Day 75: Sunday the 2nd, Kuthona, 4707
Faunra woke me up today, with the notice that we would be heading out very quickly, to try to get to Turtleback Ferry as early as possible. I thanked her and immediately got up and got dressed. Apparently, Shalelu and Dame Rebekah were going to work together to get us there quickly again, and we would be stopping off in Sipplerose due to something about an emissary of the goddess of travel being located there, and that we could seek their blessing for the rest of our trip.
At first, I kind-of didn't see the point until I remembered the attack and realized that we didn't need any more attacks by rampaging bands of cougars any time soon. With that settled, we got everything ready and Jonathan passed along the notices that he got from Shayliss about how everyone was back home. I almost thought that he was making stuff up, but why would he do that? Before we took off, we saw a herd of five wild horses walk across our future path. Before I could do anything, Jonathan noted that their manes and tails were all tangled and they were all sweaty. Something popped up in my mind from back home and I blurted out that they must have been ridden hard by a troupe of pixies.
Faunra, Shalelu, and Dame Rebekah all looked at me like I had grown a third head. Shalelu asked me how I possibly already knew that. I told her that it was an old legend where I was from that if one saw a horse in the meadow in the morning that had a tangled mane and tail, and that it was sweating, that it must have been a pixie that was riding it all night. Everyone was silent for a minute until Shalelu and Dame Rebekah worked together to get the horses calmed down, have the tangles removed, and brushed down before shooing them on their way. Shalelu noted to everyone that they had indeed been ridden by pixies if the horse's hair patterns were any indication.
I shrugged and noted that even a blind chicken gets a kernel of corn if it pecks long enough. For once, an idiom from back home was instantly understood by everyone in the group. We waited for the horses to move on, and then I had to ask the stupid question. I asked Shalelu how a herd of horses could possibly survive in a realm with monsters and evil entities. Shalelu noted that there were good entities as well, and some that were simply just mischievous but not actively dangerous to the horses. I nodded and thanked her for the information.
We got ourselves recovered and ready to go and Shalelu cast her divinely charged spell and took off like she had traveled down this unseen road a dozen times before. Dame Rebekah decided to save her spells for later and just push her steed to fulfill what was needed of it, as we were not actually at a full hustle for her. After two hours, we made it to the outskirts of Sipplerose. We slowed down and rolled the rest of the way into town, to be respectful. As we approached the town, a group of Gnome guardsmen and what appeared to be one of the town elders came up ahead of us and stopped us. They had their weapons ready and told us that they didn't want to hurt us.
Everyone in the group looked to me, and I guessed that means that I am the talker for this little group. I looked to the elder and I told her that I didn't want her group to hurt us either! This joke took a minute, but then the elder started to laugh, and the rest of the guardsmen looked a bit more relaxed. The elder asked what our business was in Sipplerose. I looked to Shalelu and she motioned me to continue. I told the elder that we were travelers seeking to pass through to Turtleback Ferry, and would like to visit with the emissary of the patron of travelling. The Gnome elder thought for a minute and noted that Novi would have to judge whether he would meet with them himself.
I thanked her for informing us of this, and asked if we would be able to talk to Novi, and the Gnome elder noted that Novi was in the town square entertaining the town children, and that we could be escorted there. We slowly moved our vehicles to the square and politely waited while the Lyrakien finished their performance. The tiny winged man was extremely talented with a flute, and reminded me of Jethro Tull. After a minute or so, Novi stopped and turned to us, scrutinizing us for a minute.
Novi told the children that they had the distinct privilege to encounter a few rarities in this world. Novi told them that they were meeting a group of people that had a member who had traveled further, a member who had traveled longer, and a member who had traveled higher than the Lyrakien had. He flew over and took a look at the bikes, and added that we had also brought some of the things from those times. He seemed to whisper to Faunra's bow before addressing the rest of us. Novi asked us to give the children the chance to guess which one of us had traveled the longest, the highest, and the farthest. I looked around the group and they all nodded, and I told Novi that we were okay with that.
The Gnome children all crowded around us, and looked us over. Almost immediately, they figured out that Faunra had traveled the longest of any of us. They guessed that Dame Rebekah had traveled the highest and that Shalelu had traveled the farthest. Novi told them that they were only correct on one count, and told them all that they were correct about Faunra. The children looked us over again, and guessed the opposite, that Shalelu had been the highest and Dame Rebekah had traveled the farthest. Novi shook his head, and noted that neither Shalelu nor Dame Rebekah had traveled as high or as far as Jonathan and I had.
The children then gathered around Jonathan and me and asked how they could tell which one of us had traveled the farthest or the highest. Novi winked to me and noted that they could tell by the fact that I was on the most specialized of the steam-cycles that I had made them and was likely the one from farthest away. I was taken aback by the Lyrakien's knowledge. Novi added that Jonathan was a bit more difficult, but that he had an aura of someone who had been transported here from up on high. The children were amazed and Novi asked me if I could show the children something from where I was from.
I smiled and complied. I pulled out my tablet, thought about loading up Locomotive Breath, but realized it probably wasn't child friendly, so I loaded up "Land Down Under". The children listened mystified by how music came from this tiny item. When the flute solo came, I spared a side glance to the Lyrakien and he was smiling. When the song ended, the children were all clamoring for more. I thought for a few seconds and told them that I had a song that told of all of the countries of where I was from and asked if they wanted to hear that. They all said yes, and I went back and forth between the two versions of the song before loading up the original video version by Yakko Warner.
The children all watched the animated song and were completely engrossed in it. Novi told the children that he needed to talk to us but that they should try to think about what they just saw. The children all ran off trying to remember bits of the nation song and getting it wrong in absolutely great ways. Novi told us that Desna had known of us and that he was glad to provide some knowledge for us, but that we would be facing a greater test than many before us by far. He whispered to me that an Ancient Evil Kaiju of Madness was coming and that it would bring destruction throughout the land if we did not stop it.
Novi noted that he could answer one question each for all of us. He added that the answers would likely only be one word answers and that the answers would be answered from his Goddess, Desna. I looked to the rest of the group and Shalelu looked like she needed a question answered and motioned for her to go first. Shalelu asked if her travels would take her to her step-father. Novi answered with a single word, definitely.
Faunra asked if we would have to travel anywhere extremely fast in the near future. Novi responded sadly, unquestionably. Dame Rebekah asked if she would have need to travel to the Worldwound to find her parents. Novi looked sad for a second, like this was a sore subject, and just said, negative. Jonathan looked a little thoughtful for a second and asked if his travels would take him to his revenge. Novi smiled a little and said a bit more than one word, as long as you persevere. With that, I thought that I would be the next to talk, but Novi looked to Cytheria who happened to pop out from behind Jonathan and Novi responded back to her with a word, achievement.
Novi looked to me and I had to think for a minute before I asked if the changes that I was making and planning to make to this area of the world would be detrimental to his mistress's spheres of influence. Novi seemed a bit amused by this question and responded with, continue. I was a bit confused and started to ask another question when Novi stopped me and told me that he could answer no further questions currently. I thanked Novi for his help, and Novi told us that the fights that we would face in the future would be much harder than the battles that the ones that we had previously fought, and that we would need to step up our tactics and skills to be able to do what needs to be done.
With all of that said, we said a big goodbye to the town and the children. The elder wished us well through the travels through Sanos Forest. We took off and followed Shalelu again, who again acted like this was a path that she had traveled every day of her life. While we were riding through the trail, we passed a group of five raggedly dressed individuals who had a camp set up a short distance away. They didn't make any moves to get our attention and we didn't feel the need to stop since we were rushing on.
We broke through the other side of the forest after four hours of travel from Sipplerose and then we slowed down a little to get the rest of the way to Turtleback Ferry. When we got to the town, Jonathan, Cytheria, and I all noticed tattoos in the shape of the stars that were on the sacrifices from the Skinsaw murders. I looked to the rest of the group and Jonathan and I whispered to everyone what we had all seen. Faunra noted that she was going to have to work on something to erase all of these marks.
I noted that we should probably get rooms for the night at any kind of Inn that they have and that we should talk to the town Mayor or whomever is in charge to deal with this because if we saw five tattoos on various people who had tried to hide them, then there were probably a lot more. Faunra and Shalelu both went to get the rooms while Dame Rebekah, Jonathan, and I all went to the largest building in town, the church. The Mayor was there and introduced himself after helping to heal a fisher who was there with a gash on their leg. Mayor Shreed was a nice dutiful man who was mainly looking to help his town, from what he said. Dame Rebekah noted that we were sent by the Lord-Mayor and that we needed to talk to him about something important.
Mayor Shreed accepted this and ensured that the fisher was okay before sending him out. When he checked and ensured that the church was empty, he told us that he was glad that the Lord-Mayor had responded and sent aid to help with the investigation for why Fort Rannick has not shown up for several weeks. I spoke up by saying that we would indeed be looking into that, but that there was something that we had noticed immediately upon entering the town that we were concerned with. I continued with telling the Lord-Mayor that we had noticed at least five people with tattoos that were associated with the victims of a group of serial killers.
Mayor Shreed noted that he had heard about tattoos and that there were being provided by the former den of iniquity that had sunk by Erastil's grace over a month ago. I told the Mayor that those tattoos were used to mark the bodies of those who's souls were being captured to go fuel some evil ritual. The Mayor noted that it was good for the sinners to suffer. I told him that the souls would be consumed to help evil, and he noted that evil being consumed by evil means that there are less evil souls left in the world. It was an outsider who brought that sin barge in, he continued, and mostly outsiders who had died in the drowning of the barge, good riddance.
His intolerance was starting to grate on me, so I told the rest of the group that I was going to go check on Faunra and Shalelu. Jonathan said that he would join me. We went on to the only Inn in town and saw that Faunra and Shalelu were arguing amongst themselves outside the Inn. I asked them what the issue was, and Faunra told me that the Inn was charging five gold pieces a night per person per room. This upset me even more after the dealings with Mayor Shreed. I told them how we had tried to talk to Mayor Shreed and how he was a pompous ass, and Jonathan backed me up.
I wondered whether we should just head on to Fort Rannick, and Shalelu cautioned me that we would not be able to follow the trails as easily as we had before, as she only had her spell prepared once. I sighed and asked if everyone thought it wise that we just camp out in our tents outside of the town limits. Shalelu, Jonathan, and Faunra were all for it, so we waited for Dame Rebekah to come back out. She came out in a huff and the Mayor slammed shut the door after her. I asked her what was wrong, and she told us that the Mayor had been patronizing and said that he didn't think it was wise that a soon to be wife should be out gallivanting with wretches and degenerates such as Jonathan and myself. I asked her how he had known that she was engaged, and she pointed to her ring.
Dame Rebekah agreed that we should all just camp outside of town. Shalelu noted that she could start to construct a building, slowly, starting tomorrow. I noted that it might just be best to have Faunra make a good set up tomorrow and we could try to get more information form the townsfolk while she is making the item. Faunra kind of sheepishly admitted that she had forgotten all of her reagents for making magical items at her tower. I sighed and remembered how they would remove tattoo back where I was from. I didn't have access to a powerful enough laser, or an optical drive for my tablet.
I knew that I wouldn't have the components available to make a tattoo removal system, and if Faunra doesn't have the reagents to make one, it kind of falls on us that we don't even have the ability to deal with the situation. Jonathan noted that he could have an idea, but that it would be a little barbaric. We could cut off the tattoo and then he could heal up the damage. I shuddered and noted that flaying people alive, even if only a little was generally considered a bad thing at least, and torture at the worst. Jonathan kind of shrugged and said that it was either that or leave the situation be, and then whenever the event happens, dozens more souls are sent to power whatever ritual they are performing.
I asked Faunra if there was any way that Shalelu and her could go out to harvest reagents in the Ashwood or clay-bottom lake. Faunra thought for a minute and said that the she might be able to work something out with animal products if we could manage to snag one of the Giant Gar from the lake, the skin of a night-belly boa from the Shimmerglens, and some of the secretions of the fronds of Wither-weed from the Ashwood. We talked a bit and Shalelu noted that she was confident that she could take care of the Wither-weed. Jonathan and I said that we could try to get Giant Gar, and Dame Rebekah said that she would go with Faunra to try to get a night-belly Boa. We resolved to try to get this done before the end of the night, after we set up the camp. Cytheria volunteered to watch the camp while we went out.
Jonathan and I went to the tavern to see what fishers claimed that they had seen a Giant Gar. We paid for a few drinks, enjoyed a few stories, but when it came to the subject of a giant gar, the only thing that could be mentioned was Pink-Eye, who was now said to be lurking above the ruins of the barge that had sunk. We found out where we would need to go, and Jonathan managed to find an old door that someone had taken off of a building at some time but was cracked now. He levitated it with his power and we both sat on it. I noted that my gun and much of my gear would be useless.
Jonathan said that he had developed a power to deal with this, and once we were closer, he could use it on both of us and my weapons. I thanked him and we stripped away what we didn't need to bring with us, left it at the camp, and then made our way to the site. Just above the water above the site of the wreck, Jonathan activated his effect, and a bubble of breathable air was supposed to be around me, my gun, my flashlight, my radio, and him. He then lowered us down to water level. He noted that we would only have a few minutes of air before this ran out. I didn't ask him how he knew that, I just nodded and he lowered us below the surface of the water.
We held onto the door as the water rushed around us. Jonathan tilted the door and aimed it at a blur of white about forty feet down. Without warning, the door launched itself at the thing and we let go just as it was about to hit the thing. I knew that something like this would never work again, and that it only happened because of the circumstances, but it was AWESOME! I was picking my target the whole way down, and as the door slammed into the thing's head, I stabbed at its neck and stabbed it right in a gill. The thing was thirty-five feet long. This thing was larger than the largest great white ever recorded. And here it was just chilling in a lake.
That was the end of the positive for me. The gar snapped around and into its mouth I went. The needle sharp teeth worked their way past my armor and deep into the arm that was holding the machete. Before I could even have a chance to react, I was on my way to becoming just a bit of chum for this thing. Jonathan took a stab at it with his cestus after moving in close, but glanced off the boney scales. Knowing that this was all I could do, I summoned my pistol to my other hand, looked the thing in its cold dead eye, and yelled, "Smile, you son of a bitch."
My nine millimeter penetrated through the things eye-ball and ricocheted around inside it's brain cavity through what was likely some other rare happenstance. The thing stopped struggling and I got my arm out. Jonathan moved his air bubble next to mine and asked if I wanted him to heal me. I told him no, that we needed to get out of here with the gar, quickly. Jonathan focused his power, and got control over the whole thing! He grabbed onto one fin, and I grabbed on with my good arm after holstering my pistol. He lifted us towards the surface, getting us to within ten feet of the surface in six seconds. Some of the other gars in the area were coming closer, but couldn't make it to within striking distance before Jonathan cleared the surface with our prize. A thirty-five-foot albino Gar. For a second, I imagine that the townsfolk just thought that the stupid adventurers were just the latest victims of the lake monster.
Then Jonathan raised it above the waves and slowly floated it to shore. With him and me holding on to the blasted thing. I took the time to have a potion, if only to stop the bleeding. When we got it to shore, we were confronted by all of the townsfolk. Some of whom were happy that this monster had been removed from the town. Others were pissed that outsiders managed to do what they could not. Mayor Shreed was talking about fell magic and sin helping us kill this thing. We just continued on past them to our campsite where we could deal with the thing properly.
When we got back, none of the other two groups had returned, so we gently lowered the fish onto the cleanest section of ground we could and got to work. It took a minute to pick out which tooth was in the best shape. Ultimately I decided on one that had not actually bit me, as it wasn't dulled by going up against the boron carbide. That was the easy part. It took ten freaking minutes to safely extract the tooth without breaking it. During this time, Jonathan had started working on gutting the thing. After I got the tooth out, I pulled the files I had out from my saddlebag, and started working on getting the tooth ready to have a handle wrap.
While we were working, Shalelu came back, with a pile of fronds being carefully carried. She informed us that that we should not touch the fronds because they are still dangerous. I thanked her and it was shortly thereafter that Faunra and Dame Rebekah came back, with a very mangled up anaconda. Dame Rebekah and Shalelu started to work on the snake, skinning it and getting it ready while I helped Faunra set up her creating space. Jonathan continued working on butchering the fish.
While I was helping Faunra, I came up with a crazy idea that I had to ask her about. What if we make it so that the meal is what removes the tattoos, and thus they don't even realize it until later? Faunra asked if it was very moral to prevent someone from condemning their own soul to hell. I thought about that for a few minutes and she laughed. She asked me if they even knew that they were condemning their soul to that fate when they got the tattoo. I noted that they likely did not, and she asked if they were likely embarrassed by it. I said that they were hiding the tattoos.
Faunra told me that her conscious would be clear, but asked how would we get everyone in town to eat at the meal. I noted that we just needed to get a few people to do so, so that they could spread the word. Faunra said that we should take this up with the group, but that she would support it if the others did. I went over to Jonathan, who was cutting out filets like a mad man, having borrowed Dame Rebekah's adamantine sword to do the job. I whipped out my adamantine shuriken that I had been using as a utility knife since I got it here to help.
While we were working, I asked Jonathan what he thought about my idea. He stopped for a minute and looked a little pissed. I told him that I didn't want to piss him off or anything, and that if he wasn't willing to do it, then I wouldn't bother with asking anyone else. Jonathan told me that he wasn't pissed that I had brought up the idea, he was pissed that he had never thought to bring along the special meal that he had prepared for us, having forgotten to bring it when we left Sandpoint. I told him that we could have it when we got back, and he noted that he did have it in an enchanted box to prevent spoiling.
Jonathan smiled and said that he could easily whip up some quick and easy stuff that would accomplish what was needed. I told him that I would check with the rest of the group to find out what they thought. Jonathan absentmindedly waved me off as he continued his task. I headed over to Dame Rebekah and Shalelu and they were mostly done with their work, having come up with a sufficient section of skin to work as a handle for the tooth. Dame Rebekah felt a little iffy about doing it without people's knowledge. Not because it was really a bad thing in her mind, but that people might unconsciously resist it.
I told her that I had not thought of that, and that we should probably just continue with the tool. Shalelu agreed and went to go deal with the fronds of the witherweed. I headed back to Faunra with the tooth and the skin in my hand, and Faunra said that she had overheard what Dame Rebekah had said and that it makes sense, but that not doing this kind of moots the point. I told her that we could still make the item, but that we would have to find a way for people to want to have their tattoos removed. I asked her what she thought about having an enclosed booth where people could freely come in and have any tattoo removed, no questions asked. Faunra said that she could be down with that.
We continued on with our activities. Jonathan with gutting the fish, with Shalelu's help, Dame Rebekah with passing word around town that there would be a Fish Fry tomorrow, and that everyone in town was invited to attend. My job was a bit different. I needed to make some kind of grill with only the tools that I had and what materials I could scrounge. This didn't need to last forever, so I resolved to make it out clay and wood, since those were fairly abundant. I designed up what I needed and then went to Jonathan to asked if he could help out with this. He claimed that he needed a break anyway, so he helped by scooping up a large amount of clay and large amounts of wood.
I got to work making a rudimentary smoker for the fish. It needed to smoke almost sixty cubic feet of fish, so I ended up making more of a smokehouse than a smoker. Even though it would only be about three hours per batch, we were still looking at needing to do this in no more than five batches. That meant that we needed to smoke at least twelve cubic feet per batch, so this ended up being more of a temporary clay lined shack than a small portable box.
We worked together and got everything assembled, especially after Shalelu finished up her bit with the processing and could help out with the construction. We got the first batch started and used the heat stones from the bikes to speed up the process. Jonathan got to work preparing enough material for a glaze for the fish. He used his telekinetic powers to make a massive cauldron to hold all of the ingredients, that Shalelu and I went out scrounging for. I was exceptionally glad that wild onion is the same throughout the universe, because I could recognize that easily and bring it back to the camp after collecting at least enough for the four hundred some people who were in the town.
Jonathan was glad to have them, while Shalelu came back with a wide cornucopia of herbs that Jonathan was simply ecstatic over. He took almost all of the rest of the honey that I had brought with me, noting that we could find more, and all of the paprika and lemons that Savah had picked out for me. Making food for four hundred certainly would be an effort and a personal expense for each of us. When he came to the violet colored salt that Savah had said would be a good addition, he looked at me twice before adding it to the mixture. The paprika was instantly absconded as well. Jonathan told us all that this would be a feast fit for the nobles of Magnimar and asked me to go hunt down twenty pounds of pine needles, green off the tree, not brown on the ground.
I went out again, looking for what Jonathan had asked. It took me a little while to gather all of the pine needles. By the time I had gotten back, everyone had done what they could and were getting ready to bed down for the night. I told everyone that I would take first watch, and they all agreed. Jonathan added the pine needles to a simmering cauldron and told me that I should stir it every three and a half minutes. I asked why so specific, and he said that it would ruin everything if I didn't.
So it was that I spent two hours watching over everyone, stirring a gigantic cauldron every two hundred and ten seconds. After the two hours were us, I was exceptionally happy when Jonathan woke up, got a coffee, and took over. I didn't even ask about the stirring, but before I went to bed, Jonathan laughed and told me that her couldn't believe that I had actually done it. I told him that stopping the town from being sacrificed in some evil plan is not something that I wanted to screw up. Jonathan nodded sagely and sent me to the pavilion tent to sleep.