Ylandria shakes her head at Gerard. "I don't, but maybe the kapteos do. I think they have tired of these cousins and are looking for a way to evict them from our territory. Maybe we can help each other on this one. You know, ‘my enemy’s enemy’ and all that?"
Accompanying the two Sczarni, you soon come to a small collection of shanties, painted wagons, and tents built on the grounds of an ancient temple now reduced to a collapsed ruin. The Twincandles’ headquarters Two-Lights gets its name from two torch-like beacons erected in the center of camp and lit nightly. Two-Lights lies in a lightly populated section of Ordellia continually plagued by minor flooding—and in recent months, excessive flooding. Ylandria leads you through the hubbub to the central tent occupied by the gang’s kapteos.
The scent of incense suffuses this ramshackle camp, not quite overpowering the pervasive odor of mildew. Gnats swarm between lean-tos, shanties, and tents, the best of which are assembled on foundations of scrap wood, and the worst of which rest directly on the soggy ground. Soot-smeared children play near cook-fires tended by old women, while tannery workers eat from bowls held in their stained fingers.
At the center of the cacophony of color and smells is the base of the two tall wooden masts upon which Two-Lights’s nightly beacons burn. The masts form the central support for a festively ornamented and irregularly shaped tent, clearly occupied by the camp’s most important residents.
A bare-chested Shoanti stands outside the tent, his eyes keenly scanning the shadows. As you approach, the formidable guard bares his teeth, preparing to expel intruders from the area. However, a short exchange with Ylandria placates him. Ylandria then leads you into the unusual dwelling, which houses a sumptuously appointed den draped in heavy curtains and furnished with piles of pillows. Leaving briefly, Ylandria returns, introducing the two regal people who enter with her: “Pathfinders, meet kapteos Olivia and Jacek Giatano.”
The two Varisians have such similar features that it’s obvious they’re siblings. Similarly attired in ornately edged trousers and voluminous silk blouses, the only obvious means of telling the two apart is the thin, tweedy mustache Jacek wears.
Olivia Giatano speaks in a crisp, formal tone. “Ylandria has informed us as to your business in Ordellia, and it’s fortunate for all of us that the goals of the Twincandles and the goals of the Pathfinders are as alike as two petals from the same bloom. We can tell you how to find the ones you seek—the scoundrels who attempt to debase your honor.”
Olivia pauses long enough for Jacek to speak—his grating patois creating a jarring transition from his sister’s measured tones. “Oye, truth!" He says. "They worn out any welcome they had here, and we want ‘em gone. We tell you what you want to know, you lot agrees to listen.”
Olivia takes over again. "One of Magnimar’s smallest Sczarni “families,” recently went on a recruiting drive to help solidify their tenuous position in Magnimar’s underworld, and perhaps enable a move into the lucrative narcotics trade."
Then Jacek jumps back in, “We was contacted by a swain who claimed to be our cousin, a man named Titus Terliss. He told us that his gang was on the hunt for a perch in Magnimar to hide out for a season, and one of his fellows was a savvy alchemist, could help us cut in on the trade.”
The conversation continues back and forth between the two kapteos, who admit they never met the alchemist, but have been informed he is a fearsome and feral individual. Continuing with their bandying exposition, the Twins explain that the “cousins” moved into a crypt beneath Two-Lights, where they set up an elaborate alchemical laboratory. Although they originally worked hard to produce product for the Twincandles’ new endeavor, they had other priorities. They began conscripting Twincandles members for jobs that were not authorized by the Giatanos, and carrying out bolder and more violent robberies.
Olivia says, “They are indiscreet and coarse. If you eject them, you can help yourself to whatever spoils they’ve accumulated. Our excursion into the soporific trade has not been profitable, and we wish it ended.”
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Gerard listens quietly. I wonder how much of zee truth zey have hidden from us?
Gerard thinks of what he knows about the area and any catacombs or tombs in the vicinity.
"Tertius, it seems we will be heading underground," Gerard murmurs to the goat. "Will you accompany me, or do you wish to remain on zee surface?" He hasn't been underground since... but then, neither have I...
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Haris had been lying low, drawing up his scarf in a similar manners as the desert clad Badr. The Scarzni family has about as many children as the Hawk had unknowingly fathered. Once feeling safe that the Twin-Candles are only a raggedly pathetic band of incestuous nomads, Haris finally chimes in with the cant, ”Would thse cousins have a name?”, he readies with the secret handshake.
"They called themselves Sczarni and claimed no other name." Replies Olivia with a slight shrug.
With your meeting concluded the kapteos direct Ylandria to lead you to a corner of Two-Lights where part of the ancient temple’s foundation is still accessible.
Buttresses jut crookedly from the ground, between piles of shrub-covered stone. A narrow gap in one of the standing stone columns—just wide enough for a person to pass through—leads to a small, cylindrical chamber within. A sturdy block and tackle is mounted above a five-foot-wide pit, leading into the darkness below.
Stone handholds have been carved into the walls of the pit from above, allowing an easily climb down into a dank chamber 20 feet below. Ylandria leads the group down the shaft with a lit torch to light the way.
Below is a 15-foot-by-20-foot chamber with a low ceiling supported by an array of recently installed wooden spars. The room’s only point of interest is at the easternmost end, where a 6-foot stone stele, seemingly part of the chamber wall, stands. It’s etched with an eroded relief of a humanoid figure, positioned above a slightly less eroded inscription.
Ylandria gestures to the stele. “There’s a doorway here. When the Twincandles took over this camp, this door was open, and point a’ fact, we couldn’t figure how to move it at all. When the cousins came, that Terliss spent a little while tryin’ to read this writing. After that, this door was closed whenever we came down here. We were locked out.”
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Gerard uses the block and tackle to carry Tertius down the shaft, then studies the stele in detail.
" 'Ze wrath of man...' ", Gerard mutters to himself after hearing Haris translate. What was that potion bottle we found in the shop?
"Zere must be a way to open it... " Gerard experimentally gives the door a push.
The door opens with ease on Roary's first push. Beyond, a dark, damp stairway leads down to the south, slowly curving westward as it descends. Its walls are reinforced with wooden supports, and the western wall is set with empty alcoves, each several inches deep, suitable for displaying religious icons or similar small relics.
Ylandria opts to stay behind rather than accompany you deeper into the crypt. “Some of our gang are likely down there. If they are, they might not’ve been able to get out, with this door in the way. I’ll keep it open so you can send them up."
Haris sneaks forward down the stairs, alert for danger. Instead, about halfway down, just as a corridor comes into sight at the bottom, he notices something along the left-hand wall - a secret door hidden behind a wooden support beam.
precautionary, and removing one or two will not unduly increase the risk of collapse.
Haris declares the secret door safe from traps and Roary moves the beam out of the way.
Stepping through the secret door, Haris enters a dark, 5-foot-square room.
The first thing he notices are two ancient Varisian inscriptions etched into the stone walls.
An open passageway leads to the east, although it is blocked with piles of seemingly impassable stone rubble.
To the south is a 3-foot-wide window resembling the inside of a humanoid’s mouth. Looking though the mouth, Haris sees a massive room beyond. Its most striking feature is its thirty-foot-high vaulted ceiling, decorated with faded frescoes of storm clouds. Motes of flickering light occasionally flash into being within the painted thunderheads, giving the imperfect impression of watching a distant storm.
On the room’s south side is a similarly positioned face, resembling an ancient, bearded man. From between his defiantly clenched teeth issues a trickle of murky fluid, which runs down the knotted coils of his beard to pool onto the stone floor, which has been cut to resemble a fanciful variety of coastlines and islands, each raised an inch above the rest of the stone surface.
The fluid pouring onto the floor fills the low-lying areas between these “islands,” which function as eccentrically positioned steppingstones across the center of the room. The water and islands create another illusion—that of looking out across a great reflective seascape from the peak of an incredibly high mountain.
The grandeur of the room is somewhat undone by the two makeshift worktables positioned in its center, surrounded by benches and stools. The worktables are littered with a variety of small objects, statues, bits of pottery, and assorted relics.
On the east side of the room, a split staircase leads to a wide platform ten feet above the floor, where a similarly cluttered worktable stands. Sturdy wooden doors are set into the east and west walls.
Six sallow youths dressed in Twincandles colors work silently at the two tables, using soft brushes to clean and sort the bits of ephemera placed before them. Two other men oversee the work, each dressed in a chain shirt and bearing a crossbow.
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Rowanna pauses for a moment at the inscriptions, appearing pleased with herself when she makes one out, "The first one says 'May the lightning raze the lands of my enemies, while the tempest churns his ships to flotsam.'" She translates for the group, then opines, "Whoever built this seems quite obsessed with storms and violence."
Once the group sees into the other room, Rowanna whispers, "I can try to put at least one of the crossbow men into a trance, although it'll work better if we don't try to kill them first. Someone in the front will need to change places with me though."