The Laughing Dog and No One
Log Info
- Title: The Laughing Dog and No One
- Emitter: Paenitia
- Characters: Paenitia, Sabina, Brand, Culix
- Place: A10: Temple of Tarien
- Time: Saturday, January 09, 2021, 1:56 PM
- Summary: Paenitia arrives at the Temple of Tarien, interrruping Sabina's discussion (with Tarien) regarding breaking rules and following them. The two discuss the Red Knight's latest adventure in the Gnombie's ruined Tower, when Brand arrives and laments his injury there. They ask him his story, but he plays it close to the chest and explains it's of no interest. At this point a wary looking goblin, Culix arrives and asks if any of them are priests of the Temple. Paenitia explains she is a Paladina of Tarien, Sabina that she is a cleric, but not of this Temple, so both effectively answer yes and no. Culix indicates she is curious about changing faiths, prompting Paenitia to swear to aid her in her cause. The goblin swiftly asks her to refrain from doing anything, explaining that she wants to think about things further, and leaves. Paenitia departs into the Temple to make further prayers.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--<* A10: Temple of Tarien *>=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
The Temple of Tarien. Some people refer to this as a place of wisdom, others refer to it as 'party central'. A playful statue of the Coyote stands just outside, cleverly designed so that it emits a howling sound when the wind blows over it. While acolytes all wear the same mask of comedy, the Luckbringers themselves frequently carry masks of great value, highly personal and carefully decorated. The front of the temple is decorated with people discussing, performing (frequently in bizarre and difficult to understand manners), and generally carrying on more like an affable party than a religious organization. Acolytes out front are frequently engaged with the elderly in games of chess, riddles, and more.
Inside, a twisting labyrinth comprises the innards of the temple, with only its adherents possessed of any ability to guarantee they'll arrive at the location they expect. It is said the temple of Tarien needs no guards for no-one who enters uninvited will ever find his way out again, the hallways and doors shifting and changing so that even tracing one's way back becomes impossible. Should one seek services here, one is just as likely to be engaged in a game of chance as be expected to pay, and a good trick, joke, or riddle is often considered just as high a tribute as any material offering. That being said, ostentation is less important than substance, as the answerless questions and riddles scrawling over the walls, engraved in the very stone are said to offer a treasure to those who decipher them greater than any gem: Wisdom.
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Appearing, in Order =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Paenitia 3'0" 34 Lb Halfling Female A Lucht knight, dark skinned in bold feathery finery. Sabina 5'4" 130 Lb Human Female Tsuran woman of dark hair and green eyes Brand 6'0" 180 Lb Human Male Raven-haired Human Male with blue eyes. Culix Goblin Female -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
"No! Ramirez, the space is small. There is no entry for you." A little Lucht that is loud for her size is blocking the entrance of an immense, horse sized peacock, her hippogryph mount. She holds the bird-horse's beak in her hands, staring up at him and suggesting an enticing alternative, "Perch on the rooftop. Yes, the ladies will see you from far and wide. It is a good idea, yes?"
She nods, and helps Ramirez nod, then pats him above the nostrils. "I shall call for you."
He departs with a deep 'ruuaah!' while she turns inside to the temple. She fits in, having her own mask and flamboyantly red clothing as well as a wide brimmed hat. Without any direction in mind, she clanks forward, a garish and solid little speedbump.
Sabina is dresses in a feathery dress. Feathers covering her that match her familiar Emp who sits in her lap. She herself is sitted agaainst he Coyote statue. Her back agains his back leg. And strangely enough she speaks softly to.. well either Emp or the statue. "Yes I know.. Yes. Ohhh poo on that! You know that's not how I work.." Yes. A one sided concersation with the statue it looks like. Her mithral mask making it a conversation between two coyotes.
The arrival of Paenita distracts her and she motions towards the Lucht, still speaking to the statue. "See.. Just like her. Your paladin."
The recognition draws her attention, and the Red Knight looks at the two coyotes, and the little peacock whom she recognizes. A lady does not forget the challenger of her protector, even if he is small. "Hola! Beautiful Day Luckbringer."
She alters course, a clanking collection of crimson armour on bare lucht feet, and arrives at the base of the statue. She turns her smiling mask towards Lord Emp, "Hello my friend. You are bold and beautiful, but do not let Ramirez know I said that."
"We have won the day. I come to thank Tarien. The task, she was amusing."
"Excuse me." Sabina says to the statue before turning to speak to Paenitia directly. Lord Empmakes contented sounds in his breast as he's complemented. Feathers russle against feathers as he adjusts his seat and then goes still.
Ah! Lady Paladin of Tarien. I am glad to see you victorious. And of course I will ask what the task was that was found amusing." She runs a hand over the dress to smooth it out and then to pet Emp who closes his eyes.
"The monsters in the woods. We find the source. Now, it is gone." Paenitia says proudly, standing up to her full three feet in height, her dark curls bouncing. "It is a story full of hubris. A powerful mage, he seeks to hold the control of time. His ritual fails, the time she splashes around his tower like the ripples in the pond. We come upon him, he gets great years in an instant, yet still lives."
She gestures wildly as she speaks, grasping at the air, spreading her hand out to suggest water, pulling at an imaginary beard. Through the eye-holes of her mask, her own are wide and excited, "We fight! The battle is short. Very messy. In the big pool of blood. Then, it is done, and >pop< the tower, she is gone."
Bina pauses her petting of Emp long enough to clap for the paladin and her story. "Congratulations and good work! It sounds as if a threat was put to rest for good and things are back to the way they should be. I hope you and all those with you are well after your battle?"
Just as the story of the event is being played out, Brand, who was knocked unconscious by falling debris, approaches the group, dressed in his armor and wearing cloak with the symbol of Daeus upon it. "I see we are already telling tales of victory." He says with a soft voice and a kind smile.
"Some of us got a little beating from it, but we made it out in one piece." he adds to Sabina.
"Ramirez is inconsolable! He did not fight. He did not show me his great beak, his fast claws. I have seen them before. I say, 'Ramirez, I do not think less of you, that you were not there. It is inside! That is the place I work alone. Outside, you defend me'. He is upset he miss his chance to fight."
Hearing Brand approach, Peanitia turns and waves, "Hola my friend. It is good to see you standing now. You look well. Dame Betrys carries you out." She turns her mask back to Sabina, "We take little beatings, yes, but we all escape. All return."
Sabina's smile widens and she nods to the newcomer and to Paenitia. "I am gald to hear all of you make it out safely enough. The life of an adventurer is prone to mishap and pain. Victories are to be celebrated and made tales of so that others may know that people fight for them." She says with a grin. "Are you well then, sir?" She asks of Brand.
Brand smirks a little bit at Paenitia with a small smile, bowing his head ever so slightly. "Happy to be standing. Still have a good bruise on my head, but I'm alive, so I can't complain." He smirks, though his attention shifts to Sabina. "Well enough, thank you for asking. I hope I've not interrupted anything?"
"No. We talk. I come to thank Tarien and I find my friend, the Luckbringer Sabina, in conversation with him." Paenitia says, leaning close, grinning beneath her smiling mask. "What secrets do you share? I see the two silver dog heads bobbing and must know the gossip. Do you speak of me? Do you tug tails of the whole city? The curiosity burns bright."
Bina's smile is clear under the bottom of her mithral mask. "Secrets? I don't know what you mean." She says coyly. "A Tarienite doesn't have secrets, do they? And if they do do they speak of them? That's a question for the ages." She laughs. "I come an speak with him at least once a week. Share my thoughts. I said that it's a shame to have us all the same in following the rules. And pointed out to him that you do not follow them even if you do."
Brand smirks a little bit to Paenitia as he bows his head. "Thank you." Then his attention shifts to Sabina. "Secrets?" Brand's expression turns a bit more...serious and dark. "Secrets can be dangerous." Seems Brand may have a history with secrets, or one that he has no desire to share. "Apologies. I'm not much of a gossiper."
"Ha-HA!" Paenitia laughs proudly, hands on her hips and her dark curls bouncing. Her voice is full of intimacy and indulgence, "You do speak of me and put the goods words in. Thank you my friend. I am glad I come today. I was sure there would be good knowledge to find. No secrets, no, yet the answers to the questions that can be 'yes' and 'no'."
The little Lucht looks up at Brand, gestures towards him with one outstretched hand, "Sunblade Dracul, I believe you are good with the secrets too, yes? He finds the hidden door, that lets us in the back behind the mage. The fight goes smooth. Fast, fast. A story is underneath. What are the dangers? Is the story one you will tell?"
Bina listens to Paenitia and grins. Her grin turning to a brow raise though that is hidden by her half-mask. "Sunblade. Interesting." She says looking over to Brand again. "Tarien's house is the house of stories, you know? It's safe to speak them. They are treasures. Some to be shared othre to remain quiet. If you feel like sharing please do."
Brand smirks a tad at Paenitia as she speaks. "I am good with secrets, yes. A history of finding hidden things has given me many talents." he smirks a tad. Then his attention shifts to Sabina. "I have few stories to tell. None of which will be entertaining to you, I would believe." He answers simply enough, though he does smile to both of them.
Paenitia tilts her head another way as she looks up at the statue. There is a lot of looking up in life for a Lucht. The feather in her hat waves around behind her, and while her rusty, smiling mask hides her grin, all expressions, there is humour in her voice. "I see how you keep the secrets! Tarien will drop the many more rocks on you. His friendly joke. Invest in the strong hat."
She taps her own, which rings a lot more metallic than it should. A shaped helm is beneath the cloth. "I know his surprises too. I come to be thankful they were not many, join the celebration. You have been inside his Temple before, meet the peoples?"
"If you speak to me, dame Paenitia, then the answer is of course a yes. I'm often out and about. Here and there. I find the whorship of Taren in the interaction of people with one another. Part of the reason I own the Tarrace. A good place to meet others and spend time with them. If I say so myself." She looks to one and then the other. "And what of you two?"
Brand smirks a little bit at Sabina for a second, though his attention shifts to Paenitia. "I don't like hats." he replies slightly, but he seems to chuckle. "Here's hoping Tarien drops no more rocks on me." He informs, though his attention shifts back to Sabina. "I've been in the temple once or twice, yes."
A rather less mirthful figure than the usual crowd makes their way into the temple from outside, wrapped up in the hood of her cloak, Culix glances around furtively- as though she expects to be told to leave, or perhaps struck by lightning for entering the place. Nevertheless, the beady-eyed goblin does make her way further into the ground, defly dodging a reveller as she heads deeper inside. Her eyes glitter when she spots one of the fabulously expensive looking masks adorned by a luckbringer walking the halls, but then she tears her eyes away from it and a hand comes up to absent-mindedly rub her shoulder.
"The Temples to Tarien, there are not many in Isobar." Paenitia explains, leaning her weight to one hip, a metallic squeak from her armour. "The worship is in the small shrines, and the moments with good friends when a common joke is shared. The laughing when the plan goes well, and the plan goes wrong."
The Red Knight adjusts her hat in response to Brand, but doesn't remove it. She's relatively obscured, her wild back curls cover most of her head to her mask, which covers the rest, and she is layered in armour down to her feet, which is the only part of her bared where her mahogany skin tone is visible.
"The Tarrace. What is that? Where is that? I will visit."
Bina, who wears a half-mask of mithral shaped like a coyote wiggles a tad. Using the coyote statue to scrach at her back through the peacock feather dress. This makes the peacock in her lap grouse at her before settling back down.
She spots Culix and smiles, offering the grumpy looking goblin a wave as well. "Welcome to the temple." She says cheerfully. To Brand she nods. "Well, Sunbrand." She says misnaming him. Or rather smashing his title and name together. "Please be welcome here as well. Your smile is welcome too." To Peanitia she chuckles. "Near the coluseum. Just make sure your feathered mount doesn't poke his head inside or he and Emp may go at it again."
Brand smiles and saunters off with a wave and a singe word "work."
Culix blinks in surprise as she is waved to, and she lifts her hand to offer a hesitant little wave back. She begins heading over towards the group then, hood of her cloak still up despite being indoors. She glances about a bit, and then wonders, "Are... you both priests, here?" she asks, glancing at their masks.
"Ha! I cannot promise. The men of Isobar are wild, like horses, they cannot be dragged from their macho ways. Ramirez is the same and horse too. I shall whisper and guide and turn his head but he will fly where he flys." The little Lucht explains, proud of her mount's willfulness. She encourages it.
"Hola!" She calls to Culix, adding a wave to Sabina's.
"I shall go to the building." She tells Sabina, then shakes her head at Culix. Her eyes are bright behind her mask, and her mask is a stylized man's face with a wide smile and even wider, curled moustache. It is steel, with a light patina of rust, and different from the coyote masks many have. "I am Sister Paenitia Snapdragon del Haranna, Knight of the Pillar and Paladin of Tarien. Well met, my friend."
Bina chuckles. "Well. The answer is both a yes and a no. I am a priestess of Tarien and I am here but I'm not from the temple here no. I am also a mage and Mystic thurge and a tavern and bath house owner." She puts finger to side of her lips in thought and grins. "That's all currently?" She then laughs at herself. "And My name is Sabina."
"Oh..." Culix says, at the introductions from the other two. She hesitates for a moment, and then her hand comes up, pointed nails scratching at a cheek, "Well... ok then." she adds after a moment. She looks away, and then back towards them- very shifty, this goblin. "Oh... bath house? I think I've been there." she says then, and rubs her shoulder again. "It seems nice, but I don't much like getting my kit off in front of strangers, you know?" she admits. A long pause, and she finally introduces herself, "I'm Culix, by the by. Was wondering if you know where any of this temples priests are? I can't tell which ones are local and which ones are just visiting." she says, looking about again. "Had a question for 'em."
"I know. I wear the Smiling Man's face so I do not show my own." Paenitia says. She looks at her reflection on Sabina's half mask, then gestures up at the walls. "The many questions are written here. The answers are both 'yes' and 'no'. The priests will find you once you are lost in the maze. I find the priests so."
"Though if you wish I will hear your question?" Bina both says ans asks at the same time. "I am a Luckbringer after all. But I understand if you wish to ask a priest that is directly from the temple." She nods towards Paenitia. "She's right. They're find you or one of the Ruffians will and they will guide you as needed." Her smile remains in place.
Culix nods her head slowly then, and she glances about, "Well, say, if someone was... uh, curious, about Tarien. But they're already part of, you know, a group that isn't so keen on folks leaving... what might they do? Hypothetically speaking." Culix poses her question then, doing a poor job of the 'asking for a friend' bit.
That question lights a fire in Paenitia's eyes. The passion and determination in her burns bright. "They would come, and ask, and Sister Paenitia, Knight of the Pillar, protector of the common people would say, 'I take up your cause. I will free you. Life is too short to be owned by another. I will break the chains and strike the root. Resist and be free!'"
The Red Knight is fully convinced of her rhetoric, strong in her cause, wild and seeming just a little crazy. She comes down from her heights, her voice compassionate, "Are you in trouble my friend?"
Bina turns and blinks as Paenitia becomes enflamed, her smile more confused at frist but then brightens. Turning back to Culix she speaks more softly but just a sure. "Tarien isn't much for fights normally. Trickery of course we do more often. Yet we do value freedom highly. You would find safe harbor here. And freedom to leave when you wished too. As for support against those seeking to.. repremand you. Well, sister Paenitia seems keen to assist you. And I certianly am willing to try to diswade those folk from trying more then once."
Culix glances back over her shoulder when they see through her unconvincing act just like that, "Well, It's not the flesh and blood sort I'm worried about." she says then, "Only- Spoke with someone the other day, said they'd been dead for a time, before getting called back with magic. Said they met Tarien." she says then, "Got me thinking I uh... I don't really want to meet you-know-who, you know?" she says then, and rubs her shoulder again.
"It is my sworn duty as a Knight to help those who have no one." Paenitia explains. She's from a hot, hard place and it is in her bones, fueling her desire to fight for those who are being crushed. An unshakeable confidence in a dark Lucht package. "I fight foes both noble and corrupt. I have fellow Knights who will join me, freshly blooded on Imps and the talking undead. We meet. I know some will aid this cause."
The Red Knight looks at Sabina, back at Culix, "Tarien comes to me in Isobar, when I am in great despair. I see the joke. Life is wonderful; life is stupid. I know then, I am his. The Luckbringer, she can hint, I do not think she can say 'your ceremony is this'. Yes? No?"
Bina nods slowly to both Culix and then the dark knight. "I understand. You have fear which grants some wisdom, Culix. Tarien speaks to each different. Touches each in different ways. I can tell you that he honestly welcomes all no mater what they've done in the past as long as they wish to change their future. Free choice. The choice always being yours in the end."
"Wait, wait, no- no no." Culix says then shaking her head at Paenitia, "I don't want you to do anything. Really, I don't." she says, "I probably shouldn't even be here..." she adds after a moment. "I just wanted to ask, really, you know if... If I stopped praying to one god and started praying to another, would... would that change where I- you know. End up?" she asks then. But she pauses a bit at Bina's words then, "Yeah... alright... alright." she says then, and peers over her shoulder again. "I'll uh... I'll think about it a bit more." she says then.
Paenitia nods, seemingly accepting the instruction, her rusting mask fixed in its smile all the while. Who knows what a Knight and a Paladin might decide to do if there is a righteous cause. Her words are somewhat reassuring, even if there's still an eager edge to them. "I will hold. I am here to help. Remember my words, you should live free. He will hear your prayers. If he will answer, if he will not, I cannot say. You can change your path. Your path will lead you somewhere new."
Bina chuckles at Culix's awkwardness but not in an unkind way. "You're fine, Culix. Remember. Free choice. That means you get all the time you wish to make a choice. Only the world around you can make your choice faster. If you want to speak about it further or again, we're here." She motions to the Coyote statue and Paenitia and herself. Oh.. and the peacock in her lap. Must not forget Lord Emp.
Culix nods her head again, "Alright... yeah, so long as my new path don't lead me back to prison, or to the hells." She replies to Paenitia. "Anyway uh, thanks for the talk." she adds then. She peers at the peacock as it's indicated, and then nods her head slowly- uncertainly- "For now, uh, bye I guess. And if anyone asks after me, make out like you don't know me, alright?"
"Of course my friend," Paenitia replies, her attention fixed on Culix, "You are nameless as the wind. We do not betray."
She taps at her mask, "If you fear showing your face, wear the Smiling Man's, or the Laughing Dog's. We will be here."
Bina blinks rapidly. Her eyes roaming over Culix's spot without seeing. "That's funny. There was someoen we were talking to. But for the life of me I can't remember who or what about." She grins over to Paenitia. "You were saying? Something about Tarien?"
Culix offers a small, wan smile to the two of them, and then tugs her hood back more fully over her head so that she can make good her escape.
"Yes! I am glad to hear the wisdom, even when there are no answers from nothing." The Dark Lucht grins behind her mask, also ignoring Culix as if she wasn't there. Her head tilts enough she can see past the brim of her hat to look skywards. "I hear Ramirez, impatient with his heavy hooves, clop, clop. He walks on the roof. I go to pray to Tarien he finds me still amusing before my wild stallion challenges all the weathercocks on the Temples."
"After, I go to the Tarrace. For the dinner, for the singing. I see you there, Luckbringer." Paenitia bows, sticking a foot out as she does, one arm in front, one behind, then the Red Knight turns and clanks her way into the maze to be lost and found.
