”Well met Yenaver. We’re happy to be here too” the big man says while undoing the bindings on his boots.
”Is there a reason for your joy or are you just a vessel for the Brawler’s mirth?”
Yenaver laughs. "The sun is bright, my shrine has many visitors today, and I am meeting new friends! But bird does not sing because it is happy, Tanith. Bird is happy because it sings."
Carina clears her throat and sets her haversack down.
"Is there a place for us to put our things while we're here, Yenaver?" She asks as she bends over to unbuckle the straps of her boots.
"You may set them anywhere." Yenaver beats his little chest. "He that steals from Kord's bathhouse soon finds himself wrestling many angry naked priests! Happens more on drinking holidays or weekends."
Tanith finds himself laughly loudly at the halfling's answer and finds a nice corner to dump his pack (with his disassembled armor strapped to it), his poleaxe, and finally his clothes. The feeling of the sun on his naked flesh, in Kord's holy place, sharing a warm day with brothers and sisters of his faith and with Carina, is almost more than the hulking Kordite can bear. He can't help but grin like a fool.
"Come on Red! Let's get in the water."
Every few minutes, Astraden cranes her neck around, searching the audience for any familiar faces. She keeps most of her attention on the play, though - there'd be plenty of time to look for the old man after it.
Once Tanith starts disrobing, Carina briefly forgets where she is and just stares dumbly at him. She may or may not have drooled slightly at the sight of his impressive physique.
Oh my gods... you could grind meat on those--
Then Tanith speaks and she's jolted back to her senses. Her face turns a deep shade of blue. "Er... yeah, just a minute..." She almost whispers as she sets her haversack next to his stuff.
The floor seems quite interesting to Carina as she begins taking off her gear. It's polished to a mirror shine... it's obvious Yenaver puts a lot of effort into keeping the place tidy.
Soon enough, she stands next to Tanith, naked as the day she was reborn. Apparently, the Shalm was quite generous when designing her new body. She swallows, folds her hands behind her back and offers Tanith a very shy, but genuine smile.
"Shall I go first?"
Astraden doesn't see her godfather. She does notice that a few onlookers are watching very intently and making notes. Talent scouts, most likely. However, one of them is behaving somewhat oddly—he doesn't seem to be writing actual notes, and if Astraden didn't know any better, she'd swear he was watching the crowd more closely than the play.
All she knows about this place is that it opened about a decade ago and nobody quite knows where its owner came from.
Eben is less focused on the crowd than he is the play itself. While he's not even remotely into the political satire aspects (he has no plans to ever visit Redhand and doesn't care about what the prince gets up to in his spare time...), he has a much easier time being amused by the pure bawdy elements. How does he get it on with that... thing? It's just a cube with a face!
Tanith's grin doesn't budge as he gets an eye-full of Carina's new unclothed form (this time without spider webs or monster gore). Every curve, every dimple, was perfect as far as he was concerned.
Kord, Myhriss, Fharlanghn, whoever was responsible for her new body... thank you!
With a heroic effort, the big Kordite tears his gaze away and back toward the water. "I don't know Red. It looks pretty cold. Let me try first."
Easing his way in, Tanith's heavily muscled form shivers in protest against the frigid water. "Yup. It's cold alright!" he says with a laugh.
The play comes to the intermission at last, and the crowd begins chattering about it and its political subtext. Astraden and Eben are free to do what they will.
Farrukh starts accosting random people on the street.
"Miss, do you know where I can find a man who sells very nice cloaks? Yes, I know it's very warm outside right now."
"Hi, sorry to interrupt your conversation here, but I'm looking for a place that sells clothing and armor tailored for giant reptiles. Can you direct me to one?"
People give Farrukh very odd looks. One eventually directs him to the Low Market.
Here, Farrukh and Cuetzpalli are able to find the cloak, but nobody appears to have the power to craft the belt. With regards to the barding:
"Sounds weird as hell to me, but the local fighting pits developed a big yen for dinosaurs back when folk started catching 'em off the Isle of Dread. Souf sometimes likes to buy the arenas', uh, leftovers—maybe try his place?"
Well, at least he likes it...
Tanith's ogling of her almost makes Carina cover herself, but she thinks better of it and straightens herself up. Better to act like you own the place--it'll make ya feel better.
Once Tanith steps into the water, Carina follows suit. The water doesn't feel nearly as cold to her--it's like stepping into a refreshing, cool lake. "Feels fine to me..."
What's surprising to her is how easily she moves through the water with only a few steps. She starts swimming around in the pool, laughing with joy at what her new body can do.
Tanith is a bit surprised as how little the freezing water fazes Carina and impressed and how well she moves within the water. He was a strong swimmer but she swam circles around him.
”You didn’t tell me you loved the water so much”, the big man laughs.
As the curtain falls on the intermission, Eben turns to Astraden. "What do you think? It's fun, but things like this always make me feel like I'm missing the point because I don't know about the political situation in some place I've never been to." He gets up and stretches his legs. "You know, I never really thought about life in the theater- street performing was profitable enough- but I bet I could handle this kinda thing too. Not that I'd really have wanted to be the guy in the modron costume..." He looks around. "So... who was it you wanted to see here?"
Carina stops paddling about and faces Tanith before looking at herself. "I'm kinda surprised myself, honestly..."
She promptly dives under the water for a few seconds before resurfacing, flipping her hair back and eying Tanith with a grin. She doesn't appear to be embarrassed anymore.
Carina gracefully swims up to Tanith and stops next to him. "Soap, please?" She holds her hand out.
Wrapping a brawny arm around Carina’s shapely form, Tanith grabs a bar of soap from the water’s edge.
”You’ll have to wrestle me for it”, he laughs.
Carina giggles. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she remembers how easily Tanith can wrestle owlbears into submission, as well as how physically unimposing she is.
Somehow, neither factor seems to affect her decision. Or perhaps they affected it all too well.
"You're on!"
She lunges for the bar of soap, but she forgets to consider two things:
1) How big Tanith is compared to her;
2) How slippery a bar of soap can be.
Ultimately, she doesn't get it. She splashes about, too happy to care.
Tanith teases Carina, letting her get closer and closer to the bar but never getting a hold. Finally, he lets her seize the slippery prize only to lean in and steal a kiss.
”Well if nothing else you’ve got heart”, the big man laughs. ”Sometimes that’s better than all the strength in the world.”
Carina replies to Tanith's surprise kiss with as much passion as he gives her.
"Thanks." She lingers up against Tanith's face before settling in front of him and soaping her arms up.
She chuckles a bit. "I thought it'd be... well... stranger." She leans back into Tanith's chest, looking up at him while rinsing off her arms. "I mean, this is kinda the first time I've had you this close to me."
I didn't think I'd feel this comfortable around you... shows what I know.
Acclimated to the cold water now, Tanith dunks himself several times to start washing his hair.
”Kord teaches that there’s no reason to hide one’s body – that our bodies are a reflection of the spirit. Sharing the sight of our bodies with others is one of the greatest truths, strength alongside scars and flaws.”
Nabbing another bar of soap, the big Kordite begins lathering up his hairy chest before Carina moves in close to him again.
"Red, are you a maid still?” he asks nonchalantly.
Carina soaps up her bust and hair before lathering up and rinsing off as Tanith asks his question.
"Yes..." She nods, her blue blush returning. "Mom and I traveled around a lot before we came to Diamond Lake. Usually we didn't linger long enough to bed someone before moving on. Not that Mom would've been keen on it anyway. I'd chalk it up to her being protective of me."
That, and not a lot of folks were willing to try... I can thank Other Me for that, I suppose.
Tanith chuckles again but it’s a laugh meant to put her at ease, not one of judgment.
”Remember what I said about Kord’s teachings. This is just a bath and there’s nothing to be ashamed of. You definitely don’t have anything to be ashamed of”, he explains with a big grin.
”And I promise to make your first time special.”
Carina smiles, her blush fading. She starts soaping up her legs, stretching them out above the water so she can lather them up before putting them back in the pool.
"I'll hold you to that."
She tries getting her arms behind her back so she can soap up there, but she can't seem to do it...
"Tanith, could you help me with my back, please?"
”With pleasure”, the big man says before putting his rough hands to work.
”I wonder if the others are having this much fun.”
Carina arches her back as Tanith lathers her up and groans in relief as his callused hands work the aches from her muscles. "I hope that's the case..." She looks into the water, at their reflection. "Especially Astraden, after what happened..."
She shakes her head, chasing the thought and its associated worries away. Taking her bar of soap in her hands again, she gets to work cleaning the rest of her--belly, hips, the works.
"Do you need some help, Tanith? With your back, I mean?" She turns her head towards him as she runs her hands along her body, working the soap into her blue skin.
”That girl’s got some demons”, Tanith agrees with a nod. ”I hope she can work through them before they ruin her.”
At Carina’s offer, the big man smirks and lowers himself into the water so that she can more easily reach the extremes of his broad back.
”I was hoping you’d ask!”
Carina smiles and positions herself behind Tanith, soaping up her hands before getting to work scrubbing him down.
As she washes Tanith's back, she takes the opportunity to repay him for his work... she fusses over him, working her hands along every muscle of his she can get her hands on, her knowledge of human anatomy serving her well in relieving whatever aches he has.
Once she's finished, she hugs herself against Tanith with a content sigh, her soapy breasts pressing up against his back.
Tanith groans like a big happy animal as Carina puts her skilled and learned hands to work. When she’s done he stretches, feeling stronger and more limber than ever before with all the knots worked out - knots he didn’t even know he’d had.
He laughs again, feeling Carina’s soapy curves pressed up against his back. ”We should see if the Halfling can finish fixing you up.”
As if on cue, Carina feels a wave of fatigue settle on her. "Yeah... but right now?"
She looks down, feeling rather silly. She's gone from being reluctant to get in to being unwilling to get out.
"Eh, I could pick up who was the bad guy, and that's most of what you need to understand the jokes." Astraden also rises, still glancing around at the audience. "That guy Raddle talked about. He's my godfather and he should be somewhere around here." She points to the person who was watching the audience. "Let's ask that guy."
"Hey, Cuetz, I actually know where that place is, follow me."
When they arrive, Farrukh is more distracted by the random assortment of odds and ends inside the Emporium than focused on finding Cuetzpalli's barding.
"This is a neat little shop you have here."
Souf's Paraphernalia is a tower of clutter. The rooms, doorways, stairs, and floor are crammed with items—piles of books about ant hills lie on top of others about horse barding, a ballistae hangs from a wall under a banner of frog-men fighting a group of badgers, and a stack of six crates of sunrods leans perilously next to the counter.
Souf, a pale-scaled lizardfolk, dresses like a human merchant. "Welcome to Souf's Paraphernalia," he says, with only the faintest trace of an accent. "Barding? Let me see..."
The lizardfolk reaches into a cupboard and pulls out a mess of papers. He struggles slightly—his right arm is in a cast. "I must look through my records. Feel free to browse—just let me know if there's anything else you want."
Astraden and Eben approach the curious onlooker. He is a short, plump man, with a slight goatee and receding dark hairline. His eyes are vivid gold and have abnormally small pupils. Judging by his garb, he's likely a merchant or minor noble.
He looks up. "Oh, hello. Can I help you, laughing girl?"
With the bulk of their bathing behind them, Tanith waves to some of the other bathers. ”Hey there!”
Carina moves to the edge of the pool and pulls herself up from the water. She doesn't get out all the way, instead sitting on the pool's edge.
She offers any approaching bathers a smile, her self-consciousness all but forgotten for now.
A dwarf and half-orc notice Tanith and swim over.
"Afternoon," the dwarf says, scratching his side. "Don't think we've seen ye 'round before."
"You been walking a ways?" the half-orc asks. She looks between the two. "You smell clean, but your clothes smell foul 'nough I can smell 'em from here."
"No kidding." Carina nods at the half-orc lady. "Five days out of Diamond Lake."
She looks around the temple again. "Are there any facilities available for doing laundry here?"
I KNEW I should've asked Eben for one of those prestidigitations...
Tanith ponders his worn and sweat-crusted tunic piled up alongside his dissembled and ill-fitting scale armor.
"I could use some new digs. Even with a good wash those clothes are from when I was a miner and a thug. I think it's time for something more befitting a champion of Kord", the brawny suel says proudly.
"Is there a tailor and smithy nearby?”
The half-orc shrugs. "Sure, there's a launder up the street. As for smithies and tailors—you're in the right spot. Foreign Quarter's the best place to find adventurers' gear."
"The Low Market should have plenty of practical outfits," the dwarf says. "As for armor, Zud's a good blacksmith (or silversmith, if you can afford that kind of thing). You'll find him in Midnight's Muddle. Insult his neighbor and you can get a discount."
"Well, there's probably a lot you could do to help me," she says, indicating the man's fine fabrics. "But we're looking for my father. He's . . . about your age? And he should be wearing some sort of mask like mine." She holds up Olidammara's symbol. "A family friend said he saw him around here a week or two ago."
”I’ll try to remember that”, Tanith answers with a laugh.
”Say, is Yenaver the high priest around here? We’re looking for some spiritual guidance.”
The man raises an eyebrow. "A mask...ah! Laughing girl, I have indeed seen him. I'm not exactly sure where he stays, but I believe Goschild might have an inkling."
Yenaver hasn't gone anywhere—the halfling is sitting nearby, where he seems to be smashing a pair of large rocks together.