Zalia froze for only a moment as the creature shifted slightly looking directly at her. Deciding her best course of action was to get the hell out of there, she activated Hunter's mark, Nature's wrath and Escape just for good measure, then made a break for it. Old decrepit plant life shaped into the form of hundreds of small hands reached out of the ground gripping the long bodied creature as it squirmed in the grasp of Zalia's spell. She dashed up the side of the shallow pit, using her rope to ensure she kept momentum when one of her feet slipped a little. She made it just over the lip as the creature broke out behind her, giving chase with a skittering sound that chilled her to the bone.
Figuring the creature was probably better at getting past obstacles than she was, Zalia decided to take the most direct route through the lightly forested area, sprinting as quickly as she could. The skittering sound chased her for a few minutes as it slowly faded away, getting further and further from her.
Zalia stopped after a further two minutes of running. She leaned against a tree breathing hard, desperately trying to catch her breath as her legs burned from the drawn out sprint,
"Oh good fucking idea Zalia, go take the spit from a horrific insect creature that wants to eat you, Zalia. Put yourself in a bear's mouth while you're at it Zalia," she thought, silently reprimanding herself.
Congratulations! Survivalist and associated skills have reached Tin 14.
"Oh, fucking thanks," Zalia muttered sarcastically.
She took out her pouch and inspected the thick venom she had collected,
? (Venom) - Silver rank
She started laughing, a little bit manically,
"Oh shit yeah this is going to be useful later down the line," she thought
Zalia arrived in town just later that day. Informed by the big sign sitting above the gate of the walled town, Zalia entered Ostoss. She asked around before being directed to the man Eyla told her to find. There were a few armourers in town but a passing guard knew Eyla and subsequently, the man she had directed Zalia to. The man was a middle aged fellow named Gurden, the guard chuckling lightly when she mentioned Eyla.
It wasn't long before she found out what exactly had set the guard to laughing at the mention of Eyla. She was standing in front of a low bench, surrounded by armour stands of all sorts displaying various pieces. After mentioning Eyla to the man, he had set off on a rant,
"Oh and of course she would send someone to buy from me, like that's going to pay off her debt. Oh don't worry old Gurden, you can just get the money I owe you off this young lady…" the man ranted.
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"I'm not a-" Zalia tried to say before being cut off.
"And now look, I'm stuck here with no money and a customer who…" his voice faded away as he walked into a backroom, leaving Zalia stunned.
"What the fu-" she thought
Even her thought was interrupted as the man walked back out,
"...nd now I look like an idiot. Evening, what do you need?" Gurden asked, squinting his eyes at Zalia.
"I," Zalia started carefully, not wanting to be interrupted again, "would like some light armour is all. I can pay, if that helps. For me not Eyla."
"Hmm, sure, sure should be easy enough. How light?" He asked.
What followed was a lengthy set of questions and answers as Zalia described to him what she wanted. He informed her that he would need a day to make the adjustments but had some pieces that would suit the purpose. He also took some measurements using a piece of blank flat leather and marking it with a light chalk line. He was no enchanter so if Zalia wanted some self repair or cleaning functions like her clothes or cloak she would need to go find one herself.
She spent some time walking around town, looking for something to do. She tried to find the notice board in this town but instead found a large group of people amassing in a small square,
"-t's time we took matters into our own hands, anyone who wants to come out with me and take care of this problem once and for all meet here tomorrow at this time. We'll show them just what they get for plundering our farms and our supplies, slaughtering our friends if they fight back!!" A man shouted.
The man was standing atop a crate, shouting across the crowd as they dispersed, his speech now done. Zalia went up to the man,
"What was that about? I only caught the tail end of the speech. New to town, you know?" She asked.
"Oh! Well there have been a group of bandits extorting our farmers and those who live further out for coin and supplies. Bastards defected from one army or the other and have been giving us no end of trouble since. King won't send anyone out to deal with it and the guard here is too small to do much. Want in?" He asked back.
"Depends, plan on outright killing these people?" She asked.
"We'll bring them in for fair trial if they surrender but.. not much of an easy way to go about that if they don't," he responded, shrugging.
"Sounds fair to me, I'll come. Only because I might be able to save some lives though. I don't much plan on slaughtering a bunch of people," she replied, "here, this time tomorrow?"
"That's the plan," he said.
"See you then," Zalia said as she walked off.
She felt a bit anxious about this one. She didn't really want to slaughter a whole group of people whose point of view she didn't know yet. To be fair, it wasn't looking good for them but there could be more to the story. She'd go along and heal who she could, either side, once the battle was decided. If the townspeople ended up needing help she would do what she could though, at least they seemed to be in the right for now.
Zalia made her way to a nice inn she had seen on her way to the square, renting a room for the night and buying herself a good honey mead. She wasn't the biggest fan of alcohol most of the time but a nice relaxed drink could be nice.
After a relaxing half hour, night time came upon the land and Zalia went to sleep in a bed for the first time in a long time.