Dareon follows Elrawien into the tent, to keep an eye on her as much as anything. He wasn't sure that he trusted her not to muss things up.
He's a bit confused about why she's asking for a prophecy, however, and interrupts to get to the real issue at hand. "Zograthy, we aren't actually here for a fortune. We're here for information. Do you think you have any for us?"
Elwarien glares at the cavalier.
|
The dwarfs eyebrows furrow inward as Tanjvats shares his revelation with him. He nods to the man with obvious discontent. He'll slowly pull his Dwarven Waraxe from it's sling and set it upon the ground nonchalantly as if to lean on it due to discomfort from standing there. He'll wince slightly as Dareon steps into the conversation, but sigh slightly as his statement was in no way hostile. 'This shouldn't end up badly so long as we keep him calm' he thinks to himself.
No more information can be gained that you haven't already heard. The place is just an abandoned building in Dockway. Actually locating the building reveals that a faded painting of a fat pelican still graces the facade of the empty building, and the building’s back features a half-collapsed wooden deck that hangs over the high-tide mark. A preliminary investigation of the building reveals nothing out of the ordinary.
When Elrawein lays the coin on the table Zograthy nods slowly, and scoops them up. "Milady, for that amount I can turn the cards for you, and then give you a reading of the crystal. Please take a seat so that we may begin." He indicates the chair opposite him. When both Tanjvats and Dareon enter , he looks suspiciously between the two of them, before explaining "Only one customer at a time, you'll have to wait your tu..." until he is cut off by Dareon's request. Zograthy leans back in his rickety chair, steepling his fingers, and says, “Aaaah... Secrets! Perhaps my greatest trade!” He then leans forward on the table, looking from under his brow, "Those go for no less than fifty gold, or forty-eight if the lady is with you and doesn't really want her fortune read."
"She's with us all right...but before we give you anything, I need to know that you have what we're looking for...We're looking for a woman named Natalya Vancasterkin. Ever heard of her?"
Zograthy the Amazing, I do believe that I was here first and as a paying customer would like my fortune told. That would only be proper don't you think, Dareon?
He gives Dareon a level stare, holding his hand out in expectation, "Who or what I may know is where payment comes into play. I don't talk for free."
He then begins to shuffle the old harrow deck with a great deal of experience. All the while he watches the two men for their response. The money they may give for information worth much more to him than the few coins he gets for handing out fortunes.
As Zograthy deftly flicks the cards in his hands back and forth, shuffling, twisting, and flipping them in all manner of tricks he clarifies "Now, before the Harrow can divine your future, you must state aloud what it is you truly seek to ask of the powers that be. Direct your request into the Harrow in the form of a single question." He holds the, once again stacked, deck of cards forward toward Elrawein.
Faedrin watches from just beyond the folds of the tent, finding the air within heavy and uncomfortable. He smirks as he catches his sister's glare and offers her a slight shrug from his position just outside the tent. He glances to the dwarf standing beside him, offers him an awkward nod, then shifts his attention back to the events unfolding within the tent.
With a wink at Dareon and a smile on her face, the elf maid says, speaking into the Harrow deck,
Oh powerful Harrow Deck, and all amazing Zograthy, will the fondest desires that and my brother have be met ?
Dareon crosses his arms at the brazen fortune-teller. "How about no. I am not about to waste my money on potentially no information. You tell me you have what we are looking for or not."
Tanjvats eyes narrowed and he scrutinized Zograthy's face very closely. However, he wasn't able to see if the man was lying.
A surge of frustration ran through his whole body and he shivered slightly from it. He was just able to silence an angry, barked curse.
Abadar's shiny white pisspot! Don't you try to trick us!
Tanjvats took a deep breath and tried to regain his inner composure.
Zograthy ignores Dareon's bluster as he calmly pulls a chunk of cards from the deck, and begins to turn each one over. "As you are not alone in your efforts, those with you affect the outcome of your endeavors. As such, they play a part in the manner of your success. For your role, Milady" he flips the first card, that of a shadowy figure bearing a knife with green substance dripping from blade, "The Snakebite. In your efforts, you represent the ability to turn friends against one another, and poison the minds of the virtuous." He smiles a thin look of approval at her outcome.
Flipping the next card, he looks to Faedrin, as the only other elf and almost identical in features he is obviously the brother she refers to. The card bears the image of a well-dressed anthropomorphic crocodile sitting on the back of a slave. "Your brother is represented by The Rakshasa, he is a powerful force both physically and mentally, imposing his will on others." He looks like he's beginning to have a begrudging respect for these two siblings.
He directs his eyes to Dareon, staring at him unflinchingly as he lays the next card down "This man, with all the bark and pent up aggression of a small dog, represents The Vision of your objective." He scoffs softly even as he says it. "His is the madness of arcane knowledge, and of things not meant for the minds of man. His knowledge could be insanity, or genius, but the proximity they bear to one another is where the danger lies." the card indicates this with a blue hand from the heavens painfully jolting the brain of an artisan, giving him an unrequested muse.
"The quiet orcish fellow you brought with you, unusual for one of his kind, is marked as The Foreign Trader." the overturned card is dominated by the figure of a man in strange dress, and bundled down with all manner of accessories. A monkey hunches frightened on his shoulder. "His is the role of information broker and tenuous pacts. Agreements where both sides may not understand what they agreed to until it is too late to back down."
He nods to indicate the dwarf taking up watch at the entrance, before flipping a card seemingly unrelated to the person he just appointed it to. The card shows an aged wizard poring over what could only be an ancient tome of lore "Your dwarven friend is The Hidden Truth. He represents the ability to see beyond the obvious, and find what is underneath the surface. He does not take everything at face value and as such should be afforded the same treatment."
Swiping the cards deftly back into his deck, he shuffles them rapidly once more, before he begins the fortune. He begins to place the cards face down on the table. He lays out three rows of three cards, explaining as he would a mantra often recited during most Harrowings “There are ways of this world, in which all beings walk, the journey of the soul. Those with righteousness, walk the path of good, from birth to death.” He lays the top three cards. “Other souls worry themselves with their own lives, surviving, meddling neither in the affairs of the holy nor the profane.” He lays out the second row just below the first. “Then there are the souls of darkness, whose paths lie in dominating those they consider lesser, either by force of will or weapon.” He lays down the third row across the bottom. After reciting the mantra, he glances across the assembled group, with a look like he is gauging everyone’s understanding of what he just explained. He then begins to flip over the cards, and start his reading.
I like our archetypes brother Elrawein states with a wide smile.
The first card he turns over is the upper right corner; the image is that of a man dangling upside down over a boiling vat of wax “The Waxworks. Here we see the good of what has come before. In its misaligned position this card speaks of abundance of energy, the kind that can only be held by reckless children running unrestrained in play.” Instead of turning over the second card in the row, he turns over the first card of the second row. The one right beneath the first card he flipped. The picture on the card is that of a pair of men, facing one another, and identical in appearance other than bearing opposite colors. Also, one of them has a knife behind its back. When the card shows up Zograthy purses his lips in frustration. “The Twins. Your past is rife with indecision and conflict in interests. There is a duality of purpose and direction.” he gazes at the twins that stand within his own tent, a look of relief eases the earlier frustration. He moves down to the bottom card in the first column, Its face bearing the image of a prisoner's shackles being shattered under the sunlight of a wide open expanse. "The Big Sky, you were once under the thumb of a master, and have escaped. But, with this card here, you have given up one set of shackles for another and are once again a prisoner of sorts."
He waits a little for the reading thus far to sink in, before shifting back up to the top row, to flip the second card. The picture is one of a cloaked man bearing a keyring composed of a hand with keys for fingers, “The Locksmith. This is the positive state of your present affairs, you have found a key to escape your new shackles.” Turning the second card in the column, the one in the exact middle of the spread, reveals the card that had initially been flipped for Elrawien, ”The Snakebite. I beleive you are familiar with this one. This is your right now, you are tied to the death of your own freedom.” He moves to the bottom card of the middle column, and turns it over to display a bare-chested woman with the bottom half of a snake, a dead bouquet of flowers in her hand "The Liar, exposes your obsession, and the danger of single-minded focus on something that is not in your best interests." pausing breifly enough to make his point before moving on to the last column of cards.
He turns over the top card, a giant cheerfully juggling a series of large objects as it strides across the landscape. "Ah, but things are looking up. The Juggler shows us that as long as all parts are kept within rhythm, everything will flow smoothly." He moves to the next card down, turning over the image of an unusual lizard-like chicken with menacing red eyes "But The Peacock warns that it can only come with a sudden shift in personal behavior. Knowing that change without comes from change within." Finalizing by flipping the last card, he shows the amusing picture of a costumed bear on a unicycle. "The Bear warns though, that it cannot be done by force, and cautions that you not think you ever have it under complete control." With that he sits back, displaying the cards for a moment to let them be taken in together before he sweeps them up to shuffle them back into his deck. "Yes, I know a Natalya Vancaskerkin. What do you need of her?"
With a grin and sparkle in her eyes, handing over the 2 gp, Thank you Zograthy and the Harrow Deck, for this reading. You have given me much to consider .
Throughout the entire reading, Dareon had been growing more and more uncomfortable, more and more impatient, and more and more annoyed. They had come here on a job, after all. Looking for a missing girl amongst gang violence, and what was the first thing that silly elven woman did? Pay to get her fortune told. Dareon had never seen something so ridiculous in his life.
"Harrow readings. Falsehoods and swindling couched in cute phrases that apply to everybody. I've heard enough, and I must ask you again...do you have the information that we're looking for?"
Tanjvats always felt nervous during Harrowings. They made him fidget and sweat. The Foreign Trader seemed an apt card for him...he certainly felt foreign around his more assured companions.
He wiped some of the sweat from his face and responded directly to Zograthy's question, .
"We need to speak with Natalya Vancaskerkin. Therefore, we need from you her whereabouts."
Faedrin steps forward and places a placating hand on Dareon's shoulder, "Ah, forgive my colleague here, Most Amazing Zograthy. It seems in his zeal he handles words not unlike our dwarven compatriot handles tables." He grins, then nods in affirmation toward Tanjvats, "But wise Tanj has the right of it. We suspect Natalya may have run into some danger and have been tasked with finding her and helping her, if at all possible."
Yes, most wise and powerful and amazing one. As my brother states we have been tasked with finding the girl, and only one with your knowledge and gift of discernment should be able to help us in this, our task
Diplomacy
Zograthy looks the team over, noting that they don't necessarily appear to be meaning the young woman any harm, "Well, look, I still gotta make a living. I can sell you what I know for only fifteen gold. Is that enough to remove the burr from your britches?" he directs the last at Dareon.
"I should hope we could scrape together such coin!" He produces three gold coins from a pouch within an inner vest pocket then looks expectantly to the remaining four members present with a bright and satisfied smile.
The elf maid takes stock of the dwarf's generosity and hugging him around the shoulders says, Master Dwarf, you are so generous to help us out in this endeavor, truly you are a team player. give his shoulders a squeeze and slight massage.
Mighty and powerful Zograthy, methinks that the burr goes well with the piece of coal that Dareon has near that area.
Dareon keeps enough sense not to shoot a glare at either Zograthy or Elrawien as they tease him - one is a business contact and the other is a teammate, and they mean no malice, he thinks. He is, however, a bit disappointed that he is beaten to the generocity-punch by Gaileyon. He was going to do that!
Ignoring Elrawien's words for the first time, he merely addresses Zograthy again. "We have met your price. Kindly meet ours. Where can we find this woman?"
Zograthy huffs at Dareon's persistance before he begins, " Now I don't know where she is exactly, all I can do is confirm that she hasn’t been heard from among the Sczarni either. Actually, many folk along the waterfront, both here in Beacon’s Point and over in Dockway and Underbridge, have been disappearing of late—a few each week, in fact, with many simply vanishing out of their very beds at night." He offers a knowing look.
"I suspect that if Natalya has suddenly gone missing, then she is among those who have disappeared in this manner." he bitterly adds under his breath, "As long as only poor Varisians and other destitute folk are being targeted, the chances of the city doing anything about the disappearances is nil."
He clarifies his field of expertise, "I do know for a fact that it’s not a Sczarni plot—indeed, they even seem quite interested in solving the vanishings themselves, but aren't exactly seeking aid in that effort." he makes certain to get that last point across before some meddling kids get themselves all worked up over Sczarni business.
"If anything, it’s harder to contact the actual Sczarni leaders these days than it normally would be. The leading theory on the street is that the vanished folk are the victims of slavers who then secretly sell them offshore at night to Nidalese ships. I would look there for her, but just to be clear, I don’t put much stock in such rumors."
|
Complacently sitting idle, Oz does nothing more than watch the structure infront of him rather closely for quite a while after finding a nice shady nook to go unnoticed.
He considers how things are going with Zograthy, or whatever his name is. Shady people in this town always were a bit... well, shady. Then again, he wondered if he'd even had the right place. For all he knew he'd be sitting here for a while before someone thought he, himself, had gone missing.
Trivial thoughts aside, he didn't know what to make of the group. So long as they didn't get in the way of his own specialties, however, he wouldn't get in the way of theirs.
Mighty and powerful Zograthy,, forgive my young associate for his impudence and lack of respect for his elders and your gifts. I shall be sure to disengage both the burr and the piece of coal at my first opportune time
Looking at Dareon and with a warm smile, says to him
Dareon, perhaps it is best that you allow those with tact to handle these delicate matters. I know you only want to protect me but grandfather here means us now harm and there is no danger for you to defend me from. Perhaps you might want to study your Elven while we wait?
Dareon mumbles under his breath without responding to Elrawien for a moment. "'Work on your Elven', she says. 'those with TACT', she says."
Grumbling, he paces. Then again, perhaps she didn't mean offense. Despite her chastising him for his lack of tact, perhaps she just didn't realize that her words could be considered offensive. Hmm. Still, despite her age, the elven woman seemed painfully naive. Sometimes, you couldn't just couch your words in kindness and flattery and expect things to go your way. Sometimes, you need to demand that you be put first.
"Elrawien, perhaps it is not my place to be the speaker for our group, but neither is it prudent to let people swindle us or get in the way of our mission. Our goals will not be compromised because we tried to be NICE. Do you understand?"
Dareon, are you not familiar with the adage of a cateplopas in a porcelain dish store? Many things get broken and people get turned to stone. You are behaving in that manner. Now, why don't you go win me a carnival prize with your might of arm?
Faedrin's eyes widen briefly in surprise as the dwarf produces all fifteen coins. Shrugging, he places his three back in his pouch. Generous? Or haughty? Hmmm. Honestly, the lout seems too direct and linear in his thinking for this be orchestrated. I think the lump might really just be generous!
His sister and Dareon striking up yet another spat draws him from his contemplations though. Stepping forward, he hugs his sister and kisses her on the forehead, "You did well, little wasp." Smiling, he turns to Zograthy, "And you, good sir, thank both for the enlightening reading and for your information. I suspected that you too would be invested in Natalya's safe return, and I am glad to see that this is true. Even if she were not your friend though, the proper connections can be quite lucrative and are worth a little risk to preserve, wouldn't you say?" He nods knowingly and glances at the Harrow spread, presuming the man quick witted enough to wend his way through Faedrin's double-speak and pick up on his unspoken offer.
---
Turning from Zograthy, Faedrin throws one arm over Dareon's shoulder and around the back of the man's neck, then leads him from the tent. "Dearest Dareon, let me tell you a few things about my disarmingly lovely twin..."
Zograthy only watches the bickering between the two with a bemused indifference, nodding a thanks to Elrawien's respectful tone toward him. At Faedrin's suggestion, he merely adds "Connections are only as lucrative as their success. If they cannot survive the streets, they are not a boon to have in one's pocket, and risk becoming a bane. Mayhaps, we can speak of lucrative prospects another time, after I have weighed the risks."
As the group turns to leave his tent, he sets his hand on the table, palm up. He seems to be focused on clearing a very dry throat at the same time.
Before steering Dareon out of the tent, Faedrin pauses and turns back to Zograthy, "You've been helpful. If you learn anything new of Natalya's circumstances that might aid in her safe return, do call on us at Heidmarch Manor." The elf then plinks the 3 coins he'd previously produced down into Zograthy's palm and then hooks Dareon about the neck as he leaves the tent.
Dareon grumbles in frustration at the elves' condescension of him, but he pushes that aside. They have a lead, he supposes.
"Didn't that masked fellow go to observe the slavers? I figure we should trust him to gather information and meet us back at the Manor, and proceed to our other lead, speaking with the guards at the Arvensoar."
"I must confess, Dareon, we've known each other for so short a time but I believe I like you. You're focused, driven, and you have a spine; all traits I admire. But you must also know, my sister loves to make people with such noble characteristics squirm. She's quite adroit at getting under peoples' skin, and the more you react the more she enjoys it. Bear that in mind the next time she purrs something off-putting in your ear or pats you on the head. Also note, she is faithful to more than just Calistria's lustful tennets, so you may want to bear that in mind as well. If you care to work through her foibles and earn her friendship though, well then, you'll never know a faster friend in all your life and woe to any who cross you then! Ha ha!" He smiles warmly to Dareon then, his earnestness and genuine honesty plain in his angular features and shining eyes.
---
"Right you are, Dareon!" Faedrin breaks away from the human and turns to the rest of the group again, "I don't suppose any of you know how to get back to Heidmarch Manor from here? I've still hardly the faintest idea of where we even are!" He laughs again, a melodic sound both crisp and cool.
To tell you the truth, Fade. I wasn't paying too close of attention on how we got here, I was pondering something I remember back in my days at the Temple of Calistria and Dareon. She bursts out laughing, blushing as she looks at the young man. Shaking her head as she laughs, Would you care to hear it brother? What of you Master Dwarf or your Master Half Orc?
Zograthy smiles and nods at the 'most gracious and unexpected' of tips for his services. Before they walk out he adds, talking aloud 'to himself', "I hope they realize Natalya was, at least until recently, a member of a Sczarni gang of cat burglars known as the Tower Girls. They are also searching for her, and word is that when they find her, she’ll be in deep trouble. Now, I don’t know exactly what is going on with them but I heard them say that she went mad before her disappearance."
Then Faedrin mentions something that gets his attention, "Wait! Did you say Heidmarch Manor? Isn't that where the new lodge for those insufferable Pathfinders is? What do those people want with Natalya or Sczarni business?"
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The dwarf huffs in response to Elrawien's permission to hear her story, obviously disinterested with a roll of his eyes. What would the dwarf want to know of someone so quick to judge and spites those around her openly? Not this proud creature.
When Zograthy shouts his question, he huffs even louder, shaking his head at the man. "It'll cost you 20 gold" is all he responds to the fortune teller, before anyone else can answer, and with a hard stare.
Faedrin doesn't stop at Zograthy's question, and he doesn't turn around. As such, the fortune teller isn't able to see the satisfied smile play across the elf's face as he passes through the tent and back out into the clear air with Dareon.
Excellent! He took the bait after all. Splendid!
The elf's voice can be heard floating back in though on the tails of an echoing laugh, "HA! You know, I think I'm beginning to like the dwarf!"
It would appear that Master Dwarf might have some use
Dareon widens his eyes at Faedrin's praise, and in a muted tone, he says "Th-thank you. I'll keep that in mind when dealing with her."
Even Dareon manages to smile at Gaileyon's turnaround on Zograthy's greed. He allows himself just this tinge of amusement at the seemingly dumb dwarf's most clever insult.
Despite the presence of the three noble born citizens of Magnimar, they are a little turned around in the city. It is most likely due to the fact that from their positions they never had to dip into the levels of the city's more unseemly parts where they now find themselves. They manage from where they are to spot both the Irespan and the Arvensoar, which gives them and idea of which direction to head. Every once in a while they have to regain their bearings using the two most noticeable enormous features of the city itself. It's taken them a good couple hours just to get back to the manor.