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

>Use alchemy to whip up super-charged caffeine drink for sleepy knight!

>Recall how uninterested/bored/half-asleep she was when you first met her. Perhaps she suffers from depression and/or insomnia! Waking her up could mean trouble for you...

>Go check in with your partner in crime first. If he is through the line, great! If not, mention about the sleeping knight and ask what he thinks you should do.

SpoilerShow

Hey Xin. Thought I might catch your attention. I've had an extended break from forums since EOFD was one update away from finishing, haha, but I thought I may as well check out this Eagle Time thing.

> Say hello, quietly. If she doesn't respond, she's probably asleep.

> Do knights have, like, an ID card or something that makes them a 'knight'? If so, why not borrow it for a little while?

> If there is no knightly ID you can take, just leave the room and keep searching.

>Use alchemy to whip up super-charged caffeine drink for sleepy knight!

>Recall how uninterested/bored/half-asleep she was when you first met her. Perhaps she suffers from depression and/or insomnia! Waking her up could mean trouble for you...

>Go check in with your partner in crime first. If he is through the line, great! If not, mention about the sleeping knight and ask what he thinks you should do.

You try your quietest "Hello?" first, in an effort to test whether she's actually asleep on her feet. There's no response, but you can't be entirely sure if she's awake but just didn't hear you. Well, whatever her problem is she's apparently supposed to be the one you talk to about this 'closing down your home' thing...right? You think maybe you can double-check back in the main room, and head there to check on Dave's progress in line.

He's already at the front! Man, that guy behind the counter works fast. Also, said guy doesn't look too happy, and something about his manner is making even Dave a bit nervous. "For the last time, I can't tell what you're talking about without the appropriate paperwork," he seethes.
"Uh, this is the only paperwork we've got," you interject, offering the order to close the shop.
He takes less than half of a look at it and says "Oh, that. I assume you're the representative, then."
"Y-yeah." He seems less angry, but somehow not any less scary.
"In the future, please don't waste everyone's time by having someone irrelevant hold the line for you," he says sternly. "Miranda should be waiting for you over that way, fifth room on the right." He points at the hallway you just came from.
"O-okay, thanks." You head into the hallway to escape the scary man's stare, Dave close behind you.

As soon as he thinks he's out of earshot, Dave says, "Did you hear that guy? He called me 'irrelevant'."
"I didn't hear you complain to his face," you shoot back.
"Well, he was..you know. Do you think that guy's a racist?"
"I dunno, maybe? But he deals with beastfolk all day, in that job..."

Having reached the door 'Miranda' is in again, you motion Dave for quiet and then both poke your heads in. "Is she...asleep?" he whispers.
"I don't know, maybe?"
Dave pulls you back out fully into the hallway again. "Hey, you should totally steal her...crest or something, and pose as a knight! Maybe we can bluff our way into fixing this whole mess right now."
"Um..the only thing that identifies a knight is their uniform," you say. "I don't think she's that asleep, and anyway I'm not wearing someone else's clothes."
"Fine, fine. So are you gonna wake her up, or me?"

"I'm not asleep, you know." Both of you jump at the lady knight's voice; she's come out to the doorway since the last time you looked to see where she was (which can't have been more than a few seconds ago). She looks at Dave, and then at you again. "You wanna come in or have the whole meeting out here?"
You both head inside.

"...Right, so we should prolly introduce ourselves first. I'm Miranda."
"Um, Sarah Kennigan. Like I said before, Marie's apprentice."
"Dave. What's this about, anyway?" he points to the paper still in your hand.
"Well, it's not really, like...they didn't really need to use that many words for it? Basically the building you're living in is supposed to be an alchemy workshop, it's zoned for businesses and storefronts and stuff, and...it hasn't been acting like a store at all, nor doing any alchemy, for years.

"So, either you leave the place so an actual business can move in, or you do some assignments for the crown for the next few years to prove you're actually doing business, or at least capable of it."
"What do you mean, assignments?" you say.
"Just, you know...Alchemists make stuff, right?"
"I think so?"
"So we'll try asking you to make some stuff every month, and if the stuff is good enough you'll get paid and get to keep the workshop."
"Every month?" says Dave. "So, if she doesn't make enough by the end of the month, or it's not good enough, you close the place down?"
Miranda shrugs. "Pretty much."
"No pressure, then," you say sarcastically.
"It sounds pretty harsh, I know, but I'm just the go-between. You bring your work to me anytime during the month and I turn it in for review, and then I tell you how you did at the end of the month.

"Anyway, you seem pretty motivated to stick around even if the actual owner of the shop doesn't, so I'll go ahead and give you your first assignment."

Assignment 1: Year 1/Month 1
Make Healing Items. Judgement based on quantity and effectiveness.

"So, you just want me to make medicine and stuff?" you say.
"Yeah. The monster problem's getting pretty big lately, and not all of the knights are super competent about actually fighting, so we're running low on medical supplies. If you do a good job with this, you'll be helping protect the town, too. You have any other questions about all this?"

>

SpoilerShow

Long post, getting close to where commands will actually be meaningful and I'm very eager to get there. At least we get some of the 'rules of the game' so to speak here.

>This is your chance to complain! This woman seems sympathetic towards you so perhaps she can help you out with your useless master by suggesting someone who can help or at least a book you can go off of. PROGRESS THROUGH SELF-TEACHING!

(Now we understand the title at least...Thirty days and counting...WAIT, WHAT IS TODAY?!)
>Confirm actual due date of first assignment with current date.

OH and finally
>Ask if she can help you figure out your affinity or someone who can.

> Ask Miranda what the monster problem is exactly. Do we know what monsters, and where they live? That would help to combat whatever their specific murder technique is, if it's cuts or magic or bites or whatever.

> Also, shit. Are we good at making potions? Send Dave to report to master; you stay there are keep asking questions. Anything that comes to mind.

>This is your chance to complain! This woman seems sympathetic towards you so perhaps she can help you out with your useless master by suggesting someone who can help or at least a book you can go off of. PROGRESS THROUGH SELF-TEACHING!

(Now we understand the title at least...Thirty days and counting...WAIT, WHAT IS TODAY?!)
>Confirm actual due date of first assignment with current date.

OH and finally
>Ask if she can help you figure out your affinity or someone who can.

> Ask Miranda what the monster problem is exactly. Do we know what monsters, and where they live? That would help to combat whatever their specific murder technique is, if it's cuts or magic or bites or whatever.

> Also, shit. Are we good at making potions? Send Dave to report to master; you stay there are keep asking questions. Anything that comes to mind.

"I guess I'm on my own with this," you sigh. "You don't know anyone with books on alchemy or anything, huh?"
"Yeah, sorry. I've only heard vague stories about it myself."

"So, since today's the first of the month...I come back on the last of this month for evaluation?" you say.
"Well..." Miranda thinks for a second. "Actually it'd be better if you came in the morning on the first of next month. That way if your evaluation's okay I can just give you your next assignment right away, and I don't have to get up early an extra day. Whenever you want to turn in stuff for the current assignment, I'll just be...here I guess, or out in the hallway if they needed this room for something, about halfway through the afternoon every day."

"Just out of curiosity, you don't know anything about Mana affinities or anyone who would know that kind of thing, do you?"
"Uh, no, sorry...the only Mana I know personally is Hagel. You know, the blacksmith. Actually, you should probably see him sometime, if you have to go out of town for materials he might be able to get you some weapons or something."
"We...might have met before," you say a bit nervously. Hagel is a fire Mana with impressive hair everywhere except on top of his head, and a surprisingly even temper about everything except for making fun of his baldness. A few months back you and Dave made a bet on which of you could get him to either set you on fire or blow himself up in rage first, but never quite managed to accomplish either of those things despite deploying a vast array of bald jokes. It's not really even in the ranking for 'stupidest bet in the last year'.

"What kind of monsters are there?" you say.
"Well...where?"
"There's different monsters in every place," supplies Dave. "You know: animals in the forest, rock things in the mines, it's crazy! Punis are pretty much everywhere, though. Blasted jelly dome things."
"...Yeah." Miranda nods.

"I think that's about it. I guess I should tell Master what's going on, even though she probably doesn't care..."
The knight nods. "Well, good luck."

You return home to find a Master in a ridiculous-looking dress with several bags hanging off of her and a rolling bag held loosely in one hand behind her. "Oh, good, you're back!" she says cheerfully. Leaning to one side to see Dave behind you she adds, "And you picked up a stray dog, too, how nice. I trust the meeting went well?"
"I have a month to make a bunch of healing things or they kick us out," you say flatly. You don't turn around to look but you know Dave is attempting to glare a hole into her face.
"Yeah yeah, I read it all on the paper," she says, waving a hand. "That's why I made two--no, three decisions!"

"First of all, you're allowed to use the cauldron from now on! And I've set out some stuff for you to use it with, like the Alchemy for Beginners tome on the desk," she says, waving at the objects in question. "Secondly, I'm going on vacation. I'll be back in, uh, a month or two I guess. You can do whatever you want while I'm away with only a few exceptions like burning the house down or getting us kicked out!"
"Yeah...of course," you say. "I guess you'd be disappointed if I failed, huh."
"Really, terribly so," she says with a half-serious frown. "That's why I made my third decision! I'm giving you a good-luck charm my master gave me." She reaches into a bag over her shoulder and produces a pocket watch, shoving it into your hands. "It tells you how much of the day is left. I expect you to keep it on you and not use any other watch to tell time!"
"Uh-huh.." You take a closer look at the watch. It's a strange watch which only has four markings dividing it into quarters, and only one hand, but it also has a display of four numbers saying what month and day it is, 1/1.
"If I hear someone saw you carrying another watch I'll be really disappointed, and I will hear about it," she says with another partial frown. "Anyway, that's all! See ya!" Marie gives a cheerful wave and then leaves, tearing off down the street faster than you can say anything to interrupt her.

In watching her go you turn around to face Dave again, who's looking fairly agitated with his arms crossed. "That woman is like a living tornado."

Date: 1/1
Time: About a quarter

You take a moment to quickly skim Alchemy for Beginners. It covers a few important topics:
-Creating items
-Gathering ingredients
-Interacting with people

What will you read first?

>

SpoilerShow

Just a few tutorials we'll do in some order or other, and then commands will basically have free reign.

From now on, each post will be headlined with 'date and time' as above, given in essentially the form the watch displays. Time is an important resource to keep track of.

> OK, clearly our time is a finite resource. Read 'Gathering ingredients' whilst walking to the exit of the town. Stop by Hagel and see if you can wangle some weapons before you go.

> Continue reading and walking at the same time to suggest to nearby monsters that you have zero self awareness, and they might not attack you out of pity. In the highly likely event that this fails, you and Dave may have to fight some things.

> Find ingredients, I guess. We can read about what to do with them later, but if we want to do some alchemy we're going to need so many ingredients. Let's see if we can't go out, retrieve ingredients and get back in one quarter of the day.

While I agree that we have limited time, there is such a thing as rushing too quickly, friend. Besides that, of what I understood, those two buffoons might have straight-up made Hagel hate them...maybe learning to talk to people properly would be a better idea if we have to deal with him in order to get weaponry.

>I have no commands right now, except that if you are unable to get any weapons from Hagel, read up on "Interacting With People."

oh, and >DON'T GO OUT OF TOWN WITHOUT A WEAPON OF SOME KIND!

> OK, clearly our time is a finite resource. Read 'Gathering ingredients' whilst walking to the exit of the town. Stop by Hagel and see if you can wangle some weapons before you go.

> Continue reading and walking at the same time to suggest to nearby monsters that you have zero self awareness, and they might not attack you out of pity. In the highly likely event that this fails, you and Dave may have to fight some things.

> Find ingredients, I guess. We can read about what to do with them later, but if we want to do some alchemy we're going to need so many ingredients. Let's see if we can't go out, retrieve ingredients and get back in one quarter of the day.

While I agree that we have limited time, there is such a thing as rushing too quickly, friend. Besides that, of what I understood, those two buffoons might have straight-up made Hagel hate them...maybe learning to talk to people properly would be a better idea if we have to deal with him in order to get weaponry.

>I have no commands right now, except that if you are unable to get any weapons from Hagel, read up on "Interacting With People."

oh, and >DON'T GO OUT OF TOWN WITHOUT A WEAPON OF SOME KIND!

Date: 1/1
Time: About a quarter

You try flipping over to the 'Gathering ingredients' section and find yourself nearly at the end of the book. It's not really all that thick to begin with, and apparently that first section contains a few alchemy recipes which account for most of its girth. Getting through this won't even take enough time to properly measure, honestly.

This section takes up only a couple of pages; there are some notes scribbled in the margins which you recognize as Marie's handwriting. It would be indecipherable to most people, but years of grocery lists have prepared you to make sense of it.

There are two ways for an alchemist to obtain ingredients. The first is by purchasing or trading for the ingredients in town. A surprising number of ordinary everyday items have unusual alchemical uses. However, this is an expensive way to get ingredients, misses out on rarer items, and results in consistently mediocre quality, all of which is unacceptable for any sensible alchemist.

In the margins is a list of names, shopkeepers around town. You know a few of them and have been to all of these stores enough to know how to get to them. There is a grocery store, Hagel's smithy of course, a place to buy sundries and a shop selling antiques and curiosities.

The better way to obtain ingredients is by going out into the world to gather them. The basket is an essential tool for alchemists, just as important as the cauldron and the staff. However, the task of gathering is fraught with danger. It is wise to hire help to deal with the inevitable monsters, not only because they get in the way of gathering items from the surroundings but because the remains of monsters can make invaluable ingredients themselves.

Marie has added an arrow from where it says "The basket" to a brief note in the margins reading "On the coat rack" along with a scribbled heart. Another arrow points from "hire help" to a note reading "Scruffy should do fine at first!"

Well, if you're going to actually try to gather ingredients, you probably need weapons. You actually have a hand-me-down Basic Staff which Master gave you quite a while ago, which apparently doubles as a tool for alchemy and a weapon, and Dave has some Hatchets he uses outside town, but it would be nice to be able to get better weapons later on. You decide to go to Hagel's and try and patch up relations somehow.

Hagel is a positively huge, muscular Mana with brilliant red skin and dark hair arranged into big bushy eyebrows, a big moustache and a rug of beard along his chin and the sides of his face. Of course, he has no hair on top of his head.

When he hears the door jingle as you come in he turns from his work to pronounce welcome. "Hey, how--oh, it's you." He returns to work. "I thought you two had run out of jokes by now."
"We di--err, that's not why I'm here," you say, barely catching yourself. "I actually...sorta...need your help," you add nervously, tapping your index fingers together.
"Hmph. What about?"
"Well..." You explain the situation.

"Oh, so they finally took notice, eh? Honestly, I'm surprised they let old Marie get away with it this long. Once when I closed shop for a week on account of a bad cold the knights came knocking to see if I was okay. Then again, my work is actually valuable to the crown to begin with."
"Yeah.." You don't know what to say to that, so you just blankly agree.
"Well, if you're going out of town I'd hate to see you get eaten by monsters as much as anyone else," he says. "But I don't think you know how to use normal weapons, and I can't exactly afford to mass produce special weapons the way I do those..." There is some stroking of his beard while he thinks. "Ah! I've got it."

"If you bring the materials and pay for it, I can just custom-make weapons for you and whoever else you'd like to take with you. For weapons, you'd need some metal Ingots, and some kind of material for armor...you don't look like you'd do too well with metal armor, after all."
"So, where would I get that stuff from?" you say. "Buy it from you"
"Hmm, that's one option. But..." Hagel gets up and bounds off to the back rooms. "Now where was that..ah!" He comes back out holding a book and shoves it at you. "I bought this dusty old thing a few months back, it's supposed to have a special way of making Ingots and Cloth out of all kinds of things, but I couldn't make it work. Maybe you can figure it out, and make your own materials a lot cheaper than buying 'em from me. This way you oughta be able to customize a bit--y'know, the materials affect how good the weapon that comes out is and all that."
"Oh! Thanks," you say. "Uh, I'm really sorry about the bald jokes thing..."

"Aww, don't mention it," he says, and then glares as he adds, "...ever again."
"Y-yeah, okay."

Back at the workshop, you set aside the tome Hagel gave you after skimming its table of contents quickly. It seems to contain alchemy recipes for Ingots and Cloth, as advertised. Then you turn your attention to the other short section of the book on the desk.

An alchemist is a businessperson first and foremost. As such, it is vitally important to know how to deal with others. Generally having friends is good, and being popular is even better. The nature of alchemy makes it best suited to a freelance style of work, taking up jobs to create items from individuals one at a time. However, this can be quite a hassle to do on one's own, so it's best to seek official help in doing this where available, especially for the inexperienced alchemist.

Marie added to the margins here "Talk to Stahl. Front desk at the castle nearly every day. Don't be intimidated, he's just a big softie under all the scowls!"

Having allies when going out of town is equally important. Doing jobs for an individual already familiar with you personally is likely to improve their opinion of you, and if you hire them to help you fight monsters out of town they may give you a discount. Don't think of it as using other people, just think of it as scratching each others' backs as friends ought to do. Building friendships is also important--and also likely to produce discounts--when it comes to the owners of shops you frequent for alchemical supplies. You may even be able to get some unusual perks from a shop if you can befriend the owner enough.

Surprisingly, there are no notes in the margins for this paragraph. You guess she thought they covered this one pretty well as-is.

Speaking of money, you make a quick check of things. You have 236 Cole left over from allowances and things, which is not really much money at all. Now, should you go out to gather ingredients or check the rest of the book?

>

Date: 1/1
Time: About a quarter

Status & Inventory:

236 Cole

Character Status:

SpoilerShow

Sarah Kennigan: Uninjured, Energetic
Weapon: Basic Staff
Armor: Normal Clothes
Accessory: None

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

Basket (0/60):

SpoilerShow

(Empty)

Container:

SpoilerShow

Spoiled Milk x 1
Tap Water x ∞

Known Recipes:

SpoilerShow

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

A/N

SpoilerShow

Wow, look at all that ground covered. I hope this isn't too overwhelming yet. I'm experimenting with how to display all the status and inventory information; hopefully this is clear enough for now.

> Hm. OK, I think I see how this is going to work. Can't get ingredients without killing monsters, can't kill monsters without ingredients to make stronger weapons... Don't want to put Sarah and Dave into danger when there's no need to.

> Forage for materials, making sure not to attack or aggro any monsters, and survey findings afterwards.

> If we find any ingots - unlikely, but possible - take them to Hagel. If not, can you give us an overview of the various shops and places in town where we might want to visit?

>Seconding the idea of foraging. We need to get materials quickly if we want to make any progress.

(Do we gain levels from fighting monsters or is it just the chance at sweet loot?)
>If you think you can take on a weaker looking monster, go for it! If you don't think you can yet, then run away and stay safe! >.<

>Make sure you buy/gather up some food. Doing all of this on an empty stomach might be a bit of a challenge.

> Hm. OK, I think I see how this is going to work. Can't get ingredients without killing monsters, can't kill monsters without ingredients to make stronger weapons... Don't want to put Sarah and Dave into danger when there's no need to.

> Forage for materials, making sure not to attack or aggro any monsters, and survey findings afterwards.

> If we find any ingots - unlikely, but possible - take them to Hagel. If not, can you give us an overview of the various shops and places in town where we might want to visit?

>Seconding the idea of foraging. We need to get materials quickly if we want to make any progress.

(Do we gain levels from fighting monsters or is it just the chance at sweet loot?)
>If you think you can take on a weaker looking monster, go for it! If you don't think you can yet, then run away and stay safe! >.<

>Make sure you buy/gather up some food. Doing all of this on an empty stomach might be a bit of a challenge.

You decide to head out and try to gather some ingredients first. To begin with, you track down Dave and explain the situation. He's actually been out around monsters before, so he seems like a good choice to come along.
"Sure, I'd be happy to help," he says. When you ask him if he wants to be paid for helping you he just shakes his head. "Nah, we're buds."

Making sure to bring a few days' worth of food, you head out together to the Nearby Forest. It is the closest forest to town, fairly low on monsters by Dave's information, and it's likely to have at least some plant-type ingredients. It's about a half a day away, so it's mid-afternoon by the time you get there.

Without any further ado, you look around for something useful. There are some herbs around that strike you as possibly worthwhile, so you kneel over to gather them up in the basket.
Once you've got them all, you stand up. "Phew. Okay, this isn't so bad."
"Hey, look out!"

You are assaulted by a monster!
(Puni x 1)

Battle information:
Battle takes place on a grid as seen above. (The size of the grid may vary.) Most characters can spend each turn on either moving and taking an action (such as attacking, using a skill, or in Sarah's case using an item from the basket), or moving twice as far. Skills and attacks have various ranges, which can include multiple tiles. For now, both Sarah and Dave have melee weapons, which can strike anything in the 8-tile radius surrounding them. Sarah knows a single magical attack which can strike any single tile; Dave knows a throwing attack which can hit a single thing on a straight line from him (orthogonal or diagonal). The character statistics include a list of their available skills from now on, which can be learned by experience in battle or by certain events. For things with limited range and situations where monsters move out of that range, characters are generally not stupid and will not attack nothingness or an ally unless specifically asked to.

>

Date: 1/1
Time: About three quarters

Status & Inventory:

236 Cole

Character Status:

SpoilerShow

Sarah Kennigan: Uninjured, 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, Energetic
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 (3/60):

SpoilerShow

Magic Grass x 3

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.

A/N:

SpoilerShow

I'm having to decide how to handle various game-like abstractions as I go. In many cases I'm trying to go for "qualitative statistics" rather than actual numbers for things like health, experience, etc. for a combination of realism and not having to do as much number crunching on my end. The "fractional time" mechanic is partially so that I can consider some things like normal battles to take up "negligible time". But fundamentally this is meant to run like some sort of RPG, where characters do indeed gain experience from battle.

That being said, I'm just gonna put my foot down and say "let's not really worry about food, just assume everybody gets food but don't ask for the food everybody has as free ingredients or anything like that" because there are already enough things to manage without worrying about that.

> 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

> 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:

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Sarah Kennigan: Barely Scratched, Energetic
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, Just Fine
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 hurts first.

Fee: 0 Cole

Basket (4/60):

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Magic Grass x 3
Puniball x 1

Container:

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Spoiled Milk x 1
Tap Water x ∞

Known Recipes:

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

Locations:

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

A/N:

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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.

> 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

> 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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Sarah Kennigan: Barely Scratched, Energetic
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, Just Fine
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

Basket (4/60):

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Magic Grass x 3
Puniball x 1

Container:

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Spoiled Milk x 1
Tap Water x ∞

Known Recipes:

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

Locations:

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

A/N:

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The 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)

>Sneak that shiz, Sarah! Both you and Dave should try and use the trees to your advantage.

>Sarah, go to D1. Dave, got to D4. Prepare your best sneak attack on fearsome beast. Do try and be quiet to maintain the element of surprise.

(Also just noticed how Dave went from "energetic" to "just fine". Seems that indicates our ability to use skills as well as possibly having other effects. Good to know.)

Anyone else have better positions or better ideas? I'm open to discuss!

> I think it'd be best to keep Sarah out of harm's way, since she's mildly injured. Sarah, go to D1 and Dave, stay where you are use Hatchet Throw to attract the wolf's attention.

> Once it approaches, Sarah, go around the back and finish it off. That should work without too much damage.

> Since our time is nearly over, we should probably think about heading back to town to plan out what we need to do for the next few days.

Going back to town takes half a day, so that might be an option...
I approve of your idea to do a sorta pincer attack, though :D

>If we are unable to travel home, find a nice place to hunker down till morning.

>Sneak that shiz, Sarah! Both you and Dave should try and use the trees to your advantage.

>Sarah, go to D1. Dave, got to D4. Prepare your best sneak attack on fearsome beast. Do try and be quiet to maintain the element of surprise.

(Also just noticed how Dave went from "energetic" to "just fine". Seems that indicates our ability to use skills as well as possibly having other effects. Good to know.)

Anyone else have better positions or better ideas? I'm open to discuss!

> I think it'd be best to keep Sarah out of harm's way, since she's mildly injured. Sarah, go to D1 and Dave, stay where you are use Hatchet Throw to attract the wolf's attention.

> Once it approaches, Sarah, go around the back and finish it off. That should work without too much damage.

> Since our time is nearly over, we should probably think about heading back to town to plan out what we need to do for the next few days.

Going back to town takes half a day, so that might be an option...
I approve of your idea to do a sorta pincer attack, though :D

>If we are unable to travel home, find a nice place to hunker down till morning.

You move behind a nearby tree and give a 'throw your hatchet' signal at Dave. He shrugs and pulls out a hatchet, throwing it at the wolf. The wolf takes a hit square in the back, and turns straight around, charging full-force at Dave! It knocks him over with a tackle, and he has to push it off of him.

You dart around the tree as quickly as you can and smack the wolf in the back of the head. The wolf seems pretty badly injured, and is stunned slightly by the blow to its head.

Dave slashes the wolf with his hatchets, finishing it off. It disappears in a strange flash of light, leaving some of its fur behind. Figuring that might be useful for clothes or something like that, you gather it up and add it to the basket.

"Well, that wasn't so bad," you say.
"When did you learn strategy?" Dave asks.
"It's practically the same as pulling a prank," you say, shrugging.

You make camp for the night.

While having supper, Dave brings something up. "Well, I'm glad you're not too traumatized by fighting. Or, like, seeing things die."
"I don't really register the punis as being alive, honestly. Or flashing away as 'dying'. What's up with that, anyway?"
"I dunno, most monsters just sorta do that. I heard from a knight once that really strong monsters flash several times and lose individual chunks of themselves with each one as they die."
"That sounds so cool, we need to get in on that sometime."
"Uh, I'm not sure that's a good idea," he sweatdrops slightly. "At least until we're a little better at fighting. I mean, I can defend myself alright, but I'm no expert, and this is your first time even seeing monsters..."
"Well, what if we came up with some special techniques?" you suggest. "Master taught me how to sort of throw my magic at something as a way of self-defense. I wonder what'd happen if I did that to one of your hatchets while it was going toward an enemy."
"It might break the hatchet." You frown at him emphatically, and he shrugs. "Eh, it's worth a try anyway. I got spares."

Dual Tech: Ether Hatchet invented (Hatchet Throw + Ether Light).

Information: Dual Techs
After fighting in a battle together, some pairs of characters will think up ways to use their skills together in a way that amounts to more than the sum of its parts. Dual Techs use up both characters' turns and both characters' energy equivalent to the skills that are combined, of course, so it's a little riskier to use them, but they tend to be more effective than normal skills.

When a new Dual Tech is invented, its exact effects are unknown, although it's typically obvious what it's intended to do (such as whether it's an attack, buff, healing, etc.). It must be attempted in an actual battle in order to observe its effects, after which it is considered "learned" and its description appears in the status area.

A new day dawns...

Information: Returning to town
It takes just as long to return to town as it does to go to a location outside of town, naturally. This means it is always more efficient to do everything you want to do in a location in one trip, although this is risky and sometimes unwise if one of the party members has an appointment to keep. (Making someone miss something they wanted or needed to do is a great way to make them like you less; if such an event is coming up they will usually warn you about it.) Sometimes two locations will actually be closer to each other than either one is to town, so a trip spanning both of them may be more efficient than going to each place individually with a trip to town in between.

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

>

Date: 1/2
Time: Dawn

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: Barely Scratched, Just Fine
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

Basket (6/60):

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Magic Grass x 3
Puniball x 1
Wolf Fur x 2

Container:

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Spoiled Milk x 1
Tap Water x ∞

Known Recipes:

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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:

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I finally get to do the thing! I've been anticipating this moment since I started the adventure. :D

There was mention of "go back to town" but I thought I would at least check for confirmation of if we want to do that and then if so do it in next post.

Every time I play a new party-based RPG I am subtly disappointed somewhere in the back of my mind that it does not have dual techs. I don't understand how there's just one game known for them, like, ever.

> First things first, the title changed to 29. That was neat and also made me do a double-take.

> OK, so going by how both of those skills work, I'm going to guess that Ether Hatchet is either a hatchet throw from anywhere on the map, or more likely, throwing a hatchet that does magical damage.

> Also, someone take notes. The wolves are a lot faster than I anticipated; we should probably remember how quickly enemies move so that we can pull of strategy without Dave getting mauled in the face.

> Other note to take: hitting the wolf from behind seemed to stun it. Perhaps the direction we attack in is important, and we should check to see whether attacks from behind always have that effect. Strategy!

> I'd recommend we take the time to go back to town. Once there, we can empty the basket and then plan an expedition into the forest properly, as well as perhaps recruit other people to our cause. Sarah, Dave, you have other friends you can call on, right? Especially if we offer to pay them per day.

> New friends mean new dual techs, too. We must find them all. All of them. Teched. Dually so.

>Personally, I think we should continue our current expedition. No one is really hurt that badly and the basket is nowhere near full. Leaving now would waste half a day of travel.

>When I get time, I will try to make something for it...

>I say a round of finding new ingredients at least before we go back.

> Yeah, fair enough. Let's go for finding ingredients then, since that's what we're going to need for alchemy. Monsters will turn up from time to time anyway, so we'll get all the combat experience we need that way.