For Queen And Country!

Nemo of Utopia

Nemo of Utopia

CHYOA Guru
*It's a good night to be indoors* you reflect, where you stand in the "community room" of the Apraxia County guild hall of South East Lore. Outside a howling summer monsoon rages against the thin bands of light cast by the high narrow windows of the Guild Hall...

The Guild Halls of the Adventurers Guild of Lore are more than just waystations for travelling guild members, or centers of business and administration, they also serve as recruitment agencies, coaching houses/stables, hotels, and community centers for the areas in which they are planted.

That's why you're here, you want to join the guild! Your reasons are your own but the recruiter you came here to meet is late: extremely late. She was supposed to be here by noon and it's now 22:00...

There are a half dozen other hopefuls in the hall with you, as well as a number of local youths and laborers. Though it is Guild LAW that guild halls may not be purveyors of any sort of addictive or intoxicating substance nor may they sanction, condone, or permit prostitution on thier premises they make it a point to provide good entertainment of other sorts, from performance of various types to games of skill, such as darts, billiards, nine pins, and puzzles. (Games of chance are likewise prohibited, but they do a stiff business renting darts, cues and balls...) They also, other than the absence of alcohol, are the equal of any Taverna in their supply of things one can eat and drink, from stews to cobblers, this newfangled thing called a "Hoxie" where you put sliced meat and a salad between two halves of a loaf of bread sliced long ways to the traditional rack of ribs, fresh or chilled milk to fruit juices which must be made one off right there in front of you from fruit brought in sealed jars from the other end of the country by teleportation relays to prevent them spoiling and being worthless.

All this is of minor concern, you either have already eaten or are being frugal with your remaining coin, what's interesting right now is the several people you've spotted who are probably going to be your new adventuring company...
 
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Syleen was bored. Where IS that woman? The woman in question was one of the Guild's recruiters, and she was very late, much to the elf's annoyance. She was supposed to be here half a day ago! If I had known she would be this late I would have done something more productive before coming here! Like... seduce a pretty girl, or something.

The elf sighed and took another look at the building's interior. Unsurprisingly it was the same the last few dozen times she had looked. With nothing better to do her thoughts went back to the woman everyone was waiting for. I hope she has a good reason for being so late... or maybe she doesn't and she'll apologize by giving each of us some free silver.... Yeah, right, like that's gonna happen... With another sigh the elf continued waiting for the recruiter.
 
Nalana Yinrie sat quietly drinking her ale. She was wearing her traveling clothes - knee-high boots, leather pants, shirt with cleavage, a vest and a traveling coat.

People around her were either bored or agitated by the lateness of the recruiter – but not her. She was of opinion that the intelligent people were never bored. Free time was a time for planning, scheming and deliberation.

Right now, for example, she was planning how to seduce that cute waitress from the bar she was staying at. Her target was to pay for the food with sex – the only question was how far she would be able to push the wench. Will the waitress accept the sex for dinner, will it be sufficient for dinner and room, or maybe Nalana will manage to convince the wench to provide all for free. Ideally, the waitress would provide all of those for free and additionally pay her for the privilege of allowing her to pleasure Nalana.

Mocha-skinned half-elf's lip twitched slightly upward as she sat at the table, planning. Somehow the question 'if' she would manage to seduce the waitress, never crossed her mind.
 
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Keria had been asleep under a table for the better part of the day, exhausted from her long traveling. She counted her lucky stars that nobody had stepped on her or that she hadn't been kicked out. Her bare midriff was feeling a bit chilly, and she could see boots near her head. So with a yawn and a stretch she sleepily crawled out from under the table, and plopped down in a chair, crossing her legs beneath her and adjusting her top, which had been pulled down slightly in her sleep, showing off too much cleavage for her liking.

Her long snow-white hair was in complete disarray, and her scarf had gone from wrapped about her waist to wrapped around one of her legs but she was still half asleep and looking around, hopeful that she hadn't missed her appointment with the recruiter. She had no idea what time it was and the monsoon outside lent her no clues so she decided to just make an attempt at polite conversation with the nearest person.

The nearest person happened to be a mocha-skinned half-elf who was sat at the table the human had been asleep under. So, mustering her limited social courage, she asked in a sleep-drunk voice:

"Didj I miss th meeting?..."
 
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Sslvark tapped his claws together and tried to ignore the glances. They weren't outright hostile, no-one in their right mind would be anything but perfectly civil to a Lizardfolk carrying a massive hammer, but they were all probably wondering the same thing: "Why is he here? Why isn't the savage in the swamps where he lives?" Of course, he didn't live in the swamps anymore, and following his training from the Order, he wasn't much of a savage, either.

And he wasn't poor, even with his various expenses he had enough for months of easy living, but what he did need was companions, and the Queen's authority to hit things with a hammer. So he was here, waiting for someone to turn up and outline the recruitment process so he could go through the motions, wondering if something had gone wrong and if she was currently being packraped by orcs or suchlike, and tapping his claws together out of boredom.
 
Damar was certain that he was missing something. He had been told to wait for an important woman, and the she would be there by noon. Damar wasn't very good at telling time, but he thought that noon was a while ago.
He turns his head about the room, and his eyes are caught by a lizard folk man with an impressive hammer, currently tapping his claws together.He stares for a while, before eventually being overwhelmed by his curiosity and going over to speak with him. Putting on his best smile, he strolls over to the scaled man and says:
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
 
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Nalana looked at the female that crawled from under the table and slurred... asked her about a meeting. She stayed quite as she looked, the drunkard, over. Curiously, her skin and hair colors matched hers. While not as beautiful as she (there were not many who were), the woman was... not unattractive.

While her face was that of a... common beauty, her body was a completely different matter. The clothes she was wearing did little to hide fitness of her body. A top that covered her – by all indications, a well shaped – breasts, but left the rest of her upper body on display. The muscles, while visible, didn't scar her body, like some of female body-builders she had a... pleasure seeing. If only, instead of this baggy pants, she wore some tight pants that would show off the shape of her ass...

In a way, this adventurer was an opposite of her – Nalana had a beautiful face and voluptuous body, but physically, she was weak. The woman, while of common looks, had a fit, strong body. Another thing was the mental state, the witch was scarily smart, very few could match her wits... the eyes of the woman sitting in front of her showed a lack of intelligent glint she's seen in some of the most dangerous people she had the displeasure of meeting.

Nalana came here for a simple purpose, to gain power, connections, allies, riches and minions. She, herself, was not a warrior, so she needed a minions/bodyguards that would follow her... and this woman (on the first look) was everything she was searching for.

“No, the recruiter hasn't come yet.” She finally answered, after scanning the woman with her eyes for a good minute of silence. She then offered the woman her mug of ale, making sure, that her cleavage was fully visible to the woman. All of this, while carefully watching her reactions – studying, strategizing, scheming.

After all, the human started from under Nalana's boots - the witch would make sure that she would eagerly return under her heel and stay there.
 
Keria rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and sighed happily at the good news. Now that she had become a bit more wakeful she was surprised to see that the woman she'd asked looked a bit like her if she was weaker and a lot more beautiful. So beautiful in fact that she had to quickly pull the scarf from her leg and wrap it tightly round her waist so as not to embarrass herself. The look in the woman's eyes though reminded her of many of her previous 'owners' and made a chill shoot down her spine.

Her master had taught her to be wary or people with that sort of glint in their eyes, and that there were only a few things they hungered for and none meant good things for an unintelligent ex-slave. Keria was confident in the teachings of her master and was ashamed she had judged this half-elf on sight. She resolved to at least give her a chance, so Keria let out a huge, genuine smile.

"Nah, I'm alright," she replied politely as she knew how to the offered drink, she had learned long ago to buy her own drinks in a rather painful way. The human began to fix her hair and tidy herself just a bit as she continued, "I'm Keria Slade, it's nice to meet you miss..."
 
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Nalana blinked. The human blushed as she was quickly putting her clothes in order – which was entertaining to watch. The moment she got a better look of Nalana's face and shuddered, the witch thought she had her... but then she backed off and refused the drink with a subtlety of a drunken dwarf. The half-elf was missing something... was it because of her ancestry?

She frowned as she looked down at the cup with ale.

“I guess that half-elf's drink is not good enough...” She mumbled quietly, but loud enough for the woman to hear.

She then subtlety backed off, giving the woman free space and took a large sip from the jug.

“...Yinrie” She answered loudly. While looking away, at something else (Lizardfolk was an interesting thing to watch), showing clearly her disinterest in continuing the conversation.
She would leave her – at least for now. She wouldn't push the woman – she learned hard way from that mistake. She pushed one man away, refuse to sleep with him and the bastard sold her out to an inquisitor.
 
With nothing better to do Syleen sat down at an empty table and started looking around, examining the other people present.

First she noticed a mocha-skinned half-elf that was sitting on a nearby table. After a quick and discreet look she was about look away when, to her surprise, a white-haired woman crawled from under the half-elf's table. Syleen blinked in surprise. What the- was she sleeping under there? She quickly checked under her own table and found nothing of interest (but at least the floor was mostly clean).

With nothing better to do the raven-haired elf decided to watch the two white-haired women for a bit but not get involved with them just yet. She was close enough to the other table to overhear their conversation as long as the pair were not too quiet. Maybe she would learn something about them by watching and listening...
 
Keria was still awkward in social situations, as she hadn't had many in the past few years that didn't end in a very painful way. So when the Half-elf looked away from her disinterestedly she totally missed the disinterested cue and gave another bright smile.

"That's a very nice name even though you only have one! I used to be that way until my... Until a friend gave me my last name." the human exclaimed dimly, trying to show she hadn't meant to hurt the woman's feelings by turning down the drink.

"Are you also waiting for the um... The guild lady too?" She asked, struggling a bit when she couldn't remember the woman's title, and adjusted herself uncomfortably under the table.
 
(I remind everyone that no addictive and/or intoxicating substances are served at any Guild Hall [with the notable exceptions of good food/tasty mundane beverages and sugar, but ale and other alcohol certainly not being an exception,]: and that prostitution cannot be conducted on their grounds either.)

(Now to describe the guild hall some more...)

The ApraxiaCounty guild hall of the Adventurers Guild of Lore is built from massive smoothed blocks of the local orangish-red sandstone. It towers four stories tall not counting its basement, (laundry rooms, boilers, store rooms and teleportarium,) and the servants quarters in the attic. The first story is taller than the others and is mostly taken up by the huge community center/common room and the enormous kitchens which serve it. The second and third stories are mostly a series of hotel style rooms that travelling guild members and anyone else who wants to sleep soundly along thier journey that is not in trouble with the crown or guild may rent for a healthy fee*. The fourth floor is taken up by administration offices, secured areas for holding items too valuable to be kept in visitors rooms, (anything costing 50k GP or more,) and training rooms which may be rented by guild members to practice thier skills.
*(Though I must point out said fee does include a mandatory insurance liability policy for recovery/replacement of anything stored in one's room if stolen, so long as you followed the instructions for security procedure given along with your keys: as well as a temporary life insurance policy should you, [Gods forfend!], be killed/die by misadventure on the premises; and lastly one 'free' meal in the common room per day, up to 1GP in price.)

The interior is decorated with various types of hard wood, mostly the common local Willow and Cyprus, but also polished "birds eye" Maple, Birchwood, "Pinoak", and Apple planks, and even small Darkwood (aka "Darkoak",) accents. It all is done in a style we IRL would recognize as Elizabethton and very tasteful.

The common room, where you all are at the moment, has three fireplaces, each of which has a cheerful little fire going in it to combat the chill and damp seaping in from the torrential rain outside. The chairs here are made of Birchwood and wicker, and the tables stoutly built oak, much scared by graffiti and miss aimed knife strikes from people eating or amateurs messing up on the knife throwing contest held here every Moon's Day.

The windows are tall and narrow, almost arrow slits, but glazed with a single row of clear panes held in wooden frames. They may be opened in better weather, but at the moment are all closed.

The service staff are all dressed in green and yellow, the colors of the local count's arms, and they are very professional. As with most Guild Halls tipping is against the rules here: the servers and staff are expected to be professional and give good service simply because that is what they are paid to do, not because they expect further rewards.
 
She blinked few times – surprised by the woman's words.

“My full name's Nalana Yinrie” she snapped irritated, automatically.

This human couldn't be so dimwitted and socially crude, could she? Half-elf took a look at human's wide goofy smile... maybe she could.

She really wished her ale had a kick. She was surprised when she was offered a local specialty: a non-alcoholic ale. It was... curious in taste. It looked like ale, it tasted like ale but it lacked the kick of ale... and that made it disturbingly awful. After all, the alcohol in ale, was what killed its taste – otherwise, it was undrinkable.

Nalana narrowed her eyes, maybe she could work with the way Keira behaved... normally she wouldn't be doing it, but the woman was dim as a hammer.

She bent forward, putting her cleavage on full display and moved so close to human... Keria, that their noses almost touched. Then she slowly put her hand on woman's cheek and started caressing it.

“Tell me Keira,” she started sensually “do you want me to fuck you?”

It was an old trick she learned from a veteran soldier.

On one party he walked up to the lady and asked her 'Excuse me, do you fuck?'. The woman has slapped him and stormed off. Curious, Nalana asked him, if he gets his mouth slapped often. His answer was 'Statistically, I fuck more often.' and indeed, it was as he said. He fucked four women and got his face slapped once more.

While this method was not Nalana's style, she would use it in this situation... if only to tease the woman who started giving her a headache. After all, should she immediately agree, Nalana would be greatly disappointed.

That, and with the damn recruiter late, they couldn't move from this place.
 
At the half-elf's touch Keira was already as red as her tanned skin would allow, and but at her question a small semblance of calm returned to her confused and expression. She wasn't the brightest star in the night sky but even she could see what Nalana was up to. Despite her realization she feared that her scarf may not hide her reaction to the situation at hand, and she took the woman's delicate hand in her more rough and slightly scarred ones, and gave her an apologetic but firm smile.

"U-um... I think you are very pretty, but I don't think right now is a good time. Maybe when we are not busy?... I'm sorry if I am not good with words or if I made you mad. I would very much like to be your friend though if you are willing!" Keria said remorsefully, trying her best to convey her feelings with her limited vocabulary.

Internally she yearned for anyone to call a friend, what with the only friend she'd ever had now buried under a mountain of shifting sands. The half-elf seemed much sharper than she, so she couldnt offer much in the way of intelligent conversation, but she would try her hardest if she could make others happy. Keria tried to turn her smile into her trademark dopey grin, but she couldn't hide the sadness in her eyes.

"I understand though if you don't want to though... If you want me to go elsewhere I will." She finished, releasing Nalana's hand and scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.
 
Damar, his limited attention span already deleted, quite abruptly leaves the table and the lizard-man he was speaking to, instead wandering over to a raven-haired, buxom elf that is currently watching a conversation between two white-haired women.
"Hello there." he says to her, louder than strictly needed. "What are you doing?"
 
Syleen raised an eyebrow when she saw the half-elf lean closer and caress the other woman's cheek. Then she raised her other eyebrow when she heard the half-elf ask the human 'do you want me to fuck you?'. Oh? Some entertainment, at last? Good thing I am wearing a skirt...

Her observation of the odd pair was interrupted by a loud male voice asking her what she was doing. The elf took a quick look at the person that had disturbed her and saw that the voice belonged to a black-haired human male, likely a barbarian or some such. “Hi. I'm trying not to get bored to death before the recruiter arrives.” The elf answered the man's question as she returned her gaze to the odd pair. “What are you doing? Other than shouting loudly, I mean.” She asked as an afterthought.
 
Nalana observed with a joy as the human girl blushed and squirmed in her seat, nervously. She actually smirked at her words, a smirk turned into laugh – one she hadn't have in a long time, a pure laugh of joy. She smiled and looked at the woman.

“You're dim, socially retarded... even your lies are pathetically transparent. But you know... that's so refreshing.” She smiled and started caressing the woman's cheek once again.“Your presence is... acceptable. But friends? Friend, is a someone you would give your life for – and considering that I just met you I wouldn't give my life for you... but” she looked deep into Keira's eyes and allowed her hand trace at at the back of human's neck. “maybe one day. For now... how about acquaintances, hum?”

Keira was indeed everything that Nalana wasn't, that might make them to halves of one coin... or mortal enemies. Only time would show.

She stretched her hand for a handshake-

“-What are you doing?”

The witch turned her head just to see a raven-haired elf looking at her and Keira. Nalana clenched her teeth and hissed-

“Pure-blood.”
 
Keira twitched in annoyance at the names (even if one of them was foreign to her), but shivered at the the half-elf's touch, still blushing hard and making sure to move slightly so that Nalana didn't touch any of her unsightly scarring. She was confused as to when she might have told a lie, but was happy enough that the woman seemed to like her at least a little bit.

"I'm not really sure what that word means, but I will be honored to count you among my friends!" She said happily, giving another of her bright smiles and grasping the witch's outstretched hand. She was slightly shocked by the sudden swing in mood when Nalana hissed something and looked at the other table where a beautiful elf and a short human man with a dog were talking loudly.

"Whats wrong Miss Yinrie?" she asked, worried about her mood swing.
 
Syleen was surprised by the half-elf's hiss. “Yes, I am. Why, is that a problem? Did some pure-blooded idiot cause you trouble in the past?” While she didn't care in the slightest that the other woman was a half-blood, but she had heard about people that did. And thanks to her white hair and mocha-colored skin this woman looked more like a half-drow than a regular half-elf, which surely did not help things.
 
Nalana glared at the elf for a moment, allowing silence fall between them. Finally, she pulled herself back, under the control.

“You could say that.” and that was an understatement.

The said elf made it clear how low was half-elf's reputation among the Elves... but maybe she was not telling the entire truth?

She looked at the black haired woman – a delicious looking piece of meat. Certainly, not a warrior – a cleric maybe? A sorceress? Still... an Elf. No, Nalana would judge her character – didn't mean she would enjoy her company... maybe she would be a useful tool. Witch's eyes flickered to her companion – a tall human barbarian.

“I dislike the Elves. My... apologies...” she grunted – it was hard to apologize to a pure-blood. But the odds were against her.

The Elf seemed to be very attentive of her conversation... Nalana's eyes moved down, to look at her legs, then moved up, taking in her hips and bountiful breasts, before flicking back at her eyes. Her lip twitched upwards slightly before she turned her attention back to Keira.

“Sorry, you were saying?”
 
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