CH. 02 - First Mission

[Daos]

A week has passed, and it is now Magmapour 11th.  It has been an unusually hot and bright summer so far, at least by this region's standards, and many worry that this is a sign of more bad things to come.  Still, the garden of Si'ahl does its best to move on and resume business as usual after the Ravenite raid.  The three members of the party spend their week productively.

Kalinda spent most of the week working at the restaurant, Quil Place Chowder.  Selene held a 'grand reopening' after the raid and basically advertised that one of her employees/tenants was close to the supervisor.  While she never outright claimed the supervisor or those close to him frequent the place or have even been there before, she heavily implied it was possible.  The strategy seemed to work, as several wealthier folk who usually patron Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs decided to 'slum it' at Quil Place Chowder in hopes of running into someone important.  Of course, none of them did, but at least one patron was so impressed with the food, he insisted on meeting the chef--Kalinda, and gave her a hearty tip of 30 pink shards--more than she usually makes in a month!  Beyond that, she mostly kept to herself because of that damnable sun that refused to stay hidden.  While every summer usually has a few bright days, for whatever reason, it's been rather stubbornly consistent this year, making her hope for autumn to get here all the sooner.

April, with no further leads on her quarry, decides to spend the week at the local grove, praying, meditating and assisting the local druids there.  While there, she gets to know the druid in charge, a wood elf named Vaporie who is getting married soon.  As such, Vaporie is obviously quite busy between managing the grove and making wedding plans, so having April there to pick up the slack was a great boon.  In thanks, Vaporie promised that she owed April one, and would hopefully repay the favor some day.

Poppy decides to dedicate the entire week to celebrating her twentieth birthday.  Mostly via pub crawls.  She met a lot of folk and did a lot of things, but most of them are just blurred memories thanks to all of the consumed alcohol.  There was one encounter that stood out in her mind, though.  A high elf woman who lived on the streets named Watta partied with her for awhile.  Watta was caught trying to swipe a bottle of wine (to 'keep this party going') and Poppy managed to step in and smooth-talk the street vendor into not calling the garden guards.  Watta was grateful and offered to repay the favor some day.  She doesn't have any shards, but she hears a lot of things on the streets, so maybe she'll be of use to Poppy some day.

On the morning of the 11th, the three reunite at the Coral Palace and enter the council room together.  The councilors, as well as the supervisor, are currently seated at their round table, seemingly in a deep discussion.

"Also keep in mind, this information is a few days old," Dusksun is saying.  "And we aren't sure how caught off guard they were by it."

Crane sighs, shaking his head.  He then notices the arrival of the three women.  "Ah, good, you are here.  And not a moment too soon, it seems.  "Are you ready for your first mission?"

===================

It is now Magmapour 11th, 10 AM.  Casters may prepare new spells.

[GravityEmblem]

"Yes, I am," April says, stopping herself from asking right away what information they were speaking of. "What is it?"

[OOC: Prepare Bless, Sanctuary, Detect Magic and Cure Wounds.]

[HorizonsDream]

Kalinda bows her head a little to Crane, as she feels she needs to show some respect to him before she takes a seat. "Who were caught off guard?" she asks curiously.

[Daos]

Crane sighs.  "It's just...another complication.  Seems these days there are always more complications."  He shakes his head. "I'll allow the council to explain.  Gardener Pike, Druid Olivia, Saltyx, if you don't mind?"

The three called upon councilors stand and approach the section of the table where the party is.  Saltyx unfurls a map of the region and sets it before them.  "We are sending you to Long Beach, a garden in Tall Pines over on the coast, west of here," she begins, tracing a path with her finger.  "If you take the main road, it should take you about a week to get there.  Your objective is three-fold.  First, there's a well known orphanage in that garden.  Your goal is to find a suitable candidate to be adopted for my uncle's heir.  A girl, preferably, and the younger, the better.  We need as much a clean slate as possible to work with.  And most importantly, she needs to have no surviving family of any kind.  Once she grows up and sits on the throne, we don't need pretenders making claims."  She pulls out a small pouch that jingles with shards and hands it to Kalinda.  "There's twenty-five pinks in there; should be enough to pay for the adoption."

"Twenty-five!" Marine objects, standing.  "Are you serious?  It's bad enough we have to give 19% of everything we earn to the Riverdom, and that paying for the damages from that raid drained our already fairly empty coffers...but really now!"

"It's a suitable investment," Saltyx assures him.  "And it won't matter how much is left in the coffers if we don't secure an heir."

Sighing, Marine sits back down.  Pike then speaks up.  "Your second objective is to make contact with one of my operatives in the garden.  He has not reported in, and I'm concerned he may have been discovered.  He is meant to be gathering information that might assist in the assassination plot, but if he's been found out...well, the sooner we know about it, the better.  If he has not, then I need to know what has happened and why he isn't reporting in or responding to my missives.  He has a safe house in the garden, I suggest you start there."  He hands a scroll to Poppy.  "This contains the location of the safe house, a description of my operative, and a passphrase to use to signal to him that you were sent by me.  I strongly suggest you memorize it and destroy it, lest it risk falling into the wrong hands."

Olivia then speaks up.  "But your most important task is to find and speak with Dzalarhons Dwamish, the captain of the Keepers of the Green.  She was last seen in Long Beach."  Both Saltyx and Pike try and fail to avoid rolling their eyes at Olivia's claim that it's the 'most important.'  Noticing this, she fumes a bit.  "It is the most important, because it's now time-sensitive, as we have just learned.  You see, we just received word that a few days ago, the Trailblazer nation of Clearwater has declared war on the Riverdom.  If you aren't aware, a number of Trailwalkers live in the eastern part of Riverdom, known as Deepwater.  Clearwater has decided it wants to claim that territory for its own.  Because Riverdom is Elonnori and Clearwater is Tralkwalker, this could be seen as a holy war of sorts.  Which means...in all likelihood, the Riverdom has also sent a representative to recruit the Keepers of the Green.  We're hoping that because Salt Whale is further west, you'll still have a head start.  But it is imperative you get there first, and of course, recruit her and her soldiers to our righteous cause."

"Well, there you have it," says Crane.  "Any questions before you depart?"

[Matt4]

Poppy takes the scroll and hides it for now.

She reflects on what the council said. - "I have a couple of questions." - she says: "What's the name of the orphanage?" - she asks Saltyx, before turning to Olivia: "Are we supposed to offer or promise the Keepers something to recruit them? Or do you think they'll just accept once they know what is out objective?"

[Daos]

Saltyx pauses a moment before answering.  "Just...the Long Beach orphanage, I think.  It's a fairly small community, especially these days.  It gets raided so often that it produces quite a few orphans, though."

Olivia says, "The Keepers of the Green are not a mercenary band; they don't work for money or favors.  They serve the church and the glory of Elonna.  You just need to convince their leader that our cause is holy and just.  It shouldn't be too difficult."

[HorizonsDream]

"Other than the requirements of a girl and young, do you have any other requirements?" Kalinda asks. "Is there a limit to how young, or how old for that matter?" she asks.

[Daos]

"The younger the better," Saltyx says.  "A baby would be best; we want a clean slate, someone who has no memory of a previous life.  And human, I suppose, so she at least looks like part of the family."

[Matt4]

"Very well, it seems we're all set then." - Poppy says. - "How many days will it take for us to reach Long Beach?"

[Daos]

"If you take the main road, it should take you about a week to get there," Saltyx repeats.

[HorizonsDream]

"A baby if possible," Kalinda says softly. "Alright, I think that is all the questions I have."

[GravityEmblem]

"We should leave as soon as we're ready," April says.

[HorizonsDream]

"Is there anything else that we need to know before we leave?" Kalinda asks.

[Daos]

"Only to remember what is at stake here," Olivia answers.  "Do this right, and we'll all go down in history as having birthed a new empire from this day."

[Matt4]

"Gotcha." - Poppy says. - "Do we get horses?"