After spending 10 silver to get a pole, some bait, and a small knife I went ahead and began to fish. After about 1 hour I realized I didn't have the patience for this but gave it my best shot anyway. Managed to catch the small green-brown thing some dock worker said was a sand bass.
"Hello, little guy. You and I are gonna be friends for a long time now." I whispered to him as I tried to give him a quick stab to the head. He struggled more than I thought he would but soon my hopeful new roommate was dead. I should probably eat him just so I recreate all the variables of yesterday. I go ahead and walk back to the Purple Cup. Weird name for a tavern but I won't complain. The Cherryfoots are good people and have helped me tremendously. The tavern is a humble two-story building about a 4-minute walk from Bruce’s on the southeastern side of Soyer Street. The road leads further on outside of town so this is one of the first places people coming from Port Zoon arrive from.
As I walk inside there is a call from behind the bar. I see Weny Cherryfoot. She is the daughter of Tommish and Vorlin. “Hey Edsom, we need you and your legs. Come help the kitchen.” Weny said.
“Sure thing, be right there,” I said. Walking behind the bar. The Cherryfoots bought the tavern from some estate sale about 7 years ago so the whole place wasn’t built for small races. Having a person of medium size helps them a lot.
“Edsom good to see you, sweety. How was Bruce’s?” Said Vorlin, a blond-haired middle-aged gnome woman. She and her husband are both in the 150s and have lived most of their lives together. Strange to think about not only knowing someone for that long but also always being near them. Is that what it will be like for me? Collecting souls and just getting to know them for however long I live.
“Bruce is a good man who has been treating me as well as you all have. I want you all to know that I am really glad to have met you all. I figured I would take up a small hobby today so I went fishing. I also kept an eye on all the dock workers and ship crew members and I think I know what I am gonna do with my life.” I said.
“Oh, figuring things out for yourself so soon. You don’t have to make any drastic choices just yet honey. I know it's only been a few months since your mother died. You can stay here a while longer and figure this out. No need to rush.” Vorlin said.
I told the Cherryfoots a little white lie when I met them in order to play to their sympathies. I said my mother and I were attacked by bandits on the road from Port Zoon. I said that my mother died and the bandits had taken everything we owned. I had to fight them off and was barely able to get away. All the blood on my prison clothes kinda bought me a little credibility. It wasn't a complete lie. My mother is dead. And there is definitely a lot of trauma to unpack there but I am going to continue to ignore those feelings and bury them deep down. I am fine.
I spent the rest of the night working in the kitchens. Eventually, Tommish comes in to deal with the rest of the night shift. I cook my fish and head to bed. Thinking thoughts of the grassy plains and mountains I built I hope that last night wasn't me going crazy. The last thing I need to deal with right now.
……..
“Good news. You aren’t crazy. Well maybe. I am 85% sure.” Says Rubert sitting next to me.
I am lying down on the grassy field. I roll over and view the same landscape as before in front of me. “I think I might have to start praying if I was crazy. With all the weird evil deities in this world, I would probably need divine protection. Good to see you again, Rubert.” I said.
“Happy to see you too. You will want to know I was able to see you the entire day.” Rubert said.
“You could? Did you try to talk to me?” I said.
“I did but nothing managed to get through. It seemed like something was stopping me on this end.” Rubert said.
“Well if this plane or realm is mine to control, maybe I need to give you permission for this kind of stuff.” I try to feel with my mind for any connection Rubert might have with me. It's weird to feel for something that isn't physically there but this is a world of magic so anything is possible. Wait, Truesight is a thing. Perhaps I might be able to see it if I think about it. I will my eyes to be able to see through all illusions, beyond this plane into the ethereal, and to reveal a creature's true form. As I focus, Rubert's body becomes transparent and within him, I see a floating light of many colors. Like I was using a camera I try to zoom my vision and begin to see the lights are a cluster of floating orbs connected to one another. They are surrounded by a membrane of some kind. I think these orbs are his memories. Like mine, they seem to have many colors but I can't reach for them as the membrane seems to protect it. I guess this is his soul. I will need to check the bass and see if he possesses a similar light. But first I reach a hand for his soul. My hand moves beyond his transparent body and I touch the membrane. There is a flash. I step away. Rubert flies back with his small wings. I unfocus my eyes and Rubert becomes solid again.
“Sorry, it was rude of me to just grab that,” I said.
“No shit. I swear you have a worse bird brain than me.” Rubert said.
“Feel any different?” I asked.
“Yeah like something reached out and shook my very being. What the cluck was that?” Rubert asked.
I Truesighted my eyes again. Rubert's soul was undamaged I think but now there was something else. A small silver mound was connected to the outside of his soul membrane. I could feel it. Like it was some piece of myself that I never knew I had but could understand completely.
“I am not sure what it is. But I think a piece of myself is now part of your soul. Don't think I can do much with it here though.” I said.
“Freaky. All right, what not boss.” Rubert said.
“Head over to that river next to the forest. See if that fish I killed earlier is here. I made it so the river loops into itself so they shouldn’t be too hard to find. I am going to start searching my memories and see if I can find anything from the CR sourcebooks.” I said.
“What are those?” Rubert said.
“They are books that contain a lot of information about this world from my past life. I am unsure of why or how this world is connected, or if any of the information in those books is correct but it's still something I will need to know.” I said.
“Alright,” Rubert said as he got to work.
I did the same and headed for the open-air warehouse shelves I made last night. From my experience last night I don't think I can really sort my memories by the exact moment. I can get as clear as an important day but not a specific moment unless it was important in some way. Let us start with this. I rearranged the warehouse into seven rows. I then stacked the shelves up to three times. From there I willed every memory I had to fill those shelves in a weekday order. Starting on Sunday and ending on Saturday on the other end. Then I divided those days into 8-hour chunks and put them with 10 a.m. on the bottom, 6 p.m. in the middle, and 2 a.m. on top. Okay, so 23 years of life times 365.25 days in a year equals 8,400.75 days. Multiply that by 3 and that should be 25,202.25 memory orbs. That means it should be around 3,600 orbs per row. The row I care most about right now is the Thursday 6 p.m. row. This one should include the most memories of the CR live show. From here I can watch all the episodes of campaign 1 and 2. I never did catch up with campaign 3, especially not from jail. Now I created an 8th row perpendicular to all the others. This row I willed all memories from the day I went to prison to the day I died to appear. Within this row will I find the memories of both CR books that I managed to get in prison. Very happy about that. Time to get looking I guess.
……
“Boss, I managed to find that fish. Seems like you are a reaper of souls.” Rubert said.
“I would prefer not to be known as that Roob. But good that you found them. Means that I might end up filling this place up with life.” I said.
“So want me to bring them to you so you can do what you did to me? Also, are we going to let them live your memories so they can become sapient?” Rubert asked.
“I am not sure yet. And you don’t have to call me boss. I know we haven’t really worked out what this relationship looks like but I am glad you have been working with me on this.” I said.
“No problem. I mean, not like I had much going on anyway. Just a rooster raised so that my overlords can get more chickens.” Rubert lamented.
“I am glad there's no hard feelings. Once we get through searching these memories I can really begin to plan and we can see what this new life is gonna be about. And I do mean WE.” I said.
I went back to my search. There's about half a year's worth of time to look through.
