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

[DragonParadox]

Daughter of Pale Moonlight ​

Fourteenth Day of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

As good a resolution as a stranger could hope for," you say with a sigh of relief that is wholly unfeigned "We will be on our way." Then as you rise to your feet another thought comes to you, the memory of shadows moving behind the eyes of the living and the dead, of voices that seemed to resound from the depths of Hell. "But first I would offer a warning, out of courtesy to a shared purpose. Watch the shadows, hunter, and those beings born of them. They are moving now with purpose beyond simple destruction, a strategy of some kind that the Anwa now marshal to defend themselves against. I would not wish this city's defenders to be unknowing of the danger."

"I have heard the news," the hunter answers thoughtfully. "Yours is not the first ship to have come from Apuku and the kings of the Sunset Islands marshaling for war is neither quiet nor secret. Still I thank you for the warning." With a wintry smile she adds in parting. "I hope that the flames you light shall lead you true Roland of Normandy and that one day we shall meet upon the road in better terms... and if that should not be so than I promise at least that our next meeting shall be quick."

Seeing Inge open her mouth to give some angry retort you place a hand on her shoulder and squeeze gently and for your parts offer a brief grave nod, threat or no the sentiment had been meant well and you have seen enough of the things that live in the shadows of the world to know there are some fates far worse than a clean swift death.

The rest of your company is so pleased pleased at the sight of you emerging from the temple that they burst out into cheers, breaking the solemnity of the square before its granite walls and so you are quick to leave so as not to draw more attention from curious onlookers then you must.

***​

Sixteenth Day of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

Two nights later you ride on Silver though a part of the city you had not yet explored... and you do not ride alone. The Street of Fire is not half so dramatic as its name, being perhaps more properly called the Street of Kilns, white smoke emerging from dozens of workshops, streaming together like the breath of some great slumbeing beast. In front of each a small bench set with their finest works. Slender necked vases and and cups made as though with the beaks of birds painted in green, green and black, mostly with the same almost-abstract style that you had seen upon the temple walls, seeming to shift and to reveal itself depending on how the eye of the watcher should fall. A fitting place to meet your current companion, whom you had not seen these past few days and whom in truth you know less of than one might hope.

Why then are you so set on having her accompany you?

The simple answer is as easy to discern as the sight of the sorceress' eyes gleaming with the fire of moon and distant star, of her hair falling like a curtain of fine shadows over them, the tilt of a faintly sardonic smile. But as with most things the simple answer does not tell the whole of the tale. Esha rides a horse well, miraculously well in fact for someone who had not even known that horses could be ridden a few months gone. She had come back to the Marcella with the proclamation that now she could pay for her rescue and her passage to the city, but to your surprise as much as hers Antonio had refused the payment. Though perhaps you aught not to have been that surprised, the captain is not the sort of man who would surrender the chance for greater profit for the later and you are honest enough to admit that your own motivations are not untouched by that notion. She could be a valued companion on your journeys even as the company of the Marcella would help shield her from those who would see her only for the heritage of her blood.

Alas you have no notion of how to approach the matter as the very thought of making a mercenary proposition to a lady is as alien to you as flight is to a fish so you are left with an attempt to carefully tease out the meaning of her thoughts and the direction of her intentions from hints and tales told. not that you mind, she is good company with a quick wit and a clever turn of phrase.

Thus you eventually come to recount your meeting with the huntress, after some cajoling, for you did not wish to be seen as blowing your own horn. Her answer surprises you at first. "Why did you let Eririan go, knowing that he bore the bones of the dead about his neck for a guard? The hunters certainly would not have done so?"

On hearing the question you realize two things, her suggestion then had been a test of sort... and so is this.

What do you reply?

[] The seer kept to his bargain and you had seen him work no magic to disturb the dead in your presence, you had no interest to condemn a man merely for what enchantments he possesses

[] If Inge was not troubled by the necklace or the book she was handed you see no reason why you aught to be

[] Write in

OOC: And here we are, hope you guys like what I did with the ambiance. The whole vampires and moon theme is my homage to really old vampire fiction like Varny the Vampire and Vampyre. Not yet edited.

 

[DragonParadox]

Shadows of the Past ​

Fourteenth Day of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

"Origins..." you muse as much to yourself as to the woman riding at your side. "What do I truly know about the origins of those powers? If Zaia had told me that the potions and pilthers he makes use of are magic, could I have gainsaid him of my own lore in such matters? No. To judge thus one must know a thing far deeper than I know either herb-craft or sorcery and both are best judged by what they are used for than some inherent abstract substance, a poison in the right dose might poison of the flesh heal and if that is so can you still call it poison?"

Esha laughs, not the silvery enchanting sound, but more of a sudden guffaw that seems to surprise even her. "For one who claims ignorance first and foremost you have certainly given this a good bit of thought."

"Well if I knew all the answers I would hardly need to ponder the questions so closely," you reply reasonably.

"If you had all the answer in the workings of sorcery you would be a god, or a dragon I suppose." She shakes her head amused. "My father used to tell the most wondrous stories about dragons." Catching your expression she cuts herself off and seems to draw back into herself. "He was a monster yes, but he would tell the grandest of tales. Some of them were probably even true."

You are not sure how to take that. What would it even do to a child to be raised by such a creature? The question is not one you may speak this night, or perhaps any other an so you return to the first thread of the question "Eririan had done no harm and been of much help, if for his own reasons and gain. If he should use his powers for good works or at the very least not evil ones than I am content. It would besides be hypocrisy pure and simple to hold him to some abstract standard of purity while we sail on the Marcella. She too has proven itself to have done no harm to any but foes, but at the same time, which would you rather encounter at midnight without a candle in hand?"

"I do not need a candle to see at midnight," she says dramatically, head tilted skywards and this time it is you who laughs. "Well I do need some light to see by but not as much as most would."

She pauses a long thoughtful moment, then launches again into a much deeper telling: "So it is with my magic, it allows me to straddle the precipice of life and death and cast by hands this way and that and trade from one hand to the other the power that in such liminal parts dwells. The chill and the fear of death, the fascination of life new born, the sight that passes beyond flesh and the focus that can be found in the contemplation of both, these are not merely spells as Zaia the scholar would have them be, recipes and incantations that upon any lips would do the same things, they are outward expressions of my soul. When I cast fear into the mind of a foe it is the fear that I myself felt when first I saw my father drag a corpse into the inn room we were living in and then in a fit of mad whimsy made it dance. I actually laughed when I got over my surprise you know, maybe some day I shall be able to distill that into a spell and force upon a foe so that they may be helpless to be captured.... or slain. Is that something you can live with sir knight? That little girl did a great many things to please her father because he was her father before she finally realized that perhaps laughter had not been right and even when at last she did... when at last I did I do not fear death and its signs as others do. Is such the company you wish to keep?"

It seems to you as though her words had conjured a chill wind that blows down the street and yet the leaves of the old olive tree not twenty peaces away are still. The chill is not upon the air. Esha might not have done any evil in your company and by her own words she did not wish to do such evil as her sire had taught her, but she had in the past for, if the hunter is to be trusted, perhaps more years than you had been alive. Is it your place to forgive such things... and even in the realm of the merely practical is it wise to take on so many potential vengeful foes sight unseen?

What do you answer?

[] Your words stand, she has been a good friend to you and a leal ally in battle, if she wishes to continue to sail upon the Marcella you will welcome it

[] Ask her more questions about her past
-[] Write in

[] Perhaps it would be best for you to part ways

OOC: Here we are, a bit of metaphysics and a lot of character interaction. Hope you guys enjoy this was fun to write. Not yet edited.

 

[DragonParadox]

Finding a Path ​

Fourteenth Day of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

"I meant what I said before, you have been a good... friend," your tongue trips over the word, not from any lack of sincerity, but more at uncertainly if it is reciprocated. By way of acknowledging the point you offer a rueful smile. "A stalwart ally, and if you wish to continue sailing on the Marcella you are welcome to do so."

There is no need to ask Zaia's thoughts on the matter, desirous as he is to learn more of the secrets of sorcery and Antonio of course is more than willing to have another scholar against the perils and boons of this strange world, one who is not a young child besides.

"And now you are no doubt wondering why I should wish to do so..." she trails off, a glimmer of amusement in her dark eyes, at having guessed your mind so well perhaps. "Would it amaze you to discover that my reasoning is as yours in a mirror reflected? Just as you wish my aid for your lack of knowledge of the world so does that very fact allow you to be easy in my presence in the way few others are, knowing what I am and how I was begotten." Here she pauses and the mirth flees from her manner in an instant. "At the very least I would not wish the company of those few others whom I know who would so lightly break bread with a daughter of the dead. Simpler for me to cut the bloody chord all at once and sail way... back west?"

The last two words rise in a question and so you open your mouth to answer, or start to at least. The street had grown deserted enough as you spoke that now Silver speaks, voice as low as he can make it... which is not so low, a horse's lungs obviously are not meant for whispering no matter the sorcery that gives him voice. "Back to the islands for now, but I confess I would wish to see these wide cold plains of which so much is said where deer, oxen and elephants garbed in woolen coats roam freely. Have you ever seen them with your own eyes?"

"That I have not," Esha replies once you translate, not at all tripped up to be talking to a horse. "We... that is it is hard to lose yourself in the crowds when there are so few faces and none of them new. In a city my face is easily missed, but in some distant roundhouse or dark cave of the Knikut well... I should stand out like a lily in a field of wildflowers and no doubt live about as long, but they do say that in those lands are hidden many old and strange magics, crossings of ley lines as old and as wild as the hills, unguarded save by the primal spirits or perhaps by the dead of some long dead kindred, yet mistake that not for an empty land or a soft one. There are beasts wholly of flesh there that could rip even a man in armor limb from limb and the less said by those touched by other things the better..."

You are not at first sure how to take being upstaged from the conversation by your horse, but in the end bemusement fades into humor as you realize what Silver is trying to do with his conversation, to ask the questions you had not, about Esha's past, about who might be hunting her and why. Not that he has a lot of luck. He did not have any great measure of experience trying to pick apart one word for the other or snaring someone into giving a straight answer, and it is clear the sorceress has had a great deal of practice avoiding those very questions so he ends up learning more about the state of the roads and the best months to travel as well as what each city sells and buys and when then about Esha's travels around the Blue Sea.

What do you do next?
Days until departure: 9; Each action will take 3 days

[] Travel to see the market and what you may there buy
-[] Write in what you are looking for (the more general the terms the more likely you are to find it)

[] Spend time with your men and with the crew, instructing them in what they may and may not speak of ashore, hopefully avoiding another incident like Zuan's outing
-[] Write in what you propose

[] Accompany Antonio as he finishes his deals in the city, things had gotten rather heated when last you saw that matter being discussed

[] Advise Inge and Zaia on what potions you would wish made (will have an impact on Zaia's growth into an alchemist)
-[] Write in

[] Just stay on the ship and enjoy the company of Silver, play with Ripper and Inge, the last few days have worn upon your mind, a break will do you good

OOC: You guys do not get to see Esha's sheet yet, she is still keeping a few things under her hat, but I can confirm she is an arcanist, specifically a twilight sage.

 

[DragonParadox]

Back to Back ​

Fifteenth Day of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

Given the rumors floating around about Zuan's experience at the temple you expect the men, both yours and Antonio's, were hardly surprised to be called to account the following day. What they had been shocked to find was the cups filled with mead in front of them... good mead at that. None of them dared to touch the drink, talking in low whispers, as though you or their captain might suddenly jump out and call some punishment upon all their heads. Luckily for them you are not in the habit of punishing either man or beast when they do not know what they had done wrong and what you expect to see done right.

"Take a long look at that mead up fellows. Is it worth your freedom? Is it worth the pain of being put to the question by some zealous priest or greedy noble? Is it worth your lives?" You could have heard a pin drop in the silence that follows, but you are not done making the point. "I'll not lecture you on the evils of drink like some monk fresh from morning prayer..."

"Good thing too, nine in ten of them are drunk as lords by midday," Antonio murmurs, thankfully too low to be heard by any ears but yours

You throw him a dark look, though admittedly more for the numbers that for not agreeing with the principle point, monks are no less given to the frailties of the flesh than anyone else for all they vow to overcome them.

"But this I will say loud as you please, be wary of who you drink with and who might overhear a careless tale. We are strangers here and strangers in every port. Our fortune has been ill and it has been good, but all of it has been strange and strange things breeds fear in those who see them, those who hear of them, fear or greed." So saying you turn to Esha who had been sitting at your other side. "My lady, how much would you say this is worth?" you tap one finger against the rim of your shield, gained though trail of skill at arms on Korman.

"More than the ship you have found me on..." she answers as she had told you before, then to your surprise as much as that of the others watching, she adds. "Less than half of what I would be worth to those who deal in capturing wizards and selling them on to new masters. Oh yes, there are those who prefer their wizards caged and collared and there are those who buy from such wretches for reasons even more foul. So for my own sake I ask that you all be weary of a too friendly stranger asking you questions over drinks."

For all the words shock you it is the manner in which she speaks them that sends a chill down your spine, plainly and without artifice, and it is clear she had struck a chord. Perhaps it is her beauty or the dark fascination of her gaze, but more than that you see reflected in the eyes of many a familiar fear. No man who had taken an oar in hand on the southern seas was without the fear that they might be captured and made made into a galley slave. From Venice to Alexandria the practice had only seemed to grow with the year according to Antonio and ships grew larger and the hunger of the great navies for oarsmen more voracious. Esha it seems had been listening as closely as you to those stories, though as it often the case with her you cannot tell how much how much of what he is saying is true and how much meant to be appealing in the telling to her audience.

"All the more reason for us to watch each other's backs and not just in a fight," you pick up the thread of the speech smoothly enough by yoour own reckoning at least. "I do not expect that temperance and wisdom from each at every moment of the day so I have asked the captain to make an order to the company of the ship to which I shall add my own, that no man should go ashore alone, be they about their tasks or on leave."

"And any son of a bitch who flaunts that will be whipped," Antonio adds with a chillingly cheerful smile. "Now drink up, there's no sense in wasting good mead."

What do you do next?
Days until departure: 6; Each action will take 3 days

[] Travel to see the market and what you may there buy
-[] Write in what you are looking for (the more general the terms the more likely you are to find it)

[] New: Esha has heard of an auction for alchemical paraphernalia claimed to be of the Inner Circle, potentially of great use to Zaia in his quest, though she warns that such rumor is likely to draw quite a bit of attention and little of it friendly

[] Accompany Antonio as he finishes his deals in the city, things had gotten rather heated when last you saw that matter being discussed

[] New: It is said a hunter managed to slay one or more of the Gilded Serpents that had been sighted near the city and is now in a great hurry to sell off his spoils for some reason, go and try to bid for them yourself

[] Just stay on the ship and enjoy the company of Silver, play with Ripper and Inge, the last few days have worn upon your mind, a break will do you good

[] New: News of your strange ship and stranger company has traveled far, a captain of the League has asked to speak with Antonio on a matter 'best not disclosed in a letter'. Perhaps it would be wise to go with him

[] Write in

OOC: Three social specked PCs all rolled well, those poor sailors did not know what hit them.

 

[DragonParadox]

A Particular Prize ​

Eighteenth Day of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

Captain Ukuju should have looked absurd, between the shaved head covered in a wig woven from strips of different colored hair, from ash blond to black as midnight to red so bright you had only seen the like once or twice in your life, the bright blue ribbons that wound their way around both his lower legs and his arms in place of sleeve or pants, the segmented kilt backed with bronze that clinked as he walked... yet somehow he did not.

Perhaps it was the way he carried himself, not as a warrior precisely, but not as one unused to battle and he had brought a guard in full scale mail glinting like gold in the sun. Perhaps it was the new-gained knowledge that the hair in his wig was taken from the heads of defeated enemies, living and shamed, dead and unfeeling alike. Perhaps it is the sound of his herald's horn, brash as only bronze can be yet without drawing the rebuke of any of the rowdy dock goers. Simplest still perhaps it is the way he smiles, bright and jovial, almost earnest. In your experience not many men greet a group of well armed strangers thus and those who do one should be wary of in turn.

"Ah... Captain Antonio, the talk of many you are. For your goods, yes, but mostly of all for the tales that follow in your wake like flocks of gulls..."

"A greedy nuisance that will snatch bread out of a man's hand given half the chance?" Antonio cuts off the man's greeting, with a smile, yes, but also with a searching look. It seems your friend is the sort of man to go into a delicate meeting with a few testing jabs. You are not sure if you should even be surprised at this point.

Thankfully Ukuju does seem to take the jest in good stead, not requiring you to guard Antonio's honor with words or his person with steel. "Ah my friend, stories do not take bread, they give it else what would all the tallespinners eat and which what beer slake their thirst? I have come with a proposal, yes, one that would see both of us richer and you a man with sanctuary secure. Join the Guild of Captains and you shall have our protection against any who would abduct your crew as well a ever-welcome in the port of Orinilu. You shall not have any delays to supply and fools quibbling over the quality of your goods, not just here but in all waters where the city is respected and the manner of the league flies high."

"And you are of course doing all this because of how very impressed you are with tales you heard swirling about the streets?" Antonio replies doubtfully. "I am flattered, but as the milkmaid said to the shoemaker, where is the rub?"

It takes you a moment to recognize the low humor, seeing as you are hearing it in another language, but when you do it is all you can manage not to curse aloud and hope the local captain does not take it amiss.

Thankfully dubious humor does not seem to translate well and Ukuju replies forthrightly. "The ship, she is larger than any I have seen before save southern ships wrought with wyrd-work and the arts of the gods, her sails are like onto wings upon a bird and so swiftly do they fly. I shall give you the chance to join the guild, vouch for you and for all your crew..."

"Does it not take three captains for the league to accept another?" Antonio cuts in this time, thoughtful and to judge from the expression he wears more than a little proud. To flatter a captain for his ship is as to flatter a knight for his horse, though much like you and Silver the captain also has to worry what his ship thinks of the matter.

"A poor captain I would be if I could not find another pair to vouch with me," your guest waves the matter away, the ribbons on his arm fluttering in an almost martial manner. "I wish for my shipwrights to study this ship that they may then build others in her image."

Antonio throws you a look, the question in it obvious. Is it worth the risk to bring strange shipwrights aboard and risk the Marcella taking umbrage? Though of course one could ask its opposite as well. Is it worth the risk to refuse and perhaps have this captain take umbrage at the insult? He had already recounted all the ways in which not being a member of the league has troubled Antonio, odds are they were as much a threat of how he could make them worse as blandishment that he can make them better.

What do you do?

[] Counsel Antonio to take the offer

[] Counsel Antonio not to take the offer

[] Leave the matter in Atonio's hands

[] Write in

OOC: Might not have time to write soon so I got this out early, apologies to those who did not have time to vote.

 

[DragonParadox]

Best Laid Plans ​

Eighteenth Day of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

After only a little thought you judge it wiser to say yeah than nay. Marcella had seemed to react only to those who wished it harm, or who by the eye of sorcery observed it. The rewards had seemed great, the price small enough, it was not as though Antonio planned to sail against the city, or the dues of the League would have beggared him, else that same league would not have been so prosperous to begin with.

Alas the accounting at the gates did not measure up to what was brought to market. The deal was struck, with spit in the palm and not with blood, the shipwrights made their way onto the ship bearing, nor parchment or velum which you are told is more the province of wizards and priests, but thin wooden boards in which the lines would be carved with sharp bronze, and they had set to work. For some hours they worked with quiet diligence.

All is well until one otherwise unremarkable fellow raise some kind of glass eyepiece to observe the ordering of its sails under the eye of the seamen working the rigging one of the ropes suddenly snapped and like a viper darted to strike the stranger across the face to hard it send him reeling and cut his cheek in an ugly ragged tear.

As Inge rushed to see to the man's healing you look to Esha and in a hurried whisper say: "I thought you were sure that the ship would not attack them."

"I said I was as sure as I could be when communing with a spirit not of this world by means of goat sacrifice. It barely even has a language and you expect of it restraint."

To that you are not sure what to reply. Of course you expect the ship you sail on to show restraint else you would not sail upon it and yet you are not certain you can blame Esha for its misdeeds. "What were the words of its vow... precisely I mean?"

"That it would not strike at any who do not strike at it or else look for weaknesses," the replies as the scared man's companions rush forward concerned speaking in their own tongue. Fear to anger is all too easily made alas... You wish you spoke their tongue that you may calm them.

Why would the ship interpret looking at the sails as seeking its weaknesses and not any of the myriad other studies the locals had done? Can you even count upon such an alien being to keep its work or even value such things as honor and honesty? Esha tries to say something to the man but he does not seem to be buying what she is selling, to judge from the tone he has taken at least, loud and demanding calling yet more of the locals on board to watch the unfolding scene. One word you do recognize, aje witch, ill weaver and curse spinner.

If you had not been watching with an intensity that only fear of bloodshed can engender you might have missed it altogether. Esha's posture shifts and softens, she seems smaller somehow, more fragile, as though a light breeze could send her tumbling, a raised voice could cast her into a dead faint. But you had seen her face far worse than angry shipwrights. Thus the answer comes to you... a spell, but one cast not upon the men she is facing who might notice it and cast it off, thereby making far more trouble than it is worth, but instead upon herself. In that moment of sudden clarity as the man so recently healed mumbled what might be an apology, or at least an acceptance of her words you wonder if she had ever used that power to sway you.

You do not have long to ponder the matter, for her next words to you as soon as he has both you and Antonio behind the locked door of the cabin she reveals that the seeing glass was enchanted, though with what power of sight she could not herself say. The ship had kept its word, but it was those who worked for the league of captains who were attempting to divine its secrets by arcane means.

"But you did tell them not to try to read her thus?" the words addressed to Antonio are hardly a question.

"I told them not to bring any wizards or seers, how was I to know you could fit something like that in a pocket?" the captain asks, raising his hands as though to physically ward off all accusations.

"You could have asked," Esha hisses, as angry as you have ever seen it.

What do you do?

[] Try to persuade the ship to allow itself to be magically observed

[] Try to bribe the fellow with the magic eye-piece not to use it while claiming that he had to no effect

[] Throw the shipwrights off the ship as a breach of the deal , though Antonio had not technically mentioned magic items.

[] Write in

OOC: Not the best rolls overall but you did notice something that is otherwise hard to about Esha. Not yet edited.

 

[DragonParadox]

Riptide ​

Eighteenth Day of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

The attempt to escort the shipwright and his seeing glass off the deck of the Marcella starts off bad, with curses and half understood recriminations... and ends worse as he runs to the gunwale and jumps over. You look down and see naught but churning black waters... and then a splash of red. Inge calls to Ripper but the sea cat is far and slow to answer. Unable to retrieve a body, much less the offending eye-piece you are left to meet Captain Ukuju under far less cordial circumstances.

"My lord I ask you plainly, did we lay a hand on the man?" you asks plainly and without rancor.

Alas there are arguments to be made aplenty, from the mouths of the fearful, from the mouths of the ignorant, and most of all from the mouths of those who did not wish to be blamed and so instead blame Esha. She had driven the dead man mad with fear, she had tried to keep him from seeing some dark secret, else why would you have insisted on so sight sharper than the eye of flesh? There are a lot of questions in the air and a lot of answers half said, but you do not let that sway you from your own course, for that is of truth, and it shall if not give you victory than at least a parting free to regret.

"He grew ever more fearful looking hither and yon like a cornered beast and when accusations would not suit him he jumped... and we could not find the body for all we have the aid of one born to the sea," you point to Ripper as he breaks the surface in a splash of foaming white. "The water is not so deep here nor the current so swift..."

Seeing the other man falter Antonio adds his own suspicions to the mix, most eager not to loose the chance that the league offers him, or at the very least not make a powerful enemy. "If you did not know of any such plan then perhaps it is aimed against both of us, against the League of Captains itself to keep you from putting your new gained lore to use in the war."

"You speak fine words, but I have one man dead and many more gripped by a great fear of you and this accursed ship..." the captain spits on the ground, a act of greater insult here than in the lands of your birth for it is meant as a symbol, the bond of water broken. "So long as you do not find this wrongdoing that you say was done by Joroko I have no business with you and you shall find...." the smile on his pale face turns cold and grim. "That others will be less glad to deal with you as well."

It takes Antonio a while to stop swearing, but as Esha continues to look after the man it is Zaia who speaks first. "Unless that man is the best of actors which I have ever seen, and I have seen many player performed as well as others who played those games in earnest, I think he is sincere. Someone has infiltrated his shipwrights to have a look at the Marcella, someone so fearsome that the pawn chose death over being revealed."

"Or else they did not die at all," Esha notes. "Blood does not mark with any surety that one has died..."

"Enough of it to stain the water so swiftly?" you wonder dubiously.

"Were some fiend to drain all the blood in your veins it would still take a few moments more for death to claim you. We do not die with the stilling of the heart sir knight but with the fading of the mind's flame whose seat is here." She sets a single finger to her temple.

"That would agree with the works of Galen," Zaia agrees.

You are not sure you wish to know why either of them had put so much thought into the very moment of death and so your mind moves on the main point. If there is a plot against you or against the League of Captains perhaps you can resolve it and reclaim your honor.... or given that you are soon to leave in any case perhaps you should leave well enough alone. Poorer prices for Antonio are not the worst of fates especially as the hold is near full in any case.

League of Captains Displeased

The Marcella is being watched by ???

What do you do over your last three days in the city?

[] Travel to see the market and what you may there buy
-[] Write in what you are looking for (the more general the terms the more likely you are to find it)

[] Esha has heard of an auction for alchemical paraphernalia claimed to be of the Inner Circle, potentially of great use to Zaia in his quest, though she warns that such rumor is likely to draw quite a bit of attention and little of it friendly

[] Accompany Antonio as he finishes his deals in the city, things had gotten rather heated when last you saw that matter being discussed

[] It is said a hunter managed to slay one or more of the Gilded Serpents that had been sighted near the city and is now in a great hurry to sell off his spoils for some reason, go and try to bid for them yourself

[] Just stay on the ship and enjoy the company of Silver, play with Ripper and Inge, the last few days have worn upon your mind, a break will do you good

[] New: Investigate the strange happenings aboard the ship which lead to your falling out with Ukuju. If you can prove foul play against both you and the League you can turn in ill turn into a good one

[] New: Sail out early, the city grows more perilous by the hour

OOC: Well things did not go well... but they could have gone worse. You made a pretty hard diplo roll to at least sow the possibility that there was a third actor involved. Not yet edited.

 

[DragonParadox]

From Muck to Market ​

Nineteenth Day of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

If there are any answers to find in good time they are most likely beside the hull of the Marcella not among the teeming crowds of Orinilu, on that much you are all agreed and thus you are here. The feeling of soft muck beneath your feet is disconcerting, but not near so much as the growing burning in your lungs, you cannot last down here long, though between your own spell-born swimming and being able to call on Ripper for aid you are sure you will be able to find your way to sunlight in time...

You squint and blink though the churning muck your passage had disturbed, trying to see by the white witch-light that makes of your sword a burning in the deep waters... and there you see it. A glint almost of gold, or rather as you bend down closer and snatch it up, a wedge of metal. Almost you take that and head to the surface, but then you see it catch on something ragged... a piece of cloth perhaps

It is no cloth but leather, fine and well stitched, or at least it had been before it exploded outwards, but strangest of all it the color revealed by the light of the noonday sun, crimson, red and blood. With blood it had been stained.

"Son of a poxed whore. He didn't even die!" Antonio exclaims. "A bag of blood to trick us that he had been killed by something..."

"Which on further consideration does seem rather foolish." Seeing the less pleased looks all around him Zaia amends himself. "Foolish of all of us. Granted he could have slit his throat as soon as he jumped in or been attacked by some ravenous beasts, but ravenous beasts do not often come near to shore, other than the one we brought with us that is and he did not recover any body in whole or in part."

Ripper is nor ravenous, you swallow the words and the mild outrage that comes with it. Now is not the time. "So what then? This fellow swam under the water and came out..." you trail off. "Even with magic to aid him he cannot have gone far and I do not imagine there are many who go swimming near the docks." The water had tasted foul.

"All the piss and shit of the city has to go somewhere," Antonio shrugs.

You throw him a dark look, doubting that he had somehow missed that you had been swimming in it.

"Let me see that metal thing," Zaia interjects before you and speak. He passes the thing though long and delicate fingers. "Ah... you see how this this is lighter than normal for bronze, see how this bends, a spring to trigger the bag o blood, but that seems to be a very elaborate mechanism to use if one was intending to jump into the water."

"He did not mean that," you cut in, turning over the clues. "He... the man whatever his name was did not expect to be seen trying to observe the ship by magic, he panicked and triggered the bag for good measure, or it was jostled loose in the jump even."

"Which still brings us no closer to knowing who did this..." Antonio sighs.

"I do not think we have come up quite empty. Spring bronze is not common nor easy to make," Zaia counters. "If you get the proportions even a little wrong it is worse than useless and you will only know when your device warps to uselessness. Ask for whom might know how to make it and we will at least have something of a lead."

***​

So it is that your first foray into the markets of Oriniluis not in search of new arms and armor, talismans of power or even books of secret lore for Zaia... it is in search of a particular type of bronze, with a sliver of it in hand. The first few merchants you approach only know enough to direct you to those who sell smithcraft, and the next ones do not know one kind of bronze from another, though that does not stop them from trying to sell you all manner of worthless scrap, at least Antonio insists that it is worthless and you are not minded to disagree, he knows trading far better than you. AT last an old gaffer bearing a peg leg carved in the manner of a lion's foot seems to know something, though he does not seem minded to tell you anything about it.

The boy who had been translating for you in exchange for a few coppers listens carefully to the old man and then shrugs apologetically before recounting. "You best be steering clear of that yet hear? You best be staying clear of him..." he pauses. "I think he might be a little mad."

"Mad or no he is the only lead we have so far," Antonio notes. "Do you want me to try to buy him or shall you put the foer of steel into him."

What do you do?

[] Try to intimidate the old man

[] See if Antonio can bribe the old man

[] Write in

OOC: The spring bronze thing is historically inspired, though in our world it was found in the 3rd century BC. Not yet edited.

 

[DragonParadox]

Of Unwelcome Gifts ​

Nineteenth Day of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

Having already trusted Antonio's skills on strange seas doing the same in a marketplace is no great effort at all. You offer him a nod and reach for your coin pouch, to show that at need you are willing to pay part of the bribe earning you a smile and a slightly sardonic twitch of his lips as if to say 'it's a wonder you have any coin left at all'.

"What should we be steering clear of old timer?" Antonio asks. "If a man tells me there are rocks and shoals ahead I would rather know the shape of them than blindly paddle this way and that."

The boy dutifully translates and the one legged man starts to turn away, before Antonio steps in front of him hand trailing the strings of his purse. He takes out one of the local coils, not gold not silver, but a mix of both gleaming pale yellow like a cat's eye in the sun. "Are you sure you cannot be convinced to talk?"

The next words come out sharp from the old man's mouth and stuttering from the boy's, trying you suspect not to give offense. "He says on your er.. head be it then. The only smith he knows who cam make that is Ipsit Iron Tamer. If you want to know more about him you should do by the King's Gift and say you've got a forging to do..." here the boy cuts himself off, eyes wide. "He says this smith does wyrd-wrkings, soul craft, but he don't work for gold alone. He has to be interested in what you are making, always looking for new things to make he is."

So perhaps the sort of man who would have the means and motive to try to look at a magic ship, not to mention a connection among the shipwrights, you reason. It is all starting to come together...

"Where could we find this Iron Tamer then...?" Antonio trails off. Then in a more thoughtful tone asks. "Wait, where would be have gotten iron to tame?"

The old man chuckles darkly and says something to the boy, who relays. "Go to the King's Gift tonight and you will meet one of his lot, you will get all the answers you might want one way or the other."

With a sight Antonio releases his coin then asks the child if he know what any of that means. Alas the answers are about what one would expect of an urchin who works the market stalls. "Don't know nothing about any wizards or their work but the King's Gift is the Tavern next to the old run off from the palace as it snakes down towards the sea, they call it that cause when the run off get's clogged or even just baked in summer it stinks up the place something fierce."

Lovely... your only trail to follow leads through a place famous for its reek, looking for a man who may or may not be a wizard but is certainly a skilled smith and then ask him how some his his work might have gotten on the son of a bitch who jumped off the Marcella feigning his own death and losing you the chance to associate with the League of Captains.

What do you do?

[] Try to get more information about this 'Iron Tamer' and his works (risks tipping him off early)

[] Go to the King's Gift tonight
-[] Write in with whom

[] See if the Seer has any interest in accompanying you now that you are in the clear with the hunters

[] Write in

OOC: One thing you guys might want to consider is that your time is limited as well and others are moving in the city as well. Not yet edited.

 

[DragonParadox]

Blood Artifice ​

Nineteenth Day of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

"It was no man who bore this..." the words echo somberly off the walls of the shack. Eriran had not been hard to convince to work with you again, not when it had been made clear that you were untroubled by the temples and had only to prove your innocence to the League of Captains. He is still mired in debt and the task you had asked of him much easier, or at least so you had thought. "It might have had the shape of a man and worn the skin of one as a mask but..."

"One of the anjo-oru then?" you ask reaching for your sword, almost by sheer instinct, and if truth be told by fear.

The seer jumps, the old chair beneath his creaking alarmingly with the suddenness of motion. "What, no what makes you think...?" He cuts himself off. "I do not want to know, keep me well away from that." He looks down at the table, perhaps to compose himself, or perhaps to recall whatever vision he had witnessed more clearly. "That was made fro a construct, a man forged of bronze in imitation of flesh. If the one you saw was indeed so like onto a living man that you could not tell its falsehood then it must have been garbed in some manner of alchemically crafted flesh. The false blood was so that it might bleed convincingly."

"But..." the very idea would have seemed mad but a few months past, blasphemy against God and against nature, but you have seen far stranger things. "Are you saying these things made of bronze can think and feel and in all ways act like men?"

"You handed me a piece of spring bronze not the false man itself to study. Count yourselves lucky I was able to read that much off it."

"Its creator could have been possessing it from afar," Esha breaks in, her eyes gleam in the flickering light, though from where you stand it is hard to say if it is fascination, fear or a measure of each combined.

"Whatever the case any wizard able and willing to create such things would be most interested in your ship, enough so to potentially risk one of his servitors in the task. If you find who he is I would appreciate being told the name. That will be Four Hundred gold Icari, I am no stepping further than the doorstep of my home against such a madman."

Antonio who had bargained for the second deal raises his voice to argue,, but you cut him off. "And yet there must have been a man there, he had a name, a life, a family...." you trail off with mounting horror, though the seer does not hesitate to finish for you.

"The skin had to come from somewhere." He glares at Antonio. "Four hundred gold Icari if you will master merchant."

"And I do not so will to pay you so much for what seemed to me to be a few moments' effort."

"Then I shall recall not to share my insights with you and yours when next you are in port."

What do you do?

[] [Payment] Give the mage what he asked for, the insight was valuable

[] [Payment] Antonio is right, it would be madness to pay four hundred gold pieces for a single answer be it ever so insightful

[] [Next Move] Go to the temple of Ikomi for aid from the hunters

[] [Next Move] Travel to the King's Gift and see if you can pick up the table

[] [Next Move] Give the information you have to Captain Ukuju, perhaps it is enough to sway him that there is foul play at work here

[] [Next Move] Write in

OOC: Well on the one hand the mage was just the right person to bring that spring to, on the other your diplo rolls could not always be good and he has a fine sense of self-preservation. Not yet edited. .