A very small border town in the Kingdom of Ghanbar, with an economic focus on rearing horses.

It is very arid, and gets little traffic. Many things have to be imported from the nearby town of Kuracos.

The city only has one noble family in charge, the Muharak family, a group of humble leaders who manage the town and it's people, but have few greater ambitions.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:46, Sat 06 Apr.

Li Hua stopped at a farm just many miles outside Benashter. She knew nothing about the language, but she was a lot more accustomed to grunting and gesturing and body language than she was only a couple of months before. At the farm she hoped to exchange a thing of value for a place to stay and some food. And then spend a week or two learning the language before going into the town. She wasn't in any hurry and she'd already learned what a huge difference it was for even a few days language tuition. Simple nouns, a few verbs, some conjunctions and everything went a lot better

She looked for a small holding. Something like a man with a pregnant wife and some older children. Her wealth would make a lot of difference to them, and she'd be able to tell a lot about them by they way the children looked and behaved.

Li Hua's plan is not bad, but the extremely arid land means she has trouble finding any farmland. It's a mystery how this kingdom of Ghanbar feeds it's people, if they're in such arid land? Well, she'll learn eventually.

Fortunately, her efforts are not completely pointless. While she doesn't find a farm, she does find a rancher's homestead. He seems to be raising a collection of animals. Chickens, sheep, goats, oxen and even horses. It's surprising, she hadn't though horses were in use in the west. From what she'd seen, oxen were the main beast-of-burden for westerners.

On the homestead, Li Hua laughs a bit to herself. She had painted a bit of an image on who exactly she might encounter, but she hadn't expected for it to be exactly as she thought!

As she approaches the property, Li Hua sees three men working the field. A father and his two sons, it seems. In the distance, she sees a heavily-pregnant woman milking goats, while her two older daughters milk the sheep.

She sees a handful of younger children running around in the distance - but mostly she hears them - they are screaming at each other and throwing things - clearly playing.

Double-checking her count in her head... 2... 4... 8? At least, eight children?

Damn.

Looking at the middle-aged man who is instructing his sons on something about the horses, Li Hua remarks this man has clearly been busy.

The fact that so many of his children are alive means he has either been quite lucky, or is very wealthy.

These people do not seem totally poor, as many of the serfs in Kri Tan are. However, they are definitely living humble and modest lives - judging from their clothing and total livestock count (under fifty).

The property itself is larger than she would have predicted, but maybe the arid land here does not cost much to purchase.

As she is about a half-mile away from the family homestead, one of the two brothers (they look very similar, maybe twins?) point her out to their father, who stops what he's doing and looks at her. She can't see the expression from this distance, but the posture is a bit tense.

The family begins to move, everyone is rounded up. By the time she is within shouting distance (a few hundred meters), everyone is standing together and watching her. A little warily, but not wholly unwelcoming.

---

How will Li Hua introduce herself?

Li Hua didn't really understand what she was seeing

A city required food. Lots of it. The food couldn't be grown inside the city unless there was serious magics involved. Magics at a scale she couldn't imagine.  And cities had trade. So there would be people coming in and out of the city.

If there were no farms nearby then there would be food caravens. Either by water transport or by road transport.

Her current plan was a bust. It wasn't viable to approach a large group like this. So she evaluated what she could see and moved around to understand better the strangeness in front of her.

If there were large caravans supplying the food for the city, then she'd be better off talking with them. If there weren't... well she really didn't understand this and would probably have decide what to do. She wasn't going to go into another city with heavy magics in it. Not after the last one

As Li Hua prowls around the city for several hours, she eventually comes across food caravans, but only after circling to the west of the small town and waiting. The east end of the town (which she had approached from) is on the edge of the kingdom , and so food comes in from the west since no allied food production takes place in that direction.

Li Hua notices a number of food caravans, and is free to approach a smaller-looking one. The roads are not busy, and about one caravan comes by every 2-3 hours. One leaves about as often. This is a rather small town.

Li Hua's assumptions were right about food caravans. Notably, only caravans with food supplies come by while she is here. If any other supplies are delivered here, they are far scarcer.

It is now late in the evening, and the sun will probably start to set shortly. If Li Hua wishes to find a motel, she should do so now, unless she wishes to camp outside for the night.

Borders are a fuzzy thing, but Li Hua recognizes that she is currently 'in' the kingdom of Ghanbar. Hopefully, nobody has problems with her since she's not exactly a citizen or anything. Maybe camping outside is illegal, who knows?

Since this was a small town it was probably a good place to start. To learn the language and the customs. It was going to be difficult to do this with so many valuables so she found a place she could bury some of them (the ones the Xiong Di had carried), placing stones on top of them to make it look a little like a grave.


She in fact approached the smaller caravan. As a single person in a place that didn't look idea; for ambushing it looked quite easy to get in front of it and not be threatening.

She then waited for it to approach and called out in the languages that she knew. Obviously trying to get to talk. If she was lucky someone would know one of the languages. If not perhaps she'd be able to communicate that she wanted to go with them. It wasn't what she'd been after, but everything seemed so very difficult here. Perhaps this would allow her to learn at least something. If not she'd have to come up with another plan. Probably just skipping this town and moving until she found a place that was less difficult and painful to interact with.

This message was deleted by the player at 19:08, Sun 14 Apr.

Li Hua decides to bury some of her things, so they don't make her a target. She places some stones over them, to signify an unmarked grave.

---

The lone merchant in the caravan notices Li Hua calling to him in Krissh and Sedoric. He seems surprised by the Krissh and a little upset by the Sedoric, but he gets thoughtful for a moment and seems fine right after. Li Hua remembers that Ghanbar and Sedoria are basically at war, so maybe speaking Sedoric isn't a great idea.

He looks at her for a moment before speaking something in Dural, probably a question.
The merchant stops his ox-led carriage for a moment and stares at her, clearly awaiting her to communicate something nonverbally.

The dark tan-skinned man seems of wary of her as she is of him, but he's not ignoring her outright. He doesn't seem to share any languages with her, sadly.

From his perspective, he probably noticed a clear foreigner calling to him in an unidentifiable language, then a familiar one he doesn't speak. So, he decided to step down and see what they were after.

Maybe he has altruistic reasons, or maybe he thinks he can make some money. It could be both, or something else entirely.

OOC: I suppose this is a bit painful to interact with, but it's always going to be challenging to do this sort of thing (learning a new language and local customs). It's not rational for me to summon a NPC miraculously fluent in Krissh language and culture - because there is very little [not zero] interaction between Kri Tan and Ghanbar.

Sadly, I can't even suggest if you would have better or worse odds in a different place. There's little risk and little reward here in Benashter. If you go to a different settlement, that might change. Abarion would be high risk, high reward, for your current self.

Well time went by. Li Hua used the place to learn things about the language and the customs. She wasn't in any hurry. In fact the opposite. The idea of taking it safe in a small place was good. And it seemed sensible to her to spend a few months learning as much as she could. If there were travelers, perhaps she could buy them drinks and use the locals as a language bridge?
This message was last edited by the player at 07:34, Sun 05 May.

With some effort, Li Hua managed to communicate to the merchant that she was looking for a place to stay. That night, Li Hua was guided to a small building, that can hardly be called an inn. She would later learn this was the standard place for merchants who had to stay a night or two in town - though it saw little use and was rather unkempt.

Regardless, beggars can't be choosers - and so Li Hua bore with the rather uncomfortable conditions. It was still beating out what she had experienced in Aderun.

----

Days passed.

Li Hua - by some twist of events - found herself staying in town. The few goods she hadn't buried were sufficient for bartering with the merchants that came by on a regular basis. From these foreign merchants, she bought her weekly necessities.

The rest of her time was focused on getting a grasp on the language of this land. She remembered vaguely hearing from Balshad during their travels that Ghanbar stretched to the west, but they all spoke the same tongue. She would come to learn it was called Dural.

It was also good that she only made humble purchases. There was never a target on her back. The sword she carried probably also helped. Conversely, her appearance was elegant enough however that the merchants gave her a fair chance, thinking she had some wealth to her name.

Overall, it was a slow life. Most days she would simply loiter around public spaces, occasionally trying to speak with the locals. Any time she wasn't doing this, she would meditate and continue her sword practice. She still carried Balshad's notes about Sedoric-Krissh translation, but she had already exhausted the introductory text, and simply began memorizing it so that she did not lose her knack for Sedoric.

After a few weeks, the small community of about a thousand people were generally used to her presence, and began to approach her on their own as she learned the language better.

This whole time, she lived in that small renovated building. It had originally been a stables, so perhaps her surviving horse was more comfortable than Li Hua herself.

---

After three weeks in town, a nice older woman invited Li Hua to stay in her home. She apparently had empty space, since her two sons had left to seek other work. The woman was clearly in need of company.

Li Hua was surely grateful, and helped around the place in exchange.

---

After two months had passed, the season would soon change. Li Hua decided it best to leave before then.

She now had a better grasp on Dural than she had previously had on Sedoric. Still, she had gaps. The environment of this small town wasn't unfriendly, but people were busy, and she had plenty of time to practice, but only a few times per day to increase her learning.

The merchants were actually more helpful in this regard. This town had a lot of them coming by. The place had meager agricultural capabilities, and it was supported by local settlements.

Li Hua had not been able to get a physical map, however she had managed to sketch out her own estimation of some parts of the Kingdom. The merchants who came by were often willing to correct her in a few places, perhaps lightly entertained by the quaint activity.

Her plan as of now, was to head to Abarion. This seemed to be the place that would be most comfortable for her. Her reasons included the following:
 - That she was a foreigner, and though the Krissh had little presence in Ghanbar, Abarion was known as an intercultural nexus point.
 - She had goods to sell, that could not be reasonably or safely sold in a small town like this
 - There was much she needed to learn, and this small town had few opportunities for learning
 - Looking to the future, if she was going to be here for some years while war raged in her homeland, she should make the most of it. Abarion would be a good stage for her.
 - Abarion would be the best place to find a caravan willing to bring her back to her homeland, when it was time for her to return.
 - Li Hua was NOT aware of this, but the moment she heard the name 'Abarion' she felt an unconscious pull to that location....

---

The day eventually came. A larger group of merchants came by. A small caravan, rather than independent visiting traders. It might be a month before another group of similar capacity visited. They even had a single guardsman. Li Hua made her plea, and offered some payment.

She was accepted. The merchants had been tense and a bit suspicious, but the guardsman had noticed she carried a sword and had told his companions that her movements suggested she was capable, and that it wouldn't hurt them to have a second protector. Basically, he had vouched for her.

As she left, Li Hua made her first - and last - 'large' purchase in Benashter. She bought a second horse to replace the one that Xiang Di had killed in his madness, as well as a high-quality cart. These things were available, as Benashter was a town with an economic focus on horse ranching and its externalities (like specialized carpentry and repairs for carts/carriages).

She joined the caravan, which was headed to a local town. The merchants turned out to be very relieved she had bought her own transportation. Perhaps they had been worried that she might pilfer from them if they let her ride with their goods.

Eventually, the caravan set off.

It was a short journey of only a couple days, but Li Hua made much progress in her understanding of the region.

The guard on the journey had been eager to spar with her just once. If she accepted, he would prove to not be as skilled as her, but they would have a better relationship. He would tell her about his life - a self-taught soldier from the north - which would be helpful for her studies.

The caravan arrived in Kuracos. It was a much larger settlement, and more advanced as well. Li Hua was more comfortable here. This place was reminescent to her home town of Mazan in terms of development.

(---> Kuracos)