Chapter 3: Meeting The Natives

On the beach looks around to see if the giant crabs are still there...
Think we should kill one or two for food ?

Ygne arrives at the top of the stairs, looking down toward the beach. She pauses, looking uncertain, mouth frowning in thought. With a deep, slow breath, she begins her descent to rejoin the group.

When she returns to where some of the others are, she walks directly toward Elspa. She speaks bluntly, with an attempt at appearing indifferent, "I learned some shit you might want to know, before leaving. You wanna hear it?"

Elspa rests her new silvered quarterstaff across her shoulders, hooking her hands across the pole. "Sure."

"Okay."

Ygne plants her fists into her sides and looks at Elspa very sternly while she explains. "I talked to Khiva, and the Seventh. Didn't tell 'em nothin', of course, but asked a lot of questions." Ygne looks somewhat concerned and elaborates carefully, "So, we're not trapped, but we are trapped. There's nothin' goin' on with our souls. If we flew away like birds and got back to our homes, we'd be fine. If we died, we'd die, and that'd be it. No comin' back. It's only if we die here that we come back."

"But we are trapped, because we can't fly, and if we went into the water, well... there's a big fish thing with a buncha arms that would try to get us. They called it a Kraken." Ygne's gaze lowers as she tries to recall all of the information, "Seems it's back from the dead, too, and so it kills everything in the water, and all of those fish kill other fish. And so everything is dead and killing everything else. The water is bad, really. Really bad. But our souls are fine, for what that's worth." She adds offhandedly, "Also, there are mountain wizards. I think that's why Khiva weren't lying, cause she mentioned mountain wizards that make storms that wreck ships."

"On top of that, all the dead here is being controlled by Ulupoka, which had to be the God you was talkin' to; black pearls an' all. Khiva mentioned that Ulupoka keeps his Kraken away from them because their spirit mothers could grab it up for themselves. Means he's controllin' the dead, which means he's the one keepin' us here." Ygne scowls, looking a bit angered by her own news, "I'd say he's the one that needs t' die, but Khiva doesn't think that's possible. Maybe; maybe not. She said that he's the only one that can kill himself. Even all the other Gods that trapped him here couldn't do it, and it took all of 'em just to do this much."

"Releasin' him could mean he just takes our souls right then and there. Might not even be with a fight." Ygne crosses her arms, "I don't know what he can do, but if he's trapped and he's causin' this many problems, I imagine he'd be a bit stronger if he was free. Don't offer him our backs for stabbin', I say."

She then shrugs, "But, it's fine if you don't believe me, or don't believe Khiva. I do think that we have another option, though." With a bit of an excited look, Ygne points off into the distance, "Those pirates that attacked? They have a home out there, and Khiva told me where. We can kill 'em, with or without this village."

Ygne raises a finger, "They work for Ulupoka, so we can make 'em tell us what they know, and then decide from there."

Ygne raises a second finger, "They have those dumb birds, which we could use to fly over the dumb Kraken, if we want."

Ygne pauses, hesitating, as though she forgot what the third reason might be. She finally raises a third finger and says, "And it'd be fun."

She then waits, with her three fingers held out, to see what Elspa has to say.

I'm impressed Ygne, not only did you manage to get more info, but you seem to have a plan to get more. I have to admit you are a lot more resourceful than I imagined. Interrogating some pirates seems to be a good way to get more info right now.

Ygne gives Moss a shifty, suspicious look and mumbles, "Don't act so surprised."

"Yeah, that god's the one that makes the dead act up again," confirms Elspa. "Hard to miss that when it's the one floating bodies all over the place and spitting friends out of bellies.

"Nothing the village told you makes me think anything's different," she continues. "Seems to me that if the way to the Lands of the Dead is closed, it's 'cause of whatever was done to trap Ulupoka. I figure he's gotta be the God of the Underworld, so I figure it'd piss off anybody if they can't get back home. And if he's keeping us here, it's 'cause he's pissed at what happened."

Elspa squints. "This thing about the pirates, though. That's new. Why's the village say they work for Ulupoka?"

Ygne shrugs, "Not sure, but I wondered the same thing. I asked Khiva, but I don't know if she heard me. I was asking a lot of things."

Crossing her arms, Ygne looks thoughtful once more, "But if Ulupoka is the one keeping us here, then helping him doesn't seem like something I'd want to do. I don't help evil gods, and I sure don't help ones that capture me." She frowns, "There's more than one way to doin' anything, and runnin' for this pearl and settin' a god of death free sounds a like a bad way."

"Death ain't evil or nice," Elspa says. "Dead is dead, whether you was good or bad. Whatever was done in the past has just made things off-balance, and it seems to start with this pearl."

Ygne shrugs, "This one sounds pretty bad, Elspa."

Elspa looks to Jarveena. "If she's right and there's big things in the water, maybe we just head straight for the closest land and walk the rest of the way."

Turning back to Ygne, Elspa asks, "Where's these pirates?"

Ygne will point out the spot on their map, careful to not actually touch the skin.

"Pirates sound like a good start to me," Frick says, "Nice, easy fight to warm up, and maybe they'll have supplies we can use to help us deal with this god. Plus, it'll be fun!"

"Yer righ' -- if there be things in th' sea we doan wann' be sailin' much." Jarveena nods.

Elspa grunts. "This spots look like they'd be villages with roads," she says, looking at the southern tip of the main island. "I guess there's no avoiding them if we have to make for land."

She spits. "The pirates are way out there. Doubt we'd make it in these small boats."

"Oh. Wait a minute, um..." Ygne twists her face up as she thinks carefully. "Oh, never mind, Khiva did answer. I think the pirates don't know they're doing a bad thing. They don't know they're helping Ulupoka, or maybe they do, but they're being tricked, or something." Ygne shrugs, "That's what Khiva made it sound like."

She waggles her eyebrows and says, "Sounds kinda familiar, doncha think?"

After a shrug, she continues, "If we wanted to get to the pirate's place to ask more questions and get some vengeance, Khiva said it's pretty easy to build some boats that could make the trip. We could ask them."

"Why's we need vengeance?" asks Elspa. Her expression is serious as she picks out that detail in Ygne's statement. "You already said something about killing them, but why?"

"Well," Ygne starts, looking thoughtful as she looks off to the side. "You see, we..." She pauses, pondering momentarily, "We, um. We need to..."

For a moment, Ygne looks frustrated, and then sighs with exasperation, "Fine. We don't need vengeance. I don't care about the pirates." She points a finger upward, as if to support her point, "But they know more about this place than we do, and we should figure that out, before rushing ahead into what is almost certainly a trick. Or maybe we go to the wall, or the place where the Spirit Mothers come from. We should go somewhere instead of right after this dumb pearl."

Ygne narrows her eyes suspiciously and starts looking about, "I'm not bein' yelled at, yet. Where's Rygnar?"

"What's a Spirit Mother?" asks Elspa. "Is that what Auntie Zilla is?"

"Who's that?" Ygne asks, bewildered. Before a reply comes, she shakes her head and explains, "Spirit Mothers sound like they can take control of the dead from Ulupoka. They get trained somewheres. I bet they'd have a lot of information there."