Yeah, actually, it's exactly like that -- just with more swords and magic, and fewer fighting machines.

[ Riz privately considers that he'd quite enjoy manning some sort of huge piece of arcanotech. He's not naturally strong, but his reflexes are excellent, and he's a good tactician; he'd probably be a lot better at it than he is with his actual sword. ]

I guess no matter where you're at, you're always gonna need a group of adventurers to go ahead and deal with the baddies. It's not exclusively restricted to monsters, but... [ Man is the real monster? ] Y'know, close enough.

[ The had is a little ominous. Dead adventuring parties are pretty common. Riz delicately decides not to ask, hey, are all your friends super dead? ]

Shame that your machine didn't make its way here with you. [ A beat. ] It didn't, right? 'Cause if it did, I'd absolutely ditch the party to go see it.

[ Kidding! This is his best friends' party! He'd never do that!

(He absolutely would.) ]