Atheist Peace

[Brian]

"So, stranger," the farmer says, once the silence has stretched on.  "Where are you from, anyway?  And what's your name?  I'm Delvin, by the way.  Farmer by trade."

[Dracos]

"Augustin," Dracos spun off in a second, "From here and there, Storn originally.  Nice  to meet you, Delvin."

Dracos

[Brian]

"Nice to meet you, too, Augustin," Delvin says, nodding.  "If you're needing some shade, just dig under the hay.  Don't throw any out, mind, but make yourself comfortable."

Without any shocks, the hay still makes for decent (though itchy) bedding, and the ground is pretty flat.  For being just simple dirt roads, they seem well maintained.

Thinking of the names of the gates, Phil assumes that they're the same gates mentioned in the handy holy book, though it didn't name anything like 'Anabara', or Windhurst.  Thinking about it, Phil does manage to get the idea that each 'sphere' only has two gates, so they're obviously connected in a linear fashion.

[Dracos]

Dracos nods, taking a spot in the shade and discreetly reading over a scroll while time passed.

Dracos

[Brian]

Jackpot!  The bible was interesting, and will allow Phil to BS his way through meetings with people who study it, more likely than not.  But the scrolls are where the information's really at.

The scrolls are a journal.  The journal of one Philip Bloom, formerly a deacon of the Church of the Gate, and now a self-proclaimed heretic.  The scrolls outline that the Church of the Gate is suppressing the way to cross through gates without invoking either regression or progression ... and reading about that suggests that it's some kind of evolutionary force.  It can make people more primitive, or more advanced.

The letter denounces the practice of using this process to essentially 'breed' people to make desired traits stronger.  And this forced process is used extensively on the heretical, or opposition to the Church.  Since non-Church people can't pass through the gates without some risk, only the Church really has control over travel.

This means they concern commerce, too, as well as communication.  The scrolls explain how Deacon Bloom opposes this practice, and seeks out the oppressed to try and promise them a way to attain true freedom.

Reading between the lines, Phil is able to assemble a basic understanding of the interrelationships of the 'spheres'.  Some of them produce more food, and some produce more people.  Some produce valuable trade items, so they are for the most part dependent on one another.  The Church's grip on the transfer points gives them de-facto control, which has obviously expanded into the Questioners.

And boy, does Deacon Bloom ever hate the Questioners, and the fact that they represent the worst of what any Church Phil can think of has done.  It's easy to compare them to the Inquisition, because they aren't far off, even though some priests are squeamish about it, and don't really agree that they should have the authority that they do.

[Dracos]

As good as it was knowing more about the church and such, this only spurned Dracos onward as he sought clues as to the methods that allowed travel between the gates and more importantly the Deacon's plan, for it was surely one in some vein he needed to make sure succeeded.

Dracos

[Brian]

The scrolls don't explicitly state much about using the gates, but from what Phil can tell, the trick of it seems to involve using both doors in a gate at the same time.  It might make more sense once the gate was actually examinable.

In the meantime, Delvin comments, "There's a wagon coming down the road ... looks like it's from Master Vladimere's place."

[Dracos]

Dracos murmurs a bit, as if he's just waking up, "Hum, you said something?" He blinked sleepiness out of his eyes convincingly.

Dracos

[Brian]

Sitting up, Phil can see a coach coming down the road towards the cart at a mad pace.  The coachman is cracking his whip over the team of four horses leading the sleek, black enameled carriage, and they're hurtling along.  Devlin has already led his cart to one side, to avoid blocking traffic.

"Hoy!" he yells, waving his hat, as the coach is abruptly reigned to a halt, beside the cart.

The coachman's eyes are wild, and he spits out, "Calamity!  Flee, good man, the thralls have gone mad -- they've slain Master Vladimere in cold blood and broad light of sky!"

Devlin blinks in shock, his jaw dropping open.  Within the coach, the sobbing of a woman ... or more than one woman, can be heard.  A few servants are clinging to the back of the coach, and look up the road in fear, though the path behind them is largely obscured with the dust they've thrown up.

[Dracos]

"Madness," Dracos commented  quietly in presumed shock, his eyes quickly roaming over the others to  observe and analyze their responses, trying to predict both how dangerous what they were coming from really was and whether he'd be able to slip away sensibly.

Dracos
OOC: Probably a bit much but social analyze or perception or whatnot.
OOC: 13 was rolled *is having cp problem*

[Brian]

It would be pretty simple to flee.  The coachman doesn't look like he would want to hang around.  He's an easy read socially -- he's scared witless.  What this means about his skill in normal situations?  Hard to say.  But he's just frightened and wants to leave.  The other people on the carriage look highly interested in fleeing, too.

Delvin doesn't wait too long -- he starts bringing the cart around, even while he asks, "If Master Vladimere has fallen, who will manage the thralls?"

The coachman sputters, then with a look of determination says, "The High Church will know what to do."  At that, he cracks his whip, and the carriage begins rumbling down the road -- not quite as quickly as before, but still fast.

"Sorry, Augustin," says Delvin, still turning the cart, "I think we should turn back.  If you're headed towards Darby, best wait until the Church can handle this."

[Dracos]

Dracos pondered the likelihood of stealthly slipping out of the cart when it gets moving, so as to continue on without the farmer realizing he left.

Dracos
OOC: Just want to do a quick check there.  If not, I'll leave openly.

[Brian]

OOC: Don't you know if you've got the Stealth skill?

Phil thinks that once the carriage is gone (throwing up a cloud of dust), that he could drop off the back of the cart while Devlin wheeled it around, and then just march into the dust cloud.  It's inevitable at some point that Devlin will notice 'Augustin's absence, but it might not be any time soon.

Focusing on wrestling the horse around, the farmer says, "Just hold tight; no worries about helping me out, now.  It's much more important that we reach the High Church, friend."

[Dracos]

Dracos nodded in agreement, keeping worry on his face to hide any sign of such a plan...and doing just that as Devlin moves off, holding his breath as he snuck swiftly down the path through the dust.  There was really no question of it, one of his friends had to be involved with such a sudden surprising shift to the natives.

Seeing a mansion ahead, Dracos hurries towards it, knowing that he'll have to figure out what is going on quickly.  With a questioning group less than two days walk away, it wasn't likely to be long before trouble arrived after him.

Dracos

[Brian]

After a few dozen yards, Phil clears the worst of the dust, and is simply left to walk down the road.  A large Victorian manor is visible in the distance, probably a mile or so away.  The dust isn't perfectly readable, but more likely than not that's where the carriage came from.

Heading down the road towards the house, Phil is met at the gate by twenty large, red-skinned, shirtless (but cloaked) individuals carrying cudgels.  While they have an identical, totally homogeneous appearance, Phil instantly recognizes Tom.

Dracos now goes to Uphill Battle.