[Stomoxys]

From inside I heard Nuur-Karif yelling about strangers in their shack. While their dress and colouring would mark them as a non native, the surprise must have worked because I heard some commotion from inside and Nuur-Karif and Yana came out alone. They walked a bit away from the shack and I sneaked up to them, making myself known. Yana was worried about Wolfram and Grogg, but Nuur-Karif calmed them and told them we had found allies at the crypt. Naturally, Yana was surprised and found it suspicious, but accepted Nuur-Karif's word.

Yana and Hylda had met up with the Night Riders and tried to persuade them to leave, but one of them had insisted they had to find someone and deliver something. It turned out it was Hadi, one of Amna's shadows that had tried to arrest Nuur-Karif at the boat when we traveled to Guling. Hadi had been less enthusiastic than the others and, according to Nuur-Karif, was an Ashtarite. Nuur-Karif decided they wanted to talk to Hadi, but I remained hidden for the time being, sneaking up to the house to listen when Nuur-Karif entered.

Hadi did not appear to recognize Nuur-Karif due to their disguise, but Nuur-Karif reminded them. Hadi was unfazed by this, but was unwilling to say what they were doing here and Nuur-Karif used the resulting silence as an excuse to start preaching. This went on for half an hour before Hadi interrupted Nuur-Karif and wanted to pray. This prompted the other Night Rider to leave the shack and I jumped in through the window. We sat down in a circle on the floor and started praying, but only a few minutes in, Hadi started convulsing and writhing before throwing up a black and red snake. Judging from its degenerate eyes, the snake was subterranean, but it had no trouble making its way towards Nuur-Karif. They hissed at each other for a while before the snake slithered up Nuur-Karif's arm and disappeared into their mouth. Hadi took some time to recover and were pleased when Nuur-Karif told them they had succeeded in their task and ran out to the other Night Rider.

I examined Nuur-Karif more closely and for once their dress was not soaked in blood and they appeared to be in good shape. They believed they had left a part of themselves in the realm of the dead that had now been returned to them. This would explain some of the deathly aspects I had seen in their aura and I checked their it again. It looked completely normal, like any other apeoid which could not be correct. I saw their aura before the events in Sam and even then it had aspects of death, so I tried again, but again saw only a mundane aura. It appears the snake not only brought a part of Nuur-Karif, but also a fake aura. While this has obvious advantages, it is not reassuring that I will not have any way to verify what goes on in Nuur-Karif's hysterical head.

I took the first watch and took up position on the roof of the shack. About two hours later, the Night Riders returned from the place they were sitting and entered the shack without noticing me. They were unsure where to go next, but Nuur-Karif convinced them to go to Bleakcastle, the city were I originally met Nuur-Karif and one of The Cities of the Prince. The Night Riders were naturally hesitant to go to a stinking, plague ridden city, but Nuur-Karif told them it was easy to disappear there and they complied. They will leave in the morning and I do not expect to see them again.

About two hours after Ajaw left the sky to Amna, I could see the mist had started gathering around the crypt again. I used the spell of magic sight again, but I suspect something went wrong, because the energies saturating everything in the area seemed much fainter than before. In any case, I did not see anything special around the crypt.

Half an hour later, I saw powerful flash from somewhere in the middle of the mist. I stared in that direction, but did not see any more flashes. However, about half a minute later, consistent with the delay of thunder at that distance, I heard a powerful boom. It sounded more like rockslide than thunder though. I quickly climbed in the window to wake Nuur-Karif and tell them what I saw, but I was interrupted by a very loud, deep rumble that shook the whole shack and I worried it would collapse. I ran outside, but could not see anything special and neither did Nuur-Karif who appeared in the window. Using magic sight again, I could see the energies in the area and the glow of the ashes and something was going on in the crypt. It looked like enormous shapes were flickering around in the fog, disappearing and reappearing all the time, but too diffuse for me to see clearly.

While Nuur-Karif was uninterested and went back to bed, I am concerned. Odon had planned to use a few days before they released the demon, but it appears they have started already. I hope Grogg and especially Wolfram have not done anything stupid. It will take several hours for me to get there and by then I expect it to be over, one way or another.