Catarina had been in the city of Saphire for over a month now. She's mostly been doing work as the personal guard of a wealthy fur trader, protecting him and his caravan from robbers and raiders. Mostly desert orcs. Her blade has felled many of the monstrous men, but they were hardly a challenge to the warrior. True they were a threat to merchants and common guardsmen, as their numbers and indvidual ferocity made them threatening opponents, but they were disorganized and unskilled. Catarina could take on a whole raiding party on her own, cutting down the Raiders one-by-one. 

One month was the duration of Catarina contract, and the merchant had no interest in renewing. While grateful for her service, he has made an alliance with a merchants guild which would provide him skilled guards for all his caravans. Of course he wouldn't mention that for the price he pays Catarina, he could hire ten mediocre guild guardsmen. Catarina likes to think of herself as a noble and just woman, but she was not cheap. Her blade was not earned through sweet but empty words. Money was was a powerful force in this world, as strong as magic, and she wasn't hesitant time use either.

Hence why she'll work for the guild of mages. Catarina bad her father once worked with the Mages Guild once in the past, and it was a delightful experienced. She fought her first demon that day. Now, in this dingy tavern, the Mage Guild now needs adventurers to find a silver chalice for them. Perhaps it was some sort of holy grail or decanter of endless water. Whatever it was, Catarina looked for the representative and those who would later become her future party members.

What she found was a fairly typical group of characters. An elvish mage of some sort, a lanky but muscular barbarian, a handsome adventurer, a fellow warrior woman, and a more manly knight. Catarina was fairly larger than the knight thanks to her armor, and the first thing she noticed was that he too had a bastard sword. However he was able to wear his on his belt, where Catarina had her's strapped to her back. A quirky group, but Catarina had high hopes. Approaching, Catarina removed her helmet and let her hair down, smiling at those gathered at the table. [color=fff79a]”Hello! I am Catarina La’Spada. I take it that you all will take part in this quest?”[/color] she then offered her hand to shake with everyone at the table, including the quite old man.

[hr]

It's been a good month for Parum so far; when she first arrived here in Saphire she didn't think much about the opportunities here. Sure it was a bustling trade city, but many port towns were like that. A good place to trade but hardly a place for excitement. At least that's what she thought before she was mugged by a gang of thieves. Well... Not quite mugged. More like they tried. Being numbered and facing off against opponents larger than her was the story of her life. For a halfling everyone was a giant. And all these giants always wanted to take advantage of her, thinking they had some sort of strength over her. But strength wasn't just the size of one's sword or body, but their wits. So against the usual brutes who try to bother her Parum had no trouble evading and and stealing from their pockets until they're left with nothing but their knives. Granted it was likely their poverty that drove them to robbery in the first place. But that wasn't Parum's problem.

Using her connections to the merchant's guild Parum has started a little business for herself in Saphire. Nothing too big; she could stop whenever she wants and wouldn't lose anything from it. Maybe one or two porters would be out of a job but that wouldn't weigh too much on her conscience. Parum's business was simple: she made lock. Her skills at disabling locks were handy at knowing how they ticked, and she had a few porters from the dock as apprentices. Indeed, her skills probably enriched their lives. There wasn't really anything else she could teach them, as their skills now only needed to be honed with effort and practice. But that was just her cover business.

Parum broke as many locks as she made. During the day she was a locksmith but at night she robbed homes. But not just any homes: the homes of other thieves. Bribing urchins and the homeless, Parum was easily able to figure out the homes of some low-level thieves and burglars and used her talents to steal from them. But it wasn't as if she gave these treasures back to their rightful owner or anything, she still sold them to fences for quick cash. Just enough to give her a nice room at an inn and occasionally a few luxuries. But cat burglary and locksmithing weren't bringing in the money she wanted. She's been at this game for a month and she's barely made more than 100 gold. While considerably good for a "newbie" merchant, Parum had expensive tastes and hungered for some excitement.

So Parum left the inn she was staying at. Unlike most this inn wasn't a tavern, though it did serve drinks and the likes to it's patrons. No the inn she was staying at was only for those who would actually reside within. She rented her room for two months, which was about how long she planned to stay in Saphire. Today she had no real plans so she decided to go looking or a quest. With any luck she'd find a job that would catch her interest. So once more she went to her fellow vagrants and listened to what they had to offer. Unfortunately most were trying to con her into helping them with their problems, to which she had no interest in. What a beggar could possibly offer to make it worth her time wasn't worth the effort to figure out. So in the end, she had to rely on the old standby: looking for jobs in taverns.

She went to most of the major taverns and one job stood out in particular. The Mage Guild needed adventurers to search through an old ruin and retrieve an artifact. That interested her the most; more often than not these artifacts were far more powerful and valuable than the what their pay would cover. And while Parum was no mage, she knew a thing or two about magic. At least enough to know how to sell it to the highest bidder. Taking the post off the wall, Parum went to find the one who would be giving this mission. And once she found that person with the others gathering around him, Parum hid in the shadows, watching and listening from a distance.