MOD PLOT ↠ SECRET STEEP'D ROOTS: WHERE THE HELL ARE WE?

[faderifting]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Various
RECIPIENT: Everyone
NOTES: A catch-all for trying to figure out how to get the jungleteers back home. If you signed up for a mini jungle adventure or a research assignment and we gave you some info that contained clues to the jungle's location, please share them here! Everyone else is also welcome to participate and try to sort out where they are and what to do about it.

Comments

[overharrowed]

Oh! Have you read Valisti's son Lisandro's memoirs? It's mainly a lot of groaning about his father's choices, but in between the complaints you can make a fairly good map of where Valisti was looking for poisons.

[Slightly muffled, as if he's set down the sending crystal:]

I know I have those notes somewhere around here.

[aventuriere]

I can't say that I have. Was there any mention of this Golden Touch poison?

[overharrowed]

Not by name, as far as I recall. But Valisti was especially interested in qunari poisons, according to his son. Ah --

-- a lot of his proposed journeys apparently went astray or faced delays. He did make it to Sundarin, though. Lisandro goes on about it at length, as a delay on the return journey meant his father, ah, missed his wedding. Something of a sore point, evidently.

[aventuriere]

Oh dear. [ She says, laughing. ] I can see how that might be vexing. Did he travel at all to any of the qunari settlements? He can't have made it to Par Vollen, or I'm sure I should've read of it, but perhaps one of the others?

Our Tevinter colleague has been gathering things up and there seems to be a great deal to do with the qunari.

[overharrowed]

Perhaps I'll check in. It seems he was interested in making it to both Seheron and Kont-aar. The former seems a potential match for the climate our fellows are describing, though I don't wish to jump to any conclusions on fairly scant evidence.

[aventuriere]

Yes, do. I'm flipping through Valisti's work now [ literally, he can probably hear the pages turning ] and he discusses Qunari poisons at every possible opportunity, but it all seems to be second or even third-hand and some of his information is precisely the sort of outdated mythical nonsense rumors you'd expect from the Blessed Age. Did he actually reach Seheron or Kont-aar?

[overharrowed]

Frustratingly unclear. Lisandro, at least, focuses on the failed attempts for the most part, Sundarin aside. Granted, he seems to be experiencing more than a hint of smug satisfaction over his father's failures under the circumstances. Perhaps he's more inclined to dwell on them.

[aventuriere]

Mmm, or even to exaggerate them.

[ A pause, in the flipping of pages also, as she considers. ]

On the other hand, if the purpose of the work, in the main, is--as you said--to groan about his father's absences, then had he more prolonged absences to groan about would he not have done so? Surely he could not have traveled to Kont-aar or Seheron without missing some... [ the flapping wrist of disinterested vagueness is all but audible ] childhood event.

[overharrowed]

Oh no, [dry]. Whether or not he ever succeeded in getting to Seheron, he tried more than once and missed quite a few childhood events. The author expounded at length.

[Perhaps Julius would have had more patience if he, himself, had experienced such milestones as a "tenth birthday party" with the expected parental investment. Or maybe not.]

I know it seems a slim pillar to rest a theory on, but perhaps we can at least help narrow things down.

[aventuriere]

Does his son mention dates of his voyages to Sundarin and the attempts to Seheron? Or his own age, that we might calculate the dates from? Perhaps we can place his work in the chronology and discern when he most likely acquired the Golden Touch.

[overharrowed]

Sundarin at least should be possible to cross-reference; he left before his son's wedding and didn't arrive back until after. Let me look through my notes.