February 17th: Marblebush

*Several emotions flit across Z's face as Snarg is speaking, shock, bemusement, anger, but you hear non of it in her tone. She speaks quietly and seriously, looking down into the fire.*

"The world is not so pretty as you, rough as your life may have been, believe it to be. As a child it was not known what I was, and for six blissful years I lived in peace an harmony. Yes, I was the butt of many jokes. Yes, I was the one held accountable for anything that went wrong despite all evidence pointing to the contrary. And yes, I was the last one picked to join teams when the children played. But I was happy. We all were. Then one day, we got a visitor, a fairy, and all that changed."

*she looks up at you, you are half expecting to see tears, but instead you note cold hard determination.*

"This is not a life of fear, nor a life of hiding. This is a life of existing. Yes, you may be able to accept me now, but for how long. Your natural inborn hatred of my kind it is not some small hurtle that once you have overcome it once will you will never have to again. Putting it frankly, you have been lucky. The infant and that boy, those were cases of luck. Do not feel that you have accomplished some miraculous feat and can now befriend anyone of my kind with no issue. If he had stayed with us you and the others would have constantly struggled to hold back your animosity of him. As for myself... your acceptance of me is limited and artificial. It will not last."

*she pauses and shakes her head*

"No I will not reveal myself. I am who I am. I have accepted that, but a monster among men can only be a monster. And no matter how much you believe that revealing myself will foster the bonds of friendship, you are wrong."

*here her voice turns to a note of cynicism and disgust*

"Though it may strengthen the bonds the rest of you share."

Snarg narrows his eyes, a serious look on his face. "Why? Why? What's convinced you that's what you need to believe? Look! You've told yourself that you're a monster for so long that you believe it yourself. You've convinced yourself that's the natural way of things and that's how it'll be if you keep believing that."

His temperament is slowly becoming more angry. "There could be a struggle to hold back hatred every day, yes, but that doesn't mean it can't be overcome. You have no hope at all in anyone, even yourself! You are hiding whether you admit it or not! Change it! If you really believe that I will turn on you eventually, then go ahead and get rid of me before that happens. I know your secret and we're all alone. Go ahead!"

*once again bemused Z responds,*

"Believe it or not I won't kill you. There is no need; you are not a threat to me."

*she shakes her head.*

"I cannot change what I am. One day you will know why I will not reveal myself for what I am. And you will understand what I mean by monster. Until then I will be content with the fact you feel you must save me from my own 'fears.'"

"That's what you think? That's what you think?" Snarg draws his greatsword and shakes it at Z. "This is what you'll end up on if you keep thinking that way. In fact, if you're just going to waste your life hiding and brooding then I should do you a favor and get it over with! That's not even a life for monsters - for anyone!" He tightens his grip and then slowly puts his sword back into its holster on his back. "But I won't. I think you'll still come around, I know you're smarter than that. Your secret's still safe until you decide it's time for something to happen."

Taking a deep breath, he bends down and begins cleaning up the campsite. "Now, let's get packed up before we have to leave."

*Z snorts at the threat, but otherwise makes no comment. The camp had already been mostly broken down the only thing left to be done is to stamp out the still smoldering embers.*

Snarg proceeds to clean up the remaining part of the campsite, taking measures to ensure that the area is as it was before. "Leave no trace, right? We're meeting outside the inn last I heard, so let's head back there." He heads off back towards the inn.

Spoiler:

*Z heads back too*

It is a fairly simple and smooth journey northwards.

Rory:
You manage to find, after several false starts, one bear by itself. You are successful in sneaking up on it and manage to take it down with only a few scratches and lacerations.

Rory skins the bear for its hide and meat, including the liver. He cleans the blood from his hands and tools, but otherwise leaves the rest of himself and his gear red wherever the blood landed as he rejoins the group.

Snarg arrives at the inn and checks the group before plotting out their route.

Spoiler:

Rory:
You manage to grab 50 pounds of raw bear meat, which looks quite strong, as well as a lengthy chunk of its hide. You were quite skillful.

It takes the group only another 7 hours or so to make it to Marblebush. The town looks unassuming and fairly small, but the locals wave jovially as you pass, though they do look a bit worn down.

As you are entering the outer edges of the town, a familiar young furry face is wandering on his way out of the town.

haha i see you've aquired some new faces since last i've seen you. looking cheerful araiguna goes up to greet everyone, then finially gets to zeiss: "zeiss.."
"well, i must forgive my appearance. *wispers* there is something in this town that is clearly making everyone act and feel strangely, call it a gut feeling that something just isn't sitting right. i haven't been sleeping well ever since i got to this strange town, plus when i try to leave to camp out in the wilderness the towns people are almost forceful to make me stay. its all really quite uncanny. what have you all been up to?"

Rory eyes the Mite passively while glancing at the town, pondering the distance between the group and inside the town proper.

Snarg waves cheerily to the townsfolk, becoming rather excited as he heads past the friendly faces. He finally sees Araiguna approaching. "Heya! How's it going! Lots of friendly faces here! I'll say, it's good to finally meet some folks not dragging their hands through the dirt."

"ah i almost forgot to mention, this town was in quite a lot of financial touble before i came around. i managed to save them from starvation by going into the local ruins and scavenging for valuble artifacts to sell to scholars that come through the town farily regularly now. but alas, i havent been able to go into the ruins for the past few days due to this overwhelming fatigue. i really hope none of you experiance this same problem, but i think if you all stay here for any length of time it will become apparent."

Araiguna's warning about the town makes him look around. Then answers his question. By making sure not one can hear him except their group.

"Oh, we have been treated as enemies of the free people. I went to prison. Then everything got better. We are now working as the Exchange. We are trying to replace the Undermarket. You want to help? Lots of gold to be gained if we do it right..."

He thinks for a moment.

"Maybe we should go to these ruins..."

"You went to prison??" Araiguna almost yelled, but caught himself mid sentence when he realized that, that isn't all that surprising. "Well, I wouldn't mind making some extra coin. I have no quarrel with illicit goods as long as they don't end up hurting anybody intentionally or otherwise. As far as the ruins go, I've been lucky enough to not encounter anything life threatening so far, yet I have not even nearly begun to explore what seems to be a whole complex of tunnels. I also suspect that whatever is causing the uncannyness in this town is also located in the ruins."

Rory perked up at the info of valuables hidden in vastly unexplored ruins. "That sounds like a good idea. I'm in."

"You're just getting stuff from the ruins?" Snarg's cheerful demeanor breaks a bit as a look of worry crosses his face. "You can't really keep that up for long, I'm thinking. What did they actually do before you came around? What's causing them to starve? What's Aluvia doing about this? They're not supposed to just let their people starve."

"Snarg is right. As much as I want to get some artifacts to sell, it seems strange that these people are starving..."

He looks at Rory, hoping he understands his concern about going in those ruins.

"Well, their main source of income was a quarry which inevitably has run out of good limestone. As a result this town has fallen under hard times and i simply helped them out so they could feed themselves temporarily. This is by no means a permanent solution, yet I do hope they find some other means of wealth soon. This whole thing is kinda dragging on longer than I would have liked."

*Z makes a rude noise upon the group running into Ariunguna.*

"Do you all know every random adventurer in the world?"

*She (still looking like a male btw) leaves the group to catch up while exploring the town.*

Spoiler:

Z's comment makes Zeiss smiles a little. He realized that Javan's and Araiguna's encounter were quite a coincidence.

"Unless somebody in town knows something about these ruins, we should go there. There may be something useful tthat could help us establish the Exchange..."

*wispers out of hearing range of z: "Hmm.. you guys seem to have picked up some rather unsociable friends along the way. Any advice on how to not make him angry?"

Zeiss laughs frankly.

"Don't talk to him? Or her. We are not sure what is Z's gender..."