Nautkia, and the South

[Sareth]

Lillith realized the mistake almost immediately. The woman on the cart had said it would be the second stop, not the first. The first was where she was going to help unload some things, and then...

Oh no... What do I do? How do I fix this? Lillith's jaw flapped uselessly as she attempted to come up with some way to cover her gaff. She looked around desperately. Tavern. I'm in a tavern, I... "Wine!" She squeaked. "We need some ceremonial wine!" Do Veracians use wine in ceremonies? Or am I just making things worse?

"There you are, heretic!" Sister Rose' voice cut through Lillith's confusion, but only in order to create a whole new confusion to replace the previous batch. "You cannot escape Luminosita's righteous wrath this time! Come! It is time for a smiting, that will be administered by no less than Father Argus himself!"

"REH?" Lillith responded, spinning wildly to face Sister Rose. She gabbled at the sight of Sister Rose in more traditional garb, her face going through contortions as she publicly declared Lillith's faith heretical. "But..."

But Sister Rose was a Luminositan nun. Yes, she had seemed kindly, and Lillith had been starting to believe that maybe not all of the Church of Luminosita were raving lunatics out to force their faith on others. But Sister Rose was still clergy. Perhaps the break down of faith she had seen her in this village had been too much? Perhaps she had decided to put thos town back on the straight and narrow minded, using a clear apostate as an example? Maybe she had just been playing you for a fool all along, and now she was ready?

Lillith turned and bolted for the back door, hair flying...

[Graybeard]

Brother Miguel had been off active duty for a couple of years, but he still retained the reflexes of a good special-ops man. Unfortunately, the "barmaid" (elf?) had moved between him and the door in the time it took Lillith to decide to take flight. Well, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing...

"Stop, heretic!" he shouted, wishing that his voice had that menacing bass rumble to it rather than his actual (rather squeaky) tenor. He threw himself into a roll, hoping to get to Lillith's legs before she reached the door. No such luck, but he did manage to cut the elf-maid's legs out from under her, which had something to be said for it, after all. He popped up, ready for the next move, but he'd missed this one.

What is he doing? Sister Rose wondered, then figured it out. She was too busy posturing to have time to duplicate the quick takedown move that Miguel had attempted, though. She turned and was right on Lillith's heels as she sprinted through the door ...

... and ran straight into the boxes of produce that Ritsuko was still unloading, oblivious to what was going on inside the tavern.

Bamboo shoots, bak choi and bean sprouts flew every which way as Rose and Miguel caught up to their quarry. "Now, come and meet Father Argus ... priestess," Rose said, trying to suppress a guffaw; life or death situation or not, Lillith was looking like a large, ambulatory Tsuirakuan salad...

[Drannin]

Argus peeked in through the door, trying not to be too conspicuous. He didn't look very Veracian, after all. Or priestly. However, he was in the perfect position to notice the tall woman (ELF!) slowly getting to her feet, a very determined look upon her face. The elf-woman reached for something...

Well. They had asked for a distraction.

A quick mental tug, and suddenly five wine casks broke open, spilling their contents upon the hapless elf in front of them. Said elf made an extremely unrefined-sounding noise as she was bowled over by the weight of high-priced booze. Such a waste, Argus noted. The small, sturdy man rushed over, giving high-pitched yelps... only to be pulled down by the elf as she went down to the floor. The resulting position would have given Harker far too many ideas. As it was, Argus desperately tried to suppress a snicker, and hoped he had given the others enough of a distraction.

Oops. Looked like he had gotten Brother Miguel as well.

[Sareth]

A sudden gush of wine blasted out the door of the tavern, and the dirt under Lillith's feet became mud. She desperately attempted to scramble away from the two Veracians, only for the mud to reveal a substantial amount of clay mixed in to it. Her feet went out from under her, and she went down in a pile of leeks, radishes, and wine based silt.

"Leave me alone," she shouted, scrambling away on all fours. "How could you? How could you treat me like this?"

[Graybeard]

Now all I need to complete the picture is to be buried under an avalanche of cheese, Sister Rose thought as she surveyed the scene. Then again, maybe cheese wasn't a part of Nautkian cuisine...

"Let's get you out of here, apostate," she said, taking Lillith by one avocado-bedecked arm as Brother Miguel took the other one. (Chardonnay? Merlot? Riesling? She couldn't be sure which, but Miguel definitely smelled ... varietal.) Turning to Ritsuko, she added, "Sorry for the inconvenience, ma'am. Call at the temple and we'll make restitution." Argus followed behind the other three, having thoughtfully closed the back door of the tavern.

Once across the street, and convinced the coast was clear (who'd want to hang around and see what looked like a Tsuirakuan food fight, anyway?), Rose reverted to her usual form ... but she still had a fierce glare as she turned to Lillith. "Idiot!" she hissed softly. "Couldn't you see that that was an elf that you were asking for help? Come on, let's get out of here before they figure out what happened back there!"

The wagon lumbered into motion.

-----------

Meanwhile, the proprietor and his barmaid were disentangling themselves from the wine casks, the resulting flood of libations, and each other. The man got slowly to his feet, shaking his head, and was about to say something to the woman ... when he noticed that she didn't look quite as he remembered her, not at all, in fact.

The elf was glowering at him, her maid's frock replaced by a peregin's armor, and the feather duster that she always carried by a short sword.

"You're not going to remember what happened there ... are you?" she hissed, in a voice curiously like the one that Rose had just used on Lillith. She reached forward and touched the man's forehead, and there was the soft FZZZT of a spell being cast. The man dropped in his tracks (directly into a large puddle of wine) and began to snore.

I'll come back to that encounter later, the elf thought. Maybe those were Errants, maybe not; they'll need some investigating. But first ... there's an Errant assassin out there to deal with. One Hygiene spell later, she set off, looking for Cit.

[Sareth]

Lillith struggled against the grip she was caught in. "What are... What do you..."

And then the word sunk in.

Elf.

She went stiff, then collapsed into the grip she was being held up by. "I don't understand..."

[Graybeard]

"I don't understand..."

Sister Rose relaxed her grip slightly; the girl seemed to be coming around. "I don't understand either," she said. "What in --" she started to say in Luminosita's Name but realized it wouldn't be a good idea under the circumstances -- "what in the world did you think you were doing there? Was that what you made this trip into town for -- to take on an elf single-handedly? That wouldn't have turned out well, believe me. I just hope we created enough confusion that she won't follow us."

Rose squinted past Lillith's face for a minute, keeping the tavern door in view until they rounded a corner and it was lost from sight. There was no sign of the tall woman, whether in the uniform of a bar maid or a ranger. "I think we're in the clear," she said. "Come on, let's get back to the temple and sort out what's been happening here. I know that Miguel, Argus and I have some things to work out in connection with our man Egbert, and who knows, maybe whatever you've been doing will shed some light on things too. Let's get these horses moving." Brother Miguel complied, administering light taps on the equine rumps as they moved from a trot into a slow canter.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Anybody?]

It was a somber, quiet wagon ride back to the temple, or at least it started out to be one, as the passengers all reviewed what had happened to them in town, none of them liking it. However, their reveries were interrupted by an inbound parrot ... and they liked what it had to say even less.

(UNCLASSIFIED) There has been an unfortunate development since our last message. The following may not be news to you, but you need to know about it, so:

(SECRET) The informant we mentioned previously, one CPL Kelso Gilsoniel (please keep this name in strictest confidence), has been killed. There are conflicting reports reaching us as to what happened to him. The official line, by way of SGT Rogeriel at the city offices, is that he had some manner of "accident," quote unquote, and fell off the sea cliff that separates town from the Lorenzel River. (Of course, in our experience, "accidents" involving falling off a cliff are rarely as "accidental" as they are billed to be.) Father Nestor at the temple, on the other hand, believes that Gilsoniel was murdered, although he does not know by whom or why or how. This story, sad to say, seems more likely, informants being what they are. It is a sad commentary on the state of things when a priest has a more realistic view of the seamy underbelly of a community than the law-enforcement people do -- but that's the way of the world, I guess.

(SECRET) We have taken the liberty to do a little background checking on Father Nestor, hoping that he might fill the same contact role that Gilsoniel was starting to fill. Nothing negative has come back on him so far, although the checks are obviously highly preliminary at this point. You might seek an audience with him and try to get a better sense of what is going on there.

(CONFIDENTIAL) It sounds like these smugglers play rough, surprise surprise. Be careful as you continue your inquiries. There is a growing concern that finding Egbert Kankaniel may be a risky proposition. From what I remember of him, his worthless ass is certainly not worth your own lives. Don't make a bad bargain out of this quest.

Bernie

[Sareth]

"So they're telling you to give up," Lillith muttered quietly from where she was still slumped. "Useless." It was clear she wasn't taking the recent events very well. Whatever she had been up to, the air of failure was clinging to her like a wet blanket on a cold day.

[Graybeard]

"Well, we're not giving up," Sister Rose said emphatically. "Not when we're the closest we've been to Egbert since we left home. We'll just be careful. Here, let me help you get cleaned up." Rose had been spared most of the splatter at the tavern, so she could afford a quick Hygiene spell cast in Lillith's direction, not to mention use of a plain old washcloth.

"It would help to have a plan, though," Brother Miguel said, slowing the horses back to a walk; they were out of sight of downtown Nautkia now. "I have to confess: I'm not sure how to proceed here. I don't know where to find Egbert, and I'm not even sure that information that Rogeriel passed us is any good anyway. This business of Brother Kelso having been the ... contact ... worries me. How did Rogeriel get the information he gave us? You don't suppose..."

"I do suppose," Rose said, her voice flat. "I bet Rogeriel squeezed it out of him. You saw all those little 'inquisition aids' in his room, right?" She was watching Lillith out of the corner of her eye as she said this, hoping the girl would get the secondary point: they were carrying her away from that room. "I don't know why, but I think it happened. So one of the unanswered questions is: just whose payroll is he on? Do either of you have any ideas?"