npc inbox: ellethia

[groundrules]

NPC INBOX

Reach out to your (not-so-)favourite NPC here, putting their name in the comment header. Try to keep it to just quick text/audio/written exchanges or inquiries that can accept summarised answers, please!

Previous NPC inbox posts:

■ Arc I: Sa-Hareth

■ Interlude: Stairs of Sighs + Arc II: Taravast

	ENAM Well-travelled guide and botanist. Associate of the Merchant, formerly himself a tradesman. Measured of speech, honourable, sincere. Lover and protector of animals, whatever their nature. Travels with apprentices.
	HATISSE Revived witch of the Attaryl, partly responsible for the massacre of the Stairs of Sighs. Formerly a court witch of the Attaryl. Manipulative, vicious, a trained seductress. Formidably powerful. Buried with wards and injuries by her own sisters to prevent her return. Somewhat bound to Wrath.
	ASGEIRR The ghost of a scholar monk. Haunts the tattered execution cloak that the party stole from the La Rea bank in Sa-Hareth. Once a champion of equality and freedom, he faced ire for converting his followers against the regionally profitable trade of slavery. Soft-spoken but wise and just, slow to regain his strength. Will speak to those who visit his cloak in brief interludes. Favours necromancers.
	THE MERCHANT The patron saint of etiquette and the eastbound getaway expedition. Seems to largely trade information alongside wares. Appreciates spices, strategy and collaboration. Has an eerie and overly cautious manner. Committed. Defends the benefit of the many, to the detriment of the few.

OTHER CITADELS

	"HALTHAM" | ANURR The undead warlord Anurr, previously posing as gentle-mannered giant Haltham. An embodiment of Sa-Hareth's cold storms and wind, who regained his territory from contender Unhalad with the inadvertent help of the party in Arc I. Frostily rational and amenable to some negotiation.
	MACALUSO SPINA Earnest and moderate nephew of Bonaccorso Spina, now leading Doxe of Taravast. Adrift, following the betrayals of his family, Macaluso benefits from support from the witches of Bessis and seeks to rebuild the citadel he secured with the party's help.
	VANNOZZA SPINA Beautiful and fierce niece of Bonaccorso Spina, targeted by the old man for possession. Crafty, coy, strategic and cold, she now acts as adviser to her more idealistic cousin, Macaluso Spina after executing her grandfather.
	RIGARDA Lively, charismatic and gossip-prone lady of the highest echelons, formerly closely allied to Bonaccorso Spina. She carried out the dirty work of brokering weapon shipments to the Brotherhood of undead lieges, buying Taravast's protection. Alive at Anduin's largesse.
	KARSA Currently unavailable | Sorceress, young (?). Employed by the Merchant and deferential to him. Talented but fiery and frequently impatient, intolerant of fools. She will get today's job done yesterday. Struggles to sympathise with men, objections and those who cannot absorb information quickly. Enchanted the group's translation devices. Furtively left the group, bearing injury, at the end of Arc II.

Comments

[aprescoup]

Of course, my king. But, will you promise me something?

[inferus]

( actions are more important to him than words, but words always have power especially for demons, for one of the Seven Wicked - their words can bind them, can give them away, can make them vulnerable. when he gives his word, he means it. it is why they are so careful with them. ) I do not make promises lightly. What is it?

[aprescoup]

Of course you take nothing lightly. Only weak men break their word. You are strong. You are strong everywhere and in all things. You will have many sons with such strength.

But... if you are tempted at one turn to softness. If you or your queen find yourselves in want or wish. Come to me first. Not to them. It is all I ask.

[inferus]

I am not mortal, Hatisse. ( he will have no sons. he does not understand the concept of them- mortals with being born tiny and frail and wrinkly and then growing over a short time period into being wrinkly and frail and tiny once more. )

I am not tempted. I am the one who does the tempting. I will keep that in mind, however. I know better than to make magical wishes or bargains unless absolutely necessary. ( and emilia is smarter than that too... especially after she unintentionally bound him to her for eternity in unholy matrimony. )

[weifinder]

Mm, and still, you offer advice better for following... harder, yes, but that's no bad thing.

( he rubs at his face. )

I'll speak with Lan Zhan, even offer the idea to the rest. Some of us have remained here for over half a year by now, I think.

[aprescoup]

You must wish yourselves returned to your homes. I do not fault you. ( But his silence indicates this largesse is not vast or unending. ) But you must not sacrifice so much here, that you no longer return where you wish to go as yourselves.

[aprescoup]

Of course. Then, I thank my king his time and the chance to serve him as best as this humble one can.

[weifinder]

Master Scholar, such as it is, it may be too late. Some of us... we've already changed. For the better, I feel.

( impossible as it seemed to start, but it's true, and he smiles, small and wry. who'd have thought? in this world, this deathless world, to have that, the earmark of life? )

The Merchant

[northerndragon]

We have found a strange box in the lighthouse. The keeper here was taking his rest upon it. Do you know anything of it?

— Jon Snow

[pulvisetumbra]

I expect this is only a precursor to inquiring if I am also familiar with the cutlery.

[northerndragon]

This was your city, and you sent us here for a purpose. I want to be sure I’m doing what is needed.

There was a mirror here, a broken mirror. We put it back together as well as we could. Something happened then and I cannot

What’s right? What happened here?

[ooc: break/typos intentional.]

[pulvisetumbra]

I find often that providing a simple answer to a student deprives them or the true joys of the learning opportunity.

[northerndragon]

They were trying to do something, before Taravast could do it.

[pulvisetumbra]

That is apparent enough.

You might remember what our brave Doxe attempted to achieve. And what stood beyond his reach.

Taravast witches traded in mere extensions of life.

[northerndragon]

They thought here that you could find a way to choose not to die.

[That’s true, isn’t it? He doesn’t bother asking. He assumes he will be told if he’s wrong.]

Something tried to take my body. Or the look of it — I’m not sure which. I could feel it in me, for a time.

[pulvisetumbra]

But it is not currently with you.

[northerndragon]

No. I pushed it out, or it was pushed out. Something else wanted in, and could not get in. But it tore at me for

I don’t know how long. They say it was only a few minutes. It felt like days. Longer. Hard to say when you’re under the water.

[pulvisetumbra]

Do you expect felicitations for surviving?

[northerndragon]

No. I wanted to know if you had any idea what those things were — why something like that would happen here. I don’t think it chose me for myself. I think it would have taken anything it could get.

[After all, he had not been the only person piecing the mirror together, only the one unlucky enough to be pulled in.]

[pulvisetumbra]

I believe you are correct in your assumptions.

[northerndragon]

That isn’t a comfort. But it makes me think the glass was shattered for a reason, and we were fools to put it back together, though it gave us little choice.

You gave me a key, and I have held it. Not the one you gave me for Wrath and Wen Qing — I gave them that the day I arrived in Taravast. The other. Is its lock somewhere in this city?

[pulvisetumbra]

The ruins of this city. Yes. One of them.

You are possessed of a key to many locks and doors. It will be of interest to see which one you open.

[northerndragon]

All right.

The box seems to want wishes. A door here wanted wishes too.

What would you do? I am not asking you what you would want me to do. I’m asking what you might do yourself, in this city, in your home, with this sort of locked box. Would you wish it all back the way it was, before any trouble began?

[pulvisetumbra]

It is the popular opinion that if a person is gifted a lock and a key, it is to tempt them into the opening. And perhaps they shall benefit from the knowledge, or perhaps it will damn them.

But they will have it, either way.

[northerndragon]

And what if they are already damned?

[He would like to say here that he is no toy, no plaything, but he knows better. He has been dead; now he is alive. He thinks his fate is, likely, to die again, to march under the Night King’s orders, but he does not mean to accept it easily. If it is a victory for the Dead, let it be a costly one.

Either way, he knows that he would not have chosen to live again. Something brought him back, whether he would or not. This business with the key… well, at least there is a little more choice in it.]