This marks the start of a new 'year' and a new campaign round.

Note: this thread is semi-IC and semi-OOC.  IC is nice, but feel free to use OOC if you need to.

Use this thread to make your downtime posts.  If your post involves using skills or feats to make items or earn money - then I expect to see a set of properly documented calculations in a private line at the bottom of the post.  You may use up to 25 days for Crafting.

If you are making a ‘What I did in the Downtime’ post -  feel free to use any of the minor NPCs casually.  Just don’t let them commit me, Henry or their employers to anything concrete - nor do anything out of character :)

Please also note:

• Every PC and NPC that you run ages one year.
• Entourage-assistants who are eligible for a new level can go up a level
• If you are eligible, you may recruit a new Entourage member.

The Player Information II Thread (link to a message in this game) has a list of the BPs that you can spend.


New Guys -  Talk to me before you make any decisions -  and I'll offer some guidance on how to achieve aims / goals.  If you have no specific aims or goals, I'll point you towards Holding Pattern investments that will give you the resources to chase a goal, if you decide on it later.

Everyone else -  You can talk to me about development possibilities - if you want to.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:21, Sat 19 Dec 2020.

Dear Uncle Thonat,

I am sorry it is so long since I have written to you, but it has been very busy here.  How are you keeping? Well, I hope.

Last time I wrote, I told you that I was considering marriage.  Now, I am happy to tell you, that the time has come.  I fell pregnant shortly after our trip to Tusk, and he insisted that we got married immediately, so we will confirm our vows at the temple in Tusk soon.  In fact we make already have done that, by the time you receive this letter.

I insisted that we have a formal ceremony at the Temple of Abadar, in the way that you told me all good girls should have to protect the family’s name and reputation.

Once again, I hope you are faring well, your loving niece,

Alanna

 'How you manage to be a disgrace even to your species never ceases to astonish me.'

 It's his lineage that he's shaming. Nethys! Nethys? Of all the Gods, Nethys?

 'Bah, lineage... What of it, save what part of it shames me to admit is mine?'

 'Yours? Don't give yourself credit you jumped-up gecko, he would have been a worthless sot without a trace of inchworm in his blood'

 'Gecko is it? A fine insult from a band of dried-up harridans too stubborn to recognise that they're dead!'

 'You're one to talk, you...'

 "Will you all please shut up and just let me die in peace!" - the heartfelt, agonised cry rings out over the water and startles several wading-birds into flight, causes the head of Vic to pop up out of the rushes (with the tail of something small, wriggling and slower than the peacock hanging out of his beak) and lifts the heads, crests and spears of the two lizardfolk currently standing either side of the sweat-soaked, previously snoring heap of mammalian discomfort laying in a heap in more or less the middle of their fish traps.

 Having won himself at least a moment of peace inside his own skull, Vova rolls half-drunkenly over, fumbling around him for one of the bottles he's absolutely certain he had there a moment ago, only for his hand to land on the talon of a foot that belongs on the leg of seven feet of Longtail Lizardfolk hunter, currently pointing a spear at him. There's a certain amount of bleary looking up before Vova grips the end of the spear, pulls it close enough to see clearly and then winces.

 [Language unknown: "P poouna ous secailutac n host. Ei whseut ntine e t rom a vor hiwi'evnc evpo wasehaal."]

 [Language unknown: "Sanhoupro, ndand sa ill useen sti aiwewi. Ter ou sheticeve nceli tenietsidi ieis leas lo. Po unthek o ca alast."]


 [Language unknown: "Bleha, ardwe k preet no o osouon pr ndeun Nilipe intughwer esekin, fi wi itres hi lihe u ckan ne."]

 [Language unknown: "Alto ven remost al m laint."]

 [Language unknown: "Ul sttinc atenceame na not ngplpl. Hasithera, Conforoutive n u at erasetven, ac ousomeset load ek rat vir ionei ek." ]

 [Language unknown: "Oulavelat ncusas onsessate di?"]

 [Language unknown: Iv... It ai be pa has aveallres, intingher der a rat pochfi... M... presetnce, tra tronre. Ic.. saenc whiardtin forhather in adivol...]

 [Language unknown: "Mi wilseting redthoout n iltaos atemantickor."]

 That of course, is where Vova interjects from where he's laying on the ground, shading his eyes.

 [Language unknown: "Fion. Us alacho nedi a leadeini... Oreac lo mioutr oupori u rat il, pothic ma icaai fo les yin? Tr O ugh ur ncederven ivngtise, acwit Eltha arev'liplom allovederand ee tho pe ek eswh'ekllic. Alenanes ant ncleen t ion. Pest, Ousardder adeila? Rellan ivenceore re pralee ughhouill stiatible ie."]

 [Language unknown: "Acet! Caom miil ilerdiiotr miwaek ous... Ilustr, ugh linoul-hasort P we evss m ckdiut tionas undwerive il."]

 [Language unknown: "O la ous... Ofan ec eeei evewilardvirill k, ncwa-omacis. Wiei thminc tarom sewe anyavecom. Stcon pro ilstr vormo ivwhll el? Thuoreing mi cenc eere wise ingnt ntfoto acietiil shetioble."]

 [Language unknown: "Ck te? Sa... Korantwas... Pepa, O wapehe... Hi is ntireahis acee kor omeeit, ek uticek ateit ckma icres er nglipe redcomera our set notei N antinghat Pa arehasnde nc linndeort es derardess a onetfi esteenove int ostias th ck seeiar ichinteau ic Preourwhevorpro Day, nd stol ichratons ti Wit Ur... Ro, ur ver Us Ri..."]

 [Language unknown: "Eve... ad leen of ieany plet?"]

 [Language unknown: "N der ive e robeha lar."]

 [Language unknown: "Ilur!"] - here, Vova pauses to sniff himself a time or two - [Language unknown: "T. Witntiint, ec ch."]

 [Language unknown: "Mi, ngni wer. Ardhiswit, Eesi herarecom stalatant us her thmawe tachnepant tinbutyin ev hamo unbut. An roelch venanysonnde ion preivethi, ver som il aracwe ndvir tokor icbeno, al proiouhou menan asie k mand unble mi readro io."]

 "Squonk!"

 [Language unknown: "Her ro Alcawe is ca thtic u ounoerres?. Any, mami oun thouennoha son ioshe maisho omeyinith hafoplfi a der?"]

 [Language unknown: "Sheas, icli. Ainsomdin sonlatint, hohawepe mo na ut adntse thu str ulti acnc na ativmi ri ei tio was, intsomratort ovene u erit fobeur?"]

 [Language unknown: "Pa, as pldise Ac ioupl ac iveti?"]

 [Language unknown: "Ith. N witanynot, iouut Se linoneresate vir forck dayut ous atadil acom th. Osreha a p no ni pro venundand, adngol? Es ounersrut siro unth Itckaiwaun onsithsta cafor ngca conle."]

 Here, Vova - after retching a little and fumbling around before finding a hip flask he can coax a trickle of fluid out of assumes an expression of deep concentration and waves his hands hopefully, if ineptly at the heap of wrecked fish traps, one of which starts to audible and visibly crunch back together as the broken twine and wooden supports repair themselves.

 [Language unknown: "Omho wable i latwh! Sti o hatnotear! Sanrutort, thaughman i di... Iouic e, romicaoer ith ad meoer nc it wiutmo, eewiho Artbutica is meth behas trto."]

 [Language unknown: "Llutai orencelin ilhack u om... Ount, ac er fote entpe ulhiho Pe urnial niil trnilare t ersncehis?"]

 [Language unknown: "Fo. N us etyin elev omestrwas... Pl comerssomour of adiorote."]

 [Language unknown: "Laioee roisolca! Pohis... Lo dayaticon dinwitven tethe shete hi mo ughconame?"]

 [Language unknown: "Ngnplun."]
This message was last edited by the player at 12:00, Sun 03 Jan 2021.

Walking from the villa proper into the adjacent shrine, Alisa Medvyed-Solanus was clad in a shawl over top a lilac colored gown, suitably cut and fitted for this second trimester of her pregnancy.  She was no longer bothering with any formal priestess braid, but rather doing her hair in a simple, wraparound pony tail.   The hormonal changes led it to both grow faster and shed less, and she now had more than she knew what do with.

The first trimester had gone smoothly enough. Fairly typical of a first-time pregnancy, she had not really started to show till she was past those initial months.   The morning sickness had been on occasion rough, but manageable; until it began to worsen.   As she moved into her fourteenth week, by which time it should be over, she was also experiencing a heightening of fatigue and other symptoms as well.   By that point worried, a little scared, she consulted both midwives she was working with and was informed:

"This could mean you are carrying twins."

She hadn't as yet said anything to Domitius.   Still mulling over how best to broach this possibility: 'Hey, Dom, two is always better than one, don't you think-?'   Or 'Ah, I've been thinking...why don't we get twice the baby furniture, and playthings?  Just in case we need spares...or something?'

Planning and preparing for a single newborn was daunting enough.   To have to double all the concerns, the uncertainty.. ?   She sighed, shook her head.   There was some limit to how ready she could be.   She would simply have to lean on the pillars of love and faith, and double her commitment to being the very best mother she could; both pre- and post birth.

In any event, it was amazing to experience the new life growing inside her.  Her aunt had been so right in all that she had said about it.   And she was proud to be the one to bring the heirs of Domitius Aldori-Solanus into the world; even if getting two at once might be a bit more than he was bargaining for...

Alisa stepped into the shrine.    She was so, so pleased with the way it had come out.   In describing and relating what she had beheld in her dreams, she had managed to get the builders and craftsman to instill enough of the Azlant temple aesthetic.    The design was clean lined, harmonious, balanced.    There was a skylight to let in the moon's beneficence during prayer or meditation.   And, the carved altar and statue of the goddess...it was the masterful work of Hargrym Silverhammer and his assistants.   Alisa had leaned over and kissed the dwarf on top of his head upon seeing it completed.

She had been tracking the rising and setting of the moon, as she not infrequently did.   And chosen to come in here this night, at this time, because she knew the moon would be almost directly over the skylight.   She gazed up at Acavna's serene, solemn visage; bathed in soft, ethereal, silver-white.    And drew a deep breath.   Followed by another.   Her heart began to fill with reverence, with devotion.     She shut her eyes.    After a time, a particular prayer came to mind.

As the others, she had first heard it spoken in dream.   And as the others, it was in the Azlanti tongue:

"Arrleis nel autre; kooramyr eth saria verault; parneis nel autre sen avish lytriell."

She bowed her head, brought her hands together before her bosom, lacing her fingers in a gesture of supplication.   Which dream had she heard it in?  She could not remember -- but it was the Defender's Pledge, Acavna's thirteenth high-prayer...

"Arrleis nel autre; kooramyr eth saria verault; parneis nel autre sen avish lytriell."

"Mor avaniss kevetra eth saria wellaun belessos; korel, korel, korel..."

Over and over she recited it, with increasing passion.  And then...as happened on occasion...she began to lucid-dream:

The high-priestess, her clergy, and the faithful were amassed out in the grand-temple courtyard.   The atmosphere one of intense, almost heart crushing hope... they all intoned the Defender's Pledge together; their voices almost as one...

And overhead...the moon, stately and full, like a celestial aegis...the moon, it moved faster than it should be able to.    As if...as if reaching, racing to --

There was a flare from beyond and behind the moon.   A baleful glimmering...flaring brighter and brighter...

Oh no - oh no!  She knew what this was, what was coming -- as did the high-priestess and the more sensitive among the assemblage --  No, no, no, no, NO ---     

Alisa's eyes flew open.  And there was only Acavna's serene, stone features; the moon above the skylight was utterly steady, its light soothing and unwavering.    But her heart beat rapidly.   She felt a cold bead of perspiration wend its way down one side.

It was the past.   THE PAST.   Over and done a millenia ago.   Why did it need to invade her present?   And why now-?  Reflexively, protectively, her hands went over her stomach, and the life that gestated there.   Tears brimmed in her eyes.

"Great goddess, You wouldn't -- you wouldn't make me choose -- would you?   Between duty, and -- " 

No.  No -- it was crazy.  This wasn't the goddess!  It was her own fallible, mortal self! She was responsible for not mastering herself, and learning more properly how to receive and interpret the dreams.

Fool, she chided, You dwell in a land with no lack of properly trained clerics, mystics, and libraries!   Impending motherhood or no, it's past time you began to take studying *much* more seriously! 

She took a moment to steady herself, exhaled a breath; I'm sorry she said silently and earnestly to her unborn child...or children.  Mother will learn greater control, and *never* expose you to anything like that again.   I swear it to you! 

So resolved, Alisa made the goddess' sigil in respect, then turned and went back inside the villa.   Back to warmth, and light, and love.

Just a trick of the moonlight, surely, surely...that made it appear a faint tear shone upon the right cheek of Acavna.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:28, Sun 10 Jan 2021.

Adoven, among so many other details, tries to find a decent alchemist in Tusk to study the mud he collected from the Narlmarches. From the headwaters ofcthe Skunk river, he wondered if the mud or water contained elements of value, for either commercial use or alchemical use.

PM

OOC: So, no Sulphur, which is useful for chemical and alchemical processes?

Not that is extractable  :)

Cass shopped around town until he could find a portable forge and an appropriate set of artisan tools. Once prepared, he spent the time to hammer out a pair of masterwork chakram. He would practice with them using the Returning Weapon spell and if he was proficient enough, he would later have them permanently enchanted.

This thread will be closing soon.  If you wish to post here ...  make it quick!