TTR 7: The Lady, and Cold Cave Village

  Scotty: Drim. Calvin: Brooke.

Grandaunt Ngeng will not wed!

Middle Month of Summer. Day 5, 2 hours into morning watch (8AM). HEX G > HEX M.

The surviving soldiers of Captain Quill's crew emerge from the forest and chase after Jubilo. Jubilo is separated from the group. Drim, Brooke, Shiri, and Yamin remain together. Shiri appears dominant and in her element. Yamin declares he is in love with her. He swats away mosquitos and wipes sweat from his upper lip. After comparing plans and information the next steps are clear. Shiri needs to return the bone scepter to a grandaunt northward; Grandaunt Ngeng, an armless matron that Drim recalls helping raise him when he was a younger child. She tells of the power the limbs of Granduncles and Grandaunts retain. Drim and Brooke still need to deliver Lord Zaq's letter so that Nana and her army of hunters can storm Once Soot unimpeded. After, Cold Cave village will need to be saved from the fate foretold in the fire. 

Shiri wants Drim, Brooke, and any others to help escort the bone scepter to Ngeng's tree. While the duo of Drim and Brooke is traveling to Once Soot and Cold Cave, Shiri and Yamin will nestle down in the forest just south of Grandaunt Ngeng; where Krun lives. Hopefully he is home, and safe.

Shiri and Yamin depart on foot. 

The heat is so blisteringly dry that Drim and Brooke rest in their skiff. Nothing befalls them.

Day 5, 2 hours into afternoon watch (4PM). HEX G > HEX M.

Heading to Once Soot.

Day 5, beginning of night watch. HEX M.

Lady Ummul Gul

Moisture begins to re-enter the air. Scalding hot. Humid. The colossal stump of Once Soot looms overhead. Roots jutting out of the water like 30ft stalagmites. The fortress atop is armed with explosive cannons. Three war galleys are docked around the stump. Two additional galleys are in repair. Dwarfing them all is the Undeterred, an intimidating behemoth multi-layer war vessel captained by Lady Ummul Gul. Two Gul skiffs approach the duo's skiff with Zum blunderbusses drawn. Tanner, the commanding soldier, asks the duo's intention entering Lady Ummul Gul's territory. Brooke recognizes Tanner from his service as one of Lady Ummul Gul's bodyguards and explains they have urgent news from Once Rie. Drim and Brooke's weapons are confiscated and they are escorted to the Undeterred. The skiffs are tied at the base and a ladder is dropped down for boarding.

Chaos, organized chaos, on deck. Tanner opens the door to the poop deck and closes it behind Drim and Brooke. Inside is a stuffed marlin serving as a punching bag, functional unadorned furniture, a canny Harp playing melancholic music, and Lady Ummul Gul sitting at her desk reading a book. Short strawberry blonde curls, plain face, muscular build. At first she appears to be wearing a suit of gleaming chainmail armor, but they are in fact silver-inked tattoos and she is naked. "Brooke Rain. What are you doing here? And please, introduce your friend." Drim and Brooke explain the story behind the letter. Lady Ummul Gul questions them, politely, but inquisitively. She places the letter, unread, in a drawer of other letters. "Thank you, gentlemen. Once Rie is a shithole. There's no saving it. But I will not face a sleight against Zum by the Witch Folk without an act of retribution." She exits the poop deck and waves over a soldier, telling them to alert Captain Lisbeth and ready her war galley the Unwavering, and to alert Captain Eoin and ready her war galley Courage. "Cold Cave village will burn. Three Finger village is next." Lady Ummul Gul invites the duo to stay, or join her ranks, or peruse her storehouse and armory inside the fort. 

Drim and Brooke nervously thank her for the offer, but they really must be going. Brooke says he must visit an old friend of the Vizier's at Deadbranch Gaol. The duo end up shopping around at the storehouse and armory within the fortress. Tanner returns their weapons.

Day 6, 3 hours into night watch (1AM). HEX M > HEX R.

Drim and Brooke depart on their skiff towards Cold Cave village. The Lady's war galleys will not depart until the morning.

The tide has lowered in the night. The duo trudges through mud and puddle and root, dragging their skiff behind them. The moon reflects off of a metallic shape nearby, blocking their path. He unfolds, with orange agate eyes and peacock feathers splaying around his sharp feathered body. The Heron Knight Pure. Drim recognizes him, and knows his deal. Pure tries to seduce and corner Drim and Brooke. He's like a freaky robotic bird rapist. Drim and Brooke eventually hold him off by making a deal to return one day and rest with the Heron Knight, if Pure lets them continue their urgent travels (as well as stall any of the Lady's war galleys following in their footsteps). Pure relinquishes, ecstatic about the prospect of being with Drim and Brooke someday. He caresses their heads with his knifelike wings. "Come back soon, my young boys." Drim and Brooke book it to Cold Cave, gaining a near supernatural speed at the expense of Fatigue.

Day 6, beginning of morning watch. HEX R.

Outside Cold Cave

Water floods in as the tide returns. Drim and Brooke hop into their skiff as the water rises up to a dock. They tie their skiff off and climb stone steps carved into the side of the mountain, leading to a cave familiar to Jubilo's vision. Three villagers sheepishly wave to the outsiders. They are Witch Folk, but they do not wear the dark scrimshawed bone vests of the children of Warmaster See. Inside the cave are farms fertilized by bat guano, bats flying through the cavern. Stone huts, strip-mines, torchlight flickering. A large hall at the end of the cave. Inside is a chieftain chair, empty. Beside the chair is a studious woman poring over scrolls. Alira ap Senen, looking through gemglass spectacles, notices the duo enter. She introduces herself as Chief Alluru al Senen's wife. The chief is away, speaking with Warmaster See to deescalate the conflict in the wood. Cold Cave is allied with Zum, providing materials for their powder weapons in exchange for protection. Drim declares that Lady Ummul Gul is sending war galleys to torch Cold Cave village today. "Do you know of the Arsonist?" asks Drim. There's recognition in Alira's eyes. "Yes..." she answers. Drim believes either Lisbeth or Eoin to be the Arsonist, as seen in Jubilo's portent of Cold Cave's burning by a Zum captain's hand. After some argument, Alira sees the truth in Drim's words. "We need to evacuate the village as soon as possible," says Brooke. She holds an impromptu council with three other Witch Folk. She invites Drim and Brooke to join the council. Alira, Drim, and Brooke are for evacuating. The others are against. "Recount," says Alira. "We cannot be split in this decision."

Drim drops that Shiri and the bone scepter are in the woods with the King. Drim and Brooke draft a plan to escape to Grandaunt Ngeng's tree northwest of Cold Cave. Alira tells the tale of Grandaunt Ngeng, and describes a legend that if Ngeng's arm bone is reunited with her body then she will be transported to the past, the moment before she severs it herself to rebuke the original Zum King. History can be rewritten in this spiritual reunifying. The Witch Folk of Cold Cave are swayed, and evacuation begins. Families board skiffs, canoes, stilts, and swim towards the woods south of Grandaunt Ngeng's tree. Alira sets the caves and mountain ablaze to attract the attention of rebel raptor Brother Kitte, a dragon-sized bird who is ally to Warmaster See. Brooke stokes the fire with his Breeze Knot. The flame is all-encompassing, and reflects in Alira's gemglass spectacles...

Day 6, beginning of afternoon watch. HEX R.

With her two sons, Alira boards Drim and Brooke's skiff. The village is successfully evacuated! They travel to meet up with Shiri and Yamin at Krun's hut.

Day 6, beginning of night watch. HEX L.

Krun's cabin

Mist, warm air. It sticks to the skin. Birds of all kinds caw and croak in the light of the setting sun. Drim and Brooke find a path into deeper wood marked with bird droppings. A familiar canoe is tied outside. They tie their skiff to a mangrove tree's roots and head down the path with Alira and her sons. 

The woods are dark. But a soft light leads them to a small hut. Shiri opens the door. Inside is Yamin, sat across from Krun. Weaponry and taxidermy hang from the walls. "We have much to discuss," says Shiri.

Day 6, beginning of night watch. HEX L.