CHOCOLATE DESTINY, ARC 2

Amos nods and starts walking down the road.

Daliu blinks at Touka's non-sequitur, and falls in with the rest of the group.

Richard is bewildered by these strangers he has decided to follow. Why is the child so serious? What is this evil he talks of? Still, Richard is too well-adjusted to be rude and ask these questions directly. He falls in with the others, shaking his head in bemusement.

Signs of civilization become more and more frequent as you venture deeper into Jaquim proper. Wood fences and low stone walls crisscross the land, denoting divisions between the fields of different landowners and fiefdoms. It is around midday when you walk into Mordorthe town of Belle's Cross.

A nexus of quite a few major roads and trade routes, Belle's Cross is larger than Torean, a proper town, yet seems less threatening to Amos and Touka's paranoid eyes. They along with Lee Gray are starving by now, so without discrimination they stumble into the first inn they can find and purchase hearty helpings of goat meat, day-old bread, and leftover stew for the group's noonday meal. As the rabid feasting ensues, you overhear the conversations of local and traveler alike.

"Lord Gilberm is recruiting for the border skirmishes..."
"...nearby village has a dragon problem, an' I heard there's a reward..."
"...Enarou being cursed and all, my economy shipments have ta go through Sibanya instead..."
"...new vein of mithril discovered in the Tana mountain range to the west."

"Mithril..."

Gray's eyes seem to adopt a strange glow at the mention of a valuable commodity.

"Hmmm, what do you guys say we check that out."

"What do we know about digging up precious metal? I'd like to rest for a night before we go on another dangerous escapade."

"Ah, yes, yes, of course rest comes first my brother."

Her eyes gleam at the thought of her families smiths getting their hands on some of the the precious metal. "Fine with me." She yawns."Sleep sounds good though,"

"I was getting a bit tired there as well! I guess I've been cooped up in the lab for a bit too long, haha! Before we sleep, I do think we should discuss our next plan. I have to agree with you, Amos. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am not a miner. Why don't we learn more about the other opportunities before running towards precious metals?"

Amos sends Richard a vicious look. "Maybe, I have some questions that need answering before we set out anyways. Let's get out of here and get a place to stay for the night."

Suddenly a disheveled man in completely mismatched clothing bursts into the common room with a ukelele. "Who's ready for another MUSIC HOUR!!" he yells.
Most of the people give him angry glares, and some get up.

Amos throws his hands up in the air like he just don't care. "What's happening now?"

She hands Amos her 30lb club. "I won't be responsible for killing him."

The man with the ukelele looks at the man with his hands in the air and suddenly starts smiling brightly.
"Yeah! Looks like someone is ready for Music Hour! Welcome to da club buddy!... but please, don't club meh, das not nice"
He starts strumming his ukelele
"Lets start tonight with the 'Law the First'!"

"the Universe shall remain constant;
never being Created nor Destroyed;
..."

[Singing Continues]

"Quite arcane and unique is his verse I would say, I have this tingling feeling that you should know what he's singing about though, Richard."

Gray muses.

"It does sound familiar, although I've never heard it put forth in such an ... unorthodox way. Do physicists often become wandering minstrels in this world? I suppose that wouldn't bode well for me."

"The Sublime Mystery that is the Lord Kelvin;
Transcends our ability to grasp;
And only the Lord can conserve you from entropy;
Do not forget how you are loved;
..."

[Singing Continues]

"Minstrel, what do you know of the first law?"

"The Lord Kelvin, in His infinite benevolence, has designed.... fuck that, it's too long.
Energy b conserved fooo! energy gets transformed and shit but not created or destroyed, yada yada yada, fuck, shit, stuff...
now, I needa get some tips, or i'ma have to sleep outside again."
The man looks irritated after being so rudely interrupted and holds out his hand.

"Conservation of money in my wallet man. No can do."

"Did I not transform the money in your wallet into the time that it took for me to say dose words?
I'm on a schedule man, I gotsta get mah monies. I gotsta!"
The man looks at the club in the woman's hands and backs off a little.
"Well, if you don't wish to tip me, I'd really appreciate it if you threw some tomatoes or lettuce at me, then everyone will start booing and throw other vegetables!... ooooo even better, throw some trippy grass or magic pills!... well, that's wishing for too much I suppose."

"Yeah man, get outta here!" Some rough looking guys walk over to the 'minstrel', wooden clubs raised menacingly. "Nobody wanna hear your unholy cultist chant, let alone pay for it."

Ahe pats him on the shoulder. "There there, everything will be ok."

As she pats him she secretly uses her ability to inject his bloodstream with small amounts of that cactus juice she encountered a while back.

The minstrel smiles
"oh, why sank you"
He backs away a bit
"Preazu, dun club meh guise! the manager told me it was kay!"

She smacks him on the back of the head lightly just to be sure he got the chems, then goes back to her seat.

"All right, All right, gosh, I got your message. I'll stop singing. I never really liked these songs either.
Maybe I should consider a change in profession."
He looks around for interesting people, but realizes the most interesting are right in front of him.
"Hey, u guys doing anything fun? Got any jobs you need to get done?"

"Not any jobs that necessitate a song and dance. Manual labor would be appreciated."

"YESH, I won't have to keep singing this fucking shit. Preazu take me with uuuuu"
He pauses for a moment.
"Right. um. What would I be doing in this manual labor job? and wutchu willling to pay meh?"

Richard is open-jawed. Nothing in his past has ever prepared him for something like this.

"Look, we have dental," Gray grins, revealing a set of relatively clean teeth, "I bet that's all you need to know. Plus we got benefits, the best kind."

Gray winks at Amos and nudges him to play along.

"Contractual dental to boot!" Amos pulls out some paper riddled in scribbles. "We can write up a contract and sign you on to protect your rights as an employee."

"Well ya better include a recipe book or sumptin. I haven't tried to eat teeth before, and I bet it would hurt without proper cooking"
The man puts on an inquisitive expression
"What kind of a person would be willing to part with their teeth anyways. You guys are crazy... I like it"

She facepalms at the two's behavior. "And I thought I was cheap." She mumbles to herself. When she hears the strange mans reply she groans.

"You guys are like a jester's group. You even got yourself a straight man for your acts! This is too much fun to pass up. It doesn't sound like you guys are actually jesters though. I'll come witcha for free... As long as you keep me fed and safe... I'd prefer something other than your teeth though, a bit too crunchy for my tastes although I'm sure it's quite the delicacy."

"No teeth then. We'll have a paper ready to be signed tomorrow. Meet us here in the morning 'kay?"

Richard whispers to the other three, studiously ignoring the strange hobo. "Should we tell him about the jobs we may have available? He might not be so cheerful to join us if he hears about our quests."

"Why do I get the feeling you two are just going to keep him out of whatever profit is to be made from selling the mithril to my clan?"

[Attempt to listen in to the conversation]

Daliu studies the strange man's face in excruciating detail.
[Waiting on GM]

"Though we could go fight a dragon, that sounds suicidal enough."

"What about guarding a merchant caravan? That sounds simple enough. I agree, fighting dragons is a bad idea."

Amos separates Gray from the rest of the group for a minute, making sure no one can eavesdrop (and will continue to move away until he is certain others can't hear him). "The shapeshifters back at Enarou, we never discovered the truth behind their plotting. I'm concerned that they are connected to the ghoul epidemic and worse, that they might be preparing to use their powers of disguise to spread it further into Jaqim. Enarou was most likely a dry run that instills fear in the farmers of the country side that in turn feed these rumors to the capital. They might be under orders of another empire, either way we either need to get out of here before they wreak vengeance upon us or another ghoul plague begins."

Gray coughs.

"I prefer not to think about the consequences that such would forebode, although it is important that we be on a lookout for whatever it is to protect ourselves from falling victim. I don't think we can go back to the mainland with Enarou blocked off and the mainland ravaged in turmoil so I think the best alternative would be to take haven in the capital. That should be the safest place, right?"

Ukelele-man hears everything up until Amos decides to drag Gray outside all the way to the outskirts of town, where he is certain no others can possibly hear him. It takes a lot longer than a minute, but better safe than sorry.

Daliu leans in to Ukelele-mans' face. The skin is that of Jaquim natives. His dark brown eyes are heavy lidded and have dark rings underneath. Wrinkles and pockmarks underline his otherwise youthful face, making it difficult to determine his age. This guy's seen some shit. His chin is unobtrusive, seeming to fade into his neck. Daliu gets a strange feeling that there should be a long beard attached there, and that the man's messy back curls should be all white.

Ukelele-man stares intently back at the young man staring intently at him and really slowly pokes the young man on the cheek with his index finger.

[still trying to listen to conversations he can hear]

Touka heads to the bank, taking her club with her.

Daliu snaps back to reality and slaps the Ukelele man's finger away from his cheek.

"Something is weird about you, mister. Your beard, or lack therefore, disturbs me. What is black should be white."

"Except that shapeshifters might be targeting the capital. And that we have their comrade's blood on our hands. Plus, aren't you curious about them? The shapeshifters are fascinating from a "phenomenon of nature" perspective."

"wow! that's deep... or maybe not deep... idunno.
would it cheer you up if I sang you a song, little man?"

"Well, I am indeed curious, but we do not seem to have any leads at the moments. If we waste too much time being indecisive we may allow them to have a head start on us to where-ever we may plan to go, and so I believe we must make a decision on where to go fairly quickly."

Gray brushes his nonexistent beard.

"What do you say we do then, brother?"