NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 3478592" data-attributes="member: 11">Session #5 – “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?” (Part 3 of 3)<a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Balem" target="_blank">Balem</a>, the 19th of <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Sek" target="_blank">Sek</a> – 566 <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/H.E." target="_blank">H.E.</a> (637 <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/M.Y." target="_blank">M.Y.</a>)Near midday they met with Euleria at the Sign of the Green Gem and told her their plans for travel and the hirelings.  She asked that Brand, the boy hired as a porter, be kept on as her assistant, and they acquiesced.  Neither Dunlevey nor Falco had any interest in going off to the Border Shires on their own, or for less pay.  Telémahkos paid them out from his own pocket, and gave Euleria ten gold pieces to add to her expense fund.She expressed her doubts about Cornwallis Lowe’s son, Tymon, whom she had met the night before while the party was at dinner, but felt that Telémahkos needed to meet him himself to be sure.He arrived just after lunch.  Tymon Lowe was a squat man in his late twenties, built like a barrel, with a receding hairline, big head and small face.  He was dressed in a coffee-colored doublet and his eyes seemed to bug out a bit every few minutes.  He was awkward and sweaty and stuttered and could not look Victoria in the eye, but he did appear knowledgeable on surveying and the culture of the Rubes.  He also spoke the Rube language, along with that of kobolds, dwarves and gnomes, and when he spoke those other tongues his stammer disappeared.  He also seemed to know numbers and figures very well. Tymon carried a longsword, but said he preferred a cudgel.Satisfied with Tymon’s knowledge, Telémahkos had Timotheus bring the merchant’s son over to the citadel where they sparred in the courtyard cheered on by some the guards the young veteran had befriended the day before.  Tymon seemed to be at least as good in a fight as Bleys in terms of the skill he displayed, but was not particularly confident, and had a tendency to drop his sword when yelled at.  It would have to do.As Markos left the inn to inquire about ferry passage to Tribunisport, he stopped and turned to Telémahkos.  “Oh, I might as well tell you before you head off to walk about trying to control everything and set up your little manipulations, you might as well find out about the Brown Turban (1) in Tribunisport.  It was where I was told to seek employment while I was there.”Telémahkos’ face grew red with anger.  He drew a mailed gauntlet from his belt and struck Markos across the face with it.  He dropped it to the ground.  “You will not mock me.  There is no place for to fight here, but at first opportunity do not think you will get away.” He turned suddenly and stormed out of the inn.Markos let out a laugh; ignorant of what he had just said that had offended Telémahkos. As he left, Telémahkos ran into Euleria again and he asked if she would send a message that they would not be going to Tribuisport.“Already taken care of, sir,” she replied.  “Laarus talked to me about it this morning, and I took the liberty to send word that you would be heading out to the Disputed Territories right away.  Master Laarus did not tell me to do that, but I got the impression that that was what he wanted but did not want to ask me to lie.”“As usual you have gone above and beyond, and for that I thank you,” Telémahkos gave little bow of his head, and went off to meet <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Ida+Lowe" target="_blank">Ida Lowe</a> for tea.<a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Teflem" target="_blank">Teflem</a>, the 20th of Sek – 566 H.E. (637 M.Y.)The quickly fading gloom of the approaching dawn greeted their arrival at Tribunisport.  A <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/sloop" target="_blank">sloop</a> christened The Sea Flower brought them across the <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Drie-Hoek+Bay" target="_blank">Drie-Hoek South Narrows</a> to the southernmost tip of <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Black+Thread+Island" target="_blank">Black Thread Island</a> where the small fortified town was located. The ferry had set out nearly a full hour after dusk the day before, and had been delayed by a long stillness in the dead of night, where no wind could be found to tack against.The signers of the Charter of Schiereiland could tell immediately that while it was about a third the size of New Harbinger, its port was bigger and more active, and they spotted several warships docked at the northern part of the harbor.  It was here that the House Wetherwax citadel stood, nearly the size of the rest of the town itself.  Tribunisport’s walls were made of a motley gluing together of stone, that looked fused in places, as if by great heat, but more likely by magic.  The walls stretched out on onto the water on atolls, capped by tall square towers and closed off by a great gate that was opening to allow the sloop into the inner harbor.  A third wall separated the port from the town itself.Unlike the sweet smells of New Harbinger’s spice trade, Tribunisport was soaking in the smell of fish and morning fires being lit in the many little clustered homes. The young nobles stood huddled together looking around at the building activity of the port.  Some townguards walked past and looked at them, but said nothing.  They decided to take assumed names while here.  Victoria would be called “Olivia Greenfield”, and wrapped her cloak tightly around her body and kept her helmet on, despite the oppressive heat that foretold the coming of summer.  Laarus asked to be called “V”; a term of endearment granted him by Markos’ mother, which made the sailor-mage scowl. The priest of Ra did not want to lie about his name, but using a name he was sometimes called seemed an adequate way around that. Markos took on the name “Albert”, while Telémahkos would be “Johan”.  Timotheus would be ‘Argus’.“I’ll be Torsten the Fist!” Bleys said with a rare smile. But, despite that, his voice was still nearly monotone. “Though I would have to buy a big axe to truly play the part.”“I’m nobody important,” Tymon stuttered, his lips constant moving even in the spaces between words and phrases when no sound was issuing from his mouth; Sometimes he would nervously purse his lips over and over touching his top lip to his nose several times before even moving on the next syllable. “I don’t need another name…” His gaze caught Victoria’s and he turned his head away with slow fear, but his eyes trailed to stay on her on the last moment before his head was turned.A local pointed them towards the Battened Hatch, a small inn that usually rented double rooms for the night.  The place only had four rooms, but they were all unoccupied, as their inhabitants had set sail at dawn. Bleys and Victoria took a room together, while Timotheus and Laarus took another.  Telémahkos and Markos walked into another room, but as Tymon made to follow his master stopped him.Telie looked to Markos, who was dropping his pack on a bed. Markos looked up at him and said, “We might as well take care of our business now as any results of it will only help us blend in more among those we plan to infiltrate…”“Go help the others settle in,” Telémahkos said to Tymon, taking the man’s bag and pulling it into the room, before closing the door.  Telémahkos spun around quickly to see Markos had his hands up in fists already.Telémahkos grimaced and raised his own and then charged at the young man who was even smaller than he was.  Markos’ fist swing out and caught Telie on the chin.  The young aristocrat stumbled back and Markos laid another punch in towards the gut, but heard the crunch of metal links as he felt Telie’s chain shirt underneath his toga.“You son of a bitch!” Markos cursed.  Telémahkos smiled and took a few shots himself, but Markos avoided the blows, ducking into ball to absorb what he could not dodge.  They locked up punching at each other as they stumbled about the room, slamming into the night table by the bed, and then into the wall.In the room next door, Timotheus looked at Laarus when he heard the commotion and just shook his head.  “I’m going to go get laid,” he told the priest. “It’s been over a week…” And he headed out of the inn with some coin lent to him by his cousin the day before to do just that.Deciding he wanted to get a sense of this town on his own, Laarus headed back out to the port to see what info he could gather, but he moved his holy symbol from around his neck to his belt.Meanwhile, in the room next door, the two combatants broke apart.“What is it with the f*cking chainmail?” Markos swore. “I knew you were a pussy, but gods!”  He rushed at Telie, but the young Briareus spun around and punched down, clipping Markos’ ear. “I was wearing the chain shirt when you challenged me to the fight, you lackwit!”Telémahkos slammed his fist into the side of Markos’ head and then struck him again as he scurried out of the way to get clear to turn around and take another swing.  Telie locked the mage’s arms in his own for a moment and then pushed him off, trying for a forearm to the face as he did so.  Markos ducked again and then came up suddenly, charging. Telie stepped out of the way and Markos’ fist punched right into the plaster wall, making a small hole. He pulled his hand free and blood flicked across the room from his knuckles. (2)“I’ve had about as much choice about the life I was born into as you have,” Telémahkos said, as Markos raised his fists again.“I guess that is why they wanted to room together,” Victoria commented to Bleys when they heard the slams across the hall in their room.  The watch-mage shrugged and headed out to visit the local watch-mage, but he did not wear his cloak in the watch-mage style, turning it inside out and folding it over his arm, instead.“You didn't choose how you were born, but you choose how you act now,” Markos replied, coming back in to continue the melee.“Oh, you mean with politeness…” Telémahkos laid a punch into Markos’ skinny side. “And generosity?” He tried to punctuate his question with a right-cross, but Markos bobbed back and Telie was over-extended.   He had to grab on to Markos to keep from falling, and they locked again, stumbling against the door to the room.  Markos let loose a barrage of blows that made Telie let go, even if they did him no actual harm. Markos moved in again, but was met with a resounding blow that dropped him to the floor.  The young mage’s head lolled in and out of consciousness.  Telémahkos opened the door and called for Tymon, and with his servant’s help, put Markos in one of the beds.A little more than an hour later, Markos stirred and sat up to see Telémahkos in new darker clothes; a brown doublet similar to those they had seen merchants wearing in New Harbinger, but a bit shabbier, and a dark-colored cloak of light wool.“You ready?” Telémahkos asked.“You only won because of your chain shirt,” Markos muttered as he got up.The two young nobles, left the Battened Hatched, accompanied by Tymon, and made their way to the Brown Turban.  It was off the market, near the center of town, with its roof painted red, and a hanging wooden sign that displayed a bald head with tiny black flies circling it.  The inn was actually a nicer place than the Batten Hatch, with cushioned benches and an ornate wine rack on one wall in the common room.The proprietor was Aramis the Kind, a dark-skinned, bald man with a smile as wide as his mid-section.  He wore light cotton clothes of white that were marked with streaks of sweat, and musky perfume wafted off of him.  He welcomed them with the precise diction of someone who hard learned the common tongue in adulthood.  He laughed often and was quick to make the two of them comfortable.  As it was the middle of the morning, there were no other customers around to distract him from giving them his full attention.“So, I don’t have to worry about anyone trying to give me a brown turban, right?” Telémahkos with a sneer, as the proprietor brought them over two mugs of beer, and a shot of dwarf spirits.Aramis burst out laughing. “Not for you!” He laughed again. “But only for those foul dervishes who make men slaves with religion! We spit on them! Ptoof!  We sh*t on them!” He laughed again. Telémahkos asked after Boris Crumb.A tall hunched man in his late forties, in drab blue-green robes, and a frizzy crown of long hair around his misshapen bald head, walked into the common room.  Aramis the Kind called him over, and as he approached they could see the man had a silver eye with an ankh in the center of it about his turkey-neck.  He was introduced as Deetius of Ptah, Crumb’s aide.Inquiring as to jobs, the <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Wayfarers+of+Ptah" target="_blank">Wayfarer of Ptah</a> questioned them as to their experience.“I served ten years on the Lady’s Lament,” Markos said.Deetius droopy eyes opened a bit wider and he murmured something between incredulity and appreciation of what that meant.  The wandering priest explained they were hiring crew for a variety of ships working in the <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Wizard%27s+Sea" target="_blank">Wizard’s Sea</a>, (3) and that the specific details of pay had to be worked out with specific captains, but he and Crumb were acting as middle-men to recruit these crews for commission.“We can bring you to a place where a few captains might compete for someone of your experience,” he said to Markos.  However, they would not be able to speak Crumb directly until that afternoon, as he was still sleeping off the night’s revels.Telie, Markos and Tymon returned to the Battened Hatch to share what little news they had and to rest and eat some lunch before going back to the Brown Turban.  Bleys the Aubergine had had no luck with finding Cwell the Hawk at his humble hut on the beach, and they found him discussing how payment in service worked for graduates of the Academy of Wizardry.  Neither Laarus nor Timotheus were back yet, when Telie and Markos went back to talk to Crumb.In his mid-forties, Boris E. Crumb III was a portly man, barely five feet five inches in height. He had brown curly locks, and a brush-like mustache that obscured his top lip. His bright blue eyes, wide smile, and rosy chubby cheeks gave him an amiable look that belied his business.He squeezed into a booth opposite them, shaking their hands as he introduced himself effusively.  He seemed to like the sound of his own name.  “So ya interested in getting a job on a ship, huh?”“Actually, I was sent to you by a mutual acquaintance in authority over at New Harbinger,” Telémahkos explained.Crumb’s smile turned into a smirk and he nodded and leaned forward. “Ah, I know who ya mean… Okay, I was expecting someone soon, just wasn’t sure who it would be…”“We need you to get us and our friends to Kraken’s Cove…”  Telémahkos let the words hang there for a moment.  “However, we don’t want to end up pressed into serving on a pirate ship…”  Telémahkos eyes narrowed.“Let’s be careful with what we’re saying,” Crumb said, and he gestured for Telie and Markos to come with him to a table near the back, away from the lunchtime crowd.  “Now, in terms of getting in there, I can get you in there… There are two ways… Three ways… and one I get the feeling from what you said you don’t want to try.  The other would require getting you in as merchants looking to buy or establish an agreement for trade…”“That is way that appeals to us most,” Telémahkos replied.  “There are certain moral elements in our group that might chafe at the first… But what is the third?”“Well… There is a way to get here by land… a secret way…”“We were told there was no way to approach it by land…” Markos said.“That is why it’s a secret!” Crumb said with a laugh. “But it really isn’t even really a secret, it is just hardly ever used, and no one would expect anyone to enter from that way… But depending on what you want to do there… and I don’t tell me what you plan to do there, because it is better for both of us if I do not know… well, Kraken’s Cove is not so big a place that you can spend much time there undetected, and if you are not where you are supposed to be as outsiders, well… let’s just say all the fast-talking in the world probably won’t be much help.”“I think the merchant plan might be best then,” Telémahkos said.“But that will take time to set up,” Crumb said.  “Business takes time to set up.  New recruits is easy…”“How much time?” Markos asked.“Well, I am making a trip out there tomorrow…” Crumb looked up as if doing figures in his head. “And I would need to be able to present legitimate credentials that cannot be traced back to me… I would rather not use this method.  Time and money are required for it…”“So you say this place is small? Are there taverns there? I mean, is it sort of village?” Telémahkos asked.“Oh, no, no, no, no, no…” Crumb said. “It is a set of caves where goods are stored and traded out.  Wares can be sampled and ordered; arrangements can be made… That kind of thing…”“If we knew someone there, would we be able to make contact with them before being challenged?”“You know someone there?” Crumb asked, suddenly sitting up straight and running a finger through his brush of a mustache.“If we did…” Telémahkos replied.“Tell me who it is and I’ll contact them when I go tomorrow,” Crumb said.“I do not know who it is,” Telémahkos said. “It is someone that the person who sent me told me about…”“Well, that I don’t know about,” Crumb said.  “But the place is not as big as its reputation would make it seem… Any subterfuge will eventually be discovered if you do not arrive there by ship…”“And how long did you say it would take to arrange for us to adopt the guise of merchants?” Telémahkos asked.“At least a week, maybe nine days… And I’d need forty or fifty silvers, at least…”“And do you know anything about the possible actions out of the Cove…” Telémahkos paused. “The thing people have been chattering about here and there?”Crumb’s bushy eyebrows rose.“Wetherwax… An attack against their fleet?”Crumb looked back down and shook his head. “I don’t know anything about it.  But doesn’t seem likely, since Wetherwax knows of the cove’s existence and allows it to continue to exist… Wouldn’t be in their interest to raise the ire of the navy…”“So you don’t know anything about an attack or raid or invasion?” Telémahkos asked, more flagrantly.  Crumb looked at the young man and frowned. “What are you talking about?”“What are they recruiting for?” Markos asked.“For work, on ships… I told you… There is a high turn-over of local Thricians and I helped draw a bunch of Herman-landers seeking to avoid conscription to come sign on and get paid and are guaranteed to be around and need work while the war is going on. It’s a win-win.”  He winked.Realizing that this new turn of events would have to be discussed with the others, they arranged to return for dinner to inform him then what they planned to do, as Boris E. Crumb III would be leaving for Kraken’s Cove before first light the next day.“Oh! One last thing,” Telémahkos asked Crumb as he was shaking their hands to say good-bye.  “You have not by chance met a young man named Vanthus Vanderboren while you were here, did you?”“That kid? Yeah…” Crumb’s face wore a look of amusement. “Pretending to be a big time merchant… His documentation looked real enough and he had money… I took him over there two days ago to arrange to buy some stuff… Open up some route… Normally I would not have trusted him, but Brissa vouched for him… Though he’s probably her pigeon…”“Who is she?”“She’s local, here and New Harbinger, sometimes Weirspierogen,” Crumb said.  “Deals in information and in separating young men of means from their family’s silver… the usual…” He described her as pretty with brown hair. “No knock-out, but that kind of wild look nobles like when they’re slumming it.”“Petite?”“No, good build on her. She can scrap. You don’t hang around the barrel-makers if you don’t know what you’re doing… Ya end up pickled!” Crumb let out a snorting laugh-------------------------------------------------.Back at the Battened Hatch, Telémahkos told the others what he had learned, and once again was met with skepticism from some of his companions.“Why would this Crumb just tell you this information?” Bleys asked.“I assume he either owes a favor, or wants to be owed a favor to the person in authority who contacted me in New Harbinger in regards to going over there,” Telémahkos replied.“It makes no sense that an attack would come from those that House Wetherwax supports,” Victoria said. “If that is even true…”“It could be that the original information I got became confused and the attack is to happen on House Swann,” Telémahkos speculated. “I may have misspoken.”“Misspoken? Every time?” Victoria raised an eyebrow.“I just mean, I could have been repeating bad information every time,” Telémahkos replied.Timotheus brought up the fact that they were still not sure what they were supposed to do once they were there. “If we have to sneak around and gather info, then why are we all going? And if we are going there to kick some righteous ass, why did we dismiss the hirelings?” The big man’s shoulders sagged a bit, and his normal demeanor melted into a frown of frustration.The signers of the Charter of Schiereiland discussed the options and decided that as long as Crumb would be able to tell them the exact location of land route in and out, they could go posing as prospective sailors the very next day. In that way, if things turned bad they would not be dependent on a ship to escape.Telémahkos and Markos would return to Crumb at dinner to ask him about this and report the decision.End of Session #5------------------------------------------------------Notes:(1)    A Brown Turban is the term for a disgusting act performed by Thrician partisans during the Red-Pepper War on the corpses of slain Rube officers and dervish leaders, wherein the red turbans worn by such were torn off and replaced with a steaming pile of excrement. The corpses were then left out for other Rubes to find.  Even though Telémahkos had heard the name before, he decided that Markos was attempting to make a fool of him by having him ask around town regarding a “brown turban”.(2)    Markos fumbled suffering the effect: ‘Hit Self, Half-Damage’ – I re-interpreted this as his slamming his fist into the wall.(3)    You can see a map of the Wizard’s Sea, here: <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Map+-+The+Wizard%27s+Sea" target="_blank">http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Map+-+The+Wizard's+Sea</a></blockquote>

Verification