The wisdom of Agis...

There is a creaking noise from above them, as if several people were creeping along the Mekillot wagon's deck, and failing.The old ashik allowed himself another smile, they still hadn't learned how to move silently. He looked back at the expectant slaves all around him and continued his tale to calm their nerves.

Scar swings with a wild haymaker and the Human male only just get his arm up in time to blow kisses the blow, but the warrior woman’s punch is so powerful that the man’s arm drops to his side limp and useless. The tall female Elf steps into the melee and punches Scar, the warrior woman takes the worst of the blow on her arm. The Human female misses Ferulah with a wild swing and Kank sidesteps a jab from the male Mul. Ferulah, still furious at the Human female who grab Kank’s behind, throws a vicious punch and connects with all of her formidable strength. The woman’s head snapped backwards like it had been hit by a Mekillot and her unconscious body toppled backwards knocking into a table and sending drinks spilling.

The male Mul dodges Kank's punch again as the female Elf strikes Scar in the arm again causing it to hang limp at her side. Ferulah takes a swing at the male Mul fighting Kank, but he manages to duck beneath her attack. As he pops back up with a grin splitting his face Kank slams his meaty fist into his thigh and forces the Mul to stagger backwards. There is a flurry of blows between the clump of fighters including Scar, the female Elf and the male Human that groped Scar in the first place. Most of the punches are dodged but the Human manages to land a glancing blow off of Scar's head, but the warrior woman remains on her feet and ducking below another swing from the female Elf launches herself at the Human.

Kank follows up on the male Mul and punches hard again, the Mul gets his arm up to block the attack and takes the full force of Kank's aggression against his bicep. The punch gives him a dead arm, and as it drops limp to his side he scrambles away from the fight. Scar launches a flurry of blows against the male Human and knocks him to the floor, but before she can follow up there is a shrill whistle from the female Elf and the caravan guards all disengage from the fight and stand laughing and panting. The Company of the Cloaked Inix are momentarily confused, but also disengage from the fight. The female Elf steps forwards and smiles at Scar, she introduces herself as Anezka and congratulates the Company on a good scrap. Scar smiles at the tall, willowy, beautiful Elf and says;

Anezka! What a beautiful name.

Anezka looks Scar up and down and then smiles broadly at her and invites all of the Company for a drink. She turns back to her team of caravan guards and one of them tells her that the Human female that Ferulah had punched out has possibly got a broken jaw. Balboa and Kank offer to carry her up to her room, but instead the Half-giant scoops her up and starts to head upstairs. Balboa and Kank follow and once the Half-giant has laid the woman on her bed, Kank leads the Half-giant away with the promise of a large drink, leaving Balboa alone with the injured women. The earth priest calls upon the Gnomes of the earth as Kank pulls the door closed behind him and the Half-giant, the Gnomes hear his call and the woman's wounds are healed. She comes too and locks eyes with the caring Balboa and smiles. Balboa suggests that they head back downstairs for a drink with the others.

As the pair get to the bottom of the stairs the rest of the caravan guards cheer loudly and Anezka seems to make a mental note of something, before Scar steps back into her eye line with another drink and a flirtatious look in her eye. Over drinks Anezka asks Scar where the Company are headed for and Scar tells her that they plan on heading towards Tyr the following morning. Anezka smiles and tells Scar that she has a job delivering two Mekillot wagons full of goods to a nobles estate on the outskirts of Tyr, and that she is looking to hire another six guards to help. She invites the Company to join her for the journey, and as soon as Arthur realises that they will get paid for the job and he won't have to spend any coin on food and water he quickly jumps at the chance and encourages the others to agree.

Later in the evening Anavias, the female Human healed by Balboa, leads the enthusiastic Mul by the hand upstairs to his room. Scar and Anezka don't bother with heading upstairs and drunkenly make out in the crowded bar.

Two days later two large Mekillot wagons slowly trundle through Altarak's north gate. Anezka had split the teams up and several of the Company were working on the front wagon while the others traveled in the second wagon, one of those in the second wagon was Arthur, who had told Anezka that he could drive a Mekillot wagon. As the wagons passed through the north gate the male Elf could tell that Arthur was not completely experienced at the reins, so he spent the journey giving Arthur some valuable pointers.

The road from Altarak was littered with burnt out caravans and the atmosphere was tense as Anezka's caravan guards and the members of the Company scanned the dunes for any sign of danger. On the third day, one of the caravan guards points to the west and shouts that he can see something on the horizon, Arthur pulls out his telescope and scans the horizon and can see about a dozen Erdlu riders paralleling the wagons. The Erdlu riders follow the wagons for half a day before disappearing from sight, that night after they have made camp Ferulah and Kank head out into the dark, Ferulah shape-changes into her mountain lioness form and bounds off into the dark to scout out the riders. She comes back just before dawn and tells Kank that they have not continued to follow.

The rest of the journey passes uneventfully and after a further seven days they are approaching the gates of a large noble estate on the outskirts of the city of Tyr. Having pulled through the gates the staff within the estate start to unload the wagons, and directing the unloading is a man that Kank recognizes, Agis of Asticles. Kank walks over and greets him, Agis looks at Kank for a moment as if he can't quite place his face, he then stares intently into the big Mul's eyes and unbeknownst to Kank spears his powerful mind straight into Kank's. After a moments hesitation, during which Agis reads all of Kank's memories dating back to when Agis had met the Company when they were searching for the Face in the Stone, a broad smile splits Agis' face and he greets Kank like a friend.

Anezka walks over to Scar and says;

I see that you have some powerful friends. It has been a pleasure working with you.

And with a wry smile she hands the warrior woman six purses of coins and she and her caravan guards start to prep the Mekillot wagons to leave. As they are doing so Agis invites the Company to join him for lunch, and never passing up the opportunity for a free meal they obviously agree. Over an amazing meal Agis tells the Company what he knows of the battle between the Lions of Hamanu and Tyr's Crimson Legion. He talks of the appearance of the crawling citadel of bone in alliance with the Lions of Hamanu, Rikus entered the citadel and slayed both Yarnath the Skull and a powerful demonic force that was the guardian of the citadel, Agis is sure that Rikus did not die but he is unsure of where he is currently. Agis goes on to say that the Lions of Hamanu defeated the Crimson Legion, but it was a pyrrhic victory as the Lions suffered significant losses and had to retreat back to Urik. Tyr is also in turmoil after the defeat but there has been a significant increase in those that are volunteering for the army of Tyr.

Agis looks around at the Company and says;

I have read in Kank's mind what has happened since we last met, tell me about these Trolls!

All of the colour drains from Kank's face and he tells Agis that they have made an oath not to talk of the Trolls, but Agis insists as having such powerful beings below Tyr has to be of concern to the Council of Advisors regardless of if they are friend or foe. But the Company refuse to be drawn on all but the barest of details. Arthur shows Agis his Troll maul and the learned noble identifies the metal as being the very rare lead. Knowing that he will not get more out of the Company on the Trolls Agis asks what the Company's plans are, they tell him that they are seeking the ex-high templar Velatash who they believe is now acting as the high priest of Nurkel-Malia mistress of disease.

Agis says that he has no idea what happened to Kalak's loyal templars when the Sorcerer-King was slain, but most of them escaped to the south, he also has a couple of thoughts on how the Company can find Velatash. The more dangerous of which is the fact that there are rumours of an Oracle in the depths of the Under-Tyr, but tales tell that the bargains struck with the Oracle are often more dangerous than seeking the information the hard way. His second idea is that Kalak had more than one globe and the one that was shattered he had taken from the dead fingers of Kalid-Ma the Sorcerer-King of Kalidnay. Agis says;

Everything seems to be about the globes, find out more about them and you may find Velatash.

Agis offers the Company the use of his private library for research purposes. Arthur asks if there is someone who could assist them and Agis says that he will get his seneschal to assist. Agis sits back at the table and looks around;

As you will be here for a while you may all like to bathe before you start your research.

The Company look around at each other, they are dust caked and bloody, but more than that they are shocked at how rich Agis must be to be able to offer six guests baths. Having bathed and donned clean robes the members of the Company meet the seneschal in Agis' library and begin to search for information. After several hours they have discovered that Kalid-Ma was attempting to ascend into a new, powerful form by using high level defiler magic to sacrifice the entire population of Kalidnay. But during the casting of the spell Kalak attack him and slayed Kalid-Ma, taking the Sorcerer-Kings globe. The defiler magic did however turn all of the population of Kalidnay into undead, and to this day Kalidnay is know as the City of Ghosts. However, brave people still search the ruins of the city for artifacts and knowledge from ancient times.

And so the Company agree that they should head to Kalidnay, not only because there is a chance of more information, but due to the fact that it lies to the south. The following morning they thank Agis and head for Tyr to make preparations for their journey. They book back into the Golden Inix, greeted warmly by the Half-giant doorman Jaryx and the owner Mila. Once they have dropped off their belongings the Company head their separate ways, Arthur visits his Dwarven prostitute friend, Scar heads off to make contact with the Veiled Alliance and inform them of House Söttir, Kank visits Fleck at Borman's Fine Clothing.

When Kank gets to Borman's he finds the sartorial feral Halfling working on some new haberdashery. Kank asks Fleck if they have any more of the silver Inix brooches for sale, but Fleck says that they are made to order, however he is happy to get four more of them made quickly when Kank hands over thirty silver pieces. Knowing Fleck's knowledge of the Under-Tyr, Kank also asks about the Oracle. Fleck shakes his head and says;

You do not want to visit the Oracle, very dangerous!

Two days later, Kank holds a pin ceremony where he gives each member of the Company of the Cloaked Inix one of the silver Inix brooches. They then say farewell Mira and Jaryx and set out for Kalidnay. During Kank and Balboa's watch, on their second night out of Tyr, the pair of Mul's spot something large moving in the darkness. Balboa says that there is more than one of them and so they both rush under the tarp to shake the others awake. Just as they are awaking the last two members of the Company the tarp is ripped back and the Company find themselves staring up at a pair of Braxat.