[Stomoxys]

Nujan disappeared before we got back to Grogg, but shortly after, Isa, Lunas and Lunas' bodyguard, Keri, showed up. They wanted to introduce us to a very large human called Wolfram that Lunas had encountered in the Wetlands. Wolfram was almost as tall as Pakk, very hairy and dressed for war in heavy armour and carrying several weapons. According to Lunas, they were an alternative to Tivito and came from the Cities of the Prince, so I figured they were a Tiri follower. When I informed Lunas of Lunari's death, they were not very emotional and they soon left to asses the situation in the fortress. Grogg had been very quiet throughout, but I convinced them they needed their full strength to punish those that killed Lunari and they took the needle from Pakk and stung themselves. Knowing that Lunari often borrowed the ring from Grogg and that they had been exploring a strange temple, I went through Grogg's pockets. As I feared, the ring was not there. This led to a discussion of the Kabal temple and Pakk claimed that the Kabalists had captured and enslaved spirits. Wolfram disapproved of this and wanted to go to the temple straight away, but I told them of Ebsalon's warding. We should talk to Gromann and Ebsalon before we did anything rash.

Wolfram helped the injured Pakk to their chamber and it turned out Ebsalon was there. They said the warding on the Kabal chamber should dissipate the next night, but crossing it before could result in the spirit being ripped from the body. Wolfram wanted to inspect the chamber personally and Ebsalon did not trust them to not disturb the ward and came along. On the way, both of them were harping on about not using magic without 40 years of studying. Considering that Krupik had studied for many years and still had a tendency to blow up, I'm not convinced how helpful their advice is. Reaching the entrance to the chamber, the Tiri follower wanted to know if there were any empty rooms nearby, preferably with a view of the sky. Considering that all the the chambers in the building seems to contain some kind of cult temple, that seemed unlikely. I suggested the roof, but Ebsalon made clear that nobody should do anything magical in or near the tower before the warding dissipated and ushered us out. Back in the common hall, where Grogg was still sleeping on the floor, I engaged Wolfram in a discussion about demons. They claimed that demons are the spirits of powerful mages that are trapped and not capable of moving on and the mages do this on purpose because of their fear of death. This seems very stupid to me and I tried to get a better explanation from Wolfram, but they did not seem to understand the question. They did seem very interested in The Night Mirror and The Immortals and Wolfram's description of how demons are created sounded a lot like what Krull had told me.