What Comes Through - Fern - 2024.06.26
Jun 30, 2024 6:19:38 GMT
stephena, Andy D, and 1 more like this
Post by Fernleaf on Jun 30, 2024 6:19:38 GMT
The day after, Fern returned to the graveyard. It was a tamed version of nature, but it seemed to be the closest to the wild the city of Daring Heights had to offer. Settling down under the spreading branches of a tree, Fern removed slate and chalk from the pack and began to sketch - and to remember.
---
The day had started like the rest since arriving in this place called “Kantas”, when I left the Three-Headed Dragon to peruse the notice board. The notices were arranged haphazardly, frustratingly vague and lacking key details on the desired services. I kept shifting while searching for something simple and straightforward (there are other planes that can be visited?!?), trying to keep out of the way of everyone else. Never making eye contact, I still catch glimpses of the kaleidoscope of adventurers, often in groups, that approach the board, grab a paper and leave.
Feeling a looming presence, I once again move out of the way. Unlike the others, this person didn’t leave to go about their day, just stood nearby. They were soon joined by another, and started chatting. Does everyone know each other here? I return to reading notices only to be startled a moment later by a deep voice asking questions. Immediately quailing at the forced conversation, hand curling around my pocketed worry stone, I stutter some replies to the minotaur who towers several feet above the top of my scales. His name is Keros, the giant* behind him is taller still, but softer spoken and goes by Fog.
“Fern!”
Turning quickly, I smile in recognition of the half-elf approaching. “Safire! I thought you’d gone back to Port Ffirst?” Having met Safire on an adventure with goblins (and with the help of her significantly better conversation skills), I begin to feel more at ease in this group.
A cat fellow appears in our midst. A few inches shorter than me, with black and gold fur and a mustache of powdered sugar. He clearly knows Keros well, and is explaining how he’s famished, all while continuing to eat donuts from a very large bag. Mittens offers the treats around - I take one, as it’s an excellent reason to avoid talking (and is quite good!) - while Fog suggests that a diet higher in fiber might sate such a voracious appetite. The bag is emptying at an astonishing rate!
They all seem to have been at a party recently in the place called the Feywild. I ask about it (Kora had questioned if I was from there, and I still don’t know anything about the fey), and am told it is dangerous, should be avoided, and I should never make promises to anyone in or from that place. They know I’m new, and ask where I have been. I mention starting to explore, but finding Kora’s bookshop. That’s when I find out Mittens is a wizard too! He also said he’d worked at the bookshop. I wonder…
A loud dwarf interrupts our discussion, asking us all to stop blocking the notice board. He seems to find Keros threatening? We move across the street and continue talking. Safire doesn’t have an appreciation for books, she doesn’t need them, and had a terrible experience in a library some time ago.
A tallish man dressed in finer clothes than any adventurer approaches us. Identifying himself as “Avakeel”, He appears to know both Fog and Keros, though I don’t think they know him. The others call him a devil. He’s got horns and a tail, but so do lots of people. He talks at length about his sale of perfumes and the need to create a “Red Light” district in Daring Heights. I think Grandpa would call him “a bit full of himself”.
He doesn’t know Mittens or myself and is curious. This puts the others on guard, and they make him promise that he won’t try to offer us any contracts. Avakeel assures everyone he is a reformed devil and suggests that we should see the city and bring him tokens as proof. It feels like he is just toying with us, that this is no more than idle amusement for him.
In return for bringing him the requested items he offers explanations and answers. I am wary, but do have questions. Trading tasks for knowledge - that’s not so different from what I did back home. Bolstered by the support and company of the others, we agree to collect the things he asked us to find.
---
The sound of the chalk is loud in the quiet of the graveyard. A cross marks the center of the slate, the vertical line extending upward and then curving to the right. A few quick strokes are added to identify the place Fern has stayed these past weeks since their arrival in the Dawnlands.
---
Entering the Three-Headed Dragon our party of five make their way to the bar to secure a bottle of wine. Luckily there are those more versed in alcohol and talking to bartenders. I watch their exchange, learning that adventurer’s aren’t allowed to open a tab - apparently they have a tendency of not paying (sometimes due to death). Mittens asks for some bread, which is deemed unusual by the staff. The donuts are long gone and he seems desperate for more food, offering five gold!
At those words Keros turns so fast his shield scrapes a strip of wood off the front of the bar! This might be the side of the minotaur that scared the dwarf, but Mittens is unconcerned. My fellow wizard explains that it isn’t a big deal, just a curse that makes him constantly hungry! He says not to go in libraries with metal beings, since he and others got curses while escaping. Keros is furious, it sounds like he knows someone else who was cursed by a book.
---
Fern paused work to once again consider the danger of cursed books. How can something so wonderful turn evil? Mittens had a spell that should have remedied the issue but didn’t work. It was a concerning problem. With more work left to do for Kora, Fern hoped those books don’t have side effects.
---
Keros leads the way as we go south to “Portal Plaza”. I’ve been here before, keeping to the edges and away from crowds. This time we go straight past the statue in the center to a cluster of stalls in front of a rather gaudy temple. The tables are filled with tokens, statues in varying sizes and other emblems representing their deity Waukeen. We are told that she is a goddess of wealth and trade, and worshipers seek liberation through those avenues.
We’ve been tasked with getting something from the temple, so I offer to exchange one of my stones from home. A priest running the booth pulls out a jeweler’s loop to examine the mica-flecked rock. They refuse my trade, saying it’s no gem. Of course it isn’t! Their sight must be terrible to need an eyepiece to notice the difference! They say they only believe in the acquisition of gold and gems. And they claim their goddess is a patron of trade!
I don’t have much in the way of a temper, but am certainly annoyed at the priest's insult of an honest profession. I am glad when Safire calls us away. As we walk back across the plaza Keros offers me a stone he’s carried since starting adventuring. It’s quite different than any I have, carved and a color not common on my old route. I tuck my new treasure away as we go up the steps of another grand building.
---
Pulling the stone from its new home in one of the bandoliers' many pockets, Fern places it on the upper left corner of the slate. It fills some of the empty area, the city not yet explored.
---
We had been tasked with getting a letter of introduction from the town hall. When we enter an exasperated clerk is telling someone the city isn’t responsible for property damage done by adventurers. Their mood is not improved by our presence, having to explain how such a letter works, or that we are doing this task for Avakeel. The clerk rants at the devil's many requests for a “Red Light” district. We finally leave the town hall with the letter and a stack of envelopes to return to Avakeel. I don’t understand his fascination with red light. It isn’t hard to make light red and he seems to know a lot of people, so should be able to employ a spellcaster or two if he can’t manage it on his own. If he just wants an area to stand out, a “rainbow light” district would be more unique.
We head south down a broad lane appropriately called “Grave Road”. We enter the burial ground past the tomb of the unknown adventurer, and Fog shows us how to choose a grave and gather dirt. They say that it is used for some spells. I don’t have any that require grave dirt, but it is good to know how to do it properly. Fog also tells us how their people use stones to memorialize the dead. I like the sounds of that tradition over the formality of the carved stone and wood in this cemetery.
It is here that we realize that in our annoyance we didn’t get anything from the temple of greedy priests. Safire assures us it isn’t a problem, pulling a small token of Waukeen from her pocket. I am glad she had the skills to “liberate” something from a stall, since they certainly don’t deserve any gold!
---
Fern taps the carved ghost, but the stone's illumination is lost in the sunlight filtering through the leaves. Hazy figures appear with the touch. Mist or ghosts, they seem fitting in a graveyard.
---
Keros once again leads us through the labyrinth of the city streets, through the Dawn Market and out the Swamp Gate. I take note of the location, since this is the direction I will need to travel if I ever go to Port Ffirst. We reach the Hung Rabbit. Keros insists on staying outside and declines Fog’s offer of company. We collect a bottle of port, that being the closest to wine the establishment has to offer. Mittens chugs a glass of milk.
Back into the city we go, through twisting streets and past buildings of all shapes and sizes. We come to the Temple of Selûne, it is large and there are many people about, but no hawkers of wares that call themselves priests. There is an aura of peace here, a stark contrast to the area around Waukeen. Mittens got a symbol of Selûne from temple staff without much prompting, even as their lips tighten at the mention of Safire’s chosen deity, Umberlee.
It was a short walk to the Gilded Mirror. The building seemed to take inspiration (or perhaps it was the other way round?) from the Temple of Waukeen. We could see Avakeel in a booth as we approached the bar. Everything looked expensive and the atmosphere was oppressive in its opulence. Fog secured a bottle of wine and some glasses before our party joined the devil at his table and set out the items we had gathered.
Our tour had clearly been a game to him. The religious icons were tossed into a corner without regard. For the papers he opened a hole in the air and deposited them inside without looking at them. The bottle of wine just acquired was opened and a glass poured. Avakeel then took the jar of grave dirt and seemed to be planning on inhaling its contents (saying it was the closest to consuming soul coins he could get) when he decided that Fog's suggestion of baking the dirt into something edible was worth a try. That done, he asked for the questions he’d offered to answer in payment.
---
The crude chalk map shows how much of Daring Heights there is left to discover. A day-long tour turned into no more than an outline. So much is unknown: other settlements, other planes, and then there are portals…
---
I wanted to know about portals, he demonstrated the concept. I wanted to know how I ended up in Kantas. One moment I was falling asleep in the back of a merchant's wagon, the next I was waking in a warehouse in this city. Avakeel says that to answer that question he will need to read my mind. He says going through a portal changes a person, that he will be able to tell even if I can’t remember.
Letting a devil read your mind sounds like it would be an item on the list of “don’t do’s” the others have given me. Don’t make promises to a fey, don’t make contracts with a devil, don’t pick up cursed books, don’t let a stranger read your mind. But I hate not knowing, I hate a mystery with the ending torn from the bindings. I don’t think I have anything to hide, not yet. I agree.
His touch is light and feels strange on my scales. It doesn’t hurt, but I can’t see what he is seeing. He tells us that I was taken through the portal while asleep. That the merchant thought I was a person to be smuggled. Avakeel is gleeful. The merchant’s name is Weasel, and stole perfume from the devil’s house.
Any other questions I might have had have fled in the face of this new information. We eat supper with Avakeel (who doesn’t have a problem opening a tab in this establishment). Mittens gobbles plate after plate of food and the others drink wine with their meals. My frugality outweighs my dislike of the ambiance. It’s a free meal after all, and the food is good. I let the others talk, I have much to think about.
---
Fern picks up the ghost stone, tapping it to turn off the light before tucking it away. It was starting to get late, and there was half the city to traverse. With a last glance at yesterday's path, Fern wipes the marks away before returning slate and chalk to the bag.
---
As I walk north on Grave Road I continue my musings. I know how I ended up in this city now, but not why. Why are people being smuggled to Kantas? Are they here willingly? I’m a part of the mystery, and the only way to get answers will be to talk to Weasel.
But that won’t happen immediately. Tomorrow I have more work to do for Kora, and must keep an eye out for cursed books. As I pass through Portal Plaza I wonder if it might be possible to trade my work or teach my skills to someone in exchange for learning how to make more accurate maps. I’d be happy to learn any skill that I could add to my trade offerings. I quite like the idea of trading knowledge instead of gold in front of those money-grubbing priests of Waukeen!
* Firbolg, but Fern is focusing on size
DM: willemf
Adventurers (in order of appearance): Fog, Keros, Safire, Mittens
---
The day had started like the rest since arriving in this place called “Kantas”, when I left the Three-Headed Dragon to peruse the notice board. The notices were arranged haphazardly, frustratingly vague and lacking key details on the desired services. I kept shifting while searching for something simple and straightforward (there are other planes that can be visited?!?), trying to keep out of the way of everyone else. Never making eye contact, I still catch glimpses of the kaleidoscope of adventurers, often in groups, that approach the board, grab a paper and leave.
Feeling a looming presence, I once again move out of the way. Unlike the others, this person didn’t leave to go about their day, just stood nearby. They were soon joined by another, and started chatting. Does everyone know each other here? I return to reading notices only to be startled a moment later by a deep voice asking questions. Immediately quailing at the forced conversation, hand curling around my pocketed worry stone, I stutter some replies to the minotaur who towers several feet above the top of my scales. His name is Keros, the giant* behind him is taller still, but softer spoken and goes by Fog.
“Fern!”
Turning quickly, I smile in recognition of the half-elf approaching. “Safire! I thought you’d gone back to Port Ffirst?” Having met Safire on an adventure with goblins (and with the help of her significantly better conversation skills), I begin to feel more at ease in this group.
A cat fellow appears in our midst. A few inches shorter than me, with black and gold fur and a mustache of powdered sugar. He clearly knows Keros well, and is explaining how he’s famished, all while continuing to eat donuts from a very large bag. Mittens offers the treats around - I take one, as it’s an excellent reason to avoid talking (and is quite good!) - while Fog suggests that a diet higher in fiber might sate such a voracious appetite. The bag is emptying at an astonishing rate!
They all seem to have been at a party recently in the place called the Feywild. I ask about it (Kora had questioned if I was from there, and I still don’t know anything about the fey), and am told it is dangerous, should be avoided, and I should never make promises to anyone in or from that place. They know I’m new, and ask where I have been. I mention starting to explore, but finding Kora’s bookshop. That’s when I find out Mittens is a wizard too! He also said he’d worked at the bookshop. I wonder…
A loud dwarf interrupts our discussion, asking us all to stop blocking the notice board. He seems to find Keros threatening? We move across the street and continue talking. Safire doesn’t have an appreciation for books, she doesn’t need them, and had a terrible experience in a library some time ago.
A tallish man dressed in finer clothes than any adventurer approaches us. Identifying himself as “Avakeel”, He appears to know both Fog and Keros, though I don’t think they know him. The others call him a devil. He’s got horns and a tail, but so do lots of people. He talks at length about his sale of perfumes and the need to create a “Red Light” district in Daring Heights. I think Grandpa would call him “a bit full of himself”.
He doesn’t know Mittens or myself and is curious. This puts the others on guard, and they make him promise that he won’t try to offer us any contracts. Avakeel assures everyone he is a reformed devil and suggests that we should see the city and bring him tokens as proof. It feels like he is just toying with us, that this is no more than idle amusement for him.
In return for bringing him the requested items he offers explanations and answers. I am wary, but do have questions. Trading tasks for knowledge - that’s not so different from what I did back home. Bolstered by the support and company of the others, we agree to collect the things he asked us to find.
---
The sound of the chalk is loud in the quiet of the graveyard. A cross marks the center of the slate, the vertical line extending upward and then curving to the right. A few quick strokes are added to identify the place Fern has stayed these past weeks since their arrival in the Dawnlands.
---
Entering the Three-Headed Dragon our party of five make their way to the bar to secure a bottle of wine. Luckily there are those more versed in alcohol and talking to bartenders. I watch their exchange, learning that adventurer’s aren’t allowed to open a tab - apparently they have a tendency of not paying (sometimes due to death). Mittens asks for some bread, which is deemed unusual by the staff. The donuts are long gone and he seems desperate for more food, offering five gold!
At those words Keros turns so fast his shield scrapes a strip of wood off the front of the bar! This might be the side of the minotaur that scared the dwarf, but Mittens is unconcerned. My fellow wizard explains that it isn’t a big deal, just a curse that makes him constantly hungry! He says not to go in libraries with metal beings, since he and others got curses while escaping. Keros is furious, it sounds like he knows someone else who was cursed by a book.
---
Fern paused work to once again consider the danger of cursed books. How can something so wonderful turn evil? Mittens had a spell that should have remedied the issue but didn’t work. It was a concerning problem. With more work left to do for Kora, Fern hoped those books don’t have side effects.
---
Keros leads the way as we go south to “Portal Plaza”. I’ve been here before, keeping to the edges and away from crowds. This time we go straight past the statue in the center to a cluster of stalls in front of a rather gaudy temple. The tables are filled with tokens, statues in varying sizes and other emblems representing their deity Waukeen. We are told that she is a goddess of wealth and trade, and worshipers seek liberation through those avenues.
We’ve been tasked with getting something from the temple, so I offer to exchange one of my stones from home. A priest running the booth pulls out a jeweler’s loop to examine the mica-flecked rock. They refuse my trade, saying it’s no gem. Of course it isn’t! Their sight must be terrible to need an eyepiece to notice the difference! They say they only believe in the acquisition of gold and gems. And they claim their goddess is a patron of trade!
I don’t have much in the way of a temper, but am certainly annoyed at the priest's insult of an honest profession. I am glad when Safire calls us away. As we walk back across the plaza Keros offers me a stone he’s carried since starting adventuring. It’s quite different than any I have, carved and a color not common on my old route. I tuck my new treasure away as we go up the steps of another grand building.
---
Pulling the stone from its new home in one of the bandoliers' many pockets, Fern places it on the upper left corner of the slate. It fills some of the empty area, the city not yet explored.
---
We had been tasked with getting a letter of introduction from the town hall. When we enter an exasperated clerk is telling someone the city isn’t responsible for property damage done by adventurers. Their mood is not improved by our presence, having to explain how such a letter works, or that we are doing this task for Avakeel. The clerk rants at the devil's many requests for a “Red Light” district. We finally leave the town hall with the letter and a stack of envelopes to return to Avakeel. I don’t understand his fascination with red light. It isn’t hard to make light red and he seems to know a lot of people, so should be able to employ a spellcaster or two if he can’t manage it on his own. If he just wants an area to stand out, a “rainbow light” district would be more unique.
We head south down a broad lane appropriately called “Grave Road”. We enter the burial ground past the tomb of the unknown adventurer, and Fog shows us how to choose a grave and gather dirt. They say that it is used for some spells. I don’t have any that require grave dirt, but it is good to know how to do it properly. Fog also tells us how their people use stones to memorialize the dead. I like the sounds of that tradition over the formality of the carved stone and wood in this cemetery.
It is here that we realize that in our annoyance we didn’t get anything from the temple of greedy priests. Safire assures us it isn’t a problem, pulling a small token of Waukeen from her pocket. I am glad she had the skills to “liberate” something from a stall, since they certainly don’t deserve any gold!
---
Fern taps the carved ghost, but the stone's illumination is lost in the sunlight filtering through the leaves. Hazy figures appear with the touch. Mist or ghosts, they seem fitting in a graveyard.
---
Keros once again leads us through the labyrinth of the city streets, through the Dawn Market and out the Swamp Gate. I take note of the location, since this is the direction I will need to travel if I ever go to Port Ffirst. We reach the Hung Rabbit. Keros insists on staying outside and declines Fog’s offer of company. We collect a bottle of port, that being the closest to wine the establishment has to offer. Mittens chugs a glass of milk.
Back into the city we go, through twisting streets and past buildings of all shapes and sizes. We come to the Temple of Selûne, it is large and there are many people about, but no hawkers of wares that call themselves priests. There is an aura of peace here, a stark contrast to the area around Waukeen. Mittens got a symbol of Selûne from temple staff without much prompting, even as their lips tighten at the mention of Safire’s chosen deity, Umberlee.
It was a short walk to the Gilded Mirror. The building seemed to take inspiration (or perhaps it was the other way round?) from the Temple of Waukeen. We could see Avakeel in a booth as we approached the bar. Everything looked expensive and the atmosphere was oppressive in its opulence. Fog secured a bottle of wine and some glasses before our party joined the devil at his table and set out the items we had gathered.
Our tour had clearly been a game to him. The religious icons were tossed into a corner without regard. For the papers he opened a hole in the air and deposited them inside without looking at them. The bottle of wine just acquired was opened and a glass poured. Avakeel then took the jar of grave dirt and seemed to be planning on inhaling its contents (saying it was the closest to consuming soul coins he could get) when he decided that Fog's suggestion of baking the dirt into something edible was worth a try. That done, he asked for the questions he’d offered to answer in payment.
---
The crude chalk map shows how much of Daring Heights there is left to discover. A day-long tour turned into no more than an outline. So much is unknown: other settlements, other planes, and then there are portals…
---
I wanted to know about portals, he demonstrated the concept. I wanted to know how I ended up in Kantas. One moment I was falling asleep in the back of a merchant's wagon, the next I was waking in a warehouse in this city. Avakeel says that to answer that question he will need to read my mind. He says going through a portal changes a person, that he will be able to tell even if I can’t remember.
Letting a devil read your mind sounds like it would be an item on the list of “don’t do’s” the others have given me. Don’t make promises to a fey, don’t make contracts with a devil, don’t pick up cursed books, don’t let a stranger read your mind. But I hate not knowing, I hate a mystery with the ending torn from the bindings. I don’t think I have anything to hide, not yet. I agree.
His touch is light and feels strange on my scales. It doesn’t hurt, but I can’t see what he is seeing. He tells us that I was taken through the portal while asleep. That the merchant thought I was a person to be smuggled. Avakeel is gleeful. The merchant’s name is Weasel, and stole perfume from the devil’s house.
Any other questions I might have had have fled in the face of this new information. We eat supper with Avakeel (who doesn’t have a problem opening a tab in this establishment). Mittens gobbles plate after plate of food and the others drink wine with their meals. My frugality outweighs my dislike of the ambiance. It’s a free meal after all, and the food is good. I let the others talk, I have much to think about.
---
Fern picks up the ghost stone, tapping it to turn off the light before tucking it away. It was starting to get late, and there was half the city to traverse. With a last glance at yesterday's path, Fern wipes the marks away before returning slate and chalk to the bag.
---
As I walk north on Grave Road I continue my musings. I know how I ended up in this city now, but not why. Why are people being smuggled to Kantas? Are they here willingly? I’m a part of the mystery, and the only way to get answers will be to talk to Weasel.
But that won’t happen immediately. Tomorrow I have more work to do for Kora, and must keep an eye out for cursed books. As I pass through Portal Plaza I wonder if it might be possible to trade my work or teach my skills to someone in exchange for learning how to make more accurate maps. I’d be happy to learn any skill that I could add to my trade offerings. I quite like the idea of trading knowledge instead of gold in front of those money-grubbing priests of Waukeen!
* Firbolg, but Fern is focusing on size
DM: willemf
Adventurers (in order of appearance): Fog, Keros, Safire, Mittens