Friends in a Foreign Land

Regina woke up not knowing where she was. Without opening her eyes, she felt her surroundings. The blanket felt like wool and her mattress was lumpy. She smelled a lot of wood and some flowers. As she focused on the feelings, she suddenly realized she could see… with her eyes closed. This caused her to jerk upright. She looked around the rest of the room. Everything was made of wood, but with a lot of attention to detail, there was a small nightstand, a dresser, and a mirror in the room. “Am I in a cabin somewhere?” she thought to herself, “And how was I able to see when my eyes weren’t even open?”

As she sat up and swung her legs off the bed, she realized they were not her legs. Slimmer, longer, and more toned, but… the color was off. Almost like someone added a golden tint to her skin. Holding her hands in front of her face, she saw her hands were different as well, more slender with longer fingers than before. “Son of a bitch” she muttered. “Calore really did make me into an elf.” Regina walked to the mirror on the opposite wall. The first thing she noticed was how much younger she looked. Cheekbones were a touch more prominent. Ears were definitely pointy. And no wrinkles! Overall, she appeared to be a stereotypical elf, but she felt that others would recognize her if they looked. “Don’t like the eyebrows, though. Wonder if I can get them threaded around here.” she thought.

After taking several poses in front of the mirror and generally getting a feel for her new body, Regina walked to the clothes she saw laid out next to a backpack. She picked up the shirt. It wasn't a fancy cut but felt well made, almost like silk. The pants showed the same lack of imagination. No zippers or buttons either, just a tie string. After getting dressed, she stepped in front of the mirror again. “What are these? Guy clothes? Everything is just straight cut.” She complained to the mirror.

Turning back to the backpack, she opened it, and a screen labeled [Equipment] appeared in front of her, showing the contents of the bag.

Equipment

Preset 1

Preset 2

Preset 3

Save

Load

Save

Load

Save

Load

Inventory

Weapons & Armor

Consumables

Everything Else

Chainmail armor set

55 lbs

Rations (10)

20 lbs

Bedroll

7 lbs

Dagger

1 lb

Waterskin

5 lbs

Chest

25 lbs

Long Sword

3 lbs

Holy Water

1 lb

Crowbar

5 lbs

Shield

6 lbs

Hammer

3 lbs

Holy Symbol

.25 lbs

Manacles

6 lbs

Mess Kit

.5 lb

Oil Flask

1 lb

Rope (50 ft)

10 lb

Torch

2 lb

“Chainmail armor?” As she thought of the armor, a prompt appeared

[Would you like to don chainmail armor set?]

Regina shrugged and selected yes. Instantly she was now wearing the armor. Looking back to the mirror, Regina again struck a pose. “Fuck it, I’ll be my own knight in shining armor.” She said with a laugh. “Now, how do I take all this off?”

A few minutes later, Regina left her room, sans armor, with her backpack in her hand. She now knew the backpack was magic, as there was no other explanation as to how a full suit of armor would fit inside, and the bag still feel like it only weighed around 15 pounds. As she walked down the hallway, she got the impression that she was in a hotel of some sort. After going down a couple flights of stairs, she found people sitting around eating and drinking. Not seeing anyone she knew, Regina decided to sit at the bar.

“Food and drink or just drink?”

Regina looked up to see a young elf woman standing a few feet away. “Food and drink, please.”

The lady nodded and walked off. As Regina looked around, taking in the room, she realized that she could “see” everything around her. For instance, a few folks about eight feet away were staring at her. She closed and opened her eyes a few times. Doesn’t seem to make a difference; it’s like she has a sixth sense. It’s not quite vision and only seems to go out to about ten feet. “Bet that will come in handy,” she thought.

The woman from before came back and set a cup and plate in front of her. The plate was full of slices of bread and some vegetables she couldn’t identify. She picked up the cup and took a sip. It was sweet and slightly alcoholic, whatever it was. Regina picked at her food and was working on her second drink when she saw someone walking up behind her and heard a familiar voice.

“Mom, is that you?”

Regina turned and saw Alexis standing on the last step with more than a little uncertainty in her eyes.

“Hey, Alexis. Have a seat and help me figure out what they’re feeding me,” Regina said.

As Alexis sat down the waitress came by and took her order.

“Why is the waitress taking the order when we’re sitting at the bar? Shouldn’t there be a bartender?” Alexis asked

“Don’t know. How are you feeling? You look really athletic.”

“I know, right,” Alexis said with a nervous grin. “I’ve never been in such good shape. I guess I’m okay. Just weirded out by everything. I spoke with God. Or a goddess, anyway. Did you speak with her, too?”

“I think we got different gods. The one I spoke with was an ass. Kept going on about how I had the heart of a judge but the spirit of a rogue. But I work for him now, I guess.”

“You work for him? Like, as a priest or something?”

“No, he made me a paladin. I’m still not 100% sure what that means. Basically, he wants me to judge some folks for misusing oaths. Seems he hates liars as much as I do. Tell me more about your goddess.”

“She was nice. Said her name was Nitana and that she was the goddess of writing and runes. Yours said you had the heart of a judge; mine said I have the heart of a fighter. I tried to tell her I’d never been in a fight in my life, and she said it was okay, that my body would follow my heart once the situation called for it. She also said that I was to learn how to enchant things and that ‘a sister will help me’ but didn’t bother to tell me which one. Oh, and she gave me two tattoos that she said would help with both. Evidently, they’re magical?” Alexis pushed the sleeves up on her shirt and showed Regina she had a tattoo on each forearm. One looked like the letter f with the arms going up at an angle, and the other looked like the letter f with the arms going down at an angle. While they spoke, the waitress brought out Alexis’s food and drink.

“That’s kind of cool. I didn’t get any tats. But I got a sixth sense that lets me see behind me. Still only seems to work when I focus on it, though.” Regina replied. “Did you look in your bag?”

“Yeah. Chain mail armor, sword, dagger, a lot of coins, some food, and water. I set up my outfit and armor on two presets so I can quickly change from one to the other.”

Regina looked at her daughter, confused, “Presets?”

Alexis took a bite of her breakfast and smiled. “Let me help you.” And she started teaching her mom how to use the presets as well as what other information she could pull up on the status screens.

While going through the menus, they heard “Hey guys” from behind them and turned to see a man and woman standing there. The woman was short for an elf with light skin while the man was average height with deep tan colored skin. She probably wouldn’t have recognized them but the man also had a goatee hanging down to the middle of his chest. “Mira? Ramiro? That you?”

They both grinned, and Mira stepped up and hugged Regina first and then Alexis.

“Sorry it took so long for us to come down this morning,” Mira said.

“She was upset about missing her family already. I say fuck ‘em.” Ramiro said with a grin.

“Did y’all want something to eat?” Alexis asked, changing the topic.

“No. I think I just want to go outside and get some air. Y’all want to come with us?” Mira said.

Regina and Alexis looked to each other and said, "Sure."

Alexis flagged the waitress down and asked about paying for the food. The waitress just said, “Don’t worry about it,” and hurried off. When Alexis turned around to tell Regina, she noticed a few folks on the other side of the room staring at them, so she just followed Regina and the others out the rear door of the inn, onto a small patio.

“The air smells wonderful here,” Mira said after inhaling deeply.

“Yeah,” said Alexis.

Ramiro nudges Regina and motions to a man standing about 20 feet away, playing with a fox. Regina notices the man is a little shorter than her, and he has a swimmer's build. She could only make out part of his face, but it’s enough. “Oh, he’s cute,” she said.

“Well, I hope you like him; you married him,” Ramiro said.

“What?” Regina said while turning to look closer at the man. Having heard someone talking, the man had turned to face them, and Regina could see it now.

“Hey, babe! You look cute, too,” Eric said with a grin

“I was talking about the fox!” Regina quickly lied.

“Really?” Eric turned back to the fox, “Hear that, King, she finally likes you.”

“That’s King?” Mira asked. “You got the gods to bring your dog here?”

Eric laughed, “No, I was just kidding.”

“Mom, where’s Reyna at? I was surprised she wasn’t here.” Alexis asked.

“I don’t know,” Regina said. “I was told that she’s here, she’s safe, and that we’d see her in a few days,” Regina answered, clearly unhappy with the limited information on her daughter’s whereabouts.

The group sat on the patio and talked for a bit, sharing what their gods told them.

“I still can’t believe a god trusts you to judge people. I thought gods were supposed to be smart” Eric laughed

“Hey, at least I have experience judging people. What was your god, Uros thinking? You’ve never even been hunting, and now you’re a ranger.” Regina fired back

“Alright, guys, calm down,” Mira said

“Well, we know at least one god made the right choice. Mira is totally a peacemaker.” Alexis said to everyone’s agreement.

“Ramiro, what god did you meet?” Eric asked

“Mosagi. The god of justice and retribution.” Ramiro added as if it was no big deal, “He said I’m to stick with Regina and help take care of whomever she judges.”

The group just stopped and looked at him and then back to Regina, who had a feral grin. “Okay. So Eric helps us find them, Alexis helps fight them, I judge them, Ramiro sentences them, and Mira calms everyone down afterward. The gods put us together like a superhero team. We really are here to save the world, it seems.”

“I’m not sure I like that plan,” Mira said meekly

“I never like anything that makes Regina smile like that,” Eric said before doing an exaggerated shiver, causing everyone to laugh. Then Eric asked the question most of them were thinking. “How do we get started saving the world? Do we have a guide to help get us started?”

“I was told that someone at the inn would show us where to start. As I said earlier my patron god is Calore, the god of oaths and judgment. Evidently, folks here have broken a pretty strong oath.” Regina said.

They sat on the patio for over an hour, talking and telling one another about their abilities and sharing how to work the status screens this world gave them. They learned that Mira was a cleric and had some solid healing and control spells, that Eric was pretty well kitted out for hunting groups, and that Ramiro was some crazy ass ninja that was basically invisible when in a shadow. They reassured Alexis that she would be a great fighter and told her not to worry about it.

The discussion then turned to what comes next. From a few simple experiments, they learned that the skill levels they gained in long swords and daggers did actually translate to them being able to actually use these weapons, though it was obvious that more training would be useful.

Around midmorning, they stood and started to walk back into the inn. As they opened the door, they nearly ran into the waitress from earlier.

"Excuse me," she said with a hint of nervousness, "The owner of the inn would like to speak with you all." The waitress turned and walked down the hall toward the common room. The group all looked to one another. There were several shrugs before they started to follow. When the waitress took a left down the first hallway, she paused to wait for everyone to catch up before continuing. She then stopped at a door and waved the party in, "Please go in and have a seat. The owner will be with you momentarily."

The party looked around the room as they sat. Mira realized that Ramiro wasn’t with them. As she looked at Regina to say something, Regina shook her head no. About that time, Alexis fell forward onto the table, apparently asleep. Then Mira and Eric. Regina slid her chair back to stand, but before she could, she felt magic take hold of her and she felt herself falling.