A Second Chance at Martyrdom

21 Ches

The cold has begun to abate at last. The harbour is free of ice flows, just in time for an entire tenday of festivities.

From today to the end of Ches is Fleetswake, a religious holiday dedicated to the goddess Umberlee. I felt a pang in my chest hearing the stories about her, mostly just due to her major title being “The Bitch Queen”.

She’s one of the more wrathful and active of the gods, with domains over such wonderful things as storms, shipwrecks, and drowning. Waterdeep, like most coastal settlements reliant on nautical trade, take special care to appease Umberlee and her faithful to prevent her wrath from befalling them.

It’s basically a divine protection racket.

Most of the week features a bunch of celebratory boat races for the public to watch and enjoy. A display meant to impress Umberlee or some such. Personally, I didn’t actually find it that interesting to watch, the excitement mostly just coming from the audience rather than watching two boats rowing a distance at a decent clip.

I’m probably just spoiled by how cars go significantly faster, but it does somewhat dampen the experience.

22 Ches

So something I didn’t know about the boat race. Winners don’t actually keep the event earnings for winning the races. Instead, they will give them over as tribute to the priestesses of Umberlee. There’s also a collection drive where people are supposed to hand over money.

The priests then sink the chests into the ocean in tribute to Umberlee.

Tempting as it might be to try and find a way to scavenge for those in the future, there’s a number of tales about how poor an idea such a thing tends to be. The treasure is warded, it’s guarded, trying to mess with it invites divine wrath down on those involved, and so on.

26 Ches

Tulgor got an invite to the Shipwrighter’s Guild’s ball. He isn’t a proper member, but is friendly enough with many of the members that they extended an invite. I didn’t get a lot of details about it, but apparently he had gone above and beyond what was expected in assisting them in years past. He gets invited to some of their other social events, but this is one in which family is also included.

Virla spent much of the day making sure we were well prepared for the ball. That I and Jespa had our hair nicely braided, that our dresses were clean and not wrinkled. We ran through some minor etiquette for the evening, which really just boiled down to “Stay either at my side or in my sight during the ball”.

The event was quite impressive for what basically a work party. Everyone dressed their best, and I recognized a few of the local kids there with their parents. Yeena was also there so I had someone to talk to. Apparently, her father works as a shipwright, which I didn’t know.

The music was nice, and the various snack foods were wonderful. They didn’t spare any expense on the catering for the event, though I was hardly able to sample everything.

The chefs put a lot of work into the presentation of the dishes. If only the tables weren’t so tall, I wouldn’t have to rely on Tulgor letting me sit on his shoulders to see them.

29 Ches

Today and tomorrow are the Fair Seas Festival, a sort of final hurrah to send off Fleetswake.

It mostly consisted of feasting on fresh catch of seafood. Some of the foods were more familiar to me, smoked fish skewers, something similar to crab cakes. Others less so, like the various fish curries and fish soups.

The texture of the fish in the soup I tried was… unpleasant, with tiny bits and strands that fell apart in the mouth from how soft they were, and with little flavour.

I had fun at the tavern we ate at for dinner though. They had some tanks with lobsters and crabs in them, so I got to enjoy making them dance while I suffered through my disappointing soup.

30 Ches

I finally laid eyes on the Merfolk in the harbour.

I had known they existed of course, but they didn’t stray close enough to the shore for me to ever really get a good look at them with my shellfish. I’d catch the occasional glimpse of them, but the eyes of my shellfish were… well, they are hard to really see with in the way I am used to. The mechanics different from how the rest of my insects’ eyes work, let alone my own.

But with enough of them, thankfully becoming more active as the water starts to warm up again, I finally did it.

Tulgor had permission from his captain to take us out on the water on their vessel to watch the final casting off of the chests ladened with coinage collected over the last few days along with the race winnings. I could see them underneath us, waiting to collect and carry it off into the depths.

They were similar to mermaids. The lower half was fish-like, and their upper torso humanoid. I wouldn’t really compare them to humans though. They had fins along their forearms, with webbed hands, and some sorts of fins instead of hair. Their skin on the upper half is fairly smooth, with colours ranging from blues to lighter greens. They wore sashes and bits of clothing, though truthfully it was difficult to really perceive the finer details of them.

They were also well armed, and seemed somewhat wary. Whether that was because they felt my influence, or simply just a security measure, I couldn’t say.

1 Tarsahk

The first week of the month of Tarsahk is another tenday period of festivities. In this case though, it formed more independently, combining a series of less related holidays that all took place near each other into a combined sort of celebration.

The first is Caravance. A bit of a combination between Christmas and an Easter egg hunt. It even has a Santa figure, some merchant named Old Carvas said to come with a wagon full of toys for children. I wonder if he actually existed, or is merely an identity made up for the story.

Virla had a few small gifts hidden around the house, meant for us to find. Toys for us to play with, mostly. Jespa found a few stuffed dolls, with the most interesting being some sort of cross between an owl and a bear. Pelsot got a pair of seemingly good quality practice swords, mostly wood but with the blades padded with some sort of leather.

I, meanwhile, got what was basically a yoyo.

I have to wonder if my parents just didn’t know what toy I would enjoy and just bought something random.

5 Tarsahk

Tonight is Goldenight, and I didn’t get much of an explanation on the origins for it from anyone when I asked, even Orsik. I don’t think it’s religious, none of the temples claim it as one. I guess it’s closer to something like Black Friday.

The entire premise is essentially just that stores are open overnight and have a number of deals on. People are also fashioning various coinages into jewelry to wear for the evening.

It’s also Jespa’s birthday, meaning there was another nice meal to enjoy. We ended up having the same food as on Tulgor’s birthday. It makes sense I suppose, she’s only four years old now. We did have an interesting custard mixed with strawberry jam for dessert, which was a bit tart for my tastes but enjoyable nonetheless.

Thinking about anniversaries, the one for when I arrived will be soon. I’ll have to do something nice for myself.