Summary
Eleri's prized first edition of Zurssan's For The Advancement Of Scrying has gone missing!
Synopsis
After losing any leads he had on Enthr's abduction, Jagal has arrived in Lostmoor to filch a guide on stronger scrying techniques. While it's one of the village's only meager claims to fame, it's not particularly highly sought after, and he doesn't have much trouble procuring it and arduously copying down words he doesn't know himself. As such, he's entirely clueless that the text he carries actually concerns blood magic...
Lucya, after swearing an iron vow to find her childhood friend, comes upon Jagal at the tavern, and the two chat about vows and how scrying might help. Upon finding out about the lost guide, she quickly offers to help him find it, but Shrek the Bartender warns them that the guide's keeper Eleri is a sketchy fella whose property is littered with dead wildlife for unknown reasons. Lucya is nonetheless determined to stick to her word, and she and Jagal make their way to the property in question. She's quickly introduced to blood magic in a clothing-unfriendly fashion, but they proceed to talk with Eleri in the safety of their home. For the Advancement of Scrying by Zurssan and the ritual itself are discussed, and the two adventurers swear to bring Eleri's book back to them.
Immediately upon leaving, blood-slicked dead birds begin to detonate upon Tanvir's distant command. Jagal dodges without much effort, and Lucya finds a way to set off the blood-cursed corpses from a distance by throwing stones. The adventurers then run into an unaffiliated pack of rodents of unusual size. Through mostly Lucya's efforts, the rats are dispatched handily, but Jagal nearly loses his emotional support bracelet in the process, and an unseen messenger goes to report the incident to its master...
After one more misfortune—Lucya losing her bread and veggies to the swamp—the two arrive at Tanvir's house. Anticipating them, he opens the door before they can even knock, startling poor Lucya again but seeming amiable enough. Jagal somewhat explains the situation with the book, and Tanvir invites them inside for the night. To Lucya's chagrin, Tanvir and Jagal strike up some kind of rapport, but she gets a glimpse of a mysterious map of the "Forge of Fate." Tanvir displays his blood magic by calling in a heron, and the two unsettled travelers prepare for a long night winding talismans and whittling birds.
Once he's satisfied the others are asleep, Jagal decides to shave a little gold off the cover of the book he pilfered but inadvertently wakes Lucya before he can get started. Tensions rise between them until Lucya realizes that the cover doesn't seem to match the book inside. Then Tanvir's heron servant comes crashing through the window, interrupting the travelers with barely enough time for Jagal to slip the book back into his bags. After a little negotiation, the parties agree to leave the books in Tanvir's care until sundown so he can switch the covers back. In exchange, he takes blood samples from Jagal (willingly) and Lucya (not quite so willingly) in "purely academic pursuit," commenting on something interesting about Jagal's blood. Tanvir retires to his room, leaving the travelers to gossip about Jagal's romantic tastes, the dangers of the Ironlands, and Lucya's vow.
The next morning, Lucya wakes to find the heron gone but Jagal in the same spot he'd apparently been in all night. She mentions the odd map to him while they're alone and offers to scrounge up some soup ingredients and keep watch so he can get some sleep. But as she's out gathering mushrooms and herbs, Jagal decides to snoop around for any valuables. He instead stumbles (somewhat literally) upon the opening to a mysterious basement and heads down, hoping to find something worthwhile. Unfortunately, he only manages to see a few odd tools, preserved specimens, and vials before Tanvir shuts off the only exit. Lighting a lamp, Jagal quickly draws the attention of a Nightmare Spider/heron chimera that he manages to injure before taking a brutal beak gouge to his right shoulder.
Lucya returns from her successful expedition with herbs and mushrooms, but Jagal is nowhere to be found. Tanvir works to convince her that Jagal's run off, and she makes sure the book deal is still on before sitting to work on the soup. Beneath her, Jagal manages to drive the chimera into a shelf of glassware. He drops one of his daggers in the process, but it makes enough noise to get Lucya’s attention, and she tries to find him. Just as she's taking her ax to the floor, Tanvir comes in and triggers the trapdoor to unceremoniously dump her into the basement, too. The chimera recovers from its bad fall as Tanvir shuts them all in…
The chimera quickly tears a painful injury through Lucya’s arm, but she pins the thing and lops its head off. Unfortunately this doesn't quite seem to kill it, and Jagal is too busy slipping on blood to take advantage of the distraction. But Lucya bodily throws the chimera across the room, picks up Jagal despite his protests, and charges up the stairs to hack the trapdoor open. Jagal tries to take off again, unwilling to leave his dagger lying there in potentially damaging magic blood, but she has no difficulty keeping him in place. At least, until the chimera returns while she's forcing the trapdoor open. He escapes once more but can't get past the chimera without taking a hit from its venomous stinger. As he starts to panic, a certain bespectacled sorcerer peers in and chides "Agatha" for making trouble. Seemingly at Lucya's request, Tanvir stops Agatha's rampage, leaving Jagal to finally get his dagger back and Lucya to haul Jagal out of the basement.
Tanvir derides their apparent actions against him personally as the two of them express their dissatisfaction with the situation and him as a human being, but Tanvir nonetheless hands Jagal an aromatherapy bag said to limit the effects of the venom. Lucya ensures the book deal is still on, and Tanvir requests they wash off in a stream nearby. The two gladly leave the house to do so, treating their wounds with Jagal's herbal concoction and Lucya's bandages. They change clothes and head back to Tanvir's house, where the pot of soup is waiting. Jagal is visibly enamored with the meal, much to his inexplicable embarrassment, and the two polish off the pot before Lucya starts a second, lower-quality batch to mollify Tanvir. The travelers exchange a few words about their day before Jagal succumbs to exhaustion and nods off on the couch until sundown, when Lucya wakes him and nearly gets dagger wounds for her effort.
Tanvir presents them unceremoniously with the desired book, though its cover is still loose, and tells them to leave (at least for a few weeks; much longer if they don’t feel like donating more blood). They comply readily and return to Eleri’s estate, which has been somewhat cleaned up during the time they were gone. Eleri receives the travelers, and more importantly their book, enthusiastically, though they devolve into a bit of a state over the cover problem, the troubles the travelers, incurred and their own failure to have tea ready. Lucya asks about the Forge of Fate, but Eleri’s most restrained answer is still too complex to process after such a long day. The three agree to meet again at noon for their quest rewards, then Lucya bodily hauls Jagal away to keep him from running off on her.
En route to Lostmoor Tavern for the night, Lucya demands to know what Jagal’s game is. He’s unwilling to concede much of anything beyond his vow to build a black iron hoard, while Lucya confesses that she really isn’t suited to adventuring alone, and she doesn’t know who else she could ask for help… Jagal immediately volunteers the possibility of his assistance at the mention of money, and the two discuss a possible return to Mossgrove and the smithy there. For now, though, they return to the Lostmoor Tavern, where Lucya secures a room and Jagal resumes drinking with the patrons. The travelers take a little time in the morning to resupply, then return to Eleri's house, where the keeper of tomes has tea and fires ready. After some brief(ish) explanation of scrying (and a concerned clarification to Jagal that blood is not, in fact, required for every scry), they get started.
Lucya's scry is first—she hands over an embroidered pouch from Brynn to help the process, and Eleri begins the scrying. The flames show an Ironlander much more hardened than the one she knew washing blood from his hands before somehow forcibly ending the vision in a burst of embers. As Lucya reels and Eleri takes notes on the unusual result, Jagal steps up for his own scrying with little expectation. Without so much as revealing Enthr's name or species, he clandestinely grips Enthr's hood in his bag, and the scrying succeeds. Within the flames, a hawk sits in a cage of twigs in a wagon guided by some arsonous squadron of raiders. Poorly obscuring his overwhelming relief that Enthr is alive, Jagal moves on to requesting his physical payment, which Eleri provides in the form of a silver arrowhead. Lucya asks if Eleri has any way to clarify where in the Ironlands Brynn and Enthr actually were, and Eleri provides some estimates—towards the center of the Veiled Mountains for Brynn, and the north of the Ragged Coast for Enthr. Thanks are exchanged at various degrees of awkwardness, and the two travelers leave, near overcome with very different emotions.
Transcripts
001: Chance Meeting in a Tavern, As You Do
003: Trekking Through the Swamp