04 - Mulled Cider and Wine; Eel and Root Vegetable Hand Pies; Creamy Cod Chowder

[tisfinished]

1: The Milk Run, docked at Flotsam

Senshi seems unusually focused and far less chatty than usual as he serves up hearty winter fare; in addition to the headline items from this post's title, he has hot tea, coffee and cocoa available as well as pork pies and (as a vegetarian option) mushroom pies and an array of pickled vegetables.

He tries to be friendly as ever, but it's clear something weighs heavily on his mind.

2: The Vault's Practice Halls

Senshi is in need of a sparring partner. He's practicing with axe and shield - curiously, practicing with a cage strapped to his chest - and the poor wooden practice dummies he's been whaling on have been taking a serious beating.

"Think maybe I need an actual opponent," he says, his voice unusually clipped.

3: Solstice Gift-Giving

Beware: if you've done any kindnesses to the weird dwarf that loves to cook with monster meat (even more so than most Flotsam pirates, at any rate) then you're liable to find a box outside your home or apartment door wrapped in a ribbon.

While there is no name identifying who could have left them, the fact that they are exquisite, frosted gingerbread monsters narrows down the possible culprits significantly.

Comments

3

[upupatomway]

Atom goes looking for Senshi, hoping to catch him at the Vault before he leaves to return to his ship. Lucky for him, Senshi's horned helmet makes him stand out, even in a crowd.

"Mr. Senshi!" Atom calls after him when he spots him in the halls coming from the sparring area. He tries waving to him, the little box containing the gingerbread monsters he had received in the other.

Re: 3

[tisfinished]

“Hello there, Atom!” he says with a wave back - trying for a cordial tone, at least, with the mission so heavy on his mind. “I see you’ve gotten my Solstice present.”

[upupatomway]

Atom makes his way over to Senshi, grinning ear to ear. "Thank you for the gift! I'm sure these will be delicious! I wanted to find you before I ate them and ask what kind of creatures these are."

In case Senshi doesn't remember which he gave him, Atom opens the lid of the box so Senshi can see the gingerbread again.

[tisfinished]

“Ah, yes!” He says. “A collection of some of the more interesting critters I’ve run across. There’s some sea serpents and krakens, of course - not the same flavor as the feast, but I don’t think you’ll object - but also a gryphon, an owlbear, and that crab-looking one is actually a chest-mimic!”

[upupatomway]

"So Gryphons are real in this world? Are all of them?" he asks. He had guessed correctly what the sea monsters and the gryphon were but he hadn't seen the other two species, and he wasn't sure if any of them besides the sea monsters were real. "What's an owlbear or a chest-mimic?"

[tisfinished]

“Well an owlbear has an owl’s head, feathers, and talons but the weight and general body plan of a bear, and a chest-mimic likes to disguise itself in boxes of valuables so it can jump on looters,” Senshi says, brightly. “There are all sorts of weird critters who use ether instinctively, to get bigger or use unusual abilities.”

He pauses. “Dragons used to be a great example - they could shoot fire by basically igniting their burps - but the Imps hunted them to near extinction.”

[upupatomway]

"Dragons burps are flammable?" Atom laughs. "It makes sense, but it's kind of funny to think of dragons breath that way!" He grins, imagining a burping noise playing over the scene of a movie about dragons.

"It sounds like you know a lot about monsters. Does that have to do with the time you were learning to cook from scratch in the wild and "dungeons" as you once told me?" The only reason Atom hadn't thought these were prison dungeons was because of the conversation context, Senshi's character as he knew him so far, and some conversations at home with friends who played fantasy games.

[tisfinished]

"There were plenty of critters like that in the ether mines, but yes, most of these are in dungeons warped by magic. You know, they got called that because the early ones we found were wizards doing it on purpose with the actual dungeons of their towers, but the name stuck."

He bites off a gingerbread mimic claw. "Learned respect for them, out in the wilderness. Which isn't to say they weren't good eating, or useful for a whole bunch of other things."

[upupatomway]

Atom nods his head at the little history lesson. "I guess if you're a friendly wizard and you don't take prisoners, the basement is a good place to use magic, huh? A dungeon or the ether mines sound like the kind of place my sister would like to visit so she can meet the wildlife and try talking to them. If she was here, she'd have all kinds of questions for you too." If it weren't for the Empire, he'd wish she was there with him so she could see the world with magic.

"What kind of things have you used monsters for besides food? I know fur, fat, and bones from animals have all been used in a lot of things by humans back home."