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Aurita Meloda

Scene details

Setting: Upon defeating the Elemental Chaos summoned by the merfolk of the River Delta, our heroes are celebrated by the lizardfolk and allowed safe passage west to the coast. After further discussion with Ivo regarding the party's objectives, Cutini Nak, the lizardfolk head priestess, has lent them the Ophidian Totem, a sacred relic that she claims may open the way into the depths of the ancient and abandoned beastkin city of Aurita Meloda. Based on Kernunnos's intuitions, it seems likely that the third arm of the Crux of Creation somehow ended up buried in the flooded waterways below the city streets, though how this happened remains unclear.
  But even with the Totem, the Drowned Undercity with its unpredictable rushing waters promises to be exceptionally dangerous to navigate without a map. The inhabitants of Aurita Meloda today are a motley collection of outcasts and scoundrels, but one of the more cheerful denizens, an otter beastkin named Lutra, has offered to tell the party what she knows in exchange for some simple help gathering and preparing food for the community. Tasks include:

* Gathering frogs and snakes from the brackish canals
* Picking blackberries and palm berries to press for palm oil
* Finding edible mushrooms amongst the tree roots
* Gathering and grinding acorns, leeching the flour, baking flatbread
* Collecting honey and citrus from the trees growing on the ruined rooftops

Any and all help is much appreciated.

Log

Sour pomelos sway in a salty breeze, bright spots of yellow-green against a densely overcast sky. The citrus trees, gnarled and bent by coastal winds, emerge almost defiantly from muck and silt settled during past storms atop ruined rooftops. Though the stone and sky alike are gray, flashes of color are everywhere to be found by attentive eyes. Blackberries bloom from filthy canals, bees and butterflies flitting down from rooftop abodes for their nectar. Mushrooms pile upon themselves, nesting in the exposed root networks of fallen oaks. And occasionally a cluster of flamingos visiting from the healthier river delta to the east will float in an settle amidst the brackish waters to hunt amphibious prey, proving that life endures in this seemingly abandoned place.

"Fascinating. And we must repeat the process yet again, correct?"

In one of the small shattered buildings, Ivo kneels next to a mottle-skinned lizardkin who seems hard at work grinding a powder with a heavy stone. Another beastkin uses tongs to take a rock from a firepit and drop it in a basin of dirty water from which steam promptly arises, collecting on tightly-woven palm fronds and then dripping down into another dented pot, purified for drinking. When enough water has been collected, the lizardkin begins to wash the powder.

"I had heard that acorn flour could be leeched of its poisons," the Cosmopolitan muses, "but how lucky I am to observe the process myself!"

In exchange for information about the dungeons below this city, the party has been tasked with assisting with food gathering and preparation for the community of outcasts here. With all manner of tasks needing doing, every individual is allowed to choose for themselves what work to perform -- or in Ivo's case, at least for now, to observe.

The best thing about brackish water, is that it isn't pure water. Like swamp water, means Ruidosa doesn't need to worry about boiling alive in it. So thusly, she's taken to the water and is hunting toads with a net. Ruidosa already has a basket that seems to be croaking already with frogs, and has a weird funnel top, meant to keep the frogs inside while she scoops up frogs and plops them into her basket. She seems weird super adept at this, but maybe not so weird.

Considering the locale you found her. She seems a mix of excited, but also a bit--- angry is too hard a word, maybe annoyed and frustrated, that she traveled all this way from a swamp on an adventure to end up in another swampy place to do swamp things she could just be doing at home.

Look, Frogs are a human delicacy for their legs- sometimes it's good to have croaking thingys to trade. Or. That's what her sister would say.

She scoops another frog into her basket, as she huffs and takes a break. "There's so many frogs. They must... breed in crevices under the ruins in safety and infest the canals after the fact." she mutters.

"But I'm not sticking my head in that water." she says as she sits on the bank.

There is something about growing up in a forest village that enables one to adapt to the wildnerness. Although Reize is not accustomed to the swamp that has been prevalent in Granse, he is attuned to the way that nature enough to know what fruits are edible and what are not right. That is why Reize had split off to handle the gathering of the vegetation. Blackberries, palm berries, and mushrooms should be easy for the boy.

Currently, Reize rests along the fallen oak, discerning the mushroom in place as he looks over which one to scoop up. He has a few small sacks while he starts thumbing through. He manages to find a few mushrooms in hand.

Off at the distance, he is looking over at Ruidosa, who has been taken to the water and hunting toads with her net. He cannot help but smile, admiring the way that his Pacted partner has been handling herself in the woods. There is admiration, followed by a flush of his cheeks. "...Ah." He remembers the mission at hand, back to the retrieval of the mushrooms.

"Thinking about making like a frog and finding a crevice for two?"

Ivo has approached Reize carrying a basket of his own, grinning. Having observed the process once and committed it to memory, the young man decides to assist in gathering the scattered acorns for grinding. With a grunt, he clambers atop the slick trunk of the half-fallen tree that Reize is examining and begins to crawl toward the acorns clustered at its other end, moving deliberately and without the spry agility of his younger friend.

"Can you imagine what this city must have looked like in its prime? Did any human ever glimpse it?" The Cosmopolitan sighs and smiles with the sincerity he usually reserves for the pursuit of knowledge. "These canals are so well-organized. Cutini Nak claims that the city used to gather food and treasure from the oceans of its own accord... Could the system have failed and flooded this place with ocean waters?" His gaze turns far-off even as he crawls along a section of fallen tree overhanging a canal. "If we could decipher the workings of oh no oh noo--"

Ivo slips and slides from the tree and falls with a splash into the muddy water, disappearing for a few moments before his head pops up. He spits out a stream of water before looking deadpan to Ruidosa.

"Couldn't verify your hypothesis," he reports. "Too murky."

Glancing to the side, he finds himself staring directly into the beady eyes of a curious flamingo, a small group of which have begun to approach Rui's basket of frogs with evident interest.

"Hey," Ivo murmurs to his new avian acquaintance.

Ruidosa is too far away to hear Ivo's quip about frogs and crevices, but she has a basket of frogs and she's full up so she either has to get a new one, or empty this into a holding pen. Or start dispatching frogs. She's probably done all three of those herself in the past as she blinks and eyes Ivo slipping into the water, as she makes a face. "Of course it's murky. It's like all silt and brackish. Reminds me of swamp water." she says bluntly. "Just be glad it isn't pure, else I'd be useless." she says bluntly.

Then. Flamingos. She eyes Flamingos. "Ivo. Are these birds of any significance to our beastkin friends?" she asks. "''Because I'm wondering how they taste''." she says bluntly, leaning towards one of the flamingos that get too close to the basket. "Don't give me reason to find out how you taste fried, you macaroni feathered jerk." she narrows eyes at it.

There is a moment where Reize glances at Ivo with a squint. For a moment, the young explorer coughs and embarassedly looks away before he finally plucks one of the mushrooms from the spot that he's managed to discern.

Instead, Reize offers a smile at his older friend as he questions about the state of the city within its prime. "... Yeah, I imagine that it would appear with greater splendor!" He looks at the current state of the surroundings. "...But, maybe we can find remnants of that somewhere." He looks hopeful. Listening to Ivo regarding the technology of the city, Reize brightens as he likes to hear Ivo passionately regard the populace's architecture. However, that is short-lived as Ivo falls. "Ack! Ivo!" He winces at the sound of the splash.

Well, at least Ivo is okay.

The interaction between Ruidosa and the Flamingos earns a grin. Reize reaches into his satchel to procure some seed, fig, and other assorted fruit from his rations.



"I think we can come to a compromise with our new acquaintance!" He offers the collected seed to the flamingo, time to see if his animal handling has improved.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20.

Roll(s): 3. Total result is 3.

Ruidosa eyes Reize with a blush as he comes closer, then shakes her head a bit and then pouts. Because she doesn't wanna blush and look as pink like a flamingo, you see. She huffs. "I don't think that's a good idea, Reize.... remember what happened with the piglets? Are you sure you know how to deal with animals? We don't wanna start a riot of flamingos by giving them food, we wanna intimidate them and see how they taste ''fried!''." she says again, giving the '''evil eye''' to one of the flamingos.

That's right, YOU! YOU! OR EVEN.... YOU MIGHT BE TASTY BATTERED IN ACORN FLOUR AND FRIED IN PALM OIL! Don't you forget it, birds!

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20.

Roll(s): 12. Total result is 12.

Reize does not tell Ruidosa that he doesn't know how to handle animals. He does not tell her that he never had the best of luck of getting the animals to calm down or at least not go on the offensive.

Instead, luck decides to tell Ruidosa that.

As Reize presents the flamingo the offering, it looks at it and then looks at Reize. It spreads its wings and just lifts its legs. It appears to be doing a dance of sort. Wings spread and left leg lift, right leg lifts.

"Aww, he's doing a dance at the offering!"

And then it pecks Reize right on the nose.

"Mmgrtggphh!" Reize drops his offering and bag to hold his face. "mmmgghgh..."

However, when the flamingo glances over at Ruidosa...

//HORROR//

In panick, the bird finally turns tail and flies off from the group.

Ivo and the flamingo gaze into each other's eyes, equally blank-faced. It is as though the two are staring into each other's souls. The only sound shared between them is the steady drip of filthy water from Ivo's hair.

Then the flamingo emits his distinctive cry, a quick double honk, before spreading its pink wings and flapping away, following its friend now fleeing from Ruidosa's malignant gaze.

"Bye!" the Cosmopolitan says, raising his hand from the muck to wave, only to feel something flopping against him and glance to see that he is holding and waving a fat wriggling eel. "Oh," he murmurs, "that's a nice find."

Wincing at the feel of his sodden clothing, Ivo rises and looks to his friends, quirking a smile despite his circumstances.

"Better eating than a flamingo, I should think, anyway. But at least we shouldn't have to worry about a larger spell-casting flamingo coming to attack this time." He hesitates for a moment before rapping twice with his free hand against the wood of the fallen tree he fell from. He's not particularly superstitious but, as with vampire curses, one cannot be too careful. "Why not ask Kernunnos for help with these sorts of things?" he suggests to Reize. "If he can help us find beetles and befriend boars, can't he help us find frogs and befriend flamingos?"

"Don't patronize me, boy," a dignified voice echoes from Reize's pendant.

"Seems reasonable enough to me," Ivo mutters under his breath.

Ruidosa watches the bird smack Reize on the nose as she winces but huffs as it flies off. She frowns and leans down to help Reize off the ground. "It...it hit you on the face! How rude! After I almost wasn't gonna try to eat it!" she says softly.

She eyes Ivo. "Mom said you shouldn't bug gods or deities too much because they get annoyed." she then eyes Reize's pendant. "and won't help anymore."

She shrugs. "I guess that's true." she says as she watches Ivo's and Kernunnos' interaction some.

Unfortunately, Reize will need a moment. He is still holding his face in pain, trying to let time pass enough for it to subside. Of course, he is not without his partner coming to his aid and helping him back onto his feet. He lifts his head up for his nostrils to take in the wind. "Ugh..." He finishes rubbing his face, grumbling a bit. "Well, at least our guests decided to leave."

The exchange between Ivo and Kernunnos offers a bit of a sheepish smile from the youth. "We shouldn't rely on Kernunnos too much, we still need to do things on our own, after all." He offers an understanding smile. "Besides, I believe Kernunnos would at least like to enjoy the rest... especially after our last time." Reize was unconscious for a while, resting under Ruidosa's watch, after all.

He offers a smile, "We managed to get blackberries, palmberries, and some mushrooms." He cracks a grin, "We're on our way to collect all of the ingredients needed." He runs a hand along his chin, "...We need to get that next Crux before... our uninvited guest shows up to take it herself." His expression becomes dour as he considers Camellia.

"True," Ivo concedes to both his compatriots. "We'll need all of Kernunnos's considerable strength if we run into anything like what we encountered in the river delta." He begins to clamber his way out of the canal, finally. "How are you feeling, anyway, Kernunnos? Have you recovered from your incredible feat?"

"No," the eidola says, simply and without curtness. "Within this fragment, I do not recover -- I persist. Only the power of Creation and the worship of my faithful restore me. Perhaps if those who dwell in the delta were to honor me, I might regain some of the power I once wielded for the sake of Vaeltrandia. Alas, I believe we lack the luxury of the time and resources needed to construct a suitable shrine."

"Normally, I'd love to witness the process of building a shrine like yours," Ivo says as he pulls himself to his feet at the lip of the canal. "But... it does seem there are others who now seek the fragments of the Crux." Beautiful though Camellia might be, Ivo is hardly winning to surrender any fragments to her.

Pushing his sopping hair back with one hand, Ivo grins at Reize and Ruidosa, waggling the thrashing eel in their direction.

"We'll just have to keep up our winning streak. Who's up for some cooking? If we can squeeze those palm berries, I bet some our catches will fry up well."

Ruidosa lifts her croaking basket. "Frogs." she says. "A lot of them. But." she says. "I can get more. There's a lot of frogs in here." she says softly. "Way more than back home. Just... I need more baskets or I need to empty this one." she says, wagging around her basket, causing the frogs to hop and squirm and croak in the overstuffed basket with it's strange upside down funnel top.

"....Mom had me and Tranquila in the swamps somedays trying to gather materials for her uh...."

"Work." she says.

"Frog eyes are components as are the legs, but the legs are also delicious." she says insists. She listens between Ivo and the Deity as she frowns a little and thinks. "Ah--I wouldn't know how to help that. I'm sorry." she says as she frowns. "Usually. I try to stay away from anything holy. It tends to burn a lot and hurt." she says bluntly as she sighs.

"That eel can go in the basket with the frogs probably." she says. "Before you loose grasp of it." she says.

"Ells are delicious. I wish we had gelatin though....." she bites her lip. Mmmmm Jellied Ell. +_+.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20.

Roll(s): 16. Total result is 16.

Reize provides a sympathetic smile at his companion. "We'll have to depend on our friends and allies who can use the power Creation to come to our aid. It'll... have to be the best that we can do." He closes his eyes, thinking about Camellia and that fight within the Burial Mound, "We won't let her have it." His face becomes filled with determination.

'Who's up for some cooking?'

Reize cracks a grin, brightening at an activity that is within his wheelhouse. While not adept in cooking as Priel, he is good at doing field cooking. "I can take point in that, Ivo! We'll just have to return to the camp and I'll fix this one up pretty good."

There is a thoughtful look. Perhaps Reize will be able to use this opportunity to learn Lizardfolk cooking.

As Ruidosa makes a wish about gelatin, her dream comes true... in the form of a slime creature that hangs along one of the palmetto. In fact... it suddenly drops down and lands on Reize's head.

BANNNZAAAAIII!!!

"But I'll whip up a---" Suddenly, gelatinous creature on his face. "Gah! Why?!" He tears against the creature, then he peels it off his face. "...Well, I guess we have gelatin."

"Right, thanks," Ivo says to Ruidosa as he tries to maneuver the eel wriggling in his grasp into the basket teeming with captive frogs. "Here we go-- hup, hup, whoop--" As if on cue, the creature nearly escapes, leaving the young man to practically juggle the slippery beast for a few precarious moments before he manages to half-slap, half-stuff it down into the basket. "There we go. As anticipated."

He cups his chin thoughtfully with his still-slick hand as, in the background, Reize flails with a slime on his head.

"If anyone here has been able to distill alcohol from the berries, then they might have made vinegar. We could use vinegar to jelly the eel too--"

Eventually, he glances in Reize's direction.

"Oh, problem solved. Nice work, chief."

He begins to make his way back to the assortment of damaged buildings, their roofs patched with palm fronds, where much of the culinary labor seems to occur.

"The manual processing of acorns and palm berries seems laborious and exhausting," Ivo muses. "I'd like to design some modern presses for them, but I don't have the materials here. The Capo could help, but I don't want to owe him any more favors... we're already working on his turf as it is... ah, it's nothing to worry about," he hastily adds.

Is Ivo in debt to the Gransean mob because of his aqueduct-based magitech laboratory? This is the sort of thing that kids like Reize needn't trouble themselves with. Probably.

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20.

Roll(s): 16. Total result is 16.

Ruidosa is lost in delicious thoughts of Jellied Ell when a creature drops down on Reize's face and she winces and says. "That's just a normal slime or something. It's too small to eat you, but... uh, yeah that'll work! Thanks Reize" she says with a beaming smile as she makes a grab for the creature and holds it upside down and tosses it into her basket.

"I can pack up some Jellied Ells for later if we could catch another few...." she says, biting her lip, showing off her fangs in a cute manner...

"And more acceptable to eat than the way I eat crabs!" she claps a bit...

Then Ivo says something that infers he's made a deal with someone named 'The Capo' and the name is only vaguely familiar and it's the first time she's heard it of it from Ivo--- Then she straight faces at him. Then she says something....

"Ivo Galvan, you are an idiot and that's all I'm going to say on that matter." she says bluntly, as she starts to storm off to try to scoop up the bottom of the canal with her net and dump it on the bank. There's a lot of muck and wriggling other things, but no ells. She does this a few times.

There are days where it seems that life likes to beat Reize up. It has been one of those days; from the flamingo to the sudden slime, Reize struggles with his days. However, just as he wrestled the slime off him, he is able to overcome such adversity!

He brightens considerably at Ivo, "Thank you!" He hands the slime over for Ruidosa so that she can pack it in with the frogs and the eel. More acceptable than the way that she eats crabs.... Reize nods in approval!

With that out of the way, he looks over the assortment of damaged buildings. "It is, but it's manageable." However, the talks about 'The Capo' and 'working on turf' earns a confused, "Ah?" However, Ivo's re-assurance dissuades Reize from asking any further.

"We should be fine with the current methods that they have. I'll likely learn a recipe that we can take with us as part of a cultural exchange!"

Ivo glances sidelong at Reize and spread his wet arms in a helpless shrug, offering a lopsided smile.

"She still dislikes me," he remarks, "even after I stopped reading her diary." That was a whole few weeks ago, too. In fairness to Ivo, the magitech development of his sensors and amplifier was essential to their success on some of their adventures, and he didn't have much of a choice as to dealing with The Capo. It was less that he sought out the mob and more that the mob found him, and the weak Gransean government lacks the capacity to protect him or back up its promises. But Ivo tries to avoid explaining politics to Reize too much. Boy adventurers, like cats, have a time limit before they scamper off.

He's back to grinning at Reize's enthusiasm.

"Ha ha, alright, I'll learn everything I can too. Our cooking on the road can always get better -- though it's already quite good!" He looks toward Ruidosa and sees her apparently eel-hunting. "Try following the flamingos!" he calls. "That's how I found mine!" Though, admittedly, they might be a bit afraid of her now.

Ruidosa softly frowns. "Oh I don't dislike you." she says. "I just think you're an idiot. These are not mutually exclusive." she insists. She softly huffs as she dumps another muck filled net on the ground and pulls out an eel, a smaller one, but she has another. She huffs. She doesn't get Reize involved in the whole affair however as she says.

"I'm gonna jelly so many eels. No one can stop me...!" she huffs as she pushes the muck back into the canal, well most of it as she can without touching it, sweeping it with her net.

Still, she frowns. "I should take notes about things while we're here anyways...." pause.

"Mom was in a similar place when she was younger! Not... this place but similar. There was jumping flying fish. Here it's just boring frogs."

Croak goes one of the frogs, as if offended.

"But you are just boring ol' frogs, ugh." she goes.

Furrowing his eyebrows at Ivo, Reize adds, "...Well, that stunt during the play did ruin her favor of you..." He runs a hand to the back of his head, "But I think with enough time, it'll be water under the bridge!" He runs a hand to the back of his head.

It looks like Ruidosa -doesn't- dislike Ivo! Well, that's something. The boy cannot help but admire how professional Ruidosa is at this. "You're very adept at this, Rui!"

Pause, "...Ah? Jumping flying frogs?" He blinks, "..I wonder where those are found." He offers a grin, "Hopefully they are friendly." He glances back at Ivo, "Anyway, is that everything that we need?"

Even Ivo can't help but admire Ruidosa's shining determination to... jelly lots of eels. Everyone has their passions.

"Hey, we almost won the contest with that play," he protests, before hesitating, flashing back to the moment where he rubbed the faces of Puppet Ivo and Puppet Priel together. "But maybe I did get a little carried away," he finally concedes. Just a little. "Yeah, that should be enough! A rodentkin was able to gather some honey and pomelos from the rooftop, so I'm going to try my hand at a little blackberry-pomelo compote as a dessert. Let's see if they have any blackberry wine vinegar hiding in some amphorae..."

No doubt the adventurers' efforts will endear them sufficiently to the populace that our heroes will acquire the intelligence they seek regarding the depths of the dungeons below. But more so than the reward, the experience itself has provided much of interest.

...Though nothing matters more than eating eels, obviously.