<span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Courier;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 16pt;"><strong>S T O R Y T E L L E R</strong></span></span><hr/><div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/17/82/d0/1782d07b785f05bdf4e09712488c74b2.jpg)</div><br/><strong>Dramatis Persona:</strong>Widow Whittaker<br/><strong>Wearing:</strong>As Pictured, plus sandals<br/><br/><strong>Time:</strong><em>10:00 &gt; 10:35 AM XST</em><br/><strong>Location:</strong><em></em>Showdown! Orchard -> Mincult<br/><strong>Tagging | Mentioning:</strong>Crystelia Coven Members |<br/><strong>Notes:</strong><br/><hr/><br/>As she exits the house out into the orchard fields, Bridgette can not immediately find Onyx on the ground. That’s because the nightmare is flying about through the air! It moves in a clear pattern, seemingly checking out the perimeter of the farm–and is perhaps ignoring the call, or just too far away to actually hear it.<br/><br/>On the plus side, Onyx seems to be patrolling about and looking for things, and possibly has been doing that for the whole fight. It eventually does come back down, and returns to Bridgette’s side. They seem happy and unbothered, which means they probably haven’t seen anything worthwhile.<br/><br/>While most of the group seem content to stay in the house and work out things among themselves, Bridgette being out and about can be led by Onyx to the Widow. She’s at the fence that marks where her orchard ends, and the next farmer’s land begins.<br/><br/>The hard-of-hearing, older woman makes a gesture (the Widow has her back to Bridgette), and the widow spins around, brandishing a hoe–more out of fear than anything else. However, when she sees that it isn’t a goblin, she sheepishly sets it down. “Ah, sorry.”<br/><br/>Her hands almost immediately settle onto her skirt, fretting it in worry. “A.. are you okay? Is–what happened? I heard an explosion…” There’s a stumbling quality to her words; this is a lot more excitement than she was expecting to deal with today.<br/><br/>Reassuring her isn’t overly difficult, and she can be coaxed back inside with assurances that the threat is dealt with (and given there are no more goblins out in the fields, it does appear to be safe). Her dress is torn in a few places, she’s got more dirt on her than she’s used to, and there are red marks on her body that will soon be turning black, blue, purple; she will have bruises.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Ultimately, it’s up to the Coven Crystelia members to decide their next course of action, but the widow seems alright–more shaken up than anything, but resilient enough that she will undoubtedly spring back from it.<br/><br/>She thanks them, and while she doesn’t have much, she does offer to send the group off with a dozen sweet apples, harvested just this morning (Onyx, of course, is a big fan of this idea and should not be trusted with the apples).<br/><br/>Bidding them farewell, the Coven Crystelia members are able to make the rest of the journey to Mincult with no problems. It’s only another half hour until they’ve reached the gates, and while there are guards posted to keep an eye out for trouble (and collect taxes from merchant caravans), they’re ushered inside with no real fuss (although one of the guards leers at Fennu in a way that brings to mind a certain security guard at a certain train station).<br/><br/>However, unlike that horrific incident, nothing comes of it. And it can be easily forgotten, given that there are suddenly a lot of things to be paying attention to.<br/><br/>Firstly, are the buildings, which are not particularly uniform. Some are more drably colored, while others are arrayed in splashes and splotches of vivid colors. Some are wooden; others stone.  Though they do not yet have the words for it, certain buildings look similar enough to each other to share a common style.<br/><br/>There are also plenty of people going about their day. Elves, dwarves, orcs, and humans. And they all look pretty much what one would expect from an anime or western fantasy world. The elves are tall, with pointed ears (and a lot of earrings and ornamentations). The orcs have a range of green-hued skin, and tend towards big and brawny builds. Dwarves are short and stout.  If they’re in the habit of looking up at the sky, they can even catch a few pale winged people fluttering to and fro.<br/><br/>Most people on the streets seem to be workers, but there doesn’t seem to be any sort of unified form of dress, even among people of the same race. Or even gender, as it’s not that uncommon to catch a masculine looking individual rockin’ a dress, or a feminine figure wearing a no-nonsense tunic and breeches. At a glance, it really just seems like people wear what’s comfortable–or what they think looks good on them.<br/><br/>Nobody bats an eye at the five women as they walk in with an apparently domesticated nightmare and a dragon, because for them, it’s not a special occurrence, they get adventurers coming and going all the time.<br/><br/><div class="floatright">(https://cdn0.iconfinder.com/data/icons/smoothies-vector-icons/48/312-512.png)</div><br/>Near the gate, positioned in a manner that is difficult to avoid seeing, there is a board. A glance at it immediately brings to mind a mall directory, as there appears to be a map of the town, with listings of various locations and districts. A small mark in the lower left-hand corner, next to the compass rose (thankfully, it looks like North is also an important direction in Gelegenheit), is an impossible to read scribble that is probably a signature, and a more clearly printed notation: this map is current as of the 4th Eadae of the Month of Edge, in the 699th year of the 4th Era. A small mark at the end of the statement carries with it the feeling of importance, but the group currently lacks the context to understand its meaning.<br/><br/>It’s a well made map, with an easy to understand distance scale. Things are clearly laid out, indicating primary and secondary roads, and the labels on locations are clean, clear, and crisp. If they want to stay on task, it’s not that far to the commercial district, where the majority of shops are. They can easily find various craftworkers, a potter’s shop, blacksmith, tannery, several clothing stores, general stores, a beauty parlor, inns, taverns, and restaurants.<br/><br/>There’s even some esoteric specialty shops, like a guild-approved alchemist’s shop, or a guild-approved sweet’s shop (Bonbon de Bon). They can also see that there are several guild branch buildings–the<acronym title="Guild of Bread">Guilde du Pain</acronym>, and the<acronym title="The Bond of Five">Le Lien des Cinq</acronym>(which has been annotated as Adv. G.).<br/><br/>Should they be hungry, there’s a half-dozen different restaurants scattered throughout Mincult, but one in particular might stand out to them: Roskvar Rockchild’s Ramen Ram-Porium.<br/><br/>While the group has a list of things they need to pick up, they do have plenty of extra spending money–and plenty of time in the day, too. Where they go, and what they get up to is ultimately up to them.<br/>