Paralyze on the Prize

## **Synopsis**

In Chapter 86: Paralyze on the Prize, Butez put the finishing touches on Orba's tattoo – which was now not just a spectacular piece of art but a functional arcane focus thanks to his implementation of the bark from a wizard's staff.  That and copying a new spell into her spellbook made for a productive afternoon for Orba, but shortly after finishing she was paid a visit by the always-mysterious Pibraf Lazruud Vodzothangi.

He came with word of Beezaura, who had only just reached the city limits of Wampurani-Na before being relayed some terrible news.  The assassin Saraswati had given advanced notice to certain members of the Gentle Void before reactivating her arrest warrant at the Acqly Archives – so it was possible she was walking directly into a trap along the coast where the GV was well-represented.

Fearing for her safety and acknowledging the strain it might put on the party as a whole, Beezaura fled Navika-Pura with plans to stick to smaller towns and country roads until she could bargain for another reprieve.  It was heavy news for Orba, who had only just seen Beezaura a few short hours ago, but she knew that everyone has to tackle their challenges in their own way – and she vowed to make sure that Thomas Pindle received the chess pieces that Khlyff Ironcloud had promised.

One township over, Safira passed through a street market that presented some unexpected but not unwelcome opportunities: a fletcher that made customized arrows and the local pawn shop owner selling little wind-up toys that produced various unique effects.  Feeling that now was a good time to treat herself, Safira loaded up on arrows and trinkets, partially to prepare for the upcoming excursion to the Rapra Mountains… but also because the toys were just kinda cute.

Following up on a promising lead he'd acquired from Carlotta's lost vial, Graven moved swiftly to the out-of-commission Broken Crown Center in Fangull – where he found it to be a popular squatting spot for the city's poor and homeless.  In the middle-north building, one of the occupants recognized Graven's description of who he was looking for – and pointed to the hatch leading down to the waste chamber.

Pushing through the overwhelming stench, Graven descended the ladder to find the room mostly empty – but a note wedged in one of the pipes revealed a correspondence between (presumably) Mr. Two and the deceased Percy Oland, who had scheduled a skin graft with a false name in the records of Jo Migosto, his boss before his passing.

Not wanting to leave any stone unturned, Graven removed the lid of each waste channel – a move he would later regret as a juvenile Carrion Crawler burst forth to protect its den from intruders.  Graven wisely downed an antitoxin to protect against the poisonous lashings of its tentacles – but torn between running and fighting he found himself excelling at neither… and eventually the repeated bites and bombardment of paralytic pricks was too much to endure.

With his limbs locking up and the hatch so nearly within reach, Graven succumbed to darkness – his last thoughts ones of deep worry that no one would think to look for him here… a rancid final resting place if there ever was one.

As Graven was falling into unconsciousness, Erland was coming out of it – and Marvyn Bishop was happy to make our acquaintance despite the less-than-ideal circumstances.  He recounted all he knew about how he came to be imprisoned, what had been asked of him and what Grahmari was working on – but because he wasn't officially a part of the Harvesting Yard operation, the gaps in his knowledge were large.

When his captors returned, they dragged him from the room and he shouted what was perhaps his most valuable bit of information: that he could help find Grahmari – though surely we would have to rescue Marvyn or arrange for his release first.  Erland recognized the leader of this outfit from the Scalehouse back in Mukmu – and after a back-and-forth he acknowledged that we didn't seem to be siding with the Lemonade Man and could therefore ask Marvyn more questions, the answers of which would be delivered to the Mailhouse later that day.

Taking a shot at bargaining for Marvyn's freedom, Erland offered up one of the mutant whistles – a valuable asset to someone going up against Duffy Geiss – and it piqued his interest enough to consider it, though he wanted a demonstration that it actually worked as advertised.

As the man set to beating on Erland so we couldn't trace our way back, a bit of deception made a convincing limp body – and hoping that we might pick up something in transit, we held our breath.

## Trivia

* Natural one count: one natural one was rolled in this Chapter, by Anthony.