(Griever) No Charn, No Foul pt1
Log Info
- Title: No Charn, No Foul (pt. 1)
- Emitter: Whirlpool
- Characters: Aryia, Edinaz, Jinks, Lysos
- Place: Veyshan and the Inmost Sea
- Time: Saturday, October 3rd, 2021, 06:30 PM
- Summary: Aryia, Edinaz, Jinks, and Lysos must find their way into Charn to gain insight into the activities of the Dominion and, if possible, the Griever. They decide to take a merchant ship from Alexandria into Tashraan, a Veyshanti trade port. Once into Veyshan they make preparations for a trip into the Charnese colonies and the seat of the empire, beyond.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appearing, in Order =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Aryia 4'8" 110 Lb Shadow Elf Female A heavily scarred mul with a resolved look about her. Edinaz 6'10" 296 Lb Half-Orc Male Grey-skinned half-oruch, extensive black ink. Jinks 3'4" 39 Lb Gnome Male A gnomish fellow in fancy garb and jewelry. Lysos 5'6" 105 Lb Human/Tsuran Female Dark eyed tsuran girl. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
So, Charn.
There's something fishier going on there than normal, or at least you've reason to believe it. The real question is 'how are you going to get there'? Travel to and from isn't exactly *common*. Alexandria and Charn don't have the best relations. The only real way to get there is a more circuitous route: going somewhere else, then to Charn.
But where? And how?
So, to the docks you go. Comissioning a ship is not the most difficult thing in the world. Going to Tashraan is a few day trip across the inmost sea in one of the magically enhanced, more speedy vessels. An airship can get you there very quickly too, if you want to chance riding in one.
Airship, or a waterborne vessel. So many different ways to die, on either one. If there's a conversation about it, Lysos doesn't really know where she's leaning.
Aryia vouches for the water way, trusting it far more than artifice in the sky.
Jinks is a big (quiet you) proponent of air travel but it's not a hill he's willing to die on. A few gnomes on the crew and he's just as happy in the air or on the waves. He's happy to make arrangements with whatever captain and properly obfuscate their true purpose in Veyshan.
Edinaz is pretty ambivalent, but doesn't rock the boat. He seems most intent on just getting to Veyshan without Being On A Mission.
"So, one for water, one for air... and two who don't really care," Lysos declares once wishes are made known. They're probably sitting at a table somewhere at the docks, or something, discussing this. Or a corner, assumbled in something like a small huddle. Or at least an arm's length discussion. "I think the last airship I was on crashed, so... maybe sea travel is the way to go this time?"
Across the ocean, then. It'll take some time. The magically enhanced vessel giving you a speedy trip helps. Crossing the ocean waves, dealing with the inevitable bouts of sea sickness for those unused to it, and staying the hell out of the way of the sailors who want nothing to do with you. Adventurers are not being looked on too fondly lately. That someone turned into a dragon and smashed some buildings has done nothing to help matters.
"Aether," Jinks points up. "Oar," and he cants his head towards the docks and pantomimes rowing. "I'm not feeling especially picky." He smooths down his goatee as he opens his mouth, thinking. "Just as long as there are People to keep me company-- and spirits-- I can find a way to be happy."
GAME: Aryia rolls profession/sailor: (17)+13: 30
Lysos isn't too happy by the avoidance and the occasional cold glance sent her way, or her failed attempts to start up conversation early on in the trip with some of the sailors. So she's a pretty dejected tsuran miday into the trip. "It's not like I've ever did anything wrong, to anyone..." she complains, to no one in particular. Conveniently not mentioning that fire in the festival grounds. That she helped put out!
Aryia, at hearing about the recent news of adventurers being slandered and knowing the backend of who's doing such slandering, she ends up deciding: you know what? Screw this, I'm pushing back against this crap.
Despite being told to stay out of the way, the shadow elf is helping the ship in various ways. Patching up sails, moving crates and barrels, tying various knots, helping hoist sails. And very much the complete opposite of what the rumor mill says they were. Useful, and constructive.
Edinaz is happy to sit tight, be quiet, and try to learn a little about the sea. He is, actually, all at sea.
Jinks's keeps his kit in a bag and maintains his cover as a traveling merchant. The fancy clothes, excessive jewelry, and unwillingness to work all play perfectly into that. Given the opportunity he'll make inroads with gnomish members of the crew, finding those suitably pretty (or handsome) enough to busy away the idle hours. He brought no shortage of contraband with which to ingratiate himself.
Aryia's efforts do help to cause some relaxing of the tensions, but people are still not thrilled. It's just how it is right now.
Still, it does help. Help always helps, you know? Helpfully.
Eventually, Tashraan's golden coast looms in the distance, the great city itself sprawling across it in all its incredible vastness. Alexandria is large to most people, but Tashraan is ... massive.
Lysos is more than happy to depart the boat at this point. Pack slung over her shoulder, shawl in place, she's ready to bound down the gangplank the moment they are cleared to leave.
Edinaz looks up, eyes a little wide. "Oh my. This is... a long way from the Tablelands." He closes his eyes, steels himself, and heads after Lysos.
Once the minor duties were squared away, Aryia grabs her belongings and affixes her shades. It felt nice to help out on a boat, even though the crew was a bit ornery. She watches the city come into view. She's passed by it before, but never actually been in there. Or maybe she has? Who knows, it might have been a different time then.
She walks out after everyone else, her sticking close to the group. Closer to Charn meant closer to bad things. And her vigilance had been steadily increasing.
Jinks has his bags on the deck, piled and ready near the railings. His hair is down and flitting lazily in the sea breeze. "Certainly more classic architecture than you'd see in a place like Alexandria-- and the old money here is truly old-- but it lacks the... inventive charm of home." The gnome runs a hand back through his hair and looks across the deck to find the officers at work, puffing on a sickly-smelling weed burning in his pipe.
Once they've put into port he'll gather his things, leave the officers with a bottle, and tip the crew generously for the smooth voyage. Best to leave on good terms; you never know when you'll need a ride down the road.
You're able to disembark easily enough.
They're not exactly sad to see you go.
From here, it's just a matter of finding passage to Charn...
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "Perception checks and then diplomacy, everyone." GAME: Lysos rolls perception: (7)+9: 16 GAME: Aryia rolls perception: (1)+21: 22 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Aryia rolls diplomacy: (11)+-4: 7 GAME: Lysos rolls diplomacy: (6)+10: 16 GAME: Edinaz rolls perception: (7)+12: 19 GAME: Edinaz rolls diplomacy: (14)+2: 16 GAME: Jinks rolls Perception: (3)+7: 10 GAME: Jinks rolls Diplomacy: (18)+11: 29>
Lysos wrinkles her nose, looking up at Edinaz. She looks upset. "It's been a while since people looked at me like that. I don't miss it. Especially when I don't deserve it."
There are two things that immediately stand out. First, there are a LOT of ships marked for Charn right now. It's not hard to find out most of them are carrying grain. Or at least... they SAY they're carrying grain. Getting passage on one of them is not the hardest thing either. Just ask, pay them coin, and presto. Passage.
Edinaz nods to Lysos. "Did you see the oilcloth on board? It repels water. You might have to do that with their looks." He puts a hand on her shoulder -- I mean, he gets the looking thing -- but it means he's somewhat distracted in his looking.
"You should've made friends with the crew," Jinks offers, willfully oblivious to the fact that many were looking at him the same way. He had his debauchery and made his bribes, in his mind all is right with the world. He takes his pipe between his teeth and drops his bags, pausing a moment to secure his hair back into its short, tight tail. A long, deep breath through the nose as he inhales the assorted smells of a trade port. Commerce. Naked avarice. The white-haired gnome gets goose pimples as he takes in the sights.
Aryia raises a brow at the others and shakes her head as she adjusts her belongings over her shoulder. This was a place she didn't want to tarry, and the company she was with was... one she was not used to. Though, information about the boats makes her frown. Grain. Suuure. It was what she thought it was, she was going to have a rough few weeks of trying to rest getting over that. "Nab a grain ship and go?" she suggests, knowing at least one of them could understand her. <Handspeech>
"A grain of truth, perhaps." Jinks agrees with Aryia, smirking. He retrieves his bag from the ground and slings it over his shoulder, stumbling briefly. It's heavy; he's small. "A quick detour past a money-changer, first. I want Charnese mint before we're in the colonies."
Lysos nods grudgingly to Edinaz's advice, patting his hand twice before taking in a deep breath of the salty air. A glance at Jinks has her sniffing, though. "I don't need to make friends with a collection of bigots," she says. Then gives her head a quick shake, attempting to put it behind her. "Good idea," she says, approving of Jinks's suggested side-stop. "Probably wouldn't do to be carrying money from the City around, I guess. Maybe get some proper clothes."
<OOC> Jinks says, "Jinks will go past a money-changer just to get something that's a little less Alexandros in mint. Whether it's Charnese or Veyshanti it doesn't really matter." <OOC> Aryia hates to do this, but scoops up a few sets of Charnese wear and does Jink's suggestion.
"Everyone has their bias," Jinks opines for Lysos benefit, standing on a step as a Veyshanti merchant weighs his coin and exchanges it for something more local. "If they tell you otherwise they're a liar as well as a bigot." The gnome apparently doesn't have the highest opinion of folk.
Aryia rejoins the group with a few pairs of clothes getting shoved into her bag with a different attire on. A full bodied, sleeveless halter dress in a deep violet hue. Something one of middle class stature would wear, and it fits her well. Despite how damn uncomfortable she was wearing it. "He speaks true," a hand gestures, clasping on a black half cloak over it. <Handspeech>
<OOC> Lysos will go with something from the High Myrrish Court. <OOC> Edinaz says, "Oh. Hat of Disguise. Can one be found in the Grand Bazaar?" <OOC> Whirlpool says, "you can buy one if you like here yes." <OOC> Whirlpool says, "Give me a diplo roll to locate it." <OOC> Jinks says, "You want a hand, Ed?" <OOC> Edinaz says, "Yes, please." GAME: Jinks rolls Diplomacy: (16)+11: 27 GAME: Edinaz rolls diplomacy: (13)+2: 15 <OOC> Whirlpool says, "Done. :)" <OOC> Jinks says, "could I have some MW manacles (M) and MW manacles (S), and 2x good locks, Whirl? Should run me 260gp total."
"Not everyone is a prick about it," Lysos responds to Aryia... maybe she didn't manage to let it go, as if she were some sort of northern princess. She lets her breath out, not quite growling, pointedly not looking back at the docked ship. She follows Jinks to change her coin, though it's a meager amount. She doesn't partake much of other shopping, magical or mundane. There's no way she'd hide the Tsuran in her, after all.. and the less in the way of magic she caries the better, in Charn.
With some effort, you're able to procure the supplies you want and are able to board the grain ship headed for the colonies and from there overland to the port of the Hextus region. Hextus itself is inland and is Charn's original capital city.
Edinaz disappears into the market, and comes back with some local clothing and a bulging pack. More clothes.
Jinks watches the crowds moving back and forth as he converses idly with the Tsura. He plucks a cuff like the shed skin of the sith from his wrist, turns it over in his hands, and then slides it back on. His coat unfurls from the lower seam, spilling into a long robe with a wide, velvet sash. The colors spill out from his shoulders and flow down his frame until he's wrapped in bronze and cobalt. "Appreciate when the vile wear their reprehensible nature on their sleeves. Otherwise you might be standing next to a childkiller-- a seller of souls-- and a ruiner of countless lives without ever knowing." He smiles wide, winks at the woman, and takes his sack of coins before heading towards the grain ship.
The ship to the islands is at least a little less tense towards you, but it's evident nobody much likes going to Charn. Nobody seems too happy about it. On occasion, you pass a black galleon patrolling the seas. Charn's military. They've a skeleton crew.
... that is to say, the crew is actively a bunch of skeletons.
Once they get on the grain ship and get going, Aryia grows more nervous as she gets herself situated. Fidgeting with her belongings, opening and closing her journal, messing with her hair. Jinks's addendums didn't help either. She does not help on this ship, distancing herself from the notion that she was capable of more than what meets the eye
A voiceless sigh leaves her, "... f-ck-ng h-t- th-s pl-c-..."
Edinaz spends a lot of time in his bunk, rocking the Veyshanti wear -- he slowly, over time, makes himself blander -- his tattoos fade every day, his hair gets browner, skin gets browner, eyes get browner.
With Jinks having left her with some disturbing food for thought, Lysos eventually finds herself rejoining the greater group and stowing away on the grain ship... and as much as she did not enjoy the previous passage, this one is somehow worse. The crew might not be carrying the same grudge as the ones from Alexandria, but their unease with sailing to Charn is reflective, at least to her, in their interactions. Perhaps they don't wish to know too much about anyone who is willingly travelling there.
Jinks is nothing if not the bon vivant. The gnome finds a faction of the crew within which he might insert himself and indulge during the trip. He has money and vices aplenty to share and is shy about none of it. Tomorrow might be dire and the consequences grim but he can revel in the moment.
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "Roll diplo, Jinks!" GAME: Jinks rolls Diplomancy: (20)+Diplomancy: 20 <OOC> Jinks says, "31 total."