In reply to Cassandre Lagrene (msg # 260):

O'Hooligan shrugs at your question Cassandre.  "No idea.  We came across this fellow well after he died.  In a little cave at the northern end of the woods.  And yeah.  That manual's kinda changed how we look at things.  You lot can take that manual.  We've made plenty a' copies.  You can have that journal too.  Frankly, it's kinda creepy.

"Now then.  Let's all get sloshed!"

And the drinking begins...

I will leave it here so Koz and Cass have a chance to bump their PCs up a level.

You may post any 'during the party' moments you wish.  Zekk?  Let me know about those rolls to "bump" someone.

Questions?

Thanks all

"We could form a whole school around it!  My, uh, handwriting isn't the best... but we should make a copy of it.  Okay and I can't draw these diagrams either.  Huh, copying this is maybe not viable."  Breya looked at Bellinha and suddenly realized she should say something clever and charming.

"You know there weren't a lot of books in the cage, I didn't realize they could be interesting.  It's a miracle I know how to read at all."

And that was incredibly stupid, good job.

After cleaning himself from all the remaining effects and affects from the game, Kamatar looked carefully over at the remains of the other half-orc and nodded, seeming to have come to some conclusion.

"This person was a member of a sister order to my own, one I'd not heard about since I'd finished my instruction. I can tell by the color and designs of his robes. He and his book belonged to the Order of the Wafting Leaf. There was a Brother BotChuan from their order who trained with us for a time, away from training he was playful, but otherwise dedicated to his studies. After his time with us, I never heard from him or any of the others until word was passed to us that the Wafting Leaf was destroyed about two decades ago." he concluded sadly.

Bringing out a large clean cloth from his backpack, Kamatar gently reached for the training manual and gently but firmly took possession of the book. As he put his hands on the book, he said reverently, "I will teach the techniques from my sister orders' manual to anyone in this group who might want to learn, but I ask that I be allowed to keep custody so that their spirit may be honored!"

Bellinha gave Breya a quizzical look.  She didn't realize that books were interesting?  It seemed like an odd thing to say, but considering what Breya had told her about her upbringing, it only brought into contrast the differences in their respective pasts.

"I could loan you something to read, if you'd like."  Bellinha replied.  "My sister and I devoured all sorts of books growing up.  Well, when we weren't sneaking off to the docks to watch the ships.  And I had to practice my penmanship during training.  You wouldn't believe how tricky it can be to scribe a spell.  One misplaced punctuation or spelling error and...BOOM...eyebrows are gone.  And hair.  Sometimes clothes.  Often times clothes.  I blew my blouse right off this one time, and my much of my hair.  I was like a bald, topless...anyways those times were embarrassing."

Bellinha paused, realizing that she was going off on a bit of a ramble and probably giving more information than anyone really wanted to know.  "I'll give you some of my favourites when we get back to Salt Lick.  Do you prefer more romance or adventure?"  Her face brightened for a moment as she thought of giving Breya some of her favourite books to read.   but that lasted only a few seconds.  "No wait.  I didn't bring any books with me to Salt Lick.  We can check with Ours.  Maybe we could borrow something from him."

She turned to Kamatar when he took the training manual.    "I agree that we should make a copy.  Knowledge like this should be preserved.  And maybe there is something within that could relate to the creepy journal as well.  I'll see what writing materials we can find back in town and start working on making a copy."

Breya seemed... oddly intrigued by the idea of bald and topless, but was intrigued by the rest.

"There's... different kinds?"  She asked and felt really stupid.  Breya thought all books were nonfiction.  "I mean aren't all books just stuff people don't want to forget or want someone else to know so they write it down?"

Breya seemed amused by Kamatar's announcement.  The guy appreciated the book, she was okay if he took it and preserved it.  As long as someone did.  She would do it herself but admittedly wasn't as energized about it, it was more she wouldn't let it go to pot.

"Oh you'll teach us will you?  Shit speedy, you ought to give running lessons not fighting lessons.  You need to write a book on how to run fast."

Kozibi lifted one eye golden eyebrow at the whole thing. Breya not being bookish? That wasn't really surprising. But the depth of non-book-knowing...was a little surprising. He almost asked if she punched her way through school as a tease, but what if she didn't go to school? That would have been offensive, and he wasn't out to piss her off.

And Kamatar was a little odd. He was a bit forceful too with taking that book. Not in a terrible way. Just...strange. Kozibi had seen people obsessed before whether it be with honor, love, magic, artifacts, power, whatever. It wasn't new. He just hoped it would be more the reverence and honor that Kamatar seemed to show and not obsession, the dark brother to the two. Or turn in to anything like what had happened to those in that Order. He repressed a shudder.

"Well. This has been..." He looked up for a second and then continued, "...weird. Fun in some bits too but...yes, very weird." He shrugged his shoulders. "I think we should head back, yes? You are cured, so no more worries there, right?"

Bellinha smiled at Breya.  There was something innocently charming in her view on books.  It was so out of character sweet.  "There is so much more to books than just writing down stuff that you don't want to forget.  There are stories.    I have some authors that I am going to introduce you to...assuming that I can find their books in Salt Lick.  Maybe there's something in Smythers.  I'll have to look...NO...We'll have to look.  We need to find some story that sparks your interest."

Kozibi seemed more interested in heading back rather than discussing books.  Bellinhas excitement over introducing Breya to books faded.  "Before we go, I want to see that cave where they found the monk." she said seriously.  "Remember how that journal mentioned butterflies?  There were butterflies when we fought that...whatever it was...in the cave beneath the Brakes Estate.  They have to be related.  Maybe there's something up there that might offer up some clue.  He was looking for something."

"Maybe I'm alone on this, but I just can't get it out of my head what was in that journal.  Butterflies talking to him.  Mirrors.  It's a little worrying.  Or maybe it's nothing.  Let me check with O'Hooligan and see how far it is.  Maybe I can go and take a look before we head back out."

Bellinha turned to see where O'Hooligan was.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:57, Tue 04 Apr 2023.

In reply to Bellinha Grunnel (msg # 267):

O'Hooligan is already pretty slooshed.  The man does not wait for his drunken blackouts.

However, Sea Biscuit seems to know the way.  And it's not far.

There's a small cave set up on a hill overlooking the sea.  Sea Biscuit waves his hand.  "There's not much room in there.  No dungeon or nothing.  But...well.  Maybe you wanna look yourself."

The cave is small.  Only 15' deep and maybe that wide as well.  It would be homey.  If it weren't for the fact someone has carved a line into the wall.  Again and again.  All over the cave.

if i see the things i see i see the sea inside of me

IF i SEE the THINGS i SEE i SEE the SEA inside OF me

ifiseethethingsiseeicthecinsideof   me

IF I SEE the things i see I SEE the sea inside of me

If I see   the things I see   I see the c inside of me

If I see the things I see
I see
The sea
Inside of
Me


The variations go on and on.  But it's more or less the same line.  Repeated time and time and time again.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:55, Wed 05 Apr 2023.

Breya, intrigued by this whole thing, went along.  Looking around she shook her head.

"Hooo-kay.  Yeah.  Uh.  I got nothin'.  Some prime Grade A crazy here."

Bellinha thanked Sea Biscuit for guiding them to the cave.  She pulled out a notebook and busied herself with copying down the wall scrawlings.  Sure they were all the same sentence over and over again but some of the lettering and spacing looked different and that might have some significance.  Or maybe not.  The written ramblings of a most likely insane man were probably just that.

"So much crazy." she said, agreeing with Breyas assessment of the scene.  "It's weird though.  There are so many references to seeing something externally and it is then related to seeing something internally.  As though some force is taking  possession of the viewer, or they have acquired a curse of some sort.  The imagery is of the sea, which would match with the pirates that we faced at the Brakes Estate."

She looked thoughtfully around the cave before turning to look out at the ocean in the distance.  "Now that I think on it, Wilma did say something about some malevolence grabbing her in her dreams, dreams of the sea.  I can't remember if she was looking for something though.  From what is written in this journal, the monk was looking for something, splintered parts of something that he wanted to reassemble.  Maybe the last lines are the locations, if we can just figure out what they mean."

"This journal, the writing, Wilma, it's all just a jumble of pieces, fragments of a whole picture that I just cannot see right now.  Or we're missing a key to understand it all."  Bellinha took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.  "This is all so creepy.  I don't think that I'm going to sleep well tonight.  Unless I get black out drunk like O'Hooligan."

"That's a good time to practice."  Breya pointed out, trying to be helpful, and probably failing at it.  Finding clever things to say was something she was failing at a lot today.

You may continue to converse here in the cave as you like, but I will be moving us on to a new thread.

Thanks

Bellinha turned from her gazing out at the water and gave Breya a small smile.  It was the smile of someone making an embarrassing admission.  "I've never been black out drunk before.  I've been in the presence of those who were, but I've never experienced it myself.  I guess I've never had a reason to, until now."

She turned fully to face Breya and her smile faded.  "You've been so...collected...through all this curse and butterfly craziness.  How do you keep it together like that?"

"By treating it like a fight.  I never wanted to fight. Well, there were couple of exceptions... but I didn't like to fight.  But I had to win, so I put everything into what I needed to do to win the fight, not the fight itself.  Same thing here.  Fretting over the lycancthropy I couldn't cure was never going to get me there, had to focus on doing what was right in front of me."

She looked down at her fists and flexed them a few times and her big arms rippled with each tensing of the muscles.  A lot of memories were in those fists.

"As strange as it sounds sometimes you have to plan on everything going right and then act like it's going to as long as you do what it takes.  Of course in the real world you can do everything right and still lose... but I don't know anything different."

"...do whatever it takes..."  Bellinha repeated softly, mulling over what her friend had said.  "That does make some sense.  Is that how you approach things?  As a fight that you need to win?  What happens if you lose?"

"Not everything, because not everything is like a fight."  Breya pointed out.  "And if you lose... you lose.  All anyone can do is try."

Breya mused, feeling philosophical.  "It's what people try to do that shows you who they are, even if they don't quite pull it off."  She looked at Bellinha poignantly.

"Judge me by my actions and not my words, hmmm?"  There was something in the way that Breya had looked at Bellinha that tugged at her empathy.  The hint of sadness that followed her words made Bell think that somewhere in Breyas past she had been hurt by the actions of someone else.  In fact, she would bet good gold that that was the case.  She could only wonder at the story behind it and just how deep the hurt went.

"How about those who might not have handled certain situations with their usual calm and decisive manner?  Would their actions reflect badly?"

"You seriously expect everyone to keep their shit together perfectly at all times?  Because I sure don't.  The ideal might be to focus all the time but no one can do that perfectly unless they're insane.  Hell, people who don't freak out occasionally or get a little bitchy every now and again creep me the fuck out.  Sometimes there's nothing for it but to get pissed off and come out swinging.  Maybe it's not pretty but people have to survive however they can sometimes."  Breya laughed.  "Shit look at me I get mad as hell sometimes.  Fear and panic got me through some of the worst spots of my life.  Or sometimes I'd freeze up and shut down.  People can only take so much.  It doesn't matter how strong you are there's going to be something you can't lift eventually, or a fight you can't win.  Reaper gets us all in the end right?"

Breya realized how she was justifying her own character flaws, and wasn't sure she liked it.

Kozibi had shaken his head at the crazy after looking at it. "Yeah. Crazy."

Then he looked slowly between the two women as they continued speaking and things got...a little weirdly personal. "Should we...give you two some space?"

He took a large step back and gave a little wave with both hands. "Don't mind me."

He turned a little away from them and looked around.

Bellinhas face reddened slightly.  She had been so busy with Breya that she had forgotten about Kozibi.  "No...no..that's okay." she said to him.  "I'd actually be interested in hearing your answer as well.  You've been pretty calm around a group suffering from Lycanthropy.  Weren't you worried about getting infected?  And all of this craziness with that thing that we fought in the manor and now this.  How do you handle it?"

"I mean, I've felt very out of my depth at times and just wanted to...well probably do something really embarrassing.  I didn't come out to Salt Lick to fight monsters."

OOC: Background drop! lol

Kozibi pondered for a moment before answering. He smiled slightly and nodded. "I mean, you're not wrong. But..." He took a deep breath. "Okay, so look. I don't normally talk about this stuff cause...well, you'll see, but...I had a pretty traumatic childhood event."

He looked down and for a moment it looked like he might not continue, but then he did, his voice quiet. "I was kidnapped by a cult when I was young, and almost sacrificed or something in a crazy dark ritual. But...in the nick of time I was saved by adventurers. Since I was so young, I didn't know my family, where I was from or...anything that would help get me returned home. I...don't even know my real last name or real birthday, to be honest."

He smiled slightly as he remembered some things. "So one of the adventurers adopted me. A Bard. She raised me and taught me. I learned how to fight, explore and adventure from a young age. I learned how to listen, tell stories, remember complicated things. And...lie. And scare the crap out of people." He closed his eyes and nodded, making a "I know, I know" face. "Clearly, not the best way to raise a child, I grant you, but...what can I say. I am who I am."

He spread his hands. "And it means that sometimes, I'm not as freaked out as I should be by the weird and strange, deadly or crazy situations, that sort of thing. Sometimes I am and I just keep my mouth shut so as to not appear stupid or...well, as a Bard, how people view you can really change how they treat you, or stop you from being able to get work so...yes I'm vain at times, fake even."

"...Kozibi....I..."  Bellinha was surprised not only by how forthcoming and detailed Kozibi was with his answer but also by the story of his younger years.  As she looked from Kozibi to Breya and back again a few times, it suddenly struck her just how different she was from her two friends.  Both seemed to have some sort of trauma from their past that they were working to overcome, or that drove them, while pretty much all of the trauma from Bellinhas past had happened in the past two weeks.

In terms of background, she really did not have anything in common with Breya and Kozibi at all.  Her family were all alive and well in Coinhaven and she had trouble thinking of any past experience of hers that could be compared to what Kozibi and Breya had gone through.  It was a sobering thought.

Calmly, Bellinha closed her notebook and returned it to the pouch on her belt.  “Breya.  Kozibi.  You have both been through so much, more than I had known.  Regardless, it doesn’t change how I feel about you, maybe just make me like you more.  If you'll permit me a moment to bare my soul...”

“I don’t think that you are fake, Kozibi.   We’ve stood side by side a few times and I have not seen anything that would shake my trust in you.  Well, except for that one time when you ran off with Zale and didn't let us know that you were running off with Zale.  I really feel like I have to give you a good swift kick in the backside for that."

She turned to Breya.  "I like that you get mad and freak out sometimes, Breya.  I don't feel as bad almost crumbling to pieces from the curse knowing that I might not have been the only one.  If someone as confident and strong as you has doubts, then maybe mine are not bad.”
This message was last edited by the player at 05:59, Wed 12 Apr 2023.

"Don't confuse other people's shit for character."  Breya responded, albeit gently.  "I don't know what's happened to you your entire life, for all I know I'd be dead if I'd lived your life.  The shit you think is normal, or even good, and not worth talking about can be horrifying to other people.  Just because you survived something bad doesn't make you a good person and just because you didn't experience something bad doesn't make you a bad person."

Breya realized she was very philosophical today.  She wasn't sure how she felt about that yet.

Kozibi wasn't sure if Breya was saying that Kozibi wasn't a good person because he went through 'shit' or if she was just telling Bellinha that she wasn't a bad person because she hadn't gone through any. Or both. He didn't like the first and last answers.

He smiled at Bellinha. "Bellinha, dearest, I am fake. Often. I'm a professional liar." He let out a chuckle, but then became serious once more. "But I don't lie to friends about important things without good reason."

He rolled his eyes. "I thought I was being a good ally and not letting Zale go off on his own and get himself killed. But he seemed absolutely determined to be suicidal! And so I hurried back to you all as soon as I had a chance." He wobbled his head and hands a little. "Hmm, well, I had to run away when he bit off more then we could chew and got chased quite a bit. I do apologize for running some of the pirates right in to you all, especially while you were already embroiled in a fight." He let out a sigh.

He smiled sadly at them both. "It is...strange to have friends. I do like you both, but relying on others...or being relied upon...hasn't been something I've had a lot of practice with."

Bellinha listened to both Breya and Kozibi, and felt like they were both pointing out how naive she was being.  It was probably true for some things but in this case, Bell was pretty sure about how she felt about them both.

"I learned to rely on others."  she said softly.  "There is no way that my familys business could be run effectively without the help of others.  We could crew one ship ourselves, or hire out crews for several ships.  It's really the only way to scale up operations.  And sometimes you just need to find people who are better at some things than you might be.  Like the Braker Manor.  I'm a decent hand with a sword but I wasn't going to go up there alone.  I had to put together a company to not only watch my back but also to bring some skills that I don't have.  And it was a good thing to.  I don't think that I would have made it out of that place without your help."