Turn 2, A Place Between PlacesWilhelm, though disappointed at the selection in his wardrobe, nevertheless needed clothes, so he just took some of the woefully drab garments and put them on before being struck by a wonderful idea - he could make a swanky hat out of what he had at the moment, he was reasonably certain, and so he set to it immediately, grabbing the nearby bedsheet and the nearby pouch of coins, then preparing to break new fashion frontiers.
He grabbed the bedsheet and quickly made something like a turban, though taller and flatter than most of its kind, out of it, and immediately began arranging his coins carefully and deliberately, checking against the light every few moments to make sure the reflections appear just right in order to ensure a persistent gleam, no matter what the actual lighting may have been. In no more than twenty minutes, his artistry was fully wrought, and a magnificent turban of many coins lay before him - with slight trepidation, more out of the unfounded fear of disturbing the work of genius before him than anything else, he hefted it in his hands, finding it only a little on the heavy side as far as headdresses went, and mounted it on his head, watching with glee as sunlight reflected from the turban's coins and hit the wall, creating many points of light wherever he looked. And in his rather great pleasure, he almost did not notice something else - the persistent background whisper, that voice that seemed to hound him wherever he went - for a moment, just a little moment, it seemed to have gone silent. And the silence, short as it was, was nothing short of deafening.
Became shiny! 1 MP gained!Thus prepared, Wilhelm took his food off the wardrobe and quickly had as much as he could afford at this time, and headed out, presumably with his money, though such a fact was not important at this juncture. As he exited the room, he found himself on the first floor of an upscale inn, one boasting quite a respectable set of patrons dressed in finery of good quality. And there were even dedicated guards here, a much-appreciated measure in any inn for the discriminating traveler who did not wish to busy his guards with minor needs. And a very well-dressed staff, too, including the innkeeper, a middle-aged, absolutely radiant woman wearing a most expensive gown. The whole place had the look of a ballroom, a sort of home away from home feel for the high society individuals residing here.
* * * * *
Derek was, having solved his roof troubles, now displeased by the way these eejits kept thinking him an eejit and not listening to the obvious true wisdom he had to offer.
"Falling off rooveses? I didn’t fall off no rooveses! I leapt off like a naked salmon, such that ye could see the wondrous blessing of God, protecting me from harm, for it was the God Karse what put me up there! When the end times arrive, there will be such great warmth that all will want to wander naked and free and unoppressed! But only some will be blessed: those that show their faith in Karse by throwing aside their villainous clothing now, in anticipation! Fishwife! I feel your plaintive gaze upon my holy presence. But were the fires of the end time here, as they doth indeed approach, but slowly, then you would be glad and joyous of nakedness, and it would be your clothedness that would be recognised as the One True Eejitry! O Yea!" he reproached the fishwife and, through her, the crowd as a whole! And he could feel some, albeit small, shame come from the people, for they secretly did know their lack of virtue, and greatly feared that even their temple clothes would not save them from damnation, but were not prepared to cast off their filthy, unneeded vestments as the obvious alternative, either.
"Now, I am but – I was but a humble boatman, but Karse herself showed me a great and fearful vision, for which I paid with the full use of my legs. I am come amongst ye to try to save your shame, and to show the ways of nudity. Please: I am not just an eejit, but a kind and humble man, come to help whomsoever I can. I will joyously pass the name of all who care to Karse, that she does with you what she will, and what she will does is bless and save," the prophet continued with much less dire reproach, and he did feel the crowd warm to him somewhat. But still, only one man proved wise enough to express anything even vaguely like approval, and to do so even as the fishwife seemed ready to dismiss the discussion entirely.
That man was Ehran, and most thought him an eejit as well.
"It's a good point he's making! Have we honestly tried being naked before? It could work!" he said, and was met with silence. He looked around, but nobody seemed to agree, except perhaps the other eejit who fell off a roof. Ehran was thus disquieted, and decided to make no further points as the crowd, and he by virtue of being in the middle of it, began to leave, having had their fill of disconcerting doubt for today. Derek, meanwhile, wondered how he would begin to demonstrate his faith - he had much, but a lot of it was, sadly, lost on individuals such as these, whose minds were closed to wisdom such as his. Perhaps the vision held the answer? The mountain he had seen? His place was apparently there, or so the mountain had said, and Derek had not heard of mountains lying about this kind of thing.
* * * * *
Edwin, intrigued by the town with no name as well as the fact that he would not need to walk further than three miles to get to it, resolved to investigate - after all, travelers who did not indulge their curiosity were invariably doomed to regret it later. Though the flip side of that being that they generally lived to tell people about their regrets was a fact that Edwin, as a wise old man well-versed in this sort of thing, decided to ignore, for he was old enough to know best.
Treading on paths possibly not walked in years, Edwin trudged along the semi-wilderness, finding his footing tenuous at best, but nevertheless making progress. Though the walk was only three miles, it did feel quite a bit longer, he thought, since it definitely took him more than an hour before he actually saw anything like what he was looking for - In this case, that seemed to be a town, or the remains of one, anyway. Gutted, sparse wooden buildings propped up on a gnomestone foundation, almost completely silent in the dead of night but for a soft, barely audible crackle coming from the center - judging by the very slight amounts of light, Edwin guessed a fire was deeper within the ruins, and opted to take a closer look.
Wandering closer, Edwin began to smell something, and it took him a moment to recognize it for what it was - the smell of burning hair. Strangely intrigued, he wandered ever closer until he reached a hole in the wall of the abandoned settlement's largest building - a town hall, perhaps, or at least a large trading post of some kind, not that one could rightly tell with the sorry state it was in. And through this hole he saw a peculiar scene - a tall figure, garbed and hooded in furs and occasional bits of bone and metal, at the moment watching a fire and busily rotating a spit right above, on which Edwin spied what looked like a naked human corpse, visibly charred, with some fat dripping out of it on the fire. Next to this scene he saw two horses, tied down and watching the tall man seemingly making dinner. It was more than a slightly disturbing image, to say the least, one amplified by the way the tall man seemed to have noticed Edwin within moments, turning his head to look at him silently and seemingly quite cautiously, keeping one hand on a knife on his belt.
* * * * *
Emilia, after bidding the helpful townsperson goodbye, knew where she had to go - important individuals always needed to cross paths for things to be set in motion, and of the people in Bantuk's Bend, Bantuk himself was the most obvious choice for immediate visiting. And so she strode purposefully through the streets, finding Bantuk's home with no issue - it was the largest home in the area, and apparently doubled as the town hall, judging from the copious signage indicating that Bantuk was likely to be found within and that important business was to be taken to him or his subordinates. Passing inside through the large double doors, Emilia found herself in an entrance hall slightly more opulent than she would have expected from a town like this - the walls were covered in elaborate murals, and the place had the air of a large waiting room, except it seemed to have nobody in it aside from a slight man in a long, flowing black hooded overgown, not very washed from the looks of it, and possibly a bit drunk if one read into his gait.
"A visitor," the man observed with an air of significant interest.
"Can I help you?""Yes, actually, I was hoping to meet Bantuk," Emilia said.
"What for?" the man asked, tilting his head.
"He has information that interests me," Emilia replied a tad too shadily, but the man seemed not to notice.
"Oh. Well, go upstairs. He should be in his study," the man replied, waving at the staircase behind him leading up to a small oaken door.
* * * * *
Brennus did enjoy a good time at the tavern, but he knew that there were also more important things in life, such as actually getting something done, so he resolved to get to business immediately, though not before a sentimental farewell to his new friends.
"Goodbye to the lot of you! You drink better than most and fight worse than some!" he shouted over his shoulder as he left, and the residents of the tavern, some hard men like Brennus, some merely sad and broken individuals, whooped and hollered at him as he left, evidently wishing him well in his future path. And so Brennus left to seek Midei the cartographer, only to realize that her shop was right next to the tavern after about half an hour of persistent searching. Slightly miffed, he walked inside and came face-to-face with a long-faced, small-eyed woman who was but a few inches shorter than he, currently standing behind a counter. Behind her Brennus could see a wealth of various maps and diagrams, all hanging from the wall rather than placed anywhere else.
"What do you want?" she asked in a manner that was a mite unfriendly, glancing back at her maps for short moment.
"Maps," Brennus said.
"What kind?""To the mountains.""Don't have any of the mountains. But to the mountains, that I can help with. To look at or to take along?"Derek: 5 MP
Wilhelm: 6 MP
Emilia: 5 MP
Edwin: 5 MP
Brennus: 5 MP
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Topic: Birth of a Deity: Turn 17, Multitudinous Failures of Words (Read 26039 times)