The Followers of Zarus

"Long time no see, Valentine."

Not understanding the dire situation, the crowd began to cheer, excited by this new "gladiator". Horgarth immediately targetted Valentine who turned invisible to avoid him. Ferah and Yukha jumped into the arena to help and soon afterwards War burst through one of the closed gates, inciting the audience almost into a frenzy. Meanwhile, in the stands, Tiberius told Maiwen that he thought something was up and made their way to the barrier to help. Realising he was outmatched, Horgarth surrendered and offered to talk.

Valentine swiftly left the arena and went to find Bee, who was also out to find him. Although he first tried to play Horgarth off as someone he had angered in the past, at her request and threat to set the minotaur on him if he didn't explain himself, he revealed that Horgarth was a bounty hunter, though he didn't go into detail about why he was chasing him. She explained that if he really had done something illegal, there wasn't a lot she could do for him without endangering the Fantasy WWEs image. She proposed a deal to him; she and everyone else at the arena would do all they could to stall Horgarth and keep him in Warcester, and in return Valentine and his companions would find and rescue Vidya and Rohiri. The Revenants had not been seen in over a day, and Bee had a good idea of where they may be.

She explained that when the arena first opened, they had some trouble from Zarus fanatics. They staged protests outside the arena against War working there. Their actions died down once she gained some popularity in the city, but recently Bee had noticed some suspicious looking people hanging around the arena. She suspected that Vidya and Rohiri had been taken by the cult. She knew that the nearest temple of Zarus was in Woungard, though not where exactly. Valentine agreed to the terms and went to find his friends.

Bee had Kosakas, another gladiator, help them out of the city. They led them to the Water Mine. Distracting the one person inside by sending him to sleep, Kosakas left them to find their own way. The Water Mine itself was a spiral staircase cut into the rock of the cliff beneath Warcester. It spiraled all the way down to the bottom, where it opened onto the river running through the gorge. Everyone discovered the more sinister side of Warcester when they came across roughly sixty homunculi, all chained together and passing water bags up to each other.

Outraged by this, Maiwen wanted to cut them loose from the chain, arguing that it would be easier for them to work if they weren't attached to it. Mariel protested and had to restrain her from smashing the chain with a sword. After some loud argument, Mariel eventually knocked Maiwen out and carried her down the stairway. While they walked, Valentine and Mariel talked. Valentine commented on how Bee told him about this, about how War would be a slave if she didn't work at the arena. Mariel agreed that it sucked.

After leaving Warcester, Maiwen  (atop  Anagis Alba )  led the group eastward, towards Woungard. A few hours into the journey, Mariel noticed that there was someone on horseback a kilometer or so behind them. She kept an eye on the rider for an hour or so, and the distance between them never changed. Feeling that they may be being followed, she alerted her companions. Maiwen decided that she wanted to confront this person and stood in the middle of the road, waiting for them. The rider grew closer, then passed her entirely, and carried on his way. Valentine wondered if Mariel was wrong, and that he hadn't been following them. They all decided to follow the rider until he stopped at an inn for the night. He had left his horse tied up outside and Maiwen immediately decided to interview it. The horse, Dusty, couldn't tell her much, not even where her rider was going nor what his name was. She then entered the inn and spoke to the rider himself, demanding to know his name so she could tell Dusty. He introduced himself as Jackson Hitch, somewhat startled by her demeanor, like most people are. She reprimanded him for not telling his horse where they were off to. Valentine then introduced himself as Maiwen's uncle and cast Charm Person on Jackson, who revealed that he was visiting family.

The next morning, our heroes managed to successfully ask for directions to the nearest temple of Zarus, and they set off again on their journey. After a few hours, the hills and valleys made way for flatter farmland, and they found themselves trekking through a series of barren fields, each with a scarecrow in its center. They soon realised that the scarecrows heads were following them, and when Valentine went to investigate one of them, it attacked. Somehow animated, the scarecrows all surrounded and advanced on them. After killing a couple, our heroes managed to outrun them and escape the fields. Mariel and Valentine then noticed that they were again being followed by a lone person on horseback.

Valentine disguised himself as a noble and created a Phantom Steed and waited for the rider to catch up. Sure enough, it was Jackson again. Valentine asked if he could accompany him on the road, which he declined. Instead, Valentine and Mariel followed after him. After following him for two hours, the path branched off and Jackson took the path that Maiwen and Tiberius up ahead had not. Valentine and Mariel caught up with the others, and they stayed the night in a tavern named the Bloody River. Seeing its name and feeling inspired, Tiberius pulled out his lute, Maiwen her flute, and Valentine his violin, and they all walked into the tavern playing "People Ain't No Good".

During the evening, Valentine noticed a cormorant sitting outside on the windowsill, seemingly looking into the tavern. It flew off as he approached it to inspect it further. In the morning, Maiwen realised that Fletcher's finances were gone. She ran to Valentine and Tiberius's room wailing, searched them both and their room and found nothing. When asked what was wrong, she said that some "papers" had been stolen from her.

Our heroes set out towards the temple of Zarus, keeping up the quick pace from the day before. After a while, Maiwen noticed that there seemed to be someone following them through the trees. Valentine turned Tiberius invisible and he was sent to spy on whoever it might be. As he got closer, Tiberius saw it was Jackson Hitch once again. He had halted in the middle of the road on Dusty, and was staring at a stone in his hand. Tiberius accidentally kicked a stone on the ground, alerting Jackson to his presence. He then dismounted and led Dusty off the road and into the trees. Tiberius returned to his companions and relayed this information. Incited by a desperate urge to know what the stone he had was, Maiwen then persuaded everyone to turn around and follow Jackson. They managed to track him through the forest until he rejoined the path and got back on his horse. He then quickened his pace when Maiwen tried to charm him, and she and Valentine had to follow him alone atop Anagis Alba, Mariel and Tiberius falling behind. Maiwen then made a spectacular dive off Anagis Alba and knocked Jackson off Dusty. Through the use of a dire wolf from Valentine's bag of tricks and the spell Sleep, they eventually managed to get him inside the bag of holding. Valentine then decided that he was going to keep Dusty. Jackson woke up a minute later, but was unable to get out of the bag.

The group continued east towards the temple and after another hour or so of travel, our heroes came across a hillside dotted with large burrows and broken pieces of stonework. Two basilisks emerged from the ground and began to attack. During the course of the fight, Valentine, then Maiwen, then finally Tiberius were all petrified, leaving Mariel and an injured Anagis Alba to fight the remaining basilisk.

Maiwen found herself once again before Mog, who seemed less surprised to see her this time. After failing to persuade him to talk about where he was and why he couldn't tell her anything, Mog instead suggested that if she wanted to help, she could convey a message for him. He asked her to tell his siblings "I'm sorry," if she ever met any of them. He revealed that he had six siblings, two of which he hadn't met since they were babies. He named the ones he grew up with as Chus, Torgan, Rohiri, and another that had no name. Maiwen added it to her list of people to find, mentioning Lucas and Ketifa in the process, which prompted Mog to reveal that they were in fact the two siblings he hadn't named. He urged her to find Lucas and to keep him away from Fletcher and the rest of his siblings. He expressed regret that he couldn't help Lucas himself and warned Maiwen that his siblings were either confused or misled. She tried pressing him for more information, but he suggested that she leave and forced her out of the shared astral projection.

Tiberius woke up to find a beautiful dryad restoring him back to flesh. She quickly restored the others as well and introduced herself as Betula. While they were petrified, Mariel and Anagis Alba had finished off the remaining basilisk. In return for saving them, Betula asked that they find her girlfriend Holalee, who stopped visiting her thirty years ago, and give her a ring she made. Betula was confined to the forest she lived in and therefore couldn't go looking for her. Our heroes agreed and set off to find Holalee, whose home was only a short distance out of their way.

Upon arrival in the village, they were told that Holalee's home had been abandoned for thirty years and that locals avoided the place because they believed it was haunted. The house in question was derelict and generally awful, it definitely looked haunted. Inside they found Holalee, now a banshee. She attacked and immediately knocked Valentine unconscious with her wail. Tiberius tried to show Holalee the ring Betula gave them, which Valentine was wearing, however she paid no attention to it. After a hectic fight, during which both Maiwen and Tiberius managed to knock other party members unconscious and Valentine chose to flee on Dusty, Maiwen called out Betula's name, and Holalee stopped fighting. Maiwen explained that they had a ring from the dryad to give her, however she had to chase down Valentine to retrieve it. She asked Holalee for a message she could give to Betula, but Holalee just asked for her to be told she was dead and not a banshee. As the group left the village and continued on towards the temple of Zarus, Maiwen and Valentine got into a spat. Maiwen felt frustrated by his lack of compassion and eventually burst into tears over the two star-crossed lovers.

Not long afterwards, around twilight, they arrived at the temple. Valentine wasted no time on knocking on the door. After getting no response, he disguised himself as Rohiri and shouted that he had escaped. An armed human man opened the temple doors in surprise and forced him to enter. Valentine entered the temple just in time to see a priest slit Rohiri's throat.

She fell to the ground and the priest moved onto Vidya, who was tied up next to her. The priest fumbled the action and the wound didn't kill Vidya, instead, they broke free of their bonds and headbutted him, killing him instantly. The congregation (around twenty in number) started screaming, alerting those still outside to the trouble within. The cultists converged on Vidya, surrounding them. Though low on health, Valentine turned himself invisible and rushed to Rohiri's aid. His companions all rushed inside too, Maiwen and Tiberius choosing to hang back at the door. Maiwen because of her low health, Tiberius for another reason. During the fight, Tiberius heard a whisper inside his head, one not unfamiliar to him. It urged him to run away, telling him he didn't really care about these people. Tiberius did as he was bid, took Dusty, and disappeared into the growing darkness.

While Maiwen managed to immobilise most of the congregation and Vidya killed most of those with weapons, Valentine and Mariel dragged Rohiri outside. During the fight, Vidya healed themself by touching an alchemic transmutation circle on their palm that had once been hidden by gloves. Once the danger had passed, they tried to do the same thing to Rohiri with a matching circle on her own palm, however it did nothing. Maiwen quickly realised that Rohiri was dead. She backed away, tears in her eyes, distraught that this had happened on her watch; that she had lost one of Mog's siblings.

Everyone else, not realising Rohiri was dead (or if they did, keeping hope) decided to take her to Betula to see if there was anything she could do. Vidya expressed that they were surprised they had come to rescue them, to which Valentine admitted that they and Rohiri (and others in Warcester) had come to matter to him more than he thought they would and that he wanted them to be safe. He assured them that Rohiri would be fine and they could both live out their lives, which made Maiwen start to cry.

Finding themselves in a pickle over what to do about Tiberius, Mariel suggested a solution. She admitted that she still felt very guilty about what had happened with Elke and wanted to go find her to make up for what she did. She offered to take Vidya and Rohiri to Betula and then back to Warcester, while the others went on their way. Maiwen started crying again, this time because she couldn't keep her friends together.

On the road north, Valentine tried to cheer Maiwen up by asking her about her clan and family. He asked what the forest looked like, which made her think about the trees her people would turn into when they died, which made her cry. He then asked her to think of her fondest memory, which was when her grandmother took her as an apprentice as a healer, which made her cry. He asked her to tell him about her grandmother, which brought out a small smile on her face. She told him she was "scary beyond reason". Using her description, Valentine changed his appearance to what he thought her grandmother might look like. His attempt was passable, and he suceeded in cheering Maiwen up.

After an hour or so, they caught up with Tiberius, who had set up camp for the night. In the middle of a nightmare, he was woken by his companions approach. Valentine told Tiberius that if he wasn't up for this "adventure" that was fine, but asked him not to run off without warning again. Tiberius assured him that it was fine, just that he couldn't enter places "like that". Valentine asked for further clarification, but Tiberius remained vague, referring only to "places of that nature".

The next morning, the group decided to interrogate Jackson Hitch. Jackson revealed that the stone he lost was to track them via the sigils on the back of their necks Valentine, Maiwen, and Mariel had recieved in Emberfell, apparently still active. He was under the orders of Captain Bryn Carver Tolbert, although he didn't know why he had to follow them. He also revealed that he had been relaying their location to Horgarth, who Tolbert had contacted after Valentine confided in him about his predicament with the minotaur. Aghast and outraged by this turn of events, Valentine expressed his feelings through loud words while Maiwen tried to calm him down. After debating about whether to let him go or keep him as a prisoner, Maiwen won the argument, leaving Jackson still inside the bag.

The conversation turned to what their next move was and Maiwen proposed a new quest for them. She told them about her second meeting with Mog and that he wanted her to find his siblings and pass on a message. "Because that's what we do now." She gave them a run down of what he told her, including descriptions of each sibling. She chose to skip "Rohiri" and started crying again while doing so. They all eventually agreed to find somewhere warm to stay and plot their next move. They set off north and around noon came across a roadside shrine which housed a set of windchimes. Additional windchimes had been hung in nearby trees, which brought Valentine and Maiwen to think about the seven shrines they had found outside Warcester. Tiberius managed to identify which god the shrine was dedicated to: Kiiflo, the patron saint of adventurers and bards, often known as the Wayfinder.

Maiwen send a message to Mariel using the spell Spirit Messenger, telling her that they were all safe, they had found Tiberius, and asking about Rohiri. She received a reply that told her Betula hadn't been able to do anything for Rohiri, that she was dead. Valentine and Tiberius both heard the reply. Valentine sat on the ground and fiddled with Wayfinder while Tiberius held the lute that Rohiri had signed. Maiwen then send a second message, this one to Torgan.

"Dear Torgan, it's me, Maiwen Awena Mikaela ... the third. Valentine says hi, Mariel is gone, and most importantly, Mog says he's sorry, where's Lucas?"

However the spell failed, unable to reach Torgan. Maiwen knew there were a few posibilities; Torgan could be dead, on another plane of existence, or could be in some sort of antimagic field.

They continued in a northeastern direction, which eventually brought them to a tavern where they stayed the night. Inside, Maiwen met a young teenage girl named Lana. The two hit it off and Lana told Maiwen all about the town she lived in, Herroda. She described it as a safe haven against monsters and got excited about the idea of Maiwen visiting. She commented to her mother, Jelenna, that this would be two new people in the same week to visit. Maiwen asked about the other person and Lana told her his name was Lucas. Maiwen immediately jumped up and started dancing around the tavern, yelling with joy that she had found him. After a minute or so of unintelligable babble, she managed to let her companions know what she had been told. Jelenna and Lana suggested they all travel to Herroda together the next day.

The next morning, Maiwen wore her mourning outfit in remembrance of Rohiri. Tiberius asked who died, which prompted Maiwen to grab his throat. She wasn't able to hurt him however and he started to laugh. She told him that he wouldn't be laughing if he were in Rohiri's position. Outside, Maiwen mentioned to Valentine that Dusty hadn't cared about Jackson Hitch. Valentine asked if she could find out what Dusty thought of him. She suggested to Dusty that if he showed Valentine some affection he might give him more apples. Excited at this thought, Dusty laid on top of Valentine. In return for bridging the distance between him and his horse, Valentine asked if he could do anything for Maiwen. She asked him to search Tiberius for Fletcher's finances.

They set off towards Herroda with Lana and Jelenna. As the town came into view, Lana told Maiwen about it, about it's orchard, the animals Caelyn kept, the temple. Maiwen asked which god the temple was dedicated to, and as they passed through the gates, Lana revealed it was Zarus. Jelenna invited Maiwen to stay at their home during her stay in town, and said that Galindan would happily take in the boys. At Jelenna's suggestion, our heroes visited Galindan's home. They were greeted at the door by an adolescent bronze dragonborn who introduced himself as Worgar and a young halfling girl named Kelree. Excited to see another dragonborn, Worgar said something to Valentine in Draconic. Surprised that he couldn't understand him, he commented that he could tell he had been raised by humans. He said that it was nice to talk to someone closer to his own age. He said this despite the fact that he seemed barely on the cusp of adulthood himself. He offered the visitors some tea and mentioned that Galindan was in the basement, before cutting himself off and refuting the existence of a basement. After coming back with beverages that were passable as tea, Tiberius asked if they had anything stronger. Worgar said that technically they weren't allowed alcohol and that Maiwen and Valentine seemed to be underage anyway. Valentine said that he didn't know his own age and seemed mildly surprised to discover how old he was. Worgar apologised for the wait and said that Galindan would probably be finished soon. He said that they weren't supposed to bother him when he was "busy". When  asked what he was doing, Worgar let slip that he was in the basement, possibly with another person.

At this point, Galindan entered and introduced himself. Maiwen asked what was in the basement, which prompted Galindan to give Worgar a Look. He asked Valentine and Tiberius if they would be staying long. Valentine replied that they were just looking for Lucas and would then be on their way. Galindan commented that Lucas was a nice lad, then asked everyone about themselves. Valentine gave his usual reply that he was named Valentine and that was about it. Galindan pressed for more information, to which Maiwen asked if they could not and stood in front of Valentine, blocking him from Galindan's view. Galindan assured them that he didn't have to talk about his past if he didn't want to and asked about current times instead. Valentine happily obliged and started recounting their adventures, much to Maiwen's dismay. Galindan then asked Tiberius about his parents and where he grew up. Maiwen asked why he was interrogating them and he assured her he just wanted to get to know them. He commented that it must have been hard for Tiberius growing up, Tibbs asked why and he pointed out that he was a half elf; not quite human, not quite elf, never really fitted in anywhere. He suggested that perhaps it had been harder for his parents, before assuring that he meant no offense. Tiberius said that he fit in fine. Valentine asked for more tea and Worgar left the room to make more, relieved. Valentine followed him to escape the atmosphere. Worgar said he didn't like it when Galindan did that, but assured him that he was really okay once you got to know him.

Worgar and Kelree then took our heroes to see Caelyn's cows. Maiwen spoke to Anagis Alba and asked him if he sensed anything strange about the town. Anagis told her that it gave him the shivers. She then spoke to Valentine in private while the others were preoccupied by the cows. She asked if he wasn't getting the dodgy vibes and if he thought it was weird that Galindan had asked about their backstories. Valentine didn't seem completely convinced so Maiwen suggested that the townspeople were going to set Horgarth on them like Captain Tolbert did. She got him to agree to focus on the task at hand: get Lucas, get out. She said that she didn't trust Galindan because he had a basement and that he was probably going to brainwash them like he had done to all the townspeople. Valentine suggested that they ask Worgar and Kelree about it, as neither of them appeared to be brainwashed.

Valentine asked Kelree where she was from and if she had any family. She told him that she hadn't seen them since she came to Herroda. She said she missed them a lot, but everyone in town was very nice to her even if  they were sometimes very strange. She didn't like the temple services because of the way they talked about her family and halflings. Valentine told her that he had met many people of different races in his time and assured her that they were all wonderful. He promised that he would do his best to find her family and they made a pinkie promise. She started to tell him about something "scary" inside the temple, however was cut off by Worgar announcing that dinner was about to start and he led them all to the gathering hall to eat.

Our heroes joined Lana and Jelenna at their table. Maiwen asked where Lucas was and Jelenna's father, Tharivol, said he was fixing his cart. Lana offered to bring him some food and our heroes went with her. They found him fixing the cart outside the windmill; a boy in his late teens wearing a hooded scarf. He thanked Lana for the food and introduced himself. Everyone leaned in close to inspect him. He asked if he could help them and Valentine said that it had just been so long and asked if he could take the scarf off, meaning to check if he was really a half elf. Lucas seemed a little put out by this, so Valentine asked if they could speak in private. He cast Message and told Lucas, "We know about Mog. We have some information for you." Looking at Anagis Alba behind them, Lucas replied, "Okay. Let's talk somewhere quiet." He thanked Lana again for the food and sent her off, then led our heroes inside the windmill.

Inside he asked about Mog and Maiwen started bouncing up and down excitedly. Valentine calmed her down and she told Lucas that Mog said he was sorry. Lucas seemed to understand what was meant by that and she asked him what it meant and where he was and why she couldn't see him properly. He said that he didn't know where Mog was and Valentine suggested that they start from the beginning and tell Lucas everything. He informed him that Rohiri had died and assured him that they had done everything they could to try and save her. He then gave a brief summary of everything that had happened in Hazelhaven and of meeting Ketifa and Torgan, before revealing that they were planning on bringing them all back together.

He told Lucas that he could take the scarf off, as they knew he wasn't human, however Lucas opted to keep it on, revealing that the residents of Herroda all thought he was human. Maiwen asked about Chus's whereabouts, but Lucas said that he hadn't seen anyone in a long time and didn't know where anyone was. She then asked how he went missing and he revealed that he ran away from home. Maiwen said that the whole quest had been a lie.

Lucas then asked them for help. He revealed that there were two people in the town who needed rescuing; Ada, who was being kept in the temple, and her friend. Although Lucas didn't know exactly where her friend was being kept, he believed it was in Galindan's basement. Maiwen told Valentine off for revealing so much to Galindan. Lucas said that they would need Anagis Alba's srength to free Ada and a distraction to get the town's attention away from the temple. Maiwen asked about the "scary" thing in the temple Kelree had briefly mentioned and Lucas told her it was Ada. He said that she herself wasn't scary, but the way she was contained was. He urged them not to worry about it. They then all agreed to carry out their plan the following day.

They all headed back to the gathering hall. Tiberius pulled Galindan aside and asked if he could sense anything magical about Fletcher's finances. Galindan told him they were entirely unmagical. Tiberius then asked if he could use magic to find out if there was anything wrong with him. Galindan didn't have any spells that could have helped him. Tiberius then went into the gathering hall to try and sell the finances, however nobody wanted them.

Valentine left dinner early and went around the wall surrounding the town to place three glyphs of warding. One stored a Wall of Fire spell and the other two were Major Image. One would be a small dragon, the other a group of harpies. All three were set to trigger at 10pm the next night.

Maiwen was invited to stay at Jelenna and Lana's home that night, while Valentine and Tiberius were told they would be staying with Galindan. Maiwen objected to this, showing distress at the thought of being separated from her companions. After a few consecutive group huddles, they decided that Maiwen and Tiberius (hidden in Maiwen's bag of holding) would stay the night in a spare room in Lucas' dorm while Valentine stayed with Galindan. He gave an excuse for why Tiberius wasn't spending the night there and spoke to Kelree before retiring to bed, telling her that he wanted to find her family.

During the small hours, Valentine got up and broke into Galindan's basement. Inside, he found a man tied to a chair. He looked awful, like he had been there for a few weeks perhaps. Valentine hid himself from the man and introduced himself as "V", a friend of Lucas. "Who the fuck is Lucas?" was the reply. The man refused to reveal what had happened to him, however Valentine offered to switch places with him by disguising themselves as each other. He demonstrated by disguising himself with magic to look like the man. He freed the man, only to find that his legs were too weak for him to walk. Valentine went to find Maiwen at Lucas' dorm. He tried to get her attention by throwing small rocks at the window. Unfortunately, he still looked like a sickly hobo, which caused Tiberius and Maiwen to panic. Maiwen was preparing to use her slingshot when Tiberius suggested a better idea. They had previously realised that, as Jackson had been in the bag for a couple of days now, he had left some ... gifts inside it. Maiwen scooped the worst of it out of the bag with a mug and lobbed it at Valentine with perfect aim. He dropped the disguise, furious, and they realised their folly. Seething, Valentine threw a rock through the window, smashing it and waking the other residents of the dorm. Maiwen managed to cause a distraction by pretending she had diarrhea, then hid in the bathroom. Valentine entered through a downstairs window Tiberius opened for him, then explained what he wanted Maiwen to do. Tiberius questioned his objectivity and what the man in the basement would give them in return. This caused Valentine to become angry again and go upstairs to start banging on all the bedroom doors, waking everyone up again. Concerned by how much attention he was drawing to himself, Lucas persuaded Valentine to drop the idea and leave.

Instead of going back to bed, Tiberius wandered off towards a house built into the side of a hill that he had noticed during the day. He unlocked the door and explored inside, finding three very unusual objects kept within a chest. They all varied in size, but had a fairly similar structure to them. Metal barrels, ranging in number from one to six, attached to a wooden handle. He took all three and returned to the dorm. He and Maiwen tried to figure out what they were for, eventually realising that they could be opened up. Maiwen found that seeds could be placed inside the barrels, and together they named them "seed holders".

The next day, Valentine accepted Galindan's offer of joining Worgar and Kelree's lessons that day. He was horrified to find that the lessons consisted of racist rhetoric that favoured Zarus's teachings and portrayed non-human races in a rather negative light. Afterwards, he made a point to speak to Worgar and Kelree far out of Galindan's earshot and tried to explain to them that they shouldn't be treated like this. He suggested leaving to them, neither seemed overly confident about the idea, however Kelree admitted she would like to see her family again.

Meanwhile, Maiwen and Tiberius helped Caelyn wean the lambs. Lucas came to them during the morning and explained his plan in better detail. They would move that night when Valentine's distraction went off, they would go free the man in the basement while Lucas took care of something else. Maiwen then spent her afternoon growing wild flowers in the graveyard behind the temple.

About an hour before the distraction was to start, Valentine heard a commotion coming from the front gates. He went to have a better look and found a crowd there, panicking. He heard someone shout that there was a minotaur in fron of the gate, and he heard a horribly familiar voice, "I'm only here for Valentine. Give him to me and no one needs to die."

Everyone was quiet for a few moments, then Valentine watched the priest give a nod to Galindan, who turned to him and said, "You understand, don’t you Valentine? We have to protect our people, and you’re just not one of us yet."

Valentine ran and turned himself invisible. He tripped however, alerting his pursuers to his whereabouts. They followed him to Lucas' dorm, where he hoped to find Maiwen and Tiberius. He disguised himself as Jackson Hitch and tricked his pursuers into thinking he'd entered the dorm. Abandoning finding his friends, he went to Galindan's home instead to find Worgar and Kelree, already in her pajamas. He tried to persuade them to escape with him; Kelree agreed, but Worgar was more unsure.

Lucas found Maiwen and Tiberius in her room and told them that they needed to start the plan immediately. He noticed the seed holders Tiberius had and asked for them, telling him they were dangerous. Tiberius refused to give them all to him, eventually relinquishing the largest. The three of them then made their way to Galindan's basement, where they found Valentine, Worgar, and Kelree about to enter. Lucas opened the trapdoor, apparently having a key to it and they freed the man inside. He was apparently angry that Lucas had involved strangers in his escape. Lucas pointed out that he needed help to free someone named Renata, and considering the man had been tied to a chair for two weeks, he probably wasn't up to it. The man said he shouldn't have made that call, and Lucas replied with, "Forgive me if I’m more concerned with her well being than you are."

Lucas charmed the guard stationed outside the temple, letting them enter. Tiberius opted to stay outside and help guard. Inside, they found a large iron basin. Several poles extended out from its center and stretched for several meters up to the ceiling, ending in spikes. And impaled on these spikes, was a person. Blood ran down the spikes in an endless stream, collecting in the basin below. There was already far more blood in it than just one person could give.

Valentine cast Suggestion on the single guard inside and told him to get this person down. The guard climbed a spiral staircase that led to a balcony above the spikes and started using his halberd to try and dislodge the body. Watching this, Valentine came up with a better way to get the body free. He and Lucas climbed the stairs, he tied a rope around Lucas, then he and the guard lowered him towards the body, which they could now see was of a female elf, presumably Renata.

Meanwhile, Tiberius spotted a group of town residents advancing on the temple. He alerted those inside and told the charmed guard that he needed to fight them, persuading him that even his best friend, Dave, was under an evil spell and needed to be taken down. A fight broke out, causing Maiwen to come to Tiberius's aid, however she ran back inside when she saw him decapitate Caelyn with some kind of bloodlust. They heard a distant smashing of heavy wood, and briefly, Horgarth was upon the temple.

Unable to get Renata free, Valentine and Lucas switched tactics, going back to the original plan of using Anagis Alba to pull over the basin. After struggling for a few moments, the basin tipped over, spilling the blood across the floor. Outside, Tiberius cast Polymorph on Horgarth and turned him into a bunny rabbit. He misunderstood how his own spell worked however, and thought that killing the rabbit would kill Horgarth. He snapped the rabbit's neck, only to have it erupt back out into Horgarth. The minotaur fired a bolt into him, gave him a warning to step aside, and Tiberius ran away. Horgarth entered the temple, only to find Valentine nowhere in sight, as he was still disguised as Jackson. Valentine managed to trick him into thinking he really was Jackson, and told him that Valentine was hidden in Maiwen's bag. He reached inside the bag to get "Valentine" out and cast a spell to disguise Jackson as himself. Horgarth left with Jackson, believing that he had won.

Valentine collapsed to the ground, feeling faint, and Maiwen hyperventilated. Meanwhile, Lucas and his companion managed to get Renata's body off the spikes. Lucas sat with her head in his lap and waited. After a few moments she opened her eyes and told him that blonde didn't suit him. She was in fact speaking in a language that nobody knew, yet somehow, Valentine understood it, despite never having heard it before.

Everyone then left the temple to find Tiberius, Lucas and entourage following to find their seed holders. They found him with the sheep, playing his lute to them, calling himself the "lamb luter", and trying to get them to join in with his song. He seemed unhinged and not entirely aware of the situation they found themselves in. Valentine tried to calm him down and explain that they had to leave very soon. Lucas asked for the seed holders back. Tiberius refused to relinquish them and so Lucas cast Charm Person, after which he felt compelled to gift them to his new friend. With the seed holders in hand, Lucas thanked everyone for their help and said his goodbyes. Maiwen protested, adamant that he couldn't just run off after they had been looking for him for so long, and hugged him around the waist so he couldn't move. Lucas spoke to Renata in the same, unknown language they used earlier and told her to leave with Jun-Seo while he handled this. As they left, he turned back to Maiwen and explained that his name wasn't Lucas, it was just one he had chosen when he came to Herroda. Maiwen slid down to the ground and started crying. She sought comfort from Anagis Alba while Valentine stated, in a mildly threatening tone, that they deserved to know his real name. Apparently as a show of good faith, he told them his name was Sorian. Valentine suddenly realised that he had heard all three of these names before. While incarcerated in the Warcester barracks, he and Mariel had been questioned on the whereabouts of "Renata Aslan" and "Jun-Seo". Sorian Calin was also listed as one of their associates. Valentine said that he knew who he was, almost to himself. Sorian immediately assured him that they had been falsely accused and asked them to forget they had ever met, adding in a vague threat about what might happen if they let anything slip. Valentine begrudgingly promised, but Maiwen refused and stalked off on Anagis Alba. Sorian suggested that if Maiwen told anyone they had met, Horgarth might find them a little easier. Valentine assured him that although Maiwen could be childish, she wouldn't want to be alone, and that he could persuade her to keep quiet. Sorian wasn't convinced of this however, and wanted more security. He reminded him that Renata couldn't die, and wasn't someone you wanted on your bad side. Valentine told him that over the past year he had survived a minotaur, undead, a lich, and a host of other things; anything Sorian and his friends could do, didn't scare him. In fact, Sorian should be afraid of him. He said he was sure that Renata wouldn't want anything to do with him or his friends, immediately, Sorian took a seed holder (the smallest), loaded it, and fired a shot into Valentine's gut.

After hearing the piercing shot, Maiwen came storming back - Tiberius inspiring her with a single, powerful chord - to defend her friend. During the brief fight, Valentine cast Fear on Sorian, causing him to run away in blind panic. Tiberius ran after him and turned him into a mouse, hoping to get hold of the seed holders. However, he misunderstood how the spell worked again, and the seed holders, along with the rest of his equipment, melded into his new mouse form. Sorian disappeared into the darkness and was nowhere to be found.

After venting their new frustrations, they agreed now was the time to escape. It was decided that Tiberius would have a time out in the bag of holding. Valentine once again asked Worgar and Kelree if they would come with them and both of them agreed. He then disguised himself as Horgarth and intimidated their way out of Herroda past the crowd at the gate the actual minotaur had knocked down. As they left the town behind, Maiwen tried to make sense of this new discovery of immortality, Valentine pondered on this new language he apparently was fluent in, and Tiberius tried to ignore the voice in his head.