Kiyoka, Douaga and beyond

[Drusia]

"Whatever we need to do, I suppose. There's nothing to negotiate with, though, until we know who did it, and where they're holed up."

Ah. Well, okay then. Anfisa asks how we plan to do this - good question - and Rose starts talking about... magical investigation gagets? Um, okay, sure. I'm not sure what sort of magical things will work for this, but... then I don't really know what won't work either.

So shopping. Yay.

-- Desiree

OOC: Nothing much to do with Desiree ATM. Just a filler post. Yup.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: I didn't really intend to make another full-blown shopping trip out of this, at least on the board; in fact, rather the contrary, it would be nice to move toward getting on the airship and going south. But if you really want to talk shopping, that's fine...]

"There's one more thing I'd like to find," Sister Rose said as the group left the magic shop. It had been a profitable outing; in addition to the parts that Argus would use (or so they hoped) for a magical reconstruction device, they'd picked up personal medical kits for the whole party, as a hedge against the diseases and venomous critters reputedly widespread on the Southern Continent, and a translation gadget in case they ran into speakers of unfamiliar languages. However, there was one thing missing.

"We need some kind of incentive for people to give us information," she mused. "I don't know how forthcoming they'll be on their own.

"A bribe?" Therese said; no reason to use euphemisms in this crowd.

"Yes. Any ideas for some small, cheap things we can take down that will be of value to the locals?"

[Alberich]

"Yes. Any ideas for some small, cheap things we can take down that will be of value to the locals?"

Anfisa's lips poked out in a half-amused moue. She knew what men usually wanted from her and she was pretty small, but "cheap" she was not...

"What don't they have?" she asked. "Knives, cosmetics, strong waters? If we wait a few months we could get a first printing of Dina Gibazov's Book of Love but I don't guess we've got that long..."

Harker had done the illustrations in jig time and could only hope the woodcuts would do justice to his original work. They just had to follow his lines exactly!

"...or, well, we've got this great sketch artist, lots of people like having their pictures done, give them the hard sell, maybe they'd like that?"

[Drannin]

"That is the greatest idea I have ever heard. You are a genius and should feel good about yourself," Harker told Anfisa authoritatively. He spun around to look at Argus. "Need bribes? Trinkets? You got me!" The familiar smiled broadly.

Argus winced. "Your artwork, used as a form of barter?"

"And bribes!"

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose looked unconvinced. "Well, that's a fine idea for at least part of the populace," she answered both Anfisa and Harker. "I'm not so sure, though, that your, ah, artwork would be well received by some of the more -- conservative cultures down there. We're not sure what we're going to be dealing with, after all. We still need to find something that will be a suitable, er, thank-you gift for some parts of their society."

"She means 'bribe'," Therese translated smoothly.

Rose's face changed to mild annoyance, and it looked like she was about to say something, but before she could, she was interrupted by the arrival at the shop of a boy, perhaps twelve years old or so, in the robes of the mission. A novice, she thought. I've seen him there, but I can't remember his name. Luminosita's Nethers, I shouldn't be forgetting things like that. She turned to face the youth with a noncommittal smile on her face. "How can I help you?" she asked.

"Sister Rose, ma'am?" the boy said, his own face betraying discomfort with the situation too. Was it ill-ease at dealing with someone higher in the church hierarchy than a novice was used to? That didn't seem likely; Rose wasn't that far up in things, and the mission had always been run as a more egalitarian kind of place than many sites of the Veracian Church. Or maybe discomfort with the foreigners? The boy wasn't Tsuirakuan, but rather the son of one of the Veracian expats in town. (Why can't I remember his name, with that clue? Rose chided herself.) He might not be comfortable with a crowd this exotic. Or was it something else? She summoned as kindly a smile and nod as she could manage, and the boy forged ahead. "Father Red, he says there are three things. First, he said to give you this." He pulled a carefully sealed envelope out of his robes and handed it to the nun.

Well, that was a good start, Rose reasoned; this envelope would contain more details for the trip south, that they could read in a more private place. "Thank you," she smiled. "And the second thing?"

"Ma'am, Father Red, he says they's movin' up the flight time for your airship." There's something in his tone when he talks about the airship, Rose thought, but he continued before she could ask about it. "He says the cap'n wants to fly through the night, some secur'ty thing. Father Red says be ready to go by midnight."

This news was met with mixed emotions, at least on Rose's and Therese's parts. On balance, though, Rose found it good. They'd have their shopping done shortly, there would be reduced time for anyone to get into trouble in town, and time was a-wasting in tracking down Brother Dalton. It does mean I'll have to hurry and show Argus the vineyard -- our future vineyard, I hope -- but I think we can fit that in; it gets dark late at this time of year. She smiled again. "Thank you, that's good news. And the third thing -- is something wrong?"

The boy's face had developed such a peculiar expression that Rose was tempted to put on the Empathy spell to see what was behind it, but all was clarified with his next words. "The third thing be, ma'am --" the expression turned into patent discomfort -- "Father Red be wantin' me to be goin' with you-all."

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Where did everybody go? Some fun can be had with this kid ... so to further introduce him, then turn him over to someone else:]

"Father Red be wantin' me to be goin' with you-all."

Sister Rose wasn't sure what she was expecting for the "third thing" the boy was bringing from Father Red, but she was pretty sure she wasn't expecting that.

"That's very -- brave of you," she managed to get out. "I'm sorry, I don't remember your name --"

"Audie, ma'am," the boy interrupted.

Suddenly it made sense -- sort of.

"Ah," she said. "We've heard about you. You're skilled with life magic, yes?" She smiled encouragement.

Which elicited only a wide-eyed look from the youth. "Yes'm," he mumbled. "Least they say I am, they're startin' to train me."

And there's that other thing... "And I understand you -- saw something out of the ordinary when an unfortunate Tsuirakuan died in the mission? That must have been very hard on you."

[OOC: Over to you, A.]

[Alberich]

"Aye, yes'm" he said. While he wasn't eager for this airship trip, this adventure, or even this interview, he was bright enough to have figured out why he was here, so he'd been going back over that memory. "A black cloud o' death, is what it were like, a-comin' right out o' the furniture. They had me lookin' over the rest o' the pieces, but there weren't no more death hidin' inside 'em. Brother Farley went off wi' that piece and could be tellin' ye the most about it."

He wasn't going to take the bait to talk about how hard it was on him, let alone how terrifying. He hadn't been brought up to share that kind of thing with strangers. Or show it in front of women.

The brown-eyed, shaggy-haired boy had not yet figured out which of all these strangers were going to be his companions, only that Rose was the boss, and it wouldn't be polite to stare at those amazing foreign-looking women, so he focused his attention on Rose and hoped for the best.

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose listened intently to the boy's description, although it really didn't contain anything new. On the other hand, it did exactly confirm the message she'd received via parrot. Under the circumstances, it wasn't totally clear whether that was a good thing.

There was one other hidden subtext. Somebody else thinks there's a connection between Brother Dalton's kidnapping and all of the other -- things we've been through. Probably just Red, but maybe farther up the food chain. On balance, that's good; maybe they're starting to take all this seriously.

And Luminosita knows, I think there's a connection.

She smiled as reassuringly as she could manage. "Let me make introductions. It's an ... interesting team, from all over the world, and not everyone on it worships in our church, but trust me, we're all on the side of the good guys on this mission."

[OOC: So who wants to start and introduce themselves to this kid? Thanks to Alberich for stepping to run him for a while.]

[Drannin]

"It's nice to meet you," Argus said politely, "I'm Argus Cleiviein, and I'm looking forward to working with you." No reason not to be polite to the lad, after all.

(OOC: Well, exams are done, so it's time for celebratory booze!)

[Alberich]

"Thankye, sir," said Audie, genuflecting slightly. "An' be this yer familiar?" Staying in Kiyoka he'd seen a few of the strange creatures, and with Argus being the only Tsuirakuan around, it made sense.