The Lamentation of Lolth - Chapter I

[Verbatim]

~A female who keeps coming into town with her face covered? Could she be scarred? Or does she wish to remain unseen? Puzzles within puzzles...~

"This female Sheriff, who does she see in town? Or does she simply buy supplies and then leave? Also, the twins and the gnome, perchance you can remember who they visited as well?"

Praying the sheriff's remarkably keen memory holds up, Ayden leans back some to allow Trond some space.

 

[Majin]

"Unfortunately I do not know where either of them visited. I saw them from outside my shop here on occasion coming and going from many directions. Again not wanting to be nosy about their business I never followed them to find out their destination. I'm sorry I could not be of more help."

 

[Verbatim]

"On the contrary Sheriff, you have been very helpful."

Smiling, Ayden looks over to see Moss examining the weapons in the shop with a wonderous eye.

"Sheriff, I'd like to thank you again for your patience with my questions. I pray that Finder's blessing will watch over you as you resume your crafting."

With that, Ayden waits until Moss has finished examining the blades and leaves the shop.

"Well Moss, two things are possible right now. Either we have alot of coincidences that mean nothing, or we could possibly see more than we know, and I merely am not wise enough to put it all together. However, there is one thing I know, if the water level is falling in the swamp, we need to find out why."

Looking around the town once more, Ayden will pick a random direction and look for the inn with the intention of collecting his thoughts over a meal with Moss.

 

[Chaos Apostate]

Upon entering, Caelbryn takes in his surrounding of the inn. It's fairly crowded and features a roaring fire in the hearth against one wall. Drinking seems very much the secondary activity here; the villagers come here to play games. One wall holds seven whale-bristle dartboards and "Nine-pins" is played in the alley between the pub and the smithy. Gamblers engaged in a game involving coins and a piece of wood huddle in one corner of the bar. On asking around for any information, one local farmer speaks with Caelbryn. "Times is hard," he says. "My crop yields are down 'cause of the lack of water. Must be another trick of them lizardfolk." While Caelbryn attempts to find some takers for his game one of the gamblers turns to him. "Wanna try your hand at Two-up instead buddy?" Looking over to the corner where it is being played Caelbryn notices loose coins lying strewn across the floor as patrons apparently throw in their bets.

Considering his information-gathering activities to have been satisfactorily successful, Caelbryn reverts to type. "And why not? I'll warrant no man here'll want to take a bet with me by the time an hour's up." He glances at the change on the floor to surmise what the average bet has been and promptly throws down five times more than it (assuming that the games have been relatively low-stake up to this point - games in country inns generally are).

 

[Manzanita]

Drogo

OOC: Whew, I wanted a fast game, but this one REALLY flies
Hopefully I can skip back to the temple for a bit...

"Master Ernest. A dropping water level is powerful work indeed. Do you have any ideas on this? Has rainfall been short? Do you know how the swamp is fed? Is there a river we could trace back?"

 

[Majin]

Looking about the floor Caelbryn notices that for each round of the game people tend to throw out 2 copper on average. The player that asked Caelbryn if he would like to play explains the rules. "We take this flat piece of wood here, and lay 2 coins on it. Then take bets on the head and tails combination that shows up. Winners split the pot evenly."

Thinking on the druid's question a bit, Ernest turns towards Drogo and replies, "There has been no change in rainfall over the last few months. There is a reservoir that connects to it that runs close to town. It is where our farmers get the water for their crops. But if the the swamp is being drained, they will have to find some other way of finding water, possibly even having to pay for it!"

(OOC: Yes, fast game indeed. I don't joke around. Do you think you can keep up or should I slow it down? It might possibly go a tad slower if some others picked up their posting frequency. That way characters would tend to dwell in areas a bit longer then they are to give room for others that are having trouble posting to get their say in. I would still like it if everyone tried to post at least 5 times a week as I originally stated. Some are posting more than that which is great, but others seem to be having trouble getting in that many posts. On that note, Isida are you still around? When you never responded to Calenthang's prompt I started wondering if you were still interested in continuing. But I'll leave it up to what everyone else thinks we should do as a whole for posting frequency, I'd like some input on that. I'm not sure whether the current lack from some and not from others is a roleplaying issue or not, but if it continues when we encounter combat again, that could be very troublesome to wait so long to get a round over with. We shall see I guess.)

 

[Chaos Apostate]

OOC: Am I right in thinking that this game has no rules about minimum bet in relation to the bets before yours? So it's pointless to bet more than the average? I'll assume that's correct.

Seeing the nature of the game, Caelbryn decides to keep the wagers small for now and get someone to play his game later...

He'll put 2 copper in every round for the next five. (I figure it'll be quicker if I assume a few games in advance.)

"Watch and learn. Luck is one of my many skills!"



OOC: A shiny new cookie to anyone who can spot the anime reference...

 

[Majin]

Luckily Caelbryn manages to win 3 of the 5 games. Splitting the pot with the others who won he manages to make 15 silver.

OOC: Subbed or Dubbed Anime? We all know how they love to change stuff.

 

[Manzanita]

Drogo

"I see. So if there has been no change in the rate of inflow from the reservoir, then the other possibility is that it is draining somewhere. Perhaps we could circumnavigate the swamp & find it. But that would probably take awhile, & if it were that obvious, then the lizardmen wouldn't be blaming the town. We will probably have to enter the swamp and look around. Thank you for your insight, Ernest. We'll keep you posted."

Drogo will follow the Ayden and Mosslime out. "As we thought, there is some other force at work. Are either of you at all familiar with water nagas? I know nothing about them."

 

[Verbatim]

Looking to Drogo, Ayden paused and thought for a moment, while he had studied various kinds of undead and their ilk, he could not recall ever hearing of such a creature.

"I am sorry Drogo, but I have never heard of such a creature until now. However, perhaps our mages will be able to provide us with some information."

That said, Ayden will continue onwards toward the inn and wait for the others.