[Pathfinder] The Fog of War

[Shayuri]

Mellisande is a bit subdued by the time she reaches the hut. She's never seen so many people who need cheering up before! The atmosphere of glumness finally starts to penetrate even her skull. Making merry just seems somehow wrong in front of these haunted faces. It's puzzling.

Even so, she puts a brave face on it, and nods smartly at Joe, then plunges right into the hut without waiting to be asked twice!

 

[ghostcat]

Piedra follows the others through the camp. Although he sees the drawn faces of the women and children, it does not really register has he as seen worse in a Shoanti camp during a particularly hard winter. However, one thing the Shoanti never were, was frightened. Seeing women and children frightened like this means that there is something going on that he probably was not going to like.

Arriving at Rav Tevye's hut and observing Rav's curt dismissal of Joseph made him remember Joseph's reaction when told to bring the visitors to Rav. This made Piedra wonder if Rav was a despot ruling by fear.

So, already inclined not to like Rav, Piedra enters the hut.

 

[kinem]

Jon looks on with concern at the women and children as well.

So much to ask.

He heads into the hut, hoping for some answers at last.

 

[Mark Chance]

The party follows Sam into the one-room hut.

Two walls bear crudely constructed shelves holding an assortment of books, knick-knacks, and framed pictures. A cot is set up under the lowest shelf along one wall. A bearded man sits on a chair in front of a small fire pit.

"Welcome," he says warmly. "Please, grab a log. Would you like some tea?" He lifts a kettle from the fire. "It's not very good. Made from pine needles, but it's the best we can do."

 

[Shayuri]

Mellisande's eyes widen in sudden intense delight. Pine needles! It was so obvious! Why had no one thought of that before?!

"I want some!" she demands excitedly, then scrabbles in her pack for her wooden cup. "That's brilliant! Pine needles! No one's ever made tea from pine needles! I want to be the first to try it!"

She finds her cup and eagerly holds it out, tiny hands actually shaking a little from repressing her desire to just yank the whole kettle away and guzzle the precious ambrosia straight from the spout.

 

[Andor]

"Thank you." replies Sam in a subdued voice. "We're sorry to impose on your hospitality. We ... had no way of knowing we were coming here. We only planned a short trip, but this looks like it might be a great deal more than that." He seats himself on a log and strokes his holy symbol for comfort.

 

[Mark Chance]

Tevye chuckles as he pours Mellisande's tea.

"Hospitality is never an imposition, Sam," he says. "It both my honor and my duty. Joseph tells me you aided the partisans today against the Nazis." He shakes his head. "I once had the wish to never live to see a time when evil became a necessary tool." He sighs and then smiles at the party. "But that's neither here nor there. You may not have foreseen your arrival, but I have. The Lord has shown me things, hints of what must be done, and what our roles are in those events."

Rav Tevye abruptly stands up and fishes a metal box from beneath his cot. He sits back down, pops the lid off the box, and hold it out to the gnome.

"Cookie, Mellisande?" he says.

 

[Shayuri]

Rav Tevye can tell from Mellisande's wide eyes that he has earned a friend for life with that question. She nods, apparently too awed to speak...and lifts the pine tea to her lips.

A second later she spits it out with a loud 'puah!"

She wipes her mouth and sets the cup down. "Pine needles taste really bad," she informs him. "It's like licking sap off a tree."

Without further comment, she cracks her knuckles over the tea cup, and little colored sparks of light fall from her fingers and palms into the liquid. She then picks it back up and sips again...and smiles contentedly.

"Much better."

(Prestidigitation to change flavor.)

 

[Mark Chance]

Tevye says, "Fascinating." He holds his battered metal cup. "Mine, too, if you can."

 

[kinem]

Jon says "I know nothing of the politics here, but I wonder if it would be possible to arrange a meeting with this lord sometime soon. If we are to do his bidding, I want to know what kind of man he is."