Pragnosis 1589 PGE

  In a bar in the middle of the day a man that looked to be in his twenties with dark blue hair sat sipping slowly at his mug of beer as he browsed through the newspaper of the day. His face was hard and his foot tapped against the floor as if to vent his irritation. A large pouch of silver sat in his pocket, his only comfort, and he picked out a single silver coin before placing it in front of him as his mug ran out.

  "Bad day," the bald man said with a piggish face said. This was bartender number one who he had spoken with, what felt like so long ago, but in reality was probably only a couple of days.

  "Oh no, bad week," Banks said looking at the bartender, before looking away, just the sight of the bald barkeeper bringing back memories of that stubborn man who wouldn't take his silver and gave him shit. "Trying to stay uninvolved with shit, but I keep getting dragged back in."

  "Damn, is this a crime thing," the bartender said taking his money and his mug. "You're trying to get out of a gang?"

  "If only it was that simple," Banks said. His temporary escape from the time loop through the time isolating vat of blood ultimately failed. While he initially escaped the loop, a part of him still effectively existed in the loop and so he would eventually be drawn back in as the loop reset. Past Banks was relentlessly present at the first day of the loop and so no matter which time period he found himself in, the Strange Elements in his body would fuse together any paradox clones. Loop Banks had barely left the homeless shelter before he received memories of a different past and the resulting headache had only faded with time and alcohol.

  "A family thing?" the pig-like man asked as he placed another full mug of beer in front of him.

  "I get on well with my family," Banks said. "Well those that I haven't killed or they haven't killed themselves." He picked up his mug taking a sip of the liquid. It wasn't bad, better than the first drink that he had given him twice now, in what was some clear test of his manliness. "Forgive my forwardness, but you seem quite interested in my story."

  "You walked into my bar, clutching your head at the second hour, looking like shit," the bartender said, remarking on his paradox headache. "I just assumed that you were some random drunk until you pulled out that pouch of coins. Then I tried to work out whether I was going to have a team of guards storming in looking for a thief."

  "That's fair," Banks admitted. "I am new to this town. Anything you can tell me places to see around here?"

  "The Clarendoll Grand Gardens," the bartender said, washing his beer glasses like a stereotype. "If you're up for fishing, pick a spot along the river, it's all good. The Pragnosis Central Library is another place to be admired. The three large families donated a great number of their collections to create it."

  "The three families?" Banks asked. "Mondue and Sline..."

  "And Alternine," the Bartender said. "It even rhymes. They tend to live in the North side of the city near the mines."

  "Oh yeah, this is a mining town," Banks said. "It looked so nice I forgot."

  "The Green Mountains are a veritable bounty of minerals, copper, iron and rarer," the bartender admitted. "They sometimes hire people if something particularly dangerous finds it's way into the tunnels. I've done a few runs in my time, helped pay for this bar."

  "This town have a lot of adventurers," Banks asked.

  "Less in current years," the bartender admitted. "It's become a bit of a dying profession, especially here. Most adventurers have either settled down into more stable jobs, or moved onto more dangerous pastures." Banks put down his empty mug, and the bartender picked it back up to fill it, his silver apparently still covering his drinks.

  "What is more dangerous pastures?" he asked.

  "You won't find them in the Undying Empire," the bartender said, handing back a frothing mug of beer to the time traveler. "Most head south to seek their fortune. Whatever you may think of the Undying Emperor, he did a good job at eliminating other threats."

  "Hey, Barb," an aged female voice sounded out, as the number of people in the bar increased by fifty percent, and Banks turned to see the old wiry woman that he had met at this same bar on this same day previously. "Have you heard the news?"

  "That's an extremely vague statement," the bartender said. "What news are you talking about? The explosive overproduction of red grapes this season. The spotting of a manticore in the village of Easel. The Union of Free Cities going though another round of saber rattling?"

  "No Smidy, I'm talking about how the people in this Empire seem to have lost their Emperor," she said, with the biggest smile. "That poor old man must have wondered off." Her words were sardonic, clearly hoping that a worse fate befell the old man.

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  "Speaking from experience," Smidy said. "And you should probably keep your voice down." He gave one of this little inclinations of the head as if pointing out the presence of Banks a third party with unknown allegiance.

  "Oh, please that man is even older than I am," the woman said. "And I don't care. Maybe his sins finally caught up with him."

  "What sins would those be," Banks said leaning back and smiling as the move didn't prompt another headache.

  "Well murdering his wife and children for a start," the elderly lady started. "Stringing up their corpses for all the world to gaze upon wasn't the classiest move either." She sighed as a glass of something stronger than beer was placed in front of her. "Look, the man wasn't a complete crazed lunatic, but there are countless villages, families and nobles, that pushed him a little too hard and were given a free coffin. While Pragnosis, or as it was known back then as Clarendoll, surrendered quite easily there were more than a few that were not quick enough to toss their weapons away and ended up losing their head as a result. I know that if he is truly gone then things may get bad, but allow me to indulge in this tiny sense of revenge."

  "My friend was just asking about the various places to see around Pragnosis," the bartender stated, changing the topic with all the subtlety of a train changing tracks off a cliff.

  "The Gardens are the big one," the elderly woman said. "What are you looking for? Mount Lacrimosa is a popular one for couples. They tend to follow the River Luxanim up towards it's headwaters for the romantic views. There's also the Mystkulz museum in the north of the city, although that area tends to be more restricted. They may not allow you in." She smiled at seeing his face. "What you don't like museums, find them boring."

  "Actually I find them very exciting," Banks admitted. "Sometimes a bit too exciting." He was perfectly fine with museums if the various recovered artefacts and relics, just stayed still and quiet inside their glass boxes, but too many times had he been caught before. Collections of surviving pieces of history, dredged up from unknown times and carrying unknown risks had so many times led to something primeval awakening with horrific effects. Honestly he would rather venture deep into a cemetery weaponless on the anniversary of some ominous occasion than visit your standard museum. At least zombies and ghosts were barely much farther from anywhere further than a hundred years back, discounting that anomaly he had encountered in an alleyway subjectively earlier.

  "There's a few places other places you can go if you want to," the old woman said. "I can write them down for you if you want." The woman pulled out a sketchpad, holding it up clearly so that Banks could see."

  "You carry a sketchpad around with out?" he asked.

  "You never know when inspiration will strike," the woman defended herself. "Do you want a list or not?"

  "I don't," Banks said after a few seconds of thought. "But you have helped me. Thank you." He stood up quickly to leave and the result of all of his drinks hit him like a train, and he got well acquainted with the floor.

  "You okay?" the bartender said. "You better not be throwing up on my floor."

  "I'm okay, and so is the floor," Banks said, a smile on his face. He wasn't hurt at all, his instinctive mana defense had protected him from all the damage, just like it used to do when he was younger. He stumbled to his feet on wobbly knees. "I'm going to go, are we square moneywise?"

  "I owe you half a silver," the bartender admitted.

  "Put it on my tab," Banks said. "The way this town is going I will probably need another drink soon enough."

  "Good luck," the old woman said and he nodded in reply as he strode out of the bar door and onto the streets.

  xxx

  "And it will be four silvers twenty for the whole thing," a short sweaty man with glasses said as he handed off the pen, notepad, a detailed map of Pragnosis, and a regional map indicating the local powers. The Undying Empire was the local overlord, but the Union of Free States, the Falling Star Kingdom and the Tenth Circle were regional powers that put some level of resistance to the Empire.

  "Thanks I've been meaning to get a map of this town for a bit," Banks said. "I've been wanting to visit this place for a while."

  "Oh, you've been eager to come to Pragnosis," the man said in a nasally voice. "What attracted you?"

  "I meant this shop specifically," Banks admitted. "But this city seems to have a lot of history."

  "It does," the man said looking to continue the conversation well past the point of politeness.

  "Sorry, can't chat further I have to do something," he said, in a statement that was not quite a lie. Waving goodbye to the shopkeeper he exited the cartography shop and walked through the streets before he found a bench. He stared at the new notepad and pen for a long while, trying to embed it with his strange elements so that the two items will deign to follow him to the beginning of the loop when required. Once he was reasonably certain of success he sat down, pulled out the poor quality pen from this time period and then began to write.

  1. Find and talk to Ascrew

  2. Investigate Trisk Trinorim's room before the guards arrive (go before midday on the first day)

  3. Fully investigate the area under the river (beware of monsters)

  4. Read more about the history of Pragnosis and Nectarshire

  5. Find the rest of the Emperor's body parts (what would that help??)

  He stopped writing as the goals became less and less important, or less and less defined. For a long few seconds, he looked at the map before he sighed, and slipped it into his shirt pocket. His first priority was probably to find Ascrew, the man who murdered the Undying Emperor. He thought he heard his voice upon dying to the Butcher in a previous loop although he wasn't sure. The voice that he did hear sounded much too sober to be the self-proclaimed world's greatest assassin, and it might point towards a less relaxed mental state. Still if he was going to look for the Ascrew he wouldn't find him here. Most of Pragnosis was too bright for the assassin. If anything he would hide out in the Old Town, probably indulging in local narcotics. He had one contact in the Old Town, although they didn't even know him yet, maybe he could squeeze her for information.

  Still thinking on the best way to proceed, Banks crossed the river and headed to the darker, more dangerous part of town, that still yet grew colder by the minute in the search of places of ill repute.