Iuri heads up to the fireside and, rather unusually, summons a Floating Disk in front of the hearth. He seems to float upwards a moment, perching upon the edge and sitting on this most magical of "seats" three feet in the air. It's enough of a display to attract the attention of the nearby diners and trigger the room to hush in realization that a story is incoming.
"Right, so," he begins, laying his staff across his lap and sweeping his gaze across the crowd. "I am now going to tell you about the most successful MATES quest in the guild's history, and how I managed to capture five species in one go, so listen up."
Iuri raises his left hand into the air and, for additional flourish, an illusion appears in the air. An image of the action as he narrates it.
"We begin our tale with a visit to two of the foundational guilds of Luma. One of these is obvious. The other, which maybe should have been, is probably not."
His illusionary image presents the facade not of MATES, but of LEG: the Luma Explorers Guild, its little stone facade adorned with the light blue crystals of Oxmosa.
"The Luma Explorers Guild is, as many of you may know, a fantastic source of maps. It is also, very crucially, a source of information about the lands surrounding Luma. Now, I don't know how many of you have gone out there to explore beyond the farmlands, but there's space there perhaps beyond our imagining. How far does it go? We don't know, and frankly, that's a question that should *fascinate* you.
"When you go to Faerûn, there's cities and towns aplenty, kingdoms and city-states and municipalities of all types. And as much as there are mysteries and secrets, all of it is, at the end of the day, part of the known." He projects a flyover of map of Faerun with recognizable areas such as the Sword Coast and Sea of Fallen Stars.
"There is nowhere in Faerûn that hasn't had a map drawn of it. There's no place you can't dredge up some books or records about if you search hard enough.
"But out there? Off the mesa?" The scene shifts to a view familiar to many: the distant wilderness of Luma, as witnessed firsthand by all who have peered over the city walls. The peaks of Hidorayama and Cryo Vermis, the forests and swamps to the northeast, the grasslands and scattered trees among the hills to the south. "That is the complete unknown. When you go out there, you will be the first person to see and experience something that hasn't been seen or experienced for a length of time that frankly, even the gods might not know. There are labyrinths of undead, hidden underground chambers with constructs that lumber in the dark, a cave behind a waterfall that extends to places unknown, with intelligent arachnid folk and a massive, sealed door that might be hiding an unknown civilization.
"And the only information we have about any of these locations is *what we bring back*. Which is why, when I was looking to bring something new to MATES, I started at LEG. The records of creatures we ourselves have seen and made note of in the world we are currently in.
"Sure, you can travel to distant realms and deal with the logistics of cities and teleportation circles. But why would you, when you can just bring something to the edge of the farmlands and message in with a Paper Bird?
"Don't misunderstand me here. There are lots of reasons to go to Faerûn or other worlds to catch something, chief among them the fact that certain creatures may not be available in this realm. But do you know how many creatures are here in Luma that still haven't been collected? Just from the notes I've recently reviewed, there are *at least twenty species*, all on our doorstep.
"So that's where I started. Not with a specific creature in mind, with a *region*. With a region that had been scouted, and which I had notes on what could be found there. So when I set out to MATES, I knew exactly what creatures to ask them about."
The illusion displays the giant metal gates in Dasmach Depths. "Step two was MATES, because even if they haven't collected the creatures needed to start breeding and taming them, the trainers there have an *abundance* of records from sources all across Faerûn and countless other realms. Meticulously researched, all of it in preparation for the eventual training of those 'future friends' they seek to make.
"And after steps one and two—the intel on the region, the research of the creatures—step three was prep. Knowing what spells and tools to bring. Recruiting for skills I lacked. And I didn't just accept whoever answered my quest notice. I made sure I had people with the skills needed to get the job done. Someone for tracking and recon, someone for snares, and the rest I handled myself: spells and tools to provide vantage points and vision, Spellwrought Tattoos for Speak with Animals and Animal Friendship, tranquilizers and feed of various types to suit the creatures we could expect to find."
A little bit of din creeps back in around the dining room as it becomes clear this is not going to be a quick tale, but for those who have an interest in keeping their ears on Iuri's voice, the details may yet prove fruitful.
"The first creatures I went after were Velociraptors. I knew from previous research that velociraptors frequent the farmlands of Luma. So I didn't even bother with them myself. Weeks ago, I approached ETTU with a nonlethal trap design I made in MATES training and asked them for a dozen or so prototypes, with clear instructions on how to make said traps. Then I went to LAUGH, asked about records of attack on farms, and sent word to every farmer who had reported a velociraptor attack that I had two traps for each of them. I provided instructions on how to use those traps and a list of animals that, if trapped, should be released because we already had them available through MATES.
"While the farmers were setting my traps for me, I took my tracker, Evindal, and my trapper, Souei, out to Feline Sanctuary. Evindal located war ostrich tracks, Souei set snares for their feet along their preferred trail, and I set Alarm spells and Prestigitated away our scents.
"And then we left the area. A good hundred feet back at least. And we waited."
As Iuri goes through all these steps, the illusion continues to shift and change, presenting images of each stage. And as he gets to this point, he stops and lets the words hang in the air to stress the importance of both actions: creating distance between his team and their quarry, and waiting.
"There's a saying on my world from a holiday ceremony: 'Nothing can be achieved in haste. The spreading tree and the soul of man grow slowly to perfection.' And if perfection is what you're after, patience is what you need. There will always be times where you can't wait, where there truly is an imminent danger, but there's no need to *manufacture* that kind of urgency. MATES captures aren't timed. No one dies if you take an extra day. In fact, less people probably die if you do take the extra time to research and observe your quarry, because crowding a creature in the wild rarely ends well for either party. So *stay back* until you're sure you have a clear approach.
"We waited until one of the ostriches got its foot caught in a snare. Then Speak with Animals, Animal Friendship, and a careful and patient explanation of the endless food and safety available to the ostrich and its family in Luma. Food offered directly to prove the intent. Assistance to free the bird from the snare. And voila! The ostrich led us to its mate and its nest.
"I fully anticipated the presence of a nest out there, and I had my cart just in case. We fed the adult ostriches, reiterated the available food and safety, and convinced them to come with us back to Luma, moving the whole nest on the cart.
"Just like that, a whole family of war ostriches joined MATES. And if someone can locate one more female war ostrich, we can start breeding them. They're fast. They're big. They're usable as mounts. Fast as a warhorse, and more resilient. And, frankly... Just kind of cool to look at.
"But as great as the ostriches were, I wasn't done. Because I wasn't there for war ostriches. I was there for everything I could catch in the region.
"Next up were the hyenas. Large ones and small ones harassing construction sites on the edge of the neighborhood. Given their vicious nature, these were not Beasts I was looking to trap. Instead, we loaded up meat-based animal feed with tranquilizers in an area they were known to frequent, set some more Alarm spells, and again we went a good sixty feet away to wait, hiding our position in some bushes.
"We waited hours until the sun went down. Because there were big and small hyenas, I knew we had some risks with the dosage of the tranquilizers. I set my familiar in a hiding place near the food to keep a closer eye, and Evindal summoned Goodberries so that my familiar could potentially force feed them into a hyena's mouth.
"An hour after sundown, the first of the big hyenas came, gulped down the food, and fell asleep. Lo and behold, creature trapped. So what did we do?"
It's a clear trap, and Iuri springs it with a confident smirk.
"We waited. We didn't rush out from hiding to collect a single prize. We waited to see if more were coming. And lo and behold, they were. Another pair walked up, sniffed at and nosed the sleeping hyena, and immediately went to eat more food.
"Those, too, went down after eating the tranquilizers. And still we waited. I had in my head fifteen minutes as a good number, and so that was our target, and before the full fifteen had gone by, another giant hyena happened across its sleeping friends."
Iuri displays the image of the final giant hyena approaching the sleeping group, largely unconcerned by their collective slumbering state. Who doesn't fall into a food coma after a big meal? (Synop mages, for one, but mostly everyone else, this applies to.)
"This one was a little different. It didn't eat the food immediately. Instead, it picked up the food and carried it over to a group of smaller hyenas, sharing the food with them."
The scene switches to the same.
"And that's when Evindal's Goodberries came in clutch, because sure enough, the tranquilizer dose for the big hyenas was too much for the smaller ones, and we had to very hastily intervene."
Iuri closes his hand and the projected image disappears. "And that's how we secured three species in Feline Sanctuary: war ostriches, giant hyenas, and regular hyenas, too. And after sending all those lovely creatures back to MATES, I headed to LAUGH to collect the rest of the prizes: eleven velociraptors and two platypuses."
Iuri looks out across the crowd. Whether or not anyone is listening matters little to him at this point. What matters is that he got results.
"And that's the last bit of advice I have. None of the creatures I went after on this excursion were particularly dangerous or hard to find. I didn't start with what was possible, I started with what was available.
"Mark my words. If you're aiming to hit the highest ranks of MATES, you don't need the hardest captures. You just need the most. Aiming for an achievable target is how you succeed. And it isn't just a matter of looking for an easy job, it's also about building up experience. Because once you understand how to capture those 'easy' creatures? You'll have the experience you need to go after the harder ones."
Iuri slides off his Floating Disk, dispelling it from the hearth.
"Enjoy your velociraptors, everyone."
