Winner by vast majority 1 – B – II – Yes. As for theories, I'll see what I can do merging them, as always
And, good job deciding to ask some questions
56 – Some new information
You start to give your report to Lord Medah and Jacob. You decide to go for a detailed recount of the various events, reasoning that it's better to say everything if you are allowed to. Also, you will keep to the cold facts, you do not want to seem a braggart or, worse, a liar who is trying to impress them. They listen attentively, asking you many questions. You do, however, avoid telling them of the metal artifact and its blue and purple flames. You are not sure they would believe you, and besides, you do not want to tell anyone about it until you know something more.
Your tale is rather long, and by then end of it three hours have passed by. Once you are done talking Lord Medah asks you what you think of these events. You tell him that you think these enemies to be part of some foreign force, who are not above using locals as spies before killing them. You venture that these people may also come from underground, as they are extremely pale, act mainly during the night and use giant centipedes. You stress the fact that they wanted the documents carried by the Royal Courier Service, and so it would be nice to know what was inside. About the thunderstorms instead, you suggest it may be a force targeting these centipede-using enemies.
Lord Medah and Jacob are mulling over your report, and after hesitating a bit you decide to ask what they know about the enemies, the tattooed men, and these seemingly magic events.
Lord Medah smiles.
"I imagined you would ask this, young Kyoss. You did very well in this mission, you are obviously a bright young man. I would have been disappointed if you hadn't tried to ask. Desire for knowledge is a good trait, and it's nice to see you're confident enough to ask."
His expression becomes somber
"I will tell you what I can. I do not like to lie, so I will not. But you must understand there are some things I cannot say. The king himself has ordered me to keep certain... details private, at least for now. I'll give you my word that once he allows me to tell more to my retainers, I'll also tell you. You will have to accept this."
"Now, about the strange, global darkness that covered our kingdom about a week ago, I can honestly tell you I know nothing. To our knowledge, something like this ever happened before, and I and Jacob have no clue. Maybe someone in the capital knows more, but if so, I have not been told anything. We will of course do what we can, study old books, try to ask our neighbours, and even ask in faraway lands if possible. For now, just keep your eyes peeled, and if it does happen again, please be careful."
"About the enemies that use centipedes. I am afraid I cannot tell you much. The king forbade us to talk about it. I can tell you a few things, but just because you already know quite a bit. Yes, we knew about them, a little at least. The first sightings were two years ago, and I was immediately sent here to Bitak in order to prepare for the oncoming, likely unavoidable fight. Though it may be a full scale war rather than a limited engagement. There are still a lot of things we do not know of them. Right now, we are trying to prepare as much as possible for it all."
"However we are still lacking a lot of information, which is why what you discovered just two days ago might be crucial. We had no idea that the tattooed men were somehow... linked to the centipedes, and that killing them would throw the centipedes in disarray. This will be an extremely important piece of information later on. I cannot tell you anything else, all the rest is confidential. But, do try to be careful, and keep you eyes open. The more we discover, the better."
"About magic, well I suppose I can tell you a bit more. Yes, magic does exist, though it is incredibly rare. Supposedly once it was not so, during the mighty kingdom of Avarlos magic was a lot more common for example. Nowadays, it's so rare in this part of the world that you're not likely to meet a magic user in your entire life. It is a bit more common in some other nations, or so I am told. There is also some sort of magic that extremely pious individuals can use, though it's not as strong apparently. Those people say that their magic comes, so to speak, from the gods they revere."
"At any rate, what you, Kalz and Lord Tilash described seems magic indeed, and we have a few more reports about this. But an event of that magnitude would mean from what I know the work of a group of magic users, or an extremely powerful individual. More than this I cannot tell you, the little I know I am forbidden to divulge. It is ironic really, once these lands housed the foremost experts of the entire continent as far as magic goes, and now so much knowledge has been lost..."
"But enough of my ramblings. You need to rest for a week right?. Once you can move around and feel you can work again, come and talk to Jacob, I'm sure we'll find something useful for you to do. Now go, rest, heal and relax, you earned it."
With this you leave and retire to your room. You immediately fall asleep. The next week is rather slow. You planned to study some, but you guess you were really exhausted and the injury did not help. You end up sleeping most of the time, recovering from your ordeal. The only thing you do is go once a day to get your ointment and bandage renewed. Jacob also has your reward given to you, 30 silver pieces. Not bad at all for a two months work.
(You have gained 30 silver pieces)
You returned to Bitak a week ago. You're now feeling better, though you're still not healed. According to the healer you need to keep your arm at rest for another two weeks but you feel well enough to move a bit at least. You wonder what you should do. You could study, you could go to some stores, you could even go to Jacob immediately, though you're not yet required to do so. For sure you cannot train physically though...
What do you want to do? Write down your proposals, each one of you can vote for as many things as you want. Since you have up to two weeks before reporting back, you might want to use them. Or you might want to report back immediately. Up to you.
I'll pick the most voted options at first, then maybe depending on what you do I'll let you choose again. If you need it, update #19 had a list of possibly interesting places. Or you can do something else entirely.
One thing I promised though, one more vote for the currently studied book. Unless you buy something else, what do you want to study now in your study time?
1) Book about the art of healing (Not studied yet)
2) Book about plants, herbs, and extracting useful substances from them (Not studied yet)
3) Book about the art of eloquence (Partially studied)
4) Book with the History of Eskal (Not studied yet)
5) Book of heraldly (Not studied yet)
6) Book of old stories, legends and myths (Not studied yet)