"Any day where I can swing and axe or hammer is a good one, and I did much of the later today." He takes another slurp of delicious, frothy ale, "I tended to the town's smithy.  The creatures had been using even it!  Pounding chunks of coal into dust.  It was a disheveled mess, but I cleaned it as best I could."

"I am glad you are staying with us a while longer.  Tell me, what were you doing before taking this job?"

OoC - I apologize for my terrible memory if Quillary already answer this question

Drusk: "You don't have a terrible memory, Jorin. When you have so many important things to remember, sometimes it takes time to figure out where you stored them in your mind."

Seren: "I suspect I will be lodging mostly in the farmstead, as it is easier to handle and closer to my warhorse. But with the work you all have done, I will be able to lock up the buildings in town, until more soldiers from Amphail arrive to repopulate the outpost... Thank you for your efforts."

Despite nightfall, Hildigrim has not arrived for dinner. Drusk takes a plate (Pascal's cooking) and a mug (poured by Jorin) to the library, then returns. "Hildigrim mumbled thanks for the dinner, and said we shouldn't wait up for him. He then went back to the books he had open. After I left the library, I think he locked the front door." (shrugs)

OOC > She did not, exactly...

She glances down at her mug. "Finding my way. I have no destination save the final one we all arrive at, sooner or later. In the meantime, I do a little of this, and a little of that, as they say. It has been, what is the word?" She say something in Primordial. "Of nothing, but of everything... um... varied is the word? Yes, it has been a journey with much to experience. The company of your friends has been welcome, you are a curious lot."

"And you? Earlier you said your task was not done? Are you..." and she tries to hide a small smile, "Questing?"

"Aye, " Jorin says, and rubs his arm where the mark lies under his sleeve, "I am in the last year of Kharn and so I will be returning to my village soon.  With the godsmark now, though, there is something more for me to do before that.  Something more than feasting and fighting, though I will still have my fill of that, " he adds with a smile.  The barbarian sits back in his chair and shrugs, "I know not what my task is, but the eight have set me on a path leading to it, of that I am sure."

Pascal coughs a bit, “You know, y’all sure are dedicated folks for not really having set goals. Don’t feel like I could do that. Gotta have somethin’ to latch on to.”

Study, study, study.

Quillary lets out a guffaw of laughter at Pascal's comment. When she recovers she looks around. "Latch on! Oh. I thought he was making a joke about lizards locking their jaws. Sorry." She puts a serious face on. "What are your goals, Master Pascal, that bring you out here into the wilds?"

Pascal tilts his head, “Oh? An’ here I thought I made that obvious. My goal is to make the best food around. Food, in a special way, gives purpose for me. I feel like I can share that purpose with people. I wanna show people that there’s more to life than just surviving, you gotta be living! That’s the joie de vivre. Take me for example, who’d have guessed that a meal could turn you red and let you do all sorts a crazy voodoo.”

Quote from JcAndD >>

“I wanna show people that there’s more to life than just surviving, you gotta be living! ”

Drusk: "Although you don't follow Lliira, that is part of her code, to take joy in your actions."

(OOC: If people are okay with this, we can skip to the next morning, continuing the conversation after a night's rest.)

During the night, your dreams are still plagued by cloaked figures and rituals, but they are diminished in intensity since you understand the prophecy better.

In the morning, Pascal is about to cook up breakfast, the last meal in this outpost. However, Hildigrim is not in sight. You check his room, and notice it has not been slept in. His belongings are still there, not yet packed for the trip back to Amphail. 

"Someone should tell your friend that there is more to life than just reading," Quillary says, then adds with a poor facsimile of Pascal's accent, "You gotta be living!"

"Go ahead and begin breakfast, I will go find him." Quillary heads across the road to the library to find Hildigrim (with anyone else who wants to come).

Jorin is concerned about the halfing's whereabouts and goes to the Library to see if he stayed the night there.

Quillary and Jorin get into the library. They find Hildigrim at a desk, snoring, face down in a tome. He is surrounded by many books, on arcane topics.

Near his hand is the book he was carrying yesterday afternoon, open to the early pages. It is blank, except where has been writing in it, with expensive, rare inks and gold leaf.

Snore, snore, snore. Drool, drool, drool.

Standing well away, Quillary will wave her hand and the scent of a skunk makes an appearance, wafting past the sleeping form of Hildigrim.

LOL

Hildigrim's nose twitches, his face contracts, and then he sits up abruptly. The sound of ripping paper accompanies his movement as the page on which he was sleeping is abruptly torn out, stuck to the side of the halfling's face. "Hainard's hairy toes," he croaks, looking around with half-closed eyes. He catches sight of Quillary and Jorin and blinks at them. His mouth opens in a wide yawn, and he reaches a hand up to scratch his chin. "Oh, hi," he says with half a grin. His fingers reach the piece of paper still stuck to his face, and he pulls it off, looking confused. He looks at the page, then lets it float back to the table. "I think I fell asleep." He looks down at the table and suddenly sits up a little straighter. "Oh!" he says with a little bit of excitement in his still-tired-sounding voice. He picks up the book he was carrying yesterday and shows it to the other two. "I ... well, I think I'm a wizard, now!" He picks up the torn piece of paper and says, "Watch this!" He places the torn page back in the book and begins pushing tomes and pieces of paper around until he discovers the two lodestones he was looking for. Holding the stones in one hand, he says a quick incantation, looking more at the book than the object of the spell. As he finishes, the two edges of the page mend back together perfectly. He looks at his friends with excitement, then back at the page. He reaches out and rubs his fingertips against the wet place his drool caused. "I guess I can't undo that," he says with a bit of regret. "But, look at these spells I have now." He flips through the book. "The mending spell I just used. And this one lets me send secret messages only the person I'm talking to can hear. And this one, with the help of a bit of phosphorus, causes three glowing orbs to appear that I can move around. That'll be helpful if we find ourselves trudging through the sewers again." He flips another page. "I found these as well, but they're harder, so I haven't been able to practice them much, and two of them, according to the texts, use components I'll have to find once we get back to civilization. But this one creates an alarm, this one will allow me to detect any magic in the vicinity, this one will let me identify the magical properties of objects if they have any, and this one," he says with a bit of relish. "This one will allow me to summon a fey companion." He nods his head a little while grinning — albeit with droopy eyelids — at the other two. He yawns again. "Is it breakfast time?"

“It is, it is time for breaking our fast. Pascal was just beginning, but your company was missed.”

As Quillary runs a finger along the spine of a nearby book, her voice grows soft. “It is transformed, this tree. It holds the knowledge of life, and the life of knowledge, and yet still fire...” her words drift off. Her eyes grow distant and for a moment she looks... lost. Then she blinks, and she’s back.

”I should like bath in the river. I won’t be long.”

She will detour to the river to bathe, then return to the inn shortly. 

“I should like bath in the river. I won’t be long.” - Quillary 2019

OOC: Like totally. Quillary should like go take a bath or something. Like for real. 

You heard it here first folks, Valley Girl Quillary is a thing now. This typo shall stay forever. Like totally.

Sigh. ;)

Lol!

Jorin eyes the very excited Hildigrim, "I am happy for your new powers my friend, though care that your interests in magic do not veer into sorcery, nothing good can come from that." Jorin spits on the floor and then pulls a mug of breakfast ale from somewhere and offers it to Hildi with a wink, "For the long trek back to the inn." 

Qullary re-enters the inn, clean(er). "That was an experience of total refreshment. The rest of you should try it, as you are collectively, how do they say it? Grody? I learned that word from a cleric in Fernando Valley, when he said, similarly to what I am about to say, 'You smell a maximum amount.'"

She stares around at you all. Then she waves her hand. "Whatever. Breakfast ale," and sits down to the conversation and breakfast.

OOC > I trust I have atoned. ;)