38 Vol 1. pt. 38 Patch 7.0: Pirates and Scholars (1/2)
Cassiel has to stop and ask a guard for the location of a Hermetic Scholars office. She was sure that there would be one here since they're almost everywhere, but since this is her first time actually visiting the city, she has no idea where it is.
Fortunately, the guard is able to point them in the right direction.
Fenrir and Serra have no idea what to expect as they stand outside of the large building. There is nothing remarkable about it other than its sheer size and a caduceus symbol on each wall around the front entrance.
”Cass Cass, I have a weird feeling about this. Why won't you tell us what these guys are like?” Fenrir asks.
”Seeing for yourself is a rite of passage,” Cassiel answers.
She has already accepted her new nickname.
Cassiel opens the door and holds it open for them. ”You two first.”
Fenrir and Serra look at each other, nod, and head inside.
”Welcome, welcome!” a short… creature, man, thing welcomes them in. It has a male's voice, so Fenrir assumes that the creature is a he as impolitically correct that may be. More important, the creature has the upper body of a goblin and the lower body of a cat - he is walking on two feline legs with a swishing tail behind him. He's also wearing a monocle.
Neither Fenrir nor Serra has any idea what this thing is supposed to be.
”Welcome to the Hermetic Scholars office of Port Tugator! What can we do for you today? Would you like to get your cards updated? No, I don't recognize your faces. Are you new here? Do you need cards? Do you have any questions you want to ask? Ah, I know! You must—”
Fenrir cuts the creature off. ”We're uhh, just here for cards, I think.”
”Splendid! Are all three of you looking for one?”
”What are they… good for?” Serra asks, partially standing behind Fenrir.
”Great question!” the creature exclaims. ”They're a form of identification! You can rest assured that our cards are impossible to replicate, so presenting your card to anybody is a great way of proving your identity. There are many guilds that will not accept your application unless you have a card to prove who you are, tournaments such as the upcoming fishing tournament won't allow you to register unless you have one,” suddenly, Fenrir finds that getting a card isn't as boring and pointless as he thought it would be, ”and they are a great way of keeping track of your growth!”
”I – I don't think I need one,” Serra says.
The goblin-cat looks as if he's about to toss her another sales pitch, but Fenrir speaks up before he has the chance to. ”I'll get one.”
”Me too,” Cassiel says.
”Splendid! That'll be five gold each,” the cat-goblin says.
Fenrir has no idea whether five gold is a lot or not, so he agrees to the price without worrying about it.
Good thing Oleander bargained for twenty-five gold.
Cassiel hands over her coin as well. ”Splendid! I'm sorry, but I'm the only one currently available, so I will have to help you both. We would normally have multiple assistants on to help all of our clients, but the other one scheduled to help me today met an… accident recently,” says the cat-goblin.
”What kind of accident?” Fenrir asks.
”Oh, it's nothing. She was just trying to combine a monkey with a pig and ended up with very… explosive results.”
”…right. So, how does this whole card thing work?”
Fenrir has his doubts about whether this is safe now. He doesn't even want to question the purpose behind trying to combine a monkey and pig.
”Come with me! Ah,” the cat-goblin pauses to look at Serra, ”you can come along. I won't be giving you a card, but you are welcome to stay with your friends.”
Serra smiles. At least this creature-thing is friendly.
”What's your name?” Fenrir asks.
”Ah! My apologies, I never gave my name. You may call me Thelmes,” the cat-goblin, Thelmes, says.
Thelmes leads them into the back of the building where there are several hallways leading to a whole bunch of different closed rooms. At the end of the hallway looks like the aftermath of an explosion as the brick wall is covered in scorch marks.
Seriously, why a monkey and pig?
”In here first!” Thelmes says, leading the trio into the first room.
It looks pretty ordinary inside of it. There is a desk with a chair on the other side of it, a few chairs on their side, and a cabinet full of folders and boxes.
”Please, take a seat,” Thelmes says, pulling out the chairs on their side of the desk before heading over to the other side of it. He hopes up onto a stool, pulls a box out of the cabinet, and then sits down in his own chair.
”Oh, your companion there,” Thelmes points at Rock, ”is it a combat companion or just a pet?”
”She helps me fight, so a combat companion?” Fenrir doesn't sound sure.
”Splendid! I'm supposed to charge extra for pets, but since I'm the only one able to help you both, it will be free of charge to make up for the inconvenience.”
”That's nice of you, thanks. Does she get her own card?”
”She does! It will be less detailed than yours since she seems to only be a tier one companion, but it will still have her stats and skills listed on it.”
”So, skills – there's skills for everything, right? Are these cards going to have every skill we have on them?”
”Oh, no. Sorry, but we can only measure combat skills, and there are just so many potential skills that we will only test for the ones that you are interested in checking.”
”Makes sense.”
”Splendid! Now then, your names?”
Thelmes goes through some basic information for Fenrir, Rock, and Cassiel. Going through one of them at a time, he takes a blank, copper tablet the size of a business card and uses some sort of magic to ”carve” information into it. When Fenrir tells the cat-goblin his name, magic etches the name ”Fenrir” into the appropriate field on the tablet. Thelmes also asks for: the real life date that the character was created on, any possible guild or faction affiliations, and their main interest gameplay-wise. Naturally, Fenrir tells him that fishing is his main interest.