Campaign log: Report to Great Priest Ixanama

[Stomoxys]

Nuur-Karif insisted that they had to stay with the patient, so the rest of us would have to take the night watch. As usual, Wolfram took the first watch while I observed the stars. The sky was calm and the hunters were stalking in the south. I searched the threads to see if I could learn anything about what had happened to the patient. However, I was not able to find anything directly related to them. Perhaps my search was too general to easily distinguish any threads.

I returned to the camp and noticed that one of the vultures had landed on the main tent. Up close, it looked a bit ruffled and slightly malnourished. It sat completely silent and did not appear to take much notice of either me nor Wolfram. I asked Wolfram how long it had been there, but they had just noticed it. It looked normal through the ring and I could not sense anything special from it. In fact, it felt almost too quiet. It looked healthy enough though, but possible quite old.

I observed the vulture for the rest of Wolfram's watch. It was very quiet and appeared to ignore us. After a while, it began preening its feathers, indicating that it did not feel threatened.

Wolfram went to bed at the end of their watch and I gave myself night vision. The watch went by quietly with only the light breeze and occasional rustle from the vulture breaking the silence. Amna was back in the sky, but still only a thin sliver.

Near the end of my watch I heard a screech from one of the vultures circling above us. The one on the tent shifted a bit and suddenly stared right at me. A feeling a nausea came over me and I thought I was about to throw up. Instead, the vulture began making a hissing sound and then gulped up on the tent. It gave me one last look before taking off and disappearing in the night.

In its stead was a slimy yellowish substance that slowly spread on the tent roof. After a few seconds, the smell hit me and I again thought I was going to throw up. I ran over to Wolfram's harness to get away from the acrid smell and see if we had anything I could use to remove it.

As I was digging a spade out the oversized saddle bags, Grogg appeared from the tent. Their sensitive nose had woken them and they helped lifting me up. I was able to get much of the congealing mass off the tent and buried it a bit away from the camp. I then poured generous amounts of water on the remaining guck and managed to get most of it off. Luckily, we were not in the middle of the desert. The bird's stomach acid appeared to damage the fabric.

When I was done, there was still a faint smell in the air, but it was nowhere near the initial miasma. We would have to take the tent down and clean it in the morning, but in the meantime, I covered it with a wet cloth.

Grogg went back to bed and the rest of my watch went by in silence. The vultures were still circling over our camp though. I woke Keri at the end of my watch and told them to not let any birds land on the tent. They agreed, but claimed they could not smell the stench. Perhaps dwarves have no sense of smell? Dulmar had smelt vile.

[Stomoxys]

The vultures were gone when I emerged from the tent in the morning. I went to see how the patient was doing, but Yana signalled that both the patient and Nuur-Karif were sleeping. Instead, I got Hylda and Grogg to help me take down the tent so we could clean it. Grogg said they had soap they had used for cleaning Lunari's clothes. When Hylda saw that I was unfamiliar with how to use it, they took charge and scrubbed the tent fabric vigorously for half an hour. When they were done, the stench was almost gone and the rest would probably disappear with some airing. The fabric looked worn and somewhat faded where the guck had been though.

Grogg said they were going to do something fun and invited the rest of us to follow. They got their maul and walked north, away from the lake. They only walked a few hundred meters before they stopped and told us to watch. They then began to beat the ground with their maul.

While their attacks on the ground were brutal, I could not detect anything special happening and the blows seemed less powerful than the last time. After a series of blows, Grogg began to mutter and then chant and roar the name of Ogra. The wind suddenly changed direction and started blowing from the north. Looking towards the horizon, clouds had begun to gather and it looked like a storm was brewing.

Remembering Munir's warning about sand storms, I notified the others and told Grogg to stop. Grogg ignored me and kept beating the ground, but Keri said we should secure the tent. Keri did not think it looked like a sandstorm, but we should not take any chances.

I was about to follow Keri back to the tents when Grogg suddenly stopped beating the ground and instead stared silently towards the storm clouds. After a few minutes, they muttered something unintelligible and I asked them to repeat. They said "ten in one". I asked them to elucidate and they said a familiar voice had told them they could strike with tenfold force. They did not know who had said it or how to do it, but they asked Kra to find something to hunt. The raven flew off and with nothing else to do, we returned to the tents.

Keri asked me to help them secure the tent when we returned. They had already beaten extra poles into the ground, but they wanted me to help them tie the tent down properly. Wolfram took Hylda and Grogg with them to teach Hylda more about using the shield.

The storm clouds had not gotten any closer by the time we were done with the tent. I checked in on the patient who was shivering under their blanket and mumbling incoherently, but at least they were no longer catatonic. Nuur-Karif said they were doing better and had been drinking some water, but it was unpleasant to be there, so I left to fill the water skins.

I climbed down the ravine to the beach and entered the cave. The water that trickled from the rocks was still cold and fresh. It should be possible to find more springs along the edge of the lake, so I only topped up the water skins we had emptied so far.

After the skins were full, I climbed down into the cavern to the dead apeoid. They were still lying were we left them, so I dragged them out through the underwater tunnel. The gravel on the beach was not very deep, but I was able to dig a shallow grave and cover up the corpse. At least it would not pollute the cavern for any future visitors.

My excursion took about 40 minutes and the storm clouds to the north remained in place. There was something unnatural about how they had suddenly appeared and then remained in place, but at least for the time being, they were far away.

The patient and they had calmed down when I checked on them. Their aura looked unchanged from the first time I checked it, but at least it had not gotten worse.

Since nothing required my immediate attention, I took the time to study Darwan's ruby. Even though there were no stars visible, I managed to get a deeper understanding of how the object worked. It did indeed make illusions stronger, but it did not just amplify them. It felt more like they would make the illusions violent and explosive. That would explain the enormous raven that had appeared. It did not explain why it was storing energy though. The ruby did feel empty for the time being.

[Stomoxys]

I heard voices from Nuur-Karif's tent and Wolfram was impatient to question the patient. There was not enough room in the small tent, but the patient was well enough to move to the larger tent. They did not speak any Arlandese, but Yana also spoke some Arani, so together we were able to interpret what the apeoid was saying.

The apeoid called themselves Haros and said that they came from the desert. None of the others knew of any apeoids living there, but Yana said they had heard stories of nomads wandering the desert. I asked how they had ended up in the cave and they said they and their companion had been worried about what they saw in the sky in the west. They said their companion was called Farmir and a wave of sadness came from them when they mentioned the dead apeoid.

I asked them what they had seen and they said they had been overconfident. It had been a visible sign that Tsulkan was gone and now the dead would come to take their entire people. The dead had already tried to penetrate into their bodies and thoughts, especially when they slept. It had only been them and Farmir, so nobody else had been taken. Now they wanted to serve Nuur-Karif and Yana.

Their rant was not very coherent, so I asked them what they had meant with Ashtar sending their siblings after them. They did not recall, but said that everyone knew that Tsulkan was Ashtar's sibling. Nuur-Karif gave an audible gasp and immediately proclaimed that we were taking Haros with us.

I asked about the sign they had seen in the sky and they said it fit with the ancient stories from the land they came from. They had seen the dead dance in the sky. If only they had heeded the ancient stories from when they lived in a rich land, Farmir would still be alive.

Nuur-Karif wondered how long they had been in the desert and, after Yana translated, they said they had always travelled. Nuur-Karif specified they wondered how long it had been since they saw the dead and Haros answered it had only been a night from when they saw the dead until the dead had appeared in their dreams. Their camels should be a couple of days to the south east, but they doubted that any of them were still alive.

They did not want to go back the way they had come and insisted that nobody should head in the direction of the dead. They could guide us around if we wanted, but Nuur-Karif said we could handle the dead. Haros doubted it, but if we saw the dead, they owed us and would sacrifice themselves and distract them.

I wondered what the dead looked like. They said that the power of the dead danced like shadows and winds in the sky in a wild and malevolent dance. They hoped to never see it again and that none of us would either. I told them about the spirits we had encountered at the caravanserai and they said these might be of the same type.

While I translated their last response to the others, Haros mumbled that they had stayed away for so many years, but now they would take this desert like they had taken the other. However, before I could ask them what they meant, they nearly fainted. Nuur-Karif declared that the interview was over and Haros was escorted back to the small tent.

The whole time, Haros had held their eyes tightly shut and head bowed. I doubted they had seen me or recognized me from the cave.

When Nuur-Karif emerged, we discussed the new information. We still did not know who Haros was, but it sounded like whatever they had encountered was a few days to the south east. I decided to fetch the Kabal staff and see if there were any tracks.

The first thing that struck me was the lack of spirit tracks. Looking out in the desert, I could barely see any shimmering lines at all. However, when I turned back to the camp, there were faint traces everywhere, some of them leading off in various directions. I tried to follow the traces and noticed that they got fewer the further away I went. It looked like we were leaving the tracks.

I spent the next hour investigating. Due to the confused state caused by the staff, I struggled to think clearly, but I was quite certain we were the source of the tracks and that I left tracks myself. I was not sure if this was a new development though. We had received the gifts from the mogg, which might have affected us or left traces on us. However, it was also possible that I had not noticed our tracks before due to the background noise that was now gone. Kra's traces were now obvious.

Wolfram was whittling and Grogg sewing when I returned. I told them what I had discovered and Wolfram also wondered if it was the result of the mogg's gifts. The horizon in the north was still covered by dark clouds, but they had not come any closer. I gave myself far sight to observe the storm. It was so far away that it was difficult to see any details and I did not see anything different through the ring. However, I spotted bolts of lightning crackling across the sky. Grogg tensed up when I told them about the lightning, but calmed down when I estimated that the storm was two days travel north. Kra was still gone, but Grogg said it would take time to find anything worth fighting.

The day was ending, so I sat down to meditate on Ajaw while they approached the horizon. Hylda prepared an evening meal and called us together when Ajaw touched the horizon, but Nuur-Karif and Yana remained in the tent with the patient. Looking to the north, the storm seemed to be fading.

Kra loudly returned while we sat eating and a spike appeared next to Grogg. It was about half a meter long and slightly curved. Judging from the sound of wings flapping, Kra had come from the east. Grogg licked the spike and praised Kra in glowing terms. The spike looked like it could have come from some kind of animal. The bottom end looked like it had been damaged by heat or something corrosive. While the rest of the spike felt very strong, the surface near the bottom was mottled and felt brittle.

I took the spike to Nuur-Karif to ask if Haros knew what it was. When I opened the tent flap, they were sitting on the mat in the middle and looked much better. However, when they looked at me, their eyes widened in fear and confusion. It was unclear if it was me or the spike that scared them, but Yana signalled that I should leave. It did not seem possible to get anything intelligent from them, so I left.

Wolfram was going to take the first watch, so I went to consult with the stars near the edge of the cliffs. The view of the stars were excellent and I could see The Hunters lurking far to the south. If the dead were dancing in the sky, the stars might be able to tell me something about it.

I woke up again sometime later with Nuur-Karif standing over me and Grogg and Wolfram right behind them. I had passed out again and Nuur-Karif said I had almost stopped breathing. They complained that I was being careless, but I explained that we should learn as much as we could about the dead if we were going to send them to their proper place.

It had been an extreme reaction though, and I could not remember anything. Perhaps I had gotten too close and the dead had somehow been able to attack me. To be certain, I checked my aura, but it looked the same as before.

I was tired from my ordeal, so I went to get some rest before my watch started. Wolfram woke me up about half an hour later and my watch went by very quietly. I woke Keri and meditated a bit under the stars before going to bed.

[Stomoxys]

Hylda woke us in the morning and pointed out that two of the vultures were back. They were indeed circling above us, but the focus of their circle was about a bit to the north of the camp. It was where Grogg had been hitting the ground, but besides the craters Grogg had left, there were nothing there.

I asked Yana if they thought it was me or the spike who had scared Haros. They did not know, but they thought it could be either. However, they were well enough to ride a camel now.

Wolfram transformed into their bear shape and we loaded them up. When we were done, Nuur-Karif instructed us to start walking and said they would catch up. They did not wish to upset Haros with the giant bear. I improved my vision and we began to walk.

Nuur-Karif, Yana, and Haros soon caught up with us on their camels and Haros was much calmer than earlier. They even came up to me, despite some protests from the camel, and asked if I was a snake who had gained arms and legs. I said no, but that I had heard that I could lose them, thinking about the voice in the Ashtar chapel back in the Aldera lands. Haros had not heard of such things and wondered if I came from the sea. Again I answered no and they thought this was just as well.

They then asked me were I was from and I said that The Homeland was far to the south, at the centre of the world. They wondered if I was from The Land of the Dead. I explained that The Homeland is south of The Land of the Dead. This surprised them and they thought it had to be so hot that the mountains melted. I said that it was not that hot, but that molten stone would occasionally erupt from Vaxo. They looked puzzled and asked who was guarding the mountain. I reassured them that The Priests and The People are guarding The Homeland. This seemed to allay their concerns, but they said they hoped everything was well. I asked why they asked and they answered that there was an old story that the dead had sent an expedition south to find the gate to The Underworld among the molten mountains. I had never heard of such a thing, but if they had tried, they would surely be destroyed, just like any other apeoid.

We had a lunch break when Ajaw was at their highest. Nuur-Karif found the spike from one of the saddle bags and asked Haros what it was. They immediately turned serious and said they thought it came from a Salaksva, the only lizard fierce enough to hunt the fire lizards.

I asked if the fire lizards were the salamanders Munir had talked about and from the description, this sounded plausible. The Salaksva was several times larger and covered in hundreds of spikes, at least according to the stories Haros had heard. The Salaksva was also immune to the salamander acid. They hunted by charging the salamanders and impaling them with their spikes.

This creature sounded almost like a gargantuan. However, not any I had heard or seen. Hundreds of spikes also sounded a bit odd, so perhaps the stories had exaggerated.

Nuur-Karif asked for pen and paper and sketched the dragon spawn we had fought. Haros said it did not match the description, but said they had never seen a Salaksva themselves, only heard about them in stories. Grogg wondered if the creatures could talk, but Haros said they had never heard of a Salaksva talking in any of their stories.

They wondered why we asked and I told them that Nuur-Karif's sketch was a dragon. They said they had heard that there was a mogg travelling north to hunt for dragons, but had not been convinced before now. They asked if we were the seven returned to finish the battle. The others said no and asked why they thought so. They said we had some of the abilities of the seven. Particularly Wolfram who could shift shape. The mogg had said that they had to claim the dragon before the seven got hold of it.

I asked them what they meant with the final battke. They said that there had been stories that the seven had fallen, but they would return and finish their fight. After I translated, Grogg said that we had talked to the seven, but neither Yana nor I felt like translating that detail.

Instead I asked them what they had meant with snakes who got legs. Haros said that their tribe had been scribes before they had to flee the land they came from. They lost everything, except their stories that were passed on orally from generation to generation. Much had been lost, but there were some stories about snakes that gained legs to wander on land. I asked if the snakes came from the south, but they did not know.

Looking in the direction we were going, Haros said we were headed straight for the place the disaster had happened. I noticed they used the diminutive Fara for Farmir, indicating that they had been close.

I asked what had happened to the land they came from. They said bitterly that we could go and ask the dead for details. The dead had arrived in boats on the southern coast. However, they had soon been everywhere and sailed up the rivers. The scribes had held out the longest, but in the end, they too had to flee. By then it was too late and they had to leave all their archives behind. Only a few survived and made it to the desert. Since then, they had stayed in the there.

Our map does not cover much of the land south of The Desert Lake, but it has a large river delta on the far side of the wetlands. When I sailed north from The Homeland with Toltecatl, we travelled mostly north with no land in sight. If my bearings were right, the sea east of The Cities of the Prince, called The Sea of Ajaw, forms a large gulf south of the deserts which must have been were the dead landed. If they came from the east, like Odon, that would make sense.

We continued our travel. I walked next to Haros and practiced my Arani. In the evening, I noticed the vultures were gone. The pair had followed us, stating some distance to the south, but now they were nowhere to be seen. The wind had come from north east all day, but now it was dying down and there were no signs of the storm. I was not sure it would be possible to see the storm, even if it was at its most intense since it would be too far away.

Nuur-Karif checked on Haros and said that they were fine, but they should not overexert themselves. They could still not remember how they had ended up in the cave. Our current position was as good as any, so we stopped for the day and set up the tents. Nuur-Karif wanted to be alone with Yana, so they asked Haros to sleep in the big tent.

After eating, I took the coin from the west to try to figure out how it worked again. This time I was able to read the threads more clearly and thought I figured out how it would work. If there was a clear answer, like which way a stone would land, it would not be much help. However, if there was a choice with many unknowns, it could align with the threads to show the most optimal path. It would not require any energy and thinking about the question should be enough. It was not entirely clear how it defined optimal though.

Wolfram took the first watch, so I went to bed when I was finished. When Wolfram woke me, they told me they had seen a strange shimmer in the air to the south east. It looked like the shimmer made by hot air rising, however, they could only see it through the ring. I gave myself night vision and looked were they pointed. There was indeed a strange shimmer to the south and something that looked like faint clouds blowing this way and that.

I fetched the Kabal staff and looked in the direction of the shimmer. Immediately, I felt a stinging sensation all over my body and waves of exhaustion and confusion washed over me, making me drop the staff.

The feeling subsided when I dropped the staff and I got back on my feet. I tried to explain to Wolfram what had happened, but they did not know any more than me. Steeling myself, I picked up the staff and stared to the south. The feelings returned, but this time I was prepared and managed to hold on to the staff. It felt like I was standing in the middle of a hysterical and panicking crowd of apeoids and the emotions threatened to overwhelm me.

I let go of the staff again. It looked like the center of the shimmer was at the edge of the lake, or perhaps a bit off shore. I estimated it would take two days to get there. The area must have been several kilometers wide though.

My watch went by unnaturally quiet, as usual, and I woke Nuur-Karif afterwards. Before I went to bed, I fetched the hood and asked Nuur-Karif to help me. After what happened when I read the threads, I wanted to be careful, so I asked them to only wait a minute or two before they revived me. I then put on the hood and tightened the belt.

I woke again when Nuur-Karif loosened the hood. While I was gone, it had felt like a terrible dream. Even though they were very far away, I had heard piercing screams of pain that were so loud it hurt. In between the screams were wild shrieks of hunters and it all melded together in a terrible cacophony.

The ordeal had left me exhausted, so I stumbled back to bed, but could not shake the feeling of worry. The screams had been extremely loud, like the screams of thousands amplified exponentially. While Nuur-Karif and Wolfram could easily deal with one or two spirits, this many would overwhelm them. I curled up and tried to sleep. It was almost comforting to have the apeoids calmly sleeping nearby.

[Stomoxys]

Hylda again had the last watch and woke us in the morning. I immediately grabbed the spirit ring to watch for the distortion in the south. It was still there, but much harder to see in the light of Ajaw. I then found the Kabal staff and looked again. It was unpleasant, but nowhere near as bad as the night before and I could observe the disturbance more intently. It looked like there were spirit traces from the disturbance leading west, but I could not tell if they were coming or going.

Nuur-Karif had not really learned anything during the night, but thought that a frontal attack would be too dangerous. I was a bit surprised by their lack of zeal when there were demonstrably thousands of spirits not in their right place. Grogg commented that Nuur-Karif should sneak in alone and deal with the spirits, but Nuur-Karif countered that our food rations would run out before they were done.

When we fought the spirits at the inn, they had not shown any interest before we attacked them and it was unclear if they could even see us. The traces we left that were visible with the staff were very faint and perhaps that was the only part of us the spirits could see. I asked Wolfram if they knew of any way to hide us, but they did not and did not know if it was even possible. They speculated that perhaps things that could hide us from other living things could hide us from spirits as well. Nuur-Karif suggested the parasol, but I had my doubts. Illusions affect senses like vision and hearing, but whatever, the spirit traces are, they are not detectable for normal senses.

Still, the others wanted to test if Kra could find Nuur-Karif with the parasol. To avoid a hysterical fit from Yana, we went behind the tents before Nuur-Karif opened it. I brought along the Kabal staff and I thought I saw something under the parasol. It was hard to tell due to the general difficulty of seeing with the staff, but I thought whatever it was disappeared when I let go of the staff.

Wolfram turned into the demon bear, but quickly turned back and said they had not seen anything. They then erected their totem and wanted to see if they could see Nuur-Karif's aura. After a few minutes of drawing a small circle, they performed their ritual and instructed Nuur-Karif to walk over to the totem. As the parasol drifted close, a shimmer appeared in the air underneath it.

Nuur-Karif wanted to test if Kra could find them and turned the parasol invisible. However, there was still a slight distortion where the shadow of the parasol should be as they moved away from us. Grogg told Kra to fly to Nuur-Karif and they flew off in the right direction. They circled around and appeared to circle Nuur-Karif, but it was hard to tell and perhaps they were just able to see the distortion of the shadow or follow Nuur-Karif's tracks. Nuur-Karif moved a bit around and Kra looked like they followed with some delay.

The parasol returned after a few minutes and Nuur-Karif said they were done, but Wolfram wanted to test a bit more. First they threw a bit of sand under the parasol and some of it appeared to disappear, but it was hard to tell with all the dust. I then stepped under the parasol together with Nuur-Karif and I also disappeared. While the illusion had been very stable on Nuur-Karif, I noticed that I had to be very careful as any limbs that stuck out from the shadow caused some flickering.

The experiments had given me more time to study the illusion and I was also able to trace the threads of energy around it. They were different from how I would have done it, but I got the gist of it and tried to reproduce it. As expected, my body became invisible. However, it did not hide any sounds and would not hide me from any other senses either.

We returned to the campfire and Yana was standing with Haros by the camel and waved for Nuur-Karif. They went over while the rest of us began to dismantle the camp.

When the tent were packed up and Wolfram had gotten back in the harness, we continued on our way to the south east. To our right, the cliffs dropped sharply down into the lake, once in a while broken up by deep ravines leading down towards the water.

I asked Keri how much supplies Pakk and Gromann had had. They did not know. They had been well supplied when they went into the wetlands, but quite a lot had been left at The Crypt of Kings and Keri was uncertain if Pakk and Gromann had had time to resupply when they left again. Pakk might know a few tricks to make supplies last though.

While we travelled, I practiced Arani with Haros. They were not used to teaching, but just practicing pronouncing the words was helpful and I learned many terms for various types of sand dunes. Yana joined after a while.

As we got further south, it became warmer and the apeoids were sweating profusely. I paid close attention to the disturbance and when we got closer, I noticed that it was not homogenous. It appeared to be a wave of something moving around at random inside an area of maybe 10 square kilometers. The wave itself looked like it was several hundred meters long and sometimes it split up and merged again. In its wake, the air appeared to shimmer when looking through the ring. From out position, it appeared to reach the water, but did not go much further. Whatever was containing it stopped there.

We set up camp at nightfall with the disturbance clearly visible. Haros wanted to go to bed early and was about to lie down on the ground, but Hylda found some blankets for them.

The disturbance looked like something Odon might know more about than us, so I wanted to search for them. I still had the Arani book, so I thought the easiest would be to look for its owner. That would hopefully lead me to Odon's follower and Odon themselves.

I danced under the stars until I felt a revolting smell of salt in the air. Looking around, I was standing on a pier looking out over the water. Behind me, a large apeoid city built on and in a steep cliff face rose above me. Overlooking the city was a large palace with great domes and carved arches. An apeoid were standing on a balcony overlooking the harbour. It was reading a book and I knew that this apeoid was important.

When I came to, I recognized the city as Omar on the coast of The Sea of Ajaw. On our way north from The Homeland, the ships stopped by in Omar to take on supplies before sailing on towards The Brown Forest. The palace belonged to the sultan of Omar, a type of king, said to be the wealthiest apeoid in the world because they controlled all trade on The Sea of Ajaw. The apeoid I had seen had been them.

From my vision, I was certain that the sultan was the owner of the book. This did not help us locate Odon, but it raised a number of interesting questions. If Odon came from the east and crossed The Sea of Ajaw, they might have landed in Omar and crossed the desert on foot to get to Arland. It would have been a long hike, but I got the impression that their followers were less bothered by mundane concerns like food and water than normal apeoids. How they had gotten hold of the book was another question. Had Odon received it from the sultan or had it been stolen? Were the sultan aware of what Odon was? Wolfram failed to grasp any of these questions and thought my vision had been a failure.

To find Odon's current whereabouts, I had to look for them directly. This could be difficult, so I asked Wolfram to turn into the star bear and help me. They agreed and joined me in the dance.

Again I felt the smell of salt, but this was compounded by being in a crowd of apeoids. I felt like retching. Looking around, I was on a large boat with worn and rotting planks. The awful part was the apeoids, however. They were all carcasses that looked like they had died years ago. It looked like they were preserved in some way, but the decay had gotten so far that I could not even tell what species they were. However, they were not dead, but moved about and I could feel the cacophony of their emotions.

It took me several minutes to regain my composure when I returned. Wolfram had not seen anything, but declared that what I had seen had been an abomination caused by bad sorcerers that had to be destroyed. They thought it was similar to an incident in The Cities of the Prince were they and their master had purged a coven of bad sorcerers. Those sorcerers had reanimated a few corpses, but I explained that whatever I had seen had not been dead and there could have been hundreds of them.

According to Wolfram, it was even worse if spirits were trapped in dead bodies than if the sorcerers were just controlling corpses. A healthy spirit would never take up residence in a corpse. I wondered if this was something the apeoids could have done willingly in another futile attempt to stave off death. Despite being typical apeoid behaviour, Wolfram refused to contemplate the possibility.

I pointed out that it was a pretty bad sign if these were the type of things Odon were doing when we were not present. Oddly enough, Wolfram insisted that Odon had had to be captured or something similar. I suggested we could try to look for Paulon as well, but Wolfram thought they would be too close to Odon and it would not work.

Wolfram took the first watch and I sat down to meditate on the stars. When Wolfram went to bed, I took over the watch and gave myself night vision. The disturbance was much easier to see at night. When my watch was over, I woke Nuur-Karif and fetched the staff. The disturbance was more intense now and I could even hear a low frequency sound that was very unpleasant. I soon had to put away the staff and go to sleep.

[Stomoxys]

During breakfast, Wolfram tried to learn more about the dead from Haros. They said it was the living dead who came, but they did not know much. However, they did know about someone who should know more and could introduce us. It would take a few days, but we had to make some kind of promise to keep the valley secret. Still, they thought it was a much better idea than going to the disturbance. It seemed Munir had been right about the rumours of valleys in the desert. However, Wolfram insisted we had to go to the disturbance first.

I wondered if we had any kind of plan for what to do when we reached the disturbance, but, unsurprisingly, none of the others had really thought about it. Keri thought the disturbance was consistent with what they had seen around Pakk and Gromann. It had felt like someone was always watching and they had felt like looking over their shoulder all the time, as if someone was standing there. Wolfram thought we could just get rid of the spirits, but I asked them how they planned to deal with thousands of them. They did not know.

Keri had not seen Madan or Ebsalon leave The Crypt of Kings. They were most worried about Ebsalon, since Madan was already lost. They had thought that Madan was supposed to be locked in the crypt, but instead, something had escaped.

Whatever had escaped seemed to be hunting for more spirits. The spirits we fought at the inn had pursued Kra and Grogg had heard voices that told them to follow. I had heard both shrieks of pain and hunting shrieks when I wore the hood. When Wolfram heard about the screams, they declared that there was a bad force that had to be destroyed. I was less certain. There was certainly a force that kept the spirits there, but I suspected that at least some of them were so deranged from their stay in the crypt that it was better that they were bound.

Nuur-Karif asked Keri if they were willing to continue on. They said they could go a bit further and wait for a few days to see if anyone returned. Nuur-Karif suggested Haros should stay with Keri.

I wanted to try the hood in daylight and asked Nuur-Karif to release the straps after one minute. I heard no distinct screams this time, but instead got a similar feeling to what I had gotten from the staff the night before. It felt awful, but not as bad as the screams.

The day went by without incident. As we got closer to the disturbance, it was possible to see it even without the ring. Especially after dark. It looked like the horizon was twisting and turning when we set up camp.

A vulture had landed on a rock a few hundred meters away from the camp. The others ignored it, but I walked over to see what it was looking at. It mostly ignored me until I was about 20 meters away. It then turned to me and looked like it was about to take off, so I stopped and instead it jumped down on the other side of the rock. It was not the vulture that vomited on our tent and I did not think I had seen it before.

I sneaked around the rock to see what it was doing. The bird was scratching in the sand with its beak and looked very intent on digging. It seemed unconcerned and I reached out to calm it further. It turned around and jumped a few meters away, but I did not feel any alarm from it. I dug a bit in the sand where it had been scratching and discovered that the sand was moist. Digging a bit deeper, I found sandy clay and water trickled out. I heard a scream from above and another vulture came flying.

While I walked back to the others, the vulture on the ground called to the other bird. While I told the others that the vultures had helped us find water, the birds drank their fill and left. Nuur-Karif grimaced when they heard of the birds, but went and filled the water skins with Yana.

After dinner, Wolfram wanted me to investigate the disturbance. It was unclear what they meant, but I said that if they joined the dance, we could try to find if there was a way to banish the spirits. They thought it was unlikely that we would learn much, but did not have any better suggestions.

Suddenly, Kra began cawing and Grogg declared that Kra thought the spirits were in Pakk and Gromann. It sounded as if Kra had reacted to something, but I saw no changes in the south. However, when I put on the ring, it was like I could almost hear thousands of whispered voices. The ring had only affected the visual senses before, so I dropped the ring. The whispers gradually disappeared, but returned when I looked through the ring again. Nuur-Karif had not heard anything.

Kra was nipping at Grogg and indicated that they wanted to go north. I told Grogg and they immediately got up to follow Kra. The raven was hopping north and lead Grogg away from the camp. I was uncertain if it was a good idea to follow. To decide, I tossed the western coin that came up head first, indicating that I should follow. Wolfram came along, but Nuur-Karif had already gone to bed.

After ten minutes, Kra jumped down on the ground in front of Grogg and then flew around in circles while cawing. I could not see anything on the ground, but I felt a shudder when I touched the sand. Kra landed right in front of me and kept cawing. Wolfram wondered if we should dig and started pushing sand away. I suspected there must be spirit tracks there, so I ran back to the camp to fetch the Kabal staff.

I wrapped the staff in some fabric and ran back to the place Kra had indicated. Wolfram had turned into the big bear and had dug a deep whole while Kra was circling about the cliff edge a few hundred meters to the north west with Grogg following.

There were several spirit tracks in the area, but mostly our own. One of them stood out and led north west. Kra and Grogg returned and I confirmed my suspicion that the tracks going north were Kra's. No other spirits had been there though.

It looked like Kra wanted us to come to the cliff edge, so I followed the tracks and was followed by the others. At the very edge, I found a rock where Kra had landed. However, there were other tracks coming from the water far below. They had approached Kra and the bird had taken off and flown north at great speed with the other spirits following. This must have been where Kra was attacked by the spirits we fought behind the inn.

Kra jumped around and pecked the ground as if they were looking for something. I told Grogg and they began digging, but Kra tried to pull them away. Grogg did not notice until I placed the spirit ring over their eye.

Kra led Grogg to some rocks, picked something up and gave it to Grogg. I did not immediately recognise what it was, but Grogg said that it was a troll tooth. Judging from the tracks, Kra had dropped it when they were attacked. As far as we knew, Pakk was the only other troll in the area, so it had to be their tooth. I wondered how it had come out of Pakk though.

[Stomoxys]

Suddenly a scream from Hylda pierced the night. Grogg set off at full sprint back to the camp followed by Wolfram and me. When I reached the camp, Grogg was holding Hylda, but there did not seem to be any immediate emergency. Hylda said that Haros had been twisting in their sleep and looked sick. They had woken them, but Haros had been confused and scared. Eventually, Nuur-Karif had managed to calm Haros down, but they looked exhausted. They feared what had been wrong with them had returned and had stayed with Haros in the main tent.

I entered the tent and looked at Haros with the staff. I could not quite put my finger on what, but something seemed to be off with them. Looking around, I realised that it was not just the apeoid, but the entire tent. It felt like a small bit of the disturbance had come to the camp, like a weak and unpleasant echo.

I wanted to look at Haros' aura again and we moved them into the starlight. Their aura looked like before, but perhaps it had gotten slightly more jagged again. I picked up the staff and noticed that there was a faint rain of something falling on the camp from above. It looked like small shimmering specks of dust sprinkled down. It was very faint however, much weaker than the tracks left by a spirit.

I asked Wolfram to investigate with their ritual. While they set up their totem, I looked at Haros aura again with the staff, but it looked the same as without the staff.

When Wolfram's circle was complete, they performed their ritual. For a moment, it looked like there was a faint flash over the tent, but then everything looked normal. Wolfram then tried another ritual that was supposed to detect energies, but nothing happened, even though they tried twice. Whatever the dust was, it was not a normal spirit or energies. I speculated that it did not really exist in our world, but only in the world of spirits that was only visible with the staff or the hood.

When I suggested trying the hood, Wolfram said they could reinforce my will using a ritual. Normally I would not think it was necessary or that it would make a difference, but whatever was going in the disturbance was clearly very powerful, so I agreed.

I told Nuur-Karif to wake me after a minute and tightened the straps. This time, I had an odd sensation of falling asleep after I lost consciousness. While I slept, I heard a voice speak in a language I did not know, but I could understand. It told me to come and join them. I was woken by Nuur-Karif loosening the straps on the hood.

Haros claimed the effects of the disturbance was worst when they slept, and my strange experience suggested the same. Nuur-Karif said one of us could try to sleep to see what would happen. Grogg immediately suggested Nuur-Karif should do it. They agreed, as long as someone watched Haros in the meantime. I needed to watch for more spirit dust, but Hylda volunteered.

While we discussed the plan, I gradually became aware of an unpleasant feeling of someone watching me or looking for me. I had a constant urge to look over my shoulder, even though there was no one there.

Hylda's piercing voice came from the tent in what was supposed to be a soothing song. Grogg sat down and began fiddling with their pouch of crow's toes. The long term effect of the crow's toes was calming, so I asked Grogg to prepare an infusion for me.

Nuur-Karif laid down in Yana's lap next to the totem. According to Wolfram, the mind fortifying ritual would last another half an hour, though I had not really felt any effect. I sat down with the staff to observe if anything happened. After a while, Nuur-Karif's breathing became deeper and it sounded like they were asleep.

The wave in the disturbance swung back and forth. Once in a while, it looked like it ejected small waves that continued beyond the confinement. After approximately 20 minutes, a small wave came in our direction and a small beam of spirit dust hit the ground next to Nuur-Karif. It was followed by whispering sounds and the dust hung suspended in the air, drifting slowly down.

Wolfram had the ring and pointed in the direction of the wave. It had changed course and were now coming straight towards us. Even Grogg must have seen something, because they pointed towards the disturbance and said that it was not supposed to be there. They had smoked crow's toes continuously, so what they actually saw was unclear, but they claimed it was the northern lights.

We agreed that if the wave extended beyond its confinement, we would wake Nuur-Karif. The wave came closer and closer until it suddenly stopped and turned back. However, it looked like a small wave of dust was still coming towards us. I signalled for Yana to wake Nuur-Karif while Wolfram went into the tent to defend Haros with their shield.

The dust approached at great speed and rained down over the camp. Nuur-Karif and Yana had gotten to their feet inside Wolfram's circle, but did not seem to notice anything. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed by an intense light and noise. I stumbled forward and made it into the circle were Nuur-Karif caught me before I fell. They did not appear to notice anything.

I let go of the staff and the light and noise was replace by silence. I felt a bit numb after the onslaught, but otherwise I felt fine and the camp looked normal. Looking into the tent, Haros was calm behind Wolfram who was holding up their shield. They said they had felt a weak tingle in their shield arm, but otherwise nothing had happened. Nuur-Karif wondered what was going on and confirmed they had not noticed anything. They had heard a voice while they slept though.

Haros would not get any rest if we stayed and I did not feel like sleeping that close to the disturbance myself, so I agreed when Nuur-Karif suggested we move the camp further north.

Grogg suggested that I look for Pakk first using the tooth. I agreed, but I wanted to have the star bear with me in case something strange happened again. Wolfram agreed and Hylda got around to making the infusion I had asked Grogg about. Keri was happy to move away and took charge of dismantling the camp.

When we finished dancing, I was absolutely certain where Pakk was. They were at the surface of the lake south of the disturbance about 350 meters out on the lake. This was a bit odd, because trolls in general do not float very well. They could of course be in a boat, but I would not have expected them to drag a boat through the desert. Perhaps if they had come from The Wetlands by boat the whole way. I was glad the lake was mostly fresh water and that Odon's boat had been on salt water.

We packed up the tents and Hylda handed me a mug of crow's toe infusion when we set off. Grogg insisted on keeping an eye on the disturbance and wanted to walk backwards. However, I managed to get them on a rant on how much better camels were than horses which distracted them from the lights. The infusion Hylda had made were stronger than expected, but I drank it slowly and it was not too strong, because the effects were very gentle.

After some time, Nuur-Karif declared that we had gone far enough and we stopped. I realised that I was quite intoxicated by the crow's toes when Wolfram began erecting their totem and I thought all the symbols looked like toads. They still wanted me to help them draw their circle and they were satisfied with the results, even though I was certain I had drawn toads all over it.

The others except Hylda and Keri went to bed while I remained intoxicated for several hours. Eventually it subsided and I began to feel like I could sleep again. Unfortunately, the unpleasant sensation of someone watching me returned with my senses. I considered whether I would feel better sleeping outside, but Keri wanted to gather everyone in the large tent, so I relented and went to bed.

[Stomoxys]

There was a commotion in the tent of Nuur-Karif and Yana in the morning. While they were loud, it did not sound like it was an emergency, so I turned over and tried to sleep on. At least they were not mating. Keri looked into our tent and said something had been going on over at our original campsite and wanted to take Haros, Yana, and Hylda further away. I thought it was a sound idea, but I needed sleep.

I woke up again a couple of hours later feeling refreshed. While I was picking out the edible parts of the rations, two Yanas emerged from their tent. Wolfram thought it was an illusion and suggested punching one of them. This prompted an outburst from one of the Yanas, indicating that it was Nuur-Karif. I quickly searched for threads indicating that it was an illusion, but found none. Checking their aura, I determined that Nuur-Karif had performed some kind of shape shifting.

I asked what had happened and Nuur-Karif claimed they had received a new gift from Ashtar. That would explain the unfamiliar energies I had detected. I found it curious that Ashtar bestowed so many abilities on someone so easily distracted as Nuur-Karif. At least their Nuur-Karif's main goal is not murdering for gold, making them better than most ashtarites.

When asked, they thought they could turn back to themselves and demonstrated a transformation in front of us. Their clothes remained unchanged though. I warned them that both their scent and their aura had not been affected by the transformation. Their aura would also reveal that they had shifted their shape, which would raise suspicions.

We prepared to leave for the disturbance in to the south. To move quickly, Nuur-Karif and I would ride on Wolfram in bear shape while Grogg would run besides us. We would travel to the cliffs on the northern edge of the disturbance. From there, we would hopefully find a vantage point where we could see Pakk out on the water. The others set off in the opposite direction.

When we approached the disturbance, I could clearly see the waves moving around in broad daylight and even Grogg could see the ripples in the air. At our previous campsite, I unpacked the Kabal staff and looked for tracks. Our tracks were visible everywhere, but it also looked like the whole camp had been dusted with spirit dust. I also got an unpleasant feeling, as if I was not supposed to be there. The feeling was intensified when I saw the dust.

I got the western coin and flipped it, considering if we should continue into the disturbance. It ended with the head side up, indicating that we should turn back. I pointed this out to the others, but they ignored it. I wondered what criteria the coin used. It was obviously extremely dangerous to enter the disturbance and probably even worse at night. However, there did not seem to be any other way to reach Pakk and Gromann and learn what was going on.

We continued on towards the cliffs north. I estimated that it would take about five hours at our speed to reach Pakk, so we were still a good distance away. Occasionally, I tried to touch the staff, making sure it did not touch Wolfram. Their bear shapes were not very bright, especially the large one, an they might degenerate to the level of a beast. The entire area of the disturbance was crisscrossed by traces of spirits.

There was not much to see when we reached the cliffs. However, there was promontory to the south of us that looked like it offered a good viewpoint. On the southern and western sides, the promontory dropped off into the ocean while the northern side was merely steep. I was a bit concerned that Wolfram would slip and send us all tumbling off the cliffs, but they made it up with a bit of direction.

From the summit, we could see the coast all the way to the horizon in both directions. To our south, a bight many kilometers across formed a large bay. Something was floating in the middle of it, approximately where Pakk was. With far vision, I determined that it was a large raft with a tent on it. There were no signs of movement and the raft looked quite improvised. There were powerful energies emanating from the raft, but I saw no signs of spirits near it.

Following the coastline with my eyes, the cliffs got lower and less steep at the innermost part of the bay, so it should be possible to make it down to the beach. This would take us into the middle of the disturbance and I carefully picked up the kabal staff. There were traces of spirit dust everywhere and my vision felt warped and twisted. I hurriedly let go of the staff before the dizziness and confusion became overpowering.

Nuur-Karif announced that we had to get down to the water which Wolfram interpreted as going over the cliffs. Luckily we were able to stop them and direct them in the right direction before they jumped.

We followed the cliff's edge towards the center of the disturbance. Spirits were circling above us, but their movements appeared random and it did not look like they noticed us. However, the disturbance was so strong that my vision was warped if I tried to look far, especially up at the sky.

I decided to look for energies too see if anything was going on besides the raft. I gathered energy from the surrounding and tied the pattern. The raft glowed with a fierce, crimson light, but I could not see any other sources. However, after a few seconds I saw the spirits stir. It looked like a wave was rippling towards us and I got the distinct feeling that something had seen us.

Wolfram increased their gait to a thundering gallop in a direction that should take us around the ripple. To my relief, we passed the wave above us on our right side and it continued on to the spot were I had gathered energies. Apparently, the spirits could detect it if I manipulated energy, or at least if I gathered them from the surroundings.

We continued towards the beach while the wave spread out over the area we had been. It seemed to dilute as it spread out and get weaker as it neared the ground, but it would have been hard to avoid without Wolfram's speed.

As the cliffs drew near, I became aware of a high pitched whine coming from no particular direction. It was very unpleasant, but the others did not seem to notice and there was nothing to do about it. The path ahead of us down to the water was steep, but not too difficult and we made it down without mishaps.

The raft was floating out in the bay about 700 hundred meters away from us and the sound was even higher at the beach. It seemed to be epicentre of the spirit cloud and I had no desire to be there after dark. Nuur-Karif wanted to take a break and eat, but the sound made it impossible to rest and I wanted to be as far away as possible when Ajaw disappeared, so I swam ahead. There were no birds or any other signs of life on the beach.

Just as I was about to get in the water, Wolfram pointed to a small speck out on the horizon. It was far away but I agreed with them that it could be the black sails of a ship. As far as I knew, there were no harbours on the lake and I had not seen any signs of ships while we travelled. Hopefully, the ship we saw would pass by. However, I thought it was a bad sign.

[Stomoxys]

I swam out to the raft and felt the energies emanating from it grow stronger as I approached. Close by, they were so strong that I had to focus to not lose direction. The raft was eerily silent as I drifted up to it and grabbed hold of a rope to climb aboard. It turned out the rope was not properly fastened so I slid back into the water with a small splash. As I grabbed on to one of the logs the raft was made from and pulled myself aboard, I heard something stir in the tent. Somebody was alive after all.

I stood up on the raft and said "hello". My greeting was answered by cursing and I recognised the voice of Pakk. They asked who was there and I told them. An opening appeared in the tent and the troll peered out suspiciously. They looked drawn and haggard, but they relaxed when they saw it was me. I also noticed their missing tooth.

Pakk was not happy to see me though. Once they had determined who I was, they told me to go away. I pointed out that they appeared to be in a bad shape, which they conceded, but they could not let "them" escape. As long as they had "the stone", "they" would be imprisoned. I asked them to clarify and they said Groman was carrying the stone which was why they could not talk. I deduced that "they" were the spirits and the stone was presumably related to the energy emanating from the raft.

My suspicions were confirmed when I peeked into the tent. After I got over the fetid air that wafted towards me, I saw Groman lying behind a curtain in the back of the tent. They looked emaciated and their veins were bulging under their pale skin. Their hands clutched a stone in a death grip that made their knuckles white. Red light was emanating from a stone they clutched to their chest that bathed the dwarf in its glow. The energy coming from the stone were so strong that I could have pointed to it with my eyes closed.

Pakk repeated that I had to leave and tried to usher me off the raft. I told them about the sails we had seen and they got a horrified look on their face. They insisted that I had to leave and nobody could come there. They had believed that the dead could not follow them out on the water, but they had been wrong. Groman had at first not believed what was happening and had slipped into a coma. The troll was clearly unhinged and began crying making it exhausting just to be in their presence.

I was able to calm them down a bit and they said we had to be gone before it got dark. The spirits could see those that slept, so we had to get far away before we could rest. I pointed out that they could also detect the use of energy, which made them hysterical again. Nobody should try to affect the spirits.

My companions finally finished their break and swam out to the raft. Pakk told us all to leave but were grateful for an extra waterskin Wolfram had brought along. Nuur-Karif commented that the rations stored in the tent looked rancid and began sorting through them to see what was salvageable. I tried to learn more about Groman's stone.

They had found the stone in The Tomb of King and it bound the spirits. According to Groman, they were the only one strong enough to hold it. If they let go of it, all the spirits would be released. I suggested that someone else could hold the stone to relive Groman, but this sent Pakk into another hysterical fit.

After Pakk had calmed down, Wolfram asked if they had met Odon. They did not know who it was, so I supplied that Odon was a grey. Pakk did not respond, but walked over to Groman and covered them up with the sheets.

Wolfram asked who the spirits were and Pakk claimed they were the kings' guardians. Large numbers of soldiers had been sacrificed to guard the kings' rotting corpses. I asked if we were visible to the spirits, but Pakk only answered that the water protected them and went on a rant. They had prepared themselves carefully, but the spirits had come faster than expected. As a result, they had to set off in a hurry, but the water had kept them mostly safe. They had tried to stay ahead of the spirits, but they had not been fast enough and in the end they had stopped in the bay. It turned out that they had travelled back to the crypt after meeting Isa. There, they had picked up the stone before travelling on The Land of the Dead and setting off on the raft. As far as Pakk knew, Ebsalon was still at the crypt.

I wondered what would happen if Groman let go of the stone and the spirits were released. Pakk did not know for certain, but they had been imprisoned for so long that they were completely insane. Instead of going to the underworld were apeoids belong, they would scatter and attack the spirits of the living and the dying. In a worst case scenario, no apeoid would be able to die properly again.

Nuur-Karif signalled that they wanted to discuss and we stepped out of the tent. They thought there were enough food for a couple of weeks, but they doubted that Groman would last that long. Dwarves are very resilient, though, so Groman might last longer than expected. Wolfram suggested that we should kidnap Pakk and leave Groman and the spirits to fend for themselves, which I found surprising since they had just heard the possible consequences.

I got Grogg to lift me up and I could still see a black dot on the horizon. The ship was still there and looked like it was coming towards us. I reminded the others of my vision and wondered if Odon might be on the ship. The greys in the south would certainly salivate at the thought of harvesting the spirits captured by the stone.

Wolfram interrogated Pakk further on their travels and their goal, but only got a pile of papers as response. Wolfram glanced uncomprehending at them and handed them over to me. They contained dense and partially smudged notes that was written in at least two languages, Arlandese and some type of dwarfish runes. I suspect the information Groman felt were safe to share were written in Arlandese, while personal notes were written in Dwarfish.

Groman were convinced that there was nothing that could be done with the stone. Instead, they would always have to be on the move, staying ahead of the spirits. In the later notes, their tone became more panicked and incoherent. The spirits were closing in and their only hope was to find the descendants of Esfir. They were the only ones who knew how to stay hidden for centuries.

Pakk interrupted my reading and said we had to leave before night fell. From the description, it was plausible that the decendants of Efsin were Haros' tribe. There were no other apeoids living the desert as far, as we knew, so I suggested we should try to find them. Wolfram said they wanted to try to banish the spirits, but agreed when I pointed that thousands of spirits would be too much for them to deal with. Instead, we decided to give Pakk our water and rations and leave the area for the night.

We returned to shore and climbed back up to the plateau the way we had come. Back at the viewpoint, I could still see the ship heading towards the raft. It would take about one and a half day to reach the raft at its current speed.

Grogg and I were very tired, so we set up camp the same spot as the night before while Nuur-Karif and Wolfram continued on to fetch the rest of our party. We were both exhausted, so we risked not keeping watch.

[Stomoxys]

We woke in the morning from the thuds of Wolfram galloping towards us. They and Nuur-Karif had informed the other of our plans and slept at their camp. We discussed how to approach and decided it would depend on the ship. If it was gone, we could try to find Haros people. However, if it was still approaching, we would have to deal with them one way or another first.

Riding on Wolfram, we made it to the viewpoint in a few hours. Unfortunately, the ship was still there and heading straight for the raft. If it sailed through the night, it would arrive the next morning.

To study it closer, I began to prepare far sight and pulled energy from the environment. However, it felt like something was wrong, so I let the energy go and used my own reserves instead.

With the improved vision, I could see that it was a large ship that would require a crew of at least twenty. Banners were flying from the masts and were as dark as the sails, but there were also grey and purple designs on them. I could not tell if they were supposed to represent anything though. It was hard to tell at the distance, but the ship appeared to move independently of the wind.

The spirits did not appear to react to my energy use, so Wolfram transformed into a human and we began to plan. Wolfram wanted to try to banish the spirits again. I thought they could do that later, but our first priority was to evacuate Pakk and Groman before the ship arrived. There could be hordes of dead apeoids on the ship and we would not know how to defeat any greys. Wolfram and Nuur-Karif refused to listen to reason and seemed to be overcome with bloodlust. Even the risk of handing the stone over to the greys failed to make them see reason. Wolfram went so far as asking me to swim out to the ship, but it was unclear what they thought it would achieve.

I was not able to convince them, but since the ship still was far away, Nuur-Karif and Wolfram would have to wait to sate their urges. They came up with an idiotic plan that involved, travelling to the beach in the middle of the night and wait there for the ship. It was impossible to talk sense into them, so I went along and hoped that the plan, like most of our plans, would be derailed by circumstances. We travelled north along the cliffs for a couple of hours and looked for a place to set up camp. After a bit of searching, we found a cave which pleased Nuur-Karif. I hoped the rocks would protect against spirits.

Nuur-Karif and I took the first watch while Grogg and Wolfram went to sleep. I took up position at the top of the cliffs where I could see the ship and the spirits, while remaining in communication with Nuur-Karif.

After about half an hour, it looked like a mass of spirits came free from the main cloud and headed towards us. I signalled to Nuur-Karif who went inside to wake the others. The spirits heading towards us dissipated almost immediately. The others went back to sleep, but this time nothing happened and the cloud remained unchanged for the next one and a half hour. The whole time, the ship continued steadily on its course.

When Wolfram came up to take over the watch, I gave them the ring and went down in the cave. I was a bit uneasy about the spirits, but managed to fall asleep. At some point, Nuur-Karif also came down to sleep.

Wolfram woke us when Ajaw touched the horizon. The spirits were dancing in the sky and the disturbance they caused became more pronounced as darkness fell and I gave myself night vision. By the time we reached the view point, the spirits made it difficult to see the stars. The raft was not difficult to see though. It was bathed in the crimson glow of the stone shining through the tent fabric. Further out on The Desert Sea, I could see the black sails of the ship steadily coming towards us.

It looked like Nuur-Karif and Wolfram would be able to follow through with their plan, but just as we were about to set off into the spirit area, I heard a camel approaching from the north.

I spotted an apeoid riding a camel riding south at great speed. It was not possible to tell who it was, but it was unlikely to be anyone not from our party, and probably Yana. If they continued the way they were going, they would ride right into the spirits. I pointed this out to Nuur-Karif and their lust for Yana overcame their bloodlust, so they agreed we had to intercept the camel.

When we reached them, it was indeed Yana. They had spotted a pair of dark riders coming towards their camp and had set off to find us while the rest had taken down the camp and followed as fast as they could. They could not tell for certain if it was Shadows of Amna, but it seemed implausible that anyone else would be riding around in the desert.

Wolfram remembered that they had seen a beam of Amna's light from somewhere in the area and we decided to go and investigate. The camel was exhausted, so Yana got up on Wolfram's back and we turned north. I told Yana to give a lock of hair to Nuur-Karif. In case we got separated, I could use it to find them again by tracing their threads. The spirits did not seem to notice us, but I was happy to leave them behind.

We headed north in silence and spotted the others after one and a half hour. They were making their way south with Keri leading the animals and Hylda carrying Haros. Keri had spotted something in the night, but they thought they had gotten away undetected. Hylda would have to rest soon, so they suggested that they would hide in a cave. Nuur-Karif sensed an opportunity to kill, so they agreed and said we would take care of the dark riders. Grogg would stay with the others and they would head to the cave we had rested in during the day. The rest of us would hunt the night riders.

Wolfram set off along Keri's tracks with me and Nuur-Karif on their back, staring into the night. The giant bear thundered through the desert, so unless we were careful, the riders could spot us before we spotted them and ambush us.

After half an hour, I spotted three darker figures against the backdrop of The Desert Lake. They appeared to be following Keri's tracks south along the edge of the cliffs.

I got Wolfram to stop and we crept behind a small dune that gave us some cover. The figures had not appeared to see us, so I suggested that we should move into the desert and approach from the east. If we were to fight, we could force them towards the cliffs so they could not escape.

The giant bear was surprisingly silent as we crept into position behind a larger dune about 200 meters east of Keri's tracks. It was just in time because we heard the quiet whinnying of a horse soon after. Nuur-Karif whispered that they wanted to talk to the riders and walked over the dune towards the riders. I took up position near the top of the dune and knocked an arrow to my bow, ready to fire the moment Nuur-Karif began stabbing.

The riders stopped when they saw Nuur-Karif and one walked their horse carefully forward. From my vantage point, I could tell that the two riders in the back were on guard and ready to act at a moments notice. Nuur-Karif sounded hoarse and asked for water. The rider threw them a small waterskin and moved a bit closer.

They continued to talk, and while I could not hear everything, I understood the gist of it. Nuur-Karif claimed to be lost in the desert and in need of help. Initially, the rider did not seem to care very much, but their interest picked up when Nuur-Karif mentioned nightmares. They wanted to take Nuur-Karif somewhere, but Nuur-Karif began calling, as if for a pet, and then walked towards me and Wolfram. The riders looked at each other and I got the distinct impression that they were silently communicating.

When Nuur-Karif reached us, they told us that the riders were indeed Shadows of Amna and they claimed to have a camp somewhere further south. They were obviously lying, so they wanted Wolfram to come along and we would see what happened. If they still wanted to take them along, I should follow them.

It turned out to not be necessary. When the riders saw Wolfram, they immediately sat up and one of the riders in the back discreetly loaded a crossbow. I aimed at them and prepared to fire if they raised their crossbow. However, when they finished loading, they gave some silent signal and the three riders reared theirs horses around and set off north at full gallop.

Wolfram roared and I ran and climbed up on their back. Nuur-Karif got up as well and we set off after the riders. We chased them for about half an hour, but the horses were as fast as us and Wolfram began to slow down. The riders disappeared into the night and Wolfram gave out one last roar. Hopefully, we would be long gone before the Shadows of Amna returned again.

We turned south again and headed for the caves at a more leisurely pace. The others were there and Keri was standing watch when we arrived. I went to bed and fell asleep almost immediately.