Waiting on Warmbloods
20th of Lamashan 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)
Mina was pretty used to waiting, she got as comfortable as she could on the limestone 'bench' carved into the wall of what was, appropriately enough, called the waiting room for the Almas Office of Land Management. The little wooden chit marked '18' was safely in her pouch as she read through the little book on slim theory Sirim had suggested she get back in Augustana. There wasn't anything new in there, just a lot of new names for things, most of them in draconic annoyingly enough. You'd think that someone along the line of distinguished scholars through the millennia would have taken a good look at a dragon and maybe considered that long serpentine winged creatures with a larynx designed to accommodate a breath weapon were not the best people to borrow a language meant for humanoids able to form only a small range of the sounds and two thirds of the gestures said dragons could make. But no, apparently they had all misunderstood 'necessity is the mother of invention' to mean 'invent workarounds to annoy novices with'.
It didn't help that everyone was staring, her instinctive glamor having long since run its course to show the grey of her eyes and the script belong her skin to all the others seeming an audience. Not many dared meet Gorok's gaze, or those of the other iruxi, which left Mina with a familiar itch at the back of her neck. Familiar did not mean comfortable.
Around four hours later and two thirds of the way though an
especially tedious chapter explaining how time was just a fourth dimension of space their number finally came up, allowing them to step into the tinny office behind the somewhat shabby wooden door that belied both the name and the polished exterior of the 'People's Palace'.
A young man, younger than her from the looks of things, blinked owlishly through lenses so thick they were a bit green tinted. Mina wondered how he could even read all the papers strewn across his desk. There's no way he could have written them all. "Name and occupation?"
"Gorok, scout, hunter, trapper," her friend said, seeming to startle the man behind the desk.
"One's enough," the fellow almost squeaked. "Country or region of origin?"
"Whisperwood," the iruxi answered, his tail now flat on the ground in anger.
Should I speak up or is that just going to make things worse? Mina wondered.
Kori could probably massage the truth enough to get them past this and Sirim had a way with words, but she could just imagine the reaction to these folk to a spirit of smoke out of the shadowed land.
"Hmm... that is in Cheliax, correct?" the clerk asked, quill suspended precariously over the parchment.
"In the swampy land just under the eaves of the woods where a shallow river..." she paused to look down at the notes she'd taken from the map. "Silverun stagnates into pools. The tribe is called..."
Mina Diplomacy (DC 14/19/24): 1d20+1 = 13 (Failure)
"Freeland does not accept Chelixian colonists without a sponsor to attest to their character and rejection of devil worship."
"Our ancestors have been in the land before the devils came, before the warm bloods came from the mountains and from the sea, before the long cold dark. We do not recognize the land of Cheliax and we make war upon them as thieves and liars. If their devils come with them, we kill them too and drive them out. If you take us in we will still kill devils at your side just as we did alongside Iolda of the Bellflower. We do not ask for the land of your wheat fields or your sheep pastures, but for the wild lands to hunt and fish." That may have been the longest Mina had ever heard Gorok speak. Alas, the clerk did not seem impressed, he was just looking at the whole thing in bewilderment as though he'd just seen someone pull a frog out of a hat.
Gorok Diplomacy (DC 14/19/24): 1d20-1 = 3 (Failure)
"Freeland does not accept Chelixian colonists without a sponsor," he said again, more slowly as though talking to a small child. "A recognized community or enterprise of note."
"Where are we meant to find one?" Mina asked, keeping her voice level, though she almost regretted doing so when the man shrugged.
"One of the heartland villages like Rosby or Melonton, it has to be signed by the mayor and three of the aldermen, or a recognized publicly traded company. If you just buy enough stock you can just sign yourselves in." It was quite clear from his tone that he did not see that, whatever it meant, happening. As though to add insult to injury he finished: "That covers it then. Number 19!"
What annoyed Mina the most was just how unsurprised Gorok was at the fact as he swept out of the room without another word.
OOC: Vote for previous update still open. 
