After approaching the workers in the field and speaking with them, they accept Konrad's help to harvest their crops for the year. So he ends up spending the rest of the day gathering dried pea pods from the plants, puting them into bags, beating those bags to seperate the peas and finally sifting the peas. Although none of the steps are particularly hard to perform, the repetition is tiresome and demanding physically, which means Konrad is quickly sweating and dirty. And it doesn't leave much time to talk, although some of the peasants sing while working, which helps them follow a regular rythm of work.
At the end of the day, as the sun goes down, the peasants gather the result of their work and go back to their house. One of them invite Konrad to join him and his family for supper, as well as a place to sleep for the night. His name is Paschier, with his wife Hilda and their two young girls, Wikelina (9) and Marike (7).
Konrad washes up before supper and thanks Paschier and Hilda for their hospitality. He engages in small talk for a while, talking about how he's new to Helgoland and is trying to learn about the island. He talks about his training as a healer in England, but his desire to come back closer to home and the sort of people he grew up with. But he also listens to what the family has to say, trying to engage the children as well as the parents.
As the meal progresses, he turns the conversation to tall tales, telling a couple from back in England, and saying he's heard a few about the island as well. He'll share some of the tales the magi have learned already and say that he's even heard that their village has a fellow that plays a small part in one of them - a fellow named Heike, if the person who told him the tale was to be believed. He'll ask if that's really what happened or if people were just pulling his leg.
Paschier isn't very talkative, speaking only rarely to ask for something at the table. The fare is simple, some fish with herbs, a few vegetables and roots, as well as some boiled cabbage.
When Konrad starts entertaining his hosts with the tall tales, the girls are delighted, but eventually their mother sends them off to sleep. At the mention of Heike, she says, "Aye, I think some'of them mentioned that old Heike had done some'thing when younger. Climbed the pillar or some such, they said. Didn't seem t'do him much good nowadays, though. Stayed here a few years, he did, but he moved to one of'the northern villages."
"Ah well, I suppose tales are better in the telling than in the living," Konrad says with a shake of his head. "Better to live a calm, ordinary life." He talks for a little more, but doesn't look to keep his hosts up too late, knowing that work starts all too early in the morning.
[hr][/hr]
None of the family seems to be ill or injured at all, do they (even something minor)? I know it's unlikely, but I thought I'd ask.
The next morning Konrad will get up early with the family and thank them again for their generosity. He'll ask if there's anyone in town who might know where Heike went off to, a friend or a family member. He'll say that he was intrigued by the story and would love to talk to a man who'd lived through an adventure.
He'll also see if there is somewhere in town he could buy some bread or other food from for a couple of pennies. (Yes, he has some food already. But it's probably best to top things up since it's going to be a longer haul than expected.)
If there's no one else to talk to, then he'll bid goodbye to the people he's met in the village, see if he can scare up a ride across the river, and head off to Sellum.
When he gets to the far side of the village, Konrad hitches his pack on his back, bids farewell to the fishermen who gave him the ride, and marches off toward Sellum, there likely being a trail in that direction. Along the way, when he's in the middle of nowhere with no one nearby, he'll cast Aura of Ennobled Presence with no gestures or words. This tires him out, but he takes a short rest on a fallen log and then continues his journey.
[hr][/hr] Aura of Ennobled Presence: 1D10-1 = [5]-1 = 4; Success; -1 Fatigue level
(I'm assuming no Dominion Aura. If there was a Dominion Aura 1, it still works. But if, for some reason, there was a Dominion Aura of 2+, then it fails.)
Rest for two minutes to get the Fatigue level back.
Konrad rests on a rock*, then makes his way to Sellum without any problem. The village has fewer fields than Oster Church or even Uceste. It does have small patches reasonably large trees, however, and many of those seem to be harvested for the lumber needed to work the nearby mines.
As is typical of villages throughout Europe, there is a small church near the center of the village. The air smells of smoke used for smelting the ore miners pull out of the hill.
*Fallen logs are seldom to be seen on the island, where firewood is always in demand and trees are carefully managed.
Konrad approaches the village and makes what is becoming his standard introduction. He tells the first person who seems at all interested that he's a healer new to the island and making his way around to see the lay of the land. He'll ask first if anyone is ill or injured. If there's no one, he'll say that he's just passing through, but if there was any work he could do to get a place to stay for the evening and a bite to eat, he'd be happy to do just about anything.
[hr][/hr]
The general plan for all this is more long-range than just getting answers to the current questions. He wants to give the people in these villages a chance to get to know him a little better and make him into a known quantity. It might not matter now. But when he comes back the next time, it might be helpful.
I also realize that he could try and play the angle that even if he's just a traveling healer, it wouldn't hurt to know a few stories to tell, since that helps with hospitality. That gives him an excuse to gather stories and ask the kind of questions he's looking to ask without people getting their backs up about him being nosy.
(OOC: How does the fact that he cast Aura of Ennobled Presence fit into that plan? With the spell active he will be percieved more as a noble than a healer...)
(OOC: It just seems to work against your previously stated goal of looking like an ordinary healer traveling the island. The more "forceful, authoritative, and believable" he looks, the less likely he will be taken as just an ordinary man looking to work for his fare.)
(I'll post more later today or tomorrow. Gotta go to a meeting at work now.)