open Morrowtide

[North Star 4,540]

Overnight Perspi would clean herself up as best she could - clean any cuts, remove any gunk/dirt from the explosion etc. Before sleeping she would check and double-check the lock on her door against intrusion. Throughout her time in the musky inn she would breathe shallowly through her nostrils and would ignore any mattress on the bed in favour of staying on the floor, imagining it to be lice-ridden. She would sleep with her back pressed against the door.

In the morning she would first approach the bar mare and after a little small talk (how's business etc), would buy a grog (sipping it gingerly) and attempt to turn the conversation towards the patrons and potential leads on her strange experience with the tree monster, "Do any adventuring types come through here?" she would begin.

 

[Goat-kun 2,498]

@abrony-mouse

The grog cost three coppers. It was a sweet and potent mix of cider, lemon juice, and rum that did as much to lift one's spirit as it was to knock one out.

 

"No adventurers here. Just ponies who want to earn some bits," the Innkeeper, not being the talkative type, replied to the mare's question and waved her head towards a springboard plastered with various requests hanging besides the entrance.

Requests

Spoiler

-Mayor office wants to hire a pony to put on a diving suit and rid our beautiful waters of kelp. Two coppers per kelp. Visit town hall if interested.

-We need ponies to inspect our lovely fir forest and shovel out all the remaining snow left behind by the Winter Wrap Up team. Two silvers per day guaranteed. One silver per a barrel of snow. Visit forester guild if interested.

-Need somepony to collect voyeur grass. A silver per plant. Contact Shop if interested.

Despite the mare's disinterest in a conversation, Clairvoyance was also able to learn that the three sitting at the table were seaweed farmers who owned one of the sloops at the wharf.

Edited March 13, 2021 by Goat-kun

[North Star 4,540]

Clairvoyance patted her travellers' bag, hoping she would be recovered before the 6 days were up. She took a little sip the grog and feels a lil tipsy and misses Firey soul... so she decides not to have any more. Instead she asked if there was anything to eat - it'd been a while. She offers the mare the grog, hoping it might warm her up  

She idly read the notice, the voyeur plant caught her eye. She might take the Shop up on that while she pieced together what had happened in the woods. She'd ask the mare where to find this Shop.

 

[Goat-kun 2,498]

@abrony-mouse

The offered drink did not seem to improve the Innkeeper's mood. She coldly recited the tavern's menu that consisted of sea lettuce salad (2 coppers), seaweed soup (2 coppers), seagrass risotto (3 coppers), and gull egg breakfast (3 coppers). When asked for directions to the Shop, the Innkeeper raised her right eyebrow ever so slightly: "The request, huh." She blew out a quiet, disapproving nicker: "That one's been up for a while." According to her, the establishment known as the Shop was located at the intersection between Timberberry and Trottster Street in the north-eastern side of town known as Gloomy Bay. It was supposed to be a sort of a general store for adventurer types, though it was more well-known as a pawn shop for antiques.

[North Star 4,540]

Clairvoyance knew that nicker. So the place was up to no good. Why did ponies have to be so unimaginative? Timidity kept most ponies on the straight and narrow but a leader leaps over such barriers. If Firey Soul were here she could laugh at this stick in the mud. As it is, Clairvoyance nods without much response to the mare's tone and thanks her for the information. 

She was hungry after her ordeal yesterday so she takes the Gull Egg breakfast - she needed the protein. 

She takes her breakfast over to the seaweed farmers, and asks if she can sit with them. If they accept, she will introduce herself as a simple mare looking for work and ask them about business and general news - any unusual goings on and such.

[Goat-kun 2,498]

@abrony-mouse

The breakfast included two slices of bread with uncanny, quinoa-like taste along with two sunny-side-up eggs. The yolk possessed a slight fishy fragrance that was hard to discern over the pungent smell of puffy white cakes enjoyed by the three seaweed farmers. The ponies were not particularly bothered by the unicorn newcomer and welcomed her to their table.

 

The grizzled, white-bearded earth pony with a captain hat grumbled: "Those damn sea urchins are eating through our seaweed! We'll need to cull their herd again."

 

"And we'll have to do it ourselves," puffed the skinny red brown pegasi wrapped inside a yellow raincoat.

 

"The mayor won't lift a hoof. He's too busy fussing over a few stipes of kelp to see the real issues," nodded the large spinach green earth pony with a white sailor hat.

 

"Say lassie," the grizzled captain leaned towards Clairvoyance, his breath smelling of grog and fish: "Would you care for some bits and urchin meat?"

 

The old pony explained how they were going to ship out into the inlet in order to check the seaweed fields and rid them of the urchin menace. The prickly pests would be collected into baskets by the farmers dressed in diving suits and sold to the inn. The Innkeeper has already agreed on six silvers per stone of urchins. The three ponies figured that they'd haul in an ever bigger catch with assistance of a unicorn since telekinesis would more than compensate for the cumbersome nature of heavy diving equipment.

[North Star 4,540]

@Goat-kun

Clairvoyance pats her bag with its remaining 4bits, 12 silver pieces and 15 copper.

She listens to their conversation as she munches on the unappetising but filling meal. She could tell that she was going to become tired of the taste of fish :p She holds her head and horn up proudly, but doesn't use it to levitate the food - not wanting to waste its limited magic.

At the suggestion, Clairvoyance considers. Her horn did feel a little better and a task like this would be a good way to test it out, while also getting her bearings in the large city. She agrees. She would take up 'the Shop' offer later. She asks how they are dividing up the silver? If they are dividing 4 ways, she will bargain for a double share of the silver, since she is using her telekinesis and saving them the hassle of putting on the diving suits after all, but she won't insist too strongly.

 

 

[Goat-kun 2,498]

The Captain produced a noisy mix of cough and laughter: "You've ne'er been on a dive, have you lassie? It'd be a team effort. Two ponies on the bottom, two on the rafts. You don't want to get stuck down there all alone with nothing but yer frail landlubber bones to keep you company."

 

"Aye, death sleeps lightly down on Ceto's bosom," agreed the spinach pony.

 

The grizzled pony further explained that the heavy diving suits were connected to air pipes managed by winches on special rafts floating on the surface. Whenever a diver wanted to move, their partner would adjust the raft so that the pipe wouldn't drag itself along sharp rocks and seaweed. Of course, the divers were exposed to a greater risk, so they would each get forty percent of the urchin reward.

[North Star 4,540]

Clairvoyance betrayed no outward acceptance but could hardly fault the rimey captain-pony's logic on that.

Eventually she responds that while her magic could readily propel herself to the surface (a bluff), she will happily act as the diver, for 40% of the urchin reward.

[Goat-kun 2,498]

@abrony-mouse

The waters of the Brigantine Inlet were calm and grey, unmoved by the yellow beams of spring sunshine. The shabby sloop of the three farmers was gently swaying near the wild northern coast, its sails lowered, its anchor dropped.

 

Clairvoyance was standing on one of the two rafts that were being towed away from the ship by the red brow pegasus. She was clad in an old iron diving suit. Its weight was barely allowing her to stand, yet alone walk for more than a few small steps. The Captain that had given her a quick course on how to operate the suit had mentioned something about that and how it was going to get easier in water.

 

"This is where we go in," a slightly metallic voice of the pegasus started echoing inside her helmet, "I'll be your surface buddy. If you need me to move the raft, give me a holler." The trap doors beneath her feet opened without as much as a warning. She sank into a noisy flurry of bubbles that soon gave way to silent, grey-cyan world beneath the waves. She was able to observe the shadowy shape of the spinach pony through the murk. Both of their suits were being slowly lowered to the bottom like two pony-shaped anchors by a strong wire. The area was covered by a red dulse meadow. Large rocks to the north and east were home to patches of white-plumed anemones. The south was a gentle slope that led into deeper waters, and the west was a rocky plateau adorned by white and yellow sponges. The mare looked up: she was around four pony jumps below the glittering surface.

 

"You reached the bottom? Good. Now look at Mr. Dabberlocks there and uncouple the winch from your suit." The spinach pony skillfully shambled closer and demonstrated how to release the hook from the pin. "Done? Good," the pegasi called back after a few moments of silence: "Now just scour the area and collect them urchins into the baskets on your saddle. Captain and Dabber will take the east side. We'll take the west. Or south. Your choice. If you don't know which side's which there's a compass on your right front leg."

[North Star 4,540]

Clarivoyance breathed heavily in her diving suit, feeling the pressure against her lungs, seeing the unnatural dark watery view and quelling the fear that came with it. She had been quiet on the water over there, ignoring the sailory banter in the mane. She had instead looked out over the city, taking it in from the water and her eyes had drifted to the hills rising over it... wondering about her home Chandelier Keep and her half sister Firey Soul.

Once they geared up she was immediately ready to submerge, despite her immediate ponyish fear of going below the waves.

Once below, to distract herself from her disquiet, she focused on her purpose. She gave an affirmatory tug on the breathing tube and set about scouring the immediate sea floor for urchins, taking care not to stray too far North, West or South of her position. If she finds some she will place them in her basket using her telekenesis.

[Goat-kun 2,498]

@abrony-mouse

The mare was slowly making her way through the swaying blades of red seaweed that were reaching as far as her knees. She could no longer see the other diving team. The sounds of her steady breathing and heavy thuds of her iron attire drowned almost all other noise. Through the tangled vegetation in her immediate vicinity, she could spot many small things crawling on the rocks below including abalone sea snails, a couple of algae-ridden sea spiders, a wrinkly orange sea star, and two small purple sea urchins that she picked into her basket. She has explored only a small fraction of the seaweed meadow. Combing through it all will take a good hour and a short run worth of stamina.

[North Star 4,540]

Clairvoyance sighs and continues combing the meadow, hoping that the bits compensate her sufficiently for the arduousness of the task. (She spends stamina to do this).

In the quiet gloom she dwells on recent events: her ambush by sentient bushes, the loss of her adventuring party and the loss of her half-sister Firey Soul.

[Goat-kun 2,498]

@abrony-mouse

By searching around the seaweed meadow, the mare has managed to procure another three small urchins.

 

Out of the blue, her body, exposed by the chinks in the armored suit, felt a sudden rise in pressure that stunned her limbs and filled her ears with ringing noise. A strange creature leapt out from amongst the algae. Its bloated, frog-like body, no larger than her head, ended in a muscular eel tail adorned by red and grey stripes. The creature placed itself in front of the pony, unfurled its large, colorful fins and inflated its throat sack into a threatening posture.

[North Star 4,540]

Clairvoyance steeled herself, wriggling her pony head in her large divers helmet. As the froggy foe came into view she yanked hard on the tube connection to the world. If she had had her sword and was above ground she would have been ready to take it on, but she didn't want to take any risks down in the gloom.

She readied herself for the amphibian's attack.

[Goat-kun 2,498]

@abrony-mouse

After the attack, the creature started backing off in an attempt to slink into the murk of deeper waters down the southern slope where shadows and dim cyan light were engaged in a peculiar dance in tune with the waves far above.