Day 1 – Midday
Aetharbor
Asithi made her way back to the Hairy Bear. She told the brute outside she was just looking for a drink and slipped into the establishment. The first thing she noticed was the smell. Beer and unwashed bodies filled her nose and assaulted her tongue. She sneered in disgust as she took in the scene in front of her. The main room was full of tables at which dirty looking men and women drank and gambled. Strange dice rolled across tables and meaty hands clutched bone game-pieces with numbers and symbols etched on them. There was one table participating in a more advanced type of game, with a number of different hand-carved pieces moving around on a grid. One of the men at the table must have had illusion magic; the table was alive with a landscape full of hills, rivers, and forests, and the pieces appeared to move of their own volition. It appeared one of the players was losing quite badly, as he kept asking those around him for advice and the man across from him sat smugly, arms folded, assured of his victory. Servers walked between these tables ensuring mugs were full, and providing something for the more lecherous men to look at.
While this scene was novel, it was not why Asithi had come. She glided between these tables, letting her intuition take her back towards the kitchen. She strode past the bartender as though she belonged there, and indeed the bartender treated her like she did; the serpen was able to walk right past the large woman. Asithi’s intuition took her through the back of the kitchen to a small room in the back where a large man sat doing bookkeeping work. Asithi couldn’t quite say how she knew this man, and not one of the individuals out front, was in charge, but she was certain. Perhaps it was the fact that the bartender didn’t seem to realize Asithi wasn’t some shady employee, and that none of the servers had given her a second glance. Or maybe she felt that whoever sat at a desk with the money would be the one to pay the debts. Regardless, her feet had brought her to the man’s office, and he owed ‘Borl’ a debt.
Seawall
Meyath made her away across town, pleased to see that most of Seawall looked like a fairly healthy city. People mingled and chatted, worker normal jobs, and made purchases. Everything looked relatively normal, in contrast to the madness of the morning. Soon she passed through the untouched parts of town and approached the triage area. There were many people here with wounds sustained in battle, or repair attempts, or occasionally mundane accidents. As she approached a woman wearing an apron with small bloodstains on it approached to ask if Meyath was injured.
Will returned to the yard to watch the recruits sparring, and paid special attention to their actions, trying to understand the fight. At first he tried too hard, attempting to catch and analyze their every movement, but they simply moved too quickly. Just as he would form a thought about a particular strike it would be gone and the next would land. Next Will tried to understand their stances. These were slightly longer lived, but he still couldn’t understand how the stances interacted with each other, or what the purpose of changing a stance was. Becoming frustrated he began to zone out a little, and that was when he noticed it. The recruits had a rhythm to their swords moving, but whenever the female recruit broke that rhythm she could catch her sparring partner off guard. Will thought this looked like a useful trick for extended swordfights, and mentally noted that he would have to figure it out.
The fight ended when the woman hit the other recruit hard enough that he yelped in pain, jumped back, and threw his practice sword to the ground. She picked up the dropped sword before walking them over to a rack of them on the side of the barracks. The yard picked up she walked off with her sparring partner, quietly discussing the match and giving advice. Will was left alone in the yard, and so he decided to give himself a leisurely tour of Seawall. He identified distinct regions of the town: the port, the market, the residential area, and the barracks. The market and residential area were set far back from the coast, while the port and barracks were near. In the port all of the buildings were built out of stone to the greatest degree possible it seemed, while the market and houses were built out of wood. He felt confident he could find anywhere he needed to be.
Will Skill gain: Change of Cadence (0) – you know this is a skill, but you can’t do it yet
Iseaya
Varkhal began tapping around with his spear in the garden, cautiously looking for a weak spot. Not finding anything he pushed deeper with his spear, only to get the butt of it stuck in the ground. Fortunately Sofia was so excited about the prospect of an adventure that she was literally bouncing around the garden, jumping up and down hoping it would reveal a tunnel. When she jumped near Varkhal it became apparent they were literally right on top of a giant tunnel, which promptly caved in. Sofia spread her wings and drifted gracefully into the tunnel, but Varkhal’s stubborn grip on his spear resulted in him being covered in dirt. Sofia gave him a ‘come on silly, get out of the dirt and come adventure’ look before helping him out of the dirt and dancing her way down the tunnel. The healer appeared at the opening to the tunnel and looked down on Varkhal with a soft smile on her face and shook her head before handing him a torch, at which point he set out after Sofia.
They made their way through the winding tunnel, the small Aethen always bounding ahead, looking for adventure. Eventually they found it in the form of a giant mole in their path. It seemed annoyed by the torch.
Varkhal’s clothes become dirty, + Torch (3 Turns Remaining)
Spirarbor
The serpen gave Cara a sad look. “Sorry dear, but you won’t be finding him. The reason this port was his last stop was because he was bit by a spider on his way here. He died here, and gave his book to a local copyist. It’s really fortunate it was this port that he died at; in another place his book might not have been recognized as valuable.” He nevertheless handed over the book in exchange for 20 coppers. The group wished her well in her travels and she returned the sentiment before walking off to the beach.
Cara found a rock to lean upon and cracked open the book. At first she just flipped through the pages, getting a general idea for the layout and content. It appeared to be journal-style entries interspersed with drawings of plants annotated with information regarding ritual uses and local customs. In the very back was a map of the Aethellian coast. There were lines representing the author’s travels, and dots to mark where journal entries had been made. It also clarified the idea of Botanogeography greatly for the wolfkin. The land had different areas marked off as being the regions where plants with spiritual significance grew. He’vu apparently had a theory that these plants had defined the boundaries of different traditions, providing geographic limitations for certain faiths. Cara found loose sheets of paper behind the map, an index apparently written by the serpen she had purchased this book from. Using it she decided there were two places to start her reading of the book: the introduction and a section on a wolfkin tradition.
Like most desert-dwelling serpen I am most comfortable as a traveler. It is our nature to be nomadic; sitting still for long makes us feel uncomfortable, vulnerable. So my early life was spent travelling the desert, following a wise griot who never failed to bring us to food and water, and hide us from the myriad of dangers that the desert contains. It was during this time that I found I had an aptitude for mapping; my special memory was quite good. As a result I noticed patterns in our travels, and began discussing these patterns with my griot. His replies to the inquiry varied from day to day, and I knew none of them was the full truth. I began to try and find out what it was that was limiting our travels, and through conversations with other nomads we encountered I was able to rule out obvious answers such as availability of water, food, and shelter. The ways of griots were often mysterious, and so none thought it odd that there would be some hidden pattern to his movements; most assumed some great knowledge guided him, the kind that can only be received in images and metaphors. In essence, they described his movements as spiritual, and they were not wrong. Through careful note-taking and observation I realized that the territory he visited was limited by the availability of a certain herb which he would often smoke in order to receive the wisdoms from the past, or during his storytelling. These were his modi spiritalis, and they depended on this plant.
After a time I left this griot and found another with different habits. He had an herb of his own, and again his travels were curtailed by a lack of this herb. By now I knew that these men were limited by the growth of the flora which defined their traditions, but I desired to know more. How consistent was this trend across griots? What of other traditions? What happened when territories overlapped? What of herbs that need not be fresh for use? What of herbs that could be cultivated away from their original location? I wanted to know the precise degree to which the local flora could dictate the presence or absence of spiritual traditions. So I set out to map first the desert, then other regions on the Aethellian coast. I determined the plants vital to different traditions, their growth patterns, and the territory in which the tradition was active. At times my hypothesis of dependence was confirmed unequivocally, while in other areas it was challenged.
This book contains my complete observations, but my observations have not completed this field of study. There is great need for botanists to continue this study, determining what limits plant growth, what makes certain plants spiritually significant and others mundane, and to what degree these lines between traditions could be altered. Some traditions are dying because of the lack of land suitable for their plants, and the loss of these traditions would be a great blow to our collective cultural knowledge. There is also need for the expansion of these maps to include other parts of the world, as my own studies were unfortunately limited to the Aethellian coast. Finally, there are certain regions where my theory seems challenged, yet I suspect this is because I lacked complete information of the situations of these traditions. I hope some ambitious reader will devote themselves to uncovering the limitations on these traditions such that my theory can either be conclusively confirmed or denied in these questionable cases.
-This introduction spoken by He’vu shortly before his death, written by Anaez Jola.
The section on the wolfkin described details of He’vu’s attempts to gain admittance to spiritual caves, as well as difficulties in the mountains themselves. He highly advised a wolfkin guide, and wrote that a sturdy pair of shoes was beyond indispensable. The cold was another thing he had not been prepared for; the frigid air and biting winds were a real threat. As a result he had been confined mostly to caves and short forays outside. However, he did have a number of details on plants and their ritual uses. The entry Cara studied this time was on shale-leaf. (Note: Book page to appear soon.)
Maps
If it's evening, go look for the sailors. If not, go to the Hairy Bear and look for the people I'm probably supposed to be looking for.
Luck: 20 vs 5
Meyath heads to the location indicated, hepy to have something to do, although still sad at the necessity
Luck: 19 vs 5
Will heads into town, and looks to see if the militia is recruiting. If so, he signs himself up. Otherwise, he tries to find out what happened to the town.
Luck: 15 vs 5
Search for a giant mole tunnel. In case a tunnel is found get down through it and follow down its length (preferably with some source of light, like a borrowed lantern, if there aren't any orifices allowing some sunlight in).
In case no tunnel is found, move a little away from the garden and impart the Oik rune upon one of the strips of leather cut from Sofia's armor (I suppose we have two). The source of pain should be biting the tip of one of his fingers hard enough to cause pain without wounding.
STR: 1-1 vs 7
Help him look for mooooles.
STR: 20-3 vs 7
BUY THAT BOOK!
Then, if it is alright, wish them well. Browse the book!
INTE: 13 vs 10
Author
Topic: [IC Thread] Kurchil's Children - Day 1 - Introduction (Read 17878 times)