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

[DragonParadox]

Kindled Hope​

First of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Fingers of black iron snap with a click and syllables of seeming nonsense whisper from Mog's lips. What kindled the light you could not say and are not sure you want to. It smells of brimstone and rancid oil, but it shines bright that you cannot deny. Brighter than any torch it is on the white wings of the gull and far see the eyes atop the mast from the top of the mast.

"It's the herdsmen, the riders of the horned beasts!" Inge calls down with Swift Pebble's aid. Between thew girl and the otter-kin the proper names of things are lost, but nothing of the horror of what is unfolding along the shore "There's two score of them down among the village, burning and looting as they go. they have broken the back of the warriors of the land and they are just taking what they want by blood and fire, what they want and who!"

"There is a rider at their head stronger than the others upon an elk white as snow and he bears a lance of black iron, at his back the standard of a tree struck by lightning."

The warlord is running down the last of the village's defenders at the very door of their granary even as flaming arrows arc though the night, the raiders had come first to kill and only they to plunder what they can.

"A punitive raid," Zaia calls it, though even in his exacting words you hear a tone of revulsion.

"If it is a blood feud and not just a chance to fatten their coffers and their steeds the tribe is likely to mark anyone who meddles," Antonio Says, but still the ship surges close to the shore, weaving its way past a sand bank that only the light of the returning bird reveals, far too late for any mortal helmsman, but not for the ship itself.

You can feel the cold shiver down your spine as the ship takes on another seeming, it will not fool the foe long, but seeing a host in arms and armor of iron come out of a Anwa longship will hopefully buy you at least a moment of confusion and that might be enough.

Alas that is not to be. Arrows come screaming out of the dark... most clatter on armor, but Tom is struck though the upper arm and one among the bolts strikes the deck of the ship and from it springs life that is not for the Marcella to command. Grasping vines festooned with withered leaves choke and hold James and John

Tom takes 6 Damage

James and John are entangled

Some of the raiders are already turning towards the sea and the embattled villagers cry out at aid unloosed for. In the grannary a drum rumbles out, a call not to Olweje, but to Ashinu, to protect the bounty of the land and so the land itself.

What do you do?

[] Write in battle plan (It takes a full round action to get off the ship and into the surf; Silver can jump in and so can Megin but not any of the normal horses)

OOC: A bit short, but I do need a battle plan, specifically with regard to who you are taking in. Not yet edited.

 

[DragonParadox]

When the Drums Begin to Play ​

First of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Swords hacked at vines even among the rain of arrows and there were spells of healing and there were spells of war, of flesh becoming metal and of power incarnate. You feel it steal over you, you feel it in your blood, the touch of a power that is not cold and distant Ikomi. A vial is pressed to your lips, the potion like iron and salt on on your lips. And all the while arrows fly back and forth half blind in the night. You hear screams among your men and the sailors, foes finding their mark faster than Inge can heal

Tom Heals fully
John takes 4 Damage
James takes 10 Damage
Nico takes 8 Damage

Up and down the shore the air ripples and you can see out of the dark, out of the fey's conjuring two images of Anwari might, longships come ashore to plunder so they seem and the foe is filled with wonder and with dread as they had not been at the sight of only one. But from the right of the chief another rider, his helm adorned with the tail of a fox blowing in the wind calls out in a great voice. Though you do not recognize the tone you know the tone all too well: encouragement for those who had lost faith and boldness to the wavering heart.

Even as one then another and another of the elk riders tumbles into the waves staining them red under the withering arrow of your foes more of the raiders gather.

Now, now or never you know else their spears will be ready beneath you. The bear jumps first, but you and Silver are but three breaths behind as you wrench yourself into the saddle and do the sort of mad dash that only tales tell of.. It is perhaps remarkable than none of you fall headfirst into the sea and manage to find your feet.

Somewhere above Esha must be chanting still because you see one of the riders fall off his mount mid-stride, slumbering in the midst of the chaos.

Alas that the champion of the foe will not be so easily undone he raises up a lance over the high horns of his steed, black against the night and black iron, fey-bane it is indeed. Though you speak not his tongue nor he yours this you understand, a challenge. He asks for a duel in place of the battle.

You owe him nothing, you know and though his hosts are many you do not see among them any sorcerers. Enough of magic, enough of the fury of Zaia's flame and the sharpness of killing Ice will see them flee, but not without costs. Another green arrow fly and this time you mark the fox-tailed man as the archer... and this time the arrow breaks on your shield.

Do you accept the chieftain's challenge?

[] Yes, lance against lance you shall face him

[] No, scattered as they are you can break them here on the shore and not have to trust in the honor of raiders whom you cannot even speak to enough to make a pledge

[] Bid Swift Pebble to speak to him and assure the sanctity of the duel, it might work, but just as surely superstitious dread might break the fragile understanding across the field of battle

[] Write in

OOC: Gah, this was not fun to roll for, literally tens of d20s, not much point to even add the bonuses, I just calculated them with lower DCs.

 

[DragonParadox]

Duel and Doom ​

First of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Across the bloody field of battle, filled still with the screams of the wounded and the drums of war, you call out an agreement, hoping he speaks the tongue of Orinilu and then you raise a hand for at least those nearest to you to stop fighting you charge. Your foe is not so swift, but coming nearer the man with the fox's tail he exchanges words in a harsh guttural tongue, that of the Yayar kin you assume. So the shaman, for what else could he be, raises a bloody hand and places it on the haft of the lance, setting it alight with black flames from the hart of the iron, a thing of awe and dread.

As Silver's hooves cross though the water and onto the sand, more than two thirds the distance you hear the warriors chanting all around you, a song of courage perhaps, or else one of cursing upon their foes.

Not that it matters, you can barely hear them, you can barely see them. All that is real is the foe before you... the point of the lance darting wit h deadly purpose. Shifting in the saddle you move your shield to catch the blow and Silver moves with you, the practice of many battles and the wisdom new gained together.

It is not enough.

At the last moment the lance shifts in the man's hand and instead of striking the bronze shield it pierces your shoulder and almost tears you out of the saddle. Pain races through you like a thunderbolt and your blood flows free onto the sand to the roaring approval of the raiders.

You take 28 Damage

But still you barely hear them, but still you barely see them. Your own lance is level steady... and it finds his heart, under the shield and through the leather brigantine festooned with the prizes of his conquests the lance passes under his ribs and bursts out of his back in a shower of red. The white elk strikes at Silver with horn and hoof in a blind rage even as your friend answers with his hooves.

Silver takes 5 Damage

It is only as the body slides off your lance onto the hard ground that you realize the mess you are in, surrounded by foes, including at least one magician, and sore wounded. The bloody lance had passed though your arm and into your side.

"So it is done!" you shout in as loud a voice as you can manage. "Take your dead and bury them in the manner of your fathers. Go from this place and trouble it no longer!"

"We do not bury the dead man of the sea, we let them be taken by the breath of the Heavens," the shaman says in rough but understandable Engur. "Tell me now, do you need healing?"

The words are heavy with hidden meaning, but of what sort you cannot say, perhaps in accepting the aid you would seal yourself as an honorable foe, or mayhap it would be a show of weakness and a sign that whatever warrior wants the mantle of the old chief should avenge himself upon his slayer.

What do you reply?

[] I do need healing and would gladly accept it

[] My own folk can see to me

[] Write in

OOC: This guy was basically designed to be a lance fighter, he was a cavalier like you, but a lot more focused on the lance... but no amount of focus can save one from a lance crit. You did about three times more damage than he had HP after buffs.

 

[DragonParadox]

Writ in Ash and Blood ​

First of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

"My own folk can see to me," you say to the priest, your hand already reaching for the sword, the lance still quivering in the flesh of their chief. You shall make no pact and take no healing from those who would bring fire and ruin on the innocent and if that should have to be paid in blood so be it. Though to be wholly fair you would rather pay it in the swiftness of Silver's hooves

The old man looks at you, his eyes seeming to trail over your bloody chest like the touch of an unseen claw. What does he see you wonder. The powers you had been invested with? Does he see the strange elixir running though your veins, does he know the touch of Olweje when he sees it?

"You are bold man of the sea, but you are not wise?" he says at last. "You do not know the path and so you shall wonder and be lost."

Silver, who had been keeping a wary eye on the mount of your foe as it sniffed the body speaks then aloud and unafraid. "See to this one for he is heartsick and keep your paths away from here."

Not waiting for another word you turn towards the ship. You feel a prickle between your shoulder-blades all the way back but no arrow is loosed as it seemed you had guessed the warriors aright in this at least, they would not fall on you like starving dogs... though their savagery is plain to see throughout the village.

Here a dog had been hacked in two while he guarded a broken door, there bodies lay in the street men and women together, the shadows of their limbs dancing by the light of the village's pyre.

"Fortunate are you to have been spared another moon-turn," the shaman calls out in his rough tongue. "Flee then and let the sea wash away all that you were in this land and mayhap you shall be free a little while longer." He curses them then and you do not know the meaning of it.

You have no time for it save to assure yourself that they are truly going, but then from the ship you hear Antonio call. "They're taking away your loot!"

Indeed they are taking the body of the dead champion, lashed again to the back of his mount one final time. The only thing they leave behind is the lance. Yet those few of the villagers who still have their lives and their weapons have now grown emboldened. With weapons of stone nd wood they come out of their hiding places, with hunting bow and simple spears. You count somewhere between a dozen and a score.

A woman with long braided hair turned iron grey rushes out bearing a torch and in a voice heavy with sorrow and with rage she calls to the others. "Get 'em! Get the sons of whores!"

What do you do?

[] Help the villagers against the yayar
-[] Write in battle plan

[] Try to calm the villagers
-[] Write in arguments (optional)

[] Write in

OOC: So the question now is how much do you guys want to risk fighting the mounted lancers and bowmen when your horses are still on the boat other than Silver.

 

[DragonParadox]

When Words Fray ​

First of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Hoping against hope that most of the villagers still on their feet can even hear you much less than they will believe you you call out to them as Silver keeps on his way towards the shore and healing. "Has there not been enough bloodshed this night? Gather your wounded and follow me. We will try to save those who are not too far gone, or you can seek vengeance and let perish those who could have been saved while you throw your lives away against the Yayar."

Alas it seems that advice from one already drawing back from the fight, spoken in a stranger's voice will not sway them, will not stop them. You are not sure there is much that can. The villagers come boiling out of their last holdouts with every weapon they have to hand and above all else with the rage of a people who had seen their kith and kin butchered and their livelihood ruined.

Arrows fly and at first the Yayar laugh for not a one comes near to the mark, but then just as you reach the ship and Inge begins to chant words of healing the scattered hunters shoot again and this time it lodges in the foreleg of the shaman's mount, drawing a long moan of pain and renewed wrath from the warriors who had turned about.

You heal 7 Damage

Again they come screaming onto the village, but this time there will be no duel and no quarter. You see the air around the shaman shimmer with strange lights like sparks of balefire, like the eyes of many distant watchers. Opening the wax seal of a vial with your teeth you pour a another drought of healing cordial down your throat, not your shoulder still pains you, the wound is deep the blood still flowing freely.

A great splash heralds Megim jumping into the wavers his six legs kicking up the surf as she charges towards the... foe. You had hoped that it was over, but it is not by far. Arrows fletched with green fall among the largest group of the villagers and snare the seeming leader in twisting vines as she waves about the torch in desperate fury

One of the Yarar archers strikes an elder of the village though the throat yet even as the man tumbles to the ground another behind him, son or grandson mayhap picks up the fallen spear and charges.. and much to your surprise the Yarar give way. Perhaps they were not mad after all. With some of your men firing from the ship and such magic as could be conjured to their aid...

No sooner had the hope come over you together with the latest surge of healing magic that you see the mounted raiders turn almost as one over the rumps of their beasts and fire in short vicious arcs killing another three of the villagers and wounding two.

You have healed 17 Damage

What do you do?

[] Write in

OOC: You guys have a lot of diplo, but the DC for 'don't fight the raiders that just destroyed your village' is rather high as a stranger and an unknown particularly.

 

[DragonParadox]

Lost and Unknowing ​

First of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

"Hold!" you call up to the archers. "Hold!" Not words you want to say, not by far, but what are you to do? Ride off into the night following the Yayar in lands they know better than you? Call down your men and the sailors beside and ask them to charge in peril of their lives and hope the invaders will break before the villagers.

Though you cast no blame on those whose grief is such as to drive them with crude bows and hunting spears neither will you sacrifice your company for their aid.

That is not yo say you will do nothing. Once you and Silver had been seen to you command all of your company ashore to put out the flames, to search for those who are still trapped in the ruins of their homes. Inge calls to waters as much as to healing in the frantic searching that follows and the strength of many is tried by crumbled walls and fallen beams. When you ask of the steel bear's aid the man in beast's skin snaps at you and speaks with tongue of iron and stone:

"Nay, for war I was endowed!"

Yet war's splintered ruin is all around you and what aid you can give seems a paltry thing, hardly of note before the scale of the devastation. You find children covered in soot hiding under bedding and elders shivering in the granary throwing old roots and rotten fruit at you as you enter. Even when you manage to convince them that you mean no harm their eyes remain haunted.

That evening none of those who had charged after the Yayar return and when you ask after which lord is sworn to protect them you find that they have none, though their fathers fathers do.

A gangling ragged youth, brother to the woman who had followed the raiders is the one who does most of the talking as he has no children or elders to see though personally. "Reckon we'll starve in winter now least we get to some other village, the boats went over in a storm and then the raiders came, they said they were looking for a frozen-tear, but we told them it wasn't winter so ain't nothing freezing. Guess they decided to make it hotter." A bitter laugh passes his lips, but Zaia who had been quietly listening nearby rather than writing on the wet clay tablet he had taken to make inventory on looks intrigued.

"There is no way they would be wreaking this sort of devastation over searching for a single trinket, they must have thought to punish you for 'lying' or for denying them."

The boy shrugs helplessly, he does not know more, though perhaps his sister might have known. She is gone now beyond finding even if she is not dead.

Perhaps you come offer some of the folk here a chance to stay at Wayfarer's Rest you think as the embers of the flames burn up towards morning and the nearness of the tide. Antonio does not object and Zaia is intrigued enough about the tale to agree, but that does raise the point, do you want such folk in your keep as have gained the ire of the Yayar, unknowing as that may be?

[] Yes, you could use more hands at the keep and you see no reason to leave these folks starve when your own stores are full

[] No, the last thing you need is more of a quarrel with the tribes

[] Write in

OOC: Not the most exciting vote last update, but it did keep you from a hell of a hit and run fight out there.

 

[DragonParadox]

The Ark Uncanny and the Tower Strange ​

Fourth of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Taking on such of the villagers as agree to come you leave the rest to their mournful fate. More likely than not they will starve and even if they do not the best they can hope for is to be laborers and thralls at the door of some lord, mayhap even the one what had abandoned them To their fate. Alas you had not been able to take the lance of the fallen chieftain of the Yayar for the iron bear, driven by the hunger of his god had devoured it.

The final leg of your journey take you into uncommonly strong headwinds for the sheltered waters off Orinilu, but at last on the third day out from the raided village you see in the distance the flag of the Fellowship atop the tower of the keep you raised this winter. Late you might be, but leal eyes still watch the horizon and soon you can see men at the gates and fires being lit, perhaps in greeting, though most likely to prepare a feast for your coming.

What you had not expected was owls, a great many owls on every roof and atop the main tower of the keep also.

"Don't think the gulls are gonna fit," Inge sounds more amused than upset and so would you be if when you came close Silver did not look upon the tower with the eyes of dreaming and saw in them something strange.

"There's magic in the birds," he says and that there is, though it takes Esha's talent for the arcane to tell how.

"It's not the power of transmutation as you would expect from a shape-changer or indeed from any spell that sharpens the eye or strengthens the wing. It's the power of divination. Something it watching over some of those birds." So saying she points them out one by one, no more than three birds in among the crowd.

"Recall the girl who fled from the Knikut of the straights, she too took the shape of an owl, perhaps this is her work," Zaia offers.

"We should ask the men before we make hasty judgement," you reason, but from the cries of the gulls it seems you do not have long to do so. At the very least they will surely try to take the owls' nest when the slower birds go out hunting for the night.

What do you do?

[] Disembark normally, you do not want to give away that you have noticed the spying if you do not have to

[] Ask someone in Wayfarer's Rest what's been going on before you make any rash decisions
-[] Write in what

[] Try to address the birds or whoever might be behind them
-[] Sharply
-[] Courteously

[] Write in

OOC: So since we are back now would be the time to start bringing out any seasonal things you guys want to do, like building, recruiting, getting the gremlin to make you weapons (if you are brave enough) etc...

 

[DragonParadox]

A Chill Welcome ​

Fourth of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Hugh looks to have all his arms and legs as well as both his arms unpecked by owls though the new knotted scar across his cheek is not encouraging, neither is the fact that Neios is dressed in armor as though ready for battle at the sight of a ship on the horizon. "A sight for sore eyes you are my lord, a sight for sore eyes and not a moment too soon. Things have been going worse with the Purples since the lady came through, a southerner she was even beyond Agber, and she were roadworn and weary so we let her in and she was a good guest as far as that went... but then the Purples came and claimed she had stolen a thing of theirs, a necklace well prized by their prince Abir. "

"Hah, prince!" Neios scoffs. "Better to say a knave out of Farshore, the lady was clearly of noble blood and the brigands sought to rob her, if not to take her prisoner for ransom. Let them bark I say, what do we care what goes on in the much of Farshore?"

"Because that's most of the markets, all the ones that don't try to skin your twice, and nevermind that we made a deal with the Purples to provide some of Zaia's tinctures and potions, that's down the shit hole, pardon my language my lord."

"I will not pardon it!" Neios snaps but your man just keeps talking, clearly fed up with dealing with the prince.

"We set guard in case they meant to rob us, but none came, not for us and not for the horses. We had four foals in the winter, but we started to get rats in the food stores 'ound that time, eating everything bare they did. Not sure if it was the work of the Purple or some curse, but we couldn't drive them out, not with fire, not with traps, at least not until the owls came. They've been sitting guard on the tower ever since..."

You call out to Inge to keep the gulls back, though the girl struggles with it for she had promised them a roost on shore. So it is not until the evening once Zaia, Esha and even Mog had settled into rooms in the keep that she makes it to shore under the eyes of birds strange and arcane.

"Someone died here..." you almost don't hear the words, they had been so soft.

Almost, but still you hear it, still you ask as she goes up the rain slick steps "What?"

"I can feel it, the veil opened, the gate's been left ajar. There's something, someone maybe still here."

But no one of your company had died, of that you had been sure since going in, so who then could have perished in your halls and not even been known for it?

Returning to Hugh in the tower you ask more about this lady. She had apparently left a pile of pearls and a note in clay which you hand to Esha.

"That's odd..." she trails off. "This is a wedding invitation to celebrate the union of a lady of Ebene, that is one of the oasis towns south of Agber, and a lord of the Great Land. "

"What is so odd about it? True I do not think we shall be partaking, but perhaps it was just an odd way for a thief to mark her passage."

"It is dated sixty three years ago and if I recall aright, Ebene no longer stands," Esha replies, speaking softly as though afraid she will be overheard. "Rumor along the road claimed it was ravaged by plague, it's people scattered."

What do you do?

[] Order everyone out of the keep while you investigate

[] No need to cause panic and strife over a feeling and an odd note, if your men and the fishermen have been fine for months then so too shall you be while you look into this

[] Write in

OOC: And finally we are here. Those were some wild rolls in the background when I did the interlude.

 

[DragonParadox]

Shadow and Flame ​

Fourth of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

The sun is high, the courtyard's cobbles white and tan and grey all bright like the scales of some great beast lounging in the sun, it looks nothing like a place that might hold shadows or curses in its depths and the smell of sizzling hare mingles with such spices as the forest and the sea can grant, rosemary and thyme yes but also pepper and clove and ginger that he had gotten his hands on cheap from Korman in the wake of the battle, where food was more precious than the spices to make it fine. A pinch of this and a pinch of that of course, for all are as precious as gold, but Antonio assures you that for a trading port it makes sense to share some of the bounty of the journey with those left behind

"I don't want to scare everyone..." you begin, but Zaia cuts you off.

Pushing one of his newly brewed potions into your hand gruffly he simply says. "Pity they should be scared. The dead linger only in one of two ways that I have found in every bestiary and in every talk I have had with the lady Esha, some are sorrowful wrathful chained to the world and to their place in it, these you might drive out with prayer and holy things, with myrrh and blessed salt and then there are those who draw their power not from the world and their place in it, but from those that yet live, those like if you will pardon the mention the lady's own father. That is likely what we had ahosting."

"And the monster was courteous enough to leave us a gift of pearls after slaying one who was not among us?" you do not try to keep the doubt out of your voice. Over the last year you have learned to trust those senses you did not posses , but you had also learned that even the least human seeming fey, even the most uncanny of beast had some reasoning for what they did and to have both left you pearls and a plague of rats made no sense. You motion up and down the line of the coast, it's a long way down the narrow road to the nearest village and they had none missing among them. "Perhaps it might have been a traveler, but those are few and far between and little sense in dragging one of them to kill in the keep rather than leaving them on the road for the beasts to see it the leavings."

"Or perhaps it was something less innocent... a pursuer," Esha still walks with soft step, easily long among the loud voices of the feasting. "If one of the servants of the... er, Nose came sooner to Wayfarer's Rest and failed in their search onto their ruin then perhaps the lady and her guards were as quiet in killing as they were in departing. The pearls are not magical that I have been able to find and neither is the invitation, but Inge is right there is a presence that lurks in the corners, that looks though windows out of empty rooms and it does not wish us well."

"If ill wishing is all that it can do then perhaps we aught not worry, we have dealt with worse," you reply.

"We have certainly, armored in will and magic and the power of the ship that is beyond earthly sorcery, but the villagers still reeling from the blood and the carnage of the raid, the children who breathe the uncanny with each moment, but have not yet learned to be cautious of it i fear that we might need an exorcism and to get that what we need most is answers."

Wayfarer's Rest Gains Curse: Shade Haunted

"I might be having a solution for your riddle good lord," Mog offers hefting a tightly screwed jug of... something you probably don't want to see unscrewed. "Fire, burn everything down to the stone and that will drive the dead out as sure as it would mortals lookin' ta save their hide."

Do you attempt Mog's solution?

[] Yes (will cost 5000 gp in lost furnishings and anger from some of your men and the Fishermen as personal possessions that are deemed tainted are destroyed)

[] No, you will find some other way
-[] Talk to the owls
-[] See about that ritual Inge used to summon the dead in Apuku, can she do it again?

OOC: Well you guys kind of flopped your investigation roll, but at the very least you did not trigger anything too bad.

 

[DragonParadox]

For the Birds​

Fourth of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Making a mental note that Mog is the sort of fellow to think burning most of the inside of the keep is an acceptable way to deal with a potential haunting you turn to speak to the owls... only to find that the birds had flow off for their night's hunting leaving you at a quandary. How safe is it to fill the keep with those who had just come from the Marcella, how safe it is to unload her cargo? In the end you decide, and Antonio agrees, that it is better to waste a day than to spend lives. Everyone who had come on the ship should return to the ship and would await the owls with the morning light

***​

Fifth of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

You get no sleep, though somehow far too many troubled dreams as a host of vague evils dance before your mind's eye until by morning's light you see the shadow of white wings arriving... with gifts unlooked for. A dead rat flops briefly on the deck of the ship, or so at least you are told, for while you are still struggling to find sleep and with it a familiar guest, one you had thought gone from these noprthern lands and returned to her people at the Mouth of the World.

You had not known her name when last you met her, unveiled by a spirit of the land, but now you know Sings in Sorrow she was called by her people and one of the moon-touched by the fey, yet why she followed and why she fled you did not know.

Spoiler: Sings in Sorrow

The months had left their mark upon her cloak of feathers now more ragged and upon the golden eyes that now seem darker filled with hard-won wisdom.

"You came back, I was afraid you wouldn't come out of the west lands at all. Not many do you know..." she says without preamble. "That is where Those Before died you know."

Did she mean the Romans? How does she know about the Romans? Should you speak of this in hearing of half the ship? All these questions and more whirl though your mind. Thankfully the answer to 'should you keep secrets' seems an obvious yes. You have nothing to gain and much perhaps to lose in revealing that there had been passage between the worlds before, and that your predecessors had all died supposedly heroically.

"You know the rats were always going to come for you if you stick close to the sea, they think it will win them favor in the world to come, they are wrong, but they are rats so their hope always gets ahead of their wits..."

"Fair met and for your aid my thanks," you cut her off before she can bring about anymore wild rumors. "Yet I must ask came you to speak the tongue of these lands?"

"I listened there wasn't much else to to but talk to the Little Kin and they are all aflutter with their own doings of nesting and hunting, but we are of two skins and two minds and so to both we must heed."

Gathering your thoughts together and hoping she won't run again you try to formulate some questions to the odd owl girl.

[] Write in questions

OOC: A bit small, but I feel like what questions you ask and where should be your choice particularly as with low rolls she might not even answer all of them and just fly off again.