Frostbitten Wayfarer

Zoe turned to the north, or at least what she hoped was the north given the position of the sun, and strolled down the road with purpose. It took a about an hour at a brisk pace through the differing districts before she made it to the northern gate of town.

She shivered in fear, staring at the open gate, at the vast wilderness just beyond it. The vampire was dead, she reminded herself. It’s just a bunch of normal animals. She’s gone hunting before, she’s seen bears in the forests before.

She took a deep breath, and stepped through the gate, waving to the guards stationed at either side. They nodded back.

The anxiety she felt began to die down, the step through the gate ripping it apart. She was outside, and she was fine. The guards weren’t stopping her, nobody seemed concerned. This was okay.

Zoe walked down the well trodden road towards the forest in the distance. Her vampyric sense screaming at her with every footstep and track in the road. Humans, rabbits, and the occasional wolf walked through here with great regularity she noted.

All things that are okay, she noted. Wolves maybe less so, but she’d dealt with bears before and they were known to be much more aggressive than wolves. She was fine, she could handle this.

When she reached the edge of the forest, she headed off the beaten path and trodded through the snow for a bit. The tracks from other humans continued on in here but much less so than the road, while various animals seemed to run through the forest. Wolves, birds, deer and an enormous number of rabbits.

Some of the animals she saw as she walked through the snow. Birds sitting in the trees, groups of rabbits hopping from tree to tree, or poking their heads out of burrows beneath the snow. An odd deer hopping through the trees off in the distance.

After a few minutes of walking she started rummaging around the base of trees for klir, and it didn’t take long before she found some. Most of the trees she checked had a couple of small klir bushes growing around them, just about poking through the thigh high snow. The blue tinge in the leaf was much more vibrant than the one she saw previously, she imagined because it was still attached to the plant.

She grabbed a handful and stuffed it in her pockets before heading back towards town. It might not be the best idea to pick them the day before just in case they lost some of their magic.

She pulled out a crumpled leaf from her pocket and looked at it. Liz didn’t say not to eat them, didn’t say they were harmful or dangerous. The town wouldn’t keep clusters of incredibly dangerous bushes right outside of town, probably.

Zoe put one in her mouth and chewed on it, swallowing the bitter herb.

*Ding* You have been poisoned. -2 health/s for 20 seconds. +1 mana/s for 20 seconds.

Her heart raced for a moment as she did the math in her head.

She smiled in relief. It wouldn’t kill her, at least. There was something strange about the experience to her though. It didn’t hurt, and there was no discomfort. She just saw her health ticking away.

If it reached zero, she would die. And yet as it drained away, the very essence of her being according to whatever system governed this place, she felt nothing. Maybe when it got very low, she’d feel something, but so far she wouldn’t have even noticed it without the message. It was a scary thought for her.

Health: 161/200

One health recovered over the twenty seconds. Not so bad, if it kept up at that rate she’d be back to full before she made it back to Joe’s inn.

When she made it back to the gate and entered town, she found herself relaxing. Her shoulders dropped, her fists relaxed, and her jaw felt a little sore. She hadn’t noticed the tension until it was gone, but was relieved to be behind the walls in safety again.

The journey back to Joe’s inn was uneventful as she followed her path back. The sun was beginning to set, filling the city with a red tint that Zoe found herself enjoying. Most of the shops were closed, or being closed as shopkeepers left and locked the doors behind them.

A few of the stores Zoe even noticed being lowered to the ground by shopkeepers, the magic that keeps them afloat not worth running overnight she guessed.

By the time Zoe made it back to the inn, the sun had disappeared past the horizon and the moon was high in the sky. The tavern was empty, the sounds of distant snoring all that Zoe could hear inside.

She glanced at her health as she entered.

Health: 163/200

A little worse than one health in twenty seconds, she realized. Zoe focused inwards on herself, trying to activate her Vampyric Regeneration skill, but there didn’t seem to be anything she could touch on like her other skills.

She scoffed, thinking back on the skill’s description. Was this supposed to be her body restoring itself before their very eyes?

The stairs creaked with each step she took, and she made her way to the room she shared with Rizick. He had left the door unlocked for her, or maybe just forgot to lock it, she thought.

Although, she didn’t really need to sleep anyway. It was nice to do, but she didn’t feel like waking Rizick by getting into bed. Instead, she grabbed her Frost book and sat in the chair to read. Rizick stirred in the bed but didn’t seem to wake up.

“Good morning,” Rizick said a few hours later, breaking Zoe out of her book reading trance.

“Oh, morning Rizick.” Zoe responded.

“You didn’t sleep?” Rizick asked, stepping out of bed and stretching.

“No, I got a bit distracted.”

“Well feel free to get some rest now if you want, I’m off to see Isla today.” He said, throwing on his coat.

“You two have really hit it off, eh?” Zoe asked, looking up from her book.

“Mhm. She’s offered to bring me along when she leaves in a few days, actually.”

“Oh wow, you think you’re going to go?”

“Most definitely yes! She’s really lovely and besides, I can’t leech off Joe forever. It’ll be nice to get back out there. Anyways, see you around. Get some sleep.” Rizick said.

“Yeah, see you around Rizick,” Zoe said as he closed the door.

Zoe sat for a while longer, reading through her book. There was nothing new, but it felt good to refresh her memory on the important bits. She got up and went downstairs, wanting to see if Joe maybe had a bag she could borrow to fill with Klir.

The tavern was full, people sitting and chatting at the tables. Isla and Rizick were nearby talking about their plans for where to go next. A town called Rane kept coming up, but Zoe tried not to listen in too much.

Instead she made her way to the kitchen to see Joe stood over the stoves preparing another stew, with bread baking in the oven and eggs sizzling away in pans.

“Morning Joe. I got a job to gather some leaves, which are apparently poisonous. Oh right, my health!” Zoe checked her health.

Health: 193

“Man that regenerates really slowly. Anyway, I need something to carry them and was wondering if you had like a bag or something I could use?”

Joe stared at her for a moment. “Poisonous? Did you eat some random leaf and nearly kill yourself?”

“Well yes and no? I ate a random leaf but I’m totally fine. Almost back up to full now! Do you know how fast health regenerates, actually?" Zoe asked.

“It should be one percent every hour without any help. Look just don’t eat random stuff in the future, okay?" Joe shook his head and waved a spatula at her.

“I figured if it was super dangerous there would’ve been a warning, and besides it was totally fine. I’m fine.”

“There was a warning, you ignored it. I’m assuming you took a job for some alchemist?" Joe asked.

“Yeah, for Liz from the Festering Feelings. Needs some Klir.”

“That’s your damn warning, girl. It’s for an alchemist.”

“Okay that actually makes sense. But it worked out well in the end. About that bag, though, you happen to have anything I could use?”

Joe sighed, and summoned a large bag, handing it to her. “Here you go, this is a standard bag, fill it up and take it to this Liz. And don’t eat anymore strange plants.”

“Thanks Joe!” Zoe waved as she rushed out of the inn.

Once more she snaked her way through town to the northern gate and out to the trees where she found the abundance of Klir at the previous night. She took a moment to get a better look at the bag she was given. It was quite large, reminiscent of packing groceries into her car’s trunk.

“Could easily fit a body in this bad boy!” She smacked the side of it, giggling.

She spent the next few hours wandering from tree to tree, ripping leaves from the bushes and filling her bag. She finished filling it just before noon and started back towards town, dragging the large bag through the knee high snow.

It took her another forty minutes before she saw the gate, surprised she wandered so far in her foraging.

She lugged her heavy bag of leaves through the town back to Mystic Lane and walked into Liz’s Festering Feelings. He was still sat behind the counter, scribbling away on the papers, and looked up when she entered.

“No storage item, huh?” He said with a sigh. “Well, if the bag’s full I’ll give you a copper square for it.”

Zoe thought for a moment, “A square and a circle.”

The man stared at her, “A square or get out. You saw the offer on the board.”

“Right, okay. Where do you want it?” She asked, dropping the bag on the floor.

“Just leave it there,” he said, holding out a copper square.

“I kinda need the bag back actually.” Zoe said with a sheepish smile.

The man shook his head and stood up, walking over to the bag and shoving his hand in. The klir vanished, and he threw the copper square at her before he sat back down at the counter.

“Thanks,” Zoe said. “I might be back tomorrow with more if that’s okay?”

“Like I said, I’ll buy twelve bags. Eleven now.”

“Right, yeah. Actually, crazy suggestion but if you happen to have a storage item I can borrow I could get you a lot more.”

The man looked at her, then above her head, then back at her.

“How much health and vitality do you have and what is your poison damage reduction?”

“Why do you ask?”

“If you want to borrow a storage item I’ll need some assurance you’ll bring it back.” He said, reaching into his counter and pulling out some more papers.

“I’ve got 200 health and 20 vitality, I guess? And I don’t have any resistance to poison, I don’t think.”

“Good, now I need you to sign here then.” He pointed to a line on a sheet of paper he pushed over to her, placing the red feather next to it.

Zoe read through the brief contract. It just said that she’s telling the truth about her stats and that she would be punished if she were lying. She signed it, and felt a familiar surge of mana rush out of her into the contract as she finished.

Mana: 450/500

“Alright, now sign here as well please.” He handed her another sheet of paper, and Zoe read through it.

This one said that Liz was not to be held responsible for her death and that she consented to taking a potion he gave her. It also mentioned that Liz would provide care if she returned the item.

“What potion is this talking about?” She asked.

Liz pulled up a vial of purple liquid. “This one. It’s very weak but it should kill you in a few weeks if you don’t take the antidote, which is,” he pulled out another vial, “this one here.”

“So I take your poison, and then I either bring back your storage item or die?” She asked.

“Yup.” He responded, putting the antidote away.

“Kind of brutal don’t you think?”

He shrugged. “It’s your choice.”

Zoe took a breath and then signed the paper, feeling more mana surge out of her as she did.

Mana: 403/500

“Here’s your poison. You can still choose not to take it of course, but I’m not giving you the storage item without some assurance.” He said, dropping some green dust in the purple vial then pushing it towards her.

“What was that dust?” She asked, feeling her hands sweat.

“Just gives it some more potency. These are calibrated for 10 vitality normally and gets adjusted with the dust.”

“I see. Okay. So I just drink this vial of death and horror then?"

“Sure.” He nodded his head.

Health: 200/200

Zoe picked up the vial, tilted her head back and downed the liquid. It tasted of cherries and potatoes.

*Ding* You have been poisoned. -2.5 health/hr for 400 hours.

“Should be two and a half health every hour, yes?” He asked, reaching down under his counter for something.

“Yeah, and you’re sure that your antidote will work?” Zoe asked, rubbing her hands together.

“Guaranteed. I’ve got standard healing potions on hand as well in a worst case scenario but it won’t come to that.” He said, holding out a small pouch. “Here’s your storage item, it holds four bags so two silver per.”

Zoe grabbed it, finding herself surprised at how heavy the small leather pouch was. “Okay, how long are you open for?"

“Till sundown.” He said, returning to scribbling on various papers.