CHOCOLATE DESTINY, ARC 3

Continued from: https://churchofproz.forumotion.net/t1355p500-chocolate-destiny-arc-2#27676

The group sleeps soundly through the night, Amos and Touka in their comfortable beds, Jorah and Lee in the back of a wagon. They wake up with the sun barely over the horizon, and astonishingly enough there are no distressed screams or sounds of fighting. This has got to be a first.
Everyone shuffles into the inn's common room for breakfast, where the bartender and the innkeeper's wife are now managing affairs.

"Wow, look at all this food!"

She goes down to the common room, ignoring everyone's stares at her changed looks and eats, occasionally wincing from her injuries.

Amos winces and resists waking, "Just a few more hours..." he whines to himself. The soft bed has been superior to his other sleeping abodes for the past month and he worries it will be a long while until he can enjoy such comfort again. Eventually he gives in to the light and props himself up in bed. He arranges his things and tidies up the bed before bidding the peaceful room goodbye. He closes the door behind him and descends to the common space with his travel bag in tow. He takes a seat next to Touka and waits for a morning meal to be served. While still in a sleepy haze Amos begins questioning Touka about their own activities in town. "Mornin miss Touka. Anything exciting happen to ya'll yesterday? Besides the hubub with the ninjas of course."

"Nothing unusual, just being taken in for questioning, fighting a knight, breaking said knights arm, you know the usual stuff." She laughs to herself, wincing again from the injuries.

Gray walks up to the inn managers.

"Say, do you know what happened here recently? This places seems like its in an awful mess."

"I- I..."
The woman stops short, her face contorting in anguish. She retreats into the kitchen.
"God DAMMIT man," the bartender groans, and pulls Gray aside.
"You must have just arrived this morning, because the whole town knows about this already. The former owner Fal Hoster was killed yesterday in a fight that got out of hand. His wife's yet to get over the shock. Did you have any business with him?"

"Oh... I'm sorry for your, I mean for her loss."

Gray shakes his head. While others may see this as a sign of sympathy, to him it is merely of disappointment.

"I did not have any business with him, but I wanted to know if there's anywhere I can acquire an accurate map, and some... opiate... if you know what I mean."

The bartender gives him an odd look. "No, I don't know what you mean. But you can probably find a good map at the bargain shop down the street."

Gray heads off to the bargain shop to secure a map, and also looks around for anything else that might be of interest in the shop.

"Fighting warrior nobles constitutes usual for you? What cause was there for the scuffle between you and loser?"

"I'll tell you some other time. Already worried about being throw out now, don't need to give them anymore reason to."

"Dang it. That would've been fun to watch. I wish I had been there." Jorah is, once again, sad.

"You can be there right now if you go punch a guard. Just make sure to ask for a trial by combat." She says with obvious sarcasm.

"To w a t c h."

"But you'd have the best seat in the house!"

"Yeah, but it wouldn't be a very fun fight. It would end pretty fast and easily"

"Well my fight wasn't fun either, only thing that saved me from serious injuries was this." Pulls at her cotton shirt.

After seeing her tug at her shirt, Jorah laughs uncontrollably.
"Saved by the bewbs. Classic!"

She smacks him upside the head yet again.

Jorah is once again sad.

"Ignore Jorah for the moment, you need not pay painful attention to the jerkish methods of this vagrant. You have previously mentioned your intention to travel to the capital and I wish to join you on your journey but I ask that we take a small detour along the way. A powerful sorceress came to this town several days prior to our arrival to spread news of the undead scourge in Enarou. For her to arrive and leave so quickly by means of magic speaks to the magnitude of her ability. Nevertheless she is likely to have insight that will unravel the shrouded plots transpiring on the coast. I'd like to find her."

"Who are you to call me a jerking vagrant when you lock your travelling companions out of a shared room just so you can practice your hand to gland combat skills?"

"So...you want to travel after this woman, who you have no guarantee you will find, or if you do find her no guarantee she will even talk to you, all because you want answers about a some problems?"

"Yes and yes ... with addendum. New discoveries have made it possible to find her. A sorceress of her caliber had no need to stop at this town and inform them of the threat. Clearly she has some vested interest in stopping the threat. Moreover, don't you think it important to get to the bottom of who committed the blatant sabotage and massacre of civilians and refugees? Or at least what their next inevitably destructive move will be? And yes my 'hand to gland' training was very important, it was very productive."

"Mmmmhmmm, yes very productive. You produced lots of milk for yourself to drink. You'll never go thirty again!. Anyways, could you guys hurry and decide something to do? This is boring. What happened to the exciting people offering me their teeth, eh?"

She shakes her head. "Places get wiped off the map everyday. I fail to see how this is any different. If you want to go off chasing this woman go ahead, but I'm going to travel around more before I head to the capital. Got see if this new form comes with any perks besides a making me stick out like a sore thumb."

"It would have been a blessing to have you as a traveling companion but I am determined to meet this sorceress. She is the only source of information about Enarou that I still know to exist. And what of Daliu, he has a greater concern for the state of the land. Where has he gone?"

"He's probably off performining 'holy rituals' on more people against their will. Maybe he even kidnapped some children to teach them about his God."

"I never said I won't go with you, I just have stuff that I must accomplish and if I can complete them then I will part ways. And about the kid, he's a priest so maybe he was sent out on a mission of faith or something. If your worried about him, I'm sure his church might know his whereabouts."

"Then let's be off." Amos slings his bag over his jacket to hide the arrow hole in the shoulder. He heads out the door with pep and purposefully stops to stand in the doorway. He turns his around to reveal a childish grin "No one minds if we buy some crushed glass while we figure out the little zealot's location do they?".

"I don't mind," she hands him her purse. "get whatever supplies you need, ill go ask the church for his whereabouts."

"You're in luck, buddy," the quirky man at the bargain shop says to Gray. "A cartographer passed through here last week, and offloaded some of his excess inventory on me. What do you want a map of? A certain fiefdom? The kingdom? Oh, you're gonna love this one." He takes out a large scroll with decorated roller handles. "This one's of the whole wide world, and it's fully illuminated!"

She heads off in the direction of the of the church. When she eventually arrives she knocks on the door to get someone's attention.

An elderly woman in a priestess' habit opens the door and looks over Touka. "Oh my, this is serious. Come inside, I shall fetch the exorcist at once."
She leaves the door open as she scurries away.

"You guys can go to the church. I'd rather not. I'll go look for Gray"
Jorah goes and looks for Gray at the bargain shop"

Amos goes with Touka. "We are looking for a child of your faith. Red haired and named Daliu? He hasn't surfaced in the past few days and we had questions to ask of him."

"Why would we need an exorcist? We don't have any demons with us?"

The priestess fingers her silver Tricorv. "Of course you don't. Just a precaution, just a precaution." She leads Touka and Amos to a stone table around 6 feet long and half as wide. "Lie down on here, if you please," she instructs.

Jorah barges into the bargain shop as Gray is deliberating on what kind of map he wants. He sees all manner of odds, ends, evens, and some junk that doesn't fall into any of the aforementioned categories.
"Ah, another customer!" the shopkeeper exclaims. He is going bald, and patches of his eyebrows are missing. "Looking for something in particular?"

"Sense your giving me a choice, no. Just answer our question please."

The priestess sighs. "I am afraid I must also refuse your request. But you may tell me what you wish to say to the boy, and I will be sure to pass them on if I see him again."

She grumbles and sits on the slab before laying down. "Just remember, I die, your entire religion will have to answer for it, and oni are VERY thorough."

The priestess smiles. "God loves all the good people of the earth, if only they would love him back. This includes your people too."
Closing her eyes she lifts her Tricorv off her neck, now emitting a soft glow, and passes it over the surface of Touka's body and murmuring in a strange language.

All the while Touka feels the mounting pressure of an impending sneeze, and hives threaten to break out on her skin.
At last the priestess opens her eyes, and the feelings subside.
"It is done." Less than a minute has elapsed.
She looks at Amos. "Your turn."

She gets up and places her body in front of Amos. "You only wanted me, not him. Now please answer the question."

For some reason Amos feels a brief yet very discomforting constricting sensation. The priestess drops her fading holy symbol and clucks her tongue.
"I was visited by young Daliu here yesterday afternoon. He had received his symbol in silver too early, and asked me to teach him more of our faith. I was happy to give him lessons and answer his many questions. Would you two be interested in those lessons as well?"

"Pass, I only follow the gods I know are real. Now do you know where he went."

"Gimme the best you've got. I'll take a map of the world and a map of this country please. And oh, do you have any old timey weapons or antiques that may be of interest?"

Gray attempts to use his eye for goods to perhaps spot something valuable or useful.

"What is the nature of the ritual you just enacted upon us?"

~~Church~~
"Ah, that ritual reveals if one is possessed by evil spirits, or has their soul tainted by darkness. Unfortunately I do not know where Daliu went, although he did ask me about mithril and dragons. Quite an imagination that boy has."

~~Bargain Shop~~

The most prominent items that Gray can recognize are an abacus, some gold and gemstones of dubious authenticity, and a small brass gong hanging from a square frame.

The shopkeeper gathers up the maps. "Right you are, that will cost 500 gold rooks. As always, I can also accept any interesting items you have in exchange. Oh, you want antiques? I got plenty."
He bends down and rummages below the counter. The first item he pulls out is a knife with a intricately carved handle and a burnished blade that curves back and forth repeatedly before ending in a tip.
"This ceremonial knife was wielded a mighty desert king decades ago. It still contains some of his Swagger."

The next item is a package containing several long and skinny cylinders.
"These are candles made in the early days of the Abatos Republic, which, if I'm not mistaken, is where you're from, my good man. They've lasted all this time without melting or going bad. No one I've met has been able to light them though, so I'm selling them at a discount. Maybe you can figure it out, as it's a piece of your country's history.

Have you made up your mind, or do you want to see more?"

"Do you maintain musical instruments? Its been a while since I've had this ukulele maintained... Actually I haven't had it maintained ever... Hahaha."
He turns to Gray.
"Could you spot me on this, preezu?"