Maud smiles, "Oh, every month we honour the Dormant Dreamer. A different family takes the lead with the cookin' each time. Sometimes folks double up but, well," She looks proudly around at her brood, "I'm a fortunate woman."
Linka slips silently through the house. She finds no evidence of Kyle but she does find two doors marked ‘private’. One is locked but the other is not.
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Linka sneaks into the unlocked room first, if she doesn't find anything she tries the locked door.
[Dice=Perception] 1d20+7
[Dice=Disable Device]1d20+11
[Dice=Perception] 1d20+7
Picking the difficult lock, you enter the other room and it is clearly the master bedroom. A large bed, dresser, wardrobe, and washbasin are the only
furniture in this room.
An elaborately embroidered quilt on the bed depicts a radiant woman's sojourn through a swamp and the introduction of druidic advisors to a village. The quilt shows three druids teaching villagers to cultivate some serrated-leaf plant and offering the fruits of their labour to a symbolic butterfly.
Tanya, reaching the house, finds Linka coming out of a downstairs room very quietly.
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Maud throws one back, "A box without hinges, key or lid, yet inside golden treasure is hid." and one of the family smiles and goes to answer before catching themselves and waiting for your reply.
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”An egg, of course,” says the traveler, grinning broadly. She thinks a moment, then:
”I run, I lie, I part, and I sigh.
Not a cheat or a thief, so what am I?”
Ekanta stays in his room during this time, meditating, drilling, appreciating the chamber's stark, lonely dignity...
...and, as ever, remaining mindful of his surroundings.
[dice=Perception for who-knows-what]1d20+9
One side of the paper contains an order from the city of Magnimar for the collection of 500 gold pieces in back taxes from Ravenmoor while on the other is a crude map of Ravenmoor with several buildings circled: the trading post, the weaver, the ferry and Kriegler Manor.
Heal or nature for the stain.
History for the quilt
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Hearing Tanya's return, Ekanta catches up with she and Linka and presents them with his find.
"I found this hidden in my mattress."
There is another one of those pregnant pauses that occur so often in Ekanta's presence.
"...This is not one of those places where removing paper from mattresses is a criminal act, is it?"
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She pulls her hand down.
”Ekanta, does it strike you as unusual the town is full of the most unhelpful villagers to have ever graced Golarion? Especially for a festival?”
Ekanta stares back at Tanya with all the comprehension of a cephalopoid-eyed, deer-legged water buffalo. "No."
"Actually, I found them to have been very...nice," He says as though it took effort to call to mind that last word.
The quilt is clearly a historical document, probably telling a folk-history about Ravenmoor. You have no idea how accurate it might be.
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Linka pokes her head out and whispers
In here. This should be the mayor's room. Help me search it. Or if you're feeling up to it the bed in the next room is soaked with something awful and I can't tell what it is.
After reading the paper...
I don't like this. It's seems unlikely that Elias would have left this hidden here if he had been able to collect the taxes and be on his way.
Alerted by ringing bells, a single firework zipping into the sky and the flow of people moving into the feasting spot, you realise that the festival is beginning and head on down.
As you approach you notice the ferryman moving through the crowds with a hooded crow on his arm. You also see the mayor shaking hands, slapping backs and talking merrily with villagers and, well, everyone you have met so far is at the festival, one way or another.
Viorec, the father of the boy whose stirge you killed, spies you and cuts through the throng to reach your group with Ornigaard in tow, "I thought you might want these. We made them for you." They offer you each a little butterfly-winged figures made from folded, twisted and tied dried grasses. You are reminded that everyone else is wearing them.
The light is falling. A pair of fiddlers strike up. Kegs of ale, strapped to tables, are tapped.
Various events are starting up. The biggest crowds are at the targets, where Saul Lupescu (the blacksmith) and Anya (Saul's wife, runs the store) are organising competitors and the raven fighting pit, where money is already changing hands and the names of raven are being chalked up on a blackboard, alongside their odds.
You also notice that the bonfire is burning and some villagers are taking a shot of grog from a big ceramic bottle (judging by their grimaces, it is potent and unpleasant) and then leaping over the flames.
All of the events seem to be open to all comers, although you obviously need a raven for the raven fights.
The crowd are merry and giddy. A young man hands Tanya a drink, "To your good health! And maybe you'll give me a dance later." He grins and is pulled off into the crowds by his friends.
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Sayuki grins at Viorec’s approach and happily pins the figure to her outfit. ”Many thanks,” she says.
As things set up, she has changed her attire, looking almost more like a performer herself; she’s somehow managed to do so despite having not dipped away to somewhere private, nor had much of an opportunity to remove the flour and dough.
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Viorec, the father of the boy whose stirge you killed, spies you and cuts through the throng to reach your group with Ornigaard in tow, "I thought you might want these. We made them for you." They offer you each a little butterfly-winged figures made from folded, twisted and tied dried grasses. You are reminded that everyone else is wearing them.
"Hrmmm... Thanks." Once again, she overthinks this.
Some kind of memento of the wrong-doing we have committed to his son? It wasn't even our fault! The brat should have held the leash tighter on the damn thing!A young man hands Tanya a drink, "To your good health! And maybe you'll give me a dance later." He grins and is pulled off into the crowds by his friends.
"Uh... Thanks..." Tanya says, looking at the drink. She gives it a sniff and a sip.
... Under what circumstance does he expect a soldier to be able to dance? It is downright ridiculous! Unless... This is some sort of test? Is that what is going on? They are trying to find my weak points! If that is what they want, I'll show them!"Hold it right there!" She calls to the young man. "You want to dance? Fine, let's dance." She grabs him aggressively and leads him out into the crowd.
The man smiles, slightly nervously as he feels the severity of Tanya's grip, but his friends form a loose circle, a fiddler moves closer and a few other locals join the dancing.
The young man struggles to keep up and his friends make a few jokes at his expense. He smiles broadly but bows out after the first dance, "Thank you. You are an excellent dancer, sorry I could not keep up. Maybe if you watch me in the hog wrestling you'll see me in a better light?" He takes a deep draught of his ale, "I am Fendren, what should I call you?"
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Tanya’s outermost expression is of a calm and almost unimpressed demeanor. Inside her head is a different story.
Asking a soldier their rank after being beaten?! Such impudence!
”Fendren the Hog-Wrestler, huh? Very well, perhaps I shall spectate. You may call me Major Tanya Von Dugerechaff.”
”So, Fendren, what is the best dessert here?”
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Salvius tidies up his suit as best he can, and joins the party on the festival. However, his tendency to inspect nearby trees and plants soon has his suit dirty. He mentions to the party-"It's a bummer Leonard seems to be absent from the festivities, he looked like he needed a break."-he says before asking someone from the party to accompany and check the raven fights.
Whilst he particularly does not enjoy watching them, he is interested on the trainers and animal handlers and how they take care of their ravens.
[dice=Perception]1d20+9
Seeing nothing amiss, Ekanta heads for the 3-legged race.
Such a nice girl; she must be lonely indeed.
"I hope you can run...."
Lucille grins as you arrive, "Oh, I thought you might not come, um, err..." she looks at her toes.
The villager directing the event, a thin, tall man with dozens of leaves and flowers shoved into his hatband to make a kind of floral crown, comes over, "You two runnin' together? You'd best get tied on then an' we can get started." He smiles at Ekanta, his voice quavers a second at the tiefling's unnerving gaze but then he soldiers on, "So, erm, yes, well... You might want to have a little practise walkin' an' runnin' as a pair before the race begins." He gestures to two other couples only just beginning to tie up, "You got time."
Tanya’s outermost expression is of a calm and almost unimpressed demeanor. Inside her head is a different story.
Asking a soldier their rank after being beaten?! Such impudence!
”Fendren the Hog-Wrestler, huh? Very well, perhaps I shall spectate. You may call me Major Tanya Von Dugerechaff.”
”So, Fendren, what is the best dessert here?”
"Oh, well, Maud's in charge so everything should be good tonight but I'd go for the picarones or veriohukainen with the gooseberry jam. Always go for the gooseberry ones." He grins, "Maybe you could sit with me later, y'know, at the feast? I'll help you find the best grub."
[dice=Perception]1d20+10
Salvius tidies up his suit as best he can, and joins the party on the festival. However, his tendency to inspect nearby trees and plants soon has his suit dirty. He mentions to the party-"It's a bummer Leonard seems to be absent from the festivities, he looked like he needed a break."-he says before asking someone from the party to accompany and check the raven fights.Whilst he particularly does not enjoy watching them, he is interested on the trainers and animal handlers and how they take care of their ravens.
Salvius heads over to the raven pits, gesturing at the others, although none seem to be following him just yet. As he gets close, the ferryman calls out and waves to him, "Oi, over' ere! There's some seats."
As he gets closer, Salvius can see a woman preparing her bird for the fight. The raven is hooded and it's wings have been clipped. The talons appear to have been sharpened and she teases the bird with the smell of food to get it worked up. She also rubs some kind of fungus into its chest feathers.
Linka and Sayuki reach the start of the targets and Saul is getting children to stay behind the line, "You don't want to catch one of Iola's falling stars, you'll miss the feast getting stitched up."
A villager, a stocky man in his 50s heaves a starknife into the air.
He releases the star awkwardly and it sticks into the ground a little to the left and six foot away from the first bale. he stamps his foot, "That one was wonky, Saul, give me another."
Anya shakes her head at him, "You won't get any favours just because you drink together, Tebnor. You can have another throw shortly." She nods in your direction, "I think we're all keen to see how the new folk get on."
Saul hands Linka and Sayuki starknives, "Who's first?"
Sayuki does a better job than Saul's friend but cannot hit the bale. Her blade wedges in the dirt two feet short of the bale.