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

> Well, we want to make stuff to prevent monster damage, so maybe it would be a good idea to look for monsters and see what kinds of wounds we're dealing with. Who knows, perhaps using ingredients from monsters themselves, we can whip up anti-monster potions or something.

> Try to establish what the most common monsters are. I'm going to guess punis, but there might be other common monsters too. We need to see what the majority of people are getting injured by before we can start to make something to help.

>Derelict's logic is sound enough. I am doubtful the actual monsters will yield healing ingredients, though... So far, we see that the Puni can hit you with their body, leaving a bruise or small scratch. We also saw that blunt objects don't really seem as effective against Puni as edged weapons are...stupid squishies.

>Ask Dave about a few things.

1. If he knows anything about the monsters in this area of the forest.
   
2. If he knows anything about the Puniball and what it might be good for.
   
3. If he knows whether jet fuel can melt steel beams different/stronger monsters come out at night around this area.
   

>Ask Dave if he knows of any other monsters!

>Then Try to Explore Deeper

You show the marble thing from the Puni to Dave. "You have any idea what this is good for?"
He scratches his head. "Uumm..nope. I've never actually seen that before. I guess I just never noticed they drop those when they die."

{Meta: Vote was 2 to 1 to look for monsters}

You decide to seek out more monsters, in case they might have more ingredients. On the way, you ask Dave a few things.
"So, what all kind of monsters show up around here?"
"Well, Punis obviously. And animal monsters."
"Animal?"
"You know, wolf monsters, bear monsters, sheep..." He shudders slightly. "Stay away from the sheep though, trust me."
"The sheep," you deadpan.
"They're not normal animals. They're animal monsters," he tries to explain. "They're a lot more dangerous than the real thing. Look, you'll see when we run into one. Or...well, I guess I hope you won't."

"Um..do stronger monsters come out at night?" It is somewhat close to sunset, after all.
"No..uh...I think they mostly go to sleep at night. Lucky for us, it means we can camp out without too much trouble."
"Yeah..."

"Oh, hey!" You see something that resembles a wolf, but it's much taller than a normal one. Its back is turned. "Is that a wolf monster?"
"Yes..."
"Let's kill it!"

You engage a monster!

There is one Wolf (W) here. It hasn't noticed you yet.

Further Battle Information:
Sometimes there is stuff in the way, like trees in the forest. These are displayed as black squares and generally not possible to move on top of or through.

>

Date: 1/1
Time: Nearly Over

Status & Inventory:

236 Cole

Character Status:

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

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SpoilerEther 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:

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

Fee: 0 Cole

Basket (4/60):

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SpoilerMagic Grass x 3
Puniball x 1

Container:

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SpoilerSpoiled Milk x 1
Tap Water x ∞

Known Recipes:

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

Locations:

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

A/N:

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SpoilerThe subject of night is another "game abstraction" where I'm simplifying things with by insisting it works a certain way. Outside of maybe some very specific events, night is treated as just the time people sleep. This means every day has exactly four quarters of time in which to do stuff.

Had I my way*, I would have character portraits and little monster panel things for every character and monster and show those instead of letters. I was lucky enough to find a Puni sprite I could use for Punis (in fact, various colors thereof), but I'm not so lucky here.

*-(Had I my way, I would also show character conversations in a roughly "Visual Novel" style with their upper bodies showing various expressions in front of some background representing their location along with the text)