Porthca Landing II: Lost & Found

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At hearing her companions warnings, Valerie jolted up from where she had been relaxing, fully dressed and illusioned up in her armor. A layer of salt coated her in protection as a large, white, crystalline crossbow formed in her hands. She aimed it at the movement, but dropped it at hearing Ander speak, the weapon dissolving into salt as it hit the ground. Valerie hid a snicker at hearing Tyrius's attempt to disguise his voice. Wow... he really needs to work on that. Maybe I should offer him lessons? She squinted in the darkness to see the figure, and after thinking to herself for a moment spoke in her normal voice. "Hello there, Magnolia, it is a pleasure to meet you. I'm Valerie. As my friends have said, we were staking this place out to look for some thugs who are direly in need of a lesson... Needless to say, you do not match their description." She laughed. "Do you want to join us on our watch? I have brought cookies!" She picked up a small sack of what remained of the cookies she had purchased a few days previously.
 
The idea of snacks and hospitality captivated the halfling, "you my friend have a deal."** A giant grin acrossed her face as she looked at her new friend. "Tell me does anyone know how to play Negrastic checkers?"
She removes an ornate wooden box from her backpack, and starts setting up what apears to be a game of sorts. In the light of a luminous pebble, which she conjured with a word, you can see it involves different colored marbles and weird indentations on the surface
 
Eliza focused on the lit pebble ignoring the rest of the board. “Oh, was that light?” She asked happy to see yet another person with magic. It was wonderful to have meet so many varied ‘ordinary’ people who also knew magic and used it everyday.
 
Moment by moment, Virra found the halfling was growing on her. Tyrius's attempt at disguising his speech got a good chuckle out of her, and she barely bothered to turn her head to hide it from Magnolia.

"Ty, your voice is plenty smooth enough already. Just be confident," she encouraged him. "Try talking to her about magic and see if you have any other shared interests."

Jumping ahead of anyone else in the group who might have looked interested, she quickly positioned herself on the other side of the board. "I'll play," she declared, sitting down right there and crossing her legs. "You'll have to explain the rules, though." Her concentration on the stakeout was well and truly gone.
 
Magnolia proceeded to explain at length the rules of Negrastic checkers, including the part about slapping an opponent when you win. If that was the halflings own rule you may never know, but she is quite insistent that it is part of the game.
"Yeah I've got loads of magic spells! Most of them are about patching people up but I have this really cool one called spiritual weapon! Do you know it?" Her general demeanor is infectious and cheery.
Looking over to Ty, "come on handsome there is lots of room at the table. Sit next to me," as she pats a spot next to her.
She is quite happy to eat oatmeal raisin cookies as they are perfectly acceptable and delicious.
 
Tyrius smiled as he sat down next to Magnolia and looked at the board as she explained the rules of the game. It looked like it'd be interesting, certainly more fast paced than dragon chess.

"Thank you," said Tyrius after he'd sat down, dropping the attempt at hiding his voice and hoping the fact it was the evening would help hide who he was for the moment. 'I really don't need a rep as the Noble prepared to Shatter an innocent woman because might be bandit' he thought, figuring that next time some caution might not go amiss. "So, what is Spiritual Weapon?" Tyrius asked, sensing that Magnolia might be keen on talking about that.
 
Virra seemed not to be paying a lot of attention as Magnolia relayed the rules, though the introduction of the slapping penalty made her grin. When Ty actually went along with sitting down next to her, she showed even more teeth.

"Oh, magic," she said with an exaggerated sigh. "Doesn't really appeal." With that, she made a surreptitious glance towards Valerie. An oatmeal cookie floated itself out of the sack and over to her side, where she caught it between her thumb and forefinger. She looked straight at Magnolia as she took a bite. "Let's do this."
 
Mags gave the young noble a wicked grin, "it's divine power given shape. Then you smack your enemies with it!"
She offers no further explaination on the subject, instead changes the subject to the rest of the party. "So who the hell are you guys anyway? You don't look like bounty hunters, not that is know but; you just don't feel like it."
Her attention more on her new cookie wielding friends then the game at hand.
 
Eliza’s perked up at the mention of divine magic. She hadn’t been exposed much to that type back at Azarad and hadn’t spent much time with Cate before she left the group to learn more. She listened intently to halfling nodding her head along, “So did you have to go to a school to learn your magic?” She asked curious.
 
Valerie looked startled as a cookie floated out of her sack but shrugged, noticing it was one of the bad types of cookies. Seeing Tyrius getting in on the game as well, she closed her eyes for a moment and dropped the illusion spell, seeming to shrink a foot before she sat down on the ground. Valerie removed her helmet and smiled warmly to Magnolia as she took a bite of a chocolate chip cookie. A stark white thin layer of salt seemed to be coating her armor and skin. "I hope you do not mind if I join in as well. I must admit, I am rather hopeless at board games, but perhaps maybe this one may come naturally to me."
 
The normally sociable Virra hardly looked up from the board as the game proceeded. Once she realised that the cookie she'd swiped was full of macadamia nuts she discarded that too. All of her mental faculties were turned towards the pieces and the swirling nexus of the noosphere behind her eyes. She plucked knowledge from the heads of dozens of distant Negrastic checkers players and dipped it in her own intuition, smacking individual checkers down on the board like she was co-ordinating the advance of an army. The halfling was talented, and it took all of Virra's concentration just to keep up with her.

After laying down the decisive move, it took a few seconds to register in her head. Then she let out a squeak of joy. "Is that... does that mean I...?" Her grin was ferocious. "Oh, friend. Are you ready for your forfeit?" she asked, gleefully rubbing her hands together as she leaned over the board. "Are ya ready? Are ya ready?"
 
Another snort of a laugh, "magic school? Nah Yondalla just stopped into my head one day when I needed her. Then she asked me if I wanted to help people, and live life to the fullest. I mean who wouldn't say yes?"
Ah she was distracted by all these questions about magic... And had lost...
Looking Vera dead in the face, she squinted her eyes with a twinkle of mischief, "you'll have to try and hit me first!"
With that the light went out and the halfling disappeared, giggling maniacally the whole time.
 
Eliza looked around nervously again. Did they just stay out in a dark field threatened by bandits and play a boardgame with a halfling? Were they charmed? Was Magnolia a Fey witch trying to trap them into a soul contract! Pyria turned out alright in the end but not all Fey were as nice, Eliza knew from her extensive research reading her faery tales.

The half-orc tried to remember anything the group might have said that could land them into trouble. Thankfully Virra had won that game. “Uh, guys, sh...shouldn’t we be heading back now.” She stammered having throughly freaked herself out.
 
Hearing the freaked out tone in Eliza's voice, Tyrius figured that in the manor was a better place than the field for the checkers game. "We probably should." said Tyrius, back to his usual voice. Turning towards their new friend, Tyrius added, "Erm, we're staying in the Silverbane Manor," Tyrius said, "If you'd like, we could learn checkers in there. Sure there's some food we could scrounge up from the kitchen." Tyrius awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, "You know, as sort of an apology for mistaking you for a bandit? You'd be most welcome and I can think of at least one person who'd love to make your acquaintance." Tyrius added, remembering that Elizabeth would more than likely start the Wyford Inquisition the moment she found out there was someone in the house with a belief in a deity that wasn't Sabine.
 
Wyford | Outer Fields:

Banrigg had stood off to the side, keeping a hand on his axe while he watched the proceedings, "Think it's time we headed back to the keep. Doesn't look like any bandits're gonna show up tonight, an' our ruckus ain't helpin'."

Gathering up everyone else, including the newcomer, the party returned to the Manor, finding most of the inhabitants asleep with only a skeleton crew of servants still awake at this hour. The black cat Egnaro was wandering the halls however and seemed to look interested at the unfamiliar person before trotting away through the halls.

A servant approached Tyrius, "Lord Tyrius and guests, is there anything you require?" They glanced down at Magnolia, "Or ... your newest guest?"
 
Magnolia looks hard at Tyrius, lord? Well this changes things...
Turning her attention back to the servant who greeted them, "if you are being held against your will, wink once and I will get you out of here."

"Ah yes lord Tyrius, a lovely estate. I see your home is well kept by your staff?" The last part is almost more of a question then ststatement. Some unasked question hangs in the air.
 
Silverbane Manor | Entryway:

The servant suddenly jumped -- startled by hearing someone in their mind, "W-what? Uhm ... " they looked between Magnolia and Tyrius, "I'm sorry Lady ...? I don't know how to respond to that? I-if nothing is needed, I should return to my tasks?"
 
Tyrius looked to Magnolia with a confused look, "Respond to what? What happened?" Tyrius didn't look angry, he was just concerned, especially with how much Gwen had jumped out of her skin. "I think we'll be okay Gwen, have a good night." Tyrius said before turning to Magnolia with a confused look.
 
Virra knew that reaction. She'd seen it in Ander out in the field, and she'd inflicted it on many people herself, especially in the last eleven days. She gave the cheeky halfling a sidelong glance.

"You might wanna go easy on the telepathy here," she said, arching an eyebrow. "I know it's fun, but Ty's parents know their magic stuff. They might peg you for a rogue mage." She stuck her tongue out, then looked away. "Also, telepathy jump-scares are my thing."
 
Mocking some sort of tragic offense, Mags looks to Viera. "I have no idea what you are talking about... These lords don't keep slaves do they? What do you mean rogue mage?"

It's going to take a while to get use to this new land. I wonder why Yondalla wants me here? Guess I'll find out in time, she did guide me to these weirdos... Who doesn't know how to play checkers?
 
Virra let out a kind of mental giggle. "Nah, they probably don't. Ander would have murdered them already. Unless they're keeping them somewhere secret..." She mulled that dumb hypothetical over for a moment before the rogue mage comment got her attention again. "Wow, where the heck are you from? Anyone who uses magic and didn't go to Azarad gets it pretty rough around here. If the wrong people find out, they'll take your powers away unless you spend a hundred years studying at their stupid school."
 
The mental outrage is all over her face, "where do they get off taking people's powers away? I'd like to see them try to take mine!" Magnolia is visibly shaking at the thought, she fought against tyrants before. No one should have the right to take anything from you. Especially not your gifts!

She starts to slow herself down, her breathing becomes more even and calm."I'm actually from the Negrastic Empire..."
 
Eliza had kept a close eye on the halfling on the way to the castle. She felt a bit silly for jumping to conclusions about Magnolia but it had been a rough few days (or weeks or months) for the half-orc.

She wondered what was the bothering the halfling now. She seemed like a very cheery person earlier. Maybe she felt intimidated by the castle, Eliza thought. “The Silverbanes are very nice people from my experience. They are down to earth and don’t seem snooty and classist at all.” She said to Magnolia hoping to raise her spirits. “I think you will find Mr Silverbane fluent in halfling.” She whispered the last part with a grin.
 
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"I know, right? Bunch of bullies." As much as she wracked her brains, she couldn't come up with much concrete information about the Empire except the panoply of races that lived there and the possibility that the slave trade might be stronger there.

She was about to comment on this when Eliza spoke up, and she abruptly realised that she and Magnolia had been staring at each other for a good half-minute. She grinned. "Yeah, cheer up. The Silverbanes won't treat you badly," she chimed in, then turned to Ander and put a finger on her temple. "You should talk to her. She's from somewhere interesting," she said, smiling.
 
Hearing Eliza mention being fluent in Halfling, Tyrius knew she meant his dad but he couldn't resist showing off. "That's true. My parents are lovely people. Though my younger sister might try and bug you about your deity. She's curious about everything." Tyrius yawned a little, "I'll stay up for a bit but at some point I need to head to bed. Plan to spend tomorrow morning trying to persuade Elizabeth to give us books and then talking to my parents about our other friend. Then an afternoon in the library."
 
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