[IC] Act 3, Scene 2 : Journey of a Thousand Leagues... [Creation is your oyster]

Eugh. . . what a horrible atmosphere for such a nice day.


Telega sat awkwardly, aware that for all intents and purposes he was sitting with a group of strangers. He really didn't know anything about them, aside from some bits he'd gleaned of their abilities, but their past, their driving motivations. . ?


Telega cleared his throat, deciding to strike up a conversation. Misora had already escaped onto the roof, Dujn had fallen asleep, and Coriander alternatively impressed and frightened him. No. That left Emerk and Yoran. He eyed Emerk a moment. Also no. That left the sorcerer.


"Yoran. I. . .Your direlance. It's masterfully crafted. Quite a . . worthy weapon. Do you know it's history?"


Telega flushed awkwardly, then busied himself with plucking invisible dust from the leg of his traveling garb. What a fool he sounded. . .
 
Under normal circumstances, Coriander's exhuberance would have made this little voyage of theirs rather enjoyable to say the least, but so unlike herself she had despite all her efforts to the contrary let Misora's disdain get to her. As always, the strange mixture of tobacco and drugs necessary for the mystical kiseru method were aflame in her lungs, the tip nested between her lips.


She didn't really engage in conversation and aside from the odd glance toward Misora before she made her exit, her interactions with the rest of the group were limited to her glaring right through them, as if they were entirely beneath her notice. Somewhat chilling but altogether not entirely unexpected.


In time, she asked Manfred to bring her one of her string instruments, though not the mandolin which she had used recently. Setting herself to play it, she started wordlessly though soon enough her voice itself joined in the melodious presentation. She didn't appear to be doing this for anyone but herself and the words themselves could hardly be mistaken for anything but Old Realm.


In the end, what she couldn't say in words for fear of sharing her weakness with the untrustworthy she whispered in her music to the deaf.


------------------------------------------------


Isn't It Sad Coriander?


Charisma 3 + Performance 5 + First Performance Excellency 2 = 10 dice + 1 mote


10d10 → [10,7,3,3,6,9,8,7,1,1] = 6 successes
 
"A gift from House Mnemon, obtained soon after my graduation from the Heptagram," Yoran replied to Telega. "Probably a subtle way of telling me to hone my warrior skills as well as my sorcerous ones - to remain excellent in all things. Which I should probably do - after all, this journey is liable to take us in dangerous places. As for the weapon's history, I know that it was wielded to great effect by a Mnemon general two hundred years ago - Mnyris, a grandson of Mnemon herself. Since it was retrieved after his glorious death in a Wyld Hunt, it has not been given an opportunity to return to its former glory - it has scarcely tasted blood at all, actually."
 
The wagon for its part didn't care about the atmosphere within, it for its part merely traversed the path towards the south... across plains of grain grown to support the city of Yane. Here and there, across the plains dotted windmills and farming communes, still a part of Yane... but not quite.
 
“take the opportunity to see if he has anything interesting on him, I doubt it but never know.†Emerk says with a wry grin.


Turning his attention to Yoran and Telega, “By chance you might be interested in sparring. Maybe you can teach me sorcery,†a slight pause†in exchange. What is the weapons name?â€


Mindlessly Emerk fiddles with cards, dice, various sized coins, string, and what ever else is small figety.
 
Yoran looked at Emerk with an undecipherable stare. "Perhaps I could... but I fear I lack the experience to design the Five Ordeals for a pupil. I will think about it when circumstances permit." He closed his eyes and seemed to fall asleep. But he still voiced a couple last warnings: "Do know, however, that if you intend to remain a dabbler, I will never teach you any form of summoning - this discipline is already fraught with danger for practitioners who benefited from the extensive courses at the Heptagram. If you show promise, I could recommend you to one of my old teachers, though." He opened his eyes again. "And lastly, there is the White Registry, of course, and the Obligation. A constraint that should not be overlooked. But we will discuss this later." With that, he closed his eyes once more. "And my lance is called Fiery Shaft of Righteous Passion."


_________________


OOC: Sorry for not answering before. Timeskip ahoy!


http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2532895/ 5 successes on Per+Awareness
 
And thus the wagon caravan proceeded its journey southwards, filled with awkward silences as the dragonblooded didn't interact each other beyond what might be deemed socialable acceptable.


Endless prairies of golden wheat and sorghum.


With caravan waystations serving as camps for the party.


Several days and nights later and quite a many, many miles away from Yane, the caravan finds itself at a small village by the name of Naramar, according to the caravan leader Nathaniel. At least after some checking of the map.


It's a humble collection of buildings clustered around a crossroads, with an inn, a central well, and a town square, along with a number of outlying farms and homesteads.


There are no defensive walls surrounding the village, and that's apparently a problem for the inhabitants, since there are some signs of damage to the village. Some of the buildings appear to be in disrepair.


***


OOC -


It's been over 2 weeks, and you're now almost 300 miles south of Yane


Perception or Intelligence + Awareness roll at difficulty 2.
 
Misora looked around the village with a frown... She didn't like the look of things, everything was so... Sad to her. These poor people... I wonder what happened? What kind of monster would do this to this small village? She thought to herself, her face dour.
 
"Oh! Look everyone, a village. You know what that means, right?" Dujn looks at everyone very excitedly and expectantly waiting for an answer, but then he blurts out what he had in mind before anyone has a chance to speak up, "It means we can take a proper bath!"


Pointing out the window, "Look, I think that's an inn. Dibs on the first kettle of hot water, by the way."


***


Dujn rolled the following in his 5 dice:


9, 8, 10, 1, 10


Using 7 as the target number, the roll resulted in 6 successes.
 
Telega peered from the window, watching the buildings approach. "Hmm. A village. We'll finally have a good place to spar, Emerk, should you still be interested." He'd been making excuses for not sparring before, but a few weeks late was better than nothing.


~


5d10 → [4,1,1,10,6] = (22)


Two successes on perception+awareness.
 
"Something tells me we may not be needing each other to spar" as Emerk looks at one of the damaged buildings. "I think I may want a better view" as Emerk proceeds to exit the carriage, keeping an easy pace with it.


--------


Tepet Emerk rolled the following in his 5 dice:


8, 10, 9, 3, 5


Using 7 as the target number, the roll resulted in 4 successes.


http://feacia.com/diceRoller/index.php
 
Yoran shielded his gaze from the Sun's light and gripped his dire lance. "Mmmh, I would say it's been raided recently. Weapon damage and arson, all more or less patched up. I doubt we will find much comfort there."
 
"It appears that way. But then according to my map notations, village is a caravan stop," the caravan leader nodded at the gathered dragonblooded, as he spoke in what might now be passable High Realm if one was an uncivilized lout learning a language by exposure. "It is also a reasonable location for civilized amenities, such as beds and food that isn't cooked over an open camp fire."
 
"It appears we've chosen our timing poorly." Coriander comments dryly as she surveys over the fresh repairs, pressing the tip of her kiseru to her lips as she would often do, even while on travels "Still, it isn't really any of our concerns. They may have warm beds and decent food for us. If they do not, then so be it." she brush a hand through her hair, clearly annoyed at this turn of event.


Hopefully they wouldn't end up being involved in whatever it was that had brought low this village. It wasn't that their plight did not touch her at all, but she quite frankly had much more pressing matters to attend to.


For instance, her own cleanliness, which was not up to her usual standard, she needed a bath and badly. Yes, now that was really important.


For now, however, she made her way toward the closest INN, if they didn't have any accomodations suitable to one of her ranking, then she'd just deal with it. She hadn't exactly expected this to be a leisurely excursion anyway.
 
The inn, and it was an inn despite its small size and somewhat aged looks, bore a sign above its entrance. Said sign is rather faded and whatever imagery (blasphemous or otherwise) or words originally painted on it is long past the stage of readability.


The common room and dining and boozing area is easy to find, given that it was also the main room that the dragonblooded led by Coriander steps into. The small crowd of drinkers and assorted peasants turn, almost as one, to look at the strangers in their midst. Conversations dying down.


It's clear that the villagers are nervous given the mighty command of essence and elemental powers available to the newcomers. If one were to judge by the jade artifacts available to the dragonblooded who had just entered the inn.


"Hello, welcome to the inn of Naramar village, sirs and ladies," A rather heavyset and stocky woman in somewhat finer clothes that weren't as weather-worn stepped up to greet the newcomers. "What can I get for you?"
 
"Good afternoon." Coriander responded curtly if with the proper distance expected of a Dynast when dealing with her inferiors, as she held her kiseru forward slightly, as if to emphasize her words "We haven't had decent bed or food for the past two weeks now. If you'd be so kind as to provide us with such, we'd be truly grateful." she smiles warmly, taking on the mantle of leadership again even as she was quickly starting to feel the urge to get rid of it.


Holding her hand forward, a surprisingly friendly gesture, she then added quickly "Naramar? That's an interesting name. Does it mean anything?"
 
"The name has no meaning outside of legend, milady... tis was Naramar who found this village after the Contagion," the innkeeper shook her head, before collecting herself and noting a price that wouldn't seem out of place after conversion to jade from silver... on the Blessed Isle, but here in the threshold? That was on the steep end.


***


OOC Bascially, she's asking for resource 2.
 
Misora frowned at the price. Though, she understood why they'd need that much. They needed to rebuild and resupply after being raided... "I'll pay." The Ledaal said after thinking about it for a bit. She knew that Coriander would not want to pay that much, but these people needed it.
 
Coriander could tell rather easily that she was taken advantage of, but this wasn't really much of a problem as far as she was concerned. She had better things to do with her chance to relax and enjoy herself for a bit than to haggle with some stupid wench "That sounds fairly reasonable. Show us our accomodations." she ordered the woman around with the distinguished bearing of her rank.


Misora's intervention wasn't expected but it was accepted fairly easily, even as the young Cynis glanced at her friend. They hadn't talk in two weeks now, it was rather unbearable.
 
A grim face crosses his face. “Innkeeper, how often does the trouble come around? Oh and are there supplies that are needed here?†a glance at his scribe and valet a glance of compassion.
 
Misora had glanced over at Coriander, accidentally meeting her gaze. She quickly turned away with a slight, but obvious blush on her face. Yeah, it was unbearable for her, too. But she didn't know what to do...
 
Telega muttered angrily. Bandits, it seemed likely. He had been worse than dead weight in negotiations thus far, but bandits where something he could deal with. It would be proper to couch it in diplomatic language, a 'show of force' 'for the realm' ect., though glancing at his comrades he doubted it would take much to convince them to help these poor people. He wondered idly if any of them would refuse if asked, and if any of them had the necessary skill to help remedy the lack of a defensive wall.
 
"We... they've come twice... and they'll come again soon," the innkeeper shook her head. "It might be best if you didn't stay too long... there are many of those malfeased be damned bandits."
 
[High Realm]"If they'll be coming through soon, I don't see the harm in taking the time to wipe out their raiding forces, as it won't slow down our progress since we're stopping anyway."[High Realm] Telega smirked, cockily estimating that their band of dragonblooded contained enough warriors that they could incinerate most normal armies and piss on the ashes if they really wanted to. He resumed speaking whatever tongue the inkeeper had been using. "What do you know about them? Numbers, formations?"
 
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