The Phoenix of Altria

by David M Zahn

  "Sorry," the mayor replied, turning away from her and looking between Elaria and Rondo instead. "Well, as I said earlier, Jackson had been talking about heading to Istria for a while, but I wouldn't consider that strange. Lilith was sneaking around a lot lately, we think to see a boy, but no one has yet to fess up to that, and the guards were obviously investigating, so they were poking around and asking a lot of uncomfortable questions."

  "Have you noticed anything strange outside of the disappearances in the last couple of months?" Eldertits asked.

  "Well, I don't know if I'd call it strange, but a couple weeks ago we noticed a goblin camp spring up several miles to the northwest," Colton responded. "We get goblins in this area from time to time, so I wouldn't say it's strange, but it definitely makes my people uncomfortable."

  "No knowledge of any connection between the disappearances and the goblins?" Rondo asked.

  "As far as I know there isn't, but then again, I can't say there isn't a connection," Colton answered. "As you are all probably aware, goblins do occasionally abduct people, but I've never heard of a goblin abduction where they were able to block all communication."

  "That is strange," I replied, more to myself than to Colton.

  "Still, you'd probably better investigate their camp, and if you can get it to, disband and move out. I'll throw in some coin," Colton said.

  You have received a new quest: Run them off!

  "A group of goblins created an encampment several miles to the northwest of Roselake. This encampment may or may not be connected to the disappearances in town, so you should investigate it, and while you're there, Colton, the town's mayor has asked you to drive the goblins off."

  Type: Uncommon

  Reward: 1000 XP, 200 gold, 1000 Reputation points with Roselake

  Penalty for Decline or Failure to complete: None

  Do you accept this quest?

  Yes or No?

  Accepting the quest, I replied, "Sure. If we're going to be checking it out anyway, we might as well help you out."

  "Alright, well I have some business I must attend to, so I'll see you out now," Colton said distractedly.

  "Very well," I said as he motioned for us to follow him back to the front door.

  As we reached the door, Thomas met us and said, "Sir, I could have seen them out."

  Colton waived him away and replied, "It's no bother at all, Thomas. I can easily walk my own guests out."

  The old man sighed and said, "As you wish, sir."

  "Thank you for the leads. We'll be in touch," I said, exiting the home.

  Colton quickly shut the door, and the four of us set off down the hill and back into the village proper.

  "Well, that seemed to end a little prematurely," Eldertits said laughing.

  "Yeah, it felt a little bit like, fix my goblin problem and get out," Rondo muttered. "I doubt these goblins have anything to do with the missing people."

  "I'm inclined to agree with you, but we can't rule them out yet. And besides, it's a quest with a decent amount of XP and gold attached to it," I replied.

  "Where do we want to check next?" Elaria asked.

  "I think the inn would probably be the next best place. We can book some rooms and ask the staff what they might have seen," I said.

  "Sounds like a good plan," Eldertits said. "I wouldn't mind getting something to drink either."

  "Tits, it's the middle of the day," Elaria said sighing.

  "What of it?" Eldertits replied.

  "Don't you think it's a little early to get started," Elaria said exasperatedly. "Besides, don't you think you'll need all of your wits for this investigation?"

  "Ha," Eldertits shot back. "We'll probably stumble onto the answer half asleep and half drunk, but relax, I'll only have one or two."

  "You're just a model of restraint," Elaria said dryly as we reached the bottom of the hill.

  It was a lot easier coming down than it had been going up. As small as this village was, I don't think we'd have had a problem finding the inn even if it didn't stand out as one of the only multistoried buildings in town. The inn had a red roof with several tiles missing as well as three chimneys. The first floor of the building was made out of stone while floors two and three were both made out of wood. A wooden staircase on the side of the building led up to a small entrance on the second floor, while the main entrance on the first floor had a double door with some kind of bird carved on it and the Inn's sign above.

  "Ladies first," Rondo said, pulling open one of the entrance doors and holding it open for the rest of us.

  The girls and I entered the tavern. It took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the dark interior, but once they did, I could see the inside was filled with long tables and benches as well as a small bar area. In one corner a staircase led up to the second floor, and there was also a doorway behind the bar leading to the kitchen.

  Eldertits walked straight up to the bar, currently manned by a stern looking middle-aged woman whose eyes flicked from Tits' ears to her scantily clad outfit.

  "We don't get many of the elderfolk in here. What can I do for you?" the woman asked.

  "We need to rent a couple rooms, and then I would like some wine if you've got it," Tits said to the bartender.

  "How long will you be staying with us?" the woman inquired.

  "We're not sure yet. Can we just rent night-to-night?" Eldertits replied.

  "Sure, but night-to-night will cost you extra," the woman said. "Six gold per room, per night."

  "That's fine," Eldertits replied.

  The woman leaned down underneath the bar and produced a couple of keys and slid them over to Tits. "You're in rooms three o three and three o four."

  "Thanks, now I'll take a glass of red wine if you've got it," Eldertits said, picking up the keys and tossing one to me.

  I caught it as the woman got a glass down and began searching for a bottle underneath the bar.

  "Anything for the rest of you?" she asked, not looking up from her search.

  Eldertits answered quickly before the rest of us had a chance, "No, they insist on working sober. They just need to learn how to hold their liquor."

  "Fair enough. What kind of work brings you to Roselake?" she asked, finally finding what she was looking for and standing back up.

  "We've been asked by Lady Katarina Amarion to look into the disappearances that have been going on around here," I replied.

  The bartender spilled a little bit of the wine over the side of the glass when I said this but recovered quickly.

  "I see," she replied, setting the bottle down and picking up a rag to clean up. "Yes, that has been very disturbing."

  "Were you working here when the guards sent by the governess vanished?" I asked tentatively.

  "Of course, I was working here then, I own the place," the woman said, handing the glass of wine over to Eldertits.

  "Could you tell us if you noticed anything peculiar about the time they were here?" I asked.

  "Well, other than them poking around in everyone's business, no, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary," the bartender said. "They were in here occasionally for dinner but otherwise spent most of their time in the village away from where I could see them. They rented a couple of rooms on the second floor but didn't have any belongings. When they vanished, I lost out on the money they owed me, so I'll be quite grateful to you if you find them for me."

  "Did they come in here the night they disappeared?" Rondo asked.

  "Yeah, they came in and ate some dinner and then went up to their rooms for the night," she replied. "The next day, neither of them came down, and when my housekeeper cleaned their rooms, nobody was in them. I didn't think much of it at the time, but neither of them came back that evening or the following day, and soon we heard from the capital that they lost contact with the guards as well."

  "Thank you for your help," Eldertits said, downing the rest of her glass of wine and placing a gold piece on the counter.

  "I wish
I could be more help, but I spend all of my time in here, and they spent most of theirs out in the village," the bartender said, scooping up the coin.

  "It's fine, we appreciate it," I said as the four of us turned and walked away.

  "Well, that wasn't much help," Elaria said once we were out of earshot. "Did you find anything, Minty?"

  The short otter looked up at the ranger and squeaked.

  "Did he find anything?" I asked.

  "There was a delicious cockroach under the bar," Elaria responded dryly.

  "Minty, that's disgusting. You're lucky you're so otterly adorable," Eldertits said, bending down and petting the creature on the top of the head.

  "We should probably go to the miller's and ask about his son," Rondo suggested.

  "Yeah, that's probably not going to be a very fun conversation," I responded, "but I agree."

  We left the tavern and headed down the street toward the mill. As we walked, other townsfolk stared at us. I tried not to pay attention, but Eldertits seemed to enjoy it. She winked at a couple of men who continued to stare at her after she walked by. To be fair to them, she was showing off.

  "May the blessing of Ilethian be upon you," a male voice called to us from the left.

  Turning, I saw a bald man clad in green robes standing in front of the temple building I first noticed when we entered the village.

  "Ilethian?" I asked.

  "Don't tell me you've never heard of Ilethian, my child?" the man responded surprised. "He is the great god of the harvest and fertility."

  "I have not," I responded. "I've never really been the religious sort."

  "Well then, I must at least teach you about Ilethian," he responded, coming up to me and placing one arm around my shoulder.

  "I don't think that -"

  "Come now, this will only take a moment of your time," he said, cutting me off and firmly guiding me towards the entrance of the temple.

  I sighed, begrudgingly allowing him to steer me into the temple. Quite bright and spacious on the inside, a central hole in the ceiling allowed natural sunlight to pour in and fill the interior with light. All of the wall space depicted various artwork showing what I presumed to be a story about Ilethian. In the back of the temple, there was an altar and a couple of doors leading into other rooms beyond.

  "I am Loren, a priest in the order of Ilethian, by the way," the priest said. "And these paintings tell the story of Ilethian. Ilethian sowed the first fields at the dawn of Alderoth and taught the elderfolk how to grow things."

  He nodded towards Elaria and Eldertits as he said this, and Elaria nodded her head in agreement like she had heard this story before.

  "After that, he taught each race in turn as it reached maturity, and eventually civilization was born," Loren continued. "For a time, the whole of Alderoth flourished as plant life grew, but this was not to last forever. Ilethian had a wife named Nami who was beautiful, a free spirit, and he loved her with his whole heart."

  He began moving around the room, pointing to various paintings on the wall as he spoke.

  "But," Loren said, pausing for dramatic effect, "while Nami loved Ilethian, she longed to explore everything and was not a woman who could be tied down by one man. One day while she was out exploring, she stumbled across a raven who led her deep underground into a cavern of shimmering crystals. Once she was there, the raven transformed into an exotic, dark-skinned woman that was unlike anything Nami had ever seen before. This woman, who was in fact, Kuolema, the goddess of death, was enticed by the beauty and free spirit of Nami. The two quickly became close and soon..."

  "Scissored the shit out of each other," Eldertits exclaimed, startling the priest out of his story.

  Loren jerked, looked over at the elf and then shook his head as if to shake off the confusion.

  "Yes, they became lovers," Loren said. "Nami stayed with Kuolema for a period of time, and Ilethian became worried about his wife. As each day passed, he sunk further and further into grief and fear, and all that was green and good on Alderoth began to die. Pretty soon, almost nothing was left alive, and the people began to starve. Nami, who loved Kuolema but who also loved Ilethian, saw the changes in Alderoth and knew she had to go back to her husband or all life was doomed. She spoke to Kuolema, and together they spoke to Ilethian. After much discussion, the three of them made a pact that Nami would spend half of her time with Ilethian and half of her time with Kuolema, and thus, the four seasons were born. The spring is when Nami returns to Ilethian, and he rejoices. During the summer, things flourish because of his happiness at their togetherness. In the autumn, leaves fall, and plants die as he despairs from her leaving to visit Kuolema, and by winter, he has long suffered her absence."

  "I thought the Kuolema was exiled by the other gods," I said after silence settled over the room after his story.

  "Very good," Loren said, "yes, the goddess of death was banished by the other gods and is unable to enter our plane, but that doesn't keep other celestials, such as Nami, from being able to visit her for a while."

  "I didn't know that," Eldertits said. "How does one visit the goddess of death?"

  Loren stared deeply at the elf and after a long silence said, "I do not know, and even if I did, I would not be sharing this information. Kuolema was banished by the other gods for a reason, and although Nami visits her, she is a celestial being who operates on a higher level of existence than the rest of us. Why would you wish to visit such a dark being anyway?"

  "Threesome with a goddess and another celestial being," Eldertits said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Who wouldn't want to scissor their way through the heavens?"

  A silence settled once more in the temple as Loren attempted to process this information. Judging by the priest's face, he couldn't fathom someone attempting to do that with a god, let alone the goddess of death.

  Finally, while looking strained, Loren said, "I suppose that's something you could do, but I don't believe Ilethian would like that very much, and I don't think you want to make an enemy of him."

  "Maybe I'd invite him, too," Eldertits said, ignoring the pained expression on the priest. "I bet I could make him feel a bit less lonely."

  "I don't know if anyone has ever tried that before," Loren replied. "That's a very unconventional way of worshiping."

  "It the best way to worship," she whispered, winking at him.

  "Well, if you'd like to join us for Ilethday service you are all welcome to come," Loren said.

  "We'll think about it," I said. "Thank you for the story and explanation."

  Loren bid us farewell, and the four of us left the temple returning the way we entered.

  Once we were outside, I asked, "What is Ilethday?"

  "It's the equivalent of our Tuesday," Rondo answered. "Each day of the week here is named for one of Alderoth's gods, but they still only have seven days, and each one corresponds to a day of the week back from Earth."

  "Well, that's convenient," I replied.

  "I think the developers just wanted to keep it simple for the players," Rondo said. "Either that or they were just lazy."

  "We should speak to this miller," Elaria said, prompting us to get moving once more.

  The mill was only about three minutes away from the temple, and we got there in no time, but unlike the previous mill, this one wasn't built on a river and didn't have a wheel of any kind on the outside. Instead, when we stepped inside the mill, there was simply a quern stone with a handstone on top of it. A large man pushed the stone around in a circle by a handle jutting out from the side of the handstone.

  In the middle of this top stone, wheat had been poured into a hole, and once it was ground, it pooled into flour down below. The process looked tedious, exhausting, and I didn't envy this miller one bit.

  "Excuse me, are you the father of Jackson Tuckett?" I asked loudly, speaking over the sound of stone rubbing against stone.

  The wheel stopped, and the big man looked our group up and down before saying,
"I am. The name's Samuel, and who would you lot be?"

  "I'm Ryland. This is Rondo, Elaria, and Eldertits," I said, pointing to each of us in turn. "We've been sent by the governess to investigate the disappearances in this village."

  "Oh great, now her ladyship sends foreigners and idiots to try and find my son," Samuel spat. "I can really see how much the nobles care about us smallfolk."

  "I can assure you that she cares, and so do we," I said quickly. "If you'll just answer a few questions for us, we can get out of your hair."

  "Well, it's not going to hurt anything," Samuel said, still obviously irritated. "Ask your damn questions."

  "Did you notice anything odd about your son before he disappeared?" I asked.

  "No. The lad had some stupid ideas about moving to the big city, but otherwise acted like any other young man his age," the miller answered.

  "Was he meeting anyone unusual in the days leading up to his disappearance?" Elaria asked.

  "No. He used to sneak out at night to go spend time with some of the village girls," Samuel said wryly. "He thought we didn't notice, but you can't hide that sort of thing from your father. Especially when your father has some experience doing that himself. If the lad only knew that his mother and I used to do the same thing."

  "Did he ever mention anything about running away with one of these girls?" I asked.

  "No, I mean, he could have spoken to one of them about going to Istria, but as far as I know he never did," Samuel answered.

  "We've been told by the mayor that you were the last person to see your son. What can you tell us about that night?" Rondo asked.

  "Well," Samuel sighed, "it was honestly a pretty normal evening. The two of us were working late in the mill, which we do on occasion. Afterward, we went home and ate dinner with my wife, and then Jackson said he was going to meet his friend Liam, but I'm fairly certain he was going out to meet a girl. I know for sure he wasn't meeting Liam, because after he disappeared, I asked Liam, and the lad told me he had no plans with Jackson that night."

  "Do you have any speculation on which girl you think he was meeting up with?" Eldertits asked.