Zetaark

"Hey, everyone!" Xavier yells out to the people nearby the boat as he runs towards it. "Could you gather everyone and come with me? There's a bit of trouble it seems," Xavier finishes. The few people around the boat take some time to gather everyone, but eventually the entire party is back near the boat and following Xavier through the town and further inland. "Has something happened with your goods?" Madante asks, concerned about the present issue. "Well, something like that, you'll hear about it when we get there," Xavier answers, continuing to walk forward. After some time passes, the party comes across a large house built in the middle of a lake. The surrounding terrain resembles much of Romani as a whole: mountainous and with patches of trees all around. As the party walks towards the house, they see a rather old man standing in front of the door. "I've returned. These are the people I told you about. They may be able to help you out of this mess," Xavier tells the old man. The man looks over the party and nods, seemingly pleased with the group. "The Royal Guard huh? Didn't know they were around here. Not that I'm complaining, I could use them about now," the man states before focusing on the group. "Introductions first, I am Solomon Romani, current head of the Romani household and keeper of its family brew. Though as you can see, I'm a bit old to stay as the head. Normally, I would be giving the rights over to my granddaughter, but right now I may not have that chance," the man frowns, pulling out a sheet of paper and handing it to Madante. "It seems that Roman, the Baron of the northern side of Romani, has kidnapped my granddaughter and plans to have my head next. That man is desperate for power, but he refuses to acquire it properly. Now I fear that my family may be in grave danger," the man shakes his head, his face showing signs of sadness. Madante takes the paper and reads through it. It appeared to be a message sent a few days ago from the Baron himself threatening Solomon and his family. "If you don't mind me asking, why would this Roman character do this? Is there some kind of grudge between you two?" Madante asks, trying to get a grasp on the situation. "If it's anything, it probably has to do with how my granddaughter publicly rejected his proposals multiple times and married someone else. Granted, I wasn't too fond of her choice of husband either, but its her choice and he is a good man. Unfortunately, Roman seems to hold that against us, and now he's trying to take the family name by force. The fool," Solomon pauses a bit before speaking again. "I'm not sure how much your group knows about me, but please, help my family. They are all I have right now, and losing them would be too much for me. So please..." Solomon trails off, tears in his eyes. "Don't worry, we'll make sure to aid you in whatever way we can. And we'll make sure that your granddaughter is brought back to you," Madante affirms, placing his hand on Solomon's shoulder. "You can count on the Guard to protect those that need it." As Madante finishes his statement, a group of horsemen appear near the front of the Romani house, all of them armed. One of them rides up slightly closer, then begins to speak. "This is a message from Baron Roman. He asks that you surrender your entire household and fortune to him, or else we will ride in and take it by force. What shall it be?" the man yells out. "Tell this Roman that I'm not interested in his propositions," Solomon snarled, angered by the clear threat. "If he wants to do business, tell him to come himself." "That's a shame. Then you will die, and this house and land will become the property of Roman. Men, ready your weapons!" "Looks like they've all come around. Everyone, make sure that this place is protected. And make sure to protect Solomon," Madante tells the group as he moves in front of Solomon. ---------------------------------- "Honestly, you would think that the man would understand the meaning of no, but he just doesn't listen. And now gramps may be in trouble because of it. Curse it all!" a woman shouts. "Don't worry Cremia, we're almost there, and we managed to trick our pursuers, if only for a moment," a man clad in armor assures her. "I hope you're right. But this isn't the best way to get back to the house, and it looks like that pig and his men have already arrived," Cremia responds, brandishing a sword. "Then we'll just have to fight our way through," the man responds, readying his lance. Win Condition: Defend Solomon and Defeat the Boss Loss Condition: All player units die OR Solomon dies Optional Objectives: Rescue the Romani Pair Turn 1 Cheat Sheet:

Ritsu looks at the snake creature with mild amusement. She does a scan to learn about the creature itself, then she uses her gauntlet to create a small container. Inside the gauntlet was some various machinery designed to allow her to make small pieces of equipment. With that, she decided to see if she could extract some of the venom. Perhaps it could be of use, she idly thought to herself as she started to extract the venom.

Ritsu begins to start up her chainsaw and goes towards Mitsurugi, warping around the area and striking at any hostile foes.

Eon Moves to E7

"You know, for a guy who supposedly didn't want to bring trouble, you sure brought a lot of it yourself. Honestly, we were all having a good time and singing some tunes, then you had to go and ruin it. Not the best way to get a good reputation I'd think," the man sitting at the bar stool remarks, glaring at Belros. Soon after the man, along with the others in the bar, finished up their drinks and left, leaving Belros alone with the barkeeper.

"If more people were around it would theoretically make sense, but this is a bit of an oddity. Perhaps the things they are making aren't actually going to the selling block, but somewhere else?" Ecquis suggests, trying to think of another reason for the dropped stock. "I suppose we might be able to ask about it if we really need to, but for now lets see if what little stock there is happens to be of good quality."

"Me? My family has a history of magical talent, and I was no different. I personally was rather fond of magic myself as a child, so when I was deemed to have potential, I went to the magic academy of Alios. Its one of the two primary mage academies, with the other sitting in Versidia. That's where I began to study magic in depth and when I decided to devote myself to the practice of anima. My official studies are nearly over though, and all that's left is my grand report to the headmaster regarding all the types of magic. Which is mostly why I was around Irvetos a few days ago," Helena answers, trailing a bit with the last sentence. "I was supposed to be back there a little while ago, but I don't think they'd mind too much with the added information I've gotten. Thanks to you of course," Helena chuckled a bit before looking back at Darius. "Any other questions?"

Ritsu goes over to the newly cleared path where she finds the room of vines. She takes a few passing glances, then scans the masses of vines to see if anything is behind or in them.

"Alright then. I personally haven't gotten a good look around the town, but I'm sure there's something," Madante says as the pair heads off. It took them a little while to find someplace that they wanted to eat, but the pair wound up going to "Mira's Diner". Upon entering, the pair were greeted and seated towards the center of the restaurant. To the left of the restaurant were windows looking out to the sea, and if they looked a bit more they could see a pair of mages sitting by the window. "Well, while we're waiting for our food, let's chat a bit. Have any nagging questions you want to tell me, or do you have other things on your mind?" Madante asks, enjoying the atmosphere of the diner.

"Hmm, seems like an interesting way to handle things. No matter. I'll simply see how everyone responds for now," Eon remarks, surveying the area. Holds

Madante grabs the blade from Karik and holds it up, judging it, then smiling. "Yes, this will do quite nicely. And yes, my training allows me to use weapons like these to great effect. I could even use the weight of the blade to my advantage to strike enemies harder than most could. Though actually doing that on the move isn't really feasible," Madante laughs. "At any rate, what shall we do now? I think there's a bit more time before Xavier comes back. You hungry?"

"The Avalon library? Huh, didn't think one of the Holy Islands would have something like that. I've heard some things about the church banishing the group of summoners to one of the northern islands and locking away any dark magic found on the islands. Then again, I've also heard some conflicting information on that story. I personally don't know anyone from the church though, so I couldn't say one way or another. Either way, if we do somehow find our way to Avalon, I would very much like to search for that book," Helena remarks with a pleased look on her face.

"Huh, that's something. To simply come across someone proficient at dark magic like that isn't particularly easy. I'll also have to ask you about the book you studied from before. I'm aware of the few that exist, but finding them isn't particularly easy. Then again, that probably has more to do on the academy's policies of no dark magic. Which makes their request to have me gather information on it for my final report all the more strange. At the very least they could direct me to any source of literature or point me towards someone, but no," Helena sighs, rubbing her forehead just a bit.

"Yeah, sure," Madante answers before whistling. After some time, the man arrives. "You called?" the man crones before looking at the new items that the pair had purchased. "Ah, I see you managed to find something after all. Good for you Madante. First gift you've gotten in years," he laughs, patting Madante on the back before taking the bow from Karik. "Good day to you both," he says before heading off back into the town and fading out of sight. --------------------- "Indeed. Food set out for traveling just doesn't have the same flavor as restaurants or even just homemade meals. I'd say cooking was a hobby of mine, but the academy had various policies about using cooking equipment on campus. Probably cause some idiot burned down the kitchen a few years back," Helena says, muttering the last bit. "Speaking of academies, I'm a bit interested in how people go about learning dark magic. It's not exactly a well known or appealing path to take for most, and for those who are interested I couldn't imagine the hassle of trying to find a teacher. Actually, how did you run into yours if I may ask?"

Having purchased his vulnerary, the two mages set out to find a place to eat. After a bit of wandering and checking some places, the pair decide to go to a place called "Mira's Diner". After entering, a waitress seated the two by the window with a view towards the sea. "Well this seems like a nice place for food. The view is rather nice and from what it looks like the food is rather good. Better than academy food probably," Helena remarks, looking out towards the sea.

After a fair bit of searching, Karik and Madante found a shop hidden away. Entering it, it seemed to have a random assortment of items present, ranging from tomes to metal weapons. "My, its rare to see customers here. What can I get you?" the shopkeeper asks. Shop List (1 item stock limit) --------------------- Walking around the town square, the pair of mages finds the general store. The store itself contains various healing items, both in medical forms and staff forms. Shop List:

"Well, it seems that everyone else has decided to go to a tour or the college. How about we stop by the shops and see what's around. Sounds fine?" Ecquis asks Maya and Dash, the two accompanying him. He had personally not gone through many of the towns in this country, but with his wyverns out of sight, he figured he wouldn't run into too much trouble. And so long as they passed off as visitors, which they sort of were, there wouldn't be any issues.

"Hmm, a good crushing sword eh? Sadly I don't have any more in stock here. That being said, there is a shop a few blocks past the tavern that sells some interesting gear. Maybe they might have what you're looking for," the man replies.

"Alright then. The lances are yours. Try not to get yourself killed," he says as he hands Myrdwyn the two lances.

"Well, while an improvement for this sword may be nice, I think I'd prefer to get a different sword so I could have more options. Still though, nobody has ever offered me a gift before. It means a lot to me Karik, it really does," Madante says while trying to hold back tears. "I'm not sure what the shop has in stock, but perhaps they may have something nice in stock." ------------------------ "Oh those things? There aren't too many of the lance variety to be honest, but I'll see what I can find," the shopkeeper answers, going into the back of the shop. Myrdwyn hears a bit of rustling, but after a few minutes, the shopkeeper comes back with a large, demonic looking lance. "Looks like we happened to have one around. Lucky you. You'll have to be if you want to use this thing. I've heard many a tale of people killing themselves with these, but if you really want it, 400 vespers is the price, just like the other varieties," the man explains.

"This is...I'm sorry Karik, I really appreciate it, but I can't take your money," Madante says. Appearing from nowhere, the convoy man arrives besides Madante. "I'm afraid that Madante here is contractually obligated to direct all of his direct monetary assets to me. That being said, purchased items do not strictly count as direct monetary assets, so those would be a more appropriate gift. I hope you understand," the man states, grabbing the pouch from Madante and handing it back to Karik.

"Technically, the sword could get sharpened and strengthened. The issue with that though is...well..." Madante trails off before finally deciding to finish his statement. "Things like that cost money. And thanks to a family flub-up, money is not something I have at all. Even this sword technically doesn't belong to me. Because of that, if I ever lost it...things would get bad for me. I say as if things weren't already rather iffy in my life," Madante sighs. "But I don't think you care much about my little tale. For now I'll just continue to do my best for as long as I can."

"Well yes, it is a rather nice sword all things considered. Though if I'm completely honest, having this particular sword has also been a bit of trouble. As you witnessed earlier," Madante sighs before continuing. "This sword was custom made for me with the intention of it never breaking. Though that last detail was put in solely so I would never need to buy another weapon again. Even if I feel like something new can aid me..." -------------- "Yeah, the Romani daughter apparently married some guy she knew for quite some time. As a result, she wasn't too interested in the Baron's advances," the man confirms before switching topics. "As for the holy lady murdering someone, I don't have the greatest of details. The whole matter was hush-hush and the only reason I know about it is cause of a friend of mine who has some friends in the church. Apparently the woman went and murdered a few people in her family or something. Rumors say that she even killed her own daughter. Don't know what possessed her to do something like that to be honest, but I have been hearing rumors so maybe they have some weight. Who knows?" the man shrugs before taking a drink. On the right end of the bar, the barkeeper serves Belros, who has not been noticed by anyone as of yet, a drink.

"Oh you know, making sure our convoy is in order. And uhh...trying to get some spending money. Can't you at least let me get something?" Madante moans to the cloaked man, who shakes his head. "You do remember the deal correct? Your weapon was specifically made so that you would not need another," the man crones. "If I can't manage a new weapon, then how will I be able to better support my men?" "If you feel what you have is insufficient, I do believe I may have something for you," the man states before pulling out a lancereaver from his robes. "This should be sufficient for your endeavors. Now then, I shall take the club and finish my business. Good day," the man finishes, taking the club and then disappearing into the crowd. "Well...better than nothing I guess."

"Sure can. The Baron's real name is Roman, and he's from one of the 4 noble houses on this island. He's a rather powerful man on the island, but he doesn't have much reach elsewhere. The Romanis have their legendary brews, the Earthwalkers have been breeding horses for generations, and the Cloudgrens supply the Royal Guard with pegesi. Meanwhile, Roman's house doesn't actually provide anything to people outside the island, they just keep order in the north. He's not too pleased about that, so he's been trying to get in with one of the other houses, though none of his attempts have gotten anywhere. So now he's just a bitter man trying to make it big without actually making something himself," the shopkeeper pauses before leaning in and whispering to Belros. "And between you and me, there's a few rumors that one of the lesser noble families up north have been running the place better than Roman was, so now the people up there are trying to get Roman out of power. But don't go blabbing about this you hear? Roman doesn't take too well to hearing people say that he's washed up and all. Just a warning," the shopkeeper finishes.