Starglow Basin gol

join-tasks and objectives!! some PP to set scene, lmk if that's not ok. :) please feel free to do single replies here, or if you'd like, a spin-off thread. <3

verapaz continues reaching; it is the hungry arm of a jaguar, searching further each day for conquest. soto watches from the lone tower, listening to the absent bicker of juarez and nino.

he decides it is time. they weathered the great storm of the barbarian uprising, and now the ever-hungry desert has seen fit to douse its red sands in their blood, fertilizing future nations with the decomposition of their bodies.

this is life; he counts himself lucky to still taste it.

he calls for each of them that evening.

for @Leto, whose first join-task has been complete. her belly rounds, and when she gives birth she will elevate to the rank of countess, and suckle the fresh lives of verapaz's future. but for now, she is instructed to find @Bushtit and learn from him the strange language he and his mother speak.

for @Fiamma - the devoted. her join-task had been surveilling luneshale, and she had seen it done immediately. for her dedication and her promptness to such things, soto informs her he wishes her to become captain. there is one thing she must do first. castel has yet to return to their fortress. soto sends her for him.

@Beau has been sent to the coast. soto calls for him once to see if he has set for his journey, but finds no answer among the bite of cold winter air.

same for @Castel, who soto does not call for; he knows the man roves far, and his lover's side lays empty until he returns. soto considers he would make a fine mercenary. he'd been wrong, that first day he met the man. he'd told leto he had no use for such a man -- his gums turn in a rueful smile to see castel handily prove him wrong.

@Saleem, twin brother to the flagging youth that by day slowly recovered. soto sends him for fiamma; his first join-task may be the most entertaining yet. he knows little of the man, and looks forward to discovering his strengths in the coming year.

as for his brother @Sylanios; soto is hesitant to place him in peril, but he senses a fighter's spirit in the man. as the fever regresses and his health returns, soto asks for one thing: he is to begin collecting the piecemeal wares verapaz has stored over the winter and prepare them for transport. and -- this he communicates with an impish gleam in his eye -- to try finding a woman to bring into verapaz's fold.

then he finds @Hiro, verapaz's recluse who has kept their borders vigilantly tended. to this soto appraises with a commending eye, and asks him to assist sylianos in preparation for their move.

and finally, the good doctor @Haruto -- who soto has seen carefully scrutinize their thinning herbal wares. he may make a good greenkeeper if he proves his loyalty. for now, he'd make a fine botanist. soto gives him his first join-task: when they return to luneshale, he is to mulch the rows of green that have been waylaid by winter snow, and recover what he can of their field.

each task handed out, soto shares one last thing.

 in the coming weeks, verapaz returns to luneshale.