8—Foglets n' Loot

Merel turned to look at what just caught his attention from the corner of his eyes, only to peer at dense fog with charcoal black trunks of trees pointing up.

Keeping his eyes on the fog for a while incase there was something there he notices something shifting through the fog.

One... two... three? hunched figures little shorter than your average man were prowling through the fog their bodies obscured from his view by the mist but the eery glow in their eyes piercing the grey viel.

'Foglets?...'

Thought Merel thinking back to the monster in the game that made frequent use of illusions to attack their prey.

These creatures despite looking like shrunken corpses, have powerful arms and claws, sharp as any primed blade, yet what makes them truly dangerous is their mastery of deception, beguilement and disorientation. Many times they need not attack at all, instead simply driving their prey to madness or into boggy marshlands, after which they wait patiently for it to drown in the muddy waters.

The trickiest thing about these creatures is their ability to create fog and hide themselves within it, since foglets can take on an immaterial form, a slight shimmer of air or a rustle in the grass might be the only clues a would be victim has to their location.

Shrinking away to the other side of the bridge just in case, Merel made a mental note not to wander into the marshes.

'Good thing it's day time...'

Finally reaching the end of the bridge he jumps over the small gap onto the other side,

landing silently thanks to the runes on his feet, he looked around to see a toppled over carriage, though this one was the kind often used to haul goods, with a few skeletal remains scattered about across the dirt nearby.

Deciding to inspect the carriage at a closer distance, Merel approaches and looks over the contents of the toppled transport, a crate, large rolls of various types of cloth were the first things to come into view. Surprisingly there were a few swords laying down tied up in a bundle they weren't rusted through. Better yet they were free of nicks and scratches, they had yet to be tested.

Leaving the large and seemingly heavy contents alone for now, Merel moved on to see if the corpses splayed in the dirt had any goods he could 'requisition'.

After pawing through the belongings of the long dead owners Merel looked over what he managed to find. Some notes that at first glance looked like a ledger of all financial transactions and expenses belonging to some peddler and the other was a journal with boring mundane entries with the exception of the latest entry which read with the following...

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...

We're leaving this sodding place come next morning and it was about time we did, I can't stand staying in that godforsaken place a breath longer, if what the clothier says is true then we'll reach Novigrad in about two weeks so long as we don't find trouble on our ways there n' once we reach the city I can finally catch a break from this shitefest of a war I'll never hammer out a sword again after what they did to me dear sister. I could probably craft some tools for a livin' seein' as I make me own though if work don't show itself I hear Novigrad has the best whores around, if my coin runs dry I ain't got much ta live for anyway might as well enjoy meself fer once!

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Merel, taking in the contents of the journal, processed the main points. A clothier and blacksmith had been making their way to Novigrad the largest city in the north to escape a war and find new work.

'Most likely he was talking about Nilfgaard.'

Bringing his attention back to the cargo he decided to check the large crate, it wasn't much work to pry it open using one of the swords as a makeshift crowbar looking inside he found an assortment of tools... scissors, hammers, cutlery to farm tools such as shovels and even a sharp dagger.

'With this many tools he could have probably made a living making and selling tools too bad he didn't make it.

Placing down the procured sword back with the others, Merel took the dagger and closed the lid of the crate back on.

He thought of bringing it all with him but quickly discarded the idea, all of the contents of the carriage was extremely useful to him, he would have to return for it later simply because of how heavy it all is.

'Not even mentioning where I'd even keep all of this... it'll only slow me down.'

'Really wish I had an inventory like the game at this point... though it might be possible to do something similar with runes now that I think about it.'

Having such thoughts Merel, with the dagger in hand, continued his exploration.

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A/N: Here's the chapter of the day. I have been thinking on whether I should explain stuff like foglets for those who have no idea but I think it we have all played the witcher at this point.