You have 16 Days Until Your Place of Business is Shut Down

> Ooh, we're getting all Disgaea/Fire Emblem on us. Nice. [Can I recommend marking the grid with letters and numbers so we can mark out specific squares and stuff?]

> Sarah, move to the square above the Puni and attack.

> Dave, move one up and use Hatchet Throw. That should be enough.

> Incidentally, can we turn the Magic Grass into String somehow?

(No problem about the food there, boss. That actually makes things easier. :P)
>ugh, strategy in combat has never been my thing... I suppose have Sarah move Southeast and Attack. Have Dave move North and use his Hatchet Throw on Puni.

Edit: Derelict and I apparently think similarly. Feel free to ignore my post, then. :P

"Aaah!" You run up next to the Puni, allowing your panic at the sudden appearance of a monster to flow straight into aggression. You raise your staff above your head and bash it straight down. The Puni's head squishes inward like some kind of jelly pillow and when you pull your staff back it reforms its dome shape with a high-pitched "U-ee" sound.



The monster responds by..squishing its body outward in your direction, smacking you in the leg. You are too confused by how its motion works to react. "Ow!"

"Hup!" Dave, having moved over a bit, tosses a hatchet. It lands square in the Puni's side, and after jiggling uncomfortably for a second the creature falls completely apart, the weird blue liquid making up its insides immediately soaking into the ground.

Victory!

Dave walks up, collecting his hatchet back again. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just...how did that thing move?"
He shrugs. "It's a mystery to everybody. It's really a lot more important to know how to make 'em not move."
"Hm.." You notice something in the grass where the monster was, and pick it up. It's a small, marble shaped and sized bit of blue gooey stuff similar to what the Puni was made of. It's cold to the touch, but still seems...alive somehow. You stow it in the basket in case it has some kind of alchemical use.

Exploration information:
While out in the world, you have a few options on how to spend your time. You can Look for ingredients to gather, Look for monsters to fight, or Try to explore deeper. Deeper parts of an area are likely to have rarer items and more powerful monsters; you may run into monsters while looking for ingredients, and you're not entirely guaranteed to run into monsters if you're looking for them. (Of course, you can also choose to leave...usually.)

Look for Ingredients: You don't have to look for just ingredients in general; you can seek out a specific ingredient type or ingredient category or such, but only if you've discovered that kind of item in this area at least once before. Seeking out a specific ingredient is more likely to produce more samples of that item, but it will take longer to find anything at all the rarer the ingredient is, and seeking something specific makes it very unlikely to discover anything new.

Look for Monsters: You can seek specific types of monsters you have encountered before in the current area as well. There's a limited number of monsters in each part of an area, and they can be exhausted through the results of either this or the previous option. If you have gotten rid of all the monsters you will be informed of this, and generally not able to waste time looking for monsters that aren't there.

Try to Explore Deeper: Finding deeper parts of an area gives you a good idea of where those places are, so you can return straight to them in the future. You will gather some ingredients along the way, but not as many as the first option, and there is always some risk of running into a monster doing this, even if you have exhausted the monsters in the current location. Your search may be unsuccessful or directly inform you that there is nowhere else to go in this area; in the latter case you won't be able to select this option anymore. Sometimes it isn't enough just to know there is another area: There may be something blocking your way that you must do something about in order to move forward.

Will you seek ingredients, monsters, or explore the forest? Or will you return to town?

Date: 1/1
Time: About three quarters

Status & Inventory:

236 Cole

Character Status:

SpoilerShow

Sarah Kennigan: Barely Scratched, Energetic
Weapon: Basic Staff
Armor: Normal Clothes
Accessory: None
Skills:

SpoilerShow

Ether Light: A self-defense technique from Master. Non-elemental magic attack, any 1 square.

Dave Barrett: Uninjured, Just Fine
Weapon: Hatchets
Armor: Normal Clothes
Accessory: None
Skills:

SpoilerShow

Hatchet Throw: Throw a hatchet in any of 8 directions. Does physical damage to whatever it hurts first.

Fee: 0 Cole

Basket (4/60):

SpoilerShow

Magic Grass x 3
Puniball x 1

Container:

SpoilerShow

Spoiled Milk x 1
Tap Water x ∞

Known Recipes:

SpoilerShow

Ingot: 1 Day; [Metal]
Cloth: 1 Day; [String]

Locations:

SpoilerShow

Syzygy: Home town.
Nearby Forest: Half a day's walk east of Syzygy.
-Forest Entrance (Current Location)

A/N:

SpoilerShow

Things like "[String]" and "[Ore]" are categories of item. There'll be more about this whenever we get to the actual 'do alchemy' part, and then it won't have to be stuffed in an obscure A/N.