She stopped to pay attention at the fight, arms filled with suppliments. Her real interest was to piss the paladin off, though. The young figure of a woman with a long-sleeved white dress — to hide the religious markings — in the middle of the summer that was just serenily watching while waiting for the fight to end so she could pay for the candles.
The servant continues:
“Perhaps, my lord, he will be back soon? He has been out for a while.”
He lowered his eyebrows and shoulders. “They would better be. We don’t have time to waste.”
You understand more about the context as words are exchanged between blows.
“Put the book BACK, lad! If she says you can have it for free, Wait till then! What’s your deal?!” The sheriff says, attempting to yank the book out the paladin’s hands, kicking him in the shin repeatedly.
“No, I need it NOW!” The paladin replies, punching the sheriff in retaliation.
“WHY?!”
“Why do you need to know?!”
The owner seems generally angry at both for disrupting his store. He doesn’t seem to notice you, however.
“If you don’t stop this skirmish and, in general, robbing things from the tends of merchants, I will call the guard who are just stationed there”
She announces at a calm tone, handing money for the candles and some extra notes as well.
“If it would be to resolve this skirmish, I wish to buy this book. It fills me with disgust to see that a paladin of my order makes such a scene. You should not even hold the Goddess symbol until you repent of your sins” She maintains the calm tone, switching to a passive-aggressiveness.
In an old watchtower, somewhere inside Adiart, a figure caps their telescope lens and folds it down - folds, is that the word, or simply closes? In any case, the telescope fits neatly into the man’s pocket and he turns on the spot towards his desk - an old oaken thing, about the size of a decent bed, covered in what would appear to the untrained eye to be illustrations to a book of horrors.
But to Erbit Norfolk, they were so much more than that, for he had seen these horrors firsthand through the eye of his telescope, and though his hands shook each time he picked up the quill, as he would do now, his drawings of his findings would be marked with frightful accuracy. One day, these people would have to know the truth of the sickness that plagues the city, the dark underbelly masked by the stubbornness of the Castle dwellers that would seemingly refuse to believe there was any trouble whatsoever. One day, Erbit thought, he would reveal his findings to the masses.
“…But not today, old chap. There are still loose ends, and with loose ends comes uncertainty, and with uncertainty comes the certainty that certainly nobody will believe you! Pirates, cultists, organised criminals, in a place like Adiart - oh no, no, no! Nobody would believe you unless you had intangible proof, Mr. Norfolk!”
And so he continued to illustrate what he had just seen, starting with a curious woman in a long-sleeved dress.
The paladin looks your way for a second, before receiving a push from the sheriff.
“This is not a robbery!” The paladin exclaims, blocking a blow from the sheriff.
“Yeah it is, mate.” The sheriff replies, striking once more.“If it weren’t you wouldn’t care about waiting for it. Asserting your position to gain rewards? I thought that was below you folk.”
“Don’t you understand?! I should have this book!! The merchant said so yesterday!! Please, High Priestess Sheya! Please understand my position”
“Didn’t y’hear her? Repent of ye sins, and get outta the store, oddjob.”
“I-I…”
@MaXiMuSprime
He looks at his friend. “I would want to wait at the maximum for six hours. Before that, though, it would be interesting to talk with the other nobles at the Blue Dragon council, as I don’t believe most are aware of my presence as it wasn’t announced even if I caused quite a turmoil yesterday. I should take over the priority anyways, unless someone contacted Archduchess Kiraly or Archduke Ambrose previously” It would take a time for most people to sink in that he was talking about his own parents. “Or, of course, if Laus decides to step up. Which is much more likely to happen, and thus I need to give them a talk”
She takes the book, slitghtly seeing what it was about. The leader dectected it probably was a religious one to perform some urgent shenanigan, and frustrating the plans of a paladin would always be welcome.
“You could also be arrested for violence as well, officer, as you lawsmen should be as well aware”
Palie leaves the place, passing through the gates and carrying almost all items by hand, refusing help and in direction to where the cult was located. She looks at the sky with the sun at past-noon, a drop of sweat on her forehead. Even if she was a channel to the divine, her mortal part still was submited to human necessities.
You hear the familiar thud of a large, heavy book behind you as you illustrated. It was probably Sorben’s book. Andrew Sorben was a fellow observer, but not a friend. More of an annoyance. While you surveyed Adiart to uncover secrets, he did it to fuel more. Spying on people to figure out their personal lives.
You understood his position, it netted him more money. But you thought it silly, when he could’ve used his skills for more noble causes. It was no matter anyway, as when your findings were concrete, he wouldn’t need to participate in that business.
As you didn’t hear any other noises, it was safe to assume that the man was gone, just leaving his findings, maybe in a way to coax you to his profession. As normally, the arrival of his book would arrive with words. Useless words.
You hear a large commotion and a rumble. It seems to be the sounds of horses, accompanied with chatter. It must be that the hunting party are back.
Erbit sighs. “Not you again,” he thought to himself, as he looked down at his unfinished drawing. The female complete, an argument breaking out between a guardsman, or something, and a religious type - the shop was still being worked on. Nevertheless, curiosity getting the better of him, Erbit turned to the stack of papers bound together by a leather covering.
“Alright, Sorben, what bag of tripe do you deliver to my doorstep this time, what frivolities, what dubious insecurities have you uncovered that would best be reported to local news outlets instead of to well-meaning folk like myself?”
Erbit stands from his chair as he says all this, pacing towards the book. It takes an unusual amount of strength to lift up, and he eventually waddles over to his desk with it and opens it up, knowing there’s likely little important information to come from scouring this - but of course, you can never be too sure.
The book seems to be about the plan of action when you spot a cultist. Does this mean that he has seen one…?
No matter. You could easily obfuscate it’s contents with it’s worn out state and make the paladin believe it a waste of time.
“…”
He looks down at the floor.
“I…yes…I… I will return…later…then…”
He leaves, dejected.
“That’s right.” The sheriff remarks. “And don’t try anything, me and the owner here both know you pulled the first punch.”
1 Like
He looks at the door. Squads usually went by feet, so horses…? Well, it was a group for travel. As he doubted such a large group of nobles would arrive at one time when there was not a scheduled reunion — otherwise, Richard would know of — the other type of people to arrive in horsery at a castle would be either horsemen (and since we were not in open war, a hunting party) or the tracking ones, even if they should already finish their work. He waited on place, as any of the two would bring interesting news.
She looks at the book with a smirk of victory, delaying the possession of a copy by the paladin for at least a day. She liked the contraditiorieness of the general unbelief on the cult and the constant mention of paladins when they were also at a time of peace. But the most they went undercover the better, after all.
With this she remembered the hunter boy she kept handcuffed earlier. By their last quote, which seemed to be an empty threat she wouldn’t really waste effort going back only to discuss, it probably would be better to sacrifice if he couldn’t accept that his jailing was necessary. Or, by his plead to save the companions, maybe they could get a convert off if his life purpose was broken.
Like you expected, the usual. He witnessed nothing of note in Adiart Forest, apart from a man and a woman playing some sort of game, with a another woman briefly appearing, then leaving towards the capital. And in the Capital, he noted some old lady getting her strange cat back with the help of a guard.
And of course, the bulk of the book, pages upon pages about the people of Adiart. Of course, you never understood why he wanted you to look there; It wasn’t really of your interest. But every other day he included it anyway.
When you finished with the book, as you put it down, almost simultaneously you hear a loud shriek coming from somewhere in the room.
What in Adiart is this? What shrill outburst could come from Erbit’s tower? He hurried out of his seat to investigate.
And after what could be centuries, the demon walks among the streets to see that the place apparently was now ruled by pirates. One of his first goals would be to, indeed, research secretly for how much time has passed. He looks at the book he was sealed upon and that he always carried wherever he went — a blank tome with an archaic symbol of the blue dragon at the front. Yes, he remembers clearly now. Paladins of the Blue Dragon.
[…]
The masked mage goes near a port, totally lost on how to take one to where the Blue Dragon is now and, for all others, looking at the nothingness for at least half a hour as a creep.