Pie stood in the busy pathway between tents and stalls as creatures and monsters of all sorts passed by, each talking in their own languages, the common tongue, and sounds and other means equally as strange. Lithia was no where to be seen, having galloped off. The kitsune whose work area he had rolled into was still glaring, so he hastily moved down the path a little scanning the surroundings while studying the scrap of paper that was the flyer.
As he examined it he noticed some shapes on the bottom, some lines in a cross fashion with a rectangle at the top and a half moon in the center and then another line curving around one end and a dot. A map? The way to find Bee's fortunes and relationship advice? If this was a map the rectangle was perhaps the wagon and he should look for a crossing with something bearing the half moon symbol?
He set off down the pathway, marveling at the shops and those passing by as he walked. The diversity of those gathered amazed him, and none of them were fighting or being mean to each other. His amazement was pulled by the gleam of gold ahead, and the shape of a crescent moon on a pole that rose above the crowd, it's gleam lit by the lanterns from the tents and wagons around it.
Pie picked up his pace, happily trotting toward the beacon of hope as he wove around and under the others walking the path. He arrived at a crossroads, and there under that golden icon a large tent sat. The paths around it were busy, it appeared to be the main junction fo the branching paths of the gathering, perhaps quite literally center of the gathering. Milling around outside the tent, armored season elves were attentivly watching the crowd. Maybe they were the ones keeping everyone from fighting.
Pie glanced at the map in the corner of the flyer and made the turn. He continued on, carefully looking around for any sign of the tabaxi or indication of their tent or wagon. He still looked around for Lithea as well, but he didn't see her anywhere. He hoped she was ok. If he could find this "Bee" then they could look for her.
He dodged around a small pack of gnolls getting food from a Lizardfolk barking out that it was genuine basilisk meat. He slid around their swishing and thumping tails, and looked around, hoping to see the tent of the fortune teller. He darted further along the path weaving in and out, but did not see any small tabaxi, or sign of a fortune telling tent or wagon. He was starting to worry, was the map wrong? Was it a trick?
He was about to turn back when a wisp of smoke drifted across his path. The hint of the weedgrass Miss Nyxia would put in her pipe. Without hesitating he followed it, If he could find her, they could look for Lithia and her family together. He dashed deeper into the bazaar, leaving the main paths, pushing out toward the edges of the gathering.
There weren't as many lanterns on these smaller forks of the mazelike set of paths set up for the bazaar and Pie could feel his eyes adjusting to the lower light.
There was a tent nestled into the others here on the outskirts, and from it a haze of weedpipe smoke emerged. The sign in front of the tent read the same as the flyer. Bee's fortunes and relationship advice.
The tent flap was pulled up by someone from within and a man stumbled out coughing and smiling as more of the smoke poured out from around the edges of the doorway. The man looked around blankly seeming to be barely aware of where he was at. He shook his head and started walking with purpose towards the main path.
Was Miss Nyxia inside, that was an awful lot of smoke though, he had never seen her pipe make that much. She'd been gone all day though, so .. maybe?
He made his way to the tent flap and lifted it. The smoke from inside billowed out enveloping him like mist rolling in off of a moor. He coughed as the thick warm smoke hit the back of his throat, as it was impossible not to inhale from the shifting billowing cloud. Inside the spacious tent a table with two chairs occupied the center of the 'room,' and most of the other interior space was empty. On one side a brazier stood on a stand and in the censer like dome on top of it herbs crackled and slowly roasted softly as they were dispersed into the air as the wood underneath burned and pushed its smoke up.
Just above the dome of the censer a small paddle spun in midair with a light blue glow of magical energy slowly pulsing as it turned in a slow lazy circle pushing the billowing smoke to fill the room and circulate.
Pie could already feel his nose and throat tingling as he inhaled the substance laden smoke. He could tell part of it was smokeweed from his experiences with Miss Nyxia, but there were other strange scents and feels in this heavy intoxicating cloud. He blinked his yellow watering eyes trying to clear his vision.
Sitting at the table was a tiny tabaxi, maybe 2 feet tall wearing a robe. In front of him sat a set of cards pied up, and a basin of water. The tabaxi waved for him to approach closer. He walked over to the table and took the seat opposite the tabaxi. He studied the small cat persons face, his fur the dull orange of fading embers, and his big bright eyes locked on his goblin visitor.
"Hey there! Welcome! I'm Bee, well Busy bee technically, but most people just call me Bee." His voice was tiny, but also a little raspy.
"What brings you into my tent? ARe you looking for your fortune and a glimpse of what lies ahead? Perhaps you instead have some relationship troubles you want to delve into? Tell Bee your desire and he will bend the future to show you what awaits."
Pie listened, fidgeting a little as he wanted to ask Bee if he was the family Miss Lithia was looking for. "Hi! My name is Pie, Pie Spiderfoot, well thats less my name and more of the tribe I come from, but uhm.. Anyway Do you know a cen-"
"Wait!" The little tabaxi's voice rose and he stood from where he had been sitting on the chair to now stand on it with his paws planted firmly on the table. "No information! I have to have an unclouded view to get accurate readings."
"See your future!" The little tabaxi cat person ardently slammed his paws against the table to punctuate the statement.
Slam!
"Or!" his paws SLAMed down.
"Dating advice!?" SLAM!
"Pick." SLAM
"One!" SLAM SLAM SLAM.
Almost as an after thought he quickly added in a slightly more hushed tone.
"Five gold for divination, one for counseling!"
Pie leaned back in his seat, slightly afraid of the tabaxi, even though the feline was a full foot shorter than he was, and still all the way across the 3 foot wide table.
"Uh … uhm… i think … I … " he fumbled in his pockets until he found one with some coin and tossed all of them from that pocket onto the table, seven gleaming gold coins and one bluish one. He quickly snatched up the electrum piece with minting that hadn't been seen in over a thousand years and tucked it back away in the pocket.
Bee sat back in his chair, nodding, and scooping up the gold coins not questioning or returning the extra two.
"Good, good. The future it is." The tabaxi looked pleased. He rubbed his paws together and picked up the deck of cards. He set them beside the Basin that was in the center of the table.
"Go ahead pick any card you like without looking. Shuffle them, cut the deck, count to a certain number however you want. No matter which way you choose the correct card for you will be chosen."
Pie reached forward. The cards looked big, like they wer made for humans and the other tall races, and they felt big in his hands, must feel even bigger in the felines hands. He looked at the tops of the cards, they were painted with the same designs, enameled blue with a marblelick texture wth flecks of gold in it. He cut the deck twice and set them in three piles. He looked at them, they weren't even. The one on the left had the most and was the tallest, while the center and right were roughly the same height.
He didn't know if his choice made any difference so he reached out for the left most tallest stack. When his hand was almost to the tall pile of cards he paused and hesitated. He chose instead the top card of the right stack. He picked it up and handed it to the Tabaxi, who was standing on their chair again and reaching out for it. The feline place the card face up next to the water basin.
Bee studied the card for a moment. It showed a long necked green dragon like creature, with large empty looking blind white eyes.
"The Jabberwocky… your path is confused by the incessant gibbering noise, and clouds your eyes to your surroundings. Ware the confusion that sets in lest you wander into peril. That's the general guidance offered by this card. Now touch the water in the bowl. Thats it, just wiggle your fingers a little bit." Pie did as instructed, and placed the tips of his fingers in the bowl. As he did he felt the tingle of the atmosphere in the tent again, the smoke still swirled around, so thick he had almost forgotten it. His head was feeling a little lighter, and he delta little warm maybe. Also did the eye on the Jabberwocky card just move? He looked closer, no, it wasn't moving. Must have just been the smoke distorting his vision.
He withdrew his fingers and watched as the still standing on his chair tabaxi placed his hands above the basing and began whispering an arcane chant. The strange syllables that rolled off his feline lips were very different from the ones that had been drilled into Pies own mind.
Pie recoiled for a moment when an image of a long faced dog with a narrow muzzle flashed over Bee's face superimposing on top of him. A whisper from beside his ear, in goblin, from the very familiar voice of the demon in his own mind, Miss Haleah, drifted slowly into his hearing. Anubis
The water in the basin rose, lit by a blue light from the center of the now churning waters, until the formed a dome with mist and light swirling about beneath the nearly perfectly domes shaped water that spun and swirled around.
"Look into the mists, your future is foretold." Bee intoned, his voice distant and … deeper, though the flickering long nosed dog face was gone now.
Pie leaned forward placing his hands on the table as well now, trying to get a good look at the mists churning within the glasslike surface of the spinning dome of water. The mists moved and roiled within, but remind milky white, remained thick. Hetried to spot shapes in the mist, or gaps or anything at all, but he could see nothing.
"I … I don't see… It's just the misty stuff spinning inside..?" He leaned closer, looking and peering. Was that something taking shape? A darker spot i the middle where the blue lights converged as the bottom of the - He had leaned so close his big round nose touched the water, breaking the surface. The running water splashed over his face and the table as the dome dissolved and half landed in the basin and half all around the table.
Pie recoiled in shock and frantically wiping water from his face, then looking back at the bowl. It was still now and the mists within were being absorbed into the smoke still constantly swirling around the room.
"What- What happened!? I thought I was supposed to see something?" He looked to be pleadingly, the water still dripping from his face forgotten.
Bee shook his whiskered head slowly. "I… I'm sorry. It's over. Sometimes that is what happens with the Jabberwocky card.
"But… This is how I was supposed to find Miss Nyxia! Where do I look now?" Pies voice choked up a little as emotion began tightening his chest. Pie dropped back into his chair in defeated shock and just sat there numb for a moment.
Bee Let his connection to Anubis go, as the sphere of the scrying spell was broken by the desperate goblin's proximity. The spell hadn't been working anyway, something was blocking the gods energy from seeing the future that lie before him. The Jabberwocky card would sometimes cloud things, but it had never completely blocked the vision. He collected the other cards and only because he was lost in thought and absently wiping the water from the lacquered wooden cards did he glance at one of the other cards as he dried it with his robe. He turned it fully over and stared in disbelief at a second Jabberwocky card. He turned over the stack and pushed with his paw, revealing that EVERY card was now Jabberwocky. He ran a clawed finger over the cards, they were all etched correctly. It was not just an illusion the cards had been changed. He carefully turned them over as a buzzing sound began to build in his head. It receded the moment the cards were face down and no longer touching him.
He'd never in his life seen any cards change, let alone an entire deck. He thought back to his family, all lost in a fire that consumed their estate. The doors had been locked and only Bee had survived when His budding relationship serving the god had had him away from home, in a portal in the fae realms. He returned to find the house burned, deserted, and full of the corpses of his family. THey had suffered terrible fates, 3 generations worth, every living relative, all lost in one terrible horrible attack.
He didn't know who had a vendetta against his family, but it would likely have something to do with his family's connection to the god Anubis. One that normally had no hold or sway in these realms, their deep connection allowed some precious bit of the gods power to spill out in these realms where they were not worshiped, and no temples or priests. Until him. Until he had snuck away following another god of those far away realms, this one more feline. That had brought him and his power away from the ancestral home, leaving it a target.
Wit the assistance of his new patrons, for the goddess Bast had also made him a priest of hers,, Bee had begun studies both in the divine and in the nature of people, learning the art of grifting, alchemy and brewing, herbology, gambling, and other such divisions. Learning to control the powers of two gods at once, with no instructors.
But learn he did, to wield their powers, and he began the long process of tracking down those responsible for the murder of his family. Several had paid already, while others involved were still unknown. He was looking for them, that was what brought him to the bazaar today.
He looked at the cards and then back to the goblin sitting in shock across from the table.
"Hey Little guy, If your partner is missing, just look for them at the places they would like to go. Do you know the things they like?
As he examined it he noticed some shapes on the bottom, some lines in a cross fashion with a rectangle at the top and a half moon in the center and then another line curving around one end and a dot. A map? The way to find Bee's fortunes and relationship advice? If this was a map the rectangle was perhaps the wagon and he should look for a crossing with something bearing the half moon symbol?
He set off down the pathway, marveling at the shops and those passing by as he walked. The diversity of those gathered amazed him, and none of them were fighting or being mean to each other. His amazement was pulled by the gleam of gold ahead, and the shape of a crescent moon on a pole that rose above the crowd, it's gleam lit by the lanterns from the tents and wagons around it.
Pie picked up his pace, happily trotting toward the beacon of hope as he wove around and under the others walking the path. He arrived at a crossroads, and there under that golden icon a large tent sat. The paths around it were busy, it appeared to be the main junction fo the branching paths of the gathering, perhaps quite literally center of the gathering. Milling around outside the tent, armored season elves were attentivly watching the crowd. Maybe they were the ones keeping everyone from fighting.
Pie glanced at the map in the corner of the flyer and made the turn. He continued on, carefully looking around for any sign of the tabaxi or indication of their tent or wagon. He still looked around for Lithea as well, but he didn't see her anywhere. He hoped she was ok. If he could find this "Bee" then they could look for her.
He dodged around a small pack of gnolls getting food from a Lizardfolk barking out that it was genuine basilisk meat. He slid around their swishing and thumping tails, and looked around, hoping to see the tent of the fortune teller. He darted further along the path weaving in and out, but did not see any small tabaxi, or sign of a fortune telling tent or wagon. He was starting to worry, was the map wrong? Was it a trick?
He was about to turn back when a wisp of smoke drifted across his path. The hint of the weedgrass Miss Nyxia would put in her pipe. Without hesitating he followed it, If he could find her, they could look for Lithia and her family together. He dashed deeper into the bazaar, leaving the main paths, pushing out toward the edges of the gathering.
There weren't as many lanterns on these smaller forks of the mazelike set of paths set up for the bazaar and Pie could feel his eyes adjusting to the lower light.
There was a tent nestled into the others here on the outskirts, and from it a haze of weedpipe smoke emerged. The sign in front of the tent read the same as the flyer. Bee's fortunes and relationship advice.
The tent flap was pulled up by someone from within and a man stumbled out coughing and smiling as more of the smoke poured out from around the edges of the doorway. The man looked around blankly seeming to be barely aware of where he was at. He shook his head and started walking with purpose towards the main path.
Was Miss Nyxia inside, that was an awful lot of smoke though, he had never seen her pipe make that much. She'd been gone all day though, so .. maybe?
He made his way to the tent flap and lifted it. The smoke from inside billowed out enveloping him like mist rolling in off of a moor. He coughed as the thick warm smoke hit the back of his throat, as it was impossible not to inhale from the shifting billowing cloud. Inside the spacious tent a table with two chairs occupied the center of the 'room,' and most of the other interior space was empty. On one side a brazier stood on a stand and in the censer like dome on top of it herbs crackled and slowly roasted softly as they were dispersed into the air as the wood underneath burned and pushed its smoke up.
Just above the dome of the censer a small paddle spun in midair with a light blue glow of magical energy slowly pulsing as it turned in a slow lazy circle pushing the billowing smoke to fill the room and circulate.
Pie could already feel his nose and throat tingling as he inhaled the substance laden smoke. He could tell part of it was smokeweed from his experiences with Miss Nyxia, but there were other strange scents and feels in this heavy intoxicating cloud. He blinked his yellow watering eyes trying to clear his vision.
Sitting at the table was a tiny tabaxi, maybe 2 feet tall wearing a robe. In front of him sat a set of cards pied up, and a basin of water. The tabaxi waved for him to approach closer. He walked over to the table and took the seat opposite the tabaxi. He studied the small cat persons face, his fur the dull orange of fading embers, and his big bright eyes locked on his goblin visitor.
"Hey there! Welcome! I'm Bee, well Busy bee technically, but most people just call me Bee." His voice was tiny, but also a little raspy.
"What brings you into my tent? ARe you looking for your fortune and a glimpse of what lies ahead? Perhaps you instead have some relationship troubles you want to delve into? Tell Bee your desire and he will bend the future to show you what awaits."
Pie listened, fidgeting a little as he wanted to ask Bee if he was the family Miss Lithia was looking for. "Hi! My name is Pie, Pie Spiderfoot, well thats less my name and more of the tribe I come from, but uhm.. Anyway Do you know a cen-"
"Wait!" The little tabaxi's voice rose and he stood from where he had been sitting on the chair to now stand on it with his paws planted firmly on the table. "No information! I have to have an unclouded view to get accurate readings."
"See your future!" The little tabaxi cat person ardently slammed his paws against the table to punctuate the statement.
Slam!
"Or!" his paws SLAMed down.
"Dating advice!?" SLAM!
"Pick." SLAM
"One!" SLAM SLAM SLAM.
Almost as an after thought he quickly added in a slightly more hushed tone.
"Five gold for divination, one for counseling!"
Pie leaned back in his seat, slightly afraid of the tabaxi, even though the feline was a full foot shorter than he was, and still all the way across the 3 foot wide table.
"Uh … uhm… i think … I … " he fumbled in his pockets until he found one with some coin and tossed all of them from that pocket onto the table, seven gleaming gold coins and one bluish one. He quickly snatched up the electrum piece with minting that hadn't been seen in over a thousand years and tucked it back away in the pocket.
Bee sat back in his chair, nodding, and scooping up the gold coins not questioning or returning the extra two.
"Good, good. The future it is." The tabaxi looked pleased. He rubbed his paws together and picked up the deck of cards. He set them beside the Basin that was in the center of the table.
"Go ahead pick any card you like without looking. Shuffle them, cut the deck, count to a certain number however you want. No matter which way you choose the correct card for you will be chosen."
Pie reached forward. The cards looked big, like they wer made for humans and the other tall races, and they felt big in his hands, must feel even bigger in the felines hands. He looked at the tops of the cards, they were painted with the same designs, enameled blue with a marblelick texture wth flecks of gold in it. He cut the deck twice and set them in three piles. He looked at them, they weren't even. The one on the left had the most and was the tallest, while the center and right were roughly the same height.
He didn't know if his choice made any difference so he reached out for the left most tallest stack. When his hand was almost to the tall pile of cards he paused and hesitated. He chose instead the top card of the right stack. He picked it up and handed it to the Tabaxi, who was standing on their chair again and reaching out for it. The feline place the card face up next to the water basin.
Bee studied the card for a moment. It showed a long necked green dragon like creature, with large empty looking blind white eyes.
"The Jabberwocky… your path is confused by the incessant gibbering noise, and clouds your eyes to your surroundings. Ware the confusion that sets in lest you wander into peril. That's the general guidance offered by this card. Now touch the water in the bowl. Thats it, just wiggle your fingers a little bit." Pie did as instructed, and placed the tips of his fingers in the bowl. As he did he felt the tingle of the atmosphere in the tent again, the smoke still swirled around, so thick he had almost forgotten it. His head was feeling a little lighter, and he delta little warm maybe. Also did the eye on the Jabberwocky card just move? He looked closer, no, it wasn't moving. Must have just been the smoke distorting his vision.
He withdrew his fingers and watched as the still standing on his chair tabaxi placed his hands above the basing and began whispering an arcane chant. The strange syllables that rolled off his feline lips were very different from the ones that had been drilled into Pies own mind.
Pie recoiled for a moment when an image of a long faced dog with a narrow muzzle flashed over Bee's face superimposing on top of him. A whisper from beside his ear, in goblin, from the very familiar voice of the demon in his own mind, Miss Haleah, drifted slowly into his hearing. Anubis
The water in the basin rose, lit by a blue light from the center of the now churning waters, until the formed a dome with mist and light swirling about beneath the nearly perfectly domes shaped water that spun and swirled around.
"Look into the mists, your future is foretold." Bee intoned, his voice distant and … deeper, though the flickering long nosed dog face was gone now.
Pie leaned forward placing his hands on the table as well now, trying to get a good look at the mists churning within the glasslike surface of the spinning dome of water. The mists moved and roiled within, but remind milky white, remained thick. Hetried to spot shapes in the mist, or gaps or anything at all, but he could see nothing.
"I … I don't see… It's just the misty stuff spinning inside..?" He leaned closer, looking and peering. Was that something taking shape? A darker spot i the middle where the blue lights converged as the bottom of the - He had leaned so close his big round nose touched the water, breaking the surface. The running water splashed over his face and the table as the dome dissolved and half landed in the basin and half all around the table.
Pie recoiled in shock and frantically wiping water from his face, then looking back at the bowl. It was still now and the mists within were being absorbed into the smoke still constantly swirling around the room.
"What- What happened!? I thought I was supposed to see something?" He looked to be pleadingly, the water still dripping from his face forgotten.
Bee shook his whiskered head slowly. "I… I'm sorry. It's over. Sometimes that is what happens with the Jabberwocky card.
"But… This is how I was supposed to find Miss Nyxia! Where do I look now?" Pies voice choked up a little as emotion began tightening his chest. Pie dropped back into his chair in defeated shock and just sat there numb for a moment.
Bee Let his connection to Anubis go, as the sphere of the scrying spell was broken by the desperate goblin's proximity. The spell hadn't been working anyway, something was blocking the gods energy from seeing the future that lie before him. The Jabberwocky card would sometimes cloud things, but it had never completely blocked the vision. He collected the other cards and only because he was lost in thought and absently wiping the water from the lacquered wooden cards did he glance at one of the other cards as he dried it with his robe. He turned it fully over and stared in disbelief at a second Jabberwocky card. He turned over the stack and pushed with his paw, revealing that EVERY card was now Jabberwocky. He ran a clawed finger over the cards, they were all etched correctly. It was not just an illusion the cards had been changed. He carefully turned them over as a buzzing sound began to build in his head. It receded the moment the cards were face down and no longer touching him.
He'd never in his life seen any cards change, let alone an entire deck. He thought back to his family, all lost in a fire that consumed their estate. The doors had been locked and only Bee had survived when His budding relationship serving the god had had him away from home, in a portal in the fae realms. He returned to find the house burned, deserted, and full of the corpses of his family. THey had suffered terrible fates, 3 generations worth, every living relative, all lost in one terrible horrible attack.
He didn't know who had a vendetta against his family, but it would likely have something to do with his family's connection to the god Anubis. One that normally had no hold or sway in these realms, their deep connection allowed some precious bit of the gods power to spill out in these realms where they were not worshiped, and no temples or priests. Until him. Until he had snuck away following another god of those far away realms, this one more feline. That had brought him and his power away from the ancestral home, leaving it a target.
Wit the assistance of his new patrons, for the goddess Bast had also made him a priest of hers,, Bee had begun studies both in the divine and in the nature of people, learning the art of grifting, alchemy and brewing, herbology, gambling, and other such divisions. Learning to control the powers of two gods at once, with no instructors.
But learn he did, to wield their powers, and he began the long process of tracking down those responsible for the murder of his family. Several had paid already, while others involved were still unknown. He was looking for them, that was what brought him to the bazaar today.
He looked at the cards and then back to the goblin sitting in shock across from the table.
"Hey Little guy, If your partner is missing, just look for them at the places they would like to go. Do you know the things they like?