We all sat around the table, in the middle sat before us the sealed letter from the guild. Everyone knows the stigma, when your boss is looking for you, it means trouble. We we stared for a moment. I glanced around the table as everyone seemed to be sweating just as much as me, and not just because of the heat.
"I-I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!"
Selene yelled grabbing the envelope and opening up. We all flinched like we expected the letter to explode, but it was a simple piece of folded paper. We all stared in abject horror as Selene unfolded the first half. Kaelen rushed to her side, tears in the corners of his eyes.
"It's too much, you can't take all this burden on yourself!"
Selene turned back, a solum look on her face as she placed a hand on Kaelen's shoulder.
"I-Its ok, someone must make this sacrifice."
Kaelen was grabbed by Liora and Thalia who dragged him back as he yelled
"NOOOOOOOOOO"
As Selene unfolded the last square.
"Remember when they said you and Jax were the drama kings?"
Will said in my head as Jax and I just stared at the stage opera worthy scene before us. Selene looked at the page like it would leap out and bite her for a moment before she blinked.
"O-Oh, it's just an invitation."
She spun the letter around so we could all read its contents.
Freshplate games
If you have received this letter then you are a new team recommended by a Steel rank or above team due to your promising talent. You have been invited to attend the Freshplate games in Bearreach Flinkeq in 3 months. Attending this event will be representatives of the Jade Lions, Courage Torch, Sandsharks, and Cackling Crows guilds will be present to evaluate your performance and potentially scout participants. The games will be hosted over a week with 32 teams participating. The final reward is as follows
A custom creation from the Snowforge guild artisan Coal Zizegal
To be eligible for games your team must fit the following criteria
-more than 4 members, but no more than 6
-all members must be at minimum level 15
-You must have at least 10 completed quests not including plate quests
Good luck in your preparations for this event, to learn more information seek out your sponsor below
Sponsor: Todis Jackle
As we stared at the quest for a minute, I could see everyone seemed a bit star struck, even Thalia who was normally calm and composed. I took a moment to look around and tried to figure out what this was all about when Jax did a backflip and started dancing. The others seemed to be looking between each other an excitement etched into their faces as I looked around.
"You know, we are really showing our country bumpkin right now."
Will said shaking his head.
"I will give myself a brain freeze."
I threatened as Jax looked down at the pamphlet
"Ok, so were doing this right?"
"Is that a question, absolutely!"
Liora said crossing her arms
"Then we still have to do some stuff to prepare, much less get there."
Kaelen said pulling out a piece of paper. He went around the table asking questions as he wrote down notes.
Kaelen: LV 8
XP: 7,750/15,000
Liora: LV 8
XP: 13,200/15,000
Thalia: LV 8
XP: 1,012/15,000
Selene: LV 9
XP: 16,200/17,000
Aiden: LV 8
XP: 12,061/15,000
Jax: LV 8
XP: 8,600/15,000
"We have the required number, but we need the levels and quests. Considering aside from inquest actions porcelain quests offer 1,000 XP per completion, and doing the math, for convenience let's say everyone as at 10,000 XP, and subtracting the 9,000 from the quests we need. 157,000 XP."
I stared slack jawed at Kaelen, the others seemed to be doing the same, as Liora jumped up.
"Where the hell did you get that number?"
"Well, every level up the needed XP goes up by 2k, so if we have a baseline of 10k for math's sake that's 5k+17k+19k+21k+23k+25k+27k+29k-9k for the quests base XP and you get 157k"
As the others began discussing I just sat back, taking a sip of my glass of water as I stared at the ceiling, Will seemed to join me in my slight numb stupor.
"Hey, remember when we got excited about 250 XP?"
I thought as Will nodded, sipping his own incorporeal glass of water.
"Yea, good times, life wasn't so complicated."
"We have another issue here, Bearreach Flinkeq isn't very close by. Even if we stop from town to town to get there its around 12 different stops and 1660 miles to travel."
Thalia said tracing her finger across the table as if viewing an imaginary map. As the group discussed I stood up, made the excuse of using the bathroom and stepped out of the Steel Palette to take a deep breath. I just kept hearing big numbers I could barely imagine, and felt like my brain would pop is I heard too many more of them. Instead, I thought back to what I knew of towns and places in Balwuk.
"Flinkeq should be south and southwest of here, right?"
I asked Will as I walked down the road towards the adventurer's guild. He nodded and said.
"Like your train of thought, let's focus on little steps first, if we were headed that way we would need to go across the Alcanian land bridge which would mean our next stop would be directly south at Beeridge."
I nodded as I walked for another minute, ending up at the adventurer's quest board. It took a few minutes to look it over, but eventually I found 3 quests that seemed to be taking place in Beeridge. Grabbing the pages I stuck them under my arm and walked back to the Steel Palette. Walking inside I could see the others were discussing what to do when I placed the pages in the middle of the table.
"If you all say one more number with more than 3 digits, I'm going to blow a blood vessel. Here are quests for Beeridge, let's start here with this."
Buried Barrel Bandits (E)
An old storage cellar collapsed beneath the Tap & Tumble Tavern, revealing a smuggler tunnel where three rogue goblins have taken up residence. They've been drinking old mead and now think they own the tavern. Clear them out without spilling the mead.
Reward – 750 Gold + 1 bottle of Arcane Mead
Failure – 500 Gold for tavern damage
Feral Ale Slime Clean-Up (E)
An experimental brew called "Wild Hop No. 12" exploded in the brewer's basement, creating a bouncing ale-infused slime. It smells amazing but is eating wood, clothes, and copper pipes. Extract it intact or neutralize it gently.
Reward – 850 Gold + 1 Unstable Brew Sample
Failure – 600 Gold for floor repairs and lost barrels
Brewmaster's Nose (E)
Old Brewmaster Tugg has caught a nasty noseblight and can't judge the latest batch of Berryboom Ale. He insists only someone with "a true herbalist's nose" can verify its balance.
Reward – 700 Gold + 1 Brewer's Favor Token
Failure – 300 Gold for mislabeled brew
The others stopped for a moment as Jax placed a paw on the slime quest sliding it forward.
"I agree, let's take this one step at a time, starting with this."
As the others started reading Liora looked the quest over and said.
"What's this about eating clot-"
"To adventure!"
Jax yelled running out of the Steel palette, not meeting anyone's eyes