1648: Stranded in a Foreign World IC

[Toliudar]

Prudence

Prudence points at the second man who had spoken to them.

"I'm not sure they are Ulubathi's men. These two are dressed similarly. They may be equals. I'm trying to get them to stop and speak with us."

[Metastachydium]

Qamar is shaken out of her lethargy not so much by the strange woman's question (which she barely notices) as by Samuel's comments. She twists her head to check on the soldiers behind her. Her fears confirmed, her eyes widen. No, no, no! You… You can't go in there! she squeals, clearly panicked and she begins to struggle, trying to wiggle free of the hands holding her.

Spoiler: Check.

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Escape Artist: (1d20+1)[18]

[JbeJ275]

All

(Assuming Prudence Translates)

The man spits back. We are soldiers of Sultan Ibrahim, the Commander of the faithful, and we want the chance to live in peace. Somthing hard to do with devils or those who break bread with them, for how else would you explain this girl. If you wish the chance to live in peace in our lands, no matter how you came to arrive there you will come with us peacefully. Bringing you, the only one to speak a civilised tounge and whoever leads you and this creature as well. I will let the high commanders sort this out there.

At this Ulubathi speaks up, While they must come Ahmed, we have enemies enough here without you forcing us to spend men on a garrison here. At this he looks at you nervously, and all others than prudence note a chance in the words he speaks, but prudence only notes it slowing down slightly. You are a great fool if you think all these people less than human for one hidden among their number, make peace with them then send the judges and iman to teach them. That must be the path forward for this island.

Any further discussion between the two is cut off by the return of the two, who went inside. Now they return with another of their number, looking sadly at Qamaar in chains, but with some strange delay in reactions moving across his features. The man almost seems drunk, or perhaps something else.

Spoiler: Knowledge (Arcana) or Spellcraft DC 15

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It fits well with what you've read of men fighting encchantments valiantly but not overcoming them.

Spoiler: Spot: DC 16

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Following behind them by some way, and moving ever so quietly. You see the baron at the end of the corridor they emerged from, his eyes widening with alarm then snapping to focus on Samuel.

As the two men are talking, Qamar slips from the grip of the men holding her, prompting a brief cry of alarm and one swinging the hilt of his sword up at the back of the elf's head.

If (1d20-1)[17] is (1d6+1)[7] nonlethal damage.

And yells at her again in what Prudence understands to be a mixture of demmands to stay still, accusation of demonic nature and mundane slurs.

[Toliudar]

Prudence

Prudence winces as the blow swings down on Qamar's head. She strives to make eye contact with the strange, green-skinned woman. There are a dozen reasons why a woman might have green skin. Right now, Prudence was at a loss as to how to explain any of them to these strange men. She also had no idea what would happen in half an hour when her magic drained away.

Best to cross that bridge once they'd survived the crossroads. Prudence did her best to translate the gist of the exchange to her colleagues, and then spoke directly to Qamar.

"I beg you, don't struggle. You'll kill us all."

Turning then to speak with the more recalcitrant of the leaders, Prudence drops her tone, speaking quickly and urgently.

"Sir, I am so happy to hear that you are men of peace. We look forward to meeting your commanders, to learning more about your empire. We are agreeing to speak with whomever you designate. We are not fleeing, we are not resisting.

"Where we are from there are people of many colours, all souls capable of great love and compassion. Stop, meet this woman. You will see she is no devil."

No. A devil would have disguised her skin colour.

"We have an ooportunity, here, today, to open a door between our two peoples, sir. But we cannot open a door closed with chains. In the meantime, though, as a sign of good faith, I beg you to not take this woman out of simple superstition."

Spoiler: OOC

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Spellcraft: (1d20+5)[14]
Spot: (1d20+2)[13]

Ongoing diplomacy: [roll]1d20+17z[/roll]

[Metastachydium]

The blow makes Qamar lose her balance before she could try and turn around. She falls down on her knees and starts shaking and sobbing again, but this time she nevertheless acknowledges Prudence's request with a small, uneasy nod.

[Thundercracker]

Samuel Arvandor

"Devils? They think she's a devil? Tell them devils look like whatever they want to, and if there were any devils here, we'd all be dead or enslaved. They certainly wouldn't suffer being struck by a mortal," Samuel said, all but scoffing, then he pointed to the mark appearing on Qamar's skin, "they also wouldn't be injured from something like a sword pommel."

"Tell them we will retire to the garden and discuss this like civilized people, not like barbarians who barge into homes uninvited and attack defenseless girls," Samuel said.

While Prudence is translating, Samuel speaks to the others.

"I don't think they have any knowledge of magic, at all, so keep it to yourself for now, unless we need to fight for our lives," he said.

[Toliudar]

Prudence

Prudence keeps her voice low and level as she responds to Samuel.

"Do you really think it's to our advantage to show any knowledge about what devils can and can't do? If you want to ease tensions here, maybe you could find your father and arrange for some hospitality for our guests?"

[Thundercracker]

Prudence

Prudence keeps her voice low and level as she responds to Samuel.

"Do you really think it's to our advantage to show any knowledge about what devils can and can't do? If you want to ease tensions here, maybe you could find your father and arrange for some hospitality for our guests?"

Samuel Arvandor

“Yes, that’s why I suggested it,” Samuel replied, “but fine, we’ll tell them later. I have no idea where Father is, but it’s probably better he’s not here in a room with a squad of hostile invaders. Tell them I’ll arrange refreshments for them, but only if we all move to the garden to continue the discussion. Then it’s more like a trade, and we can get them out of my house.”

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Darius

Darius twitches when Qamar gets bashed, almost drawing his arrow. He decides enough is enough, and now that Prudence is translating he decides to enter into the discussion. He slings his bow and holds up two empty hands as he leaves his covered position and walks confidently toward Qamar, shouting:

"I am a healer! I must examine this young girl you have just injured!"

[Toliudar]

Prudence

Prudence turns to Darius.

"I'll try, but do what you can without magic, yeah? And maybe without the yelling?"

She turns back to the newcomers.

"Ahmed and Ulubathi, the lord's son here invites you to refresments in the garden. Also, the small man is a healer, and would like to examine the woman you have injured. Is that all right?"

[JbeJ275]

If this man is a healer he may examine the woman, but must leave his blades behind before he will approach my men. Ahmed's speech is met by a scowl from Ulubathi but no contradiction.

Ulubathi speaks in turn.

And we will be willing to speak with you in this garden as well. But you must let us ensure this house is empty first, whether you wish to clear it yourself or allow our men to do so, we understand this is your home, but will not speak while those we have not yet a way to trust could lurk so close by.

[Thundercracker]

Samuel Arvandor

“I’ll see if anyone else is here, though I doubt it,” Sam said, “you three stick together, pull one of the tables into the garden, over there. I’ll be right out.”

Sam makes a quick run through the house to check for his father and Qamar’s parents. If he doesn’t find them, he’ll head to the kitchen to see what they have in the way of drinks.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Darius

Darius stops walking towards Qamar once her hears the instructions to disarm. Things seem to be calming down. He attempts to assist with setting up tables outside, one for parley, and another one about 20 feet away - he tells Prudence he would like Qamar placed upon so he can examine her. He also makes a show of handing his dagger and sickle to Prudence for safekeeping.

[Metastachydium]

Qamar looks up as she hears the short fellow shout, with her mouth half-open and her cheeks smeared with tears, only to lower her head again when the man backs off. She doesn't understand what's happening anymore and her head is still aching where the hilt of that sword came down on her skull. She only realizes what the short man was yelling about when she hears him explain to the strange woman how he'd like to examine her wound. He's a healer.
She rises from the ground, perhaps a bit too quickly for her own benefit and almost takes a step forward, towards the healer before she thinks better of it. I'm fine. I'm… Very fine. My head, it can wait. There's people… My parents. They are inside and they need your help more. Please! she jabbers in an alarmed tone.

[Toliudar]

Prudence

Prudence nods her acceptance of the terms presented by the men, and translates for the three townspeople. She accepts Darius' sickle and knife. When Qamar begins speaking about her parents, Prudence turns again to Ulubathi and Ahmed.

"Qamar informs us that her parents are in this house, and need medical assistance. Perhaps we can bring them out to the garden so that Darius can examine them?"

She waits for a decision by Ahmed and Ulubathi, and then either takes them into the garden or follows Qamar to her parents, so that she can help carry them out.

[JbeJ275]

Prudence, Daruis and Samuel

The foreign soldiers allow you into the house with only a few mistrustful looks.

Upon entering the house and leaving the first corridor you run almost facce to face with the baron.

Samuel, there you are and Qamar. I had heard the noise from down here and I was worried those brutes had done worse. Your parents are still stable but still need a skilled healer. Samuel, what by all above is happening out there? First my guests collapsed from nothing and now some bandits are attcking the town unchalleneged? Who are these people?

Daruis

The men help you drag the tables into position, then two keep an eye on you while the rest are talked to by their commanders. Discussing something in their langague.

[Thundercracker]

Samuel Arvandor

“Father, the situation is serious,” Sam said quietly.

He glanced over his shoulder to make sure they couldn’t be seen.

“It looks like the entire town had been teleported to a strange land,” Samuel said, “Qamar and I were right at the border when it happened, everything out of range was completely cut off. A corner of Fannor Skir’s house was perfectly sheared.”

“Where are Qamar’s parents? My belt, it has magical healing,” he said, “also, I think these people have no knowledge of magic, at all. When we teleported, I wasn’t able to sense any magic at all outside our town, and then it flooded out when the teleportation ended. They think Qamar is some kind of devil.”

“Prudence here has been extremely helpful, using her magic to translate, otherwise we most likely would have ended in violence already,” Sam said.

[Metastachydium]

Sticking close to the Samuel's back, hurries back into the house, somewhat surprised that the soldiers let her go for now. She gives a faint, weak smile to the baron as she notices him. When Samuel mentions his belt, she winces. She should have tried using hers.

♣

Once the young lord is done with his report, she speaks up as well. I have one of those too. The belt, I mean, and there's a healer outside… BUt all those soldiers are outside too and they dragged me out there and hit me in the head and I'm afraid… I'm afraid they might hurt Mother and Father if… her breathing grows heavier again as she looks up, fresh tears glistening in her eyes. I'm… We aren't fiends. Why are these people doing this, My Lord?

[JbeJ275]

Her parents are upstairs, son. In the upper hall, something unusual has happened to them, I don't know if magical healing on it's own will wake them but it should keep them stable at least. And as for the rest, this is near impossible, if any other were saying it I would have thought them crazy first. But if what ou say is correct we must be careful to protect our own. If they learn what we can do few would be ble to resist taking it for their own.

As for you Prudence, you have my thanks good lady. I know you are not of this village but such small differences don't seem to matter in a time like this.

Ah, if someone trained in healing is near you should send them in, they will know better how to help your parents than I. As for the soldiers, it seems such men are brutes pretending at civilisation when left without any knowledge of magic. Without that grace it must be a brutal world indeed. And I know that you and your parents are good souls. Perhaps these people act cimply out of greed, or envy, trying to take things they don't have or lashing out if they can't. Had I the chance, I'd go into the village and raise what militia I could, but they've been lucky to strike at the peak of this chaos, and a few of us attacking soldiers or bandits would cost too many lives.

[Metastachydium]

A clear expression of gratitude is written all over Qamar's face while she listens to the baron, even as she wipes the haze of tears away from her eyes with clumsy motions and begins fidgeting with her hands, seemingly pondering something. I can go back there. she says at last. They are mostly worried about me anyway. she grows ever paler as she speaks but her voice is surprisingly firm and resolute. And then the healer can come inside and they won't complain because they'll have me. she clenches her fists nervously before turning to Prudence. Could you… Could you come with me, L-lady Prudence? I can't… I can't even really talk to them.

Spoiler: OOC

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The baron called Prudence a "good lady", so Qamar now thinks she's a noble too.

[Thundercracker]

Samuel Arvandor

"I think I might be able to at least scatter them, if I could strike from behind windows where I wouldn't be seen, but I think they're part of a larger organization," Samuel said, "I think we should try to avoid violence if we can, at first anyway, until we know what we're dealing with."

"Come on Darius, let's tend to Qamar's parents, and then bring some wine and fruits out to the soldiers," Samuel said.
Sam led the way upstairs and would use a charge from his healing belt on one of Qamar's parents first.

Spoiler

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(2d8)[12]

[Toliudar]

Prudence

The lanky half-elf woman nods her acknowledgement of the Baron's acknowledgement. She laughs and throws a supportive arm around Qamar's shoulders at the elf's words, drawing her out in the sunshine to set up for an international negotiation in the garden.

"Just Prudence, please. Pru once we've had a beer. And I don't speak their tongue naturally. But we'll cross that bridge when it collapses under us."

Outside, she focuses on hostessing duties, fussing to find seats and shade for the soldiers clustering there, and prepping tables for the hospitality that, she hoped, the Baron and Samuel were arranging. She almost pulled some travel food out of her bag, and then realized that pulling a big thing out of a small bag was the LAST thing she should be doing right now.

Instead, she maintained a steady stream of inconsequential conversation, asking Ahmed and Ulubathi whether they had been born in this land, what the weather was like where they were born in contrast, and telling a small story about her childhood in the forest. As she had done a thousand times, using the steady flow of small talk to put others at ease.

Spoiler: OOC

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Diplomacy: (1d20+17)[22]

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Darius

Darius nods and follows Samuel. His bow is still slung across his back, and he still has his arrows. He is anxious to see what kind of malady is in this house.

[JbeJ275]

Outside

The hosting is awkward, but not escalating to conflict. You hear some things about where these people are from, the names Aleppo and Serbia are both discussed though they seem far more interested in listening to prudence's stories of her own homeland than talking about their own. The greatest concern is their growing impatience for real answers concerning the nature of this town, and a chance to talk with it's leaders, followed closely by the fact that you Tongues spell has elapsed about two thirds of its duration and there seems to be little mundane explanation for such a thing ending.

Inside

The healing belt closes the welts on the skin of the two elves, but they still seem injured in some way by whatever they experienced, it's only after Daruis uses the arts his grandfather taught him to nurse them back to wakefulness that their eyes flutter open one more.

After a few halting moments Qamar's mother speaks.

Uhhh... Baron Arvandor?! Qamar?! When did you get here, what happened? Why are we upstairs? What was that?

As she awakens and asks her questions she nurses her forehead in her hands, holding it as she slowly shifts to sit upright on the bench she was previously laying on.

[Thundercracker]

Samuel Arvandor

“Stay hidden for now,” Sam said, “something strange has happened and the entire town has shifted to another land. It’s not safe for you until the raiders have gone.”

He turned to Darius.
Meet me downstairs when you’ve done what you can for them,” he said.

He returned to the kitchen, hopefully finding his father along the way.

“What do you think we should do?” he asked as he quickly threw together a few platters of mugs and pitchers of various drinks and fruits.

[Metastachydium]

Spoiler: OOC

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Qamar went outside with Prudence to put the soldiers' minds at ease.

Qamar does her best to find comfort in Prudence's kind words and gesture and even attempts to grant her a weak smile. The half-elf does indeed have a soothing presence. Soothing enough, at any rate, to let her forget about the throbbing of her injured head and to turn her panic into a swirling vortex of anxiety.
As Prudence entertains the men, she does her best to blend into the background and keep the older woman between herself and the soldiers, which in practice mostly consists of standing awkwardly a few steps behind her, unspeaking and still very pale.

[Toliudar]

Prudence

Sensing the men's impatience, and wanting to get as much information shared before she loses the ability to do so, she pulls up a chair to sit with the men, smiling at Qamar and hoping that she'll do the same. The more that these men start to see all of the townsfolk as people, the less likely that there'll be exorcisms and the like.

"I'm sure the Baron will be along shortly. In the meantime, how about we share stories about what happened this morning - what happened to us, and maybe what you saw, what drew you here. Sound good?

"It was still fairly early. There was a moment of disorientation and strange visions, and then when we looked around, the world around the village here was completely different. Some buildings were split in two, collapsing because a wall was just gone. We started exploring the edge of all this, spotted you, and that's about it. I'm doing my best to learn your language, but it's very tiring, and I may have to stop soon. As you've heard, our language is quite different. Hmm. Maybe we should start to write words down."

Carefully, Prudence pulls parchment, ink and pen from her bag and hands them to Qamar. She switches to common.

"I'm going to start to say a bunch of words in our language, and then the same words in theirs. If you can get down at least rough pronunciations, it'll set us up to be able to continue the conversation when my spell ends. Is this okay?"

Assuming an affirmative, Prudence launches as soon as she can into an off-the-top-of-her-head lexicon of words that can't easily be guessed using charades. 'Today'. 'Tomorrow'. 'God'. 'Empire'. She continues until either the men get restless or the baron arrives.

[Metastachydium]

Qamar does her best to return the smile and half-succeeds. It doesn't last long, nevertheless, and when Prudence calls her closer to play scribe, she hesitates, pursing her lips for a moment. She does, however ultimately do as told, and having approached the table warily, she nods to the half-elf, takes the items given to her and focusing on the sheet to keep her thoughts and attention away from the strangers (which is to say, the stranger-than-Prudence strangers), she begins to write in an angular hand, but with practiced ease.

[JbeJ275]

Inside

Truly it's hard to know, son. I know better than most of my rank how to guide a town through what might come, even if wars, plagues or famine sweep the land. Those are issues we have seen before, and so the wisdom of those who came before and the preparations I have made can be used effectively. This... this is a new kind of problem. My instinct would be to delay until we know where these people came from, and how much support lies behind them. I do not look forward to the possibility of kneeling to those that would do such things to the Alveas, for they're the rare kind of lowborn that's well spoken, talented and good all at once. But I would do so to save this village as it stands.

I want you to know Samuel, I had hoped it would be some time before you were truly faced with the difficulties of rulership, but if they do mean to take this village they will want you as a hostage, even if they dress it in nicer words, and if we mean to go with others, you would have to journey far from the village to reach such things, putting yourself in far greater danger. I will not ask you to do such things if you are unwilling, but I trust you to remember your duty.

Outside

This morning this place was nought but scrub and hillside, low forests holding nothing of great importance. We were patrolling here to search for escapees and troublemakers. Our two patrols and another two on the other side of the hills. It was as if the lord split the heavens, and a great pillar of white light split the hillside. We made our way over to investigate swiftly, and soon found you. The other two likely saw as well, but were from a greatly different direction, and further away.

Though if you tire so quickly of our tongue I'll speak to you plain, the commander will hear of this shortly enough, and you would do well to meet with him and explain. Both one of these 'women' with their inhuman features and the baron as well. If you are the only one here who speaks any tongue of this world, you should come as well.

They are not entirely unwilling to go along with the idea of explaining their language, but seem confused and somewhat suspicious of this endeavour, and are being slow and cautious about it.

[Toliudar]

Prudence

Prudence pretends not to sense the suspicion and hostility in the man's words - what good would that do - and simply nods.

"I would be delighted to come along, and look forward to meeting our new neighbours. Where is your commander, and how far is it to him?

"Since none of us seem to know what has happened, we seem to be in this together, as it were."

She pauses to reel off a few additional words to Qamar, then glances down at her list with an approving nod.

Bravo. Any other words we need to capture? Also, they're going to want us to go with them after this conversation. I don't know where yet."

Turning back to the strangers, Prudence tilts her head in puzzlement.

"If you don't mind me asking...escapees from what?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Sorry that I wasn't clearer. Prudence doesn't need the men to supply the words in their language - she's speaking those words herself. It just wasn't clear to me whether she could 'hear' the words in their language; hence getting Qamar's invaluable assistance.