Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest

The Thirty Eight of Elnu-eza [Elnu Ascendant], Year Unknown

You are not sure what you had expected when you had counseled the good doctor to ask Inge about her people and not her... sorcery, but it certainly was not this. "She thinks we fell from the sky?" Not that one would expect a child to have much of a grasp of the arrangement of lands besides the obvious, but still. "Why?"

"Iron apparently," the doctor explains. "Her folk do not mine it, nor any of the peoples she knows of. But she does know of iron, fallen from the sky on streaks of fire, they call them the 'Gift of Elnu'. As far as I can tell both her own folk and those of the Orinilu and the other small states around what she calls the 'Mouth of the World' make use of large amounts of bronze, trading tin and copper between themselves with the former being particularly precious. The Tin League of the Ibanora makes use of the power that grants them to form a strong hold on many vassal cities, though she could not tell me more on this matter other than the fact that tin also comes from the north, from the White Lands where the breath of Ikomiu hangs heavy."

With every strange name added to the list the weight of the world around you seems to grow greater. How far does the unknown stretch? How far must you travel or trek to find home?

For his part the doctor seems wholly untroubled by the matter, indeed by the glint in his eye you suspect he would much rather be here than in Sicily. "Alas this is the first time Inge traveled beyond the shores of her home and thus could not give a full account of the local geography, but this much I can say. There are hot lands to our south, scrub-land giving way to the sands and beyond that in 'the Great Lands', empires old, strong and from the manner she speaks of them thought by her folk to be decadent. To the north there is a peninsula reaching out to almost touch the south lands leaving only a narrow straight running east to west between what she calls the Blue Sea and the Westwater, or the 'True Sea'. I think the latter is what her own folk call it and the former is what foreigners name it after her own people. On this peninsula there dwell many city-states which the folk of the Sunset Islands have at times war and at times peace with as all men do, though they fear the storm of the Islanders' ire and their dedication to Ikomi for they are weak warriors and unskilled sailors."

An old tale told on a long winter nights comes back to you of men from the north sailing in sleek ships with the heads of dragons, bringing axe and sword and fire to the lands of Francia, then they came to take land and swear oaths, to be baptized to Christ, your ancestors of old. 'Of the fury of the Northmen may God deliver us,' they said of old and even your father, a just and pious man, would smile a little when he recounted it.

"They are like the Northmen," you says slowly. "Farmers at home, but raiders and traders abroad..."

While Zaia seems at most mildly curious about the subject Antonio bleaches and crosses himself. "Heathen pillagers? Is that what I am taking my ship into? They will rob us as soon as look at us..."

"No, they won't," you shake your head definitively. "No man is a pirate all of his days, or even most of them, they must still grow crops and raise cattle..."

"Goats actually, there is no mention of cattle on the island," the scholar interjects.

You nod and continue with confidence you do not wholly feel: "No lord in his own right who has more respect for himself than a brigand drinking swill in a sty will attack foreign ships in his own port without cause, else every sword be turned against him." Here you offer a wry smile. "Mistake me not, Captain, I am not counting upon the goodness of man, but upon the good sense that says you do not shit where you eat."

At that Antonio laughs so hard he coughs up his wine. "So war is like shitting to you, strange for a knight..."

"Not so strange for an honest one. Have you ever smelled a battlefield when the crows set to feasting?" You shake off dark memories and turn to Zaia again. "What is Inge to her people then? Do they value powers such as hers when traveling the wide sea?"

"She is, near as I can tell and I have always found matters spiritual suffer in translation with the least grace, a priestess of Ikomi, Lady of the Depth," he confirms a suspicion you had ever since she had been so adamant to see the dead buried at sea and so... skilled in enacting the ritual. "There are some who would welcome her home, though not her family, she will not speak of them when asked."

"Oh," Antonio breathes disappointed, perhaps having expected some reward from Inge's kin. "Do the priests rule the islands with their magic then?"

"No, they are advisors and some of them trained navigators, but the true power rests in the hands of the kings who rule with the assent of a council of nobles who must in turn answer to their warriors. That way it is said each warrior who can bear a blade, each head of household, has some say in the rule of the islands, a ward against tyranny apparently."

Before he can say more there is a banging on the door of the cabin, followed by the urgent words of one of the sailors on watch. "Come quick, captain! There are small boats, many of them, coming through the fog at us from the north!"

Antonio curses viciously. "I do not suppose you asked the girl who lives in these lands near the Mouth of the World, did you?"

"There are only so many hours in the day and it is yet hard to get meaning across," the scholar shrugs. "Still, she might be able to speak their tongue and act as a simple translator."

"Or her presence might make her think we are some new sort of plunderer kin to storm and death," the captain shoots back, obviously unconvinced.

What do you suggest?

[] Being Inge on deck to talk to the approaching boats
-[] Write in argument

[] Nothing, let the captain do as seems best to him

[] Something else
-[] Write in argument

OOC: The calendar has been added to the font page under lore now that we are using it.