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

>So, it's confirmed that we are not skilled enough to properly make certain things. At least they accepted it, I guess.

>Ok, we have two options. Grab that Puni quest and farm up some nice ingredients or stay another day and make two supplements. I suggest getting our materials as fast as possible. The more materials we have, the longer we can sit and just craft, craft, craft!

>We will be staying 5-6 days possibly in the woods. Keep this in mind before we wander off into said woods. We have only used 4 of our 30 allotted days, even though it feels like it's been weeks, so we are not even concerned with running low on time yet. Doesn't mean we want to waste this trip, though.

> OK, cool, tap water can be used to make Supplements. I was wondering, but turns out I should've just guessed that'd be the case. Great!

> Anyway, that's the important thing right now. Make lots of Supplements, buy food and stuff, and... I dunno, go out on a walk with Dave. Nice relaxing walk with a friend should make us more energised!

> Ask Dave where your as-of-yet-unmentioned friend [insert-name-here] is. Maybe [he/she/it] can come with us. We need a new recruit or two for a longer trip!

You decide to spend today making a couple more supplements out of tap water. After all, they're easy, they're free to make thanks to the tap water, they're good practice, and you need them for the healing paste, which is the only thing you know how to make right now for the Assignment. You don't have any trouble doing so, and wind up two supplements which seem to be about average quality: Nothing particularly amazing about them, but they don't stink like the one made out of spoiled milk.

You go to bed feeling at least a bit hopeful, like maybe you'll be able to keep things together at least this month.

The next day, you decide to head out and see about taking that puni slaying quest, since at some point you're going to need to go out to get more wood chips and gather magic grass for the healing paste anyway, besides the fact that it seems like battle experience is generally going to be valuable.

You are nearly to the castle when you are interrupted by a sudden, loud "AHA!"
After jumping at the noise, you look around frantically for a second or two before identifying the source of the aha as someone pointing dramatically in your direction.

It's a human girl a little bit shorter than you are, dressed very strangely. She has dark hair in a bowl cut and rounded eyeglasses that the sun glares off of, obscuring the eyes behind. The unusual part is a white...trenchcoat or something, a long-sleeved coat looking thing with buttons snapped together that hangs over her whole form and honestly looks a little bit oversized, flapping in the wind as it does.
"Uhh.." You feel a little awkward since she's been standing there pointing dramatically for at least a few seconds by now. "Can--"
"My competitor! Or potential competitor, such as it may be," she interrupts, dropping her hand to a side and striding confidently up to you. She takes one hand to the side of her glasses and adjusts them carefully, which briefly eliminates the galare enough to see she has red-tinted eyes. "Stahl claimed you were an 'Al-chemist', and then made a contradictory statement that you were not any kind of chemist at all despite that word's obvious etymology. He stated that your skin was green, which made it easy to spot you in a crowd."

"Do you..want something? Or is listing off things you heard about a person like your hobby," you say, getting a little annoyed already.
"You fulfilled a request for a bomb, did you not? Turned in the night before last to one Stahl Kazak at the castle desk."
"Yeah--" you start, and are interrupted again.
"Specifically this bomb," she says, producing it from some portion of her jacket you only now conclude must have been a pocket, "a damp specimen characteristic of a practical beginner at the art of combustion production, yet still someone with enough potential to produce something which at least performs the function for which it was intended."
"Do you have a point." You are really losing patience with this girl.

"Well, I am Miriam Kovich," she says, pointing a thumb at her own chest, "the primary and indeed only producer of explosives for this town's operations in the mines," she says, "but that is merely how I fund my true occupation. I am a scientist, bound to discover the true nature of all things in this world. Either way, however, I could hardly allow my business to be undercut by somebody barely capable of producing something of this level of quality," she says, waving the bomb still in her other hand around. "Therefore I have decided that if you wish to pursue the career of combustion production, I must teach how to do it properly."
You cross your arms. "You decided, huh."
"Yes," She presses on, ignoring the sarcasm entirely. "So I must observe your methodology in order to see what is at fault."
"Well, I'm not making any bombs today," you say, "I have a lot of other stuff to do."

"The march of progress will not be deterred!" she says dramatically (and a little too loudly as well). "I am given to understand that you produce other items through the process of this al-chemistry, so the next time you decide to do so I shall watch and undoubtedly glean some information on how you made this pitiful explosive."
"Uhh, most of the recipes I have take like a whole day to complete," you say, exaggerating the length in an effort to discourage her. The more sensible 'I'm not going to let you into my house' seems unlikely to work with someone of this overbearing a personality.
"Science knows no impatience," she says, her glasses gleaming in the sun again. "You were on your way to see Stahl, correct? I'll wait right here until you've conducted your business."
"Yeah sure.." You continue toward the castle, beginning to mentally route a way back to your workshop that will stay well out of sight of this girl, just in case.

After waiting in line for a moment or so, you make it to Stahl's desk. "How can I help you?" he says.
"Well, I wanted to take on the request to kill some Punis," you say.
"If you mean the one I showed you a few days ago, that one's gone," he says curtly.
"Gone?"
He nods. "Someone else took it. If you wanted to do that request you should have taken it then. I can hardly tell someone else they're not allowed to take a request that nobody has already promised to do, after all."
"Oh..yeah.." You feel a little airheaded for this to have not occurred to you sooner. "Well, what quests are up now, then?"

"Hmm. Actually, I got one request for you specifically."

Information: Personal Requests
Anyone familiar with Sarah can put up a request specifically for her to do. Unlike normal requests, these will not disappear until their due date, but there is only a penalty for not doing them if you actually agree take them on. Completing a personal request, in addition to being just as profitable as regular requests are, is the main way to improve your relationship with a person. Improving your relationship with a shopkeeper will give you discounts (though how deep and how often depends on the person), possibly unlock new inventory for the shop, and may have other benefits as well. Improving your relationship with a party member will reduce their fee and is generally beneficial otherwise; some people who you encounter in town are actually potential party members who will join your party once your relationship with them improves sufficiently.

Stahl gives a new list of requests available today:

1. Slay 5 Wolves by 1/30 - 700 Cole
   
2. (From Hazel Tethel) Bring Milk Chocolate x 3 by 1/27 - 750 Cole
   
3. Bring 1 Ingot by 1/30 - 200 Cole
   
4. Bring 2 Wolf Fur by 1/15 - 400 Cole
   
5. Bring 1 Healing Paste by 1/25 - 600 Cole

"Remember that you've already taken one request, so you only have room for two more right now."

>

Date: 1/6
Time: Dawn

Status & Inventory:

1226 Cole

Character Status:

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Sarah Kennigan: Uninjured, Just Okay
Weapon: Basic Staff
Armor: Normal Clothes
Accessory: None
Skills:

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

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

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

Fee: 0 Cole

All other info

A/N:

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It's fun trying to describe a lab coat from the perspective of somebody who's never seen or heard of a lab coat before.

I thought I was being clear about how requests work exactly (that they change from day to day and any you didn't take may disappear the next day), but as it became increasingly clear I hadn't been clear enough I decided to just let it play out as Sarah not understanding it correctly either.

I'm thinking of adding some qualitative gauge of friendship levels with various characters, somewhere in the spreadsheet. Maybe that blank space on the bottom right next to the shop inventories or something.