3 |
You greet the innkeeper while keeping an eye on your sprite companion, just in case. After introducing yourselves as a party of adventurers to her, you politely ask if she has a moment to spare.
Innkeeper: "Of course. Are you looking for a room to stay the night?"
You tell the Kirin that you are actually looking for another foreigner just like you — a bard whose company have left without —, and were wondering if he had come this way.
Innkeeper: "Well, my inn sees quite a few creatures from overseas, though none too recently. Can you describe this bard to me? I never forget a face."
Trying to recall pictures you might have seen of the pop star, you give the best description of him that you can: a male pegasus with a greyish brown coat and medium blonde hair with a matching short beard.
Innkeeper: "Ahh... that does sound familiar. If I remember correctly, a winged stallion stayed overnight about two weeks ago. He didn't speak much Kirinese, but I believe he was looking for work. Could that have been him?"
You nod, and ask if she knows where he went afterward.
Innkeeper: "I don't recall him mentioning that he was a bard. I pointed him toward Farmlands Bathing in Sun and Rain; helping hooves are always welcome in the fields, and it's mostly wordless work. He hasn't returned since, so maybe he found purpose there?"
You think you remember hearing about the place before — Taihon-Nonchan, the agricultural town found beyond the large portal.
Innkeeper: "Mh, though it should be the middle of the night in the northern plains right now. Unless I'm mistaken, you won't find any farmhooves to talk to before morning — which isn't until another eight hours or so."
Moonflower: "Wait, how's it nighttime over there when it's day here?"
Innkeeper: "Oh, that's because the farmlands really are far away: halfway across the island, about a month's travel on hoof from here."
Moonflower: "Whoa! It's so far away it's got a different sky?"
Innkeeper: "Well, it's the same sky — only from a different angle."
Moonflower: "Ohhh... got'cha."
Innkeeper: "In the meantime, can I offer you anything? If you are recent arrivals yourselves, you may be interested in a warm bath or a hot meal."
Enter a comment
If there is no tavern, then we wouldn't be opposed to taking a proper bath. Or wandering the streets to see if we see anything interesting. After that, I'd consider going back to the ship to read about magic until the time to visit Taihon-Nonchan is better.
Or alternatively, how far are we from learning a Find Person spell? 😆
Or maybe this is the QM's way of having us slow down and explore. Our soul communication quest is at a dead end as well. I still want to confirm that being an alicorn matters. The update 2024-04-15 is quite clear that it does:
Now, Vermillion said
which perhaps was his way of telling us we have to make a deal with a demon if we want to learn soul magic faster than in eight years, but he had no idea that the alicorn path is available to us. I think we will get another hint about this from the soul of Empyrius when we dream next.
It took us about a day to learn how to cast Camouflage with the help of the spell book and another day to memorize the spell so we wouldn't need the book. I doubt Find Person is easier to learn. That means at least one day of studying the spell so we can cast it while using the book. Maybe more if the spell is harder to learn. Assuming the spell is even listed in the book and it's not to complex for us.
And speaking of Camouflage: I just noticed that the spell isn't listed under Magic.
This is a tenuous, if still worthwhile, connection. If that is him, if he's looking for work, then it sounds like Dirt wanted to immigrate here. But why? Doesn't he have loved ones at home? We have the old (and perhaps somewhat plausible) theory that he's trying to escape his contract. My new crackpot theory this update is that perhaps Dirt is a fugitive from justice and committed some crime right before leaving Equestria, and is escaping the consequences. But if that's true, no one even found out about the crime (or at least, cared to tell us about it). (Maybe we can use that fact to convince him to come back 😆.)
Also, FYI, nonchan sounds like 农场 nóngchǎng, which simply means "farm" in Chinese. Taihon I'm not sure means anything, though it has a passing resemblance to 彩虹 cǎihóng, which means "rainbow".
The government/the monk we asked didn't know or reveal much. The innkeeper has a tenuous lead/a potential red herring. In terms of information gathering we don't have a lot. The one good turn so far is finding our guide.