[Stomoxys]

I awoke from someone knocking on the door and we discovered food outside waiting for us. Since Wolfram was still sleeping, I experimented and carefully tied a small container for the star energy that would be leaking just enough to provide a bit of light. I placed the container in the middle of the room above the food and filled it with a little energy resulting in a faint, but pleasant glow. It did not last very long though, but I was able to refill it. Still, the coin is a lot more efficient if the only purpose is to produce light. When the light was about to go out a second time, Grogg exclaimed that there was paper in their bread and spit it out. Retrieving the paper slip, I carefully unwrapped the saliva-covered outer paper and found a short note inside. It read "Dear friend and believer. I might need your help and I have information that may help you. I have no expectations that you will do anything to help me, but contact me quickly if you wish to get involved. This is not related to anything sacred. Reagards, friend and believer.". Assuming it was from some Ashtarite, I gave the note to Nuur-Karif before waking Wolfram from their needle-induced slumber.

Wanting to investigate, Nuur-Karif immediately left to talk to the human that had let us in, even though it was obvious, after thinking about it for two seconds, that it had to be Riko. They were the leader of the Ashtarites in the slum who had directed us to the safe house and was supposed to be the only one who knew we were here. Nuur-Karif returned after 10 minutes and had not learned anything, but wanted to go to the chapel to help a fellow believer. I pointed out that dragons would soon raze the city, Larma invade it, and Mir besiege it, so whoever sent the message would soon have more immediate problems, but I agreed to come along. Wolfram had been healed by the needle and could now stand on their own and wanted to come along so we decided everyone should come. To avoid standing out too much, Yana and Grogg would sew cloaks from some old cloth Grogg had, which at one point was soaked in swamp water and various dyes, giving it an interesting colour scheme. Heading out, we met a human in the underground tunnels that gave the sign of Ashtar and gestured for us to follow. They led us down another corridor than the one we came down originally and we emerged in a courtyard surrounded by some dilapidated buildings. I was initially worried that our party would look suspicious, hiding our faces in deep hoods and cloaks, but it turned out the inhabitants of the area looked equally suspicious. Reaching the chapel, Grogg, Wolfram and Nujan waited at a place they served beer while Nuur-Karif, Yana and I went in.

After washing, we found a human sleeping in the chapel and Nuur-Karif soon made it clear that it was Riko. They looked less weak and sickly than the rest of the slum dwellers and had indeed sent the note. If we were willing to hear them out, they would tell us what they knew. A female at the council had been asking about a party of foreigners that would stand out and Riko believed they meant us. My first thought was that it could be Nefalonia, but I almost immediately rejected it. Due to the incident in the cellar, we probably had powerful enemies in the city and it was more likely to be one of those that were looking for us. Moving on to their problem, Riko told us that someone was offering large sums of gold to slum leaders to let them pass through unhindered. This sounded like Larma, but it was not clear if they meant letting single agents or divisions of troops through. Parts of the city wall has crumbled in the slums, so it would be possible to gain a foothold in the city if one could enter the slum without opposition and this had been a very recent development, indicating that an attack could be imminent. Praying on the matter, Nuur-Karif did not get any specific instruction, but I got the clear impressions that many in Ur would die soon. While Riko did not want to accept the money, they expected other groups in the slum to do so and feared they would face reprisals by Larma and their collaborators.

We informed Riko that we would not help them if they decided to help Larma, but we might help them if they decided to resist. We would have to discuss it with the others first though, and they agreed to meet us again in an hour. On the way out, Riko asked about the other chapel and seemed relieved when told it was still active. This was strange, considering that they also indicated that their life was in danger and the leader at the other chapel had been promised a temple. I am not sure what they meant with that, but I have heard other Ashtarites use the word temple about larger chapels and suspect it indicates a more important place of worship. Nuur-Karif consistently calls everything a chapel, but they are fond of keeping their secrets. I think the basement in the slum is a temple while the one in the city is just a chapel.

Meeting the others outside, we told them what we had learned. Wolfram assumed that it was Nefalonia looking for us and wanted to just waltz up to the the mages' tower and ask for them. I pointed out that several of the defenders in the cellar had gotten a good enough look at Wolfram to put crossbow bolts in them and would be able to describe the oversized, hairy human, but it did not seem to penetrate. Thankfully, Nuur-Karif and Grogg realized the problem and Wolfram was voted down and we would at least hear Riko out. Another option was to try to leave the city. Wolfram was a strong proponent of this option, saying we should find Mir and give them the horse spear. That this would leave us out in the open when the dragons came and we had no idea where Mir was was no deterrent. Walking to the bar where we were supposed to meat Riko, we were lead to a meeting room by one of Riko's underlings and the slum leader showed up soon after. Nuur-Karif apparently changed their mind on the way there and told Riko we had not decided yet and wanted to send Nujan to the tower. Understandably, Riko were not interested in wasting more time on us, but told us they would not help Larma. We had ten minutes to decide whether we would stay or leave.

Nuur-Karif was happy to let the chapel burn and changed their vote to leave the city. Nujan also preferred to leave, so there was a majority for leaving. This meant we had to figure out how to find shelter from the dragons, figure out where Mir was and evade the Larma army that was on its way. Nujan suggested going to the crypt which Wolfram thought was a fantastic idea, but this would take us back west, the only direction we were quite certain Mir was not, and it was far from certain we would reach it before the dragons. Somebody talked about digging a hole in the ground, but I suggested we should just find a farm with a basement. Wolfram and Nuur-Karif had decided Mir was to the east, which would force us to wander through the desert and off the road if we were to avoid Larma. Dying of thirst in the desert is not on my to-do list, so I pointed out we could move quicker and easier through the swamp, but only Yana seemed to agree. We would have to get lots of water for our desert expedition, but Wolfram and Grogg got the bright idea they should get beer instead.