TheSequelReturns
Faithful Crusader
~ The Guild ~
“Citizens of Grand Capitol. Keepers of the mighty fortress Bastion. Representatives of all races, tribes, kingdoms, and peoples. It is my honor to accept this responsibility and this title.
I do not do so lighty.
No, though you may know me as the Magician, the Trickster, the tengu who delivers every strike of the blade with a strike of the wit, I assure you that I will devote my all to the good of this, and every land where a Guild hall stands. I will uphold the honor and dignity with which my predecessors have served before me. But most importantly, I will not seclude myself away in those tall towers.
You are my people, and I am your champion! And I will continue to walk these streets, travel these lands, and lend my blade to the most difficult of quests so that you may not see me as another monarch, but as the Guild leader you have known me to be all along.
So continue to do as you have done. I will lend my ear to your pleas for help. I will raise my blade in your service. And I will always bow to you, my people, and not the other way around.
May the winds be ever behind your backs. May the sun never cease to shine.”
- Impromptu inaugural address given by Nivini Liu, the current People’s Champion, upon his acceptance of the title which was immediately followed by the single largest festival ever held beneath Bastion since the Guild’s founding.
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It has been nearly three years since the last champion retired from their service and Nivini took on the mantle of People’s Champion. A tengu of the Kurasu tribe, Nivini made his name as a peerless slayer of rogues, tyrants, and monsters alike, but earned his rank with his faultless attention to keeping those around him safe.
Though Nivini is especially beloved by the people of Bastion, his short tenure as champion has seen many changes come to the world at large.
There are some among the nobility who find Nivini’s brash, rabble-rousing behavior to be an affront to the dignity of his title. But beyond that, they find his eagerness to dismiss their concerns in order to relish in the praise of the common citizenry to be both threatening to the long established order as well as a personal insult to their status. And though they dare not make a move in public, in private tensions are high and subterfuge is the game of the day.
Beyond the bubble of Bastion’s politics, something much more ominous is brewing. It started small. The sun seemed to rise a little later in the day or set a little earlier in the evening. What had, for as long as anyone could remember, been an even split of day and night had begun to waver. And not in the way everyone might have hoped. The sun, the luminous miracle that chased away the eternal night, was slowly conceding its time to the dark. And though at present, the difference is measured in minutes, those with their eyes on the sky are starting to fear the day when minutes might become hours and hours might become endless.
But the nights are not simply growing longer. The winds from the edges of the world are blowing in colder. Winter arrives days ahead of schedule and spring delays its first blooms.
And with longer nights come more of the night’s spawn. Monsters are appearing more and more frequently, coming into territories long since believed to be safe. And with this new threat, comes displacement. Fear breeding envy, strife, and chaos on the fringes of civilized lands.
But all of these dangers and omens are yet in their infancy. Strange enough to notice, but not strange enough to spread panic. So long as the monsters stay in the outskirts, so long as tensions and rumors of war don’t erupt into growing flames, so long as the sun continues to rise and time continues its normal course, the world will continue likewise.
And it is, perhaps, the work of the brave and talented adventures of the Guild that keep the world running.
One quest at a time.
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~ The City of Estvalm ~
- Late Summer -
Estvalm was something between a sleepy riverside hamlet and a proper city. It lacked anything one might call fortifications, but the buildings were sturdy and made of stone and solid timbers that aged well and held up to the elements. The streets were wide and paved with cobblestones, the only city in Valm that could claim both, and since most of the farming was done in Junne or Rivervale, the streets were relatively free from mud or the constant wear of field-born horses, wagons, and carts.
It was, in a phrase, just enough of the city to feel welcoming to folks from up north, but still country enough to feel like home to the locals.
There was the ring of stables, workshops, blacksmiths, and other such places that surrounded the city. The outer streets lined with hovels, taverns, general stores, and the occasional inn. And main street, dominated by a large clock tower, the only noble’s court in all of Valm, squares for hosting harvest time sales and festivals, and of course, the local Guild Hall.
A simple two-story building, the Guild Hall in Estvalm was like many such halls dotted across the land, built to accommodate travelers, adventures, and passerby of all types and sizes. Every door was big enough for a titan to walk through. Every dining hall equipped with chairs of varying heights. And a service desk and quest board just high enough for most to comfortably access.
The building itself was as sturdy and well built as any other in town. The doors were big and heavy, but swung in easily on masterfully balanced hinges. Above these doors were etched the Guild’s motto and creed. “For the good of all, by those who are able.”
The entire first floor was mostly devoted to a large room filled with tables, chairs, corner work desks, and an assortment of stations for weapon or armor maintenance. There was also the quest board and service counter, the latter of which was manned by a guild clerk at all hours of the day and well into the night. Behind the counter was a room reserved for the guildmaster’s office and a room that housed the hall’s scrying orb. While off of the main open space was the kitchen.
The second floor of the hall was devoted to spare rooms to lend out to those in need of a place to stay the night, a room that served as a mail room and a roost for the Courier Crows that took messages from one end of Valm to the other, as well as a library full of reference material for those in need of information on the area.
Out back, behind the guild hall, were the baths, a training area for sparring or practice or settling the occasional dispute, and a place to stable mounts, pets, or other familiars for the night.
As the sun went down in the sky and the last signs of daylight hovered over the distant horizon, the busy streets of Estvalm slowly emptied out as many citizens returned to their homes for food, rest, or to prepare for some nightly activity unrelated to the day’s work.
For adventures, or anyone who wanted cheap but filling food and a passable bed, it meant the Guild Hall’s tavern was now open for business. Now was the perfect time to make your way back to the hall, report any completed quests, order a tray of food and drink with your well earned coin, and relax before going about whatever business you had in the late hours or turning in to prepare for another day’s questing.
While some guild members might make enough coin to live a relatively lavish lifestyle, for most, these services the hall provides are indispensable and anyone seeking to stow away coin for future plans will almost certainly take advantage of them at some point.
And though several familiar faces are out of town to answer the summons to Bastion, tonight is no different from any other night.
The hall is full of adventures fresh from their travels or quests, the smells of various foods fill the air, a local bard plays a harp in the corner collecting tips and taking requests, and there's a whole line of questers waiting to collect their earnings at the counter.
No matter what brings you to the guild hall tonight, the place is alive with activity and the sounds of barely controlled chaos, as newbies and veterans alike discuss the days events or unwind from a challenging adventure.
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~ Estvalm - Guild Hall ~
- Dusk -
The guild clerk looked over the quest report with a barely concealed grimace. Like many in Valm, she was human. And a young one at that. But even she, who barely knew the pointy end of a sword from the handle, could probably have done this quest with ease.
Across the counter from her stood a pair who would be familiar to anyone who frequented the Guild Hall. Bramble, an earnest and stubborn spriggan who carried so many throwing knives it was a miracle he could still fly, and Thorn, a Kurasu tengu who refused to go by his real name and spent most of his time muttering snide comments.
“So,” the guild clerk started.
“Yes?” said Thorn.
“How much did we earn? You can break it to us.” Bramble said as he leaned forward on the counter.
The guild clerk took a deep breath. “The quest at hand was a wood-ranked quest. Help with a berry harvest.”
Thorn nodded proudly. “Quite beneath our skills.”
Bramble punched him on the shoulder. “Totally boring.”
To her credit, the clerk kept a calm, professional tone as she continued. “Yes, well, that may be the case. But it says here that you only completed half of the allotted work. What’s more, an entire bushel of berries is unaccounted for. How do you account for this failure?”
“Failure?” Bramble spread his hands as though he had just finished delivering a speech. “My good lady, we had to protect the harvest from encroaching monsters. Surely that not only falls under the purview of accomplished adventures as ourselves, but is in fact our sworn duty.”
“The quest giver did note that a run-of-the-mill slime was lurking about the area.”
Bramble joined Thorn in his nodding. “Yes, you see? A dangerous monster lurking about a farm? We had no choice but to intervene.”
“Our only option.” Thorn added.
“Yes, well,” the clerk brandished the paper and cleared her throat before reading aloud “It is with resignation that I can not report this quest as having been completed. The Guild members assigned abandoned their duties and nearly scared my dear Puhi to death. I would like for the quest to be reposted, but would request that the Guild not only refrain from assigning those two to my farm in the future but review their qualifications for Guild work in general.”
Bramble huffed and shook his head. “That is patently absurd. We were only doing our duty to protect the farm.”
“From a slime?” the clerk said.
“Yes, from the monster.”
“But the slime escaped, didn’t it.”
“Slippery little bugger.” Thorn muttered.
The clerk sighed and pushed her glasses up. “Let me get this straight then. You showed up late, left the job incomplete, ‘misplaced’ a basket full of berries, and failed to catch a slime that you considered to be a threat. Does that sum up the job results accurately?”
“Well, when you put it that way it does sound bad.” Bramble admitted with an extremely misplaced sense of pride in his voice.
“Quite. And, I have one more question for you.” the pair leaned in towards the counter. “Are you two aware that slimes can be tamed?”
“Not sure what that has to do with anything.” Thorn muttered.
“Exactly.” Bramble said, “You said it yourself, the farmer’s kid was scared.”
“The farmer doesn’t have a young child.” the clerk said flatly. “Puhi is the farmer’s pet.” The pair stared blankly at the clerk as she slammed the paper on the desk in front of her. “If you two had actually read the quest form, you’d have known that the farmer has a pet slime! Honestly, what in the world are we going to do with you guys?”
“Not fire us?” Bramble said hopefully.
Thorn nodded vigorously. “We are but poor, hapless fools, lost on the road to glory.”
The door behind the clerk’s desk creaked open and Durmmond, the elderly titan who ran the Guild Hall, stuck his head out. “Linessa, what’s all the commotion out here?”
The guildmaster took one long, quiet look at the spriggan and tengu duo both waving happily on the other side of the desk, let out a long defeated sigh, and closed the door without a word.
Linessa adjusted her glasses with her finger and leaned back in her chair. “This is your third offense in two months.” Her tone was all business now. Any pretense of playing along with Bramble and Thorn’s story was gone. “Per the Guild code, which you agreed to when you were issued your medallion, we are now entitled to dismiss you from your service to the Guild and strip you of all associated benefits that entails. Do you understand your situation?”
“Yes miss Linessa.” the two said in unison.
“Good.” She filed the quest report into a bin on the side of her desk for Durmmond to review later and turned back to the pair. “I’m giving you one more chance. If you fail to complete a quest to the complete and total satisfaction of the client, and I do mean complete, before the harvest season is over then I will have no choice but to abide by the code. Are we clear?”
The two nodded, dejectedly.
“Excellent.” Linessa smiled and clapped her hands together, jolting the two to attention. She continued, her voice warm and cheerful again. “Now, the sun will be going down shortly and it would be remiss of me to throw you out on the street with no coin for the night. You are free to stay in one of the spare rooms here at the Guild Hall, but only for the night. Tomorrow morning I expect to see you picking a quest from the board and working it properly.”
Bramble pumped his fists. “Yes. You won’t regret this. I swear on my sword that-”
“You don’t have a sword.” Thorn muttered.
“It’s an expression.” Bramble cleared his throat. “I swear on my sword that I will not let you down.”
The two nodded thankfully and wandered off into the hall. More than likely to find a table and order whatever food they could afford. Guild Hall food might be cheap, but it wasn’t free.
After a moment, the door creaked back open. “Are they gone?” Durmmond asked cautiously.
“Only off to buy food.” Linessa crossed her arms and leaned over the back of the chair to face the guildmaster. “I gave them one more shot. Also, they’re using one of the spare rooms tonight.”
Durmmond grumbled something unintelligible. “You’re too nice. Should have fired them.”
She leveled an accusing finger at Durmmond. “You’re the guildmaster aren’t you?”
The titan only chuckled to himself. “They don’t pay me enough to deal with those two.” He paused for a moment. “Make sure they clean up after themselves. I’ll start charging them rent if they make a mess of the place.” The door started to close, but it stopped halfway. “Also, make sure they don’t bother the other members. Wouldn’t want them to get on anyone’s bad side.”
Finally the door shut.
Linessa pouted at the closed door. “I make less than you, you know.”
A tap on the desk snapped her back to attention. “Ah, yes, sorry. What quest did you have to report?” Linessa asked automatically as she turned back around. Her work for the evening was far from over.
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OOC: Alright everyone, we have officially begun. To start off, just post a normal evening for your character. Hang out at the hall, interact a bit, or otherwise do your thing for now. Once everyone has checked in with an intro post, I’ll get us rolling.
“Citizens of Grand Capitol. Keepers of the mighty fortress Bastion. Representatives of all races, tribes, kingdoms, and peoples. It is my honor to accept this responsibility and this title.
I do not do so lighty.
No, though you may know me as the Magician, the Trickster, the tengu who delivers every strike of the blade with a strike of the wit, I assure you that I will devote my all to the good of this, and every land where a Guild hall stands. I will uphold the honor and dignity with which my predecessors have served before me. But most importantly, I will not seclude myself away in those tall towers.
You are my people, and I am your champion! And I will continue to walk these streets, travel these lands, and lend my blade to the most difficult of quests so that you may not see me as another monarch, but as the Guild leader you have known me to be all along.
So continue to do as you have done. I will lend my ear to your pleas for help. I will raise my blade in your service. And I will always bow to you, my people, and not the other way around.
May the winds be ever behind your backs. May the sun never cease to shine.”
- Impromptu inaugural address given by Nivini Liu, the current People’s Champion, upon his acceptance of the title which was immediately followed by the single largest festival ever held beneath Bastion since the Guild’s founding.
-+-+-+-
It has been nearly three years since the last champion retired from their service and Nivini took on the mantle of People’s Champion. A tengu of the Kurasu tribe, Nivini made his name as a peerless slayer of rogues, tyrants, and monsters alike, but earned his rank with his faultless attention to keeping those around him safe.
Though Nivini is especially beloved by the people of Bastion, his short tenure as champion has seen many changes come to the world at large.
There are some among the nobility who find Nivini’s brash, rabble-rousing behavior to be an affront to the dignity of his title. But beyond that, they find his eagerness to dismiss their concerns in order to relish in the praise of the common citizenry to be both threatening to the long established order as well as a personal insult to their status. And though they dare not make a move in public, in private tensions are high and subterfuge is the game of the day.
Beyond the bubble of Bastion’s politics, something much more ominous is brewing. It started small. The sun seemed to rise a little later in the day or set a little earlier in the evening. What had, for as long as anyone could remember, been an even split of day and night had begun to waver. And not in the way everyone might have hoped. The sun, the luminous miracle that chased away the eternal night, was slowly conceding its time to the dark. And though at present, the difference is measured in minutes, those with their eyes on the sky are starting to fear the day when minutes might become hours and hours might become endless.
But the nights are not simply growing longer. The winds from the edges of the world are blowing in colder. Winter arrives days ahead of schedule and spring delays its first blooms.
And with longer nights come more of the night’s spawn. Monsters are appearing more and more frequently, coming into territories long since believed to be safe. And with this new threat, comes displacement. Fear breeding envy, strife, and chaos on the fringes of civilized lands.
But all of these dangers and omens are yet in their infancy. Strange enough to notice, but not strange enough to spread panic. So long as the monsters stay in the outskirts, so long as tensions and rumors of war don’t erupt into growing flames, so long as the sun continues to rise and time continues its normal course, the world will continue likewise.
And it is, perhaps, the work of the brave and talented adventures of the Guild that keep the world running.
One quest at a time.
-+-+-+-
~ The City of Estvalm ~
- Late Summer -
Estvalm was something between a sleepy riverside hamlet and a proper city. It lacked anything one might call fortifications, but the buildings were sturdy and made of stone and solid timbers that aged well and held up to the elements. The streets were wide and paved with cobblestones, the only city in Valm that could claim both, and since most of the farming was done in Junne or Rivervale, the streets were relatively free from mud or the constant wear of field-born horses, wagons, and carts.
It was, in a phrase, just enough of the city to feel welcoming to folks from up north, but still country enough to feel like home to the locals.
There was the ring of stables, workshops, blacksmiths, and other such places that surrounded the city. The outer streets lined with hovels, taverns, general stores, and the occasional inn. And main street, dominated by a large clock tower, the only noble’s court in all of Valm, squares for hosting harvest time sales and festivals, and of course, the local Guild Hall.
A simple two-story building, the Guild Hall in Estvalm was like many such halls dotted across the land, built to accommodate travelers, adventures, and passerby of all types and sizes. Every door was big enough for a titan to walk through. Every dining hall equipped with chairs of varying heights. And a service desk and quest board just high enough for most to comfortably access.
The building itself was as sturdy and well built as any other in town. The doors were big and heavy, but swung in easily on masterfully balanced hinges. Above these doors were etched the Guild’s motto and creed. “For the good of all, by those who are able.”
The entire first floor was mostly devoted to a large room filled with tables, chairs, corner work desks, and an assortment of stations for weapon or armor maintenance. There was also the quest board and service counter, the latter of which was manned by a guild clerk at all hours of the day and well into the night. Behind the counter was a room reserved for the guildmaster’s office and a room that housed the hall’s scrying orb. While off of the main open space was the kitchen.
The second floor of the hall was devoted to spare rooms to lend out to those in need of a place to stay the night, a room that served as a mail room and a roost for the Courier Crows that took messages from one end of Valm to the other, as well as a library full of reference material for those in need of information on the area.
Out back, behind the guild hall, were the baths, a training area for sparring or practice or settling the occasional dispute, and a place to stable mounts, pets, or other familiars for the night.
As the sun went down in the sky and the last signs of daylight hovered over the distant horizon, the busy streets of Estvalm slowly emptied out as many citizens returned to their homes for food, rest, or to prepare for some nightly activity unrelated to the day’s work.
For adventures, or anyone who wanted cheap but filling food and a passable bed, it meant the Guild Hall’s tavern was now open for business. Now was the perfect time to make your way back to the hall, report any completed quests, order a tray of food and drink with your well earned coin, and relax before going about whatever business you had in the late hours or turning in to prepare for another day’s questing.
While some guild members might make enough coin to live a relatively lavish lifestyle, for most, these services the hall provides are indispensable and anyone seeking to stow away coin for future plans will almost certainly take advantage of them at some point.
And though several familiar faces are out of town to answer the summons to Bastion, tonight is no different from any other night.
The hall is full of adventures fresh from their travels or quests, the smells of various foods fill the air, a local bard plays a harp in the corner collecting tips and taking requests, and there's a whole line of questers waiting to collect their earnings at the counter.
No matter what brings you to the guild hall tonight, the place is alive with activity and the sounds of barely controlled chaos, as newbies and veterans alike discuss the days events or unwind from a challenging adventure.
-+-+-+-
~ Estvalm - Guild Hall ~
- Dusk -
The guild clerk looked over the quest report with a barely concealed grimace. Like many in Valm, she was human. And a young one at that. But even she, who barely knew the pointy end of a sword from the handle, could probably have done this quest with ease.
Across the counter from her stood a pair who would be familiar to anyone who frequented the Guild Hall. Bramble, an earnest and stubborn spriggan who carried so many throwing knives it was a miracle he could still fly, and Thorn, a Kurasu tengu who refused to go by his real name and spent most of his time muttering snide comments.
“So,” the guild clerk started.
“Yes?” said Thorn.
“How much did we earn? You can break it to us.” Bramble said as he leaned forward on the counter.
The guild clerk took a deep breath. “The quest at hand was a wood-ranked quest. Help with a berry harvest.”
Thorn nodded proudly. “Quite beneath our skills.”
Bramble punched him on the shoulder. “Totally boring.”
To her credit, the clerk kept a calm, professional tone as she continued. “Yes, well, that may be the case. But it says here that you only completed half of the allotted work. What’s more, an entire bushel of berries is unaccounted for. How do you account for this failure?”
“Failure?” Bramble spread his hands as though he had just finished delivering a speech. “My good lady, we had to protect the harvest from encroaching monsters. Surely that not only falls under the purview of accomplished adventures as ourselves, but is in fact our sworn duty.”
“The quest giver did note that a run-of-the-mill slime was lurking about the area.”
Bramble joined Thorn in his nodding. “Yes, you see? A dangerous monster lurking about a farm? We had no choice but to intervene.”
“Our only option.” Thorn added.
“Yes, well,” the clerk brandished the paper and cleared her throat before reading aloud “It is with resignation that I can not report this quest as having been completed. The Guild members assigned abandoned their duties and nearly scared my dear Puhi to death. I would like for the quest to be reposted, but would request that the Guild not only refrain from assigning those two to my farm in the future but review their qualifications for Guild work in general.”
Bramble huffed and shook his head. “That is patently absurd. We were only doing our duty to protect the farm.”
“From a slime?” the clerk said.
“Yes, from the monster.”
“But the slime escaped, didn’t it.”
“Slippery little bugger.” Thorn muttered.
The clerk sighed and pushed her glasses up. “Let me get this straight then. You showed up late, left the job incomplete, ‘misplaced’ a basket full of berries, and failed to catch a slime that you considered to be a threat. Does that sum up the job results accurately?”
“Well, when you put it that way it does sound bad.” Bramble admitted with an extremely misplaced sense of pride in his voice.
“Quite. And, I have one more question for you.” the pair leaned in towards the counter. “Are you two aware that slimes can be tamed?”
“Not sure what that has to do with anything.” Thorn muttered.
“Exactly.” Bramble said, “You said it yourself, the farmer’s kid was scared.”
“The farmer doesn’t have a young child.” the clerk said flatly. “Puhi is the farmer’s pet.” The pair stared blankly at the clerk as she slammed the paper on the desk in front of her. “If you two had actually read the quest form, you’d have known that the farmer has a pet slime! Honestly, what in the world are we going to do with you guys?”
“Not fire us?” Bramble said hopefully.
Thorn nodded vigorously. “We are but poor, hapless fools, lost on the road to glory.”
The door behind the clerk’s desk creaked open and Durmmond, the elderly titan who ran the Guild Hall, stuck his head out. “Linessa, what’s all the commotion out here?”
The guildmaster took one long, quiet look at the spriggan and tengu duo both waving happily on the other side of the desk, let out a long defeated sigh, and closed the door without a word.
Linessa adjusted her glasses with her finger and leaned back in her chair. “This is your third offense in two months.” Her tone was all business now. Any pretense of playing along with Bramble and Thorn’s story was gone. “Per the Guild code, which you agreed to when you were issued your medallion, we are now entitled to dismiss you from your service to the Guild and strip you of all associated benefits that entails. Do you understand your situation?”
“Yes miss Linessa.” the two said in unison.
“Good.” She filed the quest report into a bin on the side of her desk for Durmmond to review later and turned back to the pair. “I’m giving you one more chance. If you fail to complete a quest to the complete and total satisfaction of the client, and I do mean complete, before the harvest season is over then I will have no choice but to abide by the code. Are we clear?”
The two nodded, dejectedly.
“Excellent.” Linessa smiled and clapped her hands together, jolting the two to attention. She continued, her voice warm and cheerful again. “Now, the sun will be going down shortly and it would be remiss of me to throw you out on the street with no coin for the night. You are free to stay in one of the spare rooms here at the Guild Hall, but only for the night. Tomorrow morning I expect to see you picking a quest from the board and working it properly.”
Bramble pumped his fists. “Yes. You won’t regret this. I swear on my sword that-”
“You don’t have a sword.” Thorn muttered.
“It’s an expression.” Bramble cleared his throat. “I swear on my sword that I will not let you down.”
The two nodded thankfully and wandered off into the hall. More than likely to find a table and order whatever food they could afford. Guild Hall food might be cheap, but it wasn’t free.
After a moment, the door creaked back open. “Are they gone?” Durmmond asked cautiously.
“Only off to buy food.” Linessa crossed her arms and leaned over the back of the chair to face the guildmaster. “I gave them one more shot. Also, they’re using one of the spare rooms tonight.”
Durmmond grumbled something unintelligible. “You’re too nice. Should have fired them.”
She leveled an accusing finger at Durmmond. “You’re the guildmaster aren’t you?”
The titan only chuckled to himself. “They don’t pay me enough to deal with those two.” He paused for a moment. “Make sure they clean up after themselves. I’ll start charging them rent if they make a mess of the place.” The door started to close, but it stopped halfway. “Also, make sure they don’t bother the other members. Wouldn’t want them to get on anyone’s bad side.”
Finally the door shut.
Linessa pouted at the closed door. “I make less than you, you know.”
A tap on the desk snapped her back to attention. “Ah, yes, sorry. What quest did you have to report?” Linessa asked automatically as she turned back around. Her work for the evening was far from over.
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OOC: Alright everyone, we have officially begun. To start off, just post a normal evening for your character. Hang out at the hall, interact a bit, or otherwise do your thing for now. Once everyone has checked in with an intro post, I’ll get us rolling.