Intermission: The Town of Vernia

First topic message reminder :

"Aaaaaalright, here we are kids," Scarlett calls, pulling the rental bus to a halt. You feel thankful she managed to drive here without incident, given how exhausted she looks.

Once outside, you drink in the beautiful view of the town: it's situated right up against the mountains, all its roads and paths at inclines. You see people going about their morning business, heading to work and out at small cafes eating breakfast. Grass and trees dot the areas between buildings, lush evergreen in the fairly cold climate of the city.

"Your pamphlets should tell you about some of the suggested locations around here. The hotel we wrote down has rooms ready for you guys if you'd rather stay here for the week than take the bus back to the castle." She hops out with a sniffle, a member of the Logistics Division stepping up to take the bus back for the next round of troops. "Buses heading back start at 8 pm and stop at 9, so don't be late. Most of the commanders will be at the castle this week, I'll be poking around for info here." She gives a sloppy salute, "good work n' all that nice shit," before sauntering off.

Activities in Vernia:

Shopping in Vernia:

Arthur refrained from making any remarks as Veela scolded her apprentice-- a subtle chuckle here and there, but otherwise, he left them to their business, regarding them politely when they returned their attention to him.

Still, he continued to repeat the smith's words in his head, trying to figure out what she meant. 'Running towards or away?' He was here- riding a castle to the sea to wrap up his business, and he needed a sword... there was no 'running' involved here. Yet some part of it seemed to irritate him- like an itch, easy to ignore, but... there. His nose twitched, fingers rolling restlessly along his arm again until Veela returned with her sword.

His eyes thoroughly took in its length while he nodded along to her words; and when proferred to him, he took it carefully, feeling the grip and its weight, turning its tip around and upward from the floor to about eye-level. Bold things, she was saying... but they certainly weren't unfounded. Satisfied, he returned it to her- following Lamil's path to the counter ( "...that boy needs to get longer clothes on before he burns himself... if he hasn't already, somehow..." he muttered indistinctly, ) from the corner of his eye before returning to the old master.


"Sounds like a fair deal," Arthur nodded, sliding the shopping bag he'd been carrying into the crook of his arm to draw out a rolled-up pouch from the inside of his jacket... Luster steel, did she say? That gave him an idea... maybe he'd look around for some metal once he lightened up his load.

While pondering on it, he approached the counter to weigh his gold pieces on a scale- shaking out its contents at a shallow angle while watching the needle tick higher and higher... two thousand gold pieces got a little heavy. Once the needle settled close enough to the weight of about 1,800 gold, he picked out the rest in swift but precise intervals of fifty... putting his hand in the bag, filtering pieces out between his fingers, snapping them into his palm and rolling them into the other hand, rinse and repeat, like a machine. Landon used to gawk at how quickly he could do it- but when one deals regularly with this amount of money in a bartering world... well. Quick fingers meant wasting less time, and time was money.

"Sounds like you've been at this a good while," he began, glancing at the old woman over his shoulder with a mellowed, sly grin, "Wonder what it's like to work the forge at half the efficiency. Does it take twice as long to get your business going, or half as long to reach your level of craftsmanship? Maybe both?"

A different question hidden under a crass joke- he arched his eyebrows as he nodded up at her arm.

He chuckled, "Lamb, huh? I was thinking more like a bag of chips, but maybe there's a sandwich shop around here?" As he looked around, Vince realized what time of day it was. Sunset was drawing closer. "So... you're worried about bein' out too late? Better skip the hiking then- Hold tight!" Vince unfurled the fleece blanket, then quickly wrapped Rosemary up tight. In one swoop, he swept her up in his arms and activated his Veins of Fire. His arms came alight with a violet glow.

"And I mean it- hold tight," he said, flashing a smile, a faint glow coming through his teeth. A low growl of hot air became a roar of flames as Vince rocketed out of town. "We'll be there before dark!" he shouted over the wind, "Not too cold up here, is it?!"