Southern Continent: Picking Up The Pieces

[Jack Rothwell]

"We got a ceremony for that." Oolan piped up, as she retrieved a hamper from the wagon (technically it was 'second lunch', but the humans didn't need to know that). "The Grandparents get covered in teeshe... umm... paint and carried 'round the village." She offered the biggest piece of jungle pork to the hulking shorty, if she been a human girl she would've brushed her hair back over her ear.

Tamina opted for a mango; the monstrous decapitated head of the morroran had killed her current appetite for meat. She gratefully stuffed a piece in her mouth and sat down in the dirt as she refuelled.

"Either of you know any good songs? Riiki likes to sing but he's got a voice like a goose farting in the fog."

"Hey! <I'm a good singer!>"

"<No... no you're not.>"


OOC I'll get us to the village after lunch unless you have any particular side-trips in mind? Feel free to quiz the kobolds on anything in the meantime./OOC

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Go for it. I have nothing in particular in mind here. Just a bit of filler:]

Rip had a whimsical thought, as Shorty nibbled almost delicately at the second lunch (he didn't eat much, but he loved to eat often). So I appear to have swapped a cigar-smoking parrot familiar for a 6'10", 400-pound one. There was truth in it; ever since Shorty had been rescued, he'd been treating Rip as part hero, part father figure. Of course, he was neither. Finding his companion had been pure chance; after all, his joining up with the kobolds had been pure chance. And he certainly didn't know much more about moving in the jungle, he just happened to be better suited to it by not being, well, large.

Which posed an interesting question, now that he thought about it. The kobolds weren't a large people, and presumably their cities, such as they were, were going to be scaled to match. How was a "visitor" as large as Shorty going to be received? "Can you tell us anything more about the city itself, other than that we should avoide the, uh, stills?" he asked Tamina around his own slice of mango; it wasn't clear that anything he could learn was going to be particularly actionable, but it surely couldn't hurt.

[Jack Rothwell]

"It's really big. Biggest Killikah settlement on the continent far as I know." Tamina answered, popping the last piece of fruit into her mouth and dusting herself off. "Settlements build on themselves. So they'll have levels to go up and down. In the Uran settlement higher class are lit'ry higher up. Visitors are best to stick to the ground floor."

"There's amusements for tourists too." Alleece chipped in, signalling the wagon to get moving again. "So your money is good there. Spirits know Braccus is fond of it. Gambling, pit fights... some of the Kaalshiir and Siha might offer tour of the place and surrounding area for a fee."

"Plus markets, cooking fires and stuff like that." Tamina finished. "The Draalshin might leave you 'lone if they see you passing coin around. So exploring might do you good."

"It's an opportunity to see Killikah culture." Oolan said. "I can be a guide if you like."


OOC I'll get us to the settlement on my next post./OOC

[Graybeard]

[OOC: The piled-up description intrigues me, as this very famous piled-up place is not far from where I live ... Just a brief thing for you to play off of, then let's arrive:]

The comment about "money is good there" tweaked a minor nerve with Rip, notably the fact that he didn't have much of that commodity, just what could fit in his Pocket Dimension. Furthermore, if they ever made it back to somewhere with either an airship terminal, or better, a warp gate, they'd need some to get back to ... well, wherever they were going. What he had would keep them alive in a town that took the coins, but not indefinitely, and it certainly wouldn't buy another airship, or maybe even warp-gate fare for two.

"Shorty's a surprisingly good gambler," he told Tamina. "Have to figure, though, that the games will be rigged against newcomers, so I don't think we can raise enough money that way to get us home." Wherever home is. I'll think about that part later. "Is there any way that somebody good with fix-things-up magic can earn a few silvers in town fixing things up, do you think?"

[Jack Rothwell]

Tamina nodded, but uneasily.

"Yeah, anything that's... umm... tech-heavy? Might need fixing. Kobolds aren't usually good at that stuff but the Uran tribe are trying to learn. Might have generators to fix, maybe even slut..." She blushed, then giggled. "SLOT machines in the gambling pits. Machines don't do well in the damp. Just beware if you're gonna use magic... Braccus is greedy for that too."

OOC Assuming generators are a thing? I'll double post the introduction tomorrow unless Rip has more questions./OOC

[Graybeard]

OOC: Go for it. Long, weird (and distressing -- father-in-law is moving closer to his last days ) day, and the combination of the scene on shipboard and the next chapter in my Sister Rose fanfic has left me running out of words.

[Jack Rothwell]

The 'village' was huge.

Although Tamina and Alleece had been to the settlement before in the company of Leli their reactions weren't much less than the kobolds and the humans who were brand new to the sight of the Uran village. The gates and the fence that marked the entrance stood easily fifteen feet tall, but huts, the buildings within rose much higher than that. As the mage craned upwards she could see criss-cross patterns of walkways and stairs winding their way around the trunks ancient trees and suspended from ropes hung from branches as thick as the cart they pulled. Homes rested on wooden platforms built on the raw earth and there, nestled on the top of the biggest tree on the horizon was the near palace sized dwelling of Chief Braccus himself.

The noise, that was the other thing, even from hundreds of yards away the travellers could hear a cacophony of voices both kobold and animal. The crackle of fires, the yells of shopkeepers, the thunk of wood being chopped and the clang of metal on metal.

"By the spirits... this is a city." Oolan breathed.

"Any last questions, better ask them now." Tamina said in a faint voice she hardly recognised as her own. before the group stood a pair of heavily muscled, and severe looking male kobolds wearing plate armour of all things. The would-be elder correctly surmised they'd been imported from the Northern continent. Watchtowers containing similar looking individuals sporting modified rifles framed the pair who were already looking at the new arrivals with expressions a few notches short of hostility.

OOC Sorry to hear about your father-in-law Grey. I hope you're ok./OOC

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Thanks. This isn't unexpected, he's been declining (Alzheimer's) for a long time. Still a ways to go, but getting closer. So let's stop thinking about it and have some fun!]

Rip had to admit: his first inclination, on seeing the fortress-city in front of him, was to hide behind Shorty. (Of course, Shorty's first inclination, in all likelihood, was to hide behind him.) His second was more constructive.

Basic detection magic, unlike some other forms of spellcraft, didn't require a vocalization or gesture or material component; you just mentally rallied magic, then looked at the subject you were using it on. More sophisticated Divination magic did involve some theatrics, but Rip was going to settle for the basics here. He flipped magic around in his mind, then scanned what lay in front of him with a standard -- and unobtrusive -- Magic Detection cantrip.

[OOC: What does he see? I dunno, it's your fortress, not mine. ]

[Jack Rothwell]

Rip's detection magic revealed nothing out of the ordinary about the guards in front of them although there was a faint whiff of something that lay beyond the imposing gates. Kobolds weren't the most magically inclined race but the gift did pop up once in a while. One of the guards approached the group's own magically inclined Killlikah with a grunt and slap to his chest which Tamina returned. It was obviously some kind of formal greeting.

"<You approach Uran lands sisterhood Kobold>." He intoned in a voice barely above a growl. "<What's your purpose here?>"

"<We come to trade and pay respects to your chief.>" Tamina replied, managing to keep the nerves out of her voice. "<I am Tamina Nallaki. Acting Elder of the Nallaki tribe. We bring Dropla pelts and garlop for the betterment of your tribe.>"

The guard nodded without much interest before shooting a sharp look at the obviously non-kobold members of the group.

"<And what brings> humans..." There was no Killikah equivalent for that word. "<...to the mightiest village on the Southern Continent?>"

"<They're here on> vacation." She smiled ruefully. "<They're friends of the Nallaki tribe and bring valuables to spend in your magnificent settlement.>"

There was a pause that went on longer than really necessary; it was an obvious intimidation tactic that fortunately the kobold was wise to.

"<Very well.>" He waved to the guards in the towers who disappeared from sight. A moment later the gates slowly pulled open.

"<Take your spoils to Darlan Uran and he'll exchange them for your needs.>" The guard gave brief directions to Alleece before turning back to Tamina. "<You will accompany us to Braccus. Tell your people to stay on the ground floor.>"

"<Of course. It is only proper.>" Tamina gave a strained smile. "<Could you give me a moment to consult with my clansman?>"

"<Be prompt.>"

"Right." She said, switching back to human speak for Shorty and Rip. "We are welcome here." Just how welcome was obvious. "The guards say to stay on the bottom floor. I have to meet the chieftain. It's... umm..."

"Protocol." Said Alleece in a weary voice.

"Yeah. That. You should be free to roam after the pelts are dropped off. 'member what I said about Braccus' guards."


OOC I'll post up more later. Just thought I'd leave a break here in case Rip or Shorty have anything to say./OOC

[Graybeard]

The anthropologist still lurking within Rip watched the exchange with the kobold muscle (or muscular kobolds) with mild interest. Usually, this kind of unprovoked belligerence meant that the position of the belligerent wasn't as strong as they wanted to project it as being. Thing was, though, that observation had only applied to humans, at least in the literature he'd read. His own experiences with elves were enough to make it clear that their ideas were ... different. Would the kobolds resemble them more when it came to aggressive greetings, or humans? Way too early to tell.

One thing for sure: this little group didn't have the resources to challenge a large city. Under the circumstances, playing it safe and checking things out was clearly the way to go. He noticed that Shorty was looking uneasy at the way the kobold emissaries were being treated, so he decided to go for a little telepathy, something he almost never did among the airship pirates. Besides, he wasn't very good at it, couldn't sustain it for more than a couple of sentences at a time, the way most magic-using Tsuirakuans were taught in school. Longer use would give him a violent headache or worse. Fortunately, Shorty had been on the receiving end most of the few times he had used mind-speech among the airship crew, and shouldn't be freaked out when he did it again. Probably.

<"Stay cool, man,> he thought at the huge man. <"This is like some stuff I saw before joining up with you and Wrackham and Kattie. Up north."> This last part wasn't strictly true, but he knew that Shorty was mildly in awe of the work he'd done in the Northern Confederacy; had called him "Professor" for the first several weeks after they met, in fact. The man-mountain just blinked and nodded, to Rip's relief, as his synapses and gray matter would have suffered if he'd had to expand on this statement ... not to mention that he needed some time to create a fiction if Shorty asked him what his "up north" experiences were like.