Best Laid Plans
Season of Earth Probably, Elsewhere
Being all too aware that you are not the easiest person to get along with you decide to dispatch Cunning Sage of Serendipity to the task of dealing with your new... neighbors, asses their intentions and the danger they may pose to Sezekan. 'Just what are you looking for Your Eminence?' Cunning Sage of Serendipity had asked, seemingly casually, perhaps if you had noticed the fascinated gleam in her eye you might have been more specific, but you did not and so you said: "Anything, everything, where we are, who they are, what gods to they pray to, who are their foes and allies, if they are warlike or peaceful, how their spirit guides see the Wyld and the fair folk. "
Thinking about it later maybe the last bit had been a touch insensitive, given her own history with the Rashka, but that does not turn out to be the problem.
No, the problem, which reveals itself when next you meet Cunning Sage of Serendipity three days later in the Hall of Mirrors. No one in Sezekan is sure what the original purpose of the chamber was when the Lawgivers reigned, but the endless recursive reflections of the alchemically reinforced black mirrors covering every inch of the chamber make for an impressive place for the Voice to have private meetings, not that you care that much about such things but... it is rather hard to miss the patch of newly glossy feathers on Sage's left wing when it is reflected hundreds of times over.
"Were the wingless hostile?" you ask concerned.
"Yes, sort of, but I wouldn't blame them, there were mitigating circumstances...."
The words make your stomach clench in anticipation. You had dealt with enough cocky engineers, you had been the cocky engineer enough times that the words 'mitigating circumstances' are never the herald of good things. "Explain."
"So you know I can
listen to the breath of meaning behind the words? Not a very useful miracle of Mela I used to think, after all even when I found some lonely traveler on the road and did a spot of trade they still spoke something descended of the Air Tongue. This lot does not speak that, not even close."
"This would appear to be the North," you point out carefully.
She shrugs "I don't know what to tell you, they do not speak anything like the Tongue of Air. It doesn't sound like Old Realm at all in fact." And then she says something in an odd guttural tongue.
"You obtained the language?" you say cheered. Recalling the limitations of the charm-gained insight you start riffling about the cabinets in the back of the room for your
Recorder of Everlasting Glory. Getting the thing to work had been a chore since the last owner had gone out of their way to make sure it was as hard as possible to overwrite two days worth of babbling babies and toddlers in various colorful garments. "If you talk into this for a few hours in the language it should retain enough of the vocabulary that you can learn it back later."
"Huh... useful." she tips her head to the side quizzically. "you know I sometimes forget you were a Relic Finder as well."
"Not dashing enough," you say with a dash of self-deprecation amid the humor.
"Not wearing all your interesting loot."
"I don't really think of it as..." you shake your head. "Not important, how did you get hurt?"
"Right so I couldn't just sit on one of their houses and meditate for an hour, they'd shoot arrows at me and I couldn't tell them not to because I did not speak the language. I did not fancy trying to pantomime that after I saw how well armed they all are. Everyone over the age of seven or so has some kind of weapon in there and all the ones who go outside the village carry three weapons on them at least, as well as wearing thick furs that will do for armor in a pinch."
You nod. "So how did you engage them enough to gain their language."
Sage sighs placing her hands to her temples: "We trailed a pair of hunters out of the village, planning to knock them out with a sleep rag, then blindfold and tie them up. in a cave we had found that had two chambers. I could meditate in the outer one and stand guard while they freely spoke to one another in the inner room. It would not much matter what they spoke about as long as they did it long enough. Alas one of them did not go down properly, it's like he was used to fighting enemies from above, we managed to get him under wing eventually and capture him but by then he had seen us. So we've just kept them so far."
Massaging your temples does not work as well as it might be hoped. The small glass of
soju is slightly more efficacious. "What did you find out?"
"We are in the lands of the Skorlmlings, loose gathering of three small clans which all worship Olric, god of winter, wolves, winter-hunger and not being hungry. They seem to be a bit confused in that regard."
In spite of yourself you snort in laughter, thankfully without getting any of the liqueur on you. It is going to be a long time before you can spare more rice for alcohol. In a fit of perhaps unwarranted generosity you offer her some as well. She drinks it all in one gulp and then continues the story
"They are enemies of stronger and larger clans from the north, Wyld barbarians, who offer up prisoners and captives to the Fair Folk for... boons of some kind. The Skorlmlings seem to believe that the Rhaska are the ones
giving these Skaelings their mutations, which is... not impossible but very odd. More concerning the Skaelings seem to make common warbands with the Rashka which gives them strong magic."
"They could not have more distinct names could they?" you sigh. "I suppose their... er... confused wolf god protects them though?"
"They believed so, but then three days ago there were sounds of thunder and fearful drums, the calls of mad beasts and the cackling of ravens in the night and uncanny lights all around the sacred mountain of Olric and..."
The mussing about the manse comes back to you. "And Sazakan now stands where their holy mountain used to me. The wyld surge might have destroyed their god if he was simply the god
of the mountain."
"Yes, the man who saw us, his name is Bron, believes it was the work of some great... Emperor-Rhaska called the Changer of Ways. He also seems convinced that I am a servant of this creature come to tempt him. For what it's worth he does not seem entirely resistant to being tempted. I could perhaps get more information out of him that way."
"And then what are we supposed to do with him?" you ask meaningfully. "Let him go back to his people and say we admitted to serving Rashka?"
She shrugs. "Keep him until he dies of old age then, he is at least forty, old for a mortal I know food is scarce, but one more mouth won't make us starve."
What do you do about your prisoners and the Skorlmlings now that you know more about them?
[] [PRISONERS] Release the one who has not seen one of your people and imprison the one who has
[] [PRISONERS] Imprison both of them
[] [PRISONERS] Have them brought before you that you may judge them for yourself
[] [PRISONERS] Release both of them with some small gifts as apologies
[] [PRISONERS] Write in
[] [NEGOTIATIONS] Try to explain that you are strangers in this land and mean no ill to those who do not mean you ill
[] [NEGOTIATIONS] Wait to see if they send envoys to Sezekan
[] [NEGOTIATIONS] Their god is gone from among them and they are afraid, try to overawe them with power to keep them from growing into enemies
[] [NEGOTIATIONS] Write in
OOC: I thought about doing this as an interlude from Sage, but we have not really got to know Gus well so I did not want to leave his PoV this early, plus his reaction to Sage's shenanigans was fun to write.
