Final Fantasy AR, Arc I: The Gathering

Turnips had a distinct odor to them, especially wrapped in burlap sacks. However, Dyne couldn't complain about the smell considering the fact that he was hitching a ride into town for free. Even though he was used to traveling by foot, it would have been a long way into town if he hadn't helped the man fix his cart. There had been a coach station in the last town, but the price was far too high for him to afford, especially after he spent all of his zenny on those antique ripoffs. How was he suppose to know that those pots were fake? The merchant assured him that they were genuine Xing Dynasty urns and were worth a fortune. And, being the foolish buyer he was, he spent all of his money purchasing them, then carried them all the way out to the big city only to narrowly escape arrest for attempting to scam off forgeries.

"We're here sonny." The old man driving the cart told Dyne, who had been groaning about his latest screw up. Looking up, he saw that the dense forest had turned into a small little settlement. Nothing too big, a few dozen houses, a few shops, and a single Inn for travelers. The Inn actually looked much more new than the rest of the village, and from the sounds coming from it, there were quite a lot of guests. Dyne suspected they were other people who had come to investigate the rumors of a new ruin deep in the nearby mountain and were hoping to find all of the treasure first.

As they watched, two men suddenly crashed through the window, punching at each other and wrestling on the ground. the old man in the cart shook his head. "Hooligans. This village used to be so peaceful until that rumor came about. Now we're getting all sorts of rowdy folks."

"You can't deny that because of that this town's economy has boosted a bit." Dyne pointed out. "Trade with this village has increased considerably and not to mention the Inn is raking in quite a bit of money. I'll bet that if you were to build an Inn of your own, you'll quickly become a rich man."

"Ya don't say..." The old man rubbed his chin, contemplating.

"Well it's been fun." Dyne said as he hoped off the cart. The chocobo who pulled them through the forest gave him a look. "Kweh?"

"This is where I get off." Dyne reached up and petted the yellow bird, striking it on the neck. "Thanks for taking me all the way here."

"Kweh..." The bird sounded contently.

Dyne gave a laugh as he gave the bird one more pat before heading off into the Inn. Inside, he found it to be very busy and loud as various treasure hunters and glory seekers bickered with one another. The tavern on the first floor was especially busy as each man 'flexed their muscles' to the others, trying to scare off competition that wouldn't back down. One guy was bragging about having taken down a Malboro by himself. Another was telling a story about narrowly escaping doom in some obscure tomb. As Dyne moved around, he tried to listen for any useful info, but all he got were loud random chatter.

"Excuse me!" He said out loud. "Does anyone know anything about the ruins up in the mountains?"

Suddenly the tavern went quiet as every eye turned to look at him.

"Erm...Is that a no?" Dyne said.

"When will they learn not to leave their things unattended... Hopefully, not to soon." It only took a couple of quick raps on a door before deciding. Cynire entered quickly, locking the door behind him. It was a reflex by now, but it had saved him a couple of times.

Still, there wasn't any time to waste. He glanced over for where the bags were, pulling it open and looking inside. There wasn't any point in stealing goods. Hundreds of sales went by every day, and it was impossible to get a decent sale price by now. Weaponry and potions were sold by the thousands every day, and there wasn't any need for him to help that market. No, it was straight to the gold, and unless there was something special, no time was wasted anywhere else.

"Not a bad haul... Looks like I can get some decent stuff before I have to head out again." Cynire quietly moved to the door, his footsteps silent.

It was a bit of an odd hobby by now. Though he had grown up stealing for a good deal of time, by now, it was unnecessary. He had a decent amount of experience adventuring, and more than enough extra gold to manage for years. The bits he usually picked up weren't anything special in comparison to what he could make if he went out, but he found himself doing it out of habit anyways. It kept him on his feet all the time, and it helped him make sure he wouldn't fall into any traps.

As he opened the door again, he heard the murmur of the crowd downstairs suddenly silence. He stopped moving, not even daring to close the door as he completely halted.

That kind of silence was rarely a good thing.

"Hey you there sleeping under that tree!" The old man hobble up to the resting man beacuse he did not hear him. "I said he.." The old man was grabbed by the throat by the sleeping man who sprang up in a tenth of a second. "Le..let me go!" The man dropped him and decided to listen to what he had to say.

"Cough cough, what're you thinking?! You could have killed me!" The old man yelled furiously as the man gave him a bone chilling stare and no response. "Are you the one they call the "Fanged Beast"? said the old man looking at the weapon slightly drawn in the other man's hand.

"Who are you?"

"I'm know as "Old Man Senzu The Treasure Hunter" and I have a job for you Mr.... Mr? What is your name?"

"Zetsuei"

"Oooh, then you truely are the "Fanged Beast"? Well in that case, Have you heard of the ruins located in the forest on the outskirts on a nearby town? I need an assassin to clear out the place so I can loot it!"
he said with a smile.

"I'm not cheap, i charge 500 zenny for every person I kill, and 1000 for the leader of their pack. not to mention traveling fee's" Zetsuei said looking at the man to see if he would accept his price.

"Heh, gotta spend money to make money I've allways said! I will provide traveling arrangements for you so when can we leave?"

"Whenever you want to leave. I won't do anything but kill in the ruins so your on you own in the cities."

"Let's go now! "The old man let out a loud whistle and from the nearby fields a cloud of dust arose, it came closer and closer and when it was close enough to them the cloud revealed two chocobo.
"Heh, there's my girls!" the old man patted both chocobo on the head and gave them treats which he had stored in his pockets. "You won't have to worry about this old man, I've got all the protection I need right here! Well, let's go" The old man hopped on the back of one chocobo and motioned for Zetsuei to jump onto the others back. "That's Marise and this is Shelly, I've been travelingwith these two since they were chicks.

"How.. Intresting" Zetsuei said in monotone. "Can we leave for this town now, I hate long jobs."

"Neither do I kiddo, but you gotta learn to enjoy things while your still young, when you're as old as I am you learn alot about this world. Anyway follow me!" Senzu whistled to his chocobo signaling them to move. After a couple hours of riding the oldman and Zetsuei had reached their goal. "Allright we've got a big day tommorow so get some rest I've bought us two hotel rooms on the north side of town I'm gonna go check out the town for myself." Senzu left Zetsuei by himself and took his two chocobo.

"Shall I go to the room or look around town to occupy my time?"

During a church ceremony, the high priest started to chant, "Bring us peace. Bring us happiness to others that are less fortunate. Please, bring those that are fallen to your holy home so that they can finally rest in peace." Others responded, "Amen." As the high priest continued with the sermon, Ilalleer thought to himself as he continued to listen to his sermon, "At least, I have a purpose in life. Something to make me continue to live."

An hour later, Ilalleer stepped out of the church, sighed a bit to himself, and thought, "Now then, what are my deeds to do today?" as he began to calm himself down as he continue to think about it.

Then the thoughts came to him making him smile a bit, then he looked at the sky then said to
himself quietly, "Looks like it's time to see what the children are up to..." as he headed toward the orphanage keeping his scythe sheathed.

A couple of guards stood in front of the orphanage searching through rigorously for something. Ilalleer thought to himself, "What are these guards searching for in this orphanage?" as he walked up to the three men.

Ilalleer asked, "What do you guys need?" The three guards turned around, looking at Ilalleer suspiciously.

One of the guards responded, "That's highly classified, sir. As such, however, we'd have to close down this orphanage while the investigations are underway."

Ilalleer thought to himself, "Investigations?! That's what it's for...? They shouldn't find anything here, period, so..." As he looked over at the crying children knowing that their home might be destroyed, he thought to himself, "No...not this time..." as he unsheathed his scythe knowing that he has to fight for them.

Ilalleer responds, "What you've done is more than enough to prove that this orphanage shouldn't be under investigation. So I'm requesting you to leave." All 3 of the soldiers responded by unsheathing their swords and charging Ilalleer. He shined his scythe's blade towards the sun and showing the light reflection to the guard's eyes blinding them. Ilalleer charged at the three men, swung his scythe knocking one of the guard's swords away and shoving him hard into the wall.

As the other two regained their vision, the other two guards swung their swords towards Ilalleer, but Ilalleer managed to block one of them. Unfortuantely, one of the swords cut him near the waist. Ilalleer, however, spun his scythe in front of him and knocked the other two swords out of the way.

Ilalleer responds, "Now, get out of here." as he began to close up the wound. As the guards left the facility, Ilalleer responds with a brief smile, "At least, the children of this city have a place to live in...."

Geez, tough crowd Dyne thought as he left the tavern. As soon as he walked out of sight, life burst back in full throttle as the treasure hunters resumed whatever they had been doing before he came in. He knew that everyone was competitive, but they could have at least shared a little info. Sighing, Dyne walked up the the Inn Keeper behind the counter, a middle aged man with a big but and beard on his round face. He was sitting there stacking his coins rather happily, his eyes practically glowing with greed...or maybe it was just the reflection of the gold in his eyes?

"Excuse me sir, do you have any rooms left?" He asked him.

The Inn keeper gave Dyne a quick look. "Nope, sorry, no rooms left."

"Are you sure?" Dyne asked.

"Well, I may be able to find something...for a price." He scratched at his beard.

"How much exactly?" Dyne leaned in.

"1000 zenny." He said without any hint of hesitation or smile.

"One..." Dyne flinched back. "Er...you wouldn't happen to have a broom closet do you?"

Immediately the Inn Keeper lost interest in him and went back to counting his money. "If you don't have the cash, sleep outside. I don't have any room for cheapskates like you. Now beat it kid, you're crowding up the free space for REAL paying men."

Geez, whose the real cheapskate here Dyne thought as he exited the Inn. Maybe it was better that he didn't get a room, he couldn't really afford much of anything at this point. Which was where the famed treasure rumored on the mountain came into play. Grinning, he pulled out a little scroll from his pack as he walked and opened it. Part of the problem with the ruins was that it was hard to locate and the inside was a maze full of traps, but this map supposedly had directions to the ruins and even a map of the interior with markings for traps...unless it was another fake. However, he tried to think on the positive side and put his effort into having a bit of faith in this map, so he began to march for the forest.

"Well, I guess I'll check the town out." Zetsuei walked around the town in the shadows keeping the townsfolk unaware of his presence. Zetsuei spied upon a young man looking for lodgings in the same inn he was staying at. Zetsuei slowly crept up and listened to the conversation of the Inn keeper and the man. The young man was not able to get a room for the night and was ignored by the inkeeper. "That's highly unfortunate, I have nothing better to do so why not occupy myself by following him for a bit?"

Zetsuei watched as the young man walked away from the inn. The man pulled out a scroll from his sack and on it a map of what looks like to be the nearby regions. "What?! Could that be a map to the ruins? The old man said it was hard to find so this could make my job much easier." Zetsuei fastened his hand into one of his katars as a dark glow flashed around it. "Damn, theres too many people for me to just kill him off. I guess I'll have to play the friendly game for now and kill him off when I have the chance to grab that map."

Zetsuei caught up with the man and tapped him on the shoulder. "Excuse me? Are you an adventurer?"
Zetsuei gave a fake smile and waited for him to respond.

Dyne jumped a bit from the sudden tap. Turning around, he saw a strange, oddly clothed man standing behind him with a slight smile on his face. "Oh, hi." He said. "Am I an adventurer? Well it's kinda obvious isn't it?" He laughed as he tapped the hilt of his sword. It wasn't that hard to identify the adventurers from the townspeople, but he figured the man was at least trying to use it to start a conversation. He was too naive to think that this person had an ulterior motive, much less an intent to kill him off when the opportunity presented itself.

"So how are you doing? My name is Dyne." He flashed his own big smile. "I guess you're hear for the treasure in the mountains over there as well? Who am I kidding, every adventurer in town came for that." He laughed. "I was actually just headed there now. I heard a bunch of parties have tried to find it, but they either couldn't find it or had to retreat back to town from all the monsters. Still, I think I have an advantage over them, a map." He grinned broadly, showing the piece of parchment to him. To the other man's surprise, instead of a regular map, all he saw were random looking squiggles, lines, symbols and so forth.

"I know it doesn't look like a map, but that's because it's coded." He told him as he rolled it back up. "The merchant who sold it to me said the only key to the map's code was destroyed when a bunch of guards raided the building he was in and got burned to ash in the chaos of escaping. Still, I managed to figure it out and break the code." He beamed proudly. "Only thing I gotta worry about now is all the monsters out there and I'm not sure I can do it alone...say...you wouldn't by any chance be interested in joining me would you? They say the treasure up there is priceless, though I'll bet you can sell it for several million senny."

"Say, you wouldn't be interested in

"How silly of me to not notice your obvious adventurer status." Zetsuei said in a sarcastic tone of voice still with the fake smile on his face. "My name is Zetsuei and I'm here in this town to do a job for one of my clients from the next town over." "This is pathetic, I hate this part of the job always having to blend in when we get to the shadows I'll be able to put an end to him. Hmm, I need him to decode the map so I can't exactly just kill him now. I suppose I'll just play friendly and go along with him for now." Zetsuei thought to himself as Dyne matched his fake smile with a gigantic smile of his own.

"I'm fine myself just a little tired from making my way here. Riding chocobo's is a pain I'd much rather walk or take an airship than travel with those smelly birds."

Cynire sighed quietly as he thumbed over the coins he had gotten. "Not enough for that risk... I wonder what happened." He pocketed them quietly before simply moving down the stairs after the sound of the room had resumed. By then, he didn't need to be too silent, even moving up and purchasing a bit of food before moving out the door.

He pressed his hand to his side as he walked out, looking up at the sky. "Hm. Not the best day today for any more... Not busy enough."

His eyes were nearly closed as he moved forwards, simply wandering the streets and keeping his ears open. It was always amazing what some people were willing to talk about simply because they thought nobody was listening. Quite often, he'd hear a good tip on where to go from someone who spoke too much. Adventurers rarely had tight lips.

(Discontinued because the creator lost interest in it. If the creator regains interest in it, we can continue with this RP. But for now...(locks it))