"I'll try to remember that" replied Meri with a grin.
Hearing vague sounds from outside, she glanced towards the window, but remained in place for now.


OOC: Will try to listen in on the conversation out there if possible, but not moving yet :)

[Private to The Altweaver: Not too sure if Meri could overhear any of that from inside the wagon.  If she did, would she recognise any of the names at all?]
This message was last edited by the player at 16:35, Tue 26 Sept 2017.

Heh, the horse was deliberate in a meta way in that I did think of the demon belial when I awas testing out names (as in I had that part of the name first, then went' oh, belial, hah), and just decided to go with the sound of it. Whether it says anything about the horse's personality or function ... who knows :p  Belial as an entity in D&D is setting specific, if I recall correctly. But nah, don't worry too much about it.

Hasslelesser is far more deliberate, funny you actually focused on that, but what it means may or may not ever be revealed :D I mean, he is effectively a policeman, so the name pretty much matches his function, right?



"Ah, do not say such things, our good Captain may double his price should he ever dein to sell or rent his wonderful horse," said Geekaar. He then moved on to the back and the wagon with the Blackwood Village guards, leaving Captain Harrasslesser to sit around uncomfortably.

He gave another nod at Nym's words, and then considered the matter. "How did you come by Geekaar's caravan. I have not known him to take on passengers before."


Meri can hear the speaking, Nym's not being subtle and the windows were not flly shuttered. Far Guard, in Meri's limited experience, weren't really spoken of like heroes nor adventurers. There were never any tales of any of their exploits, sono famous names. And none of the ones she saw in her village - which may have been only one or two - never had names she would have overheard.

[Private to Meri: The name of the horse is just a name, but the Captain's name does sound a little odd. Meri might suspect either it's another corruption of an elvish name - you might suspect that this is going to be quite common in the region where humans and elves so casually intereact. Or, the name might be a literal/obtuse translation of his elvish name. Either way, you can be sure if, in the future, someone says his proper elvish name, Meri would spot it and make the connection.

If Meri want to hear what Geekaar says to the town guard, that would be a Perception check and would distract form listening in to the Captain's words. Listening in to the Captain is free and easy  so no rolls, etc needed. Meri can be doing other things in the wagon while listening. :)]
This message was last edited by the player at 21:08, Wed 27 Sept 2017.

Meri remained on the bed, but her head tilted slightly to one side and her eyes closed as she listened to the conversation outside.
As Geekaar moved off to the rear wagon, she suddenly pushed herself off the bed, grabbing her staff with one hand and moved towards the door, stopping and concealing herself from view behind the door frame.

Closing her eyes again, she listened intently, straining her senses trying to pick out Geekaar's movements and voice...


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Hmm, curious if Geekaar plans on enlisting the help of the guards for whatever might be going down here, or maybe he's just joining them for tea and scones and a friendly chat.  Uncertain.  But Meri wants to know for sure which it is :)
Perception: 25 (11 + 14) - Middling...]
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 00:39, Wed 27 Sept 2017.

Lol, the elf guy appears to have changed names between posts - is his name Harasslesser or Hasslelesser?

Nym seems about to say something to Geekaar about the horse, but changes her mind and shrugs instead, turning to the elf in order to answer his question.

"Well, we were in Blackwood village back there..."

She gestures back down the road.

"And we did some stuff, and the Elders decided to help us get to the next place we were going by nicely arranging for us to travel with this wagon. We didn't know whose it was until we got told about it. Um. I mean, I'd never heard of..."

She points in Geekaar's direction.

"That chap over there. Didn't know who he was. Um. But now we're travelling in his wagon. Well, I mean...I'm riding on top of it. Um. But you can probably see that. Seeing as I'm sitting up here. Um. And then I was talking to Dott about horses."

She looks over at Belialeesh and then back to the captain.

"Your horse friend seems nice. I think...I mean..."

She lowers her voice a little.

"I don't think that um...someone understands, really, about...um...that your horsey friend might be your friend, and not some kind of, um...object...sort of...thingy...that can be bought or sold or given away. But I can see he's a magic horsey, so I don't expect he thinks like other horses, right? So maybe you can talk to him and stuff? I mean, have a proper conversation of some kind? That must be nice. If you can, I mean."

Since I don't think I've made any rolls on this guy yet, can I make an Insight to get some idea of what he seems to think of us/me and if seems like he's getting impatient/bored/other at Nym's current conversational style? So...that's an 18.

Yeah, Hasslelesser is a mistype (though a fun name). [Private to Meri: And of course, if it wasn't a mis-type, it would show Meri that the name was the Captain's own translation of his name, woulnd't it... But it's not an IC thing, so never mind!]

"Never heard of Geekaar the Great?" said the captain. He looked across to the retreating form of the man then looked back to Nym. "I think it best you not tell him that." The captain said it with such a deadpan delivery that he could either beat Farren in terms of dryness, or he was not making a joke.

The Captain looked down to his horse, and across to Dott, and back to Nym as the changeling spoke. He seemed to reach a decision and climbed back down off of his horse, and led it towards the wagon. The horse seemed to follow the subtle urging without hurry nor concern, looking up to Nym.

"She is called 'The Whisperer' in the tongue of my people. She is special to me, but I daresay there are others who would find others of her kind just as special to them. he has no more magic than I do nor those of the fey. We have a bond of time, she and I, nothing more nor less. It makes words more or less unneccessary. I doubt any who live such short lives as most humanoids would understand, especially those who spend their lives doing nothing more than living in a loop of existing and trying to greedily gain more means to exist."

[Private to Nym: Nym would be able to tell that he does not mean Nym, and that he seems to be genuinely intrigued by her regard for his horse. And is probably being friendly. Of course, if there is any ulterior motive for that, you won't get that for just an 18. He seems friendly with no motive other than to be friendly :D So certainly it seems like Nym is free to ask more questions and go more in depth without risking the wrath of an NPC!]

The horse flickered its ears again, but seemed to be looking to Nym at the time, so whether it was agreement or not was uncertain. It blinked.

The Captain regarding Nym and Ryn far more speculatively, and perhaps started to notice Many at the edges of Nym, though the little beholder was still managing to stay mostly hidden, with only one eyestalk looking out. "I have not met one of your kind before. Though I seldom walk more than the forests of my people. You seem to have the feel of one of the younger races, not one of the feyfolk nor their kind. Where do you hail from, originally?"


[Private to Meri: Middling roll but your bonus means it's a good Perception check. Meri would hear a lot of what Geekaar was saying, and if not full sentences, enough to understand the general tone and intent. He seems to be giving a reasonably straightforward talk to the guards, perhaps a bit harsh. The gist of it appears to be that he expects them to pay attention from now on, and focus on their surroundings, and that if anything happens, to leap from the wagon and rush to the defense of the front of the wagon train. That is why they are at the back - to either bear the brunt of a sneak attack, or see the whole of the rest of the wagon perfectly so they can rush to the aid if something stops the train. And of course, to take on anything if the front of the train needs to hurry forwards to escape. He points out that if any of the guards don't want to leap from a moving wagon in to danger, then they can leap of the stationary one just now - and head right back to Blackwood Village. There is some small mutters from perhaps the newest guards, but it seems like they are silenced by the others, and it seems like this is maybe a standard thing Geekaar does. Clearly he saves being liked for those not directly under his employ!

After that, he simply calls to the driver of that double wagon train to get ready to move when his own wagon starts moving. So it's sounds like he is ready to head onwards once more.]

OOC: So he may be either hassling us or harrassing us then...  Wish he'd make up his mind! ;)  Or perhaps he wants to try both and can't decide which to do first...
[Private to The Altweaver: (Hmm, intriguing...) :)]


Meri opened her eyes again, glancing in the direction she had heard Geekaar's voice from, then returned to her bed, hopping back onto it again and placing her staff beside her within easy reach.
"I expect if we need any help against anything Geekaar does, the guards from Blackwood in the rear wagon might be more inclined to listen to the supposed 'Heroes of Blackwood Village' than him.  He certainly doesn't go out of his way to be popular with them" she remarked quietly, almost to herself.

Leaning back and closing her eyes as if intending to sleep, she returned to listening to the conversation between Nym and the Captain.


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Hmm, wondering if the Captain is "The Captain".  As in, the one from the cast list.  Or maybe that's just a coincidence :)]
This message was last edited by the player at 21:55, Wed 27 Sept 2017.

"She's a she? Oh, sorry..." says Nym apologetically, and turns to the horse. "I thought you were a he. I'm not sure why."

She climbs down from the wagon and slowly reaches out a hand and holds it a little way in front of the horse's nose, to see if she minds being stroked a bit.

If Belialeesh moves away like she doesn't want to be touched, Nym will take the hint and withdraw her hand immediately. Otherwise she'll pause a second to wait for a response and then try and give her a little stroke/pat :).

At the questions regarding her origins, Nym returns her attention to the captain.

"Oh, apparently I'm called a changeling." she explains. "I can, um...change."

She demonstrates by briefly shifting into a vaguely elven-looking form (but with pale blue skin and orange hair) before reverting back to the red-furred-with-crazy-coloured-splotches feline-ish shape.

"I like being like this for now, though. It's more...comfortable. Until I get bored. Then I'll change into something else. I'm all changey. Stuff staying the same is boring. So my magic is like that, too."

She demonstrates by holding up her hands at about chest height, palms upward and level with each other. A little rainbow springs from the palm of her left hand and arcs over into her right. Then she moves her hands around so that her palms face inward (the rainbow's band straightening as the angle changes) and suddenly brings them together, clapping lightly. The rainbow is "crushed" into an explosion of little multicoloured flecks of light which flicker between all the colours as they dance around for a moment before fading away.

"See? Pretty colours changing!"

She then puts her head slightly to one side.

"So, what kind of magic do you have? I mean, if you have any. It always seems strange to me that some people don't seem to, but maybe they just have so little that they can't do anything with it. I don't really know how you could be alive if you didn't have magic inside you..."

Well, him harrassing you would be quite the hassle, so, you know, maybe he can do both at once :p

Inside the wagon...

Farren sounded groggy, and he didn't open his own eyes. "Money does not need to be popular. And these guards from Blackwood Village seem to be the ones happy to use their days off to work in more dangerous work for a few scant hours in Thirdgate, rather than enjoy a day or two of the delights of the village. I wouldn't hold out too much hope on their loyalty to heroes and the village, and how much you can undermine their loyalty to coin."

Still, Farren did smile. "I mean, let us not rule out exactly how unpleasant Geekaar appears to be to his servants, given their reaction." Then his expression sobered. "Still, fear is just as powerful as money, and for some reason this fat joke of a merchant inspires true fear. You can smell it. Well, perhaps I can." His expression at least became rueful. "A gift of the rodent person, I suppose." He absentmindedly scritched Ee-Ee behind one ear, then Brother, then finally Pain when that rodent shifted to face away from Farren. It took a few scritches for Pain to actually not be so standoffish.
[Private to Meri:
Nah, he's a just a captain. You'll note that him being hatted is not been a major comment on his appearance, for example. Trust me, when you meet The Captain - assuming you do, it's by no means certain - you'll know :D]


On the roof...

[Private to Nym: Heh, well you did roll low on your perception check, so not knowing the horse's gender from a distance seems reasonable...
]
The Whisperer looked to Nym's hand without concern, and it seemed as if the captain was the one more worried. The horse seemed to tilt its head and expand its nostrils as if sniffing the hand, and thne went back to looking to those on the roof without any concern. She did not give any strong reactions to being stroked, but the captain's surprise maybe showed more that it must be a welcome attention.

Nym's further comments distracted the captain fron the situation, and he regarded Nym with a calculating gaze for a moment. "I see, you have a touch of the ancient powers yourself. I have never encountered other changelings to know if you can trace your lineage to the feywilds and the immoprtal realms or not. You magic strikes me as wild though, you certainly have the more primal forces flowing through you."

The Captain apparently does not quite know how to answer the question of being magical, and considers it for a long moment. "Magic is no more nor less than air or water. I do not know why fish can swim with water in their lungs rather than air, and vice versa. I daresay a fish could not answer your question of what kind of water it possesses, even though a freshwater and seawater seem different, from my understanding."

He thought for a moment. "The ancient fey see the world as no more than a dream. Magic is no more than their will manifesting to overcome to mundane borders of the world they drifted in to. They too, grow bored of confines and stagnation. Some change their internal forms, some weave the shapes of the world as they see fit, some ignore the calls of the world to float above water or air as if it did not exist and had no sway over them. My companion is touched by the fey, it flows in her blood. So when does not understand distances and the fixed nature of places to each other, she can chose to ignore them when she does not wish to spend too long travelling. I too have some dash of the fey in my ancestry, stronger than other elves, awoken in my father's father's father, or my mother's mother's mother. I dislike the artifice of the world, and so I can see things as they truly are, if I have a mind to. I may have spotted your true nature if I suspected it - had you pretended to be an elf, rather than the exotic form you had chosen. And I do not abide lies when I suspect them. Is that magic? I do not feel it so. I think it is simply that humans are lazy and chose to go with the ways of the world rather than push to rise above them. And I am afraid to say the elves close to human borders seem to forget their origins, and many are as lazy in their slavish devotion to the mortal world and its limitations."

The captain seemed surprised he had actually spoken so much, and lapsed in to a silence.

Yes, I understand that the captain perhaps doesn't perhaps fully understand how fish work. :D

OOC: Wonder if he chose that wording on purpose. ;)


Meri nodded slowly, still intent on the conversation outside.
"Maybe.  Money is a curse on this world, makes people do stupid and evil things.  All for the sake of being weighed down with more useless little scraps of metal than everyone else around them.  To me, the only reason to hoard up metal is to craft something that needs it.  I'd be happy enough to work for free if I didn't have to add to someone else's hoard of metal scraps just so I could obtain food!  And people wonder why there are so many thieves and robbers running around..."

She sighed and shrugged.
"At least it can prove a nice way to manipulate those around you when necessary, as our host likes to demonstrate.
If he wants real safety though, better to melt all those coins down to make a good strong shield with a protective enchantment."

With that, she returned to listening in on the conversation outside.


OOC: Yeah, Meri's quiet grumblings there are kind of channelling the real me again ;)

[Private to The Altweaver: Given that the lack of money to buy food was what forced her to turn to training up the Thievery skill in her youth, there's definitely a strong contempt for money and riches (and particularly those who hoard them up while others go hungry around them) that's stuck with her all her life so far.
Hence why Geekaar's displays of wealth and bought authority don't really impress her at all.

And since her craft was essentially the start of a new life for her, and the only thing she really enjoys doing, she'd be more than happy to do it for free.  Or at least make things for her own amusement and if anyone wanted them, so much the better :)]

Nym gives a sort of apologetic shrug at the captain's descriptions of elves and humans.

"Well, I just think of everyone as someone who could maybe become my friend some day." she says. "I just change into things because I can - I don't know why I would ever want to do so to pretend I was someone else. I mean, to fool someone into thinking I was...I don't know, a human or whatever. Because humans don't change. I mean, they do, because they get older and all that. But they don't magically change like I do. Or, not in the same way - I suppose some of them might have magic that lets them change themselves a bit, for a while. But they're still humans, still kind of the same, all the time. I don't want to be the same all the time. That's boring. So I change. It's fun!"

She grins at the captain and then glances back up at the wagon, to where Ryn is peering down at them.

"Oh, and this is Ryn." she says. "She came from me. She's my friend forever! She changes too. Today she's a...fluffy...um...a fluffy! Yesterday she was a birdy and she flew all up high and had lots of fun."

Ryn's nose twitches and she bobs her head a few times as though in agreement at this.

Who knows why I say or do the things I do!

Inside the wagon...

"There's a reason Tiamat is seen as an evil goddess, championing greed. I suppose without her dragons to look out for, she had less reason to contend with Biahmut, and decided to content over civilisation's direction with Erathis instead. Those who lust after coin and fall to envy probably should take a lesson on what happened to the last creatures who followed her creeds..."

Farren almost mumbled the last words, yawning through his pontification.

[Private to Meri: Cool character insight :) Just for fun now Meri is carrying around a symbol of a goddess whose beliefs are opposite her own. Don't think about the reason... :D]


Outside the wagon...

The captain gave a small nod to Ryn, and The Whisperer flicked her ears a couple of times. Many continued to be shy and hide, especailly when the captain had mentioned being able to see what was hidden.

The captain considered Nym's comments. "You sound as if you are more fey than mortal, but you have the feeling of one of the younger races. Perhaps you have fey heritage?"



The comments were briefly interrupted by a few yells, and the sounds of moveent from further forwards. The wagon in front that Dott was driving lurched forwards too, and in turn lurched the wagon the group were occupying.

The final wagons with the guards started moving too, and it seemed as if this caught Geekaar by surprise, depsite the fact he had been encouraging it to happen.

Instead of trying to get on board the wagon with the guards though, or stop the wagons, he simply - with very little dignity - started running with a red face forwards passed the wagon with the group and the captain, intent on reaching the very first wagon before it got up to speed, it seemed.

"Cah...cah...capta-...ain, with me?" he yelled back, robes and sleeves flapping.

The captain considered the matter a moment even as he easily got back on to the back of The Whisperer. Another interesting thing about the horse was that it possessed no saddle nor bridle.

"I will tarry here for a while," the captain yelled back in reply.

This actually stopped Geekaar in his tracks for a moment, until he realised he could afford no delay. The confusion, for a brief moment, gave way to an oddly unpleasant smile that became warmer, and yet somehow less geniune.

"As you wish!" the merchant yelled, and then he disappeared from view - presumably being pulled up by the unfortunate retainers on the wagon at the front.


Nym, the captain is keeping pace with your wagon, so you can keep speaking to him if you wish.

Meri glanced towards her pack, thinking of the symbol she carried in there.
"I found a symbol of Tiamat recently.  It suggests her cults are active in this area, or at least they were once.  Wondering if I can find a temple or priest of Bahamut who can disenchant it.  Maybe I can learn more of them from there too, I don't know much about the dragons or their gods.  Do worshippers of Bahamut even still exist?"

Her eyes opened again as she moved towards the window facing the side of the wagon the Captain was on as it started to move.
"I only really know of the elven gods.  Or at least I did once.  One thing I learned very early in life is that the gods care nothing for us.  You can only rely on your own power, your own knowledge."

She pulled the goggles down over her eyes again and peered through the window, trying to get a glimpse of the Captain while not making more of herself visible than was necessary...


OOC: Peeking out...  8)

[Private to The Altweaver: Hmm, didn't actually know Greed was one of Tiamat's areas of influence...
Meri was planning on taking the symbol to one of Bahamut's priests to see if they could remove that enchantment on it, then maybe the sergeant could have gotten something for it, sold it once there was no danger of it attracting anything nasty.
She's wondering if it might not be better to just blast it into residuum now (assuming it isn't magically protected in some way) :)]

Nym had climbed down from the wagon a couple of posts back, when I realised she wouldn't be able to reach the horse from up there but wanted to have her try and stroke her ;). But hopefully she has enough time to climb back up again...

"Well, I don't really know..." Nym starts to say, before being interrupted by the sudden lurch of the wagon. "Oh, oops, it looks like we're moving again!"

She hurriedly leaps to grab onto the side of the wagon and pull herself up.

Do I need to roll Athletics or something to hastily climb back up or will the wagon be moving slowly enough that I can manage it anyway?

No athletics roll, feel free to take position on the wagon roof again and keep talking as the wagon gets up to speed.

Okies, cool :).

"Right, sorry, where were we?" asks Nym as she resettles herself on the wagon in such a way that she can easily look down at the elven captain. "Umm...oh yes, talking about fey, yes? Well, I don't think I'm a fey-thingy. I mean, I've met some fey people and I don't seem very much like them. I don't seem very much like anyone."

She gives a happy smile.

"I like that." she says. "It means I'm different."

[Private to Meri:
Yeah, Tiamat is the goddess of greed and envy aswell as being the patron diety of chromatic dragons.]

Inside the wagon...

Farren rolled to look at Meri, taking a moment to focus on her. He had to apologetically re-adjust the three rodents around him. "Bahamut is still worshipped, by those paladins and judges who need their sense of justice justified, as it were, by an external force. And I believe he is patron of the dragonborn, perhaps shepherding them so they do not follow the mistakes of their extinct progenitors. And of course, who knows if Dragons may still exist, somewhere in the ancient Lemuria or the broken chains. Or maybe they slithered in to the sea and the depths of the mountains. Even to my strange memory I know all I have learn of them are strange myths. Those who fought and lost to mortals always sounded evil, so perhaps the good dragons of Bahamut simply...set themselves aside, here or on another plane?"

He seemed interested about the symbol though. "Where did you find it? If the cult of the blight you faced was tied to a cult of tiamat, that would be... worrying? Confusing?"

Just to reassure you OOC, this won't be the case. Just Farren has no way of knowing and so would logically worry about a connection :)

Farren grimaced regarding the gods. "Well, I have perhaps a different relationship with the gods, or one at least." He gave a less than happy look, and muttered quietly, "I cannot claim to have come to a different conclusion from you, however." He glanced upwards, as if afraid of being struck down for his comment.


Outside the wagon...

The captain shook his head. "Agreed, your powers seem old and you seem young. I get the same feeling from some of he younger feyish elves, who can trace their ancestry far back. But that is the only way yo remind me of them, you do not seem feyish yourself."

The captain seemed to consider something else. "Differences are good. The elvish side of the old forests I patrol maintain a balance with the humans, embracing the strangeness of the younger races. And the fey who live deep in the most ancient parts of the forest are the most diverse groups. And yet they all live in harmony, life and death, summer and winter, seelie and unseelie each co-existing. Some even recall the time when the fey lived in harmony with the more mortal races, but that memory is fading..." He seemed a little bitter, but quickly composed himself.

"My kind, the elves of the edge, are different too. We live in balance to the newer and the old. There are not so many of us compared to the multitude of the others. Our differences allow us to see in others what they cannot see in themselves. We use it to patrol the borders and ensure all are living totheir pacts and bargains and aggreements. I do not believe I have ever convinced Geekaar that embracing difference, rather than trying to manufacture similarities, is a way to negotiate. Still, we have different needs."

The captain looked over to Nym speculatively, as if expecting her to weigh in on her own world view.


[Private to Nym: Just to let your insight roll for earlier carry to this, and add some stuff Nym should be able to intuit. He seems happy enough to be chatting, and doens't seem too concerned about anything. Which would be odd if he knew anything about any of the things going on right now. So maybe he doens't know yet, though maybe he does and he's a good actor looking for info. But he seems sincere/ Also, his curiosity does seem idle - Nym is something unusual, and probably a guard of any kind likes to figure out who people are to know if they will be trouble or not. He doens't seem driven to push Nym, but it would explain why he's indulging his curiosity.

Also, he doens't seem to have the reversence and hesitation in commenting upon Geekaar the way others do, so perhaps he likes to be contrary to Geekaar aswell.

You didn't roll high enough to confirm any of this, but it's all likely stuff to have hunches about.]

Meri glanced back at Farren, then, with one more look in the Captain's direction she shrugged and returned to sitting on the bed.
"I'm not sure I'd want to be judged by anyone so insecure in their own judgement that they have to ask someone else if they're right.  Better to cut out the middleman surely" she remarked with a grin.  "Of course, easy enough to say your judgement has divine approval if you don't want anyone challenging it..."

She reached into the pack, her hand closing around the symbol, but then seemed to reconsider it and leave it where it was.  Instead, she scooped up the dice she had gotten in Blackwood and studied them thoughtfully.

"It wasn't anything to do with the Blight" she replied absently.  "Just an item I found among some other things from various places.  Apparently its owner acquired it years ago without realising that it had a rather curious magical aura on it.  Seems that any creature with a draconic bloodline could sense its presence.  Kobolds, dragonborn, and most likely dragons too if they were still around.  Thought I'd see if I could find a priest of Bahamut who could remove that aura.  It's made of some valuable materials, so perhaps someone would be willing to buy it.  Or I could just give it back if we return to Blackwood.  I need to get more materials for that project for Many..."


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Wondering if the enchantment on the dice can be replicated and added to something else.  I'm guessing not everyone we suspect of lying to us will be willing to indulge in a 'totally innocent' dice game during the conversation :)]

Nym nods, agreeing.

"Well, yes, of course everyone's different." she says. "I think that if you try and make other people be like you, rather than trying to work out why they're thinking the way they are, is probably not a very good thing. I mean, that's like ignoring the way they are just because you don't really know anything about it, isn't it? That doesn't seem very...polite. Um...so, these other elves and fey and everyone...could you not, maybe...um...go and talk to them? And introduce some of the different types of people to each other? So they can see what everyone else is like and maybe get to know them and remember the stuff they're starting to forget, and...and all that?"

[Private to GM: Just in case he comes up in conversation again, is Geekaar most likely far enough away from us that he's probably not going to hear if we start talking about him? Because I think Nym might want to ask some things about him once we're done talking about elves and Fey, but she won't if she thinks he'll hear.]

[Private to Meri: The enchantment would be tricky to implement, but not impossible. The main trouble is that it seems to need an element of chance involved. A coin might work but of course is harder to then tell if the person is telling the truth. A deck of cards may also work, but would have so many variables you suspect the magic would give granulated rather than clear results. By that I mean you couldn't enchant it to always draw the ace of spades equivalent if they are telling the truth, it might be that the better the hand the more likely the truth is being said. Or the worse the hand.

Still, something you can try to reseach.  ]


Inside the wagon...

Farren settled down again with a shrug. "Well, I suppose that item makes sense then. Using greed to attract her follows to her service away from Bahamut, or some such thing." He yawned again. "I do not know if I have ever fallen foul of self righteous paladins and judges, but I suspect given my dire rodent other form it's a possibility. My trouble now is not being judges harshly by the self righteous, but discovering those that might judge me justly for things I have no idea I have done. I do hope I am not making a mistake traveling to a denser population..."


Outside the wagon...

[Private to Nym: Geekaar is over at the front of the train, so is absolautely in no position to hear you. Even Dott, at the front of the next (attached) wagon along, probably won't hear you over the noise. The guards in the next wagon are similarly positioned, but are facing forwards not back. Still, I doubt they can lip read and also they have horses in the way.

So you should be reasonably safe to speak :)
]
The captain looked to Nym confused. "The fey mix well with each other, or as much as those who have such different outlooks can. The elves chose to distance themselves, and plant a foot in the mortal world the moment they came here from the feywild. Some elves of ancient descent have kept to the fey ways and did not go with their kin at first, and stayed with the fey when more fey came to this place. But that is a choice they made long ago. Only my kind interect with the old fey and the once fey like that. They each respect the other, they simply made different choices."

The bitterness came back to his voice as he carried on. "No, the fey know their history. The memory of a time when they formed pacts with fresher forests and mortals is the memory that dwindles, and that too is a choice the fey have made. The Blackwood was corrupted by betrayal, and the fey were forced to leave there by the neglect of the Keepers. The elves of the south have the patience to form alliances with mortal races by being mortal. Sometimes similarity is required, perhaps. But it is not for the fey, not anymore. They live and let live, but do not venture out of their old forests anymore." The captain looked acros to where Geekaar was. "Sometimes, dealing with some of the humans, I cannot say I can blame them."


I guess I was a little confusing in what the captain said, but I'll just keep it in character.

"Bit late to worry about that" replied Meri with a smirk.  "Still, if the Raven Queen meant for you to carry out some plan, I doubt she'd want you getting killed.  At least not before you'd done what she wanted."

She pulled up the goggles onto her forehead again and reached back into her pack, rolling the dice along the ground inside.
[Private to The Altweaver: (OOC: Just curious if the dice know if Meri's guess about divine intentions is true.  Meri herself is fairly sure, although she does know that if the Raven Queen could easily send back more Revenants, then the death of one shouldn't be too much of an obstacle to her plans) :)]

"Ah. Hmm...well, does the fact that all the icky Blighty stuff is gone from the Blackwood help at all?" asks Nym. "I mean, we met this hamm-da-dry-dad called Celindara, she was very nice. But she said she was the only one left - she said she had sisters but they left or the Blighty-stuff got them, so there were lots of dead trees and stuff. But it's better now, because we went and helped and now ther's a really big massive tree there, which grew once we helped Celindara fix the altar to Melora in the icky place that used to be a temple in a lake but it was more like an icky Blight-filled cave under the yucky pit thing that used to be the lake. But now it's a big tree. So it looks much more pretty. And Celindara made friends with the people in the village of Blackwood again, so now maybe they can go into the forest and see that it's really quite a nice place. There were all these wolves and everything, they helped too! And Celindara sings nice songs. So maybe there's some chance there for humans and elves and stuff to all make friends again and not forget what it's like."

I'd better give the Captain a chance to say something there before Nym continues waffling on about how lovely the Blackwood is now - I imagine he probably has something to say since I don't believe he knew anything about what we've done. But he's not Geekaar, so I figured it was okay to mention it ;).

Inside the wagon...

"She might not want me dead," remarked Farren  groggily, "but there's still the matter of how I came in to her employ in the first place..."

Meanwhile, the dice rolled a  six and one. Perhaps they agreed that Meri did indeed doubt the Raven Queen wanted Farren dead.

Always got to watch that wording :)


Outside the wagon...

The Captain gave a slow and increasingly frozen look to Nym as she continued speaking. He clearly did not know anything of what she was speaking, and he looked at her intently as if through her - or more likely as if to see if she were telling the truth.

Feel free to keep waffling, the captain appears to be intently listening :p

Meri sighed and shook her head as she realised the flawed wording.
Pushing the pack aside, she looked back at Farren.
"Well, since we know little about who you once were, I suppose all we can do is hope someone recognises you.  Once we have that thread to follow, we can find out the rest from there by following it up."

For some reason, she gave a rather exasperated look towards the ceiling, possibly catching something of Nym and the Captain's conversation.  Although she seemed resigned to just letting them continue as long as Nym was keeping the Captain's interest enough to prevent him looking for Meri out of curiosity or something more...

"It did cross my mind actually, maybe that Ranger knows you.  Or knew you once.  Seems odd that some random stranger would take an interest in you like he seems to have.  At least that's a possibility.  Could be he's just nosy I suppose, a lot of humans are."


OOC: Gah!  I wonder how far I could throw these dice?
Hmm, possibility...  Meri rigs them to explode and we throw them at "The Other" while shouting out a statement that may be alternately true and yet false at the same time, causing the dice to spin at an infinite speed as they continually try to correct themselves.
Instant dual magical vortex bombs! :D

..........Or have I been drinking too much caffeine again?

Nym continues talking.

"Well, there was some not-very-nice-fey-person," she says, "but he's all gone. He was called, umm, some word...ohh, yes, Phystal, that was it. Or the Phystal. Celindara did tell us what that means, I think, but I forgot. He tried to put the Blight on Celindara but we stopped it, so that was alright. It's all gone now. Maybe you should go and visit some time. The Blackwood, I mean. I'm sure Celindara will be happy to make friends with another elf after so long of all the elves not being there and forgetting their Pact or whatever it was. Um."

She glances around, looking toward the front of the caravan, then back down at the elven captain.

"Oh, but, um, maybe don't say anything about this to, um..."

She gestures vaguely toward the front.

"You know. People. Um. Because...um...well, I'm not really sure, actually. Apparently it might not be good to tell some people things...about...stuff...um. But I think you're nice? So that's okay. Right?"

Insight to try and read his reaction to all of this...20. Hopefully his head's not about to explode or something. And hopefully Nym didn't just tell someone a load of stuff that she shouldn't have told...

Inside the wagon...

"No, let us hope that we recognise someone who recognises me, preferably from a distance," mumbled Farren. "I would prefer to not be surprised by a sudden possibility of imprisonment or lynching again as almost happened at Blackwood."

He took a few moments to register and answer Meri's other comment. "...still seemed too surprised..." he said quietly. "Seemed more intent upon my bag. Nothing in there." Farren almost woke himself up with a thought, but kept his eyes shut even as his eyebrows arched. "I wonder if he knew about what you carried? Didn't know which of us did? Still, not really a dragonborn or kobold, that man..."

With that thought, Farren apparently drifted off, with a light rasping set of breathing occurring not long afterwards.


On the outside...

The captain's eyes did not grow any less wide at Nym's words, nor did he stop looking through her yet at her. Only at the oblique reference to Geekaar did the captain finally break, apparently realising something with chagrin. He looked daggers to the front of the wagon, and finally said something. [Secret to Nym: To Nym, it sounded vaguely Elvish, too accented or different to fully understand. ][Secret to Meri: To Meri, it sounded like one of the harsher swear words she'd managed to discovered in her childhood. ]

"Oh, that bastard knows already, I'd wager on it," muttered the captian finally, shaking his head. He looked to Nym again, apparently not knowing what to say. Finally, he simply said, "We must speak again, but I must depart. Until then, thank you for your words."  He said it oddly formally, and gave a small bow on his horse while pressing his fist to his left shoulder.

[Private to Nym: His previous looks do feel as if he was trying to tell if Nym was making things up or not, and of course finding no lying. He doens't seem annoyed at Nym, just shocked. In fact, to draw the parallel, he seems very much exactly how Commander Molsove acted when he ran away from the shop that time after Nym had spoken with him. And when he came back he'd been very friendly and nice and given them keys to the village and everything. So clearly running away after being told good things is just something high ranking guards do, and most likely Nym has made a new friend.

No, seriously, despite his formal words there did seem to be no malice and some respect in them and the gesture.]

The horse looked to Nym for a moment, not blinking. Its ears did wave around once or twice. And then, it seemed as if the horse shifted its legs but somehow jumped. Then there was the watering moment when there was an optical illusion that the horse hadn't jumped, just its feet and legs were further away than thye should have been. Luckily, the horse's body then shrunk to make the illusion it was far away seem less eye twisting, then the brain could actually realise that the horse actually was several yards away from where it had been.

The horse twisted its body around to face the road ahead, the captain swaying in the saddle as if adjusting to the movement or perhaps guidling it. There was another eyewatering movement, and then another one, as the horse started riding away in odd littly stretching jumps and shifts. The horse managed to get to the front of the wagon in only a few such shifts, and then continued onwards without heed disappearing in to the distance not long afterwards.

"Bu-bye hor-seh!" said Many, finally coming out from around Nym's legs and waving an eyestalk even while his lip wobbled in terror at the oddly moving horse.

Meanwhile, another voice drifting on thr air from the front of the wagon. It was Geekaar's booming voice, apparently calling out to the departing captain. "Leaving so soon?" he yelled. "Another time then!"

And then, echoing along the road, another booming sound - it was Geekaar's far too amused with himself laughter. It carried on for a long time.


And with that, I think I'll perhaps close this thread and move us to a new one. Won't you join me for some reactions and a time jump and perhaps the thrilling conclusion to this chapter? :D