Vixie gives a little squeal as she feels something grip the base of her spine...
...which is now a little ways further down than it once was. She blinks, wide-eyed at Kasumi, the wheels turning in her head.
"W... wh...?" Her ears twitch atop her head, instead of on the sides, but her mothers will likely recognize it all the same as Vixie attempting to draw a conclusion.
Adriana will approach the Priest. She abruptly says to him..,
"We need to talk...I am thinking in private would be best."
Adriana than turns and head to a spot away from the crowds but still in sight of the crowds.
"Hey Mister Khala. Maybe you can help out too, with the heavier lifting and stuff that I'm not able to because I'm not a grown dragon yet?" Max offers helpfully to the much taller kineticist while looking around for a broom and a shovel to start sweeping and dusting in the shop. It doesn't take a genius to get the hint the dwarf dropped, and when there's a break he'll provide his body for measurements.
Khalaban blinked, having not considered such a thing. "I suppose I could at that..."
Kasumi's hand travels from your tail, up to your fox ears. "It appears you take after us more than we thought."
Sayuki smiles. "Do you suppose she'll figure it out now?"
--------------
Jocyn is sitting at the bar, his expression unlike those of the amused patrons. He looks quite pensive, staring into the bottom of his ale mug.
--------------
Father Prasst, as you learn, is a thin man of Taldan descent, his matted black hair flitting about in the wind. His priestly garb is a mix of earthy greens & soft blues, with the hems stained with bits of dirt and hay. His dark brown eyes narrow at you as you approach, and he runs a hand through his neatly-trimmed goatee.
He sighs in resignation. "Very well. But understand that my vows will preclude any unbecoming behaviour from me."
---------------
Ironhame looks up at the massive, porcine man and smirks. "Y'know, the little one's got a good idea. Olmira's been quite taken with your earth-shapin' skills. How well do you think you can shape ore, eh?"
"I'm not sure metal would work like that, but smithing uses molds, right? And those are usually made of earth?" Max offers helpfully and thoughtfully as he sweeps the floor with the sort of gusto found in workers that haven't been working for decades.
Ironhame shrugs. "Nay, not the ones I use. They be made of metal, same as the blades, pauldrons, ploughs & tankards I forge."
"Oh! Hmmm. Well, you could use someone big to help hammer, right?" Max offers helpfully then goes back to sweeping once more.
" You are aware of what happened at the crypt?" If he is not Adriana will give him a quick rundown..
"My thoughts is your town maybe infected by the Cult of the Living 'God'. In other words it may have been a inside job. I have a particular skill set that is very handy in rooting out secret cults. I would like to investigate your townsfolk. Have you seen anything suspicious? Or heard anything from others?
"You are aware of what happened at the crypt?"
Father Prasst's nose wrinkles. "Yes, Mayor Jarvis was quite distraught about what happened."
Vixie's ears flick at the attention, and she giggles a little; she does note that her ears feel more sensitive now.
And when she reaches up to feel them for herself, she notes that they feel fuzzier, too. Almost like...
"A-am I a Catfolk?" There's a slight flicker in her eyes-- would Shyla appreciate having a fellow Catfolk as a wife?
Bertrand approaches his mentor and sits at the stool next to him. "Something wrong, Jocyn? You seem fascinated with your drink... and I know the ale here isn't that good."
Kasumi shakes her head. "No, kitling, you are not."
Her ears shift along the sides of her head, crawling up to the top of her skull and shifting into a pair of furry fox ears. "You might be more like us than you think."
-----------------
Jocyn sighs. "Aye, you've the right of the ale, at least."
"...your experiences in the tomb brought up memories that I thought were buried. Or, rather, that mask you mentioned."
-----------------
"My thought is your town may be infected by the Cult of the Living 'God'. In other words it may have been a inside job. I have a particular skill set that is very handy in rooting out secret cults. I would like to investigate your townsfolk. Have you seen anything suspicious? Or heard anything from others?"
Father Prasst's eyes narrow at you and he scoffs. "What?! Preposterous!"
"You cannot seriously be asking me to allow you to intrude upon the privacy of my flock's homes. They have recently learned that the gravesite of this town's founder has been desecrated, and people they knew and loved are dead because of it! Why, I would think that they deserve some time to mourn in peace!"
Vixie stares for a moment. Then, another. The wheels are turning. Her newly-shaped ears flicker and twitch, and then recognition hits her face rather suddenly.
"W-we're kitsunes!?!?" she gasps, a look of joy taking over. All of her moms' best stories were always about kitsunes.
Actually, all of their stories were about kitsunes.
Huh.
"I can move the coal with a thought," Khalaban added slowly. "But Metal is too...different to rock and stone for me to do much with, at least once it's been forged. I could probably manipulate it while it's still ore, but after a while it wouldn't work, as the earth is melted away. But main strength?" The bulky Kineticist nodded. "I am...reasonably strong, if not skilled."
Bertrand lifts an eyebrow. "Oh? Do tell."
"Aye, I reckon you'll be a great help 'round the forge." Ironhame turns back to the forge. "Now, I've got a proper breastplate to forge... where'd I put my measures...?"
-----------------
Sayuki & Kasumi nod in unison, their forms shifting as a coat of downy fox fur emerges from their skin. Their vulpine features come to the fore, and soon your mothers are around you, reverted to their true forms.
"We are, kitling." Kasumi scratches your fox-ear. "We were wondering how long it would take for you to learn."
-----------------
Jocyn grimaces. "I remember... I remember encountering men wearing those masks during a journey I undertook outside Nirmanthas."
"They were worshipers of the Living God, they claimed. And they claimed that the caravan master I was riding with was afflicted by a curse that robbed him of his good fortune." The bard snorts. "Admittedly, we were having a few mishaps here and there--a wagon axle breaking, oxen being eaten by predators in the night, caravan guards deserting and taking their owed payment with them. The masked men told Kieran--the caravan master--that they had the power to end the curse of misfortune dogging his wagon train."
"I saw through them immediately, and insisted that he not give them a copper. Of course, Kieran didn't listen to me. The man was nothing if not a superstitious, anxiety-riddled mess. He nearly bankrupted himself. Gave them almost all his gold. They threw some 'magic' about--" Jocyn glares at his mug and takes a long pull of the ale within. "--and convinced him that the curse had been lifted."
"They accompanied us to the next town, and when we got there I waited until nightfall to steal the gold back. They caught me." He looks at his injured leg. "And that's how I got the limp."
Vixie stares, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed more literally than ever before, as her mothers show her their kitsune forms for the first time.
"...C-can I do th-that?" she asks, bouncing a little on her heels.
Bertrand frowns sympathetically. "That's dreadful. Hopefully you at least got a few good wallops in against those scoundrels. I take it you didn't see them again after that?"
Sayuki shrugs. "To be honest, we didn't know you carried kitsune blood in you. For all we know, you could."
--------------
"I gave 'em a few good licks, yes. But there were five of them and only one of me." Jocyn sighs. "I had to take a different caravan to get back home--I never saw any of them again."
"They're crafty, conniving, greedy and decidedly unpleasant to speak to. They're also bloody fanatics--or at least are good at seeming as such."
"I appreciate you sharing this with me, Jocyn. This isn't just about solving a mystery anymore. It's personal. My friends and I are going to find this cult." Bertrand pauses and sips his wine, perhaps for dramatic effect. "And it will be all the more satisfying when we take them down."
Vixie ponders for a moment. "H-how do you do it?" she asks, ears a-twitch once more.
Khalaban stripped his coat and top off, to avoid damaging them, and pulled on any spare aprons and gloves before he moved to assist the Dwarf in his forging.
"You might have some...false people among your flock. They might have caused that desecration and those murders. They will continue to cause misery and death. I am being nice and offering my help. If you don't want it...I am fine with it. I really don't care that much."
With that she turns away and heads back to the crowds.
Three days pass as affairs in Kassen settle down in the wake of the Festival of the Everflame. The forge of Braggar Ironhame is the busiest it's been in years, with his two new helpers doing much to assist him in his work. The sight of a shirtless Khalaban & leather-dressed Maxilla working alongside the apron-clad, muscle-bound dwarf blacksmith is an impressive one, to say the least; three paragons of manliness, busily hauling, hammering and tempering steel into a protective shell for their kobold helper.
News spreads around town of Vixie suddenly growing fox ears & a tail--some speculate it was because of something that happened in the tomb, others wonder if Holgast had something to do with it.
Bertrand & Adriana's inquiries don't turn up much more than what they already know. The people of Kassen, for the most part, have been fortunate enough to have had no contact with cultists of the Living God--and they very much prefer to keep it that way.
---------------
Wealday, 10th of Neth, 4700 AR
On the fourth day... a familiar, feline-blooded face arrives in Kassen.
Your wanderings have brought you back to the familiar streets of the small town of Kassen. Part of you wishes that your return was under better circumstances--that it was merely because you missed Vixie so much. That it was the hospitality of the people of Kassen that brought you back.
But the iron mask in your pack indicates otherwise. You had an encounter with a madman that proclaimed himself a servant of the Living God--a being known only as 'Razmir'. You were able to pry some information from him before dealing with him in your own fashion--that his master is planning some great design, one that hinges upon an amulet retrieved from a tomb far to the south of Kassen.
If you're going to investigate this matter further, you'll need her help. Or, at least, her wonderful company.
As you get up for breakfast today, you see Kasumi sitting at the kitchen table. She beckons you forward.
"Kitling, Sayuki and I have been talking these past few days..." She crosses her legs in her chair.
"...how is your armour fitting?"
Max was resistant to the idea of wearing leather armor at first, for concerns about heat near the forge.
The determination was made rapidly, however, after getting accidentally splashed with some molten ore -- the dwarf was more than able to help clear the wounds and the little dragon was insistent that they not be healed so he'd always have an object lesson of when he was being a bit stupid.
That, and the fact that the breastplate would require a leather mounting and backing made the idea much more palatable.
Vixie stands in front of her mother, new ears atwitch. Her clothing has been modified for her tail, although she still has some trouble fitting it through breeches.
”I-I... it fits p-pretty well,” she says, ”I-I mostly only g-got hit in the face, a-and Miss Adriana h-healed me right up w-whenever that happened.”. She doesn’t want her to worry, after all.
Kasumi touches your face by reflex when you mention getting hit there. "Oh."
"Well, I think we have a solution for that..." She gets up and starts making fixings for breakfast. "...but, let's have something to eat first, yes?"
Vixie leans in to Kasumi's gentle touch, tail giving a swish behind her. The halfling-- kitsune?-- well, her nickname of "Kitling" works on many more levels now, anyway-- happily follows her mother in setting up, setting out plates and grabbing one of her favorite pastries from the "unsold" basket from the previous day.
She's curious about the "solution," of course, but isn't one to rush things.
It's a simple breakfast the two of you make--pancakes with slices of apple and a side of scrambled eggs.
Once you've eaten, Kasumi leads you upstairs, to the bedroom she shares with Sayuki. "We had this suit of armour for a while, now. We got it as a gift from a friend when he learned we had adopted you."
Opening the door reveals Sayuki meticulously laying out pieces of a finely-polished & wrought suit of brown iron armour--it appears to be made of a blend of plate & lamellar components. It's all in about your size. It comes with a many-tiered kabuto and matching metal mask in the shape of a fox's face.
"It took you a while to grow into it, and we had a long talk about your future." Kasumi turns to you and kneels down to look you in the eyes. "But if you're insistent on helping bring those cultists to justice, we felt that you would need the best armour possible for the job."
"This o-yoroi is yours."
Vixie looks about like she did when she found out her mothers were kitsunes-- it's been a very good few days for her, overall.
"M... mine??" she asks. Her tail beats about the legs of the kitsunes' end table in excitement. "M-may I try it on, M-Mamas?" she asks, looking from one to the other and back to the armor again.
Sayuki looks up from her work. "Please do. I'll give you a hand in putting it on."
Vixie gives a delighted squeal, happily accepting her mothers' help as she puts on the suit.
Stretching tired muscles, Khalaban grunted as various joints popped in protest at the abuse he'd put them through. He was strong, tough and trained to fight. But the constant physical labour and toil of a forge were a very different beast to what he usually did. Mostly he just hit things, got hit back, and rested between.
Still, it was a pleasant feeling, to be on the edges of creation. Specializing in destruction didn't leave too much room for the making of things, and Khalaban enjoyed the idea of creating the protection that would hopefully save his life and Maxilla's as well.
The dwarven blacksmith hoists up the kobold-sized breastplate, beaming with pride. "And it's finished at last!"
He looks over at Maxilla. "Care to try it on?"
------------------
The o-yoroi takes some effort to get into, but you find it fits you well. There's a little hole in the small of the back that allows your tail to fit.
------------------
During the days following your investigation, you notice that Talia's been talking about you to a few of her friends. Soon, she comes to you with a pair of friends--a red-haired young man with ruddy skin and stubble, and a young woman of mixed Taldan & Garundi descent, dressed quite conservatively with her brown hair in braids.
"Adriana? Amarra & Galen have been asking a few questions about your faith..." Talia blushes a bit as she introduces them to you.
Adriana gives them a friendly smile.."I will be happy to talk to your two friends about my faith."
Max beams as he sees the breastplate -- A crafted piece of armor! Sized for THEM! -- and fights the urge to run over and grab it out of the dwarf's hands greedily. I've never seen such well-crafted armor made in my size before!
Instead, he gives an honest smile of thanks to the smith and looks for the straps and joins to add the breastplate to the leather foundation he's been wearing while the breastplate has been crafted.
"I want to try it on but I've never worn armor like this before and I'm probably going to need a hand at first, please?" he finally offers.
"Thank you and Khala for making it! Just because it's done doesn't mean I'm going to go do other things -- I'm here to help with Khala's armor and around the shop!"
Braggar helps Maxilla put the breastplate on.
"Now, Khalaban? Yer full-plate's gonna take a mite longer than normal--you lot'll be alright with another few days of work?"
-------------
The trio gather around you. "So, um... what does your faith do?" Amarra asks. "My folks don't tell me nothing about her."
Galen twiddles his fingers with some trepidation.
-------------
You notice there seems to be a little crowd congregating around Adriana.
As the armor is put on piece-by-piece, Vixie feels two things.
First, she feels her muscles straining. The armor is heavy. Although it's well-balanced through her body, the lacquered wood, steel, and leather components add up, and her muscles tense just to keep herself from crumpling.
However, as Sayuki affixes the kitsune ho-ate over her face, she walks (or stomps, really) over to the mirror, looking herself over.
She looks just like the noble kitsune hero of her favorite bedtime story. Well, like half of one, anyway. Her eyes crinkle in delight; doubtless under the mask she's beaming.
"Pretty heavy, isn't it?" Sayuki asks. "But it fits you just fine."
"Just like Kiyoko the Samurai." Kasumi kneels behind you and hugs you.
Bertrand approaches the group near Adriana. "Hello there! Friends of yours?"
The kitling swells with pride at hearing the comparison voiced, and bounces a little on her heels. She turns to both of her mothers and bows at the waist, grinning up at them.
"Th-thank you so m-much!" she squeals. She feels... impenetrable.
She figures she'll wear it around for a while to get used to the weight.
"Mister Ironhame? I want to be a blacksmith like you, I've been learning a lot but as you know I'm working here because I don't have a lot of money. I can trade in the sickle that was given to me during the trip to the tomb for a better hammer, if you want? You could probably re-sell it for a lot of money, a lot more than a really good blacksmith's hammer would run?" Max offers hopefully, indicating their well-crafted farming implement (possibly even crafted by Ironhame!) with a bit of regret but determination.
Like the breastplate, it too was crafted really nicely for a tiny dragon, and to give it up is a bit heartbreaking, but if anything they've learned working at the forge is that talent is important, but having the best tools is ALSO important.
Khalaban nodded as Max got dressed in the new armour. "An excellent piece, master Blacksmith. It looks good on you Maxilla."
Looking to the blacksmith, Khalaban scratched his chin for a moment. "I am...not sure. I presume that we have the time before we start the next part of our journey, but I am not completely certain of that."
"Thank you, Khala!" Max poses 'heroically' which would be almost comical for their size and inherent koboldness yet somehow they do a reasonable job of it.
"We can do it. We have to. You were getting hit all the time and it was very hard to keep you healed up so you didn't go back to the earth and that'd be kind of sad. Besides, who would carry all our stuff?" they inquire with a toothy grin. "Seriously, this is very important and I am staying to help make sure it happens!"
Khalaban nodded with a bearded grin, touched by Maxilla's gesture. "I would not wish it any other way. It'll be something of a task, but between we three it should be doable before we leave."
"Hello Bertrand, I was going to explain Calistria to me friends here. If you are curious you are more than welcome to pull up a chair." She considers her word.,."I think the best way to say this is that the faith values the individual over society. Don't tie yourself down to anything to maintain your freedon...well nothing that you don't choose. And most importantly be who you are and don't give a damn what others or society thinks."