Part 1 - Night of Deadly Stars

Milo listens intently with a furrowed brow. "I see, and you would be wanting us to find out about them for you?" The monk asks, with some skepticism underling his voice, "or were you hoping for something more drastic from us?"

The words "probing our defenses..." are echoed as Robon repeats part of the conversation. "I'm sorry Jon, did you want us to look into this, or were you just curious if we knew anything about it?" The nature of the meeting makes Robon skeptical, but he's not uninterested in the prospect of further work, even if sleuthing isn't his forte.

Ygne, to this point, had been noisily downing her meal---a small tray of boiled mutton and millet bread---picking the meat with her fingers and shoveling it into her mouth. She narrows her eyes a bit at the elder as he sits down with them, but seems unable to be too distracted from her meal. At one point she stops, a full slice of bread pinched between her teeth, as she starts scratching under her left arm. Eventually she pulls out another bur from the prickly bush she'd fallen into days ago, flicking it away with a grunt before resuming her meal.

At the mention that their food and beds would be free, Ygne very casually waves down a barmaid and signals for another order of meat and drink. She does not seem surprised by the generosity, perhaps downright expecting it. "Only weak, squishy cowards wear masks. Sounds like a bunch a' freaks," Ygne blurts out behind half a mouthful of food, "Of course we'll teach 'em a lesson."

"How much-.." She pauses, swallowing her food and taking a quick swig of water before continuing, "How much does that kind of thing pay around here?"

Milo stands from his seat, "Well if we were to refuse we could just as easily be in danger being here. Where is your sick house? I haven't time to train your people to fight, but I can certainly teach them the basics of healing." Once he has his heading, Milo turns to his friends. "I understand if you do not want to stay and help them with me, but I do hope that you will. You all have grown on me somewhat." He heads out the tavern, elated at the excuse to teach the locals his trade.

He leaves and heads to where Jon presumably told him, a large wooden building resembling a church. Once he gets there he finds a somewhat sorry sight: archaic medicine. In the large, one-story, open area inside the sick house he finds rows of cots. Some have sick or injured in them, but not too many. However, those in charge of taking care of the sick and infirm is almost entirely composed of a coven of nuns, with a few volunteers as well. After a quick discussion with the head nun, Milo is unpleasantly met with the information that the nuns still practice bleeding and following the four humors.

Over the next few hours he assists in taking care of anyone who is ill and infirm to quickly empty the sick house best he can. Once done, and only the truly in trouble patients remain, he gathers all the workers. "Forgive me for my criticism, but you all are harming far more than you are helping. Forget all that you have been taught, and embrace my teachings." He says sternly, almost nastily, then catches himself "...please. I don't mean to undermine any of your traditions or leaders, but it is far to important too save people." He exhales, and returns to his composed smile.
"Be who you want to be, not who you have been." He thinks to himself, always remembering his teaching from master Jihao.

He gathers some tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables so that he can have them all practice stitching. "Its not unlike mending a garment." He says aloud to the group as he demonstrates. "You will notice that fluids will get on you as you sew it up. When that happens, finish your task and then go wash your hands in a fresh basin. We will need water to be dumped and more received nonstop." Then he moves on to more first aid, including putting pressure on wounds and burning wounds closed. Though when he gets frustrated he becomes quickly angry and sometimes says harsh things, Milo usually reels himself back in or apologizes.

He spends the majority of his time there for as long as they have.

With a loud scoff at the elder, Ygne boasts, "Havin' me on yer side's all ya need!"

"It isn't just blis-.. balt.. bols.." She pauses, brow knitted together as she works through the word, "Bolst... er..? Bliss.. blister. Blistering! It isn't jus' blistering yer ranks when you're gettin' Ygne th' Monster on yer side!" Ygne has a big, confident grin on her face, sitting tall and proud in her chair. She lets out a hearty belch, soon receiving her new plate of mutton that she begins to gobble up.

"Sure, I can help," says Robon. "I've got experience working as a guard so I'd be happy to pass some of that on to the town. Give me a bit of time to think up how the best way to teach people this would be. Fair?" the forgeborn asks Jon.

Robon motions the others near to it, and whispers, "we need to discuss this later. There's a missing variable in this equation, and I'd like to know what it is before we commit to anything. Not that I'm opposed to helping out here, but maybe we should look around a bit first. What do you think?"

"A missin' what in the what?" Ygne says all too loudly, mouth once again half-full of food. She swallows down the mutton, and as she picks her teeth with her thumb she replies, "They put food in Ygne's belly, so Ygne'll kill for 'em. Simple as that!"

"I'll walk 'round with you, but when those porkalin mask cowards come 'bout, I'll gut 'em with my spear if they try anythin' funny." She belches once more, shoving her plate of food over to Robon, "Here, eat. It's the only way you'll get as strong n' brave as I am!" Ygne grins, sitting tall and proud in her chair.

Initiative