Aquarian travels south toward the Azores seeking the Atlantean colony of Orion's Depth he remembers from ages ago when he was exiled from the city. It takes some time, but with the help of the local sea life, he's able to find it. Unfortunately, he encounters no smaller outposts along the way.
The town, for it's no longer the sleepy village it once was, lies in a valley in the undersea mountains that ultimately make up the Azore islands. There are numerous buildings and a fair number of Atlanteans going about their business. It still has a kind of a frontier look to Aquarian, but it definitely looks bigger than he would have expected from the stories he heard from before he was exiled.
From a hidden point on one of the sunken mountains, Aquarian summons forth a dolphin, who happily runs the errand for him, taking a message to those in the city. The dolphin is gone for perhaps an hour before he returns with a well-dressed Atlantean who stops about ten yards away when he sees Aquarian.
"Χαίρετε," he says in a deep voice. "Ποιος είσαι και τι θέλεις?"
I can see a problem here with your initial build for Aquarian. It may not have been clear that Greek was the Atlantean's native language. If you want to shuffle around some points in Aquarian's build to give him Greek, I'd be okay with that.
It was never specified, and I figured the ability to communicate with sea life would cover it, I'll switch "native" Occitain for Greek...
Before I give an answer- what would be Aquarian's title in New Atlantis? Is he Regent? King? Presumably this would have been settled in 1220... I'm thinking he was declared regent but I don't know if it was made official or voted upon... or if that plan was abandoned entirely when the cantons were set up.
I thought that plan was abandoned when the cantons came up. The Council of Magisters has the power, and a king seems superfluous to that. Having a king or regent was only ever discussed as a possibility and nothing seemed settled. But I could be wrong. Let me post something in the proper thread to confirm.
Assume that Aquarian introduces himself with his proper title.
"I am Aquarian of New Atlantis. I don't know if you are aware that a group of religious conservatives have all but declared war on a group of surface dwellers who have the capacity to take to the cities of Atlantis, and that you are the nearest settlement that I am aware of to the epicenter of this threatened fight, but I was hoping you might be willing to help work towards a peacefull solution that will not end up ripping apart the foundations of Atlantis."
"You asked for someone "pure," you know of the activities of surface dwellers, and you ask to see me outside of town," the Atlantean replies. "You sound like an exile to me. Why should I listen to a word you say? If you're what I think you are, I'm running a risk even talking to you."
"Yes, I am an exile. Id didn't think meeting outside of town would poses a risk, and I thought you would want to know that the fundamentalists are taking actions interfering in the surface world that could put your town in danger. If they launch the attack they have threatened, your whole town could soon wind up in exile. If you do not wish to discuss this, I can leave now."
OOC: Good enough roll to keep him listening for a for a short while.
"What you say sounds far-fetched," the Atlantean replies. "Conflicts with the surface world have happened before, and they've never disturbed us. Our rulers have always conducted such conflicts safely and without undue risk to its people. I have no reason to believe that any such conflict won't be conducted in the same manner. And you are, forgive me, an exile; that hardly makes you neutral in this matter."
"I am not claiming neutrality, what I want is to get a message to those who have threatened this war that it will not go like conflicts in the past, and to see if there is room for negotiation. These are people who raised the ruins of Old Atlantis from the sea, and they can do it again. They also can locate each of your cities, and raise each of them to the surface. I hope someone is willing to pen a dialogue and we can discuss this."
"If I were to pass on a message to the priests from an exile," the Atlantean observes, "I'd be named exile myself. And thank you very much, that's not what I want for my life." He shakes his head in emphasis.
"You say that there's a war going on, but I've seen no evidence of it. You say that our town could be lifted to the surface, a fantastic claim, but I see no proof. You ask me, based on your say so alone, to bring a message to the priests that will doom me to a life of exile. What person in their right mind would do as you say?"
"The priests don't rule Atlantis," the Atlantean replies. "King Atlas rules Atlantis. If there is to be war, as you say, it will be at the command of King Atlas."
"Does he have any local representatives? Especially any who might be willing to meet, or at least who could be asked to send a correspondence to get this worked out?"
"Our mayor is the closest thing we have to a representative of the king. But he'd never meet with an exile. I doubt he'd even entertain a letter from an exile. It is, after all, against the law to even talk to you." The Atlantean shakes his head. "Which I'm doing right now. I can't believe I'm even having this conversation. Every moment I'm here we could be discovered."
"Look," he continues. "The simple fact is that there's no one in town of any stature who'll talk to you. You're lucky that dolphin found me and not someone else. Most others would have called the town guard to chase you away as soon as they discovered you're an exile. Me, I've always been too curious for my own good. But I'm not about to stick my neck out to try and stop some war that may never happen and might be totally justified besides."
"I appreciate that you're trying to be the great peacemaker. But you're swimming against the current if you think anyone in town will listen to you. Like you said, no one wants to become an exile. And right now the surest way any fool but me could see of becoming an exile is to talk to you."
"They will send correspondence to the surface dwellers but not communicate with an exile? Things are even worse than I thought. Very well, we will see how this works out. I don't suppose you know of any towns where I might be able to communicate with anyone?"
"I don't know of this correspondence that you speak of, but you know as well as I that we are forbidden to give aid to exiles. Traditionally that has included even conversing with exiles. I might question the need for that extreme. But I'm certainly not willing to risk my own life to fight it."
He shakes his head at Aquarian's question. "You're an exile. Some, along the edges of society, might talk to you - a lone fisherman or explorer like myself in circumstances where we're unlikely to get caught. But most will consider you anathema. I can't think of any town or village that would risk exile to speak with you."
"Very well, I thank you for visiting me, and hope this situation does not escalate to where you are caught up in events. I would not wish for you to be further at risk for the sake of my mission."
after the man has left Aquarian will call an octopus, and ask it to fetch a rock from the center of the town.
