Dreams In The Deep

[Lazlow]

Romanna takes your hand in hers. Despite being wet from the rain her hands are soft and smooth, her touch gentle yet firm, and you feel yourself calmed as she looks at your finger with a worried expression. She doesn't touch the affected area, but pokes at it with a small twig she retrieved from one of the many pouches on her belt.

"I've... I've seen this before, I think. Although, it was much worse, much more widespread." She drops your hand and puts the twig away, then continues as you make your way on up the street. "One of the other survivors - well, for a short time, anyway - from your ship, he was afflicted in a like manner. Covered nearly half of his body. None of the so-called 'healers' at the abbey would dare touch him - it didn't help that he gibbered like a raving lunatic. He was never a harm to anyone, he could barely move, but I was lucky to have been there or else who knows how much more he would have suffered? I was able to help ease his pain, at least a small bit, with Gamael's help." At this she looked skyward with a smile, and opened her palms upward, letting the rain fall once again on her face. "I believe He can help you, through me, although it will take a component that I do not have. Indeed, it may be difficult to find at all on this island... She looks you straight in the face. "Diamond dust doesn't come easy. I know of no jeweler on the island, nor of any merchant who might have it. But Brother Zachariel, the abbey's resident alchemist, should in all likelihood have a pinch or two. We should head back there as soon as we can, though."

As she finishes, you notice that the Sturgeon is nearby, just across the street.

Well well well, here barely an hour and already we've got missing clerics to find, threats from the local populace, a vile blackness to expunge... Well, at least we've got the time to investigate all this. You know, seeing as how we're trapped here and all.

 

[Gray Shade]

But are we trapped with them, or are they trapped with us? . . . It's difficult to talk smack to you, you know?

"My dear, I will find your component. But first, let us find what leads we can in our search for your brother and his compatriots."

He then stopped, ripped a bit of cloth off his worn traveling cloak and wrapped and secured it around his affected finger to cover the affliction to the naked eye. This done, he nodded to Romanna and stepped across the street and back into the Sturgeon, keeping an eye out for anyone who might pass as a bar-maid named Molly. If he doesn't see one, he'll make a sign of confusion to the bartender.

Diamond dust? Like for a Stoneskin spell. Keep an eye out, friend, I dread this continuing its infection of my body.

 

[Lazlow]

Well, at least you know your place. Heh.

Stepping back into the Sturgeon, you see that not much has changed; indeed, your breakfast is still on the table where you left it, so you sit back down to finish. Hamish sees you enter and speaks up: "Ah, I figured you'd be back soon enough, so I left that there for ye. Molly!"

A moment later a young woman, shortish, roundish, and with hair the color of straw emerges from the kitchen. As she wipes her hands on her apron, Hamish nods towards you and she steps over to your table. "What'll it - oh, you've already been served. Do you need somethin' else?"

 

[Gray Shade]

"Why, yes, actually. My good friend here seems to have misplaced her brother." He nods at Romanna. "He came in last night with a small group. They would have been outlanders, perhaps you recall them."

Pollock takes some gold pieces from his pocket and absent-mindedly fingers them on the table. If Molly looks hesitant, Pollock will say to Romanna, "Can you describe them better?" while making the bribe more obvious by pushing the money toward Molly.

 

[Lazlow]

"Oh - well, yes, I remember them," Molly answers, giving you a sidelong look as she pockets the gold. Turning to Romanna she says, "You must be Romanna. He described you well. He said they'd be out at the lighthouse, although they expected you last night."

Romanna looks at you in confusion. "The lighthouse?"

The dark, probably deserted lighthouse?

"Aye, that's right," Molly responds. "The keeper, Jopin, was here when they arrived, and they left with him."

Romanna, now seemingly completely at a loss for words, looks back and forth between you and the barmaid for a moment, then regains her composure. "Well, then, I... I guess we'd better get out there." She stands. "Thank you, Molly."

"Not a problem. Is there anything you need before you go?" Molly asks, picking up your plates.

 

[Gray Shade]

Pollock took Romanna's hand lightly to stop her, and gave a friendly look to Molly. "That's odd," he said, "I'd heard that lighthouse was deserted. Has this Jopin been the keeper there for long?"

Assuming she has nothing of interest to say in response to this, Pollock will add, "I see, I see. And how would we know this Jopin if we saw him?"

Pollock nods at her description, and when she's done he says, "thank you, I'm sure that will be very helpful. You've been very helpful." He leaves another few gold pieces on the table when he rises to leave, but makes eye contact with Molly to add (and study her reaction), "Gamael be with you!"

 

[Lazlow]

"That's odd," he said, "I'd heard that lighthouse was deserted. Has this Jopin been the keeper there for long?"

"Deserted? Not at all, Jopin's been there for ages. Longer than I've been here. The light went out, of course, when the storm hit yesterday, but it's not deserted." Her face brightens up a moment as something dawns on her: "Hey, maybe your friends went to help him get it lit again."

Assuming she has nothing of interest to say in response to this, Pollock will add, "I see, I see. And how would we know this Jopin if we saw him?"

"Tall, lanky fellow, dark hair and beard. Wears military-style boots - from his Royal Navy days, which no doubt he'll tell you about if you talk to him for more than two minutes."

Pollock nods at her description, and when she's done he says, "thank you, I'm sure that will be very helpful. You've been very helpful." He leaves another few gold pieces on the table when he rises to leave, but makes eye contact with Molly to add (and study her reaction), "Gamael be with you!"

Molly clears the rest of the table, including the coins which she quickly pockets. To your "blessing", she nods hesitantly, then says, "And Surlamon with you." You're not sure, but she might not even know who Gamael is.

Romanna thanks Molly and heads for the door.

 

[Gray Shade]

Outside, Pollock and Romanna head quickly for the lighthouse.

At the edge of town, Pollock explains, "The bar-maid didn't seem to take offense at my mention of Gamael. I'm guessing from that fact that we can trust her to be telling us the truth and that she is probably not tied up in this. I was worried for a moment there that she was sending us into a trap of some sort. But, it seems she's religious, but not a zealot. We must still be on our toes, though."

They continue to the lighthouse.

 

[Lazlow]

The day still looms heavily over your heads, the sun showing no sign of breaking through the oppressive clouds that still unleash a steady rain. As you walk you try to put the black infection in your finger out of your mind, but it still gnaws away at the edge of your thoughts, looming there, waiting, like the clouds. And you notice that though you focused your mind and healed your self-inflicted wound, you still don't feel that you're functioning at one hundred percent.

As if reading your thoughts, Romanna speaks up. "We'll swing by the apothecary in the abbey, we'll be passing right by it on the way to the lighthouse. He'll probably have what we need for your finger... Although I don't know if we should tell him exactly what it's for. Some of the more senior brothers there refused to help me with the shipwreck victim who had the same affliction. In fact, they wanted to toss him back out to sea, if you can believe that. It was only their fear of touching him that he remained in the infirmary where I was able to at least ease his suffering somewhat. But even then, they only ceased their demands when he finally... Expired... From his wounds."

You walk on a ways in silence, both lost in your thoughts. After a while Romanna lifts her head up toward the clouds, removes her hood, and begins singing, quietly at first, then louder and with more conviction, as if to push her words up through the clouds to the feet of her god by sheer force of will.

Overhead the albatross
Hangs motionless upon the air
And deep beneath the rolling waves
In labyrinths of coral caves
An echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine

And no one called us to the land
And no one knows the where's or why's
Something stirs and something tries
Starts to climb toward the light

She stops then, suddenly, and looks up and lets the rain hit her full in the face again. But her reverie is broken just as quickly as the mid-day bell rings at the abbey, now just a minute or two away. She stirs, looks at you, then smiles warmly. "Come," she says, in a sweet voice that makes it nearly impossible to do otherwise. "Let's see Brother Zachariel straight away." She leads you back in the gate, and heads immediately to the left, where nestled in a corner of the abbey's main wall is a small building surrounded nearly on all sides by what would look to be a decent garden if the rain hadn't made it much more than a mud pit. "Good thing we don't need any herbs," Romanna muses as she knocks on the door and enters.

"Brother Zachariel? Sorry to disturb you again."

A rotund, red-faced man looks up from a bench and wipes the sweat off his brow with a sleeve of his monasterial accoutrements. He smiles as he sees Romanna and again when he sees you. "Not at all, not at all, sister. Welcome." He turns to you. "Welcome indeed. I am Brother Zachariel, the abbey's apothecary. And you are...?" He stretches out his hand to greet you.

...But before you have a chance to respond, he quickly interjects, "Oh, dear me, I'm so sorry, I wouldn't shake my hand just now - acidic unguents, don't you know." He looks at his hands as if they've just given the queen a pinch on the fanny. "Dearie me. A moment, a moment... Please, come in, come in." He hastens over to a basin and washes his hands fastidiously with a block of sweet-smelling soap.

 

[Gray Shade]

At Romanna's idea of stopping by Zachariel's, Pollock thanks her, understanding that she's in such a hurry to find her brother.

When she sings her song, he will smile vaguely and tell her afterward how beautiful it was. After a moment he'll ask if she made it up on the spot or if it was written by someone else. Either way, it was beautiful.

Once at Zachariel's, while the apothacary washes his hands, Pollock will notice some interesting herb along the wall that he knows (or reads) the name to. When Zachariel comes back and offers his hand again, Pollock will introduce himself with vigor and start to extend his hand, but before they grip, or Zachariel can even get a good look at it, Pollock will point with his other hand and say excitedly, "Is that So-And-So herb?!" He'll then move over to it and try to change the subject. If Zachariel tries to shake hands again after that, Pollock will do basically the same thing, but say, "What a shame about your herb garden! All that rain!" and go to the window to look out at it. Mostly, though, he'll be happy to let Romanna do the talking with this man.