CHOCOLATE DESTINY, ARC 3

"You sure you know nothing? I'm sure one such as yourself would have some idea where he went."

~~Church~~

"He did not tell me where he was going, but I suspect he is bound for either the Ixiesh Mountains or Dorou Village."

~~Barge-in Shoppe~~

The shopkeeper scratches his head sheepishly. "Ahhh, I've tried fixing strings enough times to know I do more harm than good. How about instead you trade that instrument in for...this!" He takes out a banjo in working condition.

"I take it the mithril is rumored to be at Ixiesh while the dragon looms around Dorou?"

"Wow, such banjo! mind if I check it out first?"

[use strings expertise to check banjo for quality and any damages (compare to current ukulele)]

"Was that so hard?" Thank you for your time." She heads out of the church, dragging amos along so he doesn't get pulled into a ritual or two.

Once they are at a distance from the church Amos turns to Touka. "Off to this Dorou then?"

"No harm in checking on him, if he's not there off to the next location. Got your affairs in order?"

"Let us detour through the market and make a last minute purchase of that crushed glass. It might prove useful in the future."

I'll wait at the front gate. She heads off to the towns exit and sits on a nearby bench waiting for Amos.

Amos goes to the market and purchases the cheapest glass that he can. He walks away with it, crushes it and puts in a bag. He meets Touka at the gate and they head to Dorou.

Jorah determines that the banjo sounds a bit strange, but is otherwise in slightly better condition than his ukelele.

Amos' purchase of glass and subsequent crushing goes without a hitch.

"I'll pay for an instrument. Never mind on the world atlas, from what I see it does not serve my current objective very well. I will take only the map of Jaquim, and candles, and maybe the knife if you can demonstrate how it works. Do you have anything else?"

Gray looks inquisitively around the shop.

"Oh, and since I can understand that this place does not get much customers, perhaps I can have a little, sweeter deal..."

[speech check]

[Gray's speech check automatically succeeds, as he has been trained to speak since birth. It comes naturally to him.]

"From what I understand it was used to sacrifice an ass, or maybe something was sacrificed TO an ass. Anyway, the knife was constantly shimmied like this."
He starts making a wavy wiggling motion with his arms. Gray rubs his eyes. It seems like an optical illusion, but the blade appears to be completely straight now.
"Yeah, even when making cuts with it. There's definitely some sort of song and dance to complete the ritual, but I'm not sure what they are."

He puts down the knife and takes out a lever sprouting from a panel, with some sort of mechanism on the other side.
"This is some switchy doodad, taken from a bigger machine."
A small bronze sundial. "Tell time wherever you go!"
A strange key with a skull on the handle. "This probably goes somewhere important."
A rawhide elliptical shield painted with black and white stripes. "I gotta admit, even I have no idea where this comes from. Perhaps an unexplored region of Tuong?"
Finally he pulls out a dagger that looks more like a horn of bone with a handle crudely carved out, oily rainbows coating its surface.
"And of course, who could forget this trolltooth dagger? Many a duel has been won by the wielder of this."

"Ill take the troll tooth dagger, the shield, and the key please, with my previously requested items."

[BARGAINING check]

[Gray's bargaining check automatically succeeds, as he has been trained to haggle since birth. It comes naturally to him. Also the shopkeeper is a chump.]

"Wow, nobody's ever bought this much before! It's all yours for just 400 rooks, and I'll throw in the banjo for your friend here too."

In exchange for a large bundle of odds and ends, Gray parts with yet another significant chunk of his finances. He and Jorah head back to the wagon where they deposit their newly acquired goods.

Touka and Amos find at the end of the dirt path is Dorou, more of a hamlet than a village. It is built on the highest hill for miles around. Large clouds of dust sift downwards. The sounds of woodcutting and smithing are ever present, though they can not yet see the source. It will be a long and arduous climb.

"What a perfectly creepy isolated mountaintop village. If only this hill were a little more silent it would be absolutely sublime."

"wow! such sweet deelz, thx fo da banjo brah. wuts the plan right now? Judging by Amos and Touka's ignoring of us yesterday, I'd imagine they won't come back to look for us after whatever 'holy quest' they're now embarking on."
Jorah starts tuning the banjo

"Judging from my map, they are heading towards Dorou. Although I do not know why they are going there, I've heard rumors of there being a dragon over there, so I don't think its quite safe. Also judging by the fact that they are ignoring us, they seem to hold some sort of malign opinion of us, so its best for us to serve our own interests until the day our objectives align once again."

Gray hitches up the wagon, and sets off towards the source of the mithril with Jorah.

"meh, you're more fun then they are anyways"

"Right, wonder what they're doung up there to cause all this dirt and stuff in the air?" She uses her abilities to change the pigmint of her skin to her original pale white before looking at amos. "Wanna head up there?"

"Lets." Amos begins marching up the long and arduous path.

"Lets hope you don't collapse halfway up." She makes her way up as well.

At the top of the hill Amos and Touka are greeted by a middle aged man in a monk's robes. "If you are on your way to somewhere else, please turn back now. Once you enter this town you will not be able to leave for some time," he warns in a kindly voice.

"We are here to see if a young boy named Daliu is here, has he passed through these parts?"

"Why yes, Daliu is helping our holy work in this very village."

"What sort of reason is there for one way access to this village?" Amos leans over to whisper to Touka despite being visibly obvious about it. "It might be a mistake to enter a hive of zealotry considering your fleshchanging tendencies."

"Never said we were going in." She whispers back to him before turning back to the monk. "What holy work is a boy doing that fills the air with the sounds and smells of forges?"

"Sorry but er, I can't say."

"Well thats that then. Might I suggest if your going to war, buy weapons from the Oni clans on the islands off of Fei. We make some of the finest weapons available. Tell Daliu Touka and AD said hi." Saying that she turns to leave.

The man seems curious. "Oh, huh? Do they have lots of platinum?"

She stops at the strange question. "Platinum? Our artists shpuld have some of it in their storehouses. If you want gaudy weapons like that i suppose we could mix it with steel in a 60/40 combination, instead of mithril or orichalcum like we usually do."

"Are you pulling my leg? The secrets of orichalcum are jealously guarded by Abatos."

"Spoils of war against some changeling scum who wanted revenge. We cant get any more, so any mix of it is only 90/10, if even that much is used, we are nearly out because Abatos took the majority of it from us when we handed over the creature."

She coughs into her hand. "Anyway what do you need such gaudy weapons for?"

Amos grins at the monks fascination. "The esteemed last might be happy to discuss business if you could bid for Daliu to speak to us here. We have little need for a private meeting with the lad."

"Okay, I'll go tell him." The monk rushes into town.

"Food for thought, the last person who interrupted an oni while discussing business had their head ripped off of their shoulders."

"You seem the pragmatic type though. Why waste precious time with a monk that can't seal a negotiation when you can send him to to retrieve Daliu and his superior as well?"

"Because I was only pitching the idea to him, I'm not authorized to make the actual deal. I was going to send him to my grandfather, who can actually make the deal."

"Either way we can speak to Daliu and see if he can lend his meatshie- er, body on the quest to understand whatever the fuck is actually going on."

"Using a child as a shield, how noble of you. Whats next using me as one?"

"Man this is a long trip. Hey Grey, I spy.......... something yellow! Guess what it is."

In response to Jorah's inquiry Gray takes a sweeping look across the expansive landscape, over the rolling hills and infinite wilderness around them. There is a sudden tingling feeling that the very time at this moment seemed to stop, the day's time stretched across eternity. That feeling quickly passes, however, as a slow breeze blowing across Gray's face confirmed to him that time was truly moving.

Jorah's question wasn't very easy to answer, as Jorah's gaze was vacant and difficult for Gray to trace.

"The dirt?"

That didn't seem like the right answer. Suddenly, something normally taken for granted caught Gray's attention due to the prolonged boredom of travel.

"Is it the su... ahk, my eyes!"

Gray's field of vision was swiftly flooded with yellow and black simultaneously, as his sight is overcome by the majesty of the sky's brightest star. In reflex Gray's hand comes to the protection of his senses, as it shields his eyes from the sun's burning light.

"Ha, as potent as the sun is, even my hand of flesh can blot it out. It is too far and too removed to have power over me, just like perhaps kings and gods..."

It was perhaps relative isolation that evoked such a feeling of freedom within Gray, but this was the life, what he reveled and valued. This was true realization, for someone who was hung up on wealth for most of his life.

What was the purpose for wealth? For glory and prestige? Or for power and authority?

Those might be the result of wealth, but for those factors there are other, more direct venues.

No, the purpose of wealth, Gray could conclude right now, was for freedom, the freedom to do whatever one wants without the limits of poverty or responsibility. Power through position carried with it the responsibility of maintaining that position. Power through wealth, although more limited, had in a sense a more universal application.

But, in the end, it was for one thing that he sought wealth, and that was the very freedom he was experiencing now. Gray felt a great burden released from his mind as he realized his true calling, compared to the limitless bounds of the world, the powers of men were all the much more limited.

His epiphany gave Gray great elation, but it was in short order that he noticed that Jorah was still waiting for the correct answer.

"I'm sorry, brother, what was this yellow thing you spot? I seemed to have missed it."

The monk returns. "Daliu is busy with his work. He can see you in an hour."

Jorah is taken aback by Gray's intensity as he has his grand epiphany.

"Man, your really into this game aren't you?
You almost had it for a second there. Shining in all it's glory, although fated one day to entropy away just like everything else. But, for now, it's still here. Just like us, huh. Still here, just doing our shit, wasting away no matter what we do. One day we'll just end up dead, with or without a bang.

It's funny, isn't it. I'm sure you've met many interesting people in the past, all different in the way they think and act, but all fated for the same end. No matter how much swagger strength, intellect, or agility they have; no matter how many find it impossible for them to fall, they all entropy away as though they never existed, and the world just keeps on moving.

This world was born to die, and all within it. Some believe in a salvation, but it will never come. Only one will be conserved.

Well, anyways, the answer was the sun. Your turn. Make it something hard, that's fun."

"Hey, no fair, that was my answer."

Gray complains, but makes no attempt to make it an issue.

"I spy something hard, and far away."

"is it Amos's gland the mountains?"

"No, its Amos's gland that tree over there."

Gray quickly reveals his answer, finding the game to be not very fun.

Jorah notices Gray's displeasure.
"You don't seem to find this very enjoyable, huh. Well, this long ride's not gonna get any more fun with us sitting here like fools, we may as well do something. I started off with this game, now you think of something to do."

[Amos gains a rank in Weapon Training(Hand to Gland)]