"Probably, yes. Three monster encounters in two weeks of travel through the wild... No, I think we'd have had to fight something every day, maybe twice, travelling north-eastern Europa. When I was so afraid the first few days, it was mostly- Being alone and in the dark, especially."

"I do think we got pretty lucky, and the route is probably traversed and cleared out by raiders on the regular too."

"Much like the nobles up here keep things clear, or that village would have NEEDED walls."

"Villages that size have walls where you're from? The farmhouses were pretty far out and they looked to be most of the residences associated with the place, and if something came by they'd have a job getting inside the walls in time to turtle up."

"They do. The houses are tight around a little square, no scattered farmhouses, and there's at least a palisade wall and a watchtower. I mean... I never actually SAW this, but the City Frostbound's outposts were fortified this way and were about that size, maybe a hundred people at most, and the books were pretty consistent on it, and so was the Encyclopedia of Paris..."

"How do they farm like that, do they just - walk all the way out to the field every time?"

"You know how steam or explosions can produce motive force? You can move a cart or a plow like that."

"Oh! That would definitely make it make sense, then, maybe everybody'll do that once you've gotten Golarion up to speed."

"It will be pretty great! It's going to be so, so staggeringly expensive! I think spellsilver refining is probably the best project on getting rich quickly, still."

"Absolutely, yeah. I don't know if Taldor's the place to do it, but getting oriented before we try to get on a boat is worthwhile."

"...They might make us wait to make us feel unimportant. Or genuinely be busy. If it's more than a few more minutes I'll ask if we should check back later."

"Yeah. We could find out what's up with the other two churches maybe."

But it's not much longer before the page comes running back and says that the baron's brother will see them in his study.

She makes sure to ask for the Baron's brother's name and title, to show the proper respect, of course.

"The lord Maro, ma'am."

The office is in the castle on the ground floor and has its own entrance onto a little veranda, though it looks like it'd be easy to bar if the castle were under attack. The baron's brother is pretty young, probably not even thirty, and dressed up nicely with a cloak and a ring that at least aren't obviously not magic. "Adventuresses!" he says. "What brings you through Fourchurches?"

She's not even thirty so she's not inclined to judge.

"Good afternoon, lord Maro. We did some hunting in the mountains and caves, and now we're a bit turned around-" It's not even a lie, just a creative presentation of events. "We're planning on heading to the coast eventually, but it's only polite to present ourselves. Not to mention- Five silver tolls will add up so it's also prudent to look for work on the way. Belmarniss also had a thought to trade spells with the Baron's wizard if it's convenient."

"Ask if the wizard speaks Draconic, it's a common academic language and won't wreck the illusion that I don't speak Taldane."

A nod to Belmarniss. "Very well." Smooth, confident, casual, unsurprised. That's who she needs to be right now, to talk to a noble.

"-My friend speaks Draconic, and is wondering if the wizard we've heard your house employs might as well."

"I believe he reads it, I suppose I don't know how his pronunciation is. I'll send someone to see if he wants to be introduced." He does that, calling over another page or possibly the same one, there seems to be a uniform. "As for work, the immediate environs are pretty clear, but we had been meaning to investigate rumors of will-o-wisps in the swamp out past Chillbriar, if that sort of thing would interest you."

"Perhaps... One moment."

"-Do you know much about will'o'wisps? I've heard of half a dozen variations. From actual ghosts to ambush predators. I can arrange my lights into a distinctive pattern to avoid tricks..."

"I haven't exactly met one socially. They feed on fear, and they've got spell resistance like crazy but it doesn't work on Magic Missile, if I recall right? And they fly around, they're probably hard to hit with anything short of it, so I'd want to go in with a lot of Missiles prepped. We can probably handle it but hopefully if they're a known hazard in the region we can get someone to corroborate what I've read."

"I'm having ideas about proximity fuses... Or timers for different ranges... Tricky." 

"That does sound like the sort of thing that interests us, possibly with a bit more prep or someone who knows the area to point us in the right direction. Are will'o'wisps historically a problem for Chillbriar?"

"They've got a swamp, but it varies how much of a nuisance any given sort of swamp creature is in any given year."

"So the goal would be to check if it's really will'o'wisps or something else, and nab a couple to prune the problem back?"

"Right, and they're bright enough that they'll lie low if they notice they're being picked off."

Nod, nod.

"I'm not necessarily happy about hunting these things if they're smart, but if they're murdering people... Any ideas on how to politely broach payment?"