Gerald raised a silver pretty brow.  "Uncomfortably pretty?" Taking offense with the wrong part of Isma's barbed words.  "I'm not uncomfortably pretty!" He said, flipping his hair, a cascade of silver down onto his shoulders.<br/><br/>"Yes... I recognize my prejudices to the highest degree.  I have yet to even work with you all yet, I shouldn't be quick to judge."  He wasn't sure he did, but Gerald now felt incentivized to figure it out.  A deflated look was cast to Yulia.  He REALLY didn't want to work with her. If he had further grievances, he kept his mouth shut.<br/><br/>Embarrassed, he looked away when Isma groped the beautiful woman he was blushing from.  "Is that necessary, fool?"<br/><br/>Looking to Seras with a tired look to his eyes.  "R-right... I'll be on my way then.  I'll meet you all at the Bar Guest later with what I found."  He smiled and waved his good by to Vafi and nodded to the rest of the group.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Seras with the Blacksmith</strong><br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Ys-VIII_04-21-16_001.jpg)</div>The blacksmith was a small, humble place.  Thatched roof, stone furnace, open one side to the street with a display of metal worked wares.  It smelled of iron and smoke.  The heat on the inside could felt pouring out into the cold air like hot wind in summer.  Pounding on the metals within was a tall brunette woman in her late twenties.  Green eyes focused on her work.  Hearing the clink of mail caused her glance up, wiping the sweat away from her soot covered face.<br/><br/>Intrigue and delight danced in her green eyes as she measured Seras.  "A moment please, I'll be right with ya!"  She called, voice deep and hearty.  A few more strikes on the start of a plow, then she lifted the glowing red metal from the anvil to drop into a trough of water.<br/><br/>Dragging off the heavy gloves, she walked to the store front to grin down at the tiny fighter.<br/><br/>"Welcome adventurer, what can I do ya for?" She rumbled with delight.  The smith didn't hide her eyes admiring Seras' armor and axe.  "Fine axe you have there, it's seen some love."<br/><br/>The smith was happy to sell the small warrior her blades, though she didn't have many in stock.  She explained there was a rise in demand for a means to defend one's self, what with the spookiness in the valley.<br/><br/>In response to the question of the steel, her brown brows rise. "Interesting question.  We actually have a deal with a local goblin tribe.  They mine us some iron ore in exchange for food and odd trinkets.  Odd bunch they are.  I feel like we exploit them, but when we offered something more on par with the value of the ore, they had no interest.  They love fire though, and anything involving fire.  They even handle the blast furnace to carbonize the steel."  She said, crossing her arms and pushing her breasts up.  "Though we haven't been able to get in touch with them lately.  Our supply is running low, I might have to start putting in orders with merchants."<br/><br/>She spat and sneered at the thought. "It'll cut into margins, I'll have to cut back to only one ale a night."<br/><br/>Before Seras leaves, the blacksmith stops her for a moment.  "Hey, if you want, you can leave your axe here for a day.  I'd be happy to give her a little love to help with splitting skulls."<br/><br/><strong>If the axe is left with the blacksmith, after a day Seras will get a +1 forward to the next Hack and Slash with her axe.</strong><br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Seras with the Apothicary</strong><br/><div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/01/c7/34/01c7341ee910af33877fa02a083890ab.jpg)</div>The apothecary's shop was quiet, organized, and organic.  The quiet dust filled room let in the orange light to barely illuminate the space.  The shop owner seemed to love terrariums as they hung from ropes and twine from the ceiling and sat in shelves and nooks in the shop.  Different clippings of plants clearly not native to the valley sit in their little designed environments with rocks, crystals, and sometimes even insects.<br/><br/>Behind the counter was a slender man with fair skin, his nose was buried in a book.  His olive eyes peek up from the book to his guest, watching her shop about.  When asking for bandages he sets down the book and fishes out from a drawer bandages, a suture needle, and thread.<br/><br/>"Bandages and salves,<br/>But coin can't buy health or love,<br/>That must be found."<br/><br/>The beautiful man paused, looking his fingers counting five, then seven, then four.  Looking back up, he smiled.<br/><br/>"Here." He said, completing the poem and offering the goods to Seras in exchange for the coin.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Isma's search</strong><br/><br/>Looking back, Isma didn't see Vafi, or even the rest of the graveyard.  There was only fog and silence.  The sole grave next to her dominated her periferal vision.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial black;">"Slayer."</span>A whisper in the air.<br/><br/>There is writing on the stone lid of the coffin. Names.  Her parent's names. The names of her siblings.  People's names that weren't familiar.  Some that were.  They all had something in common: they were dead and Isma knew how they died.<br/><br/>The humid air grew colder, the fog started to ice over the grass and<br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial black;">"Come to me."</span>The voice groaned again, this time it came from behind her.<br/><br/>Towering above her was a specter garbed in a tatterd cloak with its hood drawn.  Red glowing eyes stared down at her from the darkness of the cowl.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial black;">"I will make you whole."</span>Said the wraith.  It's maw opened wide revealing long, narrow teeth.  The dark creature's jaw yawned unnaturally wide before snapping shut on Isma's head.<br/><br/>The vision gone, she was returned to the graveyard she knew.  Looking back to the grave, it instead said "Here lives Woofy.  Died of loneliness after his mate was killed."<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Vafi's Search</strong><br/><br/>Rattled by her interaction with Isma, it takes some time to find something.  Behind one of the tombstones, concealed by brush, she would find a cleared patch of earth.  It would be hard to say how soon it was cleared, but at least within the last few weeks and very intentionally meant to be hidden.<br/><br/>On the cleared dirt looked to be some unholy arcane symbol etched into the earth and filled with a strange ichor. Though lacking arcane knowledge, the paladin would know that it was some kind of conjuring circle of the dark arts.<br/><br/>It gives her the heeby jeebies being near it.