Amity Pell
Amity Pell
Uh, hi! I'm Amity.
I was a wizard's apprentice, but that was a loooong time ago. I mostly wander around, trying new things. It's like, a journeyship or whatever. My magic keeps me pretty safe, so going alone isn't a big deal. Right now I'm travelling with the circus! A lot of crazy things have happened, pretty well all non-circus related, which is funny. I'll tell you all about it, if you want.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Skinny. but can you tell under that big cloak?
Mental characteristics
Personal history
I'm from Wastow, we have a wizard. Maybe you've heard of him? His name's Imorn the Starcloaked, and he's kinda a big deal, right? That's where I did my apprenticeship. It was pretty intense, but I've got a natural talent for it.
Education
Extensive wizard related education
Employment
Fantasy-world couch surfer.
Mental Trauma
Wh- why is there a section for this. I'm fine.
Morality & Philosophy
Worrying about stuff that happened or might happen is dumb.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Uhh. Goals? Don’t really have any right now... Pretty content to wander, really. No need to think about anything too hard.
Likes & Dislikes
Likes:coffee, pastries, soft animals, standing on high places.
Dislikes: the dark, camping, responsibility or authority.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Mom - Chastity Pell
Sisters - Constance, Patience, Verity
Social Aptitude
Likes people, pretty good at talking to them.
Forms many shallow friendships.
Hobbies & Pets
I like to leave nice crystals where they feel right.
Speech
Uhh... yeah! I was there, so I can tell you all about it! It was pretty exciting, so it'll be a good story, right?
Relationships
Wealth & Financial state
enough to get by, you know. what more do you need?
Alignment
CG
Birthplace
Wastow
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Current Residence
Humplebumble's Monstrous Menagerie! Wagon #4.
Gender
girl
Eyes
pale blue
Hair
like lavenderish
Height
5'5"
Weight
120 lb
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RP - Checking In
She walks up to Rhogkun and looks down. Pokes him once, a little un-gently. Puts her hands back under her cloak. Watches him breathe. “You know. If you were gonna wake up and say ‘haha just kidding, now you know how lying feels’ it would be a great time for that.”
Silence except for breathing.
“Yeah... didn’t think so.” She sits down on the edge of the bed next to him. “Rhogkun what am I supposed to do now. You told me to come here. You said you’d help me. Now everything is complicated. And.... scary.
“I don’t want to do any of these things. I want to run away. But I don’t think I’d make it, even if I tried, so...“
She watches him. “Hey did they tell you I got arrested? Yeah. That was fun. My uh, my wizard Master he made them let me go though. Cause he needs me. For wizard stuff. Gonna... gonna be an apprentice for real.”
Waits a bit, looks around the room. “Yeah that’s true, even. Mostly.”
She scratches her nose. “Also, nobody knows what to do about your uh, your fortune telling. So if you wanted to explain that better, it would be great.”
After another long pause, her leg starts bouncing nervously, though not as badly as earlier. “And. I dunno if you’re like... keeping an eye on things with magic prophesy sight or uh, how any of that works. But there’s something... there’s something that might be around that’s not good.” She peers at him, side long. “T-that’s not what your fortune is about, is it....? Um. Anyway, just... maybe be careful. Okay?”
Silence one more time. Amity takes a deep breath. “Yep. I think that’s everything. Okay, I’ll see you later Rhogkun. We’ve got a doctor helping you, so you’ll be alright. You know? Just, wake up whenever you’re ready.”
And she goes.
Journal #43 - The Wizard's Friend part 3
We talked a little bit about what to do. And we decided just to wait for the Guildmaster to come back with his “paperwork”. Variel put on her Good face and made nice with him, as much as she could anyway. He doesn’t seem to like her but I don’t think it’s personal, I think it’s just how he is. When we let him inside he was really impressed. Especially when Max started talking from the room and not himself. He asked a lot of questions about Max, and Max did his best to answer. Variel and Swindle told him about Pharos Shrine and Max’s brothers, too. But we tried to make him understand that whatever this is, it’s only Max that can make it work. He’s important.
Then the Guildmaster couldn’t really help himself, and he started acting like Cannons On Deck always does - super excited about magic machine stuff. So him and her started talking super fast about all the stuff they knew so far, in a way I couldn’t always follow.
Anyway, he had a lot of papers under his arm, and said there were three big steps to the Discovery process, the first two they wouldn’t need us for, and with “credit” being the very last one. So we could leave for now.
Max came back to his body and we went back to the Inn after that. Another day that seems way longer than a regular one. I went… I went to visit Rhogkun after supper. He’s okay. I guess. He’s the same as before, anyhow. Maybe if I tell him all my problems when he wakes up he can fix them for me.
When I went to our room, Variel was waiting up…. I guess her and Prim are worried about me. I didn’t think Prim even liked her. But anyhow, Variel’s worried about me and not about the… the thing. Which I think is the wrong way around. But after that I went to sleep. And I didn’t dream.
The next day everybody kinda split up for awhile. I found a quiet spot to try and write my letter. I didn’t get very far…. But I really did try. I’m gonna ask Katya to help me later.
Swindle and Variel went shopping for heist things and scouting and also visited the loud Alchemist. Something about mushrooms. Max changed his armor to the quieter kind, he looks slim and trim! (you know, relatively)
In the afternoon… I got a message on the sending stone. He wanted us to come to the library again. So we did.
He said our contact will meet us tomorrow, and not to bring anything identifying and unstashable (Swindle very very reluctantly left his staff with the firbolg librarian). He said she’s a professional and will have everything we need, we just need to stay at the Inn so she can find us.
He asked if we had any questions, ‘cause we won’t see eachother again for awhile and - I asked if he knew what was inside of Cannons’ house, expecting him to say “of course” or at least look enigmatic, but he said no, and looked very interested. So I told him about it. He sat back and said he’d go visit her later.
I think we have the rest of the day free again but I’m not sure.
Journal #42 - The Wizard's Friend part 2
There weren’t any shops around, so we went to a park. I guess it was a park? It was nice, except for not having any plants or anything, since we’re underground. Which, by the way, is starting to make figuring out what time it is kind of hard, but I guess it doesn’t matter….
But, we talked about it. Me, Max, and Variel mostly. Swindle was pretty quiet. But Max said it didn’t really hurt him, it was more… surprising. And he felt like he was in control the whole time, not like, the house took him over or anything.
It’s weird though. Because whoever built this whatever it is, it needs someone like Max to work. So maybe it was built by the same people that built him? Who was that anyway? Max said he was from a “batch” of 80. A long time ago. So he has 79 brothers…. And some of them are “resting” at the Shrine, back where Swindle rescued him from. Max said they’re resting forever, which probably means what you think it means. Anyway, Max was made for fighting (I mean look at him), but maybe there are other kinds, that are like him, but different? Maybe they’re out there in the world somewhere! I’d like to help Max find them.
Swindle finally said that the whole thing makes him really nervous, and he doesn’t like it, but it’s not up to him, it’s up to Max (which is true). So we went and found Cannons on Deck and went back to her house again. She could barely contain herself. You can tell she didn’t get much work done while she was waiting for us.
So we went back to the house, and back inside, and Max got back in the chair. He did a lot of little tests, like seeing what he could see and from where, and what directions he can move in (not up or down). He started trying to turn again, and that’s when things really started to get going.
The room started to shake a whole lot more, and I ran outside. Not ‘cause I was scared, but ‘cause I wanted to see what everything looked like for myself. The building was falling apart! I almost got hit by something but I totally didn’t because I’m a very agile person, you know?
Anyway, outside it was a much better view. It was like… it was like… Cannons on Deck’s house was an egg, and it was getting broken open by the thing that was inside. By Max! I could see… something, underneath it all. Around this time the neighbors started showing up again, and they were definitely even more angry than the first time. One of the guildmasters came to talk to me! I told him not to worry ‘cause we’re just doing an excavation, and I’ve got it all under control. He still seemed concerned though, and went to bang on what was left of the house a lot. Nobody let him in.
Eventually it totally fell into pieces, and I got a good view of it. But… I still wasn’t sure what it was. But now you could see that it… that Max, could go along those metal bars that were in the ground. Like, a track. So he can’t move everywhere, but I wonder where he can go?
The guildmaster stopped yelling at everyone inside and came back to talk to me, and he got a better look at the thing that had been inside the house. Something big, something magic, something real old that doesn’t look old at all. He seemed like maybe he believed me a little this time. So he left to go check something about paperwork, and I said I’d totally stay right here and wait for him, and then I didn’t.
Back inside everybody was okay. I guess they were safe inside the… the whatever it is. Max was okay. He seemed pretty pleased actually. I’m glad for him. We have to figure out what to do now though because… it looks like the rest of the tracks are completely built over by the other buildings and streets in Ivorfall. It’s gonna be a big deal, though.
We said that Cannons on Deck should maybe talk to Master Imorn, ‘cause they’re “friends” right? Cannons said that mostly she does what he asks and sometimes he pays her. Anyway though, he’s the one that sent us here to talk to her about Max, so I’m pretty sure he’s already got at least some idea of what we’ve been up to.
Journal #41 - The Wizard's Friend part 1
I talked to Swindle and he wasn’t...a big help. But I’m going to think about a few things.
After we left the library, I bought some armor. It’s nice I guess. Kind of heavy though. Feels weird. Then we went to… I forget what it’s called. The Runetower? They do magic alchemy stuff. We wanted to see if they could do anything with that little magical plate that we found in the tower behind the secret library. It was attached to a mace before it uh, blew up. From that Shatter spell. Anyway, it was a really busy workshop, but a dragonborn lady helped us. She wasn’t sure what it would do, but she said she could put it on Max’s hammer and they’d just see. Max was excited, he said he likes gambling, which I guess is what this was. Also the lady was nice but she uh, maybe needs better boundary control. Personal space related. But they all did an experiment and now Max’s hammer has spikes on it! It’s pretty cool looking, and Max is happy, so that’s good.
After that we swung by that Alchemist shop… it was blowing up. Again. Swindle knocked on the door MANY times and someone finally came out. It was a very angry gnome with no hearing left. Because of all the explosions. He uh, yelled at us a lot, and then gave us a list of things we could find for him. For some kind of reward, he didn’t say. They were different monster parts for a potion that would cure… blown off… asses….
I don’t know that we’ll ever even see any of those monsters, and I don’t know that a potion like that is uh, real. It could be, I guess! But anyhow Swindle and Variel both got a really big mood boost from meeting this strange person.
Then we went to have something for lunch, which was a very normal thing to do, so I appreciated it. We went back to the bakery me and Variel visited with Shire and it was still good. Prim ate a croissant.
After that we decided to go visit that friend that… Master Imorn told Max about. The one he said would be really interested in meeting him. Swindle got kind of bristely about it, but Max wanted to go and we said we’d protect him. The friend was a mechanist at a guild called The Stopped Cog (I think). A mechanist is kind of like… a wizard that doesn’t do anything magic. They make devices and constructs and then they need someone else to do the magic part. But there were lot of them here so either there’s a lot of wizards somewhere or just a few wizards who need a lot of magic items.
The friend was a tabaxi named Cannons on Deck and it was really easy to spot her because she’s huge and gold. If she stood taller she’d probably be a little scary, but when she talks to people she seems like she doesn’t want to take up any space at all. Variel liked her right away, but she didn’t like any of us except for Max.
She talked to him for awhile, and measured him like a tailor would, and asked him about where he came from and how many brothers he had, and that kind of thing. Max wasn’t sure about some of it. She asked Swindle about the mushrooms and if there was anything weird about them, and he said they were “unusually resilient” and I guess that’s pretty true considering all they’ve been through with us. Eventually she asked Max if he’d come back to her house so she could try something there, and he said okay so we did. Variel made me and Swindle promise to be nice to her and not touch anything and I don’t know what she’s so worried about geez….
Her house was in another part of Ivorfall and inside it was also a workshop. But it had this big weird chair in it? She got Max to sit in it, and then… some things happened. At first we were all really scared because it looked like the chair trapped him! But he was okay he had just… uh… become part of her house. His voice was coming out of the walls and he said he could see outside. He tried to move his “body” and it moved the house!! Everything shook a lot.
Cannons on Deck was really excited. She said she hadn’t expected that to happen at all. I asked her what she did expect and she said she had no idea. I guess that’s just how science works. Max managed to get out of the chair and stop being the house, and he said he was fine. Not a lot worries Max, and he did have two little holes in him where the chair stabbed him, but he did seem to be fine…
We all went outside to see how things looked, and it turns out that moving the house made big cracks in the ground all around it. There were big metal bars underground I guess… attached to it? And turning the house pulled them up? They’re long and straight and come out of the house in like, a circle, like a web that only goes out. I have no idea what that could be for.
Then Cannons on Deck’s neighbors started showing up and they were pretty unhappy about the uh, the property damage to the neighborhood. They talked like she causes a lot of problems for them. Variel got up in front and talked to them until they went away though. Cannons on Deck just wanted to go back inside and see what else they could get to happen. I think Max would be okay with it, and I kind of want to see too, but Variel wants to have a meeting first so I guess we’re going to go have second lunch and talk about it? That’s fine too I guess.
RP w/ Swindle - Asking for Help is Hard
Amity flees the second floor of the library only a little bit behind Swindle, and as they reach the ground floor, when one might reasonably expect her to veer off and find a table to sulk at, instead she... follows him. Amity has been vibrating with a restless, nervous energy all morning, and while it doesn't take a Passive Insight of 18 to see that, one would expect it to have diminished a little bit outside the presence of the Wizard if he had been the main cause and... it hasn't. Gripping one sleeve tightly with the fingers of her other hand, Amity stares at Swindle.
Swindle occupies himself with shuffling the books and such he left on the table when Variel all but dragged him by his ears to the second floor. He closes the shitty mycology textbook and grabs the teacup, hastily swallowing down the last lukewarm gulp and casting a wary eye down at Amity from under a furrowed brow. When she doesn't turn away from his gaze, he places the cup back on it's saucer with an audible clack. "What?"
Amity winces. Swallows. "L-listen. Listen, I..... I'm sorry.... I'm sorry I didn't care about you guys, in the beginning. And I'm sorry about.. I'm sorry about everything that happened with Treya, but I -" her voice starts to shake again, "I'm r-really, really sorry that we couldn't convince Delebean and Ms. Ample Harvest not to... n-not to come with us."
Swindle turns his chin up and to the side, keeping eyes on her, his brow still heavy as ever. "You're insinuating that you care now?"
Amity looks desperate. "Yes! And I didn't... I didn't want to hurt anyone, before."
"Then show, don't tell." He releases her from his gaze, tending again to the contents on the table. "Selfishness happens, but try getting into the habit of thinking and worrying about the consequences your actions have on others. 'Out of sight out of mind' is a hideous platitude. Things always come back around." He pauses for a moment before adding, "Write your mother."
Amity blinks, "what? I- " Maybe she'll come back to that. She watches him tidy already tidied things. "Swindle, it's not just... I'm trying to... I need your help." She glances towards the stairs, her whole leg shaking now, foot tapping. "He said it's not going to bother me for awhile but that's... that's all he said. Everyone we brought here, Katya and Applecore and Ms. Ample Harvest and... it's bad. It's really bad. You said.. you said one day you could go into peoples’ dreams... c-can we do anything? I'll do whatever you want."
At that, Swindle stops what he's doing and holds her gaze again--furrowed brow still firmly set, but not...quite in irritation. "That thing troubles me, too." He gets a little closer to her, studying...her features? Her eyes??? As if looking for an answer to something. "As things are right now, there's nothing I can do. But...I'm working on it."
"If it does get out," he pauses to consider his words. "Some things are too great for mortal blame. Through you or through another, it would have found a way. Suppose there's no choice, we'll cross that bridge if we ever get to it. In the meantime, just keep that little blue gatekeeper good and close. And spare it a bit of dignity for the hard work."
Amity watches him, trying to grasp the reassurance seemingly being offered. Was hoping for something more... concrete. She says quietly, "I think it's already out but maybe... maybe that's wrong. Prim isn't... worried right now. So I don't know."
She pulls a chair away from the table, and sits, her chin and arms resting on the back of it, waiting. For everyone else to come downstairs, or for the next thing to go wrong. On one of her shoulders, Prim is watching Swindle with, perhaps, appreciation.
"Well if that's the case," Swindle turns away to pick up the books off the table and put them back onto the shelf, "out of sight, out of mind."
Amity doesn't have a good response to that, so she doesn't give one.
Journal #40 - Talking Too Much
I had a dream. I haven’t had a dream at all since Prim and… and I forgot. I forgot what it was like. I don’t know if they were not as bad before, or if not having them made this one seem worse but…. It was bad. And the thing… the thing that came for me in Blackbough, was in my dream. It almost…..
I woke up. And I called Prim back. He was almost as scared as me. I told him I was sorry.
I think the thing got out of the dream.
I couldn’t eat at breakfast. And I didn’t want to talk. But right before we were going to leave, to go to the armor store… I told them. About Master Imorn. And about… the dream.
You know how no one ever thinks your dreams are as interesting or scary as you do? It’s really… it’s really hard to explain them. I don’t think anyone was worried as much as me. Not worried enough at all.
Did I say that Master Imorn gave me a sending stone….? Well he did. I told them about it and Swindle said we should ask him about the thing from the dream. That I should ask him.This is my life now, everyone else telling me what to do.
Well I did, and he said it sounded… interesting. And that he was upstairs at the library, so… we went to see him. Twice in two days is - it’s too many. But we went. By the way, Max said he’s pretty proud of me for being an “apprentice.” Yeah.
Swindle stayed downstairs to drink tea and laugh at bad books. I think maybe he talked to the librarian, he was an old firbolg. You really don’t see very many of them, do you?
So upstairs… he was there… and. He seemed happy to meet Max and Variel. Surprisingly good company I keep, he said. Max is a Paladin of the Sovereign Host, and Variel is the First… Thorn Bard of the Summer Court or ah… well it’s close to that. He knew what I meant, I think. And then I had to tell him about the dreams too. Variel tried to use minor illusion to show him the thing from the dream, since I got Prim to show them back in Blackbough but it came out… fuzzy. She said “it resists being seen, or known.” Which wasn’t reassuring.
We told him about how it was at Blackbough too, doing things to people and making them not sleep, and hurt each other. But he looked at me like I was missing something, and said, if it had been in Blackbough, if it had been actually-there, and not just in the dream place, none of us would probably be here now. It’s a Herald. Of… something even worse.
There was so much, but he told us about a country, a long time ago, to the east, that used to visit other planes a lot. They had a lot of magic. But something happened, and now they’re gone. Now everything is gone. It’s the part of the map that has nothing but big spikes covering it. Master Imorn said it’s just miles and miles of… crystal. I guess it was a long time ago, but I never knew about that.
He said he was sorry that my education had been neglected. And about that room being left unattended, back then. He said the thing I touched, the spell I messed with, was a beacon. And Variel asked for what, so I told them about… about the dragon. It’s in that place too, the between-the-stars place. Somewhere.
And he told me the thing from the dream last night should leave me alone… for a little while. I asked him about if it would go after anyone else and he just… asked me why I would care.
And then he let Variel and Max ask him questions. And he answered most of them. Probably more than I’ve seen him talk at all, all the times before put together, ever. He asked Variel about her Lady, and if she’d spoken to her in awhile, and Variel said no, like he’d gotten one over on her. Cause Variel got kicked out, remember? But he said… that’s not what he meant. Because sometimes he talks to the Summer Court too. He’s very interested in communication to other places. Other planes. But for awhile now he hasn’t been able to get through...
Variel went really still and kinda cold. She said we need to go there. Now.
But there’s a problem with that too. Something is… broken. About the planes. And that’s how we got to why he asked us to get that plate for him. The glowing one, with all the gods on it, that Swindle can’t stop looking at. And Variel was right, it isn’t finished. He needs two other things to use it - something from deep under Ivorfall, some kind of mineral or crystal, and something from…. So far away I can’t even understand it.
Variel made Swindle come upstairs and give him the plate. He wasn’t happy. But he did. Master Imorn seemed to know something about Swindle, too. About where he’s from, and why he might not be there anymore. Swindle didn’t like that either, I think.
Variel stayed behind to ask him a few more things, but he said we could leave now, and if I don’t get out of this room I’m going to have a heart attack, so I’m going back downstairs to wait.
That Dream Again
(between #39 and #40)
After the group talks to the doctor, Amity follows Variel back to their room, just barely still able / willing to pay attention to much at all at this point. Variel says something nice, in a somewhat distracted way, but promises to be there in the morning, and Amity mumbles something reassuring in response. Then she finds the bed, collapses on it in an exhausted, blood-stained heap, and goes to sleep. Prim has been in his pocket realm since the previous afternoon, and she does not think to re-summon him.
----
From the start Amity's sleep is fitful and restless and, without Prim's protective warding, full of half-seen figures hidden behind plumes of smoke and dust. For the first time in what seems like years, Amity soon finds herself floating aimlessly in a starless void, arms and legs drifting lazily behind her. The cold is unbearable and were she able to look down at her body she would likely see patches of ice and blackened, frostbitten skin.
After a period of time spent floating motionlessly within the icy void, she senses a familiar - and unwelcome - presence. An impossibly tall, vaguely humanoid figure that seems to be cut from the voidstuff itself appears before her. It looks stretched and painfully twisted, its multiple limbs interspaced with long serrated blade-like fingers that end in points like nails. Amity feels an animalistic panic well up within her, but despite her desperate attempts to flee, to wake up, to anything, all she can do is limply watch as the thing reaches towards her with a bladed limb. Helpless, she feels the creature's touch in her guts more than her skin as those thorn-like fingers caress the flesh of her face... before a shock of unbearable pain as the blades dig in and begin pulling.
She feels the thing tearing through the substance of her, the stuff of Amity. As it pulls, she feels the panic begin to recede, replaced with other, duller thoughts: What is Amity? Was she ever real? This pain is real. This pain is alive. This pain should be shared. As the thing continues to pull bits of Amity away, the girl watches with one half-lidded eye as another limb slides into view, this one holding a small, darkly-pulsing object between its fingers. A distant panic begins to well up within her again as the creature brings the object closer, and she knows: that seed is a walking death. Slow, painful, insidious.
Suddenly, she remembers: the Memory of her mother's disappointment. The half-friendly ridicule on the faces of her... of her friends as they watched. The burning embarrassment. A life that she has not yet begun to live.
Amity.
She feels an unbearable pressure building in her as the thing begins to press the seed against the ruins of her face. A scream, loud enough to shake the fabric of this reality, bursts from her lungs. With a sound like breaking glass and tearing metal, the creature is pushed back, its limbs flailing as it tries futilely to maintain its purchase upon her. Amity feels the barbs tearing at her, but she continues screaming, pushing, breaking.
The last thing Amity remembers of the dream is the creature pushed against the cracks of the void, and then through them.
And then, silence.
----
Amity scrambles about under the covers, flailing free of them and looking around. “Run-“
But she’s just alone in a too quiet room.
Her head hot and ears ringing, she takes a few gulping breaths. “Oh. Oh. I’m so stupid.”
She sits on the bed, caught between wanting to run and wanting to stop shaking. Can’t do either. She reaches out to somewhere for Prim.
With a quiet pop of displaced air, Prim appears. He blinks blearily for a moment from his perch on the bed next to Amity and lets out a squeaky little yawn. However, during the yawn, Prim catches scent of.. something. His eyes go wide, milky whites focusing on Amity and noting her distress. His frills flatten against his head and he lets out a cat-like hiss. Amity's mouth fills with the taste of hot iron.
Prim quickly takes wing and flits about the room, head whipping this way and that as his tail flits about in agitation. After two circuits, he lands on Amity's back with a thud, wrapping his wings and sinuous neck around her shoulders. He's trembling, though Amity can't tell if it is with anger, fear, or contrition. Probably all three.
“Whuh-“ Amity reaches back, trying to disentangle him. His wing hooks in her hair. “Ow... c-come down, come here, it’s not your fault.”
After a moment Prim allows Amity to remove him, tucking his wings and legs in close. He looks up at her miserably and lets out a strange mewling sound as Amity's head fills with the scents of lavender and sage. Soft, calming smells.
“Is that for you or for me?” Amity whispers. She settles him in her lap, pats him gingerly with shaking hands. “Prim you.... you don’t .... you don’t go there instead of me, right?”
Prim doesn't answer, just lies in Amity's lap. His tail wraps around her waist and she can feel his small claws pinching through her clothes to prick at her skin. The scents remain.
“Prim....”
Amity winces a bit from the poke of his claws, but pets him along his back, maybe if he calms down she will too. “Who made you take care of me, you’re just... you’re so small it’s not fair.”
When she doesn’t receive an answer, she just sits with him for awhile. The silence of the room stretches around them.
“We should tell someone.....”
But the exhaustion is creeping back now, despite the fear. She’ll just rest her eyes for a few minutes, and then......
(out of order) RP w/ Katya - Taking a Break
The day after the snow storm and the goblin attack, the caravan stays put to repair the wagons. Guess whose job that is? Amity can tell Katya is pretty focused on her work, but.... she gets bored. Most of the menagerie folk are somewhat subdued today, taking a quiet day to recover and double check their supplies and gear. Swindle and Variel are out hunting, and Max has doubled, no, tripled his guardian efforts after returning to find out the caravan was attacked while he was away. So Amity ambles over to where Katya is working, clears a bit of snow off a nearby downed tree, and plops down, watching.
"Hey, how's it all going?"
Katya, who at that moment was in the middle of hammering an axle into place with a heavy, leather-wrapped mallet, lets out a small sound of surprise as Amity speaks. The hammer comes down with a loud twack! to strike directly adjacent to her gloved hand and there's a moment where everything feels a bit chillier. She lowers her head, chin-to-chest, and there's a slight slump to her shoulders before she heaves a shrug and drops the mallet to the ground. She turns to face Amity, craning her neck to one side then the other with a small pop before leaning against the rim of the wagon.
"'es as good a time for a break as ever I guess." She looks down at Amity warily, sweat and grime leaving streaks across her face. "Et goes. First time to be put on the spot so I best earn my keep, eh?"
Amity winces when the hammer hits, but by the time Katya turns around she’s got a rueful expression on her face. She says, “Sorry. Um, need any help?”
Katya raises a questioning eyebrow. "Help?" It takes her a moment before she realizes Amity is talking about the wagons. She shakes her head firmly. "I thenk I can handle thes." She pauses for a moment. "Beesides, what would the others thenk if they though that I had asked you for help? I do have an eemage to uphold." She winces a bit. "Orh rhather, an eemage to build." A stretch, back arching, before settling back against the wood of the wagon. "Eet eesn't like you to offer to help." Sideeye. "You deedn't already lose your guard job, deed you?"
Amity holds her hand to her chest in mock offense, something she has apparently decided to borrow from Rhogkun. "Me? I've never lost any job, ever."
She smiles, settles back as well. "Max is working hard enough for both of us. So I'm on break too."
"And uh. I wanted to check on you. After the storm and the... the goblins yesterday. It was crazy. Are you doing okay?"
She grins, teeth shining under the layer of grime on her cheeks. "You are so full of sheet."
She cranes her neck a bit in order to see around the corner of the wagon. She spots Maxwell, currently plodding back and forth along the line of stationary wagons. He occasionally stops and stares out into the woods for a moment before turning and bellowing out "ALL CLEAR!" Those nearby grimace. Max gives them a thumbs-up before resuming his patrol.
"You know, eef there whas another carpeenter here who worked as hard as Max is, I would probably be teempted to slack off too." She turns back to Amity, still grinning. "No judgement here."
The grin falters a bit at the mention of the ambush. "I'm fien. Leeved in Reeverpuddle my whole life, so eet takes more than a few gobbos to scare me." She puffs her chest out a little, cap sliding backwards as she juts out her chin proudly. "Walloped one good, even."
Amity nods, "That's good. There was so many though... they must have been just... waiting for the storm to clear and some of us to leave, I guess. I'm glad nobody really got hurt."
Cautiously, she says, "ready for more uh, adventure if things get worse?"
She shrugs. "Eet's why I'm here, eesn't eet? Better than beeing back in Reeverpuddle, eenyway."
Another sideeye. "Why? Are you?"
Amity turns away to watch Max, stomping along his route. "Sure," she says, "This stuff's easy. Just never know though, what kinda things could happen. You didn't like it in Riverpuddle...? Lots of adventure there too, if you wanted."
At that, Katya's bluster subsides a bit before she laughs. "Yes, well, so much salt in the air is bad for the skeen, yes? Reeverpuddle ees beeg, but the world is beeger!"
There's a moment there, at the end, where Amity feels like maybe Katya wanted to say more.
"beeger ees harder to choke on."
A flicker of worry? Crosses Amity's face. But then it's gone. "Yeah that's probably true."
Katya presses on, reaching down to pick up the mallet. She cradles it in her hands, running a thumb over the abused but supple leather. "My da neever set foot outside the city gates, you know? Wanted to have more than that, I guess." A grin. "Beesides, eet's kind of nice being just another face in the caravan, eh?"
Amity heaves a big sigh, maybe letting go of some of the tension she's been carrying for the whole trip so far. "Yeah I know. It's good to just... go." She grins at Katya, "I mean you're not just another face, but yeah."
Katya is turned away from Amity, her hat pulled down low over her head. She notices Katya's eyes flit in Amity's direction from under the heavy brim of her hat and just as quickly dart away. Maybe the smallest hint of a smile? Then, gone.
"Eeh. I mean, beeing new is good. The only eemportant theeng is weether or not I can feex the wagons." She looks around quickly before pointing off to the south a bit, along the wagon line. Turning, Amity sees Eberk perched up on his wagon, apparently asleep. "I've been heere only a leetle while and I already know that he's an asshole. But that doesn't matter, beecause he does hees job and he does it well." She nods again. "I like that."
Amity laughs. "Yeah we have a few of those."
A grin. "Oh?" Barely contained mirth. "Are you also an asshole?" She leans forward, eyes glittering. "One who is also full of sheet?"
Amity sputters another laugh, "That's getting gross. But sometimes! And you know," she waves vaguely in the direction of the woods, "the tall fuzzy one."
Katya's gaze follows Amity's gesture reflexively before she breaks down cackling, her forearms wrapped around her stomach. A few tears furrow wet trails across her grime-covered cheeks. After a few sputtering and snorting moments, she reaches up and wipes her face with her sleeve, which actually just makes her look dirtier. "You can't call me gross and then actually tell me where you sheet. I can't top that."
“Wh-what??” Amity laughs, mostly because Katya is laughing. It takes her a moment to try and understand where she even came up with this interpretation. Finally she says, shaking her head,“No! No, Swindle is also an asshole. He -“ she laughs again, “nevermind.”
A few shuddering half-laughs pass through Katya for a moment as she fights a bout of the giggles. Eventually, she hefts her mallet again. "Fine fine, I get eet." She stands up, shaking herself a bit. "I should geet back to work beefore someone catching me slackeeng."
Amity looks around, then makes a half hearted shooing motion, “yeah, probably. Let me know if you need another distraction.” She stretches her arms out, sighs, and says, “I’m gonna go watch for goblins so nobody dies. Guess that’s important too.” And she stands up to go, giving Katya a wave / salute.
(out of order) RP w/ Max - Caravan Guards
Watching from the front.... watching from the back... nothing... ever.... happens. At the very end of the caravan train, Amity picks her way between wagon ruts, and gazes with annoyance at the empty road behind her. She looks up in the other direction, past the many purple and gold wagons that make up the Menagerie's train, to where she can see Maxwell's ponderous form near, but not quite at, the very front. There's probably at least one wagon between him and where Swindle is likely talking to Delibean. Probably. With a sigh, she quickens her pace to make forward progress until, finally, she can come up alongside him. He's so big...
"Hey, um. It's all clear at the back. Course I had to scare off some hungry... bandits." She makes half-hearted finger guns at him, lets them drop. "But it's clear now. Did you see anything?"
Maxwell's eyes flicker suddenly as he scans across the horizon and then finally down to the source of the sound
"Hello Ms. Pell! I have failed to notice any belligerents on our approach, but I am most glad that you have been keeping a successful watch from the rear!"
"Judging from your nonchalant demeanour, they definitely did not pose much of a threat to the likes of you!"
His eye close briefly with a sense of secondary pride and raises his unoccupied fist up
"Happenings have been peacefully quiet!"
"To be fair, folks have been generally quiet as well. Apart from Mr. Delibean's musings and Ms. Variel's accompaniment, most have been seeming rather... pensive."
"I'm starting to think that there's more going on than I can truly appreciate."
chuckles
"I'd be lying if I said you seemed eager about our current course."
[Probably don't need to roll insight on this, even for Maxie ;D]
bemused voice
"Care to share some reservations?"
Caught off guard by this very direct question, Amity looks up at Maxwell, then around their immediate surroundings. Doesn’t see anyone important.
She says, “I mean.... even after everything that... happened. At Riverpuddle. Everyone is still coming with me, and even though it’s what I wanted now it feels like I don’t have a choice at all. Do you know what I mean?”
Maxwell nods.
"I must admit, I am one of those rather eager to head out north."
"Clearly, not everyone here is in the same state of mind but that is to be expected."
"I am glad that Mr. Delibean has wholeheartedly given this expedition his blessing, but I also appreciate that others have expressed their concern for his, and the caravan's, safety."
His head cranes down to meet Amity's gaze.
"I deeply appreciate that you, Mr. Swindle, Ms. Variel and Mr. Truthseeker are willing to indulge us!"
"Despite your reservations, here you are, and that is most laudable!"
"Thank you for your support and sacrifice~"
Amity blinks, surprised again. “Oh. Uh, you’re welcome. I guess.”
She walks along for a minute, decides not to worry about it. “Hey Max do you ever... you were a fighter before you got stuck in that shrine, right? Did you ever have to kill like... a person? Did you feel bad about it?”
Maxwell's pace slows slightly.
"I've killed a decent number of enemy combatants prior to my service at the shrine. At that time, there wasn't much need to ponder the morality seeing as it was a clear cut duty on both sides."
"..."
"I can say with certainty that I did not feel bad. In fact, the thrill of combat was rather intoxicating."
"During my respite at the shrine, I had a long time to reflect since my duties had shifted to an administrative role. My conclusion remained the same."
"Though I have added a caveat:"
"Incapacitating an opponent is preferable to their outright demise, seeing as the satisfaction of victory remains the same."
"..."
"That being said, I would feel remorse if I were to kill someone unintentionally."
Maxwell's pace picks up again.
"Judging from the nature of your question, are any of your recent Victory Kills[tm] not sitting right with your conscience?"
“I never... killed a person before. It was just...” she waves a hand, grasping for words. “You know. Almost everything we’ve had to fight has been dead already!”
She rubs her hands together, more out of nervous habit than being cold - Prestidigitation keeps them quite warm.
“But everything that happened with Treya was.... a lot. And I don’t think those people would have even been there except for me and... when we were fighting I didn’t care at all. I just wanted them to stop. Maybe I care now? They looked... really bad.” She walks quietly. “If we have to fight people again, I will. But I don’t think I have anything um, to incapacitate somebody.” She looks up at Max, “Is that okay?”
"In my humble opinion, yes."
His eyes start to drift off the road and back down to Amity
"I think intent is what's most important."
"If being immobilised taught me anything, the entity you spend the most time with is, of course, yourself."
"Therefore, one has to be truly at peace with one's choices, at the very least."
There is a slight pause again. As he slowly tries to piece together his thoughts, his eyes start to flicker as he processes.
"It doesn't guarantee that what one does is 'good'. But at least it creates fertile soil for growth."
...
Maxwell's eyes close comfortably for a second when addressing Amity.
"The fact that you are reflecting upon your actions involving Treya is a good sign. I imagine it's probably uncomfortable, but that means there is change happening."
There is almost a slight chuckle embedded in his voice.
"Maybe this time you will keep up correspondence with them as well! A little distance won't get in the way of regrowing a connection."
"Well, I assume you magic adepts have a few tricks up your sleeves~"
Amity squints up at Max, indeed uncomfortable. "With Treya? .... maybe. I hope she's okay."
She's quiet again for a moment.
"Hey Max I forget if I ever said. I'm glad you're around... you helped me a lot. And I think you're a good person. I'm glad you were able to get uh, re-mobilized. You know? I think that would've been a big waste."
"Thank you!" Maxwell beams as he places the hammer on his backpack holster.
"The novelty of being able to walk and do this rubs his hands together has yet to fade and I hope it gets even better."
Maxwell continues to rub his hands.
"I think I squeezed Percival a little too hard..." kiwi juice starts to run between his fingers
"And I am really glad you are here with us Ms. Amity."
Maxwell presents his stained hands expectantly~
Amity gazes at Max's hands, paralyzed with indecision. She looks up at him, back at the remains of uh... Percival. He knows she can't save the fruitbeast, right...? Then she parses the second half of what he said, and grins up at him. "Sure. Thanks Max."
"Poor little guy... maybe if we find another one he will last longer." With an unnecessary flourish, she casts Prestidigitation and the juicy remnants of Percival are no more.
I should probably check on the back again. But... thanks Max."
"Much obliged!" as he continues to beam
"And thank you for taking the time to see me~"
As Amity is heading back, Maxwell hollers:
"If you do run into another batch of ne'er do wells, indulge me the honour to join in!"
Amity grins and waves, then remembers something and gives Max the hand signal that means, "YES." as she wanders towards the back of the wagon train.
(out of order) RP w/ Variel at the Bergwin Inn
First stop after leaving Riverpuddle. Between Journal #26 and #27.
Still very pumped after the evening's goings on, Variel practically floats into her and Amity's room. Earlier than Amity expected, to be honest, she evidently hasn't done any house calls which is strange, especially after such a productive night of seduction. She humms her way over to the small collection of possessions she dumped in the room, gets her lute kit out, and sits down at the bottom of the bed as she usually does - Amity takes the top half, with the pillows while V sits cross legged - but instead of looking out as she usually does she faces Amity.
"So. How are we doing? I hope you've had enough aloney time for processing and moping and such? Because if so and you're receptive to the notion, I'd like to ask you about some things." She looks genuinely pleased and excited, and you're not sure it's just got to do with the gig she just rocked or the probably lumberjack/jane beauty waiting for her downstairs.
(I imagine Amity curls up with one pillow and prim perches on the other until they snoozle cuddle?)
Sprawled on top of the bed, Amity squints up at Variel from beneath the arm she’s currently holding over her face. Prim is indeed snoozing, one long length of dragon-noodle pressed against her side. Her coat, bag, and other winter accoutrements are in a pile on the floor nearby, just barely out of reach of the puddle of water spreading from her discarded boots. Her bag of crystals is on the bedside table, next to a softly glowing candle. Amity says,
“I mean, I feel like I’ve got a lot left in me, but I can squeeze in some time for you.” She pulls her knees up to make more room for Variel, which causes Prim to twitch his tail in annoyance, but otherwise both of them make little effort to change their current arrangement. She adds, “You did really good tonight.”
Variel draws breath to reply, before the comment on her performance, and returns to bounciness." thank you, dear! It was rather spectacular, wasn't it? One of those nights where everything inexplicably goes right, the energy is good…" she beams, seeming a lot less tall than she usually does. For a moment, there's a glimpse of her as a young woman, new to performing, all the freshness and wonder of bringing joy to a room." so nice when everything comes together like that!"
She smiles a moment longer, before the veil of maturity re-applies, and she is once again a wine aunt. She looks down to her lute, begins waxing, loosening the tension on the strings, whatever one dies to keep a lute fresh…
"I'm wondering as to your philosophy behind the lies you tell and the omissions you make, how much is genuine and how much is… Well whatever other motivations you might have!
I don't think it's so wrong that you lied or avoided telling whole truths - you know I enjoy you greatly - I'm more curious as to why. Did you think we wouldn't help you with your wizard if we knew the truth? Did you just not want to deal with it? Was it worry, avoidance, lack of care, or thought? " she is obviously leaving openness amongst her own assumptions and " get out of jail" cards, calmly prompting, no threat, no judge, just good willed curiosity.
Haze: [If Amity needs more prompting or explaining she is also clearly ready to provide it and help her through the process. You get the impression it's very not new to her]
[similarly, the word "lie" has no inflection, no weight. Its not presented as bad, just as a thing that happened. Not guilt trippy like maybe swindle would have said it, or obvs bad like Rhogkun]
Kris: (Thinking about why = amity cat being yelled at by ladies)
Amity listens attentively as Variel talks about her night, but as she begins her friendly inquiry, Amity takes her arm down from her face, and holds her hands very still on top of her stomach. When Variel finishes, she doesn't say anything for awhile. Maybe she's thinking, or just hoping Variel will give up and move on to another topic, but eventually, she says, quietly, "I don't know."
She looks over at Prim. He's just sleeping, no help there. Amity says, "I like stories. Other people like stories. If it's true or not, it doesn't matter, it's just... for fun. It seems like the right thing to say. And some things are true in a way or true from a certain way of looking at it, and some things... I don't want to think about, so if I don't, they don't matter anymore either. And once it's going it just... keeps itself going."
Variel nods slowly. "believe it or not, I do understand. To some extent, at least. You must forgive me for the heavy introspective question, I forget how young you are on occasion and that you've not had the decades, or centuries for self reflection that can be needed to learn those things about ourselves. You just sometimes remind me… " another trail off. She nods, seemingly happy with Amity's response.
"Very good. I do enjoy your compulsive storytelling, it inspires wonder and magic. Reminds me of my lady when she was young. We always made a good team - I rarely lie myself, but enjoy misleading emphasis and implications, inflections in true statements that can make people think otherwise… You know…" [hard to do in text] she trails off. "Anyway, we made a good team."
She pauses, smiling lightly and (probably?) side eyeing Amity. "I was wondering if we might be more honest with one another to better bring some light mischief to those around us? A collaboration is always more fun, don't you think? Or if you find yourself in a tangle you don't know how to escape I could try to help you extract yourself from it? "
And as I'm honestly still not familiar with this world, I find myself far preferring your interpretation of it and feel leaning into it would be more enjoyable. I just wonder if we need a system of sorts to be able to read the other better and get on the same page?"
She glances down at the snoozy Pseudodragon. "I know his highness is not ahh… altogether too fond of me for reasons unknown, but a telepathic signal could be a wondrous cue for implicit agreement, or disagreement, and backing up. Or else if there are other things on our pasts we'd rather not talk about to the group, we could agree that we knew and must have simply forgot the others didn't or were worried to share much more beyond the barrier of trust, so there's less of all THAT nonsense…" she gestures with her head in the general direction of Swindle's room and whispers, "blackmail tends to be less effective when other people know the particulars."
Amity scowls at that, leans up a bit, awkwardly, "He didn't even blackmail me right! He didn't want anything!" She flops back down. "He just... he just. I don't know what he wants."
Prim lifts his head a bare two inches to crane his neck back towards Amity, then looks at Variel with a very slight lip curl. Amity pats him absently. "And um... I was thinking about trying to... maybe not do that? Anymore? To you know... you guys. Normally I would just um... leave."
Variel giggles "Oh oh course you don't know what he wants, he likely doesn't either! He probably just enjoys the feeling of being in control, honestly." She points her cleaning implement at Amity pointedly. "That's why I asked about your intentions with lies, you see. I lie for amusement and good times, you lie for stories and safety, he - I imagine - lies for fear of the truth and control of a situation." she shrugs. "It's why I couldn't work with him like that. There's no... joy to it..."
She nods, "of course I would prefer if you didn't mislead us like that, I mean more..." she gestures cycles with her hands, searching for the right phrasing "more... As a team based thing. Like after Lord Cirano's catastrophe, your hide and blame Sahuagin ploy. You know. Lies can be used for good, as well. We all know we did a good thing in that house, but would have been reprimanded for it, yes? Those situations require a special approach. One I believe we both excel in. I am in the business of storytelling, after all. You just do yours without an instrument!"
She stops herself from going full aunt and asking if Amity has ever considered learning a musical instrument, but only barely.
Amity eyes Variel cautiously and says, "well that would be okay, right?"
"Is that like... permission?"
Once again, Amity sees what Variel must have looked like as a tricksy little youngster. Maybe it's a weird fey glamour thing, or maybe her eyes are more expressive than she thought.
"Hmmm... Permission? Perhaps... Perhaps more... An offer of guidance? You have a talent, and it shouldn't be allowed to atrophy, I'm sure together we'll manage to find a noble application for it" she winks, before adding
"I promised to keep you out of trouble, after all, it would behoove me if neither of us got caught… That's where most of the trouble starts after all." :3
Amity puts her hands behind her head, looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Mm...Well yeah, if you promise..."
Variel smiles gently. "Promise." Maintenance done, she stands and begins packing her lute up in its case. "Wonderful. Wasn't too bad, was it?" she winks and sticks her tongue out over her shoulder. "Anything else you'd like to discuss, before I go? I have an appointment with the bar."
Amity stretches her feet back out, reclaiming territory on the bed. "No... I'm good. Go have fun, Variel."
She nods and heads to the door "leave a light on for me, I'll try not to wake either of you if I come back." goes to close the door behind her, then peeks back through "also... I'm very glad you didn't leave when things got hard. Thank you for sticking it out. You're a lovely travelling companion. Goodnight!"
And exit stage right.
Journal #39 - Memories, All Bad
Swindle said he wanted to rest for a minute so we went to the next room without him. Actually, he didn’t move or speak or ANYTHING for like five minutes, and then he said he wanted to rest. Everyone was a little worried. In the next room was a bedroom, with a bed and table and a journal (in dwarvish), and a little magic broom just doing little magic broom things, forever. More magic ghost… things… attacked us, and this time it was a lot worse. One of them got Variel, and we all saw the memory of her Lady. She was… really beautiful. But a little scary. The ghost thing also did something really bad to Variel’s head, but I’m not sure what.
Oh yeah, me and Shire raided the wizard’s dresser. That was fun, for a little while.
We found a room with a thunderstorm machine, but decided to leave it alone.
After that we opened another door and there was someone in there! He’d just finished fighting a memory-ghost, I think, and he looked right at Shire and said “but I just killed you…..” and then he tried to kill all of us for real.
At first I thought it would be really easy. Swindle and Variel trapped him with magic, and Shire ran up and stunned him with a punch. Shire said not to kill him! He’s his friend, even if… he’s trying to kill us. I guess they’ll figure that out later. But he got out! And more magic-ghost things showed up! He took Shire out and almost killed Max and then he started trying to kill me. I hurt him a bit but I didn’t kill him. And we saved Shire.
It was scary….
After the fight, Shire and Coen tied up their friend, Dionis, and tried to decide what they wanted to do about him. Coen was pretty upset about... well everything. I guess he’s been caught in the middle. Shire didn’t want to talk about it. But I think… there used to be one more person in their group, and something happened to her. And everyone blames themselves. Or more blames Shire. I’m not really sure. Coen thinks they need to sit down and really, actually, talk and maybe they can fix it.
The memory ghosts showed me… my mom. She looked sad. She was talking about how disappointed she was in me. Which made me… a little sad too. But Swindle and Variel laughed at me about it and….
Anyway they decided to destroy the artifact. I guess I don’t care. Even though I was careful not to hit it with any crystals. Max brought me a piece of it, after. I’ll try and see if I can cut it down so it looks nice later.
We found a memory-ghost of the wizard’s apprentice in the last room. Just… talking, and then dying… over and over.
The Masked people were waiting for us outside. Variel was in a bad mood, and took it out on them a little. I’m just tired, I don’t want to do anything anymore. But I had to say goodbye to Shire and Coen. The Faceless woman said they could stay here at the tower/library, and help clean up, for awhile. Kinda in exchange for hiding them for now, I think. Give them time to talk and decide what they want to do. Maybe decide to stop trying to kill each other. I don’t think they’re gonna go back to assassin school, anyway. I gave Shire one of my crystals, and I told him if he was ever in trouble, he just needs to whisper into it and say my name, but… well I’m pretty sure he knows I was joking.
I can’t wait… to go to sleep.
Journal #38 - It's Fine. Let's Go to Another Wizard Tower.
Haha so…. You’ll never guess who it was. It was Master Imorn and… and we had a chat. About everything. Not about being in jail. He said he wasn’t concerned about that, and I shouldn’t be either. About... what I did. Back home, before I left. But he said it actually worked out pretty good for his... his research, so he wasn’t really mad. Anyway. We decided the best thing to do is that um... well I'm gonna be his apprentice, sort of. Like he's gonna keep giving me things to do and I have to do them. I guess we made a deal.
And really, it's probably for the best anyway. I mean, I'll learn a lot, and um, I won't have to worry anymore, and, it's a good opportunity, really. So it's fine. Right...?
Anyway… he let me out. The guards all seemed really afraid of him. Dunno why. I found Max and Variel. Oh right… before he left, he introduced me to someone with my first task. It was a goblin I think, wearing a kinda scary mask. They didn’t say anything. But when I looked again, after I was back with Max and Variel, he looked like a halfling! All smiles and friendly. I don’t like it, but I don’t like anything right now…
Variel wants to know EVERYTHING right now but I’ll tell her later.
The disguised goblin took us outside, and a few blocks to a temple… and then into a secret library in the temple. Swindle was there, and a few minutes later Shire was too, with his friend Coen. Coen’s like, the opposite of Shire in every way, but not in a bad way. Like… soft and round instead of sleek and sharp. You know?
Oh uh. Apparently these people are the Society of the Faceless, and this is the Ashkeeper’s Library. Master Imorn is doing them a favor so he can use their library, and the favor is us.
Because: Attached to the library is a wizard’s tower, and there’s something dangerous inside that’s gone out of control. It’s a device that can feel memories in objects, and turn them into ghosts. But the wizard killed his apprentice, and the Faceless said they took care of the wizard but they can’t stop the thing. So that’s our job.
I just wanted to sit and rest for a minute, but we didn’t really get to.
The tower was full of complicated wizard things, as usual. We saw a magic device that shows a world and some stars, but I don’t think it was our world? Also!! We got attacked by mimics!! Me and Max are gonna poke everything with a stick forever now.
There was a workshop with a big unfinished construct. It had a like… a big hoop, or a ring, for a head. And it was half-carved in some places. A construct that WAS finished confronted us and wanted to see our identification but didn’t seem to think anybody’s was valid so we had to fight.
I’ll skip the rest but… the first time we saw one of the memory ghosts was when someone appeared and started talking to Swindle. She looked… sad. She was a firbolg like him, so what she said was in Giant, and I dunno what it was she told him but he looked like someone shot him dead right between the eyes...
Journal #37 - Giving Up
Um…. Swindle left, and came back. He went to talk to Delebean. He says our best option is to turn ourselves in and explain it was self defense. That’s stupid though. Swindle is stupid. Shire thinks so too, and Swindle is rude and doesn’t even talk to him. He wants to talk to me! Why! I don’t know what to do!
Shire says that the people who tried to kill us were his friends. Kind of his friends. From school? From… assassin school? .
Diamonds in the Sky left and came back, and said the guards are coming. They’re checking all the rooms. We have to go. I asked Shire what he thinks we should do. He wants to run and hide, but it’s easy for him. He’s really good at it. He’s so good at it… I don’t know what to do and I can’t think of anything and I don’t feel good, so I kind of just… gave up. But I made Shire invisible. I think he left, I think he’s okay. He’s gonna go look for his friends.
The guards came and they took me away.
They locked me alone in a dark room, but at least it wasn’t… pitch black. I don’t like it. A guard came to talk to me, with a crystal. He was mean.
Then I was alone a long time…all night… I couldn’t sleep. I tried. Someone finally came to open the door, and it’s, it’s…….
Journal #36 - Escalation
We ran into Swindle and Max again and told them about our bar hopping plan. We went to one more together, and this drink finally wasn’t spicy or weird, so I drank the whole thing. After that, uh… it’s harder to remember.
Swindle and Max left again, I think. Cause they weren’t there anymore. And we were walking to the next place then… it was dark. I couldn’t see anything. Variel grabbed my hand? But I let go and ran away from her. It got bright again. There was a big bubble of dark. So… I Misty Stepped up high. I didn’t fall down! And I could see over the bubble. Shire was on the wall again, but hanging on halfway up… and there was blood…. all down the wall. His blood? There was a guy standing above him holding something! So I shot him with crystals. He fell over. Shire climbed up the wall and got another guy. We couldn’t see anyone else. The bubble went down.
The ground’s so far…. I Misty Stepped back down to Variel. I’m tired now. But Max came! And then there were guards shouting. About us? Shire said to run I think. Variel and Max were going to stay and explain that we got attacked. But me and Shire ran away through an alley. Variel made us invisible.
Shire’s tail is soft.
The guards kept coming but I tried so hard to be quiet!! We had to climb up on a roof. Um. I drank the flying potion… we got away. Shire took me really far. We went to a brothel, he has a friend there, to hide us.
I guess I have a friend there too. It’s Swindle. They were together. Um. With two other ladies.
Uh.
Shire’s friend (she’s a tabaxi too: Diamonds in the Sky) came out to talk to us and shut the door on Swindle. She said something funny, and I laughed. Swindle came out to yell at me.
It’s not my fault! I didn’t do anything!
Journal #35 - Shire!
We met up with Max and Swindle, but… they left again. Swindle went into a gift shop for god stuff. I don’t know how he still needs more trinkets.
Me and Variel tried another tavern, and we made friends with a local! His name’s Sabotage in the Shire, but Shire for short. He’s a tabaxi student at the local University, I guess. He’s nice! He reminds me of Wishes, a little. Not just because he’s a tabaxi, I mean. ‘Cause he likes to do fun things, and he liked me right away. We went to a few more places together, we’re trying all of the Drink Specials. Also we bought a whole assortment of pastries, and did parkour. Shire went right up a wall !!
I like Ivorfall a lot.
Journal #34 - Ivorfall
A lot of things happened on the way… it was scary at the time, but when you think about it later, it was mostly just exciting. Except for when Rhogkun got sick. Or asleep. Or… whatever is wrong with him. He was doing a trance to check the road ahead and he just… didn’t wake up. Swindle says he’s okay, except for that.
And he was saying things, like a prophesy, and it didn’t… it didn’t sound very good. Swindle said it was:
"One brings shadow, one brings light
Two-toned echoes, tumbling through time
Fourscore wasted, three cast aside
Five fold knowing, no end in sight
One brings shadow, one brings light
One dark future no one survives
On their shadows, away we fly"
And that reminded me of my fortune that I haven’t thought about in forever and… I don’t feel very good about that either. None of it.
But we made it to Ivorfall! Getting in was long and made me a little nervous. You have to cross a huge bridge over a chasm. I guess there’s mining down there. I knew about that, but I never pictured anything so…. big. There were a lot of guards, and they checked everything and asked a lot of questions. And they have a room full of arrow holes.
Ivorfall is a huge city inside a mountain. It’s on a few levels, but just this one is huge! Swindle and Max went to look at all the temples which is… boring. So me and Variel went to look at all the inns and taverns. Delebean is staying at the Gateside Inn. They had a weird spicy drink.
We found out there was a Surgeon so we went to ask him about Rhogkun…. He was very interested, and came back with us to the Gateside, where Rhogkun’s sleeping. I’m worried a little, you know? But the doctor seems like an okay person. Maybe he can help us.
Incident Reports
-Greater Ice Tortoise Migration-
Halfway between Vimgalir and Ivorfall, a large game trail crosses over the main road. Very nearly all year this is not a problem, and most caravans, travelling in warmer months like smarter folks, will pass by this location without thought or incident. But the Menagerie finds their path blocked by a long, sloooow line of enormous ice-spiked tortoises on their way to their spring breeding grounds to the east.
Highlights:
-Swindle spends the afternoon asking them one or two at a time, to just please stop for a few minutes at most, and allow the caravan to pass by, before finally giving up and going to have a foxnap under a wagon. The tortoises all insist that they are in a hurry, and can pause for nothing. It takes all day.
-Amity tries to convince Katya to climb up on one of the tortoises.
-Maxwell finds the largest felled-log he can, and carves a quite passable wooden ice tortoise. It weighs 20 pounds.
-Variel and Ample Harvest use the extra time to cook up some experimental cuisine.
-Rhogkun has a nap and misses the entire thing.
-Birds-
Travelling deep in the wilderness between towns, Swindle spots a flock of birds rising up from an area near the mountains. They must be quite large, as they fly towards the caravan for quite awhile but never reach it, disappearing into the forest about halfway through the day. He is uneasy, keeping a sharp watch until the sun sets. The caravan camps, and guards are posted throughout the night, but nothing happens.
In the morning, when the Aurochs are being hitched to the wagons, a beautiful song begins to emanate from the forest, all around the caravan. Many people stop what they are doing, dropping weapons or tools, and just... listen...
When the harpies fly out of the trees on silent owl-like wings, heading straight for a pair of half-hitched aurochs, the entire group is surprised, and many people are simply standing still, doing nothing at all.
Journal #33 - Music
Variel and Dryk went to find the families of the people whose caravan got attacked… I didn’t go. I dunno what there really is to tell them, that would help, but I guess you have to say… something.
We met up with the Menagerie folk and had a nice meal in the Inn. Swindle talked to Delebean, and me and Max hung out with Katya, Applecore, and Shibby. It was fun. We told them all about the Tower, and the books we found, and how we almost got eaten by a Mimic! At least Swindle said it was, it’s not like… we tried it. But I don’t see why he would make up something like that. Max said we should get a long stick to check for mimics, and I think that’s a great idea.
There was a bard - er, a musician, playing too, she seemed kinda shy when she wasn’t playing, but her music was really good. She was a centaur! She had a really long lute. Variel and her stayed up all night talking, and then they played together, and it was pretty amazing!
After this we’re going back on the road to Ivorfall, but I’ve decided not to worry about that anymore.
Journal #32 - Ambush
We rested and started heading back to Vimgalier, taking it slow for a few days. Me and Max were real tired. Swindle seemed really thoughtful. Variel was the same, as always. With Dryk we always had enough food and didn’t really come across anything dangerous until… we found ogre tracks. Dryk said that’s pretty rare, but not totally impossible or anything. The bad thing was… they were going the same way as us.
Everybody started to get a bad feeling, but nobody wanted to talk about it. Nobody talked much at all, the rest of the way. When we got closer to town, Swindle found some blood in the snow and.. the tracks kept on going straight for Vimgalier. When we were real close to town, where that big boxy canyon is, I sent Prim on ahead to check it out. I told him to stay way up high and not get seen, but I was still worried….
Prim met up with us again when we were kinda circling the canyon to come in from a different angle. He sent me a real yucky taste-feeling, and something that looked like a real scribbly picture of the canyon, from above. It looked like maybe some wagons that got turned over, some trees, and… two ogres.
We ambushed them, but then they counter-ambushed us, cause there was an ogre-mage and a wizard hiding up on the other side of the canyon. He was real mad, and kept shouting “give it to me!” but he wouldn’t answer any questions. He counter-spelled Swindle’s Lightning spell, too. After we killed the ogres the wizard got out a green gem that looked familiar, and then the ogres’ skeletons pulled themselves out of their ogre-meat and tried to kill Max and Variel !!
We killed them again, and I killed the wizard. When he died something kinda weird happened with my crystals and like… his necromancy magic, I guess. When I hit him, they didn’t grow like usual, it was like.. They got eaten? And then something happened from the green crystal he was holding, and it went all over him and he… melted, or something? I was far away, I’m not sure. When I got over there, there was almost nothing left but a big um… wizard-smear.
I wonder who he was or how we knew we took the thing out of the tower….
RP w/ Variel and Swindle - the god plate
Variel stares into the god-dish suspiciously, glancing at Swindle's looming form even more suspiciously, then back to the dish before settling into the identify ritual. She sits cross legged on the floor, lays it in her lap, and closes her eyes, focusing her magic inwards.
Silence.
Ten minutes pass, and she opens her eyes, frowns, and picks the dish up to inspect it closer, frowning at it. She turns it over in her hands, growing more and more perplexed. Finally she looks up to the group, and exhales sharply, irritated.
She finally breaks the silence. "It's not finished."
Amity is sitting on the ground next to Maxwell, cocooned in a blanket. Only her face peeks out, her breath a cold cloud in the air in front of her. She blinks sleepily at Variel, “What?”
She continues rotating the plate in her hands, looking at the back of it. "It's not the whole thing... This is just a part."
She ponders for a while then looks up at the party "Is it common practice here to break up powerful artifacts into pieces so that they don't fall into the wrong hands? You know, a sort of... preventative measure against misuse?" She irreverently wobbles the disk at them "Because that's what this feels like. Only I can't fathom how it would be used for evil... it just feels..." she searches for the word with her entire body and several facial expressions, none of them seeming to fit, before settling on "...uncomfortable."
Swindle's eyes haven't left the thing, he is trying to stare a red hot hole right through it. He mutters under his breath, "That would be just my luck..." before saying more clearly, "It is likely."
She continues searching for the right word to describe her discomfort with the object, muttering to herself.
"Invasive? ... Mmm maybe... Hmm?" Looks to Swindle "It is likely what? Evil?"
She looks back to Amity "Amity, darling, your wizard wouldn't happen to be an evil planeswalker of some description now would he?"
Amity says, "yeah, for sure."
With all the sternness of a tired mother - "Amity."
Amity squints at Variel, not bothered in the least, "I dunno. It's not like we talked about that kinda stuff."
"Not evil," Swindle corrects, "dismantled for... safekeeping"
"An item like this has no inherent evil nor good properties. That is dependant on the individual in possession of it, I am sure."
She seems reassured "Well I'm sure he would've mentioned something sinister at some point if he was evil. Probably just morally grey like most wiza- Uhhh like most of his ilk. Sorry, Rhogkun."
Back to Swoodle "Safe... keeping. Interesting choice of words."
"Hmmmmmm... A powerful divination item could have significant ramifications if left with an unjust owner. We should make certain of this wizard's intentions before handing it over." She pauses... realising suddenly...
"Uhm. Amity? What... what IS your Wizard's name? Surely they can't be called "Amity's Wizard"?"
Amity hunches down, her nose disappearing below the blanket. She says, "He's Imorn. The Star-cloaked. In Wastow."
"I am going to go on a limb here and suggest those who dog for power and powerful artifacts are sweetly never doing so for wholesome, selfless purposes."
"I wouldn't say NEVER, Swindle, that's fiercely limited. Few, certainly, but some do choose to gain power to protect others."
Amity says, "He protects the town. If anything bad happens."
She gestures to the talking blanket wrap "See?"
"He protects Watsow? I wonder how he's managing that from the other side of the continent..."
(Variel doesn’t know anything beyond what Amity is telling her. )
"Maybe he left the apprentices there. Well maybe they're wizards now... I dunno how long that takes."
Variel waves it off "Besides, mages can teleport. And those who specialise in divination tend to know BEFORE there's trouble, so he can pre emptively warn them, yes?" She gestures the dish again "Maybe that's why he wants this?"
"Amity, if we don't meet with him, and if you failed to receive this item, how do you figure he would have reacted?"
Swindle lifts his brow and narrows his eyes. "What reason did you have to fear him? What kind of consequences were you expecting, what would be in his nature?"
"Well he said he's watching me. So he'll know we got it. If we don't bring it, maybe he'll just... lightning bolt us and send somebody to come get it." She's quiet for a moment. If Amity could disappear entirely beneath the blanket, she would. She mumbles, "I don't know he's not... he didn't... I don't think I ever saw him get really mad. Or hurt anybody."
Swindle sighs. "So you're just paranoid then. If the guy had to live with you your whole life and you've never seen him angry, he's got the patience of a saint and we've probably nothing to worry about."
"Swindle." Same tone
"I'm not wrong, what kind of a mortal fails to anger over the course of two decades?"
"Uh, I was like, 15, it wasn't that long."
"Basically two decades, it's not long but it's a long time to be even tempered"
"Maybe. But also everyone likes me, except for you."
"Not EVERYONE has such a proclivity..." she mumbles, running her fingers over the seams in
the disc again.
Swindle: "Haha, yeah that worked out well for him, too."
Amity: "....."
Variel gets distracted while they bicker for a moment longer.
"Perhaps a channel... maybe the markings are... hmmm... and it could run through... no..."
Amity looks over at Variel, "Ok, but what is it for?"
She slowly looks up, blinking a few times.
"....Divination of some kind." and she shrugs
Swindle turns his gaze back to Variel, lazily, "Very good, what's the less exciting part of this thing?"
She frowns and sighs, looking back to it
"Well... I mean I don't KNOW it just feels weird.
My people are mostly happy living on our own in our plane, we're very cordoned off and sometimes we share energy like with your folk" nod to swindle "and that's FINE. This makes me feel..." she gazes into it and shivers, hairs on her neck standing up more than from just the cold "I don't know, it makes me feel... " and she goes back to searching for the word from before. She tilts her head "Invaded?"
"It feels invasive. Which... I mean obviously, it's divination, but... I don't know... there's something deeper to it."
The corners of Swindle's mouth turn upward for a fleeting second before he lets out a ponderous hum.
If Variel catches the smile she'll add "Penetrative." interpreting it as childishness
Amity: "So the other wizard who thought it was for protection was... wrong?"
Swindle: "No, but it's all speculation at this point, ho ho~"
Variel shrugs again "I don't know what it's FOR I just know how it FEELS." She flips it again "Like I said, it's only a part of something else, so I can't glean much more by magic or otherwise. It's not a fabrication from the feywild and I'm not a Wizard, so I'm unfamiliar with its construction, do any of you have familiarity with such things? Wizard contraptions from this plane?" She looks mostly to Amity and Rhogkun, before gazing down again at the god symbols and adds "Strangely religious wizards, all be it?" and includes Swindle and Max in the question.
"We may just have to do some reading on the matter and find the missing pieces, if there are any. And... we do have his entire library with us."
Variel stifles an "ugh..."
Amity looks between Swindle and Variel, "but he only asked for this piece?"
Swindle: "So far."
Variel perks up "Yes. He's clearly got the rest, so we can just ask when we get there."
The blanket bundle shifts uneasily. "...you can ask him, sure."
"Then it's settled!" She is very pleased with the lack of impending research.
Journal #31 - Rigani's Tower pt 3
She said something like, “look honey, some people have come to play with us” and then she sent him shambling up to bite Max! Luckily he’s okay ‘cause of his warforged blood. She bit me though, and it was the worst. I kept running and hiding, but she kept coming after me! It’s whole days later, and I’m still tired and healing.
After the fight, Swindle stole the carpet because it looked expensive, and me and Variel broke into the really big chest at the foot of the bed. Inside was…. A big green plate? Or a real thin bowl? It was almost 3 feet wide! It kinda glowed a bit. It’s not a mirror but I guess… it’s it. What I’m looking for. It’s got little symbols for all the gods engraved onto it, and in the middle is the Keeper. Swindle looked at it for a long time…. Like it trapped him. He said “even gods die” and Variel nodded, but me and Max thought that was kinda a worrisome thing to say. What’s the point of gods, if they can still….?
Anyway, after that we went back downstairs, and tried to sneak out without the demon noticing. We could have, but Variel snuck away from us to talk to it!! We wouldn’t have noticed except the demon had to talk in everyone’s head real loud, to reply to her. She said she’d come back later, after all of us are dead, to let him out. She gave her word. Of course it’s Variel, so she said “don’t worry, I mean in like a hundred or two hundred years, or however long you people live” or something, like it was no big deal at all. A demon!!
Journal #30 - Rigani's Tower pt 2
Rest of wizard tower. He’s got paintings of himself being cool. We stole a gem from a dead dragon head! Also took a lot of money and some scrolls and things… Rhogkun will be happy, for sure. This wizard, Regani, has a lot of paintings of himself, and even a bunch of little carved wizard figures, I guess of himself too. Maybe he made them as a hobby? There’s no telling what wizards are interested in.
We also saw a Mimic! Maybe. Swindle said it was there. Nobody touched it, obviously. It just looked like a door. No mirror though…?
On the third floor, the last room we opened was a bedroom. There was a lady and a super dead guy. Um.
Journal #29 - Rigani's Tower pt 1
Short chat:
Amity: hey uh. you seen the way upstairs?
Demon: maybe. if you chat awhile. you should come inside this room.
Variel: goes in first.
Max: goes in second.
Amity: yeah uh. that's fine. goes in third, hops up on a crate behind the demon, tries to look nonchalant
Swindle: stays in the hallway :neutral_face:
Mostly Variel talks to it. It says it's been there a long time. Like 60 years? One day the wizard went upstairs, and never came back. Variel feels bad for it. She thinks we should let it out. It says it just wants to go home, and won't hurt us, if we let it out.
Amity, from behind the demon: :neutral_face: :no:
Variel: What other things do you like to do? Maybe we can alleviate your boredom.
Demon: I like to kill things.
Variel: Oh. Swindle! Can you make some small animals?
Swindle: Uh... yeah? Why?
Variel: So the demon can kill something.
Swindle: What? NO.
Max, Amity, and the Demon: (wtf....)
Also I snuck a tiny peek at the spellbook sitting on the lectern behind the circle (it was big, mottled leather cover, no words). I was definitely not going to touch it, but the Demon said if we wanna let it out, we just have to read the first few lines in the book… so then I definitely didn’t touch it.
Also, Max did the I'm watching you gesture to it. I don't think he likes demons.
It did tell us that the green circle in the other room goes upstairs. So we went upstairs!
It’s really pretty… like a rich neighborhood park, but inside. Swindle stole some plants, and then a Water Elemental came out of the fountain and tried to eat Max! I saved him though. There were a lot of crystals and water and ranbows, it was really pretty.
Journal #28 - Instructions...
In the morning I woke up and checked my spellbook… just once like usual, so I can put it away and not think about it for the rest of the day but today…. Today there was a letter. I gave it to Variel cause I didn’t wanna look at it. It said something like:
"Dearest Amity,
Pretty sure you’re in Vimgalier about now, so I need you to go and fetch something for me. It's east of town. Regani's old tower.
Thanks,
-Scary Master Wizard Guy."
So we researched and found out it's a few days away. I figured out the thing that Master Imorn wants is probably something like...a mirror. For talking to things in the planes, maybe more safely. Something like that. The librarian was a goblin, he was nice.
A white gnoll-guy wayfinded us to the tower…. It took a few days, but nothing bad happened. The tower is pretty neat, kinda… shiny. No windows, one door. It has anti-teleport runes all over it. Swindle Dispelled the bad charms on the door, we went in.
A carpet tried to kill Max, we stole some books. A painting-griffin tried to kill us, Swindle stole some gems and silk. In the third, last room on the ground floor:
A magic circle with a huge Demon inside it. That’s scary.
Journal #27 - Vimgalier
Vimgalier is okay. It’s a decent sized town. Everyone else unpacked the caravan, and me and Variel went inside. The innkeep is a nice lady with a huge book. She didn’t buy it big, she just adds pages. The bartenders are these two pretty elf guys, I can’t tell them apart.l asked them if they’d ever seen firbolgs come through, since I’m curious about Swindle’s friend, and then… I told them nice lies about Swindle. I dunno why. Maybe just so they can be surprised later.
Max carved a tiny wooden Prim! I think Prim liked it. Katya hung out with us. It was fun.
Journal #26 - On the Road
Um. Well there’s been a lot of walking. Sitting. We passed another caravan coming from the way we’re going. They said they hadn’t seen anything weird. Guess that’s good. I traded some scary stories with some kids, did you know there’s a monster made of moss that sits on windows and then grabs you and eats you? Crazy, right?
We picked up some people who got themselves stranded trying to get down to Riverpuddle, because they didn’t bring enough of anything to get there. They were only three days out of Bergwin, so they really didn’t get far at all. I heard someone say Swindle wanted to eat their horses. That doesn’t seem right, since Ms. Ample Harvest can barely ever get him to eat regular food, but oh well.
I don’t really have a whole lot I want to say to anyone, but it’s okay, I don’t mind just listening.
Like Peyton Greg the Shibillous… Alexander Peyton…. you know, Shibby. He always has a story to tell, and it doesn’t take much to keep him going, so sometimes I’ll do that pass time in the evenings. And sometimes Katya comes and sits with me while I’m on guard duty. Swindle’s usually up front with Humplebumble, still trying to learn gnomish, so I’m usually at the very back of the train. At least the road’s too wet for the wagons to be kicking up much dust. Anyway, Katya’s come to sit with me almost every day so far. The other day she asked me what’s wrong, and I didn’t have a good answer for her. I mean… I can’t… shouldn’t spin her story, and what am I supposed to say instead, yeah, one of my old friends tried to kill us, everyone knows I’m a liar, and some powerful wizard wants me back for who knows what reason, so everyone else is bringing me there. Yeah I’m not… I’m not gonna say that. I guess it’s not too long before someone else tells her something though, so maybe I should figure it out.
After about a week we made it to Bergwin. We dropped that family off, and Variel and Humplebumble made some trades. They picked up some lumber and more food.
The innkeeper let Variel do a show, and everyone in town came to see. It was kinda like it was in Blackbough, where no one could take their eyes off her. She played really good, I think, even for her. Max made a sign to promote her, at least that’s what he said it was… It kind of looked like he broke an old rotten barrel into pieces and then put squiggles on it. He says he’s learning carpentry from Katya, so… points for effort, I guess. I wonder… if I should ask if she can teach me too. Or see if she needs help with the wagons. Oh yeah, and I didn’t see Swindle anywhere all night, so between that and getting a break from the wagon routine, it was a really nice time. I told Katya a few stories about Variel, and even though they were all true she didn’t seem to quite believe me.
The next town is Gwen..valleer? Something Dwarvish. I’m not sure how to say it or how far it is.
Journal #25 - Heading North
There’s more to getting ready then I thought there’d be. I guess that Humplebumble’s animals aren’t actually… real good for the trip up north. Has to do with how they’re you know, not warm-blooded. Except for the lion I mean. Everyone talked back and forth about what to do for a while, and I was half joking when I said that Lord Serano has a piece of land that he’s not using for anything anymore, but Humplebumble got a big gleam in his eye, and said that was actually a good idea, and went out to talk to him.
So the six cage-wagons and a few of the menagerie people are staying behind to watch the animals and run some shows here in Riverpuddle until… until we come back. Right? Ms. Ample Harvest had us help with the rest of the planning, and we all made sure that we would be bringing enough supplies and trade goods to make the trip not a total loss. By the time Humplebumble came back, we were all ready to go. And he had someone new with him. A girl with big black hair and an even bigger hat. Her name’s Katya.
Then we set out. Me and Max are on watch duty. For the couple hours before our first stop, I watched the front of the wagon train, and he watched the back. After a while he started swinging his arms around, and holding them in weird positions and looking at me meaningfully. I’m not sure what that’s about.
Katya came up to talk to me while I was guarding. I blew up a tree to show her my magic. She seemed impressed. We talked for a little while, and then she pulled her cap down, and took a nap next to me on the wagon. I like her but…
Nothing bad happened on the road. We didn’t go too far, because it was already getting dark when we left. And after we made camp, Variel stayed up all night painting the wagons. They’re all purple and gold now. Like Humplebumble’s hat. It looks nice I guess.
It’s kind of funny, ‘cause even though everyone is coming to help me, and I’m still with the caravan and everything, nothing feels like it did before it all.
Journal #24 - The Next Day
I don’t understand… a lot of things.
After we dropped off Delebean and Ample Harvest, we had a big… talk back at the Soaked Hound. I said a lot of things I didn’t want to say at all, and then I went to bed.
Variel didn’t come back to our room last night, I think she went to the Silver Sphinx. Swindle was supposed to go too but, heh, he wasn’t feeling it anymore.
Max was up really early carving something small when I came down to have a bath. While I was in there, I wrote some letters, and then I gave them to Brooklyn to send out for me. And I asked him if I could check the lost and found… You know, for the warm clothes I think I left here last time... Since now we’re going north. He gave me the eye but he didn’t say anything, and he let me take an old musty coat and scarf from the bottom of the box. He didn’t say anything when I didn’t pay for my bath either. Jorra was still sleeping on the counter.
After Variel got back and cleaned up, and Swindle finally rolled out from under his rock, we all went to the Vice and Virtue to check on Delebean and Ample Harvest. They said they spent all last night talking. Couldn’t sleep. They look like it and I don’t blame them, so.
Nobody really wanted to be the first one to say something. I forget who did. We told them about Treya and… everything, a little bit. Ample Harvest looked… small. She just sat on one of the beds. And finally Swindle asked what their plans were, and they said they weren’t sure. Not sure? Why would they do anything besides head south along the bay, like they were planning to, after everything that happened?
I think they didn’t agree about what to do. It looked like Delebean wanted to go south, along their normal route. But Ms. Ample Harvest seemed to think that… deep down, Delebean wants to go with us. She told him he always talked about being part of something, stories and adventure. Being something bigger than himself, bringing that to other people, and how that’s why he has the Menagerie at all. He looked like maybe that was working.
And they both said something I didn’t think of. They said what if the things that have been happening lately, with the undead and all that… what if that’s happening everywhere? What if that’s the “new normal”?
Swindle told them not to come with us. To go south. I even told them about the letters. About why I have to go. Even though it’s been ten years, and if he really wanted to, he could have done anything to me by now. So I don’t know why he cares.
I think they really were going to do the smart thing, and go the other way. But then Max piped up and said that a wizard would be a great attraction for the Menagerie, and Delebean just lost it. I think he laughed for three or four minutes straight.
When he stopped laugh-crying, he said they would come with us.
I don’t get it. When Rhogkun said he’d be coming with me, that the group would be coming with me… I’m pretty sure if it hadn’t been harder to tell him to his face that I didn’t want to go north at all, than to just nod along, I’d be on a boat heading south by now too.
Swindle looked more scared than I’ve ever seen him. I don’t know if he knows something more about the North than I do, or if he just gets wizards. As we were leaving, Ample Harvest grabbed him for a word alone, but I don’t know what they talked about, or how he felt about it.
Then everybody went shopping for warmer clothing. I was just gonna hang in the back, since I don’t have any money, and I got my… stuff ... from the lost and found. But as we were leaving, Max handed me something, and it was a nice winter outfit.
Variel went to talk to Osma, buy a pearl for a spell and say goodbye. I said I’d pass, since I sent her a letter. I’m really tired of telling people what’s going on.
I went by myself to the little secret shrine in the University District. Didn’t look like anybody had been there since last time, but I guess it’s only been a day or two. I only took one gold piece. Going to need my luck later.
We went back to the Soaked Hound one last time. Max left the little dog he’d carved on the table for Brooklyn, and Variel paid our tab. By then it was getting dark, and we headed out to find the Menagerie. They’re getting packed and ready now. I guess I’ll help out a little, though I don’t really want it to go any faster, since after this…. We’re really going.
RP w/ Rhogkun - Dad Talk
Amity!
Rhogkun is actually right outside the door, leaning against the building. He's looking up at the night sky.
Amity steps outside, and stops. Sees Rhogkun. Copies his posture against the wall, without even (mostly) meaning to. She says, "Rhogkun... I... "
He looks down at her, then looks back up at the sky.
"I got mad in there. I'm sorry."
"Oh. Uh. It's okay."
"You continue to infuriate me though."
"I know."
He looks down at her. Doesn't really say anything. Just notices how small she is, probably how uncomfortable she is. "You're better than this."
Amity lets out her breath in a big puff, squints up at him. "You can't know that. And it doesn't make any sense. I literally just finished telling you like... half a dozen ways I'm not."
He barks out a quick, one note laugh. It feels like a break of tension. "Because you keep making dumb decisions?" he pauses, not wanting to make his laugh fully break the serious air. "And they are dumb, Amity. You have messed up, many times."
"But..."
"I don't think you've ever meant to hurt anyone, have you? Not since I've known you. Am I right?"
She says, "That doesn't MATTER."
"Yes it does."
He cranes down a little bit - still hulking over her, but closing the gap some.
"You have to own up to what you've done. Learn from it. And try not to do it again, or anything like it. You can't just keep running."
Amity stares out into the street, but doesn't say that's stupid. She thinks about it though.
She says, "That's hard."
"I should have known that you weren't really a wizard."
"It takes a long time - and a lot of hard work - to learn this type of spellcraft. Do you know how long it takes to copy a spell into your spellbook? The careful calligraphy? It's hard and then when you do it you're better at it for next time." He looks at her pointedly.
She glares out into the street again, but her heart's not in it. She says, "....yeah."
Rhogkun says nothing for a while.
"So, what do you want to do?"
She says, "I want things to be like how they were before. With the Menagerie. But I don't... think that's going to happen. And should I go north? What if that's bad too?"
"What if it's... hard?"
"Rhogkun it's so far, it's going to be hard."
"Yeah."
"It will be."
Amity rubs her arms. "This is stupid." Quiet for awhile. Then,
"Rhogkun.... can I tell you something else. It's not a lie, it's just a secret."
"Oh?" Rhogkun daintily put his hand on his chest. "Me?"
Amity says, with a huge sigh,"yeah."
Rhogkun doesn't like they she's not at the "play along" stage yet, but sobers up nonetheless. "Yes Amity, you can tell me."
-----------
RP w/ Everyone - Tale Telling
Amity!
By the time the party makes it back to the Soaked Hound, it's probably... pretty late. Looking for Delebean all day, the warehouse fight, rescuing Delebean and Ample Harvest, and then making sure they get back to their friends and caravan family safely. At the Hound there's actually a table open, for once.
Amity pulls back one of the chairs with a shaky hand and sits down, not looking at anyone. As soon as she does, Prim takes off with a flap and a small huff, retreating to one of the rafters above. After a moment, Amity casts Prestidigitation and uses it to draw aimless scrawls onto the tabletop in front of her. She still doesn't say anything.
Variel is impeccably calm. Used to pranks and unintended fallout, managing the results, etc is a regular part of Fey life, and honestly this is silly. She sits down next to Amity, making sure she's aligned on her side in support. She doesn't say anything either, and keeps her arms folded, occasionally glancing at Amity to see if she'll be the one to open
Swindle takes a seat farthest away from Amity, but not across from her so that he doesn't have to look at her irritating pouting face. He half-collapses into his chair like a sack of potatoes and lets out a tremendous sigh. His clothing is still stained with Ample's tears and his own blood. Cuz lmfao he doesn't know prestidigitation and he wasn't gonna ask for one.
Maxwell: (Right behind Variel)
(Looking for a very stable chair)
After sufficient awkward silence, and glancing imperceptibly back between Swindle and Amity, Variel almost has trouble hiding an inappropriate smile. Like the laughing at a funeral kind of inappropriate, not lewd.
//Children the both of them... she thinks.// Feeling her age for once.
"Not to spoil the mood, but..." She begins a little too snarkily, and adjusts, making her voice as gentle as possible, while trying to avoid being patronising. Which isn't ENTIRELY possible, but it's obvious she's at least attempting it. "Amity, you know it's probably better if Rhogkun hears what happened from you, yes? Rather than..." Her eyes dart to Swindle, despite no one being able to tell. But you know.
Amity continues drawing on the table.
Swindle: "Oh yes, I very much agree."
Variel shoots Swindle a warning look - Rating 3/10. Sharp but not intense.
Rhogkun walks into the main room, hood back, hair mussed. He seems relaxed, maybe after a soak or cleaning himself thoroughly. His mustache finely trimmed and waxed, most of belongings elsewhere, he sees the group seated at with a smirk hastens his gait. He pulls out a chair right next to Amity and takes a seat before we even really notices the group. "Hey everyo-" he stops, appraising the everyone. "Whoa, wait, what happened?" Rhogkun is clearly concerned.
If Swindle begins to speak, Variel is going to cut him off
Swindle is frowning probably harder that Rhogkun on a good day--and has been the entire walk back.
Variel puts her arm around Amity's shoulder and gives her a little hip nudge and supportive shoulder squeeze.
"First of all, we're okay. But." And she gives Rhogkun that look that the way too lenient art gives the parents when the kid has done a bad thing? Like listen, they KNOW and they FEEL BAD, there's no need to go CRAZY, but... prepare yourself for some SHIT.
"Amity? Are you okay to tell Rhogkun about it? Do you ne- does anyone need a drink or anything?"
Rhogkun looks about at the group, appraising wounds and demeanors. He's breathing heavier but not saying anything.
Amity, trying to ignore Variel, but definitely not looking at Rhogkun or Swindle, says, "I uhh. I... we couldn't find Delebean so I took everyone to see... my friend Treya."
"But uh... she took us to a warehouse, and tried to kill everyone. And it's mostly my fault."
Rhogkun's lips tighten. He looks about at Swindle, Variel, Max... and Amity. "You're all okay? You sure?" If he heard the thing about it being Amity's fault, you can't tell.
Variel just nods.
Swindle: "Amity's not finished talking."
Variel nods again but slower.
The goliath looks tense, but remains quiet.
Amity blanks the table drawings with an angry looking hand gesture. "Why don't you just tell him. And tell him that we're all gonna go different ways, and that'll be faster."
Rhogkun: "Amity."
Variel: "Amity..."
She squeezes her shoulder again, and begins pulling her closer, then stops herself.
Swindle jusssttt waits.
Amity: "Variel, you heard Treya. I"m a garbage person. Why do you even care."
Variel: "Having done bad things does not make one a bad person. If you were a "garbage" person you would not feel the slightest bit remorseful and wouldn't be struggling so." She snorts derisively "Besides, you're what? 30? No offense, dear, but you're a child, and children do terrible things. Dealing with how our mistakes pan out is important, and I believe once this nastiness unfolds you will be a better and happier person for it."
"Goodness, if you judged me by the things I did when I was in my first CENTURY of life you'd all probably find me despicable..."
Rhogkun watches Variel talk, nodding slowly. When she finishes, in a quiet tone, he says. "Just explain to me what happened Amity."
Amity sighs. "Okay. Fine. Fine.. so I. So when I came to Riverpuddle, I didn't know anybody. It was okay. I like meeting people. For awhile I just crashed with whoever but Treya was... really nice. Her family let me stay with them. Even when I didn't have any money. Um."
"We were best friends for a long time. Like years. We used to uh... get into trouble. But not a lot. Nobody got... nobody got hurt. We got caught sometimes, but we were pretty young so they weren't too hard on us. And we'd uh... get things to dress up fancy and sneak into rich people parties. Treya was really good at it. Anyway that's when we met Seven Wishes."
"And I liked him too. He was fun. Not afraid of anything at all. You know? We got into more trouble. And I got that job at Ozma's. And I was good at it, so I liked it. So you know, I was really busy and... I was never around. I didn't see Treya for a long time. Until I needed help to get Jorra back."
She looks at Swindle.
Swindle isn't watching her, but he is waiting to hear more.
(MAxwell scoots a little bit closer to the talbe)
Amity scuffs her feet. Glances up at Max, surprised by his movement. She looks over at the ale drake lounging on the counter.
Variel shows no sign of her curiosity (but she totally is).
Rhogkun is stone faced listening and waiting.
Amity: "Some people stayed here and had a lot of money. They wanted to buy him. Brooklyn said no. They didn't like it. So they took him. Their boat was leaving soon and I knew where it was and..."
"Treya said she'd help. She got some of her other friends together. And Wishes brought some of his friends. We thought it was gonna be great. It was pretty great.... " Amity stares at the table. "I brought Jorra back and almost right away Wishes' dad as there with... some scary guys."
"And he said he was tired of me getting Wishes into trouble, and I had to leave Riverpuddle and never come back or he'd kill me."
Amity starts wringing her hands together. "So I did. I didn't come back. And I didn't really think about... everyone else."
She stares up at the ceiling, maybe looking for Prim. "And that's why Treya was so mad."
Flatly, "No one was supposed to get hurt."
Rhogkun: "So what exactly happened to everyone else then, Amity? And what happened tonight?"
Amity looks at Rhogkun, "The people that took Jorra came back. They're not stupid. They found everyone. I don't know who got hurt or or more than hurt. People I don't remember anymore, probably. And Treya. She said they had to work for them, now. And that's why.... they took Delebean and Ample Harvest."
Rhogkun: "Wait. Delebean and Ample Harvest? They took them?" He looks around at everyone, beginning to rise. "Are they okay?"
Variel: "They're safe now. Shaken. But alive and home."
Rhogkun sits back down, staring ahead for a moment. Thinking.
Maxwell: "We were most fortunate..."
Swindle draws in a deep breath for a sigh, but it gets stuck in his throat a little bit and he turns his eyes away from the group. "It was luck."
Amity swallows and nods. "Yeah. Anyway, she had some new people and... they trapped us in the warehouse. It caught on fire. I pushed Treya off the rafters and she almost died..."
"She said I'm an idiot, and lucky. She said I'm okay because Wishes' dad was helping me and I should have been there to get FUCKED
with everyone else."
Maxwell turns his head slowly, "It is clear though that it wasn't your intention to abandon her yes?"
Rhogkun finally turns his head to look at Amity. He opens his mouth to speak, and as Max speaks up, closes it.
Amity looks at Max, "I abandon people all the time. I abandon EVERYTHING."
(t's good that no one can tell when Variel is rolling her eyes because she does a massive one at that)
Rhogkun breathes out a heavy sign. "Amity..." his voice is soft.
"You aren't responsible for whatever those people did." He looks her in the eyes.
Swindle holds up one finger. Quietly, he insists, "She's not done talking."
Rhogkun looks over at Swindle, a kind of a "buh?" look, like there could possibly be more?
Swindle: "Amity, why are we going North?"
Amity gives Swindle a vicious, steady glare.
Swindle's looking at her in the eyes.
Maxwell lifts a finger, "To rescue her sister yes?"
Amity breaks first. She looks at Maxwell. She sighs. She starts drawing on the table again, and this time it actually looks like something. After a moment it resolves into some sort of symbol. Like a mountain, and the same shape reversed, over top of it. With a a star watching over it.
She reaches down for her spellbook, and unclips it from it's belt. She places it on the table, and runs a finger down one side of it's pages, flipping it open when they snag on something sticking slightly outwards. There are two pieces of parchment sitting on the open page, where they had been tucked inside. She pushes the book into the center of the table, and doesn't say anything.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kKLHKl7XmhdpvQXtIAZY19Kawh2cfHB8wTnDZvm9bW8/edit?usp=sharing
Swindle: "And why is he so interested in you, Amity? Were you his student?"
Rhogkun still has that "buh" look on his face, looking from Swindle to Amity to Swindle.
Amity glares at Swindle, unhappy, uncomfortable. "No."
Swindle: "And so..?" (AAHA)
Amity, sits back, ignoring Variel. "You're all stupid..." she says. "You should be getting Max to cast the Truth Spell but you can't even do that right." She looks at the warforged across the table, but not upwards enough to meet his eyes, "And you don't have that one today, do you, Max?"
Variel tuts. "Amity.'
"Not the time"
Swindle: (I mean, as far as swindle's concerned, she's not wrong. erryone's stupid for not punting this sassy child outtaaa heeeereeee)
Swindle presses, "Why is he interested in you, Amity?"
Amity: "Okay. I'm not..." her mouth twists, and she looks at Swindle. "I'm not a crystal witch." She looks at Rhogkun. "And. I'm not a wizard's apprentice. But I knew a wizard. I worked for a wizard. And he had apprentices. And... and he made them do a lot of stupid, boring things too. So that's basically the s-
it's almost exact-
...they're similar."
She looks away. She's thinking.
"My mom worked in the kitchen." Amity rubs her nose. "Me and my sisters did, sometimes. And washing and cleaning and mending. That kinda thing." Her hands sit motionless in her lap now, and she stares at them very hard.
"I don't know. But that person- that Amity. That's not the truth, okay, because that person isn't me. That person wasn't good for anything besides scrubbing wizard toilets for the whole rest of her life. And... and that will never, EVER be me."
Swindle is stone-faced waiting to hear the rest.
Rhogkun's confusion has settled into a stern silence. He can tell this is big stuff.
Amity: "You want me to tell you, tell you for real? And then what, what do I get, when you know?"
Swindle: "A scrap of trust, perhaps. But perhaps that's not of value to you, so who's to say."
Variel tilts her head confusedly at her question. For the first time actually looking at her, not just looking forward with her, she asks "Wh... what do you mean, "what do you get?" What do you want for telling the truth?" She looks around a bit confusedly at everyone now "Is this not the way of things here? You get caught in your misdirection to this extent, you reveal the truth, everyone is satisfied, congratulates you on your deception and moves on?"
Amity laughs, shakily.
Rhogkun lowers his head, staring at the tabletop. "Damn it Amity," he whispers quietly.
Maxwell: "There's no shame in domestic duties. It does not negate the fact that you are a powerful magic user... although I'm not too sure now what type." His eyes start to drift...
To Variel, Swindle replies "Oh, no, no. Her style is more--deflect with self depreciation and self-pity, and leave when accountability is unavoidable. It's a familiar flavor."
Variel looks around again, particularly at Rhogkun then landing on Swindle as he explains Well..."- and I mean no offense Amity - but yes I can tell that... but that's why... isn't that why we're talking? To help her grow? She shares, gains our trust, grows, and we now know she is an even more adept adventuring partner than we thought before, with social skills we didn't know of?"
Swindle: "She doesn't have to grow if she openly admits she's just a rotten person. That's the point, that's why she does it."
Variel takes her arm off Amity's shoulders to gesticulate properly at Swindle "No. No, you know that's just going to force her to be defensive, that's not fair."
Swindle: (WHY ARE YOU BOOING ME, I'M RIGHT)
Variel: "If she doesn't WANT to change, that's up to HER, don't bait her into doing what you want her to do to justify your being pissy with her"
Rhogkun: “Swindle." He sounds angry. "Just let her speak."
Amity rubs her eyes with the heels of both hands, hard. She takes a deep breath, and then another. She says, "You're both the worst." (Swindle and Variel obvs)
Swindle sits back.
Variel frowns "Wh... Amity I'm on your SIDE here... I don't understand."
Amity: "It's... it's not a good side, Variel. And you're not helping. Just... just let me tell the story."
She opens her mouth to object, catches her breath, and folds her arms, slouching back and facing Amity more to listen.
"Okay. Okay." Amity sits for a minute. She smells like warehouse fire and fear sweat.
"I was in the library," she says quietly. "I was cleaning in the library... well I was supposed to be cleaning. I was reading in the library. But one of the doors... one of his doors not the normal ones, it was open." Amity looks like she would rather be literally anywhere other than here, telling this story. "They go different places. Anyway, it was open. And he wasn't there. So I went in it."
She shifts around in her chair like her skin is crawling, and scratches her arms over the sleeves.
"I don't know what it was. It was.... a bunch of circles. Inside other circles. Overlapping. Magic words. Candles. I don't remember.There were some old books. With papers and notes and stuff stuck on them. I don't know. I skipped to the end of one that looked... new. One that was his writing."
"I think it was for going somewhere. Or calling something. I don't know. I think it was done. Mostly. Maybe. Anyway. The last part looked easy so..."
Amity's voice sticks, comes out in a croak, "So I used it."
Rhogkun: "... and?"
Maxwell looks up at the rafters for Prim
Amity shakes her head, pale pink curls falling in front of her face. She looks down at her lap and says, "You don't understand. I can't... I don't know. I don't know how to explain it."
"I was somewhere else, and it was something else. I thought it was a dragon but it wasn't... really. It said I could go back and I could have magic if I just..... took a little piece of it with me."
Variel frowns... a lot... "A... a piece of it?"
Amity: "Yeah..."
Variel: “Like... Your crystals? Are they a part of it? Or..." glances up into the rafters looking for Prim also… "...or... is that why you have those dreams? You've got something's mind in yours?"
Amity says, "I don't know, okay? It's... I don't know."
Maxwell looks back down at Amity, "...A patron? Of sorts?"
A lot of the tension has left Swindle's body. He's not happy, nor even wholly relieved. He just didn't want to be the one to tell people all this garbage lmfao.
Variel: "That's FASCINATING... It sounds like you accidentally bonded with a powerful being... Like Swindle's people did with mine, to share power... "
She looks straight at Amity, all pretenses of not being insanely curious GONE "Did it tell you its name? Does the Wizard serve it too? Is this why you have to go back??"
Swindle begins to face palm in frustration, but stops himself and only flinches.
Amity glances at Variel, says, "I don't know." And then looks at Rhogkun.
Rhogkun is just silent. Then, "How many more lies, Amity?"
Variel remembers that's what we were talking about and tries to regain composure
Rhogkun: "... when does this ever end with you? You and I just talked about this! " He pauses, then you know what, keeps going. "Not just lies. Lies aren't all of it anymore. Irresponsible, childish, reckless..." He grits his teeth, and slams his fist on the table - about medium hard, not enough to make a scene but enough to make a point.
Amity flinches.
Variel frowns and leans forward, about to defend her then stops
He looks over at her, his face saying one thing clearly - I'm waiting for an answer.
Maxwell prevents a cup from falling off the table, puts it back in place.
Amity says, "You're right. Treya's right. Swindle's right."
Variel tuts again and rolls her HEAD.
"Then prove them WRONG, dear, and do better."
This time Rhogkun's fist on the table is loud enough to make a scene.
Amity jumps.
Variel makes a weird 8I face.
A smirk curls up on Swindle's face for the first time all evening. He quickly covers it with his hand, pretending to stroke his jaw thoughtfully lmfao
Rhogkun stands quickly, his chair almost tumbling off behind him. "I need a moment." Barefoot, Rhogkun makes his way to step outside.
Variel waits, wide eyed until he's gone, then - for the first time leaning over to swindle - whispers "Is it just me, or is he a little bit sexy when he's angry?"
Amity puts her whole face on the table.
SWINDLE POINTS AT VARIEL, with his eyebrows raised in mutual agreement.
Variel absent-mindedly pats the back of Amity's head / shoulder area vaguely, still looking door-wards "There there, Amity. Do TRY and get all your wallowing and self pity out of the way before he gets back, won't you? I'm afraid it's not ACTUALLY that useful..." She's a bit sassier than she probably intended, mind momentarily elsewhere
"What if he's just leaving?" Amity asks the table.
Swindle: "Oh, that would be very wise of him."
Variel: "Well what if he is? What are you going to do about it?"
"And your answer had better not involve mentioning how awful you are or how you always do this or something similar, because my goodness I'm sorry but even I was getting ready to slap you for that."
Amity turns her face up towards Variel, a little shocked, frankly.
Variel realises she's being harsh and takes her eyes away from the door to look at Amity again. "Oh... sorry darling, it's just... Well my people, when we're in the feywild we're not able to lie, so we take great pride in our misdirections and subterfuge. But equally once caught in one it's expected we come clean immediately and carry on with our lives. This is getting a little too dramatic, even for me."
she leans in and whispers….
Amity blinks. She says, ".... okay."
She looks at Max and Variel and... Swindle. Then she pushes herself away from the table, and goes looking for Rhogkun.
Journal #23 - Treya....
Amity!
Treya says... there's a bounty on me. That she knew the second I got back to town. That I'm stupid. She's got people with her but I don't know them... She says she's gonna kill my "new gang" first so that I know what it's like to get left behind.
She won't tell me WHY.
-fight
Swindle Summary:
Amity took us to her friend, Treya, who was highkey SUPER ANGRY at her because Amity dragged Treya and her friends into some hot garbage and then bounced for 3 years or smth lmfao so Treya's friends all mostly died and stuff and those who didn't are now beholden to bad people and it's all Amity's fault because she didn't stick around to help clean up after the party was over. Treya attacked everyone but lost the fight, she and Amity had a talk about all aforementioned things, and Amity was all "sorry or something I guess, here, have all my money and fuck off" and they're not friends anymore.
Max asked about Delebean and Treya had him and Ample bound and gagged in the farrr corner of the giiiiant warehouse the fight took place in.
At one point, there was a big ol' fire and everyone was like "oh this is a big deal oh no what are we going to do about this fire in this warehouse made of wood housing a bunch of wood??" But swindle watered it and everything was ok.
So when it was discovered that Delebean and Ample were in the warehouse too and that they could have EASILY been abandoned to burn in it if a variety of things went just a LITTLE differently, that was a big scare.
Swindle was made to feel real feelings when Ample broke into BIG SAD SOBBING and crushed him with momma bear hugs
Maxwell put his foot through a barrel and compelled a dwarf to a duel
Variel sassed swindle for being useless a lot, while trapesing through the air and making magical confetti happen.
Amity murdured 3 actual people
their skeletons turned into crystal and exploded them from the inside out
guys, I think amity is the big bad
Variel Summary:
she so smol tho
smol bad
Painted-Bees (Swindle)Today at 4:32 AM
the smol bad
Haze (Variel)Today at 4:32 AM
Also I interpreted some of it different D:
I thought it wasn't Amity's fault for not sticking around, but it was her idea in the first place?
If she'd stuck around it would've been the same but she ALSO would've been punished which was what Treya wanted
Painted-Bees (Swindle)Today at 4:34 AM
no, this is definitely the honest to god objective, not swindle-biased cliff notes.
Haze (Variel)Today at 4:34 AM
but she got lucky by being friends with rich bitch who sent her off
And her and Treya are semi- okay now
Painted-Bees (Swindle)Today at 4:36 AM
though, the way I interpreted it OOC isn't as antagonizing as Swindle's slant but also really doesn't paint amity as altruistic as your interpretation LOL
Haze (Variel)Today at 4:36 AM
Oh I don't think she's altruistic
I think she was inconsiderate af
just lucked out and had powers
and a rich friend
Haze doesn't like it much, Variel's mostly fine with it XP
But like yeah, she initiated it right? So it's like... MORE her fault than if she'd just left??
Painted-Bees (Swindle)Today at 4:43 AM
Yeah, they way I interpreted it was that she lead this group into danger, finished the task half way (returning Jorrah) and then bounced before a proper resolution occurred, not considering how the people she left behind were gonna cope with how things proceeded from there. And that's why Treya was so mad because Amity convinced them to do a thing and then neglected to help them in the aftermath once she got her back pats and send-off. Which...I LIKE A LOT because it's what a snotty kid would do LOL outta sight, outta mind, they'll figure it out, it's fine.
Like moving out of your college dorm knowing you left a bunch of trash behind for the volunteer staff to clean up after you cuz you couldn't be arsed and didn't think it was that big a deal honestly lmao
Haze (Variel)Today at 4:44 AM
Ohhhh I get you
Painted-Bees (Swindle)Today at 4:45 AM
I'm sure Kris will provide some insight when she wakes up and reads our chin stroking lmfaaao
:thinking: how much of an actual brat is Amity? In this essay I will
Haze (Variel)Today at 4:46 AM
lol yeah and Jay can confirm Treya's intent a bit
xDD
dork
Painted-Bees (Swindle)Today at 4:50 AM
yeah, the alternative, I think??? is that Treya is just highkey big jelly about Amity's privileges and is genuinely full-stop vengeful murderous about it--which, definitely paints her in a way more petty villainous light and is still goodly believable if she had a super cutthroat dog-eat-dog roguish upbringing.
Haze (Variel)Today at 4:51 AM
Or was left to stew in vengeance for 3 years
Painted-Bees (Swindle)Today at 4:52 AM
Oh, yeah I think that's definately a thing in any scenario
Haze (Variel)Today at 4:53 AM
I just feel like she was like "It's your fault it's your fault" and then when she was beaten was like "hrrrnnnghhh I was jelly and lonely and abandonment issues I just wanted my friend to stay with me.... T_T"
But I am also a big wussy who wants everyone to get along
Kris (Amity:
so the good news is youre both kinda right and the bad news is either way its not a great look for Amity.
Amity(ish) Summary:
the timeline is somethign like
-Amity and Treya bffs
-Amity meets cool new rich kids and stops hanging out with her
-Amity needs Treya's help with the Jorra heist, she says yes bc who can say no to that face :sparkles:
-bucha kids get hurts (some people die?), also they pissed off the super rich people from across the bay who tried to buy / then stole Jorra so that goes real well for all the poor kids that were involved.
-but Amity never knows bc rich friend's dad tells Amity to skip town and never come back or he'll kill her.
-Amity comes back and fucks around with you guys in town for 3 days.
Journal #22 - Dogged
Amity!
Everything went bad so fast… I never thought Rhogkun could be so mad about anything. And I still don’t understand why it hurt him so much. Plus it’s not even my fault, Swindle’s the one who made it all worse.
Anyway… At least everyone said they wanted to help me. Maybe it would have been better if they didn’t, then I could say that I couldn’t go north at all, and it wouldn’t be my fault. But they did. So now we’re making a shopping list for travelling to Ivorfall at the beginning of winter. We’re going to have to buy warmer clothes, and emergency supplies, and… blankets? Something to start fires? I don’t know, I’ve never been out in the wilderness in the winter before. And we need to get a map too, I don’t know anything about Ivorfall except that it’s really far.
The one thing that would make it not terrible is if we can convince the Menagerie to change their route and come with us. So the first thing on the list is actually to go look for Delibean.
But… we couldn’t find him. We went back to the Vice and Virtue, since that’s where we saw him last, where he said he was staying. It’s real small, so I guess he was staying there by himself maybe. It’s in the Maccabeo District, and it’s cheap, so even though it’s small it’s always busy. There’s a big warehouse kinda place for wagons and stuff too. We went inside and Variel talked to the innkeeper for a while. He was an Orc, and I guess he really hates to tell other people’s business, because he made it really hard for her to get so much as the fact that he hasn’t seen Delibean since yesterday out of him.
So... we went looking for wagons? Because maybe they already set up? We checked a couple of the bigger squares in this district, but we didn’t see anything and nobody we talked to have noticed anything like that Menagerie. Which, you know, they would.
So then we went back to the wagon warehouse and I guess we are bad at looking for wagons, but eventually we found a couple we recognized. Three people from the caravan were there, they said they haven’t seen Delibean since yesterday either. The last thing they knew, he and Ample Harvest were both going to San Metello (That’s where all the government stuff is, and the big temple to the Sovereign Host, where we went this morning. We were just there!). He was going there because he needed to cash in that promissory note that said the Host would pay him on behalf of Peony for the reparations, and then she would pay them back with her wages.
But if he didn’t come back… Then what happened? The three people at the wagon said they thought he was with us. And a lot of the other folks are all at different inns, since I guess everybody has a different idea of where the best place to stay in Riverpuddle is. Which is fair, because there’s a lot of different things to see, but it’s not very helpful for us right now...
Um. we told them that we’d find Delibean and Ample Harvest, but that one of them should stay here, and the other two should go talk to all the other menagerie people.
Oh, and then: Variel convinced Swindle to turn into a dog !!! He’s a rolly little guy with big ears and short legs. The same color though, that soft pale brown. I went to pet him and he knocked me over and licked my face! I think I like him better this way. He seems happier too. Marissa (one of the menagerie folks) found an old hat of Delibean’s somewhere, and showed it to dog-Swindle. He sneezed so much, but then he let out a big loud howl (like, Barooo!) and took off scampering. So we followed him.
He almost knocked over some halflings, and he did steal their pastry. He didn’t look remorseful at all. The smell led to one of the canals unfortunately… dead end. We called a boat, and the driver got pretty mad at us. Maybe he doesn’t like dogs. So we decided to walk to San Metello and just hope for the best.
When we got there, this time the guards were really rude to us. They said we were there just this morning, why didn’t we do all our business then? We explained that we were looking for a friend and we’re real worried about him, but they wouldn’t tell us anything! We convinced them to escort us back to the Sovereign Host so we could check, and they said ok just because it was the easiest way to get us to stop bothering them, I think. So the younger guard went with us, and halfway there dog-Swindle picked up the scent again!
He was still running to the temple, which I thought would be fine, but the guard who didn’t agree at all. He started getting really nervous and upset, especially when Variel chased after Swindle. I know you’re not supposed to wander around if you’re not someone who works there, but I didn’t know it was this serious.
He caught Swindle ready soon as he got to the Temple, probably because Swindle spun around on the steps, and started to take off in a different direction. Swindle barked and cried like he was being literally killed, and then peed on the guard!! Everyone was watching us.. I think that’s how Variel managed to sneak into the Temple, because when I looked for her again later, she was gone. Me and Max tried to tell the guard that Max is actually really important, because he is, he’s a Paladin of the Host and everything, but the guard was so mad, he jut wanted us all to leave.
Except of course then Swindle managed to wiggle free and go running up the street. When the guard went after him, I made me and Max invisible. I think almost no one saw me do it.
Uhhhm. Swindle ran off to a big plaza area, and then stopped to knock over some more things and steal some more food. The guard grumbled about not getting paid enough, and left. Me and Max didn’t run into each other or anybody else! And swindle ran around looking for the right smell for long enough that Variel caught up too.
She said that Delibean had been to the temple, and got the money. But the person she talked to wasn’t working yesterday, so we still don’t know anything more specific than that. What if they got robbed on the way back….? Swindle turned back into a person. He said he couldn’t figure out where the smell goes after this. Variel tried asking two of the people eating lunch at the plaza if they come here often or had seen our friends, but she came back and said they were super rude to her, so I guess not. We went out of the district through another gate.
Also… Swindle used disguise self to turn into the elf that was rude to Variel, and then the two of them loudly pretended to be cheating on the elf’s wife and… that was uncomfortable.
After that we were gonna maybe give up, but I remembered that... well, I was gonna go and see Treya anyway, to ask about rich people parties, before we got stuck trying to find Delibean and Ample Harvest. But maybe her and her other friends could help us find him?
So we went back to Maccabeo. Treya’s nice, she’s my best friend. Early on when I had only been in Riverpuddle for like a year or so, her family let me stay with them for a while. I used to stay with a lot of different people, and they live in one of the really bad areas, but I still appreciated it. You know?
I haven’t seen her in a few years, except for the thing with Jorra. And it’s been a few months since that happened.
Anyway, her neighborhood looks a little better than I remember. So that’s good, I’m glad for them. When I found her place, the first time I knocked, nobody answered, and I got worried, but Swindle peeked inside and said that someone was home, so I knocked again. And I made it a weird knock so she’d notice. Well I guess it worked, because she came out and said something like, “only you would have such a stupid knock” and gave me a big hug.
It was really cool to see Treya again! I told her we’d just got in and I was coming to see her anyway soon, for sure. I introduced her to everyone and told her about how we’re all caravan guards for Humplebumble’s Marvelous Menagerie. She seemed really impressed, though she asked if they were my new gang, and I mean, I don’t think I’d say I had an old gang, just… friends.
But then everyone else wanted to know about me and Treya. So I had to say about how we used to do things that… well maybe we weren’t supposed to do a lot of them. Like sneaking into places, climbing up real high, and… just…um... fun stuff. For fun.
Illegal things? Maybe… sometimes. But we mostly didn’t get in trouble, and nobody ever got hurt. I mean, we’ve probably all broken into places we weren’t supposed to be just since we met each other, haven’t we?
Then I couldn’t help it, and I told the story about how we got together a whole bunch of other kids, to rescue Jorra. Cause some pirates from a town across the bay really wanted him, they wanted their own alehouse-drake. They asked Brooklyn if he would sell him and he said no - Jorra’s a person, and his friend too. But they stole him!! So we planned this big heist to get him back. And it was really cool! And that’s why Brooklyn is so nice to me now, and how we got to stay at the Soaked Hound for so cheap.
Treya said, “You haven’t changed a bit, have you, Amity?” and by then she’d brought us to the new meeting place which was this big warehouse. Variel was real bouncy, I think she was excited about meeting Treya too. Treya asked Max to help her with the door, since it was real heavy, and then we all went in. At least, I thought we all went in, but Treya was still outside when the door closed.
It’s really dark in the warehouse….
I banged on the door and yelled for Treya, but she didn’t answer.
We heard some things moving around in the dark.
Swindle got right up to my ear and hissed at me, wanting to know if there was any reason for her to be mad at me. If really no one ever got hurt.
I didn’t think so? We just… Haven’t seen each other for a while. Except for the thing on the docks. And no one got hurt! It was fine, we saved Jorra! Well some kids got hurt, a little…. But it’s not like anyone died. I’m pretty sure nothing like that happened. I mean, I had to leave right after, but….
I’m not looking at Swindle but I can feel how mad he is, somehow.
And well, around then, we heard something up high, and there’s a little bit of light in the warehouse, at least now that my eyes have adjusted a bit, so I can see that Treya’s jumped back in through the roof, on top of some boxes, and she’s… she’s pointing a bow at me. And she’s put an arrow on it.
I told her that this isn’t funny!! But she said she’s not joking at all.
I don’t…...
RP w/ Rhogkun, Swindle - Two Conversations That Go Just Fine
Amity!
During a secluded moment, sometime when Amity and Rhogkun are alone or nearly alone, Rhogkun coughs awkwardly to get Amity's attention. "Amity?" he says flatly, with only a hint of a question to it.
Holding Prim in her arms just to keep her hands busy, Amity is nevertheless only paying half attention to whatever the group has been up to. She looks up at Rhogkun with a start, gripping the tiny dragon a little too tightly for just a moment, and he flap his wings with annoyance. She looks over at Rhogkun,
"Huh. What?"
"Why did-" he stopped himself, considering. "Did you think...? " he trails off, scrunching his mouth tightly. After a moment, he sighs, and with a little more confidence, resumes.
"I haven't had many friends in my life." The way he says friends, it's like a new word to him. It has a weight to it the way he wields it. "I had hunting companions when I was young, but those are different things. It's an... intimate relationship, but it's... professional. There's a job to be done. People can die, so you don't always get... attached. Professional." Rhogkun pulls back his hood - one of very few times this has happened - and he looks different. Younger, and older. It's easy to forget his hair is thinning near the back, and with the cowl away the lines on his face are far more visible. He looks much more vulnerable."And I had my wife. Our daughter. But those are different too." A small smile spreads on his lips, but he quickly shakes his head and snaps his attention back to Amity, looking back down at her for the first time since this reverie began.
"Amity." Rhogkun's speech is harsh and precise, a little clipped. His jaw flexes. "Why did you lie to me?"
Amity winces, as though she has been physically injured by his tone of voice alone. She hefts Prim carefully, rearranging him and stalling for time. Finally, she says,
"I mean... you didn't ask about my uh, my mom. And there is a wizard, you know. I didn't lie I just... rearranged it." She watches him carefully, "Because... I had to protect my sister."
Rhogkun breathes a heavy sigh. "Tell me why you lying protects your sister." His voice is steel.
Settling Prim a little more firmly, she leans back on one heel and looks up, up at Rhogkun, then glances away. "Well... 'cause it's her, she's the one that's the apprentice. And she ran away."
Amity becomes a little more animated: "The wizard, he runs the whole town, right? Everything. The city council and the guard, and he's got like... magic stones that people can use to report to him. He's not bad at least I didn't think he was before.... but he's a wizard. Like... a real wizard. He can do anything. And no one can say anything. It's not fair."
Rhogkun stares at this animated display with little reaction of any sort. "I don't know everything about your past, or this town, or your family. But I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at here. I not entirely sure-" his face flashes into a scowl, "-why you couldn't just tell me the goddamn truth."
He turns his head to the side, nose wrinkling."We've all been through so much together, Amity. We've looked death in the eyes a dozen times. I've trusted you. With my life, with my story. I thought we were civilized, grown, adults...
... not children playing at make believe."
Amity looks frustrated in turn, "I don't understand! You're getting mad over nothing. If you don't like me just - just say so." She breathes shakily and continues, "When my sister ran away, okay? She didn't want him to find her. I thought I could maybe pretend - like, if he heard about someone saying they were his apprentice, maybe he would look in the wrong places. Well he didn't and I think he found her and she's going to be in trouble."
Rhogkun takes a series of heavy breaths, before, in a lower tone, slowly saying, "You didn't have to lie to us, though. You didn't have to lie to me." He's staring at the ground few feet off to the side, not making eye contact.
She says, "I'm sorry! I really am. I didn't mean to hurt you. You're so nice to everyone, and..."
Quietly: "I'm sorry."
Still staring off to the side, not making eye contact, Rhogkun says, "What else was a lie?"
"Nothing! I don't know. I don't remember. I did try the spells! And I do use the book, it helps me find the shapes. I tried to cast find familiar a bunch of times... I don't know where Prim came from. I want to help you find your family!" She stops, takes a big gulp. Breathes. "And um... well I'm not supposed to be in Riverpuddle... I got kicked out. That's not so much a lie as... as I didn't say anything. But everything's fine right? So it doesn't even matter."
Rhogkun looks up finally, into Amity's eyes. "I bet you think I don't like Swindle."
He continues.
"But you know what I like about Swindle? Swindle is Swindle. It's his name. He knows who he is. He is who he is. I don't approve of a lot of things Swindle does but Swindle doesn't lie about who he is. If Swindle lied to me, I wouldn't be surprised. He probably has!" Rhogkun throws his arms up."But Swindle doesn't go around pretending to be someone you can trust. Swindle can't ever hurt me by lying to me the way you did."
"But I said I was sorry what more do you want me to do! It wasn't on purpose."
Rhogkun grits his teeth. "I hate lies, Amity. I don't see the point. I've lied before and I remember almost every time. If you want to make me mad, hurt me? Break my trust." He pulls his cowl a little tighter, turns to the side. "Thanks for the apology. I hope you know the words 'I'm sorry' don't fix everything. I'm not quite ready to forgive yet."
"But I'm coming with you. I hope you know that, too."
Amity doesn't look happy, and she stews awkwardly. But at least this is... something. She says,"Fine... I... fine. I know. Thanks." Under her breath, "You can watch me die probably."
"Hey." He looks back at her, his eyes a little moist. "Stop. Don't do that." He shakes his head. "Don't."
After a beat, he nods slightly in acknowledgement, and walks away somewhere else to stew.
Amity watches him go but tries to look like she isn't, and then looks down at Prim and says very quietly, "This is fine. It's fine. Right...?"
The pseudodragon gazes up at Amity with milky eyes, looking even smaller than he usually does. He huffs quietly and settles against Amity’s side, resting his head in her lap as a feeling of melancholic resignation that seems to waft into Amity’s mind.
-----------------------------------
Swindle had been spending the last half-hour fluttering between the upstairs and downstairs of the tavern, noticing Rhogkun and Amity in their quiet corner, noting the posture and gestures of each, but paying little heed to the words that may have actually been exchanged. Swindle didn’t need to eavesdrop, he knew what the Truthweaver might have been upset about.
A slight wave of guilt washes over Swindle for a moment--he hadn’t held his tongue and had to spin a believable story to justify his reaction. But a “lie” is still a “lie” to that Goliath. Nobel flavoring or not.
Sometime after Amity has been left to her own devices, Swindle’s casually makes his way towards her, as if the main goal was to gather some nearby supply. “You know, you’re going to have to tell them sooner or later. Though…” He offers her a kindly grin, “I personally hope you continue to hold the truth as close to the chest as you can manage. There’s no greater gift to me than the gift of blackmail fodder...” He thinks about it for a second. "What are you hoping to achieve by keeping it a secret?"
Accosted! From all sides! Friendless and alone, Amity puts Prim up onto her shoulder, where he lurks and curls his tail about her neck. She points at Swindle and says, "This is your fault! Rhogkun hates me now!"
"And I'm not hoping to do anything I just... I dunno."
Swindle’s brow pressed together and upward, and he tuts only once. “Hates you? Goodness, you are a child. That altruistic loaf of a man is so lost, he’s projected his sense of family onto this sorry lot.…” Swindle gestures outward, to no one--but the implication of the party is pretty clear. “Have you ever seen a father scold their kid? Because I sure have. Just now, ho ho ho. In this very corner of the room, even.” His grin twists into a bit of a lopsided grimace. “The person most likely to abandon you is me, Amity. The rest of these people are good people, and I hate to break it to you but I think they might actually care about you-”
At that moment, one of Swindle’s ear flicks upward. “-enough to eavesdrop on your conversations, mmm.”
Amity looks around. (??)
She gives up, narrows her eyes, "Whatever. Look, I didn't do anything. He's mad because I didn't tell him everything the exact right way? I don't understand why it's such a big deal, and I don't really want to worry about it, because there's a much bigger problem."
She gestures helplessly, "And there's no way to figure out that either, but I can't... he sent me another letter, Swindle. He said to hurry, and that it would be worth the effort not just for me but "your companions as well." What does that mean?"
“Nevermind.” He wrinkles his nose at the drunkard in the seat nearby. “People hate vesting their trust and love into someone they think they know--only to find out that who they knew is a fabrication, and what they’ve been told is a lie. Ho ho ho, it’s the very definition of betrayal. Which, personally, I have no problem facing the consequences of. It’s not that bad if you don’t give a toss about the person you’re betraying, hn, hn. And the very notion that you don't care is really the twisting of the knife, perhaps.”
Swindle's smirk fades at talk of the letter. "'Your companions, as well'? " He glances over he shoulder before leaning closer towards Amity--and with a low rumble in his voice, he asks "Who does he count as your companions? I don't want anything to do with this guy. And, if you're gonna be dragging the others like lambs to some kind of slaughter, you should have the decency to at least tell them. Or maybe you and I have more in common than I thought."
Amity hisses back, "I said I don't know. Maybe he knows something you'd want. If he's spying on me maybe he's spying on you. Maybe he could find your friend. Maybe he'll pay you for bringing me."
Swindle rolls his eyes off to the side with a sardonic smirk, "Generous if true, but I'll pass. If he's spying on me, he's spying on the others. You think its fair to keep them in the dark about it? With no way to brace for or prepare for what might be coming to them?" His grin becomes rather toothy, "That is cruel, ho ho ho."
Amity shrinks back, and ducks out from under Swindle's looming shadow. "Fine. Yeah that's me I'm horrible. I'll let you know if I find anything out about those parties you want to go to so bad."
She tries very hard not to squish her shoulders together as she walks away, and doesn't look back.
Swindle glances back to the drunkard who seemed more or less oblivious to the conversation unfolding a few feet away. And to himself...or to an imagined captive audience, he sighs. "Children, can't live with 'em..." This one might literally be the death of him and everyone else. But it's not his responsibility to tell them, they wouldn't believe it if he did.
Journal #21 - Everything Falls Down
Amity!
Me and Max go over to the balcony. It's a good view of the sea, and part of Riverpuddle, but it's all.... hazy. Variel comes back and looks up at us, and I let down a rope for her. While this is happening, Swindle and Max scrape the dead guy off the ceiling. Only his middle part falls down, and Swindle rummages the big green gem out of his chest. I'm definitely trying not to look.
I’m trying not to look, and Variel is getting papers off the desk.
Suddenly the house feels… different. Flimsy. Really old.
GTFO time.
Max falls on me.
House falls. Cliff Falls. Into the sea.
GTFO redux, also try to look like we had NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS.
Variel runs ahead to solidify alibi at Soaked Hound.
Max paints a mustache.Good rolls.
Everything’s fine. Amity tells Jorra that sahuagins showed up and pulled the house and cliff into the sea. Swindle tells him what actually happened, in exchange for info about what the Silver Sphinx does in the back?
Max talks to Brooklyn about “proper burial procedures”.
The Soaked Hound = Traveller ref. The Traveller and the Devourer are both popular in Riverpuddle.
Also mustache bro nod.
Variel left me food! Wash off makeup and pass out.
Morning = baths and breakfast. Pokin at spell book and… I’ll brb.
she came back in, looking a bit stressed and scared, and was like "why are you guys fighting" and variel was like "we're not. we're talking. and swindle says your mom is a witch? " and she was like "huh? oh. yeah thats right. that's how I get her letters. She sent me another one today and... And she says my sister is in a lot of trouble. In Ivorfall. and i have to go right away. So... so I'm probably going to have to leave you guys soon."
weightful pause, which variel fills immediately
Ivorfall is the capital of Svelverfold, which is the country Amity is from, and its most of the big cold land to the north of where we are / have been.
and its far
and when Amity said that of course she knew they would want to help, at least she knew two of them would because they're good people, but she just didn't want to bother them.... Swindle said "you little bitch" under his breath and that was my favorite part of the session
Go to govt district to see about Max’s papers. It’s very official, you need an escort the whole time. Sovereign host, Prior Godfrey.
He says everything is in order, and will distribute the info to other temples or whatever.
Swindle and Max buy a bunch of talismans.
Journal #20 - More Ghosts
Amity!
Variel went in the bathroom and something closed the door behind her. We had to blast it open and everything, but when we did Variel said everything was fine....
Variel and Swindle are really tired.
Variel says she can see pulse.
Door w/ scratching.
Ghouls.
Follow pulse.
Skeleton receptionist?
Ghost lady gives doll to little girl, it knife-murders her.
Rest in reception room.
Go to next room. Family tree on door defaced.
Door flies open, Amity gets pulled in, door closes.
Evil ghost lady! Dead bodies everywhere! Dead guy on ceiling!! He has a magic rope connecting him to ghost lady.
Void Sphere + Hide, but skeletons get me.
Max busts door down.
Everyone helps. Ghost lady runs, jumps off balcony.
Variel chases her. Bow shot. Magic and ghosty. She burns up into ash and disappears.
Variel gets cool magic bow.
Journal #19 - Ghosts
Amity!
I took a nap on the couch. It was dusty.
Upstairs?
Like 10 min… way too long, like it’s bigger on the inside than the outside, like a wizard tower….. oh.
Green floor.
Big Spiders! Got bit.
Stupid washing ghost. Locket / brush.
Kitchen = little spiders
Max has spider friends now. Ecosystem.
Journal #18 - The Terrible Room
Amity!
Uhhh. I threw some crystals at it and started running. Variel tried something, it didn’t work, and then she came running too. Max stood in front of Swindle to protect him, and when the thing looked at him, he couldn’t move! Variel and Swindle together pulled him back through into the room, and it didn’t follow us.
Journal #17 - The New Old House
Amity!
It’s way faster, so we took a boat back to Osma’s. All of us in one boat, Max included, and it was fine. Well, there was a traffic jam, but that happens. We only had to walk a little bit. Osma was busy with some customers, but she made some time for us. She thinks we’re trying to get into trouble! But I would never! Plus I told Osma that I’m hanging out with a bunch of responsible old people now, so if we get into trouble it’s totally not my fault. Variel totally vouched to like, take responsibility and stuff.
So Osma was a little exasperated, but she gave us the address of the new house that Lord Cirano bought. Then we went back to the Soaked Hound to get changed. Swindle told Jorra where the house is, and asked about what we should do to blend in better, and Jorra laughed and said that we should just say that we’re here to “help him with his problem.” I guess the house has been on the market for like… 60 years or something. I asked Jorra if Lord Sorrano had anything to do with… that thing i helped him with awhile ago, and he said no. So that’s good.
Variel did my makeup!! It’s so sparkly! Cause we crushed up some crystals and put it in eyeshadow. Pretty smart, right? Everyone looks real posh.
We took another boat up to the Olimpia District. Nobody bothered us, and we ended up at Lord Cirano’s new place. It’s like, beachfront, almost. He was out front, and Variel went and talked to him.
He said he bought the house, but he can’t get into it. The key unlocks the door but it doesn’t… open? He seemed weirded out by our offers of unsolicited assistance. Variel didn’t ask him for money, either.
We went up to the house and checked it out. Max did a ping and says there’s… something? Inside but he isn’t sure what. Variel peeked through the window, and then Misty Stepped into the room, and we didn’t hear from her for a minute or so. Me and Max also Misty Stepped through the window! It’s a Misty Step party! Except not really, because there’s no party inside, just gargoyles trying to kill Variel. Why is it always evil statues! Variel told Swindle to go back and talk to Lord Cirano about the keys, ‘cause she thinks maybe the keys control the house… or something, but when Swindle comes back he’s all offended looking and tells us that Lord Cirano took off!
We killed the statues, and I killed another one before it could even come to life and get us. The house is real old and dusty and cold. Max lifted up this falling apart couch, and there was a doll underneath dressed like a maid with creepy blue crystal eyes. It stabbed me!!
Also we were looking around in the dining room in the chandelier fell down. I don’t know why, I was barely touching it with Mage Hand... Anyway, everyone’s covered in dust and stuff now, in their real fancy clothes. It’s pretty funny.
Oh, we also found a secret passage that has two... secret doors. Like Swindle was moving the secret switch on the statue I smashed the head off of, and the outer door would open, but if you went into the little room, and he moved it back, then you would see a secret door on the other side open up. Me and Max snuck through and looked around a bit. It definitely goes… somewhere. One of the rooms it leads to smelled real familiar, and I couldn’t place it at first, but then I remembered… It reminds me of when the apprentices would practice casting fire spells. So since we couldn’t figure out a way to get everybody into this part of the house (someone would have to stay and move the switches), me and Max came back out. I wonder what’s in there? Oh also the doll came back!! And it stabbed Max! Ugh!
Then we went into the room that’s attached to the dining room, and it was a ghost dinner party! A big angry ghost at one end of the table told us to go away, and then everything was on fire! Only not real fire, cause when we ran through to the next room, it went away. Max thought he found some more mushrooms for Swindle, but it was only spiders.
In this room there were ghosts again, it was two of them planning like, a marital affair. In the past I guess. I don’t know how ghosts work. Is it about regrets? Is that why they’re here? This room has an open archway that leads into… It’s like a garden, except it’s not outside. So I guess it’s still a garden, just… an indoor one. There’s a pond that probably used to be really nice, and lots of really overgrown plants. Some of them are crispy goners. Variel saw something shiny at the far end of the garden, so she went in to look for it.
But um. Something big and scary came out of the pond. I don’t know what it is but I’m pretty sure it’s dead and it has way too many eyes and teeth. Why would you keep something like that in a house!!
Journal #16 - River Night and Golden Day
Amity!
Haha, so, okay. Swindle took off to the Silver Sphinx, but before he left he told me not to let Max get into any trouble. Does Max seem like he’d get into trouble? No, right? And Variel went to see Osma. Rhogkun seemed like he just wanted to stay at the Soaked Hound. I think maybe he was working up to asking Jorra about his family. Rhogkun’s family, I mean… not Jorra’s. The goliaths. If anyone’s heard anything, it’s probably Jorra.
Me and Max were gonna totally have a quiet night in too, but… I got bored. So I decided I’d take Max on the gondola tour! I told him I would, remember?
Anyway, I didn’t do anything wrong! It was a great trip! We went around to see all the districts, and everything was lit up by lanterns and stuff. It was really nice. But when Max went to get out of the boat… he kinda swamped it. And the gondola girl. She fell into the canal. Max jumped in.
And then I couldn’t see him!! I shouted so much, and I tried to light a torch for him to see, and I don’t know if any of that worked or not. Maybe it did. I told him to head south, cause that’s where a ladder is, and I started to see little bubbles going i that direction.
Oh, the gondola girl was fine. She can swim. Max can’t, he’s too heavy. I think… he just walked along the bottom of the canal. When we finally met up again at the ladder, that’s what it looked like too. He was covered in muck and seaweed and other garbage. So we went down to the beach, since we weren’t that far anymore, and I helped him get cleaned up. It took so long! Also I stuck my finger on a little spiky ball thing, which hurt and made me feel weird, but only for a second. But we got him all cleaned up, and honestly he looks better than ever! Max said he had a great time.
The next morning Max found a bit of seaweed we missed though, and Swindle saw, so he asked what happened. Swindle was so mad. Not ‘cause he was worried about me or Max, but ‘cause he was worried about the mushrooms that I guess he’s growing on Max’s back?? He wasted a spell to talk to them!!
Swindle was also trying to trade whatever gossip it was he picked up at the Silver Sphinx for something in particular. I’m not sure what he was asking for, but Jorra said no. I laughed.
Variel said she had a really nice time talking to Osma. She wanted to go see the little shrine to the tiny golden gods here in Riverpuddle, and I’m really curious if it’s still there so that’s where we went next. It’s still there! And it looks like some of the people I told about it were using it, so that made me happy. I put some new flowers in, and me, Variel, and Max all left some money.
Um. Which I guess took awhile ‘cause the security guard from the library came out to talk to us. It’s not like we aren’t allowed to be here, just more like… you should have a reason. And I didn’t want to tell him about the shrine, so I told him I lost a bracelet, and we were looking for it. He was really nice! He said he’d check their lost and found and everything.
After that, I asked everybody what else they want to do. Variel has plans for tonight, I guess with Kendall…? Yeah that old guy who showed us around yesterday. She’s meeting him later, but doesn’t know what for. Weird right? Well, she can take care of herself I guess…
Swindle wants to find a noble party to crash. Where did he even get that idea? Did I say something? I don’t remember. I even told him it would be pretty hard, but he really wants to. I don’t know if he hates rich people or what, but did you notice he keeps making mean little comments about them?
I asked him about what he was trying to trade to Jorra and he said one of the things he learned at the Silver Sphinx is that Lord Cirano is still doing really bad moneywise. At least that’s what people are saying. They’re saying he bought a new house and might be regretting it, but is trying not to let anybody know. He made me trade why I made the shrine behind the library for that information, by the way. I guess it’s a fair trade because I didn’t have any deep reason for doing it, and his gossip isn’t that interesting.
I remember hearing that when Lord Cirano’s business started tanking earlier this year, he kept throwing more and more money after stuff that ended up not working at all. A lot of people thought that was pretty funny. So I guess he still hasn’t figured it out.
Mmm, I think we’re going back to the Soaked Hound to change into our nicer clothes. We could probably ask Jorra or Osma about parties…... I guess.
Journal #15 Back in Town
Amity!
I’m sitting at the top of the lead wagon, so I hear Delibean give Swindle the lowdown on the different districts and stuff.
San Metello (A)- The capital district, nobles and, more specific, the power people.
San Celenia (B) - Merchants, ships, shops. Lots of boxes getting moved around.
Olinda (C) - University district There’s libraries and schools and other places you can’t go unless you have the right papers.
Olimpia (D)- Noble district in general, you just gotta have enough money to get in.
Maccabeo (E) - This is where everybody else lives. Which is most people. It’s big.
Santa Mia (F) - All the regular footwise and wagonwise traffic has to come through here. That’s us!
Prim really likes looking at the boats. Or maybe it’s the water, I’m not sure.
Delibean says we have the day off, he’s gotta go turn in his IOU from Peony and grab rooms for the whole caravan to stay while they get processed for spectacle permits. You know, because it’s a big city so there’s always fees and papers. He also says he’s not sure where the Menagerie is gonna go after this, could be south, since there’s a lot of nice towns down the west side of the bay, but maybe north too, I mean…. Iverfall is up there, and uh… mining… stuff. So that’s just as good right? We talk about it, anyway. Who knows what will happen. Today we’re in Riverpuddle! Then he goes to the Vice and Virtue for rooms, which is okay, but I want to stay at the Soaked Hound because, well, I do, okay?
We go looking for a blacksmith in the shopping district, and I could’ve totally found it if everyone just gave me a little more time, but Variel gets impatient and asks somebody else. He’s an old guy named Kendall, she gave him a whole gold so now he’s gonna follow us around all day hoping for more probably.
Anyway, at the blacksmith we try to see if we can get the mythril chain mail we found in the mole lich lair made into a new shield for Max, but you can tell from how the lady keeps running her fingers over the tiny little links that she’d hate to waste all the work that went into making such a pretty thing. Plus, she says, it’s not enough. Like, physically, to make a shield out of, I mean. Shields are big. She wants to buy it, though. Swindle and Variel together manage to get way more for it than I ever thought, and throw in a new shield for Max and some armor for Variel too!
I ran into a general store and bought a healers kit. It seems pretty easy, maybe I can teach Prim how to use it.
Then we remember about the four gemstones we found in the closet in the mole people lair too, right? So I think, um, well, I might as well try and see if Osma will help us.
Osma’s Ornaments is the nicest shop in San Celenia. Least, I think so. And I spent a lot of time in a lot of different shops. Nothing ever has prices, it’s mostly for people who don’t have to ask. It’s all jewelry and gems and stuff.
Anyway, uh. Turns out that me and Osma are still okay. So that’s good. She gave me a hug and said she was mad at me for leaving without saying anything, but not anymore. She wanted to know all about it, but I pulled out Prim and she fell in love. I bet she makes little crystal dragon jewelry later. Also, she gave us full price for the gems!
We stay and talk to her for a while. Just about regular stuff really. And how I’m a caravan guard now. I think she likes Variel ‘cause she’s fancy too. They’re gonna hang out later.
Then we went to My Flair Lady, which is this really high-end clothing store. I’ve been there lots of times, but never actually bought anything before. Variel’s gonna get her winter wolf pelt made into a coat, hat, and some gloves, and everybody picked out some fancy outfits, even Rhogkun! Well okay, he just bought a hat, but it’s a really nice hat.
All the shopping makes us hungry, so we go to The Soaked Hound. It’s packed, as usual. Brooklyn wasn’t mad at me either. I mean, I dunno why he would be. Pretty sure he thinks he owes me still, so it’ll take a lot more than disappearing to even it out. Oh, you know what an alehouse drake is, right? The Hound has one, his name’s Jorra. He’s like… round. And heavy. He looks heavy but he’s actually even more heavy than that. He loves gossip and news, and everyone comes to the Hound, so it’s a good place for him. I’m gonna tell him so many stories!
Swindle and Variel are gonna check out the Silver Sphinx. It’s um… it’s called a “gentleman’s club” but ladies are pretty welcome too. It’s like, right between Olimpia and Maccabeo, and the patrons are split down the middle basically the same way. They try and get Rhogkun to come, but I don’t know if he’s into that kinda fun.
So far so good, right? I knew it wouldn’t be a big deal.
RP w/ the group - We're Going to Riverpuddle!
Amity!
At some point after getting mauled by wargs, but before reaching the city of RiverPuddle--during a time when the caravan is stopped for an evening’s rest, Swindle waits for an opportune moment when the team is all together. He casually drapes himself over whatever suitable sitting surface is available to him--in a manner akin to a cat that has transitioned into its half-liquid state...perhaps somewhat more dramatically than he intended.
Casting a half-lidded gaze to scan over everyone and read the room, Swindle sighs. “Mmmm, is this pace of life new to anyone other than me? Is this side of the mountains usually so fraught with...general awfulness?” His eyes settle upon Maxwell. “If I weren’t trying to chase down a dear friend of mine, none of this would be a problem for me, and I wouldn’t be here to trouble any of you, but alas.”
Amity is sitting on the ground with a small cloth spread out in front of her, an array of crystals and tools arrayed upon it. She picks up one of them and turns it around, watching the light strike it’s facets.
“Everything’s sorta dangerous... no reason to worry about it. That’s why the menagerie has guards right? Course we went looking for a lot of the trouble you’re talking about...” She looks at Max too, and says to him , “But we can’t just leave people in danger, right?”
Rhogkun doesn't look up from his charcoal doodling as he assertively answers Amity. "No, we can't. If we can help, we should. If we can't, we should still try." He sighs, however, finally setting his implement down, how brow furrowed, his voice softening. "The frequency of these things, they do cause me worry though. But I too am not accustomed to this life. Aside from hunting jaunts, I rarely left my village before this."
"I'm finding it quite invigorating!" Variel chimes in, laying in one the last sunbeams of the dwindling daylight, eyes closed, aimlessly strumming her lute. "No idea as to the normallicy of it all, but it's been rather fun! Saving people... fighting nefarious beings of all sorts..." She stops strumming for a moment to find the bottle of wine she's been nursing, and raises it with mock triumph "Heroic deeds!" She lowers the bottle and carefully negotiates it so as to take a swig without spilling any OR needing to sit up. A motion she is evidently well practiced at.
She ponders for a moment before adding "Though... if I'm being honest, I really didn't expect to be bleeding out quite this often... I didn't expect the material plane to present as many legitimate dangers as it has... I fear I may need some better armour." She tuts and - mostly to herself - mutters "I should've brought one of my good sets instead of the basic options..."
Rhogkun turns to Amity. "You've traveled this way before, right Amity? Are there often occurances like this? Zombies and worm demons?"
Amity shrugs. “I mean.... if you only count the bad things that happened on the road, it’s only two. That’s not that bad. Three if you count Peony, I guess. And I mean sure, there’s always caravans that go out and never come back and no one knows why... not all the time, but you hear about em. It could be anything! That’s why you gotta be prepared!” She points one finger at Rhogkun, mock-shooting him.
Rhogkun mock deflects the shot dismissively. "I still find it worrying. Do you think Riverpuddle will be without problems? Could we get that lucky?" Rhogkun gives a wry grin, as if to say "fat chance".
Amity grins back. “Oh you can get into as much trouble as you want in Riverpuddle. The possibilities are endless.”
Variel leans backwards and looks upside down at the rest of the group. "Good trouble? Fun trouble? Do you have any reccomendations?"
“Mmm.... Well there’s all the markets, and tea shops with cushions, and of course there’s always parties somewhere. I’m sure they’ll let you in anywhere Variel, since you’re adjacent to royalty.”
Rhogkun makes a face at most of this, but mutters under his breath, "Mm, tea shop..."
Variel hops up, and holds the lute out in her left hand, the wine out in her right, in a grand celebration. "Then it's decided! We find the most grandiouse party we can and ensure our attendance!"
"I'm sure rich people have problems, same as all the poor folk we've been helping for free, we might be able to experience a touch of class and find some paying do-goodery work as well!"
She ponders for a moment "Truth be told, I do wonder what passes for classy in this realm... You mentioned hats were important, Amity?"
"Of course hats. And boats. Really rich people have like... six boats."
"Boats?" She frowns and recoils slightly "Aren't... aren't those fisherman's tools or commerce vessels? That sounds very working class..."
Rhogkun looks visibly uncomfortable. "I am not very good with water. I don't know if I like the idea of boats."
"Well you must avoid becoming rich, then!"
"It sounds as if it is important here..."
Amity looks back and forth between the two, "No. They're... they're..." she holds out her hands, as if gesturing will somehow show them what she's trying to say, "They're fancy boats. For having parties, on the bay. Or for sending expensive stuff really far sometimes, I guess."
She looks at Rhogkun, "And there's little boats for getting everywhere in the city!"
Variel squints and leans in "Fascinating...
Rhogkun looks anxious, and looks about the party. "Well, I hope the little boats can hold a lot of weight..."
"Can you not swim, Rhogkun? I'm sure there's no need to fear, I'm certain they accomodate all kinds of sized peoples!"
She tilts her head slightly, confused as to the unfamiliar sign of weakness from the giant
"I can swim!" Rhogkun exclaims maybe a little too quickly and too loudly. "I just do not feel comfortable in water. It doesn't feel... right to me."
Variel squints, smiles wryly, and leans in further "Fascinating..."
Rhogkun gives a small harumph.
Variel lets out a small, stifled giggle, then leans back to her seat and returns her attention to her instrument. "What prompts the curiosity, Swindle? Not feeling out of your depth, are you?"
Swindle lets out a soft snort, “I’ve been saying that I’m out of my depth since the winter wolf.” He casts a surprisingly warm(??) glance to Rhogkun, on some other train of thought, before deciding to stick to the current topic. “Honestly, I had expected to come across a few more...large cities than we have been thus far. What I am looking for will not likely be found in the countryside, ho ho ho.” He taps his bottom lip thoughtfully. “Amity, you mentioned rich people...Does RiverPuddle actually sport an upper class? By the name of it, I had assumed it was some backwater town like the ones we’ve passed through so far.”
Surprised by the lack of Variel / Swindle banter, Amity says, “Huh? Oh yeah. It’s a big merchant town. There’s lots of every kinda people. What are you looking for...?”
Perking up somewhat at the query, Swindle replies, “A big merchant town...mmm? Well...we’ll see, I suppose. I’m looking for the love of my life, dear Amity.” He puts on a wide grin. “Really though, he is the man who made me who I am now. And--about three years ago, I lost track of him. Which is unfortunate, really--because I have something that belongs to him. He’s a veritable robinhood, if you will… A steal from the rich to give to the poor sort, so you can understand why I’d expect him to stick to the cities, hmm~. Ah, I would stop at nothing to find him again.”
“Three years....? Did he just disappear like Rhogkun’s people did?”
Swindle says, "ah, no... nothing of that sort. We simply got separated by a stroke of poor luck and even worse communication. I have no doubts that he is looking for me, as well..!"
Variel: "Separated... Via the continent? I thought you never left your... Den?... Grove?" she clears her throat and slows down, in an attempt to keep any snark from her voice on a potentially sensitive subject... "How is it they got so far away if they knew where you'd be? Are you... certain they want to be found?" she makes the most sincere face she can manage while still looking at swindle. (26 deception for sincerity! If beaten - it's not that she's insincere, more she's trying to PROJECT that she's sincere, given all the prior piss taking, and doesn't want to be misunderstood. Guess something about a lost mentor/love/friend/something hits home for her!)
Swindle: "Oh, ho ho ho no, no. I left the tangle wood some time before meeting Alveres. That is...a whole other story! No, he found me naive and vulnerable, took me under his wing and showed me how to navigate society outside of forest-dwelling life, hn hn~!" Swindle lightly tilts his head from side to side thoughtfully, "Actually, Maxwell's cleric friend somewhat reminded me if him... I mean, completely different disposition, but he too was a cleric...following the word of an entity he called "The Traveller". Perhaps that had something to do with his penchant for wanderlust, as well, hmm..." casting a knowing eye to Variel, Swindle responds, "I am certain he's not...say...avoiding me. I would even like to believe he is searching for me, too... but perhaps not, after all this time. After all, it was I who strayed away from him, and not the other way around. A mistake I deeply regret, I have caused myself a great deal of trouble with it, ho, ho~"
(Sean says Maxwell is here and wanted to respond to Amity and Rhogkun's "we gotta help people" sentiment with much enthisiasm and agreement. And--he is trying to carve in wood--with his carpentry tools--the symbol on the door of maggot devil's crypt (aka "astral maggot cave")...to the uh...best of his memory lmao)
Variel softens at the confirmation, almost nodding, and as if her facial expression were punctuating a fresh scene, she immediately returned to a slightly wry smile and a perpetually mild level of sass. Back in character, so to speak.
"Ahh I see, I see. Hmmm... A Naive Swindle? I can't say I believe such a thing ever existed! This" Traveller" must be a powerful entity to turn you into... This... Merely by proxy... "she winks and continues playing, a bit more melodic now the story involves wanderlust and adventure.
"is there a story to be told about the circumstances of your meeting? Your adventures? separation? I can put it to music for the appropriate gravitas if you'd like..." her smile turns into a more playful one.
Maxwell's eyes narrow, "The Traveller? It is not a member of the sovergn host..."
(Tbf, I dont even know if Swindle would know much about the traveller either altho he SHOULD and could probably roll with adv, but I will wait for Jay's verdict on that before I assume annnything haha)
Swindle: "You can't imagine a naïve Swindle, because a naïve Swindle never existed, ho ho ho! I had a different name, then. Firbolg...our names our dependent on the company we keep and the roles we preform, and we never choose our own names. Ah--Alveres delighted in how happy the wealthy elite were to be swindled of their coin while I was present to assure them of their choices. And so, well...my name. Back then, I hadn't thought it to be such a terrible thing. After all, I grew up in a society where resources were evenly distributed amongst everyone, mmm. It only made sense that to me that the rich would be eager to part with their excess to the benefit of those without..!" He sighs, "Genuinely, greed is a relatively new concept to me, truly, it is! Alveres and I lived an...hmmm...shall we say 'modest' lifestyle...he greatly preferred the down to earth lifestyle of the working class and lower. But, in order to bring some wealth and resource down to them, we also had to dress and act the part of the ambitious aristocrat, and so we did!"
Variel: "I'm afraid I'm beginning to sound like a single song minstrel, but... That is most fascinating... How did you determine you were due for a re-naming? Are there requirements? Or merely if intentions align?"
She pauses for a moment, registering the rest of his story. A disapproving frown crosses her face as she tries to process it. "So you... were the innocent party in large scale scamming? To lend it legitimacy? Amazing... this must have been a fair while ago... I suppose Greed is mostly just selfishness applied to resources, and if you've never known resources to be anything other than equal, that WOULD make sense..." She looks back to him with an aside "I'm only saying, because honestly you CAN be rather selfish, so greed being so intrinsically linked yet alien to you is a LITTLE hard to believe at first..." then returns to her pondering "But... No that makes sense."
She frowns more before further pursuing the point "Were the rich that you stole from... bad? Why weren't they helping the poor? Were the poor unhappy, or were they just greedy themselves, lusting after what the rich had - I'm assuming - earned?"
Swindle: "We have no say in our names nor when they are due. It's...you could call it an organic process. A name that sticks will simply do just that. Otherwise, it is hardly a name at all, mmm?"
Swindle swats her concern about the alignment of an entire social class out of the air with a lazy wave of his hand, "Oh goodness, no. The...lawfulness of Alveres' schemes were dubious at best, ho ho ho. It was ah, something about a charity... and the folks who donated to it always seemed to have a bounce to their step, which I now understand to be the wafting joy of moral superiority that they have explicitly, literally bought into. Alveres always explained it as such, but it took me some time to understand just...what he meant. The wealthy elite, aristocracy in this realm, dear Variel, are an exceptionally lazy sort, most having been born into their money and priviledge, rather than having worked for it... Paying a pittance of coin for the chance to feel like they have contributed to something meaningful is...well...quite literally the least they could do, ho ho ho." He holds up a finger. "Ah, but!! The rich--being quite removed from the reality of the common folk--having never walked in those shoes--tend to hold this belief among themselves that the poor are poor solely because they are lazy or apathetic...the rich don't find it very fashionable to give explicitly to the poor...based on this unfortunate misconception, hmmm..."
Turning up his palms, Swindle concludes, "at least, this was Alveres' justification for setting up somewhat...deceptively named charities...specially designed to appeal to the upper class's very conditional generousity. They don't miss the money, it is hardly a blip in their books...but for the working class, it apparently meant a great deal to them, ho ho ho." He thinks about it for a moment and shrugs. "It's all a bit too elaborate of a set-up for my tastes. But, I wouldn't doubt Alveres' intentions for a second. He is, what I would describe as being, a pretty decent person, ho ho! Interpret that as you will, I suppose." With a glint in his eye, he adds, "as I said, it's been three years since I last saw him, and we'd travelled together for longer than that. I guess you can say that I have changed a bit since then, yes."
She leans closer still "so... Is it a Firbolg thing? A tribal thing? If we traveled together long enough and decided to call you... I don't know... Stoner... Healbag? Would that simply BE your name? What magics decide it as your true name verses a nickname?" she thinks for a moment about her own rediculous identifiers"... Or a title, even?"
She is clearly not convinced,and leans back, shaking her head, lips pursed. "This will require investigation upon our arrival to River Puddle... I do not approve of these... Methods... of wealth redistribution your friend concocted, but if the rich are not taking care of their workers then they must be set right! It is the duty of those with power to look after those with none!... to a reasonable extent. That's why they receive the title of nobility! Because they must be noble!" she pauses, realising how obvious and naive this must sound to the natives of the plane and sits back down, slouching over her lute with as much pride as can be mustered, muttering to herself sulkily -" my lady would never allow such things in the realm of summer..."
Swindle frowns. "I don't have to like a name for a name to become my name. Such is the case for Swindle, these days. I admit I love the way it rolls of the tongue, but the assumptions it inspires in complete strangers is more than a little discouraging, ho, ho." He casts a hard stare over at Rhogkun before continuing to answer Variel's queries. "Hn, hn, maybe firbolg culture and the culture of your court have more in common than we both expected..! Here, a nobel title is commonly passed down through generations. While the first recipiant of the nobility may have been all and truly a 'salt of the earth' philanthropist, their children are rarely ever so. Growing up in the lap of luxury tends to cause spoiling, it seems. I mean, just look at Piony. Nobility or not she is, at the very least, an inheritor. We all got an good eyeful of how graciously she employed her power to eh...'distribute the wealth', mmm?" And, due to a sheer scrap of curiousity, Swindle asks, "What would your lady do with someone like that?"
"Fascina- Huhm. Most interesting. I had no idea the power of a name ran so deeply within your culture. I will of course - joking aside - be most careful not to invoke something by accident." She nods respectfully. More respect given to the fact that it is the way of things rather than to Swindle himself, but still. It's something.
"But surely these people TRAIN their children? Or their wards? Even we of born nobility in the courts must prove ourselves exceptional before we are allowed any modicum of power or... respect is the wrong word... dedication? Allegiance? I proved myself in... certain areas, not dreaming to ever reach as high as I did, but my closest and truest friend happened to be deemed worthy of the next leadership role, and appointed me her second because I excel in areas opposite to her. Those who show no interest or aptitude are left to their inheritance certainly, but they are not trusted with leadership until they prove themselves worthy. And in the fey court there are more intangible currencies worth FAR more than gold."
At the mention of what The Lady of Summer would do with Piony, Variel scoffs heartily, almost choking. "Why she'd never have to deal with someone as mundane as Piony Oakweed... If all went well, the situation would not arise for her to be a problem. She would not be deemed worthy of a great deal of power, and thus would not be allowed to exert it over anyone. She'd be left mostly to her own devices, but she'd never be allowed to own people, or charge money for access to a holy site... Indeed, maintaining it would likely be her ONLY duty!" she looks quite prideful in herself and her Lady's political system. "It's a tenuous balance, and one we constantly must strive to upkeep, but the power dynamic in the Summer court rewards people based on merit. The working class are often favoured guests among the highest nobility - for they do the manual labour, produce the goods, etcetera. We keep them safe and happy. Those who do not wish to contribute are accepted, but never... revered..." She pauses, and considers for a moment, briefly homesick. "And sad to say, her punishment if she HAD managed would likely have been less... Probably apprenticed to someone, or time in the army or something..." She waves her hand dismissively and is most definitely elsewhere for a moment.
Swindle places his chin into the palms of his hands while he listens to Variel get lost in memories of him, a smile across his face that might be difficult to read as anything other than smug or snide...because it's Swindle. But none of that potential for snide smugness makes its way into his tone of voice when he speaks. "I think our cultures almost mirror one another. Yours sounds like a splendidly luxurious world held aloft by the wealth provided by the realm itself. How very fortunate that the laws of its land fairly rule..! On the other hand, my folk are, strive to be, and will always remain as a culture of work, taking only what is needed and maintaining the very dirt from which our sustenance grows. I think, though--that difference may solely be a product of our respective environments. The feywilds sounds like a veritable wonderland, an environment more rich than the creatures that inhabit it. Here, it is quite the opposite, ho, ho, ho. And so, in the mortal realm, money can buy most anything...Even titles, favors, accolades, and pardons for the most grievous of crimes. It is simple how things are. Because wealth and riches can be hard come by for those who were not born into it. The land itself does not produce it...not quickly enough for the mmm ambitious nature of man."
Chin still in his hands, his eyes narrow like that of a pleased cat. "Your lady, your best friend... You two grew up together? Er...do Eladrin 'grow up'? She must miss you as tremendously as you miss her, surely?"
She returns, not bothering to hide her daydream from the group. "Mmm... Mirror, perhaps. I wonder if it isn't all part of the same symbiotic circle? The Feywild is a reflection of what occurs in the material plane... your folks maintain the natural energy... we thrive... as a result of our not necessARILY deific nature, borderline at least, we produce power which can be manipulated by those so attuned back in the Material plane... We could very well unwittingly be a part of the same ecosystem!"
She returns to her matter of fact kind of expositioning. "Of course that's just how Summer works right now, under My Lady. Previous seasons haven't worked the same, and the other seasons don't NECESSARILY share our way of thinking. We're relied on for passion, and my lady believed that we could step away from the more... hmm... aggressive? Forms? Truly, in previous seasons, we could be most domineering and war focused. Or so the historians say... I personally prefer our new methods, and that is why... things are as they are."
"Mmm, we grow up. Some of us more than once. Time is variable back home, and generally suits our need. We are born useless babies, as are most things, and grow to adulthood, but adulthood for some is staying physically 100 forever, while some can appear..." She pauses and looks at Rhogkun, trying to gauge linear age progression at a glance "Uhh... Middle aged? I don't know the terminology, apologies. Either way, I am but ten years My Lady's junior, but she appears as youthful and radiant as the moment she came of age... Not once has she wavered. While due to the nature of my... life I have lived all the way through to my elder years, and back again times beyond counting." She finishes boasting about her friend, and once again grows a tad melancholy. "I would say "I hope she does" but I would not wish any such ill upon her. I chose exile to this realm as punishment partially because I believed it would be far less time for her than it would me, so she needn't... I mean I shouldn't be so vain as to assume she'd SUFFER without me, but... you know. This way she can continue doing good, and as far as she's concerned I will be back in but a few weeks or months." She looks as though she's about to play something, but as soon as her fingers touch the fretboard, she retracts them, and smiles to herself, shaking her head.
Swindle: "Hmm...so say you found a suitable gift to make amends with... Such as, say... An exotic spice-producing plant, ho, ho, ho! How long would it take to find your way back to the fey wilds?"
Variel: "mmm well... either I - as part of the exile - manage to secure passage back of my own accord? I'd only need be here a year? Five years? If I can't find a suitable way back myself, it will depend on the perceived appropriateness of the gifts I secure. I am paying for a taken life, so could be a couple of centuries if they really stretch things out..."
Swindle: "Hm... Not to poke a wound, but--your lady, did she at all try to stop you? Life and time in the feywilds sounds a little bendy, the guy who perished, will he not just be reborn again? Or is this not how that works? The idea of death being a somewhat...impermanent thing is intriguing to me. I was once told that, when you die--you take nothing with you. The only thing that can truly remain yours is, more or less, the legacy you imprint upon the living via your deeds and meaningful relationship, and so forth. But, as you've said, you've been through countless lives, and through them all, you've held onto enough things that you and your lady were able to remain friends through it all."
She gets quite heated at the initial questioning, as if it were quite rediculous "I wouldn't have had it if she did, and neither would her other advisors! It was my job, and pleasure - anything to ensure she remains in power." she nods most definitively. "but no, she objected emotionally, of course to my taking the whole punishment, but she understood why it must happen. The fellow we- I killed... I cannot say! It was not a controlled transition, and he was not in his home plane... He may have been lucky enough to rejoin his own internal cycle, perhaps even with memories intact... Or he could have been reincarnated somewhere else, as someone or something else... or he may simply be energy in the cycle, for now." she looks to Swindle" our physical forms are tied to the soul, and its purpose, so age in the feywild can be variable. But if uncontrolled... " she shrugs" who knows? "
Swindle's brow furrows slightly and his gaze drifts towards some lower corner of the room. "Interesting concept..." He clasps his hands together with an accommodating grin. "Say, if I were still around when it's time to find home again, perhaps I could lend a hand..! After all, I've got a finger in the feywilds, myself and my entire, mmm...field of study revolves around getting more and more of a foot into that door, so to speak, ho ho ho. Perhaps by then, between the two of us, it'll be a simple walk in the park." He offers a knowing wink that nothing can ever be so cut and dry, but one can certainly dream heh
She snorts briefly, entirely too proud of herself. "Yes, I'm sure your fingering could prove most useful in the long run." She looks around briefly for acknowledgement, but realises it might not be the right crowd, and instead clears her throat. "But yes, I do appreciate the offer. My thanks." She nods. "And of course until such a time as I require such help, I am happy to assist you..." she looks around and gestures to the rest of the group "... ALL of you, in whatever noble quests you might deem worthy of our attention." She bows slightly, unable to NOT add some small flourish to the moment.
(SWINDLE BITES BACK THE MOST INAPPROPRIATE RETORT EVER AND AS HE DOES, THERE IS A MICROSECOND OF PHSYCAL PAIN IN HIS EXPRESSION. Coughs.)
Journal #14 - Back on the Road
Amity!
Before we go, Variel invites Lynden, Azalea, Delibean, and Peony to the caravan for a nice lunch while they work out how much Peony owes Delibean. I dunno how much money he gets, but he’s whistling a lot so I think it’s enough. Variel makes sure that Peony gets all her other stuff back, and that keeping her sword is part of the reparations. At first I don’t get it, ‘cause it’s not like she likes Peony (remember the song?) but then I remember how Variel is a faerie, and I think maybe it’s just she doesn’t wanna owe her anything. I remember that much from the stories, at least.
Max says goodbye to Azalea, and I think they’re both sad about it. I still wanna know how it is she got kicked out of the Host but Lynden still listens to her….
Then we leave! Finally!
The road is pretty quiet mostly. Swindle rides up front with Delibean, and they’re chatting in Gnomish the whole time. I barely even see Variel, she’s in the wagon with Ample Harvest getting more cooking crash courses. Me and Prim mostly just hang out and watch the world go by, which is about as ambitious as either of us feel right now so that’s fine.
But on the sixth or seventh day, all of the wagon stop when they’re not supposed to. I dunno what’s going on, but after a minute I hear Swindle and Variel shouting from way up front, so I hop down to go see.
Max, Swindle, and Variel are all standing around a body in the middle of the road, and all three of them’ve got arrows in them! I don’t see anything, but Swindle waves his arms at a bush and shouts at me, so I shoot some crystals at it. I don’t think I got anything. I stay back by the caravan.
But a couple seconds later I get a bad feeling, cause then I do see what got them- It’s goblins! And some real ugly wolves. Delibean says later that they’re worgs (wargs? idk).
Anyway, everybody who’s up there on the road is having a real bad time. And!! My aim is real bad today, AGAIN. I get real worried and run up, and don’t even notice til afterwards that some of the goblins got me too. But we’re all real tough, right? After all the real bad stuff in the crypt we’re not gonna… let some crappy goblins kill anybody!
And finally the caravan guards remember to do their jobs, and shoot some arrows at the ugly wolves, and that helps too. After, Swindle lies on the ground for awhile and Max gives him some healing while I remember to take some new crystal shards with me, since I haven’t for a while. I found lots of the kind that are good for my crystal blast, those ones are easy, and a couple new bits that I think might be good for something else, but I’ll have to work on them a little first.
Oh yeah, and when Swindle gets up he finds some buried bear traps in the road- wow it would have been really bad if someone stepped on those during the fight!!
Then the wagons start up again and we go back on our way. And finally… we can see Riverpuddle! It’s been… a month? Two months? I can’t remember. I DO remember how much nicer it is than getting almost killed by ghosts and goblins though, so I can’t wait.
RP w/ Variel - In Between
Amity!
Variel watches and listens to all of the above from the shadows, noticed by none. She narrows her eyes slightly and her mouth twitches to the side. Hmmmm...
Yes.
Amity would definitely be the one to help her in this matter. While she was certain she could grasp Rhogkun’s magics, it would take more time than she would prefer to spend on the matter. Amity clearly has a much more… innate? relationship with the arcane. Rhogkn’s method, with the endless writing and reading and ugh would become wearying after a few years, but diving head-first into things was something she understood well.
She nodded to herself. She would compose her thoughts, let Amity fuss over Prim for a while, then approach her. And with any luck, she wouldn’t mind walking back around town to help get the wolf furs…
An hour or two later (?) she will approach Amity.
“Hello Amity! Prim.” She nods politely to the pseudodragon if he is present and visible “I wondered if you might accompany me on a short walk, I had some things I wanted to ask you and might need a hand retrieving the pelt from Frank... [did he end up with a name??] I asked him to leave two masks out on the post, and I assure you the place is a lot more interesting when you cannot smell it.” She steps back and to the side, gesturing with her arm in the vague direction of the tannery and adopting a half bow half lean kinda thing? You know what I mean.
Amity stretches her arms. “I mean... I’ve seen a tannery before. Wastow’s is way bigger. But if you’re lonely I wanna go for a walk so it works out.”
A fleeting look of surprise is contained before it crosses her face entirely, and is replaced with a smile as she realises the absurdity of her interest. "FanTASTIC. My apologies, I forget that things I find most novel here are but the mundanities of the world to you. Shall we?”
She gestures onwards again and joins Amity at a brisk meander - making sure to gain some distance from the camp before beginning her lines of questioning.
“Soooo.... I’ve noticed that you possess a similar ability to one I use, in that you can step briefly through the veil to appear elsewhere… And that earlier today you uh… mastered? The ability to banish and summon Prim to another plane at your own whims?” She briefly examines a blossoming flower nearby, both in genuine interest and a calculated attempt to appear casual and only MINORLY interested. “I was wondering how that… uh… feels?”
She pauses, frowning, considering if "feels" is the apropriate term, and looks back to Amity to see if it registered.
"Feels....?" She echos Variel's frown. "It doesn't really feel like... anything. One second I'm here, and then I'm in between and then... over there. I asked Prim what the pocket was like, but he didn't tell me." She looks over at Variel with a sort of half-shrug.
Variel considers this. Contemplates a bit. Ponders it some.
"So you never really notice anything about the action of uh... puncturing? The veil? When I do magic I normally either visualise it as a series of curves and connections that I manipulate or mess with... or a song that I conduct... Perhaps a poem where I'm inserting a rhyme scheme, or a joke where I'm adding the punchline..."
She gesticulates a lot during her explanation, as if that will help her translate it somehow. She pauses briefly, looking in the air and trying to pull another definition to her, but failing to. She returns her gaze to Amity, and decides to start again instead.
"When I use my step ability, I travel through the Feywild for the briefest of moments. As time and space works differently there, my single step results in covering a comparatively vast distance here. When I do it I remember the warmth and joy and... almost lackadaisical perception of danger I grew up with there and envision myself cloaked with the feeling and dancing through the space."
She searches Amity's eyes for any flicker of recognition "I'm not sure you travel the Feywild, but... you DEFINITELY go somewhere. Maybe the same place as Prim did... IF we could understand it better then..." She mentally wanders off for a moment and stares once more into the distance. Admittedly, her eyes did provide a certain level of difficulty with working out where exactly she was looking, but something still happened with them when they were engaged with people compared to scanning environments, and assessing threats...
She rouses herself from her trailing thought, plucks the flower and decorates her hair with it before standing up. "Are you sure none of this feels familiar? Have you perhaps just not thought about it or noticed? Could we perhaps examine some possibilities?"
Amity stares at Variel quite blankly for most of her explanation, then scratches the back of her head, thinking. Is this important? Maybe? "I hadn't really thought about it, to be honest."
"I guess I could....." and she takes a step firmly forward, disappearing.
Variel looks around for Amity with a 21 Perception. She gets a 22 Arcana to try and analyse the planar skip or anything about the process.
"Hmmmm... Interesting(?)" she maybe says.
(DM tl;dr notes: Variel's steps are flowery, Amity's are kinda cold)
Journal #14 - Back on the Road
Amity!
Before we go, Variel invites Lynden, Azalea, Delibean, and Peony to the caravan for a nice lunch while they work out how much Peony owes Delibean. I dunno how much money he gets, but he’s whistling a lot so I think it’s enough. Variel makes sure that Peony gets all her other stuff back, and that keeping her sword is part of the reparations. At first I don’t get it, ‘cause it’s not like she likes Peony (remember the song?) but then I remember how Variel is a faerie, and I think maybe it’s just she doesn’t wanna owe her anything. I remember that much from the stories, at least.
Max says goodbye to Azalea, and I think they’re both sad about it. I still wanna know how it is she got kicked out of the Host but Lynden still listens to her….
Then we leave! Finally!
The road is pretty quiet mostly. Swindle rides up front with Delibean, and they’re chatting in Gnomish the whole time. I barely even see Variel, she’s in the wagon with Ample Harvest getting more cooking crash courses. Me and Prim mostly just hang out and watch the world go by, which is about as ambitious as either of us feel right now so that’s fine.
But on the sixth or seventh day, all of the wagon stop when they’re not supposed to. I dunno what’s going on, but after a minute I hear Swindle and Variel shouting from way up front, so I hop down to go see.
Max, Swindle, and Variel are all standing around a body in the middle of the road, and all three of them’ve got arrows in them! I don’t see anything, but Swindle waves his arms at a bush and shouts at me, so I shoot some crystals at it. I don’t think I got anything. I stay back by the caravan.
But a couple seconds later I get a bad feeling, cause then I do see what got them- It’s goblins! And some real ugly wolves. Delibean says later that they’re worgs (wargs? idk).
Anyway, everybody who’s up there on the road is having a real bad time. And!! My aim is real bad today, AGAIN. I get real worried and run up, and don’t even notice til afterwards that some of the goblins got me too. But we’re all real tough, right? After all the real bad stuff in the crypt we’re not gonna… let some crappy goblins kill anybody!
And finally the caravan guards remember to do their jobs, and shoot some arrows at the ugly wolves, and that helps too. After, Swindle lies on the ground for awhile and Max gives him some healing while I remember to take some new crystal shards with me, since I haven’t for a while. I found lots of the kind that are good for my crystal blast, those ones are easy, and a couple new bits that I think might be good for something else, but I’ll have to work on them a little first.
Oh yeah, and when Swindle gets up he finds some buried bear traps in the road- wow it would have been really bad if someone stepped on those during the fight!!
Then the wagons start up again and we go back on our way. And finally… we can see Riverpuddle! It’s been… a month? Two months? I can’t remember. I DO remember how much nicer it is than getting almost killed by ghosts and goblins though, so I can’t wait.
RP w/ Rhogkun and Prim - Pockets
Amity!
Amity walks back to her wagon, kicking a rock as she goes. What does he know, anyway. She opens the door - no one is inside- except for Prim, curled up into a tight blue pile in a blanket nest on the top of one of the bunk beds. She pulls herself up with ease and sits down next to him, petting him gently on the top of his head with just one finger.
“Hey. How you holding up?”
Prim shifts atop the pile of blankets, his head lifting on his sinuous neck to regard Amity with bleary eyes. He blinks lazily before lifting himself from the pile and stretching, his wings unfurled to their full width. After a moment, he returns to a sitting position and looks at Amity with half-lidded eyes.
“Yeah me too. Thanks for... looking out for me. You do a good job.” She tries to put on her best serious face. “Listen. Those things in the cave.... that was really scary right? I was thinking ... well I had an idea. Maybe... maybe it would be good if you could disappear and... reappear. You know?”
Prim's eyelids lower further and he lets out an angry-sounding snort. A feeling fills your mind that you can't quite place... a sweet-yet-rancid taste, like pudding gone bad. At Amity's suggestion, Prim's frills perk up a bit and he tilts his head to the side before scurrying under the pile of blankets, his tail whip-cracking behind him. After a moment, he lifts just his head from the blankets to stare at Amity before quickly lowering it back down beneath the piles of fabric.
Amity frowns. “No, this is serious. Didn’t you see the thing with all the legs?”
Prim pokes his head back out from the blankets wearing his familiar angry expression. He stares at Amity for a long moment before slooowly lowering his head back down beneath the blankets while maintaining eye contact.
“Well if you don’t think you can I just ... well I mean even regular boring familiars like Rhogkun’s cat can do it.” She holds out her hand as an offer for him to come with her.
There is a moment where nothing happens after Amity finishes speaking, then a slight shifting of the fabrics before Prim slinks out from the bottom of the pile. He stares up at her for a moment with a tired expression before sullenly flopping down next to her.
Amity drops her hand to her lap. Sure, okay. Close enough. She hops down to the floor, and looks up at him, “Watch.”
And she takes a couple steps to the door, closes it carefully, and then peers through the small glass window set into it, checking the view outside. She turns back to Prim, raising a finger meaningfully.
Then she turns back to the door and Misty Steps to the other side. Now Prim can see the top half of her face gazing encouragingly at him from the other side.
Prim watches Amity's performance through grumpy eyes, having seen her cast Misty Step several times already. He stares for a moment, Amity's face beaming from the other side of the small window. Time seems to drag on for a few dozen seconds before Prim's eyes quirk a bit and he waddles back into the pile of blankets and disappears under the fabrics.
Amity presses her nose up against the glass and thinks COME HERE at Prim with all the frustration she can muster.
Amity sees the unmoving pile of blankets and white puffs of condensation on the glass.
She glares at the pile of blankets. Then she turns around, leans against the door, and slides down into a crouch.
It’s time for a pout.
While looking through the glass, you saw Prim crawl into the pile of blankets. As you stared in frustration for a few moments, you think you see the pile.... deflate somewhat.
Amity reconsiders her observations, and goes inside to look for Prim.
Looking about the cabin, Amity finds no sign of Prim. Tossing the blankets aside uncovers only the bare cot and looking under said cot reveals only dust bunnies.
Amity is not worried. Everything is fine. She leaves the wagon and goes looking for some minor assistance, that’s all. When she sees the person she’s looking for, she says, a little too loud:
“RHOGKUN. I made Prim disappear how do I get him back????”
Rhogkun looks up with a start for his spellbook, deciphering age old Goliath runes into what might be... a slowing spell?... and narrows his eyes at toward Amity. " Hello. Usually we say hello first before anything else. You do well most of the time, but sometimes, you forget this custom. Nice to see you today, Amity." Rhogkun looks at her a little smugly, a thin smile on his lips. He's not as worried about this as she is.
Amity squints one eye at him in rather complete annoyance, before rocking back on her heels and pressing one hand to her chest, saying, "Oh gosh, I'm super sorry. How are your spells coming today, Rhogkun? Is everything well with you? Oh but by the way," and she drops her shoulders, "this is really important!!"
Rhogkun quirks his head back as if struck, having never seen Amity like this. Staring at her for a pause, he suppresses a chuckle - she's so small, like a goliath child, perhaps even smaller. "So. You've sent Prim away, is that it? And you don't know how to get the familiar back?"
She crosses her arms, but knows she's getting somewhere. "Yeah. Where... did he go?"
Rhogkun closes the spellbook slowly, the heavy stone slabs still making an audible thunk even when shut with care. Standing, he runs a hand back through his hair, absent mindedly flattening a wild patch on the top as he speaks. "Well, that's a very big question, and a different one then your first." He squints, thinking it through as he speaks. "They're not real animals, that I summon. They are spirits from other planes of existence that take the form of the animal I wish the enlist in my service. But..." He trails off, dropping his hands into his pockets awkwardly. "I don't know how, Amity, but I feel as if your familiar is different than those I summon."
He continues, half to himself. "I don't understand how you could summon a familiar without willfully casting the spell, honestly. It's a different sort of application of magic than I know. Is Prim a real pseudodragon? Or a spirit in the form of one? Where does Prim come from?" He looks at Amity, having entirely forgotten what she originally came to him for.
She tries to remember. "Um. Well he doesn't talk in words, right? He said he used to be part of something, where he was never alone. Just kinda... drifting along, and being happy. And then he sent me sparks and light. And then a feeling like I wrecked everything for him."
"I didn't really get it."
"Sparks and light...?" Rhogkun is equally confused.
"I don't think he's been around for very long. When I first got him everything made him jumpy. And he likes to just look at stuff. But I dunno where he was before. Couldn't that be another plane though, his happy place?"
"I suppose, yes." Rhogkun twists a mustache. "There are many planes, maybe more than we'll ever know. Even more with small pockets for small creatures to live... oh!" His eyes widen. "I completely forgot. That is likely where he is." He wiggles his hand in his pocket. "Just a small pocket dimension connected to our plane. You just likely sent him back there, whether you meant to or not."
Amity blinks, "Oh! Is it okay there? It's not gonna hurt him? How do I make him come back?"
"I assume it's okay there." Rhogkun shrugs. "I don't really know. I doubt it's... bad." He stares off, thinking. "Whatever the case, you can call him back." He pulls his pocket inside out, a few loose coin clattering to the ground. He looks down at the coins, and up a Amity, proud of himself and maybe a little smug. "All you have to do is turn the pocket inside out."
"Turn the pocket inside out...." she mumbles to herself, sitting on the ground. She stares, thoughtfully, at seemingly nothing, and tries to mentally pull Prim to her now, in the same way she accidentally pulled him away in the first place.
As she concentrates, in a lower tone, Rhogkun half speaks, half whispers. "If you can't, you may have sent him away for good..."
Rhogkun coughs awkwardly.
Amity looks up at him, apalled, "...That's not helpful!"
Rhogkun flushes and waves his hands excitedly. "I am sorry! I simply didn't want to mislead you! We can dismiss familars permenantly. But I, uh, I don't know how you would! You don't even really know how you summoned him!!"
"Aaaahhh!" Amity flattens her hands on her lap, willing herself not to worry. "It's... it's fine. I'm sure it will be fine. How hard can it be if I got him here by accident." She blows out a breath and furrows her brow and starts thinking magic thoughts again.
In a low half whisper again, Rhogkun says to himself, "I hope he hasn't been permenantly dismissed... if so, it's very likely she may never see him again...."
Amity says nothing, squeezing her eyes into tiny slits.
Amity pushes the welling feeling of panic away for a moment as she concentrates. For a moment or two, nothing seems to happen... but then there is a subtle shifting in the weight of her backpack and she feels the familiar sensation of Prim's wings flopping over her shoulders as he pops out of the top.
“Prim!!!”
Amity gently pulls him down into her lap so she can get a good look at him.
He wriggles a bit in a futile and half-hearted attempt to escape. He sits dumpily on her lap and stares up at her with half-lidded eyes before looking to Rhogkun and heaving a small sigh.
Rhogkun sighs in relief. "Haha! I knew you could do it!" The unease on his face clearly states that he, in fact, wasn't sure.
Prim sighs again.
Amity looks up at Rhogkun, “thanks.”
Rhogkun makes a face of concern, his eyebrows furrowed. "I shouldn't have made jokes, I am sorry Amity. I'm glad you have Prim back." He looks at the small creature with some appreciation. "I know he is important to you."
Prim does a blep.
Amity points at Prim, gently. “You are.”
Rhogkun feels slightly uncomfortable at their heartfelt moment, and suddenly looks up at something in the sky and shuffles his feet.
Prim again makes a token attempt at struggling before relenting and settling into her lap. If he has to be here he will at least be comfortable.
Amity looks at him, “was the pocket place okay?”
Prim blinks slowly before tilting his head. He stares with his milky eyes and then crawls over her shoulder, feet scrabbling every which way, and back into her backpack. Amity feels the pack rustling around as Prim reorients himself before popping his head back out of the top.
“Um, okay.” She stands up and dusts herself off. “I guess we’re done. I’m gonna go see if Ample Harvest has anything cooking right now. Bye Rhogkun!”
And she trots off.
Rhogkun waves in her general direction as her back is turned, like a parent waving goodbye to their child at school - melancholic and hopeful simultaneously.
RP w/ Swindle (secrets?)
Amity!
Amity breathes a sigh of relief after the trial is - finally- over. She spends the afternoon with Max and the others, happy that he isn't going to be taken away. She hadn't even considered that could be... a thing. Max is obviously a person, right?
Later on though, she keeps an eye out for a chance to catch Swindle alone... and seizes a moment, slinking up to him with a determined but uncomfortable look on her face.
"So... what do you want?" she says, and squints up at him.
Swindle, who had finally just managed to grasp a quiet moment alone to write in his journal, continues scribbling down the sentence he was on. "Mmm? Not much, honestly. Though, a cup of tea would be nice, if you're offering to fetch, hnhnhn." He closes the journal to look up at her. "Ah, you're not."
She makes a face at him.
"I want to teach you how to spin a good story, is all. This is a perfect opportunity, don't you think?"
Amity blinks. "What?"
He lazily turns up his palms. "I mean, I could inform everyone that you've been contacted by some ominous entity who's insignia bears a troubling resemblance to the one we saw on that crypt door. But what would be the fun in that? No one would want to investigate that. It speaks to all kinds of potentially unnessicary trouble, mmm?" Sitting back, he strokes his chin thoughtfully. "And you don't want to give them any reason to pry into what ever it is you've been keeping close to your chest. And so--a convincing story must be crafted."
Amity sits down nearby, pulling in her feet and sitting cross-legged on the ground. "I feel like my story has been going over just fine except for you. And since you didn't say anything about the letter, and won't say anything about the letter -" she gives him a questioning look, "Then everything is fine, right?"
Swindle's brow dips a little, and he looks casually over his shoulder before saying, "I'm not sure if you've noticed, but you've not been pitching to the most...mmm...insightful audience. And self aggrandizing flights of fancy tend to fall apart pretty quickly once outsiders looking in get an earful of it. Those 'outsiders' could be anyone, from a savvy innkeep, to temporary, unplanned travel companions. You want a story that won't unravel in the face of ...unknown variables."
He raises a finger, "And so, that brings us to the first rule of thumb: a convincing story must craft its foundation upon a mundane truth.
So tell me, Amity. Why are we traveling northward to the frigid Ivorfall?"
"Uh. It says if it isn't too much trouble... which it clearly would be... So. You know. Really that means we don't... have to...." and trails off. "We're obviously going to Riverpuddle next, we don't even have to worry about that yet!" She sputters, "Swindle, I get that this is fun for you, but I don't WANT to go to Ivorfall."
Swindle's demeanor doesn't falter, and with a bemused smile, he tilts his head just a tad. "Is this not your grand wizard friend from your home in Watsow? Clearly, that's where he knows you from. Ho, ho, why the cold feet about it?"
She glares at him, "Yeah, my super great wizard friend." She takes deep breath, copies his demeanor from earlier and raises a single finger. "Possibly we did not part on the best of terms."
At that, an ear does flick in her direction. "Now there's a truth, and a juicy one. One that could use some elaboration."
His smirk shrinks somewhat. "What part of that has you frightened?"
She looks at him like he's an idiot. "Uh. He's a wizard and he sent me a piece of paper from forever-far way."
"Unsettling, yes--but in a manner that seems almost like...a potential recruitment. Now, I know approximately one and a half wizards, and neither of them have been particularly convincing with their bluffs and lies. What would you have had to do to inspire such an enduring and dogged resentment that he'd reach out to you personally to invite you into...a trap?"
She continues to glare at him, and then looks away. "I mean honestly? It's been 10 years I figured if something bad was gonna happen, it would have happened a long time ago. Right? But. Okay. Have you ever... have you ever wanted something... wanted to BE something more than you are, even though you know you never, ever could no matter how hard you tried?"
"I've experienced something a little akin to that, yes." He props his elbow onto the table and rests his chin atop his hand. "If an opportune solution presented itself, I'd have grasped it without a second thought."
Amity nods. "Well. Maybe I did. Maybe I grasped something that didn't belong to me... And I left. A long time ago. And nothing ever happened! Until now. I don't know what he wants. It could be anything."
Does that something have anything to do with those, perchance?" He casts an eye to her satchel of crystals.
"Something like that."
"You're rather adept at exploding things. I assume that wasn't quite the case at the time of your departure, mmm? Ten years is not a long time, but it's enough time for some remarkable growth to occur if one were particularly keen on something."
"I dunno. It's long to me. And well... I've really been doing a lot more recently than before. Anyway, you're missing the point. He's a wizard, we can't figure out what he wants. We have to figure out a way to get out of it!"
"What better way to learn what he wants than to hear it from him? Now, I'm not your mysterious wizard friend, but if I were, and some snot-nosed child made off with my stash of crystals, or magical wisdoms, or what have you... Well, if I felt threatened or particularly paranoid that letting you galivant around with that sort of thing might compromise me or my reputation in some significant manner, I'd probably just have you fall asleep one night and never wake up, ho, ho, ho.
Or, if I were a more sensible sort, I'd recognize an opportunity. I'd work quietly in the background to face you with situations and place you into the company of people who'd either grow your skills or see you killed if you weren't adept enough to beat the learning curve. And then, when you've proven yourself reasonably formidable, I'd at last reach out to you with an opportunity. I'd offer you 'forgiveness' in exchange for a favor. Possibly a lasting one. And, if I felt you were avoiding me, well..." he hums, "I'm a big, powerful wizard, right? I'd simply wait to approach you at your most vulnerable. More work for me, but certainly less opportune for you."
He breaks the tension with a sudden shrug, rolling his eyes towards his journal with a resignating sigh. "But, ah--I'm not a wizard, and I'm certainly not him. Thank goodness for that, mmm? Maybe you can just avoid him, maybe he'll simply deem it unworthy of the effort, ho ho ho. I have no idea! After all, I've never met the man."
"We can't weasel our way out of a situation if we don't know what that situation is. If I were in your shoes, I would play nice with him long enough to get a picture of the mess I'm in, so I can measure the scope of what needs...rearranging."
"I'm not you, of course, ho ho, thank goodness for that, right? But-I have been in your shoes. Not with a wizard, admittedly, but better a wizard than, say...a dragon. Wizards are still people, and people tend to be remarkably predictable."
Her hands twisting the hem of her cloak, she says, weakly, "Sure. Great. Thanks for the talk. I always feel better after some wisdom from you."
"Still bad at lying even after all that, but nevermind. Better a truth be easier to tell than a lie, I suppose, but...at least pick one of them to get decent at." He opens his journal again and begins scratching his nonsense into it once more. His smile falls to a bizarrely rare soft, neutral expression. "You are not alone."
(as he write "butts butts butts" over and over again in druidic on the page)
"I'll take it under advisement. I'm full up on wisdoms for now, though." Amity stretches her legs out and stands, a little too quickly. She shakes her head. "I gotta.... I gotta go see if I can teach Prim how to teleport."
And leaves.
Under his breath, with an incredulous smirk. "Teach the noodle to teleport. Wizardy is such bullshit."
RP - w/ the group - Night Before the Trial, Actually
Amity!
Spending the evening with the people of the Menagerie feels almost discordantly normal after the day's unusual events. Ample Harvest and her loyal team prepare an excellent meal, as they always do, and Amity tells the story of the party's adventure to anyone who asks, albeit with less enthusiasm or embellishment then usual. Afterwards, perhaps seeking solace in routine, she pulls out her spellbook, intending to flip through it aimlessly, as is her wont. Instead, once retrieved, she looks at it with an expression of perplexion and curiousity, tugging something free from between it's pages. There is a moment's pause and then, with a squeak of pure terror and a traitorous spasm of her fingers, she Misty Steps about 20 feet away from the table.
Swindle, who hasn't been eating, really--but has been sitting back appreciating the company--casts an incredulous glance over to Amity. He proceeds to rubberneck a little bit, half expecting to see one of those gross worms on her dinner plate or something because what kind of a squeaky screech was that??? lmfao
Variel has continued drinking since sharing Lyndon's hooch, and in an attempt to lift everyone's mood has tried to recreate some kind of traditional fey pastry using her newfound cooking ability with ample harvest. Kinda like a cross between a rum ball and a chocolate profiterole. Idk what to roll for how good they are.
But she's being social butterfly and trying to get music going and people dancing, refusing to let the dour town or the morbid recent happenings infect the caravan. Upon hearing Amity's wild peeping, she is probably tipsy enough to not be that sneaky anymore, so will straight up come over and enquire as to what's going on now?
Suddenly mirroring Amity's previously perplexed expression, Swindle pulls himself to his feet, shuffles over with 0 sense of urgency about him, and with his long, spindly fingers and overgrown nails, daintily picks up an envelope that is resting upon her book, turning it over curiously. "Ho, ho, oh no. Is it your rejection letter from wizard school, Amity?"
Rhogkun is tired. Very tired. The cloud of physical exhaustion and emotional drain has worn him out, not to mention spells he cast. The entire way back to town Rhogkun has seemed almost in shock, reacting to very little and staring off. After seeing his companions hurt so easily - after seeing those things - in total fear he stepped up. It likely looked like courage, but it wasn't. It was fear. And in fear he watched the mangler tear through image after image, alien menace in its movements, passionate hate and apathy all at once. It shook him then, and it shakes him now.
Sitting quietly off to a table to the side, Rhogkun has barely touched his food, falling into a light exhausted revirie, his chin resting on his chest, rising up and down with heavy breaths. At Amity's start, his eyes dart open, not even raising his head from his chest. Narrowing his lids he quickly scans the area, seeing no immediate threat, and then slowly drifts back to sleep.
Amity looks around at everyone awkwardly, then looks at Swindle in a complete panic. She says: "That's - no it's nothing!" and runs towards him, reaching out for it.
Variel is instantly 8 years old again, and from across the table and trying to mask her actual interest with mock enthusiasm jeers "ooooOOOOOOOoooh! Amity's got a loooove letterrrr! Who's the suitor, dear? Do tell >:3"
With half lidded disinterest, Swindle hands the letter back to Amity. "That's a rather rude way to respond to a letter from you mother."
Amity skids to a stop in front of Swindle, glancing over at Variel and then back to him.
"Seems she has heard about your run-in with Piony, never mind her tone. She is just concerned for you. My, word travels fast..."
She reaches a hand out for the letter, plucking it carefully from his hand. "It's... I told you I write her all the time."
"Ho, ho, ho! If I were a mistrusting type, I might wonder if she has a way of scrying on you!"
Amity looks carefully at the letter instead of up at Swindle, folding it back up and stuffing it inside her cloak. "Hah.. yeah. Could you imagine?"
Variel is leaning so far across the table her fresh new white shirt is once again stained red. This time it is jam, not blood. An improvement.
"I thought you rarely, if ever, received replies since you travelled so often? Aren't you excited to read it? Why such shock? Is she proud of all your adventures?"
With every question she presses, her shirt trails further into the tart infront of her. Noteably: not hers.
"Seems that this may be the first time our dear Amity has had a true brush up with death. Here on the mortal plane, that is enough to send any good mother into shock." Swindle sits back down into his chair. "Variel, you're wearing dessert."
"I'm...?" she looks down at herself and tuts loudly "ugh, I should've brought more of my wardrobe... I'll be forced to wear human clothes with how slow laundry is here..." she shakes her head and wipes as much of the treat off as she can, resisting the urge to eat it all up. Even served across a shirt, Ms harvest's food was impeccable, and should not be wasted. She had lost enough face already, though, and must wait for Swindle to do something embarrassing before she'd let herself be seen doing such a thing...
"Seriously though, Amity, why such shock? Is everything alright?"
Amity sighs, leans a bit closer to Variel, and Prestidigitates the rest of the pie-stain away. She flops down into her chair with more of her usual slouchiness, and rubs a hand through her hair -increasing it's messiness to no noticable degree.
"I'm just... everything today was so terrible."
Casting a slightly sympathetic glance to where Rhogkun is napping, Swindle agrees, "it was rather exceptionally bad, wasn't it. I have never seen anything quite like the horrors in that damned crypt...and something tells me that those won't be the worst things I lay eyes on if Maxwell and I are to continue travelling with you lot."
Amity says, mostly to herself, "Geez, I really hope not..."
She looks up at Swindle, "That thing... that thing took down Max. We were just lucky !"
"Almost, but Maxie got right back up again, didn't he?" Swindle puts on a pleased grin. "There is a certain...mmm...strength in us being all together."
Variel looks quite pleased with the state of her shirt. "thank you, dear, I must learn that one..."
She frowns a fair amount during the down talk. She's trying to make a GOOD vibe, not a downer one. >:c why can't they celebrate the win... Honestly... Though looking at the wrecked Rhogkun she herself does momentarily succom to the reality of the situation momentarily.
She breathes out, calming herself, letting the moment happen, and end. "listen. As something of an expert on falling in battle," she makes a jokingly wearied, pained expression, highlighting her repeated 0hp moments, "... it's always about the getting back up after. Swindle's right. The most important part of dealing with these situations is getting back up, and a lot of that is trusting the people you're with." she eyes swindle and grins snarkily "well trusting them in that context at least... The point is, it wasn't luck, it was teamwork. When one of us fell, the others defended them and helped prop them back up. We defeated the beast, and - I believe - saved this dinky little town from further tragedy. We did good, today. Take pride in it." she realises she's bordering on the drunken ilugaise ramble and stops herself rambling." that's my take, anyhow. And that's why I would definitely call us heroes. Despite reservations and occasional cowardice, we did good for others. Amity? You are a hero. Swindle? You less so, but still. Hero adjacent." she winks at Amity, her jab clearly more lighthearted than usual, in an attempt to make her laugh Abd shake off her cloud
"I can settle with hero adjacent." He carefully selects a mushroom off of his staff before plucking two more and tossing them to Amity and Variel respectively. Variel's mushroom is identical to the one Swindle had pulled for himself, while Amity's is slightly more subdued and earthy in appearance. "Hopefully our dreams will provide some comforting affirmation tonight, mmm?"
Amity squints at the mushroom thoughtfully, but eats it. “Well if we’re real heroes they should.”
Variel smiles widely and raises an eyebrow at Swindle, nodding her thanks. "I might save this for the uh... afterparty. Hmm?" before putting the shroom in her breast pocket and tapping it safely. Confident that she's done all she can about the mood, she grabs the nearest wine pitcher, takes a hearty swig, and leaves the table to find her lute, to play the night out.
Journal #13 - The Trial
Amity!
Um. Well first, everybody got a good night’s sleep, so that’s good. Even the people in the village. A lot of them still look worn down, but nobody looks… crazy. Also, am I already getting used to not having nightmares? Guess I’ll worry about that if they come back.
We go to the temple early, but it was TOO early, so Azalea sends us away. Also Variel is all barfy and hungover, and Swindle is… weird. He keeps talking funny and waving his hands around?? So we go on a quest for Hangover (etc.) Cures!
The half-orc shop keep lady seems happy to see Variel, she gives her a soft smile. She tells Swindle to get out though, cause she’s still mad at him for last time. But we tell her we need to fix them, and she mixes a horrible smelling drink for Variel. She almost doesn’t keep it down, but pushes through and I guess it seems to help? She’s just burpy now which is ok as long as you’re not right next to her face. You know, I suppose I could’ve offered to make it taste better with Prestidigitation…. oh well.
Swindle keeps insisting he’s fine, which he is obviously not, and I ask if he’s got a spell to help himself, but is too proud to use it, or what. And he says no, but actually yes, and then casts Restoration and now they’re both fixed. Which is good because it’s about time for the trial.
I’m pretty nervous about it, even though Azalea says my character won’t be on trial or anything. Anyone who’s talking has to stand in the space where she’s cast the truth telling spell. Variel is in charge of talking for our group, which is good because Variel is really good at talking, and I don’t want to.
Lynden is gonna be the judge on behalf of the Sovereign Host, and Peony and Variel have to each take turns making arguments to convince him of their rightness. We also have to list our charges, and Variel says they are:
Kidnapping / slavery, ____, and intent to do harm. She says the last one is all the stabbing. I don’t remember the middle thing.
Peony says she’s innocent of everything because:
-you can’t kidnap property, which Maxwell is.
-he’s a construct, and belongs to the Sovereign Host.
-so she had the right to use force to retrieve Max when we wouldn’t give him back.
Variel says:
-Max is a person, cause you can cast Healing magic on him.
-Swindle testifies that this is the case, healing doesn’t work on constructs.
-also Peony is a jerk.
Peony:
-she calls me up???
-she makes me put Prim on the ground and asks me to explain about him.
-so I say he’s my pseudodragon, and he’s a very good boy.
-she asks if he was hurt would healing magic work on him...? and I step in front of Prim to make sure she isn’t gonna stab him.
-she says it’s just a question, and Swindle answers that yeah, I guess healing magic would work on him too.
-so her point is: if healing magic works on animals, and animals are property, then just because healing magic works on Maxwell, doesn’t mean he’s a person.
Then there is A LOT of back-and-forth about what makes somebody a person. And how you can prove whether Maxwell is, or whether anybody is. The longer both sides go back and forth, the more tired Lynden looks.
Near the end they finally let Max talk, and he says that he thinks he is a person. Also he does think that he belongs to the Sovereign Host - but in the same way that Azalea, Peony, and Lynden do. He wants to serve to the best of his ability and he thinks the best way he can do that is to be out here, helping people. Max is a good person.
Peony says that she was acting in the best interests of the Sovereign Host and to the very best of her knowledge, and with those things in mind she had every right to do what she did.
And then Lynden decides.
He says that Max is free to go, and Peony has to go back to Pharos Shrine (under guard). Also that she has to pay Humplebumble reparations for anything that got broken when her and her soldiers were fighting the caravan. And she can’t use the Host’s money, she has to use her own. Also Variel asks him to write up a contract or some papers, that Max can have that says something about his judgment and then we can show it to people in the future if anyone tries to take him away again.
I give Max a hug and everyone is real glad that he isn’t gonna get taken away. I don’t think we’d let that happen though, do you? But still, that would be a whole other problem.
After the trial everyone is excited, and just wants to go, but we have to kill some time because we’re still waiting for Variel’s fur to be ready, so we go back to the blacksmith to see if he’s there, ‘cause Max still needs a shield.
Well he’s not there! Swindle and Max knock on his door a bunch, and Variel tries to see inside. No answer. Maybe he left, or maybe he’s just finally asleep. Now I COULD get inside real easy, and find out for sure, but I REALLY don’t want to spend one more second here that I have to, and if we get caught that’s one more trial AT LEAST, so we leave it alone. We play with the idea that maybe the dwarf is going through his chrysalis and / or metamorphosis stage... You know how dwarves are, right? When they get to a certain age and just curl up inside their beards and emerge as a beautiful stout butterfly? Yeah, that could be it.
After that we go back to the caravan, because that’s it really. Humplebumple is excited to hear about the reparations, but he says he has been on “the other side” of those before, and he knows not to ask for more than the truth. Swindle stays behind to ask him about something, but I’m not sure what it is.
Doesn’t matter, cause I can’t wait to get out of here !!
RP - With Azalea. Very Short.
Amity!
Sometime earlier when the group had been gathered at the tavern or the blackbough shrine:
Grumbling about the impending trial, Amity says: "If we - if you guys want to bring her to justice or whatever, shouldn't you bring her to like... Somewhere with real guards and a magistrate?" She looks at Azalea, "Lynden is nice and all, but he's just some priest in a little nowhere town. He gets to decide her fate and that's it?"
Azalea looks up from her simple meal and gives Amity a smile. “I understand your confusion. After all, you are likely unfamiliar with how the Sovereign Host polices itself.” She leans back in her chair, looking up at the worn wooden rafters of the chapel. “Regardless of what you may think of Blackbough, Lyndon would have had to work very hard to attain the position he has now. Assigned priests and clerics of the Host must study and work for quite a long while, sometimes years, to earn their assignments. Thusly, Lyndon has earned the Right of Arbitration regarding internal matters within the Host and whatever judgement he deems appropriate will most likely be honored.” Lowering her gaze back to her meal, she spears a small flake of fish with her crude fork before popping it into her mouth. Chewing, she continues. “The complications arise when - or if - punishment is deemed necessary.” She turns to Amity with another smile. “As you likely understand, Blackbough is ill-equipped to handle meting out whatever judgement Lyndon may deem appropriate.”
"It could prolly handle... all or nothing. I dunno if either of those are likely." She eyes Azalea, emboldened: "What'd you do? Max said you got kicked out.... right?"
Azalea blinks at the abruptness of the question before, a bit uncharacteristically, snorting and barking a single laugh. "Ah. That is... a bit complicated, and not a story I'd like to get into tonight. I will be turning in shortly, and I suggest you do the same. I'm afraid we'll all need a clear head tomorrow."
Journal #12 - Inside the Nightmare
Amity!
Uhm…. so… this horrible thing comes out of the darkness, I don’t know what it was but it had way too many legs and they didn’t work like legs usually do…. and before we could do anything it comes right up to Max and it claws at him six times and he fell - he fell like a big pile of rocks! Then it went right back into the darkness before anyone could do anything! I gave Max my potion and when it came back again it took out Variel!
When I checked the door it was closed tight… I thought we were all going to die for sure. But we didn’t, somehow. Rhogkun cast a Witch Bolt and this Mirror Images spell and it was so cool…. It was like there were four of him, and he got the thing from the dark to go after him (he said it was called a Mangler and I believe it). We couldn’t stop the red skinned person from transforming into… well, it looked like he turned into worms. But like if worms could also be a person. It was like a big cloak with a mask just full of worms, and he went into the floor and disappeared.
But before that, Nemora ( you remember, from the tavern) shows up somehow - I can hear her calling “Elias!” from behind the door even though it sounds like a thousand miles away. And then she’s breaking through the door, with her claws. No I don’t know why she has claws! I don’t know why any of this is happening! She says _________ and I guess she’s talking to that guy. After he disappears she runs off.
We had to kill the three monstrous things, with the long claws. We think maybe they used to be the missing kids….
Afterwards all the weird stuff was gone… my eyes went back to normal. All the worm grubs went away. Max found a weird red globe in the magic circle, and Variel looked into the sarcophagus that was at the back of the room and she said it was just…. Covered in creepy tiny writings on the inside. Like if you were bored and trapped inside maybe….
Anyway, the door opened, and we left. Rhogkun looks really tired and he doesn’t say a lot. I’m just real glad that we’re alive and I can’t wait to leave this place and Blackbough far, far behind but we still have to stay for the trial tomorrow.
Journal #11 - Into Darkness
Amity!
After the sun comes up, Variel gets here around the same time Max, Swindle, and Rhogkun come out looking for me. Everybody says they slept fine. I try to explain how I didn’t, but they don’t really get it…. So I ask Prim if he can show them, and he doesn’t want to, ‘cause he’s so tired, but I ask super nice, and he sends the picture anyhow. Rhogkun is just scratching his beard, so I don’t think he got it, but everyone else looks real surprised.
We go to talk to Jimmy (Peter, whatever). He doesn’t want to open the door for Swindle, but I tell him we’re not with the temple or anything, and he lets us in. He looks real tired too, and he tells us how a few weeks ago, right before the bad dreams started he found like… a kinda cave out in the woods. It wasn’t marked, or on any kind of path, so anyone would’ve missed it unless they were lucky or looking for it.
But he figured he’d check it out and see if there was anything neat or valuable inside. Why not? You’ve seen Blackbough, right? Any kinda treasure at all might be a ticket out of here. Inside the cave was some kind of burial tomb, and he didn’t go very far in, but there was a big stone coffin, and he opened it up to have a look… and then he heard something real scary, so he left. That’s it, that’s the whole story. When he got back, he told Lynden about it, ‘cause he was worried and scared, and Lynden didn’t really do much besides get mad at him for messing with it. Big help.
Oh yeah - Peter says that one of the stories locals tell to kids is that they better be good or the wizards buried in the hills will come and eat you.
He gives us directions and Rhogkun and Swindle lead the long trek out to where it is. They’re both in a big hurry to deal with this, for different reasons. Rhogkun is worried about the missing kids, but Swindle seems offended just on principle that someone’s messing with people’s dreams. Also he talks to a boar and asks it nicely to leave us all alone, and it does!
The cave thing is basically like Peter said. There’s a big rock in front of it, and Maxwell pushes it aside so that we can all get in easier. Inside the only tracks are Peter’s going in and out again. There’s nothing in the stone coffin. It doesn’t really even look like there ever was. There sure is a lot of bad feeling in this place though. I don’t like it. I can tell that Prim doesn’t either, he’s got his tail wrapped around my neck real tight.
But we go further in… ‘cause we’re here…. and we have to… I guess.
I’ve got Max’s lamp, and Variel is sneaking ahead ‘cause she can see in the dark. Max snaps his finger a few times, it makes a strange sound and he says that it lets him tell if there’s any ghosts or zombies around. He says there aren’t any… which is weird because that’s what we thought for sure this was. Is it good or bad that we can’t find any?
The further in we go, the worse everything feels. The carvings go from kinda normal to kinda scary. We find some writing that somebody scratched on the walls, but none of us can read it. I really wonder what it said. Probably said… get out. I bet.
The ceiling gets lower. The lantern light starts fighting a losing battle against the darkness. Pretty soon it’s just gonna be a little bubble around us and we’re gonna be barely able to see anything at all… and then the walls start to get even closer, and… wet… and the ground gets covered in squirming worms. Wh- why…..
Swindle picks one up, but as soon as it gets more than a foot off the floor it disappears. They look and sound and feel real though. Rhogkun says really powerful illusion magic could still do that, but it’s weird they only work around the ground. Variel says maybe they’re extra-planar, that maybe there’s an overlap. Whatever that means.
Finally we get somewhere different. It feels like we cross over some kind of bubble or maybe a magic threshold and we’re in a big plain room with a big stone door. No handle, no lock. It’s got a design on it, like a star with an eye in the middle. I’ve never seen it before, but Swindle says that maybe it reminds him of something, only he can’t remember what.
Nobody wants to open the door.
I’m really ready to get all the way out of here, and to heck with Blackbough, to be honest, but Variel says we should backtrack just a bit and see if there’s something else down the other path we saw, and I’ll settle for that. Cept when we go back across the sorta-barrier again, only three of us make it: Me, Max, and Rhogkun. I -
We turn back around and cross over again. Real fast. We don’t see them! But Rhogkun calls out and they come back, and they’re okay! But it seems like they can’t… They can’t cross back. When they go across where the barrier should be, they go somewhere else. Variel says she heard like, river or something down that way.
We’re trying to decide if this is like, a fey trap or what, since Variel is a faerie and Swindle is kinda faerie-adjacent. And OH YEAH also how we’re gonna get everybody out…. And did I say that I really really really wanna just go back outside into the sun and away from here because - suddenly Swindle says he can hear somebody crying behind the door.
Rhogkun and him try and talk to whoever it is, and I guess they decide it’s probably the girl that went missing, Katherine. All I know is I heard Swindle go “she wants to know if you’re her mom” and Rhogkun went “NO” real loud.
So I guuuessss we’re gonna try and open it, and that’s what Max does. He goes up to lift it and it opens in like…. every direction, not just one. It’s kind of hard to look at honestly.
On the other side it’s another stone room. There’s no worms this time, and there’s four sconces with torches in them, so we go and light them. Also I feel weird…. Everywhere I look it’s like there’s rainbows just on the edge my vision, and when I move further into the room to get the last two torches, it gets way worse. Suddenly I can’t see anything except rainbows, but I manage to stumble back to the doorway and it gets mostly better.
After I rub my eyes and look up again I can see that everyone’s staring at something across the room. It’s a person and…. Three not-persons. They look like the thing I saw in my dream!! Only worse, cause they’re real. They look awful. I think one of them says “....mama...” real quiet. The guy in the middle has red skin and horns and wings, and he says that he’s glad we’re here, we can witness his transformation. Variel asks him what exactly he’s turning into… and also from…. but he says that we should just wait and see if we want to know.
I don’t… really.
Journal #11 - Into Darkness
Amity!
After the sun comes up, Variel gets here around the same time Max, Swindle, and Rhogkun come out looking for me. Everybody says they slept fine. I try to explain how I didn’t, but they don’t really get it…. So I ask Prim if he can show them, and he doesn’t want to, ‘cause he’s so tired, but I ask super nice, and he sends the picture anyhow. Rhogkun is just scratching his beard, so I don’t think he got it, but everyone else looks real surprised.
We go to talk to Jimmy (Peter, whatever). He doesn’t want to open the door for Swindle, but I tell him we’re not with the temple or anything, and he lets us in. He looks real tired too, and he tells us how a few weeks ago, right before the bad dreams started he found like… a kinda cave out in the woods. It wasn’t marked, or on any kind of path, so anyone would’ve missed it unless they were lucky or looking for it.
But he figured he’d check it out and see if there was anything neat or valuable inside. Why not? You’ve seen Blackbough, right? Any kinda treasure at all might be a ticket out of here. Inside the cave was some kind of burial tomb, and he didn’t go very far in, but there was a big stone coffin, and he opened it up to have a look… and then he heard something real scary, so he left. That’s it, that’s the whole story. When he got back, he told Lynden about it, ‘cause he was worried and scared, and Lynden didn’t really do much besides get mad at him for messing with it. Big help.
Oh yeah - Peter says that one of the stories locals tell to kids is that they better be good or the wizards buried in the hills will come and eat you.
He gives us directions and Rhogkun and Swindle lead the long trek out to where it is. They’re both in a big hurry to deal with this, for different reasons. Rhogkun is worried about the missing kids, but Swindle seems offended just on principle that someone’s messing with people’s dreams. Also he talks to a boar and asks it nicely to leave us all alone, and it does!
The cave thing is basically like Peter said. There’s a big rock in front of it, and Maxwell pushes it aside so that we can all get in easier. Inside the only tracks are Peter’s going in and out again. There’s nothing in the stone coffin. It doesn’t really even look like there ever was. There sure is a lot of bad feeling in this place though. I don’t like it. I can tell that Prim doesn’t either, he’s got his tail wrapped around my neck real tight.
But we go further in… ‘cause we’re here…. and we have to… I guess.
I’ve got Max’s lamp, and Variel is sneaking ahead ‘cause she can see in the dark. Max snaps his finger a few times, it makes a strange sound and he says that it lets him tell if there’s any ghosts or zombies around. He says there aren’t any… which is weird because that’s what we thought for sure this was. Is it good or bad that we can’t find any?
The further in we go, the worse everything feels. The carvings go from kinda normal to kinda scary. We find some writing that somebody scratched on the walls, but none of us can read it. I really wonder what it said. Probably said… get out. I bet.
The ceiling gets lower. The lantern light starts fighting a losing battle against the darkness. Pretty soon it’s just gonna be a little bubble around us and we’re gonna be barely able to see anything at all… and then the walls start to get even closer, and… wet… and the ground gets covered in squirming worms. Wh- why…..
Swindle picks one up, but as soon as it gets more than a foot off the floor it disappears. They look and sound and feel real though. Rhogkun says really powerful illusion magic could still do that, but it’s weird they only work around the ground. Variel says maybe they’re extra-planar, that maybe there’s an overlap. Whatever that means.
Finally we get somewhere different. It feels like we cross over some kind of bubble or maybe a magic threshold and we’re in a big plain room with a big stone door. No handle, no lock. It’s got a design on it, like a star with an eye in the middle. I’ve never seen it before, but Swindle says that maybe it reminds him of something, only he can’t remember what.
Nobody wants to open the door.
I’m really ready to get all the way out of here, and to heck with Blackbough, to be honest, but Variel says we should backtrack just a bit and see if there’s something else down the other path we saw, and I’ll settle for that. Cept when we go back across the sorta-barrier again, only three of us make it: Me, Max, and Rhogkun. I -
We turn back around and cross over again. Real fast. We don’t see them! But Rhogkun calls out and they come back, and they’re okay! But it seems like they can’t… They can’t cross back. When they go across where the barrier should be, they go somewhere else. Variel says she heard like, river or something down that way.
We’re trying to decide if this is like, a fey trap or what, since Variel is a faerie and Swindle is kinda faerie-adjacent. And OH YEAH also how we’re gonna get everybody out…. And did I say that I really really really wanna just go back outside into the sun and away from here because - suddenly Swindle says he can hear somebody crying behind the door.
Rhogkun and him try and talk to whoever it is, and I guess they decide it’s probably the girl that went missing, Katherine. All I know is I heard Swindle go “she wants to know if you’re her mom” and Rhogkun went “NO” real loud.
So I guuuessss we’re gonna try and open it, and that’s what Max does. He goes up to lift it and it opens in like…. every direction, not just one. It’s kind of hard to look at honestly.
On the other side it’s another stone room. There’s no worms this time, and there’s four sconces with torches in them, so we go and light them. Also I feel weird…. Everywhere I look it’s like there’s rainbows just on the edge my vision, and when I move further into the room to get the last two torches, it gets way worse. Suddenly I can’t see anything except rainbows, but I manage to stumble back to the doorway and it gets mostly better.
After I rub my eyes and look up again I can see that everyone’s staring at something across the room. It’s a person and…. Three not-persons. They look like the thing I saw in my dream!! Only worse, cause they’re real. They look awful. I think one of them says “....mama...” real quiet. The guy in the middle has red skin and horns and wings, and he says that he’s glad we’re here, we can witness his transformation. Variel asks him what exactly he’s turning into… and also from…. but he says that we should just wait and see if we want to know.
I don’t… really.
Journal #10
Amity!
Uh. I don’t know why this lady hates me so much. I just got here. So I put up my hands and try to back away slowly, but she’s got real long bartender arms, and she gets me with the knife in the shoulder, right down to the hilt. OW !! So I panic and try to run for the door, but she siccs her dogs on me!!
Everyone’s screaming and running around, it’s real crazy. One of the dogs attacks Variel, and pulls her to the ground, and that barkeep lady stabs her too! I thought she was a GONER. But Rhogkun shoots a Firebolt at the dog and SAVES Variel, but Swindle yells at him? I thought everyone liked Variel??
I’m just??
Swindle and Variel and the lady who stopped the barkeep from poisoning me (Nemora?), and Rhogkun and Max yeah… everyone but me, I guess - they get the barkeep to snap out of it. Somebody puts her in a headlock and someone else hits her, and that finally works.
So… you know how everyone here looks really tired? It’s weird but she says her bad dreams made her do it… and forget she has a kid- a daughter. She’s missing. Azalea and her temple friend show up around now, and according to him, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. It’s all bothering Rhokun a whole lot… kinda close to home for him. You know? Variel thinks that maybe it’s a faerie thing… but only maybe.
After things settle down and people start trickling in from having gone to see the menagerie, Variel starts playing some songs for everybody. Almost the whole town is here, since between her and all the monsters we brought with us, this is the most exciting thing to ever happen to this place. I decide to bounce around to a few tables and see if I can figure out if anything weird happened around the same time the bad dream started. Turns out something did - one guy I talked to says that his friend Jimmy was out walking in the woods northwest of town, and he fell into some kinda crypt. He got in trouble with the temple about it when he got back, too.
Rhogkun’s ready to go out right now, but we decide that daylight might be a bit better for this. Everyone except for Variel decides to head back to the temple and that down there for the night. She has a date with that shopkeeper. Good for her.
We all know that there’s a pretty good chance will have bad dreams if we stay in town, but I’m not afraid. I’ve had what is apparently more than my share of bad dreams already. So what’s one more?
At least, that’s what I think before I go to bed. I haven’t really had any nightmare since Prim came, and honestly I was thinking he’d protect me again, but…
I dreamed that I was floating in the dark again. And I was frozen and I couldn’t move. But then something came… It was like a person, but only kinda, and it was real hard to see.. like it was made of light somehow. I remember had really long sharp fingers, and it stabbed them in me. It stabbed me right in the face, and started cracking my face open and pulling out, like… rainbows? It hurt...
When I woke up Prim was standing over me, looking all puffed up like I’ve never seen him before. He was trying so hard.
I’m… I’m gonna go outside for awhile.
RP w/ Swindle - AKA You Cant Bullshit a Bullshitter
Amity!
As everyone is getting settled in for the night, Swindle’s fingers dance over the mushrooms of his staff as though he’s taking inventory. He seems mostly disinterested in what anyone else is doing, but--without looking up from what he’s doing--he says. “As much as I hate crypts and undead and all that garbage… The corruption of dreams is particularly offensive to me.” He plucks a particular, small mushroom from his staff and examines it. “And, it reminds me to ask--how have your dreams been, Amity? You’ve been much less...mmm...twitchy in your sleep, of late.”
Amity finishes smoothing out the last corner of her bedroll, and looks up at Swindle. She starts to smile automatically, but then looks more serious. "Yeah, ever since..." She hooks a thumb towards her small dragon-friend, who is pudgily turning in a tight circle on the blanket, flattening it out to his liking. "Ever since Prim came it's been better. Most times I don't even remember dreams anymore, but if I do, it starts out scary like normal, and then turns into... a nicer version. Like instead of falling through the sky forever until you starve to death, it's just... flying. Or when you're running from things in the dark, you find a safe place to hide instead of being eaten."
Swindle casts a warm glance over to the tiny blue pseudo dragon. “I know it’s been said at length already, but I really do find it strange that nightmares have just always been the thing for you. I mean, how long? Since childhood? Ho, ho, ho, I wonder if your valiant dear Prim protects you from some persistent clinging spectre rather than your own subconscious. Mmm, and what if it’s a similar source to what this town is just now experiencing? I’m more sure that your situation, and the plight of these folk, are unrelated. Things never lineup so neatly. But, I can’t help wondering if there might be something of relevance to uncover here.”
Gently leaning his staff against a nearby wall, Swindle kicks off his boots and lays his back down onto his bedding. “Dreams are a sacred medium, you know? Mostly a space for our own consciousness to work out wrinkles and decompress, but also for communication between greater beings. And--in rare, privileged cases--between us humble mortals, ho ho. To trespass upon such a deeply personal, sacrosanct space with malintent is, I’d call it, an unforgivable transgression, really…A terrible crime.”
Midway through the process of wriggling out of her cloak, Amity's muffled voice says, "Uh. Well I didn't fall into a crypt or anything. And I don't know. They didn't "start." They just slowly got worse." She pulls free of her voluminous covering, and starts folding it up into the shape of a pillow. Without the cloak she is wearing a blouse of some sort, with long sleeves and a high collar, but it's pretty easy to see that she's almost as much of a twig as Swindle is. "Like when I was a kid back home they were almost all good or okay, you know? Like exploring the forest and finding treasure or running on roofs or having arguments with people that don't make any sense after you wake up. Then a while after I left, when I got older, they started more and more often being bad, and then just more... bad." She swoops her hand in a curving upwards gesture in front of her. "I figured that's just the way it is, right? Until you're really grumpy old person who hates everything fun."
She squints at Swindle, trying unsuccessfully to judge his age. "You really.... You really have always have happy dreams? Where good things happen?"
“Ha ha ha, Amity dear, I’m not sure it’s dreams that are responsible for cranky old people… I figure that might be more...due to lived experience not meeting their increasingly rigid expectations in an ever changing world..! Otherwise, why would old people love to sleep so much? Perhaps dreams are the only refuge they have.” He lets out a humored snort and eats the small mushroom that he’d been waving through the air above him in small gestures of pontification. “Regardless, I would love to hear more about the good dreams you can recall, if you’d ever find the time to share them with me. I think… I would very much like to see if we can bring pleasant dreams back to you, somehow.”
At Amity’s question about his own dreams, Swindle lets out a little sigh through his nose. “From what I gather, most people have good dreams and bad dreams. They all hope for good dreams all the time, of course. But...it’s not really in their hands. If you’re under a lot of stress, or ate too much before bed...or for any reason at all, a nightmare might occur. But, maybe you wake up from it, shake your head, go back to sleep--and a better dream replaces it. I would suspect some kind of third-party meddling if a person had only good dreams, just as I suspect that manner of meddling may be responsible for your unrelenting chain of nightmares. I would, however, find induced good dreams a touch more forgivable, ho ho. At least then, it could be assumed that the intentions are kind. The culture I grew up in values both good and bad dreams--but, as I said, trespassing upon someone's dreams in such a manner as we've seen in this place, if a chief druid so much as joked about doing such a thing, why...he'd be thrown to the proverbial wolves, ho, ho, ho!”
She shakes her head while he's talking reasonably about old people and life in general. Then says, "I don't really remember any good dreams... Lotta bad ones though." She starts ticking them off on her fingers. "You know like. Going home and everyone you know is dead... Or you're somewhere with too many windows and everything is reflective and the sun gets in your eye and something kills you... Or maybe you hafta hide inside a mirror from something that's chasing you and then you're safe. Or! There's a song in the night that sounds nice but then everything gets so dark you cant see and it's just the song and it gets scary! Stuff like that... Hey if dream magic is a thing, maybe I'm under a powerful curse because of some rival wizard stuff!" Sitting cross-legged on her bed roll, she leans forward, "And maybe that's why Prim can protect me, 'cause I'm stronger now."
She thinks about the last thing he said. "You know a lot about it... can you do that too, go into people's dreams? Or make them bad or good?"
“Well, if that’s the case, perhaps we need to blast that rival wizard into the sun, mmm?” Without sitting up, Swindle shoots her a devilish grin. “I know a lass with crystals who could do that very well, ho, ho, ho! You’re stronger now, imagine where you’ll be at once we finally find the guy. Do you think the adventure leading up to that would give Prim enough time to grow into a full sized dragon?” Catching an eyeful of the cat sized familiar, Swindle smirks, “Ah, maybe not… Still fierce though, rest assured.”
“Mmh,” He considers her question for a moment before replying, “I can’t, yet, but it's certainly within my reach. Only the most trusted individuals of my clan are selected to receive the wisdoms of dream walking--ah, the ability to travel through and communicate via dreams. That gift, in the wrong hands, could have terrible effects much like what the people in this town are experiencing. But--when wielded responsibly, it can assist in curing a great many wounds and ailments that lack physical manifestations…tenacious scars left upon the conscious and subconscious. Once in a while, we’d learn of someone who experienced no dreams at all. Not just that they had dreams but quickly forgot them as they woke up--they just...don’t dream. It was assumed that such a trait had to be indicative of some gap...a hollowness...something missing in their--”
He makes a vague circular gesture with both hands. “The closest word in common is ‘soul’, but that’s not--quite right. Well, ho ho, I guess it is, but it doesn’t feel accurate.” There’s a small pause before Swindle adds, “Anyways, believe it or not I’m the trusted individual of the current...eeh...generation. But perhaps the selection came too late. My predecessor hadn’t nearly enough time to work with me, and I’ve been left to figure this stuff out on my own. Somewhat inconvenient, honestly--but sometimes that’s just how it goes, mmm? I'm sure your mentor has left you with plenty of crucial things to learn by your own devices, too..?”
At the mention of full sized dragon, Amity laughs awkwardly, and a complicated expression passes over her face, but it's only for a moment and she listens with interest as Swindle continues. After a while she looks over to where Rhogkun is (sleeping? talking to Max? staring at us??), and says, with understanding, "Ooohhh so you guys are the same. Are you looking for something important too? Or is this part of your journeyship?"
Then: "Cause usually you have to study for years to be a wizard, right? That's the apprentice part. It's really boring, you have to read looong books by old dead wizard guys, and write a lot down, and do experiments over and over. Whatever your wizard master says, you say how high sir!" Amity flops over backwards, onto her pillow and makes a pfff sound. She looks at the ceiling and kind of gestures with her hands, playing with some sparkles. Then she says, easily, as if she's had to explain this many times before, "And it was like that for a while, but my master was like, oh, Amity, you really are natural. You don't need to waste your time with all the studying like the other apprentices, you should go out into the world. So I left on my journeyship early. I've been on my own since I was 15!" She looks over at Swindle, waiting for him to be impressed.
“Mmm, no...I wouldn’t say we’re the same. For starters, I don’t get the feeling that he’s out here by his own choice. Are you, Rhogkun?” He half calls that question in the Goliath’s direction, not wholly expecting a reply. “No, I can return home whenever I please and be very warmly received. I’m just out on a personal quest for worldly knowledge, you see?” He points to a rather pristine, barely used little journal. “That’ll be book twelve of my catalogue when it’s filled, ho, ho, ho! Once I feel like I’ve learned enough, I’ll return home with all of my findings.”
Listening to her story of apprenticeship (gdi I almost typo’d it ‘apprenticeshit’), Swindle wrinkles his nose in a shared distaste for the dullness of acadamic teachings, but when she mentions the age she was cast out at, Swindle does some quiet counting on his fingers before replying rather flatly, “Well that’s just lazy.” He props himself up onto his elbows to get a better look at Amity, and noting her expression, he adds, “Not you, your mentor. Fifteen is a child’s age for humans, no? Not even fully grown yet by then? Not only is it lazy, it’s terribly irresponsible. Were you with a group of peers? An elder who could watch over you and ensure you understood the lessons behind your trials, and that you didn’t get stabbed to death by delinquent halfing zealots, or fire bolted to cinder by well-meaning but trigger happy goliaths? Or was he just like ‘oh Amity, you’re so mature and strong for your age, byyyyeeee!’” And Swindle flicks his foot off the bed in a punting motion.
Thinking upon it for a second, he asks, “Wait, ho, ho, ho! Is your ‘master’ a dragon, perchance? You seem to have...a thing about dragons. Speaking draconic but not reading it? Hn, hn the face you made when I mentioned dragons just now… it would certainly explain his lack of responsibility in dealing with human children, mmm…”
Amity goes very still, and her eyes flick up to Swindle’s face as she listens to his rant. Unconsciously, she reaches one hand out for Prim’s nearby form, just touching him lightly with her fingertips, and looks at him instead while she answers. She scowls a bit.
“Uhh... well he’s ... he’s not a dragon, you can ask anyone who’s heard of him. Which is a lot of people. I mean, maybe not here,” and she makes a face to emphasize her distaste for Blackbough. “And I dunno what you mean. But I did see a dragon once! It was real...” she hesitates. “Pretty.”
When Prim lifts his head to regard her, she boops his snout very gently and addresses him directly, “You can stay this size though, anything more would be unwieldy for sure.”
She turns back towards Swindle, “Wait, are you just wandering around writing down different mushrooms? How many kinds can there even be!”
Swindle sits up fully, and places his chin in his hands when he realizes he’s clearly struck a nerve. “What was his name, again? Your mentor? What did he look like? I’ve been travelling quite far and wide for a few years now. Perhaps I’ve come across his writings, or have observed his likeness before, hmm, hm. He sounds like a rather important figure, the way you talk about him. Or is he more of a local celebrity to your specific township?
Ah, but seeing a dragon...” Swindle thinks on it for a second, “I’d like to say I’m jealous, but I’m not sure I’d actually like to find myself nose-to-nose with one! What did it look like? How did you come to meet it? How did you survive? Ho, ho, it sounds like a genuine adventure and I’m honestly shocked that we haven’t heard all about it by now! How many other personal tales of your daring exploits are you hiding from us, mmm?” He gives a playful wink, but there’s a genuine sense of curiosity in his voice that perhaps--in his usual sing-song tone--could be mistaken as mock interest by someone who hasn’t been travelling with him for two or three weeks straight. But--there’s a certain lack of restraint in his line of questioning that betrays his earnest intrigue.
Glancing back to his journal, he replies, “Ah, I’ve catalogued roughly around five-thousand different species of mushroom so far, and even within those species, they present very different properties depending on the environment they grow in. See, there’s a lot you can learn about a place just based on the kind of mushrooms that thrive in it, ho, ho, ho! A robust knowledge of mushrooms should extend well beyond just the mushroom itself..!”
Amity rolls her eyes, this is beginning to feel more like homework.
She says, "His names's Imorn the Starcloaked. He's the wizard of Wastow. He doesn't really go out, like ever, unless it's something really important. But he takes care of the town so everybody loves him. The dragon.... "
She thinks a bit, then looks at Prim, making her hands into a set of mock jaws, and playfully snaps them at him. "It was... it was... so big! Bigger than you can even like, hold in your head. And so loud you think your head'll explode. And... I was walking and it just.... woooosh! Right over me." She swoops her hand for emphasis, then nods sagely. "That was a few years ago," she continues, "way west of here. If I hadn't been quick thinking enough to jump into the ditch, maybe it woulda got me. And... You can't be serious about the mushrooms."
Swindle’s eyebrows lift towards his hairline. A much humbler tale than he had expected to hear--and he was almost ready to leave it at that, as an...actual believable story...but then--
“Ah, so seeing the dragon...and thinking you could read draconic...two unrelated things, then? Ho, ho, ho! I was under the impression that you had spoke to it or something!”
He thinks for a second… “Wait, how west of here? Surely not past the mountains, mmm? Either way, it sounds like you’re very fortunate! To have seen a dragon and lived to tell of it… A story not many can boast!”
Dropping back down onto his pillow, with his arms folded behind his head, he hums a small laugh. “You’re telling me about celebrity wizards in towers and dragons flying overhead, yet the vague details of my comparatively boring mycology hobby is what’s failing to suspend disbelief in this conversation?” He turns a bemused, single-eyed gaze to Amity. “Certain mushrooms will only grow in very specific conditions… Their size and color can vary depending on the composition of what they’re growing on. Ah, and you can learn even more about their condition, and the condition of their environment, by eating them and observing the slight variation in both their flavor and...the potency of certain medicinal properties they may carry! Wild grown mushrooms also frequently house parasites and other manners of small, opportunistic creatures, and those can also provide a unique insight about the location they’re found in… Ho, ho, I could go on if you need some incessant droning to help with falling asleep.”
Having settled back onto her cloak pillow again, Amity looks like she's checked out about halfway through this mushroom related explanation. "That's... wow. Yeah. What did you ask before? Uh... The mountains? No, It was around uh.... Riverpuddle. There's nothing up in the mountains except like, mining camps." She shifts about restlessly. "Did I say that? Must've just been mixed up. I lost a lot of blood, you know? Peony stabbed me like five times!"
Swindle makes a face of bemused incredulous sympathy that Amity can't see, "Oh, ho you're going to have to tell me again, in the morning, about how you got stabbed--or I might forget. Until then, you should probably get some proper shut eye, mmm?"
Rolling over onto his side, Swindle waits for a moment of silence to settle upon them. "And Amity..? I enjoy your bullshit. With a few more years practice, you might be just as excellent at using it as filler for your half-truths as you are at exploding giant spiders with crystals. Just--be more mindful of those nasty continuity errors, they can be rather tricky, ho, ho~"
"Sweet dreams."
Amity glares at his turned back for a moment and the gnashing of her teeth is nearly audible. With an exaggerated sigh, she flops over in the other direction, and tries to sleep.
Journal #9 - Arriving in Blackbough
Amity!
I forgot how far it is to the next town… It feels like we’ve been on the road for weeks. Variel even got bored enough that she’s learning how to cook from Ample Harvest. I don’t think she did much of it when she was hanging out with fairy royalty… blech. But she’s been getting better. At first I wanted to help take care of the menagerie monsters, because that’s cool, right? But it turns out that it’s a whole lot of work… So mostly I’ve been napping on top of one of the wagons. Me and Prim are taking turns deciding what clouds look like when suddenly the wagon hits something in the road, and I go FLYING.
Ow.
After everybody rushes up to make sure I’m okay (don’t worry, totally fine, thanks), Maxwell lifts the whole wagon up and yep: the axle is busted. So me and Variel volunteer to go find some wood to make a temporary new one. There’s not really a lot of forest around or anything, but lucky the road is kinda close to the bay at this point, and we found this really nice really big piece of driftwood!
I pick it up all by myself! Then I use my magic to disappear and reappear 30 feet away! Then another 30 feet! Pretty good progress, right? But then I have to carry it the rest of the way back... it’s not super far but the driftwood is really heavy. Variel is helping too, but it doesn’t really… feel that way. But she wouldn’t just be pretending to help, right...? She did tell everyone how strong I am when we got back, though, which I guess is good.
I flop down next to Swindle, and he gives me a high five and a little mushroom. It tastes pretty good. Guess I was pretty tired from all that work, because I fell asleep right after that, and the wagon was all fixed when I woke up! So the caravan gets moving again, and finally, finally we make it to Blackbough.
Honestly, it would be better to keep going… the place is kind of uh. Gross. Real small, damp, everything is made of black painted rotting wood. People aren’t very friendly. But Maxwell, Swindle, and Miss Azalea want to stop here and check for a temple to the Sovereign Host.
To get rid of Peony. Which I can’t really argue against. I’ve been trying to stay away from the cage they’ve got her in, but sometimes I can’t help but travel by it, and then she glares at me. She probably really hates me now. And everyone. I think we should have left her back on the road, and just got as far away as possible. But it wasn’t really up to me.
Delebean puts Rhogkun in charge of finding a carpenter here too. So our list of tasks are now:
-find a temple/jail.
-find a tannery so Variel can get her winter wolf pelt fixed for coat-making.
-carpenter to fix the wagon.
-get a shield for Maxwell.
-tell people about the menagerie!
Azalea has a contact at the temple, his name’s Lyndon Smyj. Says we’ve got to stay here for three days!! Because they’re going to have trial for Peony, and we’re going to have to like, testify. That sounds like a huge pain….
This place has a tannery for sure, you can smell it from far away, and it gets worse the closer you get. I almost puked. We all leave Variel to deal with that on her own, but I think she gets it taken care of. Luckily it shouldn’t take any much longer than we’re stuck here for this trial thing anyway.
At the general store, Swindle buys… a small box? And some jars? I’m not sure why. But the shopkeep is a carpenter! So that’s real lucky. She says she’ll come have a look at the wagon later. Swindle says something weird to her when he’s buying the box, and she gets mad. But she seems to like Variel just fine. Max buys a carpenter’s kit, he says ‘cause “Azalea said I need a hobby.”
We go to the blacksmith next, which is pretty close. There’s no one home though, or at least that’s what it looks like. Swindle snags a charcoal piece out of the hearth, and it’s like the only bit there. Pretty cleaned out. We knock on the door, and actually someone is home. They’ve just been hiding? Swindle wants to know why everyone one in town looks so tired, and I guess now that he mentions it, they do… but anyway the blacksmith guy says that the town is cursed and he’s gonna stay inside forever and slammed the door on us. Okay.
We do a bit of busking to drum up business for the menagerie. Rhogkun has that big deep voice of his, so he gets people’s attention, then Variel sings the song she wrote. She’s a Bard, so she can come up with stuff like that really easy. I did some sparkles. That probably helped, right?
Swindle wants to go back to the temple… ughhh. So we do that. He asks about the town curse or whatever. Azalea’s been talking to Mr. Smyj about it, actually. She tells us that everyone in town has been having bad dreams (big deal), and it’s stopping them from sleeping. Also every time we come into the temple, Max starts picking up things and dusting them. It makes me a bit nervous to watch, cause everything looks small in his hands, but he’s real careful. Swindle says he needs a room here for about half an hour and he’ll catch up to us later… so finally we all go to the tavern.
Max and Rhogkun find places they can fit, and Variel gets the barkeep’s permission to sing a few songs. I hop up to the counter, and order the special. It’s a stew! It’s okay. The barkeep (her name’s Beatrice) is about to hand me my drink, when some other lady comes up and knocks it out of her hand!! She shouts at me that it was poison! I’m just staring at both of them kind of confused, ‘cause I’m just minding my own business and my soup, but Beatrice looks like fed up, and I don’t know who or what with, but she reaches behind her back, and starts to pull a big kitchen knife out of her belt!
I better not get stabbed again I swear!!
zoop
Amity!
toop
Journal #9 - Arriving in Blackbough
Amity!
I forgot how far it is to the next town… It feels like we’ve been on the road for weeks. Variel even got bored enough that she’s learning how to cook from Ample Harvest. I don’t think she did much of it when she was hanging out with fairy royalty… blech. But she’s been getting better. At first I wanted to help take care of the menagerie monsters, because that’s cool, right? But it turns out that it’s a whole lot of work… So mostly I’ve been napping on top of one of the wagons. Me and Prim are taking turns deciding what clouds look like when suddenly the wagon hits something in the road, and I go FLYING.
Ow.
After everybody rushes up to make sure I’m okay (don’t worry, totally fine, thanks), Maxwell lifts the whole wagon up and yep: the axle is busted. So me and Variel volunteer to go find some wood to make a temporary new one. There’s not really a lot of forest around or anything, but lucky the road is kinda close to the bay at this point, and we found this really nice really big piece of driftwood!
I pick it up all by myself! Then I use my magic to disappear and reappear 30 feet away! Then another 30 feet! Pretty good progress, right? But then I have to carry it the rest of the way back... it’s not super far but the driftwood is really heavy. Variel is helping too, but it doesn’t really… feel that way. But she wouldn’t just be pretending to help, right...? She did tell everyone how strong I am when we got back, though, which I guess is good.
I flop down next to Swindle, and he gives me a high five and a little mushroom. It tastes pretty good. Guess I was pretty tired from all that work, because I fell asleep right after that, and the wagon was all fixed when I woke up! So the caravan gets moving again, and finally, finally we make it to Blackbough.
Honestly, it would be better to keep going… the place is kind of uh. Gross. Real small, damp, everything is made of black painted rotting wood. People aren’t very friendly. But Maxwell, Swindle, and Miss Azalea want to stop here and check for a temple to the Sovereign Host.
To get rid of Peony. Which I can’t really argue against. I’ve been trying to stay away from the cage they’ve got her in, but sometimes I can’t help but travel by it, and then she glares at me. She probably really hates me now. And everyone. I think we should have left her back on the road, and just got as far away as possible. But it wasn’t really up to me.
Delebean puts Rhogkun in charge of finding a carpenter here too. So our list of tasks are now:
-find a temple/jail.
-find a tannery so Variel can get her winter wolf pelt fixed for coat-making.
-carpenter to fix the wagon.
-get a shield for Maxwell.
-tell people about the menagerie!
Azalea has a contact at the temple, his name’s Lyndon Smyj. Says we’ve got to stay here for three days!! Because they’re going to have trial for Peony, and we’re going to have to like, testify. That sounds like a huge pain….
This place has a tannery for sure, you can smell it from far away, and it gets worse the closer you get. I almost puked. We all leave Variel to deal with that on her own, but I think she gets it taken care of. Luckily it shouldn’t take any much longer than we’re stuck here for this trial thing anyway.
At the general store, Swindle buys… a small box? And some jars? I’m not sure why. But the shopkeep is a carpenter! So that’s real lucky. She says she’ll come have a look at the wagon later. Swindle says something weird to her when he’s buying the box, and she gets mad. But she seems to like Variel just fine. Max buys a carpenter’s kit, he says ‘cause “Azalea said I need a hobby.”
We go to the blacksmith next, which is pretty close. There’s no one home though, or at least that’s what it looks like. Swindle snags a charcoal piece out of the hearth, and it’s like the only bit there. Pretty cleaned out. We knock on the door, and actually someone is home. They’ve just been hiding? Swindle wants to know why everyone one in town looks so tired, and I guess now that he mentions it, they do… but anyway the blacksmith guy says that the town is cursed and he’s gonna stay inside forever and slammed the door on us. Okay.
We do a bit of busking to drum up business for the menagerie. Rhogkun has that big deep voice of his, so he gets people’s attention, then Variel sings the song she wrote. She’s a Bard, so she can come up with stuff like that really easy. I did some sparkles. That probably helped, right?
Swindle wants to go back to the temple… ughhh. So we do that. He asks about the town curse or whatever. Azalea’s been talking to Mr. Smyj about it, actually. She tells us that everyone in town has been having bad dreams (big deal), and it’s stopping them from sleeping. Also every time we come into the temple, Max starts picking up things and dusting them. It makes me a bit nervous to watch, cause everything looks small in his hands, but he’s real careful. Swindle says he needs a room here for about half an hour and he’ll catch up to us later… so finally we all go to the tavern.
Max and Rhogkun find places they can fit, and Variel gets the barkeep’s permission to sing a few songs. I hop up to the counter, and order the special. It’s a stew! It’s okay. The barkeep (her name’s Beatrice) is about to hand me my drink, when some other lady comes up and knocks it out of her hand!! She shouts at me that it was poison! I’m just staring at both of them kind of confused, ‘cause I’m just minding my own business and my soup, but Beatrice looks like fed up, and I don’t know who or what with, but she reaches behind her back, and starts to pull a big kitchen knife out of her belt!
I better not get stabbed again I swear!!
RP - the second one. At the Siren's Sigh w/ Rhogkun.
Amity!
Amity uses her foot to push a chair out for Swindle as he approaches, then turns back to Rhogkun. On the table in front of her are two stacked and empty soup bowls, and a half-finished cup of whatever tonight’s drink is. She has her hood and scarf pulled down, looks pretty comfortable with how the night’s been going. This morning’s strange reading is now more like a curiosity than a threat. “What cards did you get? Maybe some were the same as me. I got…. It’s nine cards right?” she traces a circle on the rough wood of the tabletop, holds her finger at the top of it. “The Queen’s Thief. He steals stuff for her. I guess. And the next one was the Queen again! The green… no the Emerald Queen? She must be important ‘cause I got her twice.” She moves her finger to the next spot in the circle, hesitates, moves it a little further along.
“And then I got the snake! Which looks scary, but it’s about mysteries. And the Fey which is kinda like the Queen I think, only she’s more trouble. Or help. She wasn’t wearing a lot of clothes but she didn’t seem mean or anything. And after that was the Cat, which is about getting into trouble but getting away with it.” Amity grins up at Rhogkun. “So that one’s good.” She keeps moving her finger along the circle, trying to remember. “And uh… That’s when I got the Wasps. It was a big cloud and everyone was running away. And then the Mountain, for hope. Cause you don’t know what’s at the top. The last one was the Mermaid. She was getting stabbed and there was all this blood in the water…. The old lady said that’s the worst card.”
Amity looks up, curls waving around her face. “OH. She said I would meet a giant! But I met two!”
Rhogkun nods along with Amity as she speaks, smiling warmly and listening intently. When she finishes, he clears his throat - a sound like rocks crashing against each other - and in a low voice, says, "I was raised to not share with others the results of augury." He holds Amity's eyes for a moment, before looking down and staring intently at the woodwork of the tabletop. With a sudden start, in quickly interjects, "Not that I have any problems with you for sharing yours! I simply... feel that my future is my own, the same as my past. I feel no more comfortable speaking of my cards and fortune as I do speaking of my first wed-night with my wife."
"I will say, however... I do not know the number of cards or fortunes in the oracle's deck, but we did have very different drawings."
Amity looks genuinely embarassed. "Oh."
"Sorry, I've never had a fore-telling before. So you have a- did you-" she pauses, thinks more about what he's said. "You're like a closed book, huh. That's okay. How are you liking it here though? Ms. Roscoe's nice. She gave me a little work the last time I was here too, but I don't think she remembers me."
Rhogkun looks embarrassed as well. "Ms. Roscoe is nice, yes." After a small pause, Rhogkun scratches the back I'd his head. "I apologize, I don't mean to be withholding. I have a personal connection with the practice of foretelling that I feel I must admit. It is very important to me, it is a large part of my life." He breathes a small sigh, an expulsion of nervous energy. "I, at times, see flashes of possible futures. It is uncommon but is known, amongst my tribe."
Amity picks up her half-empty mug, tilts it a little bit, looking inside. "Hmmm... that seems useful, right? But maybe scary too."
"It was difficult when I was young." he says thoughtfully, seeming suddenly much older. "I have learned since then ways of coping with it, controlling it. It took me many years to find the balance I have now."
Rhogkun shifts the conversation away from himself with very little tact. "You worked for Ms. Roscoe, you said?"
"Oh. Um. Yeah." She takes a sip from the mug. "Nothing special. Just washed some dishes for a hammock for awhile. And it's not so bad if you cheat a little." She puts the mug back down and picks up one of the empty soup bowls. Squinting at it thoughtfully, she mutters something, make a small gesture with her other hand, and the inside of the bowl becomes clean....! Mostly.
"Hey do you know where that goes?"
Rhogkun looks puzzled, suddenly realizing he hadn't thought of it before. "To be honest, no I... do not. That is a minor ability that I can say I have yet to learn."
Amity grins. "Yeah it's pretty great. Is all your magic for future-telling?"
"It's what I am best at, although I have learned many spells. And you? What of your magic? Is it all cleaning pots and windows?"
"Ha! No." Amity raises a finger conspiratorially. "It's not safe to use recklessly. That's a wizard rule. If we're in trouble though, I'll save you and you'll see."
"Ha ha, yes, I do believe you." Rhogkun laughs, a deep, bassy sound. "You might have to teach me Wizard Rules ™, for I have little experience with how magic is taught throughout this land."
"Oh, I know a lot about it! I lived - my master was a bigshot wizard, you know? Well, human wizard." Amity corrects herself. "That's probably why you haven't heard of him. He took on a bunch of apprentices, and - we had to study for years and years. And the wizard would say what you can and can't do and how to do it. A lot of it was really boring. Did you have a wizard master who taught you? Or did you, did you have to figure it all out by yourself?"
"I had a teacher, yes. A wise man, our village's Judgement." Rhogkun pauses, considering. "Like a wise man, one who aids the tribe in decision making. He helped me control my visions and taught me a many things." The Goliath bows his head, eyes closed, in a moment of reflection. After a deep, meditative breath, he continues, slowly raising his head and gaze. "After his passing, it fell to me to provide Judgement for my people." It becomes somewhat obvious that Rhogkun has stopped short, as if reflexively he would say more, and then caught himself. For the first time all evening, he takes a large swallow of his ale in front of him.
Amity’s smile slowly falters, and before she can stop herself she says, “But.... you’re here.”
A somewhat pained smile touches Rhogkun. "A story, it would be, and one I'm not quite ready to tell. Not this evening, at least. Perhaps another." He takes another swig of his ale, smaller this time, more controlled.
The goliath nods his head towards Swindle, presumably at the bar. "What think you of the tall man and his constructed companion?"
Amity accepts this redirection gratefully. “Well they’re interesting aren’t they? I really wanna know their deal. I bet it’s a good one.”
“I’ve never even seen a stone guy before.”
"I have not either, although I know there are many wonders of the world I have yet to see. The tall man... Swindle? I will be honest in my dislike of his boisterousness and grandeur. And the name, Swindle? It is as if he is asking to not be trusted." Rhogkun makes an exaggerated face of disgust, looking a little comical on his usually stern visage.
“Ohh.” Amity laughs. “Yeah it kinda seems that way, I guess. I don’t think I have anything he’d wanna steal though so I’m not real worried. And Maxwell seems pretty sweet. You know. For a rock.”
She says this with a smile and there’s no malice in it.
RP - The first one. Amity and her Fortune.
Amity!
Dunswallow is the last stop before turning north to head home towards Wastow... or getting on a boat and heading somewhere new. Amity has just finished travelling west along the top of the bay and then retracing her steps back east, with the full intention of definitely, totally going back home to see how things are going there. She has been telling various temporary companions that she is on her way home for about 2 years now.
Now that she is at the point of actually having to head north and actually going there, just about everything else seems so much more enticing. What about the towns along the bay going south? I heard there's pretty cheap fare heading that way. And besides, it might still be dangerous to go home... right? Maybe she'll just send a letter. And then get on a boat.
Amity enters the town of Dunswallow via the same path that she's taken countless times before. Passing Fate and Medicament, the local Alchemist Shop that she's occasionally patronized, she notes with some weariness the fortune teller set up in her usual spot outside the shop. Why Maynild allows that woman to set up shop outside her business is, as always, beyond her. Luckily, the fortune teller (whose name Amity never bothered to learn) appears to have fallen asleep in her chair, her head lolling forward and her wispy hair drifting lazily across her face in the light breeze from the bay.
Walking confidently down the lane towards the shipping and docks district, Amity is about to turn the corner when she hears a loud, overly dramatic yawn and a surprisingly smooth, clear voice rings out, "Ahh, my dear. I've not seen you in a while. Did your journey yield that which you seek?" The woman has pulled a large stack of thick, oversized cards from... somewhere and runs her fingers along the well-worn edges. "If not, perhaps I could be of assistance."
Amity keeps her boots moving. She turns back to the old lady. "Yeah uh. I don't have any money sorry. Sooooo I'm good." Finger guns.
The old woman's laugh rings like a bell down the street. She reaches up with a gnarled, boney knuckle and wipes a tear from one of her eyes. "Oh indeed? Then lucky for me that I do not want for coin, eh?" She spreads her arms wide and there is a clink clink of metal striking wood as gold and silver coins fall from the sleeves of her ratty (but surprisingly clean) gown. "No my dear, I would not disturb you for such a trifle. After all, can't take it with you, right?" She throws her head back and laughs again, the sound echoing between the rows of buildings. Once her laughter stops, she once again locks eyes with Amity. "What I am interested in... is a story. My feeble body isn't what it used to be, you see, and I have been absolutely starved for entertainment." She says this in an overly-dramatic way, leaning from side to side and Amity swears she can hear the sounds of joints and bones cracking and popping loudly. "Give me news or a story from outside of these city walls and I would be happy, nay thrilled, to tell your fortune."
Amity has slowed her steps during this long speech. Stopped. She says “You know if you want news, you can just say so. You don’t gotta be so dramatic. I’ve been over to Riverpond and back.”
She leans against the wall, nearby but safely out of reach of spindly old person arms. “Whatcha wanna know, lady? You got... old friends somewhere?”
The woman settles comfortably into her chair, looking for all the world like one expectantly waiting for a favorite meal. "Ah, dear. Someone my age hasn't got many friends left, I'm afraid. Outlived em all, I have!" She cackles again, though a bit more subdued this time. "No, as I said, I simply love hearing news and stories from the outside. Gives me something to keep the mind sharp with!" She taps one temple with a twisted, root-like finger and winks.
Amity holds both hands in front of her in a sort of placating gesture. “Sure, sure. Okay well.” She wracks her brain. You heard about the.... uh... stilt-wolves, right? I mean. Man. Was talking to a lady just come back from up north, she was doing mining stuff for like... a year. Done with it. Left with one of the spring caravans. Or whatever they call them. Carrying all the stuff down to actual civilization.”
She looks at the old woman. “So they’re traveling through the forest and they hear this noise, right? They hear wolves howling. And it’s real close. Only.....” Amity leans forward. “It’s up high.”
“And outta the darkness and the trees come these huge wolves, and they’re all twisted up and wrong. And they’ve got long long legs that are just one big... fuckin claw at the end of em. And they just run in and .... stab everyone to death by stepping on em.”
Amity nods to herself. “It’s a real bad time for the mining companies.”
The woman listens attentively, her eyes widening as Amity leans forward. "Oh my, what a fright that must've been!" She shakes her head and tsks quietly. "But, not unexpected out there in the wilds. I do hope that poor woman wasn't injured." She pauses for a moment, one finger pressed almost daintily against her chin. "You know, speakin of strange beasts, I'd heard some passer-by's mention that they'd seen a right strange caravan followin the edge of the mountain south, headin in this direction. Reckon they'll probably be here this evenin, tomorrow at the latest." Her eyes twinkle. "Reckon they might have some of those.... what'd you call em? Stilt-wolves?" She watches Amity's face for a long moment or two before clapping her hands suddenly. "Ah yes! You gave me a story, so you must want your fortune told!" She begins shuffling a tall deck of thin wooden cards and gestures to a chair in front of her table with her chin. "Well then, sit! Sit!"
Amity waffles. "Look, I don't....." She comes a little closer, points a finger at the old woman. "Don't... don't give me any of the bad ones, okay?"
"Oh, I'd never dream of givin you any bad ones!" She grins, showing a full set of pearly-white teeth. "They're all good...* She deals out 9 cards in a circle. "... in their own ways."
Amity stares at the cards, trying to pierce their inner secrets.... she sits down.
The woman watches Amity closely as she sits, nods firmly once she's settled into the chair, and flips over 3 cards. The first card depicts a man in a hooded cloak with a set of brass keys around his neck, he appears to be handing off some small obscured object to a tall, elegant woman in a mask. The second depicts a similar woman as in the first card, but she is dressed in a deep green gown with similarly-colored stones sewn throughout the fabric. She gazes down from a balcony at some figures standing below, her chin upturned. The third card appears to be from the perspective of someone standing before a great crowd of people, their faces hidden in darkness but somehow still managing to feel reproachful and overpowering.
"Ah... The Queen's Thief, The Emerald Queen, and the Jury. Not a hand I'd wish for to start with to be sure!" She chuckles quietly. "You'll find the path you've chosen to be complicated by the machinations of another..." She looks up to Amity through half-lidded eyes and grins in a way that is slightly predatory. "Perhaps by a friend you left behind? One who was prone to envy?" Her finger slides over to the Jury card. "However, your fate will be decided - for good or ill - by others who will be privy to your every secret." She cackles. "Hope you've got nothin to hide, dear!"
Amity huffs. “Wh- none of those are good at all!!”
"Oh, fret not my dear, they'll surely get better!" She reaches forward and flips the next three cards. The first is an image of a coiled snake, its jaws gaping widely to reveal a pair of fangs dripping with venom. Behind the snake are misty shapes implying hidden mysteries. The woman purses her lips a bit, then moves on to the second card.
It depicts a creature in the form of a beautiful woman, her form draped in gossamer fabric that leaves little to the imagination. Her expression is one of beckoning and playfulness. "Oho..." The woman's expression relaxes a bit, though there is a touch of hardness remaining. She flips the third card.
A cat, appearing to be calmly padding towards the viewer. Behind it is an empty bird's nest, feathers scattered about. Between the two lying on the ground is a dog, its eyes apparently closed in deep slumber. The woman laughs and claps her hands as she reveals the card.
"Well now, this hand started off dreadfully, but my did it end on a happy note, eh? The Viper, The Fey, and The Cat." She looks to Amity with a mischievous expression. "Looks like you're one who is prone to stickin their nose where it don't belong, eh? That doesn't appear to be changin anytime soon, and it looks like you're gonna be meeting some right strange folks durin your meddlings. Not all of them will appear as they seem!" She looks down at the Cat with some fondness, running her finger along its edge. "Luckily, seems like you're also a quick study, in your own way. Even capable of some subtlety when the need arises? We'll see!"
She looks down to the final three cards for a moment before reaching down and beginning to flip them with a long fingernail. The woman hesitates a bit as she reveals the card. The first card depicts a... cloud? It appears... grainy, as if formed by dust or.... wasps. Looking more closely, it is a huge swarm of wasps. It appears to be descending over a town, and if she squints her eyes, Amity can see small figures running about in apparent panic in the streets. "Oh my goodness...."
She pauses for a moment before reaching to flip the second card. The woman breaths a quiet sigh of relief. Taking up almost the entirety of the card is a carved image of a mountain, the sun shining brightly behind it. At the bottom of the card, almost too small to see, is a small figure that could either be heading towards or away from the mountain.
There is less hesitation as she flips the ninth and final card. However, her hopeful expression crumbles completely and her breath catches in her throat as the card is revealed. The image is of a mermaid. She lies on a rock, her face buried in the crook of her arm and a spear thrust through her side. Deep, crimson blood flows down the rocks and clouds the water below. The woman hesitates for a moment, as if she is unsure how to react, before looking up to face Amity, not a flicker of the previous mirth remaining on her face.
Amity stares at the spread of cards, then stares accusingly at the old woman. "These aren't good cards! That one's... that one's wasps killing EVERYONE."
"And the mermaid got stabbed...."
Amity looks distressed.
The fortune teller actually flinches back from Amity's words a bit. "Aye, the Mermaid is a particularly weighty card..." She scans the spread before her and takes a deep breath before quietly finishing the reading. "Your future fate, my dear, hinges on the will of a mob driven by fear and while not impossible, you will have a difficult time reaching through the hysteria to make your case. However..." Her finger slides over to the middle card and she smiles softly. "You'll find aid in the form of a giant, one who will shield you from the barbs of the mob." She hesitates for a long moment before continuing. "But tragedy waits unseen in the murky depths, a heartbreak from which escape is... unlikely, but not impossible."
Amity has only her fingertips resting on the edge of the small table, but they seem to be pressing down very heavily. "A mob? What? Why?"
The woman leans back from the table, leaving the spread of cards revealed as she rests her weight against the back of the rickety old chair. "My dear, you are well-traveled enough to know that the future is hazy even to those with the skills to wave aside the mist." She looks to Amity with a mixture of pity and fondness. "Seems you have a heavy burden to carry, but..." She runs her finger along the Mountain and the Fey cards. "... doesn't look like you'll need carry it alone, eh?"
Amity's eyebrows nearly meet as she furrows her brow in deep concentration. "A big guy and a fairy. Sure." She leans back too, letting out her beath in a quick puff. "Yeah okay. Thanks for the cards, lady. Here's a couple coins, too." She places a few coppers onto the table. Stands up.
The woman smiles again, leans forward to gently take each of the cards and place them back in the deck. She leaves the coins where they lie. "Generosity where none is expected nor required is a welcome trait indeed. Hold on to that, if you're able..." She smiles again, that same toothy, too-wide smile. "Just be careful who you extend that generosity to, lest someone thinks to take advantage."
"Hey, I can take care of myself, okay. Thanks though, real fun. Good luck!" And Amity trots off to wherever she was going. As she turns the corner out of sight of the old woman, she tugs her hood back up over her head, and walks quickly.
RP w/ Rhogkun and Delebean - Secrets
Amity!
As Rhogkun puts the spellbook back into his pack, a thick stock parchment tumbles out of the back of his book, sliding to the ground. He hurriedly reaches out to grab it and awkwardly put it away, but anyone nearby could see what was on it if they looked - a beautiful charcoal portrait of a woman. She has a strong jaw and long flowing hair, and her face is scrunched in a tight, joyous smile, her eyes narrow. Rhogkun flushes red (as much as his blue skin will allow) before looking around shiftingly and pretending to be preoccupied by something deep in his pack.
Amity sees all of this with the finely honed senses of a grade A snoop. Carefully, she leans across the table and pulls her own spellbook towards her, looking down at it and not at all at Rhogkun, and says,
"So who's your pretty lady?"
"My wife," Rhogkun says, still shifting awkwardly in his pack for a moment before giving up the ruse. "A drawing I did of her from when we were both much younger." He pauses a moment, his eyes a little sad, but his mouth upturned on one side in a small smirk. "That smile never changed, however. I look upon it sometimes to remember her face, but I could never forget her smile."
Amity keeps her fingers resting along the edge of her spell book, but she leans back in her seat to track the expressions across his face. "She's beautiful. She looks happy. What... What happened to her?"
Rhogkun stammers a moment. "She, um... well, I'm not sure." He looks up to Amity, a snort of air coming from his nose, somewhere between resigned exhalation and dry chuckle. "I lost her. I don't know where she is, or any of my tribe. It's why I left the mountains. I lost them all." His tone sombers a little bit on those last few words, before he quickly shakes his head back and forth and tries to snap out of it. "I'm hoping that maybe if I travel I can find something, hear something about them."
Amity leans forward and says, probably making Delibean jump, "You what? You lost your whole tribe??" She starts waving one of her hands around, "You're- even just one of you is huge!"
Rhogkun laughs, a real deep laugh, and inhales deep, sighing out any sadness that may have been nestling within him. "A truly sad but true thing, little one, is that you can lose anything if you're not enough paying attention."
Rhogkun gestures to wherever Maxwell is currently. "After all, someone even lost him."
Amity looks over to Maxwell, back at Rhogkun. Tries to absorb his practical approach to this impossible problem. "I guess that's true. So you just- you were out walkin? And you came back? And every single soul was gone?"
"Well, it is a little more..." Rhogkun pauses. "Do you know how a bear hibernates?"
Amity says, "uhhh... I guess? Through the winter?"
Rhogkun nods. "At times of great decision making, a Judgment may put themselves in a type of meditative sleep much like a bear's hibernation." He twists an end of one his mustaches while speaking. "I have done it before in my time as Judgment. The last time, something went wrong. I didn't awaken as I should have... and when I didn't, no one woke me."
"I don't know how long I slept. Naught a clue. But it was long enough that the village was empty when I awoke. Not burned, not destroyed - but time had worn away tracks, and no one was there."
He looks at Amity with a small shrug. "And that is... all I know."
"That's..... wow. Okay." She thinks. Gets going. "So it could be even... what if it was a hundred years ago? Did you ask other tribes? Or villages? Sometimes we'd get your folk coming through Wastow- not a lot mind, but I've seen em once or twice. When did anybody last- What if- what was the thing? The decision?"
"Well Amity, do I really look a hundred years old to you?" he gives her his best Dad Smile. "Haha, I doubt it was a hundred. One or two, or five, I do not know. We did not track time with a calendar the way the rest of you seem to in these lands."
"And as for the decision... well, I feel it is still my duty as Judgment to protect that information. For my tribe. For now." His chest swells. "It might be one of the last things I could do for them."
Amity sinks back down, but continues to gaze at him worriedly.
Delebean, who up until now has been deeply engrossed in the two books excavated from the ruins, perks up a bit at the mention of Rhogkun's tribe, particularly when disappearances are mentioned. "You know, now that you mention it, I haven't seen a goliath in quite a while... your kind have always been a private folk, so I didn't think much of it." He chews on his lip a bit as he considers. After a moment, he heaves a sign and goes back to pouring over the book with a self-depreciating chuckle. "The more I learn about you people, the more I think it was a mistake to bring you along. But, I always did have a soft spot for strays."
After a moment of staring at the pages in the book, he sighs and leans back in his chair, rubbing his forehead with a hand. "Only dragons could create a language this convoluted and... and... bloody pompous. I'd rather read the most dense legal document than a page of this stuff." He closes his eyes for a moment before leaning forward again to look over the page. "Still, what I'm able to make out is interesting at least. Potentially terrifying, but interesting." He points to a spot near the top of the page. "Seems whoever wrote this was trying to..." he leans forward and squints at the page, reading slowly. "'Bridge the gap.' Whatever that means. Most of it looks like some sort of magical theory that's more than I can understand."
Amity produces an apple from somewhere within her ample cloak, bites it. She says, “Hey they told you the guy who had this last got his face burned off from the inside, right?”
Delebean's finger freezes on the page and he goes very still for a moment before slowly looking up from the book, a small bead of sweat dripping down his forehead. "... I'm sorry, what?"
Amity looks at Rhogkun.
Delebean looks from Amity to Rhogkun and back again.
Rhogkun blanches in realization, and quietly apologizes to Delebean. "I, well, I didn't really correlate the two necessarily, I... I am sorry."
Delebean stares at both of them. "That... that doesn't really answer my question. I'll ask it again. What?"
His finger is still frozen on the spot on the page.
"If you wish to stop reading, I understand completely." Rhogkun chews on his lower lip. "We found it near a corpse that seemed to have died in an... unpleasant manner."
Chewing on her apple, Amity says, "It was an underground cultist lair! Mole-people were guarding it. Statues came to life and there was a ghost trying to tell you secrets that would kill you! And all the zombies were full of ashes cause they died in a terrible, terrible fire."
Rhogkun straightens his back and lowers his gaze at Amity.
"Amity."
Amity smiles as wide as Swindle, "What? That's like... ninety percent true."
Rhogkun winces.
Delebean takes a moment to stare wide-eyed at both of them before slowly - very slowly - closing the book, pushes it across the table towards Rhogkun with his fingertips, stands, turns, and walks away.
Rhogkun reaches for the book, scowl on his face, and looks through it quietly.
RP w/ Rhogkun - Familiars and Spellbooks
Amity!
Still a little twitchy from her brush with Authority, Amity walks through the camp and starts casting about for something fun to distract herself with. With the wagons now circled just off the road, and people grouped up for various activities or tasks, there isn't very far to wander, or many places to go. It's been long enough since the attack that things are back to some sense of normalcy, too. But together at a table that has been pulled out into the afternoon sunshine, a pair of studious gentlemen are hard at work deciphering ancient texts - Delebean seated on a tall stool, and Rhogkun cross-legged and comfortable on the ground across from him. Conveniently, there is at least one empty chair awaiting a butt, and Amity plunks hers down into it, giving both of them a warm smile and peering closely at their progress.
"Is it really all in draconic? Do dragons really write a lot of stuff down? Do they just have like, really big books?"
Rhogkun looks up from his studying, stony faced. "Well, it is not that a dragon wrote this - they could have - but it is just that it is in their language. A dragon can have servants, and followers, and perhaps any number of others working on them." He looks over at Delebean, who is doing the majority of the work in this, and speaks a little quieter as not to disturb him. "It could even be someone who is simply enamoured with dragonkind, or perhaps writing in a secret language that few around them know."
Amity reflexively matches his volume, "That's a really good idea. Keep your wizard stuff secret."
She looks at the papers spread out on the table, carefully clears a tiny patch of space for herself, and pulls her own book out from under her cloak, detaching it from its strap and placing it on the table. She opens it and flips through the pages absently, saying,
"Do you think that's what this guy was doing, the last thing?"
"I do not know, I am very unsure." Rhogkun scratches his head absenmindedly. "The nature of the ruins we explored leaves me a little dumbfounded. I am not familiar with much of what we encountered - the creatures and their culture are all foreign to me. I was quite surprised to be attacked by living statues and secretive shadows." Reflexively, Rhogkun rubs a calloused hand across one of his slowly healing wounds.
A little bit of pride fills his voice as Rhogkun glances about, giving appreciative looks at each member of the party and menagerie while speaking. "I must say however, in spite of all odds I believe we have formed an effective group. When I was a younger, and a hunter, I found most hunting parties took months or years to find this amount of cohesion with one another."
Amity absorbs this praise readily. "I know, right? It's amazing. I never really thought about staying with such a big group before. Kind of a lone Wolf, you know. But I'm so glad to have met everyone. I don't know if I want to go down into anymore evil underground lairs again though...." She pauses. "well I mean, I'm sure it's easier the second time...."
She's quiet for a while. Then, "Hey Rhogkun, do you think you're you gonna get your cat back?"
Rhogkun stares at her blankly for a moment. "My.... oh!" Realization streaks across his face. "My servant." The goliath puts emphasis on the last word. "I may summon a servant for tasks in the future, although it may not be a cat, and it will likely not even be the same spirit. I have never kept a single familiar spirit for any prolonged time before." He eyes Prim, wherever Prim may be (or may be tucked away). "I find the relationship you have with your... " Noticeably, Rhogkun isn't sure of what to call Prim. "... companion truly singular and fascinating."
Amity is torn between her instinctive reaction to build upon this and brag about it, and something else that's concerning her. She appears to go with the second, saying, "Honest, I don't really know where he came from. And I'm not sure he knows either. He seems really... new. But I can talk to him from far away, in my head. And I can see what he sees sometimes, if we want. That's like a familiar, but he doesn't want to be a servant, obviously... and I don't really want that either."
She follows Rhogkun's glance, and sees Prim where she already knew he was: sunning himself on the top of a nearby wagon. "If, if you wanted to... like if you got along real well and one was a good worker, could you call the same spirit back? If you did the spell the right way?"
The goliath quirks his head, and brings his hand up and begins running it through his beard. "I suppose, perhaps." He nods slowly. "I could work the ritual that way, yes, were I to wish to. However, I have never truly found the spirits to be very... unique, in their ability or temperament. One is as good as another, after all, and I will accept whichever first heeds my summons." Rhogkun continues eyeing Prim lounging comfortably. "Maybe you have tapped into some new form of magic, or unknowingly cast a spell of a different property than mine." He looks to Amity now, making eye contact. "Maybe I could look at your spell book and see what you have written there, and if it is different than mine?"
Amity brightens, and pushes her book towards Rhogkun. Upon inspection, it is the kind of small simple book usually given to beginner students of magic. Inside is the high quality vellum which is necessary to properly transcribe spells. Flipping quickly through, you can easily see that the first few pages, in very neat handwriting, contain notations for simple beginner spells, such as Prestidigitation and Minor Illusion. There is a half-finished version of the Find Familiar spell near the front of the book as well. However, the rest of the pages are almost completely filled with hundreds of pictures of geometric shapes, childish animal drawings, and various notes and lists in a larger, messier script.
Rhogkun smiles at the cover, and begins leafing through the pages. And he nears the end of the simple cantrips and discovers that the rest of the book is... disorganized and incomprehensible, his eyes widen and he coughs awkwardly. "Um..." he stammers, placing a balled fist near his mouth. "This is noticeably different than the way I was taught, Amity.."
Amity's posture becomes a little defensive. "Well, I mean everyone works different, right?"
"Ah, um, yes, yes..." Rhogkun reaches into his pack, and pulls out his spellbook. Sandwiched between two heavy granite slabs is a thick collection of old parchemnts bound together with three large, iron rings. This spellbook looks heavy even in Rhogkun's hands, and makes an audible thunk when he sets it down. Carefully he opens it and shows Amity the first several pages. Much like hers begins, Rhogkun's spellbook is very neat and every word is written with expert caligraphy. The first dozen or so pages appear very old, yellowed and frayed parchment that could easily be older than Rhogkun himself. "These spells were passed down through my tribe, from the Judgement before me, and the Judgement before him. I am adding any new spells I learn or acquire in the back, treating them with the same reverence and respect that those before me did as well." As he approaches the end of his spellbook, the newest parchemnts show the familiar spells Rhogkun has been casting within the last several encounters - all written in a flowing, perfect script.
He glances over to Amity's spellbook, swallowing audibly before speaking. "I, uh, wasn't aware one could draw magical energy from what you have written in there, to be honest."
Amity has been staring at Rhogkun's immense spell book with something caught between awe and jealousy. But she looks up now at this last statement, and says "Oh it's just uh, like a starting point. You know? Trying to figure out how to work with these." And she flips an oblong and very thin purple crystal towards him. "That one's good for disappearing. I just figured it out today, I think."
Rhogkun looks at the crystal, scrutinizing every detail, and begins to chuckle. "Aha, Amity, sometimes I think we are speaking different languages." He smiles, closing his spellbook with another thunk. "I do not understand your magic, but I know you have talent. That is all I need know, for now."
RP w/ Prim and Variel- Royalty, Family, and Luck
Amity!
After the caravan has stopped for the day, as mealtime is just wrapping up, Amity finds herself with a small audience of children. They've come to watch her offer Prim, who sits on her lap imperiously, bits of cooked meat from supper. She looks down at them seriously, and says,
"He's a dragon prince you know. From a far off palace in the stars."
The four children, all between the ages of maybe 8 and 13, had been horribly interested in the newcomers since the menagerie had left Dunswallow. They were used to the occasional traveling companion here and there - after all, it was much safer to travel in a large group than individually - but these were different. Of course, they'd met Mister Swindle and Maxwell before, so they were kind of boring now. I mean, how much can one person talk about how soft and plush their tail is before one gets bored, right? Maxwell as pretty neat and he was really, really nice and sometimes even let them climb up on his shoulders. Mister Swindle would always get really mad and try to pluck them off, muttering under his breath about mushrooms, but when he wasn't looking or didn't care enough to fight them, they'd sit up on his shoulders for what seemed like hours.
But now there were new, even MORE interesting people traveling with them. One was a real giant, with blueish skin and a beard who sometimes looked kind of sad. He seemed to always perk up a bit when he saw them though, a small smile tugging the corners of his lips. The elf lady was probably the fanciest person they'd ever seen, and honestly they were all a little afraid to approach her. She seemed nice enough, though. Then there was the younger girl, closer to their age maybe, who wore big clothing more common in the towns further up north. They followed her the closest and the longest and eventually noticed that the small thing they'd originally thought was some sort of toy was actually alive. After they realized that, well, they just had to talk to her. So, one night, they approached her as she was eating her meal, feeding small bits of meat as the creature sat all puffed-up on her lap. The oldest, a girl with brown hair pulled up into a single braid, was the first to speak up in a clear, confident voice as she gazed with undisguised curiosity at Prim.
"Your pet's real pretty. I've never seen anything like it before, and I've seen all kinds of stuff."
"A... a dragon prince?" The children's eyes are wide as they gaze at Prim, who somehow manages to puff up even further.
One of the other children, a younger boy, speaks up. "Well... he's pretty enough to be a prince. Look at the shiny bits there, on his back."
The two remaining children, siblings by the look of them, look up at Prim with awe. "... we met a prince today." one of them whispers.
The older girl speaks up again, still looking reverently at Prim. "Does.. does he have a name?"
Prim turns his milky gaze on Amity and, once again, her mind is suddenly filled with a confusing mixture of images and sensations. When she's able to focus again, Prim is still sitting there, head turned slightly to the side in his usual imperious manner.
Amity blinks a few times to clear her head. "Yeah. Um. It's all in like, dragontalk. You know. But you guys can call him Prince Prim. Or "your highness." He'd prolly like that."
Prim deflates a bit and gives Amity a long-suffering look and a feeling that tastes like strangely like plain, day-old bread. Acceptance, maybe?
The children gather a bit closer, the two youngest standing almost on tiptoes in order to get a better look at him. "... the prince's name is Prim." one of them whispers.
The older boy scoffs a bit. "That's kind of a dumb name for a prince, ain't it? I thought royal names sounded all important-like, like in the stories."
Prim's frills pop up at that and he looks to the boy, then back at Amity, his eyes narrowed angrily as he nods.
Amity frowns at the boy, “Well I said it’s different in dragon, right? It’s like, longer. S’made of pictures. And feelings.” She glances down at Prim, catching the heat of his glare. “What, you too, little prince? What about if we’re in danger? A person can’t very well be shouting “your prismatic radiance, reflections of the sun and endless stars” across the battlefield. It’s way too long.” She looks at him with deep concern.
Prim looks as if he is going to begin puffing up with indignation as Amity continues speaking, but eventually he releases all the pent-up air in a massive sigh of resignation before settling back down into her lap and resuming his expectant look as he awaits more bits of meat.
The boy who spoke considers Amity's words and then shrugs a bit. "I guess that makes sense. Royals are weird, anyway."
The older girl shakes her head. "You're just too stupid to understand."
Eventually the children get around to introducing themselves. The oldest girl's name is Lynn, the boy's name is Artur, and the twins are Louis and Shae.
Amity accepts their introductions graciously, giving Prim a few more pieces of meat and some frill scratches. Then she says, "I'm Amity. It means like, making friends easy. My mom gave us all names like that, like virtues, you know." Then, mostly to herself, she says, "Course, her name's Chastity and there's four of us...."
Amity turns to Variel, who, for purposes of this conversation is sitting moderately nearby, and says, "Hey, um, Variel. I keep wondering. What's your name mean? If it means anything, I mean. My sister's name is Verity which is like... for truth and stuff. It just kinda reminds me of her."
Variel, who had been pretending not to listen, now turns bodily towards Amity, never missing a chance to discuss herself. “Well. Variel generally is taken to mean “changeable”, or “mutable”, “adaptable” you know. Can also be considered “unique”. So similar, I suppose, because I am unique and the truest form of myself… The rest is relatively self explanatory.”
Amity starts grinning about halfway through the explanation. Afterwards, she says, "That's a good name, then. Cause you can do whatever you want."
Variel adopts the sleepy, early morning version of a proud grin. "Yes, well I do tend to do just that. Also I am rather good at most things I try... so it is quite apropriate. Are you particularly close with yor sister? Or ironically named mother? Does irony run in the family, is your sister perhaps a heinous liar?"
Amity replies without hesitation, "Oh yeah, of course! I have to write home like, all the time, or my mom gets worried about me. And she's real proud of me, she says so when she writes me back." Amity gives Prim another morsel while she considers. "Verity's my little sister. I haven't seen her since she was like... ten. Probably. I dunno what she's like now. She was a good kid though, just the normal amount of trouble."
"Mmm. And you left to... study magecraft? How long has it been since you saw them? And the... others? Four, you said? So another two? Let me guess... Patience and... hope?"
Amity's gaze drifts down to Prim, and she scritches his frill somewhat absently. "Mmm, uh, yeah. It's like a journeyship or whatever. I dunno, it's been.... awhile. Yeah." She looks up and points at Variel, "You're a pretty good guesser though. Constance and Patience. They're both older'n me. First one yeah, super stuck up, she'd never do anything bad. Patience... isn't." she laughs. "We got into so much trouble. I kinda miss her, I guess. I'm sure they're all doing fine though."
And then, little bit quickly, " You, you've got like, a Queen though right? Do you miss her? I guess I dunno how long you've been... not there."
Variel raises her eyebrow at the vagueness of time and study, but it's early and she is distracted by talking about herself again. She nods at her successful guessing... "One out of two isn't bad, I suppose... I imagine your mother finds it hard to send replies to you if she doesn't know where you are. You should stay in a town for a while soon so you can actually find out how they're all doing if you're worried about them, I'm sure no one would mind."
She regalises when her lady is mentioned and regains a level of enthusiasm "Mmm well calling her merely a "queen" doesn't really do her justice... The Lady of Summer is more like a deity than just a monarch." She gestures vaguely in whatever direction Swindle may or may not be "You've seen that one's powers, yes? All granted from my people, channeled primarily through The Lady's good graces to undeserving mortals such as he. I suppose I should be glad that some still remember the old ways, but it is... somewhat unnerving to learn that our endeavours in the court of summer are being used as some form of battery to fuel escapades such as his... I had thought there would be noble battles to be won, rights to be wronged... the stuff of stories, you know..." She trails off and stares past Amity for a moment, instinctually running her fingers along the lute frets.
She shakes her head, and returns to reality, smiling at Amity. "But yes, I miss her terribly. I haven't left her side for more than a few weeks in centuries...? millennia...? ever really. We grew up together, and were until a few months ago quite inseparable. From the sound of things, much like you and... Patience? Was it? Partners in crime, well meaning miscreants, fun and shenanigans... Just... no blood relation and... for much longer. But I suppose when one lives forever, that's not as much of an investment, compared to you? I don't know. Time's flow is still new and strange to me, my estimates may be off..." She trails off, and idly fiddles with the lute some more, echoes of past conversations and emotions flitting across her face.
Amity stares for a moment, a little overwhelmed by the intensity of the tale. "Oh... oh Variel that's so sad. I hope... I hope you can go home soon."
She fiddles with Prim's paws, stops, since it's unlikely he appreciates such a thing. She glances over at Rhogkun, "I dunno if you believe in like... card readings. Future-tellings. But there was... I got... back in Dunswallow the fortune telling lady gave me a reading. And some of it already came true, though there's some that sounds kinda bad and I'm hoping it doesn't. But uh, one of the cards was the Fey, and maybe that's you, and another one was The Emerald Queen and maybe that's your Lady."
She nods, convincing herself and gaining enthusiasm. "So, yeah! Maybe we'll be able to do it, you know?"
Variel looks slightly surprised at Amity's reaction, then smirks slightly. "Sorry dear, it's the performer in me. Have to give every tale the right sort of gravitas, you know. It's not too terrible, I'm sure it won't take more than a few years to sort things out. And hopefully we'll experience more exciting adventures before then, and I'll have a whole lifetime's worth of new tales to tell her upon my return!"
She cracks her knuckles and does a few warmup notes on the lute, makes a few adjustments, and continues softly practicing while continuing the conversation. There are occasionally two or more hand gestures accompanying certain notes, faster than is visible, that she appears to use to draw out certain notes, or manipulate them post-lute, after the fact as they hang in the air. After a round or two of playing the same tune she's holding the whole base tune in the air with minor illusion acting as her own backing band, and playing the finer more complex parts of the melody at a higher pitch.
Her head no longer tilts in Amity's direction as she responds - and her eyes remain inscrutible shapes of colour - but it appears that she's practiced enough to be looking at the instrument and listening to Amity. "Oh certainly, I believe. As we discussed, I am a mutable, changeable being, and I know the concept of time..." - she takes her hands off the lute to do airquotes but keeps the backing track running, then picks up the lutery on the next beat - "... to be but a single variable in life, and not a universal one at that. There's no doubt that some people can perceive without time interfering...
"So yes, that's quite reassuring, actually. Thank you, Amity." She carries on playing, but her face has taken on a softer feel, and the music feels warmer as a result. Her eyes, for once, less judgey, more fond. "And I'm sure the things that sounded bad will end up being wonderful stories for us to tell once we're past them. The small golden ones you spoke of earlier will bring us the luck to survive them, I'm sure."
Journal #7 Flowers
Amity!
Getting stabbed hurts a lot… it’s not like I expected it not to but... And it’s all a big crazy melee now! With soldiers fighting the caravan guards, Humplebumble under a wagon again, Rhogkun throwing balls of fire around, and the Swindle-panther screaming like crazy down in the cage. I think he turned back though, because I see those blue bees fly up and get some people. Variel shot a whole bunch of people with arrows. Soldiers, I mean. Some of the fight I don’t remember, ‘cause Peony stabbed me again, and I think… I think I almost died. The next thing I really remember is being on the ground and looking up at Maxwell.
After that I scramble away from Peony and try to stay out of everyone’s way. This whole time Prim’s been sending me those worry-thoughts that taste like copper in the back of my throat, but now that just kinda mingled in with the actual blood. I try to make sure he’s safe, cause he’s my responsibility now.
And then someone new shows up. A half-elf woman, and she seems to know Peony and Maxwell both. I make sure she also knows that Peony is going around stabbing random innocent people. And maybe her just being here made a difference, because by now Peony looks real bloody, and she turns tail and tries runs off. She almost makes it too, before the bees get her.
Variel makes sure she isn’t gonna die though, and gets the shrine soldiers to back down. Then Swindle asks for my help and we go around trying to make sure as many people don’t die as we can. We actually do a really good job. I guess I’m good at healing too.
Swindle volunteers the caravan to take Peony to justice in the next town, which, if it can’t be execution, he’ll settle for jail. The half-elf lady, her name’s Azalea, and she’s gonna stick around and help with that. Her and Max are real old friends, so I guess she’s okay. Humplebumble is extremely unenthused about near everything, and I don’t really blame him. This is a whole big mess that I’m just going to try and stay out of.
Oh yeah, and I saw Rhogkun go over to Humplebumble and ask him about those books we found. He wants to know if anyone in the Menagerie speaks Dragonic. So I tell him that I can maybe read it, and he hands the books over to me. But even though I look at the pages for a really long time, it’s still all just squiggles to me. I really thought… I mean. Well Prim’s a dragon, right? Cept I guess he only talks in pictures. It’s not like he writes notes to me. And there was that…. other time. But that wasn’t really….
Anyway, I guess Humplebumble speaks Draconic for sure, and he can read and write too. So he’s gonna help Rhogkun decipher the books. One of them’s full of spells! I wonder what they are. Hey wait wait… hopefully the other one doesn’t have whatever secret god-knowledge that ghost lich got killed by…. That wouldn’t just… be in a book for anyone to put eyes on, would it?
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Journal #6 AKA I Got Stabbed!!
Amity!
It looks like… like a face, that’s got thick ash just pouring out of it, and all that ash is swirling around and making up the rest of it. And it says something to me inside my head, and I don’t… I don’t understand. But everything gets all weird, and before I know it, I’ve punched Rhogkun! I hope he’s okay. I’ll have to say sorry later. Variel sees what it’s doing, and she shouts not to listen to it. She says this ghost thing is what happens when somebody gets into a magical secret that they can’t handle. It’s so mad it got this way, that it wants to tell everyone the secret and make them the way it is too.
And there are more of those statues in this room, only this time they’re inside the pillars that are holding it up! And when they start trying to get at us, they start bringing the room down! Not good. The ghost thing is SO STRONG. But luckily we have Max, cause he hits it with some kinda glowy magical holy attack, and it really hurts it. Swindle, Variel, and Rhogkun hide out in the hallway the whole time btw! Then I throw one last Crystal Blast at it and it turns inside out and dies. Whew. Cept we can’t rest now at all, because the whole place is coming down. A big rock lands on Variel and for a second I think we’ve lost her, but Swindle’s magic fox spirit (when did that get here…?) boops her with its nose and she’s okay again. Then we run and run for the sweet sweet sunlight that awaits us outside.
Well. I guess we can go say we finished the job and everyone is safe now. We’re all real tired, so we head directly back to the wagons to deliver the good news and hopefully receive a warm welcome.
We don’t.
When we get to the top of the hill, we can see that there are a bunch of soldiers mingling with the Menagerie folks. Swindle takes one look at them and dives behind a bush, gesturing frantically and whispering to Maxwell. Rhogkun and Variel look about as confused as I feel.
Before we can head down there to find out what’s going on, a few of the soldiers come up to see what we’re up to. One of them has got real sharp eyes, and he sees Max and Swindle behind the bush, in spite their excellent hiding skills. He turns and shouts “Commander Peony, we found ‘em!” and then… a panther jumps out of the bush and knocks him down??
It’s… a suspiciously Swindle-colored panther (he can turn into a panther???). It yowls right in the soldier’s face and then clambers up onto Maxwell, who starts doing his very best to spin a tale about how we captured “the beast” that the caravan was looking for. Max isn’t a great liar, as you might guess, but the soldiers buy it anyhow, and the Swindle-panther lets itself get taken away to one of the empty cages that the caravan still has.
A halfling lady in shiny armor comes up to join us all on top of the hill, and I guess her and Max know each other.
Have you ever talked to someone who just knows they’ve got you cornered, and they’re real happy about it, but just playing with you til you figure it out? She was like that. She says that when Swindle stole Max from the temple, they really got left in a bind. I guess he’s from a place called the Pharos Shrine. She calls him Oracle and at first Rhogkun thinks she means him, ‘cause that’s his whole thing, but she really means Max. I guess maybe he told fortunes there? It’s a shrine to the Sovereign Host which is… kind of a big deal. But yeah. She says she needs him to come back there now with her. Cause he belongs there. Max says that he gets her for sure, but he really thinks that he can do a lot of good out here in the world. And I think it’s good for him too. There’s a lot of stuff he hasn’t got to see yet, you know?
For a second I think that maybe this will work, since it’s the honest truth, but instead she calls to her soldiers and tells them that if Max won’t come with her, they’ve got to break his legs and carry him. And while I’m trying to process this quick turnaround, she comes up close to me and Max, and! She! Stabs me!!
I tried to shout for help, but the soldiers don’t care. And then we have to fight for our lives.
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Journal #6
Amity!
So a good thing about this secret temple is that it’s totally old, and I’ve never seen anything like it before. A bad thing about it is that what we thought were just a bunch of ugly statues, were actually a bunch of -evil magical statues- and they tried to kill us! Rhogkun was just starting his Detect Magic ritual when one of them came to life and just stabbed him in the guts! What!
It was super dangerous but we made it okay. Max smashed one of them into itty bits, but the the other ones were only partially damaged. Swindle and Variel picked some little black skulls out of them?? They said the statues are some kinda monster that necromancers make to guard their stuff. They make them… out of people. And I guess the little skulls have like, the recorded memories of the people the statues used to be inside of them… I dunno how I feel about that. But Swindle pocketed them and I guess they’re gonna try and talk to them somehow later.
We kept poking around and found… more ash zombies. One of them killed Rhogkun’s cat. :( But I guess he also saved one of us getting hurt. And they’re so hard to hit with my magic!! I don’t know why. We found a kitchen, and a closet full of valuables, and also…. Some magic circles and a torture room…. So I don’t think this temple is one of the good kind. A lot of bad stuff happened here for sure. I almost threw up. In one of the rooms we found a body, and the guy was long dead like everything else, but it looked like he’d been burned out from the inside. I wanna… I wanna go home.
In the room with the body are a couple magical books and a big warhammer with a ram’s head. Max takes the hammer and Rhogkun takes the books. And then we go down one last long hallway, and open one last door, and inside… is a black and ghostly swirling figure, and it says “Do you want to know a secret?”
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Journal #5
Amity!
We all ran full speed out of the old village and down the hill to where the road is. Well most of us stayed at the top of the hill, but Rhogkun ran all the way down. Him and Variel got there first. There were dead people - zombies - coming out of the ground and attacking everyone! Luckily we got there soon enough to save everyone. One of them fell over onto Humplebumble, but he’s okay. Swindle said they were ash ghouls. Guess that’s why they got that dust everywhere.
Nobody got hurt too bad. The ghouls got us all smelly though, ugh. I used my magic to clean up me and Swindle. It’s real handy. Me and Max had a real serious talk about the possibility of mole people necromancers. You never know. Even Rhogkun said it’s possible.
While we were resting, he summoned a familiar! Just like that. It’s a real pretty cat, with soft fur. I pet it while he wasn’t looking. I asked him what its name was, and he just said “it’s a cat.”
Anyway, we knew the only way to keep the roads safe for everyone in the future would be to go looking for whatever was causing the ghouls to show up, so we did. We went back to the village ruins and started poking around. Variel found an old door that went into the ground, like a root cellar. And inside there was all the regular stuff you’d expect to find in such a place, but also a tunnel that led off in the darkness. Me and Prim took a look, and it led to this giant cave!
Everybody followed us, and the further we got in, we started to hear strange sounds in the back of our heads. Suddenly some creatures attacked us, it was the mole people! They had some kind of power that make people afraid of them. Variel said they’re a kinda fey creature that feeds on peoples fears, and they kinda spontaneously show up sometimes when really bad stuff happens. Like, if a village burns to the ground and creates a bunch of ash zombies. Also she said they’re called Meenlocks, and not mole people, but I dunno if there’s that big a difference, so I’m gonna just count that one for me and Max.
We decided to be extra thorough, and explored the rest of the cave. Variel said part of the thing that Meenlocks do, is they can magically create a place to live underground when they show up, which is why this not quite natural looking cavern was under the village. And I guess it cleared out enough space that it ran into something else, cause we found a place where there was a cave-in, and mixed in with the regular rocks and rubble were a bunch of crafted floor tiles.
Well that’s too interesting to resist, so me and Max put our backs into it, and started clearing the way. It was a lot of work! I don’t think I’ve lifted that much heavy stuff like… ever. Whew. bbut it was worth it, because on the other side was a secret ancient temple! I can’t wait to check it out.
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Journal #4
Amity!
Me and Prim had a heart to heart out by the bay. Well kinda. I still don’t really get it. I tried petting him like a cat, and he stopped sending me spikey-sour feelings long enough to tell me that he used to be somewhere really good. Where he felt safe and wanted all the time. And now he’s just got me. Feels like he traded down.
Back at the Siren’s Sigh there were a bunch of seagulls loitering at our window table! I had to chase them out. But pretty soon everyone else came back, and we had a nice night. Variel sang a song about how we killed the winter wolf to save the town, and a bunch of people bought us food and drink! Max ate a mushroom, and we’re all a bit curious to know what happens to it. Probably nothing though. You know, I like everybody, and they all seem to get along. Swindle even got Rhogkun to relax his guard a bit - I caught him tapping his foot to the music.
Oh yeah, and I made sure to visit the Tiny Gods shrine and make an offering. We sure used up a lot of luck getting out of that winter wolf thing alive. Plus I found those coins, and maybe someone else will need them more than me. I tried to tell everyone about the Tiny Golden Gods, but nobody believed me except for Variel, I don’t know why. She made an offering too though, so I think we should be set.
That night I had the star falling dream, but it turned into… a star flying dream. I think that’s the first really good dream I’ve had since… since… Well anyway, I woke up and Prim was draped all over me, so I think maybe he had something to do with it. If he’s not here because of all my tries at the familiar spell, then I have no idea why he is, but if this is going to be a regular thing, he can stay as long as he wants.
Also he definitely likes bacon.
Everybody was getting ready to go, and Variel came in with the winter wolf pelt in a big bundle. It smells weird. We stopped at the general store on the way out to get her a cold weather coat and Max got some tools so he can work on that tusk we found. He’s already polished it up pretty nice, I wonder what he’s gonna do with it?
When we got to the Menagerie, they were still getting packed up. They were also still making breakfast and I guess the head cook is a tabaxi named Ample Harvest. She… she… Do you know what déjà vu is? That hit me right in the gut. I mean, yes she’s got fur. And a tail. And paws too, sure. But everything else about her reminded me so much of my mom that I couldn’t do anything for a bit. Crap, I never did write that letter…
She gave us a second breakfast, and even got Swindle to eat a big plate. Prim almost didn’t like her, but she pet him under the chin and he changed his mind. I guess that’s a good spot.
After that we hit the road, and while it’s weird to be with such a big group, it’s always nice to be walking again. In the afternoon, we spotted some old ruins off in the fields. I’ve never checked these ones out before, but they’re pretty much all the same. I showed Max around and we found some old villager-stuff. I was even getting a good ghost story going for him when we all heard Humplebumble start shouting from back with the caravan. Something not good is happening.
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Amity & Prim
Amity!
When it becomes clear that the Menagerie isn't leaving immediately, and some of the other party members have tasks to attend to, Amity says, "Oh yeah, me too. I have to go write... a letter. So I'll see you guys back at the Siren later. Okay?"
She clutches the small blue dragon to her chest and meanders off towards the town proper.
And while she certainly, definitely intends to write that letter, her feet instead take her on a winding course throughout the town, and eventually down to the rock-strewn beach near the docks. She finds the largest one out of habit, and hefts Prim up onto it, then clambers up behind. She sits and watches the water on the bay.
Finally she looks over at Prim and says, "Okay. But what's your -actual- deal, anyway?"
The creature squirms in Amity's grasp for a while when she insists on carrying him before settling down with a quiet, resigned huff. As they meander through the town, Amity either doesn't notice or doesn't care about the occasional wide-eyed look or double-take from the townsfolk who notice Prim hanging dejectedly in her grasp, but thankfully the creature is fairly small so these looks are relatively rare.
When they approach the docks, Prim's frills perk up a bit as he spots the masts of the larger ships, and he cranes his neck a bit to get a better look. However, Amity soon turns down one of the many side paths that lead down and away from the docks toward the rocky beaches that border the southern end of town and with another huff, Prim hangs limply again. Throughout all this, Amity's thoughts are brushed by a feeling of indignation that is clearly emanating from the creature in her arms, broken only by the sharp taste of curiosity at the sight of the ships.
When Amity reaches the large rock and plops Prim down onto it, he narrows his eyes suspiciously and stands there, legs splayed out wide in the ready-stance that cats are prone to adopting prior to springing away. When Amity climbs up and sits down next to him only to gaze thoughtfully out to the bay, Prim slowly relaxes a bit and does the same, his gaze drawn to the masts of the larger ships as they slip gracefully though the water. Amity's words snap Prim out of his reverie and he blinks owlishly at her. There's a moment where Prim stares at Amity with his milky eyes and a feeling of anticipation washes over her before Prim cocks his head to the side with a quiet chrrup sound.
*Amity sighs. She looks back out at the water, watching it sparkle as the sun makes its way slowly down the sky. * “It’s nice, right?”
Prim returns his gaze back to the water, the reflections gleaming off his eyes and crystal-like scales and frills. After a few minutes, Amity feels the thmp of something pressing against her side and looking down, sees Prim leaning against her. His head is turned away slightly, his frills pressed tightly against his neck and his eyes are narrowed slightly in a... begrudging expression.
Amity continues looking out over the water for awhile. And then, without looking at him, cautiously, reaches one hand down to gently scratch the top of Prim’s head.
Amity can feel the creature stiffen, Prim's frills held aloft and an ever-so-slight twitch of retreat... but Prim doesn't pull away. As the sunlight catches in the pearlescent facets of Prim's frills and scales, there comes slight sound comparable to that of a cat purring, but more metallic and harsh. A feeling of disgust wafts from Prim to wash over Amity, but the creature doesn't pull away. Eventually, the feeling shifts between several flavors that take Amity a moment to piece together: disgust to rationalization to thoughtfulness and finally to self-assured smugness.
“Where’d you come from, little guy?”
The heavy, cream-flavored smugness and metallic rumble continue to emanate from the creature for a moment as Amity continues to scratch. At her question, the creature opens one eye and looks at her quizzically, thoughtfully. He looks out to the bay again, and a feeling of drifting listlessly fills Amity. A quiet contentment of having and knowing and wanting... nothing. Of being part of... something greater, something unknown but somehow familiar at the same time. Prim looks up at the sinking sun, his milky eyes squinting. A spark, two sparks... then a blinding flash of light fills Amity's head, replete with aurora-like bands of color. Prim turns his head once more and looks up at Amity, his eyelids lowered in a bored expression.
“Um.... sure... that must have been nice. I’m from, you know.” She thinks a little bit, then tries to hold in her head the image of Wastow, as she last saw her home town from the road as she left, many years ago. “It was alright.”
As you focus on the image of your hometown, brow scrunched together in concentration, Prim continues to give you the same, unimpressed look before his eyes snap open wide and he looks quickly to the left and right, then up over your shoulder to the north-east. He continues to stare in that direction for a moment before lithely sliding back down into a seated position next to you. He sits, and stares, and you feel like, maybe, just maybe, there's an iota of new respect in that gaze.
However, it doesn't last long. A few seconds after the look, he turns with what you swear is a sniff, gazes back out into the bay, and presents the ridge of his head again.
Amity quirks her mouth into a smile when he isn't looking, and resumes softly scratching his frill.
"So you came from... your happy place. Because.....? You need help?"
At the question, Prim glances up at you out of the corner of his eye and you catch, for the barest second, a taste of... fear? Loneliness? You're about the nail the thought down and then it is gone, replaced with the now-familiar flavor of haughty superiority. Prim yawns mightily, stretches hugely, and curls up next to you (but not quite touching you).
"Hmmmm...."
"Okay. Well." Amity looks up at the descending sun and realizes that it will probably be dark soon. "You can stay with me, if that's what you want. I can't sleep out here on this rock though. And I'm hungry. You wanna come back to the Siren?" She squints down at him.
Prim's head lifts sinuously from where he was resting it on the rock. He blinks slowly, looks back toward the town, then returns his gaze to you. You stare back for a moment. He continues staring at you for what seems like forever. You stare back. Maybe he wants to play a game! you think.
After doing this for a while, Prim makes several displeased sounds before waddling behind you, continuing to grumble all the while. A second later you're jostled about as you feel Prim trying to wriggle his way into your backpack. You taste something bitter in the back of your mouth.
"Wh-what."
"Uhh. Don't break any of my stuff." Amity adjusts the straps of her backpack, hefts it experimentally to test the new weight, and climbs carefully down off the rock. She takes one last look at the setting sun, then turns back to town, heading for the Siren's Sigh.
Journal #3
Amity!
The winter wolf is so biiiiig…. It’s even bigger looking now that it’s out of that cage. And it shows every one of its teeth when it speaks. I let Rhogkun do the talking because I’ve got to keep an eye on it. He asks the wolf what happened to the kid. The wolf says he didn’t need to eat the kid, and they’re probably back at home and safe right now. That’s good. But the wolf says he’s gonna follow the circus and devour everyone that Delibean ever cared about one by one and then finally snap him up in one gulp. And that’s not good.
Mr. Swindle makes a good case for the wolf going back and just… turning the circus into his own personal entourage, since Delibean owes him pretty big for all the disrespect, obviously, and it would be a mutually good sorta arrangement. I’d be almost tempted. But the wolf’s a real free spirit, and he says his honor’s worth way more than that, and then Variel shoots him with an arrow and everything happens real fast.
So many wolves came running! I managed to get most of them, but one of them scrambled up close enough to help the winter wolf pull Rhogkun down. It also blasted Maxwell and Swindle with that ice breath it has. It’s a good thing Mr. Swindle has healing magic as well as wasps. His magic feels like a warm breeze and the way grass smells in the sun, kinda perfect for fixing icy hurts. After we killed all the wolves, me and Max built a big fire, and Variel and Swindle spent a few hours skinning the pelt off the winter wolf. I know a lot of folks who do that for a living, but it’s too bloody for me.
At night I had the dream about the stars again, it’s almost the worst one. When I woke up everybody was staring at me. Variel’s from a place called the Feywild, I guess they don’t have dreams there, so I had to explain to her about it. And Max doesn’t really sleep. But Rhogkun and Mr. Swindle said they don’t have bad dreams either… even though they’re both really old. They looked at me like I was crazy.
Anyway, guess what! A little blue dragon flew in and started talking pictures into my head! I asked Rhogkun if it might be my familiar, since I tried all those times to cast the spell and it never seemed to work, and he said maybe. His name’s Prim! Or at least that’s what the pictures kinda sounded like. Sits real proper, too, all… imperious I guess you could say. He says I’ve gotta listen to him, but I think he’s a little confused about how this familiar thing works. And he didn’t want a ration-cake, so now I’ve got to figure out what dragons eat. Maybe I can ask Mr. Humplebumble.
After that we walked back to Dunswallow, and I guess we went a sorta different way, because we found a dead mammoth just lying there. Maxwell snapped it’s tusk off! Maybe it’s worth something good. We went back to the circus, and Humplebumble was real glad to see us, even though he didn’t look for the kid at all, like he said he would. He said thanks, and he owed us one, and since the Menagerie was looking for more hands, we could all join on if we needed work. Everyone said yes, even Mr. Swindle who kept denying his circus-ness before. Their caravan’s gonna go south, but they’re taking the long way - back west across the bay where I just came from. It’s not what I wanted, but I guess it’s okay. I feel like a lot of interesting things are gonna happen if I just stick with everyone.
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Journal #2
Amity!
Wow everyone here wakes up really early. Even Swindle is an early riser, which I would not have guessed. He made a new friend this morning, some pretty elf lady, her name’s Variel! She’s all warm colors. I wonder what she’s doing here in Dunswallow. They circled each other like cats for awhile, so I went and had breakfast with Rhoghun, and that’s when someone from the Menagerie came looking for him. Rhogkun asked him if it was about the wolf, and the guy said he couldn’t say, but you could tell the answer was yes. So we went to see about that, and everyone else kinda followed along.
Humplebumble had his big tophat in hand, and was real nervous, but Rhogkun scared him into getting to the point. Which was yeah, the winter wolf got out. Surprise, right? It froze one of the guards with its magic, and when Max tried to move the poor guy he fell apart into pieces. Rhogkun was hopping mad. And he found a little scrap of cloth by the cage, like what a little kid would wear. But there’s no blood anywhere, and the door was just open, so maybe the wolf took the kid with it? Anyway, Rhogkun says winter wolves are known for their grudge-holding, so it would be back for Delibean for sure. Some people wanted to run away, but I said, that’s not what heroes do, so we all decided to go north and look for the wolf.
Variel followed us! I guess she’s just a real curious type. I kinda get that. We got a little lost following the tracks, and some spiders attacked us in the woods. Not like, regular ones, like BIG spiders. But it was fine because we’re all really strong. And I found out Mr. Swindle has attack-wasps living in his staff?? I’m not sure I feel too good about that. They seemed to listen to him pretty well though. I guess.
The biggest spider got scared and tried to run away, and I shot it down out of a tree! A bunch of other stuff fell out of the tree with it, including a body… Rhogkun touched it! Gross. We took his money which is kinda weird, but i guess, he’s not using it anymore. So now I have 4 gold!
We find the tracks again after awhile, and the big wolf tracks get joined up with by little wolf tracks, and they all go together into this little valley with high walls. Definitely a good place for an ambush, if the winter wolf is that smart. Which I guess it is. So we sneak around the edges, with Variel on one side and everybody else on the other. Pretty soon we find out we were right - Variel shot a wolf with an arrow before it could even notice us. But that’s about as sneaky as we get to be, because suddenly the winter wolf stands up from between some trees and starts talking to us. Variel’s all alone on that side… I hope she doesn’t get eaten.
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Journal #1
Amity!
So I finally made it back to Dunswallow, right? It doesn’t really seem any different. Which I guess is okay. I was walking, and that old fortune-telling lady is still here, and she wanted to tell my fortune. I told her, make sure it’s good, and she said she would, but it was a lie, it was all bad!
She said I wouldn’t have any secrets from anybody ever again, and a mob would be after me, and there was one card that was wasps killing everybody. Tragedy and heartbreak she said. Escape unlikely, but not impossible. She said I would have help though, and pointed at the Fey and the Mountain card, which I guess means a fairy and a big guy. I dunno. I was gonna write a letter home and then hop on a boat, but I ended up going back to the Siren’s Sigh and having lunch and thinking a lot about rotten fortune tellers.
And guess what! I met TWO giants there! Three if you count Swindle, which I don’t, cause he’s too skinny even though he’s pretty tall. And - okay maybe I should start over.
So at the Inn, first there’s Rhogkun, he’s an actual goliath from up north too. Least I think so. He’s helping Ms. Roscoe keep the rowdies in line. I dunno why he’s really here though, he didn’t really wanna talk about it. He’s nice though! We talked about magic.
Then there’s this circus that came down from the mountains, right? Well not really a circus. It’s called “Humplebumble’s Magnificent Menagerie” and it’s a bunch of wagons that’ve got rare animals in them. And outside the Inn, there was this tall lanky guy talking up the show. He looks just like somebody you’d see at a circus, but he seemed real hung up on how he’s just with the circus but not part of the circus.
Anyway, he said his name’s Happy Swindle. He’s got a tail and he gave me a mushroom. It was pretty good. Just him would be pretty interesting, except he’s got a friend with him, who’s an actual living pile of rocks. He’s so big! His name’s Maxwell. He shook my hand and gave me a tiny rock! He could have crushed me instantly but he was real careful. I gave him one of my best crystals, I hope he likes it.
The three of us ended up going to see the circus! I mean, menagerie. It was pretty amazing. Well I’ve seen some pretty amazing things. But there were a bunch of really big, weird monsters. Like a giant toothy frog covered in goop. And a centipede as big as a horse. And a fake chimera. I’m not sure how they did it, but it was magic. The lion part was real. The last one was the best one - it was this big beautiful white wolf, and I’ve never seen anything like it. And it looked… pretty smart, for an animal. Rhogkun thought so too, only he got kinda mad about it.
After the show he gave Humplebumble a big warning, cause he said that wolf’s a Winter Wolf, and it’s as smart as a person. So it’s not gonna like being carted around in a cage getting peeped at much at all. And since it’s smart, strong, and magical, when it figures how to get outta that cage everyone’s gonna be in big trouble. I hope I’m pretty far somewhere else when that happens.
After that we all went back to the Inn. I had two bowls of soup cause it was a big stressful day. Talked a lot with Rhogkun and a little bit with Maxwell. I found out Rhogkun’s a Seer! Like that old lady, but nice. We watched Mr. Happy Swindle try his luck with Ms. Roscoe, and it didn’t go well at all. Everybody laughed at him, but he seemed to take it okay. With a name like Happy, you got to have a sense of humor right?
I really like how this place has the all hammocks in the main room. It’s basically never dark, so you can just go to sleep. Which I will soon. But I wonder what my three tall friends have planned for tomorrow?
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