Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)

8th of Lamashan 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

Crossed spears bar your way as you walk towards the center of Arkentos, their tips swept back like the wings of seabirds, their points worryingly sharp. You do not stop walking until they are almost under your chin. "Oh..." you glance down as if you had somehow failed to notice both them and the Inzenti warriors holding them. "I bear grave tidings for the rulers of mine kin of the deep waters."

"Tidings from who? From what stranger?" the warrior to your right snaps, a woman from her triple braided hair, not loose like those of the men.

"From those who have no name nor need of one, from shadows rushing into being, from the fallen who might yet be spared if we are swift." Gill slits are not amenable to having the breath caught in one's throat, but you can see the flash of pink at the side of her neck that marks an in-drawn breath. Such as one might need for a fight, you are reminded but your face is as un-carved stone, free of aught to read upon it but what the reader brings.

For the other guard that seems to be a dread of the uncanny and unknown, of which you are all too familiar and in this hour all too willing to learn.

"You claim to serve the Nameless One?" he asks, a tremble in his voice.

"That you think there is only One who would refuse to be so circled by the tongues of mortals... I envy you."

The guards no longer bar your way.


At first sight the king and chief could not seem less alike and still be of one people: Chief Rokus broad and scarred storm-grey hair covering not just his head, but his chest as well trailing down his limbs until you wonder if there is a touch of bear or seal to him and King Grypus, slim and narrow-shouldered, bearing no weapon but a staff topped with a six-pointed star that stirs an echo of familiarity, in dream or memory. Yet the closer you look at them the more you notice the cunning gleam reflected in both eyes, the prize of long years lived under the sea. Here too you meet the young prince again and from the look his father gives him you had been recognized as his guest for better or for worse and... petting her sea snake the Usena princess, Arokea, trying and failing to hide her interest at so strange a visitor in company yet stranger.

"Know ye king beneath the southern waters that ill shall befall the shorefolk of Andoran if Prince Cozut is to be bound to bold Aranea, know yet Chief of the far travelers who follow the whalesong that little steel shall you gain from that for it shall be turned to the flesh of other foes." So shocked are they to hear the words without bow or greeting that none move to stop you as you recite the prophecy, first verse to the last:


Akorian Intimidate (DC 25/30/33): 1d20+15+2 (Enhanced Diplomacy) = 34 (Full Success)

"When? When will this evil come to pass?" King Grypus asks, thunder in his voice, enough that you would take a pace back and Gorok to reach for the new blade the guards had not thought to ask he set aside.

"Within seven arcs sun-arcs, dawns, days," you scramble for an answer, finding a new word in the Old Tongue in the process which your People have not had cause to use for lives uncounted.

Alas for the peace of the hour the king is not the only one who can make himself heard. Chief Rokus rises to his full height, then kicks off such that he is looking down at you from almost the lip of the entryway. "What madness is this? To listen to a vagabond who will not name his mother nor his father, alone and late in this hour!" he turns to look up at where the odd-jawed head of the Tojanida peeks over the lip of stone and asks, struggling against himself: "Holy Wanax, what do you make of this?"

When it comes the answer is softer, slower than you had expected, more than he had as well: "There is a touch of destiny to him, dark but not of his own will. If there is malice in this meeting it is not turned against you and yours."

Tojanida Judgement: 1d20+14 (DC 20) = 28 (Success)

To your surprise it is neither leader who speaks next but the princess Arokea: "Seven days... seven days is very little to change the fate of whole peoples, under the sea or over it. I am not so proud as to think that I can do such a thing." She turns to you and asks: "Seer, is the fact that we are to be wed that clouds your vision or the wedding itself? Some urgent call for aid from these 'Andorans' ignored amidst celebration?"

Tis then you realize she might have the right of it, but to admit it would be to betray Cozut who had paid for a frightful prophecy not necessarily a truthful one.

What do you do?

[] Agree that it is likely the timing of the wedding, not the joining itself, that would bring the doom you saw. After all, you did try and it is not as if the prince can ask back for payment he can't admit to have given you.

[] Deny it, an ill omen over the marriage should it take place (Opposed Bluff Check)

OOC: I hope this does not feel rushed. I decided to make it one intimidate roll to see how far you got to shout the prophecy at people and you got full success so the answer was 'all the way'.