Chapter 5.3 Adventuring NPC

Hiring NPC to Join a Party
Players can invite NPC with an adventuring trait to a party. These NPC often linger longer at public pubs, inns, and restaurants, arenas, and training spots, or may be traveling or camping in the wild. Players can also build specific NPC adventurers for hire zones near bulletin boards, that function similar to camps, except they come and go if not hired in time.

Cycling Through Loitering NPC
Players can tell NPC to leave an area quicker, (for example, if you want a chance for a higher leveled NPC to be there instead, or a different combat dedication.) If the NPC resist, players can intimidate them or brawl (fist fight) them to leave. Brawling with NPC increases your infamy with them, and increases infamy for the claim. Often it will be scraps of the monster, or perhaps other resources, or raw spirit points. You can light certain incenses, candles and lanterns that help attract and deter certain levels of NPC. Paid NPC will keep item payments in their inventory until they eat it (if edible,) or convert it at a retail counter.

Cost of NPC to Adventure
NPC that follow a player need tinder to stay in the party (any item(s) of value that matches their need cost.) They can loot corpses, or pick up resources, or accept gifts to meet their tinder needs. The stronger they are, the more they need to stay active in the party. NPC will state their costs upfront when you open the dialog option to invite them to follow you. You can do this with adventure type free roaming NPC, (loitering, traveling, or otherwise) or your own hired NPC, even if they don't have an adventuring trait.

NPC Following Limitations
When hired for combat, NPC will try to follow you. To allow an NPC to mount, they need an NPC saddle wreath (these have fire sources), and you can assign them a mount,) in instances where there is no mount assigned to them, if they try to mount something not assigned to them, the creature will buck them off. A creature that will not accept an NPC will buck off and destroy an NPC saddle wreath.

NPC Leaving Party
NPC will leave the party automatically if you go too far from them for too long, and you will gain a little infamy as a result of the abandonment. It's better to tell them it's time to disband, and they will continue wandering as normal.

Remembering NPC
You can access NPC from your core menu or journal. (NPC interactions that have event triggers, like parties, quests, and rewards are saved in your journal, but copied in your core menu.) You can add icons to their images, so that you remember some context about them. From your core menu you can beacon and map mark them so you can find them again to talk to them later.

Logged Off
NPC will not count logged off players as abandonment, but depending on the context of the location they may rest nearby, create camp, or venture around in town like an unhired NPC, and will regroup with the player when they log back on if they haven't gotten into trouble. Players can give them tinder to keep them hired while they are logged off, but eventually, an NPC will disband with neutral fame results. (They will not be upset, but will return to an unhired state.)

High Fame NPC
If you adventure with an NPC for long enough, they will follow you even if they don't have resources to meet their needs. At this point, they are loyal. However, they do have limits, and their health can start failing. They will break off from the party, but will likely find you again, and ask if you want to party up again. If not, they will leave you alone, and you can ask them later via your core menu/journal.