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

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

You do not notice it at first... Inge takes to her training with more diligence than you would have shown at her age, so when she somehow manages the simple motions against the makeshift pale better than you thought she would you put it down to practice. Then, more to keep the men busy when there is naught else to do on the packed ship, you ask Nico to help her practice and find that that the light practice 'sword' in his hand cannot touch her.

"What the..." you bite back the word 'devil', for the child had done nothing to deserve such a curse, but there is something there more than talent or luck can account for.

"Death has chosen her, is it so strange that she would know how to deal it?" Zaia says from the door of his cabin, between sips of the herbal tea he is fond of drinking to ward away the cold. "Many there are who wander the paths of the world spreading the word and the will of their gods, and if there is one thing which is commonplace in these stories it is that these holy men and women are... adept in defending themselves, even when they have little cause to be so. Goatherds who wrestled warlords to the ground and extracted from their gasping lips the salvation of their people, dancers and jugglers turned peerless killers, even..." Here he gives a rueful smile. "Soft-handed scholars who emerged from their seclusion to slay the foes of their cities with sword and holy verse. Granted the latter might be accounted the fancy of the chronicler, like a boy drawing knightly battles in the corner of a manuscript, the face of the hero uncommonly like their own..."

"Speaking from experience there Zaia?" you ask in jest.

"Brief experience, yes," he replies wistfully. "All boys think war is grand at the first, even ones who were never meant to hold a sword, it is only later that we learn the truth."

"Do you think women would make a better job of it then?" you ask as you watch Inge finally get hit a light tap across her arm only to roll out of the way and try to stab again, idly perhaps, though not quite in jest. With all you had seen these past months you would not be surprised to land on the northern shores to find the Amazons of ancient history upon them.

He ponders a matter a long moment before replying: "I would not think so. Lady Anisi was no less eager to spill blood for her calling than her companions were. If there is any fault to be found..." he cuts himself off and shakes his head.

"What?" you press, then guessing the reason for his hesitation you add. "Upon my honor I shall take no offense for anything said in good conscience and without malice."

"If there is any fault to be found for the way in which the young are send to war with bright eyes and hollow songs it is in the very evils of war for which they are unprepared. When their elders went into battle they faced the same trials, but returning home they did not wish to dwell on he pain so little it it makes it as far as singer's ears and so more into battle unready are sent..."

There is something in his words... You take a chance. "Who did you lose?"

"A brother, younger than me, yet still more the son my father had hoped for..." he sighs, the pain in those syllables worn smooth as river stones with the passing of the years. "Pamin was a fool, but not through any fault of his own. Father on the other hand never forgave him for dying or me for failing to step into his shoes. He too died the next year also, some claimed of a broken heart, others of bad blood... Personally I found neither explanation to be all that sound. Men dies when their bodies fail not when some ethereal fault of the spirit compels them. Even in this world this I believe..."

The last is almost a challenge, but though you are not sure that you agree you see no reason to quarrel and so offer a nod.

For a long moment there is silence then the words rise to your lips unbidden like smoke from a covered flame. "Do you think we are doing the right thing, bringing her with us into battle and strife?"

"Young she may be, but I do not think she is blind to the ways of the world and hardly has her life sheltered her," Zaia replies and in his words you hear no doubt or hesitation that you had been most worried with, rather then open rebuke. "You are doing the best you can..."

Though the days grow colder with each day sailing north you find it is less likely to slip into your bones along the way.

Inge Gains Dagger Proficiency

What do you wish to do next?

[] Getting Ulk's measure

[] Conversing with the ship

[] Spend time with Silver

[] Write in

OOC: A bit of a character piece for both Roland and Zaia, as well as their growing friendship in spite of their different backgrounds and life experiences.

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

Ulk the Undaunted is in many ways what one expects of an Anwa raider captain. An inch or two taller than you and a good bit wider, he is brash, bold and would be counted loud even if he did not sow silver bells into his bright red vest in a tinkling display that would have seemed absurd but for the tale he tells when he catches your gaze lingering on them. Bells are not made among the Anwa and they are uncommon even among the western cities of the inner sea, but they are used among the eastern kingdom of the Nokuma, what would be Greece, at least if you recalled the maps Zaia had shown you aright.

The Nokuma are star worshipers and skilled miners of silver, so of that silver they make bells to symbolize their gods and they hang them in their temples as tinkling curtains, an echo of the celestial dance, all these things Ulk describes over bread and cheese, fine mead and roast goat, and then he recounts how he had raided the temple and taken their holy treasures and put the star seers to the sword.

"I would have let them live of course..." he sucks the meat from one of the bones. "All they would have had to do was open the vaults and buy their lives with their treasures, but the old fool who was master of the temple, bald as an egg he was but with a beard so long it swept the floor as though all his hair had come dripping down his face, said the treasures weren't his, but belonged instead to the Thousand Gods. Well the Thousand Gods weren't very good at keeping me and the lads away were they now?"

Your stomach roils as you contemplate how the tale is likely to end. Does Antonio know? You cannot imagine Ulk had tried particularly hard to hide his nature given how readily he is recounting this over a meal in sight and hearing of all his crew.

"So we started killing the captives, well what we had of them at least, for a bunch of priests with sticks they had fought hard against men with bronze in their hands. The bloody goat-gizzard wouldn't budge right up until we got to the last one, that's when he started going proper green and I thought maybe he'd crack, but then...."

"Couldn't you have broken into the vault some other way?" you ask, almost pleading without meaning to. The lives you would wish spared are long since lost.

"Bah, do I look like a fool to you iron man?" Ulk scoffs. "We couldn't get into the damn vault, t'was sealed with sorcery and we didn't have the good fortune of keeping company with two witches then. So anyway we had this last priest, last except for the old man that is and we were going to cut off fingers to make him last, then my fool of a helmsman slips bringing him in and the priest jumps out a window, singing as he fell if you will believe it. Old priest wouldn't tell us shit after that, not even when we dipped his beard in oil and set it on fire. So that's the story of my bells..."

Perhaps you have been silent for too long, trying to keep the food down and the revulsion off your face. "What about you, what's the story of that shield you're wearing?"

What do you reply?

[] The truth, try to keep the conversation civil and find out how he has dealt with the folk of the White Lands, hopefully that is not another tale of atrocity (Opposed Bluff Sense Motive Check)

[] Make your excuses and leave, Antonio can deal with the man if he can stomach him, you will not look at him one moment more

[] Inform the bastard in no uncertain terms that he will be held to a higher standard on this journey (Intimidate DC ???)

[] Write in

OOC: So that is Ulk. Perhaps unsurprisingly when looking for a guide willing to set off north in autumn some corners had to be cut, though it remains to be seen if that is all that will be cut by the end of this.