Yangrit grunts in curiosity. "I have rope and a grappling hook. But 5-foot poles? Why would we need those?"
"Why you can use it to find pressure traps, feel around in the dark, use it for measurement, probing things, prodding things, replacing sundered hafts, snap it on the ground in a dark room to get a sense of the size via sound, sharpen it into a spear, or a bunch of stakes for vampires, put your helm on stick to draw out a sniper, help you balance on a tight-rope, use it to push enemies off walls, punt boats, pole-vaulting, making litters, lean-tos, walking sticks, hobbles for mounts, posts for clotheslines, crutches, flag-poles, a lever for moving things, kindling, something to crack open nests of insects with, or whack teammates who annoy you." She says adding extra emphasis on that last bit while looking at Telos.
"Why there's no end of the things you can do with a 5-foot pole or two." Janira beams.
|
"Why there's no end of the things you can do with a 5-foot pole or two." Janira beams.
Tusk nods in comprehension, pulls out a lump of Limdberger, and suddenly and violently stabs his pencil into it.
"Much like a pencil!"
He then uses the pencil as a handle and lifts the cheese up to his mouth and takes a generous bite.
"That's spirit Tusk poke those unknown molds and slime woth a stick rather than a finger!" Janina heads for the door.
"Right. Let's move out."
Janira leads the party through the twilight world of earlier-morning Absolam. The streets are alive with merchants, and delivery folk setting up for the day ahead. The sun is just reaching over the horizon, illuminating the tops of city's tallest structures, when the party makes it to the as-yet-uncrowded market square.
"So Gillwomen aren't really my specialty. My area of study is flora and fauna and was part of my confirmation. I only tangentially noticed the gillwomen activity, but it was enough to pique my curiosity." Janira says. She moves over to a fruit seller and samples the strawberries.
"They are known to be very secretive, but not overtly hostile. Mmm, these are good. I'll take some."
"Oh, and what about light? Are we good on light? Those caves could go on for miles."
"There wasn't any time to investigate the caves more thoroughly when I was there last, what with keeping clear of all the clans of minotaurs, and centaurs you find up near the Mounts, and it wasn't my mission regardless. It’s that exact question that you all are being asked to answer. The only known permanent surface settlement of the gillwomen is in Escadar. Why they’re venturing into the foothills of the Kortos Mounts is a complete mystery. Alas, time is short. After reviewing my mission reports personally," (she takes a moment to beam) "Master Shaine believes it is no coincidence that each time they entered the caves it was during a full moon, so it is also no coincidence that you have been called upon now, just a day before the moon is full again. Master Shaine and I both believe that tomorrow night is our best chance to find out why these caves are important and what exactly the gillwomen are doing in there."
|
Ironshank's joints creak, luckily the creaking of his full plate covers it up Ugh I really shoulda slept in a bed, not this damned plate! "Berries eh. Good on flapjacks or in a jam on biscuits. Raw they just don't feel right in yer mouth. Must be them damned seeds."
Ironshanks trudges along, forgetting the reason they're at the market in the first place, mostly just keeping one leg moving ahead of the next, while keeping his eyes on his surroundings. Gotta make sure this bunch of rooks gets back in one piece. Dunno if that Janira has much time in battle.. doubt it.
*Audible facepalm* "The cave is in the Mounts. The Mounts are only near the ocean because Kortos is a relatively small island in the grand scheme of things and the Mounts lie at its center." Janira explains again through gritted teeth.
"See that over there." she points to the ocean. "That's the ocean."
She pauses to make sure that everyone is still with her.
"We have to walk for a day and a half inland away from the ocean to get where we are going in the Mounts."
Just past dawn Janira leads the band out of the city proper, and into the surrounding villages. By midday the villages have given way to small farms, and hamlets. The city is just a dark spot on the edge of the coast. Ahead lie the windswept grassland dotted with stone ruins, the remains of ancient battles.
Janira points to one of the fallen fortresses. Her spirits seemingly lifted by the long walk. "Wouldn't it be something to find an unplundered tower and explore it? Why some of them date back to the Siege of the Archmage Nex, over forty-five centuries ago."
She pulls out her wayfinder, the famous instrument or the Pathfinder Society and uses it to reorient.
|
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Yangrit maintains her silence. In her years at the monastery, she learned the value of listening and economy of words. It has been some time since then, but she utilizes that training now. She aims to learn her party's strengths and weaknesses, and so absorbs every word, tone, inflection, and nuance. Hopefully this information will be of some use, and not simply a superfluous exercise.
The self-superior elf is bored, like she thinks this task won't challenge her. No way for me to know if her assessment is correct. Probably isn't.
The half-orc is all brawn, no brains. Or at least very little. Uncouth. Probably thoughtless and reckless in a fight, though he should be a good meat shield.
Magee seems capable sort, but as nimble as a rock. Probably a reliable partner for a flanking situation.
Janira knows a lot, and is well prepared. Best I can say for a flighty halfling. Most respectable one I've met in a while. Way too chipper, though.
That other halfling looks like a waste of time. He'd better get his head together enough to shut up and stay out of the way when we get down to business.
That bard likes to jaw a lot, which is irritating, but he rebuffed that barmaid well. He'll be our talker, if we need diplomacy or charm.
Of course, she doesn't realize that her racial prejudice affects her assessment.
|
Telos wanders back from an alchemists stall having procured his antitoxin.
"Oh, and what about light? Are we good on light? Those caves could go on for miles."
"Yes, light." He snaps his fingers and sets his hand aglow. "Covered."
As they walk away from the city he keeps the water flowing and finds the hangover receding more quickly. He starts actually thinking about the mission and asking the bard to catch him up so he can begin getting in the right frame of mind.
|
|
Janira's face-palm does not even ruffle the self-confident half-orc. He really didn't care all that much about the answer anyway, and that whole geography lesson was unasked for.
As they travel, the warriors orc double axe is constantly in motion, 'widening' the path and leaving a swath of destruction behind him, with occasional pauses to bring out his whetstone to sharpen the dulling caused by his activities while he walks, singing an unpleasant marching song in orc.
|
|
Ironshanks smirks as Janira gets frustrated with the half orc Orcs... all the same. How the hell'd they get themselves into the Pathfinders anyhow? Sure as shit weren't from Dwarven votes.
As they march along Ironshanks drops back a bit to give the orc room to swing his double axe, he didn't mind the clearer path ahead. "Ya wouldn't need ta sharpen that thing so much if ya didn't knick so many rocks. Yer arms are as long as an ape's." He quips, mostly seriously.
Darkness begins to fall, but Janira pushes on, almost to the point of it being too dark to easily make camp.
The forest is thicker here. Roads and civilization has been left far behind.
Janira asks one of the team to make a fire while others gather wood. Janira unrolls her bedroll, and blanket. She sits on the edge of a log near the fire with a small cauldron, which she fills with some water she had taken from a stream the party passed. She puts it over the fire and then pulls a smooth river stone out one of her pouches and tosses it into pot.
"We made such good time I thought I'd make my famous stone stew for dinner." She sighs regretfully. "Unfortunately I only have the fixings for the broth, and a weak one at that. If only there was something we could add to it." She looks around the camp fire at the group as the water begins to bubble along the inside of the pot.
|
|
"Ah! I be a'knowing this stew! Let me add a Halfling Trail Ration(TM) to it. Dem Halflings load those things up with dried veggies, so it will be perfect for this."
He pours the ration into the stew. Then he snaps his fingers.
"We cannae be a'havin' a dinner wi' out some music. I know a song that might fit the mood."
Fifteen birds in five firtrees,
their feathers were fanned in a fiery breeze!
But, funny little birds, they had no wings!
O what shall we do with the funny little things?
Roast 'em alive, or stew them in a pot;
fry them, boil them and eat them hot?
Burn, burn tree and fern!
Shrivel and scorch! A fizzling torch
To light the night for our delight,
Ya hey!
Bake and toast 'em, fry and roast 'em!
till beards blaze, and eyes glaze;
till hair smells and skins crack,
fat melts, and bones black
in cinders lie
beneath the sky!
So dwarves shall die,
and light the night for our delight,
Ya hey!
Ya-harri-hey!
Ya hoy!
"You could always go hunt something up with that bow of yours while the water simmers."
"We cannae be a'havin' a dinner wi' out some music. I know a song that might fit the mood."
Fifteen birds in five firtrees,
their feathers were fanned in a fiery breeze! ....
"You wouldn't happen to have something--I dunno--more civilized in your repertoire would you?"
|
|
Telos gets up from his cross-legged position near the fire and re-applies his arcane light to his left hand.
"I'm going to go see if I can find some mushrooms or vegetables for the stew. Would someone like to join me?"
He looks at the group expectantly before wandering a short distance away from the fire.
|
|
As camp starts to come together Ironshanks sits for a minute to rest his stiffing joints "I'mma gonna have a quick drink o water then I'll get to work here..." He mutters as he takes a quick sip. Once he starts to hear the words of the song however he stands up in a huff and caps and stows his water "Ya lemme show you how a Dwarf hunts, this song is fer the birds!" He gives a dirty look to the source of the noise before shaking his head back at Yangrit.
Ironshanks draws his bow and moves into the nearby wood, eyes and ears open for food for the stew, be it game or root, or veggie.
|
|
Yangrit's eyes harden at the the song's mention of dwarves. She silently gets up, giving a hard, cold glare at the bard as she stalks out of the firelight. At first she makes to follow Ironshanks, but thinks twice about it. She doesn't want to be seen as favoring his company. Who knows what bad, irritating songs the bard would sing next if he thought that!
She heads in a different direction and keeps her eyes peeled for anything edible.
|
|
"Well, being that ye dinnae like that song, here be anudder one fer ye."
"Is it worth the waiting for,
If we live till eighty-four
All we ever get is gruel,
Every day we say our prayers
Will they change the bill of fair?
Still we get the same old gruel
There's not a crust not a crumb
Can we find can we beg can we borrow or cadge,
But there's nothing to stop us from getting a thrill,
When we all close our eyes and imagine,
Food glorious food
Hot sausage and mustard
While we're in the mood cold jelly and custard
Pease pudding and saveloys
What next is the question?
Rich gentlemen have it boys
In-Di-Gestion"
"Right." Janira says looking up from the kettle full of boiling cheese and trail mix, to Liv and Duncan. "Now, does anyone here actually know how to cook?"
Executive decision time, I'm delegating the responsibility and leaving it up to our brave hunters, Ironshanks and Yangrit!
Congratulations on your promotions!
You made the rolls, that combined, allowed you to find food enough to sustain a single person for up to 11 days in the wild!
The environment you are in is a warm grassy plain dotted with small groves of trees (the rough equivalent of the non-arid lands bounding the Mediterranean).
What you find could be any combination (of not too overly-dangerous) things one might find in such a fantasy setting, from one large game animal like (i.e a boar, ankheg, unicorn or something weirder like blink woolly stench yaks), several smaller sorts of game (mix and match such delicacies as freshwater fish, dinosaur eggs, game fowl, giant termites, or a stray wizard's familiar), wild fruits ("Yum! Orcwort fruit and Yellow Musk Mellon!"), and vegetables. Maybe you found a deserted or occupied farmstead or met a traveling caterer. Maybe you caught a magical talking fish that gave you three wishes to let it go, you agreed and then all you could think of to wish for was food for seven.
I leave it you, though some things might be out of bounds like say kiaju, gods, or penguins.
Best figure it out fast though--Janira has a total cooking modifier of -1!
"Right. Um.... How can you tell when water is boiling?"
|
|
Ironshanks soon returns to camp with a pair of bunnies hanging from his belt along with a bundle of wild radishes "It ain't too much but its sumpthin'. If ya wanna learn I'll show you bunch of neophytes how to clean a rabbit. I ain't much a cook but I can at least make a stew that won't kill ya." He proceeds to pull out his dagger and start skinning and gutting the rabbits, pointing out the best bits of meat and the organs to avoid eating.
"Meat! Just what the bard ordered! What's that fiddly bit there, Ironshanks? Liv are you sure you don't want to join? It smells really good! It sort of reminds me of why I got into Society in the first place. What can I do to help?"
"I know! I brought some salt and spices. Thanks for reminding me Duncan. I almost forgot again. Here is this any good? Thanks for bring these back Ironshanks, it really would have been just boiled cheese otherwise."
|
|
Just then, Yangrit stumps into camp, carrying a large bundle of various vegetables (including onions, garlic, tubers, and carrots), various herbs, and a couple of pheasants.
"Huh. I brought too much. Looks like we feast tonight."
She settles in, using her dagger to slice and dice the produce. "Someone wanna pluck those birds?"
She adds her chopped goodies to the pot, tasting it as she goes.
|
|
Tusk returns empty handed and grumbling, but brightens considerably when he sees what the others have contributed.
Familiar with camp cooking he snatches the bones before the others can toss them, and starts another pot aboilin' to make some nice broth to add to the soup later and enhance the body, or make a gravy for the roasted fowl since we have so much.
|
|
Ironshanks leans back and bellows out a belly laugh at Liv "No worries Elf, too many cooks crowd the kitchen." He looks up just in time to catch Tusk with his hands too close to the pot of stew "Hey now, keep yer dirty sausage fingers outta the pot. We don't wanna spoil the flavor with dirty orc fingernails!" He nods approvingly as the others help get the stew rolling.
"Drop the heat down Janira, we don't want a hard boil here. Just a simmer and that bird and bunny will just fall off the bones!" He holds out a hand to stave off adding the veggies too early "Too soon, gotta give the meat some time to tender up, else them veggies 'll turn ta mush!" Ironshanks looks to be enjoying the camp cooking. He was far more ornery on the trip here.
Magee certainly enjoys cooking, though I hope none of his beard ends up in the stew. (Shudder)
"Liv, did you want some of stone soup?"
Wilen returns with an assortment of wild fruits.
"Well they are certainly interesting rocks." Janira says to Telos consolingly. *BURP!* "Excuse me! This is why I got into the Society. To to travel to exotic lands, and to eat all of the interesting food I find there!"
The sky begins to darken and night sets in on wide plains on the heels of a lovely rose-colored dusk.