Carnivac found his way back out to the main thoroughfare and followed the crowd deeper into the city. Raising above all the other buildings was the anachronism of a clearly modern looking facility amidst what was otherwise a thriving fantasy city. I could only assume this was the famous Factory.

Beside the modern monstrosity, sat a decidedly more medieval martial looking building with the emblem of the Adventurer’s Guild above it’s door. Carnivac stepped into the Guild building and looked around. Where the hall in Urd felt more like the waiting room of a train station, this one felt more like a back-woods bar where anyone here might just as soon stab you in the back as party up with you.

Several faces turned to look at Carnivac, silently judging him and weighing his worth, but no one spoke up or made a move. Carnivac ignored them and walked up the bar since there was no apparent reception desk.

“I’m looking to sell,” Carnivac said to the wizened old woman behind the bar. She looked like she might be a fairy of some sort if not for the fact that she appeared to be made of beef jerky. She was short, the size of a halfling, with white hair hidden beneath a scarf, and thin, translucent wings that drooped down her back. If you’ve ever done that experiment where you carve a face into an apple and let it sit out on the counter for a couple days then you already know exactly what this woman’s face looked like.

She looked up at Carnivac and squinted at him as she wiped out a glass. “First you need to buy,” she countered in a high and scratchy voice that reminded me of the witch from those old Bugs Bunny cartoons. I could easily imagine this woman grinding an axe and joking that it was sharp enough to split a hare.

Carnivac took out a couple of coppers and put them on the counter and looked pointedly at her.

The woman set down the small glass she’d been cleaning and filled it with some brown liquid before setting it in front of Carnivac. He continued to stare intensely at her. She didn’t seem to care and would not be easily intimidated, but she did incline her head to the side.

“Through there,” she said, indicating a door to the side of the bar.

Carnivac took the small glass and placed it back in front of the woman. “All yours,” he said, giving her a small nod. She chuckled with a smirk and downed the glass in one gulp before resuming the task of cleaning it.

He passed through the door and saw a couple of tables with various dead animals laid out on them. For the most part, it didn’t seem all that busy and the Guild as a whole was much smaller than the one in Urd, despite having a much denser population. Maybe everything really did go through The Factory here and the remains of the Guild was largely vestigial.

A middle aged human man was busy hacking away at the bloody remains of some large creature. He was bald and well muscled, with dark, tanned skin and a gray, handlebar moustache. If he had an eye patch, he’d fit the stereotype perfectly for this sort of thing.

Carnivac held up his Guild card. “I have some materials.”

The old guy looked up from his work for a glance and barked something in a language that Carnivac didn’t recognise. From behind one of the tables, a young female goblin walked out, wiping her bloodied hands on her apron. Carnivac hadn’t noticed her at first since she was short enough to hide completely while fully standing up. She motioned for Carnivac to follow her to an empty table and hopped up onto it.

“Okay buddy, whatta ya got?” she called in a friendly tone.

“Four wyverns, a cockatrice, three jugs of manticore venom, eight barrels of Iron-backed Turtle blood, and two infergnomes.”

“What about the crystals?” she asked, writing everything down in a notebook.

“I’ve already sold them to an artificer.”

“Eh, too bad. Still there’s some nice mats there though not really the sort of thing this guild looks for.”

“What does this guild look for?”

“Anything The Factory wants, of course. You’re from the Urd branch, right? Yeah, we mostly do ore collecting and crystals here since that’s needed for the auto production.”

“Will you still buy this stuff off of me?”

“Sure, but it’ll probably be lower than what you’d get at other branches.”

“I see. I’ll have to take it then.”

“Great, go ahead and unload here and I’ll write up a receipt you can take to Gretchen at the front counter.”

Carnivac did as asked, again, pretending to pull things from my [Inventory] out of a hip pouch. The goblin girl handed him the receipt, which he turned over to the fairy jerky at the bar. Once he’d been paid out he headed for the door but found his way blocked by a large, red-skinned, male orc.

“You?!” the orc said in surprise, “to think you’re still alive.”

“Do I know you?” Carnivac said, confused.

“Urk,” the orc grunted as someone behind them punched him in the kidney. “Uh, no! No you don’t. Sorry, you have me confused with someone else. Gah, stop it.” Another punch, Carnivac couldn’t see around the orc well enough to see who was assaulting him.

“Whatever,” Carnivac said, stepping past the orc and out the door.

“Hey hey! Didn’t think I’d see you again! I owe you a drink!” came a gruff voice from behind Carnivac.

He turned around, back to the Guild’s front door and saw Gree, the black wolfkin that he’d met back in Willow Park, the night the murderbots had attacked. Behind him, the rest of his party filed out the door and looked suspiciously at Carnivac.

“Looks like you guys made it out okay,” he said, guardedly.

“Out? Out of what? Gree asked, ignoring the glare from the lizard girl next to him.

“Willow Park. You must have left just in time.”

“Sorry, friend. I hadn’t heard anything. Why don’t you come in and you can tell me all about it,” Gree said, wrapping a heavy and well muscled arm around Carnivac’s shoulders. “And this time, I won’t take no for an answer.”

Reluctantly, Carnivac was pulled back into the Guild hall/bar. He looked around, but that red orc seemed to have left. Just as well. They sat down at a table and ordered a round of drinks. Carnivac took the offered mug and looked at it before setting it down on the table.

“What’s the matter pup? Not thirsty?” the lizard girl, Sarissa, said. She made a point of making what might be a cute pose and blinked her double eyelids at him.

Clearly, she was teasing Carnivac about his comments about her eyes from last time. When she blinked, a clear eyelid slid from out to in over her eyes before her outer eyelids blinked in the normal fashion. Unlike some other lizardmen that I’d seen, Sarissa had a more human shaped face, though covered in red scales and possessing reptilian eyes and teeth. She also had long golden hair that hung in ringlets. If this were an anime, she’d probably be the goth lolita character. If I remembered correctly, she was the healer for the party.

“It’s a bit early in the day,” Carnivac replied, trying to offer an excuse for not drinking.

“You look like you’ve seen a fair amount of action since we last saw you,” Eric, their human swordsman, said as he downed half of his pint. He was a tall and scrawny man, a bit scruffy, I guessed in his late twenties. Was that considered old in this world? I had no idea.

“A bit,” Carnivac said, scanning the room, judging the reactions and glances from other Adventurers.

“You seem... different,” a small voice from next to Gree said. Carnivac looked over to see the mage for the party, Traluna, a red headed female gnome, draped in robes that looked three sizes too big for her.

“You’re the mage, right?” Carnivac asked, focusing on Traluna. “What’s your specialty?”

“What me?” she said shrinking down further, “um... yes? Atmospheric I guess? You know, weather?”

“Interested in magic?” Gree asked.

“A bit. I once met a mage that could cast bolt lightning in large amounts. Colored purple. Was just curious.”

“Purple you say? That’s... um...” Traluna trailed off, trying to hide under the table.

“What brings you to Trone?” Gree asked, changing the subject.

Carnivac eyed the black wolfkin for a moment before answering. This guy wasn’t exhibiting any of the uncanny valley reaction that Carnivac had gotten from Victoria Greywind, and it couldn’t be blamed on Gree being drunk this time.

“Just selling off materials and shopping,” Carnivac said slowly.

“Traluna’s right... you seem a lot more guarded this time,” Sarissa said, giving Carnivac an appraising look.

“Gree,” Carnivac began, “could you tell me about the black wolves? I was adopted, as you know. So I don’t know much about my people.”

“Well... um... we’re from the mountains in the north, right?” Gree stumbled, taken by surprise by the question.

“Are we?” Carnivac said, trying to look curious.

“Yeah, yeah! And um... a proud people... there’s um... there’s not many of us left you know?”

“I see.”

Sarissa and Eric’s eyes got large and they started staring daggers at Gree.

“Oh look!” Sarissa shouted, “it’s one of Lord Jhaix’s bodyguards, aren’t they amazing? He calls them his valkyries.”

Carnivac tore his gaze away from the floundering wolf and looked out the front doors to see an Automata pass by. It was a female type with buxom proportions and stylized plating to look like armor with ornate red and gold trim. Unlike most Automata that I’ve seen, she had a human shaped face instead of the solid faceplate. It could still be the same as the faceplate though and non-animated. I’d have to talk with her to learn more. She had a huge mane of red hair that exploded from her head and hung down past her waist, flanked by a pair of angelic, metal wings. In her hand, she carried a halberd, propped against her shoulder.

“So tell me about this Lord Jhaix,” Carnivac said, without turning away from the bodyguard.