IC V Against the Current

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia looks up from the warm bread, good hot food with the glow she missed feeling the past several days. "Bird and bees around flowers, right? Bird flowers not like bee flowers. Different color, different feel."

She freezes up when Mithril suggests that she not join them. "No! No, not alone again!"

[achinca]

Miriam looks at the 4 heroes eat as she does not need food or drink.

She sits there in silence, watching the two friends reunite.

[Admiral]

"Natalia's coming," Shiny says with a smile, while dipping the crust of his bread into his tea. If any of his thousand personalities knows basic table manners, it doesn't show.

He turns to Natalia. "Have you heard of the land of Eldgar?" His voice cracks almost imperceptibly at the name.

[CoffeeIncluded]

She smiles "Coming no matter what...but thank you."

Natalia blinks at Shiny's stumble. Maybe the gnome just choked on a bread crumb. "Eldgar...Across the sea?"

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Knowledge (Local): (d20+5)[18]

She bites her lip. "Torin and Karik from there. Marked hands--guild citizens. Four, right?"

[Admiral]

"The Church, the Firm, the Institute and the Syndicate," says Shiny, glancing upward as though recalling from their earlier conversation. "We'll each have to take one."

[CoffeeIncluded]

"But why?" Natalia takes another bite before continuing. "Not staying, just traveling. Why shackle tourists?"

[Admiral]

Shiny shrugs noncommittally. "Who knows how long we'll have to stay there," he says with a distant stare.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Oh...Natalia thinks she understands. "Shiny Manymasks. Don't...want shackles either. Masks useless if you look at hands."

[Admiral]

Shiny raises his eyebrows. "How did you know about Shiny Manymasks? Sure, my great-great-grandfather was something of a local legend in my home village, what with his silly disguises and his delightful orc impressions, but I hardly thought his fame extended far beyond that. Anyway, if the stories are true, his hands were usually covered by puppets."

[CoffeeIncluded]

"Thought he mimicked halfling...halfling giants," Natalia lamely tries to respond. "After all, finger puppets, halfling sized.

[achinca]

A small smile appears on Miriam's face as she listens to the exchange between Shiny and Natalia.

[Cavelcade]

Kurt laughs as well, the exchange almost relieving to see. "Ah, Shiny, can you tell us more about the guilds? I know...a little, but not enough to really say much."

[Admiral]

"I don't know much more than you do," says Shiny, "Perhaps we should go meet this innkeeper- Sanderson- to answer our questions. Personally, I'm nervous about joining any guild, given that my last guild membership, in the Gnome Waiter Union of Knotsville, ended in the nastiest food fight in the history of organized labor."

[CoffeeIncluded]

"I think...Institute is magic," Natalia says, hesitantly, "But not more. Should ask, clear fog."

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What guild would a trapsmith belong to?

[Cavelcade]

Kurt nods at Shiny's suggestion, ignoring the story that goes along with it. "I wouldn't want to end up in the wrong guild by mistake." He looks down at his hands and makes a face. "I'm not really suited to magic or...subtlety."

[achinca]

Miriam says in a low voice "I have no choice. I will join the Church. Will be interesting how I will reconcile that with being devoted to St. Cuthbert. Well, what is important is that we are together."

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia looks at Mithril. "Magic...where else for me? Unless others...Should ask, but thinking magic." She doesn't say what the others are surely thinking along with her, about the little...complication of her joining a magic guild.

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Is he in this inn, or do we have to go somewhere else to ask?

[Admiral]

Once the party finishes their meal, they head over to the adventurer's quarter, where the Crossroads, a small but hearty tavern down a windy side street, awaits them.

Once they're inside, Shiny leaps forward to introduce himself to one of the bartenders with his usual enthusiasm and disregard for the truth (the others catch the name "Shiny Sparrowspotter" in the mix), while the rest of the group takes a seat. Just a few minutes later, a beefy man with a stained tunic and friendly, slightly flushed face, steps up to the table.

"I'm Sanderson, proprietor of this establishment. Your friend the, uh, birdwatcher said you were thinking of traveling to Eldgar, and might have some questions about it." A grin spreads across his face. "Always glad to talk of the old country."

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Remember that you've already been told all the information in this post (please assume Natalia has been filled in on those details by Shiny or one of the others).

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia blinks. How did Shiny get to this man so quickly? She needed to ask everyone to go over the story again later. She shakes her head and asks, "Why mark travelers too? Marked for life?"

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I've got a bunch of questions, mostly involving how a roguebuckler will fit in with a mage guild, but I'll space them out, give everyone else a chance.

Also, yeah, I agree with assuming she was caught up to speed behind the scenes.

[Admiral]

Sanderson scratches his head at the rogue's curt phrasing, but he seems to understand the question. "First of all," he points to his bare right hand, "You're not marked for life. The guilds can remove their marks just as they can add them. You can even change guilds, long as you can gain the new guild's trust."

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FYI: In my previous campaign, the Syndicate was alone in having a law that no guild citizen could ever switch guilds. I've decided to remove that rule of the Syndicate for this campaign.

"Now, if you're visiting for more than a day, let me tell you that you surely want a guild citizenship. Going without a guild's protection is living outside the law- you can be slaughtered on the street just for the contents of your canteen, and no one who can stop it will grant you much more than a glance. Now, that's not to say everyone on the continent belongs a guild- the barbarians in the southern plains and the western jungles certainly don't- but they live in a state of constant warfare."

"I'm sure it sounds strange to you. But for me it was a heck of a shock moving to a land with a single guild- sorry, government- where you don't have the slightest choice who has your back or where your dues- sorry, taxes- go."

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia sighs in relief as she sees his hand. At least she wouldn't be shackled her whole life. Though it was a shame to hear that the streets there were so...lawless.

"Why the violence, though? Wouldn't guilds control? And..." She licks her lips in nervousness, "What guild for you?"

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Ah, okay. I thought that law was for all the guilds. Thanks for clearing up the understanding.

[Admiral]

"Guilds protect their own, first and foremost. But more than that, they'll by-and-large leave citizens of other guilds alone (well, Syndicate excepted, but even they have their rules). No one wants to be responsible for starting a guild war. So there isn't violence in the streets (no more than you'd find here, anyway), but it's all thanks to that balance."

"I was a Firm citizen- had a mining family that went back for generations. But the work was dull."

[CoffeeIncluded]

So they preyed upon the outsiders--you had to join a guild to be protected.

"Were you born in the Firm? Or chose later?" Natalia swallows. The questions going to be asked eventually. Still, she can't quite say it out loud. "Rules for joining? Any shut out?"

[achinca]

Miriam chides in "Sir Sanderson, what about the Church? How does it work? How does it handle priests from all the various gods, good and evil, loyal and chaotic? And by dues, do you mean a payment? What about priests who have chosen to have nothing?"

She looks at her white robe which although is clean, shows signs of wear and tear, as do her sandals.

[Admiral]

Sanderson smiles at the cleric's questions. "You know, here's a story. I left Eldgar when I was twenty-three years old, and it wasn't until I settled down in Hulburg that I ever heard a single mention of the evil gods, or certainly of anyone worshipping 'em. In Eldgar, we'd been brought up to think some gods were generous, others uncaring... but gods of slaughter and tyranny?" He shrugs. [B]"Can't say I know the first thing about why, but we just don't... have 'em over there."

"The clerics that do make along up the guild get along well. The Church always seemed a lot more interested in growing their followers than in petty infighting."

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FYI: The Church worships a combination of the traditional D+D pantheon (St Cuthbert and Boccob included) and the Asgardian pantheon (just because they're great). Natalia is unlikely to find any temples of Gond, but she doesn't seem the type to mind.

After Miriam's second question, Sanderson thinks for a moment. "From what I know about them, I don't think it's the Church's way to keep out any soul for lack of gold."

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia's eyes widen at his statement.

She also asks, when he eases Miriam's mind, "What about ability? Not just the church, but...the others?"

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She wouldn't particularly mind, but Gond still exists, right? Just because that deity fits Natalia's choice of worship and values almost perfectly.

I'm sorry about the short responses, but to he honest I'm barely even looking at the screen while I'm typing this; I'm looking at my notes on cyclin-dependent kinases. This is probably her last question anyway; I can ask the Institute more about benefits for muggles when I get there.

[Athedia]

Mithril examined the backs of her nails as she spoke. "I assume that is hard if not impossible for one such as me to continue their studies without joining the Institute, though Boccob has been kind in all his gifts."

[Admiral]

"Abilities?" Sanderson shrugs, unclear what the girl is getting at.

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Gond exists (gods don't exist in one continent and not another)- those gods just aren't worshipped on Eldgar because it would be too much to keep track of.

Mithril examined the backs of her nails as she spoke. "I assume that is hard if not impossible for one such as me to continue their studies without joining the Institute, though Boccob has been kind in all his gifts."

"One such as you?" Sanderson asks, before his face lights up with comprehension, and a hint of awe. "Ahhh."

"You know, I grew up in a town of miners, in the northern mountains of Eldgar. The town was owned by the Firm, and all we knew was our work. But someone forgot to tell my cousin, because all he cared about was magic. At first we tried to get him to snap out of it, but he was miserable mining. So by the time he was lifting objects with his mind and creating sparks out of thin air, we all decided we'd save up a bit and send him into Providencia, the capital city, to learn his trade the right way, from the Institute."

"I didn't see him for eight years, but when I finally did, en route to the port city where I'd take my leave of the continent. And he was the happiest man I'd ever seen. The stories he told- vast libraries of arcane lore, great mages of the history books serving as teachers of amateurs- he spoke of the Institute with a rapture I've only ever heard used about the gods."

"So I'm not sure what one can do outside of the Institute. But I do know what the Institute offers to someone who truly loves magic."

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia listens to Sanderson's description with rapt focus. When he finishes, she tries to rephrase her question. "What if...no magic? Desire, knowledge, but no ability?" Did they only care about magic? Or did they also want to see it work for those without?

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Thanks. I didn't think you retconned him out, but I just wanted to be safe and sure.

Anyway, I'm about to have dinner, then take my cell bio final. Wish me luck!

[Admiral]

Sanderson scratches his head. "Way I see it, the Institute is a school. And like any school, they look for students who are up to their standards. Not sure I know more than that."