Holn and Buchek Catch Up
Subject: In the Guardhouse
Okay, I'm going to let this play out a little longer, since it seems like you guys are feeling each other out and getting into your characters' skins (which is good). Also, it'll give Jake a chance to respond. Tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to send out the last turn before the weekend, detailing Snylledd's arrival.
To make it go a little easier, could you please send me (not the game list) a group of questions your character might want to ask Snylledd... that way, I can have your character ask, and him answer, and not have to wait a week for everyone to check in. I think that'd work pretty well, and we can actually get this party on the road and moving pretty soon.
Another thing to start thinking about. Snylledd will be providing provisions for you all (within reason) along with two pack mules. You need to decide what you all want to take as a group, because you only have so much carry space, and you also need to bring food along.
The stats for the mules are as follows, regarding weight: A light load for a mule is up to 50 pounds; a medium load, 51-100 pounds; and a heavy load, 101-150 pounds. A mule can drag 750 pounds.*
*Dragging is pretty much impossible once the party gets to the Tall Grass.
Okay? So start putting together a wish list of stuff, and then you all can fight out what gets taken and what stays behind.
So, to review:
1. Send me questions for Snylledd
2. Start thinking what provisions you want to take on the mules
Okay?
Talk to you all tomorrow.
From: Jake
Subject: Re: At the guardhouse
Buchek has watched the exchange between Erk, Kayla, and Telwyn without comment. Erk is right about this tiny one, he thinks. She is a songbird, flitting about, speaking without thinking. Are all of her kind like this?
He looks down at her proffered hand. Equals? Perhaps, although her dismissal of his question and her mocking tone left him suspicious of her sincerity. As these thoughts pass through his head, Buchek stares down at the halfling impassively. After a moment, he bends at the waist, enfolding her tiny hand in his own. "I hope so."
From: Jake
Subject: Re: At the guardhouse
"Singard is gone?" Buchek replies in Cushat, releasing the halfling's hand and straightening. "I'm sorry Holn, he was a good man. His spirit will watch over you."
After a moment, Buchek answers Holn's question.
"Sortani was given a vision by Kipshaa of a safe home beyond the grasslands, a place with tall trees and plentiful game, with a shining lake full of leaping fish. Kipshaa directed her to find this place, where the Buchekat could grow strong and mighty. I hoped that one day I could return to the Cushat, slay Tossuc and his councilors, and lead the clan to this place."
Again he pauses. "That was before...this," he says, raising his hand to touch the tatoos that cover his right cheek. "Would the clan follow me now, marked as I am with the fanek? The people of the clans flee before me, thinking me a spirit, or a zombie. I don't know, perhaps I am. I wondered about it, after I woke up in my grave. I must eat, and my thirst is for water, not the souls of the clan. Then again, in the Tall Grass, who can say? Maybe I did die, and Kipshaa returned me to my body for a time. Can you tell? Did Singard teach you the ways of this? Am I a dead man?"
From: Jake
Subject: Re: At the guardhouse
[OOC I'll respond to Erk's question after I've had a chance to hear Holn's response to Buchek's questions. I'm having a bit of trouble juggling the sequence of events with who is saying what when, but that seems like the most plausible sequence of events to me]
From: Erik
Subject: At the Guardhouse
Holn squints at Buchek. "I am not an expert in Necromancy, but I do not believe you are dead."
He thinks for a moment, "This place she sees is not like any I know of. She was taking you to the Tall Grass, but what lies beyond, no one knows."
"We must find Lysette the Druid, she may help us find what lies beyond."
From: Erik
Subject: At the Guardhouse--Symbols of the Shadow.
Holn turns to the dwarf.
"Although I worship the diety Boccob, I also observe the rituals of the Cushat-Tsvek.
"They are animistic in their beliefs. They believe this world to be a shadow or *Fancek* of the true world. All the spirits they pray to live outside of our realm, but are able to influence this realm through influence on living beings here.
"This is why we tatoo our dead with *Fancek* symbols. They are messages to the outer spirits that our loved ones have been liberated from this realm, and that they may no longer use that body to further their aims. Should one not give the spirits such a warning, they may use the dead body.
"Such an animation is usually an evil omen."
From: Mike
Subject: At the Guardhouse
Telwyn furrows his brow slightly as he tries to make out what the two tribesmen are saying. The dialect they use is strange to Telwyn's ears. The nomads near Armis have different inflections, different tonalities. But he manages to understand most of it.
"Who is Lysette?" he asks, in Common.