The port city of Groot-Mokum, home to your branch of the Wizard's Guild.

A city built on trade, with various guilds, businesses and people all within.

The air is filled with an assortment of scents and smells, depending where you are. Seawater for those in the docks, smoke and chemicals from tanning and curing in the industrial parts of the city, freshly baked bread and spices from the various eateries dotted around, and flowers from those who decorate the front of their tall houses.

The Wizard's Guild is in the merchant district, along with many other guilds.

A tall building, made of red bricks, with with a rune or other symbol carved into the outside of it. Numerous rumours exist as to what the symbols mean. Do they protect the building? Do they protect the city from the building? Is it purely decorative, to reinforce the magical image of the Guild?

Being members of the Guild, you all know the truth - The inside of the Guild is much bigger than the outside.

Walking through the oak double doors inside, you see a small waiting area, with a wooden bench to one side, a burgundy curtain at the rear of the room, and a desk with a young human woman sat at it, Penelope. She arranges meetings, directs visitors, and smiles at you all whenever you enter.

Going past the curtain is the rest of the room, and a single doorway with a brass doorknob. Anyone who doesn't know how to use the door, upon opening it finds a small cupboard with a bucket and mop.

For each of you, you know to merely think of a room within the Guild and on turning the doorknob, the doorway will open to that room. However, you can only go to a room you have previously visited, so rely on another person taking you to any new room for the first time.

It is early in the morning, and you are all in the dining room enjoying breakfast. Jerell Raghand, a Halfling servant hurries around bringing food and drink out to the various tables. Taking away empty plates and tankards from those who have finished, whilst dashing over to those who he sees are yet to be given anything to eat or drink.

The senior members sit at highly decorated tables, with beautifully decorated chairs, with cushions, eating from luxury cutlery.

Being newer members, you all sit at long tables with benches rather than individual seats. It is uncomfortable, but it is claimed to help you feel grounded and be with your fellow members.

Feel free to introduce yourselves here. What do you see and hear around you? Are there other members you smile at as you/they come in? Or glare at, as not everyone gets along?

Karryn sat on the bench, eating her breakfast as she eyed the other members of the guild. Learning to control her magic and powers, Karryn grumbled a bit under her breath. Shaking her red hair out of her eyes, Karryn stretched a bit and wished for she doesn't know how many times that her legs reached the floor as she sat on the bench. Being only 3'4” and around 160 lbs. The description short and stout applied perfectly to Karryn. Her mace was slung over her back and her dagger was sheathed on her left hip.

Karryn looked over at Mea, still trying to figure out what exactly the other woman was. She thought she was a Halfling, but a few details didn't bear that out. Ah well, she'd figure it out someday. She liked the other redhead though, although she did wonder what kind of magic that Mea practiced. It would be nice to see what she could do.

Taking a drink of her coffee, Karryn watched Jerrell rush around the room performing his tasks with great efficiency. It was gratifying to see someone around her height being shown respect and able to perform his duties so well even with his small stature. Finishing off her breakfast, she pushed her plate away and picked up her coffee, holding it as she observed everyone eating and finishing their breakfasts.

Mort was late even though he was part of the guild he'd set up shop in the city, a little two roomed affair where he prepared the various dead of the city for burial.

He strode over to a place at the long stable and politely waited for Jerrell to pass by to take his order.

Even from a distance there was a slight smell of embarming fluids and other chemicals thst lingered around the tall thin pale mage..... Rumour had travelled before him months ahead that there would be a death mage stationed at the guild and ever since his arrival people had talked hon hushed tones are moved away from him... He'd even heard the word ne romancer spoken in whispers once or twice.

So be it it didn't really  other him he realised early on that the dead were far less judgemental than the living... Death seemed to do that to a person.....if only they could feel the ghosts that inhabited the guild it would surprise them he just smiled to himself and sat quietly until his food turned up rubbing the burn scar under his chin absently

A few inches shorter than Karryn and less than a quarter her mass Mea faces a similar set of issues, but doesn't seem to mind them as much.  She just stands on the low bench eating from her plate with a pair of dessert forks, one hand choked up on each of them so they function more like an extension of her own fingers than as a separate implement with its own range of motion.  For breakfast today she is making quick work of a shrimp omelet that has at least a few colors of plants in it and a full sized glass of what looks like berry juice of some red kind.

Even with all that going on she catches Karryn's eye as she looks over and returns the speculative look with a big wide grin made of equal parts mirth, greeting, and enjoyment before diving back into her breakfast.

Nicotania emerged from the other end of the dining hall, through the same doors that Jerell kept popping in and out of.

Likely she'd been greeting the morning in the back gardens that adjoined the kitchen as was her habit since arriving at the guild hall.

She'd acquired a cup of tea in her travels and cradled the saucer precisely in her hands as the shin length skirts of her blood red sun dress made a subtle swishing sound as she navigated through the other diners.  Despite a penchant for drawing eyes wherever she went, Nicotania's own gaze was unfocused and distant as if she was paying more attention to whatever was going on in her head than to those around her.

Nico took a seat across the table from Mort, primly tucking her legs beneath her on the bench.  She'd taken to sitting near the sallow death mage since he arrived.  She was perfectly polite to him but otherwise left him alone to his own devices having no ulterior motives beyond greedily partaking his aura of displacement of others to her own advantage.

Shortly after she took her place Jerell swept by in his purposeful whirlwind and deposited a plate with a delicate looking pastry in front of her.  After a sip of her tea she began to consume the treat with small dainty bites.

Delilah casually steps into the dining room. She pauses a moment near the entrance to seek out the other new guild members. She slowly twirls a short ringlet of brown hair with her right index finger as she stands there scanning the room. Once she spots the other novices, she drops her hand back down to her side and resumes her pace towards the table where a clump of them has gathered.

Her mid-length, snaky-locks shift around and bounce gently about with each step as she crosses the wood-planked floor towards the long table and its benches. It’s almost as if her tresses have a semblance of being alive. Her hips gently sway side-to-side beneath her dark brown and forest green dress. A length of belt clings to her hips and holds her knife in its sheath.

She has an attractive face and thin figure with gentle curves but something about her body language and the way she sometimes stares through people can make her seem off-putting. Some of the more timid guild members even seem to visibly squirm with the heebie-jeebies as she passes by them--despite her otherwise good looks.

She finds a spot open beside Karryn opposite of Mort and sits down. She finds it rather annoying to sit on the long bench in her dress, having to lift her dress up to her knees before sitting down and spinning into place.

She gives each of the other novices near her a friendly smile and nod of acknowledgement and then catches Jerell’s eye to flag him down to make her order.

She turns her head to look at Karryn, resting elbow on the table and her cheek in her palm, and in a friendly tone asks her, "Only coffee, Karryn Wildale? I understood dwarves preferred sterner drink." She gives a friendly smile.

Karryn smiled Back at Mea before she turned to Delilah and nodded her head at her. "Normally you'd be right lass, but I prefer coffee to wake up with. At least that's the story most people are told. The real story is different, ya know." Karryn keeps eating her breakfast, enjoying the breakfast meats and eggs, along with the coffee that she was currently enjoying.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:59, Fri 07 Apr 2023.

A couple moments later the door burst open as Calder abruptly enters. Stopping shrply he looks around sheepishly as he quietly closes the door behind him. He looked as if he had slept in his clothes, which he had. Pausing he tried his best to straighten his clothes and hair.

Noticing an empty place at the table he made his way over. Stopping briefly as Jerell passed asking the halfling for a plate of whatever would be quick and easiest.

Taking a seat he smiled at the others, "Good morning all."

Delilah replies to Karryn, "The 'real story'? Do tell, friend dwarf."

She briefly turns her head to look towards Calder and gives him a nod of acknowledgement as he greets and joins them at the novice table. She answers, "Morning Greetings, Calder Fade," before turning her attention back to Karryn to hear what lore she offers up.

"I'm afraid that's a secret lass. One forcefully protected by my kin. But, it is worthy of being thought of as better than coffee. But again, Dwarven secret." Karryn grinned at Delilah and held up her coffee cup in a toast before taking a sip of her coffee. Turning to regard the other novices sitting along the bench. She thought she might know a couple of their specialties, but she wasn't positive. It'd take her a couple more days to be certain.

"Oooohhh?" Delilah leans in closer to Karryn, her interest peaked, and replies, "A secret, is it? A special recipe or brewing technique perhaps? Intriguing." She leans back and laughs.

She looks towards the silent Mort and says, "Deep in thought, Undertaker Mort? You look pale, friend. Perhaps some time spend out in the sun and away from your alchemicals would do you well."

As Jerell arrives at the table and sets her breakfast down, she offers the Halfling a friendly smile and nod, and gives him thanks.

She drinks froma cup of clear water and begins eating her scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, and buttery biscuit. "Mmmmmm."

Mort smiled back at the comment " the big outdoors is so over rated..... And full of the living" he took a bite of stew soaked bread "the dead will either kill you, ignore you or help you.... They live a simple unlife which is very black and white"

Finishing the last of her omelet Mea leans back against her chair in a way that a larger creature might risk tipping it over.  For her the chair barely shifts enough to make noise and settles back to its rest position almost instantly.

”Kill you, ignore you, or help you, seems fairly standard for the big outdoors types too, they just like to make it seem more dramatic and present any minor difficulty as the end of the world.”

Delilah nods in agreement with Mea and continues to eat her breakfast.

Says back to Mort, "I agree with Mea Huna Sila. I am also less certain about the motivations of the undead than you, Undertaker Mort. What of the vampire? They are not all so simple of mind? Or so I hear."

After she takes a sip of water, she looks towards Nicotania and asks, "And how are you this morning, Caster Nicotania? You seem to be deep in thought as well. Is something troubling you? Some mystery discovered in one of your dusty tomes perhaps?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:50, Mon 10 Apr 2023.

Nico stirred from her reverie, having been looking into her cup of tea.

"Not everything is alive, or dead, or somewhere in between."  She commented, in light of the back and forth between Mort and the others.  "Some things, just are."

To Delilah she demurred.  "Books I have discovered in my time with the guild, do have a great capacity for secrets, but are terrible conversationalists."