"I did.  They didn't cover anywhere by those names." 

Wei Wuxian turns back to the group.  "Looks like we must have wound up pretty far, then!  That's exciting, isn't it.  We'll get to learn so many new things.  And get to try new foods, maybe?  The strange array of stones over in the direction we came grabbed us before we had a chance to eat dinner last night, and the abandoned hut we took shelter in didn't have food either.  What sort of tavern or other place could we go to buy breakfast from and maybe be told some more things about this place?" He makes an exaggerated hungry gesture.  Wei Wuxian can sense Jiang Cheng behind him tensing up at the informality, but these people look scared and maybe Wei Wuxian can calm them down by letting them know that they are also normal people who eat breakfast.

"Well sirs, we can certainly provide a breakfast. We have some good sourdough bread, and we have cheese. The old stone circle up in the hills we think is from before the coming of Chaos. Before the dragon war. There used to be a shaman who studied it but he left just after we founded this village." 

"We're hosting the visiting shamans! Eger, go get the good cheese. Wine too. Mits, start heating up your oven!" The people visibly relax with this announcement, and having something to do. The named parties start wandering off to do what was asked.

"What was the dragon war?" Nie Huaisang asks once there aren't quite so many people around. 

"Oh, it's ancient history. In time immemorial, when our ancestors were great and mighty, they were bid to conquer the land and make it useful, to turn forest to farm and mountain to mine. But the dragons those evil creatures, them and the other forces of chaos, grew restless and slaughtered in anger wherever they went. The dragon war was the rising of Chaos, when the god of dragons nearly destroyed the whole world. Everything was ruined and humanity only barely survived."

"Huh.  Most of our stories about dragons have them being benevolent and wise.  Not that anyone has seen one in living memory.  Just lots of statues and embroidery designs."

That gets a few scowls and a muttered swear! "No sirs, I don't know where you've been that worships dragons or something, but they are foul beasts. Wise? Capable of low cunning, perhaps, but hardly wise. Pests that steal livestock, set fires, and kill good men whenever they can get away with it, if not driven off or slain by fire and sword."

"Anything that kills people or damages property is definitely bad," Wei Wuxian agrees readily.  "They'd be something that a cultivator would go out and kill.  It's just that we don't have any stories of dragons specifically doing such things!"

"It sounds like you're very far from home. You'll find most people have stories about dragons. In fact, I've heard there's one stalking Goldvalley, that being the city of Goldvalley where the King lives, now - a young one, but growing more bold and dangerous quickly. Would you also hunt down great-brown-ones and changebeasts and demons and ghosts, at your home?"

"Cultivators hunt down anything supernatural that cause problems for people.  Undead are the most common problems we get hired to deal with - ghosts, water ghouls, walking corpses, and fierce corpses, from people who were killed by betrayal or failed to get a proper burial, or had their graves robbed and then we have to go re-bury the ghost and also usually bury the grave robbers too because the ghost got to them.  Then there's yao and demons and monsters of all kinds, animals and objects that have gotten too close to resentful energy and changed into something else."

"It sounds like you do things differently than the shamans we know, lord shaman? We had a visiting shaman come through here last autumn, to look at those rocks I think. But I wouldn't say shamans hunt things down usually. That tends to be the Guard's job, shamans are about talking more. They're good for burials and ghosts though, yes."

"We do more than just attack things until they stop moving.  If the spirit isn't pacified properly it will just come back, and if resentful energy isn't cleared it will continue to warp animals or spawn monsters.  It does involve a lot of fighting, usually, to get past the monsters and to the heart of the problem, and cultivators are better at that part too since we can fly and are so much more durable."

"That does sound more shamanish. And whatever you are doing to make yourself understood is shamanish. We're honored to have such skilled visitors." He looks over at one of the houses. "Be welcome. If you're hungry now, lord shamans, there is yesterday's stew and some wine, but a proper meal will have to wait a little while. If you wish to rest, Master Hemmensteb has volunteered his home for the day and night. He is a hunter and so it is perhaps less lacking than the others."

Mollified that the man agrees that cultivators are indeed magic, Jiang Cheng will respond with awkward but genuine thanks to the welcome, going through the various formalities that would be expected for such a situation if they were home. 

"We would appreciate the chance to rest and consider our situation," he says, "and the stew, if it's available."  Jiang Cheng has reached his full adult height but is still young enough to look gangly from it and has also only just been let out of classes at Cloud Recesses and months of the terrible food there.  He will eat just about anything.

They can have stew! It's mostly onion and carrot and celery with thin stock and a bit of venison and salt mixed in. And the use of a larger stone hut that actually has two separate rooms (kitchen and bedroom) and a reasonably large and comfy bed. Overall the locals seem to be treating them like - mistrustful, but if all they want is food and a bed, better to just oblige than have a fight.

Their visitors also don't want a fight.  As the crowd is beginning to disperse Jiang Cheng quietly asks the person who seems in charge whether it's customary to pay for things before or after staying, whether gold or silver are acceptable currencies, and if they ought to track down everyone providing things individually or if the village has an internal set-up for distributing the payment in this sort of case.  Given how far away they are, it's possible that those are different than he's used to as well. 

Well, it's just good hospitality to help out people who need a bed for a night, especially if they're noble warriors (hint hint). One night, at least. Gold is preferred to silver, here. It's in the name and they have too much silver ever since Old Bearkiller came back with carts of it recovered from a dragon hoard a decade ago.