A Not So Normal Chat

The Wayfarer - Early Evening

The small outpost north of Alexandria is a bit subdued because of the cold and snow. Those that have a home to go to have already left, and those lingering likely have a room for the night. It's warm, slow, and smells of some kind of stew. Likely made with wild game, but the scent is palatable all the same.

Patch sits in the far corner from the bar, watching the doors as she nurses a bowl of it, potatoes, some meat, other vegetables that managed to survive the winter. Some green cabbage, onions, and anything that can be stored in a root cellar. A spoonful taken as she peers at it from behind a set of glasses, trying a bite after letting it cool.

Patch's pack and instrument aren't near, just her, a table, and her food.

Seldan is cautious as he approaches the Wayfarer, and when he opens the door and looks cautiously around, it is with overt wariness. He wears full war kit, including bow, mace, and sword, and carries a small pack on his back beneath the cloak.

After a moment of examination, he seems satisfied with what he sees, and strides in more purposefully, bespeaking for himself a bowl of stew and a mug of ale. After a few moments, coins are exchanged, the meal is provided, and he turns, bowl and mug in hand, to seek out a place to sit, and it is then that his eyes fall on Patch. Patch had been sitting in a corner for a reason. The soup a meal to kill time, the real advantage being she could see whom all comes through the door. As Seldan makes his way, she watches, eats, and smirks as his eyes fall her way. A shrug is cast as she's noticed, some broth taken up and sipped as she seems to not want to call attention by calling out.

It's not a full room, several tables sitting empty, but after short time, Patch does make a motion before where she sits. Is it an invitation? Likely. What made Seldan select the full table, instead of the empty one? It's hard to say. Perhaps loneliness has set in. Whatever the reason, he inclines his head to Patch, and turns that way. "Her light upon your path," he offers with a quiet reserve. "Have you room for another?" He waits to set down bowl and mug until she has acknowledged. "It's a fairly big table. I'd imagine so." Patch says, eyes flicking over Seldan with a glance. Her glasses seem to make her emerald colored eyes appear a bit larger, the bulk of her glance having come from above their rims as she looks up from her meal.

"May the Hymn and its fire fill you with inspiration and aid in taking care of the horrific and boorish." Patch says, her words a bit flat for her, mono-tone. That is, until a smile peeks at the edge of her lips. "Apologies, I just don't know how to respond to the holy talk. Vaire and I's relationship is a different dynamic I suspect."

"There is no need to do so." There's a clink and a clank and a clunk as Seldan sets down bowl and mug on the table across from Patch. "I have a thing that it is in my mind that should be shared with you, but not here, as it relates to your research." He takes his own seat, then, and fishes from his belt pouch eating utensils. "I have yet to read through fully, but you are not alone in your attempt to map that which you have been following."

"Akonoril?" Patch asks, her eating ceasing as the spoon now just rests within the bowl as she looks back at Seldan. "I know I am not the only one, but, as you said, it is not a full topic for here." she admits, pausing then as an ear twitches at something. A quick flick, a spasm from her thoughts. "It's become more distressing from the last we talked. Too much has happened." a dour tone, her smile fading.

"Pulled in several directions, each important, but the more I dig, the more we find."

"There seems to be a sudden uptick in Eldritch Entities and Abominable Artifacts," Malik muses with that dry humor of his. He accepts his soup and drink graciously from Seldan, though it's the wine that he starts in on first, rubbing at his neck with his free hand in an almost subconscious gesture as she starts talking about being trapped by an entity in a time that she would not like to recollect. "I know the sentiment," he assures.

"Strange that you should mention," Seldan tells Malik, lifting his own spoon and speaking between mouthfuls of stew. "I had thought that did Alexandria not possess both in full measure, I would scarce recognize it." His words are deadpan, but there is something just a touch droll in the words. All trace of dry humor fades, though, as he watches Malik rub at his neck, and he frowns. "Too well is that sentiment known by too many," he offers sympathetically. "I shall not pry."

He listens instead to her rundown, supplying only, "Lady Akorinil," as she speaks.

He waits until she is done before offering more comment, but replies, again between bites, "Where think you to investigate first? This corrupted elemental stone -"

"I don't know why everyone is so obsessed with titles and things. They are not names, and carry only respect in circles that sometimes don't deserve it." Patch says to the correction. "I say what I mean, Padaryn." she says flatly.

"I only offer respects to those whom have personally earned it, and I have not met this 'Lady' Akonoril. She's disappeared to my knowledge, and finding them may be a challenge of its own." Patch admits, looking between the two and lacing her fingers before her and resting her arms on the table. "As for my list, one matter is not considered above another. It's more, when matters warrant attention, or the preparations are made to do what must be done. I work as information flows. Sometimes quickly, other times not." "As you will." Seldan sets down his spoon, his tone gone cool, with a warning beneath it. "She is a high priestess of the Tempter," he adds. "It is most likely that she has returned to Charn, and may be in grave danger. I am among those seeking her whereabouts, and not because I bear love for her, but because the man who threatens her is worse than she. We have - learned something of her activities."

"Is it to out the outsiders and void agents?" Patch asks, raising a brow. "Their influence is likely what resulted in or aided the fall of Dragonier." she says with a sigh. "The wight piper is evidence of that. Likely. Maybe." Patch suddenly not seeming too sure, but the woman wouldn't mention it without thinking it related. "I'd ask what it is, and offer help, but I don't know what help I could be. Trying to get together a group that can be trusted is hard enough. I can put out words, and keep an ear to the crowds, but what follows her research threatens us all. Not just her."

"Perhaps," Malik provides, "you find yourself beset by so many troubles on all sides precisely because you refuse to acknowledge the chosen of the Queen of Darkness." There's something almost jovial in his eyes as he says such, trying hard to keep the smile off his face. "It's quite the risk for very little reward beyond self-satisfaction. But at least you haven't been *bored*," he adds. "Maybe you're on the right path after all."

Seldan's answering chuckle is light, but fades quickly. "Tell me, Patch. What know you of the Veil of Llyranost and its fall?" He picks up his spoon again, and tucks into his meal while he waits for an answer.

"What you told me. What we have shared. Do you forget the campfire talks?" Patch muses at Seldan. "I know you, Stjepan, and others were tied into it, and freed the Veil from being used against her will." she notes.

"Again, I know I am often forgettable. But, it has advantages." Patch notes with a grin peeling at her lips. "I am under the impression that the Veil's life was ending. And something had to be done."

alik's expression turns a bit more introspective at the mention of the Veil, raising his hand and shaking it a bit from side to side, in a more-or-less sort of way, but doesn't add more commentary beyond that. Instead, he lets Seldan steer this particular part of the conversation, poking at the soup with a furrowed brow as if remembering something from long ago.

Seldan's gaze is steady and level, and he sets his spoon down to pick up his mug of ale. "I recall. I but call it to your mind, for it is directly relevant." The words are cool and even, and quiet. "We initially sought the aid of the Veil to counter the very selfsame threat that is likely following her. A threat that I must be cautious in naming, lest I draw its eyes."

Patch laughs, boldly. Looking at Seldan with a raised brow. "Oh, the wind wends, and goes?" her excitement at Seldan's words growing. "Why, does it want to make her its friend?" a bit of humor there, but Patch's tone is anything but funny. She's now serious as she stares at the two. "So either it is the same thin, or we have two entities that do not like to be named."

Malik's face gets a bit more drawn as the topic of immensely-powerful enemies that dislike being named comes up. He looks at Patch, the humor having fled from his face as he gives her a small shake of his head. "I'm not sure which would be worse," he admits. "But neither are good. I've learned through hard trial that underestimating entities on that level is -- foolish." That's a very carefully chosen word, it seems, and probably not one that conveys his full meaning.

"Let us learn which. If there be two, then one is unknown to me. I would hear your tale, would you tell it." Seldan takes another pulling from his mug, sets it down, and picks up his spoon again, preparing to finish his meal, watching her with steady, ice-blue eyes.

Patch stops at the request of her tale, pausing as she looks between the two. "I.... it's terrible." the bard's humor gone. She's not even trying to deflect as she takes her hands from the table. It's not hard to tell why, they'd already began to shake. "It was a vacation. Paid for by the Guild. A raffle or something. We were selected to go to a mountain resort, and were told to pack light." she starts, looking away from them as she tries to recall how it all began. "The wind whispered, and the howled, all of us trapped indoors. Things went wrong immediately."

Without a word, Seldan signals the server to refill Patch's drink, and his own. Malik's as well, if a glance at it says that that is needful. "A vacation paid for by the Guild sounds most strange," he agrees. "Go on. Remember, you are in the Wayfarer Inn."

"Paid for by the Guild, and they told you to pack *lightly*?" Malik, too, seems surprised by that. "For the *mountains*?" A glance to Seldan, his suspicions already raised, nodding slightly at the refill on the wine. It seems that he, too, wants to know the rest of the story.

"I don't think I have the strength to go into that kind of detail anyways." Patch admits, watching as the server comes and fills her drink. "We managed to save one of the staff, but the rest? No."

"Time went wanky, tracking it was impossible. Hunger and madness swept in, magical and not. I could talk for hours about what was seen, but we stopped this thing from taking a friend with it. Many died. Some eaten." Patch finishes. "Madness, hunger, and loneliness. We had no equipment, a dagger and makeshift club between us. We're lucky to have thwarted its plans at all."

"Fortunate indeed," Seldan murmurs, as the round of drinks arrives, and without comment presses coins into the server's hand. "A vile trick, and doubtless pre-planned. Know this - the Guild gives nothing for free. Suspect a trick, do you ever find yourself asked to pack lightly on a Guild job, and ignore the request."

Malik nods to Seldan's assessment, apparently in agreement. "Whoever sent you meant you to be a distraction. Or a sacrifice." He swirls the wine in his cup. "Either way, you were intended to keep the thing's attention. It seems they underestimated your will to survive. Interesting."

"It's not the first time I have questioned that." Patch says, her tone dropping as she bobs her head to their words. "Too many inconsistencies, and delays. I could make a list, but your concern for infiltration is shared."

"Surviving is all I have done in life. Only recently have I began to truly live. I am not about to lose that to some lonely and depraved entity that is only concerned with the perverse and hunger."

"The more I talk, and you answer... it's now suspected it is a different entity." Patch admits, taking up her drink to sip at it, and look down into its depths. "If the one you speak of is related to the agents and outsiders, I'd like to know of it. But, a lot goes on right now, some of it more concerning than others."

"That do I doubt, for I speak of a human controlling a dangerous artifact." Seldan finishes his stew, sets the bowl aside, and takes up the newly refilled tankard. "Still, it would be well to know if they be in league, or separate actors. This one in league with such agents and outsiders would be ill news indeed, but - I have reason to think that the agents may be of the Void itself, a different matter."

"Void agents are a concern, and it is known they will do and use whatever means they have to fulfill what it is they're doing." Patch says evenly, sighing again. "The worm holes being taken advantage of, and things seeded across the land. The sea of mana, and the forced shift of leylines from the draining and strain. If you have something indicating more distortions and locations, I would share what I have. I know the Lady's Map was accurate. I've verified and seen locations. Time distortions, and other accounts spoken to me, much like my own. That's the scary part. I see them doing all of this, but I don't know why. I don't think any of us do. Other realms and entities prepare for cataclysm. Trying to hide from what is coming."

Malik listens, the last bit of information causing him to raise a brow. "Magical disturbances?" he asks. "Strange time? Shifting lines?" That smile starts to come back, now that he hears those words. "That sounds like something much more in my area of expertise," he admits. "Assuming you ever need a fresh set of eyes on anything. I can't promise to tell you what you want to hear, but I promise to tell you what I think you need to know." A glance at SEldan. "Provided, of course, it doesn't conflict with anything else I have going on at the moment. Obligations."

"Mal is a wizard of not inconsiderable skill," Seldan explains to Patch. "If it is magical guidance you need, he is a good person to ask. "This is what I wished you to aid with, love. I am no slouch as a mage, but mine is in the doing, not the research. I can reach him, should there be need."

"I'm playing at being educated in such things, and have relied on some odd methods to get information." Patch muses. "I can only do so much alone, but I admit I'd welcome Malik's help." that much stated upfront. "As a songstress and seeker, I admit the arcane is only half known to me."

"Right now I want to dig up a mound outside the city. Only half a days travel to the northwest. There was a disturbance there, and the research from it has led me... to where you see I am at now." and she doesn't mean the Wayfarer. "My theory is the void agents are stirring, and directing. What? We'll see. It sure has the demons in a tizzy."

Malik smiles to Seldan. "I appreciate your confidence in me, my love, but the number of times I've had to rely on your knowledge of the world makes me think that you're underestimating yourself," he assures, swirling his wine. "Besides," he adds, "you're the more good-looking one, and charming to boot. I'm more likely to shoot at them until it stops being funny, which is only efficacious in a much more limited range of circumstances."

And then, to patch, "What manner of disturbance?"

Seldan chuckles at Malik, but the question is pertinent, so he contents himself with sipping from his tankard, and allowing Patch to answer.

"Do you know of Farland and the Resurrectionists?" Patch asks of Malik and Seldan, sitting up as she tries to find her calm once again. "We were sent there to experiment, a scroll used on the hill to see what would happen. That too went badly. The magic dissipated, and then reverberated stronger, causing an overflow of mana, and... the are to explode. Two adventurer's almost died over a scroll. Scariest part? It was an anti-magical field scroll."

"Later I found out this point was where some leylines had been altered. Drained, and resettling. Something had caused it." Patch offers, looking again between the two as she shifts a bit uneasy in her chair. "Only later did I realize something likely had been beneath the mound. As other locations on the map had been void agents, dragon bones. The Felwood would hold an artifact also. It might of been missed on Farland's previous excursion, and those there didn't know what they were looking for." she admits. "So the corrupted elemental stone that was recently can not be discounted as connected. Though there is no linking it yet either."

Malik's eyebrows raise even higher as Patch talks of the wild magical interactions. "I'm familiar with such results," he assures. "Though I'm suddenly curious why such an expensive scroll would be used just to see what happens. Such items are not cheaply made, and with everything else you've said... I wonder if that was a deliberate act... Could it maybe be that..."

And with that, the wizard's mind is racing, delving into the possibilities and bouncing ideas off of the pair as quickly as they come. Seldan has seen this particular passion before, though it's been some time since it manifested. The wizard is once again happily in his element, and it seems they'll be there for some time.