Character Sheet
The Mysterious Orphan

Name: Lotte, daughter of Henrik and Anelie
Sexuality: Pansexual
Age: 18
Species: Lamia, Central Lands Human Culture
Level: 3
Class: Hunter
Weapons: Bow, Knife

XP: 2/18

Description: A tall lamia, with short blond hair, and blue eyes, dressed in a protective vest and a noble's hunting shirt. They are muscular, well-formed and handsome, and have slightly yellowish eyes and a forked tongue. Their snake-half is in a forest pattern that helps for blending in, except for the occasional splash of Tyrian purple.

Traits:

Just Devotions (Racial--Human, Central, Cultural)(Level 0): Humans in some parts of the world worship the Gods, vast and sometimes unknowable beings that do grant blessings to those that believe in them, magical blessings. But even the lowliest of the pious knows how to pray to them, how to do the right supplications, how to act in the proper ways. This knowledge can sometimes be put to good use, though the Gods rarely turn their eyes to every little prayer.

Wholesome Farm Looks (Human, Central, Physical, Level 1): Though most of the people of the Central lands, that mass of Kingdoms, Princedoms, Dukedoms, Duchess States, and more, are of course quite poor, they are a hardy, hard-working people, and sometimes this life less beats a person down and more hones them. They have reasonably good looks, and even more importantly, look trustworthy, clean-cut, and otherwise like the kind of person who'd never lied a day in their life or slacked off a single hour, either. This remains even after becoming a lamia, though it is... tempered, obviously.

Snake Eyes (Level 1, Physical, Lamia): You can see in the dark pretty well. It isn't perfect, but the night is not nearly so dark and full of dangers as you expected it would be, for whatever reason.


Forest Wanderer (0, Pre-Class): The forest is a fascinating place for a child, as long as they don't go too far. As one gets used to it, one learns more about its ins and outs, and while some of it only applies to the forest that such a child lived in at first, much of it is quite helpful later.

Forest Eyes (Level 1. Class): As one could have eyes that pick out every tiny detail of the tundra, so can one be used to seeing in the dark forest tracks, possibilities, old growth, traps, and anything else, especially when one knows how to use your ears and nose to aid it. It is remarkable how much you can see, when you see what is actually there.

Hunter's Mettle (Level 1, Class): To hunt, one needs a bow, an arrow, and perhaps a knife for self-defense. Having some skill at them is inevitable, having solid skill at them is admirable, and quite useful.

Steady Arm (Level 2, Class): You have a strong, consistent aim. You're not a superlative archer, at least by the standards of adventurers, but you don't have off moments, and you don't waver from being able to hit your target, even if you're not doing the fancier tricks.

Leave Few Traces (Level 2, Class): The experience of being on one side of the hunt makes you wonder how you'd hide your tracks if you were being hunted, or tracked by hostile enemies, as sometimes does happen in adventures. You've begun to practice how not to be followed in the woods, and perhaps elsewhere.


Mending Knowledge, Basic (Level 0, Pre-Class, Healing Priest): You know how to apply poultrices, and you know the basic ingredients of a number of potions that cure headaches, deal with common pains, put someone into a gentle sleep, and other minor things. You can also bandage someone properly. You are not very good at this, merely adequate... but that's more than what most people are.


Whitlin' Ways (Level 1, Common): A man or woman who knows how to whittle will never want for whistles, or spoons, or any number of goods. It's a useful, solid sort of skill, and one that could be made into a trade. It also makes a pretty decent way to pass the time, and the person who whittles never lacks for a knife in sticky situations.

Penny Pincher (Level 1, General): You know the value of a Pfin, and how to keep from wasting all of your money, even if you're far from a merchant. Money is something you're familiar with.

Steel Nerves (General, Level 3): You've seen enough strange places and done enough fantastic things that you are less likely to panic in terrible situations, and more likely to think things through, however difficult. This doesn't mean you can't panic at all, but you have a grip on those nerves. In battle and danger only, this unfortunately doesn't help at all with social anxiety.


Divine Sense (Level 0, Divine): You can sense when someone is a Demigod, and there's at least the potential ability--though you have not figured it out yet--to try to track people through their divine 'scent.' A person's 'scent' gets stronger as they get more magically and divinely powerful... but on the other hand, you now have a 'scent' of your own, that will allow other demigods to know you for what you are, increasingly as you grow more powerful yourself.

Captivating Eyes (Level 2, Divine): You can sometimes 'catch' people with your eyes. If you're concentrating, they'll find it slightly more difficult to look away, though any sense of threat or danger breaks it immediately, and they'll hear your words clearly, actually listening… or at least hearing them. There's no requirement to listen to them, nor does it seem as if anyone's mind is being altered in any way, but it's an interesting, if bizarre, power, and certainly is a new take on 'lost in their eyes.'

Slithering Shadows (Level 3, Divine): You can blend into the shadows better than you should be able to. At night, and in darker areas, you can seem to shift away from sight. It doesn't work well in a wide-open space, but that little bit of extra secrecy can be very useful as a hunter, and as someone who might need to sneak through various areas.
 
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That's fine and dandy until some adventuring peasant finds a sword lodged into stone and decides to overthrow you.
Listen. Strong peasants freeing swords from rocks is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not some farcical geological ceremony!
 
Listen. Strong peasants freeing swords from rocks is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not some farcical geological ceremony!

Well, I didn't elect that king either!

The peasant at least has a good sense of carrying big and shiny sword with him.
 
Well, I didn't elect that king either!

The peasant at least has a good sense of carrying big and shiny sword with him.
You can't just expect to lord over others because some idiots couldn't pull a sword out of a rock!

I'm sure the blacksmith that left it there was quite deficient in the upstairs!
 
Now, the mechanics obviously don't have a narrative reality, but reaching above level 10 is hard. You have to be the person who reaches what's the traditional apex of your class, in terms of what could get you set up for life, and then keep on going, keep on adventuring. And because of how the XP works, you can't, at any point, grind weak enemies. If you're going to stand a chance to get to 11, 12, 13, then you have to face peers, which are rare, or impossible odds that overwhelm your obvious advantages.

And then you have to keep going, keep throwing the dice, keep risking your life, when if you're magical you could settle down anywhere, for anyone, and make a fortune as a researcher, or a court-magic-user. If you're an Orimeish Skald, 10 is where you're good enough to be considered a Master at it. On and on, 10 or somewhere around it, trying to translate the mechanical and the narrative, is the point where even many extraordinary people stop.

But some keep going. Some. And some of those manage not to die. Some.
 
Basically, to get to level 10 you must adventure. To get higher you must slay dark lords. Right?

I think it's more like Pathfinder or Dark Sun, where getting from level 10 to 20 basically meant forging your own legend of epic proportions. So yes, slaying dark lords aaaaand saving kingdoms, discovering lost cities of long-vanquished empires, that sort of thing.
Level 20 basically meant ascension to a higher state of existence in these settings. Becoming a dragon or an angel, or something.

Ah, so level 10 is the normal cap. Mind, five or six level 10s could plausibly get together and murder a king, no probs. But gather that five or six level 10s in this setting getting together is something very notorious.
 
[X] Go to the village headman, whom she has seen before, though never spoken to. Surely he might have some power to talk to the Rat Piper and warn him off of anything too drastic. At the very least, it'll be a help for later.
 
Some of the gods in the setting could probably have been represented as a very high level adventurer before their apotheosis, maybe?

Although not all of the gods were people first, or anything like that.

I'm just really sad we never got to finish that Dark Sun campaign where I had a Preserver Mage.

But, on-topic
*Lotte is a son of the God of Murder intensifies*

I'm a little curious on the creation mythos of the setting
I mean, yeah, something something gods fought with unspeakable horrors to claw the Creation out of the Sea of Chaos, which is actually an interesting metaphor but not really since it's probably literal, but any details that Lotte knows of? Are there any top deities? The trickster/traitor archetypes? Any unified church structure akin to some sort of the Pantheon?
 
I'm just really sad we never got to finish that Dark Sun campaign where I had a Preserver Mage.

But, on-topic
*Lotte is a son of the God of Murder intensifies*

I'm a little curious on the creation mythos of the setting
I mean, yeah, something something gods fought with unspeakable horrors to claw the Creation out of the Sea of Chaos, which is actually an interesting metaphor but not really since it's probably literal, but any details that Lotte knows of? Are there any top deities? The trickster/traitor archetypes? Any unified church structure akin to some sort of the Pantheon?

There are actually *different* creation mythos, so. Orime creation mythos, for one, completely contradicts the general thrust of the Central Lands Gods, or for that matter the Gods of the Kursk.
 
I think it was supposed to be Kurzk, but you've got the region right either way. They're to the east of the Orime lands.

East at points, south at others, it's a bit complicated.

But yeah, Orime cosmology involves the music of nothingness helping to create a Goddess, Orima, who lonely and with nothing to do began to sing, and this song brought to life other Gods, who joined her in other songs, creating more Gods, and then singing about creating rocks, and time, and other fun things, and with considerable innocence exulting in the wonder they created with the power of their voices. It's a long, long story, but to the Orime, the world and all the things in it came to be not from violence or chaos, but from voices raised in song.
 
East at points, south at others, it's a bit complicated.

But yeah, Orime cosmology involves the music of nothingness helping to create a Goddess, Orima, who lonely and with nothing to do began to sing, and this song brought to life other Gods, who joined her in other songs, creating more Gods, and then singing about creating rocks, and time, and other fun things, and with considerable innocence exulting in the wonder they created with the power of their voices. It's a long, long story, but to the Orime, the world and all the things in it came to be not from violence or chaos, but from voices raised in song.

I see someone has read Tolkien.
 
1:3
1:3

Lotte woke to pain and confusion. She kicked out, grunting, feeling teeth at her ankles. Argh, where was…

She blinked into alertness, sitting up and grabbing her knife.

She could feel the rats on her, nibbling and squeaking, driven by some song she couldn't hear. Lotte slashed out at one of them, which went flying from the force of the blow, but the others kept on going as she crawled over towards the ladder down. She was glad she hadn't taken off her clothes last night, because now she had no time to get dressed.

Hilda had lit the fire, and was trying to use a broom to sweep them into it. Luckily it wasn't winter, or they wouldn't have the wood for it, but even so it didn't seem to be working. The darkness was inky and complete, and it was just before midnight. The first sleep was just about over.

Lotte had planned to pray and leave what offerings she had to the night in the sacred hour around midnight between the two sleeps. She'd also thought about talking to the couple, but they might be busy, though she'd prefer if they were not busy in certain ways.

Aldrich, on the other hand, had clearly decided to use the time for different purposes.

"Lotte!" Hulda called, her voice hoarse. "We need to…"

"I know, I know," Lotte said. "Do you have a log?"

"I… yes."

Lotte ran over towards her, seeing that her husband had begun to get up too, writhing in pain. She picked up a medium-sized chunk of wood in one hand and brought it down on a rat scurrying past. It squished quite admirably, leaving a smear of gore on the floor as she brought it down a second, and a third time.

Lotte had a keen eye, and she hadn't missed once in all three times, though she missed the fourth swing. She climbed up the ladder one-handed, and began swinging somewhat wildly at where her bed was, making sure to avoid the bow. When she was sure the rats had all run, she grabbed her bow and began to string it, glaring down. "Keep sweeping. Don't let it get on fire."

"Argh!" Freidrich said, dancing about, still trying to dodge the rats.

Lotte carefully worked to restring her bow. If you kept a bow strung all the time, it'd go bad, and so she ignored the few rats that tried to bite at her, only occasionally swiping them aside.

"Keep them off balance. They're still animals."

"They can hear what we're saying!" Freidrich claimed.

Lotte had no idea whether or not that was true, but she also understood that it didn't matter. If you panicked then you were lost. The advantage hunters had over animals was that they could think, they could wait as patiently as an ambush predator, and yet also use tools, and their own ingenuity.

Animals, on the other hand, were given to panic and fear. So were people, sometimes.

So Lotte kept calm, and strung her bow as fast as she could, without making mistakes. Then she climbed down, stretching a little as she threw open the door and stepped out into the cool darkness of the night.

The moon was high overhead, and in the forest there was light that reminded her of Nachtmater. But it was, in truth, a lantern held by Lisbeth, who was standing next to her Master, who was playing a tune that even out here, Lotte couldn't hear. Perhaps it was made only for the ears of rats to hear?

Either way, Lotte had grabbed an arrow, and she drew her bow and took aim… at a tree a dozen feet to the right of Aldrich. A rat tried to bite at her heels, but her keen eyes and steady hand didn't let her register pain as she loosed the arrow.

It soared through the air before hitting the tree. Lotte then looked right at Aldrich, clearly aiming her bow now in his direction. She didn't get ready to loose. It should be one smooth motion, not something held at pain. But she could put an arrow through him, at this distance. She could miss, but there was a decent enough chance she wouldn't miss. He had to know the threat she meant.

Lotte wasn't sure whether it was a true threat or not.

She hoped she didn't have to try to put an arrow in a human. Not that she thought it'd be any easier to do it in a Sepult.

But it seemed like she might not have to decide. The rats swarmed her, but Aldrich looked like he was backing up. Casually, Lotte stomped on one of the rats as it tried to crawl up her leg. Her bare feet crunched the rat, and its death squirms were bizarre beneath her heel, but she kept on walking forward, into the mud of a field at midnight, still staring out into the forest. Lotte glanced at Lisbeth, saw a stiffness of her movements, and wondered how she could approve of it.

Finally, though, they turned away.

But oddly, the rats didn't stop trying to bite and attack, even though rats weren't like that. She'd dealt with rats before, there were traps you could make, though for the most part they were, if not harmless, than not exactly terrifying. They could even be cute, when they weren't getting into larders.

These rats weren't cute, and it was another hour before they finally seemed to remember they were animals and fled, desperate and afraid, breaking in one wave, most of them already dead.

Lotte tried to wipe her feet on the ground inside the cottage, glancing over at Freidrich. "This… is how it usually goes?"

"Worse," Hulga admitted. "They stop about now, but usually there's so many they can't escape and we can't sleep."

Lotte grit her teeth, still wiping her feet on the ground. "How does it continue after he's gone?"

"I'm not sure." Freidrich sighed. "We might as well get to sleep, I guess. You're going to kill him tomorrow, aren't--"

"No," Lotte said. "First, I need to pray. Second, I'm going to go to the Headman."

"I don't take no help from--"

"Dear, you've already hired help. If she wants to…"

"I am going to pray," Lotte said, glancing out towards the night, lips already beginning to form the words. "You can make your decision."

The fire was doused, and she stood in the darkness.

She prayed to a half-dozen Gods, her voice low and careful. There wasn't anything in particular she wanted, not even that Aldrich be waylaid, and yet the act of whispering the words, of sending them up in the air towards where the Gods were, felt as if it soothed something in her. Lotte smiled once she was done, dragged herself up to sleep.

******

Rolf was the village Headman, a red-bearded man whose distant ancestors might have come from up north, for how large he was, and how impressive his beard was. He had a huge nose, and small, beady little eyes, but his lips were wrenched into a smile when he saw Lotte approach.

Lotte knew that he was well-off enough that he had tenant farmers for the chunk of common and uncommon land he held, and thus he didn't have to work himself to the bone every day. Still, he was out there amid the dung and the crops, examining everything with a careful eye. He was available for anyone who wanted to come up to him, and indeed a village woman was consulting him as Lotte approached.

"I don't know what to do. He's made his pledge, and yet will he keep it?"

"If he does not, he disgraces himself in the eyes of all the women and men of the village. You can tell him I said that, Nette." His voice was a rumbling boom, like a falling tree. Whenever one fell in the forest, everyone knew, whether in the moment or afterwards. So too did his words have similar weight.

"Thank you, Rolf." The young woman gave a slight bow and hurried off, no doubt to her own duties.

"Ah, Lotte! I knew this day would come." He turned to face her, the smile on his face wide and eager.

Lotte's impressed admiration for the man only grew, to have known so much. "I'm surprised, but… it's good that you knew. There's a lot to discuss."

"Yes, of course. For one… is it my son, or my daughter? I have both, I'm sure you know." Rolf leaned in. "I always told your Pa that you were the wandering type, not the sort to want to press a claim in the same village you'd always been born in."

Lotte flushed, "N-no. Not that your children aren't perfectly good. I think." She hadn't met either of them, or if she had, only in passing without even a word spoken. "No, it's about the Rat Piper!"

"I think he already has an apprentice, that awful beast-woman," Rolf said, with a shake of his head, as if he were a priest informing someone of their coming demise. "But if you want for a profession, I am sure there are people in this village who could use with an apprentice--"

"I don't," Lotte said, thoroughly flustered by now, wishing she could start this conversation all over again. "I've become an adventurer, and Freidrich and Hulda hired me to help them with their Aldrich the Piper situation."

"Help with?" Rolf looked suspicious.

"I don't intend to hurt him, but he's tormenting them. He went out at midnight to have rats attack them in their sleep to keep them awake when they could be praying or preparing for second sleep." As Lotte spoke, her voice firmed up, hardening as it did. It wasn't right, what had been done to them, and not merely because Lotte had suffered through it too. "Even though you paid for them, he's still attacking them, and humiliating Freidrich."

"Gods know all the man has is pride, and not enough to cover himself in winter," Rolf said, with a dismissive wave of his hand. "But… this is disturbing. He's dealt with the rat problem caused by… well, perhaps by a spell gone awry." Rolf twisted his lips thoughtfully. "The Witch says that of course rats would gather, they always do with the right… but either way." He perked up. "What do you want me to do?"

"Tell him to stop it. He has to rely on the village to eat, at least if he stays there and doesn't want to eat rats. I doubt he's much of a hunter of anything else," Lotte said.

"I don't know if I can do that." Rolf admitted. He frowned deeper, though it was obscured by his bushy beard.

"If you talk to him, you'll see it. His own pride is strong enough that he'd rather make someone suffer or even die than take even a small insult. Could Freidrich have paid the price?"

"Probably. But barely. It wasn't a hard price, but he's never been a lucky man. He's no worse a farmer than anyone else, but if you told me he'd been cursed by the Gods for some unknown ill to have his seeds die, his body ache, for rain to hit especially hard on his poorer lands…"

Lotte winced. The life of a farmer was hard, the work of taking from the ground what you could. Lotte knew she had very little skill at it, but she also knew that skill was less important than luck. When the starving times came, everyone suffered. "Oh."

"Yes. But if you want me to talk to Aldrich, I have… thoughts about how I could keep him from getting into too much trouble or causing too much of it either." Rolf gave a laugh. "If you'd be willing to stick around. He knows you're involved, right?"

"He does now," Lotte admitted. She could still feel the pain from the few bites she'd taken. Lotte had bandaged them, but no doubt if she ran too much or worked too hard, they might bleed through and open up.

Lotte stuck around. She helped haul a few things around when asked, and kept an eye out for trouble, but it was as boring as working on the farm had been before. Still, it was just after suppertime, the sun high in the sky, when Aldrich came into the village.

Lotte had had breakfast, as only those who worked and those who were young or sick did. But she was looking forward to a large supper, and hopefully she'd have some sort of answer before dinner.

Either way, Aldrich seemed in a surprisingly good mood, right up until he saw Lotte.

At his back was Lisbeth, who was crouched behind him, her ears drooping and her whiskers surprisingly straight.

"What is she…" Aldrich begun, then coughed. "And what are you doing calling me here? I was merely going to purchase a few things and be gone."

"It's just that, Aldrich. Why don't you go back to my house," Rolf said, his voice soft and even wheedling. He leaned in. "It's a private talk, very confidential. But important."

"I… understand," Aldrich said, nerves showing in the way he looked at Lotte.

'Did you do this?' is what his gazed asked.

Lotte didn't reply, simply breathed in the air and the smell of dung and mud and grass, glancing over at Lisbeth.

"Girl. Go to the blacksmiths, you know what to ask for. I'll meet you there," Aldrich said. "Got it?"

He loomed over her, until at last Lisbeth nodded. "Yes, Master," she said, quietly.

Lotte, for her part, waited until Aldrich was out of sight before turning to Lisbeth. "May I walk you? I doubt there are dangers, but--"

"To a human, perhaps not," Lisbeth said. Her voice was carefully controlled, but Lotte had to guess she was alarmed. But even though Lotte had heard people speak against beast-people, surely it wasn't that dangerous to walk through a village, harming nobody.

"Either way, may I come along?"

"I suppose you may," Lisbeth said, and she began to walk, her tail's posture loosening a bit as she did. She wore a long, old looking dress, with a hole in it for the tail. It was different than what she'd worn before, but only slightly nicer.

They walked along the path into the village, moving rather slowly, all things considered.

"I saw you, holding the lantern," Lotte said, quietly.

"I didn't know," Lisbeth insisted. "I really didn't know that he was going to do that. He just told me to get a lantern and follow him." She was animated, her ears curling back but still flinching a little sometimes and her tail curling and swishing with a similar rapid pace.

Lotte watched it all, wishing that she knew more to be able to understand just the emotions being offset. "I believe you," Lotte said.

"Thank you."

"But I have to ask, why did the rats keep on going even after the piping stopped?"

"If you're skilled you can give orders that last hours. I've heard there's more you can do, and the more skilled you are, the more precise the orders can be." Lisbeth shook her head. "I'm only good enough to control rats while I'm playing. You'd think, being a rat-person, I'd have some special gift for it? But it feels mean, to make them do things. If you're good enough and know the right songs, you can get scared, miserable rats to fight to the death." She shuddered at the thought of that, her voice going lower. "It just seems a little… but I like piping, anyways. Sometimes."

Lotte wasn't sure she understood liking and hating something at the same time, but she didn't know what to say. "So, is there any way to block the rats ears?"

"If you block them, they can't hear. Supposedly. But rats have very good hearing."

Lotte opened her mouth to ask if Lisbeth had good hearing as well, but she realized that perhaps that was a little bit rude.

Lisbeth seemed to relax, as if she'd seen the question coming. "But what about you? You keep on asking about me."

"Well, my name is Lotte, did I already say that? And I'm a hunter. I like animals, and hunting, and I'm pretty good at tracking. I'm from the next village over and, uh… I like whittling." She gave a smile, feeling startlingly nervous.

Lisbeth laughed softly, for just a moment, her poise and reserve disappearing as her ears made a happy looking motion that was oddly… cute. "Well, what do you whittle?"

"I could give you an icon. For the Waldherz. There is probably one in that woods too," Lotte said.

"Oh, right. You know, that'd be pretty sweet of you, considering we're sort of enemies."

Lotte waved her hands, "Not really. I don't think you want to hurt anyone, and neither do I, not unless I have to. Even then, I've never done that before. Hurt someone. Animals, yes, but even then… never just for fun."

Once or twice, when she'd not been too desperate for another kill and yet more meat, she'd refrained from wounding shots because of what she imagined. She imagined the arrow entering their leg, and the slow, limping death that followed.

Only, Lotte didn't have that great of an imagination. It was hard for her to imagine things she hadn't seen, except by taking bits of what she had and just dressing them up like a straw doll. She'd done it before, and sometimes it was the only shot you could get. Sometimes you needed the animal.

"I understand." Lisbeth shrugged. "You don't have to justify yourself. Aldrich… sometimes he makes the rats dance for him. It's cute. But sometimes he gets really drunk, and he keeps on making them dance, not just for a few minutes, or an opening of their mind, or… but instead just on and on until they collapse."

Lotte shuddered. "That's…"

"It's what his Master always did, and his Master's Master," Lisbeth said. "He follows tradition. It keeps him steady."

"I suppose…"

Lisbeth stood up straight, a confident pose, but her whiskers were raised too in a way that reminded Lotte of hackles on a wolf. "You can't suppose. You can't know. You can't just show up and, what. Try to say he's bad." She lowered her voice yet further. "You're working against him."

"Yes," Lotte admitted openly.

Lisbeth blinked, slowly.

"I am working. It is against him. But I don't want to hurt him, and I don't want to hurt you. If he just leaves now, then nobody gets hurt, nothing bad happens."

"I couldn't stop him if I wanted to," Lisbeth protested.

From the smell of urine, they were awfully close either to the village pits or to the blacksmith. "Do you want to?"

Lisbeth took a long, long time to answer. In fact, she was about to step into the hut when she said, "...Yes." Then she turned, tail swaying, and was gone.

******

"Three days after today, Lotte," Rolf told her, as soon as she'd checked back in with him. "If he's not gone from this village by then, we start to call in the lords, we take up the pitchforks, we don't serve him or his vile apprentice anything. How about that? We drive 'em out, then, and you just keep him from doing anything too much to the farmer."

"Thank you," Lotte said.

It was more than she'd feared he'd be able to do.

What next?

[] Talk to some of the villagers, try to convince them to refuse Aldrich service early, try to carefully and politely convince them that something had to be done. Now, not in three days.
[] Try to find a way to get Lisbeth alone again. She seemed as if she was being talked around, though her power to stop Aldrich seemed low. But… she was in distress, and Lotte didn't want to leave her in that state.
[] Stalk Aldrich. Follow him just out of his sight. Be sneaky, be cunning, figure out what he has planned, and perhaps do something to let him know he's not welcome.

*******

A/N: Lotte is a dork.
 
Everything went better than expected!

[x] Try to find a way to get Lisbeth alone again. She seemed as if she was being talked around, though her power to stop Aldrich seemed low. But… she was in distress, and Lotte didn't want to leave her in that state.

So we've got the villagers on-side; keep talking Lisbeth around, and when the three days are up, Aldrich will hopefully be alone. Unable to escalate, out of options.
 
[x] Try to find a way to get Lisbeth alone again. She seemed as if she was being talked around, though her power to stop Aldrich seemed low. But… she was in distress, and Lotte didn't want to leave her in that state.
 
[X] Stalk Aldrich. Follow him just out of his sight. Be sneaky, be cunning, figure out what he has planned, and perhaps do something to let him know he's not welcome.
 
Ah. So that's how it is.

[X] Try to find a way to get Lisbeth alone again. She seemed as if she was being talked around, though her power to stop Aldrich seemed low. But… she was in distress, and Lotte didn't want to leave her in that state.

This will end well.
 
[X] Stalk Aldrich. Follow him just out of his sight. Be sneaky, be cunning, figure out what he has planned, and perhaps do something to let him know he's not welcome.

Wood stalker Lotte. I like how it sounds.
 
[X] Try to find a way to get Lisbeth alone again. She seemed as if she was being talked around, though her power to stop Aldrich seemed low. But… she was in distress, and Lotte didn't want to leave her in that state.

I noted Rolf said his 'vile apprentice'.

The casual racism is going to be an issue.
(For some reason it kept autocorrecting to fascism)
 
[X] Stalk Aldrich. Follow him just out of his sight. Be sneaky, be cunning, figure out what he has planned, and perhaps do something to let him know he's not welcome.

I think we've been bothering Lisbeth enough for now...
 
[X] Try to find a way to get Lisbeth alone again. She seemed as if she was being talked around, though her power to stop Aldrich seemed low. But… she was in distress, and Lotte didn't want to leave her in that state.

Even with the virulent bigotry, I imagine more than a few villagers would start paying attention if we could get her to do something like publicly and honestly talk about her feelings and experiences with Aldrich and his vengeance. In this trial of public opinion a man's own apprentice speaking out has to count for a lot. Not too many would be too stupid to speak of ingratitude and treachery when knowing what a cruel and evil master could do to her in response. Apprentices aren't just corporate interns they're family, legal dependents, and all that is great when it's someone from the neighboring village who you can always call in your folks over if they get too much, but less so if you only have your scant legal rights to protect you like Lisbeth. For all that he has done if it is framed right I don't think Aldrich would stoop to the kind of cruelties he could do to Lisbeth, but we would have to be very careful.
 
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