Teresa's intermezzo
the NPCs, who just live their lives, and the PCs, who generally ruin their lives.
These are their stories....
Well, it's the story of one of them. Following the 'success' at the roadhouse, Teresa could not go on a treasure hunting adventure. She decided to repent and help out in the Silverwick Ward instead. The following snippets are a look in her adventures when the rest of the party was hunting booty on an island.
1 - The Book
After waving the party off on the ship Teresa head back to the Silverwick Ward to help out. She spend a part of the day doing small chores and talking to some patients, then she had a long conversation with the head of the ward, an old Dwarf named Thigrolum Greymane. He picks her mind and senses there are better things she can do. Paying penance here isn't doing her any good.
There is an old bookshop in the city, The Booknook, she should inquire about the old faith and tell the owner he send her.
That same day she rushed to the bookstore. She remembered the books of Aldust she lost in The Dig, and how she hadn't been able to get a hold of something similar.
The Booknook seemed to be squeezed between buildings, barely a little more than a door wide Teresa had little hope to find something of use here. A small bell rang as she opened the door and she peered into a 60 ft long corridor with a bookshelf on the right. The books all neatly lined and perfectly clean on the shelves.
Walking the corridor she ran her finger across the books looking for something of interest to her. A cough pulled her from her search as she was halfway through the corridor. "Please don't touch the books. I take great care in keeping them clean."
A neatly dressed man stood beside her, completely blocking the way with his large posture. His clothes would have fit at some point, but now the seams struggle to keep the fabric together.
"If you know what you are looking for I can help you, I don't like people browsing. Follow me" he says as he wrenches himself through the corridor. Teresa gingerly follows him.
The corridor ends in a large room, filled with shelved and neatly sorted books. A spiral staircase is in the far left corner, a desk on the far right. The man sits behind the desk and gestures widely "Welcome, to the Booknook. How may I help you today?"
At the mention of Greymanes name he jumps up, nearly lifting the desk with his belly.
"Ah yes, Thigrolum send word. I know what you are looking for, follow me. And please keep your hands to yourself..." He murmurs joyfully and Teresa picks up his name, they call him the Shy Baron apparently. She wants to ask why, but it's hard to interject the waterfall of speech. She follows him and they take the staircase down two levels. The lower levels get a bit smaller each time.
The air gets noticeably colder and a bit damp. Shelves are now lined with small boxes and chests. He pulls out a small stool and steps on it to reach up high on a shelve. Teresa wonders the stool must hold some structural magic to hold the weight of the Baron. He collects the chest and moves to a small table.
"There was a world before the world of today. Some things got lost and some new entered the world." The box opens with a click and he pulls out a small tome.
"And some things never change, perhaps only get a new name".
He hands Teresa the book, it looks to be in pristine condition. Roots line the cover, in the place of the title is an empty space.
"We're not sure about the age of this book, and it will probably not give you the answers you are looking for. But it will help you on your way."
As they head back up the stairs the Baron talks on end and Teresa wonders why he's called shy. When she finally gets a word in and asks about payment he slaps her on the shoulder. "Thigrolum says you've paid a fair price already. However, we do take donations" and he presents a jar shaped like a pig on the counter. Teresa pulls some gold coins from her pouch and puts them in.
Talking freely the Shy Baron follows Teresa out, he hands her a Booknook bookmark just before she leaves. "Do tell your friends about us when they need something special".
2 - The Amulet
Back at the placeholder inn Teresa eats a simple meal and is off to her room.
She opens the window and with a gentle breeze the sounds of the city roll in.
Her mind wanders as she thumbs through the book, it's gorgeously illustrated and a drawing of pine trees bring her back to Ranna Amethystall. After Aldusts death she was the first person she could really talk about druidism. She learned a lot on the way back to Korint. Sadly they had to part but Ranna gave her a pendant to continue her journey.
Teresa has played with it, meditated on it and attuned to it. But the lock for the key the pendant was supposed to be she never found. If hung by a string it would point north, but Teresa was not sure how that would function as a map.
A tiny bit frustrated she put the book down and set the amulet on top it. The moment the amulet touches the cover the room falls completely silent. As if the noise of the city is drowned out by the silence of a an open field. Carefully she picked up the amulet and the sounds came rushing in again.
This just might help her on her journey.
That night, after she put Blemmigan in his box for the night she sat down on the floor, wrapped the amulet around her hand and started reading. In the deafening silence it created she read until sunrise.
She read about about Druids in olden times, how they formed circles and protected land, sea, or desert. Some even lived underground. Some of the tales resembled tales Ranna told her. Tales of druids who protected and guided nature, or focused on the discovery of species, like Naeslin's Pupils.
Judging by the written tales and what Aldust and Ranna had told her this book is almost certainly post-collapse and she finds it more than a bit confusing Aldust never mentioned the different circles.
When she turned in for bed Blemmigan was lightly snoozing in his (or her, Teresa still didn't know) velvet lined box. A piece of parchment lay on her bedsheets. As always in impeccable handwriting, a poem:
All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love,
No hand to left or right
And emptiness above -
Know that you aren't alone
The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years."
Thinking of her adventuring friends her mind wanders asleep. Maybe she shouldn't have stayed behind.
3 - The Poet
A distant clatter of plates and rumbling of people woke Teresa from her slumber. A piece of parchment stuck to her cheek as she got up.
In impeccable handwriting the title of the poem read "Touching tiger's balls"
Reached through the bars that had a little give
What are you doing? Don't you want to live?
Tiger was my friend
Still it was the end
He tore me up like I'd been through a sieve
Another of Blemmies poems. She stuffs it in her pouch and stumbles downstairs for dinner.
She eats her breakfast in silence, contemplating what she had learned last night. It seemed the amulet wasn't the key to the book at all. Neither did she get visions, in fact she had a nasty dream about losing her friends in a dark cave. Perhaps the amulet is more of a physical key? The book wrote about root dens, chambers made right under a tree for Druids to seek refuge for a night or to meet. Apparently the first of these root dens were made by Naeslin himself.
Teresa is pulled out of her pondering by a piece of parchment falling in front of her; 'Breakfast' the title says.
A dinner party, coffee, tea,
Sandwich, or supper, all may be
In their way pleasant. But to me
Not one of these deserves the praise
That welcomer of new-born days
She chuckles and when she opens her pouch to put the poem away a waterfall of parchment pieces pour on to the floor. She quickly gathers them and sits back down.
"This is amazing!" She hears a man say next to her.
"Did you write this? It hit's me right in the soul!"
"Well, uh yes" Teresa mutters and she feels a jab in her neck. And she reads the poem in his hand:
the porcelain chalice
stands proud and tall
collecting gifts
from any and from all
mounds of brown
and streams of gold
a stinking privilege
it has been told
to pray
to the porcelain god
"Would you please sign it for me? Sign it for me, please lady with the moustache. I'll frame it!"
Taking the small pen from Blemmy she signs the poem.
"I've got an autograph from the lady with the moustache!" he shouts and runs off.
"What was that about?" Teresa asks Blemmy. "Lady with the moustace?"
"If your poems are so good, maybe we need to make a book out of it. I can be your ghostwriter if you like."
She feels another prick in her neck and heard a chuckle from her hood.
When she finishes her bread she sees her reflection on the steel plate, Blemmy drew a moustache on her face while she was asleep.