Patient Record 2 A7, Name Redacted, Entry Dated 10 4AR, Exhibit Sambular Taste Slash Hunger Examiner Notes, What follows is an entry from a patient's personal journal, which I took upon myself to read and transcribe herein, for purposes of research, of course. You know that feeling of remembering a past meal so intensely your mouth floods with hot saliva and your jaws ache from the phantom of the past chewing.
How a meal or certain dish can lodge so firmly into the malleable basement of your brain That remains forever, ready to be found anew at the slightest hint of memory. Now imagine all of that, but with no memory of what it is that you had tasted. All that diaphanous desire of long past memory, but none of the details to relieve the hunger. Now you can begin to perceive the curse placed upon me by the door. Welcome to Ash and Snow. They
just keep getting
worse. They're so bad.
I have a question. Yeah. Does your voice hurt after doing some of those voices last, last session? For us, it was like 20 minutes ago. For you guys it was last week. But,
you know. Actually, no. Uh, I have a nice. fizzy drink here and uh, that helps soothe the tonsils? Vocal cords. I like,
sat up straight when he started talking in some of those voices, like, I feel like I need to be more attentive.
One of our players in another campaign, uh, does a full Batman voice, like full, WHERE IS SHE? Uh, as his default speaking voice for his character. I don't know how he does it for a full, like, three hour session, but he does, and it doesn't bother him.
That's impressive. Let's, let's just say, let's try not to have extended conversations with your entity. You
know what?
Let's sit down.
Let's talk about your past. Don't ever let Mina near this. She's got so many questions.
We see Vin meditating and speaking to whatever is in his brain. Uh, and then he has a brain aneurysm and collapses instantly. We're done here. I'm not talking to you anymore.
Forever. Basically, that's exactly what would happen.
So, after a really long, really, really long, intense fight, we finally, we kicked its butt, saved a unicorn, we did good, y'all. We went to the city, or back to the city, or whatever, and then we got some sleep, and everyone else seemed to not have really good sleep. I had great sleep, until I woke up, and I saw this scary little, like, stick Fox thing, and I know where it came from, and I can't prove that it came from Mr. Creepy Face, and I don't know what to do.
However, I did try Call for the first time, and that was great. Makes you really hyper. And now we're gonna get our day started.
So we're at our first investigation into Kniepo, where we'll be playing one of Pathfinder's many little mini games that they put in. So, you have been given a couple of places to investigate. The Quaking Stacks, the first victim of the Gorga, a recent attack, and the Finland Farms. All of this is to try to find out what Kniepo the Slim is. And how you might be able to find him.
Now for each of these investigation sites, it is going to take a full day worth of travel and investigation to perform that investigation. You don't have to be together for this, but the more investigation that you do in a place, the more information you will get from that space. After you do an interview, or look at the evidence, or whatever, as an exploration activity, you're going to decide what kind of skill check you want to do to gain that investigation point.
You do a critical success, you get two investigation points. You succeed, you get one, and if you critically fail, you'll lose one investigation point. Based off of how many investigation points you roll at the end of your investigation, That is how much information I will give to you. Well, Viren's pretty
good at talking to people, so I probably know where I'm going.
Yeah, I was definitely gonna go check out the stacks. Cause Freya is not the most personable.
I, uh, Mia really wants to go to the I think that's where Viren is heading. I'm
headed to visit the last of the victims. The farm was where he was probably gonna head after that.
Okay,
yeah, cause Mia's just gonna head straight to the
farms. He wants to talk to people as early as possible, so that what happened is more fresh in their mind and they might
remember stuff. Sure. Now keep in mind, you, while there is a sense of urgency, this isn't to say that only one person can investigate one place at a time. In fact, if only one person investigates one place at a time, you will not get the full picture of each area. At least if, even if the person is, does a critical success. So you don't have to split up entirely, and you don't have to do everything today. Yeah, we could go back
to that location to get more points, I'm assuming? Like, we don't have to do it all at once? Yes.
I, I do believe Mia is dead determined, since there isn't a sense of urgency, to take a day off. Alright. She's gonna pamper herself a little bit. I mean, like, she's never had the opportunity to, and now she does, and she's like, I wanna know what this is like.
Sure.
And Min looks for a spa. A spa that's suited for fire monkeys.
Druid spa. You get the moss robe, and the, the pumice
stone on your feet. Alright, so, who is going where?
Uh, Theron's gonna head to speak to the last victim of the that latest Gorgon attack, uh, I think his name was Poppel. But on the way there, he's going to stop by an inn and just request, What's the largest room you have? Because I need space. Okay. Pay for said room. And immediately starts setting up a full conspiracy board on the wall, just tacks of red string of related information he knows already.
Uh, get what information he knows so far, which are mostly just like, Kniep'o the Slim at the very top, threads coming off there, some sort of fae ritual, weird shadow stuff, Gorga, the Shadow Key. Uh, something to do with seven arches linking in between with the He and the Fae ritual. Already, probably like seven or eight strands of string fully crossing over each other. Alright. And then he'll make his way out to this farm.
Uh, gold is probably enough to safely secure a room for your ostensibly permanent usage. He will gladly pay that off. Okay. And you head off to visit Papel. Mosby, Freya, where are you going? First, I
was going to hunt out where I could get my weapon upgraded. Uh, I was going to get a, uh, my sword. I would get a, essentially a cold iron weapon because we are fighting that. And, um, since we got a plus one rune from the staff, I was going to have that transferred to my short sword. And then Among other things, I was going to do some training and try to do some research.
Mainly more focused on training because I felt like I really dropped the ball in that last fight and I'm trying to make sure I'm not going to next fight.
Well then, the silver and cold is your destination. Mia, what are you up to today? Mia's
actually gonna ask Vin if He would like to go to the spa with me. Best date ever! Let's go to the spa! Let's go to the spa! Let's go to the spa! No one else understands what it's like to have fur. I've never been to a spa before. Neither have I. Bye. I always heard people talk about them, and they just seem super fancy, and I kind of want to experience it. At least once, you know?
Okay,
let's go. All right, there is not a particular location. You mean the Justice House is another? Yeah, the Justice House, totally. But you are able to find, uh, some, I don't know. What is the medieval equivalent of a spa? A spa? A bathhouse? Yeah,
like a super, kind of, almost Greek style
bathhouse. Perfect. Well, Seven Arches is built. At the intersection of three different rivers, and so there are naturally a couple of places built along the river's edge that bring in the water, and then heat it up with coals and fires, and make a nice, hot, almost pool sized bath. The edge of Slick's
hat bandage is just like I'll pay for it, don't worry. I have money for once, and this is nice. I've never had money.
Yeah, y'all, I also have m m money.
Shhh, shhh, shhh, shhh. She's just like, she puts a hand over your face, cause she's not used to having hands. She just puts her hands over your face, like shhh, let me do this. I just wanna I'm experiencing what it's like to be a human. I'm in disguise.
Never been a human before. Oh, oh, do humans give
gifts? Yes. I think. I I'm gonna go with yes. I've met some nice humans. They've given me
fish. I accept your gift. She just
like, skips off. Do do do do do do!
Freya. The Silver and Cold is a notable location in Seven Arches. Smart travelers know that because this area is teeming with fey and beasts, creatures who are. Silver and cold that adding cold iron and silver to their weapons is pretty high in demand. When you get there, you find camera Lee, a human female blacksmith, hammering away at several weapons. As you go into this. blacksmithing. It's kind of enchanting because all of the weapons in here shine.
This is not like any kind of blacksmithry that you've seen with just the dull reflectivity of Iron or steel, everything in here is coated with silver and cold iron, which kind of glistens with this almost bluish hue. It's kind of like stepping into a cathedral, almost, with how the sun is reflecting on all of these beautiful weapons. Camor is pretty stocky. But, approaches you with a glad smile. Well, hello!
You look like someone who does a good fair bit of adventuring based off of all those holes in your jacket?
Yeah, yeah, like do the thing and put a finger through one of them. Ah, yes, I, um, happened to end up on the bad side of an acid flask the other day, and I haven't had a chance to replace that yet.
Let me guess, you're out there to go fight fairies. Among other things,
yeah. Uh, I happen to, um, run into some and realized I don't have a I don't have the proper weaponry, so come in here
to fix that. Perfect! Well, we can set you up nice and fine. What are you, uh, looking for exactly?
It's this point where, you know, I'll slide the the blade out of the the holster and sort of just Handed over, just being like, something along the lines of this. I mean, if this blade could be coated with cold iron or anything like that, that would be good. I've trained with it for a long time. I, I know it's weights and it's, and how it handles very well. So, but if not something similar, this short sword.
And, uh, looks like you're carrying a staff. Yes,
um, I happened to pick this up. Uh, Last time I was out, I believe it has a rune on it, and I was seeing if you were the kind of person who would be able to transfer that to my blade, make it a little bit more accurate when fighting fairies.
Perfect! I can get this done, no problem. Now you do know though that it takes a bit more skill to fight the fairy folk than just having a nice blade.
Yeah, my, um, bruises and stuff, uh, definitely are reminding me of that time. You know, where I can spar, or anybody looking to, uh,
train. Now, are you able to do flips? I
can. I've always been pretty limber,
um Well, I can tell you're a half elf. Of course you're limber. Ah, yeah, I mean I won't tell anyone. Thank you. But, uh, someone like me, been around enough. I can see these kinds of things. If you want, I can show you some tricks. I'm
never gonna say no to, uh, getting a hand up on everything.
And she starts to show you some cool things with the sword. She is tossing the blade behind her back, grabbing it one handed, and then, like, stabbing it between her legs. She is balancing it along the side of her foot. Doing all of these kind of things now the thing is you want to have a certain amount of panache When dealing with the Fae if you can catch them unawares or distract them You'll have that much more of an upper hand.
They really like the shine of These silver weapons even though they are weak. I understand that I am also weak for
shiny
things Hey, you think you can try something like that out and give it a shot And she tosses you back your weapon.
Yeah, um, Freya sort of keeps it in the sort of same usual reverse grip that she has and is, you know, moves as if to tumble through this person. Um, move around as to get
behind them. Okay. Give me an acrobatics check.
Uh, and that is a
21. 21. She has seen a lot. And. Quickly grabs you and flings you on the floor, holding you by the wrists as she's just a little bit above you. But one of her hands has a dagger, which is centered on your ribs. That would have been good, but you project a little bit.
Well, I guess it, uh, shows that I still have a few things to
learn. Indeed. Well, it's gonna take me a little bit of time to get all of these switches. Done. Why don't you, um, come back sometime tomorrow? Yeah,
uh, I'll be around. I'll, I'll
drop by tomorrow. Alright. I'll look forward to it. And
I will take my bisexual ass to the
library to study. Varan, you are given the location of Pa's farm, and are able to find it pretty easily. When you get there, you see a farm of turnips. Those rows have been Plucked by now, and most of the vegetables have been put into bags. You see carts. You see a stable. But you don't see anything to pull it. Odd.
Perhaps that was something that came up in the attacks. Either way, he'll head his way over, look for the gentleman that's described
to him. You knock on the door, and a farmer answers it. You can tell instantly that he is Pretty drunk.
Hello, sir. Uh, here on behalf of, well, myself, uh, a few contacts with the Oak Stewards, uh.
What are you here for?
Uh, I had heard recently you had some issues with a few Gorga. Uh, some Fae sorts.
GORGA?! Where?
Well, not here anymore, sir. Nothing to worry about, sir. Just here to make sure they don't come back and discuss with you what might have happened.
They killed Shaylin! And he, he's a pretty well built guy. Farmers usually are, and collapses into your arms, crying. It's kind of a
brief fallback. I'd I understand, sir, that
I can't believe she's gone!
Brief connection of two and two together in Varen's mind. Again, putting this red thread, but only metaphorically this time. Must be difficult getting goods back to town, then, I would assume.
It was the best mural in the kingdom, my beautiful Shaylin!
I do apologize for your loss, sir. Unfortunately, there's not much I can do to bring her back, but I could certainly offer a hand with bringing these into town. You'd
do that? Well, of course. You'd do that for old Pa? Well, you seem
to be in need of assistance, and I'm in need of information, so you can talk along the way. How many of them know you, stranger? Not many do. I Name's Varin. Just kind of pat him on the back. Why don't we get you switched over to water here for a bit time and, well, maybe a coffee once we get into town, and we'll see if we can't figure things out here
for you. He brings you inside, and you can see kind of why he is so distraught. There are trinkets everywhere of farmers, of donkeys, there's like Donkey, salt and pepper shakers, and a picture of him drawn with what was probably his mule. He sits down with a heavy thump at his table and slumps down onto it with his head buried in his hands. You come visitin Pa. I don't know you. I can tell you don't care about my donkey.
Well, I can't say I haven't. Met your donkey, sir. Uh, new into Seven Arches, and not been properly introduced, unfortunately, I Seems like it was a quite a good mule, as you said, and, well Your dedication to such is very clear from your home. What an honor to meet her!
What you come around for,
then? Well, I can't say I'm a fan of the Gorga myself. Uh, we've put a couple down recently, and GORGA?! WHERE?! They're not here, sir. Nothing to be worried about. But we've, uh, we've put some down recently, and, well, the goal is to get them out of the area entirely, so that nothing like this happens again.
You killed those vicious demons? A few of them,
yes. I'm sure there's more, but nothing we can't handle.
I don't know much about them. I can tell you about my story.
Yeah, that'd certainly be helpful, sir. Any information we can have, uh, we're typically looking to find what exactly might have happened, where they may have came from, why you may have been targeted in particular. Anything, really, you can
remember. Alright, you have been very nice to him. Go ahead and give me a diplomacy roll.
Baron is very personable when he wants to be. Uh, and he's very good at this kind of thing. That's gonna be a 24 total.
24? That will be a critical success. I
said, very good at this kind of thing, when he wants to be. Totally not the made up bullshit in his mind of needing charisma to just convince himself that it works. No, he's good at convincing others it works, too.
Man, Shae Lynn. We were just going to sell turnips and seven arches. Then I saw them skull dogs with eyes like saucers full of night, dead canines. But I saw something else. But you're never going to believe, Pa.
I don't want to interrupt you, sir, but if I had to take a guess, thin faced figure in the dark? How'd you know? That's precisely what we're looking for, sir. We're hoping to put an end to that legend. Take care of things. He, we believe he's the one responsible for those beasts in the first place and we're hoping to take
care Yeah, yeah I saw him. He's like a tall, thin man. Except he was all shadowed like. Except for that smile. I could see this from the shadows. Gleaming teeth like I'd never seen before. But the thing is, he didn't talk to me. I heard him. Heard him in my mind. He points dramatically at his forehead. He's telling me I was worthless. He was laughing at Shae Lynn being torn apart by those, by those fairy dogs. I never felt so powerless. I couldn't do anything to help her.
I just become Just let him sit
there for a moment and get through things for a time. Kind of step his way over, pat him on the shoulder. Hell sir, I'm, can't say I'm much of a farmer myself, but I can certainly lift a wagon and help you on your way into town. If you have any further problems, you're more than welcome to find us and tell him the inn that I'm staying at. Uh, if you notice anything odd or strange, or you need another hand in bringing another load of food into town, certainly feel free to reach out.
If not myself, I have some friends with the stewards now that may be able to offer assistance, and perhaps we can speak with them about getting you a new donkey. I wouldn't want an old man having to charge his own goods into town every day.
Oh, that'd be just dandy.
I can't
thank you enough, Darren. I bless, I think I've been blessed by Shaylin. Not the donkey Shaylin, but the Shaylin herself for you coming here. I think I'm gonna name this new donkey Varin.
This kinda gives each other, well, certainly appreciated, sir. Uh, of course. It'll be hard to compete with a fine mule like that for how much help I can offer by comparison.
You've done a lot. You believed old Pa.
Of course. What purpose would you have to lie to me? Uh, I do hope you don't mind if, perhaps, later today I stop by and take a look around. Uh, of course, happy to continue the conversation here as long as you so wish. If there's anything else you want to tell me.
Oh, that'd be fine. You're welcome here whenever you want, Varyn.
Certainly appreciate it. Uh, I may have some compatriots of mine helping me look into things here, uh, that are along with me, but I'll be sure to stop by and let you know that they're here, if they're in attendance with me. Wouldn't want to Ghost having you worried that there's someone sneaking around your
property, of course. I'm, I'm feeling pretty tired. I think I'm gonna lay down. Yeah, you do that, sir. Collapses onto a couch in his house. You see that there are several bags of turnips that you can take into town for him.
Just get him set up on the cart, bring that with me, but before he leaves, uh, just kind of Find something to prop this guy's legs up with to get him a bit more laid back and comfortable.
Go through, like, not dig through his house, but like, find a little cabinet, has a cup in it, fill it with some water, set it beside where he is when he, so when he wakes up he has something to drink, and find a picture that would fit on, like, the side table beside where he's at of him and the donkey, and just set it there beside the water.
I bet he'll appreciate that when he wakes up. And you have earned two investigation. Vin and Mia, you are at a place being pampered. Mia, your claws on your paws are being sharpened and filed. Vin, there is someone with very heavy leather gloves who is massaging your scalp through the flames and you guys are just relaxing. Why would we ever leave? This feels so
nice. They even found the good itchy spot right behind my ear.
That's how you know, worth every copper.
Can I like, tell you something without being judged?
Uh, you
know, I don't normally think very well, so I don't normally judge very well either.
Alright, first off, I think you're not thinking well, it's just a front. I actually think you're really smart, I think you just don't want people to think that you're smart. No! I'm
just not, I mean, yes, very, very, very, very smart,
very naive. She knows not I'm really scared about this. And she like leans in and she's like, Kem, Kempo can, can, what's his name? You know? I don't know. He scares me and I'm really worried about him and that whole I am chosen thing mean. You
ever
think we're just kind of in over our, our heads
all the time?
I gotta be honest,
I, I'm never hurt. Another human being before. Hey, we'd spar once in a while. I don't
even do that well. Like, looks at her claws
and is like, Hey. I
never, I don't, I don't think I've ever been in
a real fight. Been in plenty of fights. I've seen you fight.
Not with a person.
But you were win win the other day.
Yeah, but I don't, I don't think I've been in a fight with consequences.
Oh. Yeah, if there's one thing I know, it's definitely consequences to actions. Even if they're unintentional consequences and actions. She like, shuts down.
This uh, uh, uh, oh, oh, oh! Uh, have some drugs.
Absolutely.
I'm not good at talking about feelings. Do drugs about it. Healthy coping mechanisms here at Gatewalkers.
So far, Vin has never done anything to steer me around. So she has total trust in him. We've
known each other
for like half a minute.
Total trust. As you both are smoking the flea leaf, having a good time. Vin, you hear a voice. Uh, Mia, do you hear that?
Hear what? Just like, batting at something in the air, all lazily, just, eh, eh. There it was again! I don't hear nothing. Are you going crazy? And she gets like, in your face, and like, looks in your eyeball, like, You going crazy?
You look inside, and his eyes are red. But, Mia, so are yours.
Yeah, I think you're going crazy. But I think I'm going crazy too. We'll just be crazy together. It's everyone else's problem. They shouldn't have left us alone. You know
how I was, uh, I did the insensitive thing and brought up the, uh, the imaginary friend thing?
Yeah? I think, uh, my friend might be real.
I thought, I thought the whole thing about imaginary friends was they weren't actually real. They were only kinda real. You're reeling your own head.
You ever, uh, play the game where you're like sitting around in a circle and you have this, like, ball or something like that? You gotta toss it to the next person and yell, HOT POTATO!
Uh, yeah, we had something like that back in the village. Wasn't quite that, but yeah. My
imaginary friend was like, potato head. And I swear, he's just calling my name right now. Except,
like, it sounds like, VINNNNN. How to
piss off the thing living inside you in 1 easy step. Bad impersonations,
Vocally.
Mia's just like, She's just,
VINNNNN.
Like that. And then she uses the message spell, Just goes, VINNNN.
My imaginary friend. VINNN, the image of Mia, In mid laugh, holds there, like time has stopped. I'm so sorry. And you hear the voice inside your head again. You dawdle. Hi,
imaginary friend. You pamper yourself. You relax. There is work to be done. I think taking a break
makes a more productive tomorrow. You know,
let's take the week off. And, as soon as you say that, your hand starts to move, and it's not you moving it. Do I see this? You don't. You are entirely frozen. As are the two people who are in this room with you. You think this a game, boy? You think I am to be trifled with? If I wanted to.
I would take control of your body and have you choke the life out
of this one. And you see your hand starting to move towards Mio. Any chance to resist? Yeah, give me a will save with a minus one penalty. And
bite your hand off.
Yeah, so,
yeah, fifteen. Which at level two Will be a normal failure. The hand starts to approach Mia's throat. You have reservations.
What about feeling
esophagus in your hands, feeling the blood vessels explode all over your fingers as you choke the life out of her? I'm not very
imaginative, so I'm going to choose
not to think about it. If
you continue this
reckless path, I will make you destroy everyone who has shown
even the least bit of trust in you. Do you understand
me, you petulant ape? I, I, I, I, I, I understand. As you're stuttering, your hand is starting to feel the fur. Around Mia's throat, as she is there, just mid laugh. Commit. Commit.
I'll, I'll, I'll go look for the thing, the, the, the thing that I'm looking for, the,
the,
the, the, the, the, the working thing.
See. That. You. Do. And then, life goes back into full motion, and Mia Vynn's hand. Is very close to your head. I'd like
nip at it, but not, not out of anger or anything like that. Just like, ah, it's close, and I wasn't expecting that. Y your
fur just looks so
soft. I don't believe you. As
you should. Uh,
hmm. You know what, Pear?
This feels sketch. Just talking about some voices in your head. Now all of a sudden you just want to touch my fur. It's weird, man. It's weird. It might be the drugs, but it's weird.
You know,
maybe libraries aren't as scary as I thought. Uh, should we hit up the library? She just
looks at you really concerned. But yesterday you looked like you wanted to throw up at the idea of a library. You know,
old paper and fire doesn't normally go well together, so I normally avoid libraries. You
don't control it, and she like, pokes at your flames like, Beep!
Uh, I can kind of turn it off, but then I get
bored.
That sounds like a you problem.
Or I can just avoid libraries. You're right, no library.
That's right, no!
We can do some of the other things. We can go to the
farm.
I do want to go to the farm. I can use a walk. The walk sounds great! We'll be in nature, and sunlight, and Do we have any more of that stuff? We can, like, smoke it on the way? It'll be like time
travel. Freya? Yes? Freya, you approach one of the city's tallest structures. The Grand Library of Seven Arches, known as the Quaking Stacks. It was once a spiraling stone tower that tapered into a cone. Kind of like a snail shell, but its ruins have been thoroughly taken over by a grove of magical aspen trees. As you enter it, you see that there is not a sign of metal in sight. Every single one of the alcoves for the books and scrolls is built into a nook of the trees.
Any of the stairs, tables, are like carefully crafted branches. that have been bent and turned into the furniture necessary to host the library. One of the librarians approaches you holding birchbark scrolls and leather bound tomes. Welcome to the Quaking Stacks. How can I help you? Good
afternoon. I was wondering if you had any books on local folklore, specifically Um, there's a legend that I heard a little bit about that I actually wanted to look more into called, uh, K'nipo.
Oh, fascinating. Well, I'm sure that we can find out for you. She steps over to one of the trees and places a hand on it. You can see that sap starts to emerge from the tree and starts to coat her hand. Our library is One of a kind. It stores knowledge, like a living database. Fascinating. I can ask it any question about the tomes and literature that we have here, and it will be able to tell me the answer. So what is it that you want to know about it?
Um, kind of just want to know like where did the local legends start? Is there a particular area that these legends like to say that Kniep'oh is from or resides in? And what do the legends say that
Kniep'oh can do? Interesting. Let me see. She closes her eyes and you can see that the sap that is covering her hands has little lights in it that are kind of flickering as she communes with the tree. Give me a Nature, Arcana, or Occultism roll. We're gonna go
with Arcana. I am going to use my Hero Point on that because I don't want to live with an 8.
Okay. I'm going to live with
an 8,
apparently. For a 15. It's the exact same.
Please
Foundry, I just
want to talk. She is looking into the depths of the library. I only see scraps and mentions of a Kniepo. A slender looking creatures in the shadow? The lore goes back quite a ways. It's actually interesting. It's written in Elvish. That would make it over a millennia old. Perhaps if you come back later, I might have more time to investigate the fullness of our archives.
Yes, yes, I can, I can return at a later time, once you've, uh, had a chance to look
a little bit more. We look forward to your visit again. She pulls her hand out of the sap, and you would expect to see it all slimy and sticky, but it emerges as clean as if she had dipped it into water. Vin and Mia, you are feeling a little bit dizzy. The fresh air is perhaps pretty good for both of you. As. You approach the farmlands known as the Thinlands. Mia
is actively walking around, so this is super weird for her, she's actively walking around in her human form. Which is Alright. Really bizarre. So she's like, she's doing all the things that she would do as a fox, but as a human. So like, she just sticks her nose up and sniffs the air.
As you start to approach the Thinlands, it becomes A mistrouted moor. As you're both looking around, you can see that the farmland is actually really lush. The plant life here is growing pretty verdantly. The crops look really good, well irrigated. It's gonna be a good year for these farmers. And yet there is something off about this space since you enter it. It feels almost too full of life. And yet, you only see the crops around you. You're approached by a resident of the Thinlands.
She is humanoid, but she has branches growing out of her head, with thick black hair covering it.
That's creepy and cool.
Do you see that too, or is it the
drugs? No, I see that. That's real.
Okay. Hey, you're not locals? I can spot it a mile away. What are you doing here? Uh, hi!
My name is Vin. You can call me Vin.
Hi, I am Mia. This looks really awkward, like, robot waving her arm, not really knowing how to human.
Nailed it. I'm the elder woman of these parts, Abilima Choi. Abili, you said? Abilina. Abilina. Oh, okay. And I can already tell that, like most strangers, y'all are gonna be trouble. And she spits at the ground.
I don't wanna be trouble. Although, trouble has definitely seemed to follow us lately. And she just, like, looks up and, like, Maybe we are trouble.
No, no, no, we're the normal ones. Fray and Vairn are trouble.
No, no, we're not, we're not trouble. I'm here to keep the peace, and I can tell that you don't have your wits about ya. Oh, definitely not. You tell me your business, and you get moving.
Instead of telling. Her, uh, Mia, is just going to like, pull out the stick fox, and ask, like, does this mean anything
to you? She pulls it from your hand, and looks at it. So are you sellers of crappy art, are ya? What?
No! No, this was left for me? Looks at Vin, like, was this left for me? I think this was left. What do you mean, don't insult the art. I didn't make this.
Yeah, it's the principle of it though. We're all about principles, right? So do you know anything about this, uh,
great piece of art? Was there ever anybody who, who came from this area who was known for making it? Or making something similar? That's what we were told. Or the rumor, I guess. What is the rumor? I'm gonna go with the rumor. I think it's a rumor. Yeah, I, I, we were just informed that this might be the area where people would know about, uh,
As you say that, she covers your mouth. Do not speak that name here. Would it be trouble? I'm sorry. I don't know who you are, I don't know what you're talking about, bringing the name of the Slim to my Moors, but you all are trouble, and I don't want any part of you. Do you understand that? Hey, take, take, take your hands off, off them. She releases her hand. I'm not
trying to be trouble, I really just need to know. This, this thing. She like, whispers not to be condescending, but that just seems like the right thing to do. The Slim really thinks that, like, I'm important or something. I don't know, I've seen it, and then she like, she looks like she's about to cry. She's just overwhelmed with this creepy figure. She keeps having nightmares about his stretched out face.
She's just like, I don't know what's really going on, and I'm kinda scared now, and I would really just like some
And at this, you see her face. Break and show a bit of compassion. Now, girl, hide those tears. I
can't. I don't
know how. So give me a diplomacy, nature, or first world lore to find out more here. Please
be better, please be better, please That's Nope. Slightly better. Not really. That's
Yeah. That's nine. Yeah. Vin? You know You know,
I think that, uh You, you want us out of your hair? Just, uh, just, maybe, you know, I can maybe do some errands for you. Maybe we can earn this information. I can give you a massage.
We just had one. Go ahead and give me your diplomacy roll. I have a
magnifying glass. I'm not even, I deserve it. I deserve the, the net one. I'm not
even gonna hero point it. She looks at both of you, says, You two best be on your way. Whatever you do, keep that name out of your mouths. Listen, we're just,
we're just asking for some help, and we would appreciate some information. Listen, I, I, I need, I need some information. I need it, or certain
things might happen. Are you threatening me, boy? Can I
do a perception check past, like, I'm looking past this lady. Like, at the, the land around her. I just want to get a sense of, like, what is kind of giving this uneasy feeling. Share.
There's the at mia. Yes. You're looking around and your vision is blurry and this foggy location is not helping you at all. While VIN is arguing with the Alder woman, though, you look around and through some of the shadows, you see the outline of a figure. They are tall, they are slender, with legs as tall as most of your friends, fingers the size of scabbards, and you only see that shadow for a moment, and perhaps it wasn't even there.
By the time that you are able to react to the sight of it, it is just fog again. It's not
a threat, I'm just saying that
things might happen. It's okay, Finn, we should just go. Let's not bother the poor lady. And like, Mia grabs you, and just starts, like, stomping off. Like, mm mm, we gettin outta here. Uh uh, don't fucks with that. Oh! Just kidding, have a nice day! Maybe, maybe we should come back here with everyone. Why?
Him him? Or like, Varen him?
Him him, like, I'd like In her human form, she tries to replicate and like, make herself look all gangly and long and like, try to like, she grows out her claws to make her hands look longer. And she's
just, Gah! Fingers
in the mouth thing. Pulls his cheeks back. This one? This one?
Yeah, that! Oh. It was in the shadows. And we just need to go. We need to go. We need to get somewhere very well lit. Um, and Maybe we shouldn't like, have any more of this and she just puts The, the Leafs. We don't need any more of this. I just, we should come back here with everyone. Cause I really feel like Vin would have a field day here. Instead with Freya. I feel,
I feel bad for leaving. You mean Vin?
Like me? No, sorry, you're, yeah, that one. The other one. I
mean, sometimes I feel like when they're talking, I'm just like, twiddling my thumbs though. Yeah,
it's like, they
ask so boring
questions, but their questions are so boring,
but they're so smart, they're actually good at getting to the bottom of things and talking to people and whatnot, and we're not good at that. I don't know if you know this, but we're not good at that.
As Vin and Mia make their way back to Seven Arches from the Thin Lands, unseen behind them, a little figurine Dangles, from a tree, in the mist. It is a Wux. So, will our heroes find out who Kniepo the Slim is? Will they be able to recover the key? Find out next time on Ash and Snow.
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