My apologies for taking so long with this; it proved difficult to write. On top of that, real life demanded a great deal of my time this past week.
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The shrine will hold for a little while longer, you think. You decide to seek out the source of the wrongness that you feel.
You turn around in a circle, trying to gauge which direction the sensation comes from. It is tricky to tell, but it seems to be in the direction you were going, only off to your left a little. You head that way, and soon conclude that this is indeed the right direction: your sense of unease grows rapidly as you walk.
You are shivering hard from the cold and the fear, and squinting to see in the dim light, when you come upon what you seek.
A young man – younger even than you, still a boy really – is leaning heavily against a tree. His dark hair is longish (though shorter than yours) and tangled with twigs and leaves, and his hazel eyes are exhausted. His clothes, practical clothing much like your own, are torn and streaked with dirt and grass stains.
The dark-haired stranger is staring into a clearing from the shelter of the trees around it. In the center of the clearing stands another man, this one a full-grown adult who looks a little older than you, with eyes closed and head thrown back. He is neatly dressed in the kinds of robes often favored by wizards, and his blond hair is cropped short in the style common to larger cities. His arms are thrown wide and you notice with dread that dark tendrils coil around them and stretch out of the clearing... in the direction of the Mirayuki Shrine.
What would you like to do now?
Inventory:
Equipped:
Traveling Clothes: trousers, undershirt, overtunic, rope belt, straw hat, walking boots
Walking Staff: sturdy, can be leaned on or used as a weapon
Glasses: without these, your vision could generously be described as ‘bad’
In your backpack:
Food: enough to last you five days, most of it bread and dried fruit
Flask: contains enough drinkable water to last you six days
Tinder and flint: to start fires with
Knife: a sharp implement suitable for cutting things or striking against the flint to make sparks; using it as a weapon is possible, but not recommended
Wooden Case: contains a spare pair of glasses, in case yours break
Spare Clothes: spare trousers, shirt, and tunic
The Word:
You can currently take up to 5 points of backlash without consequence. You have taken 2 points of backlash so far.
Words Known:
Comprehension: Allows you to understand any creature. Backlash 2.
Repairing: Perform minor repairs on an object. Backlash 1.
Sealing: Maintain the seals that bind the Fell. Backlash 4. You also know how to construct such seals, but you are not yet powerful enough to do so without severely hurting yourself (Backlash 10).