Caper interrupted
The Season of Still Stone
When you explain about seeing another one of your people and wishing to speak to her our companions are all willing to pay the extra coin for shelter, food, and stabling while you search her out, though only Gorok offers to come along and offer his axe should things go poorly. Not that you expect them to of course, but better too many knives in hand than one across your throat. Thankfully the folk of Cauldron are as prone to gossip as their lake is to burbling, though you could have done without some of what you overheard.
Wish you'd just take her out of here and go.
Wonder what skullduggery they're up to.
Damn caligni, only more trustworthy than the drow, for not living as long.
The latter comment sticks with you in particular given that the dwarf smith that made it makes his living filing down Burnlander coin and then passing it off for full value, something Pepper had informed you in his mistress' place is a hanging offense. All in all, you would have rather not know what a 'hanging' is. It seems more torture and humiliation than means of execution compared to the Bitter Cup which affords a painless death to even the most heinous of criminals. The idea that Burnlanders do not have enough poisons is farcical.
Everything is a poison in enough quantity, and numbing is second only to pain and nausea in on the list of natural essences. Any
child knows that.
After almost colliding with a handcart filled with waste for the fungal fields you pull your scattered thoughts together and finally admit that you are worried about what you might find when you finally track down the Dancer. More barely concealed disdain? Someone else who wants to use and discard you as quickly as they can lest you dirty their hands by association? It is not as though any of the traveling Dancers had shown you any particular soul-warmth. The most they had done is not go out of their way to kick you, and the more time you spend with Mina, Gorok, and Cob the less of a kindness that seems.
No sense getting cold feet now, having just listened to a fishmonger talk about his family's feud with the neighbors over a stolen titan eel in his grandfather's day. The only interesting thing about the whole story, how one steals a thirty foot eel, is lost in the excruciating details, but eventually he gets to telling you... "Oh, she was over by the Free Fires. Likes to set up a game there from time to time."
Even a newcomer like yourself knew what the Free Fires were. Cauldron had been founded here for two reasons: the water of the lake, drinkable as is by the locals who had long ago adapted and easy to filter for strangers, and the fire that also leapt up from below the stones, allowing for cooking without the use of kindling or sorcery. Most of these deep flames are enclosed in a structure like the
Belly of the Beast tavern or
Tam's Tannery, but towards the north side of town there is an open space marked only by a rough circle of stones with three blueish flames leaping out for any who might use them.
It is supposed to be a gift from the folk to Cauldron to those travelers who do not have anywhere else to find heat and flame for cooking, a small part of the crater that has not been altered since they arrived. In practice it is the domain of whichever thug has the biggest fist and the loudest bellow to reign over the unfortunate travelers.
In this case it is a
rock troll, which might at first glance be confused for a boulder by reason of his enormous girth and the fact that lichen is growing across across his right side, the one nearest to the water. As you have no business with him you had planned to stay well clear of him... until you notice the Dancer you had been looking for is dangling off one lichen covered knee, showing off a trinket made of interlocking ivory balls, one nested inside the other.
"Is this the one you spoke of? The one who can put my bother out of his misery?" The troll raises a flat stone nearby and pulls out an absurdly tiny amethyst, at least compared to the hand about the size of your chest, which seems to hum with life. "Here."
A look of unadulterated desire passes over the Dancer's face as she says in the tongue of the People: "Play along and you will be greately rewarded."
What do you do?
[] Agree, it could be very useful indeed to have a Dancer in your debt. They are the lorekeepers of the People, respected among all the tribes, and this one seems to be in a bind
[] Clear up the misunderstanding. You do not fancy being on the wrong side of an angry rock troll
[] Write in
OOC: Looking for alchemy supplies will be in the next update.
