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

Third Day of Ashinu-ezna (Ashinu Ascendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

The first three days of the journey north are miserable, a storm around midday of the first day seeming to start off a ill streak with the next day being chilly and wet and and this one opening with the skies seeming to sift rain straight down onto your heads until you might almost welcome the crack of thunder, if only as a break from the sameness of the day that sends all of you hiding either in the cabins and the hold or, for those unfortunates who must be on deck under cloaks and heavy sail cloth. You do not even want to contemplate what it is like in the rigging.

"Think this bad... heh, wait and see... cold sleet, snow in north," Watcher says, catching you shiver. A poor consolation if ever you have heard one.

Why the devil am I doing this, more money, more prestige? What good does it all do? The questions ring all too heavy in the mind, as though with the voice of a cracked bell. You are doing it you suppose because Antonio saw the chance and you made a vow to follow him even as he follows you, but that is not the proper answer either. You had hardly spoken up against the journey. Perhaps it could be said that you are traveling to safety, and for certain you are glad to have all your men aboard ship and under your eye rather than miles and long weeks away, but if it is safety you wanted you would not have chosen to go to the ends of the earth.

Is there some stubborn childish part of you that is still looking for home, that wants to mirror the journey you would have taken on the way back to Verley, some expectation that if you but find he place where the bones of the earth are the same a bridge will open between worlds like minstrel's tales of a man lost in the Otherworld?

"What's the matter?" a young clear voice calls out from beside you. Inge looks up at you with concern in her dark eyes.

I must have been looking at the sea for a while now, you realize with a guilty start. "Just thinking..."

The girl does not seem to buy what you are selling, not in the least. "Mhhm, what about?"

What exactly I am expecting to find by poking every deep dark hole in the world? An answer comes to mind, not one that should be spoken aloud. Maybe I'm just hoping to fall into one of them?

You shake off the black thought, an ever more familiar task, perhaps one that grows easier also, or perhaps the girl's company helps. She has her whole life ahead of her and the bold promises of youth aside, she has no reason to return to her kin. For now that is reason enough to look forward instead of back and thinking of looking forward...

"I have something to talk to Antonio about, wait here..."

"In the rain?" she asks in that droll manner which children manage to effortlessly and no jester can truly match.

"No, not in the rain, I just meant that we will have reason to speak to you soon as well." If nothing else you will have cause to speak with her even if Antonio refuses your proposal.


"You want to pay the girl for her healing?" Antonio does not sound impressed. "We already have a doctor and he is getting paid to bang cauldrons and pots together to his heart's content..."

"And what virtue would his potions have without Inge's magic?" you counter. "How much is her aid in battle worth?" Not that you want her anywhere near battle, but the world is a dangerous place and the ship is not sailing to safe shores even so.

"Well it's not really her magic, is it?" He turns the words around on you even as he rises from his seat and motions out to the sea. "It belongs to... her."

For all the ways in which he is unlike you Antonio too is a son of the Church and heavy lie the words upon his lips that might speak against the First Commandment, but this is not a matter of theology. "No matter how Inge earned those powers they are hers to wield as sure as sword and shield are mine or mortar and pestle are Zaia's..." It was not so long ago that you did not even know what a mortal and pestle were, much less how they were used, but you had come to an understanding of the worth of many crafts on this journey, including Antonio's own.

"Fine, fine, you have made your point," your friend throws his hands in the air dramatically after that was for him a suspiciously short argument on the spending of money. Perhaps the thought had been gnawing on him as well, at least a little. "How much do you think we should pay her?"

[] A modest amount 100 gp/Encounter or Major healing

[] A middling sum 200 gp /Encounter or Major healing

[] A princely sum 500 gp /Encounter or Major healing

[] Write in

OOC: So yeah I thought about doing the turn vote, then I generated the weather and I got storm/cloudy/heavy rain and while writing stream of consciousness for Roland I ran into some of his depression, then naturally Inge came up because she was worried and so I remembered the wish on the part of you guys (and thus Roland) to pay her. The rest of the update flowed from there. For anyone who is curious I did not do a roll for Antonio, as much as he might complain he does know Inge saved his men and maybe even him so he is fine with paying her.