I find it quite ironic that with my induction in the ranks of the Troubadours I stop submitting songs to the library and instead begin keeping a real journal of my experiences. While I'm still very interested in the oral traditions of my people and all namegivers, recent experience has taught me that it is too easily warped by time and even the loss of a single person may lead to irreparable damage to our knowledge.
So here begin my chronicling of my life in a more durable and less stylised format in the hope that some of what I record may be of use in writing a better tomorrow.
Lados Chance, a Troubadour from the Throalic Institute of Arts, contacted me with a request for assistance. Almost exactly a year ago, a similar request of theirs had sent me and a few other adepts to retrieve Rikka the Reveler's songs from their tomb, an unfortunate caper where Ursal's life was lost (my experiences then are recorded in my Songs of Dawn). Has my heart been hardened so much since then that I find myself barely spilling a tear in Ursal's memory?
But back to Lados and their request, they'd spent the last year trying to understand why Ricca's tomb was empty to the point of obsession. They had found a number of theories from the time of Rikka's death, such as becoming the mistress of king Varulus I, or retreating to a moot in the mountain to defend it from Therans. At this point Lados was quite clearly grasping at straws to find more leads and asked us to talk to one Ohumu Kipi Syrtis in the Lahai Gorge, since the traditional songs in the region show a strong resemblance to Ricca's style
I'd found a few others to join me on this journey:
- Jarock Hammer-Shield, an orc Weaponsmith
- Solanus "Juniper" Pyrocantha, an elven Shadow
- Malonin "Mal" Turnith, an elven Archer
- Nib of clan Skyreader, a windling Wizard apprenticed to Zivilyn of Skyreader Isle
The trip down to Syrtis was without trouble, we took the roads north to Sosanopa and then bought passage on a boat down the Serpent and reached the city in the gorge in just over a week. Once there I started asking around to find Ohumu. Most of the people I asked had heard of them and considered them to be some kind of grifter or scoundrel. This was not very surprising, artists are often treated little better than criminals unless they have the backing of a patron.
Eventually we found Ohumu in an inn called the Gilded Tail, trying to convince the owner to let them set up a stage inside instead of on a riverboat as per t'skrang tradition. I approached Ohumu as he was about to leave and asked about Ricca, they initially did not want to talk, bearing some kind of grudge against Lados, but eventually I got them talking by pretending we were writing a play about adventurers trying to discover Ricca's real fate.
Apparently I am too trusting for this kind of work as I took Ohumu's suggestion to look in the Twilight Peaks sersiouly. Luckily Juniper is much more familiar with dealing with this kind of double speak and learnt of an old weaver living in the city who knew a lot of songs that could have been Ricca after death's.
We set out to go talk to the weaver after Nib thoughtfully bought some hot food to bring as a gift. The weaver, whose name is Hinai Varna Syrtis, lived and traded in baskets near the city fisheries, which as a note smell terrible due to the local eels or something. We talked with the t'skrang for a bit, they sang us a song that could have been by Ricca and then offered to go look for the book they'd learnt the song from if we watched their wares while they were away. Juniper and I manned the stall and, after Juniper started spinning some yarn about "true elven goods", I started making up a bit how these were "windling approved baskets" that I would "happily live in". This seemed to attract the locals' attention and we made brisk business, I think. When Hinai returned, they were surprised at the amount of stock sold and let us have the book and the pack they'd kept it in.
I started skimming through it, but Nib offered to research it thoroughly and proceeded to read faster than Jacint eats a mouse. The book was a journal, presumably by Ricca, and described three locations that were especially suited for song, some kind of natural amphitheatres. The first was in the cliffs above the city so we immediately visited it and I sang the song in the journal closest to the description of the location. One of the Troubadours in the area gave me and Juniper, who sang backup, some pointers to improve. The help was great and appreciated, but I don't think my body will ever be capable of sounding like an adult troll. Maybe I should see if I can teach Isidoros to cover the low notes for me.
The next day we set off towards the next location. Juniper and Jarock looked like they hadn't slept much, but Juniper had some more insight on the journal, they felt that is was written to intentionally obfuscate the identity and location of the author. Was Ricca running away from obsessive groupies?
Mal took on the duty of keeping us on track, while Jarock kept an eye out for threats, and I foraged. I thought I'd done a good job until we got to cooking and the size of the pot reminded me of how much tallfolk eat. You'd think the size would be enough of a reminder.
Despite the grumblings about portion size, the journey was quite uneventful as we progressed up the Caucavic river. After a few days we reached the second location, a gorgeous but otherwise nondescript bit of the valley. Once again Juniper and I sang and the environment seemed to provide backup singing for us. Nib saw some kind of astral imprint activate in response to the music but couldn't quite tell what it was. We sang some more songs to try and repeat the reaction but could not get to the bottom of it, so our journey resumed.
A few days later (and some better foraging) we found ourselves ambushed by a pack of dire wolves, the fight was long but not dangerous as Jarock held the attention of the wolves while the rest of us picked them off. At this point we thought we were only half a day or so from the third location so we pressed on.
Soon I heard some singing further on in the forest, Juniper and Mal tried to sneak up to find the singer but the voices just moved ahead, when they came back, I tried to sing a response to the music, which got some kind of reaction from the voices. At this point we started advancing and the voices seemed to lead us forward until we reached a clearing where six horror constructs looking like humanoid deer and boar were circled up around a bird of some kind.
Horror constructs are always bad news, so we prepared to give fight even if we were already tired by the encounter with the wolves. Once again Jarock tried to hold the enemies attention while the rest of us took them down, but this time it almost cost them their life. Juniper and Mal were also seriously injured and Juniper resorted to pretending to be knocked out.
The bird turned out to be a Cloudbird chick and its much much larger parent swooped down to give a deafening cry mid fight. Eventually we prevailed, the concerned parent took their child away and we continued on, even if at this point we were completely exhausted.
Soon after we reached a plateau with a small stone cabin (well small for tallfolk), inside the cabin we found several journals clearly identified as Ricca's and more songbooks. Nib one again devoured the journals and explained that Ricca had been researching a fusion of the Troubabour art and Elementalism and exploring the "musical properties of the world". The last journal ended with a mention of Ricca feeling like her time was over and that they would go outside and sing until they were no more.
Outside we found a bench overlooking the river, and despite not being able to find any body, we performed an improvised funeral rite. Much like the previous location, the mountains seemed to provide back up singing here.
Eventually we made our way back to Throal, where Lados was delighted with the information we provided and offered to train me as a Troubadour.Statistics:Posted by sigfriedmcwild — Sun Sep 13, 2020 10:34 pm
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