belmarniss in sja
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On a balcony in a two-and-a-half-story aboveground building overlooking a densely planted yard, there is a human or very convincing facsimile thereof contemplating how to respond to the letter sitting on the little balcony table under a paperweight. It's raining hard but the roof extends out beyond the edge of the balcony, and there are bugs audible everywhere but the sheer curtain around the balcony is at least not totally ineffective at keeping them out.

She's expecting company but she's not expecting company that appears out of nowhere.

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Company isn't expecting her either!

"Fucking hate teleport traps. - uh, apologies, I'm Not Like Other Drow, I'll get out of your way presently, where am I - if you don't speak Taldane I've got others -"

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She does not speak Taldane; she says something in another language while getting some distance and putting on a pair of gloves.

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"...don't got that one. Tongues. I mean you no harm, I am here because I triggered a teleportation trap, I will be on my way given directions."

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"You're in Zorvey in southern Rekk. I have never heard of a teleportation trap and would appreciate more information about that."

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"Well, you know, sometimes you're in an ancient pyramid and it has traps in it and sometimes they shoot you with poison arrows and sometimes they drop you into a pit and sometimes they summon fiendish scorpions and sometimes they teleport you. Where's Rekk, what continent?"

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"Rekk is the continent, also called Echai-a or Aruzon, and even if I made a habit of wandering into places people have trapped I wouldn't expect to be teleported because I have never heard of teleportation, and unrelatedly but pointing toward the same possible explanation, I'm not entirely convinced you're a species native to this planet."

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"- the continents on my planet are Avistan, Garund, Tian Xia, Casmaron, Arcadia... Azlant? Sarusan? Any of that sound familiar? You might not be aware of my species because we are from a planet called Castrovel originally and also my subspecies lives underground usually."

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"I can find a map of this planet but that's too many continents unless you're subdividing them or counting islands. The species that live here that I know learn to speak are humans and mermaids. I'm not confident about dragons or phoenixes, they might also. Does that sound like the well-known species of your planet?"

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"Humans are very common, merfolk exist, dragons exist, phoenixes probably exist. There's also elves, halflings, gnomes, dwarves, orcs...?"

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"I would expect to know if there were. I'd offer to have my cook fix you something while I find a map but apparently you're not any species I've ever heard of so I have no idea what you eat. Is this a comfortable place for you to wait?"

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"It's fine. I can eat what humans eat."

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"That's convenient." She gestures for her guest to follow her inside. "I didn't catch your name...?"

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"It's Belmarniss, and you?"

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"Tema Miara. 'Miara' is a hereditary surname."

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"Nice to meet you, circumstances aside. Belmarniss is my given name, I'm not classy enough to have a family name."

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"It's good to meet you too."

Inside the house, which shows no particular evidence of magical lighting, another human does a double take and then stares at Belmarniss, but not in a hostile way.

"And this is Tyela, my housekeeper," Tema says. "Tyela, have you seen any evidence of my being rendered unconscious while someone slipped past you to fake teleportation?"

"What? Um, no."

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"Do you need me to show you - I don't have Teleport but I have Dimension Door, shorter range."

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Tyela looks as though this is the coolest thing anyone has ever suggested.

"If it's not too costly for you, neither of us has seen alien magic before," says Tema.

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"- it's a fourth circle spell so I can't do a lot of it, if it's all the same to you I'd sooner stick to cantrips."

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"I'm not familiar with circles as a unit of measure. I can probably comp you for the materials if they're things we have on this planet."

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"In that case before I go home I am going to want to completely fill my pockets with diamonds but circles and material costs are almost orthogonal. I can do cantrips as many times as I want and all the other circles a limited number of times per day."

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"Diamonds, huh? Human magic uses crystals too and that's more similar than I was expecting alien magic to turn out to be."

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"There's other stuff but diamonds are the really big-ticket. When you say 'human magic' what do you mean?"

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"I mean the magic humans have, as opposed to the magic mermaids or dragons or phoenixes or subterranean purple people from the planet Castrovel have."

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"- that's not how it works on Golarion, humans can be wizards and sorcerers just like I am. I do have a little drow magic but it's just seeing in the dark and more spells, other people can learn to do those."

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