The Hunt for the Blue Palace (Yoon Suin/Troika!)

[Ancalagon]

You break the wax seal on one of the jars. The wine within it smells fresh - excellent in fact. You take a sip, and can't help yourself but taking a frank swing.

You are hammered by a vision - you see 3 men, dressed in holly robes. They are looking at a great palm tree, its trunk darkened. They poor blood on the ground. Nothing happens. The eldest breaks out in tears, steps forward and slits his throats. More blood on the ground, but nothing happens. The others sigh deeply, pick up backs, and leave.

You come back to, flat on your back, the jar spilled.

You have two jars of palm-god-wine. Drinking from them gives the user the vision power of a seer (do a luck check to succeed). A trained seer like yourself can use them without the luck check (or spending luck). You think that with some focus (and an assistant to stop you from dropping the jar) you could direct the vision in a useful direction. Or, you could sell this for a lot of money. Each jar has enough liquid for 3 visions.

 

[JustinCase]

"Hey, I want some of that," Pinpehlu jokes as he sees Miu drink from one of the jars and fall over.

The porter grins, then looks concerned. "Are you alright?" he says, rushing to the seers side.

OOC: Pinpehlu Awareness 6: 2D6 = [3, 3] = 6

 

[Ancalagon]

Pinpehlu helps Miu back on his feet and, finding nothing more of interest in the area, helps Frog Froth bury the dead.

It is now about noon. Where to next?

 

[Ancalagon]

The updated map

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Dubi Gan drew the map in the dirt outside the Palm Shrine. He poked at the shrine and said, I suggest we walk south until we reach the spot where we found the construct, and then follow the Red Road eastward, but stay north of it. We should avoid that walled compound, of course, but I should be very surprised if we don't find the Blue Palace by the time we reach the river."

He tried to sound confident, but he was beginning to despair that his research had been wrong all along, and the Blue Palace was not, in fact, in this segment of Old Town.

 

[tuffghost12]

"Are you alright?" he says, rushing to the seers side.

Miu, dizzied and overwhelmed by the spontaneous vision, seems no different than a babbling drunk.
"Blood pouring from... Holy men!! And a great tree... so much blood!!"

After Pinpehlu helps Miu back up, he takes a few minutes to compose himself and tells the others what he saw in his vision:

...you see 3 men, dressed in holly robes. They are looking at a great palm tree, its trunk darkened. They poor blood on the ground. Nothing happens. The eldest breaks out in tears, steps forward and slits his throats. More blood on the ground, but nothing happens. The others sigh deeply, pick up backs, and leave.

 

[tuffghost12]

"Perhaps it's a sign that we must offer blood to the palm tree of this shrine..."

ooc: Is there a palm tree nearby resembling the one in my vision?

 

[Ancalagon]

"Perhaps it's a sign that we must offer blood to the palm tree of this shrine..."

ooc: Is there a palm tree nearby resembling the one in my vision?

Yes - the tree is long dead, almost petrified. Frog Froth believes that is is the corpse of a God-Tree. He knows of at least one other (the Memory Tree) that still lives in the Yellow City - of a different species however. Blood is a common sacrifice given to the gods (some have more... peculiar... tastes) and it seems that, judging from your vision, the God-Tree was no longer able to accept sacrifices - perhaps it was already dead.

This would indicate that the 2 jars of palm wine you have are from the sap of a God... no wonder they are so potent at inducing visions.

 

[JustinCase]

"Sacrificing blood to a tree?" says Pinpehlu wide-eyed. "Do you think that was literal or symbolic? I mean, I guess there is water in blood, but I don't know if that can sustain a tree. What do you think it means?"

The porter is fine with following the path suggested by Dubi Gan.

 

[wingilbear]

I am fine with whatever. I pay my respects at the tree as we prepare to leave.