Previously on Breadwinner Adventurer Quest:>You escorted Helmod, a blind old man with a tragic past, to the Oracle of the Moon>Along the way, you fought off a deadly and unnatural creature with a barbed tail and a human face>Having completed your task, you decided to return with your earnings to your home in Hobley>You encountered the party of Odneyn the Otter on the road, who appears to be going to the same placeAlthough you could easily lie and send them wandering off in the complete opposite direction, you decide not to impose your own personal grudges with the reeve on a group of complete strangers. Remarking that Odneyn's reputation precedes him, and that you would be happy to guide him and his company to what is, in fact, your own destination, you take your position at the front and start leading the way. You quickly get a sense of their various personalities: Odneyn is unspoken leader, easy-going in his manner, and gregarious to a fault. He chatters away to no one in particular about the travails of the road, the beauty of the countryside, even a rather heated debate on the virtues of hounds versus housecats (Odneyn is firmly in the hound camp, while his bald companion violently insists on the superiority of the feline). The others are more reserved, with varying motivations for their reticence. The woman in white seems to regard it as beneath her to participate in such mundane discourse. Her younger attendant tries to emulate her mistress, but you catch her smiling once or twice at Odneyn's more comical refrains. The Suthermann, on the other hand, is silent because his entire attention seems to be spent scanning the dimly lit environs of the road, as though he expects an ambush any minute now. He is very different from the Suthermann you met in the mountain, not nearly as unnerving in his bearing and lacking those strange glowing eyes and the smooth, ageless visage. If not for the long white hair you would not have even recognized him as a member of his race. Finally, the mousy man with the bow seems completely content to just listen and watch, only breaking his silence to offer a sardonic comment or two. You get the impression that nothing escapes his notice, it is all being scrolled away in some mental ledger for later use.Eventually, Odneyn exhausts his store of conversation and falls silent--with still a ways to go on the road. Now would be the perfect time to bring up some matters of your own and seek Odneyn's counsel. He is after all quite well-travelled. You could ask about the strange coins you received from Samuel Longsword, or the unnatural beast you fought on the mountain. Or perhaps it is wiser to hold your tongue and keep your own counsel.
>>6165777>What do you want to do?[] Show the coin[] Talk about the mantikhor[] Keep silent[] Write-inPrevious thread(s): https://archived.moe/qst/thread/6058044/#6067170Apologies for disappearing for so long without word. Had some irl issues I had needed to deal with and the thread fell off the board in the meantime. Hope to continue this quest uninterrupted from hereon.
>>6165778[] Talk about the mantikhor
>>6165778[X] Talk about the mantikhorNo need to apologise dude. Real life always comes first. I'm just glad you came back to this quest.
>>6165784>>6165799>>6165832>>6166105It's probably best that you keep the little wealth you've managed to acquire to yourself. Odneyn and his group seem well enough, but one can never be too careful. Instead, you ask him about the creature with the barbed tail. At first they don't believe you. Not the existence of the creature, which the mousy man identfies immediately as a "mantikhor", but that you actually faced one and lived to tell the tale. You wish you could show them the remains of the shield it had destroyed. Part of you now regrets not trying to kill the beast when you had the chance. They could hardly doubt you if you could suddenly pull its head out from your bag.The mousy man (whose name is Thom) explains that mantikhors are rare creatures, of obscure, but almost certainly magical, origin. The barbs on their tails are poisonous and they have the cunning of men to match their human-like faces. There are those in the north who worship them as part of a strange ancient religion. Some even say they were men once but Thom seems to find this doubtful. "They like the taste of human flesh too much," he explains. Their disbelief regarding your story arises from the mantikhor's reputation for tearing apart its prey. The few who have faced one and survived did not do so unscathed. Only giants would even consider trying to fight one, and even then, only if they had no other choice.Luckily the low stone walls of the reeve's manor come in sight before the conversation can turn sour. The reeve lives in one of the houses adjoining the main hall but your mother and sister are housed in a small cottage just outside the boundary. Many times has the reeve offered to room them more comfortably in the manor but your mother has always refused, even though it means looking after the cottage after all her other duties are done. The polite thing to do would be to escort the party and make an introduction to the reeve. But you are tired and hungry, and moreover, you have a feeling that the reeve will not be pleased to see you alive and well, and laden with coin. >What do you want to do[] Escort the party to the reeve[] Go straight to your mother's cottage[] Ask Odneyn to wait for you[] Write-in
>>6166196[X] Escort the party to the reeveWe can endure the Reeve being a dick for short while. Better than possibly offending this adventuring party.
>>6165778Very glad to see this quest has returned.>>6166196>[X] Escort the party to the reeveWe've walked throughout the night, but I want to cut off any possibility about that hypothetical debt transfer scenario I imagined last session. And it is only polite that we make introductions and show them all the way.
+1
>>6166196>Escort the party to the reeve>>6165777Good to see you back
>>6166200>>6166240>>6166325>>6166639In the end, you decide to forego your family the few extra minutes to comply with the usual customs of hospitality, even if it means enduring the reeve's contumely. Garwin, the reeve's personal attendant (though he's more like a bodyguard) opens the door. He's wider around the middle than he is tall, and his face is a mass of scars from a life of brawling in the arena at Yngleyside. He's known as a "simple" fellow around the village (though the reeve addresses him with more colorful titles). But all the blows to the head also seems to have knocked ordinary human malice out of him, for you've never seen him frown or rage at anyone. The rumors that the reeve's daughter has been teaching him to read and manipulate figures (with poor success) appear to be true, for he appears to have already been awake for some time, and his fingers are stained with chalk dust.After some brief explanations, you're led into a large room with a long table, and a dead hearth. Garwin leaves to wake the reeve, while you busy yourself with lighting the fire. The rest take their positions at various places in the room. Odneyn sits at the other end of the table, the lady-in-white at his right, her attendant standing behind. Thom, the mousy man, leans against the wall opposite the door, while the bald Maxis warms his hands by the fire. The Suthermann merely paces the room, muttering to himself in Ylfesh.The reeve enters, smiles at Odneyn and gestures for him to remain seated. Then he sees you and his smile fades. "What're you doing here?" he asks, as if he'd recently learned you'd contracted leprosy.Odneyn speaks before you can respond. "We met on the road. He was kind enough to guide us here and introduce us."The reeve scoffs. "Whatever his intentions I can assure you that kindness was not among them." He turns, looking directly at you. "I could tell you tales about his father. Always looking for an angle or some opportunity to cheat an honest man. An idler and a deadbeat. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I always say. Here for a handout, then, are you? It's not enough I should house your miserable family." He turns back to Odneyn, whose white teeth are finally hidden behind his lips. "You shouldn't have told him our business. Now he's got the scent of money--""Oi," says Thom, "It's been a long road. If you're going to prattle, I'd rather it be over a hot meal."You see Maxis return his hands from the fire to stifle a laugh. The lady-in-white touches her lips. The Suthermann's hand flashes to the handle of the long knife on his belt. But the reeve merely stares at Thom, his mouth slightly agape. No one, with exception of his second wife, has ever spoken to him in such a manner. "Oi?" he says, glancing bewilderedly between Thom and Odneyn.->
>>6167815Odneyn clears his throat. "Maybe it would be best if we got down to business." He glances at Thom, gives him a look you've seen your mother give you a thousand times, something to effect of "sit still and stop making a scene." Thom just shrugs."What about him?" the reeve asks, pointing at you. "Now that you've involved him--""They haven't told me anything," you say. "And I was just about to leave." The reeve stands flabbergasted for a second time. He looks at Odneyn for confirmation, who gives a slight nod. "We'll talk later about my father's debts," you say, clapping your hands of soot.The reeve finally seems to remember himself. "Yes, fine. Go on then."You make for the door, but when you move in front of Thom, he places a hand on your chest. "Nah, I think he should stay."Odneyn now shoots a look at Thom that looks positively murderous. Thom is utterly unfazed. "He fought off a mantikhor," Thom says. "Could use him in this."Even in the dim firelight you can see the reeve pale. "A mantikhor?" he mutters."We've only just met him," says Odneyn."Yeah," adds Maxis, "he's a stranger. We don't know him from a Suthermann. No offense, Sigwald," he says to the Suthermann, who, in all this time, has not raised his hand from his knife."I was a stranger, once," says Thom."Perhaps," says the lady-in-white, whose lilting voice immediately slices through the tension, "we should ask the young man to express his own opinion."The heads of the room turn to you. >What do you want to do?[] Ask to stay, at least hear the job[] Leave, you don't want to get involved[] Thom seems to vouch for you, so you're in[] Write-in
>>6167816>[X] Ask to stay, at least hear the jobWe'll hear them out, but better to place caution before enthusiasm, Thom seems alright but as Odneyn says, we've only just met, and that goes both ways. No point being fodder or bait, in the hopes of making it big. We have that summons to get to, and there's other lines of work available.
>>6167816>Ask to stay, at least hear the job
>>6167816[X] Ask to stay, at least hear the jobThey stood up for us against.the Reeve. And we could use a job with a experienced team. I say we listen to what they havento say
>>6168109>We have that summons to get toHeh. I half-expected you guys to forget about this. I should have put that in the update as well.
>>6167816>[X] Leave, you don't want to get involvedHm, Odneyn seems against it and I wouldn't put it against the reeve to do something extremely petty. But still, we should thank Thom for his vouching, be it honest or pragmatical. Plus, the Suthermann seems too twitchy.
