In Which
Monks are Spoken Sharply To ⁂ Research is Performed ⁂ Some Acquaintances are Made ⁂ Prophecy is Trusted Blindly ⁂ Bork Acquires Eel Jerky ⁂ “Weird Fish"
(For the reference of people reading this, I'm putting a link here to some relevant maps.)
The party decides that they need to get some more information about that prophecy. Most of the stuff that needs looking up is the list of things that they should “beware".
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| For reference. |
Aster is pretty certain that the “Turning Wheel" refers to the Church of the Eternal Cycle, as mentioned in the previous post, and she thinks she remembers a legendary place called the Land of Sharpened Beaks. Also, according to a successful Knowledge (nature) check, she is aware than an epilimnion is the uppermost layer on a lake. Additional research, they've decided, is in order.
The party proceed to the Order of the Stagnant Lake, where the door is answered by a skittish-looking young woman in a monk's habit. They ask to speak to Father Repose, but the woman at the door -- Acolyte Restful -- is unwilling to bring them to him. The party asks to be given all of the information that the monastery has on the prophecy; Restful insists that there is no information the monastery has that the party does not, as they believe, with complete faith, that fate will ensure everything works out the way their god said it would, and the don't want to interfere. Further badgering by the party gets Restful to admit that there was one additional note with the prophecy, but it only gave a date and time.
Bork asks who decided which people would be brought back to fulfill the prophecy; Restful explains that the monks just followed their intuition and trusted Qualmë to take care of it. They will not be deterred.
Bork: We still want to talk to Father Repose.
Restful: He's quite busy.
Bork: You told me he was deep in prayer. That doesn't sound busy.
Aster: Technically, that is an occupation.
Restful: It's kind of what we do here. That's what being busy in a monastery is.
Bork is exceptionally pushy and intentionally dense until Restful agrees to go fetch Father Repose.
Aster, to Bork: I do believe the word is “obstreperous." Is that a good word for you?
Eventually, Father Repose comes to the door, and is irritated because the party is “supposed to be out saving the world." Upon some questioning, he says he knows very little about the Church of the Eternal Cycle. They are surprised by this, since the prophecy he gave them warns them about the Turning Wheel, and they think the connection is pretty clear.
Father Repose: You know, I never thought of it that way, but I can see the argument. I knew y'all were the right people for the job -- you're really on top of things.
Bork is increasingly incredulous that the monks have not done any research about this prophecy at all; Bariarti thinks that trusting in fate and the gods makes perfect sense for a religious order, and he is the paladin here. Finally, Aster asks if the monastery has archives, so they can see if previous monks have put any thought into the meaning of the prophecy. Father Repose shows them into the archives; Bork, as someone uninterested in archive-diving, wanders out into town with the idea of finding other members of the Church of the Eternal Cycle to question.
Bariarti decides to also trust in fate, and read scrolls at random. He finds a scroll that lists the “temple names" of every monk who has been here1. Aster, following actual research strategies and rolling for her attempts, also finds little of use -- however, she does find a scroll mentioning the arrival of a people called the Kech, who claim to be from the “Land of Sharpened Beaks" and are described as having long, tangled, sloth-like hair. The monks don't seem to approve of them, because they appear to be exclusively loyal to the god Jivmarana, who is a much less pleasant god of death and a rival of Qualmë. Aster, of course, recognizes the description of the Kech as matching the people who they fought in Fritha's room last night.
Bork heads to Market Field to see if she can convince anyone there to give her stuff and send the bill to the monks. She looks for the most expensive items she can find, but it's a really small town, so the best she can find in that respect is a stall selling miscellaneous leather goods. After some more poking around, she ends up deciding on buying some eel jerky to supplement her trail rations. However, she can't seem to convince the vendor (whose name, not that she asked, is Voktu Tribe Scum-Stone) to just bill the monks for the purchase.
Bork heads to Market Field to see if she can convince anyone there to give her stuff and send the bill to the monks. She looks for the most expensive items she can find, but it's a really small town, so the best she can find in that respect is a stall selling miscellaneous leather goods. After some more poking around, she ends up deciding on buying some eel jerky to supplement her trail rations. However, she can't seem to convince the vendor (whose name, not that she asked, is Voktu Tribe Scum-Stone) to just bill the monks for the purchase.
Bork: Are you aware that I was dead? They brought us back from the dead in order to save your sorry ass.It turns out Voktu is easier to persuade through threats, and he lets her take a big sack of jerky on the promise that the monks will reimburse him later.
Voktu: What, me specifically?
Bork: So if you don't help us out, I will ensure that the forces of darkness descend directly on you, and your tiny pathetic little skull.
Aster and Bariarti, meanwhile, head over to the town library, which is much more extensive than the monks' archives. Aster has a really cheerful conversation with the librarian, a fellow halfling named Wisteria Leagallow. Wisteria helps Aster find a dictionary, in which she discovers that the word “benthic" means “of, relating to, or occurring at the bottom of a body of water".
Bork OOC: So the bottom of the top of the lake? Fuck you.
Aster's next priority is to learn more about the homeland of the Kech. Wisteria informs her that they most recently came from the far south of this continent, an area that explorers have only rarely visited, but folkloric accounts indicate their original homeland was elsewhere. She helpfully directs Aster to the folklore section, where Aster finds the following in a thick encyclopedia of folklore from the Doldrum Marshes:
While this is going on, Bariarti decides to scan the shelves with detect good. He considers his ability to detect good as the Kraken calling his attention to things that are important and worthy of protection, so if any books light up, he'll assume they are worth reading. Sadly, a roll of the dice indicates that there are no inherently-good books in this library -- which, one assumes, would be something like the polar opposite of the Necronomicon.
Aster reads the list of things they are meant to beware to Wisteria, hoping that she can help.2 She thinks she remembers “feathered scale" being used to describe a particular creature in poetic terms, but can't remember what that creature is. Wisteria, however, does know a local bard who is very interested in folklore, and suggests Aster stop by the Leering Lamprey to speak to a black-scaled kobold named Blik the Sirenical. At this point, Aster and Bariarti can't think of anything else they need to look up, but before they leave, they mention to Wisteria that they've heard there's a circus in town -- and promptly discover that they are the circus, at least according to rumor.
Aster: I was looking forward to the circus, too. Oh well -- I suppose you can't get everything you want.
Wisteria: But if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need!
Aster: You know, my da used to say that.
Wisteria: It's an old halfling saying, from, I believe, a man called Mossy Rollingstone.
At this point, Aster and Bariarti decide to head to the market themselves, having accomplished their research here. Aster augments her rations with some hard, long-lasting bread and some pickled vegetables. They then decide to just kill some time until they can catch Blik at the tavern; Aster practices her fletching back in her room at the inn. While she's there, she runs into Fritha, and discovers that her intention is to walk to a coastal city a few days away, then buy passage on a ship to Verunn.
They then head to the Leering Lamprey. Bork gets some more beer on credit -- the bartender having already been convinced that he can send her bill to the monks -- and also requests some food. The bartender -- whose name, incidentally, is Kobrun Tribe Scum-Stone -- offers some fish, as this is more or less the only food they have at their rundown dockside tavern.
Bork asks Kobrun to cook it for her, and he obliges. They then sit back to listen to Blik's singing, which is all traditional kobold ballads, mostly about dragons. When she next takes a break, Aster intercepts her and says that Wisteria has suggested she would be a good source for folkloric information. Bork diplomatically pours her some beer, and offers her “some weird fish and sashimi".
Blik eventually goes to start her next set, which is more traditional kobold ballads. She admits that they don't go over terribly well around here, but she's the only professional bard in town, so the audience kind of has to put up with it. The party spends the rest of the evening relaxing at the tavern, and then heads back to the inn for the night. Fritha, they know, wants to get moving within the next few days.
They then head to the Leering Lamprey. Bork gets some more beer on credit -- the bartender having already been convinced that he can send her bill to the monks -- and also requests some food. The bartender -- whose name, incidentally, is Kobrun Tribe Scum-Stone -- offers some fish, as this is more or less the only food they have at their rundown dockside tavern.
Aster: What's the house specialty?Aster gets some eel, and Bork gets a plate of sashimi. They request to see the “weird fish", which looks something like this:
Kobrun: Whatever we have on hand -- we are right next to a lake. We serve whatever we caught recently.
Aster: What's freshest?
Kobrun: We found this weird fish crawling out of the lake a few hours ago. That happens sometimes; we get weird fish around here.
Blik: I love fish. Especially the weird ones.Aster gets Blik talking about her studies. Blik, it seems, studies dragons, which have been apparently absent from this region for centuries -- and the reason she's performing in this random tavern is because she once asked a seer where a dragon might be seen in her lifetime, and he told her to go to the Stagnant Lake. He didn't say when, though, so she's “just kind of hanging out". Aster floats the phrase “feathered scale", and Blik suggests that it might be referring to a xocothian, a creature that lives on the border of the elemental planes of Air and Water3.
Blik eventually goes to start her next set, which is more traditional kobold ballads. She admits that they don't go over terribly well around here, but she's the only professional bard in town, so the audience kind of has to put up with it. The party spends the rest of the evening relaxing at the tavern, and then heads back to the inn for the night. Fritha, they know, wants to get moving within the next few days.
1. Bariarti's player asks if any of the names seem particularly ominous or have double meanings -- I inform him that, since part of this god's portfolio is death, a lot of them seem kind of ominous. Current monks of the order include “Brother Cenotaph", “Sister Scythe", “Acolyte Sepulchre", and “Acolyte Charnel".
2. Bariarti does suggest, out of character I think, that “The Devil's Arms" would be a great name for a bar. (We have dibs on that name now, BTW.)
3. One might argue that the fact that information about such an obscure creature being so easily found by the PCs might indicate that fate is, actually, working on their side.
3. One might argue that the fact that information about such an obscure creature being so easily found by the PCs might indicate that fate is, actually, working on their side.
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