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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Seravin" data-source="post: 2513163" data-attributes="member: 6783">Shopping InterruptedGeoffrey Windemere looked mournfully towards the stout wooden door of the small, stone cottage.  He was sitting, as ordered, on the hard wooden chair in the corner of the room with the large round table blocking his direct path to the door.  Not that it mattered, for the ‘outside’ of the cottage was underground; deep underground according to the smaller woman who was smiling cheerfully at him.  The dark-haired young man wished he was somewhere, anywhere, else.The smaller woman, called Kestral by her friends, was sitting easily in the chair next to him.  She wasn’t anything special to look at; her drab brown hair was a medium length and when pressed later he would be completely unable to recall the color of her eyes.  Of all his captors though she was the friendliest, and her clothing was in the style of a middle-class shopkeeper in Corlean.  Not so the others.The witch/sorceress/wizardess/whateveress who had brought him here was now sitting cross-legged on one of the bunks in the back of the cottage.  Before her were a handful of ivory plaques and she was playing with something, maybe a ring, while she quietly chanted.  The elegantly dressed woman had been enraged to find Geoffrey following her and her companion. With a word and a gesture the woman had frozen him in place and then magically transported them all to a dark place.  Only when the woman’s shout had brought her companions out of the cottage with flickering torches had Geoffrey realized they were in some sort of cave.The slight, blonde-haired warrior woman, Tore, was sitting on the bunk closest to him and Kestral.  She was sharpening her sword – which was nearly as long as she was tall.  Geoffrey couldn’t believe that she could effectively wield the massive blade.  He was uncomfortably aware that there was a bundle on the bunk above her that looked suspiciously like a body.Then there were the men, or soldiers rather.  The two men had all the bearing of the stuck-up officers that lorded over the common folk of Corlean.  Both wore plate armor bearing the upraised sword of Sarath and their hands went easily to their sheathed swords when he had arrived.  Neither man sat during the interrogation and both had made it clear that they were ready for any tricks.  Geoffrey envied them with a spite he could scarcely describe and only the direness of his own situation kept the emotion from showing.Kestral cleared her throat, gently capturing his attention.  “So, this Radik told you to follow Jallarzi and Tore?”“Uh, yeah.  But I didn’t know their names.”  He looked between the two women sitting on their respective bunks.  “No offense.” The blonde smiled slightly and nodded.  The hairs on the back of Geoffrey’s neck rose and he shivered.  He looked back to Kestral.  “I wasn’t going to do nothing.”  He protested.  “Radik just wanted to know where they went.  That’s all.”“Why?”  It was more command then question, and it came from the one they called Jared.Geoffrey’s head snapped towards the man.  “I don’t know.  Sir.”  He added belatedly, but  obviously no one believed him.  “I really don’t know!”  He protested.  “It’s probably something Father Dark wants, but I don’t know.”The other man, Kellron, raised an eyebrow.  “Father Dark?”  He asked mildly.Geoffrey paled, he had said too much.  “He’s just somebody that Radik knows but he doesn’t want anyone else to know.  I don’t know who he is.”Kellron’s level gaze bored into the young man, but he didn’t say a thing.  Geoffrey started to sweat.“I suppose we have one other question.”  Said Tore.  “What do we do with the young man now?”  To Geoffrey it sounded like the woman’s calm voice was suggesting some sort of casual violence.“We could keep him with us.”  Suggested Kestral brightly.  “We could use a torch-bearer.”Geoffrey gaped.Jared nodded slowly.  “It could do him some good.  We could set the example he obviously never had.”Casual violence was starting to sound better to Geoffrey.  “Are you sure?”  Asked Tore.  “He doesn’t look like he has much experience with weapons or armor.”Geoffrey wanted to point to Tore and vigorously nod, desperately wanting them to hear what the blonde was saying.  Instead he sat quietly trying to look helpless.Kestral blithely ignored him.  “I said torch bearer.”  She explained with mild exasperation.  “I wouldn’t expect him to fight.  The ropers and quaggoth would eat him alive.”Kellron had been observing Geoffrey during this exchange.  “What do you want?”  asked the Sarathian soldier.“I want to go home.”“If we take you back to Corlean, we’re going to turn you over to the Watch.  I’m sure they’ll find whatever you have to say interesting.  If you stay with us you can work off your crime.”  Kellron’s deep voice was patient.Geoffrey didn’t have to think more than two seconds.  Days or weeks underground with monsters versus being taken back home.  Home won without a second thought.  “I want to go back.”  He insisted.  Following people wasn’t a crime; at most he would spend a few days in jail and he would then be released.Kestral shrugged, obviously disappointed.  “All right, if you’re sure.  Jallarzi can take you back in the morning”---Jallarzi finished her spell-casting later that evening and pulled Kestral aside outside the hut.  Once out of earshot from Geoffrey, she passed Kestral the heavy ring given to her by the Water-King.“I didn’t get much.”  She apologized.  The wizardess then recited the snippet of vision revealed by her legend lore*:  “The son of the Water-King is bound beneath this earth in a glass city.  He serves within the home of the Sea-Mother.”Jallarzi shrugged.  “Jared said the Sea-Mother might be a reference to a water demon named Blidoolpoolp.  That’s all we have right now though.”Kestral smiled.  “It seems obvious that the glass city is probably the City of the Glass Pool though.”“Probably.”Kestral nodded and patted the adamantine short-sword at her side.  “Are you still up for divining Thereval tomorrow?”Jallarzi smiled.  “Of course.  After I get back from turning our spy over to the Watch and finish up the shopping.”---*This was a real surprise for me.  To this point Jallarzi's player had been choosing pretty straight forward spells.  I think Legend Lore was her first divination spell outside of the cantrips.  It was cool seeing her take it though, and over the next several levels she forced me to come up with the occasional on-the-spot poem/rhyme/hint.</blockquote>

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