RP: Apprentice Advice
It's Variday, Quintoos 07 12:27:49 1018. The full moon is up. The tide is high and ebbing. Chilly rain falls from a grey sky. It's bleak and raw. The wind blows from the east.
A05: Warehouse District
Yelrona is leaning casually against a lamp-post, giving directions to a couple of redheaded humans dressed in green.
Ga'Elian and a snowy-white Erithamiel are walking together through the warehouse district, completely unbothered by the chilly rain. As Ga'Elian notices Yelrona, he approaches. "Hi, Rona," he smiles.
As you approach the lamppost you notice that the rain is being kept off Rona's head by some kind of invisible field centered on the post itself. The two redheads notice you and skulk off shiftily. Rona looks up and grins. "Good afternoon! Erithamiel," she adds mock-sternly, "what have we told you about overdoing the bleach?"
Devola is out, scurrying about with a bag of something she acquired from a warehouse. She has a cloak drawn up to ward against the rain and cooler weather, as well as to protect her nicer clothing. As she scurries along, she spots the griffon and Ga'Elian, who saved her before, so she makes her way over to say hello.
The griffon nods to Yelrona and wags his tail. Ga'Elian smirks. "Being neighborly?" he asks, glancing toward the green-clad gingers. Then when Devola approaches, he waves.
Aya emerges from the Guild Hall, the weather currently deflected from herself by a simple gray cloak. While wet, the gray sky is also dimmed, which is a minor blessing to some.
Yelrona raises an eye at the familiar-looking artificer and grins. "Well, I'm clearly going to have to be careful of my law-abiding reputation," she observes, tongue clearly in cheek, "if I'm to be seen consorting with known criminal elements." To Ga'Elian she adds, shaking her head as the redheads head off, "Trust me, you are better off not knowing. Let's just say they were attempting to obtain services I don't provide. Or, frankly, approve of."
"We were totally cleared of all that bogus!" Devola protests as she watches the other redheads depart. "So, uh... what services do you provide? I don't suppose you are a tailor...?"
Ga'Elian furrows his brow at this talk of Yelrona's services. He nods to Aya, then says to Rona, "I will take your word for it." He then vigorously nods his agreement to Devola's disclaimer.
Yelrona shakes her head. "Sadly, no," she replies to Devola. "Nor a smith. A Luckbringer by vocation, a street performer by trade, an information broker by happenstance. And you? An artificer, I assume from your gear... is there any news from the Hall of late? The last I heard was the fiasco with the giant artifice warrior."
Aya catches morsels of the conversation just as it gets interesting, it seems. A brow arches under her cloak in curiosity and she steps nearer before asking,"What clearing of bogus sevices is this?"
"I haven't heard anything about that." Devola admits, then looks at Ga'elian. "Haven't spent much time there lately... which reminds me, I have some stuff to grab quick, so I'll be back." She then scurries off again towards another warehouse.
Ga'Elian says, "I haven't heard of this giant artifice warrior, either. A giant, artifice-driven explosion? Yes, but no warrior. What have you heard?"
"Well, it was a while ago... the Hall had an Open House shortly after their building did that spider thing, and a couple of gnomes showed up with a... well, an artifice golem, I guess you'd call it, that grew on command. But didn't stop growing. It could have been really bad," Yelrona replies.
"Is anyone terribly surprised that gnomes and untried artifice combined to fail utterly?" Aya wonders to the others. "Only a marginal improvement over the gobbers."
Yelrona shrugs to Aya. "Honestly, I'm kind of surprised that the city stays intact from one week to the next. And I don't know much about artifice or gnomes, but the gobbers are all right. Even the gobber bandits outside the city -- you know, the ones we rescued that priest from?" she adds to Ga'Elian -- "turned out to have extenuating circumstances."
Ga'Elian laughs. "I can't argue that point, Aya. And I'm sorry, but I don't remember the priest. (beat) Anyway, I wanted to mention that the Ygdrassil Union has recently asked me whether I'd be interested in taking an apprentice of sorts. Someone to mentor in the ways of the Union. I told them I'd give it some thought, but it sortof took me by surprise, and I'm not sure what I think of it yet. Frankly, I never had any intentions in that direction, but it might be worth it."
And then Devola returns just in time to hear what Ga'Elian has to say. "Oh? Does apprenticeship come with a griffon? If so, sign me up!"
Aya glances between the other two with some mild incredulity before settling on Ga'elian. Brows arch anew. "Why would you choose to do so, much less share it with us?"
Yelrona chuckles. "Well, life has a way of taking us along directions we never intended. Is there anyone you have in mind?"
Ga'Elian takes a small step backward, then says, "Um, well, I guess I am mentioning it because I am undecided on whether to do it. So, no, I don't have anyone in mind, but for me, one of the biggest concerns is that Erithamiel would get long with such a person. As for 'getting a griffon', I would advise a healthy dose of respect. Erithamiel here is more animal than a normal griffon. Wild griffons can be as smart as any person, but my companion here has more the mind of an animal. Even so, he can be quite ferocious, and is certainly a free spirit."
Aya turns her attention breifly to Delrona and gestures vaguely to Ga'ellian and Erithamiel. "I'm quite sure that it's the griffon who chooses and gains the pet, not the other way around."
Devola pouts for a moment, but only a moment, and then pulls a spider-like contraption out of her bag. "That's okay. I have this little guy." She grins mischievously.
"Yes, you certainly are ferocious, aren't you!" Rona coos to the griffon, ruffling his crestfeathers and reaching into her pocket to pull out... a live frog.
"Boss, you and I are going to have to have a talk," she mutters under her breath with a glare at the rainy sky, then offers the gryphon the frog with a 'whatchagonnado?' shrug. "Anyway, given how many admiring glances Erithamiel gets from the locals," she adds wiht a smirk, "I don't suppose you'd have too much difficulty finding someone."
Ga'Elian nods at Aya's comment, "It goes both ways." He then says, "Oh, I imagine finding someone wouldn't be hard at all, but I'm not reading this as a recruitment drive on the Union's part so much as them looking to have me take an existing volunteer under my wing... or maybe Erithamiel's, I guess." *smirk* Then to Devola, "What have you got there? It isn't going to explode, is it?" The griffon eagerly snaps up the frog and responds to Rona's attention with a deep rumbling purr.
"I suppose it is capable of exploding. But it'd be a small one. The shrapnel would be more danger than anything." Devola replies, then looks at the construct. "Its a sort of scout construct. Can explore a bit and record things. Its a prototype I'm working on. Might not actually work."
Aya takes a slight step away from the item that could be capable of explosion, especially after admission that it does not, may not, and night never work.
Yelrona crouches down next to the item in question, curiously, inspecting its outer surface.
Ga'Elian whistles, "My, my. Just last night I came upon Astaren doing some experimenting, too. He was trying to distil raw mana out north of the City. It, um, didn't quite go as he predicted. I'm just glad he didn't start a forest fire."
The construct, more or less a little crab-like thing, wriggles in Devola's grip, legs moving like it is trying to walk. "It moves, at least."
"So, about constructs," Rona asks curiously as she regards the wriggling crab construct, "I have to admit, I'm a little confused. On the one hand, we have war golems, who walk around and carry on conversations and think and so on... and on the other hand," she continues, "this. Which, no offense, but... isn't in the same league. Can't you, I don't know, reverse-engineer the golems and work out how they were designed?"
Ga'Elian shudders with a look of horror for a moment. "For some reason, Rona, your mention of reverse-engineering war golems brought back that ordeal with the grave robbers and the flesh golem."
"I... suppose if I had a dead one, I could." Devola replies, slightly taken aback by the inquiry. She pets her little construct to console its probably hurt non-feelings. "But it might be a little on the complex side and frowned up by a good number of people, particularly other war golems. Though, considering there will be a finite quantity of them and they eventually... go bad and break down, so to speak, knowing how they work and potentially making more could be a huge boon."
Yelrona shrugs. "I don't mean to be creepy about it. I just mean, given that you're building these things anyway, it seems strange not to learn what you can from the ones that already exist." She nods to Devola. "Right, exactly."
Ga'Elian smiles, "No, of course you didn't. It's just that that was about the closest encounter I've had with any golem. Remember those little artifice demons that would pop up and fade away leaving horrific memories to linger after, Rona? Please forgive me, Devola, but airships were enough of a culture-shock when I came to this land, and then you add in all those things that I've run up against. It leaves some pretty vivid images. I suppose I should try to use my trances to deal with some of that baggage."