Lowlife, Scoundrel, Bandit Queen

Chapter 177 - 177 - Bridge over troubling waters

Getting a good look from above, even with some foliage still in the way, I get a decent idea of how this settlement is laid out in between the edge where the land begins to drop into the valley I followed to get here and the shoreline of the lake. It extends along the shoreline for a bit, but overall I now get the impression that it wasn't a very big settlement at all.

Not unless what took for post holes for something like a sunshade were instead for additional wooden stories atop the rock solid foundation. In that case I might have to double my approximation for the number of inhabitants. It still would be nowhere close to Riverrun though. Most curious, as a lot of effort obviously went into the construction of this settlement anyway. It must have been important.

Something else jumps at me too, when viewed from above. All the streets are quite narrow, like the one through which I first entered the settlement. There are none that are any wider. There are no open places like markets either. Not a single one. Although, maybe those weren't necessary if every building housed a shop on the ground floor the whole town might have been the market hub for the surrounding land. Could that be it?

This part is the market of the entire are under the influence of this town? And the keep, the only part that looks fortified despite the thick walls of even the most basic houses here, is where people would retreat in times of trouble? If the latter is the case, the keep might be where I find bodily remains. I'm not exactly looking forward to that, especially as I still don't really know what transpired here. If one creature was reanimated as an undead the same may be true for more. Being caught in the middle of a pile of bones suddenly coming alive does not sound very appealing to me. No it sounds rather appalling instead. Do I really have a choice though?

With a sigh I first retreat from the edge and then back down from the rooftop into the upper floor room of the building. I don't want to have to watch the sky above all the time. This room is plenty secure though, as far as I can tell anyway. Here I can think about what to do next.

I should check out the keep. I should finally look for those mushrooms, those Black Caps, too. Oh, and I need to find some water to refill my bottle, thus I probably should check out the lake too. Hopefully that lake water is drinkable, I'll even settle for a funny taste if that is the worst it has in store for me, otherwise getting fresh water might mean a serious detour to the creek in the other valley. Well, anyway, that's the top priorities.

A little meditation in addition to the exploration might not hurt either. My Mana reserves aren't terribly low yet, but two shape shifts in short order did put a dent into them. This place right now though would be ideal for that meditation, at least as far as I can tell. I'm just afraid that I might loose track of time if I meditate now, which would cut into my exploration. I shake my head. It's no use worrying too much. I'll meditate now. I might have to meditate a little more later as well anyway.

I sigh, stretch myself to work out some leftover kinks after my recent rather sudden shapeshifts, and sit down cross legged. The trickiest part of achieving the desired state of mind this time around is pushing aside all the worries plaguing me, while not getting so far detached from the world around me that I might miss my danger sense reacting to something. In the end I manage though and as my mind stills just as my breathing the world becomes distant.

As I come out of my meditative trance I can feel that my [Meditation] skill has improved a little, a sure sign already that it has worked. The other sure sign is the notification touching my mind right after.

[*Ding!* Through Meditation your Mana increased by 5!]

I take a deep breath and get back up, stretching once more. If I'm not mistaken this amount suggests that I meditated for at least one hour but not for two. I have not lost too much time then. More importantly though, I now have enough Mana to change my appearance five times or to create ten magical lights. That's good enough for now. That should be enough to get me through the day at least.

Now it's time to resume my exploration. Or rather, it's time to head to the lake shore to check the water. Before I lower myself back down to the ground floor to leave the building I strain my senses, mostly my hearing, first though. I have been here for a while, not changing position. If someone wanted to ambush me, this would be the perfect opportunity. I have no clue if undead can think that far ahead, but I don't even want to take the risk. Thus I listen long and hard first. And before I jump back down, I take a good look too. Neither provides any hint about any enemies nearby, but at least my [Perception] improves another bit.

Once down I check both entrances of the single room workshop that is the ground floor too, but the narrow streets outside are empty as well. Well, empty except for the usual growth and a few birds, which act natural enough.

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Afterwards I don't waste any more time. I slip outside and after recalling the layout of the settlement, as I mapped it in my mind from atop the building I'm leaving behind, I turn in the direction of the lake and get going.

It's along the way that I finally come across the first stand of Black Caps, nestled in between ferns and. They really look rather ominous. It's too bright to actually see their luminescent glow right now, but my imagination suggests that it's there anyway. I make a mental note about their position, but right now I have other priorities. Water first. Crazy shrooms later. Sounds sensible enough, right? Thus I keep going.

It doesn't take me long to reach the waterfront either, although there is no direct path there. I'm pretty sure that the houses have been built slightly offset to each other in such a way as to not create any straight paths on purpose. Normally I'd assume it to be a defensive measure, except I'm not sure with these people here since there are no signs of a wall around the settlement. Instead, it might have been set up like this to keep people from hurrying through. To make them slow down and linger in what could be considered a shopping district? It wouldn't be entirely unreasonable. At least that is my best guess right now.

Now that I see the waterfront I have to admit that it isn't at all like I expected. It's nothing like in Riverrun, where both the upstream and the downstream waterfront serve primarily as gateways to the river and the other towns to which it connects the city. Here there are no signs to be seen that it was used in this way or even just for fishing. No jetties, no quay wall, no boathouses or anything. There are no remnants of any boats either. The narrow but even streets of the town just make room for a strip of natural rock, overgrown with moss all of a sudden.

It has me scratching my head. This being a not very large mountain lake has to be the reason. As far as I can tell it's not connected to any waterways that could be traversed with even the smallest boats. And of course I have no clue if there even are any fish in there. The water does look incredibly clean though and the very least I can spot water plants growing everywhere along the shoreline, thus it's not a body of dead water at least. Since I'm looking to replenish my drinking water this is already quite reassuring.

As I watch, movement in the water, in between the water plants, catches my eye. It's a crab. Not one of those huge Rock Crabs, but rather a plain and normal crab not even the size of my palm. It seems to be on the hunt for insect larvae. Yes, overall that is reassuring. If this little guy and the larvae he is eating can live in the water it can't be too bad.

I do some further testing anyway. As far as my capabilities allow anyway. The water has no suspicious smell. It doesn't irritate my skin either as I lower a finger into it. It is rather cold though, but that is to be expected.

I use a tip of my cloak as a makeshift filter, as I fill my water bottle, neither too close to the surface nor too close to the ground. That should keep the worst possible pollutants out of the bottle. I really should get myself a proper cloth, one with much finer weave, as a filter though. And of course I'll still boil the water, later when I'm back in camp, anyway. That's the best I can do and thus it'll have to do.

That's the first step to solving one of my problems and the simple action even earns me a little progress for my [Foraging] skill. Maybe my survival skill will follow once I boil the water? I guess I'll find out later.

Now I really want to take another good look at the keep out in the lake though. It's about fifty paces from here to the smooth walls built from the same big stone blocks without the use of any mortar. They reach all the way to the water or rather even below the water's surface. They are quite high too. I can't tell how thick they are though. Looking at it from here I get the impression that the keep may not actually be a keep at all. It looks more like a wall surrounding more buildings of the same style as the ruins at my back. A walled district setting the ruling elite apart from the commoners or a refuge for dire times? I'll have to get over there to find out.

Considering how refreshingly cold the water is, I'm glad that I won't have to swim to do so. All thanks to the bridge leading from the shoreline to the single gate of the fortified island. Or is it really a bridge? It almost looks more like a dam built of the same almost seamlessly arranged giant blocks of stone. Only as I draw closer can I actually see that there are indeed arches through which the water can pass. It is a bridge then. At least as far as I'm concerned. A rather narrow bridge. One with weather worn edges and a very smooth surface polished by wind and rain.

Isn't it a good thing that my balance is pretty good and that I'm neither afraid of heights nor in a hurry? I haven't seen any other shambling undead yet thus that's not likely to change any time soon hopefully. And to be perfectly honest, the bridge isn't that high either. No comparison to my rooftop runs in Riverrun. With a shrug I step away from the shoreline to step up onto it where it meets one of the narrow alleys of what I have decided to call the market district.

Around when I reach the halfway point I get the first real clues as to what may have transpired here in the distant past, although, to be perfectly honest, I still have no clue how distant that past actually is. It has to be more than just a few decades though, given Riverruns history and what I get to behold in the water besides the narrow bridge at this point.

The lake still isn't very deep here and its ground is littered with bleached white bones from here on out. Thankfully none look like they will get up anytime soon. Puzzling out the details earns me some more progress for my [Perception] skill.

There's two kinds of skeletons as far as I can tell. Human sized ones and cyclops sized ones. They are mixed up, but the majority of the cyclops sized ones seem to face in the direction of the island, while the majority of the human sized ones face the other way. Just about all show major damage. I can see plenty of rusty armor of various kinds too. On both the dead giants and the humans. A defensive battle? The bridge would certainly make for a decent choke point.

I grimace. The town being dead and abandoned suggests that the defenders did not win. If that hunch turns out to be true I'll might find plenty more skeletons inside the walls. Some of which might take offense at me barging in.