NOVEL WEB Chapter 16: Week 3: Fair Barovia
Barovia Week 3
Fair Barovia.
Steal 1 dream pastry
Reward: 1 credit, Addiction Defense
"I'm going through first to check the area out. If I'm not back in a few minutes, I'm either in critical danger or I'm talking to someone. Come out if I'm taking a long time. I think you'll be helpful either way."
Gil scratched at his scraggly beard for a moment, then handed Snow the Beastmaster Sphere.
"If you see me fighting something, and for even a second you aren't sure if I'll win, throw that at it." Gil instructed her. "Same thing goes if something tries to hurt you. If it's a valid target that's great, but if it isn't then it'll still vanish for a few seconds."
"Okay Master Gilbert." Snow agreed with a smile. "Shouldn't we have discussed this before you opened the door, if there's a time limit?"
Gilbert raised one finger, intending to retort, then thought better of it and walked into the pulsating blue column. He heard an affectionate giggle as he left.
The other side of the portal was a dim room, lit both by the portal and a few cracks in a boarded up window. Gil slung his ax at his side and examined his surroundings.
"Rough wooden panels." Gil muttered to himself as he examined the wall in the light of his tablet, "Probably built by hand by the owners. Modern era architects would probably sand them smoother. Floor is… clay tiles. Ok, might be another all skirts kind of world after all. Thick layer of dust. Probably abandoned, no wonder they dropped us off here."
The room had a large, open floor plan with a few pieces of furniture and a de facto kitchen built around a sooty fireplace. A peek out the boarded up window revealed an overcast day, the sun struggling to pierce thick cloud cover. No one was wandering past, but the street didn't look completely untended. He doubted he was in a particularly nice part of town, but it wasn't an abandoned hellscape either.
No wandering hordes of zombies, thankfully. Zombies were like the weather in most settings that had them. With proper protective gear and preparation you could largely ignore them. Unfortunately they all had their own little quirks as to how they moved and acted, so you always needed to relearn the details every time. A zombie apocalypse would be pretty awful for Gil at this point, other than the opportunity for some anonymous looting. Speaking of…
Gil retrieved Snow, who looked around the dark room curiously.
"Alright. First things first, help me carry this table." Gil instructed. "We'll get the trunk and those cabinets next. Probably the bed too."
"Master Gil." Snow said reproachfully, "do we even have room for all this?"
"Maybe," he hedged, "anything that we don't want, I'll chop up for firewood. Maybe we can resell some of it in Rim Elm. No one lives here, no one cares, so it's all ours. I'm not passing up on it."
The pair ransacked the old house together using the light of the portal. Mostly they found old furniture. A few of the kitchen implements were still intact, including a set of carved wooden bowls and utensils. A handful of silver and copper coins were scattered here and there around the house; Gil pocketed them. Silver was sometimes worth far more in settings where it wasn't currency than ones where it was, if you could find a pawn shop.
There was no food present that Gil trusted. He picked up the old clay jars for their own sake; their contents were mostly mold, which would need to be cleaned out in the spring before they could be used for anything much. One small bag in the back of a closet contained some old dried beans, which he was cautiously optimistic about.
Clothes were a bit more promising, with several rat-eaten homespun outfits to select from. None of them really fit Gil, and all needed patching, but finding a needle and thread was a fairly plausible goal. It was a bit of a fixer upper, but Gil and Snow could patch them up then. It was one problem at least partially solved, and they hadn't needed to leave the boarded up old house.
Gil came out of the portal after inspecting the haul to find Snow kneeling in a corner.
"Well it's a pleasure to meet you." She said, "we didn't mean to disturb your family. We're just visiting. Did we take anything important? We could bring some of it back if you like. No? Oh good."
Gil craned his head to look, and saw that Snow was chatting with a large black rat. He wasn't entirely sure what the rat was doing to respond, but there was apparently enough for Snow to have a one sided conversation.
"Any chance he can give us directions?" Gil asked.
"Oh no, Master Gil." Snow chirped, "he can't speak. He's just a rat after all. I suppose I could ask questions, but he seems a little bit grumpy. I don't think he wants to play charades."
"I think I'd like to scout the town and see if I can do the mission. Something about a pastry." Gil said. "Do you mind if I leave you here with the rats? If anything bad happens, you can use the capture sphere and run back to the skyblock. Try to bring anything useful or valuable back with you, as long as you can manage it without upsetting anyone. I'll be back if I can confirm that things are safe here."
He pulled out his tablet and checked the compass. The Beastmaster Sphere pinged merrily alongside the portal, so Gil would be able to find it or Snow pretty easily. It would have to do.
Gil strolled out onto the streets, electing to leave behind his ax for now. It had a few too many blood stains to be unobtrusive now, and he had a very sharp combat knife from the Hunter's Survival Kit. He wore a long woolen cloak from the closet over his linen robes. Adopting local fashion was almost always best if you could manage it, even if it was a bit dusty.
He approached a house a few doors down that had smoke coming out of its chimney. Easy sign of intelligent life. He listened at the door, and heard the chatter of children. With a silent prayer that this wasn't one of those weird settings where all the adults abruptly died so kids could rule, he knocked. The voices within went silent.
A man with a pale, long face peeked out the window. The pale man examined Gil, assessed him, and determined him to be a threat.
"What do you want?" He asked bluntly.
"I'm sorry," Gil said, "I'm new in town and need directions."
"Tavern's that way," the man answered, jabbing his finger down the street. "Bother someone there."
"Thanks." Gil called, and left a copper piece on the windowsill. He didn't have a lot of them, but given how spooked the man had seemed, directions to the tavern were extremely generous.
••••••••••
"Well that's just lovely." Snow said, clapping her hands happily. "You're sure you don't need them?"
The rats carpeting the floor all around Snow did not in fact need the things they directed her towards. A hammer, a short sword, a few dozen coins of varying denominations, and a heavy metal box were all of no use to the little creatures, which was why they were offering them to her. These were not the helpful creatures of her home forest, but they certainly wouldn't say no to a friendly human carrying away large, annoying objects for them.
Well, normally they would, but that's because humans were made of meat. That thought simply didn't occur to them with this woman. Perhaps because she spoke to them?