They seek them here, they seek them there, they seek House Söttir everywhere...
All had gone quiet outside the Mekillot wagon, the sounds of battle had faded to nothing and now the silence was oppressive. The old ashik waited for a moment then, shrugging his shoulders like he knew that whoever was outside would get to them eventually, he continued with his tale.
As the Company of the Cloaked Inix walk across Altarak towards The Grave Mead House and Gambling Hall Scar leaves them and heads up the hill to seek out her contacts in the Veiled Alliance to check in and see if they have any news of the House Söttir caravan. The rest of the Company enter The Grave and, much like the rest of Altarak, find it much quieter than it was during the Muscle Festival. Arthur manages to secure the same rooms as they had the last time that they stayed and pays for them in ceramic pieces so as not to draw attention to the group.When Scar reaches the obscure curio shop at the top of the hill path she discovers that her contact, Riffen Tok, is not there so she speaks to Grey Jack instead. After a moments hesitation, Grey Jack recognises the amazonion Scar and greets her with a smile and welcomes her back to Altarak. He pulls out a ledger and reminds Scar of the credit that she has with the Veiled Alliance in Altarak and suggests that she might like to browse the library for inspiration, Scar accepts the offer like a thirsty Mekillot accepts water, and in moments is avidly browsing the tomes.
Back in The Grave, Kank attempts to get some local gossip from the patrons but all he manages to do is make the acquaintance of a very drunk trader who is just happy to have someone to drink with. Eventually Scar rejoins the others back at the inn and suggests that it might be worth walking around the town to see if anything looks untoward, everyone agrees, and Kank is just pleased to get away from his new found friend. When they are out of earshot of others Kank asks the spirit of Earthshaker, Graneggadon, if he can sense any chaos in the area. As always the spirit stirs slowly and rather grumpily says;
WHY DO YOU PERSIT IN ASKING THAT QUESTION? IF I SENSE ANYTHING I WILL MAKE YOU AWARE!
The spirit then seems to slip back into it’s rumbling slumber. Kank just shrugs at the others and they continue on towards the warehouse previously occupied by House Söttir. The site looks untouched in the three weeks that have passed with all but the ground floor destroyed by the fire that the Company had started. They circumnavigate the streets of Altarak and find little else of interest and so head back to The Grave hoping for better luck in the morning.
The following morning over breakfast Balboa strikes up a conversation with the barman and is told that all anyone is talking about currently is the war between Tyr and Urik. Allegedly the Crimson Legion of Tyr were defeated by the Lions of Hamanu, but the battle took such a toll that the armies of Urik retreated back to their City State. There were also rumours that a castle made entirely of bones walked into the battle on the side of Hamanu, but the barman believes that those rumours are just tall tales from the soldiers. Balboa, however, knew different. He, along with the rest of the Company, had seen the castle of bones for themselves. But the barman does say that Altarak is still aligned with Tyr.
Knowing that Altarak is still aligned with Tyr gives the Company another avenue of enquiry to pursue. Kank and Balboa head across the road to the barracks of the town guard, and flashing their seals given to them by Rikus himself, they question the desk sergeant about an Inix caravan bearing the pennant of House Söttir passing through Altarak within the last eight days. The sergeant doesn’t know anything, but one of the other guards in the barracks overhears the conversation and says that a caravan matching that description passed through the north gate about a week ago, but he has no idea where it was heading.
Kank, remembering the patrol outside of Altarak looking at something on the ground near to the foothills of the mountains asks the sergeant if he knows what they had found. The sergeant replies that he doesn’t, but that he will ask around and find out for the big Mul. Balboa and Kank thank the guards and back to The Grave to join the others. Once they have told them what they have found out Arthur suggests that they spend some time talking to the caravan merchants who ply their trade up and down the trade routes of Athas. After several hours of questions all the Company have discovered is that the number of raids on caravans has increased and the trade routes across Tyr’s lands are littered with burnt out caravans, but eventually Arthur finds a merchant who remembers seeing a House Söttir caravan two days north of Altarak travelling south from Tyr, but they definitely didn’t make it as far as Altarak so they must have turned towards Gulg or Nibenay.
Once again Scar visits her contacts in the Veiled Alliance, this time hoping to sell the ring engraved with a weak protection matrix. While she is doing that Arthur finds a high end jewellers and steps in out of the sun. The young lady within looks the dust stained and slightly bloody Dwarf up and down before calling over her shoulder;
Father, we have a customer!
An older man appears from the rear of the building and asks how he can help. Arthur produces the twin gold chains of office taken from the earth tombs. The jeweller is clearly surprised and asks if he can inspect them, Arthur happily hands them over and watches while the jeweller scans them with his magnifying lens;
Hmm! Very good workmanship. Dwarven I believe. Maybe just under a thousand years old. What did you say was their provenance?
The heavily muscled Dwarf looks a little confused before the jeweller clarifies by asking how Arthur is in possession of them. He tells the jeweller that he discovered them in a cave near some bones, the jeweller nods and makes notes in a ledger, he then asks for Arthur’s name, to which he answers;
Arthur of the Mulard Clan!
Again the jeweller makes a note in the ledger and then offers Arthur one hundred and twenty gold coins for the pair. Arthur agrees and receives the payments in coin and a pair of diamonds. When Scar reaches the curio shop on the hill she finds Grey Jack behind the counter once again, she shows him the ring and asks if the Veiled Alliance might be interested in purchasing it. It takes only moments before Grey Jack has handed over twenty gold coins and place the ring upon his own finger.
Grey Jack invites Scar to join him for a cup of herb tea and the warrior woman smiles an agreement. They sit down and Scar tells him of the Company’s adventures on Ledo, and of their encounter with the worshipers of Nurkel-Malia and the chaos Giant. Grey Jack listens intently and when Scar has finished he says that he now understands why the Company are seeking House Söttir and that he will make sure that the Alliance in Altarak will be vigilant. Scar then asks him about the war between Tyr and Urik and Grey Jack tells her a similar story to that imparted by the barman, but he is able to give more detail about the bone citadel. It is aligned to a group known as Slither, who are led by an undead Lich by the name of Yarnath the Skull. Grey Jack goes on to say that it is rumoured that Rikus entered the bone citadel during the war to battle a powerful being, and that he has not been heard of since.
Scar returns to the others with her news and the Company agree that they will head for the bandit caves north of Altarak to see if they can capture one of the bandits and extract any information about the whereabouts of House Söttir. Scar says that she wishes to stay in Altarak and spend time learning a new spell, so the following morning the rest of the Company wish her well and leave via the north gate. As they travel, Arthur questions Ferulah about her true form but the shapeshifter says that her kind only adopt their ture form with one another. Arthur continues to ask her about her kind and Ferulah says that she believes that they were once slaves or servants to powerful beings, but she will not be drawn any further.
After half a days travel Ferulah transforms back into her feline form and ranges ahead of the Company scouting for any trouble, but all she finds is a single inix drawn wagon lumbering towards Altarak. When the wagon reaches the others Balboa hails the merchant and they ask if he has seen any other merchants on the road flying the pennent of House Söttir, to his surprise the merchant replies that he has seen a merchant wagon with those colours on the road near to Urik, far to the north. Thanking the merchant the Company press onwards and make camp a couple of hours travel from the bandit caves. The night passes quietly and the Company set out before dawn in the hope of capturing the bandits unawares, but they are disappointed to discover that the caves have been abandoned and so they make the slow journey back to Altarak disheatened.
While the others are treking across the desert to the bandit caves, Scar spends her time with Grey Jack in the curio shop learning how to cast the multimissile spell that she had seen the skimmer Captain use against the chaos Giant. While she is there she notices a book on the shelves that looks out of place as she is sure that it is not preserver magic, but is elemental in nature. When she inspects it she finds that it is called;
An Abasement to Earth
Believeing that it would be of great interest to the learned Balboa she purchases it for him and presents it to him as a gift when they meet up in The Grave on the afternoon of the expeditions return. Balboa takes one look at the tome and is overcome with gratitude. That afternoon the Company head out to purchase new travelling garments for Ferulah and replacement armour for Scar, which the very grateful Balboa purchases for her. The rest of the Company also leave their armour with the trader for minor repairs and head back to the inn to try and work out what to do next as the trail of House Söttir in the local vacinity has gone cold.
Having had enough of the rowdy behavior, Kank stands up and turns towards the group looking for the male that had grope Ferulah. As he does so one of the others points and shouts;
Watch out lads! He's got a crown on!
The group bust into laughter, and Arthur spits his beer all over the table as a huge belly laugh rips from his mouth. That's enough for Kank who starts to march purposefully towards the Human male who had grabbed Ferulah, but as he passes the Female Elf in the group she reaches out and grabs Kank's arse. Quicker than you can blink, Ferulah launches herself at the Elf but the nimble female dodges the attack. And that is when someone at the back of the inn shouts;
BAR FIGHT!
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