The morning
Dago wakes up to the sound of crab breaking - a sound he is familiar with. He, as well as Verla when she wakes up, is cold from going barechested with no actual winter clothes.
He swaggers over to the cooks and sees their inefficient and wasteful way of preparing the cave crabs, and offers to help them. It takes a little persuasion, but he shows them how to get more meat, better broth, and better taste all in all. They seem thankful and he tells them to experiment with it.
Tallbeck wakes up with Verla being closeby, and they talk about magic and rings and heat, seeing as Verla is very chilly and Tallbeck has a ring of warming which helps on the cold mornings.
As they talk, and after Dago has returned with some breakfast, Tallbeck suddenly spots a large dog standing some ways away looking at them.
The Witch's Hut
It is late evening, and Mitr is inside the hut with Luigsech. They talk about what Mitr wants, and she says that she can help. By building a pyre he could possibly find his path, which could lead him in the right direction for him. He asks how it could help and she says she doesn't know as she's not very knowledgeable in that field. He accepts and Tatiyena is called back in by Luigsech.
She tells them to find a tree out there and points, to cut it down and make a pyre. Tatiyena asks for an axe, and she says she'll look for one. She goes back into the hut they've now stepped out of, and as they wait, they realize that she has vanished.
They look around for a good tree, but no way to cut it down, so they investigate the area including inside the hut.
In the hut, Tatiyena finds a fancy books with artistic scribbles and drawings but it looks like magic. It says "Myrlin" and has fancy names for places such as Bhulayen. As she tries to put the book back, she gets the angle wrong and dominoes the entire row which ends in a book knocking down a glass container that shatters on the floor and the purple smoke within, dissipates. She finds a piece of paper with a hexagon on it and pockets it. It looks like an art collage of smart things - like a mimicked intelligence of something the person has no actual knowledge of.
Outside, Mitr is meditating on this path, and he is not doing great. He is drowning in his own mind and having a hard time finding what he is looking for. He sees no help, he sees a horse out of place in a herd, and his initial strategy fails. He changes it up and goes for the philosophy of thought instead. He sees a light, the hut, and a feeling of an ability to grab the opportunity in front of him.
He opens his eyes.
Inside, Tatiyena looks, in the extravagant mess and chaos, for something that is out of place for chaos - something placed intentionally. She finds a small stone dog placed on a table facing the door. She investigates it and picks it up with a cloth. She calls out for Mitr to come see what she found, and as he approaches, he is very skeptical of the statue thinking it might be magical or cursed. But looking at it, he realizes it might be made of pearl, not stone.
Back in the Camp
Dago sees the dog and says it's called a bear dog also known as war dogs, as it is basically pony sized with big teeth and a lot of fur. He takes out a piece of jerky, holds it high, and tells the dog to come. And oh does it. It jumps straight at him and tackles him, taking the jerky, licking his entire face, and goes to look for more food in his pockets.
Tallbeck has decided to hide behind the tent and minor illusions a big plate of jerky for the dog to try and eat after hearing Dago's yelps for help under the beasts fur and tail. After it gets off, Dago decides to spend 10 minutes learning Dog, while Verla tries out hand signals to see if the dog is actually trained. Turns out it knows Signal, and some of the commands from there, which keeps the dog in place until Dago can talk to it. Tallbeck stays behind the tent.
After the 10 minutes, Dago does indeed speak Dog, and we learn that he speaks with a gruff British accent, has a master called "Old Lady", he usually is referred to as "Dog", that he likes scratches, and that he knows of his master's "business" which includes our friends, the one that smells like clouds and the smaller one. We ask for consent and then scratch him to his heart's desire and convince Tallbeck to come out to then eventually follow the dog to his master's home seeing as we are friends of her business which makes us her business too. We also decide that he should have a name, and we name him Barnacles. [Barna-clees].
Back in the Grove
Mitr and Tatiyena has found a saw-like whip in the house, and they spend all night sawing a tree and building a very tall pyre. As they are finishing up, it is after lunch time, and the rest of the party arrives to see the unlit pyre and questioning the hell out of the two.
Through the interrogation, Dago says there's something in their eyes, and Tallbeck who's been sitting on Verla's shoulder to keep up with the dog, checks for it, and their eyes are glazed, sort of like the dog's. They are charmed by magic. As the uncharmed bunch of the party are discussing what to do here, Mitr goes ahead and lights the pyre.
The others start to panic at the implications this has.
Mitr sits down to meditate and Tatiyena starts collecting purple flowers for a prayer to consecrate the pyre to Gaun, and we collectively decide that there's no way back in terms of snuffing it out.
Dago has a look into the ether to look for spirits and for Luigsech, but instead he gets a look at all the whisps darting around the area, the 7 sins although wrath is a bit afraid of joining in, he sees the perfect circle for the trees and the corresponding three circles of bone in the ground, and so he sees a giant ritual ground. He also sees the spirit that is tethered, literally, to Mitr, which is fiery red and hides in its own flame. He sees an unsure blue spirit lurking behind Verla, and a child like adult one with big hands and a small head.
He talks to Mitr's spirit, it looks like it has been locked out in the cold and thus hides in the fire. He tries to be friendly and tells it that it's alright. Two yellow eyes lock in on him, but in the end, it groaned untrustingly.
Tallbeck uses See Invisibility which shows him the same although pyre is white in an otherwise blue realm. It is burning hot with radience. Neither of them see Luigsach though.
Tatiyena's prayer includes thinking back to a time in which she was with the someone and the sorrow when the person left. Surrounded by purple, the hearth burns, and Gaun's presence is there. Strong enough for her to feel him brush over her shoulder, and she feels that he too suffers the loss in/after life. He sees her and asks her what she wants to know. Her question is "Is this a path on which I can be true?" and he answers that these people can be, if she wants them to, although they require some guidance to do so.
It sounds like a "whale". Inspiration for meeeee.