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

> I think we should avoid Miriam just for the time being.

> Once we're chilled, we can get to work on planning and stuff.

> Maybe check in with that knight girl, see how she's doing. She likes us, at least a little bit, right?

>Fair enough, Miriam can wait, I suppose.

>Miranda should be somewhere in the castle...might as well pop-in and see how she is.

>Might as well turn it in and grab number 5, the healing paste one. We will be making healing paste eventually anyway.

>Well, to be fair, Miriam might be able to teach us new recipes possibly. I will leave it up to others whether we talk to her, but she could be a possible ally...

>Either way, I say our next step should be chilling, maybe hanging out with Dave. Y'know, to restore our energy

> I think we should avoid Miriam just for the time being.

> Once we're chilled, we can get to work on planning and stuff.

> Maybe check in with that knight girl, see how she's doing. She likes us, at least a little bit, right?

>Fair enough, Miriam can wait, I suppose.

>Miranda should be somewhere in the castle...might as well pop-in and see how she is.

You decide to turn in the wolf fur quest today and just take on another one. Of course, that'll mean going back and forth to your house to get them, so that route around where Miriam is waiting should come in handy for it. First, though, you head to the room Miranda said she'd be waiting in. You don't have anything to turn in yet for the assignment, but you might as well check in with her anyway while you're here.

She's waiting there, as usual, with her eyes closed. Maybe she really is sleeping but is just a light sleeper? And also able to do it standing up? Either way, you tap lightly on the door and head inside. She opens her eyes but doesn't jolt or anything in response to the noise. "Oh, hiya. Got anything to turn in yet?"
"Err, no..I'm getting there, though," you say. "I have a recipe for at least one thing I think will work for this, and I'm starting to get together the ingredients to make some."
"Cool, cool." She nods.

"So, uh, I heard you went outta town recently for a couple of days?" she says.
"Yeah, to get materials for the stuff I need to make. Actually, I need to go the forest again pretty soon for more."
Miranda closes her eyes for a moment, thinking. "Hmn..."

She keeps her eyes closed for much longer than you expected, until finally you say, "What?"
"Well," she finally opens them, "if you're having trouble with monsters...the sword I wear isn't for show or anything, and, y'know, knights are supposed to protect the citizens and all that. But like, it's really hard to motivate myself to go do something like that. I mean, it seems like you survived one trip out there already anyway..."
"So do you want to help me or not?" you say, confused. It sounds like she's having an argument with herself.
"Eh." She shrugs. "If you can pay enough to get me motivated, I'll help you out."
"Well..h-how much is that?"
Your eyes widen at the response. Miranda wants five hundred Cole per day. FIVE. HUNDRED. That's quite a lot for your present budget. You wonder if such a price is worth it. You're pretty sure she's a much more experienced fighter than you and Dave are, even if she is really lazy. Maybe if some really nasty monster were blocking your path or something.

"Uh..I'm not sure I can afford that," you say.
"Yeah...sorry."

(New party member unlocked - Miranda)

After that, you head home to get the wolf fur and then come back to turn it in and take the request to make healing salve. Being careful to take the alternative route again, you head back home. Given how stressful making that bomb was, you decide to take a little bit of time off, maybe just the rest of this morning.

You spend some of the time hanging out with Dave, swapping inappropriate jokes. At some point you ask him if he's ever heard of Miriam.
"Hmm, yeah, I think I heard dad talking with some of the miners about her. She just showed up out of the blue last year sometime and started yelling about how bad their bombs were, like they didn't already know that. Apparently she's really weird, but her bombs are way better than the junk they were using before so they put up with it. Where'd you run into her?"
You tell him about your encounter earlier today.
"Haha, so you just left her standing there? Man, if I were her I'd be pretty mad."
"Well, I didn't really have much choice. She's really pushy, and I didn't want to actually do anything this morning..."
"Hm. You're kind of a pushover, you know that? First Mad Marie forces her whole job on you, now this..."

You feel a bit better afterward.

>

Date: 1/6
Time: About half

Status & Inventory:

1626 Cole

Character Status:

SpoilerShow

Sarah Kennigan: Uninjured, Just Fine
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 hits first.

Fee: 0 Cole

Miranda (???): Uninjured, Fine
Weapon: Knight's Sword
Armor: Knight's Armor
Accessory: None
Skills:

SpoilerShow

• Zero Motivation (passive): Eh. Miranda has less energy states than normal (Exhausted, Okay, Fine). It costs energy to perform regular move and attack actions in battle. Active skills require a large percentage of her maximum energy.
  
• Chill (passive): Whatever, it's fine. Miranda regains a small amount of energy anytime she isn't doing anything, regardless of if it's out of town or even in the middle of a battle.
  
• Spin Slash: Gotta respect the classics. Slashes everything in the 8 tiles surrounding Miranda for physical damage.
  
• Lazy Combo: Way too much effort. Performs six normal attacks in a row (which can have distinct targets), and then lacks the motivation to do anything at all for the next two turns (Chill is disabled during these turns).
  
• Slack Off (3/3): Miranda's favorite activity. Doesn't accomplish anything immediate, but restores a moderate amount of energy instead of spending it. Has a 2-turn cooldown and only works 3 times per battle.

Fee: 500 Cole

All other info

A/N:

SpoilerShow

Miranda is both "higher level but more costly party member available near the beginning" and "player character whose mechanics are weird and different from others".

I'm going to leave the work of figuring out how to organize multiple skills in the spreadsheet to...somebody else, since I'm keeping that info available in the posts anyway. So, NOW who's the lazy one? (it's me)

>Okay, so. We are rested up, we cleared out our baskets, and we dealt with our quests. We should be ready to go on our trip.

>The only other thing we could do is make a healing paste or supplements, but I feel we don't need to right now. Maybe we just make 1 supplement right now then in the morning get ready to rock and roll to the Forest.

> She's like the prepromote of Fire Emblem games, but she's also too expensive to use. Hm. Perhaps if we find a boss, and we can get there within one day, we should hire her for that sort of thing. Otherwise, I'm sure we'll live.

> We should be fine - do as IC says and make the supplement.

> When we go to the forest, let's go with 'head deeper' as our command. Best to see all there is to see before we start looking for specific stuff.

> Sarah and Dave: wonder about other locations nearby. Surely you haven't just lived in Sygyzy your whole life, right? Are there nearby towns or ruined castles that we may be interested to visit in the near future?

>Okay, so. We are rested up, we cleared out our baskets, and we dealt with our quests. We should be ready to go on our trip.

>The only other thing we could do is make a healing paste or supplements, but I feel we don't need to right now. Maybe we just make 1 supplement right now then in the morning get ready to rock and roll to the Forest.

> She's like the prepromote of Fire Emblem games, but she's also too expensive to use. Hm. Perhaps if we find a boss, and we can get there within one day, we should hire her for that sort of thing. Otherwise, I'm sure we'll live.

> We should be fine - do as IC says and make the supplement.

> When we go to the forest, let's go with 'head deeper' as our command. Best to see all there is to see before we start looking for specific stuff.

> Sarah and Dave: wonder about other locations nearby. Surely you haven't just lived in Sygyzy your whole life, right? Are there nearby towns or ruined castles that we may be interested to visit in the near future?

You decide to spend the rest of the day making another supplement out of tap water. It turns out just fine; maybe you're getting the hang of making these at least.

The next morning, you go check with Dave and, after confirming he can come with, both set out for the forest right away. Once there, you try to see if you can explore any deeper in, maybe find an area with more or different ingredients. Along the way you find a few more samples of magic grass.

It looks like there's a way to get somewhere deeper, but there's a small party of monsters in the way, consisting of two wolves and a puni. You'll have to get rid of them to see what's past here, but you always have the option of doing something else and coming back to them later now that you know where they are.

(Note: Fighting this group of monsters will not consume extra time beyond that spent locating the entrance they are guarding.)

>

Date: 1/7
Time: About three quarters

Status & Inventory:

1626 Cole

Location: Nearby Forest - Forest Entrance

Character Status:

SpoilerShow

Sarah Kennigan: Uninjured, Just Fine
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 hits first.

Fee: 0 Cole

Miranda (???): Uninjured, Fine
Weapon: Knight's Sword
Armor: Knight's Armor
Accessory: None
Skills:

SpoilerShow

• Zero Motivation (passive): Eh. Miranda has less energy states than normal (Exhausted, Okay, Fine). It costs energy to perform regular move and attack actions in battle. Active skills require a large percentage of her maximum energy.
  
• Chill (passive): Whatever, it's fine. Miranda regains a small amount of energy anytime she isn't doing anything, regardless of if it's out of town or even in the middle of a battle.
  
• Spin Slash: Gotta respect the classics. Slashes everything in the 8 tiles surrounding Miranda for physical damage.
  
• Lazy Combo: Way too much effort. Performs six normal attacks in a row (which can have distinct targets), and then lacks the motivation to do anything at all for the next two turns (Chill is disabled during these turns).
  
• Slack Off (3/3): Miranda's favorite activity. Doesn't accomplish anything immediate, but restores a moderate amount of energy instead of spending it. Has a 2-turn cooldown and only works 3 times per battle.

Fee: 500 Cole

All other info

A/N:

SpoilerShow

It may be worth noting that parties of 2+ monsters are pretty normal; the 1-monster parties in the first expedition were sort of for tutorial purposes.

(That's fair. Given a few more fights and we probably could plow through single-enemy encounters. At least on that level. Besides, this will make things nice and challenging.)

>In my opinion, we should go ahead and fight the group. We are as strong as we will get, since we just started our expedition. Besides, the only real worry are the wolves. Puni seem to be exceptionally useless in battle.
What do you guys think?

> Yeah, let's do it. Focus on the wolves first, then the punis.

> After all, monsters of low-level dungeons always guard the best game-breaking treasure! ...Right?

> Eh, they may have something of interest at the very least. Or some new paths to explore.

>In my opinion, we should go ahead and fight the group. We are as strong as we will get, since we just started our expedition. Besides, the only real worry are the wolves. Puni seem to be exceptionally useless in battle.
What do you guys think?

> Yeah, let's do it. Focus on the wolves first, then the punis.

> After all, monsters of low-level dungeons always guard the best game-breaking treasure! ...Right?

> Eh, they may have something of interest at the very least. Or some new paths to explore.

You decide to take on the monsters, drawing your weapons and moving toward them. The monsters, taking note, also tense up for a fight.

A battle is joined!

The wolves take the first move, both charging toward the party.

Their more roundabout paths prevent them from tackling, but on reaching the party both wolves pounce at Dave with their claws, managing to get some light scratches through his efforts to dodge.

The Puni stares blankly into space.

(Reminder: The Ether Hatchet Dual Tech is still untested.)

>

Date: 1/7
Time: About three quarters

Status & Inventory:

1626 Cole

Location: Nearby Forest - Forest Entrance

Character Status:

SpoilerShow

Sarah Kennigan: Uninjured, Just Fine
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, 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 hits first.

Fee: 0 Cole

Miranda (???): Uninjured, Fine
Weapon: Knight's Sword
Armor: Knight's Armor
Accessory: None
Skills:

SpoilerShow

• Zero Motivation (passive): Eh. Miranda has less energy states than normal (Exhausted, Okay, Fine). It costs energy to perform regular move and attack actions in battle. Active skills require a large percentage of her maximum energy.
  
• Chill (passive): Whatever, it's fine. Miranda regains a small amount of energy anytime she isn't doing anything, regardless of if it's out of town or even in the middle of a battle.
  
• Spin Slash: Gotta respect the classics. Slashes everything in the 8 tiles surrounding Miranda for physical damage.
  
• Lazy Combo: Way too much effort. Performs six normal attacks in a row (which can have distinct targets), and then lacks the motivation to do anything at all for the next two turns (Chill is disabled during these turns).
  
• Slack Off (3/3): Miranda's favorite activity. Doesn't accomplish anything immediate, but restores a moderate amount of energy instead of spending it. Has a 2-turn cooldown and only works 3 times per battle.

Fee: 500 Cole

All other info

A/N:

SpoilerShow

I'm not even sure there was a choice to focus on the Puni first, given their respective behaviors.

Graah I forgot about labeling the rows and columns. It's fixed now.

Also, I've been meaning to ask in author notes but repeatedly forgetting: Feelings on maybe adding a link to music sometimes? Like, ambiance for the location or battle music or whatever. Would that annoy anyone?

(No problem, doubt we will move all that much right now...)

>Okay, if I know anything about combat tactics (and trust me, I don't know crud >.<), focusing on one enemy at a time is preferable. Thinking that let's use our Ether Light on the Wolf in front of Sarrah and have Dave use Attack the Wolf from the side. Hopefully it will go down and we can focus on the one in front of Dave next...maybe use our combo attack for it?

>Figured Puni were useless. Too bad we didn't take that mission to kill 10 of them...

Opinion?

> Yeah, music would be neat.

> OK, yes. Go with IC's plan, and then have Dave move to C8 once the wolf is dead and Hatchet Throw at the Puni. That should be fine.

>Okay, if I know anything about combat tactics (and trust me, I don't know crud >.<), focusing on one enemy at a time is preferable. Thinking that let's use our Ether Light on the Wolf in front of Sarrah and have Dave use Attack the Wolf from the side. Hopefully it will go down and we can focus on the one in front of Dave next...maybe use our combo attack for it?

>Figured Puni were useless. Too bad we didn't take that mission to kill 10 of them...

> Yeah, music would be neat.

> OK, yes. Go with IC's plan, and then have Dave move to C8 once the wolf is dead and Hatchet Throw at the Puni. That should be fine.

{Forest Battle - Splendid Force}

You make a signal to Dave to gang up on the wolf closest to you. You work to focus your energies the way Master taught you to...it's been a while since you did this last, actually. Dave chops at the wolf while you prepare your attack, and then you let it go, aiming your staff in the direction of the creature. A pure white glowing sphere appears just past the tip of the staff, and a thick rope of light arcs out from the sphere, pulling the energy along until it slams straight into the wolf's side. Already injured a bit from Dave's attack, it goes down. You're left feeling winded from the effort; Dave moves to where that wolf was as soon as it's out of the way.

The remaining wolf goes in for a bite and catches Dave's leg. "Aagh!" He kicks with his other leg to get it off but it lets go right away, having apparently not intended to stick around anyway, and hops back a bit. The puni shapes itself into a ball and rolls toward Dave, but he throws a hatchet its way. The slime-thing looks like it's barely holding together now, and it loses enough momentum that it stops a bit shy of actually reaching him.

>

Date: 1/7
Time: About three quarters

Status & Inventory:

1626 Cole

Location: Nearby Forest - Forest Entrance

Character Status:

SpoilerShow

Sarah Kennigan: Uninjured, Just Okay
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: Slightly Injured, 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 hits first.

Fee: 0 Cole

Miranda (???): Uninjured, Fine
Weapon: Knight's Sword
Armor: Knight's Armor
Accessory: None
Skills:

SpoilerShow

• Zero Motivation (passive): Eh. Miranda has less energy states than normal (Exhausted, Okay, Fine). It costs energy to perform regular move and attack actions in battle. Active skills require a large percentage of her maximum energy.
  
• Chill (passive): Whatever, it's fine. Miranda regains a small amount of energy anytime she isn't doing anything, regardless of if it's out of town or even in the middle of a battle.
  
• Spin Slash: Gotta respect the classics. Slashes everything in the 8 tiles surrounding Miranda for physical damage.
  
• Lazy Combo: Way too much effort. Performs six normal attacks in a row (which can have distinct targets), and then lacks the motivation to do anything at all for the next two turns (Chill is disabled during these turns).
  
• Slack Off (3/3): Miranda's favorite activity. Doesn't accomplish anything immediate, but restores a moderate amount of energy instead of spending it. Has a 2-turn cooldown and only works 3 times per battle.

Fee: 500 Cole

All other info

A/N:

SpoilerShow

FYI I'm not doing a "body location injury" mechanic. Maybe there's some kind of debuff for not being able to move around/moving around more slowly but I don't feel like making the system "care" exactly what part of someone was injured by an attack in general.

>Crud, Dave got hurt...He should be fine right now, but we need to be careful...

>Good time as any to use our new combo move to kill the wolf. Have Sarah move to D8 and perform super-ultra Ether Hatchet on wolf.

>The Puni will most likely try and attack Dave next, so have Dave prepare for attack after the throw, if at all possible.

> Yeah, that didn't go as well as expected. We shouldn't underestimate our foes.

> (currently listening to this sweet jam) OK!!! We can win this fight with the power of friendship!! Sarah, to space D8 as IC commands! Dave, hop back to evade possible puni onslaught and then counterattack.

>Crud, Dave got hurt...He should be fine right now, but we need to be careful...

>Good time as any to use our new combo move to kill the wolf. Have Sarah move to D8 and perform super-ultra Ether Hatchet on wolf.

>The Puni will most likely try and attack Dave next, so have Dave prepare for attack after the throw, if at all possible.

> Yeah, that didn't go as well as expected. We shouldn't underestimate our foes.

> (currently listening to this sweet jam) OK!!! We can win this fight with the power of friendship!! Sarah, to space D8 as IC commands! Dave, hop back to evade possible puni onslaught and then counterattack.

{Forest Battle - Splendid Force}

"Hey, we should do the thing!" you say.
"Uh, thing?"
"You know, the throwing magic at your hatchet thing." You move into a better position to hit the hatchet in the air, although you think Ether Light would probably just go around any obstacles anyway.
"Oh, that. Sure, I guess."

Dave readies another hatchet to throw, while you begin focusing on charging another shot of magic.

Just when you're both ready to attack, however, the Puni moves in between Dave and the wolf, seeming to want to attack him.

Before it can, you do the thing. Dave throws his hatchet toward the wolf, and it manages to clear the Puni's head to get there. You fire off a stream of magic and it hits the hatchet in midair, seemingly absorbing into the metal and making it glow periodically as it hits the wolf in the back. The glowing becomes more frequent until it's more like a repeated flash, and then there is an explosive burst of bright energy all around the wolf, which catches the Puni as well. You close your eyes against the blinding flash of light, and when you reopen them both of the monsters are gone.

"Heh...phew, that was close," says Dave.
"Yeah, uh, I'm glad that didn't explode in your face." You look to his leg. "Are you gonna be okay?"
"Eeh, I've had worse. Let's just wash it off real quick, don't wanna get rabies..."

Ether Hatchet learned!
(Hatchet Throw + Ether Light) Do the thing! Targets any enemy on a straight line from Dave which he could hit with Hatchet Throw. Deals physical damage to the target and then magical damage to anything in the 3x3 square centered on the target.

You recover a bit of fur from each of the wolves, but this Puni doesn't seem to have dropped the weird core thing the first one did.

The area beyond where these monsters were guarding looks like it has a bunch of wolves wandering around in it. There are some plants in there you don't think you've seen around the forest entrance.

Location Discovered: Wolf Territory!

Further Exploration Information:
When deciding whether to look for ingredients, monsters, or a way to go deeper, you also specify which part of the area you're in to do the searching in. It doesn't cost any time to go from one subarea to another. What monsters there are, what ingredients are available, and what you are able to discover by exploring for a way to go deeper changes from one subarea to another; sometimes a subarea branches off into several others and sometimes it's a dead end.

There's still a little time left today. What will you do?

>

Date: 1/7
Time: About three quarters

Status & Inventory:

1626 Cole

Location: Nearby Forest - Forest Entrance

Character Status:

SpoilerShow

Sarah Kennigan: Uninjured, Just Okay
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: Slightly Injured, 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 hits first.

Fee: 0 Cole

Miranda (???): Uninjured, Fine
Weapon: Knight's Sword
Armor: Knight's Armor
Accessory: None
Skills:

SpoilerShow

• Zero Motivation (passive): Eh. Miranda has less energy states than normal (Exhausted, Okay, Fine). It costs energy to perform regular move and attack actions in battle. Active skills require a large percentage of her maximum energy.
  
• Chill (passive): Whatever, it's fine. Miranda regains a small amount of energy anytime she isn't doing anything, regardless of if it's out of town or even in the middle of a battle.
  
• Spin Slash: Gotta respect the classics. Slashes everything in the 8 tiles surrounding Miranda for physical damage.
  
• Lazy Combo: Way too much effort. Performs six normal attacks in a row (which can have distinct targets), and then lacks the motivation to do anything at all for the next two turns (Chill is disabled during these turns).
  
• Slack Off (3/3): Miranda's favorite activity. Doesn't accomplish anything immediate, but restores a moderate amount of energy instead of spending it. Has a 2-turn cooldown and only works 3 times per battle.

Fee: 500 Cole

Dual Techs:

SpoilerShow

Sarah & Dave:
Ether Hatchet (Hatchet Throw + Ether Light): Do the thing! Targets any enemy on a straight line from Dave which he could hit with Hatchet Throw. Deals physical damage to the target and then magical damage to anything in the 3x3 square centered on the target.

All other info

>Well...that was shockingly effective. Good to know.

>Considering our current needs, let's go with searching for ingredients in wolf territory. There is a chance of attack, which will be wolves for our quest. IF we aren't attacked, we can possibly gather some wood chips and some new types of ingredients.

> Nice! That was pretty cool, we're stronger than we look.

> Yes, head into wolf territory and look for ingredients. Perhaps we should do something about Dave, too. Does he need to rest at all, and would that help?

>Well...that was shockingly effective. Good to know.

>Considering our current needs, let's go with searching for ingredients in wolf territory. There is a chance of attack, which will be wolves for our quest. IF we aren't attacked, we can possibly gather some wood chips and some new types of ingredients.

> Nice! That was pretty cool, we're stronger than we look.

> Yes, head into wolf territory and look for ingredients. Perhaps we should do something about Dave, too. Does he need to rest at all, and would that help?

{Exploring Forest - Into the Thick of It}

You decide to search this new area for ingredients; maybe you'll find something you've never seen before.

On your way through, you come upon some wild cacao trees, and get some cocoa beans from them (+3 Cocoa Beans). You also find more magic grass, which is certainly good (+4 Magic Grass). You manage to avoid running into any more monsters for the moment, which seems good given Dave got a bit hurt earlier.

When you make camp for the night, you say, "Um, is your leg okay?"
"Sure!"
"You're not even looking at it," you give a hopefully (probably not) stern frown and cross your arms.
"Uh.." He makes a show of leaning his head up close to it and intently staring for several seconds. "Yep, scabbing up just fine. I think I'll be better by morning. Seriously, don't worry about it; I've got hurt worse than this climbing a tree.

"You know, though..this is pretty different from coming out here with dad and the other guys. They usually go up front and take all the real hits and stuff. I got tired of not really helping, which is why I figured out a ranged attack to begin with, y'know?"
"Yeah...sorry I'm not much help," you say.
"Psh, you're fine. But if I'm gonna be up close and personal with the monsters like this a little more often, maybe I oughta think up something to take advantage of that situation."
"Seems like a good idea, sure."
"Hmm...I mean, I bet if I just put my mind to it I could get a bunch of hits in at once. Like, chop-chop-chop-chop!" he makes a rapidly-chopping-in-tandem motion with his hands.
"I guess that works, but I think anyone could've thought of that," you say. "'Just attack more'!"
"Yeah, but...like, it'll be cool and...you know, whatever."

Dave has learned Slice & Dice!

When you get up the next morning, Dave waves his leg around enthusiastically to emphasize how fine it is. Totally fine. Actually it still looks a little scuffed up, but you give him a thumbs-up so he'll stop being a doofus about it.

Now, what to start with today?

>

Date: 1/8
Time: Dawn

Status & Inventory:

1626 Cole

Location: Nearby Forest - Wolf Territory

Character Status:

SpoilerShow

Sarah Kennigan: Uninjured, Just Okay
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:

SpoilerShow

• Hatchet Throw: Throw a hatchet in any of 8 directions. Does physical damage to whatever it hits first.
  
• Slice & Dice: Chop-chop-chop-chop! Attempts 5-10 normal attacks at reduced accuracy.

Fee: 0 Cole

Miranda (???): Uninjured, Fine
Weapon: Knight's Sword
Armor: Knight's Armor
Accessory: None
Skills:

SpoilerShow

• Zero Motivation (passive): Eh. Miranda has less energy states than normal (Exhausted, Okay, Fine). It costs energy to perform regular move and attack actions in battle. Active skills require a large percentage of her maximum energy.
  
• Chill (passive): Whatever, it's fine. Miranda regains a small amount of energy anytime she isn't doing anything, regardless of if it's out of town or even in the middle of a battle.
  
• Spin Slash: Gotta respect the classics. Slashes everything in the 8 tiles surrounding Miranda for physical damage.
  
• Lazy Combo: Way too much effort. Performs six normal attacks in a row (which can have distinct targets), and then lacks the motivation to do anything at all for the next two turns (Chill is disabled during these turns).
  
• Slack Off (3/3): Miranda's favorite activity. Doesn't accomplish anything immediate, but restores a moderate amount of energy instead of spending it. Has a 2-turn cooldown and only works 3 times per battle.

Fee: 500 Cole

Dual Techs:

SpoilerShow

Sarah & Dave:
Ether Hatchet (Hatchet Throw + Ether Light): Do the thing! Targets any enemy on a straight line from Dave which he could hit with Hatchet Throw. Deals physical damage to the target and then magical damage to anything in the 3x3 square centered on the target.

All other info

A/N:

SpoilerShow

Think I'd like to add changes to inventory in parentheses for bookkeeping and clarity purposes, etc. Hopefully not too distracting.

A single sample of "Cocoa beans" is not a single individual bean. That'd just be silly. It's some ambiguous number of them instead.

Random.org rolled a 72 out of 1-100 with 75-100 being "monsters appear".

>Welp, we found some Cocoa Beans. We can do that request now with no issues.

>We didn't find any wood chips. That either means there are no chips in this subarea or we were just unlucky about it.

>I say we look for ingredients again and if we don't get in a fight, look for a fight next time.

[Bleh, sorry, been busy the last few days.]

> Look for ingredients again. Don't look for a fight again, though, I don't think it would be all that necessary. Instead, try to find a new subarea.

> If we find wood chips, though, keep searching for items. That is what we want, after all.

>Welp, we found some Cocoa Beans. We can do that request now with no issues.

>We didn't find any wood chips. That either means there are no chips in this subarea or we were just unlucky about it.

>I say we look for ingredients again and if we don't get in a fight, look for a fight next time.

> Look for ingredients again. Don't look for a fight again, though, I don't think it would be all that necessary. Instead, try to find a new subarea.

> If we find wood chips, though, keep searching for items. That is what we want, after all.

{Exploring Forest - Into the Thick of It}

You head out to look for more ingredients, trying to keep an eye out for pretty much anything. After a while you find just one more medicinal herb, and a bunch of bits of fallen wood from the trees (+1 Magic Grass, +5 Wood Chips).

While you're wandering around, you encounter a cave going into a small hill with an unusually large wolf monster lying down in front of it. It raises its head when you get close enough to see it and looks at you, but doesn't attack, which is great news because this thing is huge, scarred, and tough, looks like a real bruiser. Your best guess is that this is the alpha and it's protecting its den; the den doesn't go very deep but you do see something shiny in there. If you felt up to a challenging fight sometime you could take him on and see what treasures are hiding inside.

You stop for a short rest only to hear growling from some of the bushes nearby. You and Dave draw your weapons just in time to see three wolves emerging.

It's an ambush! You have time for only one move or action each the first round.

>

Date: 1/8
Time: About one quarter

Status & Inventory:

1626 Cole

Location: Nearby Forest - Wolf Territory

Character Status:

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Sarah Kennigan: Uninjured, Just Okay
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.
  
• Slice & Dice: Chop-chop-chop-chop! Attempts 5-10 normal attacks, all on the same target, at reduced accuracy.

Fee: 0 Cole

Miranda (???): Uninjured, Fine
Weapon: Knight's Sword
Armor: Knight's Armor
Accessory: None
Skills:

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• Zero Motivation (passive): Eh. Miranda has less energy states than normal (Exhausted, Okay, Fine). It costs energy to perform regular move and attack actions in battle. Active skills require a large percentage of her maximum energy.
  
• Chill (passive): Whatever, it's fine. Miranda regains a small amount of energy anytime she isn't doing anything, regardless of if it's out of town or even in the middle of a battle.
  
• Spin Slash: Gotta respect the classics. Slashes everything in the 8 tiles surrounding Miranda for physical damage.
  
• Lazy Combo: Way too much effort. Performs six normal attacks in a row (which can have distinct targets), and then lacks the motivation to do anything at all for the next two turns (Chill is disabled during these turns).
  
• Slack Off (3/3): Miranda's favorite activity. Doesn't accomplish anything immediate, but restores a moderate amount of energy instead of spending it. Has a 2-turn cooldown and only works 3 times per battle.

Fee: 500 Cole

Dual Techs:

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Sarah & Dave:
Ether Hatchet (Hatchet Throw + Ether Light): Do the thing! Targets any enemy on a straight line from Dave which he could hit with Hatchet Throw. Deals physical damage to the target and then magical damage to anything in the 3x3 square centered on the target.

All other info

> Sarah, move to C6. Dave, move to D6. I think it'd be best to just evade them for now, and those spaces seem best strategically. Sarah can fight off the wolf on the left next turn, and the other two will have to head pretty far to get us.

> We did get wood chips though! So there's that. Well done us.

>Came to same conclusion. C6 and D6 are the best we can hope for.

> Sarah, move to C6. Dave, move to D6. I think it'd be best to just evade them for now, and those spaces seem best strategically. Sarah can fight off the wolf on the left next turn, and the other two will have to head pretty far to get us.

> We did get wood chips though! So there's that. Well done us.

>Came to same conclusion. C6 and D6 are the best we can hope for.

{Forest Battle - Splendid Force}

You and Dave both bolt for a place with a bit more cover and farther away from at least two of your opponents. The nearest one chases you down right away and winds up right next to you; the others charge closer but don't quite make it.

The wolf next to you goes for a swipe with its claws, but you manage to back out of the range of the swipe. Maybe now you can actually fight back.

>

Date: 1/8
Time: About one quarter

Status & Inventory:

1626 Cole

Location: Nearby Forest - Wolf Territory

Character Status:

SpoilerShow

Sarah Kennigan: Uninjured, Just Okay
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:

SpoilerShow

• Hatchet Throw: Throw a hatchet in any of 8 directions. Does physical damage to whatever it hits first.
  
• Slice & Dice: Chop-chop-chop-chop! Attempts 5-10 normal attacks, all on the same target, at reduced accuracy.

Fee: 0 Cole

Miranda (???): Uninjured, Fine
Weapon: Knight's Sword
Armor: Knight's Armor
Accessory: None
Skills:

SpoilerShow

• Zero Motivation (passive): Eh. Miranda has less energy states than normal (Exhausted, Okay, Fine). It costs energy to perform regular move and attack actions in battle. Active skills require a large percentage of her maximum energy.
  
• Chill (passive): Whatever, it's fine. Miranda regains a small amount of energy anytime she isn't doing anything, regardless of if it's out of town or even in the middle of a battle.
  
• Spin Slash: Gotta respect the classics. Slashes everything in the 8 tiles surrounding Miranda for physical damage.
  
• Lazy Combo: Way too much effort. Performs six normal attacks in a row (which can have distinct targets), and then lacks the motivation to do anything at all for the next two turns (Chill is disabled during these turns).
  
• Slack Off (3/3): Miranda's favorite activity. Doesn't accomplish anything immediate, but restores a moderate amount of energy instead of spending it. Has a 2-turn cooldown and only works 3 times per battle.

Fee: 500 Cole

Dual Techs:

SpoilerShow

Sarah & Dave:
Ether Hatchet (Hatchet Throw + Ether Light): Do the thing! Targets any enemy on a straight line from Dave which he could hit with Hatchet Throw. Deals physical damage to the target and then magical damage to anything in the 3x3 square centered on the target.

All other info