ironwood quarterstaff

One serviceable pack with tarp, sleeping bag and 2 changes of jocks/socks

Potions set: 3x low heal, 1x panacea, 1x choice essence restore (LE), 1x high energy nutrient supplement (appx. 3 day satiation and double stamina regain)

I figured as much. The SYSTEM rewards maximum individual effort over mediocre group effort. Turning in the mission separately with only one starting pack unlocked a hidden additional ten points and a Tier III Starting pack. Too bad it wasn't repeatable. Didn't stop them from taking the herbs though, assholes. If I have anything to complain about it's those two getting a kick-ass soft, studded leather set and I get a stain resistant Obi-Wan getup. Wait, what?

“Um, Troy, and feel free to not answer this if you don't want to, did you get ass-less underwear too?” Wren asked, black lines running down his face.

“They're called jockstraps and yes. Once you get used to them they are pretty much superior to any other kind of underwear in my opinion. If we didn't live in such a judgmental society, pretty much every man under the age of forty would be wearing them,” Troy smugly pronounced.

What did I expect from Sporty Spice. First place we reach that sells clothes and these things are going in the trash.

As the sun started hanging low on the horizon the trio came upon a large river meandering through seemingly endless forest they had been trekking through.

“Well, crap guys. It doesn't look like we'll be finding a B&B today so we might as well find a nice spot to camp for the night. I'll start setting up if the two of you will gather a bit of dry firewood. Call me paranoid but I'd like to get any cooking done and no more than coals burning before it gets dark. Nice work on the rabbits, by the way Troy.” Wren wearily drawled.

“If you can cobble together a pot of some sort we have the makings of a nice stew,” Lilly chirped at Wren.

“I'll see what I can do.”

Roughly three hours later and the trio were fully settled into a miniature hidden cave fort, complete with camouflaged mosquito net, hewn into a particularly accommodating lop-sided hill. Clean, relatively comfortable and fed they prepared themselves for sleep.

“You've outdone yourself old boy. Wish I had you around for a few of the hunting trips my old friends and I used to go on.” Troy mused.

“ Not to sound ungrateful but I hope you have enough juice in you to finish healing my face Mr Mole,” Lilly said, vaguely uneasy.

“ I was just letting my Stamina recover a bit. I should be about ready now. Just throwing this out there but I personally think that trying to set up a watch overnight would do more harm than good. Just throw a few of those clay beads around outside after after we relieve ourselves for the last time this evening and we should be good. They'll make a nice loud crunch noise if they're stepped on.” Wren got out through, large, jaw cracking yawns.

The next morning, after a quick breakfast of apples, Wren collected up anything that looked good enough to use again that he created the evening before and the trio began strolling leisurely south, keeping the river in view.

“After all the preparation, I'm almost disappointed that nothing at all happened last night.” Wren said through wry chuckles.

“ Bite your tongue, That's like inviting disaster!” a horrified Lilly spluttered.

“Well, better safe than sorry and all that. But I do get where you're coming from. It is a lit-” whatever else Troy was to say lost under a nearly inaudible crack followed by a drop into utter darkness.