DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Fantasy RRL: Rise of the Rune Lords - Burnt Offerings RRL: Trouble At The Rusty Dragon

Coral

Walking with Aendell, she realised what she was doing and quelled the cantrip she had been subconsciously puting together before her smoking fingers were wreathed in flame.

"That didn't go the way I thought it would," she commented.

Selaim

Meanwhile back in the kitchens...

Seeing Ameiko at the hearth, Selaim cautiously walks over trying to concentrate on Ameiko and not the smell of fresh rolls. As tempting as they are she keeps her hands to herself as she approaches.

"Ameiko? Wielder of the mighty ladle? Are you alright after that? Want to talk about it?"

Ameiko

She looks up at Selaim, saying her name. With a wave of her hand, she dismisses, "Just fine. My father wants me to be someone I am not. I don't force him to be who he isn't, I really don't understand why he thinks he can force me to live life by his rules. I appreciate that he raised me and that my parents loved me. But he hasn't been the same since she died. I am not a stay-at-home putter around the kitchen type," she offered a wide smile because she was puttering around the kitchen of the inn.

Aendell

He nods. "Not totally unexpected I think. I suspect he loves his daughter, but he is mixing up in his head that for her to show him her love back she has to stay at home in a traditional role. He cannot understand why she wants to be an independent woman."

He sighs. "It might actually be nice to deal with that kind of love as opposed to abandonment."

Coral

Coral nodded. "Yes. Abandonment is hard. And he is, in effect, abandoning her, because she refuses to do what he wants."

She opened the door to the Rusty Dragon letting the heat and noise spill out.

Selaim

She takes in the scene and sees the bitter irony. But also the truth behind it. It seems that the puttering around isn't the problem. The venue is.

Selaim came over to the hearth and leaned against the wall. "Losing your mother must have been hard on you. Both of you. It seems like your dad is scared. Scared of the changes. But most likely because he just lost your mother and you are all he has left. Seems like he is trying too hard to keep things together... in his own comfort zone. So he is grasping to tightly. But curious, how are you doing with the loss?"

Aendell

"True enough", he says. "Although it seems she understands the situation better than he does."

Ameiko

"Death is a part of life," she answered honestly. "What you choose to do or not do with the events in your life are what define who you are. I can't make choices for him, he should know he can't make them for me." She says the last sentence with a bit of finality in her tone.

Outside the common room continues apace as if nothing had happened. Maybe it was a common occurrence, maybe it was something that shouldn't be dwelt upon. Either way the people of Sandpoint are treating the inn as they have, which obviously suits the proprietor well.

Coral

"Or maybe he does understand," she responded to Aendell as she returned to her seat, "but wants to deny it, or to will it to be different through shear stubborn belief."

Zak:

“Losing mine wasn’t hard as I never found them, unfortunately. You can’t lose what you never had.”

Selaim

Seeing nothing to be gained she returns to her seat.

"How'd things go with the father? Ameiko seems to not care. Or is too stubborn to."

Aendell

"It seems to run in the family." He replies.

As the inn settles down and the group comes back together, a woman that they remember from the Swallowtail festival comes in the door to the common room cluthen a swaddled baby Verah. They remember the family, Aeren and Verah, children of Alergast and Amele Barett. Aendell saved Alergast and the boy Aeren from a goblin who set a cat on fire and capered around it gleefully, traumatizing the young boy.

Amele, the mother, comes over, tears streaming down her face. "Please help me," she says, choking back sobs. "Aeren has been having nightmares since the festival. He wakes up howling. He is sure there are monsters in the closet and under his bead. Alergast, my husband, has threatened to have Aeren sleep in the woodshed if he won't grow up and learn to be a man. He is just a boy and..." her voice trails off.

"I know my husband means well. But last night Aeren slept in the woodshed crying and telling stories all night long. But that isn't the issue. During then night our dog Petal yelped. Aeren's night terror screams became more shrill. Our dog has fresh goblin bites on his flanks."

Zak

“I think, with a child involved especially, this bears looking into, yes?”

Coral

"Of course," she replied quietly.

Catalena

Catalena had been continuing to attempt to return conviviality to the Rusty Dragon with pleasant and soothing songs. But upon seeing Amele come in distraught, she wrapped up her ballad by skipping the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth verses, and approached the others.

Seeing their serious expressions, she asked, "What's wrong?"

Coral

"It looks like there are still goblins at large," Coral replied quietly to Cat.

Selaim

"And they are harassing that poor boy we helped save at the Festival. They tried to eat his dog." she said mournfully.

Catalena

"At your house, Amele?" Cat asked, putting down her drink. "Let's go."

Aendell

He stands up with the others, ready to go and investigate.

Coral

She followed the others

The group heads out of the Rusty Dragon with the tearful woman in tow. It is quick trip across the small town of Sandpoint to a side street where a few houses are located. This particular one is on the bluff side and has the aforementioned woodshed out back. The main cabin, however, is a small affair, with two or three rooms judging from the outside. Since it is on the bluff side, it is a little away from the cliffside, but the waves can be heard crashing on the rocks below.

Amele says "his room is the small one on the left just beyond the main room. The closet is more of a wardrobe, but we didn't see anything wrong in his room."

Selaim

Viewing this as permission, Selaim inspects the room concentrating on the wardrobe.


Selaim Check room
Miales rolled 1d6,1d6 and got 3, 6

Selaim Check room (ace)
Miales rolled 1d6 and got 4

So a 10

Aendell

As others head inside, he examines the outside for signs, and availability, of ingress. He takes a look at the nearby cliffs to see how scalable they seem trying to determine if it is more likely that Goblins climbed up into the town from down below or that perhaps they missed one or two during the incursion who had found places to hide in the town.

Aendell Search
Zeim rolled d6,d6 and got 3, 4
Total = 4

Catalena

Cat stayed with Amele in the main room and asked to see both Aeren and Petal.

"There now," she said, getting down upon her knee to look the boy in the eye, one warm hand upon his shoulder and the other on Petal's head. She glanced to see if Petal had a wound that needed healing, which she could tend to herself, but first glanced up to make eye contact with Zak if he might take care of that as she pursued another direction.

"First of all," Cat told Aeren, "you should know there's nothing wrong with crying or being frightened. In fact, it is a brave man who can say how he is feeling with honesty rather than hide it away. Secondly, everything is going to be all right. You and your mom did the right thing to tell us."

She began to sing quietly a song of comfort, wordless but a tune Varisian mothers would hum to a baby to calm them at night. And as she sang, she reached out to the mind of Petal. And as for you, my courageous friend... she thought/spoke to the dog, show me what hurt you.

Catalena
Perform cast Beast Friend (+ Mind Rider)
Vryx rolled d8,d6 and got 7, 1
Perform: 7 Success, Cost 2 PP, 8 remaining PP