Track Five: I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

Zara takes hers. Before uncorking it, she looks around, saying "There's got to be one for Lew around here, right?" But then she opens the bottle and takes a deep drink.

Spoiler:

The wine is very thick and nearly as sour as vinegar. It seems to go directly to your head, inducing a brief vision or hallucination -- perhaps something like Doctor Honeydew's concoctions? In any case, it produces an image of a man, dressed in clothing of the early 19th century, with a handful of olives.

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

"Indeed," says Liz, picking up the Isabel bottle, taking out her Swiss Army Knife, and using the corkscrew attachment to open it. "Isabel is the Spanish equivalent of Elizabeth, and the other names are similar too. Someone left these for us a very long time ago, someone with accurate knowledge of the future. I don't think there's wine in here, though. More like a message in a bottle." She looks in the bottle first rather than drink from it sight unseen so as not to risk getting hit in the mouth with a rolled-up piece of paper.

Spoiler:

There seems to be nothing inside the bottle but liquid.

[Starspawn338]

"Well, I was never much of a drinker." Lew says. "And it's probably better if one of us isn't drinking."

[jp1885]

If possible, Tony will attempt to converse with the fellow in his vision. Failing that, he will describe what he saw to the others and bid Liz to drink from her bottle.

[SunlessNick]

"Are you Captain Palliser?" Zara asks to the man in her vision. (Or possibly Pallisher given the description of the wine's other effects).

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, it's best if you drive," Liz says to Lew. "Well, bottoms up!" She raises the bottle to her lips and drinks.

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

"Yes, it's best if you drive," Liz says to Lew. "Well, bottoms up!" She raises the bottle to her lips and drinks.

Spoiler:

The wine is very thick and nearly as sour as vinegar. It seems to go directly to your head, inducing a brief vision or hallucination -- perhaps something like Doctor Honeydew's concoctions? In any case you see a man dressed in clothing of the early 19th century, holding in one hand a loaf of bread, and in another a bunch of olives. The vision fades away without speaking.

By the way, the wine, or whatever it is, has a remarkable intoxicating effect; until further notice, you are slightly drunk. You have the temporary Assets of Brave and Resistant to Pain, but the temporary Afflictions of Clumsy, Slow-witted, and Easily Fooled.

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

If possible, Tony will attempt to converse with the fellow in his vision. Failing that, he will describe what he saw to the others and bid Liz to drink from her bottle.

Spoiler:

The vision fades without speaking. By the way, the wine, or whatever it is, has a remarkable intoxicating effect; until further notice, you are slightly drunk. You have the temporary Assets of Brave and Resistant to Pain, but the temporary Afflictions of Clumsy, Slow-witted, and Easily Fooled.

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

"Are you Captain Palliser?" Zara asks to the man in her vision. (Or possibly Pallisher given the description of the wine's other effects).

Spoiler:

The vision fades without speaking. By the way, the wine, or whatever it is, has a remarkable intoxicating effect; until further notice, you are slightly drunk. You have the temporary Assets of Brave and Resistant to Pain, but the temporary Afflictions of Clumsy, Slow-witted, and Easily Fooled.

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

"Well, I was never much of a drinker." Lew says. "And it's probably better if one of us isn't drinking."

Spoiler:

It is quite obvious that your companions are drunk, to a much greater extent than one swallow of wine should produce.

[jp1885]

Thankfully, Tony has always been a happy drunk. He staggers forward a little, barely keeping his balance as he holds the bottle up to his eye, peering through it at the others as one might use a telescope.

“I see no ships, haha!”

He grins a foolish grin.

“Bl’dy good stuff what? D-did you see what I saw? S’m fella holdin’ a loaf of whatchamacallit, bread? Wassat s’posed to mean eh?”

[Mr. Handy]

"I shaw it too!" slurs Liz. "He had bread and wossnames...grows on vines...not grapes, the other ones...olives, that's it! Should have known that one. My brain doeshn't work sho well when I've had a lot of alka...er, drink. There'sh a bakery here shomewhere, an' an olive presh. It'sh right over...there..." She spins around with her finger outstretched, then falls over giggling. Somehow she manages to right herself and even point in approximately the right direction. "Bakery firsht, I guesh."

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

The investigators make their way, somewhat unevenly, to the remains of the old bakery. There is little left of the place, after all this time, but one of vivid imagination, particularly under the effect of alcohol, might conjure up a vision of folks hard at work, kneading dough and placing it into stone ovens squatting above wood-burning fires. The ground is covered with dirt and rubble. It may be just a dream, but does it feel warmer here, and is that the smell of warm bread in the air?

[jp1885]

Tony stumbles around the area, mooching around the rubble.

“I love th’ smell of f-fresh bread, don’ you?”

[Mr. Handy]

"Mmm," says Liz, opening up one of the ovens and inhaling as she looks inside, fully expecting in her drunken state that there is bread baking in there somehow.

[SunlessNick]

"It wzh jusht olives I shaw," Zara says. She leaves Liz to check the bakery, and takes a look at the olive press.

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

At the bakery:

Spoiler:

Liz Wis = 10 + 1 for Discover Secrets = 11, Tony = 11[dice]0[/dice]

Despite their current state of apparent inebriation, both Liz and Tony discover, hidden well within the rubble that covers what little is left of the original ovens, what appears to be the lower half of a human skull, obviously of great age.

Zara, meanwhile unsteadily makes her way across the large patio to what is left of the olive press.

Spoiler:

dex = 13 - 3 for temporary Affliction of Clumsy = 10[dice]1[/dice]

Perhaps because she is wearing high heels, along the way she takes a fall, covering her face and stylish clothing with the dust that covers the patio.

Spoiler:

Lose the Asset of Beautiful until cleaned up.

Recovering herself, but perhaps not all her dignity, she makes her way to the olive press.

Spoiler:

WIS = 11 + 1 Perceptive = 12[dice]2[/dice]

Perhaps because the recent fall has cleared her senses a bit, she discovers the top half of a human skull hidden beneath the remnants of the press.

[jp1885]

“Oh crickey! Are y’alright m’dear?”

Holding the skull part he has found, Tony staggers over to help Zara to her feet.

Trying, somewhat ineffectually, to dust her down, he notices the other part of the skull.

“I s-say, we’ll spotted! I have the b-bread an’ you have th’ olives. Mebbe Liz has to put ‘em t’gether.”

[Starspawn338]

"What do you have there?" Lew says and takes the two halves of the skull and attempts to put them together.

[SunlessNick]

Zara slightly guility enjoys Tony's attempts to help (since she knows he and Liz are becoming an item). But still. "I think it's him," she says to Lew.