Prophecies & Intrigue 21: A picture is worth a thousand disguises.

They arrive at the stables in the dim red early morning darkness, Fawna’s laden hoofbeats practically the only sound in the quiet night of the city. Keeping quiet so as not to disturb anyone they make trips and carry their finds into their rooms divvying them up among themselves. Hung gets the ring of protection, Malkey gets the wand and the ring of fire resistance, fawna takes the dust of disappearance and the cloak of elvenkind, and Gia chose to keep the deck of cards as well as the cloak of eyes. They make a plan for the morning and go to their separate rooms …When each of them find themselves alone or as alone as they can be, they spend time with these items, connecting and allowing them to share their magical properties before finally going to sleep.

Hung and Malkey groggily get awoken first as they hear the kitchens come to life through the walls. With a big yawn and stretch Hung greets the morning with, “Breakfast.” He feels tired and weighted down from the past couple of days, but they seem to have slept in a little bit as it’s already 8am.

Malkey keeps his eyes closed as he mumbles in response to Hung, “Coffee.”

“You’ll find me at a table downstairs,” Hung tells him as he gets up, looks around the room and sees hair on the floor, looks at Malkey, nods in understanding, and leaves. Malkey soon follows. They find a table for the party and comment again how only breakfast and dinner are on the menu, what do people do for lunch around here?

Upstairs in their room, Sai wakes up to Gia grunting and groaning as she tosses and turns in her bed.

“I’m just feeling really overwhelmed and just not well at all. I don’t think I can handle today, just….”

“Rest for today,” Sai reassures her friend.

“If you need me, I’ll be here,” she says with a groan.

“We’re going to be going shopping later, just make me a list and I’ll pick up what you need,” Sai says.

Gia scribbles downa a few things and then rolls over to face the wall and Sai heads down to the dining area.

“Good morning fellas,” Sai greets Malkey and Hung

“Ah, Sai,” Hung nods at her.

“Gia’s not going to be joining us today, she’s not feeling well. But I got a list of stuff that we need to get today, so she should be fine to just stay here and rest,” Sai says as she takes her seat and puts a hand up to get a waitresses attention.

Upstairs, Fawna wakes up to see Cheato still at the small table, his head down on a piece of parchment and his quill still in his hand. She laughs a little to herself but then feels sorrowful thinking about how this all started and how they got here and how much Cheato has been bearing and how tired he must be. She slowly gets out of bed and checks on the egg. She then goes to her pack and grabs all the gemstones that she had collected and puts them in a pile on the floor, she then goes and gets the egg and places it on the gem nest that she built until Cheato wakes up.

Cheato wakes with a start, looks at Fawna for a moment before going right back to his notes, picking up from where he left off documenting everything that happened last night. He finishes it up quickly and then both he and Fawna head downstairs to meet up with their party.

First thing Cheato notices is that Malkey’s finally changed his clothes! He’s gotten rid of the tattered old human cloak that he was wearing and is now in a light blue tunic with a little hood that he has pulled up over his hat, a red sash and puffy little pants. He’s also trimmed his beard down!

Malkey notices Cheato’s surprise and shrugs, “New look, new me!”

They all converge and order their breakfast, everyone a bit subdued from the night before. Their food gets brought to them and Hung looks around the table, thinking about his group of friends, how they’ve all changed a bit since they first met. His gruff voice breaks the silence after digging in for his first bite, tusks gleaming with salivation, and through a mouthful of food he asks, “How is everybody doing? Cause Hung feels, is different.”

“This guys looking flashy,” Malkey uses a thumb to point at Cheato who is wearing the bronze crown that they found in the dragon’s lair. He does notice Cheato’s eyes are sunken in and it looks as though he hadn’t slept a wink!

“Anxious,” Sai responds. “We definitely don’t need to gain any attention around here,” she side-eyes Cheato. “We need to buy what we need to buy, and then I think we need to head out. Anxious definitely.”

“I know Cheato has a theory on how much we’re being pursued if he’d like to share that, but I”m not so sure that they’re specifically looking for us. I mean, we’re not going around saying ‘hey we’re the prophecy people’, so they don’t know who they’re seeking individually and that it’s us,” Malkey offers.

“Yeah, but I think our coin purses are alarm bells at this point,” Sai says as she pats her very full pouch. “It might draw people’s attention.”

“Oh um, I need to step outside for a second,” Hung says as he promptly leaves the table and goes outside.

“Anyway, we should probably see about those disguises and get what we need to get, I don’t know, maybe keep a low profile this time…bring the cat home …” Sai adds as she looks around at everyone.

“I’m all about incognito, how is everyone else feeling?” Malkey looks around to read the room.

Cheato sighs and then quietly and in an exhausted voice says, “Yeah if you guys want to handle that today. I’m going to need the handkerchief and the mirror with the picture of Jenna.”

“Hung has that stuff,” Malkey informs him. “We should make a list of everything we need to do.”

“We should definitely go to Archivist Duvall first,” Sai nods, and Hung returns from outside.

“Well yeah we need those disguises,” Malkey agrees.

“We can travel through the sewers to get there,”Cheato reminds them.

“No, I just changed! Malkey complains.

“That’s the easiest way to get there without being seen,” Cheato continues, not in the mood for jokes. “Hung, you have the picture of Jenna?”

“That’s what that box is for,” Hung says more to himself than the others as he digs through his pack and pulls out the small box from the goblin cave. He opens it and holds it out to Cheato, “These?”

Cheato takes it from Hung and inspects it and he feels a little sting on his shoulder and was about to get upset but he feels really good as he sees Nutbag flying back to Malkey. He goes back to his investigation of the box and sees a familiar face staring up at him from a picture that’s laying on top of the handkerchief. It’s the dwarf that they chased in the market in the picture. “His face gets red and it looks like he’s about to yell something but manages to stifle it because it’s neither the time nor the place.

“Whoa chill, are you ok?” Sai asks. “Did we forget to tell you about another book or something? What?”

“Yes, basically; yes!” Cheato says exasperatedly. “Two days ago, we saw Jenna.”

“What?” Hung asks.

“What do you mean?” Sai looks at him confused.

“Did you guys see Jenna?” Cheato asks.

“Yeah, once.” they tell him.

“What did she look like?” They describe her as a human with long blonde hair, slender, grey eyes, sour looking forlorn face, essentially describing the woman on the wanted poster that he, Fawna and Gia had seen yesterday with her name on it. Cheato takes pause and thinks, ‘but they said that this was Jenna’s things’... Then who is this?” He asks them as he holds up the picture of the dwarf from the box.

Now it’s Malkey, Sai and Hung’s faces to look confused. “That ain’t her,” Malkey shakes his head. Hung's jaw hangs open and his eyes narrow and widen, inspecting the picture.\

“It didn’t look like that before?” Fawna asks.

“That’s …” Hung starts but he is unable to formulate any more words.

“Hey, can we uh, detect magic on that?” Sai asks, leaning in.

Cheato starts going through his pack and pulls out his ritual items and goes to work looking at these objects the the lens of the weave. Once cast, he sees that it is indeed magical, but there is no school… it’s like an ancient ancestral magic would be the best way to describe it.

He’s seen something like this once before … he holds it up next to Malkey, it’s pretty much the same, some kind of heritage magical origin. He ends the spell and pulls himself together before addressing them. “How do you know this is Jenna’s?”

“Technically we don’t know, but we’re confident about it,” Malkey affirms. “Now, say she does disguise self, would the picture change to match what she looks like at any given time?”

“So you’re suggesting that she looks like this now?” Sai questions. “You said you saw this dwarf?” she asks Cheato.

“Yes,” Cheato nods. “She was watching us from the alley yesterday when we were looking at her wanted poster.”

“That’s the one that I saw too when I got Nalthak,” Hung stops and then looks at the door. “She’s here. Somewhere.”

“Why is she just watching us and not coming up to us?” Sai wonders aloud.

“I don’t know if it’s her,” Cheato shrugs. “There's a couple things going through my head right now. She may be using some sort of magic to hide herself so people can’t scry her, or something like that…” Scrying reminds him of his original purpose in wanting to look at these things, he picks up the handkerchief and yes, finds a fine blonde hair weaved into the bit of fabric. Perhaps he’ll be able to solve this mystery about the picture himself; using Arhivist Duvall’s divination abilities. He finally finds his voice. “Speaking of, I need to go to the Archivist and get some scrying done if that’s possible.“

"I would like to go to the library as well for some reading. Are we gonna take care of the cat?” Malkey asks.

They all start talking at once, “Hung twould like to see who owns this cat and wants that 50 gold,” he says and Cheato slowly slides 50 gold across the table but then slides it back into his pocket with a teasing glint in his eye.

“Yeah we should definitely return it,” Sai agrees. “Not until after we get our disguises though.”

Malkey continues and pats his pocket, “... and I know this is going to be a point of contention, but we should really do something about this necklace.”

“I’ve been wearing mine this whole time, you wear yours,” Hung tells him simply.

“I could wear it but this is keeping somebody in jail,” Malkey reminds him. “We need to do something about that.”

“Oh okay, absolutely,” Hung nods with understanding.

Cheato whips his head around, “Hung, what necklace do you have?”

“Huh?” Hung looks at Cheato blankly.

Sai butts in, “Nah, no. It’s nothing. Let’s talk more in the sewers.” Cheato becomes flustered and starts to redden again. She grits her teeth and says again slowly, “Let’s talk more in the sewers.”

“I… I…, ugh! Every time I’ve talked to you guys, there has been a new bit of information that is likely relevant.”

Malkey throws his hands up and the shackles jingle as he says, “You’re up to date with me, I got nothing!”

Hung watches Cheato’s reaction and he leans in close, pulling his necklace around from his back, he shows Cheato. “They kept telling me to keep this away.”

“Hung why do you have that?” Cheato asks curiously.

“It was given to me at the monastery when I left. It is all I have of my parents,” Hung replies solemnly.

“Yeah, just keep that away,” Cheato confirms as he recognizes the symbol of the Krynn Dynasty, the former enemies of the Dwendalian Empire.

They finish up their breakfast and decide Fawna and Sai are going to do the shopping so everyone gives them their lists of what they need and they head out to the street and into an alley following the map given by Archivist Duvall. Cheato notices there are more of Jenna’s wanted posters up than there was the day before and snatches one up quickly as he passes it and puts it in his pocket.

Sai looks around, keeping her eyes peeled as they head down into the sewers. The rancid smell hits them hard. Rats scurry along occasionally but nothing more than that. Fawna thinks she may have heard some whispering down one of the tunnels they passed but brushed it off as a far away echo. They reach their destination and above them the circular sewer grate begins to open, starting with just a crescent moon of light until they can fully see the silhouette of Archivist Duvall above them. They climb up into the sub-levels of the archives, dim light emanating from the torch he holds.

“Thank you very much, I think we’ll definitely take you up on that offer of disguises,” Sai greets him.

Malkey quickly prestidigitizes all his friends, clearing the sewer ick from their clothes. Archivist Duvall waves his wand and they are seemingly transformed. Malkey chooses a taller human version of himself, Sai chooses to look like a male human doctor, Fawna figures she may as well look pregnant to account for the egg’s bulge this time, Hung chooses to look like a jester he had heard about from Nicodranas called Mr. Bean, and Cheato chooses to be an old blind man with a long beard and ragged clothes. “I guess that’ll do, come follow me. I’ll lead you back up and you can be on your way.”

“Actually I have some requests of you Archivist Duvall,” Cheato addresses him. “If you could help me with some scrying.”

“Oh, I thought you were talking about this,” he pulls from his pocket a small scroll.

Archivist Kathedoc;

This letter shall serve as binding permission for Cheato and the Cheatettes to be allotted any help and reasonable resources to aid in their task for the Knowing Mistress.

Always seeking knowledge and truth,

Archivist Duvall

Valley Archives of the Cobalt Soul

Head Librarian

“The Cheatettes?” Sai asks Cheato while she makes a face.

“Yep,” he says as he slips it in his pocket while Malkey struggles with himself not to hurl a firebolt at Cheato.

“And this is legally binding …” Sai shakes her head.

“Only a few are trustworthy, this is the one that you can trust in the Rexxentrum Archives. That is where you’re headed correct?” Archivist Duvall tells them as Cheato nods.

“Cheato and the Cheatette’s…” Malkey groans.

“It’s our secret code name,” Cheato shrugs.

“What’s secret about it?” Sai asks.

“That’s how they know that we’re the real ones,” Cheato responds.

“Real ones what?” Malkey asks exasperated.

“They will never think…” Cheato starts to rebut.

Malkey cuts him off, “That anyone will be dumb enough to use that name?”

“You got it,” Cheato says as he throws up finger guns and a wink at Malkey.

“That’s a fair assessment,” Malkey hangs his head in his hands.

Sai sighs then looks over at Fawna and in her best male doctor voice says, “Come on honey, we have some shopping to do. We’ll be back soon.”

Archivist Duvall turns to Cheato, “Now what was it that you were asking of me?”

“I need to scry on someone and I don’t have the resources at hand but Cheato and the Cheatettes are on important business,” Cheato reminds him.

“Yes, follow me,” he leads Cheato and Malkey all the way up to his tower office quarters. “Alright, do you know your target?” the archivist asks Cheato as they settle into the office and close the door.

“I have two targets,” Cheato informs him as he pulls Jenna’s wanted poster from his pocket and the picture of the dwarf woman on the desk. “We aren’t certain, but we think this person is using the disguise of this dwarf to hide. But we aren’t certain that that’s the truth so we want to scry both in an attempt to figure out where this person is.”

“You want me to scry on a wanted person?” Archivist Duvall raises an eyebrow as Cheato nods. “How does this further your mission?”

“Can I ask you something? You guys aren’t really involved with the state so why do you have a problem with going against the state? It’s a wanted person by the state, a state of which you all don’t like.”

“I have no issue with this person,” he says concerned with what’s being asked of him.

“I just don’t understand your concern when they scoff at your religion,” Cheato points out.

“We still don’t want anyone to get hurt or thrown in jail for helping people that aren’t the ones assigned to actually look for this person,” Archivist Duvall reasons.

“She is wanted and we believe she has something to do with the prophecy,” Cheato discloses.

“Oh,” Archivist Duvall’s demeanor quickly changes. “Did you find something?”

“Yes,” Cheato nods and pulls out the copy he made of the Biography of Ioun (except for the prophecy. “You’ve done a lot for us,” he slides it across the desk. “Apparently we had the book.”

“You copied me a copy?” the archivist looks on in amazement.

“Partially, I haven’t had time to finish,” Cheato smiles.

“The words of Caylorn Irresor,” he says in shock. He then taps the book twice before turning back to Cheato, “Ok, yes. Ferdinand! Please put this away and get the scrying basin for me.”

The unseen servant does just that and Archivist Duvall clears an area on his desk and places the basin in the center. Cheato hands him the picture of the dwarf to start with first. Archivist Duvall sets it by the basin and draws a circle in the air with his finger and then in the center the eye of Ioun, “Show us what we seek,” the air symbols he drew glow a bright gold when he pokes the center of it it seems to ripple like water, the basin mirroring the ripples. As it stills Cheato catches a glimpse of Daughtte at a table with the dwarf from the picture, the same one they had seen in the Pentagram Market just yesterday after you found the poster. Then you see the ripples start again, blurring the image and then the ripples swirl with the golden magic before collapsing in on itself and disappearing entirely, breaking the spell.

Archivist Duvall takes a step back and rubs his chin and beard with his hand heavy in thought he wonders aloud, “Hmm, a wizard as powerful as herself and the ones seeking her being just as knowledgeable, if not more so; it makes sense she protected herself. That surely didn’t look like her anyway, perhaps I did something wrong. You said that you think this is her? Perhaps I did something wrong.” He goes to his desk and looks over his spellbook for any indication of what could have gone wrong.

“Did you recognize that dwarf as someone from around here?” Cheato inquires, the archivist shakes his head. Cheato tries to process what just happened.

“Well, we can try with the poster and the hair now,” Malkey offers and Cheato agrees. “We’ll know it’s her for sure if the dwarf is what pops up again.”

Archivist Duvall sets the hair and the poster and casts the spell again, the exact same thing happens.

“See, definitely the same person, she’s disguising herself in some manner,” Malkey muses.

“We can trust her,” Cheato states definitively.

“We can trust who?” Malkey asks.

“That’s a conversation for later,” Cheato says cutting of Malkey’s protests and turning to Archivist Duvall. “Thank you Archivist Duvall, this helped a lot.”

Malkey and Cheato go to take their leave after the librarian lets them know he is at their disposal whenever needed and asks Cheato to send him more of the Biography of Ioun as he finishes it. They also find out that there is a teleportation circle in the library but unfortunately all of the teleportation circles are heavily guarded by empire guards and Volstrucker Agents at the moment due to Jenna’s wanted status. Cheato knows the Volstrucker Agents are the elite ‘guard’ of the Cerberus Assembly and even with disguises it would be dangerous to go around these individuals, and Rexxentrum may be a bit more risky than originally thought.

“I’m sorry I could not help more,” Archivist Duvall hangs his head. “Wait, I could send you to Bladegarden, there is another one there and it’s very seldom used, and you might only have to worry about passing the Volstrucker Agent posted here. I’m not sure if they have one posted over there yet.”

“Thank you for that, I will consult with my party about that,” Cheato nods and goes to turn away out the door.

Archivist Duvall’s expression grows stern, “Please careful out there. Do not draw attention to yourselves unnecessarily!” Malkey and Cheato nod with understanding and head down to the main part of the library where they find a quiet table and Malkey does a little research on dragons.

Back at the Pentamarket, Hung follows Fawna and Sai to the Invulnerable Vagrant and he stands by the storefront keeping watch as they enter, Nalthak stretches his wings in flight over the market square.

Fawna and Sai get right down to business, and after proving their identity to Pumat they purchase some adventuring necessities and spell components for the party as well as placing some new custom orders that will take 1-3 days to fully be completed. Pumat is more than happy to accommodate them. They continue shopping and go to an armory and pick up some more things before they head back to meet up with the rest of the party at the library.

The party converges at the library and Sai gives each party member a regular and a greater healing potion each as a gift, and they all thank her and give her gratitude. She then asks Cheato, “So what’s the update, did you find anything out about teleporting out of here?”

“Yeah we have a couple things we need to do in town still. We need to ffind an old friend of ours Daughtte, we’ve confirmed that the dwarf is Jenna. We’ve also confirmed that Jenna is someone that we can trust,” Cheato replies.

“How did we confirm that?” Malkey questions Cheato.

“You guys found these items right? She would not leave something like this around that shows her true form to allow someone to scry on her so easily.”

“So you’re saying the dwarf is her true form?” Malkey asks even more confused.

“No, this shows whatever form she’s hiding in.” Cheato explains. “She wanted you to find her.”

“Then why wouldn’t she come up to us if she’s been following us this whole time,” Sai asks.

“I just saw that lady in the street the other day,” Hung adds.

“If she’s wanted and we’re being watched, it’s not very smart she interacts with us directly,” Fawna interjects.

“Yeah the thing is that there’s something here i’m not getting and i don’t know what,” Cheato ponders. “The fact that she ran from us, I don’t understand.”

“Well, we made a scene,” Fawna points out.

“Ok, then why wouldn’t she approach Hung?”

“Because it’s Hung!” Fawna points out again.

“We did fight her the last time we met,” Malkey adds.

“Like a breadcrumb,” Hung speaks up as Nalthak caws at the word breadcrumb. “At the monastery when we would sneak out, one of us would go but we would leave what we call breadcrumbs for them to find us at our special secret place to hang out.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly right, you got it,” Cheato nods. “She’s with Daughtte,” he informs Fawna.

“I really want to see Daughtte,” Fawna says sadly.

“We’ll be seeing Daughtte,” Cheato affirms.

“Daughtte?” Malkey questions.

“One of our former companions was the one sitting at the table with Jenna,” Cheato informs him. “The one from the fighting ring by the market.”

“Let’s go get her!” Hung slams his hand on the table and it echos off the quiet library walls. Archivist Duvall looks over at them from his podium for a moment before returning to his work.

“Wait a minute, we still don’t know if we can trust her. We did fight her the last time we met, just because she’s giving us signals as to where she is doesn’t make it safe,” Malkey says with a bit of concern.

“And we don’t look like us,” Hung remarks. “Well, she would see you but you’re taller now.”

“Daughtte will know me, don’t worry,” Cheato reassures them. “I’ll make sure our former companion recognizes me.”

“Let me slow your role here a bit,” Malkey takes a stand. “She kidnapped me and chained me to walls in a pit the last time we were together!”

“Didn’t she say it was for your own good?” Fawna reminds him.

“Yeah but so do serial killers say that kind of stuff, that doesn’tmake it true!” Malkey says indignantly

“I doubt Jenna’s gonna start a fight in the middle of an inn,” Cheato presumes.

“There’s six of us, one of her..." Hung shows on his fingers.

Sai, who had take this time to attune to her new periapt of wound closure, finds her voice, “If we’re outnumbering her, we can hear her out…”

Malkey cuts her off incredulously, “We outnumbered her the last time we visited her too!”

“I want to meet her,” Fawna adds before Archivist Duvall interjects. They hadn’t even noticed him approaching the table.

“I couldn’t help but to overhear,” he starts. “You know the other person that was in the scry?” Cheato stares back at him through the blind eyes of his beggar disguise and nods. “Do you have anything of hers?”

Cheato and Fawna start looking through their packs and trying to think. Coming out empty handed, Cheato looks up, “Archivist Duvall, can I cast sending again?”

Archivist Duvall nods and fishes out another spell scroll and shakes his head as he hands it to Cheato. “You’re becoming expensive,” he says as he turns and walks away.

Cheato unfurls the scroll and begins the incantation, “Daughtte, Cheato Savior Alfield here. Please meet in sewer beneath Song Supper Inn with your friend the dwarf. Very very very very very important.” The scroll turns to ash before their eyes and is gone.

“Totally off topic, but I just remembered. We still gotta return the keys to the mausoleum to the gravedigger union,” Malkey mentions. “I definitely don’t want that guy to lose his job.”

While Malkey talks, in his head Cheato hears his friend Daughtte’s voice, ‘What? Ew, no thank you. Can’t talk right now, meet at the evening nip tomorrow at 6. Tell the tender you bring many gifts.’ “Well we have a date!” Cheato exclaims and shares the message with his friends.

“To see Daughtte again?” Fawna asks excitedly and Cheato nods.

“I don’t know about this, it doesn’t feel safe. What if it’s a potential trap? I know you said your friend is cool and everything but you don’t know if she’s been mind screwed or anything,” Malkey says nervously.

“First of all, Daughtte is cool, that’s number one. Second of all, they don’t know what we look like right now,” Cheato points out. “Daughtte only knows that I’m coming, so me and Fawna could go in disguise while you guys either go in early or later and intermingle in the bar.”

“How about this,” Sai starts. “If you’re concerned, maybe you and I could hang outside and if we don’t hear from them in liek a half hour, we go in after them.”

“Based on the information that we know she potentially killed my wife…” Malkey starts to get heated and nervous again.

“We don’t know if she’s dead, she may be fine as far as we know,” Sai tries to console him.

“Fine, but lets not put all our eggs in one basket…” Malkey says cautiously. “What if Daughtte doesn’t know who she’s working with! Or what if she’s charmed!”

They discuss with the librarian about meeting him for their disguises twice tomorrow so they’re covered for the meeting with Daughtte and the dwarf without it wearing off. They make it a plan and finally leave the library to take care of the cat.

“I’ve never met a witch,” Hung says as they walk.

“Maybe she’ll have some cool magic items,” Cheato ponders as he marches with the cat in the cage in hand to the job board for details. He takes the paper from the job board. They head towards the West Outersteads for 23 Arnto Street. They make their way through the busy streets of Zadash in the afternoon. They notice as they move farther from the city center the residential areas have a distinct class separation and Cheato in his beggar form fits right in and they easily find Arno street and finally the house of Mrs. Claibourne. Her house seems a little different than the others on the street. There are baskets everywhere, on the lawn stacked up on chairs on her porch. Cheato walks right up the walkway and knocks on the door. An old woman opens the door, “I found your cat ma’am.”

“Oh,” the elderly woman exclaims. “Can I help you?”

“You’re cat,” Cheato points to the covered cage.

“I don’t see a cat, are you here for a basket?” She smiles at him.

“Did you lose your cat? I have it right here,” He holds up the covered cage again.

“I see a cloth,” the woman's smile fades to a confused frown. Cheato pulls the cloth off with a flourish. “Oh, you do magic?” the woman smiles brightly with a glint in her eye looking at the blind old man.

“Yes! Magic, magic magic,” he states proudly.

The woman leans in close to the cage and the cat starts to purr and rub up against the bars and Fawna sees that she’s speaking to it as her mother used to speak with the animals and perks up! “Thank you so much,” the woman cries. “Would you like to buy a basket?” The woman reaches around with a grunt, “oh, my arthritis, could you please get that for me?” Fawna and Sai immediately take action to help the old woman open the cage.

The cat comes out and jumps immediately up onto the woman’s shoulder. “This is Grimstone,” she tells them as she digs into her pouch and draws out 2 silver pieces, rubs them together and then puts them back.

“Have you had Grimstone his whole life? Or your whole life?” Cheato asks.

“Six to one, half dozen the other; and they all fit in a basket!” she replies and she shuffles into the house, leaving the door open as she ruffles through her belongings seemingly looking for something. They see jars, dried herbs, incenses, all kinds of other things and even more baskets and an entire room filled with basket reed.

Fawna stares through the door in amazement and calls in, “How long have you known how to do that?”

“Oh well my dear, you find a way to spend your time when you got a lot of it,” she says with a wink.

“Can I see your hands?” Sai asks in her middle aged doctor disguise walking into the woman’s house to address her. The woman gives her her hands and Sai sees every joint is swollen and crooked and fused. It looks very painful. Sai assumes her age to be akin to a human around the age of 125. Sai brings out her periapt of wound closure, maybe it can do something to help. The womans hands grow warm and she thanks Sai kindly for trying. “Sorry I can’t do more.”

“It’s quite alright dear,” she says. “But uh, here, I do have some gold here i’ve saved up to find him.

“You know,” the blind beggar interrupts with a smile, “could we bother you for a meal instead of the gold?”

“Of course, I don’t have much but I’m always willing to share,” she smiles. “Find a seat,” she says as she slowly starts moving baskets to uncover the furniture before going into the kitchen. Fawna follows the woman into the kitchen to help, feeling a sort of kinship for this woman.

Cheato Hung, Sai and Malkey remain in the living room and start looking around, Hung looking for any signs of a mister of the house and finds nothing. Cheato starts poking around for anything interesting that may catch his eye, he casts detect magic to find any magical curiosities as well. Malkey starts looking around at all the things crowding the small area. They all notice that some of the baskets have candles and herbs in them which is odd and they have no idea why. Sai decides it’s safe enough and using a basket as a pillow dozes off.

Fawna notices that the old woman’s cupboards are bare. She has a little bit of butter and some salted fish. “Ah here we go, now let’s see if we can find some bread. Aha, here’s some.” The woman finds some stale bread, barely enough for one person.

“Um, earlier, how long have you known how to speak with animals?” Fawna inquires.

“Oh that, I was taught that by my mother when I was a wee child with the circle,” she reminisces, nostalgia in her eyes.

“I saw the herbs and the jars and, would you happen to be a druid?” Fawna asks cautiously.

The woman sighs and hangs her head, “of sorts. I am unable to change my shape, that’s why we were kicked out of the circle.”

“I’m a druid,” Fawna discloses softly.

“Oh, how lovely dear! That’s beautiful!There aren’t many in these parts at all. I haven’t seen a member of a circle in,” she stops to think. “Well, a long time.”

“I was raised by my mother in the north,” Fawna tells her.

“Oh, the arctics! Cold up there, I wouldn’t survive a day,” she laughs as she points out her hands and crooked humped back.

In the living room Cheato is checking out all of the magic items, a jar with red berries inside, and lots of talisman’s and chachkis hidden in random places, on the windowsills, over the door, under or behind baskets, all over the place! And also, he notes a wand on the fireplace mantle emitting transmutation magic. He concludes there’s nothing really powerful in the chachkis, but puts a couple of them in a basket and enters the kitchen, he’ll address the wand later. He approaches Mrs. Claybourne, “Excuse me, I saw these, these are wonderful! I have these pearls, i was wondering if you could take those and I can have these.”

She picks up one of the pearls from his palm and rubs it on her teeth to feel the graininess, “Oh, these are real! How many baskets would you like?”

“Oh just this one and these things I found,” he shows her the basket of items.

She looks over at Fawna and nods at Cheato, “Oh, see these, these are lovely, they keep you safe and protected. When you find a home, make sure you surround yourself with all the things you love.” She then picks up each one and shares with Cheato and Fawna where she found each twig, each feather, each pinecone and what they mean to her. They intently listen to the old woman, interested in all she has to say.

The fish starts to burn on the stove and Hung comes into the kitchen, nose in the air, sniffing. Fawna notices and turns her attention back to the stove to mind the fish.

“We’re dashing adventurers and I find that a woman such as traveled and skilled as you has definitely collected some things that could keep us safe. Would you feel this is a fair trade? Though these are priceless,” Cheato gestures to the baskets all around.

She thinks to herself, “Oh, they won’t do much for you dear. I’d give them to you for less than that, I don’t understand. I think you’re being kind to an old young woman.”

The blind beggar Cheato gives her a wink and finger guns and she cackles like a hag, “Ahahahahahahahahaha!” Which awakens Sai from her slumber. The fish now done, she serves each of them a sliver of fish, a crust of bread with some butter on a cloth. “Oh, one more thing,” she says as she shuffles over to the shelf, picking up the jar of red berries. “Always, with every meal; one a day!”

Hung chomps down on the berry, the juice bursts in his mouth, it’s tasty! He also has a feeling in his stomach that he’s never felt before, he’s … full! The bit of fish in his mouth lost its appeal and he spits it back out onto the cloth as inconspicuously as possible. Malkey and Cheato both pocket their berries. Sai, not having eaten her berry yet looks over at Hung, that behavior is so unlike him, “Are you ok Hung?”

In response Hung makes some guttural noises and blows through his lips, holding his belly. This Mr. Bean disguise apparently doesn’t talk. Sai then eats her berry and understands what’s happening as Hung falls asleep in his chair snoring. Nalthak jumps off of the now sleeping hung and finishes the fish and bread.

“You can preserve them?” Fawna asks the woman as Cheato hands Fawna the basket of knick knacks.

“No, I just do some every day,” she explains.

Cheato takes this opportunity to address the wand, “Have you ever been able to use that young lady?”

“When I was a young girl yes, that was such a long, long time ago,” nostalgia returning to her eyes.

“What does it do?” he presses.

“Oh you know, it helps in all different situations depending on what’s needed. Certain spells,” she responds.

“And you can’t use that anymore, or you just don’t?” Cheato asks.

“I just don’t, I’m old,” she responds.

“Miss, there’s a lot of important things we need to do,” Fawna starts.

“Oh, I understand dear,” she says. “You have important business elsewhere. It’s ok, leaving is something that happens, I don’t get visitors often but I understand visitors always have to leave sometime.”

“No, I would actually like to hear more about what you’ve been through,” Fawna explains. “But right now, I’m not sure if we have that luxury. I think what my friend and myself are thinking right now. If that wand helped you as a druid in your youth, would you mind if i took it and used it?”

“Well you see darling I keep it for one reason I’m somewhat ashamed to speak about,” She sighs. “It’s expensive to live in the city…”

Cheato sets 10 platinum on the table and slides it over to her without a word. Her eyes focus in, she picks one up and bites it to check it’s purity. “Do you believe in destiny?”

“Indeed I do,” she replies.

“It seems the stars have crossed on such a lovely night. But my friend here is a young aspiring druid…” he starts to put on the charm.

She cuts him off looking at Fawna in her young pregnant human form. Her eyes brighten and she clasps her hands together exclaiming, “...and with a little one on the way!”

“Isn’t that wonderful! They’re such a lovely young couple aren’t they?” Cheato exclaims. “They want to keep the baby protected and safe and have so much yet to do! And might I say this is the best cooking I’ve had since my wife died,” he says trying to butter her up for the wand.

“Oh you poor dear, you’re lucky you have a daughter or son-in-law or whatever the relation is,” she tilts her head with a smile, appreciating being flirted with and then turns and takes the wand from it’s stand and hands it to Fawna. She reaches out and places her hands on Fawna’s belly, “Do take care, best of luck with the little one.”

They all say their goodbye’s and collect their things (including Hung) and wave to their gracious host as they. head back out into the city streets of Zadash.