Erevan knocks on the door to the old lady's house. This time the hunter is prepared for the wait. She comes and answers after a few minutes of waiting. Her shiver seems worse in the doorway. The night is chilly.

“What is it, son?” She asks.

“You knew my father?” Erevan asks.

“Yes.” She says annoyed. “I already told you this. Come in if you are going to chat my ear off. It’s cold out there.”

Erevan will enter the home and the two will go to the parlor to sit.

“I knew your father well. He was friends with me and my dear husband Walter.” She sounds a bit saddened at mentioning her husband.

“My father died too.” Erevan states. He takes his helm off, slowly. “He died trying to protect my freedom.”

“Oh, you poor thing. You were born a Raven.” The old woman says emphasizing the last word.

“He didn’t want me to be raised as one,” Erevan says.

“Then that’s why he died. He didn’t follow the old ways and paid for it.” The woman pours herself a cup of tea.

“What? No. He got killed by hunters. Some dumbass Vikings.” Erevan shakes his head thinking she must be mistaken or just old.

“It was probably painful.” She sips her tea. “It’s always the most painful way to die when one breaks the old ways.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I want to continue this conversation,” Erevan says, standing up. “You said you were his friend?”

“I was. Until I knew he had a Raven bastard. To think I let you into my home.” The old woman muses.

“You’re a monster.” Erevan turns and walks to the door.

“And you’re lesser than even that.” The woman calls after him.

Erevan slams the door closed behind him and keeps walking towards the waystone. He pulls his helm back on. Securing it in place.

Erevan spots Nortom heading out of town. He ponders ignoring the effeminate man and considers going home. No, he isn’t a monster or a curse. Erevan tails him some way into the woods. Nortom managed to find himself a spot with a pond. He took out a target made of paper and had it hung to a tree. Seeing the crude target Nortom has made, Erevan has an idea spring to mind. Not hiding and hoping he isn't about to surprise Nortom, Erevan walks out towards him stopping a fair bit away.

"Hey, Nortom!" Erevan calls out, making sure that he is noticed. "We had a tense minute as a group after our mission today. Just wanted to settle it. Make sure we're good."

Nortom was so engrossed in his target, he did not realize Erevan had approached until he spoke up. He jumped up a little, but sheathed his weapon rather than aim it at the hunter who scared him.

"Y-you surprised me there, Erevan. My heart almost jumped out of my chest." Nortom says as he holds a hand to his heart.

"That sounds like a serious medical condition." Erevan smiles to himself, looking at the target. "I wanted to talk to you about the mission, but it seems you are trying to practice. If you don't mind, I could set something up for you to practice with while we talk."

"Well, I wouldn't mind if we just talk. But if you got something in mind, I don't see why I should stop you," he said as he smiled wryly.

"Okay, see if I just recalibrate my ballista to have less force behind them, set up a mount, I could toss up rocks or pinecones for you to shoot. Simulating moving targets." Erevan already starts to break out his tools while looking over his equipment. "A little target practice."

"Ooooh. Cool beans. Moving targets are exciting! Well. I still need to zero my sights, so take your time setting up as I do my adjustments."

"I will have this set up in no time." Erevan sets up his ballista and starts to tweak it. "So today we were having issues on what to do with the evil magic bag. I figure destroying it is smart, like you wanted to do, but the bag is our only lead. Who made the bag and why did it end up in that workshop?" Erevan pauses as he resets the draw weights on the ballista.

"I see you went right to the point." Nortom aligned the sliding element on the sights of his gun as he spoke. He then took a shot at this target, and then adjusted his sights accordingly. "I had reported to my superiors already. They had also told me I should have secured it, myself."

"I don't pull people around. Shoot straight or not at all. Securing it may have been a good option. Although, I personally don't know who you work for." Erevan grabs a pinecone and loads it onto the ballista.

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"You are better off researching it yourself. It's not... exactly my job to tell people about it. I was but a footsoldier until recently." Nortom then looked at the ballista and tried to gauge where it was pointed by eye.

"Understood. Research something you haven't put a name to yet. Will do Nortom." Erevan cocks a smile. "Let me back up."

Erevan will count to three and then fire the ballista remotely with his siege bond. It will weakly launch the pinecone through the air.

"Don't go asinine on me now, Erevan. Aren't we comrades?" Nortom said as he took a shot, narrowly missing the pine cone. He adjusted his sights a little this time. "I work for the Obsidian Seers."

"Never heard of them." Erevan will search around for another pinecone. Finding one, and bringing it back. "Sounds ominous. Obsidian isn't exactly the most well-known symbol for anything in particular."

"My only work with them so far was to be sent along with squads to deal with... unnatural threats," Nortom said as he pointed his gun at the ready again, waiting for Erevan to throw the next target. "Though we had been dealing mostly with the Skum invasion lately."

"Well unnatural threats are interesting, but I hadn't heard of the Skum invasion. I've been living in the wilds until recently." Erevan will wave his hand nonchalantly as the ballista moves on its own and fires a pinecone into the air.

"Fish people. They do not discriminate, they will destroy any land-dweller they find... which is pretty much everyone." Nortom nailed the target this time, pretty much disintegrating the pinecone to nothingness as it exploded.

"And what land-dweller pissed them off so bad?" Erevan says jokingly. He finds another pinecone and returns to the ballista.

"Has there been many losses?" Erevan speaks a little softer as if taking in the information a little more seriously.

"It's more like a war of conquest, Erevan. They want all the lands back to the water." Nortom said as he aimed ahead again. "As for losses. I don't exactly have the exact numbers, but I'd imagine it's still manageable so far."

Erevan sighs.

"War is never a good thing. Maybe I could help by building more siege weapons along defensive points. They are easy to use with a team of two or more. I think deterring the invaders could mitigate any damage." Erevan seems uncomfortable with the subject of war and quickly loads the ballista. He counts to three and fires the ballista.

Nortom nails the target again.

"Load three at once, please," he said as he readied his aim again. "Yeah... unfortunately, I'm but a footsoldier until recently. Now I'm just slightly above a footsoldier. Which isn't much. So I don't really have a say on these things."

"I don't know if I'm comfortable being anyone's foot soldier. Progress shouldn't belong to any one faction, but I am curious to work with you more." Erevan will grab three pine cones and load the ballista. He will do another count and fire the ballista again.

"My relationship with the Seers is strictly a professional one. The only thing that matters to me is that I give all those I meet a chance on living on should they want it."

Nortom took out two of the three pinecones. He did not hit the third in time.

"...and redemption, should they ask. You can say I only wield the gun to fund my needs, and my passion and my passion is to help."

"I'm doing this whole champion thing, doing these jobs professionally as well. I just want to have enough wealth to stake my own claim and defend it. My dad and I had to fight a lot in the Barbarian Kingdoms. To keep our hunting grounds." Erevan will look at the still intact pine cone as it hits the ground and rolls into the pond.

"Is that so? This gun was my father's. And he was a soldier of Seer's himself. He taught me everything there is to know about gunslinging as he earned for the family, while it was up to me to take care of my sickly mother. She was a cleric, and she was the one who taught me the Gods’ teachings and the healing arts."

"So between shooting, healing, and preaching, they're the only things I knew to earn me my keep." Nortom just let his gun be for now to let it cool down.

"My father was a hunter, an ambush hunter, we use arbalests to take down the biggest prey and sometimes monsters. Although when I showed magical aptitude he encouraged it. He would leave for days, sometimes weeks, and come back with books for me to read. I honed my skills. And I'll prove myself." Erevan shrugs. "Anyways. Healing is really cool. That's something I can't see myself being any good at."

"Healing doesn't always need to be magical. Even the most mundane ways of staunching wounds will fare better than nothing at all." Nortom just sat down on the grass, for now, laying down his hand cannon. "That said, are you injured from earlier?"

"Besides some damaged clothes, I think I made it out just fine." Erevan checks himself over once.

"That's good. Anyways. You should totally learn first aid.... or at least bring a bottle or two of Cures. You won't know if you or a comrade will need it. Though I won't hesitate to use my salves on you all next time." Nortom says.

"I guess I could read a few books on healing, get a hang of it, know any libraries?" Erevan remembers the injections he’s received in recent days and winces a little.

"I recall there is one in Ashsuru. But don't bother. Come on down to an apothecary and just ask for guidance. Probably offer your time and effort in return. People who deal with medicines and cures need all the help they can get to lighten their load, these days." Nortom explains

"Or in the contrary, I can teach you, myself, instead on that matter," Nortom suggests.

"I would be honored to learn. I need a few pointers on gunplay as well." Erevan will smile and place a hand to his heart. "You're the best and only gunslinger I have had the pleasure of working with."

"Eh. What do I know? Make enough shots per target and you'll eventually hit. I just happen to have a rather... obscene amount of rounds in hand." he said as he scratched the back of his head. "But I'll take the compliment, thank you. I stay around here in Myandra a lot these days as I am stationed in a Seers' HQ nearby. We'll get to your lessons next time."

"I'll have to visit to get those lessons." Erevan will start packing up his ballista. "Maybe then you can introduce me to the Seers' and I can help out with this invasion."

"Then I'll see you next time. I'll just be here, for now, enjoying the breeze before coming back." Nortom said before waving his hand goodbye. "See you around, and may the Dawnflower guide your path."

"Thank you, friend." Erevan will leave, shouldering his ballista.