|
>>
|
2007b6.jpg
Apple Dreamer
2007b6
>>898398
>I can't imagine where else they'd go...
>>898365
>rolled 1, 1, 5 = 7
The other outlaws spill everything they know, which isn't much. Lumberjack's heard of people paying some sort of fee or bribe to get their Writ of Outlawry revoked. Might be able to do that at the border fort, but they'd need to slip in past the patrols to have any real chance of the money making it into the hands of someone who could actually make that official, which likely means approaching from the civilized side rather than marching straight up the road from Zelkor's Ferry. The cheesemaker's apprentice overheard fragments of a conversation between the gravediggers, thinks they might have been planning to scavenge less-raggedy clothing from abandoned houses in the ruins of Rook's Vineyard in order to disguise themselves. Sure enough, there's a fresh trail leading in that direction, with footprints from two humans and drag-marks from a sack full of loot. No kobold claw-prints, though.
Looks like there'll be heavy rain, tomorrow or the next day or both, so if you're going to follow that trail, might want to hurry.
>>898501
Roof of that stone watchtower the angel's been building is an excellent landing pad, but trees and wooden buildings are no good. Trees seem to go on for dozens of miles in all directions, and even where grassy clearings or bodies of water can be found, that's not exactly ideal. Best places for jumping around freely would be the pavement of the Old Coast Road (and sea-stacks along the actual coast beyond it) to one side, or mountains around Passholdt to the other. Anywhere closer than that, you'd want precise maps and/or surveying equipment for hops of any serious range, and even then it'd be risky.
>>898574
>the people who have proven worthy of our trust
In dreams last night, Rhea's mother called.
Rhea, my prophet, my champion. You came from my blood, but are not fully of it. The waters separate us. For all that I struggle to reach across that gap, inches wide and miles deep, to make you understand... this is as it should be. To bind flesh and spirit unnaturally close, or rend them irretrievably distant, is Orcus's way. His priests play games with blood and darkness, making a mockery of the proper function of such things, the secrets that all people know in their liver to be true. I will reveal to you a few of those secrets now.
When two people are alone, together, in the dark, there are only three natural ways: either they are in love, as if a single circle of blood in two bodies, or one of them eats the other. The one who eats never gains as much as is lost by the one being eaten. Mortal flesh is such that the belly cannot hold a whole other person; the rest is torn and spilt and wasted.
So, the first lesson here, my daughter, is that when you cast the net of your heart so broadly, be careful where it snags. Some people will never love you back; when you find yourself alone in the dark with one of those, you must bite first, or else you will bleed and bleed and bleed. This new miracle I provide to you, in hopes that the scars you choose for yourself will reach where my words alone never could, and thereby carve out within you a deeper wisdom. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/shield-other
The second lesson is that the belly CAN hold part of a person, whether a butchered remnant or an unripe seed. When a man and a woman grind their bodies together in the correct way, there is a sharing of blood, and... a sort of spark. The full nature of the spark is not for you or I to know, but the summoning of it, even lowly insects learn without being taught. If the woman's body is healthy and well-stocked with fuel, the spark may ignite a child. It is better only to have children when and where there will be sufficient food and love to carry them; otherwise, as they cool and solidify into adults, they will be flawed throughout, in clear ways and in subtle ways. Twisted limbs, skittish eyes, and cracked hearts make for poor warriors.
Third lesson tonight is how those five orcs want to marry you. I am not one of their tyrannous matriarchs or cactus-bat gods, so I will not force your hand in the matter, and they are too meek and servile - in their own way - to do so themselves. The choice is yours... but it must BE a choice. I will not pool idly, waiting for you to unstopper your nose and notice how they are already bleeding and grieving after the loss of their previous almost-wife. They are neither goblins or dragons nor spirits, and so the spark that might be struck if you laid among them cannot ignite a child by accident. This presents a valuable opportunity to study the ways of love in relative safety, and as my champion you may have the right to refuse such opportunities, but not to meander past them in ignorance.
By my will, may this dream find you among good spirits, and may mastery of the "baking" art (of which I well know you are fond) bind allies to our cause, reveal new ways to crush our enemies, or both. Please remember the more traditional techniques, too, http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/p/produce-flame just in case it doesn't quite all work out.
|