Campaign Log: Confessions of a Forked Tongue

[coronatiger]

3rd of Mitra’s First Month, year 413 (continued)

The show continued. The dancers put up a curtain and made a lightshow behind it. Shadows looking like lizards danced on the taut curtain as a larger lizard hunted smaller ones. In the next scene, an alligator chased a woman who tried to fend it off with a stick. The curtain dropped to reveal the smaller dancer having been “defeated” by the alligator, and she was now lying with her head in its mouth, grinning widely towards the audience. I could just make out something behind her head that prevented the alligator from snapping its jaws shut over the dancer. The performers got their well-deserved applause. Wolfram even stood up and yelled. Kamir nodded with appreciation. He hadn’t seen this ending before.

While the dancers took a break, the bartender came around to serve more fruit and drinks. Kamir waved over Grogg and Wolfram and said that since he’d heard differing stories from us, he would like the truth. My two big friends must have blabbed their mouths while inviting him to the party, but I couldn’t ask them now what they’d said. Instead, I asked Kamir why he thought our stories were contradicting each other.

Grogg or Wolfram had said something about seeing ghosts above us, Kamir informed me. I frowned, pretending to think for a minute, then I said, “Ah, I see! We heard about ghosts haunting the desert before our departure, and one night, after seeing none yet, we decided to tell each other scary stories, and someone got the idea of making ghost sounds outside the tent.” I explained to Kamir that he must have misunderstood, earlier. Kamir told me he could tell I too had a way with words, but he didn’t think I was lying. “Different people will tell the same story differently,” I said. “They will use different words to describe the same thing, and they may emphasize different thing, depending on what they think is more important.” Kamir and I had this quick conversation in Arani, and I had signed to Yana to translate, but Xipil had understood everything, and he interjected that Kamir should hear all the different stories about the Bane of Gromgar that we had heard.

I let Grogg do the talking. We had indeed heard many different stories about how he defeated the orc champion Gromgar, back in the day. While Grogg might not recall all the subtle nuances of how rumors differed, he at least had been there, and this was a story I didn’t mind Kamir learning about. What I didn’t account for was Kraa chiming in. The invisible spirit raven spooked Kamir, and he asked if Grogg had a magician’s license. There are strict laws for the use of magic, and especially spirit magic, in Anabel, he said. And also, if we went to the Elephant Grotto, we needed to keep an eye out if we didn’t want to lose Kraa.

I assured Kamir that everything was in order and under control, and Grogg continued his story. Suddenly, the door went up to reveal Lema, the kitchen help at the Black Cellar. Since Yana knew her best, I started to sign that she should deal with her, but then I reconsidered. Lema hadn’t come for Yana. I was the one she knew lived here. The distraught look on Lema’s face said something had happened, something I needed to know and potentially deal with.

I went outside to talk to Lema, closing the door behind me. Lema fidgeted nervously while she waited. “Guards came and shut down the Cellar! I had to crawl out a window to escape,” she blurted out. I took Lema’s hands and asked her to take a deep breath and start again, slower and with more detail.

It was the city guards who had come, but some were dressed more finely than the usual guards. They seemed to respect the sanctity of the chapel and had not tried to go down to the holy chamber beneath the bar, at least not yet. That calmed me down. If the guards had trespassed, I would have felt obliged to cleanse the chapel of their defiling presence.

The action of the city guards was obviously a repercussion for the rumors we had been spreading about the queen. Lema hadn’t made that connection, but when I told her, she blushed and said how stupid of her not to get it. I dismissed the notion with a wave of my hand and thanked Lema for coming to tell me, but she was still anxious. Lema lived at the Black Cellar, and now she was out on her own in the middle of the night, with no money and no place to sleep. She couldn’t even go to the temple, for she had heard that people talking about the queen’s disappearance weren’t welcome there right now.

I told Lema I could help her if she would but do one small favor for me. It frightened her to think about what someone like me could ask her to do, but she relaxed visibly when I explained that I just needed her to babysit some of my guests tonight. We were having a party inside, as she had seen, but we also harbored a couple of dwarves that our other guests shouldn’t know about. Said dwarves, at least the man, were keen to join the celebration, but that wouldn’t do, so if Lema could keep them company and make sure our other guests didn’t learn about the dwarves, she would have a safe place to sleep, at least for a few nights.

I ushered the out-of-place kitchen girl, still in her apron, past the partiers and up the stairs. Rany and Sona were asleep, but Rany woke up. I whispered that Lema was a friend of mine who suddenly found herself homeless, so I needed her to stay with them until I could get a bed made for her. Rany offered his half of the bed; he didn’t mind going downstairs for a while. I shut that idea down before it took root, and Rany went back to sleep. Lema sat down in a corner. I gave her a smile and the thumbs-up sign and returned to the party.

Grogg was still regaling our guests with stories, but he was now telling about that time Wolfram turned into a camel. Xipil wisely sensed that this was not the best story to share, so he suggested Grogg embroidered the story instead of using his words.

Yana had a worried glance for me, and Xipil signed that something was going on. I understood he needed me to deal with it. The wheels in Kamir’s head were turning rapidly, bringing him ever closer to a destination we didn’t want him to reach, so I approached him with the intent of plopping down on his lap, but Kamir leaped up, on his way towards the door. I rushed after him. “Wait! What’s going on? What’s the problem?”

“You are the seven from the prophecy,” Kamir exclaimed. “The seven who wake what shouldn’t be woken!” He didn’t speak very loudly, but I bet the cat woman heard, and probably several of her staff as well. “Nuur-Karif! What’s happening?!” Wolfram called, but I had no time for him. Kamir almost wailed that it was too big of a responsibility to watch over us. Somehow, he had decided we needed his protection, and not even this revelation could deter him. I allowed him to leave, but I gave Akim a quick warning not to reveal anything he had learned tonight. Kamir pulled him away and out, and I overheard him saying he had a job for him.

[coronatiger]

I shut the door behind them, registering that the cat woman was about to do the same. I invited her to join us at the table. “You speak Common, don’t you?” I asked, despite already knowing the answer. I didn’t need to convince her that she had to keep quiet about what she had learned tonight, and to keep her friends from talking. I waived the future favor that she had promised the others in exchange for tasting Miramara’s wine, and I detected that this was a great relief for her.

The cat woman asked if it was time to wrap up the party. I would have said yes, had it been up to me, but Wolfram in particular wanted to keep the party going. He even said that we could invite the dwarves down now that our guests had gone. If I could, I would have stabbed him to prevent that statement from leaving his mouth, but all I could do was to fix the cat woman with my gaze. She gave an understanding nod. The dwarves should not be mentioned.

The rigger set up a water pipe that soon began to spew out purple smoke. Xipil and Hylda got up to dance, but Hylda soon flocked around the pipe with Grogg and Wolfram. Xipil went to the bar for a drink when he finished his dance, and he got the bartender talking about the different fruits that were being served. Yana and I remained at the table, sipping our drinks and discussing hair and clothes.

Xipil had gone to look at the little alligator in the corner when Lema came downstairs. She looked at me and then at the bar. She made a spiel about wanting a huge mug of ale. After Wolfram’s outburst, it was clear to everyone that the ale was for the dwarves, but nobody said a word about them. The trio around the water pipe looked so wasted they probably hadn’t even noticed Lema’s order, but the party staff knew not to speak.

It wasn’t long after this that the cat woman approached me again. She claimed the rigger had to take the animals home, and it would probably be safest if they all left together. Wolfram began to pester her about the dancers’ clothes, which obviously were magical in his eyes, but I reinforced the story about the staff leaving together for safety, and they were allowed to pack up and leave.

Once the door closed, Xipil mentioned that Kamir had known about the prophecy. I didn’t think anyone else, with the possible exception of Yana, were sober enough for a talk about something that serious, so I sent Yana upstairs to get Lema, and if the dwarves were awake she could tell them they were allowed to come down.

Only Lema and Sona came with Yana when she returned, but Sona went back to wake Rany when I informed her they could have a drink or some snacks if they so desired. Sona then asked if we could talk, and she obliquely referenced Miramara as the person who could provide her equipment. I told her we could speak later, for Lema didn’t need to know about Miramara.

Sona and Lema didn’t stay long after that, and as they ascended the stairs, Wolfram wanted to show everyone how drunk he was and began to bellow a hymn to Tiri. Xipil escaped upstairs, saying he wanted to study the stars. Rany also didn’t want to stick around, but he came back when he discovered that the two women occupied his bed. I told him it was about time for me as well to get some sleep, and I would get him some blankets so he would be a little more comfortable on the floor.

Yana came with us and she toppled onto the bed as soon as Rany was gone. After a few seconds, she groaned and sat up. We needed to undo our hair and makeup before we went to sleep. Yana wouldn’t let me handle my own hair, but she graciously allowed me to brush my teeth while she worked.

O Ashtar! We surrender our lives to Your coils. Take us while we sleep, or grant us another day in Your service, as You will.


4th of Mitra’s First Month, year 413

O Ashtar, Mother of Snakes, Keeper of Death’s Door, hear my confession!

The sounds of someone rummaging around downstairs had me awake in an instant. Yana mumbled something unintelligible when I extracted myself from the bed, but she didn’t wake completely. I armed and dressed myself and went to see who had woken me.

It was Lema. Without a home to go to nor money in her pocket, she said she would do anything to make it up to me for taking her in like I had. I told her it was my duty to help another Ashtarite in need, but I appreciated her offer of helping out with cooking and cleaning. Since there was no debt between us and I was already up, I helped her tidy up after the party.

I can prepare a meal if I have to, but today, I left it to the professional. Yana wasn’t too pleased I had left our bedroom without allowing her to touch up my appearance, so I had to go back and let her do her thing. Lema had a delicious meal ready when everyone gathered in the common room.

I reminded everyone that we had a meeting with a certain someone today. Lema picked up that she might not want to overhear and she excused herself, saying she was going to launder our bedsheets. Wolfram didn’t want to go out and face the crowds of Anabel, but I told him it was Your wish we all went out for the meeting with the nobleman. Wolfram resigned himself to coming with us, but he found a bottle of booze to begin preparing himself for the terror of strangers.

After the meal, Yana and I went outside with Lema to help hang up the washing, and I confided that our group was on a holy quest, and that it was of paramount importance that Lema didn’t reveal anything she learned while in our company.

With a late night yesterday, we got up relatively late today, and it wasn’t long before we needed to depart for out meeting with Arafos. I didn’t give his name to my companions, of course, not when they just had demonstrated their inability to keep secrets. They would learn his name at the meeting, but until then at least, I could protect them from themselves.

To placate Wolfram and to prevent an incident, I led the group through minor thoroughfares towards the rendezvous point. It wasn’t much of a detour, so I took us past the Black Cellar. Xipil asked if we were going to the chapel, but I told him the place had been shut down and that I just wanted to look for myself. Everything looked calm and ordinary, but I noticed three city guards loitering nearby. I felt no urge to take immediate action, so I made a mental note that I should come back to investigate later.

I didn’t see Kir near the statue, so I looked for an alley where I could park Wolfram and the others while we waited. Someone was already lingering in the alley, a lookout of some kind by the smell he gave off, but when I got close I saw that it was Kir. He slipped past us, whispering to me that he had a reservation at a nearby restaurant under the name Ada.

[coronatiger]

I explained to the others while Kir made his way towards the restaurant, then Yana and I left to see if we could finagle a safe route for Wolfram to take. The maître d’ welcomed us at the door and I asked about Ada’s reservation. The maître d’ said we had a private room, and if we so desired, we could use the side entrance. He showed us to the guarded entrance and said we had the first room on the left after the stairs up to the second floor. Peeking inside, I saw nobody in the hallways, so I sent Yana to fetch the others.

A waiter stood outside our private room and invited us to sit down. Everything would arrive as ordered, he assured us. When the door opened a few minutes later, it was Kir. He asked if we were ready, and I said we were. There was a wagon outside the side entrance, parked so close to the wall that we should be able to get in unseen.

No light was admitted to the interior of the wagon, and I was almost disappointed that it was well lit by oil lamps. Considering how far we were from being properly attired, Kir explained that we were going to the palace and that we needed to behave ourselves accordingly.

The drive wasn’t very long. When the wagon started to tilt forward, I realized that we were being taken to an underground entrance. Kir wished us good luck and opened the door to a large, torchlit chamber. Two of the three doors had guards outside, and the guards opened one of them when they saw us alight from the carriage.

A balding man clad in purple and black stood behind a large desk with his back towards us, turning only when the guards shut the door. In the dim light of the room, only Yana, Xipil and I were able to detect that there was something off about his left eye. I thought it was artificial.

I began to bandy words with Arafos, and he seemed hesitant. He wouldn’t even acknowledge his faith when I asked. That made me not want to trust him, so I tried to figure out how he could help without revealing too much. I alluded that we might need assistance getting out of Anabel undetected, and Arafos said he might be able to help, if the way we sought was the right one. We had a brief discussion about him helping pay for carriages, but this was clearly not the way he had in mind. After a while, Arafos detected that we needed to discuss something without him present, so he went out to the carriage to let us speak privately.

We agreed that we should tell Arafos we intended to teleport out of the city, and I asked him to come back inside. When we told him that we meant to teleport away, he took us to another room in the palace, up many stairs to a nearly empty chamber. There was only one feature in the room, a large circle embedded in the floor. It was clearly a teleportation circle; it even had burn marks around one socket. There were no mana stones in sight, though.

We had our own portable circle, so we didn’t need the palace circle, but we were in need of fuel. Xipil should be smart enough to figure out how to operate the circle, but any pointers would be appreciated. Arafos said that unfortunately, the queen was the most knowledgeable about this process. In her absence, Miramara could be an all right replacement tutor, but she should not be brought to the palace. Not when the queen wasn’t there. The political ramifications of that visit, should word get out, would be titanic. I noticed that Arafos called the queen “Mother,” but whether this was an affection, a title or the literal truth, I could not say.

Arafos mentioned that the queen had worked with a dwarven alchemist, a woman named Sona, who had gone missing a while back. She was suspected of taking with her certain artifacts that had also disappeared around that time, artifacts which must not under any circumstance fall into the hands of Mogs. To my great surprise, nobody piped up that we knew where Sona was. I wasn’t sure Arafos didn’t pick it up anyway, but if he did, he played along marvelously.

I asked Arafos what kind of authority he had in the city. There was a house I wanted to get inside, a private home, to reclaim some items that should not be there, I said. Among those items could be the artifacts he wanted returned. I was of course talking about the house where Rany and Sona had lived prior to their capture by the Moon Shadows. If the lost artifacts were there, that would be a boon, but I was mostly angling to do the dwarves a favor by returning to them some prized possessions. Xipil had attempted to burgle the place a couple of days ago, but he had been stumped by the sun refusing to set.

Arafos said he could write out an order to send guards to the address, accompanied by independent contractors – us – who would perform a search there, but he was reluctant to do so when I couldn’t name which artifact might be found there. He came around when we told him a reliable witness had seen Sona at that address around the time of her disappearance.

We went back down to the cellar office to wait while Arafos made some preliminary inquiries. Xipil joined me in prayer, and I sensed that other Ashtarites had prayed there before. Since You told me, it had to be important, but I couldn’t figure out why. Was it just to reassure me that Arafos was as devout as one could wish?

The nobleman returned after half an hour. He had looked up the address and found out that there had been unlawful excavations under the building. He believed the residents might try to resist our attempt to get inside, but the guards should be able to quell that, leaving us free to look for the artifacts. I suggested that Xipil and I should go with the guards while the others returned home. Xipil was already disguised, and I could change my appearance on the way, but Grogg and Wolfram would be too easy to recognize. If we needed brute force, we should be able to rely on the guards Arafos provided.

[coronatiger]

4th of Mitra’s First Month, year 413 (continued)

I changed my mind. We weren’t staying long in Anabel, I reckoned, so having Grogg and Wolfram with us in case we ran into trouble should outweigh the risk of them being recognized. And besides, they could wait out of sight in the carriage while Xipil and I conducted our search. Arafos said he risked much by this operation and that he hoped he would get something back for it. Wolfram whispered that at least we should find Sona’s alchemy paraphernalia. I didn’t reply. Sona needed that, so if we found it, we wouldn’t be handing it over to Arafos anyway. We agreed to bring Kir, in case we needed to send a message back to the palace, or potentially some recovered artifacts.

Arafos asked us to wait fifteen minutes before leaving, and I spent the time in prayer. When Kir announced it was time to go, we all trooped into the carriage. We dropped off Yana and Hylda near the restaurant where the carriage had originally picked us up, and then we turned east.

At the house where Rany and Sona had rented a room, city guards were waiting outside. I alighted from the carriage to speak to them. They hadn’t entered the house yet, but they could secure it in five minutes if I so desired. I gave the order and returned to the carriage, but Xipil got out and began making measurements as if he were a surveyor.

The residents refused to open for the guards, so they forced their way inside. From the carriage, we could hear sounds of struggle as things broke and people screamed. After a few minutes, we were alerted that we could go inside. I left the carriage again, but Grogg and Wolfram remained, waiting for Xipil or me to call for help.

Xipil dragged out his surveying more than I felt was necessary, but eventually he agreed to come inside the house with me. He pushed aside a hidden door, revealing stairs down to the cellar, and I spent the last of my venom to prepare my melee blades, for it was clear the guards hadn’t seen the hidden door.

The cellar was dark, giving even the sharp-eyed lizard man a little trouble, for he hadn’t cast his dark vision spell. Xipil still identified the door to our dwarven friends’ abode, and he opened it for me. Nobody waited in ambush in the small room, so I was about to put away my knives when a sound behind me had me whirl around.

A boy around my age, wearing fine clothes, had snuck up on Xipil and laid a knife against his throat. He was afraid, and clearly not used to handling a weapon, but he insisted we had to leave. I sheathed my knives and smiled disarmingly, moving slowly towards the others. The boy pulled Xipil with him until he hit the wall on the other side of the hallway. “Two seconds,” I said in Common. Xipil understood exactly what I meant, but the terrified boy had no clue what was about to hit him.

On the two-second mark, Xipil tried to wriggle free, but the boy held on. I stepped into range and punched the arm holding the knife, and it clattered to the floor. I tried to follow up with a trip attempt, but the boy steadied himself against the wall. Xipil still couldn’t break the boy’s grip on him, so I drew both my knives again, laying them across the boy’s neck, while simultaneously shoving Xipil out of the way.

I revealed my fangs in an attempt to make the boy talk, but he started to pray, calling upon the sun and the stars to help him. He was convinced he was about to die. Disgusted with his choice of deities, I was tempted to give the boy what he expected, but I restrained myself. Xipil patted the boy down for more weapons, finding nothing. I pressed my fists against the boy’s neck, choking off blood going to his brain, and he collapsed after a few seconds. Xipil tied his arms behind his back, and I moved his knife out of reach, in case he woke up.

“There should be a loose plank under the bed,” Xipil said, but we searched the obvious places first. The desk held a ledger that Xipil said might contain coded messages after a quick glance. A drawer had a false bottom where we found several money pouches. The closets revealed clothes and camping gear, including a large backpack and some solid-looking cloth sacks. There was a small shelf in the kitchenette; it might hold only spices, but if I needed to conceal alchemical ingredients, I could certainly see myself hiding them among the spices.

Sona and Rany would likely want all their belongings, so I began to stuff everything into the sacks and the backpack while Xipil opened the hidden room under the bed. He extracted two wooden boxes and a stone chest. When I looked closer at the chest, it had the appearance of a chest-shaped rock. There was no crack where the lid should open, nor was there any key holes or other visible opening mechanisms.

Xipil cast a spell to detect magic in the stone chest, but he found nothing. I thought if any of the missing artifacts were nearby, we had yet to find their hiding place, so I asked Xipil if he knew a spell that could lead us to them. He made an attempt, but when he didn’t even register that Grogg’s maul was nearby, he believed some kind of anti-magic effect counteracted him.

Xipil’s spellcasting had drained most of his energy, and he fiddled with the lock on one of the wooden boxes while he took a breather. Nothing we had found would go to Arafos, so Xipil wondered what we should give him. I said we could tell him that we had confirmed that Sona had lived here and that we would continue our search for the lost artifacts.

After a while, Xipil tried again to search for magic around us, but to no avail. He concluded that it was the stone chest that resisted his spells. He could be right; I couldn’t tell either way. Maybe Wolfram would know. He had been taught magic theory by his order. I was pretty sure the dwarves knew everything there was to know about the strange chest, so if we truly needed to know about it, we would learn eventually.

Our captive had woken up, although he tried not to show it. I let him know that I wasn’t fooled, and I made an attempt at interrogation. What I most wanted to learn was who put him up to guarding this place. I grew increasingly certain that it had to be Rany or Sona, and I finally tricked the boy to confirm that it was the former occupants that had asked him to look after their room.

Xipil suggested – in Common – that we should hand the boy over to Arafos. That let the cat out of the box. While the boy didn’t understand what Xipil had said, he recognized the name of the Ashtarite nobleman. That sealed his fate; we couldn’t leave him behind.

[coronatiger]

I got the guards to help us with the heavy lifting, and we were back in the carriage in short order. Kir wasn’t best pleased that Arafos’s name had been revealed, and he didn’t want to take custody of the boy. He wanted me to swear to You that I would deal with the captive in such a way that Arafos wouldn’t regret helping us. I revealed my fangs and promised. “May the Holy Mother of Snakes fork my tongue that I speak truly! May the Keeper of Death’s Door call me home if I break my word!” I spoke Common and intentionally left Your name off my tongue. We wouldn’t want the captive to overhear another name.

Kir got out shortly after, but he had no authority over the guards, and I had to tell them that the mission was complete. Kir kept the money pouch Arafos had promised us since I told him we had lesser need of it than him. He had indicated that a great sum was needed to bribe the occupants of this house, especially since one of theirs would never be seen again. I had a plan that would allow the boy to go home, most likely, but I couldn’t tell Kir about it.

Driving towards the Nightflower, I untied the boy and gave first aid to his arm. Had I struck the arm from a slightly different angle, a bone would have broken. I made a sling with the scarf that Xipil had used to tie him up and instructed the boy to let his arm rest for a few days.

The carriage was too large to be maneuvered into the narrow alley outside our entrance, so we had to walk the last stretch. I warned the boy not to make trouble. I took his uninjured arm and pretended I was his girlfriend.

In the alley, we saw that Kamir had placed Akim on guard outside our door, but Akim was asleep and didn’t notice when we sneaked past him.

Yana, Hylda and Lema sat around one of the tables in the common room, and I flashed a question to Yana. “Are the dwarves upstairs?” Yana gave me a slight nod. I warned the three at the table that the boy was our prisoner and that they should watch over him while the rest of us went upstairs.

I knocked on the dwarves’ room and brought the others inside. I told Rany that we had acquired some items that I would like him to take a look at. He recognized the things as their own. The stone chest he hid under the bed and pretended it was nothing. After dealing with Kir and Arafos, I was delighted with how easy it was to read someone like Rany.

I informed the dwarves that we had brought one of their neighbors who had tried to keep us from taking their belongings. Sona offered to have a serious conversation with him so we could let him go, and I went downstairs to fetch him. I confided to the boy that we had tricked him earlier with regards to our employer. I was now going to take him to the people who actually sent us to his home. My statement frightened the boy, but tears of joy sprang from his eyes when he saw Rany and Sona, whom he had believed to be dead.

Wolfram had reminded me that we should check if Keri had arrived in Anabel before we left the city, so I went back downstairs to invite Yana along for a stroll. She hurriedly packed away her sewing and hooked her arm through mine with a smile.

We took the route past the Black Cellar. The place didn’t look as if it was open for business, and city guards still loitered around. I still felt no urgency to act, so we just walked past.

At The Cup and the Chest, a single flower was hanging under one of the windows. This wasn’t what I had expected, so Keri probably hadn’t arrived yet, but it looked like the bartender wanted me to stop by. I told Yana and said we should find an alley where I could change my face. Yana kept watch from the alley mouth while Hope bit me. The now-familiar tingle of my skin as it rearranged itself lasted for a few seconds, and then I rejoined Yana.

Yana said she would walk about the marketplace while I went inside. The bartender recognized me as soon as I entered the room, and he asked if I wanted what I usually had. I said yes, please, and he invited me to have a seat at the bar. There were two other customers in the room, but they sat at separate tables, far enough away that we could have a low conversation without being overheard. The bartender’s message was that rumors said a certain someone had reached the mountains to the north. It was clear he didn’t know any more, so I emptied the glass of water he had put in front of me, said thank you, and left.

Yana came with me to the alley where I put on my own face again. I informed her that Keri had been spotted to the north, but it could be more than a week before he reached the city. It depended on how much faster than him word of his coming had traveled. Yana said that if we went to Miramara’s place, we could perhaps intercept Keri. I thought that was a good idea.

When we came through the alley outside the Nightflower, Sona was just saying goodbye to the boy. She looked both tired and sad, watching him go, and she said she was going up to her room to lie down for a while.

There was something I wanted to discuss with the Ashtarites present, but Xipil had some questions for Wolfram about magic. It didn’t seem like Wolfram understood what Xipil was asking about, so I made no attempt to figure it out with my untrained mind. It had to do with the energy of the fallen star being.

Wolfram suddenly remembered that the helmet he had ordered should be ready, but when he glanced at the door, he was overcome with nerves. He didn’t feel ready to face the strangers in the streets of Anabel, so I suggested he ask Hylda to run this errand for him. He lit up at that, and Hylda was happy to go in his stead.

I took Yana and Xipil up to our room. I told them it might be a good idea to go to the temple and try to calm the mood in Anabel now that we knew where the queen was. In hindsight, setting Anabel on fire with talk about the queen’s disappearance might have been unnecessary, but we couldn’t be sure we’d have learned, had we not rocked the boat. We had caused Arafos grief by agitating the citizens, so we assumed he would appreciate it if we could reverse the effects.

I summoned Lema. “Since we spoke at the chapel about the queen’s disappearance, I have learned where she went and why,” I told her. Lema’s jaw dropped. I informed her about my plan to put out the fires we had started, and while she agreed it was probably for the best, she didn’t want to come with us to the temple. I sensed some hesitancy from Yana as well, but Xipil would like to join me tonight.

When Lema excused herself, Xipil brought up the stone chest. There was something about it, he said. It clearly piqued his interest. I told him we should talk to Sona about it. I was pretty sure it was hers, and Rany had constantly insisted on not knowing anything that was her business. He might know it was valuable, but only Sona would be able to tell us anything useful.

[coronatiger]

It was just over an hour until we should go to the temple, so I decided to spend the time meditating and restoring some of the venom I expended against the Moon Shadows. Xipil and Yana left me to it, but before I had truly entered the zone, Hylda came back and began to bellow for Wolfram that she had his helmet. Wolfram had put it on and was posing with drawn weapons when I came down after my meditation. Amused, I gave him a brief smile as I passed and dragged Xipil with me.

The city seemed quiet when we made our way towards the western part of Anabel. I had heard the Snake Company had their headquarters somewhere near the temple, but I saw no sign of it. We didn’t have time to look around, not if we wanted to get to the Meet on time, but we identified one street at least where the Company wasn’t.

Only seven others were in the temple. That included the woman I’d seen lying among the snakes on my previous visit. I discerned that she was the highest ranking of those present, but she wasn’t the one who led the Meet. Despite the lack of a crowd, Xipil headed for a corner, and I went with him.

After receiving a signal from his boss, a man stood and opened the Meet with a prayer. A few of the others spoke during the Meet, giving updates on their tasks. When the priest asked if anyone wanted to share anything about sacred missions, I rose and approached. I asked him if I could talk to him privately before I said anything to the congregation, and we retreated to the side passages.

As soon as I mentioned the queen, the priest shut me down. I tried telling him that I was the source of the panic that was spreading across the city and that I would like to convince everyone that everything would be all right, but he wouldn’t listen. We returned to the temple and the priest wrapped up the Meet with another prayer. I felt bad for causing trouble for the local Ashtarites, but if they didn’t want me to help cleaning up the mess I had made, that was their prerogative, and their loss.

I knelt down by the altar to pray for spirit snake venom, and Xipil came to pray beside me. One of the snakes made its way towards me, but the rude woman stopped it to ask a question before she allowed it to approach me. The snake donated one dose of spirit snake venom, and I began to pray again, this time with gratitude. While I prayed, a pressure built up above my fangs, and I had to eject a dose of my own venom before my glands burst. Luckily, I had the wit to spit the venom into its proper vial. Thank You again, Ashtar, for these gifts!

When I was ready to go, I looked at Xipil. He almost seemed drunk, struggling to control his arms and legs. Finding his feet would be beyond him, so I closed my eyes and touched the floor again. “O Ashtar! Help my friend!” I prayed, and one of the snakes promptly bit Xipil’s foot. The venom surged through the lizard man and restored his limbs almost instantly.

On the way home, we discussed the significance and meaning of what had happened. When Xipil first joined the faith, You had offered to turn him into a true snake. This would obviously take his arms and legs away, and Xipil had meditated on Your offer today. He confided that he had meditated on the same just the other night, when I also had to help him regain his footing.

It logically followed that since You had suggested this gift, it was right for Xipil to accept. That You also answered my prayer by not completing Xipil’s transformation and instead restoring him to the lizard man we all know might seem paradoxical to an outsider. I explained to Xipil that whether he accepted Your gift or not, either choice would come with Your blessing. In other words, he could make no wrong choice, if his heart was in it.

Our friends had received visitors while Xipil and I were away. When we entered the common room, Kamir stood there, huddled together with an unfamiliar woman. They spoke too fast for me to understand, but one glance at the woman told me much. Her short dress was more daring than anything I’d ever worn, and I’ve put on some suggestive dresses in my time. This dress didn’t suggest; it declared. I wouldn’t fault anyone for thinking that she was a prostitute, but to me this dress was obviously a disguise. With the Nightflower being what it was, that disguise would let her come and go as she pleased, and nobody would suspect anything.

Kamir paled when he finally noticed that Xipil and I had arrived. He tried to leave, but the woman, Tala, held him back. I was surprised to see him again after his departure last night, but he must have thought it was safe enough when we weren’t all gathered together. Wolfram said that Kamir had come to confirm that there was no dwarf under our roof by the name of Sona. I guessed from his tone that he had tried to lie but that Kamir wasn’t convinced. He also bent down to whisper in my ear that Kamir knew things about the people that were after our guest.

Since Kamir didn’t want to stay, I suggested that the two of us went outside. Xipil asked if he should come, but I told him no. “Let’s walk and talk,” Kamir said when we were alone in the alley. “Less chance of being overheard,” he added. I convinced him that there was no Sona at the Nightflower, and he was relieved. He would have had to take serious precautions if she had been there, because of who it was that wanted her.

I told Kamir that while Sona wasn’t with us, the kind of people he alluded to was the kind we wouldn’t like to visit us. We wanted to do our thing with nobody the wiser, and if someone got into their heads that they needed to check to see if Sona was with us, that could spell trouble. I would have liked Kamir to put his precautions in place, but he wasn’t willing, not when it wasn’t strictly necessary.

We had stirred up so much during our short visit to Anabel that powerful parties were beginning to take an interest in our comings and goings, and I didn’t think that we should stay much longer. Seeing as they were probably our best bet for leaving the city unseen, I asked Kamir what he thought about the Snake Company, but he wouldn’t tell me much. They were Ashtarites, and they had some kind of gesture that they used to greet each other. “Oh, like a secret sign?” I asked. Kamir thought that might be the case, so he decided not to show me what he believed the gesture to be. If I tried to pass myself off as one of them and I didn’t get the sign exactly right, that would probably be worse than me being honest about being an outsider. When I asked about it, Kamir said he thought they were open for business at all hours.

I thanked Kamir for the chat and wished him a good night. Then I set the course for the Nightflower. I was going to suggest that we left tonight. I would have liked to have sorted out the trouble at the Black Cellar, but there was nothing else holding us back, and I had faith in my fellow Ashtarites that they could get things in order. Wolfram had his new helmet, and the Moon Shadows had been dislodged. We could use Kraa to bring a message to Keri that he should meet us at Miramara’s place.

[coronatiger]

4th of Mitra’s First Month, year 413 (continued)

Tala, the spy Kamir had placed with us, was obviously still present when I came inside again. She commented upon Kamir’s absence, and I told her that he wasn’t too comfortable with hanging out with us all. I asked Tala if she intended to stay the night. She intimated that my idea was good, but I knew she had already planned to stay, and she knew that I knew. She also knew that I knew that she knew that I knew. I was afraid that if I tried to explain about her, I would be passing out headaches to my friends, so as long as I could prevent her from encountering the dwarves, that would suffice.

I told everyone it was time to discuss our departure, and Wolfram chimed in that he had been insisting on that for a while. Tala feigned to take offense when the rest of us decided to go upstairs to talk out of her hearing, and I asked Lema to keep her company to keep the spy from coming upstairs and listening at our door. We went to Grogg’s and Hylda’s room, since that was largest.

Xipil reminded us that Sona had some questions to answer, about Arafos and about the stone chest. He went on to describe the chest’s properties to Wolfram who was more knowledgeable about magic theory. The chest appeared to resist Xipil’s spells, he said, and Wolfram agreed that there existed enchantments that could confer this property to inanimate objects.

The two mages went off on a tangent and didn’t look like they’d return to more pressing matters any time soon, so I signed to Yana that I wasn’t interested in listening to them, and would instead go talk to Sona. It might be easier to get her to open up if we weren’t all there looming over her.

Yana wanted to come with me, but she bungled her silent escape and caught everyone’s attention. While she distracted them with the information we had learned about Keri’s imminent arrival, I went over to the next room. Yana followed as soon as she could slip away.

Sona and Rany were asleep, but they woke when I entered their room and spoke their names. I let Sona rub the sleep out of her eyes, then I asked her about Arafos. She knew him by reputation, mostly, but she had seen the queen go to him for advice, and by Sona’s description of their interactions, I could tell that Arafos had to be one of Queen Makeda’s closest confidants. While Arafos had been extremely eager to find Sona, the alchemist herself seemed more reluctant.

Xipil showed up and indicated that I was selfish for wanting to speak to Sona without the rest of them, so I invited the dwarves to join us in the other room. I explained to everyone what Sona had said about Arafos, and as we discussed whether or not to set up a meeting, Sona warmed up to the idea. I offered to make the arrangements and suggested that the others remained so they could protect the dwarves, should anything happen while I was gone.

When Xipil began to ask about the stone chest, Rany tried to deny its existence. I asked Xipil to retrieve it, and when Rany blustered that he wasn’t about to let anyone poke in their private stuff, I told Wolfram to go along with them. I judged Rany to be able to stand in Xipil’s way, but Wolfram could just shove him aside, should it be necessary. While they were gone, we could hear Rany mutter about outsiders nosing around in dwarf business, but he brought the chest back to us. Then he put it on the floor and sat on it.

I asked Sona if our mission to aid the queen might be hampered by what Rany was sitting on. She hesitated for a few seconds before answering, but she explained that the chest-like stone was enchanted with a spell to counteract snooping mages. That we had deduced that this was more than just a carved stone and already knew its properties (more or less), concerned her deeply, for then it might not do what it was supposed to, or at least not as well as they had hoped when they acquired it.

I gave Sona one last chance to say no to a meeting with Arafos, but he had genuinely been concerned for the queen’s wellbeing, and Sona agreed that I should set up the meeting. I brought Yana along for a nighttime stroll to the restaurant where Kir had brought the carriage that took us to the palace. He had told us we could come there again if we wanted to get in touch.

When I asked at the door about “Ada’s reservation,” a waiter took us around the corner to the private entrance, but he was baffled by the carriage blocking the way and said we should return in ten minutes. I suggested that we instead sat down in the main part of the restaurant, and the waiter agreed that we could do that.

Kir appeared at our table almost before we had time to sit down, and he brought us up to the private room. He informed us he wanted to talk to us, because Arafos had a mission for us. Kir said he would give the details to us when we were all there, and I suggested we drove back to the Nightflower, and we could get the others.

On the way, I asked Kir to remain in the carriage while Yana and I fetched our friends. I didn’t want Tala to know about our connection to Arafos. Tala was no fool, so she understood that we wanted to get rid of her, but when I promised we wouldn’t leave Anabel without coming back first, she agreed to go out and buy that special tobacco that Hylda wanted. We had come up with the ruse that Tala needed to go with Hylda to get the tobacco, since Hylda didn’t know where it could be acquired, but since Kir wanted us all to come, I thought Hylda should come with us.

Kir was surprised when we brought two dwarves with us into the carriage, but I told him he could speak freely in front of them, at least until I indicated otherwise. However, we might as well hear directly from Arafos what he wanted. Kir confided that Arafos had grown less careful after our interaction with him, and he warned us not to agree to any missions we didn’t intend to complete. That last would be a personal favor to Kir, he said. I told him this all sounded reasonable, and he blew a sigh of relief. The rest of the journey, I told one of Your holy stories, with the moral that all Your children must be united.

Kir remained in the carriage while the rest of us went inside Arafos’s office. The nobleman made big eyes at Sona. Anyone should be able to see the shock on his face, but to me it was also clear that the mission he had intended to discuss with us involved an attempt to retrieve her.

Arafos asked where we had found the dwarves, and I explained briefly about the Moon Shadows at the Soft Pillow. Arafos muttered something about the dead speaking truly, revealing himself as a necromancer to those of us with a modicum of insight. Wolfram didn’t react until later, though.

Arafos explained that Sona wasn’t the only person to go missing. Recently, an employee at the palace archive, where the royal artifacts were stored, had vanished. Sona had told us about the process for retrieving artifacts from there; two had been drained to fuel the queen’s teleportation. I strongly suspected that this other person was an unfaithful servant and was responsible for the theft of the missing artifacts. Arafos believed the Moon Shadows were involved, for he had spoken to the one whose corpse we had thrown over the wall into the Kabal garden. Now, even Wolfram understood that he had talked to the man after I killed him, and he began to bluster.

[coronatiger]

The Moon Shadows had a safehouse outside the city, at a mansion a few hours away. They kept their horses there, Arafos informed us, and probably other valuables too. Arafos lamented that he couldn’t send anyone official there to look for missing people or artifacts, but he couldn’t be blamed for what foreigners did.

Arafos agreed to protect Sona and Rany, but he also warned us that if the queen couldn’t attest to Sona’s non-involvement in the crimes that had happened, our dwarven friends would find themselves locked up for the rest of their lives. It would be a gilded cage, with all amenities, but their freedom would be taken from them. I reminded Sona that we had another plan originally to see her safe, but she was willing to give herself up to Arafos.

With Sona and Rany safe, we could attend to other business while we waited for Sona to prepare for our teleportation. I told Arafos that since he was so eager to reward us for bringing Sona, all I desired was that he provided for Sona what she needed to help us so we could help the queen. He hesitated, but when I made it clear we weren’t requiring him to provide fuel for the spell, that we had plans for an alternative source of energy, he was more than happy to help.

Contrary to our agreement with Sona, which was that she would repair our star box, Wolfram and Xipil meant to get the energy from the fallen star being on the other side of the lake, so Xipil asked about ship travel. Maybe I misunderstood. Perhaps they needed the star box to capture the energy from the fallen star? Arafos warned us about a powerful mage named Nixa who seemed to think the lake was her personal playground. She was greedy for gold, so we should be able to bribe her to leave us alone, although Arafos said he would find it “interesting” if Nixa made a move against one of the queen’s ships.

I asked Arafos if he knew how Groman could be healed, but in a very roundabout way. His first suggestion was to kill and bury our patient, but we assured him there was no spirit threat to Anabel. It wasn’t until Xipil mentioned our plans to ask Samora for help, that Arafos turned around. Now he offered to provide what was needed to buy her assistance. He left to fetch that bribe for us. I sensed pride in him when he spoke about it.

While Arafos was out, we discussed our itinerary. We should visit Samora first to get Groman back on his feet, then Miramara, who apparently could help us find Arlo, the mage guarding the fallen star being. The Moon Shadows would have to wait. Xipil said he would like to meet Kanku again. I couldn’t blame him. He had been gone from his homeland for a good while now, and Kanku was the first lizard man he had seen since the rest of his expedition had died.

Arafos had a long and slim cloth bag when he returned. This item should only be given to Samora, or returned to him. He removed the cloth bag to reveal a magic staff, similar to those the crocodile mages had used. I couldn’t see them, but somehow You allowed me to sense the presence of spirits inside the staff. This artifact was Arafos’s magnum opus. Wolfram wasn’t too pleased about the staff, and he suggested destroying it, although it was clear he didn’t know how to do that safely, and I wasn’t about to make suggestions, not when we needed the staff to buy healing for Groman.

Arafos would make arrangements so we could take a ship from a fishing village nearby. Wolfram said we might as well go immediately; I had suggested we went in the morning, as it was approaching midnight. Before we could leave, however, we should return to the Nightflower to grab our belongings and to bring the dwarves their things too.

Before we filed out to the carriage, Xipil asked Arafos about Kamir Hassar. Kamir was unknowingly a source of information for him, the nobleman confided. Of course, they had never interacted directly with each other, but Arafos knew Kamir to be someone who could get things done. It was what he didn’t say that I latched on to: Arafos didn’t warn us about Kamir, that we shouldn’t trust him or do business with him. I was never going to pour my heart out to Kamir, or trust him with more information than was strictly necessary, but I believed now that it wouldn’t harm us to do business with him.

Everyone except Sona, Kir and Arafos, and the magic staff, returned to the Nightflower. Tala had found the tobacco, and she sat in the living room waiting for us when we poured in the door. I told her we were going to pack up and leave for a few days. She thanked me and left.

Xipil asked if we were going to drag along the teleportation circle on our trip, but I suggested that it would be safer at the palace. Sona might need to study it, so I convinced Rany to look after it for us.

Yana and I were already packed up, so while the others got themselves ready, I took Lema out for a walk around the building. The landlord wasn’t there, but we found someone else, and I told him to pass on that Lema was allowed to claim my deposit when our lease ran out in about a week. Lema was a little overwhelmed, but I assured her it was all right. If we for some reason didn’t return, I trusted her to find a good use for the money.

When we came back, Kamir had appeared. Xipil thought we should ask Kamir to welcome Keri and Pak, so I described them to Kamir and informed him about the agreement I had with the bartender at the Cup and the Chest. Kamir offered to reserve our rooms for a month – as head of security, he could do that, he said – and he agreed to put up our friends if they arrived before our return.

Groman and all our luggage was already loaded up in the carriage, so we said goodbye to Kamir and drove off. We dropped off Rany and his and Sona’s belongings in the palace cellar, and Xipil asked Kir if he could procure high quality arrows for him. Kir told us about a place where we could buy them, and he warned us it would be expensive at this time of day, but he also said where in Arafos’s office we could find a pouch of money. He wasn’t willing to go inside there while the staff was there, so Xipil had to fetch that too. Even Xipil was uncomfortable holding the staff, so he passed it to me as quickly as possible.

As we closed the carriage door and drove off, we could hear Rany’s voice asking Kir if there was any ale to be had at the palace. Dwarves! Yana and I flashed a few words between us about their addiction.

The fletcher’s shop was closed, but Xipil jumped eagerly out of the carriage anyway. I asked him if it wouldn’t be better if Yana and I took care of the negotiations, and he gave me the money pouch and took his seat in the carriage again. The fletcher was annoyed that we woke him, but it wasn’t hard to convince him to do business with us. Xipil got his arrows.

Before I went back inside the carriage, I asked the driver how long it would take to get to the fishing village. He said we would arrive around sunrise, depending on how much he pushed the horses. Since I surely wasn’t the only one who wanted to get some sleep on the way, I told him not to drive so fast that the speed kept us awake. I bent down to touch the ground and to say my evening prayer, then I went inside and closed the door behind me.

O Ashtar! We surrender our lives to Your coils. Take us while we sleep, or grant us another day in Your service, as You will.

[coronatiger]

5th of Mitra’s First Month, year 413

O Ashtar, Mother of Snakes, Keeper of Death’s Door, hear my confession!

Everyone woke up when the road quality deteriorated and the ride became a lot bumpier. Xipil opened a hatch and peered out at the farms lining the road. It didn’t take long before we rolled into the fishing village where we should find our ship.

The carriage pulled up outside the gate of a walled-in mansion down by the lake, and one of our drivers jumped off and knocked. A similarly attired guard opened the gate, and the two of them exchanged a few words in Arani. Like I had observed with the city guards back in Anabel, these two used a variation of the language where they omitted less important words from their sentences. The gate guard said that we were expected and that our vessel was ready for us.

We brought Groman and our luggage inside the gate, and the guard directed us towards the private dock, where two small ships lay waiting. They were larger and prettier than the fishing boats used by the locals, but they were nothing like the King’s Fleet back home.

Another guard waited at the dock with two men in white clothes whom I guessed were sailors. I crossed my arms over my chest and greeted them, asking if they were the ones who would take us out on the lake. The middle-aged sailor replied that it was up to us whether to bring them. Xipil had been confident that he could handle vessels of this size, but he had admitted not to be very experienced with sails, so I suggested we brought the local sailors. They would know their ships well, and the lay of the land, so to speak.

It turned out the older sailor had a decent grasp of Common, so we were able to include everyone in the discussions. The sailors informed us it was safer to stay close to land because of Nixa, so while it would take a little longer to follow the shore than to cross right over the lake, they would prefer that. They made it clear that it was our decision, though, and would do as we said. The difference would be counted in hours, so I argued that we should take the safest route.

We boarded the larger of the two ships. Xipil was eager to help with the ship handling, and Wolfram said he would keep him company. Grogg didn’t look like he’d slept all that well, so he just sat down on the deck; Hylda sat down next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. Yana and I went below. I needed to meditate to restore my venom supply, so I sat down in the farthest corner and asked Yana to stop anyone from distracting me. I paid in advance for her services, with a kiss.

When I had filled up my venom glands after an hour, Yana had breakfast ready, so I took a break to share the meal and a few laughs with her. After my next round of meditation, Yana informed me that Xipil had come below a little while earlier. He hadn’t come near us, she said; he probably just wanted to look around to sate his curiosity.

Xipil returned later, and I registered that he was eager to talk to me. I had only started my fourth round of meditation a few minutes earlier, so not much work was lost by stopping so we could talk. Xipil said that the older sailor had seen signs of a weather change coming on, a storm most likely. Xipil had used his mage sight spell and found an enchantment or ritual covering a large region north of the lake; he thought that could be the source of the weather change, but it could also be spirit activity, and he needed me to come and take a look.

The sky was still blue and the wind was barely strong enough to fill the sails when we came up on deck. Xipil pointed out the magic region in the north, but I could see nothing special. At that distance, I wasn’t sure I would see any spirits, unless they were as numerous as the spirit cloud we had encountered on our way south.

I trusted the sailor’s words, so I asked when he expected the weather to change. Not in the next half-hour, he said. He added that his response would be the same whenever I asked, if nothing visible had happened. He swept his arm up over his head, to indicate the blue sky and the lack of strong winds.

We would reach the last village along this side of the lake in about half an hour. This would be a safe place to dock the ship during a storm, although we should be able to find somewhere to moor along the jungle edge if a storm struck suddenly; it might not be the best place to get ashore, but I didn’t think that would prove an insurmountable obstacle.

We agreed to enter the village to ask for directions. The sailors had no idea where the Elephant Grotto could be found, but they thought hunters from this village might have an inkling. They warned us that the hunters were touchy people, which made me think they operated not entirely within the law. Wolfram asked if the hunters were afraid of Kanku, and the sailors said we shouldn’t mention that name to the hunters.

This village was a lot smaller than where we boarded, and Wolfram shouldn’t have much difficulty avoiding crowds too big for him to handle, but he decided to remain on the ship, just to be safe. Grogg and Hylda said they would stay with him, and I told Grogg we depended on him to defend the ship if the coming storm turned out to be a dragon. Xipil asked if he should venture into the jungle to look for someone from Kanku’s gang, but I said no. That would take several hours, at least, and I would prefer him to accompany Yana and me. We could talk to people and get them to talk to us, but as our navigator, Xipil had to decide when what we learned was sufficient for him to find the way to the Elephant Grotto and Samora.

[coronatiger]

The locals eyed us warily. Our fancy ship told them we were important people, and the only reason we disembarked in their village had to be that we wanted to interfere in their business, somehow. I honed in on a group preparing food in two large cauldrons and set the course in their direction. One of them, a man a little older than Yana, came to meet us, and he invited us to share their soup. I guess he didn’t find Yana and me to be very intimidating, with ready smiles and clothes that were neither nobles’ garb nor guards’ uniforms.

Xipil had me ask about the soup, which turned out to be fish and vegetables, not salty or with meat, which he wouldn’t eat. The taste was rather bland, but the food was healthy and filling, and that is all one should require.

Yana and I made small talk, mostly with the man who had first welcomed us, and little by little, we managed to warm the locals to our presence. At one point, Xipil nudged me to look over my right shoulder. A hunter carrying game over his shoulder just vanished behind a building. I nodded to Xipil to acknowledge that I had seen the man, then I returned my attention to the talks.

Eventually, I started to ask about the terrain around the village, and we were given directions to a small group of houses a little away from the main village, where the hunters resided. I described the man I’d seen a little earlier, and we were taken to see him instead.

After receiving assurances that we had the noblest of intentions, the hunter admitted us to one of the houses in the village. He was instructing two younger women in slaughtering the animal he had brought in, and he asked what was in it for him if he were to talk to us. I rifled through my pouch and found only one silver piece and a few coppers, so I extracted a gold coin instead. I slipped it discreetly into the hunter’s hand; it was a little too much for just information about the nearby lands, but I couldn’t precisely ask him for change. The gold bought me a lot of goodwill, and the hunter told the women to keep up the work while he stepped outside with us.

The hunter could only give us approximate directions to the Elephant Grotto, but he offered to take us to someone called Olog, who would know more. He warned us that Olog only respected strength, and since he had heard that we had someone big with us on our ship, we should bring them. I was confident I could get him to talk, but it would probably go easier if we had Grogg and Wolfram with us. I sent Yana to fetch them. A little outing would only be good for them. At least, I hoped they could feel useful. The last few days, I had been running around Anabel talking to people, and I believed they felt a little left out.

The distance from showing strength to using violence can be short, so when Yana brought Grogg and Wolfram, she told me she would prefer if she could keep Hylda company on the ship instead of coming with us to visit Olog. “Yes, love,” I signed.

The hunter brought us to the little group of houses we had been told about earlier. Another hunter took offense with our presence there, but he was placated when we told him we were just passing by on our way to Olog’s place.

Olog lived in a clay hut. Above the door was mounted the head of an animal. The head was twice the size of a troll’s head, and it had a big horn protruding from its nose. Weird! I asked Grogg if he would be so kind and knock on the door. I had to clarify that I just wanted him to knock on the door, not to knock it in, but when nobody replied to Grogg’s rapping on the wood, he readied himself, raised a leg and sent the door flying inside the hut.

There was still no reply from inside, but I could hear someone moving in there. Grogg blocked the view for the rest of us, but the homeowner must have appeared, for he apologized for bashing in the door. Olog responded by trying to enlist Grogg as his apprentice. His teachings would be free of charge if Grogg could beat him at arm wrestling.

Grogg stepped inside the hut and sat down at a simple wooden table across from a large half-orc with skin partly dark green, partly brown. Xipil and I watched from the door, with Wolfram standing behind us. Grogg beat Olog, first with the right arm, then with the left. Grogg taunted Olog that even Wolfram could have beaten him; those two were about the same size.

Olog declared that he had found his apprentice. The two of them together could hunt down anything! The brutes engaged in discussions about big game hunting and for a while ignored Xipil’s request for information about the Elephant Grotto. Eventually, Grogg asked what Olog knew about the place. Olog said there were trees in there that one could hunt, and ghosts, he warned. It didn’t seem like he knew how to deal with those.

To find the Elephant Grotto, we had to go to the second mesa from the lake and observe its western wall at sunset. Olog said nothing about what we would see if we did that, but it was clear he had been there, so I assumed we would see an obvious sign pointing towards the entrance. If Olog had figured it out, we shouldn’t have any difficulties deciphering the sign.

Grogg and Olog continued their talks until Olog said something that Grogg construed as an insult to Kraa. Then he stood up and left. We went back to the ship. The mesa we sought was located several days from the lake, so it wouldn’t help us to continue on the ship. If we went on foot from this village, we might avoid the densest parts of the jungle, but if we took the ship as close to the mesa as possible, we would have to cut our way through the tangle. Another reason to leave the ship was that it would be safer here if the alleged storm blew in. Xipil thought that could happen at a moment’s notice, at least if magic was involved.

We unloaded Groman and our luggage and told the sailors that we would head inland. They should wait for us for two weeks. We estimated that travel on Wolfram’s back would take a few days in each direction, so two weeks should be more than enough time to get there and back, even if we ran into trouble.