>>5571720>>5571721>>5571726>14>Major SuccessHe looks up and sighs as you come closer. "G'afternoon. Whatcha need?" The hairs of your neck stand on end and you subconsciously reach for your falchion, but force yourself to calm down and grab the side of your belt instead. "I w-would like, umm, some ch-chicken feed." The vendor doesn't care that you stuttered. "How much?" You answer. "Uh, I n-need... uh, one b-bag?" He reaches under the counter and flops a down bag of millet. It's mildly huge.
You stare at it for several seconds and he sighs again, aggravated. "That'll be 20 coppers." You snap out of it. "Oh! Yeah, o-of course." In a bid to act normal, you hand him 2 silver coins, which is normal, you think. He looks at it, groans, and rummages through a little box on top of his stall. He takes out 4 copper coins, counts them on his palm, and hands them back to you. "Here's your change." You grab them and the bag of seed. That's... a lot of seed for one chicken. He probably thinks you're buying for a coop. This should keep it fed for months, at least. You throw the bag over your shoulder, it's surprisingly light, and respond. "Th-Thanks." The man goes back to looking at the crowd for potential customers, and gives a canned response without looking at you. "Come again, anytime." You leave him behind feeling slightly good about yourself. You did a whole, legal transaction and didn't even think about running away.
>+1 Barter XP, 2/5 to 1 (Novice) Skill>+1 Charisma XP, 3/15 to 3 (Incompetent) SkillThat's a major step forward for you. To avoid being seen as weird, you pocket the bag before you go upstairs to your room. You've kind of lost track of the days but you think you're about halfway through the deal? You don't know, you'll to think about it. Once you've closed the door, you pour some millet on the floor, a little more than you think the chick needs, since you haven't fed it in a day. The chick peeps in the corner and seems a little disoriented, so you scoop it in your hand and set it in the middle of the feed. It pecks at it, and to your slight relief, slowly starts eating. You sit and watch it peck at the millet in silence for several minutes. This is a minor thing but when you think about it, this really is the first time you've had another living being depending on you. It's a little bit of a burden.
>+1 Willpower XP, 4/10 to 2 (Useless) StatSometimes... maybe it's good to carry a little burden. At the very least, you need to relieve the duke of his. Nightfall will soon be upon you.
>What do?>Pour some of the poison on an eyelet, then attempt to enact your plan.>Find some poor bastard to test the poison on, you need to know how potent it is.>Go have the eyelets check the criminal hideout, you want to see their reaction to the earlier raid.>Scout the duke's keep in more detail, specifically its patrols, hallway structure, and the duke's son's eating routine.