She follows, leaning a little harder on her staff than she meant to. 

"Yeah, that makes sense."

She leads the way back to the Rusted Bucket, inside, and lets Jorem know. Then off to the bounty board.

Ooh, what's it got in store for her?

A basic bulletin board hangs on the wall, with various paper notices pinned to it. Little interface windows hover next to each listing the minimum recommended level.

Ten crowns to kill a herd of corrupted mountain goats east of town. (Min level 1-2)

One hundred fifty crowns to identify and put an end to whoever or whatever is corrupting wild animals in the western hills. (Min level 20-25)

Fifty crowns to kill a crew of bandits on the road east of town. Requested by  the city of Cardova. (Min level 5-7)

"Goats, huh? That's the only one that's level appropriate for us."

"Well, we're three now and I think we'll at least hit four from the goat bounty. Between the two of us, that might be enough to take care of the bandits. Also, there might be a new corrupted animal bounty tomorrow or the day after that we could use to get to five. They've had them every day this week, from what I hear."

"The thing corrupting them sounds like bad news though. We should probably stay sharp about that."

She nods. "Definitely. We should keep an eye out for signs, just to avoid tripping over it. Definitely underleveled for that."

She plucks the two chosen bounties from the wall and accepts them.

Then turns to Hyacinth. "So how about dinner?"

"I would love dinner." Hyacinth grins.

Then she'll pick out a table, briefly swinging close enough to the bar to signal Jorem. She picks a spot out of the way, not too far from the fire, at a smaller two-person table. She also pulls Hyacinth's chair out for her. Chivalry isn't dead, it's just trans.

She settles into her chair with a small blush. 

"Thank you," she says. Even this small courtesy is... More than she's really used to getting.

"Gladly, Sin," she replies with a grin, sitting down across from her. "So let's talk builds. I hit level three with the quest completion, did you?"

"Yes, I did as well. I spent a node on Heal Wounds, so I guess I have five remaining if it's three per level?"

She nods, smiling curiously. "And I've still got all six of mine. So what sort of build are you aiming for? Maybe we can try to build for synergy."

"Well, my usual methods of consulting build guides and handbooks aren't super applicable given the incredibly flexible node system of CORA..."

"So for right now I'm hoping for a generalist wizard build. Blasting is good and worthy but I'd like to get into something of a controller role as well. I've always found crowd control to be very useful in these kinds of games. And I'd like to pursue some noncombat applications of magic too - item crafting systems are fun!"

"Crafting systems are so fun," she agrees with a grin. "W—I'm mostly aiming at a sort of swordwitch build, agile as fuck and channeling magic and abilities through the sword. Also, I've got shapeshifting as a racial ability. Infiltrator variant of Darkling. We can probably do decently on our own if you lean into the crowd control and herding, and I bounce between targets being highly mobile DPS."

"We might want a tank, though. And eventually we need to find a dedicated healer, just so we don't eat your whole damned mana pool for it."

She shakes her head. "But yeah. Swordwitch. Currently I have a lightning charge I can apply to my saber, and a couple enhanced strikes and parries. Need to come up with a few better magically empowered attacks, I think, and definitely want to make a deflecting parry that can handle ranged attacks or even spells eventually."

"I considered taking Light affinity, but I was a fire mage last game and couldn't resist. I regret it a little now."

Sable shakes her head. "Nah, a good party needs more than one DPS. Plus, your crowd control idea is pretty great. And who knows, maybe you'll manage some great enchanted healing artifacts, eventually?"

Jorem shows up with two large bowls of stew, and fresh-baked rolls on the side. "Here you go, lasses. Anything to drink?"

"Not for me, thank you."

She looks back at Sable. "Yeah, maybe I will. I hope so."

She picks up her spoon and tries the soup.

The stew is rich and hearty, made from venison and potato and carrot with some lovely spices rounding it out that she can't quite recognize.