• Solo • Rainbow Glowing Birds!? (Part 1)

[Devin]

Saun 16, Arc 721

On the 16th of Saun, Doctor Devin Thorn, High Priest of Delroth and Baron Von Smooglenuff stood on his favourite meadow that was close to the beach, holding a fancy white parasol in one hand because he didn’t want to get a sunburn or an ugly tan, and stared at the man opposite of him quite incredulously. He didn’t stare at him because he was ugly, or unusually beautiful, or just plain strange – he was a very normal looking man in his thirties, with brown hair, brown eyes and a short beard – but because of what he had just told him.

“Say that again, please”, he demanded because he wanted to be absolutely sure that he hadn’t misunderstood him – the man spoke with a very thick accent and was, obviously, one of those tourists that had been invading Scalvoris recently. “What did you see?”

“I saw a multi-colored chicken. It glowed. I was wondering if such things are common here. The travel guide that I bought mentioned that the fauna of Scalvoris is on the unusual side, but it didn’t mention multi-colored birds that glow”, the man said patiently and in grammatically perfect, but nonetheless strange Common – he emphasized his words very differently from what the Mortalborn was used to.

“Right”, Devin said.

“Which color are my hair and my skin?” he wanted to know a moment later.

“Black and … pale?” the bearded man replied, looking confused.

“In that case … where exactly did you see the multi-colored glowing chicken, if you don’t mind me asking, and when did you see it?” Devin wanted to know. He had briefly wondered if the man might be high and see everything in strange colors now, but if he looked normal, then the chance of that being the case was miniscule at best. If you were high, you usually saw more than just a single multi-colored glowing chicken, and come to think of it, the man's behaviour was pretty normal otherwise!

“Such birds aren’t common here, but strange events definitely are”, he added, grinning, before he listened to the man’s tale quite attentively, his eyes widening a bit more with every passing trill. It sounded as if the multi-colored glowing chicken was actually real, and if it was real, then he wanted to have it because he absolutely loved glowing things!

Notes

From the Scalvoris calendar:

Rainbow Glowing Eggs!?: We've had rainbow eggs, we've had glowing eggs - on the 16th Saun, a tourist asks one of the locals about the multi-coloured glowing chicken they saw. It spreads like wildfire - random chickens (and other birds) have become rainbow-coloured and glowing. They lay rainbow-coloured glowing eggs, they shed rainbow-coloured glowing feathers!

[Devin]

As soon as the bearded fellow had left, Devin made his way back to Smooglenuff Manor because he had no interest in taking a break from work on the beach anymore. He wanted to find the multi-colored glowing chicken, and once he had found it, he would buy it because nobody in their right mind would dare to refuse a High Priest of Delroth!

Once he had arrived at the manor, Devin immediately put his parasol away because it was a little unwieldy and would just get in his way during the investigation. Instead, he put on a hat, a white hat with a red feather because he was dressed in white and red that trial, and because he still refused to get a sunburn.

A few moments later, he retrieved his magical dowsing rod and his domain bag that was filled with all kinds of useful as well as mostly useless stuff from his room, and then he went into the stable in order to saddle his winged goat because he would reach the place where the bearded fellow had claimed he had seen the rainbow-colored chicken faster if he went there on horseback goatback!

As he led Keke out of the stable, something caught his attention. His roommate Aidan was looking out of one of the windows on the second floor and waving. It also sounded as if he were calling out to him. Figuring that the older man wanted to be nice and wish him a good trip, Devin smiled all over his face and waved back, and then he climbed into the saddle.

Keke was quite happy to be able to leave the stable and bleated loudly, and before long, they were riding down the newly constructed road, towards the dock to the south. Devin was quite excited about the chicken, but he made sure not to ride too fast, because it was quite warm, and he didn’t want to make Keke suffer unnecessarily, and because he wasn’t a particularly good and fast rider yet anyway (Although he planned on taking care of that sometime!).

They had ridden for approximately ten bits when another thing caught Devin’s attention. This time, it was not his roommate or another person; instead, he saw a strange shimmer at the side of the road, under a tree. Furrowing his brow, he came closer, dismounted and bent down in order to take a look only for his eyes to widen in surprise.

It was a multi-colored feather that glowed quite prettily!

[Devin]

Devin picked the multi-colored glowing feather up and examined it, furrowing his brow slightly as he did so. At first, he considered the possibility that the chicken that the bearded fellow had talked about might have run away, but the feather didn’t look like a chicken feather to him. He was not an expert on bird feathers or birds in general, at least not yet – he just liked birds, a lot – but he had a chicken, and this feather here was definitely wider and longer than the feathers of his pet chicken Arkarototokokok who had been a gift from a grateful patient once.

That meant that there was at least one other multi-colored glowing bird!

Grinning all over his face, he pocketed the feather because it was just so pretty and because he needed something to compare any other feathers that he found to and started to scan his surroundings, leading Keke who was slightly grumpy because they had stopped by the reins.

(Keke’s mood improved considerably when they got going again!)

Before long, Devin found another feather. The new feather was brown and kind of boring looking, but a moment later, he came across a second glowing feather, just as he heard a bird sing somewhere above him. He turned his head, half expecting to discover a multi-colored glowing bird which meant that he wouldn’t have to look anymore.

To his disappointment

He wasn’t disappointed at all when he realized that the bird that was sitting in the tree didn’t glow and wasn’t multi-colored either though, because it was still a bird, and he liked birds; and besides, he had just had a great absolutely and indubitably awesome idea!

Back in Ymiden, birds had helped him solve the beer crisis. Maybe, this bird here that had brown feathers and a yellow beak could help him solve the mystery of the multi-colored glowing birds now!

The birds of Faldrass probably knew each other, right?

With that thought in mind, the young man produced a small bag of birdfeed and poured its contents on the ground because the bird might be more inclined to answer if he gave it something. A moment later, he held up the two glowing feathers that he had found and asked the bird if it had ever seen anything like that before. He didn’t ask that question in Common of course, but used the wonderful Birdtongue ability that Delroth had afforded him.

Delroth was great!

The conversation went about as well as it had the last time. The bird tweeted excitedly when Devin told it that he had brought food – although it kept its distance - but it seemed to only be capable of understanding simple concepts and providing him with simple answers. It told him how hot it was, that it had just eaten bugs, and that it also liked seeds, and that there were a lot of pretty birds here now and wasn’t that a great thing?

“Pretty! Pretty! Pretty!” it tweeted, its little voice rising to a veritable crescendo, and Devin couldn’t help but nod emphatically, a wide smile on his face, because he thought that pretty things were great, too!

A few moments later, he pouted slightly though because the bird’s answer hadn’t been particularly helpful. That there were pretty birds around was all well and good, but he really wished that the little brown bird had told him that it had seen such multi-colored glowing feathers before instead – and proceeded to inform him exactly where it had seen them (and told him about the birds that had them, of course)!

Unless the pretty birds and the multi-colored glowing birds were the same?

It was definitely possible and merited further investigation!

Grinning because he was just so excited about the thought he had had, Devin thanked the bird, bowing deeply, as if he were facing a noble lord (or lady; he didn’t know the bird’s gender) and climbed on Keke’s back again in order to take a look around the area and continue his search. The little brown bird didn’t care about his enthusiastic gesture of gratitude though. Once he was gone, it flew down from the branch it had been sitting on and started to devour the birdfeed.

It mostly cared about food!



The story continues here.

[Jackalope]

Experience: +10 xp

Knowledge:

Skill:

Knowledge:

Detection: A glowing feather lying on the ground
Detection: Someone waving to you from a window
Detection: It’s probably not a chicken feather!
Investigation: Make sure that the possible witness isn’t just high first!
Investigation: Interrogating someone that might know your target

Skillplay: Appropriate to level

Loot: Two multi-colored glowing feathers.
Injury/Overstepping: None.
Renown: None.
Wealth Points: None.
Collaboration: No.
Magic Experience?: No.

Comments:

More Devin investigating things! And more Devin talking to birds.

First of all, I thought your portrayal of how and what a bird would communicate were not only appropriate but brilliant. And you didn’t have the bird give away too much of the mystery, so Devin still has more work to do.

Devin asking the man what color *he* was to test whether he was high made me snicker. And it was actually a clever idea. Even if he wasn’t high, there might still have been something off about his color perception!

And Keke was a delight. The goat obviously likes being out and about, and not being too idle.

It will be interesting to see what else Devin finds out about his bird.

Enjoy your rewards!