"No."

"No."

"Not yet!"

"What country are you from?"

"Ah, that! I think is a secret for now. We'd rather not be noticed. There was some-" she frowns, "-Magic, in that snowstorm, I think. Maybe all for the best that I don't look too hard."

Viatrix grins. "I won't judge you for leaving home behind, travel is a sacrament! And I won't pry if you want to keep it a secret. Instead I'll ask, where do you want to go next? It sounds like you don't know your way around here yet." Any  proper Avistani adventurer would know at least some Taldane.

She pulls out a map of the continent and a compass ("travel sacrament, very important"). "We're here, on Mendev's Worldwound border. The wardstones are about five miles west, that way" - she points - "Kenabres is south. Pretty much nothing of interest north - that I know of! - unless you go all the way over the Crown of the World and to Tian Xia. I really don't recommend it, better to take the long way round, or save up for a few plane shifts."

"Also if you have any interests other than traveling and seeing stuff and moving on without even getting a good night's rest" - glare at Viatrix, but without much force - "I recommend you speak up before she sends you packing to Arcadia."

    "Sleep in all you want, it's your loss if you miss the sunrise."

"I don't get up to see you watch the sun rise, I get up to make sure you're not watching it three miles away!"

    "You're just jealous because I climbed another wizard's tower to watch it."

"You snuck into a wizard tower and the most interesting thing you found to watch was the sun rise! How can you be so blind?"

The other men turn their heads back and forth rapidly, like watching a spectator sport.

"Anyway," Viatrix says when Otho seems to run out of steam, "what would you like to do?"

"Well the worldwound sounds somewhat concerning and I can ASSUME it was the source of those CONSTRUCTS so I'd like to make a WEAPON that will serve a little bit better than LIGHTNING as glorious as it is, perhaps some kind of ACID SPRAYER, but then, my WORKSHOP is nowhere to be found and where would I even GET acid at this time of day. There's always a nice STEAM EXPLOSION, very good stuff, or some SPINNING BLADES, yes, something that extends but that requires continuous power input and- BAH! I'm ranting again!"

"Demons aren't constructs. I mean, no-one makes them, they just - appear in the Abyss? Grow out of the poor souls sent there, is the common understanding."

"And yeah, demons are immune to lightning, anything else is better. They're usually resistant to acid and fire and so on too, but that's easy to solve, just use more acid. The spinning blades should be cold iron to really hurt them, or enchanted Good if you can afford that." This translates as - magically imbued with the one of the fundamental forces of the universe, which is metaphysically the same as being nice to people.

"What do you need in a workshop? Kenabres is the closest city - a big walled town really, it's no grand metropolis." Otho finally got to see Absalom last year, and he will judge all other cities from now on. "It's got smithies, alchemists, probably nothing fancy. No famous wizards, although I think Terendelev is one? She's their local silver dragon."

"We're headed to Kenabres ourselves, we need to raise Cinna and Corvus - the archer who got dropped, and the fighter caught by that lightning. I'm not strong enough to do it myself yet. They're insured, we all are, so we need to find a church of Abadar and then any fifth circle cleric who'll take our coin. You're welcome to join us, but of course if you do want to go somewhere else we'll try to help you anyway."

"Oh, good, you can get them back!"

Phew! It makes her feel less guilty for not having done enough in the fight. And it makes perfect sense that they'd only reanimate people in certain places. Sparks specialize, and reanimation sounds like tricky business. She definitely couldn't reanimate so much as a rat.

"Right... I'm still pretty confused by like three quarters of the things you say, but hey! Bold new world, adventure of a lifetime because it's the first one I've ever gone on! Let's ignore the shakes I still have because those things were damned scary! Giant moles don't really count. Uh. If you all don't mind, having shot at 'demons' together sounds like a nice beginning to- An alliance. Logistics wise, I'll need to make my own workshop soon, but being able to buy, like, furniture, and bar stock, and glass, will help. Not that I have any money. I'm going to have to do maintenance on this thing and maybe a nap before I go anywhere. Oh, I'll need a bunch of coal or I guess firewood. To charge it."

"We have firewood. And fireplaces, and I think there's an old smithy but it hasn't been used in decades."

"This place was an abandoned old village, now it's way station behind the border - the Wardstone line. We weren't expecting to be attacked here! The demons can't cross the wards, they kill them or knock them out and the patrols mop up the ones who make it. This lot must have been very lucky. Too bad we couldn't finish them off; they'll go harass civilians who can't fend them off." She looks glum. "Tracking flyers is hard. Otho's got a flight spell but it only lasts a few minutes."

"Now we have to go back to Kenabres for the raises, and then back out here because we still haven't seen the 'wound. Not that it's a great sight, but we do want to do some Good along the way, at least help the patrols out for a bit."

She frowns and crosses her arms, still standing in the huge armor.

"...If flying enemies immune to lightning are common I'm sure I can come up with some IDEAS given time and money, but RESOURCES are always a constraint. I'm sure there are people like you who might buy some of the wonderful things I can make- If a smithy is notable, well, steel armor and spears, yes, like the age of the Storm King. If nothing else I can make a ton of steam guns or lamps or powered carts - or my mining drill - though with this terrain it might be easier to do full WALKERS, there's not a lot of snow to sled on... I just don't know what yet! But uh. Frankly, I'm gonna need money for any of that and would appreciate tips on how to get some. We didn't trade much. And like. Doing good is good and all, but doing good with a stick and your underwear..."

Eh, if these people are going to murder her for being a Spark, they're being pretty subtle about it. She clambers up and out of the wide armor suit, wearing thick full-covering leather, though its style is very odd. She walks around to the back of her armor and hisses in displeasure at the damage. Torn leather, bent steel, mangled rubber and wires, especially at the joints, particularly the right knee.

"And maybe point me to that smithy to work on this, if nothing else it's out of the snow."

They back off a bit. "What's that about the Storm King?" Otho says carefully. "Far as anyone's heard, he's still in Iz, ever since the crusade broke his latest army. It's been a few years, though..."

"Might be a different Storm King. The time of the Storm King was thousands of years ago."

She is fussing with latches and bolts and cursing under her breath.

"Oh. Well the - current - Storm King is Khorramzadeh, leader of the demon horde. He's a balor, which is about as powerful as demons get before they're demon lords. Known for using lightning, which is how he got the name. People round here have a lot of recent bad memories... Demons are immortal, so I guess it could be the same one from thousands of years ago?"

"Anyway. You can get paid for fighting demons and patrolling, but that's make your way money, not get rich quick money. You can do stuff for people, but you can't always find the right job quickly. Or you can go fight demons and cultists and take their stuff. The main problem with that is needing money to make stuff to fight demons with! It can be a virtuous circle, but it's slow to start and you might have to stick in one place for a while." That's another reason being a cleric is the best, you don't need to buy as much stuff.

"Maybe you can sell knowledge. Or get loans! I'm sure a lot of people will want to buy your guns, I just have no idea who might pay before you have guns to sell." The word is a bit obscure but she knows they're some kind of projectile weapon. "We don't stick in places around long enough for business ventures."

"If you want to stick around with us - I don't want to commit yet, let's spend a little time together first, get to know each other better." She ran a surreptitious Detect Evil earlier and Waltana's not that, but there's lots of other things she could be, what if she's Lawful or has weird dietary restrictions or something. "Then if you join, we can share some expenses and front you some money until you're up on your feet. But, fair warning, if you're the type who needs to set up in one place with a workshop and so on, we'll be a poor fit, we do want to travel a lot."

"I definitely agree not to decide for good right away! This snow-licking- Ugh. Well it sounds like going to Kenabres with you is a good first step anyway!" CLANG. "Are you leaving now-now, or like tomorrow morning?"

"Tomorrow", Otho says firmly, "I'm out of spells and I want to ride in style, not tromp through forty miles of snow. And this place is more defensible if the vrocks come back."

"Will you be alright walking that far? There's a pretty good road along the river but it's all snowed over now. I can conjure light horses and carriages, your armor might not fit inside unless you can take it apart." He considers and adds, "the armor, not the carriage."

"I'm not going to walk forty miles. My armor will do it for me!"

They'll prepare for a long, restful night. The biggest house is warmed and aired, with blankets laid out and a guard set. 

The sun sets early in the subpolar winter; they sit for hours around the fires before going to sleep. The conversation naturally turns to the new arrival, but if she's still reticent, they'll regale her with stories from half of Avistan and second-hand stories from most of the planet, with a healthy dose of legend and myth thrown in.

Waltana is still... Hesitant, to talk too much about her home. But she'll talk about people. Her dad is distant at best, she likes her mom a lot better. They're both farmers, but the way she talks about them doesn't make them seem poor or ordinary for it. Her friends all wanted to join the scouts, the only ones allowed to leave, or get a job in the Center Ring. The Captain is mysterious and at least a hundred years old. The place has rigid schedules and roles, based on her anecdotes- Work goes by the clock, not the sun, for everyone. Housing is assigned, and every child goes to school from ages eight to twelve, then apprentices from thirteen to seventeen.

-And then she'll tell a Heterodyne Boys story, one of the rare books brought in from the outside world by a scout who thought it was useful history, not probably-greatly-exaggerated fiction. The Heterodynes are a famous lineage of powerful Sparks, and Bill and Barry are the first "Good Heterodynes" after a notoriously cruel family. The Heterodyne Boys and the Fog Merchants is about Bill and Barry tracking suspicious figures across their town, with a dozen unlikely hindrances getting in their way- 

"Of course! Though they may be INTANGIBLE, their forms can still be disrupted by ENERGY- Bill, get my LIGHTNING CAGE!"

"We can't use that in these tunnels- The current will ground in the river! But what if we ALTER it to produce a NEW ENERGY-"

...Until it turns out in the end that the Fog Merchants were kidnapping people who owed them money in a defunct currency, so after Bill and Barry beat them in battle, they negotiated alternate payment, then hired the Fog Merchants as guards.

Telling this story seems to have... INSPIRED her.

She seems more and more distracted, fidgeting and ranting. "Yes, CLEARLY all that is really needed is to CHANGE the energy! Mutable form, force is force and power is power... Three times three and three more, acceleration, I wonder if-" And this is when she walks out of the biggest house and back over to her armor, more and more excited by the second!

"-Now is the time for SCIENCE! And fire! Lightning is not ENOUGH? Fine, the grand SYNTHESIS shall make it WORTHY of being called a true weapon!"

...And, uh, there is a lot of mania in her right now. She doesn't have much of a mind for anything that's not her tools and parts, all taken from the armor or the two weapons attached to it. And is kind of... Cackling.

"I'll show them ALL! My new PLASMA BOLTER is more than mere fire, more than weak lightning! More than the sum of its parts!"

...She'll be at it all night unless someone stops her, honestly.

This is kind of impressive but also a little worrying! 

"Is it something we ate?"

    "Are you sure vrocks don't have venom?"

"No, they have spores, we dealt with those -"

    "Maybe she's having a bad reaction to the spores -"

Viatrix will do a belated Bless and, when that has no visible effect, plant herself in front of Waltana's face where she can't just ignore her. "Are you alright? You seem overexcited. Don't take your armor apart, you need it to be in walking shape tomorrow!" 

"I've never been better! The Spark is flowing wonderfully today! I'm away from the stupid rules, the suspicious glares! The city was TERRIFIED of my potential - but now I don't need to hold back! So many IDEAS, yes, more than ever before! I don't have much to work with, but recombination is just a BRACING CHALLENGE! Experiments on your positive energy will have to wait, I don't have sensors built for it yet, nothing but the mining suit and making a WEAPON is more important-"

She is waving around something that used to be a hammer, laughing.

Alright, that's differently concerning. She considers using her held-out slot for Calm Emotions, but Waltana probably wouldn't thank her for it after it wears off.

"As long as you're enjoying yourself! But do make sure the armor can walk tomorrow morning, and so can you." And she'll just ask a few more people to stand guard, the impromptu workspace is close enough to where they're sleeping and there's enough of them no-one will be short on sleep.

She prays to Desna, that She will see and love and help this young woman who seems so happy to have left her home behind, and always send her among true friends. And then she goes to sleep herself.

After a lot of work and going through a large quantity of firewood, the lightning gun with its big metal coil is no more, and significant portions of the armor look different. The right leg bears signs of repair, but the left one has apparently been partially disassembled for parts, the complicated internals showing through a plate that was removed and - bent and stretched, somehow, without a forge, into a pair of long metal rails. The drill-hand on the right arm seems to have acquired an additional nozzle, and there's a new weapon is attached directly to the suit's shoulder where a light source was yesterday, a big boxy shape with lots of wires and tubes sticking out of it, with two long metal prongs coming out the front. She has stenciled 'CAUTION - DO NOT BE THE PATH TO GROUND' in a foreign language on it.

She eventually does fall asleep, nestled inside the armor's piloting compartment, with an open panel in front of her.

They let her sleep as long as they can, but all good things must come to an end.

"Morning! There's food and tea. No water for the bath today, melting enough snow takes too long. Try to be quick, we really want to make Kenabres before nightfall, the roads aren't great for the carriages in the dark. Can you walk OK with your armor like that?" Dubious glance at the exposed leg innards.

"....Mmph? Ah!"

She is briefly alarmed before remembering what happened. A bunch of emotions flit across her face, then she rubs her forehead.

".....Uhhhhhh should be fine for marching. Not great in a fight. Thanks for waking me."

Food, yes, where is it? It's a bit weird not to have a specific assignment.