This tavern has obviously been designed by an adventurer, for adventurers. The furniture is sturdy enough to still look comfortable and cozy despite the wear and tear it’s been through. You’ve certainly been in some far-flung inns with much less care taken to outfit them. Someone has even taken the time to carve lively designs into the arms of the chairs, little carved beasts and adventurers catching lantern light. The table that’s before you is bathed in the warm glow of lantern light, which casts long shadows across its surface.
The Siren is seated at the table. As you approach, the scent of ocean air hits you, so real that it feels surreal to be standing in lantern light and tavern smoke as opposed to a distant land’s shoreside.
The table itself is fairly standard, and to be honest with yourself, you feel a bit silly to be paying so much attention to it. You follow your instinct though, and dismiss the standard wear and tear on the surface. There’s a curious stain on one corner that might be old blood, but is more likely spilled wine. Finally, on the underside of the table you notice… what’s this? Something carved into the wood:
“FIBRALUMOS” How strange. Is it a name? An incantation? Who would carve such a thing here, and why?
Seated before you is a mesmerizing woman, whose skin is partially covered in shimmering scales. Her hair is long and flowing like elegantly tangled seaweed. It almost floats around her, as if she’s somehow still enveloped in the ocean waves she was born in. You’re momentarily distracted by the glint of the translucent scales dusting her face as she scans the notebook in her hands. She moves gracefully, her every gesture imbued with mysterious fluidity, as if she were part of the sea itself.
The tools of an alchemist seem almost woven into her graceful gown, potion bottles full of swirling liquids with varying hues line the bandolier around her waist. Who knows what powerful elixirs she could conjure if given the proper ingredients.
Her gaze flicks up to yours, and you choke for a moment on your planned introduction. There’s something so otherworldly about her that you forget what you meant to say, and the greeting fumbles out of your mouth.
“Oh, um, hello. Yes, I’m Tua’la, alchemist and apothecary.”
Her voice is soft, like a breeze through the sea grass. You think that you could sit and listen to her talk all day.
“Poor, sweet Auberon. I can’t imagine who would do something like this to him, or why. Sure, he had some skeletons in his closet, but who among us doesn’t?
What?! Me? I… Well, yes, he did ask me to leave our adventuring group all those years ago. But I wasn’t upset! Well, not for that long, anyway. See, he was right after all, I wasn’t a great fit! I wasn’t the best adventurer, it turns out. For example, you seem the type that could fend for themselves in the wilderness without a thought. Me? I’d need a hot meal and a hot bath at the end of each day. Anyway, after I separated from the party, I took on an apprenticeship with an herbalist, and, well, here we are. Everyone else though, they all have reasons for bad blood between themselves and Auberon far beyond what he and I had. I just can’t think who would want to take things this far…”
