1627, Late Earth Season
Context
At Blue Tree Tula. Varanis hasn’t been feeling well for a few seasons and finally asks Mellia to help her. She gets an unexpected response. After session 55 (Wolf at the Door).
Events
Varanis appears at Mellia’s shrine one morning. “Cousin… are you free?”
Mellia smiles. “Yes, I am free. Come on in. How may I help you?”
Varanis glances around to see if Mellia is alone. Spotting one of the younger initiates, the Vingan shakes her head. “Could we maybe go for a walk, instead?”
Mellia nods and grabs her cloak. “Just don’t make me do any climbing.”
“No climbing today, I promise.”
“Oh good.”1V: Do you have your character sheet handy? I can roll things for you, if you need, but don’t know your skills. M: We need to make things up. V: Got an estimate for Insight and for First Aid? M: Insight is 50 and First Aid is 100
Varanis leads them on a leisurely stroll, away from the village. She talks about nothing of importance. The weather is cool and will only get colder. Varanis wants to know if Mellia and her husband have what they need for winter. Do the Praxian children have warm enough clothes? Don’t the horses look fuzzy in their winter coats? Mellia is reassuring. Everyone is prepared for the cold weather here.
There seems to be no real direction to either the walk or the conversation. It is almost as if Varanis is avoiding something. “All right,” Mellia says, “is this about Xenofos or Lenta?”
Her cousin looks startled. “Um… neither?” There’s just the beginnings of a flush to her cheeks. “I just…”
Mellia patiently waits.
Varanis chews on her lower lip, then seems to come to a decision. “You can’t say anything to anyone. Promise?” she blurts.
Mellia sighs. “I promise.”
Glancing around, as if to be certain there is no one nearby who might hear anything, Varanis says, “I think something is wrong with me.”
Mellia looks carefully at Varanis.
“I’ve woken up with leg cramps several times since coming here. And I keep feeling like there’s something wrong in my gut. My sides hurt and I feel so… inflated. Like there’s air trapped in my stomach.” The Vingan looks worried. “I don’t want people to know if I’m sick. Not here. I need to be strong here.”2First Aid: Could be dehydration, gas, irritable bowel, pregnancy, stomach flu – lots of possibilities.
Mellia looks thoughtful. “I don’t sense disease in you. Any chance you could have been blessed by Ernalda?”
“Vinga protects me from that,” Varanis responds immediately. It sounds a little like she might be trying to convince herself.
“Hmm. How long has this been going on?”
“Well, the bloating feeling… that’s been a while now. A couple of weeks, maybe? The leg cramps are new.”
“Have you been bleeding on schedule?”
Varanis chews her lip more. “I’ve never really been predictable that way. Vingans often aren’t. But… I’m not sure how long it has been,” she admits. There’s a frown of concentration. “Several seasons. Maybe… not since Prax. But, I’ve gone a year or so before!”
Mellia asks, “What did you do in Prax?”3V: Prax would be Storm Season last year. If she got pregnant in Prax, then she’d be entering the third trimester around now. It does happen that highly athletic women may not show until into their third trimester. Also, I need to quickly remind myself about what happened in Prax.
“We spend Dark Season with Rajar’s people and then partway through Storm Season, we left for Boldhome. That took a few weeks and we got into Boldhome before the season ended.” Varanis frowns. “I did take a lover among the Straw Weavers, but we parted ways at the beginning of Storm Season.” 4V: Gloranthan pregnancies last a year. So, if it was that lover, then she’d be due in Harmony Week of Storm Season. That’s about 10 weeks from now ish. Could be possible, but you might expect more bump.
Mellia frowns. “It’s just barely possible that you are pregnant.” She adds, “A priestess of Ernalda would know for certain.”
“Can’t you ask your Goddess if I am sick?” Varanis asks hopefully, almost as if she is now hoping she might have some dreadful plague.
Mellia replies, “I do not sense disease in you. I am going to tell you to drink a lot, but lay off the wine and mead.” She continues, “Eat more cheese for the cramps. Get lots of rest. Try not to ride on horseback. And see the temple of Ernalda in Boldhome.”5Side note: the chief concern about horseback riding and pregnancy seems to be the risk of falling, not the act of riding itself. Of course, given Varanis and Manasa, falling is a thing.
Varanis looks completely dazed. “Right. Well. We should get you back to your shrine. Remember, you promised not to say anything. I don’t know what this might mean if you are right.”
Mellia says, “I remember. Dormal’s advice would be valuable right now.”
“He’d tell Grandmother.”
After returning Mellia to her shrine, Varanis says, “I’m going up the water route, but I won’t climb any cliffs, I promise. Don’t let people work themselves into a panic again, please.”
Mellia says, “I will try. Please stay out of the water.”
“I won’t go near it. Just going to follow the path up.”6V: The way to the river involves first going up one side and then down the other. Essentially, she’s saying she’s only going halfway. As per usual, when she needs to think, she needs a high place. Also, thank you! Diana and I did some of my Sacred Time rolls and that turned out to be one of them. So far, Mellia is the only PC that knows and Tom and Diana are the only other people that know.
- 1V: Do you have your character sheet handy? I can roll things for you, if you need, but don’t know your skills. M: We need to make things up. V: Got an estimate for Insight and for First Aid? M: Insight is 50 and First Aid is 100
- 2First Aid: Could be dehydration, gas, irritable bowel, pregnancy, stomach flu – lots of possibilities.
- 3V: Prax would be Storm Season last year. If she got pregnant in Prax, then she’d be entering the third trimester around now. It does happen that highly athletic women may not show until into their third trimester. Also, I need to quickly remind myself about what happened in Prax.
- 4V: Gloranthan pregnancies last a year. So, if it was that lover, then she’d be due in Harmony Week of Storm Season. That’s about 10 weeks from now ish. Could be possible, but you might expect more bump.
- 5Side note: the chief concern about horseback riding and pregnancy seems to be the risk of falling, not the act of riding itself. Of course, given Varanis and Manasa, falling is a thing.
- 6V: The way to the river involves first going up one side and then down the other. Essentially, she’s saying she’s only going halfway. As per usual, when she needs to think, she needs a high place. Also, thank you! Diana and I did some of my Sacred Time rolls and that turned out to be one of them. So far, Mellia is the only PC that knows and Tom and Diana are the only other people that know.
