Go find that priest!
You rise from your comfy priestess-cushion and go see what the priest has done with his time. Strolling through the courtyard, you catch a few curious looks. Must be the robe. In any case, you go into the keep and do not even need to go very far, as it is in the foyer that you see the priest standing with a very apologetic look on his face as a scarred female guard stands behind him, a dagger poking into his back. Face to face with him stands a teenage girl in a nightdress, looking like she's been woken up a short while ago and none too pleased about it. They are flanked by four other guards of progressive burliness, a few of which make careful note of your arrival. Their glares imply that you had best not give them any trouble.
"There he is, Your Majesty," says the priest, and as he points your way you instinctively frown. "The Child of the Sun and Moon, brought into being by our minders to save us in the darkest of times. It is for his ascendance that I seek the mirror, so that he may better catch the light of our salvation!" he continues. The girl furrows her brow and looks you over.
"Who
is that?" she asks after staring at you for a good while. The priest begins to repeat his spiel, but she motions for him to stop. "Wait, brought into being... by the minders. To save us, you say." She rubs her temples drowsily. "I... bloody hell, you expect me to deal with this right now? Eugh."
She looks a bit under the weather. And also quite drunk. Making eye contact with you, she raises an eyebrow.
"How's this: you tell me what the hell's going on," she says at last. "And without the bloody nonsense this time," she then adds. A guard pokes the priest sharply in the back as he musters to make an indignant remark.
"It doesn't look like there's much here that would be helpful. Maybe we should check somewhere else, like that tower. Important things are always in towers."
I leave the dome thing and walk to the tower.
"Alright sure tower it is."
Accompany Ms. Minett to the tower.
After spending far too much time admiring this wasteland of a temple, you turn around and head out, walking along the side of the courtyard to the largest tower available. It's an ancient-looking thing, the bricks weathered by many more centuries of existence than the stonework of the rest of the castle, and the windows look to be of a different style than the arrow slits and tiny view-holes of the rest of the place. Looking closer, you notice that it seems to not be so much a part of the castle walls as it is that the walls go around it, including the battlements.
The door is elevated, and you need to ascend a small flight of steps to get to it - it is a massive set of double doors, fortified and braced with steel, with reliefs of conjoined, oddly formed skulls cut into a large proportion of its surface. You are almost disappointed when it proves to be completely unlocked, allowing you access into the tower's first floor.
It's a dark place much like the keep - perhaps even darker. But this one at least does not appear to have had its sconces stolen. The room you are currently in seems to be dominated by a large hearth with several circles of seating around it. All of it looks immaculately clean, and there is not a speck of dust in sight. The inner walls are painted completely black, creating the illusion of a vast, dark expanse all around you, broken up by tiny pinpricks of light coming from strategically placed holes in the walls. The floor, by contrast, is almost pure white, to the point where you can very clearly make it out in the near-dark of the room. The ceiling is high and vaulted, and would look quite impressive if it did not have seven irregular holes in it.
The largest and brightest of the holes, you notice, seems to have someone standing in it. A small shadow, looking distant in its ceiling alcove, its eyes powerfully reflective, reminiscent of a cat in the dark.
Why have you come here?
"Alright. Can I have a poker or something to whack people with if they try to kill me for some reason?"
Hopefully obtain whacking stick of metal or something like that - maybe a crowbar if he has one - then open front door and observe the outside.
You may not, the boy says. His tools are precious and not to be handed out for such frivolous purposes as counter-murder. They still have a weapon of supreme might to forge, and wearing them out is something that just won't do. You suppose that's fair enough, so you go to open the front door, only to be rebuked by the boy again. There is a REASON he bolted that door! You ask what that would be, and he replies that he really doesn't want anybody to bother him. So he ushers you out the back door, telling you to only return once the stars have aligned and you have the components required. The door slams behind you, and you hear that one being bolted as well.
You take the long way around, then, coming out in what looks like a fairly empty castle courtyard. Only a few people are visible at the moment, and all of them seem to be in something of a hurry. Nobody appears to be terribly eager to try and stick around here. Maybe you shouldn't be, either.
"More or less. I did cut some corners straight and left some things unmentioned. 80% of truth didn't get me what I wanted, however. I probably should have lied more, but what is done is done and I'm still stuck here. Why?"
"You speak the Mother Tongue well," the crazy guy says. "Fluently. And when you speak it to the men of the guard, they understand even better." He rises from his seat. "But do you speak it truly? Or is this another layer of sorcery?"
He steps to the left, then to the right.
"I have said too much already," he adds as he draws closer. "Far too much far too easily. What trickery is it that you are performing here? Who do you work for?"
He's a bit hard to read, but you get a sense of overwhelming readiness from the way he seems to be coiling up internally.
Eric Codeburn, COMPUTISTICS SPECIALIST
- Wounds: 1
- 12 gp (non-sequential)
- Perforated Burlap Sack
- Inscribed Brick ('Water')
- Anglefork Castle: Demon Prince
- The Queen's Attention
- The Impromptu Prophecy: A Complication
- Sun-Priest's Robe (worn)
- Adherents of the Great House: Enemy of Memory
- Well and Truly Narked Upon: 1
Benny Calverly, Barber
- Naked
- Finally Out Of The Damn Hole
- Finely Crafted Knotted Sack-Club
- Rat Pantheon: Enemy of the Gestalt
- Tower of the Mind: a Question
Leif Erikson, Miner
- Reappropriated, Clean Skirt
- 1 gp
- Anglefork Castle: Reasonably Jailed
- The Prison Stone
- Elongated Affairs: A Noble Task
- Elongated Affairs: The Numbers of the Stoat
- Wounds: 1
Eileen Minett, Vinyl Collector
- Queenly Garments: the Humble Dress
- Sticks: 0.95 (total)
- Rat Pantheon: Disliked
- Traces of Mischief: Mouthful of Blackness
- Anglefork Castle: the New Queen's Confidant
- Doomstones: An Interest
- Tower of the Mind: a Question
Jack Daniels, Karate Man
- Gravel-Ridden
- The Winding Path of Inspiration: the Sword of Destiny
- The Winding Path of Inspiration: Something Profane?
- The Winding Path of Inspiration: Something Priceless?
- The Winding Path of Inspiration: Something Purple?
- The Apron of Mediocrity
Author
Topic: Our Salvation: It Is Written (Read 262763 times)