Wanderers of Weyard

"What's wrong with her?" Dancing asks as a mare with a silver mane storms past him. "Is she the fencer you were talking about, guild master?"

@Kaji...
Inside the smithy, a strange scene greets you:
One of the ponies you know to be a future ally for your expedition is unconscious on the floor, an enormous welt on her forehead...
An aging and panicked-looking mare is holding the unconscious pony with one hoof, and an enormous hammer with the other...
An equally aged earth pony stallion is looking aghast at the situation... while slightly on fire.

Before the phrase 'back away slowly' can even occur to you, an explanation bursts out... an incoherent, frantic, PHYSICAL one.

...

You are now outside the cartographers' guild with a recovering keen craft. Roll a 'WHAT THE BUCK JUST HAPPENED?!?' check. (Perception, Mechanics, Endurance, or History)

Gusty blinks her eyes as she takes a moment to try and make sense of...whatever just happened.

WTF-Check:history:

Shaking off your confusion, you piece together what happened:
The mare, apologetic, gave Keen the hammer for free...
The stallion, immolated, quickly gave Gusty a cast iron amulet. (Amulet of Vengeance, in fact)
The giving process violated several laws of geometry, and involved a pile composed of Keen and Gusty somehow getting dragged to the cartographers guild BY THE HAMMER...
You should probably just accept the free swag and not think too hard on it.

"Ow..."

Keen really couldn't think of anything more profound to say. What should have been a basic purchase left her with a splitting headache and a welt on her head. Maybe this town wasn't as orderly as she thought. Trying to focus, she noticed a blue pegasus with green hair next to her.

"The...two...of you must have carried me over here? Th-anks..."

TRYING TO CLEAR HER HEAD:

"...."
Gusty looks down at her pilemate.
"...."
"Whoever you are, that hammer is scary. Please keep it away from me."
Still feeling a bit light-headed, Gusty takes a look at her new accessory, then shrugs and wobbles into the Guild.
"So. Charts. Where was I?"

Findin' me a guildmember:

@Keen
You shake off the lingering pain and struggle inside.

@Gusty
You begin animatedly talking to the chimney... it seems to be a bit of a tribalist.

"Look, I don't CARE how great it is to be a unicorn. All I want is some charts. Now can you point me to some or not...."
Gusty takes a closer look at her conversation partner.
"That.... is one SCARY hammer."
Deciding not to risk further embarrassment, she sits down on the nearest chair to calm down.

This was going to be one of those days.

With more focus, Keen was able to notice that the pegasus talking to the chimney matched the description of one of her travel partners. Hopefully the rest of their party would be more...sane...but she resigned to sitting quietly as the headache started to subside.

All hear a shout from a room of the guild:

"Alright everypony, I can see that you're all here, or at least near... I think it's time for you to come inside and hear precisely WHAT you'll be doing.

Silver clapped a hoof over her ears.
"Did you have to shout so loud? My ears are ringing."

Startled by the sudden shout, Gusty is shaken out of her contemplative mood.
"Ahh! That's right! Those charts can wait. Let's see what they wanted us for."
Looking for the way to the meeting, she finally recognises Keen from the descriptions.
"Hey, hammermare, you coming along?" She asks with a grin.

Keen pondered how long she was out, since she was used to making good time. Well, no point in stalling. She got up and headed towards the meeting room so she could hear the assignment.

Icy Glare didn't seem to react to getting yelled at and just follows the rest in.

Dancing follows the blue pegasus. "So, you're part of this map expedition thing?"

Icy nods. "That I am... Traveled a good deal of my life since I became of age... The job pays alright and seems fun."

Pumpkin Poultice jumps out of a simple bed at the sound of the shouting, crashing to the floor. "I'm up, I'm up!"
He immediately sprints towards the meeting room.

"so."
Gusty gazes around the room, looking at the ponies that, it seemed, were to be her companions.
"It seems like we're all present, so I'd like to know a few things:
Why are we here, where are we going, and do our travel supplies include... ration bars?"
She pauses for a second, her face impassive.
"Cuz if they do, i'm not going."

Keen arched her eyebrow. "With many of our arrangements being handled for us, I can't see why food choice would be an issue. It would be different if we didn't have food at all."

Icy nods. "Alright... Wouldn't mind seeing how travel with a full adapt set differs from just traveling by oneself."

ZamuelNow wrote:"How public should our actions be? It would be good to know if we need to do this quietly or if we should be actively expecting assistance on our journey. Furthermore, is there any information we should know about each of these locations ahead of time?"

"On a similar note, what is our budget? Aside from our salaries, there will be the cost of lodgings and supplies. There might also be the need for some cash to... grease the wheels, so to say. Information, customs, that sort of stuff.
Speaking of salary, are we being paid on a monthly basis, or is this more of a per-mission arrangement?
I assume most of this would have been in the letters we received. Sadly, my mom's pet ate those before I could do a complete read-through."

Your actions can be very public. I'm giving you an 'Adventurer's Writ' a special dispensation from the most solid of global organizations, granting you special privileges. Notably: you can access special stock in most stores. You can ignore certain local laws. You can collect bounties on even small dangers felled. You can find lodgings fairly easily. Items in certain containers are always available to you. And no public officials will oppose you in any way that cannot easily be fixed.

Spoiler:

As far as reporting back here goes, don't worry about it. If you tune one of the tablets, I'll know. I suppose I'd recommend Air's Rock first. All I know is that it's a very unpredictable place, but that's three more syllables of knowledge than I have on any of the others.