As we all piled into the vehicle outside of Rosepebble Thalia and I sat in the front, well it was Thalia, I, and Sir oinks-a-lot. The little board was no larger than my foot was long but still weighed 7 pounds. The little boar wore his tin cup hat valiantly as he put his front hooves on the dashboard to see out the windshield as his little tail wagged enthusiastically.
As I started the vehicle up I glanced at the gages and noticed we only had another 50 miles until we were empty, so as we started around the city walls and towards the border between the kingdom of Balwuk and the kingdom of Alucan I turned to Thalia.
"We forgot to grab fuel, are there any refuel spots on the way?"
Thalia took a moment, shifting Sir Oinks-a-lot over, much to the little hog's indignation as she grabbed the map and started to look it over.
"Looks like the closest one is just behind the kingdom border, around 10 or so miles out. Its a place called the Tanis Carbuncle farm."
I nodded as we drove along. For the most part the change of kingdom was evident, for while Balwuk was known for its occasional hills, Alucan was known to be covered in them, from what I had heard in the inn, you never park anywhere but the top of a hill, otherwise you may drive right past a city and not even know.
As we drove, we approached the large stone wall that served as the borders between kingdoms. It was simple in design, big, built to last, with ballista and catapults on various parts of the wall and groups of bored looking guards loitering around. The border was checking over a vehicle ahead of us.
We drove up, coming to a stop as a soldier with a clipboard walked over, he looked to be a bored elven man who looked up as he said in a monotone voice.
"Welcome to the Balwuk Alucan border, what is your reason for visiting the kingdom of Alucan?"
I turned to Thalia a bit surprised by the flatness of the man's voice and his eyes that looked like he could fall asleep at any moment as I turned back.
"Uh, were traveling to attend the Plate Games."
I said grabbing the flier and handing it to the man. He grabbed it, looking it over as he nodded and handed it back to me.
"Very well sir, we will just need to inspect your vehicle, and you can be on your wa-."
The man stopped mid-sentence as his eyes fell upon Sir Oinks-a-lot as he had his hooves against the window sniffing the air like he was trying to investigate the reason for our stop. I looked to Sir Oinks-a-lot and to the soldier as he turned back to me.
"Is that a baby pig in a tin cup hat?"
"Uh, yea, his name is sir Oinks-a-lot, and he's our party mascot."
The soldiers face lit up for a moment as the car ahead of us went through and we pulled up; the soldier walked with us and seemed more animated than I had seen him before.
"Then do you all have a party name yet?"
Thalia and I shook our heads as the man turned back to the other soldiers.
"We got a group that needs a naming, and they have a mascot!"
I saw several of the soldiers perk up at this as we saw a more decorated guard step out, this man looked to be a dwarven man who was tall for a dwarf, but still standing only 4'10 or so. They squinted up at us trough the window as the dwarven man said in a surprisingly baritone voice.
"Sir, can you please step out of the vehicle so we can assist you in the naming, it will take only a few minutes."
I complied, stepping out as the others followed, the dwarven man nodded and lead us to what looked to be a small room inside the large gates of the stone wall. Stepping in he placed us before a large white canvas where a strange hooded wooden box sat.
"Please make yourselves comfortable, and strike a pose if you could, this will go on the wall."
We all glanced to where the man gestured to a large wall of small pieces of paper, on them small pictures of different adventuring groups stood in various poses with their names written at the bottom.
"Um, what exactly is all this?"
Kaelen asked confused as he looked at the camera with a bit of a hesitant look.
"Its a partnership we have with the adventurers guild, every checkpoint we take a picture with adventuring teams and send them to the guild at the end of the month, from there the guild complies them so if you become big names the guild has pictures documenting different stages of your journey."
The man placed his head under the blanket on the device as he gestured for everyone to stand before a large white panel. Everyone struck different poses, Liora with her staff out like she was about to shoot a wind blast, Jax ducked down like he was ready to jump. Kaelen posed with his staff out, but it seemed to be a bit in the way of the camera. Selene held her arm out like she was waiting to catch an incoming strike. Thalia held Sir Oinks-a-lot out and even the little hoglet stuck a pose of valiant defiance.I saw the camera getting ready as I panicked and grabbed a potion from my bag holding it up as there was a flash and the dwarven man stepped from behind the camera, waving a small piece of paper.
"We still have to process it, but you all did have some creative poses, do you all have a party name?"
I turned to the other as I realized it was something we never really discussed. I took a moment to look at the others as they didn't seem to have any ideas either.
"We have never actually thought about it, can we have a minute to discuss?"
Liora asked raising her hand. The dwarven man shrugged as he stepped out of the room to let us thing.
"What about the hounds."
Jax said excitedly. We all looked at Jax for a moment before we looked away and agreed, so not that.
"What about something after our mascot?"
Kaelen said shrugging as Thalia scratched Air Oinks-a-lot behind the ear as he made contented little noises.
"S-Sure, but let's avoid weird ideas like Oink squad or stuff like that."
Behind her both Thalia and Jax slowly lowered their hands where it seemed they had thought that name was a good idea.
After a moment Liora shrugged and said
"I don't know, let's go with something simple like Hogs Feet or something."
It felt kind of bland, but thinking about it, most adventurers wouldn't have the super cool names, and only later on would they kick in and be seen as fun or amazing. So I agreed, and so did Selene and Kaelen, with a 4 to 2 vote, our adventuring name became Hogs Feet.
We headed outside to the vehicle as we drove past the border and onto the rolling hills. As we approached an intersection I drove past as Thalia asked.
"Didn't we need fuel?"
Coming to a stop, I flushed a bit embarrassed I forgot about that as I backed up and turned to head down the road to the Carbuncle farm.