[Wanderhome-IC] Face on the Water, Part 1, "Leap"

[truemane]

Wanderhome - Face on the Water
Chapter 1 - Leap

In Mejis they say that time is a face on the water. Nestled against the Redbarrow Sea, Mejis is an old, old place, with roots deep in the earth and deep in the past. The tides of time and change have come, and they have reseeded. And in Mejis they fish, and they till, and they weave, and they live and they pass away. Mejis is never the same, but Mejis is never different.

Time is a face on the water.

In Mejis they also say that war the long road home. Mejis has known war. And it has known change. Has sent young men and woman away to be soldiers. Has received them back sometimes broken sometimes whole sometimes even stronger but always changed. But war is over now. The battlefields are silent. The sea is clear. The roads are safe and empty.

Winter in Mejis has a cold, hard beauty. Boats frozen in place in the Redbarrow Sea. The stark silence over Nestlewood Forest. The Everwind River encased in ice. The farms of Everfurrow and endless rise of gentle undulating snow.

War is over now. And many have come to Mejis. For some, this is the final step of the long road home. For others, it is but the first of many.

The full moon rises over the Serpentridge Hills. The sharpness of the cold, cold air is touched by sun. The ice groans in the Everwind.

Leap has come again. Winter's passing. The Great Arc of Years turns once more.

Time is a face on the water.

Spoiler: OOC

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Okay, welcome to our first post! My thinking is that you've all wound up in Mejis because it's a bit of a travel hub, and from here you'll all travel together along the Everwind River toward some distance goal, maybe another port town, and from there to 'home.'

We don't need to spend any time in Mejis if we want to get rolling right away, but Mejis is: a Farm, a Hillock, and a Port.

Everyone's first post should say some combination of: where you're staying, where you've come from, where you hope to go, how you feel about leaving.

And also:

First person who posts: say what the most common kind of animal is who lives here. And also pick one aesthetic element for "Farm"

Second: the second most common kind of animal and the relationship to the majority, and one aesthetic element for "Hillock"

Third person: a very uncommon animal type and why they live here rather than somewhere else, and one aesthetic element for "Port"

Fourth: pick one Lore each from Farm, Hillock, and Port.

Fifth: pick one final aesthetic element each from Farm, Hillock, and Port

Sixth: tell us what the Small and Forgotten Gods look like here.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[Archemist]

Wanderhome - Face on the Water
Chapter 1 - Leap

In Mejis they say that time is a face on the water. Nestled against the Redbarrow Sea, Mejis is an old, old place, with roots deep in the earth and deep in the past.

Time is a face on the water.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Okay, welcome to our first post! My thinking is that you've all wound up in Mejis because it's a bit of a travel hub, and from here you'll all travel together along the Everwind River toward some distance goal, maybe another port town, and from there to 'home.'

We don't need to spend any time in Mejis if we want to get rolling right away, but Mejis is: a Farm, a Hillock, and a Port.

Everyone's first post should say some combination of: where you're staying, where you've come from, where you hope to go, how you feel about leaving.

And also:

First person who posts: say what the most common kind of animal is who lives here. And also pick one aesthetic element for "Farm"

Cookie has been staying on a farm just outside the town, on a terraced area near the coast. His bumbles have been at home there for the last week or so, but now it's time to head along. Cookie thanks Farmer Joe - he was a good host to the refugees, and provided plenty of tasty stew. Farmer Joe, like the rest of the many raccoons in Mejis, was always very tidy and washed his hands religiously. Cookie adapted okay to the odd hours they kept, being somewhat used to the Shepherd schedule of napping during the day while the flock bumbled around, and staying up a bit later at night socializing.

The whole place smelled of the cherry trees in the orchard, which certainly would bloom soon, and the bumbles would be disappointed not to be there for the spring.

Cookie takes his walking stick and leads the bumbles towards town, headed east along the gravel road. The chill morning air has the flock moving clumsily and slowly, and Cookie pulls his woolen cloak close to stay warm.

[Kinro]

Anthony took a hold of his cane and rose from his examination of the stone. Again, here as with everywhere, remnants of the ancients, his ancestors, in a way, who had thrived and spread across the land long ago, long before the war had even started, but who were spoken of, now, only in his small village, leaving behind nothing but scattered ruins, in places like this one. This was why he had come so far, leaving the comforts of his home to explore these remnants and write... he wasn't sure. He never knew quite for certain what his writings would end up like once he was done with them. The story about the tree, for example, one of the ones he was, apparently, most famous for had been, at the start, about more than just one tree. The title, in fact, was somewhat bitter. IT was the forest, he had wanted to talk about, surely, not some random tree. And yet... And yet, that was not how the words had wanted to be. And what would these words want, he wondered as he once again stored his notes into his briefcase and started making his way back to the town. It was time to leave, he felt. To continue on. He wondered which of the one that had come to town with him would feel the same and which one would decide to stay longer.

As he returned, Anthony saw, of course, the foxes. Always, the foxes with the raccoons, linked together in some strange way, like few other kinds of animals seemed to be. Not that they weren't friendly to others, oh, no, but there seemed to be something more there. He would like to write something about that someday, perhaps. There was so much he still wanted to write.

[NontheistCleric]

Syme breathes out into the frigid morning air, watching the silhouette of the port engineer going about his business in the distance. They've never spoken - things that crawl like himself are not drawn to those who stand so tall. Still, Syme suspects that the pre-dawn sight of that head bobbing back and forth above the rooftops is one of the few things that will remain in his memory. The giraffe is a curious lone specimen, irreplaceable as the only one able to maintain the harbor cranes without assistance.

Then the first sliver of light lances down from over the Serpentridge. Soon darkness will be gone, and the shadows will return; all except one. Syme takes another breath, his last open one of the day, and reluctantly draws the mask from beneath his cloak.

It's a wicked-looking thing. Black, twisted and faceless, the mark of evil - but evil that makes people shy away in fear and incomprehension, that sets its bearer apart instead of beneath. Much unlike the one who wears it, who is for whatever virtues he has only a craven skulking thing, inspiring only contempt and disgusted pity.

Clamping it into place over his head, the centipede slips back indoors. The innkeeper is bustling about somewhere in the rear, making early-morning preparations, and doesn't see him as he scuttles silently upstairs. Snatchy is still asleep in the room, tangled haphazardly among the sheets. Syme would probably be staying in some rookery if not for the little fennec, but nice though it has been to have a warm place for a few days, the time to move on has come. Stolen purses grow light and old crimes never fail to creep up if one forgets to keep running.

[igordragonian]

"La la la....".the sand colored tiny fox happily ruined perfectly good tune, as she walked on the edge of a small fishing dingy,stationed at the port.
The chill wind pushed her sundress to swirl and dance, and the fennec kept on, not fearing the cold water.
"See, Ms.Eve?" She told to the flower she held in her tiny paw. A colorful sunflower, used to host the lastt paradise mantis. A very colorful mantis, with pattern of petas of all colors which change tone, due to tempartature.
She has heard an angry grown from under the sheets that were thrown around pn the dingy.


An eldery grumpy armidallo, who ran away from home and it's memories started to get up from his drunken stupor.

Snatchy's huge black bug eyes have widened up with a gasp, escaping between the gap in her teeth, almost losing balance.
"Oh. We better go." She say, jumpings off to the deck.

[truemane]

Outsiders in Mejis are not uncommon, but somehow they locals always seem to surprised to see them. Maybe it's because most outsiders are just passing through. Maybe because they mostly cluster around the boats and bustle and lanterns and alehouses near the docks. Or maybe because the hold belonging so close to their hearts that seeing anyone who doesn't belong is a shock.

Cookie and Anthony both draw stares as they walk into town. Cookie for his size and his Bumbles, Anthony for his spines and his open, curious face. They are polite stares, not hostile stares, but they are lines in the sand all the same. Soon enough, however, both the road and the stares are swallowed up the by the city as they approach the docks.

Syme does not find Snatchy still abed, but rather can hear the little fox (so alike the foxes here, and yet so different), playing around near the docks just outside the inn. As he passes, he sees the innkeeper flinch at his mask, and then try to pretend she didn't.

Outside, Syme and Cookie and Anthony gather at the docks near Snatchy, who has just woken up Beedle, the elderly armadillo. He snarls at the young fennec.

"What's that, then?" he rasps, "Can't ye let an old shell sleep? Bad enough the forest-foxes never leave me be. Now the sand-foxes have to be at me too?"

Just behind them all, Simbele the giraffe turns the corner with his eeriily silent, eerily swift, stride. And he pauses. Blinks twice.

Spoiler: Current Place and Kith (this is all in the OP too)

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PLACE
Mejis (Farm, Hillock, Port)

• Majority Animal: Raccoons (tidy, clean)
• Minority Animal: Foxes (linked with raccoons, but why is a mystery)
• Rare Animal: Giraffe (singular, port engineer)

Aesthetic Elements

• Large fragrant orchards of cherry trees (Farm)
• Rusty overgrown weapons of war (Farm)
• Strange piles of stones (Hillock)
• A foreigner from higher up (Hillock, "Beedle" - see Kith)
• A complex system of harbour cranes (Port)
• Jetties and docks (Port)

Folklore

• The rain of a hundred days (Farm)
• The lost treasure vaults of the Fox Princes (Hillock)
• The eastern mist and the trouble it brings (Port)

KITH
Beedle (Armadillo, he/him)

• Relationship to another PC: fascinates Snatchy
• Singular Detail: lives on a boat in the harbour
• Trait 1: Crafty (invent something totally new)
• Trait 2: Feral (Ask "What's stopping you?"; Show all his teeth and bite. If someone doesn’t want to get bit, they’re going to need to spend a token)

Simbele ('SEEM-bay-lay', Giraffe, he/him)

• Relationship to another PC: Saw Syme once without his mask
• Singular Detail: lives on a farm and walk miles to work every day
• Trait 1: Inquisitive (hold something up to the light, Ask "What's this?")
• Trait 2: Resolute (Keep at something others would give up at)

[NontheistCleric]

Syme scuttles over to stand protectively beside Snatchy.

"She's just playing, Beedle," he says, trying to keep his voice light but acutely aware of the armadillo's reputation for biting. "Young, you know. No one's 'at you'."

[igordragonian]

'Daddy!' Snatchy chrip happily, wagging her tail.
'Me and Ms. Eve made a new friend! Mister... Mister...'
she pondered
'Oh, you know each other?!' the little fennec gasped.

[Kinro]

"Either way, I don't think that our young friend will be at you much longer," Anthony said as he stepped forward as well, unafraid. Bite, though the old armadillo might like to do, few animals cared much for getting a mouthful of spines. He pointed with his cane. "We'll be getting on our way, I believe. Or, at least, I will. The old ruins spoke, I believe, of another place, another city, this way. I think you're going in the same direction?"

[Archemist]

Cookie takes a count of his bumbles, lest they get confused among all this crowd. Sure, it's only five people, but that's more than they've seen in a month.

"I'm a-headed that way, too, truly," he says. With warmth, he adds simply, "I could use company, as the road is long."

He smiles at Snatchy's antics, and nods at the porcupine, whom he recognizes from a book jacket somewhere. But Cookie crinkles his face in confusion at the masked centipede. "Have I seen you before? Name's Cookie."

[NontheistCleric]

"Well," says Syme to Snatchy, "I don't know about 'know'. But we've met, haven't we, Master Beedle?"

At Cookie's enquiry, he extends one of his many limbs from under his cloak to shake the shepherd's paw, subtly positioning himself so that no one will see how it casts no shadow. "You probably haven't. I'm Syme, and this is Snatchy," he says, nodding to the little fennec. "As it so happens, we're moving on soon as well—don't have the money to stay here forever."

[truemane]

The old armadillo mutters and scuttles about a little, tidying up his boat.

"Aye, we've met Master Syme," he says, "Yer hard enough to miss, with that mask. I've known a few centipede folk in my day and they speak ominous things about those who wear masks. Ominous things. Not been a 'pede round here for years and years. But Beedle's been round the bend a time or two."

He listens as everyone starts talking about journeying together.

"Ya, ya. All of you, off with the lot of you. Too many strangers in Mejis these last seasons. Too many by far says I. And so ye might as well head down to Lowercroft and see how the Veil Sisters like the likes of you. Go together then! Ye'll need each other 'fore you're through."

His voice cracks a tiny bit on the word 'together' but he recovers and starts making his slow and careful way off his weaving and bobbing boat and onto the dock so he can scuttle off in search of food.

All around them, the docks are starting to come to life. Dock workers are starting to arrive. There's movement and sound from the boats along the jetty.

Just behind them, the face of Simbele looms over a nearby warehouse, his soft and gentle eyes watching silently.

[igordragonian]

'Bye Bye, Mr. Grumpy!' Snatchy waved good bye.
'COOKIE?!' she gasp wide eyed, with open maw, ready to taste him!

[Kinro]

Anthony rapped lightly on the young fox's head as he passed him. "It's his name, not food," he said, heading off in the direction he had pointed towards. "Lowercroft, then. Am I to understand that you three will be accompanying me there?" he asked without pausing. Though his walk wasn't so fast that he wouldn't easily be caught up to.

[NontheistCleric]

Syme smiles under his mask at Snatchy's antics, but he gives a mind to Beedle. "Might not see you again, then," he calls after the departing armadillo. "Be well, Master Beedle."

"Oh yes," is his response to Anthony. "Best go in force if we're to get anything good from those old crones." He thinks back to the first encounter he and Snatchy had with the Sisters, and the stories he's heard about them since then.

Mejis has always been a port, in the strictest sense. Sitting at the mouth of a river as it does, that much is inevitable. But it wasn't so long ago, in the grand scheme of things, that the extensive jetties, cargo cranes and web of alehouses along the docks didn't exist at all.

It was the Sisters who first realized the potential that commerce held for their community. When their father died and left the riverside farm of Lowercroft to his two daughters, they decided they would go into business. Young and with no wish to be attached to anyone but each other, they kept up the pretense of mourning for years, fending off potential suitors with the black robes and veils that became more part of their name than anything the old rooster had given them. That, of course, was before the war, before swords and musket-fire and the blood that stained hills red scoured away any notion that the old traditions really mattered.

Now the sisters are old themselves, and they dress in whatever fine colors they please. Trade-matriarchs of Mejis, from a humble, two-person start their company has grown to have a hand in nearly all the enterprises that followed its lead. Lowercroft is a farm no longer but a bustling marketplace, having crept over most of the surrounding arable land, and at its center is the deceptively benign stone building from which the Sisters control virtually every aspect of the town. With a monopoly on local boat ownership and the ability to assert significant pressure on those from further afield, anyone seeking passage by water from Mejis is at their mercy.

When Syme and Snatchy first came to Mejis, the masked centipede caught the attention—and distaste—of the younger sister Argis. She threatened to effectively shut the 'revolting creature', as she put it, out of the town by forcing every inn to offer them only the most outrageous prices. Luckily, the elder Maris took mercy on the pair for Snatchy's sake. Ever the velvet glove to her sister's iron fist, she persuaded Argis to let the matter go.

Syme doesn't hold any real grudge against Argis; some people are just like that. All the same, he hopes it won't be the younger Veil Sister they have to deal with today.

Spoiler: OOC

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Taking hold of Lowercroft and the Veil Sisters for the duration of this description, then letting it go again. I didn't mention it, but I think Argis is a monkey and Maris a pig.

Am I doing it right?

[igordragonian]

''I know, I know I was just messing around. Heh.' Snatchy smiled her toothy smile.

When the tiny fox got tired of bounce around and make her sundress spin, she took a ride on Syme.
'Are we paying the witches a visit?' she gasped with excitment.
When the arrive, she waving them
'Hello! have you brewed a new potion?' she has asked, and as many kids do, didn't bothered to give any context to her very urgent question

[Archemist]

"Ay, Lowercroft would be a fine destination to start. Good as any, at least, I s'pose."

Cookie adds, "I'm sorry to disappoint by not being my namesake. You can call me 'Grumpy' if you think it fits better, some people do. And then you don't make us all hungry."

[igordragonian]

"Ay, Lowercroft would be a fine destination to start. Good as any, at least, I s'pose."

Cookie adds, "I'm sorry to disappoint by not being my namesake. You can call me 'Grumpy' if you think it fits better, some people do. And then you don't make us all hungry."

'I think it's adorable.' she shake her head, and raise her flower with the colorful mantis.
'So are you a bug collector?'

[Archemist]

'I think it's adorable.' she shake her head, and raise her flower with the colorful mantis.
'So are you a bug collector?'

Cookie says, "Well, they follow me around and none of us mind overly much." A small one comes and bonks him in the shin. "Still haven't figured out what this one is good for, though," Cookie jokes.

[NontheistCleric]

"Just remember not to call them witches to their face," Syme murmurs. "I'm not sure even Mistress Maris would take that, as endearing as you are."

[truemane]

Under the thin not-quite-light of early dawn, and under the sad, heavy gaze of Simbele, the newly formed group sets their backs to the quiet bustle of Mejis and sets off on the Serpentwind Road.

The road was broad and flat, with simple but sturdy wooden fences along most of it, and with grass and trees growing all along the edges. The road was well-traveled and well-kept, but at this time of the day it was empty in a way it wasn't at any other time. And the silence was deep and wide and full.

The road went down a steep hill and turned with the river, and the town of Mejis passed away into the morning mists. The sun crept up over the horizon and a touch of warmth kissed the chill near-winter air.

As the town faded, the lands widened out into farmsteads. Large square fields still lightly covered with snow spread out under the sky, with stone farmhouses set far back from the road. Lights were winking on in the houses, smoke started coming from chimneys, the sounds and feel of a world waking up.

It was Tillsoil, after all, and there was much to do.

The ground leveled out. The river turned one more sharp turn, spilled noisily over several shelves of old rocks, and then there was a great long lake that stretched out so far the far end could barely be seen.

And clustered around it was Lowercroft.

Not a town in its own right, still a part of Mejis, but Lowercroft was an impressive place all the same. Neatly organized rows of tents and stalls and small, square houses and buildings, laid out in a lattice around a simple stone hut at the center.

Even at this hour, Lowercroft was a busy place. The lakeside was covered in simple wooden docks and there were boats arriving and leaving constantly, Mostly large, flat, squat river barges pushed along by poles. But there were a few steamships as well.

Syme knew from experience that any inquiries at any of these boats about passage would receive the same quiet, firm reply. "What did the Sisters say?"

The lights were on in the stone hut and the chimney was smoking. Sounds of meal preparation could be heard coming through the windows as they approach.

A knock at the door.

The door opened and a stern-faced, somberly dressed simian face answers. It was Argis, the younger.

'Hello! have you brewed a new potion?' Snatchy asks, all exuberant.

The monkey frowns. "Only one that kills impudent children." And she showed her teeth.

"Maris," Argis calls, "Your... friend is here. From before. That horrid millipede you're so fond of." She turns back to the ragtag group on her doorstep.

"What do you want? Protection from the law? I won't allow it. Whatever mischief you've been up to, you['re bound to it."

Spoiler

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Lowercroft is a Market, a Workshop, and a Swamp. Let your post include one of the following:
A. 1 aesthetic element from each nature
B. 1 more aesthetic element from each nature
C. 1 Lore from each Nature
D. What the Small and Forgotten Gods look like

First poster gets first choice, just please state in your post which you've chosen.

Lowercroft and the Veil Sisters have been added to the OOC OP

[Kinro]

Lowercroft was, unfortunately, not as pleasant as were they had come from. This was, in large part, thanks to the heavy factory that churned out a deep pungent scent that settled on everything. Even the distant smell of the spices that were carried from upriver did nothing to alleviate the scent. Rather, they combined with the smell in a way that made it, somehow, worse. Anthony longed for them to be on their way.

"Are we also so bound?" Anthony asked what, he was told, was a witch, but seemed to him to be nothing more than a stern woman. "We seek passage across to lake, but everywhere we go, we are told to ask the Sisters first. Well, here we are and asking. Are we to be allowed to move on? Or will you force us to try our luck up or downriver?

Spoiler: OOC

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Option A
Distant smells (marketplace)
Chugging factory (Workshop)
Pungent stench (Factory)

[Archemist]

Cookie herded the bumbles down into the narrow streets of Lowercroft with some trepidation. He'd avoided this place as a refugee, when he'd just had his hat in his hand, having found it unfriendly enough that he'd just kept moving along up the river. This time, the bumbles grouped closely too, not wanting to wander off or get separated.

Even the small gods of this place were not very appealing. On the eaves of the hut and perched on the rooflines of some of the tent stalls they sat like tiny birds, but looked more like fat little upright bats. They had leathery skin and sparse fur. Most of the inhabitants of Lowercroft seemed to ignore them, and Cookie wondered if perhaps they couldn't see them. But the tiny spirits' beady little eyes gazed suspiciously at the group as they came into town.

Cookie thinks maybe the Sisters aren't so much "witches" as just friends with the small gods of this place. Although maybe that's the same thing?

He's glad when the irritated monkey calls the more genial-looking pig to the door. Cookie nods along with Anthony, and adds, "We don't want no trouble, no Ma'am."

[igordragonian]

Snatchy hop along, and if she chance, to snatch one of the curiouse antiques that are sold at the market.
The market flooding with them- both from soldiers coming back with loot, and many eldery not surviving the war.

The grown ups need to call her at least six times, before she leave alone the fox boy, wearing a dirty berret who is on his way to work at the factory.

When the arrive she wave.
'Helloooooooooooooo Grandma!' she say overly sweetly. And as Eve the Heaven Mantis fly forward, she run after him, not thinking much if she might crush into the eldery pig

[truemane]

"Not for me to say who's bound and who's not. You're all your own person. As are all." Maris gives the little group another derisive look before ceding the doorway to Maris, who walks up just in time for Snatchy to chase Eve right past her into the cottage.

Maris peers down and smiles. "Master Syme, it is good to see you again. I had a dream about you last night. You had lost your mask in a forest and needed to find before one the foxes found you. It was most disconcerting. Who are your friends?"

Meanwhile, Snatchy finds herself in a warm, neat kitchen. Eve lights on a small wooden box festooned with orchids and which has a spike of slightly glowing crystal inside. A tiny, tiny pinpoint of light moves lazily around the crystal.

Lowercroft is surrounded by swampland, and in the swamps are the wisps. They say that these are the sprits of the long dead, come to guide the living.

Spoiler

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I went ahead with option D, and did the Small and Forgotten Gods

[Kinro]

"It's not for you to say?" Anthony asked as he followed his group inside. "It sounds to me like you three have a lot to say about who is bound to what around these parts. On whether we're bound here or bound for our destination." He paused and thought for a while, repeating the words to himself. From a pocket, he took out a some loose leaf to scribble on before returning them. The loose leaf was returned and he frowned in thought. "I was saying... oh, yes. We need to cross the lake or take a long detour to avoid the rapids, above and below. But everywhere we turned, your name is all we seem to hear about."

[igordragonian]

'Hey! Eve! Come back!' Snatchy yelled.
'OooOoOOh. What did you find, Ms. Eve?' the fennec has wagged her tail, taking the box, starting to shake it.
'What is inside it, I wonder?'

[NontheistCleric]

"Well," Syme remarks dryly, "I think anyone who saw me without my mask would be disconcerted. These gentlemen here are Cookie and Anthony—we seem to have gotten the idea to leave town at the same time."

As Anthony elaborates on their situation, a glint above the sisters' mantlepiece catches Syme's eye. For a moment, his attention lingers on the curious twist of gold, but it means nothing to him. He refocuses on the conversation at hand.

>-----<

Once the shining goddesses of the swamp were worth that name. Those found wanting they would seize with madness and send stumbling down past where the land fights free of mud, to be filled to the lungs with weeping earth and pile forgotten on the rock far below. All in the lands beneath the Serpent-ridge lived at their sufferance, and paid them the respect that was their due.

Yet nothing lasts forever. One night the goddesses rose from the bog only to find that Mejis was no longer the collection of huts they had ruled a thousand years ago, that the candles and lanterns and fireplaces had freed the townsfolk from their thrall and wiped their power from memory.

They were not exactly gone, but when the gods are forgotten and made small, it takes a certain kind of sympathy to truly bring them back.

>-----<

In the early days of the Sisters' dominion, their hold over the town was less firm than it would become, and consequently much more violent. More often than not, their rivals would find themselves crippled, their houses burned to the ground and their children sold to the pirate-ships. Argis herself would creep into their homes to wring the necks of any too clever to let live.

Her last victim was a potter. Too sharp of mind to succumb to their manipulations, he had begun to lead his own faction of craftsmen against the Sisters, and so he had to go. By sheer bad luck, his house was near the swamp, and when Argis was finished with him she pitched his broken form into the quagmire like so much refuse.

It was enough to stir the sleeping ones. They awoke to the presence of an usurper - a new mad queen sending the condemned to rest in a very old bed, just as they had centuries before. As the potter slowly sank, they flocked to him, but not to revel in the last sublime moments of mortal suffering as they had for so many others. Instead they saved him, transmuting his failing flesh into gold and charging his mind with fresh awareness. Even in this new age the goddesses could not exceed their remit. Though they might once again lure the innocent to their doom, they were barred from going forth to wreak vengeance, so their king anointed in gilt would take it for them—in his hands the power of the white fire could ruin and raze until the ones who forgot had paid for their lapses.

Unfortunately, the goddesses did not realize that in their absence, the mortals had grown beyond beasts to be dominated. Force could lay them low, but no longer could it break their spirits. For that a subtler touch was needed, and as their warrior stormed the town and tumbled down their walls, he was not a conqueror, only a terrible enemy. The potter would have told them that if he could return and expose the Sisters' crimes, that would be a greater weapon than any they could make him into, but the potter was gone. His throat made of metal was mute, and whatever remained of his soul had room only for the goddesses revenge. Worst of all, he was made of gold, which was soft and unable to stand against the steel and iron the townsfolk assailed him with.

When the sun rose the morning after, it was on a scene of rubble and charred corpses. But although the people of Mejis had paid, it was not the goddesses who received the tribute. Their champion was gone, nothing more than the chunks of his body that still smoked gently in what had been the town square.

A black-gloved hand closed around the largest fragment. Argis held it up, and as the morning light cut across the sea, she saw reflected in the gleaming fragment the devastation about her.

She knew nothing of the role she had played in its making, only that it was opportunity. The destruction had not touched their vaults of coin and contracts, and so she and Maris could rebuild what everyone else had lost.

Soon there would be no need to kill and wound to grasp for more, for they would own it all.

Spoiler

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1 lore from each Nature:
The treacherous lights deep in the dark (Swamp)
The potter and the goddess (Workshop)
The golden king and how he lost his heart (Market)

[truemane]

Argis's hand flicks out viper-quick and flicks Snatchy on her ear.

"Don't touch that," she hisses, "Keep your dirty little hands away from that. That is sacred and powerful and special beyond anything you could understand."

She snatches (heh) the box from Snatchy and carefully places it back where it was. She bows before it, "Forgive me," she says.

To Anthony, "We can help with passage, of course we can." She narrows her eyes and thinks. "But we need some help in the market. Old Bez had his son run off all sudden, and needs help in his stall. Go find him. Help him out today. And we can talk about passage tomorrow."

[igordragonian]

Snatchy is good sport- when she is caught she doesnt take it personally.
"Oooo.' She cling to Argi and bow alongside her.
'Is there a child eating demon inside?' The tiny Fennec has asked with glim in her black biddy eyes.