[Stomoxys]

I woke in the morning from the smell of Yana and Nujan making breakfast. While we ate, we discussed how to proceed. Nuur-Karif wanted to find Mir and give the spear to them but I pointed out that that giving a spear that causes megalomania to a megalomaniac warlord may not be the best idea. Nujan chimed in that Mir would use the spear invade something, now that The Evening Fortress is ruled by Isa. Investigating the stone circle would be interesting, but we should inform Nefalonia about what happened in the crypt first. Before we could do anything, however, we would have to deal with Wolfram's leg. They still could not move it and still refused to let me examine it. Nuur-Karif prayed on the matter and proclaimed that if Wolfram would crawl on their belly like a snake from midday to Ajaw reached the horizon, Ashtar would heal their leg. Wolfram declared that they would honour the gods and crawl on their belly all day and Nuur-Karif gleefully joined them. Clearly we would not make it to Ur, or anywhere, this day. I scouted ahead and we retrieved the mirror shard without issue.

During lunch Nuur-Karif explained how to get into Ur. The main gates were guarded, but should be open during daytime. During nighttime, it would be possible to sneak in through the northern slum that had spilled out of the city walls. Wolfram did not want to enter at all and I did want to see the stone circle. Kra could fly ahead with a message for Nefalonia and we could enter the city after the stone circle. If Nefalonia's predictions about dragons were true, it would be best to be somewhere with a basement. The rest of the lunch was dominated by a theological treatise on the difference between dragons and snakes after Grogg claimed that snakes were like dragons and did not like them. This was abruptly ended by Grogg claiming they could sense a dragon on the horizon. Not a good sign.

Soon after we crossed the main road and continued north towards the circle, I was running ahead, but spotted three riders coming towards the others. Slipping behind a stone fence, I readied my bow and snuck closer. Nujan spotted the riders first and went to meet them with Nuur-Karif. Wolfram remained on their belly and Grogg stayed with them. The riders looked like Aldera scouts and announced that the area around the stone circle was off limits to civilians. Instead, we should go to Ur and they were sure that an armed party like ours could find lucrative jobs. Nuur-Karif agreed and the scouts rode off. Sneaking Grogg and Wolfram to the stone circle would be almost impossible, so I put on the fake beard and clothes and we went back to the main road. As expected, we did not make it to Ur before it got dark and made camp about two hours walk from the city. Still no sign of Kama and Taxini.