You wake up in your cell, as per usual, then three big men walk in, tie you up and stuff a bag over your head, a few minutes? hours? later the bag is pulled off, and you find yourself at a round table with five other people, and a rather heavily locked metal crate thats moaning slightly.
Suddenly the only person at the table who isn't chained down stands up, a rather mad looking man with a few long white hairs left upon his head.
"You were volinteer'ded by th' gloryiz emperor, ma' yer blood burn by his name, Welco' to th' Settlers guild! now, befo' yer departur fer points unkno' I thou' ye cou' do with some introductions and plannin' on how the funds er giv'n th this venture be spent... Ah were be mah mannors, I be the arch portaler Ophilius." He grins a pointed tooth smile, then he continues.
"An' form this day onwards yall be officially 'Dead' in th' books oh legure. Now let uz get to biznezz!"
"To put things simple like, we gotz' enough fund'n to pay rough like ten troops oh merks for a day'z worth oh kidnapp'n and looting each, n don' ye quest'n why we do'n buy which we want when th' same merks wod otherwiz be looting and 'napp'n our stuffs."He sets down a chalkboard and starts marking it and sectioning it off before leaving, at the door he turns back and says
"Ah'll be bak in ahn hour, an' I expect ye to know wha' is going with ye when 'Ah get here.
10$
Slumbers, 1$ No one will notice our mercs herdn' th' lowlives into our airships, 'en we can get twice to thrice as many of the buggers as peasants per herdin'.
Peasants, 1$ Idiots tend towards knowing useless skills like farmin' and wood cutting, but still be cheap to get
Guilders, 2$ The fools who know how to work proper tools, 'n make things that will last some time, a pain to get out of their shops though as they tend to lock when the mercs come looking
Soldiers, 4$ The guards don't like being shipped out for some reason, but most of the buggers know how to swing sword axe or bow if nothing else, mercs don't like havving to take 'em.
Cows, 1$ Fat beasts that follow any man that offers her grain, no one will notice a dozen going missing
Chickens, 1$ Big bloated birds, but who would notice a dozen mercs dragging off a few dozen of 'em?
Horses, 3$ the Knights tend to defend their herds hard when we come around, luckily the beasts don't mind when we take 'em.
A magical animal, 6$ Who knows what the mercs will steal, might be worth it might be a snail goat.
Food, 1$ The mercs can haul off enough food to feed a grabbed group of soldiers, Guilders, or Peasants for three weeks? months? don't matter that much.
Arrows, 1$ A few hundred arrows, who'd notice they went missing?
Oil, 2$ The Lamp burners guild just hates it when our men come round, but why not take a few barrels of some shit that burns well?
Wine, 4$ I don't ask 'n they don't tell, all I know is that plenty of fucks like it and not many people will refuse to work for the rotting fruit juice.
Description: Tall, thin, good-looking, kind of looks the "charismatic fascist dictator" type.
Backgrounds: Born into the lesser nobility, I grew up with enough money and freedom to develop a wide range of eccentricities and not a whole lot of responsibility. In retrospect, it's not at all surprising that I wound up using magic in creatively unlawful ways.
Crimes: I pioneered the art of connecting living creatures with magically-imbued objects and/or other living creatures to create large, complex living constructions. Apparently this is "blasphemous" and "extremely ill-advised" or something.
ATTUNEMENT: Apprentice Nature, Adept Air
METAMAGIC: Adept Cursing, Adept Runes
MAGIC SKILLS: Master Conjurer, Adept Evoker, Novice Invoker
SKILLS: Adept Biologist, Adept Negotiator, Adept Strategist
Description: Thin but surprisingly athletic, his right arm is a quasi magical prosthesis, magic seems to flow from the joints of the device whenever he casts, he has eyes that are bright orange and glow the color of fire whenever he uses magic, you will never see him without his metal staff, meant more for bashing then for casting. He is generally fidgety, bouncy, and quick on his feet, he is also not very good with people. His hair is bright red and a bit of an unruly mess. He isn't picky about what he wears either, so he is typically wearing a cloak or poncho with a simple shirt and pants underneath.
Backgrounds: Starting out as a simple worker, he started making automatons as a hobby, this lead to him needing specific metal parts, and pieces of cloth for his creations. Then while out camping he discovered an ancient site that enhanced his runes and magic, this lead him to make bigger and better creations, but as demand rose so did the stress on him, eventually leading to the accident that led to him winding up in this situation.
Crimes: An error on the runes of one of his robots engines caused a piece of matter the size of a penny to get turned into energy, The resultant explosion leveled a small village
ATTUNEMENT: apprentice grey, Adept Fire
METAMAGIC: Adept Runes, Adept enchantment
MAGIC SKILLS: Master Invoking, Adept Conjuring, Novice evoking
SKILLS: Adept Blacksmithing, Adept tinkering, Adept Tailoring
Description: Maiena looks like a young yet lithe, pale white, woman with ordain white robes, with long and flowing blonde hair with white linings around it. Has a hood she often crops up to her face and also wears a facial skull bandana made of black silk for some reason of facial hiding.
Backgrounds: Raised by the secret and reclusive Mage society that practice their manipulation of the weak political framework that is known of medieval feudalism and asserts their control over it, she has never had any form of parentage except by the secret agents of the hidden mage council and the other members of it. Spent years on becoming a Arcanist of the powerful magical arts and a agent for the reclusive mage society, and as the espionage guild forced Maiena on becoming bethrothed to a mean-spirited prince so that the spy guild could keep tabs on another noble family, they weren’t prepared for her rejection notice.
Crimes: I have made treason and gain a vendetta against the people who raised me, apparently “turning” the blood of a high royal noble into a sentient pile of blood, will give you a price on your head.
ATTUNEMENT: Adept Water, Apprentice Gray Magic
METAMAGIC: Adept Binding, Adept Runes
MAGIC SKILLS Master Conjurer, Adept Invoker, Novice Evoker
Skills: Adept Historian, Adept Subterfuge, Adept Deceit
Description: Somewhat pudgy, stout and a bit shorter than the average height. A bit ugly too, his nose is bent slightly to the right.
Backgrounds: Karl grew up on the streets and quickly learned that only the toughest survive. He made his existence by stealing and fighting to survive. Magic came to him when an apprentice of a Mage felt sorry for him and taught him the ropes.
Crimes: He managed to break into the back of a merchant caravan's food wagon, and was captured at spearpoint after eating all of the food stuffs inside.
ATTUNEMENT: Apprentice Fire, Adept Earth.
METAMAGIC: Adept Disbanding, Adept Binding.
MAGIC SKILLS: Master Evoker, Adept Conjurer, Novice Invoker.
SKILLS: Adept Intimidation, Adept Wrestling and Adept Sleight of hand.
Description: About average height; thin and bony, but not to a particularly malnourished degree. Vaguely blue-tinted. Usually wearing black pants, a dirty white shirt, and his trademark feathered cap. Has a dangerous gleam in his eyes. Rarely smiles or frowns.
Backgrounds: Octal grew up on the streets, or rather, below them: he was one of the driving forces behind a slightly infamous gang of urchin sewer-dwellers. Specifically, he had been the one who kept their water safe to drink, the rats docile enough to tame, and the marks unsuspecting enough to trick. However, when the police came to break the group up - Octal being around 16 at the time - he was forced to find a moderately honest job. To that effect, he became one of the town criers, drawing attention to people and raining the news down upon them. However, he was not one to be trusted with news. Already biased against the government, Octal began to twist the news around, against them (not that this was terribly difficult), before going out to find his own news to spread. He did this for a couple years, reaching 23 in this profession, slippery enough that he could get his info without anyone noticing. But then he saw something a bit too big. Nobody could be allowed to see that and stay around to say anything. He had been silently removed from the city soundscape by the next morning.
Crimes: First, I was a firebrand, looking for a way out, trying to rile up the people. There's plenty of those around; that wasn't the reason I got thrown here. But I saw something I shouldn't have, and I was known to not be the kind to keep my mouth shut. I was inconvenient to have around. That was why I got volunteered.
ATTUNEMENT: Apprentice Water, Adept "Grey"
METAMAGIC: Adept Enchanting, Adept Disbanding
MAGIC SKILLS: Master Invoker, Adept Evoker, Novice Conjurer
SKILLS: Adept Survivalism, Adept Ranged Combat, Adept Speaking