Preparing the Infirmary for Winter

That was the notice you found in the corner of the request board at Guild headquarters. The paper is yellowed, and the date has been rewritten three times. It was posted by the infirmary of a church on the edge of town, a place that takes in the destitute and those who collapse on the road, free of charge. It runs on donations alone.

Before the first snow, gather the medicine and the charcoal.
The trading house that was its biggest donor is closing its branch in the capital this month, and from the new year, the donations stop.

---

🏚 The ledger knows winter first

The infirmary stands on the outskirts of the royal capital, up a slope one street in from the carriage road. The stone building is cool in summer and bone-chilling in winter. Firewood alone is not enough; charcoal is bought for the hearth and the examination room. Coughs and fevers multiply through the winter, so the herbs must be dried and bottled during autumn.

This year, the infirmary's ledger knew about that first snow before anyone else did. Twelve packets of medicine, not even half of what a winter needs. The charcoal has not been bought yet. In the margins of the ledger are numbers left over from recounts that were never finished.

🕯 The two of them

Adele Quelle / twenty-nine, sister of the infirmary
The ring of keys at her hip jingles with every step. Whoever comes, she brings them inside first and rethinks the order of distribution afterward. In months when the numbers do not add up, she cuts her own meals to make them balance.

Nora Ulvang / twenty-four, pathfinder of the Dragonbone Ruins
A wolf Sirion. Her job is to memorize the paths of the ruins and bring parties back to the exit; she does not take combat work. She handles business with hand signals and never walks ahead of the party.

❄ How to play

Three chapters. As the days until the first snow run down, you choose which days to enter the ruins and which to help at the infirmary. How much to gather in the shallow layer, how much to sell at the buy-up post, and the order in which to buy charcoal are all yours to decide, every time.

Herbs grow on the side where the water gathers. The price of scraps shifts from day to day. Nora calls only those who keep her signals by name, and Adele, once she has your name, asks whether you have eaten before she asks your business. These two are who you meet in the first chapter.