Hi,
Thanks so much for your consideration, Outspaced. I am humbled by the heavy-hitters that have taken the time to review my suggestion. Thanks too to pi4t for the encouragement!
Personally, it doesn't make sense to me that you should be able to eat whilst traveling in a coach, but, given that it had been specifically addressed in the Newsletter, I thought I'd check.
Bearing that in mind, I respectfully think your
off-line discussion was made a bit in haste.
There are (at least) TWO coach rides in FOTW, the one in question being the first, and the second, the one
discussed off-line, being a 7-day trip through the Wildlands.
I will fully admit that I am not an authority on Magnamund, but, given the aforementioned Newsletter, here is why I think you *are* permitted to "skip" the meal.
I wish I could find a flow chart for the book (I seem to recall seeing some on the site once, long ago), but here is one I've chosen to support my claim:
171 ->
114 -> [[
63 -> [
188 or
264]] or
206] ->
188 ->
312 ->
117 -> [
37 or
148] (Meal in question, arrival at Ragadorn) ->
257 ->
181 ->
186 (2nd coach, to Port Bax, a 7-Day trip) -> ... ->
346 (Wildland comment / Huntmastery Footnote)
Reasons for:
1. This is a "short" (lasting from dawn per
Section 312, to noon, per
Section 117, estimated at 6 hours per
Section 37) coach ride to Ragadorn (per
Section 117), as opposed to the later, 7-Day ride through the Wildlands to Port Bax (
Section 186).
2. It begins along a coast road (per
Section 312), down which you've walked for over 3 hours after having swam to safety when your ship went down.
3. You've woken in a tree to a "cold and rain-swept" morning (
Section 312). This suggests at least *some* vegetation.
4. Depending on your decisions, you either encountered a poisonous sandsnake (
Section 63) or you heard wolves in the distance (
Section 206) during the night, which suggests at least *some* wildlife (other than Szalls).
5. If you encounter the sandsnake (and live), you watch the snake slither off into the long grass beyond the road (
Section 188 or
Section 264 ), which again suggests vegetation.
6. Essentially, this culminates in the rationalization that was mentioned in the
off-line discussion:
Incidentally, the Larnuma trees cited are at
Section 139, which leads to
Section 171, and are a 3-hour walk from where you pick up the coach.
Possible reasons against, and rebuttal:
1.
Section 114 says that the "land is flat and barren, and you have seen no sign of life here at all."
I'm not sure that this (ostensibly casual) observation from someone, even a Kai, walking down the road is enough to preclude it from Huntmastery, especially given the later incidents I referenced above.
2. You could also reach the coach ride of section
117 via
27 ->
312 ->
117, which mentions wild dogs roaming the wastelands and sleeping in a tree, but not the snake.
Interestingly, this alternate route is chosen by heading
east at
171 rather than by heading west. I suppose continuity might suggest that you would simply encounter the same coach further up/down the road and that the two aforementioned trees in which you may have spent the night are different. But even if you take the comments of this alternate route into account, I don't think they are enough to discount the possibility of Huntmastery in
Section 117.
So, to me, a 6 hour coach ride that starts at a tree (possibly with a snake and long grass nearby), occurs along a coastal road, and ends in a walled seaport city, even if through (or, perhaps more likely, bordering) land that "is flat and barren" and showing "no sign of life [here] at all.", could afford enough wildlife for one Huntmastery meal.
I will, of course, be happy with whatever is decided; I just wanted to reply to make sure you had all the information, as it seemed that the wrong coach ride had been discussed.
Respectfully,
-mrbtw