|
"I suppose we should start by trying to track down the woman from the documents at the Bones." Adolina says, "Molly... Mayapple? If nothing else it's a good deed well done, and if she's alive she might be able to help us... I think local knowledge would be useful here!"
Just before they disembark she turns and says, "Since Vyre actually has rules on it, let's not announce ourselves too easily. Call me Scarlet while we're here."
"Sure thing Scarlett, how about you all just call me Amber eh?" She adds with a wink, funnily enough, Eliona is always comfortable around covers and disguises. "Since we're going all colourful, Im sure Farrina and Tanjona have some clues as to their nicknames."
Stepping off the ship's boarding plank, she breathes in the smell of the city. "Oh this should be good, when was the last itme we got to actually let our hair down in Kintargo? Yes...yes I know we have to find Molly, but let's enjoy ourselves just a little, we deserve it. Either way, we need to find some lodgings so let's go find a decent inn with good food and wine first."
"I've always wanted to visit this city," the Fabulous One declares as they reach port. "It seems a place after my own heart." She's dressed for the excursion in hues of purple and blue. Her midnight-colored hair hangs loose in curling waves.
"And Farrina the Fabulous needs no mask here. I can be myself as the gods intended," she says with a smirk. "So let's go find this halfling and then we can have some fun." She waggles her eyebrows at the others and then strides down the gangplank to the dock.
Vyre’s bustling waterfront district, known as the Vise, is so called for the belief that this area is where Vyre seizes new visitors and never lets them go. Consisting of the subdistricts of Southmarket and Old Vyre, the Vise contains the bulk of the city’s infrastructural support. As the place where travelers to Vyre first set foot in the city, the Vise also has a large number of inns and taverns. Numerous hostels, which serve as both taverns and inns, can be found in the Vise. The more eminent establishments feature small roving staffs of guides who also serve as self-styled “Reputation Watchers,” doing their best to ensure their guests retain their anonymity.
You see signs for several hostels, including The Dancing Cat and The Heavenly House, but the one that catches your attention is The Seven Apples, as that is where Molly Mayapple is reputed to work.
Indeed, when you enter, you see Molly behind the front desk. The elderly halfling woman seems frail and weak, yet the glitter in her eyes reveals the force of her will and suggests at hidden, secret reserves of strength within. She carries herself with confidence and greets you with a grin. "Welcome to The Seven Apples, Vyre's foremost hostel for visiting adventurers. If you're looking for a place to stay or a guide to the hottest spots in town, you've come to the right place! How can I help you?"
Molly takes the documents with some curiosity. When she realizes what they are, she gasps and begins to tear up. "Oh, my... Excuse me a moment, please."
The halfling disappears into a back room. She returns a few moments later, back in control of her emotions. "Thank you. From the bottom of my hear, thank you. You have no idea what these deeds mean to me. They represent proof of my old fortune, and for 40 years, they have been missing. Without proof of ownership of my warehouses, I was forced to live on the streets for a decade before I managed to regain my standing and start rebuilding my reputation. Now I can finally get everything back.
"Your accommodations here at the Seven Apples are gratis for as long and as often as you wish to visit Vyre. Please, take this as a reward as well." She offers you a handy haversack that contains 800 pp.
"Now, whatever else I can do for you, I will be happy to oblige!"
Farrina seems quite tickled at the clink of all the platinum as she hands the bag over to Tanjona to carry.
"You could start with your best wine," she says, quite happy to take advantage of the hafla's generosity. "You get a nice crowd in here at nights?" continues. "Do you ever have live entertainment?" She winks at the woman. "Ever need any?"
|
|
"Quite apart from the Fabulous One's need to get up on a stage and perform, we do have another reason for being here." 'Scarlet' says. "We need to speak to one of the Kings and Queens, on behalf of some... patriots, on the mainland. Could you help us with that, tell us where to go, anything like that? Just a nudge in the right direction would be fine."
Farrina rolls her eyes. "You have to bring politics into everything," she says in a put-upon tone. "Why can't you just have a little fun once and a while. I'm sure whatever suck-up is sending you those syrup-laden notes wants to just relax once and a while as well. Maybe you should try it for once."
"This town is effectively a festival all of the time," says Tanjona from beneath the half-mask that he got somewhere before leaving port on the trip to Vyre. The upper half of the mask is a garish array of colors, but it leaves his mouth visible (and able to bite).
"I suspect live entertainment, especially of magical illusions and show-woman-ship, would go over quite well. In the meantime, secrets are negotiable for the right price. We just need to know the right people, eh?"
He nods idly and glances about the establishment once more, as if constantly aware that someone could be watching.
"If you do have a show, oh fabulous one, be certain to let me know. Mister Gray would be interested in your latest performance."
He shuffles a moment and says, "Hmm. No, talking about myself in the third person doesn't feel right. Seems like I'm soft in the head. Not doing that again."
"We don't have a regular performance troupe here, but I'd be happy to give you a stage and let you do your thing," Molly tells Farrina with a grin.
"My friends, you happen to be in luck," she says once Adolina broaches the reason for your visit. "I'm on relatively good terms with the current Queen of Delights. It's a nice change after the last
few were such disappointments. The Queen of Delights holds monthly banquets where those she favors are allowed to share a meal, air grievances, and jockey for her favor. The next banquet is only a few days away, and it’s no big deal for me to arrange for you to accompany me as her guests. There’s no better way to approach a leader of Vyre about setting up an alliance, especially since the city’s other four leaders are not the type of folks you’ll want to make friends with, by and large.
"You'll need to secure fine clothing for the banquet. Acquiring a small gift for the queen is also a good idea. Nothing too expensive, as you don't want it to look like bribery, and nothing to cheap, of course! Gifts can be anything, but the queen is partiuclarly fond of spiders, onyx jewelry, and fine mead."
It takes the better part of an entire day, but eventually, Adolina manages to learn all of the queen's interests: salacious works of art, lacy gloves, fancy potion vials, flowers with black petals, Ustalavic novels, and exquisite banquet utensils.
"Oh Scarlett, you know how to please a woman!" Amber says with a wink. "Let's go find out what the fashion of fancy is shall we ladies? Tanjona, I am sure you would be welcome to join us, but Im not entirely sure its your thing, but perhaps you would be able to find an ustalavic novel she might find of interest whilst we indulge ourselves just a little?"
Amber relishes in the idea of shopping, and arm in arm with Farrina and Scarlett, she find the street with the best boutiques in the district. Barelling in head first she dives into the clothes on show without waiting for the shopkeeper to advise. "I'm thinking gold for me and a deep red for you Adolina. What do you think Farrina?"
Not waiting for an answer she heads over to the displaycase with intricate gloves. "And what outfit would be finished without a wonderful set of these?"
"Gloves can make a statement," Farrina replies. "But more often then not, they just get in the way of your hands doing what they need to." As if to emphasize, she makes an elegant gesture with one hand and a platinum coin appears seemingly out of nowhere. She rolls the coin across the back of her knuckles and then with a snap, the coin vanishes again.
"As far as clothes go ... that depends on whether we're trying to blend in or stand out." She raises a questioning eyebrow at Adolina.
She looks over a few dresses in shades of blue. "If I'm blending in, then I think blue would work wonderfully. I'd go with amber hair in the current fashion of styling it high." Something else seems to catch her eye and she rushes over to hold up a bright green dress in a wrap-around style. "Oh, but if I'm making a statement, then this and ..." Stepping to a different section, she holds up a wide pink belt. "This." She holds the dress and belt up to herself and gives Amber a wink. "Think I'll be noticeable?" she asks.
"I don't know, Oh Fabulous One," says Tanjona. "Ustalavic literature is not typically regarded as 'delightful,' and this is the ostensible 'Queen of Delights.' Though perhaps she enjoys the irony in the counterpoint of black humor and bleak vistas against this town's luxuriant festivities and tropical climate. The escape from constant engagement and social expectation into a land of frozen vistas, where disasters of nature and of the heart both unfold slowly against a tableau of ice, would be a strong sensory escape from the constant noise and social jostling of Vyre."
"But perhaps not."
He shrugs.
"Let's find some new clothes. My condition is that I must wear something with legs."
During their afternoon of perusing the local fashions, Farrina sidles up next to Adolina as the woman looks over some beaded shoes.
"So a little birdie told me that you received another note from your secret suck-up," she says as she compares a number of scarves. "Looks like they're stalking you. Any idea who's writing them?"
|
|
During their shopping trip Adolina pulls Eliona aside. "Amber... I need some help. I've been getting letters from an admirer, I thought it was someone in the Ravens. That was fine, there's some pretty impressive specimens. I'm sure you noticed." She adds with a grin. "But I've just got another letter. Here. Which narrows it down to about six people. I'm assuming it's not you." Then she looks slightly nervous. "Not that I'd be upset if it was... but I was hoping you'd help me narrow down who it might be."
-----------------------------------------------
"Not a clue." Adolina says breezily. "It's kind of exciting though."
Farrina turns an appraising eye on the young noblewoman. "Exciting, eh?" She watches her as she moves on to some hats. "Say the word, Honey, and we'll find out who this admirer with no balls really is."
|
|
During their shopping trip Adolina pulls Eliona aside. "Amber... I need some help. I've been getting letters from an admirer, I thought it was someone in the Ravens. That was fine, there's some pretty impressive specimens. I'm sure you noticed." She adds with a grin. "But I've just got another letter. Here. Which narrows it down to about six people. I'm assuming it's not you." Then she looks slightly nervous. "Not that I'd be upset if it was... but I was hoping you'd help me narrow down who it might be."
Eliona takes the note and reads it, her eyebrows raising with piqued curiosity. "Me! Why would you think it was me?!" She says, her bemusement clear. "Well, its certainly not Farrina with the way she acts, I don't think she has that sort of sentimentality. Perhaps Tanjona? But could he write like this? Who are the other three people you are considering? You can't just let this carry on and not investigate, we need to know the juicy gossip, oh...erm, we need to know who is spilling their deepest emotions I mean!"
|
|
"I didn't, but I didn't want to assume. You remember Lily Aulamaxa and her 'best friend' Charlotte? They were more than friends. So I didn't want to come across bigoted or..." Adolina stops talking when she realises just how badly she's babbling.
"The only other people I could think of were Marquel Aulorian or Captain Sargava. Neither of them seems likely... but neither do Farrina and Tanjona." She says with a helpless shrug. "Can you investigate for me Elly? See if you can coax it out of them without me getting involved?"
"Now that sounds like great fun. Of course I can investigate to find this character. Wouldn't it be great if we can get a more public declaration of their love for you!"
You enjoy the various forms of entertainment available in Vyre. Soon enought, the night of the queen's banquet arrives. The great market of Vyre sprawls in the city’s heart, quiet and slumbering by day, yet waking at night into a riot of color. Outlandish bargains can be claimed in the Opal Market, and fortunes made for those lucky enough to attract the right attention at the right time. Exotic companions, dinosaur tamers, caterwauling stilt-walkers, flaming sword swallowers, con artists, shady alchemists, brilliant inventors, peddlers of untested experimental drugs, and purveyors of strange magic are common sights here.
The Queen of Delights dwells in sprawling Cobweb Manor, which squats on a hill looking out over the Opal Market. The queen’s banquet is scheduled to begin at precisely sundown, but the manor doors open an hour early for visitors to arrive. Molly suggests that you wait until the last moment before arriving—not quite late, but certainly not early enough to appear too eager, as the Queen of Delights has little patience for beggars. If you are to gain the queen’s favor, you must be on your best behavior during the banquet. Molly warns you to be respectful of the queen and her guests, even in the (quite likely) eventuality that some of those guests might not deserve respect. Further, Molly warns, stay away from the topic of religion during dinner! As a last-minute word of advice, she also mentions that the queen’s husband shall be in attendance, but that you are not to speak of him.
When you arrive at Cobweb Manor, a lumbering, 7-foot-tall figure with pale skin and terrible scars attends the door. This “man” is dressed in a fine suit, but does not speak—he merely nods upon seeing invitations and steps aside to allow entry.
Cobweb Manor is quite clean and well decorated within, albeit with spider and spiderweb motifs. The ceilings, draped with sheets of cobwebs, hold numerous chandeliers lit with continual flame spells, while the wood-paneled walls are decorated with many erotic paintings of subjects quite varied and scandalous in nature. Little is left to the imagination in these works of art, though in several, the same dark-haired, crimson-eyed, horned beauty seems to be placed in a position of prominence.
Nine other guests mill about in the foyer, waiting for things to get underway. Most of these are humans, though there is a halfling, gnome, and half-elf among them. None seem to pay you much mind.
|
|
Adolina relaxes in the foyer with unfeigned ease - having grown up in the social whirl of the Kintargan aristocracy she's very good at relaxing in ante-rooms and not appearing bored.
"I do like a woman who knows how to decorate to a theme." She says idly, eyes roving over the walls and the other guests, although she tries to keep that a little more circumspect. "I hope the food is as good as the decor."
It seems that Farrina has gone for 'making a statement' as her modus operandi for the evening, having chosen the green and pink as well as accessories in appropriately clashing colors. Although, how anything could do anything but clash with that combination is left as an exercise for the fashion conscious. Her hair is, indeed, styled high in the current fashion, but it's a midnight black tonight.
"Oh, Darling, I love your hair," she says to a woman she passes as she, like Adolina, moves through the crowd getting a sense for who's important and who can be ignored. Flirting openly with men and women alike, she doesn't linger with anyone for any length of time.
Ahreni gets the sense that most of the other guests are here to curry the queen's favor as well and aren't really paying much mind to you. Farrina doesn't have much time to make small talk, but she finds the lone gnome amongst the guest most receptive to her flirting. "That is a fabulous outfit! It looks great on you. I'm sure it would look even better off of you," the small, pink-haired woman purrs. "Kekza Zenk. So lovely to make your acquaintance."
Only a few minutes after your arrival, you are ushered into a large hall, the focus of which is a sprawling table capable of seating two dozen guests. The head of the table is reserved for a setting for the queen herself, while the last setting at the far end of the table contains only a slumped and dusty skeleton clad in fine clothing at least a decade out of date. Three more of the hulking butlers stand motionless in the corners of the room.
You are all seated together, along with Molly, in a row of chairs near the foot of the table--Adolina has the "honor" of getting to sit next to the bones.
Soon enough, the host of the banquet enters the room--the Queen of Delights, Manticce Kaleekii. Manticce is a beautiful tiefling woman clad in a long, flowing gown with black spiderweb lace and elegant gloves. Her dark hair is held back in a net of cobwebs, revealing her pointed ears, little red horns, and the spiderweb tattoos on both sides of her neck. Her eyes are an unnatural crimson, and she moves with an unnerving grace— all manifestations of her tiefling heritage.
The guests rise to give the queen a standing ovatoin, and she smiles at you. “Greetings, new friends and old, to my home. I see some familiar faces here, and some delightfully unfamiliar ones as well. It is always a pleasure to serve new tongues the delectable offerings of House Kaleekii, and I trust you shall remember the meal to come for the rest of your lives. Tonight’s banquet is brought to us by master chef Annatolintis Tasetas, all the way from Katapesh, and consists of four expertly prepared courses. I expect the conversation to be lively and thought-provoking, and as always, I shall accept your gifts during the serving of dessert. Without further ado, let us begin!”
A small army of servants enters the room, all clad in diaphanous white robes and wearing wraps of gauzy veils over their faces to hide their identities. They distribute the first course to all the guests--including the skeleton next to Adolina. None of hte other guests speak of the bones or even cast them much of a glance, even as the food is placed before them.
The first course is quicksoup, a strange and unusual delicacy first pioneered in the Iobarian city of Orlov. Each guest is given a tureen of heady, boiling-hot soup sitting atop a nest of five short candles, a smaller bowl in which swim five live minnows, and a set of utensils that include a two-tined fork, a sharp, slender knife, and a spoonlike sieve. The proper way to eat this meal is to scoop a fish out of the bowl, drop it into the boiling soup, spear it with the fork, and then cut the flesh of the freshly poached minnow away with the knife. Once the fish have been consumed, the candles are extinguished, and the soup is allowed to cool, the regular spoon is used to sip the broth and eat the vegetables in the soup.
"Why thank you, Hon," Farrina replies to the gnome with an appropriately suggestive smile. "But my clothes don't come off until at least the second date. Unless I've been drinking heavily, of course, then all bets are off." She laughs and moves on to the other guests. She notes the woman, however, for further conversation.
~~~~
"Oh! I think I've had something like this before," she says when the soup is placed in front of them. "Although it was clams instead of little fishies." Showing no reticence at all, she dives into the meal. She has little difficulty with the mechanics and once the fish are consumed, she downs the rest of her soup with minimal slurping.
"So what's the deal with ... that?" she questions the guest to her right in a soft voice, nudging and pointing towards the skeleton at the end of the table.
The guest to Farrina's right is an elderly Keleshite man. His eyes widen slightly at her question and he quickly turns back to his meal.
Molly catches Farrina's eye and makes a slicing motion across her neck, telling her to drop the line of questioning. Farrina remembers Molly mentioning that the queen's husband will "be in attendance" and to not speak of him. She surmises that these bones must belong to him...
|
|
Adolina sets to work on her fish, nodding politely and smiling at all the people around her. She fillets the fish with easy precision but is distracted by a question from someone on the other side of the table and ends up leaving her last fish in the soup too long, a fact she acknowledges with a rueful smile.
"Lovely fish, I had the pleasure of eating a similar dish in Magnimar. They combine it with a rather piquant spiced sauce. A good combination once you get used to it."
Her aristocratic upbringing is on full display and she does't seem at all perturbed by the skeleton at her side.
Tanjona is no stranger to filleting fish, but this kind of high-falutin' operation is far, far outside of his wheelhouse. He manages to expertly slice one of the fish at absolutely the wrong time and ruin the whole thing.
Rose keeps eyeing the skeleton suspiciously throughout the food which distracts her somewhat as she manages to fillet a fish haphazardly. She can usually do much better having been taught many fine dining techniques in her childhood and at her school, but clearly she didn't put much thought into it today.
As you are eating your meal, the Queen of Delights look around at the assembled guests. "I'm sure you're all caught up on the latest gossip from the mainland. It would seem that Cheliax has been having trouble keeping itself together of late! If a ragtag group of rebels can cause this much mayhem, can one honestly consider House Thrune to have ever been in control of Cheliax in the first place?"
Most of the guests chuckle and make wry comments, though one of them, a Chelish aristocrat, becomes quite worked up. "Cheliax is the most glorious empire in all of Avistan! I am certain Her Imperial Majestrix will not let it fall to these insipid insurrectionists!" he sputters. "No doubt she is hard at work plotting their downfall even as we speak!"
|
|
"I have no doubt that Queen Abrogail is planning the demise of the Glorious Rebellion as we speak." Adolina speaks from the far end of the table. "The Queen is powerful and has many skilled agents. I would argue though that the Church of Asmodeus controls Cheliax, House Thrune is merely Asmodeus's favoured instrument. Still, leaving semantics aside." She dismisses the topic with an airy wave, mindful of Molly's admonition to leave religion out of conversations tonight. "I would say that House Thrune has a strong grip on the heartlands, where they have built their own infrastructure and control the levers of power. On the fringes of the Chelaxian Empire - Sargarva for example, where they rely on others to do their work for them and attempt to ensure complicity through fear or bribery - no, they are not in control. It is simply a matter of how long they can hold on."
"Oh, rebels, schmebels," Farrina adds with a snort. "What a strong hand grasps at, there will always be another hand that attempts to pull away." She holds up a red ball about the size of a coin. She makes a show of snatching it with her other hand and the opens it to display that hand as empty with no sign of the bauble.
"Cheliax labors under the delusion that they can eliminate the rebels, but that will never happen. There will always be a counter force of some sort. That's how the world works." She holds both hands palm up as if the bowls of a scale. "Good. Bad. Dark. Light. Man. Woman. Day. Night. Young. Old. The world is made of dichotomies. You can't have one without the other as much as you might try."
Reaching down and picking her fork back up, she poaches her neighbors soup for a fragment of small fish that he was unable to retrieve and pops it into her mouth. "Squash these rebels and more will rise in their place to restore the balance," she says as she chews.
Tanjona simply eats his raw fish. He knows better than to open his mouth in this kind of conversation.
"House Thrune has an excellent propaganda machine." Rose says with a chuckle. "What need is there for armies and heavy control if you can simply make people think that you are in control. Far less intensive on resources that way." She gives a slight shrug. "Of course it rather comes crumbling down when people start to think for themselves! Not that we aren't all true patriots of course!" She adds with a sly wink.
The other guests murmur at your words, and while the Chelish noble continues to sputter angrily, it's clear his arguments don't have much weight to them. The Queen of Delights inclines her head towards you.
The second course arrives in large clay pots, the tops of which have been covered by blood-red cloths, along with plates containing tiny loaves of bread. Within each pot is what looks like an obscenely bloated, fleshy head. This is in fact a “Galtan squash”—a squash carved and braised in order to look like a boiled, bald, severed human head. The meal comes with a large sharpened spoon and a small sauceboat containing a spicy red sauce.
Galtan squash is a relatively new sort of meal invented by scornful Chelish chefs; the proper way to eat the squash is to drench it in spicy sauce and then use the razor-sharp spoon to scoop through the rind and spoon out the juicy, stringy flesh inside. The little loaf of bread is not to be eaten until the end of the course; ingredients in the bread help to mitigate the spice.
"This is not the first rebellion the world has seen, nor, as our newest guests have noted, will it be the last," Manticce says once everybody has had a chance to eat. "How is it that rebels can justify the pain and death they cause by opposing what is often a rightful ruler?" The tiefling looks pointedly towards you.
|
|
"I believe the key word is 'often'." Adolina counters, having quite enjoyed the squash and its spiced sauce. "While rebellion against a legitimate and just ruler is hard to justify I would posit that the opposite is also true - it is impossible to not justify the need for uprising against tyranny and dictatorship. It is a hallmark of such governments that they shut down and attempt to invalidate any other form of protest, which leaves the violent overthrow of the state as the only recourse of good women. I agree it is not the ideal method - but if it is the only method, then I believe strongly that it is justified. Of course one would hope that our theoretical rebels would do their best to avoid causing pain and death, but it is perhaps the mark of the rulers that they oppose that said rulers would dole out pain and death in great amounts, attempting to maintain their power."
After only a few bites of squash slathered in the spicy sauce, Farrina is fanning her mouth and grabbing for the bread. "Wow, that's ... good," she says, tears gathering at her eyes.
"The rationale would be the same if ... damn, that's spicy ... if, for example, you handed me a cup of red-leaf tea," she continues, trying to catch her breath. "Normally I wouldn't touch that stuff it burns so much. But in my current state, I could drink it like water." She wipes at her eyes. "Someone wouldn't normally go through the pain and anguish that a rebellion inflicts. Unless ... unless they're already suffering as much or more that it wouldn't make a difference." She bites off another mouthful of bread and continues to speak as she chews. "One could argue whether Kintargo has reached that point, but clearly some feel that it has. Now do enough feel that way?" She shrugs and pushes the last of her bread into her mouth. "We'll fhgingnd ohouth."
Rose lunges for her bread as well as her mouth is on fire. "Mmm.....good indeed" After a couple of mouthfuls of bread she braves the squash again to save face and regrets it immediately as her eyes begin to water.
Not being able to contribute much as she is so distracted, Rose simply nods. "This lady has said it perfectly." as she gestures to Adolina and hopes that the attention remains on the Paladin who is much more used to this foreign food than she is.
Tanjona's eyes tear up from the spices and he in too much pain to say anything.
Once more, the Queen of Delights seems impressed by your insightful words. The other guests offer their opinions as well, though the halfling and another Varisian woman get into an argument about how sometimes pain and death are necessary for growth. The two end up nearly coming t oblows before a snarky comment by the queen ("Seems we’ve got our own rebellion growing at this very table!" defuses their growing anger.
Soon thereafter, the help trot out a large tray balanced on the back of a shaved ram, heaped with what appear to be pies with golden flaky crusts. The queen claps her hands in delight, exclaiming, “Ah, the meat course!”
These pies are filled with a most unusual and curious meat—the braised flesh of an invisible stalker. When cooked delicately, this meat remains invisible for a short time, and has a texture not unlike that of cotton candy. The meat itself is relatively flavorless, but the thick, mostly clear sauce it’s cooked in is quite savory.
The proper way to eat an unseen feast is to finish it within 5 minutes of the pie being opened, for after this point, the meat has had enough time to react with the air and becomes visible as a fluffy, wispy mass. When this happens, any bits of meat left uneaten take on a bitter taste, and traditionally, once the meat becomes visible, it is considered gauche to eat it.
"I have often wondered," Manticce says once the course is complete, "about the strangeness of sinn—more precisely, how different societies consider different acts sinful. To her, the worship of a god is a sin, yet for all of Cheliax, worship of Asmodeus is all but required."
She goes around the table, asking the guests what they each consider to be the greatest sin. They offer varied responses, ranging from "neglecting your children," to "abuse of trust," to "fraud," to "invading another's home." (The gnome Kekza answers "chastity" with a lustful look at Farrina.)
The queen saves you for last.
|
|
Adolina, who is possessed of a sharp tongue but not a sharp eye, quite enjoys her pie, but is eating it completely at random and takes as many forkfuls of empty air as she does actual meat. Still it is quite the experience.
"As to sin..." Adolina says thoughtfully when the conversation comes around to her. "I would say deliberate inaction in the face of evil. It is the duty of us all to help to shape the world, to leave it better than we found it. Now I understand that the means by which we are all able to do this are different. From the begetting of children," She nods to Kekza, "To obeying our own conscience and promoting freedom of thought." She inclines her head to their host. "But it is something that we all ought to do, regardless of our exact inclinations, so to deliberately ignore that responsibility is the greatest sin I can conceive of."
It's not perhaps her best speech, but it is obvious from her delivery that Adolina definitely believes in what she is saying.
Having a great amount of experience in hiding what could be visible and seeing what's not, the Colorful One has no difficulty at all with the peculiar pie. "Oh ... OH ... that's ... that's good," she says, perhaps sounding a little more ... sultry than what is required.
"The greatest sin?" she questions with a light laugh. "That's an easy one. That would be to die with no one remembering who you were. Whether that's songs written about you, statues with your name on them, a theater dedicated to you, ..." She waves her fork in the air and then grins evilly, winking back at the gnome. "Scary stories told of you to make children behave." She puts the fork down on the table and rises from her seat to gesture dramatically. "Operas written about you ..." She breaks into the chorus from the opera, La femme d'Absalom. Returning to her seat, she waves dismissively at Adolina. "Or something as banal as children with your name. The greatest sin is to be forgotten."
Rose looks suspiciously at the pie, not really getting the point of such ridiculous theatrics at dinner and is so involved in trying to spot the meat, she misses the conversation topic entirely.
"Oh, I got one!" She says outloud, not realising others may be paying her any attention and losing the little credibility she previously had.
"Oh, you're not quite asking for examples of a sin are you? What you're really asking is what makes different societies view sins so differently? There is no true catalogue listing sins and virtues but a simple definition. A sin is an immoral act considered to be a transgression by the society in which it is performed."
Tanjona digs the fork underneath the invisible pie, stretches his mouth into its shark visage, and eats the entire thing in a single scoop.
He has nothing to add to the conversation about sin, probably being too busy swallowing an entire pie.
Manticce ponders your answers as the final course is served--dessert. At each setting, the help place a small plate covered by a silver lid, a strange device that looks like a little corkscrew, and a curious fist-sized object in the shape of a dodecahedron (the same shape as a 12-sided die). The help lift the lids of all plates simultaneously, and a tumble of fat, candied spiders, each with a belly the size of a grape, come tumbling out over the edges of the plate!
These candied spiders are a Darklands delicacy called sweetfats—crunchy and served cold, they are slightly sweet if eaten dry but much more delicious drenched with honey sauce. Alas, the honey sauce itself is trapped within the dodecahedron, and opening the container is tricky.
During this final course, the queen accepts any gifts her guests have brought. The other guests bring her relatively boring gifts that she dutifully accepts, but she looks to you with anticipation.