Day 65 - Far Haven - Tripwires

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**(Date: 19th April)**

Once Vinmira has left, the party discusses the plans for tomorrow, obviously the goal is to be back for any further information he can impart, and it would seem that hanging around Far Haven may not be a wise move. So, to cover some ground there is a general consensus to split up (after all you can do more damage that way!).

## Francis, Quercius, Wun & Hamish

**Group Spend: 1 silver, 3 copper**

As a group you head out shortly after breakfast, in no great hurry towards the Temple of the Book, with your somewhat limited knowledge of the city you decide to stick to the main streets and so once again find yourself passing both the Knights of Shanah garrison complex as well as the ‘Guardian Avengers’ guildhouse.

As already observed, the Knights of Shanah is a large, well fortified complex, and from what you can see there is strict security on the gates, with papers being checked before any entrance is allowed. The large gates are however open, and through them you can see a large tourney field which has been set up with targets for missile fire. Unfortunately the angle of view is such that you cannot see who is practicing, or with what weapon, but from the missiles you do observe it is crossbow type weaponry as opposed to bow. There are a fair number of people coming and going, all generally military types, but with the occasional tradesmen.

The interior ministry or Guardian Avengers, by contrast has no guards outside the front door, and very little traffic. In fact the only person you see entering the doors is a fairly well to do looking lady, who confidently strides up to the doors, knocks and enters.

The avenue down towards the Temple of the Book is relatively quiet this time in the morning, most of the traffic would seem to be servants or apprentices out either picking up or returning with supplies for the day. As you approach the Temple, there are a couple of street vendors selling small offerings for Shanah (cheap but functional knives and the like), plus you find a couple of street cafes with outside seating.

You find a café that isn’t too flashy, and order a drink, the weather is pleasant and so it is no great hardship to sit there for an hour or so and observe comings and goings through the Temple gates. As Vinmira had said, the Temple is very busy, in particular there have obviously been a number of nomads attending, since most of the people leaving the shrine are nomads and head straight down the street towards the Meeting Place. The majority of other people queuing to enter the shrine appear to be military or city watch, although there are a number of generic citizens also present. The guards on the gates do not particularly seem to be screening anybody, the only governance they are providing seems to be trying to make sure that there are not too many people inside. From what you can see there are queues to get out as well, none of this is helped by the fact that the entrance gate is only wide enough to permit one giant (or two hobbits) through at a time.

You see Bazin and Umar join the queue and enter the temple, shortly thereafter Garaf and Wun also join the queue. When you have finished your drinks, you head off towards Wreckers Point, making sure to take the long way round, in other words circling the Temple. No other gates are visible although there was one other obvious entrance, but this has been barred. Reaching the avenue to Wreckers Point you meet up briefly with Caradoc and appraise him of what you have observed, whereupon he leaves you.

About a quarter of a mile along the avenue, you pass what was obviously once the old city walls, these have been used to form the basis of housing or the stones have been repurposed. This dismantling must have taken place a fair number of years back though. From here on, the houses get smaller and rougher on the left of the avenue, whilst on the right you see a gradual transition into warehousing. There is a gradual slope up, and somehow you are not surprised to find that a fairly tall palisade has been erected across the road, you are still a little distance from the headland. Manning the gates across the avenue are 4 humans, dressed in the uniform of the Elite City Watch, with them is an Ariel, one with bright white feathers (most Ariel have mottled brown plumage). Seeing you pause in your approach, the Ariel beckons you forward somewhat urgently.

Ariel (to what is probably the Guard sargeant): “Told you!”

Guard: “OK, ok, it’s my job to be sceptical….”

Guard (to party group): “Go on through.”

..and the gates are opened wide for you to pass through. The Ariel, falls in with you, now up close you can see that she (it is a she), is very old. Her feathers whilst amazingly white are somewhat bedraggled in places and her face is lined and careworn.

Once inside the gates, they are pulled closed by the guards, and another – much younger – Ariel rises from their seat (some milestone by the side of the avenue) and comes over. The younger Ariel seems annoyed or upset about something.

Young Ariel: “Are these…..”

Elder Ariel: “Yes, now remember your duties – I do not have long.”

Elder Ariel (to party): “Apologies, but things are going to have to be rushed, I have to leave in just under an hour and there is much that Saratak has asked me to tell you.”

Elder Ariel (to party): “My name is Swanfeather, Speaker of the Fairwind Clan, this youth is Larksong, my Listener and apprentice. My clan is encamped up ahead at Wreckers point, at the request of Saratak. Now let me try and remember…..”

Swanfeather starts muttering rapidly to herself, obviously replaying something in her head and using vocalisation to assist her memory.

Swanfeather: “Right, yes, that was it. The most important thing to tell you is that Saratak told me to tell you that he cannot meet you – for your sakes and not his – if he meets you, he must kill you or his city will burn for certain.”

Swanfeather: “OK, so what was the next bit…..”

(mutter)

(mutter)

(mutter)

Swanfeather: “Ah yes, I am to answer your questions as best I can, that was it.”

Swanfeather: “So what are your questions?”

For a moment, the party is too taken aback to actually phrase a coherent question.”

Francis: “Is my elder brother, Jamie, still alive?”

Swanfeather: “Sorry, I’m not the Seer here, I have no idea, but Saratak said something like this would be asked and apparently the answer is you will know when you know how the Riverside wards were breached.”

Quercius: “Do you have Clearsight?”

Swanfeather: “Yes dear, we clans have managed to make sure that nearly all speakers have Clearsight, it is the only way to keep the memories unfogged.”

Quercius: “So why was the Wyldwood Temple here attacked by the Shanah?”

Swanfeather: “Onwen and his friends had rather fallen in love with the fairytale Elves that the clouded stories told them. Elves that would heal the land and spread wonderment and love of nature wherever they went. Too many people had that view, some people still do. The problem is that Onwen and friends tried to do something about it.”

Swanfeather: “Nobody knows the detail, except perhaps for Onwen. Whatever, they cracked the spell of voids and made contact. In so doing they also damaged the weave of the Spell of Forgetting, initially only a minor tug in the weave, but the damage has spread from that day. The first to see was Onwen, who quickly realised what a mistake was being made. The second to see was Saratak, who could only see one way of dealing with it. Saratak has told me no more about this, but I do know that Bez Drock thought he had prevented the Elves coming – but as he realised shortly after razing the shrine – he had failed and at least some Elves had returned.”

Hamish: “So why did Saratak then go for his jaunt to the Cracks of Doom.”

Swanfeather: “Apparently, he had to prove to himself that what he was now seeing was true and not just another distortion caused by the Forgetting. The fifth city of the sky is there apparently.”

Wun: “And the Wild? What can you tell us about it?”

Swanfeather (obviously slightly discomfited): “The Wyld and the Wild were once one, a universal love of nature in all its forms, but the arrival of the Elves and their desire to own, to put in order, to rule and govern, forced the Wild to manifest as an opposition to the Elves. The Wild believed in confrontation, whereas we of the Wyld believed in assimilation. The problem with confrontation is that it escalates, war broke out, and after an age the Elves were looking to be annihilated. But by then the Wild was uncontrollable fury, destruction for destructions sake, pure nihilism – and so it had to be opposed. So, the Wyld sided resultantly with the Elves, with the result that the Wild was driven back and facing defeat. Soratan himself cast the Spell of Voids in order to enable the remnants of the Wild to escape, but that casting is now also cracked and breaking.”

Swanfeather: “I must go…..”

….and without warning Swanfeather launches herself into the sky, morphing as she does so into a large whooper swan which circles around the party once and then flies off East.

Larksong (who is crying): “Farewell Swanfeather.”

Quercius: “Sorry, what happened there please, we do not wish to intrude but if we can help.”

Larksong (bitterly): “She has gone East to die, Saratak said it was necessary and she obeyed. Stupid woman always had too much faith in Saratak. I am now Speaker, and to be quite honest I do not want anything to do with you, but I will obey her last request to me.”

Quercius: “What did Saratak tell her?”

Larksong: “The she must meet the clearsighted visitors to the old Lighthouse and then depart East. She would never see the clan again after this journey…..”

Larksong: “I don’t know what Saratak told her to convince her of the necessity though – it was one of the things she concealed.”

Larksong visibly pulls himself together and turns back onto the path.

Larksong: “Follow me.”

The young Ariel leads you up the hill and as you come over a small crest the Fairwind clan encampment comes into view in a dell that extends out to the cliffs. You would guess the clan to be around four or five hundred strong, what is surprising to see is that they have a small herd of what you take to be Drakes, large reptilian beasts with huge leathery wings. Larksong leads you further up though, and away from the clan, until you come to the headland peak. Here, some small scattered stones plus a hole in the ground is all that remains of the old lighthouse.

Ruts are still visible in the ground where wagons were obviously used to cart away the stones of the old lighthouse. From the small fragments left, the stonemasons amongst you would reckon that the tower was of a very superior construction quality and old, quite probably Elven.

Larksong: “I see you have realised that the tower was originally Elven. It was built as a defence against the Wild, not long after the alliance was formed between the Elves and the Wyldwood. Once the war was over and the Elves departed, it was repurposed as a lighthouse and so it stood. Saratak has adopted its design into the towers he is building in the city.”

Larksong: “Have a look around if you wish, the foundations are largely still in place and there are steps down into the cellars.”

Larksong: “This is from me….. I don’t know if Saratak is truly mad, but I do believe that his love for this hovel is an all consuming passion. Whether his foresight is clouded or clear, who can tell, but if he sees any risk to his city he moves to prevent it. You are inexperienced and so I cannot believe that he is looking to use you as anything other than catalysts, but if I were you – I would leave this place and Sarataks scheming as fast as I can.”

….and Larksong launches himself into the air and glides down towards the Ariel encampment, leaving the four of you looking down into the old ‘lighthouse’ cellars.

The group decides to do a quick recce down, heading down the slightly slippery stone stairs that appear to have been carved out of the rock itself. From the smoothness of the walls and the formation of the stairs, Quercius would assume that some form of stone shaping had been used here. After a descent of about 20’, the party reaches a stone floor, you are in a 30’ diameter area with 6 doorways leading off. Little daylight reaches down this far, but two torches in sconces are spotted and these are soon lit.

The floor of the central area is strewn with debris, and you would guess that a number of people have been working down here recently. A broken basket with short piece of snapped rope implies that there has been some heavy lifting going on. Each of the doorways off leads into a rectangular room with a small entry passage. Four of the rooms were weapon stores, empty weapon racks all for spears or polearms, a quick count leads you to estimate that each of the four armories held around 1,000 spears or possibly slightly less if polearms were stored.

One of the other rooms is lined with shelves, from the shapes visible in the dust you would guess that the shelves were laden with small chests, lots of them (the shelves are very solid). The last room, at first glance appears to have been empty, although there are some strange cross like shapes in the dust visible at the sides of the room. The centre of the room has had all the dust disturbed so you would infer that people worked in here recently. A further search reveals nothing of interest, given the way that these rooms have been constructed – probably by magic – it is impossible to tell who actually built the rooms.

A further search of the rooms, reveals nothing of interest and so after about 30 minutes the party decides to leave the area and head back into town, heading through Northmarket back towards the Meeting Place.

The Northmarket itself is busy, but not heaving, most of the stalls are obviously semi permanent with a mixture of obviously nomadic stallholders (selling hides, dried meats, bows and similar), interspersed with city dweller stalls (selling metalwork, leather goods – particularly saddles and tack, some weaponry). You do spot some odd stalls, that are obviously set up by ships captains from the docks. One that stands out is manned (lizarded?) by two Lizardmen and is selling what looks to be fine quality cloth that shimmers in the daylight, this still has a lot of customers and you would guess that they will be clearing their stock fairly quickly.

The party then heads out onto the plains in front of the city and over towards the meeting place, Quercius in particular wanting to check up on the mules. As you approach the stockade, you see Joshua and Dougal also heading for the mules and so divert to meet up with them.

## Joshua and Dougal

**Group Gain: 1 silver 15 copper**

Joshua and Dougal head off down to the Meeting Place soon after breakfast, initially with a vague idea of meeting up with the Hawk Clan centaurs that you met on the way to Far Haven. However Joshua soon gets distracted as nearly every clan tent you pass seems to have some offerings out for trade, normally watched over by an elderly matriarch with a good eye for a bargain. It soon becomes obvious that this petty bargaining is the unofficial way that gossip passes between the clans, since each of these mini-trading posts has a number of prospective customers – generally from difference clans. The ‘bargaining’ that goes on seems as much to be a case of:

Customer: “Did you hear about what happened out at Thola’s Spring a few weeks back, oh that’s a nice necklace.”

Patron: “Well I heard that the Warspring tribe got a little het up by some beastie camping at the oasis. Yes, that was made by my second daughter, I would say 8 copper is a fair price”

Customer: “8 copper!! You are kidding, my 6 year old granddaughter could do a better job. I gather the beastie was like a big black cat, but with tentacles if you can believe it. I will give you 4 copper.”

Patron: “I suspect that the Warspring warriors had a little too much brew in them. 6 copper”

….and so on….

Joshua soon realises that providing he can join in the gossip, which is pretty easy since he has lots of news it is possible to actually make a profit. Before he knows it, the sun is well past noon and a very bored Douglas is pointing out that they were supposed to be checking on the mules.

So with a jingling pocket, Joshua reluctantly moves back towards the stockade, exchanging notes with Dougal on what they have overheard.

**Major Clan Listing Factsheet (attached)**

## Other gossip:

* A displacer beast was seen at some Oasis out East called Thola’s spring, it was killed by warriors of the Warspring (Maratasen) clan – but no pelt has been seen yet;
* The Rotgut (Orc) and Redclaw (Maratasen) clans are preparing to cross the river and head East;
* The Hawk (Centaur) – is crossing the river heading West, apparently at the specific request of Saratak;
* A Dark Elven trading ship berthed at the Docks two days ago, traders have been seen operating in the Northmarket;
* There is a large party of Dwarves heading North out of Northlake, heading for Far Haven, they are travelling with a large number of wagons – but apparently not trading, should be here in two weeks;
* The Speaker of the Rocklobber (Giant) Clan, named Huan Cardec has been advising his Clan to move away West, this despite the fact that Saratak has been asking the tribe to move East with the Rotgut and Redclaw clans. Saratak does not seem particularly concerned by this though;
* Shanah has withdrawn the edict on no Wyldwood worshippers in the Temple of the Book, there is talk of a Wyldwood shrine being established and at least two Clan shamans have agreed to support the consecration;
* One of the Centaur clans reported finding a large, sorry huge, army of undead about 40 miles south of Trollheim. The army was actually an ex-army, rotting corpses and their Orcish controllers torn to shreds, but nobody seems to have any details on this;
* (plus lots of irrelevant gossip)

## Francis, Quercius, Wun, Hamish, Joshua & Dougal

Approaching the stockade, you see Stlan Warskull once again manning the entrance area. At first look the stockade does not seem to have gotten any busier in the last day.

Stlan: “G’day folks, oh it’s you lot again – where’s the rest of you? Or is this just an inspection, to make sure us barbaric orcs are taking good care of your beasties?”

Quercius: “As you say, just an inspection…”

Stlan: “Well I guess you that’s ok.”

Stlan: “**BROKEF!**”

Whilst the party shakes off the ringing in their ears, a small orc figure comes running across the paddock, vaults the fence easily and jogs over. The Orc seems to radiate cheerfulness – if such a thing is possible for an Orc.

Brokef: “Yo Stlan, wassup, good thing I aint goin’ deaf – else I might have not heard you. Shout up a bit next time will ya, sometimes the animals are a bit noisy you know.”

Stlan: “Shut up, you cheeky git. These folks are just here to check on their animals – those mules that came in yesterday.”

Brokef: “OK will do, means a break from shit shovelling.”

Stlan: “There you go folks, Brokef will show you that nothing is out of order. A little bird tells me that I will see you again in the next couple of days anyhow.”

Brokef leads the party into the main stockade area and then over to a couple of stalls with their own subdivision of the paddock. Brokef is obviously knowledgeable about animals and maintains a steady chatter about each animal you see – what care it needs, what his opinion of the animal is etc. etc.

Brokef: “Your mules….”

The mules look very comfortably stabled, the facilities are clean and each mule has been recently groomed.

Brokef: “From my perspective, they are all in pretty good condition, ready to go whenever you are ready.”

Brokef: “I’m not supposed to leave you here, the rules see.”

Brokef: “So let me know when you are finished and we’ll head back”

Checking the animals over, Quercius must agree with Brokef’s assessment, the animals are well taken care of and are fit and content. Then Brokef leads the party back to the stockade entrance.

Brokef: “…ah well back to clearing up the shit I guess.”

The party then heads back to the Inn, going by the way of Havensgate.

A quick check out of the now blocked in Southern gate doesn’t reveal anything of particular note. The stonework in the area appears to be similar in age and construction to the rest of the wall – about 50 years old you would guess. The party soon decides that more detailed investigations would look a bit suspicious and so head back to the Inn.

## Bazin & Umar

**Spend: 10 copper**

After Breakfast, Bazin and Umar spend an hour briefing Caradoc, Garaf and Twoo on the wonders and benefits of the Shanah faith. More importantly, they give a quick guide on what to do and what to avoid doing when in a Shanah temple.

The two of you then head off to the Temple of the Book, hopefully to have a chat with Ronshadow Warskull. By the time you get there, a small queue has formed of people looking to make offerings to Shanah, but even with it being only a single file entrance way you are soon both inside the Temple complex.

Inside, the ground has all been paved over, and from the relative lack of wear on the stone slabs these are only a couple of years old at most. Off to either side are small shrines to Shanah, simple stone altars both with a large two handed sword resting on them. The altars are protected slightly from the elements by large wooden roofed structures that have removable wall panels. These two shrines are the primary destination of most of the pilgrims, and each in turn makes a small offering and receives a blessing from one of two priests at each shrine. Quite often the blessing is made on the pilgrim, although sometimes the priest blesses a weapon.

Towards the rear of the courtyard there is a more imposing building, primarily built of wood, but with a stone archway for an entrance. Above the archway are two stone carvings of a large sword and spear that have been mounted on to the building. Flanking the doorway are two giant guards, not in any alert posture but obviously scanning the crowds and questioning those few pilgrims who are entering the temple. Towards the back left, there are some labourers actually lifting up the stone slabs and carrying them off to a stack on one side.

You have the introduction from Apana and so head for the main temple, the introduction easily gets you past the door guards – who nod you through. Inside, there is a corridor down to the main shrine, with two doors to the left and right. Heading into the main temple, you are met by a junior acolyte who asks your business.

Acolyte: “The High Priest is in attendance but I do know he is busy for the next hour or so. If you wish I can pass on your letter of introduction?”

Bazin: “Yes please.”

Acolyte: “Please wait here, feel free to observe the rituals.”

Bazin and Umar settle down to pray to Shanah, whilst checking out the temple itself. The temple is obviously not ancient, but from the quality of the décor has been very successful. Most of the worshippers are obviously members of the military, with some city guard and the odd nobleman or similar. After just less than an hour the Acolyte returns.

Acolyte: “The High Priest says that he will be free after lunch, in the meantime I can show you around the facilities if you wish, or leave and come back in a couple of hours.”

Umar: “It would be good to have a tour of the temple.”

The acolyte seems a little put out that he is going to have to ‘waste’ a couple of hours showing you around but in the event does manage to carry out the duties with a reasonable amount of grace – you never do learn his name though.

The temple provides accommodation for around 20 priests, plus 50 temple guards, as would be expected the general setup is pretty spartan outside of the main temple hall. The complex has its own training ground and archery range, plus there is a lecture hall and small library of military journals. Watching a couple of the guards sparring, Umar and Bazin realise that these guards are veterans as the fighting skills on display are impressive. Trying to avoid touching on potentially sensitive subjects makes questioning the Acolyte slightly difficult – and so in the end you give up – assuming that you can get more information from Ronshadow.

At lunchtime, the Acolyte takes you to the temple refectory, the food on offer there is basic and slightly spice but at least filling. As you are finishing up, probably the ugliest human you have ever seen comes and sits down on the bench next to the Acolyte, he has only one arm.

Acolyte: “Sir, these are the visitors with the introduction from Apana.”

Ronshadow: “So I gather, thank you very much for your patience.”

Ronshadow nods at the Acolyte who departs.

Ronshadow: “So, you have had the tour, to be blunt you seem a little inexperienced to be getting Apanas seal of approval – but I guess she has her reasons. I’ve got some time for you now, but lets go somewhere quieter.”

Ronshadow gets up and you follow him down to a private office somewhere in the bowels of the temple complex.

Ronshadow: “So what do you want to talk about.”

Bazin: “Coming straight to the point sir, what happened here with the Wyldwood shrine?”

Ronshadow: “Hmmm, bluntly put.”

Ronshadow: “I will tell you what I know, but be advised – I have been told that there is some great spell that clouds the thoughts regarding the Wyldwood shrine here. Apparently I have some resistance to this – as I guess you both do as well, since you are able to talk about it. However, I have been told that some of my recollections on this may be somewhat bent out of shape.”

Ronshadow: “OK, I will keep it simple, since that seems to work best.”

Ronshadow: “There was a subcult within Wyldwood based out of this temple, that somehow got hold of knowledge they shouldn’t have. The blind fools started using this knowledge, but one of them bottled out and reported the activities to Saratak and Bez Drock – at the time the First Sword of Shanah. Bez Drock led an assault on the complex, but whilst he stopped the cult dead in its tracks so to speak, he was too late for some damage to be done. When he realised he had failed, Bez Drock resigned as First Sword. This temple was established to close down Wyldwood activities on the site until further notice.”

Ronshadow has obviously been having to really concentrate and focus his thoughts while telling you the above, once he stops speaking the relief is obvious.

Ronshadow: “If you need to know more details, my first thought would be to go talk to Bez himself. Just tell him the First One Armed Swordsman sent you. He and I kept in touch for a fair while, although a lot of what he told me just didn’t make sense and to be honest I cannot remember it now. Last I heard, which was about 5 years back, he was at White Beach – but that is not public knowledge and should remain as such. There are a few others that have gone looking for him in the past, with less peaceful intentions.”

Bazin: “So he is still alive?”

Ronshadow: “Almost certainly, he would be getting on a bit by now I would say – but he was a tough old bugger – certainly a better First Sword than myself. Again, I would emphasise not to let others know about this.”

Umar: “Understood…and what are you doing in the courtyard digging up the flagstones?”

Ronshadow: “Shanah has indicated to us that we should reopen the shrine for Wyldwood worship. Indeed we have been told that it is important to get a shrine established before the end of May. So we are uncovering a large area of the grounds and some of the nomadic shamen will be commencing the rites of consecration soon. Again, not public knowledge – not top secret since you cannot hide the work, but don’t go spreading that news widely.”

Umar: “Your name by the way, do you have links to the Warskull tribe.”

Ronshadow: “I am surprised you didn’t guess from my beautiful finely chiselled features. My father was a Warskull warrior, my mother a human slave. When the tribe saw that I was destined for Shanah, and also realised that I was a better warrior than many of their purebloods, they adopted me. So I a half-orc nomad, who never leaves the city!”

Ronshadow: “I appreciate that we have not had much time to talk, but I do need to go now. There are a whole raft of rituals that I need to carry out to remove Shanah’s seal over the courtyard so that Wyldwood can return. Problem is that I can only enact them at half speed.”, he raises the stump of his missing arm and laughs somewhat ruefully.

Umar: “Couldn’t you get that regenerated?”

Ronshadow: “I wish! As an injury received in honourable battle it should be possible, but the foe that did this to me was a Troll High Priest of Death – and the wound has never been fully healed, nor will it ever be I am told.”

Ronshadow: “Anyhow, as I said, I must go now. Farewell and good luck in your endeavours – whatever they are.”

Ronshadow, gets up and walks with you back to the temple entrance, he then bids farewell and moves over to the workmen lifting up the stone flags.

Bazin and Umar decide it is best to head back to the Inn to meet up with the others.

## Caradoc, Garaf and Twoo

**Spend: 8 Copper**

After Breakfast, Bazin and Umar spend an hour briefing Caradoc, Garaf and Twoo on the wonders and benefits of the Shanah faith. More importantly, they give you a quick guide on what to do and what to avoid doing when in a Shanah temple.

The three of you then saunter down towards the temple, the rest of the party are already there or heading there so you feel you can take your time. As you get near the temple, Caradoc peels off to scout out the area on his own whilst Garaf and Twoo join the queue to enter the temple of the book.

Garaf and Twoo, do not observe anything in the Temple of the Book that isn’t covered elsewhere.

## Caradoc

**Spend: 4 Copper**

Leaving Garaf and Twoo to enter the Temple, you pick up a wrap from a street vendor and saunter around the outskirts of the Temple complex. You are about halfway round when you encounter Francis and the others heading out to Wreckers point. Stopping to chat with them briefly, they bring you up to speed with what they have seen.

The walls to the Temple complex are not particularly high, nor do they appear to be topped with anything to deter climbing. All in all it seems pretty mundane.

At least until you are about three quarters of the way around the complex, you are in the Gold Quarter and there is a small square with a miniature park at its centre. One side of this square is bounded by the Temple complex, and this has resulted in some bushes growing up the side of the wall. Sitting down on a bench you being to eat your wrap and regard the wall – trying to identify what made you stop.

You finally notice it, near the top of the wall about a foot below the crest, there is a dark patch on the stonework. Heading over to investigate would be a bit obvious, so you walk around the park for a brief period and then once the wrap has been eaten you brush your hands and head briskly out of the square, passing closely by the wall.

A few quick glances give you the following:

* The dark patch is near an obvious handhold if someone was to climb the wall at this point;
* The bush below has a number of broken branches;
* You would guess that whatever occurred here took place over a week ago;

Finishing your circuit of the Temple, you decide there is no value in entering the complex itself and so slowly make your way back to the Inn. Working your way slowly back you are overtaken, unnoticed by the others who visited the temple and cast your eyes about. It is fairly obvious that Garaf has a tail, there is a teenage human boy, trying to be inconspicuous, keeping an eye on him. The lad is not a skilled operator and you are pretty sure that if Garaf was looking around – rather than talking to Twoo – he would probably notice his ‘admirer’. When they get to the Inn, the lad walks past and then disappears into the side streets.

As you watch the other party members return, you do not spot any other shadows, and after a decent period of time enter the Inn yourself.

## Garaf

**Spend: 9 Copper**

The Inn is pretty quiet when you return from the Temple, Marany Moonshadow is behind the bar area tidying up and laying out tankards for the evening trade. Deciding that now is the best time, you first go to the small Perceval shrine and make an offering and then up to the bar and order an ale from Marany.

Marany: “Here’s you drink love. How did it go yesterday evening?”

Garaf: “Sorry?”

Marany: “You were asking for directions to Miriam Silverhairs place?”

Garaf: “Oh that! Yes we found her ok thanks, not sure that she was pleased to see us though. We were taking her a gift from Olg, do you know him?”

Marany: “Olg Stonemaker! Of course I know him, he is a senior member of my Order. Not surprised that Miriam wasn’t happy though, there is some bad blood between the two of them.”

Garaf: “What happened?”

Marany: “How much do you know about our faith, I see you are a follower – but I guess you aren’t really familiar with the church and how it operates. You probably see Perceval as simply the god of trading and dealing….. particularly if you are taking Olg as the leading example.”

Garag: “Yeah, you have that right”

Marany: “Well it will be nearly an hour before we start getting busy, lets go and have a chat.”

Marany comes round the bar, grabs herself a tankard of ale and motions to a table in the corner.

Marany: “Right, the key things to realise about Perceval is…..”

**Perceval Followers Factsheet (attached)**

Marany: “So as you can see, Olg has taken the trading aspect of Perceval somewhat to extremes, he seems to enjoy the constant bartering and trade, but personally I think that he has lost sight of some of our underlying goals…..but I may be wrong.”

Garaf: “But none of that explains Miriams’ attitude.”

Marany: “I really cannot tell you too much, but it is public knowledge that Olg and Miriam were members of a small elite mercenary band. The band was well known, and well regarded, but something went wrong on a contract with Wingsport. The band lost over half of it’s number including most of the command structure and was dissolved. Miriam and Olg had grown very close in their time with this band…..shit why cant I remember the companys name??.....”

Marany (thinking): “No, it isn’t going to come back to me”

Marany: “Anyhow, whatever happened to destroy the mercenaries, Miriam seemed to believe that Olg was responsible and since then has refused to have any contact with him.”

Some customers come in and shout for service.

Marany: “Got to go…..”

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