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| − | <14:28> [ST] A long night grows longer. Luna rises and falls in the sky, and nightsnow drifts down in a light dusting. The wounded sleep, or lie in quiet agony where their wounds prevent it, and those few hale and hearty tribespeople keep a watch. Springing Elk sits near the fire, staring into its flickering depths. Two-Bits lies curled in a blanket nearby. Leopard and Kragos the Dreamseer pass a wine
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| − | <14:28> [ST] flask back and forth. Jakka says nothing, her gaze fixed on the pyre.
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| − | <14:29> [ST] The Unconquered Sun rises at last, casting somber tones across the camp. The tribespeople move about, whispering prayers, packing up to continue the journey south. The mood is sullen and somber.
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| − | <14:32> [Avir] Avir wakes slowly, grimacing at muscles stiff and sour. It had been no joke to battle beastmen and then travel so far from camp and return in a single evening. His eyes flick over the group. No fewer than last time. Good. There was always the worrying possibility that the new bloodape had gotten bored already and eaten someone in the night.
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| − | <14:33> [Avir] He cricks his neck and stumbles to the fire to make himself tea. The pyre threw up so much smoke no one had bothered to douse it, only banked it to let burn low.
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| − | <14:35> [Miruna] Miruna streches, scratches and lurches upright, groggy and tired. He sets about packing his bedroll, waking slowly with the work.
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| − | <14:38> [ST] The pyre burns, dark smoke rolling into the sky in a column that can be seen for miles in the relatively flat herdlands of the Outwall. Jakka stands near the pyre, staring into the flames, a brand still burning in one gloved hand. Her rawhide trousers are stained black with her brother's dried blood.
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| − | <14:38> [ST] "Any.... dreams to share?" Kragos ventures gently, bustling about his own possessions. His heart doesn't sound in it for once, and no one replies.
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| − | <14:42> [Miruna] Finished gathering his equipment, Miruna stomps over to the pyre, grumbling quietly. Seeing her face shuts his mouth. Her brother was in there, after all.
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| − | <14:43> [Avir] Avir presses a mug of tea into Jakka's hand and sits beside her to drink his own. This business of watching flames could be a seductive business, he decided. Fire licks the shrouded forms of the dead. He tilts his mug to Miruna in greeting.
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| − | <14:43> [Miruna] He stands quietly at her shoulder, paying his respects and then leaves her to hers.
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| − | <14:44> [ST] Jakka takes the tea, but doesn't look down at it. "This will be good," she says quietly. "He will find rest."
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| − | <14:45> [Miruna] He nudges Two-Bits awake with a foot, and looks to the other Ravens. "Break camp, yeah?"
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| − | <14:46> [ST] The other tribespeople file over to watch the pyre. Kragos speaks a brief prayer to the Three Triads, focusing upon Kildios, that the group might accept such sorrow, but get on with their lives as well.
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| − | �02<14:46> * Avir has quit IRC (Ping timeout�)
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| − | <14:47> [ST] Two-Bits wakes slowly, nodding. "Y-yeah." Elk helps her to her feet. Leopard's things are already packed; he has stood respectfully aloof for the ceremony.
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| − | <14:47> [ST] "We should reach Tanstaad by midday, if all is well." Kragos says. Not much has gone well so far.
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| − | <14:52> [ST] "Where's Sundancer?" Jakka asks, looking among the frightened elk for her own. Her voice hitches again, and Kragos goes off to speak to her as the rest of the group breaks camp.
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| − | <14:52> [Avir] "Your pup doesn't look well," Avir says quietly to Miruna. "First time he's seen real battle?"
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| − | <14:54> [Miruna] He nods, eying him sideways. "I'll talk to him later. Give him time to sort himself out first."
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| − | <14:55> [ST] Elk blinks a couple of times, rubbing the purple shadows beneath his eyes. "Looks like there are still enough elk left for... the survivors." He says. "Let's mount up."
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| − | <14:56> [Avir] "Right." No doubt Miruna had had that conversation with dozens of fresh blood in the Once Dead. He'd spent the day after his first battle puking his guts. It was strange- Thunder Wisdom's death had been nothing in comparison.
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| − | <14:57> [Avir] Avir wanders over to Two-Bits. "You alright?" he asks her as she struggled to mount an elk behind an impatient warrior. He grabs her arm to steady her when she almost falls.
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| − | <14:57> [Miruna] Miruna shakes himself, hearing the command, and sets about organizing the troop. "You heard him. Two-Bits, you scout ahead."
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| − | <14:58> [ST] "Fine..." she says thickly. "Just tired."
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| − | <14:58> [ST] Her hands grip the elk's saddlehorn very tightly.
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| − | <14:59> [ST] Leopard nods at Miruna's command, not bothering to check with Elk before nudging the tribeswoman sitting astride the elk in front of him. "Take us forward."
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| − | <15:00> [Miruna] He shares a quiet word with Leopard, and sends him on his way. He'd know who to tell if he came on a camp of the devils sleeping off a raid. He didn't want the tribesmen making decisions for them all.
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| − | <15:00> [Avir] Avir wasn't even mounted yet. Damn it. He never understood why people were in such a blasted hurry in the mornings. "Let me know if you feel worse, right?"
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| − | <15:01> [ST] "Sure, Avir," she says, a little distracted. "I've felt worse. Besides," She smiles wanly down at him, teeth on the left side of her face like a skull. The effect is ghastly. "Don't you believe in your own medicine?"
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| − | <15:02> [Miruna] He gathers his Elk, and walks it over to Elk, who was awkwardly being pulled up by the tribesman he was doubling with. He gives him a hand, steadying him before he slid off the opposite side.
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| − | <15:02> [Avir] "Doesn't fix everything. Don't tell the market people." But she knew as well as he did- better - that even if she were missing a piece of her leg, it was keep up or be left behind in a mission like this. "Why we get the good pay," he grunts as he struggles onto an elk. For him it is mere clumsiness, and finally the warrior yanks him onto the elk impatiently.
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| − | <15:04> [ST] "Thanks, Miruna," Elk says. "Kragos says we should be at Tanstaad in a few hours."
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| − | <15:04> [Miruna] He nods. "We're ready" he adds quietly, ignoring that he hadn't mounted yet.
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| − | <15:04> [ST] "Wonder if these raiders are responsible for the trouble there. I hope so."
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| − | <15:04> [ST] "Then the problem's already solved."
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| − | <15:05> [Miruna] Good. The kid was thinking, not worrying about last night. He didn't need prodding yet. "Might be."
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| − | <15:07> [Miruna] Miruna mounts, pulling himself awkwardly over the elk's high back. It had been a long time. Surprisingly his thighs weren't burning from yersterday's ride. His muscles weren't even protesting after the battle. He smiles, proud of his conditioning.
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| − | <15:07> [ST] A final pair of tribespeople ride up, with Jakka and Kragos mounted behind them. "Shall we ride?" the Dreamseer asks. The girl is silent.
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| − | <15:18> [ST] The ride south is utterly silent. When he rides back to report, Leopard tries a jest or two, hoping at least Two-Bits will respond, but she is silent and focused on staying in the saddle. The elk wind southward through scrubland and briar fields, across low ridges and gullies where the sun doesn't touch and the water freezes in dark pools. After several hours of travel, atop a ridge that
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| − | <15:18> [ST] doesn't look any different from the others, Leopard's rider stops and waits for the others to catch up.
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| − | <15:18> [ST] "Two miles east," the tribeswoman says, pointing, as Leopard slips out of the saddle. "Rock wall. Easy to spot."
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| − | <15:19> [ST] Elk, not enjoying the ride on his namesake, dismounts gladly. Two-Bits has to be helped down by her rider.
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| − | <15:20> [Avir] Avir slides off, thankful to walk again.
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| − | <15:20> [ST] Kragos nods. "Our paths part ways here. Miruna. Avir. Two-Bits. Leopard. Springing Elk. May your dreams be pleasant and clear. May Snowshoe Hare guide you to fortune, and the Owl shelter you within his wings, and the crow stay far from your doorstep."
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| − | <15:20> [ST] "I hope that we may meet again."
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| − | <15:22> [Miruna] Miruna dismounts as gracefully as he can, determined not to embarass himelf at the end of the journey. Apparently his legs weren't as used to dealing with the riding today as they had been yesterday. He manages.
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| − | <15:24> [Miruna] He gives the seer a companionable slap on the thigh. "Thank ye for your guidance."
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| − | <15:24> [Avir] Avir supposed they were well rid of the dreamspeaker and his probing questions, but he would miss the tribespeople's spears. "Safe journeys."
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| − | <15:25> [ST] "Safe journeys," the Dreamseer replies. "And may my guidance prove useful."
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| − | <15:26> [ST] With that, the riders dig in their heels, and the elk spring away, heading south, as if glad to leave the Once Dead behind.
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| − | <15:26> [ST] "Now the fun starts, eh, Bitsy?" Leopard says, rubbing his chest where the wolfman's hammer bruised him. She does not reply.
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| − | <15:27> [Miruna] "Right, lets go see if the town survived those beasties." Hopefully they had. If the town was well and truly sacked, they were a ways out into the tundra, with barely enough supplies.
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| − | <15:28> [ST] "Let's go," Elk seconds. This does not reinforce the illusion that he's actually in command.
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| − | <15:29> [ST] Leopard continues to scout ahead, stopping to check suspicious hollows where snow wolves or mancatchers may be denning, but he sees little. The ground is rocky and briar strewn, far from hospitable, but seems to contain no overt danger. Perhaps the nearness of the Emerald has tamed it.
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| − | <15:29> [Avir] "Sirs," Avir agrees with an amused smile, adjust the lay of the pack on his back.He
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| − | <15:30> [Miruna] Miruna trudges along next to Elk, shield unslung and his helmet purched atop his head, ready to be tipped down at a moment's notice.
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| − | <15:31> [Avir] Avir takes the rear. He keeps his eyes on Two-Bits with increasing concern as she struggles to keep up. "Let's rest a bit," he suggests after a mile or so, fitting deed to words by setting down his pack.
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| − | <15:32> [Miruna] Miruna grunts, but doesn't protest, sitting down quickly with trailbread in his hands.
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| − | <15:32> [ST] Two-Bits stops beside him, swaying. "Maybe that's a good idea," she says. Then, as if the act of stopping has sapped the last of her resolve, she staggers forward and falls flat on her face.
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| − | <15:34> [Avir] "Manda!" Avir shouts, like a fool. He is by her side and on his knees in a moment. He turns her over onto her back. Her breathing is thready, worse even than it had been that morning. He puts his hand to the unburned side of her face, to gauge her temperature.
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| − | <15:35> [Miruna] He lurches to his feet, hurriedly swallowing the bite he'd just taken, faster than spitting it out. "She alright?" he asks, helping the situation.
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| − | <15:36> [ST] Her skin burns beneath Avir's palm. She's running an extremely high fever, but she's shivering with cold. She is very pale.
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| − | <15:38> [Avir] "No," Avir says very coldly. "If she's to live, she'll need a fire. Medicine- droughts. I don't carry much in my pack." It didn't look good, even had he been some fancy doctor in Icehome. And he was hardly that. The bottle bug in his pack squirms noticeably, but it was useless in such a severe case.
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| − | <15:38> [ST] Leopard and Elk watch, silent and horrified.
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| − | <15:39> [ST] "I didn't want to slow us down...." Two-Bits says, opening her eyes. They are glassy and unfocused.
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| − | <15:39> [Avir] They couldn't afford a fire, if they hoped to catch any raiders unawares. The smart choice- the choice of the Once Dead - was to recognize her as a lost cause, give her the gift of mercy, and be done with it.
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| − | <15:39> [Miruna] He curses, reverting to the tribal tongue he had been born to. "Get wood!" he yells at the two gawkers, and sets about clearing a pit for the fire.
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| − | <15:39> [Miruna] The snow was wet with the morning sun and needed to be cleared away.
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| − | <15:40> [ST] The other two move to obey Miruna, though it'll be hard to gather much. It's rare to find a tree taller than five or ten feet out here.
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| − | <15:41> [Avir] It seemed Miruna wasn't cool enough to recognize that. Avir looks at Elk with cold, steady eyes. He wondered if the boy would. This was his first mission; surely he desired its success.
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| − | <15:41> [ST] Elk doesn't look back. He seems glad to have something else to focus on.
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| − | <15:42> [Avir] "Rotting meat," the female ape huffs near his ear. "Give her to me." She wasn't materialized, but like all blood apes she hovered on the very edge of physicality.
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| − | <15:43> [Avir] Avir ignores the blood ape; if she'd meant anything by it, she'd have snatched Two-Bits already, when she'd have put up a struggle, however slight.
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| − | <15:43> [Miruna] "Get moving. If you don't have some doctoring to do, theres plenty else to be done."
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| − | <15:44> [Avir] "I need to check my pack," Avir says. He moves mechanically, rooting around in the stuff he used to hide the bottle bug. He grabs some hart's root- said to be good for fever, and seeps it in snowmelt.
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| − | <15:50> [ST] Leopard adn Elk pile up a few sticks of wood, all they've managed to find in the area. It's not a lot, but it will burn.
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| − | <15:50> [ST] "Don't die, Bits," Elk says, kneeling beside her. He almost seems to be pleading. "Just hold on."
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| − | <15:50> [Avir] She was a lost cause. She knew it, too. In his village, they had covered such victims with snow and left them. He watches the others forage uselessly. He adds more hart's root to the cold tea, and more, and more. So much even Elk might notice.
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| − | <15:51> [ST] "This is bad," Leopard offers to Miruna. He was always one to state the obvious.
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| − | <15:52> [Avir] "Drink this," Avir tells Manda, lifting her up and holding the pot to her lips. She doesn't even see him anymore, but her mouth is slack and open, so he pours it down her throat.
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| − | <15:53> [ST] "This'll make her better?" Elk asks. His eyes show that he doesn't believe his own lies.
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| − | <15:53> [Avir] He lays her back down gently. "No."
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| − | <15:54> [Miruna] He slpas a hand to Elk's shoulder, giving Avir a glare. "If anything can, lad."
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| − | <15:54> [ST] Two-Bits - Manda, once - coughs a little. She can't see, but she clutches at Avir's sleeve as he pulls away. "Avir... you never told me..."
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| − | <15:54> [ST] "Did you die... a pauper... or a prince?"
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| − | <15:56> [Miruna] Even with those words, he is realist enough to know that Bits was a dead woman. Nothing he could do about it. Or Avir, from his own mouth.
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| − | <15:56> [Avir] They had been born in the same indigent village, before Thunder Wisdom had taken him away to become an apprentice, and worse besides.Before her face had been burnt. He'd never known whether she recognized him . "A pauper," he tells her.
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| − | <15:58> [ST] She smiles, seeing nothing. "You idiot. Should have died as rich as... I did. But..." and the smile falters, just a little. "If anyone ever tells you... remember... they were... they were all bad. They... deserved what I did to them. They did... and... maybe I deserve this."
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| − | <15:59> [ST] Her unseeing eyes close. Her slow, labored breathing stops.
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| − | <15:59> [ST] "Damn it," Elk snarls, getting up. "Damn it!"
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| − | <16:00> [ST] "She wasn't the first of us to die, kid," Leopard says. From a man the height of a child, such a pronouncement seems particularly perverse. "And she sure as hell won't be the last." He kicks at the ground. "Nice girl, though. Good heart, to be in this business."
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| − | <16:01> [Miruna] Miruna agrees, silently, and readded Elk to his list of worries. "How'd she want to be dealt with?" If it could be done fast, they had time to bury her. The town was standing or not. A few hours would make little difference,
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| − | <16:01> [Avir] Avir stares at her blankly for a while. It was hard to see the face of the girl he had known in the still slackness that had overcome her in death. "We should bury her. Hide the body under stones at least. No fire, no smoke-"
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| − | <16:03> [Miruna] He glances at the dying fire they had already lit for her. "Too late for that." But that was all the wood that was near. If she'd wanted a pyre, she'd be supplying most of the fuel.
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| − | <16:04> [Avir] Avir grimaces. He had not been paying attention. "Kick it out. We'll put her under stones."
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| − | <16:05> [ST] "I don't think she'd much care," Leopard offers. Elk is off in the distance, muttering to himself. "She was more concerned with avoiding death than what happens after."
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| − | <16:05> [ST] Dutifully, he begins to gather what stones he can in his small hands. Unlike with the wood, there are an abundance.
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| − | <16:06> [Miruna] He nods, accepting. He'd always wanted to go out like a candle, nice and hot. Well, he had his own job to do.
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| − | <16:06> [Avir] "No doubt. But if there are raiders in the area, we don't want a member of the Once Dead splayed out for them to find. No need to court a hungry ghost either.
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| − | <16:07> [Miruna] He trudges after Elk. The lad needed sorting out.
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| − | <16:08> [Avir] Avir assists Leopard, working as rapidly as he could to raise a small cairn. It didn't have to be deep.
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| − | <16:09> [ST] Elk doesn't turn around as Miruna draws near. His head hangs, and every now and then his shoulders jump, but he makes no sound. Above, the sun shines in a bright blue, cloudless sky. The nightsnow is almost completely melted now.
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| − | <16:10> [ST] Manda's face is soon covered, which seems to make Leopard work faster. The cairn piles up, and Avir labors with hoarse, bestial laughter wheezing in his ears.
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| − | <16:10> [Miruna] He makes sure to make plenty of noise, approaching. Elk was on edge, and no reason to startle him.
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| − | <16:10> [Miruna] "You'll want to be there for the last stone." It was his job, really, as commanding officer.
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| − | <16:11> [ST] "What good will it do, Miruna?" he doesn't turn around. "It won't make her any less dead. Or it any less my fault."
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| − | <16:11> [ST] "I let her tend my wounds first. I didn't even think about hers. I couldn't think about anything but how fast they attacked. Avir noticed, not me."
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| − | <16:11> [ST] "If we'd gotten it out faster, maybe..."
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| − | <16:14> [Miruna] At least the boy was honest about it. "Not your fault. People die. We die, especially." He waits for a moment. "I didn't see it either. Avir had her care, and she must have known. Wanted to keep us moving."
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| − | <16:15> [ST] "She was under my command. I should have taken better care of her." He shakes his head, still not turning around. "That's how they'll know me now, Miruna. As the one who killed Bitsy. And they'll be right."
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| − | <16:15> [Miruna] There wasn't much he could say, really. The kid just needed to learn to put it behind him and move on. Because someday, soon enough like as not, he really would get someone killed.
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| − | <16:16> [Miruna] "'s not going to happen." For one thing, they'd blame him. Or joke about the doctor. Few doctors in the Once Dead got any respect. It was much easier to joke about them morosely.
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| − | <16:17> [ST] "I'll still know it..." he shrugs once, heavily. "What if I make another mistake? It might be you next."
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| − | <16:18> [Miruna] He shrugs. "I'm tougher than that."
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| − | <16:19> [ST] He laughs. It is a humorless sound, but it seems to bring him around a little. "I guess we should go back."
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| − | <16:19> [Miruna] So he told himself whenever a comrade died. It hadn't been him yet, so he might even be right.
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| − | <16:21> [ST] Elk turns, wiping at his sunken eyes. He gives Miruna a clap on the shoulder as he makes his way back to the cairn. He's a little late, but he does lift a stone of his own and pile it atop the others. "I'm sorry, Bitsy," he whispers, so softly that only Avir is close enough to hear.
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| − | <16:21> [Miruna] He nods. "We should. Pay respects. And then move on. Its what she would have wished." Or should have. Bits was a good sort, but some of them wanted wailing and gnashing of teeth. They got what they got.
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| − | <16:23> [Miruna] He follows, behind Elk, and looming around him. Elk wasn't ready to hear that Bits' death wasn't his fault, so there was no use telling him again.
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| − | <16:24> [Avir] Avir glances at him. He shakes his head and wraps his cloak warmly around himself. It did not even seem real yet. "We should be going. The village is still waiting for us."
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| − | <16:25> [Miruna] He pats the cairn, too late to add to it. "Goodbye."
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| − | <16:26> [ST] "Yeah," Leopard says. Having built the cairn, he does not want to draw near it again. "If these villagers are as inept as most, we might be joining Bits before dinner. Let's go."
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| − | <16:28> [Miruna] He laughs at the black humor. "Right." He shoulders his pack, ready to move.
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| − | <16:32> [Avir] Avir turns back once as they crest the hill that Two-Bits had faltered on. The cairn blended in with the shale so well at this distance it might as well have been invisible. He wondered if his grave would be so little marked. If he would even have one. He shakes his and trudges after the others.
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| − | <16:33> [Miruna] Miruna doesn't look back. You couldn't dwell on it and survive for long.
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| − | <16:34> [ST] Shortly after leaving the grave behind, the Once Dead climb atop a small ridge and see ahead of them a rising rock wall so perfect at its base that it must be of ancient construction, perhaps the age of the moon and sun demons. Its top is heavily weathered, however, and where once an elegant, arched doorway stood, there is a blasted, winding tunnel wide enough for a pair of Guild wagons to
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| − | <16:34> [ST] go through.
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| − | <16:34> [ST] Tanstaad must be located in a ruined Greenfield.
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| − | <16:35> [ST] A small boulder lies to one side of the canyon, and a young man squats atop it, a fire-hardened ash spear leaning next to him.
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| − | <16:35> [ST] He leaps up, shouting, as the Once Dead appear
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| − | <16:35> [ST] "Who goes there? Why have you come to Tanstaad?"
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| − | <16:37> [Miruna] Miruna waves from the ridgeline, and cups his hands round his mouth to yell: "We are soldiers, sent to help."
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| − | <16:37> [Avir] Avir fishes his Once Dead medallion from under his shirt. He waves it in the air, not that they can see it. "From Icehome," he adds.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:37> [ST] The man nods. "Approach slowly!" he calls out. He is brash, and young. Slow or not, the Once Dead could overwhelm him before any others could appear... unless he's only bait.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:41> [Avir] Avir continues at the same pace. The man couldn't even throw that spear; who did he think he was kdiding?
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:41> [Miruna] Miruna gathers his shield again, and follows.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:42> [ST] The Once Dead draw near, and the man comes into focus. He looks to be about twenty, with a dark, short hair, a tall, spare frame, and a boyish face. Startled Rabbit favors men like him, the Once Dead might recall.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:43> [ST] He stands up, grasping the spear suspiciously, but loosens at the sight of the medallion Avir carries, and the writ that Elk produces, embossed with the Icehome seal.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:44> [ST] "So..." he looks them over. "The Oligarchs actually listened. You're Icehome militia, then?" It seems clear he doesn't recognize the meaning of the symbols, just their quality.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:44> [Avir] "Once Dead," Avir replies. "We hear you've been having some trouble."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:46> [ST] "The Once Dead?" He sounds morbidly impressed. "Heard stories about you. Yeah." He nods. "I'm Rovas. We've had some people killed in the night. Others vanish. It's a real mess. Don't know if you can fix it or not."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:47> [ST] "Just one thing, before you come in. Touch this to your faces." He presses a flat, metal disc into Avir's hand. "Each of you."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:48> [Miruna] He glances at the thing. "Why?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:51> [Avir] Avir studies the thing in his hand and nods. He presses it to his face. "See? Not a fairy." He passes it to Miruna.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:52> [Miruna] He looks skeptically at it. Superstition, most like. He presses it to his face, then glances around warily, passing it to Elk without looking to him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:53> [ST] Elk presses it to his face, then passes it to Leopard. The guard looks at him particularly strongly, but seems satisfied when the disc doesn't sizzle. City folk were city folk. He takes the disc back. "All right," he says, taking up the spear. "Follow me, I'll take you inside."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:54> [ST] Rovas leads the way into the mouth of the canyon, which quickly turns back on itself, and turns again. It's not at all apparent that there's an emerald inside, which is probably why Tanstaad went undiscovered for so long.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:54> [ST] "You ask me, I think the Guild woman did it all," he says, unsolicited. "Can't trust them."
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| − | | |
| − | <16:55> [Miruna] "Has anyone seen anything?" The wolfmen hadn't been subtle. If it was some madman murdering people, the Once Dead weren't the people for the job.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:56> [ST] As he leads the Once Dead onward, the crisp air seems to warm up, more than could be explained by just the sheltering walls.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:57> [ST] "Almost nothing. Some green eyes shining in the dark. Or red. Depends on who you ask, it's strange..." the tall boy tosses his spear loosely from one hand to another.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:57> [ST] "For the first week or so, people just vanished. Selza's baby. Grond, the holy man. That fella that worked for the Guildwoman. Broc? I think his name was. Something like that."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:58> [ST] "Then we started finding bodies, all torn to pieces."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:59> [Avir] Fuck. This sounded like demons.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <16:59> [ST] He steps out into the light, and slightly warmer temperature. A small valley winds away below, a battered dirt road leading to a cluster of homes arranged in a ragged cross. One in particular stands out, a two storey building with a stone foundation. The others are all wood and thatch constructions.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:00> [ST] Beyond the little town, a two-tiered Guild fortress wagon rises, and beyond that is a stand of tall, thick, dark pine. Between the group and the village, freshly harvested fields lie empty.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:00> [Avir] "Did anyone examine the bodies closely? For size of the bite, and such?" Faithful Hare should have come. She could look at a bone and tell you its owner had three brothers and a dog named Snowball. Still, if any of these folk were hunters, might be they had strong stomachs.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:01> [Miruna] "Any order to the killings? They live near eachother?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:02> [ST] "Haven't seen 'em myself," the young man says. "Least, not close. They say one bit Selza's husband. Said it bled green, like poison. Wound wouldn't close. He died. Her baby and her husband both." He shakes his head. "Might be she could tell you more, or the elder."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:03> [ST] He thinks about Miruna's question. "They don't live close. I guess the baby and Selza's husband were close, but maybe it just liked the taste. Whatever it is likes killin' a wide variety of folks. The town shaman... an' a baby, an' a foreigner. From way down south, Broc was, skin as dark as charred wood."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:04> [ST] "Anyway, I need to get back to my post. Expect you folks know the best thing to do next. That big building is the elder's home and the meeting hall."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:06> [Miruna] He glances after the retreating man. "Simpler would be nicer." Or not, but griping about things always helped a soldier.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:07> [ST] "Where do you think we should go first?" Elk asks no one in particular.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:11> [Avir] "I think I want to take a few minutes to myself. There are rituals to percieve immaterial spirits; I think it best to be on our guard."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:11> [Miruna] He shrugs. "Elder's house. See about lodgings, and see what more they have by way of militia."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:12> [ST] "Can't imagine it's much..." Leopard muses. "Shame their shaman is dead. He could've told us what was up."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:13> [Avir] "Perhaps that's why he was killed." That, or he lost control of his demons.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:13> [ST] "Well, Avir, if you think it's a good idea..." Elk says.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:13> [Avir] "I do. Excuse me."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:14> [ST] "You think this thing is that smart?" Leopard says. "If that's the case, why isn't everyone here dead?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:14> [Miruna] He grins "If its that smart, its keeping the larder populated."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:14> [ST] Elk waves Avir away, looking concerned.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:15> [Avir] There was no need to conceal this ritual, but he had never liked people to see him muttering to himself. He seeks shelter around the corner of a building, under a pine tree, mixes some ash from a small pouch in his pack with fresh snowmelt.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:18> [Avir] He pricks his thumb with a needle and mixes in the blood, to make a dark, grimy mixture. He closes his eyes, murmur words of protection and incantation, then coats his eyelids with the stuff. The world seems to blur for a moment before snapping back into focus with painful clarity. He wrinkles his nose. There was Stomp, and the other ape, ah, procreating from boredom. At least they weren't loose or bored. Coughing, he
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:18> [Avir] turns his back and goes quickly through the other rituals.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:20> [Avir] He hurries back to the others, hoping they wouldn't ask why he looked so pale.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:20> [ST] Aside from the antics of the two blood apes, and the twitching outline of the Sesselja in his pack, Avir sees nothing untoard, even as he makes his way back to the others. The village below lies silent, although a few figures have stopped to point up at the gathered newcomers. The armor stands out, especially Miruna's.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:24> [Avir] His eyes are shadowed and rimmed with a dark ink. "Let's see the elder."
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| − | | |
| − | <17:25> [Miruna] He nods, not asking the man about whatever magics he had been using. Avir would tell them if they needed to know.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:25> [ST] Elk nods. "As good a first step as any, I guess."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:26> [ST] The group sets off down the packed dirt road, empty fields stretching on either side. It seems that there are no farmsteads proper here, but that everyone lives together in the village and walks to their own fields.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:27> [ST] As the Once Dead move down the dirt road and homes appear on either side, shutters open as inhabitants peer out suspiciously. A young boy of about ten emerges from one of the houses and keeps pace with the soldiers for a while, gaping.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:27> [Avir] "It's not good for the fields for them to be hiding here. If the monsters don't get them, famine might," Avir comments.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:28> [ST] At last, the elder's home rises up before the Once Dead. It is the only two story building in town, with a stone foundation at least six feet high, and colorfully painted tile shingles. It sits in the town square, directly astride the two crossing roads that form the town.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:30> [ST] Another pair of youths stand in front of it, armed with similar wooden spears. They look askance as the Once Dead approach.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:31> [Avir] Avir shows his useless badge. "We're from Icehome."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:32> [ST] "Are you here about the monsters?" one of them asks, her eyes lighting up. Her slightly chubby frame looks more suited to a banquet than guard duty. It doesn't take a military expert to see that this is not particularly quality militia.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:32> [ST] "You may enter to see the elder, but leave your weapons here," the other guard, a young man with a struggling blond beard, says.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:35> [Miruna] He glowers at them. "If we're leaving our weapons, we're leaving one of us with them." Especially with the talk of hauntings, he didn't want to be without them near anyone.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:35> [ST] "I'll stay," Leopard volunteers. "I'm sure you can tell me if I miss anything exciting." Both of the guards gaze at him, curious.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:37> [Avir] "High security." Though if they lost their shaman, perhaps warranted. Avir draws his short sword from its sheath. "Be ready," he tells the djala in an undertone as he passes over the sword. The guards were better off not knowing about the other knives he had on his person.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:38> [ST] Leopard nods his spotted head, lazily settling himself down on the steps between the guards to wait.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:38> [Miruna] He hands Leopard his war mace, then reaches for the others. "Thats the one you bring if you hear us, yeah?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:39> [Miruna] He passes over his hatchet and knife as well, true to his word but grumbling about it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:40> [ST] "Sure." Elk lays his chopping sword behind it. Leopard reclines beside the weapons, producing a collection of wooden plate-cards from his sleeve, shuffling them noisily as the other Once Dead file up the stairs. "Hey," they hear him asking as they open the doors. "Either of you kids play 'Pike Me?' Here, let me show you..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:42> [ST] Within, the building is simple, but clean. A prayer scroll to Snowshoe Hair is pinned to the wall just inside the door. The floors are sturdy hardwood, covered in most places by thick rugs. The woven mats are not particularly luxurious by Icehome standards, but they are very fancy for an Emerald. Soon, the Once Dead file into a tall-ceilinged chamber. Benches sit in two rows, and at the far
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:42> [ST] end of the room is a raised dias and a table.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:42> [ST] An old man stands atop a thick fur, facing away from the Once Dead. He turns as they enter.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:43> [ST] He has a long, white beard, but his eyes are pinched and worried.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:43> [ST] "Who are you? I assume the guards let you in?"
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| − | | |
| − | <17:44> [Miruna] "We've come to kill your monster."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:45> [Miruna] He let the others show their raven badges. His was still in his pack. He normally didn't need to bother with it, s didn't keep it handy.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:47> [ST] The man nods, shortly, his bald head shining in the light from the room's high windows. "If monster it is. In either case, I am glad you are here to deal with it. Though you should not be too quick to judge from the reports. We are simple people here, Once Dead. We tend to jump at shadows."
| |
| − | | |
| − | | |
| − | <17:50> [Avir] "We heard there were bodies torn apart."
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| − | | |
| − | <17:51> [ST] "Some. Oh, make no mistake, something is amiss. My own brother's daughter, Selza, has suffered tragedy twice over. Her infant, taken in the night, her husband, poisoned and killed. But when Delf was brought back, he was screaming in delirium. He could have seen anything in that state."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:52> [ST] "However, I do not believe supernatural forces are at work. Why now, after fifteen years of peace? Even a rogue god would announce itself."
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| − | | |
| − | <17:53> [ST] "Truth be told... and it embarrasses me to admit this. I was not always an Emerald dweller, and I learned as a child that to admit weakness was folly... but..." He spreads his hands, helplessly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:53> [ST] "We are a people easily frightened. Many among us are still old enough to remember the tragedy that drove us here."
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| − | | |
| − | <17:57> [Avir] "The moon monster, wasn't it?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:57> [Avir] Drat. This really was a case for Faithful Hare.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:59> [ST] "Yes. Magdala's raiders swept north, killing everyone they found. Whole tribes and Emeralds were put to the sword, then the refugees. It was the dead of winter, and it was an unmerciful one. The blizzard finished more of us... including my own daughter. But we found our way here, against all odds. An undiscovered Emerald."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <17:59> [ST] "If something waited here, it would have struck then."
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| − | | |
| − | <18:00> [Miruna] "Is the same thing happening again? I thought it'd been more violent last time."
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| − | | |
| − | <18:01> [Avir] "May we talk to your niece?"
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| − | | |
| − | <18:03> [ST] "The same... thing..." he pales visibly. "No. No, gods, I hope not. So far as I know, Magdala is gone. Were she to return... the carnage would be undeniable." He turns to Avir. "You may, but... be gentle with her. I doubt she can tell you much."
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| − | | |
| − | <18:04> [ST] "The guild woman's hands are not clean. She should not be here. She may have brought this thing with her when she came."
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| − | | |
| − | <18:04> [ST] "She may be directing the killings herself."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:05> [Avir] "Perhaps." The universal suspicion of the guild woman made him skeptical. "Did she have reason to wish Selza or her her husband harm?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:05> [ST] "Not that I know. But who here did? Selza harmed no one."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:08> [Avir] "Can you think of any reason why her family in particular would suffer? Are they located towards the edge of the village?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:09> [ST] "They are near the edge of the village... perhaps that is the reason the child was taken." He smiles, sadly. "As for her husband, after the child's disappearance, he neglected his duties in the fields to go out at night, hunting whatever may have taken the child. It is not surprising he was attacked."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:10> [ST] "If only Grond were still alive, he might tell us something. But he was among the first to vanish."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:11> [Avir] "Vanish." Perhaps it was the shaman after all. "What happened to him?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:14> [ST] "He disappeared some weeks ago. Along with the Guild man, Broc. And Selza's child. They were the first. A week or so later, Selza's husband was attacked. And several more since then, always at night. A young woman. A guard. A herder."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:15> [Avir] "We'll speak with the Guild woman next, and then Selza. Where can we find her?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:15> [ST] "The attacks have become more violent as time goes on."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:15> [Miruna] "Are the wounds always the same? We were told that Selza's qwept green poison."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:18> [ST] "My guards can give you directions to Selza's house. It is much like the others, on the east end of the village. The Guild woman keeps to her wagon." He turns to Miruna. "No. Just Delf, Selza's husband. The others have been... torn to pieces."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:21> [ST] "Is there anything else? You'll want lodging of course. Any of the villagers would be honored to have you."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:21> [Miruna] He shakes his head to clear it. "Right, right" he slurs almost under his breath. After he met them, they would be people to him. For now he was mostly worried about the attacker.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:22> [Avir] "Where did the shaman live?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:23> [ST] The elder pauses a moment. "Grond lived outside town, near the edges of the wild wood to the north. We do not cut the trees in that wood. An agreement with the spirit of the forest."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:25> [Avir] Avir nods. "We may wish to investigate there. We will take care of the woods."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:27> [ST] The elder nods. "Be careful. I do not know the full nature of the agreements Grond made with those spirits, now that he is dead."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:28> [Miruna] "Have you seen those spirits keeping to them?" If the woods had gone wild, that might explain things.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:29> [ST] Elder Swan shakes his head. "We have not seen those spirits at all. Truthfully, only Grond's word told us that there were any in those woods at all."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:32> [Avir] Avir smiles. "Perhaps we will find out."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:32> [ST] "Perhaps. I certainly wish you luck."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:32> [Avir] Avir puts his hands together. "Thank you, honorable Elder Swan."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:33> [ST] "Thank you. I hope you find the cause of this horror."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:35> [ST] Leopard sits on the steps outside. Next to him is a strange pile of oddments - a silver belt buckle, a flint knife, and a collection of shale chips. He rises as the others emerge, scooping up both the oddities and his wooden cards. "Well kids," he says. "It's been fun."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:35> [ST] The two young guards look less than amused.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:35> [Avir] "Making friends wherever you go, eh?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:35> [Miruna] "Just so long as they don't lynch you later."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:36> [ST] "As always." He smiles at Miruna. "Have you seen how little my neck is? I'll slip right through the noose. Where to now?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:36> [ST] Elk does not answer. He has spoken little, thinking pensively.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:37> [Miruna] He shrugs. "See about lodgnings first. S'posed to find families to take us in." He'd have to make sure they stayed in teh same house or near eachother. Hopefully there would be enough daughters and widows nearby so it wouldn't be an issue.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:37> [ST] "I'll look into it," Leopard says, sounding less than thrilled.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:38> [ST] "I'll go with him," Elk volunteers. "Get the lay of the land. You two... investigate the Guild woman."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:39> [Avir] Putting himself where he couldn't do any harm to anyone, was he? "Yes...sir."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:39> [Miruna] "We'll need to be together before we go to the woods." He wasn't to worried about the guildwoman.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:39> [ST] "Of course," Elk says, slipping away all too eagerly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:41> [ST] Miruna and Avir make their way along the packed dirt road toward the Guild wagon. It can hardly be missed - it is one of the fortress wagons used in the largest of the Guild caravans, a two-story structure with heavy walls and tiny arrow-slit windows. A ramp leads from the ground to its second story.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:41> [ST] As the Once Dead draw near, a voice hisses out behind them.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:42> [ST] "Heavy boots. Hear... heavy boots."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:42> [ST] "Not from here."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:42> [Miruna] He turns, hand on the hilt of his mace. "Who?" he asks, loud and unintelligible.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:44> [Avir] Avir takes a step away from Miruna to give him more room to swing his mace if it came to that. He turns.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:44> [ST] A man squats against one of the houses. He looks young, with dark, long hair. He might be attractive beneath the layers of dirt. He is dressed in rags, his eyes bound by a strip of blue cloth. A jug of rice wine sits between his feet.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:45> [ST] "Can't see you... don't... need to. Who's... come to the Emerald?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:46> [Avir] "I am Avir. He is Miruna. We are of the Once Dead."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:47> [Avir] He releases the hilt of his sword. He saw little to fear in this begger. "Who are you?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:47> [ST] "Rolf's the name... Once Dead. Heh. Greetings to the Once Dead, then, from the Better Off Dead. Heh."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:47> [ST] "Come to find the... things that go bump in the night?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:50> [Miruna] "Yes." Pathetic thing. His tribe would have exposed him, but since he had moved to the cities he had learned to tolerate them.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:51> [Miruna] Not that his tribe had tolerated his own problems.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:51> [ST] "They say the Guild woman is pretty... of course... low standard for pretty in the Emeralds. An' not like ol' Rolf's seen her. Ain't seen no monsters either... mayhap they don't like their food... pickled." He reaches down to heft the jug, taking an ample swig.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:53> [ST] "Still, hope you catch 'em. It's a terrible thing when people let monsters roam wild. 'cept for me."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:54> [Avir] "You don't look like a monster to me. You look like a crippled drunk." He doubted the man would like prettying up the truth.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:55> [ST] "Looks can be deceiving, young man. Why, you've only to toss me a bit of silver and I'll-" There is a sharp rapport as a stone strikes the wall near his head.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:55> [ST] "Fly-Eyes!" a voice shouts. "I told you to stay away from the wagon!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:56> [ST] Rolf scuttles away like a cockroach, ducking between two nearby houses, and the voice calls out again.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:56> [ST] "Hey there!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:57> [Avir] "Yeah?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:59> [ST] A man stands there, his skin the light brown of an easterner, his dark hair shot through with streaks of red. He has the brutal face of a killer, and a flame piece nestles at his hip. He leans against the wagon's ramp.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <18:59> [ST] "Name's Samson. Who are you lot? You look a little richer than the locals."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <19:00> [Avir] "We're from Icehome, here to investigate the troubles hereabouts. We mean to speak with the guild woman."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <19:00> [Miruna] He grunts in agreement.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:00> [ST] "The Guild woman?" He laughs. "I can tell who you been talkin' to. I don't know..."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:01> [ST] "Oh, Samson, let them in," a voice calls down from one of the narrow windows. "I'm getting bored anyway."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:01> [ST] Samson scowls. "Fine. If Cadda can't handle the pair o' you, she deserves what she gets. She doesn't pay me enough for this shit, even if I do get Broc's share. Go on in."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:03> [Avir] "You're too kind." Avir bows to the man, to be annoying, and walks the tall steps up the wagon. He knocks and opens the door.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:04> [ST] The interior of the wagon is thick with cloying, peach-scented smoke. The walls are draped in silk, the floor covered in pillows. Boxes of spices are stacked in the far corner. Within this one room is easily ten to fifty times the wealth of the rest of the Emerald combined. It is a lavish sight indeed.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:05> [ST] The Guild woman, Cadda, reclines on a chaise in the center of the wagon. She is not beautiful - a nose slightly too long and too sharp, a strong jawline- but her dark hair and her flimsily attired curves are attractive enough. Rings glimmer on each of her fingers and toes. Bracelets and anklets jingle as she moves. It's as if she put on all this and sat around on the off chance someone might look.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:06> [ST] "Stop," she says, raising a hand as Avir and Miruna enter. "Let me guess."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:06> [Avir] Avir makes a welcome gesture with an open hand.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:07> [ST] "I can tell you're soldiers. Artistic ones. I assume you have seen that brainless elder, Swan. I assume he has filled your heads with tales of my debauchery, including how I have conspired to slit the throats of my own purebred yeddims and make half my hired protection disappear." She narrows her eyes, smiling in a predatory way. "Correct?"
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| − | | |
| − | <19:07> [Miruna] "Your animals were attacked as well?"
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| − | | |
| − | <19:08> [Avir] "I'm not artistic."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:09> [Avir] "Explains why she's still here with all of this." Or at least afforded a plausible excuse. "What was Broc doing when he disappeared?"
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| − | | |
| − | <19:10> [Avir] He picks a jar of spice off a shelf and sniffs it. It makes him sneeze. Expensive stuff. He puts it back on the shelf and smiles guilessly.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:10> [ST] "Straight to business, eh?" She winks at Miruna. "I can respect that. While I'm sure I could inspire either of you to artistry... I suppose it doesn't hurt to tell you."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:11> [ST] "The animals were killed only a few weeks ago, around the first time the townsfolk started appearing with chunks taken out of them. Broc had vanished by then, and I should have left before trying to suss out what happened to him, but I suppose I'm the sentimental sort."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:11> [ST] "Not THAT sentimental. Put the spices down."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:11> [ST] "Unless you'd like to buy some."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:13> [ST] "Broc liked to drink a lot. He went to that... thing they call a tavern. The Pony, I believe."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:13> [ST] "I wouldn't be caught dead drinking that elk piss you northerners call ale." She smiles viciously.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:14> [Avir] "You couldn't handle it, I'm sure," Avir says dryly. "Don't go out of your way to be liked, do you?"
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| − | | |
| − | <19:15> [Avir] "What ever brought you to this one-yeddim town in the first place?"
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| − | | |
| − | <19:15> [ST] "No one ever got rich by being liked, I'm afraid. But most people come to like me sooner or later, once I give them what they need. THat's the whole reason I started this tour."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:16> [ST] She brightens up a bit talking about it.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:16> [Miruna] He smiled sourly. Foriegners. "Did Broc die before he got to the tavern, or after he left?" If he had been killed at the place, noone would have been calling it a disappearance.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:17> [ST] "Guild doesn't bother with most of these Emeralds. Truth is, we don't bother much with the Haslanti League at all. You lot aren't good business. But a market like this is an opportunity waiting to happen, and I did a good enough trade moving emerald to emerald. No other Guilder would even try it."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:17> [ST] "I've turned quite the profit... but now I'm stuck."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:17> [ST] She reaches out, taking a hit off her hookah and puffing more fragrant smoke into the air. "Smoke?"
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| − | | |
| − | <19:18> [Avir] "Don't mind if I do," he says, taking it from her and inhaling.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:20> [Avir] "What they need?"
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| − | | |
| − | <19:21> [ST] "Spices. Entertainment. More subtle things. You'd be surprised the buyers you'd find, even in a village like this. There's money to be spent, and I do provide."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:22> [Miruna] He waves her off. He was working, and there was a menace to survive.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:22> [ST] "As for Broc... I don't know. He left to go to his tavern. I didn't pay attention. He doesn't interest me beyond his work." She stretches, clanking rings on fingers and toes alike together.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:25> [Avir] Avir can't help but watch her appreciately. His head was muzzy, hard to concentrate. "What did you find out when you made inquiries?"
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| − | | |
| − | <19:26> [ST] "They wouldn't tell me much. They don't trust me. Can you imagine?" She laughs a little. "They'll buy from me, but they won't give much in exchange. Maybe I should try blackmailing them harder. Broc was there, they say. He drank, he left. It might even be true."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:27> [ST] "He wouldn't be the first one to leave my service, though he could have at least picked somewhere more charming to jump ship."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:28> [Avir] "Do you know anything of those who went missing?"
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| − | | |
| − | <19:28> [Miruna] "If its that he'd have found a lass he liked, and we'd've heard from her parents most like. He's dead. Noone saw him after he left the tavern?"
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| − | | |
| − | <19:30> [ST] "No one who told me.... as for the others, I didn't know them. Most of them were ah... how shall I say it... out of my price range. That's not unusual." She smiles. "But the shaman did come here."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:31> [Avir] "What did he buy?" He takes a seat in a padded chair. It seemed easier than trying to stand steady while inhaling the opium haze. That had been a mistake, he realized now. No more drugs from enchantingly decadent guildswoman. Corrupting influence.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:32> [Avir] He realizes at the last moment he'd said some of that out loud, but care was a distant thing.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:32> [ST] "I could tell you that, couldn't I?" She rolls over onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. "I could do a lot of things... a decadent woman like myself. But all of them will cost you."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:35> [Miruna] He rolls his eyes. "Its your life at stake too. Think you'll get replacement beasts delivered while the towns dying off like this?"
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| − | | |
| − | <19:35> [Avir] Avir looks at Miruna in relief. He'd been struggling to formulate properly persuasive bargaining terms.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:38> [ST] "I've made it so far. The Guild will miss me sooner or later. I might decide to play the odds." She laughs. "You can't expect me to give up my customers' secrets for a pretty face..." She smiles at Avir. "Or some pretty painted armor."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:38> [ST] "I want to help you. You want to be helped. So convince me, gentlemen, so we can all get what we want.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:39> [ST] "
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| − | | |
| − | <19:42> [Avir] "Customer's dead. Surely you're not going to waste time here, losing profit day after day, over some petty reward for information." He smiles back at her. "Unless you have other..interests here."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:45> [Miruna] He glowers darkly at her, and lets Avir sell himself. He wouldn't play that game.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:46> [ST] "Oh, I could find other interests, I'm sure," she laughs again. "But you have a point. However, telling you about my customer won't get the Guild out here any sooner. So let's make a little deal." She stretches to retreive a sealed envelope, tossing it into Avir's lap.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:47> [ST] "I sent out one of these nearly a month ago, but I'm guessing it didn't find its way where it was supposed to. You will promise me that you will deliver this to the Guild headquarters in Icehome, so they know I'm here."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:48> [ST] "That's all I ask. A promise. That's little enough, isn't it? Maybe not, if you intend to keep it."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:49> [Avir] "I so swear." She was right. Cheap at that price. He didn't much care if she made it out alive.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:50> [ST] "Fine, then." She raises herself up on one elbow, smiling slightly. "And you, painted man? Should your friend stumble along the way? You'll deliver my message?"
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| − | | |
| − | <19:51> [ST] "It doesn't stick in your craw to be the Guild's errand boy?" It's clear that this needling is part of her price.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:52> [Miruna] "It will be delivered." he growlsd.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:52> [Miruna] Not by him, perhaps, but he could tap someone else to do it.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:53> [ST] "Very well. What you should know first is that I'm not the first Guild member to make this run. An old flame of mine, Flashing Gull, tried it five years back. He made a decent profit, and a lot of ledger notes. He happened to lose them around the time the two of us parted ways, and that gave me the idea to come out this way."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:54> [ST] "Now, don't think that it was the only reason I made the trip, but he had a note about a buyer here in Tanstaad. A certain shaman, unassuming but wealthy, who had bought a massive supply of heroin from Gull on that trip."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:54> [ST] "I sort of assumed Grond would be dead by the time I got here, but he was still kicking. And he still wanted heroin. I sold it to him. In rather prodigious quantities."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:56> [ST] She leans back, stretching again. "I even sold him the real stuff. The batch Gull gave him was cut with maiden tea, of all things. Harmless, but dishonest." She smiles again. "While I am honest, but far from harmless."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:56> [Avir] "Doesn't sound like something a typical backcountry shaman could afford, no." Though similar drugs could be of use in reaching certain meditative states. Thunder Wisdom had scorned such practices as self-indulgent justifications for weakness. He smiles, enjoying his befuddled senses.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:57> [ST] "He paid, and well. Real silver. I don't deal in promises." She stops, blushing a little. "Well, except when it comes to our situation, I suppose."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:58> [Avir] His mind spun weird scenarios. A cult...attempts to spawn demonblooded...ghostblooded- balked by the contraceptive-laced heroin...becoming succcessful at last, torn apart by his own offspring. He'd had nightmares along those lines.
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| − | | |
| − | <19:59> [Avir] "You have fine taste, madam."
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| − | | |
| − | <19:59> [Avir] "How long after did the killings begin- especially the shaman's?"
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| − | | |
| − | <20:00> [Miruna] "Perhaps he went off on the heroin, and pissed off those forest spirits."
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| − | | |
| − | <20:01> [ST] "Perhaps a week. Maybe two. My memory is not as fine as my taste, it seems. That's why I need the ledgers." She leans back again, obviously slightly high, raising her legs up and moving them slowly.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:02> [ST] "I do not know if spirits are responsible. It seems unlikely to me."
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| − | | |
| − | <20:02> [ST] "If so... they should be easy to placate. They rarely attack so viciously, not without warning."
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| − | | |
| − | <20:02> [ST] "Perhaps the spirits were on heroin!" She laughs. "I've heard it's hell to quit."
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| − | | |
| − | <20:03> [Avir] "Never tried, have you?"
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| − | | |
| − | <20:05> [ST] "Few in the Guild have. Something about... knowing where it comes from, I suppose."
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| − | | |
| − | <20:06> [Avir] "Where does it come from?" He'd not supposed it different from any other drug.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:06> [ST] "That, no number of promises could draw from me, I'm afraid."
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| − | | |
| − | <20:07> [Miruna] He didn't want to know. "Can you think of anything else that you noticed about the dead? Any of them buying maiden tea, heroin, axes?"
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| − | | |
| − | <20:08> [ST] "Grond also bought a few spices. Cinnamon. Pepper. The rest haven't bought much, though I have had a run on my walkaways lately." She laughs again.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:10> [Avir] Avir stands woozily. "Thank your for your kind attention, ma'am." He bows.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:11> [ST] "You're quite welcome. You two are the most interesting visitors I've had here. You plan to be in town a while then, I take it?"
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| − | | |
| − | <20:13> [Avir] "That really depends on how long it takes us to find out what is going on, and stop it."
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| − | | |
| − | <20:14> [ST] "Well..." She sits up as the two rise to leave, clasping her arms around her knees. "I am no Haslanti, but they tell us that we should be respectful of native customs in the Guild. Should either of you require lodgings... here... with me... you have but to ask."
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| − | | |
| − | <20:20> [Avir] Certainly, she was...alluring. With Miruna a stolid lump at his side, he almost hesistates. His good sense- and possibly intoxicated state- makes the answer easy. "Lady, I am happy to accept. No doubt you can accomodate me - us- er- more easily than the villagers here." Her jewels dazzle his eyes, and he has to blink to make them focus again. He would have to remember. No more opium.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:20> [Miruna] He ducks out of the wagon before he could have any more of what she'd been smoking. The stuff always gave him a raw throat, not that it had stopped him in more convivial company. "Guess we know it wasn't a villager, or she'd be dead already.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:21> [Miruna] He turns, hearing the man, and grabs his shoulder. "You must be joking."
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| − | | |
| − | <20:21> [ST] "I'm tired right now," Cadda says as Miruna drags Avir out, as if to be purposely maddening. "I'll see you tonight... er, what was your name again?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Avir." He winks at her as he is expelled from the wagon.
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| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He kisses her hand lingeringly before following his companion out the wagon.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:21> [Avir] "What?! We can...er...keep an eye on her."
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| − |
| |
| − | <20:29> [ST] Miruna and Avir make their way out of town, the latter still a little bleary from Cadda's "charms." It doesn't take long - it's perhaps a mile from the edge of town to Grond's hut, constructed on curious stilts almost beneath the eaves of the pine forest.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:30> [Avir] "Perhaps the monster will attack us. Surely you wouldn't want to put innocent farmer's daughters at risk?" Avir is telling Miruna, at the tail end of a convulated series of unconvincing explanations. "Mmm."
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| − | | |
| − | <20:30> [Avir] "Bide a moment."
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| − | | |
| − | | |
| − | <20:30> [Miruna] "We should have looked out the other two." He didn't like being so close to those woods. He pulled his mace off its belthook.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:32> [ST] Avir tests his second sight. He sees a few spirits, but they are all least gods - tiny, angry men clinging to each tree, a hopping, wormlike thing atop the hut which must be the spirit of the house. Nothing overtly threatening, even in the parts of the forest he can see.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:33> [Avir] "They're still recovering." In different ways, to be sure, what but there was a limit to the bottle bug's capabilties. He performs the rituals for sight into the spirit worlds openly. There was no time for a man's modesty.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:33> [Miruna] He grimaces. "Anything?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <20:34> [Avir] "Only the least gods." He steps closer to the stilted hut, scanning for wards or alarms that might alert someone to their presence.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:35> [Avir] "He has wards against spirits and demons up...and a minor one for ghosts."
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| − | | |
| − | <20:38> [Avir] "See that little doll hanging from the eve, there? It's an alarm ward. Coming all to pieces. It happens when the one it's set to notify is dead." He's careful not to say Grond, because *theoretically* it was possible it was set by a previous occupant, and Grond hadn't bothered to remove it, or he'd made it to warn his children or lover and *they* were dead.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <20:39> [Avir] But he was pretty sure Grond was dead.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:39> [Avir] He jogs up the stairs.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:39> [ST] The doll sways in the wind. The hut's door is heavy, but not locked. A light push sets it to swinging on its hinges.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <20:39> [Miruna] He follows after him, cautious and slightly unnerved.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <20:40> [ST] Inside, the hut is one bare room. A bed with a feather mattress lies against one wall, slit down the center to spill feathers on the floor. Grond had not been an ascetic, after all. Books lie scattered across the floor from numerous shelves. Sheaves of paper litter the floor. Furniture is broken. The place has clearly been ransacked.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <20:42> [Avir] Avir sorts through what remains.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <20:43> [Avir] "Looking for the heroin?" he wonders out loud.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:47> [Avir] "Nothing here," he says at last in disgust. "They took everything."
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| − | | |
| − | <20:49> [Miruna] Miruna lets Avir handle the shaman's things - he would know waht was important and what not far more than Miruna. Instead, he looks over the furniture and walls for blood, slashes, raw areas that had been altered more recently than the original construction.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <20:49> [Miruna] Nothing useful there, but pulling a cabinet from the wall, he finds a piece of parchment.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:50> [Miruna] "He fishes it out. "Whats this?" he hands it to Avir, never having learned to read.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:51> [Avir] Avir squints over it. "Hmm."
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| − | | |
| − | <20:51> [ST] Avir looks down at the piece of parchment. Both men can see that it is covered with a bold, circular design in very fine calligraphy. A red line zigzags across it.
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| − | | |
| − | <20:54> [Avir] "It's a calendar of some kind...I'm going to have to take a longer look at it to decipher it better. It marks dates going back thirteen years- the most recent is three months. The oldest thirteen years."
| |
| − | | |
| − | <20:57> [Avir] "He was clearly doing *something.* And someone came after him."
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| − | | |
| − | <20:58> [Miruna] "You think he was killed for a reason? Then what were the rest?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | <21:00> [Avir] "A cult, perhaps. A student following in the footsteps of his master. We don't know enough yet."
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| − | | |
| − | <21:00> [Miruna] Whatever this was, the victims couldn't all be involved. Babies weren't in conspiracies.
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| − | | |
| − | | |
| − | Session Close: Sun Jul 06 21:31:25 2008
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| − | | |
| − | == Comments ==
| |
| − | | |
| − | <i>Two-Bits's Resistance roll to avoid infection last session was a botch.</i> - DK
| |
