"Brrr," one of them shivered as the cold wind pierced his thick clothing like it was not there. His name was Julian Galdo, a human male — humans were a rarity in the demihuman-dominated Agrand Republic — with blond hair, fair skin and blue eyes. He looked to be in his late twenties, and a light stubble dusted the chin of his handsome face.
He wore a suit of mail underneath his sturdy leather clothes — clearly mithril, given how light and delicate the links were — though his bandolier and pack were set aside, given that he was resting with his companions.
My companions, huh, Julian thought as he looked around himself. There were five others seated around the campfire, their faces lit by the warm glow of the flames.
To his left was Arctos, the party's ranger cum scout. He was a Winter Wolf Beastman with a pelt of pure white. He typically concealed it under a deep green cloak when he had to be stealthy (which was often). Arctos was short — barely taller than Julian, which was unusual since Beastmen tended to be much more physically imposing than regular humans — but he made up for it with an irrepressible energy. His animated motions and motor mouth reminded people of a yappy little dog that barked excitedly at everything.
Currently, he was rambling on about some topic or other, probably to make up for the fact that he would be deathly silent on the prowl later on. Arctos could be serious when the situation called for it, but now was not the time. He favored kukris — his were enchanted to cause grievous bleeding with even the slightest graze — but they were securely strapped somewhere about his person.
Beside Arctos was Pardus, a Panther Beastman who seemed like the polar opposite of the wolf-man. He was tall where Arctos was short, muscular where Arctos was slim, his fur was jet-black where Arctos' was snow-white, he was quiet where Arctos was noisy… but he had the same friendly look in his emerald eyes as Arctos did, and that was all that mattered to Julian.
As a dread commando, a profession which was essentially a warrior cum skirmisher, Pardus was trained in both stealth and combat. The armor he wore seemed to unify those disparate philosophies; it was a set of enchanted full plate that provided excellent protection against just about any form of physical attack, but its mithril components were light and cunningly fitted so as to reduce any impediment to physical action. It was also tinted a navy blue, since pure black was actually quite bad for not being seen. Of course, he could not do much about his black pelt, but that was what the armor — and its camouflaging enchantment — was for.
His helmet lay at his feet, while his spear stuck straight up from the ground, within easy reach.
To Pardus' left and directly opposite Julian was Nishiru Juju, a stout-looking Lizardman who was a druid and their healer. The flickering flames of the campfire twinkled in the gleam of his brown scales. Said scales were painted with tribal designs of unknown provenance; apparently they provided some sort of mystic protection or invoked some sort of shamanistic blessing on him. The brand of the traveller stood out over his heart; a sign of a free spirit… or an outcast.
Though his thick hide was the equivalent of light armor, he supplemented it with a pair of sturdy dragonscale bracers and dragonscale greaves. His sword-club and fighting staff lay on the ground beside him, though they were formalities at best. As a druid, the world itself was his weapon.
Reaching into the flames with his bare hands was Muk-tuk, a Kobold of Flame Dragon lineage. He was reptilian in appearance and had scales like Nishiru, but his were ruby red and gleamed in the firelight. They apparently granted him some form of flame resistance, because he was squatting next to the fire with his hands thrust within it, slowly turning one of several skewers of hare meat in the fire to cook it thoroughly. He was easily the shortest member of their group, but given his formidable sorcery, he might well be the most powerful.
The leather sleeves of his robes were pulled up to avoid singing them in the flames, and his bandoliers of potions and reagents were in a pile at the base of the stone where he sat. They were accompanied by a mage's staff, a crossbow and a case of bolts, for those situations where magic missiles were not warranted.
Finally, to Julian's right was Igni Bridgestone. He was a hulking giant of a Dwarf, which meant that he was about five feet tall. Where Pardus called to mind the image of a guerilla warrior, Igni was the very definition of heavy infantry. His limbs bulged with sinew and muscle, and his face was half-covered by a luxurious blond beard, whose lower ends were woven into thick, rope-like braids which fed into a bag within his breastplate.
Speaking of which, Igni wore extremely heavy plate armor whose joints were so cunningly articulated that there was no need to reinforce them with chain. It appeared to be made of some kind of enchanted and polished basaltic rock, given its lustre and the faint sparkles within. The two tower shields (they were as tall as he was) that he wielded leaned against each other behind him, like a pair of cards forming a pyramid. They were rectangular in shape and made of the same glossy black mineral as his armor. Even a strong Beastman like Pardus might have had trouble simply lifting and moving with that sort of gear, but Dwarves were low to the ground and built like fireplugs. Their stubby limbs might mean they moved slowly, but almost nothing could stop them once they got up to speed.
Igni turned to Julian, his eyes twinkling and the hints of a smile visible through his prodigious whiskers.
"Copper for your thoughts, lad?" he asked. His voice was gravelly, but kind, and he seemed concerned about his human companion. "Seems your heart's elsewhere."
"A little, yes," Julian replied with a smile of his own. "It's our last run together, after all. I'm going to miss you guys."
"Aww, isn't that sweet. Well, tender heart like that, it's no wonder you got the pretty kitty and all those kids, eh? How many is it now, ten? Twenty? Damn, how long was it since you got married, anyway? No, wait, how long since the two of you started popping them? I'll bet you were right eager to show her the ins and outs of marriage, eh?"
Arctos rose to his feet and began a series of pelvic thrusts into an invisible lover with exaggerated rapidity. Julian blushed, and joined the others in a hearty chuckle before Pardus reached up and pulled the wolf-man down.
"Marriage is one thing you'll never have to worry about, Arctos," the tiger-man said in a low, quiet voice that seemed to rumble like distant thunder. His tone might have been taken for menace, except that Pardus had a serene smile on his face and his eyes brimmed with affability.
"Yep, he's a better man than me. Truth be told, I'm kinda sad to see you go, Jules, but eh, you know how life is. It goes on… much like your family tree. How many did you have again?"
"Not nearly enough, I'd imagine," Muk-tuk said as he replaced one skewer in the fire with another. "But can you support them all after this? Especially after you quit the job…"
Julian pressed his lips flat. The Kobold did have a point. Adventuring paid a lot, even if most of the profits ended up being funnelled back into training or buying better gear. Just the payment for an average task could feed a large family for life, and some adventurers had personal panoplies that were worth more than entire towns by themselves.
Logically, he should have continued adventuring. That way, his family would be set for life.
Still, adventurers commanded those high fees for a reason. The adventuring life was dangerous, and even a seemingly easy task could become a bloodbath if their intelligence was bad or if they were unlucky. Then there was the fact that the adventurers often left their homes behind for extended periods, which was not conducive to a regular lifestyle.
That was why this would be the last job Julian would take as an adventurer. Truth to be told, he had an ample amount saved up, and all he wanted to do now settle down with his wife and kids and live a peaceful life with them.