Salvus and homeward

For in-universe game play. Journey through both familiar and foreign settings, explore lost ruins and forgotten cities, and try to bring light to the darkness of the world... or, you know, blow stuff up. Either way.
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Alberich
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Re: Salvus and homeward

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The foremost horseman, a blonde-bearded warrior with a friendly smile and an otherworldly brain, hailed the turnipcart's driver, who hallooed back.

"Say, friend," asked the rider, "Is this the road to St. Joe Warrior?"

"Saint Joe Warrior?" asked the driver. "I think ye be turned the wrong way 'round, friend. Holy Joe be a Californican character, and these be not Californican lands."

"What's a Californican?"

"Down 'round Getsemiel, sar, where they be makin' their devotions to the Good Lord by smokin' them mind-alterin' heathen weeds o' their'n."

"I think you're right," replied the outrider, "we are headed the wrong way. So suppose a group of, ah, pilgrims was after healing and spiritual enlightenment...what's the best way to St. Joe's from here?"

The voice was familiar to Therese and Desiree both, who'd last seen this man in the wilds of Goriel. In Therese's case, in a wild and fearsome battle; in Desiree's, in camp, in Jamie's dubious company. Familiar for sure. Welcome? For them to say.
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Graybeard
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Re: Salvus and homeward

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[OOC: Well, that was a pleasant surprise. :lol: Welcome back! All else equal, I wouldn't have expected the turnip tsar to know much about the Calfornicans -- he's from Salvus rather than Veracia, after all -- but we can work with it. So:]

Therese's reaction to hearing Udo's voice is probably best left unrecorded, but she rolled her eyes as she turned to Desiree. "What's a Getsemiel?" she asked.

There was movement at the periphery of her vision, not associated with the wagonload of pilgrims (or the other wagonload of turnips), but when she turned in its direction, nothing out of the ordinary was to be seen. That's curious...
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Drusia
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Re: Salvus and homeward

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Odd. It's that man who left with mother a while back. I wonder if he's seen her lately.

Therese's reaction to hearing Udo's voice is probably best left unrecorded, but she rolled her eyes as she turned to Desiree. "What's a Getsemiel?" she asked.

"A coastal town in Veracia, I think," I reply. "I'm pretty sure I've been there. With all the running about chasing parrots that Rose did, I often got a little turned around. It's a town somewhere anyway. There's a particularly weird but nice sect of the Luminositan faith there. They have these wonderful communal bath thingys."

With that, I pause and wave to what's-his-name. "Hello again," I call to him. "I was wondering if you've seen my mother lately."

-- Desiree

OOC: So is there a sick kid or not - I was a bit unclear about that.
Alberich
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Re: Salvus and homeward

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"Hello again. I was wondering if you've seen my mother lately."

Udo's smile beamed like a Tsuirakuan rising sun. The "mother" took him aback but only for a second, as he slotted the one hot elf chick in apparent relation to the other. His education (or Pomikiru's comics, whichever) had taught him they lived for thousands of years, and what was the point of keeping track? He liked older women even when they looked it.

"Not for a few months," he said, "but her sword was as sharp as ever! And I owe her for a great pair of boots!" Udo flashed a sturdy, well-made bit of footwear that'd carried him hundreds of miles through the midparts of Farrel. In truth he'd taken the boots from an unconscious, thieving elf, who'd stolen them himself from some hapless human, but Drusia had made sure there'd be no further disputes about their ownership. So Udo owed her after all.

"Say," he said, "do you know where some pilgrims with a really fierce cough might get it cured around here? 'parently I'm not headed the way I thought, but I think you know about stuff like that." It would be a kindness to get the sick kid in the wagon behind him cured. As for Udo himself, his luck was looking good already, and if whatsername could point him to some Strawberry Shortcut, his adventuring life could take a new and thrilling turn.
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Graybeard
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Re: Salvus and homeward

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[OOC: Yes, the sick kid would definitely be along for the ride; she's the whole reason for the expedition after all. So:]

"do you know where some pilgrims with a really fierce cough might get it cured around here? 'parently I'm not headed the way I thought, but I think you know about stuff like that."

Therese couldn't help herself. "I believe I can help this poor child," she said softly as the girl produced another wracking cough. "She sounds like she has a lung problem that is both innate --" Congenital? Could she be an Errant who happens to look fully human? I don't want to thing about that -- "and infectious. I can at least deal with the infectious part, the magic is easoof!" The sentence ended unfinished as a turnip, thrown with surprising force by the drayman, struck her precisely in the midsection.

"I, uh, wouldn't be doin' that, missy," the man explained, neither apology nor heat in his voice. "Folks up at Sanny-warry-el be makin' a lot o' their livin' by healin' lassies like this-here. Cuttin' inta their bizness ain't a-gonna make you'uns very popular once we be gettin' there." He chortled. "If you'uns be wantin' to be unpopular there, that be your bizness, but you ain't a-gonna be ridin' with me, on account of 'cause I be wantin' to be welcome-like so's I can sell my turnips." He took another puff on the pipe.
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Alberich
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Re: Salvus and homeward

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Udo didn't recognize Therese from this angle, and she was keeping her voice too soft for him to remember it, but the driver's ungentlemanly act spurred him to action. He spurred his horse forward and reached for a pack at his waist -- courtesy of Sensei's training regimen.

"Keep your turnips to yourself, miscreant!" he cried. His arm drew back and flashed forward, and a carrot bounced off the driver's belly. In the noble cause of healing the sick, truly this was the least he could do. Now if he'd just had all the broccoli he'd been made to eat as a child, he could've buried this villain.
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Graybeard
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Re: Salvus and homeward

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The drayman understandably took umbelliferumbrage at this turn of events, and reached back into the wagon for another turnip. It appeared that a veritable War of the Vegetables might be about to start, but there was a sudden surge of magic -- no one could tell from where -- and all movement in the two wagon trains ground momentarily to a halt, the humans and half elves unable to move.

Seconds later, a most curious apparition waddled out of the woods at roadside and into the intersection. It appeared to be a short, squat, bearded human or humanoid, dressed in a crude tunic and with its hat drawn down over its face so that no features were visible except a white beard. It positively reeked of magic.

"The drayman is right," this peculiar personage proclaimed, in a voice powerful enough to dislodge some of the more precariously perched turnips. "Do no healing between here and Santuariel. And no fighting, either. This is your only warning." These few words said, the odd figure vanished in a flash of light. and the magical bonds binding the travelers began to weaken.

Two of the horses whinnied nervously.
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Alberich
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Re: Salvus and homeward

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Such figures were known in the mythology of Tsuiraku, and even its magical lore. Udo thought it wiser not to cross them.

"Right then!" he said. "So what's closer, Corgal or whatsisplace?"

If Corgal was closer, then he'd advise his own driver to turn back and take it cheek by jowl. Once they got there, the ladies, with their magical healing, could look after the sick child, and the men could have it out with turnips at twenty paces.

If this Santu-wherever was closer, then he'd have to try sweet-talking the healers into coming along, and let the driver escape unpunished.
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Graybeard
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Re: Salvus and homeward

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As soon as he could move again, the drayman dropped the turnip he'd been preparing to hurl at Udo. "Lum'nosity's Loins!" he breathed. "That be one o' the spir'ts what be guardin' Sanny-warry-el! We best be goin', it be not far now." The wagon trundled into motion.

Therese, for her part, did something very different when she regained control of her body. Magic flared in her eyes as she put up some detection spells, but she almost didn't need them. "Illusion," she whispered to Desiree. "Powerful one. But who cast it, and why? And the magical paralysis wasn't an illusion at all." She shuddered. "By the Five Great Mothers, could Santuariel really have guardian spirits? I've never heard of such a thing."
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Drusia
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Re: Salvus and homeward

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I spend several terrified moments thinking about all the awful stuff that can happen to one while magically paralyzed. Fortunately, the effect passes quickly.

"Illusion," she whispered to Desiree. "Powerful one. But who cast it, and why? And the magical paralysis wasn't an illusion at all." She shuddered. "By the Five Great Mothers, could Santuariel really have guardian spirits? I've never heard of such a thing."

"If it has one, that's news to me," I reply softly. "My mother tries to give it a little incidental protection - she sends in reports claiming to patrol the area now and then to keep others away - but historically, Santuariel has gone rather catastrophically unprotected. Unless..." I pause thoughtfully. "Unless Lilith is behind this. She has some very odd magical talents."

More likely than Sasha settling down here with Compassion, isn't it? Our journey couldn't really be that easy, could it?

-- Desiree
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