Post by andycd on Nov 3, 2022 15:31:12 GMT
She was falling, Kaltenzahn disappearing into the clouds beside her, Coll already left far above her. She tried to sprout her wings and nothing happened. She was falli–
Jenna awoke to the knocking on her door, as usual. She winced and shivered under the blanket. It was turning cold fast, making mornings that much harder.
The knocking came again, polite but insistent. “I’m awake, Claudette, thank you,” she called, and a rustling sound retreated from her door. An Unseen Servant wakeup call was very useful, though she should have thought it through a little better. To make sure Claudette wasn’t busy on some other task for a patron, Jenna had told the floating elemental that this command superseded all other commands and that no matter what they were to wake her up. Unfortunately of course, this meant that Claudette refused any attempt by Jenna to change the timing of the knock. Jenna now woke up every day at the same time, without fail, and always would.
Sitting up, she extended a hand, breathing in slowly. As she exhaled, the fireplace burst into flames with a satisfying roar, and all the candles lit themselves. A few more cantrips had Jenna clean and refreshed for the day, so it wasn’t long at all before she was dressed and walking out of the door - candles extinguishing behind her. Gripping the balcony rail and looking down into the main floor of Fort Ettin a few floors below, she considered pulling Coll’s old stunt of leaping down, but the too fresh false memory of the dream made her hesitate, and instead she began to walk down the stairs to the ground floor. She did shake out her leathery dragon wings though, just for comfort.
It was not quite dawn yet, the sky outside still pitch black as she pushed the doors to the Great Hall open and breathed in the chill air. A patron who had overindulged last night stirred on a table at the noise and breeze, letting out some of his own loudly. Jenna shuddered, and a slightly transparent, red clawed hand appeared with a wave of her arm to shake the drunk awake.
She turned back to the east, and a quick flap of her wings took her to the top of the eastern wall to look at the dawn groggily shouldering the night aside on the horizon, slower every morning. Jenna watched for a long minute, before shaking herself. “Enough of that,” she said to the air, turning back to the fort and the small gathering of Tabards at the door to the hall.
“Declan, do you have the kitchen inventory?” she called, flying back down to them, and one of the floating red vests turned to her and a piece of folded parchment was handed to her by an invisible hand. “Looks like we’re still good for the standard fourth menu, Hillary. But put a little extra spice in - they’ll need it with the cold.” The fortress supplied a great deal of food through its own magic, but it was useful to supplement and change things up with their own ingredients.
And so the morning meeting took place - the Tabards gathering around her like a haunted pile of laundry, Jenna checking in on the different parts of the fort, organising things and giving out any extra orders as needed. Two books hadn’t been returned to the library, but the adventurer in question was on an extended journey, so that could be deferred until they got back. The stables needed more hay in stock to help with the cold, for which Jenna asked Wendell to write an order for Wendy to deliver down in New Hillborrow.
As the Tabards floated away on their duties, she looked at the job board. Light on groups heading out today, just one heading to the Angelbark - well they were either saving an angel for the 10th time or getting turned into animals. Or both. No teleportation required anyway. Good though, that meant the fort would be busier today.
She wasn't the first person up of course. A few dedicated souls were doing their own quiet exercise routines and meditations. There was light coming from the chapel, so some poor Lathandrite was probably genuflecting in there. Jenna really needed to read up if there was a God of Brunch one day.
She gave the customary embarrassing high five to the dishevelled man leaving the dorms back towards his real home, and then took up her place behind the bar as the Breakfast Club rolled in.
Jenna's mind was not, by nature, an orderly place. But for all the chaos that adventurers brought (and that's a lot of chaos) Jenna was so familiar by now with the routines and commands of the army of tabards that she felt very much at the centre of an elaborate dance - timings and choreography carefully rehearsed. With a smile she could tell the dwarf at Table 4 that the first hot drinks would be ready in two minutes, murmuring the order to the kitchen under her breath. Some people thought Jenna's communication with the Tabards was psychic, when in reality it was a simple cantrip and the detailed knowledge of where each spirit was in the fort most of the time.
Lynus drifted her coffee over to her, which she took especially gratefully this morning and, seeing that most people seemed settled, wandered over to join a table. "So the Plane of Earth, eh? How'd it go? I heard something about recovering the wrong petrified statue?"
The morning passed quickly in casual conversations, answering a few questions and a particularly notable complaint that someone's mattress had gone missing. Jenna scowled at that one - a few too many things had gone wrong or missing lately. A group was convening next week to look into it as her efforts yielded little. She was not an investigator it turned out, and something was causing the intricate dance of the Ettin to tip off of its rhythm.
No magic needed for the adventurers meant more left for her, so once the morning rush had settled down and the Dance of the Tabards seemed in time, she went back upstairs to change into a lighter outfit and grab her equipment.
One quiet Plane Shift later and the air changed from chill to searing as she stepped onto a desolate mountainside in the Plane of Fire. Jenna let her magic catch her arms ablaze. "All right, dummies, let's go another round."
The explosions that accompanied Jenna's regular training on that scorching mountainside could be heard for miles. Fortunately, the elemental planes are vast, and her fire was just a drop in the ocean, so no one had yet come to investigate. She had set up a number of simple targets around the area, and whenever she could, came here to burn them to ashes, only to carefully Mend them after. Getting to use the full scope of her power was exhilarating, therapeutic as she screamed with each echoing blast of flame, though perhaps not the same as therapy.
She wanted Kaltenzahn back. The dragon friend to match her draconic blood, to watch her train and revel in her fire, to fly around the Dawnlands with her each day, racing each other higher and higher. Jenna seldom went flying anymore. She missed Coll too, the man who had taken her in when her family had run in fear, and she was afraid that she wasn't half the caretaker he was for the adventurers at the Ettin. But people always asked about Coll, talked about Coll and remembered him. Very few people seemed to miss Kaltenzahn like she did. Perhaps they were relieved not to have a large red dragon living just outside the fort. Jenna just missed her friend.
The majority of her magic spent, she returned home. A second Plane Shift, a little cleaning magic and changing back into her earlier clothes, and the lunch crowd didn't even know she'd been gone, yelling her grief into fire.
“So, what can I get for you?”
Wendy stopped by in the afternoon to catch up with Jenna, which was always a great time. Afternoons were tricky for Jenna. With the Tabards on the job she had relatively little to do, and often the Ettin grew quiet as people went questing or visiting the other towns. Sometimes she got someone to cover her in the Fort and went on a visit of her own, but often she spent the time reading a book by the fire in the hall. A visit from Wendy was always welcome though - they were two people who loved to collect the stories of the Dawnlands, and their respective reputations for strangeness and being older than they appeared (though far more so in Wendy’s case) gave them a lot in common.
The two women were laughing over the terrible debut of Multiclassy, Leocanto’s latest gastronomic venture, when a pair of individuals stepped through the gate of the fort. Impressively, the taller of the pair was a halfling, her hair a riotous mess of colours like she had gotten into a fight in a hair salon. The gnome beside her was clearly older, more weatherworn, yet they seemed more hesitant than the saucer-eyed halfling who was busy spotting the hundred points of interest around the courtyard of the Ettin with an almost hungry expression. Jenna nodded towards them and smiled at Wendy.
“Showtime.”
She strode over, leathery wings unfurling behind her, Wendy a few paces further back, and welcomed the newcomers. “Well hello strangers! Are you by any chance looking for Fort Ettin, home of adventurers, adventure and subsidised accommodation? Because you’ve found it.”
The gnome looked at her suspiciously, but before they could answer the halfling stepped forward. “Yes! So I heard there was a place where lots of magic people are and I think I’m magic but whenever I try and do things different things happen and now my hair’s all rainbowy and I keep getting taller which my dad really gets worried about but I don’t think it’s that bad really I just need to get more clothes but that means money but I heard you –” she stopped and took a deep breath.”--I heard you also send people on quests for money so I figured this was the place to come.”
Jenna’s grin intensified. “Oh I know this story. You’ve come to the right place for sure. My name’s Jenna, what’s yours?”
“Ohmygosh yes, my name is ummm, should I have like a cool adventurer name or maybe just stick with what I’ve got? Gosh that’s a lot of pressure I mean what if I….. Peggy. I’m Peggy.”
“Nice to meet you. Head on in and the Tabards will take care of you. Anytime you see a floating red vest, you can ask it for whatever you want. And what about you, friend, what’s your story?”
The gnome looked at Jenna, and back past her to Wendy who was casually leaning against the doorframe with an amused expression. “Lys. Sailor,” they said carefully. “Could use some time ashore earning coin.”
“Quick and to the point, Lys. Sounds like you’re in the right place too. We’ll get you a bunk sorted or a room as you like. Red vests are your friend.”
“Are you a dragon?”
It was more direct than many approaches to the question. “Dragon ancestor, I think, though I honestly don’t know where in the family tree,” she replied calmly.
“Huh. Weird.” They walked past her into the main chamber, conversation over.
“Well that one’s not going to make a lot of friends,” Wendy observed quietly as they were left alone again.
“Oh I don’t know,” Jenna said, tilting her head from side to side. “People seldom leave the Ettin quite the same as when they arrived. There’s hope for them both yet.”
Wendy looked at her quickly, surprised, and then stepped over and gave her friend a hug. “You’ve grown up, Jenna,” she said. “You’re not the same person you were a year ago. Older than when you were older. I’m just sorry it came through such a rough road.”
Jenna’s smile was strained. “Thanks, Wendy. I think.”
Wendy was about to reply when her eyes glazed over for a moment and she stopped. “Ah, duty calls. Deliveries to make. Good to catch up, Jen. I’ll see you tomorrow! Oh, you’re going to the Winter Fayre right?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world. See you around.”
And then Wendy was gone, and the sun was already setting as her breath began to steam in the cold evening air.
Dinner was unremarkable, though boisterous. Peggy was making friends rapidly and had already latched on to another wild mage. Lys had taken their meal up to the rooms, but not before a more outgoing member of the community had introduced themselves - a promising start.
It was long since dark and dinner had been cleared away by the time the Angelbark crew came back. Apparently a dryad had lost her tree because some asshole scientist had encased it in lead and then dragged her to a different part of the forest just to see what would happen. It turned out it played hell with her sense of direction, hence the note requesting aid had been delivered to the Ettin by a fox. That made more sense, Jenna had to admit.
The adventurers slumped off to bed, exhausted after traipsing across half the Angelbark looking for a tree while carrying a plaintive and easily distracted dryad. Only a few people were still left, some of the veterans playing cards in the corner. A quick walk around the fort spotted two people in the lounge, the alchemy lab still in full use - looked like another all-nighter there, and Peggy sitting in awe in the trophy room, amazed at all the wonders they had brought back from adventures.
With everything more or less in order, and Jenna always aware that her morning alarm was ticking ever closer, she returned to the main building and walked up the stairs to her room, waving to a few people as she did so.
At the top of the stairs she put a hand on the locked door next to her own. “Goodnight, Coll,” she said quietly, as she did most nights, and went to bed.
Tomorrow was another day.
Jenna awoke to the knocking on her door, as usual. She winced and shivered under the blanket. It was turning cold fast, making mornings that much harder.
The knocking came again, polite but insistent. “I’m awake, Claudette, thank you,” she called, and a rustling sound retreated from her door. An Unseen Servant wakeup call was very useful, though she should have thought it through a little better. To make sure Claudette wasn’t busy on some other task for a patron, Jenna had told the floating elemental that this command superseded all other commands and that no matter what they were to wake her up. Unfortunately of course, this meant that Claudette refused any attempt by Jenna to change the timing of the knock. Jenna now woke up every day at the same time, without fail, and always would.
Sitting up, she extended a hand, breathing in slowly. As she exhaled, the fireplace burst into flames with a satisfying roar, and all the candles lit themselves. A few more cantrips had Jenna clean and refreshed for the day, so it wasn’t long at all before she was dressed and walking out of the door - candles extinguishing behind her. Gripping the balcony rail and looking down into the main floor of Fort Ettin a few floors below, she considered pulling Coll’s old stunt of leaping down, but the too fresh false memory of the dream made her hesitate, and instead she began to walk down the stairs to the ground floor. She did shake out her leathery dragon wings though, just for comfort.
It was not quite dawn yet, the sky outside still pitch black as she pushed the doors to the Great Hall open and breathed in the chill air. A patron who had overindulged last night stirred on a table at the noise and breeze, letting out some of his own loudly. Jenna shuddered, and a slightly transparent, red clawed hand appeared with a wave of her arm to shake the drunk awake.
She turned back to the east, and a quick flap of her wings took her to the top of the eastern wall to look at the dawn groggily shouldering the night aside on the horizon, slower every morning. Jenna watched for a long minute, before shaking herself. “Enough of that,” she said to the air, turning back to the fort and the small gathering of Tabards at the door to the hall.
“Declan, do you have the kitchen inventory?” she called, flying back down to them, and one of the floating red vests turned to her and a piece of folded parchment was handed to her by an invisible hand. “Looks like we’re still good for the standard fourth menu, Hillary. But put a little extra spice in - they’ll need it with the cold.” The fortress supplied a great deal of food through its own magic, but it was useful to supplement and change things up with their own ingredients.
And so the morning meeting took place - the Tabards gathering around her like a haunted pile of laundry, Jenna checking in on the different parts of the fort, organising things and giving out any extra orders as needed. Two books hadn’t been returned to the library, but the adventurer in question was on an extended journey, so that could be deferred until they got back. The stables needed more hay in stock to help with the cold, for which Jenna asked Wendell to write an order for Wendy to deliver down in New Hillborrow.
As the Tabards floated away on their duties, she looked at the job board. Light on groups heading out today, just one heading to the Angelbark - well they were either saving an angel for the 10th time or getting turned into animals. Or both. No teleportation required anyway. Good though, that meant the fort would be busier today.
She wasn't the first person up of course. A few dedicated souls were doing their own quiet exercise routines and meditations. There was light coming from the chapel, so some poor Lathandrite was probably genuflecting in there. Jenna really needed to read up if there was a God of Brunch one day.
She gave the customary embarrassing high five to the dishevelled man leaving the dorms back towards his real home, and then took up her place behind the bar as the Breakfast Club rolled in.
Jenna's mind was not, by nature, an orderly place. But for all the chaos that adventurers brought (and that's a lot of chaos) Jenna was so familiar by now with the routines and commands of the army of tabards that she felt very much at the centre of an elaborate dance - timings and choreography carefully rehearsed. With a smile she could tell the dwarf at Table 4 that the first hot drinks would be ready in two minutes, murmuring the order to the kitchen under her breath. Some people thought Jenna's communication with the Tabards was psychic, when in reality it was a simple cantrip and the detailed knowledge of where each spirit was in the fort most of the time.
Lynus drifted her coffee over to her, which she took especially gratefully this morning and, seeing that most people seemed settled, wandered over to join a table. "So the Plane of Earth, eh? How'd it go? I heard something about recovering the wrong petrified statue?"
The morning passed quickly in casual conversations, answering a few questions and a particularly notable complaint that someone's mattress had gone missing. Jenna scowled at that one - a few too many things had gone wrong or missing lately. A group was convening next week to look into it as her efforts yielded little. She was not an investigator it turned out, and something was causing the intricate dance of the Ettin to tip off of its rhythm.
No magic needed for the adventurers meant more left for her, so once the morning rush had settled down and the Dance of the Tabards seemed in time, she went back upstairs to change into a lighter outfit and grab her equipment.
One quiet Plane Shift later and the air changed from chill to searing as she stepped onto a desolate mountainside in the Plane of Fire. Jenna let her magic catch her arms ablaze. "All right, dummies, let's go another round."
The explosions that accompanied Jenna's regular training on that scorching mountainside could be heard for miles. Fortunately, the elemental planes are vast, and her fire was just a drop in the ocean, so no one had yet come to investigate. She had set up a number of simple targets around the area, and whenever she could, came here to burn them to ashes, only to carefully Mend them after. Getting to use the full scope of her power was exhilarating, therapeutic as she screamed with each echoing blast of flame, though perhaps not the same as therapy.
She wanted Kaltenzahn back. The dragon friend to match her draconic blood, to watch her train and revel in her fire, to fly around the Dawnlands with her each day, racing each other higher and higher. Jenna seldom went flying anymore. She missed Coll too, the man who had taken her in when her family had run in fear, and she was afraid that she wasn't half the caretaker he was for the adventurers at the Ettin. But people always asked about Coll, talked about Coll and remembered him. Very few people seemed to miss Kaltenzahn like she did. Perhaps they were relieved not to have a large red dragon living just outside the fort. Jenna just missed her friend.
The majority of her magic spent, she returned home. A second Plane Shift, a little cleaning magic and changing back into her earlier clothes, and the lunch crowd didn't even know she'd been gone, yelling her grief into fire.
“So, what can I get for you?”
Wendy stopped by in the afternoon to catch up with Jenna, which was always a great time. Afternoons were tricky for Jenna. With the Tabards on the job she had relatively little to do, and often the Ettin grew quiet as people went questing or visiting the other towns. Sometimes she got someone to cover her in the Fort and went on a visit of her own, but often she spent the time reading a book by the fire in the hall. A visit from Wendy was always welcome though - they were two people who loved to collect the stories of the Dawnlands, and their respective reputations for strangeness and being older than they appeared (though far more so in Wendy’s case) gave them a lot in common.
The two women were laughing over the terrible debut of Multiclassy, Leocanto’s latest gastronomic venture, when a pair of individuals stepped through the gate of the fort. Impressively, the taller of the pair was a halfling, her hair a riotous mess of colours like she had gotten into a fight in a hair salon. The gnome beside her was clearly older, more weatherworn, yet they seemed more hesitant than the saucer-eyed halfling who was busy spotting the hundred points of interest around the courtyard of the Ettin with an almost hungry expression. Jenna nodded towards them and smiled at Wendy.
“Showtime.”
She strode over, leathery wings unfurling behind her, Wendy a few paces further back, and welcomed the newcomers. “Well hello strangers! Are you by any chance looking for Fort Ettin, home of adventurers, adventure and subsidised accommodation? Because you’ve found it.”
The gnome looked at her suspiciously, but before they could answer the halfling stepped forward. “Yes! So I heard there was a place where lots of magic people are and I think I’m magic but whenever I try and do things different things happen and now my hair’s all rainbowy and I keep getting taller which my dad really gets worried about but I don’t think it’s that bad really I just need to get more clothes but that means money but I heard you –” she stopped and took a deep breath.”--I heard you also send people on quests for money so I figured this was the place to come.”
Jenna’s grin intensified. “Oh I know this story. You’ve come to the right place for sure. My name’s Jenna, what’s yours?”
“Ohmygosh yes, my name is ummm, should I have like a cool adventurer name or maybe just stick with what I’ve got? Gosh that’s a lot of pressure I mean what if I….. Peggy. I’m Peggy.”
“Nice to meet you. Head on in and the Tabards will take care of you. Anytime you see a floating red vest, you can ask it for whatever you want. And what about you, friend, what’s your story?”
The gnome looked at Jenna, and back past her to Wendy who was casually leaning against the doorframe with an amused expression. “Lys. Sailor,” they said carefully. “Could use some time ashore earning coin.”
“Quick and to the point, Lys. Sounds like you’re in the right place too. We’ll get you a bunk sorted or a room as you like. Red vests are your friend.”
“Are you a dragon?”
It was more direct than many approaches to the question. “Dragon ancestor, I think, though I honestly don’t know where in the family tree,” she replied calmly.
“Huh. Weird.” They walked past her into the main chamber, conversation over.
“Well that one’s not going to make a lot of friends,” Wendy observed quietly as they were left alone again.
“Oh I don’t know,” Jenna said, tilting her head from side to side. “People seldom leave the Ettin quite the same as when they arrived. There’s hope for them both yet.”
Wendy looked at her quickly, surprised, and then stepped over and gave her friend a hug. “You’ve grown up, Jenna,” she said. “You’re not the same person you were a year ago. Older than when you were older. I’m just sorry it came through such a rough road.”
Jenna’s smile was strained. “Thanks, Wendy. I think.”
Wendy was about to reply when her eyes glazed over for a moment and she stopped. “Ah, duty calls. Deliveries to make. Good to catch up, Jen. I’ll see you tomorrow! Oh, you’re going to the Winter Fayre right?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world. See you around.”
And then Wendy was gone, and the sun was already setting as her breath began to steam in the cold evening air.
Dinner was unremarkable, though boisterous. Peggy was making friends rapidly and had already latched on to another wild mage. Lys had taken their meal up to the rooms, but not before a more outgoing member of the community had introduced themselves - a promising start.
It was long since dark and dinner had been cleared away by the time the Angelbark crew came back. Apparently a dryad had lost her tree because some asshole scientist had encased it in lead and then dragged her to a different part of the forest just to see what would happen. It turned out it played hell with her sense of direction, hence the note requesting aid had been delivered to the Ettin by a fox. That made more sense, Jenna had to admit.
The adventurers slumped off to bed, exhausted after traipsing across half the Angelbark looking for a tree while carrying a plaintive and easily distracted dryad. Only a few people were still left, some of the veterans playing cards in the corner. A quick walk around the fort spotted two people in the lounge, the alchemy lab still in full use - looked like another all-nighter there, and Peggy sitting in awe in the trophy room, amazed at all the wonders they had brought back from adventures.
With everything more or less in order, and Jenna always aware that her morning alarm was ticking ever closer, she returned to the main building and walked up the stairs to her room, waving to a few people as she did so.
At the top of the stairs she put a hand on the locked door next to her own. “Goodnight, Coll,” she said quietly, as she did most nights, and went to bed.
Tomorrow was another day.