Just Maid's Tale
Ninth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
After leaving the Snare empty-handed, battle-blessings still flickering around you, you decide to make for Tarth to learn more of the youngest of the Chosen you have met face-to-face. Speaking with Stannis had given you some inkling of how Brienne of Tarth might be winning the favor of her god, and you had found it good, but you would rather know more before you visit Evenfall Hall again. So with Dany and Ser Richard at your side, you make your way to the House of Mirrors to learn what the scryer's glass has shown over the last few days of seeking. Crossing the corridors in haste, you see a man staring fixedly ahead with the mark of spell-wrought blindness, and another greets you by babbling in tongues for the same reason, but both seem content enough with their lot. The House pays good hard coin that lasts far longer than magic's price, and longer lasting too are the answers you are given.
Behold the Maid who stands in Galladon's seeming in deed, no mere descent of blood
By truth were the Miser's spies found, by courage were they slain
In hope before zeal were judged the cursed as men and raised thus from the mud
Yet armor of steel could ward her not from treachery's true pain
Under the black moon did echoes into madness fade
Thus vowed the warrior to hunt the Speaker of the Stars
And in the choking mist a hunt of her was made
Boar and deer, wolf and bear, all bones defiled and spirits lost
That six rode out from Even's Rest and four paid the final cost
At last came she bold, knight of true heart and unblemished purpose
Into the the Hollow Hall, where red blood upon defiled stone was spilled
There the darkness tested her but in her soul could find not purchase
The Blade shone bright, the truth at last revealed, and over all the Warrior smiled
"The first bit is the imps, that's clear enough," Dany muses over the lines. "The last part is the mad septon who swore to the Cult of the Starry Wisdom, but all this in between is harder to guess. Not for lack of options, but too many of them that would fit. The world does not lack for monsters..."
"True, but we are not doing this because we want an accounting of her kills truly, more a mirror of her character." You read the verses you had been given three times over, letting the words blur in your sight, the rhythm of each line flow into the next, calling on magic that is more than spells, on power you had found among Valyria's pyre. "She did some kindness where others counseled a hard heart and saved those who might otherwise have been lost, but the second time she offered the same she was betrayed by...
madness somehow. Then it seems to say she was ambushed and most of those who rode beside her perished..."
"We won't be finding a little girl playing at being a knight, that is certain," Ser Richard concludes. "A good thing Tarth choose to see it as more a blessing than a curse. The world could do with more to stamp out fires where they can."
There are a few more lines in the report, drawn from Yss' forked tongue. Brienne no longer believes that all magic not of the Seven is wicked, but that does not mean she does not believe in wicked magic. That which disturbs the dead, enslaves the mind, and summons dark spirits foremost among it. Lastly, you learn that she had been keeping you and Dany in her prayers, but otherwise paid little mind to news from the east, the contentions of kings and princes far from her thoughts.
So forewarned, you come at last to the shores of Tarth unchanged since your last visit. The waves still sing upon the shores of the Sapphire Island, and proud mountains rise over shadowed vales. In the distance, Evenfall Hall stands upon the shore, looking out over tilled fields and fishermen at their nets in equal measure.
How do you approach
[] Meet with Brienne first
-[] Write in
[] Meet with Selwyn Tarth first
-[] Write in
[] Speak to the smallfolk first to learn more of the happenings on Tarth
-[] Write in
[] Write in
OOC: I know this is a bit short, but I figured you guys would enjoy a break point here to tailor your approach.