Even more surprising to Baba than the fact that he can understand the contents of Linji's speech is the contents of said speech.
"Cut your tongue!" Baba clenches his fist, shocked at the erring Gith. "A Jinkskirt? I was nearly married once, and I haven't been a type for derring-do for nearly half a turn."
"Let's find Kines'. If it's tea you're wanting, I suppose I do owe you. I can see if he's got his eyes on any good leaves."
Linji: Looking around, you see fancy Lady's Ward restaurants along with considerably lower class establishments for the sodders, but neither of them look like they would serve spiced cabbage.
Seeing the ire of Baba, Linji merely shrugs, waving his hands disarmingly:
"Linji was nearly unmarried once or twice too, so Linji ununderstand sometimes. Baba not want jinkskirt, so what Baba want? Baba owe Linji nothing, except not even nothing too. So, what kind of Tea does Baba like the day after yesterday?"
"I'll not turn down some top shelf tea Linji, we can stop by Kines then hit that bathhouse after Wu's found us. You know how much he loves those places"
M'rek licks his lips and pointed teeth with an outrageously long tonge with the air of lazy satisfaction usually brought about by pork and beans.
In a thoroughly good mood he asks the Elf:
You run a worthy kitchen cutter! Now, so as to have me out of your hair, can you direct me to a place of learning where men of letters discuss prophecies and other such? Barring that, where can I find others of my kind in this maze of a burg?
Baba grumbles a bit - Linji's wearing on him. However, he nods. "Sounds fine."
It's not like you can really yell at Linji, anyways. He's obviously barmy. It'd be cruel.
M'rek: [Use quotation marks, please. It makes life easier.] The elf shrugs, "What do I look like a tout or something? Try the Festhall in Clerk's," He points his finger in the direction of the Clerk's Ward, "Big ornate building. Can't miss it. I don't know where you ether-dwellers go when you aren't busy wasting my time or stilling my liquor." He is probably the grumpiest elf you have ever met, but then, you've never met Drow before.
The rest of you: You stand around not doing much while Linji grows increasingly incomprehensible. Let me know when you guys feel like moving on.
[I'm good to go, interested to see what happens next and how we're going to convince Baba to stick with us]
{Hmm, it seemed that Kadar has understood Linji everytime -am I incorrect? Anyways...}
Linji gives his tiefling tout a wide smile and a pat on the back (petting his furry living cloak for a second), saying:
"Yes, Let's be going, more then we already are."
Having arrived in the Tower of the Wyrm, Cortek scans the place for people who look like they might know where to sign on for a job.
Kadar's cloak makes a low purring noise and flexes towards Linji's rubbing hand.
[I'm not sure why we're waiting, I'm pretty sure we've all agreed to go to Kines where Baba's going to get us some tea. I figure Cortek will have heard enough of this that he'll be able to find us for the next hour or so if he asks around about Kines.]
Cortek: The entrance to the Tower is open, and a line of people stretches out through the door. Judging by how scarred and generally tough looking they all are, not to mention the copious amounts of armor and weaponry, this looks like the right line for an aspiring mercenary. The men in the line look like they are mostly gaurds and street toughs who are looking for work. People with Sodkiller emblems on their armor enter and leave the building constantly, but none of them seem to bother with the line.
Kadar: [So far, all you've said is you were willing to go there. No one actually started walking to Kines, but whatever.] You begin to walk back the way you came leading the annoyed gnome towards the store. [Where is this shop, exactly? Hive or Clerks, or what?]
{Clerk's Ward. If you ask me where, I have no idea.}
While walking to Kines, Linji enjoys the "grand parade of the un-norm" while chatting with Kadar, in particular he asks:
"What's your favorite color Kadar?"
Kadar, Linji, and Baba: After a bit of a hike, you eventually make your way to Kines' shop in the Sandstone District, the only place in the burg where a Tiefling can walk around all day without getting dirty looks. It is a midsized building with a pleasant wooden facade and a tile roof. Unlike much of the Cage, the houses and shops around here are simple and have none of the ornate blades and other fripperies found elswhere. This is a simple place where the Tiefling residents work hard and care about their community, and have little time for decadence.
Seeing a line, Cortek waits in it. That's what they're for, right?
M'rek
Retrieving the tip he was about to leave, M'rek jumps from his stool and leaves the bar, trying his best to find his way around to the Festhall.
M'rek: "Well goodbye to you too! Damn Planars have no manners. Bastard wasted my time an' didn't even leave me a tip," the Drow is still muttering to himself as you leave.
You make your way into the Clerk's ward, but you wind up getting more than a little lost and wind up in the Sandstone District. Most of the local Tieflings, seem too busy to give you directions, but you do notice an odd band made up of a yellow-skinned human? with shifting features (Linji), a strange Tiefling with angular features (Kadar), and a dirty and somewhat odious Gnome wearing about a dozen soiled sweaters (Baba).
Cortek: After fifteen minutes of watching most of the people waiting in line be turned away, you get to the front of the line, and an attractive young human woman who looks like any other receptionist asks you, "Yes, how may I help you?"
Cortek responds to the receptionist: "Well, if this is a mercenary guild, then I'm a mercenary. I need a job." Cortek can't help but wonder why everyone was turned away, but figures someone must get in. Otherwise there'd be no line!
"Are you a current member of the Minder's guild or Sodkillers?"
Baba steps up to the door and raps hard.
He waits a second, then raps again. "Kines!"
An older Tiefling man opens the door and says, "Baba, I was expecting you hours ago, what happened to you, and who are these vagrants."
Seizing upon the somewhat familiar sight of a gnome as if it were a floating log on a flooding river, M'rek approaches the odd group and asks primarily Baba:
"Excuse me cutters, but do you know where can I find this Festhall?? And what about the prophecies? Who manages prophecies in this burg?"
Kines looks annoyed as yet another barmy comes to disturb him and says, "You want to know about the prophecy? Go ask the sodding Doomgaurd, they're the ones who won't shut up about it, now if you don't mind, we were talking here!" After a moment, he seems to soften a bit and says, "Wait, sorry basher, I've had a busy day, the Festhall's over there. It's the really big building with all the fancy bits. Hard to miss."
Kadar gives a polite nod to Kines [ooc, hey I live in the area I've probably seen him around even if we haven't spoken] before smiling down at the little newcomer and asking "Which prophecy is that cutter? (trying desparately not to sound patronising).
(Kadar didn't give Linji a full answer about colours before we arrived but got as far as saying that he prefers earthy tones, browns and tans).
Kines interjects before M'rek can speak, "I'm surprised ye haven't heard, the Sinkers've been spouting this screed about the end of the world for a more'n a week. Some barmy 'seer' said the multiverse was gong to implode or somesuch. It's nothing we haven't heard before, I don't know why everyone is so worked up about it."
M'rek's joy at finally finding someone who understands him is reflected on his wide toothy smile, but catching the disbelief in Kines' voice, he adds in earnest:
No screed in it! Not a whit! This time it's for real, our wisest Shamans have felt it too...its making ripples in the ether cutter, and when the ether moans the wise stop and listen.
The doomguard you said? but aren't they happy about it? That is not my quest, unfortunately...thanks for the directions! If you ever lost in the ether, M'rekI owes you a favor. Fare the well bloods!
"Um, no problem." Kines just stands there looking dumb for a moment.
[OOC- cadence giving me any hints? do I need to roll?]
You have to roll it every time.
Cadence whispers
"It's a long story, but the short of it's that these two saved me from a one-way trip into Ooze."
"It's good to see you, Kines." Baba rummages through his many pockets and retrieves his money pouch, which he hands to Kines. "How much do I owe you, again?"
Linji seems to regard the chaos of the scene with a wild smile, staring at the spaces inbetween. However, upon seeing the Nathri start to leave, Linji hops up from the doorstep (he was sitting down -after walking all day, feet get tired, right?), and turns after the the small green-skinned fellow:
"Have the Chronolilies spoken?"
M'rek looks quizzically at the odd Githzerai, his eyes betraying a shrewdness he usually manages to disguise, but he still answer Linji's question with another one of his own:
"You are not ugly enough by half to be an ethergaunt. What do you know of the Chronolilies?"
Laughing gently at M'rek's comment, Linji sqats again in the lotus position, taking off his shoes and massaging his feet, and then replaying to the now, slightly taller Nathri:
"Linji does not *know* the Chronolilies, but Iddo the Seer did or does or will *know* them -he has perhaps kissed the mask of the Ouroboros, as my friend Zhao Zhou has."
With this last remark, his face visibily saddens, and then looks back to Kadar, but then grows thoughtful, tracing his long pinky finger against the swirling tatto of black and white waves, chasing the movement of the blue fish that dive in and out of the waves:
"In the House of Paintings, there is-is not a place of Blue Candles and a Chronolily, though Linji never came to *know* it -and niether did Rinzai"
Then turning to M'rek again, he smiles brightly, and reaches out and offers the Nathri a banana:
"Do you have bananas? This mask (pointing to the air around him) is Linji -who are you becoming?"
{Besides all the talking, Linji is trying to be calming, and thus is "making" a Diplomacy check, and gets a 22.}
Kadar: The Cadence says, in its tyical annoyingly cryptic manner, The Plot thickens. The implication, of course, is that something noteworthy just happened.
Kines looks to Baba and says, "It's tweny-two Jinx. Hold on while I grab the stuff... Is that berk a Xaositect or just totally barmy?" Kines points to Linji.
"Beats me. If you'd like, you could ask him.", says Baba drily. "Do you have any good tea? I've run low, and could use some leaves."
"No, otherwise I'd just walk in like these bloods. You get new members somehow, what do I need to do to get cleared?"
Baba: "You're in luck, we just got a shipment of Abellian longstem that is so fresh people will think you've grown it yourself. I don't care what they say in Greenfields and Arboria, the best tea comes from Arcadia."
Corty: "This is the Sigil headquarters for the Sodkiller faction. We have no official connection to the Minder's Guild. For business related to the Guild, there is a guildhall on Pride Street, not far from here, and another one in the Clerk's Ward. Now then, were you interested in joining the Sodkillers? We are always looking for capable individuals like yourself," as the girl says the last bit, her eyes drift from his muscular frame to his sturdy weapons and finally linger on the dried blood.
Linji's talk seem to have awakened a memory or something on the back of the Nathri's mind:
In all that rambing there seems to be something of relevance to my quest, it would become me to puzzle this out, lets try talki9ng on his own terms...
M'rek's brows furrow for a split second, before the Nathri sits and accepts a banana from Linji.
" I would have a banana, but would much rather eat one (and down the hatch it goes, peel and all)...do you have bananas or eat them? And this face is the non mask of me, or rather a mask-non mask of me who have many faces and even more masks
(as he sits and changes his immage to that of a Nathri sage, something resembling a mix between S'leykh and Mafreez Vek of the Bakri).
So you people also have sages? What do they say about the prophecy, in the ether the venerable S`leykh says that creation and everything else is in danger and ....
(and then realisation downs on him)
Wait a second...Chronollilies, Zhao, Linji....are you related to the deceased Linji, the hero of the Bakri`s on the Chronollili field?
Kadar rests his hand on his friends shoulder in a comforting manner and listens intently to his exchange with the shifting Nathri.
One edge of Kadars cloak also pats Linji in a comforting manner.
"Might be.", says Baba. "I'm partial to the Bytopian tea that comes through Tradegate, but it just can't compare."
He waves towards the inside of the shop. "What have you got for me?"
"Little bit of everything. What are you interested in? We got some Greenfields tabacco in yesterday, and I've got a crate of Thalasian mangos that are to die for."
Cortek pauses a moment before answering, partly intrigued by the offer, and partly infuriated that that worthless tout led him to the wrong place. "Hmm, the name had piqued my interest, but I've been tied up in "activities" on my homeplane of Acheron for as long as I can remember. What does joining entail?"
Cortek: The girl smiles brightly and says, "We Sodkillers understand the true nature of the multiverse, and that is that with enough force, you can achieve anything. Whether you are chopping down a tree to forging a kindom, all you need is a well-aimed strike and the force to back it up. Our initiatates generally have a strong sword arm, but typically need our help in learning when to swing. All we require before making you a full member is evidence that you have that aim. We aren't a bunch of aimless marauders like the Sinkers, after all. Unlike some of the more hide-bound factions, we have no elaborate initiation rites or examinations. We simply give a prospective Namer a job such as, bringing a murderer to justice, escorting silk-clad weaklings through the Hive, or something similar, and watch to see if you have what it takes. After that, it's simply a matter of paying a few minor fees and filling out a couple forms. So, are you interested?"
"Sounds like it's up my alley. What's the first order of business?"
(OOC: what is Cortek's current HP after getting wanded? At 1d8+1 healing, with the damage he took, he'd be at 42-49 HP. Not a huge range I know, I'm just interested in the condition he'll be undertaking this task in.)
[I think M'rek made a roll, but I'll be damned if I actually go and check. You may also want to make a Heal check to see if your Bandages helped at all.]
The girl smiles and says, "I wouldn't know, you'll have to ask a proper recruiter," she pauses and scribbles something on a sheet of paper and hands it to him, "take this to Raju in room 2B, that's upstairs and to the right, and he'll tell you what to do."
Oops. Ignore this.
Turning to Kadar, but not excluding their present companion Baba, Linji breathes a sigh:
"What speaks our Tonalli? The still-born spawn of Ylem is drifting away {nodding in the direction to the armoured Zenthyri}, where to now, and what to do while we go? If Baba wants, Linji knows good bathhouse with fine jinkskirts and hot tea? Or Kadar might desire rotted, spicey cabbage still. {looking around} Wu is silent on the matter, save the sound of flax, for Linji cannot hear Wu since he stopped listening when we parted in the Hive. So what do we speak to our Tonalli?"