Critical Review

From the palisade, a group of adventurers can be seen approaching Greyroot. The big man with large round shield and two massive fangs in his hands is obviously a warrior. The woman and man in robes clearly having magic based classes and the other three are a little more difficult to type. Their backpacks are full. They approach the town with packages in their hands and teeth and nails strapped to their belts. They show their adventurers cards to the guards and are welcomed into the village.

Guilford: Let's book an inn first.

Adrian: In the meantime, I want to figure out the best place to sell our harvest.

Helah: We'll come to the village square once we have found an inn and dumped our stuff.

The party starts walking towards the village square. Both the inns and the stores can be found there. From the city gate there is a straight road to the village square and it's wide enough for them to all walk next to each other, without bumping into anyone. Most villages are not structurally organized this way, but Greyroot's location can hardly be considered to be "safe". The village has suffered numerous attacks and death is a great teacher. The village is dissected by four roads that lead straight to stairs leading up the palisade on all sides. This way, combatants (a relatively large part of the population) can quickly get into a defensive position. Adrian splits off and the rest of them start looking for their inn.

Bo: Why are we ignoring these inns?

Helah: The inns in the center are high class.

Guilford: Even those that are not, have a premium for the location.

They go into a thin side street and after a while, enter a unassuming stone building.

Guilford: How big are your party rooms?

Clerk: We have rooms for six and eight adventurers.

Guilford: We'll take a room for six.

Clerk: Very well, that will be 2 silver per night. Breakfast is included. Our regulations can be found here. Our rules are quite strict for adventurers, we don't offer refunds for those that break them. If you are looking for a place that is less restrictive, I can recommend some other inns.

Guilford: Don't worry, we are well behaved, for adventurers.

Guilford hands him a large silver for 5 nights and he gets the key to room 205 along with being wished a nice stay. They go up the stairs and after Guilford opens the door, Bo watches Adora and Wanda immediately rush in and jump on a bed to claim it. Guilford and Helah don't seem to care much about which bed they get.

After they all claim a bed and place their stuff, Guilford says, "I want to review how the fight went, but first we need to get Adrian. Bring the meat for selling, the rest can be sold later."

Having a place to leave their belongings, they can bring the meat in backpacks, while keeping their hands free. They leave the inn and head back to the square, where they wait for Adrian to check the square in the midst of his exploration.

Bo: So you do reviews after fights?

Helah: Not always, but this one is worth reviewing.

Bo: Doesn't sound like a very adventurer thing to do.

Wanda: This is the only group I have ever seen doing it.

Guilford: I worked in construction before. The foreman would do monthly reviews of what went wrong and on possible process improvements. It's amazing what you can achieve by spending a few hours to step out of what you are doing and look back. Most construction companies don't do this and it's a real shame.

Adora: *yells* Adrian!

Adrian: *waves*

Helah: Looks like we are complete.

Guilford: Found a place to sell the meat yet?

Adrian: There's a couple places that "might" take it, but there is one store that will want the meat for sure.

Guilford: Let's go there.

Adrian: We might not get the best price there though.

Guilford: It's already late and we still need to do the review today.

Adrian: This way.

The butcher shop was filled with mostly smoked, salted and dried meat of monsters hanging and lying around. The store was clearly specialized in the more exotic meats. Although, compared to normal villages, regular meat would be harder to find in Greyroot to begin with. Behind the counter was a sturdy table with a cleaver for cutting chunks of the appropriate sizes. There wasn't much raw meat lying around. Butchers would need expensive enchantments to cool them. So typically they store it in a separate room, usually a basement. There's the butcher box skill, but that won't have enough capacity to keep the store running all day.

Butcher: How can I help you?

Adrian: We have sabre wolf meat for sale.

Butcher: We'd definitely be interested, but Sabre wolf? Your party is gold rank?

Adrian: Silver rank actually.

Guilford flashes his silver rank badge.

Butcher: Adventurers with your damn death wishes.

Adrian hands him a chunk of meat to inspect. The meat is still cool, but not icy anymore.

Butcher: Ice mage?

Adrian: Water mage, but yeah.

Butcher: Can I get him to make some ice for the basement?

Adrian: I will ask *emphasis* her. Wanda! I am going to need you to make some ice.

Wanda: I didn't become an adventurer to conserve meat for a living!

Adrian: We get a better price this way.

Wanda: My spells aren't very suited for this.

Adrian: Just do what you can.

Wanda: *starts chanting*

Butcher: The meat is well harvested, but without butchering bonuses. How much do you have?

Adrian: We couldn't bring the whole beast. We only have the important parts. About 20 kilos worth.

Butcher: I will give you a silver for the whole batch.

Adrian: 10 silver

Butcher: You're not in the capital boy.

Adrian: Still should sell for well over 10 silver.

Butcher: I have my costs too.

Adrian: This isn't just meat. This is sabre wolf.

Butcher: Get me the ice and I will give you 4 silver, no more.

Adrian looks at Guilford.

Guilford: *nods*

Adrian: *sigh* We'll take it I guess.

Butcher: *smiles* I will need to inspect the rest of the meat first though.

As Guilford, Adora, Adrian and Bo start piling meat onto the counter, a massive pillar of ice suddenly appears in the middle of the shop, causing the butcher to exclaim.

Wanda: There's your ice.

Butcher: Too big! I can't use it like that!

Wanda: There is no such thing as too big!

Adrian: It's all about HOW you use it.

Wanda: Guilford!

Guilford: Couldn't you have used ice bolts instead?

Wanda: Sure, I just need you to catch them. Ready?

Guilford: *shakes his head* I'll cut it, but don't do this again. It's not good for my sword.

Wanda: I expect a man to take proper care of his sword.

Guilford: Shut it!

The butcher watches Guilford smash his sword into the massive pillar of ice repeatedly: "damn adventurers".

After selling the meat, they enter a cheap restaurant and start their review of the fight.

Guilford: Well, what did you guys think of the fight?

Wanda: Shitty!

Helah: Could have gone better.

Adora: We were outclassed.

Bo: I wasn't able to contribute at all.

Adrian: *smirk* Yeah, you guys were pretty shitty.

Guilford: Yeah, I'm glad we survived, but I'd like to avoid another close call like that.

Helah: I would have preferred avoiding a fight like that.

Adrian: By the time we knew what it was, it was too late.

Guilford: Hmm... We can make another attempt at getting a real scout, but in an area this dangerous I doubt we can find one without a party.

Bo: I just want to be able to contribute somehow. My attacks did nothing. I feel like I was just a burden.

Guilford: This fight was not what I had in mind, when we brought you along.

Helah: Nobody is expecting you to take on sabre wolfs right now.

Bo: I just feel so useless.

Guilford: Let's start by making sure you can use a real ranged weapon.

Adora: Tomorrow we can try to get you a bow and find a range to practice on.

Bo: Thanks...

Adrian: I don't see how we could have done the fight any different though?

Guilford: Usually taunted monsters just keep attacking after the taunt ends. I wasn't expecting it to switch targets immediately, once the skill ended.

Wanda: It was clearly intelligent. We don't have much experience fighting tier 3.

Adrian: Nor should we.

Adora: The party is unbalanced. We only have a half scout and no real damage dealer.

Guilford: Yeah, but most parties would be jumping for joy to have both a healer and a mage...

Adora: You... have a point.

Adrian: Once again, we were picking a fight out of our league.

Guilford: The match up was bad as well. A more powerful, but slower enemy would have been easier.

Wanda: But we weren't expecting the fight. This discussion is about how we deal with the situation next time, otherwise we might as well end the discussion here. Unless someone thinks we could have predicted this, when we found the bodies.

...

Bo: Are there any items or pieces of equipment that would have dealt with the situation or at least allowed us to run away?

Helah: Oof... There certainly are, but most of them are expensive.

Guilford: Traps are out, since we weren't expecting the fight to begin with.

Wanda: Something to increase Guilford's speed or to slow down just the sabre wolf?

Helah: Items would be too expensive, maybe a spell scroll?

Adrian: Still expensive, but not a bad idea. If we have something for stalling, it gives us the choice between running and fighting.

Wanda: Tomorrow I will check for spell scrolls. So slowing and capturing spells?

Guilford: Yeah, let us know if you find anything, then we'll discuss it.

Helah: I will go to the adventurers guild to see if there is anything interesting to do around here.

Adrian: There should be plenty.

Helah: Something that's suitable.

Wanda: How about a sabre wolf? We've already killed one before.

Adrian: I'm confident that I will be able to kill another one.

Wanda: I'm sure you are.

Guilford: We'll use tomorrow to stock up and figure out where to go next.

They disband and each go their own ways. Bo is still frustrated with himself and has a strong need to quell his feelings of inadequacy. He decides to try out the sling. He retrieves it from the inn and leaves through the southern gate, which has a large clearing before the forest starts. It's where all of Greyroot cuts down trees for wood. Perfect for practicing.

There are not as many rocks as he would have liked, but he collects a few and gets on one of the sawed off trunks, to fire some practice rounds. As he puts a stone into the pouch, he feels a new strange kind of familiarity with the weapon, granted by his skill. The skill lets him know, how the weapon can be used. Surprisingly, there are quite a few motions through which one can launch a rock from a sling. The skill will let him use the weapon, but that's about it. He will at the very least have to practice for accuracy.

Bo circles the sling above his head and fires off a rock.

Whoah! That must have been a hundred meters at least.

The rock didn't fly quite where Bo had intended it to go, but the speed it reached and the distance it covered was way beyond anything he'd ever achieved with his slingshot. It was already getting dark, but he kept practicing until he started to get worried he'd have to wake everybody up when he got back. He wasn't satisfied with where he was, but hopefully next fight he would at least be able to contribute.