Trial by Fire - IC Thread

[Syvvaris]

"Without a library or an assortment of books, you're only relying on what I have read and there will be more time in the future for me to look at them." Thallus almost doubled over at the pat on the back. "I like the secrets I have in my head. They're safe there. Also, I'm not fans of big crowds. Have fun up there, will ya." He passed Bard's request off again.

 

[Random Word]

Maja takes the tiara off and holds it up to admire how the gem's facets catch the fading light. "This one is only silver, but beautifully made. So you will have to hide your swords? Perhaps that's why the last owner kept them in lockboxes," she muses, putting the tiara back on and sitting on the lockbox beside her.

She watches admiringly as Kuaidao and Spider attune to their wondrous panoply, eyes spending as much time on the wielders as the weapons. "How can they hate something so beautiful?" After a heartbeat she blushes slightly, "The swords, I mean."

"Not that you aren't beautiful, too," she hastens to add, "I just figured the Dynasts wouldn't appreciate that as much as... nevermind." Maja looks pointedly at the sunset over the river instead.

 

[D. Rex]

"Very well, Thallus. You know where to find us." He said with a smile and waved goodbye before returning to the deck.


Coming out of the hold, he was able to catch at least Maja's conversation.

"That tiara is not simply silver. Notice the engravings, as well as the filaments of metals highlight it. Likely magical metals." He explained. "It is an amulet with a very specific purpose. That being to house special stones borne of the earth called Hearthstones. Such as in many tales of magical crystals that can change the weather or heal the wounded or even see the dead."

"And... I would be willing to bet that the tiara houses just such a hearthstone. The stone that is predominantly displayed within it. However I really couldnt tell you anything about it. What I do know is that these amulets allow one to focus the power of the Hearthstones. While the laymen might overlook such things as fancy jewelry, I would fully expect many dragon Bloods to recognize it for what it is. So it might not be best to advertise even that."

 

[Psychie]

Spider smiles at Maja's words, feeling a slight blush on her own cheeks. "I understand, and no offense was taken." She glances at the blades, and notes the empty socket on each one. "I think that these both can hold those magic stones you talk about in them, along with the suit of armor there. Maja, why not try on the headpiece and see if it is one of those hearthstones that Bard is talking about? It might be something of use to you."

OOC do the blades have sheathes to them?

 

[Sherwood]

OOC do the blades have sheathes to them?

Yes, all of the swords have sheathes made for them, and while they are in there, they will be able to pass as normal swords.

Random Word Does Maja take the hearthstone amulet and try to attune herself to it?

 

[HumanPlus]

"Beautiful or not, these artifacts represent a threat to the dynastic regime. To us, however, i believe we found these for a reason. As we are still following our friend Melinda's route i do not doubt that every encounter, even seemingly random ones such as the kraken attack, occur as part of a deliberate plan."

Rivers holds her arm out over the opened strongbox wherein the statue and jade coin still resides
"We must assume that all such things have use for us in our journey. The coin we can spend, but i do not think it would be smart to sell any priceless treasures we encounter on our way."

She picks up the apparently mundane statue
"Who knows, this may be of great import at a point in our journey."

 

[Psychie]

Spider nods in agreement, then pulls the sheaths out of the chest and slips them on her belt and slides the twin blades home. "Wise words, Rivers. Wise words indeed."

 

[HumanPlus]

Rivers looks forward along the horizon for the increase in riverfare travel that tends to accumulate around port cities
"I believe the captain mentioned that our next stop is the City of Tombs. I wonder what the hand of fate will shove into our path there"

 

[Random Word]

Maja takes the tiara off her head and examines it again as Bard suggests it may be enchanted. At Spider's encouragement she resolves to try to figure out what it does. Clearly putting it on isn't enough. "A magic gemstone? I've never done any magic before." Abruptly it dawns on her that that's not true, and she pinches the bridge of her nose in chagrin, "Unless of course you count that whole turning into a fox thing. Okay, so I have done some magic. Compared to that, how hard can it be to activate a tiara?"

She holds the tiara in her outstretched arms and, summoning as much gravitas as she can, cries, "Tiara, Go!"
After a few heartbeats, when nothing happens, she tries again, "Tiara, Activate!"
She pouts, having been ignored again by an inanimate object, and racks her memory for a solution. "What was the magic word in that southern fairytale? Open Sesame! Abracadabra!"

Clearly this approach wasn't working. Well, how do I transform? I will it to be so. She concentrates on the tingling in the tips of her fingers where she touches the tiara, and wills it to turn on. When again nothing happens she becomes visibly frustrated, You're mine, why won't you listen to me? As she thinks the word mine she feels an electric rush of power flowing from her fingertips and into the tiara, and where the power flows, self follows. It's a strange sensation to suddenly feel as if a piece of jewellery is part of your body, but Maja is of late no stranger to strange sensations.

"Aha!" she cries triumphantly, "I did it! You just have to tell it it's yours!" Her triumph is short lived as she looks around, perplexed. "Should I be feeling something else?" She examines her body and surroundings for any changes. "Maybe I did it wrong."

 

[Sherwood]

Random Word

As Maja starts to question if she did something wrong with the hearthstone, she gets the sudden feeling that it is working for her correctly. It just took a moment to start storing memories in it.

Spoiler: The Hearthstone

The Memory Stone (Standard)
Keywords: Linked
This hearthstone is outwardly clear and colorless, with a shifting prismatic radiance held deep within. It perfectly reflects and stores all of its bearer’s memories within its facets, so long as it resides within an attuned hearthstone socket and those memories were made while carrying the stone. The bearer of the Memory Stone may draw pristine recollections from the stone’s depths whenever she chooses, granting her perfect recall. If the stone ever falls from attunement for more than a day, all stored memories within it fade away, and the stone’s former master must once more rely upon her own fallible recollections.

As the Circle works to evaluate the items found, Dromond works to lower the sails on the ship and drop the anchor. He explains, "Safest thing to do right now is to stop until morning. Visibility is going with the sun, and the crew is still out of it under the effects of this slumber. We'll be on our way once more come dawn."

Just as the captain said earlier, several hours go by before the crew begin to wake up. Other than the one woman that fell out of the rigging and broke her arm, they are not adversely affected by the magic that hit them. Just a bit disoriented and glad to be alive.

Come morning, the Seagull's anchor is raised and the sails once more fill with the wind, driving the river boat swiftly forward. While the miles go by, breakfast is whipped up by the cook and served to all. It is not a gourmet meal, but it is hot and fills the belly, and there is enough for all to be satisfied.

Over the next day, there are not other hostile encounters, just the occasional ship passing the other way down the river. The crews wave to one another as they go by. Soon enough, off in the distance the city of SIjan can be seen growing closer. Dromond tells you, "I have some cargo to load and unload, along with getting the physicker to look at Karen's arm, so we'll be in port for a few hours at least. If ye plan to leave the Seagull, let me know and I can wait for a time past that for you to return to the ship. If ye are wishing it, I can provide the location of a buyer that might be able to take some of these jewels off your hands and provide you with good jade coin. Or you can keep the baubles as is, since they are less bulky than a sack of jade will be. What do you choose to do? Leave the ship, or stay on board?"

 

[HumanPlus]

After the ordeal with the kraken and the parsing of loot, Rivers got to enjoy a nice relaxing continuation of their trip. While she would have liked to get some exercise on the trip in one of her other forms, still the ship's crew did not know of her true nature so she instead stayed calm and composed throughout the journey.

Rivers had never been to Sijan before, but few who had wandered these parts had not heard of the tomb-city. Here most in the Riverlands who had the resources to, would bring their dead to be properly tended to so their spirits would not roam the land. She had seen trade caravans roaming the countryside with wagons in the back laden with wrapped bundles smelling of aromatic herbs and the sweet scent of rot. This was the center of medical and funerary esoteric knowledge in this part of Creation.

While she had learned medical arts, even mastered some magically enhanced ways of fleshweaving from her Pactsworn teachers, the ways of properly sating a spirit interested her. Maybe in the short time she was here, she may be able to attain some knowledge of such. An esoteric manual or maybe witnessing the rituals herself, she would be looking for opportunities.

 

[Random Word]

Maja's ears perk up immediately at the mention of making port. "Um, yes leave the ship. So long as it's in port you could not keep me on the ship if you tried," she declares emphatically. "Not that there's anything at all wrong with the ship, of course," Maja coughs nervously. "It's just that I've never been to Sijan before and who hasn't heard the stories and I've never been so excited for ghosts and graveyards. Mortuaries and mausoleums. Funerary rites and ffff..." she clearly has no idea where she's going with this, "-un."

 

[D. Rex]

"Feretory would be an apt word, Maja." Bard suggested helpfully. He then tapped his noggin. "I know a thing or two about alliteration in my line of work."

"I'll leave the ship for a bit, I suppose. Never hurts to see what info I can procure. Maybe rumors of hunters nearby. Or something of our 'friends' doing that we might catch wind of."

He looked over to his Lunar. "Spider, anything you want to do? I'll be happy to tag along."


"Oh, and yes. I'm of the mind we might as well keep what we found. We can always barter it later, and we have enough coin to carry around as is."

 

[jaydude]

"I've got no particular need to visit Sijan myself, but if you want to look around I'd be happy to accompany you." Kuaidao would say to Maja, the Dawn now wearing the sheathed orichalcum sword on his hip, along with his steel one.

 

[Psychie]

Spider gives Bard a nod. "Sure. I've never been here before, so it might be fun to take a look around."

 

[Random Word]

Maja's eyes light up as Kuaidao suggests accompanying her. "Need, he says!" she laughs, delighted, "What need have I for need; I want not for want." She grasps Kuaidao's hand and pulls him towards the gangway, "Yes, come with me! It will be fun. It's new! Have you ever been here before? I've heard if you're out on the streets at night you'll be eaten by a ghost, but they have uproarious parties inside."

As she passes Bard she thanks him profusely, "Oh, feretory. Of course. How could I forget! You're a cunning linguist. Don't you want to see the feretory, Kuaidao?" Behind her back her fingers mime speaking, point to her, and the passage of the sun across the sky [Tell me what it means later], and winks.

 

[jaydude]

Kuaidao allowed himself to be pulled along by the excitable female Lunar, looking only mildly surprised at it all.

"You say ghosts eat you if you're outside at night, and you're not unnerved about that...why?"

He then cleared his throat. "So this feretory of yours, any idea where it is?"

 

[Random Word]

Maja rolls her eyes, "It's a big city with tens of thousands of people who aren't dead. You'll be fine. Don't tell me you're scared of a few ghosts? The feretory is probably..." her eyes scan the docks for the most interesting looking direction, "That way!"

Spoiler: OOC

Edited because Maja wouldn't have been silly enough to mention the fight with the Kraken on the ship with the crew who believes they did not fight a Kraken.

 

[jaydude]

"I was referring to you, and how you're not worried about it." replied Kuaidao, speaking in skytongue. It was the only language they shared.

He looked around, deciding to speak quietly given where they were. "I've dealt with ghosts on a few occasions during my time in the legions. I know how to kill them - or at least stop them from killing me." he said, thinking that "killing" them might be considered redundant. "Also, given where we are, I'd say there must be quite a lot of feretories here..."

Still, he would let her pull him along in whatever direction she wanted to go.

 

[Sherwood]

Stepping off of the ship, you can see that the port of Sijan is busy, with people moving about at their work of making the harbor work. No one is paying any special attention to you, other than the occasional person growling at you go get out of the way. Moving off of the busting dock you find the obligatory bunch of taverns and inns that cater to the sailors and dock workers. Farther in, and you start to see more of the locals of the city instead of just the more transient population on the river.

Moving into the city, you come to a busy market place with stalls hawking wares from across Creation. Strange foods are being cooked, filling the air with an assortment of smells, and other stalls are offering up jewelry or clothes, and there are even pens filled with odd animals for sale raising up a cacophony of noise.

Everyone that is interested, go ahead and give me a Perception + Awareness roll.

 

[jaydude]

Continuing to stick close to Maja, Kuaidao would look and listen, taking in the sights and sounds around him.

[Spending 4 motes of peripheral essence to bring my dice pool up to 10. 5 successes.]

 

[Sherwood]

[Spending 4 motes of peripheral essence to bring my dice pool up to 10. 5 successes.]

Are you sure you wish to use Peripheral and not Personal Essence for this? It will illuminate your Caste mark.

 

[Psychie]

Spider is excited at the thought of exploring the new city and getting to stretch her legs a bit. She keeps her eyes open for any possible trouble.

OOC I'll spend 3m to boost my own Perception to 9 dice from Peripheral. 6 successes.

 

[D. Rex]

Rolling!

4 successes

 

[Syvvaris]

After a night of restless sleep, Thallus woke up queasy from the steady sway of the boat. He could sense they were not moving and headed up towards the deck to see if they were docked. His jaw dropped in disbelief at where they were docked. The small City of Sijan, the city built before the First age and a City which speaks to the dead! There was a gleam in his eyes, but he knew there wouldn't be enough time to explore everything here. He looked around and notice the other exalted had already left the dock. "Captain, I'll be away for a few hours." Thallus waved and headed off the boat.

The first thing he wanted to do was find either a book store or a library, and the first person that didn't look like a dockhand he would ask if they knew where either buildings were.

1 Success (2 Awareness+3 Perception)