[Stomoxys]

I tried to explain some tactics to the others. That rushing headlong into battle when you are outnumbered ten to one is not a good idea seems to be beyond them. Unfortunately, it did not penetrate. The spirits are relatively harmless on their own, but they are very difficult to defend against and even Grogg's thick skin does not protect against their attacks. In addition, only Wolfram is able to effectively attack them in their bear shape as Nuur-Karif's abilities are too slow to deal with large numbers of them. If we ended up in a fight with all of them, which we should avoid if possible, Wolfram should clear a path to the wraith while Nuur-Karif should try to materialize it. They were not able to materialize the last wraith, but they insist that it should not be a problem. Without the wraith controlling them, I believe the spirits would scatter. Ideally, I would be able to put a poisoned arrow in the wraith from a distance, but I found it highly unlikely that the wraith would be so nice as to present a target. As demonstrated by Mir, apeoids with strategic sense exist.

Before we could do anything, we would have to find a way in. The most likely location of an entrance seemed to be the oasis and I wished to investigate the illusion further. Tying a rope around my waist, I told Nuur-Karif and Wolfram to start pulling when I raised my arms. I would not be able to see the rope, but I believed it would still affect me. Steeling myself, I started to walk forward. To my surprise, I saw a human collecting water from the oasis and dropped to the ground. The jaguar body was reasonably adapted for the purpose, though the flashy clothing and fur left a lot to be desired. Thinking back, the clothing was reminiscent of the type worn in Monike. I had almost reached a spot behind a palm tree where I could observe the human when a force suddenly pulled me backwards through the air. My eyes met those of the human as they disappeared together with the oasis and I landed on the ground. It turned out Wolfram had randomly decided it was too dangerous to let me investigate, ruining our opportunity to capture the human and interrogate them.

To see if there were any entrances in the oasis area, Wolfram wanted to throw a rock attached to a rope, but their technique was terrible. Before they could try again, they were interrupted by Nuur-Karif who wanted Wolfram to repeat their ritual. Nuur-Karif had continuously scanned the area with the ring but only now reacted. Perhaps they had spotted something they did not let on. To humour Wolfram, I threw the rock a few more times, but did not hit anything. While I was hauling in the rock, Grogg suddenly started walking into the oasis. Everyone shouted at them to stop, but they ignored it and strode in. Rapidly tying the rope around my waist and handing the end to Nuur-Karif, I ran in after them. When I entered, Grogg looked like a red troll, standing at the edge of the lake and beginning to wade in. I shouted for them to stop, noticing that I was not speaking the language used in Arland and The Cities of the Prince, but something that might have been Arani. Grogg had no problem understanding it, but did not want to listen and continued into the lake. They claimed that Lunari had told them there was a treasure in the middle of the oasis, the height of five trolls down. Looking for their embroidery, I noticed that The Slurping Toad was tattooed on their chest where the embroidery had been outside the oasis. Explaining that the area was dangerous, they surprisingly listened to me and started to come towards me, but again I felt the force pulling me backwards. The idiot Wolfram had again decided that pulling on ropes are fun. Grogg came out soon after and Wolfram performed their rituals again. They were able to show our auras, but failed to attract any spirit.

To get to the wraith, we would have to get into the crypt. The towers were the only obvious feature in the landscape and we went back to the closest one, Nuur-Karif suggesting that I climb down and investigate. Not wanting to fall through a non existing floor and get assaulted by spirits, I tested it out with a stone at the end of a rope first. Both the floor and the wall seemed real enough and I climbed down in a rope, getting Grogg to hold the rope. Wolfram is clearly not to be trusted. Right above the floor, I tested it out with my staff and it still seemed firm so I got Grogg to lower me all the way down. The bottom of the hole seemed to be real and there was junk scattered everywhere, much of it made of gold. Like everything else in this area, the junk was magical and I suspect it will not be gold when it leaves the area. The most striking feature was a massive wooden door facing the centre of the oasis. Climbing back up, I tied the rope double to hold the weights of Grogg and Wolfram and it was attached to the ground using Wolfram's pickaxe. They made it down safely and the door opened with a light push. Inside was a dark corridor leading towards the centre of the oasis. Nuur-Karif wanted me to go first and look for traps, but Wolfram turned into a bear and forced themselves in front. For once I agreed with them, no reason to risk my life when there are so many who relish the opportunity. Besides, Wolfram and Nuur-Karif would be able to see the spirits if they attacked.

Following the bear into the darkness, I poisoned one of my blades and held the shining coin high to provide illumination, though little made it past Wolfram. After maybe 15 meters in, a strange sound, as if from a very sick mammal, came from the direction of the bear. The bear was gone and in its place was a large, light brown mammal with a hump on its back. It looked even dumber than a horse, with big eyelashes and a long tongue hanging out of its drooling mouth. Looking around, it looked like we were now in a desert at night again. However, there were no stars, so it was clear we were still underground. Ahead of us was a large building with a terrace in front. Columns supported a roof over the terrace and there were two doors in the wall on the far side of the terrace. Grogg had again turned red and Nuur-Karif looked like another human and had different clothing, again in a style that reminded me of Monike.

Without any stars, it would be difficult to navigate and I wanted to make sure that we could get go back the way we came. However, the beast did not care and shambled towards the building and started to kick on one of the doors. Someone inside told them to be quiet and not disturb the master while I started walking back, but the beast just intensified its kicks on the door which soon gave in. Screams, crashes and the demented bellowing of the beast emitted from the building. It had decided to trample whoever was in the building, even though they looked and sounded like humans.

Increasing my pace, I soon reached the edge of the illusion and I was back in the dark cave. I had come out of a larger cavern, but it was too dark to see anything in it. I could hear a lot though. The sounds of the beast was replaced with the growling of the bear and the shouting from the humans with the shrieks of spirits. Running back in, Grogg was nowhere to be seen, but Nuur-Karif was waiting outside. While I shouted to them that Wolfram was fighting spirits, I realized the jaguar was wearing footwear for some reason and there were a knife in each of them. Nuur-Karif drew a curved blade they were wearing and rushed inside, just as a voice that seemed to emanate from the ground commanded 'order, subjects'.

I finally reached the door to the building and peeked inside. The room was completely destroyed, with broken glass, cups and furniture scattered everywhere and a flood of wine gushing from broken barrels in a corner. Nuur-Karif was fighting something through a doorway nearby to the left while Grogg was striding through the room, apparently oblivious. In the far corner, the beast was stumbling around surrounded by several humans. Running over to Nuur-Karif, I saw that they were fighting a naked human that suddenly warped straight through Nuur-Karif. The head of the human was partially sliced off, but that did not seem to bother it and it dodged away from another of Nuur-Karif's thrusts while the voice commanded 'kill them'. Not expecting much, I stabbed at the human and the dagger made its way to the human's heart on its own, the skin around the wound blackening. Somehow, I must have used my poisoned blade. Three more humans came out of the wall, but Nuur-Karif sliced at two of them and they were engulfed in a swarm of snakes. Materializing the spirits looked a lot more dramatic in the illusion. I finished them off. Grogg had reached the middle of the room and was standing next to a large golden, smoke emitting contraption with tubes sticking out. Due to the nature of the illusion, I had not noticed it before, but I believe the mammals use these things to inhale the smoke from herbs and get intoxicated. Grogg certainly thought so and bent down to inhale, before disappearing in a puff of smoke.