Strained Bedfellows

## **Synopsis**

In Chapter 95: Strained Bedfellows, the distaste of our failed rescue attempt hung in the air around us like a fog.  While attempting to process the disappointment of seeing Marvyn carted away, Erland made for the now-abandoned cabin by the pond and the others followed – though Graven stressed the need to return to the city in a timely manner.

Inside the lodge, Erland found a few of Marvyn's belongings left behind in the hasty retreat – but more than that, he found the simmering beginnings of a fight that would come to a boil several times over the course of our walk back to Navika-Pura.

Erland believed Graven had put the mission in jeopardy when he disobeyed an order to stay hidden while tracking Shekar through the woods.  Graven believed Erland's tunnel vision kept him from seeing the obvious truth: that the mission was doomed to begin with, doubly so while being pursued by a mess of our own making.  And Safira believed that once again a lack of transparency had forced us into making imperfect snap decisions that could have been avoided with a better, clearer plan.

Tensions were high and punches were thrown, but it wasn't getting us any closer to dealing with the most pressing issue of whether Shekar was done interfering in our affairs.  Safira used her ability to speak with animals to consult an ornery crane and learned that tiefling trickster may not have gotten too far ahead of us – but despite a quickened pace, we never quite caught up… and by the time we got back to the Crabber's Community we'd completed lost the trail.

Our horses tied up there were undisturbed – but Orba found a mocking note in one of her saddlebags complete with a riddle that only vexed us further.  The villagers here were of little help and the lookout left behind by Marvyn's captors felt unthreatened in such a public space – not that he seemed to know much, anyway, beyond the names of his superiors.

After a bit more bickering over an optimistic flyer that Safira wanted to post of Shekar's likeness, we saddled up and rode back to Wampurani-Na – reaching the Deck by early evening with some loose plans in place about where to spend the night and what to do with the waning hours of the day.

Through the window Graven spotted a familiar face – this time thankfully a friendly one – as Villepont Willoughby was enjoying a drink at the popular tavern.  We told him what we'd learned about Mr. Two and the carrion crawler at the Broken Crown Outpost, but without knowing where the wizard had gone after last night's crystal-smashing there wasn't much to follow up on.

While Orba and Erland had a private disagreement about to what extent Graven could be trusted going forward, the others took turns probing Villepont over whether he could track down Shekar for us – and though it seemed the task was within his purview, he could smell the bad blood and was reluctant to hand-deliver a man to be murdered.  Still, Safira convinced him to do his best to set up a meeting somewhere public – and until then, we could mull over what we might say to Shekar if we were finally granted the opportunity.

Erland made plans to take the Steederway back to Na-Upa and it seemed we'd all be heading westward in time – but a message passed along from Palomer Franco said that if we wanted a look at his wares, we'd have to do so now… so it was off to Fangull for perhaps a bit of barter.

As the twitchy Tall Ports tinkerer unveiled an assortment of tempting magical trinkets, we took a breath to separate ourselves from the stresses of the day.

## Trivia

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