Email20120911 1750

Subject: [jo_dnd] What the burners taught you Date: 9/11/2012 5:50 PM XP: 325 - Battle of the Stirges (plus, asking intelligent questions of the burners ). (All but Cassius) Jaxian, the leader of the burners, tells you of Tharpit (King of Verslund) acting strange and of their contact in Polrain, the capital city of Verslund. The contact's name is Thumo. He probably won't do anything for you without a fee, but he is well connected to various players in the Kingdom, especially the capital. Thorian (former Kaarsteni) spends much of the day with Ilmer at the wagon. They test out a bunch of Kaarsteni phrases and such, trying to get the wagon to fly. Ilmer and Thorian also spend that time discussing the basics of Kaarsteni grammar and the roots of some of the words.* Ilmer is much more confident that he will recognize Kaarsteni if it is spoken. He also knows how to activate the key to show the location of the wagon now. Thorian will also point out that the wagon is meant to be easily modified to be a fortress - some of the front, side, and back panels are structured in such a way that a simple command (which he teaches Ilmer ) can punch out a small slit, perfect for arrows. The slit can be told to "self-repair" which takes a day or so. By the way, the Kaarsteni phrase that he first said to you all translates as "Kaarsteni nobles love to eat maggot feces." (He was trying to get you to react.) Thorian also spends some time talking about Kaarsteni politics. The eight great houses are: Zaradon (Raya's (sp?) house) Balor (Thorian's former house) Minart Hadraad Pokopom Jhobt Canfris Ado The politics of the houses are complex and interweaving. They may be allied on some fronts, but dire enemies on others. All of the houses are connected by multiple alliances, and all of them are related to one another. There are alliances between individual members, which may or may not involve physical intimacy, which may or may not produce a child. If a child is produced, it's rank and upbringing (which house it belongs to, it's future status, it's education (martial and academic), it's chance of becoming the leader of the house,etc.) is negotiated before the child is born. There are formal alliances among N people (where N is 2 <= N <= 8) which may produce a child. No one but the alliance members knows who the mother or father are. (There are guesses, but all of the female alliance members will "fake" pregnancy. And it may be that even the mother may not know the actual father.) Not all of these alliances are for children, either. They can be for many other things, or even esoteric status. It's all really weird and complicated. *If you recall, the language of The Settlements (polish) is a creole of three Old World languages. Kaarsteni is a corruption (or evolution) of one of these languages, so it isn't that hard for Ilmer to pick up some of the ideas and phrases. It is as if a current English speaker was hearing Danish for the first time. English is a melange of Germanic and Romance languages, while Danish is a purely Germanic language. The words sound different, but once you start talking about the roots, the words are actually not terribly different. (Yes, I have thought too much about this. No, I haven't completely invented the language.) The movie I mentioned (after Alan and Gavin left): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024648/