2nd Interlude (Archive)

Posts : 7109 Join date : 2017-05-17

K wrote:: Mihai will take some interest in taking Breeze to go see Fluffle - "Teach him that love globule." - but his main focus will be Fedler.

Posts : 7109 Join date : 2017-05-17

Rory wrote:: //I take it this is to cover our time in Zest. Whatever I don't cover, see the Discord log. Probably just the conversations.//

Konrad will go with Breeze to greet Fluffle and the fairy village. If Breeze and Fluffle want to go off alone, he'll kindly tell them that he'll wait up for them, and he'll return to the fairy village around curfew hours (8-10pm) to do just that, bringing his books and rings for study to keep himself busy.

To Steve's suggestion of going out to eat, he respectfully says he won't stay long, as he's focusing more on his weaving, but he will stay and eat for a bit, listening more than talking.

He stops by a metalworker's shop to ask about the price of refolding his blade to make it stronger. Then, he'll go to a potions shop to browse for Silence Oil, the best they've got, with the intention of gifting it to Fedler.

Assuming he can afford it, Konrad will then have his weapon refolded, and persuade the smith to lower the price and engrave their custom symbol on it, and work some harmless spikes and curls into the design of the hilt to draw the eye. Konrad's intention is to tell people who see him in action and direct potential customers to the smith who did the work.

He'll wave at the statues as he passes by.

Summary
In Zest
Visiting fairy village. Buying a vial (or two) of Silence Oil. Upgrading sword to +1. Waving to the statues.
Overall
Out to eat with the others. Doubling down on studying, pouring in all the rest of his time and focus.

Diplomacy (fairies)
You kids behave, now. Don't do anything foolish.
Diplomacy +AP (smith)
Persuade blacksmith to lower the price for his +1 bastard sword.

Posts : 7109 Join date : 2017-05-17

K wrote:: Mihai will be dedicating his time to helping Fedler recover.

He'll find quiet some good quiet spots by the seaside and take her about twice each week. Having grown up in a port town, he's able to make some small talk about it, like what kind of trees handle this terrain best (pine, if there's sand), why the gulls flock the way they do, why the sea breeze blows like so and so, etc.

After the two weeks, he'll slowly work it up to taking her to see puppets and other stuff in town that's not too taxing. Then he'll move up to darts, in some quiet pub he finds. He'll eventually take Breeze along, and encourage her to just get the dart on that bullseye without thinking too much about it, but her telekinesis just can't handle that kind of activity.

Fedler is really good at darts, and wins most of it.

As for his upgrade, Mihai goes with straight up Ice Damage Increase for his Sword. There are a few drawbacks, as dealing nonlethal damage is now impossible, and the sword is just too powerful to work with support magic (it will repel most damage enhancements).

As for the rest, he'll keep training Steve, and keep trying to beat him at Joker Poker - picking up deception skills from him.

--\\--//--

After Fedler has recovered, Mihai one day approaches Konrad.

"Why didn't you take Nova Melan hostage?" - he asks plain.

Konrad is at first confused, as he's never heard that name before. "Nova Melan? Ah, Fedler's sister. Yes, we could have ransomed her. You have to understand that this was during the skirmish after we boarded. She attacked the First Mate with a sword and killed him. I was right there when she did it. She had joined the fight, so I treated her as I would any other enemy."

"Your captain had no problem with that?"

"He regretted it, but we attacked to loot the cargo, and we got what we came for. I was promoted."

Mihai is a little thrown off, but quickly recovers and follows up - "You just happened to find the ship at sea, or did you know it's route?"

"I don't understand. My captain was a pirate, I was a pirate, and killing people at sea to retrieve valuable cargo is an abominable practice. What difference does it make whether we knew who was on board? We were horrible people either way."

"I'm not interested in morals." - Mihai presses - "I want to know if someone leaked that ship's route."

"Yes, there was a leak."

"Do you know who?"

"No, he had a cover. Luther met him, said he claimed to have insider information. Might have been talking himself up, but the info was good. He got a small share from our plunder."

Mihai considers this... "Where did Luther meet him?"

"In Littlepen. Should be about 40, now, if he's still there."

Mihai processes this for a moment. Then - "Right. Thanks." - and leaves

"It's not much to go on," Konrad calls after him. Then realizes something - "Oh..."

--\\--//--

Mihai will start teaching the party how to use the Whisperer sign language.

Posts : 7109 Join date : 2017-05-17

Zeiss wrote:

The next three months

Snicker's threat has now Sonlake Dermold on his guard, and he is initially uncomfortable giving out assignments to the 113th adjunct, but he reasons that withholding important missions from the party won't do them any good as it can't stop this demon from interfering if he really wants to. Nevertheless, most of the missions given out are low-key in nature. The party acts as an escort, bodyguards, or security detail for a conference. At the end of October however, the 113th adjunct is tasked with the pursuit and arrest of a bandit group who established a secret base in a large alcove on the western coast of the Free Feathers. The party manages to cut off their escape route, and after a short fight, the remaining bandits surrender themselves to the Coins mercenaries. This short and surprisingly uncomplicated expedition is soon over, and the criminals are brought to face the authorities who will judge them for their crimes.

The political climate of the Free Feathers however isn't so uncomplicated. The sudden appearance of new magical phenomenon and creatures across the island has everyone on edge, and Waterglass' decision to join the Highwind administrative district is now having a profound effect on the political landscape. By advocating for the safety of the Free Feathers citizens, the cities of Littlepen and Walkerfree have finally managed to convince the surrounding villages of doing the same as Waterglass. The villages on the northwestern side of the Free Feathers were initially left out of these discussions because of their location, but Fearhold quickly took the initiative of engaging in such talks. The effects of these changes are far-reaching; out of the initial twenty-two districts on which the Free Feathers were founded, there are only four left. Militias are now managed on the district level, and the mayors of Highwind, Littlepen, Walkerfree and Fearhold are governors in all but name. The federal government has begun to deliberate over how to replace the process that is now obsolete and by which the representatives on the Citadel's Council are chosen.

Each party member is paid 115 gold for these three months of work. Steve adds this amount to Breeze's wallet.

The three of you -Mihai, Steve, and Konrad- must also pay your rent (check your sheet for the price). You also must pay for living expenses, which amounts to a total of 9 gold for three months.
__________________

Breeze

The blue-haired girl spends much of her time with Fedler and Konrad, trying to cheer them up by playing word games with them or just making small talk. She always smiles for them, and by sheer perseverance (and several mishaps caused by her innocence), she even manages to get a few good laughs out of Fedler. Her desire to lift their spirits is so strong that she asks one of Steve's acquaintance in town to weave a pack of cards that will miniaturize itself to her scale when she touches a card; all of this so she can play with her friends.

While she is in Zest's Gate however, she does make some time for her brethren, and especially Fluffle, who was overjoyed to learn of her unexpected visit. The two of them often fly off together to explore the city, and while it happens only a few times, they sometimes return quite late after the curfew. Fluffle has however received Konrad's message loud and clear, and by his attitude, he is nothing but a gentleman to Breeze. The blue-haired girl even sheds a few tears when the party is finally ready to leave Zest's Gate, and she agrees to come aboard the ship only after giving Fluffle a big hug. She waves at her fairy friends who all have come to say goodbye, and as the Phoenix is slowly floating away, she shouts at them, "Bye Fluffle! Bye Bubble! Bye everyone! I'll come back soon!"

She is a little depressed to be separated from her new friends, but knowing that she can write to them whenever she wants is enough to cheer her up. Once they're back home, she goes to meet the local toy maker lady and asks her to make some beds for her size, so she can crash at her friends' apartments, and also some new clothes.

Steve has to handle her money, of course. With the pack of cards, it costs a total of 62 gold and 4 silvers.
__________________

Mihai

Fedler is thankful for Mihai's presence, and even though she rarely initiates any conversation, she progressively gets better over time. It seems that she is back to her old self after a month, and she acts like normal when she is in Konrad's presence, but one look at her is enough for Mihai to tell that she hasn't forgotten about what their red mage colleague did in his past life. She is however tight-lipped about the subject.

The white creature with long ears that has appeared on their balcony at the beginning of November has proven to be an interesting distraction. Fedler has named the small animal Florolf, and has fed it small snacks every time she saw it onto their balcony. However, it still refuses to enter the apartment and prefers to stay on the outside. Breeze has once tried to approach it, but the moment she took a step forward, it bolted off in the opposite direction, only to reappear a few days later.

Florolf:

His training with Steve has given him a bonus of +2 to his Deception.
__________________

Steve

Because of their respective work schedule, Steve and Zelk have seen each other for a total of only three weeks during this three-month period, and never for more than four days at a time. Nevertheless, the young military officer isn't discouraged by their situation, and she tries to make their time together worth it by taking the initiative and inviting Steve to a nice restaurant or a popular play. At one point, she casually suggests than when his one-year contract is up that he finds a new job in Highwind, something that wouldn't force him to travel all over the world.

Once Fedler has somehow recovered from the shock of Konrad's confession - and the murders of his family members - she resumes her lessons with Steve. The young mage is now trained to sing, and in a few more months, he should be able to perform with his guitar as well. During their time together, Steve notices that Fedler is quite skilled with a guitar; unusually so. It has been a long time since she had touched this kind of instrument, but it's as if her skills hadn't worsened over the years. The ranger herself comments on this anomaly, but she decides to accept this good fortune and attributes it to one of the love globules' side effects.

One day, Steve walks down the street to return to his apartment, and passes by Zelk who doesn't seem to have noticed him. When he talks to her, he realizes that she doesn't recognize him at all, and this is when she runs away from him and disappears into a alleyway. A day later, Zelk is now on leave from work and comes home to find Steve, who is probably confused by this episode. She then explains to him that she wasn't in Highwind yesterday, and that the person he talked to was probably an impostor. Needless to say, Zelk finds the idea that there's another person with her likeness very uncomfortable.

His training with Mihai has given him a bonus of +2 to his Athletics.
__________________

Konrad

After numerous months of training, Konrad has finally mastered the basics of weaving, and given enough time and mana, he can now weave simple magical objects (such as detonators, non-complex traps, items with temporary enchantments, etc.) He also gains a bonus of +2 to Weaving.

When back home, Breeze always suggests that they go have fun together, or just explore the city if he prefers something relaxing. She also sleeps the most often at his apartment, since she doesn't want to disturb the other couples from being intimate when she's there for the night (even though Steve and Zelk totally did it once, and it was really weird to hear Zelk order him around like that, but shh, it's a secret). They also got lost on the way home once or twice, like if they had taken the wrong turn somewhere on the previous streets, but Breeze didn't think much about it.

Sonlake also gives Konrad a brief report about his family; the two children and their mother are safe. Caleb, the man "responsible" for the murder of Konrad's brother, as well as his parents, has already been sentenced to death. He claimed to be innocent and that he wasn't controlling his body, but his peers considered this claim to be false; there were too many eyewitnesses, and no proof that an entity named "Snicker" ever existed. Important fact: the murder of Konrad's family members happened three weeks before he saw it happen.

The Coins' agent are now protecting his niece and nephew, as well as their mother, without making their presence known. There has been no incident so far.

__________________

The party is now in the waiting room of the Coins' office of Highwind to meet their handler, Sonlake Dermold, to discuss an important mission. He has assured the party members that their family and closed ones have not encountered Snicker or any of his "puppets", and the Coins' agents will continue to protect them as long as this demon lives.

Posts : 7109 Join date : 2017-05-17

Rory wrote:: After making some headway in his training, Konrad is a little more open to letting the light shine on him, and a walk sounds like a nice way to spend an afternoon.

When he hears of Caleb's fate, he just sighs and says "Poor bastard should've tried to run."

He white-knuckles whenever he hears any activity by Snicker related to the murders. "So this wasn't just on a whim. The demon thought if it couldn't kill me, he could at least show me what happened."

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