The road to Getsemiel

[Drusia]

"Numbers expanding?" I ask, confused, "I thought we only had one more person. Who else besides Brother Timothy?"

[OOC]You're pregnant, you just don't realize it yet.[/OOC]
[OOC]It's twins.[/OOC]
[OOC]Kidding.[/OOC]
[OOC]No, really. I'm kidding. Don't look at me like that.[/OOC]

OOC: Actually, it is entirely possible that you're right.

I was going to wait a few in-game weeks, and then roll some percentiles. If I roll under 5%, Desiree is pregnant.

[Drusia]

"Well...uh...no-one. But he has... umm... made an impression." Eli shuffled his feet and ran a hand through the morning mess of his long hair. "But they picked us up in Snamish before this town. I expect by the time we reach our desination we'll be a regular travelling circus." He spared a thought for Harkin. "A bigger travelling circus."

"Oh, I see," I say, relieved. Rose and hers are one thing, but these other Luminosans make me nervous. The fewer of them I get stuck with, the better.

I finish my food quicky and then get up out of bed. I should get dressed - I had the impression that we would be leaving rather quickly this morning.

"Eli," I ask suddenly, inspecting my traveling outfit to make sure it's clean enough to wear, "how much do you know about what happened to Kenny?"

I'm a little surprised at myself for asking, but for the past several days, Eli has been my only real friend here. I need to talk to someone about this, and I don't think I'm up for having this conversation with Sister Rose yet.

-- Desiree

[Graybeard]

"What's this?" Sister Rose said, taking the figurine from Lillith. "A weapon, you say? It looks like a small version of that statue we saw going up Stone Man Pass. How does it work?"

"It doesn't any more," Brad explained. "The altar boy said he could make it shoot fireworks and crossbow bolts. You wouldn't believe what Lillith did to defend us from it." He was beaming ear to ear, as though his child had summoned the whirlwind, not his lady love. "It's broken now, pieces came off, he said."

"Umm-hmm," Rose grunted noncommittally. "Let me see it for a minute." Magic flared at her fingertips; a detection spell, clearly enough. "I'm not the best with detection magic," she said, almost apologetically, "but I don't get anything from it. Whatever magic was in it is no more. Argus?" She handed it over, and she could see that he was thinking the same thing that she was: we just examined that boy's dead uncle. But why?...

[OOC: Actually, just temporizing here; as soon as Tim fetches the various lovers, we can hit the road, as far as Rose and Brad are concerned. Also:

I was going to wait a few in-game weeks, and then roll some percentiles. If I roll under 5%, Desiree is pregnant.

Well, keep rolling till you get the answer you like. ]

[Jack Rothwell]

"How much do you know about what happened to Kenny?"

"Next door to nothing." Eli replied frankly, putting the final touches on his own outfit. "I figured it wasn't my place to pry about the affairs of other people." He studied the seriousness of her face. "Why? Is there something you'd like to talk about?"

[Drannin]

Argus handled the object and shrugged. "There are traces of evocation magic on it. Probably a weapon of some sort at one point. Can't tell much more than that." He shook his head. "I'm more curious as to where such an object was found in the first place."

[Alberich]

[OOC: Pardon to all, I'm hustling it along a bit. But I'm sure no one would mind if Desiree and Eli want to complete or backfill their private conversation.]

It had taken Tim a moment to register that he was the one who was supposed to be fetching "the suspects being 'questioned'" - kicking himself mentally, he got moving over to the temple, where he knocked on the doors occupied by Maduin, Bryce, Desiree, and Eli, and called through a message that Rose was ready and the wagon was hitched, and it was time to be away. He moved away from those doors before they opened, as he really didn't want to peer around and see what these people had been up to in their rooms. (In fact, he had no inkling of what Maduin and Bryce were to each other, and he attributed Bryce's willigness to accept "guard duty" over Maduin as an eagerness to help everyone out of a sticky situation - an eagerness he shared and appreciated.) As they emerged, he repeated his earlier advice - "Let's say as little as possible until we're quite out of town."

With authority from Father Arpad, he also gathered the group's milita escort, to see them safely away and give life to the cover story. A couple of townsfolk - including the blushing girl from the inn last night - wanted to say longer goodbyes to Tim, but he had to put them off politely after a few words, because "duty called." It was good to know that he'd be missed, and he hoped he wouldn't be forgotten when this mission was done. But you never knew - if the higher-ups were actually thinking about him at all, they might have a reassignment in mind before it was done. The letters said, "For care of souls, you are assigned to..." - and that was where you went.

Well, if it came to that, he thought he could learn to fit into just about any community. It wasn't so different from adjusting into a group of student priests, or a squad of soldiers - do your duty, keep your manners, know your place, learn where the lines are, stay on the right side.

He knew he'd be tired tonight, but he was determined not to ask to ride on the wagon. Especially not if the ladies were walking. He was young enough to get away with missing a little sleep anyway.

[Graybeard]

[OOC:

He knew he'd be tired tonight, but he was determined not to ask to ride on the wagon. Especially not if the ladies were walking. He was young enough to get away with missing a little sleep anyway.

Actually, there's plenty of room on the wagon. Bryce and Maduin normally ride on Bryce's impressive stallion, and on one of the group's many encounters with dead people -- they really need to break that habit -- they picked up an abandoned horse for use if needed. So he should feel no guilt about hopping on board; everyone else is aboard, and there's room. Anyway ... /OOC:]

"We'd better get moving," Sister Rose said as the group reassembled. "It's a very long day to -- Getsemiel from here under the best of conditions. At least we'll have a full moon to ride by, if it comes to that." [OOC: This is true, actually. This is all happening about a lunar month after the very first moments of the game, which were also under a full moon. /OOC:] "On the other hand, if we have to spend a night on the road, we're equipped to." She smiled at Eli, Desiree and Brother Timothy. "You should see this amazing tent gadget of Maduin's. It's a regular home away from home. A little short on privacy, maybe, but a lot more comfortable than throwing a sleeping bag onto rough ground."

As soon as the group was outside the gates, the subject came back around to the figurine.

"Let me see if I get this straight," Rose said to anyone who would listen, her face serious again. "This thing shot arrows and pyrotechnics, but it doesn't any more. The boy had it, tried to use it on you. He got it from his Uncle Shemmy, who almost certainly was the man killed in the stables that Argus and I were asked to examine, and who found it at the stable. The boy thought you were 'demons,' because his uncle wanted revenge against 'Tsoo-rakyan' devils who had to be demons." An arch look at Maduin, followed by a more contemplative one at Argus. "The Tsuirakuans had killed another uncle, the dead man's brother. And there was a different demon or demons that started the fire at the stable, and eventually killed his Uncle Shemmy. Does that size it all up correctly?"

A look around the wagon confirmed that she had, so she continued. "I don't know about you, but for all this to happen at just the same time that we reach town, and Bree and Blaise reach town ... well, this trip has taught me not to believe in coincidences like that." She took a long, deep breath. "But if these things happening aren't a coincidence ... just what are they?"

The question hung in midair over the wagon as they turned west.

[Alberich]

[OOC: I see, Maduin likes to "ride" on Bryce's "stallion" - yeah, got it.]

Brother Timothy thought he really ought to keep quiet and let the others talk first, because they knew more than he did about their mission, their enemies, what Blaise had been questioning them about, and so on. But he was talkative by nature and there was a little silence in the air.

"Well, we also know - because Lillith and Brad and I found out - that 'Uncle Shemmy' was the one trying to blame Maduin for the fire, get a crowd stirred up against him. And I know, and I think you know, someone was shooting mystery arrows into Inquisitor Blaise's office, in fact I think they were saying that Maduin was in there at the time, so maybe they were shooting at him. And this Shemmy doesn't like Tsuirakuans anyway, and seems to not like Maduin at all, and says he killed his brother. Not a big coincidence. You'd all been summoned here, Shemmy found it out however he found it out, and was lying in wait for Maduin. Had to be pretty impatient to start shooting with Blaise in the room, though.

"But that doesn't explain who started the fire, or how Shemmy got caught in it. I don't think it was Blaise responding with divine fire. One thing in the barn was, when the little windows opened for the arrows to come through, you couldn't return fire with divine power - Brad tried it. It was totally shielded from that. But when Lillith had the wind going, some of the rocks and stuff blew back through the window, caught Ronnie in the eye, and probably broke this thing."

He babbled on a little more. "So, the fire might be something totally separate, or somebody who had magic but not weapons trying to roast Shemmy. About the only thing burning the stable would do is to slow down people riding out of town. And that wouldn't work on the Cardinal anyway - if he was in a hurry, some kind of transport would be found for him. Besides, it's not that big a stable, and it's hard to see how Shemmy would get burned to death without running out of there. So that makes me think he was down when the fire started, or else he got struck down with fire to start with, and the stable burning was just collateral."

He closed his mouth at that point, because the likeliest persons to use magic to strike down an assassin of Maduin were riding on this wagon with him. It would be kind of embarrassing if they'd burned a whole stable in the process of stopping the assassin, and maybe they didn't want to admit it. He didn't know who knew how much magic, but he knew that elves were supposed to be good at it, and three of them had elf ears...It was time for someone else to talk now.

[Graybeard]

Brother Tim's theorizing hung silently in midair for a few seconds as the travelers tried to digest it. Then Sister Rose spoke up, both her voice and her demeanor hesitant.

"Maybe," she said, "but there's another possibility, one that's been bothering me for a while now: maybe Blaise set that fire." This got her some startled looks from the party, so she raised her hand. "Let me explain..."

She started to tick off points on her fingers. "We know that Blaise was in one he-- terrific hurry to get out of town after Bree died. We don't know why, but he was, and Tim, you make a key point. Yes, transportation could have been arranged to get him back home quickly, an airship or something. He didn't wait for that. It wasn't that he wanted to be somewhere else in particular, necessarily; it was that he did not want to be here. So he took his horse, and off he went."

She took a deep breath and continued. "Second point: he didn't want to be followed. We know that because he completely cleaned out his room before he left. How, and how so quickly? Dam-- darned if I know. It can be done, though. You Tsuirakuans -- she nodded at Bryce and Argus -- have this clever 'Pocket Dimension' spell for storing things. The elves have it too." She didn't want to point out to Tim that she, in fact, had used a Pocket Dimension on this trip; it was one of those little Special Ops gadgets they didn't talk about. "So there's an in-principle answer to the 'how' part. Of course, he'd still have to use it and get on the move quickly ... which brings me to my third point."

She didn't like where this was going, and she liked it less the more she verbalized it, but she forged ahead. "We know that Father Blaise is a powerful magic user -- an unexpectedly powerful one. That was clear from the way he just tossed off spellcraft while we were being interviewed." She nodded at Argus. "He did something to Bree that -- well, I've never known a Veracian priest to do. Mind magic of some kind. We don't learn that in seminary ... so just where did he learn it?"

She folded her fingers back up. "I think we're left with the conclusion that there's more to Father Blaise than meets the eye. The Patriarch thinks so too; that's why we're going where we're going. And I think he set that fire to cover his tracks."

[Sareth]

Lillith nodded her head and then chimed in. "That all seems reasonable enough. I think you're probably right. But there are two things still unexplained."

She turned and glanced towards Argus, and then over to Maduin. "What do Tsuirakuans and demons have to do with any of it? A supposed demon hunter died in the fire Blaise probably set, after accusing Tsuirakuans of being demons. It doesn't connect unless it really is a coincidence. Unless Father Blaise's magical skills weren't given to him by your church, but by Tsuirakuans?" The girl noticed a few startled and worried looks at that one.

"Second, if any of this is true... Why? Why would he have learned such magics? Why would he have come here. Why would the death of Sister Brie have encouraged him to flee. And why would a Tsuirakuan hating demon hunter have died in the fire he set to cover his escape?" She shook her head. It doesn't make any sense."