Goriel and beyond, part 2

As we play, occasionally we'll close a thread and open a new one to keep the size of threads (and relative complexity) down to a dull roar. Here's where we store the closed posts from the history of Errant Road.
Locked
User avatar
Jack Rothwell
Teller of Tales
Posts: 2405
Joined: June 17th, 2010, 7:35 am
Location: Liverpool, England

Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Eli watched the dancing display with more than casual interest. The blending of a martial style with dancing and improvisation was something he'd never witnessed before. The half-elf reflexively dropped his hand to his waist to check that his own weapon was still there as he observed it. He leaned sideways towards Tim and spoke side-mouth.

"We aren't gonna have to anything like that, are we?"
Alberich
Noble Knight Protector
Posts: 1892
Joined: October 5th, 2008, 9:58 am

Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Alberich »

"Good lord, I hope not," Tim muttered back. HIs sword, like Eli's, hung on the wall behind them. Tim's only knife was the large one up his sleeve. He glanced to see whether Eli at least had a dagger to defend against treachery. And hoped that if something like that did occur - and who would put it past these barbarians? - he'd remember they were not to use magic in public. At least, not if they could survive without it. Didn't want to bring all that barbarian-infidel wrath down on them at once. But it would be a sore pass if Eli were reduced to beating them to death with his harmonica.

Like Eli, Tim had never seen dancing like this before. He thought the Veracian way was better. Boys and girls went to a dance together, and danced in sets with partners. Romance bloomed there and many a happy marriage got started at a village dance. Naturally these heathens, having no concept of romance, couldn't get something as simple as dancing right.
Last edited by Alberich on June 1st, 2012, 5:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Drannin
Prince of Space
Posts: 1350
Joined: August 15th, 2008, 2:46 pm

Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Drannin »

Argus watched the dance closely, actually a little intrigued. "A fine dance, indeed. We didn't have much like it in my youth, but there were other ways for a young man to have fun and prove his ability." He chuckled. "Fond memories." All true, really, although talking about practice spell-duels probably wasn't the way to go here."
User avatar
Jack Rothwell
Teller of Tales
Posts: 2405
Joined: June 17th, 2010, 7:35 am
Location: Liverpool, England

Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Jack Rothwell »

OOC Eli's wearing his sword, he didn't hang it up anywhere./OOC
Alberich
Noble Knight Protector
Posts: 1892
Joined: October 5th, 2008, 9:58 am

Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Alberich »

[OOC: Per this post he doesn't have a choice in the matter - long weapons aren't allowed at the "table" - in this case, circle of cushions - so they're all hung on the walls back behind their owners; but most folks wear large daggers or short swords at the table. This puts the long weapons not within arm's reach, but a short dash to the rear. The dancers were allowed to fetch theirs for the dancing only, but when it's over they'll have to put them back. It matters to the Yurkashev as a symbolic - though incomplete - act of trust, that the host will keep his guests safe; since letting his guests be attacked at table would be a massive dishonor for the chief, and displaying distrust of his ability to prevent it would be a marked insult. If Eli or anyone wants to refuse, we should backtrack and roleplay the scene, since that would be significant.]

"A fine dance, indeed. We didn't have much like it in my youth, but there were other ways for a young man to have fun and prove his ability."

The nearby Gorielian men grinned and leered like beasts, quite misunderstanding. Lord Shashenka commented, "Well, the night is still young."
User avatar
Graybeard
The Heretical Admin
Posts: 7180
Joined: August 20th, 2007, 8:26 am
Location: Nuevo Mexico y Colorado, Estados Unidos

Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Graybeard »

"Well, the night is still young."

Brad caught the subtext, and committed a probable breach of decorum by looking back at his wife. However, he didn't leer; he beamed.

Sister Rose caught it too, and fought down her temptation to reach forward, grab Argus' hand, and blush shyly. Anywhere else, and she'd have done it, for the sake of teasing the man she'd discovered she loved. Not here, though. There was a time and a place for everything. This was neither.

She did, however, make a mental note of the other thing she'd heard. "DEATH TO ZUKALIN! HOUNDS OF PERUL!" That was awfully strong language to be using not only against a countryman, but to a countryman one shared a city and its governance(?) with. She made a mental note of the invective; in another time and place, the rivalries that lay beneath the surface might be something the Veracians could exploit in dealing with this city-state. Again, this wasn't the time and place for that. Rose wanted nothing more than the cooperation of all Goriel in their search for Blaise. Fanning the flames of these rivalries wouldn't get her to that goal, far from it.

She settled back into her seat to watch the next act, which she was sure would involve some serious drinking.
Image

Because old is wise, does good, and above all, kicks ass.
Alberich
Noble Knight Protector
Posts: 1892
Joined: October 5th, 2008, 9:58 am

Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Alberich »

Although Rose was doubtless right that serious drinking was on the night's agenda, it wasn't the next item. The sweaty dancers returned to their seats, to much applause and congratulations. The musicians finished and laid down their instruments. Now it was time for the "eating" part of the feast. Some of the guests stayed sitting on their cushions - that seemed the usual way - but others preferred to lay their legs back, resting on their weaker arms while preparing to eat with the stronger. While this happened, servants, mostly girls, brought plates of bread, dishes of goat skewers, and pans of goat stew, all designed to be shared by everyone in arm's reach. There were smaller plates with spicy goat trotters, and bowls of water and wine to wash it down. There was also a vegetable paste of some kind to eat with the bread, and a sort of grain salad that Kirassia preferred - she was small to begin with, and her slender waist was a prime asset. But for most, the meal was dominated by goat. (Don't ask what these people had for breakfast.)

As the servants were bringing up the food, Rose remembered suddenly what Boris had said in discussing Clan Yurkashev: I mentioned to you the Zukalin? They will be finished in a year or two. Now men openly mock them, a bad sign for them. The Yurkashev are the main force in their destruction. So perhaps this open scorn was a sign that the Zukalin, in contrast to all other clans, were now so weak that the usual surface courtesies no longer applied. Or perhaps it was particular to this clan, which had been at open war with them, and was simply not worried about giving further offense.

Rose and Argus also noticed something else - one of the serving girls carrying dishes appeared to be Tsuirakuan. What that had to do with their mission was anyone's guess, especially if that "anyone" was guessing "nothing." But so it was.

While the food was brought in, Shashenka talked a little about the more prominent dancers. His boy Vasil and Sevastien's boy Yakov were always in a friendly sort of competition to outdo each other, but they were friends and it'd never led to blows. Once they'd stripped naked out of town, and simply stood there, letting words pour out of their mouths, taking neither food nor drink nor rest nor even their seats, and not swatting the mosquitoes, either. They collapsed so close to the same time, that while Vasil had won, he'd returned the stake to Yakov. They'd both stood it for so long, that both fathers were proud as fathers and uncles both.

The chief and sub-chief made further conversation. Sub-chief Sevastien was the more talkative of the two, and curious about airship travel, and what it was like, and how common it was growing in the world. Lord Shashenka seemed content with things as they always had been, and with sticking to a safe topic like family. But "family" here was a very broad topic. One moment, it was the business of setting the right dowry when your second cousin's daughter married a fourth cousin of Lord Duravsky himself. The next, it was about a Zukalin who had tried seducing girls of his own clan after open war had been declared. They'd caught him, staked him out in the firepit (the one covered by planks today), slathered him in oil, and burned his skin off. (Lord Yurkashev did not go in for the more inventive psychological tortures Lord Duravsky sometimes favored. He preferred good old-fashioned straight physical torture, and a more predictable kind of nastiness. This got him the reputation he wanted.)

Perhaps oddly, given Goriel's reputation, no salacious sexual topics were coming up at this point.

During this part of the feast, the women did (and apparently were expected to do) little or no talking. Perhaps they were getting close to the point where the wives would be sent out.

Tim, for his part, ate little, and that mostly bread, plus a nibble at a skewer. He did not trust these noisome heathen concoctions and wouldn't dip his bread into the stew at all. He would not do well in the schmoozing style of Special Operations that Rose knew so well. But he'd rather be eating snake in a thunderstorm than enjoying more of this hospitality. And something told him much worse was to come.

[OOC: I'm glad to edit if I'm moving too fast or need to "retro" anything folks are doing.]
User avatar
Graybeard
The Heretical Admin
Posts: 7180
Joined: August 20th, 2007, 8:26 am
Location: Nuevo Mexico y Colorado, Estados Unidos

Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Graybeard »

As Sister Rose was settling in (with a certain amount of surreptitious rolling of eyes, and taking steps to occasionally sneak a bit of bread or vegetable to Lillith) for the next round of feasting, Therese was beginning her own activities for the night.

Somewhat unusually, there were no immediate leads to be pursued. The encounter at the pass had rung down the curtain on a rescue that the Sisterhood had been setting up for weeks. Less happily, another contact, with a second-generation wife in a particularly nasty clan involved with silver mines in the mountains to the east, had had to be shut down. She cringed at the thought of what might await that young woman ... but one couldn't save the whole world at once.

Her disguise in place, she headed into town, passing by the compound of Clan Yurkashev at a distance. From the bustling about, it looked like some manner of event was happening there this evening. Might it involve the quasi-Clan Cleiviein? Possibly, it would be consistent with what she'd gathered from Argus and his curiously wide-eyed son-in-law. However, it was none of her business. The Sisterhood had reluctantly agreed that the four or five most powerful clans in Goriel, of which Clan Yurkashev surely was one, were off limits for rescues. That was sad -- most of them weren't any better about the way they treated women than the less powerful clans were -- but the Sisterhood was not, and would not be in a hundred years, ready to take on the military might of Goriel, which is exactly what might be summoned if they intervened in the top clans and were discovered.

This prohibition notwithstanding, she did linger for a few minutes near the compound of Clan Duravsky, even though they were another one to be officially avoided. However, some of the Duravsky people had a reputation that was ... disturbing. It was the kind of place that a woman should be able to escape from. Therese fantasized briefly about opening an investigation there, entirely on her own, so that she'd be able to honestly deny Sisterhood interest in the place if she was caught -- not that she'd ever allow herself to be taken alive anyway.

In any event, all seemed quiet on the Duravsky front. She continued on into town, toward the rougher areas; she was skilled enough at moving unnoticed to avoid dangerous attention there, and the Five Great Mothers knew, the women in those places, whether in minor clans or forced to work in brothels, could use all the help, and rescuing, they could get.
Image

Because old is wise, does good, and above all, kicks ass.
Alberich
Noble Knight Protector
Posts: 1892
Joined: October 5th, 2008, 9:58 am

Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Alberich »

The "feasting" part of the feast continued with no more particular awfulness, until Shashenka clapped twice and it was time to take the shared dishes away. That done, he raised both his hands in fists and the wives, led by his own wife, rose and made their way out speeily. Lady Yarislava took Rose in hand in leading her to the tea room -- a more tasteful place than the feasting hall, at least. The kept women stayed put (except for Tatiana, who left under orders from her "lord of the evening," Leonid Duravsky, no doubt to await him in his chamber. She did not join the wives socially, and would've been extremely unwelcome if she'd tried to).

Having gathered from the conversation that Rose and Argus were not entirely conversant with Clan Yurkashev's ways, she was able to explain some "facts of life" before they all made it there together. At a normal dinner, all the women would leave at a certain point, each to await her lord in the place he preferred. Feasts were sometimes like that, and sometimes they were family affairs where everyone stayed to the end, but on nights like tonight - the wives left, the other girls stayed, and they got up to "things" that made them feel "frisky." So when the midnight gong struck...

(Clocks were not common in Goriel, but there was one in the compound, and when it struck midnight, a trusted member of the household sounded that gong - feasts always broke up at the sound of that gong.)

...when that gong struck, the wives had to go back outside and wait for their men, who might want to "accompany" them right away. Or might send them away and "accompany" someone else, or might stay in the hall a little too long, and come out tired. It was the way of things. Lady Yarislava was not making editorial comments on the ways of her country or its men to his foreign guests. Meantime, the ladies stayed inside and drank tea, played chess or simpler games with plaques and stones, and talked. None of the talk Rose was hearing was of consequence to her mission. Though some of the chess moves were surprisingly skillful.

Back inside, the character of the servants changed, now being almost all female, and young. As Rose had predicted earlier, though she wasn't there to see it, this was the phase for more serious drinking. Strong wine and distilled spirits came in bowls, cups, and bottles, and each man according to his tastes drank much, drank more, or drank much more.

(Brother Tim stuck with a single bowl of wine and nursed it - longing for a simple pint of beer back among the good villagers of Umbertiel. He kept an eye on Eli, doing what he could to prevent the hot-tempered half-elf from overindulging, lest the vino get him to talking too much veritas, or even giving these heathen beast-men a bit of the chastisement they so richly deserved.)

The talk got louder, as talk will, and when he judged the time right, Chief Shashenka's youngest adult son Luka heaved himself to his feet and strode to the middle of the oval. The musicians, who'd been playing some lively airs, went quiet, and Luka proceeded to amuse them all with a most ancient and barbarous custom of a Gorielian house at war -- telling mocking vignettes of the household enemy, or setting conundrums for the audience to guess.

Some of these were obviously familiar to them already. "So, my brothers," he asked, "How can you tell if a Zukalin is truly speaking his mind?"

The audience roared back in unison - "He's speechless!" - and cackled with glee.

"Well have you been taught! My most educated and learned brethren, say truly, what is the difference between a Zukalin and a bucket of shit?"

Most of the audience knew that one - "One bucket!" - and whether they'd known it or not, they gave him the laughter his rank and the subject demanded. There were others, more or less familiar to the Yurkashev men.

But tonight, in honor of their guests, he had a special treat for them - a new one. "And now, my brothers, a most difficult riddle, and one I think that has never been posed before, for the answer has evaded the wisest men until today -- sharpen your wits and ready yourselves! This is no easy question!" He paused for dramatic effect -

"How many Zukalin warriors does it take to satisfy a woman in bed?"

Many mirthful guesses were called out - "Yes, it is the hardest riddle ever!" - "All of them together could not do it!" - "They do not know what that is!" - "What woman wishes a dead man? Yet that is what they are!" - "They could satisfy her by going away and sending for a real man!" - with Luka acting as MC and bestowing his own smiles and chuckles at the guesses, and picking the right moment to hold up one finger for silence -

"My brothers, the true answer is that it takes only one of them...."

("Boo! Boo!" some yelled merrily - even drunk, they rembered to laugh when they said that.)

"....but he must be the woman!"

They dissolved into gales of laughter, and cheered him on. And then, at a signal from Sevastien, Luka returned to his seat, and the musicians struck up a sort of dance-like march with tambourines and pipes [OOC: For the flavor of it, think of this bit of Grieg], and attendants opened a door to the hall. And a dozen figures in black cowled robes with veils began to enter in a shuffling line. Kirassia crept forward from her place behind the Cleivein men and whispered a quick explanation. These were girls - they might be called "sexual acrobats." They'd process around the ring, then throw off their robes and begin a sensual performance designed to get the men excited before the midnight gong. And when it struck, the chief and sub-chief would leave, and every man would "do as he felt." She hadn't time to explain further what that might mean. (Public disportation, especially among the older men, was not extremely common -- honor required a reputation for sexual performance few real men could match, even sober -- but this was an uncommon event, and who knew what all these drink-soaked men would do?)

The robes were sleeveless (arms inside) and dragged the floor, the better to tease the audience, and the feet below them were slippered (shiny slippers in girlish colors). While the robes made them shapeless for the moment, their movements were extremely feminine and exaggerated - not the sophisticatedly sensual hip-swing of a confident love-priestess, nor the outwardly-demure-but-primly-seductive switch of a certain kind of Tsuirakuan girl. Subtlety was no part of it. They moved like street whores whose customers were half-blind, and needed to get the message at fifty yards. From the smell, those robes were soaked in perfume. Kirassia thought it odd they were walking that way instead of dancing, but didn't comment on it - that would have been out of place.

Well, the robed dancers had entered the ring and progressed only partway around the oval, in fairly close order, when the leader turned outward to face the ring of Yurkashev and Yurkashev-guest manhood and kept-womanhood. They flung their robes open suddenly, though not with parade-ground precision. And not a one of them was female. They were dirty-bearded, wild-eyed, fanatical men in rough leather, with dirks and short swords, and they attacked the Cleiviein guests and those beside them at once.

[OOC: Now at this point I do need responses to know what Argus, Brad, and Eli are doing - this being not at all a good situation. Though the PC's don't know it - the attackers are tough and fanatical, but they have no magic and have only moderate skill with their weapons. They will die before surrendering. Publicly using magic is a serious offense but so is letting your guests be attacked at your feast, so what you all do is a judgment call...

btw, for the moment you can't see what most of the Yurkashevs are doing - because the enemy is pressing too close - but no Yurkashev is attacking the PC's. Argus is right next to Shashenka and can see that he is fighting the attackers with his dagger. Kirassia is right behind you, literally and figuratively, and will obey any shouted instructions. Rose and Lillith are in the tea room with the other wives, and that isn't adjacent to this place - this bloody business will end before they see any of it.]
Last edited by Alberich on June 3rd, 2012, 3:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Graybeard
The Heretical Admin
Posts: 7180
Joined: August 20th, 2007, 8:26 am
Location: Nuevo Mexico y Colorado, Estados Unidos

Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Graybeard »

Sister Rose was getting quite tired of listening to the other wives gossip. Is that all there is to their lives? she wondered. It wasn't enough that they were all securely under the thumbs of their men; the status had seemingly left most of them with world views that could scarcely be described as anything but "sheltered."

It didn't dawn on her until much later that almost the same thing could be said of most of the women in Veracia who weren't nuns, and she'd been a protector of that social system for most of her life. At least the Veracian women wouldn't be treated as chattel and subjected to barter and trade ... for whatever that was worth.

She was trying to avoid falling asleep during a particularly tedious argument about the relative virtues of preparing mutton by roasting or boiling, when there was a commotion outside. "Assassins! Assassins in the banquet hall!" someone shouted, although he could barely be heard in the tea room over the gossiping ...

... But Rose heard.

Mrs. Cleiviein was left in the room, along with the nun of the Veracian Church, as Major Nuria-Lucas took over. She quietly moved to the door, assuming a balanced, combat-ready posture that she hadn't used in years, and starting to rally magic in case it was needed ... all the time fingering a bulge in her outfit that was not flesh and blood.
Image

Because old is wise, does good, and above all, kicks ass.
Locked