Snake Eyes [Tailing & Scouting] (Igrainne)

Day 1

Igrainne gently adjusted the foliage in front of her, anxious they were not dense enough to hide her. Sitting on the damp soil, in the itchy shrubbery by The Flourished Hook, she looked up at the decorated, well-lit rooms with envy. She daydreamed about being in a hot bath and lying on a large, soft, goose feather mattress afterwards, until she saw a feminine figure stop at the window she was watching, and remembered why she was here.

Ixcel, the Yuan-ti Pureblood, looked out of the window of her room with a curious expression. Igrainne ducked her head lower. They had travelled back together to Port Ffirst after leaving Mystigon with Will in the Angelbark Woods, but bid each other farewell when Igrainne had to return to her accomodations in Old Town and Ixcel had to go to the wealthier district. Or so Ixcel thought. The half-drow had sneaked behind a corner, changed her cloak, tucked her distinctive white hair into the hood, and tailed her all the way to The Flourished Hook. And so there she was, cowering in the bushes, recounting all she knew about the strange woman.

She’s a new arrival in Kantas but wouldn’t tell anyone where she came from. She’s a diviner, a mage, but also a woman of faith, as she said—or rather, suggested—to Milo Brightmane. She seems to have been persecuted in her religion by her own people in some way, and this religion has something to do with why she came all the way to Kantas. Oh, and she has a pet coral snake coiled around her body at all times. That’s something worth remembering...and watching out for.

After what felt like years but was likely only ten seconds, Ixcel turned around and disappeared into the room. Igrainne’s muscles untensed and she eased into a more comfortable position.

Pious, persecuted Ixcel appeared just days after she discovered the insidious Snake Stones near New Hillborrow and the existence of a book that spoke of an ancient yuan-ti tribe in Kantas, how they had secret entrances to their hidden temples. This can’t be a coincidence, the ranger thought. She’s here for something that was involved with the kidnapping of the birdfolk and I’m going to find out what.

The first step towards uncovering the mystery, Igrainne had reasoned, was to tail her and find out what she’s up to. Stealthily. She was certain she could pull it off. After all, she is a hunter, a seasoned tracker, and she’s never lost a prey...


Day 2

She lost her in the crowd.

Igrainne pushed away a couple of drunken stragglers and looked around desperately. No trace of the yuan-ti, and no inkling as to where she would’ve gone. Ssussan.*

If Ixcel was still in the area, then she risked exposing herself by staying out in the open like this. So she turned around and briskly walked back to the direction of The Flourished Hook. She could use this sliver of time before Ixcel inevitably returned to talk to her informant on the inside.

She circled away from the entrance to the high-end inn and towards the back of the building, where she found a half-rotted wooden door. She rapped on it twice, paused, and knocked another three times. A moment later, it swung open to reveal a pudgy, freckle-faced human boy of twelve holding a chamber pot. Igrainne wrinkled her nose at the stench.

“Well?” she said.

“I went into her room this morning,” the boy began breathily. “It’s empty. Completely. Empty. She doesn’t have anything except for a small bag. But I didn’t see what’s inside.”

“Is that unusual? She did just arrive some days ago.”

“Have you seen the folks who stay here?” he retorted. “All right, we’ve had ‘light travellers’ before, but it’s like she came with nothing but the clothes on her back! That’s not the sort of clientele we get around here.” He paused. “Did I use the word right?”

“Yes,” she mumbled, already deep in thought. Perhaps Ixcel wasn’t planning to stay for long? Or, if she’d sailed here, it’s possible that her luggage was lost somehow. And yet, these reasonable, logical explanations didn’t seem convincing to the half-drow. There was something about Ixcel that made it easy to picture her sitting perfectly still in a dark, empty room for hours, her unblinking, slit-pupiled gaze locked onto the window as she waited for the sun to rise.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the appearance an upturned palm under her nose. The boy stared at her in forceful anticipation. Igrainne sighed, reached for a small pouch on her belt...and felt nothing. She patted her hip several times in disbelief, her eyes widening as realisation dawned on her.

Ssussan!


Day 3

After placating the human boy, who threw an epic fit and threatened to rat her out, with a fatter pouch of 50 gold pieces the next morning (“What are you even going to do with all that money?” she asked, and he gave her a wicked smile and a wink), Igrainne went back to tailing her mark.

Several hours later, she was ready to give up. Ixcel was taking her around the lively city of Port Ffirst whilst doing absolutely nothing. She passed by countless interesting shops and taverns—which Igrainne herself was tempted to dip into for a bit—with little more than a cursory glance and continued on with her silent tour of the city. Silent, except that she would occasionally mutter into her shirt, and Igrainne would spot the slightest of movements in her sleeve.

The young ranger was also starting to feel a small disgust at herself building in the pit of her stomach. She’s obsessively following this woman around, and for what? Some mad, half-baked theories?

They were now walking by the quieter part of the docks, Ixcel’s black hair flying in the breeze. She found an unused bollard and sat on it, facing towards the sea. Igrainne groaned internally. She leaned against a damp wooden post, taking out her journal to resume doodling on it. Her mind soon wandered to imagining what would happen if the yuan-ti were to discover her. She had seen her fight in Mystigon’s house and in the Angelbark Woods, and she was good. Held her own against the Infernal Knight despite bearing the brunt of his attacks. A very powerful mage, no doubt. Igrainne then remembered her cold, reptilian stare and arrived at the answer: she’d be dead.

She looked up. Ixcel was still there, sitting gracefully on the dock, watching ships glide into the bay and seagulls soar above the horizon, listening to the gentle crashing of waves and the distant ringing of bells. It was a rather serene sight.


Day 4

Finally, something interesting.

On the last day of tailing, Igrainne found the mysterious mage taking a sudden interest in maps, as she watched her enter a few different mapmakers’ shop.

It was nearing evening, and she worked up the courage to go into the last one Ixcel walked out of. It looked positively ancient—in spite of the fact that Port Ffirst was founded merely three years ago—and smelled of old paper and wine. A withered halfling man stood behind a counter, eyes glued onto a large brown sheet spread on its surface and barely noticing Igrainne. She stood there without a word, looking at the shelves of rolled-up maps with vague fascination, until the man rasped, “Yes, can I help you, dear?”

The elven girl threw a glance over her shoulder at the door, then walked over to the counter. Locking eyes with him, she said in a low voice, “The woman who went into this shop not long ago. Dark skin, dark hair, yellow eyes. Perhaps you saw her snake. Remember her?”

The mapmaker gawked curiously and nodded.

“Tell me what she bought and what she asked of you.”

"Why? Who- who wants to know?" The old man was stuttering slightly, but not out of fear.

She placed a pouch on the counter. It made a soft clinking sound when it touched the hardwood. “For your trouble.”

He stared at it and back at her, then curled his bony fingers around it. “Well, she- she was looking for maps of Kantas. I do believe she is a newcomer to this continent. A map is a very wise purchase on your first visit to a new place, if I do say so mys-myself.”

Maps of Kantas? Is she looking for something? The Snake Stones?

“Anything else?”

“No, that’s a-all she was here for, dear.”

She retraced her steps and did the same with the previous two shops. All of them said the same thing. Igrainne's mind was racing. What’s her plan, exactly? Search all over Kantas for the stones? Including or excluding the parts that have not been mapped? She’s a diviner, maybe she can throw some chicken bones on the map and they’ll point out the location to her? Is that how it works?

She could almost still see Ixcel in the distance, strolling down the street back to The Flourished Hook. Her instincts told her to follow her mark again, take her spot in the prickly bushes under the window, and wait for a new day. Or even to barge into the room and question her directly. But she knew she had to be back in Daring Heights by the next day for business in Vorsthold.

With a heavy sigh, Igrainne Blackriver turned and walked in the opposite direction.

That night, she set up camp by the road stretching between Daring and Port Ffirst. As she slept, she dreamt that she was a black spider with the glyph of House Vandree marked white on her abdomen. Whilst burrowing in the ground, she had found a small tunnel that led into the Underdark, and she crawled and crawled and crawled down into an endless darkness, far away from the snakes that slithered on the surface.

*A drow curse word meaning "light".