The Paved Road To Nowhere

You walk into the Carberton and look around. The tavern is packed, as usual, and as loud as ever. A couple of familiar faces catch your attention; they wave when they catch your gaze. You return a short wave back with a grin but continue to rove your eyes around the patrons.

You were looking for a specific person, today. Your eyes land on a shock of red hair. 'Red river' you recall from the missive. This is what it must have meant. This was the only person with vibrant red hair in the entire tavern. You instantly know you have found who you are looking for.

You make your way over to the table the person is sitting at and take the empty seat across from them. You look him over. The man sitting before you has long red hair, tanned skin, and a large red fringe covering his right eye. The pointed ears he's sporting tells you he's of elven blood. He is not dressed like any other mage you've seen before. From what you can see above the table, he is wearing hard leather, armor plate. It is cut in a v-shape going up towards his mid-chest showing off his flat, lightly muscled stomach. The hard leather is grey in color with a simple darker grey trim. He has off-white, fingerless gloves adorning his smallish hands.

What you had been expecting was a frail looking, robed man with a cane. Maybe some grey or white hair and a hat. You had made the assumption that the mage you were taking a job from was one of the elders but from the look of it, he must have been an apprentice to one of the elders.

'Ehh...You're...Zerlion?' You ask him. His eyes shoot open and he gazes at you with piercing, amethyst eyes.

"You're not off to a good start," He says. You roll your eyes, even though the man looked different than most of the mages you've seen, he certainly acts a lot like them. _"You obviously have some basic reading comprehension. It is Xharlion [Zahr-Lee-Ahn]. I am a mage and scholar from The Tower of Galinal, Magi of Tes'la." He crosses his arms and looks you over with a hint of disgust on his face. "I want to make a couple of things clear here: I'm hiring you to travel along with me. It's not because I need coddling, but because I may need some extra muscle on this long trek I'm taking. I only want the best and I do hope you're not like the earlier crowd of rif-raffs hoping for easy coin." _He speaks with a haughty tone and lets out a short huff, his petal thin lips settling in a thin line.

"Before I hire you for this mission, let me first ask you a couple of questions. I won't just hand over my life to some random person. I want to know that I can trust you to get the job done." He uncrosses his arms and lifts up the cup that sits in front of him to his lips. He takes a short sip before asking: "What exactly am I hiring?"

Important note: Your earlier choices determine what choices will be available to you later on. Certain choices you make increases and decreases Xharlion's interest in you and it also makes you obtain or lose certain dispositions. Your value score will be calculated on the right.