#also sometimes people rag on ‘fancy’ (unfamiliar) food in a way that’s like…
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People can unquestionably be deeply weird about food (see: recipe bloggers who are more about conspicuous consumption than actually good recipes; people who leave comments on recipe blogs about how fruit or god forbid carrots are unhealthy because - checks notes - they contain too much sugar; tr*dwives trying to politicize photos of bread; Silicon Valley guys selling fad diets). I find this as annoying as anyone (v possibly I find it more annoying, as a person who likes to cook!). However I also find it annoying when people act as if the act of cooking elaborate (or even not-so-elaborate) meals is in and of itself something weird and snobbish. Cooking is like the single most accessible hobby bro. The end product is food and you kinda need that to live, and also it’s often cheaper to make things yourself assuming you can afford the time cost. “God save us from people who make pasta sauce from scratch, why would anyone do this” well you see, sometimes people have hobbies. Sometimes people enjoy the process of creation as much as the thing itself, even. Sue me for finding joy in the stuff I’m compelled to put in my face to stay alive I guess
#culinary adventures#my posts#also sometimes people rag on ‘fancy’ (unfamiliar) food in a way that’s like…#‘i’m complaining about foreign films and framing it as anti elitist but really it’s giving straightforward xenophobia’#sorry i’m still not over the person who said it was pretentious to make beans from scratch when canned food exists#you realize it takes a grand total of two minutes to put dry beans and spices in a slow cooker which i bought for $5 at a yard sale#they are ready the moment i step through the door from work AND they are cheaper AND they are tastier. win/win/win
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7th Sea: The New World 7
Last time, Lady Gwendolyn’s escort captured an Atabean Trading Company ship to give to the Ruhuri freedom fighters. The crew of that ship turned out to be another adventuring party similar to theirs and they got along quite well once they stopped fighting. Brandt also captured his old captain, who had marooned him on an island prior to the start of game.
Previous installments
Tamara, Ansgar, and Etienne took it upon themselves to go through the 15 bags of mail the Falcon was carrying in case there was important ATC intelligence, but the vast majority of it was perfectly normal (though Etienne did run himself ragged trying to find ciphers in the more inane letters). One letter, to one Declan Goodwin in New Carleon, did talk about plans to raise tensions along the Nahuacan/Tzak K’an borner with a few ATC agents. With little else to be gained from the mail, both it and the captive Seahorses were let ashore on a neutral island and the two ships continued on to the rendezvous to turn over the Falcon to the Ruhuri.
Pleased with her new sloop, Tanama agreed to make the introductions necessary to get them a Seeker, but in order to do that, they would have to dine with her grandfather without mortally offending him. She gave them a rundown on basic customs to follow (don’t bring gifts, do tell stories, don’t refuse a gift from their host without a really good reason, don’t wear animal or monster parts that aren’t from things they personally killed) and sent them on their way with a letter to the Great Cacique Jibaro and wishes or good luck with her deadbeat brother. After this whirlwind exchange, Lady Gwen realized that if Timoun’s grandfather was the Great Cacique, then that meant her former suitor was a prince of sorts).
The Dream sailed on to Naca’an, a native Ruhuri city with newer Castillian fortifications tacked awkwardly on, where Lady Gwen conveyed to the shocked habour master that they had come with an introduction and invitation to dine with the Great Cacique. After verifying their credentials (and mentioning that Tanama had been the heir apparent before striking off to take down as many ATC ships as she could), the harbour master waived their docking fee and informed them that the Council of Renown was currently meeting, so housing would need to be found for them until that was over and the Cacique had time to see them. Another minor official took them to the city’s grand hotel, used for housing official ambassadors and told them a brief history of Ruhuri contact with Theans. Tamara was visibly uncomfortable in the fancy accomodations, having never been outside a pirate city or docks district before. Misha similarly went out to find a “real” tavern while the others dined on Thean-style dishes made from local ingredients at the hotel. Etienne offered to teach courtly table manners to those who hadn’t grown up with them and to advise on appropriate clothing to commission from the nearby Thean-style tailor in preparation for the meal with the Great Cacique. Ansgar and Tamara went out to explore (and map) the city for the rest of the day while Lady Gwen, Brandt, and Etienne met with the Avalonian ambassador, who advised them that the Council of Renown made the real decisions, not Jibaro, and that his relationship with his granddaughter Tanama was strained. She had only heard rumours of a grandson who had left with no intentions of returning, which was seen as a serious dereliction of duty. Gwen asked to pass along a letter through the ambassador explaining why she wished to meet with the Great Cacique and Etienne wrote a report on the ATC’s various misdeeds to be passed back to one of Queen Elaine’s courtiers via the diplomatic bag. Mariandl holed herself up in her hotel room for the next three days, performing noxious experiments (much to the staff’s dismay) until she finally perfected a metal treatment that could block magical energies. She promptly slid some sheets of this into the cover of her Vatacine bible. She also drew a magic circle on a piece of canvas to see if she could trap one of the ancestor ghosts that were common in the city. During these days of waiting, Ansgar pickled some local seafood to take on the rest of the journey, Etienne talked to local vendors about fruit and tried to liase between the Ruhuri freedom fighters and a Thean group he felt had similar ideals, and Brandt researched which monster parts he ould use to make a small grappling gun and also seduced the bored Avalonian ambassador.
Finally the Council meeting adjourned and Lady Gwendolyn and her entourage were invited to dine with the Great Cacique in a small and apparently ancient palace made of what appeared to be an upturned ship. Jibaro was a haggard-looking old man wearing elaborate monster skin clothing that, by tradition, he must have hunted himself, surrounded by a few advisors and family members rather than an entire court. He welcomed them individually and by full name, including the complete Vesten verson of Ansgar’s name and also Etienne’s title of Vicompt (which was news to the rest of the party) before setting down to eat a diner of Ruhuri foods, some too spicy for the Theans at the table (though Brandt refused to back down, no matter how red his face got), making smalltalk about their time and adventures in the Atabean. Once the meal was over, Jibaro went straight to business, saying that Tanama said they’d earned her trust - unusual for Theans - and that they needed a guide to find his grandson on Soryana. He did not want to know what they’d done for Tanama to earn her favour but he did ask Lady Gwen for stories about Timoun, who he had not heard from since he left Naca’an and now must grieve. Lady Gwen said that she’d met him in Avalon, in her father’s sheep fields of all places, marvelling at the animals he’d never seen before. She first thought the exotic stranger was a sidhe, but they struck up a friendship and eventually began courting as he explored Avalon. In one of his letters, he told her to meet him in Carleon, as he wished to tell her about something he didn’t feel safe writing down, but when she arrived in the city, she found that he had been murdered. From their talks, she knew that dead Ruhuri could sometimes come back as ghosts, so she had assembled her escort to go to Soryana and find out who had killed him and why. The Great Cacique was relieved to hear this, since he had been worried she only wished to find Timoun out of grief and a desire to see him again, which was against the laws of Locuo, the god of the dead who ruled Soryana, but she seemed to have a quest for justice and so he would introduce them to Tonina, a Seeker who had been invited to the dinner in the event that Lady Gwen proved worthy. He also warned her that Timoun might not have made it to Soryana in the first place since he abandoned his duty to his people to run off to Theah, but Gwen was confident that she would find him there.
Tonina asked when the group would like to leave and whether they’d prefer to reach Soryana by land or sea (and then further had to explain the metaphysical nature of reaching the Island of the Ancestors). She also advised them to eat before they ventured in, since they shouldn’t consume anything while there, including food they brought themselves. Tamara told Gwen that if she had known the whole story beforehand, she could have asked her demon to find out the answers without even leaving Avalon, but Gwen both wanted to see Timoun herself and was disinclined to rely on a demon to resolve anything. With plans settled, the group set out for a nearby cave at the next twilight. Tonina warned them that they would need to make their case to Locuo in order to bring a spirit out of Soryana, but Gwen said she only wished to speak to Timoun, not bring him back. Tonina said they might have to speak to him anyway, as foreigners on Soryana and Brandt asked what happened if someone tried to take a spirit out without permission. Tonina replied that the spirit went mad and attacked anyone it could find in the living world, which is also what happened if a spirit was not returned to Soryana at the agreed-upon time. After a short hike through the jungle outside the city, the group came to a cave with names carved over every surface, where they stopped to have a last meal. As the sun disappeared over the horizon, the frogs which sometimes carried messages from Soryana began to pipe all around them. The group linked hands and walked further into the cave, the frogs’ cheeping slowly turning into whispering voices. Unheard by anyone else, Tamara’s demon told her it could not enter the Soryana and that their bargain would resume when she returned, leaving her very suddenly alone for the first time in almost her whole life. Finally they could see a light at the other end of the cave, emerging into a grey, washed out land with unfamiliar stars. They had finally reached the land of the dead.
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