Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
-
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Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
-
- Tags
- pathfinder open voting
- Location
- Chicago
[X] Practice the tongue of the Summer Islands with Zaia and Inge (DC 15 Intelligence check for Basic proficiency)
-[X] Begin by apologizing to Inge for our deception. Whatever justification we had for it is on us and Antonio as adults and leaders responsible for the well-being of our men, but she argued in good faith and spoke no falsehood. And she is hardly a coward, as evidenced by her defense of us when we confronted the corrupted Ilfa, or when she so readily offered a blood oath to the Stout Folk.
-[X] Begin by apologizing to Inge for our deception. Whatever justification we had for it is on us and Antonio as adults and leaders responsible for the well-being of our men, but she argued in good faith and spoke no falsehood. And she is hardly a coward, as evidenced by her defense of us when we confronted the corrupted Ilfa, or when she so readily offered a blood oath to the Stout Folk.
- Location
- Germany
[X] Goldfish
Vote closed.
Arc 2 Post 5: Wind and Whisper
Wind and Whisper
The Twentieth of Elnu-hamba [Elnu Descendent], Year Unknown
Pull... beat... beat... Pull.
All notion of rowing being beneath your dignity were crushed by the undeniable weight of sheer necessity, of survival. You had thought the waters cold and the wind biting on the other side of the Mouth of the World, but besides what you find in the Great Sunset Sea it may as well have been a warm summer breeze bearing light morning dew. You can imagine the scene on deck all too well. Rain and storm rolled in behind you swifter than the Marcella's sails could carry her, white capped swells rolling alongside and drenching over the low deck. All around you the timbers of the ship groan and shift in the brief moments of heart-pounding stillness before the next pull of the oars.
Sailors are braver men than you thought them to be to put their backs into this sort of work, trusting their captain, never knowing if the sea would rush into claim them. Time seems to stretch and twist uneasily as the body screamed for release and the mind was left wandering.
Pull... beat... beat... Pull.
After a time you could not rightly name the groaning of the ship grows less, the men begin to talk between greedy gulps of air. There is more time to drink. Stale water spiced with worse spirits never tasted so fine.
"Looks as though the sea won't be getting the best of us today, will it lads?" you call back. You had heard this sort of boasting is supposed to be bad luck, but you do not give a shit. Your armsmen's hearts could do with a good cheer and cheer they do.
***
Rain still beats down on the deck, cool rivulets slipping under your tunic to mingle with the sweat of the day's rowing, but you do not have much attention to spare for the sky. Inge is sitting cross legged at the bow of the ship looking straight at the western horizon, her eyes are closed, her hands clenched about a piece of driftwood carved like the wishbone of a bird. She is praying. Is it chance that the storm had abated now or something more? you wonder, shifting uneasily from one foot to the other.
Whenever the weather had been foulest the girl had always sat just there, eyes closed and thoughts elsewhere. "Good to be close, to tell captain course," is all she had said, but you had heard more to it. She was preying to her goddess and here in the midst of the dark waves foaming white and the cutting wind, you could almost believe there is an uncanny will to the sea, wild and untamed, beyond the ken of men whose words are upon its face as child's toys.
"Come, it's over," you say ushering the girl into the warmth and light of the cabin where you are greeted by the sight of Zaia, somehow still managing to read those tablets of his even through the storm.
'To truly speak a tongue you must understand the people to whom it belongs,' he had said when you had first proposed to learn Inge's tongue and you had thought it a warning against the work it would take. In truth you are beginning to suspect it runs far deeper.
You know six words tor wind and another four for storm, you can name the sacred standing stones by which the Sky-Seers of Ikomi measure time, you know the name of the great leviathans of the deep waters, Ejun, and those who hunt them, for bone, meat and ivory, Ogonbo. You know the words for war, both restrained by ritual and vow fought in deadly earnest.
The Anwa, the people of the Sunset Islands are still strangers, but they are more than just a means of getting answers, they are their own people seen through the eyes of one of their own. Part of you wonders if you had first heard of the Saracen from the mouth of one who lived as they do, who believed as they do, would you have been so eager to shed their blood and count it justice?
Basic Knowledge of the Anwari Tongue gained.
What questions do you have for Inge now that you can understand her tongue and she yours to at least some degree?
[] Of faith
[] Of her family
[] Of lords and kings
[] Write in
OOC: You guys were unlucky for the weather but Antonio make his Profession Sailing roll and you also made your Intelligence roll so now you actually get to know what some of the locals are actually saying without a translator.
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For anyone wondering that apology is coming up next update. I just wanted it to be after you learned more about Inge so it would have some cultural context to it.
- Location
- Germany
[X] Of lords and kings
We'll have to know these things for our long-term survival.
While the capain can likely do well anywhere, as an experienced sailor and likely trader and smuggler, men who live by their weapon often fall under specific rules.
We need to know if we can work as some kind of mercenary or if we'll eventually have to swear to a local lord if we want to be a warrior here.
We'll have to know these things for our long-term survival.
While the capain can likely do well anywhere, as an experienced sailor and likely trader and smuggler, men who live by their weapon often fall under specific rules.
We need to know if we can work as some kind of mercenary or if we'll eventually have to swear to a local lord if we want to be a warrior here.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
[X] Of her life and home as she knew it.
Some might call this a reach. I think it's actually far more important than anything else, especially if an apology is incoming. We still need to learn more about her, and this should provide a good segway into what else needs said.
It will also give us knowledge of how her world works from the inside, and how they treat those capable of magics.
Some might call this a reach. I think it's actually far more important than anything else, especially if an apology is incoming. We still need to learn more about her, and this should provide a good segway into what else needs said.
It will also give us knowledge of how her world works from the inside, and how they treat those capable of magics.
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[X] Of lords and kings
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
I still think getting a better idea of her people's leaders is important, but this is a good way of getting a lot of basic cultural info, and that can be helpful in a lot of ways.
[X] Snowfire
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
It absolutely is, but we're not going there anymore unless I missed something. So that knowledge can wait a bit.
Er, you guys are very much heading towards the Sunset Islands, that is what you are voting for. The place you avoided was Orinilu and the other trader cities of the Blue Sea. You went out though the straight to the west and into what the Anwa (Inge's people) call the True Sea, and everyone else calls the Sunset Sea after them. On this sea some 30 days from the mainland as the Marcella can sail you will find her home.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
And this'll teach me to not read through the thread again. Thank you for the clarity. My vote remains though, as I feel knowing the culture is probably more immediately important than knowing the lords. They're both useful, but culture informs interaction all the way up the chain and we can't assume that we'll get to the lords and kings level immediately.
- Location
- Germany
I think we will interact with local lords sooner rather than later.
This seems vaguely bronce-agey, so thirty armed men, half of them armed and armored in very rare iron are force to be reckoned with, not something a local lord can ignore when they land on his shore.
Of course we haven't yet seen how DP keeps the pop numbers, but I suspect we are not quite insignificant outside the larger cities of this world at least. To which we are not going right now.
This seems vaguely bronce-agey, so thirty armed men, half of them armed and armored in very rare iron are force to be reckoned with, not something a local lord can ignore when they land on his shore.
Of course we haven't yet seen how DP keeps the pop numbers, but I suspect we are not quite insignificant outside the larger cities of this world at least. To which we are not going right now.
From what we've been told already there's a society goes Kings >Lords >every man who can fight. As someone coming in with a fighting band behind us, we could quite possibly be treated a lord on that basis alone and therefore deal with lords quickly even if we are strangers.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Knowing the name of a lord doesn't give you the cultural cues to interact with one. Knowing the culture will also inform our expectations far better than scattershotting like we are right now about 'what is likely'.
We need to understand these people, at a level more than language, if we're going to work with them. That has to come first.
We need to understand these people, at a level more than language, if we're going to work with them. That has to come first.