Kayleigh seems a bit distracted, maybe a touch worried, as the couple moves around the fringes of the quarantine zone, digging for answers. Nebbin's reassuring words bring a smile to her face.
"I hope you're right," she answers before gently correcting herself: "I think you're right! I'm actually more worried about Emi and Tassira--I don't know how they'll get back across the strait if the quarantine is more of a blockade."
She realizes that she has little fear for Regeris; he can handle himself, she's certain.
---------------------------------------
Temple of Aroden
---------------------------------------
Regeris skirts along the near curb, using cover where he can, but the last stretch to the door and the Wain is over open ground and in sight of the walls on the other side of the Narrows. Gazing casually in that direction, he can't see any obvious observers, but he cannot rule it out. No one around him seems to have taken notice of him, but there's not a lot of foot-traffic to blend in with.
After standing there a moment Regeris notices a priest of Pharasma standing by the horses' heads.
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Old Korvosa Boulevard
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Kayleigh and Nebbin back away from the physicians' checkpoint and try to get a wider feel for what's happening in this part of town. As soon as Kayleigh tries to approach a group of people in the street, though, one of them spots her and says something to the others, and before she knows it she's surrounded by people wanting to know if she's really 'Sister' Kayleigh.
Apparently, curing a couple dozen folks in the middle of a plague gets people talking.
They pelt you with questions. 'Can the Plague Doctors cure the Blood Veil?' 'Will she still heal people at the Temple of Aroden now that the Physicians have created their quarantine?' And perhaps most bemusing, 'Is the Church of Milani dedicated to stopping the disease?'
Without giving up any answers at all, Kayleigh is able to learn of the botched execution in Northpoint, and the supposition that Trinia was burrowing back into Bridgefront's warrens and would probably never be heard from again.
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Western Bridegfront
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The Physician in charge seems to take no notice of either Tassira or Emileva as he waves each of them past the gate. The scribe dutifully records their fake names in the giant tome as they pass out of the gatehouse and onto the Narrows Road. The first public bridge dumps the two ladies right into western Bridgefront.
"Oh, that's good," Nebbin says, breathing a sigh of relief even as he makes sure none of the people hurt Kayleigh -- or speak too loudly. "I don't think she really killed the king!"
Still, after they leave, he looks with concern at his girlfriend.
"It's great that everyone knows how wonderful you are, but ... it's probably not good if people are talking about it, or the temple. The physicians and Gray Maidens might know too. Which is bad. I don't know if we're going to be able to get through them to get back there. We might need to disguise you..."
Kayleigh is especially thankful for Nebbin's protectiveness at this time. Though Nebbin might well be right that anything she says to these people might put a bulls-eye on her back, it's just not in her nature to lie. Since she knows little about the physicians and their methods and effectiveness herself, she feeds the crowd her guesses and some half-truths.
"Yes, my name is Kayleigh, but I'm no longer working out of the Temple of Aroden. Since the Queen's physicians are starting their work on the eastern part of the island, I'll do what I can for the people further west. As for the physicians themselves...well, I honestly don't know what methods or medicines they're using to combat the blood veil. I'm a little suspicious of them because the Queen left the city's established healers out of the loop when she formed her blood veil task force...but whatever their methods are, they're almost certainly better than no treatment at all. The handful of healers currently on the island can't handle the volume of sick people themselves, so seeing a Queen's physician is better than just wishing the blood veil to go away."
She tries to ignore the whole 'Church of Milani' question, as she figures that folks might lose hope if they find out that in Korvosa it consists solely of herself and Regeris.
Once through the checkpoint, Emi starts looking for a way to get to the temple without attraction any attention.
"If we can get to the temple without problems should we go there and check on things first?" she asks Tassira.
"...sure. Sounds like a plan." Tassira nods, feeling more than a little lost among the crowd.
Realizing he can rely on his invisibility magic if he needs to, Regeris simply steps out to approach the priest, taking a moment to tuck away his holy symbol but otherwise acting like nothing is wrong. "How bad?"
---------------------------------
Temple of Aroden
---------------------------------
"Sir?" the Pharasman replies, unsure. "No dead here, at the temple I mean. The priests are within."
Getting a closer look at the Pharasman, Regeris notices he's quite young. Probably so low in their orders that he still grooms the house animals. Taking the steps in pairs, Regeris finds the door to the temple locked, but he doesn't wait very long after a quick rap on the door before Garlan lifts the inner bar and opens the door enough for Regeris to slide through.
Seated among the pews of the sun-lit chapel is a familiar face. Brother Samuel, the cleric who accompanied you through the Shoanti Mausoleum so long ago.
"Greetings," he calls, smiling and standing. "I'm sorry to come to you on such a stressful day. Mistress D'Bear thought you would be found here. I've been sent to carry a communication. And an invitation to a council."
Looking over at Garlan, it's quite obvious that the day has already been a taxing one for the old man. He moves over to a nearby pew and sinks down into it.
"Everyone's ok," Garlan says, answering the obvious question. "They came here, roused everyone out and examined them. Carawyn was the only one who bore marks of the disease still. The physician said that the disease had passed through her and guessed that she'd received divine healing. They took her away to their hospice, they said to 'draw' her blood, and then she would be returned here."
"That was some hours ago now."
The old man's worry is written plain on his face.
"Out in the plaza and in the streets where they've moved it's worse. They've pulled many dead from homes, as well as the gravely ill. The dead they commit to Pharasma's care. The ill they take to their hospices."
Samuel nods.
"The Wain has been running constantly from here to the Gray. It's where I'm headed once I've delivered my message, back to pick up more corpses and then back to the Gray again, to the plague pits we've opened."
Garlan continues.
"Everywhere they take away someone who is ill, they leave the family a silver that's said to come from the Queen's coffers. 'A coin in every hand', they call it. And the 'Queen's Mercy'."
"If the Queen had any real mercy, she'd command the Physicians to stop blocking the flow of the Wain into Bridgefront. The suffering there is said to be acute. But we have a practicable plan to get around their blockade," Samuel replies.
Regeris lets out a sigh of relief as he sees the Pharasmans are the one in the temple and listens intently as he gets all of the news.
"... Carawyn. Damn. I will need to let the others know quickly. What do you think about this hospice because I am, ah, suspect to put it mildly. Particularly if they're paying people to take their sick. This doesn't make sense to me in terms of how to manage a plague."
He lets out a breath. "Will they tell you why they won't let the wain further into Bridgefront? And what's your plan?"
---------------------------------
Temple of Aroden
---------------------------------
Samuel shakes his head sadly.
"They say that carrying the dead risks our brotherhood - makes our Wain service a route for the plague to spread back into the parts of the city they've 'cleansed'. They subject our brothers to the same examinations as everyone else, which results in the Wain being stuck in traffic getting to the island. Further, what wains we're able to get into Old Korvosa are repurposed to carry the dead that they remove from homes."
"It makes a certain type of sense from their perspective maybe, but in the meantime in abandons the bulk of the population to the worst ravages of the disease."
"This has been an active argument between the head of the Physicians, the Church and the guard. In response, Commander Kroft and Mistress D'Bear have created a plan to try to relieve the pressure. The guard controls their own pier by the Citadel. Captain Soldado has been ordered to seize and hold the westernmost pier in Old Dock. Mistress D'Bear has purchased a barge, and we'll be ferrying the dead now from Old Dock to the Gray that way. We've managed to get a couple wains through the quarantine and into Old Dock and Bridgefront and that's where they'll stay, simply taking the dead to the Old Dock pier where they'll be loaded and taken to the burial fields."
"The barge is running now, so help for Bridgefront is on the way. At least in the form of a service that can take the dead out of their homes and their streets."
"The advent of the barge also offers us a way around their quarantine. We can smuggle you past it on the barge and bring you directly to our doorstep... which brings me to Mistress D'Bear's offer of council. A representative of the plains people has come to our house to consult with the Church on a matter of secrecy, and the presence of your group - specifically - has been requested at the council."
Regeris listens intently, responding to each point in turn. "Their behaviour in this plague is bewildering to me, and I can only suspect their motives. The barge is an excellent idea and will be extremely useful, how do we catch this ferry? As for the council, let me know when and we will be there. I imagine this has something to do with the stolen body we recovered."
Samuel nods.
"I suspect that as well. The emissary's name is 'Thousand Bones'. He's come to Korvosa many times before and maintains some contact with the city and the Cathedral in particular. I understand he performs some function similar to our own in Shoanti society, though he certainly doesn't share our faith."
"Thousand Bones and his retinue have been granted temporary quarters in the Gray until the meeting. Ideally, this council could occur tonight, but the Mistress was unsure of your participation and left the matter of scheduling to you and I, and this conversation."
"In any event, while we are in league you and yours may use the barge as long as it's done with discretion. Come to the pier and use the pass-phrase 'Nyla'. The brothers and sisters there will see to the rest."
---
Once back out in the street, Regeris in confronted with the chore of getting back out of the quarantine. Leaving through the checkpoint means close-contact with the Physicians, so he picks his way back through the perimeter, leaving as he entered.
His reunion with Kayleigh and Nebbin is fortunately timed. No sooner does he spot Nebbin, head-and-shoulders above the rest of the crowd in the street, than he also spies Tassia and Emi making their way down the boulevard from the opposite direction.
"Oh, good, everyone made it back!" Nebbin says happily. "We couldn't get in, but there wasn't too much happening out here, so hopefully that means everything was calm. Did you have any luck?"
His face darkens. "We can give them a day, but Carawyn better come back or we're going to have to go find her."
He looks hard for a moment, eyes shifting to Emileva, before relaxing again into his more common genial state.
Regeris grimaces. "I'm going to be honest, I don't think Carawyn is leaving that hospice. We may have to go investigate, but we also need to meet with the Shoanti. I recall Thousand Bones being mentioned when we had to recover the body of that young Shoanti from Rolth's laboratory. When we encountered that horrific golem. Regardless, I think other priorities have fallen to the side. Let's get off of the island."
When Nebbin shifts his eyes to Emi, he sees her glaring back, jaw clenched.
Kayleigh is relieved when the band's all back together. She listens to everyone's report and totally misses the lingering animosity between Nebbin and Emi.
The cleric assures Nebbin that Carawyn's well-being is a top priority. "She's a smart girl--maybe by being inside their hospice for a few hours she'll be able to get a sense of what sort of treatment the physicians are giving to the sick."
She's eager to hear what Lady d'Bear and her council have to say, though.
Emi looks at Kayleigh in angry amazement.
"You can't seriously believe Carawyn's coming back can you? You heard why she was taken? They suspected she'd received divine healing. It's either punishment for that, or they want to study her to see how the disease acts when exposed to divine healing, maybe both. They're keeping her."
Upset as she is, Emi still needs to deliver her own news.
"Before we reached the Longacre Building someone, the people who were there claim it was Black Jack, snatched Trinia Sabor and took off with her. She wasn't executed."
Regeris places a hand on Emi's shoulder a little firmly. "Anger won't get her back faster." He nods over at Kayleigh. "Emi is right though. There is something profoundly wrong about the city's plague response and I do not trust it. If Carawyn is fine, then we will find out for ourselves but I want to see her with my own eyes. We have to go to the Gray to see Thousand Bones anyways."
On re-read I realize we didn't actually agree that the meeting in the Gray would be later that night. If that was the plan, Samuel suggests ten o'clock in the evening as the time for meeting at the pier. And he suggests discretion.
"It is unknown how the physicians will react, or how they view the barge. The Mistress is trying hard to do good works among the people in this time of need, while staying within the mandates that the Queen has imposed upon us."
"She is coming back, once way or another," Nebbin says. "Maybe it won't be right away, but I didn't leave her to Lamm, I'm not going to leave her to these physicians either."
His voice is hard, maybe as hard as it's ever been.
"I'll wait and see, and give them a chance to do the right thing first, but I'm not leaving her there!"
He turns his attention away, pushing that to the back of his mind for the moment.
"That's good about Trinia, though! At least something good is happening. We should try to find her later, but ... there's too much to do first."
Kayleigh nods in agreement with Nebbin's assessment. She sees Emi's anger, however, and feels the need to address it.
"I know we can't fully trust the Queen's physicians," she says, "but the undeniable fact is that we can't beat the blood veil ourselves, even if we were to dedicate all our time and resources against it. Yes, they took Carawyn, and we might have to forcibly take her back, but we've learned something important: The physicians do seem to know what they're doing. They correctly diagnosed Carawyn's condition. Now whether their ministrations are in line with their apparent knowledge of the blood veil...that remains to be seen. Depending on their motivations, they still might end up making positive strides against the spread of the disease despite themselves."
"Maybe Lady d'Bear can give us more information about the crown's hospices and their heal rates," the cleric concludes, sounding very tired.
Emi isn't mollified by Kayleigh's argument on behalf of the Queen's physicians.
"One day. I'll wait that long. They said it was for a blood draw. That can't take so long she won't be released by the end of tomorrow. Longer and they're lying; and I know they're lying about something. I've yet to see anyone actually healed by their efforts. And if they're so well informed and care at all, why are they throwing Carawyn, who isn't sick, in with a mob of sick people?"
"They're covering something up. Regeris is right. For all we know they're cutting the throats of the people they take. That would stem the plague, and it's in line with the amount of regard they have for the people here."
Emi holds it back as long as she can, she knows it's not really fair, but "We should have taken the lambs out with us. I said it over and over. One day and no more."
Kayleigh allows Emileva to get the final word in. It's not as if her slightly younger friend is wrong in any of what she says. As a devotee of Milani, Kayleigh knows her destiny may be as a martyr to a hopeless cause; she doesn't want her friends to suffer a similar fate. Yet that seems to be the path all of them are choosing.
"So...is there anything more we can accomplish here today, besides maybe helping Ishan at our own little hospice?" she asks the others. "Majenko and his family may be our best way of getting messages into and out of the quarantine zone. If Carawyn's not back with the other Lambs by the time our meeting with Lady d'Bear's council is adjourned, maybe we should schedule a late-night visit to spring her."
"There is no shortage of people who have been magically cured of plague, look at the giant gleaming golden temple in the centre of the city for an example. The Queen has resources to just pay an Abadarian to cure people every day for whatever experimental means the plague doctors have. Taking Carawyn does not make sense on the face of it. But yes, if she's not quickly release, we go to her."
He rubs the side of his face. "There have been so many loose threads we've been trying to grasp that it's hard to keep track. Helping Ishan may be the easiest use of our time unless there's anything we need to investigate on the island."
The group makes its way back into Bridgefront only to find that Ishan isn't at the clinic anymore. You find Majenko sunning himself outside the third floor window on the neighbors roof. He stretches, shakes off his torpor and waddles in to greet you as you come into the room.
"Other one left just after you did," the dragon reports when you ask. "Didn't say where he was going. Just said he'd be back. Are they coming to take the dead ones away?"
Can you guys help me organize this map by taking a few minutes to look over the floor plan and claim/designate rooms? Ishan slept in 3A last night. I labeled the rooms A vs B based on their connectedness. There's just the one stairwell to the 3rd floor and it feeds through the A half of the second floor. The B half of the second floor only connects to the rest via the first floor storage room. You've seen no signs of life from either of the first floor shops that share this structure.
"Well, hopefully he knows what he's doing," Nebbin says. "I don't want to have to go find him too."
He yawns. "Maybe we should rest until tonight, since we were out most of last night and it sounds like we might have another late night today."
I think we should knock down the wall to connect the two sides at the foot/base of the stairs in the middle of the area.
**************************************************
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"The Pharasmans are trying to do what they can to clear the dead, but the physicians and their blockade are making things difficult," Kayleigh tells Majenko. To the others she adds, "Anyone up for exploring the first-floor shops to make sure we don't have any unwelcome neighbors here?"
The party pokes around in the different rooms, getting a feel for the possibilities. Before long Ishan returns accompanied by a pair of young men with a cart stacked well beyond safety's sake with old furniture. At Ishan's direction they pull the cart around to the back of the building and he throws open the double doors so they can start moving the furniture into the building. It fills the room with light and air, but also makes the smell worse.
When they are finished, Ishan pays the men from the money Kayleigh gave him and together you start moving pieces into place to outfit the rooms as you like. It's not rest, and some of you are beginning to wear down from long days and longer nights, but at least once you're done you feel you have a credible place to crash once the crash comes. It still lacks proper locks, but the doors can be barred as long as someone's home. It's definitely not a clinic yet, but then it reeks of death still, and that should soon pass as well.
Outside, Regeris makes quick work of one locked door and is disappointed to find hardly anything that could be of use or hint at how the place was once used. Something based on paper, because no trace of the business remains. The other place is worse. The door is not locked and the room has been lived in by the homeless and soiled by vandals. The spaces are recoverable if you knock some holes in some walls and put up some framing. Making a hole in a wall and covering it with a dresser is a form of secret door. Doing something more sophisticated is likely to demand professional help.
"It must have smelled too bad for them," he says to the others as the examine the abandoned storefronts. "Maybe we can get someone we like and trust to open up a shop here? Do you think Tiora wants to sell anything? Or Trap?"
Kayleigh shrugs at Nebbin. "Maybe we could open a soup kitchen as a sort of cover business."
Ishan stops the youths before they go when he hears Nebbin talking about his renovation project. He disappears again while the group talks it over and comes back with tools. The money purse you gave him is enough cash to go a long way after all. They've brought a sledge, a saw, a couple dozen nails, a spade and some wood, bundled up in a wheelbarrow.
As the shadows lengthen, you each begin to prepare yourself for another arduous night on the prowl. The afternoon turns muggy and makes the work inside a bit unpleasant. But Ishan fetches two pails of fresh water from a local tap and enough fare from a nearby grocer to make a basic meal and after some cleaning up you can feel your energy returning. Sometime before sunset, Majenko returns from his trip to the temple. He hops in through Emileva's broken window and preens a bit before tucking his wings away.
"Young one returned. Just this moment and I came back to tell you!" he croaks. His golden eyes gleam up at you, perhaps craving praise. "She smelled too sweet but she was happy to come back to her clutch. Everyone is happy!"
Taking it as an omen, the group snakes out into the darkened street, cloaks pulled tight against a rising breeze that tastes and smells like rain, and reminds you strongly of the river. As your way brings you to Old Korvosa Boulevard, you cheat to the north to avoid the Physician's checkpoint entirely. Reefclaw Run market is deserted this late and a pair of city guards stands watch by one of the market gates. Soldado's men, it must be.
Avoiding all contact, you pick your way around the market and down the north shoulder of the hill. Downslope there are a couple blocks of houses and then a drop to the river. Taking one of the cross streets you come back east, down the slope to the first warehouse and dock.
Two more of Soldado's men stand sentry in a circle of torchlight between the building and the pier behind it. Rain begins to patter softly on the road around you as you cover the last stretch to the warehouse drive.
Nebbin -- kitted out in his usual armor and weapons, and with his guard cloak unless Emi yells at him -- moves as quietly as he can, trying not to get too far ahead of the others.
Kayleigh is both surprised and relieved when Majenko reports that Carawyn has returned to the Temple of Aroden. She buys Majenko a live chicken at the first market the group passes, promising there'll be more in appreciation for all the good work the little dragon and his kin have done.
The Milanite cleric wears the reddish leather breeches she normally wears with her guard cloak (and not her normal healer's whites), but she doesn't don the cloak itself, recalling Grau's warning. She slows as the party nears the pier.
Emi sighs in relief at Majenko's news. She also avoids eye contact with Kayleigh and Nebbin, feeling a little ashamed about her outbursts toward them now that she knows she was wrong.
There is still a vestige of suspicion remaining though.
"what do you mean she smelled too sweet? How so?"
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Emi drops her belongings in the room she will be taking. She also recovers her hidden breastplate and leaves it there. Her chain shirt should serve fine for what should be a walk and a meeting. She belts her falchion on for use if needed. At the last moment though she slings the magical rapier strap over her shoulder to carry it on her back. The reassurance of having a magical weapon on hand if it is really needed is a little addictive.
She doesn't wear her guard cloak, figuring Grau's warning might still need to be heeded.
Regeris is actually, and properly confused that Carawyn was returned. "I'm going to want to examine her. I still do not trust this, at all."
He does caution the group to drop the guard cloaks, deciding that the balance of power has shifted enough in the city that the authority offered by the cloaks may be more of a detriment than an asset.
Nebbin seems to have already forgotten the dispute with Emi, grateful that Carawyn is back where she belongs ... though he also wonders what Majenko means about being too sweet. Maybe they gave her some soap and perfume?
Tassira seems to be more focused on the upcoming meeting than the fate of the children at the moment.
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Back at the clinic...
Majenko turns to face Emi, flaring out his wings as he does so. He folds them back again very slowly.
"Sweet. Like nectar, yes. Like sugar and flowers. Oh! Like not here!"
Sitting there watching the little dragon that eats spiders exhibit disgust at the smell of your safe house gives you pause. It's possible that working in here has made you all a little nose-blind.
... and later on...
As you get closer to the warehouse you see figures moving around on the pier behind the building.
The guards pick you out of the darkness as you get near, calling out a soft challenge. Of course you're expected. Their hands motion you past, under the shelter of the warehouse eaves. There you're handed 5 heavy cloaks to put on over your things that mark you as priests of the Gray.
After just a few moments there's a last call and you hurry through the darkness and sprinkling rain to board the barge.
The craft has a small half-shelter amidships for the living and dead alike, and the five of you cluster there, holding onto lines and bulkheads as you may as the boat gets underway. The shrouded dead are lined up head to foot under the canopy, a sobering sight, and you cast apologetic glances at them and try your best to stay out of the way of the mates as they run around doing their business.
The drab-assed boat barely heels at all as her modest sail takes the breeze and pushes the craft out into the flow. Before too long the rain stops and leaves behind it a subtle rising mist where the fresh cold rain and the broad warmth of the Jeggare negotiate their equilibrium. As the barge turns its bow back towards the lights of shore, moonlight peeks out through the night's cloudy shroud and spills out across the landscape beyond the southern city wall.
Soon enough any reverie is broken by a flurry of crew activity. The boat tacks awkwardly and pilot uses the current to bring her gently kissing against the Citadel's pier. While the barge crew ties the vessel off and brings along planks, a crew of stevedores pulls up the nearest wagon and begins unloading the dead for the final leg of their passage to the Gray. One of the Queen's physician's walks about in his long black robes, beaked mask and hat. The torchlight reflects madly off his lenses as he moves among the corpses, stopping here and there to examine something meaningful only to himself.
Kayleigh takes a deep breath (despite the proximity of all the blood veil dead) and draws the proffered cloak close around her, both to hide her armor and as a protection against the chill as a shiver runs down her spine. After giving Nebbin's arm a quick squeeze--more to steel her own frayed nerves than to reassure him--Kayleigh steps forward to help the true Pharasmans load the dead onto the waiting wain.
Nebbin nods at Kayleigh's actions and begins helping himself, the dead little burden for his strength, though far more for his own soul.
He tries not to keep looking at the physician.
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Emi does whatever she needs to in order to look casual, probably moving bodies but she also keeps an eye out for something else that might need to be done.
The urge to grab the doctor and choke some answers out of him is hard to ignore; they could possibly learn so much so quickly. But she's certain absolutely nobody else around would be cool with it at all.
The Physician pays no attention to any of you at all. He nods at the guard who appears to be in charge of the pier, then returns to a tent pitched in the dirt by the road, there you suppose to wait for the next load of dead to examine.
The wagon pulls off at a stately pace, with a train of brothers and sisters, including yourselves in tow. You climb the Pillar Hill in silence. The soft rain returns to further soak your borrowed cloaks as the black mass of the cyclopean Pillar wall looms up to your right. The massive gate that marks the entrance to the Gray is lit up with torches, as is the huge site beyond them that the Pharasmans have opened up in the Potter's Ward to bury the victims of the Blood Veil.
The wagon turns off the main path to the Cathedral and instead follows a meandering path through the hills out by the south wall. It stops there by the Potter's Ward extension, next to a large tent and a dozen workers come spilling out to help unload and bury the dead. Samuel is among them and he waylays you before you're able to join the manual labor.
"Come friends. Our destination this evening is just a bit farther. It'll be... familiar," he says cryptically before you all follow him away from the tent and back out onto the dark path. He carries no light, but there's enough moonlight to mark the fields of headstones and to easily make out the white shoulders of Sam's tunic as he leads you on.
Familiar indeed. The low hill up ahead is the very same Shoanti mausoleum that Rolth so recently used as a lab. Two women in Pharasman garb stand sentry in the darkness, one to either side of the sloping tunnel entrance. Beyond them there's a yellow-orange glow of torches reflecting off the interior walls. Sam pauses long enough for everyone to catch up, then leads the way down into the tomb.
A chill runs down Kayleigh's spine and she involuntarily shudders. Though she tries to convince herself that the chill was weather-related, deep down she knows the truth. The Shoanti mausoleum was the site of one of her worst, most embarrassing failures when she carelessly met the gaze of a necrophidius and was hopelessly entranced by its insidious dance of death.
Though she'd been expecting a more comfortable meeting with High Priestess d'Bear in the warmth of the temple, Kayleigh's seen enough death over the past couple of weeks that having a council inside some catacombs doesn't really bother her that much. She steels herself for some more bad news and stoically follows after Samuel.
An electric tingle runs down Tassira's arms as the party approaches the mausoleum. Her hands tighten into fists and refuse to unclench.