Erik eventually settled on going up to meet with the three adventurers who helped him, to thank them for what they did... even if it meant having to put up with the smell building up in the tavern.
As he made his way towards the table the three were sitting at, one of them turned their gaze as they noticed him coming closer. "You there!" he shouted, as he raised his hand. "Glad to see that you are awake!" He then motioned Erik to come sit next to him on the empty seat. Erik nodded and proceeded to sit down.
"Thank you," Erik said, "for what you did to help me and the caravan." He then bowed slightly to show his gratitude, only for it to be met with a collective laugh from all three adventurers. As Erik sat back up, he showed clear confusion on his face.
"Was it something I said?" he asked in earnest.
The man who had Erik sit next to him had then wrapped his arm around Erik shoulders and replied, "Haha, not really, no. It's just we didn't expect ya to be so formal about it!" He continued to snicker. "Besides, you don't even hafta mention it."
"I-I see," Erik said, taken aback slightly by how openly friendly the adventurer was.
"Oh, right," the adventurer said, "where are my manners - name's Tyrel, nice to meetcha!" He extended his free hand up right in front of Erik, the other arm still comfortably wrapped around Erik's shoulders. Erik shook Tyrel's hand, as Tyrel's arm shifted down to Erik's bicep.
"And these two are Simeon, and Dober!" The other two waved at Erik in response.
Now that Erik was seated next to the three, he could get a better look at what each of them looked like. Tyrel, the one next to him, was a tall, slender fellow with dark brown hair that reached down to the base of his neck. To contrast, his eyes were a bright green, and he had light freckles across the bridge of his nose. He was clad in leather armor from top to bottom - a leather chest-piece, leather boots, leather arm guards, and leather shin-guards. He didn't have it on him, but his bow and quiver of arrows was leaning up against his seat. Erik could tell that Tyrel was an archer, and needed to wear light armor so that he would be able to move quickly.
Across the table from Erik, sat Simeon and Dober. Simeon has long dark hair that reached about halfway down his back. His eyes were a dark gray, and he wore a permanent scowl on his face. He was slightly shorter than Erik was, and his attire was a decorated robe with a hood, and his book was placed on the table in front of him. Simeon was the mage of the group.
Finally, Dober was a somewhat portly, stout fellow of average height - the most prominent feature of his being his sizeable stomach. He wore silver armor and seemed to used gauntlets as his weapon. He was the team's warrior, but Erik had never seen someone use only their gauntlets in a fight. Erik imagined Dober as an up-close-and-personal fighter, using his gauntlets to knock out his foes. A brutal strategy for one who looked so pleasant - Dober had short, curly hazel-colored hair, and big blue eyes. His appearance combined with his body type gave the impression of a jolly fellow.
"Nice to meet you," Erik told Simeon and Dober. He looked back at Tyrel and added, "I'm glad you all came when you did."
Tyrel brushed it off. "Pssh, seriously, don't mention it - if ya want me to be honest, if it were any other day, we likely wouldn't have been there at all."
Erik raised an eyebrow. "How do you mean?"
This is when Dober chimed in and interjected with, "It's the kind of job we normally wouldn't be interested in at all - we only took it because there was nothing else up on the board."
"But, the woman at the reception said they were a group of bandits," Erik replied. "Surely that's still worth something."
"It depends," Dober continued, "since the Bumms are, honestly, nothing to write home about - they're not the most dangerous bunch."
"But... they knocked me out..." Erik said in a dejected tone.
"Pffft, pheheheh!" Tyrel laughed. "Yeah, we saw that! And, I guess to anybody not from Esteri, that would seem pretty bad... but trust us, man - around here, ya gotta be a lot more creative about how you use your gas in combat. Just farting all by itself isn't gonna get ya far. And the Bumms know that - that's why they do more petty crimes to those who least expect it. Didn't you wonder why they were at the border at all?"
"B-Because they wanted to extort the caravan by saying it was part of some toll...?" Erik answered.
"Right!" Tyrel said. "But, you can do that anywhere - any random town or passerby. Nah nah, the Bumms did what they did at the border because they know people coming in ain't used to that sorta thing. Evidently, it worked," he said, eyeing up Erik. "Well, almost worked. We needed a job, and it was Simeon's insistence that we take it. Right, Sim?"
Simeon simply nodded slowly in response.
"There ya go! So, if ya wanna thank anybody, thank him!"
"Oh, OK..." Erik turned to Simeon. "Thank you, Simeon."
Simeon just slowly nodded his head again.
"So then," Erik continued, "how did you guys beat them?"
"Simeon created a smokescreen to disorient them, while I went in and clocked every one of them I could," Dober answered. "Tyrel stayed back and picked off any stragglers who got out of the smoke."
"Ah, I see," Erik nodded. "And I assume this smokescreen was your doing?" he asked Simeon.
Once again, Simeon slowly nodded.
"Yeah, remember what I said about being more creative? Yeah, that's what I meant," Tyrel snickered.
Erik was about to ask for clarification, when it hit him like an epiphany. Oh, he thought. He means that Simeon created the smokescreen with his... farts. Clever, I suppose... but, did he do that on his own, or did he use magic?
"Anyway," Tyrel said, "you an adventurer too?"
Erik nodded. "I am - I came to Esteri in hopes of finding new adventures!"
Tyrel winked. "Then I got a good place for you to start!" He got up and had Erik follow him to the other end of the tavern, where a big bulletin board waited for them.
"This here is the Quest Board," he said. "Well, at least that's what we call it, anyway. Really, it's just a bulletin board with any number of requests on it. Folks come in, leave a brief description of what's bothering them, and then they wait in the hopes someone answers the call. This is how we got that job in the first place."
"And this is official guild business?" Erik asked. "The woman up front told me you three were part of the adventurer's guild in this town."
"And you would be right!" Tyrel confirmed with a snap of his fingers. "But, that's why it's here in the tavern - see, the guild made a deal with the owners of this place to set it up here instead outside in the town square. Gives us the chance to call first dibs on it. After all, I'm pretty sure more than half of the customers in this smelly place are just other guild members - they come here, get a job, complete the job, then come and celebrate with good food and drink! Really, it's a win-win for everybody."
"So, do I have to register?" Erik asked.
Tyrel shook his head. "Like I said, we just get first dibs - anybody can take any request they want. They just have to run it through the guild so that the guildmates are made aware. Incentivizes members like us to get off our butts and take as many jobs as we can before someone else grabs 'em!"
Erik nodded. Interesting setup for a guild, he thought. This one seems particularly lax. Not that I'm complaining, of course - I'd rather not join if I don't HAVE to.
"Tell ya what," Tyrel said, "if you'd like, you can take a look at the board and see what fancies ya. Hell, if it's interesting enough, maybe Dober, Simeon and I can join ya! Unless, you prefer to work alone?"
Erik replied, "Mostly yes, but Esteri is new to me - maybe having some guides wouldn't be so bad..."
"Hey, don't feel obligated," Tyrel assured. "It was just a suggestion. You do what you want - if you do want help, I'll be back at the table with the others. It was nice to meet you, uh..."
"Erik. Erik Leif," Erik replied as he extended his hand towards Tyrel.
Tyrel shook Erik's hand and replied, "Erik Leif... I like it! I hope you continue to enjoy your stay in Esteri!" Tyrel then walked back towards where Simeon and Dober were sitting, leaving Erik to look over the board full of various requests.
Erik combed over each of the requests up on the board, and noticed a few that caught his eye - after deliberating which one he wanted to take, he decided on--
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