Varanis — 1626 0769 Hidden Humakti
????, Earth Season, Harmony Week
Context
Earth Season, Harmony Week, Waterday, late at night in Whitewall [[[s02:session-3|Session 3]]]
Follows immediately after [http:journeyoftheheroes.wikidot.com/berra:those-were-the-days Those were the days]
Events
Varanis returns to the inn where she’d parked the tipsy Humakti while she walked the also tipsy healer home. There is no Humakti now. The inn is still buzzing, with people talking about the heroes, and hell, and the breaking of the drought. The Vingan schools her features, hiding her alarm, then asks for directions to the Humakti temple.
“Up at the top of the hill, lady,” the man says. “Not far from your Healer’s temple.”
Varanis thanks him and leaves a tip (if he lets her). She tells him that his beer is very good and she’ll be sure to mention that to Irillo, if the barman thinks the beer will travel well.
“It’ll keep a while,” the man says, “But I tend to make what I call short-notice beer. No, no. You brought in more custom. Don’t worry about that. And don’t you worry about your friend. She’s gone to walk it off. I know the look.” She thanks him and leaves. Outside it is dark, but she knows the route pretty well by now. She would probably have noticed a Humakti on the way.
Once outside, she looks at the buildings trying to decide how climbable they are and what their roofs might be like once on top. Roofs? Well, there are bits of canvas, branches, heather, bundled straw, burned tiles… The huts hold themselves up mostly by leaning against each other. With a resigned sigh, Varanis begins a systematic search of the settlement from the ground level.1Track roll is a fail.
Perhaps five hundred or a thousand people live here, piled in together, half lost in mud and memories. The city must once have held many more. Finding a single person within that is tricky at best. After a couple of hours of searching, the frustrated Vingan returns to the area where her people are staying. She finds a location where she can observe most approaches and plants herself there, waiting and watching.2Successful scan roll.
The temples here are buildings that in Nochet would scarcely be thought of as shrines, stone and wood structures with thatched roofs. Over by the Temple of Humakt, where the darkness of the doorway promises Death to any who enter, there is a glimmering like the cold sun is reflecting off metal. Varanis approaches just close enough to see who it is. Curled up, cat-like in her ability to fit into a small space, Berra is asleep by the door. She is snoring lightly, in contrast to her usual silence. She has either got the hang of sleeping in her metal armour, or she will be very sore in the morning.
Relieved, Varanis leaves the little Humakti in peace. She finds a wall that she can put to her back, where she can see the Temple’s entrance and as may of the routeways around this area as possible and she waits for Yelm to rise. Looking up, she notes that it will be some hours yet. Yelm may or may not have made his way from the Halls of the Dead by now. It is the early hours, peaceful. From the town drifts the sounds of the night – alynxes and lovers quarrelling and the creaking and settling of the place. It is peaceful, until she notices [http:journeyoftheheroes.wikidot.com/varanis:1626-0770-sword-dancer a figure in the darkness].
- 1Track roll is a fail.
- 2Successful scan roll.
