Jump to Episode 3: Besting Brigands (Barely)
G1 - LELLIGIRE
G2 - ROAD AND FARMLANDS
The next morning, the group of tauthers leaves Lelligire under a hard, cold rain. Darh'en takes the lead, his sword by his side. He's wearing old quality clothes that have been with him since he left his family, but they are wearing thin. His boots are study but his cape does not protect much from the winter rain. Feul is the most ragged of the lot, wearing a tattered rough brown robe with a hood and past-their-due-date boots. Soon, his feet are sodden. Roosh is wearing loose trousers and a shirt, and does not fear a wet pelt. He doesn't feel the cold much, but the constant patter of the rain hampers his hearing. Baramas is wearing plain clothes and sturdy boots, and is wrapped in his father's old coat. He is wearing a satchel under the coat which protects his most previous belongings: a book on thriddle culture, a linguistic treaty and the tauther guide handed to him yesterday. Closing the march is Rrounni. She's wearing her old coat from Dobre, which has seen better days and isn't waterproof. Underneath the coat, and since humans seem perturbed when Bronth wear no clothes, she sports a yellow dress. Not cushindell silk, she couldn't afford that, but a cheap imitation of sorts. The sword that hangs from her belt looks like a large dagger to her side.
As they walk past the ruins of the city walls, a reminder of the last ramian raid of 3472, there are still other travelers alongside them on the road, but as the morning progresses, the groups walking or driving carts on the road space out, so that when they see some commotion ahead of them on the road, there's no one around. Roosh tries to listen to figure out what the commotion is, but the rain makes it hard. Feul jumps off the road into the muddy fields, Rrounni jumps up front to protect the others, and Darh'en draws his sword.
Two thombos are running wildly in their direction. Rrounni tries to scare them off the road by roaring at them, but it has the opposite effect and drives their panic up a notch. Baramas sees three human silhouettes running towards them (or after the thombos) on the road.
The head thombo is now aiming straight for Rrounni who braces for impact, but Feul casts a masterfully controlled power hold dysha at the beasts legs. So skillful is his aim that the head thombo falls straight into the path of the second beast, causing it to fall down as well.
The three men who were running behind the thombos catch-up with the group. There's an old man and two younger men, they look like peasants. Both young men jump to the side of the thombos and speak quietly to them to soothe them. The old man looks at the rings of yellow isho around the thombo's legs, and turns to Feul. "I guess you're the one I have to thank for stopping their flight... I am Pento Loamy, and these are my sons Rigo and Marco. I'm a farmer in these parts."
Pento says their thombos ran wild a few minutes ago. From past experience, he suspects some disturbance in the Isho weather, not that he understands these things. Feul quietly focuses and tries to activate his Tra-sense. Not an accurate way to anticipate isho weather, but he does indeed sense that the winds are strong, and this could be the sign of an approaching storm.
Once the thombos are calmed down, Marco and Rigo tie them and lead them down the road in the direction they came from. It's nearly lunch time, and Pento invites the group to eat with them. "The wife won't mind, there's food aplenty if you like simple fare, and my daughter Sylma'll be all kinds of delighted, I reckon..."
Pento's farmhouse is a long stone building. Once inside, it's warm from a hearty fire, and Pento's wife Malna is welcoming. His daughter Sylma is thirteen and as excited as she is fascinated by Rrounni and Roosh. It's the first time she sees a bronth up close, and Roosh's yapping makes her laugh. Lunch is preserved and spiced durlig stew with thombo sausages.
After lunch, the children walk out and Malna seems to push her husband to say something. Finally, he decides to tell his tale: "This may sound ridiculous, the yords certainly think so, but I was saw something not two days past that shook me a little, I must say. Me and Rigo were walking to one of our distant fields mid-morning when we stumbled upon a chariot that had tipped over on the road. Three hooded men were trying to get it right side up, and their tombo wasn't helping much, so naturally we assisted them in putting it right. They didn't talk much and neither did they take their hoods off (mind you it was raining) but I reckon they came from Sydra way on account of their accent. But you know what he say here, folk is folk, if they don't want to talk, that's their business. The thing that got me all flustered, see, is that one of their crates had burst open when the chariot tipped. I had a glimpse of what was inside and I'd swear it was some of them Earth-Tec gizmos, and more the military kind if you take my meaning. I've done a tour of duty in my youth, so I think I recgnized that good, but maybe I dreamt it? That's what the yords seem to think when I reported it. Well, I say the yords but there's only one of them in these parts, and old Shelmon sure is busy... You're all good... tauther and all, like. What do you make of that?"
The tauthers confer, and come to the conclusion that even if they were to head back to Lelligire with this information it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Still, they'll be on the lookout for some sort of Earth-Tec traffic...
As they take their leave, Malna quietly approaches Feul and politely suggests that his boots are in no condition for the sodden road. "I've got a pair that my Sylma has just outworn. They're all peasant like, but sturdy and waterproof, would you like to have them?" Feul thanks the farmwoman profusely and accepts. His companions rib him gently for wearing a 13-year old girl's outworn boots, but he's just glad his feet are dry.
During the afternoon walk, the rain abates somewhat, and that and the good meal and company they've had over lunch makes the tauthers more cheerful than in the morning. As they approach Sydra in the late afternoon, they decide to find cheap accommodation on the outskirts of town. Feul can't afford even that, but Darh'en pays for him. They also decide to check out one of the "Help Wanted" ads that pointed to Sydra.
F2 - SYDRA AND SURROUNDINGS
While Darh'en and Rrounni go into the bazaar looking for rain cloaks, Baramas, Feul and Roosh go look for Yiordeh Smittin Jung who, according to his ad, is looking for agents to send to Ailaudra to investigate. His office sits to stories above the bazaar, and they get there cautiously to avoid Baramas breaking any of the ladders and falling down.
Yiordeh Jung explains that until he has made a decision to hire them, he can only give them a high level overview of the case, and once they sign-on for a collaboration he'll fill in the details. In a nutshell, a person of quality has died in a drowning accident in the Elluce river down in Ailaudra. Except the person's better half does not buy the accident theory, and has asked Yiordeh Jung to investigate. He has gathered much information about the dead person here from Sydra where that person lived, but some investigations now need to be made in Ailaudra, which he cannot attend to in person due to other commitments. Hence his willingness to hire tauthers to do this in his stead. He stresses that this is a substantial contract for him, and he can therefore comfortably remunerate would-be assistants.
As they walk out, Feul asks his two companions if they are doing the tothis for money. Baramas says that he is not, but money doesn't hurt. Also, if the story is genuine, unearthing the truth would be a good thing. Finally, Jung spoke of a "person of quality" which means at least a Drenn family. And they are looking for endorsements on their challisks...
Meanwhile, Rrounni and Darh'en have found a coat merchant. Unfortunately, he doesn't have bronth sized rain capes in stock, but he can get one made in a week. Rrounni decides to postpone her purchase until they come back to Sydra. Darh'en, made miserable by the day of cold rain, decides to splurge out and buys a high-grade traveler's cloak with three layers of cured creshi skins. The cape is many shades of fish grey, and while it costs him dearly, he's pleased with his purchase.
They regroup, have a quick bite, decide to go for Yiordeh Jung's assignment and tell him in the morning before they leave, then deliver the message to the scarmis on the plateau between the Ayns and Orrey mountains, and then head out to Ailaudra via the Orrey mountains.
F2 - SYDRA
The next morning, the group wakes up in the hostel they rented for the night and make their way to the offices of yiordeh Jung. Despite the early hour, the area around the Bazaar is already bustling with activity. Yiordeh Jung insists on coming down from his office because he wants to meet with the entire team. He pays for a light breakfast and drinks. Baramas tells him that they are keen to take on his assignment. Jung opens his satchel and takes some contracts out that he has drafted overnight. The contracts state that the tauthers will work for him and go to Ailaudra to inquire and find out definitive proof that either his client's spouse died accidentally, or that he was killed. They get an up-front payment to go, and a second payment if they can bring proof. Further, there is a bonus if they identify who caused his death (assuming it wasn't accidental).
Once everything is signed up, Smittin Jung gives them more details. His client is Drenn Halsa Gleep of Sydra. Her husband Kesht Uri Gleep was found dead in the Elluce river a few weeks ago, and the yords in Ailaudra classified the death as accidental. There are two primary reasons why his wife does not believe this: first, her husband has many political enemies and there have been attempts on his life in recent months. In particular, Kesht Gleep was known for resisting attempts by ardothian interests to take control in Lusail klades and businesses. The other reason she does not believe his accidental death though is that his challisk was never recovered. He used a custom made clasp that prevents any accidental falling of a challisk, so the idea that it would have dropped off as he drowned does not make sense.
Jung wants the tauthers to establish as much as possible the circumstances of his death, the more detail the better: when was he last seen, who did he speak to, any suspicious activities or rumors that could be related to his demise, etc. Jung knows one of the yords in Ailaudra, a Jarissa Zome, and they can contact her on his behalf.
Having been briefed and paid, the tauthers leave Sydra on the southern road to Gendis. They will have to leave the road after a couple of hours walk as it veers towards the west of the Ayns mountains, and the scarmis they hope to meet roams east of the mountains. They hope to find a smaller road or path.
In the meantime, the weather is pleasant, and everyone is quite cheerful except for Dhar'en whose expensive rain cape he was hoping to inaugurate. After an hour and a half of walking, as they start being on the lookout for a path south, Roosh gestures to the others and hushes them. He has heard something, maybe a growl or a whine, hard to say. The others have heard nothing.
Roosh moves forward as quietly as he can. As he gets closer to the source of the sound he determines it's definitely organic, and probably done by a great big creature. Very cautiously, he enters a durlig field to get closer to the noise. There he sees a huge moving mass of muscles, scales and... weird tendrils growing on top, crouched next to a big wooden chariot with no beasts attached to it. The creature is growling in anger and frustration. Not quite parsing what he sees, he moves back to the rest of the group to tell them what he saw.
The group comes closer, and once they see the beast, Baramas believes it to be a croid. He didn't listen that attentively to his lessons on croids however, so he has no idea what's going on. Dhar'en whispers of some mention in the Tauther guide about the croid's armor being a living thing. They check the guide, and indeed find the reference.
It is cold under these climes, so that could explain the croid's crudge growing, but why now and here? This is when they see the corpses of two scraggers on the front of the chariot.
Either way, something needs to be done. Baramas thinks the croid is barely holding his wits, and may fly off the handle. Rrounni comes closer and tries to speak to him in a soothing voice, asking what they can do to help him. "ITCHING!" he growls back...
After conferring briefly, they decide on a course of action: Feul casts a power-hold on the croid to keep him still, and Dhar'en and Rrouni use their swords to shave the crudge off of the croid. Dhar'en tries to apply some of his learsis knowledge to minimise damage to their patient, but he doesn't understand croid morphology and ends up injuring him.
Still, the immobilised croid soon starts to sigh with contentment despite the obvious pain. After a while, he opens his mouth wide and says "THANKS YOU!"
Roosh and Baramas take some of the sideboards off the chariot to start a big fire in the hope that the heat will stop the crudge from regrowing too fast. The plan seems to work and in between rough shaving of his crudge and the heat, the growth subsides for a while.
It becomes possible to talk to the croid, who calls himself Dempo. He makes a living ferrying merchandise between the cities of Lusail in the chariot that he drags himself. His scraggers kept the crudge growth in check despite the cold weather, and he likes it here. Unfortunately, his scraggers died suddenly. A quick examination by Dhar'en lets him determine that they must have died from a parasitic disease of some sort.
A quick discussion amongst tauthers lets them determine that the best solution would be to take Dempo with them in the wild in the hopes of finding on or more scraggers eager to eat the croid's crudge. Left on his own, he will soon be overwhemled by crudge again. "DEMPO LIKES!" the croid says when the plan is presented to him. The tauthers camouflage the chariot as best they can and resume their walk south. Every couple of hours they stop to shave off the crudge that has started regrowing on Dempo's skin.
F3 - FORESTED HILLS
That night, they camp in sight of the Ayns mountains to the southwest. They can see that the terrain is becoming more hilly and forested, with fewer durlig fields. They hope that some scragger live in the forests of Lusail ; Danthro Krose says in the Tauther guide that "these things can live everywhere", so there is good hope !
During the night, on Dhar'en's watch, Rrounni's tarro Groo wakes and starts screeching, which wakes everyone up. Dhar'en hears some crunch sounds in the vicinity, but Dempo is woken up as well, and he starts growling. The crunching sounds subside and the quiet night resumes. Dempo sleeps next to the massive fire and, apparently, acts as a nocturnal predator deterrent as well.
The next morning, the travellers start their walk up the plateau. It's tiring work, and there is a small, cold drizzle which means they have to stop more often to shave Dempo. After a while of walking through the forested hills, Groo starts screeching again. Dempo cocks its head sideways and starts walking deeper into the woods. After a few minutes he comes back with a scragger feating on his shoulder crudge. Baramas now knows what a croid smiling looks like.
"DEMPO HAPPY. DEMPO GO BACK TO CART. WHICH WAY?"
Rrounni indicates the northern direction to Dempo, and he gets on his ponderous way. Every few meters, he turns back to the group, and waves widely, saying "THANKS YOU, FRIENDS!"
A couple of hours after saying goodbye to Dempo, the travelers break down for lunch. This is when Rrounni notifies the others that Dempo ate about half of their reserves, and that they are going to need to replenish or tighten their belts. They decide to stop at a nearby farm if they can and negotiate for some food.
That afternoon, the drizzle abates, and the group of tauthers has now reached the plateau between the Ayns and Orrey mountains. The trail south traverses deep forests, but there are areas that were cut down for fields. As they emerge from a hilly forest area, they see down below a farm of sorts, but its crop does not look like the tall familiar durlig, but rather like enormous spherical leathery fruit. There are dozens of them in a field around a narrow farm. Surprisingly, the entire area is fenced, and from afar they can see small creatures scuttling around the field.
As they come closer to the farm gate, they see a large sign, recently painted, that says "BIO-TEC LUSAIL". After some hesitation, they decide to ring the bell by the gate in the hope that whoever lives here can fix them for food.
A young woman emerges from the farmhouse and comes to open the gate, checking first that none of the scuttling animals are nearby. She then escorts them inside the long building. To their surprise, inside looks nothing like a farm but rather like an iscin's lab, or at least how they imagine it might look. The walls are white, there are long benches with tools they don't understand and even some machinery.
The woman introduces herself as Drenn Mustana Hearn. She recently moved here from Ardoth in order to launch what she believes to be the only bio-Tec lab in Lusail. "Bio-Tec can be hugely useful to enhance our daily lives, our ancestors saw to that, but it's misunderstood and has gone a bit weird in places... Lusail has always had the reputation of being covered in while incupod patches, and while that's a bit of an exaggeration, I thought it was as good a place as any to delve deeper into my study of the local bio-tec ecosystem."
At the request of the tauthers she explains the circle of bio-tec life: recos - which are the functional, short lived creatures produced by bio-tec - emerge from incupods, the large melon shaped plants they saw outside the farm. A cork that is coded with biological instructions is inserted into an incupod and after a while the incupod hatches a reco of the required sort (although there are mutations and weird results sometimes...) Cankle is a food produce for recos that keep them healthy and alive a little longer.
Hearn's business is to design and sell all the necessary materials to seed incupods to produced the desired recos: food processors, bridges, underwater breathers, etc.
Dhar'en asks Hearn if she has foodstuffs to sell them. She says she hasn't, but since she has a bunch of recos on hand, she'd be happy to show them how they produce a durlig based pasted that is nourishing, and as bitter as fresh durlig, unfortunately.
She lines up a few recos on a long bench and places earthware jugs on the floor below. The recos are two legged with eyes, wide mouths and a long tube-shaped tail. Hearn positions the tube tails in each jar, and the recos start excreting a gray paste from the tubes that smells just like freshly cut durlig... Once they are done, Hearn seals the jars with cloth and hands them over to the tauthers, trying to ignore their disgusted looks.
Since she refuses to be paid for the food paste, the tauthers feel compelled to buy some cankle. They're thinking it might always be useful. After all, in the Tauther Manual, Danthro Krose recommends always carrying some in the wild.
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