Above & Below

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Most of the night passes without incident. The watches pass from one of you to another, until finally Effort and her owl are left watching the darkness for signs of danger.

Effort, you don't notice anything, but Cadmael alerts you to something large moving through the trees. It's about the size of a tall human...6 feet tall, maybe 7. As it slowly makes its way through the trees a few dozen yards away, you can see through Cadmael's eyes that while most of this thing looks human, its arms do not. Instead of two typical arms, it has five long, freakish appendages extending out from its abdomen, shoulders, and back. Each one is tipped with a sharp point rather than a hand. 

The creature doesn't seem to notice you or the camp. It simply shuffles along through the trees. It seems aimless as it turns at one point, walks a bit, then turns again and starts to head off in another direction.

Deciding that live and let live is the order of the day, Effort instructs Cadmael to keep an eye out for the creature should it return, and allows everyone else to continue sleeping.

A light rain starts to fall as the gray sky ever-so-slightly brightens. Another beautiful day in the "below", it seems. Everyone groggily wakes and starts to pack up their things.

Brask is up early and eager to get going.  Hey, we're all still alive.  Awesome, he says loudly, and then continues as though to an unseen observer:  I've really got a positive attitude on life now that I'm so poor.  He rolls his eyes at Pip, and then packs up what's left of his possessions.

(Brask is happy to follow the others, but has no idea where we're going.)

Kurama awoke shortly after Brask.  Though he seemed to share Brask's spike in positive energy - though to a much, much lessor degree - compared to the previous day, he also seemed a bit  nervous; fidgeting with his items and dropping things for no apparent reason.  "I suppose you're right Brask.  And I hope that trend continues..."  Kurama replied back.  After a beat he added, "I do still wish I could use my notebooks." pausing to give the group a placating look before adding hastily, "Just to settle my nerves of course, I do not plan on using them anymore.  I am simply a bit concerned about what will happen when we reach Sketevik and eventually gather all three shards..."  

"Maybe you can use them again..." Pip thinks on it for a moment. "Seems the Sister said what she had to say. Might be that that's it...at least for now." He shrugs in a somewhat unconfident way before going back to packing up his things.

You find the coastline easily enough. The marsh skirts around the edge of the forest where you camped, turning into drier soil and then finally a sandy soil. The blue-gray ocean lies off to your right a few hundred yards as you begin making your way northward to Sketevik. You can hear some distant gulls calling along the shoreline, but don't see many other signs of life during the morning's hike. Eventually you do start to see signs of civilization, though. A broken up boat lies in the rocks between you and the ocean. The remnants of an old hut that has fallen in on itself. The partially decayed corpse of someone's horse rests in the sand with a few flies buzzing around it.

Off on the horizon you start to notice bits of movement. A fishing boat pushes out into the surf. A group of people carrying nets back toward town. Finally a few structures start to appear - small fishing huts, mostly - with Sketevik forming an ethereal silhouette in the distance.

Brask takes a deep breath in.  What does he smell?

Looks lovely, he says dismissively.  Water peasants.  Sorry.  Fisherfolk, is the right word?  Well, let's get to it.  He leads the way towards the village, unless someone wants to go investigate the boat.

Everyone can give me perception checks.

Is Brask sniffing for something specific? Or just taking it in?

Just taking it in.  Perception 10

Cadmael scouts from overhead, as usual, while Effort does her best to observe what happens on the ground, particularly around the village they're approaching.

Effort perception + guidance: 4 + 3

Cadmael perception: 12

"Probably best not to risk it Pip." Kurama replied to the goblin.  "One less issue to worry about..."  

His mind growing distracted as the village came into view, Kurama barely noticed anything around him. 

Kurama Perception: 8 (NAT 1!!)

Thank goodness for Cadmael, haha.

You're all a bit distracted as you approach the coastal town. Brask does inhale deeply, noting how salty the sea air smells. There's also the faint aromas of civilization. 

Cadmael, soaring a few dozen feet above, takes in all of the surroundings and then relays them to Effort. A group of three men wearing animal bones stand around a small campfire, burning dried vegetation of some sort. They hold them up to their noses and inhale the smoke deeply. The bones look mostly like small ungulate femurs - deer legs, perhaps - with one of the men donning a full skull with antlers on his head. 

Across the main thoroughfare from the trio is a pair of men - one older, one younger - hauling some fishing poles and nets up the road back toward town. A bit further up, you can see a man and woman manning a table at the edge of the road, cooking filets of fish on a kind of flat top grill. Someone stops, drops a few coins in a bucket, and takes one of the skewered pieces being offered. A stray dog sniffs around at base of the table before trotting further into town.

Ooh, fish, says Brask.  He grabs Kurama's arm (or attempts to do so) and leads him over to the fish-seller.  He grabs six of the pieces, and points his thumb at Kurama.  He's paying.

He keep two pieces for himself, and give one each to Pip, Kurama, Effort and Cadmael.

Distracted as he was, Kurama was confusedly dragged to the fish merchant and "handed the bill" before he could figure out what was going on.  As Brask was already walking away with a handful of them, he sighed and pulled out his coin purse to pay for the purchase (let me know how much Kurama owes).  

"Next time you could simply ask..." Kurama replied after he returned to the party.  Taking his share from Brask, he sniffed at the fish momentarily before taking a hesitant bite. (How does it taste?)  

Sharing her information with the others, Effort says, "If we wish to find the final sister, asking the three shamans by the shore might be a start.  Ritual offerings by the sea seem to me to indicate they might be trying to appease her.  And thank you, for the fish," she adds, as she takes a bite out of her meal.

I did ask, Brask says, somewhat confused and through a mouthful of fish.  He turns to Pip.  I asked, right? 

To Effort, he says:  Yeah, that sounds about right.  Greedy, that's what I call them, demanding people give them stuff left and right.  He heads in the direction that Effort indicated.  You wanna talk, or is it my turn?

Kurama, just 6 copper for the fish. And it tastes... 13 ...fine. It's terribly bland, and was kind of burned, but it's edible and doesn't seem like it's rotten or anything like that. 

Quote from SteveThaiBinh >>

I did ask, Brask says, somewhat confused and through a mouthful of fish.  He turns to Pip.  I asked, right? 

To Effort, he says:  Yeah, that sounds about right.  Greedy, that's what I call them, demanding people give them stuff left and right.  He heads in the direction that Effort indicated.  You wanna talk, or is it my turn?

Quote from Billtacular >>

Kurama, just 6 copper for the fish. And it tastes... 8 ...fine. It's terribly bland, and was kind of burned, but it's edible and doesn't seem like it's rotten or anything like that. 

Though far from the best meal he'd ever had - wistfully remembering a few meals he'd eaten from the food monks back in the House of Truth- Kurama knew not to waste food and finished the fish that he had purchased with little enjoyment.  

Kurama couldn't help but smile at Brask's relatively "new" attitude, even with his mind still a swirling mess of thoughts emotions.  "By all means, take the lead.  Last time I spoke first, we almost killed (or were killed) by a pseudo-deity.  I would hope that you could do 'slightly' better than I." Kurama replied in a jesting manner.

Effort lays her hand on Brask's shoulder (casting guidance) and says, "Do your best.  I shall be here if things go south... which seems to have been the order of operations for all of our interactions with the Sisters, in any regard.  If it is my time to be tested, she will address me directly in any regard."

Effort hopes that her bolstering presence provides help to whomever might speak, considering the novels concerning their predicament which she has painted with her spoken word to date.

What, really?  Brask looks a little taken aback, but then grins broadly.  This is gonna be great.

He stomps up to the three men, grin still on his face.  Do they react to his approach?