The caravan to Elidir assembled along Saringallow\u2019s riverfront, which is close to the warehouse district. This presented problems for repeating my \u201coffer Iskaryn as a scout\u201d strategy, as that required calling her back to me; essentially doing the exact opposite of what I had been warned about. I was fretting about this all morning.<\/span><\/p>\n As it turned out, I needn\u2019t have worried. There\u2019s a large temple to Erastil here, and thus no shortage of wardens, scouts, trackers, and guides, many with animal companions. This caravan had <\/span>two<\/span><\/i> already, and Iskaryn\u2019s services would not be needed.<\/span><\/p>\n The money I earned with Nish is going up in smoke. Three nights of nothing but expenses, followed by this.<\/span><\/p>\n But I wasn\u2019t done. After all, if I am going to bleed coins, I might as well do it properly.<\/span><\/p>\n I realized I\u2019d been taking my own safety for granted, especially given the stories about Isger\u2014those walls in Saringallow exist for a reason. Yes, the Conerica River and its northern branch are patrolled, but they can\u2019t be everywhere at once. All the merchants in this caravan (and the last one) wore some form of protection, and most of the travelers did as well.<\/span><\/p>\n And there was the same problem I had on the first day out of Petitioner\u2019s Port: the look that says \u201cshe needs protecting\u201d and the offers that follow.<\/span><\/p>\n Fuck that.<\/span><\/p>\n Nish put a stop to it last time just through proximity, but I needed to solve it for good on my own. So I purchased some simple leather armor.<\/span><\/p>\n Iskaryn was pissed off about it. One, I bought it without her there <\/span>because we were in Saringallow<\/span><\/i>, and two, because it cost me much of what I have left. Which suggests she would have tried to bully me out of it.<\/span><\/p>\n We must have been overdue for a row because we had a proper one when the caravan stopped for lunch. Thankfully, we both had the presence of mind to do it away from the group, so all I got was a bunch of concerned looks instead of hostile glares.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll need that money when we get to Breachill,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n I countered, \u201cIt\u2019ll do me no good if I\u2019m dead.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou have <\/span>me<\/span><\/i> to watch for trouble and warn you!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t deflect arrows and blades!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t know how long it will take to find them! What if you run out?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSays the bird who forced me to buy that <\/span>fucking journal!<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n We attracted the attention of one of the hawks, a companion to one of our trackers, and it landed on the ground and glared at us. And, yes, I know what it looks like when a bird glares, because I have <\/span>experience<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n Regardless, I wasn\u2019t in the mood for a nanny\u2013already got one in the form of <\/span>her nibs<\/span><\/i>\u2013or a social critic. \u201cWe\u2019re <\/span>fine!<\/span><\/i>\u201d I yelled at it. \u201cShe\u2019s just being an <\/span>ass!<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It looked at me, then at Iskaryn, who screeched at it indignantly. Then it flew off. I have no idea if it understood me or not, but the message was apparently received.<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ve both cooled a bit, though I can feel the occasional flare of disapproval from her direction. If she had hands, she\u2019d be wringing them. Or throwing them up. Possibly both.<\/span><\/p>\n She isn\u2019t wrong about the money.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m not wrong about the armor.<\/span><\/p>\n And that\u2019s the problem. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Conerica Straits afternoon The caravan to Elidir assembled along Saringallow\u2019s riverfront, which is close to the warehouse district. This presented problems for repeating my \u201coffer Iskaryn as a scout\u201d strategy, as that required calling her back to me; essentially doing the exact opposite of what I had been warned about. I was fretting about this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-5397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aoa-vignettes","tag-aemi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5398,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5397\/revisions\/5398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}