Turn 14, It's A Good Week For RevelationEmilia, rather interested in what one would see fit to bury in such a highly conspicuous place, digs at the mound with her bare hands until her fingers brush up against wood - old wood, braced with a bit of steel. She digs a little more, then a tad beyond even that, quickly removing the topmost layer of dirt.
To her surprise, what's beneath is not a treasure chest or lockbox. Rather, it seems to be a trapdoor, complete with a handle. The wood, as noted, is quite old, and the steel's a bit rusted. The trapdoor seems a bit flimsy, all in all, though a pull at its handle seems to reveal that it is quite locked. Emilia does not see a keyhole.
* * * * *
As
Edwin comes to the end of the explanation about his profession and calling, he wonders about this place he has found himself in - this appears to set off the man he is speaking to, though in an entirely positive way.
"This place is one of the path villages. It has a name, Pkrin. We are all born here, or have found the path. Like you did. There are two other villages on the path, Htoz and Gpin. We came here by accident, got lost, went out of our way. And then we started living like gnomes, no touching the swamp. No orcs here, or dragons, or much of anything dangerous, except us. So it is a good life. I sometimes go out and trade with outsiders, this is how I know your dialect. Others have not left the path in their life. You see? A very good life we lead here. We can worship the gnome god, tell gnome jokes, and live in peace."* * * * *
Derek and his hearty crew of fellow practitioners of nudity decide that there's no use in walking around a town like this sober, and they quickly order some ales for their trouble. Or, more precisely, Ehran and Derek do, while Sweetie just stands by, tapping her foot idly. Inebriation, fortunately, does not take long at all to take hold - a sign of good ale with a lower proportion of water than usual, Derek notes. Compliments to the unintelligible hosts, he thinks. But the two men do not get extremely drunk - not yet, anyway. There may be time for that later. Right now, preaching must happen! And so the three people hit the streets immediately.
Fortunately for them, they find a whole bunch of peculiar sorts wandering the streets - two women, to be precise, and one man. Each seems to be quite interesting in their own right, or so Derek would, perhaps inappropriately, judge from their appearance.
Leading the group seems to be a woman with a very oddly-shaped head - it appears to flatten at the very top, and the top of her skull seems to have taken on the appearance of a wide-brimmed hat, albeit one covered in long hair that's combed rather stylishly. She's wearing an expensive-looking dress. Following her is a smaller woman, with a mousy look to her, her face pronouncedly twitching all over as she examines the surrounding area. She seems to compensate for her lack of physical extravagance with a dress that easily upstages her friend's. And the man following them both is most curious of all, for he seems to be making the conscious choice to walk backwards, all the while wearing a jet black robe complete with ominous hood. They stop immediately in front of Derek, seemingly catching his restless look of having something he wants to say. She says something very slowly, more a series of strangely composed vowels than a word or a sentence, and the twitchy woman seems to agree. Sweetie inclines her head, raising an eyebrow, and asks them something extremely rapidly with a great degree of fluency. The three strange people all giggle together at this.
* * * * *
The sun is slowly disappearing beyond the horizon as the sleepy eyes of one
Pilner are slowly forced open by a profound lack of exhaustion, which is a very sharp contrast to how he felt just this morning. Not that he was fully aware of it, of course. He'd been walking for a while, in a bit of a fugue state from suddenly touching the mind of God, you know. Nothing too unique, he would guess, aside from this real strange sense of purpose. He had a direction to go in and things to do. Important dreams and instructions, or something of that nature. Ones he couldn't help but act upon. And so he started walking.
His mind must have been in some kind of strange cycle there. He hasn't really experienced something like this before. He sort of vaguely recalls walking all day and all night. And then at one point his body decided to screw waiting for his mind to respond and just shut down all on its own. Or at least he thinks that's how this kind of thing works. Point is, he planted himself face-first into the road, it kind of hurts, and he doesn't really remember what he was supposed to do, just that it seemed to be important and that he's probably going in the right direction at the moment. Unless somebody just flipped him around while he was passed out. Who knows what these crazy travelers can do, you know?
* * * * *
Turns out being a missionary in the name of the One True God is much more difficult than previously thought,
Jim is forced to conclude as he stands before the gates of Bellstarae, explaining to the guards that he'd really like to go in, if only for the unique blend of variety, novelty and comfort that not resting on the ground tends to bring.
But the guards don't seem to believe that it's worth letting him in at this hour. After all, it's technically past the time when the town gates close for the night. And also Jim smells rather bad, they explain and expressively gesture to get their conviction across as clearly as possible. Jim silently curses choosing to try and sleep so early in the morning. Missed the entire day, basically.
Derek: 5 MP
Emilia: 4 MP
Edwin: 2 MP
Pilner: 5 MP
Jim: 5 MP
Two new players! I'll update the second post... later.