Frostbitten Wayfarer

“To start with, I would like for you to try this poison,” Lorelei said, grabbing a skull marked vial full of a murky brown liquid along with the clear vial next to it.

“This one should reduce your strength by five and increase your fatigue while not causing any damage.” She handed the two vials to Zoe.

Zoe drank the poison, and then the antidote in quick succession.

*Ding* You have been poisoned. -5 strength and increased fatigue for one hour

*Ding* You have been cured of poison.

“Bumbleboop,” Zoe said.

“Good! Now, what effects did the poison have on you?” Lorelei asked, readying her pen on her clipboard.

“Yeah it was just the five strength and increased fatigue for an hour like you said.” Zoe answered.

Lorelei scribbled on her clipboard for a minute. “Great, would you like to be paid for every potion or in a bulk sum at the end?”

“A bulk sum’s fine, no point in wasting time I guess.”

“Lovely! You’d be surprised how many people think I’ll run off with the information and not pay them.” Lorelei responded, reaching for another pair of vials on the desk behind her.

The marked vial contained a clear blue liquid, while the antidote was a pale green casting a dim light through Lorelei’s fingers.

“This one should cause twenty damage per second while regenerating forty mana per second.” Lorelei said, handing Zoe the vials.

Zoe took them, and drank them both.

*Ding* You have been poisoned. -23 health/s for 20 seconds, +36 mana/s for two minutes.

*Ding* You have been cured of poison.

“Bumbleboop, and actually this one was twenty-three health and thirty-six mana per second for twenty seconds.” Zoe said.

“The health was damage and the mana was regeneration?” Lorelei asked.

“Oh, yeah, sorry.” Zoe responded.

“No, no. Don’t be sorry. For most it would be a safe assumption but I need to be extra sure of everything here.” Lorelei responded.

Lorelei’s testing continued on, with Lorelei handing Zoe each pair of the vials and marking down the various effects. Most of the vials were at least close to what Lorelei had estimated their effects as, though there were two outliers.

The first was a clear liquid that looked like water, which was supposed to reduce her stamina by half, but which also had caused her to smell like roses for some reason. And the second was a black sludge that Lorelei had expected to make her movements strained but had also caused a drain on her mana of thirty per hour.

When the final questioning finished, Lorelei tapped her pen on her clipboard as she pondered something.

“If you’re okay with some extra risk, I might have a higher paying job available for you today as well.” She said after a couple minutes of silence.

“Well that depends on what the risk and the pay is, I guess?” Zoe asked.

“The thing is, with your poison resistance at level two, these numbers just don’t make a whole lot of sense. Did your resistance level up throughout today?” She asked.

Resistances:

- Mental (7)

- Poison (6)

“Yes, it’s at six now.” Zoe answered.

“Lovely, even better then. I would like to administer a much stronger poison that deals one hundred damage per second and see what effect your resistance has. It should be reduced to ninety-nine, but I suspect that it will not.”

“That would kill me in two seconds, though.” Zoe said, feeling her heart rate rise again.

“Yes, that would be the extra risk. As for the pay, I would be willing to pay an additional silver circle for this information.” Lorelei said.

Zoe was already getting two silver circles for her job, was a third really worth that much extra risk? She wouldn’t need to take another job for a while, but jobs didn’t seem to be all that hard to get here either.

Lorelei bit her lip, tapping on her clipboard. “Two circles, that’s the highest I can do.”

“That’s still possibly going to kill me in two seconds though. I think if you make it a silver square for all of today then I would be okay with it.”

Lorelei pondered it for a moment, making some marks on her clipboard and tapping her shoes on the stone floor.

“Okay. A square for today.” She said, walking behind the desk and rummaging in the drawers. She pulled out two more vials, both filled with swirling black liquid and placed them on the desk.

“Kharn, deary? Please heal her and give her the antidote as soon as she takes the poison.” She said.

“Yes, yes. I’ll keep her alive.” The man stood up and walked to the desk and grabbed the antidote. “Get over here and drink your poison.”

Zoe walked up to the desk, feeling as though her heart were about to explode out of her chest. Was she really going to do this? What if something went wrong, what if she made a mistake and the antidote didn’t work. She was two seconds away from being dead.

She stood at the desk, staring at the marked vial for a couple of minutes. All of the antidotes worked, and Kharn was here to do something. She didn’t know what exactly, but he would do it. She would be fine. She would be fine and rich. This was okay.

Zoe reached for the marked vial, grabbing it and bringing it to her lips. As soon as she did, Kharn placed his hand on her shoulder, and she felt a flood of warmth through her body from where he touched her.

She tipped the vial into her mouth, feeling the swirling red fluid pulse as it dripped down her throat.

*Ding* You have been poisoned. -100 health/s for two minutes.

Exhaustion took her, every movement she made felt slow and draining. Each breath feeling as though she were weighed down by a bag of bricks. Kharn jammed the vial of antidote in her mouth and she felt more of the strange pulsing fluid as she swallowed it.

*Ding* You have been cured of poison.

“Bumbleboop,” Zoe spat out between breaths.

“Good, good. Take a seat and relax for a moment. Kharn, please keep healing her.” Lorelei said.

“Sure thing boss,” Kharn responded, following Zoe as she took a seat.

Zoe sat for a few minutes, her heavy, ragged breathing calming down as she relaxed.

“First off, what the hell was that?” Zoe asked.

“It was a Swirling Mist Poison.” Lorelei responded.

“Yeah I got the poison part, but why am I so exhausted all of a sudden?” Zoe clarified.

“You’ve lived a comfortable life, haven’t you?” Lorelei asked.

“What do you mean?"

“This is what losing health feels like. It’s your life’s energy, the bit that keeps you breathing and your heart beating. That’s your health. You lost over half of it in nearly an instant and had the same healed back just as quick. Of course you would be drained.” Lorelei explained.

“Shit. That sucked.” Zoe said.

“Yes, I’m sure it would if you weren’t expecting it. Now, I’m sorry to pressure you but might you share how much damage it was doing to you?” Lorelei asked.

“Right, yeah. It was one hundred damage every second for two minutes.” Zoe answered.

“How fascinating. And the poison is no longer affecting you now? The antidote worked?” Lorelei asked.

“Yeah, I’m all good now.” Zoe startled as the warm energy that was pulsing through her stopped as Kharn let go of her shoulder.

“Lovely, thank you so very much you two.” Lorelei said as she pulled out a silver coin marked with a square to hand to both Zoe and Kharn.

“Hit me up any time you need, this was a nice easy job.” Kharn said, grabbing his coin.

“I think I might stick to some other things for a little while maybe, personally.” Zoe said as she grabbed hers.

“You two have a lovely day now! Thank you again.” Lorelei called out as the two of them left.

Kharn didn’t stick around, darting off down the road to whatever he was doing next. Zoe stood outside on the road for a moment.

In hindsight, Zoe thought it was a little stupid. Everything about the whole thing just felt so organized and secure that she didn’t think it would be a problem. But maybe that was a step too far. She thought back on the ordeal and decided she wanted to know more about her poison resistance.

Zoe opened the door and walked in to the barren room again.

“Oh hello again, did you need something else?” Lorelei asked from behind the desk.

“Yeah, what does poison resistance normally do and why is it apparently not working for me?” Zoe asked.

“Ah yes, I suppose I could have explained that. Normally your poison resistance would reduce the effect of poisons by a slight amount per level. About one in a thousand for every level, with the damage rounded. So one hundred damage would be reduced to ninety-nine and four tenths, which would be ninety-nine.” Lorelei explained.

“And for some reason mine did not?” Zoe asked.

“Correct.” Lorelei answered.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. My current hypothesis is that resistances don’t apply to people without their first class. Not much testing has been done on people without their first class because the majority of them are children. And even when testing is done, they don’t often have poison resistance. You are a very unique case, young lady.” Lorelei responded.

“So when I get my first class, I’ll take less damage from poison resistance?” Zoe asked.

“That’s the idea, anyway. We could test this if you’re willing to class up today? I would pay very well.” Lorelei asked.

“No, sorry. But when I do, I can come back and see if the offer is still on. I don’t think I’d do that again for the same price, though.” Zoe answered.

“Oh yes, please do, that would be very helpful. Is there anything else that you need from me today then?” Lorelei asked.

“No, that was all. Thanks again.” Zoe answered, leaving the barren room to the street once more.

She cringed at the time she had to spend inside. So much for her first day of staying outside.

Zoe moseyed her way through the streets towards Joe’s tavern. The light snowfall piling on the streets reflecting the moonlight and covering the town in a pleasant bright calmness. There were few carriages clattering down the streets, and little chatter from the restaurants and shops she passed. Just Zoe and the beautiful snow covered city.

It was late into the evening when she arrived at Joe’s tavern. She could hear some quiet conversation from the patrons staying late and Joe cleaning in the kitchen as she entered. The stools by the bar were all empty, and Zoe took a seat at one of them, enjoying the peaceful night for a few minutes longer.

Joe laughed when he came out of the kitchen and saw Zoe at the bar.

“What happened to the extravagant journey you were going on?” Joe asked her, leaning on the bar across from her.

“Okay, so here’s the thing.” Zoe said, pulling out her silver square. Joe’s eyebrows raised as he saw it.

Zoe continued, “I got a pretty good job today. But the damn woman who hired me had me wait inside for like five hours. Just a moment, she said. It’ll only be a little longer, she said. I sat there for I don’t even know how long. And the other fellow that was there showed up even before me!"

“Looks like it worked out well for you though.” He smiled, chuckling.

“Well yeah, but what if winter starts today? It would have been ruined by this woman with absolutely no sense for time!” She complained.

“You’ve got a few days left, you’re fine Zoe.” Joe grabbed himself a glass of water.

“But what if! God she was so annoying. Nice, I guess. And paid well, but oh my god Joe you have no idea. And the other guy’s snoring the whole time, I wanted to scream. That sucked.” Zoe whined.

Joe laughed some more, “What did you end up doing that paid so much anyway?"

“So don’t be too upset but she needed help testing poisons.” Zoe started.

“What? Zoe! It doesn’t matter how much money you have if you’re dead.” Joe scolded her.

“I know but the pay was good, and it was all very professional. She had everything labelled and explained. Plus, the other guy there was a healer. I don’t think it was very risky, there would be easier ways to kill me if somebody wanted to do that.” Zoe pleaded.

Joe sighed, rubbing the side of his head. “I can’t stop you but just promise me you’ll be careful at least.”

“I promise, Joe. I’m not going to kill myself. I think it was a good idea, honestly. And now that I have some money I’m going to try to find some easier work and just relax for a while.”

“You can always just try this winter’s master thing next year, you know? Take your time, save up some money.” Joe took a sip from his glass.

“I could, but I dunno. I just don’t see the point to waiting, I guess. If I can’t make it then I can’t make it but I may as well try?” Zoe said.

“I don’t understand it. I’ve got a happy life and didn’t spend nearly as much time on my first class as you are. I’m sure you’ve already got some really great options, why not just take one and stop living on the edge?” Joe asked.

Zoe looked around, seeing a few patrons still sitting and drinking.

“Where I come from, this is normal. Maybe it’s different here but not having my first class doesn’t feel like it’s living on the edge, it’s just normal to me.” Zoe said.

Joe shook his head, “I can’t imagine. I take it you’re staying here tonight? Nobody’s taken the room yet if you’d like.” He placed the room key on the bar in front of her.

“Yeah I think so. I wasn’t going to until Lorelei smashed all of my plans, but another night in a comfortable bed would be nice. Is Rizick not using the room anymore?” Zoe asked.

“No, he’s in with Isla now. They’re taking off tomorrow apparently.” Joe said.

“I’ll have to say goodbye tomorrow then. I wanted to get him a gift, but I never got around to it.”

“I’m sure he’ll live.” Joe smiled.

“Yeah, I guess. I’ll make sure to say goodbye though, he was a nice guy.” Zoe said, grabbing the room key from the bar table.

“I think they’ll probably be around most of the morning packing up and getting ready if you want to catch them.” Joe said.

“Thanks, Joe. I’m gonna get my last good night’s sleep for a while I think now.” Zoe stood up and stretched.

“Well have a good night then, Zoe.” Joe said, finishing off his cup of water.

“You too, Joe.” Zoe said.

She walked up the wooden stairs to her room and tossed her bag of belongings on the chair before she collapsed in the bed and shut her eyes.