Tsuiraku-town

[Kincaide]

Rhett winced as the priest took Ritter's statement and ran with it in his own special way, "No coffee, thank you, I've already had three cups today," anymore and his head might split open, "I will take some water though,"

Ritter was enjoying the younger man's discomfort, "I'll have a cup, if you please," giving Rhett a wicked smile before continuing to lead the priest down the merry path of religious fervor, "He even carries a blade made by the dwarves' own hands," with that Ritter snatched the hilt of Gram and pulled it free from the sheath.

"Dammit Captain," Rhett spat grabbing the man by the wrist before he could whisk the sword out of Rhett's reach, "This ain't a godsdamned vaudeville act," he twisted the older man's hand around, forcing him to let go of the blade. Gram clattered to the ground, metal ringing off the cobblestones and holding the note a little longer than normal. The dull gray metal barely reflected any light. There was little artistry in the blade, other than the elven and dwarven characters inscribed on either side of the blade and a lighter metal inlaid in the cup of the half basket hilt.

[Graybeard]

Unexpectedly, the priest reacted dismissively to the news about the dwarven sword. "Pffft. Dwarven weapons are a dime a dozen in Farrel. And well they should be, because the Divine Dwarves would surely prefer that we pay attention to their truly wondrous creations that were made to bring wonder and awe and joy -- and salvation -- to humanity, not the violence that we're already so good at. Here is an example."

He stepped inside the temple, his daughter rolling her eyes in his wake. With a flourish, he pulled a curtain away from a display case. "Our most prized Artifact," he said.

Inside was a remarkable contraption. It was about three feet wide, two feet high, but only a few inches deep. One of the long faces had a number of sockets and holes on it, and the ubiquitous holy rope dangled from one corner. The other long face was made of a transparent, glassy substance, although what lay beyond wasn't the expected image, merely blackness. The whole thing stood on a stand that provided a precarious-looking balance.

"We think this was for some manner of imagery," Reverend Orpiment said, "but we cannot begin to imagine what. Presumably, once it is connected to the Divine Dwarven Essence, a display will activate. And what wonders we will see then! Look here." He pointed to runes emblazoned on the edge of the front frame. "Scholars believe this is the name of one of the Dwarven Gods, and perhaps He Himself will present his Visage when this Artifact is activated. And so many of us eagerly await the appearance of the Dwarven God ...

"... Dell."

[OOC: I'm out of touch for a couple of days; feel free to "find" other Artifacts in the front of the temple...]

[kagome_kino]

Maya sat down at the tabel "well it smell delicious." she said looking at gray objects on her plate before grabbing her eating utensils and proceeded to eat in a very lady like manner. Maya methodicaly cut and ate in silence taking small bites and generally enjoying herself.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: OK, back, so just to get things moving again...]

Layla watched carefully as the blind(?) girl ate the dish the elf had prepared. She certainly wasn't showing any ill effects from it, at least not yet. Of course, any Gewehr Wraith knew about half a dozen poisons that could kill a week after they were ingested, long enough for the connection between poisoner and victim to be long forgotten, and also long enough for antidotes to be completely worthless. Still, this just didn't feel like a poisoning situation. I wonder if the Tsuirakuans can teach me some magic for detecting poisons in food? she thought, then got back to business.

"So are you with us or not?" she asked the improbable elf.

[OOC: V-S, you're really needed here; hard to make much progress until Neverinal moves.]

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Where did everybody go?]

Meanwhile, back at the Temple of the Divine Dwarf, the front door was opening again, to admit a character even more curious-looking than the "priest" and his daughter. He wore the same hunchbacked getup as Reverend Orpiment, minus a bit of the decorations that marked the priest as a relatively high-ranking figure (and therefore, presumably, the newcomer as not so high ranking). However, it didn't fit nearly so well on him, or at least, the "dwarf" effect was quite lost, because the new guy stood well over six feet tall and was heavily muscled. He was also quite a bit younger than Orpiment, maybe thirty, and clean-shaven, with hawk-like Tsuirakuan features and beady eyes that flicked over Rhett before settling on the priest. That moment was enough to make Rhett's skin crawl, though ...

The newcomer genuflected before the Dwarven Artifact, turned to Orpiment, did the same thing, all in silence. The priest returned the gesture, and intoned, "Ah, good day, Brother Cosimo. The Dwarves love you." The man grunted something unintelligible and disappeared through a side door.

"One of our most recent converts to the faith," Orpiment beamed at Rhett. "He's expressed interest in studying for our priesthood. I'll have to leave you in my daughter's capable hands while I tend to his instruction. Please excuse me." He turned without another word and passed through the same door.

Rhett was still silent as Joli smiled at him. "Interesting fellow, no? We think he works at the Tsuirakuan consulate, but we aren't sure; it would be impolite to pry. Now what else can I do for you?"

If Layla had been there, she could have cleared up the uncertainty as to Brother Cosimo's past, because she would have recognized him as part of the muscle that followed Captain Kitaura around. Of course, she wasn't.

[Sareth]

[OOC]Feeding Nera again? Mainly I'm waiting for something to happen...[/OOC]

[Kincaide]

((OOC: Sorry, Finals and my job, too worn out for a while.))

Rhett's look of discomfort twisted into a scowl as Brother Cosimo left. He moved to watch the pair leave. When Joli spoke again Rhett turned back around, fixing a slight smile back onto his face, he had to step back towards her to be in comfortable talking range. As he did so he passed by the altar to 'Dell' suddenly the glass surface flickered to unexpected life and from the base a sound like heart of a waterfall whispered forth. A number of rectangles were displayed on the screen and were full of dwarven characters.

Rhett stumbled away from it in surprise and the glass again returned to its darkened state, "What'd you do boy!?" Ritter demanded.

"I didn't do anything! This entire place is full of half charged potentially dangerous... things!" He had backed up toward the Dwarven Artifact. The wards and defenses around it began to flicker and ripple and suddenly portions of it began to move. In the middle of the mechanism, the protruding bit spiraled out more than it had already been placed.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: It's hard to make progress at the farmhouse without input from Neverinal, and our Viking buddy is MIA again. I'm going to take the liberty of putting a few words -- quite a few, actually -- in the elf's mouth to get things going. If it needs to be retconned, so be it. /OOC:]

"My dear girl, I will be glad to discuss terms with you," Neverinal told Layla. "But first things first."

The feast had been eaten, and nobody had died, turned into a mushroom, or suffered any other obvious ill effects. However, there was an impressive pile of dirty dishes left on the table. Faye had started to clear them, but a gesture from the elf stopped her. A second gesture, and there was a sudden mini-whirlpool of hot, soapy water in the kitchen sink; neither Faye or Layla could recall filling it with water at all, let alone soaping it up or finding a way to get the agitation effect. And then the third gesture ...

The Sorensen women weren't the only ones watching with their mouths gaping open as one by one, the dishes on the table hopped off, skittered across the floor, somehow climbed up into the sink, immersed themselves, emerged sparkling clean, and resumed their places in the cupboards.

Neverinal permitted himself a half-smile, half-smirk. "As you can see, I can find other ways to make myself useful around here as well. As for my terms, they are actually rather simple..."

---------

[OOC: Oops, didn't see that two posts had crossed...]

Joli's mouth gaped open, and she fell to her knees as the two Artifacts made their strange noises and displays.

"It's a miracle," she gasped, looking at Rhett with new respect.

[Kincaide]

"No, no, no, no," Rhett said, "On your feet," he growled. He looked over at Captain Ritter and noticed the older man's eyes had turned devious. Rhett gritted his teeth picking up on Ritter's new found con.

"My friend is on a mission, from the Dwarves," Ritter added for weight.

"We need two things from you. First, we need you to keep this quiet. Revealing our presence and our mission could compromise everything. Second, we need our chance to talk to Brother Cosimo. This is of the utmost importance," he tried to put the same quiet importance into his words he had heard in voices of true-believers from here to the North. He did not know if the dwarves were supposed to have some sort of messenger spirit working for them so the less he said the better.

[Graybeard]

"Prophets!" the young woman breathed. "I'll send Brother Cosimo at once." She disappeared into the side room, from which loud voices could be heard momentarily, followed by the appearance of the muscular novice, whose face definitely did not speak of religious awe and fervor.

"Funny -- you don't look much like a prophet to me," Cosimo growled. "If anything, I'd have to say you look more like a -- smuggler."