"If it's not a cursed village, why is it called 'Helsford' anyway?" asked Armes Whitecloak, jogging alongside the wagon with an easy stride.
"The Hels River," answered his twin brother Amres, the wizard not looking up from his book. "There's a gorge cut by the river that runs through the place, they've got bridges linking the two sides. Anyway, the Hels River is one of the weak points in the universe where things wash up from time to time."
"Oh, monsters then," said Armes.
"Right," agreed Amres. "Or other things. Mostly other things. Someone throws a cursed artifact into the Astral or Ethereal Planes, or some experiment blows a hole in their universe and things fall through, or some teleport gone horribly wrong. The elven term for those spots does translate to Comyn as 'flotsam washed up on the shores of the seas of time' but hardly anyone uses High Elvish for anything but poetry nowadays."
"We're elves, brother, and even we don't use High Elvish for much," said Armes. "Just the regular Elvish takes too long anyway."
"Truth," said Amres.
"Hey, I'm supposed to be the one with the short answers and such," chided Armes.
"I suppose," said Amres as his brother swung up into the wagon.
"Coming up on Helsford now," said the driver, Old Angie, pointing ahead.
"So what's a cursed village then if this Helsford isn't one?" asked Armes.
Amres clicked his book shut. "Well, remember that not all cursed villages started out as cursed. Some started out as blessings or enchantments intended to do one thing, but magical effects like that get stronger over time and can sometimes go and do things that weren't intended originally."
"Yeah," said Armes. "That's why I leave magic to crazy people like my dear brother."
"Thank you so much," responded Amres drily. "Take Elmwood for example. Here in the Kingdom they've got warning signs up on the approach, it's a three day thing. If you're born there, you're immune. Anyone from outside Elmwood who's there for three days starts transforming. Circean curse - they end up as animals. Or Blackberry over in the West. Just go there and you start to feel peaceful and calm and wouldn't this be a nice place to live. After about a week hardly anyone ever leaves. Bunch of orcs tried to go on a rampage there a couple of hundred years ago, thinking it sounded like easy pickings. They ended up settling down to become farmers."
"That there is downright terrifying," admitted Armes.
"You guys got papers ready?" asked Old Angie. "When we get to the guardhouse they're gonna want to see them."
Armes snorted. "Don't worry, we've got them."
"I'm a mouseling," pointed out Old Angie, her gray whiskers quivering as she looked back at them. "We worry about lots of things."
"Why we need papers anyway?" asked Armes.
"Because there's a weak point there, the Kingdom maintains a small Army outpost here," answered Old Angie. "Village started as a crossroads village with a dwarven fortress to the West, Elven Forest to the North, and was mainly a Human village back in the day."
"'Human'?" asked Armes, sounding a bit more interested. "How old is this place?"
"Depends on who you ask," said Old Angie. "Some say it was one of the First Settlements when the First Age of Man ended and the Age of Sorcerer Kings was new. Some say closer to the end of the Second Age. Whatever the case, it was burned down during the days of the Elven Empire and rebuilt. Then mostly destroyed by an Undead King during the Third. Monster attack in the Fourth and so on."
"A place with some history," said Amres. "There's one of the oldest magic shops in the Kingdom there. Just a hedge wizard, with each one taking the name of the shop's original owner as a title."
"The Nimodes of Helsford," said Old Angie. "My great-granddaughter is learning alchemy there. She might become the next one with the title. Already brewing simple healing potions and the like."
Amres and Armes met each other's eyes briefly with a smile and a nod as Old Angie began going on about her great-granddaughter's accomplishments as an apprentice alchemist and how Old Angie had always known that Young Angie was 'smart as a bookwyrm but a lot more social' and so on.
The old mouseling finally ran down as they reached the outpost and came to a stop.
Armes noted that one guard approached, one stayed near the door to the tower, and that there was a third in a sniper position on the roof. Good to see town guards that took their job at least somewhat seriously.
"Old Angie. Here to see your grandkid?" asked the half-orc, eyeing the two elves in the back.
"That and got a bunch of apples from the Argent place," said Old Angie. "These two just had some other business."
"We just hitched a ride," said Amres easily as he climbed down from the wagon, stretching briefly before speaking further. "Where's the Watch Commander. Got some paperwork for him too."
"Her," corrected the half-orc. "Commander Aimes is over at the spire. Can I see your papers?"
Amres handed over a wooden plaque, which the half-orc grumbled as he looked it over. "Divination? Prophecy? Shit."
"Exactly," answered Armes.
"Them's always trouble," said the half-orc as he passed the paperwork back. "Above my paygrade, that's for sure."
"I hear that," said Amres.
"Do a grunt a favor and give us some warning if things are about to get Epic would ya?" asked the half-orc.
"We'll try, but you know how those stories go," answered Amres. "I'll need a name to send a message."
"Message spell? Send it to Flaylock," said the half-orc, jerking a thumb at the sniper position. "He's more used to that stuff."
"Flaylock the guard, got it," answered Amres.
Amres looked around the town as they started walking down the mostly-dirt street into the village.
"Cobblestone then brick, back to dirt, then cobblestone again," noted Armes.
"Old," reminded Amres. "The brick sections are worn and still have enchantments to resist wearing down."
"That IS old," admitted Armes. "First Age stuff?"
"Second Age, probably late," said Amres after kneeling and running a hand over a section of bricks. "Supposedly there's a lot of First Age stuff that either washes up here or are hand-me-downs from the older families."
"Fresh paint," noted Armes.
"Just because some of the buildings are old, doesn't mean the locals don't keep it up," said Amres.
Armes just shrugged, the monk rolling his shoulders as he did so. "Looks like mouselings, a couple of rhiannon, and... a mantis?"
"Thri-kreen. And I spotted two reptine and a tortle," said Amres. "Very eclectic group, but this IS a crossroads village that sees a fair number of traders come through."
"Huh," agreed Armes.
"And here we are," said Amres, starting up the short stairwell into the building.
"Why are all the buildings four steps up from the street?" asked Armes.
"Rainy season, southern part of the Kingdom of Shadar," said Amres as he used his wizard staff to knock three times on the doorway before going through the curtain.
"You have business with me," grumbled a woman behind the desk.
"Captain Aimes?" asked Amres. On receiving a nod, the wizardly twin continued and handed over a sealed scrollcase. "Guild business. Some oracle stuff."
"Well, crap, there goes my vacation," grumbled the woman. She thumbed the seal on the scrollcase, which clicked open a moment later and she withdrew and started reading the papers. "Huh. Not my problem after all. I prefer those."
"We don't know all the details ourselves," admitted Amres.
"Hero in the rough, you've got two days before she's due, but stick around because timing on these things can be off," said Aimes, the earth genasi's expression indicating some distaste for what she was reading. "Her world is in danger. Got into trouble, needs training. Airship coming by to pick all three of you up."
"Does it say which airship?" asked Armes.
"The 'Darkness Rising'," said Captain Aimes.
"Well, crap," said Armes.
"Problem?" asked Captain Aimes.
"Their ship's engineer, Topaz, is an incorrigible flirt who targets my brother immediately," said Amres. "She's a nice enough girl but she can't hold her alcohol and she can get very..."
"Precise focus on whatever she's doing," said Armes. "Or trying to do."
Captain Aimes snorted, leaving obvious there was no sympathy to be had.
"I was trying to be politic," said Amres.
"You only have to worry about the matchstick," griped Armes.
"Well, we can at least hope Desdemonda isn't with them any longer," said Amres. "Anyone that prone to setting fires should not be anywhere near an airship."
Captain Aimes had already taken out a quill and started writing out. "Okay, a fire hazard and a sloppy drunk. Anyone else on that crew to worry about?"
"Desibeth, paladin. I don't think you have to worry about her unless you're ice cream," said Amres. "Satchekell. She's one to keep an eye on. She's working on it, but she has this bad habit."
"Prankster," summed up Armes.
"Dyanah, cleric of Etragar, sort of," said Amres. "Cross coverage arrangement with the drow goddess."
"Ellimae," said Armes.
"Eilistraee," corrected Amres.
"What I said," protested Armes.
"What's wrong with her?" asked Captain Aimes.
"Last I heard she was getting over a tragic breakup of her last lover," said Amres. "Brooded a fair amount."
"Lover broke up with her?" asked Captain Aimes, these things happened after all.
"Yeah, it turned out he was working for a criminal syndicate and the guy she knew was all an act," said Armes. "Heard about that."
"Ouch," said Captain Aimes.
"There's also Alisandre Mournblade, also a cleric, also of Eilistraee, but she's got a bit of fire elf in her as well as drow," said Amres. "I ran across her last year. Plays the flute, absolutely nuts for apples. Nearly got into a fight with that Barakit guy over the last apple dumpling."
"Barakit Longhorn? The minotaur?" asked Armes.
"Yeah, but Satchekell stole it while they were arguing," said Amres.
"That tracks," admitted Armes.
"Maybe I should just order everyone confined to ship," mused Captain Aimes.
"That reminds me. I didn't notice an airship dock here," noted Amres.
"We don't have one, there's Sutter's Field to the South," said Captain Aimes.
"An actual field? What about ships that can't land on solid ground?" asked Amres.
"Ah, that might be a problem," admitted Captain Aimes. "Half a day's travel upriver."
"Two days then?" asked Armes. "Any other details?"
The Guard Captain nodded. "It's wrapped up in the usual diviner language, but she's a 'Young Queen Unknowing' so some kind of royal heritage she don't know about and female. 'From a difficult and distant past' might mean she's from the First Age or it just might mean typical growing up in some areas. So you guys expect lots of culture shock from her. 'Fallen through the seas of may-have-beens' - they use the dwarven term here for multiversal threadings. So that's the bit about her being from one of the pasts that might have ended up with our universe. 'Washed upon the shores of Hel' - that's the weak point, I'll have someone show you where it is and write up a gleaner's pass to get through the gates and guard post. 'Though she be without class nor kin' is obvious and the usual. Might just be too young for it though. 'Potential she has to bring plague or provender to her people' means she might go either way. 'Twins of elven line to guide and protect' might be you two, twins are damn uncommon among your race."
"Only know of two other sets of twins," agreed Armes, caught in mid-stretch. "Elves at least."
"If you were talking about mouselings, rhiannon, or amazons that would be considerably different," noted Captain Aimes. "Specifically elven heritage narrows it down."
"I take it we're not to know the exact phrasing of the prophecy?" asked Amres.
"Oracles," said Captain Aimes, making it sound entirely like the sort of word one said when dropping a box of magitek engine parts on one's foot.
"I hear you," agreed Amres, who well knew how cocked up situations involving oracles and prophecies could get.
"Who are the other twins, if you don't mind? I haven't actually met any just heard things," said Captain Aimes.
"Tarja and Tajra, they're drow from that colony that fled some dark goddess that micromanaged them," said Amres. "Then there's Janus and Duo - they're brother and sister but you want to keep an eye out for them. They work the other side of the law. Wetwork."
"Janus and Duo?" asked Captain Aimes, making notes. "They use those names?"
"Yes, it's a reputation thing," said Amres.
"Ah," said Captain Aimes, his tone indicating he knew that meant they were That Sort.