Lords of RPG

The Foreign Mind

She has granted me power and again she demands a price. She has always asked for terrible things, people’s lives, their souls, their despair, the air in their lungs. But this time…this time when he expected murder or worse, he was given a task, or assigned a debt.

All the booze in the bar couldn’t block the vision or dream forced upon him shortly after their return to Garamond-Bassot. His only defense was passing out and it didn't work.

As always in the dreams where she takes him, at first, he was submerged. Not yet a lucid dreamer, he was used to being underwater and able to breathe there and yet unphased. Then the huge tentacle wrapped around him, inserting its tips everywhere he wished it wouldn’t, and spoke to his mind.

“You have taken advantage of the power I granted you and now you will do two things for me.

First, you will go to the wreckage south of Mearth and retrieve five items all contained in small chests. The first is in the northwesternmost wreckage. You will need to attune to it. It will then lead you to the next object. You will then take the chests to the place you know to go to.

Second, you will gather for me the soul of a creature of magical nature. I care not if it be what you call good or evil, of law or disorder. Gather it for me and the longer you take, the more souls I will require. Go my herald…and tell your targets who comes for them.”

And with that, his lady was gone.

Paying this debt and acquiring a magic item to go loot four others and drop them into the depths doesn’t’ sound bad and I have no problem killing evil magic creatures and ST13 is highly likely to be encountering them soon. Timm thought to himself as he lay in a bed soaked in sweat from the nightmare he had just endured and smiled, beginning to forget the anxiety and stress of the encounter with his lady.

Part Two

On his own, he made it to the wreckage area in two days. After a huge meal and then waiting thirty minutes, Timm dived off the cliff and into the sea off the coast of Mearth.

In the water, Timm follows his lady’s instructions and heads towards a site he somehow, just knows, where to go. At the first wreckage, the only danger is the precarious position of the wreckage. Dangling over the ledge to a trench that goes on to a depth that not even Timm could survive, it is disturbed by Timm’s presence and his removal of the small chest in the captain’s room. Had he not been able to teleport a short distance, he would have perished in the first part.

Away from the first wreckage site and from the trench, Timm searches the small chest and finds an earring in the shape of a whale that curls around the right ear with the whale’s head looking as though it was speaking into the wearer’s ear.

Upon donning the earring and spending some time bonding with it, he can concentrate on a target and for the next ten minutes, knows what direction to head in to find that object. An almost whale-song-type echo increases in frequency and intensity as you get closer. Concentrating on his lady’s second target is all the information he needs to find the second chest on the first try…and not long after that, he’s off to the third.

After gathering the last four items and bringing them to the edge of the trench at the spot his lady preferred, Timm started tossing them over while in his mind letting her know that he was doing it…counting them off as he tossed them in. All had been contained in small chests of the same design as the first one that held the earring. He didn’t really mind throwing them away. After the last chest, Timm waited a few minutes and started to turn, to swim back to the surface and then shore and then to the bar when the loud fluid voice filled his mind.

And the earring! 

As though being pulled by his aunt, the one he had always hated, the fathomless had him by the ear and dragged him to the edge of the trench and ripped the whale earring away from Timm’s ear leaving a torn lobe that trailed a cloudy wake of blood arcing into the trench and following the other four chests along with their queries sinking into the fathomless depths.

Later Timm found himself slowly swimming a few dozen feet under the surface as he headed back toward the shore. His ear had finally stopped bleeding and his sanguine scent on the ocean currents hadn't attracted any predators he needed to worry about. On a whim, he decided to just swim a half mile off the coast and towards the entrance to the Bay of Garamond-Bassot, or whatever its official name was now.

Around three miles from his destination Timm noticed something glimmering on the sea floor, something that as he approached gave off the glow of magic…not much, just a glimmer. Getting close, he could easily see it was an anchor. Barnacles and sediment coated it, but in a few places the bright metal underneath caught the light when the sun was high, and no clouds were present.

A Heavy Load

It took five hours for Timm to drag the anchor across the sea floor and into the harbor. Stashed under the dock closest to the bar, Timm finally emerged from the water and headed to the bar. Cleaned up and rested, he would find Henriot and get the anchor to the bar. He finally knew what the bar’s name was.

The next morning, he and Henriot borrowed a cart and headed to the harbor to retrieve the anchor. That afternoon, he cleaned it up and tried to identify the magic. He succeeded at cleaning it and it was clearly the anchor of an important ship from some bygone era. Covered in swirling designs reminiscent of a large squid’s tentacles, it was four feet tall and three feet wide and made of a metal that could support barnacles and sea life but when cleaned up still shone brightly.

He had failed to identify the magic, other than it was just magic…maybe the metals it was made from, maybe some other reason. As far as Timm could tell its magic ability was just that it was magic.

The next day, Timm, Henriot, and the bard built the frame and brace above the entrance to the tavern and then hung and secured the Anchor. Then, Timm, had Shade secure it from easy pilfering.

The four of them looked at the prominent feature and Timm stated: "Gentlemen, I give you the Anchor Inn & Tavern...now let's get this place finished up, so we can start making money instead of spending it!" 

Part Three

TBD

<Part Three will come after we have an encounter with a magical creature or being and whatever Timm’s patron has him do to it.>

<Timm will encounter the couple who are the bartender and barmaid and hire them as an addition to this story or maybe a separate one.>