Holes/Session 41
A fragment of the Garden of Remembering
EXT. Riverbank near the other cavern entrance - night
The party makes to head out. George buggers off to head back to his own town, amidst some grumbling.
Just as everyone else is leaving, the Gravedigger carrying Amadi, and Dave now barely on her own feet, Squirrel (still up a tree) drops a cephalopod on Radek's head. The cephalopod gibbers and fondles his head, making itself comfortable, and, for the time being, refuses to be removed.
A slight giggling comes out of the tree.
Radek looks up and sighs.
RADEK
Someone tell me I'm not expected to feed this thing.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Don't look at me. I'm not cephalopod expert.
DAWN
Brains.
RHU
Pretty.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
I'm just a negative space engineer.
The Gravedigger marks the Gibbering Squid.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
I'm watching you.
The porridge jumps onto Greibel's head and mimics the shape and motion of the gibbering squid. It even gibbers a bit.
Greibel chuckles jovially.
RADEK
How good to know that I've finally attracted imitators.
Amadi's voice drifts out of the head-squid:
AMADI
Who watches the watchers of the watchers....
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Sandwich kid! How're the demon hordes?
(he squints into Amadi's eyes)
HELLO DEMONS. YOU STILL IN HERE?
Amadi still seems to be unconscious, and fails to directly respond to this.
The Gravedigger shrugs and shoulders Amadi. Like a sack of potates. Or a sack of midgets.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Where are we going now?
AMADI
(from the squid)
Save... the mystery...
DAWN
Solve the princess.
RADEK
Well... Having discovered a means of repairing the fabric of the universe, perhaps a few more field trials are in order. Of course, the damage may also be our only means of... travel, as it were.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Anyone have any idea how to look for Holes? Short of.. asking around, I suppose.
RADEK
I could spend my time attempting to repair and understand this device in the hopes that it contains a greater solution to the problem, as well, but... If it happens to be missing pieces, I make no guarantees.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
The device seems more magical than technological. Maybe an arcanist would be able to tel us more about it.
RADEK
Hrmph. I wouldn't get my hopes up. Optimistically, a competent wizard would be a rare find.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Couldn't hurt.
DAWN
(mumbling)
We've lost our muchness. Locked it away.
They all head back to Dorgin for a good night's sleep. Or day's. Or hour's. Or whatever it is they even do.
INT. Dorgin guardhouse - the next day
Rhu, Greibel, and the Gravedigger head off to the inn, leaving Amadi and Dawn in the guardhouse with Radek, who has been working on some contraption or other all night long. Dawn is sort of helping, mostly getting in the way. Amadi is still passed out.
Radek tinkers with parts and things. Dawn stands slightly off to the side and passes him a tool. It turns out to be the wrong one.
Later, Amadi's voice muses, longingly, through the form of the cephalopod:
AMADI
Feel the sea breeze... Smell the salty air... Ain't nobody home.
INT. Dorgin inn - morning
There are a few folks there now: two guys off to the side arguing over what appears to be a baby dragon sitting on the table. An obligatory barkeep. A creepy old lady, completely different from any of the other creepy old ladies the party has run into so far.
Greibel heads over to check out the baby dragon. (rolled 31 nature) It's cute and adorable and totally a dragon. Quite healthy, very happy, content as could be. It doesn't really seem to give a damn about anything, all badass and everything.
The Gravedigger sits down and does nothing worth mentioning.
Rhu wanders over to the barkeep and buys a drink.
RHU
So what's with the zombies in the are?
RHU
Is it just this region - what is this region called, by the way - or is the whole planet that's seen zombie outbreaks?
RHU
Do you know of a city called Coffle? My friends and I visited there many years ago, and we were told that this planet is Cerris, so it might be here somewhere. In Deslan, I think.
Greibel exudes fumes and wanders outside.
RHU
I suppose traveling to Deslan is out of the question then?
RHU
What about... spaceboats? That travel through the sky?
RHU
Are they safe? Where would we find a ship heading to Deslan?
RHU
Airship! Now we're talking. Where can we catch an airship from?
RHU
(softly)
Who's the old lady?
RHU
Why?
RHU
Hmm.
Rhu proceeds to make general conversation with the barkeep about life in Dorgin and in the Havens, trying to learn what he can. (rolled 18 streetwise)
It turns out that life is life, it's mostly a lot of logging in the area, further out there's farming, folks are miserable enough, business is good, there are some weird tree creatures that keep beating up one of the farms, but only ever that specific farm, and there's also something about the mayor and his wife having a massive falling-out.
Rhu asks what the falling-out was about, but that's just because he's a huge gossip.
The barkeep gives him like five different theories about what the falling-out was about, none of which make any sense. One involves a set of frying pans, another a fire that never happened, another a policy involving cats.
Rhu nods sadly.
EXT. Dorgin area - day
Outside the inn, Greibel turns into a flock of birds and takes off to scout the area. Above, the birds form a circle in the air with their eyes pointed outward from the circle, repeating this periodically as they flutter around for the next few hours.
He finds a bunch of interesting things - a fascinating canyon with some very nice geology over one way, a giant tree that completely dwarfs all the others, a mountain range with the sea apparently on the other side off the in distance, and nearer by even a wizard's tower that appears to be completely abandoned. There's also a mine that looks to be infested with trolls somewhere else, a bunch of tree creatures bashing down a barn over there with cows running every which way, and at some point he also finds a crashed dirigible in some woods, with men scurrying all about it.
All in all, everything is accounted for, and more.
Greibel returns in a swoop of bird poop and touches down to the ground to report on his findings.
