Chapter Two: The Hippocampus on the Cracked Lintel

Saad edges in close to you and speaks in a low voice. "I have never seen such a dreadful thing in all my life, man. This thing...it was seven feet tall, easily. Made of tarnished bronze and thin as a skeleton. Its eyes -- if they were eyes -- red like coals. And its voice! It spoke as if its voice came from the very bowels of the Nine Hells. And it moved with unnatural quickness, like the way a small bird moves -- quicker than the eye can see it. It was searching for someone, some girl who had slept in our barn the night before, only none of us knew it except for one who was afraid to tell until after this thing had left. The master of the farm, he convinced it that he knew where the girl was likely to have gone, and led it away from Five Stones. But Nonna was sure that when the thing came to realize it had been twice deceived, it would come back. That's why we left."

It's always worth trying a roll, Shamush!

"Oh gods, the blood, yes," Saad says, and he makes a gesture to ward against evil over his chest. "It turned to thick jelly, and so dark it was almost black. Horrible." He glances down to make sure Aylie can't hear him as he whispers, "The thing had a catchpole, razor-sharp, and when it cut people down, we saw this black jelly ooze from their wounds after they died." He rolls his eyes skyward and gestures a second time. "Isis protect me from what I have seen!"

At this point I'm not sure Shamush WANTS to know more about this thing, but here goes!

Shamush is reminded of an old Horizonist fable about a brotherhood of mages who constructed a man out of clay and ensouled it with an animating spirit through prayers and spells. The clay man was called the Tireless One, and it built them a tower to dwell in, and walls to protect them, and milled their grain, and fought off their enemies. But a schism erupted in the brotherhood, and the Tireless One did not know who to obey.

So it killed all of them.

Perhaps this metal man is a similar sort of being.

Vad, meanwhile, draws a blank.

This whole campaign is just buzz marketing for Taylor Swift's 1989. "Bad Blood," "Out of the Woods," "How You Get the Girl," "I Know Places." I see what you are up to, Octo. Now I'm just waiting to get some kind of psychic message in my "Wildest Dreams" and be bit by something that won't let go so I have to "Shake It Off."

Well, you just blew the surprise for our next chapter, The Blank Space of Gurmar. I hope you're happy.

Zangua cannot recall any relevant wenchlore.

Either, or both. Some snake bites are known to thicken blood.

Saad describes a long pole with a flat C-shaped blade at the end, razor-sharp on the outside.

It's getting late in the afternoon. You can still make it to King's Cradle in a few hours, but it will likely be dark when you get there.