• Solo • Henry Smoog

[Doran]

After Portrait of a Baron.

Vhalar 13, Arc 721

Doran could not help but feel a sense of excitement as his assistant Plia and he left the Order of the Adunih. Enri von Smooglenuff had apparently been in Scalvoris after the collapse of the docks and joined the relief effort. One of the healers had described him, and Plia had made a drawing of him. He also had an idea as to what he might be up to now, a better one than he used to have, at least. There was a chance that Enri was still in Scalvoris. According to everything that he had learned so far, he was someone that wanted to be there for the island when there was a crisis, and there had not been a bigger crisis than the war against Slag’s Deep in recent times.

They were just a few metres away from the small building that housed the local Order Outpost – they had decided to return to Doran’s home so that he would be able to go through his notes once more and try figure out what he should do next – when someone suddenly called out to them. Both of them turned around at nearly the same time and looked at the young Green Cloak that ran towards them.

He appeared to be slightly out of breath.

“Professor! Miss! Wait!” the man that couldn't be much older than twenty exclaimed and closed the distance between them.

"Easy, sir", Doran remarked and raised his hands, trying to get the healer whose face was slightly flushed to calm down. "What's the matter? Is there anything that we can do for you?" he asked in a polite tone of voice.

"Did we forget anything?" Plia wanted to know and blushed slightly as she found that prospect quite embarrassing before she took a quick look into her bag and furrowed her brow.

"No, no", the Green Cloak assured her before he turned to Doran and took a deep breath. "I overheard you talking to Dhatri. You asked him about one of the volunteers that helped out after the collapse of the docks. There are actually two men that match your description!" he told Doran, smiled brightly and looked at him expectantly.

One of Doran's eyebrows rose slightly as he heard that as it was quite ... unexpected. For a moment, he wondered if Enri had a brother - or if Xiur himself had helped look for survivors and comforted them. Neither thing was impossible in his opinion. Most Immortals created more than one Mortalborn, from what he knew, and Xiur was someone who cared, just like his son.

"Can you tell us more, please?" he thus asked and gestured towards a bench that stood at the side of the road, just outside the Order Outpost - it would be impolite to make the young healer stand while they talked in his opinion.

"There are two men that match your description, as I said. Two men went into the rubble after everyone else had stopped", the Green Cloak revealed and proceeded to sit down. Once he had done so, Plia and Doran took a seat to his left and looked at him with obvious curiosity.

"Forgive me though", the young man remarked. "I'm Bren", he introduced himself and extended a hand for them to shake which turned out to be a somewhat awkward venture as he had to reach across Doran in order to shake Plia’s hand.

Doran leaned back slightly in order to give Bren an easier time while Plia leaned forward, blushed slightly, shook the healer's hand and remarked in a soft and gentle tone of voice, "I'm pleased to meet you, Bren. I'm Plia."

[Doran]

“Can you tell us more about those two men and what they looked like, please?” Doran asked and proceeded to produce a pen and a notebook. “I hope that you don’t mind me taking notes”, he remarked.

“Not at all”, Bren assured him and took a deep breath. “The first man had dark hair and dark eyes. He rescued a small baby and a child, and he put candles where there were people so that he could be found. I was still fairly new to the Order back then, but I remember that clearly. He was part of the group that saved the trapped women”, he said.

Doran furrowed his brow slightly as he heard that – Enri von Smooglenuff had dark hair and dark eyes – and quickly wrote down a few sentences before he wanted to know,

“Did he tell you his name?”

“Yes, of course”, Bren replied and smiled as if he were quite proud of the fact that he remembered it after all that time. “He said that his name was Arlo Creede. That’s the name that we have in our records, at least.”

Doran’s eyes briefly widened before he exchanged a quick glance with Plia and ultimately smirked a little. He had been aware of the fact that at least one of the men was definitely not Enri, of course, but he had not expected to hear the name of a good acquaintance of his.

Arlo Creede was a hero of the Forging, a gifted storyteller – that evening at a campfire on Faldrass had been a most memorable experience – and what more, he was Cassion’s son.

Hearing Arlo’s name surprised him, but that he had helped after the collapse of the docks did not.

“I am acquainted with Mister Creede”, he explained in a calm and serious tone of voice upon noticing the somewhat confused look on Bren’s face.

The young Green Cloak nodded and looked at Plia and Doran for a moment before he asked, “I assume that you want me to tell you something about the second man now?”

[Doran]

“The second man had dark hair and dark eyes as well”, Bren began when Doran said that he would appreciate it if he told him more. “His hair and his skin might have been a bit darker than Mister Creede’s, in fact. He told us that his name was Henry. Henry Smoog”, he continued and furrowed his brow for a moment as if he wanted to be sure that he remembered the name correctly before he nodded.

Doran raised an eyebrow slightly when he heard that. Enri von Smooglenuff had a penchant for anagrams and pseudonyms. He tended to change his name quite frequently. He had been “Mrs. Violunne Guffone” once, for example. He had written a book about the Pirate Lords, but he had not published it under his real name. Instead, he had called himself “Enri T'nooh-Meougg”. At one point, he had also been “Snoone von Rimgluffe”.

The combination of the name that reminded him of Enri’s previous pseudonyms and the description of his appearance left the Mortalborn with little doubt that the man that Bren had met had been Enri and subsequently also the man that Rami had interacted with.

He wanted to be absolutely sure though. For that reason, he carefully removed Plia’s drawing from his domain bag and showed it to Bren who looked at it with obvious interest.

“Yes, yes, that’s him!” the young Green Cloak replied before Doran even had the opportunity to ask him if the man that he had met resembled the man in Plia’s drawing – or the one in the picture that had been in the small locket that he had found in a tree a couple of trials earlier.

“I actually just remembered another thing”, Bren continued while Doran found himself almost marveling at the fact that all of the descriptions that he had gotten of Enri von Smooglenuff so far matched – which meant that the son of Xiur very likely really looked like that.

“Henry Smoog didn’t leave immediately after helping out. Instead, he went out for a drink with one of my colleagues afterwards, a Blue Cloak by the name of Arjori. You should talk to her. She probably had even more contact with Mister Smoog than I did”, he admitted. “She usually spends a lot of time in Almund, but she is in town now.”

"I saw her in our library earlier to-trial. She's always researching and reading up on diseases. Maybe she's still there", Bren remarked. "We should head inside anyway. Come, I'll show you where the library is", he said, rose to his feet and gestured for Doran and Plia to follow him which they did after the Mortalborn had carefully put the drawing back into his domain bag.

To him, it was precious, and he didn't want to risk accidentally damaging it.

[Doran]

Rami, Dhatri and Squid, Doran noticed as Plia and he followed the eager young Green Cloak back into the building, were nowhere to be seen now. It seemed as if they had returned to work. He liked that about the Order, that they helped people no matter what they needed. They did good and they were, judging by what he had observed so far, never cruel. He had decided that such a life wasn’t for him a long time ago, but he couldn’t help but wonder what things would have been like if he had walked such a path, nevertheless.

And besides that, he found himself briefly remembering a rather interesting question that Plia had posed at the beginning of their visit. Who or what was the Adunih, and how had this order of healers come to be? It was, he decided, a question that might merit further research, but for the time being, he followed Bren up the stairs to the small library on the first floor where a woman of approximately thirty arcs of age that had hair in such a dark shade of brown that it almost seemed to be black was sitting at the table and furiously scribbling something into a book. She didn’t seem to notice them at all at first.

She only raised her head when Bren cleared his throat.

“Do you have a moment, Arjori?” Bren asked her. When the Blue Cloak inclined her head, he continued, “Professor Thetys and his assistant are visiting the Order to find out more about a man that helped out after the collapse of the docks. I told him what I remembered about Henry Smoog, but you went for a drink with him afterwards.”

“Sure”, Arjori replied and closed her book. “Henry made quite an impression on people back then. Aren’t you one of the people that were involved in the Forging, by the way?" she continued. "I’m in the process of researching the medical side of things, the emergencies, how people dealt with the sudden cold and the temporary memory loss.”

“Perhaps, you would be willing to share what you know with me in exchange for me sharing my memories of Henry Smoog with you? You are a doctor yourself, aren’t you?” she asked and looked at him. She was almost scrutinizing him in fact. Her eyes, he noticed, were a brilliant shade of emerald green and stood in contrast to her dark hair.

“Of course. And yes, I am a doctor”, he told her and inclined his head. When she gestured for him to take a seat, he did so. Plia smiled somewhat shyly and set down to his right.

A few moments later, the green-eyed healer (Doran couldn’t help but wonder if Arjori was of mixed blood.) took a deep breath and started talking about how she had gone for a drink with Henry Smoog after they had finished their work – or rather Enri von Smooglenuff - and shared some of the stories that he had told her. Some of them turned out to be quite wild!

[Doran]

“Henry told me about a trip to Melrath. He made friends with a navigator from Noatun – the people of Noatun are incredibly adept at navigating strong currents and treacherous waters, he said. He was a navigator himself, he told me, a pretty fine star navigator, if he might say so, but he needed someone that was familiar with Felwind Strait”, Arjori said, chuckled and shook her head. “At the time, I thought that he had made that story up as people sometimes do when drinking in a tavern.”

“His friend and he sailed the seas around Melrath for a while before they finally travelled to a city called Fensalir”, she continued. “Henry told me that he wanted to explore the old ruins there. He thought that they held some of the secret of our past – mortalkind’s past, I mean. Supposedly, the people of Fensalir are descended from the first humans that conversed with the spirits of the land.”

“He thought that the people that had built his grandmother’s shrine and those that had built the arch and inhabited the ruins were related. I think his grandmother was some sort of priestess”, Arjori remarked and furrowed her brow for a moment.

Doran didn’t say anything.

He knew that Henry’s, or rather Enri’s, grandmother had been none other than the Original Being Fei, but he wasn’t sure if Enri wanted certain details of his story to become public knowledge. He had talked about his adventures, a lot, and published book, often under pseudonyms, but he had never mentioned his grandmother anywhere.

He would not share any information that Xiur’s son might want to keep a secret.

With that thought in mind, he asked, “What did Henry and his friend find in the old ruins?”

“Death”, Arjori replied, and the look in her eyes momentarily darkened. “Henry said that there were undead and stranger things in the ruins. At one point, his friend and he were cornered as they tried to escape, but he managed to distract the creatures long enough for them to run. Afterwards, they sailed northwards, to a lost city, although he said that he would like to go back to the old ruins one trial. He still believed that exploring them in depth might be worthwhile”, she continued.

When Arjori mentioned a last city, Doran raised an eyebrow. He had previously learned about Enri’s and Cassion’s Valaris adventure. Had Xiur’s son made two trips to Valaris, one with his patron Immortal and one without him, or was there another lost city somewhere?

And what exactly had he hoped to find in the ruins?

He was more interested in talking to him than he had ever been before. Qylios wanted to know how Enri had been involved in the events leading up to the Forging, and he planned on asking her nephew about that once he had found him, but he was also quite curious about his adventures. In some ways, Enri gave him the impression of being a kindred spirit.

He wanted to give people hope, and he wanted to understand.

[Doran]

“He’s quite a gifted storyteller, isn’t he?” Doran asked once Arjori had finished telling him about her experience with Henry Smoog, still thinking about what he had heard.

“He is”, the Blue Cloak agreed before she furrowed her brow a little. “I know that it isn’t really any of my business, professor, but would you be willing tell me why you are so interested in Henry, nevertheless?”

“His aunt gave me a task. I need to find him and ask him something”, Doran replied truthfully before he exchanged a glance with Plia who had been listening quietly, her eyes a little wide.

The young woman had absorbed every single word that Arjori had said so far (The Melrath adventure had only been one of the adventures that the Blue Cloak had mentioned).

“Thank you”, Arjori replied. A moment later, her eyes lit up, and she leaned slightly forward. “Would you be willing to share your experiences of the Forging with me now? As you know, the Order helped out during the crisis, but there are certain details that I may not be aware of. What about the teams, for example? Did they face any medical issues? Were you affected, professor, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I also heard something about animals being affected”, she continued before she abruptly remarked, “You know, Henry may still be on the island. Our association was brief, but he gave me the impression of being someone who wanted to support the island in times of need, and who was quite curious in unusual occurrences on top of it.”

“I think so too”, Doran agreed before he leaned back slightly and took a deep breath. “So, where shall I begin? I was not affected negatively in any way, apart from the fact that I suffered from temporary amnesia for a while after the Forging, as all the people involved did to my knowledge. Are you aware of the fact that magic was affected and that mages overstepped much more easily?” he then wanted to know.

When Arjori had replied, he continued. He talked about the issues that mages had faced, and about the fact that the animals had behaved strangely. He made sure to always ask Arjori what she knew – he wanted to make sure that the information that he gave her was indeed new. He made sure not to share anything that might be secret, or too personal, though.

There were some things that only the people in question themselves should talk about in his opinion.

Eventually, their meeting came to an end, and Arjori who had furiously been taking notes while Doran had been speaking bade him farewell and wished him good luck with his search.

Before long, Plia and he were standing outside, in front of the bench where they had sat with Bren, once more. This time, nobody called out to them. In fact, it was rather quiet, and the sun that had stood high in the sky when they had started their visit to Scalvoris Town was slowly moving westward. Noon had finally made way to afternoon, although it would be a few breaks before the sun would set, and darkness would descend upon the land once more.

“What shall we do now, professor?” Plia who had mostly been quiet during the conversation with Arjori asked softly. “How exactly do you plan on finding Enri, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I have several descriptions of him that all match, including a very recent one. I know a recent pseudonym of his, I know what he was up to until relatively recently, and I am familiar with his personality, as much as one can be familiar with someone’s personality without actually having met them”, Doran replied in a calm tone of voice – knowing what someone was like could help you figure out what they were up to.

“As Arjori said, there is a chance that Enri is in Scalvoris now, in order to support the island during the aftermath of the war against Slag’s Deep. Your drawing will hopefully enable us to find him. Perhaps, all we have to do is ask people about the man in the drawing”, he mused before he gestured for the young woman to follow him.

“We?” Plia asked and raised an eyebrow. “Do you want me to accompany you, professor?”

“If you would like”, Doran replied. “Your help has been invaluable, Plia. I will continue my investigation as soon as I have returned from my trip to Faldrass”, he told her – he would be meeting a few good acquaintances of his there on the sixteenth.

“I will think about it”, the young woman said before she joined him on the walk home.

If luck was with him, it might only be a matter of trials, or a seven-trial or two until he had found Enri, Doran realized as they walked down the road to the former lighthouse where he lived now and where he would take notes about his visit to the Order of the Adunih.

There were so many questions that he wanted to ask him, and so many things that he wanted to say to him, and besides that, there was one thing that he could not help but wonder about. To which extent would Enri differ from the stories that he had heard and the books that he had read?

[Jackalope]

Experience: Tier 2 Progression

Knowledge:

Tier 1 Knowledges:

Storytelling: Enri von Smooglenuff’s Melrath adventure
Detection: Noticing that someone is out of breath
Etiquette: Don’t share information that might be private
Investigation: Pictures can be helpful when it comes to verifying someone’s identity
Investigation: Being familiar with someone’s personality can help you find them
Investigation x1

Skillplay: Appropriate to level

Loot: None.
Injuries/Overstepping: None.
Renown: None.
Wealth Points:None.
Collaboration: no
Magic Experience?: no

Comments:

“They did good and they were, judging by what he had observed so far, never cruel. He had decided that such a life wasn’t for him.” Yikes.

It sounds like Doran’s getting close. I wonder what Enri will do if he decides Doran’s getting too close.

I enjoyed the story Arjori told; sounds like quite an adventure! And the sort that Enri von Smooglenuff would go on. Moreover, if it’s accurate, Doran has another mystery to ask the Mortalborn about, if and when he finds him.

The NPCs feel natural and well-rounded. Plia says she’ll think about Doran’s request that she’ll accompany him, suggesting she has a mind of her own. Good!

Enjoy your rewards!