A Veil of Steel
6th of Lamashan 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)
Bold as brass the child might be, but you don't trust her to keep a secret from her mother. On the other hand, being able to deliver an apology to the powerful wizard from out of reach of hand or spell sounds prudent. So you deliver 'the price of a sturdy mule', as Mina puts it, into the hands of the girl. You then follow her up to her room, so stuffed with books on every shelf and flat surface you wounder how she keeps account of them all, then down the rope ladder to the street...
Lost 20 gp -> Now at 1,442 gp 5 sp 21 cp
"Alright, so it's more of a back
window. Works though," comes the cheeky rejoinder, accompanied by a smile that would not be out of place on Cob's face. "Mom says I should always have a way to get out of the house when she's not here, in case there are thieves around."
"Child, I suspect it is not thieves your mother is concerned with," Sirim addresses her for the first time. "Most thieves bold enough to attack a wizard's home would not be so foolish as to try to kill a witness. Spells there are aplenty to reveal secrets death keeps. If your mother is concerned enough to ensure you have a way out of the house that likely means she has foes that would seek her death and thus, by extension, your own."
Judging from the look of wide-eyed surprise she had not considered the implications.
Despite Mina's glare, presumably aimed at not frightening her further, the shade continues: "Likely these are foes that shy away from either the sight of the common man or the sun. Has she ever left you alone when the sun is down?"
"No..." Fear duels with intrigue across her features, as something of the motivations of her parent and teacher in the arcane is reveled. "You're
really smart. My name's Anippe by the way. I really should introduce myself now that I know you're not thieves, huh?"
Sirim offers his name, though none of his titles, while the rest of you are more forthcoming, hopeful that you gained a new and useful contact inside the city.
***
As soon as you are out of earshot of the window Mina asks pointedly: "Why did you tell her that? Didn't you see it terrified the poor girl?"
"That girl has plenty to be concerned about, but an overly timid temperment is not one of them," Sirim counters and you cannot help but agree. From the quick nod as he sweeps the street with his gaze looking for more trouble, so does Gorok.
That seems to be the end of it for the span of half a dozen heartbeats before the smoke that is Sirim shifts into more half-wihispered words: "Were I in her place I'd rather know. A wizard in the making will find trouble enough all on her own without accounting for blindness of foes by blood."
"Oh..." Mina seems like she's looking to apologize, but you suspect the shadow mage isn't even looking for one now that his logic has been accepted. For the first time you wonder at Sirim's family.
What kind of family had he been born to and how had he come to study wizardry in the shadowed land? Likely you are not the only one to do so either, but neither of you manage to come up with a way to put that curiosity into words so you continue on to Zimendel's shop in search of Warty's new armor, following up on the urchin the elf had sent to the Minotaur's Horn to inform you that 'the work is done'.
Done it is indeed, flowing black steel chain of finer weave than you had seen on any armor beside Cob's new shirt. Once the barding is on Warty his slime flows through and between the links, catching and refracting the afternoon sunlight in multi-colored oily iridescence.
"Good fit?" the elf asks with an eye to Gorok, sounding more worried than his usual gruff manner.
Yet the first to answer him is Warty himself in the form of a self-satisfied warble.
"It's really,
really great!" Cob cheers on, rubbing his hands on his pants to get the slurk's slime off in his excitement. Sirim's going to have to clean that off with magic again, but you can understand the feeling. The armor isn't just good at the price, it is a masterwork of elven craft, each link made with care and precision, leaving space to inscribe spells along the bands of sturdy scales that protect the slurk's underside.
"We will see it tested," Gorok says firmly, much to the smith's satisfaction.
"Good, I never made armor for such a beast. If you do spot any flaws come back to me and I shall correct them, free of charge."
Warty gains Masterwork Chainmail Barding (+4 AC; +4 Maximum Dexterity Modifier; -1 Armor Check Penalty)
That would have been the last of your buisness about the markets of Augustana, if you had not also been invited to a royal wedding. None of you had much of an idea what kind of gift would be expected in a azarketi wedding.
"Wooden spoons are traditional in Barstoi, but I do not think they would do all that well in salt water," Mina shakes her head wistfully. "Not that I've ever been to a wedding before, just something I heard."
"Only the horselords of the Atteran plains still make common custom of wedding gifts in Nidal. Matched steeds are common, but they would do little good drowned," Sirim echoes her confusion.
In the end it is Gorok who strikes upon the answer. The sea-folk cannot forge steel, making it as rare and precious to them as it had once been to Gorok's iruxi kin before he had returned with the secrets of is forging, though that still begs the question: What of steel forged should you buy?
[] Weapons: Matched daggers for the bride and groom
[] Tools: Needles, pliers, hammers and saws, all could be of great use
[] Write in
OOC: The vote to ask did not win, but I can tell you guys just from what Sirim knows of her, Thea would likely not have known what to get for an Azerketi wedding either.
) who goes to meetings and pickets the Mausoleum of Eternal Screams.
