Auger

“Oh! Oh, errr, yemmm thank you derling hmmm?,” replies the elderly chimp woman and motions for Auger to allow himself into her garden — which holds winter roots ready to harvest — and help her up. Her back straightens with a loud popping sound, and she looks up at him, seemingly now more awake. She clears her throat, a loud gurgling sound. 
“I am Futurtensh, traveler,” she continues once she is standing. “And now. Is it something in your past? Or your future? Or something now, which you want to seek counsel regarding? Oh, this, hmmmmm, well, they say mica possesses properties of healing and calming, you know. I have some for sale, with the other things, if you want to look inside?”

Poking his head to view into the little subterranean chimp house, Auger sees a table just within the entryway. On it, a sign, in Jenghen, reads, “Ask for prices,” and laid out on the table are a few trinkets, including several egg-sized mica crystals: clear quartz with green flecks. 

Sighing with relief upon seeing the sign and some items on display, Auger happily enters the little home, bending as needed to fit into tight spaces. His attention focused on the trinkets as well as the stones, he idly makes conversation.

"Ah, you provide counsel in these parts. Always a valuable thing to provide consultation to those in need. These do look very nice. If I may?", he asks, indicating one of the trinkets on the table. While examining the items and (OOC: if she agrees) holding one he continues, "Where I come from there was a person in the village who operated as a Wise Woman as it were. Certainly an expert in medicines and healing but she would bend ears with news and telling us what our business should and should not be in equal measure, regardless of what that business was. I very much liked speaking with her. Always to the point. Not unlike some Dwarves I have come to know." Auger sets down the trinket he is holding and picks up one of the egg-sized pieces of mica, examining it and gently running his index finger along the layers. Setting it down he thinks on something she had said and he asks, "Do travelers often stop by to seek you out? How can you aid me with understanding my future?"

Auger will not set his oaths to the dwarves aside but if this old Chimp can help him understand what is coming, there would have to be some value in that.

Varielky picks up the sword at her feet and takes a moment to investigate it - does it look brand new? Battle-worn? Is it sharpened or a mere blunt toy? 

Investigation: 9.

Either way, she hands the sword back to the knight, presenting the hilt forward. "Be careful with it. A sword drawn for the right cause can be a holy item that channels our devotion to the gods. For the wrong cause, however, it is a despicable piece of metal which may insult the gods. A sword is never drawn for no reason. You could walk with me if you'd like, but under one condition: Tell me, how did you become the Knight-defender of this place?"

Varielky

The weapon Varielky picks up, a short sword in her hands but in proportion to the part-pachyderm she converses with, a long broadsword, is of an unfamiliar type. Its center is open, so that she can look through a long V-shape if she holds the hilt close to her face. It is quite sharp, and seems never to have been used, or perhaps, is simply very well taken care of. The balance seems off, but that might simply be personal preference. A good blade. 

“Oh,” replies Kotashin in its rounded grumbly little voice,, “I was born to the job. Although to be honest I’m not really needed so much since not too much happens in Hyewush.” 

As you start to amble down the path toward the smithy together, there’s just room to walk side by side. The creature continues, “Do you think my sword is good? You look like a real life hero. Have you ever been in a battle?”

Auger

Futurtensh is happy to sell Auger however much mica he wants, for 1gp per mica egg. She has four, one of which is on a pendant not unlike the one she wears. 

“Wise Women, errrm?,” the old chimp woman responds. “No my love, I’m not wise, too many dumb dumb things I’ve done, mmmm. Just old! He he. But the Cards, sometimes know answers that I do not. Would you like a Reading, derling? They allow three questions, and...you might not like the answers, so don’t go into it thinking it’s nuthin (cough). It’ll be three gold pieces, yow.”

(OOC: if you go ahead, for each question, roll d100, and a perception save, an arcana save, and a history save)

"I've been through many battles. Some small - duels or mere tavern brawls; others were great battles - armies clashing - when a single woman on the front can't even hope to change the tides once the battle had begun. Glory and honour are her only objectives." She thinks for a moment. What exactly does a hero look like? A hero would be defined by their deeds, not their looks. "I wouldn't call myself a hero. Nor a villain too. I serve the gods and do as they guide me, but I do not know what part it is they wish me to take. Maybe one, perhaps the other. Nobody said it can't be neither. For example, some people would say that what I'm doing now is good, while others will say it's bad. Some will say it is neither." She stops her philosophical, loquacious speech. Remembering the battle of Lokimorra and the Dreyen barbarians made these questions rise again, but she dismissed them away. As she had told them back then, it doesn't really matter whose side she is fighting for, as long as the gods wish it. "As for the sword, it is hard to judge. I've never seen a sword with an open centre, and the balance feels slightly off to me. That's not necessarily bad, though, as many people have different fighting styles. Lastly, I don't fight with a short blade as I do with a long one. For you, it may be long, but for me, it is considerably short. If it were proportioned for me, it would be about this length." She taps her sword's hilt. 

Varielky

Kotashin takes in what Varielky is saying with enthusiastic wonderment, Oohs and Wows and Really?!? in response to her statements, in due time. 

“Have you ever fought,” and it continues in a whisper, “an Orc?”

“Well… but… ummm… You keep talking about what you’re doing right now but. I mean, I mustn’t be rude but...” and it’s voice descends to a conspiratorial whisper again, its big eyes going in slow circles from left to right, “Are you on a...heroic quest?”

"I have. Only today, in fact. We were fighting a band of Orcs before we entered this place. They demanded a tribute for passing through this land," and she continues with clear disdain, "but coin was not enough for them." Then, already in a talkative spirit, she accidentally says a little too much and realises she did a little too late. "A heroic quest? I don't know. Definitely a quest, though. We're searching for a lost Dwarven core or something." Oops, that was not good. "It's not that interesting, though the pay is good." She tries to close the matter before the knight gets a chance to ask any questions. If she mentions any Azhvuv, giant crabs or Hollow Ones, she doubts he'll let her stop talking until they leave town. "What about you, have you ever experienced fighting? Did you train alone, or with others? Were you guided by another Knight-Defender of this place?"

A reading is it? Well that would be silly, he had Py to guide him and what could cards tell him? A price on the table for the mica, Auger seeks to negotiate it down, more out of habit and to honor the trade forms. He is not pushy about it but does make an attempt. He acquires all the mica he can at whatever the final price is.

Persuasion: 23.

That matter resolved, Auger thanks Futurtensh and makes ready to go but then... the cards will tell... surely not but... he had travelled all this way, with only Py to guide him, and then these dwarves and their strange ancient purpose. Settling down again, and resolute, Auger pushes the 3 gp across the table for the reading and when Futurtensh is ready, asks his questions. 

"My first question should be clear, after Beauty ends, will I be able to return home to my family?"

D100: 42, Perception: 18, Arcana: 11, History: 13.

"My second question is, about my travelling companions. Our leader in fact. Is our leader planning to do good with - with the thing he seeks?"

D100: 32, Perception: 20, Arcana: 11, History: 8.

"My final question is, about a - a wind. An unexpected shift in the wind. I need to find out why this wind has shifted. Will I find the answer on - on the road I travel?"

D100: 66, Perception: 16, Arcana: 22, History: 10.

Varielky

“A lost Dwarven cord?!? And you fought …(whispered), orcs!...I knew it! You look like a hero to me.” And in response to the shield maiden’s question about its origins, Kotashin replies sheepishly, “Wull, I had to teach myself everything I know. I guess I was just born to be a Knight-Defender.” 

As you walk, the path traces away from the creek for a stretch, avoiding a rocky hillock in its bank, turning trough a flat meadow covered in wildflowers, insects and small birds active in the late afternoon. You also hear hammer and anvil clanging not too far away, voices, the sounds of small farm animals. The path  turns again as Kotashin utters its last statement, to reveal the creek once more, with a small wooden house built upon its bank, a fenced-in yard beside it, a camel and a pair of mules, and an ox and a cow in the yard outside a small barn. 

“Wull,” says the little aqua-hided elephant-person in its full, rough little tenor, “there’s the smithy. It was nice talking with you. Good luck finding the (whispered) Lost Cord. Oh, I never asked your name.”

Varielky smiles, he was pleasant to talk with. "Varielky is my name, sir Knight-Defender." She takes a few steps forward, then turns back. "Say, after I conclude my business here in the smithy, how does a sparring match sound to you? I have some free time and, besides, I would like to see how a self-taught Knight-Defender with a peculiar sword fights, and you might learn from the experience. Maybe I could teach you a thing or two, or maybe you could teach me. As long as we're careful, neither should get hurt." 

Quote from DandDSince1973 >>

Quote from The_Mathemagician >>

(OOC: How much are we each owed at this point (so that we can add it)? Or did you already add the totals to our inventory?)

On the carriage, as they are entering the town, Ednyss sleeps through the entire encounter with the elderly chimp (someone else might have given his name, or he would have stated it groggily) although he wakes up almost immediately after they arrive at the inn and sits up, refreshed. Once they arrive at the inn and disembark from the carriage, Ednyss looks around for anyone that might be loitering nearby or walking around. Walking up to that person, he asks, "Hello there. You wouldn't happen to have any jewelry shops around here would you?" If he can, he attempts to find a jewelry shop in this town and pay it a visit.

Ednyss immediately sees a table in the tented bazaar facing the inn on which are laid a few pieces of costume jewelry for sale. Not exactly what he’s looking for, but he heads there to get a closer look and to speak with the vendor. 

Ednyss walks over to the jewelry table and peruses the wares absently for a moment before turning to the vendor and asking bluntly, "I am looking for a specific piece of jewelry, and I was wondering if you had anything other than what is on the table."

Auger

The sorcerer bargains the old chimp woman down from 4gp to 3gp to buy all of the mica she has for sale. When he asks for his fortune to be read, she looks him up and down carefully, tells him to sit down while she makes some tea, a cup of which she offers the human. She then motions for him to sit in her little living room, where an old rug is laid out before a low table. She sits on the other side, pouring him tea and making small talk. A few sips seem to give her energy, and she smiles, and asks, “Okay my love, are you ready?”

She reaches across to a small table, and removes from its drawer a pouch containing a deck of playing cards. Or so Auger at first thinks, but he soon noted they are handmade, and etched with gold leaf and each one illustrated artfully in color. In The Empire, playing card decks are composed of 60 cards, Auger knows. There are 6 suits, called Legends: Temple, Palace, Dungeon, Ship, Farm, and Mountain. Each Legend has 10 Faces: Flea, Rat, Cow, Wolf, Bear, Lion, Stallion, Hawk, Iguana, and Fish.

The woman mixes the cards by placing them in a large covered bowl which she shakes, then asks Auger to do the same. She uncovers the bowl and carefully removes the cards whose Legend is showing. “These are the cards which wish to speak today,” she croaks. She then turns them over and shuffles them by moving them all in a jumble around the surface of the table, then, pulling them up in pairs, face down, she forms them up into a deck, which she places gently on the table exactly between herself and Auger, whose place is opposite hers. “Now, derling, ask me your first question.”

In response to Auger’s questions, Futurtensh reveals a single card each, and offers these interpretations of their meaning. 

“After Beauty ends, will I be able to return home to my family?"

“Oh, yum, The Warhorse (Legend: Palace, Face: Stallion) It means good health. Success. Hmm...the Warhorse brings you victory. The roads fly past under your hooves. You find luxurious surroundings.

“Is our leader planning to do good with - with the thing he seeks?” 

“Hmmmm...The Prisoner (Legend: Dungeon, Face: Rat). Selfishness, an inability to give of oneself for others. A fear of suffering prevents moving forward in life. The path to goodness and wisdom always includes some pain, doesn’t it, my love? Until the pain of growth is embraced, nothing ever changes.”

“An unexpected shift in the wind. I need to find out why this wind has shifted. Will I find the answer on - on the road I travel?"

“Ooohhh...mmmmm, Pestilence (Legend: Temple, Face: Flea). The cards say, No. Ruin comes to this endeavor. Ruin in proportion to the size of...your ambitions. And how far you’re in under yer head, derling.”

Futurtensh takes a deep breath. “Well my love. Sometimes the cards are right, sometimes, wrong. Usually right. But the most important thing, is, be true to yourself and everything will be okay.”

“Now, thank you for coming and be well, derling (cough). Just pull that gate closed after you okay, my love.”

She smiles kindly as Auger takes his leave. 

Auger accepts the stones gratefully. These should serve his purpose for some time he thinks.

Auger decides to remain accepting and listens carefully to the words from the reading. He smiles at what the Warhorse represents. Homeward! And not in very long! Victory!

As the Prisoner is drawn Auger cannot help wonder if it refers to old Granophyre or to Auger himself. The truth was, except for placing them all on the dangers of this road, the Dwarves and Granophyre in particular had seemed nothing but forthcoming, allowing Ednyss to make his choice at the old temple, providing a careful and long reasoning behind why this trip to Kalahata was so important. The Core and so forth. To pass out of imprisonment one must accept pain to grow or nothing ever changes. That one was a riddle to chew on.

When the Pestilence comes up Auger feels a sickness in his stomach. Ruin she says. Ruin lies on this path. Undead. A Dwarven band on a quest for ancient things. Imperial patrols turned... bandits really. Kalahata. And ruin.

Just cards perhaps. Just cards.

Auger thanks Futurtensh and compliments her fine home and the quality of her tea. Then he takes his leave, heading north to the smithy and the mill if they are still open. After a few steps along the path Auger remembers his quarterstaff still leaning against the old Chimp's fence. Doubling back for it he finds it still there and he stands holding it a moment, staring at the symbol for Hope he had carved upon it. Coming to himself again he makes his way on to the path, his thumb tracing the symbol over and over, as he walks.

. 

Ednyss walks over to the jewelry table and peruses the wares absently for a moment before turning to the vendor and asking bluntly, "I am looking for a specific piece of jewelry, and I was wondering if you had anything other than what is on the table."

 Ednyss

The chimp at the jewelry table, a big, overweight, square-shaped male with one loop earring, is in the midst of a slow-moving conversation with a seller of kitchenwares a few tables down. 

”But he didn’t see her!,” he shouts over in a booming voice as Ednyss approaches.

”What?,” comes back from the kitchenwares seller, a full minute later, while Ednyss peruses the items laid out in the table. The kitchenwares seller is an older male chimp, thin and grey, with palsy and a high, strident voice like a crow’s.

”You heard me!,” booms the jeweler a minute later, as Ednyss is about to ask his question, “it was later! Too dry!,” at which point he notices Ednyss, and listens attentively to his inquiry.

“Yeeeess!,” he answers in a quieter tone, smiling broadly, arms akimbo. “Yes, of course. Many things. What you lookin fer?”

Varielky

When she turns around again, the creature is already out of sight, but after a moment, she hears its voice calling from around the bend, “I gotta go!”

Turning back to the smithy, Varielky approaches and sees the forge, a sturdy stone building around the corner from the barn and beside but built up a few feet from the bank of the creek. The shutters and doors are thrown wide open to reveal a clean, organized-looking foundry within, a small, sturdy anvil near the hot furnace glowing against one wall. A smith and helper are carefully finishing work on a series of horseshoes, working methodically, sweating in the heat. After five or ten minutes, the last shoe is finished, the smith gives his helper, a burly young woman chimp, a few quiet instructions, and he then wipes his brow and looks up, wordlessly, at Varielky as she waits in the doorway, which is tall enough for her to stand without stooping.

Auger

Taking up his quarter staff and leaving the old woman’s chimp house behind, and passing back beyond the little pond, frogs sitting on rocks in the shade, the sorcerer finds his way back to the creek path and follows it north as it wanders through the trees beside the creek, long shadows crossing his path as he walks, the creek bubbling quietly to his left, and a few bees buzzing among the earliest crocuses which have poked up in advance of the spring equinox. Auger hears a cheerful voice, a tenor both rounded and rough, call out from his right. "Whatcha. Whatcha. Whatcha doin'?"

Looking toward the questioning voice, to a small grassy meadow just off the path, Auger sees a creature unfamiliar to him. It seems to be a very small elephant-person, no more than three feet long, with a bright aqua-colored hide. The creature's body is more or less humanoid, and its clothing seems Elvish, all made of wide woven leaves and vines, like a green yeoman's outfit, complete with a tall leaf poking jauntily out of its cap. The creature carries a small sword on its belt, and pokes its head around from where it is sitting, on the grass just on the other side of a wild cyprus tree, to look up at Auger with big, curious, innocent eyes.

"Are you free now?" Varielky asks in a voice that doesn't sound impudent, rather simply questioning. She steps forward into the building. "I'll get straight to the point. This armour I'm wearing is not fitted for me. It was given for me in a haste to compensate for my previous armour and because of that it doesn't really fit. I was wondering if you could get it fitted for my shape and size and, if you can, how long it would take and how much it will cost me."

Varielky

The smith motions for Varielky to wait outside for a moment. He shuts the furnace cover, makes some adjustments to his tools, leaving long tongs in a water trough to cool, and walks out, calling over his assistant quietly. He asks Varielky to turn around, his eyes glued to the breastplate, frowning. He exchanges a silent glance with his assistant, then goes back into the workshop. "Please," says the assistant, who is tall for a chimp, four feet or so, with very muscular forearms, "remove the breastplate?" Varielky does so, leaving her padding and bindings on. It is, as usual, a relief to take off the ill-fitting armor, and the assistant clucks her tongue in admonishment at the lengths taken to wear it. Once off, the smith comes out again, and the pair lay the breastplate out an a table, examining it closely. The smith, then his assistant, soon turn their attention back to Varielky. The smith nods at his assistant, who produces a measuring tape, and with Varielky's permission, measures her form, then the breastplate she's been wearing.

They look at the measurements together for a moment, the smith goes into a shed, clanks around for a few minutes searching for something, then returns with a steel skirt, walks directly to Varielky, and glancing at her for permission, tests its size against her waist. He and his assistant exchange a few quiet words, then the smith goes inside the workshop again.

His assistant says, quietly, “He can do it. Three days, two hundred gold. The shape will be a rounded, plain front, keeping only the two shoulder runes. The others will be stretched and lose their shape. The skirt will make up for the shorter length. Good armor.”

"A pair of platinum rings. They don't need to be too fancy, but I would prefer if they were a matching set."