Sumner's Eve
The Forty-First of Elnu-hamba [Elnu Descendent] Year 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
Normomo upon Korman bears little semblance to its sister city upon the eastern island, rather than a walled fortress build around the green crowns of he Hearth trees it is instead a city of crimson stone. It's heart is carved into a cliff worn by long ages of wind and wave and then worked by the hands of human kind into a sort of fortress that flows onto the piers in narrow steps cunningly wrought and all around it like the attendants of some stony queen, the homes of high and low carved and fitted of the same stone that catches the light of late evening and casts it in the color of old blood.
It would be a nightmare to scale those, the part of you that is used to judging a lord by the quality of his keep notes.
As the
Marcella approaches the shore you start to see the mundane among the fantastical, people going about their daily tasks hither and yon, from women carrying jugs of water on their heads to rowdy gatherings of youth freed from the strictures of their lessons. In the distance you hear drums loud and deep mingling with the braying of goats and the oinking of pigs kept for milk and meat. Perhaps it is your imagination but the latter sound rather distressed. According to Inge tomorrow is the Feast of the Three Brothers where pigs are sacrificed in honor of Olweje to be made into stews and sausages, salted meat, ham and ceremonial blood mead.
It is supposedly named for the stars as well as for three ill fated bothers who sought to make a bargain with Olweje for might, for courage and last of all for everlasting glory. Given that their fate was to burn eternal as stars upon the firmament you assume they managed to get the last at least, but no matter how much cheer the city might be filled with on the morrow your charge shall come out the worst for it, for after all where might a priestess be in the midst of a festival of the gods if not officiating some manner of rite and ritual? At least that is Inge's judgement. She looks over the side of the ship onto the docks of the city with mingled yearning and sorrow, a vow keeps her despite herself, a vow she was too young to make by your judgement, but you will not press her on the matter.
Alas the girl does not know much more about the Stone Keepers than you have heard from Ohun, or guessed from what you have seen so far of them and their works. They are priests of gods great and small, united firstly in that all of them can touch the magic of the world in some way and secondly in their charge to keep the sacred stones which dot the land and mark the places where 'the furrows of Ashinu's plow cross', great rivers of power that can be harnessed to work change upon the world by those who know the way of it... and that is who you have come to deliver a challenge to on the eve of a festival to the god of battle.
Antonio compared this Luaza to a bishop and perhaps she is akin to that also, but all things told you would much prefer bishops who cannot kill you with a wave of their hand.
When he hears that notion Zaia laughs, but not unkindly. "A bishop can still kill you with a wave of his hand if he is mighty enough, it is a sign to the armed men standing behind you."
"Ah, so it might be but the question stands, when it is best to beard the she-bear in her den? Now and seem perhaps over hasty and lacking in due respect of her and her royal grandson, or instead wait out the four days of the festival?"
"There is wisdom in patience I have found," your companion replies, but after a moment adds. "Yet I fear that not all upon this ship understand the virtue of it. The men, both yours and the sailors, will wish to go ashore and make merry. Given that some of them at least now speak the tongue with some fluency it will be harder to restrain them. This festival might yet breed some mischief or misfortune if we linger."
How do you deliver your message?
[] With all haste, go now to the king's hall before the Feast of the Three Brothers can take place and try to obtain an audience with Luaza this evening
[] Wait out the festival and use the time it grants you to learn of how best to play your part
-[] Give the men shore leave, they have earned a change to make merry after all the chaos and the peril of your journey so far
-[] Do not give the men shore leave, the risk is too great, they shall have to live with the disappointment (significant loss of morale)
[] Write in
OOC: Another update that took longer than expected, though more because there was a lot of world-building to contextualize.
