Potential: Group Two Game Thread

[Quarg]

Amanda chuckles then winces again, "Well I do, if say we ate something that gave us a sickness...a rare sickness that required that we travel to a larger city...or somewhere with more medical knowledge to cure...it would make sense for those of us afflicted to leave. Of course the sickness isn't too debilitating at the moment as our local apothecary has a herbal remedy that keeps the symptoms from overwhelming us.
The best thing about it is that it is so close to the truth most of us can just just nod our heads about being 'afflicted' by a 'condition' and be completely truthful. And people facing death always act weirdly to... *chuckles again* "Jack would love this idea..."

[ChuckDaRighteous]

"That's actually quite smart. And it has the added benefit of letting us asking for advice for where to go. Just make sure we say its not contagious."

[Quarg]

"Well that's why I asked about pecans earlier...I know they look like walnuts and even grow like them, but somehow I don't think this world has them...or at least my bodies previous tenant never heard of one. Getting a disease from an exotic nut, that some poor baker can confuse with a common nut, is both non-contagious and very hard for someone with some knowledge to easily refute."

[nikohl]

Ryush

Outside in the garden, Ryush finds it easy to slip into a calm and inwardly focused state; who knows whether it is the years of practice his host had at meditating, or just the fact that he desperately wanted to think about nothing for a while, or some other reason entirely. But within a few moments of settling down, he manages to empty his mind and through half-lidded eyes, begins to track the slow and calculated movements of a single honey bee, way across the other side of the garden, which is climbing between newly-opened buds and coating its little legs with pollen.

The world around him fades away. He and his companions already seemed a little brighter than the rest of the villagers and the village itself, but as he breathes in deeply and then - pfooo - forces out all the air in his lungs, even the verdant leaves, tilled soils and sandy brick walls of Rafe's garden seem to grey out, as if his breath blew away their pigment. The bee remains a rich black-and-gold, a speck of life against the drab flower it stands on.

As he continues to breathe and watch, observing rather than judging, the bee's black stripes deepen and darken until they are nothing but a hypnotic absence of light, drawing in his gaze until all he can see is the void.

He blinks and the bee flies away, leaving him squinting at nothing and perhaps not as relaxed as he might have hoped.

[spiderwrangler]

Ryush sighs, more than a little disturbed by what he'd seen. It appears that meditative calm is going to be escaping him for the time being. He stands and heads back inside.

"So, do you guys have any thoughts on how to proceed without being suspicious to the other villagers? Rush seems to have been a bit of a loner, so I could likely slip away unremarked."

[Dlover]

"The pecan idea is a clever one, but how would the baker have come across the nuts if they're foreign to the area? Any merchant with an exotic item would sell it for greatly increased prices."

[spiderwrangler]

"What about the baker? That is me, you know... Or at least the part of me that used to be Rush."

[Dlover]

"Ah, well, I'll let her explain her own plan."

[ChuckDaRighteous]

"It wouldn't have to be nuts in the bread. We could claim any of the food or drink was contaminated. It could be anything that was purchased from out of town. Something not indigenous to this village. Hell, we could use it as an excuse for the local herbalist to confiscate it so others don't get sick. Free food anyone?"

[Dlover]

"The village is losing some important people as it is. Let's not steal their food, too."

[ChuckDaRighteous]

"I wasn't suggesting we rob them blind. Just something small or expensive, like a fancy cheese or an expensive wine. And I think many in our group are ill prepared for a journey. Even my host body wasn't properly prepared for the journey he was on. How do suggest we provision ourselves. I doubt most here could afford proper supplies. And you don't want to sell anything for the suspicion it arises. At the very least I think we need to get our hands on some horses. Even doubling up I think we'd likely need at least 4. I have a little money, but unless someone has a substantial sum hidden away or is willing to sell or trade something expensive, I think we'll likely need to steal something."

[Dlover]

"Loupe had a stock of dried meat and bread, and a bit more than a dozen gold pieces, but I'm not sure how much that's really worth."

[spiderwrangler]

"At the very least horses? Horses may not be all that easy to come by in a small town. As far as provisions, I'm pretty sure that if I brought bread in for the festivities, that I've got the means to make more back at my hut. I also have a mule around here somewhere, for carrying things."

[Dlover]

"We could see about horses, I suppose. The only ones we're likely to find are work horses, though, rather than riding ones. We could still ride them, but they're generally fairly strong... Do enough of us know how to ride?"

[spiderwrangler]

"I don't think I... Rush rode the mule much, she was more for carrying baskets and sacks of bread into town, and flour back to his hut."

[Quarg]

"Well riding horses are around here...the manor or whatever is majorly into cattle so they have horses. Of course buying them is likely overly expensive and stealing them will likely get us hunted. But I think we're putting the cart before the horse. Let us figure out where to go then how to go. As for exotics...remember people once wouldn't eat potatoes because they thought they were poisonous. Any unscrupulous merchants through here recently Mr. baker? One who might have sold you walnuts with some nasty poisonous pecans mixed in?"

[spiderwrangler]

"Poisonous pecans? I have no clue what you're on about... besides, I'm pretty sure that most of my... his supplies were bought or bartered from the local farmers."

[ChuckDaRighteous]

"If we steal the horses coming after us will be significantly harder. And I doubt the law around here is significant enough to mount a major pursuit. Still the mule might be useful."

[Dlover]

"We are not going to be stealing from these people."

[Synch]

Remy stares into the tea as it brews.

"De tea, dat is it! You could have had an ailment like a headache, somethin' common enough that many people could have de same symptom at once. I have mistakenly given y'all a concoction wid a poisonous herb, or somethin' with an unideal side effec', and now we need to find a more expert apothecary for assistance in curin' y'all. It would explain why you all are leavin' together, an' why I am accompanyin' you."

He pours out the tea into two mugs. "Anyways, de tea is ready, pass de mugs round. Nothing poisonous in dis one though, I promise you" he says with a wry smile.

[Dlover]

Lance takes one of the mugs, takes a mouthful, then holds it out, "I'm not too concerned even if it is poison, so long as the pain stops."

[spiderwrangler]

"That would fit with all of us coming up here... Overindulged, came up here... Drank some tea... ". Ryush accepts the mug, take a swig, and passes it on. He stands up, tugs his poncho straight, and collects his sack of carrots.
" I'd like to go find my mule... Is that the story we've settled on? At the very least, is someone asks, I'll say that we weren't feeling well, and visited Rem...err... Rafe, visited Rafe for a treatment. That much is the truth. "

Unless stopped, Ryush heads out and toward the tavern, trying to recall where he left his ass.

*Edit: Until that is, he remembers that he... Rush lived in town, NOT out in the woods... And that he'd left the ass at home. He mutters in confusion and sits back down.

[Dlover]

"I'll need to go pick up some stuff from Loupe's room. Food, money, some spare clothes, and riding gear."

[spiderwrangler]

Ryush strokes his glorious beard in contemplation. "How did I manage to forget where my house is, but have clear snippets of meditating in caves? Maybe we ought to compare and combine what we can recall from the people that used to live in these bodies. I... Rush is the village baker, as I mentioned, my place I think is on the other end of town, not too far from the tavern. I traded for the farmer's grains, milled them into flour and baked breads, pastries and the like. I don't get the sense that I was all that sociable with the townsfolk... not antisocial, just not going out of my way to spend time with them, you know? That might help in terms of my staying under the radar. Anyway, I get the sense that I spent quite a bit of time wandering about in the woods and caves around these parts, so have some general idea of what surrounds the town. Perhaps if we all share what we recall, we can help fit those pieces into a whole that makes sense and gives us some idea of the area? I know some of us might not have memories of the town's surroundings, but perhaps memories of more distant places?" , he says, looking at the fancily dressed young man.


((Basically suggesting we share more about our host memories, and as a group, make some sort of check on local knowledge to see if we can piece together something more coherent than what each of our characters has alone.))

[Dlover]

"Loupe only got here a year ago, and picked up work as a stablehand and kennelmaster, with a room at the back of the tavern, near the stable, as part of his pay. That being so, it was his job to take care of the horses and hounds of anybody passing through, which I don't think was too uncommon, as well as those owned by the farm. He... Mostly kept to himself, but..." Lance blushes slightly, "Uh, w-well, I can't really pick out anything useful about people right now."