Prologue: Herd of Cats
The dock was about as quiet and dignified as could be expected, which was to say it was a cacophonous bedlam of angry miscreants being poorly funneled to the wrong places by supervisors with no idea what they were doing.
"Ah, yes, the ah..." began a frazzled, young-looking elf in a green tunic and bright orange pants that matched his hair. "The ah, Insert Name Here expedition to... one of these names, I assume...? Um, the expedition to the place is... Form A4, right, Form A4...
A tomato with a human face, leather satchel of pressed flowers, and bottle filled with flesheating spiders sailed over his head.
"O-or we could start with the... the wizards.
Um...
J-Joseph John Jackson, Ogre Necromancer!
S-Sig... Sgig... Sjig-Nak? The um, the... 'Ratman+'. Ratman+ Fleshmaster.
Joseph John- is there... is there a second Joseph John Jackson the Ogre Necromancer?"
Several people shouted assent. The elf swallowed and kept reading.
"'Dark Shrimp' Malacent, Imp Arcane Arranger!"
An irritating but very evil laugh came from the crowd.
"Eiragast the Excellent, Succubus Necromancer!
Jos- right. Couple duplicates. Um...
Miya the Pathetic, Human Favored Soul!
Sjig- right.
Mongo the Magnificent, Utterly Elven Healer!
Um, this concludes the, uh-"
A hurled purple bottle crashed near his feet, exploding into white fire on the dock planks. Nobody moved to put it out.
"Th-this concludes the base list! There's still the auxiliary... um... there's still two more! Um, they are, they're...
...blank space...
Ulric Stoneforged, Dwarven Craftsdwarf!
Omuz, Dwarf Warder!
Th-that concludes the-"
He ducked a hurled brownish fish.
"There's no more! Talk to the shipmaster! The- oh right, the shipmaster!
He began furiously flipping through the stack of papers in his hands, trying and failing to ignore the jeering from the crowd.
His eyes bugged out at a certain page.
"Oh, OH! She can't- she isn't... uh, Eiragast can't make it? Is... she's not here?"
The crowd began baying again.
"R-right! The other, uh... that would be... Form 6C... um, um...
Otto, Omnibold Alchemist! This concludes the-"
A shower of rotten vegetables and small plush animals forced him into a crouch, where he continued rifling through his poorly organized forms.
"U-um! The Insert Name Here expedition to one of these places will consist of... of... uh, if any of you have any business to attend to, I guess now'd be the time...?"
It seems the expedition will take a few minutes to get organized, loaded, and underway.