>>6165784>>6165799>>6165832>>6166105It's probably best that you keep the little wealth you've managed to acquire to yourself. Odneyn and his group seem well enough, but one can never be too careful. Instead, you ask him about the creature with the barbed tail. At first they don't believe you. Not the existence of the creature, which the mousy man identfies immediately as a "mantikhor", but that you actually faced one and lived to tell the tale. You wish you could show them the remains of the shield it had destroyed. Part of you now regrets not trying to kill the beast when you had the chance. They could hardly doubt you if you could suddenly pull its head out from your bag.
The mousy man (whose name is Thom) explains that mantikhors are rare creatures, of obscure, but almost certainly magical, origin. The barbs on their tails are poisonous and they have the cunning of men to match their human-like faces. There are those in the north who worship them as part of a strange ancient religion. Some even say they were men once but Thom seems to find this doubtful. "They like the taste of human flesh too much," he explains. Their disbelief regarding your story arises from the mantikhor's reputation for tearing apart its prey. The few who have faced one and survived did not do so unscathed. Only giants would even consider trying to fight one, and even then, only if they had no other choice.
Luckily the low stone walls of the reeve's manor come in sight before the conversation can turn sour. The reeve lives in one of the houses adjoining the main hall but your mother and sister are housed in a small cottage just outside the boundary. Many times has the reeve offered to room them more comfortably in the manor but your mother has always refused, even though it means looking after the cottage after all her other duties are done.
The polite thing to do would be to escort the party and make an introduction to the reeve. But you are tired and hungry, and moreover, you have a feeling that the reeve will not be pleased to see you alive and well, and laden with coin.
>What do you want to do[] Escort the party to the reeve
[] Go straight to your mother's cottage
[] Ask Odneyn to wait for you
[] Write-in
