• Solo • Devin's Treasure Hunt, Part 1

[Devin]

Zi'da 2, Arc 719

On the 2nd of Zi‘da, Devin Thorn, thief conman extraordinaire and priest of Delroth (and magical mutant!) sat at his usual table at Karshe’s, a mug of Desnind Mead in front of him. His companions Aidan and Talieson, sat left and right on him and glowered at him. They looked incredibly unhappy.

“So, let me get this straight”, Talieson, a handsome, dark-haired man in his thirties that had already broken the hearts of countless men and women said. “You dragged us all the way to Desnind to go on a treasure hunt, and now you tell us that you’ve never been on a treasure hunt before and don’t even know how to read a map?”

“Sure!” Devin said, smiling brightly.

Talieson looked at him incredulously for a moment before he asked, “You know that this wasn’t a compliment, right? I was just wondering if we are wasting our time!” he pointed out.

“I know”, Devin confirmed in a light-hearted tone, took a gulp from his mead and continued, “I’m not really worried though. It’s just an additional challenge. I like challenges. Doing something for the first time is fun! Besides, we can always hire local guides if you are worried about us getting lost in the jungle or something like that!”

“Maybe I could ask Mik’hail or Des’trill”, he mused. “Des’trill still owes me something; and besides, the two of them seem to be quite familiar with the area.” He had pretty much saved Des’trill’s life the season before when the Medicine House had been attacked.

“That doesn’t sound too bad”, Aidan, a nice, normal, hard-working university student who had always been the more diplomatic one of Devin’s companions decided, and Devin beamed at him. He quite liked when people said exactly what he wanted to hear!

[Devin]

A few breaks later, Devin, Aidan and Talieson sat on one of the two beds in Devin’s and Aidan's room at Karshe’s. Des’trill and Mik’hail, both of them Sev’ryn and nurses at the Medicine House, sat on the bed opposite of them, looking vaguely uncomfortable which was mostly due to the fact that half of the bed was filled with stuff, and they didn’t have a lot of room.

There were a whole lot of clothes (Devin had brought his extensive wardrobe with him), a sword, a bag with animal feed (for Devin’s pet flunny), empty and half-empty wine bottles, a makeup kit and a bag filled with some sort of suspicious green substance.

“So, the plan is the following”, Devin informed the two nurses before he paused for a moment. He opened his exceedingly gaudy cigar case, lit a cigar and took a drag, letting out a pleasured sigh, before he offered them cigars as well – he was in a generous mood that trial. Both Des’trill and Mik’hail shook their heads, and he shrugged his shoulders and continued,

“Where was I? Ah, yes! When I was living in Scalvoris last arc, I got my hands on a treasure map. I was able to determine that it’s for Desnind. That’s one of the reasons for my coming here, apart from being a Good Samaritan and bringing Northern Medicine to Desnind, of course”, he informed them – he was currently pretending to be a doctor and had conned people into giving him a job at the Medicine House.

“My companions and I are not familiar with the area though. That’s where you two come in. I want you to act as our guides and lead us to the treasure. You will be compensated, of course”, he lied as if he had every intention of giving the two Sev’ryn a generous amount of money.

As he had hoped, Des’trill shook her head fervently. “No, no, no!” she replied in slightly accented Common. “I cannot accept anything. I still haven’t thanked you for what you did back in Vhalar. We’ll help you for free, of course. Right, Mik’hail?” she asked and nudged her colleague who was inspecting the bottles next to him with disdain.

“What?” he asked and looked at her. “Sure! We’ll help you, Doctor Hawthorne! A treasure hunt sounds like fun. We’ll need a few breaks to prepare though”, he said.

“That’s good – because we aren’t finished with our preparations either”, Devin replied. “How about we meet here again tomorrow morning? That should give Aidan, Talieson and me enough time to acquire the rest of the supplies”, he continued.

“Sounds good”, Mik’hail decided, and Des’trill nodded as well.

[Devin]

“Umm, Devin, what exactly you are wearing?” Aidan asked another couple of breaks later and pointed at the outfit that the thief had just put on (they were trying to decide what they should take with them on their treasure hunt and what they should wear). Devin had discarded his usual, colorful, eye-catching and exceedingly luxurious outfit in favour of something that was a lot less colourful (in fact, it was uniformly black) – and slightly weird.

He was wearing shiny knee-high leather boots, leather pants, a shirt, a cloak and some sort of jacket that had lots of spikes and studs on them. He had two belts on, one of them was around his waist and had sheaths for his short sword and his pistol crossbow, and the other one went from his left shoulder to his right hip and hat lots of tiny containers attached to it. On his hat was a wide-brimmed hat.

Aidan could understand the belts – they looked quite useful – but he wasn’t sure what all those spikes on the shoulder parts of Devin’s jacket were good for – apart from being incredibly gaudy as well as making him look slightly ridiculous. Were they of any use in combat?

“My new adventurer’s outfit”, Devin replied and turned around so that Aidan could admire him from all angles. “I don’t see why I should look like some sort of homeless person just because I’m going on an adventure in the jungle. Treasure hunters can be fashionable, too! Although all that black might attract a lot of attention in the green environment. Maybe I should dump a bit of green dye on my jacket”, he mused.

“I might do that later”, he decided before he produced his shiny new backpack and dumped a whole lot of stuff into it: whatever you needed to start a fire, food, drinks, a piece of rope, a grappling hook, medicines, bandages, perfume, a razor, a comb and a toothbrush (because he wouldn’t stop taking care of his appearance just because he was in the jungle), a change of clothes, a lantern and a whole lot of other, probably only marginally useful stuff.

“I also have a tent, a sleeping bag and a cart so that we can transport our treasure back to Karshe’s more easily”, he told Aidan after the student had shown him his smaller and very reasonably packed backpack (Talieson was in the room next door, packing his own things). “I’m just wondering if I should buy an animal that we should put in front of the cart. What do you think I should get – a horse or a donkey?”

“Maybe I’ll just get both!” he decided.

[Devin]

The following morning, shortly after sunrise, Devin, Aidan, Mik’hail and Des’trill stood in front of Karshe’s. Each of them had a backpack on their back and was dressed more or less appropriately for an adventure in the wilderness - more in Aidan’s, Mik’hail’s and Des’trill’s case, less in Devin’s case who considered looking good to be just as important.

He had decided against painting his outfit and traded his black cloak for a nice forest green cloak though in order to blend in with his surroundings a little better.

Mik’hail and Des’trill were looking at Devin’s treasure map, furrowing their brow and murmuring something in Xanthea. Devin wasn’t sure what they were talking about since he didn’t speak Xanthea very well, but since he was a very optimistic young man, he decided that they were excited about the treasure hunt – and definitely not unsure about where exactly they were supposed to go!

The only one that was missing was Talieson. Since Devin had been held up with the logistics of planning the treasure hunt (logistics were another thing he knew very little about), the bard had offered to get them an animal to pull the cart so that they didn’t have to pull it themselves. Where was he though? Devin looked around, tapping his foot on the ground somewhat impatiently. He wanted to leave early so that they could rest later that trial as it could get quite hot in Desnind around that time of the arc, and he didn’t enjoy sweating.

Sweaty people were ugly and smelled!

After what seemed like an eternity, he could finally see Talieson. The bard was walking towards Karshe’s (or rather, the tree on which Karshe’s stood as the inn was basically a huge treehouse). Behind the bard was not a powerful horse or at least a stubborn donkey, but …

…. a goat!

[Praetorum]

Devin

Points:10
Magic: None
Skill Review: Appropriate to level

Knowledges
Persuasion x3
Deception x1
Stealth x1
Logistics x1

Loot: Everything you bought \o/

Injuries: None

Renown: None



Overview
I think this is my first Devin thread, and I really love how strongly his personality shines through in every word. Good luck wrangling that goat, and I’m looking forwards to reading a lot more of his threads in future.