Getsemiel, part 2

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose raised an eyebrow in return. "You've been to Lorrel? What's it like?"

[Alberich]

Tim simply listened. He knew that Rose knew he'd never left Veracia before. In fact, however, these answers were giving him hope. Farrell did not have the same reputation as Tsuiraku by a long shot. They even had a serious missionary presence.

[Drannin]

"I passed through during my wandering phase. It was a couple of years ago." He chuckled. "So, I guess it FEELS like years because it WAS years." Rose gave him a playful smack at this. "Anyway, I... don't remember much about it because, well, I was in a drunken haze at the time." He sighed. "I remember getting tossed coins for entertaining people with various spells. Such as animated beer golems serving themselves to people." Another sigh. "Hopefully no-one remembers me."

[Jack Rothwell]

"Lorrel?" Eli piped up, as if coming out of a daze which had lasted a week. "My father said he had a brother who lived there... he..." The half-elf closed his mouth reflexively. It wasn't that he had no trust for the people in his company, it was just that giving away the locations of his kind wasn't something he could bring himself to do.

"I should... visit him when we arrive." He finished.

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose couldn't stifle a giggle at Argus' words. "Beer golems ... now that, you'll have to show me." She patted his arm, then caught the look on Tim's face and felt a need for ... clarification. "Some time when we're dehydrated and need to get some fluids rapidly, of course."

Eli, on the other hand, had said something interesting. The Veracian presence in Port Lorrel was not large, and their capacity to support this mission might be limited. A friend of the party in town might have real value. She decided to have a quiet off-line conversation with Eli (if he could ever pry himself away from Desiree -- had she and Kenny had that kind of non-stop sex when they were first married? Well, actually, maybe they had, but still...) and see if some kind of support could be lined up.

First, though, some information needed to be passed. "We'll want to check in at the Veracian temple in town," she said, back to business now. "I think I've met the high priest there, a man named Father Romuald, not the most dynamic man you'll ever meet but more reasonable than most o-of his generation." (Hopefully she'd stopped herself from saying "Orthodox" in time to avoid antagonizing Tim.) "The Church isn't as strong in Farrel as it used to be, and they've had to -- moderate some of their practices to be effective." And to avoid just getting assassinated by those criminal guilds that run the place. "We can expect logistical help from them, but we're going to be mostly on our own. But on our own doing what? I've never been there, and I don't know what to expect."

Other than that a murderous renegade priest is loose in the land, anyway...

[Alberich]

This "beer golem" business didn't bother Tim especially. The honest pint was part of the normal workingman's life, and country clergy like himself certainly didn't refuse it. Some of the Unorthodox sects supposedly swore off it - but in Umbertiel, for sure, they'd be looked on askance. It was a harmless enough use for magic.

"If we have a report from there about Blaise," he asked, "has this Father Romuald been warned about him?" Sometimes these Reformed Elite Battle Angels seemed to forget their duty to protect the Faithful. But they'd take a reminder without rancor. Or that's how Rose was anyway.

"Another question. Back when Blaise was escaping us, I was hoping Lillith could use her wind magic to drive that strange ship onto the shore. We don't have her now. But suppose we see them escaping again? Or they, ah, make for open water when they see us coming. Do we have anything that coullllld...beach them, sink them, stop them doing it again?"

[Drannin]

Argus sighed. "Fair question. I find water to be damned hard to manipulate. Too fluidic. I suppose the best option that comes to mind is... flinging a paticularly large object at them. Or, if they're close enough, doing damage to the ship itself. It depend on the situation, really."

[Graybeard]

"Judging from this thing, Father Romuald has been warned," Sister Rose answered, holding the message. "It sounds like Blaise has surfaced in Lorrel itself, rather than at sea." She turned to Argus with an ironic smile. "Sorry to interfere with your ship-sinking plans. At the moment they're just keeping an eye on him. Most of the priests and nuns in Farrel aren't supposed to have much in the way of magic skills, so they don't want to go after him directly." She had no way yet of knowing that Romuald had had a fatal change of heart after sending that message -- fatal for one of the other priests at the temple, but still fatal. "Quite understandably, they don't want to involve the Farrelites in this, so it's still our job to bring him in. At least with him under observation by the church in Lorrel, that shouldn't be too complicated."

Little did she know.

[Drannin]

(OOC: I have nothing else to write at the moment... do we jump forward a little?)

[Alberich]

Tim wasn't quite through. "But whe..err, if he happens to escape again to the ship before we can catch him, do we have anything heavy to throw, any magicks, any weapons on this airship to make him wish he hadn't? It's hard to believe Farrel's his final stop, and I'd hate to see him escape again."