fireinthedust
Explorer
Duncan chuckled grimly. "The arena wasn't about deception. Everyone knew what they were there for."
He heads back to the Scavenger's Art.
The Center of Time
Duncan chuckled grimly. "The arena wasn't about deception. Everyone knew what they were there for."
He heads back to the Scavenger's Art.
Seregal, you head east to the Hex Market to find as much gossip/eavesdropping/information that you can. Unlike the impulse buy stalls at the gates, or the larger market square and fashionable shops, Hex Market is clearly a place of bargains. A huge tattered awning of reddish fabric radiates heat down upon the crowd and gives the entire place an eerie sanguine glow. More than one entrepreneur has lit torches or glowglobes or other bits of lit numenera to dispel the color and illuminate their goods more honestly.
Beyond stalls selling clothing and bedding, bags and sacks, rations and canteens, glowglobes and lanterns, scavenged patchwork material, pack animals, cheap jewelry, little bits of frippery, guard animals, pets, or plants, are various staging points for merchants looking to hire guards for their trips out. Signs written in Truth, or those with pictograms indicate how many they need. The people hiring here are not the most prosperous merchants, or else they would not be at the Hex Market, but they are still selling what people are buying.
You are asking around (or listening as people run on) about Jastor Knoop, but keep an eye and ear on the rest of the market around you. To your amusement, you spot Duncan and Antor talking with a thin, bald man, and much more rugged-looking fellow, Duncan taking the thin-man's hand, and then your two new companions beginning to drift back. A query or two lets you know that the thin man is no less than Sevarr Trim himself. Well, that saves some time at least. Turning your attention back to what could make this quest easier, you follow several rumors until you find someone who's actually met Jastor. He's a baker, of all things, his shop tucked into a corner of the Hex Market and full of savory aromas. The man's name is Orwal, and he's short, burly man who could be any color under a dusting of white flour.
"Jastor? Hmm, I know the man. He comes in here when he's in town; claims my bread is just like his favorite back home. Gives my business a bit of a boost to say an Augur likes my bread, I'll tell you!" Orwal deftly turns to the oven and uses a bread paddle to fetch out several loaves, putting them on the counter for cooling before loading the oven back up again. "Tall man, hair black as midnight, handsome, always on the lookout for... how's he put it... 'fresh talent.' Likes to give other people the opportunity to look into things for him. Pays well too. Hmm... Fancy talker, has a weakness for seedcakes, and carries more bits of numenera and more books and scrolls in that glowy orb that follows him around than I've ever seen in my life." Orwal's gestures with his paddle indicates the size of the "orb" to be at least the height of a human. "'Course, you can't always see it. Otherwise it'd be the target for every ne'er-do-well ever spawned, and he knows it. Last time I saw him..." Orwal pauses, munching on a fresh, hot roll, tossing one to Seregal to eat, "Three moons ago, and heading back to Wislayn. Leastwise that was what he said."
---
Wisco, as Duncan and Antor walk away, Sevarr turns to you. "Being as you know more than a bit about the wilds, I have a bit of a side job for you. We're going to be traveling during prime dessan spawning season, and I need some of them."
Dessan, Wisco knows, are the pale blind squid that appear from under the mountains in the pools at the sides of the Sheer, then swim up the waterfalls to the top of the Clock, presumably to spawn.
"Help me find and harvest them, and I'll give you two shins a head, above what those rascals bargained from me for the guarding. What say you?"
---
Duncan and Antor, you arrive back at the Scavenger's Way without incident, though you notice the blind beggar-woman has moved her post to near the door. Inside, Echo is bent over the map, holding it to different lights. Beside it, on the table, is the curious metallic puddle that follows her around. It's currently in the shape of a pyramid, and sitting on one corner of the map.
Beyond stalls selling clothing and bedding, bags and sacks, rations and canteens, glowglobes and lanterns, scavenged patchwork material, pack animals, cheap jewelry, little bits of frippery, guard animals, pets, or plants, are various staging points for merchants looking to hire guards for their trips out. Signs written in Truth, or those with pictograms indicate how many they need. The people hiring here are not the most prosperous merchants, or else they would not be at the Hex Market, but they are still selling what people are buying.
You are asking around (or listening as people run on) about Jastor Knoop, but keep an eye and ear on the rest of the market around you. To your amusement, you spot Duncan and Antor talking with a thin, bald man, and much more rugged-looking fellow, Duncan taking the thin-man's hand, and then your two new companions beginning to drift back. A query or two lets you know that the thin man is no less than Sevarr Trim himself. Well, that saves some time at least. Turning your attention back to what could make this quest easier, you follow several rumors until you find someone who's actually met Jastor. He's a baker, of all things, his shop tucked into a corner of the Hex Market and full of savory aromas. The man's name is Orwal, and he's short, burly man who could be any color under a dusting of white flour.
"Jastor? Hmm, I know the man. He comes in here when he's in town; claims my bread is just like his favorite back home. Gives my business a bit of a boost to say an Augur likes my bread, I'll tell you!" Orwal deftly turns to the oven and uses a bread paddle to fetch out several loaves, putting them on the counter for cooling before loading the oven back up again. "Tall man, hair black as midnight, handsome, always on the lookout for... how's he put it... 'fresh talent.' Likes to give other people the opportunity to look into things for him. Pays well too. Hmm... Fancy talker, has a weakness for seedcakes, and carries more bits of numenera and more books and scrolls in that glowy orb that follows him around than I've ever seen in my life." Orwal's gestures with his paddle indicates the size of the "orb" to be at least the height of a human. "'Course, you can't always see it. Otherwise it'd be the target for every ne'er-do-well ever spawned, and he knows it. Last time I saw him..." Orwal pauses, munching on a fresh, hot roll, tossing one to Seregal to eat, "Three moons ago, and heading back to Wislayn. Leastwise that was what he said."
---
Wisco, as Duncan and Antor walk away, Sevarr turns to you. "Being as you know more than a bit about the wilds, I have a bit of a side job for you. We're going to be traveling during prime dessan spawning season, and I need some of them."
Dessan, Wisco knows, are the pale blind squid that appear from under the mountains in the pools at the sides of the Sheer, then swim up the waterfalls to the top of the Clock, presumably to spawn.
"Help me find and harvest them, and I'll give you two shins a head, above what those rascals bargained from me for the guarding. What say you?"
---
Duncan and Antor, you arrive back at the Scavenger's Way without incident, though you notice the blind beggar-woman has moved her post to near the door. Inside, Echo is bent over the map, holding it to different lights. Beside it, on the table, is the curious metallic puddle that follows her around. It's currently in the shape of a pyramid, and sitting on one corner of the map.
Shadowsmith
Explorer
Wisco watches the newly hired guards walk off. He turns his attention to the work at hand and helps where he can in preparing for the trip.
Shadowsmith
Explorer
"I would be happy to help harvest them. How many do you hope to collect?" This trip is starting to sound very interesting and potentially very worth it.
"Six, if I can get them. They make good ink, good for dyeing. Come on, let's finish up what we can so we'll be ready for the others in the morning." The caravan consists of two dozen aneen, twelve of which pull six wagons in pairs. Four wagons are loaded with Sevarr's goods, as well as eight of outriding aneen; the rest are loaded with supplies for the journey, mostly food, bedding, some truly excellent tents, medicines, tools, and other such things. Sevarr has six wagon drivers and six apprentices who will tend to the aneen and the rest of the camp chores. The drivers are mostly grizzled veterans of the Sheer, and while not trained fighters, each one of them has a crossbow and a stout club or staff, so they wouldn't be totally helpless in event of a raid. The apprentices are young, four men and two women, quiet and rather close-mouthed around you. One of the young men walks with the aid of a cane, and the youngest woman has a scar that pulls one corner of her lip up in a permanent snarl. They help Sevarr and you snug the goods down and rearrange things to make room for the baggage from the new guards.
Wisco, you do notice the apprentices occasionally whisper to each other, with glances at you and sometimes at the path that Duncan and Antor had taken, their faces taut and sometimes pale.
Wisco, you do notice the apprentices occasionally whisper to each other, with glances at you and sometimes at the path that Duncan and Antor had taken, their faces taut and sometimes pale.
Echo glances up at Duncan and Antor and nods absently. Her eyes are a little unfocused, and they get the distinct impression that while she looked at them, she's not really seeing them. Just as absently she pushes the little silver pyramid off the map and turns it over to look at the blank backside of it.
"Some progress to report. Map's complex...maybe holographic storage...different information co-located in the same physical volume, activated by different stimulus. The easiest to access is additional information about THIS map...limited use though; coded, encrypted, foreign language. But there could be entire other maps stored here, if we knew which way to turn it... What the maps MEAN is another question entirely. Could be lost cities, buried treasure, or a path to the local market." She took a deep breath and slowed her words down, becoming more conversational in tone. "I'll need more time with it, maybe a lot more, but there's enough potential data here to make it worthwhile."
"How are things on your end? Do we have a way through the Sheer?"
"Some progress to report. Map's complex...maybe holographic storage...different information co-located in the same physical volume, activated by different stimulus. The easiest to access is additional information about THIS map...limited use though; coded, encrypted, foreign language. But there could be entire other maps stored here, if we knew which way to turn it... What the maps MEAN is another question entirely. Could be lost cities, buried treasure, or a path to the local market." She took a deep breath and slowed her words down, becoming more conversational in tone. "I'll need more time with it, maybe a lot more, but there's enough potential data here to make it worthwhile."
"How are things on your end? Do we have a way through the Sheer?"
"Duncan got us hooked up with a man named Sevarr Trim who's got a few wagons to deliver through the sheer. We'll get 10 shins each and he'll keep us fed. Another man by the name of Wisco will join us as well." Antor glances at the map. "I wonder if only places that someone is meant to go show up on the map. Or perhaps it's voice activated. That mountain didn't show up until we were all hovering over it and we saw that vision."
Echo shrugs. "So far it seems to key off of light polarization and...maybe physical location. I mean, it seems like at least some of its functions are sensitive to where it is at the time. As we move around, they might activate. It may just have been coincidence that it was in the right place, and it was held in just the right way. Or maybe it reacted to something one of us is carrying."
"Like I said...going to need more time to even get close to figuring this thing out."
"Like I said...going to need more time to even get close to figuring this thing out."
Seregal wanders back into the Scavenger's Art, munching on a roll. He pauses to wipe the crumbs from his beard, before adjusting his amber cowl and walking back over to the table.
"How is everyone going?" he beams. "Well done, lads, I've heard good things about Sevarr Trim.
"Now, if my source is as trustworthy as his bread is fresh, Jastor was last seen here in town about three moons ago. Then he headed onto Wislayn. Jastor had a glowing orb following him, and apparently was quite decked-out with numenera; his appearance seems to reconcile with his reference in Zorak's story for sure. Oh, is there any wine left?"
"How is everyone going?" he beams. "Well done, lads, I've heard good things about Sevarr Trim.
"Now, if my source is as trustworthy as his bread is fresh, Jastor was last seen here in town about three moons ago. Then he headed onto Wislayn. Jastor had a glowing orb following him, and apparently was quite decked-out with numenera; his appearance seems to reconcile with his reference in Zorak's story for sure. Oh, is there any wine left?"
fireinthedust
Explorer
Duncan rubs his chin and grunts. He grabed the tankard Antor had promised when he was brought to the table in the first place and drank it. "My guess is we'll either see more as we get closer to whatever location it's targetted to; or the world has changed so much since it was useful that we'll only get a few images. That is if it's based off location or the layout of the land. Unless you can figure out that code you mentioned. Who was holding it when it went off?"
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