A matter of trust

We had no trouble cleaning up at the temple and Borka provided us with additional information in exchange for the freedom of she and her boyfriend. Ili made the deal, and Malakar got upset because she let them take their armour and Borka’s armour is magical. Whoops!

The Northrog that sent the shaman seems to have some serious power, and Borka promised that he would come after us for messing up his scheme.

Obegard said he was going to check in with Duchess Cassandra on what we should do now and said he couldn’t make contact. A couple of days later he slipped up and I discovered that he hadn’t even tried! He tried to pretend he hadn’t lied and it was amusing seeing him squirm as he tried to rationalise his actions. Hahahahaha. I’m kind of proud of him—he hadn’t previously demonstrated the mentality for lying—but he has to practise. A lot. I could see straight through it.

We’re heading off for Deverenia, where the Upworlders are supposedly not very nice. The others apparently believe it should be obvious what they mean by this.

We picked up some extra food from the temple and headed off, finally reaching a small town after 5 days (and almost all our food). The reception wasn’t too warm and we wound up being given yet another task to be done.

Some of the townsfolk have been killed, big claw marks, forest nearby, another party of adventurers went to explore and haven’t returned... Did I forget anything? Oh, right, rumours of lycanthropes.

Ili started on about dirty, evil shapeshifters and Malakar explained (apparently not for the first time) the difference between poor maligned lycanthropes in general, and the Cult of Bascaron. Hmmm. Could it be that Ili doesn’t know that Malakar is a lycanthrope? How long have they been travelling together??? It only took me a week to find out, and I got the impression these guys have known each other for years. Mind you, I don’t know that I’d rush to share too much with Ili—“flexible thinking” doesn’t strike me as her strong suit.

We found a trail in the forest and it was pretty obvious and easy to follow. Which is probably a bad sign. It led us to a cave in a clearing and sure enough just as we were trying to decide the right way to enter we got attacked by big wolf-like things from all sides.

They looked a lot more like animals than when I’d seen Malakar do his thing again the skeletons and they soon had us on the ground and pretty much at their mercy. I slipped away from mine momentarily, but it didn’t have much trouble catching me. Then someone that looked a lot more like Malakar’s altered form stepped out of the trees and gave us a stern talking to.

The only one he’d deal with was Malakar and I could see Ili had no idea what was going on so it appeared I was right in thinking he’d kept his secret from her.

The leader challenged Malakar to a one-on-one combat with our lives in the balance and Malakar was clearly outmatched but there was nothing to lose—they could rip us up anytime they wanted.

Even with spells in his favour and laying down some huge licks Malakar still got his butt handed to him, and then they magically branded him with a small crescent moon on the nape of his neck and we were sent on our way.

Apparently these guys are followers of Yscar and they don’t like the Cult of Bascaron. Which is probably good for us. And far from preying on the townsfolk they had been keeping this part of the forest free from nasties for quite a while. Ili didn’t seem inclined to believe them, but I was willing to trust anyone that let us live.

As we continued on Ili was giving Malakar some dirty, dirty looks and things are somewhat strained between them.

We finished up back at town without much to show for a few days in the wild, but the leader of the previous party had returned, and had taken a serious blow to his sanity. It appears the rest of his party died and he ran from some nasty shadow beast. Which, you know, we’re so well equipped to deal with.

Obegard checked in with Duchess Cassandra and she apparently wants us to pursue this shadow thing. Assuming, of course, that Obegard is telling the truth. I’m surprised that the others have allowed him to keep the communication device now that they know he’s a big fat liar.

Man, what a group. We’ve got Obegard, who everyone knows is a liar; then there’s Ili, who Malakar isn’t happy with; Malakar, who Ili is now very wary of. Thank goodness I’m here to keep everything honest and above board!