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Jex

"Yes. Let's all take a look. It is quite ornate and has markings that ... I seem to remember seeing something like this before but I can't quite make the connection."

He's pointing to the etching of the flaming chalice as he said the last.

[Ghosted for Owain]

Nestaron

He was thankful for Tindarien's reminder. He'd been about to quench his thirst from the river.

Instead he took one of the gourds from Heilbutt, giving his half-orc follower a grateful squeeze of the shoulder.

Nestaron looked at Jex's bronze key while he drank, but didn't recognise it and shook his head.

He was still pondering what occurred in the garrigue.

"That windstorm was summoned by a Fey guardian, I'm certain. A sylph would have such mastery of the air element.

"No, what confounds me is how we offended it so badly. I've never seen such unprovoked hostility from the Fey."

Nestaron wearily sat on on a nearby boulder and looked at the shepherd.

"I take it you've come this way before, Irt, without this kind of trouble?"

Heilbutt

As he stood there on the beach, he felt the sun prickling his pale, northerner's skin. He found his wide-brimmed straw hat with its chin strap and put it on.

After being storm-tossed in the middle of the woods, he was feeling much more awake than he had been.

He unpacked some of the rations the Baronessa had provided and handed them out.

The half-orc was a roamer of the wilds, servant of the High Druid. The Fey were treacherous, unpredictable, but they were not confrontational.

"The voice said we were unnatural." Heilbutt said, though he didn't know what was meant by it; none of them were demons or undead.

Sergeant Almador

"Good doggy!" He said earnestly, patting Wanshanks on the head once his heart had stopped hammering in his chest.

Seeing that Nestaron had found a good sized boulder, he staggered over and sat alongside the cleric.

His wife and daughters had packed him food and drink, and he slaked his thirst with barley water from his skin.

"How can such a spirit talk of what is natural!?

"None of this is natural! Wearing this damnable armour is not natural, nor is lugging a haunted helm across the land to almost certain doom!" The Sergeant despaired.

GM

The river was fast-flowing and deep by the looks of it. It curved away to the north where it would eventually meet the tidal creek that ran alongside the town of Rosencliff.

The sky was a vivid blue and the sun seemed to have climbed with great haste as it always did in the summer.

You could feel the heat of it, but also a cool breeze blowing off the surface of the water.

Whatever was poisoning the river, it wasn't noxious enough to rival Seyja's feet at least, and the water felt delightful on the soles of them.

Jex might have considered washing the bronze key. It was caked with dirt, especially the intricate symbol.

You had some time to spare. The Fey guardian's tantrum had sped you up over the last mile or so, and you'd reached the river earlier than expected.

Nonetheless, this was still where Irt and his dog intended to leave you, and make their return journey. You didn't need a guide upriver (not that one was available).

The shepherd drank and smacked his lips, shaking his head at the half-elf's question.

"Whaddya tink!? Course I been dis way afore, and den some! Ne'er had an ounce of trouble, all dese long years... Well, maybe a pinch, but nottin like dis."

<Weston>

Now =that= was something he knew a bit about. "Folks as think their 'territory' is being violated can be quite vexed", he told Nestaron. "And that was certainly the impression the speaker gave", he added. But Nestaron did raise a good point and he looked to Irt to see what replay was made there.

"Thanks", he said to Heilbutt as he accepted a bit of the food he offered.

Irt's comments made him think about what was in their packs. "Could be it was the cursed treasure we carry that set the sprites off", he said to no one in particular.

Seyja


She frowned up at the high elf for a moment, but then grinned briefly and shrugged.

"You are right. I probably need to pay more attention."

Seyja lifted her feet from the river and looked closely at each one before shrugging again and lowering them back into the water.

"Good thing I have tough feet."

D

He hadn't had time to think of it with the wind and running. But the treasure was certainly one possibility. Another was his own existence. He said nothing. There was too many questions to answer. For now avoiding that spot would be fine by him.

Tindarien

He nods to Westron's suggestion about the treasure. It might also be D who had confessed that he had been dead, something that Tindarien still wished to talk to him about. But it could easily be something they know nothing about and right now unity in the group will serve them better so he says nothing.

Instead he turns his attention to the key that Jex found, looking at it more closely.

"I know that sign, the one that seems familiar to you. It is the symbol of the Eternal Alchemists. They were a group of wizards who sought the secret of true immortality. From what I remember they were around some 300 years before, very guarded about their work, so not many have any knowledge of it. I think they had such rivalry that they killed each other over a period of time."

He considers.

"If it is no coincidence that they key is here, maybe whatever is in the Elbow is related to them? I'd like to see the other runes more closely. Could we wash to dirt off the key?"

Jex

"Sure boss. Wash away. Keep your key clean, I always say. Eternal Alchemists, eh? If they live forever, then they're still alive, wouldn't you say? But then you said they killed each other, which sort of defeats the purpose."

He hands the key over to Tindarien, "I want it back. Somehow the key found it's way into my hands. I get the feeling it's supposed to be in my possession."

Seyja


Seyja looked around at the bard and cleric and gave a sardonic grunt.

"Didn't happen to find a lock to go with the key, didja?"

Jex
"Perhaps 'tis the key to your heart?" he said to the barbarian woman.

Seyja


She glared at him for a moment, but then couldn't help laughing.

"Mayhap it is, little man," she said, once her expression of mirth had died down.

"I doubt it, but mayhap it is."

<Weston>

The talk about wizards killing each other over living forever was ironic enough to bring a smile to his face. "Probably just as well that they are all dead, then."

The banter between Jex and Seyja made him feel better about the group. There was always a bit of that sort of thing among the regulars on the caravans.

Tindarien

He nods his tanks to Jex but instead of washing it in the river, he uses some water from his supplies, careful to minimise any wastage and uses leaves to clean it.

Then he looks at it more closely.

Jex

"Ah yes. Now I've put things together!" He suddenly was excited and he could not seem to contain that excitement. With a hop to his step and a smile etched on his face he starts to strut around the barbarian as Tindarien studies the key. At first one had to wonder when Sejya if he was getting too close to her, but he never did as he began skipping and twirling in a full out dance around and weaving through everyone in tje group. With his curly red hair bouncing about, hardly a soul realized the moment that his lute came into his hands. The gentle plucking and strumming was in rhythm with his feet. After a brief instrumental introduction he began to sing a song:


There were golden elixers the alchemists wanted to brew
Magical ingredients flavored their special stew
Living forever would be their goal from the start
Crafting of the special ale meant using an unsavory art

Living for eternity
Finding deaths remedy
Living for eternity
The future is for me

Inspired from tales read in tomes crumbling and old
They searched far and wide for the secret to unfold
They Bathed themselves in tubs filled with dragons blood,
They feasted on mermaid flesh and drinking magic mud.

Living for eternity
Finding deaths remedy
Living for eternity
The future is for me

They wished to be become immune to poison, blade and even old age.
Perhaps they would have succeeded had it not been for their own rage.
As smart as the alchemist were, they were betrayed by their spirts.
Delusions consumed their hearts and they were beseiged by envious fits.

Living for eternity
Finding deaths remedy
Living for eternity
The future is for me

So then they ceased their efforts to live for all of eternity
To revile former colleagues who were now their mortal enemy
They plotted murder against each other to as the mania spread
They would not live forever fore in the end they were all dead.

Living for eternity
Finding deaths remedy
Living for eternity
The future is THIS KEY!

D

His pointy pale ears perked up at the song.

Tindarien

He chuckles and applauds as Jex finishes his song.

"Very good, very inventive."

Then he offers the key back to the bard.

"Not much else I can tell you."

Zoltan

He listens to the song the Bard singe ruefully. As it ends he says, "Living forever is not all it's cracked up to be. Imagine being driven mad and never being able to find surcease?"

<Weston>

A bit too flamboyant ... but maybe that was just because he was =not= sitting in an inn or around the fire with a mug. But he was curious.

"Jex, was that an old tune or did you just compose it?"

If he had just come up with that on the spur, it showed he was a truly gifted bard. If it was something old, perhaps there was useful information in the words.

Jex

"A true bard never tells. What matters is if you listened to it!"

[ooc: I wrote this based on lore that Jex supposedly knows, which was passed down from Nem. He didn't lyricize it (is that a word?)]

[[ lyricize =seems= like it should be a perfectly valid word <g> ]]

<Weston>

"Well I =did= listen, and that is a reason for the question. If you just conceived the song, then it shows what an incredible talent you have. If it came from the past, then there might be some helpful information there ... especially if there are more verses."

Jex
"Words come together for me. I can't explain it, just like you can't explain how you walk or talk. It's a talent, I guess. But the words were there and are the lore is legitimate. Whether they are true or somewhat true or not true at all, I suppose we'll find out."

<Weston>

He nodded. "But it is more than we had before", he said. "For example, all that talk of dragon's blood and 'magic mud' ... could their 'experiments' be the source of the pollution ... could it have been walled up in there for all these years, released when Red 'barged in'?"

He really was out of his depth here. There were ideas from tales and songs from the caravans, around camps and while traveling. But how much of that was 'real'? Probably none ... exaggerated over the decades or even centuries.

Jex

"From what I recall of the lore, they tried many things. A lot of their experiments centered around gold. Gold dust, golden apples, golden ambrosia - that sort of stuff. If I were to focus on something in particular, that would be it. From what I understand of alchemy it's a lot of trial and error. But I'm not an alchemist."