Akyan shrugs when Jared asks what's gotten into Aoufie, then turns when the dark-skinned boy opens the door. He looks down at the child, half expecting him to run away in fear just as the villagers had. He's relieved when the child just smiles and scurries away.
When Jared pushes past him to saunter into the house, the drow gives him an irritated look before following him inside. He stays silent when Jared calls out, instead opting to simply make his way to the kitchen. Rea should be somewhere close by if food is being made. He'd like to let her know that he arrived safely, and let her know that Aoufie is close by and should be coming back soon.
quietly, he enters the busy kitchen. Noticing the shadar-kai and the human man, he recognizes the two almost immediately. Sure, Zathon might be a bit taller, and Anthony several times thicker, but how could Akyan forget those two? Unsure of what to say, he stands in the doorway awkwardly waiting for an opportune time to announce himself.
Anthony nearly tramples the drow as he turns to exit the kitchens, stumbling to avoid doing so and nearly toppling on an unsteady leg, but he manages to catch himself. A pang of guilt hits him. He'd been impatient to leave and barely said good-bye, and been kind of a $%*# when Akyan had asked about visiting. "Whoa. Hey. Uh." He awkwardly scrubs a hand in his sandy brown hair before offering a hand shake. "It's ...good to see you," he says sincerely once he's gotten over the initial surprise.
Akyan gives a slight start when Anthony nearly runs over him, then he almost reaches out to steady the larger man before he manages to catch himself. The drow withdraws his hand hurriedly and attempts to mask the motion by rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry about that." He replies, feeling his own sense of guilt. Even though Akyan had asked about visiting, after Anthony left Grymhearth acting like he wanted to leave the whole thing behind him, the drow hadn't brought up visiting again. He knew Anthony probably would have been more than willing to talk after they'd both been on their own for a while, but Akyan had never been great at starting up a conversation. Not to mention, for a while he'd thought it would be better to distance himself from his childhood family. In his line of work, it's best not to have attachments. That said, he blames himself for growing apart from his adoptive family. "It's good to see you too." He replies, taking Anthony's hand in a firm grip.
After releasing Anthony's hand, he nods to Zathon. "It's good to see you as well."
Anthony relaxes to see Akyan mirror his uncertainty and gives a short laugh at the silliness of all of them being so stiff and awkward with one another. Flashing the dimpled smile that could get him both into and out of trouble he says, "How were we better at this as kids? We were just coming to see if anyone else had arrived and..." He glances at Zathon, "maybe take a look around."
Akyan shrugs, "I've been fine I guess....what about you? I see you've upgraded your wardrobe."He gestures to Zathon's armor.
The drow flashes a small, rare smile when his old friend laughs, "Was I better at this as a kid?"He asks with a hint of sarcasm, "Without you two I doubt I would have ever come out of my shell." He gestures to the door, "Well Jared is wandering around here somewhere, and Aoufie is in town."He looks back at Zathon, "He's trying to figure out what's going on with the stones. I'm sure you've noticed that you've been cut off from the weave." He touches his chest, that suffocating feeling still gripping his soul.
"Yeah, everyone said it's been going on since Aoelwyn passed. " Nodding toward the kitchen staff. He notes how affected the Akyan was. It must be difficult for someone born to magic. "I kind of got the feeling they're hoping we can find some answers. Otherwise," He indicated their surroundings with a glance at the staff, hesitating to say more in front of people whose livelihood depended on this place.
Anthony hadn't really understood as a kid, but Aoelwyn employed quite a few people, not to mention the kids living here. "Jared and Aoufie." Anthony nodded with a smile, not surprised they'd made the trip. "No Kora, yet?" It wouldn't shock him if she'd disappeared into the wilds without a trace.
"I did notice we've been cut off. The stones are meant to be a source of protection, but I believe they've been tainted. We should round up the others and get the bottom of all of this. Nothing makes sense."
Aoufie lost in thought ignores the stares and whispers as by now he is used to being an object of curiosity. Though he does offer a smile as he walks by. At the general store he sucks in his gut and makes sure his lute does not bang into any of the stocked shelves as he seeks the proprietor. "I humbly apologize as I did not mean to frighten you." Aoufie then taps his right foot in annoyance at the glacial pacing of the old man. Patience Aoufie this will soon pass.
"Most gracious of you and here is 3 gp." He then fishes out the 3 gp from his money pouch and pays for his items and asks the proprietor to break the 3rd gold coin as he did not have the coppers and silvers for the parchment paper and Inkpen on hand. Once Aoufie receives his change he leaves the general store and heads back to the piller with the runic writing. He copies the runes as he sees them and carefully also indicates its size using the size of a gold coin for comparison. Once satisfied he blows on his parchment paper to quicken the drying of the ink. He then trudges back up the hill and knowing his brothers already went he turns the door handle to let himself in. If locked Aoufie will knock on the door.
Akyan pauses for a moment, that news doesn't really surprise him. Anyone with even a small connection to the weave would be experiencing the same thing as he currently is, so they certainly would know exactly when this started. "So no one's done any investigating? Do we have anything to go off of?"Then he shakes his head, "I haven't seen Kora yet. Hopefully she made it here safely." He looks to Zathon, "Tainted? Hmm, Jared mentioned something about the writing on the stones. Perhaps he and Aoufie figured something out."
Anthony hesitated taking in the whole of it. Turning someone's funeral into murder mystery was something for penny dreadfuls, not real, grieving people. On the other hand, those same people could be in danger if Aoelwyn was attacked or some experiment went wrong. With a sigh and scrubbing his hair in frustration. "They said Tom found her and general gossip has been she was having a lot of strange visitors. Maybe Rhea wouldn't mind us going through her affects. Maybe find some letters or notes that indicate what she was up to."
To Zathon, "Tainted how exactly? Like physically or something else?"
The old proprietor happily breaks down Aoufie's extra gold coin into 8 silver pieces and 20 copper pieces. As Aoufie begins hurrying back to Grymhearth, he sees that the town is preparing for the storm. Normally, these hardy country folk would tough it out and keep working in the rain, but Aoufie can see menacing black thunderclouds lumbering in from the west, spreading across the sky like spilled ink seeping through parchment. Flashings of lightning flicker amongst the threatening clouds, and Aoufie's keen ears can pick up the distant peals of thunder rumbling angrily in the distance.
When he arrives at the pillars, he expertly copies down the symbols, and just in time as well. As soon as he stows away his parchment, a fat raindrop plops on the top of his head. That raindrop is followed by others that begin dotting the land about him. The clouds overhead are still the heavy gray ones from before, and the black thunderclouds are still about an hour away. This was just a precursor of the storm to come.
The door is unlocked, and he can hear conversation and the sounds of food being prepared from the kitchen as he enters.
----------
As Kora pushes open the door of the Fat Goose, a blast of frigid air slams into her and pelts her with several chill raindrops. It appears that the weather has taken a turn for the worse while she was picking up on the town drama. As she steps out into the increasingly devoid streets, she too can see the massive storm gathering to the west. The wind has definitely picked from before, blowing dust and loose leaves through Leafbook in sporadic bursts.
As she hustles on the trail to Grymhearth, thunder grumbles in the distance, adding to the natural melody of the world about her. As she takes the last corner, she spots a harengon step through the door of the familiar edifice called Grymhearth. It appears that at least one of your adoptive siblings have arrived.
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Inside, all of the prepared ingredients have been tossed in large pot and hung over the cheerfully crackling fireplace. You can already smell scents of the hearty stew beginning to perforate the air. Around this time, Rhea comes wandering back into the kitchen and takes up ferociously kneading the dough she was working on before. In Leafbrook, she was well known for having the breads in town. She smiles in a motherly manner as she sees everyone catching up with one another. A few of the servants start cleaning up while others begin filtering out to go about their other duties. Over the pops and hissing from the fire, you can all faintly hear the sound of wind rushing the leaves outside, a sign the weather has worsened.
"Figuring out what she was involved in could help piece things together. I looked at them before I went through them a bit. The runes are all protection oriented, but the aura the pillars give off.. it's undead. Which can't be right.. right?"
Aoufie looks to the looming dark clouds with disdain or was it more poetic that there would be rain during such a time of mourning. He enters his home and heads to the others has he follows the sound of conversation.
"Greeting everyone sorry I am late. Jared discovered unknown runes on the pillar, but I was not able to decipher their meaning. I hope you can catch me up are your own findings and take a look at this parchment. I copied down the runes exactly as I saw them." He then places the parchment on the table so that all can see the runes, "There is also a troubling storm headed this way and will be here in an hour. We should close up the windows and make some preparations."
That sounded pretty effing weird to Anthony. He shrugged. "I'll leave the magic stuff to more qualified people." Hearing the storm picking up he glanced out one of the windows. "We might have more a more immediate concern though."
With his stiff, limping gait, he heads for the door, almost bumping into yet another foster sibling on the way. "Hey Aoufie. Guess it already started raining." Noticing the harengon was obviously a little damp. "Glad to see you made it before the worst of things. I think I should head out and see if they need help getting anything closed up or tied down before it gets worse. If I bump into Tom, I can see if he has time to talk maybe?"
Should probably also ask around and make sure everyone is in, he thinks to himself.
Anthony chuckles as he and Aloufie say very similar things at the same time. "We're on the same page looks like." He'd ask how Aloufie had been, but he seemed eager to cut through the pleasantries and dive into the mysteries.
Jared hangs back a bit, being quiet around the others, watching how they react to one another. If acknowledged he will just nod but says little. Zal and Anthony have a "religious bent" that Jared never understood. His real reason is that he is not sure that those with "holy magic" and the like can sense his "nature" so he just waits and watches. Before Aoufie and Anthony set out he will say. "If mum did have some sort of runes set at the door, it makes me think she was keeping something out, something with some magic," he tells them. "Don't ya think she would have put such things on all the doors and windows?"
Seeing Jared behind Aloufie, Anthony smiles, dimples and all. Broader, softer, and older than Jared would remember, by quite a lot, he extends a hand in greeting. The holy symbol is new. He'd never had much positive to say about the gods as a kid. The limp isn't something Jared would remember either. "Jarhead, why are you hiding behind the musician?" waiting for the other man to see if the other man would stick with his habit of mildly annoying nicknames. "Can't hurt to check, but I'm not sure I'd know what I was looking at to be honest." he adds in response to Jared's question about wards on the windows.
For anyone who's shaken Anthony's hand, they're rough from work and training, noticeably scared from bare knuckle work, and have a tremor to them that's hard to ignore.
Kora is a bit taken aback by the sudden change in weather, she didn't think she was in the Fat Goose that long, but she shrugs on her pack tightly and lowers her head as she makes her way, missing the cover of the forest as she does. She notes the brewing of the storm and hustles along a bit faster.
As she spots Auofie up ahead, she smiles. Surprising herself once again, she is starting to realize it might be good to reacquaint herself with her old siblings after all. Knowing he would never hear her over the storm, she hurries towards the Grymhearth property.
"Undead? That doesn't sound right at all." The drow agrees. Then he follows Anthony's gaze out the window. He's right, that storm looks nasty. He falls silent again as Anthony starts limping his way to the door only to nearly bump into Aoufie. He'll have to ask about that limp later, now doesn't seem the right time...not to mention the tremors he felt when shaking his hand. What had happened to his old friend? He's still Anthony, but at the same time he's changed so much.
He remains silent as the others talks about what to do.
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Akyan shrugs when Jared asks what's gotten into Aoufie, then turns when the dark-skinned boy opens the door. He looks down at the child, half expecting him to run away in fear just as the villagers had. He's relieved when the child just smiles and scurries away.
When Jared pushes past him to saunter into the house, the drow gives him an irritated look before following him inside. He stays silent when Jared calls out, instead opting to simply make his way to the kitchen. Rea should be somewhere close by if food is being made. He'd like to let her know that he arrived safely, and let her know that Aoufie is close by and should be coming back soon.
quietly, he enters the busy kitchen. Noticing the shadar-kai and the human man, he recognizes the two almost immediately. Sure, Zathon might be a bit taller, and Anthony several times thicker, but how could Akyan forget those two? Unsure of what to say, he stands in the doorway awkwardly waiting for an opportune time to announce himself.
Anthony nearly tramples the drow as he turns to exit the kitchens, stumbling to avoid doing so and nearly toppling on an unsteady leg, but he manages to catch himself. A pang of guilt hits him. He'd been impatient to leave and barely said good-bye, and been kind of a $%*# when Akyan had asked about visiting. "Whoa. Hey. Uh." He awkwardly scrubs a hand in his sandy brown hair before offering a hand shake. "It's ...good to see you," he says sincerely once he's gotten over the initial surprise.
Akyan gives a slight start when Anthony nearly runs over him, then he almost reaches out to steady the larger man before he manages to catch himself. The drow withdraws his hand hurriedly and attempts to mask the motion by rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry about that." He replies, feeling his own sense of guilt. Even though Akyan had asked about visiting, after Anthony left Grymhearth acting like he wanted to leave the whole thing behind him, the drow hadn't brought up visiting again. He knew Anthony probably would have been more than willing to talk after they'd both been on their own for a while, but Akyan had never been great at starting up a conversation. Not to mention, for a while he'd thought it would be better to distance himself from his childhood family. In his line of work, it's best not to have attachments. That said, he blames himself for growing apart from his adoptive family. "It's good to see you too." He replies, taking Anthony's hand in a firm grip.
After releasing Anthony's hand, he nods to Zathon. "It's good to see you as well."
"Right." The way he says it is suspect, like there is more going on with him but now just isn't the time. "Yeah, let's go poke around."
He steps back slightly as they run into Akyan. "You look good, Akyan. How have you been?"
Anthony relaxes to see Akyan mirror his uncertainty and gives a short laugh at the silliness of all of them being so stiff and awkward with one another. Flashing the dimpled smile that could get him both into and out of trouble he says, "How were we better at this as kids? We were just coming to see if anyone else had arrived and..." He glances at Zathon, "maybe take a look around."
Akyan shrugs, "I've been fine I guess....what about you? I see you've upgraded your wardrobe." He gestures to Zathon's armor.
The drow flashes a small, rare smile when his old friend laughs, "Was I better at this as a kid?" He asks with a hint of sarcasm, "Without you two I doubt I would have ever come out of my shell." He gestures to the door, "Well Jared is wandering around here somewhere, and Aoufie is in town." He looks back at Zathon, "He's trying to figure out what's going on with the stones. I'm sure you've noticed that you've been cut off from the weave." He touches his chest, that suffocating feeling still gripping his soul.
"Yeah, everyone said it's been going on since Aoelwyn passed. " Nodding toward the kitchen staff. He notes how affected the Akyan was. It must be difficult for someone born to magic. "I kind of got the feeling they're hoping we can find some answers. Otherwise," He indicated their surroundings with a glance at the staff, hesitating to say more in front of people whose livelihood depended on this place.
Anthony hadn't really understood as a kid, but Aoelwyn employed quite a few people, not to mention the kids living here. "Jared and Aoufie." Anthony nodded with a smile, not surprised they'd made the trip. "No Kora, yet?" It wouldn't shock him if she'd disappeared into the wilds without a trace.
"I did notice we've been cut off. The stones are meant to be a source of protection, but I believe they've been tainted. We should round up the others and get the bottom of all of this. Nothing makes sense."
Aoufie lost in thought ignores the stares and whispers as by now he is used to being an object of curiosity. Though he does offer a smile as he walks by. At the general store he sucks in his gut and makes sure his lute does not bang into any of the stocked shelves as he seeks the proprietor. "I humbly apologize as I did not mean to frighten you." Aoufie then taps his right foot in annoyance at the glacial pacing of the old man. Patience Aoufie this will soon pass.
"Most gracious of you and here is 3 gp." He then fishes out the 3 gp from his money pouch and pays for his items and asks the proprietor to break the 3rd gold coin as he did not have the coppers and silvers for the parchment paper and Inkpen on hand. Once Aoufie receives his change he leaves the general store and heads back to the piller with the runic writing. He copies the runes as he sees them and carefully also indicates its size using the size of a gold coin for comparison. Once satisfied he blows on his parchment paper to quicken the drying of the ink. He then trudges back up the hill and knowing his brothers already went he turns the door handle to let himself in. If locked Aoufie will knock on the door.
Akyan pauses for a moment, that news doesn't really surprise him. Anyone with even a small connection to the weave would be experiencing the same thing as he currently is, so they certainly would know exactly when this started. "So no one's done any investigating? Do we have anything to go off of?" Then he shakes his head, "I haven't seen Kora yet. Hopefully she made it here safely." He looks to Zathon, "Tainted? Hmm, Jared mentioned something about the writing on the stones. Perhaps he and Aoufie figured something out."
Anthony hesitated taking in the whole of it. Turning someone's funeral into murder mystery was something for penny dreadfuls, not real, grieving people. On the other hand, those same people could be in danger if Aoelwyn was attacked or some experiment went wrong. With a sigh and scrubbing his hair in frustration. "They said Tom found her and general gossip has been she was having a lot of strange visitors. Maybe Rhea wouldn't mind us going through her affects. Maybe find some letters or notes that indicate what she was up to."
To Zathon, "Tainted how exactly? Like physically or something else?"
The old proprietor happily breaks down Aoufie's extra gold coin into 8 silver pieces and 20 copper pieces. As Aoufie begins hurrying back to Grymhearth, he sees that the town is preparing for the storm. Normally, these hardy country folk would tough it out and keep working in the rain, but Aoufie can see menacing black thunderclouds lumbering in from the west, spreading across the sky like spilled ink seeping through parchment. Flashings of lightning flicker amongst the threatening clouds, and Aoufie's keen ears can pick up the distant peals of thunder rumbling angrily in the distance.
When he arrives at the pillars, he expertly copies down the symbols, and just in time as well. As soon as he stows away his parchment, a fat raindrop plops on the top of his head. That raindrop is followed by others that begin dotting the land about him. The clouds overhead are still the heavy gray ones from before, and the black thunderclouds are still about an hour away. This was just a precursor of the storm to come.
The door is unlocked, and he can hear conversation and the sounds of food being prepared from the kitchen as he enters.
----------
As Kora pushes open the door of the Fat Goose, a blast of frigid air slams into her and pelts her with several chill raindrops. It appears that the weather has taken a turn for the worse while she was picking up on the town drama. As she steps out into the increasingly devoid streets, she too can see the massive storm gathering to the west. The wind has definitely picked from before, blowing dust and loose leaves through Leafbook in sporadic bursts.
As she hustles on the trail to Grymhearth, thunder grumbles in the distance, adding to the natural melody of the world about her. As she takes the last corner, she spots a harengon step through the door of the familiar edifice called Grymhearth. It appears that at least one of your adoptive siblings have arrived.
----------
Inside, all of the prepared ingredients have been tossed in large pot and hung over the cheerfully crackling fireplace. You can already smell scents of the hearty stew beginning to perforate the air. Around this time, Rhea comes wandering back into the kitchen and takes up ferociously kneading the dough she was working on before. In Leafbrook, she was well known for having the breads in town. She smiles in a motherly manner as she sees everyone catching up with one another. A few of the servants start cleaning up while others begin filtering out to go about their other duties. Over the pops and hissing from the fire, you can all faintly hear the sound of wind rushing the leaves outside, a sign the weather has worsened.
"Figuring out what she was involved in could help piece things together. I looked at them before I went through them a bit. The runes are all protection oriented, but the aura the pillars give off.. it's undead. Which can't be right.. right?"
Aoufie looks to the looming dark clouds with disdain or was it more poetic that there would be rain during such a time of mourning. He enters his home and heads to the others has he follows the sound of conversation.
"Greeting everyone sorry I am late. Jared discovered unknown runes on the pillar, but I was not able to decipher their meaning. I hope you can catch me up are your own findings and take a look at this parchment. I copied down the runes exactly as I saw them." He then places the parchment on the table so that all can see the runes, "There is also a troubling storm headed this way and will be here in an hour. We should close up the windows and make some preparations."
That sounded pretty effing weird to Anthony. He shrugged. "I'll leave the magic stuff to more qualified people." Hearing the storm picking up he glanced out one of the windows. "We might have more a more immediate concern though."
With his stiff, limping gait, he heads for the door, almost bumping into yet another foster sibling on the way. "Hey Aoufie. Guess it already started raining." Noticing the harengon was obviously a little damp. "Glad to see you made it before the worst of things. I think I should head out and see if they need help getting anything closed up or tied down before it gets worse. If I bump into Tom, I can see if he has time to talk maybe?"
Should probably also ask around and make sure everyone is in, he thinks to himself.
Anthony chuckles as he and Aloufie say very similar things at the same time. "We're on the same page looks like." He'd ask how Aloufie had been, but he seemed eager to cut through the pleasantries and dive into the mysteries.
Jared hangs back a bit, being quiet around the others, watching how they react to one another.
If acknowledged he will just nod but says little. Zal and Anthony have a "religious bent" that Jared never understood. His real reason is that he is not sure that those with "holy magic" and the like can sense his "nature" so he just waits and watches.
Before Aoufie and Anthony set out he will say.
"If mum did have some sort of runes set at the door, it makes me think she was keeping something out, something with some magic," he tells them. "Don't ya think she would have put such things on all the doors and windows?"
Seeing Jared behind Aloufie, Anthony smiles, dimples and all. Broader, softer, and older than Jared would remember, by quite a lot, he extends a hand in greeting. The holy symbol is new. He'd never had much positive to say about the gods as a kid. The limp isn't something Jared would remember either. "Jarhead, why are you hiding behind the musician?" waiting for the other man to see if the other man would stick with his habit of mildly annoying nicknames. "Can't hurt to check, but I'm not sure I'd know what I was looking at to be honest." he adds in response to Jared's question about wards on the windows.
For anyone who's shaken Anthony's hand, they're rough from work and training, noticeably scared from bare knuckle work, and have a tremor to them that's hard to ignore.
Kora is a bit taken aback by the sudden change in weather, she didn't think she was in the Fat Goose that long, but she shrugs on her pack tightly and lowers her head as she makes her way, missing the cover of the forest as she does. She notes the brewing of the storm and hustles along a bit faster.
As she spots Auofie up ahead, she smiles. Surprising herself once again, she is starting to realize it might be good to reacquaint herself with her old siblings after all. Knowing he would never hear her over the storm, she hurries towards the Grymhearth property.
"Undead? That doesn't sound right at all." The drow agrees. Then he follows Anthony's gaze out the window. He's right, that storm looks nasty. He falls silent again as Anthony starts limping his way to the door only to nearly bump into Aoufie. He'll have to ask about that limp later, now doesn't seem the right time...not to mention the tremors he felt when shaking his hand. What had happened to his old friend? He's still Anthony, but at the same time he's changed so much.
He remains silent as the others talks about what to do.