1.7 - A Raven discusses Matters of Importance
- Location
- Lost in Hell
"This is New, Right?"
1.7 – A Raven discusses Matters of Importance
1.7 – A Raven discusses Matters of Importance
"You would be able to offer it?" You ask, attempting to peer through the visor of the man wearing cobalt armor; certainly different from the other guards you had seen so far, but you had seen two exchange patrol routes with each other earlier, so you were willing to accept some modicum of help from this man; but you wanted to know why, and what he wanted in exchange.
"Not exactly." He intoned, his voice just a tad bit cautious; what was that a sign of? Mistrust, fear, simple caution at approaching the strangely dressed woman? "I can't exactly offer you help if I don't know what you need help with."
Oh. Blinking your eyes in confusion for a moment, you manage to respond. "You would offer me help… without knowing that I need help, or what I would need help with?" So long as you kept him talking, you could discover more about wherever you were, and about the town itself, which was named Kelna.
"Well, if you want to make it sound stupid, yes." He shrugs. "The name is Robert; I can't help but notice it during my patrols when a young woman is aimlessly wandering around the town, looking for all the world like she's both lost yet plotting at the same time."
"Oh, I don't want to make it sound stupid, it just does." You respond, trying to figure him out, testing his response to different actions. "Mind me asking you a few questions, then?"
"Certainly! I didn't mind the one you just asked, after all." Oh, so he was witty, eh? You could do witty. Not very well, but certainly well enough.
"Well then, I suppose you won't mind me asking you why you have cobalt armor instead of grey armor like the most of the rest of the guard's?"
He blinked. You could physically feel him blink in shock at that question, even if you still couldn't see behind his helm. "...I'm one of Aghanim's guard.". A simple answer, one that meant he felt it as enough of an explanation as is. That mean you were dealing with common knowledge, then. Looking at your blank face, one that had brought up nothing resembling recognition, you made a gesture that translated to 'Go on.'
"No, seriously? I mean, I wouldn't mind explaining… but, really?"He asks. His body language alone tells you he's a bit surprised and defensive now, like there's a chance you're mocking him, yet at the same time resigned, like had had expected a similarly uninformed question from you.
"Indulge me." You dryly reply.
"…I'm one of Aghanims Guard, created at the dawn of the Unison, when he forced all the warring kingdoms and tribes together… to kill him." You blank face had now taken on one of shock, as you tried to sort around the information, wild assumptions flying too fast for you to truly keep track of them.
"…Wow, you really are foreign, aren't you?" He asks, a jovial yet solemn tone coming to his voice. So, you either sounded or looked foreign, huh? Time to dig deeper.
"Gee, what gave it away?" You sarcastically remark, getting a chuckle out of him.
"Let's see… besides the accent?" He asks, his voice playful and mocking. Okay, that was too far.
"I do NOT have an accent!" You scoff, hoping to discover exactly how you have an accent. Because frankly put, you hadn't even heard an hint of one, even comparing your voice to those of the din of the townsfolk's voices as they went about their day.
"You roll your r's a bit too long for you to be from here, and here and there I've caught you stressing certain vowels. Funny, same thing I said to that oddly flirty girl the other day… guess wherever the two of you are from, its further than just down south, huh?" Robert jovially spat out.
Well, that was an… information bomb. Now, if you needed to disguise your accent, you could, even if it was essentially imperceptible to you. But the other bit, about the girl who had come into town with an accent similar to yours just yesterday, the same day you had woken up in the forest? It could easily be important, and in all the vague visions and dreams you could recall, there was… something, that made you easily believe you had siblings.
..Brothers? No… sisters? Yes, you had sisters, now what did they…
"Now, other than that? Let's see-"
"Robert." Shaking your head to clear your mind and focus yourself after a miniature revelation, you cut him off, not willing to miss out on something so large as this. Especially not after the revelation you had just suffered. "Can you… tell me more about this other person that came through, with an accent similar to mine? I was… separated, from several of my traveling companions earlier." Concern was palpable in your voice.
"Separated, huh?" His voice softens, then hardens as he continues. "Did it have anything to do with that damn Wyvern? " Oh dear, that's what that had been. Kind of hard to tell when you had only seen injured wings and the inside of it's gaping maw. Stretching the truth, and then altering the lie so that you wouldn't be accused of disturbing it, was for the best.
"Yes… it came across I and my friends, attacking us. We scattered, and I spent the better part of the day lost in the woods, before sleeping in a small cave hollow to avoid freezing to death." You said, shivering a bit, to press in on the image you felt fear. Not that it wasn't genuine, mind you, you.
"I pity you…" Robert says, his voice softening to a more comforting tone "…And am sorry. I've lost a friend to it; fought it head on when it attacked the village when it first came to roost in the mountains, helped injure its wings. Sheer luck, honestly, that the entire village isn't a smoldering poisonous wreck…" He trails off, looking away. "Not that you look it." He added, a fake chuckle escaping both our lips.
"Magic Clothing; I hate them, and will change out of them first chance I get." You silently mention.
"Sound's convenient. I once talked to the local Sorceress, and…" Robert began, preparing to talk, before stopping himself.
"No, I'm getting a bit off topic here. You want to know about the person who came through yesterday?" At your silent nodding, he continued.
"Yesterday, sometime near noon and after the Beast's roaring died down, just after me and a 'coworker' had swapped shifts with guards at the River Gate, she came walking down the least traveled path, that leads far down south and frankly past the border, there's even a nifty little bar some way's down ther-"
Clearing your throat, he realizes he's nervously rambling yet again.
"Right, right… Anyway, she came on up to me and Barry, and greeted us in an… oddly flirtatious way, teasing and shyly playing up her everything all the while. Unintentional or no, she was... er... shoving her assets down and towards us, and would turn on occasion while lifting the back of her dress. It... it was really uncomfortable, to be frank.She asked us a few things, ones we were glad to answer because she was young and clearly from another nation, before asking for directions to a cheap place to stay for the night, because she planned on departing in the morning."
"Now, she was dressed a bit like you, honestly. White dress, white choker, white boots... white everything ,really, with blue edges and sidings, as well as plenty of lace. White hair, a single black streak in it, a bit like yours actually..."
Why were suddenly you filled with a silent, all-encompassing numb rage?
-0-0-0-
Halfway across the village-town and possibly through several directions that don't yet exist, a girl dressed in white sneezed as she walked through the streets. She had the oddest suspicion she had just made someone impossibly mad, and she was oddly satisfied and amused by it.
-0-0-0-
"…and we even had to explain that Gold Coins really are just called Gold on the records, but Copper is called the Lightwing and Silver is called the Glimmerwing,and even their value's - Five Copper's for a Silver coin, Three Silver Coin's for a Golden Coin, so on and so on."
"Yes, well… thank you. She certainly was one of my companions, and by the sound of it, she took all of our money when we ran… didn't even know how to use it." You sigh, lying out of your ass and managing to sound sincere. "Is she still in town? Where is she staying?"
Shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders in noncommitance – it was odd exactly how much you had to pick up on the body language to tell why he was doing what he was when you couldn't see his face - Robert gave the simplest answer he could to you.
"Frankly, I don't know. She said she was heading out of town by the morn, and I certainly haven't seen her yet. I told her to go to the rather aptly named Dancing Canvas."
Well, lead found. Maybe even a place to stay the night that wasn't rock. "Dancing Canvas? I haven't heard of it, nor seen it, since arriving."
Robert nodded sagely, yet in an oddly joking way. "If you haven't been to the west side of town, I wouldn't expect you to. It's a nice inn/tavern mix, and the fun part of the entire place – besides the fact that its rooms are air conditioned to keep it at a just right temperature and keep it from collapsing in on itself-" My odd expression clued him in, and he elaborated. "It's a giant series of colorful tents, canvases, and rooms, kept clean by magic, with a fairly nice pub for gathering on Friday nights. Its affordable, and always hiring. Especially for pretty ladies like you." He added as a forethought, and you could feel the twinkle in his eye as he flirted with you.
"Why, Robert!" You scoff, laughing him off. In all seriousness, excellent information – if nothing else, you had found a place to potentially find work, and therefore profit before you went on your way should you find any leads on the person you felt a vague rage yet …love? Towards, or any other signs of a memory-triggering event.
"Now, where was I?" He asked.
"The second thing that tipped it off that I'm not native." You said.
"Ah, yes… you have literally no idea who Aghanim is, to the point where you sounded utterly horrified by the fact I mentioned all the old kingdoms and tribes tried band together to fight him. They tried to do so because he was busy weaving a ridiculously complicated spell to do exactly what they had been forced to do – come together, and keep the peace."
"Now, I'm not going to pretend that I'll do this miniature history lesson any justice, so you may want to pick up an actual book later. He, by proving the existence of disproving the existence of several dozen pantheons, while simultaneously striking down tyrants and madmen alike, manage to make a single nation and standardize a coin. This is all, of course, after he made an enchantment covering the entire nation that instantly taught everyone that common tongue, established an entirely new governmental system beneficial for everyone…"
Okay, you were starting to believe Robert was telling you a fairy tale, what with how Aghanim immediately seemed to have fixed everything after he showed up.
"… and then, having realized that even he couldn't stop crime from happening or madmen from cropping up, that he couldn't be there to slay every mean beastie that came out of the woodworks and that however many guards that place had wouldn't either, he made The Guard, to be deployed and moved as needed to respond to threats or keep towns, villages, and city's safe. We're trained in basic magic theory and enchanting, have skills with spears, halberds, and most kinds of swords…"
No really, you were expecting him to tell you he was telling an elaborate and oddly thought out prank on you. The world sounded perfect, with nary a problem in it.
"…and that's why you can't get a look at my amazing, handsome face." He finished, having just told you a condensed version of the past two centuries of the world's history.
The problem was, none of it sounded even remotely familiar, save for the name Aghanim. The worst part of it all was that you couldn't even be sure that wasn't a common name!
"…Well then, Robert… that was a bit of a bomb." You said, beginning to chuckle. "I half expected it to be an elaborate joke on your part."
Standing up from the bench we had been sitting in for the better part of the last thirty minutes, Robert stretched, grunting a bit as he did so. "I wouldn't dare lie about Aghanim... and quit unfortunately, my clearly highly productive patrol's shift ends soon... it's been a pleasure, truly. Any more questions?"
"No Robert, I have none. May we meet again." You said, a smile on your face, and your contentment somewhat ruined as you could only contemplate things, and plan. Watching Robert walk away, his armor clinking all the while, you came to the realization you had forgotten something.
"Robert!" You called out, catching his attention. Turning his head to face you. " It's Beatrice, by the way.... my name. You never asked. And thank you."
Chuckling, Robert turned back around and slowly began to walk away before he called back. "Oh, don't thank me Beatrice... you looked like you needed it."
What do you do now?
[X] Well, you needed money, didn't you? Try to get a job at the Dancing Canvas, and see if the person you suspect is related to you is there.
[X] Act upon these leads Robert gave you; the Dancing Canvas for a start, and try to find the young girl you feel trigger something in you.... after all, if she's what you think she is...
[X] Think for a moment, on all the information you have just learned, and that you have already receive before coming up with a plan.
[X] Write in. [Recommended. Much more interesting.]
Achievement Unlocked! Raven's Tongue - The Raven is a Trickster, A manipulator, a master of turning conversations to her favor or extracting exactly what she wants and more from you; Grants you a +2 modifier on Interogation, Conversation ,and all related rolls.
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DUN DUN DUN?!
Well then, once again I post this far, far too late for my liking... my sister once again booted by off (violently) to work on things, and just got off barely 40 minutes ago, time which I've spent finishing this chapter. She killed by muse, tempo, and a rather large area around my forehead... I wonder if the exact moment a rather large book hit my head and the flow I had died can be found...
That said, I want to ask you guys two things. The first? How do you think of Beatrice, I.E, what do you think her personality is? The Second is one I've asked before, but, what exactly do you guys bevel is going on in the story? Especially with all the role's I've had to hide for spoiler reasons? Not this one, though. This dice roll is visible.
Do you get any useful information from him? Roll: 12 Modifiers: None
0-2; Nope, in fact, you thing you got conned.
3-6; Barely got something workable
7-10; You have more than enough info to work off of
11-12; Absolutely!
0-2; Nope, in fact, you thing you got conned.
3-6; Barely got something workable
7-10; You have more than enough info to work off of
11-12; Absolutely!
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