@Salzem and
@Nova_Eclipse Within the town of Seren, a man and his dog were situated against a building as they observed the day of many of the town's residence.
The hadn't been in town for long, only arriving the night before. The two had been out of their inn early in the morning and were situated in a major intersection.
They were waiting, but for what? What could they be waiting for...
(OOC: To answer your quesiton from the other thread - this is juuust fine to start this off.)
From down the road, a knight came walking towards the town ahead of him, checking the small scrap of paper that he'd written the information for his next contract down on.
"...Hmm, this looks like the place. The information matches up with what I'm seeing...but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask around and make sure," the knight muttered to himself as he stowed the paper away in the pouch on his right hip.
Then, he noticed the man and the dog standing in the intersection. Judging by their postures, they were waiting for something...what or who it was, he did not know, nor did he particularly care.
What he did care about was the fact that they could - or at least the man - could tell him if this was the town of Seren.
Thus, he approached the duo, his gauntlet-clad hands kept firmly by his sides, away from the greatsword sheathed on his back so as not to appear threatening.
Gods knew that he didn't need a repeat of the last time he acted overly-cautious.
Ah the town of Saren... So full o' people! So wonderfully homely so.... pure and innocent.... Demagogue hated these people! Trying to explain why someone's soul might be worth something insignificant to the non-suffering was like trying to explain the purpose of a bottle to a newborn: They get it just enough to know what it is, but not the significance! Good Gods on a Grill, he might as well go up to these people and ask them to polish his bones for as much as they understood... In fact... they might actually do it... He'd have to come her when he's not on business and ask.
The skeleton had no qualms about walking around in public, especially in a place like this. People were afraid of demons mainly because of their deals and these people only knew of the word demon like how someone might know the word "sword"... Until you wield it, you could never understand how much blood it could actually spill... And speaking of swords and blood-spilling...
The demon watched from a safe distance as a man with a huge blade on his back walked up to a guy with a mutt, saying nothing, no doubt sharing a passionate declaration of love without ever having to say a word... Ahhh young lust... He could hear the stripping of armor from here... In all the seriousness Demagogue doesn't possess though, the skeleton contemplated the man in armor, wondering what his story was and how he could abuse it. He could tell by the way this man carried himself that he had baggage... more than one could fit in a cart. When one is as old as he, one gets to know these things...
Ace's head went up when the knight approached, which caught the attention of Gustav who only followed his companion's gaze.
He said nothing, keeping his position against the wall as he watched what the knight would do.
He didn't seem to appear hostile, but the big sword was not exactly encouraging. The knight seem to be walking towards him. Gustav was predicting that he was to talk with him, but he may be mistaken.
The knight stopped a meter away from the man and his dog, then gave them both a respectful bow, "Hello, sirs. I know that this might be an inconvenience, but may I ask if this is the town of Seren? I was told that there was a job that had been offered by...the innkeeper, I believe it was, here. Given that the information was given to me by a half-inebriated man at the inn I was at last, though, I could not be sure."
He paused and shook his head, "Oh, but where are my manners? I am Richter, a roaming knight; it is a pleasure to meet you, and your canine companion."
With that, the knight held out his right hand, posture relaxed to further alleviate any concerns that he would be hostile.
(feel free to skip me or notice me at this post lol I'll respond to the next one)
Ace took a step to sniff this stranger, as he did he kept an alert stance. But sensing no hostilities relaxed for a bit.
Gustav raised his eyebrows, but pushed himself off the wall. He reached out to take the knight's hand with a firm grip.
"Gustav." The man said as he shook the knight's hand. "And this here is Ace."
Gustav's head tilted to indicate his canine companion, who looked up at the knight in curiosity.
"You are in the town of Seren. As for the inn, it's over there." Gustav said as he used his free hand to indicate where the inn was located.
(OOC: Demagogue could be waiting for Richter in the inn. That's one way you could have Dem ambush the poor guy.)
Richter nodded gratefully, "Thank you, Gustav. I've been travelling for well over two days, and I was worried that my supplies would run out if this wasn't Seren. I bid you safe travels, good man...and good canine."
The knight gave Ace a quick scratch behind the ears, then started walking towards the inn. As he did so, Gustav could overhear the armor-clad man talking to himself, "Hopefully, the contract will still be available, otherwise I'm going to have to improvise for supplies for the next few days..."
(good idea Xb)
Demagogue disappeared from the streets having heard enough, reappearing inside the local tavern, scaring a great number of people with his sudden (and quite off-putting) appearance. The demon raised his hands in a passive manner as if that would calm down everyone from seeming a clothed 7 ft tall talking corpse.
"Do not be alarmed!" The demon announced. "I am merely waiting for some friends! Return to your regularly scheduled drinking and don't mind me."
At first, the patrons were hesitant, staring at the skeleton as if he were some mere road-side attraction but, after a second or two, everyone went back to their cups, perhaps to justify the appearance of something so strange... Walking towards a back table left vacant, the demon sat himself down and watched the door, crossing one leg over another and intertwining his fingers over where his stomach was supposed to be. He awaited the knight's presence with an eager smile on his face, contemplating an offer he could present to the black knight... Or how to get him drunk enough to have him offer the demon one...
As Richter pushed the door to the inn open and stepped foot inside, two things stood out to him.
The first was that everyone seemed a bit confused, weirded out, and/or otherwise unsettled by something, even more so than he usually observed in the patrons of a tavern or inn that were trying ti drink to forget something.
The second was the clothed, seven-foot-tall skeleton sitting at an otherwise-empty back table with an eager-looking smile on its skull, its hands held somewhere out of sight beneath the table...and its eyes locked directly on him.
...Needless to say, the knight was more than a little uncomfortable with the animated skeleton's gaze on him.
Nevertheless, he gave the skeleton an uncertain nod in acknowledgement, then headed over to the bar itself, sat down on the sturdiest-looking stool that was unoccupied, and waved the innkeeper over.
(OOC: I need someone to take on the (temporary) role of the innkeeper for the following conversation, since I am very incapable of and very uncomfortable with the idea of talking to myself as two characters. Once the conversation between Richter and the innkeeper is over, the innkeeper can be sent back to the void that all characters go to when their usefulness or relevance to the plot has run out.)
(Ill do it, since my character is waiting outside)
The innkeeper was an old man, he had seen stranger. He waved one of his barmaids to the table, but the women hesitated, but headed over.
It took her a moment to make her way there, longer to inch towards the table without making eye contact with the skeleton.
"H-how can I help you?" the barmaid stuttered in between words.
(OOC: To clarify, Richter went to the bar itself, while Demagogue is at a back table. The knight and the spooky, scary skeleton are not sitting together.)
"Just some water for me," Richter politely told the bar maid, then turned his attention to the innkeeper. "I'm mainly here to ask if the job I heard you were advertising was still available. If it is, then I'd be more than willing to take care of it. If I recall correctly, there was a...bandit or highwaymen problem, yes?"
He very much hoped that the job was still available, otherwise he was going to be struggling money-wise and supply-wise without the gold the job would pay.
The bar maid nodded before hurrying back over to the bar. Bending down, she took an awfully long time to get that water...
The knight immediately averted his gaze, focusing his vision on the nearest wall, instead.
He - or at least the lecherous side of him - likely would have enjoyed the view, but he was not interested in earning a slap to the face...nor was he interested in a casual fling, should that have been the reason why she was bent over for so long.
He also wasn't about to meet the living skeleton's gaze, for fear of being dragged into something he would very much regret, later.
Something a kin to a loud ruckus came from outside. There was a lot of shouting and even a bit of loud barking, followed by what sounds to be hitting and slashing.
Suppressing a sigh, Richter stood up and gestured to the bartender and the bar maid to wait for a minute or so as he exited the inn to see what the commotion was all about, a hand lingering on the grip of his sword.
There was a clear disturbance in the town square, a group of thuggish looking characters had surrounded the man and the dog from earlier.
The dog was in the process of leaping onto a man, it was bearing is teeth. He man meanwhile was dodging an incoming swing from one of the thugs, before bring the studded club in his hand to the side of the brute, collapsing him.
Onlookers watched, but nine got involved, and it seemed the thugs were closing on the two...
Seeing as the man and his dog had helped him not even ten minutes prior, Richter braced himself as he shouted at the top of his lungs, sword and shield at the ready, "JUST WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!"
With any luck, the thugs would believe that he was a knight of the town, and they'd back off for fear of inciting retribution from a heavily-armed and armored knight.
The fighting took a pause, as all combatants save the hound quickly glanced at the source, the man from before was holding a thug in a backwards choke grip with his club, before resuming.
The men on the outside of this fighting circle were armed and armored like your standard mercenaries. and they spat at the knight "None of ta business."
Richter's eyes narrowed beneath his fluted helm as he slowly pulled the greatsword off of his back and held it at his side, the gleaming steel blade shining in the sunlight.
"Actually, it is my business, since the man that you are assaulting helped me out earlier, and I believe that ending a fight in which he could get hurt would qualify as making us even. Besides, I happen to hate thugs and bandits to the point that at the moment, the only reason why I haven't started divorcing your heads from your bodies and spilling your innards and blood across the ground is because I'm willing to give you a chance to surrender and walk away," the knight responded, using his height to his advantage as he looked down at the thugs, standing a good four or five inches above most of the ones facing him.
He then gestured to his sword with an almost lazy twirl of his sword hand, "Leave now and forget whatever quarrel you have with this man, and I'll let you live. If you don't leave and continue to harass him, or even try to attack me...well, I have ten years of knight training under my belt and several years beyond that of true combat experience to use to cut you all apart like a common pig at the slaughterhouse."
"So, with that in mind..." Richter said as he brandished his greatsword, which was almost three-quarters his height and as wide as his armored forearm, and pointed it at them in challenge. "Make your decision...and make peace with whatever powers you believe in should you decide to continue this fight."
One of the thugs had a murdering glint to his eyes, as he held up his knife blade. "Oooh, all that fancy armor of yas aren't gonna do ya an-"
"Jimmy! THis isn't worth gettin' ourselves killed." one of the other thugs yelled as he started to back off.
The first thug glanced over at how many thugs had been knocked out so far, then splat on the floor, before raising his knife and at Richter and said "We'll be back, and when we do, oooooh, ya all be in trouble.... Let's go boys!"
"Jimmy" then legged it, along whatever thugs that were still conscious followed, as a small trickle of thugs ran away and disappeared down the road.
Gustav, meanwhile, finished subduing a thug he had previously been holding in a choke grip, and slowly got up. He took a minute to look around, Ace took this time to walk up to Gustav, sitting himself next to him before looking at Richter with a curious face.
After surveying the battlefield, Gustav was slowly nodding, before looking at Richter and said "You have one hell of a presence don't you? Must of scared the daylights out of them to make them run that fast."
"More like their sense of self-preservation won out over their desire to continue harassing you, in the face of a fully-armed and armored knight. In any event, I'm glad that you and your canine friend are alright. I heard the commotion from inside, so I knew that it likely wasn't anything good. If you want, you could come inside and wait with me for...whoever it is you looked like you were waiting for when we first met," Richter responded with an offer for the man and his dog, gesturing with his free hand to the inn as he sheathed his greatsword. "Besides, I have a glass of water and a job to look into back inside, so two birds with one stone."
"Had everything under control here, but thanks for the help anyways." Gustav gave a small chuckle. "Believe it or not, these fellows were the ones we were looking for, had some business with them but seemed like most of them buggered off..."
Distant footsteps caused Ace to bark at Gustav, who looked down the opposite road the thugs took. Seemed like the the town guards were approaching.
"Might take you down on that offer for a drink though, we are a bit thirsty. Ain't that right boy?" Gustav said, smiling and glancing down at Ace; who in turned looked up at Richter, smiled with his tongue out while his tail wagging.
"Well then, follow me. You'll have to pay for your own drinks, though, since I barely even have enough coin to buy myself one...which reminds me of the entire reason I'm even in this town," Richter replied as he gestured for Gustav and Ace to follow after him.
As the trio entered the inn, Richter's thoughts drifted to his purpose in the town, and whether or not he'd be able to get the job.