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Gravedigger Quest

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Nottheunmaker said:
I'm confused on why we'd want Magical Healing Theory and Scientific Healing Theory when we already have Medicine
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"Chloe's head hurts? Well, let's give her an Aspirin"

"Oh, it was internal bleeding, maybe giving an anticoagulant wasn't the best idea..."

(out of quest PSA: be careful with aspirins and headaches)
Nottheunmaker said:
Still, between that and the power rush Lirra got the first time she got a bunch of Echoes, it'd be prudent to start looking up information on the Keepers of the Gray themselves. If going power mad is a thing that can happen, we'll want to know. @Renu, is there a lore skill on Grave Diggers we can buy, or is that covered by Necromantic Lore?
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You should have the info somewhere in the echoes of your mentor, but no idea how to access it. You'll have to search for ancient texts, people who know or be really, really lucky with meditation.
 
Renu said:
"Chloe's head hurts? Well, let's give her an Aspirin"

"Oh, it was internal bleeding, maybe giving an anticoagulant wasn't the best idea..."

(out of quest PSA: be careful with aspirins and headaches)
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So Medicine is knowing what to do, and Knowledge is knowing how it works (and potentially being able to extrapolate new treatments from other materials)?
 
Karnax626 said:
So Medicine is knowing what to do, and Knowledge is knowing how it works (and potentially being able to extrapolate new treatments from other materials)?
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Pretty much, yes. With medicine, you do things by rote, while knowledge allows you to accurately diagnose things and why medicine works. Medicine alone would be useless against an unknown wound/poison/etc, while the knowledge might allow you to devise a cure.
 
Sentient Tree said:
I haven't seen this kind of munchkinry in stories before, but I love it. The only problem I can think of is whether the healing actually works like that, or whether it simply returns the user to the same state they were in before the damage occurred. Non magical healing here, plus magical healing in settings like Naruto, would probably work just fine because they rely on cell division. However, it's unclear how magical healing works here, so that could go either way. In other settings where magical healing relies on time reversal or some other way of removing damage rather than speeding up cell division, this probably wouldn't work too well.
I'm not sure how fast non magical healing is in this setting, so it's probably best to see whether magical healing could work.
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Personally I'd rather have it stay as a though exorcise in this quest, thinking like this doesn't seem in character for Lirra. More then anything else I just wanted to mitigate possible long term damage. Torn muscles are no joke, especially to a Sword, who's job is pretty much all physical. And again I don't think that's how the system works, but seeing as Lirra doesn't know either covering our bases can't hurt.
Renu said:
You should have the info somewhere in the echoes of your mentor, but no idea how to access it. You'll have to search for ancient texts, people who know or be really, really lucky with meditation.
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Ah, too much knowledge all at once then? Sucks, but at least we aren't completely in the dark here.
Renu said:
Pretty much, yes. With medicine, you do things by rote, while knowledge allows you to accurately diagnose things and why medicine works. Medicine alone would be useless against an unknown wound/poison/etc, while the knowledge might allow you to devise a cure.
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But then what's of the point of the medicine skill itself? Call me wacky, but I don't see how you can treat an aliment without knowing what it is. Seems like you can have just Medical Knowledge and get by just fine. Or is that more a quirk of it being an Inherited skill?
 
Nottheunmaker said:
But then what's of the point of the medicine skill itself? Call me wacky, but I don't see how you can treat an aliment without knowing what it is. Seems like you can have just Medical Knowledge and get by just fine. Or is that more a quirk of it being an Inherited skill?
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Unless you're some sort of savant, reading all the technical manuals in the world won't make you able to build a car if you have no practical experience. I think that's the principle Renu is going for here?
 
(unrelated, but wouldn't be getting some gloves be a good idea ? So, y'know, we don't burn our hands every so often by opening a cemetery gate or while learning half-swording and grabbing the blade. Could avoid being recognized as a fae)
 
elykk said:
(unrelated, but wouldn't be getting some gloves be a good idea ? So, y'know, we don't burn our hands every so often by opening a cemetery gate or while learning half-swording and grabbing the blade. Could avoid being recognized as a fae)
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I'm not sure how likely we are to not be recognized as fae (haven't several people found out about that, or is it just the guy from the gate and Tanwen?), but I agree that not burning our hands is a good thing.
 
I'm surprised Lirra wasn't already wearing gloves as a matter of course at quest start. I'm pretty sure her shovel head is iron, and you never know when you might brush up against hidden metal when digging up a grave.

But while we're talking about equipment, unless Lirra manages to scrounge weapons and armor from the applicants she's pyring this update, how are we going to get some? The academy provides some for training, but they don't seem to let us keep them out of class. Even with Barter, we don't exactly have the money to buy any.

So if we get novice Forge, what kind of makeshift level 1 equipment can we make? The only free material available in abundance seems to be wood from the forest. In that case, spear and shield is an even better starting choice, since we can carve a wooden shield and a spear shaft to affix our knife to. A simple bow and arrows might also be doable. If we learn Hunting, we can take advantage of our Child of the Wyld trait to kill animals for leather to make bindings and light armor, and sell the meat and excess for a little money to buy better materials like metal.

But this is just a hypothetical worst case scenario from us being broke. If the Academy lets us take some of the quest board jobs that were mentioned earlier soon, then we'll be able to skip a lot of this scrounging.
 
elykk said:
(unrelated, but wouldn't be getting some gloves be a good idea ? So, y'know, we don't burn our hands every so often by opening a cemetery gate or while learning half-swording and grabbing the blade. Could avoid being recognized as a fae)
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Sentient Tree said:
I'm not sure how likely we are to not be recognized as fae (haven't several people found out about that, or is it just the guy from the gate and Tanwen?), but I agree that not burning our hands is a good thing.
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There's no problem with being recognized as a fae. It's being recognized as a Keeper of Grey that we need to avoid.
 
In fact, being recognized as a half-Fae is often advantageous. It helped convince the guards to let us in when one of them was worried we were some kind of demon.
 
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Return to the woods? A grim task!
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Spend some time with your classmates.
    - [X] Tanwen remarked that some dead students might still be in the forest, probably not roaming given the dark was dissipated. Now if only a Keeper of Gray was around, wink wink nudge nudge.

    -----------------------------------

    "So… you doing anything tomorrow?"

    Tanwen's voice pulled Lirra out of her thoughts as she laid on her bed. Maybe she'd try to spend some time with her classmates or Melkorka? She didn't doubt Lucilia was ok, and she'd been able to talk with Chloe earlier, so the Svartalf was the only one she had no idea about.

    "'cause I'm not saying I doubt the Academy spared the effort of bringing back all the corpses still in the woods from the test, but there are probably quite a few of them rotting there," the redhead commented. "It'd probably be good to have a Keeper taking care of them."

    Lirra's brow furrowed at that. Well, that was that, she'd have to spend time with dead bodies instead of with potential new friends… she made a mental note to tell Furuta she couldn't train with her that day before leaving.

    "We should probably go to sleep right now, then. The forest is big and I... would prefer getting out before night falls," finally answered Lirra, a slight shiver passing through her body as she remembered the test.

    She heard a rustle of cloth as Tanwen turned to face her on her bed.

    "Great! Well, see you tomorrow then."

    Lirra woke up as the sun was rising. She dragged herself out of bed, then adjusted her hood before opening the room's thick curtains, bathing it in golden light. A few birds were heard singing from the yard. They had probably moved from the forest to some of the trees inside the walls, or maybe they simply were used as messengers and so were kept on the grounds.

    A groan came from behind her, and Tanwen rose from under her sheets, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Light reflected off her slitted pupils and her groans intensified, before she let herself fall back on her pillow. Her hand grabbed blindly to the side before she covered her face with her own cape, a heavy piece of leathery cloth, with wicked hooks lining the bottom.

    "I suddenly regret giving you that idea yesterday," came Tanwen's voice, muffled by her cape.

    "You can sleep if you want, the forest should be safe, and… it's not like I'm not used to working alone."

    "Nah… I'll get up soon. I don't want you to get killed by one of these corpses if they rose already."

    "I… don't think they should be up yet. Maybe if they were killed at the very start and in a particularly saturated area…" Lirra answered while she finished closing her tunic.

    She bent down to take her breeches on the ground, then stopped, thinking. If she was going to take care of bodies, it'd probably be better to take her old clothes. She didn't want to dirty her first and only good set, and some stains just didn't disappear. It had been a week already after all, and she acutely remembered how bad Chloe's wound had gotten after so short a time. With a sigh, she removed her tunic then changed for her old clothes. Somehow, this felt much more appropriate.

    A short time later, Lirra and Tanwen met again at the edge of the woods. They had made a quick detour, Tanwen to get some food, while Lirra went to Furuta to tell her she couldn't train with her today. In the morning light and now that the wards kept the Dark away, the forest didn't look nearly as dangerous as the last time Lirra came. As a matter of fact, it looked downright inviting, a sea of green with rays of golden light piercing through the canopy. The trees were so tall that one could wonder if they suddenly got smaller once they stepped inside, but the undergrowth thankfully didn't follow suit, and was well happy to keep a normal size. A trail started from the Academy's gate, but it was soon lost in the greenery. Whether it was to keep the forest intact, an economic reason or simply to keep the trial hard, Lirra couldn't say.

    Despite what she came here for, the Changeling felt a smile appear on her lips. Sure, her room was nice and all, but she was and always would be a child of the forest.

    "So, how'd you plan to find bodies? We simply take a stroll until we catch a smell?"

    Tanwen brought Lirra out of her reverie, and the latter shook her head.

    "No, there should be..." She looked around a bit until something caught her eye. "There."

    She walked a few steps until she stood in front of a lone flower. Its petals were wide and blade shaped, starting from a deep purple at the center to a pale gray at the tip. Thinner, ribbon like petals looped from the center, forming a crown of the purest white above it, with a few blood red pistils rising from the center.

    "Uh… It's a flower." Tanwen gave Lirra a Circumspect look. "You do know what a dead body looks like, right?"

    "Of course I do!" Lirra glared at her with narrow eyes, then pointed at the flower. "It's a Warbloom. Called like that because they usually bloom on battlefields… or simply any place where a lot of people died. If we follow the trail, we should get to… what we need."

    Tanwen hummed in understanding, then gestured to Lirra to lead the way, before placing her hands behind her head and following without a care in the world.

    After a few minutes, Lirra didn't have to look around to find Warblooms, as there were enough of them to form pale patches on the ground. And as expected, it wasn't long after that they came upon their first body. Its skin had turned almost gray, and dark veins were climbing up from the wound on his belly. Lirra would have wished to say that he looked almost peaceful, sitting with his back on a tree, but it had been a bit too long for that. Hopefully, scavengers hadn't eaten enough of him to turn into Bloats. Corrupted remains of animals who got taken over by what they ate really wasn't something she was looking forward to facing.

    Pulling her hood down, she let her hair fly freely and set ablaze, before kneeling in front of the corpse and lightly put her hand over his face. In a burst of flame, the body was gone.
    '...ldn't save them and now I'll...'​
    Lirra felt the echo nesting into her, and got up. He wouldn't be the last body she'd take care of this day.

    A few steps away, she found two more. Two girls with matching robes and fair hair. Broken staves lay around them. She ignored the missing arm of the first and the ripped jaw of the second and knelt at their side, her hands passing over the bodies again.
    'Where did they come fro…'​
    In a burst of flame, the bodies were gone.
    '...ster! I can't stop the bleedi…'​
    Lirra blinked the few tears that had spontaneously appeared on her eyes away. Then, for good measure, she looked around for the missing arm, then Pyred it too. She didn't know if there was an afterlife, but if there was, she certainly wouldn't want to get there without all her limbs.

    Hours passed like that. Following the flowers until they became patches, pyring the bodies, getting up and looking for more flowers.

    ...painful… ...where are they... scary… not like this… become a hero… all alone… damn monsters… so cold… not you… too late… so much blood… a hero… must reach… why did I… father, mother… just run… everywhere… together… save them… it hurts… save me… hero… just a scratch… must be close… lost… sun setting… hurry up… so many… the blood… become a hero… someone save me… save me… anyone… it hurts so much… damn it all… curse them… no heroes… so cold…​

    "Lirra!"

    The changeling felt something hard hit her cheek, and tasted blood in her mouth - so much blood... nowhere to escape... too many - and blinked her eyes wearily. She was… in a glade, on her knees in a middle of a huge field of flowers, expanding as far as her eyes could see. Her hands ran up and down her body in a panic - claws, raking on her back… lungs pierced… where's my hand - checking dozens of wounds that didn't exist, until her mouth opened and she took a big gulp of air - can't breath... drowning… my throat - then let out a wail until she retched.

    "What the fuck!? Lirra, come on! Stop it, Keeper!"

    Eventually, she got her breathing under control and wiped her mouth with her sleeve. She was… fine. They'd found a big clearing filled with bodies, and she'd gotten to work. She had even found a few things before. Gloves - she had some with her uniform for when they practiced with weapons, but a spare for when she did dirty work would be welcome - a chipped sword and a spear, in case some corpses got up. Then… after a few of them, she just… got lost, couldn't separate her memories from theirs. She shuddered. She had taken care of groups of bodies at once before, but they had either been dead for a while or of disease, but not a group who had perished from violence like that.

    "I'm… fine," she finally croaked to Tanwen.

    Shakily, she got back to her feet and walked a bit until she sat on a fallen trunk. Tanwen followed shortly and fell down beside her.

    "So… what the fuck, Lirra?" Tanwen eloquently broke the silence. "Isn't that supposed to be your thing?"

    "I… am not used to… so many..." Lirra's hand tightened into fists on her thighs. "Usually I get a few memories, but this time… it was much more… intense. Maybe because I passed the same test, or th- their emotions at the end..."

    "Lirra, it's ok..." Tanwen softly took Lirra into her arms to calm her, whispering softly. "They don't matter, they were just weaklings and now they're dead. You're alive. You won. Just take what you need from them and forget it..."

    Perhaps only hearing the tone and not what she said, Lirra nodded weakly and stayed like that for a bit until she felt better and got back up.

    "Ok, there's still some light left, let's find some more!" she said with false bravado, before slapping her hands on her cheeks.

    Tanwen smiled at her, and got up too, before tapping her lightly in the back.

    "Well then, lead on, oh Keeper."

    They continued walking for a while, but the flowers only kept on thinning. It was somewhat of a good thing. With how many corpses there had been in the glade, finding even more of them around would have been disheartening. Then again, finding bodies was the reason they had come here.

    Eventually, something caught Lirra's attention, but it wasn't Warblooms. The grass was flattened, and even the shrubs and bushes were pushed down as if by a tempest. Curious, she followed the broken greenery despite Tanwen's insistence that they'd better be served looking for flowers than whatever did this. After less than a minute of walk, however, she could see some Warblooms growing even on the trees. What could have caused such a growth?

    She finally reached what looked like the source of the wind. Warblooms were growing in a spiral at the center of flattened grass. Looking around, Lirra could see deep furrows in the dirt and some trunks too. Deep claw marks from a terrible beast and, sure enough, remains from its victims.

    If she was counting correctly and guessed which pieces went with which, there probably had been three. She put on her new gloves and got to work. That mystery could wait for a bit. Once she had put enough remains together, she passed her hands over them and they burst into fire, leaving only ashes at the center of the circle.
    '... left us alone…'​
    She repeated that for the second one…
    '...at was that…'​
    … and the third.
    '...ragon...'​
    Lirra's eyes widened. She'd just caught a glimpse in the Echo, but…

    "We should move, Lirra, the sun will set soon and we've walked a fair way from the Academy."

    "But… they got killed by a dragon..." Lirra answered weakly, still shocked.

    At that, Tanwen raised an eyebrow before answering.

    "Come on, everyone knows they're extinct. It's why their blood is so damn expensive."

    "But I saw-"

    "He probably panicked and saw what he wanted to see. And honestly, Lirra, do you really want to stay there if you're right? Let's just go back. Talk to an instructor if you want, but they'll want to know how you saw that and will probably react the same way I did."

    "But..."

    Lirra bit her lips in frustration. Should she try to look around for the beast? The night would fall soon, as Tanwen said, and she did doubt she'd have much chance against it if she found it, but still…

    -------------------------------------

    [] Go back to the Academy
    - [] And inform the staff (high risk of revealing you're a Gravedigger)
    - [] Don't inform the staff (next day free to spend with someone else)
    --[] (refer to previous vote (except Tanwen, unless you write in another activity), or write-in)

    [] Go look for the dragon

    [] [shop] always available, but given you got some more echoes, it's as good a time as any

    Gained     8 violent Echoes, 11 wistful Echoes, 12 lost Echoes, 13 obsessed Echoes and 7 faded Echoes.

    And it's finally up! Sorry for the delay. Thanks to Avalanche for beta like usual, and elykk too this time.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Sweet, we actually scavenged some beginner's weapons, though they're damaged and could probably use some repairs. Let's see if I can remember our shopping list.

    [X][shop] Plan Save Faded
    -[X] Shield Mastery (novice) (5 Violent)
    -[X] Forge (novice) (10 Wistful)
    -[X] Etiquette (basic noble) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Etiquette (basic criminal) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Barter (basic) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Magical Theory (basic) (5 Obsessed)

    [X] Go back to the Academy
    -[X] Don't inform the staff (next day free to spend with someone else)
    --[X] Furuta will practice her swordsmanship. You're welcome to train with her.

    While warning the Academy about a dragon hanging around is really important, based on what Tanwen was saying I have no idea how to convince them about it, even if we're willing to let them know what we are. Unless someone can think of a way? I'd rather not suffer from surprise dragon later. I guess there's seeking it out for confirmation, but that has high chances of either sudden immolation or getting caught in the forest at night.
     
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    Renu said:
    ...painful… ...where are they... scary… not like this… become a hero… all alone… damn monsters… so cold… not you… too late… so much blood… a hero… must reach… why did I… father, mother… just run… everywhere… together… save them… it hurts… save me… hero… just a scratch… must be close… lost… sun setting… hurry up… so many… the blood… become a hero… someone save me… save me… anyone… it hurts so much… damn it all… curse them… no heroes… so cold…​
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    just a scratch...
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    Farewell, unnamed SV protagonist material, I wish we could have known you better.

    Huh, guess Tanwen does have a soft spot for Lirra. Wouldn't have expected it just yet.

    No, we are not going to look for a dragon who supposedly killed three. Not too hot on telling the others either - I find it unlikely instructors are unaware of what is going on in their own forest... and no one (sane) goes out there now anyway.

    [x] Go back to the Academy
    -[x] Don't inform the staff (next day free to spend with someone else)

    [X] Spend some time with your earlier companions.
    -[X] Melkorka walks pretty slowly. There's no way she can run away once you find her.
     
    NaanContributor said:
    Sweet, we actually scavenged some beginner's weapons, though they're damaged and could probably use some repairs. Let's see if I can remember our shopping list.

    [][shop] Plan Save Faded
    -[] Shield Mastery (novice) (5 Violent)
    -[] Forge (novice) (10 Wistful)
    -[] Etiquette (basic noble) (5 Lost)
    -[] Etiquette (basic criminal) (5 Lost)
    -[] Barter (basic) (5 Lost)
    -[] Magical Theory (basic) (5 Obsessed)

    [] Go back to the Academy
    -[] Don't inform the staff (next day free to spend with someone else)
    --[] Furuta will practice her swordsmanship. You're welcome to train with her.

    While warning the Academy about a dragon hanging around is really important, based on what Tanwen was saying I have no idea how to convince them about it, even if we're willing to let them know what we are. Unless someone can think of a way? I'd rather not suffer from surprise dragon later. I guess there's seeking it out for confirmation, but that has high chances of either sudden immolation or getting caught in the forest at night.
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    I generally like it, but I'd like to trade one of the Etiquettes for Barter. Because I think we're more likely to buy something while we're at the academy than we are to interact with Noble or Criminal society (as opposed to Academy society).
     
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    SolipsistSerpent said:
    I generally like it, but I'd like to trade one of the Etiquettes for Barter. Because I think we're more likely to buy something while we're at the academy than we are to interact with Noble or Criminal society (as opposed to Academy society).
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    Umm...
    NaanContributor said:
    [X][shop] Plan Save Faded
    -[X] Shield Mastery (novice) (5 Violent)
    -[X] Forge (novice) (10 Wistful)
    -[X] Etiquette (basic noble) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Etiquette (basic criminal) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Barter (basic) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Magical Theory (basic) (5 Obsessed)
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    We can afford all three.
     
    NaanContributor said:
    Umm...

    We can afford all three.
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    Huh. Don't know how I missed that.
    Well, good, then.
    [X][shop] Plan Save Faded
    -[X] Shield Mastery (novice) (5 Violent)
    -[X] Forge (novice) (10 Wistful)
    -[X] Etiquette (basic noble) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Etiquette (basic criminal) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Barter (basic) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Magical Theory (basic) (5 Obsessed)


    [X] Go back to the Academy
    -[X] Don't inform the staff (next day free to spend with someone else)
    --[X] Furuta will practice her swordsmanship. You're welcome to train with her.
     
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    [X][shop] Plan Save Faded
    -[X] Shield Mastery (novice) (5 Violent)
    -[X] Forge (novice) (10 Wistful)
    -[X] Etiquette (basic noble) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Etiquette (basic criminal) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Barter (basic) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Magical Theory (basic) (5 Obsessed)
     
    Renu said:
    Two girls with matching robes and fair hair. Broken staves lay around them. She ignored the missing arm of the first and the ripped jaw of the second and knelt at their side, her hands passing over the bodies again.
    'Where did they come fro…'​
    In a burst of flame, the bodies were gone.
    '...ster! I can't stop the bleedi…'​
    Lirra blinked the few tears that had spontaneously appeared on her eyes away. Then, for good measure, she looked around for the missing arm, then Pyred it too. She didn't know if there was an afterlife, but if there was, she certainly wouldn't want to get there without all her limbs.
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    Those poor sisters.

    [X] Go back to the Academy
    -[X] Don't inform the staff (next day free to spend with someone else)
    --[X] Furuta will practice her swordsmanship. You're welcome to train with her.

    [X][shop] Plan Save Faded
    -[X] Shield Mastery (novice) (5 Violent)
    -[X] Forge (novice) (10 Wistful)
    -[X] Etiquette (basic noble) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Etiquette (basic criminal) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Barter (basic) (5 Lost)
    -[X] Magical Theory (basic) (5 Obsessed)
     
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    [X] Go back to the Academy
    -[X] And inform the staff (high risk of revealing you're a Gravedigger)
    [X][shop] Plan Save Faded
     
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