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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Delemental" data-source="post: 2278192" data-attributes="member: 5203">CarnivaléKyle was already waking up by the time Kavan rushed to his side.  He shook his head groggily as he was helped to his feet.            “Damn,” he muttered, “didn’t expect that.”            “What happened?” Kavan asked.  “Are you hurt?”            “No… well, not really.  It’s… this.”  Kyle held out his staff.  The white glow that had enveloped his new staff during the battle had faded.  Kavan could now see the arcane markings carved into the wood, the flowing symbols curling halfway up the shaft.  He thought that there was now a new line of the strange script on the staff that hadn’t been there before, but he wasn’t sure.            “It gave me power,” he explained.  “I don’t know how, and I wasn’t expecting it, but I could feel it literally pushing arcane energy into my mind, restoring the spell patterns I’d already depleted.   But then I guess it needed to recharge itself, restore the power it had just given me.  It started taking that power out of me.  I could feel it draining me through the whole fight, and I think once the rush of battle wore off I finally felt how much it’d taken from me.”            A dark look, tinged with fear, crossed Kavan’s eyes.  “Kyle…”            “Relax, Kavan,” he said, giving him a weak smile to try and reassure him.  “It stopped draining me a while ago.  And it wouldn’t have killed me or anything.”            “How do you know that?” Kavan inquired.            “I just… know, that’s all,” Kyle said, gripping his staff tightly as he leaned on it for support.  He glanced into his reflection in the crystal globe atop the staff.  “I think I just need to figure out how it works so I can control it better next time.”            There was little more time for discussion, as the party began moving out of the mansion in the middle of Noxolt’s undercity and headed for the surface.  They spoke little to each other on the way back, except for Arrie and Autumn, who conversed in whispered tones at the head of the party.  The scene reminded Tolly of how the group had been months ago, while they were still in training at the Tower.They encountered no resistance on their way out, and were able to return to the palace within two hours.  The first purple-pink streaks of dawn stretched across the sky as the party passed through the palace’s inner gate and began climb the marble steps to the main palace itself.  They could make out two figures standing by the massive gilded doors, and soon identified them as Prince Herion and Princess Aralda.  Herion spread his arms wide in greeting as the group approached.“Welcome, friends!” Herion said, smiling.  “On behalf of our family, I thank you once again for the service you have provided us.  I shall rest easier knowing that this threat to our family’s safety has been exposed and dealt with.”Kyle, still leaning on his staff, began to step forward, looking at Aralda.  Before he could speak, however, Tolly also stepped forward in front of Herion.  “Your words of concern for your family ring hollow in my ears, Herion.  I lay the blame for what happened at your feet.”The party stared at the Ardaran in stunned silence.  Herion’s eyes narrowed.  “Explain yourself,” he said darkly.“You are the elder brother to Aralda, and it falls to you to defend her and keep her from trouble,” Tolly said, staring the prince directly in the eye.  “It should have been you that Aralda came to when she first learned of the threats against the Imperial Family.  But she is apparently so terrified of you that instead she kept these threats a secret, and when she could no longer hide them she sought succor from a group of strangers.  You speak of family, Herion, and yet you are a poor example of it.”One could almost literally hear the sound of jaws hitting the floor behind the two men.  Autumn began to step forward to intervene, but Kavan put a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head.The corner of Herion’s mouth twitched.  “You presume much, priest.”“I only know what I have seen – that you are a man incapable of true feeling.  How Aralda wishes to deal with this is her decision."Herion’s mouth twitched again, but this time it curled up slightly in a mocking grin.  “Indeed, priest, how she chooses to live her life is her choice to make.  The Imperial Family has always fostered independence in their sons and daughters, as we trust in our strength.  Perhaps if you'd had a family of your own, you might understand that.”  He turned and walked stiffly back into the palace through the main doors.  Aralda, tears streaming down her face, ran off in another direction, toward the stables.  Kyle made a slight motion, as if to go after her, but Arrie, who had seen Kyle’s initial move toward the princess, shot a dark look at him before she took off after Aralda herself.  Tolly watched Herion disappear inside the castle, and then stormed off toward the palace library.The others stood awkwardly about, still not sure what to make of Tolly’s unexpected tirade toward the prince.  Lanara leaned down and whispered into Osborn’s ear.“So, how fast can you pack?” she asked.*          *            *            In a show of grace and composure that Kavan would later swear had to be caused by Erito’s divine intervention, the Imperial Family allowed the group to remain at the palace, and even rewarded them for discovering the undercity and uncovering the threat hidden there.  Kyle was bedridden for seven full days; the effects of his staff proven resistant to clerical magic, and only time could restore his strength.  Kyle complained that he could be using the time more productively, but the palace healers felt that any attempts to utilize his magic would prolong his recovery.  Kyle only relented when Lanara threatened to have a half-dozen of Aralda’s handmaidens keep him in bed by sitting on him.            It wasn’t until three days after their return from the undercity that Kyle finally got to speak to Aralda.  She had come in to visit Kyle in his sickbed; Autumn, Lanara, and Kavan were already in the room talking with him when she came in.            “I’m glad to see you’re doing well,” she said, sitting on the edge of his bed.  “I haven’t had a chance to thank you personally for helping me.”  She laughed lightly.  “Thank Erito that’s all over with!”            Kyle’s expression didn’t change.  “You know,” he said slowly, “they were right.”            “Who was right?” Aralda asked.            “The guild.  They were right about you.”            Aralda’s mouth tightened into a tiny frown.  “What do you mean?”            “What I mean is that they were right to tell you that you had to make a choice,” he said harshly.  “You been acting the spoiled child for who knows how long now, thinking you could lead three lives and get away with it.  I mean, how long did you really think you could get away with toying with both the Druidic Enclave and the assassin’s guild, as well as being Princess of the Tlaxan Empire?  And even when you start to get warnings, you still try to play the game, until they make the consequences serious enough that you had to come to us for help.  Well, I can tell you right now, Aralda, that the next time you might not have anyone around to pull your butt out of the fire.  Maybe it’s time for you to grow up a little and decide what kind of life you’re going to have.”            Aralda stared at Kyle for a while, face as hard and still as granite, then she rose and swiftly departed the room without speaking another word.  The room remained silent for a while, until Lanara groaned.            “I swear, Kyle, between you and Tolly…” she turned to Autumn.  “So, what do you think I should wear to the execution?”            As it turned out, there was no execution.  Lanara saw Aralda go into Kyle’s room a few days later, and come out after a few minutes, with no apparent sign of being upset.  The princess smiled and nodded at Lanara as she walked by.  When the bard reached Kyle’s door, he was dressed and heading out.            “Where are you going?” Lanara said suspiciously.            “Out to the gardens for a walk,” he said.  “I need some fresh air after being in bed for a week.  Is that all right with you, Nurse Lanara?”            She waved a hand at him dismissively.  “Fine, fine, I suppose we’ve kept you tied up long enough.”  Lanara glanced down the hall at the receding figure of Aralda.  “So, what’s up with her?”            “Nothing,” Kyle said, smiling.  “We just had a brief chat.  I think we’ve come to an understanding.”  With that he stepped past Lanara and went down the hallway.  Lanara started to go her own way, then something caught her eye.  She turned and called out to Kyle.            “Hey, are those new robes?”            Kyle glanced down at the new, midnight blue robes that had replaced his tattered green ones.  “Yeah, they are.  I also got a more formal set packed away.”            “When’d you buy those?”            “I didn’t.  I just found them in my room one day.”            Lanara’s eyebrow arched.  “Is that part of your ‘understanding’ with Aralda?”            Kyle blushed.  “No, at least I don’t think so.  I can’t find out who sent them.  I asked around, but all I got was a servant who said that a ‘Lady Hancomb’ had sent them.  Well, there is no Lady Hancomb in the palace, so someone’s trying to be sneaky.  I don’t think Aralda would be that coy.”            “Any idea who it is?”            He thought for a moment.  “I have my suspicions.  But if they want to remain anonymous, I won’t pry.”            Lanara couldn’t help but smile to herself as she turned and left.  She had her own suspicions, too.            By the next day Kyle was given a clean bill of health by the palace healers, and the party at last began packing their belongings in preparation to leave.  They’d held long discussions about their travel plans from Kyle’s room in the weeks since their battle with Xerxes, and had agreed to travel north to the port city of Erum in order to catch a coastal vessel.  Tolly had received a command from the head of the Ardaran Church, Archprelate Jerome, ordering him to obtain rare diamonds to replace those used in the ceremony that had restored him to life several months ago.  Diamonds of the required quality were most easily found in the orcish lands of the Haran Desert, on the other side of the continent, and so a sea voyage was the most efficient way to reach that part of the world.  Autumn expressed some concern about the unknown menace of the shadar-kai, who the group had encountered some time ago, but she contented herself with writing a letter to her adopted father, Zanich Verahannen, whose realm lay close to the forests where the mysterious fey had appeared.  She requested that he send one of his rangers to the area to keep tabs on the situation, and send word to her if anything unusual happened there.            At dawn the next day, the party rode out of the gates of the Imperial Palace of Tlaxan for the last time.  They waved farewell to Herion and Aralda, who had come out to see them off.  As the sound of hooves on cobblestones echoed through the wide streets, Lanara sighed.            “Something wrong?” Kavan asked.            “I just wish we’d been able to stay a little longer, that’s all,” she sighed.            “Longer?” Tolly cried.  “We’ve been here for a month!”            “Yes, but it was a good month,” the bard said, waving to a cluster of palace ladies and gentlemen who had come to see them off.  “I was popular and well-liked here.”            “I didn’t notice anything special about their treatment of us.”Lanara muttered something under her breath.It was a two-week ride to Erum, and while more comfortable than their ride into Noxolt, it was still hot given their proximity to the equator.  At first it was difficult to adjust to sleeping on bedrolls again after a month of feather beds, but by the time they reached the port they’d worked out the kinks and sore muscles.Erum was situated on a natural harbor, and appeared set up for commercial trade.  Vast warehouses surrounded the harbor, and goods went back and forth in large wagons.  The group traveled down to the harbormaster, and inquired about booking passage.  After making their desire for somewhat private accommodations known, as well as their intended destination and the fact that they would need to bring horses along, the harbormaster recommended the Maiden, Mother and Crone, a smaller merchant coster known as a ‘porthopper’ as it stayed close to shore and made several stops.  Though the trip would take longer than on an open sea voyage, the fact that the ship was close to land meant that it needed less room for supplies, allowing it to take on passengers and animals more easily.  Lanara immediately voted to take the Maiden, Mother and Crone, attracted mostly by the prospect of being able to stop on dry land frequently.  The others agreed, and the party was given the location of the ship’s berth as well as the name of its captain once they had paid for passage.  The harbormaster said a messenger would be sent to the ship informing the captain that they had booked passage.Most of the group went into town.  They had decided that they would sell their horses here rather than bring them on the voyage, and then would buy new desert-bred horses at their destination.  Autumn and Arrie went straight to the ship, as they had no intention of parting with Defiance and Ghost.  Osborn had also refused to part with Rupert, though the riding dog’s relatively small size meant that there was little concern about how much space he would take up.Autumn and Arrie approached the Maiden, Mother and Crone, spotting a few odd crew members doing maintenance.  Autumn approached the railing and hailed one of the workers, a gnarled old gnome.“Aye, lass?”“Is the captain on board?”“No, he’s not.”“Is the mate available?” asked Arrie.“Aye, he’s here.  What would you be wanting with him?”“We’d like to talk about passage,” said Arrie, getting a little annoyed.“You’d best be talking to the harbormaster about that,” the gnome growled.“We already have,” said Autumn.  “We’ve booked passage on this ship.”“Then when we hear from him, we’ll be glad to welcome you aboard,” the gnome huffed.  “Not our fault you beat the messenger here.”“Very well,” Autumn said.  “We’ll wait.”It was almost two hours before the harbormaster’s messenger arrived, and even after speaking to the mate and departing, the crew made no move to notify Autumn and Arrie or welcome them aboard.  The rest of the party had managed to sell their horses, have lunch, and lay in some supplies before coming to retrieve the two women.“You’ve been here all this time?” Lanara asked, amazed.  “Are you really that eager to eat hardtack and beans every day?”“We won’t eat hardtack and beans every day,” said Arrie.  “The ship makes frequent stops at port, remember?  Besides…” Arrie reached into a pocket inside her cloak, and pulled out a handful of fresh food that her magical garment had produced.“Fine,” Lanara sniffed.  “But still…”The crew had no idea of the captain’s whereabouts, so the group continued to stand in front of the Maiden, Mother and Crone.  After a few minutes, Lanara spoke up again.“Has the captain shown up yet?  Why are we all standing around?”“We have nothing better to do,” Arrie explained.  “And Autumn seems content to stand here.”  Truth be told, Arrie was not content to just stand there, but she truly had nothing better to do, and she had had as much training in diplomacy as her adopted sister, and knew it was improper to board a ship without permission to come aboard.  Still, the waiting was grating on her nerves.“Well, this stuff is heavy,” Kyle complained, a large sack over his shoulder.  He pushed past the rest of the group and walked up the gangplank.“What do ye want?” asked a crewman, who was scrubbing the deck.“Permission to board,” Kyle said.  “We’ve booked passage?”“Ah, yes, the passengers.”  The crewman stood up.  “We set sail an hour after dawn.  Be here before then and we’ll load your gear.  The captain likely won’t be back today, so you can meet him in the morning.  You’ll have to stay in an inn tonight; no one stays on the ship if the captain’s not aboard.”Kyle nodded, and walked down the gangplank to join the others.  “Sometimes diplomacy is overrated,” he said with a wink. So finally the group consigned themselves to an overpriced inn of slightly below average quality called the Vermillion Crab.  Osborn decided to go fishing, and spent most of the afternoon and evening sitting on the dock, feet dangling over the edge.  After an evening of longing for their comfortable bedrolls out in the wilderness, the group rose (or rather, stopped laying awake in their cots) and went to the ship.  Approaching the Maiden, Mother and Crone, the party saw that the number of people on and around the ship had easily tripled.  Men of all shapes and sizes loaded heavy crates onto the ship, shouting orders at each other.  The taskmaster appeared to be a large, loud orc-touched man with dark skin and a scar across his left cheek.  Kavan glared at the orc-touched even as Autumn approached and asked for permission to board.“Welcome aboard, lords and ladies!” the orc-touched said in a rough voice.  “I’m second mate Caruthers, at your service.  We’ve been waiting for your arrival.  I’ll have a few of my boys take your things below, and your horses as well, unless you prefer to handle them yourself.  The Captain’d like to see you before you’re shown to your quarters.”The group turned and followed Caruthers to the ship’s stern, where the captain’s quarters were located.  After knocking, Caruthers stepped aside and allowed the party inside.The captain sat behind a large maple desk.  He was a large, powerfully built man, with wavy green-blue hair that marked him as a water-touched.  On his formal officers coat, they could see a silver dolphin pin that marked him as a priest of Krûsh.The captain looked up from his charts.  “Good morning,” he said.  “And welcome aboard.  My name is Captain Mohan.  The harbormaster told me that you wish to travel to the desert lands, specifically to the mouth of the Kruga River.  My ship can accommodate you.   We’ve originated out of Medos, and our voyage will take us around the entire continent, so you’ve caught me at the right time of year.  If this were spring, I’d be heading the wrong direction.”  He smiled to himself.  “I’m afraid that she’s not the largest ship on the sea, and so I haven’t the room to give each of you private quarters.  You’ll be sharing cabins, two apiece.  Your horses will be stowed below in the hold.  Your dog can stay with you, little master.”  He nodded at Osborn.  “Does your hound have any problem with cats, sir?”“None at all,” Osborn said.“Good, as we keep a few cats on board to help with the rats.  Of course, if your dog can catch rats, he’s more than welcome to lend a hand… or a paw, as it were.”Osborn looked down at Rupert, curled up at his feet.  “You hear that, Rupert?  If you see a rat, eat it.”“I’m told that a few of you inquired about working off part of the price of passage,” Captain Mohan said.  “Well, if you have skills we can use, you’ll be paid a fair wage for them, just like any member of my crew.  But I don’t require my passengers to work, unless the ship is in danger.  But if one of my officers gives you an order, assume it’s for a good reason.”  He stood up, leaning against his desk.  “We’ll cast off within the hour.  Expect to stop at port every two to five days, but most of our stops will last a day or less, so don’t wander far from the ship.  There are twenty crewman on board, including myself and the officers – my two mates, the bursar, the navigator, and the boson.  Expect the crew to change at each stop – life on the sea isn’t as romantic as most people think.  My officers should stay the same, however.”The captain picked up a whistle and blew it, and a moment later a crewman came into the cabin.  Captain Mohan ordered him to show the party to their cabins.  The actual rooms were quite small, with just enough room to stow personal belongings and hang hammocks.  Arrie and Autumn took one cabin, as expected, and Lanara and Xu took another.  Kyle and Tolly bunked together, and Osborn and Kavan took the last cabin.The voyage began, as promised, within the hour.  Once the ship was out of port and the activity settled down a bit, the party emerged to meet the rest of the crew and officers, except for Lanara, who was settling in for a long bout of seasickness.  Osborn learned that the navigator was a hin wizard, and so they became fast friends.  Most of the other party members found ways to keep busy – Kyle in particular was rarely seen, as he was either in his room working on magical projects, or was making use of his carpentry skills on board the ship.  Autumn and Lanara, on the other hand, found they had a lot of idle time, neither of them having many useful maritime skills (and Lanara being generally too nauseous to put on a good performance).  Autumn ended up doing a great deal of embroidery work, and Lanara used the time to keep a journal and write new songs she’d created.  And if any of the crew had objections to the two attractive young women wandering around on the deck, they were never voiced.A full month passed before the Maiden, Mother and Crone made it all the way past Tlaxan and Targeth into the Western Expanse, the region of general lawlessness situated in the northwestern portion of the continent.  Captain Mohan had to put in at a rough and tumble seaport town, but shortened the normal week’s shore leave to three days.  The crew complained at first, but when two of the men came back with knife wounds, and one of the gnomish crewmen never returned at all, they saw the wisdom of a brief stay.“We’re making good time,” Captain Mohan said casually to Osborne one day, as he and the navigator looked over the charts.  “With luck we should reach the Kruga in another three weeks.”That was, of course, the signal for the storm to arrive.</blockquote>

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