Breakfast with Dr. Collodi
GM:
The dining room area of the Odd Duck Inn, the only inn in Marilun, is less busy than usual this morning. News has already spread quickly that whatever kept the doctor from returning to town was driven off, and a party set off this morning with their sapling’s water vessel in tow after a celestial waterfall that was spotted descending in the wee hours of the day.
However, Dr. Collodi and her two research assistants, Anton and Cybele, are still here slightly later than everyone else; they’ve eaten some of their late breakfast, but mostly they seem to be collating two sets of notes - one, interesting things they found in the library; the other, their plans to provide the town elders and artisans of Marilun with instructions for construction their own anti-miasma amulets.
She’s also here because she said she’d meet the three adventurers who saved her the next day, especially after looking over a letter - meant for her, of all people! - and this way she’s pretty hard to miss.
Cynthia:
A soft yawn punctuated the relative silence of the dining area. Cynthia Schreiber arrived with her retainers in tow; as usual, Lucas broke off early to make his lady’s breakfast order, as well as orders for himself and Elma.
Cynthia, though, on seeing Dr. Collodi and her assistants, made her way over to their table.
“Good morning, Doctor. How are things this morning?”
GM:
Collodi sets aside her notes when addressed, and greets Cynthia with a broad smile. “There’s one of my three saviors! Come, sit, sit. Doing well this morning - glad to be anywhere that’s not a zodiac reference chart and eating something besides magically-infused grapes.” She chortles; her assistants grimace slightly as the memory of their recent captivity.
“Did you rest well, my girl, you and your compatriots? No lasting issues from your skirmish with that frankly rude lady knight?”
Serafina:
Serafina stopped just beyond the ingress to the dining room, her hand quivering in front of the doorknob, which felt intimidating and impassable. This was what she wanted, wasn’t it? To finally learn something more about her creator, about her creation, so why did it feel so scary?
It wasn’t a new emotion for her, but the strength in which it forced itself into her thoughts made the doorway impassable. She stood there, listening to the faint voices on the other side. Cynthia’s voice was familiar and comforting, and it gave her the strength to reach out.
She cracked the door open, peering silently through the small fissure and waited a few seconds longer. Perhaps she’d just wait here, a few minutes longer. She didn’t want to interrupt their breakfast.
Cynthia:
“I did, yes, thank you. I can’t speak too much to Irving’s sleep, but Serafina doesn’t need to sleep at all, it seems.” Cynthia seemed concerned about that. “Were you able to read her letter, by the way?”
GM:
Collodi brightened up at the mention. “Ah, the letter! Yes, I was hoping to talk to her about it this morning. I’m sure she has questions — especially since it looks like she didn’t read it.” She chuckles. “Can’t believe she came all this way to deliver a mystery letter to someone she didn’t even know. She’s very determined, it seems.”
Serafina:
A yelp burst forth from the door to the room, as Mero bounded past Serafina’s leg and onto Cynthia’s lap. Serafina let forth a nervous chuckle as she slowly crept out of the doorway.
She shuffled to the table and sat next to Cynthia, turning to face Doctor Collodi with a ruby face. “Good morning… I just.. “got up” and haven’t been listening from just outside for the last 4.3 minutes.”
She sat in silence for a moment more, the winding key on her back ticking with the tocks of the clock on the wall.
Cynthia:
“Oh! Hello Mero. Have you been good?” Cynthia asked the ooze with a smile, and looked for Lucas across the room. She signalled him, and he nodded, adding more dishes to the order.
Irving:
Mero’s arrival is very shortly followed by Irving finally making an appearance; in fact, because Mero had been snoozing late along with the scholar. He looks a little bleary eyed as he pushes the door open and then closes it behind him, approaching the gathering. “Good morning. I see I’m the last to arrive.”
GM:
“After what you’ve been through, who could blame you? That library was a minefield of hazards.” The doctor takes a drink from a cup of her tea, which definitely has not gone cold yet, somehow, because magic. “Anton got bitten by a book! Definitely not normal behavior. Why, our library back home hardly ever bites someone unless it’s a security glyph of some kind.” Anton briefly looks pained, implying perhaps he’s familiar with both.
“Anyway, do come in, sit down. I’m sure you have questions for me, since you did come to rescue us, and I know I have some for you. Starting with…” Collodi looks around, then leans in, her tone slightly conspiratorial, “…did you figure out what that knight was there for? She asked if we knew the location of certain tomes, but otherwise was rather tight-lipped with us before tossing us into that zodiac chamber to presumably rot; luckily, I’m bad at rotting.”
Cynthia:
Cynthia sipped her tea as Collodi spoke, waiting for a good opportunity to speak up.
“She was actually quite interested in the Tales of the Mage-Knights, same as you, Doctor. She had a copy of the tome, and was reading a passage on Joyce when we interrupted her. Aren’t they only legends, though?”
Irving:
“Actually —” Irving begins to speak, but he’s interrupted by yawning so hard that his jaw cracks. ”— please, excuse me. The Tales of the Mage Knights captured my attention when I likely would have been better served resting. Whether or not the stories within are accurate historical records, I think we can conclude that there is something of value to learned from its pages.”
GM:
Collodi nods in agreement. “At first I thought it strange that that belligerent woman was so interested in a book of fairy tales, but that library seems to have been shut up with multiple copies inside. Which does beg the question why, doesn’t it?” To Irving, she adds, “It sounds as though you’ve had more of a chance to study them than myself, Mr. Glenn, so I’m curious what you’ve gleaned.”
She drums her fingers on the table, lost momentarily in thought, then adds, “She also was interested in local history, which I thought was odd. Not even interesting stuff; things like births, deaths, land sale transactions, the sort of geneological information that sort of fell by the wayside after the Miasma came. Like she was looking for someone, but given how long ago those books would have had to have been dated to be sealed up there, I have to imagine at this point she’d be looking for their bones.”
Cynthia:
“There’s a lot in that library that doesn’t make sense. Irving can explain better than I, but we found a… a strategy table, for lack of a better word. An enchanted map with tokens representing armies, or at least what seem like armies, throughout the region. And it was active.”
Cynthia paused when Lucas abruptly returned with repast for three - Cynthia herself (a full breakfast), Mero (a plate of easily-noshed goodies), and surprisingly, Irving (another full breakfast). He turned to Serafina with an apologetic look. “My pardon, my lady, but I am not sure what you are capable of eating. Could you please advise me?”
Serafina:
Serafina jumped, not used to Lucas addressing her directly. She let out a few nervous titters.
“Me? Oh, I can eat, but I don’t need to, I’m… uh, you called it ‘capable’… of anything any other person can do. I can even taste things! But…” She thought for a moment before flashing a sheepish grin. “I don’t want to burden you all with something so trivial. It’s like I told the innkeeper: I am perfectly fine standing in the broom closet all night, but, they insisted I take a full room. Well, I suppose it’s not a bother if no one else was using it…”
Cynthia:
“Nonsense. Just because you don’t need to eat doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy food.” Lucas smiled brightly. “I’ll be back with breakfast for you in a bit, then.” He headed back to the counter.
GM:
Mero, meanwhile, has already begun happily slurping up the various bite-size goodies Lucas prepared for him. Elma managed to reach over and snag Mero’s completely unnecessary silverware (“who gave this thing tableware?”) before the eager slime could eat his fork, though.
Irving:
Irving smiles graciously to Lucas as he accepts the breakfast. “My thanks.” He finds an available seat, though he pauses to respond to the topic at hand before touching his meal. “The copy of Tales of the Mage Knights that the Knight was reading was open to a tale about Petrus and Joyce. An unknown creature that was said to threaten the realm with its unending hunger was sealed away, as they were unable to destroy it. The Mage Knights were also said to be long-lived…” He trails off, with a look at Collodi.
GM:
Collodi drums her fingers on the table again, a sign she’s thinking something over. “So you’re surmising she’s looking for…one of the Mage-Knights, either Petrus or Joyce, then?”
Irving;
“It seems fantastical, and yet… I find myself unwilling to dismiss the idea out of hand.”
Cynthia:
“If they really were that long-lived, though, how do you suppose they hid themselves? Since they clearly haven’t been openly long-lived.”
Serafina:
“Well, it might be easy to hide in something like the miasma…Even if they didn’t hide in the miasma itself, there’s probably pockets they can stay in that no one goes to.”
GM:
Collodi nods to everyone’s ideas. “Too true, Serafina - I see you also noticed she seemingly didn’t have any obvious protection against miasma. If we assume she had a way to hide in the places between pockets of civilization, it stands to reason her target might, too.”
To Cynthia: “Circling back - what was that about an enchanted map? I don’t recall seeing any such thing.”
Cynthia:
“It was in the right-hand tower, all the way at the top. We went there first because, well, there were no monsters that way.”
GM:
Collodi nods. “Ahh. Yes, in our enthusiasm we delved straight into the stacks and happened upon our armor-clad acquaintance. Sounds like you ran across something interesting there…” She slides some of her books and notebooks aside, as well as the remains of her breakfast, and unrolls a map that she pulls out of a leather haversack near her feet.
It’s immediately obvious that this one’s not as old or as detailed as the one you found in the library; you recognize some of the place names, even if you haven’t been to them — Dunmuir, Lehrenstein, and Orologio obviously, but also places like Ostro, Ponente, Bihara, and the undersea city of Nuono — but in Collodi’s version, the locations are less defined. You’ve never seen a map with footnotes before.
“Can you remember where the map you found had… what did you say, tokens?” She squints at the map, then at Irving. “And what did you find out about them?”
Irving:
Irving has managed to get a couple of bites into breakfast, and he finishes chewing before responding to Collodi. “We couldn’t move the pieces on the map at all. I consulted the… the Grimoire on them, and it stated that the tokens likely represented troop movements — tied to something they carry in their possession.”
Cynthia:
“Except for one… there was one token that had… fallen over. That one was movable. I think it was the one for…” She looked to Irving for his memory.
Irving:
“Orologio.” He looks towards Serafina. “You have that one with you, don’t you?”
Serafina:
“That’s right!” She felt around in her bags and produced the figurine.
“I don’t know what it is, but it kind of reminded me of, ” she winced for a moment, ” … I can’t remember what.”
Cynthia:
“It’s okay, Sera. Don’t strain yourself.”
Cynthia gestured to Elma, who produced a pen and inkwell, since Lucas was still busy procuring food for Serafina. With it, she annotated Collodi’s map with information about where she recalled the tokens being. She paused when she got to Lehrenstein, however.
“It’s strange. I’ve lived in Lehrenstein all my life, but I’ve never noticed any such troops that such markers would indicate. Surely it couldn’t refer to the town militia, could it?”
GM:
Collodi watches, nodding along with each new piece of information and map annotation. “I’d say not. It could be an individual as much as a whole troop; assuming the tokens belonged to our knight and not to the library, perhaps she does not operate alone.”
She takes the piece Serafina produced, a look of brief concern crossing her face as the girl winces, and turns it this way and that, muttering an incantation under her breath to try to glean more information about it. “You say this was near Orologio on the map? That’s… hmm. The fact you were able to pick it up with no knowledge of its workings implies something has happened to the piece this should correspond to.”
The doctor sets it on the table in front of her, where it steadfastly does nothing; she tips it over with one finger. “Maybe that’s a good thing.” Here she produces the letter Serafina gave her - opened, read, refolded, and tucked less-neatly back into the envelope — and sets it on the table next to the piece. “How much do you know about the letter you were carrying?”
Serafina:
“I was not told to read it, so I don’t know its contents. I only know that it was addressed to you… I was hoping… maybe, that it was from whoever created me…”
GM:
She slides the letter across the table towards Serafina. “It was, as it turns out, from an old colleague of mine, Galeran Avelot; we collaborated on a few projects. They were really a remarkable mechanist, but they left the Lycaeum for Orologio due to wanting to…” She waves her hand vaguely. “I don’t know, immerse themselves in the culture of the Clockwork City or something.” She snorts.
“Anyway, yes, Galeran writes, although in frustratingly vague terms, that the Mechatriarchs of Orologio — their leaders, you know — had some kind of ‘solution’ to the miasma, but they felt it was too risky. They had a solution of their own.” Collodi smiles. “You. Galeran felt it was important to get you out of the city before whatever it was the Mechatriarchs wanted to do took place. They sent you to me for ‘safekeeping,’ but it seems pretty obvious to me that you’re pretty good at taking care of yourself, along with your friends.”
Cynthia:
Cynthia blinked in surprise and looked to Serafina… but wisely did not say anything.
Serafina:
“Oh… So Galeran probably wasn’t my creator, were they?” She looked down, her eyes glistening. “I guess that maybe the Mechatriarchs were? … It feels so familiar, but I don’t remember it at all…”
GM:
She shakes her head. “No, Galeran was your creator. I’m rather surprised they managed to create someone so… lifelike, though.”
Irving:
Irving looks thoughtfully between Collodi and Serafina. He blinks, then lifts his head slightly. “If whatever their solution was was deemed a risk…”
He taps at the tipped over piece on the table, indicating it. “Maybe that was what was behind whatever happened here.”
GM:
Collodi drums her fingers on the table. “Could be. Until then, though, it’s just speculation.” She looks down again at her map at Serafina’s annotations, not saying anything for a while, then looks up after several moments of silence. “So what are you three going to do now? You did pull me out of that sticky situation, which I appreciate. I’m sure Professor Foscari wants to know I’m alive and kicking, but I understand if you’re headed somewhere besides Bluewick,” she says, tapping her fingers on Lehrenstein and Orologio.
Cynthia:
“Would you be alright getting back to Bluewick on your own?” Cynthia immediately asked. “It’s no trouble to escort you back… but I confess, it is… very tempting to use these amulets to assist with some exploration.”
She looked to the map, having not missed Collodi’s tapping. “Much as it’s tempting to visit home, I think it behooves us to figure out what exactly has happened in Orologio. Master Galeran thought it necessary to get Serafina to relative safety, and there’s evidence that some catastrophe has unfolded there…”
She looks to her companions. “But I am only one. You two have your own thoughts, surely.”
Serafina:
Serafina nodded, “I think so too… I… I don’t know what I’m really… supposed to do.”
Cynthia:
”… you don’t remember your creator… do you have amnesia, Sera?” Cynthia asked worriedly.
Serafina:
“I’m not sure…? Is it really amnesia? I feel like I can’t remember much of anything beyond needing to deliver this letter… I wish I had more of an idea what they wanted me for.”
She looked to Collodi. “Do you know anything about the details? I’ve… well, it’s nothing serious… I just… Well, I just wish I knew what to do.”
Cynthia:
Cynthia held her tongue, looking to Collodi. She had her own opinions on the matter, but it might be better hearing such things from a mentor rather than a peer…
Irving:
“I agree with Cynthia and am highly interested in what has transpired in Orologio — though we may also want to consider that there may be some risk involved in that investigation.” Irving looks at Serafina, with his features softening. “Maybe it would help to think about it like this: if all you can remember is being needed to deliver the letter, that may have been the most important thing for you to do… or perhaps your creator trusted that you would be able to find the right path once you had done so.”
GM:
Dr. Collodi shakes her head. “Your creator was light on details, unfortunately. Maybe he was hoping he could follow you before long and clarify things? Still, if he was going to show up in Bluewick, I think he already would have.”
Cynthia:
”… all the more reason to go to Orologio, then. We need to find out what happened to Master Galeran.” Cynthia was certain of this now.